What's a fair criticism of a game or franchise that you enjoy?

I whipped out Forza Horizon 4 this weekend and while I love the franchise, the music has always sucked in my opinion. There might be a couple good songs here and there but overall you would think it would be much better for a major racing franchise. And I know you can put your own playlist but back in my day racing games had good music. Even Mario Kart 8 has better music. Anyway..

How about you, SW? What's a fair criticism of a game or franchise that you enjoy?

Fromsoft engines blow. They can't optimize for shit and their visuals are permanently behind the industry.

@hardwenzen: except for bloodborne, yeah!

Why would Bloodborne be an exception?

Metal Gear solid is badly written, badly paced, most of the good stuff came from other staff members, Hideo Kojima is a hack and Death Stranding proved it.

Halflife has loading screens.

Yeah unfortunately it's true. All From games have had poor performance and even inconsistent frame times in their console releases (with maybe the exception being Dark Souls II SotFS on the X1/PS4, but that was probably a diff team anyway).

Thankfully, Elden Ring isn't a console exclusive.

The motion controls for throwing grenades in the original Uncharted on PS3 were crap. Glad they got rid of that on the PS4 remaster.

Uncharted 4's multiplayer was half assed. Naughty Dog screwed the pooch.

The original Max Payne combat doesn't hold up that well the lack of physics can really age a game.

Gran turismo. Rubbish ai and the worst delays in history. Basically just 1.5yrs+ from release date for every release

Could pick away at any game I like, but Strive is recent so I'll go with that.

UX is trash, especially for the online play. Currently there are launch window bugs and network issues, that stuff I can handle, will get sorted eventually. But even if it all functioned as intended, would still suck. Overdesigned lobby systems that have you navigating through 2d space in a pixel art world to hopefully line up with another player and start a match. It's like this in ranked, casual, and player matches. Can attempt to queue up in training mode instead, but just boots you to lobbies eventually anyways.

Ranked and casuals should be something you can queue up for matching from any menu or mode. Other games solved this forever ago, it's simple and effective. Similar with lobbies. Invite players, they're queued up on a list, let's go.

Right now, playing with friends goes a lot like this:

- Hey guys, I'm in East Coast park #23

- You sure, I don't see you?

- Yes, I'm standing next to the knight under the stand near the main stage.

- Still don't... oh I think you just teleported in. That you with the clown mask in a track suit?

- Yes, that's me, who is creating the house (lobby).

- Oh I already did lol

- Hmm, don't see it man

- Ah. Well just read the sign next to the knight and search my lobby from that list

- ugh, not seeing you bro

- Well shit, guess we'll start over, you try creating one.

Then everyone exits to main menu, has to handshake with the server AGAIN which takes forever, follow the same process and hope it works this time.

Could go on. A few gripes with the gameplay itself. Plenty of gripes with the teaching modes. But the online UX is the worst offender for sure. I just want to play your game, why make that so difficult?

/did not intend this novel post

@ConanTheStoner: I haven't played that game online but I remember the little people thing from DBZ and another one of their games and I always thought that was weird lol.

@SolidGame_basic:

Yeah ArcSys goes out of their way to be cute with their lobbies. And it's always been dumb, but this is their worst yet. Functionally bad most of the time, and in a best case scenario it's just an annoying obstacle in the way of you playing their game.

I legit haven't come across a single person who likes Strives lobbies. Was panned in the closed and open betas. Was overwhelmingly the biggest criticism in their post beta surveys.

They're just so stubborn about it.

Everyone: I like the game but I hate the lobbies, get rid of them.

ArcSys: Okay, we hear you, we'll make them better.

@ConanTheStoner: I think they call those things chibi or something. I hate that design in other games too lol. They brought chibi into Ni No Kuni 2..so lame!!

Here's a fair criticism. All weeb games sux.

@SolidGame_basic:

Yeah, GGXRD and DBFZ rolled with the chibi design. Strive is just low grade pixel art in lobbies.

Either way tho, even if they looked awesome, would still be an annoying way get matches.

The story's presentation in Breath of the Wild. While the story you get out of exploring is actually pretty good, I agree that the overall presentation is a bit weak and definitely could and should be improved upon in the sequel.

I legit thought this was some sort of bug.

Total War is DLC nickel and dime hell.

@uninspiredcup:

Could be, but I don't think ArcSys has recognized it among issues to be sorted. And it still persists on both PS and PC.

At first I figured it only happened in quick match (ranked) that you choose from main menu. But even if you're in casual parks and choose queue from training, does the same shit lol.

If it is bug that gets sorted, would be sick. No more dealing with lobbies for casual/ranked at least. Would still have to do it for private matches, but eh. Take what I can get.

@ConanTheStoner: other than that, are you happy with the game? I can't stop admiring the graphics and animation!!

@SolidGame_basic:

Oh yeah, my personal goty right now. Played an embarrassing amount of hours so far.

Some minor gripes with the gameplay, but overall the core mechanics and systems are pretty great. Netcode is solid. Training mode and some more miscellaneous features aren't quite SFV level, but still very good.

In most of the ways that matter to me, game is good shit.

And yeah, game looks great.

I'll say a fair criticism of Shenmue 3 is that it's a bit stiff in certain areas of the gameplay. I still really enjoy it as a franchise.

Come on.

30fps🤮
Blurry textures/outdated engine
Chromatic Abortion that you can't turn the F off
frame pacing
atrocious bell maiden system. Can't invade people for shit
Very tiny amount of weapons in the original game
Chalice dungeons are so bad that they should've made 1 more boss in the main game instead of those crappy dungeons
Farming for gems doesn't belong in a Souls game
Very limited amount of slabs which doesn't allow you to experiment builds
No respec available

Just to name a few.

When it comes to TPS. no game has better combat than Max Payne today. mabe Max Payne 3. today's third person games have terrible combat.

The divinity series combat can sometimes be a bit gimmicky because of an over reliant on environment stuff! And while I love the open way you can approach all encounters and quests, it can sometimes result in broken/messy gameplay!

The far cry series can be repetitive as hell and the difference between fc3-6 isn’t big, still think they are some of the best shooters out there though:)

Except for the Souls game that runs the worst of them all?

Not your most thought out comment ever..

I’ll go one step up and call out my favorite genre - JRPG.

They are often overly melodramatic, cheesy, or both.

Xenoblade Chonicles (including DE)

• The side quests are low effort filler. very very meh. thankfully the world is so nice to explore that its not a huge deal.
• the quest to rebuild colony 6 is designed to be a complete and utter chore and grind. if completing it was mandatory it would be a game breaking issue (thankfully it makes no difference whether you complete it or not).

Ys 8: the ending is a bit pants. the last 15% of it is a bit pants story wise to be honest.

Baldurs gate 1 Enhanced edition (this is more things they probably should have changed from the base game):

• They should have changed the way traps are handled. This was always crap in the original game. one of those things that doesnt translate well from the tabletop rules (i presume there is some check done when playing in tabletop).
• Some of the maps needed some shortcuts added. E.g. the friendly arms in: if you approach from the north its a pretty dull trek to get into the inn itself. some sort of backdoor in would have been nice.

@SolidGame_basic: Halo and Gears are getting stale.

Zork - the graphics suck.

sounds like something a pathetic ban dodger like sniper4321 would say.

I wish GTA V would stop selling so we can finally get a sequel.

@NathanDrakeSwag: lol, funny but also sad. You think Sony will get first dibs on GTA 6?

OG Doom games are my favorite games. I've spent more time with them than my family, but the fact that they require mods to be enjoyable shows how poorly they have aged.

You liked the dungeons?🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮They look extremely generic and are repetitive. This is not the kind of trash i expect from a Souls game made by Fromsoft.

Each weapon is indeed viable, but the number is still to low for someone who does pvp.

I usually do pvp after i am not done with the game. No time to waste for ng+ unless there are things that i absolutely need from it. Not being able to farm slabs is a mistake.

Its far from perfect.

But it was repetitve. Enemies and rooms look the same, and i was "into the game". Randomly generated worlds are always bad. Gaming hasn't reached a point where random dungeons are actually great.

I grinded max difficulty dungeons a lot for lev20 gems, so i know excactly how they are. Don't see myself doing these unless you have to. Compared to the standard game, they were 🤢

Final fantasy, protagonists visual designs always suck, they look like effeminate clowns... which is frustrating because almost every other secondary character look cool , like Auron, Kain or even Vincent for example. Cor, Aranea and Iris from FFXV look way more interesting visually than the emo j-pop band we got instead.

I swear the Final Fantasy franchise is cutting 70% of their potential consumer base thanks to weird character design, its the awesome videogame franchise you want to show to other people but you can feel the cringe in the air when they see the characters in the screen lmao.

Actually I do love Forza Horizon's music channels.

I vibed Hospital records radio every time in Forza Horizon 2&3, but I feel it was a step down in Forza Horizon 4. Where I picked my own music instead.

I'm digging Forza Motorsport 7's music selection at the moment, it has some great melodic and instrumental heavy rock.

Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal being repetitive.

I'll say though that combat loop is so damn satisfying it doesn't even matter, especially in Eternal.

Ghost of tsunami was a straight up Unisoft clone,the 7 out of 10 it scored should have been a 5 for copying

@simple-facts: How's your alt account doing Bluestars?

Destiny is way too repetitive and grindy and lacks on proper storytelling despite having one of the most interesting world/lore in gaming I've ever seen

Metroid: Nintendo doesn't deserve this franchise.