Fail of the year

[Nazulu]

Either Starcraft 2 or Metroid: Other M. I can't believe how terrible the story's are, they both fell below my already low expectations. Of course story isn't everything but the game play wasn't anything special in either of these titles, Starcraft 2 being exactly the same (prefer the original) and Other M wasn't comfortable, turning the Wii-mote on it's side seems like a big step back-wards compared to the Gamecube controller.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

Only buy good games. Therefore, never disappointed! Works for me.

Or maybe you buy bad games and convince yourself that theyre good, even though perhaps you loathe them deep down, pushing yourself to enjoy games you despise. -_-

That's a bit insulting...I didn't play games that were supremely popular to follow the crowd forcing myself to like them, cause if I did I would hate them and put them here as fails of the year.

I hated how GTA 4 played on all levels, so never will play RDR. I hated AC, so will never play AC: Brotherhood. I didn't like Mass Effect 1 (awful combat; awful side planets; clunky menus), thought a huge downgrade from KOTOR. Hearing ME 2 has even less RPG and after playing the unexciting demo, I will never play or finish a Mass Effect game unless if they're better than KOTOR. And finally, I hate all CoD games' design flaws, so I never bothered with Black Ops.

The only time I got buyer's remorse was Halo 2. Should never have paid full price.

I was really just projecting. This years game buys havent been too good. FFXIII and FFXIV were majorly disappointing, and Black Ops got old fast. Birth By Sleep felt watered down, and my PSP broke soon after getting it. Starcraft 2 has pretty fun custom maps, but im terrible at actual matches.

I bought Mass Effect recently as well. It was good. but felt rather empty, like nothing had substance. Kinda felt like it was meerly going through the motions of being a game.

My best purchases this year would be the retrospective ones, like MGS4 and Valkyria Chronicles. Maybe theres something to that.

 

[Iwata]

I would say the "honour" belongs to both Final Fantasy XIII and XIV, both of which were horribly received by fans, and at least in XIV's case, deservedly so.

 

[Sixcess]

The Force Unleashed II

I enjoyed the story of the first game, but the second... what story? Starkiller just bounces from one overlong set piece to another while doing his worst Kratos 'I'm angry and vengeance driven' impression, and Juno's presence, or lack thereof, is ridiculous. Was her voice actor too busy to come back so they just asked her to phone in a couple of lines during her lunch break?

Then there's the fact that the original reveal trailers showed what turns out to be almost all there is to see of Yoda and Fett, and the game itself is shamefully short. It all just shows such contempt for those who really liked the first game, and I feel sorry for anyone who watched those trailers and got really psyched about the second. What a disapointment.

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

For games I bought this year that came out previously, or games I bought that came out this year? Guess I'll do both.

Bought this year but came out previously:

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
Deus Ex: Invisible War
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Deluxe Edition
Left 4 Dead 2

Came out this year:
Call of Duty: Black Ops

That's all for me. I'm gonna eat my ramen naow.

I can understand Black Ops (I didn't really like it either) but really? You didn't like Oblivion or Deus Ex or Left 4 Dead 2?

Why? What about them was disappointing?

 

[Elburzito]

Playing APB was by far the worst experience I had with gaming. I hated every moment of it. I just hated the gameplay to death.

 

[Elburzito]

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition
Deus Ex: Invisible War
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Game of the Year Deluxe Edition
Left 4 Dead 2

I can understand you disliking Invisible war (it was a hopelessly dumbed down sequel) but what was the problem with Deus Ex 1 or Oblivion?

 

[SwimmingRock]

Since I can only base this on games I've actually played, I'm going with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I'm a completionist, but this is one of the two games in my entire life I returned to the store without bothering to finish it (the other being Viking, which came out last year, I believe).

I've loved the Castlevania games since the NES days (not all of them, obviously), but this was a God of War clone and I hate God of War. I struggled to finish the first and swore I would never play another. I was just horribly disappointed by the lack of Castlevania-ness and the combat. You could just tape down the x button, go read the dictionary and somewhere around Q the enemies would final-fucking-ly die.

 

[Ir0n Squid]

Final Fantasy XIII.

I don't even know where to begin. Suffice to say, I'm glad I didn't pay any money for it.

It was the first Final Fantasy I ever played and its quality ensured that it would also be the last.

Aw don't say that. Don't believe that FFXIII represents the whole of the FF game library. Trust me, all the other games are WAY better than this bastard child.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Sure looks like that distinction goes to P2P MMOs. APB and FF14 for example.

Then again F2P MMOs came into their own this year too. LoTRO, PotBS, Vindictus etc. fantastic.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Star Trek Online for me. I know there were worse games this year, and worse MMOs (FF IVX to name just one), but STO was my personal disappointment of the year.

I don't play MMOs and particularly subscription MMOs, but I love me some Star Trek, and the idea of owning your own ship and doing away missions as you explore the galaxy and teach alien women the ancient Earth custom of cunnilingus (why do you think Kirk went on all those away missions?) really sold me (plus I'd bought a new Gaming level PC a month before release.

It was a let down. I wasn't drawn in to the world, and I didn't know anyone else to play with (MMOs are better when you have some chums). As well as that the space combat was shallow (I had expected more in depth control like in Bridge Commander), the planets were small, you couldn't walk around your ship, or even see the bridge, and it just didn't feel like Star Trek. There was no sense of exploration or wonder. I didn't go past the free trial, but I still wasted £30 on the game up front.

 

[rokkolpo]

Halo: Reach

Probably the greatest multi player game IMO, with hundreds of hours of gameplay, a ton of content and a huge community.
The big let down was the narrative.

Seriously how bad was the narrative?
You've cracked it up as the best game ever and it's the fail of the year because of the narrative. Really?

 

[ZombieGenesis]

Final Fantasy XIV isn't MY game fail of the year- it is the GAME INDUSTY fail of the year.
How bad does a fail have to be that the company actually fires the development team, makes a public apology and then makes it free? Seriously, if they added that all the CEOS committed suicide onto that I wouldn't find it out of place.

 

[HellsingerAngel]

Final Fantasy XIV. Easily.

When a company goes on record saying that the game is now free to play until they figure out what to do with it, you know the game has failed miserably.

Honourable mention goes to APB for tanking a small developer, but still comes no where near the type of reaction FFXIV got.

 

[Teh_Lemon]

APB, and I never even got a chance to play it ;_;

EDIT:
HoN was rather dissapointing after it went out of Beta, however... but I guess that's been out for a while :x

EDIT 2:
No wait, I take it all back!! Just Cause 2 SUCKED, and I played that ***** to completion. SUCKED SUCKED SUCKED SUUUUCKED, minus the "i'm just going to do whatever the hell I want" moments.

 

[ChocoFace]

every 'free' MMO.
Item shops suck.

 

[C95J]

For me, it is probably:

Xbox 360: Halo: Reach because although I liked it, I didn't as much as other games and never really played it and as far as I am concerned a waste of money. Loved Halo 3 but I think I just didn't like the series as much as I used to.

PS3: I have 2 for this one, Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2. Heavy Rain because I heard SO much good stuff about it, but for me it was the most boring game I have ever played in all honesty. And Uncharted for pretty much the same reasons, I just didn't really like the gameplay.

PC: I am afraid it has got to be Amnesia: The Dark Descent. NOW DON'T JUMP AHEAD OF ME! I liked the gameplay I watched and thought it was a thrilling game, but there is a bug associated with my graphics card which pretty much flips the screen upside down excluding torchlight and window light. It means I have not been able to play it and am disappointed that they have not patched it.

 

[meatshield]

Fable 3, easy, short,glichy, really not awhole lot of replay value either, you can go on a villager killing spree oh say 200 kills donate a few mill gold and get you white wings back.
I dropped $90 on limited Ed, 10 dollars on DLC quest expansion(gave the game 20 mins more play)big whoop! NPC in the game are well ulgy.

 

[Korten12]

FF14, I thought it was going to be good.