[DustyShinigami]

Jack Orlando
The 11th Hour

and...

Barrow Hill

I don't hate Barrow Hill, but I certainly don't like it.

I'm not sure if I hate Jack Orlando more or The 11th Hour... Probably The 11th Hour as it's nothing but complicated puzzles one after another with bad acting and little to no story.

The only good things about Jack Orlando are the graphics and music. The voice acting is terrible, there are dead ends, and locations (added locations in the director's cut) that serve no purpose and are just tacked on. I don't even remember the story so it couldn't have been that good.

[Lasus]

One game that has always seemed shallow to me is Seventh Guest.

Contrived plot and just an excuse to solve puzzles.

Also I never understood why the love for GK3.

[Captain Blondebeard]

Originally Posted by Gazzoid

Jack Orlando
The 11th Hour

and...

Barrow Hill

I don't hate Barrow Hill, but I certainly don't like it.

I'm not sure if I hate Jack Orlando more or The 11th Hour... Probably The 11th Hour as it's nothing but complicated puzzles one after another with bad acting and little to no story.

The only good things about Jack Orlando are the graphics and music. The voice acting is terrible, there are dead ends, and locations (added locations in the director's cut) that serve no purpose and are just tacked on. I don't even remember the story so it couldn't have been that good.

Jack Orlando wasn't a big disapointment because the reviews on it were terrible and the demo was worse. I played it because at the time I was desperate for a pure point and click adventure and at the time the industry was experimenting on too many new things that it wasn't ready for yet.

Another one that was worse during that era was Hopkins: FBI. If I wasn't so obsessive compulsive about completing games I wouldn't have made past the first 1/3 of the game.

[DustyShinigami]

I knew nothing about Jack Orlando around the time I bought it; never read any reviews etc. I bought it because of the screenshots on the back of the box.

[cbman]

Originally Posted by Tiocfaidh

The game did not manage to entertain nor scare me (except for one jump moment)
I just wanted to get over with it.
And that´s coming from one who likes the old spooky haunted mansion set-up.

Totally agree with you. I'm a huge fan of the sub-genre of first person horror games; it doesn't take much to win me over with these games so to leave me with such a poor impression was some going.

[Weare6]

[QUOTE=terhardp;567825]
Here are some titles that I'm almost certain I won't be playing again:

• Mata Hari
• Paradise
• The Moment of Silence
• Emerald City Confidential
• Chronicles of Mystery: The Scorpio Ritual
• Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island
• Alter Ego
• NiBiRu: Age of Secrets

I totally agree with you on most of those games (apart from the ones I haven't played yet)
Paradise was just crapy ... I destroyed the disk after about 2 hours.
Ghost Pirates was just not funny
and all the others I just couldn't get into
But I will add another to your list
Momento Mori - Sooooo boring and clunky

[cbman]

[QUOTE=Weare6;569153]

Originally Posted by terhardp

Paradise was just crapy ... I destroyed the disk after about 2 hours.

It's a shame that the interface was so tempremental and buggy because there was some good stuff in this game and the production values graphically and sonically were gorgeous; the former will have severely and understandably distracted people's attention from those good points.

But add a somewhat unfocused and badly paced story and unfortunately the final product is a bit of a muddle. I guess it's one for people who don't like Syberia to look at and maybe see that they may judge Syberia a little more positively because the biggest thing that struck me about this game was that it was the potential of Syberia unrealized - ironically (and unfortunately) coming AFTER Syberia.

[Obscurista]

Originally Posted by Lasus

One game that has always seemed shallow to me is Seventh Guest.

Contrived plot and just an excuse to solve puzzles..

But it looked so cool!! Just walking around the house was enough for me... hehe. Seriously, though, I usually dislike the 'puzzle-box'-type adventures (Myst, 7th Guest, etc.), too, but the 'soup can' puzzle from the latter was just so incredibly fun to solve (for me).. I still remember being hunkered down with a little pocket paperback dictionary, looking for all the 'Y' words. (It's incidentally the 7G puzzle most players hate, apparently - go figure). Most of the rest of the puzzles (the chess one, etc.) I certainly could've done without, though. And, no, it certainly wasn't a 'pure,' story-based adventure by any means.

11th Guest was even worse, though - it was especially ruined for me by the silly Jerry Springer-esque cutscenes. At least the first game in the series had some class... kinda...

Originally Posted by Lasus

Also I never understood why the love for GK3.

Same here.. I quit when the brown, zombie (-looking characters)-filled town started to depress me. GK1 is one of the best adventure games of all time, though, in my book.

While I'm at it, here are some more widely-loved (within the adventure gaming community, I mean.. not the video gaming community at large ) games that left me cold: Scratches, the Lost Crown, the Longest Journey, Syberia, Shadow of Destiny (the last is arguably more obscure, but still.. disliking it seems tantamount to heresy in adventure gaming circles).

[zoecastillo]

The absolute worst game I ever played - really disliked so immensely that I couldn't even finish it is Runaway Twist of Fate. I have not a single good thing to say about it - it was torture even trying to finish. Sorry - if you're a fan. The cartoon thing is just so not my thing!

[darthmaul]

Originally Posted by rambler

I disagree. I hate Discworld because of nonsensical puzzles, but I don't love to hate it, I want to be able to play it without my head imploding.

Discworld 2's puzzles made more sense to me than 99% of adventure games. Haven't played the first one, but it is supposed to be a lot worse.

[aimless]

Originally Posted by zoecastillo

The absolute worst game I ever played - really disliked so immensely that I couldn't even finish it is Runaway Twist of Fate. I have not a single good thing to say about it - it was torture even trying to finish. Sorry - if you're a fan. The cartoon thing is just so not my thing!

That's okay, I absolutely dispise The Longest Journey. Sci-fi Disney isn't my thing.

[cbman]

Originally Posted by aimless

That's okay, I absolutely dispise The Longest Journey. Sci-fi Disney isn't my thing.

That's a nice way of putting it. This is a game I tend to pass over topics about because I don't want to be a killjoy and wade in bashing the game! But I really cannot understand the fuss. It was just... so whatever.

So much of the dialogue and the general characterization actually made me angry! It's not really a bad game, just the tone of it all grated on me. That's a personal thing of course, not really a valid criticism, but this this is a thread about games we hate; it doesn't have to be fair and balanced!

I vaguely recall one conversation early on with the line "he's not actually a bastard but blah blah blah" that just had me wanting to smash the screen... obviously the author thought the conversations were like, so real life. They weren't of course. Not only was the dialogue dire but there was so much of it: waffle on and on... again, this is a taste thing but I cannot sit through ten minutes of inane waffle that is barely relevant to the game. Sure, to some it's characterization, but if I wanted great literature a computer game is not where I will go for it... again, I know there are some who will insist that there are games with stories to match great films and literature, but they are wrong (that's tongue in cheek provocation (but I really do mean it too )! The big advantage of using this medium to tell a story is its interactivity; I don't want to sit listening passively to someone droning about their love life for ten mintues, even if it is like, so emotional and shit.

The Longest Journey is probably the only game I have played that has made me want to slap its author. That is so not appropriate.

Needless to say I couldn't play it to the end (I probably didn't even get halfway through), so for all I know there's some amazing stuff in there that i'm missing! But I only have a finite lifespan and have books still to read.

[aimless]

Originally Posted by cbman

Needless to say I couldn't play it to the end (I probably didn't even get halfway through), so for all I know there's some amazing stuff in there that i'm missing!

I doubt it. The whole thing is clichéd bilge that doesn't even make sense if you pay attention to the way things play out. Good grief, the stereotypical good Indian and stupid cops, the nonsensical errands you have to run if you want to progress in the game (by the time this game came out, you'd think we'd have gotten beyond that), veering between Brave New World and the Brothers Grimm...I have no idea why I forced myself through to the end. TLJ was one game I turned into a frisbee without the first tinge of regret.

[Venkman]

The Longest Journey - I blame this game for being the start of everything currently wrong with adventure games. It made developers (and adventure gamers) think it was okay to have you sit there looking at a static screen while listening to quite lengthy batches of dialogue. It made developers (and adventure gamers) think it was okay to use 2D graphics in the 21st century in anything other than a purposely retro manner. Almost 12 years later, there are games still being released with Longest Journey graphics at a $30+ price tag.

Sam & Max: Season 1 - Kinda fun at first, but got incredibly repetitive. "Okay, time to look around the office for any changes since the last episode. Now I'll look around the street again. Now Bosco's store for the 5th time. Now I'll sit and listen to the new 'humorous' Bosco dialogue for 10 minutes." It of course continues my huge issue with lengthy dialogue sequences, a cousin to TLJ.

This choice leads me to:

Telltale - My experience with S&M: S1 along with demos of ToMI and W&G has led me to a lot of hate for Telltale. Their fixed camera approach makes their games effectively 2.5D - again, traceable to TLJ.

I am a pretty firm believer that any major BTTF game should involve freely driving DeLoreans, skateboards, and hoverboards around Hill Valley with a decent dose of action sequences, so this was another issue for me. However, I am currently playing S&M: S3 and it is significantly better than I thought it would be, vastly vastly improving upon S1. This has softened me considerably on Telltale, and I begrudgingly look forward to playing BTTF, with the hope that future episodes get harder than people say E1 was.

If Telltale eases up on the talking, goes to a mostly player-controllable camera, and cleans up their programming a bit, my stance would likely be softened much further.

Originally Posted by marcd2011

Also i know i'll be in the minority, but the first season of Sam and Max is sooooo boring! I've heard the 2nd and 3rd seasons are awesome but i can't bring myself to try them because the reviews of the first season were good too and i just find them utterly unfunny and dull.

S3 is really interesting (I've played the first 2 episodes so far). It's a great Twilight Zone-esque presentation, and each of the first 2 episodes has mixed things up in very cool ways. It doesn't feel stale, and there are zero shared locations between the first 2 episodes. Try the demo of S3?

Originally Posted by cbman

I vaguely recall one conversation early on with the line "he's not actually a bastard but blah blah blah" that just had me wanting to smash the screen... obviously the author thought the conversations were like, so real life. They weren't of course. Not only was the dialogue dire but there was so much of it: waffle on and on... again, this is a taste thing but I cannot sit through ten minutes of inane waffle that is barely relevant to the game. Sure, to some it's characterization, but if I wanted great literature a computer game is not where I will go for it... again, I know there are some who will insist that there are games with stories to match great films and literature, but they are wrong (that's tongue in cheek provocation (but I really do mean it too )! The big advantage of using this medium to tell a story is its interactivity; I don't want to sit listening passively to someone droning about their love life for ten mintues, even if it is like, so emotional and shit.

Amen.

[Dwagginz]

Originally Posted by Venkman

The Longest Journey - I blame this game for being the start of everything currently wrong with adventure games. It made developers (and adventure gamers) think it was okay to have you sit there looking at a static screen while listening to quite lengthy batches of dialogue. It made developers (and adventure gamers) think it was okay to use 2D graphics in the 21st century in anything other than a purposely retro manner. Almost 12 years later, there are games still being released with Longest Journey graphics at a $30+ price tag.

TLJ was pre-rendered 3D (Cutscenes), pre-rendered backdrops (Again, 3D) and rendered 3D (Characters). TLJ wasn't 2D at all.

[Venkman]

Originally Posted by Dwagginz

TLJ was pre-rendered 3D (Cutscenes), pre-rendered backdrops (Again, 3D) and rendered 3D (Characters). TLJ wasn't 2D at all.

None of it is real-time except for the characters (and some random stuff here and there probably), and real-time is of course what I'm talking about.

[harald]

Originally Posted by Venkman

It made developers (and adventure gamers) think it was okay to use 2D graphics in the 21st century in anything other than a purposely retro manner.

Nuh-uh! TLJ was released in 1999!

Could we please go back to hating the bad games again? Like Runaway for instance? That was much funnier. And stress-relieving too, instead of the contrary.

[Dwagginz]

Originally Posted by Venkman

None of it is real-time except for the characters (and some random stuff here and there probably)

Uh... That's what I said.

Originally Posted by Venkman

and real-time is of course what I'm talking about.

Really? To me you were waffling on about TLJ not being 3D when it clearly is.

[Venkman]

Originally Posted by Dwagginz

Uh... That's what I said.


Really? To me you were waffling on about TLJ not being 3D when it clearly is.

[KasiaD]

Originally Posted by Venkman

[B] It made developers (and adventure gamers) think it was okay to have you sit there looking at a static screen while listening to quite lengthy batches of dialogue.

Which is of course what most people love about adventures - lack of action and concentration on the plot (which is revealed by characters interacting).

Lately, the only game I really hated was Gray Matter for those silly "magic tricks". This game made me realize I hate magic tricks A lot.