First, a foreword. I am creating this thread because I want to know what elements it is that people think makes a bad game really bad. I know that there are plenty of horrible games out there like Bible Adventures, Total Recall, and ET, but we don't generally hate them, because nobody plays them. They are simply too bad. I am more interested in games that you honestly hate, for whatever reason. Generally, these games should be popular. No doubt games that I really like, or games that YOU really like will be named here. Let's just try to stay tolerant with eachother, ok? It's not a crime to like a game that someone else hates, or vice versa.
#1: Grand Theft Auto 3This game gets put at the top of my list for the simple reason that it started a big riot that I didn't want to happen. It was insanely popular, not for any of its good features, but more for the simple fact that you could pick up hookers then get your money back by running them over. It's one thing to put that content into a cheap flash game and get a bunch of fans, it's quite another to make such a game into a system seller. The game did do some things right, but it did far more wrong, and that's why it's at the top of my list. I don't want games like this to become the driving force of the industry.
#2: Chrono CrossThis game was a completely inappropriate sequel to one of my most beloved games. The gameplay wasn't anything special, and NOTHING like the first game, the artwork was just crappy, and the story wasn't anything worth writing home about. Worst of all, the characters had next to zero back story, and not a single one of them was worth a single bit of my feeling. If you haven't played this game, you aren't missing out on much.
#3: Metal Gear Solid 2Like #2, this is a complete perversion of everything I loved about a game. It basically took everything that was in Metal Gear Solid 1, and changed it around a little. It took the same story, and made it suck. It took the same characters, then made them insipid and unworthy of my emotion, but enhanced the graphics and the gameplay a little. The end result is a game that is absolutely painful to play after the first hour. This is coupled with the fact that Konami hid the facts when marketting the game that the tanker level is only a small part of the game, and is the only good part. It just made the fans feel even more cheated when they sat down to play the game, expecting to play as the good old Solid Snake, and instead getting some little weakling named Raiden. This game can rot in hell.
#4: Parasite Eve 2Bad sequels seems to be a common thing in my list. This is another fine example of Square taking a fine franchise and making it suck more than you ever thought possible. The first game featured a VERY good and very coherent story, and some great character development. The gameplay was fresh and new, and something I had never seen before in an RPG. The second game had a REALLY crappy story, next to zero character development, and the gameplay was a cheap Resident Evil knockoff with some of the most unbalanced gameplay ever. The game just bored the hell out of me. I hated it because it was one of my most anticipated games for a long time.
#5: Final Fantasy XIThis list just wouldn't be complete without a Final Fantasy. Although I hate VIII, IX, X, AND X-2, I still hate XI the most. Even the IDEA of an online Final Fantasy pisses me off. If they didn't destroy the franchise enough already, they just wanted to weld the coffin shut so that no gamer would ever trust them again. I hate this game even more because I know without a shadow of a doubt that so many American gamers will buy this game and be ranting and raving about how good it is before you know it. I shudder just to think of it. This position also serves as a placeholder for my much hated VIII, IX, X, and X-2, which all deserve my hatred, but would consume too much space on this list.
#6: HaloThis game just irritates me because of its popularity. It might be a decent enough game, but constantly hearing people yap about how great the graphics are just sort of annoys me. The parts of the game I have seen aren't anything to write home about, and has some.... atrocious framerates in some areas, some horrible animations, and the most sparse levels you have ever seen. I think the level designers might have been napping, or just plain lazy. Also, I might mention that it's just another FPS. There are 12 million of them on PC, and this one is going to be on it soon as well. I really don't see why it should be a game that you would buy an Xbox just to play. You can tell that I am not an FPS player from my attitude, but whatever. If you buy a console to play an FPS, that's just a sign that you need to upgrade your PC instead of shelling out that money for an Xbox. Sorry, but system seller this should not be. However, this game is reasonably low on my list, not only because there are worse games, but because something
good did come out of it.
#7: CounterstrikeThe game that defines lame. I can tell if someone is a Counterstrike fan simply by the way they talk. I refused to play any online games for years after I tried this one. The game itself is good, but the fanbase is composed of the biggest collection of idiots and lamers you have ever met. I don't think I really need to elaborate, as I am sure you all know what I am talking about.
#8: Legend of ManaLast of the sequels on this list I hope. This game is just boring. I don't think it needs much more explanation. It doesn't really do anything all that well. In creating a completely open gameplay experience, they made the game suck. It isn't THAT bad of a game I suppose, but I am just angry that the beta testers didn't tell the programmers that their game sucked before it launched.
#9: DoomLet's make one thing clear before I start off on this one. I respect this game very much for some of the things it did for the industry. It gave us true 3D graphics, it gave us a new genre, and it was a game that helped push video games into the mainstream. However, I hate FPS games, and this one spawned all kinds of "me too" games, and I feel that it is one of the games that helped to push graphics over gameplay. The main difference between Doom and Serious Sam is the graphics quality, and that really irritates me, and is one of the driving forces regarding my hating FPS games. John Carmack is a great guy, and deserving of all our respect, but I just hate how much of what he does is for the sake of graphics, and I hate how much his games are copied in the industry. It's why I scarcely play PC games anymore, because they are all Doom clones.
#10: Metroid PrimeThis one will no doubt shock you all. Although I own this game, and do play it now and then, I just find it uninteresting. I was hoping for a system that was radically different from an FPS when I started playing the game, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that it was an FPS when I was playing it. For some reason, the game also gives me motion sickness, making it very difficult for me to play. It's strange, as I can play many other FPS games, console and PC alike without problems. I am not a fan of FPS games, and this game just feels too much like one for me. I will give it a thumbs up for graphics, level design, and programming feats though. Truth be told, this game is only here because I couldn't think of a better #10, and I just wanted to include it because of its insane popularity when there are plenty of better games on GameCube that are frequently overlooked because of it. I don't really hate it that much though. I am mostly indifferent on this one, as I feel it does just as much right as wrong. It could be that my enjoyment of it is dampened simply because I can't play it for long due to the inevitable motion sickness, and the cursed part of the game that I am stuck at.