You ever have a game completely crush your soul?

piscian18

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
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I have this really really terrible gaming habit. If its in my shitpile of games and I paid money for it I have to give it a couple hours of my time until I can safety determine I got burned and walk away from it. Have I played Quake 4? Weirdly no. Am I going to? Its on the list. I played and enjoyed Alpha Prime. Look it up. Yeah I actually finished whatever that was supposed to be.

I just finished Stalker Clear Sky(Yes Complete) and holy god what a fucking nightmare. I don't know, some of it could be legitimate issues with my PC but good god it was buggier than Risen for christsake. Theres literally an entire level you can't quick save in, that randomly crashes and its actually near the end of the game so you can't even give up early on and Uninstall.

I don't want to blather and give a full review but essentially Stalker Clear Sky is still an incredibly pretty atmospheric game even by todays standards and some of the concepts of weapon versatility, mechanics and customization are still far more developed than most games coming out today. Its like someone took one of those awful survival crafting Dayz whatever games, stripped out the repetitive crap and created a great story campaign for it. Despite all that Clear Sky's bugs and ending just completely crushed me. I just installed Call of Pripyat and I don't even want to play it. I don't want play anything. It killed any ambition in me to sit down and play another game. I'm posting this and then getting drunk.

You ever have a game to do that to you? Not just bugs or shittiness but a game so goddamn draining You're just like "FUCK IT!"

What was it? why?
 
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Star Control 3 is the main one thinnk of. Also Daikatana was kinda annoying.

A game that really drained my joy of video games though was Battletoads and the damn racing levels.
 
OP obviously doesn't know about Clear Sky Complete and other readily-available community based patches for said problem(s).

But other than that I would agree Clear Sky was quite badly optimized (performance and bugs) when it came out and even after a few patches there were some problems.
 
OP obviously doesn't know about Clear Sky Complete and other readily-available community based patches for said problem(s).

But other than that I would agree Clear Sky was quite badly optimized (performance and bugs) when it came out and even after a few patches there were some problems.

Yeah I played on complete. I wouldn't play a Stalker game any other way. I figured its just assumed at this point. I had to try a plethora of fixes online to make it all the way through.
 
Assassin's Creed Liberation on the Vita. It was the last Vita game I ever played. Last time I ever played the Vita, too. Sold the damn thing a few months later.

The decision of shoehorn in broken "Vita specific" features, was the sticking point for me. PS Near integration with the game? Broken. "Opening a letter" with the two touchscreens and "reading" the message with a "flashlight?" Works maybe 3 times out of 10. The damn motion control puzzles? I've steady hands. I know this from experience, my work, and my hobbies. It sure as heck didn't matter with the Vita.

The 3DS has plenty of superfluous "features" that I don't care for, but at least Nintendo and their developers tend to shy away from shoehorning in useless and unnecessary gimmicks into the core gameplay.

If gaming is supposed to be about enjoyment, the Vita really missed the mark. The only major Vita game I liked was Gravity Rush, a launch title. Even so, I still found the half-baked Borderlands port to be slightly more playable from a pure gameplay and controls standpoint.
 
Yeah I played on complete. I wouldn't play a Stalker game any other way. I figured its just assumed at this point. I had to try a plethora of fixes online to make it all the way through.

CoP was pretty much bug free and about the only really playable Stalker game without necessary mods to prevent it crashing.
 
Don't be afraid to continue with Stalker Call of Pripyat. Unlike Clear Sky, CoP is a finished game, and is a good game, though not as epic as Stalker Shadows of Chernobyl; it is an epilogue in which you find out (and influence) what happened after SoC.

In hindsight, after seeing what happened with the failed attempt to develop Stalker 2, it seems likely that what happened to CS was that halfway through development, the Ukrainian mafia shook down the CEO of GSC World, who then walked into the studio and declared that the game was shipping in whatever shape the devs could put on a disc the next morning. Modding and community bugfixes for CS were mostly abandoned when the much superior CoP was released.

The mod community for CoP remains very active; a new major CoP mod called Call of Chernobyl came out last year (and is receiving a major update this week) which could be a lot of fun to try out after your first playthrough with CoP Complete. As always with major Stalker mods, you should install only on a fresh install of CoP with no savegames from previous playthroughs.
 
Never had a videogame do that. That's quite silly, real life is way worse than a videogame hahahaha
 
In hindsight, after seeing what happened with the failed attempt to develop Stalker 2, it seems likely that what happened to CS was that halfway through development, the Ukrainian mafia shook down the CEO of GSC World, who then walked into the studio and declared that the game was shipping in whatever shape the devs could put on a disc the next morning. Modding and community bugfixes for CS were mostly abandoned when the much superior CoP was released.

:confused:
 
Rage

Lost complete respect for anything id will ever make. Such huge and 100% obvious game breaking bugs from the instant you started the game, but they just "fuck it" and released the game anyway.

My favorite review of it:
I feel scammed. Fucking scammed. John Carmack.....why? You just lost every ounce of your elite status as a game programmer. This game is shit, plain and simple.

Visually, one of the worst looking games that has come out in 7 years. Far Cry looks better than this. This game has the worst texture pop in, textures (we're talking Quake 2 / Sin quality, possibly low end Quake 3 here) I have seen yet on a modern game. Doom 3 is visually and gameplay wise superior to this game in every aspect. Absolutely no HDR or lighting, nothing modern. The desert has no shadows, nothing casts shadows it's all static.

OMFG.I am so pissed. I spent $60 on this hunk of dog shit when money is tight. NEVER again. Gaming on this very night, the 4th of October, has died. Gaming is dead, long live the king. The game has no direction, no compelling storyline, visuals that reek, terrible mouse controls, no console, no tweakablity. What the fucking fuck is this and how did it get past John Carmack's brain? Too much cell phone programming. I actually cannot force myself to load it back up, it's THAT bad.

This game aint got shit on Duke Nukem Forever. I'm just awe struck. I told my nephew tonight gaming has died. The true pc gaming is dead forever, fuck your texture packs, fuck your patches. This is a Xbox 360 game ported sneakily to look like a pc game. It's a wolf in sheeps clothing. No goddamn excuse that having a sandy at 5 ghz, 12 gigs of ram, and a GTX 480 @ 580 with 1.5 gb of ram looks like this. I want my $60 back motherfucker!
 
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That absolute piece of crap Force Unleashed II

The game is riddled with game breaking bugs. One of the bugs is when the game simply shows a blank screen instead of a cutscene. Sometimes you can hear the sound, but usually there isn't even that. And since they "cleverly" removed the option from the menu where you could replay cutscenes, if this bug comes, then you're screwed out of a part of the story. Or if you're feeling lucky you can replay the last level and hope the bug doesn't show its ugly blank face. I had to watch the ending cinematic on youtube. Because I refused to replay the final bossfight in hopes of actually getting the cinematic the second time.

The second game breaking bug is when all map textures turn to black. They'll have the rbg color 0,0,0. Not even lighting affecting them. So when that happens it's impossible to tell apart the floor from the walls in the game. And since you can't find your way you're screwed again, you have to restart the level, and cross your fingers.

Another bug I successfully met, is on a specific level. It goes like this: If you die on this map, just once, then at about three quarters into the level, there will be a power cell that you supposed to pick up, but it won't be active. You won't be able to interact with it. Even if you died at the very beginning of the level. So the only way to beat this bug, is to restart the level, and reach this part without dying even once. And this particular level starts with a boss fight against a chicken walker.

But the game sucks regardless of being buggy. It's 4 hours long, and even half of that is made up by overscripted bossfights. In the first game bossfights were fairly normal hack&slash battles, here most of the enemies are not even reachable by conventional means. So you defeat them by following a stupid script in the game. There are no strategies or any individuality, just have to follow the instructions to the letter.

And after the very moving story of the first game, this one basically has no story to speak of. Of course in 4 hours of gameplay there is not much story you can include, but what little there is is absolutely weightless and pointless.

About the only good thing remaining from the first game is the fast paced fluid gameplay. But nothing else, they even removed the combo system, so every enemy apart from basic stormtroopers can only be defeated by following one method. They kept the skill system, but now it's only there to upgrade the skills you already have. Like making force lighting more effective.

But the worst of it all is level design. Which is extremely stupid and crap. One great example is when you're moving trough the engineering deck on your own ship. It's like everything is put there for your entertainment only. This type of map design would've been ok in a 2D scrolling platfrom game in the early nineties. You have to destroy things in your own ships engines to actually move forward WHAAAAT? Logical right, your crew also destroys half the ship when they want to reach the other side of the deck, that's how things are done here #dealwithit. And how did enemy soldiers and sith warriors get inside if even you can only get in, by blowing shit up? As far as I know there is no teleportation in the star wars universe. And the funniest thing is that all the catwalks are arranged in a way, that you can just reach them by performing a double force jump. I imagine the recruitment ad for the crew for such a ship: "Janitor wanted to clean catwalks, required skills: Jedi Master"

And one final thing that annoyed the shit out of me is Kota. He's constantly micromanaging you, telling you how to do even the most basic things. He doesn't shut up for five seconds. Like he has nothing else to do. It's probably there so average Joe doesn't even have to use his brain to remember the objectives, since he's being told everything all the time. One of the worst parts was when you have to charge a bunch of power cells with force lighting to defeat a boss, but Kota keeps yelling at you through the radio, that you're doing that in vain because you can't damage it. Oh shut the fuck up I don't want to damage anything I want to charge the damn thing.

I'm not saying that the first game was a masterpiece but it was enjoyable in it's own way, it had a decent story, that kept you on your toes all the way, but this one? It is like the horse in the collection of a veterinary college, demonstrating all conceivable illnesses.
 
Remember Me (2013)

I was really looking forward to this game, it seemed like a really interesting concept, and the "female hero" arguments made by the developers before release of the game only made my anticipation factor higher.

Unfortunately my great expectations were shattered in a matter of minutes. The first warning sign was, when I noticed that the game data files are contained in an "examplegame" folder. Which means they haven't even bothered to change the default game name that came with the UE3 developer kit. That's the only logical explanation I could come up with, otherwise who would name their game "examplegame" ?

Of course this has zero real-world impact to the actual quality of the game, I've done that too in my first app with a major 3D engine, but then again I'm not developing high budget AAA games. But it could be a very good indication of the laziness and lack of experience on behalf of the developers.

What actually has real impact on the game is the controls, and the actual character model. I don't know if their character artist never studied human anatomy, or just opted to completely ignore it. Because Nilin, your hero, the one you're stuck with, the one character you have to look at for the entire duration of the game, looks completely awkward. I mean her hips seem to be wider than her shoulders. And her arms are strangely long. Looks like someone with a genetic defect, or from a very early evolutionary state of humanity.

But even before that the first problem I encountered on the PC was with the controls. It's completely gamepad optimized. The first instruction the game gives to you is to look up, but you can't hold your head up, because as soon as you reach the edge of the mouse mat, the view is auto centered. It was clearly meant to be controlled with a stick on a console controller. Leaving this feature as is for the PC version is unacceptable.

But there is an even bigger problem with the camera, it's almost completely fixed, you can't even look around freely in the game. Instead in certain situations or events the camera simply switches to another view or angle automatically without any user interaction.

And that's still not the biggest problem with the game. The biggest problem is combat mechanics. The actual combat moves and animations are actually very good and fluid, and feel good as well. Then what is the problem you ask? They failed on one single matter. You have to grind away even at the lamest, lowest class enemies for minutes before you can actually defeat them. And I'm not exaggerating those are literal minutes. Which defeats the whole fluidity of the game, the fighting no matter how well it's animated, and how nice the moves are, became a boring repetitive chore even before you kill your first enemy. I'm totally dumbfounded how could they let this happen. How could they let the whole game fail on such a technicality.

The awkwardness of the character model, the control difficulties, even the disturbing looking rotating orbs at the necks of characters, which fast travel the whole game into the uncanny valley, I might have looked past. But not this one. I refused to waste my time with the repetitive non-entertaining chore, they call combat.
 
Anytime I run into a problem like that in a game, I uninstall immediately. No game is worth that much to me anymore.
 
Crush my soul? No, you just need to keep a reasonable perspective about the fact that it's just a pastime for when you are bored and not an actual accomplishment that means anything in the overall picture of your life.
Games are only worth the enjoyment they give you, no enjoyment? no value. Kinda like money.
 
I play games for entertainment. The moment a game becomes a chore it gets uninstalled. Thankfully I'm more patient now and wait for sales reducing my exposure to crap games at full price.
 
Remember Me (2013)

I was really looking forward to this game, it seemed like a really interesting concept, and the "female hero" arguments made by the developers before release of the game only made my anticipation factor higher.

Unfortunately my great expectations were shattered in a matter of minutes. The first warning sign was, when I noticed that the game data files are contained in an "examplegame" folder. Which means they haven't even bothered to change the default game name that came with the UE3 developer kit. That's the only logical explanation I could come up with, otherwise who would name their game "examplegame" ?

Of course this has zero real-world impact to the actual quality of the game, I've done that too in my first app with a major 3D engine, but then again I'm not developing high budget AAA games. But it could be a very good indication of the laziness and lack of experience on behalf of the developers.

What actually has real impact on the game is the controls, and the actual character model. I don't know if their character artist never studied human anatomy, or just opted to completely ignore it. Because Nilin, your hero, the one you're stuck with, the one character you have to look at for the entire duration of the game, looks completely awkward. I mean her hips seem to be wider than her shoulders. And her arms are strangely long. Looks like someone with a genetic defect, or from a very early evolutionary state of humanity.

But even before that the first problem I encountered on the PC was with the controls. It's completely gamepad optimized. The first instruction the game gives to you is to look up, but you can't hold your head up, because as soon as you reach the edge of the mouse mat, the view is auto centered. It was clearly meant to be controlled with a stick on a console controller. Leaving this feature as is for the PC version is unacceptable.

But there is an even bigger problem with the camera, it's almost completely fixed, you can't even look around freely in the game. Instead in certain situations or events the camera simply switches to another view or angle automatically without any user interaction.

And that's still not the biggest problem with the game. The biggest problem is combat mechanics. The actual combat moves and animations are actually very good and fluid, and feel good as well. Then what is the problem you ask? They failed on one single matter. You have to grind away even at the lamest, lowest class enemies for minutes before you can actually defeat them. And I'm not exaggerating those are literal minutes. Which defeats the whole fluidity of the game, the fighting no matter how well it's animated, and how nice the moves are, became a boring repetitive chore even before you kill your first enemy. I'm totally dumbfounded how could they let this happen. How could they let the whole game fail on such a technicality.

The awkwardness of the character model, the control difficulties, even the disturbing looking rotating orbs at the necks of characters, which fast travel the whole game into the uncanny valley, I might have looked past. But not this one. I refused to waste my time with the repetitive non-entertaining chore, they call combat.

Lol this post reminded me of one of the worst games I tried recently. Its an early access game on steam called ark survival evolved and its being made by the worlds most incompetent developers ever. Their game folders are still named 'shooter game'. It had a good concept but the worst execution ever. The only saving grace is that you can mod it to play like a real game and do your own bug fixes that they are unable to make in the game. My wife loves dinosaurs and made a lot of our models for our game herself in 3ds max. (I installed max on her comp and gave her the 3ds max bible a couple years ago and showed her the basics of modeling and inverse kinetics to get her going).
I actually liked remember me except for 2 boss fights that took ages.
 
Mass Effect 3. I was a massive fan and then BioWare justs show middle finger at you. They killed the whole IP in 10 minutes. I am extremely sceptical about Mass Effect: Andromeda now.
 
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Bioshock 2 was so mind-numbingly bad I got it for free and I felt ripped off. And the ending....all that work FOR THAT!!

two worlds was probably the worst game I have played. Basically every thing about that game was crap. Heh I read a review of it a while back and the reviewer said it had the worst ending of any game ever.
 
I'll add the Metro series to the list. I've tried starting 2033 a few times, and for some reason the general atmosphere, survival gameplay mechanics, and horrible performance during action scenes has turned me off from the game every time.

Each time I get a new GPU in the last few years I always fire up Metro 2033 and try to get through it. Still never gotten more than a couple hours in. I just picked up both of the Metro Redux games last xmas, so maybe this time I'll be able to get through them using the GTX970.


Yep, absolutely. Rage has some great action sequences, but so much of it is completely broken and infuriating to deal with. I tried to start it several times since its release and always rage-quit within an hour of the start. Just a couple weeks ago I finally forced myself to sit down and complete the whole thing. I am so glad I finally checked that one off the backlog forever.

Lords of the Fallen

This is the first one that came to mind as being a completely crushing experience for me to play. I just picked it up last xmas sale, put about 5 hours into and didn't even get through the intro, got tired of it kicking my ass over and over, & uninstalled. I want to like that game, but I just don't have the skill or patience to get through it apparently. I may try again some time later this year, but apparently I've just gotten too soft in my old age to handle a hardcore skill based action game like this anymore.

I haven't tried any of the Dark Souls games yet, but thanks to LotF, I'm pretty sure those aren't for me either.

Stalker Clear Sky

Haven't tried Stalker games in ages, played Shadow of Chernobyl years ago and considered it a serious chore to play. When I finally got to the end, I got a really horrible ending, and was so glad to be done with it I just quit without bothering to try for another ending.

I tried one of the other ones a year or two ago, think it was Pipryat, but these days I'm so spoiled by games with amazing graphics, the game just looked so bad I didn't feel like even starting it. Installed, launched, looked around for like 5 minutes, closed and uninstalled. Stalker's just not my thing anymore apparently. Maybe in a few years they'll release a new one with more modern graphics.

Bioshock 2

Another one I've started multiple times and never gotten into. It has no plot setup at the beginning, just dumps you straight into a fight with some mutants with really crappy weapons. Seemed really generic to me, I just couldn't get into it. But I did love BS1 and Infinite, so I've been tempted to go back and play it again just because of the other great ones in this series.
 
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Oh, and StarForge. I wanted to love that game so much! An open-world planet exploration and crafting game, like a cross between MineCraft, Halo, & Borderlands, or something like that. I think I put nearly a hundred hours into it before the frustration just became too much for me. Constant game-breaking bugs, crafted items & vehicles constantly un-spawning, huge chunks of the map disappearing or corrupting, tons of features that were promised by the devs were never added.

The devs ran out of money and had to let go of most of their staff about 2/3 of the way into development. They left Early Access status and release way before they were ready, then pretty much abandoned it completely un-finished.

Thanks to that game, I will never pay money for another Early Access game. Ever.
 
Bioshock 2 was so mind-numbingly bad I got it for free and I felt ripped off. And the ending....all that work FOR THAT!!

two worlds was probably the worst game I have played. Basically every thing about that game was crap. Heh I read a review of it a while back and the reviewer said it had the worst ending of any game ever.

Fuck that game and everyone who worked on it, fucking game was a bollywood ripoff of the first one all the bugs and GFWL/steam compatibility issues not withstanding. On my list of top 5 worst games I've ever played, easily.
 
don't play games much but a friend got me into Sims one day... surprisingly it was pretty addicting and after about what seemed 7-8hrs of building my house, home theater, hot tub, etc.. was about to get busy with the ladies... then sure enough saw a thief cross the back window.. poof all my shit gone! Closed game.. vowed never to play again.
 
Mass Effect 3. I was a massive fan and then BioWare justs show middle finger at you. They killed the whole IP in 10 minutes. I am extremely sceptical about Mass Effect: Andromeda now.

This is the only soul crushing game I've ever played. It's the worst because, when these games were new you had so much time, money and effort into the universe and characters. Often people would have multiple play throughs of each game. You got to see how choices at times impacted the dialog and to an extent, the actual gameplay. The third installment is fantastic right up until about the last hour. The final mission is a slog, with shit level design, repetitive and annoying encounters, overly sentimental character interactions and the most contrived turret mission of all time. The final push can be frustrating enough to make you want to smash your keyboard or spike your controller in the drive way. It throws wave after wave of the game's hardest enemies at you which are all capable of grabbing you and killing you instantly.

You pour hours and hours into this series and the final installment should be the culmination of all your efforts. You hope your choices impact the game's universe in a meaningful way. I think most of us knew how it would end for the main protagonist on a basic level, but no one was prepared for what actually happens. Through the game you tie up some very satisfying plot lines only for the final 15 minutes of the game to jump the shark and leave you wondering why you've wasted your valuable time on a game with the least satisfying ending of all time. The developers and writers literally shit foaming, grease laden diarrhea all over the universe and it's characters. You exit the game knowing everything you did was absolutely futile and the Galaxy you put so much effort into is left a wasteland of death and destruction.

The original ending is basically some artsy bullshit that's supposed to be thought provoking and introspective. Your supposed to appreciate it's mystery and contemplate the outcome of your efforts. Unfortunately, the only people who could appreciate this pile of crap are Starbucks slurping, fedora wearing, poetry writing, emo douchebags who wear their sister's jeans and hemp shoes while drinking "craft beers" and talking to their friends about their nihilistic beliefs.

The series is overall fantastic, although ME3's original ending is the biggest let down for me in all of entertainment history, regardless of medium. It felt like a punch in the stomach. I couldn't sleep when I finished the game. I sat there and stared at the ceiling wondering what the fuck was wrong with the writers who tried to pass that garbage off as a quality game. Subsequent "Extended Cut" DLC ending (which are free) are better as they at least put a positive spin on the galaxy and leave you with some hope of recovery, and indicate that the protagonists actions, your actions made a difference. It's still not fantastic to experience. The game should have ended with much of the content found in the Citadel DLC.

I've played plenty of good and bad games. Hell some of my favorite games back in the day had horrible stories lacking in any logic or entertainment value beyond providing some rationale for the game's setting and atmosphere. No bad game I've ever played was what I'd have considered at the time to be the best gaming experience I'd ever had until the last hour, with a soul crushing ending that made me wish I'd never played the previous installments.
 
Both Assassin's Creed Unity and Watch_Dogs. I can actually run both games just fine, but I just don't want to. Both have plots that I should enjoy, and I liked the other AC games. But after playing either of them for more than 10 minutes, I just can't keep going. They aren't fun or compelling and I just don't want anything to do with either of them. I even still have both installed with the hope that someday I might...but it's looking unlikely. I think Ubisoft is borderline dead to me.
 
This is the only soul crushing game I've ever played. It's the worst because, when these games were new you had so much time, money and effort into the universe and characters. Often people would have multiple play throughs of each game. You got to see how choices at times impacted the dialog and to an extent, the actual gameplay. The third installment is fantastic right up until about the last hour. The final mission is a slog, with shit level design, repetitive and annoying encounters, overly sentimental character interactions and the most contrived turret mission of all time. The final push can be frustrating enough to make you want to smash your keyboard or spike your controller in the drive way. It throws wave after wave of the game's hardest enemies at you which are all capable of grabbing you and killing you instantly.

You pour hours and hours into this series and the final installment should be the culmination of all your efforts. You hope your choices impact the game's universe in a meaningful way. I think most of us knew how it would end for the main protagonist on a basic level, but no one was prepared for what actually happens. Through the game you tie up some very satisfying plot lines only for the final 15 minutes of the game to jump the shark and leave you wondering why you've wasted your valuable time on a game with the least satisfying ending of all time. The developers and writers literally shit foaming, grease laden diarrhea all over the universe and it's characters. You exit the game knowing everything you did was absolutely futile and the Galaxy you put so much effort into is left a wasteland of death and destruction.

The original ending is basically some artsy bullshit that's supposed to be thought provoking and introspective. Your supposed to appreciate it's mystery and contemplate the outcome of your efforts. Unfortunately, the only people who could appreciate this pile of crap are Starbucks slurping, fedora wearing, poetry writing, emo douchebags who wear their sister's jeans and hemp shoes while drinking "craft beers" and talking to their friends about their nihilistic beliefs.

The series is overall fantastic, although ME3's original ending is the biggest let down for me in all of entertainment history, regardless of medium. It felt like a punch in the stomach. I couldn't sleep when I finished the game. I sat there and stared at the ceiling wondering what the fuck was wrong with the writers who tried to pass that garbage off as a quality game. Subsequent "Extended Cut" DLC ending (which are free) are better as they at least put a positive spin on the galaxy and leave you with some hope of recovery, and indicate that the protagonists actions, your actions made a difference. It's still not fantastic to experience. The game should have ended with much of the content found in the Citadel DLC.

I've played plenty of good and bad games. Hell some of my favorite games back in the day had horrible stories lacking in any logic or entertainment value beyond providing some rationale for the game's setting and atmosphere. No bad game I've ever played was what I'd have considered at the time to be the best gaming experience I'd ever had until the last hour, with a soul crushing ending that made me wish I'd never played the previous installments.

I've still not even touched ME3 despite owning the collections on both PC and Console for the reasons you've stated above. Not because I know they fucked up ME3 big time, but because all of these years later, I still don't want to go back and experience all you've just posted.
 
I've still not even touched ME3 despite owning the collections on both PC and Console for the reasons you've stated above. Not because I know they fucked up ME3 big time, but because all of these years later, I still don't want to go back and experience all you've just posted.

I tried to play Mass effect once and in the first mission or whatever it dumped like 20-30 items in my inventory with no clear info on what they do or whats whats then I looked online and read that youre supposed to be constantly mashing item for reuse or something and I went "uuuum no thank you" and politely uninstalled it.

I'll come back to it someday but the overall impression I get of the mass effect series is that its just this massive(pun intended) amount of content you need to slog through both in grindy gameplay and story. Sort of all the worst things about Final Fantasy games.


With that perspective in mind I watched the Me3 endings and I can definitely see if you slogged through the billion hours or whatever it takes to beat that series I'd shit a brick at that ending too. I own 1 and 2, but with all that on the table its really low on my to do list.
 
I've still not even touched ME3 despite owning the collections on both PC and Console for the reasons you've stated above. Not because I know they fucked up ME3 big time, but because all of these years later, I still don't want to go back and experience all you've just posted.

In fairness, today ME3 isn't what it was then. The DLC actually makes the game pretty enjoyable. For fans of the series, the Citadel DLC is a must. I think it's the best DLC content of all time. The updated endings aren't nearly as grim or artsy as the originals. I went from venomous hatred of them to feeling like, "That will do." I doubt anyone got what they thought was a fitting ending to the series, but what we have now is far from soul crushing. Many of the specific complaints people had were satisfactorily addressed. I won't get into specifics, but that really was done.

I think the ending was basically rushed, and part of the problem was the lack of oversight that Mac Walters and Casey Hudson had with it. By then Drew Karpyshyn had already left BioWare so Mac and Casey got to put their artsy bullshit ending in the game. It was also an ending that was relatively easy to implement content wise. I think the only reason why BioWare didn't completely change it was because they felt they had to stick to their guns and defend their "artistic" vision as they put it. What we got didn't technically change anything that was in the original ending aside from the Normandy's condition after the crash. The new endings provided context that led the player to speculate on a brighter future for the galaxy rather than contemplate the evidence to the contrary.

What we have now is palatable enough to allow you to enjoy the rest of the game and what it has to offer. Really and truly, the Citadel DLC was the fitting end to the series we all wanted from the start.

I tried to play Mass effect once and in the first mission or whatever it dumped like 20-30 items in my inventory with no clear info on what they do or whats whats then I looked online and read that youre supposed to be constantly mashing item for reuse or something and I went "uuuum no thank you" and politely uninstalled it.

I'll come back to it someday but the overall impression I get of the mass effect series is that its just this massive(pun intended) amount of content you need to slog through both in grindy gameplay and story. Sort of all the worst things about Final Fantasy games.


With that perspective in mind I watched the Me3 endings and I can definitely see if you slogged through the billion hours or whatever it takes to beat that series I'd shit a brick at that ending too. I own 1 and 2, but with all that on the table its really low on my to do list.

ME1 is a slog. No doubt about it. Of the three, it definitely has the best story by far. I've got the least amount of time in ME1 out of the bunch. I've played through it probably about 5 times, ME2 16 times and ME3 about 9 times. (All but the first playthrough was done post release of the Extended Cut DLC.) Despite the great story, ME1 is just too much of a grind in places. What I do is hit the Citadel and do every mission that it lets me. It's a slow, boring slog through it but once done I don't have to spend much time there. At a later point in the game you can come back and a handful of new quests pop up. I knock those out after the trigger for that. After departing the Citadel the first time, I grab Liara from Therum so I have my full squad selection. I then run through the rest of the galaxy and do all the UNC missions and side quests. I do the conversation stuff on the ship as far as I can and then do the companion missions. Once I'm done with all the bullshit I can hit the major planets and do all their stuff. Basically I knock all the boring shit out and then enjoy the last few hours of the game.

If you can stick with it, the game's a hell of a ride through the end. ME2's story is very simplistic and not all that enthralling, but the overall story isn't actually the main plot. Its an Ocean's 11 kind of thing where the recruitment of each squad mate is the meat of the game as are their loyalty missions. The order in which I do things in this game is more variable, but I tend to do Lair of the Shadow broker towards the last third of the game. I do the Arrival DLC dead last, and the Project Overlord pretty late as well. There are some things like Zaeed the Price of Revenge which you want to do fairly late so that you can accumulate enough Paragon or Renegade points for the final conversation. But for the most part, I vary this game up quite a bit.

ME3's more problematic with regard to its timing. If you aren't careful you can lock yourself out of certain parts of it by going too far forward with the main quest. For the most part the DLC for this game is better as it integrates better into the main game. Some of it works like any of the side quests, where you can do part of it and then do something else when you want to. A few of them like Omega are on rails once you start them and must be completed before you can return to the main game.

I recommend the series, in its current form, but that original ending. :eek:
 
I actually liked the run up to M3's ending. It really felt like you're doing a last ditch effort the defeat the enemy while they throw everything they got at you. It never felt annoying or frustrating. It felt like an epic battle all the way until the beam. When things turned to shit. But after I learned about the indoctrination theory the whole ending got a new meaning.

The just of the indoctrination theory is that everything after you're hit with harbinger's laser, takes place in your mind. It is an effort to indoctrinate you into giving in to the reaper's will, and nothing is real, nor Anderson, nor the IM, nor the fucking starbrat. It's all in your head. And basically if you choose control or the synthesis ending, it means you've been indoctrinated and you loose, but if you choose destroy, then you defeated indoctrination and you live to fight another day, hence the breathing scene in the rubble on earth, and not up on the citadel, since you never really got to the citadel

I think if you believe this that turns the ending that is crap at face value into something truly epic. That's worthy of the trilogy, which at the end boils down to you. The choice is yours as the player. Do you allow yourself to be lead by your nose, or do you have enough resolve to do the right thing, and not end up like the Illusive Man or Saren.

I can't even imagine a more personal ending like that. It truly challenges your will, and it's the most important choice in the galaxy's fate, and the consequences are far graver than having red blue or green explosions.

I don't care if the writers/producers ever intended the ending to be interpreted like this or not. I don't give a fuck. I interpret it like this and it's a great feeling. And since it's unlikely that BW will ever touch on the ending again, I'm free to run with this interpretation.

_______________

To anyone who didn't play Mass Effect I say this: DO IT, JUST DO IT, DO IT NOW.

You're missing out on some of the best experiences in gaming.

piscian18 : On my first playtrough of Me1, I was like that too, but I didn't give up. I simply completely ignored the inventory trough my entire playtrough. It was pretty hard defeating the final boss, with level 1 weapons, but by that time I was so invested that I got it done. On my second and third and ....twelfth playtrough I started using it and it's not that bad, you just have to micro manage it. Actually you get a very good description on every item on what they do. You just have to avoid one thing: Letting your inventory fill up. You have to sell everything that you don't use ASAP every time you encounter a merchant. Which is not that hard, since you have one sitting on your ship (after you get your ship that is).
 
I think the ending was basically rushed, and part of the problem was the lack of oversight that Mac Walters and Casey Hudson had with it. By then Drew Karpyshyn had already left BioWare so Mac and Casey got to put their artsy bullshit ending in the game. It was also an ending that was relatively easy to implement content wise. k:
You also have to mention, that the ending we got is not what they had in mind originally when Drew Karpyshin was part of the writing team. They had an ending in mind at the time of ME2's writing already. But they ditched that because of a story leak. Actually Tali's recruitment mission in ME2 touches upon the subject which was supposed to be the centrepiece of the originally intended ending, but now it just hangs meaningless in a vacuum.
 
Trespasser: Jurassic Park (1998)

No it didn't crush my soul. But I remember really wanting to love this game inspite of its jacked up first person UI.
 
Hmm... I can't pinpoint one specifically right now, but probably not since the C64 days where you would practice and practice and keep playing and you had a finite amount of lives, make it to the last level, and die at the end. That's the only situation that really makes me feel like that. Not necessarily even because of bad design, optimization, bugs, whatever.

Actually come to think of it, I was playing a game recently that had me screaming at it after I put a ton of work into it, but I can't think of what it was off the top of my head. Once again though it was due to the time investment only to fail at the end. (which means it was an old game most likely as new games don't really allow you to fail like that...)

Edit: This wasn't the game I was thinking of, but the Ghoul's n Ghosts / Ghosts n Goblins games had a habit of pissing me off to no end.
 
You also have to mention, that the ending we got is not what they had in mind originally when Drew Karpyshin was part of the writing team. They had an ending in mind at the time of ME2's writing already. But they ditched that because of a story leak. Actually Tali's recruitment mission in ME2 touches upon the subject which was supposed to be the centrepiece of the originally intended ending, but now it just hangs meaningless in a vacuum.

That would have been a far better way to go.
 
Trespasser: Jurassic Park (1998)

No it didn't crush my soul. But I remember really wanting to love this game inspite of its jacked up first person UI.

I always felt that it was more a tech demo, or a glimpse of the future than a real game. We still don't have a game that gives you that deep of an immersion as did Trespasser. Everything felt that you're really there, and that your skills really matter, and you actually have to learn even to shot a gun at the right direction.

It was a game so far ahead of it's time, that technology still haven't catched up with it. It was a game that was maybe meant to be played with some sort of motion sensing controller. Like the ps move. But we saw that even that didn't catch on 12 years later. We're still not there.

I absolutely revere trespasser as a thought experiment, even if it was a shitty experience as a game.
 
As others said, Mass Effect 3. I played it as soon as it came out, and after the ending...jesus. It literally was the only thing I could think about for around the next week, it was horrible. And honestly, the game was absolutely brilliant up until the last chapter, when it felt like everyone went on vacation and interns finished it up.

I guess it's been long enough that perhaps I could do another full playthrough of all 3, with all the ME3 DLC.
 
I tried to play Mass effect once and in the first mission or whatever it dumped like 20-30 items in my inventory with no clear info on what they do or whats whats then I looked online and read that youre supposed to be constantly mashing item for reuse or something and I went "uuuum no thank you" and politely uninstalled it.

I'll come back to it someday but the overall impression I get of the mass effect series is that its just this massive(pun intended) amount of content you need to slog through both in grindy gameplay and story. Sort of all the worst things about Final Fantasy games.


With that perspective in mind I watched the Me3 endings and I can definitely see if you slogged through the billion hours or whatever it takes to beat that series I'd shit a brick at that ending too. I own 1 and 2, but with all that on the table its really low on my to do list.

You'd be glad to know that they removed the whole inventory system in ME2 and 3. You do find new weapons during missions but you simply assign them to your squad if needed. No weapon is better than the other, they just work differently. And the main character is the only one who can get new armor. ME1 is severely flawed game but the story and characters are amazing so its worth slogging through atleast once, even if its with cheats, to get some perspective. ME2 and ME3 on the other hand had actually pretty good gameplay.


And yeah, ME3 ending without any DLC was a soul crushing experience. Now with all the story related DLC's its acceptable, but that first experience back then was something sad. First the emotional high because the game was so (mostly) good and then it makes you take a sudden nosedive on a concrete... :(

FFxiii was also epicly bad game. I played it until i got to the outside world but i just could not go on anymore. I was done, period.
 
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