Poll: 2014: The year of overhyped duds.

[The Jovian]

So 2014 ends in less than a week so I think it's time to reminisce about what is sure to be remembered as one of the most disappointing years in gaming history. Namely by seeing just which one of 2014's overhyped video game disappointments is the biggest. mine is Murdered: Soul Suspect and only because it sucked the most.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

How old are you? Because 'most disappointing year in gaming history' is a bold claim, especially if you grew up in the damn 90's.

I've had a number of gaming years infinitely more disappointing than this one, that's for damn sure.

 

[Roxas1359]

Most disappointing year in gaming? Yeah that's not even remotely true, as if any year would be the worst it would have been 1983...

Yeah this game had disappointments, but so does every year really. I don't know about you, but I've enjoyed all the games that I've purchased this year. From Super Smash Brothers to Kirby Triple Deluxe, even one of the games I supported entirely on Kickstarter Shovel Knight turned out amazing. If you're simply basing this off a few AAA games that turned out bad, then that's not really a good thing to do. Hell, even in the AAA department the only one I think who has been stupid has just been Ubisoft, and they aren't the entirety of the AAA Industry.

 

[Evonisia]

Dead Rising 3, unless you're talking about the PC port, was both a 2013 game and was awesome. Just not as much as the first two but hey, the first two are grand games.

As for me this year? The worst thing that happened to me was that I finally managed to get a habit of buying newish games of the year in 2013, and then bugger all came out in 2014 on the AAA side and too much came out on indie side (mostly on Steam). It was a somewhat crappy year, admittedly and I was looking forward to playing Titanfall, Watch_Dogs and Destiny until it turns out that they had too little content, was just FarCry 3 set in GTA and was a soulless game that followed up one of the most sincere game series of the sixth and seventh gen respectively.

Advanced Warfare looks better than Ghosts, I'm somewhat disappointed in it because regardless of how good it is it'll look fucking perfect when stood next to Ghosts. I'm looking forward to playing it, though, even if it won't reach Black Ops II's level of goodness.

 

[josemlopes]

Almost everything was a disappointment, the ones that didnt disappoint as much still didnt live up to expectations, Titanfall is good but its no COD 4 (or at most have the same longevity in the online).

The start of the year was very promising, Wolfenstein: TNO, South Park and The Wolf Among Us were great, then the rest was just either a buggy mess or a rehash.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Murdered: Soul Suspect was hyped?

Anyway, not every year can be great, and every year that isn't automatically gets labeled as a disappointment. I'm not denying though that this year was pretty limp. I completely avoided Destiny, Titanfall, and Watch_Dogs though, as I could see the writing on the wall with those games, so I guess people who were hyped for those titles must've felt extra bitter.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Woot! Only one to vote for Call of Duty so far.

Actually, that's because that's the only game on that list that I played this year, although I do own Destiny. Just haven't put it in the system yet. But yeah, the trailers for this new CoD made it look like they were returning to what made the other games so much fun for me (mindless, huge action set pieces in these epic battles), but it ended up taking the same path that Ghosts took: you and usually one other non-killable NPC doing little sneaky missions while the real fight is going on somewhere else. Sigh.

 

[Batou667]

Wait, wait. Wait. Assassin's Creed Unity wasn't the first game that came to mind?

 

[Flammablezeus]

Wait, wait. Wait. Assassin's Creed Unity wasn't the first game that came to mind?

Yeah I'm baffled by its exclusion from the poll. I'm sure it's easily the biggest disappointment of the year for most people, although I didn't buy or play it.

For me personally, it's Watch_Dogs. Sure, if I'd watched more gameplay videos beforehand I would have had an idea of how bad it was, but I tend to not follow a game once I know I want it. That first gameplay video and the interviews were so ridiculously misleading about how the game turned out. I genuinely felt cheated.

 

[The Jovian]

Wait, wait. Wait. Assassin's Creed Unity wasn't the first game that came to mind?

Yeah I'm baffled by its exclusion from the poll. I'm sure it's easily the biggest disappointment of the year for most people, although I didn't buy or play it.

For me personally, it's Watch_Dogs. Sure, if I'd watched more gameplay videos beforehand I would have had an idea of how bad it was, but I tend to not follow a game once I know I want it. That first gameplay video and the interviews were so ridiculously misleading about how the game turned out. I genuinely felt cheated.

Like I said there's only so many slots I can use on a poll so if a game's not on the poll then I am sorry but that's how the Escapist rolls apparently.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Titanfall, because the gameplay is so carefully crafted, it runs beautifully on a wide range of systems, it looks gorgeous (if generic), the movement system is a joy.

It's a shame they forgot to actually build a game or infrastructure around such expertly crafted mechanics and assets. Three decent maps, two decent modes, no proper server or social systems and that insulting campaign and price. It's down to ten dollars on Origin now, which kind of says it all.

I'm hoping Titanfall 2 will happen and expand on Titanfall's basics with more players, better shooting mechanics (hit scans are not acceptable in a twitch FPS) and a better fleshed out world, but it wouldn't surprise me if EA shutters Respawn next year.

 

[Ishigami]

Destiny

Superb design, production values and gunplay collides with poor storytelling, lack of content and even the most basic social features resulting in a grind fest prolonged by an antagonizing level system that ultimately doesn?t live up to its expectations by a long shot.
Easily the most disappointing game for me since it is the only game I bought this year that really disappointed me and had a lot of potential. Bungie however fails to capitalize on it and delivers something that is only kept alive by some additive mechanics.
Poor fellows who still play this?

 

[wooty]

Yep, Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Watchdogs, Titanfall. They all fall into my disappointing category.

Either because they were poor overall, or they just bored the hell out of me. I seriously hope next year will be a lot better, or I'm going to have to find a new hobby.

 

[Fappy]

Wasteland 2 was the only game I bought that disappointed me this year. In fact, many games exceeded my expectations this year; namely Hyrule Warriors and Dragon Age. I had 0 expectations for DA:I, so I was pleasantly surprised it turned out as well as it did.

 

[Zetatrain]

Meh, out of the five new releases I played this year

Tales of xilla 2
Destiny
Metal Gear Solid ground zeroes
Halo MC collection
Dragon Age Inquisition

Destiny is the only one that disappointed me. Gunplay was adequate but with nothing else to offer I could not even finish the campaign. And its not like I even had high expectations for this game in the first place. Barely even played multiplayer.

Metal Gear solid GZ:I did rent it and had a lot of fun. Its not worth $40 but $20 on steam on the other hand.

Halo MC collection: Had I gotten it for the multiplayer I might have been disappointed but luckily I got it for the single player so all is well for me.

Both Tales of Xilla 2 and DA:I either met or exceded my expectations

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Objectively, Watch_Dogs seems to have been the game that disappointed people the most (merely because it was hyped up to be something other than another GTA clone).

 

[Pinkamena]

I remember when I first watched the demo of Watch Dogs. Man I was hyped. The graphics were amazing, and I liked the mechanics. Too bad the final product was a dumbed down piece of shit then.

 

[laggyteabag]

Well, I mean to be fair, I didn't really have a disappointing year because I tend not to just go out and buy games for the sake of buying games. I have a habit of not buying shit.

Of the games that were on your poll, I only own one, being Titanfall, and I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was: A mindless shooter with cool free running mechanics and giant mechs.

The only other game that I own that I would classify as being disappointing was Assassin's Creed Unity, but I never actually payed for it[footnote]No, I didn't pirate it. I got it free with a voucher from buying an NVidia card. Out of the 3 choices, being The Crew, FarCry 4 and Unity, I guess that I was more curious about Unity and its bugs more than anything.[/footnote], so its not like I lost anything per se or felt cheated out of my money. For a game that I paid nothing for, I actually had some fun with it. Feel bad for those poor souls who actually went out and bought the damn thing though. But then again, anyone who actually pays full price for an Ubisoft game these days probably has more money than sense. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me over, and over, and over, and over, and over....

 

[freaper]

Watch Dogs for me, but that doesn't mean I didn't like it.