Biggest disappointment of 2011

[R.O.A]

Shogun 2, for the hilariously broken late game realm divide mechanics and arcadified gameplay.

Can you or someone elaborate on this? I have been considering getting into this game and don't know much about it yet. Ive played Rome but I haven't tried any of the other titles.

[AniThyng]

Shogun 2, for the hilariously broken late game realm divide mechanics and arcadified gameplay.

Can you or someone elaborate on this? I have been considering getting into this game and don't know much about it yet. Ive played Rome but I haven't tried any of the other titles.

Well basically Realm Divide is a mechanic to simulate an inevitable final conflict where the other clans band together to stop you from taking the shouganate. It's not a bad idea but the implementation is so ham fisted, given a short time everyone, even weak vassal clans and loyal allies will mindlessly go to war with you. And of course everyone stops going to war with each other. And it's not even all that late game, and wastes all the diplomatic effort and alliance/counter alliance stuff that goes on earlier. There aremods to mitigate this but it's not perfect. Been a while since i played so I don't know if they fixed it.


As for the arcadified gameplay, well, people walk very very fast and the battle pacing is way too fast in vanilla. If you are used to Rome or even Med 2 you'll notice it.

It's a shame really because other than that it is quite pretty to look at and the overland mechanics and diplomacy are much improved.

[Edward Yee]

Brink was a $60 encyclopedia of problems other companies solved during the past 10 years. There really are no redeeming qualities.

It's not that there are no redeeming qualities, it's that "what redeeming qualities it does have only heighten the disappointment." Heck, I had a guy who'd played it uninstall it after the free weekend only to admit that were it not for a few things (and the presumable post-free weekend player base die-off) he would have snapped it right up at the 75% discount, and he even then asked me if I knew of any other games like BRINK, by which he meant a team-based shooter but with an active fanbase... unfortunately he hates TF2, BF3 is out of his price range and I'm not sure that there's enough people left playing RO2 to try to sell him on that. Apparently quite a few people also did feel "$5 is about right" enough to hop on the discount too, so it definitely seems to have a lot less negative feedback from those trying out, or rather who weren't around when it was even worse.

Well, well, well. No sooner was Brink mentioned in this thread than it popped up on Steam, with a weekend of free play on offer, and a 75% discount for anyone who would actually want to buy it! I guess someone at Valve read this thread and decided to give us the opportunity to experience the disappointment first-hand.

In fairness, my understanding is that the Agents of Change DLC maps (Labs and Founders' Tower) are actually better than the vanilla game's maps, it's just that:
#1: They came way too late to turn the tide, just like the patches (to weapons balance that is -- I don't believe the maps or other issues will ever be fixed), and
#2: The plan where the DLC would be free for the first two weeks only to shoot up to US$9.99 afterward? Practically an insult to what remained of the community, and this only reinforced suspicions that the devs had gone straight from finalizing the game's release build to working on the DLC instead of actually supporting the game.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations was probably the most disappointing game I played. I was expecting it to be roughly the same as AssBros in terms of quality, but it obviously had shit dummied out (like essentially all the Desmond stuff) and the way the game was paced wasn't as carefully put together as AssBros, where there was a sort of natural progression through the side missions that opened up with the central plot. It refined some stuff like Notoriety and movement to a better point than in the previous games, but there was something unpolished about it, and Istanbul was really disappointing after the really beautiful Rome. Like the architecture was there, but there was this brown haze that did it no favours.

Honestly I didn't mind the architecture of Constantinople even compared to Rome, since I was perfectly aware that a good bit of Rome was rural areas or outright deserted and that the urban environments that set up the series' free-running are mostly in the Centro and Vaticano Districts -- read: almost all in northwestern Rome, and there is some urban variety... I have yet to try free-running through the Grand Bazaar but I'm looking forward to it, and even in the more "regular" areas the hookblade is just so much fun! I definitely feel that the regular enemies are more of a combat challenge, and it's legitimately refreshing!

A shame that the writing was such a HORRENDOUS letdown, with everything from:Spoiler

having Lucy dead and buried in a throwaway line so bad that I'm rooting for any way that they can bring her back, to Subject 16's utter lack of "revelations," to Ezio's writing in the story, and that's even before we get into the Desmond "revelations" just being him narrating his past before his captivity by Abstergo

You had the moments where Ubisoft was clearly pandering to the fans in a good way (can you say "The Prince's Banquet"?), but there were just moments where I just can't see how they thought the fans would take it well, or at least "as written" it comes off as ham-fisted, especially compared to other parts or even previous Assassin's Creed writing.

[Darksider]

I can't really say I was disappointed by much this year, because I honestly didn't have very high expectations. The story and pacing of Gears 3 was kind of a let down after Dom's death, but Karen Traviss being the writer actually led me to expect something much worse. Other than that, every game i've played has pretty much met my expectations, but only because my expectations weren't very high.

[TronPaul]

My biggest disappointment this year was World of Tanks. I love the game, its so much fun. It makes it all the more frustrating when the developers make so many stupid decisions. First they only allowed paying users to form groups in a self-subscribed free to play game (they switched a few months after release). Their idea of balancing coupled with the matchmaker is a joke. There are certain tanks that are unfun to play in their tier and especially when up against tanks of higher tiers (I'm looking at you Hetzer). These problems are much more unbearable with patch delays (months of them) and poor developer communication and PR (the matchmaker is "working as intended")

This game could be so much more fun and have a much larger player base but the developers have shot themselves in the foot. It's almost as if they ignored games like League of Legends or TF2 which have done free to play right and have made an obscene amount of money.

[Edward Yee]

I can't really say I was disappointed by much this year, because I honestly didn't have very high expectations. The story and pacing of Gears 3 was kind of a let down after Dom's death, but Karen Traviss being the writer actually led me to expect something much worse. Other than that, every game i've played has pretty much met my expectations, but only because my expectations weren't very high.

Wait wait wait, she didn't just do the bootleg-Gurkhas, she actually got to write one of the games too?? This is right up there with ACR in "I'd rather read fanfiction/accept certain fanon than accept this as canon" in video game storyline writing.

[houser2112]

I have to agree with those who've said Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Typo, or sarcasm?

[Stark]

Wait wait wait, she didn't just do the bootleg-Gurkhas, she actually got to write one of the games too?? This is right up there with ACR in "I'd rather read fanfiction/accept certain fanon than accept this as canon" in video game storyline writing.

They let her insert all her novel characters (even the one that is transparently a self-insert) and used them to fuck up the existing characters.

Trescu? From the OIR? OH YEAH THOSE GUYS LOL!

[weemadando]

Tyler Barber puts Skyrim on blast.

I agree. It shouldn't get GotY buzz - what other devs gets praise for busted arse games every time?

[Dread Not]

I haven't played most of the games others have listed, but my personal pick for most disappointing has to be Uncharted 3. While I had a lot of problems with the story in Uncharted 2, I otherwise thought it was a damn solid game in terms of gameplay. During the months leading up to the release of Uncharted 3 I was fairly apathetic since it didn't look like they would be making many improvements to the gameplay.

Then I started hearing the critical and fan reception that gave me the impression that the story was a massive improvement over the last game. Character back-stories and motivations would be revealed. Attention would be called to Drake's character flaws, like how he'll put himself and his friends through hell and gun down hundreds of people in the pursuit of material wealth, or how he'll run across a battlefield snapping people's necks while flippantly quipping and laughing like a psychopath. Some even said they got teary-eyed.

So did the game deliver? Fuck no. It's a shallow, fluff-filled popcorn adventure story of the same level of quality as the PotC sequels, just like the last two games. There are only two or three moments in the story where Drake's motivations are called into question, and they are quickly handwaved away and never mentioned again.

The only interesting revelation is that Spoiler

Nathan Drake isn't his real name and that he has totally fabricated his identity as the descendent of Sir Francis Drake.

But this too is never mentioned again and doesn't come to any resolution. Drake is the exact same person at the end of the game. These moments can be totally excised from the story and nothing would be lost.

The story isn't the only problem. The pacing is all over the place. The strongest elements of the series are the action setpieces and gunplay complimented by platforming. So why do you have to go through four chapters before you even get a gun? It takes even longer before you get into a real gunfight, and even longer still to get to a decent setpiece. For enormous chunks of the game you are taken away from the shooting to engage in platforming, puzzle, or "storytelling" sequences. The platforming isn't bad, but it's very light on challenge and is more enjoyable when it is complimenting the shooting sections. The puzzles are also decent, but far too frequent and eventually get quite tiresome. In the "storytelling" sequences you basically just wander at a very slow pace from point A to point B with no challenge whatsoever, and unlike a cutscene, these can't be skipped. The most obnoxious of these is a bit where Drake spends what feels like ten minutes tiptoeing through a desert. There were similar sequences in Uncharted 2, but they were less frequent and vapid and served to bring some variety to the experience and slow down the pacing instead of outright killing it. The same can be said for the puzzles and platforming.

Then there are the issues with the controls. There have been numerous tweaks to the melee and other systems which really just make everything overly and unnecessarily complicated, and really don't add anything to the fun-factor. Tons of people including myself have also complained about issues with the aiming which were simply not there before, though fortunately those have been fixed with a patch.

Despite my lengthy rant on all the things wrong with this game, I still enjoyed it, but wish I hadn't paid full price for it.

[HMS Sophia]

My biggest disappointment this year was probably fear 3. While I loved the co-op, the story felt a bit weak, until the ending, and the game-play was supremely biased towards the fettle player.
Point man was normal toughness, had a life bar, and could shoot people. He could also get in mechs.
Fettle was tough, had a life bar that regenerated every time he possessed a person or left a possessed body, could possess people in order to use guns and mechs, and could throw explosive barrels and grenades around with his mind.
It made getting the point man ending a case of me stopping myself from killing people and completing challenges because it leant so heavily in fettles favour, and we wanted that ending, so playing through it again i basically hung back and helped on bosses and such.

The story was okay, it certainly wasn't as good as it had been previously, and it certainly wasn't as god at drawing the player in and scaring them shitless as the first or even the second had been.

It was an alright shooter with a good ending... thats about it.

[DaveJB]

An additional entry from me - the PC version of Arkham City, thanks to the horrible DX11 codepath, and probably the most overly-complex bullshit DRM system since the abortion that Ubisoft tried to foist off on us last year. I nearly ended up buying it myself, until I experienced the horrors first-hand on a friend's PC. A shame really, because it otherwise would probably have been the best version of the game.

I have to agree with those who've said Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Typo, or sarcasm?

Call it a Freudian Slip. Ironically, many of the problems I had with Human Revolution are ones that I vaguely remember existing in Invisible War, though I'm not exactly in any hurry to try that one out again.

[aieeegrunt]

Biggest disappointment for me by a landslide was the campaign of Gears 3. I had to force myself to play it, and the two people most looking forward to it; my wife, and my best friend, both bailed on it half way through. Horde is spectacular though, it was worth buying the game just for that.

[Havok]

Honorable Mention: The Force Unleashed II
Not anything really bad to say about it other than it was waaaaaaay to fucking short. I mean, you went to like three places in the whole Star Wars galaxy, and while they looked great, there needed to be more of them. I don't mind the "What If" aspect of the story line, or the complete ridiculousness of what Starkiller can do and I like that the main is all "Fuck your stupid rebellion, I just want my girl back!!", but yeah, way to short. It almost felt like DLC to the first one, more than it's own game.

3rd Runner Up: Madden 12
The game is markedly better, yet, it still falls so short of what it should be at this point.
Still running on an animation trigger system instead of actual physics based engine.
Weight and size still seem to have little to no impact on the game, which when talking about football, is down right ridiculous.

You guys think having writers that don't play video games is bad? Try designers that have never played football. It is, no pun intended, maddening.
Offense is easy to fake knowledge of for the most part as it is what pretty much everyone focuses on and talks about. Defense on the other hand... if you haven't played it, or played against it, you can't fake knowledge and understanding of it.

Hell, the only reason they have different systems on offense is, I'm assuming, Madden, or one of his consultants, says, "Put this play in this play book." as it is obvious that when they have two playbooks and one is labeled "West Coast" and one is labeled "Pass Heavy" they have no clue what they are doing.

So when I see the defensive scheme options are once again listed as "4-3", "3-4" and "46"*, I know it is going to be another disappointing year.

* The 46 defense hasn't NEVER been used prominently by more than two teams and then only for a couple of years as it is a high talent based system, i.e., you need multiple Hall of Fame type players to run it successfully for any length of time, which is why the Bears only won a single Superbowl utilizing it as it requires a level of play from said players that is impossible to maintain for more than a season or two.

Don't get me started on the defensive AI, or the lack thereof.

Penalties? They can be summed up by "clipping" and "roughing the passer".

The franchise mode is improved, but is still lacking so many options, and sadly and frustratingly, some that the game used to have. The team creator/editor system is still using the same info (team names, logos) from like three or four years ago. There are no coach editing options, and again backtracking on features, only the head coaches this year have bio pictures.

They are sorta on the right track, and the developers sorta have a dialogue and listen to the fans, which is unique to the yearly sports games I think, but I would rather that they didn't talk to a single game fan and just got some guys in there that actually know football and could get a new engine for the game.

2nd Runner Up: L.A. Noir
Beautiful looking game. Great character models and acting. The facial capture was top notch.

Now, press A until you solve the case.

That really sums it up. They dropped the ball big time here. Either they dropped it by not advertising the "game" as an interactive movie, or they dropped it by forget to NOT make it an interactive movie. It is about as rigid a game as I have played.

The cars were fun and it became a game itself to not destroy the crap out of the city while driving around.

Lack of options, lack of options, lack of options. How are you going to have a period piece like this and not let me use my hero status to bang broads and dames? I can't pick out my own fucking hat? I want to be able to take bribes and buy a mansion where I can store all my secret cars.

I mean, I get what they were doing, I think, but this should have been Grand Theft Row: 1950s!

1st Runner Up: Fable III
What a waste of time.

The story was lame, with a lame "enemy". The build up to becoming King/Queen was boring and predictable and the events after you became King/Queen were even worse. As with all three games, there is no threat of death so there is no tension and the novelty of the game itself has worn thin.

The dress up was horrible, the holding hands feature was dumb and a waste of time. It once again was too easy to own the WHOLE WORLD, (Why would you need to be King/Queen when you already owned everything?)

Just an all around let down with nothing that really improves on the previous game. And if memory serves, I liked Fable I the best of the three so far.

Winner and Most Disappointing Game of the Year: Alpha Protocol 2
Man, what a good game this could have been with a great foundation in AP1.

Improved graphics and combat.
Refining the upgrade system to remove the game breaking stealth and pistol.
Adding a fourth or even a fifth conversation path/spy personality helping to establish an even deeper morality system. Bond, Bauer, Bourne, Garek (Devious), Harry Tasker (Heroic) and the bonus option, Sterling Archer (AWESOME)
Oh, the dressup that would have been added. Hawaiian shirts. Tuxedos. Leather jackets. Fedoras.
Ahh, the return of Heck.
5-6 new intertwining locations and pimpin' safe houses.
The all new travel system that features boats, cars, motorcycles and helicopters.
More chicks to do it with.
The option to be a female agent and turn the whole genre on it's head.
Making it an open world game with Assassin's Creed type movement and Gears type combat.

The biggest disappointment though, is the lack of influence a second, polished, well reviewed APII: Heck Strikes Back, might have had on the genre.
*sigh*

[Julhelm]

Since noone else has I'll just mention the utterly pathetic disaster that was IL-2 Cliffs of Dover.

[HMS Sophia]

Since noone else has I'll just mention the utterly pathetic disaster that was IL-2 Cliffs of Dover.

What was wrong with it. I loved sturmovich...

[weemadando]

Short version?

Buggy as a motherfucker.

[Julhelm]

Short version?

Buggy as a motherfucker.

I'd say totally unplayable and blatantly not finished. When a game ships with what is obviously placeholder sounds and sound engine you know it's bad.

[Zaune]

For me it was the preview video for "X-COM". Now, I've been wanting an X-COM FPS ever since I played the original game, but I was hoping for... well, an FPS based on X-COM. Leave the between-mission parts more or less the same, maybe giving air intercepts a bit of an overhaul, and then switch over to a squad-based FPS patterned somewhat after the Rainbow Six series but with procedurally-generated maps.

What we got... Well, I could have about forgiven them the in-name-only plot; if you squint a bit it looks like an Elseworld where the enemies from the third game happen upon Earth first and tip their hand to the US military at a time when there's no prospect of a joint effort between NATO and the rest of the world. But then they went off and combined said in-name-only plot with in-name-only gameplay, and powerfully average gameplay at that; mostly-linear campaign, seemingly equally-linear levels if that preview video is any guide, generic "press X to hack turret" mechanics... Basically, everything that puts me off most FPS games.

[Julhelm]

Basically, everything that puts me off most AAA games.

Corrected for you

[Edward Yee]

Havok, there was an Alpha Protocol 2??

[The Grim Squeaker]

Havok, there was an Alpha Protocol 2??

no.

[CaptHawkeye]

Havok, there was an Alpha Protocol 2??

[Stofsk]

Havok, there was an Alpha Protocol 2??

I'll take 'What is the biggest gaming disappointment of 2011' for $1000, Trebek.

[Edward Yee]

Havok, there was an Alpha Protocol 2??

no.

Just checking, thanks.