Post by M. Burusu on Jan 27, 2008 23:01:15 GMT -5
Seriously. We've all had this happen to us -- we buy a game, whether it's because it looked cool, it was from a series you know and love, or it's just something you thought would be an OK game.
And when you sit down to play it, you were disappointed. Too easy, too hard, too little storyline, jokes were either overdone or flat, etc. . . . we've all had a game disappoint us in some way or another (and for those who haven't had such a thing happen, you are some of the luckiest creatures in the cosmos).
Tell us which game severely disappointed you the most notably, and how come it was so disappointing, so that the rest of us may know to be wary of buying it ourselves, and so that you can relieve some stress by ranting about it.
I'll go first with a game that really didn't live up to my expectations:
Crash Tag Team Racing.
Not that I thought it would live up to the standards of past games, but I figured that it would at least follow a formula similar to its predecessors (heck, Nitro Kart even stuck to the original CTR formula) . . . but it threw EVERYTHING out the window. Not only that, but it was both way too hard AND way too easy.
It was hard because of the introduction of walking around on foot. While this would have been OK, they decided to use the worst camera EVER, one that even beats out the notorious, life-costing cameras of Sonic Adventure, and not only that but the controls, to put it bluntly, were not in the least bit handy, and not only that but it was just plain hard to navigate, if only because you could never tell just how far Crash was going to jump -- and not only that, but the Double Jump they let you have sometimes did its second jump a fraction of a second after the initial one, thus screwing you up completely -- what ever happened to it only working at the height of your jump? *sigh*
And the easy part was the actual racing. Why? Because of the revolutionary Clash system. When you're Clashed with another driver, your car and theirs turn into a complete and utter juggernaut with easy weapons and a killer new look, with one character driving and the other firing the easy weapons at anything nearby. Now, this in itself wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the fact that 1) normal weapons are a little hard to come by (and use), 2) Clashed cars' weapons have a tendency to be accurate and, in the case of more than a couple (*coughN.GinandNinacough*), instantly deadly to normal ones, and 3) if you and another driver are Clashed and you're in the gunner's seat, both you and the one driving share whatever place you end up in.
This adds up to the easiest way to win EVAR: Clash with someone with a weapon you find the most deadly and/or easy to use (each character has their own personal weapon they lend a Clashed car, and the gunner can swap between them), and stick with them for the entire race while they drive and you shoot the hell out of everything and their grandma. Me, I spent most of my time as either N. Gin or Nina, clashed with the other of the two -- one hit from either the rocket launcher (N. Gin's weapon) or the energy shotgun (Nina's grim little pride and joy) is enough to insta-kill ANYONE.
Not only that, but there's no boss races -- none! As much as I was a little gypped by the way Nitro Kart handled boss races, I feel completely gypped by the lack of any boss race in Tag Team Racing. And the stunt courses, while they do soften the blow, don't do it by much -- if I want a stunt arena, I'll play Rush 2049 for the N64 so that I actually have good controls and a car that I can customize to look as demonic as I want, or just break out Spyro 3 if I'm feeling lazy and don't want to switch systems.
Not only that, but the storyline and adventure mode is rather flat. All you do is race, collect Power Crystals so that you can get to the area's Power Gem (which looks nothing like the original Gems of the Crash series, much to my dismay), and repeat the process until you eventually find out that, >SPOILERS<, the talking Wumpa did it, even though the only hint we had to his involvement were some rather forgettable comments by various the park workers that you had to pay for Power Crystals in order to actually GET enough of them to get to the Power Gem (the only hint in these comments being that the crystal was covered in Wumpa Whip, which is way too obscure a hint as it is -- I mean, "Who drinks Wumpa Whip anyway?).
Basically, it all adds up to one thing: only buy Tag Team Racing for the multiplayer mode, and even then you really shouldn't expect much out of that one either (unless you plan on clashing with your friend and shooting the stuffing out of all the other racers for fun).
So, what about your disappointments?
And when you sit down to play it, you were disappointed. Too easy, too hard, too little storyline, jokes were either overdone or flat, etc. . . . we've all had a game disappoint us in some way or another (and for those who haven't had such a thing happen, you are some of the luckiest creatures in the cosmos).
Tell us which game severely disappointed you the most notably, and how come it was so disappointing, so that the rest of us may know to be wary of buying it ourselves, and so that you can relieve some stress by ranting about it.
I'll go first with a game that really didn't live up to my expectations:
Crash Tag Team Racing.
Not that I thought it would live up to the standards of past games, but I figured that it would at least follow a formula similar to its predecessors (heck, Nitro Kart even stuck to the original CTR formula) . . . but it threw EVERYTHING out the window. Not only that, but it was both way too hard AND way too easy.
It was hard because of the introduction of walking around on foot. While this would have been OK, they decided to use the worst camera EVER, one that even beats out the notorious, life-costing cameras of Sonic Adventure, and not only that but the controls, to put it bluntly, were not in the least bit handy, and not only that but it was just plain hard to navigate, if only because you could never tell just how far Crash was going to jump -- and not only that, but the Double Jump they let you have sometimes did its second jump a fraction of a second after the initial one, thus screwing you up completely -- what ever happened to it only working at the height of your jump? *sigh*
And the easy part was the actual racing. Why? Because of the revolutionary Clash system. When you're Clashed with another driver, your car and theirs turn into a complete and utter juggernaut with easy weapons and a killer new look, with one character driving and the other firing the easy weapons at anything nearby. Now, this in itself wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the fact that 1) normal weapons are a little hard to come by (and use), 2) Clashed cars' weapons have a tendency to be accurate and, in the case of more than a couple (*coughN.GinandNinacough*), instantly deadly to normal ones, and 3) if you and another driver are Clashed and you're in the gunner's seat, both you and the one driving share whatever place you end up in.
This adds up to the easiest way to win EVAR: Clash with someone with a weapon you find the most deadly and/or easy to use (each character has their own personal weapon they lend a Clashed car, and the gunner can swap between them), and stick with them for the entire race while they drive and you shoot the hell out of everything and their grandma. Me, I spent most of my time as either N. Gin or Nina, clashed with the other of the two -- one hit from either the rocket launcher (N. Gin's weapon) or the energy shotgun (Nina's grim little pride and joy) is enough to insta-kill ANYONE.
Not only that, but there's no boss races -- none! As much as I was a little gypped by the way Nitro Kart handled boss races, I feel completely gypped by the lack of any boss race in Tag Team Racing. And the stunt courses, while they do soften the blow, don't do it by much -- if I want a stunt arena, I'll play Rush 2049 for the N64 so that I actually have good controls and a car that I can customize to look as demonic as I want, or just break out Spyro 3 if I'm feeling lazy and don't want to switch systems.
Not only that, but the storyline and adventure mode is rather flat. All you do is race, collect Power Crystals so that you can get to the area's Power Gem (which looks nothing like the original Gems of the Crash series, much to my dismay), and repeat the process until you eventually find out that, >SPOILERS<, the talking Wumpa did it, even though the only hint we had to his involvement were some rather forgettable comments by various the park workers that you had to pay for Power Crystals in order to actually GET enough of them to get to the Power Gem (the only hint in these comments being that the crystal was covered in Wumpa Whip, which is way too obscure a hint as it is -- I mean, "Who drinks Wumpa Whip anyway?).
Basically, it all adds up to one thing: only buy Tag Team Racing for the multiplayer mode, and even then you really shouldn't expect much out of that one either (unless you plan on clashing with your friend and shooting the stuffing out of all the other racers for fun).
So, what about your disappointments?
