10 Video Games You Constantly Have To Defend Loving

Opinions are like you know whats - we all have them, whether or not anybody else cares about them.

Playing a great video game that enriches your life and brings you joy is a wonderful thing, but that pleasure can turn to tired misery when you go online to read the absolute torrent of abuse being unjustly levelled against it.

It's no secret that the Internet thrives on negative hyperbole, and so fans of these 10 video games - almost all of them generally well-received by critics - will find themselves constantly qualifying their love of these titles.

The online debate surrounding the games is so contentious and explosive that it becomes genuinely exhausting constantly going to bat for them, defending their honour against wave after wave of impotent rage.

This isn't to say that these games are perfect by any means, but each is nevertheless great in its own way, even if some of their series' most die-hard fans really, really don't want to admit it.

If you're quick to drop a drive-by tweet ragging on these games, maybe think twice before doing so next time. Or don't - it's your call...

It's probably fair to call The Last of Us Part II the Star Wars: The Last Jedi of video games, in that the discourse surrounding the game has become so exhaustingly contentious and vitriolic that even those who love it might feel tired of it.

Naughty Dog's long-awaited survival horror sequel received predominantly rave reviews from critics and scooped more Game of the Year awards than any other title in 2020, but the player response was considerably more polarising.

Many fans took umbrage with the game's boldest creative decisions - namely, killing Joel in the first few hours and later switching control to his killer, Abby, for roughly half the game. And as we all know, haters are considerably more vocal than lovers.

For anyone who found The Last of Us Part II's story laudably envelope-pushing in tandem with its superbly tight gameplay, it remains an absolute chore to discuss and stick up for.

Passionate fans of basically any popular IP have a tendency to get a very specific idea in their heads of how a story should play out, and if it doesn't, they can't handle it.

That's not to say everyone who hated The Last of Us Part II "just didn't get it," but there are so many disingenuous, bad-faith takes about the game out there that its cheerleaders tend to keep quiet and avoid the tiresome dialogue altogether.