What games impressed you with competently executed mediocrity?

[ultraslick]

richardhutnik said:

ultraslick said:
@RichardHutnik
The way you have written this completely competent but absolutely mediocre thread reminds me of how a young child first hears different words and phrases, then uses them out of context to sound smart.

Are we aware of other games that are amazingly competent but unspectacular?
what a way to phrase the question

You are given so many letters for the subject header, so it is hard to think of the perfect way to put it thenre.  The elements I was going for was:

I boot up a game, go, "Wow that is competently executed".  That was my reaction to it.  Not that it was awesome, just it seemed competent, kinda like you are looking at a coffee table, and go, "Wow that table is sturdy".  Like, with Timeshift, my reaction was that it did an amazing paint-by-numbers job.  Games are entertainment, not things we look at for how well they are assembled.

Curious about this reaction, I was wondering how many others people ran in this, and what other games.  And it is more of the reaction then the game.

I see, and I understand.

It is a great thread, don't get me wrong. Not one you see everyday anyways. It is interesting what you said.

You are right games are entertainment. Most people con't look at how well they are assembled, and after playing so may games I feel like I (as many on this site may feel the same)judge a lot of games on how they are assembled, by their online components, if they have any glitches an so forth.. which would have lowered my enjoyment of a game like timeshift by some.

but once I started playing the game it was clear to me that I had to turn that part of my brain off, and just enjoy it for what it was.. the entertainment.. as you said.

certain beautiful games that we play have the potential to ruin perfectly good games which we play at a later time, if you never stop analyzing.

but there are so many games that are good in some ways that can be enjoyed for what they are.

kudos

oooh, I thought of another one, Kane and Lynch