It’s rare, but sometimes the games we love just don’t appeal to us anymore. Sure, things may start off great in the beginning, but eventually something sours and we turn against even our most cherished titles.
This phenomenon happened to me recently with Battlefield 3, something I talked about a bit on Episode 37 of the GamerSushi Show. Since then I’ve tried to get in a few games to see if I could get back into it, but the magic is gone. I don’t know if it’s a case of preferring the way that Bad Company 2 handled, or if the netcode is really bad on my end, or what, but Battlefield 3 has just dropped off my radar.
It’s kind of a shame considering how hyped I was for this game, something my fellow staff members and regular readers would know fairly well. I posted every trailer and every snippet of news about the game, but now I can’t even go fifteen minutes without turning it off.
I wish I knew what made me turn my back on the game, but it’s very hard to pin down. At first I was enjoying the beautiful environments and the destruction (toned down as it was), but then I noticed that I was getting killed behind cover a lot, or I was being killed by five or less shots when I’d already fired a whole magazine, or no one on my team was PTFOing. When Back to Karkand came out it helped revitalize my affection for the game, but after hours on Wake Island (which is somehow now a terrible map to play), I’m considering leaving BF3 behind for good.
I don’t lone wolf all that often, but I’ve been doing that more now that my normal squad mates have left. Maybe it’s a case of me trying to fit in to a team-based game, but even the most team oriented titles allow for a little solo play. Has anyone else experienced something similar with a game? Have you started off enjoying something and end up not standing the sight of it?
I’m right with you. I listed it as most disappointing game on an earlier post, after totally forgetting about it. I like to play through a complete single-player campaign before jumping into multi-player but just couldn’t with this one. I got a couple hours in, got frustrated, jumped into multi-player (after troubleshooting with browsers for a while…) and just hated the experience. What a complete let down from all my joy and excitement :(.
Gotta disagree. I have been enjoying it since the beta. I haven’t had any problems since there. Geez, I even kinda like (?) Battlelog.
I gota lucky I must say. I find people to play with and they make good team mates.
Even then my only complaints were some of issues that now, at least for me, are fixed.
I think the experience differs with everyone on every system and every setup.
My contribution would have to be Skyrim. I was so excited for this game, counting down til release day, watching all the trailers multiple times. I played about 30 hours when I realized I wasn’t really having too much fun. Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time. I had to start it about 5 or 6 times to finally appreciate it, but when it clicked, I couldn’t turn away. Oblivion, while not as magical for me, was still an excellent game at the time, though now I look back at it and can see its many flaws, and I’m not just talking about the glitches. Part of this realization was Fallout 3. I played it through once, couldn’t put it down, beat it, played other things, came back to it and fell in love with it yet again, this time with a new character and several DL packs (the best of which is Point Lookout).
When I finally got my hands on Skyrim, it just felt like more of the same. Yes, it’s beautiful. Yes, it’s wide open. I just couldn’t keep playing. Hopefully someday soon…
Skyward Sword is that for me. I was so enthralled with having a new Zelda that I overlooked the slow starting pace. I really enjoyed the dungeons and the overall story, in addition to the game’s climax. I even loved the controls. However, I haven’t touched the game since I beat it. It’s sitting at a new game plus, and I don’t want to pick it up again, despite its strengths. I don’t know what it is, really; it’s not a bad game, I just don’t want to play it anymore. Nintendo is proving their eagerness to push the series forward in terms of design; but they’re only taking baby steps. The Wii itself is probably what made me wary of replaying the game; the hardware is dated (the game’s aliasing is horrible). The visuals were okay, but I want to see another game in the visual style of Twilight Princess.
Anytime I start feeling that a game’s getting stale I simply take a break from it. If I’ve had enough Halo, I’ll play Counter Strike, if I’ve played Skyrim too much, I’ll play Assassin’s Creed. I never continue playing the same games for long without starting some other one (except with Fallout: New Vegas, it just sucked me right in).