"Son, I am disappoint." (A let down thread)

[Smooth Operator]

I'm not sure I bought any that let me down, because I paid attention and waited until I smelled the rotten eggs.

So I'll mention a more recent F2P title, called Guns and Robots.
This one actually has great ideas in it, you build your own custom robots (propulsion, torso, head, arms/weapons) and then go to battle with your team mates. They got weapon groups, energy management, any weapons can be enabled/disabled on the fly, your weight determines movement/turn speed, weapons actually shoot from the barrels unlike in modern shooters, and you need to take that into account when shooting past a corner, all robot parts also have their own HP, you take off someones parts and they are crippled for the rest of the match.
But they didn't take it far enough, despite all that technical stuff they didn't put the game together in a way it would matter. You can just load up on HP, energy and nitro packs that undo the downsides of your robot. The energy/ammo system doesn't actually hinder you to a point where landing each shot would be important and the maps are so cluttered you can't know for sure something will hit, in the end spray and pray is the better option. On top of that the maps are so tiny getting a strategic position is irrelevant because in two seconds anyone can be on your tail.

Sadly their shortcomings undo all the good stuff and the game is no more then an average deathmach spray fest. Maybe they pull it back some day and restructure to a meatier system, but I'm not sure if they can even see the problem.

 

[Jandau]

Total War: Rome 2

I love Total War games. Medieval 2 is one of my all time favourite games. I was even OK with Empire, which for all its flaws had some cool ideas and tried to do a lot of interesting stuff. Shogun 2 was a great game, the most polished Total War game at release, tons of cool design and solid concepts that worked well together. It really restored my faith in Creative Assembly after Empire. And I was really into Rome 2.

And then it came out and it was a mess. Balance was crap, design was bogus, it was by far the most bugged and non-functional TW game. I played it at a friend when it came out and just shook my head in resignation. Selling factions as DLC was just salting the wound, as this was content that was always an integral part of the game (sure, Shogun 2 did a little of it, but Rome 2 took it too far).

I recently started playing it again, and with all the patches the game is functional. And there are some interesting design decisions in there (how cities and provinces work, culture, happiness), but it just feels empty and stripped down somehow, like a bare-bones rendition of Total War. No historical events, no more Roman internal politics, diplomacy took a step back compared to Shogun 2, etc.

In its current state it's not a terrible game, but Total War deserved better and Rome:TW deserved a better successor.

 

[Stryc9]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
I never got to know my guy's girlfriend to care about her death

You didn't finish the game did you?

 

[runic knight]

I second Dark Souls 2, it's just so... lifeless, it's still a good game but not the masterpiece the first was.

I just started yesterday playing Dragon Age 2, I thought it was just some petty fanboys getting pissed on some minor changes, Never have I been so wrong.

Edit: also Tales of xilia, the game's plot is completely ruined if you choose to play as the female protagonist (which I did), with some incredibly important parts of the game being skipped and the bad guy was a complete villain sue, with the game trying to show him as the most awesome guy ever and reminding hit every 5 minutes.

Have to agree with the Dark Souls 2 as well. It was well made and solid enough and a good game in its own right but whatever it was about it just had me not caring in the end. Felt like a chore to jump into fairly often and really didn't leave much of an impression. The second part was so bad actually that I only remembered I played the game after seeing someone else post about it.

 

[lacktheknack]

I haven't been disappointed with a game this year, really... because I've played maybe two of them.

So, how about I harp on a game from 2001 instead?

Dracula: Resurrection is way too short and the puzzles are way too simple. I shouldn't be able to accidentally solve stuff on my first try over and over and over.

 

[Guffe]

BlockDrop for the WiiU.
Bought it for 2? and was expecting some trickery physics game.
What I got was "how lucky are you today".
So yeah, wasn't really expecting anything from it, and that it then becomes a letdown sais pretty much

 

[Drops a Sweet Katana]

For me it would be Dark Souls 2. It really felt like they kinda missed the point in many areas and decided to focus solely on making the game more difficult and the story and lore more obscure, which is not really what I would have liked. Many enemies are placed in such a way that you can't pull them one at a time, or just simply aggro together. This mostly goes against the philosophy of the first game as group aggro really only happened with weak, unarmoured enemies, while in the second it wasn't uncommon to aggro up to 5 armoured enemies with swords, axes or halberds at once IN THE FIRST AREA. Yeah no thanks. On top of that, parries seem to have been made more difficult to pull off, and when you did, it was almost entirely pointless as you had to wait maybe a second and a half before countering, which compounds with the previous issue to make parries not worth the hassle any more. The combat also felt as though it lacked the weight of the original's. I have a host of other issues but I don't have the patience to write them all down for what must be the third time.

 

[Mimic]

I was disappointed in the indie game Always Sometimes Monsters. I'd heard good things about it and the choices in the game. I get what the game was going for, that we all can become 'monsters' should we find ourselves in seemingly desperate situations with few options. But as my playthrough wasn't particularly grey so it didn't gel with my experience. The minigames were pretty bad too and it was soo hard to quit them!

Not sure how I feel about Dark Souls 2 at the moment. I probably need a new controller as I've had some pretty big input issues which have caused me to die at times and probably unfairly impact my opinion of the game. Although saying that I think I also have the buggiest copy out there too. I had to completely reinstall as on my first attempt due to multiple issues such as missing audio, enemies disappering into thin air, jump freezes, etc and the Emerald Herald was missing so I couldn't even level up or get an estus flask. I never had a particularly buggy time in the previous souls game and though I have reinstalled there are still some small problems.. and that's before we even look at the actual game itself. Still, as I've created a new character, I'm going to rest my judgement for now.

 

[happyninja42]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
I never got to know my guy's girlfriend to care about her death

You didn't finish the game did you?

I've finished it, but I do have to agree with Caramel Frappe, there is zero attachment to Megan. She's there to be a Tragic Backstory for Adam, and that's about it. We didn't have any time really with her to get to know her, and develop an attachment to her before the opening cinematic takes her away.

I love the game, but yeah that part is something of a mark against the game IMO.

 

[Phasmal]

I know it came out ages ago but I was kind of let-down by The Darkness II.

We got it preowned (we're poor) a while back just before our internet went down during our move.
I got actually quite into it, though I'll admit I haven't played the first one.

It's so fucking short. Just when I thought it was getting good- nope that's your lot.
I tried reloading my game to see if I could keep playing because I thought no way is the game this short.

Bleh, it had it's flaws but I was finding it a fun stupid game to mess around with when I wanted to splatter people into bits with the demon arms (which in my head I have named Stabby and Grabby- don't know if they have names).

I might play more of it for achievements, but I was bummed it ended so soon.

 

[JagermanXcell]

Somebody already say Dark Souls 2? Yes? Yes... Eh I'll say it again anyways... Dark Souls 2.
While the game as a whole has some mechanical improvements, it just becomes a soulless (lel) sequel in comparison to it's charismatic big brothers Dark 1 and Demons. It's not interesting, the lore isn't interesting, the characters aren't interesting, and that's been the core essence of the series and that the new team somehow missed, and it's frustrating. I can explain a HUGE (hitboxes... the DLC being better than the whole game... ect.) list of flaws with the game but I know one to best describe how dull the game is:

Dark Souls 1: Cut the tail off of a dragon, YOU GET A DRAGON WEAPON. Possible lore on the dragon weapon as well, that you can theorize, discuss and leave to the imagination!
Dark Souls 2: Cut the tail off of a dragon... what, do you want a medal or something?

 

[Happiness Assassin]

snip

Put me down for Deus Ex:HR also. I have the habit of finishing most games, even the ones I like, but this game just did nothing for me. I didn't hate it, it was just so "blegh" I just didn't care. I found the characters boring, the setting boring, the aesthetics made me think of a poor man's Mass Effect, and the story never once grabbed me. Though I did like many of the mechanics.

In fact, one mission I probably spent a good hour not doing any mission, instead just screwing around stealing stuff, terrifying people, shooting some hoops, and generally everything besides following the main mission. Eventually I got bored and quit the game and have yet to pick it up again. I fully expected to like this game and was left disappointed.

 

[the_retro_gamer]

Total War: Rome 2

I love Total War games. Medieval 2 is one of my all time favourite games. I was even OK with Empire, which for all its flaws had some cool ideas and tried to do a lot of interesting stuff. Shogun 2 was a great game, the most polished Total War game at release, tons of cool design and solid concepts that worked well together. It really restored my faith in Creative Assembly after Empire. And I was really into Rome 2.

And then it came out and it was a mess. Balance was crap, design was bogus, it was by far the most bugged and non-functional TW game. I played it at a friend when it came out and just shook my head in resignation. Selling factions as DLC was just salting the wound, as this was content that was always an integral part of the game (sure, Shogun 2 did a little of it, but Rome 2 took it too far).

I recently started playing it again, and with all the patches the game is functional. And there are some interesting design decisions in there (how cities and provinces work, culture, happiness), but it just feels empty and stripped down somehow, like a bare-bones rendition of Total War. No historical events, no more Roman internal politics, diplomacy took a step back compared to Shogun 2, etc.

In its current state it's not a terrible game, but Total War deserved better and Rome:TW deserved a better successor.

I second this. It's really pathetic that a game that came out in 2004 (Rome 1) is magnitudes better than a game that came out in 2013! I don't understand how Creative Assembly could drop the ball so hard especially coming from Shogun 2. I fear that CA tired to streamline the total war series too much and the nonsense that was Rome 2 was result of this streamlining.

 

[NoeL]

Trying to think of games I've bought this year... can't really think of any besides Mario Kart 8, and that game is awesome.

 

[thewatergamer]

Watchdogs, I enjoyed it enough to justify my money, but thats about it, which is not what I like out of my games, the multiplayer was about the only thing that saved it, the story was somewhat cliche and dull with a few interesting moments and the "hacking" was little more than "hold down button to make something happen"

So yeah, I got my moneys worth but only that

 

[Catfood220]

Well, there was Watch_Dogs but I can't talk about that without the urge to fall asleep overcoming me.

So I will say Wolfenstein: The New Order. It doesn't really do anything wrong (apart from the fight with Deathshead), the stealthing is fun and the shooting is solid but as a whole, the game didn't really do anything to truly excite me. It may be because for everything cool it did, it then went "now fight these two robots...and now this robot as well". And as mentioned, the fight with Deathshead really pissed me off. Whoever decided that you could tell how much damage you were doing him by how much fire there was in the room needs to be put in a room full of fire to see how much fun it isn't. I must have been only a couple of shots off of killing him, but there was so much fire in the room that I couldn't move and he just gunned me down. I tried about 20 times to kill him to no avail, so I did something I never do.

I bumped the difficulty down to the easiest setting and murdered him with rockets. It didn't feel good and the game even seemed to resent giving me the trophy or completing the game. But I was so frustrated and I wanted to see the ending. It wasn't worth it to be fair.

 

[The Ubermensch]

Snip - Watch Dogs

Snip - Watch Dogs

Snip - Watch Dogs

Snip - Watch Dogs

Snip - Watch Dogs

Snip - Watch Dogs

>Something Ubisoft made didn't live up to it's hype

WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED SUCH TRAGEDY!?!

Snip - Titanfall, CD projekt is Based

>Something EA made was completely squandered

WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED SUCH TRAGEDY!?!

And yeah, my tragedy-detection-system comes from experience, and Eastern Europe devs are the only ones that have yet to let me down.

So lets see... the only game I really regret buying is Divinity Original Sin, and that's really because... the format and the density is unbalanced. The most depth you want to convey in your video game RPGs is probably Mass Effect 1 level; 50 words of normal dialogue, 300 words of backstory optional dialogue for secondary plot-relevant characters, next to nothing for your average mooks, though it's nice that you've thought of that we don't need to know all about it, and a nice codex to read. I want to see more games than that just... Look, I've GMed before, and I know we get carried away, but your player doesn't care about the political views of your slutty scullery maid. It's not so much that I expected the game to be awesome, its that everyone seems to be enjoying it, I can see why they enjoy it and it's normally the thing that I love but... it's just not doing it for me.

But all the other games I picked up

State of decay was an amazing find, I loved the shit out of that game. It wasn't like Left 4 Dead were normal zombies were fodder, 4 normal Zombies could gank you pretty easily, 8 and you were fucked unless you had a rifle which you had better not fire unless you want all the zombies in a 4 block radius after you.

And Star Drive. Buggy as hell and kept crashing near end game, but boy was it fun. The AI actually surprised me a few times, coaxing me to go to war with a faction and then making peace with said enemy while I was in a brutal territory war. They got their asses annexed pretty quick after that shit though. And I also found later on that I'd fucked up the environment of almost every planet I had colonized, I went to war with a lot of races just to feed my population. And then this nice scripted event happened that made things really tense.

All in all it's been a pretty good year.

Because IT WAS ME, I PREDICTED IT

 

[Angelblaze]

Hawken (it 'officially' launched this year)

They completely removed non-'pure accessory' customization. You can't add new life points/armor/move speed or any battle useful things to your mech anymore...and that was essentially one of the only reasons to play; and one of the mainstay reasons people like the fantasy of being a mech pilot(Because it's YOUR robot, you customize and build this baby and you ride it to battle; the bots themselves are supposed to feel unique and appealing to you and removing that from the equation makes the game feel like another COD clone, just in robots.).

League of Legends (for the 2014 year of play)

I just.....where do I start? Where do I end it?

To start, with backstory, YEARS ago a skin idea was launched to the developers to have one of the 'main characters' of the LoL-verse in a towel + a toothbrush sword. A funny, sexy, silly skin for a character that was near universally thought of as either a badass or a parody of badasses. A skin for Garen. Called Unprepared Garen.

Would've looked like this.

That same year, there was a skin idea for a non main character who was very new (Riven) to be in a bunny suit.

Guess which one got released?
The bunny one.

Why am I unhappy with this?

Because, the character they were going to put in a towel was a man, the bunny was a woman. Now, I'm all for sexualization but it has to be done equally or not at all and speaking as a woman there really wasn't much going for us. A majority of female characters in LoL are skimpily dressed or have a skin that makes them such - there are few non-human/fully dressed female characters that stay that way.

So the Garen in a towel? That would've justified having so many overly slutty looking girls running about.

Unfortunately, we didn't get that. We got ignored. In exchange for another girl running around in lingerie. A skin that, keep in mind, coming from someone whose played over 4k games of league, can tell you isn't as popular as it seems. As a matter of fact, most of the most popular skins are fully dressed. But still, we got ignored.

Now, currently as we speak, on the league boards, there's a thread from one of the main art designers asking people for skin ideas- I know it's not them coming out and saying 'were all out of ideas here' but come the fuck on. He was even the same main art designer to post on the thread concerning the Unprepared Garen skin (known as Iron Stylus).

Worst part? They remodeled him - remade his 3-d in game model from the ground up. Meaning that during the perfect chance to release Unprepared Garen, they decided...'meh, fuck it'.

What other issues do I have?

Riot hates mages with a burning passion. Maybe The CEO's wife cheated on him with a mage or a mage pwned him in mid, doesn't matter. Riot hates mages but this year and last year.

Riot's ruined the meta and continued to remove healing as much as possible because screw your supports....except that's not what they did.

Sona is absolutely horrid now which is sad because design wise I loved her so very, very much. She didn't need a retooling that gave her lower numbers and less dmg,but that's what riot did - even in the face of a shit ton of opposition from the community they nerfed her needlessly.

Then, they have the audacity, to buff Bloodthrister - a healing on hit/life steal item and give it a shield.

After nerfing most of the supports in game.
Why?
It's the supports job to provide heal and supportive shields/dmg reduction for the rest of the team. Why would you try and invalidate their existence?

It used to be that ADC went mid, then that went down the toilet. After that, mages went mid. Then lolno. Now its every assassin for themselves, at mid, or you better be damn good.

The release of heroes has slowed down considerably, something Riot has tried to justify by tweaking and changing current heroes, but failed miserably at. The only good rework thus far has been Heimerdinger. Sona didn't need a rework, I have no idea what they are even doing with Kayle, Diana or Rumble. You probably don't even remember Yorick Mori. I own him though and let me tell you since the release of Darius I've been holding his skull and saying I knew him well - I.E. there's no reason to go Yorick top if you own Darius.

'League of Legends' has become 'League of Anything But Mages and Supports. Get That Stupid Magic Out Of Here We Need More Giant Axes and Guns!'

 

[Harleykin]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I know the game came out awhile ago, but due to the Steam sale during summer of 2014- I bought it for just $4.99
Got to say, for a game that's really in depth about the future of humanity, robotics, cyborg enhancements and human possibilities .. it was, poorly done.

The gameplay felt stale, the NPCs were not interesting at all, I never got to know my guy's girlfriend to care about her death, the enemies would derp usually and forget I was even at one spot despite moving a second ago, and the entire map (areas) were all the black / golden theme. No diversity in scenery which really killed my mood to play further.

picked up on steam sale aswell.
the first shot i fired in the game was the last. the "gun feel" wasn't there at all for me. and yeah you probably won't have to shoot through the game all the time but if you gimme a gun make it awesome to fire.

dishonored picked up during steam sale aswell dunno....i just didn't click with it.

actually all of the summer sale games i got this year hurhur.
except rocksmith 2014 i fakkin love the heck outta that thing!

 

[Childe]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I know the game came out awhile ago, but due to the Steam sale during summer of 2014- I bought it for just $4.99
Got to say, for a game that's really in depth about the future of humanity, robotics, cyborg enhancements and human possibilities .. it was, poorly done.

The gameplay felt stale, the NPCs were not interesting at all, I never got to know my guy's girlfriend to care about her death, the enemies would derp usually and forget I was even at one spot despite moving a second ago, and the entire map (areas) were all the black / golden theme. No diversity in scenery which really killed my mood to play further.

picked up on steam sale aswell.
the first shot i fired in the game was the last. the "gun feel" wasn't there at all for me. and yeah you probably won't have to shoot through the game all the time but if you gimme a gun make it awesome to fire.

dishonored picked up during steam sale aswell dunno....i just didn't click with it.

actually all of the summer sale games i got this year hurhur.
except rocksmith 2014 i fakkin love the heck outta that thing!

I really liked Deus Ex. Human Revolution. There are some big flaws to the game, the biggest being the best weapon in the game is a fully speced out 9mm (seriously none of the other weapons compare due to the 9mm being the only thing that has armor piercing. it takes less then one clip from an armor piercing 9mm to kill the final boss.)
I also really liked Dark Souls 2. Vice versa several years i picked up demon souls from game fly. Was really excited for the game because I had heard great things about it but it just didn't click. Didn't get past the first level. Was so disappointed didn't even play dark souls. maybe that's why i like DS2