Most disappointing/worst game of the year contender so far for 2015?

@hotpie: Seriously. Man forums are sad these days. I feel like the pattern is just any popular game gets torn down a few months after release. I felt like that was relegated to NeoGAF but it seems to be all over.

For me personally it was Rock Band 4. I still regularly have people over and Rock Band 3 is a fixture of almost every one of those gatherings so for me this was really exciting so I could move my 360 out of the living room and into my "office" with my PC. They had an opportunity to do something really fantastic and ended up falling flat. The game itself has an alright soundtrack, although I think it is the weakest in the core series since Rock Band 1. The lack of any real career or single player focused mode is disappointing but I am sure that wasn't a feature most of the player base was using. The took away the keyboard, which for someone who spent a lot of money buying all of their RB3 versions of old DLC (most of which I already owned) to get that keyboard part really sucked. The freestyle vocals are a welcome change for my vocally gifted friends who would often never turn up difficulties because of how strict the game could be but freestyle guitar solos aren't fantastic, even as the guy playing them.

All of that would have been forgiven if I could easily import all of my Rock Band DLC (I own approx. 1100 songs according to Rock Band 3) and play it. Of course importing DLC is an unmitigated disaster. I understand licensing issues holding some things up and appreciate that they are working on that but that doesn't get to the core of the problem. There is no easy way to import everything since the game frequently says you don't own a song until you actually select it, at which point it realizes "oh wait you do own this." I ended up making a list of all of the Rock Band 4 DLC and then checking that against my Rock Band 3 library to find songs I own. On top of that because I imported the Rock Band Blitz soundtrack as a whole rather than buying each song piecemeal it won't recognize any of that DLC as something I already own.

Bottom line is they charged $60 for a stripped down product that can't even preform its most basic function, playing your library of Rock Band music, well. The end result is that my Xbox 360 remains hooked up for the foreseeable future.

@monkeyking1969: To be clear though, and maybe I didn't make it clear in the first post, but this isn't a thread about the plain out worst game, it's basically what you consider the worst, favorite game of the year, or most disappointing favorite game. Games in which you consider to be up there, but have the biggest issues over, so while you love it and without issues, you could easily consider it the best this year, or maybe one of the best ever, there are just some things that hold it back. Oh, and as for 1886, I'm the opposite with that one, because it's a game I was hesitant to get, and I actually just got it last month and played it; I really enjoyed it. That said, I can't necessarily disagree with the issues you make, but I just enjoyed it. I thought the gunplay was fun; visuals amazing (though not 100 percent without flaw); sound design superb; the story got more interesting along the way, and I loved the 1886 setting. I also didn't have issue with the sneaking stuff, and quite liked it. I was also surprised by its length. As someone that likes to explore every ounce of an environment, less so for collectibles, but to see all the setting, I got eight hours out of it, so after about four hours in, I kept saying "when is this game supposed to end? I thought it was supposed to be over.", but in a happy way.

I didn't expect to like MGSV. It's a ton of fun, but by mission 32 (where I am now) I feel like I got everything I want to out of it. The story isn't interesting and after 51 hours of the same mission type repeated in the same areas I just don't care to finish it. That being said, I went in with low expectations so I can't say I'm disappointed. I had a blast with it and I'll never touch it again.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I thought Mario Maker would be great but in reality it's just a bunch of poorly designed Mario levels that aren't very fun.

Witcher 3 didn't have a super strong story, but it's straight up my game of the year by a long shot. Lots of good games this year, but nothing else shows up on the radar next to W3 (in my opinion).

I think some people misunderstood my thread, as some are posting the most disappointing game of the year, which wasn't my point. I meant for it to be a game that, at least to you, is considered one of the best games of the year, and yet is also most disappointing and/or worst. So with that said, I don't think Tony Hawk will be a choice, unless you really liked that game a lot, as opposed to hoping to liking it before release, and ending up not liking it when finally getting your hands on it.

@coaxmetal: That's why you have to read my thread post, not just the title. I've explained it again. It isn't about 'most disappointing game of the year'. There's no way to make it clearer in the title.

@gaspower: Same. It reminded me a lot of Walking Dead Season 1 actually. It was about raising/nurturing someone through a crisis and your choices ultimately kind of decide how they come out of it into the larger picture.

I haven't played many games this year (so this is not a troll), but a statement on the caliber of games that have come out this year - that I've played -. My most disappointing game is the Witcher 3. By no means is it disappointing, but it didn't capture me the way other games have this past year.

Worst Game of the Year - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5 (we all know why, and I think the consensus of this community is clear).

Most Disappointing Game of the Year - Batman: Arkham Knight

@dudeglove: I dunno' man... Dan was totally fine on last year's GOTY podcasts.

Arkham Knight. Aside from it being broken, it was tedious. I couldn't deal with the bat mobile shit. I had to turn it off and never go back to it.

@ntm: So this thread is basically to focus only on the flaws in otherwise fantastic games? That's sad :( I think it's been a pretty good year for games all told and there's still more to come.

I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree here man, because for as much as I was totally done with MGS V by the time I saw the "true" ending I thought it was the best stealth game I've played since Dishonored. Just such a flexibility and a dynamism to the way you could tackle any given mission.

@villainy: I wouldn't go that far (as in, focusing on negatives in a game with many positives), though some can do that. I made this because all the games I hoped I'd love, ended up not being quite as good as I would have hoped, the reasons behind them not as important to me. I don't usually care to name a favorite of a year, but this year so far, all the games I wanted to love (and do really like), aren't as strong as I'd hoped, and games in which I didn't know whether I'd like or not, surprised me, and yet I like as much as the disappointing ones, so I struggle to name a favorite. My question wasn't necessarily about games in which you loved, and reasons why they aren't as good as you'd hoped. I say they're not as good, and that's very true, but that doesn't mean I don't think some of them are superb, I just wish I liked them more. It may sound kind of down on a game one should celebrate, but I have to be realistic about it, so I'll both celebrate the games high quality, and yet still discuss the disappointments. This isn't a thread about putting down great games, that's too pessimistic. I also agree, there are some other great looking games coming out that I can't wait for (Halo 5, as I already mentioned).

Most Disappointing Game of the Year thus far has got to be Evolve. Between all of the hype that game was getting coming out of E3 and other game shows last year and the pedigree of being made by the Left 4 Dead people, that thing was looking to be a lock for best game of the first 25-35% of 2014. Instead, we got a mediocre shooter bereft of sufficient content for a $60 game that most players abandoned in the first month. And then to rub salt in that wound, the game was released with $135 worth of DLC content along with all sorts of confusion over the game's season pass. When I think of a game that defines disappointing, I can't think of anything else in 2015 that compared to Evolve. My runner up pick would be Game of Thrones (Telltale's worst release post-Walking Dead).

Worst game is a toss-up between Raven's Cry and Afro Samurai II based on the quick looks I saw. Tony Hawk 5 is certainly up there as well, though it seems to be a level better than either of those disasters.

@asilentprotagonist said:

Jesus dude. These 3 games are the reason I think 2015 has been a great year. I'm super curious to see what you think was better. I can't wait to play them. And no I'm not being sarcastic.

I hesitate to say it, since it was a pretty good game if you take a step back . . . but MGSV. It's weird - I definitely hit this inflection point where I went from really, really enjoying it to really, really not. Looking back, I think a few things really bummed me out about it:

1. The plot was just stupid, as opposed to that specific fun type of Metal Gear Stupid. The opening hospital mission had me hooked and then . . . nothing happened for a really, really long time. I got bored waiting for the plot to move forward and when it did, there wasn't enough soda-swilling-chain-smoking-monkey or killing-hornets-by-twirling-revolvers-type silliness to be entertaining. Just Miller ruminating on revenge and the general misery of the human condition.

2. The structure was based far too much on repetition with not enough variance in mission objectives or tactics. And before people start saying "but there are a million ways to tackle an encounter!" that may be true, but the game needed to give you a better incentive to actually switch things up. I don't think my tactics ever evolved beyond the starter assault rifle and a basic sniper rifle or rocket launcher.

3. Related to the above, I honestly think the game would have been considerably better if they'd just done away with Mother Base entirely. Nothing really happened there and it ultimately felt like nothing more than a series of grindy timers. It didn't help that I felt the research projects were entirely fungible as well. I seriously couldn't tell a difference in power or behavior from one weapon to another most of the time. A lot of them felt like nothing more than a timer to wait for.

Ultimately, I think the game needed to be half as long and twice as dense.

THPS absolutely for the worst game of the year category but I can't really put it in the most disappointing because come on it was still a robomoto made tony hawk game.

That Gears 1 remake was pretty shit too

Mad Max while not bad can fit into the most disappointing list

Chibi Robo Zip Lash because hey nintendo you know that game you made that was really good how about you make another one like that old game instead of jamming the titular character into bullshit you won't put anyone else in.

Payday 2 crimewave edition on console because apparently its still fucked

Afro Samurai 2 fuck that thing

Life is Strange because fuck that game

Kirby and the rainbow course was pretty disappointing as well

That fucking Pewdiepie ios game

Hatred.. less said the better

Also Godzilla anyone?

@haruko: Again, it's about a 'Game of the year contender' that is disappointing to you. Not the overall worst game.

I can see why people get confused, though, you can read the thread title 2 ways. : )

That is a very misleading title... I will see myself out.

I think a better way to word this might have been "What is a game you liked, but didn't like as much as you thought you would?"

I don't really have an answer to that question. I guess Mad Max? I bought that game on release after watching some gameplay videos and thinking that it looks fun. I did have some fun with it, but I bought it because the car combat looked awesome and the game just doesn't focus anywhere near as much as it should on car combat. I found myself wishing that the developers had decided, from minute 1, that Max should never get out of his car, and that they should have built their game solely, or at least mostly, around cars.

I have to say that I'm pretty surprised at the turn in popular opinion on the subject of Witcher 3. I think it's a genuinely great game, so I'm perplexed at why so many people are hating on it now.

@mike: I thought the gameplay was decent, but its roguelike elements are poorly realized. It doesn't have the variety of binding of isaac (items/player builds) or spelunky (gameplay/mechanics. They probably should have focused on creating levels from scratch and adding variety through level design, as opposed to randomly generating levels, because the levels as they are feel boring and make progressing through the game tedious. If you played Bloodborne, the chalice dungeons are a good analogy for how I feel about galak z.

I've not been disappointed majorly this year. MGS V was a husk but a 100 hour husk. THPS5 still draws me curiously to it due to a couple of friends enjoying it for what it is. Batman might contend due to me not really wanting to go back to the well, despite being excited at the game's announcement. Hanging your hat on a mode of transport when you're a winged gentleman is like Superman driving to work. And the reliance on the Joker rather than fleshing out a different existing DC villain. They did the same thing to Black Mask in Origins and even death couldn't stop them sitting in a meeting and going with the Joker.

@chaser324: Because the guys said they didn't care for it much on the bombcast, and that's bringing every person who didn't like it (who listens to the bombcast) out of the woodworks. Trust me, a lot of people like that game. Just so happens some of the people who played it don't... Just like everything that ever existed in the history of forever.

@believer258: That's not really my question though; that goes beyond game of the year, and into any game you simply liked, and not all games you like you would consider game of the year, or up there. My point was, out of the games so far, that you consider up there as game of the year, what's your least favorite, and/or most disappointing. It's basically about the feeling of... I forget the word, but it starts with a c. If I remember it, I'll post it, ha ha. But, would you consider Mad Max game of the year, or on your top five list?

Once Batman Akham Knight worked it wasn't horrible, I was lucky enough to still have it on steam right after the patch and i enjoyed it to the end, though i had no drive to 100% the fucking riddle shit. and couple days after i finished it they pulled it from my account. I had no interest in MGSV but i know some friends who enjoyed it and from how much the gb crew talked about it i highly doubt it will make the worst list, same goes with Destiny and the Witcher 3.

Tony Hawk is the biggest disappointment for me, I would LOVE to have a good skateboarding game to geek out on like i did with the first 3, I was really hoping they would hit gold again, but that didn't happen.

I would also throw my vote into Warcraft WoD just on how they put out the expansion, 2 content patches and announced another game expansion already with already less content then the last one and maybe 6months before it even drops. It feels that blizzard just wants Warcraft to die because they're making so much more money on the F2P model

@chaser324: I think from the get-go, some people had issues with it. That said, I don't really share the same issues, or the intensity of criticism (except for side quests, which I never really discussed. As cool and varied as The Witcher 3's side quests are compared to some other open world games, they majority of them are still not amazing). I love the game, but it is one of the games that (from the get-go) that I finished everything, and I was still thinking 'well, this was superb, but it's not really a game I want to consider best of the year. I hope MGS5 is that game.' Turns out, MGS5, while also along with The Witcher 3 are those games so far, aren't up there as I'd like. I guess expectations were set too high, even when I knew what I was getting into. MGS5's gameplay is awesome, but in the end, I'd honestly rather go back to the cutscene filled MGS' and play through them again, rather than jump back into the open world nature of MGS5. For me, while I will always play a game, and want fantastic gameplay, which MGS5 had for the most part, I was still mainly in it for story and character, so once I've seen all the cutscenes, I was done. I haven't been back. Sorry, a little off topic there since you were just talking about The Witcher. I also want to make the point that this is not a thread about talking negatively about games, or, it can be, but not shitting on them entirely (plus, that wouldn't make sense considering this is about game of the year games to people).

Raven's Cry came out this year.

There wasn't really any way to put it. It's the clearest I could make it. People have to read the original post, which is where I make it clear. I've also explained what it is again, and again... And again? It's not about most disappointing game, or worst game. It's about your favorite game, a game in which you will consider as the best, or one of the best of the year, and yet is also the most disappointing of those games (for instance, if you loved The Witcher 3, MGS5, or Bloodborne, and want to consider them as the best, which of those, if any, disappointed you). I understand it can be confusing, which I thought about just as I was posting the thread, but I couldn't find a better way to put it that makes more sense, as well as the same thing.

If you're talking about what will be talked about and considered for game of the year, maybe Ori and the Blind Forest? I didn't find it held up over time, even though it's super gorgeous and its early levels/area is a lot of fun. Or Arkham Knight for it's painful Batmobiling when the rest of the game is still fantastic.

Realistically this is a super difficult thing to discuss in the way you seem to present you want it to go, as people's opinions as to what will be in the Game of the Year discussion is going to be pretty subjective, with a few outliers.

@driadon: I'm asking for personal opinion, not a debate or what people think will be someone else's favorite game. It's all personal, I don't see how that'd be difficult to answer. It's as simple as me asking you what your favorite game has been from this year, the twist (I guess you can say), is me asking you personally, what your favorite games is, and yet you also found disappointing. I think the question came, because all the games in which I was super excited for, excited for most from this year, have been disappointing in some regard, and so there lies an issue for me when it comes to considering it game of the year over something else. And then you add in the games that may not be as good, or lack something the the disappointing games didn't have, and yet they surprised me and I also loved them, which one would I choose. That's my personal issue here, and where the thread came from. I also didn't want to do the typical 'what's your least favorite game of the year'. I'm not talking about what should be considered game of the year from anyone else but the person writing. Heck, if someone think Tony Hawk is awesome, then okay, but how does it pertain to the topic I brought up? Someone thinking it is game of the year as some argument, is not the point. I don't care what game it is, it's just about thinking about the awesome game of the year contenders for you personally, and then, which of them was most disappointing, if any at all? Okay, I hope that clears it up, ha ha.

I'll echo the vote for Rock Band 4, which by virtue of being one of the two major rhythm games released this year is technically a Game of the Year contender, no? I'm the person Rock Band 4 was designed for: I still have my Xbox 360 hooked up with Rock Band 3 permanently in the disk tray, I own nearly 1,000 songs, and I regularly would boot it up to play with guests at least once a month, if not more. My issues have already been mentioned by Jeff in his review, he was more or less spot-on. It's an arduous process to get all your songs back from the store, many songs didn't transfer over, so many features have been stripped that could not possibly have been difficult to implement (how do you not at least have custom setlists?), and to top it all off, they don't sell the drum kit standalone! I'm still using my Rock Band 2 drum kit with the cymbals, there is so much duct tape holding that thing together. I had to buy the stupid adapter to sync "legacy" instruments with the Xbox One.

I don't have too much of an issue with the on-disk song list itself. The way I look at it is, there's a solid handful of songs I would have purchased had they been DLC for Rock Band 3, which would have ended up costing me almost the price of admission anyways. The fact that I'm missing so many good songs and other missing features, like no leaderboards or setlists, make me want to go back to Rock Band 3.

@ntm: I think "What GOTY-contender was the most disappointing to you?" would've been a clearer choice, now you can read it both ways (as in: what is the contender of being the worst/most disappointing game of the year). : )

I'm surprised that many mention MGS5 as disappointing, but at the same time praising its gameplay. I did not expect the 'story aspect' of a game to have such a high impact on the overall opinion of it. (By the way; I did not think it was that bad, could be better I suppose, but I liked that it wasn't convoluted with story stuff this time. It's just not Metal Gear Solid like to have the story take a background role, that might be the disappointing factor to some).

As I clarify what I mean in my original post, and as to what my title meant, I suppose I don't much care anymore. It seems many others have an idea and want to discuss stuff on their own, and I'm okay with that. It has largely turned into 'worst/most disappointing game of the year', so while that wasn't my intention, at least it has brought discussion, so that's fine. In my title, you have to look at 'game of the year contender' as separate from 'worst/most disappointing game of the year'. There are a limited number of words to put into the title, and that's the best way to do it without going over the limit. I guess if I were to reword it, it'd be 'what is one of your personal favorite games of this year, and yet at the same time, most disappointing?' I can't assume others are in the same predicament as myself, though I ask because I am, at least right now, not sure what I would choose as a favorite.

@dussck: I suppose that works. And yeah, for me, it was the setting and story. The story was fine, but I wished it would have bridged the games, especially considering it is, or it is perhaps Kojima's last MGS. As for setting, while also fine, it going to open world isn't as interesting to me as say, Shadow Moses. There was a reason why going back in MGS4 was so amazing a moment. Not only Shadow Moses, but I liked Big Shell, and I liked trekking through he jungle in three. They were all memorable to me, and in a good way. MGS5 was just kind of plain.

@chaser324 said:

Posturing. It's a pretty human reaction. People who don't like a thing, or didn't find it to be the second coming are surrounded by others who can't help but proselytize said thing's amazing qualities, and so their reaction turns from "eh" to outright hatred in an attempt to tear something down for the sin of being too popular. It also happens on the inverse, where people who like a thing and are surrounded by people who dislike/hate that thing will become downright evangelical in their defense of said thing. For reference to that, I refer you to the weird ass cult of personality surrounding Dark Souls 2. The sad thing is that you see it happen with pretty much every major release these days, and most of the time it's warranted, but on rare occasions it can come across as people cutting off their nose to spite their face, as in Wild Hunt's case.

The Witcher 3 is an amazing game. Landmark in the genre. That's not debatable. Personal enjoyment is another thing entirely, though. I kinda wish people could understand that because something is popular, or because so many people are singing something's praises from the rooftops that it doesn't automatically mean it must be shite. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes something really fucking amazing breaks into the mainstream, and all of the hype and praise is completely justified.

The Witcher 3 bored me to death, the characters were okay but the story was bland and the gameplay was both tedious and boring. Though don't quote me on the story part, since I never finished it.

I didn't really like 2 either, but I thought from what they showed 3 seemed like a better playing game, and it is, it just still isn't for me though.

I doubt it'll get worst game (there has to something worse out there, right? ... RIGHT?), but Tony Hawk 5 seems like a lock for most dissapointing game.

Most disappointing for me so far is MGSV. It's not a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but I, along with most MGS fans I'm sure, was just expecting so, so much more from the story. And even when it comes to the gameplay, there's only so long before doing the same 3 side-ops over and over and over again becomes boring. It was like Peace Walker's high-school drop-out brother who also won the lottery.

Best game hands down was Witcher. Fallout 4 will either take the Witcher's spot as my best game, or MGSV's spot as most disappointing, there is no in-between.

MGSV. I loved MGS 1-4 and played them multiple times but when I think of MGSV and the 125 hours I put into I don't think "that was time well spent", I think "look how many weekends I wasted playing this". I am so burnt out from playing that game that the mere thought of ever going back into it just makes me cringe. There were some really strong story moments in that game hidden among the 50 missions that were mostly just filler to waste my time either tailing a target, retrieving an intel agent or destroying an armor unit before it reaches its destination. Ultimately I think being an open world did that game a disservice for being so narrative stricken and quite frankly there wasn't much to do in that world except run to the next objective marker. I could go on about other things like the lame boss fights but I just don't want to write anymore about how disappointing this game was for me. Solid 8/10 game.

Fixed that for ya. Seriously how did I forget about that in my original post, possibly even more disappointing than the lame story. I guess there's two if you count Quiet as a boss?

I have to echo the Metal Gear Solid V crowd. It started out really promising but my excitement to play it keeps dropping with every mission I play. I was just now introduced to the FOB stuff and when the game told me "Hey, you need to do a training run on your FOB base! We locked everything else! This is like an introduction phase in a mobile game except you're probably 20 hours+ into the game already!" it pissed me off so I turned the game off. What the hell is up with that game's structure? It's ridiculous. I don't see myself ever changing up my loadout either. It works for every situation which makes every situation almost identical. Which is fitting since you're in the same places all the time too.

My overall sentiment on MGSV is basically that some games are better than the sum of their parts, but MGSV has a few really good parts but the sum of all of them together is a real mess. The only part that stands out in that game is the core mission gameplay mechanic, it's really fantastic. And had the game given me more reasons to switch things up, I might be a little more lenient on it. But as it stands, the more I break down the game the less I like it.

Probably Mad Max, I wasn't expecting the second coming or anything but after the movie came out I was at least hoping for some visceral fever dream insanity with a heavy dose of speed. What I got was a repetitive slog with an incredibly shitty frame rate. If it had been just a bit original and had the bugs polished out it might have made my personal top ten list. As it stand though...its a mess.

The sky boxes were best in class at least.

And it's getting re-released under a different name soon, which is mindboggling.

@svenzon: wait what

Arkham Knight. Even if you ignore the rampant issues present with the PC release (which is a big ask), it just ends up being a boring very Ubisoft-open-world-esque game that seems to have had no idea how to actually finish (after his reveal, the Arkham Knight just kind of up and vanishes). Almost half of the side-missions screen being dedicated to a single villain (who, in turn, has an incredibly crappy fight) also sucks, and the less said about the treatment of Hush the better.

@oldirtybearon: Dark Souls 2 fixed everything that was broken in Dark Souls 1 though. Everything else I agree with and have in fact experienced from both sides of the fence. Apart from Dark Souls 2 of course, which will forever be a better game than Dark Souls 1 which was raised to uncanny levels of praise on the wings of YouTube.