Worst game you've ever played?

[Machine Man 1992]

Dark Souls.

Just a cavalcade of broke-ass design and completely wrong headed approaches to difficulty. I wouldn't have put this here, but the sheer number of people who like this game and rush to rabid defense of it just makes me hate it and everything it stands for.

Funny, your idea of worst, is my idea of best. You do come off as a "stop liking what I don't" sort though because of the bolded part.

Don't know what you're talking about with regards to "broken design and wrong approaches to difficulty" as I believe the design was solid (level design was among the best ever made period) and the approach to difficulty was fantastic (you and the enemy being squishy; a reason to not die; chance to still recover; rewards patient gameplay).

Frankly the best games of this gen, IMO are: Dark Souls, Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles.


OP:
Of the games I played this gen? Dragon Age: Origins: I tend to not play too many stinkers though. Eerily simlar to Machine Man 1992, I did hear good things about DA:O, enough to get me interested. But goddam that game was a let down (played on PS3). The combat was a clusterfuck; the programmable AI tactics straight up didn't work; the game could be easily won with AoE magic spam; the story was a LOTR rip-off; the characters were completely unlikeable - especially bitchy Morrigan and emo Allistair; and the colours - from dark brown to light brown... blugh.

But the true worst game I've ever played - E.T. for the Atari. I was kid - maybe 8 or 9 years old when I played it back in the '80s. With little other games to play and E.T. being my favourite movie at that time, I wanted to like it - but it was just terrible. My friend and I quickly went back to Return of the Jedi (Atari) as that at least was pretty fun.

I see where you are coming from, and maybe I could have worded it better: I hate Dark Souls fro what it is, an extremely unfair, very tedious and repetitive game with good art direction and level design. However, when I try to air my grievances with the game, it's defenders crawl out of the woodwork and start giving me shit for not liking it. The fan's responses to me not liking it makes me resent it even more, which leads to me bitching about it, which leads to more fans giving me crap, etc. You are one of the few who aren't jerks, and I appreciate that.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

The worst thing ever made in terms of being an actual game:

Holy shit balls this is awful:

Sonic 06 always seems to be a popular choice. I've always wanted to play it out of curiosity to see if it's really that bad.

If you value your unbroken controllers, clear your schedule and watch pokecapt's lets play on YouTube. Better for everyone, that way.

 

[Nazulu]

The worst thing ever made in terms of being an actual game:

Holy shit balls this is awful:

Sonic 06 always seems to be a popular choice. I've always wanted to play it out of curiosity to see if it's really that bad.

It's better to explain the big deal from a fans point of view. So I introduce to you Clement and his 3 hour rant - http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dCwwxCL4iyw

 

[camerinian]

Well I've played both Superman 64 and E.T on emulators, and they were irredeemable pieces of shite, but perhaps the fact that I previously knew they were terrible, combined with the fact that I spent no money on them, led me to not absurdly hate them like I know I should.

The worst game I ever played that I spent money (well, my parents money) on and wasn't aware prior of its lack of quality, however, was The Simpsons Skateboarding. I played this when I was 9, and even then I realized that it was just a broken, piss poor money grubber. Being a big fan of both The Simpsons and the Tony Hawk games when I was younger, I was psyched when I saw this in the video rental shop bargain bin. However, because I was such a fan of the Tony Hawk games, I noticed straight away that it was a far inferior product. Controls were insanely hard to get used to, the physics felt wrong for a skating game and there were bugs up the ass.

But, worst of all for 9 year old me, it barely felt like a Simpsons game. Oh sure you still had all of the iconic characters, but they barely ever said anything funny or witty, they had no discernibly different traits from one another, they didn't even try to capitalize on the parody opportunities that come with a game like this, and the game was just dull and lifeless, and having been familiar with both Hit And Run and Road Rage at this point, two games that used the licence brilliantly, this felt like a massive wasted opportunity. Although who was ever asking for a Simpsons skateboarding game is still a complete mystery to me

 

[Mr Mystery Guest]

I know this is a Worst Games That You Have Played but everyone who has said Gears of War and the like need to play more games. I know you all might be younger but at least modern gen games are competent. The worst games I've played are ones that don't even work and that goes back to the days of Commodore 16's 64's Amiga's and Spectrum's.

Jet Set Willy where they didn't even make an end, the dev just thought 'Fuck it no-one will get this far' and gave you an instant kill when you climbed out of the toilet.

Ikira Warriors when you plugged in two joysticks but player 1 would control both.

Scooby Doo where the reaction time of you pressing a key and Scooby doing something was three seconds so you had to be a time-lord to play it.

Harvey Wallbanger, oh God I've lost the will to live just at the memory.

And I played dozens where your sprite could walk off the screen and you couldn't make it come back on and would have to let it time out or reload it, and games took thirty minutes to load back then.

I know gaming was in its infancy but they still charged money for them so there should have been some quality control. The only modern game that matches the incompetency of those days is Amy on XBLA which is completely inept.

NeverDead too was pretty shit and I did complete that.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

I'll probably go with Lord of the Rings. The old RPG one. Now I admit right away that I never bothered with the manual, but the lack of any sense of scale or direction made the game so boring that I could never stand it for more than half an hour.

As for not "worst", but "disappointing" (which is what a lot of people in this thread seem to be going for), I felt really let down by what happened to the Command & Conquer franchise towards the end. Red Alert went from "somewhat wacky Cold War escalation game" through "schizo tech with bits of fanservice" to "T&A all the way, and also REFERENCE STORM!" The Tiberium continuity, on the other hand, while keeping its general tone and storyline, pulled a massive change of gameplay in Tiberian Twilight, and not for the better. And there's a browser game now. I just want the series to die with what little dignity it has left, but it seems EA won't stop torturing it.

Never particularly liked Generals (lacks B-movie cutscenes), so won't say anything about that series.

 

[Austin Howe]

The worst game I've played to completion was either Final Fantasy XII or Bioshock: Infinite

I've never played any of the historical stinkers to completion, so those are the only games I've played whole way through that occur to me as being not just mediocre or even kinda bad but really just legitimately terrible.

 

[Austin Howe]

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly.
Glitches upon glitches, bad sound sync, nothing in the department of new ideas ("hey, let's recycle a villain from Gateway to Glimmer with "gotta catch 'em all" objection from Year of the Dragon! We're original!"), horrendous loading and the fact that it was one of my first games on PS2. I'm just glad I bought Vice City shortly afterwards and completely forgot about it.

Man, I got that one for Christmas just tryna get a good nostalgia trip going and just . . . let's not talk about it.

 

[DSK-]

Well Starcraft 2 for turning the characters into cliche' spewing garbage, stuck in a lame heroic story. Then there is the backwards idea of making each part based only on one races campaign, along with the bullshit they said that it makes the campaign more epic or whatever. Topped off with the annoying Battlenet restrictions I had to put up with, even to play the single player. Every other part is average and I didn't care much for.

I agree. In comparison, the Starcraft 1 story, played out in the mission briefings, was actually pretty damn epic and gripping, at least it was for me the first few times I completed the game. Had such great writing.

OT: Not sure. Possibly Metro 2033? It should be renamed "Loading screens: 2033". Then again I have yet to complete it *shrug*

Probably Shootmania. Terrible, soul-less excuse for a competitive shooter.

 

[windlenot]

These threads always invoke a lot of hate for seemingly unfair choices. I can't argue that anyone's opinion is wrong, but I just find some choices a bit purposefully loaded.

OT: As a kid, I had and played Pac Man 2 on Genesis. I. Didn't know what to do or how to do anything, nothing made sense, and the est part of the game was when you get to go to an arcade and play Pac Man. Maybe I was missing something as a kid, but I am certainly not eager to go back.

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

Dark Souls.

Just a cavalcade of broke-ass design and completely wrong headed approaches to difficulty. I wouldn't have put this here, but the sheer number of people who like this game and rush to rabid defense of it just makes me hate it and everything it stands for.

Well, that escalated quckly.

OT: I'd say The first Witcher game. The story is okay, but the gameplay is mind numbingly boring.

Oh man...this spectral dog thingy boss fight close to the beginning?! Annoying to say the least.
The story kept me going for some time, too, the game itself...not so much.


I hated Guilty Gear for the DS how the hell are you supposed to play this?!

Oh wait: Silent Hill The Room.....That was shit! (again: IMHO)


Dark Souls: You may hate it for very apparent, good and subjective reasons, but as a game in itself it is done well.

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

Dark Souls.

Just a cavalcade of broke-ass design and completely wrong headed approaches to difficulty. I wouldn't have put this here, but the sheer number of people who like this game and rush to rabid defense of it just makes me hate it and everything it stands for.

Funny, your idea of worst, is my idea of best. You do come off as a "stop liking what I don't" sort though because of the bolded part.

Don't know what you're talking about with regards to "broken design and wrong approaches to difficulty" as I believe the design was solid (level design was among the best ever made period) and the approach to difficulty was fantastic (you and the enemy being squishy; a reason to not die; chance to still recover; rewards patient gameplay).

Frankly the best games of this gen, IMO are: Dark Souls, Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles.


OP:
...

I see where you are coming from, and maybe I could have worded it better: I hate Dark Souls fro what it is, an extremely unfair, very tedious and repetitive game with good art direction and level design. However, when I try to air my grievances with the game, it's defenders crawl out of the woodwork and start giving me shit for not liking it. The fan's responses to me not liking it makes me resent it even more, which leads to me bitching about it, which leads to more fans giving me crap, etc. You are one of the few who aren't jerks, and I appreciate that.

THAT I can understand but why do these fandom guys bother you? You are entitled to not like stuff. I don't like basically any first person shooter which has a "realistic" setting. They are not done bad they are just plain boring (for me) like every game which is set in a far too realistic setting (with exceptions).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Rule of Rose, easily. Gameplay consists of following your dog around on a never-ending fetch quest for invisible objects, all the while dodging incredibly annoying mooks with poor crash detection and ridiculous amount of health. I wouldn't mind the whole fetch quest mechanic except that 1) some objects will only be identified IF YOU'RE IN THE SAME ROOM AS THEM, meaning you have to manually trace EVERY item in your inventory in EVERY room you're in, just in case you're missing something, 2) if you DO miss something outside the main exchange sequence, you probably miss it forever and 3) items randomly generate after cutscenes or plot developments, so you'll be backtracking a LOT for every in-game little cutscene, just to see what doors are unlocked now. Topping things off, the game's forte is supposed to be the story, a Silent Hill knockoff. But the big twist is spoiled in the intro cutscene. So, kudos, Punchline. I hated your game. I just talked about it in a Worst game you've ever played thread.

 

[GonzoGamer]

But the true worst game I've ever played - E.T. for the Atari. I was kid - maybe 8 or 9 years old when I played it back in the '80s. With little other games to play and E.T. being my favourite movie at that time, I wanted to like it - but it was just terrible. My friend and I quickly went back to Return of the Jedi (Atari) as that at least was pretty fun.

What I was going to say. lol We're old.
The Raiders of the Lost Ark game was really bad too.

I'm also in complete agreement about Valkyria Chonicles being one of the best games of this gen. Definitely one of the most original strategy games we've seen in a long while.

 

[InfinityX]

Has to be Witcher 2. Yes, the enhanced edition as well. Most broken, unrefined, "RPG" I have ever played.
Quests are annoying and broken (Doesn't even tell you when you finish a quest sometimes / "Find" the NPC).

Combat was either so boring, or completely unforgiving for the wrong reasons. Drank the wrong potion before battle? might as well re-load the save and not bother.

Story was all-right, but nothing to brag about (Yet it still does). I did drag myself all the way through, and wasn't impressed.

The Map, while looks good, was horrible in design. Garald (I think thats how you spell it) can climb and take out a Kraken, But a small rubble blocking the road? Oh well, can't just friggen climb over it, gotta go a different route. Oh a small 1-foot ledge? better go around the long way. ect

Also, cutscenes that insta-kill you. Nothing you can do about it.

If this was any other RPG, it would be considered a failure or a terrible game, but for some reason (Probably because of all the sex) it got a free pass.

 

[aguspal]

Mine would have to be from a much older generation of gaming. Fantasia, the Tick & Dark Castle for the Megadrive are three which come to mind, as is Dragon's Lair for the SNES.

But for this gen? The one game which I found an absolute abomination was Mass effect 3. I just didn't play it, it played itself and 4 hours in I've barely done anything. It wasn't "bad" as such, it was just a non-entity of a game.

If you're talking about which game did allow me to participate and I actually hated playing then the two larger named titles which stick out are Dragon Age:2 and Halo 3 - both felt like a punishment they were that much of a chore to play.

snip

Just wondering how many hours you got in to the game? Also what system you played it on?

PC, I am pretty sure it was 2 or 3 hours before uninstall. AND that was mainly because I didnt had anything else to do at the moment and I was bored as hell. The game didnt exactly helped...


I am sorry if I came of as incredibly harass or a mindless hater, but I just cant help it, its my honest opinion about it. I fail to see what people see in that game, but if it is fun for them, then good for them I guess.

 

[Eduku]

Sigh. Dear god, either people in this thread have insanely high standards or haven't played that many games. I was expecting stuff like Big Rigs or something. Not the games suggested here. (A small section of) Escapist members, I am disappoint.

As for me, I actually had the (dis)pleasure of playing Big Rigs at one point a long time ago, so that definitely takes it. Runner up goes to Bus Driver, but I'm not even sure if that was intended to be a game.

 

[Mikejames]

I'll probably go with Lord of the Rings. The old RPG one. Now I admit right away that I never bothered with the manual, but the lack of any sense of scale or direction made the game so boring that I could never stand it for more than half an hour.

Was that the one where the characters were a bunch of copy-paste lookalikes of the trilogy's main cast, to the point where they were following unseen in the Fellowship's shadow and reusing their dialogue verbatim?

 

[thetoddo]

Minecraft.

The graphics are horrible and I think my copy is broken because I can't figure out where I'm supposed to go to start the plot.

On a serious note, Heroes of Might and Magic 4. Buggy, broken and the moment that series fell off the cliff.

 

[keniakittykat]

Spyro: enter the dragonfly. I've played some sinkers in my life, but note this: This is the only game to date that I have ever thrown into the garbage. I have had many suck-tastic games, but I will NEVER throw out a game.

So that means that this piece of shit really pissed me off on a subconscious level.