What was your worst game of 2014?

Last year had a lot of titles which were subpar… official review wise and by some who’s opinion is apparently gospel (Looking at Angry Joe). For myself… Dragon Age Inquisition was my worst game of 2014.

I mean, I admit, I was really looking forward to this title. Even preordered the Inquisitor’s Edition for PS4 (and we all know the problems that Box had >.<) and I thought I was in for a treat. I hadn’t even followed any information about it online or in magazines etc… didn’t want to be spoiled. In hindsight, that was a bitch, as if I actually HAD been exposed to the info, I would’ve saved myself $250AUSD.

Now, I actually am a fan of the Dragon Age series. Loved Origins and Awakening and yes, I did enjoy II a lot. My Xbox 360 saw a lot of usage with times only one of the discs resided in the disc tray on a semi permanent basis. With those, I was able to get right into that universe and was hooked right from the start. Enjoyed them so much, that when I got a PS3, I bought them again on that console to enjoy again. When BioWare gave away all of the Bonus Preorder items for Origins/Awakening/II… yes, I downloaded them and played the games again with the extra goodies… Still enjoyed them.

Yet… I remember when I got Inquisition home, checked the back of the case. Seemed… interesting. Put the disc in… and felt pain. The character creator mode was terrible (imo)… and the voices were atrocious. Did not like the style of the character designs and when I met Cassandra, ugh… I won’t bore you with the details, but the overall experience with Inquisition was so terrible that after forcing myself to play at least 10 hours of the SP (I’ll get to the MP next), I’d rather play the FFXIII trilogy again… and I would think that it’s pretty well known on this site how much I HATE FFXIII.

Now, the MP. Once again BioWare attempts a foray into the world of MP gaming… learned some from Mass Effect 3’s MP, but not much. I really did not enjoy this mode at all and it felt tacked on… as if BioWare thought "Oh, add a MP mode to it". That and the community is pretty bad (or I just got into bad lobbies), verbal abuse and derogative bashing were pretty much the norm.

So yeah… this was traded in, along with Assassin’s Creed Unity pretty damn fast. I’ve used the credit towards Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires and Battlefield Hardline, two games I KNOW I’ll enjoy.

So… what was your worst game of 2014 and why?

As far as 2014 releases go, the worst I’ve played is Fairy Fencer F. I’ve bitched about this game on Amazon and other forums already. This game was hyped up by some big names of people who were involved with the production of the game, but it was ultimately a shallow experience.
The game felt like, and probably was, a re-skin of Mugen Souls, which is a superior game for various reasons. The supporting characters, I mean anime tropes, existed just to fill party space, the story was boring, there was unnecessary backtracking, the sidequest system was broken and/or poorly designed, there was forced humor and random fanservice everywhere, different regions look exactly the same as others in the game, and framerates were horrible. The only main praise I give this game is the battle system, which while derivative of Mugen Souls, is still enjoyable.

Out of the non-2014 games I played last year, Rock Revolution is probably my least favorite. It’s a Rock Band wannabe that has only covers of songs that sound pretty bad, and the note track is difficult to follow compared to RB or GH. But oh well, it was free with a guitar controller, so no skin off my ass.

Runners-up: Tales of Graces ƒ, Tales of Legendia, Soul Calibur V and Kingdom Under Fire: Crusaders.

I only bought 6 games last year, but that’s an indictment of how awful the rest of the line-up was – that I couldn’t even bring myself to buy them, let alone play them!

But of the ones I did play… yes, I’d have to agree with Revan. Dragon Age: Inquisition was not only a ferociously disappointing game, but it was actively *bad*. From its MMO-lite ‘gameplay’ (if you can call holding down the attack button to be gameplay), to the dodgy character models, to the awful story, the boring characters, the terribly flat and empty feel of the world… just no! No! I try not to get too excited for games these days, because they almost always disappoint when you do that. In recent times, I’ve also had many criticisms of Bioware and the direction its travelling in (i.e down). But even so, I love the Dragon Age series (I’m one of very few people who really enjoyed Dragon Age 2). So even with all of my reservations, I couldn’t help but be jazzed for this game.

But man… nothing prepared me for the state of this ‘game’. The fact that its received the usual level of fawning praise is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back. How on earth are people praising this thing? I prefer not to be overly dramatic about these things, but if this is the best Bioware can produce these days, then I’m done with them. Because this was just awful in every way. Bugs, retcon, atrocious story, appalling gameplay… this game had it all in one festering package.

And hey, come on Star – Tales of Graces wasn’t great, but worst game? The combat rocks in that game! 😀

And hey, come on Star – Tales of Graces wasn’t great, but worst game? The combat rocks in that game! 😀

I enjoyed the combat, but everything else in the game (except Pascal- I loved her) was dreadful, at least to me. Of all the Tales games I’ve played so far, Abyss was the only one I thoroughly enjoyed. Xillia was okay too. I guess the series just isn’t for me.

Dead Space 3. Although I finished and played a great portion of the game in co-op once, the way the series was treated made me lose hope about its future. The plot is ridiculous, Isaac’s dignity hit the bottom and he getting overly jealous about Ellie’s new affair is just pitiful. Harder difficulty modes are brutal and can easily make Dark Souls seems like a walk in the park. The game’s length tests the patience too. Weapon crafting system gets boring after some time and getting parts to power up them becomes a chore. Copied-and-pastied enemy design, and deja vu scenarios flood the visuals. Even if you are a series fan, I don’t recommend.

Actually, I’m of much the same opinion – the combat and Pascal *are* the reasons to play that game! I just think that they are sufficiently good to lift the game out of the worst game category, because a lot of games don’t have anything going for them. Abyss… yeah it was okay, I guess. I couldn’t stand the main character though, so that kind of put a crimp on things. It was too easy as well.

Actually, I’m of much the same opinion – the combat and Pascal *are* the reasons to play that game! I just think that they are sufficiently good to lift the game out of the worst game category, because a lot of games don’t have anything going for them. Abyss… yeah it was okay, I guess. I couldn’t stand the main character though, so that kind of put a crimp on things. It was too easy as well.

The main reason I’d put Graces in my worst of 2014 pile is that I didn’t play many ‘bad’ games last year, luckily, but it was one that really irritated me throughout most of it. I had to think really hard to remember the others I’d toss into the pile too.

Oh, and don’t get me started on Luke. He may very well be my least favorite character ever. I liked the other characters of Abyss though, especially Jade, who became one of my all-time favorites.

Jade’s my favourite from Abyss as well – actually, he’s the only one of the lot that I had any attachment to (but then again, Luke was the only one I actively disliked,,,)

And yeah, I didn’t play much last year either (new games anyway). Most of them did indeed look so bad that it wasn’t even worth buying them in the first place. I do actually consider Graces to be the worst Tales game that I’ve played, but I guess I just didn’t think it was *that* bad necessarily, just underwhelming. They really need to do something about the combat medics in those games – there’s no reason to take the non medic characters instead of them, because the medics are usually pretty great in combat too!

The worst game I can remember is Yoshi New Island. Since I dont play terrible games, Yoshi’s Island is just, okay.

Not the worst, but, Advanced Warfare was a huge disappointment, to me at least.