Video games you want to like, but don't? / Video games you wished you liked more?

[PletdeKoe]

Fallout 3 and 4.

I played Skyrim till my eyes bleed. So it isn’t the game structure. It’s just that in the Fallout games you get this post apocalyptic setting where people are just stupid and primal. It’s like; yeah civilization is destroyed and so are our IQ’s. I just can’t stand the silliness of the people.

The same I have with Far Cry. Maybe it’s because I am getting older and I see what is happening in these games. Instead of being young an thinking: “Let’s shoot some people!”.

 

[GBalao888]

NFS Underground 1 and 2. I used to go crazy for it, but suddenly I outgrew them and don't seem to care much for them anymore.

 

[Animedeaf]

Driveclub

Yep, it was my first PS4 game and first racing game on the PS4. I used to like it in 2014-2015, but later, I became so bored with it. I don't care about it anymore.

Reasons:

• Some of my favorite cars, such as a Toyota Supra, aren't in Driveclub.
• This game doesn't have any customizations besides painting and decals.
• It was hard to control in this game.

 

[Mercia]

NBA 2K I love all of the content, the game looks great, it has so much detail that as a sports gamer should put me in heaven but get me on the court and I'm bored pretty quickly. Keep going back to it over the years to try and get into it but it just never clicks with me gameplay wise.

 

[GroupB]

Doom (2016)
Big fan of the original series, but they turned the modern incarnations into spree games. If you’re not into that kind of pace, you can’t really progress.

 

[Fezzik]

Minecraft. My youngest nephew loves it, it’s all he wants to talk to me about but I’ve just never clicked for me. Too freeform, I need more structure (not the sort I can build).

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

The Mafia games* are unsatisfying to me with respect to their open worlds and also their on-rails just a henchman viewpoint.

While the first game (in definitive edition form) has a free roam mode it doesn't feel as natural as it does in GTA where the story and world are this kind of simultaneous/persistent experience. The result is free roam feels kind of pointless and the story mode feels more restricted than it should considering how great the remastered Lost Haven is. There just isn't the same level of interaction and engagement you get from the GTA series. II is even worse with regards to world engagement - the whole game feels like its on rails and you're constantly forced to follow the dumb plans and aspirations of other characters. We deserve a Mafia game that allows a little more decision making and a little more strategic-level gameplay. Less shooting, more business development and planning. The Godfather films are not action movies (well the third one kind of devolved into one) and I think the Mafia games could be better if they leaned a little more towards them as inspiration.

*I haven't yet played III, but I'm not anticipating it to be substantially different.

 

[McLaren]

NBA 2K I love all of the content, the game looks great, it has so much detail that as a sports gamer should put me in heaven but get me on the court and I'm bored pretty quickly. Keep going back to it over the years to try and get into it but it just never clicks with me gameplay wise

Yeah, likely depends how into basketball you are. I can do 3-4 my league games a night but it will get old quick.

Probably can get more life out of it if you’re into MyCareer / Online, but I just want to recreate a real game’s atmosphere. Online is heavy with micro transactions/grinding for me.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

The Mafia games* are unsatisfying to me with respect to their open worlds and also their on-rails just a henchman viewpoint.

While the first game (in definitive edition form) has a free roam mode it doesn't feel as natural as it does in GTA where the story and world are this kind of simultaneous/persistent experience. The result is free roam feels kind of pointless and the story mode feels more restricted than it should considering how great the remastered Lost Haven is. There just isn't the same level of interaction and engagement you get from the GTA series. II is even worse with regards to world engagement - the whole game feels like its on rails and you're constantly forced to follow the dumb plans and aspirations of other characters. We deserve a Mafia game that allows a little more decision making and a little more strategic-level gameplay. Less shooting, more business development and planning. The Godfather films are not action movies (well the third one kind of devolved into one) and I think the Mafia games could be better if they leaned a little more towards them as inspiration.

*I haven't yet played III, but I'm not anticipating it to be substantially different.

Your description of Mafia's free roam reminds me of L.A. Noire. I like that game but admittedly open world aspect isn't its biggest draw and basically acts as filler while moving from investigation point A to investigation point B. It was fine though, because you could make your partner drive the car for yourself and it basically acts like a fast travel to the next location.

By the way, I feel you would've loved Godfather and Scarface game adaptations. I don't think it's possible to find them online anymore, and I've never played them myself, but there are quite a lot of videos made on these games and they sound fascinating.

 

[AlexDB9]

GTA games nowadays I can't get into because of the culture, it doesn't connect with me.

Though I was amazed by GTA 3 back in 2000 cause of the unprecedented freedom, and I loved the visuals and especially music (80s baby!) Of GTA: Vice City.

 

[Veinz]

Pretty much any sports game like soccer, hockey, football, etc. I just cannot get immersed into games like this.

 

[Thematic]

• Dragon Age: Origins (stupid difficulty leap)
• Cities: Skylines (had enough of this as a teenager)
• Ultima Underworld (did not get it as a teenager)

 

[JauntsB]

God Of War

 

[Wolfe]

Snowrunner.

Being stuck sometimes is cool. I liked Mudrunner a lot. Trails and missions are what I bought Snowrunner for. I didn't enjoy laboring to get anywhere all the time and suffering damage spikes because your truck touched something and the physics engine hiccup'd a serious impact out of it.

I think they slow the player down to make the game's small, terrain-deformation-map-limited maps feel bigger.

 

[MedigoFlame]

Snowrunner.

Being stuck sometimes is cool. I liked Mudrunner a lot. Trails and missions are what I bought Snowrunner for. I didn't enjoy laboring to get anywhere all the time and suffering damage spikes because your truck touched something and the physics engine hiccup'd a serious impact out of it.

I think they slow the player down to make the game's small, terrain-deformation-map-limited maps feel bigger.

I was wondering what made me feel less motivated to keep playing Snowrunner. As you said, I really enjoyed Mudrunner and Spintires, but it feels like Snowrunner lost something that hasn't made me come back to the game. Doesn't help that I bought it on the Epic Game store at the fault of my impatience whilst my friend got it on Steam. Not feeling motivated to buy it twice after that mistake, but still haven't touched it in so long.

 

[Joey D]

I was wondering what made me feel less motivated to keep playing Snowrunner. As you said, I really enjoyed Mudrunner and Spintires, but it feels like Snowrunner lost something that hasn't made me come back to the game. Doesn't help that I bought it on the Epic Game store at the fault of my impatience whilst my friend got it on Steam. Not feeling motivated to buy it twice after that mistake, but still haven't touched it in so long.

The base Snowrunner game is just kind of meh. Modded Snowrunner though is excellent, especially when you find really well-done mods. Ignore the main game, download some trucks that you like, then get some cool off-roading maps and have fun. I've downloaded some huge maps and managed to find a decent 4Runner mod so I can do some virtual wheeling.

 

[MedigoFlame]

The base Snowrunner game is just kind of meh. Modded Snowrunner though is excellent, especially when you find really well-done mods. Ignore the main game, download some trucks that you like, then get some cool off-roading maps and have fun. I've downloaded some huge maps and managed to find a decent 4Runner mod so I can do some virtual wheeling.

It was great having the Steam workshop support for Mudrunners/Spintires, but I'll have to give it some time to get used to the new mod page in Snowrunners. Wanted to do some wheeling in a new Defender which was enjoyable, but I don't think I spent enough time to really appreciate the game. I kind of soured myself for buying it on Epic before waiting for Steam's release. Hope there's a VehiCross mod for it.

 

[Veinz]

Forza Horizon 5

Bought a month of pc game pass to try a few games out, this was the first one. I haven’t played one of these games in years, and now I remember why. Tbf I think the 12 year old version of me would love this game though.

 

[barryf1fan]

Forza Horizon for me too, haven't liked any of them. Have bought them all, like a complete MO-ron... but just get bored with it after about 2-3 hours. I am the definition of Sheeple. 😂

 

[m355y]

Forza Horizon 5, definitely. I just think its become so predictable and formulaic, and somehow.....charmless. Objectively its a fine game, I know that, but there's just nothing interesting or surprising in there at all from the story to the races to the open world, which is just so bland. I liked FH4 so much, I think it clicked with me because I'm British and it was cool to be able to kinda drive around my backyard. It was also my first Xbox game for a long time after years of being on the PlayStation side (due to getting sick of my Xbox360s breaking). But FH5 is just one big meh to me.

Actually, I find the whole Forza series impossible to get on board with these days. I loved it around FM4, where I think the series peaked and was arguably eclipsing GT. But something changed after that, and I think Forza just went back to being a glitzy, bells and whistles but straight up inferior Gran Turismo. The handling and the original tracks especially, just flat out suck compared to GT. I can admire its size and graphics but that's it.

 

[Pepperoncini]

Forza Horizon 5, definitely. I just think its become so predictable and formulaic, and somehow.....charmless. Objectively its a fine game, I know that, but there's just nothing interesting or surprising in there at all from the story to the races to the open world, which is just so bland. I liked FH4 so much, I think it clicked with me because I'm British and it was cool to be able to kinda drive around my backyard. It was also my first Xbox game for a long time after years of being on the PlayStation side (due to getting sick of my Xbox360s breaking). But FH5 is just one big meh to me.

Actually, I find the whole Forza series impossible to get on board with these days. I loved it around FM4, where I think the series peaked and was arguably eclipsing GT. But something changed after that, and I think Forza just went back to being a glitzy, bells and whistles but straight up inferior Gran Turismo. The handling and the original tracks especially, just flat out suck compared to GT. I can admire its size and graphics but that's it.

I've been enjoying Crew 2 more than FH5 recently.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Made a slight title change to cover this part of the thread:

Or maybe you do like it, but not as much as you want to?

...since I keep finding more and more games that fit this description.

Anyways, yet another one I can certainly add that applies to the 2nd portion of the title is:

Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga.
Growing up I got both Lego Star Wars 1 and 2 on PS2 and played the crap out of them both until I was 100% finished with them, and when I heard they were essentially combining the 2 together into one game, I was pretty excited for it. Then I got the game for Wii and played it some, but I found myself not caring for it nearly as much as the previous titles because:

1. It just did a lot of things wrong that the original games got right.
2. Changed things that didn't need to be changed.
3. The hub in my opinion was just a worse reimagining of the Mos Eisley Cantina we got from the 2nd game.
4. Generally, it just didn't have enough new content to make playing through the levels again worthwhile and some of the new content wasn't even all that great in my opinion.

Maybe I am a little nostalgia blind from the first 2 games, maybe I played them too much, but I just couldn't get into this game as much as I did with the previous 2. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, but it just felt like too much of the same thing, but in some ways, worse. I'll give it this though, it has great mod potential, more so than anything that came before it and it's a pretty easy game to mod too, but that's about the only reason I even bother with it nowadays and I wish I felt otherwise.

 

[m355y]

I've been enjoying Crew 2 more than FH5 recently.

I find The Crew 2 the complete opposite of FH - objectively not as good, but full of charm. I love the ‘squashed down USA’ map, with those little Easter eggs like the animals, the UFO, the Bigfoot….I’ve never understood why people say that map is empty and soulless. I think it’s great.

 

[1241Penguin]

Forza Horizon 5, definitely. I just think its become so predictable and formulaic, and somehow.....charmless. Objectively its a fine game, I know that, but there's just nothing interesting or surprising in there at all from the story to the races to the open world, which is just so bland. I liked FH4 so much, I think it clicked with me because I'm British and it was cool to be able to kinda drive around my backyard. It was also my first Xbox game for a long time after years of being on the PlayStation side (due to getting sick of my Xbox360s breaking). But FH5 is just one big meh to me.

I got FH5 back in December 2021 as a way to relax after work and I genuinely enjoyed the game quite a lot in the first few months that I had it. The graphics, the car selection, the racing, and so much more were all things that I enjoyed about the game. Perhaps it was because I saw it as an after work activity that I rated it too highly, though. I think charmless is a word that I would also use to describe FH5. I never felt the same kind of love for it as I did for others in the same genre such as NFSU2 or MCLA. I don't know what it is about the game that makes it feel a bit soulless, but for an open world game, there just isn't a lot of enjoyment that I find in cruising around the map, which I find is to be a great factor in replay value for MCLA. I think the map itself, while visually stunning, is also quite boring for an open world racing game. There's not much to take in when you're driving around in your car unless you're going to a specific destination. Perhaps that is why I think the game is a bit soulless - maybe I am just used to open world games that take place in cities rather than a more rural setting. Not that there's anything wrong with either, but a map that feels almost wholly rural with nothing but plain fields around also makes the game seem dead inside, and a city setting helps to make it feel more alive. Formulaic is how I would describe the weekly challenges, and after a while of doing them, it feels more like a chore to complete rather than a game you'd play for fun.

 

[zargdin]

I have to agree with others who found Forza Horiizon 5 a bit of a damp squib. I loved FH4 and couldn't wait for FH5. If the sedate English countryside could provide such a wonderful varied and thrilling game what could the wildness of Mexico do? - particularly with the promise of all the different "biozones". But as it turned out the Mexican countryside is a bore - everything looks the same - and quite ugly at that. One of the features I loved on FH4 was the race creator - I made about 150 different routes. But Mexico doesn't seem to offer much - I ran out of options very quickly. And certainly the main town isn't a patch on Edinburgh.

 

[1241Penguin]

I have to agree with others who found Forza Horiizon 5 a bit of a damp squib. I loved FH4 and couldn't wait for FH5. If the sedate English countryside could provide such a wonderful varied and thrilling game what could the wildness of Mexico do? - particularly with the promise of all the different "biozones". But as it turned out the Mexican countryside is a bore - everything looks the same - and quite ugly at that. One of the features I loved on FH4 was the race creator - I made about 150 different routes. But Mexico doesn't seem to offer much - I ran out of options very quickly. And certainly the main town isn't a patch on Edinburgh.

"Looks the same" is also how I think of the weekly challenges. I honestly think they're nothing but a grind that is typically stuffed with three time-killing seasonal championships that take practically no effort to win. On the side, there are a few PR stunt events to do, and in the worst case scenarios, either a playground game (my second least favourite game mode in FH) that you have to endure or an Eliminator challenge (my least favourite game mode) where you actually need to achieve a half-decent result to clear the challenge.

So far though, this month's challenges are looking a bit better, with more EventLab challenges, which I honestly think add a lot of freshness to the game, and one fewer seasonal event to endure. Granted, this is also my first Forza Horizon game so I cannot say how it compares to its predecessors, but it is starting to feel a bit bland even for me.

 

[m355y]

I think FH2-4 were superb. But, if I looked past the fact that it’s set where I live which is undeniably cool, I’m not sure FH4 even would have gripped me quite as much as it did. The whole formula is getting stale. It’s partly the story - this whole thing where everyone’s just backslapping you everywhere you go as some kind of Horizon Festival legend which makes it feel like some sort of after-event rather than something you can sink your teeth into, and the fact that it basically just throws prizes and good cars at you from the outset meaning there’s no real feeling of achievement when you unlock anything or get rewarded for completing a challenge.

It’s the same wherever you look though, isn’t it. A developer hits on something good, does it really well and then thinks “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” and releases variations on the same thing for several years until people are bored of it. You could say the same about Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, the current F1 games, FIFA, COD, before you know it you’re looking at a glossed up and tweaked variation of a ten year old idea and suddenly it doesn’t look so cool anymore.

Fine game, just a bit ‘seen it all before’. And I don’t think Mexico is particularly great compared to previous settings. It’s just a bit bland. At least with The Crew 2 there was genuine ambition to squash down the entire USA into one map, I really admire it for pulling that off. People say ‘ah but the roads around Auburn don’t look accurate’ or ‘all the shops have generic names’ but that stuff doesn’t bother me at all. In FH5 it’s like city/town section, check. Desert section, check. Rainforest section, check. Mountainy bits, check. Welcome to AustraliaMexico

 

[MrCrynox]

I think FH2-4 were superb. But, if I looked past the fact that it’s set where I live which is undeniably cool, I’m not sure FH4 even would have gripped me quite as much as it did. The whole formula is getting stale. It’s partly the story - this whole thing where everyone’s just backslapping you everywhere you go as some kind of Horizon Festival legend which makes it feel like some sort of after-event rather than something you can sink your teeth into, and the fact that it basically just throws prizes and good cars at you from the outset meaning there’s no real feeling of achievement when you unlock anything or get rewarded for completing a challenge.

It’s the same wherever you look though, isn’t it. A developer hits on something good, does it really well and then thinks “if it’s not broke don’t fix it” and releases variations on the same thing for several years until people are bored of it. You could say the same about Forza Motorsport, Gran Turismo, the current F1 games, FIFA, COD, before you know it you’re looking at a glossed up and tweaked variation of a ten year old idea and suddenly it doesn’t look so cool anymore.

Fine game, just a bit ‘seen it all before’. And I don’t think Mexico is particularly great compared to previous settings. It’s just a bit bland. At least with The Crew 2 there was genuine ambition to squash down the entire USA into one map, I really admire it for pulling that off. People say ‘ah but the roads around Auburn don’t look accurate’ or ‘all the shops have generic names’ but that stuff doesn’t bother me at all. In FH5 it’s like city/town section, check. Desert section, check. Rainforest section, check. Mountainy bits, check. Welcome to AustraliaMexico

The first game was a revelation, it was great. The second was more of the same, bigger and more in your face, a nice location, perhaps what people wanted. But by the time the third game came out, more, more, more, everything thrown at you, everything for free no effort required. Now it's completely boring. But then looking at the sales and players people with these thoughts are in the minority.

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

There's a ton of games across genres that I've have had a passing interest in, then ended up trying and just not getting on with them. RPGs are the big one; I love the art direction in many of them and their stories seem like they'd be fantastic, but I simply don't 'get' the gameplay of them. The only one I've ever really played through was Fire Emblem on the GBA, which I purchased as a child after playing as the FE characters in Melee and thinking it would play like Zelda. To this day, I'm not really sure how I made it through it. Action RPGs seem like they'd be more my speed; I liked both the demos of FF7 Remake and Nier: Automata, but I know damn well I don't have the attention span for the full games.

Truth be told, and it may just be my age/position in life, the only games I really enjoy anymore are racing games, shoot 'em ups, puzzle games and more arcadey titles. There are exceptions to this of course; I do like the Crash Bandicoot games and did recently play through the Klonoa remakes/remasters which were great. The Pikmin series is fantastic and I'm very much excited for 4, despite me not being into RTS games (if you can really consider it one though). RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 is one of my favourite games ever made and I still play it frequently now, yet I know I wouldn't get on with any of the later entries or games of a similar ilk.

If I can deviate from the thread title, instead of a game I want to like but don't, its a system: the Nintendo Switch. Has a distinctly cheap feel to it, which is rare for a Nintendo device, and the unreliable Joy-Cons just help further demonstrate this. I think the UI is cold and sterile, and I find the direction they've taken with it in regards to its online service and regurgitation of older stuff rivals Sony's level of complacency. Most of the 1st party stuff they've done for it hasn't really wowed me either, but again I think that's more of an age thing and knowing what I actually like versus the games being bad (though they've had a few stinkers recently - looking at you, Mario Golf).