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Your biggest disappointment this generation?

.hack. I was hyped up about it from the moment I first read about it. Epic 4-game series, cool meta-gaming concept, story and character design both by people I respected from their anime work. But IMO the game just sucked to the point of being unplayable. It seemed that the developers went so overboard with forcing the idea that The World wasn't a real world that the game had no sense of immersiveness whatsoever- the dungeon and field design was just inexcusably bad.
 
Stuntman and Wipeout Fusion were 2 of the reasons I bought a PS2. Neither even came close to meeting my expectations. I was also pretty let down by Xenosaga.
 
No Puzzle Fighter II for PSP or Xbox Live
F-ZeroGX doesn't allow you to turn down or mute the music volume
Daytona USA 2 and Super GT port nowhere to be seen
Lag issue in racing games still disruptive
No force feedback support for Trackmania Sunrise

Aaaaaaaaaaaand last but certainly not least ladies and gentlemen.....




























.....drumroll please....





























Gek54 said:
Xbox:
No TFF Wheel






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isamu said:
F-ZeroGX doesn't allow you to turn down or mute the music volume
you honestly believe that's a major disappointment worth mentioning for an entire generation? -_-;
 
Scrow said:
you honestly believe that's a major disappointment worth mentioning for an entire generation? -_-;


yup :) I take the BGM options in my racers very seriously!
 
- the gaming communities expectations being set so high. We used to play sprite based games and now everyone whines about some camera issues, story telling and lack of what they consider an ending in an otherwise amazing game. Seriously there is no way anyone should be able to say that games like Ninja Gaiden or Halo2 or even Killzone were the biggest disappointments on this generation. No way guys.

Some of my reasonable disappointments are:
- the breakup of Oddworld Inhabitants, and the lack of advertising support for Oddworld: Strangers Wrath. Another great game from one of the best game developers out there and the lack of sales for this game turned some great people sour on the industry. I hope we don't loose Tim Schafer now that Pyschonauts hasn't done millions.
- no closure to the Shenmue series
- how fragile the PS2 and Xbox have been, most people are on at least their second of one of the consoles (if they own both).
- Sony's free online service never turning into anything special. Socom started so well too.
- NBA games going to crap. :lol. This might be a very personal one but it's sad that the best basketball game that most GAFers have played was NBA2k3.
- The death of Sega. How sad that a major console player changes direction when so many of us LOVED our Dreamcasts. Millions of people never even considered buying the Dreamcast cause the PS2 was coming out over a year later. Wow. I can't wait a week till a game comes out anymore I could never wait a year for a console that got such rave reviews online and in magazines. Freakin sad. And even worse is that Sega is one of the weakest development companies now. Ugh.
- Nintendo just not ever getting it. Takes them too long to get their games out. Too many Mario games and kid themed games for a lot of the gaming community and no online support at all. Mario Kart would have been killer online.
- Games like Advent Rising coming out before they are ready and now it's a game that the majority of gamers will never play, even though if the game was polished it would garner similar love that games like Ico and Halo get. Yes this is my opinion but I was really shocked by how good the game was despite it's shortfalls. Who knows what it might have been with more time.

Most people will not agree with some of my points and tons of people will still say stuff like "Halo2's ending was the most disappointment in gaming history" and "Celda was so stupid, what a lame idea, where's my mature Zelda." Sure we'll hear that stuff. But compared to what we used to play 10 years ago (heck I didn't even know games had endings when I was a kid) these games are absolutely amazing.
The consumers of this industry need to appreciate and respect the hard work and creativity that developers put into this entertainment medium more. They need to look at a great game and see everything that the game did right and not spend all their time complaining about what the developers didn't do that they would have done if they had half a clue how to make a blockbuster game.
 
Resident Evil 1-3 are some of my favorite games but I've been quickly losing interest the last few years. I don't think CV and Zero lived up to the older titles and all the side games were weak. Remake was well done but it wasn't new and RE4 was good but didn't really seem like a RE game at all. After 2 I was excited to see where the story would go but all that followed was stalling, remakes, side stories and prequels. By the time a new game had come out they went into an entirely new direction.
 
First and foremost, GAMECUBE NINTENDO. It managed to underperform even my low expectations(that's a feat, folks).

Secondly, MGS2. Sequel to one of my favorite games of last gen made me so hateful that I have yet to play the reportedly balls awesome MGS3. I just can't bring myself to do it, I'm still fragile...

But mostly Nintendo. MAF needs to update that classic N64 pic with a GCN one.

P.S. ICO sucked too.
 
truelize said:
Seriously there is no way anyone should be able to say that games like Ninja Gaiden or Halo2 or even Killzone were the biggest disappointments on this generation. No way guys.

Halo 2 is a dissapointment simply because it doesn't even get near of the bar established by the first one, the MP even if it's broken is still fun I recognize that.
 
don't get me wrong, Halo 2 is still a great game, but i just thought the story was a bit retarded.

And the fact that you end up effectively back where you start pissed me off no end.

The whole single player felt like nothing was achieved.

Repeated for clarity : the game itself was fine, it was the finer points that i felt disappointed in.
 
1) Super Mario Sunshine

Perhaps the most dissapointing of all, this game simply lacked any fun that its predecessor had before it. The stale theme and setting did not help the game any better.

2) Star Fox

I'm not going to pick a specific game but rather nag on both titles. Assault and Adventures sucked in comparison to Star Fox 64 and the Star Fox (SNES) before it. Nintendo completely went out of their way to screw the series with ground mechanics when we all know that Fox McCloud and friends are best off in the skies where they belong (aside from the Landmaster tank and submarine versions - both of which rock).

3) Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty / Halo 2 (tie)

These two games are both in their own category of greatness, however, simply lacked something their predecessors achieved before them. The sense of epic struggle in Halo: Combat Evolved was completely cockblocked in its sequel and one of the best videogame characters of all time was forced to sit on the sidelines as a pansywaist took up the charge. It also did not help that both games simply rehashed the same thing and didn't try anything new.

Special Mention Goes To:

-Nintendo GameCube, for being a system with so much potential that didn't try anything new, rehashed the same old formula for success, and put a permanent stain on Nintendo's image going into the future.
 
SSX3

Screwed up the level design and you can't really "go anywhere" like they romised. There's out of bounds areas everywhere that look like parts of the course. Lame.
 
metroid prime

the graphics is beatiful and the music is awesome but the gameplay is soo retarded. i really tried to like that game when i had a gamecube but i just couldnt get in to it. i was super hyped when i ordered the game consider it's one of the highest ranked games ever.

silent hill 4 was pretty big too. i hate that fucking game :C
 
The entire generation was disappointing. Xbox was a joke overall, other than Xbox Live. GC, while I thought was a lot better than N64, just didn't feel special. PS2, which was obviously awesome, didn't feel "special" either.

There were some cool original stuff here and there this generation, but it just felt like 32/64 bit+, unlike PSX and N64 which left me with so many gaming experiences I won't soon forget. This gen left me feeling very little things like that. Nothing will beat the feeling I had playing Mario 64, MGS, FFVII, FFIX, Ape Escape, Star Fox 64, etc etc etc.

That isn't to say there weren't some amazing games this generation. RE4, Metroid Prime, MGS3.. some of the best games ever.

This generation was good, but disappointing. I have high hopes for PS3/Revolution though.

Oh, and the best part about this generation? Dreamcast. It was the best console this generation, hands down. Just because PS2 ended up having MORE good games, that's only because PS2 lasted longer. DC's games were more rewarding and memorable in general I think.
 
Probably Super Mario Sunshine. Still a great game, but I'm a huge, huge Mario fan, so getting the SM64 followup after nearly 6 years and not having it blow me away put me in a funk.

Reilly said:
4 controller ports are overrated.

edit: I think it had to do with backwards compatability not working if there were 4.
I never much bought that excuse. So build in extra controller ports and have it think there's an old-style multitap plugged in when using the PS1. Next to the disc speed and texture filtering options, add an option to make it use only 2 controller ports if the multitap would negatively affect a particular game.
 
-no Phantasy Star 5

-no Pilotwings

-no Daytona USA 2

-no Shenmue 3

-no Military Madness / Nectaris

-no Herzog Zwei
 
Jade Empire and Fable. Extremely excited for both and disappointing would be an understatement after playing them.
 
Mostly Nintendo as a whole.

Zelda WW was also pretty dissappointing in terms of what I was expecting and so was Halo 2 (although it was less dissappointing compared to wind waker)
 
Driv3r
No Crimson Skies 2
Halo 2
Tony Hawk's slow decline in quality (or maybe they just reached their ceiling.)
People caring about the industry for all the wrong reasons (Violent games)
 
The fact that there were no MMORPGs for the xbox along with the cum stain that is known as FF-X2.
 
Nintendo. They fucked up Mario with Sunshine. They fucked up Metroid with Prime. They fucked up Zelda with Wind Waker. A triple play of disasters that has turned me into a bitter, bitter Ninentroll. Fuck you, if you disagree. You're just wrong and your whining is uncalled for.

Square. Fuck Final Fantasy "eleven." And Final Fantasy X-2. And the 2 year delay of FFXII. I can't believe Tactics Advance and FFX were Square's best output this gen. Back in the PSOne era, I would've died for this developer, man. They were on such a role with Final Fantasies 1 through 8. Now, I just don't even know what to expect quality-wise when they release something.

But really, other than that I've dug this gen. Games have grown up a lot and devs have gotten used to the 3D paradigm and making it work. The industry output has gotten enormous, with more releases-per month than is possible to keep up with. I've had to slim my intake down to "best titles only."
 
Arc the Lad: End of Darkness: Being one of the few that really enjoyed Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, this wretched action MMO nonsense made me spit and cry.

No Fallout 3 as always. The fact that Bethesda has slurped up rights to the franchise gives me about the same reaction I would have if I learned my twice-convicted-of-exposing-himself-to-children Uncle Lenny gained custody of my five preschool-aged grandkids.

Digital Devil Saga by no means a bad game, but... after Nocturne. Talk about stripping away artistic originality and concept. Wheeee! It's FFX with ridiculous character design!
 
terrene said:
Nintendo. They fucked up Mario with Sunshine. They fucked up Metroid with Prime. They fucked up Zelda with Wind Waker. A triple play of disasters that has turned me into a bitter, bitter Ninentroll. Fuck you, if you disagree. You're just wrong and your whining is uncalled for.

Square. Fuck Final Fantasy "eleven." And Final Fantasy X-2. And the 2 year delay of FFXII. I can't believe Tactics Advance and FFX were Square's best output this gen. Back in the PSOne era, I would've died for this developer, man. They were on such a role with Final Fantasies 1 through 8. Now, I just don't even know what to expect quality-wise when they release something.

But really, other than that I've dug this gen. Games have grown up a lot and devs have gotten used to the 3D paradigm and making it work. The industry output has gotten enormous, with more releases-per month than is possible to keep up with. I've had to slim my intake down to "best titles only."

Man, you really are a bitter old man. You need some chocolate pudding.

(Prime owns you, I might add.)
 
As a big Nintendo fan, for me it's their constant lack of foresight , missed opportunities and fuckups. The games are great (when NOA feels like bringing them over), but Nintendo just sucks at competing. How did they let themselves slip so far in the market? NCL also rushed their franchise games. I actually loved Sunshine and Wind Waker, but they're not polished and WW was ridiculously short. Twilight Princess's delay actually made me happy.

MP Hunters should have been reworked for Wi-Fi starting at E3 at the latest, and maybe the delay wouldn't have been so long. Why no Band Bros. or Mother 1+2 (Ness is in two freaking Smash Bros. games), and why did NOA finally make up their mind about Electroplankton when the DS doesn't need it anymore? Why the GameCube drought and poor marketing for RE4 and DK Jungle Beat? Connectivity was fine, excellent in Four Swords Adventures' case, but they didn't do anything with it. It was a mess. It was kicked off with a Sonic Adventure 2 Battle minigame for fucksake.

Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. There was as an excellent game hidden in there and the design team just kept crushing and mangling it with stupid ideas until we're left with good pieces mixed with a lot of crap. No one liked the artifacts in MP, so what are the (harder to get) keys doing in Echoes? The dark world didn't even feel that necessary. All that work to alter something in the regular world. Also, another evil Samus clone? Come on! And Namco worked on Starfox Assault for what, two years, and gave us ten levels. I enjoyed all the different kinds of shooting gameplay (until level 9's foot section), but it was the shortest Starfox yet. Almost a minigame.

Get with it Nintendo! I have no faith left that Revolution will be the success Nintendo needs. It'll be fantastic, but after launch they probably won't even be able to sell it at a cheaper price than Sony and MS (once again). They'll just keep slipping into irrelevency. I don't think DS will win out over PSP in the US, either, just because of all the functionality PSP has and the name on the box. Not that features are bad, of course, but that a game machine with a proprietary, overpriced movie format, that's also an unwieldy MP3-player is a selling point. That multi-functionality, more than anything else, is going to push PSP way past Nintendo, mark my words.
 
General:
Sony domination. It doesn't feel like there's any real competition, games are not very imaginative and there are too many sequels.
Squaresoft - hasn't released anything really interesting after FFX.
The death of Dreamcast.

Games:
FF X-2. WTF was that about. Seriously.
GTA:SA. Not as good as Vice City.

edit: updated
 
Hmm..
To sum it up, games being targeted to a larger audience of casual gamers, games getting too expensive to make, sales figures impossible to predict for new ip's.
Which results in game design being more and more subordinated to marketing studies, software houses not willing to take risks devoting large budgets to new ip's.
Game design being taught in schools like there's some rule at the basis of fun.

No one has developed the game of my dreams yet : P And if this is the trend i don't think i'll ever see it unless i succeed in becoming a game designer :P

Oh, and Tim Follin being relegated to doing the soundtrack to Starsky & Hutch (awesome soundtrack, btw).

On a related note, no proper sequel to Ecco Defender of The Future.

No Shenmue 3.

Nintendo not taking enough time to develop its marios and zeldas (may change with TP)

edit:

Oh, and i was really expecting to see a huge, marvelous, fully 3D Strider game this gen, which i believe was in development at some point and then scrapped.
 
terrene said:
Nintendo. They fucked up Mario with Sunshine. They fucked up Metroid with Prime. They fucked up Zelda with Wind Waker. A triple play of disasters that has turned me into a bitter, bitter Ninentroll. Fuck you, if you disagree. You're just wrong and your whining is uncalled for.

No arguments here. You are a bitter, bitter Nintentroll.

For me, to extend on what I wrote earlier:

EAD: SMS was a letdown. Pikmin was too undeveloped of an idea. Mario Kart was okay. TWW was a fall from grace (though one of their best this gen, and still a great game with plenty of pros). FSA was okay. The only thing from these guys that felt like the ol' N64 games as far as sheer quality was Pikmin 2.

Retro Studios: Not sure if I should be disappointed in them. Not many people had a whole lotta faith in them at the beginning. The reviews for Prime were what really set me up for the big disappointment.

Rare: What the FUCK happened?

Square Enix: It seemed to me that after they merged with Enix, Square just felt like they could sit back and watch the yen roll in. I liked Kingdom Hearts, FFX, and certain parts of FFX-2, but I found myself playing a LOT more PSX Squaresoft RPGs than I did Square Enix PS2 games.

And FFCC sucked.

Jak II: It gets its own section for just how shitty it was. Thought it was gonna be good. Good reviews, good impressions, good pretty much everything. Then I played it and realized I had been played for a fool. Shitty story. Shitty characters. Shitty setting. Shitty missions. Hardly enough platforming to honestly call it a platformer. Shitty bosses. And completly unfocused. I played Dark Cloud for a while, and it was a complete mess. But at least it was a focused mess. Jak II was all over the place. Shitty shit shit shit.

Free roaming: The best idea to happen in video games in a while. However, it became the reality television of games. I love the GTA series (minus Vice City). Great exploration and it really feels as if you're in the middle of this huge city (or state in SA's case). But then it started infecting other things, and developers catered to it because that's what sold. So we got Narc. We got Jak II. We got clone after clone and wannabe after wannabe. Some used it well (Mercenaries), and many didn't.

Kinda the collectathon of this gen.

But I guess that's a complaint and not a disappointment.

Shenmue II being moved to Xbox was a huge slap in the face after supporting the Dreamcast.

No Skies of Arcadia sequel. A man can dream, though... a man can dream.
 
No true sequal to Mario 64. - Mario's track record was superb up until SMS. Just untouchable games all around. They came back to earth this gen.

No Shenmue 3 - This is actually caused by this gen's fantastic Shenmue 1 and 2 and I couldn't bear a 3rd never coming out. Amazing series that deserves far more respect.

Halo 2 - Just weak overall on the singleplayer. A completely pointless addition to what was advertised as an extremely important game.

Square - They just completely lacked the impact they had last gen. Couple good games but they were rpg masters last gen.

FFX-2 - Way to go Disney on the sequels. If there were theaters for games, this would have been straight-to-video. Complete shit.

Tony Hawk series - We go DOWN! DOWN! DOOOWN!!

Resident Evil production rate - Last gen they were all over and I really loved the games and style. This time they went with a great RE1 remake which I everything else was just stalling and not very interesting. RE4 kicked all kinds of ass though. The story was a little more action and flimsy though. Gameplay was amazing but I don't know.. still miss the old RE feel. The Resident Evil name's still alive and kickin but I have a feeling RE1 and 2 will go down in history like Evil Dead movies. The style not to be revisited today.

Rare - FUCK YOU!
 
J2 Cool said:
Gameplay was amazing but I don't know.. still miss the old RE feel. The Resident Evil name's still alive and kickin but I have a feeling RE1 and 2 will go down in history like Evil Dead movies. The style not to be revisited today.
These things come and go in cycles. This break from the classic RE play style will make its predestined return all the more spectacular.
 
Hmm, maybe. The first RE5 pics look interesting. I'm looking forward to a massive city with zombies all over the place, day and night. That would be the ultimate RE game. Like RE2 if it wasn't prerendered backdrops with limited space to go, and more intense. A true survival game somewhere between earlier games and RE4, with the sensibilites of a RE2 plot. You're not exactly going to hit on emotion with RE4's plot.
 
Still no true Phantasy Star sequel (no, PS Universe does not count. I want a traditional RPG set in the Algol star system, dammit!)
 
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