Games you hate, yet everyone else cherishes.

I can understand not enjoying "shooter" games.  Most of them are fairly generic with not even an interesting story to play.  At least, that's been my experience with them.  I haven't enjoyed a shooter since... um...  Halo 1?  I played Halo 1 absolutely TO DEATH when I got it (admittedly over a year after it first came out, and close to when Halo 2 was going to come out).  Halo 1 had such an interesting story to me, that I kept playing it.  I'd go through levels again and again to try to pick up all the dialogue to piece together the story about what was going on and why.  I honestly had never been so fully immersed in a game or plot like I was with Halo 1.  That game, quite literally, sucked away months of my life.  The sequels?  Yeah, nowhere near as good or interesting...  Before Halo 1, I had enjoyed the everloving crap out of Perfect Dark on the N64.

There just are not many, if any, really good shooter titles out there that deliver on a good experience.  The storylines are lackluster and riddled with cliché and "done before" segments.  The singleplayer of these games doesn't stand on its own and it's frustrating.  Then, you go into multiplayer and even if it's good, you have all the myriad of balancing issues that tend to exist in these games (CoD is one of the worst offenders of absolute garbage balance in gameplay and weapons).  I do have to argue though that Battlefield is actually pretty good in multiplayer.  The "unlock" system really isn't that engaging from a player's standpoint.  You don't actually need or want 90% of the unlocks you obtain in those games.  Gaining levels in the Battlefield games doesn't even do anything other than go "hey, you gained a level".

Honestly, at level 40 something in Battlefield 4, I'm at the point where I don't actually care what I unlock and often forget I have things unlocked.  I've even seen a lot of people at "Max level" who continue to play despite not needing or aiming to unlock anything.  The progression system in Battlefield is much different than in other games.  You see, Battlefield actually attempts to balance all its guns and upgrades.  You are just as capable of going 32 and 10 at Level 1 as you are at Level 110.  This is different from CoD because CoD gradually unlocks "the best" stuff in the game as you play (which is also a great incentive -not- to prestige), which makes leveling up in that game a huge draw factor.  Once players unlock the "best gun" in CoD, there's little reason to use or unlock anything else.  Playing CoD is for people who have "power fantasies" and nothing more.  Most notably, those are usually teenagers, children, or young adults (13-25 age demographic).  If you play CoD for a month straight and then play Battlefield with the same tactics... you will lose... badly.

I really do not like CoD if you couldn't tell.  Mostly because it's for twitch reflex children who take their power fantasies very seriously.  Me?  I prefer a bit of skill in my games.  I'll keep to my Battlefield, thank you very much.

The Tales series has deeper combat than you think. It isn't just "run up to the boss, deal damage and hope for the best," it is heavily position-based. Knowing how to position your party members, how often you want them to heal, cast spells, use items and how much TP you want them to preserve, attacking the same or different enemies to the player, supporting the player etc. All these grant more success than having them just do their own thing. Not to mention you can normally control any character you want, allowing for a ton more diversity than Kingdom Hearts. You can play any role you want and each character has more than one way to play.

During boss fights (and even some regular encounters) you have to time your party's attacks, buffs, spells etc. to rack up a combo which often leads to more attack opportunities. Then Overlimit comes into play, which many people say is cheap. Except it's kind of not: it's there to stop you from doing infinite combos on enemies, and gives you a little boost if you're getting wailed on. It's a great mediator that spices up the combat. Even when the enemy has Overlimit, it's just a case of going on the defensive, avoiding attacks and applying buffs before you're back into the fight. It's such a seriously rewarding system if you know what you're doing.

Now that I think about it, I find the whole online gaming thing usually unenjoyable.

I can see why it could be fun, I want to have fun with it, but even when I try it i just... can't.

Hell may not be other people, but it surely is other people playing an online multiplayer game.

I'm not into shooters myself, but man, Halo was actually set in a really interesting universe, and the story was actually worth playing.

The only other straight shooter I've ever much been into was the Star Wars Battlefront games.

(I do like BL1/2, but that is obviously not straight up shooter)

The only game I enjoy playing online by myself is Hearthstone, because there's absolutely no communication between players. You can send little catchphrases based on who your character is, but you can't directly talk to other players. This basically means you don't get griefed, which I think is great.

I don't play anything online. The only multiplayer I enjoy is local. I either prefer to have fun with people who are here, or immerse myself into a game without distractions... such as other people.

Exactly, sometimes playing online is nice, but nothing beats four friends sat on the couch. Any Nintendo game is testament to that :)

I haven't said that the Tales combat isn't deep. But it's largely unsatisfactory in its boss and enemy designs. And Overlimit is a cheap tool to prevent infinite combos IMO.

After having an entire screen to myself for the last 6 years of my life...  I've discovered that I absolutely HATE "couch cooperative".  If the game has splitscreen in it, you can bet I'll hate it.  On top of which, I really don't like everyone all sitting basically on each other's laps all cramped together to see the same screen.

I love playing with my real life friends, sure, but I prefer it as a LAN party or at least a LAN Online game (where we all share the same connection, but we each have our own systems and screens, and we play against people online).  I like that gameplay set up the best.  It's just the most conducive to the way I enjoy games.  Plus, if I can glance at my teammates screens and talk in real time (XBL has a noticeable 1.5 second delay between when you talk into the mic and when it's received by other players) to form strategies and to watch each others backs.  Honestly, I think it's a solid experience when it's done like that.

You know what I'm waiting for?  I'm waiting for some guy who makes TVs to figure out that instead of "screen within a screen", they could just have a "Gaming TV" which would plop two Televisions side by side as the same device, but allow you to connect different devices to different sides of it (so you could for instance play a game and watch Netflix or the Super Bowl at the same time, or maybe have two different systems playing simultaneously).  Seriously, I'd buy that if they just got the acoustics right on the TV so that the center speaker was split and only people sitting close to one screen would hear that screen.

But hey, that's just me.  I'm also not opposed to people developing consoles based on that TV idea and basically making a "double console" so that you could play one game while your friend or sibling plays another.

I disagree. The boss and enemy designs are superb, and the developers designed some really interesting stuff to compliment the rich combat system. I don't see why Overlimit is cheap, though. If you could do infinite combos the game would be way too easy because, you know, you're not meant to be able to do them.

Give the enemy a way of escaping. That can be anything from teleporting, large jumps, flying, or even making them unstaggerable. I don't disagree with unstaggerable enemies on a fundamental level - I feel that Tales abuses this in the wrong way. They give you a cheap "He's in Overlimit!" reason. And every boss seems to be able to enter Overlimit once it's been introduced to the player.

There are many examples of how a Kingdom Hearts boss prevents infinite combos and my previous post actually gives you an example (Riku falls down and turns this into a powerful attack. Your combo is completely broken when he falls down). Sure, Kingdom Hearts doesn't have 4 party members all wailing on a single target, but the same principles apply. If you had 4 people all attacking Riku, and he fell down and used that same jump attack - he's still preventing an infinite combo. In terms of how Riku's behaviour affects gameplay, it would behave the same regardless if he's being attacked by 1 character or even 10.

My original point regarding Overlimit, though, was that I dislike the Mystic Arte attacks where you just sit there and watch the boss use a super move ("cutscene" attacks as I call them). The original point was that there's little counterplay compared to super attacks in other action RPGs. Despite my complaint about Star Ocean 3's post-game bosses, I think it's final boss has an excellent super attack. It was devastating if you let it hit you, but you were given ways to dodge the attack once the boss started using it. But when a Tales boss uses his Mystic Arte, there's nothing to do but watch the attack...

Considering I've given examples from Kingdom Hearts of what I like in boss designs, what is an example of a superb boss fight in a Tales game? (I've played Symphonia, Symphonia 2, Abyss, Vesperia, Graces F, and Xillia). I'm not knocking Tales battle system as a whole - I greatly enjoy the games and the battle system. I just don't find their boss battles to be very fun or tactful.

LAN is definitely the preferred way for me to play Multiplayer. Unless its a game that doesn't need splitscreen to work, like Mario Party, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, etc.

Mario Party is one of my favorite series of all time.  It's fun to gather a bunch of friends around that game and just play for fun and for ribbing.  Though, admittedly, it's one of the best "splitscreen" games out there.  A lot of other games do not do splitscreen as well as that (often heavily distorting dimensions or cutting off FOV... Sometimes even cutting off half your screen so you have to scroll your screen and then scroll your menus a la Borderlands 1 and 2) one does.  But, Mario Party is kind of designed for that.  Most other games tend to tack on the "Split Screen" feature at the last minute, so it's rarely ever implemented well.

But, honestly, LAN parties are quite awesome.  Order a few pizzas, set up in different sections of the house (or corners of the apartment as the case is for me), get some snacks and some soda, then have fun playing games together.  If you can bring your trusted LAN party into an online game like Battlefield, it only gets better as everyone will work like a well oiled machine.

It's beautiful.

I never owned an N64, but I have very fond memories of playing Mario Party 1 & 2, as well as Mario Kart 64 at birthday parties. I live across the country from my friends now, and we use Skype when we play League of Legends together. It works OK, but it's definitely not preferable over being able to all bring your laptops to one person's house and play in the same room.

I'm going mostly off Symphonia here as that's the one I've played the most (and it's one of my top 3 favourite games). Basically any of the Summon Spirit bosses; each of them has a theme and a select few attacks that you learn as the fight progresses. I also really like the way they do the rival boss battles (Kratos in Symphonia, Flynn in Vesperia etc.) as they are particularly epic from a story perspective. Oh and then there's all the Desian bosses. I remember Magnus kept destroying me the first time I played through, but again, learning his attacks and how to co-ordinate your party were key to success.

I played a few hours of my Gamecube copy in anticipation for Symphonia Chronicles and looking back, yes, I can definitely see some of your points. Some bosses use Overlimit more often than I'd like and some attacks force you into using Guardian just to soften the blow. But these are very minor complaints from me. I haven't played Xillia, but I agree with your previous point on Graces: the focus on side-stepping and just a greater emphasis on movement made the combat really enjoyable. The same can be said for Vesperia, too. God I wish Vesperia was on PS3 :(

Call Of Duty Ghosts, it's almost the same like any other CoD while Battlefield 4 made a lot of changes as well as League Of Legends, it's some super-power creatures who attack each other with minions fighting. I don't really see a goal in LoL

League of Legends is incredibly rewarding if you take the time to get into it. The only problem is it takes a pretty unreasonable amount of time to get into. It's definitely more than "super-power creatures with minions fighting" haha.

I've never really liked the mario series. But I can see the appeal in the more newer ones, since you can play with your friends.

I picked up my preorder for Tales of Symphonia Chronicles this past Tuesday. When I get around to replaying it, I'll pay some attention to the Summon Spirit bosses (I played Symphonia something like 6 or 7 years ago). Going entirely off memory, my favourite fight was the Yuan and Botta fight. Although I'd have a hard time explaining why now, I remember really liking Yuan during my playthrough and after fighting both Yuan and Botta on their own, fighting them together seemed exceptionally fun. I also LOVE the boss music in Symphonia - it somehow makes the battles seem even more intense/fun than they might actually be, haha.

I've never gotten into LoL.  I just find it incredibly boring with nearly every match playing out the same.  I even managed to find a character I was good with (who has a playstyle I enjoy) and even that gets old.  I know I'm only like level 11 in the game, but still...  It just drags on forever and ever and ever and there are very rarely, if ever, games that are "balanced".  All the characters have weaknesses and if the enemy team all carries what you're weak to (like Ability Power or magic or whatever they call it), there is no way you're going to be useful to your team at all.  No, not even if you buy items mid game to try to make up for that shortcoming.

The game only gets worse when you see how absolutely unbalanced some of the champions are.  Much of the playerbase even calls them "noob chars" because they're so easy to kill with and only really die if you're monumentally stupid.

But, alas, there is also one more thing that is worse than that...  Oh yes...  It's the playerbase.  You see, if you play online at all, you are expected to know every nuance of the game and how to play at a professional level despite the computer opponents never really teaching you how to play (or outright cheating to win at higher difficulties).  If you are not the absolute best player of (insert hero here) when you play online, you will be spammed with all kinds of hate, catcalls of "noob", and even spammed with feedback that says you were "feeding" the enemy so that you might actually get your account banned for "trolling", even though you're just inexperienced with online play.

I don't play League much, and I never really intend to.  If I want to deal with jerks in an online game, I can pick any of the CoD titles I own.