I’d probably have to go for a game I’ve never played - Shadowrun. For not being Shadowrun.
I’d like to throw Lionheart into the mix, please. Oh, and an honorable mention to Thorn, or whatever that game was called that got cancelled.
I think games like MOO3, Fable, Black & White, Spore, Deus Ex 2 are the most disappointing games, at least based upon the reaction purchasers had to them.
But I actually like Black & White for the reasons Rock8man mentioned (brief fun with the innovation of the creature) and never played the rest. I also really like some of the game others have mentioned, like KOTOR2, Far Cry 2, Mirror’s Edge, Hellgate London and (prior to its relaunched form) Star Wars Galaxies, especially once the space sim component was integrated. Surprised GTA4 hasn’t come up, but I won’t pick it because I also loved that game.
For me personally, the most disappointing game was:
Pool of Radiance Ruins of Myth Drannor – looked so promising, loved seeing a D&D game back in some SSI veteran hands…and it was an utter disaster.
Runner-ups:
Freelancer - it was o.k, but a shadow of its initial ambition and potential, and it really helped put the nail in the space sim genre by having such a troubled development history.
Gothic 3 and ARMA2 - really like both of these games, and they could easily also be on a list of my favorites, but they were also so annoyingly unpolished and plain broken that I never felt it was worthwhile to invest the time into them that I surely otherwise would have, and did with their predecessors (Operation Flashpoint and Gothic 1/2). I still give these games thumbs up, but am angered and disappointed that I can’t do so without caveats, and have occasionally felt burned by them. You could almost add EVERY TROIKA GAME (Temple of Elemental Evil, Arcanum, Vampire Bloodlines) to this group for the same reason, but I had too much fun playing those games, warts and all.
I never played Tabula Rasa, because it never remotely interested me, and that alone was a huge disappointment because of my love of the Ultima games by Garriott.
Love Denny’s choice as well - so true.
Torn. I agree with you on Lionheart. I wanted so much for that to be good.
I don’t know how anyone can pick Daikatana or Lionheart - those games always looked liked disasters, during their entire development period – if you were disappointed by those, you had a serious case of willful blindness. I guess if you overlooked (or didn’t read) any previews and were just judging based upon the pedigree of those involved.
I really don’t get the hate for FC2.
State of Emergency, Driv3r, Futurama or Shawn Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder
The person that came up with the idea of an interstellar empire having only 1 spaceship shouldn’t be allowed in game design discussions ever again. I would suggest that they take up a sales position because somehow they sold the Spore team on that crap idea.
I wonder if the final cost analysis showed that the cost of developing the technology for procedural content generation was cheaper than having an art department generating tons of content. Ambitious idea, but some horrid design decisions apparently to try and woo all the non-gamers who bought Sims.
Assassin’s Creed, but the sequel made up for that.
Invisible War, which on the other hand fails as a sequel to Deus Ex, but on its own is a great game.
I would probably have to go with Sid Meier’s Railroads! I wanted so damn much from that game and it delivered nothing. Honorable mention to Deus Ex : Invisible War.
The most disappointing game of the decade is Duke Nukem Forever, for not even being released.
Spore was mighty disappointing too.
I’m going to have to agree that Hellgate: London was the most disappointing for me, too. I hadn’t been that excited for a game to arrive for a very long time, but after alpha/betaing it and then it going into release without things being fixed, I passed on it. My enthusiasm for upcoming games has been subdued ever since; I think it taught me a lesson.
Age of Conan
Black & White
Dragon Age: Origins
My answer remains the same: Republic: The Revolution. I really bought the hype on that one, and it failed to deliver on any of it.
View the entire country, and zoom down to small objects? Well, it had a strategic view of the city, and then you could watch actions play out in cinematics.
Open world? See aforementioned cinematics.
Guide your rise to power and gather supporters? It’s mission based, including when to add people.
And forget about having your own reasons for wanting to seize power: It’s about avenging your parents.
Paradoxically, my love of Deus Ex prevented me from being disappointed by Invisible War. I assumed a sequel couldn’t be as good as the first one, and I was right. It was mediocre, but not disappointing.
Spore
I picked it up at a huge rebate, and it’s still not worth it. It’s the most hyped Will Wright game of the decade, and the most unchallenging, unenjoyable piece of software that I’ve interacted with in years.
For me it was Deus Ex: Invisible War, I loved the first game so was expecting the world from this one and it just ended up boring me which is about one of the worst things you can say about a “game”.
Star Wars Galaxies. I was hoping, perhaps unfairly, that the game would capture lightning in a bottle, but it turned out to be a pedestrian experience.
I was so excited for Unreal 2 and when it came out it was so bland. And I remember one gaming magazine hyping it as “the game that will save PC gaming” or something.
I can’t believe these haven’t been mentioned yet:
Heroes of M&M 4
Dungeon Lords
Horizons Empire of Istaria
Every MMO to launch since WoW
Everquest 2. Why couldn’t you be Everquest!!!
Shakes fist
And adding to the list:
Assassin’s Creed
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Mario Galaxy
Farcry 2
Grand Theft Auto 4