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.")

Comments

How about that dud Matrix game?

[AtariAmarok]

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.

Re:How about that dud Matrix game?

[th3space]

I never liked the whole 'filling in the holes', bit. What ever happened to using exposition...or, even better, allowing the audience to decide for themselves what happened. It was a neat demonstration of the convergence of two markets, though...and it was pretty, at times.

My pick: overly gratuitous games

[Gothic_Walrus]

I don't have a problem with video game violence for the most part, but there are a few titles that have taken it too far.

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

Re:My pick: overly gratuitous games

[PainKilleR-CE]

I don't have a problem with video game violence for the most part, but there are a few titles that have taken it too far.

Who's to determine what's too far? Any other entertainment industry that has ever tried to censor itself or that has been censored has turned their product into crap until the artists began rejecting the censorship.

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.

Some people will never look at the industry in a positive light. In terms of sheer numbers, for every Manhunt there are how many E-T rated games? Have you even played Manhunt? (it's getting to the point where I might have to buy this damned game just to figure out why so many people are bitching about it, especially when most of them don't seem to have played it).

Same thing goes for games like DOA Volleyball and BMX XXX - the sexual content adds nothing to the game, and only hurts the industry.

Interestingly enough, on one hand, DOA XVB, you have a game that actually sold moderately well. On the other hand, BMX XXX, you have a game that didn't sell well at all. I wonder why that may be. Oh yeah, because one appealed to a particular audience and the other, well, didn't. The same people that call out game developers for DOA are the ones that should be abstaining from all David Hasslehoff material because of Baywatch. We certainly know that no actresses were hired for that show due to their ability to act.

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

You can see much worse in other media. You will always hear the stories, and if you really wanted to stop them short all you'd have to do is create some new media that kids and teenagers enjoy. The real backlash will continue until the current 18-25 group is in control of the country. Even then you'll see some of it, and it will probably continue for at least another generation. In the meantime, there aren't many people protesting showings of the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so I'm not too worried about the future of video games unless gamers themselves start to actually swallow the anti-game crap and spew it themselves. Self-censorship has proven itself to often be worse than (U.S.) government actions, primarily because government has to be careful to not run the Constitution through the shredder while they're at it.

Video Game Reviewers...

[JavaLord]

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).

Re:Video Game Reviewers...

[MWoody]

"Postal2 is fun if you play it for what it is (a virtual violence sandbox)."

No. GTA is fun if you play it for what it is (a virtual violence sandbox), and that game was a critical success. Postal 2 is liquid shit in a box.

Remember, kiddies: "Dark humor" requires both the "dark" AND the "humor" to work; simply peeing on dead people is not immediately amusing in and of itself.

Re:Video Game Reviewers...

[American AC in Paris]

It's becoming more obvious that people who review video games are becoming more and more snobbish against violence and sex in video games.

...actually, I'd say that video game reviewers are becoming less easily impressed by violence and sex in lieu of good gameplay. They've seen one too many half-assed games that slap a bit of skin or gore on to sell more copies, and they're getting sick of it.

Consider that GTA3 and Vice City continue to be lauded as ass-kickingly good games. If the reviewers are going all snobbish on us, why didn't they denounce GTA as some half-baked game that gets old once you've finished picking up hookers for extra life and shooting transients in the head with a sniper rifle?

Re:Video Game Reviewers...

[JavaLord]

Except that Postal 2 is a horrible game with way-too-long loadtimes.

Agreed, the zones are annoying.

Take away the peeing and exploding anthrax cow-heads and you have a boring, repetative game that takes forever to load.

That is like saying "Take the guns out of quake and you have aboring repetative game

Plus, you didn't mention taking out the anal raping of cats with shotguns, the priests with guns, making women vomit and pee themselves by shocking them with a tazer, the insane amount of politically incorrect humor in the game, etc etc.

I grant you, this isn't Final Fantasy, Quake, KoTR, Madden 2003, etc. It isn't innovative in anyway, it's just funny, and fun to play.

There are plenty of movies that appeal to nothing other than crude humor, and that is their selling point. Why is this an invalid selling point for a game?

Am I the only guy that finds it funny that ...

[doublesix]

There's a 'check latest prices' link next to all the box shots?

These games suck, now go buy them

Re:Am I the only guy that finds it funny that ...

[th3space]

It just goes to show, that even when you're 'bashing' a game, you've got to pay your bills and shill it, at the same time. Bad press is still press, and some people might buy some of those games based on what they've read...

Re:Am I the only guy that finds it funny that ...

[Unoti]

Compare these two statements. One of them is quite reasonable: 1. This game sucks, go buy it. 2. This game sucks because it's got jiggling boobies and is quite lurid and suggestive. On Postal, they mentioned that you can pee on anything in the game, and it has Gary Coleman in it. Certainly sparked my interest.

Xenosaga might take itself too seriously, but...

[Lightwarrior]

...it's still one hell of a game - though people either tend to love it or hate it.

http://gamerankings.com/itemrankings/itemcomment s. asp?itemid=519264

-lw

I don't agree

[AtariAmarok]

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".

Re:A game that takes itself far too seriously

[Black Hitler]

Somebody needs to tell those Xenosaga folks that they're not artists before they put any thoughtful storytelling in episode 2!

I wouldn't worry about that, seeing how there wasn't any thoughtful storytelling in episode 1, just a bunch of cliches dressed up with sub-Evangelion religious symbolism and endless anti-war speechifying.

Re:A game that takes itself far too seriously

[ivan256]

Right. There aren't any new storylines out there. Everything is old and cliche. We should stop taking ourselves seriously altogether because our golden days as an artistically creative species are all behind us. We should be satisfied with a string of first person shooters with progressively fancier graphics, because live action is the only thing that can be "real" anymore. We should give up on reinterpreting the classics and make all directors and fantasy authors do some actual work for a living. All of our shildren should play football in lieu of all other potential activities. All television series should become "reality" shows.

Excuse me while I go shoot myself.

Re:A game that takes itself far too seriously

[Anonymous Coward]

There aren't any new storylines out there.

There are plenty of them, just not in Xenosaga.

Re:Worst Gaming Decision

[Kris_J]

Ignoring for the moment that the mods are on crack for scoring a post consiting of only "N-Gage" Insightful and Interesting, I was actually expecting (based on the /. article title) a longer list of gaming industry decisions that turned out badly. The article is only five crap games, nothing really worthy of a /. thread.

Now, getting back to the "N-Gage" issue. While I totally agree that Nokia's marketing department should get a lifetime achievement award for fucking up, the product itself is actually pretty decent and has become the cheapest way to own a Series 60 mobile phone -- with a library of hundreds if not thousands of compatible applications. It's also become the mobile emulation platform with emulators for; Gameboy/GBC, ZX Spectrum, MAME, C64, MSX and NES.

Re:yeah. right...

[LordLucless]

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.

Typical sell-out media

[jvmatthe]

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".

Glad to see

[Daetrin]

I'm glad to see that Master of Orion 3 was up for Most Disapointing. I'm kind of sorry i wasted the money on it. I tried to get into it for a week before getting fed up with the crappy interface and the complete lack of action by the AI. Despite the difficulty of getting anything done the way i wanted, i kicked the computer's ass from one end of the galaxy to the other, and didn't really enjoy any of it. The combat was especially crappy and iritating.

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?

Re:yeah. right...

[Anonymous Coward]

Upbeat silly oggling and dress-up of virtual women = exploitation, while severe graphic violence against virtual women = underrated game?

You're kinda leaving out an important part of the argument, namely that DOAXB is a terrible, terrible game (the shallowest volleyball engine since the 2600 era combined with about half a dozen other crappy underdeveloped minigames) that tried to get by entirely on the basis of its scantily-clad women, whereas Clock Tower 3 (what the hell is "Clockwork Tower"?) is a genuinely good game. It's the difference between a good game that happens to contain mature content and building your entire game out of "mature" content (I put mature in quotes there because DOAXB is pretty clearly intended for 12 year olds) and pretending it makes up for the complete lack of thought that went into the actual gameplay. Could you seriously not figure this out by yourself?

Re:Xenosaga might take itself too seriously, but..

[Lightwarrior]

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