Top Ten Disappointments:
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
9. PlayStation Move
8. Lost Planet 2
7. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
6. Crackdown 2
5. Microsoft Kinect
4. Fable III
3. Medal of Honor
2. Gran Turismo 5
1. Final Fantasy XIII

Dishonorable Mentions:
Dante's Inferno
Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver
Alan Wake

Full article: Top Ten Biggest Gaming Disappointments of 2010 (http://au.xbox360.ign.com/articles/113/1136938p1.html)

What do you all think? The list pretty accurate, or would you have chosen other titles?

Myself, I agree with the Microsoft Kinect, Fable III and (no surprises) Final Fantasy XIII.

I do agree with many of the games on that list, but i can't speak for all of them since I've only played a handfull. Another dishonorable mention I'd like to add is Metroid Other M. As a huge Metroid fan, I was very dissapointed in that one.

I can't believe they didn't put in APB. That's the true number 1 contender, not FF13. Definitely agree with Sonic 4, though...even the demo told me how much of a stinking pile that was.

Very Accurate... I don't know about GT5 though...

PS Move wasn't that dissapointing... Admittedly it was very dissapointing at first sight, but in depth I could see the good stuff.

XIII & XIV should be together at the 1st Place...

XIII is disappointing only in wrecking consoles, not in content.

Just my opinion.

I feel like they didn't give GT5 a fair chance. That list came out right after the game's release. So far I'm really enjoying GT5. It's a great simulator. I wasn't dissapointed in Move, but I can kinda understand how they would be. I really enjoy playing Sports Champions and after getting used to Resident Evil 5's controls, I like playing that game better with the Move rather than the DualShock 3 controller.

I think this list confuses 'Disappointing' with 'Poor'.

Yes, many of the things listed are rubbish, but most of them stood very little chance of being any good anyway. (Sonic ep 4 and Lost Planet for example).

And without any obvious 'Oh my God, this is so incredible' games to convince gamers that Kinect and Move aren't just attempts to get a share of the Wii's casual gaming revenue, they were always going to be met with indifference.

I don't agree about Fable 3 at all. It might not be the greatest game ever, but it's still the best in the series as far as I'm concerned. My expectations were basically zero for this game, so it wildly surpassed them.

People who were disappointed by it should really have learned their lesson by now - never listen to anything that Peter Molyneux claims will be in his games.

Final Fantasy 13 did disappoint, no question about it. But as I've said many times, it would have had to be the greatest game ever *not* to disappoint people. I thought it was a decent game, but the series needs more than just a decent game right now.

My Top 7 Disapointments would be:
1) Mass Effect 2.
2) Final Fantasy 13.
3) Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.
4) Heavy Rain.
5) Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth.
6) Bayonetta.
7) Alan Wake.

I can't make a Top 10, because this year's games have been so uninspiring, I haven't bought much else.

Oh... Yeah I forgot about Lords of Shadow, it was a very anticipated title and many people found it dull.

EDIT: Sackboy, I think you got it right when it comes to the PS Move & GT5

I'm sure sorry people were so disappointed by Final Fantasy XIII. I personally enjoyed what I played of it, and even though I guess I am pretty much basing my whole opinion of it on that one small stint, I still felt compelled to play on and keep going and I liked what I was experiencing. I was expecting it to be horrible, but it really surprised me in a good way. Hope I can get a PS3 or XBOX360 one of these days and grab the game with 'em.

Aside from that I'm too old-school to know what recent games were good and which were bad, and that makes me a very sad. -_-

Fable III was an okay game, but I preferred the second installment. The story for Fable III didn't flow well for me at all, and while the combat and rest of the gameplay elements were the same as Fable II, Fable III just didn't grab ahold of me at all.

The Kinect... where do I begin. Like Vrykolas I have similar feelings towards this gimmick, as that's all it is: A gimmick (and not a original one either). The Move fits in with the Kinect, imo that those sorts of motion sensor gimmicks, should be left alone. Nintendo has the market in motion sensor gaming, what with the Wii, so let them have that.

Final Fantasy XIII... It's no surprise I hate this game. I've tried a lot to like this game... but I can't. There's nothing redeeming about this game (to me) whatsoever, however if some people like it, that's fine. I just really hate it and the direction SE is seemingly heading with the FF Series. I agree with you topopoz, that FFXIII and FFXIV should've been tied as the most disappointing games of the year, as FFXIV... No, I won't go into further detail here as this thread isn't about FFXIV, but I will say this: FFXIV was obviously rushed to release and it certainly shows.

Vrykolas, while I agree with the majority of your own listing, I disagree completely about Mass Effect 2. However, we've discussed that before in another thread, so let's not go into detail regarding this. It is personal preference, and while I respect your choice, I do disagree with it.

My top 6 disappointments would be:

1) Mass Effect 2
2) Alpha Protocol
3) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
4) Fallout: New Vegas
5) God of War 3
6) Starcraft 2

I have weird feelings on the Motion gaming thing... While I agree that Nintendo Owns it, I disagree that Nintendo should keep the cake for themselves, since it's a very fucking big one, I think that It's not bad for the Sony or Microsoft to try their own part, Plus, almost no one knows about this, but PSMove is something that it has been on Research & Development since 2001. Sure it tooked some time, but Sony apprently didn't wanted to take the risk Until the Wii came out.
Wii was successful because it attracted a lot people that aren't gamers...
I personally reject Motion Gaming in general, but there's a few stuff that I think it's worth to try. I don't know... What the hell, whatever... xD

Oh, and yeah, XIII & XIV, no Contest, XIV more than XIII, I had hopes for that one...


Konami was very quiet this year...

EDIT: Talking about 2010 the year didn't ended, there's a game that hasn't been released yet, I had high hopes & right now I'm feeling dissapointed. The 3rd Birthday...
The game isn't going to be bad so to speak, but as a sequel to Parasite Eve, will do as much as Parasite Eve 2, Bring a lot of shit of the table that can't be connected properly on the Universe set by the Book, Film & the first game...
I'm really fucking pissed, bastardizing franchises like that, What's next S-E? Another Shitty 'Mana' sequel?

I'd have to agree with Fable III. It's only a 70% finished game.

In all honesty - in terms of 'big name companies' releasing disappointing titles ; I think FFXIV should have claimed the #1 spot, by a large margin.

In all honesty - in terms of 'big name companies' releasing disappointing titles ; I think FFXIV should have claimed the #1 spot, by a large margin.

I couldn't agree more...

This list doesn't surprise me. There were a lot of disappointing games this year. I would definitely add Mass Effect 2 onto the list but I think that's only because my expectations for that game were sky high before I played it.

What's really sad is that the hackers are finding better uses for the Kinect than Microsoft and their 3rd parties. Case in point: Kinect Hacked To Play Super Mario Bros. (http://kotaku.com/5700284/kinect-hacked-to-play-super-mario-bros)


My top 6 disappointments would be:

1) Mass Effect 2
2) Alpha Protocol
3) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
4) Fallout: New Vegas
5) God of War 3
6) Starcraft 2

NO.

NO.

Without implying that GoW3 is bad, it just felt disappointing to me. It was unnecessarily gory, it was badly written, Kratos pretty much no longer has a character and the ending made me puke. It's not bad, I had fun with it while it lasted, but I really don't see this as something I'll be returning to at any time in the future. I wanted it to be more like the first game, but it turned out more like the second game instead and I really don't like that.

My top 6 disappointments would be:

1) Mass Effect 2
2) Alpha Protocol
3) Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
4) Fallout: New Vegas
5) God of War 3
6) Starcraft 2

While I agree with the other four (Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was ok imo, the second installment is better though), Alpha Protocol and Mass Effect 2 I disagree with. Alpha Protocol did have flaws, but it also had a good story and being able to tailor just HOW you fought (go in guns blazing, use gadgets to take down the enemy or being a sneaky bastard and use stealth and martial arts to take them out) and did make the game fun.


I would definitely add Mass Effect 2 onto the list but I think that's only because my expectations for that game were sky high before I played it.

I would say, that everyone who said add Mass Effect 2, I hate you... but I won't lol. For me, Mass Effect 2 did live up to my expectations and did exceed them as well. With more DLC coming to span the gap between the second and third installments, will only add to the game as well. Call me a Mass Effect fan if you want, I thoroughly enjoyed Mass Effect 2 and would recommend it to anyone wanting to try a good Action RPG (as that is what it is).

Dude Alpha Protocol had so many grave bugs & technical issues that made the experience boil down to a lot of people, it is dissapointing, Obsidian are great Developers & they come up with unproffessional mistakes like that it's surely one of the greatest dissapointments of 2010.
If the game would've crashed at it's presentation(like FFXIV), it would easily won a first place Dissapointment.

To each their own... I enjoyed Alpha Protocol (probably not as much as other titles I've played this year tbh) and I already had a gut feeling that it probably was going to have 'bugs and technical issues' as Obsidian did the same earlier with Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. However, Alpha Protocol did have promise and could've been a lot better as well if Obsidian had learned from their mistakes with Knights of the Old Republic II. They didn't and the end result for Alpha Protocol is a weaker title that drew a lot of flak.

It had the potential to be a good game... but ended up being only a so-so title, with lots of negative feedback. Still... everyone has their own opinion and enjoy different titles.

Unecessarily gory? Is there such a thing?

However, Alpha Protocol did have promise and could've been a lot better as well if Obsidian had learned from their mistakes with Knights of the Old Republic II. They didn't and the end result for Alpha Protocol is a weaker title that drew a lot of flak.

It had the potential to be a good game...

Then it's even more dissapointing...

Neg: Your answer is Dante's Inferno, A gigant spiked Clitoris will tell you about it.

I am intrigued.

While I agree with the other four (Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was ok imo, the second installment is better though), Alpha Protocol and Mass Effect 2 I disagree with. Alpha Protocol did have flaws, but it also had a good story and being able to tailor just HOW you fought (go in guns blazing, use gadgets to take down the enemy or being a sneaky bastard and use stealth and martial arts to take them out) and did make the game fun.

I have no intention of starting a Mass Effect 2 argument again, but I will say this about Alpha Protocol: The only reason I was disappointed by Alpha Protocol was because I actually liked it. It tried to be like Deus Ex and while I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as good as that game, it just didn't handle things well enough.

It was unbalanced and in a game that puts choice above all else, that's a bigger problem than it seems. It was buggy and unpolished, and the story was unfocused and confusing. It certainly feels like choices make a difference in the story, but in a plot where I am unable to see the big picture they hardly seem important. It never seemed to be able to convey exposition properly (in the last mission, I apparently was able to devise a plan to defeat the company of my enemy without even realizing it, it felt like I was following along to Thorton's actions, and that just didn't feel like a proper RPG to me. It felt the same more or less all the way through the game.)

As it is right now, the game is barely functional and it makes me sad that a developed like Obsidian is taking risks and trying to expand the genre with games like Alpha Protocol but shipping them without enough polish. At the time I just assumed that their attention was focused on Fallout: New Vegas, but I guess time proved that that's not the case (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKIkw3LIoQ). And since they're not making any improvement to either game, both of them are on my dissapoinments list.


Unecessarily gory? Is there such a thing?

I didn't think such a thing existed. And then I played God of War 3.

Unecessarily gory? Is there such a thing?



NO.

I haven't played GoW3 and I have no intention to (that whole button-mashing genre is incredibly dull to me). However, I have heard people complain it doesn't really improve on the gameplay of GoW2 and that the story is pretty disappointing.

I'll try and make a list, but I really have a hard time numbering these sorts of things. I'll just do it alphabetically...

Bayonetta (disappointed I spent money on a genre I have no interest in)
Epic Mickey
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIV
Lost Planet 2 (Haven't played it, but I'm pretty sure it's trash)

That's actually all I can think of right now. A lot of the games mentioned on IGN's list I was either happy with or not hyped about at all in the first place.

Unecessarily gory? Is there such a thing?

To an extent, but . . . for the most part, NOPE :D

To an extent, but . . . for the most part, NOPE :D

Fix'd. :smrt:

:whatislove:

Then it's even more dissapointing....

I'm not saying Alpha Protocol isn't disappointing, but try to look beyond the flaws. Every game has flaws, whether noticeable or very subtle. No game is perfect, and Alpha Protocol does have a lot of problems. To me though, despite those problems, I still enjoy it.


I have no intention of starting a Mass Effect 2 argument again, but I will say this about Alpha Protocol: The only reason I was disappointed by Alpha Protocol was because I actually liked it. It tried to be like Deus Ex and while I didn't expect it to be anywhere near as good as that game, it just didn't handle things well enough.

It was unbalanced and in a game that puts choice above all else, that's a bigger problem than it seems. It was buggy and unpolished, and the story was unfocused and confusing. It certainly feels like choices make a difference in the story, but in a plot where I am unable to see the big picture they hardly seem important. It never seemed to be able to convey exposition properly (in the last mission, I apparently was able to devise a plan to defeat the company of my enemy without even realizing it, it felt like I was following along to Thorton's actions, and that just didn't feel like a proper RPG to me. It felt the same more or less all the way through the game.)

As it is right now, the game is barely functional and it makes me sad that a developed like Obsidian is taking risks and trying to expand the genre with games like Alpha Protocol but shipping them without enough polish. At the time I just assumed that their attention was focused on Fallout: New Vegas, but I guess time proved that that's not the case (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToKIkw3LIoQ). And since they're not making any improvement to either game, both of them are on my dissapoinments list.

I don't want to start another debate about how good/bad Mass Effect 2 is either Smarty as I've made my own feelings clear about that in other threads. Regarding Alpha Protocol, I'm not going to say anymore about it. You didn't like it? That's your choice, and while I disagree, I respect it. One thing I do agree with you though, is that Obsidian needs to work on how to complete a game BEFORE shipping it out. That happened with Knights of the Old Republic II, and I thought Obsidian would learn from the mistakes they made with that (still a great game and one of my favorites, flaws not withstanding), but they didn't. Sad really.

I couldn't agree more... I would definitely add Mass Effect 2 onto the list but I think that's only because my expectations for that game were sky high before I played it.

The reason I would put it up there - would be for the fact that the sequel IMHO was a downgrade from the original. I say this, as someone who had no hype for the title - and only picked both up as a bundle a month and a half ago for 30USD.

I'm going to stick up for Alpha Protocol too. I was a bit sceptical about it at first, and obviously the game has its flaws.

But it was interesting and it was different, which made it stand out from 'Real World FPS #345' and 'Gears clone #456' etc. The game world and characters were engaging, the plot moved along at a decent pace, and the game was never so broken you couldn't play it more or less how you wanted to.

Obsidian are a good company, and they try hard. So they don't have oodles of cash to super polish thei9r games - so what? There's more to games than state of the art graphics and controls so silky you can sleep on them. If a game has character and you can see the company is doing what they can with what they have, I say give them a break.

And be fair to Obsidian - how many times are they going to get screwed over? Lucasarts pull the rug out from under them on KOTOR 2 (for which Obsidian got the blame), and then Sega can their Aliens RPG when it was basically finished!

They just have no kind of luck at all.

Everything can be looked at as a dissapointment, not everyone's going to love even the most perfected of games, i dislike Call Of Duty since the game keeps sticking to the same formula as it seems, making Black Ops a dissapointment for me, especially being released in the same year as the last game in the franchise!

I think the thread title is just a reference to generally-accepted disappointments in games. You know, the ones that get bad reviews on Amazon and wherever else, that everyone seems to mutually dislike.

When Final Fantasy XIII came out:


Final Fantasy XIII is a great JRPG and sports a fast-paced, challenging, satisfying battle system. The game also boasts an intricate story, a likeable cast of characters and the best visuals in the series yet (of course).

Now:


Being merely 'okay' isn't good enough for the Final Fantasy series. These games have a heritage and pedigree to maintain, and thirteen games in, this instalment indeed proved unlucky. The characters are routinely awful and uninteresting, the storytelling is a jumbled mess that meanders through bland subplot � and then there's the gameplay, which consists of essentially moving in a straight line for the first twenty hours, repeatedly hitting X.

Consistency is nice!


Gand Turismo 5 only came out 4 days ago and it's already 2nd? Wow, what a sharp eye IGN has, only makes me wonder how they missed Final Fantasy XIV. What's the matter? 2 months is to soon to bash the game? Because of shit like this is why I never took IGN reviews seriously.

But as I've said many times, it would have had to be the greatest game ever *not* to disappoint people. I thought it was a decent game, but the series needs more than just a decent game right now.

I think this is pretty much true. I was expecting it to be terrible, so for me, when it turned out to be a decent game, it was a pleasant surprise.

Disappointments for me were:

1. White Knight Chronicles
2. Infinite Space
3. Monster Rancher DS
4. Batman: Brave and the Bold
5. Final Fantasy XIV

That's really about it. But I know my tastes well.

My biggest gaming disappointments this year are Valkyria Chronicles 3 being on the PSP and not getting into the DC Online beta, but those probably don't count here!

Gand Turismo 5 only came out 4 days ago and it's already 2nd? Wow, what a sharp eye IGN has, only makes me wonder how they missed Final Fantasy XIV. What's the matter? 2 months is to soon to bash the game? Because of shit like this is why I never took IGN reviews seriously.

Yeah I heavily disagree too on the GT5 thing, it's a little bit unfair.

There's really only a couple things I can comment on. Firstly, I have played up to the second gym in HeartGold and Soulsilver. I loved every fucking minute of it. The ONLY thing that irked me was the revised script. It's obvious they've tried to "soften" the more intense (for Pokemon) characters such as your rival. Fuck that. I want good ol' "beat 'em with a tire iron" Silver back. I also don't care for some of the revised character art (Morty, y u so weird?), but so far, I think HG/SS does what it says and then some- it's one great big nostalgia +1 trip. FirRed/LeafGreen was the same, only not a whole lot changed. Of course, after I saw the mess that was Ruby/Saphire/Emerald, I jumped ship on Pokemon.

...Anywho. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 has no place in this universe. Sega has proven time, after time, AFTER TIME that it can't resist taking a dump on Yuji Naka et al's once glorious series. As a result, I will not play a Sonic game without at least a majority of the original Sonic Team at the helm, and sans annoying "new sonic". I don't care if it's so good it gives you orgasms every 30 seconds. Sonic ended with Sonic 3 and Knuckles.

As for the Move and Kinnect, both are dicey, as I've said before. I'm not convinced the Wiimote will ultimately bare fruit, let alone Move or Kinnect. That said, Sony and Nintendo have a better shot at it than Microsoft, who really are still the infants in the videogame market (Nintendo is the old dude telling internet gamers to get the fuck off his lawn). Nintendo has the business experience, and Sony has previous experience with the Eye Toy for PS2 to draw on. Even with all this speculation, I am still of the opinion that IGN has no business declaring M & K one of the top disappointments of the year. Too early.

Another dishonorable mention I'd like to add is Metroid Other M. As a huge Metroid fan, I was very dissapointed in that one.

I'm inclined to agree with this. My expectations for that game were incredibly too high... but then again, after playing Metroid Prime, how could one not have high expectations?

because you guys never played the original metroids.
the exact same "dissapointment" was suffered by hardcore metroid fans when it was announced prime was gonna be in first person.

because you guys never played the original metroids.
the exact same "dissapointment" was suffered by hardcore metroid fans when it was announced prime was gonna be in first person.

A very valid point, Will. Everywhere I went, people were going apeshit over the move to a "Metroid FPS", declaring it everything up to and including the biggest steaming pile ever to grace the console market. I'm also quick to remind people of that when they complain about things.

HOWEVER, I don't think Other M falls in that category. While we may not be happy with Samus' characterization(an impossible task to please everyone), that's forgiveable compared to what I've heard of the plot pointed storyline. I mean, most of us were smart enough to leave heated rooms in MP, MF, and SM when we didn't have the Varia suit...but from what I've heard, OM forces you through several sections without because of a plot point("You do not have authorization!"). Again, this is hearsay...when I play the game for myself, my opinion might change.

I'm betting Mark has, he's older than I am, and I've played the originals. Knowing Ari, he probably has, too.

I played Prime 3 for about an hour. It was cool, but it wasn't Super Metroid. I'm sure the Prime series is fine in its own right, though. Many people seem to love it.

Disappointments for me were:

1. White Knight Chronicles
2. Infinite Space
3. Monster Rancher DS
4. Batman: Brave and the Bold
5. Final Fantasy XIV


Ahh, yes, I forgot about WKC. Way too boring for me.


As for the Metroid discussion, I played and finished Metroid 1, 2 and 3 a few times each and have always loved them. Metroid Prime was a nice change and I loved that they went with the FPS genre. It was the first FPS I played and I loved the controls. The first Prime was great with a typical underwelming ending, 2 and 3 were just ok, might be because I was comparing it too much to part 1. Metroid Fusion and Zero Mission were dissapointments for me. I felt like they just made them just to make them. As for Other M, I didn't like playing on a space station with holographic vegitation everywhere and the story was boring.

so, people bitched that samus didnt have much of a personality in the primes, now that in a prequel, she has one, people bitch again.
SERIOUSLY, just because you didnt like the game doesnt always means its a bad game.
the entirety of japan didnt like no more heroes, but is that a bad game? fuck no.

Personally tho, I'll agree with Smarty on Starcraft 2. My problem with it being the price. It's been almost a year and the regular edition still costs as much as two games and yet only contain a third of the full story. That, and the forced regional server segregation.

On Alan Wake tho: At least it didn't end up requiring an octo-core extreme rig with 8GB of RAM and SLI/CrossFire like originally announced in 2005. Not everyone can afford a Xeon 7500, and of course AMD fanbois are stuck until next year.

because you guys never played the original metroids.
the exact same "dissapointment" was suffered by hardcore metroid fans when it was announced prime was gonna be in first person.

I was playing Metroid before you were born.

But Other M wasn't a bad game. It just seemed to be missing something which I really can't put my finger on. I would say the only thing I was disappointed in was the lack of a soundtrack. Overall, it was a good game, but not great.


but from what I've heard, OM forces you through several sections without because of a plot point("You do not have authorization!"). Again, this is hearsay...when I play the game for myself, my opinion might change.

This is true, but it's not that big of a deal. It gives the game somewhat of a challenge. If a player can't deal with the element of surprise and work with what they have, they shouldn't even attempt to play video games at all... so all those folks are just complaining.

because you guys never played the original metroids.
the exact same "dissapointment" was suffered by hardcore metroid fans when it was announced prime was gonna be in first person.
I am pretty sure this isn't why people were disappointed with Other M...


so, people bitched that samus didnt have much of a personality in the primes, now that in a prequel, she has one, people bitch again.
She's never had much of a personality. Nobody complained she had no personality in Prime. Everybody is complaining that Samus was turned into a huge wuss in Other M.

Kane & Lynch 2 was a 'disappointment'....how the fuck did THAT happen.

The first game was mediocre, at best, who was really surprised that the second one sucked?