Sunday 1 May 2011

worst games of 2010!

The 10 most disappointing games of 2010

APB
APB ... promised so much, but scuppered by technical difficulties and hubris
Alan Wake (Remedy Entertainment, Xbox 360)
This noir-esque "psychological action thriller" from Max Payne
developer Remedy emerged blinking into the sunlight after no less
than five years of development and vast hype. But despite its inclusion in the Guardian's Top 20 Games of 2010, I felt that a mediocre game hid beneath its pretentious literary epidermis. Sure, it was atmospheric, scary and cinematic, but it didn't half rub your face in it with a smug sense of self-satisfaction. The fight scenes were repetitive, the hyper-addictive gameplay that made Max Payne so special was nowhere in evidence, and between action sections you were force-fed vast chunks of sludgy and cliché-ridden story in video or sometimes even text format. In trying too hard to be an interactive literary experience, it totally forgot that it was supposed to be a game. Or even fun.
Alpha Protocol (Obsidian Entertainment, PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
Ugly and generic to look at, and annoying to play, this RPG from the makers of Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights and Fallout: New Vegas completely failed to live up to its pedigree. The concept was unusual and interesting, and there were a few genuinely neat touches sprinkled around. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else about it let it down, especially the clunky combat and the ludicrous AI.
APB: All Points Bulletin (Realtime Worlds, PC)
Basically Grand Theft Auto, except online and massively multiplayer. How could any developer possibly screw that up? Well, APB, in planning since as early as 2005, and a long-time pipedream of GTA lead developer David Jones, comprehensively answered that question. The driving dynamics were appalling: buggy, unsatisfying and constantly irritating. Gunfights weren't much better, and while occasionally completing missions with big groups of friends could be satisfying, the gameplay mechanics hamstrung the experience. After a very poor public and critical response, APB was shut down in September, about three months after it was launched. It may reappear in 2011 as a free-to-play, but it is more likely that it has been flushed for good.
Clash of the Titans (Game Republic, Xbox 360, PS3)
Developer Game Republic pretty much went at the God of War franchise with tracing paper to make this. It is therefore a mystery to me how they managed to miss God of War's fun factor by a matter of miles. Combat was fiddly and complicated and repetitive and frankly terrible, the story felt like a child's My First Greek Myths And Legends book translated from the original Greek by someone who didn't speak Greek with no interest in Greek myths or legends, or writing of any kind, and the characters were blander than homeopathic soup.
Dark Void (Airtight Games, PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
This game had a very promising idea: a 1930s-era fighter pilot gets sucked into an alternative reality through the Bermuda Triangle and finds a jet pack. Unfortunately, everything about the execution of this sub-par shooter just lacked spark. It purloined bits from much better games – the jungle from Uncharted 2, the cover mechanism from Gears of War – but then clumsily ruined them all, amalgamating them into a single messy lump.
Fighters Uncaged (AMA Studios, Xbox 360 Kinect)
Remember all that fuss about Kinect changing the way we interact with games forever? Well, this lame beat-'em-up showed that we shouldn't always believe the marketing. Buggy, agonisingly slow to respond and unsatisfying when your movements finally translated to the screen, it was a total let-down. To add insult to considerable injury, it was also cursed with one of the worst soundtracks any game has ever had, and its lack of any multiplayer – a beat-'em-up without a multiplayer! – was the icing on the cowpat.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (EA Bright Light Studio, PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
A change of direction from the previous games led EA's Bright Light Studio to stray from its comfort zone, and it showed. Buggy, difficult to control and packed with side-missions that were poorly-disguised filler, its attempt to become more of a darker, combat-oriented game floundered helplessly on poor combat, worse duck-and-cover mechanics, and level design that it would be charitable to call uninspired. It doesn't help that there's also a Lego Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows coming out, which is probably going to blow this completely out of the water with all the usual Lego-y brilliance.
Iron Man 2 (Sega Studios San Fransisco, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
This execrable game wins extra disappointment points for having two battle-suits on the box and then failing to provide a multiplayer: just an alternate suit to play the one-player mode with. Not that a two-player option would have rescued Iron Man 2. This charmless – in fact, spectacularly dreadful – movie tie-in actually managed to screw up in every category: controls, combat, movement, camera, graphics and story (despite a stellar cast of voice actors drafted in from the movie). A repulsor blast to the face would be preferable to ever encountering Iron Man 2 again.
Saw II: Flesh and Blood (Zombie Studios, Xbox 360, PS3)
After the first game, which was a sort of greyed-out and watered-down version of Arkham Asylum peppered with arbitrary quick-time sequences, the second did not have much to live up to. Somehow it still managed to disappoint. Elements that were even the slightest bit promising in the first game – the puzzles and the tense atmosphere – were washed away in a putrid flood of lazy design and cheap shock'n'gore. Saw II manages to make its predecessor appear almost competent in comparison.
Sonic Free Riders (Sonic Team, Xbox 360 Kinect)
Another launch title for the Kinect that let everyone down. This time it featured our favourite blue spiky flea-bitten ringworm-riddled woodland bug-eater and his friends riding hover-boards. This game doesn't really belong on the "disappointments" list because the last few titles in the series have been critically savaged and expectations were sub-zero. However, though we don't know why Microsoft decided despite universal disapproval that Free Riders was to be a launch game on the Kinect, we might at least have expected them to make it work properly. They didn't. Control was achieved more by luck and flailing than by positive activity on the part of the player, and the game was hilariously limited in scope.
Which have been your biggest gaming disappointments of the year? Let us know in the comments section and save other readers your plight!

64 comments:

  1. Agree with most on the list, but I thought Alan Wake was a good solid game.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Saw 2 was such a dissappointment :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, Saw 2 was a horrible game!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree, by far Saw 2 was one of the most dissapointing games in a long time!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Now I know what not to spend my money on ;D Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was also really disappointed with Alpha Protocol; such good developer credentials and yet such a let down.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really liked Dark Void, but I can see where it fell short. APB was horrible though, I agree.

    ReplyDelete
  8. those games really sucked ^^

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gotta agree with you the games on this list that i've tried all sucked

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good article :) You should check mine out :) and you know follow if you like it :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. APB was a big let down also. I mean seriously, the game didn't even last a year and they pulled the plug. Saw 2 was also pretty bad. I dunno about Alan Wake though. It had an unique game play style that no game before it had done.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I agree with all of these except maybe Alpha Protocol. I thought that was okay.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Lol at the creepy picture from one of the games ;p

    ReplyDelete
  14. Movie games always sucl...

    ReplyDelete
  15. All points bulletin. It looked SO promising! So frusterating that it bombed. Following and will view youre page often!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Totally agree with that list, especially Saw 2, it sucked!

    ReplyDelete
  17. can't say I wasn't expecting disappointment for a lot of these games, tis a shame too. Good list buddy :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I wasn't totally disappointed in Alan Wake, but I agree with the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I rented saw 2, I lol'd throught all this game, it was horrible. Sonice has been in the crapper for a long time now, I hope sega does something this year to finally change it :'(. I hearted sonic when I was younger

    ReplyDelete
  20. notice that most of these are conversoins from content that started outside of video games. They are just trying to make a buck off of the original content. as a rule I stay away from movies turned into video games. There are exceptions...

    ReplyDelete
  21. I haven't tried any of these. Thankfully so, it would seem. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  22. As far as I know, APB Reloaded is coming out soon. Should be better.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Its a bummer that Alan Wake was a flop, I thought it was a good idea.

    ReplyDelete
  24. im not play this games ;_;

    ReplyDelete
  25. meh. i like hearing about good games more than ones that tanked

    ReplyDelete
  26. Got to agree, expecially with APB

    ReplyDelete
  27. They made a saw game? lulz

    ReplyDelete
  28. LOL@ The APB character models. I heard that game flopped.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Agree! Some pictures would have been appreciated :p

    ReplyDelete
  30. there was a saw game? just the concept sounds terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  31. So much awful in there. Great list of what to steer clear of.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thank goodness never played any of those games.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I agree with most of this list, but Alan Wake was an amazing game. I'll have to disagree with you there my friend. =/

    ReplyDelete
  34. great list, there are quite some bad games there.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Agree, but you didnt put any image

    ReplyDelete
  36. I love reading stuff like this

    ReplyDelete
  37. APB was horrible, it belongs on this list for sure

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anyone else keen for battlefield 3?

    ReplyDelete
  39. APB was such a let down.

    ReplyDelete
  40. yeeah true... alan wake disappointed me too much~

    ReplyDelete
  41. I would say about 99% of games based on movies are terrible, there are those few exceptions though.

    ReplyDelete
  42. game base on movies = failures

    their gonna make one on inception hahahaha

    ReplyDelete
  43. I totally agree to you!
    followed

    ReplyDelete
  44. I can't imagine a Saw game being any good...

    ReplyDelete
  45. I'm not sure mate, I didn't have high hopes for a lot of those games

    ReplyDelete
  46. True. Haven't played many, but the ones i did were on my computer not more than 30 mins.

    ReplyDelete
  47. I almost agree with everything. I really liked Alan Wake personally. Saw 2, almost. I did finish it but I actually really enjoyed the first one, felt like a slightly polished Condemned. 2 was a step backwards though.

    ReplyDelete
  48. I agree on Alan Wake. Everyone kept hyping it up and I thought it was really mediocre. Haven't played the others, and I'm somewhat glad.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Haven't played any of them.... Well. Following.

    ReplyDelete
  50. thanks for the feedback guys, i agree with like 50% of this list!

    ReplyDelete
  51. Yeah APB sucked hard. I'm currently in the APB Reloaded beta and it isnt much better. Still too many flaws from the original game.

    ReplyDelete
  52. im glad i have a great taste in games :p ACBROTHERHOOD!!!

    ReplyDelete
  53. I remembered seeing previews for Dark Void and thinking "Wow, that's going to be awful!" Glad I never looked into it any deeper.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Dark Void made me want to punch out my TV screen...

    ReplyDelete
  55. The Saw 2 demo pissed me off so much that I vowed never to try a Saw game again.

    ReplyDelete
  56. APB was really really disappointing indeed.
    Me and my friends were very pumped for the game, then it turned out to be worthless.

    ReplyDelete