Have you ever walked up to a metal fan and said ‘Iron Maiden are crap’? No? You know why that is? It just isn’t done. You can’t even say ‘Iron Maiden are okay’. To the majority of the Metal scene, they are awesome and that is the end of it. The games industry has a selection of games that fall into the same category, and sometimes I don’t agree with them.
When I say I dont agree, I am not saying that they are bad, I’m just pointing out that sometimes, they are just not my cup of tea. The weird thing is, the outrage and disbelief that I have encountered when I tell people that I’m not keen. I once had a conversation with a few friends, which was pretty much all about how awesome Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was. When I was asked for my opinion, my words came out sort of like ‘Mehh I don’t… ummm well… yeah I dunno *cough* well I suppose it’s alright… ish…’ before trailing off and realising that they were all staring at me wide-eyed in horror. Of course I quickly backtracked and said I hadn’t played much of the game yet. Which was technically true. I mean, yes, I rode around on a horse for about two hours before being attacked by wolves, thus losing my horse, making me wander around looking for another horse for another hour, and then proceeded to turn my Xbox 360 off in disgusted rage, but I suppose such stupidity on my part meant a rather disillusioned first impression. I tried again to get into this apparently fantastic game at the insistence of my friends, but I guess by then the damage was done, and I am yet to find my way into the first villiage.
Another well loved game (or should I say series of games) that I struggled to get into was the Mass Effect series. Now, I know that there are a lot of fans. They are excellent games and thoroughly deserving of their high review scores. My other half absolutely loves Mass Effect, has played the two games to death and is eagerly awaiting the third instalment. But maybe he in turn is the reason I cannot get into it. I think the hours upon hours of watching (and falling asleep to the very soothing soundtrack) meant that when it was my turn to have a go, I simply could not make myself enjoy it. The strangest thing is that Mass Effect has the same developer and publisher as Dragon Age: Origins, and I absolutely adore that game. They are also similar enough in gameplay that you can tell.
I have also almost missed out on great games because I have heard from other people that they aren’t so good . Bioshock 2, whilst being nowhere near as good as the first, is pretty decent. I bought it the day after release date and realised only a few weeks ago that I was still yet to play it. What I had done was listen to my friends tell me how much of a disappointment it was, left it on my shelf while I played other games and just forgot about it for a while. I read reviews on Lost Odyssey which gave it a 7 for the same reason I would have given it a 9 – old style RPG elements.
I guess my point is that sometimes one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Yes, reviews usually give a good guideline of how a game is going to be, and if someone gives a game a 2 out of 10, then chances are nobody is going to enjoy it, but sometimes the only person who can judge how much you are going to like a game is you, and if you’re worried about forking out for a bad game, sign yourself up for LoveFilm and rent it!
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