Me too. I think most fans of the series were really unfair to it. HoMM 3 was the perfect iteration of the formula. There was nowhere to go with it, other than new graphics. Something new had to be done, and HoMM4 was just that. It had a lot o new ideas, most of which I liked, and felt fresh while still familiar. And the stories for most campaings were much better than in previews games.

I think the HoMM 5 finally proved that trying to just redo 3 with new graphics was not the way to go. It was vastly inferior to 3, and felt like a huge step back from 4.

People need to consider the person making the review before adding credibility to his/her opinions !

A review of the latest MotoGP game would look very different whether its done by:
a) TotalBiscuit, AngryJoe, Jesse Cox, Dodger, Markiplier
b) IGN, GameSpot, GiantBomb, Polygon, Eurogamer
c) TeamVVV, Inside Sim Racing, Classic Game Room

I use MotoGP as an extreme example but the same goes for any other game, genre or franchise.

Don't agree with a reviewer's opinion ? well look at their background !
If their background is Nintendo, WoW or Pokemon their review of the latest Battlefield game will reflect this.
Compare this to Mark at Classic Game Room, who has played a tonne of shooters.

A reviewer's gaming background will determine their expectations, bias and ignorance.
If you understand this there's no reason to hate.

Yep, 3rd-ed, I DO think the combat is a little wonky but refreshingly different at least but it's not just the story that makes up for it, there's other mechanics that are good too - Mor's Dog and the Puzzle for instance...
I could barely put it down from start to finish to the finish of the 'Beyond the walls' DLC

Just plug in an XBox 360 (or XBone, I guess) controller and map 'X' to 'X' already, jeez!

Nope, I don't want to buy and carry around a gamepad, so tell me the key I'm supposed to press already, jeez!


Oh, more on topic. I was thinking that I generally didn't like anything with bad critics, or at least couldn't think of one. It just came to mind: Heroes of M&M 4. I really liked those one man army heroes, capable of using stealth and summoning to conquer a city by themselves. Specially when you made an army of lvl 30 heroes and became unstopable in the campaign. It was fun.

Someone hacked it to make more sense, if you don't mind the legal implications...
http://www.thealmightyguru.com/Games/Hacking/Hacks/SimonsRedaction.html

That one changed stuff, this one just re-translated the Japanese better, for the purists (seems to have added a map too though?)
http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/1032/

Wow, these links are pretty interesting! Thank you very much, I'll try them.

Thats only a handful examples out of a 900 game library.

That's because Doom 3 is actually quite a lot of fun, if you can get past some of the quirks, and forget it's a Doom game.

F3 was nowhere near as fucked up as Vegas. That thing was held together with Duct Tape and hope.

They at least gave us a decent ending that didn't require a DLC to fix.
That was actually the last time I remember being scared while playing a game. Feels like a long time too.

Now its like I got a thousand yard stare when it comes to scary shit. I bought the BFG edition on the 360 and was bored as fuck.

I actually enjoyed that E.T. game for the Atari 2600.

thats only a handfull of examples i can think of
i havent played 900 nes games

Yes HOMM4 too is a game I like a lot. The skill/class system was really great compared to HOMM3 (which wasn't bad, but not improved at all compared to HOMM2). The line of sight for shooters and the combat spells were also a great improvement too. The limited non-upgradable creature buildings was also a great idea (I don't particularly like the upgrade system in other HOMM games because there is no tradeoff whatsoever -> less strategical depth).
Although I agree that the 3D was more often than not clunky.

Absolutely, gone are the big open and confusing levels of Doom II, but what we got instead was still a lot of fun. For the record, I felt that Doom3 paled in comparison with Quake IV. The latter has one of the best sp campaigns I've ever played in an fps.
How about STALKER with places like Dark Valley and Lake Yantar? Not to mention those blasted labs underneath each :-\ Not so much jump scares as overall creepiness

Tense and creepy. Great part of the game but not scary. Scary to me is the imminent urge to just shut the game off and walk away. Playing Silent hill as a wee monkey in short bursts was an example of this.

I just got more jaded and cynical so things got less and less scary. I'm rethinking my cynical approach however so games just might make me scared again. Heres hoping :D