Games That You Love But Suck At

[republic]

I'd say Aurora and Dwarf Fortress for me.  Both of them I fall in love with the detail but then lose because I missed something I should have been paying attention to.

[Father Ted]

Good thread...

How about we look at why we think we're bad at certain games?

As a kid I wanted to be a WW2 fighter pilot (or perhaps wanted to have been - I'm not that old) I read all the books, built the Airfix models and so on.  Now technology has given me the chance to have a go, and I find that I really can't cut it in MP.  I "fly" with and against a bunch of mates and some of them are much better than me.  Partly that's experience, but I've been flying regularly for about 6 hours a week for two years, and feel I should be better.  In the end, I think I just don't have the hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness to really prosper.

Like others in this thread, I find I struggle at CMBN.  In this case, there's obviously no physical limitation (I play exclusively WEGO), so where am I going wrong?  Are some people natural tacticians, and I'm not one of them?  Having spent some time on the CMBN forum, I actually think that my problems here are more to do with learning the game mechanics than a lack of tactical nous.

The only computer game I consider myself to be vaguely proficient at is Darkest Hour - but that's probably only because I've logged 900 hours at it!

[ComradeP]

My results with FPS games vary widely. I was quite good at Forgotten Hope, a mod for BF1942 and BF2, but something like Red Orchestra was something I was less good at because I usually fight as a rifleman and tend to get killed by guys with SMG's. It's one of the reasons I dislike shooters set in modern times: the ROF of most weapons is fairly high. When firing with a rifle in-game, I also get more of a feeling that there's some skill involved. Running into a building with a 72 bullet clip PPSh and killing everybody inside feels much less satisfying.

I was reasonably good at using Tank Hunters in WoT, they suited my playstyle: careful, accurate shots and disappearing before anybody knows what happened.

I'm generally not very fond of games where luck can change things dramatically, which is also why I lose interest in some turn-based wargames from time to time as getting bad rolls on difficult CRT's can thoroughly wreck your game.

I'm much better at a longer term plan or developing a genuine strategy than tactical (twitch-)gaming to begin with.

[undercovergeek]

CMBN shortfalls for me are a result of not knowing what to do next or where to go next - the whole concept of the game's tactics and to the best of my knowledge real life bocage fighting tactics are to find the enemy, fix them with enough force and then overwhelm them with a greater force from a flanking movement - where i come unstuck is after ive won that battle, where do i go next and in what order (only if the map is big enough to need that direction), small maps are perfect, find, fix, flank, destroy and win is what happens there

FPS shortfalls are my OCD need for realism - ive shot a man running in the distance, i hit him, he should be dead or severely wounded enough to be no longer a threat, but he isnt, hes leaping up and down, dodging and weaving and eventually stabbing me - this realism would never happen in a modern run or gun FPS because the kids would get too upset about dying too much. There was a mode in the recent Ghost Recon where you had one life and that was it - it was very tense and nerve wracking, like i imagine it would be - i lose enjoyment in the game charging towards an enemy firing because i know damn well that isnt how it should be - if i could  make the mental switch from simulation to game i might be a bit better

[Rayfer]

Pick any Ageod title.

LOL...me too!!  I've tried and tried but just can't seem to wrap my head around them.

[MarkShot]

Someone asked, 'How do you really know that you suck?'.

All the PC and iPad chess games I have generate a rating for the player based on win:loss versus a simulated engine rating. My rating is not gradually improving and the verbal description stays at "casual player".

No computer game implementation is as rigorous as chess engines. There is no gray area when it comes to "sucking". I know that I suck with great precision from CM11-PC, Fritz12-PC, Shredder-iPad, tChessPro-iPad, Stockfish-iPad, Chess Coach Pro-iPad, and Hiarcs-iPhone.

I am not proud, but it's the truth. However, I chose to suck at Chess, since all other games I eventually best the AI. This can never ever happen with Chess. All the engines I have can easily beat 99% of the World's human players, and then some.

[Father Ted]

FPS shortfalls are my OCD need for realism - ive shot a man running in the distance, i hit him, he should be dead or severely wounded enough to be no longer a threat, but he isnt, hes leaping up and down, dodging and weaving and eventually stabbing me - this realism would never happen in a modern run or gun FPS because the kids would get too upset about dying too much.

Go back to RO/DH/RO2.  I've been playing a lot of Planetside2 and that frustrates me in the same way.  I can actually hit people (and the game shows your hits, so I know that to be true) but very rarely often enough to stop them spotting and killing me before I kill them.  Drives me mad, even though I know it's a part of the game as they want you to buy better guns and armour.

Sorry for OffTop

[MengJiao]

Good thread...

How about we look at why we think we're bad at certain games?

I think I've decided that being pretty bad is more fun than doing really well.  For example, I got fantastically good at the original battlefield (BF42) and the result was that I only had a really good time when I absolutely exterminated the enemy.  Finally I hit the level of 2 PZIVs and 8-10 infantry in about 30 seconds attacking up hill and into entrenchments and I just stopped.  Just was well since my hand-eye reflexes were weird-ified for a year or so.
I got really good at Darkest Hour (which is a fantastic mod) in late 2008.  I decided it was taking too much of my time and I stopped.

These days I spend time fooling with editing scenarios in ARMA2 mods so that I can have a big messy battle solo and not think about it much
and doing similar things in FOTS and CMBN and Third Wire and Il-2 and Dangerous Waters.

And solo board games.  REally nothing beats a complex solo board game for extended suckiness:  you don't know the rules, you can't find the right pieces, You're not sure what some of the numbers and cryptic signs mean, you forget to roll for something (oh radar failure!  I forgot and I guess it is working after all) and the side you secretly want to win still gets beaten.  Very satisfying.  If sucky.

So its a win for me when I set up the AI well enough for it to have a reasonable chance of blasting me.  So I try to be consistantly a bit sucky in the interests of entertainment.

[RooksBailey]

FPS shortfalls are my OCD need for realism - ive shot a man running in the distance, i hit him, he should be dead or severely wounded enough to be no longer a threat, but he isnt, hes leaping up and down, dodging and weaving and eventually stabbing me - this realism would never happen in a modern run or gun FPS because the kids would get too upset about dying too much.

Go back to RO/DH/RO2.  I've been playing a lot of Planetside2 and that frustrates me in the same way.  I can actually hit people (and the game shows your hits, so I know that to be true) but very rarely often enough to stop them spotting and killing me before I kill them.  Drives me mad, even though I know it's a part of the game as they want you to buy better guns and armour.

Or Call of Duty in Hardcore mode.  Most people don't even realize there is a hardcore mode where all it takes to kill an opponent is 1-2 shots, tops.  It is an absolutely lethal mode that I suspect a lot of people would prefer to play if they knew about it.  Once I tried it, I rarely returned to the standard "run and gun" mode of play.

[MarkShot]

But sometimes I suck less than other times ...

[Sir Slash]

Congrats Markshot. Beating computers at Chess is always harder than humans to me because you can't catch them off-guard.

[Boggit]

Chivalry  I'm not terrible at it but I'm not great either.  I usually get around a 1:1 - 1.5:1 K/D ratio which is kinda sucky but I have fun doing it.


DCS A-10C Warthog.

(OK, I don't love it but I want to.  I watch videos of guys who really know how to fly it and I want to be able to do that.  So why can't I even get my GBUs to hit accurately?)

Look at this video.  It's freaking awesome!  It would take me 10 minutes just to set up for a single Maverick launch I'd I'd likely still miss.  I wonder how long it took these guys to get as proficient as they are?

I saw these A10 planes at a Brigade Firepower demonstration on Salisbury Plain back in 1982/3. They were just awesome and your clip reminded me of it. I remember the cannon making a little farting sound and a few seconds later the target hill just erupted. Impressive. 8)

[Boggit]

Combat Mission Beyond Normandy...I seem to really be struggling with this one.  No matter how cautiously I proceed, I always manage to get my formations pinned down and chewed up.

If it helps, I find the key here is recon. Don't put too many troops forward and use your ability to create scouts. Once you've identified the enemy fire positions you can then engage the enemy with your lead squads and maneuver your reserves either to infiltrate a flank or to concentrate firepower. When I first started playing CMBN I found I was too aggressive and invariably got creamed too because I was too keen to close with the enemy too quickly.

[Boggit]

Any and all flight sims I have ever tried....!

Pretty much my experience too. I have got better over the years, but my ability generally sucks. I played IL2 Sturmovik Complete a while ago and died on almost every flight I took, usually getting into a spin and crashing. :-[

[Boggit]

IL-2 1946. I really wanted to fly a whole WWII campaign. I didn't care for who, or if I bacame an ace, just to take part. But I couldn't even survive the Pearl Harbor battle as the Japanese. At least I'm equally bad as all the major combatants so it's not a national thing. As I passed-over the bloody fields of Russia in my shiny new Messerschmidt, I can hear the Russian soldiers below laughing at me from 10,000 feet. Gus, what difficulity level are you playing STW2? That's actually one game I did rather well at.

+1

At least you had 10,000 feet between you and the Russians. I played a Russian Ace ::) (well a wannabe - I had the aspiration but not the skill) and spent my time being a laugh for the Germans who came to look at my wrecked plane on the ground... :-\