The big one was Breath of the Wild, I remember being so excited for that one. I was thinking of something that would resemble what I enjoy in hiking - going off the beaten path, finding my own way, using tools for traversal… That stuff is in there, but in a very surface level way, and it’s more an Ubisoft open world than anything. Things like breakable weapons and unclear level gating really hindered that experience, and I distinctly remember streaming it for my best friend and the both of us literally falling asleep because the game just consists of long stretches of holding up on the left stick, dying, and doing it again.
Some other oddball ones include Infra (game was literally unbeatable when I played it, a wall was patched in to a space that prevents progress), Kona (I love the first 90% of it but the ending killed it), Industria (cool concept, bad execution), Soul Hackers 2 (could have been a great throwback SMT game, but is mostly just generic anime stuff)…
Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth was a recent one. Loved the idea of sending Kasuga to Hawaii, but the plot was sooooooooooo slow that I was 16 hours in and I wasn’t especially clear what the story was or where it was going. My patience just ran out.
What you said is what I think of Fallout 3, Death Stranding, DOOM and Halo… like, LITERALLY. Can’t believe someone else feels the same.
I feel the same about Cyberpunk. I tried it once and spent some hours on it, but it felt like an anxiety attack transformed into a game with so many things happening at once lmao.
I know the last update made some tweak on it, but I think it is just not my cup of tea.
I need to try Cyberpunk again. It gave me this feeling ive only had with one other game (Persona 4) where i just felt like i was missing so much constantly. Like i would find new stuff all the time and it made me feel like i was playing it wrong by not having all the knowledge of how to use its mechanics
Yakuza 0. Looks amazing but damn is it a boring game. And the chauvinism on display, regardless is it’s “of the time” or “of the culture” is fekkin gross.
Chauvinism is an unfortunate part of the Yakuza formula, it’s kind of a trope of the film genre the games draw from. It’s been criticized in past, and I don’t think it’s totally got past it. The Yakuza world is one where women basically don’t exist outside of plot devices and set dressing, although 7 does make an effort to subvert that a bit.
I guess I can understand it being part of a genre, but honestly I just feel it isn’t cool. I guess that’s a personal thing to me, but I don’t wanna consume that kinda content.
I’ve not enjoyed any of the 3D GTA games. None of the characters I found likable, I’m not a huge fan of the “crime simulator” element, and it just feels like they are trying too hard.
Only just found this thread and what immediately comes to mind is the first Fatal Frame, and to a lesser extent the second one too. I’m in love with what they’re aiming for conceptually and the atmosphere is rock solid but oh my god it was awful to slog through. Ghosts are either way too easy or super obnoxious to deal with as they phase through walls and teleport around while you try to hold the camera steady on them. Corridors of the mansion are often cramped, forcing you to take damage when you couldn’t even see the ghost because it’s mostly inside a wall or has just teleported behind you.
And then in the second game they overcorrected and made it too easy so ghosts felt kind of inconsequential. Both games have great vibes but disappointed me when it came to gameplay.
I want to check out the third game and maybe the later ones as well but I have yet to find a copy at a time when I want to drop too much money on one.
The Division games. Especially the first one, it looks so impressive and you genuinely want to explore post-apocalyptic NYC but it’s also a looter shooter, so all the enemies are tanks and everything is about the gear meta.