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[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

I know I didn't play Bayonetta for the story, nor Vanquish, so those I'll pass on.

But FFXIII was trying to tell a good story, with the piano intro music and all for that over-dramatic effect it was trying to pull off, but was too weird and a confusing.

I think Square-Enix was trying too hard.

 

[Phenomic]

Sadly I hate having to say this but ..FF13.

Just feel like they really dropped the ball on it. Tried to be way too many things at the same time. I still enjoyed the game overall though despite the flaws.

 

[Snuggles]

It's pretty self-aware of its quality. There are definitely worse stories out there. Metroid: Other M, for example.

Plus, unlike in Other M, the cutscenes in Vanquish can be skipped. I didn't watch a single one outside of like 2 minutes of the intro. I would have LOVED to skip the Other M cutscenes.

 

[Lionel Mandrake]

Just Cause 2, easily :lol

Still my GOTY though.

Pretty much this. The story is so bad that it's almost enjoyable. The VA work doesn't help. "My name is BOLO SANTOSI!"

Still one of the most insanely fun games of the generation.

 

[jkanownik]

In before the Heavy Rain haters brigade.

Most Heavy Rain haters are rational. It would be ridiculous to claim that a pseudo-game driven entirely by its story (that many people liked) had the worst story of the year. It's story just had the biggest impact on game quality of any game because it was so dependent on it.

 

[Durante]

I can't believe that somebody would say something like Mass Effect 2 or Vanquish when a story as shitastic as Metroid: Other M exists.

I haven't played that but I'll take your word for it.

 

[Amir0x]

Other M and Heavy Rain deathmatch.

Mass Effect's 2 wasn't bad, it just literally lost the plot. The first game set up this grand galactic fight against an immortal race of machine gods beyond human reckoning. The second game starts with a giant thinly-veiled reset button forcing your Shepard to potentially act out of character as you recruit soldiers for a fight against bug-men and a giant Terminator. And then it ends... setting up this grand galactic fight against an immortal race of machine gods beyond human reckoning. Yep, they're still coming! It feels like a sidestory that could have starred a totally different character.

FUCK HOW DID I FORGET HEAVY RAIN

Assassin's Creed storyline is terrible, true, but Heavy Rain... now that's the true top of the class. You have to be something special to be that awful.

 

[EatChildren]

Final Fantasy XIII's story is particularly bad, but since everyone is gonna list it, I just want to highlight the continuing Assassin's Creed saga story as being the true worst of the worst ongoing narrative in gaming today.

I like AC2 and ACBro but the story itself is so comically awful at this point that I can't wait to see what shit they're going to throw in next. Is Obama the Illuminati alien heir to Minerva's ancient kingdom? Is Sarah Palin secretly controlling the economy using Abstergo as a cover? Is Julian Assange really working for the Assassin's? Did the Mayans have a temple on the sun that predicted the apocalypse is nigh in 2012? Is Desmond really going to fucking have to choke a bitch?

Stay tuned in the continuing tales of: "LACK OF SELF-RESTRAINT: WHY PUTTING ALL YOUR IDEAS TO PAPER IS NOT A GOOD IDEA" Part 4

The Assassin's Creed story is just like Lost; a series of hackneyed ideas hastily strewn together with no real meaning or depth. Questions are answers with more questions, and every major plot twist hinges on text book deus ex machina.

"But what will happen next?!". Angels could fly out of Desmond's arse to perform a Monty Python musical and it wouldn't be out of place.

Its absolutely god awful.

 

[legend166]

Is Vanquish's actually bad? It looked pleasantly insane to me.

I did skip a few cutscenes and not pay heaps of attention, because at the end of the day all I wanted to do was blow up robots (which was sufficiently awesome), but this is how I read it:

VANQUISH SPOILERS

Spoiler

At the beginning of the game some zombie iteration of the Soviet Union launches a big laser at San Francisco killing everyone and launch an invasion of some ring space colony or something. You fight through a bunch of Soviet robots with your old army buddy (I'm not sure if that's who he was, but whatever). You eventually get to the end and find out it was the American president who shot the laser with the help of some seperatist Soviets or some such, and was helped out by the old army buddy. She did this so she could start a war to save the economy. The next step was to fire the laser at Moscow I think. So the army buddy runs away to try and get to the launch console. You chase him and try to kill him. He reaches it, but there's some other Russians there (I wasn't sure who they were at this point) and they shot him, I think? Then, even though you were just trying to kill him seconds earlier, you have a touching heart to heart with the army buddy. You stop them launching the laser at Moscow and then fight some other Russian in a suit. and the game ends.

The final cut scene is the President of the USA shooting herself in the head. I'm not sure why. Maybe because her plan failed or something? I'm not even sure what her plan was.

I need to go read the wiki entry to find out if that's even correct now :lol

 

[Nasreddin]

Bayonetta (but the story doesn't hurt the game)

I thought Halo Reach had a weak story compared to the first three games. Not the worst, but imo the most disappointing in 2010.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Which is why I don't play the Ass Creed games because of all the criticism in the story.

I do want to check out Ass Creed 2 though since it's cheaper now. But I don't know if I can get into open-world games.

Maybe a rental.

 

[Amir0x]

The Assassin's Creed story is just like Lost; a series of hackneyed ideas hastily strewn together with no real meaning or depth. Questions are answers with more questions, and every major plot twist hinges on text book deus ex machina.

"But what will happen next?!". Angels could fly out of Desmond's arse to perform a Monty Python musical and it wouldn't be out of place.

Its absolutely god awful.

Absolutely true. I can't wait to see what they come up with for AC3.

For me, the Assassin's Creed draw is getting immersed in the time periods and trying to ignore the story/future shit. They create these really amazing open world cities that are quite fun to traverse. But that story... fuck me.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

I actually like the ridiculous conspiracy bullshit in Asscreed games. =/

Now I wanna buy N3 part 2 cause that cutscene made no sense at all.

 

[rollingstart]

Yup. Lots of troll posting in here, but Just Cause is probably as bad as it gets realistically. It isn't interesting, it doesn't make any sense, and there doesn't seem to be much of a point in following it at all.

Just Cause 2's story is never the main purpose of the game. At best it is to give context for why you're fighting ninja, or fighting baddies in a floating blimp club, or riding a missile. If you want, you can listen Bolo dropping sexual innuendos in a terrible accent, but you press a button, it is skipped, and you're onto the action. Also, the cutscenes are hardly serious.

Metroid Other M does not let you skip cutscenes. I can go on about how it takes itself seriously, has long cutscenes with some a dangerous mix of poor writing and poor acting, and how the cutscenes logic clashes with the mechanics in brain melting ways. But ultimately, you cannot ignore the story.

 

[Yoshiya]

I like AC2 and ACBro but the story itself is so comically awful at this point that I can't wait to see what shit they're going to throw in next. Is Obama the Illuminati alien heir to Minerva's ancient kingdom? Is Sarah Palin secretly controlling the economy using Abstergo as a cover? Is Julian Assange really working for the Assassin's? Did the Mayans have a temple on the sun that predicted the apocalypse is nigh in 2012? Is Desmond really going to fucking have to choke a bitch?

:lol

If there was one thing that left me bitter on AC2, it was that I resented being roped into every conspiracy theorist's wet dream.

 

[tokkun]

Mass Effect 2 is a pretty bizarre answer, IMO. Even if you felt like there wasn't a strong central plotline, the game at least had some interesting situations and characters and some fun dialog.

Compare that against something like Puzzle Quest 2, which is pretty much a G-rated retelling of the plot of the original Diablo.

 

[Y2Kev]

If you don't say Other M you must have forgotten playing it

Worst plotting ever, major plot points just dropped, garbage characters, garbage dialog, garbage everything.

 

[Amir0x]

If you don't say Other M you must have forgotten playing it

No way is it worse than Heavy Rain or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood!

It's bad, but on my top ten list of bad, it's like number six this year.

 

[LordPhoque]

Heavy Rain. Terrible writing.

 

[EatChildren]

Absolutely true. I can't wait to see what they come up with for AC3.

For me, the Assassin's Creed draw is getting immersed in the time periods and trying to ignore the story/future shit. They create these really amazing open world cities that are quite fun to traverse. But that story... fuck me.

See, I'm okay with some science fiction and crazy revisionist history. In theory I love the idea of visiting the past, witnessing historical events, and meeting historical characters. I like the idea of them interweaving some "No! This is how history REALLY happened!" into all of this, and I can dig the whole conspiracy thing.

The AC just does all of this so poorly its impossible to stomach. The first game really is the most simplistic yet absolute example of this terrible story telling; the whole game hypes up these mysterious organisations, this mystery you dont understand, and hidden agendas. All for what? A magical sphere that does...anything and everything you want it to do. It is, quite literally, deus ex machina written as a floating metal ball.

Look what you've done, gotten me all started on AC's story. Now I wont ever stop.

 

[Amir0x]

keep going! It's remarkable that such things get a free pass in this day and age. You make this big a deal out of the story I hope you have something to show for it, ya know?

I don't mind a little revisionist history either - in fact, a game probably DEMANDS it - but it's just there is no restraint. It is literally like they gave a seven year old a crayon a book of conspiracies and allowed him to trace lines to various points in history. Then, given how the red crayon markings linked up, the writers decided to arbitrarily give them significance.

DO YOU SEE THIS PAINTING? IT SORT OF LOOKS LIKE THAT IS AN APPLE, RIGHT? IT'S A PIECE OF EDEN, DUMBASS!

 

[Snuggles]

If you don't say Other M you must have forgotten playing it

Worst plotting ever, major plot points just dropped, garbage characters, garbage dialog, garbage everything.

The absolute worst thing about it was the fact that it was completely unnecessary.

I mean, really, who the hell wants an intrusive narrative in a Metroid game? The ridiculous, unskippable cutscenes just got in the way of the actual game, which is just about the worst thing they could do. Even if they didn't completely suck, they still would have detracted from my experience.

 

[jjasper]

While I do think Mass Effect 2's was incredibly disappointing I got to go with Metroid Other M just terrible in every sense.

 

[EatChildren]

DO YOU SEE THIS PAINTING? IT SORT OF LOOKS LIKE THAT IS AN APPLE, RIGHT? IT'S A PIECE OF EDEN, DUMBASS!

"What the hell is a Piece of Eden?!"
"WHATEVER THE PLOT NEEDS IT TO BE AT ANY POINT IN TIME"
"..."
"ALSO IT WAS MADE BY PAST FUTURE MAN"

 

[Confidence Man]

Mass Effect 2 is a pretty bizarre answer, IMO. Even if you felt like there wasn't a strong central plotline, the game at least had some interesting situations and characters and some fun dialog.

Doesn't make for a good story, especially for a game all about story.

 

[StuBurns]

The odd thing about this thread as appose to the 'positive' one, is games having shit for brains is the wide spread norm. The vast majority of games are very poorly written and have nothing to say. They're doom iteration with different skins.

It's hard to bag on a game for being shitty in that regard unless it's a disappointment because it's either a huge focus like Heavy Rain or a sequel and other entries were good.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Final Fantasy XIII


There are lots of inconsistencies, so for the sake of keeping the post short I will only list the stuff in the beginning and the ending, as well as only one of the characters.

Spoiler

One major one would be "How did Snow and Gadot survive a hundred foot drop onto a metal surface with barely a scratch?" This is even weirder because, after actually getting superpowers, Snow falls a shorter distance with multiple things between himself and the ground(which lower his downward velocity, and thus the force at which he hits the ground), and is completely fucked up because of it.

There's a minor one before it in which Lebreau is somehow able to assist Snow in battle even though she was clearly shown going in the complete opposite direction in order to escort the Pulse fugitives.

Another is "How did Lightning and Sazh get inside the Pulse Vestige?". Seriously; One minute they're on a suspended track far under the Vestige and the next they're just suddenly screwing about its entrance. Did Lightning gain the ability to teleport when nobody was looking?

This actually happens often in Cocoon, with characters suddenly skipping to absurd locations out of nowhere.

Immediately after that Lightning kindly asks the high tech door to open for her and it just does, kay.


Skipping past that, we have the ending. The first thing I'll say is that in an interview the devs actually admit they couldn't think of an ending and just threw one together after seeing the game's logo. Basically; after all of those scenes where the character go "We have to fight our fate/ we make our own destiny/ you evil bastards can't control us" your party proceeds to do exactly what the villain says. They only win in the end because a Deus Ex Machina saves them.

Thanks to horrible pacing and lots of filler, characters get very little development during the story, and some of it is just illogical.

Lightning(the main character) in particular gets an extremely short arc that culminates in her giving exposition on her entire, previously unexplained, back story and heavy handedly explaining what just happened; all this right after a typical shonen speech in which she instantly matures and becomes 100% self aware out of nowhere. From then on it's motivational speech after motivational speech.

 

[Neuromancer]

I know this is not going to win me any popularity contests but I'm going to go with Alan Wake. It started off fine but just got progressively dumber and less coherent as time went by, before finally fizzling out completely at the end. None of the characters were particularly likable but Barry stands out as being more obnoxious than your average sidekick:

Exhibit B: Barry Wheeler

Maybe it's not objectively the worst story of the year but it was the most disappointing to me personally. I had very high expectations for this game and felt very let down.

 

[Zapages]

PoP Forgotten Sands, there is nothing in the story minus trying to fix your brother's problem that he created.

 

[Empty]

hmm, well of what i played, vanquish had an terrible story but it made me laugh with ridiculous over the top lines like 'good thing i'm an atheist' and from what i read that was deliberate. so i'll probably go with ffxiii whose dreadful characterization, shocking dialogue and overdose of cheesy melodrama made me alternate between cringing and being awfully bored, plus i had no clue what was going on through the game without looking at the codex and even then i was often baffled. oh and it took up way more time in the game than in vanquish. so yeah, final fantasy xiii.

 

[Traumahound]

Stay tuned in the continuing tales of: "LACK OF SELF-RESTRAINT: WHY PUTTING ALL YOUR IDEAS TO PAPER IS NOT A GOOD IDEA" Part 4

That sounds like good advice.

On topic:

Metroid: Other M was horrific. I didn't (couldn't) even get very far into the game. The baby. Thumbs down. Just awful. I enjoyed this deconstruction of Other M's story.

 

[Bizzyb]

Yup. Lots of troll posting in here, but Just Cause is probably as bad as it gets realistically. It isn't interesting, it doesn't make any sense, and there doesn't seem to be much of a point in following it at all.

Spoiler

Some Dude kills his father, takes over the country, wants to conquer the world with his oil deposists. American sends in an undercover agent to get info on the Daddy Killer/steal his oil, agent then goes missing and is assumed rogue. American then sends in ANOTHER agent to find and/or kill the missing possible rogue agent, suspecting he has turned defector. Find out the rogue agent is NOT a defector and has actually been working with the locals to overthrow the Daddy Killing Dictator....blah blah Ninjas...Blah, Russians...Yadda China....Nuclear Submarines n shit....Surfing on Rockets (Air)...Blah blah save the world, get the babe.

Seriously, how can you NOT get it?

 

[Rahxephon91]

Nier. Terrible characters. Pathetic attempts at depth. Boring uneventful plot until the ending. Truly the most over hyped shit that ever shitted.

 

[luka]

Is there a video of this Other M "baby baby baby" thing? I'd love to know what everyone's talking about (without having to play it).

 

[Neuromancer]

Yup. Lots of troll posting in here, but Just Cause is probably as bad as it gets realistically. It isn't interesting, it doesn't make any sense, and there doesn't seem to be much of a point in following it at all.

I think there's something to be said for a dumb story that gets out of the way of the action. I thought the story in JC2 was better than most, for that reason.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Mass Effect's 2 wasn't bad, it just literally lost the plot.

That still makes it bad. Just not "outright fuck stupid" bad.



I'll probably return in an hour or so because I actually like going into detail as to why these are bad(because very few people really do).

I'm only up to 8 hours in FF13 so I can't say that.

Mass Effect 2 then. I'll probably give second(or first!) place to FF13 depending on what happens next.

The deal with ME2 is that for the most part I was just getting involved in everyone's little soap opera. By the time the end came around I had no real idea why I was picking a fight with a

Spoiler

giant T-800

.

Didn't you start XIII like a month ago? What happened?

 

[Kevtones]

Both Other M and Heavy Rain are FUCKING TERRIBLE when it comes to story but at least Other M's voice actors can actually speak the language they've been given.

Although, one might argue that the dialogue is SO FUCKING AWFUL in Heavy Rain, the voice actors were consciously mispronouncing words to improve the script and confuse people into liking it.

 

[~Kinggi~]

FF 13. Total crap. Makes Fable 3 look like an Oscar contender.

 

[Gileadxv]

Final Fantasy XIII's story is particularly bad, but since everyone is gonna list it, I just want to highlight the continuing Assassin's Creed saga story as being the true worst of the worst ongoing narrative in gaming today.

I like AC2 and ACBro but the story itself is so comically awful at this point that I can't wait to see what shit they're going to throw in next. Is Obama the Illuminati alien heir to Minerva's ancient kingdom? Is Sarah Palin secretly controlling the economy using Abstergo as a cover? Is Julian Assange really working for the Assassin's? Did the Mayans have a temple on the sun that predicted the apocalypse is nigh in 2012? Is Desmond really going to fucking have to choke a bitch?

Stay tuned in the continuing tales of: "LACK OF SELF-RESTRAINT: WHY PUTTING ALL YOUR IDEAS TO PAPER IS NOT A GOOD IDEA" Part 4

I LOVED AC2Bro, it really surprised me with the amount of content it had. I can't think of another game that has gotten me so enthralled in a historical setting and really sold me on the time period, architecture, culture, etc. With that said, the future story with Desmond is God awful! It feels almost insultingly juvenile and trite. Listening to the audio logs, etc. within the subject 16 puzzles was just wretched. It tries to paint such a complex and overarching conspiracy, yet lays a foundation based on crude, two dimensional stereotypes and notions of "The Man" and big business, etc.

I don't know if AC2Bro is my vote for worst story of the year, but for such an amazing game, Desmond's story misses the ledge and falls flat on its face.

I also feel that calling ME2 the most disappointing story of 2010 is pretty disingenuous. It may not build up to it's full scope and potential (although the last third of the game was pretty intense), but it is no where near the dregs of 2010.

 

[Patryn]

While I'm definitely one of the greatest detractors of Mass Effect 2's story, I wouldn't necessarily call it the WORST, unless you're only talking the CORE storyline (that is

Spoiler

Cerberus base, Freedom's Progress, Horizon, Collector Ship, Suicide Mission

.)

Definitely most disappointing and pointless, though.

 

[Discotheque]

Bayonetta. It was just annoying to get through those cutscenes sometimes. Thank God the gameplay was so good and there was a skip feature

 

[tino]

Final Fantasy Thirteen.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Didn't you start XIII like a month ago? What happened?

I play 2600 games at the same time(and no I ain't talking about Atari).
Getting there though. I just beat uh...Odin.

 

[Diebuster]

Enslaved. Predictable every step of the way, except for the ending which was just goddamn stupid. Characters were cliches lacking development.

 

[Y2Kev]

Both Other M and Heavy Rain are FUCKING TERRIBLE when it comes to story but at least Other M's voice actors can actually speak the language they've been given.

No they can't.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Is there a video of this Other M "baby baby baby" thing? I'd love to know what everyone's talking about (without having to play it).

For one, this is the only song on Samus' ipod: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9E3VR8Fnj0

 

[Blackace]

FFXIII, Dead Rising 2, and Lost Planet 2...

Dead Rising 2 was campy in a good way..

FFXIII did everything bad and Lost Planet was just a mess

 

[K.Jack]

Yay opportunity for people to troll Mass Effect 2! Clearly the WORST story of 2010. Mmmhmmm.

Since I'm the only one here who's played Front Mission Evolved, I have an insight into bad story, which the rest of you just won't understand.

 

[TheFLYINGManga_Ka]

Does Alan Wake have a bad story? I know it's confusing but is it bad?

 

[EatChildren]

I also feel that calling ME2 the most disappointing story of 2010 is pretty disingenuous. It may not build up to it's full scope and potential (although the last third of the game was pretty intense), but it is no where near the dregs of 2010.

Its hardly in the ballpark of worst stories of 2010, sure, but for many it was still disappointing.

As I've said many times, I loved the individual character stories. They were a huge improvement over the first game. The self contained plots of each character were really awesome.

But the main plot? Its like BioWare had a checklist of "THINGS A GOOD STORY MUST HAVE" and just dumped it in the trash. It like all the little ideas and twists (yes, I quite like the

Spoiler

Human Reaper

concept, even if it did look stupid), but the execution stunk of a team that ran out of time. They spent all their time on these individual stories they forgot the main plot hardly existed, and stitched something together the best they could.

I mean, the fact it has at least one glaring plot hole and inconstancy indicates something went wrong. Either they forgot, which is bad form, or they ran out of time, which is poor management.