What are your contentious gaming opinions?

Here are some that come to mind for me!

• Subscription services are overrated. GamePass was hyped as the next big thing at the beginning of this gen. Since then, MS first party has been sparse, and while we got the occasional surprise release, many of the games are either indies or games that have been out for a while. Want Day 1 rentals? Get GameFly.
• PC gaming is overhyped. Nowadays the vast majority of games available on PC are also available on console. And console hardware has caught up in terms of graphics. Sure it won’t have all of the bells and whistles or the highest FPS, but have you seen a Sony first party game? They look amazing!
• Exclusives are a good thing. Think of the best rivalries in gaming. Sega vs Nintendo. PS3 vs X360. What made them special? Games of course. Exclusives give systems something unique to offer. If all systems had the same games, might as well just get a PC.
• Physical games still rock. Of course they do.. just recently, there were reports of Ubisoft pulling The Crew from users libraries. Think about that.. a publisher has the right to revoke your digital game license! At least Gran Turismo Sport gave people an offline mode.

How about you, SW? What are your contentious gaming opinions?

Too many developers try to achieve "realism" in video games nowadays.

Whether it's graphics, character/enemy types or the story...

And realism is the exact opposite reason many gamers are attracted to the hobby. It's supposed to be an escape from reality to unwind. Not trying to replicate it and be super serious. Atleast not for me. Realism eliminates creativity in game development.

None of the games that stand the test of time are realistic or grounded.

They ones that do stand the test, embrace that it's fiction and fanasty and do what ever they want creatively.

Naughty Dog for example went from crash bandicoot/Jake n daxter to uncharted/last of us and that's a bad thing

Witcher 3 has too much content. So many side quests that the momentum the story could have had is destroyed. Dwarf shouted for help for yet another quest, and what was I gonna do, ignore him and wonder what it was about? In that second playthrough years later I lost interest before leaving for Skellige.

Pretentious huh? Hmmm... well, I'm not sure if these things are pretentious or not, but I'll give it a shot.

1. Most people will never play the games that deserve praise and instead will fall for marketing, paid reviews, or just parrot the opinion of another.

2. New AAA games are failing due to an emphasis on graphics above all else, which drive prices and dev times higher while hurting gameplay, storyline, and deadlines.

3. Blaming developers at bigger AA - AAA companies for delivering a subpar experience is rarely if ever actually their own faults and the demands came from above.

4. Huge AAA multiplayer games hurt the industry more than help these days by forcing the inability to compete, which leaves consumers with far fewer options outside of PC.

5. Console and PC need to merge marketplaces... we all know it's time.

6. 99% of peoples favorite console or the one that they continuously talk about was their 1st gaming experience.

7. Nothing will ever beat the comfort of chilling on the couch playing a console with a controller. To me it adds the element of human error which widens the skill gap.

8. I'd rather pay 3-5k for a TV and 3 to 5 consoles each gen than take a 10k dollar vacation.

9. AA games are making a comeback and are the wave of the future.

10. The AAA gaming industry as we know it is unsustainable and there will be some major changes in gaming in the near future. I look to see both SONY and MS make HUGE changes.

11. Fun, Gameplay, Responsiveness and tight controls matter above all else.

I know some of these might be mere predictions, but I'd say the pretentious part comes into play when I say... I'm not wrong . 😛

Zelda botw and totk are 7/10 Ubisoft clones with a mobile combat system that has no place in Nintendo's flagship title. This offends many millennials, so they'll usually never admit it, but the proof is in the pudding, just look at the damn gameplay, its straight up mobile quality with an empty open world.

If I'd spent as much time playing real instruments as I did plastic peripherals I'd be a virtuoso.

There are too many games, and most of them suck.

LAN should be an option in every relevant game. I've had 1000 times more fun playing games in person, than I have over the Internet.

RDR2 is not fun.

• GTA was better in 2D.
• Witcher 3 was boring.
• Zelda 1 and Metroid 1 sucked.
• The gaming industry overall is crap. Few good things here and there, but very sparse.

Would be cool and all, but there's like you and 5 others in the world who are willing to LAN still. I agree though, LAN is way more fun than online.

-Tetris is gameplay perfection, and has yet to be topped.

-These PC graphics cards gotta stop. I just built a 7800X3D system with a 7900XTX and holy shit that video card. When I took it outta the box I tried to get a picture holding it in my hand to show the size but I couldn't hold my phone far enough away in the other hand to get it all in field. Getting it in my system was a bitch because I couldn't see the slot I was trying to hit for the damn card. ATX gotta go. Also: 3 damn power cables. Throw a CPU and some USB ports on there and call it a system already, for freaks sake.

-Single Player games are best games.

-I want pinball cabinets back. 😢

Consoles have lost their value... They only play select games and they make you pay for online gaming... They've become inferior compared to PC.

Exclusives are killing an industry where games cost too much to make and are only exposed to a small number of people. Can't have it both ways... The old days of being hardware locked from a game are increasingly less sustainable and until we break this archaic model gaming will suffer.

There should be no sequels after 3 on any franchise....

Remakes are cover bands... There should be farrrrr less of them.

I think linear movie games are great. The lack of options is relaxing and the short duration makes them satisfying to complete.

Pee Salty Seas are for work not gaming. lol :P

Witcher was never great.

Resident Evil 4 is far from being the greatest action game of all time.

Hellblade is barely a game, it's the Crysis tech demo everyone accused it of.

MachineGames Wolfenstein reboot is complete trash

OOT has aged like milk, Doom 64 is a better game and the best FPS on the N64, about the only one that holds up, also better than Doom II

Other edgy Twitter opinions.

Think there's a place for the cinematic movie games I always play after a long RPG.

Oh I suspect i'm going to annoy people but sure....

In the console space:

I think consoles have lost their way. Last gen and this gen especially it really is becoming a case of "All of the downsides of PC gaming with none of the upsides". They are also way to standardised. The xbox in particular is a big offender of this but all 3 are guilty to different degrees. We need more Wiis and less "Standard issue" games consoles. A new console should mean everything is new. New box, new controller, new UI, new start up sequence and a unique element that makes playing on that particular system interesting. A gimmick if you want to call it that.

Console games should not have settings. There shouldn't be a performance/quality mode. The spec is the spec, the experience should be exactly the same on any given console. The performance and visual fidelity should be at, and only at, the developers discretion. If framerate, super high res and making a menu say "Ultra" means a lot to you then get a PC.

The traditional controller needs to be brought round back and shot. Where is a scroll wheel? Where are the flappy paddle buttons as standard? Why does the Xbox controller lack a Gyro? Why is the touchpad on the PS5 controller on the top side rendering it useless? Why is the controller just 1 single unit? It's bad when innovations in controllers are coming from the PC space rather than consoles. The current standard controller is a hindrance.

Ms, Sony and Nintendo (and any other platform holders) should start agreeing to cross platform quality standards because the state games are getting released in is shocking. Shocking! If it was any other business there would be product recalls galore. The state Nitnendos games are released in: That should be the standard. On consoles especically, every console owner should be able to buy any game for their console day 1 fully confident that they game will be fully functional. Console gamers used to boast about that (and rightfully so)....yeah not so much now. Publishers/Devs are not going to sort it themselves so the platform holders need to agree to withhold releases cross platform if even 1 version of the game is a broken mess. Something like CP2077 on the PS4/X1 should never have seen the light of day (and that's just one of many many examples).

Consoles are toys. They are to be played on. They are not simple media consumption devices. Any notion of the "Standard" console should be smacked over the head.

In the PC Space:

Competition is good in all sectors of the PC. It's good that there are different stores. It's good to have more hardware vendors. It would be great to have more choice in OS (Linux is rapidly improving but Anti Cheat is a big problem at the moment). Complaining about another store or another launcher or remembering another password is childish gibberish. On the PC people should be excited to try a new OS or check out another place to buy games. I remember when i upgraded to my PC, I didn't install a new OS. So i booted it up and was like "oh....that's it". I mean of course nothing changed but....still. I really only considered my current PC complete when I switched the OS out for a new one.

Anyone who just buys hardware blindly from company X should get smacked over the head. It's a foolish approach to buying hardware. All options that cover your requirements should be considered.

Dlss (unless it's maybe used as DLAA. I havent tried that) is not better than native. There: I said it. It's very good. The best upscaler by quite a bit still (though Xess has been a bit of a quiet monster too in fairness. Especially when it's running on ARC). But it has too many issues to argue that it's better than native. All the upscalers do.

On a related note: Upscalers are not a case of devs being lazy (a common complaint i see). Using an upscaler is not devs passing up on optimisation. Upscalers are an optimisation trick themselves. They are a good tool to have and good implementations should be encouraged. "But it's cheating"....yeah it is...and? Some developers do abuse them (looking at you Immortals of Aveum on consoles) but that's a poor use of a tool rather than a problem with the tool.

FPS games are the McDonalds of gaming and for people who do not like video games.

Bethesda and Rockstar are past their best and are living on former glories whilst releasing boring, will this do games?

Atlus are worse than Ubisoft at exploiting their game's fans.

Time for gaming to go full multi-platform. It is inevitable and every attempt to continue along this dead path of exclusives is delaying the inevitable.

Digital purchases should be portable on supporting platforms. No one should be purchasing the same game but to access on different hardware. That is like purchasing a digital copy of a movie and it can only be viewed on one hardware configuration.

Cinematic games continue to prove that some developers hate the act of playing games.

Japanese games get a free pass with various mediocrity in their game design and quality of life.

Sony games has been boring for the past 8 years and there doesn't seem to be a change in this path.

aaa gaming is in the toilet

sony have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory this gen

every platform right now has an achilles heel, no one's living their best gaming life

anyone who says lies of p is bloodborne-esque has lost their damn mind

yep. and quality mode is unplayable in 95% of games

lol

Motion controls are fun. They don't work for everything, but when devs put some real thought in to them, it elevates the experience. A few games that got it right would be ARMS, Boom Blox, Pandora's Tower, Wii version of Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, Excite Bots.

I will pay the premium for Asus and Seasonic. In the 'better safe than sorry' category.

D&D 4e was never a bad ruleset per say. It was just horribly misutilized. Bad tabletop ruleset, but could have been an awesome base to build video games on.

Edit: I would have have loved to see an FFT style Tactical RPG using the 4e ruleset.

Haha, you're not wrong, but similar to our last discussion, I bet more people would do it I if they knew it was an option. How many kids even know what it is? We gotta show these little soap pod eating dipsh!ts how it's done.

I have no idea how hard it is for them to program and add this function to the game, but I wouldn't think it's that hard. But by not adding it, they force you to use online. And I don't wanna.

I agree with the vast majority of your points, but the PC store stuff is a little goof. Competition is great, but how much competition is there between gog, EGS and steam? Gog has some cool old stuff, but pales in comparison to steam. EGS is Chinese spyware, that is basically only used for the free games; aka 'Trojan Horse'. So really there is only steam. And the problem with that is there's is no competition. What PC really needs is to bring back physical games. I'm talking Big Boxes and everything. Throw in some maps, a notepad and maybe a pen that lights up. I gotta stop, I'm about to get hard. Hell, they can even put the games on multiple disks. As long as the whole game is on there, and not just some glorified download code.

Plus you wouldn't have to deal with all those childish passwords. I'm sick of adding new vectors for some douchebag halfway around the world to hack my account.

Gamecube>Switch

The PS5 this gen is worse than the Xbox One last gen

Gamepass doesn't make much sense... you're probably better off buying the new games you want at release and then buying older games for super cheap through the constant digital sales.

Why? I definitely get buying a good power supply. Definitely not something to skimp on. But other companies also make fine power supplies. I've been using Corsair power supplies for ages with 0 issues. I still wouldn't have a problem switching to Seasonic though or another brand assuming reviews are strong for the unit.

As for Asus. What's so special about them specifically that would make you write off anyone else? I have nothing against them. My Gpu is an Tuff 6900XT and, other than some coil whine, it's been a very reliable trooper. But i've also used other GPU vendors like Sapphire and they have been great too. Mobo wise I've used Gigabyte and currently have an MSI and both have been very solid.

@dimebag667: Sadly PC physical retail is never coming back. Would be great but, if anything, it looks like consoles are following suit. Good for the environment but still..... :(.

GOG is a very nice alternative for those who don't want DRM. It still offers value there and it's support for keeping old games working is better than anything Valve does.

I'm not sure if it was GOG or Epic: but one of them also offered a no questions asked refund policy if you were unhappy long before Valve did. It put pressure on Valve to offer the 2 hour no questions asked refund system. An effect of competition.

I do agree that at the moment other stores (except for GOG...that has its USP) are really struggling to justify their existence. But that shouldn't be an argument for supporting a lack of competition. It's better for us if other stores are there to sell games. It leads to better deals and more bargaining power for us. If valve do something stupid we can just shop elsewhere.

Credit to Valve though: Man they do a lot of good stuff. Very hard to compete against.

gog is just good in general. Even when they share the same games as Steam, they tend to do the weird thing of "making sure they work"...

Gamecube has so far surpassed every single Nintendo console that came out after it.

Gamecube>Wii, WiiU and Switch

Maybe things will change once TTYD remake hits Switch, but who knows.

I think it's really telling that the only fucking good Tomb Raider games CD made was Temple Of Osiris/Guardian Of Light and I think it is partly due to the fact it was made to be on limited technology where they couldn't go ape-shit trying to turn it into a cinematic experience.

Me and Asus go back a long way. Back in the early-to-mid 2000's I owned a storefront PC custom build/repair shop (no money there, fucking Dell), and not only did I have the least problems with Asus hardware, but when I did I didn't have to jump through hoops to get an RMA. They even cross-shipped without having to put a hold on some CC monies. They build great products and they've got nearly 25 years of good rapport with me. I know when I buy Asus I'm unlikely to have a problem, but if I do they'll make it right without a hassle. I can't say the same of some other brands like MSI and Gigabyte.

I did like the Gigabyte dual bios scheme, but those caps got pregnant after a year or so. I've never seen a pregnant cap on an Asus. I understand this was during the 'capacitor plague' but all Asus products remained just fine.

As for Seasonic, 12 year warranty and the quality to last that long. I don't expect to be using the same PC for 12 years, but some of the people I build for just might. If you're going to skimp on anything, don't skimp on the PSU. Ever.

the obsession with cinematic experiences is part of the problem. not just because of the increase in cost and development time but the influence in game style (creatively barren, reskinning of a formula, season passes etc) to then make a profit.

crysis cost $20m to make. the last call of duty's development budget was $300m. only 17% of aaa games manage to recoup their entire budget from sales at launch, profitability requires ongoing revenue. lots of variables and there are exceptions but regardless, from crysis to modern warfare 3 2023, aaa gaming took a wrong turn somewhere along the way

I thought disc golf game with the PS Move was pretty fun, and Sports Friends was good too. There was some mini game where you were trying to jostle the controller in the other player's hand, so you're flailing all around, and one of my buddies slapped the sh!t out of the other one. It was hilarious 😂

Yeah, you're not wrong, but it blows my mind how willingly people were to throw their control away with PC games, and now they're doing it with console. There are definitely benefits to the digital way, but there are some major drawbacks as well.

I wonder what's worse for the environment: plastic discs and cases, or massive server farms that run 24 hours a day.

I agree with you on everything, it's just that I don't like it. I'm just so sick of our modern world, that anything that leads to more of it disgusts me to no end. More passwords, more risk, more headache. No thanks.

Fortnite is not the devil. They give you a free game the cosmetics are optional. Even then, you can buy skins after a few battle passes, due to the free currency that you get. Seriously, this game gets hate for no reason.

Just because you're a fan of a company, that doesn't mean that you excuse everything that they do. I'm a fan of Nintendo, but I don't enjoy everything that they do. There are definitely areas where Nintendo could improve, vastly.

Fanservice is a hot button issue. I personally don't mind it. Though I do think it should go both ways. That's why I really respect Paladins, Smite, Friday the 13th, The Witcher 3, etc. Because they have attractive men and women. Friday the 13th obviously has the girls in swim suits, with two of them donning a two-piece bikini. They also had sexy costumes for Vanessa and Tiffany. Though they also had men in swim suits with a character, named Chad, donning a speedo. Friday the 13th understood the assignment:

With those examples... I don't get why Stellar Blade was so controversial. From what I've seen, yeah her body is obviously meant to be sexy. But like... She's fully covered up.

I don't know... After I saw this, I was like "that's it?" And that's from both sides tbh. Guys acting like "western devs would never do this!" Uh, I played Friday the 13th, Smite, Paladins, The Witcher, Fortnite, etc. Those games have done much more fanservice than Stellar Blade. Though when people complained about it being too sexy, I also didn't get it. Like, sure her outfit is skin tight and her butt is prominent, but I also play Paladins... And we have Saati, among other characters:

And then on the side against Stellar Blade, saying that it's too much fan service. Um... Have y'all played like any game? The above examples aren't even the only examples... Heck, The Witcher 3 has entire sex and nude scenes in it. Why didn't they give AF then? Especially with fighting games. I mean, look at literally ANY Ivy skin.

@luxuryheart: People just jumping on bandwagons. You can never predict what people are going to care about. For some reason, people decided to flock to Stellar Blade, even though it's not the "worst offender" of sexy female or even stands out in any way compared to other similar games. People are weird, and the devs of Stellar Blade are very lucky.

Ps5 and ps5 pro are the most pointless consoles ever made or to be made

I could never get through the Witcher games. Tried 2 and 3 and couldn't get into them. Never was a CD project red fan.

Currently on paternity leave and been sharing night shifts with the baby and decided to give Witcher 3 another try, needed a SP game that i could pause and save at anytime. Gotta say kinda like Witcher 3 this go around. It's kind of like reading a good book, when i tried it before on the ps4, id just try to rush through everything, it's combat is not that great but it's serviceable. But I dunno.. been taking my time with it this time and not skipping the dialouge/side quests like I did last time I played, kinda into it now. Crafting, something I usually hate, not bad in this game. Exploring random little nooks for loot, picking daisies, killing ghouls, upgrading my signs, kinda like it. Dialouge is actually pretty good, kicking myself in the balls I skipped through so much when I first played it.

This is one of the few games I like the side quests, give them props for putting thought into these little side stories. They are interesting and have character to em.

I tried Cyberpunk too recently.. honestly think Witcher 3 is better. Is it best game ever, nah, but it's solid, they put alot of attention in the details on it. It's well made and you can tell they put alot of love into it. When I tried it at launch it didn't seem this good, didnt get the hype. The complete edition seems to have alot more going on. Really have upgraded it's performance on the next gen hardware too. I like Witcher 3 now. Maybe it's cus alot of newer games are really bad.

Yeah, that's why I never take gaming too seriously. You see pro gamers playing Street Fighter or whatever, I just keep thinking, bro you'd be a 4th dan in a Martial Art by now, if you spent that same time doing it for real.

@Litchie: Sony made it exclusive and that drew attention. Prior, it was just another Korean game.

Ah in fairness I think we all know what drew attention with that game. The thirst is real and all that. Same reason Bayonetta got so much attention back in the day. Just in the latters case it also does what it does quite well in the gameplay department. Er....happy coincidence. Yeah that's it...

One of the oldest marketing tricks in the book.

• GTA series is most overrated series of all time
• Metro is Gaming Greatest Trilogy. equivalent of LOTR and Original Star wars trilogy of gaming
• Deus Ex 1 is still single greatest game ever made
• STALKER 1 is still best FPS game of all time and not being surpassed

TLOU2 is an excellent video game, not a movie.

I agree that people are weird. It kind of reminds me of the drama in one of the game that I play, Paladins. There was drama about the devs making a character with thick thighs and revealing them. They acted like the outfit was too sexy, because it revealed her thighs, so the devs made the change:

Though that entire drama made no sense. Mostly because there are several recolors that expose her thighs, and they're still in the game. I guess it was a compromise since a lot of the Paladins gamers made a huge deal about it. Though I have to ask, what even was the point?

It was also weird because there were sexier skins in our game. These skins predate that weird drama, and the people targeting the character above, never made a stink about these skins:

And I'm very shocked they didn't go after the last skin. Not only because it reveals her entire legs and is practically a bikini, but because she also has very suggestive voice lines, like bdsm and very sexual lines. I'm surprised she didn't get complaints, but they complained about a skin showing thigh...

https://paladins.fandom.com/wiki/Infernal_Seris_voice_lines

But like... It isn't even the biggest offenders for fanservice, as Litchie said in a reply to me. I don't know... When I saw the offending fanservice, I was just like "that's it?" The Witcher 3 has entire sex and nudity scenes. In the games I play, there's tons of fanservice.

Elden Ring is overrated. I disliked how you level up your skills. I prefer a game that builds my stats for me, like Pokemon. In Elden Ring, I may put in too many points into one skill and be unbalanced. I can see why many people like it, it's just not my cup of tea.

RPGs are lame, and a waste of time.

GameCube is severely overrated.

The Wii is and always has been a fantastic console.

Black and white gameboy games shouldn’t be played because they’re in black and white.

Control gimmicks are awesome and we need more diversity in how we play games. Motion controls on the Wii were great with games like Sin and Punishment 2 and Wario Ware Smooth moves being absoulte bangers. But the best control gimmick I can think of is the NeGCon on the PSX! It's depressing to think that all racing games are categorically terrible because they don't support use of a PS1 controller. Not to mention I'm sure indie developers could make great use of that twist motion in all sorts of ways if it was standard.

• Gaming doesn't suck, people are just bitter and lame, unable to allow themself to have fun and would rather choose to wallow in their own selfregrets. Drawn to shitty youtube channels that do nothing but post negativity to please the algorithm. You aren't living your life, you are allowing your life to be lived for you. Take back control.

These are the top 6 games on my Steam wishlist. Games that offer excitement and something new, or more of what I love.

Another contentious opinion. Stamina Management is NOT a basis for a good combat system. More often than not, I see it done badly. With only a few games being able to execute it well.

Seeing the poor fan reception of No Rest for the Wicked, with people calling its combat tedious, reminded me of this point.

@R4gn4r0k said:

• Gaming doesn't suck, people are just bitter and lame, unable to allow themself to have fun and would rather choose to wallow in their own selfregrets. Drawn to shitty youtube channels that do nothing but post negativity to please the algorithm. You aren't living your life, you are allowing your life to be lived for you. Take back control.

These are the top 6 games on my Steam wishlist. Games that offer excitement and something new, or more of what I love.

1. I must have been living under a rock since I didnt even know Kingdom Come Deliverence 2 was a thing. Thanks for the heads up.

2. Good picks in general.

3. I agree, video game doomscrolling is not helpful one bit. The people most suscepitble to it tends to be those who usually play samey garbage and dont really open themselves to new video games and blame the industry when they are bored.