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Games you considered buying and regret not doing so (but cant be arsed with now)

Started by peanutbutter, July 15, 2021, 07:09:37 PM

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peanutbutter

As a kid I grew up in the countryside and didn't have internet so on the occasions I'd get to a town with a gamestore it was a virtual guarantee that only a few of the games I REALLY wanted would actually be there so I'd usually wind up having to take a punt on a game or two I either knew very little about or didn't seem like something I'd like but was super acclaimed.

Can remember seeing Shadow of Memories tons and tons, seemed like any store with a used games section had it. The cover had mildly interesting very Japanese early PS2 character models and the whole thing felt super Japanese, think it had a big "CVG 5 STARS" plastered on the box too. Pretty much every time for a year that I'd see it I'd consider it and opt against it because I knew fuck all about what the game was.
These days it seems to be a bit of a cult classic and I've seen enough to suggest that I probably would've been super happy with it for a tenner back then but probably wouldn't be able to sit through the opening video now.


Grandia 2; REALLY wanted Grandia 1 but knew it'd never show up near me. A couple of years later Grandia 2 seemed fairly commonplace but the combo of feeling like I'd miss some of the story (is it even a continuation???) and the box art style seeming so much less appealing than the first game put me off. In retrospect at the time I would've lapped up any remotely okay JRPG so I should've just gotten it. Once I got broadband I was pretty much done with JRPGs entirely (w/e of a couple of years playing SNES and PS1 ones on the PSP)


Championship Manager 00/01; got it into my head it was like GTA London and that I'd need Championship Manager 3 to play; so I held off on getting it (and 01/02), instead waiting to stumble upon a copy of Championship Manager 3 (think CM4 was almost out by this stage...)...

willbo

I wish I'd tracked down the Zelda type game Landstalker on mega drive as a kid. Obviously now I've had the ROM and all the Nintendo games it was ripping off, but then I had access to nothing like it and I would have loved it. I wish I'd got into populus more too.

evilcommiedictator

Buying a Battlefield game (like 4 say) when they actually had a big playerbase and were new. They would have been fun.

stonkers

My flatmate got a second hand X-Box around 2004 and Shadow of Memories was among the pile of games with it. We had a good couple of weeks with me playing it and my flatmates just riffing on it, it's a fun enough adventure games as I recall.

I got Grandia II on the Dreamcast second hand, similarly after waiting years for the English translation of Grandia I on the Saturn, which obviously never materialised. I was well chuffed with it until I discovered there was a scratch on the disc that meant you couldn't get past a certain point about 10 hours into the game. Annoyingly it goes for a good few bucks on eBay these days but I'm not selling it knowing fine well it doesn't work.

I opted to get Shining Force III on the Saturn instead of Panzer Dragoon Saga, which I regretted for a while. SFIII is actually the much better game though. I'm also sure I would have eBayed Panzer Saga for about a tenth of what it currently goes for, which is what I did with SFIII but at least the price difference isn't quite as much.

St_Eddie

Quote from: peanutbutter on July 15, 2021, 07:09:37 PM
Can remember seeing Shadow of Memories tons and tons, seemed like any store with a used games section had it. The cover had mildly interesting very Japanese early PS2 character models and the whole thing felt super Japanese, think it had a big "CVG 5 STARS" plastered on the box too. Pretty much every time for a year that I'd see it I'd consider it and opt against it because I knew fuck all about what the game was.
These days it seems to be a bit of a cult classic and I've seen enough to suggest that I probably would've been super happy with it for a tenner back then but probably wouldn't be able to sit through the opening video now.

Quote from: stonkers on July 19, 2021, 08:14:31 PM
My flatmate got a second hand X-Box around 2004 and Shadow of Memories was among the pile of games with it. We had a good couple of weeks with me playing it and my flatmates just riffing on it, it's a fun enough adventure games as I recall.

Shadow of Memories is a perfectly serviceable, if unexceptional adventure game, but it tends to get a ridiculously undue amount of praise from certain circles.  I know exactly why; it's because for many people who grew up playing console games and never dipping their toe into the world of PC gaming (nor playing one of the few previous console adventure games), it was their introduction to the adventure genre.  It broke their adventure game virginity, so to speak.

One such person was a friend of mine way back when.  He excitedly told me about playing Shadow of Memories and how it was "completely unlike any other game! It's all about the story and characters and you don't fight people, you solve puzzles!  It's incredible!".  I had to explain to him that whilst it was great he was enjoying it so much, the genre had already existed for decades on PC and that there were far superior adventure games to Shadow of Memories.  Understandably, he seemed deflated, but what can you do?

I'm convinced it's why the game has such a cult following; lots of console gamers getting a small taste of a previously unknown genre.  If it had been a PC adventure game, it would have been quickly forgotten about and relegated to the obscure B or C list adventure game pile of history, along with titles such as Still Life or The Big Red Adventure.

bgmnts

My first experience with adventure games was a piece of shit point and click called Dracula: Resurrection on the PlayStation in the late 90s.

Needless to say, it put me off them until I played Dreamfall and Broken Sword. God only knows how rubbish some stuff on PC before that was.

St_Eddie

Quote from: bgmnts on July 20, 2021, 12:45:06 AM
My first experience with adventure games was a piece of shit point and click called Dracula: Resurrection on the PlayStation in the late 90s.

Needless to say, it put me off them until I played Dreamfall and Broken Sword. God only knows how rubbish some stuff on PC before that was.

The 90's PC scene saw the release of what are generally considered to be the greatest adventure games of all time (with the LucasArts titles being arguably the cream of the crop).  You really ought not to be using console releases of the time as the measuring stick of what adventure games were like on PC back in the early-to-mid 90s, much less Dracula: Resurrection.  Not to say that there weren't garbage adventure games on PC too, because of course there were (including the aforementioned Dracula: Resurrection), but there were also many, many bona fide classics.

SIDE NOTE: It should be noted that the two adventure games which you mentioned as impressing you, both started out with PC as their primary development platform.  Broken Sword was a PC game originally (before being ported to PSOne and other consoles) and Dreamfall was a dual PC and console release and is the sequel to the PC exclusive The Longest Journey.  The latter being far superior to Dreamfall, quite frankly (which was compromised and dumbed down to appeal to console gamers - much like Deus Ex: Invisible War was in comparison to the original).


Paul Calf

The Mass Effect trilogy. Unless there's a reissue I probably won't bother as Mass Effect 3 is bilge.

peanutbutter

Adventure games in general are a good shout here for me actually.

I bought all the LucasArts ones I actually saw for sale as a kid (so just Grim Fandango, which I loved but even as a kid could spot some bits were janky or bullshit). When I had dial up I would've been able to download quite a few of the earlier ones and tolerated the floppy disc emulation stuff cos I was bored as fuck, but everywhere seemed to rave so much about the voice acting that I put them all off until I could get access to versions with voice acting.
Second I got broadband I had zero tolerance for the kind of puzzles in those games.


Quote from: St_Eddie on July 20, 2021, 12:37:15 AM
I know exactly why; it's because for many people who grew up playing console games and never dipping their toe into the world of PC gaming (nor playing one of the few previous console adventure games), it was their introduction to the adventure genre.  It broke their adventure game virginity, so to speak.
how
Was thinking of making a thread about this kind of thing but forgot about it. I remember one friend who owned a gamecube being super into True Crime: Streets of LA, no doubt due to the absence of GTA3 on the console. Think there was a similar thing with Turok on the N64.

Cold Meat Platter

Quote from: Paul Calf on July 20, 2021, 10:18:47 AM
The Mass Effect trilogy. Unless there's a reissue I probably won't bother as Mass Effect 3 is bilge.

I bring good news.

madhair60

Panzer Dragoon Saga in a second hand shop for £20

Me: Twenty quid for a Saturn game? lol fuck off