8 Video Games That Just Aren't As Good As You Remember

hello all of you little demons jules here for whatculture.com back again with another episode of the awesomely named and awfully hosted choose your own adventure the weekly medieval theme format where i the crown jewels of whatculture.com take a list chosen by you yes you the person who went on holiday and got eaten alive by bloody mosquitoes and midges they love the eggs yes you get to decide what list i dole out to you each and every week and this week we have none other to thank them adrian chandler for their suggestions of video games that just aren't as good as maybe you remember them being and this is the thing when it comes to video games we all remember those pivotal moments in our lives those emotional points where we think that we resonated so well with the game that it therefore made the title absolutely perfect unfortunately i'm going to execute the dreamcrusher.exe file today as i'm going to remind you with a harsh dose of reality that sometimes video games just aren't as good as we remember them now i am in full awareness that this will indeed rile up the jimmies of many people across the world and you know what fine you can be angry it's completely your own opinion and remember this is a bit tongue-in-cheek as well i'm putting a few of my own personal ones here that i absolutely love to the moon and beyond but still realize that maybe they're not as great as i thought they were so hey give and take let's have some fun and just try not to get too salty alright take that put on a margarita glass rather than your rim you know what i'm saying anyway let's crack on with it as i'm jewels this is whatculture.com and these are eight video games that just aren't as good as you remember and you know the drill by now say hi to me here in the live chat and pop your suggestions down in the comments section below for next week's episode now with that let's get on with this list shall we number eight x-com ufo defense now truth be told i am absolutely besotted with the x-com franchise routinely ponying up the dough basically just to have my face kicked in and mutter thank you sir may i have another through bloody lips and missing teeth i absolutely love it i don't know why maybe it would actually explain a lot of my pawn searches bds simulated no judgment no king shaymin i love the ever-growing alien threat and the delicious micromanagement that comes with guiding your team to victory as well as making sure that your bases are well stocked and defended however even i as a julian gollup shriner owner have to draw the line at the original title xcom ufo defense because this game is just absolutely in places if you thought that missing a 95 chance to hit shot was infuriating in the latter games then trust me you have seen nothing here because you will march your squad one by one down the entrance to your ship only to be shot by aliens who are completely out of sight with much superior weaponry and oh boy is that fun this wasn't a war it was a bloody massacre wrapped up in a rather confusing ui layout with button icons that seem to actively go against what they actually did when you pressed them this was a game that felt rigged from the start and only got worse from there requiring you to have precognition more than any actual tactical acumen and this is the thing when it came to critical reception for this game ten out of tens were everywhere people were claiming this to be the perfect game of this genre some even saying that it redefined it but you know what my friends were they playing the same game this isn't perfect and it kills me as an x-com fan to say this this was a mugging of a game the game literally came along was just like i'll have your soul i have your dignity and to love your money and you felt like a mug as well because basically what you had to do was go on the very few at the time guides and maybe a few online videos i mean they definitely didn't exist back in the 90s but when they started coming out in slithers he had to use them in order to equal the footing of playing this game just to even play the game i love the franchise but my god does this make me feel like an idiot number seven jet set radio now sometimes you only notice a problem when something else comes along and fixes all of the mistakes only therefore highlighting them in the process and such was indeed the tragic case of jet set radio when the almighty monolithic powerhouse that is jet set radio future came along and showed us the true meaning of love what is love what is love in fact before i start this section i must declare my undying love for this franchise and the only way to do that properly is to use it for today's musical interlude james and jazz i hope you are both well and settling in to your new flat together that's right believe it or not there are actually a couple i know it shocked even me i just thought they worked together i i i wasn't that um observant right so let's do today's game proud with some jet set radio future inspired refuge well i tell you about the concept of love or necessarily how much i love this game understand understand understand understand understand how much i love this game because you see while jet set radio still looks absolutely stunning and carries with a soundtrack that is pretty much iconic jet set radio future just did everything and i mean everything better from its now even slicker visuals to the huge cast of characters and an even funkier soundtrack it's like apples and oranges except in this case the orange is neon colored and seems like it was blessed by the holy spirit himself yes that's right this png of an orange that i'm carrying in my hand here was blessed by the one and only slime jesus himself i'm sure it will be a succulent snack my lord thank you very much for bestowing it upon me and keeping it away from the tentacles of beelzeblob this is my orange stay away i'll vitamin see you later bro in hell i hope james has made me eat that orange and not just like maybe throw it away or something be a waste of food yet the real issue that held jet set radio back even without comparison to its predecessor is that for a game so focused on speed it's so bloody slow if you hit a grind at the wrong angle your speed would be killed instantly without any way to get it back outside of hopping off and trying again things also slowed to a cruel when it came to tagging with a static minigame taking place making you into a big target if the police were out on patrol again these things were fixed in the sequel making jet set radio a rather tragic case of just a game that's gonna fade into obscurity because there's little reason to play this when the sequel is just that damn good i mean i covered it in last week's episode and it's round again that's how good it is number six rayman one now it might feel at first a little bit harsh to take umbrage with a game that is just this goddamn beautiful and in fact maybe many of you will be writing to me now in the comments saying that why why have i put rayman on this list it's one of your childhood favorites and i know it is one of mine as well but there is just one huge problem with this game that posits it here directly on this list and i'll get to that in a minute you see the opening stages of rayman with its gradual difficulty incline and lusciously different worlds and enemies make for some of the purest platforming enjoyment that one can get however the wheels absolutely come off this experience when the third level kicks in and kicks the out of you basically stating that it's gonna drop the act now and that this game actually is not for kids at all despite those cutesy aesthetics this sudden spike in difficulty plus some absolutely level designs turned this game into one of the hardest titles on the ps1 and i'm genuinely not kidding and when coupled with some pretty um dog dick mechanics like a password slash save system that remembers the exact amount of lives that you were on when you made that save making for some situations where the game can literally be impossible because you don't have enough lives to get through until the end that is rather infuriating turning what is a rather dream-like looking experience into an utter nightmare oh and to top it all off you can only fight the final boss after you've collected every single one of the collectibles in each bloody stage so yeah have fun with that number five the elder scrolls iii morrowind if you ever are in need of a good laugh then i recommend that you go over to the steam store and take a look at the video game rating system that they use there because i'm not gonna lie it seems absolutely bonkers when you look at some games there where they have 10 out of 10 rankings all the way across the board and you think to yourself i remember this as being slightly marred it's not a 10 out of 10 experience but this is the deliciousness of the steam storefront and the fact that this 10 out of 10 isn't actually reflective of the game you're about to play in its vanilla experience but usually because what it can achieve when mods are included because with mods well you can take even mediocre experiences and send them into bloody orbit and morrowind is one such game as if we're being truly brutally honest this game needs mods to be even playable in this day and age for a start the title looks like you could cut beef on its edges and move so slowly the erosion looks nippy seriously getting from one location to another on foot gives me early day z flashbacks no one needs that and if you hope that the combat between these lengthy journeys would pull you in then i hope you brought your prey station because rn jesus is in full effect here rolling enough dice to make a dungeons and dragons dm sweat as it tries to figure out what you're hitting or to be more specific how badly you're bloody missing the story the law the world building all of this are designed to pull you in but the actual gameplay mechanics of morrowind when played today my god it feels like they're keeping you at arm's length and on the end of the arm there's a fist doing this right in your face you just like cheers dude can i can i can i play the game now no you love it you love it you love missing you love missing a mud crab when it's right in front of you yeah i love it i'm not bitter at all number four tony hawk's pro skater while the tony hawks franchise might be experiencing something of a renaissance in this day and age what with the recent remasters absolutely knocking it out of the park and a rumor that a new mainline entry might be dropping in the next year or two things are definitely looking up but as we probably will never forget there was a time where the birdman wasn't flying quite so high and no i'm not talking about the skip fires that were tony hawk's pro skater 5 or ride because you know what you can't even fall if you don't get off the bloody ground on these things i'm actually referring to the original game which despite laying the groundwork for the future of this lucrative series so incredibly well isn't actually all that smooth a ride upon returning to it today and while the basics are all in place such as the addictive trick system hidden secrets and of course the thumping soundtrack the game lacks any ability to chain tricks together something that tony hawk's two and three sought to rectify and in doing so catapulted the series into the spotlight that was still a fun game don't get me wrong but the inability to use reverts and manuals to chain things together really do make it feel well kind of sluggish and rather obsolete i mean when you go back and play the remaster now of the first two games especially the first you realize how much more fun this game is with the systems of the later games added in but when you play it without that well there's really only the soundtrack that's gonna do anything for you number three goldeneye double 07. did it just get hotter in here oh wait no it's just the laser-like glare of every single gold knife fan across the world coming in homing in on this bad boy calm down lads i don't tan well let me explain all right so you see golden knight when it comes to its level design incredible multiplayer and atmosphere is an utter marvel however when it comes to breaking bonds instead of making them the controls of this game make me swell with rage like dr kanaga by the way probably the best james bond death ever inflating and then exploding hilarious now this is a point that's been hammered home enough that it makes up a new face on mount bloody rushmore but yes the controls of this game when compared to the slickness and fluidity of a modern fps title are utter rotten clunky imprecise counterintuitive it is a testament to the strength of the rest of the game that gold knight is still remembered fondly to this day in fact if you ask any goldeneye purist they'll tell you to well put down the n64 banana controller and play it at 60 fps using a keyboard and mouse and i have to agree with them with those considerations made it is still an absolute gem of a game but playing it on that absolute clunker name i'll pass number two star wars shadows of the empire now i personally will carry a torch forevermore for this game for one reason and one reason only dash i can't believe this is actually a name that they went with render dash render it's about silly as two pipes isn't it yes dash render the shovel-chinned hero of the experience that was as quick with a one-liner as he was with his pistols it was easy to fall in love with the plot and setup of this title as well which sees dash team up with all the well-known rebel heroes as they try to take on a new evil in the form of a prince who desperately wants the emperor's wrinkly ball-faced affection but the problems begin when you start to play the game because the gameplay here is so rough that you could sand a bloody door with it and the shooting controls are so stiff that they're made of timber themselves players are given two modes of shooting in this game fire from the hip and hit with the accuracy of a near-sighted stormtrooper or a focused aim which greatly improves your chances of hitting but makes you stand absolutely still like a bloody golem as you eat round after round of enemy fire as you can imagine in a game so heavily focused on combat your choices of basically whiffing and praying for the best or standing still and just eating up lasers like it's an all-you-can-eat buffet do not make for a good time it is like asking me which one of my family members i'd like to see set on fire first neither option works for me pal nostalgia will always tell you that this was a great game but reality will show you that dying over and over and over is a mood that should be frozen in carbonite forever more and number one parappa the rapper now it truly makes me feel like a bit of a dirty dog to have to put the old verbal bullet in the head of parappa the rapper because he's a lovely lovely little mutt don't get me wrong but um i'm gonna have to old yeller the ps1 experience right now now while the soundtrack is infectious and its art style is utterly timeless there is a huge problem with this title that everyone seems to gloss over when fusing the nostalgia goggles to their face and that is that parappa the rapper is a rhythm game with input lag sick oh you don't agree with me well tell you what why don't you fire the game back up and let me know how that goes for you once you reach stage four where the timing is so out of sync that you actually need to rap off beat which in case you hadn't noticed is something that we're almost hard-wired not to do and things only get worse if you play the game through a modern lcd tv or indeed the psp where the timing windows were made smaller for some ungodly reason even the remastered version of both parappa the rapper one and two suffers from this problem meaning that while you might breeze through the first one or two stages you are going to have your fond memories covered in a large helping of dog feces come the later sections and who doesn't love having their dreams smashed and then it's called the tory special here in the uk oh yes i know it's oh feel that biting sizzling satire right there i know you that you come for the jokes you stay for the political commentary don't you oh i know that some of you hate it well you know what i don't care big love to you my friend and there we go my friends those were eight video games that just aren't as good as you remember i hope that you enjoyed that and please let me know what you thought about it down in the comment section below remember it's just a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun my friend that you might absolutely love these games with all of your heart and you know what more credit to you just don't give me a lot of flack in the comments it's just just a bit of a we laugh in it and blame blame adrian at the beginning for recommending this if you want to get on someone's case not passing the plane but just anyway back on track if you want to chat to me further you can do so over on social media at twitter where you can find me at retro j with a zero or you can find me over on instagram at retroj underscore insta or you can find me on live and let's dice over on twitch where i'm going to be doing lots of streaming outside of work and it'd be great to see you over there but before i go i do want to say one thing and it's a little bit of a departure from the topic of today but it is important nonetheless so recently i went on holiday with my wonderful girlfriend kerry we went away to a wooden cabin in the middle of nowhere with no signal and i'm just going to tell you my friends it was out of bliss completely unplugging from the technological age was actually quite refreshing and it reminded me of something very very important that it is very okay it is encouraged nate it is important that you cut yourself a break every now and again with social media with technology running rampant at the moment it can be very very hard to switch off and i just want to remind you that if you don't do that unfortunately you run the risk of burning out i have a wonderful job i have wonderful friends that i work with but at the end of the day it is a creative source and sometimes we too experience that as well i just want to remind people that burnout is not something to joke about and it's not something to be taken lightly so if you feel like you are getting a bit weathered and afraid please if you can cut yourself a break and just allow yourself to relax not only will it allow you to recharge both spiritually and mentally it will allow you to gain some perspective so you'll be able to look at the problems the issues that you're tackling in your real life and be able to approach them in different ways maybe with the help and support of others and that's all i want for you is just to live a healthy and happier life so just remember get yourself a break and be kind to yourself because i love you you should bloody love yourself as well as always i have been jules you have been awesome never forget that and we'll speak to you soon peace

Channel: WhatCulture Gaming

Views: 536,144

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Id: y56WLunLj2A

Length: 19min 9sec (1149 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 13 2021