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Biggest Disappointments in Video Games During 2021: Another year passed by and, while we had the chance to play many great milestones, there are always bad seeds that we wouldn’t be bothered too much had they not have been hyped to the sky by the community and, of course, publishers or developers. That said, it is us, players, in the end who fell prey of our own illusions.
The Hype Train
Hype is something that deserves a case of study. We have more than forty years of great games. We have many ways to visit them back for, at times, even less than a dollar, but we are always looking for the newest game that we don’t know how it will eventually turn out.
Not happy with just wanting to play the next (supposedly) great new game, we need to go and pre-order it. We put our faith in trailers and teasers, even knowing that digital copies will never be sold out and we could easily purchase them a day or two after release day, which is usually enough time to know if the game will, at least, be working.
The Suspects
We will discuss some of the biggest disappointments that struck us hard this year. We have different scenarios here. Some are broken games that should have never been out of to the public in such state, and others are just not good games.
eFootball 2022
The long time competitor to FIFA has dropped the ball this time. It wasn’t a great launch for Konami. This year they went a completely different route where they have not only changed their engine from Fox Engine to Unreal, but also their business model was a completely different approach. They offer a free to play experience this time around.
So, was it any good? We know if it made it into this article that it was not.
The game was awarded with the hatred from the Steam community, making it one of the lowest-rated games in the store history.
Everything about it came out wrong: the controls, the graphical glitches, the AI, etc. Fortunately, it’s a free to play game so, no real loss here, but it’s sad that FIFA still goes out without a real contestant to push EA making more changes than just their roster.
Grand theft Auto Trilogy: Definitive Edition
One of the best-selling games in the history of entertainment. How could Rockstar mess this one up? These are twenty-year-old games, that’ve been ported to all consoles and even phones. Young adults started playing this game until it reached a point where developers decided to include an online feature. One of the latest ideas was an online casino, where users, it doesn’t matter if they are from Canada or South Africa, could have access to the best online casino games, bonuses and other promotions to enjoy. Furthermore, the security is quite important because of playing with real money. Moreover, other online game is the pixel story, in which the gamers can play the game as if they were playing in the early days of the game.
Apparently, they outsourced this (supposed) remaster. Truth is, not even the new coating they put on the games were worth the asking price. In some cases, they look worse than the original, only with a bump in resolution and whole new bugs and crashes.
These games are a true legacy to us gamers and having Rockstar going for such a cash grab is really sad. Let alone the fact that they’ve removed the original (good) versions of the games from most stores.
Balan Wonderworld
Balan Wonderworld has been awaited by many players because it’s set the return of a legend: Yuji Naka. He was the lead programmer from the original Sonic games when he was the former head of the Sonic team at Sega. That is a lot of weight on someone’s shoulders.
This time, away from Sega, he went to work with Square Enix on this. The game is plainly a platformer, but what makes it stand out (or buries it) is the unique mechanic of earning costumes along the stages that have a single power up.
This made the game frustrating and plain boring. The fact that everything relied on single button actions for each costume made the game dig its own grave. This was very unfortunate given the possibilities and the background this game has.
Conclusion
While it’s sad to see games fail, because we only want fans to be served with what they ask for, there will always be greedy companies behind tittles. And it’s not only about being greedy. Sometimes they go all out and just the product doesn’t connect with the audience. Fortunately, we will always have millions of games to play either on your consoles.
With the current times, we are living there is no excuse to be bored. We have many options to enjoy our beloved hobby. We are spoiled to the bones with great games, some are even free to play so you can play without spending any money. This makes it even worse when greedy companies try to push their unfinished games using nostalgia as a weapon, and what a powerful weapon it is.