Video Game Disappointments -

[DDUI]

Alright, so this year has been primarily disappointing for me as far as video games go.

The first disappointment I received this year was Diablo 3. Diablo 2 was the first game I ever preordered, and from 2000-2004 I played every day, and then less regularly through the years but still fairly often.

Then Diablo 3 came out, I picked it up at a midnight release at my local Wal-Mart and regardless of the Error 37 * (Which I really wasn't surprised about.) I beat the game in around 10 hours, give or take, and then I got to nightmare. That's it. I haven't progressed any further. Everything I cared about pretty much ended there. I got the story, and it was alright, but my desire to continue further is hampered by a WoW/Diablo child that doesn't get either play style to click with me.

I guess a big part is that the farming is worse than Diablo 2. Much worse. Diablo 2, you just killed the bosses over and over, and sure, it'd get annoying, but it was at least simple enough. Trading became hugely fun, there was no auction house, I don't know, the entire thing was at least a reasonably fun experience, and it was fun.

But in Diablo 3, you farm for more time, and get less stuff, and with my job, and being married, and up until recently being in school (the semester ended, of course.) I found myself really wanting to do other things with my precious little time than play a game that is DESIGNED to make me waste time on it, like many bad games. You know, games like Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest.

Also, the game feels...well, smaller. Significantly smaller. I remember when, running through the Cold Plains, I would delve into the cave (the first cave after the Den of Evil.) and that sucker was pretty * big. Bigger than the Den. But then the first few "dungeons" you have in Diablo 3? Pah. I insisted on squeezing as much enjoyment I could out of the game by mapping out the entire game as best I could when I remembered to. Even then, the game was shorter than playing even the most overpowered single player class in Diablo 2 (vers 1.09, the Assassin could beat it in single player in....15 hours?) I mean...I haven't played with anyone online and the game was still short as *.

The cooldowns are murder a lot of the time. The only spells I can immediately think of in Diablo 2 that had any cooldowns were Frozen Orb and Meteor with the sorceress, primarily to save people lag issues, since there were still plenty of people at the time playing the game on 56k. But still, I'm a barbarian (or a monk) and I just use my arms and legs...it's not like I am using a Kamehameha with my monk, but I still have to wait to do a lot of spells, and that's simply annoying. Again, this goes very much towards WoW, whose characters are specifically designed to be far weaker than characters in Sanctuary. Because in Warcraft, the two same level guys of the same class pretty much just killed themselves, but anyway....

Then there's the graphics, which aren't BAD per se, but again we went from two games very dismal, dark, gothic settings, to a much lighter environment that pretty much screams "World of Warcraft." Again, this isn't necessarily bad, things are easily recognizable and attackable, which of course Diablo and Diablo 2 suffered with monster/background differentiation. Especially in Diablo 2, Act 3 with the little black Fetishes that blended so * well against the blackBLACKBLACK floor. But still, that's sort of like real life, right? Darkness, also known as the absence of light, makes it difficult to identify anything, including creepy, knife-wielding toddlers.

Lastly, there's the gameplay itself. This game's fast, but not in a good way. I plowed through the game by myself on my barbarian on normal without dying once. Now, it's to my understanding that in the later acts the game gets so difficult that it's pretty much impossible to beat Inferno by yourself if you're not a ranged class. This doesn't make up for the easy difficulty in the game. In fact, both of these are just poor game design. Ideally, a game wants to have a steady increase in difficulty so that death is certainly possible (or even probable) if the player does not play correctly. Realistically, games should at least have levels that are relatively lax, levels that are doable, levels that are straining. However, to have the first DIFFICULTY be a complete and utter breeze and then have the rest of the game become so unreasonably hard that the act bosses are a less danger than random elite encounters, we have a problem.

All I know is, since around May 20th, I haven't logged in once. Which is obviously disappointing, but even more, downright stupid. But really, shouldn't me and like-minded buyers know? With WoW players getting a deal on Diablo 3 (Buy 12 months of WoW subscription, get Diablo 3 for free.) WE should have known that: 1. It would be far more like WoW than most non-WoW players want. 2. It would be designed as a quickly defeated game so as to allow everyone to come back to WoW before Mists of Panderia is out.

Now also, I will say that yes, the game is incomplete as there isn't any Player-versus-player, which is disappointing, but at the same time, from what I've seen, it resembles League of Legends (a game which I have never played, but have friends that do.)

Overall, really, good included, I would give this game a 6. (I consider 5, not 7, a C grade. It's average. Mediocre. The extra 1, making it a 6, comes from the fantastic quality of visuals, sounds, and user-friendly menus.)

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Another game with which disappointed me, was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. I haven't played the multiplayer yet, and I imagine it's the *. But Modern Warfare 2's campaign was also the *, and I found MW3's a much shorter campaign, that just wasn't as fun. Really ,the only times I didn't progress swiftly were places where everything was very hard to see, such as when we're in New York with * up gray buildings and everything looks like Gears of War, except there's not much contrast. (At least Gears has enemies that wear read?)


So, overall, I'm going to soon head back to Mount and Blade: Warband, and reacquaint myself with my clan and get back to slicing people up. I am a sad panda.

[Amanroth]

I have yet to play enough MW3 to know what the deal is with that, although I pretty much agree with everything you said about D3. The game is good, and the gameplay mechanics that have been changed have definitely made for smoother gaming, as we no longer have to equip potions and such. However, the game is seriously lacking the same feel of its predecessor. The graphics are pleasing, but much more childish and Warcraft-y than D2, which had the gloom and eerie feel to it. The areas are definitely more confined and progression through the game seems to be a bit more forced with such small areas and dens to play around in. I miss the skill tree, and maybe it's just because I'm nostalgic but the runes and skill system in this game, although innovative, just don't do it for me. That being said, I played until the end of Act 1, and put the game down when I got to Caldeum. I figured I'd probably pick it up the next day or so, but thus far I have had very little desire or motivation to play it.

I guess that's what you get when Blizzard North disbands, a sub-par sequel that was intelligently designed to pander to a massive herd of MMO-whores. Then again, Blizzard lately has been very good at milking the cash cow dry. I mean Starcraft 2 was pretty decent, although the fact that I had to wait over a year to play as Zerg, and then even longer to play Protoss, was a little off-putting. But I gave it a chance and hey, the game itself was inherently decent. But Mists of Panderia, really? I think that's almost a joke. I'm not a big WoW-player, but looking at the changes made in Cataclysm I can't see much more to be offered. They know they're losing tons of players every day, and now they even allow you to play for free up to level 30 I think. They should give up and start working on WoW2... or better yet, Warcraft 4... Or a new Lost Vikings.

There's also already talk about the D3 expansion. If that sucks I'll lost all faith in Blizzard.

[The009]

MW3 MP * sucks. there are no dedicated server meaning that if you get a kid with a * * internet connection you get nothing but lagg as well because the lobby host is a person if they are the host they can * the entire game over for everybody by hacking.

The game itself is nothing better then MW2 and the pirks are totally unbalanced.

You can get away with some major *.

I also think that the weapon leveling system and all that is not anything special in any way its actually more hindering.

I can say for sure that if I knew what I did now when the pre-orders came out I would not have bought the game at all.

But you win some you lose some.

[j-ren]

Call of Duty franchise needs to die. I've played them all but honestly the ones I enjoyed the most were CoD2 and MW1.
I'm pretty sure Blizzard is going to end up patching the * out of D3 eventually. Remember, they did the same with D2.
As for disappointments, I have to say for me the newer Resident Evil and Silent Hill games. Resident Evil has become more action-packed shooter and less survival horror, and Silent Hill-well-it's just super "meh".

[Link]

All I get to play is Pokemon

Having a kid really kills any tv time I had.

[Amanroth]

What the * is wrong with Pokemon? I downloaded Crystal and destroyed it in a week, and then decided to try Fire Red, which was pretty awesome.

[Alpha]

I just decided to start collecting old SNES/PS1 games :V

[Vegetto Zacharias]

good call Alpha! Classics I still remember playing on my Atari. Miner 49er, Mule, ahh memories

[Link]

What the * is wrong with Pokemon? I downloaded Crystal and destroyed it in a week, and then decided to try Fire Red, which was pretty awesome.

Oh nothing! I just wish I could play Skyrim again.

[Amanroth]

I haven't played Dawnguard yet due to a short in my Xbox cable and not having much free time, but if I did I'd probably fall back into the addiction. Now I just have my NES hooked up to my small TV in my room and I collect games for that. I just got TMNT and X-Men.