Overrated/underrated

[Guest areacode212]

Now that I think about it, I remember hearing about a 2nd (unofficial) expansion pack for Starcraft. I haven't heard a lot about it, but it was supposedly good. I don't think it added any new units or anything like that, but had new campaigns or something.

 

I agree that Q3A is overrated. I *do* prefer playing it to UT, only because the Q3A game physics are closer to what I expect from an FPS--I feel like I'm moving in slow-motion whenever I play UT. But yeah, it's basically the same Quake, only without a single-player "mission" game, and with nicer graphics, plus you had to buy an expansion pack for a few new weapons and new team modes. UT already had a lot of team modes programmed into the game. I wouldn't call UT underrated either, since the UT/Q3A war still wages on to this day.

 

That's a great Romero quote. Though I'm still gonna be picking up Doom III (if it's good). If iD just produced game engines, and let, say, Raven or Valve or Gearbox develop the actual games, I'd be happy.

 

I played the Elite Force demo, and I liked it a lot. But I heard that the actual game was too short and that the weapons all looked basically interchangeable, like they were all phasers of one kind or another.

 

What are the best mods for Q3 anyway? Q2 had a TON of great ones, but most of the Q3 mods I've come across seem a bit uninspired.

[Guest Bruin]

Well one of the reasons that UT seems slower is because the damage on weapons isn't based soley off of 5's 10's 25's and 100's like in Q3. Team Arena should've been a free download quite frankly. It adds a lot to the game. But man, it feels like a bunch of user-made mods cobbeled together under the id flag.

 

JSYK, Romero said that WHILE working at id !)

 

Elite Force is a good game, but because it's Star Trek, you HAVE to expect energy weapons. If they started using crowbars, it just wouldn't be the same, lol. It's a bit short, but not nearly as short as Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

 

I honestly have no ideas what mods are good for Q3, all the mods for it have been done (better I might add) for various other games. I still think Q2 had the best mods. Rocket Olympics and Rocket Arena come to mind. Though oddly enough, I always had the most fun just playing Threewave CTF that came with the update of Q2 :-D  Maybe because I was really good with it :b It's a damn shame they took the grapple out of Q3 though, I must say

[Guest areacode212]

Yep, Rocket Olympics was great (and pretty original). Even Lithium, which initially seemed like a somewhat bare-bones mod, was great, because of all the server-side options that could be changed. Like changing the speed of the the BFG green ball to 1 (so it moved at a crawl, and anyone coming near it would get fried by the green lasers). Q2 Holy Wars, King of the Hill, the infamous Generations, Super Heroes, all provided much fun, and really gave me my money's worth from Quake II. Yeah, a lot of these have been reworked for Quake 3, Half-Life and/or UT, but the Quake II versions are special to me

 

Now that the Q2 source code is out, I'll have to see if there are any cool new Q2 clients that have been released.

 

Here's another underrated game: No One Lives Forever. I'm too tired to go into it right now, though.

[Guest VACANT]

Overrated:

 

Lunar: The Silver Star Story Complete-

A complete disappointment after the awesomeness that was Lunar: The Silver Star for the Sega CD.  Inferior to the original and lacking compared to Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete.

 

Mario 64-

Sure it seemed great at the time but this game is really beginning to show its age now.  Poor control just kills it.

 

GT3 A-Spec-

Has flashy graphics but unresponsive control.  Nothing really amazing about it, IMO.

 

Skies of Arcadia-

Not a terrible game by any means but the weapon color system is far too confusing to use without referring back to the manual.  Maybe if there were 3 colors rather than 6.  Also the encounter rate is far too high.  Not a bad game, but definitely overrated.

 

Underrated-

 

NiGHTS Into Dreams-

A really fun and original game that came out for the Saturn at about the time Mario 64 was released.  Was completely ignored due to the hype over Mario 64 and the fact that the Saturn had bombed.  Still a lot of fun to play and this game has GREAT control.

 

Final Fantasy V-

Receives a lot of flack due to its blah plot and bland characters but the ability system in this game is really cool.  Overall, a fun game.

 

Grandia II-

A little on the easy side but this game has a great battle system and pretty nice graphics.  Was claimed as inferior to Skies Of Arcadia but I personally think it's better.

[Guest KoR Fungus]

<<<Mario 64-

Sure it seemed great at the time but this game is really beginning to show its age now.  Poor control just kills it.>>>

 

The control is a little outdated, but it's still a pretty amazing game.  It has a certain magical feel to it, even now.  I guess it's a little overrated by people that proclaim it the best game ever, but it deserves a lot of credit for being the template for pretty much all 3D platformers.

 

<<<GT3 A-Spec-

Has flashy graphics but unresponsive control.  Nothing really amazing about it, IMO.>>>

 

Well, I don't agree that the control is unresponsive, it's just the same as it's always been.  I do agree that the game is overrated though, simply because it's the exact same game as GT and GT2.  The GT series is really stagnating because they're not trying anything new.  A graphics overall isn't going to make me want to spend lots of time playing a game that has pretty much the same tracks, same cars and same control as both its prequels.

 

And to think, this game was praised by the same people that said TTT wasn't progressive enough.  Laffle.

 

<<<NiGHTS Into Dreams-

A really fun and original game that came out for the Saturn at about the time Mario 64 was released.  Was completely ignored due to the hype over Mario 64 and the fact that the Saturn had bombed.  Still a lot of fun to play and this game has GREAT control.>>>

 

Agreed.  Pretty much all good games released around Christmas 1996 were just totally ignored because all the focus was on Mario 64 and that overrated peice of shit Waverace 64 (which I forgot about, it really should have been on my list heh).  Nights got a lot of praise, but at the same time it was also constantly compared (negatively) to Mario 64, so it got screwed out of its place in history.

 

<<<Final Fantasy V-

Receives a lot of flack due to its blah plot and bland characters but the ability system in this game is really cool.  Overall, a fun game.>>>

 

I don't think anybody denies that the ability system is really cool (although there's certainly nothing there that isn't better in Tactics).  The problem is, exactly as you said, blah plot and bland characters.  It's an RPG, not a fighting game, so having bad plot and characters isn't just some trivial detail, it's a fatal flaw.  Plot to me is by far the most important part of an RPG, so if it isn't there, then it isn't a good RPG in my book, regardless of how good everything else is.

 

Haven't played the others, although I really should play Grandia 2, everyone seems to like it...

[Guest]

One more game I'd like to add to my underrated list; Jet Grind Radio. Sure, the paint/camera problems were a pain, but it's still a blast to play and look at.

[Guest The Voices In Your Head]

I have just one:

Underrated: NHL 2002 [PS2, X Box, PC] I've had a lot of fun with this game. It has good gameplay, [there is a problem with switching defenders] the commentary is hilarious [to me anyways], and the graphics are very good as well.

[Guest MoeGamer]

Man in Blak is correct--Fallout was AWESOME, and I praised the hell out of it in Judas's "What PC RPGs do you recommend?" thread. Like Alpha Centauri, I'm not sure how "underrated" it actually is, since it DID win RPG of the Year, and everyone who's played it loves it. But yeah, Baldur's Gate gets all the praise, while casual fans give you a blank stare when you mention Fallout. It's kinda like how everyone remembers Davey Boy Smith, but only smarks, Stampede and Japan fans know about Dynamite Kid (as being something other than DBS's partner).

 

I also agree with him about the VF series. It just never appealed to me. The controls seemed clumsy to me, and the graphics were too boxy for my tastes. The Tekken games had a lot of flashy stuff (like the multithrows) that hooked me initially, as well as the depth & complexity of gameplay. Like, you just HAD to learn how to do King & Nina's multis so you could impress the crowd. VF just seemed kinda blah.

The only graphics that were boxy, were in VF1.  But were cleaned up well in VF Remix.  For my money VF2 had a better over all look to it then Tekken 2.  I think they were released at about the same time.  

 

I really like Last Bronx and Fighting Vipers on the Saturn.  Dont forget the Japanese only Dead or Alive for the Saturn.  It just felt better than the US playstation version.

[Guest areacode212]

*BUMP*

 

Because I didn't feel like repeating myself over in that other Underrated Games thread.

[Guest JaKyL25]

Xenogears is my second-favorite game ever, after only FFVI, although I can completely understand why someone would hate it, as I love it mostly for the plot.

 

KoR Fungus, in his original post, mentioned the Suikoden series, which I see that no one else outside of Ramsus has commented on, while everyone else seems to be going on about FPS and Fighting games (BTW, yes, Tekken does rule the 3D fighting genre as far as I'm concerned). Well let me just second that vote for Suikoden 1, and ESPECIALLY Suikoden 2. I'm getting chills just thinking about how awesome they are. I want to recommend Suikoden 2 so badly, but to get the full impact you have to play the inferior (but still freakin' great) original game. Kinda like how Flair vs. Steamboat from WrestleWar is the best match of their series, but you need to see the others first to FULLY appreciate its greatness.

 

In summary, if you like RPGs, PLEASE play Suikoden.

[Guest SuperTonyJaymz]

The Fallout Series is my favorite RPG series ever. Too bad I lost the discs...i played them all the time.

 

Xenogears was way way overated. Bottom line.

 

Metal Gearolid 2 was overated, not as good as MGS.

 

The Gex series was thje best animal platform game there was. Crash bandicoot blows compared to Gex

[Guest EricMM]

In regards to Alpha Centauri and Civ3.

 

HELL YEAH! I bought Civ3. I played civ 3. I LIKED Civ 3. Then... I stopped. After AC (alpha centauri) Civ3 is sooo bare bones. The history of the world is no story, it's no plot. Alpha Centuari had a plot, it had characters. With every advance, every base facility and every secret project you would get quotes that were well thought out to boardering on magnificent. I put two AC qoutes on my Religions term paper, one from the Zealous Sister Miriam of the believers and one from the athiestic/agnostic Chairman Yang of the hive. The government system was FAAAAAR superior, the unit creation system was AWSOME, and yet Civ3 will have a sequal and AC probably will not.

 

Anyways, Civ3 is all about building 25256235 cities. That game has no other method of winning. if you aren't expanding you will lose, no matter how good you play. If you start on a smaller continent than someone else, you are in for it.

[Guest EricMM]

I don't understand how you can praise Grandia and diss skies in the same post. I just didn't like Grandia as much. The combat system was entertaining, but the plot was soooo boring.

 

Skies was better in that regard. But NEITHER game had any sort of character creation, which kind of nullifies it's RPGosity. I know it can't be anything else, but it was more like powering up until you had the best party, and winning the game. You never got to choose what you wanted to have on your team.

 

Give me suikoden or BG2 or something like that.

 

With starcraft, I didn't like the transition from single player games to multiplayer games. Call me a shitty gamer, but theres a huge difference between the two and it took me FOOOOREVER to make the leap. Because in one there is an enemy who has already established a base. In the other, there is a need for speed.

 

oh and underrated?

 

Any other good RTS besides Starcraft. I said good dammit, not like... Monarchy or whatever. I'm talking Command and Conquer. Why in the hell is SC still over now, well maybe WC3, when Command and Conquer was fucking better? And I heard good things about total annielation (sp) that I never got to see. But I just had so much fun with the doomsday weapons, and tanya, and chrono soldiers, (i was allied) SC is just ugly in comparison. I hope the new C&C owns up.

[Guest KoR Fungus]

<<<The Gex series was thje best animal platform game there was. Crash bandicoot blows compared to Gex>>>

 

Ugh I hated Gex. The gameplay is average, not bad, but not great either. But that stupid lizard saying his stupid jokes over and over and over and over and OVER is really fucking annoying.

 

Gex can't touch Crash. Crash the character was much more likeable than Gex the character, and Crash had better gameplay and more interesting levels, imo.

[Guest SuperTonyJaymz]

EricMM, your sig makes me sad...

[Guest redbaron51]

Crash is just the playstation version of Mario for Nintendo.

 

I hated all the crash games, but the best platform for animal's was probably Conker Bad Fur Day (swearing, good jokes, excellent multiplayer) it was the complete package for the N64 game.

 

Eric I suggest Red Alert 2 if you don't have it, graphics are great, and putting men into buildings sets up a good defence.

[Guest -Cutthroat-]

Sonic Adventure 2 & 007: Agent Under Fire was really underrated...

Those two games are awsome!!

[Guest areacode212]

In regards to Alpha Centauri and Civ3.

 

HELL YEAH! I bought Civ3. I played civ 3. I LIKED Civ 3. Then... I stopped. After AC (alpha centauri) Civ3 is sooo bare bones. The history of the world is no story, it's no plot. Alpha Centuari had a plot, it had characters. With every advance, every base facility and every secret project you would get quotes that were well thought out to boardering on magnificent. I put two AC qoutes on my Religions term paper, one from the Zealous Sister Miriam of the believers and one from the athiestic/agnostic Chairman Yang of the hive. The government system was FAAAAAR superior, the unit creation system was AWSOME, and yet Civ3 will have a sequal and AC probably will not.

 

Anyways, Civ3 is all about building 25256235 cities. That game has no other method of winning. if you aren't expanding you will lose, no matter how good you play. If you start on a smaller continent than someone else, you are in for it.

Holy crap, another Alpha Centauri mark! Yeah, you made a good point about the AC quotes. My personal favorite was:

 

(after building your first Habitation Dome):

I sit in my cubicle, here on the motherworld. When I die, they will put my body in a box and dispose of it in the cold ground. And in all the million ages to come, I will never breathe or laugh or twitch again. So won't you run and play with me here among the teeming mass of humanity? The universe has spared us this moment.

 

It's too bad that Firaxis couldn't get the rights for the "Civilization" name when they released Alpha Centauri, since it turned out that Sid Meier's name wasn't what sold games, it was the "Civ" logo.

 

Everything about AC just oozed class, and you can tell a lot of thought and care went into it. Those Secret Projects movies were so cool & well directed, the interface was good & made sense, those quotes were all really well-written. It drives me nuts that there are so many people dishing out lots of cash for Civ 3 when there's an even better game like AC stuck in the bargain bin.

 

Have you ever created a helicopter unit armed with nerve gas pods? They are SO EVIL (I like to rename them Terrorist Choppers). If you build lots of them and send them near your enemy, you can wipe out a SHITLOAD of his cities in a single turn (with the helicopter's multiple attacks). It's even more fun during sunspots. You commit these awful atrocities, and nobody knows about it except your opponent. Heh heh.