Five Games that Are More Fun to Watch than Play
4. Metal Gear Solid
I knew I was going to pick one cinematics heavy title for this list, and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be Final Fantasy. Even if the plots were usually as nonsensical as MGS, sitting through random enemy encounter after random enemy encounter would make any spectator want to gouge their eyes out.
But not so with Metal Gear Solid, which has lengthy cutscenes a (slightly) less insane plot and the action in between is far more tense and exciting than boring and mundane. It’s a game I’ve watched more of than played, as I never had the patience for stealth titles. But watching someone else play through? It’s like a twelve hour movie.
I still need someone to play through the latest two games while I watch however. Any takers?
5. Burnout Paradise
This one is FAR more entertaining to watch than it is to play, for the simple reason that I hate playing this game. Well, that’s not the only reason, but it definitely helps.
I hated a lot of things about this game, mainly the fact that if you lost a race, you couldn’t restart it, and had to drive all the way back to the beginning if you wanted to attempt it again. Also, there were no indicators as to where you were supposed to go during a given race as you were supposed to “forge your own path” through a city, a path that often involved plowing into the side of buildings as you frantically switched between the map and your race screen.
But watching all this? Burnout does one thing right about all else, and its cinematic car crashes never ever get old. A viewer can relax and enjoy the auto carnage, but the driver? He’s busy yelling “c’mon, c’mon!” to get the instant slo-mo replay out of his vision so he doesn’t immediately crash when the view switches back to his own car.
Let me know which games you think I’ve missed!
Interesting, watching pro-Counter Strike has always been more fun for me than playing it.
PS. I’m not sure this needed to be on 3 pages.
There has always been a bundle of games I found more fun to watch than to actually play. When I was really young – like 4 or 6 years old – I used to watch my dad play the original Legend of Zelda on NES. The Resident Evil series has always been on this list for me as well. My ex-roommate used to love watching me play Fallout 3 and Skyrim, and I could watch FIFA matches all day long.
Completely agree on having God of War here. Just sitting there and watching the action/set pieces and enjoying every detail of the game.
I’d like to point out that the Uncharted series should be in there somewhere. I’ve played it with my friends watching behind me and no one in the room got bored. Those games, aside from being great, are actually very cinematic. Heck, you even posted a youtube video of an Uncharted movie a few weeks ago.
Sports games are not allowed in this list I assume because they’re obvious answers?
While not automatically worthy of this list, If a player sticks to storyline (and loyalty, in 2) missions, Mass Effect can be an awesome ride for viewers. The trouble comes when the player wants to side-quest about to level, or scan planets, or whatever. Actually, on reflection, most of ME3’s mission are spectator worthy, main story or not (Save biotic students, Disarm Bomb, investigate A/Y Monastary, etc.).
I was never a fan of the Final Fantasy series, but my roommate at the time (mid-90’s) was a die-hard one. I enjoyed many countless hours just sitting and watching him and also discussing with him what was going on while he played.
Excellent post, BTW. Something not many people consider, I think.
Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box fixed most of the games problems, but after Test Drive Unlimited 2 Burnout just wasn’t fun.
I don’t know if it’s more fun to watch than play since I only watched my roommate play it, but Assassin’s Creed games are basically mini movies if you’re watching someone else play.
I think mortal kombat should be on here..
GTA, MGS and Burnout Paradies more fun to watch than play?
LOL no.
And GoW isn’t fun to watch OR play. That whole franchise blows.
I’d put dark souls in here; the player has to constantly keep on guard so that he doesn’t die and lose all of his money/experience while the viewer has the position of reveling in the player’s constant dying.
My wife says LA Noire is one of these. I wouldn’t know, as I was the one who played it. She also likes watching me play the Mass Effect games.
Well, if you’re in Korea, there’s a channel where you can watch SC. It was pretty much the only channel I kept my TV on because it was all I understood.
GEEGEEEEEEEEE!
Fighting games like soul caliber, especially if the players you are watching know what they are doing. Rockband and guitar hero as well, when you can actually see the players, at least the ones playing on harder difficulties and seeing the hand movements mixed with the lighting up of the screen as they hit every note correctly. Resident evil games I can see being more fun to watch, especially in the later versions where the combat got more intense. The great thing about watching someone play a video game as opposed to a movie is that when you yell at the guy on the screen about an incoming bad guy they can actually hear you >.<
Not sure if Burnout or MGS are more fun to watch than play, but they are definitely entertaining to watch. Although from what friends have said, and what I myself have experienced, I feel that some of the Resident Evil games might have deserved a spot on this list.
And as Charlie Ward said, I expect LA Noire to have the same effect, but I have not personally played/watched the game myself.
My wife likes to watch me play games. Her favorites are the metal gear series and resident evil series.
make that 6, asura’s wrath, barely a game, more like an interactive dvd.
In burnout you can restart a race without having to go all the way back to the traffic lights and the indicators on the car tell you which route to take if you can’t be bothered mapping one out yourself
This list needs way more Legacy of Kain.
Well dunno if some games are more fun watching then playing, but i would say that some (if not all) the mentioned games even from the comments are fun to watch. I would also add Heavy rain and Fahrenheit, and HoN/Dota/Lol (pro matches). I also enyojed watching my friends play C&C generals in Lan parties, but I never played it so i dunno if it is more fun to play then watch.
Assassin’s creed is the first one i thought about when i read the title
I think the makers of Metal Gear Solid series realize how sometimes their game is more fun to be watched than played. If you got the Limited Edition copy of Metal Gear Solid 3 it contained a disc that was nothing but the cut scenes edited into a movie format.
I greatly enjoyed playing MGS II and III but I would definitely agree that the first and fourth are more fun to watch.
Disagree with God of War, don’t care about the rest.
The quick time event’s may have been a bit ‘bleh’ in GOW1 and a little better in GOW2 but they completely perfected them in GOW3 where you didn’t have to look away from the action to see the button prompts as they corresponded with the controller layout and had a white light flash by them which is very easy for the eye to pick up which makes sure the player can respond to QTEs quickly.
God of War is the best franchise out there, it’s just as fun to play as it is to watch. I remember playing GOW3 in front of 10 people on my big screen a few weeks after the game came out and they were all loving it! No other game has entertained them as much, and of course I was having a excellent time playing it because everything was just so perfectly crafted in that game, just a pure masterpiece.
haha more fun then to play? not sure about that but lots of fun to watch for sure!
My roommate has been playing BioShock, to the point that it’s become a household event. Everyone sits down on the couch and we have drinks together. It’s a game we all enjoy watching, but don’t have the testicular fortitude to play through on our own. There really aren’t any side-missions, it’s just one straight play-through filled with jumps and ‘oh shit’ moments that are just as scary for the people watching as for the player.
Honorable mention Eternal Darkness on the game cube. The things that game did to mess with your head.