*Your* Top 10 Most Disappointing Games Of All Time?

[Nazulu]

I don't believe I have 10. After SSB Brawl pissed me off the hell and high water I really did learn my lesson. That's my number one by far.

1) The winner! SSB Brawl - Since I was really hyped for it waiting for 3 years, only to find out it is nothing like Melee in the slightest. Big fan of Melee after non stop tournaments for 7 years, because I can't get over how fluent and comfortable the game play feels. And Brawl is the opposite of that, just being miserably slow and clunky and basically just the whole fucking roster is nerfed. It also feels like it was designed like you weren't meant to be able to make bloody combos!

2) Starcraft 2, even though I didn't play it as soon as it came out, it had it's ridiculous online DRM. How they span bullshit saying they would make more epic story's if they separate the race missions into 3 expansions, and as expected, the quality of their story and cut-scenes is amazingly corny and lame. Also the forcing of pro strategy's from the previous good game is one of the most retarded things I've seen in all things gaming. Fucking hell! Underground supply depot instead of a fucking gate! Buildings I'm expected to use as walls! Idiots!

The rest are just moderate

3) Metroid Prime. Still looks beautiful, still great music, still big boss fights, but nowhere as clever as Super Metroid in the slightest.

The problem with it is it wasn't design so you could move about the map quickly so it feels really slow and tedious at times, as well as some other small things. Such as shooting the different coloured doors with the laser and missle will make it bounce to the roof at 3 times the speed while giving you the most obvious clue in the history of games. It kills immersion when it's being this daft.

4)

4. Half Life 2. Gasp! Well, it was an excellent game in it's own right, but took away so many of the things I loved in the original. Gone were the awesome boss and miniboss monsters. Gone were the funky, creative weapons. Gone was the totally insane final levels and boss fight. Oh it was a good game but...it wasn't what I hoped for out of a sequel to Half Life I guess.

Is it weird to be disappointed in the first game that introduced you to the series? I first played HL2 in early 2012 and I was surprised how interesting it was, but I was even more surprised with Half Life in the middle of 2014 because it feels like it has everything, and done really damn well! I was a lot more satisfied with the original experience (even though it was intense as hell and scared the shit out of me).

5) Red Alert 3 is just worse than RA2 in every way. It looks ugly as sin, it's clunky in it's movement, there is no atmosphere or even style, and the cut-scenes are embarrassing as they are trying to be serious though it's all lackluster and lame. And Tiberium Wars is almost as bad, so I stopped following C&C, and just in time before C&C4 I hear.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I don't really hype myself up all that much so it's pretty hard for me to be disappointed. That and I NEVER buy games on day one or pre-order. I look at lots of gameplay first (and not just the stuff devs choose to show off) before deciding whether or not to buy a game. I can honestly say that I've never had buyer's remorse when it comes to games.

However, Beyond Earth was gifted to me and I found it to be thoroughly underwhelming. It's not a bad game, it's just worse than Civ 5 in almost every way.

I suppose I could say Destiny as well, but I never actually bought it. I was planning on it, but then I saw it for what it really is: a game designed to be addictive (addictive does NOT mean good) so that enough people would latch on and buy the overpriced DLC. Add the fact that the game has almost no story, incredibly repetitive mission design (the whole game is basically hoard mode), a lack of many things that are essential for a multiplayer game such as this, and the incredibly small amount of content and it's easy to see how this could be someone's most disappointing game of all time. Bungie built this game up to be incredible and people believed them because of their reputation.

 

[Ieyke]

Hellgate:London - So much potential. A Sci-fi 3rd/1st person hybrid Diablo 2.... But executed EXACTLY wrong. They used the Diablo 2 ability mechanics outright instead of adapting them to the first person changes that made them really awkward. And broken online.... What else do you expect from EA?

Diablo 3 - All they had to do was make a sequel to Diablo 2 that had a new story and looked better.
Instead they made a shitty imitation that changed all the wrong things and was wattered waaaaaaaaay down to be console compatible. Also, dumbass auction house and online nonsense.

Skyrim - Continues the long tradition of shitty Bethesda games using a game engine from 1998. Boring as hell. Poorly animated. Bad gameplay. Buggy.
Nice graphics and concept put to HUGE waste.

Spore - Tried to be everything. Succeeded at nothing.....except a neat creature designer.

MegaMan X7 - MegaMan X in 3D? AWESOME! Except that they fucked it up and did it all wrong.
They didn't make a proper MegaMan Legends-style 3D adventure, and they didn't make a platformer that retained the extreme speed, precision and flow of the MegaMan X series. Instead they made something super clunky, forced you to unlock X, and added another character who's just kind of annoying.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - If Final Fantasy Tactics is Game Of Thrones, Tactics Advance is the Pagemaster. Tactics Advance takes everything that made Tactics great, and fucks it up.
It turns Ivalice into a storybook world, gets rid of the grit and relative realism of humans warring with each other over politics, and it adds a bunch of stupid derpy animal races and gimmicky shit.

Dead Island - Just kinda....doesn't control great, and the breaking weapons drive me fucking crazy.
I could kill like a thousand zombies with a steel pipe or crowbar before I'd ever have to wonder if maybe it was a little bent. Having it break on you after killing a handful of zombies is INFURIATING.
Fuck weapons that break. That's retarded.
Other than that, seemed all right. I just couldn't get myself to play long enough to really get very deep into it.

Paper Mario - I wasn't Super Mario RPG 2. Super Mario RPG 2 has never come out.
That is unforgivable.

Age Of Empires 3 - No one likes Colonial America. It's mind-numbingly boring. Also, the 3D was dumb.

Borderlands 1 & 2 - Great looking game. Good sense of humor. Good character designs. Interesting premise. FPS Diablo 2. What could possibly go wrong? Oh, it's boring as all hell. The world is lifeless and uninteresting. The gameplay is clunky and generic. These are the games that exist to show why randomly generated loot is an idiotic mechanic.

Assassin's Creed 3 - Again, NO ONE LIKES COLONIAL AMERICA. STOP SETTING GAMES THERE. IT'S BORING AS FUCK.
It's a godawful setting for a game series that relies on running around ancient ruins and freerunning through cities. Nothing about this setting is conducive to making good Assassin's Creed gameplay.

Assassin's Creed Revelations - It's not BAD, but it's not good. It SHOULD have been the third and final game in a trio of absolute masterpieces that were the Ezio Trilogy, but instead they just tried a lot of things that just didn't work out very well.
Bomb-making was pointless. Tower defense became tedious and annoying after the first couple times. The Hook Blade made it TOO easy to traverse the city. The architecture no longer contained any climbing puzzles. Everything was far too easy mode.

-----

Whoever said Dishonored, Arkham City, and Metal Gear Solid 4 are nuts.

Dishonored is a TRULY Fantastic game in almost every way.

Arkham City is better than Arkham Asylum in almost every way, and is pretty much the quintessential Batman thing in existence.

MGS4 is fantastic. I'll admit that I don't have a point of reference to any other Metal Gear game to compare it to, but it single-handedly made me a fan of the series by just being awesome.
All the whining about cutscenes is nonsense. They're not that long, and they're pretty good.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Oh Boy!

Dead to Rights: This is a game I've only played recently...as in, about 2 months ago. I know this game did well enough that a sequel was made but what I wasn't expecting was a game that controls in quite the way that the PS2 original controls. It seemed really stiff and intuitive: In Max Payne, I have a dedicated trigger used to blow away junkies and secret police. In Dead to Rights, I have an action button that can be used to fire my weapon or open a door or call my dog. I can't quite put my finger on what it is but Dead to Rights just didn't feel as fun to play as I was expecting, especially after getting back into The Punisher, also on the PS2.

Kirby's Epic Yarn: This is a weird one because I enjoyed playing Epic Yarn. The problem with it is that there is absolutely no failure state. There are no stakes to speak of. It feels like I'm playing a game that's 99% done to be honest. I liked the boss fights and I love the aesthetic but there's no weight to any of it...because there's no penalty for dying other than losing some studs and waiting a while longer to get stuff for your apartment...so yeah, no penalty for being hit or falling into pits.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: Out of every Legend of Zelda, this would probably be the one that I would most want to see adapted into an anime or mini-series. Out of all of the ones I could play though, this is the last one I would chose. I hate the two DS Zelda games because of how hard they are to control but this was one that I wouldn't allow to beat me, despite its bad controls. That's really what it boils down to for me too...Flying is a pain in the butt, the falling mini-games are a pain in the butt, aiming is a pain in the butt and it seemed like every time I wanted to swing my sword or change out an item, I had to then re-calibrate my Wiimote/Nunchuck. There are a bunch of Wii games that I would have liked a whole lot more if I could only use a proper controller...Other M and the Metroid Prime Trilogy are chief among them but Skyward Sword was the one that I endured through to the end.

Elite Beat Agents: I don't hate this game but I made the mistake of playing this after Rhythm Heaven, also on the DS. I didn't realize this was a jukebox-rhythm game until I checked out the wiki and unlike other rhythm games I've played (both in general, and on Nintendo handhelds) this one suffers from 2 problems for me: One is uninteresting music. I like the music videos but the songs themselves just don't do anything for me, especially the Tonal-Shift song towards the end. Another problem I have is the controls which I just couldn't wrap my head around; it didn't have the simplicity of Rhythm Heaven and it wasn't as satisfying as Theatrhtyhm would end up being years later.

Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate: I don't like to consider Lords of Shadow a part of the Castlevania series but when Mirror of Fate was revealed, it looked promising. Presented in 2D (with 3D assets) and apparently modeled in the style of the more Metroidvania games, I thought this would be a much better game than Lords of Shadow on the 360/PS3 (a game that I disliked and was disappointed by). I'm voting on this one instead of the other because this one still didn't feel like a Castlevania to me. I felt incredibly weak for one thing, I'm just not used to hitting something more than once unless it's a White Dragon...Skeleton...Head and it still felt like it wanted to be more God of War than Castlevania. The character swapping was a neat idea but again, it just didn't feel like Castlevania and it couldn't hold my attention, especially when I got a new-to-me copy of Dawn of Sorrow, now THAT'S a freaking Castlevania!

Halo 4: My main problem with Halo 4 is with the single player since I never bothered with MP. Anyway, I generally play Halo titles on easy because that's just how I roll; I like to steamroll over the enemy opposition during my first playthrough as a way to get a feel for how the game is going to play before going through again on a higher difficulty. The only times in the Halo series I started on a higher difficulty have been my first playthroughs of Reach and CE-Anniversary. For Halo 4 though, the weapons felt so horribly weak that even at the lowest difficulty setting I ran out of ammo before taking out even half of a pack of enemies. It got the point point where I was either running past enemies while punching and being bored/annoyed OR I was in a vehicle and actually having fun.

Metal Gear Solid 4: I haven't beaten this game and it's in my mental category of, "Games that I will not allow to beat me"...I just need another copy of it. Anyway, my impression of MGS4 goes thus: "Take a step, watch a cutscene. Take a step, watch a cutscene. Take a step, watch a cutscene. Tranq a guard, watch a cutscene. Fight a sexualized boss, take a snap-shot, watch a cutscene". It's a similar problem I have with FFXIII but where FFXIII wants to be Advent Children to the point that it hates the people who play it, MGS4 is an over-excited fan fiction writer who wants to explain everything as you play the game...by stopping your progress and going over yet more lore.

Sonic Generations: I've beaten Sonic 06 and Sonic: Lost Worlds. I've played hours-upon-hours of Sonic Heroes. I've played through half of Sonic and the Black Knight and, Sonic and the Secret Rings. As far as I understood, Sonic Generations is the best thing since Sonic 3 and Knuckles but the game I played just left such a poor first impression on me that I haven't even gone back to play through anything past the Green Hills Zone. I don't know what it is about Sonic Generations that I didn't care for but I just couldn't get into it. I had more fun with Sonic Colors on the DS and far more fun with Lost Worlds which played more like a Mario game than anything.

Dragon Age 2: Dragon Age 2 doesn't have a subtitle. This was a warning sign I shouldn't have ignored since at that point, Dragon Age consisted of Origins and, Awakening (an expansion). That's a tiny pest of a problem though...no, my first real issue came from the fact that DA2 forced me to be human. I'm a human right now dammit, if I'm playing a Fantasy game or a Sci-Fi game, I'm going to be as non-human as it's possible for me to be. But that's another relatively minor problem. The next issue came when I realized that the dungeons I was exploring looked kind of similar. Some of them (like a basement) were overly large. The outdoors areas were all the same, with the only differences being what/when the enemies appeared. This was a game I beat because I refused to let IT beat ME. I got to the point where I stopped caring about side quests, I didn't like a single one of the companion characters (except for my Dog) and DA2 didn't have an equivalent to DA:O's quest that you can either do or, skip by killing a child in front of his screaming mother.

Final Fantasy XIII: This isn't a game that I like. This isn't a game that wanted me to play it like the other Final Fantasy games. This is a game that said, "OK, you can walk me through the corridors, pick the party (no not now, wait about 30 hours) and, you can upgrade the weapons...I may allow you to do missions in 40 hours too". This is a game that perfectly encapsulates Style over Substance as its main aim was to make Advent Children into a game but kind of forgot how to implement the combat system. This is a game with a beautiful world but no towns to visit. This is a game with human characters who act anyway BUT human...well, mostly Vanille and honestly Sazh is pretty awesome for the most part. This was the last game I've ever pre-ordered.

 

[major_chaos]

In no particular order:

-Half life 2: After two years of people telling me this was TEH BEST GAME EVAR I was psyced anddd... it felt more like a physics tech demo, lacked all the atmosphere and monster fights that I loved about HL, and crammed in hours of horrible driving sectons. No thank you.

-Lost Planet 2: Quite simply sacrificed far too much for the sake of mandatory Co-Op. Also felt like it was made on a shoestring budget.

-Uncharted: A very pretty game, and not much else.

-Final Fantasy XIII-3: I actually really loved the demo, the gameplay was enjoyable and the story seemed above par for FFXIII. And then I bought the actual game and discovered that the combat in the demo was taken from mid/lategame and that near the beginning you mostly spam a very small number of moves ad-nasuem to whittle away at obnoxiously durable monsters. And just to rub salt in the wound, once you get past the opening the story devolves into glurgy bullshit and nonsense plot twists standard to later era Final Fantasy.

-X3: So massive, so unrestrained, so shallow, so fucking boring.

-Halo 4/Gears of War judgement: Neither of these are awful games, but they were both such massive letdowns after their amazing predecessors that it killed my interest in both franchises.

 

[Elfgore]

1. Assassin's Creed: Revelations- After the great games that 2 and Brotherhood were, this game was an abomination. That terrible tower defense game, the boring as fuck story, and stupidly annoying enemies/missions. In addition to all of those, I was tired as fuck of playing as Ezio. The only redeeming parts of that game was when you played at Altiar.

2. Total War: Rome 2- Just... just terrible.

3. Call of Juarez- I was expecting a decent western shooter with an interesting story of greed. I got shitty controls to the point of unplayable.

4. Dragon Age: Inquisition- I've beaten Origins at least a dozen times, I've beaten 2 at least twice, I haven't even gotten to Sky Hold yet in Inquisition. I just can't get into it.

Surprising how hard it is to pick ten. That's all I got for now.

 

[Frankster]

In no particular order

1) Bioshock infinite.
This is one of those games I bought due to the high amounts of praise and acclaim it got, and ended up being one of my most regretted game purchases. I'm not even gonna waste more words on this, it was THAT lame for me.

2) Neverwinter nights 2
Stealing this a bit from OP but NWN2 was one of the big gaming disappointments for me back in the day, I loved NWN1's later campaigns (vanilla campaign is lacking i admit) and the mod community for it was awesome, churning out awesome modules that dwarfed the main game itself. Think of it as the skyrim of the day when it came to sheer amount of mods produced. Anyways NWN2 had a poor campaign, worst then vanilla NWN1, and it ended up having a less lively modding community for whatever reason.

3) Dragon Age 2.
It's not the worst game ever and I did play through it twice but ultimately this was the game that broke my love for bioware and made me accept they ain't the masters of rpgness I once thought they were. Which leads me to the next...

4) Mass Effect 3.
No, not cos of the original ending, I distinctively remember feeling the game was poor even before I went back to London. I guess it's partly because I was actually one of those who preferred mass effect 1's way of doing things and didn't enjoy the switch in focus to a more corridor based shooter in the sequels. In ME2 it was about the limits of my tolerance but I ultimately enjoyed ME2 enough that I was willing to forgive it, it also had an amazing climax/buildup to the boss fight imo and I was not bothered by the Contra style giant terminator baby boss even if I understand people felt it to be silly.

Anyways Mass Effect 3 was one of those games where I felt the little pieces weren't coming together for me as they used to, and there was tons of little niggles that bothered me that ended up spoiling my enjoyment of the game, to summarize a potential tldr.

The saving grace for ME3 surprisingly, was the multi. To this day I still get the urge to reinstall ME3 so I can play a quarian and dabble in 4 player fun. I'll note Dragon age inquisition multi tried to replicate this but failed miserably.

5) Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi.
Budokai 3 was one of the most played games at my boarding school, when I bought the new tenkaichi game fresh from the stores, a massive crowd of people gathered as I put it in the ps2 and launched it.

30 mins later the room was mostly empty as people left confused at wtf they did to the game. I hear in the end Tenkaichi ended up being good by the 2nd or 3rd sequel, but the first Tenkaichi was lameness incarnate.

6) Wasteland 2.
This is frustrating for me because the game is a decent rpg in many respects but gets completely let down by the stat system used. I'm not gonna go into a technical discussion but basically due to the way stats work in this game it is completely pointless to try to rp your stats unless you want to deliberately cripple yourself.

Basically there is only one "correct" way of allocating your character stats so they all end up being very similar and by the mid point of your game you will have cookie cutter characters that can pretty much do anything, with the only difference being x character has one type of lockpicking, y character has another. Thrilling.

Had the stat, level up and general progression system been better, this would have been an awesome rpg.
It's actually killed any desire I had to replay the game, or even to finish it. Such a shame. To this day I keep checking wasteland nexus hoping a mod will fix things but so far no luck.

7) Civilization 5.
It's just not as deep and complex as Civ4 was and the combat system just doesn't work due to how easy it is to fill up areas of the map with troops. Hexes combat works when you got a nice big map to spread out on, in Civ5 there just aren't enough hexes for the system to work and it's way too easy to exploit narrow chokepoints and hold off the ai even on hardest difficulties. I'm also not fond of the economy and building system.

Up until the expansions Civ5 was easily the worst civ in my eyes, but at least the expansions threw in stuff for you to do and I did like making my custom religions. Mod support has helped salvage this game further but at its release Civ5 was one big disapointment for me.


8) Spacebase DF-9
The basics for a good game are in there, it's just a shame the game was never bothered to be finished. Had a lot of promise.

9) Beyond Earth
Why is Alpha Centauri still the best at what it does more then a decade later? Beyond Earth had some cool ideas, I did like the affinity system even if it was bit too simplified for my tastes (4 tiers of unit progression? meh) but overall I ended up preferring Pandora: First Contact to Beyond Earth when it cames to wannabe Alpha Centauri beaters.

10) To be filled later, removed Borderlands as realized it wasn't a disappointment in sense I never had high hopes for it to begin with. So trailed off slightly into "popular stuff i dont like" territory, rest of entries in this list were definitly personal disappointments in that I at least held high hopes for them or felt the potential for awesomeness was there but wasted.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Two games immediately come to mind, and both for the same reason, too.

The first is Fahrenheit, a David Cage game a lot of people probably know as Indigo Prophecy. I was promised a measure of influence on the game's story that I never exercized or enjoyed. The game goes to great pains to pretend like you're making everything up on the go, when in fact it's very tightly scripted. While you have some power over how certain situations play out, their outcome is of no consequence and they never come in play. It makes no difference if Lucas's brother lives or dies, because he doesn't affect the plot anyway after that crucial moment; it makes no difference how many kids you save in that flashback, or if Tyler sticks by his girlfriend, or if you have sex with what's-her-name. The plot never branches out. In the end it boils down to a simple quick time event near the end which you can replay several times to watch the different ending cutscenes.

For similar reasons I also thought of The Walking Dead, another game that ostensibly claims to feature an emergent narrative based on your choices. And yet it's the David Cage bait-and-switch again: the effects of your decisions feel short-termed and don't affect the plot in the long run. Again, another world that claims to be emergent but is reduced to the illusion of consequence.

Then there's Scribblenauts, a game I was super excited for in principle, but the execution fell halfway. The game never really piqued my creativity. I could solve just about any situation with a jetpack and a tranquilizer gun. It was fun and novel at first, seeing how many things I could create. But by the end I wanted more complexity from the levels, longer missions and a sense of challenge. Not a bad game, but disappointing by my expectations.

 

[babinro]

All time? I doubt I could remember it clear enough.

1) Grand Theft Auto 4
Constant perfect 10's GOTY my ass. This game sold me on it's endless praise from both critics AND gamers. I buy the game and it's just a poor racing game mixed with a sub-par action game and a decent open world. The controls were adequate but awkward at times and the checkpoints as well as story expectations were terrible. It wasn't until GTA5 came out when I finally found other people didn't think 4 was all that great either. This game tops the list because it's the only game I've ever bought that I sold within a month. By comparison I think the next shortest I've held onto a game was maybe 4 years.

2) Dragon Age: Inquisition
LOVED the first 2 games and even had a lot of fun with the facebook game back in the day. HUGE fan of the franchise. This game completely failed to hook me. I put the game down early into the Hinterlands and have yet to muster the desire to play it again. The fact that the PC controls were atrocious really killed the experience. Switching to a controller was great but killed the tactical gameplay flow for me. The story and characters didn't hook me either (although it was still clearly early on). I'm aware the game starts to get good after the Hinterlands but it's already wasted too many hours of my time. I'm done. Maybe I'll revisit this if I ever get bored of my other games or in preparation for the inevitable DA4.

3) Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New Age (I think)
LOVED Tales of Symphonia. Probably my 3rd favorite all time RPG. The sequel was pure boredom. I forced myself through that entire experience out of love for the original and it didn't pay off. Such a disappointing and forgettable experience.

4) Bioshock 2
It felt like a mediocre expansion rather than a true sequel. I thought the franchise was dead after this forgettable game...it felt like it ran out of steam. Glad I was wrong.

5) LA Noire
The concept is amazing but the actual experience of playing the game was awful. I forced myself through about 5 missions and could never pick up the game again.

6) Final Fantasy 7
FF6 is my favorite RPG of all time. It was before FF7 came out and it's never been dethroned. Naturally I was expecting big things from FF7. I never owned a Playstation though...so I HEARD those big things but never experienced them personally until around the time FF10 was coming out. FF7 failed to live up to the hype for me. It's a solid RPG and I'm glad I played it. 7/10 type of experience. This wasn't the definite FF experience I was told about. Having replayed it just last year the game is still solid. But I don't 'get' it's extreme fandom.

7) Zelda: Skyward Sword
The only Zelda game I own and I haven't completed. I fight the controls in this game to consistently register the type of sword swing I need. It's frustrating and IMO flawed. I realize that both players and reviews praise the controls in this game but I apparently don't have what it takes to adjust to the games motion expectations. This killed an otherwise VERY interesting entry to the franchise story wise....I don't know how the story ends, and I refuse to spoil myself with it even though I'll probably never revisit the game again.

8) Any Sim game after Sim City for SNES.
I don't know why but this first ever experience with the franchise is the only one I enjoy.

9) KOTOR 2
What happened? Great gameplay, one awesome villain and a decent character here and there but this was a lackluster follow up to a masterpiece. The only reason I replayed this game so many times was for the combat system improvements. I still have no idea what happens at the end...might as well be the architect speech at the end of Matrix 2.

10) Command & Conquer 4
Had I bought this at full price it would be number 1 without question. As is it was 'free' as pert of a steam bundle. I grew up loving this franchise and while it had many head scratching entries this game is just unplayable to me. I'm glad they tried something new though. The prior formula really was tired. This attempt simply crashed and burned though.

 

[joest01]

Interesting, because there isn't really terrible games on most peoples list. I think the big disapointments are the ones that border on greatness and juuust fail.

My big one would be Arkham City. I loved AA. And was on the fence about AC when I heard about the open world an everything. But I eventually picked it up. And man did I hate it. I played up to the silly puzzle boss with the electric puddles. Died like twice and never put the disc back in. And probably never will.

A very recent one is the pre-sequel. I mean, I like it alright, but it just doesn't grab me like BL2. And that's a shame.

This, however, is heresy:

3) Metroid Prime. Still looks beautiful, still great music, still big boss fights, but nowhere as clever as Super Metroid in the slightest.

MP is an absolutely brilliant translation of Super Metroid into 3D. And the whole concept comes to life 10x better in it. Rolling like a ball, screw attacking, beautiful landscapes with eerie music, haunted space stations. Damn, either re-play it or hand in your gamer card. And Super Metroid was not even that good. Yes, it introduced all the aboce concepts, but, honestly? as a platformer it's not very good. Sue me.

 

[Kyrian007]

Grand Theft Auto 3: A Meh story, smaller game than 1 and 2, and no garunga.

Grand Theft Auto 4: More of the pointless boring relationship stuff that added nothing to San Andreas.

Ultima 8: 7 was an epic game that brought together rpg elements used to this day. 8 took away the party system and frankly was about half the size in content that 7 was.

Ultima 9: somehow even worse than 8, and broken besides.

Borderlands: Was happy because it advertised LOCAL Multiplayer which had been absent in games since Perfect Dark. Was a boring, brownshooty, tedious grindfest... with local multiplayer.

Perfect Dark (xbox): Great game, was remade into this crap.

Resident Evil 3: Short, too easy, and possible to get instakilled unavoidably by random encounter boss.

Twisted Metal Black (4): who knew that improving a game series on what is supposed to be a superior console could fail so badly.

Alone in the Dark 3: Thanks for turning the groundbreaking Alone in the Dark series into exactly the same resident evil clone every other bad survival/horror series wants to be.

Masters of Orion 3: I liked playing Masters of Orion 2, why did they think I would enjoy watching Masters of Orion 3 play itself without my input needed?

 

[DSK-]

2) Starcraft 2, even though I didn't play it as soon as it came out, it had it's ridiculous online DRM. How they span bullshit saying they would make more epic story's if they separate the race missions into 3 expansions, and as expected, the quality of their story and cut-scenes is amazingly corny and lame. Also the forcing of pro strategy's from the previous good game is one of the most retarded things I've seen in all things gaming. Fucking hell! Underground supply depot instead of a fucking gate! Buildings I'm expected to use as walls! Idiots!

I can agree with the story and the DRM, but believe me, walling in in Brood War was infinitely more complicated than it is in SC2.

I suppose the walling in as a concept does seem a little weird, but in lots of competitively-minded games you have to go with accepted strategy if you want to do well and improve yourself.

OT: Probably... (in no order)

#1 Supreme Commander

#2 Mass Effect 3

#3 Dragon Age 2/Inquisition

#4 Shogun 2: Total War

#5 Red Dead Redemption

#6 Borderlands

#7 Crysis 2

#8 Fallout: New Vegas

#9 Loading screens 2033

#10 Unreal Tournament 3

 

[Riddle78]

I can only cook up four. However,they get RIGHT under my skin,so,hey.



1) Supreme Commander 2. If it didn't have the Supreme Commander name and trappings,this game wouldn't even exist on this list. "Supreme Commander" 2 is a royal trainwreck when you try to attach that pedigree to it; It totally eliminates everything that made the first game unique. Instead of a streaming "Pay for it as you go" economy,you need to pay for everything up front. Instead of upgrading your factories as economy allowed to produce new engineers and units,it's locked behind a timer to the tune of Research Points. The maps are smaller,the unit cap is stiflingly small compared to Supreme Commander and even Total Annihilation. The game is absolutely silly except for one thing,and that being the Aeon campaign,which is a proper tragedy... As long as you can ignore the unit names. Doctor Brackman turns into a Disney goof,culminating in producing a T-Rex bot and a squid sub that cannot exploit the faction's most useful technology. The UEF is just a byzantine fustercluck of red tape and bureaucracy run by Disney villains doing a POOR job of aping Colonel Fletcher. If it were anything other than Supreme Commander,the game would have been passable. As it stands,the game should never have existed.

2) Dungeon Keeper Mobile. I don't think I need to say anything here; I'd just end up parroting Jim Sterling and the Cynical Brit.

3) ArcheAge. This is almost exclusively because of a friend of mine,who was following development since day one. He pretty much hyped it up to me,to Molnyuex levels. I found it to be an incredibly boring experience of the exact same boring grind and quest running in literally every other MMORPG that I've ever played,with the good features,like owning property,which is absolutely critical to getting ANYTHING done,being locked behind a paid subscription.

4) Diablo III. I played the demo,and found myself asking "Why?" Compared to Diablo II,there's no choice of character progression,and everything feels like pointless nostalgia pandering,up to and including the rematch with King Leoric from Diablo I. There's a such thing as too much refinement,and Diablo III took a running leap right off that cliff. My biggest gripe is the lack of apparent choice and branching. At least in Diablo II,you had more skills than levels,offering a huge number of different play styles for the same class. At least Path of Exile exists to scratch that itch.

 

[ecoho]

1) got to be Too Human. I mean the setting was great, Viking cyborg gods how do you fuck that up?! well apparently with crappy controls as they thought in their infinite wisdom that the right thumb stick would be the best thing to use as your attack.......

2) tales of symphonia: dawn of the new world. the first game was a great JRPG with a corny save the world plot and great combat so what do they do with the sequel? they take out all the characters you loved and make you capture those monsters you grinded on in the first game pokemon style to fill in your party....

3)Fallout 3. seriously fuck this game.

4)the witcher series. I mean don't get me wrong theyre great games but if im two hours in and only just got a hint to the dam plot of an RPG yeah im not your target audience.

5) Golden sun: dark dawn. why must you use the dam touch screen?! WHY!

6) FF:VII. I had heard it was the best of the FF games all my friends said it was amazing. I played 3 hours of it trying to give a dam, went back to my SNES and played the much better FF VI (at the time FF III)

7) the order 1886. Yes I know its not out yet but I play a lot at pax and at some publicity events at my local gamestop trust me this game is a huge disappointment and should be skipped.

8) project x zone. Had potential but ended up being just a hack and slash with RPG elements.

9) perfect dark zero. Or as I like to call it the first game was better but look we got a character with the same name.....

10) dead island. do you want skyrim like combat but with shitty item durability mechanics? then this is the game for you! now don't forget if your weapon breaks youll have to switch it out or youll be swinging and doing no damage to those zombies!

 

[Nazulu]

This, however, is heresy:

3) Metroid Prime. Still looks beautiful, still great music, still big boss fights, but nowhere as clever as Super Metroid in the slightest.

MP is an absolutely brilliant translation of Super Metroid into 3D. And the whole concept comes to life 10x better in it. Rolling like a ball, screw attacking, beautiful landscapes with eerie music, haunted space stations. Damn, either re-play it or hand in your gamer card. And Super Metroid was not even that good. Yes, it introduced all the aboce concepts, but, honestly? as a platformer it's not very good. Sue me.

I'm sorry, but your 100% wrong. I really wished you challenged some of my points to make a point, because you didn't really say anything. I don't know how you expected me to reply, but I'll try and sum up my thoughts (if you are interested, otherwise just ignore me).

Spoiler

1) Lets start from the beginning, because both have excellent intro screens, with the music you know. Though getting into the game, Super Metroid has an awesome theme song and an explanation to build up suspense, along with small hints in how to control your character, like that you can aim in other directions, though you don't think about it.

- Metroid Prime on the other hand, just shows you landing somewhere with bugger all else going on (but some ok music sweetening it) and then plop, you are on some platform being told how to aim and shoot lights. Exciting.

2) Then in Super Metroid, you are told shit is going down and must investigate a space station. Beginning in an eerie darkish area that seems dead, you move down learning how to traverse basic terrain, discovering no signs of life until SURPRISE! Ridley catches you off guard and then leaves you to retreat, escaping for your life. It really sums up the basic lessons you need before moving on, and it doesn't take long.

- Then in Metroid Prime, you walk into a weird structure and see it's been ravaged. Slowly moving in you're given more instructions, then find some bug things crawling about and pirates lying/dying around for scanning. And then some more pirates, and some operating turrets, and then you meet the big bad bug that did all the damage. Killing it so easily it's not funny, you are then given a lengthy escape challenge that is really lengthy, waiting for shit to open or move. As well as Ridley and some other cinematics, and a lame way to show how you lost some abilities (because shes been hit a lot, and then some random blast does more damage than anything else? Fuck off).

Dying in this escape would mean you need to go through what feels like another 20-30 minutes of game play. That's overkill.

3) Now in Super Metroid you land on a grassy rock spot when it's raining and the music is still eerie. Looking in all available spots, you find no enemy's, except creatures in the walls shifting away from your presence. Going deep into the ground you find some power-ups as well as a weird eye thing spotting you as you do. With no clue whats going on, you are suddenly sprung by pirates.

- Now in Metroid Prime you land on a grassy rock spot when it's raining again, but this time the music is an upbeat ambiance and you find the world teeming with life. No dramatic build up, you are just ruining everyones picnic. Also learning that you need to shut off the hint system so you can enjoy discovering for yourself, and scanning everything to get some insight.

4) And then in Super Metroid, making your way to a room you need to figure out how to get to, you find a statue holding something juicy. Grabbing the upgrade and walking out, the door suddenly closes you in and the statue reveals a hidden beast that catches you off guard, ready to kick your ass for stealing it's shit.

- And then in Metroid Prime, after making your way through some rooms with basic enemy's blocking your way, you reach a large murky looking throne room, with a tempting looking power-up in it. Moving towards it, suddenly it's covered by defence system that uses wasps? While flooding the room with acid. And the machine can only be damaged after it's ran out of wasps for some reason.

That's basically how I feel about both these games. Super Metroid sets up everything to be dramatic and scary, while Metroid Prime half asses a lot of it with basic or odd ideas and cinematics. I really don't like it's ideas as much.

After these steps, both are generally great with the atmosphere. I don't know how you compare it but I'll say this. Metroid Prime is pretty predictable while Super Metroid keeps up the surprises in different ways that scares everyone every first time.

And my biggest deciding factor is the design. In Super Metroid, you get upgrades for moving around better and most areas actually connect with each other. In Metroid Prime this isn't the case. You are always slow and it takes ages to get from one zone to the next, especially if you keep running into the bloody ghosts. I don't like to replay Prime as much.

Look at Super Metroid where you can run, space jump and even fly (technically). And bomb jumping allows for a lot of experimentation, fascinating many. Super Metroid was designed to be replayed over and over, and I do.

As for the graphics and styles. I really like both. I still believe Super Metroid is one of the best looking games out there because the pixel work is still very clear and sharp, and it's style makes it look very... serious.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not calling Prime shit. In fact, I'd say it's the 2nd best Metroid game, and that it even out-does Super Metroid in some important areas. Probably the biggest one is generally the bosses difficulty. In Super Metroid some later bosses are easier than the ones before, especially the last.

You can't convince me that Prime is the better game. It's one of those impossibilities in life you are just going to have to come to terms with. Now hand in your gamer card

 

[SmallHatLogan]

I like to think of myself as a pretty canny consumer so I don't have too many disappointments, but there are a few.

Sonic 4 Episode 1: I don't consider myself a Sonic fan. There are more games that I dislike than like, but I do love the Mega Drive games (and Sonic CD) and I was excited for a return to his roots. Unfortunately they had to go and fuck up the physics. Sonic just feels so sluggish. The whole game feels like you're under water, and the underwater sections feel like you're in treacle. The GBA games got it right before Sonic 4 and Generations got it right afterwards. Not really sure what happened here.

Earthworm Jim HD: An HD remake. Must be the definitive version, right? Apparently not. Missing the extra level from the Special Edition and missing the secret level from all the original versions (SNES, Mega Drive, PC, Sega CD). Plus a bland recreation of the soundtrack that pales in comparison to the glorious PC/Sega CD version. What wasted potential.

Pretty much all of the classic Nintendo IPs in their appearances on the 3DS. The 3DS was my return to Nintendo after not owning a Nintendo console since the Nintendo 64 and Gameboy Advance. Now I wouldn't call any of them bad games, but I thought they were mostly pretty bland and just left me wanting to play their older counterparts. The one exception being Smash Bros (okay, the Kirby game was decent too, I still prefer Amazing Mirror, Super Star Ultra and Nightmare in Dreamland though).

As you can see my disappointments are nostalgia related.


I have to say I am surprised that people's expectations were high enough that Duke Nukem Forever ended up being a disappointment for them. I was under the assumption that everyone knew it would be garbage.

 

[Nazulu]

2) Starcraft 2, even though I didn't play it as soon as it came out, it had it's ridiculous online DRM. How they span bullshit saying they would make more epic story's if they separate the race missions into 3 expansions, and as expected, the quality of their story and cut-scenes is amazingly corny and lame. Also the forcing of pro strategy's from the previous good game is one of the most retarded things I've seen in all things gaming. Fucking hell! Underground supply depot instead of a fucking gate! Buildings I'm expected to use as walls! Idiots!

I can agree with the story and the DRM, but believe me, walling in in Brood War was infinitely more complicated than it is in SC2.

I suppose the walling in as a concept does seem a little weird, but in lots of competitively-minded games you have to go with accepted strategy if you want to do well and improve yourself.

That's because they weren't meant to wall in Brood War. It's an interesting strategy some clever chaps came up with. So I thought the new Blizzard would combine brain cells and figure that maybe putting walls and gates in would add to the flavour. But no. Lets just build the game around a clever tactic instead of making the base feel like a proper base.

I'm sorry, but it's just fucking stupid. They should focus on making the game clever and functional in an immersive way, because the gaming experts will always find a way to improve their game. There is no stopping them.

 

[joest01]

This, however, is heresy:

3) Metroid Prime. Still looks beautiful, still great music, still big boss fights, but nowhere as clever as Super Metroid in the slightest.

MP is an absolutely brilliant translation of Super Metroid into 3D. And the whole concept comes to life 10x better in it. Rolling like a ball, screw attacking, beautiful landscapes with eerie music, haunted space stations. Damn, either re-play it or hand in your gamer card. And Super Metroid was not even that good. Yes, it introduced all the aboce concepts, but, honestly? as a platformer it's not very good. Sue me.

I'm sorry, but your 100% wrong. I really wished you challenged some of my points to make a point, because you didn't really say anything. I don't know how you expected me to reply, but I'll try and sum up my thoughts (if you are interested, otherwise just ignore me).

Spoiler

1) Lets start from the beginning, because both have excellent intro screens, with the music you know. Though getting into the game, Super Metroid has an awesome theme song and an explanation to build up suspense, along with small hints in how to control your character, like that you can aim in other directions, though you don't think about it.

- Metroid Prime on the other hand, just shows you landing somewhere with bugger all else going on (but some ok music sweetening it) and then plop, you are on some platform being told how to aim and shoot lights. Exciting.

2) Then in Super Metroid, you are told shit is going down and must investigate a space station. Beginning in an eerie darkish area that seems dead, you move down learning how to traverse basic terrain, discovering no signs of life until SURPRISE! Ridley catches you off guard and then leaves you to retreat, escaping for your life. It really sums up the basic lessons you need before moving on, and it doesn't take long.

- Then in Metroid Prime, you walk into a weird structure and see it's been ravaged. Slowly moving in you're given more instructions, then find some bug things crawling about and pirates lying/dying around for scanning. And then some more pirates, and some operating turrets, and then you meet the big bad bug that did all the damage. Killing it so easily it's not funny, you are then given a lengthy escape challenge that is really lengthy, waiting for shit to open or move. As well as Ridley and some other cinematics, and a lame way to show how you lost some abilities (because shes been hit a lot, and then some random blast does more damage than anything else? Fuck off).

Dying in this escape would mean you need to go through what feels like another 20-30 minutes of game play. That's overkill.

3) Now in Super Metroid you land on a grassy rock spot when it's raining and the music is still eerie. Looking in all available spots, you find no enemy's, except creatures in the walls shifting away from your presence. Going deep into the ground you find some power-ups as well as a weird eye thing spotting you as you do. With no clue whats going on, you are suddenly sprung by pirates.

- Now in Metroid Prime you land on a grassy rock spot when it's raining again, but this time the music is an upbeat ambiance and you find the world teeming with life. No dramatic build up, you are just ruining everyones picnic. Also learning that you need to shut off the hint system so you can enjoy discovering for yourself, and scanning everything to get some insight.

4) And then in Super Metroid, making your way to a room you need to figure out how to get to, you find a statue holding something juicy. Grabbing the upgrade and walking out, the door suddenly closes you in and the statue reveals a hidden beast that catches you off guard, ready to kick your ass for stealing it's shit.

- And then in Metroid Prime, after making your way through some rooms with basic enemy's blocking your way, you reach a large murky looking throne room, with a tempting looking power-up in it. Moving towards it, suddenly it's covered by defence system that uses wasps? While flooding the room with acid. And the machine can only be damaged after it's ran out of wasps for some reason.

That's basically how I feel about both these games. Super Metroid sets up everything to be dramatic and scary, while Metroid Prime half asses a lot of it with basic or odd ideas and cinematics. I really don't like it's ideas as much.

After these steps, both are generally great with the atmosphere. I don't know how you compare it but I'll say this. Metroid Prime is pretty predictable while Super Metroid keeps up the surprises in different ways that scares everyone every first time.

And my biggest deciding factor is the design. In Super Metroid, you get upgrades for moving around better and most areas actually connect with each other. In Metroid Prime this isn't the case. You are always slow and it takes ages to get from one zone to the next, especially if you keep running into the bloody ghosts. I don't like to replay Prime as much.

Look at Super Metroid where you can run, space jump and even fly (technically). And bomb jumping allows for a lot of experimentation, fascinating many. Super Metroid was designed to be replayed over and over, and I do.

As for the graphics and styles. I really like both. I still believe Super Metroid is one of the best looking games out there because the pixel work is still very clear and sharp, and it's style makes it look very... serious.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm not calling Prime shit. In fact, I'd say it's the 2nd best Metroid game, and that it even out-does Super Metroid in some important areas. Probably the biggest one is generally the bosses difficulty. In Super Metroid some later bosses are easier than the ones before, especially the last.

You can't convince me that Prime is the better game. It's one of those impossibilities in life you are just going to have to come to terms with. Now hand in your gamer card

Mmk, you have obviously spent a lot of time with SM. Tbh I see all the points you are making but I guess I never really noticed the actual "story telling" in SM. The atmosphere in MP combined with the info from scans works a lot better for me. Places like Phenandra Drifts and Elysia (yes, in MP3) are some of the most memorable gaming locations to me.

But, either way. You may be right about everything. But putting MP on a biggest disapointments list still rubs me the wrong way. Seeing that world come to life in 3d must have brought a smile to your face, no

p.s. my gamer card is in escrow until I can find it in me to finally finish Resonance of Fate.