17th August 2005, 9:53 PM
Games you wish you hadn't wasted your money on!
With the subcategory 'Games you wish you hadn't asked for for gifts'... 'games you wish you hadn't gotten as gifts' is a good one too, if you have such titles. I don't, actually... I always make nice detailed lists for my parents and stuff so I don't get random games from them, and the few other people who have given me a few games picked well... so all the games that were gifts on this list I'd asked for in some form.
PC
- SimCity 3000 (I thought it'd be a step up like SC2k was from SC... I was very wrong, and never warmed to the game as a result. SimCity 2000 is, was, and always will be, far better.)
- Civilization III (same as SC3k... Civ II is one of the top five games of all time. Civ III... just doesn't match up.)
- TES III: Morrowind (just not worth the time or money. It's got simplstic and overly hard combat, throws you into very hard areas from the start, requires a MASSIVE time commitment not just to play through but to get to the point where you can actually have fun in the game beyond wandering around town, etc, etc...)
- Secret Weapons over Normandy (boring... lacking... unrealistic... shows how far Totally Games has fallen from its early-90s greatness... just an all-around dissapointing title, given the developer's pedigree.)
- Dungeon Siege (gift. Click and hack and click and slash and click and move nad click and hack and click and slash and click and move and ... Gets boring really fast.)
- Age of Wonders II (gift... good game I guess but horribly complex and I'm awful at it. Not worth it.)
- Motocross Madness 2 - overly hard driving model makes it very frusterating to play. Ridiculously tough computers sure don't help either.
-Rally Championship (aka 'Network-Q RAC Rally Championship) (rally racer. Got it because it looked fun, but it's dull, and I greatly prefer racing against other cars instead of just time, and it rails you onto the road, and all the stages look the same so the fact that it's got dozens of courses doesn't matter, and the treewalls look really stupid as usual, but treewalls are one of the game's main graphical features... not a total waste I guess, since it's got nice weather effects and is fun sometimes, but definitely a letdown compared to what I wanted. I should have gotten Screamer 2.)
GB
- The Lion King (gift... tolerable, but hard, has frusterating play control/accuracy requirements, and has no saving...)
- Toy Story (gift, and one of the worst games I've ever played)
- Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: Major League Baseball (parents got a game I already had as a gift so I chose this and Micro Machines in the store to replace that game. One of those games was good. It wasn't this one.)
GBC/GBA, N64, GC, SNES: Nothing. Oh, some of the games aren't great, but they were all at least worth buying, at least for the price I paid... (for instance, if I'd paid $50 instead of $5 for Aero Fighters Assualt I bet I'd have a much more negative opinion of the game...)
If I was forced to pick something for each console, though... hmm...
GBC: Micro Machines 1 & 2 Twin Turbo. Poor ports of fantastic games aren't as fun as the good versions, sadly... (sad given how great MM1 is for GB and MM3 is for GBC)
GBA: FFTA I guess? Fine enough game, but Fire Emblem is much better, I should have gotten FE first and maybe FFTA later... but FFTA is fun too so it was also definitely worth getting.
SNES: Hmm... Super R-Type? Good game but brutally hard since it makes you start the level over if you die... Stunt Race FX? Decent but turning around is really hard and the framerate, of course, is low... both were worth $5 though.
N64: Aero Fighters Assualt I guess... Star Wars Episode 1 Racer sure is annoying though, but the first two thirds of the game make it not quite as bad. But Aero Fighters, while far from great, is just average enough (and cheap enough) that I don't actually regret buying it...
GC: Hmm, none really fit. I guess the closest I'd come would be Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance -- decent, but not as good as Gauntlet Dark Legacy and I should have gotten that game first... Star Fox Adventures was cheap and worth owning (though not finishing), and Burnout's bad soundtrack is more than made up for with good gameplay. :)
With the subcategory 'Games you wish you hadn't asked for for gifts'... 'games you wish you hadn't gotten as gifts' is a good one too, if you have such titles. I don't, actually... I always make nice detailed lists for my parents and stuff so I don't get random games from them, and the few other people who have given me a few games picked well... so all the games that were gifts on this list I'd asked for in some form.
PC
- SimCity 3000 (I thought it'd be a step up like SC2k was from SC... I was very wrong, and never warmed to the game as a result. SimCity 2000 is, was, and always will be, far better.)
- Civilization III (same as SC3k... Civ II is one of the top five games of all time. Civ III... just doesn't match up.)
- TES III: Morrowind (just not worth the time or money. It's got simplstic and overly hard combat, throws you into very hard areas from the start, requires a MASSIVE time commitment not just to play through but to get to the point where you can actually have fun in the game beyond wandering around town, etc, etc...)
- Secret Weapons over Normandy (boring... lacking... unrealistic... shows how far Totally Games has fallen from its early-90s greatness... just an all-around dissapointing title, given the developer's pedigree.)
- Dungeon Siege (gift. Click and hack and click and slash and click and move nad click and hack and click and slash and click and move and ... Gets boring really fast.)
- Age of Wonders II (gift... good game I guess but horribly complex and I'm awful at it. Not worth it.)
- Motocross Madness 2 - overly hard driving model makes it very frusterating to play. Ridiculously tough computers sure don't help either.
-Rally Championship (aka 'Network-Q RAC Rally Championship) (rally racer. Got it because it looked fun, but it's dull, and I greatly prefer racing against other cars instead of just time, and it rails you onto the road, and all the stages look the same so the fact that it's got dozens of courses doesn't matter, and the treewalls look really stupid as usual, but treewalls are one of the game's main graphical features... not a total waste I guess, since it's got nice weather effects and is fun sometimes, but definitely a letdown compared to what I wanted. I should have gotten Screamer 2.)
GB
- The Lion King (gift... tolerable, but hard, has frusterating play control/accuracy requirements, and has no saving...)
- Toy Story (gift, and one of the worst games I've ever played)
- Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: Major League Baseball (parents got a game I already had as a gift so I chose this and Micro Machines in the store to replace that game. One of those games was good. It wasn't this one.)
GBC/GBA, N64, GC, SNES: Nothing. Oh, some of the games aren't great, but they were all at least worth buying, at least for the price I paid... (for instance, if I'd paid $50 instead of $5 for Aero Fighters Assualt I bet I'd have a much more negative opinion of the game...)
If I was forced to pick something for each console, though... hmm...
GBC: Micro Machines 1 & 2 Twin Turbo. Poor ports of fantastic games aren't as fun as the good versions, sadly... (sad given how great MM1 is for GB and MM3 is for GBC)
GBA: FFTA I guess? Fine enough game, but Fire Emblem is much better, I should have gotten FE first and maybe FFTA later... but FFTA is fun too so it was also definitely worth getting.
SNES: Hmm... Super R-Type? Good game but brutally hard since it makes you start the level over if you die... Stunt Race FX? Decent but turning around is really hard and the framerate, of course, is low... both were worth $5 though.
N64: Aero Fighters Assualt I guess... Star Wars Episode 1 Racer sure is annoying though, but the first two thirds of the game make it not quite as bad. But Aero Fighters, while far from great, is just average enough (and cheap enough) that I don't actually regret buying it...
GC: Hmm, none really fit. I guess the closest I'd come would be Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance -- decent, but not as good as Gauntlet Dark Legacy and I should have gotten that game first... Star Fox Adventures was cheap and worth owning (though not finishing), and Burnout's bad soundtrack is more than made up for with good gameplay. :)