The Top 10 Most Disappointing Video Games of 2013
03. Aliens: Colonial Marines
It will not surprise me to learn that this one is actually at the number one slot for most gamers - and especially the gamers who love the series and can quote it verse and chapter. For that sort of fan there really is no room for casual errors, right?
I can say that I was looking forward to this title for a long time... But for me it is number three.
Like a lot of gamers ACM was for me a highly anticipated game. There are actually many reasons for that. I grew up and spent my formative years watching TV shows like Star Trek, Buck Rogers, Lost in Space, and reruns in syndication for My Favorite Martian,
At the very top of the list -- ahead of all of the other movies in my childhood memories -- was this little art film made in 1979 by a director called Ridley Scott, and staring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, and Harry Dean Stanton (and others).
It was called 'Alien' and it was awesome.
It was a story about the crew of a futuristic cargo ship that picks up an unwanted passenger -- an alien life form that can change its shape and appearance at will and that lives on human flesh! Amazing. Believable. And it was Rated R.
I mention the R-Rating because that made it difficult to see thanks to draconian laws about who can and who cannot buy a ticket for a movie for a 12-year-old -- which is what I was in 1979. It happened to be that the theater where my sister's boyfriend was the assistant manager.
So you see I have a deep-rooted and well-established connection to the Aliens series both movies and later games because that relationship started as a forbidden pleasure.
All things being equal when a game studio takes on such a high-profile game project you got to know they understand it will be judged harshly.
You should also know that ACM was NOT meant to be a flash in the pan -- heck we were sitting in on presentations at E3 going back to 2008! But the fact that it was Gearbox doing the development gave the game serious carte blanche and we just knew they would do it right - right?
Before I begin explaining the source of the disappointments I want to make something clear to you -- Aliens: Colonial Marines is not a bad game at all and in fact it has several points of redemption.
Its multi-player has great potential and there are some really great references to the movie series. There is a very significant macho-misogyny present though if you think about that and the fact that actor Michael Biehn returned to voice the character of Corporal Dwayne Hicks, even that almost sort of makes sense in a sick way.
The game was to be in canon -- that is to say it would be faithful to the story and follow up as a direct sequel -- and of course it actually got made, so we are not talking pipe dreams here mates...
The rub here is that pretty much the entire games journo scene took the game and its intentions at the word of the PRs mostly because of who the developing studio was -- due to recent successes and a demonstrated ability -- and willingness -- to follow through on promises, what the PRs were offering was accepted as fact. Shame on us...
Hindsight being what it is there appears to be evidence to support the notion that the dev team really believed what it was saying... And apparently was not aware that it couldn't deliver on the promises it was making. It is a sad sad story and a major disappointment best left at that.
That is the version of the story that was written up by Andy Chalk for Escapist - and by the way, paragraphs are our friends.
The situation that lead to the formation of the ESRB wasn't over a single game and it did not happen overnight - and as far as I know it was not a conspiracy.
It started with bloody gore and violence in Mortal Kombat and Doom, and the sexploitation games Night Trap and Rape. When the issue was brought to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee it was a combination of games from Capcom and Midway that were said to have excessive violence.
Remember this was just after Australia created an official government run approval system - that really hurt the games industry in Oceania.
As for the conspiracy - considering that Acclaim, Sega, Nintendo, EA and Id created and funded the initial committee that ended up creating the ESRB.
Good read,but I am confused. To the best of my memory it was in fact mortal Kombat on Sega genesis and night trap on Sega cd that caused all the big issue over video game violence not street fighter. Also it was Sega that worked with video game developers and instituted the first video game rating system not Capcom. You see after huge sale of mortal kombat over genesis over the sanitized super nes version Nintendo went to Joseph Lieberman to try and harm Sega and caused the big out cry over video game violence. I am pretty sure this is the situation that took place and Capcom and street fighter did not have much to do with it. Still enjoyed the article and I still need to check out Remember me. To bad about the original staff being let go.
Er,the Aliens from the Alien series do not live on human flesh and can't morph at will.Maybe you should watch them again.
Actually you are missing the point - if RockSteady had been hired to do the third game it WOULD have had improvements. What happened was the IP owner decided that the level of advancement in the game was sufficient to simply retread the engine with a different story on top and none of you would notice or care. Apparently they are right for some of you - but we do expect more.
He's got a point
You can't be dissapointed, if you don't have expectations in the first place. if you were expecting anthing from these tittles, then its your fault to get dissapointed.
first place whaaat?
You simply cannot expect the quality go up any higher than Arkham city lol, i mean it has to stop somewhere, jesus. insatiable gamers.
I actually enjoyed Batman Arkham Origins pretty much. It was what I expected to be after playing the previous two games from Rocksteady. Articles like this are the beiggest proof that gaming media has gone down the toilet. We get incredibly amaizing games every year, but now for some reason, to the gaming media they always turn out to be crappy disapointments. I seriously wonder what exactly are you guys expecting? Are you not entertained?