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DoomUK

The 'worst games ever' thread

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What, in your opinions, are the worst games ever?

I'll narrow down the question a little. We all know about catastrophically terrible titles like Big Rigs, but games like this are the low-hanging fruit. While it's pretty puzzling how it got through any kind of QA (or whether they even bothered with QA at all), it was just an objectively badly-made game from people who didn't know what they were doing.

What I'm more interested in is games which you had high hopes for, but were bitterly disappointed by. I don't recall any hype preceding Big Rigs, as if the developers promised something that would redefine racing games or whatever. It was bad, but there was nothing to feel disappointed over, which is surely preferable to playing a game from a respected developer who promised something extraordinary but didn't deliver.

I'm tempted to say Aliens: CM, but this is an age when big, exciting-sounding titles failing to impress is commonplace. I'm not even talking about what happened to the visuals between the E3 demo and the final game - everything about the gameplay blew, which I was kind of prepared for. I'm going to have to think harder about my own question, while waiting for others' thoughts on this matter.

Proceed.

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"Enter the Matrix" was a game that disappointed on every possible level. I was hyped as hell - a game set in the Matrix? Awesome! Bullet time, kung fu, gun battles... All of that stuff should have made for an awesome game. What we got, though, was a lame title featuring total nobodies (I mean you have a Matrix game, you assume you get to play as Neo, right?), the graphics were utter shit, the gameplay sucked, and it was buggy as hell. I remember trying to convince myself that I actually liked that game for so long. Recently I went back and tried to replay it, and I was baffled that I ever made it past the first level without smashing the game disc it sucked so bad.

Thankfully, we eventually got "Path of Neo," which took the concept of a Matrix game and did it right. Wasn't "Game of the Year" contender or anything, but it was a decent game, and after my experience with "Enter the Matrix," I have to say I really enjoyed it.

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Silent Hill: Downpour.
This was barely a psychological horror and more a pathetic attempt to recreate Fighting Force. Awkward combat system (metal weapons break why? Regenerating health up to 40% why?), no real scares whatsoever, lame story, lame lame lame everywhere. And why do the graphics look functionably worse than the PS2 Silent Hill games?
(I haven't played Homecoming which is apparently much worse, but then I haven't played 4/Origins yet either)
To think I had a little bit of hope for this game. As a horror game fan I was disappointed I bought this for full price. Screw you Konami for ruining a once good horror game franchise by letting other teams make half-assed games like this.

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Avoozl said:

Everything on the Virtual Boy

*Raises finger to interject.*

Avoozl said:

except for that Wario game.

*Lowers finger.*

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I don't play many games, plus I don't even play the ones I own.

Hero Academy.... a turn based strategy that you play against real people. Like Chess via email. Every game seems to take 90 minutes so you have 5 games going at the same time which just makes every game take longer.

Otherwise Resident Evil 1. Poor voice acting, stiff controls that make me feel its a real time RPG (RPGs also use herbs), and the fact they couldn't use one of the 10 buttons for quick healing or weapons switch.

Line Rider 2. A flash game turned into a Wii game. Its boring trial and error stuff of a sledder / skier riding down a line and you need to finish the line to get them to the end of the path. It always sticks in my mind.

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Gez said:

Real life.


Until perhaps somebody invents the "invulnerability cheat code".

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SPORE.

It took almost a decade to make, had almost unlimited potential at the time, and had a revolutionary concept.

What did it end up being? A gimmicky creature editor and a small collection of simple mini-games that contained no strategy or depth whatsoever.

Oh, and you could buy the creature editor by itself thus removing any reason whatsoever for why you would want to buy the full game since the creature editor is the only thing about that game that was even remotely impressive.

Then there is also the fact that SPORE was EA's first game to feature this lovely little thing we now know as DRM...

Its been a long time since it's release, but I am still of the opinion that SPORE is the most disappointing game ever made.

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hardcore_gamer said:

Then there is also the fact that SPORE was EA's first game to feature this lovely little thing we now know as DRM...


Wasn't their first to feature DRM, and wasn't even the first EA game to use SecuROM (which I assume you refer to). Mass Effect had it earlier that year too.

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I'm going to say Crysis 3. Not because I was hyped or excited about it, but because they managed to make a worse game than Crysis 2. It seems they have absolutely no idea what they're doing anymore and now even the visuals are starting to degrade. It starts out fine and all with the ship and then some amazing City Jungle Grass. Problem is from then and forward most of the game takes place in Doom3's basement. Cryengine(3) is great for large vistas with lots of greens and sunbeams. It really doesn't perform well for the darker areas. And this is when it really shows off how poor the "artistry" is. When you peel the nice green, yellow and blue colors away. When you strip it from the nice shaders, you see just how boring and unimaginative their design is.

So that's it for the visuals. The legitimate cheatcodes (Godmode and Notarget) supplied by Crytek still do their best to ruin any kind of fun. The story is all over the place and makes no sense at any point of the game. It's more like a boring expansion pack for Crysis 2 than it is a true sequel. 3/10. How a company with their funding and that engine can keep making each new game worse than their last is a mystery to me.

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Going to get slautered for this but I'm going to say 2 games I thought of as soona s I saw this subject.

GTA 4 and Killzone 1 (not played the other killzones so won't mention them). Both for thje same reason.

I loved GTA3-San Andreas, but 4 never inspired me pre release, it looked rubbish but similar to the GTA 3 series. Boy I wished I was right. The controls just sucked, that I thought it was next to unplayable. I couldn't drive without crashing, I couldn't walk without cops all of a sudden chasing me, which I couldn' run away from without running into something or getting ran over. People said I jsut had to learn to adapt to the realistic driving, but I could drive in Gran Turismo series, how the hell could I handle a car in the most realistic driving experiance in gaming history but not in GTA4? I can't get excited over GTA V cause I can't trust the series now.

Killzone cause I quickly discovered you could hardly do 2 things at once, which nearly everyother game could handle. Again, the controls felt sloppy. Remember I was in cover once and for the life of me, I couldn't uncrouch while cooking a grenade, so every nae I had was wasted, I couldn't aim and move, etc etc. How this game got a sequal, never mind 2 is one of gamings greatest msyteries imho.

Ultimatly it all goes down to how it controls is the main thing. Then I can look at the other stuff. It ain't worth playing if it controls like it spent a couple of fortnight in a bad ballon no matter how good the AI or graphics, sound, or story (or anything else).

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Aliens: Colonial Marines shocked me as much as a game has ever shocked me. It's probably far from the worst game ever, but it is almost certainly the most disappointing game ever, for me. I purposely didn't follow its development very closely (the same thing I do to most games I eagerly anticipate), and actually came very close to pre-ordering it a couple of weeks before it was released, but decided I should use that money elsewhere. When the reviews started rolling in, I couldn't believe my eyes. Again, I was shocked as much as a game can shock someone.

I can't think of a game that even comes close to failing my expectations that severely.

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Well so far, from what I've endured.

Limbo of the Lost
Superman 64
Bubsy 3D

All this other shit? Child's play. Come back to me when you've navigated a maze of stolen resources with a horrible point and click movement interface trying to find the exact pixel you need to click on in order to pick up and item, all to finally be rewarded with a song and dance number naming you the king of limbo.

Look at these complaints you spoiled people are making.

DRM? At least the levels weren't horrible mazes where you had to complete nonsensical objectives with next to no hit of what the fuck to do only to be happy when finally you were allowed to go back to flying through fucking rings because even that was better than the base levels.

False Advertising? At least the levels weren't single color flat textures stretched for miles burning your eyes as you tried to figure out just what the fuck you were navigating.

Bad Controls? I LAUGH AT YOUR BAD CONTROLS. You don't know what bad controls are until you've a bob cat that in order to turn you have to sacrifice three children and pray to the god of turning.

Bugs? Bubsy and Superman mock your bugs. Well they would but sups is too busy being knocked into the floor by crab people and then getting stuck in the ceiling and rubberbanding around because he tried to fly, and Bubsy is too busy stuck running in circles.

Shitty Graphics? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Bubsy_3D_gameplay.png just take that all in.

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Caffeine Freak said:

REALLY surprised nobody's yet dropped the DNF-bomb.


It wasn't a bad game, just far too over hyped. If it didn't have Duke Nukem on it, or as publised history on it, probably would of got better reviews. There are worse games, a lot worse.

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hardcore_gamer said:
SPORE.


Agreed.

I think Mario Party 9 is the most recent game I have played that seriously disappointed me.

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While certainly not a qualifier for 'worst game ever', I can say that the most recent game to severely disappoint me was Skyward Sword. I may be in the minority here, but Zelda: Twilight Princess was, I felt, a step in the right direction for the series on multiple levels. Namely, the art direction, character growth, and style of presentation. Skyward Sword basically took all three of these things and hit the reset button. Major step backwards for the series... oh, and Fi. Never get the horror that is Fi.

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Caffeine Freak said:

REALLY surprised nobody's yet dropped the DNF-bomb.

I have to be honest; that I'm not surprised anyone hasn't mentioned it yet but that's my opinion. I thought DNF got relatively harsh reviews to be honest (not to say the game was amazingly good, I thought it was decent). 12 years wasn't worth it to be honest.
On topic: For me I would say Zombie Attack on the PS2, I can't really think of many games I've played that I found to be extremely bad to be honest.

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Caffeine Freak said:

REALLY surprised nobody's yet dropped the DNF-bomb.

It would be unfair, in my opinion, to call it the worst game ever. DNF is just mediocre at best.

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Technician said:

It would be unfair, in my opinion, to call it the worst game ever. DNF is just mediocre at best.


Right, but this thread is actually more about the most disappointing games ever, despite the title. 15 years is a long time to wait for a game, so I imagine it ranks up there as one of the more disappointing games for many people.

I'm not really sure I can point to any game that was a spectacular disappointment for me. I generally do a lot of research on games before buying them, for that very reason.

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Final Fantasy 13

Generally speaking, I know what kind of rep Final Fantasy games get on this forum, but I happen to be a fan of the series. At least up until 6-7 years ago. I didn't care for FF12, to me it was far removed of the classic SNES and PSX games that I fell in love with, it was more of a single player MMO. I sucked it up, played through it, did everything. It wasn't a terrible game it just didn't seem like what a Final Fantasy should be.

Enter this abomination. This game is so far removed from what a Final Fantasy is that I wonder why Square Enix slapped the 'Final Fantasy' name on it....oh wait: MONEY. They think they can put out a turd like this with the Final Fantasy name on it and average joe suckers like me will buy it. Well I proved them right.

I could write a novel on why this game sucks but I'll spare you. What I will say is that this controlling one character and letting the other characters do stuff automatically is at best described as: fucking bullshit and incredibly boring. 12 may have been a bad Final Fantasy, but at least it was a playable game. 13 is just shit-tier.

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I loved FFXII myself. It pulled a ridiculous amount of awesomeness out of the PS2 and had some great gameplay, even considering the altered mechanics. Each to their own, I suppose.

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Gez said:

Real life.


oh please

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Without doubt, the 1996 Akklaim/Graftgold remakes of Bubble Bobble/Rainbow Islands. It was a period where emulators like RAINE and MAME started becoming popular, but were not quite there yet, and the thought that two of my favourite TAITO games would be ported to the PC -one of them for the first time- natively and on much more capable hardware than the original arcade and the older Bubble Bobble port by Nova Logic made me anxious to get them with all my body, including my pee-pee.

That is, until I actually got a copy....boy, did they screw up just about everything that made those games special and still popular in the arcades ('t was 1996, peeps), in particular the controls, the gameplay, the physics, the subtle mechanics...especially Bubble Bobble was pretty much sodomized with a stick, and some levels rendered unwinnable by the broken mechanics. There also were PSX and Saturn ports at the time, which were just a tad bit better, but fundamentally the same -broken- engine. I actually have a list of shortcomings that I compiled in anger, back then :-/

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