Your favorite bad game: be it story, gameplay, art design, graphics, etc.

BrawlMan

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I'll raise you and ask who's more annoying - Ashley or Steve?

(It's Steve.)
Code Veronica/X Steve is way more annoying than Ashley. The Darkside Chronicles version of Steve I would take over Ashley though.
 
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Specter Von Baren

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I think mine would be Malice.



It's a fairly generic 3D platformer game with a "too cool for school" sassy girl/goddess who acts like she came right out of the 90's. The gameplay isn't really bad but it's also not good, it's the tier you'd expect from the previous generation of consoles. Yet I can't help having a soft spot for it. I think it's really just the art direction, the game is actually fairly original with its enemy designs and I guess I see it as the last gasp of 3D platformers before the genre died aside from Mario and so I still like it despite its many flaws.
 
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BrawlMan

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I think mine would be Malice.



It's a fairly generic 3D platformer game with a "too cool for school" sassy girl/goddess who acts like she came right out of the 90's. The gameplay isn't really bad but it's also not really good, it's the tier you'd expect from the previous generation of consoles. Yet I can't help having a soft spot for it. I think it's really just the art direction, the game is actually fairly original with its enemy designs and I guess I see it as the last gasp of 3D platformers before the genre died aside from Mario and so I have a soft spot for it.
I remember that. It was originally a launch title for OG XBOX. I saw that and the showing for it on Tech TV back in 2001.
 

Dalisclock

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Bioshock Infinite.

It's story is a mess, the vigors have no real justification, the scavenging health out of trash cans makes like no sense at all for much of the game but damn if I didn't enjoy the sights and sounds of Columbia as a location and watching it go from Pristine to completely collapsing in on itself near the end.

I also appreciated it tried to do something interesting with it's plot even if it ended up completely failing at it much of the time.
 
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Zykon TheLich

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Dawn of War Soulstorm.

Such bad dialogue coupled with the voice actors actually being pretty good and hamming it up to the nth degree created such a memetastic combination.

The game itself wasn't too bad, it had a great base being an expansion, it's just what they put in extra wasn't well implemented.
 

happyninja42

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Alpha Protocol.
Yeah I genuinely don't like that game, and actually stopped playing it during the climax mission, because I realized I was at the end, and just didn't really care, or have an idea as to what the motivation was for the badguys. But I LOVED the way the game incorporated your actions during gameplay. Specifically I remember 2 things. One is a particular mission, where you go infiltrate a mercenary army's base for information, and are forced to talk to their boss at the end via video conference. If you make it through without killing anyone, and without being seen, he's genuinely impressed with your abilities, and you get a huge reputation boost with him, allowing instant access to him as a resource going forward. That was just so cool to me. Also I liked how the game rewarded you for particular gameplay styles, by making you even more effective at them. Specifically when I unlocked the stealth takedown achievement, after doing it 100 times or something, and the reward was that my noise detection radius was reduced by 25%, which was just really cool. It reminded me of the little achievement perks you got in New Vegas for doing certain things X times. And I really liked that kind of player feedback

Also the introduction to that contact in Hong Kong...if you go to him first...oh my god that was hilarious. That character alone was a riot to interact with. But, other than that, I really had very little investment in the game.

OT: Sheltered


The graphics aren't great, though of course that's on purpose, for that retro feel, but I still don't like them. But damn do I love that game. I don't consider it "bad", but the OP did specify the classification could be due to things like graphics and such. Other than the look of it, I think it's a great game, and I've sunk way too many hours into it.
 

BrawlMan

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Dead to Rights (XBOX/PS2/GC) - A Max Payne clone that tried to do everything, and fail in an entertaining way. The story, voice acting, and shooting are decent, with cool gun specific disarm moves you can pull off that makes you feel like you're in a John Woo/American action film hybrid. Everything else it fails at. The melee combat is not fun and difficult on OG Xbox. The game on og Xbox is plaint sadistic in general, but thankfully the ports tone this down a lot. The game was clearly rushed for the holiday, and all of the mini games are just there for padding or trying to be this mega game with all of the different gameplay roulette's you can do. Stripper rhythm game, rail shooting sections, lock picking mini games, bomb sniffing mini games, bomb disarm mini games, etc. Most of these are okay, but are not done that well, and even worse and full of padding in the XBox version. The prison level being the worst example. Once again, the other console ports fix most of this. The other problem is every supporting/side character you meet,almost all of them die. Jack, being the main character of course, survives. The only other surviving characters are Shadow, wolf-dog, a new reporter, and his preacher friend framed for a crime he did not commit. Though it's implied he would get out. The one sequel that came out was just average and more arcade style, and ended up being a sequel/prequel. The ending implied that Jack would be a freelancer/Punisher type character fighting corruption outside of Grant City. This is never used as after the second game, we got a "dark and edgy", reboot, Gears of War clone. Including dog shit brown colors, grim dark setting, and a way less interesting cast of characters.

 
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dscross

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When I think of bad games I like my mind always goes to Sonic Adventure 2.

Its probably the first and only Sonic game I really enjoyed although I think its a pretty bad game. But, gotta love that buttrock.
How is that even bad?
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
How is that even bad?
The controls are bad, most of the levels are annoying to get around, the story is less nonsense then most sonic stories but still nonsense, the voice acting is bad, the animations are bad. Its just a bad game, but I kinda love it, well, love might be a bit strong, I at least like it.
 

Xprimentyl

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Duke Nukem Forever. I walked in expecting a train wreck and was pleasantly surprised to find a fender bender. After 178 years in development hell, it was ultimately an inoffensive, basic and uninnovative game that played decently, had some interesting level design and the crude humor you expect from a DN game. It was entertaining for what it was and it knew what it was: the butt of a decade long joke that was so bad it was… well not “good;” it was so bad it was not THAT bad.
 
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thebobmaster

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Fine Ill say it. Bioshock 2 is good. Its worth playing and even as the lesser of the trilogy its still hand and fist and heart and soul better than 95% of FPS on the market, especially since its creation
They said bad games. Bioshock 2 isn't a bad game. It's just not as good as Bioshock, and from what I've heard, Infinite.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Its commonly seen as a bad game, mostly because of ZP, but also by simply being the weakest of a fantastic franchise.
I would say its much stronger then the first one in terms of gameplay. But, its story is weaker, at least it doesn't have the fantastic mind fuck moment, but its still not as wasted as the story in Bioshock Infinite is.
 

BrawlMan

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Duke Nukem Forever. I walked in expecting a train wreck and was pleasantly surprised to find a fender bender. After 178 years in development hell, it was ultimately an inoffensive, basic and uninnovative game that played decently, had some interesting level design and the crude humor you expect from a DN game. It was entertaining for what it was and it new what it was: the butt a decade long joke that was so bad it was… well not “good;” it was so bad it was not THAT bad.
Did you play the PC version, that eventually got patches and updates, or the consoles? The console version never received any updates, so people on those systems were stuck with what they got. I think the other major problem being it was 2012. This is when the depiction of women in gaming became a really hot button issue, and Duke's capture the babe mode set off a ton of nuclear offended people. I am not defending the mode, but some of these people went way overboard.

All of Sega's Technical Institute's games are this of varying qualities. For those that don't know, they were an American sub-division of Sega that made Western focused games. They only done 4 games, and Sega shut them down. They were known pushing the Sega Genesis to its limits in art, graphics, animations, and sound design. Their games are Kid Chameleon, Sonic Spinball, Comix Zone, and The Ooze. KC was an early Genesis title that screams early 90s and is basic platformer that was Sega's answer to Bonk. Not much to add. There other 3 games were known for dark atmosphere in art and soundtrack. It's especially notable with The Ooze. Just check one of the creepiest intro in a Sega game.


STI's games were all known for being bad and unfair in difficulty and game design, with The Ooze being the worst. The Ooze really only gave you 1 life/continue and that was it. To get the best ending was obscure as all hell, tedious, and something you would not even figure out on your third playthrough. Assuming you even got that far. Comix Zone only gave you 1 life/continue, but you get 2 more after every other level. Meaning you get three at most, but dying means you have to start certain section(s) of an episode all over again. And hitting inanimate objects causes you to lose health unless you use certain puzzle items or know which paths are better to take. Comix Zone was a basic brawler with platforming, puzzle solving, and about an dude getting sucked in to his own comic. Too bad gameplay was done better and taken further in Viewtiful Joe; just replace comics with movies. The cel-shading makes you feel like you're in a comic book though. Jet Set Radio, Mad World, and many others took this further too. To make up for this, Comix Zone has a banging badass grunge soundtrack.


 
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