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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.")
N-Gage
"Same thing goes for games like DOA Volleyball and BMX XXX - the sexual content adds nothing to the game, and only hurts the industry." Speak for yourself, if I were to choose watching baywatch with or without the juggling of the boobies intro I treasure so much every episode or skipping it, I would shoot whoever made me choose. Though I'll admit BMX XXX might've been gone a little overboard.
... 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.
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.
Not to mention they just ignore the problems with anything that says Grand Theft Auto and automatically declare it perfect. While some of the same problems with GTA in other games drops it a point. Playing GTA for an hour pretty much gives you the whole game. I do like mindless killing though, just saying it's a very overrated game.
You might like True Crimes: Streets of LA by Activison. It's almost a GTA clone, but with a depth that leaves GTA for dead. It boasts branching storylines with multiple endings, an elaborate karma system, and an entire map of LA to drive around solving/committing crimes. I found it a much more rewarding experience than GTA, which left me feeling a little ripped off, after all, as you say, "Playing GTA for an hour pretty much gives you the whole game". Check it out, it's currently my favourite game.
Never fight naked, unless you're in prison...
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
"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?"
Because its not, probably.
I've been playing GTA games on and off ever since the original on the PC, and I've not once done either of those things.
The most telling thing I find with it, though, is that Simpsons Hit 'n' Run is currently riding high in the charts. Since the entire premise is to take all the elements unsuitable for kids out of GTA and replacing them with Simpsons references, and still manages to be both a big seller and great fun despite some of the handling getting a bit of a mangle along the way is as good a demonstration as any that the fundamental gameplay stands up.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"