Whats the best sub 8+ game you've played?

As we correctly know, a game scoring below an 8 is worthless. A massive waste of time and resource that amounted to nothing. A fart in the wind.

Our highly venerated gaming lords at Polygon, Kotaku, The Verge, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, IGN and Gamespot display diligence, fairness and precision when distributing scores. Rarely are they wrong, inept, bias, paid off or copying and pasting it from a Youtube review they liked.

However, (if you could indulge this mediocre thread), going by either Gamespot or Metacritics definitive score system, what is the best sub 7 title you have played?

Probably go with "A Hat In Time", such a lovely happy game where the developers' passion shows. Not as good as Black Ops III but pretty decent.

Ghost of Tsushima - Very immersive setting and I love how it improves on the AC formula

Mario kart 64 - I still play that game from time to time

Age of Empires - Cult classic

Days Gone - If I ever want to have a good laugh, I'll read the Gamespot review of Days Gone

Gothic is the first one that comes to mind, the game scored mediocre on most websites for some reason despite being light years ahead other rpgs in terms of world building, npc day and night schedules, choices mattering etc etc. such a great game!

Of a more recent game, ghost of tsunami seems obvious! Might not revolutionize anything but just a really well developed open world game that actually manage to become better as the game progresses! Most open world games tends to start out strong and then becomes a bit of a choir towards the end!

Metro series get 8 or 7 all around critics despite being one of the best FPS trilogy of all time.

Mario Kart 64. Boy were the critics wrong on that one…

In recent times ... Rage 2. The open world is meh and the driving was a total letdown. Has some serious technical flaws as well....

Still .... enjoyed it about as much as the Doom games and put in like 25 - 30 hours.

Mirror’s Edge! Innovative, really great art direction, fantastic soundtrack and just a pleasure to speed through! Love it forever!

Days gone

Miles morales

Ghost of tsunami

Godfall

Gothic was a game tried playing lit a dozen times over the years and thought it was shit. Total "wtf is this crap".

Then gave it a proper prolonged try and it went from that to "wtf this is one my fav RPGs"

Twu story.

@uninspiredcup: it is very rough around the edges and the age definitely shows, but back in the days it was groundbreaking imo! Tried G2? It’s even better than the first one and have a lot of the same ideas just in a much bigger world!

@djoffer123: Yes. PB games are kind of an auto-pickup now, even though their game are obv janky AF.

@uninspiredcup: aye it was to bad that their “ The Witcher 3” aka gothic 3 was a bug ridden mess, otherwise we might have had another AAA developer:/

@ghosts4ever: Metro series is always scored to high, it's a medicare series at beat. CoD with a darker tone.

no its not. its among best FPS franchise.

came in here with PB games in mind.

enjoyed pretty much everything they've done despite the incredible jank levels.

Elex took the jank to new heights but still had a good time with it. I like how you generally start out as totally weak and ineffective in their games and have to slowly build yourself up.

There’s been many games that scored less then an 8/10 that I’ve enjoyed. Not sure what my favourite of those might be but for the sake of this thread I’ll go with God Hand. It’s a 73 on Metacritic and that’s a crime or at least it should be. 😜

Ghost of Tsushima is a perfect example of why bothering to care what other's opinions are on games is worthless. I consider it to be one of the best games of last gen but if I had bothered listening to other's, I may not have bothered with it given the limited game time I have today.

Forget what other's think about games. Watch the trailers. Decide if it's something you want to play based on gameplay shown and have fun with them.

Darksiders 3.

@Sushiglutton: Mirror's Edge, totally. Critics basically said the original was innovative but flawed, and gave it a 7. Then Catalyst came around and they said it didn't live up to the original, and gave it a 7. OG is best but I think both are great.

Gravel is a recent game I enjoyed more than I expected. Has a 62 on metacritic. I get the criticism that it's graphics are dated and it doesn't have the production value of Dirt, but come'on people the game is fun. Remember fun? It's that thing you used to have playing stuff like Daytona USA and Sega Rally. Gravel is like those, but with a sprinkling of sim-cade elements. Makes it feel like its own thing as opposed to just a throwback.

But I'd say my biggest disagreement with the general consensus is Heavy Metal: Geomatrix on the Dreamcast. Yeah, the Heavy Metal license is cheesy as hell, and the music isn't the best, but this plays like Power Stone mixed with an arena shooter and is just as good as that makes it sound. I think a lot of the flak it got comes from it basically being a less ambitious take on Spawn: In the Demon's Hand. But that game was a janky mess. The smaller arenas and one on one combat fixed most of the predecessor's issues.

Days Gone. Probably the most underrated game of the generation.

Devil May Cry 2. Completely shit on by critics and fans but I honestly didn't think it was that bad. DMC1 > DMC5 > DMC3 > DMC2 = DMC4 > DmC however.

Days Gone- one of the best zombie games ever besides State of Decay series/RE series. The GS reviewer was pretty stupid and knocked the relationship between Deacon and his wife/love interest.....like her feminist attitude knows what a real relationship looks like lol.

Ghost of Tsushima- one of the best games ever created and it got over shadowed by the craptastic game TLOU2 and the wokeness part of society, specially this craptastic site.

Neo The World Ends With You- in a lackluster year so far for games in 2021, this is easily a contender for goty but 7spot strikes again.

Scarlet Nexus- probably the best jrpg in awhile, even with a slow burn in one of the character arcs its still a solid 8 for the combat, music and it's a game that makes you want a sequel.

Cyberpunk 2077- yes even with all of its issues at launch I'd still choose 2077 as a good game over 90% of the crap that's been released the past few years. Plus Jackie was such a good character for the amount of time he was in that game, such a bro.

Baldurs Gate 3 (EA)- its sad when an EA game is better than pretty much every western rpg that's been released the past decade

Genshin Impact- even though its a gacha game, its still a solid game if you want a game that plays like botw. The only downside of this game is the gacha rates other than that its one of the best f2p games ever.

Code Vein- easily one of the best souls like game that isn't Dark Souls or Bloodborne. One of the best plot twist endings ever if you play other games made by Bandai Namco it ties into God Eater series

Conan Exiles- people are just pissed off game characters look better than they do, plus its Conan

Detroit Become Human- such underrated such wow

I could list more but that's just a few games in the last few years

A Hat in Time is a damn good game.

It was the mario experience we deserved. I wish Nintendo were that creative.

Days Gone springs to mind.

Have you played the Motorstorm series? Is Gravel comparable?

recently the ascent

in the past Shadowrun 2007 (FPS)

@AsadMahdi59: Similar in the sense they are high speed arcade racing games with lots of jumps, hills, and turns, but the handling of the vehicles is pretty different. Gravel has a lot more sliding and drifting, and no nitros. It's a lot easier to lose control of your car. Also tracks are pretty linear, with no alternate routes. It feels more like Sega Rally, if you ever played that.

If you want something more like Motorstorm, Dirt 5 might be a better choice. That was made by a lot of people from the old Motorstorm team. But if you like arcade racing games in general, Gravel is a good one.

Def.

When play many open-world games feels like a theme park where everyone is subservient to you. PB feels more like a lived in grounded place.

Think they were one of the first RPGS where NPCS had routines as well? Even now in something like Gothic, with its old ass archaic visuals very effective in making the world feel organic.

Pretty much blind to scores when I play JRPG. Does have some absolute stinkers like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 snoozefest or unfinished games like Unlimited Saga and Lunar Dragon Song but I still somehow power through them.

*Edit.

Forgot to answer the question lmao. Best game under 8/10 that I have ever played is bloodborne. 1 site somehow rated the game 7/10 according to metacritics ;-).

Mount and Blade: Warband

@Telekill: I prefer watching footage of somenoe playing the game, 10 minutes is more than enough for me to decide.

@uninspiredcup: think ultima 7 was the first to do day and night cycles, but yeah definitely agreed about they managed to make the world feel organic and just made you a part of it, instead of everything only existing to make you feel special!

I don't really know/follow scores so it's hard to know, but the only thing that comes to mind is Days Gone.

I didn't even know Ghosts was a sub-8 game, based on the praise it got and awards I assumed it was a 9 or 10.

I forgot Ghosts was under 8 here. So definitely that!

Gothic is one of those games that feels old, looks old but I enjoyed the game. There is charm and solid mechanics behind the visuals and clunkiness.

The MotoGP series tends to score in the 7s, and 10/11 is considered a low point. Personally, it's one of my favorite motorcycle games.

• Mirror's Edge
• Mad Max
• Spec Ops: The line
• Watch_Dogs
• Indigo Prophecy
• SSX on tour

God Hand. It's one of the greatest action games ever made.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

My Time at Portia

The Ascent

Days Gone

Ghost of Tsushima

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Probably a bunch of other games as well.

Lollipop Chainsaw, it's one of my favourite games ever and I really want a PC port.

In terms of score versus my enjoyment:

GameSpot gave the PC version of Dead Rising 3 a 3/10, as if the score was supposed to be funny. Ironically it was maybe the best of the 8th gen console launch titles. I think the score was less reflective of the website itself, more reflective of an industry whose young emerging millennial staff gained their bona fides as industry insiders for maintaining NeoGAF accounts which itself was moderated like a Sony fanboy safe space and that echoed across the industry. Funny enough the signs were there, when the staff did their 8th gen console testimonials, anybody who got something other than a PS4 said basically they'd get picked on by the staff for it, seemed like a joke, maybe. Lot of those people left and I wouldn't ignore the potential how hostile the Sony fanboy NeoGAF culture made the office space. And again, I blame NeoGAF. And if we needed a reminder just how everything danced around this site, gaming websites, gaming YT channels, these very damn forums, every day, the stories, videos, forum posts would start with "today on NeoGAF... today on NeoGAF... today on NeoGAF." Funny, years ago people used to whine about the integrity of gaming journalism but this supposed industry intelligentsia by far has been the single most toxic thing of the last decade, that and website ad service making websites more click-baity, I miss the days people would get upset about how publishers were buying reviews, now they are filled with click-bait ads like buy the vitamins the government doesn't want you to know about, which is cyanide apparently, and BTW, I have won like a gazillion free iPhone. But I digress.

Deadly Premonition, actually GS gave it a 7/10, but IGN gave it a 2/10. A common misconception is it was "so bad it's good". More like it really lacked a lot of the superficial aspects of game market in its time (pushing the graphical boundaries), it fell short of competition in so many ways but despite that the game was so charming and bizarre that it really propelled the game past its shortcomings. I think the "so bad it's good" reputation did the sequel a disservice, because the sequel was so bad (I hear) it was almost like they kept it unoptimized and buggy intentionally hoping they'd replicate the cult praise the original got. Anyhow, original on Xbox 360 released for like $19.99, what a deal in its time.

And this from G4's X-Play, gave Metroid Other M a 2/5 star for two thumbs down or something to that effect... that review probably echoed the loudest of them all and people still default to its talking points. I started out grumbling about it too but I kind of hit the reset button on my brain (🥦🚬☺) and I got past the influence of that review and found out I actually really enjoyed it, a lot actually, wish they'd make more Metroid games like it.