Update: Divinity: Original Sin. I’ve started this game yet again, and again I find myself just lacking the will to live once I get to that first city, with the billion needle in a haystack quests. I love the combat in this game, and I love class and party building. Tooling around dungeons and overworld, and the combat is really fantastic, but this old school quest stuff just kills this game for me every time. I keep trying to push past the city part, but I literally can’t do it without falling asleep.
Yeah, that town drags bad. Just find a guide and plow through it. It’s not like you’re missing anything interesting, really, anyway.
For some reason, I keep bouncing off of elven legacy. I was hoping for an updated fantasy general with unique sides but I did not get that (or at least not the feeling that FG gave me).
That’s where I am. Most recent (just yesterday) offender for me was Nier : Automata. I had to slog through the introduction 3 times due to dying the first time to the 2 cranes and a couple of days being called out of the house right after I whacked the big robot with its own hand. Then I arrived at the space station and I just can’t make myself to go roam around figuring out what I’m supposed to do next.
I am on the other side: I haven’t played a single boring games for years. When a game bores me, I stop playing at once. Even if I were paid, I wouldn’t inflict that to myself.
There’s a good side question:
Ever play a game and push on past it being or seeming boring or tedious and find that it ended up rewarding you?
Nearly every RPG I’ve ever played has had a slow, even boring, start. You’ve got to get a few interesting skills and weapons before things really pick up, seems like. In most cases it pays off, I guess I just think of it as eating my vegetables first.
Yup. Computer RPG or Paper/Pen. Concur.
Depends on frame of mind… so many variables.
Cool topic though, and personal.
To add, almost every tutorial I’ve ever played.
When they make the tutorial “fun” that is special. Maybe that is a separate topic.
With Board Games, it has almost always happened to me with Political Games. Like Republic of Rome, way back in the day. Or Kremlin. Both those are touchstones for me to remember to “Give it some time”.
The “art of making tutorials fun” then. Dare I say, better than the main game!
Er, no. They all suck. Goddamn it we deserve better!
I made a tutorial once. It was horrible. Much respect to people who can do it well.
Trying to put yourself in the headspace of someone who doesn’t know anything about a game, when you probably have thousands of hours into it, is very very difficult. Most tutorials end up either way undershooting or overshooting the sweet spot because of this I think.
Fallout 3. I know some people love these games, but I just don’t get on with the Bethesda stuff. The way their auto leveling systems were so aggressive was a big part of that, but also their writing was so turgid at times. I get there are limited options, but so often I felt that the variability in what I want to do, what is available to do, and how the game reacts were so at odds that it drove me nuts.
Grand Theft Auto “” I stuck through a few of them, namely Vice City, San Andreas, and 4 due to the effluent praise. It always seemed like something was lacking. The disconnect between the moping ‘I did bad things’ Nico, and the joyous murder maniac the gameplay makes him? That’s what finally broke it for me. I recognize the craft, but recognize these games are not for me.
60% of Dragon Age Origins. There is good stuff in the game, but good lord the Deep Roads. I played, and quit, the game three times before I plowed through this area. There were other offenders, but that was the worst. Which is a shame, because the internal politics of the dwarven kingdom were interesting to work out, Shame they put 15 hours of padding between the start of those quests and their resolution. Honestly if there was a version of the game that stripped out 90% of the combat I’d probably love the game.
I agree, but I’m pleased that in the last several years we have YouTube to pick up the slack. It’s been a long while since I had a hard time learning how to play a game thanks to someone on YT willing to walk new players through. In fact, I’ve seen more than a few games have a link to an “official” training video - Battletech, most recently, linked to several pre-launch streams covering how to play the game’s various facets. Clever. However, there are still some that actively rebel against having to “watch a video” on how to play, and think either there should be a full manual or bust. I do like a good manual myself, but I think I learn better (personally) by watching/observing than reading.
Holy crap man, you just took down two of my absolute favorite series. I don’t think we can be friends anymore.
Nah, I’m kidding. I’ll just think you’re a crazy person.
I mean you said this, so clearly you re the crazy one.
Though not nearly as crazy as the multiples of people who said Europa Universalis or Total War. The hundred plus hours I have in multiple entries from each series says that those people are clearly the real crazy ones ;)
You know who the really crazy people are, those folks who made the Long War mod for XCOM. Because someone (or someones) took a look at XCOM and thought, hey you know what this game needs? To be EVEN LONGER. And then they did it!
On Fallout 3 I guess I could see that. When i finished, the game bashed me for supporting slavery and also for being a chickenshit because I sent my mutant companion into a radiated area to finish a task instead of doing it myself.
But the slavery thing…I just hadn’t come across that mission in my game yet. I actually went a finished that one after the end.
And as for sending Fawkes into the radiation, i think he even agreed with me at the time that his stronger natural resistance made it a good choice.
And then at the end the summary kicked my ass. Come on, man!
I too played GTA Vice City. I can see your points but I thought it was a good game. I lol’ed at some of the humor in the writing and Liotta did a good job with most of it.
There’s that one mission where your character meets a new gang and does a mission for them and the boss is all, “you drive like a woman” to which I thought, yeah you would too if you had to work with janky driving controls. But then later that boss wants your help to find his kidnapped mother and asks you, “can you drive us?” And I’ll never forget your character’s response as Liotta tosses out, “Sure I can drive. Like a woman, remember?” LOL