Sure, 2010 had some truly excellent games – games that likely brought you hours of fun, red eyes and repetitive strain injuries of all kinds. But it also brought disappointment. We're talking about broken dreams, wet eyes and a pang in our hearts that not even the strongest alcohol seems to blot out.
While the games on our list might have turned out pretty well on the whole, we've selected the titles that had the highest expectations on them to begin with. We're talking about epic development cycles, big franchises and ravenous fans. So - even if they scored well, we were disappointed these games didn't quite achieve all they could.
Which games made our list of shame? And what about the runners-up who didn't quite make the cut? Read on!
10. Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I
After years of waiting for a true sequel in line with Sonics 1 to 3, fans collectively nerdgasmed over the purported return to the series' pure 2D roots. No silly side-quests, no lame characters – no awful voice acting, even – just the purity of high speed racing, jumping and ring collecting. How could it go wrong?
To be fair, Sonic 4 was completely playable – and it never went wrong, per se – but it also wasn't the perfect, shining example of how to do the 2D modern Sonic game that fans were expecting. Being merely very good isn't enough for a character like this; even saying 'this is the best Sonic game in years' doesn't have the kind of weight to it that it probably should. The controls and perspective, short length and limited replayability both held Sonic 4 back in our eyes.
9. PlayStation Move
Sony isn't exactly new to alternative gaming interfaces – EyeToy has been around for years, the Sixaxis controller took a couple tentative steps into the Wii's court, and now PlayStation Move takes another significant stride towards a motion-controlled future. The tech works very well, blending the EyeToy's personal, full-body and voice activated interactivity with the accuracy of Wii MotionPlus.
via ign
However, we're disappointed with the overall experience so far. No game – compatible or specifically designed for Move – has convincingly shown the platform to be anything more than a me-too answer to Wii's motion control. There is no killer app yet, nor will there be until 2011. Given that it's the games that ultimately decide the success of the peripheral, Move is still unproven and a bit disappointing in our books.
8. Lost Planet 2
There was a lot to like about the original Lost Planet – pace, verticality and an emphasis on pure-action gunplay that succeeded far more than it failed. As such, after a couple of years of teasing us with tempting snippets of co-op gameplay and revamped presentation, Lost Planet 2 was high on our most-wanted list games. Capcom fumbled this ball.
Not only did Lost Planet 2 fail to deliver the initially promising gameplay premise, it actually took a backwards step in several respects. The gameplay itself was hampered by an overly complex control scheme, the game's difficulty proved badly balanced and the online functionality was severely flawed by poor and short-sighted design choices.
7. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
Another sequel that looked to address the sins of the father, Kane & Lynch 2 was immediately visually striking. The handicam grain, disrupted video playback look and hyper-realistic lighting and colour scheme immediately turned heads – to the point where we hoped the team had similarly reworked the gameplay, polishing and tightening along the way.
Sadly, by 'reworked', Kane & Lynch 2 merely tosses together a cover system that never felt reliable along with enemies that took far too many rounds to put down. These grunts also poured out in serious numbers, which killed the realism and upped the repetition. In short, it was a flawed and repetitive shooter that, despite great art direction, never breaks free of being mostly mindless in execution. Once again, all that potential went to waste.
6. Crackdown 2
Hey— if you had nine months to create and deliver a full game, you'd probably look at ways to cut corners too. Crackdown 2 is a sequel of the worst kind, delivering a nearly identical city, barely reworked beyond the colouration, and gameplay that is largely identical to the first game. Why does this game exist? Why?
Short answer is, it really shouldn't – or, at least, not in this form. Sure, adding a mutant infestation might've darkened the tone and upped the bloodletting, but the lack of story, structure and identical gameplay made for one of the biggest disappointments of the year. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the gameplay, but a true sequel to Crackdown deserved more.
5. Microsoft Kinect
Oh, Kinect. You and me – we need to have ourselves a frank little discussion before things go awry. Sure, you're making buckets of dough, and that bottom-line probably justifies the means – but that doesn't mean you're not a massive disappointment. When you were first unveiled, you were a sophisticated and impressive piece of hardware. Almost two years on, you're a sketch of the original idea; a watered down version of the idea we fell for.
Kinect's games and responsiveness have a lot to answer for here. The launch titles are fairly lacklustre, with a couple exceptions, and the lack of a longer-term line-up of more in-depth titles definitely hurts. The hardware itself has a lot of untapped potential, but the removal of a dedicated processor means that finer motor movements in the body aren't detectable and that really limits what can and cannot be done down the line.
4. Fable III
So here we are again: another Fable game that has failed to live up to the tremendous hype generated by its parent company, compounded by comments from Lionhead CEO Peter Molyneux that drove expectations into the stratosphere. Such hyperbole has been Molyneux's undoing in the past, and Fable III, while completely playable and even very good in most respects, nevertheless disappointed anyone expecting a fresh or progressive experience.
3. Medal of Honor
If you're going ape the tone and presentation of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise, at least make sure you emulate what really counts: quality of gameplay too. This year's reboot of the Medal of Honor brand probably deserved a different kind of booting – one that critics and gamers were all too happy to apply.
For starters, initial controversy levelled at depictions of the Taliban suddenly politicized the game, stirring up an ugly media frenzy. In an industry that already struggles with clichéd portrayals of violence, this was a messy situation. Then, after playing Medal of Honor, we were simply left wondering if the bigger travesty was, in fact, the sub-standard gaming fare. Consider Medal of Honor a guide on how not to relaunch a franchise.
2. Gran Turismo 5
Six years and millions upon millions of dollars later, Gran Turismo 5 is finally – finally – on sale. Was it worth the wait? For ardent fans, undoubtedly. For everyone else, however, we really have to wonder if Polyphony Digital understands that it ultimately painted itself into a corner. The expectations placed upon Gran Turismo 5, built off the back of years of waiting, refining, teasing, rethinking, hyping and overselling ultimately took its toll.
IGN scored Gran Turismo a very fitting and great 8.5 – but, like several games on this list, we question if six years of waiting for a less-than-excellent game is really worth it. Are we disappointed? Youbetcha. But would we be willing to wait another year for that extra polish? Heck no. At least it's finally out, right?
1. Final Fantasy XIII
Okay. Final Fantasy XIII is, without question, the biggest gaming disappointment of 2010. Square Enix promised fans so much and under-delivered in every area, apart from utterly gorgeous raw presentation values. It's true – XIII is pure spectacle, but the gameplay is so vanilla, linear and unmoving that we really wonder how the design process made it as far as it did without anyone raising some warning flags.
Being merely 'okay' isn't good enough for the Final Fantasy series. These games have a heritage and pedigree to maintain, and thirteen games in, this instalment indeed proved unlucky. The characters are routinely awful and uninteresting, the storytelling is a jumbled mess that meanders through bland subplot – and then there's the gameplay, which consists of essentially moving in a straight line for the first twenty hours, repeatedly hitting X.
Some have praised this entry for signalling a bold departure for the series; a change of direction and a new flavour. Frankly, if this is how Square Enix views the future direction of its major JRPG releases, we're more than a little irked.