PC Gaming Hall of Shame: Games That Weren't Cancelled, But Should Have Been

[Julio Franco]

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[St1ckM4n]

Eh, I still consider Duke Nukem as an over-hyped fail-bandwagon that many people hop on to. To be fair, no, it didn't live up to expectations. But were those expectations ridiculously high? Hell yes they were.

We need to realise that 15 years has progressed between titles and so too have our human lives. Word issues, personal issues, and personal mental growing-up has happened in those 15 years. Expecting a COD-quality shooter with DX11 spectacular graphics and Battlefield-style gameplay awesomeness? You're delusional. 15 years development, what do you think happened in all that time in the blender?

I myself haven't finished the title but I know I spent the first two hours laughing like a maniac non-stop - I even convinced some of my friends to purchase it from the game quotes alone. I do see the stupid aiming, but Im also not in denial.

This is a Duke Nukem game in 2011 (or whatever), not a 2011 game that just happened to have Duke Nukem themes. On that page, it has delivered.

 

[VitalyT]

Game industry now resembles Hollywood, with B-games spreading everywhere. And it will only become more so over time, till some day when the difference between movies and games disappears to become one interactive story.

 

[St1ckM4n]

till some day when the difference between movies and games disappears to become one interactive story.

Call of Duty, Heavy Rain...

 

[lamscaperoool]

You forgot RAGE from ID. I was so anxious for this one, but it was simply a terrible game in so many ways. I have no idea how the reviews ended up being above average, because he game was an absolute mess and the graphics are terrible.

 

[VitalyT]

It is close, but each story is very much locked, not much deviation, I.e. your interactions do little if anything at all to form the plot. You are fixed to predefined missions with strict parameters. This all makes your personal interaction in the story pointless, it develops almost the same way for everyone.

 

[psycros]

A few more for the grist mill:

* Ascendancy, a real-time 4x space title that should have been flushed out an airlock.
* Die By the Sword, a hilariously bad attempt at immersive melee combat.
* About a dozen others over the past decade that I suddenly can't recall. Perhaps because they've been shoved aside by the most recent offense to gamer sensibilities:
* Dishonored: its so obvious this game started out as Bethesda's answer to Assassin's Creed that the mystical steampunk makeover becomes downright insulting. The only ones dishonored were the developers who borrowed so heavily from everyone else's games that it was hard to remember which franchise you were playing. The characters had some of the worst faces ever seen in a modern game. Bugs were rampant and rarely addressed. World design was sloppy and uninspired. Dishonored also compensated for your ridiculous abilities by making the AI cheat so much that it destroyed any semblance of immersion. Oh, and you're an assassin who's punished for killing people...when your mission is to kill people. And even if you *don't* want to kill people, guess what? You have no choice - you can't get through the game without killing loads of AI foes. The game design borders on sadistic. And they threw in zombies because zombies are what's hot on the street.

 

[Guest]

Agreed, Duke Nukem wasn't great but it was entertaining (I finished it and the DLC) and I found it far more satisfying than Medal of Honor (which I ditched halway through) or Hydrophobia: The Prophecy which was so painfully awful I didn't even make it through the first level (if indeed there were levels)

 

[Burty117]

* Dishonored: its so obvious this game started out as Bethesda's answer to Assassin's Creed that the mystical steampunk makeover becomes downright insulting. The only ones dishonored were the developers who borrowed so heavily from everyone else's games that it was hard to remember which franchise you were playing. The characters had some of the worst faces ever seen in a modern game. Bugs were rampant and rarely addressed. World design was sloppy and uninspired. Dishonored also compensated for your ridiculous abilities by making the AI cheat so much that it destroyed any semblance of immersion. Oh, and you're an assassin who's punished for killing people...when your mission is to kill people. And even if you *don't* want to kill people, guess what? You have no choice - you can't get through the game without killing loads of AI foes. The game design borders on sadistic. And they threw in zombies because zombies are what's hot on the street.

What? You can go through dishonored and kill very few people, just gotta, you know, sneak? not run through the center of all streets but use cover and buildings etc...

It really wasn't as bad as your making it out to be, the reviews suggest the same getting a very high average score, don't get me wrong, it wasn't perfect but no where near as bad as you've made it out to be. The way you described it makes all assassin games sound the same, are you saying Hitman is similar to Assassin's creed?

 

[Guest]

Spot-on Burty117, though it could be argued that it was more a rip-off of Thief than the woefully poor and excessively over-hyped Assassins Creed (I have the first 3 of them and have never finished a single one)

 

[Kayden]

Messiah and Star Trek New Worlds should of been on that list.

 

[trgz]

What? You can go through dishonored and kill very few people, just gotta, you know, sneak? not run through the center of all streets but use cover and buildings etc...

It really wasn't as bad as your making it out to be, the reviews suggest the same getting a very high average score, don't get me wrong, it wasn't perfect but no where near as bad as you've made it out to be. The way you described it makes all assassin games sound the same, are you saying Hitman is similar to Assassin's creed?

A few more for the grist mill:

* Ascendancy, a real-time 4x space title that should have been flushed out an airlock.
* Die By the Sword, a hilariously bad attempt at immersive melee combat.
* About a dozen others over the past decade that I suddenly can't recall. Perhaps because they've been shoved aside by the most recent offense to gamer sensibilities:
* Dishonored: its so obvious this game started out as Bethesda's answer to Assassin's Creed that the mystical steampunk makeover becomes downright insulting. The only ones dishonored were the developers who borrowed so heavily from everyone else's games that it was hard to remember which franchise you were playing. The characters had some of the worst faces ever seen in a modern game. Bugs were rampant and rarely addressed. World design was sloppy and uninspired. Dishonored also compensated for your ridiculous abilities by making the AI cheat so much that it destroyed any semblance of immersion. Oh, and you're an assassin who's punished for killing people...when your mission is to kill people. And even if you *don't* want to kill people, guess what? You have no choice - you can't get through the game without killing loads of AI foes. The game design borders on sadistic. And they threw in zombies because zombies are what's hot on the street.

I seem to recall zombies 'n' things in Thief 1. Personally I found the faces a damn sight more interesting to look at than those in Oblivion, Fallout 3 etc. And bugs? I never had an issue and never had a problem with cheating AI (though there are plenty of them in Assassins Creed) and my kill count, for a FPS, was quite low, on a par with Thief though not as low SplinterCell1

 

[fimbles]

Throw alien colonial marines on the heap too

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Throw alien colonial marines on the heap too

And some of the Tomb Raider series.

 

[Guest]

You also left out INFERNO by DiD (Digital Image Design).

It came out after EF2000, and many people bought it because of that earlier title success and the amazing intro movie for Infoerno.

Turned out to be 16 colours of AWFUL!

 

[Darth Shiv]

Deus Ex 2 Invisible War?

 

[TitoBXNY]

Hell Gate London is the most disappointing and broken game that I ever played. I purchased the collector's edition and was super excited. Since it was pushed as being developed by former Blizzard members, I became a believer. The game was so broken that I completely stopped playing it after a week. Bill Roper and Flagship Studios were a complete bust, I was later burned again by Champions Online which had Roper on the helm and could have been so great. I steer away from anything Roper is involved in these days.

 

[Guest]

I do not agree about Duke Nukem Forever, my father who is a huge Duke 3D fan, played through it and enjoyed it immensely, but it was sometimes difficult for him. I have played the first level, it was great fun. I still intend to finish it when I got time. It's just as if journalists are joint together to sink DNF by making it a synonym of a bad game, which it isn't. Also I dislike the "Leisure Suit Larry never was a great franchise" remark. Says who? Neither fans nor critics nor sales ratings nor recent kickstarter campaign results would agree to that.

If you want ruined expectations, take Assassin's Creed 3 - I played through the first three games with pleasure, but AC3 I just threw away, the stealth mechanics are buggy, dialogs are dull, face skin is shiny like polished boots, the story is full of clichés and forests where all animals from Noa's ship hop about in hordes just for your hunting pleasure are the last nail in the coffin. Got the bug where I can't click anything during some vital assassin operation - purchase of wood for trading or whatever galactic reason, and decided it's quite enough. That's your number one, when I read that it's based in USA during civil war, I thought it's April's fools day.

And what about Force Unleashed? I'm sure many fans will agree to me that the initial hype was tremendous with that starship stopped with one move of a hand and all the concept art shown, people were expecting magic. But then there were these videos where some ugly bloke yapped and yapped about how great things are and will be, and the more he talked, the less I believed in it - when I saw the gameplay, I thought it's a handheld console game. I didn't even buy it, not even downloaded a pirated version for free, it was such a disappointment after expecting a new Jedi Knight style game.

Also Doom 3 was a disappointment for me. It was over-hyped with all the press coverage and videos, but it turned out to be a pre-programmed roller-coaster ride with skeletons popping out from the walls at certain times. I got stuck somewhere on a train with a flash light, and got so bored, I quit. Not at all a sequel to Doom 2. Great engine, terrible game. Same with Rage, I suppose.

 

[Guest]

Any Need For Speed after the original Most Wanted should've been cancelled IMO.

 

[Guest]

Red Faction 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, NeverWinter Nights 2, Duke Nukem Manhattan Project and Sonic 3D.

 

[Guest]

I actually played the **** out of Halo! Halo 2 was an absolute mess though, and definitely was an insult to gamers. Not to mention... Vista... what in the hell.

 

[Nobina]

* Dishonored: its so obvious this game started out as Bethesda's answer to Assassin's Creed that the mystical steampunk makeover becomes downright insulting. The only ones dishonored were the developers who borrowed so heavily from everyone else's games that it was hard to remember which franchise you were playing. The characters had some of the worst faces ever seen in a modern game. Bugs were rampant and rarely addressed. World design was sloppy and uninspired. Dishonored also compensated for your ridiculous abilities by making the AI cheat so much that it destroyed any semblance of immersion. Oh, and you're an assassin who's punished for killing people...when your mission is to kill people. And even if you *don't* want to kill people, guess what? You have no choice - you can't get through the game without killing loads of AI foes. The game design borders on sadistic. And they threw in zombies because zombies are what's hot on the street.

Did you even play this game? You are not punished for killing random people, but for killing that queen (acctually, you were set up) or whatever she was, and you can't find any logic in that? I passed this game 2 times in different ways, and both were good. No bugs and AI didn't cheat, lol. Seems like you are bad at this game and thats why you hate it, and you probably suck at every other challanging game. Also, graphics are a matter of taste, if you don't like them, that doesn't mean nobody likes it, or it sucks and the game should've been cancelled.

 

[amstech]

Going to have to disagree on the Halo 2 mention. It was vital to show the Elite's/Covenant's viewpoint on things and show the desolation of their various viewpoints during war and question thier own motive's.
Also I found playing as the Elite to be refreshing, seamless and an intrigal part of the story. Just because you didn't get another game where you smash everything on legendary as master chief doesn't mean its not a good Halo game.

 

[GhostRyder]

Eh, I still consider Duke Nukem as an over-hyped fail-bandwagon that many people hop on to. To be fair, no, it didn't live up to expectations. But were those expectations ridiculously high? Hell yes they were.

We need to realise that 15 years has progressed between titles and so too have our human lives. Word issues, personal issues, and personal mental growing-up has happened in those 15 years. Expecting a COD-quality shooter with DX11 spectacular graphics and Battlefield-style gameplay awesomeness? You're delusional. 15 years development, what do you think happened in all that time in the blender?

I myself haven't finished the title but I know I spent the first two hours laughing like a maniac non-stop - I even convinced some of my friends to purchase it from the game quotes alone. I do see the stupid aiming, but Im also not in denial.

This is a Duke Nukem game in 2011 (or whatever), not a 2011 game that just happened to have Duke Nukem themes. On that page, it has delivered.

I agree, though the game was no stellar accomplishment and was buggy, I thought it wasn't horrible. It was funny at times and playable, I don't think it should have taken 15 years (Plus that old trailer for it looked kick ***, I still wondered what happened to that game). Honestly if the game just focused on the wrong aspects of making a shooter, jokes and stupid side add ons instead of core gameplay.

As for Warz, wow...Yea I hate that game, its atrocious and a blatant copy of Dayz that is/was (I have not played it again recently) more buggy on average (Though Dayz is still Alpha and FREE), horrible graphics, and encourages spending real money over actually trying and playing the game. My friend bought the game thinking it was the standalone of Dayz months back on steam and was horribly disappointed when I told him it wasn't. I started playing on it to give it a try thinking "Oh well ive been playing dayz and they are supposed to be similar, I bet I can actually play it". Wow, I tried so many times to get started finding it almost impossible, I could not get anywhere very easily, players spawn trapped other players, finding ANY loot other than stupid hats was a miracle, and the zombie AI was atrocious (Though to its credit, I do like the speed the zombies run at better than on Dayz because its more zombie like). Though at the same time when zombies detect you, your screwed because you cant sprint for more than like ten feet and it has a ridiculous cool down. The game really pissed me off because it was an obvious scam for a quick buck.

 

[Seketh]

Going to have to disagree on the Halo 2 mention. It was vital to show the Elite's/Covenant's viewpoint on things and show the desolation of their various viewpoints during war and question thier own motive's.
Also I found playing as the Elite to be refreshing, seamless and an intrigal part of the story. Just because you didn't get another game where you smash everything on legendary as master chief doesn't mean its not a good Halo game.

You're confused, like many are. They are not mentioning the original Halo 2 game, their are mentioning the Halo 2 PC Port.

It's very misleading, that part should be re-written.

And while I agree it came too late and had the Vista requirement. How many AAA console games don't get a PC port?

Why would a port be on a list of games that should have never been released? It makes no sense.

If you want to mention a bad port on the list, Dark Souls is a pretty good example. A PC port that had a locked internal resolution and is unplayable with a mouse+keyboard. Mods saved it, but then again, Halo 2 for PC has mods too. Again, a console port on that list makes no sense...