My last big disapointment

from Elemental Forums

Medieval 2 Total War

 

I looked forward to this game and followed the development up until the release. I even pre-ordered the "special" pack with a little statue of a gothic knight. But the game was lousy. The real time battles were enjoyable (after a few MEGA! patches) but the strategic side of the game was dull and the movement of the armies a drain. I liked the movement of HoMM IV, simple and got the job done, but M2TW's movement made the game a pain. The strategic AI was poor, there was no feeling of being outwitted by it. After much modding its still weird. I have to praise the work of my favourite mod Stainless Steel, it did alot to keep my interest, I only purchased the expansion because the latest version of SS, 6.1, needed it. I played M2TW for ages before realising to myself "no matter how hard you try, it is not going to satisfy you. It suggests that it will but it never quite gets there. A wonderful battle followed by strategic boredom". I loved MTW, M2TW was very over-rated by reviewers, but I guess they, like me, got caught up in it all.

 

I've been wanting to tell somebody that for ages, and none of my friends play games so they wouldn't understand.

 

Anyone else have a classic/memorable game disappointment moment?

290,224 views 122 replies
Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

CnC3...

WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Yeah.. Rome Total War is so much better. (especially modded)

As far as my memorable game let down, that's easy.

THE DEATH OF ADVENTURE GAMES.  

 

Where's the Grim Fandangos, Syberia's and Longest Journies of the world?

Oh how I miss them. I just found out that Mirrors Edge won "Adventure game

of the Year" and I'm thinking 'WTF, they've butchered the adventure genre if

an action-primary based game wins'.

 

rant over. :hrmph:

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting TwAgIssmuDe, reply 4
Startrek Legacy PC..

 

Same, I was looking foward to a sim  something like Klingon academy in use where it flew like a real ship!

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

GTA IV for PC, Rockstar really screwed the PC market over with their $200k copy protected, unoptimized piece. (Which the patches haven't made better either...)

Startrek Legacy is probably too bad to even mention ^^

Agree to 200% with nixiepixel as well, the adventure game genre has withered the last, say, 5-10 years. Syberia, the Longest Journey, Grim Fandango, Sam & Max(!), Day of the Tentacle, etc. etc. - they don't make adventures like that anymore, unfortunately :/ (Even if the Dreamfall: the Longest Journey and the Secret Files: Tunguska were decent games)

Red Alert 3 is also a damn big disappointment, seems like EA is trying to get a 3+ ESRB rating (although the cutscenes would probably get an M - just ridiculous), with the extremely childish units and gameplay. RA1 and somewhat RA2 had a great balance of realism (well, a little anyway) and freakishness, RA3 just freaks out totally, and ruins the entire Red Alert franchise for us old-school fans. (Let's hope they don't do that to the C&C thing as well, C&C3 was actually quite OK from that point of view imo.)

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

black and white 2

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Master of Orion 3, hands-down.

I spent months and months on those forums.  Poured over every screenshot, AAR from beta testers, tidbit from the developers... everything.  I even bought the strategy guide well in advance of the game and spent hours reading it.

Then the game arrived... and it was a spreadsheet.  A spreadsheet with voxels.

Oh, and a bug that made Orion unconquerable, period.

It was a very sad period of my life.

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting TwAgIssmuDe, reply 4
Startrek Legacy PC..

I guess I can vote for that.

Reply #10 from Sins Forums Top

Agree with the death of adventure games, oh Lucasarts what has become of you :(

I'd also add the death of space combat games like Wing Commander and X-Wing / Tie Fighter.  Freespace isn't the same thing for me.

All Starfox games since the original

Warhammer Mark of Chaos

Street Fighter EX

Myth 3

Most RTS games since and including C&C3

Spore

I guess I should stop now! :P

Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

It wasn't a PC game but one for my Sega Genesis I had a game called Master of Monsters, a TBS that behaved a lot like a board game with hex-shaped spaces. I loved that game...

Then they remade it for the Playstation. I was thrilled that a new one existed, I was like "OMG they make it for Playstaion ??!!"  and i couldn't wait to play it. Didn't take long to be completely disappointed; the graphics were infinitely better of course but the AI was just plain stupid and the story made no sence. I went back to playing in on the 16 bit Genesis.

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

NOLF 3

Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top

Hrm actually I just remembered a bigger one.

Deus Ex 2.

After the genius that was Deus Ex, the consolized sequel was such a huge let-down.

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

M2TW was better for people who hadn't played RTW.  However ETW is from the guys who made RTW (CA have two studios) and the reviews so far suggest that it is a worthy successor to RTW.

 

I remember being very interested in a sci-fi game called Genesis Rising.  I played the demo a couple of times, and never again.  Turned out it was solely dependent on repetitive micro with very little strategy and very little fun.  Disappointed by this, I looked around for a different sci-fi game, and found one that had been out for about a year, called Galactic Civilisations 2...

 

Non-pc, it would have to be The Sims on PS2.  Just don't go any further.

Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

Lets see here:

 

Masters of Orion 3, yes a huge let down but now with a lot of fan support and modding, its actually quite a decent game.

Red Alert 3, yeah the game is pretty bad, the campaign is the only thing it has.

Spore, I was super disappointed with this game.

ST legacy, same thing with Masters of Orion 3, a huge let down but with mods out there they made it quite fun, my buddies and I play this once and awhile in a lan game using the mods, alot of fun.

Medieval Total War 2, yeah the overall strategy in that game was just really bad, thats why im hoping the new one coming out (Empire total war) is amazing, but not as laggy as the demo!

Hearts of Iron 2, not so much but hearts of iron I was just amazing, the changes in II made the game feel very different, took awhile to get a hang on it, now its an amazing game for me to play, cant wait for III.

Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting wbino, reply 12
NOLF 3

There's a third one?! Or do you mean the NOLF 2 expansion Contract J.A.C.K.?

My advice is don't follow pre-release hype, you'll live happier if and when the games can't fulfill their promises. Thats what'll i do with Mass Effect 2, i've only watched the teaser trailer, and wiil now refuse any info on it untill it's released :)

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Zoomba, reply 8
Master of Orion 3, hands-down.

I spent months and months on those forums.  ...

Wasn't it closer to a couple-few years that MoO3 teased and tortured us before finally releasing The Great Disappointment? The reversal of quality from MoO2 to MoO3 was nothing short of mind-boggling. The failure to follow through on buzz/hype was even worse.

Reply #18 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting CaptainYar, reply 11
It wasn't a PC game but one for my Sega Genesis I had a game called Master of Monsters, a TBS that behaved a lot like a board game with hex-shaped spaces. I loved that game...

Then they remade it for the Playstation. I was thrilled that a new one existed, I was like "OMG they make it for Playstaion ??!!"  and i couldn't wait to play it. Didn't take long to be completely disappointed; the graphics were infinitely better of course but the AI was just plain stupid and the story made no sence. I went back to playing in on the 16 bit Genesis.

 

At the risk of dragging the thread off-topic, I spent quite some hours a few years ago playing a free strategy game called "Battle for Wesnoth".  I believe (and Wikipedia confirms) that the author based it partly on his appreciation for the original Master of Monsters game.  And the AI is pretty wicked tactically (although it has the usual strategic problems that most AIs do).  You might want to give it a try.

Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

I'm so glad to see other other people didn't enjoy MTW2, the reviews were all so high.  All this time I thought there was something wrong with me because I hated the game.  I loved MTW and RTW.  My biggest disapointment so far was Sins 1.0.  However, Ironclad has done such an amazing job of patching the game I now enjoy it a lot.

Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

Star Trek Legacy for the PC.  It could have been made of solid gold, screen shots looks stunning... but wasn't. It floated :S

Neverwinter Nights 2.  Take a classic game that's stood the test of time.  Then butcher it, tweak the engine so even a modern computer chokes.  Tear apart the scripting system so it breaks, regularly in the SP campaign.  Then pretend everything's A-OK.

RA3.  I like this game.  But I hate the cut scenes.  Military officers wearing hot pants and skirts that are HOW SHORT?  The game seriously needs an option to turn off the fanboy hand job material.

Test Drive: Unlimited.  The installer never asked me for a serial.  For me the game was three videos and back to Windows.  This was, apparently, my fault as well.

Spore. THAT. IS. NOT. EVOLUTION. ASSHOLES. 

 

 

 

Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ToJKa, reply 16

Quoting wbino, reply 12NOLF 3
There's a third one?! Or do you mean the NOLF 2 expansion Contract J.A.C.K.?

My advice is don't follow pre-release hype, you'll live happier if and when the games can't fulfill their promises. Thats what'll i do with Mass Effect 2, i've only watched the teaser trailer, and wiil now refuse any info on it untill it's released

No their is not a third one thats the disappointment.

As far as Deus Ex2, after the first one , as soon as I seen the blocky text and shitty dumb down so it can run on consoles graphics.....maybe ten minutes in I turned it off never to be ssen again. Warren Spector is overated.

Reply #23 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting lambdaman, reply 18

At the risk of dragging the thread off-topic, I spent quite some hours a few years ago playing a free strategy game called "Battle for Wesnoth".  I believe (and Wikipedia confirms) that the author based it partly on his appreciation for the original Master of Monsters game.  And the AI is pretty wicked tactically (although it has the usual strategic problems that most AIs do).  You might want to give it a try.

 

At the risk of dragging it more off topic, this is an excellent little free gem that is constantly evolving, I encourage anyone who hasn't tried it out to do so.

 

and my biggest recent dissapointment was Spore, not just because of the DRM, but because after 4 hours the gameplay became repetitive.

prior to that my biggest dissapointment was probably Kirby 64: the Crystal Shards. I beat it in about 6 hours, and barely any secrets to find :(

Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top

No their is not a third one thats the disappointment.

Volkov shakes his fist from the grave. Still in the wheelchair. :P

Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top

Oh boy....a list of games that has disapointed me.

Well, here goes.

 

Medievil 2 Total War

Sword of the Stars

All Dawn of Wars

Oblivion

Total War : Rome

Europa Universallis w/ expansions

Newest version of Axis and Allies (The RTS version)

Galactic Civilizations

Civilization 4 (I mean seriously...all you do is hit the end turn button)

Knights of Honor

Making History

Left 4 Dead

Star Wars : Empire at War

Age of Mythology

Age of Empires 3

And I stop now. That was just my first CD case. I have 7 more to go. I own far too many PC games, but at least I have vast amounts of experience and can answer alomost any question. 

 

Also Wesnoth was a good game and you can still download it for free. The only problem is Sandbox/Lan games tend to drag out and become unbelieveably boring. The Storyline mode is wonderful minus the turn limit/time limit it imposes on you.