Your top 10 'Major Disappointment' games or: 'I want my money back!' [Archive]

Jaz

November 28th, 2006, 10:53

Now let me think... which ten games made me regret the waste of money?

1) NWN (CRPG, PC, 2002): I tried to play it twice (once back then, once this year), and couldn't get past chapter two. I found the game inherently boring, it lacked atmosphere, and NPCs were hardly memorable.

2) Tao Feng (fighting game, XBox, 2003): The game had the looks and interesting characters, but a) too few of the latter, and b) it just didn't keep what trailers and previews had promised. Controls/collision were obscure, difficulty was too high; in short, I managed to reach the story mode end boss once with the first character I picked, and then lost interest.

3) Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior (shooter, PC, 2003): The horror! Even thinking of this game hurts. Nice idea, horrible models, sound effects, animations…. the list goes on and on. Don't buy this game. Ever. If it comes free with a video card, throw it away.

4) Angst - Rahz's Revenge (shooter, PC, 1996): This must be the worst game ever, and I bought it. I played the first level, failed when trying to differentiate between enemy sprites and walls, laughed, cried, didn't find the exit, unsinstalled it and gave it to my brother (who was just as incredulous).

5) Quake 3 Arena (shooter, PC, 1999): I didn't like the set of goofy-looking characters, although it was nice to meet so many old acquaintances. Single player was too short, levels were too small. being severely disappointed didn't prevent me from playing it time and time again, but it wasn't the game I had hoped for.

6) Battle Arena Toshinden 3 (fighting game, PSX, 1997): horrible controls and muppet-like character graphics ruined the game for me. But hey, what did I expect? I hadn't liked the predecessors and still bought it.

7) In Extremis (shooter, PC, 1993): I expected something like 'Doom' and was treated to boredom in green and orange with an Alien-esque design. The game wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good, either, and played straight after Doom it was a real stinker.

8) Rise of the Robots (fighting game, Sega Genesis, 1994): This game had the looks, but unfortunately not the gameplay to match. Horrible controls, collision/clipping issues… too bad, beacuse I wanted to like that game, and just couldn't.

9) Cyberstorm 2: Corp Wars (RTS/RBT, PC, 1998): The first Cyberstorm was great, the second one… *shakes head* I just can't understand how one can make two games on the same engine and with the same graphics and sounds which turn out to be so different. Not only did No. 2 completely ditch the wonderful home base, subtly nuanced mission descriptions and reward system of the predecessor for intransparent building options, it also suffered from difficulty-itis. No matter whether I played it real time or turn based - after a few seconds or two turns at the most, enemies swarmed all over my premises and tore into my HERCs. Even at lowest difficulty setting and turn based I didn't last longer than a few minutes… not even on a lowly 'collect ore' mission.

10) Witchaven 2 (shooter, PC, 1996): While the first Witchaven was a decent fantasy shooter, Witchaven 2 suffered from quite wobbly controls which rendered the game unplayable in certain places. Needless to say I was disappointed.

I know there are more games I disliked on my shelf, but this should suffice for now :-).

Gokyabgu

November 28th, 2006, 11:16

1- Lionheart: Half disappointed with this game. Barcelona parts are good and gives you enough freedom. But, other parts of the game reeks of bad Diablo clone. They had released lots of alternative history about this game before it was released, but in game you find nothing of it.

2- Mistmare: This game tought me not to expect too much from a small company. I tried so hard to love this game, but it is totally a disaster.

3- Oblivion: Again, i expect too much from it. To take me away from this world like Morrowind. But, alas, it has no spirit.

4- Harbinger: I think devs of this game would be good politicians. Lots of promises (Fallout in a spaceship, bah), result terrible Diablo clone.

5- Restricted Area: Do not swell your game to much, it can explode. Again, another Fallout promise, Diablo result.

6- Dungeon Lords: Bradley came with a lot of promise, gaming sites had proclaimed this as the Best RPG before it has released. It is like devs just started to develop DL and bored with it at some time in development. No furnishing in a cathedral? One of the devs said they did not set furnitures to the game because they demand lots of system requirements. Ahh, be gone.

7- Hellgate London: Would be disappointment. Open cinematics are very well, alright. But, it is only 'cinematics'. Did you see the ingame videos? Your avatar does not walk, he flies on the ground. I hope they will change it until the release.

8-9-10- Reserved: for games like Gothic 3, Sacred, Titan Quest. These games are very good and some of them are classics for me. But, i do not like this approach: buy the game, patch later, play another time. We gamers are not betatesters, so find yourself some. This approach cripples PC gaming i am afraid.

Corwin

November 28th, 2006, 11:58

Jaz, the OC of NWN was CRAP!! HOWEVER, Hordes was great and many of the mods were superb. Don't judge the game by the OC, PLEASE!! For example, our online group has been playing the Sands of Fate trilogy over a couple of years now, (along with a few other fantastic mods whose names I can't quickly remember) and they were WELL worth the price of admission!!

Jaz

November 28th, 2006, 12:17

Corwin, just how am I supposed to judge a game then? By the additional value it offers (or might offer, in the case of future addons) - that I didn't ask for in the first place?
When I spend money on a game, I expect to be entertained straight out of the box. I hadn't bought NWN to play MP games, nor did I buy it to mod or play mods, nor could I foresee that it there would be nice addons later on. I bought the game for what I thought was a fun single-player game, and it wasn't, so I was disappointed. When I spend money on a game, I expect instant gratification. I do not wish to rely on fan-made mods to get something out of a game - for me personally, modability is not a criterion at all.

Danicek

November 28th, 2006, 12:20

Seems like Oblivion is pretty much in most of the lists above. Of course, dissapointment is directly related to expectations so that's probably why.

Prime Junta

November 28th, 2006, 13:47

Whoo, tough one. Here's a list of games that either (a) I never managed to get more than barely started with, or (b) that left me feeling distinctly disappointed after finishing. In no particular order. Not all of these are RPG's though.

* Baldur's Gate II with Shadows of Amn. I've tried getting started on this about three times, and always lost interest after putzing around Calimshan a bit. So sue me.

* Sacred. Played for a half-dozen hours with two or three different characters, and totally failed to see the point of continuing. Besides, it kept crashing.

* Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Lost interest in Innsmouth. Might be going back for another try though.

* Deus Ex II. 'Nuff said.

* NWN OC and Shadows of Undrentide. Made it through, left with a distinct "So that was it, then?" feeling. Liked HoTU, though, and found SCoC and DoD were pleasant enough. Loved Pig Farmer.

* DOOM 3. Crawling through tunnels and having things go BOO! at you is fun enough... for a while. But it gets old fast...

* Myth 3: The Wolf Age. I absolutely loved Myth 1 and 2, but gave up on 3 after that really, really frustrating dungeon crawl type thing where a single mistake would force a restart due to attrition.

* Oblivion. There's a Finnish saying: "Many cakes are pretty to look at, but sawdust inside." That's Oblivion.

* Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Got bored and never got past the first couple of missions. Nice music. Perhaps I'll give it another shot one of these days. Liked San Andreas well enough, though.

* Devastation. Can you spell "lame?"

That's all I can think of at the time. Gothic 3 is close to being on the list, but I can't honestly include a game that hooked me for tens of hours, no matter what its deficiencies and no matter what my expectations were.

Maylander

November 28th, 2006, 13:49

I do have a list, but fortunately for me I've managed to forget all the names on it, and I do not want to bring any of them back into memory. Good riddance I say!

Hindukönig

November 28th, 2006, 14:55

I would never cry "I want my money back", but a game which was actually painful to play was "TechnoMage". Sheesh, horrible game.
Oh, I absolutely hate Ultima IX, but I had some fun when I played it and so I'd say I don't have a right to demand my money back. There are even really bad games which are useful as bad examples (I'm a hobby gamedesigner). For instance, I love to bash Deus Ex: Invisible Wars and Thief: Deadly Shadows, because they're good demonstrations of bad design choices.

Corwin

November 28th, 2006, 15:20

Jaz, I TOTALLY understand your PoV re NWN, but I didn't buy it primarily for the OC, but so I could play with friends online, which is what I've been doing since the game came out!! Guess it has to do with purpose. I bought NWN 2 for the same reason, but so far, I'm enjoying its OC much more than the original!!

dteowner

November 28th, 2006, 15:33

Fun topic, Jaz!

Don't know if I can come up with 10, but I'll see how far I go. No explanations now since I should be working, but I'll come back and edit later.
#1: Might and Magic 9 (an insult to the series, they completely forgot what made MM6 and MM7 so darn good)
#2: Morrowind (so much to do and absolutely no reason to do any of it, what a letdown)
#3: Deadlock (glowing review in CGW failed to emphasize the single player AI was horrible terrible and downright lousy)
#4: Wizards and Warriors (bugs, bugs, and so much potential unrealized)
#5: Alpha Centauri (could have been good on its own merits, but couldn't hold up to the Sid Meier / Microprose pedigree)
#6: Black and White (sorta like W&W, there's bits and pieces of a great game in here, but it just fails to get off the ground)

(Will agree with Sammy that Arcanum didn't pan out due to balancing issues. I think I put too many hours into it to add it to this list, though.)

magerette

November 28th, 2006, 16:27

5- Restricted Area: Do not swell your game to much, it can explode. Again, another Fallout promise, Diablo result.

.

How could I forget this one? Started out loving it and by two hours in I was ready to find the devs and attack them with the sharp edge of the cd. Terrible, terrible game, and a blatant rip-off of Fallout concepts crossed with a blatant rip-off of Diablo game mechanics.

Also forgot Might & Magic 9-an insult to the series and I wasn't overly thrilled with Heroes IV, though it was nowhere near as cheesy and I did enjoy parts of it.
@dteowner
Wizards and Warriors was a lot of fun for me, but I have to admit I gave up after the Vampire Ring bug--ii just disabled the game.

fatBastard()

November 28th, 2006, 17:43

When it comes to RPG's I'm exceptionally forgiving so even though there are games that have been less than what I had hoped for I can usually find mitigating circumstances that allow me to enjoy the game nevertheless. However, I have to agree with Jaz regarding NWN ... and with Corwin as well :S

I don't do online games for the simple reason that they all suffer from the same game breaking flaw: The human aspect. This is a topic for another discussion so left me just say that EVERY single multiplayer game I've ever played has at some point been ruined by the other players either by exploiting weaknesses/bugs in the game or by their utter lack of any understanding of "team play". Anyway, I actually rather liked the first chapter of the original campaign (in Neverwinter with the plague and all) so when I reached chapter 2 I was dismayed to see how glaringly disjointed the module system was. It felt like I had started the wrong game, so different was each chapter from the previous one. Even though there was certain parts that was pretty good (like the subplot involving the ghost town and the 2 brothers) the whole campaign just went downhill. So yes, I was pretty disappointed with NWN.

I don't regret buying it though because I've enjoyed playing both of the expansion packs and there was never anything wrong with the engine in the first place. I like huge epic stories so I never really got into the whole user made mods (perhaps that was a mistake on my part).

Well, as I said I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to RPG's (in every shade and colour) so I can't really think of game from that genre that I regret buying, but there are other genres, so here is a few out of the top of my head:

1) Doom3. At some point I remember saying to myself (I know it is odd talking to oneself but hey, I never claimed to right in the head to begin with ;)): "If something pokes me in the back when I turn this corner I'm going to unistall the game". I turned the corner and 2 minutes later the game was no longer on my HD.

2) Broken Sword 3: The Boring Dragon ... erm ... The Sleeping Dragon. "Hey we got a new 3D engine that allows George to push crates around so let's build a game around crate pushing". Boring puzzles, boring and frustrating stealth sequences (why on earth the put stealth elements into an adventure game I'll never understand) and a pretty weak story made Broken Sword 3 ... well, broken.

3) The Longest Journey 2: Dreamfall. Okay, I can forgive the utterly pointless and exceptionally poorly designed fighting sequences in the game. I can even forgive the timed/stealth sequences though I don't like either ... but to spend 10-15 hours being sucked into an engaging and interesting story/setting with interesting characters and dozens of subplots, only to have the game stop without tying even ONE loose end, let alone the main plot, is just totally unacceptable. I felt ripped off. I usally take pride in being able to enjoy something for what it is. I can enjoy Shakespearean and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies side by side because what one offers in dialogue, the other offers in action. Heck I wasn't even disappointed with Deus Ex 2 because I knew it was a mere shadow of the original before I bought it. But with Dreamfall I felt cheated for the first time in a very long time. It was not a matter of Funcom running out of time/money before they could finish the story properly. It was intentional to make the biggest cliff hanger "ending" I've ever seen yet they utterly failed to mention that fact anywhere.

I'm sure there are others but the above mentioned are some of the worst I can think of right now.

LordRac

November 28th, 2006, 17:46

Ultima IX Dragon Edition. >:(

Best experience with that game was being able to take that huge box that wouldn't fit on a normal shelf and drop kick it out the window!

Honorable Mention: Cybergenic Ranger....ugh..what a crapfest!

txa1265

November 28th, 2006, 18:10

Interesting that a game on many people's 'disappointment list' is on my Top 10 (NWN) ... anyway ...

Grouped by platform ... no particular order. And I only mention things I finished, which leaves out the Mistmare and World War II Combat: Iwo Jima type stuff that was really bad but I pulled myself away from.

1. Deus Ex Invisible War - I love Deus Ex ... I really do. And after reading all of the previews and interviews and looking at the screens I was totally jazzed up for Invisible War. I had been playing NWN (& SoU) and Jedi Academy and KotOR through the fall, and chose to skip the demo and grab the game for day of release, which had worked great for those games. The game performed like crap while not looking stellar, had XBOX ini settings left set to 'on', and after everything else was removed, was just a pretty crappy game.
2. Unreal II - nice engine ... but gratuitous scantily clad women, lousy story, uninspired levels and average shooter gameplay. Another day of release letdown.
3. Dungeon Lords - epic story? No. Groundbreaking combat? Nope. Actual choices? Ha ha ha! Interesting characters? Stop, you're killing me! Dungeons? OK, those were pretty good. This game, despite being some fun, was a major disappointment on epic levels. The fact that the Collector's Edition was a full price buy that amounted to a patch just added insult to injury.
4. Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (DS) - The PC & PSP versions are in my 'Top 10 of 2006', but this is near the bottom - ugly, broken and just poorly designed, it is 'different' in almost entirely bad ways from the other platforms.
5. Diablo - Scared me off RPG's. We just had our first baby (after years of problems) and my wife got me this for Christmas at the suggestion of a friend's husband. I played for hours and hours waiting for something other than boring, mindless hack'n'slash ... never got it.
6. Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend - I actually liked the first one, strangely enough (I take crap for that!). It wasn't great, but it was a nice open and free experience with loads of attitude and fun. This one max'd the 'controversy' but took out the openness, fun and soul of the experience ...
7. MetalHeart / Restricted Area / Neuro Hunter / Etrom - I spent many hours last year searching for the 'great independant game' experience ... supporting the little guy after really liking 'Kult: Heretic Kingdoms'. These were all badly designed, poorly implemented and barely tested ... and just overall bad games. I don't know if Neverend or Gods: Land of Infinity are good, but *these* are the reasons I hesitate to try them.
8. Wizards & Warriors - after loving Wizardry VII and while anticipating Dungeon Lords I grabbed this - it is like the worst of both worlds.
9. PSP RPG's - I have wasted so much money in pursuit of something I could actually call 'good'. Most are mediocre, but it is such a lost opportunity!
10. Star Wars Flight of the Falcon (GBA) - I had been loving the run of excellent Star Wars games I was playing on the PC, then heard about this coming and got interested - it was one of the worst games I've ever played ... you fought the controls and framerates more than enemies.
11. Serious Sam Advance (GBA) - I have pursued good shooters on handhelds forever. This one looked good and after the well-done Duke Nukem Advance, reports were that this was good. It wasn't. In fact, it is the worst handheld shooter I've ever played, with crappy gameplay and graphics and horrible framerates.

xSamhainx

November 28th, 2006, 18:11

at work so i really cant get too involved here, but Id have to say that Black and White and Dungeon Keeper II both really let me down in a number of ways.

I grew to appreciate Dungeon Keeper II a bit more as time went on, but I still maintain that the original Dungeon Keeper is a better game and more fun to play. Black and White however, I will likely never reinstall.

Arcanum was a big letdown too, I just didnt like it, but unlike B&W I am willing to reinstall and give it another chance. Someday ='.'=

I havent installed Myth III: The Wolf Age yet, quite frankly, Im scared to after I played the demo!

Jaz

November 28th, 2006, 18:19

@fatBastard(): I'm not sure if I was disappointed with Doom 3 or not. Hm... well, let's say I was, but since I hadn't expected any other outcome (I *knew* I'd be disappointed as soon as I read they'd actually make this game), it's not a case of 'I want my money back'. I ordered it more to complete my collection than anything else.
The spawning per se didn't chagrin me so much - I didn't like the fact that it was supposed to be a *remake*. IMO the game had nothing Doom-y at all; dark corridors and screeching jack-in-the-box monsters reminded me more of Alien/s. For me, 'Doom' means cobalt blue carpets, neon green acid, torches with red, blue and green flames, flickering red-and-blue building textures, 'floating faces' wall decor and Arachnotrons. It does *not* mean Id-brown Pinkies (contradictory...), Quake 1 vores and Quake II tank commanders, sorry.

And talking to oneself while gaming is perfectly normal :biggrin:.

bjon045

November 28th, 2006, 18:25

#5: Alpha Centauri

Each to his own I guess. I though Alpha Centauri with the latest update and alien crossfire was actually a really good game. Not as good as master of orion 2 but quite good. It was extremely time consuming though.

dteowner

November 28th, 2006, 19:00

@dteowner
Wizards and Warriors was a lot of fun for me, but I have to admit I gave up after the Vampire Ring bug--ii just disabled the game.Too many killer bugs sank the ship, but I think the real slap in the face for me was the unrealized potential. W&W could have been a great game. Although Activision was guilty of kicking it out the door early and walking away, I always got the feeling that DWB was a brilliant concept guy but a lousy implementation guy. Dungeon Lords (well, I should say "reviews of" since I refused to purchase another DWB product) reinforced that feeling.

dteowner

November 28th, 2006, 19:07

Each to his own I guess. I though Alpha Centauri with the latest update and alien crossfire was actually a really good game. Not as good as master of orion 2 but quite good. It was extremely time consuming though.Judged on its own, it might be quite good. I bought it after playing the heck out of a run of Sid Meier and Microprose games (Civ, Pirates, RR Tycoon, XCom, MOM, MOO and a few others) and it just didn't measure up for me by comparison.

Lucky Day

November 28th, 2006, 19:19

King's Bounty - a decade before Heroes of Might and Magic there was King's Bounty. At 16 years old I paid $40 for this and finished it in a couple of days. It was incredible - I'd never seen a combat system so good. Thank God someone realized whata great idea it was.

Ultima 9 - The money I paid was also towards hardware to run it. Of course, this is still the only FPS I played all the way through. heh.

Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter: This expansion took 10 hours to finish. IWD rocked and took forever. This was just a dungeon crawl with a shoddy backstory and made no sense. It was $30 at release. Luckily, Black Isle apologized by released the next expansion for free so long as you had a copy of HoW. 72mb. I had already knew Interplay was in some trouble financially but this event made it obvious.

Neo

November 28th, 2006, 20:08

Here's a short list of some games I played which weren't worth playing. Remember, my list doesn't contain only RPG's, but also a lot of others.

Sacred: A complete rip-off, and a bad one too. Everything in this game just bored me. Played it for 3 hours.
Morrowind: Wandering around, killing people and getting the best armor was kinda fun, but the main quest was so well hidden at certain points I didn't even bother following it after a while.
CoD2: Call of Duty 2, destroying the game's name. People are so positive about it whilst I dislike it. I love Multiplayer (only do single-player once just to complete it), and the multi-player was bad, very bad.
Deux Ex 2: Took me only 30 mins to install it, play it and remove it again.
Warhammer 40k: Fire warrior: one word; lol
Bad Day L.A.: The worst... game... ever. A friend seriously gave it to me with the words: "Play this, and laugh your ass off. This game it the worst, period!" And he was so right...
Oblivion: Though I kept playing for 25 hours, the main quest, again as Morrowind, was annoying. I quit at the part where I had to do 8 different oblivion gates.
The Sims: come on. Making a character and "live" with him/her. Try it in Real Life, with yourself. A lot more fun.
Doom 3: Making fun of horror games.
Tombraider: Angel of Darkness (ps2): This game sucked so badly, I broke the cd on purpose.

Fenris

November 28th, 2006, 22:15

Hmm... since I usually buy non-CRPGs only after Reading a lot of Reviews, so I haven't a lot of Disappointments there... the only Non-RPG Games I bought and would have wanted my money back (welcome to german costumer-rights ^^) are Comand & Conquer Tiberian Sun and Warhammer, Shadow of the horned Rat.

With RPGs I was much more careless, so here is my List:

Descent to Undermountain - I loved Descent, I loved D&D... what could have gone wrong ? simply everything...

Pool of Radiance 2 - once again the D&D Trap... I should have known better...

Ultima 9 and especially Might and Magic 9 - a real Legendkiller, this one :(

Blood and Honour - once again the strange compulsion to buy everything with the D&D Label on it...

Birthright - Dark Alliance... D&D, what can I say ^^

Dungeon Siege - though thanks to Lazarus something good came out of that one :)

Dungeon Master 2 - not really a bad Game but a Dissapointment as Heir of one of the greatest Games of all time...

Throne of Bhaal - what a dissapointing Ending for one of the best Series of all times... still thanks to the Modding-Community not a total loss.

Neverwinter Nights out of the Box... really, really bad... unbelievable that it turns into such a good game after the AddOns and with the community-content.

At least I avoided Dragonshard, Stormreach, Demonstone, Oblivion, Lionheart and Dungeon Lords ;)

Arma

November 28th, 2006, 22:38

I do have a list, but quite a short one, as I made a good thing of all the titles I really hate. But still, Lionheart was a disappointing game, with a good start, and terrible end game. Legacy of Kain : Defiance was a game I had great expectations about, but when I finally decided to play it ... oh the camera, the horror. Same goes for the original Dungeon Siege (never played any of the subsequent games in this series) - by the time it came out, I had heard and was expecting a great RPG game but strangely I had missed out on the fact that it was a Diablo clone. In the beginning it was fun though, but by the the middle game it came out as a virtual screen saver than a game. I have a few things to say about Morrowind as well, which as pointed somewhere about, while maybe mildly interesting at several points, with terrible journal (I like to have my quest organized) and horrific orientation (I had trouble finding place even with a walkthrough and I believe myself to be not that dumb).

xSamhainx

November 28th, 2006, 22:53

wow, lots of disdain for classic games. Tough crowd

btw Arma, you misspelled "dumb".

Not being a grammar nazi, just thought it was funny, considering the context!

TheMadGamer

November 28th, 2006, 22:57

Divine Divinity - Very interesting game but crashed randomly very often. Checked the forums and found out that it was not my system but a virtually unsquashable bug inherent in the game. *sigh*

That's too bad Divine Divinity didn't work right for you because it is actually quite a good game. I played through it twice, about a year apart on two different PCs and never had a problem... or at least I never had a problem that I noticed.

Since I come from the days before even Pong it's hard for me to say that any game is a dissapointment... for example, eventhough Oblivion fell short in some ways, I'd never say I was dissapointed by it.

But if you guys twist my arm, and twist it real hard, I guess I'd say that Descent to Undermountain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_to_Undermountain) was pretty bad... I didn't even play it more than 15 minutes after I got it installed it was just so grossly horrible.

HiddenX

November 28th, 2006, 23:00

Greatest dissapointment:

ARCATERA - the buggiest game ever - lots of quest stopping bugs.
I had some email traffic with the developers back then :)

The only highlight:
Hans Paetsch - the greatest of all german story tellers (his voice is legend) - was the narrator of the game.

Arma

November 29th, 2006, 01:18

Heh, a nice mistake on my take ...

Corwin

November 29th, 2006, 02:01

Yes, the original Dungeon Siege was a total waste of time and energy, but I only bought it so I could play Lazarus, which is why I didn't include it on my list!!

jalong

November 29th, 2006, 02:39

Here's my list of disappointments and/or unadulterated crap....

Lionheart
Beyond Divinity
Oblivion
Dungeon Siege
Restricted Area
Diablo 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 4
Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire
Ultima IX
Fallout: Tactics

Arma

November 29th, 2006, 02:51

Dr. A

November 29th, 2006, 03:40

That's too bad Divine Divinity didn't work right for you because it is actually quite a good game. I played through it twice, about a year apart on two different PCs and never had a problem... or at least I never had a problem that I noticed.

Hmm, I'm gonna get a new system next year so I'll probably give it a go again. There were many things that I loved about the game - the humour, the beautifully detailed art style, the gameplay (mix and match abilities from different classes. So it was incredibly disappointing to encounter the unsolvable crashing issue. Thanks for the recommendation :)

Actually, I like Neverwinter Nights. Even the OC. A lot. And (pathethic, i know) that was the first D&D RPG i had properly played. Maybe that was why i liked it a lot. I hadn't played the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale series at the time. haha. But damn, I got hooked on NWN.

It's interesting to note that no one mentioned being disappointed by Gothic 3 despite a lot of complaints. I myself am gonna play it only with my new system and after a major patch is released. So lucky for me, no major bad impressions of the game. Although holding back from playing the game is killing me slowly inside :'(

7- Hellgate London: Would be disappointment. Open cinematics are very well, alright. But, it is only 'cinematics'. Did you see the ingame videos? Your avatar does not walk, he flies on the ground. I hope they will change it until the release.

No predictions allowed in this thread, Nostradamus!!!:biggrin: C'mon man, trust Bill Roper...

jalong

November 29th, 2006, 04:04

Actually, I'd argue in defence of HMM4. It was a good game, good overall concept for the evolution of the series, though unpolished and unsupported after the initial release since we all know what happened to 3DO and good heavens for that. I liked some of the campaigns. They had some good story. Even had one map RPG style. Well, most people in general seem to bash it for not being HMM3. I admit for not liking the engine, though.

I think I'd characterize HoMM4 as being more of a disappointment for me than a poor game. I know that opinion on the merits of HoMM4 seem to be sharply divided within the HoMM community, with many people feeling it was the best of the series. However, after loving HoMM2 and HoMM3, HoMM4 just didn't seem to fit, and it felt like they ruined the game play. I probably should give it a 2nd chance one of these days...

Maylander

November 29th, 2006, 04:12

The problem with the HoMM series is the fact that HoMM3 was such a grand game everything afterwards will be dissappointing unless you pull off a small miracle. Both HoMM4 and 5 are good, or even great, games, yet to the old fans they will never equal HoMM3 which is the king of turn based strategy games. Personally I love all 5 HoMM games, but 2 and 3 stand out as the best turned based strategy games I've ever played.

nameless hero

November 29th, 2006, 04:36

* DOOM 3. Crawling through tunnels and having things go BOO! at you is fun enough... for a while. But it gets old fast...
were.

What!?:S Doom 3 was the greatest FPS ever! It created the most thrilling atmosphere in a game to date. The graphics were jaw-dropping. The game was optimised incredibly well. The story was very interesting, and it continually grew to a Massive Climax Point. The sound was brilliant. Voice acting, Outstanding! The controls were also sweet. Better than Halo, were all you did was shoot at a few aliens with some comrads. Even if you didnt do anything the game would finish.

Anyway...a disappointment would be Oblivion becuase its didnt live up to its expectations. lol, Radiant AI.:)

txa1265

November 29th, 2006, 04:58

Yes, the original Dungeon Siege was a total waste of time and energy
Time, maybe - but not energy! It was a game that I could have 2 computers going, and let DS play itself while I played something else and just occasionally hit the health or mana button ;)

Corwin

November 29th, 2006, 08:18

Good one Mike, I'll pay that!! lol :biggrin:

Arma

November 29th, 2006, 08:33

I think I'd characterize HoMM4 as being more of a disappointment for me than a poor game. I know that opinion on the merits of HoMM4 seem to be sharply divided within the HoMM community, with many people feeling it was the best of the series. However, after loving HoMM2 and HoMM3, HoMM4 just didn't seem to fit, and it felt like they ruined the game play. I probably should give it a 2nd chance one of these days...

Indeed. HoMM2 was the better carbon copy HoMM1, HoMM3 was a the better HoMM2. HoMM4 was, however, not the better HoMM3 and this is the reason many people seem to have disliked it.

Dr. A

November 29th, 2006, 08:35

What!?:S Doom 3 was the greatest FPS ever! It created the most thrilling atmosphere in a game to date. The graphics were jaw-dropping. The game was optimised incredibly well. The story was very interesting, and it continually grew to a Massive Climax Point. The sound was brilliant. Voice acting, Outstanding! The controls were also sweet. Better than Halo, were all you did was shoot at a few aliens with some comrads. Even if you didnt do anything the game would finish.

Anyway...a disappointment would be Oblivion becuase its didnt live up to its expectations. lol, Radiant AI.:)

Actually, i'm with Prima Junta - Doom 3 definitely disappointed me. I quit playing after 30 mins. Got too boring. The scare tactics used in the game were just so immature and obvious after a while.

Just wondering, if you like Doom 3 so much then what do you think of F.E.A.R?

txa1265

November 29th, 2006, 11:32

Actually, i'm with Prima Junta - Doom 3 definitely disappointed me. I quit playing after 30 mins. Got too boring. The scare tactics used in the game were just so immature and obvious after a while.

Just wondering, if you like Doom 3 so much then what do you think of F.E.A.R?

While I agree with the general theme, I'm wondering - are you serious about "playing after 30 mins"? Because if you are then how can you really judge? It is like quitting Gothic 3 after doing Ardea and a bit of Reddock and making full decisions ... Doom 3 is still a significant letdown, but there is more to it than just those first few minutes.

Korplem

November 29th, 2006, 11:42

I played for a few hours but I really got sick of the monsters spawning behind me. That just seemed really lame. Graphics, sound, theme were good. I just wish they hadn't resorted to annoying "scare tactics", as Dr. A put it.

I ended up giving it away which only happens to a rare breed of disappointing games. Like Guild Wars. But there are also games that I don't dare give away to friends, maybe to a guy that pisses me off, games like Dungeon Lords.

Jaz

November 29th, 2006, 11:49

Hmmm... while Doom 3 didn't make my 'I want my money back' list (or did it? I don't remember!), I was disappointed with it, sure, because it was so un-Doomy. But I played it to the bitter end. Games I can't finish for some reason or other are quite rare, and they hold a special place in my heart.

As for Dungeon Siege... well... I played it for two afternoons in between mailing and posting on forums, then I uninstalled and returned it to my friend (I had just borrowed it, yippie). The game's best function was that you could alt-tab it into the background and alt-tab it back when you felt like playing on... a rare feature nowadays. Comparable to Leisure Suit Larry's boss key.
But since I didn't a) expect DS to be good or interesting and thus b) didn't buy it, it's not a list candidate, either.

titus

November 29th, 2006, 11:54

fatBastard()

November 29th, 2006, 13:00

BALDERS GATE started playing it for 3 times but lost interest in it way too fast
Icewind dale 2: quitted it after a few minutes, reallizng I would never like it.
Diablo 2: had a lot of fun, for a while but could never bring me too keep it playing, not sp or mp mode
no other games that jump too mind directly, will be back probably

Okay that's it! You're going over the knee sonny boy. Not only are you calling Baldur's Gate boring, you also have the audacity to misspell it! Let me just get my belt ... ;)

sealight4

November 29th, 2006, 13:40

Dungeon Lords-my greatest video game mistake
NWN2- can't finish it despite good reviews
The others including Oblivion were fine.

txa1265

November 29th, 2006, 14:23

Okay that's it! You're going over the knee sonny boy. Not only are you calling Baldur's Gate boring, you also have the audacity to misspell it! Let me just get my belt ... ;)

No, this one is different ... in Balder's Gate you play a worker at a hairloss treatment in a 'Wisteria Lane'-like Gated community, the style is Sims-like, and you apply Rogaine to middle-aged men as part of your daily routine ...

:D

Corwin

November 29th, 2006, 15:09

txa1265

November 29th, 2006, 15:25

Oh, you mean like most of the game's reviewers seem to have done!! :)

I kept an eye on Doom 3 - it wasn't one I was totally set on getting right away, so I watched the reviews. Early reviews were in the 90-ish range, which fell off to ~75% over a few weeks ...

So perhaps you're right - I thought the game was initially impressive, with a long drab & repetitive middle and a pretty decent end sequence.

xSamhainx

November 29th, 2006, 17:34

txa1265

November 29th, 2006, 18:02

Geez, you guys are tru hardcore. I loaded up Doom III for the first time around midnight, turned off all the lights. After the zombies started coming out to play in earnest, I got some pretty good creepy and downright scary moments!

I like playing with headphones and on laptop - that is a very 'intimate' experience that really tweaks out scary stuff like the Cradle in Thief 3 or Hotel in Vampire. So I was full-on with Doom 3.

It is not a bad game, but the 90% ratings were very much over-rated. There are some genuine scares, but the shooter elements are fairly loose and sloppy, the 'monster closets' and flashlight-switch gameplay mechanic are both contrived and get old quickly.

Jaz

November 29th, 2006, 18:08

As for the BG dissing, Tssk Tsk Titus! Go to bed with no dessert!Good boy, Titus. Good boy :). Here, take my dessert.

Alrik Fassbauer

November 29th, 2006, 21:12

- Star Wars : Force Commander. It ran so incredibly slow one could easily go brew a coffee until the main menu had built up. I even patched it, but I never found out why it was so unnaturally slow. My PC was at height of gaming system requirements, back then.

- Freelancer. A flight sim with no joystick support ???????? I couldn't believe it.

- Starlancer. The story just sucks. So much clichés I just got sick.

TheMadGamer

November 29th, 2006, 22:28

It's interesting to note that no one mentioned being disappointed by Gothic 3 despite a lot of complaints. I myself am gonna play it only with my new system and after a major patch is released. So lucky for me, no major bad impressions of the game. Although holding back from playing the game is killing me slowly inside :'(

G3 is a fun game despite the poor reviews coming out which for the most part have been very unbalanced in the context of CRPGs in general. G3 definatley left the building unpolished, but its still a fun game.

HiddenX

November 29th, 2006, 22:43

Gothic 3 is a good game, but it is not a classic.

I had very high expectations for 2006 - Oblivion, Gothic 3 and NWN 2
... and only NWN 2 manages to get better than its predecessor.

The worst thing for me is:
I *know* PB as well as Bethesda can do better.

Dr. A

November 30th, 2006, 03:22

While I agree with the general theme, I'm wondering - are you serious about "playing after 30 mins"? Because if you are then how can you really judge? It is like quitting Gothic 3 after doing Ardea and a bit of Reddock and making full decisions ... Doom 3 is still a significant letdown, but there is more to it than just those first few minutes.

I know, I know - I seem like one those superficial reviewers. But I played long enough to admire the graphics,observe the crisis and kill a bunch of monsters. And I realized that the game was overhyped which left me in a terminal state of mild disgust (much lke Oblivion). The initial reviews were raving about how it was bloody wonderful and innovative blah blah blah... :rolleyes:

On the other hand, when I played Half-Life 2 (Doom 3's "rival") I was hooked from the beginning. Far more interesting storyline, varied locales, immersive gameplay. And only a few things were overhyped, like AI.

I hate it when people give up on a game in less than an hour or even in a matter of minutes. Because that's probably why the Gothic series does not have a larger fanbase - I'm sure half the people who played Gothic 1/2 gave up after playing it for 10 mins. I really wish I wasn't one of those people but ... Doom 3 just annoyed the hell out of me :biggrin:

txa1265

November 30th, 2006, 04:41

I hate it when people give up on a game in less than an hour or even in a matter of minutes. Because that's probably why the Gothic series does not have a larger fanbase - I'm sure half the people who played Gothic 1/2 gave up after playing it for 10 mins.

Which is why I *had* to give you a rough time about it ;)

roqua

November 30th, 2006, 05:21

* Morrowind: far worse than DF.

*Diablo 2: I figured after all the hype it would be more to my liking.

BG: I figured I was going to like it a lot more than I did and was excited to play it, until i started playing it.

DS: Same deal as Diablo, this one taught me not to belive in hype.

QfG 3: Not typed in responses just made it lose some of its charm.

.hack/slash (whatever they are called): After reading some posts on the dot and how rad and tubular this series was I played one and scratched my head.

The third X-Com (i forget the title): I figured upgraded ufo/xcom action, and got not that.

Zork: I got this at a flea market based on the cover when I was really young. I didn't have computer so waited what seemed like 12 years to play it (it was probably a week) and when I finally got a chance at my aunts, it had no graphics. I still played and liked it, but I was disapointed a lot.

Gothics: Another fan pick from the dot. No char creation was the first hit, then dev, then the combat and jumping puzzles. The buzz got me to get 2 and I guess i forgot about the combat. Thanks Marvin, whoever you are. You complete me.

I am a pure cynic now so I'm disapointed to start off with. I expect very little so NWN, Kotors, DL's, and other bad purchases of mine don't get to disapoint me, they just reafirm my beliefs. I actually was pleasently suprised by the first half of Lionheart. I haven't tried NWN 2, Oblivion, or G3. I skip any game with action in the title now, or that I'm sure will have overeasy combat (RT w/pause games).

One game that really disapointed me was a LoTR game a long time ago. It had a side scroll for fight scenses, but the game was just a map with icons for you and the enemies. The back of the box made it look like a lot more. It was stupid and generic.

I'm also predisapointed for a lot of games, like Drakesung and FO3.

The one that takes the cake for me is EQ. I bought the game without having the internet. Got the internet for 2 seconds before figuring out i needed a 3d card. Read the manual every night. PPictured a real, virtual world. Imagined all the things I would do, all the different situations and high drama. Waited longer, loaded on a friends computer, waited for patches. Saw a generic and supericial character creation, made a dwarf paladin, ran out of town and imidiatly saw someone being attacked by a spider, I ran after to help out, as a paladin should do, then got yelled at by the person I was helping. After a couple hours I realized that what I pictured and what the game actually was were two different things. That, and System Shock 2 (which highly disapointed me the first time I played it since I wanted a real, meaty rpg) were the only two games I played while in the army. So I missed four years of games. I replayed system shock and enjoed it for what it was. But I've been disapointed basically since my heyday, pre 96.

Korplem

November 30th, 2006, 06:32

As for Lionheart, the very first thing I did with this game was play on a LAN with my dad. Within 1 minute of starting he opened his inventory and it made MY screen shift to the side. I knew right then and there that it was a terrible game.

Jaz

November 30th, 2006, 10:37

On the other hand, when I played Half-Life 2 (Doom 3's "rival") I was hooked from the beginning. Far more interesting storyline, varied locales, immersive gameplay. And only a few things were overhyped, like AI.I found both games equally boring; while in my opinion HL 2 was more HL-y than Doom 3 was Doom-y, gameplay was arcadish: either you jogged through deserted parking lots like, forever, or you rode some vehicle or other... for ages. The only different setting was that spooky churchyard, and it felt contrived. Barney was good, though.
Of all the recent follow-ups to old favorites of mine, I only happened to like Quake 4 which was IMO a worthy sequel of Q2. They may have ripped off a Q2 fanfic I had written years ago ;), but hey, I really liked Strauss.

Prime Junta

November 30th, 2006, 11:47

Geez, you guys are tru hardcore. I loaded up Doom III for the first time around midnight, turned off all the lights. After the zombies started coming out to play in earnest, I got some pretty good creepy and downright scary moments!

Maybe you played it around noon with all the lights on or something, I did that a few days later and it wasnt bad.

Of course it was creepy and scary. Trouble is, that's *all* it was.

Creepy and scary are like chili peppers. I love food with chili in it, but I would not enjoy munching on nothing but chili peppers. They spice up things great, but all by themselves they're just excruciating until you get used to them at which point they become boring (and you get the Burning Ring of Fire thing too).

Think Ocean House in Bloodlines and the orphanage in Deadly Shadows. Those were creepy well done and well placed and paced.

titus

November 30th, 2006, 16:10

Zaleukos

November 30th, 2006, 16:56

Reviews are useless except for warning you of technical issues, as you rarely know whether the reviewers preferences are the same as your own.

Luckily I havent had many disappointments since I found forums with people I trust. After a while one learns which posters have good taste...

Oblivion stands out, as I loved Daggerfall and Morrowind I didnt expect Bethesda to turn out this hand-holding clickfest.

Championship manager 4 (not sure about the version number). The first game in the series that had a 2-d engine, which was great. The numerous gameplay bugs were however not.

Championship Manager 2 scandinavian edition: Sports Interactive didnt do any research at all for this one. They just took the rosters for the scandinavian leagues, and assigned the players the same stats as those in England (Swedish league), Italy (Norwegian league?), and Spain (Danish league?). I got so mad at this that it took me three years before I bought a new Championship Manager. Btw, it seems like SI releases a crappy version once every few years....

Combat Air Patrol (back in the Amiga days). This was the game that made me grow tired of any flight sim heavier than Wing commander. Boring missions, and a campaing (it is set in Gulf War 1) where the Iraqis have the bigger army and the coalition is limited to THREE air raids per day:p

Then there are some games such as Carmageddon II that I couldnt get to run on my system, but that is a different kind of problem...

xSamhainx

November 30th, 2006, 17:19

I am ashame for not liking BG, I really wanted too like it because I knew it had to be good and it is such a big title in the RPG world, but I tried and tried, now I am going to sell it after accepting I will never like it. hell I liked diablo and Diablo 2 more than that :d.
Actually diablo was good. ever tried playing the catacombs level in a real dark chamber with the sound on and nothing else? it scared the shit out of me in those dark catacombs and suddenly a monster there.Besides you have to love the Butcher; he is one of the toughest non boss creatures I ever encountered :D

I'll drink to The Butcher *raises mug of coffee*

I kinda miss him actually, some good times there indeed having him chase me and my friends around. The Skeleton King or whatever was a pushover compared to The Butcher, the big lug was practically an online rite of passage.

http://anestit.unipa.it/diablo/butchera.gifhttp://anestit.unipa.it/diablo/butcherw.gif

SirDeity

December 1st, 2006, 07:48

Wow, a lot of people didn't like Dungeon Siege. I liked it a lot. I wouldn't say it's in the top 10 RPGs or even top 10 RPG series ever created, but I've certainly wasted at least a thousand dollars of RPG games that were much worse (I've played a LOT of RPG games). I didn't play it more than once but I enjoyed playing it through the first time. Dungeon Siege II was good as well... but it's not a game that I'd go out and buy an expansion for.

Morrowind was probably the biggest dissapointment of all because I was one of the minority who experienced a bug that broke the main quest. After hundreds of hours of gameplay, to have all your hard work ruined by some bug that prevents you from finishing the game, it's a painful experience. I thought the game had enourmous potential and would've been one of the top 10 easily if not for the MAJOR bug(s) that broke the main storyline. I went to forums and it was unfixable. I had many saves in different spots but the bug was actually by killing a creature that attacked me first, which I wasn't supposed to kill... but I didn't find out I wasn't supposed to kill it until perhaps a week later after I had already saved over all the 20 or so save slots I had going. In my opinion, no matter how great a game can appear to be during any point in gameplay, if there's an easy to reproduce bug which exists and breaks the main storyline then the game is worthless and therefore fits into the category of "a waste of money." To be fair, Oblivion was much better. I put Oblivion in the top 10 RPG games of all time.

Corwin

December 1st, 2006, 07:59

I spent over 100 hours on MW, and never advanced the main quest past the initial stages!! :) Then my HD melted and I gave the game away!!

SirDeity

December 1st, 2006, 09:05

Ouch... don't feel bad though... I once had a $4,000.00 computer system that overheated after only about 3 or 4 months of use and became useless. I worked all summer long for that... boy it stung! Fortunately I don't think I was in the middle of any great games at the time =)

JDR13

December 1st, 2006, 11:25

It's annoying to see so many people whining about how bad Doom 3 supposedly was. Doom 3 is a great game if you just accept it for what it is. Not sure what everyone was expecting. John Carmack delivered exactly what he said he was going to, no more, no less. I've played through it twice and had a blast both times.

Also.....if you don't like Baldurs Gate, then you don't like RPG's!

Prime Junta

December 1st, 2006, 14:09

dteowner

December 1st, 2006, 14:27

As much as it pains me to agree with PJ ( ;) ), BG including the Tales expansion was OK but not world shaking for me. I really hate easily attainable level caps and I also don't care for low level D&D (the characters are beyond worthless until about level 4). The game itself (story and mechanics) was pretty good, but being capped into all that low-level stuff was a major downer. I never bought BG2 because of it, which was probably a mistake.

txa1265

December 1st, 2006, 14:49

I never bought BG2 because of it, which was probably a mistake.
I played BG2 and therefore never fully developed a love of BG, which was probably a mistake ... but had I played them in order I *never* would have romanced Jaheira ...

Corwin

December 1st, 2006, 15:20

The very thought of romancing Jaheira made my stomach crawl!! I went for Viconia!! :)

txa1265

December 1st, 2006, 15:38

The very thought of romancing Jaheira made my stomach crawl!!

See, I'm always lawful or neutral good, and her take on balance worked well for me ... Viconia didn't work for fairly obvious alignment reasons and Aerie ... well she just made me want to barf.

magerette

December 1st, 2006, 19:31

You should have had to try to work up a passion for that spoiled whiny paladin wannabe character which was your only option as a female. Uggh. In RL I would have sent him back to mommy after the first five minutes.

Jaz

December 1st, 2006, 19:44

Also.....if you don't like Baldurs Gate, then you don't like RPG's!I didn't like Baldur's gate, either, and one of my ongoing PnP RPG campaigns started in '97 (not AD&D, though, we stopped playing shortly before the 3rd Ed was released). *shakes PJ's hand*

SirDeity

December 1st, 2006, 20:14

@JDR13:

I like Doom 3 a lot as well. I thought (at the time of its release) the graphics were amazing and the gameplay was easily the most horrifying and immersive FPS shooter out there. (And some might argue still is -- at least the most horrifying.) I have a pretty decent computer so I could play with all the graphics maxed out and playing alone in the dark... call me a wuss but it was pretty scary stuff. I consider myself pretty hardcore and I have some friends who're hardcore as well and some of them couldn't even finish the game because it was too scary. I actually made it near the very end and gave up because the game was too scary and messed with my head. There isn't a horror movie out there that's too scary for me... some of them leave me wishing I never watched them because they mess with my head a bit but that's sort of the point to them. Anyway, if you say Doom 3 isn't scary then I whole-heartedly believe you didn't play the game long enough and you didn't play it in the dark, alone, and with the graphics up high. The fear factor in itself was enough to give this game major props, not to mention the graphics during that time. Also, it was a VERY long game for a FPS. I've played at least 50 FPS games (and beaten them all) and Doom 3 is easily longer lasting than 75% of those... if I had to guess more accurately I'd say it is longer than about 90% of FPS games out there. It was repetitive in the typical sense of a first-person shooter with no RPG elements to it but that's nothing to complain about... because you get what you buy in this case, which should be predictable.

But for BG... I played the original and quite frankly thought it was kind of boring. It had some strong and addictive elements but compared to most other highly successful RPG games, I didn't think Buldur's gate was all that special. That doesn't mean I'm not a true RPG gamer, it just means my personal preference in RPG games is different than yours. I'd actually say that BG serves as proof that there are two major categories of RPG games... the type that favor RPGs like BG more and type that favor RPGs like Gothic or Elder Scrolls more... (and I'm not just talking about camera angles... I have no problem with 3rd person RPGs... Diablo for example was a truly great 3rd person RPG experience. NWN is another great one). Generally, blanket statements of any kind are a sign of ignorance in my opinion... but we all make them so no harm done! =)

txa1265

December 1st, 2006, 20:21

I didn't like Baldur's gate, either, and one of my ongoing PnP RPG campaigns started in '97 (not AD&D, though, we stopped playing shortly before the 3rd Ed was released). *shakes PJ's hand*

I love the BG games, but there is a mentality that they are the penultimate representation of RPG. I just don't buy that ... and since my first love is shooters, my analogy is that neither Half Life is in my top 10 games - people often say 'how can you call yourself a shooter fan if you don't worship HL?' Sorry ... just don't.

JDR13

December 1st, 2006, 21:00

@JDR -- why do you find it annoying that peoples' taste in games doesn't always match yours?

Since we're talking annoyances, I get annoyed by logical fallacies. Like No True Scotsman, which is what you're toting. I didn't care for BG, but my current PnP D&D campaign will have its tenth anniversary early next spring. How long has yours been running?

Prima, do you take everything posted on a gaming board that seriously? You need to learn to distinguish sarcasm.

In other words, that was just me saying that I really liked Baldurs Gate.

Congratulations on your Pnp campaign. Is there supposed to be some sort of relevance in relation to a CRPG? Just curious, since those are two very different types of experiences.

Yes, I do realize I said "RPG's". Just for the record, I was referring to CRPG's, but since this IS a website dedicated to them, I didn't think my words would be taken out of context like that.

Alrik Fassbauer

December 1st, 2006, 23:55

Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 were lying like lead in the shelves, as we use to say here. They never sold much.

txa1265

December 2nd, 2006, 00:03

Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 were lying like lead in the shelves, as we use to say here. They never sold much.

Only a couple million copies here or there ...

JDR13

December 2nd, 2006, 02:42

txa1265

December 2nd, 2006, 04:59

txa,
Half-life doesn't even crack your top ten for shooters?! What are some of your favorite shooters?
Half-life 1&2 are definitely in my top ten for shooters, but this may be due to the fact that most FPS are pretty bad in general, rather than Half-Life being that good.
I'm not saying I don't love them, just don't worship them ... here are some I like better, in no particular order.
- Dark Forces
- Jedi Knight
- Jedi Knight II
- No One Lives Forever
- NOLF 2
- Soldier of Fortune II
- Doom
- Wolfenstein 3D

JDR13

December 2nd, 2006, 05:31

The original Wolfenstein 3D, or Return to Castle Wolfenstein? They were both great.

Yeah, the original Doom, and Doom 2, were the best. I played Doom on 3 different platforms. PC, Playstation, and the Atari Jaguar. The pc version is best of course, but the Playstation version had some incredible background music added in.

Had a lot of fun with the JK series as well. Surprised you didn't mention Jedi Academy.

Bigpapa

December 2nd, 2006, 18:24

The worst game ever made was Blood2, it was nothing like the Blood one was.

JDR13

December 2nd, 2006, 19:41

The worst game ever made was Blood2, it was nothing like the Blood one was.

That's a great example Bigpapa, I couldn't agree with you more. I loved the original Blood, it was the best game ever made using the old BUILD graphics engine made popular by Duke Nukem 3D. Blood 2 was a buggy piece of poop.

Jaz

December 2nd, 2006, 21:32

Blood 2 was one of the games I did't finish. A pity, I had loved Blood.

My 10 major shooter-only disappointments were... um...

-Blood 2 (JDR13 said it all)
-Witchaven 2 (nearly unplayable due to control issues)
-Operation Bodycount (yawn.)
-Angst (probably the worst game ever, regardless of genre)
-Redneck Rampage Rides Again (tech issues... stutter stutter....)
-Mortal Coil (great premises, great features, but a buggy mess)
-The Hidden Below (just plain disastrous.)
-Rebel Moon Rising (great lighting, boring game)
-some title in an Egyptian, Tomb Raider-like setting... it was so bad I decided to forget the title
-Creature Shock (I hadn't expected an Arcade game, so this came as an unpleasant surprise... my fault, but still.)

Then there were those titles which made me laugh - more of a hilarious experience than depressing: Mortyr, for example, Ken's Labyrinth or Depth Dwellers. Did anybody else play those?

txa1265

December 3rd, 2006, 01:22

The original Wolfenstein 3D, or Return to Castle Wolfenstein? They were both great.
When I think 'original' with Wolfenstein, I think of the one I had for my Apple ][+ in ~1981 :D I was talking Wolf 3D (1992). RtCW I like a lot, but I thought MoHAA was better and I've barely replayed it since ...
Had a lot of fun with the JK series as well. Surprised you didn't mention Jedi Academy.
It wasn't a complete list ;) JA I've only played a dozen or so times ...

txa1265

December 3rd, 2006, 01:25

The worst game ever made was Blood2, it was nothing like the Blood one was.

I personally think that Contract J.A.C.K. to the NOLF games is worse than Blood 2 to Blood, but then again ... crap is crap ;)

SirDeity

December 3rd, 2006, 02:18

The Half Life and Sin episodes are too short for their cost in my opinion... very good games (especially half life episode one) but if I'm going to pay that much money I want more than a day of gameplay.

Dr. A

December 4th, 2006, 03:14

Speaking of FPS games, my absolutely fave (for multiplayer) is Classic Quake. I've never enjoyed a multiplayer game more than that beauty....Ahhhh, the memories :)

KazikluBey

December 4th, 2006, 04:51

My list would have to include:

Half-Life 2: My biggest complaint is that I just couldn't shake the empty feeling of that I was really just running through a long corridor throughout the whole game - especially in the parts that were set in the city. It felt like nothing of it was there for any reason other than to serve as an obstacle course, with some enemies littered about.

Gordon Freeman's complete and utter silence was also an immersion breaker for me. There's also hype that it failed to live up to (remember the films they said were actually AI based, that were shown to be scripted when the source code leaked?).

Oblivion: Another case of developers outright lying to make their game sell better (the RAI demonstration videos, mostly). An uninteresting gameworld (nevermind the fact that Cyrodiil is supposed to consist largely of tropical rain forest according to the previous games) that fails to create a believable society. The new version of Cyrodiil is supposed to be full of farmlands, but heck, even the Ascadian Isles in Morrowind is more believably farmed than any part of Cyrodiil is. It's mostly just empty wilderness with no purpose other than to have somewhere out in nowhere to hide the caves and ruined forts.

Also, less skills, a console interface, level scaling, fast-travel, an extreme hand-holding quest system with those annoying markers to tell you exactly where to fast travel to, annoying minigames, a main quest that forces you to be a hero, no choices other than "take this quest now or later" even when the quest givers imply choice by saying things like "don't tell that person about this" - it all just made it feel too dumbed down for me to appreciate the game.

The only really good parts I found was the first half or two thirds of the Dark Brotherhood (did they run out of ideas, or time?), and Sean Bean as the voice actor for the Emperor's heir did a good job.

I know of the interface mods and OOO etc, but those felt more like band aids in a situation where you need tourniquets.

Heroes of Might and Magic 5: Perfect example of why you should not take a 2D franchise and turn it into 3D without some considerable thought given to why it should be 3D when 2D worked so well. Having to turn the camera around the battlefield just to be able to attack from the right direction shines of poor game design. I never really gave it much of a chance after I had that happen, and I don't see much reason to either - when HoMM 2, 3 and 4 are all more than enough for my turn-based strategy gaming needs.

Neverwinter Nights: My main complaint was the awful Aurora engine, that sort of tried to be the Infinity Engine as well as 3D single player at the same time, yet failed horribly among the weird camera settings/controls and tiled areas. The tile based terrain might be easy to make mods for, but it made the whole game world(s) feel awkward. And the single player campaign was ridiculous. The UI was mildly annoying. I missed the tactical element of controlling a 6 man party, that didn't have such obvious "one quest per chapter" progression of their storylines.

I had high hopes for "the next Bioware game", as Baldur's Gate II was still my favorite game at the time.

Of course I have played more games than those that I didn't like, but I think those are the only ones that I've really felt let down by.

Maylander

December 4th, 2006, 05:18

I agree on Oblivion and NWN, and your summary of dissappointments on the two are spot on. I'd like to add that the premium modules, add-ons and multiplayer capabilities of NWN make it a decent game, but it certainly did not live up to the "BG3 hype" at the time. I even recall BG2 ToB having an in-game screen saying "Your adventures does not have to stop here, you can import your character to Neverwinter Nights!" or something similar, that made me want NWN very badly.

Korplem

December 4th, 2006, 06:37

I had also wanted to import my BG2 character but it's understandable that they weren't able to do it since they were using different rulesets.

KazikluBey

December 4th, 2006, 06:38

IIRC that loading tip about exporting your character was actually already in BG II, without the expansion pack, before their plans for NWN had taken their final shape, and before they decided you could become lvl 40/a god in Throne of Bhaal.

EDIT: Oh, and believe me, I've tried to like NWN for what it is. I even bought the expansion packs after hearing they were actually worth playing, I tried playing on persistent worlds as well as single player mods. But I could never get past the fact that I loathed the actual engine so much that it was all just unplayable.

Jaz

December 4th, 2006, 07:29

Speaking of FPS games, my absolutely fave (for multiplayer) is Classic Quake. I've never enjoyed a multiplayer game more than that beauty....Ahhhh, the memories :)Yeah, Quake Team Deathmatch was fun. But then came the original Team Fortress (the one with the Carmina Burana intro movie), and my view of multiplayer changed forever. You could even have a co-op game of the original Quake with the TF characters. Quite funny to knock on a shambler's door and watch it rush out to tear you apart... just to be greeted by your level 3 sentry gun and your HWG friend.

booyah_boy

December 4th, 2006, 16:17

I'm going to stick strictly to CRPG's as a list of my console disappointments would span numerous pages.

Easy Choices:
The following list of games are those I despise with self-determined justification.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anachronox - I had great hopes for this game, which was promoted as a blending of the best of console and PC worlds; playing the game made me wonder just which worlds the developers were looking at. Ultimately monotonous, the game begins with a sequence of trivial tasks that do nothing to advance the plot (and can take up to fifteen hours to complete, should you be so foolish as to continue investing your time in it), involving a host of characters whose archetypes are easily inferred and lacking in development, whilst the plot itself is worthy only of an inclusion in a B-grade sci-fi film. Furthermore, the often critically cited "humour" of the title is prevalent only to those who find the following amusing: (a) small, grotesquely muscled characters physically abusing your own; (b) the sort of sarcastic remarks you're likely to hear on an elementary school playground; (c) "cutscenes" that end with swearing robots; (d) drowning kittens. No, you don't actually drown any kittens in Anachronox, but I'm certain I would have laughed more often doing so than playing this game.
Mistmare - Between a shoddy control and camera scheme (the latter of which is incredibly frustrating), graphical issues (including sporadically massive framerate drops and texture overlapping), as well as being set in an overly drab and dark atmosphere (which the inability to increase the gamma occassionally makes all but unplayable) Mistmare appears like a game only midway through its development cycle.
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader - I was drawn to this title by two distinct things: the unique take on an alternate-reality medieval society, and the Black Isle branding. For those familiar with the more notable BI franchises (Baldur's Gate, Fallout, etcetera) the character and combat system will be instantly familiar, but the sense of nostalgia fails to make up for the glaring shortcomings of Lionheart. A veritable slue of unique and intriguing quests in the initial area (Barcelona) appear to promise more of the same down the road, but rapidly dwindle, leaving the player with the impression that the game was rushed out the door. Furthermore, the frenetic variation in enemy difficulty (which is intensified by their insane speed in the limited resolution screen) demands that you focus on weaponry, leaving aside the more interesting (to me, at least) options of magic and stealth. After a dozen character deaths in the span of an hour, and some major revisions to my character layout, it became readily apparent that the ability to customize your character was not what it seems: choose the wrong skills and you'll hastily meet your end. A grating disappointment from a company with an otherwise superb history.
Dungeon Lords - What more can I say about a game that has already been lambasted for five pages?
Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creation - This was one of the first CRPGs I picked up, and the one that almost turned me away from them. Another entry in the "console-meets-PC" genre, Septerra Core plays like the blatant and poorly executed knock-off of numerous other games (including the Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire series) it is. What's more, it just looks ugly.
Summoner - In short: a click-fest title set within an unoriginal atmosphere and storyline, with characters whose development is sporadic, and, at best, minimal.
Titan Quest - A game set in the rich atmosphere arising from a medley of ancient Greecian and Egyptian mythology would seem to portend something amazing; Titan Quest, however, boils down within the first half-hour to reveal how little substance it truly encompasses. A myriad of "unique" items (read: randomly mixed and matched names and statistics) do not make up for a combat system whose premise is nothing more than "click your enemy, then again, and again, and again, and again...". The developers were obviously fans of Diablo, but while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, it makes for very dull games. Don't buy the hype.

Difficult Choices:
The following list of games are those which I did not enjoy playing, but could still recommend.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neverwinter Nights - I picked up NWN after having read of the near-legendary status it had achieved. This status, however, did not last very long while playing through the primary campaign. A promising storyline that sparked little more than pages of drivel, ultimately floundering into the same old channels as other fantasy fare, and numerous innovations that were present, but untapped, left me with a feeling of malaise. NWN seemed a title that was made purely as a building block; a stepping stone by which the community could create their own adventures, not a game in and of itself...thankfully, the community stepped up. While I no longer play NWN (and remain heartily disappointed in it, not the least because it requires you to play with a group of characters if you wish to make any real progress), I continue to recommend it on account of the numerous incredible mods available for such.
Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic - While citing this game may very well end in some sharp retorts, I'll do so just the same, for one reason: it's bad. Very bad. After reading professional reviews stating everything from "it grasps the Star Wars universe in a realistic manner" to the fanboy cry's of "it's like being a real Jedi!" how could I resist? Imagine then, if you will, my disappointment in a game which locked me into a strictly linear storyline hidden behind a facade of freedom. I was bereft of the ability to attack the guards I wanted, kill the people I wished, or even venture outside the realm of what the developers defined as "good and bad". However, that was not the true disappointment, no...that was the combat system. Here I am, finally having become a Jedi, one of the greatest warriors this fictitious universe retains, and yet I can't seem to kill anyone. Why? I run right up to the guard, swing my lightsaber (you know, the sword that can cut through anything!) right through his chest, and nothing happens. How? Oh, because the combat isn't real, and what I do beyond selecting an enemy doesn't matter. KOTOR is part of the new wave of "cinematic" games that allow you to sit back and watch the action unfold on your screen...but who wants that? I was looking forward to a game in which I'd be able to swing my sword through an enemy, cutting them swiftly in two, fling objects at them with my force powers, and block laser blasts left and right...what I get is a combat system based on behind-the-scenes mathematical computations. It doesn't matter that I dodged the grenade, jumped out of the way of his sword, or was behind the Trooper when he fired in front of him, all that matters is that his number was higher and according to that, he hit me. I can see it now, a whole new era of Star Wars films: "I'm sorry, Luke, but you missed Darth Vader. You see, while you may have swung your lightsaber through the area occupied by his neck, your lightsaber has a base 10 strike, and his armor is level 8 with a saving cast of 4, and while he rolled a 2, he has a dark side bonus of 1 which is 11, so I'm afraid you lose..."
Planescape: Torment - Another inclusion that's likely to earn me some flack, but so be it. I'm hard-pressed to express how I was disappointed in this game, although I know it was something about the combat system, the frivilous "interaction and impact" my actions made, and the overly convoluted storyline (or should I say, "the story that was apparently written by someone who thought themselves very clever") that struck me as most disappointing. Still, Planescape opened my eyes to some new facets of the RPG world, thus I still recommend it to new RPGers. What's more, if a revamped version was ever made, I'm certain I'd try it.
Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption - This was the one game that hurt me the most. As an enthusiast of the incredibly replayable and pioneering VTM: Bloodlines, which fortunately (or perhaps, unfortunately) I played first, Redemption was a crushing blow. Naively imaging that the developers at Troika might have garnered the structure for their game from Redemption, I discovered within it a whole new game...not in a good way. The fact that it involved vampires was great, the premise for the storyline was also intriguing (a Crusader seeking to rid himself of the curse of vampirism), but the combat system, atmosphere, inventory, and even movement were all haphazard. I believe I might have gone easier on Redemption had I not already played Bloodlines, but I'll never really know. All I do know is this: Redemption was a major disappointment.

Oh, also, for anyone who recalls me from the Dot, it's great to finally get over here! I'd also like to thank the many (former?) members of the Dot who were kind enough to inform me of the move in response to my inquiry.

Imago Storm

December 4th, 2006, 16:24

I'm pleased to see you found your way here :).
Now back to the lurking...

xSamhainx

December 4th, 2006, 17:41

Vampire:Redemption bummed me out too, I was into White Wolf games at the time myself. My biggest problem with the game right off the bat was that you couldnt choose your class. Instead you ended up taking a little tour thru all the classes from outside, meeting each one of them thru the campaign. Secondly, the blood points alloted when leveling were so minute that it was very difficult to make a good char with what you had.
Third, for supposedly being a supernatural vampire, youd hit the ground like a normal human quite easily, able to take very little damage. Speaking of the humans, they on the other hand could take ten shots with a pistol and keep coming.

So I took the lemon and made lemonade, cranked up a cheat to hit me with tons of blood points, and gave myself some of the finer weapons that could actually shred my enemies. Soon I was calling down lightning and wiping out entire city blocks with rocket launcher and chain gun.

Then yeah, it was fun, when played as an action game.

Arma

December 6th, 2006, 22:01

Septerra Core was a fine game when I picked it up. Console meets CRPGs are not that bad, but the most obvious flaw of the game was the bad and at time very awkward combat. However the interesting setting makes up for that.

As for BG, I was just trying to give it a try. However, 8 years are enough to show the engines rough edges. Never really managed to like its original form. Second try, BG tutu. Easy TUTU to be exact. Really manages to revamp the experience. However, after the bugs and the third restart with the same character, I am growing tired of doing the same things over and over again.

Prime Junta

December 7th, 2006, 17:43

@booyah -- I can see why you included PS:T on your list. It's without any doubt one of the most memorable CRPG's I've ever played, right up there with Fallout -- but that doesn't change the fact that I was screaming in frustration much of the time when playing it. It's a bit like Gothic 3, come to think of it, on one level -- it does some things extremely well, indeed in a way that's just about unparalleled in games before or since... but it does other, highly important things in completely boneheaded ways.

To pick just a single example, take character development. It permits taking a fighter, stealth, or spellcaster path... yet only the spellcaster path is fully developed, and the stealth path is borderline unplayable. (I know because I made my first TNO stealthy, and there just weren't decent stealth solutions to most problems; playing him was just like playing an underpowered fighter.)

But still, if PS:T is a flawed diamond, it's still one hell of a *big* flawed diamond. One of these days, I gotta go and play it again...

booyah_boy

December 8th, 2006, 02:00

I'm pleased to see you found your way here .
Now back to the lurking...
Thanks, mate.

Septerra Core was a fine game when I picked it up. Console meets CRPGs are not that bad, but the most obvious flaw of the game was the bad and at time very awkward combat. However the interesting setting makes up for that.
I would agree whole-heartedly with you, Arma, console-meets-computer RPGs are "not that bad', that has never been my complaint. In fact, I could readily name some well executed titles in said genre, and some marvelous ports as well. My complaint is this: I have yet to play a single game lauded as "a melding of the console and computer" (or whatnot) that has fully grasped the potential the computer presents, or the true gaming formats the console world is so rife with. In short, I'd pin my disappointment down to the mere fact that, so very often, even the game developers seem somewhat polarized in their "format of choice", either choosing to stick to console or computer gameplay styles.

To pick just a single example, take character development. It permits taking a fighter, stealth, or spellcaster path... yet only the spellcaster path is fully developed, and the stealth path is borderline unplayable. (I know because I made my first TNO stealthy, and there just weren't decent stealth solutions to most problems; playing him was just like playing an underpowered fighter.)
Ironically, I experienced exactly the same thing, having chosen to play a stealth-based character as well (being my favorite character archetype), and also found myself resorting more and more often to melee combat, as opposed to employing my skills.

But still, if PS:T is a flawed diamond, it's still one hell of a *big* flawed diamond. One of these days, I gotta go and play it again...
A beautiful analogy, and one I would most definetly agree with. As I said, were an updated version ever made, I'd play it.

JDR13

December 8th, 2006, 03:16

booyah_boy,

It's nice to see someone else who feels the same way I do about KOTOR.
As a huge fan of both Star Wars and CRPG's, I eagerly awaited KOTOR for over a year after first hearing about it's development. The fact that it was being made by Bioware only increased my anticipation.

I was hugely dissapointed by a pc game that looked and felt like an Xbox title. No doubt due to the fact that it was designed for both platforms. I had to force myself to even finish the game. Needless to say, I never even attempted to play KOTOR 2.

ToddMcF2002

December 8th, 2006, 04:58

AvP 2. First one was great - can't get into the second one.

Gothic 3. I know I'm going to want my money back based on the demo but I have to buy it since it is Gothic.

roqua

December 8th, 2006, 05:21

Another let down was Return to Krondor.

Jaz

December 8th, 2006, 07:46

Personally, I liked both KotOR titles. But I did play them on the Xbox. I also liked AvP 2, but perhaps I just like most games, anyway :).
Another let down was Return to Krondor.Which reminds me of Betrayal in Antara... another rather poor game, yet I managed to like even this one.

Corwin

December 8th, 2006, 08:02

I didn't mind BiA, since I enjoyed the BaK engine and style. It wasn't as good as BaK, but had a certain charm!!

Alrik Fassbauer

December 8th, 2006, 23:43

Another let down was Return to Krondor.

"Jein" , as I would say in German (it's actually a mixture of ja = yes and nein = no).

To me, the graphics wrre a hguge part of disappointment.

The role playing aspect was totally different from anything I had seen before. Stats, feats etc. .

But the voice acting was absolutely excellent - at least in my ears. Had not been this imho excellent voice-acting, I had called this game simply "crappy".

Plus, it is one of only three games I personally know which have *real* cooking recipes (Divinity doesn't count because everything in it must be translated into real world first). One scroll (in my German-language version) actually contained a recipe for Chai, an oriental tea.
The other two games are Stonekeep (Pumpkin Muffins) and the temple of elemental evil (cookies).

curious

December 9th, 2006, 00:18

its kinda sad affair that this thread is the 2nd largest and nearly the size of games people are playing.

also i had to get involved when someone tears apart a brillant game like anachronox. i'm not sure that this thread should include games that we've played years after their release, hardly a fair way to judge a game. besides while its somewhat childish and wierd setting anachrox is a great game that i'm sorry you didn't enjoy booyahboy. i'm sure a lot of hardcore rpg gamers or others on this site might not like it, as the sales of the game reflect but for those who do its one of a kind gem. half the other games on your list i love so its clear that are tastes are quite opposite which is completely fine. just had to 'stick up for' anachronox.

Corwin

December 9th, 2006, 01:40

Anachronox was a game spoiled by 3 things. It had a console feel to it. The beginning was WAY too long and tedious. The ending was ridiculous and EXTREMELY annoying. However, the middle of the game was fantastic!!

curious

December 9th, 2006, 01:52

thats actually pretty spot on corwin...glad you found the rest fantastic though!

NFLed

December 9th, 2006, 02:16

Here's my list of most disappointing games in no particular order:

* Lands of Lore II -- I liked Lands of Lore I sooo much and looked forward to II sooo much that when it was boring I was sooo disappointed
* Lands of Lore III -- shouldn't have been a disappointment considering II plus it wasn't as bad as II but it was an I-should-have-known-it-wouldn't-be-good title
* Darklands -- this was so hyped up many years after release that I figured I'd try it but it was way too late and the old technology didn't at all hold my interest
* Fallout I -- same thing here, I guess, I tried it for the first time several months ago and it just wasn't my cup of tea; I like fantasy rpg's and have even enjoyed some scifi (KOTOR) but post-nuclear just didn't keep my interest at all
* Etherlords -- I like Magic The Gathering and Shandalar but Etherlords wasn't my cup of tea
* Battle for Middle Earth I, Warcraft III -- I don't know why I tried these, I enjoyed Warcraft II a lot for some reason but I just don't like RTS any more
* Dungeon (is that the name of it? the game where you create the dungeon and adventurers try to plunder it) -- very uninteresting
* Worlds of Warcraft -- I'm sure it's a very enjoyable game but after trying for about 30 hours including replacing CD's and re-installing a million times it kept crashing two minutes into the world; fortunately I was able to get my money back
* Dungeon Siege I -- this was really unenjoyable, it was just autocombat; however, this gets pulled off the list completely because of the Ultima V Lazarus mod created for it just in the past year (Lazarus is one of my fav ever rpg's)
* Madden football -- compared to Strat-O-Matic football Madden doesn't hold a candle but then that's because I don't want an arcade graphics experience I want an NFL realistic strategy experience (hence my name) (PM me if you want to know anything about Strat-O-Matic computer football)

xSamhainx

December 9th, 2006, 08:45

This may call for a full-on Exterminatus, this thread has been tainted by Chaos.

curious

December 9th, 2006, 10:25

it sneaks quietly through the night
circling the valley for the pungent scent of prey
its eyes burn with an anger unsoothed
pacing, its claws yearn for its favourite feast
to release their power upon the night
descending upon, with its paws of doom

booyah_boy

December 9th, 2006, 10:41

Originally Posted by JDR13
I was hugely dissapointed by a pc game that looked and felt like an Xbox title. No doubt due to the fact that it was designed for both platforms. I had to force myself to even finish the game. Needless to say, I never even attempted to play KOTOR 2.
Actually, despite the subpar performance of KOTOR, I did attempt to run through KOTOR 2, with similar results. What's more, the storyline in such seemed less coherent than in the first, which was yet another negative mark against the series.

Originally Posted by curious
i had to get involved when someone tears apart a brillant game like anachronox. i'm not sure that this thread should include games that we've played years after their release, hardly a fair way to judge a game. besides while its somewhat childish and wierd setting anachrox is a great game that i'm sorry you didn't enjoy booyahboy. i'm sure a lot of hardcore rpg gamers or others on this site might not like it, as the sales of the game reflect but for those who do its one of a kind gem. half the other games on your list i love so its clear that are tastes are quite opposite which is completely fine. just had to 'stick up for' anachronox.
To each his own, aye? To be honest, I'm sorry I failed to enjoy the noted game as well. As I've said, I am a console fanboy at heart, but also a recent PC enthusiast, thus there is little I would like to see more than a truly well-developed game created using the best of both PC and console systems. Sadly, in my opinion at least, Anachronox failed to deliver on that. In that same vein, I would agree with Corwin's assessment of the title, namely that Anachronox has far too great of a "console feel" to it, the beginning is horrendously tedious (as I noted in my rant), and the ending is unrewarding. The simple fact is this: you will find much better games on console systems and the PC, thus, what did Anachronox have to show for a melding of the two?

Originally Posted by NFLed
Warcraft III - I don't know why I tried these, I enjoyed Warcraft II a lot for some reason but I just don't like RTS any more
As long as people are "sticking up" for games they enjoyed, I'll put in a word or two for this one. While not a RTS fan by nature (enjoying those games focused solely on a single unit most, as opposed to a group of units or a party), I've followed the Warcraft series since its conception and enjoyed each new iteration (with the exception of WoW, also being a stauch supporter of single-player games and a MMO critic) more than the last. Suffice to say, I found Warcraft III to be the best in the series thus far (save for the fact that they modified some parts of the previous canon in order to accomodate the storyline). The inclusion of "hero" characters, numerous new races, and the transition from a two-dimensional field (among other things) was the catalyst for new life in the series. I only hope Blizzard gets it's act in gear and gives those of us who don't want to play WoW another shot at that universe.

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
This may call for a full-on Exterminatus, this thread has been tainted by Chaos.
Nice. Actually, I just wanted to drop a quick note about your sig, which is both wise and true.

Prime Junta

December 9th, 2006, 11:42

I would've liked KOTOR 2 more than KOTOR if it had been finished properly. The less coherent storyline somehow also allowed an illusion of more freedom. I'm (too?) excited about Team Gizka's restoration project; once they're done with it I'm very much looking forward to another play-through.

Personally, I'm probably less sensitive to "consolitis" than most -- if the story is good and the game plays decently enough not actually to get in the way, I can put up with just about any rendition of it. Turn-based, real-time, first-person, third-person, isometric, 2D, 3D... as long as it *works*, I don't care. The KOTOR's worked decently enough.

Jaz

December 9th, 2006, 15:33

This may call for a full-on Exterminatus, this thread has been tainted by Chaos.Do not be so hasty in judging this thread, Brother :) (but I guess it's just the way you Grey Knights are).

xSamhainx

December 10th, 2006, 06:49

Delirious Nomad

December 14th, 2006, 15:42

Master of Orion 3. Now that was a disaster and the mother of all letdowns.

magerette

December 15th, 2006, 15:27

Master of Orion 3. Now that was a disaster and the mother of all letdowns.

Yes. I've had more fun with an excell spreadsheet.

Thanks booyah_boy, for pointing out the flaws of KOTOR. It was praised at so many sites, GOTY and all, that the blatant bugs and silly 'no such thing as death" approach really surprized me. I wanted to enjoy that one, and like Lionheart, I had high expectations of which I was rudely disabused.

I think LH was begun during the dissolution of Black Isle, and that no one from the original group was involved in the disastrous second half of the game. I remember desparately trying to save, buy or steal enough health potions to make it through--at one time I had over 200--and then using them all up in two or three encounters. Argh...:uncool:

GothicGothicness

December 15th, 2006, 15:48

as usual I'll forget a bunch of games of course!

1. Oblivion - expected a lot, got a very little
2. HoM 4 - man what a let down
3. Gothic 3 - so unfinished
4. C&C tiberium sun - not exactly bad.. but compared to the previous two...
5. BG series, I was a late adopeter of this, everyone told me it was so good so I had to try.... I never understood why people like it so much.
6. KOTOR - BLEH! horrible. Why did it get so many rewards?
7. Simon the Sorcerer 3d - Most beautiful 2d games ever, WHY WHY WHY go 3d?
8. BiA - not because it is a bad game really... but I was expecting so much since BaK is such a great game.
9. King's quest 7, meh.....
10. Ultima Ascension - I have to be honest I liked this game... inspite of it problems! but I felt that if EA allowed origin to finish it and gave them the resources needed, it could have been the epic ending Ultima deserved!

Lethal Weapon

December 15th, 2006, 16:53

I feel the need to defend KotOR since it has been one of the games I enjoyed most. The game is not linear since you get to choose the order in which you do the quests, there are also plenty side quests if you care to, there are romance options and other choices you can make that affect the final outcome, playing as good/evil or male/female does make a difference, character generation is good, there are also many classes and skills, all these things give the game a high replay value. The only issue here is that the evil female storyline seems to be by far the better one, but some may disagree. The game may seem linear on account of it being somewhat short (~30 hours). On the other hand it does have a story that is actually better than any Starwars movie, excellent dialogues and voice overs and some memorable characters if you take the trouble to know them. Models/environments/cutscenes/special effects are extremely well done (especially considering the time of release), there are three mini games... Did I mention the music?

Combat is turned-based so it doesn't rely on reflex (although there are still occasions that isn't true), it relies on how well you are developing your character/ managing your party. One can hardly count this as a 'flaw', the real problem with KotOR combat is that most battles are too easy and that DD rules don't fit very well with the sci-fi setting.

fatBastard()

December 15th, 2006, 17:15

Oi weaponboy! Stop taking the words right out of my mouth :biggrin:

GothicGothicness

December 15th, 2006, 19:10

Combat is turned-based so it doesn't rely on reflex (although there are still occasions that isn't true), it relies on how well you are developing your character/ managing your party. One can hardly count this as a 'flaw', the real problem with KotOR combat is that most battles are too easy and that DD rules don't fit very well with the sci-fi setting.
Yes, I played through the entire game, with every character in their undies. LOL, I didn't care about the character creation options that much... it appears light sabers ruled supreme though, so take all related to that.

game is not linear since you get to choose the order in which you do the quests
The game is very linear

1. The beginning is the same everytime
2. Yes you can choose in which order you do the quests! But it doesn't make a difference in what order you make them, thus it is the same everytime just in different orders.

Characters......
I like the Twilek girl.. with her wookie. As for the others, well one of the robots was kind of cool! Batista ( what that her name ) romance options was a joke for male IMHO for exampel, yeah so the female story line is better :D Though story is always a matter of taste I didn't like it one bit. Rebel Assualt has a much better story IMHO, or even Dark Forces.

Models/environments/cutscenes/special effects are extremely well done (especially considering the time of release),
They are? I have one word about the environment... SQUARE. Models are decent though the lighting model is ancient.

character generation is good,

Not my idea of good, I got bored with it really quickly... though this might also be a matter of taste.

high replay value
I was so happy when I finally finished it so I could uninstall it and never have to touch it again.

there are three mini games
pasak or whatever the card game was named... was okay... though it was easy to win... and you could get a lot of money really easily.. and it got boring quick... money... was kind of useless too. The other mini-games were abmysal. Especially the racing game!

I found many bugs in the game too... some of my quests got botched, and I acctually missed a part of the main story, because of a bug. I loaded an earlier save game and could get it to work though.

I could make an eternal list of bad things in this game :D but I need to study for my exams now. I can add more later!