Did Rockstar Ever Made a BAD Game?

[Algonquin Assassin]

LA Noire ( Felt like yet again another GTA knock off. )

I'm interested in how you came up with that conclusion. LA Noire couldn't be further from GTA if it tried.

[UtricularEwe001]

Beaterator. 'nuff said

[Sunrise Driver]

 

GTA Chinatown Wars (Poor story and graphics)

Have you actually played the game? Story is OK for GTA standarts and graphics is good.

[ZDANZ96]

GTA LCS was a game that didn't call my attention back in the time. It was an awful version of GTA III with bikes.

 

You couldn't even swim. For me that was the weakest game made by Rockstar so far.

[cp1dell]

 

LA Noire ( Felt like yet again another GTA knock off. )

I'm interested in how you came up with that conclusion. LA Noire couldn't be further from GTA if it tried.

It's literally the opposite of Grand Theft Auto. You're playing the cop this time.

 

 

GTA Chinatown Wars (Poor story and graphics)

Have you actually played the game? Story is OK for GTA standarts and graphics is good.

I honestly don't care about the pure handheld games. They never really have anything to do with the main series' story. But that doesn't make it bad.

[Mcquiz]

Of course R* has made some bad games howeer Rockstar North has NEVER made a bad game.

[MIKON8ERISBACK]

I don't understand why people keep saying that Max Payne 3 is a bad game. Maybe because it probably delayed GTA V?

Maybe if it was a completely new game in a completely new franchise people would learn to like it.

Nope.It's because Rockstar are marketing it furiously even after it flopped.The reason I don't like it is because it has a single player which can be beat in less than half a day and because the multiplayer is completely broken with overpowered weapons and half an hour loading screens.

 

@Gtaghost22 I pre-ordered it and beat it 2 times on hard in the first day.

OH MY GOD!

 

That's a far cry from the size and scale of their Grand Theft Auto games. I know they should have more than one great series to back them up, so they still have the Red Dead and Midnight Club series' to go on with in the future.

 

Now I'm even more baffled as to why Max Payne 3 took priority, I guess because they knew it would be released first because it's such a smaller game overall, then again why was it in the development phase for more about three years?

[Verdant]

Nah, not really. That Table Tennis game(which I haven't played before) is just odd because you can't think of Rockstar doing that.

 

I can slightly say State Of Emergency. For me, it did have it's fun moments. Although, it's a game that kinda can get boring quickly in my opinion.

 

It did feel like an arcade game you would play at a shopping mall. The missions were quite simple, some had a horde of a cooperation that wears all black and has a red star as there logo or something ? Forgot what they were called.

 

State Of Emergency 2 I haven't played, if they made ever make a new one..I'd probably check a review before I buy it.

[sublimelabs]

 

Beaterator. 'nuff said

Doesn't really count. Quite the powerful music-making program. They really should release it on PC, though. Huge learning curve on the PSP.

 

State of Emergency and Wild Metal come to mind in terms of bad Rockstar games. I don't see how you can call Max Payne 3 a "bad game." To me it seems like there are two types of Max Payne fans; those who are open to new things, and those who refuse to accept any bit of change.

 

Oh, and Rockstar Table Tennis is flipping addictive. Graphics are still really gorgeous, too. To be honest, Table Tennis is the perfect example of why I love Rockstar. They do so many types of games.

[AceRay]

 

I don't see how you can call Max Payne 3 a "bad game." To me it seems like there are two types of Max Payne fans;

As far as I can see, nobody really calls MP3 a bad game, they just feel its just not a great follow up to the original 2 games. Even die hard haters like The Killa and XCommunicated would give it a 7/10, which is pretty decent for something they admitted they didn't like. I think the storyline should have had more levels during the night personally but the rest was good, especially the gameplay.

 

 

those who are open to new things, and those who refuse to accept any bit of change.

Well, as Max says, "Time moves forward and nothing changes." Who would have thought that would be so true for some people.

[Fireman]

LCS

VCS

IV

Midnight Club

MP3

 

[Exkabewbikadid]

 

To me it seems like there are two types of Max Payne fans; those who are open to new things, and those who refuse to accept any bit of change.

That's not a fair assessment to make. I can acknowledge and respect that everyone is going to have their own unique perspective of MP3, be it positive or negative, based on what they took away from their experiences with the first two games. If you merely resort to a childish, fanboy stance of calling those who don't like it as ones who don't want to accept a bit of change, well, that's your narrow-minded problem. I've personally said that either side has sound reasoning behind liking or disliking this entry. For the record, I'm all for change as change is inevitable. That certainly doesn't suggest that there is only one path of change. It's just that some of us envisioned this series progressing along a different path than this.

 

And no, I never called this a truly bad game because it is a technically solid and polished game. And on that note, I would never pretentiously deter anyone from checking this game out simply because I don't like it. Moral of the story: not everyone is going to like the same things.

 

 

[Sgt. Foley]

I don't understand why people keep saying that Max Payne 3 is a bad game. Maybe because it probably delayed GTA V?

Maybe if it was a completely new game in a completely new franchise people would learn to like it.

 

In my opinion, the only bad Rockstar game that I've played was Liberty City Stories. I had it for PS2, but I never finished the campaign.

They say it's a bad game ( they is me and alot of other people ) because it really is bad. The controls are awful and the multiplayer is broken...

 

[cidamelo]

I don't know about the multiplayer (I don't like multiplayer so I don't play!) but I'm thinking the single player is very fun!!

[sublimelabs]

 

To me it seems like there are two types of Max Payne fans; those who are open to new things, and those who refuse to accept any bit of change.

That's not a fair assessment to make. I can acknowledge and respect that everyone is going to have their own unique perspective of MP3, be it positive or negative, based on what they took away from their experiences with the first two games. If you merely resort to a childish, fanboy stance of calling those who don't like it as ones who don't want to accept a bit of change, well, that's your narrow-minded problem. I've personally said that either side has sound reasoning behind liking or disliking this entry. For the record, I'm all for change as change is inevitable. That certainly doesn't suggest that there is only one path of change. It's just that some of us envisioned this series progressing along a different path than this.

 

And no, I never called this a truly bad game because it is a technically solid and polished game. And on that note, I would never pretentiously deter anyone from checking this game out simply because I don't like it. Moral of the story: not everyone is going to like the same things.

Perhaps I'm a bit blind, then. I can accept that people don't like it, but going off of the majority of people I've encountered who dislike it -- their reasoning is pretty poor. I've seen far too many people accuse MP3 of "not having any noir."

 

Didn't meant to offend.

[ccrogers15]

GTA Chinatown Wars (Poor story and graphics)

Have you actually played the game? Story is OK for GTA standarts and graphics is good.

Actually i have played the game. The story sucked and so did the graphics.

[Algonquin Assassin]

I actually thought the graphics in CTW were really good. It had a cartoon look which suited the tone of the game IMO.

 

Had it of been like LCS and VCS I don't think it would've been as interesting. Kind of like a throw back to the top down GTAs.

[sublimelabs]

I actually thought the graphics in CTW were really good. It had a cartoon look which suited the tone of the game IMO.

 

Had it of been like LCS and VCS I don't think it would've been as interesting. Kind of like a throw back to the top down GTAs.

Agreed. It felt like the perfect balance of GTA 2 and GTA IV. Kind of wish it had voice-acting, however. Only a seemingly small gripe; the comical appearance was pretty charming.

[AceRay]

I've seen far too many people accuse MP3 of "not having any noir."

To be honest, MP3's noir is alot more subtle than the first two games. In the originals, especially the second, the noir was in your face and used all the cliches eg the rainy snowy dark nights, gritty narration, dark music, femme fatal etc. They tried a little too hard to be noir tbh, almost every line of dialogue was screaming "OMGNOIR!!" in it while MP3's a little more down to earth. I think it could have had a few more levels set at night and maybe more darkness but MP3 is still noir, just not as obvious.

[ZoomZoom]

IMO Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories sucks. I hate it.

Edited July 28, 2012 by ZoomZoom

[Capricornus]

I didn't play VCS, but I remember getting bored quickly with GTA: LCS. For what its worth, that's probably the worst R* game I played.

 

Didn't play Manhunt 2 or Red Dead Revolver so I can't judge those.

 

Max Payne 3 is superb though.

[The Killa]

I can't think of a technically bad game. Manhunt 2 was kind of mediocre.

 

But if bad is put in terms of personal disappointment:

 

Vice City Stories

Red Dead Revolver.

Max Payne 3

 

[cidamelo]

AceRay I agree with you! One thing can be noir without have all those noir cliches!

[Fireman]

It all comes down to how much of a f*cking fanboy you are.

 

Each game has atleast one strong point, if you decide to not look at any weak points and just name that one strong point and consider it a good game, then so be it.

[1whitebuddah]

It all comes down to how much of a f*cking fanboy you are.

 

huh? it all comes down to opinion, not how much of a fanboy you are. lol

 

[ccrogers15]

IMO Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories sucks. I hate it.

There OK but total disapointments. After going from a huge game with planes, respect and so much customisation like GTA SA, to a game with no planes like GTA LCS, then a game with watered down everything like VCS, well its not good. Glad they did not make Sanandreas stories.

[Sunrise Driver]

Yep you really should expect SA gameplay and size on PSP, in 2005.

 

Speaking of gameplay, LCS > GTA 3 and VCS > VC.

[Vextroid]

GTA IV was the least enjoyable Rockstar published game for me. It's by no means bad, but it is the closest to, out of all the Rockstar published games I have played.

[The Killa]

To me it seems like there are two types of Max Payne fans; those who are open to new things, and those who refuse to accept any bit of change.

 

But thats bullsh*t, you can't just throw "Max Payne fans" like me into a completely absurd category just because I don't share the same opinions you do.

 

You can't just say that I "refuse to accept change" because if that were true, then perhaps I should have gotten upset at the game setting and location? I've actually praised the setting of sunny Brazil. Because change is good.

 

However, the problem I had with the game is the shallow writing and how it was completely off the mark in regards to capturing Max as the character he really was. The infuriating part is that this detail is constantly defended because "Max is just an alcoholic.. he's changed so much!" which is, once again - a bullsh*t excuse. It felt as if Rockstar used the "alcoholic pill-popper madman" to fit their generally poor writing agenda.

 

A Max Payne game not written by Sam Lake and co may as well not be a Max Payne game at all, because that was the entire beauty of it. And if you respond to that with "t-t-take off your nostalgia goggles bro!!!" then you immediately lose any validity in your comment.

[Exkabewbikadid]

 

A Max Payne game not written by Sam Lake and co may as well not be a Max Payne game at all, because that was the entire beauty of it. And if you respond to that with "t-t-take off your nostalgia goggles bro!!!" then you immediately lose any validity in your comment.

Having just recently completed both of the Alan Wake games, I can clearly see what went wrong with MP3, at least for fans like myself. Some say it's the lack of noir and such, but that doesn't really cover it. For me, it's the total lack of surrealism that Sam Lake and Remedy created in the first two games. I'm not sure what all of Lake's inspirations are, but I think it's a safe bet that David Lynch's work in general inspired a lot of his writing. It's certainly no secret that Twin Peaks was a key source of inspiration. Just like the first season of TP had a fake tv show called "Invitation to Love" which was a parody of crappy American soap operas, Lake did the same thing in Max Payne with "Lords and Ladies" and even a parody of TP itself with "Address Unknown". Remedy even threw in a cool little easter egg in MP1 where one of the tvs would blow up and harm Max when you turned it on, as if this was their way of saying that watching too much of this crap is bad for ya.

 

And again, much like how Agent Cooper had dream sequences in TP, Max had them in the first two games. Yet another integral part of Max stripped away.

 

Then there's the whole debate about the gritty graphic novels. While originally these may have been purely the result of a tight budget, the final product played an integral part in creating the very surreal atmosphere throughout. Sometimes the best art happens unintentionally. These should have never been abandoned when there is so much that could have been done with them such as having still frame comic strips come to life as animated cutscenes or having animated cutscenes transition back into comic strips. That sure would've beaten the hell out of having a bunch of random words and annoying filters tossed on screen.

 

Without Lake at the helm, it was very unlikely anyone at Rockstar was going to understand Lake's and Remedy's inspirations for MP. In Rockstar's defense, it's not as though they had to follow suit - having bought the rights to the game, they were free to do whatever the hell they wanted with it, which is obviously what they did (Lake's mystique and surrealism were traded in for alcoholism and a Man on Fire clone). Still I wish they would have just let the past be the past and introduced bullet time to another franchise. Hell, they could've introduced bullet time to the Manhunt series and offered a nice mixture of bullet-time stealth executions and bullet-time gun fights in a grizzly Brazilian setting and it would've been an amazing reboot for the series. Missed opportunity.