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It's funny. Laugh. Entertainment Games

MAD's 10 Worst Things about Gaming 93

Posted by Zonk from the spy-vs.-spy dept.
Deuce Magnum writes "GamePro's got up a story that was apparently designed by the guys at MAD magazine. It details the lows of video gaming, from big boobs to MMO patches. From the article: "8. Mind-numbingly dull 'cinema sequences' -- as if we really needed to interrupt the game with ten minutes of bad acting and cliche'd dialogue to explain the deep motives and back story of why Ratchet and Clank are running and jumping. 9. Choppy, second-rate video games designed for cell phones. Was text messaging not a useless enough way to drain battery power? "
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MAD's 10 Worst Things about Gaming More

MAD's 10 Worst Things about Gaming

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  • #10 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by joeljkp ( 254783 ) <joeljkparker.gmail@com> on Thursday August 11, 2005 @10:19PM (#13300252)
    "10. Video game magazines that spend months hyping a game as the second coming, lavishing it with praise and eagerly counting down to its release date, only to dismiss it when it comes out as third-rate, over-hyped crap."

    How true.

    • You know whatelse honks me off? Reviews for games that are 8.5-10, you know wildly outstanding, but when you get the game there are terrible technical issues with the game. Like Battlefield 2. A couple crappy patches, terrible multiplayer GUI, etc.

      That really bugs me. All the game mags are so in the pockets of the big publishers, they should just call themselves...EA Computer Gaming Monthly, for example.
      • You're just reading them wrong. 7.0-7.9 Craptacular crapfest of crap. Don't buy. 8.0-8.9 Mediocre gameplay, graphics, sound, and replay value. 9.0-10.0 The developers payed the magazine or website a few extra grand.
    • Yeah, when I read that, my mind flashed back to X-play and their entire episode devoted to "XIII".

      At least they own up to the fact that they kinda screwed up.

      But, yeah, nice try by the has-been humor mag to make a desperite appeal to what used to be a loyal fan base.

    • What kind of wacky-ass moderators are rating a comment fo "How true" as Insightful?

  • MAD Magazine... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vistic ( 556838 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @10:36PM (#13300315)
    ...really went down in quality after Gaines died. It's been pretty much bad since 1992. I picked one up in the supermarket not too long ago and to my horror I saw that now they actually have advertisements. It really threw me off, since before whenever I saw an advertisement in MAD it was a parody. I looked and looked for the joke but it just wasn't there. Plus now they've gone to color.

    The big landmark in MAD history where I saw it becoming crap was when that comic with the kid with bad hair and the slutty mom started appearing... "Monroe".

    Plus when the guy who did Spy vs. Spy died and now the new ones are horrible and in this awful spraypaint sort of drawing style.
    • Dude! I'll second your emotion. As someone who grew up reading MAD Magazine, I feel like weeping whenever I pick up one of the current issues.

      I think advertizing is a by-product of their incorporation into the AOL/Time Warner conglomerate years ago. But ads I can stand. The problem is, there is very little funny material in the magazine. Plus, almost all of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" seem to be gone (who remains? Sergio Aragones?) so nostalgia is not going to make me buy it.

      But then again, I'm not in
    • Hmm, I used to avidly read MAD as a kid/teenager, but I haven't bought a copy since about 90-92'sh. I was thinking about picking a copy up to see what it's like after all this time but, after reading your post, I don't think I'll bother.
    • I was given a copy a few months ago and after reading half of it I threw it away. I had to ask myself, "Did I really used to like such crap?" I'm glad to see that it isn't just my childhood memories getting the best of me.
    • plus when the guy who did Spy vs. Spy died and now the new ones are horrible and in this awful spraypaint sort of drawing style.

      I'll second that one.

      Spy vs. Spy became a very pale shadow of what it was before.

      For more than a decade it can't even pray to compare to Bugs Bunny vs Elmer Fudd.
    • I canceled my subscription the first issue I got where they started adding advertising. I knew the writing was on the wall then. They almost immediately started weakening their attaks to not piss off advertisers. THats a bad thing.

      I think they did have a few good months after Gaines died, but that was the writing on the wall. After that the corporate types took over.
    • Meh, EC Comics [wikipedia.org]' work really went downhill in 1954 with the introduction of the Comics Code Authority [wikipedia.org].

      Even including such current classics as Sin City, you'd be hard pressed to find works more gruesome, tantalizing, and chilling than the old EC horror comics.
  • Console manufacturers selling systems without basic essentials like memory cards or a second controller, so you have to shell out another 60 bucks before you can see so much as a hair on Luigi's mustache.

    It'd be great if they included all that sort of thing in with the game console, except 1. Lots of people don't need it, and 2. It'd make the console package cost more!

    Also, If your number 1 audience enjoys things that turn off women in gaming, f-them! No offense to the kind women gamers, but to some of us

    • Re:Uhmmm... what? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by bVork ( 772426 )
      A second controller is unnecessary for some people, but a memory card?! 95% of the games out there require saving, so there's just no excuse for not including a memory card with the system, since it is something you will almost certainly need. (Unless you have an xbox)
      • Hey, the Saturn had 512 KB of built-in memory, enough to hold a decent number of saves before you had to buy the ludicrously-oversized memory expansion cartridge.

        Memory cards are an ingenius way of getting gamers to pay $25 for 8 MB of memory in 2005. That's the going rate for a Memory Card (8MB) (for PlayStation® 2).
        • That's true, if by 'decent' you mean 'four or five games, and just forget about it if you plan on saving your Virtua Fighter 2 data or your NiGHTS a-life data' :P

          The Saturn is one of my favourite consoles, and I don't think the built-in memory is anything spectacular. At least it's better than the Sega CD's amount, though...
    • I think the point behind Sega and their great list of failures making it to the charts is because they made great systems. Even if some of them weren't the best they could have been at the time, they seemed to always push the boundaries on what could be done with a console. The reason that these failures hit No.4 (in my opinion) is that they could create an awesome platform, but there were never enough developers that signed to make games for it. Then we would watch the Sega $foo would quickly whither and d
    • It'd be great if they included all that sort of thing in with the game console, except 1. Lots of people don't need it, and 2. It'd make the console package cost more!

      While I'll I don't complain about the lack of a second controller, the lack of the memory card purely motivated by profit. Sit down young man, because I'm about to blow your freakin' mind. Back in the day games came on cartridges. If the game required saving, there were two ways of to save the game. The game would either give you a code li
      • What to do? What to do? Sell to a 10 million uncouth horny boys, or slightly adjust and sell to twice as many customers.

        Most of these games are in genres that among women only the regular gamers like and they are probably used to unrealistic boob sizes in their games. The average women who can double your sales numbers aren't interested in fighting games or whatever else uses bigboobed protagonists.
      • You mean theorecially twice as many customers. Of those 10 million, obviously very couth, girls perhaps 1 million would be even remotely interested in any game that would have such an ammount of cleavage (Fighting games and the like). Of those half wouldn't particularly care since they would by now be used to these portrayals.

        Now considering the uncouth boys you mentioned. For how many of them would the game be an impulse buy based on the prettiness of the cover work and in game screenshots on the back. S

      • What to do? What to do? Sell to a 10 million uncouth horny boys, or slightly adjust and sell to twice as many customers. I know! I'll write off have my potential customers!

        Simply changing Lara to a B-cup isn't going to make 10 million girls run out and buy Tomb Raider XXVI. Besides, why can't game companies make games for different markets, just as movie studios do with movies? Nobody complains that John Woo flicks lack sappy love stories, or that chick flicks don't have enough kung-fu action.
    • I enjoy needlessly sexy video game women as much as the next man, but not for a serious character. The last thing I want in a game that's supposed to have serious (or semi-serious) character developement is a woman that looks like someone's (or my) wet dream. You can't take that character seriously. However, I'm not going to lie and act like I never thought about buying that DOA volleyball game.

  • Boring list (Score:3, Informative)

    by Stormwatch ( 703920 ) <rodrigogirao@POL ... om minus painter> on Thursday August 11, 2005 @10:43PM (#13300350) Homepage
    Gamespy has much more interesting top 10 lists. [gamespy.com]
    • Yeah, and they aren't fitted with some sort of anti-me code that doesn't let me read their articles due to some arbitrary reason.

      Erm, I take that back.

      What the fuck is up with these shitty sites that don't display the article if you have javascript disabled or are using Firefox or something?

  • patches? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SanityInAnarchy ( 655584 ) <ninja@slaphack.com> on Thursday August 11, 2005 @10:47PM (#13300370) Journal
    Ok, when you bought the MMO, it was a finished product. When you "subscribed", obviously you were getting a "subscription" -- to something. Why not more content?

    And if you have dialup, why are you playing an MMO? If you're playing an MMO, why are you on dialup? If you're not on dialup, why do you care about patches?

    • Re:patches? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      Eh, I think the patches argument is overrated. Okay, it sucks that you've gotta get patches. On the flip side, it also sucks that your 'game machine' bears little resemblance to anybody else's game machine. Couple that with the fact that people are always inventing new ways to cheat on-line.

      Patches are a necessary evil.

    • Bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Moraelin ( 679338 )
      "And if you have dialup, why are you playing an MMO?"

      I'll bite. Where did the game say on the box that you need broadband to play the game?

      "If you're playing an MMO, why are you on dialup?"

      I don't even understand that question. Does subscribing to a MMO also give you a broadband subscription, or even just a broadband provider in your area? Or wth is the if-then relationship there?

      "If you're not on dialup, why do you care about patches?"

      I'm on DSL, and it seems to me like download times _are_ a problem even

      • WoW Patching (Score:3, Informative)

        by kaellinn18 ( 707759 )
        I don't know if you knew this or not, but this is just in case you didn't. If you're behind a router, in order for the Blizzard downloader to run efficiently, you need to forward some ports [blizzard.com] as well as enable connections on those ports in your firewall if you have one enabled. My guess is that, this being Slashdot, you already knew this, but there may be someone here who could make use of this information.
        • Also, you can usually find the patches off of I believe file planet(The usefulness of whic I won't get into), just as a normal download. I can see that if you're not getting it on a patch day, the blizz downloader sucking ass.
          • You do realize it's BitTorrent, right?
            • yes, but its a modified version that limits your download speed. It blows.
              • hmm, I know you're going to say STFW, but...

                I wonder if anyone's found a way around that? To swap it with a normal BT client? Or are they doing something with the tracker?
                • I think that if you want to take the trouble you can extract out the torrent file and just use whatever, but I'm really not sure. Anyway, I think also part of the origial poster's problem was that they weren't grabbing the patches on a patch day, so there are fewer people for them to grab it from.
                  • Now that's sad. If you're going to use BT as a distribution mechanism, you at least need to seed it. Come on, Valve is doing content delivery -- the whole package, not just updates -- online, without any p2p at all. Maybe Blizzard should work out a deal with them?
      • Where did the game say on the box that you need broadband to play the game?

        You don't, it's just better. You're right that they should've warned people, but anyone trying to play any game online these days should have broadband.

        Does subscribing to a MMO also give you a broadband subscription...

        Maybe it gives you a good reason to get a broadband subscription.

        I also reinstalled City Of Heroes recently. There goes another couple of hours of just downloading patches.

        Maybe I've just never played a game that didn

  • Lousy (Score:4, Funny)

    by Emperor Igor ( 106953 ) on Thursday August 11, 2005 @10:57PM (#13300424)
    You can tell it's by Mad magazine because it's not even remotely funny or clever.
  • ...since the topic is Yet Another Bad Video Game Cliche List, it doesn't seem so bad.

    What's with this new trend of converting random words within an article to paid ads that popup annoying little windows when moused over? That can't really be an effective ad delivery system, the vast majority of clicks are probably mistakes, and the little popups prevent the user from reading the actual content. Anyone who uses this little abomination care to comment?
    • It's hardly new : I even remember a few years ago there was software, in the same league as Claria, that would show these hyperlinks on -any- page you visited, once it had installed on your computer.

      Totally agree that it's distracting as hell, and I would only click those out of mistake.

  • Bad List (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Doomstalk ( 629173 ) on Friday August 12, 2005 @12:38AM (#13300970)
    1) Boobies = No women gamers
    A good point, but they don't seem to get to the root of the issue. It's not just the shabby treatment of women in games that turns them off. It's or the violence, or the language either. The fact is, your average "mature" title these days is dripping with pure unadulterated testosterone. Developers are too busy trying to grab their current target audience (males 17 to 25) to cultivate new audiences.
    The biggest games- the ones that sell millions of copies to non-traditional gamers- are almost all aimed at a wider audience. Halo 2 was big, there's no denying that- but it pales in comparison to The Sims or Rollercoaster Tycoon in raw staying power- they're practically cultural phenomena. The same can be said for Nintendogs in Japan, which helped the DS steamroll Sony's entire console family in May (haven't seen sales figures since then). That's the kind of stuff that will bring gaming to the masses, not a game designed to appeal to some 19 year-old trying to look cool sitting alone in his parents' basement.

    2) Peripheral gouging
    I'll concede the memory card point (despite it being pretty much moot for the Xbox and the upcoming 360 and Revolution consoles), since it's pretty much required to use the system. The second controller, on the other hand, isn't necessary at all. There are plenty of people who don't need them, so why require them to pay for something they won't even use? Not to mention that the console manufacturers are selling the hardware at a loss- they're not gouging, just trying to hit a price point with the basic system.

    3) The Sims branched out into the realm of fantasy.
    Kinda like a humor magazine that branches out into totally unfunny "worst of" lists... Wha? Oh, sorry I tend to ramble sometimes. Seriously, they're EXPANSIONS. If you don't want them, don't buy them- the basic game is fine on its own. Secondly, games are all about escapism. If gamers don't mind it being unrealistic (obviously they don't), then so be it.

    4) Sega consoles fail.
    Um, this point would've been relevant almost 5 years ago.

    5) The play timer proves what a loser you are.
    See today's article about speed runs. I'll leave whether or not that proves loserdom or not up to you.

    6) Unlockables suck!
    Unlockables can really lengthen the life of a game. A great example of this is Super Smash Bros. Melee: collecting trophies, and unlocking stages and characters kept me playing the single player element of the game much longer than if I would've otherwise (the multiplayer STILL gets a ton of play in my circle of friends too). When used with a good game, it just makes for an even more addictive experience.

    7) Downloading patches sucks.
    Would you rather they just leave it broken? Games are complicated, ESPECIALLY ones as big as MMOs. Bugs are pretty much inevitable, and getting them fixed improves the player's experience. They also fail to mention that a lot of said MMOG patches include content updates. Would you rather eschew all that new material just to save a few minutes logging on every month? I didn't think so.

    8) Cutscenes are boring!
    I think it's time to take your Ritalin.

    9) Sub-par cell phone games
    For all the choppy cell phone games out there, there are also a lot of great ones. Popcap makes a veritable treasure trove of great phone games, and pretty much every smartphone platform on earth has a Worms port. And these are just a few examples.

    10) Hype
    Good point, though it's ironic to see it on Gamepro.com.

    • Re:Bad List (Score:2, Informative)

      by turpie ( 8040 )
      5) The play timer ....
      I like play timers, if they show I've been playing for a really long time then I feel like I'm getting value for money. Though I've always wondered if there were kids getting into trouble from parents due to the number of hours they've racked up, actually I hope they're still in use on the next-gen consoles so I can keep an eye on my future kids.:)

      6) Unlockables suck!
      Unlockables are Ok as long as they dont make up half the game. Some games I've had required you to stuff around for hour

    • Re:Bad List (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Tom ( 822 ) on Friday August 12, 2005 @05:23AM (#13302062) Homepage Journal
      6) Unlockables suck!
      Unlockables can really lengthen the life of a game.

      The point of the article was not about unlockables, but specifically about way too many parts of a game having to be "unlocked".

      7) Downloading patches sucks.
      Would you rather they just leave it broken?

      I guess they - like me - would like to have higher quality releases.
      Sure, software always has bugs. Damn, my own software is so full of them that I could probably pack them up and sell them as a standalone product.
      But "a few bugfixes" is not what many patches are about. There have been quite a few games over the past few years that were hardly playable without at least the first, and sometimes the second and third, patch.

      Marketing pressure is to blame for that. You can easily see who drives a company when you look at the release cycles. If the company releases on the promised date, no matter how buggy it is, it's marketing driven. If the release date is moved back to actually finish the game, no matter the wasted marketing and fans crying, then it's technology driven.
      Me, I'd buy 3 games from a company I know for making good stuff before I buy one over-hyped but almost certainly buggy-beyond-hell crap.

      8) Cutscenes are boring!

      Not the point of the article at all. Please go and RTFA-Again

      • Re:Bad List (Score:3, Interesting)

        by HD Webdev ( 247266 )
        The point of the article was not about unlockables, but specifically about way too many parts of a game having to be "unlocked".

        On a similar point, I've always like games that avoid Undo/Saves (they save at certain times only or are limited at a small number...it's not up to the player).

        It's much like applications (Linux mostly) that often avoid the 'undo' command. People/Players learn much more when they don't have a Save/Undo to rely on.

        I use a map editor that didn't (purposely) used to have an
        • So what you're saying is that applications should only allow a limited number of saves per file (say, you're writing your thesis and you have to do it in 10 sessions) or just one version of the file to be saved?

          How about removing the delete and backspace form the keyboard? That would teach you to type without ever making mistakes!

    • 1) Boobies = No women gamers
      A good point, but they don't seem to get to the root of the issue. It's not just the shabby treatment of women in games that turns them off. It's or the violence, or the language either. The fact is, your average "mature" title these days is dripping with pure unadulterated testosterone. Developers are too busy trying to grab their current target audience (males 17 to 25) to cultivate new audiences.
      The biggest games- the ones that sell millions of copies to non-traditional gamers
      • Oh and one last thing. I like my women in video games SEXY. And that will factor into my decision in buy the game. And so will other guys. So I don't think that IS a problem at all. :)
      • You hit that one, girl gamers like interactivity and socialization. The ones who like it for real play MMOs or Diablo II or other games that basically force people to go online and be interactive, most female gamers I know play WoW or D2. Those who do not mind "fake" socialization enjoy the sims. Personally I hate the sims with a passion, but for some reason it is one of the few universal games.

  • Everyone's trashing the article (Score:4, Funny)

    by DoctaWatson ( 38667 ) on Friday August 12, 2005 @01:55AM (#13301356)
    But am I really the only one who thought the Sims: Sonic the Hedgehog takes on the Giant Firebreathing Turtles was funny?

    Snobs.

  • A word about unlockables... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Vo0k ( 760020 ) on Friday August 12, 2005 @02:41AM (#13301548) Journal
    Unlockables suck.
    Yes, they can prolong the game time. The "Why the hell do I finally get to..." way. They also horribly linearize the gameplay. (think key A to open door to find key to door B, to find keycard to door C, to get Attic Key D to Attic Door D...)

    Sure, allow them, but in strictly limited number, avoid "streamlining" them and make them optional. There are many ways to do so. Kick-ass enemies in areas where you're not supposed to go yet. If you can beat them - good for you! You're good enough to be there! Big/HUGE world all open to explore without obligations. No guiding you by hand through levels. If you find yourself with 15 different quests open at the moment and can choose to pick any one of them, all the better! (and if you allow for a creative way of sneaking into the "illegal area", good if you include "unlock from inside", so if you jump over the gate on the bridge in GTA:VC, you're not stuck on an island with no quests to do and no way to get back.)
    The best "unlockables" I found are the ones you get right in the beginning but learn how to handle (You, the player, not the character through game engine) hours later - Difficult to use properly but devastating when you master them.
    • I don't like the unlockables that go like...
      Collect all 120 emblems and you get.. um.. an icon by your save file or something?
      Get an A rating in every level and you get.. 1 new level to play in!
      Get all of the shine sprites and you get a new picture when you beat the game!

      I want some real return for doing complex or difficult, tedious .. um.. gameplaying. Or at least, the people that actually accomplish such tasks should get some good rewards for it..

      I agree on the part about "unlockables" the player has to
      • One sort of "unlockable" I don't like is something akin to.. say.. locked doors that say "You do not know the password." even if the *player* knows it.

        I remember this part from AmberStar.
        You're prompted for a password you should learn earlier. But if you didn't, but just type what you learned from prior game, a "Game God" appears, says "You cheater! This time I'll be gentle, but if you try such things next time, you will die!" and you get blasted with a fireball. Then, if you survived the fireball, you may
    • "Big/HUGE world all open to explore without obligations. No guiding you by hand through levels. If you find yourself with 15 different quests open at the moment and can choose to pick any one of them, all the better!"

      Ever played Morrowind?

    • You make some valid points, but I think the unlockables the article was referring to are the other kind - where certain content is disabled not because of story concerns, or because the game isn't a "sandbox", but arbitrarily[1]. A prime example of this is racing or fighting games, where you have to beat certain times or characters in order to unlock playable cars, tracks, or arenas.

      This works fine for hardcore gamers who are going to play every ouce of the game anyway, but for casual players it sucks. Th

      • This works fine for hardcore gamers who are going to play every ouce of the game anyway, but for casual players it sucks. They bought a racing game so they could drive a Porsche through downtown Tokyo, only to discover they need to drive a Tercel for 49 races in order to unlock the Porsche, and that they have to make it around Denver in 14 seconds before they're allowed to race in Tokyo.

        And that's why there should always be a way to forcefully unlock unlockables. I generally tire of having to do a proced

  • 5. The "total time played" stats on your memory card, which only serve to prove to your parents how many hours you've wasted playing video games instead of doing your homework.

    Those stats rule. Especially the % complete ones. That drove me to immense pleasure upon hitting 100% in gran turismo 2
    • errr.... what? I thought GT2 was missing a few % due to the missing drag racing... I can understand the sentiment, though.
      -ReK

  • Lame humor article (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jayhawk88 ( 160512 ) <jayhawk88@gmail.com> on Friday August 12, 2005 @09:27AM (#13303132)
    But.....

    Choppy, second-rate video games designed for cell phones...

    This is why I never understood the fascination with N-Gage. Whoo! I'm playing Tony Hawk and Splinter Cell on my game machine/cell phone/whatever! Even though it looks like ass! Damn, some of the commercials they used to run for that thing, showing shots of the actual gameplay......You had better graphics on a Nintendo.

  • What a lousy article! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sesshomaru ( 173381 ) on Friday August 12, 2005 @09:58AM (#13303400) Journal
    It reminds me of a non-funny version of MADs snappy answers to stupid questions. Where to begin:

    Dead or Alive: Beach Volleyball: Is not a game about "World Class Volleyball Players." It's a game about the Dead or Alive girls playing beach volleyball. It would be like if Maxim magazine made a Maxim Volleyball issue. Do the people who wrote this think that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue is about swimsuits?

    Tomb Raider: Hailed as the second coming when it was created, Tomb Raider has steadily become more and more irrelevant. The only thing that has kept the series going at all is... Lara Croft, the lead character. This character was so successful that she was ripped off for a syndicated TV series (Relic Hunter starring Tia Carrera) and appeared in numerous magazines. Interestingly, the original game was almost universally popular when it came out, and had more crossover appeal then most Playstation games.

    GTA (Series): Oh, they are upset with GTA for being objectionable? I'm sure over at R* they are saying, "Cool, we made another 'objectionable' list. Oh wait, it's only MAD magazine and Gamepro, bleh."

    If these are why girls don't play games, then why haven't girls stopped watching movies? I notice a lot of prominent advertising for -shudder- Deuce Bigelow: European Gigolo, and yet girls still go to movies.

    SEGA: To paraphrase Agnes (from The Simpsons), "SEGA is gone, Mad, long gone. You're SEGA." Picking on SEGA's "legacy of failure" is beating a dead horse. No, it's more like if a big, stong person you were afraid of was brought down and then you go over to kick them when they are safely unconscious. It's ugly behaviour, especially from Gamepro. Video games are less fun now than when SEGA was around.

    The Sims: When were the Sims realistic? I didn't play it very long, but I remember my character chose the "Life of Crime" career path. This was in the first game with no supplements.

    Well, that's enough. It sure doesn't belong in the "it's funny, laugh" section.

    • "Interestingly, the original game [Tomb Raider] was almost universally popular when it came out, and had more crossover appeal then most Playstation games."

      True - because it was one of the first really well done third-person 3D games besides Mario 64. And Lara Croft *did* appeal to women at first, because she was a tough, attractive chick that hadn't yet been turned into a characture of a 13 yr old's wet dream. As the article correctly points out - once the focus went from the gameplay to Lara's "celebrit
    • Yeah - I liked the original Tomb Raider for the same reason I liked the Prince of Persia games it was based on - part action, part puzzle solving, but usually not too much of both at the same time and had a nice difficulty ramping. I hated the Tomb Raider sequels, which seemed like they were written to appeal to hardcore shooter gamers and not many of the more casual gamers like the first one. Incidentally, I finished the first game, but gave up on the second after about 5 or 6 areas. The third I played
  • The couple of Peter Bagge illustrations made the whole thing worth it.

  • One thing that I have to agree with on the list is the cinematics.

    But it's not only boring cinematics that I object to, but unskippable cinematics. Even cool cinematics are tedious to sit through when replaying a game.

  • I was puzzled by this one. What consoles and/or games keep track of the total time played? I've never noticed that feature.

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