2007's Ten Biggest Gaming Letdowns

Game|Life offers up an anti-top-ten list, noting the three blog authors' biggest disappointments from 2007. Chris Kohler's biggest letdown echoes my own feelings on this topic: "No LittleBigPlanet. PlayStation 3's software library got significantly better this holiday, but there's no killer app. I honestly don't know if LittleBigPlanet would have been one. But I think it's going to be mine. It's going to be the thing that glues me to PlayStation 3... when it ships. I was all ready to start building worlds and sharing them with my friends and generally start being a jackass by now, but it won't happen until next year -- late next year, if you believe the rumors. I hope they're not true. And I do hope LittleBigPlanet sets the planet on fire when it releases." Any gaming 'event' this year an epic fail for you?

My biggest let down of 2007

[Pojut (1027544)]

Hands down, without a doubt, would have to be Two Worlds. I mean, the setup was genious. On paper, it appeared to be Oblivion on steroids...I mean come on, a massive, open-ended RPG that you make your own spells and can play co-op over system link on a couple of 360's? My buddy and I were waiting for this one with huge anticipation...only to feel like we had gotten a kick in the nuts. Horrendous menu systems, terrible gameplay, and textures so muddy you couldn't tell what was going on half the time (and this on an HDTV)

Without compare, the biggest gaming letdown of 2007.

Re:My biggest let down of 2007

[eyeye (653962)]

Mine was Unreal Tournament III - the textures and graphics are noisy and the interface clumsy.

Re:

[Voltageaav (798022)]

I have to agree, Two Worlds had a ton of potenial. What makes it soo bad was where they did a lot of really good things with the game, the things they screwed up are things that pretty much everyone else nails down and they were really bad. To the point that I doubt most people would bother playing after 20 minutes. The voice acting, textures, and some of the controls are just so bad it seems like they didn't even try. The menues could use some work, but I can live with them. I did end up finishing the

Another big let down

[FredFredrickson (1177871)]

I couldn't get enough people to click myminicity links! What a dumb game.

Re:

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

With all the animosity surrounding those stupid links, I don't think joking about MyMiniCity non-anonymously is such a good idea...

*AKAImBatman envisions FredFredrickson's Freak list growing at hundreds of links per second, while hackers trace back his IP address and "put him out of business".

Personally?

[JK_the_Slacker (1175625)]

I still haven't managed to beat VI. You know, that console game where the object of the game is to edit a file and then quit? That's a really hard one, and I'm so disappointed that I got so close, but didn't finish it this year. Ah well, there's always 2008.

Re:Personally?

[rk (6314)]

You know there's a cheat code that lets you save your progress before you quit, right? Press escape, then type ":wq" and press enter.

Re:Personally?

[Sciros (986030)]

It's a PC game rather than a console game I think. Maybe that's the problem.

Re:

[SLot (82781)]

You think VI is bad, you should try the multiplayer option - IRC!

Some disappointments

[Sciros (986030)]

To begin, I'll echo the biggest disappointment as being the Wii's lack of anything good from companies not named Nintendo. A number of my friends are regretting the purchase of the Wii because of this reason, wishing they'd bought a 360 instead. Surely having both is best but I certainly haven't felt so much of the same sentiment from 360 owners I know.

Anyway, my disappointments:
1) Smash Bros Brawl being delayed until next year. Mr. Iwata personally told me that he was hoping to make this game a release title for the "Revolution" (this was in 2005). We're now more than a year overdue, and for something like Smash that really doesn't imply 6.5 solid years of development time. They were simply slow to start on it.

2) Lack of availability of the Wii. I'm not used to having to put so much work into acquiring a $250 piece of technology one year after its initial release; my mornings are usually quite busy. As a result I still don't have one.

3) FFXII: Revenant Wings (DS). I expected much better than what it turned out to be. Even looking at videos of the game on IGN didn't quite get across the abysmal pacing and unbelievable lack of variety in this game. Its supposed depth doesn't amount to anything in practice.

4) Mario 3v3 Hoops (DS). I think this came out in 2007. If not then nevermind. Anyway this game is a giant turd.

5) ArenaNet slowly turning Guild Wars into a grindfest. The one MMORPG that let me play PVE at my leisure and not "fall behind" decided that it's a much better idea to just go into WoW me-too mode rather than stick with the original tenet of skill over time played. The Eye of the North expansion released this year completed the transformation.

6) Bioware going to EA, Blizzard merging with Activision. Let's just say that these *cannot possibly be good things* considering Bioware and Blizzard haven't exactly been in need of an improvement in any way. (Well, Blizzard graphically perhaps but Activision doesn't help there.)

7) Forza Motorsport 2. Great racing engine, cool graphics, good customization, good online mode. But... what is with no music during races? Or having to play your ass off to unlock even the ability to *purchase* a lot of the cars? This isn't supposed to be a 100-hour RPG, it's a freaking racing game. Nobody wants to spend days driving cars they don't like to get at cars they do; there's no storyline or change in gameplay to keep you interested in the meantime. Seems the developers forgot they were making a *game* rather than a training sim for racing teams to study tracks.

Re:

[Applekid (993327)]

3) FFXII: Revenant Wings (DS). I expected much better than what it turned out to be. Even looking at videos of the game on IGN didn't quite get across the abysmal pacing and unbelievable lack of variety in this game. Its supposed depth doesn't amount to anything in practice.

When Square followed up to FFX with FFX-2, they set the par for all other main Final Fantasy game spinoffs. I don't think it was much of a surprise, personally.

It's a damn good thing they start fresh with each sequel of the main franchise, is all I'm saying. :)

Re:Some disappointments

[techpawn (969834)]

5) ArenaNet slowly turning Guild Wars into a grindfest. The one MMORPG that let me play PVE at my leisure and not "fall behind" decided that it's a much better idea to just go into WoW me-too mode rather than stick with the original tenet of skill over time played. The Eye of the North expansion released this year completed the transformation.

THANK YOU! Finally, someone else that saw that they turned down that path and because of it lost quite a few players. I gave up on it when I came to the realization that the people who just ran from mission to mission where doing much better than the casual players. It's now a subscription free version of WoW. I've gone back of PnP games. Yeah, it's a hassle to get everyone into someones basement for a few hours each week, but it's all in all a far better experience.

Re:

[tieTYT (989034)]

1) Smash Bros Brawl being delayed until next year. Mr. Iwata personally told me that he was hoping to make this game a release title for the "Revolution" (this was in 2005). We're now more than a year overdue, and for something like Smash that really doesn't imply 6.5 solid years of development time. They were simply slow to start on it.

I'd rather have a great game late than a shitty game early. Every game you mentioned after this point could have been better if it was delayed longer. Delays are a good t

Re:

[Sciros (986030)]

But not all delays are admirable in this sense. They can be due to poor resource management, they can be due to not enough work being spent on the game earlier on, etc. Unless Smash Bros Brawl, when released, turns out to match Oblivion or FFXII in scope and polish, the wait time by fans will hardly be justified.

Re:Some disappointments

[edwdig (47888)]

1) Smash Bros Brawl being delayed until next year. Mr. Iwata personally told me that he was hoping to make this game a release title for the "Revolution" (this was in 2005). We're now more than a year overdue, and for something like Smash that really doesn't imply 6.5 solid years of development time. They were simply slow to start on it.

The problem with SSB Brawl is Iwata made a promise he couldn't possibly deliver. Iwata publicly announced a SSB game as a Wii launch title in late '05, THEN went to the designer of the previous games in the series and asked him to make the game. The guy had left Nintendo a few years prior. So, Nintendo had 1 year to get the guy to agree to make the game, get a dev team for him to work with, and create the game. Once this became public knowledge, it was pretty clear it wasn't going to be a launch game. In the end, it took them a little over two years to put it together, assuming no further delays.

Re:

[peterpi (585134)]

You make Forza Motorsport sound like exactly the sort of racing game I've been after for so long ;)

Re:

[Osty (16825)]

Then forget forza, and go get GT3, or GT4.

Better graphics on 4(on an inferior system), you can turn the music off, and you have to play a ton to get cars you actually want to race.

I'd actually recommend against getting GT3 or GT4, or at least get them along with FM2.

• Graphics: You're comparing PS2 games to an Xbox 360 game. GT4 launched a few months before the original Forza, back in 2005. Forza 2 launched this year on Xbox 360. That in itself means it has better graphics, but Forza 2 also has per-

Re:

[mqduck (232646)]

Bioware and Blizzard haven't exactly been in need of an improvement in any way. (Well, Blizzard graphically perhaps but Activision doesn't help there.)

Blizzard chooses to make games that can run well on your average PC that's been around for a few years. Blizzard has "our games are fucking fun" going for it, they don't need to also have the "give your fancy new hardware a workout!" selling point. And WoW STILL looks beautiful. They don't need a change a thing there either.

Re:

[Sciros (986030)]

It's called *scaling to hardware.* Make it run on old stuff, and look decent on newer stuff. Simple formula, and some dev houses are good at it. Others simply keep the requirements just as low as Blizzard does yet still manage far better graphics (Guild Wars, for instance).

Don't make excuses when there really aren't any to make. You can cater to a broad range of hardware if you put in the effort. Blizzard doesn't *need* to from a business perspective, but I wouldn't be bothered if they tried.

The Biggest Disappointment

[MonkeyCookie (657433)]

...was that Duke Nukem Forever wasn't released in 2007. I was sure that this year was the year!

Assassin's Creed

[nuzak (959558)]

Boy is it pretty. And smooth. And climbing things is fun for the first half-hour or so.

The voice acting is ... okay. Actually everyone's good except for Altair himself, but I have heard worse.

But seriously, I was looking forward to being immersed in the role of an assassin stalking his target patiently, taking just the right moment to strike, then blazing a bloody trail out of town. But nope, I get to listen to "Thief! I'll have your hand for that!" over and over and over and over and over again until I get sick of it and decide to have my two-dozenth very high-profile swordfight in the middle of the street -- which the guards will mercifully forget all about when I walk away for a couple minutes to climb the next Generic View Point Tower.

Talk about a wasted opportunity.

Wii

[Tailsfan (1200615)]

What about all the games SEGA churns out.

Re:

[marvelouspatric (1112793)]

you know, that's a great point. i was looking at my wii (the only next-gen system i own) and i realized that my favorite games for it come from either nintendo or sega. how crazy is that? if you would have told me 20 years ago, when i was playing my 8-bit master system that i'd being playing sega games on a nintendo and love it, i'd have told you you were a doo-doo head, because i was 8.

(my favorite wii games, right now, are wii sports, wii play, sonic, mario, and nights. just got mario and nights, a

Halo 3? Disappointing?

[filterban (916724)]

Okay, so I can understand someone thinking Portal and BioShock are better games than Halo 3. I don't understand TFA calling Halo 3 a disappointment simply because they liked two other shooters more. From TFA:

The sales of Halo 3. It wasn't surprising that Halo 3 would sell like something that sells really fast, but I was saddened by how many people were exposed only to the world of the Master Chief while missing out on the amazing BioShock or my new pick for greatest game of all time, Portal. Sure, both games sold reasonably well, but when compared to the sales of Halo 3, you begin to realize that gaming accurately reflects the rest of society's entertainment; high-brow, revolutionary fare is ignored by the masses in favor of "wicked awesome explosions."

Please. Saying Halo 3 is only "wicked awesome explosions" would be like saying Star Wars is only "explosions and laser beams." Give me a break.

All of the Halo games have had wicked awesome explosions, sure. But they also have a deeply engrossing storyline, fantastic multiplayer, good AI, and unsurpassed world physics. Halo 3 is the best game in the series and was my favorite shooter (and many other people's) of the year. By no stretch of the imagination was it a bad game. Star Wars is full of light sabers and lasers - but obviously, if you look at it more closely, there's an intricate storyline with fantastic characters (in Episodes 4-6).

Sure, BioShock and Portal are arguably better games than Halo 3 but they didn't sell nearly as well. The reason? Exposure. Most people haven't even heard of Portal. There certainly aren't Portal trading cards, helmets, action figures, and TV commercials.

For christ's sake, you can't even BUY Portal on a console -- at most, an hour long game -- without buying a $60 package that includes another game I've already beaten (Half Life 2) and two expansion packs I don't want. If Joey asks for Portal for Christmas, his mom won't be able to find it in a store.

Sales figures are a result of many other forces besides the quality of the game itself, and that's reality. Microsoft went to bat for Halo 3 with their pocketbook, executed very well, and they reaped the rewards from it. BioShock and Portal did not pony up, and since most people don't know what they are, they aren't purchased at nearly the same rate. It has nothing to do with the average American only liking "wicked awesome explosions."

Wither Spore?

[GaryPatterson (852699)]

I remember when Spore was the next huge thing to hit gaming, and every game show had breathless gamers watching previews. Then we waited. And waited. And waited.

Years passed.

Still no Spore! It's an ambitious game, yes, but once you hit the third or fourth year of development, it starts seeming like it'll never get here. Games with extremely long dev times have a history of disappointing. I reckon "No Spore This Year" should be on the list as a disappointment of 2007.

Wither Spore?

Re:Wither Spore?

[LingNoi (1066278)]

That's why the games industry should only market games that are already almost complete, they're such amateurs. The movie industry doesn't show adverts for a movie that still has three more years of production time. Doing so in the games industry leads to what you just said.

Re:

[Pojut (1027544)]

Bethesda, an Xbox FPS company? WTF?

According to Wikipedia, out of the 68 games that Bethesda has played some part in developing, publishing, or producing, only 14 of them actually appeared on an Xbox console...those 14 games include BOTH Xbox AND Xbox 360...on top of that, on just a quick skim through the list, only a handful of those games are actually FPS (and no, Oblivion was NOT an FPS. If the previous Elder Scrolls games were not considered an FPS, neither was Oblivion)

What the hell are you talking a

Re:

[klingens (147173)]

Anyone that played Morrowind before and then Oblivion saw the huge difference.

Morrowind was a PC game that got ported to console. Oblivion was was a Console game ported to PC. A "port" as commonly known with PC players. And as most "Ports" it sucked in the same ways like them. The RPG part dumbed down overall with more emphasis on fights, made more lowest common denominator accessible for the "casual gamers", had simplified controls due to the lack of keyboard and mouse, horrible user interface, again due d

Re:

[Pojut (1027544)]

True, the interface was definately geared more towards consoles...but, with the help of the (excellent) oblivion modding community, the interface was helped out substantially. What you said about long time elder scrolls gamers is rather funny to me...I've been playing since the first one, and I personally thought Oblivion was the best one yet.

Re:

[Sciros (986030)]

If you consider Bethesda Softworks an "XBox FPS developer" then you never had an idea of what a CRPG was to begin with. So don't worry, you won't notice a thing.

Re:

[LarsWestergren (9033)]

Troika's dead, an Xbox FPS developer has the Fallout IP, and Bioware was eaten by EA before they could squeeze out an uncorrupted Dragon Age.

On the other hand, we have the Witcher, and NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer, which makes it one of the best CRPG years in a long time. Which brings us to my disappointment, mirrored nicely by this article: This was a great year for PC games, the best in a long time, but online media seems only to care about consoles.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

I do not own Halo 3 and I have no intention of buying it or a 360 but I'm going to defend it anyway. The whole "640p" thing was because it renders to two 640 row framebuffers which are then composited and slightly scaled vertically to achieve some cool lighting effects. People were only able to notice the slight reduction in vertical resolution by counting pixels on framegrabs. Until I see a study showing that people are even capable of distinguishing 720p and 1080p video sources (not still images), I will

Re:

[grahamwest (30174)]

I can totally tell it's at a lower resolution than other games. I think they're also not using the antialiasing in the same way as most games, or something else is amiss, because I can definitely see the hard edges of walls and doors and so on. Mind you I have a 1080p Full-HD television.

It's not like it's a big deal, they made their choice so they could run at framerate and get the lighting they wanted, but at least some of us could tell immediately. By the way, the reason they do this reduced framebuffer s

Re:

[bigstrat2003 (1058574)]

Halo bashing in a games topic? This is new and unheard-of.

Bungie could only manage to get Halo 3 to run at 640p resolution and not the minimum standard 720p for real next gen games.

No one with a lick of sense gives a flying fuck. Unless you're counting the lines, rather than playing the game, you can't tell if there are 640 lines or 720. Give me a break.

Side by side screenshots of Halo 2 and Halo 3 had gamers scratching their heads as to which one was supposed to be the next gen game.

BULLSHIT. This was true for the beta only. Playing the finished Halo 3, there's a clear improvement in graphical quality. You might want to get with the times on this one.

Bungie didn't bother to bring Halo 3 out of the dark ages of online gaming and implement dedicated servers. And Bungie because of the lack of dedicated servers Halo 3 could only handle 16 players at a time for online games. There are pc shareware games with better online setups.

Agreed 100%, but consoles aren't the place to be looking for good FPS multiplayer gaming anyways.

Nope, single player also runs only at 640p with the same last gen looking graphics.

See abo

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

If you're going to bash a game for no reason, bash a game that isn't 4 months old.

Wow, tell me you didn't actually say that, when the title of the article is "2007's Ten Biggest Gaming Letdowns" and his post title (which is also reflected in your Re: response title is a direct derivative.

Are you in the same article that the rest of us are in? Or are you just a little too emotional about HALO for some reason?

Re:

[d3l33t (1106803)]

I care. I bought a 1080p TV so i could play 720/1080 games.

640 is not HD, sorry.

Re:

[enderjsv (1128541)]

I'd say you're both a little right. I bought an HDTV after seeing my friend play a game on his. The picture was so clear and nice I couldn't help but be impressed. So it's not entirely unreasonable that there IS a difference between HD and standard and that difference is noticeable. But on the other hand, we're talking about a difference between 80P of resolution. Honestly, while I can tell the difference between 420P and 720P fairly easily, I struggle sometimes to tell the difference between 720P and

Re:

[enderjsv (1128541)]

Wow, lots of points to make. I'm lazy so I'm not gonna quote or anything, but here goes.

The people who can't see the difference but still care are idiots. I know that's not the most logical response, but it's the only way I can seem to rationalize a stance like that. In my opinion, elitism like that is nauseating. As for the 5 or 6 people who CAN see the difference, good for you. That's quite an impressive skill. However, if a lapse of 80P is enough to ruin a game for you, maybe it's more of a curse t

Re:

[doxology (636469)]

Deus Ex?

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Bungie could only manage to get Halo 3 to run at 640p resolution and not the minimum standard 720p for real next gen games.

Wait, what? How is that a "minimum standard" for "real next gen games"? You know that the Wii's maximum is 480p, right? If you consider Halo 3 to be even borderline "next gen," then you can't say Metroid Prime 3 isn't, as its single player mode blows Halo 3's away.

Re:

[Pojut (1027544)]

Not at all, the Halo series has never really done much for me...people can rip on it all they like, I don't care...but if shills are posting on boards to try to get people to turn away from a competitor's products, they should be doing it by talking shit about a game that hasn't been out for a couple of months (nor should it be about a game that, as of right now, is sitting at the top of Live in terms of people that play it. In fact, Halo 3 pisses me off because of this...it's not that it's a shitty game,

Re:

[SengirV (203400)]

Talking shit about a game 4 months old? I've seen people on here who haven't RTFA, but you didn't even read the fucking title of the article - 2007's Ten Biggest Gaming Letdowns.

Re:

[Pojut (1027544)]

And you apparently haven't read Slashdot since Halo 3 was announced...nearly the exact same cut and paste troll post has been posted in nearly every single story dealing with video games. Changing the first sentence so that it seems to be on-topic with the discussion doesn't make it any less of a shill/troll post.

And no, I won't block AC posts because sometimes ACs do in fact make insightful comments...when they aren't pasting in responses that were written months ago, that is.

Re:

[Pojut (1027544)]

Notice how most of the cut and paste post (which has appeared almost verbatim in nearly every video game story on Slashdot for the past 6 months, I might add) focuses mainly on the game, while devoting only a couple of sentences to the hype machine.

If it were purely about the hype machine, I would have modded it underrated (if it haden't been an AC, of course). But it was the same cut and paste crap that has been tossed at Slashdot readers for months, and as such, I posted a comment stating that it's point

Re:more about "The Internet and Jade Raymond"?

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves (236787)]

This NSFW [photobucket.com]

Re:

[Fx.Dr (915071)]

I can't access TFA (damn work filters), but if it's what I think it is, here's the scoop:

Ubisoft and Jade had a fit after UK artist 'scribblekid' had penned a "racy" (major understatement) parody about how Jade was being made spokesperson for the game - essentially being thrust into the spotlight because she's a major babe. Said parody features her going down a few geeky gamers enjoying her "game".

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

I didn't find it a letdown at all. Quite enjoyed it [destructoid.com], actually.

Re:

[enderjsv (1128541)]

Wow. You said a mouthful. A lot of your claims are fairly harsh, as well. It'd be nice if you could back them up by citing your sources.

First, what study have you read indicating that Xboxs released in the past year still suffer the same number of hardware malfunctions as their predecessors? I play close attention to gaming news and I haven't seen a study like this anywhere. Please tell me where you get this information so that I can be as informed as you are.

Second, Bioware was bought out. It's

Re:Xbox 360 Hardware And Software

[Doctor_Jest (688315)]

I hate responding to trolls.... but.

They took a billion dollar hit to their bottom line to STOP the bleeding of consoles... they admitted (in no uncertain terms) that EVERY console they sold (up to that point) was potentially destined to fail... and fail for the SAME FLAW.

20% not high? 30%? How many consoles have to go back to Microsoft (and how many times), before you admit there's a flaw in the 360 that is VERY troubling and VERY problematic for their goodwill and future as a gaming company.

The failure rate of the PS3 is infinitesimal. Google is your friend. The Wii's also a solid performer. Compared to the 360 the PS2 launch console is more reliable.

You've been nursing Bill Gates' ballsack too long to notice the facts DO support his statement... and it's NOT fanboy rhetoric when the VERY company extends the warranty for a _SPECIFIC_ failure to 3 YEARS, for FREE. That had "class action dodge" written ALL over it, chum.

AC, indeed. Sometimes your asinine insinuations really get to me.

Re:

[NanoGator (522640)]

I would just like to point out that the 20 percent number is a guess. It originated from a website that ran a poll and they came up with that number after they received the results. It wasn't scientific, and it wasn't based on anything like retail reports. Some people were given a chance to bitch and they did. The warranty is definitely compelling and definitely says there is a problem, but it is also worth noting that Sony has been deluged with so much bad press that it is not surprising they are tryin