GOTY Starts NOW! What were your biggest disappointments?

Dishonored.

At no point did I ever feel drawn into that game and really immersed in the world.

AC 3 has been by far the most disappointing game I've played in a long time. It's not even just that it's disappointing. It's a bad game.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Resident Evil 6 by a fucking mile. Aside from the fact that the story is incredibly lazy and half-assed, the game plays like shit and it is riddled with terrible design choices at nearly every turn. What should have been one of the most incredible and epic gaming experiences of this generation was ruined by Capcom trying to make the game be everything to everyone. As far as I can recall, this is the one of two cases of a game disappointing me so much that it actually left me legitimately angry.  Funnily enough, the second one was also this year.
 
Then would be Darksiders 2. Man, I really, really loved the first Darksiders. Given that I am not a Zelda fan by any means and that I didn't really have any expectations going into it, it blew me away and was one of the nicest surprised I've had with a game. It had simple but satisfying combat, a great art style, cool environments that were fun to explore, excellent puzzles that did a great job at breaking up the action, and an intriguing story with one of the best game endings I've ever seen. When it was announced that the sequel wouldn't even be picking up after the first, that was enough of a disappointment but I still had hope that Vigil would find a way to make good on Darksiders 1's foundation. Turns out they didn't. I wouldn't call it a bad game by any means, but the only real improvement made was the combat, and even that's debatable. The story and characters were dull, the environments and puzzles pretty bland, the loot system a little pointless and poorly implemented, and the game overall was terribly paced due to the overuse of "do this three times" and "get this for me" quest structure along with the side dungeons. I never thought I would complain about a game having "too much" content, but that definitely applies here. And the ending...fuck me, that was horrible. What a tragic waste of a tremendous set-up rife with possibilities. 
 
This year has been pretty underwhelming for me. There are a few other slight disappointments, like Kingdoms of Amalur and Syndicate, but they were still enjoyable and I can't say I was really that hyped for either of them in the first place. Max Payne 3, The Walking Dead, and Borderlands 2 are the three standouts for me, the latter of which I see getting mentioned way, way too often in this thread so far. I've liked some other stuff quite a bit, but nothing that really blew me away. Then again, there are a few things I haven't had a chance to check out either. Dishonored and XCOM still interest me, and I just got The Witcher 2 in the mail today ($10 from Gamestop on Cyber Monday!) but I've no clue when I'll play it, especially with Far Cry this week.

Darksiders II. I'm usually right when I call my game of the year early, but not with this game. It's not a bad game or anything but the repetitive mission structure and an unnecessarily large world just ruined it for me. The loot system was also garbage. 

The only game I played this year was Persona 4 Arena and I didn't even finish it

Whoops.

I do have a copy of Mass Effect 3 but I want to play Shadow Broker in ME2 and buy the Prothean to play in ME3.

Resident Evil 6. Nothing I've played this year can even come close.

Sadly it was Mass Effect 3 for me. It's not even all about the ending either. There where weird animation glitches. Some of the missions where very bland with uninteresting "dirt mound" environments and just plain silly story elements. That horrible on-site news reporter character. Some absolutely ridiculous and poorly written lines - some of Rex's mission really stand out.

It's painful because parts of ME3 where good, even the majority. But splashing around in a pool of 95% fresh water and 5% piss and vomit - still not a good time.

I'll say the end of the Commander Shepard story, instead of saying "Mass Effect 3" as a whole. It's still a 90+ / Five star game, but I just hate the ending. My wife finished a few days before me and when I finished the original ending, I finally understood why she didn't want to talk about it. It was so incongruent with the ghost child and the relay explosion. Where were my rachni that I imagined for four years making a clutch save of the Alliance fleet?!? I wanted my Shepard to die in battle or heroically, but I wanted to watch as all the cards, my war assets, got put down and succeeded or failed. While I appreciate what Bioware eventually did later, I still sting from Bioware PR saying the Extended Cut would not change the ending or the artistic vision (it absolutely did both), it implied we were too stupid to worship the genius of the original ending, and that people who were dissatisfied with the original ending were painted as entitled crybabies by outlets like IGN and journos that had not completed the game. It was eye opening. I still think ME3 is a great game that completed 95% of its job only to explode in the final moments. The hype from Bioware and the Final Hours project that there would be infinitely custom endings was BS. The Extended Cut was better, but it can't replace the feeling I had when finishing it the first time. I could have accepted the ending as it originally was, but I wouldn't come back to Bioware for narrative-heavy franchise games. I accept a do-over, if they wanted, not owed, to do one, and they did. I have not played a single Mass Effect DLC since the Extended Cut, and will not be preordering or buying at $60 Dragon Age 3 or the next Mass Effect game. ME3 is a fine game as a whole, but still... the most true statement about my gaming in 2012 would be the ending of Mass Effect 3 disappointed me.

Soulcalibur V and its laughable story mode. I think the recent Mortal Kombat had an incredible story mode, and I think it is the standard other fighting games story modes should emulate. Smash Bros Brawl had an enjoyable story mode as well, but not many other fighting franchises can deep fry their game storyline with nostalgia. If every character will not get their own old school custom storyline, which I very loosely define as a well done introduction cut scene or movie, one or two dialogue scenes between matches, and a paragraph of text with better than average artwork or video at the end, the story should be long, interweaving, and well done in the footsteps of the recent MK. Give me quality or quantity. Soulcalibur does neither. SCV's story was primarily three characters fighting matches in between concept art displayed with VO. Dead or Alive 5 has a decent and long story mode that wasn't disappointing in effort, but it's on watch for retreading the same story from DOA4 again and did not wow me either.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted brought to you by J.J. Abrams- I love Burnout Paradise. 100%ed the main game, motorcycles, and Big Surf Island. I was very excited for this game but cannot get into it. I have a hard time making my own fun and picking up oncoming traffic with overwrought lens flares in tunnels. I think the jack point system makes learning the mechanics and drifting characteristics of each car difficult. I have 22 cars at the moment and don't feel like I'm competent with any of them. The soundtrack is unremarkable and likes to play The Who too often. I'm still going to give it a try early next year and loop Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend instead.

That said I enjoyed Assassin's Creed III. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Haytham, and breathed in Boston in those hours. Haytham synced up those viewpoints like a mad man. I think Connor is an interesting character as well. I played all the homestead missions, which would help those that believe he is without a distinct character or boring. The crafting and inventroy menus were slow but I didn't have any bugs or crashes. I was expecting a Return of the Jedi redemption scene by Haytham at the end, but didn't get it. Oh well, it would have been sweet. AC has a history of WTF endings, so I can go along with it. The final ending wasn't spoiled for me, so I had to give Ubi the slow clap as those long credits rolled. I'll penalize the next game if they can't pay it off. I'll miss Shaun however if he doesn't show up in the next game.

Kingdoms of Amalur was probably the one game that I had hopes for that feel flat for me, but I probably should have expected it.

AC3 - Never grabbed me, felt like I was forcing myself to play it. Shame, I loved AC2

X-Com - Liked the game, but I beat it once and never felt the need to touch it again. Weird since strategy games are my go to.

Honorable Mention: Mass Effect 3 - Game was amazing... until that ending... boy that ending. The updated one was so-so, I was more disappointed with the way choices were factored in and not necessarily the actual presentation.

The Walking Dead, not only did I encounter the PC save-erasing bug 4 separate times, but I couldn't bring myself to enjoy a moment of that experience thanks to technical issues and shambolic writing. Not to mention the whole lack of gameplay and illusion of choice nonsense, try playing it again making the opposite choices... it makes no difference to anything. TWD takes my award for most over-rated, disappointing turd of the year, a fine achievement considering the year also contained Mass Effect 3.

it's weird.

i don't think i've been disappointed by any game this year. i've enjoyed the fuck out of everything i've played.

ME3

Diablo 3

Max Payne 3

Darksiders 2

Dishonoured

XCOM

The Walking Dead

Far Cry 3

i've not played AC3 yet or NFS:MW yet and i played a lot from last year that i never got around to playing. but man i've enjoyed this year as a gamer.

maybe i just manage my expectations

AC3 was fucking horrible and takes Most Disappointing fo sho! I mean what a goddamn snooze fest...

But seriously, it is the perfect candidate in this category given the huge amounts of promise it had. Showing it of at E3, it looked great. People were hyped - myself included - and couldn't wait to get their hands on it. And though objectively not a bad game per se, and despite a very decent metacritic score , the fans reaction and amounts of wasted potential ultimately puts a dark cloud over the whole thing.

And I don't mean to repeat my self but MOTHERFUCKER that game was boring!

I'm torn. Torn for the fact that, while I enjoyed many things about Assassin's Creed III, I can't help but feel disappointed about it as well. The combat was fun, some story bits that stood out, fun and intense naval missions, and the multiplayer (specifically Wolfpack) was enjoyable. It looks great as well. Yet, the Connor story for me doesn't live up to its potential; the latter is a decent character, but I didn't like some things about his personality. A number of events in the story feel anticlimactic, and the ending was indeed fucking terrible. Gameplay-wise, the chase sequences, the eavesdrop, etc. etc. were frustrating to no end, more frustrating than past AC games. There's little to no connective tissue to the side missions and activities you were doing. It had glaring technical issues as well.

I feel like I'm being pulled on both sides. One, of course, is that I enjoyed it a bunch, and is still considering it to be at least in my top 10 games of 2012. At the same time though, ACIII's drastic flaws are making me second guess my decision. Damnit, I don't know...

Probably the most disappointing for me this year is FFXIII-2. In some respects, it's a better game than FFXIII, but some things they add, like sidequests and clock puzzles and all that were more frustrating and uninviting than actual fun. And the story. Oh, fuckin' hell, how terrible that was. All that melodrama. All the unlikable characters and poor dialogue. Thank god you could skip cutscenes at least. I somehow S-ranked that game, but ultimately felt indifferent about it that it just leaves me wondering if Versus XIII will even be interesting. More importantly, if that game will actually come out.

Oh right, RE6. What the fuck were they thinking? Not that it matters, because I stopped caring about that series after forcing myself to finish RE5. Max Payne 3? Stopped playing after just 4 hours because it was giving me a headache.

For me personally, Guild Wars 2. I convinced myself yet again that I can appreciate MMOs outside of WoW as it was about 3-5 years ago. All the art, character design and combat I saw leading up to that game looked incredible but then I got in the world and it looked as janky as every other MMO that I convinced myself I was gonna play in the last five years (Warhammer, Aion, Rift, et al). The disappointment was immediate and profound. Played like an hour of it and never touched it again. Hey, I can go back to the game at any time since it doesn't have any subscription fees, right... I guess that is one tick in the plus column.

I'm kinda disappointed with Persona 4 Golden, I thought I would find Chie's voice less annoying over time but she really brings down the quality of voice acting in the game,also game has the difficulty toned down too much, especially the boss fights, I loved the way Shadow Yukiko kicked my ass back and forth before I finally got to beat her in one of my most satisfying moments as a gamer, new one adds too much weaknesses and tends to take out most of anything that can be considered a challenge, its like games these days have to make 'Normal" piss easy, what's the point of gameplay when your blazing through it without a threat, might as well cut it out and just make it a visual novel.

I went back and restarted the game on hard but I still feel this kinda stuff is bullshit.

@EpicSteve: Gotta somewhat disagree with you on AC3...I agree that the beginning was really plodding and I felt like it took way too long for them to let you finally do all the shit, but once it opened up I enjoyed a lot of the side activities, especially for recruiting the other assassins. I thought that the way they tried to make the assassins less interchangeable by giving them different abilities and personalities was interesting, and while they could have gone further than that it was a step forward. The combat, while mostly the same, I enjoyed a lot better because I felt the guns added a lot, slashing dudes then shooting them was very effective for me, and the multi-counter kills were very cool to see, especially the first couple times.

The rest of your complaints I can't really argue about because I'm playing on PC, so while the framiness and technical shit in the console versions sucks they didn't end up impacting my experience at all.

As for my disappointments-

ME3- while not terrible, I was expecting something a lot better coming off of Mass Effect 2. The way they were talking about reintroducing some RPG elements, and that never materialized, the way the crew this time feels less alive/cool (reduction of on-ship conversations impacted this a lot I feel), the story in general.

Diablo 3- I had a great time for my first normal runthrough of the game, but when I started to try the other classes/go through it on the harder difficulties it just failed to grab me. I felt like I was hitting the same buttons over and over again for every mob, and while that's the inherent nature of Diablo games I wasn't hooked on it like I was for other Diablo and loot based games.

Darksiders 2- Liked the first one, but just couldn't get into the 2nd one at all.

Max Payne 3- I just wanted to run around, diving backwards and sideways and forwards through all the levels shooting dudes in slow motion...what I got instead was a competent cover-based shooter that let me slow down time occasionally. Not terrible, but not what I was looking for either.

Walking Dead, with a caveat- just finished the first 2 episodes. Disliked the fact that a lot of your choices had very little impact, and wasn't immediately grabbed by any of the story either. I keep hearing good things about it though, especially the last episode, so I will finish it but so far I don't get the hype.

Diablo III - I even have this $100 box to remind me of it every day. I thought it was going to be a game that I'd put just as much time as I did in Diablo II. It wasn't a terrible game by any means, but it fell way short of my expectations. The Diablo II LOD key that came with my collectors edition ended up being the best thing I got out of it.

It feels like every tent pole release I was looking forward to in 2012 disappointed me. Mass Effect 3's %5 of bullshit, Borderlands 2's surprising lack of spontaneity, even Hitman: Absolution just didn't quite feel like Hitman and was thus a disappointment. It's kind of sad, really. The only retail game that I've actively enjoyed from this year has been WWE 13. The fuck happened?

Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3.

There are still a few games I haven't played yet this year, so my list may change during and/or after Christmas holidays.

@shadowwolf9 said:

It's so cool to hate on ME3 and other popular games nowadays. Arthur Geis was right on the most recent Rebel FM. A few people poisoned the kool aid and everyone is following along.

They destroyed the lore, released a clearly rushed and ill-thought out game with an ending that literally made no sense and continued the trend of no longer making RPG's, but dumbed down action games for the masses, thus completely alienating the original audience.

So no, I don't think it's simply a case of everyone simply "following along with a few people".

I have had varying levels of disappointment with a lot of games mentioned here, but that doesn't mean to say that I didn't enjoy them on some level. AC3 was a buggy mess with a pretty boring story, Darksiders 2 took away almost everything I liked about the first game and Mass Effect 3 was a hugely enjoyable game that didn't have the same impact as the two that came before it and a bad ending.

But none of them can even come close to how I feel about Resident Evil 6. Even with The Dragon's Dogma demo you would have thought that I was braced for what was coming. I stood pretty hopeful for it and then spent 30 hours of my life slowly dragging my way through that mess of a game.

@Synnosaurus said:

• Dishonored wasn't bad but was just underwhelming.

I really liked the game, though the second half of it feels very half-baked and repetitive. My no-killing, always-Ghost style may have contributed to that, though. But if there's one thing that game is guilty of, it has to be putting two of the lamest endings ever.

I was playing The Walking Dead at the same time I played Dishonored, and couldn't help feeling that Emily, as a character, had nothing to do in video games when we have Clementine already...

@JoeyRavn said:

@Synnosaurus said:

• Dishonored wasn't bad but was just underwhelming.

I really liked the game, though the second half of it feels very half-baked and repetitive. My no-killing, always-Ghost style may have contributed to that, though. But if there's one thing that game is guilty of, it has to be putting two of the lamest endings ever.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

You've been bad, Emily is bad. Short, pointless cutscene ensues.

You've been good, Emily is good. Short, pointless cutscene ensues.

I was playing The Walking Dead at the same time I played Dishonored, and couldn't help feeling that Emily, as a character, had nothing to do in video games when we have Clementine already...

Also, yeah, the least 1/3 of Dishonored was pretty underwhelming =[

Darksiders II.

I loved the action, Death as a character and the world.

I didn't like the fact that they'd built up the town/npc aspect and in the end there were two small hubs with a handful of static npcs and virtually no interaction.

Besides that, the story was a massive let-down, with nothing to match the great personalities introduced in the first game.

Granted, the last act is stronger than the first two-thirds, and the demon realm (unsurprisingly) contains the best characters (both of them!), but it didn't capture the magic of the first.

Mass Effect 3 is the epitome of "disappointment"

And no, it's not just the ending. The entire game feels rushed. The galactic readiness system is half-baked and poorly implemented with no effort in putting context to the graphs/numbers you are accumulating. On top of that, scanning was somehow more annoying than in ME2 and the pac-man-esque Reaper chase thing when their Reaper awareness maxed was laughable. The "side quests" are rarely ever interesting and have an even more disconnected feel. Having the Citadel as your only fully explorable location was supposed to be a call back to ME1 but instead of it being that, it's instead a remembrance of how awesome the Citadel was in ME1. In ME3, it's small, and becomes boring after the first time you run through it.

There are moments where the game shines obviously, not all of it could be bad. The entire Quarian/Geth and Genophage sections were really good and I did enjoy the moments where the game dedicated time to the main character interactions. However these parts are overshadowed by the bad.

Then obviously, the ending. I'm not going to go into any detail about it. It's bad and it ruins the entire franchise. It dashes away any interest I have in playing anything Mass Effect related going forward.

Mass Effect could have been a pinnacle for this generation. It could have been the series people talk about with reverence 10 years from now. Instead, thanks to Mass Effect 3, it will become a joke.

Yakuza Dead Souls was kinda disappointing.

Mass Effect 3 is a good game, which is why the ending (and the story in general really) was such a disappointment.

Wii U

It is crazy that more people are disappointed by ME3 over RE6. One is an atrocious game that no one should play while the other a completely fine Mass Effect experience that arguably trumps the original and just has the unfortunate task of closing out this generation's best trilogy.

@project343 said:

It is crazy that more people are disappointed by ME3 over RE6. One is an atrocious game that no one should play while the other a completely fine Mass Effect experience that arguably trumps the original and just has the unfortunate task of closing out this generation's best trilogy.

Disappointment is closely tied to expectations. People expected a lot more from ME3 than they did RE6. RE5 was middling, and people were talking about a lot of the problems with RE6 before the game was even released. ME3 looked pretty good up to and during the early parts of the game, according to most people. There was more surprise to the shittiness in ME3, thus more disappointment.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@shadowwolf9 said:

It's so cool to hate on ME3 and other popular games nowadays. Arthur Geis was right on the most recent Rebel FM. A few people poisoned the kool aid and everyone is following along.

They destroyed the lore, released a clearly rushed and ill-thought out game with an ending that literally made no sense and continued the trend of no longer making RPG's, but dumbed down action games for the masses, thus completely alienating the original audience.

So no, I don't think it's simply a case of everyone simply "following along with a few people".

Mass Effect 2 destroyed the trilogy arc with a tangential diversion into Cerberus and the Collectors, had an awful fucking ending with one of the worst boss fights I've ever seen in a 'AAA game,' dumbed down the game with the barest of bones RPG elements in the series, and completely alienated fans of Mass Effect 1. I'm so sick of people praising ME2 and shitting all over ME3. They are both fine games, but don't you dare accuse Mass Effect 3 of being inferior from a narrative standpoint and as a signifier of a 'changed, mass-appeal-driven Bioware' when its predecessor is as bad if not worse.

I could not agree more with @shadowwolf9. It's a fucking despicable bandwagon effect.

Halo 4.

ME3 wasn't disappointing to me at all. It was my GOTY until very recently.

My most disappointing was Need for Speed: Most Wanted. As a HUGE fan of Criterion's previous games, I expected fantastic stuff, and what I got was merely good. The upgrades really killed the game for me, especially when combined with the five races per car design, because by the time you have the upgrades, there's no reason to drive your car, because you've finished all of that car's races.

Hmm,

The games I regret purchasing this year.

Diablo 3

Street Fighter X Tekken (Really thought this was going to be fun)

Soul Calibur

I enjoy fighting games alot, but those 2 were more of bore to me.

I haven't played AC3 yet (too busy with Far Cry) but so far I haven't really been disappointed yet this year. Maybe AC3 will be it, gonna have to wait and see.

Darksiders 2 was a huge letdown compared to the unexpected gem the original game was.

I feel like the devs got too ambitious with the systems and as a result, the overall game is less than the sum of its parts.

I don't know how the answer isn't RE6

Dishonored was disappointing. I did enjoy it quite a bit, but the ending just SUCKED. It was still a pretty good game, but I feel like it didn't quite live up to its potential. The ending to ME3 did suck also, but I actually really enjoyed the game up until that point. The ending to XCOM was kinda shitty also, but I really enjoyed that game.

Ac3 for sure, such a disconnected mess.

Assassins Creed 3 is, so far, the biggest disappointment on the year. I haven't finished it but, so far, it has failed to live up to expectations. Its clumsy, buggy, uninteresting and encumbered with poorly implemented mechanics that get in the way and are used only a couple times...

@project343 said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

@shadowwolf9 said:

It's so cool to hate on ME3 and other popular games nowadays. Arthur Geis was right on the most recent Rebel FM. A few people poisoned the kool aid and everyone is following along.

They destroyed the lore, released a clearly rushed and ill-thought out game with an ending that literally made no sense and continued the trend of no longer making RPG's, but dumbed down action games for the masses, thus completely alienating the original audience.

So no, I don't think it's simply a case of everyone simply "following along with a few people".

Mass Effect 2 destroyed the trilogy arc with a tangential diversion into Cerberus and the Collectors, had an awful fucking ending with one of the worst boss fights I've ever seen in a 'AAA game,' dumbed down the game with the barest of bones RPG elements in the series, and completely alienated fans of Mass Effect 1. I'm so sick of people praising ME2 and shitting all over ME3. They are both fine games, but don't you dare accuse Mass Effect 3 of being inferior from a narrative standpoint and as a signifier of a 'changed, mass-appeal-driven Bioware' when its predecessor is as bad if not worse.

I could not agree more with @shadowwolf9. It's a fucking despicable bandwagon effect.

Exactly. Personally, I'm a massive fan of the original game first and foremost. For all the praise it receives, the storytelling in ME2 was abysmal. Sure, the character development was fantastic and completely carried the game narratively, yet people treat it as some mighty beacon of gaming. I don't see how one could praise ME2 and not ME3. Both are great games, though I find ME3 to be much truer in form to the original than ME2. Here's what I said about the game two years ago on here:

----

"I found the gameplay to be superior in ME2, but everything else was inferior. The story wasn't nearly as engaging or interesting, everything was completely laid out for you. You know the same about the main storyline in ME2 within the first hour as you do the last hour. Nothing changes. It did have slightly better character development, however. Bioware obviously lent much more time to that. The leveling system was streamlined to a fault. It was too bare bones and didn't require decision making.

What makes me fall in love with the Mass Effect world is atmosphere, which the sequel falls FLAT on. The majestic and grand citadel was reduced to a few corridors with merchants, you didn't get the feeling of this massive structure where the races have unified. It felt extremely isolated. The MAIN problem with ME2 is the music. I can't tell you how much I love the original Mass Effect's score. It's a mysterious, enchanting, and looming soundtrack that is a success across the board. Vigil is my personal favorite. Nothing can top the scene in Mass Effect where the Vigil AI reveals so much with that track in the background. It still gives me goosebumps. I loaded the soundtrack from my ME2 collector's edition and I can hardly recognize a track. None of them stuck with me when I played the game, they were so bland and forgetful. The original really satisfies that old school scifi itch.

While I really enjoyed ME2 and it's still one of my favorite games on the system, the changes it made were an overall disappointment, personally. Hopefully the third installment amends this and joins together the best of both games."

----

Mass Effect 3 wasn't perfect in molding the best of each, but it sure made for a hell of a game. People are blinded by the massed (and questionable) adoration for ME2.

Man, you guys sure are hard to please. I had a pretty good time with most of my games this year.

Halo 4, probably. It's a totally satisfactory product with some clever ideas, but the E3 demo back in 2011 positioned the game as a total refresh of the formula. Returning to the Covenant as the primary threat, while only introducing a couple new weapons and vehicles, fell fairly short of expectations, but when you appreciate the difficulty of forging a new studio and pushing out a new installment in a storied franchise, it makes sense for them to play it safe.

Almost all sequels that have come out this year are disappointing. They are by no means bad games but I'm disappointed that they were not better than the previous.

People still bitch about the ME3 ending? Hilarious.

Mass Effect 3

Resident Evil 6

Paper Mario Sticker Star

I was not disapointed by AssCreed 3 since I was never into those games.

@Zippedbinders said:

Man, you guys sure are hard to please. I had a pretty good time with most of my games this year.

just because you had a good time doesn't mean you can't be disappointed.

@Animasta said:

@Zippedbinders said:

Man, you guys sure are hard to please. I had a pretty good time with most of my games this year.

just because you had a good time doesn't mean you can't be disappointed.

I guess it depends on how cynical your worldview is. I had a great time with the games for what they were. I don't get caught up in hype, and now that I more or less understand the factors that tie into actually making games, I can understand why some features or undercooked or what have you.

I mean, I can talk your ear off on why Mass Effect 2 and CoD4 are bullshit, but thats not this year.

@project343 said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

@shadowwolf9 said:

It's so cool to hate on ME3 and other popular games nowadays. Arthur Geis was right on the most recent Rebel FM. A few people poisoned the kool aid and everyone is following along.

They destroyed the lore, released a clearly rushed and ill-thought out game with an ending that literally made no sense and continued the trend of no longer making RPG's, but dumbed down action games for the masses, thus completely alienating the original audience.

So no, I don't think it's simply a case of everyone simply "following along with a few people".

Mass Effect 2 destroyed the trilogy arc with a tangential diversion into Cerberus and the Collectors, had an awful fucking ending with one of the worst boss fights I've ever seen in a 'AAA game,' dumbed down the game with the barest of bones RPG elements in the series, and completely alienated fans of Mass Effect 1. I'm so sick of people praising ME2 and shitting all over ME3. They are both fine games, but don't you dare accuse Mass Effect 3 of being inferior from a narrative standpoint and as a signifier of a 'changed, mass-appeal-driven Bioware' when its predecessor is as bad if not worse.

I could not agree more with @shadowwolf9. It's a fucking despicable bandwagon effect.

Mass Effect 2 had very similar gameplay to 3, but pre-DA2, I was willing to forgive their attempts at streamlining some of the mechanics. The gameplay between 2 and 3 is more or less the same, but it's the story/setting that's the big problem. ME2 was a lot more coherent and felt like a natural progression of the plot from the original game, where as 3's is flat out horrible, aside from a few of the big scenes, things are all over the place and I'm pretty sure I don't need to bring up the problems with the side quest system.

I didn't enjoy the setting at all and it moved away from the fun character stuff that really shined in 2 and replaced it with the dreary war-time stuff, that didn't even have a good pay off. The original writer also left after ME2, clearly leaving them with little idea how to wrap things up. Like I said the game feels rushed and poorly thought out and they tried to substitute that with mindless shooting sequences. Don't get me wrong, ME2 had it's share of problems too and I don't think ME3 is a horrible game. Just a disappointing one, that for me, marks the end of Bioware attempting to make games I care about.

Witcher 2

I think I just played it at a terrible time in my life. Either way, I had waited for bated breath for it on the Xbox and when I finally got my grubby paws on it, it just didn't click.

I had a lot of fun this year. Looking it as a whole though, it was definitely a down year for games. Nothing really blew me away besides The Walking Dead. I actually just finished Max Payne 3 on PC and absolutely adored it. That game is beautiful and is simply third-person-shooters at their best.

That's another game I remembered people being down on. I just don't get it.