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Worst Gaming Decisions Of 2003 Rated
Thanks to GameSpot for their feature rating some of 2003's videogames that deserve negative awards. Some of the 'winners' among this motley crew of letdowns include most pretentious game awarded to Namco's Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht ("a game that takes itself far too seriously"), most disappointing title to Capcom's Devil May Cry 2 ("a complete letdown in the face of the first game's genius"), and flat-out worst game to Activision Value's Gods And Generals ("looks and sounds absolutely horrendous.")
How about the dud Matrix game that came out just before "The Matrix Reloaded". It was an early hint that the franchise was going very far south very fast.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The worst one this year was Manhunt by far, but it's not alone. As it stands, the gaming industry is still not looked positively upon by most people. Games like Manhunt aren't helping the industry at all.
Same thing goes for games like DOA Volleyball and BMX XXX - the sexual content adds nothing to the game, and only hurts the industry.
If we ever want to get to a point where we don't hear constant stories about how gaming influences murderers or makes people violent, reclusive, horny old men, these games will have to stop coming out...or possibly become so mainstream that no one blinks at DOA Extreme Nude Hockey
*shudders at the thought*
My $.02
Goo goo g'joob.
N-Gage
It's becoming more obvious that people who review video games are becoming more and more snobbish against violence and sex in video games. It's kind of silly for them to attack postal 2 because you can pee on people. The fact is a game geared twards adults can be fun. Postal2 is fun if you play it for what it is (a virtual violence sandbox).
Last year, a disgruntled postal worker in our area flung poo at his co-workers.
Final Fantasy X-2? No, I can't put it down...but I don't like it one bit. I just want to get the remainder of the story before I bury it in my backyard, really. The gameplay tries too hard to be fluid and innovative, and to me, fails in both respects. Items don't matter any longer, either...and that's a travesty. It was horribly over-hyped and over-rated, IMHO.
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
There's a 'check latest prices' link next to all the box shots?
These games suck, now go buy them
Really, what business does a game have taking it self seriously? How dare a game company assume it has an educated audience or incorporate satire and history? It's a video game it's supposed to be mindless entertainment for children and lazy ass 20-sometings. Somebody needs to tell those Xenosaga folks that they're not artists before they put any thoughtful storytelling in episode 2!
...it's still one hell of a game - though people either tend to love it or hate it.
t s. asp?itemid=519264
http://gamerankings.com/itemrankings/itemcommen
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
Please... That's ridiculous.
People wanted "Mature" games, just like people want "Mature" movies, magazines, books, etc.
If you don't like it, that's fine, but please don't shove your morals down others' throats.
My $0.02 USD
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
If you like it you are probably an "otaku" (and don't realize that it's an insult in Japanese).
Caltrops.com seems to be down now so here's the Google cache of the only Xenosaga review you need:
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:On37B5AYF1kJ:
I don't agree. If you do not like the content of a game, don't play it. Some people are even more offended by "Hello Kitty" games. I don't think that such games are a "mistake" unless there is a problem with marketing blunders or poor gameplay/graphics.
If you do not like games with such content, do not play them. I would count an act of game censorship as the #1 "worst game mistake".
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Just my 2.5 cents. ^_^;
Sounds like EverQuest!
The North American "launch" of this game was an abortion. Just prior to the "launch" (apparently all they did was translate some shit into English) they opened up several new servers to allow Japanese players to migrate, thus clearing up some slots on the OLD servers for PEOPLE WHO DON'T SPEAK JAPANESE AND WHO WILL BE STARTING AT LEVEL ONE. I mean, god forbid we get to start on a clean server with people we can communicate with and won't be 69 levels above us.
And then of course, due to the limited space on the old servers, to play with your friends you have to get them something called a "world pass", which is a code that let's them start characters on your server. This code inexplicably costs in game currency, and takes hours and hours to obtain. I'm kind of hazy about the details being that I erased the bloated 6 gigabyte pig a few hours after purchase. I couldn't return it, so I tried to sell my copy (with no character) on Ebay and had the auction removed by Square for violating their EULA.
Why would this make it to /.?
Anything they review, rate, or judge is specifically designed to give back to the people who throw adv$$$ at them. Oh yes, and there's the little detail of complete idiots writing the copy. DOABV made way more money than about 30 other titles that did NOT make it into the year's worst.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
The guy who hacked for HF2.
-------
FM Clan
Nightcaster.
Yech.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
... with some TECMO head, where he said that the guys who did the bathing suit designs were completely blown away by the female designers because the women were the one who came up with the most revealing bikinis and the most explicit poses for the DOA girls.
http://www.caltrops.com/pointy.php?action=viewPost &sid=1&pid=5893
Yeah - except that the "mature" games are just crap. Making a volleyball game and then taking the players clothes off doesn't make it "mature". A truly mature game would be a game that deals with content in a mature manner, not one that just shows as many titties as possible.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Maybe I'm just a pie-in-the-sky idealist, but I'm more and more disappointed that the "media" are really just vehicles for pushing the products they claim to evaluate. Do all media outlets now provide "check prices" and "buy now" links when they're supposed to be evaluating products?
As another poster pointed out, what's the deal with a "Check prices" link on every game, even the ones that are supposedly terrible? The answer is that GameSpot is probably obligated to provide those links because of deals they have with publishers or game retailers. Not only does that particular category reveal them for the captialists that they really are (i.e. not independent press), but then they actually have a category called "Most Disappointing Delay" populated with games that are not out now and (in the case of Half-life 2, at least) may not be out for several months yet.
Frankly, I think they could have listed themselves among the category "Most Despicable Product Placement".
Curmudgeon Gamer: Not happy
He flames, he gets modded up. Who let the monkey give out the mod points again?
Link in post != Insightful
Someone please do the right thing here and knock this back down.
Although I haven't played either game (yeah, yeah, I know) I would personally say that Postal 2 deserves the criticism they heap on DoA Beach Volleyball. Postal 2 is as focused on wonton violence as DoA is on boobs. Now if that floats your boat, okay, but which game do you think would show up in a senate hearing? Games like Postal 2 provide the necessary ammunition (heh) for people who want to pass laws to heavily regulate the game industry. This scares me much more than a bunch of 3d rendered boobs. I just hope that games like Postal 2 are ignored by the gaming public so that they never gain enough popularity to end up on some excitable legislator's desk.
I'm also confused by why they were so disappointed with Devil May Cry 2. It's exactly the same as the first game! I thought the first game was a very predictable action game with a plot that could've come out of an 8-bit side scroller. Why were they expecting any more out of the sequel? They're both pretty much the definition of a rental game.
Personally, I'd say that Unreal II was the worst game I played in 2003. It was basically an engine demo. It had a really weak plot and offered absolutely no innovation on the standard FPS formula. Its only claim to fame was that it had more polygons than yesteryear's games. The multiplayer add-on was released far, far too late.
I dunno if it counts as a 2003 game or not, but I had a ton of fun playing the Serious Sam First Encounter/Second Encounter collection. In Second Encounter the graphics are 90% as good as Unreal II's and the gameplay is a hundred times better. It retails for $10, so I'd urge anyone out there who hasn't played Serious Sam to give it a whirl.
Tomb Raider?
I thought only people who had IQs below 80 and/or retrograde amnesia could possibly be disappointed by a Tomb Raider game in the year 2003. Freelancer would've been a much more appropriate nominee.
Rob (At least MOO3 was on there...)
Atleast with Postal 2, Gamespot admits that while the game isn't great, it nails its target. It brags about its intentions and fulfills them unlike a lot of games that fail to even have mediocre success with their intentions.
I think you are referring to IGN when you refer to advertising dollars going to far. Even when it isn't game related (McGriddles...haha).
Seriously, Gamespot is the least bought out of all the sites. Sure, some of their reviews are still questionable but the percentage is much less than all the other sites.
If you read gaming industry magazines on a regular basis, some of the PC games this year got some of the lowest rankings I have seen in a long time. In fact the games people are naming in /. are mediocre games that sucked. The REALLY bad games no one even know exists.
I am talking the review ranks are so low you'll laugh your ass off.
2.4 out of 100
1.3 out of 100
18 out of 100
As an example of just how arbitrary these silly moral decisions are, Gamespot gives DOAXBV "Most Embarrassing Game", with braindead analysis such as:
:D But according to their review it features:
While we here at GameSpot aren't against the concept of poolside wiggling, the way it's portrayed in DOA: Xtreme Beach Volleyball is embarrassing to the point of disgust. Its dress-up, peep-show mentality comes across as just plain creepy, and just as people's perceptions about games as serious subject matter were beginning to change, something like this sticks out like a sore thumb. Games still have a long way to go, and softcore digital exploitation like this surely isn't helping to expand the market, regardless of its M rating.
Then in their section on Best Games No One Played, they feature Clockwork Tower 3. This may be a wonderful game, I haven't played it.
One scene depicts the hammer-wielding killer bludgeoning a young girl to death, while another has a villain gouging a man's eyes out and then plunging his elderly mother into a vat of acid. It's not really worse than you'll see in any slasher flick, but the game's personal treatment of the violence makes it hit home.
Huh? Which game is disgusting again, and deserves to be shunned for just that reason? Upbeat silly oggling and dress-up of virtual women = exploitation, while severe graphic violence against virtual women = underrated game? I just can't find words for how ridiculous that is.
(Please note, I am not saying either game should be censored, etc. My mind just boggles at the moral puritanism being displayed.)
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
I was equally happy to see Galactic Civilizations make Finalist for "Best Strategy Game." It's a wonderful space strategy game, made even more sweet after dealing with Master of Orion 3 (despite GalCiv being more Civ like than MoO like.) I kind of wonder why it's free expansion pack didn't get nominated for an award though. How can a free expansion to one of the best games of the year not make the "Best Expansion Pack" list?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Personally, I detest pornography, violent films with no content, etc., but who defines that? I also like the game Manhunt, and many violent films and films involving sex that are not exactly critically acclaimed - because they have something interesting to ME.
So piss off with your judgements.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
"Making a volleyball game and then taking the players clothes off..."
I wasn't aware volleyball was usually played in winter overcoats.
I see what you're saying, of course, but I would say the issue is more about making a volleyball game where "breast physics" and bikini selection are critical sales points.
Yeah, well, I'm sorry people knock the football game you buy year after year, apparently expecting the game of football to, well, change or something, but you're not going to see me calling you names for buying it.
I liked XS. Maybe its because I can slice through the religious crap. Maybe its because the philosophical ideas expressed interest me. (have you ever read any Nietzsche? Or any other philosopher? Do you understand the elements in conflict in the storyline?) Sure, the cutscenes were long, but guess what? The game designers added something you don't find in many other games: the ability to skip them. As for MOMO and her panties, the only difference between this and DoA XBV is the apparent age of the models used. To quote another game "Earth to Hiro, she's not even HUMAN!" If you're going to call this a sign of the pedo times, you're completely ignoring the real child porn that actually exploits children out there. If the pedos out there start getting their jollies from rendered panties, I'm sure thousands of real children will breathe sighs of relief.
First, let me preface by saying that I haven't played any of the Xenosagas, so what I am saying is in general and in no way related to this game. That said: One of the criteria for "taking things too seriously" is taking admittedly advanced concepts, ideas, references, etc., running a few feet with them, and then acting like you have created a work of deep genius. This is what got so many people steamed about Matrix philosophy: it was, essentially, name-dropping. I didn't have too much of a problem with the Matrix (in that, philosophically, it was at least sound, for the most part. Haven't seen the sequels, though). I do notice this trend in some other films, games, websites, etc. Knowing Nietszche, Kierkegaard, or Sartre does not intrinsically make something deep. Saying "God is Dead" does not make something deep. Obscure religious symbolism does not make something deep.
I keep coming back to Evangelion when thinking about this subject. Now THAT was a show that took itself too seriously! Evangelion (and its ilk) are to deepness what Goths are to people with severe clinical depression: showy, self-infatuated shells that take on the trappings instead of the contents.
Not having played Xenosaga, I can't say if that is the case or not, but the fact that, instead of using the title "The Will to Power", they chose to go with the intentionally obscure and weighty "Der Wille zur Macht" puts one point on the "pompous" side of the scoreboard.
If you like it you are probably an "otaku" (and don't realize that it's an insult in Japanese).
An insult? Only in slang. As an everyday word it's actually a polite way of saying "you" or "your house".
Maa, omae no you na nanimo wakaranai yatsu ha sonna koto oshiete mo muda darou kedo...
In a sense, this made Xenogears somewhat mysterious. Although all of the pieces were there in the storyline and could be understood, it often took a look at the official story to see how they all related to one another. But Xenogears had a good story for other reasons as well. It started off with a handful of rather evil villains and eventually narrowed it down to just one (and even then, he's questionably evil), it blended in some religious mythos, including a priest whose faith turns against him. The tracking down of a manmade and synthetic God entity. And that everyone on the planet was artificially produced by this "God," in reality a giant planet terraforming weapon.
A lot of people see parallels between Xenogears and Neon Geneis Evangelion, and it goes beyond Xenogears using a rejected NERV Headquarters design for its ship bridge. Both have big robots. Both have the mysterious blue haired girl (Rei Ayanami and Miang Hawwa). Both have reluctant and troubled heroes (Shinji Ikari and Fei Wong Fong). And both make heavy use of religious symbolism and names in the most garish of places. But that's about where the similarities end. The storylines and the factions are quite different, it's just that some elements are shared. And I don't really think one borrowed from the other - they were both developed in parallel and so it's probably sheer coincidence that some of these parallels exist.
The point I'm trying to make is that Xenogears/Xenosaga is pretentious like Evangelion is. Arguably, the Xeno games make more sense than Evangelion, which spiraled into a crack-induced mind warp in the final episodes and movies, but they are both guilty for using religious symbolism to effect a faux deepness.
Another example of someone who doesn't like something, and decides that their opinion is superior to everyone else's. My post stated that it is not universally revered, allowing for criticism - you felt the need to insult people who might like something you don't.
I'm less of an "otaku" and more of a "gaijin", though *you'd* probably call me "wapanese" - which would likely be followed up by several other deragatory comments about things I appreciate.
You're entitled to your opinion, but try not to be such a flaming asshole as you go about spreading your ill-cheer.
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
This is about the worst gaming decisions of 2003. Wouldn't Valve's Steam fall under that category?
warning: This post is likely to contain gobs of dripping sarcasm. Consume at your own risk.
Even mentioning Schindler's List in the same thought as Xenosaga should be a capital offense. But since you started it, I should point out that Schindler's List did actually have a couple of jokes.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
You call unlimited, gratuitous boobies and blood "mature"? I call it immature in the extreme. A mature game is one which mature (i.e. smart, more skillful than average) gamers get the most out of. A mature game in my opinion is a game like Ikaruga: because although it has no sex or violence, you'd need to be at least fifteen years old to complete it without unlimited continues, and in addition to that, you need to be smart, fast, skillful and CONCENTRATING to get the highest scores out of it. An eight year old would just get tired of it.
Incidentally, does nobody just say "My two cents" anymore?
qntm.org
There's a difference between a game having a deep and involving plot or subtext and justifying it - for example, the original Deus Ex - and a game which attempts to be clever and FAILS MISERABLY either directly or by being severely lacking in rather more important areas such as playability.
If Xenosaga managed to be a good game at the same time as being high-brow, then I say fair play. Having overly-long cut-scenes is a completely different thing from being pretentious.
qntm.org