Biggest Gaming Disappointments of the Year?
Friday, December 5th, 2003 - 3:51pm
So what was your biggest letdown this year?
For me it would have to be the delay of Doom 3 and HL 2.
Runner-up ToEE - Between the bugs and something I can't put my finger on, this game was a major letdown. After looking forward to it from the time it was announced, I was just hugely disgusted that I couldn't get into it.
"Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy." - Benjamin Franklin
I resumed the game after the official patch and I''m enjoying it quite a bit. The plot is pretty thin but the turn-based combat system is really quite fun and tactical so I''m enjoying it for what it is.
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
Biggest? HL2 and Doom3 delay (same as you). Now DX:IW and Horizons not being what I thought I would like. Bad year all around except for some bright spots for me NWN and KOTOR PC.
Xbox Live: Kooter06
Star Wars Galaxies.
Really thought it was gonna raise the bar, not necessarily be the next EQ, but come up with some new innovations for MMORPG''s. Instead SOE/LucasArts only managed to repeat the large majority of knuckleheaded decisions that are sure to FUBAR a game.
WTG guys, job well done!
This is the game that finally made me look in the mirror & realize that I am a marketing executive''s wet dream. I''ll buy anything if you make the list of features sound cool enough, no matter how impossible they might seem.
Now if you''ll excuse me, I need to go check how my PSInet stock is doing.
LiquidMantis wrote:
Just recently the Xbox version of Counterstike was rather disappointing. Though, RS3 being better than I hoped, more than made up for it.
BF2
BF2142
HL2 was probably the biggest, yeah.
SW Gal 2nd.
Oh wait, for me the BIGGEST let down this year was Brute Force, because I bought the lousey thing. Which is fine everyone gets burned from time to time, but so did half my Xbox club, and we all ended up hating it with a passion. The let down was at it''s fullest when we tried the game at a Link party and the frame rate was so bad you could hardly aim.
That''s one turd that flew in under my radar.
I''d say that I got my money''s worth out of ToEE, even if I did give up on it a few days ago, after it decided to start CTD''ing each time I did something. Try to sleep? Crash. Open a chest? Crash. Change the formation? Crash. Up until then, it was a very involving game (for tactical combat fans, at least). Pity about the bugs, though the patch takes care of a lot of them.
In general, I''m most disappointed with the PC game industry this year. Most of the major titles were either console ports, buggy, or retreads of the same old thing we''ve seen before. For the first time, I''m starting to lean towards buying a PS2 and/or an XBox instead of upgrading my PC for the next generation of games. Sigh.
Everything can be debated, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's debatable.
--Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City
My biggest letdown this year! Just like majority I would say HL2 and possibly Doom3! However even worse is the delay of Ninja Gaiden until Feb.04, and still no word about Duality or Quake4!
Runner ups are; Max Payne 2, SWG, Brute Force!
Xbox Live: Nei HD | Playstation ID: Nei_GWJ
Two choices:
Freelancer: no, it doesn''t suck. But it''s still a let down considering the resources and development time spent on the game. It looks nice, but it feels empty and dead. The initial excitement wore off very fast and turned into boredom.
Lionheart: BIS involved, an interesting story premise and featuring the SPECIAL system - there was NO way this title could not succeed. Or so I thought. Yesh.
Planetside, followed by Master of Orion 3, followed by the HL2 delay.
I started my own blog so when I feel the need to make an ass out of myself, I won't have as far to go.
No big dissapointments for me this year...other than the insane amount of delays..
Most of the games I bought I enjoyed one way or another..
If I nailed it down to one game it would probably have to be ToEE. I was really looking forward to this one
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
85's face the truth you're too dumb.
http://www.myspace.com/armyofthepharaohs
Nei: I recently read Trilobite is bankrupt, so you prolly won''t see Duality the next years either. Apparently after the buyout of their publisher the funding was stopped, so they could not keep up the development of the title.
My biggest disappointment this year was Half Life 2. I was settled already and had bought a new pc. And then they pull out a ""bwahaha we''ll delay until next year"".
A very close runner up is Savage. I really hoped this game would be my next MP game for years to come, but I never got into it. That does by no means mean it is a bad game, it just isn''t a game for me, that is why I am disappointed.
No hay banda!
I think HL2 was the only thing I really got excited about so that being delayed was really disappointing if not unexpected.
"Poor Eli Nooo... *child starts crying*"
"Come on now, there's no need to make that kind of noise. It sounds awful and you'll upset other people." - Ionae from Spirit Engine 2
Foe me probably ToEE, Savage, and Galaxies. Galaxies was the biggest letdown because I knew it would be not so good but got my hopes up anyway because it was Star Wars.
I just assume games don''t come out on time, so no big surprises or disappointments there.
Is it just me who thought UT 2003 was just a crappy FPS with some more pixels? Maybe just me.
For me, Shadowbane was by far the most disappointing.
WAR: Coda, Archmage, Vortex <Unguilded>
#6 DOOM 3 (No, not the delay, but the more you here about it, the more you can''t help but think that this''ll be a downer)
#5 The HL2 hack and delay
#4 Elite Force 2 (It got burried by Jedi Academy and killed by the Paramount/Activision squabble)
#3 Freelancer (Like Spu said, it was souless)
#2 WarCraft 3: The Frozen Throne (It just doesn''t have the same replayability factor as Brood War did)
And the biggest let-down of 2003? Master of Orion 3. Nuff said.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
Zelda: Wind Waker. I swear, if I never see a giant, cel-shaded ocean again, that takes 10 bloody minutes to get anywhere on, it will be too soon.
Pee break, still not there. Sandwiches, still not there. 18 holes of golf, still not there.
Mystic Violet wrote:
#3: Zelda the Wind Waker -- especially because there are so many small flashes of brilliance buried underneath the crushing weight of soulless fetch quests and endless oceanic voyages.
#2: Savage -- I was very, very excited about this one, and it turned out to be a very shallow game with poor netcode (rubberbanding in an mmorpg is barely tolerable, but in an FPS it''s a killjoy)
#1: Master of Orion 3 -- To this day, I still enjoy MOO2. It''s easily my favorite strategy game ever, closely followed by Heroes of Might and Magic 3. I had high hopes for MOO3, probably too high, but it''s pretty bad when the game is nowhere near as fun as its predecessor.
You know, I want to say HL2 like everyone else, but until this year, I didn''t even know it existed (though I''m very happy that it does). And, to be honest, I really think that we would have indeed gotten it this year if not for the breakin/insider job/whatever the hell you want to call the biggest gaming fiasco that I can remember. So, with that said, the leak of the HL2 source code is the biggest gaming disappointment of the year, IMHO.
Money can't buy you happiness...but it can buy you a boat big enough to sell right up next to it!-David Lee Roth
Heathens. You''re both soulless heathens.
Certis beat me to it. - Elysium
Just because I said I was disappointed doesn''t mean I disliked the game.
Note that I also mentioned the many flashes of brilliance. What killed the game for me was finishing the Temples, only to find that I had to spend hours searching for maps that I then had to spend hours earning rupees to translate so I could spend more hours searching for pieces of Triforce.
Thrusting the biggest fetch quest in console gaming history upon a player just as they think they''re about to go after Ganon is the perfect way to kill a game. I made it to that point months ago and haven''t yet been able to sum up enough patience to want to spend the hours required to collect all these Triforce pieces just so I can move to the next real step of the game.
That was also the part where I realized I was sick of the ocean, because of all the sailing I was going to have to do just to get past the step of picking up packages for the sages.
Believe me, the thought that I may never care enough to finish an actual Zelda game is depressing; I''ve played through and enjoyed all the previous ones, even the blue-haired stepchild that is the Adventure of Link (very underrated game).
I''m still dying to play this game. Although the chances of getting a GC are about nil...even with the price.
Xbox Live: hubbinsd
I''m waiting until they give GC''s away with a full tank of gas before I get one.
Why do I admire videogames so much?
There's nothing else on earth that entwines art and science so closely.
Galaxies for me too. I really thought it was gonna both raise the bar and be fresh (for me it was going to be my first sci-fi mmo.) Also, Horizons although it may pre-mature being as it''s not actually released yet.
In the immortal words of Public Enemy ""Don''t believe the hype. Boyyyy!"".
Wind Waker is pretty damn cool, but I have to agree with Farscry, the excessive sailing is a bit much. I was cruising through this game until I had to collect the time shards. I just got #3 and now have 5 in total. Seems absurd I need to collect 3 more. I''m forcing myself to play though this part.
At any rate, my biggest dissapointment for the year...
The Game Boy Player. Why did I buy this? I guess it''s ""cool"" to play gba titles on the tv, but much like retro gaming...it''s only cool in theory.
Lionheart for the reason stated by Spunior. That was a huge dissapointment.
ToEE because it was unplayable with CTD''s. The straw was the hard lock forced manual reboot in win xp. Unacceptable.
Freelancer because while I thoroughly enjoyed it, it had no staying power. Once I was done with the story I put it back on the shelf.
Ratboy you are speaking sacriledge about Frozen Throne. Lots of the mission are highly replayable. The NE mission that is essentially a tug of war game is a classic. The NE Warden blink maze was excellent too.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
You know, I forgot about Lionheart. That was also a big disappointment for me, too, since it had so damn much potential.
Biggest disappointment:
Republic: The Revolution, had lots of potential to be a great strategy /political sim but just ended up being basic and repetitive. The 3-d engine touted to be the ""action"" segement of the game was simply a vehicle for, for all practicle purposes, cutscenes.
My second is Postal2. But Im not disappointed in the game so much as myself for buying it. (oh, and actually finishing that kak).
A note left at the scene simply read: "Pwn3d" - Hubbinsd
I do have to add my vote Republic: The Revolution. I was really looking forward to that one. All the negative reviews made such a good case against it that at least I saved the $50.
BF2
BF2142
Biggest let down was SWG. Had a lot of great ideas in the beginning but it hard very poor development after the rushed release. Also, true to SOE fashion lack of customer support and nerfing just beat the dead dog. If SOE would just step back and actually listen to their customers, they might improve tenfold. More than likely this killed any future interests in SOE games, even EQ2 though I loved EQ for many years.
2nd largest let down was Shadowbane. Character development was revolutionary but game stability just sucked. If they''d worked more on fixing memory leaks and adding a bit of content this would have been a great game.