Uncharted 2
TPS sections: the enemies are bullet sponges so you have to focus fire on a single opponent in order to down him which drags out the lengthy fire fights to a slog. There is almost no enemy variety to boot and the weapons and ways you can deal with them are equally uninteresting.
Platforming sections: what platforming sections? The game has an annoying amount of on rails climbing portions that are no different than fast forwarding or rewinding a pre-recorded tape. This constitutes dull and mind numbingly pointless gameplay and guess what? These genius developers thought it would be cool that every one of these portions be dragged out even longer by making absolutely every little thing cinematically break under Nathan's weight.
Pointless gameplay sections: Uncharted 2 is riddled with portions that are worse than merely spectating cutscenes. In most cases you can skip a cutscene, but Uncharted 2 forces you to play through gameplay dead scenarios like the opening sequence where Nathan has to limp through snow after an on rails climbing portion. How about the museum heist where you listen to your friend to do exactly what he tells you to do. God forbid you think for once. How about the ice cave where you are forced to follow a man named Tenzen because it's fun to watch somebody play the game one second before you do. What about the chapter called "foreign town" in which you just walk through a town until you trigger a cutscene (that's it)? Even when there's a half interesting puzzle like the one where you reflect light, you have an AI controlled character that plays half of it for you.
Story: It started off somewhat interesting with ties into Marko Polo's travels but devolves into a simple race against an evil military army for magic power juice. It loses its intrigue and cleverness reminiscent of a good Indiana Jones really quickly. I will admit the characters are enjoyable although cliché.
The disconnect between scenario and gameplay: This is something almost every story driven game is guilty of. In Uncharted, the premise is that of an explorer akin to Indian Jones and you go globe trotting for a fascinating hidden treasure. So why is it a TPS? Most protagonists in these types of stories avoid confrontation and focus on exploring and solving puzzles. Uncharted gives you no exploration or adventuring. Instead the game tells you you're on an adventure and you play the parts where you murder armies of men. The Last of Us got it right. The gameplay, setting, and story fit perfectly together into one enjoyable experience. There was no jarring disconnect.
Mario Kart 8
This is basically a rant against most of the Mario Kart series. I'm the kind of guy that believes player input is the most important aspect of a video game. So when a game makes my actions irrelevant on a whim, I consider it horrid game design. Making your efforts null at random is never a good design choice.
Enter Mario Kart 8. This is a game where your efforts don't really mean anything. Sure the racing mechanics are solid and can be mastered, but this only creates a false sense of hope. The items are designed to punish the skilled and reward those without it. Every match is at the mercy of the item system.
Let's talk about the blue shell. This is one of the most ill conceived weapons I've ever seen in a game. It rewards no one and punishes those that don't deserve to be punished. The only person who can get a blue shell is someone who is near last place so when he unleashes it and hits those in the front, he gains nothing because he's too far behind. The item also takes no skill to use as it just targets those who are playing well. When in first place, the item just punishes you for doing nothing wrong. You could be playing the most perfect game of your life and it can all be erased at random and for no good reason.
In past Mario Kart games, when you're in first, you always got shells so that you could defend yourself against most items. The blue shell was the only thing that could hit you. Now, if you're in first place, chances are you'll get a coin which gives you no defensive options and leaves you open to all attacks.
Basically, there was a huge uproar against tripping when Smash Bros. Brawl was released. It was a stupid mechanic that messed people up for no good reason. Well, Mario Kart 8 is basically "Tripping: the game". It's an entire game based around the idea that your input ultimately doesn't matter, because random item distribution is stacked against you. Yet everybody hails Mario Kart 8 as the best Wii U game despite the many actually deserving and well thought out games on the system.
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