What's your "white whale" game that you may never play?

[Lauren Morton]

Hey PC gamers and welcome back to the chat log! This week Mollie and I dragged in our Tyler Colp to collectively admit to our genre sins. We call ourselves fans and yet we've still never played that one classic deep cut in our catalog. This isn't about the crushing threat of your massive backlog though. We're talking about that one really specific game that you really should have played and that your friends all probably assume you definitely have.

What's your "white whale" game that you may never actually play?​

For me it's the Mass Effect games, which I've somehow never played despite calling myself a BioWare fan on the grounds of the Dragon Age series alone. Mollie has a few holes in her Final Fantasy playership and Tyler says he's not ever tried Diablo 2. On the flip side, is there a cultural touchstone game you've played that you think people really don't need to try anymore? Tyler says you can skip Dark Souls 2 and I think you really don't need to suffer through the first Witcher game.

 

[Frindis]

​

For me it's the Mass Effect games, which I've somehow never played despite calling myself a BioWare fan on the grounds of the Dragon Age series alone.

Dragon Age: Inquisition. I did play through the tutorial, but that was it. I tried to like it, but it didn't hit the right spot for me like it did with Dragon Age: Origins.

Mollie has a few holes in her Final Fantasy playership and Tyler says he's not ever tried Diablo 2.

Final Fantasy X-2 is the only one I played. It was OK, but I rather play something like Chrono Trigger style instead. Tyler needs to play Diablo 2, no excuses. Make a video of him playing it for the first time, I'd watch that for sure

On the flip side, is there a cultural touchstone game you've played that you think people really don't need to try anymore?

I think Witcher is a good example of this. That game is incredibly janky to the point of me not wanting to touch it anymore. Dark Souls 2 could have been better, but I still think the DLCs are worth the time. Dark Souls will always be my favorite though, nothing comes even close to it when talking about interconnected areas which is the one part of the game I loved the most.

 

[Brian Boru]

that one really specific game that you really should have played and that your friends all probably assume you definitely have

Any of the Bioshock or Dishonored games. I have them all and tried them all, and really wanted to like each one, given their iconic stature in gaming history—but there's only so long I want to spend in DDDDD surroundings—dark, dull, dingy, depressing, dirty

is there a cultural touchstone game you've played that you think people really don't need to try anymore?

Far Cry 3.
…just waiting for shock horror to die down…
Wonderful in its time a decade and more ago, played it thru ~half a dozen times, but for PC players it is very much inferior to subsequent titles in the series. It still has great meme value via Michael Mando's wonderful portrayal of villain Vaas Montenegro—but that's about all it has these days, so just watch a few memes on YouTube.

The worst aspect is the consolized UI, which was abysmal even in 2012—I've seen many better UIs in the 90s. Quick Time Events, climbing radio towers, no grappling, no buddies or fishing, no aircraft, no ballistics, no animal taming…

For anyone wanting to try FC series, my current preference sequence is:
FC5 with Resistance mod
FC6
FC5 New Dawn
FC4
FC4 Primal [if you like melee]
FC4 Yetis DLC

 

[Colif]

what is a white whale game?

looks

The games in your genre that are must-plays, touted as the blueprint for which all your favourite games were moulded from, the games that no matter how hard you try you just can't get your head around.

Path of Exiles. And not because of its insane skill trees... I just can't get into it. I have tried a few times over the years. Might try number two when its released this year.

 

[Zloth]

I'll take Witcher 1 over 2 any day.... uhhh, I think. The game ran fine for me when I played it, but I played it much closer to release, so I didn't have to deal with the game bugging out.

But games people probably expect I played... I'm not coming up with much. The RPG genre is so huge, who could play even the most popular games?

Cultural touchstones that can be retired and skippable things in a series?

• The original Doom and Doom 2.
• If you're going through the Yakuza series, play 0, 1, and 2. Then skip to 6. MAYBE play 3 for a while, so you can get familiar with the orphanage. It's possible that 5 is good - Yakzua 4 put me off so much that I couldn't even bring myself to try it.
• NieR Replicant. Like Automata, multiple playthroughs will give you very interesting, new perspectives on the story. Get those stories off YouTube or some such, though, because the game itself just isn't very fun.

 

[Colif]

I was going to say all Bethesda games but well, its not really specific enough. I have tried a few but I just don't get into them much.

 

[Pifanjr]

There's quite a few (classic) RPGs I would love to play but haven't gotten around to, like Planescape Torment, KotOR (2), the Baldur's Gate series and The Witcher 3 (I've played the first two). I also mean to continue with Disco Elysium at some point, which I've only played one in-game day of so far, as well as Outer Wilds, which I played for a couple of hours.

My main problem is that my gaming time is too limited nowadays. It just doesn't feel good to have only 30 minutes to play a game and spend it entirely on walking, inventory management and some trivial dialogue or combat.

My wife has shown interest in Baldur's Gate 3 though, so once we have a second controller we might play through that one together.

 

[Brian Boru]

Others people assume I've played are Warcraft and Starcraft, 2 other big names from the glory days of RTS. But I don't like fantasy or in-space settings, and of course APM is nowhere near the meaning of strategy, even if the As are expended on a strategy map.

 

[steeleman21]

Probably Dark Souls series. Can't put my finger on it. Dark Souls always felt sluggish to me, never got excitement from the combat. For a long time I thought I just didn't like Soulslikes, but turns out I unexpectedly loved Nioh 2 and went on to enjoy others since. But Dark Souls 1 in particular, I've now given it a few shots, and I've always bounced off it after a couple hours 🤷‍♀️ I've finally relegated it to my"I don't get it" pile of games, along with Outer Wilds.

 

[mjs warlord]

i will name 2 ... dota 2 because after trying it the abuse from my team and the opposing team was so vile it made me want to smash something.

GTA5 i am not an old fashioned stick in the mud in fact i am very tolerant BUT listening to what some would describe as music , the over use of the F word and the constant YO ( n word ) was an instant turn off. The 7 discs and the last part from the internet .... to stop piracy .... probably took longer than the time i spent trying to like it. Funny thing is i remember massive queues outside shops when it went on sale.

 

[SleepingDog]

Witcher 3 - I did play it for a while but I got to the "hanging scene" and after several attempts thought f*** this. Keep telling myself to restart but somehow it never happens.

Norco is another. Did play for a while but probably required me to be a little more alert than I am at night time.

Disco Elysium - didn't do my research properly. If I had realised that it was about an alcoholic then I won't of wasted my money.

There are probably a lot more.

 

[Lauren Morton]

• If you're going through the Yakuza series, play 0, 1, and 2. Then skip to 6. MAYBE play 3 for a while, so you can get familiar with the orphanage.

This is the correct Yakuza series opinion 😆

 

[Pifanjr]

Probably Dark Souls series. Can't put my finger on it. Dark Souls always felt sluggish to me, never got excitement from the combat. For a long time I thought I just didn't like Soulslikes, but turns out I unexpectedly loved Nioh 2 and went on to enjoy others since. But Dark Souls 1 in particular, I've now given it a few shots, and I've always bounced off it after a couple hours 🤷‍♀️ I've finally relegated it to my"I don't get it" pile of games, along with Outer Wilds.

I had the same experience with Dark Souls, the combat is too slow and punishing, it just doesn't feel good.