What game does everyone keep telling you "you absolutely must play"?

What game does everyone keep telling you “you absolutely must play”?

“You haven’t played it yet?”

“It’s only the best game ever made.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

With possibly the exception of that last one (I hear that one all the time :/ ) all these phrases and more are not uncommon to the ears of one who plays videogames regularly. It’s not surprising really (The other part, well… I guess both parts :/. ). It seems to be more of a psychological trait imbedded into each of us that when one experiences something gratifying or that impresses them they want others to share in their own wonderment. In a way it is almost as if they get a sense of satisfaction in being the ones who recommended it.

The gaming world is no different in that respect. Not only are recommendations like these commonplace from friends and peers but you have an added layer of influence from the gaming media at large, one that prides itself on telling gamers what “they should be looking into” in the form of review scores and lengthy write-ups. Scenarios like these can have an even greater impact when awards for particular games are given out or big titles like GOTY scrawled on the boxes of games emerge.

With that said there has been one game that I have consistently avoided since its release despite hearing how amazing it is in addition to the aforementioned cliché’ comments that usually comprise of one’s disbelieve upon hearing my voluntary exclusion of said game (What the hell did we just read, Ninja? English… ENGLISH!!!). That game is none other than… okay, are you ready for this?

The Witcher 3! (Du du duuuummmm!)

-Wait… what?! But how, Ninja? It’s only like the best game ever made!-

That’s right. A game that has been talked about to death ad nauseam by almost every person on every gaming board, forum, website and one that has been repeatedly toted as one of the finest examples of gaming in the modern era by every credible gaming journalist, “youtuber”, and reviewer/industry critic has not even remotely been on my radar… until now (better late than never, right?). How is that even possible you may ask (-Uh, no we really weren’t asking Ninja, but…-)

Like everything in life it’s not just one thing but a conglomeration of many pieces assembled together (-rubs eyes- “can never be simple with you, huh Ninja?”).

1: Preference:

Probably the biggest factor into whether one will even look into something. I have never been a huge fan of the, not sure what it is technically called, mythical/fantasy genre (?). While I certainly respect and admire what certain forms of entertainment have achieved, like LOTR, I find myself never being fully engaged in that setting or the usual clichés associated with those narratives across all forms of mediums (Surprisingly the anime/manga Berserk is the only one that seems to captivate my interest for more than 2 seconds. I have no idea why this is.).

2: Recommendations or lack thereof:

A good friend of mine (Friend, Ninja? Now we know you’re lying.), whose opinion I actually respect immensely when it comes to games, and is usually dead on about most things in the gaming world, told me that the game was completely overhyped. One of his biggest complaints was the “terrible” and “sloppy” mechanics that comprised of the gameplay portion of the game. He gave it a fair chance too I might add, even going so far as to try to replay the game on 3 separate occasions at different points in the year. Needless to say he didn’t progress far. In his own words “I really wanted to like it, I did. But I just couldn’t get into it.” No doubt his persistence to keep trying was, similar to myself, due to all the buzz he had heard about this game from every corner of the earth but his reluctance to keep moving forward was impacted greatly by bad gameplay mechanics.

3: Game genre:

From what I understand, and everything I’ve heard and read, this is an open world/RPG type of game (please correct me if I am wrong.).

Once again the genre of game someone likes/dislikes is almost completely personal and from what I know about my gaming experience in the past I know I don’t jive too well with these types of games. I find that open world games, while providing the gamer with a bevy of resources, distractions, and extraneous things to do can more often than not inhibit the flow and main focus of the narrative as it pertains to characterization and other storytelling elements. C’mon, how many times have we played one of these games only to find ourselves in a time sensitive situation as it relates to the main plot but then go off a do some mindless side-quest that has nothing to do with the main goal of the game (ex: Character X is being held hostage at such and such location and villain Z is going to kill them unless you get there. “Guess I better hurry... right after I go herd some sheep, collect all pieces of trinket F in town D, and help a frail old granny find her lost pet.”).

Even though those moments are mostly choice driven it can be sometimes too enticing to pass up when the option to engage in them suddenly pops up on the map. For people like myself who have the attention span of a goat… whoa, a butterfly…. something like this can easily disrupt the overall flow, pace, and atmosphere of a game.

Then there are open world games that “force” these side quests on you, locking the main story/path until a certain amount of these extraneous missions have been completed even though (once again.) their significance has no bearing on the overall main focus of the story. Yeah, don’t even get me started on those. Once again, I feel it is necessary to stress that this is not how all open world games operate but I think it’s more than fair to say that more abide by this blueprint than not.

4: 3rd entry in a series:

This one is personally one of those interesting quirks that we all have in some capacity or another. It may seem like a rather odd pet peeve (like reading your comments, Ninja?) but this one ranks big on my list as it pertains to whether I engage in a game or not. It’s probably one of, if not, THE biggest reason as to why I didn’t immediately jump to playing this game earlier.

If a game is highly praised and I do have more than a moderate amount of interest in it than something as “trivial” as it not being the first game in a series or a numbered entry after ones I have missed can totally put me off; within reason of course (I’m not going to suddenly swear off a new Super Mario game for example because perhaps I missed the first game; which I didn’t for the record!).

Which begs the question… will I be completely lost and hung out to dry for the Witcher 3 having no previous experience/knowledge about any of the other prior games let alone the lore? I’ve heard from some that even those who have played all 3 games are still lost to the characters and setting due to the first game not starting at the origin of the series (I’ve heard there were books before the games.).

With all of that in mind, at this very moment I hold a copy of this highly acclaimed game in the palm of my hand right now (That’s right, I typed all this out with one hand. It’s clear I’m crazy as hell so just trust me when I say I’m not making this up.) – But then how can we trust you, Ninja? And how does typing with one hand make someone crazy?-

Touche’!

Part of the reason why was due to curiosity finally getting the better of me; everyone saying it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread (no joke, sliced bread is good. Very convenient.). Finally, and more than likely the culprit that made me pull the trigger, was that I purchased the Complete Edition with all the extra DLC for a whopping $30. I figured you can’t beat that price, might as well take a chance.

Listen, there’s always going to be tons of games that we miss for whatever reason, whether they be due to financial constraints, hardware limitations, a general lack of interest, or heck even something as trivial as our own stubbornness (Ex: “I refuse to play game X cause everyone else says it’s the best. What do they know.”). But still, the question still stands…

What game does everyone keep telling you “you absolutely must play”?

I understand that this kind of a conversation has the potential to get quite heated so hopefully we can keep things civil.

P.S: I genuinely hope I enjoy the Witcher 3.

-WITCHER 3 BOUND NINJA APPROVED-

You can play TW3 without playing previous games, I feel like that was the case for most people anyway, but to fully appreciate it, playing the games AND reading the 7-part novel series is highly recommended.

To me, it's the Souls series. I have Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne, but I only played like 5 hours of Demon's. I don't particularly enjoy masochistic games, but I'm going to try DS2 soon.

Player unknowns battle grounds

TLDR, The Witcher 3 is by far the game every gamer should play. It is truly a piece of art. The only problem with The Witcher 3 is if you haven't ever played other fantasy RPG games or any RPG game for that matter, prior to playing Witcher 3, you will never be able to enjoy them again. The Witcher 3 has destroyed a generation of games for its brilliance.

To understand the story you have to play TW 1 and 2, even the books will serve as a "prequel" to the games. Even the characters are different (besides geralt, he's still a bamf in the books) from the books, like Triss is a **** in the novels compared to the games while Yennefer is the opposite in the novels.

Unfortunately I probably won't have that opportunity. Would watching one of those "Here's what happened in the Witcher 1 & 2" Youtube videos suffice or would it just generate more questions before my Witcher 3 playthrough?

-MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS? NINJA APPROVED-

Nothing. I play mostly everything.

I hear constant buzz about Nier Automata, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Yakuza 0. I'll be picking them up soon enough.

I'm usually the guy does the recommending in my group, but I think the last game I was heavily recommended was Sleeping Dogs. It turned out it was just as good if not better than what my friend had promised.

Nier: Automata.....played the demo, no thanks. I don't care what you say!

Chaz gassed me up to play Persona 5 and I dont hold it against him, game is dope

Nier: Automata. I have it, I just haven't gotten around to playing it yet (though I do intend to do so).

Breath of the wild

I have never owned a Nintendo console

I never intend on owning a console period

I didn't grow up on Nintendo games.

I never even played a single Nintendo game when I was little kid.

I know nothing about Zelda

I have zero interest in Nintendo games anyway

And I'm not going to start now...

You should still definitely play it. None of that matters when you finally play it and realize that it is open world game design at its best.

I'm not spending $360 to play a single game.

Fair enough lol

These can help you pretty much get the chunk of The Witcher story before TW3

The first one explains a little bit before TW1 (like the last wish and blood of elves) while the 2nd one explains TW 1 and 2 in 5 min with a little bit of the last wish (minus a few things from the books). A good 98% of the people who played the games don't realize how deep the story goes and it's a shame cause the lore and story of The Witcher is probably the best dark fantasy out there, even besting Game of Thrones in my opinion and Lotr (well Lotr really isn't that dark).

Most of my friends try to be cool and pretend everything sucks.

We all agree though, Halflife is the best. Which is great.

Didn't read your OP bruh, sorry, but...

Rocket League, Overwatch, and PUBG. And I'm sure I'd enjoy them all, especially Rocket League, but I just can't afford another multiplayer time sink right now.

---

What I do find funny about many people who try hard to push a game like that, is that they're often pushing something that isn't even close to universally appealing. And yes, I understand that no game is, but some fit the bill much better than others.

If you think something like TW3 is universally appealing, you're off your fucking rocker. I can at least recognize that a lot of the games I like aren't going to be a good fit for everyone. As much as I love games like MGS3, NGB, Chaos Theory, etc. I don't try to push them on someone unless I know that they already like similar games. Shit, I love SFV, but I still found myself recommending MKXL to a friend instead, because I knew it would be a better fit for their needs.

Anyways, not like that's limited to games, people push their favorite shit on others no matter what it is. I still find it funny though. The amount of games I consider "must play" with wide spread appeal are few and far between.

The Witcher 3

These days its Persona 5.

League of Legends and DOTA2 (meh).

Rocket League is on sale, I was wondering if I should break down and finally get it

Somebody has repeatedly told me to play The Last of Us. Snooze fest.

Should look up chaz adress and mail him one.

Nothing, pretty much. I have one specific friend who wants me to play Heroes of the Storm. But I fucking hate those kind of games, so I wont.

I've also been told by the same friend that I need to play Witcher 3, and he himself haven't played the game more than a few hours like a couple months ago. Not sure why he's recommending me a game he didn't find captivating himself..

Game is very fun and will provide lots of hours of entertainment, I'd say go for it dude. It's like football, but fun. :P

The last game I was told to play was Diablo 3. I have the game but haven't played it. Took watch on youtube and said--nope. I had the same feeling for Diablo 3, Destiny, and No Man's Sky was shown: what's the point of these games? As one of my co-workers once told me in regarding to FF15--"I have to work in real life to make a living and survive--in FF15 I have to do the same thing. Might as well just live my life instead of playing the game." In my case, I rather grind and wait for rewards in real life--working out, going on a diet, etc.

One guy at work keeps telling me to play Black Ops, and i'm like yeah that's never going to happen because CoD games bore me to tears.

Another guy at work keeps talking about the Last of Us and tells me it's the best game ever, and I laughed my arse off when he told me he cried like a little baby at the end, I have no time for games like that.

It was Nier and Persona 5.

I picked up both and I love Nier, and Persona 5 I don't think is for me.

I still need to pick up Nioh

On this board, The Last of Us.

It's apparently the greatest game ever made (tm).

The Witcher 3, I haven't ever played a Witcher game. Looks really good though, Skyrim was a major dissapointment to me, as was Fallout 4, as was Metal Gear Solid 5. I don't know, it seems as though last gens games were much better.

i picked up persona 5 based on strong reviews and an infectious enthusiasm for it and P4G from some here (a persona game was on my to try list). the source for the hype went right over my head :S. its not bad. its very stylish. some nice music. the story was not what i expected (which is nice..not a complaint at all). but the real world element of it does nothing for me and the rest of it is standard JRPG fair. its executed well for what it is but i dont see it as any sort of GOAT or anything.

the souls bourne series is quite a common one. i picked up demons souls based on the hype around it. didnt like it. i got all caught up in the craziness around the DS3 launch. i was looking for DS1 but could only find 2. better than demons souls but still dont like it. trying to like it as on paper there is a lot i like about the games. but i dont get on with them. so everyone is now onto me saying "no no try DS1. that will convert you". it wont though.

on a more positive note i got caught up with the hype for monster hunter (on my to try list also) with tri and loved that. looking forward to MHW and MH on the switch.

The Witcher 3

@jg4xchamp: Doubt you'd like Persona 5.

GTA5 online

The Witcher 3 and breath of the wild.

Thanks. Helped a bit but there's only so much you can get across in 5 minutes. I checked out another video after that was a more in depth retelling (about 40 minutes.) and even though it did a fairly good job it was still hard figuring out who was who and what certain individual's motivations/reasons for doing things were. It was also hard trying to keep up with all the strange sounding names everyone has, lol. Guess I had to have played it, right?

;)

I noticed when I started the game it asked if I wanted to have pre-selected events from the previous games or not so I chose the former. Hopefully this makes the game a little easier on someone like myself who is venturing into this world for the first time.

-INFO OVERLOAD NINJA APPROVED-

From those in the beta including my son.... Sea of Thieves.

It was Shadow of the Colossus until last year. I'm glad I played it as it due to the place it etched out in gaming history, but I personally didn't find it all that great.

player unknown battlegrounds obviously!

@videogameninja: NP, TW story is a lot to take in but not a lot compared to something like GoT or Lotr but it's dark fantasy setting is daaaaamn good. People don't realize that The Witcher has 1 book that has few short stories, then there's 6 books that takes place during ciri's/geralt's life together (pre games) which most of them only got a Polish to English translation within the last few years (Ironically all of these books have been out since the 90s). Now that I think about it The Witcher series reminds me a lot of the Dark Tower series lol.

Transistor. I got it on sale but still not played it.