I'd have to say that mine are Halo 3, Gears of War, and GTA IV. *WARNING*If you don't want to read the whole thing there's a short summary in the end.
Before Halo 3 came out I never had a Xbox, so I got Halo 1 and 2. I wanted to see what would garner universal praise of such games. I've been a huge fan of Bungie when they made Pathways into Darkness, Myth, and Marathon, but these Halo games were betrayal. I tried to like them but they were filled with bad level design (going thru similar corridors, getting lost, and enemy placement) and a very simple "let's kill these alien bastards!" storyline. In my infinite grace to Bungie, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. But Halo 3 was more of the same. At least the multiplayer was decent, until COD4 took over.
Gears of War, along with Bioshock were the reasons why I got a 360 in the first place. Gears looked very promising with its gritty theme, graphics, and gameplay. Hell, everyone was talking about it. So when I had my chance, I got it. I do have to admit the campaign was decent, but it had the most stiff protagonist and the same "let's kill these alien bastards!" storyline, all over again. I wasn't too dismayed until I got online, since this is the big draw to the game according to my friends and the [bold]internet[/bold]. After giving it ten hours I couldn't stand it anymore. It had such horrying bullet lag, that only if EVERYONE had a solid connection, would the game work the way it should. This causes the two assault rifles in the game to be next to useless, dumbing games to shotgun fest (or pick-ups you can get.)
By GTA IV, I was becoming skeptical of the franchise. It seemed to be always one step behind its competitors in the gameplay and story department (Scarface, the Godfather, and the Getaway were much better here.) Because they all had better combat mechanics and a story that didn't have over-the-top characters that make me want to roll my eyes. Where GTA shined was the technical scope of the game; huge environments, great music, and the little details. It made me feel as if Rockstar cared less of the gameplay and more about the world being made. Anyway, I decided to give GTA IV a cautious try. I was once again dissapointed. While they did fix up the combat a bit, the missions were more repetitive than before, the graphics felt like a glorified Xbox game, less character customization, very limited co-op, and a typical gangster story. After dealing with that I went to try out the online for kicks, and it was just awful. It seemed like they put together the online in a month, just to appeal to the new online shooter crowd. It is terribly broken. To list its faults would take all day.
SUMMARY- Halo 3: Boring Campaign and decent multiplayer. Gears: Decent campaign, HORRIBLE multiplayer. GTA IV: Boring Singleplayer, DISGUSTING multiplayer.
Before Halo 3 came out I never had a Xbox, so I got Halo 1 and 2. I wanted to see what would garner universal praise of such games. I've been a huge fan of Bungie when they made Pathways into Darkness, Myth, and Marathon, but these Halo games were betrayal. I tried to like them but they were filled with bad level design (going thru similar corridors, getting lost, and enemy placement) and a very simple "let's kill these alien bastards!" storyline. In my infinite grace to Bungie, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. But Halo 3 was more of the same. At least the multiplayer was decent, until COD4 took over.
Gears of War, along with Bioshock were the reasons why I got a 360 in the first place. Gears looked very promising with its gritty theme, graphics, and gameplay. Hell, everyone was talking about it. So when I had my chance, I got it. I do have to admit the campaign was decent, but it had the most stiff protagonist and the same "let's kill these alien bastards!" storyline, all over again. I wasn't too dismayed until I got online, since this is the big draw to the game according to my friends and the [bold]internet[/bold]. After giving it ten hours I couldn't stand it anymore. It had such horrying bullet lag, that only if EVERYONE had a solid connection, would the game work the way it should. This causes the two assault rifles in the game to be next to useless, dumbing games to shotgun fest (or pick-ups you can get.)
By GTA IV, I was becoming skeptical of the franchise. It seemed to be always one step behind its competitors in the gameplay and story department (Scarface, the Godfather, and the Getaway were much better here.) Because they all had better combat mechanics and a story that didn't have over-the-top characters that make me want to roll my eyes. Where GTA shined was the technical scope of the game; huge environments, great music, and the little details. It made me feel as if Rockstar cared less of the gameplay and more about the world being made. Anyway, I decided to give GTA IV a cautious try. I was once again dissapointed. While they did fix up the combat a bit, the missions were more repetitive than before, the graphics felt like a glorified Xbox game, less character customization, very limited co-op, and a typical gangster story. After dealing with that I went to try out the online for kicks, and it was just awful. It seemed like they put together the online in a month, just to appeal to the new online shooter crowd. It is terribly broken. To list its faults would take all day.
SUMMARY- Halo 3: Boring Campaign and decent multiplayer. Gears: Decent campaign, HORRIBLE multiplayer. GTA IV: Boring Singleplayer, DISGUSTING multiplayer.
