Which game has been the biggest bummer for you this gen?

Just two things really. The first is how long so many loading times are and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5.

@mems1224: Are you looking for something specific? Seems like we've had much more diversity in the genre. Last gen it was so much COD4 clones, cover shooters, or cover shooters that were also COD4 clones. This gen we have Battle Royales, Destiny & Destiny-likes, Overwatch, R6 Siege, Doom and Wolf games, the Titanfall games, REmake2, bunch of Battlefields, still a bunch of COD, and other obligatory sequels of long running franchises. I can understand if there isn't enough of certain type you like but the genre seems so much more interesting than the previous gen.

@liquiddragon: something good. most of that stuff is mediocre. cod is boring, bf sucks now, destiny is awful, the first titanfall was amazing and then they ruined 2, siege is the best game this gen, fortnite is bad, pubg could have been good but its still way too janky, apex is fine when the servers work, the first wolfentein was good then 2 was really bad somehow, doom is amazing, overwatch is fine, halo 5 was fine. idk, just seems like this gen its siege and a whole bunch of mediocre or awful games. the genre is nowhere near as good as it was last gen. shooter campaigns in particular have been terrible apart from doom.

@mems1224: What do you mean by ‘good’? Titanfall 2 had an amazing campaign, and there are a BUNCH of great indie shooters out this gen. Dusk, Amid Evil, Project Warlock, and soon Ion Fury and maximum action.

What exactly are you looking for?

Mercenaries 2, i loved the first one it was way ahead of it time, the 2nd one felt flat, maybe nostalgia google or maybe the times catched up. Bioware`s decline is also tragic. Metal Gear Solid 4 also.

@juantopo89: Mercenaries 2 was a bummer, yeah. Bioware’s waning years are incredibly sad.

...I loved the absurdity of MGS4, though. The fucking gall it takes to make that game...I can’t help but love it. It also gave us Giant Bomb’s MGS4 Spoilercast, which is easily one of my favorite podcasts this site has produced.

@nutter: I am new to the site, can you please pass the link :) Yeah i liked it also but i wanted something in the lines on Mgs 3, what i hated the MOST was that it was split into chapters.

Outside of RDR2 I really didn't go into anything with super high expectations this gen. It easily lived up to the hype though, absolute masterpeice. I think the closest thing to being bummed that I've got besides seeing Days Gone's framerate issues however was that Insomniac came up short with Spider-Man in terms of delivering lighthearted street level friendly neighborhood Spider-Man side missions. Hope they get a little more creative with the next game.

@juantopo89: It’s an oldie from summer 2008. I’ve probably listened to this one podcast a half a dozen times.

https://www.giantbomb.com/shows/giant-spoiler-snakecast-06-19-2008/2970-17633/premium-video

I guess Mass Effect Andromeda? Although I did enjoy it for what it was. Maybe No Man's Sky as well. I really want a game that's mix of No Man's Sky and Mass Effect.

I will echo the Mass Effect and RDR2 sentiments. Andromeda had really fun gameplay, but characters and a story that I cared so little about and that were so blandly written to the point where I put it down and never came back. RDR2 was the opposite case. While I never played RDR1 and went into 2 with no real expectations other than what the hype around it was telling me, I was still let down. Mostly because in the 20 odd hours I sunk into it, I grew to really love the characters, story, and world around them. Unfortunately the gameplay was bad enough that I couldn't suffer through it anymore and quit sometime during Chapter 3.

I will also agree with Deus Ex. I adored Human Revolution. I did finish Mankind Divided and even though it's mostly the same kind of game and I did like it, it falls short in a lot of ways. The game is literally unfinished, for one. It was supposed to be significantly longer than it was, and instead it got strapped with an incredibly anti-climactic and abrupt ending. What story there was wasn't nearly as engaging. And there were very few proper missions that allowed you to explore and use your skills.

More recently, I would say Metro Exodus. Or the console versions at least. I admittedly never got super far in it, only to the second open hub area. But I love the first two so much, and the sluggish gameplay of Exodus on consoles is such a huge bummer. I put it down awhile ago because I didn't really enjoy the gameplay. Last I played it was probably a little over a month ago and it still hadn't been patched. Has it by now? I'm waiting for the moment to get back into it because I really do like it as a whole.

Also, Darksiders 3. I haven't played it myself but it seems like it just came and went with virtually no fanfare. The first Darksiders is one of my favorites from last gen, while 2 was perhaps my most disappointing. I'm still looking forward to trying 3 but from what I heard it still doesn't move the series in the direction it should be going. That, and it sounds like they didn't have the budget for something grander, AND the game underperformed drastically on top of that.

I'm usually not all that let down by games, but there've been a few. I'm not as dramatic as some about Red Dead Redemption 2, but I definitely thought the story got repetitive and sloppy somewhere around Chapter 4 and never really pulled me back in. I loved so much of my first 30 or 40 hours with that game, though, that it'd feel disingenous to call my experience "disappointing". It just wasn't as thorough as I'd hoped, or as it seemed it would be from its first and second impressions.

Firewatch was my first walking sim or whatever game, and it similarly felt like it promised a lot and undelivered as it settled into being a video game. I've since felt similarly about Gone Home though that's last gen; I think Edith Finch is the best example of these kinds of games so far.

Mafia III had such a great premise, but it's so full of task bloat, glitches and a needlessly open world. The mafia management system is also pretty easy to game and there's no strong incentive to play it any way other than even-handedly; I wish they'd just made a shorter, tighter game and spent a little more time polishing the narrative side rather than filling the bayou with side quests.

Sekiro is a strong, strong, strong contender, but ultimately that game is what it is and the people that didn't have physical or technical hurdles to cross seem universally head over heels for it, so a lot of my disappointment in the game just stems from it offering no ways to get around any personal skill cap or hardware limitations a player might have unlike their other "prepare to die" titles.

But if I'm being truthful, it's really just the NBA 2Kseriestaken as a whole. Basketball is by far my favorite sport, but the series has not kept up with the league at all and as it's become more and more focused on MyCareer and MyTeam the aspects of the game that used to be world class are stuck in the past. The game still plays like the Iso and Post heavy NBA of the mid-2000s from which it was born, and thus it just doesn't feel like authentic basketball gameplay anymore. Not only does the base game not play well, it's MyTeam is shamelessly monetized and disinterested in representing historic players realistically at all, making it the most fantastical and faithless of all the sports games' team building modes. If Diamond Dynasty shows utter reverence for the history of baseball, MyTeam makes a mockery of the very sport it's designed to present to the player.

Even excusing a Shaquille O'Neal that's wet from three just to make him viable in the end game, the ways the game rewards people for just playing in games requires you to play the exact style of basketball that was considered cheesey, bland and absolutely dishonorable in the competitive 5-on-5 heyday of the PS3 era. The whole series is just a mess; I was able to hold myself from buying the game right up until they put it on sale for $3.99 after the finals, but that finally convinced me to cave and all it took was two hours with the game before I uninstalled it. I'm so done with that franchise at this point and it sucks because, again, I absolutely love basketball and used to put more hours into the series each year than probably all other games I'd play in a given year combined.

@magnetphonics: Man, i really enjoyed that game but it was impossible to find a match for it.

I agree with everyone who has already beat me to the punch on ME:A and RDR2. Took 2 of my top 5 games of all time (ME2 and RDR) and just incredibly disappointing followups. While not a game itself, still disappointed the NCAA series hasn't returned on account of the NCAA itself being the most successful organized crime syndicate out there. Some interesting answers in the thread so far. One other I would list is Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. Thankfully there have been so many great fighting game entries the loss isn't too hard to deal with.

The correct answer is tony hawks pro skater 5. Its so disappointing that yall forgot about it.

Completely agree with Mass Effect. I would also add both Mighty No. 9 and Mega Man 11. As a near lifelong fan of Mega Man, I keep hoping every release of that genre will take me back to that feeling of playing Mega Man 1-3 or Mega Man X. Or even do something new, like a somewhat open world experience. Maybe by Mega Man’s 50th anniversary we can get that great blue bombin’ experience.

I dont think anyone expected that game to be good since all of the post Neversoft games have been varying degrees of shit.

Andromeda. The Mass Effect series is one of my all timers. I bought a 360 to play the first game. I can't even bring myself to play Andromeda.

Destiny. An absolute barren and incomplete experience. I thought the 'Halo guys' would've been able to really flourish with more freedom.. turns out Destiny was like an off brand Halo that happened to be online....

Runner up: Red Dead Redemption 2. I should clarify that I still liked RDR2, it just wasn't what I wanted in a Red Dead sequel. Nevermind the fact, it showed front and center just how full of themselves Rockstar is at what they do and honestly how dated their gameplay mechanics are (they were awful in GTA5)

I have to ask what specifically you didn't like about it? While I like Jotun more, I've enjoyed Sundered on the Switch. My biggest complaint is the seemingly random hordes of enemies that just pop up. out of nowhere I guess because the game doesn't like you exploring without some form of resistance

@atastyslurpee: I straight up think it's barely a game. I want to call it lazily designed. But let's give them the benefit and just call it rushed.

• It's straight up copy and paste rooms in a hodge podge order. (minimum effort level design)
• The enemies just brainlessly goon on you in massive waves on a random timer (minimum effort in pacing)
• When they fight you they completely ignore walls and collision (actually no AI other than just run forward)
• Enemies all have one attack each and nothing else (not too uncommon in games, but maaaaan)
• The skilltree is massive, but all you do is mash attack and sometimes shoot a bullet (minimal combat design, boring)

But don't let my negativity ruin it for you. The game is still beautiful (which is why I'm interested) and it's technically competent. I just got really burned on it. It hurt more because I WANTED to like it! Just like Jotun... But I just can't.

I've been giving Mass Effect: Andromeda a real good look over the last few months thinking to myself "It can't be that bad right?" and then I see takes as unanimous as the ones here that slap that nonsense out of me.

Thanks.

On-topic: For me it was What Remains of Edith Finch.

Let me explain. Before playing it I suspected that this sort of game would not be to my liking but after games like SOMA and Firewatch receiving so much critical acclaim I jumped in and bought what seemed to be the one that got the most praise.

While the story is interesting and even moving what you actually do (the game part) just isn't enough. Basically put to bed any doubt I had in whether I would like this genre (or whatever folks want to call it).

Definitely agree with all the Bioware mentions, and Fallout 76.

Agents of Mayhem and Darksiders III are up there too. Not sure if the new THQ has released any great games.

Probably Destiny. Could have been so much more.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is definitely my pick. My opinion on it it mirrors Dan’s perfectly.

@facelessvixen: I completely agree with your thoughts on the Vita. So much potential. That OLED screen and tremendous D pad made for an incredible way for me to first experience Symphony of The Night, Persona 3, and Persona 4.

I've been tremendously happy with most of the games I've played this generation. The abundance of content out there makes it far easier to trim away the bad games than it used to be.

However... I was most disappointed by the Playstation Classic.. If that counts? In particular the 50Hz games like GTA are just simply unplayable... I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to release it like that. Expectations are different now - people expect these older games to run better than ever.

Final Fantasy XV. That game could have been so good, looked great pre-release and then I played it and boy was it disappointing. Threadbare story and shallow gameplay, I liked the gameplay loop of setting out from camp each day and it was real pretty but everything else was a let down for me.

@mems1224: Which ones do you class as being good?