Worst Gaming Decisions Of 2003 Rated 120
Thanks to GameSpot for their feature rating some of 2003's videogames that deserve negative awards. Some of the 'winners' among this motley crew of letdowns include most pretentious game awarded to Namco's Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht ("a game that takes itself far too seriously"), most disappointing title to Capcom's Devil May Cry 2 ("a complete letdown in the face of the first game's genius"), and flat-out worst game to Activision Value's Gods And Generals ("looks and sounds absolutely horrendous.")
How about that dud Matrix game? (Score:5, Insightful)
My pick: overly gratuitous games (Score:4, Insightful)
The worst one this year was Manhunt by far, but it's not alone. As it stands, the gaming industry is still not looked positively upon by most people. Games like Manhunt aren't helping the industry at all.
Same thing goes for games like DOA Volleyball and BMX XXX - the sexual content adds nothing to the game, and only hurts the industry.
If we ever want to get to a point where we don't hear constant stories about how gaming influences murderers or makes people violent, reclusive, horny old men, these games will have to stop coming out...or possibly become so mainstream that no one blinks at DOA Extreme Nude Hockey
*shudders at the thought*
My $.02
Video Game Reviewers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I the only guy that finds it funny that ... (Score:5, Insightful)
These games suck, now go buy them
Re:Am I the only guy that finds it funny that ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How about that dud Matrix game? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Video Game Reviewers... (Score:5, Insightful)
No. GTA is fun if you play it for what it is (a virtual violence sandbox), and that game was a critical success. Postal 2 is liquid shit in a box.
Remember, kiddies: "Dark humor" requires both the "dark" AND the "humor" to work; simply peeing on dead people is not immediately amusing in and of itself.
Re:Video Game Reviewers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Consider that GTA3 and Vice City continue to be lauded as ass-kickingly good games. If the reviewers are going all snobbish on us, why didn't they denounce GTA as some half-baked game that gets old once you've finished picking up hookers for extra life and shooting transients in the head with a sniper rifle?
Re:Video Game Reviewers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed, the zones are annoying.
Take away the peeing and exploding anthrax cow-heads and you have a boring, repetative game that takes forever to load.
That is like saying "Take the guns out of quake and you have aboring repetative game
Plus, you didn't mention taking out the anal raping of cats with shotguns, the priests with guns, making women vomit and pee themselves by shocking them with a tazer, the insane amount of politically incorrect humor in the game, etc etc.
I grant you, this isn't Final Fantasy, Quake, KoTR, Madden 2003, etc. It isn't innovative in anyway, it's just funny, and fun to play.
There are plenty of movies that appeal to nothing other than crude humor, and that is their selling point. Why is this an invalid selling point for a game?
Xenosaga might take itself too seriously, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
http://gamerankings.com/itemrankings/itemcommen
-lw
I don't agree (Score:2, Insightful)
If you do not like games with such content, do not play them. I would count an act of game censorship as the #1 "worst game mistake".
Re:Am I the only guy that finds it funny that ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:A game that takes itself far too seriously (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A game that takes itself far too seriously (Score:4, Insightful)
Excuse me while I go shoot myself.
Re:A game that takes itself far too seriously (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Worst Gaming Decision (Score:2, Insightful)
Now, getting back to the "N-Gage" issue. While I totally agree that Nokia's marketing department should get a lifetime achievement award for fucking up, the product itself is actually pretty decent and has become the cheapest way to own a Series 60 mobile phone -- with a library of hundreds if not thousands of compatible applications. It's also become the mobile emulation platform with emulators for; Gameboy/GBC, ZX Spectrum, MAME, C64, MSX and NES.
Re:yeah. right... (Score:5, Insightful)
Typical sell-out media (Score:4, Insightful)
As another poster pointed out, what's the deal with a "Check prices" link on every game, even the ones that are supposedly terrible? The answer is that GameSpot is probably obligated to provide those links because of deals they have with publishers or game retailers. Not only does that particular category reveal them for the captialists that they really are (i.e. not independent press), but then they actually have a category called "Most Disappointing Delay" populated with games that are not out now and (in the case of Half-life 2, at least) may not be out for several months yet.
Frankly, I think they could have listed themselves among the category "Most Despicable Product Placement".
Glad to see (Score:3, Insightful)
I was equally happy to see Galactic Civilizations make Finalist for "Best Strategy Game." It's a wonderful space strategy game, made even more sweet after dealing with Master of Orion 3 (despite GalCiv being more Civ like than MoO like.) I kind of wonder why it's free expansion pack didn't get nominated for an award though. How can a free expansion to one of the best games of the year not make the "Best Expansion Pack" list?
Re:yeah. right... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:My pick: overly gratuitous games (Score:2, Insightful)
Who's to determine what's too far? Any other entertainment industry that has ever tried to censor itself or that has been censored has turned their product into crap until the artists began rejecting the censorship.
The worst one this year was Manhunt by far, but it's not alone. As it stands, the gaming industry is still not looked positively upon by most people. Games like Manhunt aren't helping the industry at all.
Some people will never look at the industry in a positive light. In terms of sheer numbers, for every Manhunt there are how many E-T rated games? Have you even played Manhunt? (it's getting to the point where I might have to buy this damned game just to figure out why so many people are bitching about it, especially when most of them don't seem to have played it).
Same thing goes for games like DOA Volleyball and BMX XXX - the sexual content adds nothing to the game, and only hurts the industry.
Interestingly enough, on one hand, DOA XVB, you have a game that actually sold moderately well. On the other hand, BMX XXX, you have a game that didn't sell well at all. I wonder why that may be. Oh yeah, because one appealed to a particular audience and the other, well, didn't. The same people that call out game developers for DOA are the ones that should be abstaining from all David Hasslehoff material because of Baywatch. We certainly know that no actresses were hired for that show due to their ability to act.
If we ever want to get to a point where we don't hear constant stories about how gaming influences murderers or makes people violent, reclusive, horny old men, these games will have to stop coming out...or possibly become so mainstream that no one blinks at DOA Extreme Nude Hockey
You can see much worse in other media. You will always hear the stories, and if you really wanted to stop them short all you'd have to do is create some new media that kids and teenagers enjoy. The real backlash will continue until the current 18-25 group is in control of the country. Even then you'll see some of it, and it will probably continue for at least another generation. In the meantime, there aren't many people protesting showings of the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so I'm not too worried about the future of video games unless gamers themselves start to actually swallow the anti-game crap and spew it themselves. Self-censorship has proven itself to often be worse than (U.S.) government actions, primarily because government has to be careful to not run the Constitution through the shredder while they're at it.
Re:Xenosaga might take itself too seriously, but.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm less of an "otaku" and more of a "gaijin", though *you'd* probably call me "wapanese" - which would likely be followed up by several other deragatory comments about things I appreciate.
You're entitled to your opinion, but try not to be such a flaming asshole as you go about spreading your ill-cheer.
-lw