Your Single Biggest Disappointment Gaming Wise.

[Random Argument Man]

I remember when World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade came out. I was enthusiastic to play blood elves since they were my favourite race in Warcraft 3. I loved the character of Kaelthas. At the time, I didn't know Kael was going to be a villain. I was literally levelling up my character to join Kael's army and when I arrived to Outland (after a long ass grind)?

My friends told me?. I never could enjoy the expansion fully since.

That, and when a Bioware spokesperson came on stage and told the Old republic MMO would KOTOR 3, 4 and so on?

That felt like founding out that your dream job has been taken by someone whom you hate and whom you know that isn't qualified for it.

 

[Treeberry]

No contest whatsoever, it's Mass Effect 3, and always will be. Heartbreakingly disrespectful of a series I adored. I'll never trust a developer like I used to trust Bioware again.

I guess I don't even need to explain the specifics, since everyone likely knows by now. Suffice to say it was a trash bonfire of the universe.

I'm going to agree with this one. Mass Effect 3 broke my heart and also made me question the previous games - particularly number two. Even though Dragon Age and Mass Effect are separate franchises made by different groups (I think) it has most likely contributed to my lack of interest in Inquisition or indeed anything else they might make. I certainly don't care about the next ME game.

 

[Ironman126]

Three posts in and Mass Effect 3 was someone's top disappointment. Here I thought we'd all moved on with our lives.

Biggest disappointment... That's a tough one. Dragon Age 2 (he spits as the hypocrisy gushes from his mouth) was fun, but kind of a holding pattern. Not really sure why there had to be three games in the series. Could have just gone from Origins to Inquisition. Mass Effect 2 is the same way, save for Arrival, which could have just been ME1 DLC. But those were both fun, if pointless adventures, so they don't count.

Oh. Got it. Battlefield 3. That's it. Is BF3 bad? Yes. And not for the bugs and glitches and Battlelog (may there be a hell just so the idiots who came up with Battlelog may burn there). Battlefield 3 had to do one thing to make it better than Bad Company 2, it needed to add a prone function. New/more/cool guns and vehicles, all that is just gravy. But, instead we got Call of Duty: Micro-destruction Edition. Sure, the maps were big. Sure, the graphics looked good. But the same can be said of Bad Company 2, especially after DICE released Heavy Metal (the map, not the music). But in BC2, everything flew apart with satisfying clouds of dust and particles when something powerful hit it. BF3... I can think of one map with any note-worthy destructible terrain or scenery (the Canals map, don't remember the name, I think it was set in Paris). Even then, you could bomb the hell out of the buildings and only the facades would break away. The buildings were still structurally sound, despite having hundreds of kilos of ordinance fired at them. I'm reasonably certain that a couple hand grenades would level my apartment, so a tank shell and a few dozen mortar rounds should level most of a city block.

 

[Evonisia]

Most days I do a metaphorical coin flip to see whether I feel like it's Grand Theft Auto V or Halo 4, to be perfectly honest.

Halo 4 leaves me in more pain, and retroactively tarnishes sizeable chunks of the previous games, books and what not. The disappointment was that it surpassed my expectations of it merely being bad. I expected something pathetic and got something that was both pathetic and insulting. My recent thoughts on Halo 4 have been that it actually could have been salvaged. Gears of War Judgment commits many of the same sins Halo 4 commits, but was smart and actually did two good things: Made the story light and more episodic so as to not intrude as much on the story it's so thoroughly shitting on, and it had... *gasp* actually good gameplay. I know? Weird solution amiright?

Grand Theft Auto V is the opposite issue. I was actually believing that it would be a good game, judging off the (real) gameplay trailers, and the setting looked nice. Got to play the game and... terrible shooting, below-average driving, crappy set pieces, the heists happen three times. Then we get onto the story for there isn't one, and the game pads itself to death by having you drive across its (admittedly pretty) enormous world map. I'm still in shock at how much of a let down that was. Saints Row IV turned out to be quite the excellent game after the let down that was The Third, so I guess that worked out as well.

 

[Fappy]

Like many others have already said, Mass Effect 3 takes the cake. The ending was the biggest insult I have ever suffered as a gamer. After investing so much time and love into the franchise it felt like a slap in the face. I've mostly reconciled it, but I will never forget how I felt the first time I beat the game

 

[Timeless Lavender]

For me it was The Sims 4. I really dislike the streamline feel from it and all what was good about The Sims series was basically disappear from this instalment. It just a step back from the series and I was very disappointed about it.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Deus Ex: Invisible War

I don't think my vocabulary contains any words for how intensely this game disappointed me. Deus Ex was a game that I was completely obsessed with at the time (and it's probably still my favorite game to date), so I had massively high hopes for its sequel. At the time I was still young and naïve (see: dumb) enough to assume that the fact it was coming out for both PC and X-Box wouldn't have any ill effects on the game's overall quality. Then it came out. Tiny, mostly barren maps filled with dozens of harsh load screens that would frequently crash to desktop. Hideous graphics and animations that really don't feel like much of an improvement over the first game. Hilariously incompetent universal ammunition system. Augmentations removed and replaced with boring passive buffs. The multiple approaches to accomplish an objective were simplified to the point of being insulting (do I open the door with a multitool and get a free lockpick, or do I open the vent shaft with a lockpick and get a free multitool? Doesn't matter - they both go to the same place five feet away). The characters are mostly forgettable, with the exception of the protagonists from the first game, who are all now stereotypical comic book villains for... some reason?

Seriously, fuck this game.

Honorable Mentions
1. System Shock 2's cliffhanger ending that will never be officially resolved.
2. Aliens: Colonial Marines being pretty much nothing like what was advertised.
3. Mass Effect 3's last 15 minutes.
4. Jagged Alliance: Back in Action being a supposed modernization of JA2, yet in practice it has little in common and feels soooo shallow.
5. Perfect Dark: Zero's very existence.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

Fable 2's conclusion and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Which isn't even to say they're bad games. I still enjoyed them enough, but goddamn, did they have a way of taking the wind out of my sails by the time I finished them. Fable 2 specifically because of its conclusion. That is the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever had to 'play' through in any game.

Mass Effect 3's ending is pretty damn obvious already.

 

[Zen Bard]

For me, it's Fable 3

I liked Fable and The Lost Chapters. At the time it was a unique and interesting RPG experience that could be somewhat of a challenge. But most of all...it was fun! And I enjoyed living in the game world.

Fable 2 amped up the game world, but it was more The Sims: Medieval Fantasy Edition than an actual role playing game. I spent more time doing jobs, buying property and putting together the perfect Bad Ass Evil Will User outfit. But it was still fun!

So when I heard the core idea behind Fable 3, where the player could rule the Kingdom after beating the bad guy, I was both intrigued AND wary. After all, this is a Peter Molyneux game we're talking about. But surely it wouldn't miss the mark too much, right? Wrong! God, this game is a testament to poor execution. Everything, from the quests to the interface to that awful AWFUL cheat at the end was just terrible. Rather than improve or enhance what worked, Lionhead just made it different under the guise of innovation. Totally killed the franchise for me.

 

[FPLOON]

Financial-wise, that award goes to...

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Collector's Edition
That was over $150 bucks (minus pre-order down payment) wasted on a game that was so bad that not even my more skillful cousins could get passed the first level... It was like shooting at sponges and the bullets going through the sponge's holes most of the time...

However, choice-wise, choosing Super Mario Bros. Deluxe over Pokemon Crystal as my first GameBoy Color game takes that award hands down... Granted, I was young and all that shit, but that's no excuse for someone who was already choosing Rayman over Mario at the time... and that's not including the fact that I was MORE into Pokémon in general than how I am now...

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Bad Legend of Zelda games in general. I really liked Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, etc but then there are these games:

Spirit Tracks, Phantom Hourglass and, Skyward Sword. Games that tried for new control schemes without the option to use a more traditional control scheme and ended up being unplayable for me. I forced my way through Skyward Sword but the DS Zelda games are just outright unplayable to me.

Halo 4 was another big disappointment for me...The story felt unnecessary and stupid and you were either in a vehicle and having fun or you were using one of the new or returning guns and doing minimal damage no matter where you shoot the enemy you were aiming at.

Finally, I got Painkiller Hell & Damnation on the PS3...the game runs like absolute Ass. It's fun when it's working but most of the time it runs at about 10FPS for me and just feels incredibly unresponsive. The first time I played this was on the original freaking Xbox for crying out loud, how is that one the better version?! Oh well, gotta get the PC version I guess.

 

[Jak2364]

I talked about Destiny last time this topic came around so this time I'll complain about Liberation Maiden for the 3DS. I wasn't really excited for it, but it really pissed me off how it was basically a waste of my damn money since I could hardly play it. You see, it requires you to use the analog stick and stylus to move and shoot. That's kind of difficult to do if you're left handed. And with no button mapping (it would've played perfectly fine if they had just let me use the ABXY buttons to move) I was just screwed out of $5. Pretty much kept me from buying any stylus usage heavy games from then on.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Spore: It was supposed to be this evolution simulator with a healthy serving of Star Trek-style space travel (visiting new worlds, influencing their civilizations).

Followed development for years as that ambitious goal slowly dwindled into: Here's five popular game mechanics watered down for small children. BUT WITH GOOGLY-EYES!

This. Spore single-handedly raised my expectations for what a game could be, and I have yet to play a game that lives up to those expectations.

 

[Islandbuffilo]

I talked about Destiny last time this topic came around so this time I'll complain about Liberation Maiden for the 3DS. I wasn't really excited for it, but it really pissed me off how it was basically a waste of my damn money since I could hardly play it. You see, it requires you to use the analog stick and stylus to move and shoot. That's kind of difficult to do if you're left handed. And with no button mapping (it would've played perfectly fine if they had just let me use the ABXY buttons to move) I was just screwed out of $5. Pretty much kept me from buying any stylus usage heavy games from then on.

I was scared for a bit, good thing I'm right handed and won't have this problem.

 

[laggyteabag]

Halo 4. After 343 did an amazing job with Halo Anniversary, I was certainly expecting something amazing from them in the form of Halo 4. Oh my lord, was I wrong. Aside from the graphics (I mean, you have to commend them for cranking that game out onto the 360), I cannot really think of a single thing that I liked.

The sound design was ass.
The music didn't live up to Marty at all.
Perks in multiplayer.
Multiplayer loadouts.
Kill streak RNG weapon drops.
QTE bossfight.
Horrible new characters.

I mean, how did they mess it up so bad? They took everything that was wrong with Halo Reach, and then made it worse as well as adding in a load of their own BS.

Surprise, surprise, a whole bunch of people hated it, and the population practically took a nose dive. At most points, Halo Reach even had a higher population than Halo 4. When your older game has more players than your newer one, that is when you know that you fucked up. Hopefully they wont goof Halo 5 as much as 4 and the MCC, because holy hell, the latter is just laughable.

 

[czarexor]

Aliens: Colonial Marines -- I'm fairly certain I don't need to explain my reasoning behind this one.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Fable 2's conclusion and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. Which isn't even to say they're bad games. I still enjoyed them enough, but goddamn, did they have a way of taking the wind out of my sails by the time I finished them. Fable 2 specifically because of its conclusion. That is the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever had to 'play' through in any game.

Mass Effect 3's ending is pretty damn obvious already.

I second Fable 2, I don't think I've seen a game with a more pathetically anti-climactic ending.

OT: Tough question, I kind of want to say Dragon Age 2 even though I had heard it was bad in advance, only rented it, and never expected much since I was already jaded against sequels. It was just so disappointing for such a crappy game to follow up one of my favourite rpgs ever. Bioware dropped the ball so hard that it rebounded and broke their nose, and then EA rushed them on stage before they could finish shoving tissue up their nostrils.

Dragon Age Origins: Awakening is a good runner up, severely overpriced and within 15 minutes I had to stop playing because I had executed the whining, pathetic would-be assassin and the whining, pathetic mage was driving me nuts.

Bioshock 2 is another good runner up, being a rushed, poorly written follow up to a fantastic game that left no room for a sequel.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

BioShock Infinite.

What I was expecting and hoping for was more choice in terms of the narrative and gameplay, so essentially an even better version of BioShock 2, which was my favorite of all three games. I knew it would be more actiony when compared to the first two, and I was okay with that. I knew the ham-fisted political bullshit would annoy me, and I was okay with that. I put up with Hollywood, so I could put up with BSI.

But what I was NOT expecting was Call of Duty with magic, and that's what Infinite was. Was it functional? Yes. Was it a passable shooter (just like CoD)? Yes. But should it be any way related to the greatness of the first two wonderfully morally gray RPG/shooter hybrids? Hell no.

Aliens: Colonial Marines wasn't as much of a disappointment, because I've never enjoyed a Gearbox game in my life, and yes I know they barely worked on it, but I didn't know it at the time. But this was Irrational Games, and they should have done better. BioShock Infinite was a half-assed game that only existed because Ken Levine wanted to create the video game equivalent of Oscar-bait, and couldn't be asked to make a good game to go with his porcine story, so he can officially fuck right off.

 

[Taggart3131]

Mirrors Edge
The game had a good idea but was let down by a predictable story, hit and miss climbing, and down right horrible combat.

Kerbal Space Program
The build option was interesting however what you wanted to see as a spacecraft usually did not work in the game plus trying to add maneuver to orbit the closest moon usually ended with me either launching into deep space or slamming into the moon and destroying my lander.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Front Mission Evolved, I loved the series because it was awesome turn based strategy, Evolved turned it into a generic third person shooter with less customization, total let down and a waste of $50. Also I beat it in 4 hours, the original Call of Duty lasted longer.