# My last word about horrible video games **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 30, 2019, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583 "2019-12-30T07:47:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/41 "2020-01-03T01:58:58Z")
I want to thank all of you who paid for their Ultimas for helping to support me through the Oughties. I’m especially grateful if you played it on a Dell.computer 'cuz I swear there were entire years he was my sole source of income. A very good income. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/42 "2020-01-03T02:30:29Z")
I bought all the Ultimas, though I feel like I deserve a refund for completing Ultima 8 pre-jump patch… ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/43 "2020-01-03T02:38:42Z")
For me UltimaIV is the only truly memorable one for me. I played most of the I’m pretty sure, mostly likely all of them, but they all blend into a mass of dozens of RPGs back then. I can’t even remember which bizarre and out-of-place spaceship plots were from Ultima, which were from Wizardry, and which from other series. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/44 "2020-01-03T04:11:33Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > A tip of the hat to the OP- if you’re gonna have a final word, this is how it’s done. > > But man, I just loved Ultima III. It is responsible for getting me hooked on games as a kid, and was only topped by Ultima IV. The key to both was to take a lot of notes. I agree the franchise went downhill after that, or I grew up, or I suddenly found the guitar more interesting. Whatever. But yeah, if you’re not having a good time, I second Alessan- try something else! I loved Ultima 3 and discovered a large-form “pattern” which had me steal tons of loot from the town on the SE island using the ‘rot’ spell to kill the swarms of guards. Made playing the game so much easier. The Wii, too, is awesome. Gradius 2 is too hard, though. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/45 "2020-01-03T11:59:40Z")
I just play puzzle games where you bounce light beams off mirrors. There are a surprising number of them. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/46 "2020-01-03T15:45:52Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Funny thing, it’s not difficult to find print advertisements from the 1980s showing families clustered around their Atari 2600. Even the [Magavox Odyssey (1972)](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1302004) had a picture of a family on its box and one of a _girl!_ > > The Wii, if anything, is somewhat of a throwback. I don’t know… that’s all marketing fluff as far as I remember, kind of like the “balanced breakfast” of a bowl of cereal, eggs, toast, bacon and orange juice. Who had cereal AND all that other stuff? It was one or the other in my experience, but we always saw that on the commercials. I don’t recall anyone’s families having Atari 2600, Odyssey or Intellivision nights. They were something that typically the parents fiddled with a few times, and then us kids played them fiendishly after that. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/47 "2020-01-03T18:00:16Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Sid Meier’s Pirates is a classic and was groundbreaking when first released in 1987. Praised by critics and audiences alike, the Pirate’s had a lot of depth to it as you had to maintain your health, find your long lost family members, keep your ship(s) in good repair, accumulate wealth, and do all that while keeping your crew happy with a limited amount of time to accomplish your goals. You could eve change the experience depending on what era you choose to be a pirate in. Sid Meier’s Pirates a turd? I think not. > [@bump](#): > > No doubt. The original 1987 version was CRAZY good for its time. In a lot of ways, it was one of the original sandbox games- an ancestor if you will, of most of the Rockstar games like the GTA and Red Dead series. > [@Isosleepy](#): > > Pirates! It’s “Sid Meier’s Pirates!” With “!” because it earned that exclamation point. Dammit. It was great. > [@D\_Odds](#): > > I concur. Sid Meier’s Pirates!, both versions, were great. > [@wolfman](#): > > Sid Meier’s Pirates! is in my top 10 games of all time. Absolutely groundbreaking in it’s scope, of creation a career, compared to the simple arcady mechanics of almost every other game at the time. I wonder how many hours I put into that game. > [@nightshadea](#): > > … are you kidding about sid meiers pirates ? it was one of the few nes games worth owning… > [@pulykamell](#): > > Same with Pirates! How can anyone possibly consider that a horrible game? It’s iconic! > [@Jophiel](#): > > _Sid Meier’s Pirates!_ was awesome. STILL IS a great game. I play it to this day (have it on Steam) and there has yet to be a replacement… with one possible exception. If you haven’t tried it, check out Rebel Galaxy. I didn’t pick up on it the first time, but it is essentially Pirates! In! SPAAAACE! Seriously, it is, deep down, a Pirates! clone with added features. You go to a space station (town), visit the bar/tavern, hire goons, upgrade your ship, learn about nearby treasures/armadas/what have you… then go out and loot/pillage/protect, whichever you would prefer. Even the space combat is not at all dissimilar to the ship combat in Pirates!. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/48 "2020-01-04T03:33:59Z")
I liked my Wii, and the Wii was all I had until Wii U, which should have made your list. The only reason for owning a Wii U now is Super Mario 3D World. No one here even mentions Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 in Wii’s defense??? I’m still sticking with Nintendo. I haven’t the time to play all the games I want on my Switch. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/49 "2020-01-04T04:19:16Z")
This thread is ranty, but not really fighty. I think it’ll do fine in Game Room ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/50 "2020-01-04T18:55:44Z")
Though I have not the slightest fucking clue about video games, this has been an edifying thread.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/51 "2020-01-04T19:35:36Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I loved Ultima 3 and discovered a large-form “pattern” which had me steal tons of loot from the town on the SE island using the ‘rot’ spell to kill the swarms of guards. Made playing the game so much easier. > > The Wii, too, is awesome. Gradius 2 is too hard, though. I didn’t use the rot spell that I recall. There was a town somewhere with a sort of treasure room. Sneak in there, steal all the loot until the guards get wise, then Run! IIRC, make it to the outside world and the guards would forget all about it, you could go back into the town, the treasure would re-spawn and you could do it again. It was kind of a grind, but I was a kid and felt like I’d hacked the game. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/52 "2020-01-04T20:12:56Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I didn’t use the rot spell that I recall. There was a town somewhere with a sort of treasure room. Sneak in there, steal all the loot until the guards get wise, then Run! IIRC, make it to the outside world and the guards would forget all about it, you could go back into the town, the treasure would re-spawn and you could do it again. It was kind of a grind, but I was a kid and felt like I’d hacked the game. There was also a gold cheat on at least the NES version where you save the game, create a new character for your party, insert that character into the party and transfer all their gold to one of the regulars, delete the character, create a new one, etc., ad infinitum until you load up all your character with as much gold as you want. I’m not sure I have the exact details, but it was something like that. That was a little more “cheaty” than the above examples. I can’t remember if I figured it out by myself or if something like _Nintendo Power_ mentioned it. At any rate, there are better and faster ways of getting a lot of gold, but that’s the only one I knew at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/53 "2020-01-04T20:26:19Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > STILL IS a great game. I play it to this day (have it on Steam) and there has yet to be a replacement… with one possible exception. > > If you haven’t tried it, check out Rebel Galaxy. I didn’t pick up on it the first time, but it is essentially Pirates! In! SPAAAACE! > > Seriously, it is, deep down, a Pirates! clone with added features. You go to a space station (town), visit the bar/tavern, hire goons, upgrade your ship, learn about nearby treasures/armadas/what have you… then go out and loot/pillage/protect, whichever you would prefer. Even the space combat is not at all dissimilar to the ship combat in Pirates!. The worst thing about Rebel Galaxy was when I completed it and realized I was done. ☹ That game was a beautiful experience, from the “broadsides in space” combat to the dirty biker music to the bright energy weapons against a dark nebula expanse behind it. Just gorgeous. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/54 "2020-01-04T21:18:39Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I didn’t use the rot spell that I recall. There was a town somewhere with a sort of treasure room. Sneak in there, steal all the loot until the guards get wise, then Run! IIRC, make it to the outside world and the guards would forget all about it, you could go back into the town, the treasure would re-spawn and you could do it again. It was kind of a grind, but I was a kid and felt like I’d hacked the game. Yeah, that was it. The rot spell was handy as it reduces all creatures to 1 HP, making the guards a piece of cake, so I didn’t have to avoid the guards. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/55 "2020-01-04T22:22:18Z")
Heh, even back then I tended to be a civic-minded gamer and would avoid killing the guards if I could. Now, Ultima II? I would kill the guards left and right in that one for some reason, but you had to be careful as there was always one immortal guard in every town that could box you into a corner if you got lazy. I still remember my gold cheat for Ultima II- there was a planet you could visit where the land was in the shape of Pangaea (or did you go back in time? There was definitely a rocket ship and a big CCCP area). Anyway, because of the shape of the land mass one could circumnavigate the globe by heading due east or west, indefinitely. So I would rig my keyboard so that the ‘go west’ button was mashed down, then go make a sandwich or something. When I came back after 50 circumnavigations or so, the land would have spawned all kinds of monsters that I could demolish (ship cannon?) to mop up. Yeah, I was easily entertained back then. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/56 "2020-01-05T14:21:47Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My main issue is that the OP seems to overinflate their problems, and mix their personal dislike of something or poor ability to do something with actual criticism. I get confused when DKW takes two games that I consider extremely similar in terms of difficulty (e.g. two entries in the Assassin’s Creed franchise) and then claims that one is very easy and the other is insanely, impossibly difficult. But I agree that the unskippable flying missions in GTA Vice City were a big pain. And I never did complete that dumb RC plane mission in GTA San Andreas. Actually, I never finished GTA San Andreas at all; I failed a bunch of times in a row on the final mission (crashing my car while chasing the fire truck), so I gave up. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/57 "2020-01-06T01:16:43Z")
I did the RC plane missions in San Andreas; I think David Cross voiced the guy who gave you the missions. But they did suck. ---
**Author:** ![Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Some_Call_Me.Tim)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/58 "2020-01-06T06:59:00Z")
The difficulty scaling mentioned in Ultima 3 didn’t ring any bells for me. I quite liked the game on the Apple II. Wikipedia mentions that the 1987 NES version had “Considerable alterations to gameplay” as compared to the 1983 original, and several people who didn’t like it have mentioned the NES; I’m guessing that was a bad port issue rather than an issue with the game as written and intended. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/59 "2020-01-06T07:46:08Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > The difficulty scaling mentioned in Ultima 3 didn’t ring any bells for me. I quite liked the game on the Apple II. Wikipedia mentions that the 1987 NES version had “Considerable alterations to gameplay” as compared to the 1983 original, and several people who didn’t like it have mentioned the NES; I’m guessing that was a bad port issue rather than an issue with the game as written and intended. It’s not regarded as a bad port, from what I can tell. Ultima V on the NES is regarded as a bad port. I hated that on the NES and only played through maybe an hour or two before just being pissed off at it. I hear, though, that it is often regarded as the best Ultima for PC players. I wish they had gone with the stylings and interface of the NES version of Ultima IV. Ultima III and IV for the NES seem to be regarded positively, but with a caveat that it is somewhat different from the PC experience of playing it. I didn’t get into RPGs until the NES, so when I tried to go back to play Ultima III on the C64, I just couldn’t get past what to me was a clunky and ugly interface, but I’m sure to those who started out with the series it’s the only way to truly experience the Ultimas. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2020, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583/60 "2020-01-06T08:35:32Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > There was also a gold cheat on at least the NES version where you save the game, create a new character for your party, insert that character into the party and transfer all their gold to one of the regulars, delete the character, create a new one, etc., ad infinitum until you load up all your character with as much gold as you want. I’m not sure I have the exact details, but it was something like that. > > That was a little more “cheaty” than the above examples. I can’t remember if I figured it out by myself or if something like _Nintendo Power_ mentioned it. At any rate, there are better and faster ways of getting a lot of gold, but that’s the only one I knew at the time. you could do that for most partied RPGs like might and magic ect … id load the premade party except one guy id make and steal all their stuff … and then reload them until i had a decently outfitted party for the beginning at least [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-last-word-about-horrible-video-games/845583.md?page=4)