The Hot Topic Returns

[Maf]

I know what you mean in Dead Cells. I can not win without turrets and traps. If I can’t stop the enemy moving, I’m in big trouble and if I’m armed with a sword when I get to that last level I’m bound to lose.
 

Maybe some of the weapons are bad, I dunno it’s been a long time, but I know I once said I think shields in that game are a waste of time and then someone else on this forum was saying how they think shields are really fun and can still beat the game with them. So it turns out they’re not actually bad, I just kind of suck. 
 

This is where I was talking about learning the difference. Just because someone loses to a system in a game does not make it a bad system, as long as that system can be beaten. Maybe RNG can’t be beaten with skill 100% of the time but I think that is very much the minority outcome. If someone has the skill they can win almost regardless. See shields in Dead Cells (But also fuck those things) 

 

Sorry for taking this off topic but one idea lead into the other for me and I wanted to get it out.

[mfnick]

Speaking of Isaac too, I remember when I first completed it. It wasn’t because I’d gotten really good at the game, I just got very lucky and had a very overpowered build so I kind of felt cheated out of my completion and didn’t feel satisfied with it. I completed it many times after that including some extra stuff where that came a bit more but still felt my victories were more because I got lucky rather than because I’d become better at the game.

 

& back to Dead Cells. I actually love the shields as well so I know what that guy you’re one about means. I know what you mean about that which is why maybe they could include a option to toggle some stuff out after you’ve played it for hours, tried everything and had time to decide which items just don’t work for you. Thatd reduce some frustration caused by the RNG late game. 

 

& yea I’ll finish now too. 

[OCH]

4 minutes ago, mfnick said:

Speaking of Isaac too, I remember when I first completed it. It wasn’t because I’d gotten really good at the game, I just got very lucky and had a very overpowered build so I kind of felt cheated out of my completion and didn’t feel satisfied with it. I completed it many times after that including some extra stuff where that came a bit more but still felt my victories were more because I got lucky rather than because I’d become better at the game.

You especially notice when RNG falls in your favour with some of the challenges. Those with a limited item pool or no shops etc

[Nag]

 

Quote

Readers are asked about the games they most regret buying from their childhood, including the likes of Spider-Man 3 and Body Harvest.

 

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was inspired by reader Iceman and asked what sort of success rate you had as a kid, in terms of the quality of the games you picked, and how you made your choices.

 

Everyone’s made a mistake like this at least once, or had one forced on them via a birthday or Christmas present, although Virtua Racing on the Mega Drive was the only name that came up more than once.

 

[shinymcshine]

That'll be Chase HQ on the C64.

 

The high speed arcade race/chase game was instead a pedestrian monochrome disaster on the C64, and I recall the utter disappointed after buying a highly anticipated but in reality a woefully inadequate game.

 

https://retroyears.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/chase-hq-c64/

 

[DANGERMAN]

I'm not going to leap to its defence, but what a weird game to be the only one that was mentioned more than once. It was really expensive at the time like, and I suppose it's not the most accessible racing game, back then at least

 

The only game I can think of, and I didn't spend much on it, but Populus on the Mega Drive. I'm sure it's a good game, but it was beyond me at that point, probably still is

[shinymcshine]

Virtua Racing was really expensive on the MD, about £70 when most things were £40-£50, and only had 3 circuits (c.1994) - so I can understand the disappointment. I'd read a few reviews and got my fill of it after a weekend rental.

[mfnick]

People regretted buying Body Harvest? I loved that 😔.

 

Mine.

 

I traded in 4 good games to get that as a kid - including the classic Shining Force. I thought the cover, character design and screens on the back looked cool. Hated it. I was devastated. 

 

 

[Nag]

I know where people are coming from with the Virtua Racing comments, 70 quid was a lot of money back then... the only thing that really compared was buying Street Fighter 2 for about £60... but that was actually good.

 

I also bought a game called Satan (because it was called Satan for fucksake) on the Spectrum and I'm pretty certain I couldn't get off the first screen...🤣

[mfnick]

2 minutes ago, Nag said:

on the Spectrum and I'm pretty certain I couldn't get off the first screen...🤣

Thats just reminded me of another. I got The Terminator in Mega Drive too. Literally could not get passed the first part of it. Managed to return that one though after a week. 

[HandsomeDead]

I didn't have this problem as a kid.  We may have rented some stinkers but I can't remember specifically what, I suppose they weren't worth remembering.  I did rent Virtua Racing at the time but I was fascinated with the 3D.  Maybe I'd feel different if I'd bought it.

 

At the time I was a kid between my mother who had me pretty young and my uncle they had a decent enough grasp of what a good game was, my uncle used to get gaming magazines too.  Both played games with me at the time.

 

My grandparents would just ask me what I wanted.  Though my gran was a huge fan of Columns, so she kinda got us to an extent.

 

So I didn't have an upbringing full of crappy cartoon tie-ins.

[bellow]

I never really played home videogames until I was an adult with kids of my own (one of whom wanted a PS2 for Christmas, and the rest is history, so to speak)!

 

In the arcades I always wanted to play the gun games, and so I remember wasting more than one of my own childhood Christmas's on these stupid consoles that came with a gun for you to shoot targets on the telly. Those fuckers never worked, ever. Even when you got right up to the screen. 

[OCH]

There was a terrible JRPG for PSOne that immediately came to mind. With the tell tale sign of only CG cutscenes on the back of the box. But alas, I can't remember the name... Just as well, I suppose.

 

Tekken 1

Late '98/early '99 We were deep into Tekken 3. One of the greatest fighters ever. However, I was curious. I started Tekken with 2 (as that came in a bundle with our PSOne). A friend at school had the first game and wanted £5 for it. 

 

Two weeks later, it was so rough I wish I hadn't bothered. I remember thinking surely it couldn't be that different from T2...

 

[DANGERMAN]

@OCHFinal Fantasy 7

[OCH]

34 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said:

@OCHFinal Fantasy 7

😄No.

 

It was one of those with an anime aesthetic on the cover. The pictures on the back were from animated cutscenes (gameplay was not shown). All I remember was an early 3D version of a top down view. But the character models had no detail. Not even faces. 

[mfnick]

36 minutes ago, DANGERMAN said:

@OCHFinal Fantasy 7

Shut your whore mouth. 

[HandsomeDead]

Thankfully, nobody believes the FFVII naysayers anymore.  He's just mad people have actually played it and not Shining Force 3.  Sega should try putting it on something.

[OCH]

Just now, HandsomeDead said:

Sega should try putting it on something.

If only...😞

[Maf]

Firstly Spider-Man 3 is not a bad game and secondly that game is from people’s childhoods?!

 

This is the Spider-Man game from people’s childhoods childhoods stopped happening after this right 😭

 

 

As for the actual question. I dunno. The amount of Wrestling or Sports games I bought for the N64 because they reviewed well but I hated because they were Wrestling and Sports games is quite a few. I can’t remember the names of any of them though they all blur together.

 

I like FF7 now but I did literally return that game when I got it because I couldn’t work out how to do the first battle. Cool opening, Cloud jumps off the train, got stuck, took it back (Or had parents return it I can’t remember) That made me hate that game for a while.
 

Hmm…Southpark 64 was a shit fest but I still played it to death because it was South Park.

 

Can’t honestly think of a time I bought a game and was crushed that it was bad. Even as a kid I just got over it and played whatever I was already playing. 
 

EDIT: Also I suppose it was a bit different when I was kid you could actually return and exchange games instead of selling them back at less money. So I guess it was more gutting if you’re younger and get lumped with some shit. 

[one-armed dwarf]

I remember reading years ago that FFVII was the most returned game ever specifically cause of the thing Och mentions, that it's marketed as this big cinematic thing with lots of CG but the game itself isn't that at all.

 

Also the european back of the box has a big spoiler on it lol

 

 

I guess she's just chilling out in the water or something