The Hot Topic Returns

[shinymcshine]

My only real dalliance with online gaming* was back in 2005-07 with Guild Wars. I joined a nice guild with a bunch of random online strangers and we'd have a decent amount of fun, helping each other out.

 

But in the latter years the enthusiasm waned, people left, moaned about guild activities, and new people would join but occasionally just to farm rewards (join a quest then not actually move from starting point) all of which soured the game. But some fond memories along the way too (noting that much of Guild Wars you could do as a solo player, with hired henchmen anyway).

 

 

* Had the occasional flurry on Rocket League, and summons on the Dark Souls games too, but GW was the only long term online MMO I've played. I have recently discovered Board Game Arena too, and played the occasional game of Jaipur and Colt Express there.

[spatular]

i've played quite a lot online, a few games make up the majority of that time - mainly halo 2/3/reach and destiny. and more recently fortnite, which i used to like but now really only play occasionally to chat with friends. halo online is basically the best thing ever, so well balanced and with great flag/bomb gametypes. played the later halo games a bit too and still like them but prefer the bungie ones. destiny has its high points with trials and the raids. played other stuff online too which was really good - titanfall, splatoon, left4dead, rocket league, pgr3, gt sport, splinter cell spies v mercs, and probably other stuff i'm forgetting.

[one-armed dwarf]

FFXIV is the only game I've put considerable time into, I never like deathmatch type stuff like Halo or CoD. Just felt like sort of a pointless dead end but I've never being a very competitive gamer.

 

For XIV tho the thing that got me into it was that it's about finding a synergy between different team members and trying to contribute best as you can according to your role, which I found really interesting. Unfortunately it also has this thing I hate where you have to keep playing it to keep up with the meta/new mechanics and if you want to progress through high end content you need to be on a schedule with 7 other people. I think when I am done with FFXIV I will never play another game like this because this type of thing doesn't suit me at all. 

[HandsomeDead]

I've always liked competitive games so I've always had at least one on the go since I got the Internet.  Its hard to quantify which one I've played the most.  But one's I know I played a lot include Halo 3, various Battlefield games, Street Fighter 4 & 5, Dragon Ball Fighterz, Left 4 Dead 2, Overwatch, Titanfall 2, Destiny, I'd say I've put a chunk of time into Rocket League.  There's probably other competitive time sinks I'm missing. 

 

Outside of competitive I've played a lot of Warframe and Monster Hunter. 

 

I like having ongoing games and often feel pretty lost if I don't have a gaming project going. 

[Nag]

It's obviously the Gears of War games competitive multiplayer for me, Gears 3 and 4 being pretty close as my favourites... unfortunately I can't stand it in Gears 5, it's way too quick and twitchy for me now.?

 

I've also put a fair amount of time in to the first Titanfall this gen as well as GTA V as more of a social thing, GTA V is hilarious at times and I honestly don't think I've laughed as much while gaming as playing that with @Sly Reflex and @smallofbooty.

[DisturbedSwan]

Halo 2 online MP every evening after school with all my school buddies was great, likewise the early 360 days playing Gears, PGR3 etc. With them.

 

Left 4 Dead was another 360 highlight alongside MW1 and MW2, I got well into one of the MotoGP games - whilst they were still developed by Climax - at one point too and put a lot of hours into the first 2 Forza’s.

 

More recently had a lot of fun playing MH World, Overwatch, BFV and OG The Division with a few folks from here.

 

On games I’m still playing, League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege are the two big ones for me. I’ve probably put 200+ hours into LoL and probably around the same into Siege. Both are truly magnificent games. I did go through a period of playing OW again on PC for awhile but haven’t played it now for quite some time.

[mfnick]

I won’t go into detail as I’ve mentioned it a few times but my game is Rocket League! Only one from this gen really. I’ve dropped off MP games massively this gen and the GAaS and Battle Royale type games haven’t grabbed me at all. 

Back on 360 I put a ridiculous amount of hours into Bad Company 2, Gears 3, Battlefield 1942 and Modern Warfare 1&2. 

[OCH]

To be honest, even I have dipped my toe into Online gaming.. Ever so slightly. As is known, I loathed the Online Souls stuff. So I never activated most of that. But on the Wii and PS3 I did have my sole experiences with Online fighting games. There was a DBZ game on the Wii. Unfortunately the lag was atrocious. The battle took about 10 minutes and it was like playing in slow mo. ? The second time, I went online with Vanilla MvC3, the day it was released.  I thought everyone is bound to be at the same level, right? Wrong.? Staggered release dates and all that...

[Nag]

 

Quote

GameCentral readers discuss their most disappointing video game moments, including Metroid: Other M and No Man’s Sky.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Grackle, who asked whether the let-down was primarily the company’s fault or because of unreasonable expectations.

 

Although the games named varied greatly a lot of them ended up being relatively late entries in long-running franchises, such as Mass Effect, Resident Evil, and Grand Theft Auto. Although in many cases a subsequent sequel did manage to repair the damage

 

I'm going to open this up to anything game related, not just games themselves... so consoles, controllers or paraphernalia you've bought or even just gaming announcements that have completely underwhelmed.

[shinymcshine]

I'll say that the first 6 months of PS4 ownership were pretty underwhelming for me, happily things worked out fine eventually.

[mfnick]

There’s so many of these. I’ve been disappointed by instalments in some of my favourite IPs so many times. 
One that immediately comes to mind is Burnout Paradise. I did not get on with the open world version of this instalment at. All. I’ll mention more as I think of them. 
 

Edit 1.
 

Mirrors Edge 2 - Another excellent game ruined by the move to open world setting. 

 

Resident Evil 5 - The move to a online co-op forcus totally ruined this for me. And the fact the AI was fucking God awful if you played it solo. I couldn’t have been more disappointed following RE4. 
 

[one-armed dwarf]

Phantom Pain. It's like the video game version of when a writer dies and they publish the unfinished manucscript anyway just to cash in. Not that I'm saying it shouldn't have been released but it's maddening how compromised it is.

 

Stuff gets cut out of games all the time, games fail to meet expectations. Like FFXV, or DMC2. But Phantom Pain is a special case of a game getting fucked out the door before it is even 70% done cause of politics.

 

(Ironically I sort of wish Death Stranding got cut up and had half the story missing, it might have improved that game)

[shinymcshine]

I had a wry smile when someone on Gamecentral mentioned Deathtrap Dungeon (1998). I agree it wasn't too much like the Fighting Fantasy book, but was a tough enjoyable adventure none the less.

 

But it makes a change from Angel of Darkness, Diakatana, and Duke Nukem Forever  I suppose.

 

But if the person still feels it after 22 yrs it must have burnt them badly! Roll on 2035+ and people bringing up No Man's Sky and Fallout 76!

[Jimboxy]

I thought No Man's Sky had redeemed itself now? I keep getting tempted to pick it up, but haven't got the time to invest in it.

[spatular]

i really liked metal gear 5, but yeah it's realy different to previous games so i can understand people being disappointed.

 

think this question came up quite recently and i mentioned every extend extra extreme which is similar in that i think it's quite well liked but plays really differently to the previous game so i didn't like it.

 

also halo 5 arena multiplayer needs a bigger radar, other changes would be good too but generally it plays really well but the small radar ruins it for me.

[DisturbedSwan]

The Xbox One as a whole.

 

Dragon Quest XI, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, Halo 4, Resident Evil 2, Breath of the Wild, Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid 5, Burnout Paradise.
 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

I've actually never met anyone who was disappointed with Uncharted 2 before ?

[Nag]

Isn't that regarded as the best one by most folk?

[mfnick]

Yea, UC2 is incredible and a huge improvement on the first. Very surprised at that. 
 

Ill add the launch version of the Xbox One console now too. Such a huge disappointment after the awesome 360, forcing Kinect to start with too increasing the price dramatically, the terrible and incredibly slow UI, needing that stupid pad adaptor thing for headsets the list goes on. The One X, actually attracting publishers now and Game Pass have righted these wrongs for me now though. Huge improvement. 

[HandsomeDead]

Just Fallout 4 comes to mind.  I guess it's maybe not that different from F3 but a combination of being in a different place myself and feeling like the balance of the progression is off at the start of the game at least made me just not enjoy what I played of it at all.