Video-games you originally hated, but ended up loving

[Cigol]

Off the top of my head I remember playing Deus Ex when it first came out and not liking it one bit, in fact I couldn't understand why practically everyone else was calling it a classic. It wasn't until a year or so later, after being told I was a moron, I borrowed a friends copy and ended up completely immersed in the game loving every minute. Such a difference?

I've had similar experiences with games like Europa Universalis & Hearts of Iron. In these cases though its easy to comprehend why; a confusing interface and a steep learning curve - but the desire to play and enjoy it was always there, the only barrier to this was the game itself. With Deus Ex there was none of that, I should have liked it from the get go but I didn't...

Does anyone else have similar experiences where you've gone back to a game only to find you renegade on your original impressions?

[toblix]

If I initially hate a game, I don't continue playing it. The only exception, I think, is MGS 3, the resuming of which was fueled partly by several Thumbs' insistence that it is awesome, and partly my wanting to play MGS 4 without there being a hole between that and MGS 2, which I played (and loved).

The end

[elmuerte]

well... there are a few games I'll bite through till the end, like PoP: Warrior Within and Dreamfall. But there are others, like GROM, I never gone forever.

I do have some games I have mixed feelings about, I want to like them, but I can't... for some reason. These games include Nomad Soul, Outcast and Freedom Force and the 3rd Reich.

[Nappi]

Closest thing that comes to my mind is Beyond Good & Evil. Not really the same thing, but when I played the demo on its release, I wasn't impressed at all and having not read anything about the game before thought it would be just another generic action adventure thingy with vehicles. I quit playing after about five minutes (when the demo crashed, if I remember correctly).

Then a year or two later when I finally realized that I should probably be playing this I decided to buy it. I'm really glad I did too since I enjoyed the game a lot.

Never finished it, though..

[gdf]

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

I felt horribly let down by the demo, but I couldn't not buy it being the enormous Banjo fanboy that I am.

And it's wonderful.

[Thrik]

  gdf said:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

I felt horribly let down by the demo, but I couldn't not buy it being the enormous Banjo fanboy that I am.

And it's wonderful.

Concur++.

I mean I wouldn't say I expected to hate it, but I did have my expectations quite solidly lowered after finding out it'd veered away from pure platforming — and also there's been a general bit of disdain towards Rare this generation I think, although every Rare 360 game I've actually played has been excellent.

Fortunately the game is in fact great fun, and also dripping with nostalgia for those who enjoyed the Nintendo 64 Banjo games like me and you. The BanjoLand level and its music is just... man.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

This is going way back, but I remember blind-renting Bionic Commando on the NES knowing nothing at all about it (other than I thought the title was badass), putting it in the cartridge, and being so put-off by the fact that I couldn't jump that I almost went back and tried to exchange it for another game. But I'd spent my hard-earned allowance money on it, so I grudgingly tried to get my money's worth, until next thing I knew a whole weekend had been lost to the game, and upon finishing I declared it the best game I'd ever played. But then, the exploding head of Adolph Hitler has that sort of impression on a 10-year-old.

[miffy495]

  gdf said:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

I felt horribly let down by the demo, but I couldn't not buy it being the enormous Banjo fanboy that I am.

And it's wonderful.

That's really good to hear. I was insanely excited for this game but never ended up picking it up after seeing the reviews. I still have a gift card for somewhere kicking around, so this may be what to spend it on.

[gdf]

  Thrik said:

Concur++.

I mean I wouldn't say I expected to hate it, but I did have my expectations quite solidly lowered after finding out it'd veered away from pure platforming — and also there's been a general bit of disdain towards Rare this generation I think, although every Rare 360 game I've actually played has been excellent.

Fortunately the game is in fact great fun, and also dripping with nostalgia for those who enjoyed the Nintendo 64 Banjo games like me and you. The BanjoLand level and its music is just... man.

When that theme from Freezy Peak kicked in I nearly wet myself.

I've mentioned in the past that this is exactly what to do with a generational (in this case double generational!) leap, just go nuts and reinvent the franchise. It's a crime that this was so much lower reviewed than Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, a game which adds nothing new to the formula. The critics were way off in this case. Had N&B just riffed massively from the originals it would have been panned and Rare deserve much more credit than they got.

And Miffy, it takes maybe an hour to get into, and the vehicle creation is the most fun aspect. Even non-Banjo fans like it, including Brad Shoemaker, who hadn't played one before but placed it as his game of 2008. Then again, you may hate it, and if you do, don't blame me

[Aon]

When I first played the Fire Emblem released for the GBA I couldn't stand it. The tutorial was frustrating, the interactions seemed bland and the games random elements seemed overly punishing.

It was only when I was forced to actually work my way through it when traveling through Europe with a DS that I learned to appreciate the game's faux historical English charm and the emotional attachment permanent death assigns to your characters, turning them from generic pieces in a large game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to characters whom you actually care about.

[twmac]

  gdf said:

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts.

I felt horribly let down by the demo, but I couldn't not buy it being the enormous Banjo fanboy that I am.

And it's wonderful.

Was one of my games of the year.

In terms of games that I hated at first but came back to and loved... In recent years there was Enchanted Arms which was retarded but fun once I figured out it was supposed to be stupid. The only other games I can think of were 'Citadel' on the BBC Micro Computer and 'Diablo' on the PC, both of which I didn't have a manual for so when I first played them I didn't have a clue what was going on. Then I lost hours on both. Never finished Citadel though...

[Sergey]

Transport Tycoon comes to mind. Despite being a pretty simple simulation game, I was too young to completely understand it when I began playing. Several years later, I was hooked, and it's certainly up there in the games I have played the most. Today, they even have a multi-platform emulator for it (think ScummVM but for Transport Tycoon) so I can relive all of my memories on the Mac.

Also, Civilization 2 had a pretty horrible learning curve for me. But now I'm a huge fan of the series, especially the latest installment.

[Thyroid]

The original Half-Life. I just couldn't get into it, it was so boring.

I went back to it when I was sixteen, found it enjoyable. But my brother played half of it (mostly the second half and all of Xen), and I never finished it - even though I later found out I was at the end of the game (that big child alien thing).

[Nick]

Only one I can think of for me is Guild Wars. I really wasn't impressed with it when I first played it, I was frustrated by being limited to 8 skills at any one time and having such a limited choice of weapon/armour.

I played through it later down the line and actually found it really enjoyable and easy on the eye.

[kuddles]

I took the thread title a different way by selecting Neverwinter Nights. I kind of tired with it when it first came out. But the game slowly became probably the most valuable gaming purchase I ever made as time passed. A neverending amount of patches, some really good expansions and premium content modules, as well as tons of well-made mods by a strong community. Then the creation of persistent worlds led to some unique online experiences as well.

I think if I went by strategy games I disliked until I managed to get over the steep learning curve, it would be a long list. Europa Universalis is definetely one of them. It's hard to tell if this is a good or bad thing for the games. On one hand, it might have something to say about our attention spans and desire to be spoonfed resulting in enriching experiences being lost due to our impatience. On the other, one could argue that these games could find themselves a whole new audience if their tutorials and interfaces weren't so obtuse and they chose satisfying their core fans at the expense of alienating more casual players.

[JoannaDark]

morowind. and echochrome. frustrating little bastard.

[DanJW]

  kuddles said:

I took the thread title a different way by selecting Neverwinter Nights. I kind of tired with it when it first came out. But the game slowly became probably the most valuable gaming purchase I ever made as time passed. A neverending amount of patches, some really good expansions and premium content modules, as well as tons of well-made mods by a strong community. Then the creation of persistent worlds led to some unique online experiences as well.

Kuddles, you're alright by me

Jo, you just reminded me that I had this with Oblivion. I really wasn't all that impressed at first (having been spoiled by NWN perhaps), and actually stopped playing for quite a while. But eventually I went back to it since I had nothing else to play, and after following the various sidequests and guilds I got totally sucked in. Just as everyone says, the game is great if you can just forget about the main story arc.

[gdf]

el muerte linked back to this thread. I'm not going to add Lost Planet.

I will, however, add Trials 2 as the inverse of the title inquiry. It's a game I originally loved, but can't abide whatsoever presently. Even after hours of trying, the first checkpoint of the last level appears impassable.

Every time I boot it up it makes me want to throw my PC at the wall. This would be a very, very silly thing.

[OssK]

Well, being an occasional reviewer, I sometimes have to try a new RPG, and that effect does apply every single time...

AAarrrrh FUCK YOU another game where you start as a fucking random farm boy and have to kill rabits for two hours before you can get your wooden sword oh and who's that who killed my parents ? Well, I guess it's the bad guy and he'll be too strong and kick my ass... Oh he did... what a surprise!

So yeah, that's really a recurring pattern: shitty debuts of another RPG and then I get sucked up in it. Happened in Fable, in Dungeon Siege, in Tales of Symphonia, in Summoner which I really liked in the end and in countless others.

Apart from that I think getting raped onto my very first game I began to hate counter strike when it came out, but in the end I tried it again and got to love it. No frankly, not killing anybody and getting raped in the ear by every single guy is a hard way to get into a game. «FUCK! Dead already, get up you puss he barley touched you!»

[OssK]

And I guess this thread could have an evil twin "Games you thought you loved but hated in the end"

[Horticulture Tycoon]

Now that question is much easier to answer. I'm looking at you, Indigo Prophecy.

[toblix]

How about "Games that love you, but you don't love them back"?

[DanJW]

Sounds like a Jerry Springer show.

[OssK]

  toblix said:

How about "Games that love you, but you don't love them back"?

That one's tough, can't think of any game that loves me T_T

But the other way round is easier "games that you love but don't love you back"

I guess that was mostly CoD4 in veteran "Game, I love you Game why do you hate me so much" and the game coldly gives you another ton of headshots to punish you...

[elmuerte]

  Horticulture Tycoon said:

Now that question is much easier to answer. I'm looking at you, Indigo Prophecy.

And Omikron. And if Quantic Dream continues in this manner: Hard Rain.

Also, Dreamfall