My top five:
1. Deus Ex: Invisible War- Why? Just why?
2. Halo- Around the year 1999 I was awaiting Bungie's next big game to come out. I was also expecting it to be launched on the MAC OS. When I saw it's first footage premiere in the 1999 MacWorld, I was blown away. It had the most beautiful sky and terrain texture mapping, it had the best vehicle physics on a FPS and the animations were amazing. Years passed, all the things the footage impressed me with and it promised to innovate were done by other games and done better. Then Microsoft got their grimy hands on the game and made it an exclusive title for their console. By the time it was released, by forty minutes I was bored repeating the same level over and over, and threw down the bulky controller. I was shocked and irked to see it develop a cult following from people who were formerly non FPS players or gamers. The only thing it ended up innovating was mediocrity and zealous fanboy insanity.
3. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men- I made no reservations that a game released by the creators of the Hitman series and Freedom Fighters would be anything less than stellar. The ads on every serious gaming review site, contests orchestrated both by marketing and journalist sites, and videos from fans who haven't even played the game sure made it look like a winner. I made no reservations that I would have to deal with the frustration of a flawed and buggy targeting system, a buggy cover system, pants on head retarded AI, poor use of bump-mapping that made everyone look like clay, and totally unlikable characters.
4. Condemned: Criminal Origins- It was touted as something that could rival the Half-Life and Halo series when it came to first person gaming. It was expected to be the big release title of the Xbox 360. It was supposed to have the most stellar graphics to date. I expected a suspenseful story with slow procedural forensics gameplay where I slowly tracked down serial killers. Instead I faced a game with weird combat, characters that looked like mannequins, and gameplay that consisted entirely of homeless zombies charging at my 2x4 while someone did all my work of being a detective.
5. Doom 3 - Despite its graphical innovation, it never lived up to its lineage. We got a shallow story forced down our throats, monsters popping up from uninspired monster closets every 3 seconds, and the raping of the BFG 9000 and Cyberdemon. Seriously the BioForce Gun? Fuck that, I want my BIG FUCKING GUN! Microsoft could've had its hand and attempted to do what it did with Halo. Then we would get the more appropriate name "Microsoft Flashlight Simulator."
Honorable Mention: Duke Nukem Forever
1. Deus Ex: Invisible War- Why? Just why?
2. Halo- Around the year 1999 I was awaiting Bungie's next big game to come out. I was also expecting it to be launched on the MAC OS. When I saw it's first footage premiere in the 1999 MacWorld, I was blown away. It had the most beautiful sky and terrain texture mapping, it had the best vehicle physics on a FPS and the animations were amazing. Years passed, all the things the footage impressed me with and it promised to innovate were done by other games and done better. Then Microsoft got their grimy hands on the game and made it an exclusive title for their console. By the time it was released, by forty minutes I was bored repeating the same level over and over, and threw down the bulky controller. I was shocked and irked to see it develop a cult following from people who were formerly non FPS players or gamers. The only thing it ended up innovating was mediocrity and zealous fanboy insanity.
3. Kane and Lynch: Dead Men- I made no reservations that a game released by the creators of the Hitman series and Freedom Fighters would be anything less than stellar. The ads on every serious gaming review site, contests orchestrated both by marketing and journalist sites, and videos from fans who haven't even played the game sure made it look like a winner. I made no reservations that I would have to deal with the frustration of a flawed and buggy targeting system, a buggy cover system, pants on head retarded AI, poor use of bump-mapping that made everyone look like clay, and totally unlikable characters.
4. Condemned: Criminal Origins- It was touted as something that could rival the Half-Life and Halo series when it came to first person gaming. It was expected to be the big release title of the Xbox 360. It was supposed to have the most stellar graphics to date. I expected a suspenseful story with slow procedural forensics gameplay where I slowly tracked down serial killers. Instead I faced a game with weird combat, characters that looked like mannequins, and gameplay that consisted entirely of homeless zombies charging at my 2x4 while someone did all my work of being a detective.
5. Doom 3 - Despite its graphical innovation, it never lived up to its lineage. We got a shallow story forced down our throats, monsters popping up from uninspired monster closets every 3 seconds, and the raping of the BFG 9000 and Cyberdemon. Seriously the BioForce Gun? Fuck that, I want my BIG FUCKING GUN! Microsoft could've had its hand and attempted to do what it did with Halo. Then we would get the more appropriate name "Microsoft Flashlight Simulator."
Honorable Mention: Duke Nukem Forever
