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Games you bought for the graphics and regretted

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Uncharted 2

The game that woke me up to actual game design.
I get what you mean, but I still find the game to be a lot of fun. Not the crazy 95, greatest games of all time fun, but it did a wonderful job capturing that summer blockbuster flick into a video game.

The original one is insanely tedious though. Boring whack-a-mole shooting gallery, especially on Crushing difficulty.
 
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cireza

Member
Yes. Almost every time I decide to buy a modern AAA game.

I end up being disappointed by the overall experience. For example, the recent Tomb Raider games. All three are really good looking games, and some tombs were great. But otherwise, it is the same formula of large open regions with markers everywhere, pick-ups, boring/tedious shit to do, stupid NPCs with stupid quests, useless crafting, the girl never shuts up etc...

I picked up Tomb Raider I II III Remastered, and could play for the first time Tomb Raider II and III, and absolutely loved the experience (Tomb Raider II was pretty meh-ish though, III was too hard but it was awesome). Overall, I loved my time with these games. Can't wait to replay the first one with its legendary levels. Kept it for the end !

Tried Dragon Quest XII and Tales of Arise, also recent Persona games (5 and 3R). It is as bland as it gets. You can't find less inspired / more uninteresting games to play. What you, the player, are requested to do is absolutely boring to no end. Shit takes hours and hours. Persona 3 Remake battles and dungeons are complete shit. But it's the same for Persona 5 really. And these games are lookers, they set the bar for what modern JRPGs should look like, for sure. But they suck. I can't stand them anymore.

Again, a much smaller budget game like Star Ocear 2R was a blast to play. It was so much fun !

I am so fucking tired of AAA games and how uninteresting they are. Thankfully I can resell them very quickly and don't make much of a loss.
 
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Ghostwire Tokyo. It looks incredible. I was hoping that Shinji Mikami's influence would rub off on the gameplay, but the combat never clicked for me, even after ~15 hours. Super tanky enemies and lack of "ammo", leading to tedious fights.
 

Jesb

Gold Member
Can’t think of anything. I can usually see if a game is for me or not. And games that I want to try I’ll just wait until there in the $20-30 range. Waiting for Alan Wake 2 to hit that number as an example as I don’t find these games that fun to play but willing to drop money on them for the graphics and atmosphere. Horizon might have been one but again I bought it at a bargain price.
 

XXL

Member
I've never bought a game strictly based on the graphics, that's kind of embarrassing tbh.

Just to clarify, I love nice graphics, but I would never buy a game purely based on that. I would also not choose to skip a game based on the graphics being average or even below average if I'm interested in the rest of it.
 
Just cause 3. Not exactly graphics but for physics and especially the pretty, realistic explosions. Shame it was a let down by about every metric. The story was bland, the gameplay was bland. And the game somehow managed to make explosions seem boring, although to give them props, anything would become boring if you have to do them 100s of times. Paid 30 bucks for the gold edition( or whatever they called the complete edition that included all dlcs), yet felt robbed. Although it did make it more cautious about my purchases( especially in regards to hype)
 

Mortisfacio

Member
I didn't buy only for the graphics, but Horizon: Zero Dawn. Graphics looked amazing and I kept seeing talk about the game being great, so I got FOMO. Ended up being one of the most boring open world games I've ever played. Didn't even finish it. As a WoW player I'm familiar with open areas with little to do from point A to B (Barrens, for example). But there's social aspects to fill the void. Other players running by. This felt like a lot of that, but no social aspect to fill the boring void.
 

Big Baller

Al Pachinko, Konami President
Resident Evil 6 for me. One of the worst games I played and the only game I traded in. It doesn't help I am a huge RE fan and this was a colossal disappointment at the time.

Try replaying it. I did a few years back with the HD version. Enjoyed it even though I was really letdown like you at release.
 

Magic Carpet

Gold Member
I bought this based on the trailer in the store. I did no research or look at a single review, just the look of the game. You should probly do at least a little bit of reading up on a game before buying it. :(

 

MrJangles

Member
Ever bought a game for the graphics and almost instantly regretted it?

Here’s a couple of mine…

Porsche Challenge (PS1, 1997)

For early 1997 there was nothing like this, it looked incredible with several graphical features not seen in a home driving game before…

- Real time lighting
- Gouraud shading on cars
- Fully modelled and animated 3D drivers
- 3D trees and polygonal leaves kicked up from track

…shame it’s probably the dullest driving game I’ve ever played. Just felt so slow and lifeless, I exchanged it for the excellent Rage Racer




Virtua Striker 2 (Dreamcast, 2000)

Me and my flatmates were loving the Dreamcast, but we were desperate for a good footie game to play on it. ODM had a video on one of their demo discs which looked so amazing I went out and bought it. Wow were we disappointed…

- Camera is so close you can only see about 3ft in front of your player
- Incredibly laggy controls
- Players that would move away from an approaching ball like there was a force field around it

…we gave up trying to find a decent footie game on Dreamcast and settled for NBA 2K instead!



Lol, EXACTLY the same two as above. Porsche Challenge was as sterile as a dental surgery whilst Virtua Striker if I recall had about as much depth as a QTE.

I recently bought The Falconeer and Snake Pass purely on the basis of aesthetics, the controls were as bad as any game I've ever played. Instant uninstall.
 

Hunnybun

Member
I love graphics so I don't think I'd ever be disappointed in a game I bought just for graphics if it genuinely did have great graphics (although tbh I don't do that very often).

What has happened a few times is trying games on PS+ solely for the graphics and then finding out that they don't look nearly so good on a big screen.

Death Stranding and Callisto Protocol are the 2 that stand out there.
 

Hudo

Member
Interesting question. I genuinely can't think of any game I bought just for the graphics. Even as a young lad.
 

RCX

Member
Forbidden West.

Its insanely beautiful but about 10 hrs in I realized I hated Aloy and the game was just filled with pointless chores and busywork.

And Shadow of the Beast 2. I was amazed my Amiga could do such advanced visuals but the gameplay was absolute shite.
 
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hussar16

Member
Ghost of Tsushima

I know damn well that I don't like the open world formula and "more is more" design, yet I bought it because it looks amazing and I love samurai flicks. Predictably I played about 6 hours on auto-pilot and never touched it again.
Im not a fan of open world grind fests but this one did it so well tht it didnt feel grindy .everything in the game made sense for the world
 
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hussar16

Member
Gran Turismo 5 on PS3. Game was beautiful. Game was also the most boring driving game I ever played in my life. Haven't paid for a sim racer since. I tried Forza Motorsport when it hit Gamepass recently and same thing. Beautiful but terribly boring. It took longer to download than it took me to play it before I deleted it. The sim racing/sim driving genre is definitely not for me.
The issue with sim racing games is they dont try to make them relatable to regular average person. Its like a game built for sport racing enthusiasts which there are not many. I just want a racing sim game with older cars and models we all use to ride and having illegal races or soemthing with those and possibly with a story like need for speed used to do. The whole boring menu events is boring and a chore
 
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joedan

Member
One of those NFL Quarterback Club games for the N64 with Brett Favre on the cover. Was HD (for the time period).

All Star Baseball for the N64 as well. Also featured HD graphics. The baseball game itself wasn’t bad, but I’m not the biggest baseball fan in the first place. The Quarterback Club game now was bad. Had more fun playing Tecmo bowl on NES.
 
Halo 3. The thread.

video games xbox GIF
 

kapshin

Member
Resident Evil 6 for me. One of the worst games I played and the only game I traded in. It doesn't help I am a huge RE fan and this was a colossal disappointment at the time.

Definitely the only of the main numbered RE games I didn't finish.
 

Myuni

Neo Member
Recently: Fort Solis
Last summer I felt the urge to treat my eyes with some UE5 goodness and was bored to death.
I enjoy space horror games (System Shock, Alien Isolation, Dead Space), but story, setting and atmosphere alone cannot make up for basically non existent gameplay.
At least I know now, that walking sims are definitely not my cup of tea.
 
I didn’t buy sim racers anymore after the PS3 Gran Turismo. I instead wait for the next arcade racer and grab popcorn as I witness GT and Forza Motorsport fans argue every few years.

Sometimes I want to tell the Forza Motorsport fans that Forza Horizon is the better series, but I’d rather not be dragged into the arguments.
 

Roberts

Member
I regret nuttin’.

If I buy a game because of the shiny graphics (have I ever?) and don’t like it, I just stop playing it and might occassionally mention it online to annoy the fans.
 
Not a single one! On the few occasions where I wanted a game just for the graphics (usually because I just upgraded my PC and wanted to put it through its paces) I always just borrowed it from someone else (back when that was a thing) or pirated it. Graphics alone won't keep me playing a game for more than an hour or two, so there's no way I'd pay full price for a game with no other redeeming features.
 
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