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Wasted Potential: Video Games That Didn't Meet Expectations

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by RC Cola, Jan 17, 2009.

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  1. RC Cola

    RC Cola Member

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    Basically, these are games/IPs with some interesting aspects to them, but either due to flaws in the game(s), poor sales, or both, they were never able to really live up to their potential. Although in the case of poor sales, it will probably have to be specifically IPs rather than specific games (poor sales for one game ended up killing the chance for a sequel). Otherwise, this could end up being a thread about every great game that didn't sell as well as expected.

    As an example, I just finished watching the cutscenes to the Xenosaga franchise via Youtube. I eagerly purchased and played the first game as soon as I could, but while I more or less enjoyed the game, it did not seem to meet my lofty expectations. I was still interested in the franchise, but the ~2 year gap until the sequel's release as well poor reviews for it sort of killed my interest in the franchise. The following announcement about stopping the franchise at 3 episodes instead of 6 also didn't help. That said, after checking out the full storyline, I'm actually pretty impressed by how things turned out. Not that it wasn't without its flaws (particularly Episode 2), but it definitely made me even more disappointed that Namco killed the project. Not that I could blame them of course. Episode 3 apparently only sold/shipped 343K copies between the US and Japan. Nevertheless, I think it would have been a pretty interesting franchise if it went the whole 6 episodes, especially with a decent budget behind them.

    Note that while it is OK to mention some disappointments with games and why they didn't meet personal expectations, I'd preferably like to keep this to games that were pretty much a disappointment for everyone. For example, I know people that were disappointed in games like FFXII, GTAIV, etc., but those games seemed to get great reviews and sales. I guess they could have still not lived up to their potential, but again, I'm thinking more along the lines of games like Too Human, Lair, Haze, etc., if you want some recent examples (each was supposed to lead to several sequels too IIRC, but I doubt that is still the case, at least for two of them). I guess Killzone 1 is an example of a game that was flawed, but for whatever reason, it did get the sales to warrant at least two sequels (both seemingly much better in quality).
     
    #1 RC Cola, Jan 17, 2009
  2. Tom Bombadillo

    Tom Bombadillo Member

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    Lord of The Rings: Conquest........

    I was confident that Pandemic was going to make something epic.......
    It turned out to be very "meh"....
     
    #2 Tom Bombadillo, Jan 17, 2009
  3. jcee15

    jcee15 Member

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    gears of war 2 was maimed
     
    #3 jcee15, Jan 17, 2009
  4. br0ken_shad0w

    br0ken_shad0w Member

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    Spore, enough said.
     
    #4 br0ken_shad0w, Jan 17, 2009
  5. bladeage

    bladeage Member

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    Too Human.
     
    #5 bladeage, Jan 17, 2009
  6. Uprising

    Uprising Member

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    agree.
     
    #6 Uprising, Jan 17, 2009
  7. Drexlerfan22

    Drexlerfan22 Member

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    I second the Xenosaga notion. What makes it hurt even more is that they seemed to get almost everything right in episode 3. They had gotten a few things right in 1, screwed most everything up in #2 (besides the plot), and really made amends in 3. I was really looking forward to seeing the connections with Fei/Elly of Xenogears fame in ensuing episodes (anyone who's seen the ending of Xenosaga 3 knows that those 2 figure prominently, but it ends up feeling like a tease when you know there were supposed to be 2 more games to go).

    I'm also a little weirded out that Condemned 2 seemed to sell so poorly. It got cheap very very quickly, and can be found in bargain bins everywhere. That's one of the most entertaining games I've played in awhile.

    Have to agree that Haze was beyond pitiful, especially for all the hype it got... same for Kane & Lynch... Mercenaries 2. Dirge of Cerberus. Devil May Cry II.
     
    #7 Drexlerfan22, Jan 17, 2009
  8. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy
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    Final Fantasy games -- great reviews, people LOVE them, but I couldn't stand them for a second.

    My biggest let down was the last Metal Gear game for the PS2 the one that is set in the 60's (?) -- just wasn't a good game.

    The most recent GTA is way overrated -- it's a fun game, but it is far from the perfect game so many reviewers claimed.
     
    #8 KingCheetah, Jan 17, 2009
  9. Drexlerfan22

    Drexlerfan22 Member

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    Which ones have you played? 7, 10, and Tactics are the only ones I really liked. 5 and 6 were okay though. I disliked 8, 9, & 12.
     
    #9 Drexlerfan22, Jan 17, 2009
  10. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy
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    ^ I think 7 on the PS1 and what ever the highest rated was for the PS2, but I can't remember the number -- 11 maybe..?
     
    #10 KingCheetah, Jan 17, 2009
  11. Drexlerfan22

    Drexlerfan22 Member

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    That would be 10. Huh. Fair enough.
     
    #11 Drexlerfan22, Jan 17, 2009
  12. CriscoKidd

    CriscoKidd Member

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    I'm sure there's a lot more, but the one that stands out to me right now is the legend of zelda: wind waker.

    The game was beautiful, imo. Exploration COULD have been so much fun if there were any point to exploring. And I was hoping you could sail to much bigger land masses than there were. Too few dungeons. An extremely tedious fetchquest at the end that saps out all the fun. But the worst thing for me, is that they had what seemed to me to be a pretty good battle system in place that was rendered virtually useless by sparse enemies and ridiculously easy difficulty. You actually had to try to die. One of the funnest things in the game was those random lairs filled with like a hundred enemies for you to beat up, of course there wasn't much point to actually doing them, but it showed how fun the game could have been.
     
    #12 CriscoKidd, Jan 17, 2009
  13. Poloshirtbandit

    Poloshirtbandit Member

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    Did you play Subsistence or the original release? I felt the same way about the game until I played Subsistence. The camera angle made a huge difference to me.

    I agree on GTA, but online (when you can find enough people to play) is fun.
     
    #13 Poloshirtbandit, Jan 17, 2009
  14. tinman

    tinman 999999999
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    street fighter 3,
    the animation was great, but the characters were dumb plus parrying turned the game into tapping contest, who can tap the fastest wins.

    good ole fashion reversing and smart fighting was eliminated to favor the twitch players.
     
    #14 tinman, Jan 17, 2009
  15. durvasa

    durvasa Member

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    I recently purchased the SF2 HD remix in Xbox live. I only played the game casually in the early 90s. Do you know of any good resources online for fighting tips/strategy?
     
    #15 durvasa, Jan 17, 2009
  16. Dr of Dunk

    Dr of Dunk Clutch Crew

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    Good grief, I actually bought this thing. I was bored with it after about 2 days of playing. No depth whatsoever to the gameplay. I should've known this would happen since this was a Maxis game - after a few hours to days of playing, I'm usually bored with most of their titles.
     
    #16 Dr of Dunk, Jan 17, 2009
  17. tinman

    tinman 999999999
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    Jessica
    <embed src='http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf' flashvars='article_ID=863022&downloadURL=http://retromovies.ign.com/games/video/article/863/863022/ignstrategize_ssf2remix_010709_flvlowwide.flv&allownetworking="all%"' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' width='433' height='360'></embed>
     
    #17 tinman, Jan 17, 2009
  18. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost Member

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    Sales: Little Big Planet, Dead Space

    Content: Mirror's Edge, Spore
     
    #18 DonnyMost, Jan 17, 2009
  19. tinman

    tinman 999999999
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    Ok, after you watch the Jessica video,
    here's some stuff for you to try out

    <object width="400" height="302"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2180653&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2180653&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="302"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/">Capcombo Video</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user912399">Derek Neal</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.
     
    #19 tinman, Jan 17, 2009
  20. dntrwl

    dntrwl Member

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    i agree with the others on Spore, I am so glad I illegally downloaded it and didn't pay for that piece of crap.
     
    #20 dntrwl, Jan 17, 2009
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