Games that just failed

[Wildwill002]

I've been off school sick since monday so i've had lots of time to play all my games. Some of course dont excite me quite like they used to (like viva pinata) but others just fail completely

I want to use this thread as a sort of list of games that absolutly fail. And this is not just failed because 'I dont like CoD' it's because the gameplay is rubbish and completely un-immersive etc.

Up to now the only one i can really think of is a bad game called Maelstrom. I got it for £1.44 and I now think thats too much

[aflycon]

The entire Call of Duty franchise.

Because it's bad.

[Lord_Mountbatten]

Troll harder.

As someone who generally likes all games unless they're truly awful, I can say that I've enjoyed all CoD games, though ones I've found less exciting have been CoD 2 (much better on Veteran though) and the American campaign of WaW.

A game that just fails though? Dark Sector. It's an incredibly bland, mediocre game. It's so bad it even managed to make decapitations unexciting. How the hell does anything manage to do that? Well this game somehow succeeds.

[XDelphi]

For what it's worth, the Call of Duty series campaign-wise is very enjoyable.

Dark void fell through for me. It was £10, for Xbox 360, and has some greatly innvitave gameplay ideas. Unfortunately, it's story is the absolute worst I have ever encountered.
So, it's a damn good thing I play games based on gameplay, not story. Because of that, I still have a blast playnig it.

[vallorn]

Resident Evil 5 is mine.
the gameplay was a bit stale by the end of Resi' four. the coop partner is annoying and usless to the point of being a liability. the story is a million shards of WTF! rolled into a disk shape the majority of the enemies are either copypasted from 4 or reskinned versions.

the only redeeming part of it is the Mercenaries...

[SachielOne]

Duke Nukem Forever. There was no way it could live up to the expectations people had for it, but I didn't expect it to miss the mark so badly.

[Milo_Windby]

Resident Evil 5 is mine.
the gameplay was a bit stale by the end of Resi' four. the coop partner is annoying and usless to the point of being a liability. the story is a million shards of WTF! rolled into a disk shape the majority of the enemies are either copypasted from 4 or reskinned versions.

the only redeeming part of it is the Mercenaries...

Me and my boyfriend played RE5 Co-op and we both enjoyed it. Had no problems with the partnership or anything.
Did you try playing with a bot?

[Aenir_bEPU]

Universe at War: Earth Assault. I got it for free, and I want my time back. And I want it out of my Steam games list.

[andy25100]

Universe at War: Earth Assault. I got it for free, and I want my time back. And I want it out of my Steam games list.

Wow, that bad.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

FarCry 2 was a complete failure to me. One of my favorite games of all time is FarCry: Instincts, but FC2 was nothing like it. None of the same characters, no mutants, no awesome powers like slapping a guy so hard he flies of a cliff, nothing.

Instead we have a boring, repetitive, and annoying open-world FPS where half of the gameplay is just driving from location to location, with the occasional guard station to take out. That, and the stealth mechanics were WORSE than the ones the had in Instincts. I mean, how do you make a "spiritual successor" to a game from 2005, and make the sneaking worse? And who thought that malaria mechanic was a good idea? All that did was force you to take a break from the little action there was so you could go grab some pills...

I really do hope FC3 will go back to the same type of story as the older games, because those were awesome. That and I want to fire a SMG at people while controlling a hang-glider again.

[OptimusHagrid]

Lagoon on the SNES, while probably not THE worst game in the history of games, is easily my least favourite ever made. It's just packed with horrible flaws that prevent ALL DAMN ENJOYMENT HURRRRRRR

Where to start:

1.) The music. There are a lot of rock-centred themes in this game, and for a lot of the part, they sound great. A few pretty songs as well. BUT, in any area where you are going to spend an amount of time over five minutes, some of the most bland and repetitive VGM I've ever heard is played on a constant loop, for nearly an hour at a time. This is mainly problematic considering the second point:

2.) The level design. The graphics are great in this game, though there aren't a lot of Mode-7/other fancy SNES effects in this game, so it's pretty clear it's a port. So generally things are nice to look at.

But that don't mean squat when you're looking at the same thing over and over and over again. There are literally no unique landmarks in any field or dungeon, just the same statue, the same rock, the same crest, the same candle. Navigating around the ENORMOUS dungeons can take a bloody awful amount of time. And all that while, the artificial bass plucks in the music are boring a hole through your head. It's just literally no fun.

Oh yeah, and there's no map.

3.) Scrolling. Rather than the screen being centred on you the whole time, like when navigating large areas in Link to the Past, the screen only scrolls when you are really close to the edge of it. So, when walking, most of the time you can barely see a metre in front of you. This makes navigation even harder, and also means you'll often run right into the randomly spawning enemies.

4.) Menus. They're cack and take several years to fade in and out. Definitely interrupts the pace of combat when you need to switch to an item.

5.) Health and MP slowly replenish when you stand still.

Because standing still is a lot of fun, and it's not like this game has wasted enough of your time with its confusing and expansive levels.

6.) Oh god the combat. ThE godoDAMN SWoprd has a range of about three pixels. The only way to reliably kill enemies without taking damage is to stand still, wait until the enemy walks into extreme range of you, then hit him. God forbid you do something out of line, because then you'll take damage. This is by far the single most frustrating combat system I've ever seen in a game.

Later on you get a staff. It shoot fireballs which split off into three which travel at perfect, useless geometric angles. This means you can walk up to an enemy, spam a load of fireballs into its face, then you get to stand still and wait for your MP to restore. Joy. There are probably other spells but I couldn't be bothered to play further and get them.

7.) Sound effects. I think there are about four sound effects in the game. Let me think:

- Door opening
- Menu/talking beep
- 8 bit 'pew' when you cast a fireball
- "Ding!"

That's it. There'll be some I've missed, but for the most part, nothing makes any sound. The enemies don't make sound. There is no atmospheric sound. You'll only be hearing the music for the most part. It creates a... void of atmosphere. Like when you're in a soundproof room, and you feel that crushingly hollow sensation in your ears. It's like that but with atmosphere. It's just not there. The repetitive graphics don't help matters either.

Oh wait, there is a sound effect to hear. It's called "Ding!"

"Ding!" is the sound the emanates from your speakers when you strike an enemy with your sword.

Now this is the part of the post that transfers from discussing 'flaws', ie, 'ill-informed game design decisions that impair the game', to 'design decisions I just plain hate' (and the reason why I class the music (which is often an area of personal preference) as flawed is because of the use of about three incessant horrible samples, and because it is flawed).

I hate "Ding!". "Ding!" combines with the music to deepen that hole being bored into my brain. "Ding!" makes me mad to the point where I cry a little bit, because there is no way in hell "Ding!" is synonymous with the sound of a metal bladed hitting flesh, and it's damn proud of it, otherwise every five seconds of the game would not be accompanied by "Ding!".

TL:DR

Spoiler! :

Lagoon sucks.

[Sti_Jo_Lew]

You just out-ranted me. Congratulations!