hybridial

I've been playing Forsaken Remastered mostly, which is I have to say a very fun, but very challenging game. Still more reasonable than the Descent games.

@Jello - thank you for at least seeing some of my point, I believe you might be able to comprehend but a small facet of my absolute, seething hatred for Bioshock Infinite. If it could be harnessed, the energy crisis would be solved... and then it would blow up the universe after hitting critical mass. :P Also, your assessment of Bioshock is pretty fair, people really overrate its story, but yeah its not bad as such. I do think Bioshock 2 was more interesting and Minerva's Den was pretty great.

I liked it at the time but in a way I think I know what you mean. That said, it wouldn't be close to worst for me, but I did sample Shadow Warrior 2 and that's kind of even worse than the first one, but I do hate looter shooters. I kinda like the combat but the combat deserved a better surrounding game.

I said already I dropped it after about 4 hours play when I realised it was boring and I absolutely hated it. And no, playing it anymore would not have changed my mind, as its clear what the game gives doesn't really change, and really if the game had been designed better it would probably be close to finishable in that time because I do know absolutely nothing of note happened in that time except for like one room with guys with guns and a couple of Alien encounters, and the actual story is bad, I mean stories weren't great in a lot of horror games I liked in the past but certainly here the story isn't something worth playing it for if no other aspect holds it up. I stand behind what I said, I think the game is an abject failure. I think why it is an abject failure is very obvious, even self evident, but at the end of the day, that's just what I think. Why I'd call it "Worst of the Decade" is probably most justified in that I think it was such a wrong way to design a game and I do not want to see more like that, I think it cheapens the industry to make a game that's so badly paced and horribly padded out with nothing content. Fallout 76 is probably a more universal choice but I would prefer simply to name it from games I have actually tried to play. And man, I finished Bioshock Infinite, though I think part of that was morbid curiosity at how awful it was going to get, because that was also apparent right away that it wasn't going to be any good. (And the first hour of it was still the best hour) And my view is not going to change because anybody else liked it, or thinks I'm wrong. I have no issue with anyone that thinks I'm wrong but I don't think there's any compelling argument to be made in the game's favour that would ever make me see it differently, and much like with Bioshock Infinite I've heard a lot of arguments on it, probably all of them. And really, just saying "but I liked it" or "it was good" simply isn't an argument. And if you like it, fine, but I think comparing it to classics like Clock Tower, Resident Evil, Silent Hill 2 and Fatal Frame/Project Zero is insulting to those games. They had so much more actual heart put into the experience of playing them. I know Isolation had a lot of love put into it in certain areas, sound design, environment design, all the fluff, but at the end of the day that isn't a replacement for substance. No love, no care, no attention was given to it as an interactive experience. And the lack of substance is why I can't engage with it and because I cannot engage with it, it entirely fails to in anyway result in the emotions it is aiming to get out of me. It's not really the only game guilty of this, I feel like a lot of AAA games are, but even most of those had more actual gameplay in them even if its simplistic gameplay. I would say though the reasons were different for Bioshock Infinite, I named those games because they insulted my intelligence. And I just didn't play anything else this decade that did that because I usually was able to spot those sorts of games ahead of time. Like Fallout 76, maybe not quite HOW bad it was going to end up was apparently upfront but Betheseda didn't really hide that it was going to be Fallout 4 without the NPCs or the questing or... anything. I wouldn't know why anyone else who realised that would consider buying it. Can't really argue that that one doesn't deserve the title but of what I played, B:I and A:I are absolutely my choices. It isn't inaccurate to call them the worst games I played this decade because on that qualifier, its the truth.

Both are pretty awesome, I'll go with Perturbator on this.

I played all of Bioshock Infinite and I believe that clunkiness in the shooting mechanics was still like 90% present. I haven't played Medal of Honor since the PS1 days or any CoD so I can't comment how it compares to those but I felt it was still very, very similar to Bioshock 1 and 2. But we can't both be right, we can however interpret things differently. And I stand, and always will stand, with the interpretations I've laid out, however... yeah I have been a bit of a dick in places socially so I'm definitely going to say sorry for that and leave the argument on these games there.

@xdarkmasterx My experience of playing the game though was it really was that bad, that most of the time you really are doing nothing in the game, and it felt that way to me because the games I have played that are like Alien Isolation, are not padded out to be 20 hours long. Now it sounds like you liked the general idea of the stalker survival horror, and I absolutely love some of those. You might want to look at the Clock Tower series which originated the idea, Resident Evil 3 borrowed quite a lot from them, Haunting Ground is a Clock Tower game in all but name, and the Siren series (though the original game is ah, cruel and unusual, the PS3 remake was a tonne more accessible and very fun) and then most recently, Remothered: Tormented Fathers. Remothered is a bit rough, and its clearly an indy passion project that does a pretty solid impersonation of a AA game. It has its own issues, but I would call it infinitely better than Alien Isolation. I even thought as a stealth game specifically, it was above average, and it relied a bit more on stealth than those others I mentioned, whereas Alien isolation was just bad.

@xdarkmasterx - when I go as far to say what I did, I know that people will say I'm full of shit. I'm actually okay with that. I know, still, I am calling what I believe I see. I mean, what other term would I use when a game is built so much on its surface elements that it can flash and dazzle someone, but there is no substance underneath, and people miss that. Yeah, it's a cheap out, but this video covers it. Everything it says to me is correct. I'm fine with moving on though. Just that's how I see the game, you see it differently, that's okay. I still haven't seen any "but this is WHY it's good" from anybody though, which makes the criticisms of what I'm saying look questionable to me.

Damn, that sounds really harsh. For me adulthood's been way harder because of losing people, and my Mother, father, Grandmother and Grandfather have all passed away now, and though I'd say my childhood was very positive though I lost my Dad when I was young, my family were very loving. Yet I still have a total nervous breakdown and suffer years of depression myself partly because I can't live up to my own expectations for myself, and I think its only lately I'm starting to get past it. I still try not to think too much about the future though, because for me getting through the next day is hard enough sometimes.

So here's a question to you; how on earth was Bioshock Infinite's gameplay better than Bioshock 1 and 2s? I wouldn't say it was award winning in those games but at least it felt like a designed whole, where things like Plasmids, the weapon arsenal, the enemies and the various systems in play all had a purpose, and in Infinite they slashed away elements of it, copypasted things without reason, cut down on enemy variance and did nothing to improve things like the AI, and added terrible ideas like weapon carry limits and limited weapon upgrades which just encourage never using most of the arsenal. I do not believe there is a single objective thing in Infinite's favour when it comes to its gameplay, and my opinion has this thing called "Reasons" and I'm pretty interested in hearing yours after that statement. As for Alien Isolation, it conned you into thinking there was any substance to the game, but there isn't if you even just peek behind the curtains and actually critique it. And yeah, sorry but though I love RE2, it's not really a game to mention if your trying to flash cred that you know something about horror games. All I'll say is I've played a lot over the years, it was always a genre I was pretty passionately into, and Alien Isolation completely failed in every sense that mattered, and I would posit to you that if you went back and replayed it, it may very well not hold up. Things that lack substance usually don't.

I think we can all agree that basically the Prequel and sequel trilogies are just bad. Not necessarily bereft of any qualities but just, in the end, unable to be actually good. So here's my new hot take, Star Trek The Motion Picture is a better movie than Wrath of Khan and the original Star Wars movies. :P (I'd have said Blade Runner but anyone with a functioning brain should know that)

I haven't played the game at all but this is an interesting observation about it. Though that said I do like that sub genre of fantasy to an extent, and I think you're being a little unfair by saying that like all of that only applies to one way of thinking. I've read plenty books in that sub genre that are... well I'll say reflective, as I think other words that come to mind are buzz words that are fast losing their meaning. Like one I'm reading right now is The Traitor God by Cameron Johnston which is a lot like a fantasy noir, and in terms of its themes its like most noir fiction I've come across, which is generally critical of a lot of the injustices in life. Gritty fantasy I think has a purpose that is best exemplified in personal stories, I kind of prefer that sort of thing to something like Lord of the Rings, which well, was a very conservative work.

Well I did go more into detail in following posts in my defence, but fair enough. :D

A friend of mine did once talk about the concept of how things are judged in whether they are bad or good, and that there are a few categories of that. There's technical competence, there's artistic competence, and of course there's the surrounding factors which will always cloud objectivity to a degree. And talking about things that are clearly technically incompetent, which for games mean broken low effort pieces of trash, just isn't very interesting, as such pieces are seen for what they are right away and are quickly forgotten. More interesting are games that pass that level of technical competence but still completely fail at what they intended to do. What I will give A:I and B:I is that to a certain extent they are technically competent. Except in games design. And they are artistically incompetent, about as artistically incompetent as one can get. Their stories inherently don't work, they have multiple logical fallacies and plot holes, and in both cases have endings which beggar belief. I'm not interested in the fact that Infinite just brought up some philosophical or political points because I believe I said exactly this in the Steam review for the game I made right after playing it, it doesn't say anything. It doesn't do anything with any of that stuff. From a writing perspective it's pretense, and that is something I genuinely loathe. Maybe its because I'm not the average person who turns on a game, I don't look to make judgements that way but I read a lot, I love stories, and what I got here offended me. Like as a game I would call Bioshock Infinite inept but as a story experience I call it disgusting. Alien isolation is more simple than that, its just not a particularly good story, but then nothing in the Aliens series has been since Aliens. If the game itself had worked it'd be more forgiveable, but as a game it doesn't work at all, unless your idea of a good game is 90% padding and 10% a badly made version of a stalker horror game. I acknowledge that the game had a tonne of effort put into its fluff, into the visuals and the style of it, and that's cool... but you guys forgot to make a game. And that is a pretty major problem.

Just purely on a personal level, it is between the 80s and 90s for me. 80s - I was born!, that's quite a good reason, but I go for the 80s because of that was when a lot of my favourite movies were made, and the 90s, well for my fond memories of growing up watching lots of awesome cartoons, and it was when videogames started becoming good for me. That said with music, that might be the only thing I genuinely adore what I can listen to now more than stuff in the past. I mean say I get why 80s metal was great, and certainly why it was important for anyone into metal, but I do feel the genre has progressed and is going strong, just because it isn't mainstream anymore doesn't mean it went into hibernation.

I'm only responding to you @Redneckerz with the same level of respect you're treating me, ie not very much, as I feel your arguments have been dismissive and don't even try to engage with the substance of the things I've said. But I consider this forum to be a happy place so rather than continue down that road I want to ask you this. My position is what it is with a lot of consideration, it doesn't come from "oh, I just dislike them". And as I said game of the decade is fluff but the real thing is my belief in them being bad because I do, 100% believe that and I gave, in relatively brief fashion admittedly, some of my reasons for that. If you want to discuss it more, respectfully, I'm okay with that, but I'd rather have a discussion about it with mutual respect for our positions than a childish argument. So I'll say sorry for the above comment, and I'd like to hear what you liked about the two games, or if not that what about them makes you think they're not bad products. All I ask is you give a bit more thought to what I have to say to which I can go into more detail if you want.

They are bad products. Anyone who says they aren't is wrong. If you don't agree, fine, but I don't care, because you are wrong. That's all there is to say, but at least I gave reasons for why I believe that, the other being well, I can only talk about games I played. Worst game of the decade is whatever, there will always be a huge list of bad games to pick for that ranging from scams to half finished Steam dross, and the reason I called it the games I did is because those actually made me feel something about them. However if we're just getting into those games being bad, oh yeah, oh yeah they're bad, and believe it or not I'm not gonna be very perturbed by a random guy on the internet saying my judgements are invalid without giving a single reason for it. A lot of people like Twilight, people often like trash. And hell on Infinite at least I'm far from the only person who thinks its not good at the very least.

Oh no this isn't that. Bioshock 2 was my favourite of the Bioshock games, I liked it quite a bit more than the first one. Infinite is far worse than the both of them. The reaction to Bioshock 2 is one of those things that convinces me most people are losing sight of that little thing called gameplay, because thats what made it a better game than the first one, although honestly I liked the story more too and Minerva's Den is the best story told in the Bioshock series. Infinite... Infinite's gameplay is terrible and that's inarguable.

You don't know how happy Fire Pro World existing makes me.

"What Effort" is kind of my view on that, although its more of a case of a lot of effort went into the fluff of the game and nowhere near enough into the nuts and bolts. As I said, I really enjoy horror games based more on evading enemies, from Siren to Clock Tower to the recent Remothered, an Alien game like that should have been a slam dunk, and I came away from it wondering how they managed to screw it up so bad, honestly as bad in many ways as Colonial Marines. From a fundamental gameplay perspective I don't think its any better.

The thing with Alien Isolation is what it does is very, very hollow, and it doesn't actually work well. The AI for the Alien is just bad, I have played probably most of the stalker type horror games ever made because I am a big fan of that, and there hasn't been many, and Alien Isolation might really be the worst because the scripting feels half finished. As well as that the stealth element of it is also very poor, its difficult to tell when you're actually successfully hiding or not. Then there's how drawn out the game is, I quit after 4 hours when I felt it wasn't going to get better but apparently its a 15 hour long game, and most of that is filler wandering with QTEs pretending to be but that don't qualify as puzzles, and I'm flabbergasted at that. They really only have material for like a 2 hour game and they stretched it out that much. The only reason it seemed to impress anyone is in the cinematic elements and because surface level the game had a lot of work put into its environmental design, but that's not a game, that is a glorified haunted house ride at a theme park. It is genuinely a badly made product, and the fact more people haven't picked up on it to me demonstrates a real problem with how people judge games.

Because anyone can fart out a half finished piece of rubbish on Steam these days. Those games to me fail fundamentally at everything even though they had budgets, competent people working on them and actual aspirations, but fail spectacularly through genuinely inept decisions, although in Infinite's case the original concept might have had merit, Alien Isolation seems to be what the developers mostly intended. I accept Fallout 76 is a fairer choice, but A. I didn't play that, and B. I said already, I will never hate any game more than Bioshock Infinite,. and on Alien isolation, Jack Packard and Rich Evans in discussing it called the game the Death of the Art form, and they weren't really joking or being hyperbolic and I think they had a point.

It is an extremely boring game, but thats considering only the gameplay. If you actually consider the story, its reprehensible, its just most people probably do the sane thing and not think about it. I unfortunately want to be a writer more than anything, its my calling and that means I have certain sensibilities and I think about things and that game was so botched that I just have such sheer disdain for it. Alien Isolation might be a runner up because when a AAA horror game is such a complete joke that's objectively worse in every way than a SNES horror game (Clock Tower) then that's pretty bad. And it was intended to be that way, at least Colonial Marines only failed due to the poor execution, and to me thats worrying because it seems most people struggled to see through how shallow and broken it was.

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I'll just leave this here, clicking on it will be very worth your while once you've had your first run on Heretic (excellent choice by the way)