Your Single Biggest Disappointment Gaming Wise.

[ForumSafari]

from overpowered base defenses, to landscape deformation allowing artillery to troll by making the entire map unbuilable, to instant capture/sell engineer strats...blah.

Most of those are mitigated with a good playstyle.

Frankly if you're routinely getting pwnt by engineer rush then you're building your base wrong. Concrete floor and walls are there for a reason and engineers are absurdly slow.

Base defenses are powerful but I'm not seeing how they're overpowered, in fact most of them seem underpowered. RPG launchers can be destroyed by a single infantryman since they have a blind spot up close and Obelisks can be mobbed very easily by any infantryman and 2 medics or beaten by aircraft.

Landscape deformation also shouldn't be an issue since each map includes base areas which aren't deformable along with areas around each Tiberium patch.

The meta point of all 3 is that everything in an RTS is a value proposition, you don't judge anything based on what it can do, you judge it on whether it makes back its' money or wins you the game. If someone's engineer rushing a $2000 warfactory or $3000 construction yard with like $3000 to $5000 of engineers each which can be stymied with $1000 of infantry (or like $750 of Devils Tongue) then that's not a great value proposition, particularly since your investment can be used to attack, defend and produce more forces whereas their investment is a one shot attack. The Obelisk might roflstomp tanks, as might the RPG launcher, but for their total costs ($1500 for the Obelisk or something like $1350 for the RPG Launcher and Component Tower all in iirc) they were individually vulnerable to multiple vectors of attack up to and including being duffed up by like $1200 of infantry for the Obelisk or $300 for the RPG Launcher. Bombarding the battlefield with artillery is cute but whilst you're doing that the opponent is either prepping to go straight at your base with their titan/wolverine spam or digging in and teching up for the APC/Commando/Cluster Missile special.

 

[Lunar Templar]

while I wanna say Dark Souls 2 ... cause it was rather disappointing ... it didn't effectively kill its franchise, only to have said franchise reborn!! ... as a mobile game ...

I speak, of course of Breath of Fire 5; Dragon Quarter.

the story was lame, the dragon system, ya know, one of the best part of BoF 1-4 actually kills you if you use it to much, your effectively in a big ass cave or building the whole damn time so the environments are dull as fuck to look at, combat was a neat idea but but not well executed, the dragon system can kill you even if you don't use it (albeit at a MUCh slower rate) so your basically on a timer to beat the game, the last boss forces you to over use the dragon system to the point where it would normally kill you to beat then game, cause, ya know, by then you wouldn't be 'trained' to almost never use the bloody thing.

 

[Danny Dowling]

Destiny got a BAFTA? What the hell were they smoking?

No mate, they didn't just get a BAFTA, they got game of the year

 

[flying_whimsy]

I don't know if it counts, but the cancellation of Megaman Legends 3 was also a huge disappointment for me.

I'm still a bit heartbroken about that one, to be honest.

The two biggest disappointments for me are Dreamfall and Kingdom Hearts III.

Dreamfall had some flawed mechanics and the story simply wasn't as engaging as its predecessor The Longest Journey. Also, going full 3D for the graphics I felt got in the way more than added to the game; I'd rather they had kept the point and click adventure style. It was the last game I was truly hyped for. Now I just wait and see to get any games (plus waiting for the all-dlc GOTY editions saves money).

Kingdom Hearts III isn't out yet, but as I've said in other threads for me the ship sailed about ten years ago when they chose to milk the series on handheld exclusive titles rather than just end the damn trilogy. It took two console generations before they finally managed to push out another one, and in that time I simply stopped caring. Plus, keeping the final mix versions out of US hands for ten years didn't help win any good will from me. I don't think it's a coincidence that Square started on its downward spiral around that time.

My greatest disappointment is that KHIII is not something I talk about fondly while thinking about it on my shelf of ps2 games. What would have been an amazing formative experience in my younger days has become a perfect example of corporate mismanagement.

 

[st0pnsw0p]

BioShock Infinite.

What I was expecting and hoping for was more choice in terms of the narrative and gameplay, so essentially an even better version of BioShock 2, which was my favorite of all three games. I knew it would be more actiony when compared to the first two, and I was okay with that. I knew the ham-fisted political bullshit would annoy me, and I was okay with that. I put up with Hollywood, so I could put up with BSI.

But what I was NOT expecting was Call of Duty with magic, and that's what Infinite was. Was it functional? Yes. Was it a passable shooter (just like CoD)? Yes. But should it be any way related to the greatness of the first two wonderfully morally gray RPG/shooter hybrids? Hell no.

Beat the game a few days ago and it takes the title for Biggest Disappointment from me too, easily beating out the former champion, Skyward Sword. There's just so much wasted potential in that game, so many changes that add nothing to the gameplay and even detract from it in some cases, and a story that was stretched thin, with so many elements crammed in that it doesn't make good use of even half of them.

 

[Adam Lester]

Soul Reaver was my first and most memorable let-down, still a great game but it was released as a tenth of what it was originally supposed to be. I remember gaming magazines doing huge articles on it, talking about how the game was supposed to be this giant magnum opus and you got a jarring cliffhanger of an ending with no talk of a sequel (at least at that immediate time). I always felt a re-release of the game as it was meant to be would be appreciated.

 

[DanielBrown]

Spent so many years being hyped as fuck for Diablo III. Diablo II LOD was huge part of my childhood/early teens so just the nostalgia factor was huge. The game they presented(back in 2008?) looked so good, so perfect, so everything!
When the fucking thing was finally released we got a shitty game with a shitty story and a shitty skill system... The expansion fixed a lot of the issues, but the game is still lacking.

Then we got Final Fantasy XIII. Discovered Final Fantasy when I was ~10 and holy fuck did I play a lot. My love for the series started to fade after FFX. X-2 was horrible and I never liked XII(gave it another try a few years ago, but I still thought it was bad). Had huge hopes for XIII, but alas it was a steaming pile of horse shit. Not holding my breath for FFXV.

Worth mentioning Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel as well.
First game was among my favorite games ever. Then the second one came along and improved on everything. I was sceptical over BTPS since it had another developer but I figured that more of the same couldn't be bad.
How wrong I was...

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Metal Gear Solid... but not in the way you'd expect. As a kid, I rented it because I'd heard it was awesome. However, the CD within the rental case was actually the Metal Gear Solid VR Missions 'expansion disc', a collection of over 100 'bonus' scenarios in the VR training setup with no story (though apparently if you beat them you get a short story mode where you play as the Cyborg Ninja killing guys I never got that far).

This being my first Metal Gear and me having little access to the internet, I had no idea that I was merely playing expansion missions, not the actual game. Then after viewing one of the game's other extras, a lengthy trailer for the game with the Japanese voice acting, I somehow got the idea into my head that I had to beat all of the VR missions to get to the real game because the real game was THAT insanely difficult that you needed intense training (see the above Cyborg Ninja segment- I was partway right). Needless to say, I didn't make it.

For more conventional forms of disappointment, probably Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Yay! One of my all-time favourite games is FINALLY getting a sequel on the GBA! Nope... not really. Didn't completely hate it like some seem to, but it was a completely different kind of game and setting, though I liked how motivation and method-wise the protagonist was basically ExDeath except good. They should try that with some of their other villains too.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

Neverwinter Nights.

Now, let me just say, it's not a bad game. It's actually pretty good, and could be a lot of fun if I ever pick it back up someday. But I busted my ass to upgrade my PC just to run it, and when all was said and done, I didn't have quite enough for a cool dude awesome graphics card. (About the same cost as financing a third-world military coup in those days, if I remember correctly.)

So... the game ran on all the lowest settings. Okay, I'm not a graphics snob or anything. Time to play the game! The campaign that came with it felt very tacked-on, though. After enjoying Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, it just didn't feel as robust as games I'd already played on my previously-crappy computer.

It was underwhelming. Might give it a shot to try some of the mods some day though.

 

[babinro]

Dragon Age Inquisition

Hands down. I loved the first two games having played through the original at least 8 times and going through the second one about 5 times. Such great characters and a classic story. Combat in DA2 was incredible and I loved the smaller focus of a story especially in act 1 and 2.

Inquisition just changed up the formula WAY too much and killed the game for me. I've not even made it out of the Hinterlands and I can't be bothered to proceed with the main quest. I get that this game is a HUGE success. I understand that future DA games will follow in it's footsteps. But this was not the Dragon Age I wanted.

Combat is far less satisfying and fun. The PC controls were atrocious save for a controller which prevented me from wanting to micromanage combat. The sidequests felt lifeless and random. The story failed to hook me...characters failed to hook me (including those I loved from past games)...everything about the experience screamed quantity over quality and open world instead of narrative driven.

I'm clearly in the minority here though. This game was VERY highly received game from fans and critics alike. I feel like what many Diablo fans probably felt like when they played Diablo 3....'why isn't this game like D2? Where's my runewords? Necromancer?' etc. Plenty of people wanted D3 to be Diablo 2.5. I get that now...I want Inquisition to be Dragon Age 2.5.

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Dragon Age Inquisition

Hands down. I loved the first two games having played through the original at least 8 times and going through the second one about 5 times. Such great characters and a classic story. Combat in DA2 was incredible and I loved the smaller focus of a story especially in act 1 and 2.

Inquisition just changed up the formula WAY too much and killed the game for me. I've not even made it out of the Hinterlands and I can't be bothered to proceed with the main quest. I get that this game is a HUGE success. I understand that future DA games will follow in it's footsteps. But this was not the Dragon Age I wanted.

Combat is far less satisfying and fun. The PC controls were atrocious save for a controller which prevented me from wanting to micromanage combat. The sidequests felt lifeless and random. The story failed to hook me...characters failed to hook me (including those I loved from past games)...everything about the experience screamed quantity over quality and open world instead of narrative driven.

I'm clearly in the minority here though. This game was VERY highly received game from fans and critics alike. I feel like what many Diablo fans probably felt like when they played Diablo 3....'why isn't this game like D2? Where's my runewords? Necromancer?' etc. Plenty of people wanted D3 to be Diablo 2.5. I get that now...I want Inquisition to be Dragon Age 2.5.

I definitely agree with a lot of what you're saying, and DA:I definitely wasn't what I was expecting (I was expecting more of a return to the story and character driven gameplay and tactical combat of DA:O), BUT, I'd still recommend at least getting out of the Hinterlands. It takes a little while, but eventually the game does start to have more and more in common with old-school Dragon Age. The plot quickly gets more interesting, you get back to the ability to interact heavily with your party characters, and once you get the hang of the war table, crafting, and requisitions, it starts to become more fun.

Like I said, it's still not what I was hoping it would be, but I'd still try sinking a little more time into it and see if it sticks.

 

[L. Declis]

That's an easy one. My single biggest disappointment in gaming is...

Dark Millennium.

Yes, it's a game that never saw the light of day. This might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but there's really no alternative for me in this regard. I'm quite likely the person on the planet with the absolute least amount of fucks to give when it comes to multiplayer games, and Dark Millennium was actually set to make me change that eternal status quo.

A full-fledged MMO set in the W40k universe? All core factions involved as either PCs or NPCs at launch? Massive areas allowing for extensive exploration? Big dungeons and massive map-wide events? ... and squad-based real-time TPS combat to top it all off?

ALL OF MY YES.

I absolutely adore this particular dystopian science-fantasy cosmos, and to sweeten the deal further the game was in development at Vigil Games, those talented lads and lasses who made the two brilliant Darksiders games before going down the plughole along with THQ. Dark Millennium was already years into development, with quite a bit of promising in-game footage out and about, and because THQ couldn't get their shit together I and thousands of other W40k fans got to taste the bitter, rancid taste of absolute disappointment instead of the exciting online romp we'd been promised.

So there you have it. Another nerd whining over what could have been. Feel free to point and laugh.

I'd google Eternal Crusade.

Another team took over the entire project, renamed it, and continued it. It isn't dead yet friend.

Current ideas I like include that Free to Play means you're an Ork, and paying customers are Space Marines. There is your 100-1 multiplayer sorted.

They're opening Beta soon.

 

[babinro]

Spoiler

Dragon Age Inquisition

Hands down. I loved the first two games having played through the original at least 8 times and going through the second one about 5 times. Such great characters and a classic story. Combat in DA2 was incredible and I loved the smaller focus of a story especially in act 1 and 2.

Inquisition just changed up the formula WAY too much and killed the game for me. I've not even made it out of the Hinterlands and I can't be bothered to proceed with the main quest. I get that this game is a HUGE success. I understand that future DA games will follow in it's footsteps. But this was not the Dragon Age I wanted.

Combat is far less satisfying and fun. The PC controls were atrocious save for a controller which prevented me from wanting to micromanage combat. The sidequests felt lifeless and random. The story failed to hook me...characters failed to hook me (including those I loved from past games)...everything about the experience screamed quantity over quality and open world instead of narrative driven.

I'm clearly in the minority here though. This game was VERY highly received game from fans and critics alike. I feel like what many Diablo fans probably felt like when they played Diablo 3....'why isn't this game like D2? Where's my runewords? Necromancer?' etc. Plenty of people wanted D3 to be Diablo 2.5. I get that now...I want Inquisition to be Dragon Age 2.5.

I definitely agree with a lot of what you're saying, and DA:I definitely wasn't what I was expecting (I was expecting more of a return to the story and character driven gameplay and tactical combat of DA:O), BUT, I'd still recommend at least getting out of the Hinterlands. It takes a little while, but eventually the game does start to have more and more in common with old-school Dragon Age. The plot quickly gets more interesting, you get back to the ability to interact heavily with your party characters, and once you get the hang of the war table, crafting, and requisitions, it starts to become more fun.

Like I said, it's still not what I was hoping it would be, but I'd still try sinking a little more time into it and see if it sticks.

For now I'm of the mentality that this game let me down and I have a HUGE steam backlog of games more worthy of attention before returning to this one. I'm getting my RPG fix from a game called Last Dream right now but I've also got the entire Ys franchise of RPG's ready to check out. Naturally I have a backlog of titles in other genres as well.

With that said...I'll probably end up revisiting this game when the next Dragon Age game is nearing launch since the hype will no doubt renew my interest in the franchise. With luck they'll have patched many of the nagging PC issues by then (something that's already started as Origin has updated this game a few times since I last played it).

 

[HankyPanky]

The Last of Us. I was so hyped for this game. Everyone was saying it was amazing. The A.I. they showed off for the game shows was amazing, very much something revolutionary. Looked like Walking Dead meets Resident Evil. But what I got was an average linear game with bad A.I. and a been-there-done-that storyline which made me as mad as the A.I. since that element was hyped to no end. Basically Uncharted: Zombie Drama edition. It wasn't a bad game but it is nowhere near as good as GTA V and I'd even argue the latter half of Bioshock Infinite - for it to be put into the same basket is disingenuous imo. Honestly, the hype surrounding it did me in the most - I would not have disliked it so much if it wasn't so hyped.

 

[AT God]

I'm amazed at how games that I found to be above average in quality are seen as some people's biggest disappointments. Interesting how vastly different perceptions are.

And I'm with a fair few other people in saying Mass Effect 3, nothing has come close to being that depressingly disappointing and infuriating, I still kick myself for preordering that game, should have waited and just let the horrible cliffhanger from ME2 be the end of things.

 

[Ugicywapih]

I see folks posted some solid contenders already - Spore messed up on so many levels it's not even funny, and it had some remarkably ambitious stated goals, Hellgate: London had some nice ideas and started out pretty damn fun, but it was riddled with bad design choices as well as gamebreaking bugs. And let's not forget Daikatana - given its pedigree and scope of its ambitions, I were not expecting an unplayable PoS.

I'm kind of surprised nobody mentioned Godus so far - I know, I know, it's Molyneux's game and if there's one thing he's known for, it's overpromising things to the point where it sometimes looks like he just makes up wildly outlandish features on the spot when talking to the press. But then, the guy also earned a reputation for making pretty damn solid games at one point - he had his hand in some pretty amazing strategies back in the day and he's inarguably the godfather of the "god game" strategy subgenre - so, with the most egregious, well known examples of Pete running his mouth being action games (I'm thinking of the Fable series and Magic Carpet), I were thinking the guy might still know how to build a solid, enjoyable strategy.
Boy were I in for a surprise when it turned out "the game of his life" was a glorified cow clicker...

But the biggest disappointment in my gaming life hands down? Deus Ex: Invisible War. I've loved the original Deus Ex to bits, it was one of my most frequently replayed titles and after getting three diffrent endings, I were worried I'd never see a sequel. Thus, I were very pleasantly surprised when I first heard of Invisible War...
I shouldn't have been. The very premise has been a copout, with devs deciding to make an ugly, tangled mess of the three clearly defined and very distinct endings of the original and it mostly just went downhill from there. The new aug system was, IMO, tolerable but uninspired. I understand it was more passive than the original's since it tried to fill the niche left by removing the xp track, but that, in my opinion, was questionable in and of itself. The characters felt sort of bland - the new ones weren't even memorable enough that I'd recall their names by now (there was that young Illuminati couple and I remember some moustache-twirling-villain-flavored twat whom you were chasing after from the very beginning of the game who ended up as a key figure in Knights Templar... Oh and the guy who just sort of went along with anything that happened to him, up to and including getting merged into a Russian shared-consciousness cyborg Mafia) whereas old faces from the previous game had their personalities all messed up. JC was a messianic figure to begin with, but they've overdrawn this in IW to the point where it felt unnatural, for example, and Tracer Tong... I've always liked him, in part for supporting a very idealistic ending in Deus Ex, putting freedom above prosperity. I can understand how he'd grow to change his mind on it, but having the guy who espoused freedom and individuality offer unwavering support to someone who wants to force humanity as a whole to merge into a frickin' hivemind? Come ON! The ridiculous shared ammo system was as unpleasant as it was shallow, making it one of my peeves about the game even in light of all the other flaws competing for attention since I've always had something of a hoarder mentality in games and the first Deus Ex did very well in scratching that itch with all the special ammo types - fun to collect, fun to unload when you finally get in a tough fight! And then of course the coding was a trainwreck, with the bugs having bugged bugs and I can't say I've appreciated the ever-present bloom. All in all, I wouldn't say the game was ALL bad, some elements were passable, but what I got was a far cry from what I had hoped for(pun unintended, I quite liked Far Cry).

 

[mad825]

Tracer Tong... I've always liked him, in part for supporting a very idealistic ending in Deus Ex, putting freedom above prosperity. I can understand how he'd grow to change his mind on it, but having the guy who espoused freedom and individuality offer unwavering support to someone who wants to force humanity as a whole to merge into a frickin' hivemind?.

Erm, no. The Omar aka the borg is a hivemind. Helios embraces freedom and individuality but renounces privacy. One's a extreme the other is a compromise.

 

[Starbird]

I'm amazed at how games that I found to be above average in quality are seen as some people's biggest disappointments. Interesting how vastly different perceptions are.

And I'm with a fair few other people in saying Mass Effect 3, nothing has come close to being that depressingly disappointing and infuriating, I still kick myself for preordering that game, should have waited and just let the horrible cliffhanger from ME2 be the end of things.

This point of view always confuses me.

I actually liked ME3. A lot. More than the second one for the most part. Yes, the ending was a letdown, but at least it was definitive. The game itself was great, with some really stirring moments and great set pieces.