Worst game ever?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Insigna
Black and White Was a GREAT game. How could anyone not like it? Black and white is more like the best game of all time not the worst.

B&W was excellent for 10 minutes, at which point the "Lets play with the cardboard boxes the toys came in instead" effect kicked in.

[DrSpike]

To me B&W had exactly the same appeal as Sim games.........10 minutes of fun is about right.

[Chemical Ollie]

WC3 is a great game that I grew tired of even before finishing the SP campain. I tried some multiplayer but got my butt kicked too much to find it funny. Starcraft Brood War is the best RTS ever. Nothing else in the genre is even close.

Other dissapointments: Call to Power 2 and anything in the Command and Conquer series after Red Alert.

[General Ludd]

Yes.. B&W, that is deffinatly one of the worst. I'd done a pretty good job of wiping it from my memory (along with all the other lemons), thanks for reminding me.


It could of been such a great game, but they turned it into a half-assed strategy game at the last minute and the AI did not live up to it's hype. Not even close.

[Sava]

Originally posted by BustaMike
Most disappointing game ever... no question... CIV 3!

You beat me to it.... DAMMIT!

Faded Glory, wtf are you smoking... BF1942 is an awesome game.

Warcraft 3 is also just as bad as Civ 3. Blizzard ruined the Warcraft series by taking away the fun of controlling a large army and creating an RPG/RTS hybrid.

[Boris Godunov]

There is no way you can say Civ3 is the most disappointing game ever. While it may not have met expectations for some fans, it maintained enough of what Civ is to be at least playable.

The game that most dissapointed the longtime fans of a series has to be (my favorite whipping boy) Ultima IX: Ascension. Here we had the most popular computer RPG series, which since Ultima II had been steadily building a huge fan base. The games got better and better. Ultima V is, to this day, my favorite RPG, followed closely by Ultima VII, Ultima VI and Ultima IV.

Then came Ultima VIII: Pagan. Oooookay, this one wasn't that hot. But it wasn't terrible, either. While the lack of a party system, the ungangly interface and the bewildering magic system were not well-received, it was still a playable game with a deep, interesting story.

So, despite this being a dissapointment, U9 was anticipated greatly. I mean, considering how long it was in development, fans were absolutely salivating over it. When Lord British announced it would be the last of the series, we expected a triumphant grand finale.

What we got was complete and utter CRAP. Beautifully done crap, but crap nonetheless. For some inexplicable reason, they retained everything people hated about U8 and continued to toss out the things people liked. Worse still, the game was no longer an RPG, but rather an adventure game wherein you could only follow the story rather than actively partipate and shape it. I watched in absolute frustration as my Avatar went and did things I didn't want him to do, but were forced on me by the game. And then the story itself was shallow, melodramatic claptrap that pretended to be deep, but wouldn't fool a 9 year old. Even worse than that, you could break the game at many points by missing a crucial quest or item needed for later. You couldn't just go back and get what you needed--you had to reload to a point before.

Then there was the enemy AI...or lack thereof. Basically, monsters were programmed to run and attack you when you got within a certain distance. But half the time they wouldn't respond, and you could just walk up and kill them without any resistance. Group attacks were never coordinated. If 3 giant rats were near, you could just carefully step within the range of one, it would run and attack you, and you could step back a little and kill it. Its buddies would remain blissfully unaware of anything going on at all. Then there were the monsters getting stuck in rocks and such, which was fun. Of course, you didn't even have to fight the monsters. You could just run past them, and if you got outside a certain distance, they'd stop chasing you and you'd be free to go on your way. This was probably preferable, because combat was a joke of just mindlessly bashing the target. There weren't any variations or different attacks...just click and hit.

Add in to all that the fact that the game was released horribly buggy, rendering it unplayable on most machines. The design itself was fundamentally flawed to make it a constant chore to play. I can't think of any game, Civ3 included, that had more technical problems on release. Origin had to issue a patch CD to those who had bought the game, which included an apology and a free trial of Ultima Online.

The problem was that Origin tried to take the computer RPG into a different direction, but it was a terrible idea that made it more of a first-person action game than an RPG. They eliminated story branches, choices and pretty much any elements of actual role-playing and dumped the player into a movie wherein he had no choice of what path to follow or what order to do the game. What's bewildering about this is that the story that emerged was still terrible!

When I see where RPGs have gone today with Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, and even the Diablo series to some extent, I shake my head in utter frustration at the implosion of the Ultima series that was Ascension.

[Dis]

well the thing about civ3 was it was rated really high.

black and white was rated really high as well. I should have known better than to trust the reviewers

That's what makes a game dissappointing for me. Is when it gets great reviews and it sucks.

Civ3 doesn't suck mine you. At least not for me. But I was a little bit disappointed in it.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Dissident
black and white was rated really high as well. I should have known better than to trust the reviewers

Ignore magazine reviews, listen to posters reviews. As many as possible. That's my currevt edict.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Ultima IX is a good call for a bad game. On the first unpatched version, it wasn't even possible to complete the game.

A sad end for a RPG game that frankly no others have come close to matching in philosophy and background. Ultimas 4-6 is easily the most thought provoking trilogy of games I've ever played.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Big Crunch


Ignore magazine reviews, listen to posters reviews. As many as possible. That's my currevt edict.

Wise, wise move. I usually look at the average player reviews on Gamespot, rather than the site's own reviews. However, I still take those rating with a grain of salt, because I suspect there is probably some vote rigging by fanboys.

Alinestra, I was just so sad that Ultima ended that way. I hold out a faint hope that Garriott will roust himself to do an Ultima X to clear the stink in the air from Ascension. Maybe he will see what RPGs are doing today and realize he can put together a truly great finale to the series.

It's a faint hope, but I hold it nonetheless.

[Datajack Franit]

Sequel? To TLJ?

That made my day

TLJ 2.. ooh

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
That made my day

TLJ 2.. ooh

They should call it:

The even longer Journey

(Hopefully it will be longer )

[Datajack Franit]

!

Some game I won't complete in 12 hours hopefully

[Cookie Monster]

Dare I say Moo3 should rank up there as a disappointment?

[BustaMike]

Disappointing but good overall - Xenosaga Ep. 1.

I just beat it. I was really enjoying the game, then it was over... no climax, no resolution, no closure. The freakin game just said TO BE CONTINUED. I know it's supposed to be a 6 part game, but I really thought at least one bad guy would get beaten or something important would happen or something. The game just ends in the middle of all this action. That was disappointing.

As for Civ3, here's why I say it's the most disappointing game I've ever played. The TBS I played previous to it was SMAC, which IMO is the best TBS game ever made by far. Enter Civ 3... the leaders look retarded, there are no movies, 1/3 of the techs serve no purpose, there are less techs, the differences between Civs are trivial at best, all terraforming ends up resulting in the same square (mine + grassland, irrigation + plains, it's all the same), there is no multiplayer (until the expansion comes 6 months later... too late and I won't pay for it anyway), I could go on and on... Basically, with no options and no rewards like movies or something, the game was spectacularly boring. I didn't even finish one full game before I went back to SMAC.

[Cookie Monster]

Let's see............

Infogrames record of late is not good at all. Not good at all. Case in point, Civ3, Civ3 PTW, and now Moo3 all decrepid games upon release. While Civ3 and PTW have been patched the initial fiasco left a bad taste in many a mouth. What is to be of Moo3.

I am beginning to realize that there will always be "useful idiots" who will allow game developers to continue to publish unfinished hack jobs. These people will love a game no matter what because they are fanatics or are the type who are willing to put up with crap for a product.

Since game time is at a premium for me these days and since money is hard to come by I am unwilling to put up with garbarge in the hopes that a patch or two will fix everything. Research your games before you buy and then wait a month until you buy anyway to get a feel for what the public thinks. Don't let the game developers win by buying unfinished products! The attitude of "well everything isn't perfect these days and patches are acceptable" is giving permission to software companies to rush products out the door even if they are not finished yet.

[Andrew1999]

"A Line In The Sand"

Strategy game of Gulf War I from SSI. In the readme file it noted several things that had to be removed from the game at the last minute, such as naval transport. Ever try moving the U.S. Army to Saudi Arabia without transports?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Wise, wise move. I usually look at the average player reviews on Gamespot, rather than the site's own reviews. However, I still take those rating with a grain of salt, because I suspect there is probably some vote rigging by fanboys.

I was thinking more of reviews on fora like these. At least them you know generally what kind of people are doing the recommending.

It also helps you know if a game is buggy, something that isn't always apparent until a couple of weeks after it is released.