I actually didn't play any games this year which I thought were bad per se, but there were plenty of disappointments. I think the "weakest" game I played this year was Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Not exactly a bad game; it was just a game with an interesting concept with poor execution.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
What's the worst game you played all year?
- Thread starter NinjaBoiX
- Start date
ForzaFerrari
Neo Member
Guild Wars 2.
Jive Turkey
Unconfirmed Member
The only game I played this year that I'd call bad was that Nights game on Wii. So terrible.
Deified Data
Banned
SMT: Devil Survivor 2
Yeah, I've only played awesome games this year.
Yeah, I've only played awesome games this year.
Deified Data
Banned
Yep, scratch that - Darksiders II takes the cake for 2012. It was fun, but it was a major disappointment. Darksiders III is no longer a day-1 for me.
Max Payne 3. No way was I not going to be disappointed after the masterpieces that were Max Payne 1 & 2. I generally play games from developers that I know are capable of creating a good game so i'm rarely disappointed in the games I choose to play. I don't buy into hype like I once did. I knew max payne wasn't going to be anything special cause its Rockstar and they have no idea what the fuck they're doing half the time, but I still had to see what it would be like.
Penguins&PolarBears
Member
Assassin's Creed 2. Glad I'm not alone.
I don't think I've ever played a game where I've cared less or been more bored by the things that were happening. Maybe Mass Effect? Nope, not even that bored me as much as AC2.
I could not finish either game series and quit out of extreme boredom and frustration with repetitive/bad gameplay. That being said as much as I hated and found boring the story, characters, and gameplay in Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect I'm willing to give their sequels another try. I've had Mass Effect 2 in shrink wrap for about 18 months now (bought it when it was on sale for $9). AC3 looks cool from all of the previews, but given how many people here are listing it as their worst game I'm starting to lower my expectations.
I don't think I've ever played a game where I've cared less or been more bored by the things that were happening. Maybe Mass Effect? Nope, not even that bored me as much as AC2.
I could not finish either game series and quit out of extreme boredom and frustration with repetitive/bad gameplay. That being said as much as I hated and found boring the story, characters, and gameplay in Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect I'm willing to give their sequels another try. I've had Mass Effect 2 in shrink wrap for about 18 months now (bought it when it was on sale for $9). AC3 looks cool from all of the previews, but given how many people here are listing it as their worst game I'm starting to lower my expectations.
Big Chungus
Member
I believe the online is still broken.
My god, yes. Normally I trust gaf, like vanquish, but Neir, holy shit, I literally cringed at the dialogue, and had to stop playing because I was so embarrassed.
This year - Twisted Metal would be my worst game, not because the gameplay was bad, in fact that was probably the only redeeming value. what made it so bad was the complete loss of focus on the awesome characters and their stories. I like Sweet Tooth and all, but he was never the main focus of the series, just an awesome/funny character with a crazy clown car. Twisted Metal 2 was fun, but what made it a classic was being able to attach an identity to the cars, even if they were just fixed to 15 characters or so.
Also, Race levels? The last level being completely different from all others? awful.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow probably. It's not bad, but it's the worst I played this year.
Great vistas, some cool stuff here and there, but filled with amateurish design that holds it back tremendously. Even if it wasn't held back, it wouldn't be anything remarkable and it doesn't bear any resemblance to Castlevania. Couldn't even finish it.
Great vistas, some cool stuff here and there, but filled with amateurish design that holds it back tremendously. Even if it wasn't held back, it wouldn't be anything remarkable and it doesn't bear any resemblance to Castlevania. Couldn't even finish it.
I really love the Halo series, but Halo 4 was abysmal in my opinion.
* Grenades are nerfed beyond the point where they actually kill anything bigger than grunts. In fact, frag grenades don't even seem to manage that.
* Promethean Knights are nothing but bullet sponges. They just stand still, take a beating (depleting most of my ammo in the process), then hide behind nearest cover to regain shields. And repeat. Incredibly dull and frustrating. Easily the worst enemies in the Halo series, Engineers included.
* Most of the campaign on Legendary difficulty is spent looking for ammo.
* AI is worse than previous installments. I only played through the game once and there were several occasions where enemies would continually run into walls and the AI would often get vehicles stuck in the geometry.
* Levels may look larger in scale, but actually feels much, much smaller than the levels of previous installments. There is really nothing to explore in these levels. It didn't feel like a big bump up from straight corridors.
* Most of the sound effects are incredibly annoying to listen to. The Warthog and Lightrifle are the worst offenders and actually made me mute the TV on occasion.
* The graphics are nice, sure, but they are nice at the expense of me actually being able to clearly identify enemy types and their grade.
* The few times I actually played multiplayer I was forced to run around Ragnarok searching for ammo for several minutes at a time. I would have been more use to the team just killing myself and respawning with full ammo.
* I hate QTE:s. Implementing QTE:s in a series what is distinguished by players having full control of their character felt like an insult to me, even if there were only a few of them.
* Kill walls. In a game series signified by the player being able to backtrack to virtually any point on the level at any stage in the level progression.
* The final boss. Seriously!?
* Grenades are nerfed beyond the point where they actually kill anything bigger than grunts. In fact, frag grenades don't even seem to manage that.
* Promethean Knights are nothing but bullet sponges. They just stand still, take a beating (depleting most of my ammo in the process), then hide behind nearest cover to regain shields. And repeat. Incredibly dull and frustrating. Easily the worst enemies in the Halo series, Engineers included.
* Most of the campaign on Legendary difficulty is spent looking for ammo.
* AI is worse than previous installments. I only played through the game once and there were several occasions where enemies would continually run into walls and the AI would often get vehicles stuck in the geometry.
* Levels may look larger in scale, but actually feels much, much smaller than the levels of previous installments. There is really nothing to explore in these levels. It didn't feel like a big bump up from straight corridors.
* Most of the sound effects are incredibly annoying to listen to. The Warthog and Lightrifle are the worst offenders and actually made me mute the TV on occasion.
* The graphics are nice, sure, but they are nice at the expense of me actually being able to clearly identify enemy types and their grade.
* The few times I actually played multiplayer I was forced to run around Ragnarok searching for ammo for several minutes at a time. I would have been more use to the team just killing myself and respawning with full ammo.
* I hate QTE:s. Implementing QTE:s in a series what is distinguished by players having full control of their character felt like an insult to me, even if there were only a few of them.
* Kill walls. In a game series signified by the player being able to backtrack to virtually any point on the level at any stage in the level progression.
* The final boss. Seriously!?
Probably Sin & Punishment (N64, not the godly Wii version). It's still a fun game, but playing it after Star Successor did it no favors. The controls are pretty bad, and the level design and boss fights aren't nearly as good as Star Successor's.
Though if just one specific portion of a game counts, my choice would be The Answer portion of Persona 3: FES. It's a 25 hour epilogue to the main game that is almost entirely dungeon crawling, which I really don't enjoy. You also have to play it on hard mode, and the bosses tended to be really fucking annoying. For example, one boss fight had three enemies with different weaknesses, but they all had a skill that gives them a good chance of avoiding attacks they're weak to, and they also had attacks that were effective against most Personas that you would need to use. So one was weak to fire attacks, but he would also destroy any fire Personas you have, and it had Dodge Fire, so many of your attacks would miss. On one hand, the boss fights were designed so you would often have to rethink your strategy and party, but I was only interested in the story, so I didn't enjoy having to go back and level up the party members and Personas I needed.
Also, the dungeon themes were a downer. They were well done, but listening to them throughout the game was depressing.
Though if just one specific portion of a game counts, my choice would be The Answer portion of Persona 3: FES. It's a 25 hour epilogue to the main game that is almost entirely dungeon crawling, which I really don't enjoy. You also have to play it on hard mode, and the bosses tended to be really fucking annoying. For example, one boss fight had three enemies with different weaknesses, but they all had a skill that gives them a good chance of avoiding attacks they're weak to, and they also had attacks that were effective against most Personas that you would need to use. So one was weak to fire attacks, but he would also destroy any fire Personas you have, and it had Dodge Fire, so many of your attacks would miss. On one hand, the boss fights were designed so you would often have to rethink your strategy and party, but I was only interested in the story, so I didn't enjoy having to go back and level up the party members and Personas I needed.
Also, the dungeon themes were a downer. They were well done, but listening to them throughout the game was depressing.
Dear Esther - mainly because it's not a "game", per se... rather a walk around an island in the Half Life engine (which does produce some spectacular visuals at certain points) where you hear random story fragments that is left for you to interpret. The lack of any type of traditional game structure or elements (you have no options available to you apart from moving around with the kb+m setup), and an extremely sluggish walking pace means that even if you found the story fragments interesting (I didn't), just getting to them was a total hassle.
I also didn't like The Last Story very much at all. But that's more because I was setting myself up for something really grand, what I found was an extremely linear game experience, a unresponsive 3rd person action RPG with a terrible framerate, bad camera and plenty of gimmicky bosses.
Wait, what? Sure the controls may be awkward (even more so if you compare to the sublime nunchuck+wiimote controls of Star Successor), but most of the level design is great, especially the aircraft carrier (one of the highest points in rail shooter level design). The first stage (which is more of a tutorial than anything) and the Long Island Rail Road stage are the only low points as far as level design goes - though I can say that at least the LIRR stage sucks has some basis in real life
(at least with Sin and Punishment you only have to deal with bugs on the train and not annoying drunk guidos!)
I also didn't like The Last Story very much at all. But that's more because I was setting myself up for something really grand, what I found was an extremely linear game experience, a unresponsive 3rd person action RPG with a terrible framerate, bad camera and plenty of gimmicky bosses.
Wait, what? Sure the controls may be awkward (even more so if you compare to the sublime nunchuck+wiimote controls of Star Successor), but most of the level design is great, especially the aircraft carrier (one of the highest points in rail shooter level design). The first stage (which is more of a tutorial than anything) and the Long Island Rail Road stage are the only low points as far as level design goes - though I can say that at least the LIRR stage sucks has some basis in real life
(at least with Sin and Punishment you only have to deal with bugs on the train and not annoying drunk guidos!)ndawgdrake
Member
There's nothing wrong with my pad; D:SF has native 360 controller support. I get handling is meant to be loose, but its absurdly loose. And I finished Driver 1 & 2 and I don't recall remembering the controls sucking so much. Driver: Sf feels like crazy taxi on steroids.
The warp function was meh. Didn't really impress me and wasn't executed well story-wise.
I love the driving game genre, but this game just rubbed me the wrong way.
HappyPuppy
Member
No, the title of the thread is very clear of what it's asking.
What's the worst game you played in 2012?
So it can be something from the ColecoVision and choosing the worst game you played this year doesn't mean it's a bad game, just the worst you played this year.
Baraka in the White House
2-Terms of Kombat
Not to say that it's a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination but of everything I've played this year Diablo 3 was the biggest letdown. Although admittedly hype levels rose into uncharted regions of deep space for me when it came to this game so there was bound to be some disappointment. However tooling the entire game around the auction house and - by extension - the RMAH really fucked the experience up for me. Playing through the entire game without seeing a legendary or set item? Yeah I'm done.
Feeroper
Member
Agreed with this. I was really looking forward to this, and it promised alot but I found that in the end it just didnt live up to it. It still feels like a grind, just in a different way. I had stayed away from all the previews and free beta weekends so I would be fresh going in, but in the end I could see under the hood and could see it was just another grind fest. I tried playing for a couple months trying to force myself to like it, but in the end I couldnt. Oh well.
Everything I purchased myself I enjoyed quite a bit, so while I could probably pick the 'worst' of them, I dont think it'd be fair.
Worst game I played this year would be Black Ops 2 over at a friend's house now and then. Its not bad, but the maps are still way too claustrophobic. Whenever I leave, I'm always reassured about my decision not to get it or the previous CoD. Fun in small doses, but thats about it.
Worst game I played this year would be Black Ops 2 over at a friend's house now and then. Its not bad, but the maps are still way too claustrophobic. Whenever I leave, I'm always reassured about my decision not to get it or the previous CoD. Fun in small doses, but thats about it.
SillyEskimo
Member
I have to go with Twisted Metal. It's ugly, controls terribly, and the community was dead on arrival. There are very few redeeming qualities for this game.
The graphics really are embarrassingly bad. There is no excuse for a game this far in the current generation to look so awful.
I liked all the other games I bought and played this year, and I bought and played a shitload!
The graphics really are embarrassingly bad. There is no excuse for a game this far in the current generation to look so awful.
I liked all the other games I bought and played this year, and I bought and played a shitload!
Bobs Big Boy
Member
Resident Evil: ORC. There's nothing to it. At best, an amusing co-op experience mostly due to how hard and often the game breaks.
HappyPuppy
Member
Ok I remember now, it's hard picking the worst but I think this one comes close to the worst I played this year.
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms or by it's NA release Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition.
A game from 2005, with low production values, bland graphics, ugly interface, slow and stiff animation, I found the combat boring, uninteresting alternate dimension. Overall I found it to be very dull.
Kult: Heretic Kingdoms or by it's NA release Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition.
A game from 2005, with low production values, bland graphics, ugly interface, slow and stiff animation, I found the combat boring, uninteresting alternate dimension. Overall I found it to be very dull.
I haven't played any true stinkers this year, thankfully.
Of the games I've played, I'd say LIMBO was the worst. In two words: wasted potential.
I got it as part of a humble bundle over the summer. I'd played the demo on PS3 and the first zone was creepy as fuck. Playing the full game, it was awesome for about the first 1/3-1/2 of the game.
The back half of the game devolved into boring physics puzzles, and didn't make any attempt at addressing the mysteries shown in the front half. It stopped being creepy and became blatant padding. The ending was a bad cop-out, too. I posted what I thought would've been a better ending in a LIMBO thread back in June.
I don't get the AC3 hate at all, but then I've only played AC1 so everything seems like a pretty big upgrade in comparison.
Of the games I've played, I'd say LIMBO was the worst. In two words: wasted potential.
I got it as part of a humble bundle over the summer. I'd played the demo on PS3 and the first zone was creepy as fuck. Playing the full game, it was awesome for about the first 1/3-1/2 of the game.
The back half of the game devolved into boring physics puzzles, and didn't make any attempt at addressing the mysteries shown in the front half. It stopped being creepy and became blatant padding. The ending was a bad cop-out, too. I posted what I thought would've been a better ending in a LIMBO thread back in June.
I don't get the AC3 hate at all, but then I've only played AC1 so everything seems like a pretty big upgrade in comparison.
Ghost Recon Future Soldier. My roommate loves the game but it felt painfully bland to me, and controls that felt really sluggish to me. Did not enjoy my time with it at all.
After that? Honestly, for me personally it would be Mass Effect 3. Just such a drop off from the massive heights of the second and first game. Some parts of ME3 were good, no doubt, but as a whole I was just put off by it. It felt like Mass Effect turned into a Blockbuster action movie, with really cheap character building and story telling devices, that felt insulting to someone who invested themselves so deeply in this world. For a franchise that was my favorite of this generation for those very reasons, it felt like they just dropped the ball big time. I don't understand how you whiff that badly. I understand it's almost an impossible task to end that series, but that's not what bothered me about it. It was all kind of...uninspired. And that's a god damn shame that's how Shepard's story had to end. With a big "meh".
ME3 only gets on there because everything else I played this year I enjoyed.
After that? Honestly, for me personally it would be Mass Effect 3. Just such a drop off from the massive heights of the second and first game. Some parts of ME3 were good, no doubt, but as a whole I was just put off by it. It felt like Mass Effect turned into a Blockbuster action movie, with really cheap character building and story telling devices, that felt insulting to someone who invested themselves so deeply in this world. For a franchise that was my favorite of this generation for those very reasons, it felt like they just dropped the ball big time. I don't understand how you whiff that badly. I understand it's almost an impossible task to end that series, but that's not what bothered me about it. It was all kind of...uninspired. And that's a god damn shame that's how Shepard's story had to end. With a big "meh".
ME3 only gets on there because everything else I played this year I enjoyed.
Blake'sGrave
Member
Resi 6, but it's redeemed to some extent simply by how fucking hilarious it is.
BLOPS 2 was also dire, Team America without the satire.
edit: forgot to add mass effect 3. fucking mass effect 3.
BLOPS 2 was also dire, Team America without the satire.
edit: forgot to add mass effect 3. fucking mass effect 3.
ViewtifulJC
Banned
I've played my host of stinkers this year, but without a doubt the worst/most disappointing had got to be:
It's takes so much of the depth and fun elements of NG1/B(and to a lesser extent, NG2), and simply...removes them entirely. And replaced them with repetitive QTEs, auto-aiming arrows, a braindead story that slows the game down, and boring combat. IGN's 3/10 score is perfectly warranted.
It's takes so much of the depth and fun elements of NG1/B(and to a lesser extent, NG2), and simply...removes them entirely. And replaced them with repetitive QTEs, auto-aiming arrows, a braindead story that slows the game down, and boring combat. IGN's 3/10 score is perfectly warranted.
well, those are the games that usually sell better
Far Cry 3
Competent shooting mechanics and gorgeous looking game but everything else about the game was terrible. I shouldn't of been so surprised since the previous 2 were mediocre games. The series is like Crysis to me, they are always gorgeous but in terms of story, characters and overall game play it's just eh to me.
Also Assassins Creed 3. It's easily the most disappointing game this generation for me.
Competent shooting mechanics and gorgeous looking game but everything else about the game was terrible. I shouldn't of been so surprised since the previous 2 were mediocre games. The series is like Crysis to me, they are always gorgeous but in terms of story, characters and overall game play it's just eh to me.
Also Assassins Creed 3. It's easily the most disappointing game this generation for me.
Willy Wanka
my god this avatar owns
Rune Factory Oceans (PS3): A streamlined Harvest Moon for morons. Awful, awful graphics, a completely nonsensical & poorly paced storyline, crap, overly-easy dungeon combat and tedious, unavoidable, repetative mini-games. It's nowhere near as bad as the worst game I played last year or indeed this entire generation (Hyperdimension Neptunia) but it's still pretty awful.
Ninja Gaiden 3 (360): I loved Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 so this is self-explanatory. One of the worst sequels ever made.
I've also played some absolute dross on Andriod and iOS this year but none of them cost me anything close to £30 so they get a pass.
Ninja Gaiden 3 (360): I loved Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2 so this is self-explanatory. One of the worst sequels ever made.
I've also played some absolute dross on Andriod and iOS this year but none of them cost me anything close to £30 so they get a pass.
Twenty7KVN
Member
NBA2k13
Really? I've gotten every NBA2K game since 2K9 and they were all excellent games. I had heard positive things about the new one, but just didn't get it because I wanted to save some money.
What didn't you like about it?
Twenty7KVN
Member
To many pre canned animations which leads to me feeling like i never have total control of my player.I never feel like i'm playing real basketball,the characters feel stiff,moves don't feel natural and the game just does flow for me.That's just a few of many things i can remember right now.
ProfessorMoran
Member
^^ This.
Warm Machine
Member
Heh, I was just lucky. This year I played...Fez, Hybrid, Halo 4, Dust AET, Sleeping Dogs, Trials Evo, Alan Wake AN, I Am Alive, Torchlight 2, Dead Space, Dead Island, Sine Mora, Spelunky, Trine 2. All of those are 7/10 or above for me.
Those two games do land in the 6/10 arena. Serious Sam 3 though would be a 4/10 or lower. Totally forgot about it. It tried to prove the superiority of old school mechanics and failed spectacularly.
Typically, most big games are going to land in the 7/10 or above realm. I don't blame game sites for most scores.
shinobi602
Member
FFXIII
Absolute shit in bluray form.
Absolute shit in bluray form.
Are you a yearly 2K player? The animation priority is pretty standard for the series. In practice, in past games at least, it balanced the game so you couldn't play it like an arcade game, and rack up points at will. It has been more about thinking about what play to run.
-Deadpool-
Member
Resident Evil 6 really stands out for me, but I only played the demo. It was terrible though, me and my mate didn't even finish it co-op, and it was my second try at the demo. Too dark, awkward, meh.
As far as retail releases go though, Diablo 3. Sure I don't need to say why as it's been well documented.
As far as retail releases go though, Diablo 3. Sure I don't need to say why as it's been well documented.
The Wreck It Ralph game without question. I used a free Gamefly Rental on it after seeing concept art for the game which sparked my curiosity. I mean I had already seen a clip of it on Gaf, so I knew it was mediocre but holy shit I didn't expect the production values to be this in the gutter.
I think Jack MacBreyer is the only cast member to reprise their role (and if thats not him, the replacement is spot on) and the rest of replacement cast suck something fierce. The guy voicing Ralph does only the slightest attempt at sounding like John C Reily.
The in game graphics look like a slightly uprezzed PS1 game and the only nice thing I can say about it, is I think the animation on Ralph and Felix are kinda decent (Ralph does the skid pose from Super Mario Bros 1 when you turn which is legitimately a neat touch).
The cutscenes (barring the intro and outro) are like straight out of a garbage licensed GBA game. Stills of the ingame models are placed over a screenshot of the level with their lines in a speech bubble. The voice actors flatly say their lines with no musical accompaniment.
Hidden in each level is an easter egg and a Hero's medal, finding both in a level nets you a piece of concept art or still from the movie. Which would be cool except all of the art is inexplicably cropped, and each is the size of a postcard taped to your tv screen.
The game itself is ocassionally okay, but its really bland 2D platformer and only lasts 2 hours. Completing the game earns you a new game+ which is just the exact same game except the levels have a time limit and no checkpoints. Its kind of evocative of shitty NES licensed games in that way. Beating in the game in New Game+ doesnt get you anything not even a "Congratulations!" screen.
I imagine it had one of the most shoestring budgets of the generation
Frogger Hyper Arcade has one of the most hilariously awful soundtracks of all time. I wish i could find it online to link to, because one of the songs opens with a 20 second loop of an 8bit frog sound.
I think Jack MacBreyer is the only cast member to reprise their role (and if thats not him, the replacement is spot on) and the rest of replacement cast suck something fierce. The guy voicing Ralph does only the slightest attempt at sounding like John C Reily.
The in game graphics look like a slightly uprezzed PS1 game and the only nice thing I can say about it, is I think the animation on Ralph and Felix are kinda decent (Ralph does the skid pose from Super Mario Bros 1 when you turn which is legitimately a neat touch).
The cutscenes (barring the intro and outro) are like straight out of a garbage licensed GBA game. Stills of the ingame models are placed over a screenshot of the level with their lines in a speech bubble. The voice actors flatly say their lines with no musical accompaniment.
Hidden in each level is an easter egg and a Hero's medal, finding both in a level nets you a piece of concept art or still from the movie. Which would be cool except all of the art is inexplicably cropped, and each is the size of a postcard taped to your tv screen.
The game itself is ocassionally okay, but its really bland 2D platformer and only lasts 2 hours. Completing the game earns you a new game+ which is just the exact same game except the levels have a time limit and no checkpoints. Its kind of evocative of shitty NES licensed games in that way. Beating in the game in New Game+ doesnt get you anything not even a "Congratulations!" screen.
I imagine it had one of the most shoestring budgets of the generation
Frogger Hyper Arcade has one of the most hilariously awful soundtracks of all time. I wish i could find it online to link to, because one of the songs opens with a 20 second loop of an 8bit frog sound.
Well, after giving this thread some time to mature, it's gotten quite strange. We've got people sayin' Halo 4, JC2, Alan Wake, a crapload of RE6/REORC, a few Far Cry 3s, Max Payne 3s, Guild Wars 2..
I gotta ask, where are the people playing really crappy indie games? Was I alone!?
I gotta ask, where are the people playing really crappy indie games? Was I alone!?
Ryu bogard
Member
Did not buy many or any bad games this year, the worst maybe child of eden. Rez HD was amazing but child of eden felt kinda boring. I only played 1 hour never finished it.
Bobs Big Boy
Member
I've probably played some pretty awful indie games this year also. I'm sure they already sold badly and no use further digging in. Would rather throw out the games that charged full price and had full budgets and still came out as nonsense.