Print Page | Close Window

Games you enjoyed that got panned.

Printed From: Sports Gaming Nation
Category: SGN Forum
Forum Name: The Locker Room
Forum Discription: Discuss anything and everything related to videogames here.
URL: http://www.sportsgamingnation.com/sgnforums/forum_posts.asp?TID=317
Printed Date: 04-19-2024 at 8:07pm


Topic: Games you enjoyed that got panned.
Posted By: Brent
Subject: Games you enjoyed that got panned.
Date Posted: 04-16-2006 at 3:54pm
Fess Up. What games do you secretly play/played and enjoy that most turned their nose up to.

On the sports end

ESPN MLB 2K5 (Xbox) - I know I am in the minority on this one but I think alot of it was the graphic whore in me needing something that looked better then MVP 05. That and I still hate the classic MVP swing. Which Kush was kind enough to bring to 2K6. Cry

Links Extreme (PC) - The hardcore fans and reviewers hate it. I kinda liked playing on the strange course(s) 27 holes if I recall correctly, and crazy things you could do to the ball. The course in Links I played most was Devils Island because it was brutaly difficult and was a nice change of place from the standard courses.

BMX XXX (Xbox) - I once was a BMX racer and have purchased every BMX game. it was not that bad but Acclaim screwed the pooch with the XXX aspect of the game which was pretty lame to begin with.

Oh and what did I ride? (upated pics as the other site was suspended) Had a http://www.oldschoolbmx.com/museum/goose88.htm - Mongoose and a http://www.oldschoolbmx.com/museum/diamondback14.htm - Diamond Back .  My Goose was Black and Yellow (Steeler colors) and the DB was pretty standard fare, I prefered the Mongoose and rarely used the DB, never in a competition.





From my non-sports gaming past

I kind of enjoyed a few of the Army Men Titles. The early ones mainly, but I played them all. I grew up with the little green guys. Figure I owed it to them for all the torture they endured in my back yard.

Pretty much any bad point and click adventure game from the late 80's and early 90's on the PC. I used to love those games and would play though them all.


Those were just a couple biggies of top of my head. Will try to add to the list as I remember them.



-------------

Upcoming Fight Night Champion, MLB 2K11, Top Spin 4


Replies:
Posted By: TedSGN
Date Posted: 04-16-2006 at 5:36pm
Off the top of my head EA's NHL 2001 and 2002.  Maybe not panned by the mags, but definitely by the hockey faithful.

As I think of more I'll post them.


-------------

Posted By: GB_Simo
Date Posted: 04-16-2006 at 7:33pm

I used to have a load of these, and now you've asked the question I can't remember many of them.  Your starter for 10, then, with more as and when I recall them:

  • V-Rally 3 - panned almost universally in reviews despite being what I felt was a very good stab at a semi-serious F2 rallying game.  It's true, however, that once you graduated to the WRC cars getting to the end of a stage with a car that bore any resemblance to the one that started it owed more to luck than any talent on your part.
  • The Getaway - I've played this to completion three times and I still don't really appreciate why it was so heavily slated by so many.  There are a few slightly odd design choices, especially in the on-foot levels, but otherwise it was a very enjoyable game.  There's no novelty in driving around London for me either - I've never been there so I don't know where I'm going or, for the most part, what I'm looking at.
  • NASCAR '99 - OK, there's absolutely no sensation of speed but there is a decent PSOne racer underneath the slothful exterior.
  • Virtua Striker 3 - both on DC and in its subsequent GC appearance with something approaching a career mode tacked on to it.  It's rubbish.  I'm willing to accept that.  You don't really have any control over your team or the ball, games tend to bypass the midfield altogether and the keepers are either superhuman or woefully incompetent.  I know all that.  It's still so much fun, though.  Besides, how could I not love a game that once suggested I take a look at the upcoming talent Windy Striker?

Simo

Posted By: JasonSGN
Date Posted: 04-16-2006 at 7:41pm
I'm sure I'll remember alot more, but here goes:
  • Gameday 2000
  • NHL 2002
  • Tekken 4
  • High Heat 2003

There's probably alot more games that got excellent reviews that I hated, but we'll have to save that for another thread.



-------------
http://profile.mygamercard.net/JasonSGN">

Posted By: leebo33
Date Posted: 04-17-2006 at 12:00pm
  • Madden NFL 06 Xbox 360.  I still have it and play it quite a bit.  I just downloaded some rosters with most of the player moves.  There are a lot of things wrong with the game, but I've never played a Madden game that required fewer slider adjustments.  I get great games and stats and spend my time playing it rather than tweaking.
  • Inside Pitch - It looked horrible and there were some big flaws, but I played this online quite a bit and really enjoyed it.
  • Tiger Woods 2004 (PS2) - I actually found the PS2 version on the hardest difficulty fairly challenging with all the aids off and it was fun because it actually had a lot of courses and a PGA season mode.  For some reason the XBox version was much easier.

Posted By: TedSGN
Date Posted: 04-17-2006 at 12:27pm
Couple more. 
 
989's MLB 2004.  I'm pretty sure universally loathed, but my top pick for baseball that year.
 
Indycar Series.  Panned by reviewers for being an oval racer.  Hello?
 
Nascar Dirt to Daytona.  Best stock car simulator on a console ever.  Bitchin career mode.  I think it received 7's by reviewers so not really panned.
 
World of Outlaws Sprintcars.  Fantastic racer that reviewers just didn't get (Jason, if you like your racing games fast, furious, and short you should really look for this title.)


-------------

Posted By: JasonSGN
Date Posted: 04-17-2006 at 1:14pm
Originally posted by Ted_L

World of Outlaws Sprintcars.  Fantastic racer that reviewers just didn't get (Jason, if you like your racing games fast, furious, and short you should really look for this title.)
 
I've got a demo of this somewhere that enjoyed quite a bit. I'll have to find it and give this game a shot again.


-------------
http://profile.mygamercard.net/JasonSGN">

Posted By: Zeppo
Date Posted: 04-17-2006 at 5:33pm
I know there have been several, but I'm drawing blanks.  I do know that as a gullible youngster, I did enjoy ET.  Maybe more like, happily suffered through ET, surely due to desparate alegiance to the license.  That and Superman on the 2600.

Posted By: GB_Simo
Date Posted: 04-17-2006 at 5:46pm
Originally posted by Ted_L

Indycar Series.  Panned by reviewers for being an oval racer.  Hello?
 
Interesting, that.  In the UK, ICS was received very positively by reviewers.  Seems a bit odd to me but there we are.

Posted By: TedSGN
Date Posted: 04-17-2006 at 11:35pm
Adam,

It was your review of ICS at the old CG that got me into that game.  Thank you.


-------------

Posted By: GB_Simo
Date Posted: 04-18-2006 at 5:16pm
Ted, after what I wrote about FIFA 2004 I think I had a debt to repay LOL  Much like WoO, any negative reviews ICS received are surely more to do with the reviewer than the game.
 
Another game I've been thinking of, and I don't know if anyone but JC will have any experience of this, is F1 World Grand Prix on PSOne.  There were two of these - one by Lankhor based on the PC game of the same name, and a completely different game developed by Eutechnyx.  The Lankhor one was enjoyable fluff, the Eutechnyx one - reviews in the 4-6 range - breaks my heart now.
 
There's a tutorial right at the start called the Super Licence test.  Tiff Needell talks you through starting, cornering, braking and then a full lap, all at Hockenheim.  Brilliant driver though he is, he's also a veteran of one Grand Prix - Belgium 1980, and that only came about through Clay Regazzoni's shunt and subsequent paralysis at Long Beach - so you get the feeling they were on a budget.  He's great, though, as is the tutorial itself.  F1 World Grand Prix feels, at this stage, more like driving an F1 car than any other PSOne effort.  Then you start a race weekend.
 
The handling is marvellous.  The AI races you.  The modelling of tyre wear is, even now, unparallelled.  The only downside is that this great racing, in great cars on realistically worn tyres, happens at about 5 frames per second.  The other cars don't even need to be on track, the game just needs to know they're in a nearby garage and it gives up.  One lap takes an interminably long time, one 16 lap race is a War And Peace affair.  None of the reviews I read mentioned this, so plainly the game was slated for other reasons.  They're wrong, but had they mentioned the way F1WGP downs tools the instant an AI car thinks about running a lap, they'd have been spot on.
 
I couldn't give it any more than a 5 or 6 either, but I still love that bloody game...


Print Page | Close Window