What gaming moment stands out as being the biggest disappointment of your video-gaming life?

Like the thread title says…

What gaming moment stands out as being the biggest disappointment of your video-gaming life?

We’ve all had that moment. That one time in our gaming life where our hopes and expectations weren’t just “let down” but instead came crashing down like a pane of glass on a concrete floor. For some, such disappointment may have resulted in them totally swearing off a developer, a franchise, and even in some extreme cases video-gaming altogether (Say it ain’t so!). While thankfully that last point doesn’t apply to myself (as well as pretty much everyone else here on these forums I’m guessing.) I have to admit there have been certain moments in my gaming life that have made me question whether I was going to stay on with a particular franchise or not. These feelings of frustration and disappointment (-you mean the same ones we have reading all of your comments, Ninja?-) are only compounded when one has a particular interest or investment in something; perhaps a series that resonates with someone or a code of conduct a certain developer is known for. It’s not unreasonable to imagine that when these “tropes” are turned upside down one’s previous outlook can also go with it.

While for myself I have had varying levels of disappointment with not only certain franchises but specific pieces of gaming hardware I think the one gaming moment that stands out in my mind as being the biggest disappointment was my completion of Metal gear solid 2. What!? Metal Gear solid 2?! That’s a great game Ninja, you’re out of your mind! Cool your jets Turbo, slow down (Who says that?). To understand why I felt this way we need to back up.

Forewarning, this next bit is kind of long. But then again when are any of my posts not?

In the winter of 1998 Kojima released a little game named Metal Gear Solid, a title and a franchise that not only changed the landscape of video-gaming (stealth among other things.) but also garnered universal praise as well as criticism from all those in the gaming world. For myself, I wasn’t aware the kind of impact a game with 3 random words strung together would have not only on my gaming perspective but on other facets of my gaming life altogether.

After I had completed that title suddenly everything I expected out of a videogame changed. It goes without saying it was a great game but what really made it stand out was how it did things no other (or at least very few.) games did at the time. I can’t tell you how surprised and intrigued I was seeing credits show up during the initial opening gameplay scenes or the meticulous attention to minute details sprinkled throughout my play-through whether it be in the form of fresh footprints in the snow, unique codec conversations specific to the players game-style or more easily glossed over moments like how the developers made sure every desk in Otacon’s lab was individually designed and not just a carbon copy of the next. Add to this features like breaking the 4^th wall (Psycho Mantis reading the memory card or getting Meryl’s codec number off of the back of the physical videogame case.) as well as a memorable and intriguing cast of characters to go along with what perhaps some could argue is some of the most memorable voice acting in all of gaming history (I know, bold claim.) and it’s easy to see why not only I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it but why some herald it as the best game ever made.

In addition to this, perhaps more than anything else, it showed me that videogames could be something more. Something more than just mindless fun with no sense of direction or purpose (Hey, not bashing games that DO do this as having fun is what games are all about anyway, right?). Emotion, loss, sorrow, intrigue, all things that we as gamers used to hear on a regular basis from those in other mediums of entertainment that sneered at us for engaging in “childish play things,” the same ones that said games could never achieve the same level of sophistication or depth associated with other forms of entertainment (Cough- Roger Ebert- Cough.)… well, in a way it proved them wrong. At least in my mind anyway. It also showed me that the magic of Hollywood, something that was confined to the silver screen, could be adapted into our own medium. It’s worth mentioning that that last point is also part of Metal Gears/Kojima’s biggest criticism. Still, that last point of contention wasn’t enough to persuade me from abandoning what I considered at the time (and still do to some extent.) the single most memorable gaming experience of my life.

As you can imagine, I was completely enamored with every piece of info when a sequel was announced. All the screenshots in the magazines (limited internet back then.) showcased something that was not only going to blow the socks off of the original but something that would, just as the first game did, change the landscape of video-gaming once again (some could argue that in a way it still did.). Things only heightened exponentially when I got my hands on the Metal gear solid 2 demo that was released before the main game’s launch. The Metal Gear solid 2 demo… and I know this is a very bold claim so maybe others can chime in… might very well be the best video-gaming demo ever released (-What’s with these bold claims today, Ninja?-). It wasn’t unheard of back then to hear people spending hours upon countless hours of in game time searching through every little nook and cranny in addition to playing through that demo in various ways. The fact that it also sported the slickest console graphics at the time while also adding in a slew of features we now take for granted in gaming (suddenly every game after MGS2 had tranquilizers.) only further added more fuel to the hype train so to speak.

As you can imagine I was in Heaven. The hype that had festered over the coming months only further swelled up my expectations to the point that I thought that once the game dropped it would be the end of the world because nothing could possibly follow it.

Well… the game came. And I played it… and… well…. Yeah.

:/

Now don’t take that the wrong way. The game was a technical marvel. A pure “tour de force” of graphical might and solid (No pun intended, well… sort of.) gameplay. Up until that point very few games were doing or had done what MGS2 did from a gameplay and technical standpoint so well. For that, considering when it released, it should most definitely be praised. But… the characters, the story, the atmosphere… all of it took a back seat from the flow and engaging narrative of the first, at least IMO. That’s not to say the characters or the story line in this rendition were terrible but rather goes to show the might of the cast and narrative of the first. Add to the mix you were now in control of (SPOILERS KIND OF, WELL… NOT REALLY.) Raiden, a “green” rookie who was a sniveling, whiny, beta version (Are you talking about yourself, Ninja?) of the soldier you last took control of in the form of Solid Snake and it just was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. This is far from any kind of exaggeration. Raiden was extremely hated by gamers. A fact that made Kojima take the initiative to make him the complete opposite in MGS4.

Needless to say I was let down. Scratch that, mortified at what I had experienced. Suddenly a game that had been about tactile espionage, spies, infiltration, secrets, amazing plot twists, ideological and sociological meanings about war and the friendships and differences that could arise in those twisted settings took on more of a philosophical and cerebral standpoint in regards to the digital age, unfortunately one that considering the time was waaayyyy over people’s heads, myself included (Everything’s over your head though, Ninja.). While Metal Gear solid was analogous to an amazing classical spy novel Metal Gear solid 2 was more like a dry wall of text (like your comments, Ninja?) on some random philosophers note pad (The philosop--- La-li-lu-le-lo.... Ninja, that’s the Patriots not the philosophers.). As such the themes didn’t really resonate with me and as a result, I’m ashamed to admit, it totally turned me off of the franchise I had only recently fallen in love with.

For the next few years the assortment of words metal, gear, or solid weren’t even in my repertoire. “They ruined it” I kept saying to myself, “They ruined what could have been the best franchise ever.” As a result when news of MGS3 leaked I didn’t even bat an eye. BIG MISTAKE! Even when all the reviews for it came out (almost unanimous 10/10’s everywhere.) I still didn’t waver from my stubborn stance. “They ruined it… they ruined it.” It wasn’t until one day I was in a store and saw the game for sale for half off that the thought that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try entered my head. Bear in mind this was 2 years after its release. Suddenly all of the resentment and disappointment I had was gone. In fact those same feelings of awe and intrigue that I experienced on my first foray with Snake came back tenfold. I won’t go into why Metal gear solid 3 is an amazing game (Thank goodness Ninja, we would be here all day.) but just know this. It brought me back to a franchise I thought for sure had gasped its last breath of life.

The funny thing about all this is that although at the time I thought MGS 2 was the devil I don’t feel that way anymore. I played it again recently (when they released the HD collection in 2011.) and you know what? It’s actually a great game. The concepts and philosophical musings I thought were just pointless jargon actually had more grounding, especially in today’s social media/internet dominated society. Perhaps I was too young when I first played it during its original release or perhaps its themes of technology, extraneous information, and memes were lost on me in a time when the digital world we live in today was still in its infancy. Perhaps this was another reason why it seemed so un-relatable at that time. Maybe… but in retrospect I can now see why those same polarizing concepts made many gravitate towards it. Still, even with this change of heart it doesn’t change the fact that at the time it was easily my biggest gaming disappointment ever.

So GiantBomb community, what gaming moment stands out in your mind as being the biggest disappointment of your video-gaming life? I mean, other than reading another one of my posts that is.

;)

-WRITE A BOOK WHY DON’T YA NINJA APPROVED-

I'm pretty much like... it's video games... and don't let them affect me in any negative way.

But that's just me.

I actually had a hard time thinking of one because I haven't been really disappointed in awhile. Probably just in general the lack of any solid recent dnd games is pretty disappointing to me. Swords Coast sucked. Neverwinter Nights never got a third game but instead the neverwinter title went on to become an mmo which isn't my style. There are some dnd-like games out there that are pretty good, but I do miss the faerun setting and would like to see the 5th edition rules in a game.

GTAV. I was super pumped for it and in the end thought it was just very average. Didn't help I had a corrupted save file during the first week due to the super broken GTA Online.

Nothing really stands out, but recently I would say:

Diablo 3 - Not a bad game, especially after all the changes & updates they've made, but I miss the more RPG-ish elements of 2.

Destiny - I got on the hype train pretty hard. The actual gameplay/feel of the guns is great, but everything else sucked hard IMO.

Easy

The division - pre patch 1.4

Watch dogs - hype wise

Every assassin's creed game post AC II :D

* Just realised --> Ubisoft ?

** Lucas arts never failed me! ?

When I fell in love with Metal Gear in 3 months by watching through all of Metal Gear Scanlon, then picked up MGSV and found out that they didn't put a story in that game. I played that thing for 90 hours and have never felt so betrayed and heartbroken by a game in my entire life.

MGS4 to be honest was a real let down for me. 1 to 3 were my favourite games of all time. It wasn't a bad game but after the first 2 chapters the game no longer was about the great stealth gameplay. Also stupid story decisions like Johnny and Meryl plot. Among other things really ruined it. Maybe its why I enjoyed 5 cause I had no expectations the story would be good and it wasn't.

I'd say Halo 2 (1st midnight launch I went to) when I was younger, that campaign was such a let down, but more recently I guess Destiny.

I wasn't really "excited" per see but I played the demo/beta on whim a week or two before release and was actually kindve surprised. Surpised enough that I put down $60 to buy it on day 1. Only to my chagrin did I quickly find out I paid for a $60 beta and traded it in within two week to try and salvage what I could in my wasted money. Now I understad it got huge updates and got better and I'm sure 2 will be fine, but I'll never play or pay Destiny again.

Strangely enough, both of those were Bungie titles and I don't even like Bungie that much.

• The fact that PC doesn't get AAA exclusives anymore there is so much potential with today's tech.
• F.E.A.R. 2, the original F.E.A.R. is my favorite FPS of all time the fact that the sequel was so dumbed still pisses me off to this day.
• Sleeping Dogs 2 cancelled, here you had a amazing new IP with Sleeping Dogs that was refreshing to play with a unique setting and likeable characters and good fighting system but yet Square cancels it I really think if Sleeping Dogs 2 was made with a big budget it would be as good as the GTA games. The original Sleeping Dogs is still better than the Watch Dog series and the Mafia series.
• Prey 2 canceled sorry but I think the new Prey is shit try it hated it.
• Crysis 2 and 3 dumbed down just like what happened to the F.E.A.R. series.
• PC games being forced to downgraded for Parity, Watch Dogs, The Division, Witcher 3 ect....
• BF series doesn't play like BF anymore.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2

I love the game, it's a great game, but the cliffhanger ending and lack of any closure whatsoever have pretty just left me unable to care about continuing stories in games anymore. I'd already dealt with the disappointing cliffhanger/unresolved endings of games before, like with Halo 2 and with KOTOR 2, but in those cases at least we got a follow up/they did try their best to wrap up the story. Half Life though, was different, Half Life 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, I still replay it every couple of years(I think i've completed it about 7 times now), and to get some great follow ups(Episode 1 is a good game even if it does feel a bit more like "here is some cool set pieces we couldn't figure out where to put in the original game, Episode 2 really got back on track with the inventiveness of the gameplay), and then...nothing. There was so much great setup and promise of what's to come in those last 15 minutes of the game, and then ending on a cliffhanger followed by...nothing for 10 years now. At this point I would just be happy to get a "We have are not working on any Half Life games at this point in time" message from Valve. I just want some closure, any closure at this point.

The Last of Us.

I bought this the day after it came out, and tried it out right after I beat Bioshock Infinite, hyped by the E3 showings and excited to fall in love with it....and it was probably the biggest disappointment in all my years of gaming.

The story is just standard zombie apocalypse crap we've seen a thousand times, the gameplay is nothing above average, the cheapest enemy in the game is the one they're absolutely in love with, and Ellie.....oh, Ellie. Without a doubt the worst companion I've come across in a video game, especially when I had just beaten Bioshock Infinite with Elizabeth, who blew her out of the water. I've said it in another thread, but why the developers designed this girl (who is INVISIBLE TO ENEMIES!!!!) to stick to you like a leech during stealth sections and therefore block you in when you just want to get the hell away from an approaching enemy is something I'll never understand. I do want to give it another shot at some point to see if my opinion softens with time apart, but I'm in no rush at all.

Three games spring to mind...

The Force Unleashed had the coolest damn demo I ever played. Turned out that was far and away the highlight of an otherwise super dull and uninteresting action-adventure angst fest. I stopped playing it at the final boss and sold it, not because I had hit a brick wall but because I just couldn't be bothered to suffer another minute of it. Such a let down.

I enjoyed Mass Effect 3 and even had fun with Dragon Age 2, but Dragon Age Inquisition was the game that permanently soured me on Bioware. Inquisition (and judging by how Andromeda turned out, Bioware's current and future output in general) made so many bad choices: the emphasis on "quantity over quality" across the board, the humdrum fetch quests, the same old boilerplate Chosen One story, the awkward controls, the annoying characters, the weird oily character models, a completely braindead MMO-lite combat system. The combat's probably the worst of it. People say "literally" a lot but I do, in fact, mean this literally: I almost fell asleep during a particularly long combat encounter. To make it worse, it was about 3 in the afternoon, so there wasn't some "playing after midnight" compounding factor...the game was just that boring.

Finally, Arkham Knight. Where do I even begin? Asylum is one of my all time favorite games and Knight is one of maybe 6 games I've ever sold. There were just so many poor design and story decisions...de-emphasizing boss fights in return for a bunch of garbage filler tank missions, going full Ubisoft with dull repetitive side content, going back to the Joker well for the fourth time, the most obvious twist in gaming history with the Knight's identity reveal, locking the True Ending behind a billion and one Riddler trophies and pointless side quests...just a bloated, boring mess all around. Its only saving grace was my decision to get it on PS4 on launch day instead of on PC...what a nightmare that would've been otherwise.

1 word... Destiny...

For me, it has to be God of War 3. Everything from the characterization to the set pieces left a bad taste in my mouth, like the writers were so incompetent or had so little understanding of the character they were actively making me root for him less and less with every single stage. It was not like Spec Ops, where disfranchising from the protagonist is the point of the story; no, these writers were writing the most loud, pathetic and destructive crying baby in existence, and still wanted me to care about him, like everyone should feel that Kratos was some rightfully wronged man on a rightful quest for revenge and, while at it, the betterment of mankind. And then the ending happened... gosh, that Pandora character was unbearable, and the whole spew about hope, family and redemption make so little sense I felt like I was watching a different game script being performed. Like some prank was played and someone gave the actors a Neverending Story script instead.

@banefirelord: Speaking of Force Unleashed, it had one of the coolest concepts with one of the most bafflingly bad executions:

Seriously, its like they never actually playtested that stage.

@rich666: yep. Fuck that game. Still pissed off

End of KOTOR 2. Anyone who's played it will know what I mean, it literally just goes off the rails.

Nothing could top Age of Conan for me because I was in a pre-release guild for that game for seriously years. It had a dedicated website and forum and I can post away so I did post a ton there and get to know everyone pretty well. The game got delayed a lot and eventually the guild even split to play the Warhammer MMO and about half of us went over to stick the course with AoC on another forum.

When they game finally came out and I hardly played it for more than a few days. The initial pitch of that game really grabbed me (basically sounded like an MMO Mount and Blade, all in world vs the overworld JRPG type mode that M&B uses for travel) and the real game was just quite boring IMO. The action combat did not work and it unraveled from there.

I started to get a bad feeling when video got out, but I remember playing it then pretty much ghosting on the guild entirely because it was the easy way to deal with it.

100% Mass Effect Andromeda.

I love the Original Trilogy. I play through all three games at least once a year since they were released.

I bought Andromeda without question because even a bad mass effect game would still be good right? How much can you mess up something so tried and true?

Well they found a way some how. Pretty much the moment the game opens with no real exposition or set up... you're just there in the thick of it and it just feels bad. Man I'm bummed out just thinking about it. I finally deleted the game half finished from my PS4 last night after trying to continue playing again after some patches. I was trying to finish Peebee's Loyalty mission after that caused me to quit the first time. I played for maybe an hour... an hour of traveling to three different planets I'd already been... into three dungeons I'd already been through just to get three items with hardly a line of dialog explaining why I was there or why any of it mattered... I still havent finished Peebee's loyalty mission. I dont know when it will actually begin or how it will end. And I probably never will.

Black and White, made by Peter Molyneux(who previously worked on games like Populous, Syndicate, Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper). It was a sign of things to come.

Mgsv story really a big let down

So many repeat missions, awful

Great gameplay though

Assasins creed has such a huge fan base, but every game is repetitive trash. I quit buying those games after black flag.

Convinced my grandfather to buy me a power glove, and then used the power glove. It still makes me mad how much that thing sucked.

Getting about 30 hours into Mass Effect Andromeda and having the realization that I really didn't like playing the game.

(Of course, I spent another 15 or so hours with it after that, hating myself all the time. As an ME fan I felt some stupid need to finish it.)

I was waiting to buy my ps4 for MGSV, lo and behold I got a half finished game that didn't respect my time, had a story that could have been told in under a hour stretched out into a 60 hour plus crap fest of reused environments and MANDATORY side missions that had nothing to do with the plot. And just when I thought I finished the game the game said "no we won't give you an actually satisfying ending that easy" and at that point I quit. Ground zeroes made me have a lot of hope in that game, thanks for disappointing me.

Hotline Miami 2 still remains as the most recent one that comes to mind, so I'll keep naming that each time a thread like this comes up.

Actually, I just remembered Half-Life: Blue Shift. After having enjoyed Opposing Force a whole lot, that game was just slap in the face. No new weapons or enemies and only one new friendly character, who really didn't play that big of a role. Didn't exactly help either that I played through the fucking thing the same day I bought it.

While I'm kinda on the subject, Gunman Chronicles was also a bummer. The game wasn't completely terrible, but it took forever to get it working on my pc and it was almost as short as Blue Shift.

Assassin's Creed III was it for me. I was really invested in the Desmond stuff and loved the Ezio trilogy. The way they ended all of that still frustrates me.

The most immediate disappointment for me was Street Fighter V, which I'm surprised I haven't seen brought up yet. I came in excited, I was all about a new Street Fighter, I was burnt out after playing 4 for a good couple years, and the more I saw the more I was into it. Then, a little bit after the game launched, I realized how frustrating it was not only to play the game proper with how linear and lopsided it all was, but to have NOTHING else to do besides either a plain unfair survival mode or fighting other real people who are irritatingly good at the game. A lot of more competitive folks rag on the masses for wanting arcade modes or what have you, but if you don't want to do either of those you were just plain screwed for MONTHS--the story mode that eventually made it in was only just okay, and there's literally no reason to play it more than twice if you're willing to brute force your way through its harder setting.

Disappointing in retrospect? Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Now, I loved the hell out of Peace Walker--it was like Metal Gear Monster Hunter, and I 100%ed the game (save for a single achievement in the HD version, but FORGET online). There's just... something about MGSV, though. I don't know if it's the seriously bland environments or if it's that there's way less variety than Peace Walker's missions or what. Not to mention the story... yeesh. Either way, I don't feel like coming back to it. Unless the platinum's easy. Maybe.

Honorable mention goes to the time I got a copy of Animal Crossing when I was a kid and it didn't work and I cried. Only a mention though because I ended up getting a new copy and it worked and I liked it a lot!

Metal Gear Solid 2's story and themes are have definitely aged really well. The gameplay certainly hasn't, tho. Still the context of its creation and subversive narrative are definitely great. It's really the only game in the series that I can go back to and say that it's aged well. Can't say that for MGS4, for example.

I don't hate it or anything, but Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 was a pretty substantial disappointment after the absolute banger that LoS1 was, and especially the original's ending. There were some cool things in that game, but it just never reached its potential.

Yooka-Laylee. I was so hyped for it since banjo kazooie & tooie helped define my childhood.

Hard to say really, final fantasy 13 , the last of us, metroid prime, destiny, and probably some i dont even remember anymore lol.

Not a game but...

Nintendo failing to support the Wii U in the later years, putting out second-rate software maybe once every five months, pushing amiibos into everything, not understanding consumers' preferences...

...and then expecting me to jump on the Switch (because hey, if they were dumb enough to have a Wii U obviously they'll buy any product we put out!)

I joke that Red Dead Redemption and Mass Effect 2 were games so disappointingly bad that they made me not want to play any video games for two years.

Top Spin. It's coming to the PS2, guys. Finally, a top tier tennis game. Oh. Oh. God! Jesus Christ!

<cut to burning wicker Maria Sharapova>

Wait. My token response is usually Pro Evolution Soccer 2008. Because it has amputated the series' legs.

I'll reveal how old I am by writing this but hey...you damn kids don't know how good you have it with games these days (I'm talking gameplay wise)

The original Resident Evil (man those f-ing dogs at the beginning and finding tapes to save for the typewriter) still makes me mad... got a Playstation just for that game and got it the day before a BIG math exam (which I failed BTW, not good thinking on my end). RE2 was MUCH better

Closely coming in second is Alone in the Dark 2. Was SO hyped after playing the first one and man...SO.MUCH.JANK.

Lastly Super Mario 64. Got it with my first ever paycheck the day it came out. Couldn't deal with...I'm just kidding the game is awesome!!

@shindig: Was wondering if that series is still any good. Played PES on PS2 sooooo long and almost didn't graduate thanks to it.

Project Sylpheed. What I expected: Star Fox on the Xbox. What I got: Anime bullshit in the form of a flight sim.

And more recently, Dark Souls II. Coming off of finally finishing Dark 1 a month ago, I was hankering for some more Souls since I can't spare the $50 or so for Dark 3 GOTY at the moment, so picking up Dark 2 from HumbleBundle for $10 seemed like a good idea. Dark 2 actively makes me angry. In Dark 1 and Demon's, I can blame the failure on myself for either making a bad roll, a premature sword swing or a bad read on the enemy's animations. Dark 2 feels very unresponsive. Rolling is sluggish and It feels like I have no invincibility frames. Limited enemy respawns unless you join a covenant that makes the game more annoying frustrating than it already is. And just so many superfluous changes that were just made for the sake of a sequel. I pretty much have nothing but bile for Dark 2.

-Edit 7/19/17-
Dark 2 and I hashed things out. We're cool now.

That Bayonetta 2 was a WII U exclusive.

MGSV definitely blew me away with how total trash everything but the core gameplay mechanics were. Which actually made it worse because you finally get a Metal Gear that's fun to run around with and there's absolutely nothing to do with it.

Probably Mass Effect 1 and MGS4, but I came around a bit on MGS4 over the years, but it is still such a troubled game.

Trying VR. I was so stoked when VR was emerging as the next big thing. I build a new pc with the intention of being ready for vr. When a friend got his Vive I couldn't wait to try it. The narrow FOV, grainy resolution, fiddly technical issues and lackluster games made me not want VR anymore. Plus after playing around with it I realized that I would never be able to play regular games in VR without getting sick after a while.

For me Transistor was a particularly disappointing moment. I loved Bastion, had followed Transistor through its development, bought it release day at full price...

...and beat it three hours later without a single death. I knew the quick game was coming to an end when I did some mental math and realized I had done three of the four bosses in a single sitting. I also had that sinking feeling when I started to backtrack through slightly different versions of the levels I had just beat.

Transistor had some interesting ideas. The gameplay itself was fine, but everyone dumped praise on it for having so many different ability combinations. Why does this matter when you can curbstomp the game with any of them? I know there are difficulty modifiers, but doubling enemy HP or halving your own doesn't change the core difficulty of the game, merely makes fights take twice as long. Whatever is next for that studio, I'm out. I'll buy it when it drops to sub five dollars. What was promised to be a one-of-a-kind RPG was about as long as a LoTR movie.

The first Madden I played on PS3 (I believe 08) stands out to me particularly strongly. That game has gotten better in the past three years or so, but it wasn't stagnation that killed that series for me. The HD engine was terrible and the game was absolutely not fun to play any more; last year's was fine but between my waning interest in football compared to my high school days and how Madden's gameplay has progressed I'm sure I'll never feel like i'm missing out by not playing a Madden game again in my life.

MGS4 for me as well. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to sequels or remakes is "fan service" that has little to no "plot service", and I honestly felt MGS4 was full of that. It's the only MGS game I haven't replayed, including V which is still pretty fresh but I've already replayed the primary "story" as it were once. Watching Drew play it just confirmed everything I found wrong with that game; it should have ended the way it was teased to be ending, and that for me was just the most major cop out in a game full of cop outs.

Bingo! Came here to say HL2: Episode 2 as well, and funny thing is at the time it was great, it was exciting and mysterious and got me so pumped up for the next game, but retroactively became disappointing and another example of why 'to be continued...' endings are rubbish. Even a developer who has the ability to 'continue' wont always.

I also had a pretty big disappointment lesson when it came to hype with Spec-Ops The Line. Everyone kept going on and on and on about 'the moment' which made my head run wild with all of the possibilities it could be! Everyone is going on with how crazy it is, must be great! And then 'it' happens and I just thought 'really? That's it? Whatever, big deal.' I still liked the game, but the hype machine got to me for that one.

Besides that I'm usually not disappointed by games, we have such a wealth of information now about games, I rarely get into one without knowing if it's for me or not, and if I do play it with some thought that I might not like it or only think it's 'okay' then that doesn't count as disappointment to me. That counts as reasonable expectations and results.

The entirety of MGV.

I guess I'll give this a shot, although nothing here is entirely without merit in my head, and nothing sands out as being the "most" disappointing.

Drakengard 3 - I haven't played the first 2 games in this series, but I loved Nier and thought this was going to be the closest thing to a modern (aka playable and not extremely unpleasant to play) sequel I'd ever get... and the game's funny... but the story was super boring and basically nothing ever happened, and it certainly didn't have the weird tragedies and uncomfortable situations I was expecting after reading up on Drakengard 1.

Ratchet and Clank 2016 - I wasn't really too bothered about this game, but Dan and Jeff kept saying it was the best Ratchet game yet and... nah, they ruined the (already mediocre, but memorable) story from the first game, made all the characters flat and bland to appeal to kids or something, shoehorned in the best villain in the series and made him bland and boring, reused too many weapons, had barely and side content worth doing, and overall was just kind of a slog. It's the only Ratchet game I haven't gone back to 100% immediately after the first run.

MGSV's Story - Loved the gameplay, enough that it was probably still my favourite game this year, but the characters were shadows of their former selves, or just boring to begin with, and I kept waiting the entire game for a big twist... but then everyone already knew the big twist from like... the 2nd or 3rd trailer. That, and I'd already seen content from almost every cutscene from the trailers already, and none of it felt as exciting or interesting when it was in context.

FFXIII - badgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgamebadgame

The title is a bit hyperbolic.

For me I suppose it has been:

Rome 2: Total War.

I love Total War games. I love Ancient Rome. The original Rome: Total War would be right up there as one of my favourite games of all time.

Rome 2 was just a mess. I didn't even have any major issues with bugs that a lot of people had at launch, it was just that the game overall was too unstructured. The end game was so infinitely far away that it became pointless. Total War: Warhammer has made things much more streamlined with clearer objectives and victory conditions, I'd love to see a historical Total War game implement some of the ideas from Warhammer (though they're now in on Warhammer 2, with TW: Warhammer being the highest selling game in the whole franchise).

I played 50 or so hours of Rome 2 feeling 'meh' the whole time. It got better with patches but has mostly lost me.

i only tend to remember the moments where i got pleasantly surprised or into a videogame, really. like to keep it posi, brah. both ancient history but probably turok 2 as i was hoping for a fresh multiplayer shooter to take over for goldeneye (it didin't, though i admittedly had some fun with it), or getting mario golf 64 which while a damn good game prrrrrrobably wasn't worth trading in almost my entire snes collection for :| (obviously my own doing and i was relatively young, poor, and stupid; still two of those).