Games you've changed your mind about

[Lemming42]

What games have you changed your opinion of over time, for better or worse?

Dragon Age Origins - used to find it unplayable and entirely unappealing, whereas nowadays I can just about manage a playthrough and find the combat fun in small amounts (still find the setting and characters quite boring though).

Diablo - I used to find it incredibly dull as a kid, but nowadays I get the appeal and find the series to be quite fun, even if I'm not a full-on fan.

Morrowind - my opinion has declined in recent years from "maybe the best game of all time" to "not even the best Elder Scrolls game". It's still a very unique game but for whatever reason the unavoidable flaws just stick out more and more over time for me.

Dishonored - used to really like it, now I find both the story and the gameplay very tedious. The superpowers were a huge mistake, but the game just plays like a really shit version of Thief if you ignore them. I like Dishonored 2 a bit more.

Spyro - used to repel me for some reason, but I think Spyro 1 is really good after playing the Reignited remake.

Fallout 2 - used to be my favourite Fallout, now I think it's insufferable and very uneven. Could also mention New Vegas here, which I still like but which I also find less and less appealing in retrospect as time goes on. I am going to become one of those "Fallout ended with Fallout 1" people you used to see on NMA.

Pillars of Eternity - thought it was terrible when it came out. I have since revised this opinion, and now think that it's extremely fucking terrible.

What are yours?

 

[Strange Fellow]

This is pobably going to be a common answer: Dark Souls 2. I was absolutely mesmerised by the first game, and getting over the whiplash from the changes in tone and mechanics took a while. I never loved it during my first playthrough, but subsequent ones have steadily raised my opinion of it and now I think it's great. The DLCs helped a lot, mind.

 

[Bester]

the unavoidable flaws just stick out more and more over time for me.

Name some, pls.

 

[NecroLord]

Dragon Age Origins - used to find it unplayable and entirely unappealing, whereas nowadays I can just about manage a playthrough and find the combat fun in small amounts (still find the setting and characters quite boring though).

Ditto.
I also liked its expansion - Awakening.
The rest of the additional content (Leliana's Song for example) is just filler and not all that impressive.
Only game in the series worth playing.

 

[Raghar]

the unavoidable flaws just stick out more and more over time for me.

Name some, pls.

Graphic looks like low res garbage nowadays. Also you are living between blacks. And story is nothing to write home about.
But they had decent guilds. Skyrim guilds were lame duck in comparison.

 

[Bester]

But they had decent guilds. Skyrim guilds were lame duck in comparison.

That's maybe 2-3 hours of content, right? And this is supposed to be "the good part" of the game that's 80+ hours long?

The problem for me is that I find all TES games tediously boring with nothing redeeming.

 

[Lemming42]

Name some, pls.

It's been done in other threads and I'd like to avoid this being "is MW good or bad" thread #519832, but:
- quests are almost uniformly linear and often extremely boring
- dungeons are sparse, samey and often not even worth visiting
- combat is just shit
- NPC and world reactivity is nonexistent; people generally don't react to monsters entering their towns, people can't follow you through doors, shops don't even close at night
- stealth is simultaneously awful and broken
- several skills and mechanics are plainly retarded, such as speechcraft, which can be trained to 100 with a single NPC in a single conversation by spamming Admire infinitely (or sneak, which can be levelled to 100 by tapping Q on the keyboard then going to bed in real life)

 

[Iucounu]

The Witcher 3 - Felt mediocre when I played it, but since then I've come to despise it.

 

[Terenty]

Name some, pls.

It's been done in other threads and I'd like to avoid this being "is MW good or bad" thread #519832, but:
- quests are almost uniformly linear and often extremely boring
- dungeons are sparse, samey and often not even worth visiting
- combat is just shit
- NPC and world reactivity is nonexistent; people generally don't react to monsters entering their towns, people can't follow you through doors, shops don't even close at night
- stealth is simultaneously awful and broken
- several skills and mechanics are plainly retarded, such as speechcraft, which can be trained to 100 with a single NPC in a single conversation by spamming Admire infinitely (or sneak, which can be levelled to 100 by tapping Q on the keyboard then going to bed in real life)

Yes, Morrowind is a boring game with more than half of it's world being a boring burned down wasteland, with boring walking wikipedia entries for npcs and boring brain dead combat. It was boring when it came out too. In fact when you think boring the first thing that comes to mind is Morrowind.

Why it's held in high esteem by some is anyone's guess.

 

[luj1]

Games you've changed your mind about​

None at all

 

[-M-]

The Witcher - Didn't care for this at first. The early parts are rather dry, and coupling that with an edgelord looking protagonist didn't really sell me. But it picks up quickly once you're about to get into the city and I found it to be highly enjoyable. But then I read the books and seeing how much they straight up reused plotlines soured me a little on the game. Still solid and has the most character out of any in the series.

Starcraft 2 - Highly enjoyable campaign the first time around for Wings of Liberty. Then the sequels came about and I noticed the levels are built on gimmicks more than solid gameplay. Comparing them to Brood War levels is like night and day. There are some decent parts in Wings of Liberty, but the sequels flatline rather quickly.

 

[luj1]

Why it's held in high esteem is anyone's guess.

If you are an idiot, yes.

But if you think about it, it's quite clear why Morrowind is consistently in Codex Top 10.

- their only game produced without help of algorithms
- their only game where everything is hand-placed
- their only game where they had to develop deep folklore (instead of going with Nordic/European BS)
- their only game with no level scaling
- their only game with no respawning enemies
- their only game with a distinctive art direction (not prettier or uglier, just distinctive)
- their last PC game
- cohesive, authentic world due to having writers who were traditionally educated (art, philosophy, literature, i.e. before videogame courses)

 

[destinae vomitus]

I'd written off Serious Sam (The First & Second Encounter) in my memory as "that dumb early 2000's horde shooter with really big maps" until I went and revisited it 6 or so years ago, now I'd rank it among my favorite games. The only singleplayer shooters that match it in terms of intensity and encounter design are custom wads for Doom.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

fahrenheit.
absolutely awesome first chapter, mediocre rest of the game still riding on first chapter's awesomeness, totally complete utter retarded final part which i could feel was killing off my few surviving neurons.

that's it. i've been rarely wrong in judging a game in the last 20 years. then i moved to judging them by the trailer. then by some pics. last few years, by the title. still spot-on.

 

[Gandalf]

Redaxium games. The Anti-retard technology that's present in those games made me realize most of the other games made by other devs are pretty much treating the player like an egg. Figuring out stuff and being challenged is more interesting than being handhelded like a little kid. I have brain, I can think on my own! Heck, I even adapted this philosophy in my own module for KoTC2.

 

[rubinstein]

FO3 - on my first playthrough i thought its ok, but it was really long ago. tried to replay it very recently, and i just couldnt stomach it, its fucking dogshit, abysmal game that raped the franchise
FNV - on my first playthrough, also long ago, i thought its mediocre, but shortly after abandoning my second run of fo3 i decided to replay it, and this time it clicked. its actually a very cool game. i used to believe its a game enjoyed exclusively by scrubs filtered by isometric fallouts, but it grew on me. nowadays i like it almost as much as i like ancient fallouts. ive just finished FO2, and im in a mood for some more "lore-accurate" fallout, i will probably do a house playthrough this time.

 

[Terenty]

Why it's held in high esteem is anyone's guess.

If you are an idiot, yes.

But if you think about it, it's quite clear why Morrowind is consistently in Codex Top 10.

- their only game produced without help of algorithms
- their only game where everything is hand-placed
- their only game where they had to develop deep folklore (instead of going with Nordic/European BS)
- their only game with no level scaling
- their only game with no respawning enemies
- their only game with a distinctive art direction (not prettier or uglier, just distinctive)
- their last PC game
- cohesive, authentic world due to having writers who were traditionally educated (art, philosophy, literature, i.e. before videogame courses)

So it's virtue is that it's not as shitty as their other games? Doesn't make what I said wrong, still a boring game on its own.

Ok, the setting is interesting I guess

 

[Hell Swarm]

I'd written off Serious Sam (The First & Second Encounter) in my memory as "that dumb early 2000's horde shooter with really big maps" until I went and revisited it 6 or so years ago, now I'd rank it among my favorite games. The only singleplayer shooters that match it in terms of intensity and encounter design are custom wads for Doom.

Serious Sam is a game designed for it's era. It's Doom slaughter wads made for LAN parties. Playing it single player loses a lot of it's charm and these days it's hard to get anything like an old LAN going.

Half-life 2 - Always thought it was a classic until I went back and saw how handicapped it in by putting random physics interactions in the way. Smashing planks isn't fun, it's just tedious.

Jet Set Radio - It's all presentation and no substance to the game play. It's not even good as an arcadey game because the controls are too stiff and level design doesn't flow into it's self like it needs to.

So it's virtue is that it's not as shitty as their other games? Doesn't make what I said wrong, still a boring game on its own.

Some people really over value being able to hold W for a long time between worth while content.

 

[Bester]

- their only game produced without help of algorithms
- their only game where everything is hand-placed
- their only game where they had to develop deep folklore (instead of going with Nordic/European BS)
- their only game with no level scaling
- their only game with no respawning enemies
- their only game with a distinctive art direction (not prettier or uglier, just distinctive)
- their last PC game
- cohesive, authentic world due to having writers who were traditionally educated (art, philosophy, literature, i.e. before videogame courses)

Isn't all of it incorrect? Unless I'm wrong, I'm not Morrowind expert, but:
- They generated the terrain, it wasn't hand-sculpted. Though I see nothing wrong with algorithms.
- Mob loot and chest loot aren't hand-placed.
- What's deep about Morrowind's lore? That there's big mushrooms and you ride a giant flea? I think that's the extent.
- There is level scaling involved, it's just that instead of levelling up a creature, it replaces the encounter with tougher creature. E.g. undead tombs level with you, end up being filled with liches.
- With modern mods that overhaul the magic and combat system, is there even a way to balance the game difficulty somehow without level scaling that is just right for the 100 mods you've installed? Doubt it.
Unless the game is divided into distinct chapters like BG3 or to be explored in a correct order like Elden Ring, you can't balance an open world without level scaling. Not that I enjoy it.
- Writing? huh? Writing how? Where? There's no dialogues, just wikipedia entries to be queried.

 

[kangaxx]

If 15h counts as "over time" then Rogue Trader is probably the biggest cliff edge I've ever fallen off in gaming. Loved the start and suddenly lost the will at the end of Act 1.

 

[Fink]

Used to think BG2 was way better than BG1, now the thought of replaying BG2 makes me feel ill, but I'll gladly replay BG1.

 

[ind33d]

Name some, pls.

It's been done in other threads and I'd like to avoid this being "is MW good or bad" thread #519832, but:
- quests are almost uniformly linear and often extremely boring
- dungeons are sparse, samey and often not even worth visiting
- combat is just shit
- NPC and world reactivity is nonexistent; people generally don't react to monsters entering their towns, people can't follow you through doors, shops don't even close at night
- stealth is simultaneously awful and broken
- several skills and mechanics are plainly retarded, such as speechcraft, which can be trained to 100 with a single NPC in a single conversation by spamming Admire infinitely (or sneak, which can be levelled to 100 by tapping Q on the keyboard then going to bed in real life)

Yes, Morrowind is a boring game with more than half of it's world being a boring burned down wasteland, with boring walking wikipedia entries for npcs and boring brain dead combat. It was boring when it came out too. In fact when you think boring the first thing that comes to mind is Morrowind.

Why it's held in high esteem by some is anyone's guess.

Morrowind was a generic fantasy modding platform. I can still remember every room of my modded hideout in Balmora. The only people who played vanilla were Xboobs

 

[AndyS]

I was pretty "eh" about Tomb Raider back in the 90s, but I think when I replayed it a few years ago it clicked as I realized it's basically like Prince of Persia done in 3D. It's meant for a deliberate pace as you take time to observe what you need to do and then go about carefully setting up your jumps.

 

[mord]

Callisto Protocol, didn't even buy it, it was just offered awhile back "free" on ps+, tried it melee combat felt wrong. Like some weird version of Mike Tyson Punchout wrapped in a space horror game. Didn't touch it for days, was about to uninstall but gave it another shot. It clicked, restarted on hard mode, platinumed the shit out of it. I like it better than Dead Space now.

 

[luj1]

Used to think BG2 was way better than BG1

This is perhaps the only thing where I can say I changed my opinion

Same about FO2, used to think it was better, but nah. Fallout still king