Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

[Cebby]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

The one that I find amazing is GTA4. So many people listed this game as one of the biggest disappointments of the decade. Seriously? I think there were far more games hyped up that didn't deliver as much as GTA4 did. It's only rated as the second best game of all time next to Ocarina of Time, according to review averages on Gamerankings.com. Sure, it maybe got slightly higher scores than it deserved, but don't see how every single review site is wrong. As a whole, it was recognized as being one of the greatest games ever. I suppose that will always bring haters around. Not to mention, a lot of people just don't like the GTA style games to begin with, since the market of open-world games has been so saturated.

Did you read this through before you posted it?

1. If a game is the ranked the "greatest game of all time", anyone who only finds it good is going to be disappointing. Personally, I'd give the game an 8.5 or 9, but that's mostly for technical achievements.

2. I don't see how anyone can think GTA4 is significantly better than Saint's Row. SR did a lot of things better and the customization should definitely have been implemented into GTA.

3. Rankings these days deal far more with hype than they did 10 years ago. The rush to release "exclusive" early reviews has led to a shoddy job of reviewing games and inflated scores. Of the "big" games this generation, I think most can agree that MGS4, GTA4, and Halo 3 aren't deserving of their scores compared to previous entries in the series.

[Salhus]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

I know im going to get chewed out because of my list but:

1-Modern Warfare 2 *For a game that had 2 years to be developed to be released with some insane ballance issues and glitches is unforgiveable. To have 2 years and only add a couple of new things to it just totally pissed me off.*

Erroneous!! Erroneous on all accounts!

[Candyman5]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

Erroneous!! Erroneous on all accounts!

Hey thats my oppinion....Even if I had to look up that word on google.

[Misfit]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

I know some of these are piling on, but I'm going to list them anyways. Also, disappointing does not necessarily mean bad. I, like many, am going to include Grand Theft Auto 4 on my list of disappointments but not because its a bad game, it just didn't live up to the expectations and standards of the series. Ok, so on with it...


Grand Theft Auto IV - As I mentioned above, mostly because it just didn't meet the standards of the franchise. Yes it looked better, it drove better, the production values were pretty good, but it didn't really play better. Rockstar decided to make it almost too realistic, gone were the video game qualities that the series was popular for (weapons laying about parks randomly, rampages, odd power-ups, etc.) and I just didn't find the story too compelling. I wanted to feel like I had some control over how Niko progressed and evolved but I didn't. Also why the down-sized roster of vehicles? No airplanes of any kind felt like a cash-grab for Rockstar as they use that as the selling point for the eventual Grand Theft Auto V.

Blizzard - Financially, not a disappointment thanks to World of Warcraft, but come on Blizzard, only one real-time strategy game in the decade?! Warcraft III and that was it. No Starcraft II in the decade (and don't get me started on how they're releasing that one) or Diablo III either or any new IP's outside of those. This company gets so many free passes from the general public and media that its surprising when one actually looks at the body of work over a ten year period. Starcraft Ghost looked promising, but Blizzard failed to produce anything there as well.

Final Fantasy XII - I'm tempted to put Square-Enix here but really the Enix side of things had a great decade. The Square side, not so much. Final Fantasy X was excellent, and XII sounded awesome, but when push came to shove it really was one of the most forgettable Final Fantasy games since the NES era. The level-up system made every character the same, the plot was boring, the characters even more boring, and the more action influenced battle system proved shallow when compared to older ones. I'm all for Square-Enix changing things up, but when they aren't changed for the better they don't work. Critics seemed to love it though...

Xenosaga - Xenogears is my favorite game of all time. If you haven't played it and like JRPG's find a copy. The creator of that game left Squaresoft in the late 90's to form Monolith Studios and together with Namco made this spiritual successor to Xenogears. What was originally intended to be as many as 6 games ended up as three. The first one was so lacking that I never played Episodes II and III. It wasn't a bad game, it just didn't possess the depth that Xenogears had in both gameplay and narrative. I wasn't expecting anything to match Xenogears, but something comparable would have been nice. Thankfully, I have backwards compatible PS3 and my copy of Xenogears still hanging around.

Twisted Metal Franchise - Twisted Metal Black came out in 2001 and was instantly the best game on the PS2. Sales were good, critical reception was excellent, and yet here we are in 2010 and nothing has been officially announced in regards to another entry in the series. The PSP did get a solid remake of Twisted Metal 2 but that hardly qualifies as a new game. Hopefully this next decade includes a Twisted Metal that's worth the wait.

Madden NFL Football - It's almost not worth even commenting on this. The franchise is tired and needs to be blown up but as long as people keep lining EA's pockets with cash nothing is going to change. I blame everybody who actually buys this shoddy product for its continued ineptitude more than I blame EA at this point.

Fable - The game that was going to usher in a new era of open-world gameplay ended up being Golden Axe in 3D. Maybe that's too harsh, but for such a hyped game it was remarkably simple. I suppose that's the marketing department's fault more than the game's. I think the sequel was better received simply because it wasn't hyped to the same degree, even if it still failed to live up to the lofty expectations set forth by the original.

Shenmue - Same as above really, only this one wasn't even allowed to finish its story. I'm surprised Sega never tried to finish the story with a multi-platform release but then again, Sega also didn't get much right this decade.

Sonic the Hedgehog - He was second only to Mario in terms of exposure and reputation in the 90's, but in the 00's he was a punch-line. Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast was new and flashy enough that people were willing to forgive its flaws when it came along in 1999, but when Sega failed to address any of those flaws in the countless other 3D Sonic titles released following Sonic Adventure it became a joke. You couldn't pay me to play a Sonic title on a home console this generation.

Legacy of Kain Series - Almost forgotten now, but at the turn of the decade this was a hot franchise. The original Blood Omen was crude even by 1996 standards (the load times make the game impossible to play today) but the setting and plot were awesome. Soul Reaver stole the show when the game went to an adventure styled presentation with the fallen vampire Raziel as the protagonist. Soul Reaver 2 was a much anticipated and often delayed sequel that failed to meet expectations. Sure the block puzzles were removed but the combat was neutered and epic boss encounters were hard to come by. The sequel to Blood Omen was a bust of a title and the (so far) final game in the series was clunky and rushed. With vampires suddenly in vogue these days maybe the series will have a comeback but what once looked promising is now all but gone.

[Cebby]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

Xenosaga - Xenogears is my favorite game of all time. If you haven't played it and like JRPG's find a copy. The creator of that game left Squaresoft in the late 90's to form Monolith Studios and together with Namco made this spiritual successor to Xenogears. What was originally intended to be as many as 6 games ended up as three. The first one was so lacking that I never played Episodes II and III. It wasn't a bad game, it just didn't possess the depth that Xenogears had in both gameplay and narrative. I wasn't expecting anything to match Xenogears, but something comparable would have been nice. Thankfully, I have backwards compatible PS3 and my copy of Xenogears still hanging around.

I completely forgot about this.

Xenogears is probably my favorite JRPG, and I remember giving up on Xenosaga after about two hours. Eventually I came back and finished it, only to give up on episode 2 just as quick.

I still have a sealed Episode III lying around somewhere in my parents' house. Xenogears gripped me from beginning to end, but I remember Saga waiting until about half way through for me to start caring and by the start of Episode II I was back to not caring at all.

The battle system in Gears is probably my favorite of any JRPG (granted, that's not saying much at all) and the story was incredible. As you said, Saga was fine, but it was like FFXII, MGS2, and GTA4; they were good, but compared to their predecessors, they were seriously lacking.

[raz77]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

I agree with GTA4. You only need to put the added feature list next to a list of things that were scrapped since SA to see why.

[Bellsprout]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

Sonic the Hedgehog - He was second only to Mario in terms of exposure and reputation in the 90's, but in the 00's he was a punch-line. Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast was new and flashy enough that people were willing to forgive its flaws when it came along in 1999, but when Sega failed to address any of those flaws in the countless other 3D Sonic titles released following Sonic Adventure it became a joke. You couldn't pay me to play a Sonic title on a home console this generation.

I would agree with all that. If Sega really gives a damn about fixing Sonic and returning those games to glory they'll look at New Super Mario Bros. Wii and see how a side scrolling game in the same vein as games from the early '90s can still be incredibly fun. I'd love it if they'd rewind the whole series and go back to Genesis era Sonic, just with updates that modernize the game without taking away the spirit of fun. That's what New Super Mario did and if you ask me that's one fantastic game.

[Tommyklaid]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

#1. NFL Licensing - HANDS DOWN the most disappointing thing to happen to sports gaming...verrrry smart by EA though! Competition pushes other developers to one-up the other guy, so it hurt both EA and 2K. With many wanting 2K to get back in the game in a few years who knows if that will happen...in all honesty, I think it would be for the BEST for 2K to get back in the game (even if it pushes EA back to the top)

#2. Madden next-gen - again, Madden led the football world in the 90's, but with the production of "next-generation football gaming" (when we abruptly saw the Eagles next-gen trailor) we were all excited, but when the game FINALLY released it looked nothing like the trailer disappointing us all.

#3. X-Box 360 (ROD's) - vastly disappointing was the fact that every time you turned on your console you were "praying" you wouldn't see those little-red-lights. The PS3 (although louder and hotter) never had such problems...sorry Microsoft.

#4. NBA Live - definitely was the best NBA games to play in the 90's on my SNES, but madly disappointing after 2K took over the NBA world.

#5. Twisted Metal - this game absolutely owned my life for a few years...I played this game with my buddy for sooo long....pleeeeease bring it back!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gibbz]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

The sequel to Blood Omen was a bust of a title and the (so far) final game in the series was clunky and rushed.

Blood Omen 2 was one of my favorite games for the PS2.

[Salhus]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

Hey thats my oppinion....Even if I had to look up that word on google.

Haha, nice

[Skyboxer]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

Hey thats my oppinion....Even if I had to look up that word on google.

Shouldn't have stopped there... In my opinion....



For me it's not even remotely close:
The lack of any major advancement in football games.
I could name other things here and there (Like no print ability yet on PS3 or 360 for sports games etc..) but the main one for me is football.

[Dez]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

The GameCube.

[BLACKJ414]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

1. Every single next gen football game created
2. Xbox 360 reliability issues

[BengalTiger]

Re: Biggest Disappointments of the Decade

1. Death/Lack of Support of the Dreamcast

2. Death of the good combat Flight Sims. (Janes)

3. Decline of online gaming. Overrun by internet tough guys, elitests, racists etc.

4. Pretty much every football game post 05 version.

5. MLB/NFL exclusive licenses.

6. The Wii

7. Overall arrogance of the gaming industry. Poor beta testing (if any), worry about patching things later mentality.

8. Paying 60 dollars for games that take me <10 hours to complete.

9. Micro$oft quickly dumping the Xbox 1 in the 360 world. I wish they would have kept it going longer like Sony is with the PS2.