Guilty gaming pleasures

Time for another thread about games we like - I like this kind of discussion and sometimes you can discover games you've missed.

I thought it might be interesting to ask about any game you like despite knowing that it is bad or mediocre in many respects. So maybe games that got panned by the reviewers or that are just clones/sequels.

This is in my mind as I've wasted lots of time in the past week playing Dungeon Siege II - not a title that was revolutionary by any standard but I've had a lot of fun.

So what are your favourite 'bad' games?

C'mon - you know answering this is more fun than work:)

Tiger Woods Golf, Tomb Raider

I don't read magazine reviews since most are written by ex A-level journalism students with their heads pushed firmly up their own bottom. Probably the last review I read was for the Amiga version of Elite 2, which got 100% iirc, despite it being a stinking, bug-ridden heap of animal mire. Anyway, I don't know what's been slated and what hasn't.

That said, I don't play games either. Except Gran Turismo 4 and San Andreas, although I don't have a PS2 at the moment.

Wait a minute... where am I? :/

I've just finished Mass Effect for the 360. I liked it overall. It reminded me alot of one of my favorite games of all time StarFlight but in 3D. ME had some problems that anoyed me like members of your team getting stuck in elevators. That seemed very easy to fix in this day and age but the story was good. My wife and I are hooked on Guitar Hero 3 and I'm just now getting Guitar Hero 2 so I have some more songs to play.

That game swallwed a section of my teenage years. Loved it, yes it was bug ridden, yes my autopilot would crash me into the side of the spacestations, and sometimes into planets. But damn it, it had realistic physics!!! And I could land on planets which was awesome.

They are not bad games, I've played both :-)

I played Daikatana and thought it was OK actually. (completed it in fact).

I liked Crash Bandicoot (the first one) and was tempted to get others despite the bad reviews.

I've probably played a few "bad" casual games that I've enjoyed too, mainly shooters and breakout clones that people say aren't that good but I liked them anyway.

Oh and I enjoyed Nanostray on DS which didn't get a great review (I can see why) but I had good fun.

Not sure I've played many other "bad" games because I'm a review whore.

Agreed... They're not bad... but certainly not credible! Which is what guilty pleasures usually are, bit like listening to the Sugababes!

I really liked First Encounters even though it was probably the most bugged game I've ever played. Jetmoto is in a similar vien. I also rather liked Heroes of Might and Magic (I think it was 6) which was panned by the critics but was fun to play, reminded me of Bard's Tale on the Speccy.

Darkheart

This might be the perfect thread for me. This probably isn't a good thing, but I have a knack for finding enjoyment in games that other people consider mediocre, are horribly buggy, and/or get critically panned. One of my friends used to joke that I never bought a game that was rated above a 7 (out of 10). Some prime examples from my collection:

Saturday Night Slam Masters (SNES)
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (PS2)
Carnival Games (Wii)
Growl (arcade)
Gladiator (arcade)
Darklands (PC)

No it wasn't. Yes you could land on planets, but why would you go to the trouble? They were all empty!

Agreed. It could have been so much better, but I still liked it!

i liked playing a game on tatio legends 1 or 2 on the xbox called (i think) puchi carat

a 2 player breakout game
it wasnt a bad game or anything but it was a bit disturbing when the rabit ear'd woman kept on giving you the come on and filling the screen with a kiss making you drop the ball wishing you could turn her off

No that's just wrong!

The only thing that I think comes close is Clive Barker's Jericho, which I think is a pretty cool game despite it representing everything that's wrong about First Person Shooters.

a mental floss moment is when you find yourself listening to B*witched "to you i belong" and thinking "hmm wouldnt it be great if the bloke from type o negative could do this song"

Hmm kind of confusing as if i enjoy a game then it's not bad to me so....

I enjoyed a curling game. I assume everyone knows what curling is and how it's a completely absurd, horrible, and obtuse "sport" (their word for it, not mine).

I enjoyed playing a GameCube game called Starfox Adventures with my boys even though the main character (a space fox) was followed round by a baby dinosaur prince who said "look! A bad guy" in a really cheesy voice - this was one of it's many sins, but it was a good game nevertheless.

I used to cheat while playing various strip poker games. I just wanted to see the pictures.

There was a game on the Mega Drive (Genesis) that was called McDonald's Global Gladiators.

I played that to death when I was a kid and even knew then it was a heap of crap.

On the Amstrad CPC, the worst game I can come up with is Animal Vegetable Mineral by Amsoft! I hated it, but strangley, still played it! :)

Dabz

Oooh Puki you just went from ,"A little wierd but endearing" to, "Slightly worrying", in my mental map of forum personalitys.

Darkheart

Interesting thread, seeing as I HATE reviewers. They've given me a hard enough time over the years and they're generally just monkeys who don't even know how to use a spell-checker and are just looking for excuses to be "witty", while bagging on games.

Anyway, current "games that didn't get stellar reviews but I love playing anyway" are:

* The latest Crash on 360. It's clearly a PS2 port, with minimal effort being put into making it "360" and the developers can hardly hide their roots (they did Hulk previously), since it's got a lot of brawling in it. But it's great fun and there's hardly any good platformers on the 360.

* Burger Rush on PC. It's a combination "dash" or time-management game and match-3 and I love it. I hate the whole dash/mania thing, because I hate the busy work of clickity-clicking, but they eliminate that and put all the resource management on the match-3 side.

* Test Drive Unlimited on 360. Got so-so reviews and it's not without its flaws, but I love just tooling around Oahu in some fast car, seamlessly and for miles on end. I love how it's an MMO for cars and you can just run into street races, just like real-life, if I did such things in real-life... ;)
I just wish it was faster (runs ~30fps) and that you could customize your cars more. I was really looking forward to a sequel, but I don't think that'll happen and Burnout Paradise screwed-the-pooch by getting rid of menus altogether.

Battletoads on NES.

dune 2000, i think most people hated this update. Syndicate wars, it looks so poor now but i just love syndicate

I play Spider Solitaire whilst waiting for my PC to boot up. Over 1600 games now. Boring as hell but kind of addictive, too.

Also Minesweeper. Same sort of thing. I've had so many headaches from playing that during "coffee break" at work! Blink, man - or your eyes will shrivel.

Seems that all the complicated games take too much effort to play again and again. Except C&C Generals and Shogun Total War.

Basil

Wonderboy in Monster World is a guilty pleasure.

Jagged Alliance 2

I'm not guilty, it's a fantastic game, and brutally underrated.

I remember that game. Wonder what ever happened to Amsoft?

ADOM. I don't play many games (still can't figure out why not), but ADOM has by far been the all-time most complex. Plus, the fact that once you die, your saved game is deleted really adds to the emotional attachment to the game.

Morrowind (reviewers didnt like it for some wierd cosmic reason)

AngBand
Addicting. I get so many ideas from this game.

world of warcraft.

i remember one cheat for (i think it was) maria whittaker's strip poker on the ST (we had a pirate copy wernt going to spend pocket money on that) iir all it was was renaming the files that held each image from blabla01.dat to blabla10.dat (making sure 10 was renamed 11 or it would get wiped before renaming it 01)

so you could in efect play to get her to put her clothes ON
whoda thought it people wanting maria whittaker fully clothed ???

btw i fancied Corrine (cover of vixen) russels why didnt she get her own game dammit

Wow, Maria Whittaker - there's a name from the past. :)

she must be about 50 now eew

Not a problem if you are 50+ yourself ;-)

I'm still in. I like older women. :P

Damned straight. Besides she's only like 39.

i thought she would be over
i know most are 19-22 these days but we are talking late 80's

linda lusardi (sp) anyone ;)

on a side note i love pam ayres voice ... and the regional accent in general (aslong as its female)
pitty im not geriactric (or should i be thankful) or i might ask her out

Spiderman 2 for the Gamecube. I would regard any game based off of a film as crap, but this game kept me playing for a while. It was just nice to be able to swing around everywhere X-)

older = more XP, to a point. LL probably still gets my vote.

Anyhoo, Gran Turismo4, PGR2 (I think.. on the old xbox), Lylat wars on N64 - whiled away some hours on that when I broke my back a few years ago.

GTA SanANdrez was good to a point, when it got too hard.

I'd still give her the best 45 seconds of her life.... including foreplay! :P

hoho, you must be a dabhand.

Yeah, I'd be quicker if I wanted, but generally, I like to take my time! ;)

Dabz

As for Maria shes only a few years older than me... cool. never played her SP game though, I feel like I've missed out is that bad ?

Wasn't linda on the Bill for a few episodes (with Don Beech)?

Only strip poker I ever played was on the C64 when I was about 12. Sam Fox strip poker, but it was damn pixellated that is was useless, you had to stand 6m away and squint to see anything.

International Cricket Captain : All the fun of real cricket but with a fast-forward button.
<edit> Suzanne Mizzi was my favourite.

From the 90s I rate Jo Guest. ooh.

I play strip poker with my missus.

No computer involved, and i usually have 6 aces in my pack.

Dungeon seige is in no way a waiste of time! I love it!