eGamer Awards 2009: Most Disappointing Game

This is another of my personal favourite awards, for the simple reason that it’s the time to project my inner rage at the year’s ultimate failures. However, it’s also a sad time for me because some of the games that make this list are some I anticipated and was once excited for – so you can see that I’m at an emotional conflict right about now. Ok stranger, who probably doesn’t give a damn about my mental problems, we’ve come to the award that is usually surrounded by lots of controversy and uncertainty. Well, let me assure you that we have chosen these games carefully as a team – or, more honestly, I told the guys at the eGamer office that this is how it’s going and there was no alternative. I’m quite happy to be behind some computer screen out of your angry clutches right about now, so get ready to check out eGamer’s “Award” for the Most Disappointing Game of 2009 – coming up after the rundown!

The Rundown

Many gamers get confused with this award as well, for the simple reason that “Most Disappointing” is often seen as “The Worst”. Let me assure you that disappointment doesn’t always have to do with the result being bad, but rather ending up as a letdown – like it could have been more. In order for a game, or anything for that matter, to be disappointing, there has to be a certain level of hype and anticipation for it. I mean, something can’t be disappointing if no one gives a crap about it, right? Then it’s just crap. Disappointment in gaming usually stems from receiving tons of hype and becoming involved in all the excitement only to discover, once the game is released, that it’s not what you were after or expecting. Now you might say that this can differ from person to person depending on personal opinion, which is true, but disappointment usually goes hand in hand with what was promised to us, which is further increased by the hype surrounding the game. So just to clear it up, the games on these list are not all bad (some are of course), but the point we’re making with this “award”, so to speak, is that the following games just didn’t live up to all the hype and were ultimately letdowns. Now that you’re clued up, let’s get cracking with the award. Check out the nominees below.

The Nominees

Wolfenstein

Wolfenstein made this list for quite a number of reasons. Now is the time to emphasise what I said above about disappointing not actually meaning bad, because if you read my review of Wolfenstein you would see that I gave the game a rating of “Good”. So what’s the problem here, you might ask? Well, for those of us who had the privilege of playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, the free, online, class-based, World War II first person shooter would know that it was one of the best online games ever created back in 2003 or so – even better because it was free. I still consider it today as one of the most memorable and awesome online experiences I’ve ever encountered. With Wolfenstein, however, we were promised that same online experience and more, but when the game was released we got a really crap multiplayer component. The single player in Wolfenstein was good and entertaining, despite it being quite shallow, but the online component was actually quite pathetic, not only in comparison to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, but in comparison to nearly all other online first person shooters. There were many gamers, including myself, that were really excited to see the return of Wolfenstein, but ultimately it didn’t live up to its name and felt empty, mostly with the multiplayer experience, which crippled the entire game. Another disappointing aspect of the game was the lack of variety in weapons and veil powers, which further damaged the experience.

Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando’s transition from a 2D side-scrolling platformer to a full 3D, open world action game was a bumpy one. Ultimately, the result was that the game just couldn’t fully live up to the standards that the 2D platformer set, because once it made the transition to open world the competition and playing field dramatically changed. The game had some great concepts and gameplay, but a lot of the time it would be a dull affair that only served to frustrate you, especially with the swinging system, which was good when it worked, but had its fair share of problems. Essentially, the bionic arm is what the game is all about and the clunky controls and lack of interesting abilities dampened down on its worth. The arm was cool to play with, unquestionably, and the swinging worked nicely once you got the hang of it, which unfortunately took a lot of practice on your part, but the overall gameplay could have undergone lots of improvements and felt quite dated. The game was also very inconsistent as far as the fun factor is concerned, as there would be times you would find yourself having a blast, but others where you just want to incinerate the game disc and never look at it again. A lot of this stemmed from the dated gameplay, awkward controls and lackluster game structure. Bionic Commando delivers on some fronts, but as an overall package it could have been more.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin

F.E.A.R 2 made this list because it ultimately felt uninspired. I know you F.E.A.R fans are probably out there right now thinking “WTF”? so let me give you the reasons as to why it’s a nominee. See, when playing F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, you’ll have loads of fun with the non-stop, exciting action and occasional horror moments, but when you take a step back and analyse for a moment what you’ve been playing the past few hours, you’d realise that it isn’t much. I can say with confidence that after you play the first hour of F.E.A.R 2 you have pretty much seen everything the game has to offer you, literally, not only in the action and first person shooting area, but in the horror elements as well. Not only does the entirety of the game consist of connected gun battles that are hardly any different from each other and way too easy with the slow motion mechanic, but the horror element itself is shallow as a whole. There are only about three horror moments in the game that are repeated throughout the game constantly, so after the first hour or so you’ll practically be laughing at them and will not be the slightest bit anxious or worried about what the game might throw at you next. You’re certainly not afraid of the armies of “super soldiers” you’ll be killing that’s for sure. Sure there are the giant robot sections where you get into some mechwarrior thing and start blowing stuff up and sure there are a few different enemies, such as the invisible ones, you’ll be facing aside from the normal grunts, but these don’t really add a great deal to the experience and you honestly wouldn’t notice the difference in gameplay if they were not there. Overall, the game just didn’t feel like much and there was nothing more to it past the first hour of gameplay, which just made it a letdown.

Tony Hawk: RIDE

Here’s a prime example of how hype can completely ruin everything. Meet Tony Hawk: RIDE, the game that was so hyped up with its little skateboard peripheral that you had to restrain yourself from engaging in projectile vomiting whenever you hear its name these days. Basically, this was supposedly the “ultimate” skateboarding experience, due to the fact that you played it with an actual skateboard motion controller. So you’ll be standing there, on top of a skateboard, facing the screen, doing spastic movements which will supposedly turn into tricks on the screen. I’m sure you can guess the result, the skateboard peripheral made for horrible controlling and was ultimately a very large gimmick. Sure it’s an interesting experiment, but the game also lacked in presentation and polish. Overall, Tony Hawk: RIDE just failed to capture the skateboarding experience it claimed it would and came nowhere to delivering on all the hype surrounding it.

Rogue Warrior

If crap could crap, Rogue Warrior would be the crap that came out of it. It’s an epic piece of shit I’ll tell you that.
Check out: eGamer’s Rogue Warrior review to see why.

And the loser is…

As you may not have guessed, the loser isn’t Rogue Warrior, because there was next to no anticipation for it whatsoever, therefore the result cannot be all that disappointing. I just put the game up here to hate on it some more and share my hate with the rest of you innocent, clueless bastards fine people. I’ll tell you one thing though, Rogue Warrior is the Worst Game of 2009, but since there isn’t an award for that in our books I’m creating one on the spot. Yes, Rogue Warrior is undoubtedly the epitome of horrendous failures and I feel no guilt at all at having to state this openly and share my hatred of this game with everyone. So in a nutshell, Rogue Warrior doesn’t take this award because it’s not the most disappointing game of the year, seeing as there was no anticipation for it, but it does run away with the worst game of the year award, so at least it achieved something.

The loser isn’t F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, because even though the game felt disappointing, there was still loads of fun to be had playing it. It more or less lived up to what you’d expect from a F.E.A.R game in any case, it’s just that the overall package was a bit of a letdown. In the end, it still managed to be a decent enough game, but it could have been more.

Wolfenstein doesn’t take this either, because even though the multiplayer component was a complete disappointment and the game didn’t really live up the Wolfestein name, you could still have a really good time with the single player component of the game. Sure it was disappointing, but the disappointment level you feel doesn’t come close to, say, the loser here.

And the loser isn’t Bionic Commando, because had it been tightened and fixed up a bit, it would just gone from decent to good. Sure if they decided to sit back and make lots of improvements and changes they could come out with a much better game, but I think most old time gamers had a feeling that Bionic Commando was better left as a 2D side scroller than an open world action game – which wasn’t fully open world. In its current state, there is quite a fair amount of enjoyment to be had with Bionic Commando, but you just can’t shake the feeling of “is this it?” when you’re playing.

The LOSER of eGamer’s Most Disappointing Game Award of 2009 is…

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Tony Hawk: RIDE…

With all the hype, anticipation and promise behind Tony Hawk: RIDE, one can’t help but feel tremendously disappointed with the result. Let me tell you something about us gamers. The majority of our species, those being gamers, seem to automatically take a liking to technology, especially things like motion controls and small gadgets. The skateboard peripheral seemed like an awesome way to play this game, but ultimately, even though it was an experiment, it turned out to be a frustrating and sad affair. Added to the fact that the game’s presentation and polish weren’t up to good standard, and the experience was a lacking one. For all skating fans, Tony Hawk: RIDE wasn’t the experience they were hoping for and it definitely wasn’t close to the experience that was promised to said skateboarding fans. At this point, it’s pretty evident that Tony Hawk: RIDE is the chosen one for eGamer’s “Award” for the Most Disappointing Title of 2009. It didnt’ revolutionise the skating experience, but it did come pretty close to adding a whole new level to disappointment.