Your 5 most disappointing games, 2008-2012
- Thread starter MammothBlade
- Start date
Yeah, I couldn't really speak to using a controller since I've never played it with one. It was a friend of mine who got me interested in it though after he played it on the Xbox. He absolutely raved about it, and this is not a man who would tolerate even the slightest bit of annoyance from the controls. I'm usually pretty picky with this stuff, but he's even pickier than I am, and we've both played games we hate because of bad controls alone. I simply assumed the controls translated well onto a controller since he never mentioned any issues. In fact, when I told him I got it on PC he was concerned at first that it wouldn't play well with a mouse and keyboard at all.kyosai7 said:
Diablo 3: Point and click died for me with this game.
Mass Effect 3: The ending, oh the loathing.
Fable 3: You can place the controller on the floor, make a pizza from scatch, do your laundry, go to work, and when you get home you still would not have died in combat. POS.
Dragon Age 2: The first one was tedium personified. This game has one of the most anti-climatic, broken storylines in a sequel that I ever saw.
Skyrim: I expected far too much, I freely admit, but I expected this to be a GOTY candidate. It was not.
I would add Duke Nukem: Forever, Final Fantasy, and Max Payne to this list if I had had any pre-conception that they would have been good games, but when your expectations are lower than a mole hole, it's unfair to lump them in with games I thought had a shot at greatness.
Mass Effect 3: The ending, oh the loathing.
Fable 3: You can place the controller on the floor, make a pizza from scatch, do your laundry, go to work, and when you get home you still would not have died in combat. POS.
Dragon Age 2: The first one was tedium personified. This game has one of the most anti-climatic, broken storylines in a sequel that I ever saw.
Skyrim: I expected far too much, I freely admit, but I expected this to be a GOTY candidate. It was not.
I would add Duke Nukem: Forever, Final Fantasy, and Max Payne to this list if I had had any pre-conception that they would have been good games, but when your expectations are lower than a mole hole, it's unfair to lump them in with games I thought had a shot at greatness.
In no particular order:
WoW: Cataclysm - boring
Final Fantasy XIII - fucking boring
Dragon Age 2 - let's not go there
Diablo 3 - I was looking forward to hack & slash mania and many, many LAN parties like with
Diablo 2, but after trying it (despite always online and no LAN support) I didn't even want to buy it
Fallout: New Vegas - maybe it was the bugs or the setting, but I just couldn't get into it
WoW: Cataclysm - boring
Final Fantasy XIII - fucking boring
Dragon Age 2 - let's not go there
Diablo 3 - I was looking forward to hack & slash mania and many, many LAN parties like with
Diablo 2, but after trying it (despite always online and no LAN support) I didn't even want to buy it
Fallout: New Vegas - maybe it was the bugs or the setting, but I just couldn't get into it
Let see-
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
The Last Story
Diablo 3
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Alone in the Dark Wii version
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
The Last Story
Diablo 3
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Alone in the Dark Wii version
Only one game that I actually played really comes to mind:
Final Fantasy XIII - I was a big fan of Final Fantasy X, so the linearity really didn't get to me. Square-Enix didn't even have to try that hard to win me over; all they needed to do was give me a fun and engaging battle system and decently-written story within that linear framework.
On the gameplay front, it's not until Chapter 9 of 13 that the system opens up fully. When it does, the battle system is actually one of my favorites of the series. It's just too bad that the battles in Chapters 1-8 (i.e. the bulk of the game) are time-eating slog.
On the story front, Chapters 1-8 consisted of minimal character and plot development stretched so hard you could see the stretch-marks, while Chapters 9-13 feel very rushed. The nail in the coffin was that some many of the most important bits that need to be understood to understand and enjoy the story were relegated to the Datalog (FFXIII's Codex), to the point where if you don't read the Datalog, the story makes little to no sense and you have little to no context for the story.
The worst part is that the wait and anticipation for this game exemplified its flaws. FFXI Online doesn't count for me because I don't play MMMOs. FFXII was, in my opinion, a solid game, but it felt more like a spin-off of Final Fantasy Tactics, rather than a core series FF game, so it didn't deliver the sort of experience I was looking for. With that in mind, the gap between FFX and FFXIII was 10 years! 10 years of anticipating another enjoyable FF game...for THAT. Yeah... It's been nearly two years since I finished FFXIII and I can STILL feel the disappointment. No other game has disappointed me like that.
I didn't actually play these, but just hearing about them engendered plenty disappointment:
Metroid: Other M - As a longtime follower of Metroid, I was really looking forward to this one. When the reviews rolled out and informed me of the game's extremely limited exploration elements, horribly-written story, and a general butchering of everything that people like about Metroid as a series... Yeah, I've done a pretty good job of pretending that this game doesn't exist, and I'm happy to stay that way.
Duke Nukem Forever - I'm not even a Duke Nukem fan (in fact I hate him and the series), but even so, why would you reduce Duke Nukem to a 2-weapon limit and regenerating health? Seriously? Are we THAT obsessed with aping COD that even Duke Nukem gets stuck with modern shooter cliches? Bleh.
Final Fantasy XIII - I was a big fan of Final Fantasy X, so the linearity really didn't get to me. Square-Enix didn't even have to try that hard to win me over; all they needed to do was give me a fun and engaging battle system and decently-written story within that linear framework.
On the gameplay front, it's not until Chapter 9 of 13 that the system opens up fully. When it does, the battle system is actually one of my favorites of the series. It's just too bad that the battles in Chapters 1-8 (i.e. the bulk of the game) are time-eating slog.
On the story front, Chapters 1-8 consisted of minimal character and plot development stretched so hard you could see the stretch-marks, while Chapters 9-13 feel very rushed. The nail in the coffin was that some many of the most important bits that need to be understood to understand and enjoy the story were relegated to the Datalog (FFXIII's Codex), to the point where if you don't read the Datalog, the story makes little to no sense and you have little to no context for the story.
The worst part is that the wait and anticipation for this game exemplified its flaws. FFXI Online doesn't count for me because I don't play MMMOs. FFXII was, in my opinion, a solid game, but it felt more like a spin-off of Final Fantasy Tactics, rather than a core series FF game, so it didn't deliver the sort of experience I was looking for. With that in mind, the gap between FFX and FFXIII was 10 years! 10 years of anticipating another enjoyable FF game...for THAT. Yeah... It's been nearly two years since I finished FFXIII and I can STILL feel the disappointment. No other game has disappointed me like that.
I didn't actually play these, but just hearing about them engendered plenty disappointment:
Metroid: Other M - As a longtime follower of Metroid, I was really looking forward to this one. When the reviews rolled out and informed me of the game's extremely limited exploration elements, horribly-written story, and a general butchering of everything that people like about Metroid as a series... Yeah, I've done a pretty good job of pretending that this game doesn't exist, and I'm happy to stay that way.
Duke Nukem Forever - I'm not even a Duke Nukem fan (in fact I hate him and the series), but even so, why would you reduce Duke Nukem to a 2-weapon limit and regenerating health? Seriously? Are we THAT obsessed with aping COD that even Duke Nukem gets stuck with modern shooter cliches? Bleh.
oh goodie 
i getta rip on a few games some more and in no order here we go!
White Knight Chronicles: over done plot, cookie cutter, unlikeable characters, and a forced custom character that might was well not be there at all.
ToR/Bioware in general: its WoW, in space, with overly long cut-scenes for even the pointless side quests. add to that, plots that are dull, choices that don't matter and yeah, its crap. I'd rather play WoW, least it has female Dreanie to look at. whats more all the problems in ToR i found in the other Bioware games i played, and it left me wonder why people think these guys are 'good at crafting a story'
Diablo 3: in a word? boring. the story is meh at best, there's no real drive cept 'grind for teh lootz' which aren't that great (last i checked Legendary stuff was crap compared to magic or rare gear)
Tera/GW2: the two new 'action MMO', Tera was eh, combat was ok but kinda dull over all and i really couldn't get into GW2, combat being part of the problem there to (probably not helped by me using Vindictus as the measuring stick by which all MMO combat is judged) the other part, for both games, quests/story. Tera is, mission structure wise 'WoW', just with combat you need to be awake for, as for GW2, for an 'epic and involving story' it wasn't terribly interactive, or interesting
i getta rip on a few games some more and in no order here we go!White Knight Chronicles: over done plot, cookie cutter, unlikeable characters, and a forced custom character that might was well not be there at all.
ToR/Bioware in general: its WoW, in space, with overly long cut-scenes for even the pointless side quests. add to that, plots that are dull, choices that don't matter and yeah, its crap. I'd rather play WoW, least it has female Dreanie to look at
. whats more all the problems in ToR i found in the other Bioware games i played, and it left me wonder why people think these guys are 'good at crafting a story' Diablo 3: in a word? boring. the story is meh at best, there's no real drive cept 'grind for teh lootz' which aren't that great (last i checked Legendary stuff was crap compared to magic or rare gear)
Tera/GW2: the two new 'action MMO', Tera was eh, combat was ok but kinda dull over all and i really couldn't get into GW2, combat being part of the problem there to (probably not helped by me using Vindictus as the measuring stick by which all MMO combat is judged) the other part, for both games, quests/story. Tera is, mission structure wise 'WoW', just with combat you need to be awake for, as for GW2, for an 'epic and involving story' it wasn't terribly interactive, or interesting
1. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
2. Darksiders 2
That's it really. Neither were terrible per say, but Skyward Sword felt like a neutered version of Zelda with it's absence of an over world, repetitive enemy design and recycled boss fights and dungeon motifs. Darksiders 2 on the other hand added too much, removing the Urban-Zelda/ God of War fusion feel of the original that I thoroughly enjoyed for an atypical RPG that borrows too heavily from loot-based action RPGS that are all the rage now (that I find boring as all hell).
I still enjoyed both (although the degree to which I enjoyed them is no where near the same..) but they both could of been so much more.
2. Darksiders 2
That's it really. Neither were terrible per say, but Skyward Sword felt like a neutered version of Zelda with it's absence of an over world, repetitive enemy design and recycled boss fights and dungeon motifs. Darksiders 2 on the other hand added too much, removing the Urban-Zelda/ God of War fusion feel of the original that I thoroughly enjoyed for an atypical RPG that borrows too heavily from loot-based action RPGS that are all the rage now (that I find boring as all hell).
I still enjoyed both (although the degree to which I enjoyed them is no where near the same..) but they both could of been so much more.
Shogun 2: Insane loading times meant every battle was a painful affair and resulted in autobattle being more and more used due to reluctance to having to sit through such ridiculous loading times.
Me and my friend who were so looking forward to finally playing a total war coop game were bitterly disappointed (and yes, we turned down settings as low as it could do). So though the game itself was good, the technical issues did it for us.
This also means i wont be getting Total rome 2 as can expect similarly hefty loading times.
Honestly dont know how other people put up with this or just me and my friend got longer loading times due to whatever reason.
Final fantasy XII: Earned the honor of making me lose interest in final fantasy. Indeed, i havent looked back since.
Dragon age 2: Enough said.
Mass Effect 3: Enough threads about this out there, so will leave it at that.
Stronghold 3: Kinda cheating as i didnt buy this game. But being a stronghold fan i had high hopes for this and could only when i heard of the many problems this game had.
Me and my friend who were so looking forward to finally playing a total war coop game were bitterly disappointed (and yes, we turned down settings as low as it could do). So though the game itself was good, the technical issues did it for us.
This also means i wont be getting Total rome 2 as can expect similarly hefty loading times.
Honestly dont know how other people put up with this or just me and my friend got longer loading times due to whatever reason.
Final fantasy XII: Earned the honor of making me lose interest in final fantasy. Indeed, i havent looked back since.
Dragon age 2: Enough said.
Mass Effect 3: Enough threads about this out there, so will leave it at that.
Stronghold 3: Kinda cheating as i didnt buy this game. But being a stronghold fan i had high hopes for this and could only
when i heard of the many problems this game had.Yay, another one of these threads where I'll make a long post that no one will read.
5. The Secret World - this is low on my list, since I was never really excited for it to begin with. It seems I feel this way about just about every Funcom game. Just like The Longest Journey and (especially) Dreamfall, the story was almost interesting enough to make me overlook the terrible gameplay and creepy graphics, but not quite. So I just feel mostly indifferent about all their games, even though I feel like I should like them.
4. All the Mass Effect games - they were also mildly interesting, and there were some fantastic scenes in all of them, but I just couldn't get into the series. I guess my expectations were too high, considering how much I loved the characters in Dragon Age: Origins. (DA2 doesn't make my list because I played Origins after it came out, so I already knew to avoid it.)
3. Every Silent Hill game after 4 (Origins counts too because one version of it was released in 2008) - they all almost had something. Origins was the closest to being like the original games, but it was dull and soulless. Homecoming was a fine action game, but a terrible Silent Hill game. Shattered Memories had an interesting concept, but the execution was dreadful. And Downpour took the series back to its roots more, but also missed the point in way too many places to actually turn out alright. The HD collection was just sad (even though the acting was fine; now you get your choice of "bad actors with genuine emotion" or "generic but acceptable actors"). I won't complain about Book of Memories because it's supposed to be a spinoff and I haven't played it.
2. The Whispered World - this one is down here just because everyone was talking about what an amazing and beautiful adventure game it was, and I ended up hating every second of it. The art style was praised, but I thought it looked cheap and a little gross. The dialogue tried to be funny, but it made me cringe ("pantaloons" isn't a funny enough word to base a dozen jokes around). The voice acting forced me to speedread the captions and spacebar through it. The story had the dumbest twist I've ever seen. And the puzzles amplified the irritation I've always felt at inventory-based puzzles to a crazy degree. I guess the fact that I'd just played Machinarium made it even worse, because that was an adventure game done perfectly.
1. FFXIV - as a big FFXI fan, I was hyped to the moon for this game. I spent over a year on one of the main fan forums, speculating and poring over every blurry Japanese magazine scan with the rest of the crazy people. We were all expecting something like an HD FFXI with the user-friendliness of WoW, but we got...well, you all know what we got at this point. My hopes aren't high for 2.0 just because I don't trust SE anymore, but I'll give it a shot when the free trial comes around anyway. Because of XIV, I swore to never become hyped over another game again. But then GW2 came along. (Fortunately my hype was rewarded for that one.)
Actually, it seems that over the past couple years, my hype has been rewarded more often than not. Not only GW2, but also Journey, Botanicula, and Child of Eden were all terrific. And I was indifferent to the idea of TOR but ended up pleasantly surprised by the Imperial Agent storyline, so that was also a net positive. Maybe I've just gotten better at noticing warning signs.
5. The Secret World - this is low on my list, since I was never really excited for it to begin with. It seems I feel this way about just about every Funcom game. Just like The Longest Journey and (especially) Dreamfall, the story was almost interesting enough to make me overlook the terrible gameplay and creepy graphics, but not quite. So I just feel mostly indifferent about all their games, even though I feel like I should like them.
4. All the Mass Effect games - they were also mildly interesting, and there were some fantastic scenes in all of them, but I just couldn't get into the series. I guess my expectations were too high, considering how much I loved the characters in Dragon Age: Origins. (DA2 doesn't make my list because I played Origins after it came out, so I already knew to avoid it.)
3. Every Silent Hill game after 4 (Origins counts too because one version of it was released in 2008) - they all almost had something. Origins was the closest to being like the original games, but it was dull and soulless. Homecoming was a fine action game, but a terrible Silent Hill game. Shattered Memories had an interesting concept, but the execution was dreadful. And Downpour took the series back to its roots more, but also missed the point in way too many places to actually turn out alright. The HD collection was just sad (even though the acting was fine; now you get your choice of "bad actors with genuine emotion" or "generic but acceptable actors"). I won't complain about Book of Memories because it's supposed to be a spinoff and I haven't played it.
2. The Whispered World - this one is down here just because everyone was talking about what an amazing and beautiful adventure game it was, and I ended up hating every second of it. The art style was praised, but I thought it looked cheap and a little gross. The dialogue tried to be funny, but it made me cringe ("pantaloons" isn't a funny enough word to base a dozen jokes around). The voice acting forced me to speedread the captions and spacebar through it. The story had the dumbest twist I've ever seen. And the puzzles amplified the irritation I've always felt at inventory-based puzzles to a crazy degree. I guess the fact that I'd just played Machinarium made it even worse, because that was an adventure game done perfectly.
1. FFXIV - as a big FFXI fan, I was hyped to the moon for this game. I spent over a year on one of the main fan forums, speculating and poring over every blurry Japanese magazine scan with the rest of the crazy people. We were all expecting something like an HD FFXI with the user-friendliness of WoW, but we got...well, you all know what we got at this point. My hopes aren't high for 2.0 just because I don't trust SE anymore, but I'll give it a shot when the free trial comes around anyway. Because of XIV, I swore to never become hyped over another game again. But then GW2 came along. (Fortunately my hype was rewarded for that one.)
Actually, it seems that over the past couple years, my hype has been rewarded more often than not. Not only GW2, but also Journey, Botanicula, and Child of Eden were all terrific. And I was indifferent to the idea of TOR but ended up pleasantly surprised by the Imperial Agent storyline, so that was also a net positive. Maybe I've just gotten better at noticing warning signs.
in order of least dissapointing to most
5.Mass Effect 2
4.Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2
3.Fable III
2.Dragon Age 2
1.Mass Effect 3
5.Mass Effect 2
4.Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2
3.Fable III
2.Dragon Age 2
1.Mass Effect 3
5) God of War 3: I loved playing this game. I loved fighting the bosses and, banging goddesses. The final boss fight was fun as well, especially the way you finish Zeus off. That being said though, this was my introduction to the franchise and it just isn't for me. It was great the first time around but I couldn't get back into it for a second playthrough.
4) Afrika (Hakuna Matatta): I read this as Pokemon Snap only with actual animals and it's free-roaming. It sounded like a great concept to me but the game itself just disappointed me. Wander from box to box, taking pictures of animals unless you get too close to them in which case they will attack you but never murder your ass. This + Hardcore mode from New Vegas would have been better...not great but better.
3) Heavy Rain: Only good for one playthrough since the story doesn't change unless you let one of the characters die. I didn't like the romance, Jason was an idiot and, there was no incentive for me to play the game a second time (as I may have already said or alluded to).
2) Halo Reach: I still play this game. The disappointment comes from the chapter "Long Night of Solace" wherein you pilot a Short-Sword (I think) in two short space battle missions. This was by far my favorite part of the entire Halo franchise but despite my glee, I'm positive I won't get to play a game focused on that type of gameplay, Halo or otherwise (except perhaps Starhawk...I think). Bungie was goodly enough to give us Halo Wars though which made me cry a million tears.
1) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: This game had a ton of potential for an entire anthology series based off of powerful Jedi Knights and, Sith Lords. The extended Universe is ripe with powerful warriors and great tales just waiting for a game adaptation such as the tragedy of the brothers Quell-Droma or, the reign of Naga Sadow. It could have gone forward in time to cover the ascent of Darth Krayt. Sadly, Force Unleashed wasn't the Harold of an exciting new chapter in Star Wars story telling. Instead, Force Unleashed was its own half-way decent, self contained narrative with a sequel so abhorrent that I refuse to acknowledge its existence.
Disclaimer: The only games in my list that I dislike are Heavy Rain and, Afrika. I like the other three.
4) Afrika (Hakuna Matatta): I read this as Pokemon Snap only with actual animals and it's free-roaming. It sounded like a great concept to me but the game itself just disappointed me. Wander from box to box, taking pictures of animals unless you get too close to them in which case they will attack you but never murder your ass. This + Hardcore mode from New Vegas would have been better...not great but better.
3) Heavy Rain: Only good for one playthrough since the story doesn't change unless you let one of the characters die. I didn't like the romance, Jason was an idiot and, there was no incentive for me to play the game a second time (as I may have already said or alluded to).
2) Halo Reach: I still play this game. The disappointment comes from the chapter "Long Night of Solace" wherein you pilot a Short-Sword (I think) in two short space battle missions. This was by far my favorite part of the entire Halo franchise but despite my glee, I'm positive I won't get to play a game focused on that type of gameplay, Halo or otherwise (except perhaps Starhawk...I think). Bungie was goodly enough to give us Halo Wars though which made me cry a million tears.
1) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: This game had a ton of potential for an entire anthology series based off of powerful Jedi Knights and, Sith Lords. The extended Universe is ripe with powerful warriors and great tales just waiting for a game adaptation such as the tragedy of the brothers Quell-Droma or, the reign of Naga Sadow. It could have gone forward in time to cover the ascent of Darth Krayt. Sadly, Force Unleashed wasn't the Harold of an exciting new chapter in Star Wars story telling. Instead, Force Unleashed was its own half-way decent, self contained narrative with a sequel so abhorrent that I refuse to acknowledge its existence.
Disclaimer: The only games in my list that I dislike are Heavy Rain and, Afrika. I like the other three.
1) Civilization 5 - after the masterpiece that was Civ4 we got this dumbed down piece of....
2) Starcraft 2 - the reason i likes SC1 was the single player campaign, and SC2 campaign just isnt complete (i dont care about multyplayer)
3) Dragon age 2 - I wont even go there
4) Skyrim - a huge improvement over Oblivion, but still dull, boring, repetitive and dumbed down.
5)Mass Efect 3 - This one was just terrible
2) Starcraft 2 - the reason i likes SC1 was the single player campaign, and SC2 campaign just isnt complete (i dont care about multyplayer)
3) Dragon age 2 - I wont even go there
4) Skyrim - a huge improvement over Oblivion, but still dull, boring, repetitive and dumbed down.
5)Mass Efect 3 - This one was just terrible
1. Mass Effect 3.
Oh, man... here we go. You know, it's probably my fault. I expected too much from this game, perhaps. Bioware said they were "Putting the RPG back into Mass Effect," unfortunately, that was a blatant lie. It moved it even more towards Call of Duty, and I didn't like that. (And this is coming from someone who loves CoD.)
2. Dragon Age 2.
Bioware ruined everything that made the original great. Whenever I talk about this game I get angry, and no one's gonna read this anyway, so I'll just leave it at that.
3. Brink.
Was really looking forward to this. Was hoping it would be a fresh take on the FPS genre, but... it just... wasn't good.
And that's about all I can think of.
Oh, man... here we go. You know, it's probably my fault. I expected too much from this game, perhaps. Bioware said they were "Putting the RPG back into Mass Effect," unfortunately, that was a blatant lie. It moved it even more towards Call of Duty, and I didn't like that. (And this is coming from someone who loves CoD.)
2. Dragon Age 2.
Bioware ruined everything that made the original great. Whenever I talk about this game I get angry, and no one's gonna read this anyway, so I'll just leave it at that.
3. Brink.
Was really looking forward to this. Was hoping it would be a fresh take on the FPS genre, but... it just... wasn't good.
And that's about all I can think of.
F.E.A.R 2: Story made no sense in relation to the first, bypassing that there was no mood; just another shooter.
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Obviously had no idea what they were doing and just wanted to be like Modern Warfare 2 but making a story is too hard so they went to Vietnam to rip off every movie ever made. Zombies were much better in World at War.
Grand Theft Auto IV: Had less fun - no planes/jetpacks/tanks/etc. - content than it's older generation counterparts.
Crackdown 2: Wasn't worth the money just to have multiplayer and literally nothing else new. The zombies were already kind of present in the first, and I don't know anyone who wanted more of those.
Brink: Just terrible.
Call of Duty: Black Ops: Obviously had no idea what they were doing and just wanted to be like Modern Warfare 2 but making a story is too hard so they went to Vietnam to rip off every movie ever made. Zombies were much better in World at War.
Grand Theft Auto IV: Had less fun - no planes/jetpacks/tanks/etc. - content than it's older generation counterparts.
Crackdown 2: Wasn't worth the money just to have multiplayer and literally nothing else new. The zombies were already kind of present in the first, and I don't know anyone who wanted more of those.
Brink: Just terrible.