10.) Tribes Ascend
Although this game isn't particularly bad, it takes all the simplicity of earlier games and throws it out the window to make room for shameless moneymakers such as downloadable weapons and power-ups. My best friend and I used to play Tribes: Aerial Assault on the Playstation 2 all the time and that game was fantastic. It was pretty far ahead of its time involving conquest game modes and vehicles in its multiplayer, which was only just popping up on console games such as Halo.
Tribes Ascend however follows the typical formula for free-to-plays that no one likes, meaning, this game is no fun unless you dish your cash out. Also, the game's graphics aren't very good and the frame rate gets pretty low at times. Certainly what was once a competitor to the Halo series is now just another game in the trash heap.
9.) NHL '06
I think this game was the first game that I had realized just how horrendous Electronic Arts was becoming. EA had some lackluster games before but this game isn't even finished. There are menu items in the season mode that don't work, the graphics look like a downgrade from previous NHL games, and the puck shooting controls are overly complicated involving a huge learning curve to be only a decent shot. Seriously, no one asked to be able to aim your shot at particular spots in the net with the RIGHT ANALOG STICK! This is incredibly hard to just pick up and play. Boy do I miss the days of being able to just pick up a sports game and being able to have fun with it right away...
8.) SOCOM Confrontation
Words can't really describe how bad this game is. Even if you weren't a SOCOM fan in the past, you will feel dirty knowing that you spent hard earned money on this game. I spent three dollars on this crap and seriously feel ripped off. It's just one of those games that leaves you scratching your head thinking, "What the hell happened?"
First of all, this game has no single player despite all the earlier games in the series having a single player campaign. This wouldn't be so bad if it made up for it with good multiplayer gameplay. However, this game has not only the worst gameplay in the SOCOM series, it has some of the worst multiplayer gameplay out of any game that I have ever played. Only games like APB top this game for worst multiplayer prize. The levels are bland and the character customization is minimal and uninspired. Worst, the game is rampant with hackers. I kid you not, the first match I ever entered in this game resulted in me getting spawn killed by someone using an invisibility hack.
If you like games that are rushed, cheap, and not fun, this game is perfect.
7.) Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly
As soon as the Spyro franchise made the upgrade to the Playstation 2, that is when the games ceased to be good. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is truly a disappointment because the games before it had been pretty good games. Although I wasn't a particular fan of the second or third Spyro games, those games are still way better than this sorry excuse for a Spyro game. Anyone who has played this game will only remember one thing: loading screens. There's a million of them. It wouldn't even be so bad if the loading times were short but they run at least a minute at a time. It drives you nuts! On top of that, the game has sub-par graphics and controls that are clunky as hell. There's no reason to pick this one up.
6.) Shellshock 2
Most of you probably haven't played the predecessor to this game Shellshock '67. There's also a game for the first Playstation called Shellshock but I believe that game is completely unrelated to this series. Although Shellshock '67 received mixed reviews, I thoroughly enjoyed the game as it played relatively well, had a good amount of difficulty, and broke the mold of the Call of Duty style shooter that had run rampant in the '00s. Basically, I had a lot of fun playing this Vietnam War over-the-shoulder shooter.
Shellshock 2, however, sent all of the charm of the last game out to pasture for a game that plays like a bad movie. The first thing that will get you good and pissed off is that you'll realize that the whole genre of the game has been changed. Instead of an over-the-shoulder shooter, Shellshock 2 is a first person shooter, just like all of the other shooters at the time. In fact, it plays much worse than any of the other first person shooters in the mainstream gaming market so seeing this series get a first person makeover is truly a downgrade.
The only commonality with the previous installment is that they take place during the Vietnam War. The story in this game is completely goofy and a lot worse than it thinks it is. Instead of being a game about the horrors of the Vietnam War, this game decided that what would be more interesting would be to have some kind of infection or something that turns people into zombies. So instead of a war shooter, you mostly have a zombie shooter where you might have to shoot Vietcong sometimes. This premise, as stupid as it sounds, never implements both enemies at the same time. Either the enemies you encounter are Vietcong or zombies, depending on the level. It's like the game can't figure out whether it wants to be a war game or a horror game and truly fails at both.
So the game isn't scary and it isn't a fun shooter. So what is this supposed to be?
5.) Star Ocean: The Last Hope
I'm a pretty big fan of the series of RPGs under the Star Ocean name. I never played the first one but I've played the second and third installments and thoroughly enjoyed both. The third installment, Star Ocean: 'Till the End of Time I really enjoyed and played through its 70-80 hours of gameplay multiple times. Sure, it has it's fair share of flaws, but the things that it gets right, it really gets right. The item crafting is incredibly interesting as the items you create are somewhat randomized. The side quests are interesting, the characters (though occasionally annoying) are interesting, the story is really interesting implementing a few very clever plot twists and bringing rarely thought of ideas into the science fiction genre. The combat was more repetitive than it should have been but still fun and would keep you on the edge of your seat in difficult boss battles.
Star Ocean: The Last Hope takes all of the problems of the third game and not only doesn't fix or improve upon them but amplifies them. The worst part of this game is that it will freeze up all the time. Now, I'm not sure about the Xbox 360 version but, the International Editon for the Playstation 3 freezes up nearly as much as Fallout 3 on the same console (though Fallout 3 is a way better game). The previous game had it's fair share of freezing problems but this game takes it to a whole new level. It's frustrating to a point where you will find yourself avoiding combat not because you are afraid of being unable to defeat the enemies but because you are afraid that the game will freeze up before you can get to the next save point.
On top of that, the characters are just atrocious. I can't really begin to describe how terrible the personalities are in this game. It's like everyone is an extreme stereotype. The protagonist, believe it or not, is even more whiny than Fayt from the previous game. He seriously spends about a third of the game moping around about something that happened earlier. Hard to get behind a protagonist like that. The main love interest seems like she should be back home making a sandwich or something. She has no character and no interesting traits. There's also a weird alien chick with giant boobs (and the depth of her character stops there). I will admit that there is one guy that's pretty badass. He doesn't join your party though until the game is just about over. I can't even remember what his name is so, so much for that.
The most disappointing part of this game is the story. It's not even particularly bad. It's just really boring, which, for this series, is unacceptable especially for how good the story was in the last game. It's like taking a large two steps back with this game. I don't recommend this to anyone.
4.) The Call of Duty Series
Yeah, I know, join the club of CoD haters. It's easy to hate on these games but I'll be the first to admit that they aren't that bad. They're generic and almost exactly the same as one another but from a technical standpoint, they aren't that bad. It's like one of those series where you really only want to spend money on one game and then take a pass on the rest because it's a waste of time and money to play more than one.
However, I felt that the rest of this series never really recaptured the charm that the first two games had. By that, I mean, Call of Duty and Call of Duty: Finest Hour. I never played the first game but I've heard it more or less plays like Call of Duty: Finest Hour.
I really liked Call of Duty: Finest Hour because this game was the first to really give you a sense of what it would be like to be a soldier in WWII. It puts you in the boots of various soldiers in the European Theater including a Russian infantry soldier, sniper, and tank commander, a British soldier, and American infantry and tank commander. The stories were basic but very well told.
The other Call of Duty games I played didn't really hit the nail as well as the first two did. They're still known for decent campaigns but they're often too involved and corny to really be effective. The original ones were effective in their simplicity.
3.) Ghost Recon 2
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| Where did the stealth go? |
The first two Ghost Recon games, Ghost Recon and Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm were truly ground breaking in their respective genre. For those of you unfamiliar, Ghost Recon is a squad-based, tactical first person shooter that focuses more on using your squad effectively to complete objectives rather than running and gunning. In fact, in this game, if you try running and gunning and get shot in the leg, you will be limping and gunning instead.
A vital reason that these games worked so well is that the AI teammates are some of the most competent I've seen in any game. If you send your secondary squad to clear an area but they anticipate an ambush, they will stop and wait for you to either clear the area yourself or to receive further orders. In most games, you would probably expect your teammates to just waltz right into the trap and get killed but these games overcome that hurdle. If your teammates get killed, it's probably because you're the one who got them killed, not crappy AI.
The most important element in this game is the element of surprise. It doesn't really play like the Splinter Cell games but it's still important to keep hidden. You will really want to think twice before deciding to use that grenade launcher.
Ghost Recon 2 takes everything good about the original two games and ruins it. In Ghost Recon 2, it's full on frontal assault all the time. Leave your silencers at home because, who needs them? Also, screw the team based tactics. Now you only get three other guys if you're lucky. I say that because a lot of the levels are solo efforts which still aren't stealth oriented as many of them require using unstealthy techniques like airstrikes or RPGs. The loading times are also incredibly long, much longer than the already somewhat long load times in previous games. The controls are also sluggish; you will never want to walk diagonally, ever.
Ghost Recon 2 isn't the worst game but it definitely isn't good. The worst part is that it completely abandons the unique gameplay in the other games. Truly a disappointment.
2.) Tony Hawk's Project 8
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| Even the cover is bland. |
Tony Hawk's Project 8 takes three steps back in just about every way possible. There is a significant downgrade from the quality of the textures and animations from Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. The story arc is next to nil. The characters: what characters? The levels are uninspired and unmemorable (coming from a series that is known for innovative and flat-out creative level design).
The worst part of this game isn't even all of that; it's the controls. For those of you that complained about the controls in the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, you guys should check this out instead because this game makes the controls from that game look like smooth skating. Everything in this game feels delayed. Sometimes, the responsiveness is, well, completely unresponsive. Previous games required precise timing to pull of certain tricks and goals correctly. This game also requires that but the controls won't let you do what you need to do. I spent two hours trying to manual from one set of cones to another not because I suck but because from the time I would perform the button combo to manual to the time that the skater would actually start manualling would be about a full second and a half. So, the game would never register that I actually was manualling through the cones. What shit is that?
I can applaud the innovation involved in coming up with that flip trick mode thing or whatever it's called (the game goes into slow motion while you're in the air and you can control your left and right foot using the left and right stick to do customizable flip tricks) but the rest of this game truly sucks to no end.
If you're trying to get information out of someone and electrocuting their nipples isn't working, force them to play this game instead.
If that wasn't enough of a rant for you, you can read more about Tony Hawk's Project 8 here.
1.) Medal of Honor: European Assault
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| Why would dog tags have pictures of soldiers on them? |
Medal of Honor: European Assault takes everything that was fun about previous games and turns it into Call of Duty. Now you're carrying around medkits, can only carry two weapons at a time, have to deal with moronic AI teammates, uninspired level design, boring gameplay, and terrible multiplayer.
This one is my number one because this is the one that makes me want to vomit every time I see it. It leaves me in a state of utter loss at why any of these decisions were made. Medal of Honor was known for having a style similar to that of a WWII action movie but this, I don't know what this wants to be. It feels more like it wants to be Call of Duty: European Assault but it would be even insulting to compare this to Call of Duty. I'm just truly at a loss with this game.
It's like you had to play every Medal of Honor game before this one to truly understand why this game shouldn't have the Medal of Honor brand on it. And of course, now, we all know that this one isn't even the worst one. The Medal of Honor series got much worse than this.
But this was the point where it was all downhill. Truly a despicable display...
Close Considerations:
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes:
Being the MGS fan that I am, you all are probably surprised I never played this game. However, it shouldn't really be with any surprise at all that I didn't play it after hearing about how short it was. I mean, WHAT!? You're gonna charge thirty-nine ninety-nine for a game that people have the capability of speed-running through in seven minutes without exploiting glitches? I won't do it. I won't buy this game. For the short amount of time it is, I've heard it's really good but they need to give a longer experience than this if they want my money.
Ghost Recon 2 Image: http://199.101.98.242/media/shots/154698-Tom_Clancy's_Ghost_Recon_2_(Europe)_(En,Fr,De,Es,It)-2.jpg
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Tony Hawk's Project 8 Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Tony_Hawk's_Project_8_cover.jpg
Medal of Honor European Assault Image: http://www.emuparadise.me/fup/up/153784-Medal_of_Honor_-_European_Assault_(Spain)-1.jpg
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