The Worst of the Worst... When Games Are Annoying!

Not every person is going to like every game. It's a fact of life. I for one, am one of the lucky ones, who knows what he likes and doesn't. It's very rarely swayed by popular opinion. (see: Me liking The New York Islanders and NOT the Canadiens or Leafs... the teams of choice in my neck of the woods)
So when a game annoys the hell out of me, I rarely, if EVER let it sway me and if I own it, I trade it ASAP to get high value or if I've rented it, it goes back even if there is time left on it.

The dictionary defines a game as a passtime or amusement. If a game is neither to me, then it is not a game and not worth playing. If a game annoys you, or you are not having fun playing it, then why play it? If you do enjoy a game, no matter what anyone else thinks, why wouldn't you play it?
A prime example recently of a game that I tried to like but hated and ended up trading was Alan Wake. It's a game I thought I would love, so I pulled my trade thing and grabbed it back when it first came out. The premise was there, a survival horror title with a little challenge, some FANTASTIC visuals, and an unusually long development cycle. All this should spell a good game right? Well, average reviews have it around 8 out of 10. (Metacritic users have 7.9, paid reviewers 8.3) so its generally considered a decent game. But after I managed to get out of merely THE SECOND LEVEL, I was so frustrated that I had to put the controller down. I didn't feel any accomplishment by beating it, I was just saying THANK GOD IT'S OVER. Does this sound like the definition of a game to you? Even on the dumbest of dumbass settings, it was incredibly challenging. Limited ammunition I can deal with. A flashlight with batteries that don't even last a tenth of the time a dollar store "Chateau" battery lasts? Suckage extraordinaire.Insane enemies that respawn and really do some serious damage to the point of where it's almost unfair? Sheesh. I just did not enjoy this game at all.
Another title that really bugged me was one I've harped about a little on this blog, Final Fantasy 13. Well, to anyone who's followed me at all, I finally DID finish the game. 55 hours of "it WILL get better" and it only did for a brief time. Long, linear tunnels with little to no exploration, the promise of hour 30 bringing with it miracles unparalleled. Well, I got to "hour 30" and it really WAS a lot of fun. It was even pretty decent leading up to hour 30 for a period. But, guess what. At hour 40, YOU GO BACK INTO THE LINEAR TUNNEL AGAIN!!! What the FUCK? Anyway, I had invested so much time at that point that I said to hell with it and ran to the end. I beat the final boss, and the FRICKIN ACHIEVEMENT DOESN'T EVEN UNLOCK. (Xbox 360 thing... I'll go into that some other time). All in all, even though there was a little glossing to the whole ordeal, it was a game that I did allow myself to be swayed and played, even though in the long run, it wasn't a pleasurable experience. I've played EVERY Final Fantasy game since the first (Andrew if you are reading this, I still get FF flashbacks when I hear Steve Miller Live!) and enjoyed them all. Everyone figured this would be decent. I'm sorry, decent is being gentle. I bought a system because of this game. Silly me. Good thing the system didn't suck. :) I was a little less than decent, but not worth what was spent on it.

Anyway, for a gameblog turned lifestuff blog, this is my first real "game" rant. :P Nice turn, hey. See you next time.

C