3e2a57 No.15828
Let's talk about mediocre games that you inexplicably love. Not bad, not good, just mediocre. They may or may not be popular, they're just mediocre.
Why do you love them? What keeps you playing? What's so mediocre about them?
For me, my key mediocre game is Samurai Warriors. When I first played it in 2004 even my young 13-year-old mind knew it was mediocre. There were a few bugs, the draw distance was awful, the game limited the number of drawn enemies to the point where you couldn't see more than 3 people away in clusterfucks, and it was Jap-autist unforgiving. You could level up characters but if you weren't careful you could easily hit the level cap without hitting the attribute maximums. The game expected you to grind for kills and experience while simultaneously running between objectives constantly. The hidden weapons and the higher-tier items were horrible to get and often required you to pull some insane top-tier timetable management. Its sequels up until 4 were horrendous and the Extreme versions were cash-ins to appeal to the crowd that actually enjoyed all the grinding.
And yet I still replay it from scratch on a yearly basis. The secret-hunting, the strategy, the time management, the mindless hacking and slashing, the awful voice acting, it all comes together to press all my buttons in just the right way. I have no idea why I keep playing it.
What about you, anons? What's your mediocre guilty pleasure?
f0e7bc No.15829
Minecraft. I like building my own castle.
5d9144 No.15839
I'd say Darksiders. The first one, not the second. Second bored me to tears and I actually fell asleep while playing it.
It's just a great mix of stolen ideas from various different games. The right mix of God of War and Zelda. The right voices, the right level of grimdark, the right character designs. But it never really does anything great on it's own, it has no real unique merit outside if it's ability to blend different games together. And I still had a blast playing it and 100% it, and still wanted to keep playing it.
9903bd No.15840
SimTower, SimFarm, and SimEarth were the shit when I was a kid, and goddamn I can't even tell you why. Countless fucking hours spent in SimTower trying to figure out the optimal layout of apartments, offices, condos, etc. I don't think I was old enough at the time to really understand the necessary math or concepts. Never stopped me from trying though. I especially loved the sounds the game had, something about it was rewarding as fuck to me. I wanna say if there was ever a game I spent Ulillillia amounts of time on it was SimTower. Too bad I wasn't autistic enough to actually break the game like he would.
SimFarm was a close second, and it fit perfectly with my love of SimCity and Harvest Moon at the time. And by all rights SimFarm was a terrible fucking game, but I played the shit out of it anyway. Towns were fussy about growth and road structure, cows were a pain in the ass to manage with my short attention span, and crops were an invitation to spending hours designing the best irrigation and road layout for my farm. And I STILL never did well with crops.
SimEarth wasn't much of a game, it was really just a colorful simulator. There wasn't any real interactivity I can remember the game having unless you used the sandbox features and shit all over the planet with comets or volcanoes.
God, I was terrible at video games when I was a kid.
2e8129 No.15842
Completely mediocre game, why do I even play it? Is it for the hats?
3ad91a No.15856
>>15829
It's okay. We won't judge you. Or your pretend castle. In which you are king. (or queen)
>>15828
Hands down is Deadly Premonition. It's a B movie in game form and I've played it about 5 times now and absolutely love it to bits. The VA, the music (dat whistle song), the really dumb plot, fuck, even the hell dogs falling from the sky, jesus I love that game.
If it gets a sequel, I will die happy.
5443e6 No.15863
Castlevania Harmony of Despair is a bad game, it's a great idea and multiplayer castlevania is fun as fuck but it just has some design decisions that make you wonder. Like who thought it'd be a good idea for characters like maria to have to use her spells to level them up when other characters level up their spell abilities by collecting more copies of that spell especially given that the game is item focused, you don't have character exp just better gear and items, so why the fuck attach an exp system for her spells, it's beyond retarded and that's just one example out of many things wrong with this game.
I still love playing it though, coop castlevania bossrushing is just fun. I wish we'd get a HD 2 but it'll never happen ;_;
ab55f4 No.15867
Spellforce (only the first one). RTS mode is shit, RPG mode is mediocre, but somehow they're alright together. I've played the vanilla game 3 times and both expansions once.
2e8129 No.15869
http://fishy-flash-game.com/
Do flash games count? Been playing this here and there for ~10 years.
b02a61 No.15870
>cars maneuver like bricks
>ai can't handle turns or tollbooths at all
>most races go down to who has the most powerful engine or the ai fucking up on a turn or tollbooth
>THERE IS LITERALLY, AND I ACTUALLY MEAN LITERALLY, ONE MODEL FOR CIVILIAN CARS
>has 600+ "rivals", yet most of them feel the same.
I'll give this game some credit though. I like its approach to races, where instead of having to beat the other racer to a set finish line, you both have some sort of "life bar" that depletes when you fall behind or crash into a car or a wall. The soundtrack isn't too shabby either.
4bd18f No.15934
Im a bit of a fan of the warriors games too. Even though my head keeps telling me its a mindless button masher, with below average visuals and goddawful voice acting I've been playing the shit outta them since DW 6.
I also like to play some memelands 2 coop with my friends. I get bored as fuck after an hour solo but I always love some of the coop shenanigans I get up to with my friends.
I also occasionally hear from anons that Wolfenstein: TNO was generic but I loved that game.
39ee89 No.15941
Guild Wars 2 because the females have huge boobs
7c3582 No.16022
Well, I enjoyed Sonic Adventure. A lot.
Sonic's stages were pretty standard, Tails' was just single-player racing levels against Sonic, Knuckles was something new (at the time) and if nothing else I got to wreck that giant Sonic statue. Amy… I didn't care much for her levels, fucking Zero. But I did like the Whack-A-Sonic on the Egg Carrier.
E-102 was awesome, especially when I was just running around in the hub and he MODE CHANGE'd into that speedy form and I just kept going around in circles because I found it bizarrely fun. I just wish he kept working for Robotnik so I could beat the snot out of Sonic and Co as a robot.
And, honestly? I didn't mind Big's stages (shocking, I know). I just treated his levels like Link's fishing minigame from Ocarina of Time or Link's Awakening and just did his levels between everyone else's.
One thing I absolutely loved was Twinkle Park - everyone's version - and Station Square's Casino as Sonic and Tails. mmm.
aa6e73 No.16024
Mirror's Edge. Probably played the thing about 50 times now.
951581 No.16026
Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus. The vast majority of it is extremely bland. Brown console shooter with forgettable music. It has a number of 'so bad it's good' elements (especially towards the end) but there's not much of it. I don't know why I play it. I don't think 'I want to relive the dumb cutscene with the incest brothers becoming the internet' I think 'I want to play that level with the escort mission that I hate'.
Plus Drakengard 2. The first one was mediocre as well but the second one removed everything people liked about the first one (charm mostly), killed off the popular character and was incredibly bland (there were one or two really good moments). It wasn't bad enough to be considered bad even if there is a 'we don't talk about Drakengard 2' joke.
>>15934
Perhaps you mean you started at 6 and went back, but in case you haven't you should hear the voice acting in the earlier ones if you think the later ones have bad voice acting. They changed most, if not all, of the voice actors at no. 5.
35359e No.16034
Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood.
Nothing spectacular but it was fun. You could throw money bags at garrisons and they'd knock eachother unconscious for a bit of gold.
Throwing five gold coins and seeing 15 grown men punching themselves to unconsciousness in order to get them was just too much fun.
Of course, you can get them yourself off their unconscious bodies when there are done fighting.
de0778 No.16051
Receiver is an FPS that was made in 7 days for a contest and it relies on a single game mechanic that basically makes the gun you are given complicated to operate.
The game has no textures other than the gun's and the tapes that you must collect.
I finished it 6 or 7 times now and I still feel the urge to play it now and then.
077db7 No.16078
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Well, according to alot of people it's mediocre, so I'm mainly basing it off of that, plus I'm aware of the flaws the game has.
It was the only 3D Castlevania I liked. I really enjoyed what they did with the story, characters, lore and so on, it was a reboot that actually did something awesome in my opinion. I liked the combat (I say this as someone who never cared about God of War) and there were alot of puzzles in it that I liked. I loved the visuals and art direction. I also loved the soundtrack, reminded me of Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack. The game was pretty damn long too.
99d118 No.16084
Sleeping Dogs.
It's a Jack of All Trades, Master of None, as they say. It doesn't have the best driving, the best shooting, or even the best hand to hand combat (which is 80% of the game, easily…), but it nails the atmosphere of Asian cities and Hong Kong. I have family in China and have visited main land China twice - Sleeping Dogs really does feel like a proper Chinese city.
5e23b3 No.16096
Borderlands 1 used to be it for me, Coop was just tons of fun, but I think I kind of burnt myself out on; been like that for like a year and it feels bad. I just loved finding a great gun and getting attached to it, like it was actually my own gun. I hate how Borderlands 2 ruined Bloodwing, she didn't deserve what happened it with the terrible scaling. Of course, I played the former a lot with someone I had to cut out of my life due to becoming an irredeemable asshole to me and everyone else in the group. That might tie into it.
275b32 No.16130
>>15828
…you mean you like musou games?
Why didn't you just say you like musou games?
I like musou games too, but these days all i buy is Basara.
I don't consider musou games mediocre, they're just…musou games, it's how the genre works.
5b34bb No.16159
>>15828
Final fantasy crystal chronicles: Echos of time
The combat is okay, as it works, but it can become repetitive and tedious as it doesn't really require much thought to win. The plot was good, but it was way to short. The puzzles were too easy, but so are all puzzles in arpgs. The townsfolk had great dialogue, but there were too few of them.
Despite the fact that the good is matched by the bad, I still love the game. I think its because of Sherlotta.
af030d No.16230
Golden Sun
The characters are cliche. The story is okay. The exposition is wordy. The cutscenes are overly long and treat the player like a goddamn retard.
But I love it.
I love the battle system and the music mostly. The graphics were RAD back in the day, but have aged a bit now. Most people complain that when one of your party members attacks an enemy that has already been defeated–they just block. I'm fine with that. It discourages spamming the attack button in battles and encourages spreading your damage out to maximize damage output. I think the djinn system is a straight upgrade over the materia system. Plus, it was on the GBA, the best handheld of all time.
9/10
There is no Golden Sun 3. It doesn't exist and you cannot change my mind on this subject.
f0e7bc No.16231
>>16230
>mediocre
It's one of the best titles on the GBA, most lists I see have it, both on imageboards and other sites.
cfedd1 No.16238
>>16231
He's right that the story-related elements are mediocre, but I agree that the games were still awesome. I don't think of JRPGs as generally having great or coherent stories anyway.
f0e7bc No.16240
>>16238
Story was just there, yea
ecee55 No.16247
>>16231
It was the first RPG on the GBA, and remained one of the only ones (bar all those SNES ports), that's why.
I recently replayed it and had to force myself through it, wondered how exactly I could love it so much back then.
b0faf8 No.16249
>>15828
Minecraft.
Dynasty Warriors
FFTA
I like good games, but I'm a sucker for an entertaining mediocre/bad game.
5e23b3 No.16250
>>16096
Oh and to add for this Digimon World 4 is on the list as well; like Borderlands I feel like this game could've had a lot more potential if more time was thrown into it. I think the gameplay might've worked out better if it went the Diablo direction a bit. And maybe if it was based more off the movie
b0faf8 No.16251
>>16250
IIRC, that was thegrindisreal.gaem
72ed3b No.16269
watch_dogs
its oddly charming being an edgy hackerman and snooping on people while on motorbikes and chicago is pretty nice looking place
98c660 No.16280
Digimon World 4
I played the crap out of this game with my cousin as a kid. Everything's so simple, yet I love it.
3db1fe No.16282
I don't love it, but I'm enjoying Chroma Squad despite how shitty the writing is, not to mention how easy the gameplay is so far. But I really like the idea of a context-sensitive teamwork button for this squad-based gameplay, plus every level up results in a pretty major power upgrade and it feels satisfying because of how quickly you get them.
I dunno, I just see the potential in this game. It could work a lot better if it had some tweaks.
b397f9 No.16323
>Gex series
The jokes weren't that funny and suffered the same problems of other 3D platformers (2 & 3). Perhaps it's the variety of relatable environments. Gex was just a likeable dude and I'm somewhat surprised the series died.
>Jersey Devil
I have no idea why I liked this one. Art style? Sound?
>Future Cop LAPD
Run-of-the-mill mecha game. You play a cop in armored suit who runs around blowing shit up and killing people.
f8a6c2 No.17492
dungeon maker, a psp game
e732ef No.17495
Happy Wars. Often I find myself wanting to make threads about this game but I imagine I'll just be bashed on and saged since I never see anyone talkint about it.
It's just a quick fun simple MOBA, from what I gather it was ordered by Microsoft to be made by a beginner japanese studio to be an entry level F2P moba for xbox. There's a Steam version too, but shittier since M$ regulates what can be ported to the PC version, still fun (they basically excluded some maps and newer classes, and newer kinds of matches).
But still, it's fun. And the concept is good, the characters have childish voices and the world looks pretty.
Classsifying the game as "not bad, but mediocre" is a good way to put it.
I sincerely wonder why this game isn't talked about more in vidya forums. I play it reguarly, usually for one week, then get bored, spend a couple of months without touching it, and get back to it again for one more week.
cebc13 No.17503
>>16282
Your company had better be named "Notice Me Sentai"
f12710 No.17518
>>16249
Dynasty Warriors is perfect for playing split-screen with a friend. It's torture to play alone, but with a friend you can spend hours idly hacking up dudes and talkin about unrelated stuff.
3e2a57 No.17532
>>17518
>playing Mercenaries 1 splitscreen with a friend
>playing Battlefront 1 or 2 splitscreen with a friend
>playing Halo splitscreen with a friend
I weep for future generations, for the increasing dearth of local splitscreen means that they will never know of the casual couch-and-videogames bantz.
038ce4 No.17533
>>17518
>not talking about Chinese and Japanese history the entire time instead
Pleb.
And I wouldn't call it torture - unless you're sperging out and trying to 100% the fucking thing.
But DW8 and it's cramped mini-map and funneling levels can fuck right off.
6bd68c No.17541
I love the style of Beyond Good and Evil, despite most of the mechanics being unpolished, the game world being fairly barren, and the story being pretty cliche and dumb, despite the title's implications. The use of the partner characters, the staff-based combat that allows for different combos based on timing of button presses, the characters and world being fun to watch and interact with, and the fairly amazing climax all make the game stand out to me, and I think it's one of the few "hidden gems" that would benefit greatly from a proper sequel. Of course, Ubisoft's nature as a publisher and a developer isn't up to par to create a game that lives up to that expectation, so I'm content with the game and its flaws.
a92916 No.17547
>Zanzarah
It came free with my video card and I gave up sleep to finish it in one go. Gotta catch 'em all fairy FPS deathmatching at its finest.
>World of Tanks
It's got a lot of bullshit to frustrate you to pay cash and the developers won't back out of some shitty design decisions. But it's the only slow-paced, instant action, well-populated multiplayer shooter out there.
639e77 No.17560
Honestly dunno if 'generic' counts as mediocre but I play a lot of similar done-before block building/voxel based/procedurally generated early access games right now, customisation and exploration are my favourite things to look for in vidya, but all games with the two are EA.
Right now:
Space/Medi Engineers
Planet Explorers
Subnautica
Factorio
Minecraft
Terraria
That space Terraria with the bird furries in it, that is permanently in beta
If anyone has suggestions to similar, please feel free.
bb0470 No.17561
>>17560
To be fair, Minecraft wasn't really too generic when it came out.
02af3b No.17563
>>17560
There are just so many these days, and 70% don't get past the prototype stage. And even more if you consider the top down third view ones that were inspired in Dwarf Fortress, like Stonehearth.
I'm interested in more too, these games are always fun.
79c640 No.17598
>>17495
Have been generally interested by this game for a while. I had no idea it was a MOBA. I assumed it was microsoft's Fat Princess.
6899b7 No.17607
>>17598
They identify themselves as a MOBA, and people usually compare them to fat princes.
If you're really trying to define the genre, it certainly is a MOBA, but saying it's a MOBA says very little about it. Some elements are there:
1- tug of war
2- you can pick among many different characters to fight with
3-classes
But many are lacking:
1- no building character during the match. You do level up during the match but you can't buy items and your skills are given randomly
2- no strategy whatsoever, it's a very simple game: just hack & slash your way through. There's really no strategy to it and team coop resumes to battle coop.
It's also worth remembering that it was made for consoles, this is why it isn't top-down view for example. And this also limits considerably the amount of skills and stuff your character can perform.
The biggest problem is that the biggest attractive in the game: the 15 vs 15 matches, rarely happen, the game is kinda empty, specially in the PC version. So most matches are like 5 + 1 bot vs 5 + 1 bot.
6d9e0f No.17829
BloodRayne
When I first played this game I thought it was the shit probably because I was a horny teenager or something
But playing this again, gameplay itself is pretty bland.
Its not terrible, I mean I havent quit now because of gameplay, but damn this PC port is pretty shitty especially with the controller and the fact that the mouse can go off screen and minimize the game if you misclick
Not too sure about the sequel but I also remember playing the shit out of that one as well.
f8ca46 No.17846
Valhalla Knights 2
It has the most tedious pacing and terrible fetch quest system thoughout the whole entire game. you literally have to walk from 5 dungeon areas to the next.
But what It does right is that It lets you have six characters in a party, have customiseable classes that are very different(limited but can be made up by switching job classes), and having the most addictive armor and weapon collecting loot drop system ive ever played. The armor and weapons are extensive and it changes the look of each of your characters too.
the only reason I want a vita is to play Valhalla Knights 3.
>>17828
feel the same
ba1b88 No.17850
>>17846
>Valhalla Knights 2
Is the first one similar? I was thinking of picking them up.
>>17828
I still haven't finished Oni. I could never git gud at the PS2 controls. I keep meaning to give it another go.
f8ca46 No.17854
>>17850
It's similar but VK2 is better than 1. The story is not really great or has anything to do with each other, less weapons and classes. still have the same problems so go ahead if you want to.
basically you have to be a bit of a masochist to play these games