2010 has been a hell of a year, but although we have had a slew of great content, there are still though things that come up a bit short. Here are my top five disappointments of 2010.

5) Medal of Honor
Hey everybody, let’s make a game that will put Call of Duty to shame and force them to innovate their game and help drive the industry forward. How are we going to do that? First, let’s make a single player story realistic but broken and copy all the gameplay elements of games that shooter fans are already accustomed to. Next, let’s put it in a realistic setting but shy away from using actual enemies (in multiplayer) once the media gets a hold of our game and poo-poos on it. Then, let’s hire industry professionals like Dice to make our multiplayer although they have their own games to worry about that comes down to competing with a game they helped on (Battlefield vs. MOH.) How could this possibly go wrong?

Well it did, and for all the right reasons. Sure, the game sold well, but it’s a freaking Medal of Honor game which has merits in its name alone and didn’t need to persuade any gamers out there. What we thought would be something new or fresh just ended becoming a clone of a genre we are used to playing. Oh and this game is already forgotten about since Black Ops came out and Dice’s franchise game Battlefield 3 is coming soon. Fingers crossed that game turns out good.

4) Fable 3
Every time I play this game I feel like I’m always one step away from the game breaking. Watching the frame rate chug at single digits when I get into fights is something you put up with on a regular basis. The decisions they made with this game are all a jumbled mix of wrong and more wrong. They still held onto a broken map but having your pause menu take you to another room that you have to navigate through boggles me. Seriously, why do that? Also having an economy system that is this hard to keep in check is dumb as well.

They did improve on multiplayer which is fun but that’s about the only good change they’ve made. I’ve done expressions maybe once just to see how it is versus in Fable 2 where I was farting and dancing with a large crowd of people multiple times. Combat is still fun but it breaks immersion when all enemies move like robots. Yes they are fixing it, but I can’t understand what they were thinking when they took out what made Fable 2 so good and replaced it with nothing innovating at all. Fable 3 is the third game that has failed to live up to it’s hype and reminds us yet again that we shouldn’t always believe developers when they talk about how revolutionary their game will become.

3) PlayStation 3
This year has been a rough year between me and my PS3. I maybe played five games on it in including God of War 3, MAG, Modnation Racers, Final Fantasy XIII and maybe something else. Sadly, all of those games besides God of War was nothing but disappointment to me and is why I’ve handed my PS3 over to my parents for a Netflix streaming box.

Trophies came at me too late, I was already heavily invested in achievements and don’t plan on switching anytime soon so I always play my multiplatform games on my 360. That is also where the majority of my friends are which keeps me there as well. I’m not saying it’s technically a bad system, but it’s just one I don’t see myself needing anytime soon. Exclusives this year have been disappointing in my opinion and the constant system updates really do kill it for me. I understand they are only doing it to make more options available to users, but take a page from Microsoft’s book and lump them all together for one major download either on a bi-monthly basis or something else just to help spread them out some. I also picked up a PSP this year only to sell it a couple months later. Again, I understand both these systems have their positives, but they aren’t enough for me to take the little time I have to game and play them. My 360 and PC wins every time.

2) Motion Gaming
Seeing Kevin Butler announce that motion gaming isn’t just for the casual anymore, only to pan to a family playing a volleyball game together cracks me up every time. Not because Kevin Butler is funny, he is played out by now and should not be used as much, but their marketing is so contradicting of itself. Okay, maybe there is a hardcore gamer there just watching his family help him get trophies, but motion gaming as a whole is not what all hardcore gamers out there want.

I was actually a little excited for Kinect at one point but then realized that I was giving myself false hope. Why do I want to do what Kinect’s limitations let me do? Why would I want to navigate the dashboard with me swiping my hands in front of me? Tell me one instance why you would want to do this over using a controller. It’s faster, more reliable (except for that dreaded d-pad on the 360 controller) and just works. I also game in a small space so trying to pretend I’m rafting down a river isn’t something I don’t have the space for, and just don’t want to do period. There is an audience out for these products, but they do not tailor to anything I want to play which makes motion gaming a big disappointment to me. It’s disappointing only because I have high hopes with amazing controls that the industry hasn’t quite reached yet, but when they do I’ll be ready.

1) Final Fantasy XIII
We were all there, eager to get back home, rip open the plastic, and ignore our entire life for FFXIII. I was one of them. Playing through the first ten hours, I convinced myself that I was having fun and the game would only get better. Hours 11-20 were much harder to get through yet I prevailed with a smile on my face. Then I finally get to the chapter, THE chapter that opens up and begs for exploration. I ejected the disc, took it back to GameStop, and tried to forget what has become my most disappointing moment of 2010.

Everything about this pitiful excuse of a JRPG was such a letdown besides having great graphics. Visuals do not help a world I could care less about, characters who are so contrived of any personality and want them all to become L’CIE (if that’s the bad virus) and a story so in-comprehensible that it puts the name Final Fantasy to shame. I have been a big fan of Square Enix and am not afraid of innovation, but this throws all the great elements of a JRPG away and tacks on some rather questionable gameplay.

Square Enix really has had a rather terrible year. What once was an amazing company that encapsulated millions of gamers is now forcing out two of their most cherished franchises out the door where one was a bad game and the other was and still is a broken game. They did everything they could to disappoint gamers with FFXIV making it nearly impossible to participate in the beta and releasing with so many flaws that nobody should spend money on and play through. Sure, they are fixing these issues, but how can a company justify putting a price tag on a product that is broken. Imagine buying a DVD player that only plays romantic comedies but they promise to one day patch in action movie support. Why would anybody play this?

Getting back on XIII hate, I’m not boycotting the company just yet. I’ll allow them to release terrible games here and there, but fans have shown an overwhelming negative response to this game that they are hopefully forced to listen to their fans and deliver. Also, not sure why they claim making a FFVII remake would be too expensive. I’m sorry but if I had a million people yelling at me to make it, I would go for something that is guaranteed to make money and not try to innovate in areas that do not need fixed. Isn’t this an industry that follows that philosophy anyway?
 
originally written for my blog 64bitbastard