10. Bioshock 2
ALEX SAYS: Despite being a really enjoyable game, Bioshock 2 has the unfortunate burden of being the sequel to a game so unique, featuring a game world so bewildering and awe inspiring, that it was almost doomed to fail in surpassing its predecessor before it even started. The game’s shooting mechanics were definitely improved; the frustrating ‘pipe-mania’ mini game was gone; and the big sisters added a new element of fear, but the setting of Rapture simply couldn’t offer the same kind of wonderment a second time out. Plumbing the depths of the ruined underwater dystopia felt less awe inspiring when it was all too familiar. And without such strong narrative elements as Andrew Ryan, Frank Fontaine and Sander Cohen the story in Bioshock 2 didn’t grip the player as much as the original and the game desperately lacked that big twist experienced in Bioshock. There is still no doubt that Bioshock 2 is still a brilliantly well made video game among the year’s best, but it’s a game that didn’t really need to be made. The drastic changes set to be made in Bioshock Infinite provide proof that 2K is well aware that a new setting is needed to take the players breath away once more.
DAVID SAYS: Overall, a solid and enjoyable title, but was ill fitting with the original, and at times felt unlike rapture. After finishing the game, i’m left with a sour taste in my mouth, feeling that id had a slapped together experience put together to cash in on the name Bioshock.
9.Fallout: New Vegas
ALEX SAYS: Yeah, we know Fallout is in the year’s top 10 games as well and rightly so, but the flaws of New Vegas are so glaring for all to see that it still has to be labelled somewhat of a disappointment. I know myself that I would have loved New Vegas no matter what – I just wanted more of the magnificence I saw in Fallout 3, but through all the enjoyment there is to garner from New Vegas, the bugs and graphical ugliness sometimes prove too much to ignore. Fallout: New Vegas is very much a case of one step forward, two steps back. The combat mechanics are an improvement on the predecessor; as are the greater number of side quests and NPCs; the companion wheel and the more focused narrative. But the game really suffers from dated graphics and that most inexcusable of all injustices – game ending bugs. In VATS mode the game can freeze on a felled enemy indefinitely and the loading screens can last close to 5 minutes (I once managed to make a cup of tea in the time it took to walk through the door into one of New Vegas’ casinos); sometimes never actually loading the game at all. The Fallout series is one that is too good to be spoilt by these bugs, but on the flip side it really should be too good to have them in the first place.
DAVID SAYS: A game that looks and feels horribly out of date, ugly visuals, and it doesn't seem to have learned from the mistakes made by it’s predecessor. That and being essentially broken upon release creates the impression that the developer had no care or interest in the title, other than the hefty revenue that it has now no doubt provided.
8.Goldeneye 007
ALEX SAYS: A game very much in the same family as that of Bioshock 2 – doomed to fail in comparison to a predecessor from the start. Whilst Bioshock 2 followed in the footsteps of one of the finest games of this generation, Goldeneye tried to improve upon a game that, whilst no doubt has a long lasting legacy as the granddaddy of console FPS games, is becoming more and more unplayable as time passes. It should have been easy to improve upon the game – make Goldeneye faster, prettier, tighter and throw in a great multiplayer. But instead of trying to create the ultimate Goldeneye, Eurocom seems to have simply produced Call of Duty lite. Granted, the game would have suffered from simply copying the exact level design, weapons and set pieces, but the game looks completely unrecognisable from the original and not in a good way. What we’re left with is not an updated slice of nostalgia, but simply a feeling of ‘been there done that,’ only in better capacity on Xbox and Playstation 3. The game is not bad by any means, it is by far the best 007 game after the original Goldeneye and does offer a fun and enjoyable campaign mode – it just doesn’t get the nostalgia glands flowing as much as many N64 fans would have liked.
DAVID SAYS: Not a bad game, and as far as first person shooters go on the wii, this is one of the best, however, with the highly esteemed title of Goldeneye, and being released on an under powered console, it would never be able to live up to its predecessor, this along with poor online play, leaves me feeling empty.
7.God of War 3
DAVID SAYS: I’d never played a God Of War game before this, and where I can see why people like the game, I felt that Cratos was a terrible character, and I was forced to do things throughout the game that I didn't want to do. It’s probably for the best that the tale appears to be finished. We don't need any more of these.
6.Fable 3
DAVID SAYS: I enjoyed this game, but felt again, that the promises of emotional attachment were again not fully delivered upon. Although widely believed to be no longer an RPG, games like Mass effect have now spoiled us, when it comes to expecting the choices we make, to affect the outcome of the game more dramatically.
5.Gran Turismo 5
ALEX SAYS: Put it this way: If you were hungry at midday and had to wait five hours for your lunch, you’d only end up being disappointed and wondering why you waited so long. Either that or your stomach would have hurt too much and you’d have moved on to dinner a long time ago. What’s for dinner? Forza 3, Project Gotham 4, Grid, Need For Speed Shift, Colin McCrae Dirt 2 etc. Your choice, whenever you’re hungry.
DAVID SAYS: Any game that takes 6 years to produce, should be near perfect upon release. This is not. With what looks no better than PS2 graphics at times and a handling model that is inferior in every way to Forza has a lot to account for. This game stumbled out of the blocks, and continues to limp around the track. Somebody confine it to the pits permanently, and we’ll wait another 6 years for the next iteration. Meanwhile enjoying another three Forza titles while we wait.
4.Call of Duty: Black Ops
ALEX SAYS: Another year, another Call of Duty game, another sales record smashed and yet an underlying feeling of familiarity that begs the question: is this as good as it’s ever going to get? Will CoD ever do anything again to really push the boundaries of the FPS genre or has it played its cards so successfully that it’s simply going to stick rather than twist to pocket yet more winnings? Put it this way: if you had made the biggest selling game of all time twice why would you change anything at all? CoD continues to offer one of the best multiplayer experiences out there using the same formula as a game now over 4 years old. That obviously says a lot about how fantastic CoD 4’s multiplayer engine is, but clearly indicates that Activision plan on milking as much as they can, which is a lot, out of it yet. Multiplayer experiences are pretty much interchangeable from one series entry to the next and with little expansion of the single player you have to ask yourself ‘Is this really any better than last year? Or even the year before that?’ The answer is probably no but the fickle nature of the games industry leads us to believe that each instalment is an improvement over the last when in actuality it’s not much more than a cut and pasted update. Of course the CoD series should be commended as it’s an entertainment juggernaut that has millions of devoted fans that helped make online console gaming the huge entity that is today. But on next year’s inevitable release I’d just like to see something that I haven’t seen since CoD 4: something new and exciting to make me feel that Activision has really moved the goalposts lot rather than a little.
DAVID SAYS: A highly predictable story that continues to be churned out to make billions for Activision, could be easily blamed for the heavy saturation of the FPS genre, and providing little in the way of innovation. Before releasing some undoubtable overpriced DLC. Can’t wait...
3.Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
ALEX SAYS: Now, I’ll admit that I personally was never that hopeful for this game in the first place. Having seen the low critical ratings of the original K&L, I never even bothered with playing it at all. Even when new pictures of K&L 2 surfaced I remained pretty unenthused about the whole thing, but a string of glowing previews gushing about the new mechanics and unique graphical style eventually persuaded me that it could be worth my time. How wrong I was. There’s nothing worse (or should that be better?) than being persuaded to change your opinion of something only to find out that you were right all along. This game is circus freak ugly, no matter how ‘unique’ the graphical style is. Making a game that looks like a low-res YouTube video should never have been applauded, unless that applause is at the Annual Eye Strain Awards (note: this ceremony does not exist…yet). All could be forgiven…well some could be forgiven if the game played well, but it’s simply just a poor cover shooter that has been trumped several times already by the Gears of Wars, Mass Effect 2s and even Mafia 2s of the world. So a major disappointment to anyone who thought that K&L had turned a corner and an even bigger one to those who were eventually lead to believe so after prior caution. The moral of the story: DON’T TRUST ANYONE!
DAVID SAYS: Why? Is the first word that comes to mind. Did anybody actually want this? Still they seem to have some interesting visuals going on here, maybe ill give it a chance. NOPE it’s garbage, and I hate the characters that im being forced to play with, still it looks at least like they will die... Oh wait no they don’t. Utter shambles of a game that went on 7 hours to long. Good idea about the visuals though. At times it works well. BUT PLEASE NO MORE!
2.Crackdown 2
DAVID SAYS: Microsoft caught on to a winner with the first Crackdown, so why they didn't put more effort into the sequel I will never know. The best thing about the first game was all the climbing, so why they wrecked the city I have no idea. Felt like nothing more that Crackdown 1.1.
1.Dead Rising 2
ALEX SAYS: Much like CoD, Dead Rising 2 can be criticised for not really improving on anything from its predecessor. Unfortunately for Dead Rising 2, the phrase ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ can’t really be applied. It was broke and they didn’t fix it. This was even more of a surprise considering development was handed over to western developers Blue Castle whom, it would be expected, would want to make their mark on righting the wrongs of the original and making their mark as a developer on improving on a flawed, but very enjoyable game. Not the case, it seems, as Blue Castle simply followed the exact same formula as Dead Rising. Here to stay was the ridiculous 72 hour time limit, the annoying save system and the obscure psychopath boss fights to which there seems to be absolutely no method in the madness. When I buy a video game for £40, I want to enjoy it; take my time over it and see all there is to see. If I’m being forced to do something in the next 5 minutes (usually some completely boring fetch quest), then I’m not going to have enough time to enjoy myself. A game based entirely on finding crazy ways to kill zombies contained very little of that for me. Instead, so hurried by the strictest of deadlines, I found myself simply weaving in and out of the hordes on my way to my next mission. Most of the time I was so rushed that I had to forego a trip to one of the stupid bathroom save points in fear of the game ending. No game should contain a feature whereby if you fail to do something half way through it ends. Zombie killing was, of course, fun but the game has come on so little since the very broken original that this title, like so many others in this list, feels utterly pointless.
DAVID SAYS: The most annoying thing about the first Dead Rising was that when you play, all you want to do, is run around like a mad man and kill zombies for an hour or so, only to find out theres no time to actually have fun in the game, as theres a time limit, so the decision to leave this feature in the game bemuses me. I understand that some people may like the tension and pressure that this gameplay type creates, but it’s not for me and I never want to see it again. This could have been a fantastic title.
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