Underwhelming gaming experiences

[Zhukov]

Ahh yes, the good ol' *****-about-a-game thread. Always a classic.

For me, it would be Halo 2. I enjoyed Halo:CE, so I was looking forward to the sequel. I'd heard a lot of good things about it. Upon playing it I was left with nothing but a sense of, "Huh. That's it?" To be fair, it did have a couple of memorable moments, namely boarding the first scarab and abandoning Cortana. But the rest was a great big blur of... not much.

Also, you know that one game you really love? Your bestest most favourite game ever?

I hate that game. It's a turd on a stick.

 

[the spud]

So far I am greatly underwhelmed by Morrowind (I bought it in the steam sale; I heard it gets better later, but that doesn't help much when your player character walks about as fast as molasses going uphill...in winter...on crunches...I will continue to play it though).

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Fallout: New Vegas.

Enjoyed the game until I got to New Vegas. After that, everything just felt cut and paste.

Also, Oblivion. Buggy as hell, voice acting was meh, and the combat was just swish, swish, stabby-stabby with some sparkling magic abilities thrown in for good measure.

 

[The_Deleted]

Everything Rockstar have released this gen. Everything.

 

[scorptatious]

Ahh yes, the good ol' *****-about-a-game thread. Always a classic.

For me, it would be Halo 2. I enjoyed Halo:CE, so I was looking forward to the sequel. I'd heard a lot of good things about it. Upon playing it I was left with nothing but a sense of, "Huh. That's it?" To be fair, it did have a couple of memorable moments, namely boarding the first scarab and abandoning Cortana. But the rest was a great big blur of... not much.

Also, you know that one game you really love? Your bestest most favourite game ever?

I hate that game. It's a turd on a stick.

You hate Shadow of the Colossus? For shame....

OT: Probably Mirror's Edge. I really liked the idea of running and jumping across buildings in a bright colorful world. Unfortunately, for me at least, the execution was very much flawed. I died repeatedly in that game due to not being able to figure out where to go and how, the characters were uninteresting, and the story was barely existent. After I beaten the game, I immediately sent it back to GameStop.

If you actually liked the game that's fine. But for me, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

 

[Ratlover]

It would have to be Kingdom hearts as a whole. It was talked about so much and I love RPGs, so I figured I would give it a try. It made me gag and here's a short list as to why.

1. It had bad combat that was an embarrassment to brawlers (press X to win)

2. It had very small worlds to explore

3. It had god awful dialogue for the most part

4. It seemed to only sell well to me because people love crap that is blended together

 

[chuppy]

My God... What is happening to this world?

Silent Hill 2, Bioshock, Portal, Morrowind, Fallout New Vegas, Shadow of the Colossus, STALKER, those are some of the greatest games of the last years. Even Oblivion is good, but I can see how it can be considered underwhelming.

There's a reason why Yahtzee loves SH 2, it's a game unlike any other. Problem is, it's not the gameplay that makes it special. It's the characters, the story and the way it plays out. I dare to say it's as close to a piece of art as any game has ever come (Planescape: Torment comes close too).

Every game can be ruined by it's hype, so try not to expect too much when you're playing. It's rarely as good as you've been told.

My underwhelming experience would be Halo. It's a decent game, but, as a PC gamer, I found it to be nothing special. There isn't any aspect of Halo that hadn't been done better in a different FPS before it.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

Borderlands , Brink, Fable 2, The Witcher,.....I'm sure there is more, but I am typing this out on my phone, in bed , in the dark.lol Goodnight escapists!

 

[ColeusRattus]

The OP suffers from some severe "late to the party" sysndrome. Just like the many people in here that "don't get why Half life is so great". Because those old games were great and genre defining back when they were new. Many things they had innovated have become standard for games since then, thus they don't stand out anymore.

But to get on topic:

My most recent dissapointments were:

Hunted: The Demons Forge. Now I knew that it wasn't exactly a great game, but I was in the mood for a mindless dungeon crawl, and usually I can bear with mediocre games.
BUT there wasn't a single redeeming quality about that game, from the graphics to the gameplay mechanics to the overall design and awkward animations.

And to add insult to injury, it wasn't on the disc in english. Not only did it start up in french without an option in game to change the language (as I have set my PS3 to english despite me being austrian and thus a native speaker of german) so I had to set my PS3 to german everytime I wanted to play it, the dubbing was atrociously bad and cringeworthy.


The next was Brink for PS3: The same language problems as Hunted (both are published by bethesda, btw), horrible performance and noone playing online.

HAving it rebought in english for PC, it's actually quite a fun game though. Just stay away from the PS3 version.


Other games I've been dissapointed in:

Fallout 3 (for not being like F1+2, and very bland story and gameplaywise)
Obllivion (for leaving out many things that made Morrowind great and adding level scaling)
R6: Lockdown and Vegas (why take the name of my most beloved franchise and apply it to shit. Even more saddening that said shit sells quite a lot better than the originals)
Bioshock (while the setting is good, the gameplay mechanics are quite mediocre. Has more to do with me being hyped about it pre release though than with Bioshock being a bad game)

 

[Kezley]

The last game I really felt disappointed with was Alice: Madness Returns. While the game does have some great moments of surreal horror it is undermined by the painfully repetitive and bland gameplay and quite a few technical flaws. I had such high hopes for it too.

 

[MetalMantheRevenge]

Modern Warfare 2. I should have just thrown my money of a bridge, I would have gotten more entertainment from that.

Brink. People didn't say it was great, the splash damage team did, saying how single and mutliplayer was coming together with so much customization. Sounds good on paper, but game was shit. Mainly because of the pants-on-head retarded AI.

 

[Manji187]

I wasn't that impressed with Mass Effect 2. It's definitely not a bad game, but it's overrated as hell. Mediocre story, uninteresting characters. Fun combat though.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Gosh...everything on the iPhone except Game Dev Story and Galaxy on Fire 2.

I thought I was in for a bunch of awesome games when I got mine, but I'm realizing more and more that I do not want to be lumped in with smartphone gamers. Jim Sterling commented on why anyone would pick to pay 30+ bucks for handheld games when they have them at 1-5 dollars...

Well...1-5 dollars gets you 1-5 dollars' worth of fun. I play those games once and then never touch them again. I don't wanna live in a world dominated by Korean grindfests, 30-second-session arcade things, miniature side-scrolling platformers, and for the love of god RETRO BULLSHIT.

I'm intelligent, perceptive and of a long-lived memory. I have zero troubles remembering where I left off in a long game, I have no problems at all learning more sophisticated gameplay systems, I have no problems whatsoever with my attention span, so if you make an epic worth playing, I WILL see it through...And I'll buy a Playstation Vita next year and do nothing with it except play some fucking video games.

I hope the 3DS doesn't die. I don't want dedicated gaming devices to die. Or at least, bigger devs need to get in on the action a little more and create some real games for smart-devices before dedicated handhelds die. I would totally pay for a console-esque experience on the go. I'm so sick of these time-wasters.

And can we PLEASE have buttons back? Fuck virtual buttons and virtual analog sticks.

 

[glodud]

I wasn't that impressed with Mass Effect 2. It's definitely not a bad game, but it's overrated as hell. Mediocre story, uninteresting characters. Fun combat though.

Wait what? The characters, story and dialogue are the strong points of mass effect 2. the combat was a repetitive, linear slur of chest high walls.

 

[airrazor7]

Assassin's Creed series. The controls are a pain.

Velvet assassin. If it stuck to its sneak-around-and-stab-with-a-mild-side-of-shooting routine I may not have hated it. As much. I also didn't care for how enemies always know exactly where you are if they spawned in an area even when you are hiding.

 

[Manji187]

I wasn't that impressed with Mass Effect 2. It's definitely not a bad game, but it's overrated as hell. Mediocre story, uninteresting characters. Fun combat though.

Wait what? The characters, story and dialogue are the strong points of mass effect 2. the combat was a repetitive, linear slur of chest high walls.

I can't judge ME2's story, characters and dialogue on its own merits....as if in a void. I compared it to the movies I've seen, the books I've read and other games I've played...and found it lackluster. Mediocre at best.

You are right about the combat being linear (+ full of chest-high walls)....but I still managed to have some fun with the M-96 Mattock, the M-29 Incisor, the M-5 Phalanx and the Geth Plasma Shotgun combined with a Soldier FemShep on Adrenaline Rush and sporting AP ammo. Team-mates? What team-mates?

 

[AnarchistFish]

I'm gonna go with Gears of War

I liked Gears of War 2 though