Which games do you play which are rated as objectively ābadā but you still enjoy?
I am currently playing Driver 3 (also called Driv3r), a sequel to the classic Driver games of the ps1 era that was a direct competitor to the first 3D gta games of the early '00s. The release was rushed because the publisher Atari needed money and the game was essentially finished half a year - a year before it was really ready to be published. For some bad reviews see https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/driv3r-review/1900-6121167/ for example.
Objectively some things of the game are very bad:
The gunplay is very clunky. Itās a third person shooter without cover mechanics and non existent gun and bullet physics
There are a lot of weird movement and other sort of glitches
Not finished the story yet but itās pretty bland/boring, but also kinda stylized in some way
ā¦
But I should say the points listed above do not bug me as much as they should. I really like the driving mechanics of this game, the cars feel heavy and you can drift through corners in the same way as in classic heist movies. The atmosphere is also very good. This is a great YT video that explores the legacy of Driver 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kELzibVYzI
All of this to say: do not always let bad reviews dissuade you from playing a game because you could miss some hidden gemsā¦
Oh I played Driv3r a lot back in the PS2 days. I was super into GTA as every 14 year old is, and that felt like more of GTA but with more focus on the driving. Sadly it was indeed a quite bad unfinished game. The ending is literally inaccessible. But I had fun times. I played a lot of games that nowadays would be called subpar or even garbage, lol.
I also played many games that turned out to be absolute hood classics that I still come back to nowadays as an adult, like the Burnout series.
While Iām not really someone who really looks at reviews, in recent years Iāve seen a lot more negativity about gaming in general. Like a lot of people start speculating before release about bad performance, bad gameplay, missing content, ā¦ I think itās a mix of the expectations being too high and the pressure for release too big leaving the game unfinished and possibly broken at release
One example I can give about a game that had high expectations but didnāt seem to satisfy the critics all that much is LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. While I personally really enjoyed it, I heard lots of negativity about it being a mediocore game or people saying it being a good game but a ābad LEGO gameā.
If the question would be the other way around (a game that got good reviews but you didnāt enjoy) I would have to say Hogwarts Legacy. Iām not really a potterhead myself so maybe thatās the reason, but that game really did not click for me.
I also remember playing a lot of ābadā shovelware games on the Wii and having lots of fun with them. This was in my childhood, so maybe that also plays a role, but at the end of the day I think itās about how you approach the game yourself instead of believing the critics blindly.
in recent years Iāve seen a lot more negativity about gaming in general. Like a lot of people start speculating before release about bad performance, bad gameplay, missing content, ā¦ I think itās a mix of the expectations being too high and the pressure for release too big leaving the game unfinished and possibly broken at release
I think there is also the mystical āalgorithmā at play with this too. These black boxes push engaging content, and anger/outrage is one of the best emotions to optimize around. Itās just flat out easier to get people to engage with negative, controversial content then it is positive & affirming content. Coupled with how much people love to be in ātribesā of similar thinking, which accumulates into a storm of people salivating at the thought of what the next Concord-level failure is going to be. (I think also people are just sick of AAA monetization & live service systems and are praying on their downfall as well.)
In terms of the original question, I think some of the mid-to-late Movie made into video games style games were some standouts that typically came out to washy reviews, but that I had fun with. I can recall having a lot of fun beating the Over the Hedge video game in a weekend while we had it rented from the video store. We were a big Simpsons house, so The Simpsons Game, which was also based on the movie, was a fun one for me as well.
Timely enough, I recently came across a video talking about how itās equally important to observe bad things as good things (in the context of the video it was talking about movies.) The jist being that it helps us better solidify our personal preferences and ability to talk about them, something thatās weakened in the recommendations based algorithm & content abundance era.
Really resonate with this thought. Itās also interesting that due to personal preferences some bad things about a game are not weighted equally. To get back to my Driv3r example: the fact that the gunplay āobjectivelyā sucks does not bother me much, but if the driving model was bad or I did not like the atmosphere, that would be a much greater problem for me personallyā¦ I actually knew in advance before playing Driv3r that this would be the case because I played a lot of ābadā or less optimal games in the past and know which things are going to bother me or not.
What youāre saying here is 100% true, about the negative reactions as well as looking into the negatives as well. This way itās indeed better to decide what we like and what we donāt like. I think this also applies to gaming. In the past I was quick in thinking I would not like a certain game/movie/music genre without even giving it a try. But lately Iāve been realizing that itās best to give the bad things or the things you assume are bad a try, so you actually know if you like it or not. So what Iām trying to say is that I think itās important to look at things without eye patches (as they say here) and with an open mind.
The Simpsons Game is a great game btw, I remember playing it over at a friend and having a blast with it. Just the silliness and simpleness makes it a great one for relaxing on a weekend night with buddies.
Itās also interesting that due to personal preferences some bad things about a game are not weighted equally.
This so much. Iām in the same boat, where driving is super important to me in Video Games because I essentially grew up playing those style of games the most (NFS, Mario Kart, Midnight Club, GTA-ish). When a car doesnāt feel right to drive, Iāll tell a lot quicker. But thatās a result of my (and by the sound of it, yours as well) personal experiences & perspective. I think thatās in part why I could enjoy some of the more lukewarm, movie adaptation platformer adventure games. I just hadnāt played as many of those style of games, so while Over the Hedge the Video Game was rather clunky and uninspiring perhaps, it was also one of the few games of that style I had played up to that point, and so I was able to enjoy what it had to offer even if it wasnāt the best execution of it.
Not really ābadā per say but I find myself really enjoying āAverageā or āFlawedā games,
One of my favorites from recent years was Slitterhead, that game admittedly had some issues but I remember it more fondly than allot of other games with higher praise, Indigo Prophecy is another I have a soft spot for as well as E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy and the modern Deus Ex games.