[The Coggies] Most Disappointing Game

[DoctorFinger]

Most Disappointing Game

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/AitD.jpg

Title: Alone in the Dark
Available For: 360, PS3, PC, Wii
Developer: Eden Games
Publisher: Atari

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/FB.jpg

Title: Facebreaker
Available For: 360, PS3, Wii
Developer: EA Freestyle
Publisher: EA Sports

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Frontlines.jpg

Title: Frontlines: Fuel of War
Available For: 360, PS3, PC
Developer: Kaos Studios
Publisher: THQ

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Haze.jpg

Title: Haze
Available For: PS3
Developer: Free Radical
Publisher: Ubisoft

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Legendary.jpg

Title: Legendary
Available For: 360, PS3, PC
Developer: Spark Unlimited
Publisher: Gamecock

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/comics/Forceunleashed.jpg

Title: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Available For: 360, PS3
Developer: Lucasarts
Publisher: Lucasarts

[Mastergeo7]

Needs more Spore!

[MagGnome]

I voted Alone in the Dark, since it's the only game on this list that I even remotely cared about. Still, I would have liked to see Spore on there.

[Commissar Rob]

I didn't play any of the others (although I heard an awful lot about Haze and Alone in the Dark), but the Force Unleashed disappointed me (granted, not as much as the prequel movies, nor as much as the "new" Clone Wars cartoon). I'm not enough of a connoisseur to say what exactly didn't work. The character of Starkiller was good, the dialogue well written, the romance better than the Padme/Anakin bit. But something just felt off.

Maybe it was the final boss battle with Vader, maybe the radically fluctuating difficulty levels, maybe I just wanted it to be another Kyle Katarn game...but something just didn't work enough that when I finally got past Vader I watched the end cut scene, popped it out, and sold it on half.com. DLC? Okee dokee, but not for me...

[Variable Gear]

I'm going with Mirror's Edge. It was a stunning disappointment, from beginning to end.

[pseudopseudo]

Where the hell is THE most disappointing game of the year... Spore?

Talk about not living up to the hype whatsoever.

[Variable Gear]

Also, why the hell is Legendary part of the poll?

[Talanvor]

Well, the only game I've actually played on that list is SW:TFU, and honestly I don't think it was that disappointing. Maybe I wasn't expecting too much of it, but it was fun. It smacked a little too much of the prequel and had some bizarre glitches (One time I was fighting Vader and he just stopped attacking me, but I couldn't attack him either!)

Granted, I played it via Gamefly, so maybe I would be bitter about it if I had thrown down $60 for it.

[SPBTooL]

How the hell did Too Human and Spore not make this list? I don't usually comment on things like this but; Holy hell!

[Wilkz07]

Frontlines was fun to play. The single player campaign was great. The mp played like a battlefield game. The only problem was at the time it came out the ranked servers weren't working so it was all player matches... which everyone knows blow compared to the awesomeness of ranked! I read in OXM that this game is still going strong on live.

[MagGnome]

I avoided doing this in the other threads, but I think that most of these choices are flawed. Games like Frontlines, Legendary, and arguably Haze and Facebreaker were destined for mediocrity. Was anyone really hyped up for these titles? Spore and Too Human would have been better choices.

[Camel]

Grand Theft Auto IV!

[evilgoodwin]

I'm also going with Star Wars. After all of the hype and tech videos of their new engine, I couldn't help but have a feeling that most of their time tweaking it was scrapped to rush it out.

[Xerxes]

More reason on why I skipped the Coggies. Better luck next year.

[Food Nipple]

Also, why the hell is Legendary part of the poll?

Did anyone think this game wouldn't suck?

I vote Castle Crashers.

[Wolvie]

The Force Unleashed for sure. I wasn't expecting a great game, but I expected a game where everything blew up all explodey, and stuff broke apart realistically. Oh and I expected the AI to be pretty damn realistic.

Those were the promises we got. What we got was a game that has a NONE of the cool realistic material breaking like we saw in the tech demo. Instead we got staged events that create the illusion of this effect.
We didn't even get AI like we saw in the tech demo. The AI was like any other game, nothing special.

This is this generations Fable. A ton of promises were made, almost none of them were met, and the game ended up being generic. Not surprising, but still disappointing.

[itchyeyes]

Can't say I was really disappointed by any of those as I didn't expect any of them to be any good anyways. My vote for most disappointing game goes to Ninja Gaiden 2, an ok game in it's own right but a mere shadow of its predecessor.

And I'm sure you guys are tired of hearing it, but once again really bad choices here. I mean, CoG already has a 114 post thread (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=3335) on this very subject and TFU is pretty much the only one of the choices listed here that gets so much as a mention.

[RandoM51]

Spore, followed by Storm of Zehir.

Frontlines doesn't belong on this list, the game was actually fairly good.

[Wolvie]

Spore, followed by Storm of Zehir.

Frontlines doesn't belong on this list, the game was actually fairly good.

Agreed. It as no CoD4 or even Battlefield Bad Company, but it was still a pretty damn good game.

[MalReynolds]

I wanted to say Fable 2 but of course its not a choice

And Too Human was a little disappointing but it in my top 10 games this year i loved it anyway

[Church42]

Facebreaker? Haze? Were they expected to be good games? I don't think anyone had any high expectations for either.

As for Legendary - Never even heard of that game to be honest.

Either way, I'd put GTA IV & Halo 3 on this list in place of Haze & Facebreaker (I know Spore is a game alot of other people are listing, but I've never played it so I can't justify putting it on my list of disappointing games...course it could just take Legendary's place on this list).

[Gerbs]

Too Human. By Far.

[Rogue_hunter]

Grand Theft Auto IV!

Stealing the post I was gonna make, bad Camel!

On the list, Haze would be the most disappointing according to the gaming press. Yet another game deemed "Halo killer" by the press that shouldn't even be considered that way.

I would go more with the 360 and PC version of Alone in the Dark. The fact that the changes they made on the PS3 version can't be added into the 360 version at all spells problems.

[Krispy]

Spore!!!!!!!

[EternalGamer]

If you would have asked, I'm pretty sure that you would have heard GRAND THEFT AUTO 4 as a nominee. It certainly was mine. I know some disagree, but there was ALOT of disappointment surrounding that title. I played all the way through the single player narrative and kept waiting for it to get interesting. The writing was cliche, the missions were of the exact same limited variety as previous games, and the gameplay was still sloppy. It wasn't the second coming of gaming as promised. It was San Andreas with alot less freedom and slightly improved controls in HD.

[violent]

Castle Crashers.

[Adam Blue]

Frontlines?!?!?!

Spore. But from the list, Haze. The rep alone made me excited...but the game was just boring. I'm sure it was just Sony paying for an original IP FPS from ex-Rare employees.

[Spigot]

I think that Haze, TFU and AitD are probably the only games that really belong on this list as they had a lot of promise but flopped utterly in a variety of ways. But I shan't spend the thread nitpicking.

That said, my easy, easy pick was The Force Unleashed. Dear lord, that game is easily my most hated game of this year. Wolvie nailed it in his post but it still sits right up there as the most broken game that had the most promise of all of the ones I was hoping for this year. YOu keep getting glimpses of how great it could have been but nope. The only time you really see the true potential is during the Vader mission and maybe if you've finished the game and try doing another run through with a maxed out (or high-powered) Starkiller.

Broken game design is what I call that.

Spore was disappointing in that it wasn't all it had been promised to be but I at least had fun with it before the novelty wore off and I"d seen all it had to offer. I wasn't cursing and trying to smash controllers and keyboards like I was while playing TFU.

[Deadend]

I voted Force Unleashed, as I never expected any of the other ones to be good once I saw them in motion. But TFU could have been good, up until the final game came out.

[paketep]

GTA4 indeed.

Force Unleashed also. But not because of the game (I really don't expect anything from LucasArts anymore), but because they couldn't even come with a minimally credible excuse for not releasing it on PC and instead decided to spew some incomprehensible BS.

[Adam Blue]

I don't get the TFU/PC problem... It's a console brawler made for the console/Star Wars market for maximum profit. They don't need the PC market...at all.

[Spigot]

I'd almost say Mirror's Edge for this list because, as much as I loved it when it was doing things right, the awful storytelling and horrific melee combat made me feel frustration and anger at levels rivaling my play sessions with The Force Unleashed. But I didn't pay for my copy (hooray for review copies!) and they got enough right (I loved the design and the parts when you weren't being mowed down by half of the bullets in the world) so I'll leave it off my list... but if Mirror's Edge 2 gets made, they'd better fix the melee combat so it works well and they need to either remove or really reduce the number of guns in the game.

[Morratut]

Wow just wow.

I was put off SW:FU by the reviews. I eventually borrowed it a month ago from a friend.

I absolutley loved Force Unleashed. I enjoyed it much more than NG2 and even DMC4.

Currently my favorite type of action/combat game this gen. Bought all the DLC and loved it all.

I played it on Sith Lord and loved it. The combat is great, jedi battles are tough but not impossible always have a weakness.

Also I must say i am very pleased with Lucasarts for not replacing the last boss fights of a game with something completely different like they do in the DMC or NG games. I hate it when they do that.

Looking forward to Unleashed 2.

[Spigot]

I did love the story in The Force Unleashed. That was the only thing that kept me slogging through that mess of a game.

I wish I could have enjoyed it like you did, Morratut. I really wanted to but I am so thankful that I rented it and didn't actually plonk down $60+ for it.

[RandoM51]

While I was disappointed with GTA4 there are plenty of people who lapped it up like mother's milk.

Spore on the other hand? I don't know anybody who thinks it lived up to the hype and anticipation.

[Morratut]

I did love the story in The Force Unleashed. That was the only thing that kept me slogging through that mess of a game.

I wish I could have enjoyed it like you did, Morratut. I really wanted to but I am so thankful that I rented it and didn't actually plonk down $60+ for it.

Yeah it's a shame. It seemed to get quite a lot of criticism from everyone. I heard the platform bits was frustrating, combat was dull etc.

I didn't have any problems with the game at all. What didn't you like about it Spigot?

I'm hoping they won't change the game too much for Force Unleashed 2.

I loved the way with the Jedi boss battles they actually had pace. You couldn't just mindlessly spam through a bosses healthbar (unlike NG2).

Rancor bosses were good. QTE I love also. I also liked the fact that no matter how powerful you get you can't just burn through the levels. You still needed to be sneaky use the environment around you. Like on the first Death Star bit you are massively outnumbered so you have to hide a bit and whittle the level down. Nice and challenging and exciting because you can use all sorts of powers to accomplish this.

[Wolvie]

Frontlines?!?!?!

Yeah...

The first few of these award polls I checked I did a faceplam in every one since the nominee choices have been questionable to say the least. Either they leave out a great game or they put one in that sucks, or have a game that doesn't even belong on the list.

The sports/racing one was an especially huge train wreck. What were they thinking!?

[Spigot]

I didn't have any problems with the game at all. What didn't you like about it Spigot?Well, since you asked...

I hated the level design, esp. having to go back through the same levels twice. I hated the checkpoint system. I hated the fact that you were supposed to be this overpowered uber badass Force guy let loose in this crazy destructible environment and instead were a wimp for the better part of the game and could, at best, pull off a few party tricks until you were a significant way through the game.

And don't get me started about how abysmal the checkpoint system was in that game.

I'm not saying I hated every aspect of it. But those glimmers of potential that would peek out every now and then just made the rest of the game that much more infuriating.

I did play a bit of the game after I finished it to see how the first level felt with a pretty pumped up Starkiller and it was a much more enjoyable game. But that's another part of the problem. They should have started with that level of power for Starkiller as a baseline and then ramped things up even higher.

I could also go into how you may as well have been whacking critters and stormtroopers with cricket bats for all the difference it made. And the Force deadening enemies were a real treat as well. Sure, they make a passable attempt at explaining why your enemies can all deflect/sustain lightsabre blades and I understand that you can't have dismembered bodies littering the ground if you want a T rating, but it just felt so... weak.

And last, but not least, I give you the Star Destroyer 'boss'. That should have been an epic sequence that would be talked about for the next few years as far as awesome gaming experiences go. Instead we get this broken, annoying POS 'fight' that doesn't even have proper mapping to the on-screen commands, which really made the first couple of attempts just utter nonsense.

I liked a lot of the other boss fights. Those were fine and I have no issue with QTEs when they're done well, which most of the ones in TFU were. The issue there is that there were really only about 2-3 different enemies that you had to use those QTE finishing moves on and they all played out the exact same way. Once you've killed your first AT-ST, you'll pretty much seen things play out the exact same way from there on out. Same with the Rancors. There are about 2-3 different ways it can die and you'll be pretty sick of seeing them by the end of the game.

And now that you've mentioned it, that first level of the Death Star was just plain broken. I did use the environment. I lured guys here, there and everywhere and cleared out the whole level. I then hopped down off of the catwalk to start prying up the floor and guess what? The Empire had somehow developed teleportation because an entire platoon just spawned on my head and proceeded to turn me into Swiss cheese. The next time I got into the game, I just cleared a path, ran for the floor, pried it up and jumped in. Screw that.

And I haven't even touched on the broken menu screens. In that EVERY... SINGLE... SUBMENU... MADE... YOU... WAIT... FOR... A... LOADING... SCREEN...

Both on your way into the submenu and on the way out. Gah.

So there you have it. Those are the reasons why TFU so utterly disappointed me. It could have been good. Hell, there were remnants of a good game buried in there. It was the fact that it could have been so much better than it was and I could see that potential right up there on the screen that made it such a prominent member of my Wall Of Shame: 2008 Edition.

[Spigot]

And let me say one last thing. For a game that was as short as TFU was (I finished it in less than 48 hours of renting it...) it felt so long. The levels were just too long in almost every case with very little variety to make the slog from start to finish feel worthwhile.

There. That's it.

[Wolvie]

And let me say one last thing. For a game that was as short as TFU was (I finished it in less than 48 hours of renting it...) it felt so long. The levels were just too long in almost every case with very little variety to make the slog from start to finish feel worthwhile.

There. That's it.

Time always drags when you're not having fun.

[c0m3d14n]

spore hands down, what a bland bore

[Mr. Murphy]

Alone in the Dark out of that list, but Spore was a much bigger letdown than any of those games.

[Morratut]

Well, since you asked...

I hated the level design, esp. having to go back through the same levels twice. I hated the checkpoint system. I hated the fact that you were supposed to be this overpowered uber badass Force guy let loose in this crazy destructible environment and instead were a wimp for the better part of the game and could, at best, pull off a few party tricks until you were a significant way through the game.

And don't get me started about how abysmal the checkpoint system was in that game.

I'm not saying I hated every aspect of it. But those glimmers of potential that would peek out every now and then just made the rest of the game that much more infuriating.

I did play a bit of the game after I finished it to see how the first level felt with a pretty pumped up Starkiller and it was a much more enjoyable game. But that's another part of the problem. They should have started with that level of power for Starkiller as a baseline and then ramped things up even higher.

I could also go into how you may as well have been whacking critters and stormtroopers with cricket bats for all the difference it made. And the Force deadening enemies were a real treat as well. Sure, they make a passable attempt at explaining why your enemies can all deflect/sustain lightsabre blades and I understand that you can't have dismembered bodies littering the ground if you want a T rating, but it just felt so... weak.

And last, but not least, I give you the Star Destroyer 'boss'. That should have been an epic sequence that would be talked about for the next few years as far as awesome gaming experiences go. Instead we get this broken, annoying POS 'fight' that doesn't even have proper mapping to the on-screen commands, which really made the first couple of attempts just utter nonsense.

I liked a lot of the other boss fights. Those were fine and I have no issue with QTEs when they're done well, which most of the ones in TFU were. The issue there is that there were really only about 2-3 different enemies that you had to use those QTE finishing moves on and they all played out the exact same way. Once you've killed your first AT-ST, you'll pretty much seen things play out the exact same way from there on out. Same with the Rancors. There are about 2-3 different ways it can die and you'll be pretty sick of seeing them by the end of the game.

And now that you've mentioned it, that first level of the Death Star was just plain broken. I did use the environment. I lured guys here, there and everywhere and cleared out the whole level. I then hopped down off of the catwalk to start prying up the floor and guess what? The Empire had somehow developed teleportation because an entire platoon just spawned on my head and proceeded to turn me into Swiss cheese. The next time I got into the game, I just cleared a path, ran for the floor, pried it up and jumped in. Screw that.

And I haven't even touched on the broken menu screens. In that EVERY... SINGLE... SUBMENU... MADE... YOU... WAIT... FOR... A... LOADING... SCREEN...

Both on your way into the submenu and on the way out. Gah.

So there you have it. Those are the reasons why TFU so utterly disappointed me. It could have been good. Hell, there were remnants of a good game buried in there. It was the fact that it could have been so much better than it was and I could see that potential right up there on the screen that made it such a prominent member of my Wall Of Shame: 2008 Edition.

Very enjoyable read Spigot.

It's interesting how we see the game differently.

I didn't mind the retreading of the levels to be honest. To me there was different enough. If the combat is fun then after all it's just a background to me. Most of these type of games seem to have some retread so I expect it a little a bit nowadays.

I liked the checkpoint system, didn't do me any real wrong. Saved at the right points etc. I liked the fact you didn't have all the powers at the start. For me thats the half the fun in these type of games. I liked the unlocking of the extra powers and looked forward to using the extra tools.

To me I wasn't expecting to be a major Empire army killer, especially at the start. Even powered up I still like the fact you have to be careful and can't go in blazing. I died quite a few times on the first Death star level. Still great fun though. For me if I can just fly through a level killing everyone in sight with no real problem the game wouldn't be fun.

Star Destroyer boss was very confusing. It was the least enjoyable boss for me.

The troopers with the extra powers / force deadening made sense to me cos in a mainly tech society you can imagine things like that been invented.

Yeah the menus did do a bit loading didn't distract me from the game though.

[Kelegacy]

Fuck you all! Alone in the Dark was not a terrible game. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The controls were cumbersome at times, but the game was a real treat. One of my most suprisingly fun titles of the year.

Reviews on this title were ridiculous. One of the reasons I learned in 2008 that professional reviewers are very often useless.

Anyway, the PS3 version just released is supposed to be the definitive edition, fixing most of the issues the 360 has, so if you can find it for cheap I'd recommend the PS3 version first, but even without the update/fix, the 360 version is still fun.

And I bought Fuel of War based on much good feedback. HTF is that on the list? Anyway, the real answer was Spore, and I didn't even play it. The internet is a chorus decrying Spore.

[Seifer Katt]

Spore. I waited 3 years for it and played it less then a week. My own fault really, I should have known the game wasn't 'for me'

[Spigot]

Very enjoyable read Spigot.

It's interesting how we see the game differently.NO! YOU ARE WRONG! YOU DID NOT ENJOY THE GAME!

You merely fell prey to Lucasart's digital Sith Mind Manipulation and THINK you liked the game.

I didn't mind the retreading of the levels to be honest. To me there was different enough. If the combat is fun then after all it's just a background to me. Most of these type of games seem to have some retread so I expect it a little a bit nowadays.
But seriously, sure, some of the stuff I loathed about the game are a matter of taste. That said, I thought that while in many parts the checkpoints were fine, there were at least 5-6 spots (2 in particular) where they were placed in such an awful spot that you had to basically fight your way past 2-3 areas worth of grunts, sit through some kind of in-game cutscene (not skippable, by the way) and then face off against some kind of stupid boss-type enemy or waves of annoying crap that would invariably kill me and send me all the way back to the start of that segment of the level, forcing me to go through it again... and again... and again... I would have been fine if it started me off in the section with the big bad thing that killed me or at least after the little in-game cutscene, but nope. Grr...

The other point was about the retreads of the levels. On a purely gameplay level, I didn't have a problem with going back through a reskinned planet/area with a slightly different path except for the fact that I was already sick and tired of Planet X from my first run through the overly long levels. The other is more of a philosophical/aesthetic reason, which is that you have a game that is set in a space opera setting where you have the entire friggin' galaxy open to you and a host of planets, both from the movies and the Expanded Universe and from the developers own imagination.

And they made you play through the 3-4 planets twice instead of making it into 6-8 unique settings. Yeah... Fun times.

I can understand there being constraints on development costs and what have you, but it really felt like padding for the sake of padding.

Oh, and I'll say it again. They promised I'd be a big bad Jedi badass. At every point that I started to feel that way, they found a gameplay device that hampered my power, be it force dampening enemies or dudes that couldn't be thrown or what have you. If I can crumple an AT-ST into a ball and pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky, I shouldn't be worried about a Jawa shooting me with a turret or getting ganked by a platoon of stormtroopers. I could handle a level, maybe two of finding my feet but then they should have basically let me cut loose, Dynasty Warriors-style, through the length and breadth of the Imperial Army.

[Mortis]

GTA4. From this list I went with Star Wars: TFU.

[Kelegacy]

I'd almost say Mirror's Edge for this list because, as much as I loved it when it was doing things right, the awful storytelling and horrific melee combat made me feel frustration and anger at levels rivaling my play sessions with The Force Unleashed. But I didn't pay for my copy (hooray for review copies!) and they got enough right (I loved the design and the parts when you weren't being mowed down by half of the bullets in the world) so I'll leave it off my list... but if Mirror's Edge 2 gets made, they'd better fix the melee combat so it works well and they need to either remove or really reduce the number of guns in the game.

I thought Mirror's Edge was a good time, ruined only by a couple frustrating parts involving combat and getting shot. But then again, I was going for the Test of Faith achievement, so it was obviously harder for me. But I did it!

Still, I thought it was an exceptional game. There aren't really any games like it around, which makes it even more worthwhile for the jaded.

As for GTA that other people are mentioning, I understand GTA is not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought it was a great title. I could whip it out tonight and still have fun in the world.

[Gorvi]

I voted Haze, if only because the devs of Timesplitters should have been able to make a game that's at least "good".

But I wasn't really looking forward to that. Everything I was looking forward to this year met my expectations, thankfully.

[Spigot]

Well, remember, we aren't talking about flat out bad games necessarily. We're talking about disappointments. Hence my novellas about TFU. Same with Mirror's Edge. I really liked it but the parts where I didn't were frustrating enough for me (I was also going for the Test Of Faith achievement... on Normal...) that I remember them more than I remember the awesomeness of the freerunning and jumping parts... and that disappoints me. I shouldn't have my loving memories tainted so!

GTAIV, in some people's minds (not mine) might be a disappointment. That's not saying it's bad, as I doubt people can seriously say that it is a bad/awful game... just disappointing from whatever standpoint they were coming into it and for what they were looking for from the game.

The disappointing games are almost worse because they were either promised as being much better than they were or they show the potential to be much better than they ended up being. Either way, tears and hankies all around.

Ok. I need to go to bed...

[Narradisall]

OK.

Who the hell are the people that thought Facebreaker was going to be anything so amazing that they were actually disappointed by it?

[Illuminus]

Needs Spore, so i am not going to vote just yet :P

[JayVe]

I voted Haze, if only because the devs of Timesplitters should have been able to make a game that's at least "good".

I voted Haze also. It underwent such a colossal marketing campaign with a neat premise and stylish art only to be worse than Meh when it finally hit.

Speaking of TimeSplitters, Looks like Free Radical just closed their doors.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/free-radical-design-latest-to-face-financial-trouble

Free Radical Design closes doors
Independent UK studio Free Radical Design closed its doors this morning, GamesIndustry.biz understands, with multiple sources claiming that staff, including senior executives, have already left the company.

It is also believed that the unnamed project for LucasArts - announced back in 2006 and thought to be Star Wars Battlefront III - has been shipped off to Rebellion, the developer behind PSP hit Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.

One source claims staff turned up to work today to find doors locked, and instructions to meet at a nearby hotel for a final company meeting.

Last month, when contacted by GamesIndustry.biz, director Steve Ellis denied there were any changes at the company.

"Nothing unusual is happening here. Projects end. New projects start. That's how things have worked for nearly 10 years," he said then.

TimeSplitters 4 and the unnamed project were both still in development said Ellis, as were "other unannounced projects, which are in the process of being signed."

And days later, when more industry chatter questioned the future of the Nottingham studio, Ellis said that "we certainly won't be laying off any staff today. Or, for that matter, any time in 2008."

"If something happens in 2009 I'm sure we'll be prepared to comment - but from where I'm sitting, whatever happens is far more likely to be positive than negative," he added.

Calls to senior staff at Free Radical Design by GamesIndustry.biz yesterday and today have not been returned.

Probably newsworthy

[Mike Kelehan]

I'm enjoying playing Too Human co-op (with ONE other person), but it's definitely the most disappointing, because I expected it to be a LOT better.

[civil]

I only played TFU on PSP, but I have to say I really enjoyed it. It kept me going for the month I didn't have access to my PS3 or 360. I'll get the 360 version as soon as I have a free spot on my Gamefly queue.

I know it gets a lot of love 'round these parts, but I'd say Dark Sector was my disappointment of the year. I thought it was going to be very different than it wound up being - very likely due to me confusing it with another game I think. I had hoped that it would be more of a GTA-type game based on something I thought I had read in GI. Obviously I was mistaken. When I actually played it I only got three levels or so in before sending it back.

[civil]

I feel violated. :(

[tacitus]

Write in vote for Spore!!!

[headhunter228]

I didn't come in to TFU with particularly high expectations. I enjoyed it simply because it put me in control of the Force like never before. I don't give two shits about the AI in this kind of game. It's simply "wreck a bunch of bad guys with ridiculous, God-like powers." I don't expect your generic Stormtrooper grunt to be very smart, nor do I expect completely destructable environments. I knew full well the game wasn't going to be like that, which is why I didn't find it to be disapointing.

Now, Haze most certainly IS disapointing. The game was completely generic. The ONLY thing that made it interesting was Nectar, and they took that away a good third into the game. I was pumped for this game, and I didn't even beat it. It takes a lot to make me not want to beat a game, and the last title to do that was Predator: Concrete Jungle. The game was a blast until I got to my first flay victim. Then, the game crashed and burned. I didn't even finish the first level. I got farther than that in Haze, but I still didn't beat it. A complete disapointment.

I feel violated. :(

And so do I.

[Uniqueusername]

I'll go with GTA4.

I got competely sick of it really quickly. I don't even really dislike the game... It's just a complete let-down.

[EternalGamer]

As for GTA that other people are mentioning, I understand GTA is not everyone's cup of tea, but I thought it was a great title. I could whip it out tonight and still have fun in the world.

Yeah, but the question was not, "Which game is the worst?" it is "Which is the biggest dissapointment?" Sure, I can have fun in GTA 4's world just running amok just like I could all the other GTA games. But the game certainly didn't push the bar forward for the series. In fact, it removed a lot of the freedom by making you hit certain checkpoints with enemies that would not die until you hit them and resetting the world once you entered a mission. You had a lot less freedom and less options on how to go about solving the missions and the missions themselves were of the exact same old "fetch this" and "kills this person" variety.

[Bone]

Frontlines was fun to play. The single player campaign was great. The mp played like a battlefield game. The only problem was at the time it came out the ranked servers weren't working so it was all player matches... which everyone knows blow compared to the awesomeness of ranked! I read in OXM that this game is still going strong on live.I also enjoyed Frontlines. Not disappointed in anything but the amount of people playing it when I bought it.

I avoided doing this in the other threads, but I think that most of these choices are flawed. Games like Frontlines, Legendary, and arguably Haze and Facebreaker were destined for mediocrity. Was anyone really hyped up for these titles?
Frontlines came from the guy who made Desert Combat, the most popular Battlefield 1942 mod whose whole team was hired to (supposedly) work on Bf2. When they became a tools development team, he left to make Frontline. Considering that the Desert Combat mod arguably sold more copies of 1942 than the game itself did, yes, I was hyped for it.

[agentgray]

SW:TFU

Just the acronym alone makes it horrible. I played it solely for the story. It's a shame, because it had all these possibilities for wonderfully epic moments.

However at 1.5 million sold, we'll probably see more crap--or DLC.

[Kelegacy]

Yeah, but the question was not, "Which game is the worst?" it is "Which is the biggest dissapointment?" Sure, I can have fun in GTA 4's world just running amok just like I could all the other GTA games. But the game certainly didn't push the bar forward for the series. In fact, it removed a lot of the freedom by making you hit certain checkpoints with enemies that would not die until you hit them and resetting the world once you entered a mission. You had a lot less freedom and less options on how to go about solving the missions and the missions themselves were of the exact same old "fetch this" and "kills this person" variety.

I understand it's not the goliath that San Andreas was, but I don't think it is a step back. It didn't disappoint me at all--as a longtime GTA fan--though the relationships and incessant phone calls were a pain. I consider that a trade off from the shallow RPG aspects like weightlifting and eating habits in Andreas.

[Talanvor]

In fact, it removed a lot of the freedom by making you hit certain checkpoints with enemies that would not die until you hit them and resetting the world once you entered a mission.

While I do agree with that, since I enjoyed shooting out the tires on a getaway car before walking into a fight knowing I'm going to have to chase that son of a bitch down later, this part was a little screwy to me. On the mission to kill Playboy, I somehow managed to do it in a weird way. Instead of doing it properly and getting the cutscene, I just rolled a nade to where he was hiding and he died from the blast. Funny thing was, he was "stuck" against the surface he was taking cover against, so I had to shoot him off of it. Once his body actually hit the ground, then the mission completed.

I think people wouldn't hate so much on GTA if you didn't get calls from all of your "friends" to constantly do things and then get a negative rating for turning them down. True you COULD accept and then call back to cancel, but that's.. well work, honestly.

If they had handled the social interactions better, I would have been happier with GTA IV. But really, I enjoyed the story a lot and the game was fun with very few exceptions, so I can't complain. I will say the most hilarious moment I've had in a video game of the past year was when one of the psychotic girlfriends called Niko and ranted that he was banging other women, but then later sending nearly nude pics of herself. Classy!

[Ravenlock]

I've said this before, but Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii was actually a really fun experience, as long as you turn the cheat codes on once the difficulty gets unreasonable. (Multiple Bull Rancors? Seriously? No thank you, and shame on you for thinking that would be fun.) The control scheme worked well, it looked really good [obligatory "for a Wii game" caveat], the physics were very satisfying, and the storyline is worth playing through the game for.

I kind of wish it had been a rental rather than a purchase, but hey, some days I get the urge to toss some Wookiees around, and now I can have that urge satisfied. It wasn't amazing, but it also wasn't the bug-ridden, shoddily designed mess that apparently the 360/PS3 games were. Also, as a bonus: no awful Star Destroyer sequence in the Wii version. ;)

[Telefrog]

None of the above. Spore.

[Arphahat]

I'm going to vote for the write-in candidate: Spore. What a piece of over-hyped garbage.

[Commissar Rob]

Also, as a bonus: no awful Star Destroyer sequence in the Wii version. ;) You know, I think I'd honestly blocked that out of my memory...oh, the horror...the horror...

[Loki]

GTA IV
Spore
Devil May Cry 4
Ninja Gaiden 2
Too Human

[Wraith]

Spore.

I didn't play any of the games nominated, nor was I following them much at all.

[Disgustipated]

Needs Spore and Mercenaries 2. Two of the biggest stinkers this year. Force Unleashed was actually good.

[NoName]

I'm not voting because none of those in the list come close to Spore.

So... Spore. The poll is rigged :/.

[slhunter]

I almost expected to see Too Human on this list... The thing about Too Human is that it was a solid game, given the fact that they had to change their engine mid-way through production. Yes, it was a great disappointment, but it was still probably in the top-20 games this whole year. With much more time to focus on their in-house engine, I certainly assume Too Human 2 will be a great game. If not, there will be no excuse for it like there was this time around.

[Brady]

Spore++

Far and away the obvious choice. I've heard a lot of votes for Too Human, but I personally never had high hopes for that game anyways.

[Morratut]

Agentgray you make me happy. I didn't realise SW:TFU had sold that many.

It's pretty certain then we will see a sequel :D

[Ink Asylum]

Spoooooooooooooooore!

[National Kato]

Fable 2 should be in this list.

[Arphahat]

Where did the choices in the poll come from? Was there a nomination thread that I just missed? There are much better choices for this category that have been mentioned by a number of people.