Games you regret buying

redshoulder

Games you thought were going to be good but actually sucked.
Can be from any system, My list is ( there's more if I can remember).

Striker 96 (ps1)
CJ in the USA (amiga)
Turok (pc)
XIII (pc)
Chrome (pc)

Jazzy

star wars rogue squadron on the gamecube. €50 im never getting back

NunianVonFuch

Prince of Persia (X360). Sorta worth it for the visuals though, which were spectacular. But the game was no challenge at all, not like the old ones.
Tomb Raider (ALL). Everytime I play a new one, I love the first hour or 2 and then the swearfest begins. By the time I finish it I never want to see another Lara game again. But then the new one comes out and the cycle repeats.
Clive Barker's Jericho. Worst. Clive Barker. Ever. Undying was so much fun that I ignored reviews. Yeah cos that always works! :rolleyes:
Lode Runner (XBLA). I hit the download button, not the purchase button! Stupid non-refundable grumble grumble... :mad:
Quantum of Solace (X360). Best bond since Goldeneye? I recall even The World Is Not Enough being better than this!

CJ in the USA was great craic! He shot peanuts and was an elephant. Thats all I remember unfortunately.

Royale with Cheese

Just bought Top Spin 3, it's shít. Will be getting rid of that one fairly soon.

I've bought a few games for €5 or so just because they were so cheap, haven't ever played one or two of them.

Apart from that not really, I generally don't pay much for games so unless they're really shíte I usually get my money's worth.

Krieg

hmm...

Spore
Mercs 2
stalker clear sky (Kind of regret, because it wasn't finished development)
Age of conan
Empire total war (Although Im going to give it a second go once its fully patched)
Final fantasy 10-2

Im sure theres a few more

Even though ive been buying games for 12+ years, its only been in recent times that ive actually regretted buying any game. I think its a combination of my taste in games changing, but mostly because of todays over-zealous reviews.

My purchasing decision mostly came down to a magazine review. If they included the sentence "If you like X, then this game is a must", I was sold. But these days im finding reviews to be bollox and very hard to find trust worthy. So I vowed to demo/pirate a game before purchasing.

Retr0gamer

The Darkness: Good ideas marred by it being an utterly **** game to play with retarded AI and silly aiming. As much fun as a spinal tap.

Kane and Lynch: Freedom Fighters was excellent. How IO managed to **** it's spiritual sequel up so much is beyond me. It also looks dreadful like a bad PS2 game.

Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures is one of the greatest games on the megadrive but the sequel was massively disappointing. I was young, didn't have much money was really tried to like it

Most arcade conversions on the C64: Other than a few exceptions like Rodland and bubble bobble most arcade conversions were awful. The worst was buying mercs when it was one of my favourite arcade games and getting one of the worst games I've ever played.

thelordofcheese

Krieg wrote: »

Even though ive been buying games for 12+ years, its only been in recent times that ive actually regretted buying any game. because i'm jaded at this stage.

FYP

Games are, on a whole, better now then they were 12 years ago. or at the very, very least, exactly the same.

And reviews aren't any different then they were back in the day, I found some old issues of a games magazine there a while back and had a quick flick through for nostalgias sake. Really no different to the stuff today, except the screenshots weren't as pretty.

The only thing that's changed is you (and of course, the rest of us who've been gaming for that long). We've seen so much it takes something stupidly extra special to impress us. We have unreasonable demands.

Blaming the games industry for your jaded pallet is just nonsense, if you're that badly off, stop playing games for a while. Take a year off, they're not going anywhere, gaming won't vanish if you stop playing for a while. Think of it like a sorbet between courses.

Pirating them certainly isn't going to help matters and will probably only make things worse for you.

CrazyTalk

Sonic and the Secret Rings for the wii.

I want to kcik any reviewer who said this game was anything more than ****e in the balls. Waste of money, even the guy who was at the till when I was trading it in said so.

L31mr0d

thelordofcheese wrote: »

FYP

I'd actually agree with this. My opinion is much like Kriegs but I accept it's because I'm jaded. I mean I can't get more than a few levels into replaying a game I loved on my first run through now without getting bored.

I find it's the same with TV, movies... etc. It's like I've been saturated with so much that everything just starts to look the same or remind me of something else.

In the last year nothing in gaming has really stood out for me apart from maybe the hype and initial burst of interest in L4D when it was released and then now playing Street Fighter 4 (never really got into the fighting game genre until this)

Worst game recently would have to be NecroVision... horrible, horrible game. I know it's a throwback to games like Painkiller or even the kind of play of Quake or Doom, but it's a format I think has well past its sell by date, at least in single player campaigns. The dialogue is simply atrocious.

Off PSN, LocoRoco Cocoreccho was an utter waste of money. Didn't like it at all.

pixelburp

Recently?

Assassin's Creed - it wasn't as bad as people made out to be, but they gave a gorgeous looking "real" city and absolutely nothing you can do in it except capture fuppin' flags. Sigh.

Fry Cry 2 - the same deal really: an even more gorgeous looking game (and it really looks & feels like Africa / a real place), with lots of nice touches like the HUD / vehicle repair, but the game itself was just repetitive, generic & the multiplayer unbelievably poor.

Fallout 3 - this depends on what day of the week it is really. When I'm against it, I regret purchasing this console-centric Oblivion Lite. There's less to do, less variation in the graphics, adolescent violence that just highlights how immature gaming is, and generally felt a good idea misfiring.

Bioshock - Again, it looks great (I must be a total graphics whore), and the characters & idealogoies really make it a proper "mature" game, but the actual gameplay was subpar; the shooting felt "wrong", RPG elements watered down & pointless, and the boss sections were laughably easy. Also includes gigantic plot holes once you think too much about the plot

Call of Duty: World at War - A trashy, explotational, war-is-kickass game with Kiefer Sutherland's boring voice sending me to sleep. Multiplayer is fun, if only because there's less grenade spam than in CoD4

Command and Conquer 3 (including: Kane's Wrath) - I abandoned it before a number of patches, but the balance / fun just went out of the window soon after playing. Too many rush / cheap / spam tactics to make it fun to play.

Retr0gamer

R-type Final: R-type, one of the greatest games ever made. R-type 2, excellent shooter thats a little too tough. R-type Leo, massively underrated, an excellent and gorgeous looking shooter. R-type Delta, very atmosphere and gorgeous looking and one of the best shooters of the 32-bit gen. R-tpye Final, boring. One of the best shoot'em ups series goes out in a whimper. It featured the worst first level in a game ever, awful slowdown (the third level is played at 3-10 frames per second, I'm not exaggerating).

One word: HAWX. 2 more: Extremely Repetitive:mad:

NeoKubrick

pixelburp wrote: »

Fallout 3 - this depends on what day of the week it is really. When I'm against it, I regret purchasing this console-centric Oblivion Lite. There's less to do, less variation in the graphics, adolescent violence that just highlights how immature gaming is, and generally felt a good idea misfiring.

No mods, Fallout 3 gameplay is better than Oblivion's. They eliminated most of the problems of Oblivion's gameplay.


Perfect Dark Zero - What a disappointment the single-player was. I bought the Xbox 360 on Launch day for this game (and Oblivion, released a few months later), and I spent more time playing Hexic - the arcade game that came with every console.

There are more but I can't think of any.

corcaigh07

Driv3r, dear lord it was terrible. bought it on promising hype, the reviews started to flow in soon after i bought it. the previews must have been paid for.

PogMoThoin

I've given up buying games as I got stung with bad or unfinished games far too often (sometimes even unplayable like Arma and STALKER). I only ever buy now if I need a serial to play online (COD4) or I respect the developer or the effort put in (Crysis and L4D).

Overheal

Im not sure I've paid for a game I really regret buying. Never finished Rogue Squadron on the GC but then I only paid a tenner for it. FF9 offered up plenty of hours before I got bored of it (final battle, I just lost track of the plot had no idea wtf was going on and i didnt care). Bought FFTactics for PS1 and I STILL havent played it. Why? Cos I bought it in the states years ago and now that im back though and I still have it, im sure Ill get around to it in the next few weeks. Didnt pay much for it anyway. Bought Prince of Persia trilogy over christmas but it doesnt run great on my machine - still cheap (steam sale!). Ill get to it.

The only games in recent memory I ever spent more than 50 on were FF8, FF9 and ZoE2: The 2nd Runner. All of which I at least got my 50e back out of.

I didnt pirate Crysis surprisingly. I just borrowed it from a flatmate but thats really saying the same thing. Cant say I appreciated the ending. Which is why I pirated the expansion. As for TF2 and L4D - well TF2 was an xmas gift and L4d was cheap. both are great online.

But as pirating proves you dont have to worry about missing out on good games. Someone out there, even if it takes a while, will have the old titles available. Which explains why im just now going back and playing a sh!t ton of playstation 1 games.

DarkJager

Conflict: Denied Ops (Xbox 360) - Supposedly an xbox 360 game, with the graphics of an early PS2 title. The guns are also completely ****, which kind of defeats the whole idea of an FPS.

Wild 9 (PS2) - I shiver when I think of this game. Utter repetetive crap at its worst.

The Darkness (Xbox 360) - Good idea for a game but the execution was terrible. "I think I'll kill these guys with my snakes....oh wait they're not working and I'm getting shot....now I'm dead. Thanks snakes :mad:"

Operation: Flashpoint (PC) - I was mildly enjoying this until it brought me to a level where I was told to run through a forest without any weapons at all. Sorry, but I don't do running in terror in FPS games. Give me guns or **** right off.

RobertFoster

Metroid Prime 3 - I thought the Wii controls might do something great, but I found myself stopping to scan stuff every 2 seconds, just like the GC version. Give me a 2D Metroid anytime.

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (GBA) - I found it hard on the SNES. I thought it'd be easier on the GBA as I was older, and more experienced with games. I was wrong

Hidden and Dangerous - Some budget PC title that didn't do anything for me.

Flight Sim n - Same as H&D. I only bought it as I had great fun learning to fly the Dodo in GTAIII.

Excite Truck - Bought it as it was cheap. I don't like racing games much.

Overheal

MP3 was great. Not their fault youre a scan whore :pac:

ballybay_eh

NunianVonFuch wrote: »

Prince of Persia (X360). Sorta worth it for the visuals though, which were spectacular. But the game was no challenge at all, not like the old ones.

Have to agree. Not about the graphics making it worthwhile though. Surprisingly poor game. Unchallenging and repetitive.

Kind of regret buying Championship Manager 97/98. The amount of time that game cost me...

Retr0gamer

DarkJager wrote: »

Operation: Flashpoint (PC) - I was mildly enjoying this until it brought me to a level where I was told to run through a forest without any weapons at all. Sorry, but I don't do running in terror in FPS games. Give me guns or **** right off.

:O No way! That was by far and away the highlight of the whole game. It seemed you were expecting soldier of fortune and instead got a frightening realistic portrayal of being a grunt. You should try it again but don't think of it as a FPS but a very realistic sim.

[QUOTE=RobertFoster;60232257Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (GBA) - I found it hard on the SNES. I thought it'd be easier on the GBA as I was older, and more experienced with games. I was wrong [/QUOTE]

I love that game. It's tough but definitely not impossible but then again I could beat Gn'G in the arcade with one credit so never found it too tough. But it does remind me of another game:

Ultimate Ghosts n' Goblins: I love the ghouls n' ghosts series and was really looking forward to this game. Unfortunately it really isn't very good at all. Boss battles are fantastic. The rest of the game lets it down. Level design is really poor and relies on cheap tactics to cause damage. While in the older games there's a few levels with constantly respawning enemies they are few in number and easily manageable. In this game they constantly spawn really cheap flying enemies in almost every area of the game and litter areas with cheapo instant death traps made frustrating by the respawning enemies. I started the game on the hardest mode since it had the classic damage system but had to change to an easier mode which let you take more hits since the cheap enemies caused unavoidable damage. Also hiding rings around levels that need to be collected to reach the last boss is just mean.

Gummy Panda

Spore - I only liked nuking the other countries.

Age of Conan - First 20 levels were okay then it was boring

Silent Hill: Homecoming - No inverted aim even though there is an option (unless they patched it, this doesn't work) and slow load times pissed me off.

Prince of Persia - run to some enemy/boss guy (1 per area), kill it, collect orbs and repeat... also GOD mode is enabled.

.hack//infection - fun idea got boring fast

FF x-2 - Gayest game i have ever owned.

Retr0gamer

Gummy Panda wrote: »

FF x-2 - Gayest game i have ever owned.

I pre-ordered that game as well and imported it from america. Dreadful stuff. Almost as gay as cho aniki.

Jazzy

i remember watching my mate playing ffx2.. it was just like "really? this is the sequel?!!! i mean.. really?"

super_furry

Ultima Ascension. Remember bunking off school to buy it, coming how from town on the bus pouring over the manual, absorbing everything about what was going to be the best Ultima game ever, getting home, installing it and feeling very, very cheated.

Ross_Mahon

Burnout 3: Takedown

I just had enough of the same thing over and over, It was great the first time around

Def Jam: Icon

They removed a lot of the things i loved

Tenchu Z

Not as good as the one before it, Could have been a hundred times better

SeantheMan

Armored Core For Answer Absolute rubbish, turned it off after 20 mins. I only bought it as the 2nd part of a 2 for 40 as there wasnt much other choice.

COD 5 Its pants

Every MOH after Allied Assault (PA, BT, SH and Airborne)

Guitar hero WT Hence me giving it away to a boardsie for free

CCCP^

Politka. A game which featured Tom Clancy's name and was even bundled with a Tom Clancy novel. UTTER ****E.

Sgt Hartman

Mike Tyson's Boxing (PS2) - I returned it the same day I bought it. Frustrating with piss-poor controls.

Swords and Serpents (NES) - ****e 3-D dungeon RPG, one of the most boring and pointless games I everbought.

Dark Cloud (PS2) - Extremely repetitive, boring and frustrating.

Aidyn Chronicles (N64) - Terrible bug-ridden RPG with dreadful turn-based battle and even worse death screams.

Final Fantasy 9 (PS2) - Spent more time watching cut-scenes than I did playing the game. The turn-based battle system turned me off the FF series for good. Turn-based battle systems should be abolished IMO, they r ****e. They nearly always turn what could have been a potentially good game into a boring, frustrating slog.

Funkyspunkball

Star Trek Legacy (PC).... boring as f...

humanji

Metal Gear Solid 4 - Looks ok (nothing amazing), but played like shìte. I was so disappointed with this, even though I didn't have high hopes for it.

Spore isn't a terrible game, there just isn't that much to do in it, and I regret spending money on it as I was bored after 1 day.

Age of Pirates: I love pirate games and since this was meant to be everything Sid Meiers Pirates was and more, I jumped at the chance to buy it, only to find that not only was it bugged to hell, but it wasn't even finished, with huge chucks of the maps locked off. Apparently Age Of Pirates 2 is in the same state.

And Ultima Ascension. I'm a huge Ultima fan but there's so little to like about this game. It had huge potential but like so many games, the publishers stepped in.

Retr0gamer

Sgt Hartman wrote: »

Turn-based battle systems should be abolished IMO, they r ****e. They nearly always turn what could have been a potentially good game into a boring, frustrating slog.

Please don't get rid of turn-based battle systems since the best RPG battle systems are turn based. I was never a fan of the FF ATB system but when they changed it to pure turn based for FFX they got it so right. All the best RPG battle systems are turn based, and I really hate the real time Western RPG systems.

Jip

GTA IV, even though I paid less than €40 on launch day it was the biggest waste. Out of all the games I have that has the least played time on it.

Cake Man

Perfect Weapon years ago for PS1. Shockingly bad!

petes

I bought a type of wrestling game years ago for the SNES. My god it was dung, can't remember the name of it. Worse was I bought itinstead of a great game for the SNES the name of which also alludes me.

I'm a wealth of information!!

Shiminay

Tribes 2 - was so excited about that game and had my hopes crushed.

MOH

Spore - after years of hearing about it, there was nothing special in it. The space stage is just pure grinding.

GTA4 - had it's moments, but don't know it was worth the price.

But the winner has to be:
Die Hard Nakatomi Plaza
In fairness I didn't specifically buy it, it came in a pack with something else (NOLF maybe?).
It was just broken from the start.

NeoKubrick

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Please don't get rid of turn-based battle systems since the best RPG battle systems are turn based. I was never a fan of the FF ATB system but when they changed it to pure turn based for FFX they got it so right. All the best RPG battle systems are turn based, and I really hate the real time Western RPG systems.

Final Fantasy XII's real-time gambit-system has been the best battle system in the series (VI-XII). I don't mind turn-based fare (and I was initially disappointed they didn't copy FFX's template) but it's extremely hard to go back to play FFX random encounters with slow turn-based action after playing FFXII with its quick seamless battles.

Retr0gamer

I thought FFXII was the worst for me. It was so boring sitting back letting the cpu fight for you and having areas that took almost an hour to get through made out of cut and paste sections repeated ad nauseum

death1234567

Empire total war (PC)
Sonic Heroes (PS2)
Super smash bros. Brawl (wii) - Not for me.

Professey Chin

WWE Crush Hour. I was young and stupid.I didnt know.I DIDNT KNOW!!!!:(:(:(

NeoKubrick

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I thought FFXII was the worst for me. It was so boring sitting back letting the cpu fight for you and having areas that took almost an hour to get through made out of cut and paste sections repeated ad nauseum

The people behind FFXII identified, correctly, that the selling-point of their gameplay (the series, in fact) was strategy, not execution, and tailored a battle system to maximize strategy and minimize execution. You may say it was "boring" but letting the CPU fight is what traditional Final Fantasy games have always been about: FFXII just allowed the player to cut out the meaningless execution phase if the player chose and let them plan and strategize a series of 'if statements' to automatically execute. Not only that, Final Fantasy games are made up of 80% leveling-up where you pick a location, and battle a hundred of the same enemy, and the battle system streamlined the whole process of repetitive battles with repetitive enemies to get your numbers up to advance to the challenging boss battles.

Give it a try again. FFXII's battle system compared to the previous battle systems is like the difference between high-definition and standard-definition TVs.

SeantheMan

Insurgent wrote: »

I bought a type of wrestling game years ago for the SNES. My god it was dung, can't remember the name of it. Worse was I bought itinstead of a great game for the SNES the name of which also alludes me.

I'm a wealth of information!!

Useless information would even be good

Frank3142

Need for speed Undercover .....ughh

Retr0gamer

NeoKubrick wrote: »

Give it a try again. FFXII's battle system compared to the previous battle systems is like the difference between high-definition and standard-definition TVs.

I've beaten the game and never want to play it again. There was no strategy in the battle system it was just sit back and let the cpu do the work, other than the boss fights which were the only thing that worked. How you can say there was strategy after FFX I don't know. Also the FF games since FF3 have not been about levelling up just levelling up naturally as I progress through the story. I have beaten every FF game from FF3 onwards without doing any repetitive levelling up. In fact repetitive levelling up completely ruins some of the games such as FFIX and FFX since there is no need to use any strategy during fights. Maybe it was a more streamlined system but it bored me to tears and meant getting from one location to the next meant 30-45 minutes of trudge and boredom and having to run around in circles if my MP ran out. It was one of the most boring games I've ever played. I was expecting a JRPG and got KotOR with a worse storyline and a poor version of the same battle system and I already hated KotOR's battle system.

It would have been a good candidate for this topic but I downloaded it when it was leaked 2 months in advance and thank god I did because I would have bought it otherwise and was planning on buying it when it was released.

seanybiker

saints row 2. Thank fluck I kept the receipt. Has to be one of the worse games ever made.

redshoulder

Some more I remember,

Farcry 2 - Just didn't like it.

Crysis - game was decent, but I paid full price for it and completed it in a day.

Guild wars expansion packs - after I completed most of the quests in the original. I just got sick of it.

NeoKubrick

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I've beaten the game and never want to play it again. [...]

Strategy does not equal execution and execution does not equal strategy; so, I don't know why you're confusing the two as if they were synonyms. If, as you say, there was no strategy in the battle system in FFXII, then there was no strategy in any of the previous games in the series, because the battle system is just an interface for strategy, not a mechanic of it; so, that statement doesn't hold up if you think the Final Fantasy series has strategy. You conceded that it's more streamlined and it is, because with the gambits, you don't have to manually flick through menus to select an attack you knew you'd want the second you seen the enemy because the gambit immediately fetches the attack and executes it for you in the situation you specify. That's not the CPU thinking for you or participating in strategy; therefore, the only work the CPU is doing is what it did for all the previous games in the series except cutting out the execution when you already know which strategy (attack etc) to use (therefore, streamlining the process).

It's not a poor version of Knights of the Old Republic's battle system: it's an advanced and better version of it. But, feel free to cite the equal or better of FFXII's gambit system in either Old Republic game. I know you won't find equal or better, because the Old Republic games are two of my favourite games and they have nothing of the sort.

If you were expecting a traditional JRPG, then it's obvious that is bias towards a expectation of a particular game and has nothing to do with analyzing the actual game, logically. But, should you criticize a great game you only strolled through and didn't play much and have obvious bias against, just because you didn't like it and therefore put off the readership of Boards.ie from purchasing or playing the game?


And if you don't know what repetitive leveling-up means in a Final Fantasy game, then you should look up Penace or Yazmat or the many side-quests in the series which out-rank the difficulty of the main-quest.

joeperry

How about Manx TT for the sega saturn,it was muck. Paid top price for it too but i was stuck with it

DARK-KNIGHT

seanybiker wrote: »

saints row 2. Thank fluck I kept the receipt. Has to be one of the worse games ever made.

oh you didnt just go there seany lol! saints row 2 is a great game its everything that gta4 should have been and more:)

Retr0gamer

NeoKubrick wrote: »

Strategy does not equal execution and execution does not equal strategy; so, I don't know why you're confusing the two as if they were synonyms. If, as you say, there was no strategy in the battle system in FFXII, then there was no strategy in any of the previous games in the series, because the battle system is just an interface for strategy, not a mechanic of it; so, that statement doesn't hold up if you think the Final Fantasy series has strategy. You conceded that it's more streamlined and it is, because with the gambits, you don't have to manually flick through menus to select an attack you knew you'd want the second you seen the enemy because the gambit immediately fetches the attack and executes it for you in the situation you specify. That's not the CPU thinking for you or participating in strategy; therefore, the only work the CPU is doing is what it did for all the previous games in the series except cutting out the execution when you already know which strategy (attack etc) to use (therefore, streamlining the process).

But they take away any interaction from the player you might as well be watching a movie, a very boring one.

NeoKubrick wrote: »

It's not a poor version of Knights of the Old Republic's battle system: it's an advanced and better version of it. But, feel free to cite the equal or better of FFXII's gambit system in either Old Republic game. I know you won't find equal or better, because the Old Republic games are two of my favourite games and they have nothing of the sort.

It's final fantasy, you expect a JRPG, not a western RPG which we got. I didn't like KotOR, it's just not my kind of game. Thats why I like FF games because it's the type of game I like.

NeoKubrick wrote: »

If you were expecting a traditional JRPG, then it's obvious that is bias towards a expectation of a particular game and has nothing to do with analyzing the actual game, logically. But, should you criticize a great game you only strolled through and didn't play much and have obvious bias against, just because you didn't like it and therefore put off the readership of Boards.ie from purchasing or playing the game?

I didn't stroll through it and nearly put 60 hours into that game. most of that time was running around in circles waiting for my MP to refill.

NeoKubrick wrote: »

And if you don't know what repetitive leveling-up means in a Final Fantasy game, then you should look up Penace or Yazmat or the many side-quests in the series which out-rank the difficulty of the main-quest.

I know about the ridiculously tough bosses in FF games and I never waste my time on them. I've the same feeling towards them as achievement points, pointless. I find no enjoyment out of grinding for hours to bulldoze a boss out of sheer attrition and no strategy. You might as well be playing a desk job simulator. I've too many games unplayed to bother with it.

Thought Saints Row 2 was great as well. It was the anti GTAIV in that it was stupid and fun, while GTA was trying to be serious and failing and a little dull.