I agree with you with the fact that the game doesn't specifically needed realism. Just look how fun were the late game weapons, there is practically no games who have so fun weapons there is only a few exceptions, but this is it for a game who tried to be semi realistic I think the job was correctly done.
The second was a bit more realistic, but actually how much games simulates correctly the realism ?
Only the Ol' Flashpoint, SWAT 3 - 4, R6 3, ARMA 2 and Red Orchestra and even these games have a bit of unrealism.
 
After that I don't think people are really fan of realism, just look what is the most played FPS ....

@ Rocker500: There's nothing wrong with trying a game period lol good or bad

Loved the "Badger's arse" comment lol

Haha...should've read the reviews for SoF: PB before you went out and played it...lol

I remember playing the good ol' SoF on PC... that was a great game.
I was pretty sure this one would be horrible.

The question is somewhat misleading, does it mean the worst game that I played from 2008 or just worst game I played in 2008 overall. Hmm, I have to say 2008 has been a kind year towards my hunger to play and enjoy videogames. There were definitely some disappointing games they do appear every year unfortunately, but none of those games such as Army of Two or Call of Duty: World at War were too shitty, just a general disappointment.

But a game that I did play in 2008 that was actually released at the tailend of 2007 was the monstrosity of a game that was Soldier of Fortune: Payback. Thankfully, I actually didn't buy this or even rent it, my friend had the game and he knew that I was a fan of the first two games on the PC and that I should try the game out. The first Soldier of Fortune for the PC is an underrated classic in my view, it was fun, exciting and stayed fresh enough throughout. The second game went into a new direction simply because the first game was largely criticised for being unrealistic both in gameplay and story terms. All I have to say is fuck the critics! While many of you know Counter-Strike is one of my favourite games of all time but I didn't think that game needed to go towards realism, it was awesome as it was. Don't get me wrong though SOFII was a damn fine sequel and many prefer it over the original but beware, the Xbox version is a piece of shit. I didn't really go into SOF Payback with much anticipation since there was much uproar over fans that Raven Software wasn't making the game and it was announced that it was being released by Activision Value which are infamous for releasing piss-poor PC games for a cheap price. However, the game did end up being released on normal Activision but still, it felt like a budget game through and through. The game was actually released by Cauldron who made a shooter called Chaser for the PC, never played it personally but it garnered a fanbase so these guys must be decent game developers right?

Not really. The game itself actually sounds pretty pleasing to people like me who prefered the first Soldier of Fortune game but liked that the game at least had realistic guns to shoot. Payback throws a bucketload of enemies at you and you just have a gun to kill them. This would actually be decent if the controls were decent but they were some of the worst aiming controls I have ever used and that is saying something. I am playing the 360 version but I even heard the PC version aims poorly. The aiming was slow and stiffer than a badger's arse and the lock-on made it stick to enemies and it was just a pain. I tried messing around with the different options but it did fuck all, it was awful. The standard button layout was decent and it was a bit of a shame the game came out about a month after Call of Duty 4, where the controls, graphics and just overall gameplay shit all over this. When the game has down on the D-Pad to crouch, then you know there is a problem. The Soldier of Fortune games were well talked about because of the gore and Payback tries to do the series justice but it failed because the gore just looked shit and cartoonish. No one would ever look at this gore and consider it to be shocking because it looked too fake and rubbish. Believe it or not, I actually beat the game on the hardest difficulty but not only that but I beat the last too bosses in the game by just stabbing them over and over with the knife. Yes, after you stab them, they stumble and that gives you another chance to stab them again and again until they fall over dead. Pro tip there but I didn't even look that up, I tried it myself because the game became very difficult on the last level because you literally walked around a corner and died. What a load of shit, they clearly didn't playtest the hardest difficulty, arseholes!

So yeah Soldier of Fortune Payback was the worst game I played in 2008. Rubbish.