Are Fans Of Well-Established Franchises Afraid To Admit When Their Favorite Game Isn’t Up To Par?

by Gregory Laporte Editor Vice President on December 7, 2011 at 03:00 PM EDT

Follow me on Twitter: @theownerz

Gamers are some of the most outspoken or well-spoken people you can imagine. However with that said, come some of the most idiotic statements and assumptions when it comes to console exclusive games and great titles such as Forza 4, Fable, Gears 3, God of war 3, Uncharted 3 and others.

Now I’ve personally played each one of these titles and have found a ton of things that I loved about each game individually. Their stories and gameplay are great and aside from the endings and plot holes that were apparent in some of the games, I really liked what I saw. As much as I saw greatness there were also a few bad aspects that I didn’t like in some of the titles. Personally, I don’t like how some of these titles are taking influences from the media and cash cow titles like Call of Duty. I personally feel that now some games are tacking on a Modern Warfare 3 type multiplayer experience. This isn’t bad in some instances; the only problem that occurs is when every game tries to do it. Who remembers when Uncharted 2: Among Thieves released title update 1.5 that broke the game and fixed it for some. That is what I am talking about here.

Now we have played other great titles that have offered better multiplayer experiences than the normal mainstream experience. I have to admit that even though I am a fan of God of War 3, Uncharted 3, and Gran Turismo 5 there were just a few things that I didn’t like about the games. Uncharted’s 3’s multiplayer is fun but I just can’t lose myself in the game like I used to with Uncharted 2. Gran Turismo 5 doesn’t have the same appeal it had to me when I played GT 3 A-Spec or GT4 and God of War felt a little too short to me.

Finally, I’m the type of person that is rational enough to admit when something is wrong in a game or when I don’t like certain aspects of the design or gameplay. It’s hard to determine what perfection is but it isn’t hard to describe what we as gamers want from our purchases. I know the mantra that all gamers pay 60+ dollars blah, blah, and we are entitled to…. However, that is no reason that we all can’t be critical of titles in a rational way.

My question to you all here is this. Are there any titles that you feel people are blindly hyping up just because the previous titles were great and groundbreaking? If you do feel this way post what the title was and how it made you feel. I’ll be waiting to discuss with you so don’t be afraid to let us know.

Leave your comments below and add to this discussion.

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http://twitter.com/theownerz Gregory Laporte

I’m ready to debate!
Joe Deaton

I think you are exactly correct. There is a lot of blind fanboyism out there today. Many message boards have gotten to the point where you can’t post a small criticism of any game (even if you love that game), without incurring the wrath of the fanboy armies.

For example, I love Skyrim right now. It is a massive game that you could easily put 200-300 hours into. My current game is at 151 hours. You don’t put in that kind of play time on a game you don’t love but I have had some of the technical issues with frame rate and console freezing. If you check the message boards for the game you will find other people with the same issues. The funny thing is the response from some fans when this is mentioned. They act like you have kicked their dog because you mentioned something negative about the game on the internet. Even if you qualify your criticism with “I love this game!”

Some of the excuses I have heard from these posters are absolutely hilarious and they often just straight up call you a liar who is out to destroy the game by convincing others not to buy it. It has gotten to the point you can not discuss great games and mention anything you don’t like without the righteous riding in to defend their game.
- http://twitter.com/theownerz Gregory Laporte
  
  thank you for your comment it seems you and i have the same idea, and i’m glad you can be objective about a title and say when something is wrong with a title there’s not many that can.
aguy

Great, your being critical. Why and what is it accomplishing.

If your having fun, great go have fun. If Uncharted 3 is flawed and you don’t notice and instead play the days away having a great time, there isn’t an issue. A flaw isn’t a flaw until it actually creates an issue or will create an issue. Your writing for this website, so yeah being critical is part of this job (but it isn’t the entire job, remember), but the sad thing is actually you won’t be enjoying yourself as much in the future.

Ignorance is bliss. That phrase exists for a very, very good reason and to remain truly impartial with your critiques you will need to learn to not do it when its not needed.
- http://twitter.com/theownerz Gregory Laporte
  
  I understand what your saying and I’ll try to take your advice into consideration when I play my next title. The only problem that I have sometime is the morning after efffect of something not being the way I had hoped it to be. I’ll let you know this, sometimes when I look forward to a new game coming out I put my expectations low or high depending on the title and whether or not I think it will be great. I mean I believe we all do it based on the footage we’ve seen.
  
  You also have to look at it from my point view. I was really interested in a lot of the titles that I mentioned in this article. When I play them now though, I don’t get the same joy I had when I first started playing these games. Maybe I’m being critical like you said, but being critical can improve force innovation to a new height.
Grammar_nazi

I believe you meant to write “their” instead of “there” in the title. Please check your grammar for people to take you seriously.
- http://twitter.com/theownerz Gregory Laporte
  
  You are right that I meant to write that. No one is infallible from making mistakes. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take me seriously however. I highly doubt I’m the only person that makes a mistake like that.
http://prowest.ua/ Blokzhyvlennja

i would say Halo but the early titles weren’t even great or groundbreaking.
- mamamaMONSTERJAMMMM
  
  How can you honestly say the early Halo’s werent great or groundbreaking?
  
  How do you ignore the impact that Halo had on online competition.
  - http://twitter.com/theownerz Gregory Laporte
    
    I have to agree with monsterjammmm. Even though you may not like Halo, you can’t deny that the game opened up the floodgates for online play. We have to give it that to say the least.
Bakuryu

Just a quick 2 cents. I agree that maybe these big hits aren’t perfect in any way shape or form, but compared to the rest of the crap that has come out it looks like gods gift from heaven. Unfortunately the only way to tell developers they are on the right track is to spend our 60 dollars on their game, but this does not always translate to a better sequel. Mind you I would much rather play original titles then Uncharted 6, I won’t mind it as long as they is enough innovation to the title as well as a deep storyline. Best thing that can happen is company start making slightly smaller original titles with a lower budget and price point so they can experiment without losing to much money.
GamerDrone

On the PC, Call of Duty is at the top of the list. I can’t comment on the console versions since I refuse to buy them. I just don’t like FPSs on a console. Anyway, Modern Warfare was the last COD worth purchasing. Once I learned how they crippled the later COD games, I would not, and still haven’t, purchased them. I still play Modern Warfare and don’t feel that I’m missing out on anything.