The most disappointing games of 2011

PCA: "Here are our 11 biggest disappointments of 2011. These are the games that should have been classics, but in the end they failed to deliver."

[CustardTrout]

Ha, awesome. It's nice someone actually agrees with me.
Love the last one too, forgot about that game...

[Laxman]

I had a game of You Dare with some friends and it ended JUST like the trailer... too bad there were no girls present.

[showtimefolks]

you know i played most of the big games besides skyrim because i am not a fan of elder scrolls series though i respect the fact its one of the best series this gen.

I had a horrible time with batman 2 and i loved the 1st batman. Its so frustrating to know i liked the 1st but hated the sequel even though the sequel improved upon everything. I thought boss battles were under whelming and towards the 2nd half of the game it was really frustrating to just find out where you suppose to go. In batman 3 they need to have a much better way point system.

But more than batman Rage was a bigger disappointment, ID i know y'all have done a lot of FPS but for the love of your fanbase please hire some people who actually know how to do a story. I don't mind a game running at locked 30FPS as long as all the textures isn't popping up every minute. Also maybe next time have a IN GAME MAP.

I had a blast with saints row 3 but SR series could be a lot more than just craziness all the time. SR series has the potential but TGQ has to realize that and make the next game better. Keep the craziness but also have a more polished product and a better story

[snipes101]

I agree, Rage was an extremely dry, characterless experience. It was just a show girl for their tech.

As for Batman, I, too enjoyed the first one more. The world was just more charming and felt less convoluted. Arkham City almost feels too big.

[Perjoss]

*Hands first prize to Brink*

[SSKILLZ]

Definetly, that game was extream garbage

[grumpysmurf]

I was getting ready to Hulk out about Arkham City, but they're talking exclusively about the PC game. Still a bit of a stretch I reckon.

[BrianC6234]

They should have put (PC) next to the name so everyone would see that right away. I think they just wanted everyone to blow a gasket.

[Commander_TK]

Well it is a f***ing PC site.

[HardCover]

Serves them right for not reading the article.

[wallis]

I think what was a real kick in the nads for AC PC players was the delay. I don't mind a game getting a delay on the PC because half the time the community just bitches about how it's just a lazy port, but it was the fact we had to wait an extra month and for what? So they can weigh it down with DRM.

I had an argument with a tech support guy that ended in me fixing most of my issues by cracking my game. I've never felt so angry at a game in my life. Firstly the sound is broken, it crashes 1 out of 2 launches, the securom complains about the DVD when I bought the damn steam version, games for windows live is a system hogging pain that's made painfully redundant by steam, and the whole DLC thing is a bit insulting when I've bought it day 1.

It just feels completely irritating. Imagine buying a game for your xbox and the main menu says "Press *triangle* to start". That's what arkham city feels like. It's a great game but I've never had to fight a piece of software so hard in my life. A month's delay to make it work would have been one thing, but a month's delay to beat me to death with DRM is just insulting.

[STONEY4]

I've had about 5 Securom-caused crashes so far. It's annoying. DX11 was broken, don't know if it was patched yet. And apparently people were able to buy the game in stores before the last delay was announced. So it was a total BS delay.

Well, at least the game looks and runs well. In fact, it's one of the best looking UE3 games. The problem isn't the port or the game though, it's the treatment we were given and the DRM.

[Kurylo3d]

The batman arkyum city is awesome on the pc. Way more detailed textures, effects, and resolution... even if your using dx9... I have an old gpu and i ran arkyum city maxed out high resolution in dx 9 with physx set to low... which is already atop the console version besides the graphics.. consoles dont have physx. The only I was disappointed with was the ending lol. But other then that one of the best games ever made.

[DonaldBeck]

batman ak, it was the worst i had played in 2011.

[cyborg6971]

Winning. Goty that is. Go AC.

[omi25p]

Clearly you havent played any other game this year then.

Because if i had only played BM AC this year it would also be my worst and best game of the year.

[slayorofgods]

No, Dragon Age 2 by far is the biggest disappointment.

Bioware was poised to be crowned the greatest rpg maker this generation with the release of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. But Dragon Age 2 was such a disappointment it even made Mass Effect 2 (a fine sequel) look worse. It's too bad because Dragon Age was such a great game, but now we really have to question Bioware's new direction (now under EA)and that is because of Dragon Age 2.

[Drake117]

I thought Rage was a far bigger disappointment. That game was hyped for like 4 years and turned out to have average gameplay, terrible story, and the worst texture pop-in i think i have ever seen.

[Bob570]

I don't know, Crysis 2 is pretty bad.

[BiggCMan]

Dead Island is a great game, a very underrated title, and my vote for sleeper hit of the year. Sure it's not what everyone thought it would be with that original trailer, but so what. It's a great game with awesome game elements.

[JellyJelly]

I love it. After the recent patch it's even better. Everyone ought to give it a try.

[MysticStrummer]

Everyone who has a medical condition that forces them to play bad games to keep their head from exploding should try it.

[mafiahajeri]

Sleeper hit? Wasnt there alot of hypesurrounding it? My understanding of a sleeper hit is when a game is
low on hype and thenPOW!! The game comes out of no where.

Mine would be warhammer space marines now that was a sleeper there was no hype around it and the game delivered on all levels with great SP and great MP and also CO-OP.

[antz1104]

I love DI, and I completely disagree with Batman AC.
But.....

Brink is the worst game ever, lol, so I guess it evens out.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I liked the idea of Dead Island, and I'm really over the zombie love to begin with, but the execution with the game is where is dropped the ball. The game is filled with questionable design decisions, and much of it starts to drag on after a while. And that's not even touching all the technical issues. People talk all the time about games being rushed to meet the ship deadline. Well they were talking about this game. I had fun with it, but it really isn't that memorable. And it had a boatload of hype. It can't be a sleeper hit.

[IcarusOne]

Loved rewatching that trailer. Jesus. Still brings tears to my eyes.

[meetajhu]

For people who don't want to click the link. He blames all games that didn't run well on ATI/AMD systems and he has also missed many games like Dead Space 2,Bulletstorm etc.

Basically the article is written by AMD user. I feel sorry for him buying a AMD product.

[3GenGames]

As opposed to what? A Intel product? Hah! Although if you mean an ATI card I kinda agree, but everything else AMD dominates in.

[bozebo]

He only complains about with Rage sucking with AMD, I'm sure people had no issues waiting for that.... "game" to be patched.

But it worked fine day 1 for my flatmate on his new PC I built him recently: i7 2600k OC ~4.5GHz| 2x AMD 6950HD xFired (Rage only used one anyway)| 8GB decent RAM

Arkham City can have big problems with nVidia/Intel too. It's the software that is flawed. Not sure how though because they are using the Unreal engine lol, so most of the difficult technical stuff is done for them.

[HardCover]

Lol not even close to what the article says. He mentions AMD once and Nvidia once, and never specifies whether it was a personal issue or simply a general issue (but he implies it's general, pretty clearly).

[Blaine]

"Most of the RPG elements that made Dragon Age: Origins great were stripped out in favour of linear console-friendly action."

What an ignorant thing to say. Just because an RPG is on consoles doesn't mean it needs to be any liter than a PC one. All it is, is a developer's decision to make their game more accessible to try and capture a broader audience.

[bozebo]

Normally, yeh.
But have you played many Bioware games?

[Captain Qwark 9]

this^^^^^^ is 100% correct. i was thinking the exact thing. i have played many console rpgs just as deep as PC rpgs, the only difference is a mouse and keybaord, the navigation through menus doesnt make a game deep.

DA2 is a flippin turd. its a terrible game simply becuase the devs chose to take the winning formula for one of the best games ever ( and many of their rpgs for that matter, console ones too ) and toss it out the window only to create a mediocre action game. the platform is absolutely irrelevant.

[Nightshade386]

The combat in Dragon Age: Origins simply doesn't work on the console. By comparison, the combat in Dragon Age II, while perfect for the consoles, leaves a lot to be desired on the PC since Origins was a perfect fit for the PC. If Bioware really wants to capture both audiences, they need to develop the two platforms differently, leaving ths action combat in the console version, and the tactical point & click combat in the PC version.

[Captain Qwark 9]

@nightshade386...

i played dragon age just fine on my 360, twice in fact. it works just fine, is it as easy to accomplish some of the task as you could on pc? no but it doesnt mean it cant be done or doesnt work, just means it take more time to get used to but once you are it works just fine. and for thos eof us who have played all of biowares console games, we were quite used to how da2 played, it wasnt a drastic departure from knights or jade empire so i for one felt right at home.

the only real advantage PC players had was being able to manipulate the zoom distance, other than that its just simply a different way to control. not better or worse thats an opinion, i would take a controller over a keyboard and mouse anyday for anygame, any genre, except rts. halo wars worked, but that genre is def more at home on PC, not biowares games, they can go either way

[Drake117]

yeah what lol DA Origins was fine on my 360 wth

[aquamala]

Dragon Age Origins is meant to play on a PC, sure you can play on a console but you have to go thru many menu screens to do what you want to do. Dragon Age 2 is simplified for console players.

[3GenGames]

You're missing Call of Duty 4: 3rd Tour of Duty with new killstreaks....I mean MW3.

[Nunchez]

I definitely agree with RAGE after so much of hype I expected a lot more from it.

[bozebo]

"girl-on-girl spanking did not ensue"
! False advertising :O

[Nerdmaster]

It's interesting to see how Bethesda gets better on each RPG they make, while BioWare only gets worse.

[rataranian]

Pc, pc this, pc that, ...wtf cares about pc gaming? All pc games are either shooters or mmorpgs.

[Zashule]

I disagree. Go install steam on your computer, look through the games and then come back and tell me that there are only shooters and MMOs on PC.
www.steampowered.com

[rataranian]

Is that so? So if I looked right now what would be the top 10 steam games theres no way I would see COD, Counter Strike, CS: S, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3, Left 4 Dead? gtfo here. That screams shooter all over the place.

[Zashule]

@rataranian
1- Skyrim
2- Assassin's Creed Revelations
3- MW3
4- Brink Complete
5- Anno 2070
6- Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
7- Saints Row 3
8- Terraria
9- Batman Arkham City
10- Dungeon Siege III

[eddvdm]

You forgot to whine about the Real-Time and Turn-Based Strategy, oh and Simulations.

These ones which are, sometimes, state of the art in gaming and turn out to be the most disgraceful pieces of software when greedy publishers and devs try to port them to consoles. (C&C's, Warcrafts, Civ's, etc).

If pc gaming to you means 'shooters or mmorpgs' you really should keep with consoles, no offense.

[hadriker]

It could have something to do with the fact this is a PC-centric site. I could be wrong though

[girlwithturn]

Batman AC has awful design (sometimes I think that I playing Saw). Unintuitive button mashing combat system and boring bring-bring gameplay. Today games likes Batman is outdated and its scores likes a clay colossus.

[FunkMcnasty]

When your fighting relentless hordes of enemies in hand-to-hand combat, in a videogame, what's more intuitive than mashing buttons??

To say that Arkham City is "outdated" also says the same for Uncharted, Assasin's Creed, Gears of war, and other 3rd person action games. They're all accomplishing the same gameplay mechanics and haven't changed much since the beginning of this generation. I don't see how a game like Arkham City is "outdated." It may not innovate much in the genre, but I don't think that the gameplay, graphics, or overall execution of the game feel outdated in anyway.

[antz1104]

Fail comment, I couldn't see the combat system be more perfect to show off Batman fighting 20 guys at once.

[ThreshStar]

"Bring-bring gameplay"?

What does this even mean?

I'm afraid to ask whether english is your second language or you're typing this from a smartphone and don't care that your horrendous grammar may make you look like a jerk.

If it's the Former, I apologize.

If it's the Latter, kill yourself.

[Trenta27]

Haha! You lose!

[Venjense]

I thought Arkham City was incredible but other than that I agree with the list.

I'd put BF3 on that list as well, I didn't have high expectation for MW3 because I thought it would be the same as MW2, which it was.

[listenkids]

Using Arkham City in the list and main photo purely for hits.

[aquamala]

Uncharted 3, what a let down.

[thehusbo]

assasins creed revelations and battlefield 3 have been huge let downs.

[Noticeably_FAT]

Is this strictly PC versions? Because I see some console games in there as well. Of course PC games are going to be a letdown in a console driven market.

Anyway, 90% of those games were good to great.

[Zephol]

Rage is the most dissapointing game this generation

[damnyouretall]

so AC was never patched of fixed for the pc? that would let me down too, cause the game is awesome on consoles

[ForROME]

No Game Touches:

HAZE and Superman 64

They still rule supreme when it comes to worst games of any year anytime

Every year when this article comes up; I am reminded of the nightmares of

HAZE

[KFox109]

Dragon Age II was a lot more entertaining than Origins. Origins is just a typical PC RPG with a pretty standard/cliche story. It's generic in every way. The only saving graces of Origins were Morrigan, Alistair, and Shale. Everything else about the game was "whatever" at best. DA II isn't perfect, but it was definitely more fun and the story was world's above the one in Origins in every conceivable way.

*Pulls out flame shield.*

[KFox109]

P.S. Good article overall though.

[s45gr32]

I disagree with dead island sure it lacks the emotion of the trailer has a couple technical issues and needs more polish underneath this lies a great game. The rest I do not comment on because I have not played them yet