2007 Disappointments
Some games just didn't rock as hard as I wanted them to. I'm not mad...just, disappointed.
Eye of Judgement: As a new PS3 owner, I've been quick to snatch up any of the system's unique offerings. Eye of Judgement is very much that. I've always been a fan of games like Magic, so the ability to play a game like it (made by Wizards of the Coast) with friends whilst on my couch sounded great.
Only problem, is that my apartment isn't lit well enough. And I don't have a small table that accommodates the mat. I spent 2+ frustrating hours tweaking the mat and waiting for cards to be registered by the all seeing eye only to find myself on the verge of heaving the Eye. It looks like a solid game if you have the right setup. It was just too much of a pain when all I wanted was to just play a game.
Mass Effect: By no means a bad game, Mass Effect wasn't quite what I personally thought it could be. I played through once with an Infiltrator and I completed every side quest I could find. After that, I began a second game on Hardcore as a Soldier.
I already went over it here.
Crysis: Crysis looks like a brilliant game, both visually and from a design standpoint. I mostly enjoyed Far Cry, so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, I just have a good computer, not an NSA "I hacked the Chinese" super computer. And I don't think I'm alone. Sales for the game so far have been extremely poor, primarily due to its steep system requirements and a healthy dose of piracy for good measure.
I think it's a big mistake to make a game that people need to upgrade for. If most hardcore gamers cannot play it on their current PCs, you've done something wrong. I just don't understand the decision behind it -- a visual showcase nobody will every see.
Hellgate: London: Hellgate was really missing something. The longer I played it and the more it was patched, the buggier it became. The default difficulty was insanely easy and the others were only available by subscription. And the slot machine styled loot drop just wasn't that interesting. Perhaps all the developers trying to make the next Diablo should take a step back and realize that the industry has moved on and the "click click click" loot fiesta isn't it any more. I'm really interested to see what Blizzard does with Diablo 3. How can they evolve the genre they created?
A friend of mine commented that for every brilliant design decision, they made ten really stupid ones. After playing the game for a bit, it seems like a fair generalization.
Team Fortress 2: I'll make this quick. Yes, gorgeous visuals, a tone of very unique classes and extremely polished gameplay. For the first few weeks I had an absolute blast -- I thought it was going to be with me forever. But, after almost exactly two weeks the classes stopped being so interesting and the maps got really old. It felt like the choke points were the same, the tactics were the same and the outcome didn't really matter. I lost interest. I think I'm in the definite minority of gamers, but TF2 didn't keep my attention as long as I wanted it to. Perhaps I should give it another chance.
(posted by grant at 12/26/2007)
