A Year of Disappointing Games
As some of you may know, I've been using this forum as a substitute for my being 'banned' from the [url]www.teamxbox.com[/url] forums. So I figured I might as well post something I would have preferred the eyes of TXB to have seen. I'm focusing specifically on Xbox here. I just wanted to say that while many are calling this one of the greatest years for Xbox gaming, I call it one of the most disappointing. All the games I list have fallen quite short of my expectations, some a lot, other just a bit.
Halo 2: Minor disappointment
Explanation: After loving and playing the hell out of the first one, through single player to co-op to 16 player lans my hopes were really high for Halo 2 to really top the first. Well, after the initial "I GOT HALO TWOOOOO!" I soon realized, that I had more fun waiting for the game than I actually did playing it. I started the single player on Legendary and have yet to even beat it. I played the on LIVE for a good 2 weeks almost every night and just grew bored of it. I mean now that my friends have gotten LIVE for Christmas I might go back on, but I can't help but miss Hang'em High and Chiron.
Fable: HUGE disappointment
Explanation: This game was supposed to revolutionize the RPG genre, and be the Xbox's solution to it's RPG shortage. After numerous delays that had the developers not adding, but taking away from the game, I finally set down almost 50 bucks (I get a discount) on this game only to find that I had spent twice as much as I spent playing the game...a weak 20 hours, and I wasn't even trying to rush through. The good/evil options that were supposed to be included to every quest were stripped down to mostly good options, leaving those who wanted to truly go evil to simply go massacre villages. Unlike Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic where you have good evil and indifferent solutions to every problem. Not to mention it was obvious there were shadows of elements that were once there when certain quests say you can do this or that then don't let you anyway. I'm still waiting for Project Ego.
Burnout 3: Big disappointment
Explanation: I had that intial "WOW" that I think every reviewer had out there who all ended up giving it 9's and 10's. But after some extended game time I realized how mediocre a racer it was outside of it's spectacular graphics. If you play many racing games you've probably heard of the term "rubberband AI" which refers to the opponent car's ability to miraculously end up either on your tail or pull up in front of you after going through a horrible crash. Basically, to make the game more 'challenging' they make it so that the AI is always right on your ass no matter how fast, or in some cases, how slow you go. Well besides it's repetitive assortment of cars many having duplicates with a different paint job, it's single player races were just as repetitive. No matter how fast you went, how many obstacles you dodged, or how many times you just took down that asshole white car, he'd always be right there behind you not trying to pass you, but just trying to throw you off the road, even if you try to take a more pacifisitic approach. Burnout 2 was a blast, but I guess I should have expected mediocrity as soon as EA took over...
Ghost Recon 2: Minor Disappointment
Explanation: I loved loved loved the first Ghost Recon's and of course with any sequel, I expect all the good stuff to be there plus some, minus the bad stuff of course. Well, I don't know what Red Storm was thinking, they seemed to take out a lot of what was good, and improved a lot of what was bad, which basically resulted of almost the same game. They took out the blood, but they added ragdoll physics. They tried to create a more intuitive command menu by using R63's point and press type menu system, and removing the old map checkpoint system...which actually works very un-well. We do now have to option to pick up the enemies' weapons which is cool. And we can now use the OICW, which is an ultra cool gun, but gone now are the silenced weapons with the exception of the pistols. Boooo. The graphics have been improved greatly! But the AI has actually become worse..."Yo, buddy, if you wanna take down that chink over there who uh, took out our other two squad mates, that'd be great..." I think you guys get the idea.
I know every game has it's pros and cons, but when you build up the hype, you gotta deliver to that hype. This is especially important to the hardcore gaming community, casual gamers tend to be less critical of things like this. So for me, this year has a been a year of great hype and great disappointment...I'm lookin' hopin' next year will be different.
