And why? For me its definitely Warcraft 3 Reforged. They literally made a quick money grab AND you can’t even play online the old W3 without having to download 30gb of trash.

    • sarsaparilyptus@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Unfortunately the franchise has a few of those. You could easily be referring to 4, 76, Tactics, or Brotherhood of Steel. Depending on how much of a Fallout purist you are, you could also extend it to 3, and there are some people who (incorrectly) insist that Fallout 2 was the first and last good game in the franchise.

    • bazsy@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      You mean an open world FPS with a Fallout like theme, doesn’t ring a bell.

  • ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    This is going to be a very unpopular opinion, but Elder Scrolls peaked at Morrowind. Oblivion was a pretty big step down in quality, and Skyrim was a completely washed out shell of former Elder Scrolls games. I absolutely hated Skyrim and I don’t understand why it gets such universal praise from gamers.

    • some_guy@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      100% agree.

      Morrowind was the peak, oblivion burned me so bad I slept on fallout 3 until after new vegas came out.

    • exohuman@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I enjoyed all 3 even though they were all very different. I will say that I spent countless hours in Morrowind, many hours in Skyrim, and less in Oblivion (but I beat that one on purpose just not to feel addicted to it).

      • ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Both. It held the players hand way too much, literally quest markers leading you straight where you needed to go which I know is a modern gaming thing but I actually loved that in the older games the quest giver just kind of hinted at where you might find the quest resolution and you had to use your knowledge of the game to piece it together. The story and side-stories of Skyrim were subpar, Morrowind had a ton of side stories that were interesting. One that sticks out in my mind is that every once in awhile you’d see this Orc just racing around at super high speeds non-stop. If you managed to catch up to him, or kill him, you’d find that he has magical shoes on. If you put them on, you find out that they give you super speed, but they’re cursed so that you can never stop. Just great, interesting and/or funny stuff like that that rewards your curiosity was simply non-existent in Skyrim afaik.

        • TerabyteRex@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          for me, mods make it better. i do remove quest markers for that more morrowind feel. i play in VR now though and since i beat the game i mostly sit at inns, get a menu and order food. all because of mods

    • AlternativeEmphasis@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I love Skyrim as a modding platform but I really feel you. So much has been lost on quest design from even Oblivion, much less Morrowind. I think Bethesda hedged their bets on exploration being the selling point way too much and it’s becoming more and more apparent this has resulted in their quest design and stories suffering. First it was Skyrim, then Fallout 4, and then 76. I am not looking forward to the writing of quests in Starfield.

      I am sure that it will do well, because most people love the sandbox exploration of it but imo an rpg lives or dies by its quest and story and I honestly feel as if Bethesda just doesn’t have that in them any more.

  • Kaldo@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Saying Andromeda for Mass Effect seems too easy of an answer but it’s the first one that comes to mind. I didn’t even mind the technical and graphical issues (most of them were fixed by the time I played it), but the whole story is just so… bland and soulless. Quests designed by a committee, one-note companions, the most predictable cliche alien species ever, boring and predictable villains (they literally recycled the story from the original franchise)…

    • blahaj@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’ve played the original trilogy a plenty but I can’t make myself play through Andromeda a second time for the reasons you’ve stated. Plus there was a severe lack of my favourite race in the game, Quarians! Boooo

  • simple@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Dark Souls 2: SotFS. I actually kinda like Dark Souls 2, but I think I’m upset the most at how it could’ve been potentially much better without making radical changes. When they announced the remaster (scholar of the first sin), I was excited that they’d go back and fix it. Hot take? They just made it worse.

    They made enemy placements a lot worse and more spammy than ever. They hid the DLC keys in annoying areas. They changed a lot of item placements for no reason other than make the game feel fresh, and some of the new placements made little sense. They also didn’t remove adaptability or go for any low-hanging fruit fixes.

    It was just a bummer. DS2 could’ve been a lot better.

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Don’t necessarily agree that SotFS made it worse, but I agree that DS2 is my least favourite of the series. Which makes it one of my favourite games of all time.

      • simple@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        DS2 is my least favorite of the series . Which makes it one of my favorite games

        Couldn’t have said it myself. I like to diss on DS2 a lot, but that’s only because I love dark souls so much.

    • BudgieMania@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Man so true, as decent of a game as it is, it hurts playing DS2 because of the untapped potential. It says something about the “bones” of the game that even with all of its issues it is still a memorable experience.

      There is supposed to be some modder developing a total conversion that tries to deliver on that potential but as with any total conversion mod you never know whether it will release or not. But I hope it does so that the potential can finally be done justice.

    • AlternativeEmphasis@kbin.social
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      Agreed, The enemy placements in SotFS were deranged at times. The changes to Heide Knights were a mistake, changing them from cool wandering enemies like the Black Knights to being rarely encountered outside of Heide. Iron Keep got absolutely swamped with Alonne Knights in the upgrade making it a nightmare. Idk how anyone was meant to find the DLC keys without looking at a guide. Why exactly you find the key to the Brume DLC in that random pit with the Flame Lizards in the Forest of the Fallen Giants and not from the Old Iron King befuddles me.

      • simple@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Iron Keep got absolutely swamped with Alonne Knights

        Haha yeah the Iron Keep turning into a conga line of knights running after you was a popular meme at the time. Glad I’m not the only one who remembers in this thread!

        I also miss old faith builds when DS2 first released. At the time you’d get 11 lightning spears for 1 spell slot, and in one of the updates they reduced it to 3 and nerfed its damage. I had to do a triple take on the patch notes because that was my current build. Still hurts.

    • LiveLaughLoveRevenge@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I’d agree with this.

      I feel like overall DS2 just has so many areas that while it has some amazing things (Fume knight one of the best bosses in any souls game IMO) it just has so much forgettable stuff too.

      That and the fact that so many areas (and even bosses) are only made hard because they throw multiples at you, it makes it worse than the others in the series.

      However…. I probably played more multiplayer in ds2 than in all others combined. Don’t know if it was due to balance, the overall slower mechanics of combat or whatever, but I enjoyed it.

  • EnigmaNL@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Dragon Age 2. For some reason it gives me anime vibes and I hate anime. It didn’t look, sound or feel anything like the previous game at all.

    • tonamel@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I agree it doesn’t quite catch the flavor of the first two, but do you actually think it’s worse than Thi4f?

  • Bartlebad@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth. There are other less then stellar games in the Civ franchise that I haven’t played like Starships. Beyond Earth, though, was a day 1 purchase for me, and it wasn’t -terrible-, but it left a lot to be desired.

  • mesk@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I just never could get into BOTW/TOTK, they never felt or played like a Zelda game

    • Rentlar@beehaw.org
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      Yeah that was very upsetting. I’m not a hardcore Halo fan but Infinite was a game I wanted to like, during that first holiday period I convinced nearly a dozen people to play with me…

      The game was so crashy, parties didn’t work half the time, the store and battle pass thing was disgusting (they were planning to make it even more money-grubbing) and I barely got to the first BP level after several days. I had some fun during those times but after a few months I stopped holding out hope and lost interest. Forge came a year too late… I don’t even feel like going back to it anymore.

    • Gert@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      To me Infinite isn’t the worst in the series. I preferred the campaign to Halo 4 and 5 and the multiplayer was good, just not enough content to sustain it.

      • ILeftReddit@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I actually thought halo 4 was decent, at least for the first entry for someone taking over. But it just got worse. I really despised halo infinites campaign, it just felt so incredibly lazy.

  • loopgru@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Lots of console titles in the comments here. Easy answer there is Zelda 2.

    To answer the question as posed, though, Star Control 3 was a massive disappointment after its amazing predecessor.

    • s804@kbin.socialOP
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      1 year ago

      i have watched zelda 2 playthrough and it actually looked really fun, even if it was very different!

      • some_guy@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Fuck the haters, Zelda 2 is the only game in the entire series I’ve played to completion.

        All the other ones are super boring. I gave up on Zelda completely on Ocarina of Time.

    • exohuman@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I loved Zelda 2 as a kid. I loved the lore, reading the background story over and over and imagining what it would be like to be Link, fighting to keep your blood from being back Ganon. My brother and I would cheer each other on while taking on the dungeons. Dark Link had us horrifically surprised and it was the first RPG we beat. Great memories around that one.

  • sarsaparilyptus@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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    Half-Life Alyx, because they made me wait a lifetime for another HL game and it’s a VR game. I’m sure it’s the best VR game money can buy, but playing it as intended would cost me a fortune and all I’d get out of it is motion-sickness-induced projectile vomiting.

      • ILeftReddit@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Lot’s of people can’t play VR, including me. I’m not going to force my way through feeling like shit day after day to enjoy something.

        • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Just some food for thought. VR gets easier over time when you “train yourself” on it. Start small with not very dynamic games, gradually move yourself up, your body will adapt. Second, I believe there’s a non VR modded version out there.

    • n0stalghia@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I previously commented about Dragon Age and Borderlands but screw that. THIS is the answer I’m going with. Half-Life: Alyx.

      I played it under best possible conditions - with a Valve Index, in a full room VR - and absolutely hated it. Cumbersome, slow, and survival horror instead of running around killing stuff feeling like a badass. It doesn’t feel like a Half-Life game at all. HL1, HL1:BS, HL1:OF, HL2, HL2:E1, HL2:E2, HL2:LC, Black mesa all were same and all were fun. HL:A? Not so much.

  • SaucyGoodness@lemmy.world
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    Dragon Age: Inquisition just didn’t hit the spot for me. The combat somehow managed to get worse than DA2. At least the DA2 combat was visceral.

    • cai@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I played through DAI - and indeed, played through the whole Dragon Age series properly - for the first time quite recently.

      I’ve got incredibly complicated feelings about the game. There’s lots of things I really love - if you think of Skyrim as a competitor & DAI as BioWare’s answer, there’s a lot to like! - and many things that were annoying and very nearly game-ruining. It’s the bugs that got me down the most.

  • n0stalghia@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Borderlands 3. The writing just murders it, and the combat doesn’t carry it for me. 1, 2, TPS, Wonderlands all have better stories, so I enjoy them more.

    EDIT: aw, shit, you said favorite franchise… hm… Dragon Age: Origins then? I enjoyed DA2/DAI way more, because of the story/quests.

    EDIT 2: you know what, Half-Life: Alyx. I actively hated that game despite playing it in best possible conditions. It’s cumbersome, slow, and too much “survival-horror” instead of an FPS.

      • ILeftReddit@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        To me half life 2 and alyx feel more like tech demos then actual well rounded great games. They obviously aren’t bad, but over rated for what they are.

      • n0stalghia@kbin.social
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        I’m generally not a fan of survival or horror games. Even Outer Wilds (especially so its DLC) were too “heavy” for me; stuff like Amnesia or Resident Evil I don’t touch at all. So Alyx was a very bad hit for me.

        I think generally, Alyx is liked. But not a lot of people played it.