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Deleted member 83233
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Inspired by the "That game that's so popular with everyone, but you just can't..." thread, here's the opposite.
I'll kick this one off with some of my favorite games that people generally don't like too much.
RAGE. What can I say, I don't have any problems with this game either graphically, or gameplay-wise. It runs great, looks absolutely beautiful (short of some of the well know low-res indoor/underground textures.) Gun play is fun, the driving is fun (though I'm not a fan of the actual races. The last third could have been longer and better fleshed out. I blame the publisher on that one, as it was obviously a release timing thing.
I'll chime in with more later. I'm sure I have several more that fit this.
Edit: Ok, how about a couple more id games. Doom 3 and Quake IV. I like Doom 3 a lot more than Quake IV, but honestly had a blast playing both of them. I still play Doom 3 frequently both with mods, and completely unmodified. I think I'm one of the few who prefers Doom 3 to the originals, even having played the originals since the first Doom Alpha leak back in what '94(ish). The game hemorrhages atmosphere, has some of the coolest machinery I've ever seen in a game, it incorporates some emergent elements into the play with logs (ala System Shock though not quite as well done or integral) and really has a high level of polish. Quake IV I would rate similarly, but not to the same extent. The game starts off a little slow for my taste, but definitely picks up to where it should be later on.
Edit: Edit: Ultima VIII: Pagan - This game is ridiculously good. It was a departure from what people were used to with the original Ultima virtue system, party formation, etc. but then it was supposed to be. You were exiled to a place that didn't have the virtues, a really down-trodden society full of darkness, evil, etc. The game was about as atmospheric as it gets. The music was beautiful, the graphics are gorgeous, there was a ton to do, very cool locations, weapons, armor to discover with extensive back-stories to find and read about as you played through. The idea of the elemental titans was cool, and taking their power was even cooler. The casting system was a little bit on the clumsy side, especially the sorcery (using the pentagrams) but overall this game was every bit as good as the previous ones. I feel like people just complained so loudly because it wasn't yet another extension of the same game like the previous ones. This is right up there with the full Ultima VII.
While I'm at it, how about Ultima Ascension. Yes, it was a buggy abomination when it was released, and would barely run. Yes, the world was highly truncated in comparison to U6/U7. The voice-acting was atrocious as well. However, if you get the dialog patches, a graphic update or two, the final patch, the community patch, turn off the voices and go with text like the earlier games, what's left is a pretty decent game. One that is still a bit of a departure from previous Ultima games, and maybe bordering on non-canon. However, there are tons of cool places to explore, tons of side quests, things to discover on your own, weapons full of lore with real history behind them (much like U8) places that you come upon and wonder, "what happened to this place?!?!" etc. It really pulls you in if you let it.
I'll kick this one off with some of my favorite games that people generally don't like too much.
RAGE. What can I say, I don't have any problems with this game either graphically, or gameplay-wise. It runs great, looks absolutely beautiful (short of some of the well know low-res indoor/underground textures.) Gun play is fun, the driving is fun (though I'm not a fan of the actual races. The last third could have been longer and better fleshed out. I blame the publisher on that one, as it was obviously a release timing thing.
I'll chime in with more later. I'm sure I have several more that fit this.
Edit: Ok, how about a couple more id games. Doom 3 and Quake IV. I like Doom 3 a lot more than Quake IV, but honestly had a blast playing both of them. I still play Doom 3 frequently both with mods, and completely unmodified. I think I'm one of the few who prefers Doom 3 to the originals, even having played the originals since the first Doom Alpha leak back in what '94(ish). The game hemorrhages atmosphere, has some of the coolest machinery I've ever seen in a game, it incorporates some emergent elements into the play with logs (ala System Shock though not quite as well done or integral) and really has a high level of polish. Quake IV I would rate similarly, but not to the same extent. The game starts off a little slow for my taste, but definitely picks up to where it should be later on.
Edit: Edit: Ultima VIII: Pagan - This game is ridiculously good. It was a departure from what people were used to with the original Ultima virtue system, party formation, etc. but then it was supposed to be. You were exiled to a place that didn't have the virtues, a really down-trodden society full of darkness, evil, etc. The game was about as atmospheric as it gets. The music was beautiful, the graphics are gorgeous, there was a ton to do, very cool locations, weapons, armor to discover with extensive back-stories to find and read about as you played through. The idea of the elemental titans was cool, and taking their power was even cooler. The casting system was a little bit on the clumsy side, especially the sorcery (using the pentagrams) but overall this game was every bit as good as the previous ones. I feel like people just complained so loudly because it wasn't yet another extension of the same game like the previous ones. This is right up there with the full Ultima VII.
While I'm at it, how about Ultima Ascension. Yes, it was a buggy abomination when it was released, and would barely run. Yes, the world was highly truncated in comparison to U6/U7. The voice-acting was atrocious as well. However, if you get the dialog patches, a graphic update or two, the final patch, the community patch, turn off the voices and go with text like the earlier games, what's left is a pretty decent game. One that is still a bit of a departure from previous Ultima games, and maybe bordering on non-canon. However, there are tons of cool places to explore, tons of side quests, things to discover on your own, weapons full of lore with real history behind them (much like U8) places that you come upon and wonder, "what happened to this place?!?!" etc. It really pulls you in if you let it.
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