Welcome to Respawning’s Games Club! The purpose of this is to get a bunch of us together once a week, to allow us the chance to chat shit about whatever takes our fancy in the world of video games and discuss what we’re currently playing.

With Dead Island: Survivors having recently been announced, and Dead Island’s infamous history of what some will call mediocrity, we decided to discuss our favourite games that may just be a little less than we remember… Those brown gemstones that, despite being shiny in our eyes, are heaping piles of shit to others…

Will

Every now and then, we get a game that is so (in)famous for its place in the industry – Controversies, remasters, politics, etc – that people often forget about the game itself. That’s the case for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

A massive game that, even 1500 hours in, I can still find new things to enjoy, Skyrim is often praised and vilified by separate ends of the very same community.

There are those that praise its satisfying combat, which was essentially Oblivion’s combat engine done properly this time, which in turn was a replacement for Morrowind’s infuriatingly crap system, where you’d essentially stand dead still, face to face with an enemy, ‘missing’ them simply because they didn’t have them

And then, there are those that complain that Skyrim has the depth of a puddle. Those people are also correct. The quests mostly involve going to the same 3 dungeons (Draugr, Bandits, or both?) and picking up Hairy Jeff the Tramp’s favourite folder of porn, which was stolen by porn bandits.

Skyrim, ladies, and gents. The worst good game ever made, apparently.

William

You know what I’ve always hated? Games that copy someone else’s idea and try to act like they’re soooo much better. Case and point: Dante’s Inferno, which is nothing more than a God of War clone with some preachy overtones… so why do I still love it?

Dante’s Inferno fails in so many areas where its stepdad GoW succeeds that it’s just sad, and yet I can’t get enough of those bland environments and dull to pissing annoying enemies. With shite attempts at shocking content that are actually just boring. Even with all that. It’s still fun! Combat is pretty solid, and the main villain Lucifer is interesting enough to make you keep going. Give it a try! Just don’t pay to much for it…

Javier

Want to know what one of my favourite shit games is… CANDY CRUSH! I don’t know why but I’ve played these games forever and every now and again I’ll go back to them. I’m over level 400 on both of them cuz I’m cool like that.

But on a more console-y note, I really like a lot of the Lego games, especially hero themed one. I know they’re kinda shit because I can only play one every 3 years and the actual gameplay isn’t exactly groundbreaking but once I’m started on it and I’ve started collecting I cannot stop until I’ve 100%’d those bastards and got the shiny platinum trophy.

Salman

Alright, so they’re two games that fall into this category for me.

One is Brutal Legend. A game that a lot of people have a problem with but I believe is one of the most fun, unique and interesting games made. The whole hack n’ slash RTS thing is just such an interesting concept and it was done it such a cool and simple way. The world and characters are funny and interesting. It’s just an overall good time and I’ll defend this game till my last breath.

The other game that I can’t really defend too much has to be Splatterhouse (2010). That game has some major issues just regarding graphics and gameplay. But I’m a huge sucker for generic spooky mansion bullshit and just stupid horror tropes. So this game was right up my alley. The whole blood and gore thing are hilarious in this game as blood literally paints the screen. It’s comedic in how brutal it thinks it’s being. I can totally see why people have huge issues with this game but for me it’s awesome. The music, the combat the whole atmosphere. And having the original Splatterhouse games in there as a bonus ain’t half bad.