mtmckinley

At Klei: I wasn't saying it's your fault. I may not have described my situation fully, but I didn't buy black ops (or any other CoD/MW game) because I didn't like the controls. I got it purely due to my family playing it. So when they stopped, it just turned into "that game I don't like the controls on".

I guess my using the word "worst" was a bit extreme. Truth be told, I've not played all that many true bad games this last year (aside from Blackwater, but I couldn't prevent that). When it came to all of the good games I played, these were the ones I liked the least... actually, I forgot one, I'll add it on now.

Black Ops seems like a fine enough game, I just couldn't get past my control issues with it. I have the same problems with Modern Warfare and don't bother playing these games typically.

Yeah, Cloudenvy, I missed that one due to the anti-hype I heard. :)

This list will be a short one, mostly due to my not usually bothering to play games that I'm not too interested in for one reason or another due to my minimal time and money. But these are the games I didn't care for for one reason or another in 2011.

Splinter Cell: Conviction

While not a huge fan of the Splinter Cell games, I do find them enjoyable. I like stealth gameplay (can't wait for Thief 4!) and was really looking forward to this one. After playing it for a couple hours, though, I just couldn't get that into it. The controls just didn't grab me and the prerequisite of having to do some sort of close-quarters-combat take down in order to be able to do a mark-and-execute action didn't sit well with me. It's been sitting unplayed for a while with the intention of getting back to it, but I've just got so much good stuff to play that I haven't bothered.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Ok, I got peer-pressured into this one. I've never been a fan of the console Call of Duty/Modern Warfare games due to the controls. May dad and both of my brothers had this game so I felt it'd be fun to play with my family. Only problem i, they were all prestiged and level 800 or something so, by the time I was around level 20, they were done with this game and moving on. I played the single player campaign briefly and haven't played it at all since. I just can't get into the controls... Yes, controls are very important to me and my experience of enjoyment. And I also realize I'm a minority on that point. :)

Fallout: New Vegas

I'm a huge Bethesda fan, a huge Fallout fan, and I appreciate what Obsidian does. And at first, I was gung-ho about New Vegas. But as it continued on and on, it just wasn't grabbing me in any remarkable way. It's not a bad game, it was just a "blah" game. Maybe I'll go looking for all the crazy mods and see if that helps any.

Dragon Age II

I LOVED Dragon Age. I bought that game twice, once on the PS3 and then again on the PC with the Ultimate Edition with all of the DLC. I bought Dragon Age II on day one and had huge expectations. And again, the game itself isn't bad, persay... but compared to the first Dragon Age, it's utter crap. If it had been called "Adventures of Kirkwall" or whatever, it would have gotten a pass. Is that fair? I dunno.

Blackwater

Just because I helped make it doesn't mean I can't hate it!

EDIT: People were wondering about this, so feel free to check out my other blog posts. Many go into my game development career, and Blackwater is mentioned in a few of the later ones!

So, there you go, short list, like I said. And I don't think these all actually came out in 2011 at all, but oh well. I still have a bunch of games I've not played through yet, but maybe they'll end up on my best or worst list of next year.

@NegativeCero said:

I also stumbled onto your blog after finally getting to through the GOTY stuff. I have to say it puts things in perspective for the "little guys" who we as gamers never recognize on the level of the Miyamoto's or the Kojima's. Respect to you, dude.

Also, quick question and no disrespect by it, but how deep into development does it take to realize that the game you're working on isn't turning out too great.

Thanks!

It really depends. I think it's safe to say that the majority of games suck during development until enough development gets done that all of the systems and mechanics start to work together without bugs. However, I'd say that after doing this for 10 years, you start to understand what things really require to be done right and if you have less then a year to develop a game from scratch, unless your game's design and scope are attuned to that sort of schedule, you are going to fall short. For Blackwater specifically, I knew it was a lackluster game and I think most people did. The people-in-charge always asked for ideas to make the game better, but when those ideas were presented, the response was typically "We agree, but we don't have time to (for example) redo all of the character models and animations that we outsourced to some other company. What can we do with the time we have to make this game better in-house?" And more often then not, there wasn't much that could be done in less then a month or two to significantly improve the game.

Low budget doesn't mean bad games, obviously, but if the scope of your game is, oh, I don't know... Call of Duty-esque, you need more then a year to get that kind of game made and a lot more then the 20-30 people we had. But we got the Blackwater contract which needs to be a "modern military shooter... for Kinect... in less then a year..." I'm not saying it would have been impossible, but it was up a creek without a paddle to begin with.

Here's a link to the first part for those interested:

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/mtmckinley/best-games-i-played-in-2011-part-1/30-89656/

Continuing!

The Witcher 2

I'm not done with it yet (got side-tracked by Skyrim and now Saints Row), but the 24 hours or so I've played already definitely has it in the list of the best of 2011! It looks amazing, even on a mid-tier laptop and the story is interesting and nuanced. The sense of consequences to my actions is a big plus and so far, I'm not disappointed!

Batman: Arkham City

I loooved Arkham Asylum and was really looking forward to this sequel. And I was not disappointed! I'm still playing it, even though I've finished the main campaign, as I'm whittling away at Riddler trophies and Challenge Rooms! Even splurged on the Robin/Nightwing stuff just to have more challenge room stuff to do. That combat system is amazing; it never gets old! Just wish I was better at it! :)

Uncharted 3

I really enjoy the Uncharted series, even if it is "more of the same" with the third. I've not finished it yet (distracted by the Batmans!) but I'm enjoying it so far and am looking forward to going back to it to see how the story unfolds in this third installment.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Yeah, I know, I'm behind on this one. I fully intend to get to Revelations eventually, but as 2011 is concerned, I played through and beat Brotherhood and really enjoyed it, despite the massive cliffhanger at the end! I've heard the complaints about the new one not furthering the experience enough, but even if it is just "more of the same", like Uncharted, I'll probably enjoy it. But I can see this series beginning to suffer from sequel fatigue.

You Don't Know Jack

I have to agree with Ryan, YDKJ is an awesome game. I have the Steam version and really wish the DLC trivia packs would get released for it some day, but my wife and I would play a round of YDKJ nearly daily until we exhausted our supply of trivia questions that came with the release! C'mon, give me more of Cookie Masterson!

Next:

Some of this year's disappointments and stinkers.

Thanks, JuMP, glad you liked the blog!

It was a contract our studio accepted. To be honest, (and I mention this some in my blog if you care to check it out for more details) I personally DIDN'T know who they were. I don't really keep up with political topics. When I found out, I was of course dismayed. But it wasn't the studios' choice. It was a product that was funded, in part, by the owner of the Blackwater brand (not the actual PMC themselves), so it pretty much had to be called that. There were brief discussions from the higher ups about the possibility of changing it, but it obviously never happened. If you were to play the game (not that I'm asking you to ;)) you might notice the name "blackwater" is spoken once at the very beginning and then never again, instead referring to themselves as their squad name "Agile-22" of "Bravo" detachment.

Anyway, I can't speak for everyone involved (I don't even work there any more) but I'm pretty sure most of the people at Zombie thought it was an unfortunate association. But a job's a job.

Actually, I kind of like being me, but thanks for your insight.