GRcade

Rage (360)

Oh how I wanted to enjoy this.

Picked it up cheap years ago and its just sat on the shelf waiting to be played. After a recent rewatch of Mad Max I fancied some post-apocalyptic action and remembered all the awards and nominations from a distant E3 that rained down upon this game. I absolutely fell in love with Fallout 3, so I was bound to love Rage, right?

Excitedly I unwrapped the beefy two-disc pack and began to install, thinking back fondly to the two-disc days of Metal Gear Solid and day-dreaming of the endless depths of content I was surely about to enjoy.

To start with it didn't really grab me, but this isn't that unusual so I thought perhaps it needed a little time to get into, so I pushed on... 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours - I just wasn't getting into it. The driving sections were uninspired, most missions were dull retrieval tasks, the level design and combat felt repetitious, the enemies bullet sponges, and the story - well, what story? And don't even get me started on the save and checkpoint system!

I genuinely can't remember the last time I didn't finish a game. I usually only buy games I know I'll enjoy and even if I don't love them, I usually push through to the end and feel they were generally worthwhile. The final straw with Rage for me was getting the best part of 45mins through a level/mission, get destroyed by two huge brutes who ambush me in close quarters and get taken back to the "last checkpoint" - the start of the sodding mission

Sure, I could've manually saved throughout the mission, but its not 1998 and I shouldn't have to remember to do that. To be honest, I wasn't even annoyed - I was relieved. Relieved I could finally justify to myself that I could stop playing and put something else on instead that is actually fun.

TL;DR - Rage is gooseberry fool, now I'm Batman

I really enjoyed RAGE. I can't remember any of those issues you've mentioned. Shame we never got (and probably won't get) the intended sequel.

I enjoyed Rage too, completing the (superior 1 disc) PS3 version.

Transformers: Devastation

Got it as part of the PS+ monthly benefit and really enjoyed the ~9 hours I played of it in total, spread over a few evenings. Gave up because I got a bit bored of the repetitive gameplay, the complete lack of any trophies being awarded despite feeling like I'd put in a fair amount of time and was pretty deep into the campaign and I just flat out didn't understand the upgrade system.

Looked and sounded lovely, mind.

Preezy wrote:Transformers: Devastation

Got it as part of the PS+ monthly benefit and really enjoyed the ~9 hours I played of it in total, spread over a few evenings. Gave up because I got a bit bored of the repetitive gameplay, the complete lack of any trophies being awarded despite feeling like I'd put in a fair amount of time and was pretty deep into the campaign and I just flat out didn't understand the upgrade system.

Looked and sounded lovely, mind.

How the hell did you get 9 hours into it and not complete it? I finished it first time in less than 3 hours and I wasn't rushing or anything.

I like to take my time and collect everything in an area before moving on

Preezy wrote:the complete lack of any trophies being awarded despite feeling like I'd put in a fair amount of time

Such a trophy whore.

Dishonoured 2

Both this and the first game (which I completed and thought I enjoyed) are just so overbearingly, oppressively... bleak. Maybe it's the time of year where I just need something more colourful to play?
Yet another game I hope to come back to some point down the line.

Titan Souls
I got this in a humble bundle so I'm not too bothered, but I would absolutely never have bought this for anything more. I defeated the first few bosses after a bit of trial and error but then when the game opened up and I went to the forest level I came across one of those "explore the forest to find a way through but if you take a wrong turn you end up back at the start" bullshit sections you have to do before even getting to either of the bosses. The thought of having to do that after every single and increasingly frequent death was enough to send it off the end of my nope-o-meter. I'm sure its a great and challenging game, but there is no way in strawberry floating hell I have the patience or mental fortitude to see it through.

EVE Online
This went notionally free to play the other day so I got back on my characters from over ten years ago and was equally stymied by the chasm of open choice, decision making and constant potential for losing it all. I sat there trying to think how to fit a ship for just moving stuff about; stuff like cargo hold expanders, afterburners, what guns to carry etc. and I noped out of that too. Playing on a free account is so limiting that I'd be cannon fodder/loot pinata for the big sharks in the galactic tank and therefore a complete waste of time.

And another:

Infinifactory
Courtesy of the latest humble bundle, I got stuck on the third level of the first set of puzzles where you have to weld 3 blocks together before getting them to the end-point and just noped out. Along with Cogs, Hexcells and Spacechem this is one game i'm just too thick for.

Another one I forgot:

Volume

Another humble bundle game, I reached the bit where the limits of my capability/patience/self-esteem met the increasing difficulty of the purely stealth-based gameplay coming the other way at about a third of the way through and just gave up knowing that it was only going to get worse from there. I would say I might come back to it later, but I probably won't. I can definitely add stealth games to the list of genres I know to steer clear of from now on.

Dark Souls 3

Got stuck on lothric and his brother. No strawberry floater would help me, haven't been back to it. A shame because up to that point it was amazing. GOTY material

Dying Light

I'm not even sure why I have up. It just felt like it was lacking something. All the ingredients were there for a fun game but I wasn't enjoying it at all.

Twister, it doesn't take much to strawberry float my forty year old back up these days.

I'm one half decent fart away from a full spinal collapse.

I gave Infinifactory another go and after twenty minutes of either staring at the screen or making stuff that flat-out didn't work I abandoned it to the steam hidden folder for good. For some reason I watched a video on how to do it and confirmed my suspicions:



I was building big rows of conveyors and blocks to get the row of three in from the side and all manner of pointless and fundamentally wrong bullshit. If I miss the obvious mark that early I think its best for literally everyone if I give this a miss.

EDIT:

Legend of Grimrock

I got Legend of Grimrock 2 in a humble bundle so dug out the first one from my steam library and didn't last long on it. I never played the games from the 80s this is an homage to (Dungeon Master etc) and its clearly meant to be played on hard mode with no in-game map so you have to draw it yourself on paper etc. but without any of the nostalgia or reverence for this game's roots to me it comes as mechanically clunky and visually bland.

This War of Mine. Basically, strawberry floating boring. Gave it a fair run up to something like day 25, but just so slow. Fortunately I only paid a couple of quid for this on the PC. If I'd paid £15 or whatever for the PS4 version I would have forced myself to see it through to the end.

Stories: Path of Destinies (specifically ps4)

I loved this - an interesting world, great characters, good narration and a unique approach to storytelling. Unfortunately i got to a point where the game throws wave after wave of enemies at you with no ability to change gems without starting the whole level again.

The real problem is that the framerate completely tanks as soon as the action picks up, making the super-accurate counter moves, dodging etc the game is built upon too hard to pull off regardless of level, skills or build. I'm not buying it on pc to play through it all again, guess i'll watch the end on youtube or something instead. Console gaming - it just works.

Edit: turns out it was the last fight in the game so meh.

Tragic Magic wrote:Dying Light

I'm not even sure why I have up. It just felt like it was lacking something. All the ingredients were there for a fun game but I wasn't enjoying it at all.

How far did you get in? I remember thinking early on that I wasn't seeing why it had got all the praise it had, but a few mission in and I really began enjoying it. (May have coincided with my getting the hookshot ability.) I did give up on the expansion, though. Just couldn't be bothered getting into it all over again.

Saint of Killers wrote:

Tragic Magic wrote:Dying Light

I'm not even sure why I have up. It just felt like it was lacking something. All the ingredients were there for a fun game but I wasn't enjoying it at all.

How far did you get in? I remember thinking early on that I wasn't seeing why it had got all the praise it had, but a few mission in and I really began enjoying it. (May have coincided with my getting the hookshot ability.) I did give up on the expansion, though. Just couldn't be bothered getting into it all over again.

I don't remember how long I played but I was at the point where you have to burn the medical supply drops and are being attacked by those night time zombies.

Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
I was really enjoying this right up to the penultimate fight against 3 armoured knights which you have to win against an unknown time limit or else its game over. None of the many weapons, items or skills seemed to make a difference and after many attempts ending in frustration and anger i mentally checked out and gave up - i expect you fight the bad guy, save zelda and turn the hat back into a picori, everybody's happy, roll credits I'm playing it on an emulator so i didn't pay for it anyway.

Star Wars The Force Unleashed
Cool combat but way too repetitive.

Red Faction Armageddon
Crashed twice in the space of 30 minutes, wasn't that fun anyway.

The Witness
Achingly pretentious indie hipster bullshit wrapped around slider puzzles which i gained no satisfaction from solving and felt no morivation to push on when it got too difficult for my puzzle-averse brain. The Talos Principle is better in every way.

Homefront The Revolution
A rote and by-the-numbers open world shooter which takes all the worst bits from ubisoft's design playbook. At least far cry and assassins creed have some nice environments instead of half-destroyed grey urban/industrial areas. I can see it ending with a sequel-bating "now the real revolution begins" monologue as you're only in one city. I'd rather play a 6-8 hour scripted setpiece story than an egregious time vacuum of repetitive box-checking.

I think i'm getting bored of gaming