2015 was a year of broken promises, broken games, and a boatload of meh. We had some very slim offerings for Erin’s Game of the Year article, yet a disastrously long list of games that disappointed us during the year. They can’t all be hits, but last year can be characterized by mediocrity, delays, and a bunch of overpriced and underperforming pieces of utter shit thinly disguised as video games. This is the worst of what we played this year, in no particular order.
Evolve- Feb. 10, 2015
The makers of the enjoyable Left For Dead series decided to make the same game they always make, but take the fun out, make it multiplayer only, and charge an arm and a leg for DLC. Smooth move, Ex Lax.
I was so pumped for Evolve when it came out. I had downloaded and played the beta and for the first time in a while I was enjoying a multiplayer game. So I was excited when I bought it. Played through all the tutorial single player stuff and then I jumped into the fray. Somehow between the demo and the game either I lost all my skills or all the monsters got amped up to 11. My dislike for multiplayer comes from matchmaking. I spent a few hours with Evolve and never was on the winning side. Either the monster was so high level and the hunters including me were so low level it was over in less than a minute or the other way around. I remember on match when I was the Goliath (in my opinion the weakest of the monsters) and by the time I spawned and started running the Hunters already had me trapped. It was not fun. -ChunkySoup
Batman: Arkham Knight- June 23, 2015
Rocksteady had retaken the driver’s seat vacated by WB Montreal and their sub-par Batman: Arkham Origins. We had hoped that their intention was to put the caped crusader back on the path of excellence and finish the “trilogy” with a bang. No dice, amigo. The game itself wasn’t bad (wasn’t great either), but the Batmobile was an undriveable piece of shit, and the Riddler challenges, which were necessary to save Catwoman and defeat Riddler, had to be completed with this crapmobile. This was, of course, only true if you were playing on a console, as WB gave a single coder a six pack of Mountain Dew and 12 hours to complete the PC version of the game, which is still broken to this day.
I love being Batman and I loved a lot about this game. It was challenging, fun, had a decent story and characters but the one item I had an issue with was the Batmobile. It’s cool and all but the controls drove me mad! Like almost Joker kind of mad. If you played Forza or any other driving game at all then goddammit the left trigger is brake not transform into bat tank for jeebus’s sake! -ChunkySoup
Project CARS- May 7, 2015
More like Project Carwreck. This piece of shit was almost unplayable at launch on the XB1, with a controller, and left such a bad taste in my mouth that I was unwilling to go back and take it for another spin once they had time to work the bugs out.
Here’s what I had to say about the game last June:
Trying to play this game on the XB1 is like trying to wash your face with salt and sandpaper. The cars are monumentally inconsistent, especially when using the controller. Even after doing a little internet research, the suggested settings for the cars simply did not help. My SLS suffered from every steering malady conceivable, from going wide on sweepers to locking into uncontrollable oversteer on tighter turns.
The animation chugs and becomes more pronounced when there are more cars and action onscreen. I’m sure that the developer was not shooting for shitty handling and framerate issues, but that’s what we got. SlightlyMad has promised a patch to address these issues, but it never should have been released in this shape to begin with. I could only play for ten or fifteen minutes before becoming discouraged and turning to cat videos on YouTube for solace. Ouch.
Lego Dimensions-Sept. 27, 2015
I love my lego games. I really do but they are not game of the year material. They are fun and mostly mindless which I really need from time to time but neither were game of the year. Dimensions is cool and it’s great to play in all these different universes but sometime my ass wants to stay on the couch for chunk of time not get up every 30 seconds to change my characters spot on the portal. My one daughter on the other hand jumps right up and which is helpful but makes me feel like an old lazy ass. -ChunkySoup
I didn’t play Batman but I did pick up Dimensions for Christmas. So far I think we’ve had more fun building the lego packs than playing the game. I find the levels a little too sand-boxy and if you haven’t played in a few days it's really hard to remember what the heck you are supposed to do to advance the story. I shouldn't have to go look up a walk through of a lego game to advance! And I definitely agree with Chunk about the having to get up and switch my characters part. We got a USB extension board so it's closer to the couch but still. Pausing and building new lego sets was kinda cool. Having to get up and pick up a character every 5 minutes and put it down on the same freakin’ spot cuz now its glowing, not so much... -ErinAS
Halo Guardians- Oct. 27, 2015
Before you lose your shit please hear me out and then you can unleash your cacophony of venomous spit. Deal? Ok. First and foremost the length of this game was way too damn short compared to all the others. I think I finished the game in around 12 hours. That is unheard of for a Halo game. Second is Locke. I know they want to story to have a fresh hero but goddammit Halo is Master Chief. Master Chief is Halo. I could give two squirts of purple pee about Locke. Third are the cut scenes. All the F’ING best moments of the game, the ones you should be playing as the biggest badass in the galaxy and actually controlling him are F’ing cutscenes!? Lastly, for this list anyway, is the controls. Who put COD/Destiny in my Halo? Don’t get me wrong I have been begging to zoom like that with every weapon since the beginning but that’s NOT Halo! I was shocked that the controls actually were pretty much on par with Destiny which should have made me happy as it was easy to switch between the two but again...it’s not Halo. I know I can remap the controller but it’s the principle dammit. I’m done...bring on the hate. -ChunkySoup
Star Wars Battlefront- Nov. 17, 2015
Star Wars: Battlefront had me amped after playing a bit at E3. The co-op mission was great but when I got a chance through EA Access to play the real thing co-op was the only great thing about it. That wore thin after a while as there was no meat to it. I love Star Wars for the story and the characters but Battlefront had none of either. Sure the main heroes and villains show up and it’s fun to play them for a bit but it’s not enough as you only get to be them for a bit. You don’t get to go through a story and have them progress to be the ultimate Hero or Villain. That is what Star wars is to me and that was what Battlefront is missing. -ChunkySoup
Battlefield: Hardline- March 17, 2015
Battlefield went from unlikeable military shooter to generic cop and robbers shooter early last spring. The mercifully short single player campaign was trite and predictable, while the multiplayer side of the game was fun for about a day and a half. Is anyone still playing this game? Didn’t think so.
Former 2o2p writer, ZenMonken, had this to say back in April:
All the grit and intensity pile up like the cliche badges and guns of disgraced detectives. The only time the plot isn’t wholly predictable is when it’s just kinda confusing. You chase perps for various offenses through the filthy streets of Miami, but it’s easy to lose track of anyone’s motivation. The sense of accomplishment at completing a mission is undercut by the lingering questions of “who was that guy?” and “why is everyone so mad at everyone else?”
Beyond Two Souls- Nov. 24, 2015
OK, so technically I played this in 2014 on PS3, but it came out for PS4 in November 2015 so I think it can win for my least favorite new game 2 years in a row. I loved Heavy Rain and wanted another great title from Quantic Dream. It even had Ellen Page doing mocap and voice acting so I had high hopes. The controls were terrible and the story was even worse. None of the characters were likable and the story was cliche and predictable. I guessed the big reveal early on in the game and continued to hate play it just to see if the end was really going to be my terrible guess. Yup it was! -ErinAS
Tales From the Borderlands- (Episodic) 2015
Love the story, love the characters, love the hard choices. I just wish there were more game in there somewhere. It’s make a choice and then watch 5 minutes of movie and repeat. If the story, or characters sucked this game would have bombed but they are just so good. If you like Borderlands you will enjoy it just don’t expect any real action...as there isn’t any. -ChunkySoup
Dishonorable Mentions:
Smite
Neverwinter
Screamride
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
Pneuma: Breath of Life
Here’s hoping that 2016 will be an extraordinary year for both games and gamers. We have the systems and we’re ready to play. Don’t disappoint us. If you, dear reader, would like to vent about the shittty games that you played this year, or to chastise ChunkySoup about his Halo Guardians diss, this is the place to do it. Have fun, amigo.
