Biggest Disappointment in Gaming 2013

Yup, definitely DS3 for me as well. It's 2013's "disappointing third game in a series" (see Assassin's Creed 3 from 2012, although technically that was like the fifth? anyways.). "Painful slog" describes my feelings pretty damn well; there were multiple times I wanted to just quit playing completely...and it just kept going on and on. By splitting the difference between action and horror, it was a terrible at both. Every single enemy encounter quickly devolves into an egregious amount of monsters all running directly at you. The one new aspect I thought was neat about that game was the weapon crafting - too bad you can't mess around with it, because if you don't have a shotgun always equipped, you'll get overrun rather quickly (that's what I get for trying to play on Hard, I guess).

@vinsanityv22: Nice writeup on Remember Me, your thoughts echo mine quite a bit. I also picked it up on the cheap at Target. Great minds think alike, I suppose.

There's absolutely a foundation for an excellent game there, I'd love for there to a be a sequel where the devs get more room to breathe and the gameplay opens up in a significant way. A lot of the pieces are there: great visual style, unique setting/universe, the combat & combo system I found to be engaging (except for the crappy camera), the Memory Remixing is quite novel, etc., but you are right, the biggest problem is how scripted and linear everything is. A sequel will probably never happen, but we can dream, I suppose...

Dead Space 3

Gamespot.

For me, probably Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. I went in to both of those games very excited but Bioshock was just boring and TLOU was not fun. Bioshock only really was good at the ending and TLOU had a great story, but I don't know if it should of been a game.

Eh it was mostly a year of pretty low highs for me, with nothing standing out too much (haven't managed to play Wasteland 2 beta yet so that may change). With only possible standout so far possibly being how much i enjoyed DmC.

On topic it was also a year of not too many lows, I did not have any high expectations for any game to be overly disappointed, most not so good games I knew of before getting into them. Having no attachment to SimCity franchise (it just didn't grab all those years back) and not played the new one, that gets off the hook by default for me.

So I would have to say GTA:V , not that it was a bad game or anything, it was a solid game in fact, nor did I expect much going in, there was no hype to fall down from, even then something about that game still disappointed me. It was just too safe, too standard, it felt like Rockstar just going through the motions, what little new hooks they came up with like heists were not nearly enough. On top of it it coming at the end of the generation and not being on PC it felt super dated visually. I enjoyed their previous titles in the past, but GTA:V just left me indifferent, which is a shame.

For me I would have to say that is was Sim City. I've been a Sim City fan since back in the old Commodore 64 days and playing all the different versions on pc's over the years.

I really wasn't following the development of the game, but right around release time a friend was picking it up and after reading a watching a little about it, I didn't want to miss out on the "reboot" of this franchise. Even with the free game that I received I still feel that it was a COMPLETE waste of 60 bucks.

I think this was the one time I looked at my wife and actually apologized for wasting 60 bucks on a game as that is truly how I felt.

I never played SimCity, but it is absolutely the winner of this category in like five different ways. Next up I'd put GTA Online, but then again I'm apparently the only one in existence who knew it was just gonna be RDR's multiplayer all over again, so it wasn't really a blow to me, personally.

I really don't have any. Its been a great year.

Mass Effect 3. No doubt.

The amount in which Bioware dropped the ball and screwed up the fiction is staggering. ME3 is a complete destruction of what everyone likes about the ME series.

Wasn't that 2012?

Edit : Yeah, fairly early 2012 at that.

What.

Aw fuck.

The only two games I can think of is Batman Arkham Origins and TMNT Out of the Shadows. Arkham Origins was nothing special compared to the last two Arkham games and TMNT was just bad. Still, a lot of great games this year.

Not sure that I get the hate for Dead Space 3, from a gameplay standpoint anyway. The gameplay was really opened up like never before and the addition of co-op was a nice touch.

With that sure, the final level and true ending of the game (Awakening) being kept behind a paywall was bullshit. No argument there.

Either GTA V or The Last of Us. The former for giving a ton of things to do but falling to make any of them fun, the latter for taking itself way too damn seriously.

Dead Space 3, I loved the first two. So much so that I got the platinum trophy in both of them and played through Dead Space 2 like 4 times in the first month it came out (granted it was a rather quiet period of my life). The third one just didn't do anything for me.

God of War: Ascension was also a big disappointment, the combat in that game was somehow so much worse than the other games.

Right there with you guys. I didn't hate the game, but I didn't enjoy playing it that much and it was not nearly as good as everyone hyped it up to be. On top of that, those "little moments" you have with Ellie weren't nearly as engaging (to me of course) and didn't pull me into the story like it did for everyone else.

Not that it matters, but I hope that Jeff doesn't allow it to be the game of the year.

SimCity for sure.

Fucking game.

YOU FUCKS.

*argh*

Every now and then I take a look at it in Origin and then just started shaking with rage. Well not really, but maybe I daydream about what an actual, legitimate, true-to-the-franchise SimCity could have been like. Stupid SimTowns.

I was fairly disappointed, but not shocked by, games on new consoles being hamstrung by also needing a current gen port. Until publishers and developers are ready to walk away from the last generation of consoles, we won't really know what these consoles can do beyond pretty pictures.

I might get shit for this but... Tearaway is boring the hell out of me. But i'm gonna play it till I finish it dammit.

Yeah its adorable,the music is great, and the paper aesthetic is cool but... I find the gameplay and platforming to be uninteresting, and i'm just not having fun with it.

Dead Space 3 is my runner up.

It has to be Girl Fight (PS3/360)

Guys. All of the games you mentioned were still fun on some level. These games may have been disappointing, but none of them were as bad as Aliens: Colonial Marines. It turned out to be a total fraud.

For me personally, GTA V. My hype was over the moon for this game! I'd watched each one of its trailer dozens of times, and I couldn't wait to dig into San Andreas 2.0! Only of course that's... not at all what GTA V is, not even close, and it has a pretty lousy story to boot.

It's still a good game, though, and Trevor in particular is able to redeem a lot of what I had problems with. But... yeah, by the end of the game I was left feeling a little deflated with the whole experience.

I saw Sim City coming, so I can't call it a disappointment. Well, I'm disappointed in EA for making it, but Sim City is probably barely in their Top 3 mistakes of the year. Damn, EA. Just... damn.

Probably Rome II. I've been waiting for that game for so long. Ugh.

Oh yeah Aliens Colonial Marines. That's the one. Didn't hate it or even dislike it as much as most, but it was still quite the disappointment.

Rome 2. It's slowly becoming playable and I still have some hope, but there's no doubt I thought it would be way better than it was/is.

Some of the games listed in this thread are a bit staggering, but everyone has their thing I guess.

Mine would probably be Dead Space 3. The first two were among some of my favorite games last gen, so I was pretty hyped about the 3rd installment. The thing is, I actually had a good time playing it, but it completely lost the tension the first two had, and the story/voice overs were fucking atrocious. That "love triangle" bullcrap really pissed me off. It just wasn't needed.

It's unfortunate that the DLC that came out after wasn't the entire game.

edit: Also, the rock climbing mechanics made me want to spit blood, and having to defeat that monster 3 times sucked balls.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Well, Mega Man's 25th anniversary officially ended yesterday. Capcom started it a year late since they deemed Street Fighter's 25th more deserving of glory, delivered a fan game that did some okay things but was otherwise unspectacular, then dropped a ton of merch and Virtual Console releases of old titles before letting all pretense of a celebration dry up a few months ago. When it started, Capcom Unity was singing about how this would be an amazing year long thing and that they had some secret plans in the works.

It ended up being a very slow fumbling process that didn't go anywhere besides some T-Shirts and Remix Albums. If that's not disappointing, I don't know what is.

Grand Theft Auto Online.

I'm disappointed in everyone for liking The Last of Us. It's a bad game guys. Maybe it's a fine movie, but it's a bad video game.

Rome 2 for me and a close second would be Sim City.

It's super annoying really because that is what people will think about when someone mentions strategy games this year. Mean while we got EU4, Dominons 4 and Wargame Air/Land battle this year and they won't even get a mention by most people which sucks because they are brilliant games.

This brings me on to my other point, I AM ON TO YOU SEGA! Seriously what's with the super shitty deceptive marketing? First with the new Aliens game then with Rome 2. Both had previews showing games that where SO MUCH BETTER than the ones we actually got to buy as customers. Both games had preview videos (not just "bullshots") of superior graphics and AI that where not featured in the games itself and in Aliens case, actual content that looked awesome but never made it in.

At first I thought it was just Gearbox, but to pull this shit twice in a year something is up and since Sega is the link between those two games I am holding them responsible for what seems to be a whole new level of marketing deception. If I where to pass on any kind of advice for gaming in 2014 it will be this "don't trust any videos from Sega!".

The fact that Sega killed Yakuza in the West. I'm one of the 20~ people that care about the series, but that fucking sucks.

@flappy: Hey man i am right there with you, loved Yakuza 1 & 2

Nope.

Oh for sure. Although fortunately there's this team at Sony Adam Boyes is trying to start up so as to localise games over here that otherwise wouldn't be, and when asked for suggestions of games people would like brought over, Yakuza 5 was consistently brought up.

Rome 2, hands down. I would say DmC but I never really expected it to match up to the rest of the series anyway.

Oh, and I am fully behind this sentiment too:

What? Why? Just finished it, and I thought it was pretty alright. Story was better than average for a Splinter Cell game, and mechanics wise they build upon the solid foundation established by Conviction.

Easily Dead Space 3, although that disappointment started at E3 the previous year. Everything about the direction that game took made me a sad panda. I loved the previous two, but DS3 jumped the shark over and over again. I’m not sure if it really counts, but GTA Online promised a lot, then just turned out to be terribly boring.

Also, Rayman Legends was a bit of a disappointment. I ADORE Rayman Origins, but the decision to focus more on slower, more collectable based platforming was not what I really wanted. The musical levels were utterly amazing though.

@sharkethic said:

The game was extremely disappointing. I could go on for a long time detailing why, but man. The game overall was okay. I found the co-op to be terrible, the story to be less than mediocre, like seriously. Could it have been any more generic?

Also, Conviction was my 2010 Game of the Year.

Reliance on retro style pixel art as a selling point.

(totally sure I just misrepresented my point am about to get corrected)

I was kinda disappointed Divekick was more than just divekicking.

Hmm, I'd probably place it alongside Conviction. The story was typical generic Tom Clancy bullshit for the most part, but it didn't completely loose/bore me, which is more than I can say for just about every other Tom Clancy game, so I was pleasantly surprised by that.

My pick would be probably be Dead Space 3. The first act, where you're up in orbit and exploring the wrecks, are pretty good, maybe even great. Even the first few hours on the planet surface are cool, but then the combat encounters quickly become repetitive and increasingly frustrating. Whoops, two guys jump up right in front of me, while a third stabs me in the back AGAIN! And that final boss was mindblowingly awful.

Bioshock Infinite was soo boring. All the powers felt like the same ability with just a template swap.

Also Hearthstone (technically not released but come on, they are taking money for packs)- I love the game, but it's seems kind of pay-2-win. Some of the legendary cards make or break decks. Still a lot of fun though.

In general the biggest disappointment has been all the games that were broken on release.

For me personally I would say Beyond two souls, allthough it will still be on my top ten it could have been so much better than it was.

Can't say I have any real big personal game disappointments, was kind of bummed out about Killzone: Shadow Fall's campaign being trash halfway through, but I wasn't interested in that game until like the eleventh hour. Dead Space 3 was probably the worst since I didn't even bother to finish it, but I got it like a month after it came out so I was already familiar with the game's faults.

Industry wise, EA's penchant for releasing major games completely broken (and the shitstorms that followed *cough* Gies *cough) and the complete disillusionment of GearBox Software with Aliens: Colonial Marines were pretty bad. Prior to this year, I thought of Randy Pitchford as a overly-enthusiastic goofy dude, now he just seems like a lying scumbag.