
It's time for a confession - I've never really been a fan of the Gears series. Yes, Gears 5 looked incredible when I first played it on the Xbox Series X in 2020, and Gears Tactics was pretty fun too, but in general it's just never grabbed me as much as I'd hoped. I tried starting again with Gears 1 recently (which might turn into an article all of its own), but again it's just struggled to hold my interest. Fortunately, there are other members of Team PX who absolutely love it!
You might question how I could possibly dislike Gears, but hey - we all have different likes and dislikes! As much as the likes of Halo and Forza Horizon have become beloved franchises over the years, there's bound to be a whole bunch of Xbox fans who just don't enjoy them for whatever reason, regardless of how successful they might have proven to be.
Call of Duty can even be thrown into the mix now, of course. Yes, a massive number of Xbox players have been checking out Black Ops 6 over the past week, but there are probably plenty of others who are sick of hearing about it already!
Then, there are the games that have become cult classics over the years such as Sunset Overdrive, Titanfall, Quantum Break, Ryse: Son of Rome - a lot of people clearly love these, but they definitely have their detractors as well.
Those aren't really franchises though, so let's stick to the main ones - Halo, Gears, Forza, Call of Duty, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Age of Empires... there are many candidates, so let us know what you've struggled to get into down below.
Does anything stick out to you? Maybe you're not a big Halo fan? Tell us in the comments section!
Comments 46
I'd say Fable. I played 2 a lot and really enjoyed it but never got hooked by 1 and 3. When the new one comes out I'll try it on Game Pass but it won't be a big priority.
Forza horizon. I just can’t get into it.
I appreciate it is a good game. I can see it is. But it doesn’t click with me. I much prefer the motorsport versions.
I could never get into Gears of War. After the quick-play firefights of Halo I found having to sit in cover against samey bullet sponge enemies to be incredibly dull. I've tried again since but to no avail.
Almost all of them.
Gears gameplay feels slow, clunky and imprecise. And the last few games have constant MCU dialogue.
Halo guns have always felt soft, spongey. The covenant designs are kinda goofy and “The Weapon” dialogue is painful.
Forza Horizon treats you like a child that needs to be coddled every 3 minutes. The race structure is chaotic and messy. The story bits are inane.
Fable feels like a little kids cartoon next to almost any other fantasy RPG.
CoD puts me to sleep with its linearity and handholdy design.
That being said, I love my Series X and the BGS RPGs are the best games ever made imo.
Forza Motorsport & Age of Empires. I'm either not a fan of the genres OR I have already put so many hours into the genre I no longer have any interest in them.
Fable. Been there since the beginning but just couldn’t get into it. Fable had none of the deep RPG systems of western RPG’s, or any of the streamlined Japanese sensibilities that come with mastering the craft. It was in RPG no man’s land. Lots of different concepts all mashed together, none of which really worked all that well. I’m hoping the Playground games one coming up is more of a reboot than a continuation of what came before—this is the perfect opportunity to iron out the myriad of flaws and really craft something decent with fresh direction and competent talent behind the helm.
From my experience with Gears of War, I found it to be fine, but not amazing (although as a technical showpiece it has often been stunning). Definitely a quality game, but I guess it just wasn't ever what I was looking for at a given moment. Definitely willing to give it another shot though.
If we are now counting this as an Xbox franchise, I could never get into Call of Duty. Interestingly, the only one I ever had any fun with was Advanced Warfare of all things. Yeah, I don't know either how that came to be. In fact most Activision Blizzard franchises I would be willing to say - there are definitely some ones in there that I love, but I'd say the majority of them have never really won me over.
Age of Empires too, but not for any reason specific to this franchise, I just am not into that genre very much.
It took me awhile to get into fallout but once I did I loved all of them. Now I replay them all the time.
It was probably a mix of playing fallout 3 a few years late and the gunplay just not being as fluid as every other FPS. But the biggest thing was that I loved elder scrolls so much that I just wished they made another one of those. But once I "got it" Fallout became one of my favorite franchises.
Not really into Halo, or Gears of war, though Gears tactics was quite enjoyable. I’m not into Forza Horizon as much as I used to be, 1-3 were the best ones. Never even tried any of the Fable games 😱
The Souls series. My old geezer reaction times make them pretty inaccessible to me, despite them looking pretty cool.
Forza series for me. When I was younger and we had FAR less choice of games, no backlogs, no crazy sales and discounts or subscription services, I enjoyed a good racing game. Virtua Racing, Stunt Race FX, San Francisco Rush, Rallisport Challenge, Project Gotham, Burnout, Colin McRae etc Now I have too many platforms, endless backlogs and not enough time; I have had to say goodbye to racing and other sports games like pro Evo/FIFA to focus on my favourite genres. I did play through Gran Turismo 7 and a little bit of Horizon 4 just because I miss the English countryside but those are the first in many many years. It's a time thing more than anything else.
Gears for me. Joined the party way too late to enjoy the clunky gameplay of the original outing. Also, lost interest in Halo after Halo 2. Love all Forza Horizon games (though 5 was by far the worst one) and I want to try Fable when I find the time.
@uberdaddypig I wouldn't say the Souls series is an Xbox franchise, they are multiplatform.
Gears for me. While I can appreciate the story the game play just isn't for me. Forza Motorsport series. I am not a big fan of racing Sims, prefer the more arcade style like Horizon.
I'm not much of a shooter fan so its no surprise I just can't get into COD at all.
I very much loved the early Halo games, but I'm afraid I've not been able to get into the later titles at all and have a very low opinion of 'infinite'. I finished the campaign because I was on GP and I genuinely wanted to see if it would get better, but sadly, it really didnt for me.
Love the rest of them though, including GEARS, and I'm really looking forwards to them offering a new title soon!
Halo. I’m relatively new to the Xbox family as mainly a PlayStation gamer and I just found it too… flat? Didn’t grab me at all.
Gears for me. It was always too slow and ugly looking for me to get into.
Forza Motorsport, even Horizon I only play for brief moments, just not a fan of racing simulator.
I actively dislike Gears. It’s just not my taste.
@Tasuki correct. It'd have helped if I'd read the title properly 😆
I don't normally like FPS, so Halo, Call of Duty if you wanna call it that nowadays.
To be honest the only one I got into is Gears.
And Fable I guess, but I only played the first one on PC.
I feel like Halo and Gears must be "you had to be there" franchises as, having come to Xbox in just the last 5 or so years I find them terribly dull, both the original games and the newer ones.
I firmly believe that their continued popularity is rooted nostalgia
Forza: I'm not into cars or racing games.
Gears: I'm not into cover shooters as I find them boring and dull, and the dudebro aesthetics are just terrible to me, so that's one series I have literally zero interest in playing.
Halo: where to even begin...I was hyped to try out this series for the first time via the MCC a few years ago, and I came away with my personal second biggest disappointment (behind Starfield).
None of the games clicked with me as I found very little variance, especially in the first three, and the level design is just abysmal in my eyes, being used to playing tightly-woven boomer shooter levels. I even replayed all of CE in co-op, but both the other player and I came away pretty disappointed.
Infinite I completed and I found quite mid.
I'll always concede that the basics of moving and shooting are very good: I'm not one of those who think Halo sucks because it's too slow and floaty compared to the classics of the '90; on the contrary, I enjoy them and think they give the series its own personality.
But literally everything else, well...is just not for me.
@PapaGlitch haven't played Gears so can't comment on that, but I 100% agree on Halo.
@clvr Also right there worth you on Halo, I was a little caught off guard with how
" bland" the campaigns felt. MP isn't my thing anymore so can't touch on that much beloved part. Infinite was a ...wtf... moment. I've envied Xbox for 15 years for having Halo
FH has been a lot of fun
I keep almost buying fable, but I'll just wait for the new game.
Excited for Gears E., I enjoyed 4 and I will NEVER forget the original Gears trailer, still perfect
Omg, Roflol. Like all of them except for Halo and Overwatch (since I guess it's now an Xbox franchise). Tbh I wouldn't have gotten into Halo if I hadn't started with 4.
There are a bunch of one-offs I like that I wish would turn into franchises though. Like Recore for example.
And I'm anxiously waiting for more news about Perfect Dark.
Halo,Gears, Forza… all franchises I have no interest in (but have tried to be certain) fable (and sunset overdrive) is middling for me as well. I don’t play xbox for the exclusives (before the purchase of Bethesda… but I will get TES on PC so probably moot point). I play for the controller. PS controller hurts my hands and Nintendo doesn’t have parity. I have never been the intended xbox audience but I buy them all the same. So long as they keep getting mutiplats that Nintendo doesn’t, I will be here.
I suppose since AoM and AoE are on console I finally have xbox franchises I love but I will switch to PC once TES 6 comes out (redoing/possibly building a new gaming PC for TES6).
Forza Horizon. I love the idea of that kind of relaxing adventure game, and the spectacular intro movies. But then the gameplay starts and it's very "How do you do, fellow kids?"
Ooof. I took a look at a list of some of their franchises, and it's not good. lol.
I'm not saying these are good reasons, but this is why I'm not into these games (just my opinions).
Age of Empires: I get to attached to my little guys and feel sad when they die.
Banjo Kazooie: Second game is too hard
Call of Duty: Too violent, not attracted to any of the guys.
Doom: Too violent
Fable: don't like the gameplay, art design is ugly
Forza: don't like cars
Gears of War: too ugly. Men look too bulky and squatty.
Microsoft Flight Simulator: too complicated
Wolfenstein: too violent, and plus I don't want to look at Nazis, even if we're shooting at them.
Tbh, this is kind of reminding me why I believed the Xbox was just for dude-bros when I was in highschool. lol.
@Utena-mobile Seconded. I would love to see ReCore built upon and revisited.
Blinx the Timesweeper
@Ryu_Niiyama
Yeah! Also, I don't think they own the rights to do anything with it, but it would be great to have Lost Odyssey as a franchise to compete with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy!
The only MS game I play/like is Starfield.
And I churn monthly Game Pass when there's something new to try.
So to MS, I'm an "Unprofitable customer", lol!
@PapaGlitch The opposite here. I came late to Xbox (Xbox One) and loved Gears of War, except 5. Halo is more serious, more boring in a sense, someone above said "flat", but I enjoyed the first entries and Infinite. Fallout is one I haven't even played yet. My favourite Forza Horizon is 3, perhaps because it's the first one I played. Okay, I ticked the three mandatory checkboxes now and I would choose Gears of War as the best. 😁
Forza's Sim Racing isn't for me, and I found Gears too slow and clunky to enjoy.
I feel a big factor for if people like Halo or not is if you start with friends - it's a completely different experience than playing the Campaigns alone and queuing up solo online. The Campaigns especially are a different, much better experience with more players.
@IGN_Commenter What is BGS RPGS? I get it bethesda I agree they are some great games for me it goes Morrowind, Oblvion, Skyrim in my rankings I liked daggerfall but it is rough.
Man for me it is gears of war I have never even tried it not once. Forza is ok i just get tired of the dlc this and dlc that cars I kinda feel like your getting ripped off after a point.
Halo was great I just have not played it in awhile But had some great times in 2 and odst.
Fable is def my fav native xbox series 1 was good 2 was great 3 wasnt that good to be honest. Really looking forward to playgrounds attempt.
Definitely Halo. I bought Series S on release and started to delve into Game Pass. Gears was a masterpiece, all of them, love them all.
Halo, on the other hand, was unbearable. I managed to play till the third one, but dropped it. It was so silly 11-year old power fantasy with annoying gunplay and sterile level design, I couldn't bear it anymore. CGI cutscenes in Halo 2 Anniversary were top-notch, though, absolutely amazing work even now.
On the other hand, Halo Infinite was pretty fun in multiplayer. Never tried to play its story mode.
@IGN_Commenter most of the weapons in Halo, especially the Covenant ones, look like they were manufactured by Mattel.
forza horizon and how it basically replaced every single racing game with open worlds
Gears to be honest, never really liked it.
Don't like the gameplay and the visuals and the overall vibe of the game.
I don't dislike Gears, but I think it's just okay. I never understood how anyone could think it comes close to Halo.
@BHPM What’s wrong with liking the futuristic CODs ?
@RazputinAquato campaign wise , it definitely does (excluding judgement - 5).
@nomither6 Nothing at all, I would say. But I know that at least a lot of the Call of Duty fans that I know consider the futuristic ones black sheep of the franchise, and decent at the very best. But yeah Advanced Warfare was my preferred one, I think primarily because of the overall flow of the gameplay and how mobile your character felt, it made it feel fairly engaging to me I guess you could say.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...