This one is the entry I feel the least strongly about, and I'm actually planning on giving it another shot, but basically I think the difficulty curve is extremely fucked, and you can definitely tell that companions were a late addition to the game because they a) aren't particularly fleshed out story wise for the most part, they have like maybe 1 "thing" they're involved in and thats it and b) they kinda completely break the game's challenge. Other than that, idk I feel like the quests aren't all that interesting and the combat is pretty boring.

I didn't hate aria, but I felt as if my enjoyment with it peaked rather early. By the time I got to the usual "get the actual ending through meeting some obtuse conditions" I was already fairly exhausted with the game. Then I beat what I thought was the final boss only to be hit with "nah you didnt actually finish dumbass" I just couldn't be bothered. Feels a lot more annoying than usual as an igavania

Though I have softened on my stance in recent years due to funnily enough, a BL review I read on its design philosophy which made me see it in another light. That being said, I hate stealth games, so I guess I don't know what I was expecting, and dishonored seems tailor made to piss me off, where messing up stealth is not only a momentary bit of extreme danger and tension, but also punishes you by making all subsequent attempts at stealth harder. With the ubiquitous quick save, it becomes a slog as every level has 100 instances of "I could try and do this stupid section undetected again, or just live with it and kill everyone, which will be faster and more entertaining". The acting is also amazingly wooden and the story is incredibly predictable. Never have I given less of a shit by being betrayed by my allies than here. Better than deathloop at least

I don't hate Gravity Rush. In fact, I love its movement system, its great. Unfortunately for GR, games need more than just core mechanics, and in that respect its severely lacking. Story, Combat, Structure, etc these are all quite bad. The most fun I had was honestly just doing races and other formulaic open world staples, but those require doing more of the criticial path, which involves mostly combat and a story written by the world's most extreme sufferer of ADHD (I can relate but...) who is seemingly bored of every single element as soon as its introduced. Banger soundtrack, however. I never finished the game, I got to the peter pan esque chapter and just gave up. This was at a time during covid where I was legally forbidden from leaving my house btw

Yeah, this one is mostly a skill issue, Ill admit. I like the story, the atmosphere and the artstyle, unfortunately I kind of hate the gameplay. Inside might be considered a horror game and I think thats why I dislike it. Its always been the reason for my dislike of horror games, the paradox at their core for me. In order for there to be a "threat" or "danger" these must employ the threat of a fail state, but if you actually get hit by it, it inmediately dissipates all tension and immersion, which is kind of where an emotionally intense experience lives or dies. "Oh, thats right, Im playing a videogame" I think to myself, "this isnt actually a dangerous situation, its more of a momentary annoyance" and then any fear I might have felt swiftly transforms to anger, the simulation reveals itself for what it is, repeating a section betrays the mechanical precision and inhumanity of the situation, its like watching a movie and seeing the seams of the monster's poorly sewn costume. I think if I inmediately understood every single puzzle or setpiece in Inside as soon as I experienced it, and made it all the way to the end without dying more than once, it would possibly have been the greatest experience ever. Unfortunately, games do not work on such a choreographed, directed framework like a movie or play, it takes two to tango and whether or not I was failed by Inside or I failed it, the fact remains that its delicate balance fell apart, and I am left envious of those who walked its Knife's edge to the end.

Dull, slow, unchallenging gameplay. I did not make it to the end, but the story, whilst having interesting concepts, wasn't enough to stop the pit in my stomach of emptiness when I was playing it

I think I briefly reviewed it, but to summarize, I just didn't get it, honestly. Might have been good had I experienced it completely unspoiled but I'm not even sure. I didn't like the bullet hell combat or the dialogue or puzzles. I gave it a few tries but it just didn't grab me, sorry

Loved it as a kid, but I just think its horribly paced even for a pokemon game, which is like being known as a "particularly sociopathic" tory MP

Just here as a stand in for all Metal Gear games. The most I ever got into one was peace walker, which is another take considered insane. Again, I hate stealth games, but the metal gear solid games have specific elements that make this even more so, namely "you might as well reload a save if you get spotted" syndrome, poorly edited dialogue that overexplains everything, sickening viewbobbing cause movie, and baffling control scheme decisions. Again this is another take which is apparently very controversial, but of the games I tried (2,3 on vita, peace walker on psp) PW had the more intuitive and easy controls to get to grips with, and thats a game where you control the camera rotation with the face buttons! Anyways, skill issue I'm sure, but I just don't care enough to "get good" or even abuse save states to get through it given what seems to be the reward for doing so. I am mildly interested in Death Stranding, however.

Similar to Inside. I was mostly miserable playing it, interesting atmosphere but gameplay was really not my thing. I now take back every time ive ever praised minimalism in game design. Give me maximalism now, I want the UI to look like a F2P Korean MMO from the early 2000s

I did a whole ass oversharing review of it which you can read, but TL;DR OW is a game of 4 horrible defeats for every 1 victory and it wore me down. It also brings you down with its message kinda cleverly through the whole "sun station" realisation, but then attempts to bring you "back up" through its ending, but I felt nothing, it wrung completely hollow, so it only succeeded and making me depressed. I was admittedly in a worse headspace at the time, but idk. It still remains strange to me, how rabid of a fanbase it has accrued. I also, would like to forget all about Outer Wilds, but not to play it again...

I'm not too sure of the rankings Ive made here, because some of them are not as beloved as others, some have their vocal haters, but this is definitely the game I was thinking of when I made this list. Yeah, I'm "That asshole who doesn't like Katamari Damacy" and I don't think I have much analysis of why really. I played like 2/3rds of it on dolphin before failing a mission for the first time and I was kinda bummed out by it. The katamari controls are unconventional on purpose of course, but it never felt much of a problem until there was an actual pressure to get big in time. And whilst Im enough of an adult to not be completely demoralised by the King of All Cosmos's over the top scolding, it didn't really help. Soon that sensation was back, a pit in my stomach, and empty void as I gathered more shit to stick in the big rolling star. I gave up. I brought this up during a voice call with some acquaintances and I think its no coincidence we haven't really talked since. It seemed truly baffling to them that someone would not play Katamari to the end (its a relatively short game) and I suppose there's not much either or us can do to understand the other's point of view.

Fast forward to a few months ago I heard the Reroll Steam release had a more generous time limit so I bought it and gave it a spin (heh) but I didn't even make it past the first level before the sensation resumed. I was just miserable even thinking about continuing with it, so I just shelved it indefinitely. I can't really explain why, its a famously cheerful game, but somehow it just leaves me feeling down. So yeah, this is definitely my own personal "I did not care for the godfather" moment