Your 2014 in gaming - Highs, Averages and Lows
Dec 16, 2014 9:27:33 GMT -5
Post by Gendo Ikari on Dec 16, 2014 9:27:33 GMT -5
Inspired by a similar thread that was opened last year, this is intended to be on a wider scope than about only games released in 2014, just games you played over this year, regardless of their age. A game for the "Lows" category must not necessarily be bad, just that strongly disappointed you for one or more reasons. I also decided to make an "Averages" category because lately I feel like there's an increasing "black or white" attitude between gamers - a game is either a masterpiece or a turd, no middle ground and no discussion.
As for my 2014, it's been intense like 2013. Long list to follow.
- Highs
Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons - Short but intense, with the brotherly bond rendered even in the game mechanics. Some beautiful vistas.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Very different from the main series (and the story can get as much as ridicolous) but still a fantastic action game, and the PC port is very good.
Castlevania: The Lecarde Chronicles - To find an old Internet friend, who already made some freeware games I enjoyed, after several years, and see that in the meantime he's crafted a great fangame (although the difficulty is really murderous at times).
Call of Duty: Black Ops II - This episode's single player turned out really good, especially for how there are variations to the endings depending on some choices that aren't always slapped on your face. Also longer than the CoD average.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - After Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm makes another bullseye with DC Comics characters - to think they started with a questionable fusion of the two franchises! On top of that, the PC version has all the DLC characters despite being released only a few months after the console versions.
Bioshock 1-2-Infinite - Although the gameplay gets progressively watered down, and Infinite's story jumps the shark, they're games that kept me glued on the screen until their ends, and then a second run of each, thanks to a combination of plots, art direction and fun situations; at least, Irrational always kept the touch in creating worlds. They've also got some excellent DLCs. Overall, one great game series.
Hard Reset and Shadow Warrior 2013 - FPSes that give their spins on the genre, mixing old and new elements in fantastic combinations - I especially loved SW's sword and upgrade systems. Flying Wild Hog is a new titan of the genre.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Beside those bad stealth sections it holds up remarkably well, especially thanks to an excellent level design.
Wolfenstein: The New Order - Hiccups both on the technical and narrative level aside, it's an incredibly solid experience with fun weapons, mostly equal possibilities with gun-toting action and stealth, a level design that accomodates both, and many intense parts.
CarnEvil - Despite its hit detection problems, it was one of the funniest things I played after getting back to MAME for the first time in a long while.
Astebreed - While too flashy at times, and with a questionable story, it's a fantastic shmup with mechanics that make it accessible to both novices, or people who want just to have fun and obliterate enemies, and experts looking for the best scores by using more strategy.
Kamui and RefleX - Old but gold shmups, among the first to show what impressive works the doujin scene could create.
Ikaruga - Incredibly difficult but still fresh so many years after the original release.
Riddick - The two FPSes by Starbreeze are better than most of the franchise with Vin Diesel's character. The remade version of Butcher Bay is also more challenging than the original one.
NiGHTS Into Dreams - Very difficult to get into but equally satisfying when you do, a game from a time big-name developers still tried something different more often.
Valiant Hearts - Practically an interactive Franco-Belgian comic about WWI. Despite the simple gameplay (some puzzles are recycled more than once), it's still a must play, even just to follow the story and enjoy the art direction.
Child of Light - This year's other UbiArt game trips on its own rhymes at times, and the last part feels a bit rushed, but the magnificent art direction and the fun JRPG-inspired combat system more than make up for it. Ubisoft can make all the Assassin's Creed they want if they put out these gems inbetween.
Terrordrome - A fanmade fighting game starring a dozen of horror movie icons from the 1980s and 90s. Surprise, it's actually very good!
Monkey Island 1 & 2 Special Edition - The first suffers lousy character design and interface, but they're still a great new coat of paint on two classics.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death - A shameless low budget God of War clone that's aware of its limits and compensates by not taking itself seriously in the slightest, while still being fun enough to play. In short, a great B-game.
Skullgirls Encore - How to take inspirations from all VS fighting series and make a game that still has a strong personality and can stand proudly beside them. On top of that, it's also got a great cast and lore (with those designs, I never expected the world of Skullgirls to be so dark).
Roundabout - Kuru Kuru Kururin + Crazy Taxi + voluntarily bad live-action cutscenes in 70s style = a very imperfect (the "free-roaming" part needs refinement) but delightfully crazy game.
Cry of Fear - A Total Conversion of the first Half-Life (but available as a stand-alone) with strong inspirations from Silent Hill, it doesn't always handle its themes at best, and the choices to determine the endings are slapped on the face, but it's got a true survival horror gameplay and really scary enemies, and it's quite long with several unlockables.
The Journey Down - After the first episode that was more of a prologue, the second fully realizes its potential, with a good cast of characters and a Noir atmosphere supported by an interesting art direction; it also manages to be a good adventure in terms of quality and variety of the puzzles. After an epic cliffhanger, I hope the last episode won't take two more years.
Half-Minute Hero - I expected little more than a "divertissement" and found a much deeper game, with the further surprise of a new gameplay style for each playable character. The sequel loses more than something (only Hero 30 mode, unexpectedly serious story, a questionable DLC) but is still a blast.
Quake - Played often in the past but not really all episodes and every single level, from start to finish, until now. Obviously shows its age, and is "simplistic" compared to more recent offerings, but the level design, the enemy designs (unsettling in their simplicity) and the soundtrack still hold up greatly.
- Averages
Indie Gaming in general - While the scene has given several great games, average to bad productions appear to be unfortunately on the rise. Part of the blame falls also on publishers and distribution platforms, which have lowered their standards to ride on the indie phenomenon (I'm looking at you, Steam).
Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD - The game itself is always great, but this new version is far from "Ultimate" and, in fact, little more of what should have been on PC 7 years prior already.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD - Pleasant enough, but I honestly expected something wider in scope than the three mini-adventures it is in fact.
Outlast: Whistleblower - The plot is very interesting, integrates well with the main game and plants many seeds for future episodes, but gameplay and atmosphere are already stretching thin: putting new enemies that are even more violent and depraved doesn't make the game scary at all - I'm at risk of yawning the next time.
Star Wars: Republic Commando - Excellent use of the license makes this one of the most atmospheric games based on the franchise, and some situations are intense, but it becomes shallow and repetitive after a while; overall, it hasn't aged gracefully.
Contrast - Beautiful art direction and atmosphere (the idea of seeing only the shadows of all characters beside the two protagonists is fantastic), good gameplay ideas, but applied to very simple puzzles and a short story. It started as a much more ambitious project and it shows.
Mirror's Edge - The first minutes you think you're playing a misunderstood masterpiece, then it shows all its limits. Still, it tried something different and would have deserved more.
Oknytt - Based on Swedish folklore, it tells a beautiful tale (also with an excellent narrator) but it's not a great adventure, with many puzzles that cause the "try all with all" syndrome, and very poor technically beside the art direction.
The Simpsons: Hit and Run - Could have been the definitive Simpsons game (Radical Entertainment already showed their ability with free-roaming games) if the timed missions weren't often so frustrating.
Clive Barker's Jericho - Many good ideas, great atmosphere, despite the serious shortcomings in the gameplay (like always playing nurse to the allies) I still liked it enough to go on... and then that sudden cliffhanger that may be never resolved. Clive Barker's games seem cursed.
Battleblock Theater - Fun and with a lot of content, but the variety of the levels should've been higher and they become more concentrated on traps than platforming; also the humour felt very grating to me.
Doom 3 - Never a great game, neither back in the day, nor replaying it after a decade. Resurrection of Evil even apes other games (pseudo-Gravity Gun, slow motion).
Blood of the Werewolf - A good platformer whose two playing styles (powerful werewolf under the moonlight, agile woman with crossbow where such light doesn't shine) are equally enjoyable, and a Hammer-style presentation; it's however a bit too slow-paced, has overlong levels and boss fights that wear their welcome, and a cliffhanger ending I'd rather expect in some AAA production.
Hatoful Boyfriend HD - Reprogramming the game from scratch to avoid compatibility problems, and with new content, is laudable, but the work has been done sloppily; there are even bugs that risk corrupting saved games.
G-String - An incredibly ambitious Total Conversion of Half-Life set in a very desperate dystopian future, with about 60 maps that make it longer that many commercial games, is however brought down by many quirks in those same maps (small objects in the way, hard ot find exits), showing that it's still an amateur project; I can only hope the announced new version will fix all.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch - Many crazy fun moments but it often shows that its concept doesn't fit well in a game of a wider scope, especially when you involve stealth, precision walking on ceiling beams or even sort of a boss fight.
Outland - It risked ending up in the "low" tier because of the inability to configure keys, solved only with an external INI file, and yet even with the use of Ikaruga's mechanics in another genre, I honestly expected something more; it has nothing bad, with the art direction and the bosses being its high points, but I didn't find nothing so exceptional in it either.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 - Free camera and no QTEs further improve the gameplay but if the production was troubled as they say, it shows: it alternates between fantastic parts and huge drops in quality, and the ending is disappointing. Enjoyable from start to end but the first had a more consistent quality throughout.
Portal Prelude - An incredibly well-crafted mod that unfortunately shows quickly its suffering of the "hardcore for hardcores" syndrome, with many situations that are more convoluted and irritating than fun.
Prey - A lot of good ideas, good setting and some fantastic setpieces. Surely worth the long wait more than Duke Nukem Forever, but it's too easy, the hero is lame and doesn't fully realize its potentials (especially with the portals). given how it sadly ended with the sequel, this seems to be another cursed IP by 3D Realms.
Condemned: Criminal Origins - Great atmosphere, simple yet satisfying melee combat, but the character moves so damn slow, even when he's supposed to chase after someone, like he's got lots of glue under shoes. This partially undermines the atmosphere and amplifies the sensation of a padded out experience. And no sequel on PC.
- Lows
Call of Duty: Ghosts - Never expected much but the story is offensively ridicolous, and throws away any steps forward made by Black Ops II in single player.
Rise of the Triad 2013 - Its incredible speed turns against itself, between framerate issues and slippery platforming. It's admirable in its faithfulness to the original but it's not necessarily a good thing.
Anomaly: Defenders - It's a good Tower Defense but, why the series of Tower Offense games has ended up going to the very genre it inverted?
Judge Dredd Arcade - Well, for every good game on MAME there must also be some stinker. One of the worst lightgun games I ever tried.
The Punisher (2005) - Similar to the more recent Deadpool game: how to render atmosphere and character greatly, showing that you know the source or at least brought the right people in for that part, but then forget you also had to do a game...
You Are Empty - How to waste some of the best cutscenes ever with one the worst FPSes ever.
100% Orange Juice - Doujin board/card game that's cute at first but quickly reveals to be based on nothing but luck. Also an unappealing cast of characters.
ReignMaker - A Match-3 puzzle intersped by a fantasy management sim, depending on the results of each other. Unfortunately it's a case of good idea, bad execution, both technically and in gameplay balance (too much grinding and waits, too much mechanics that supposedly should get the player staying but only annoy him).
Guise of the Wolf - I admit having looked for this just to see how bad it is. A must-entry for YWK.
Costume Quest 2 - Cute game overall, but four years to have only marginal improvements, the biggest problems always there, and some things even worse (no keyboard config at release, saluting it as a great feature for a following patch? No).
Broken Age Act 1 - Not only the second chapter is taking too long due to bad project management, but I didn't find this first chapter a great adventure, with a simplistic interface and easy, sometimes even banal puzzles. I didn't want a Monkey Island style brain-twisting, but it felt so "casual" at times...
Dragon's Lair I-II and Space Ace Remastered - What cheap "remasterings": by wanting to keep them in one gigabyte each they sacrificed the video quality (old masters, true, but video artifacts are often evident), and no extras to speak of.
Postal 1 & 2 - Never expected much but the first is incredibly grimdark and has aged badly, while the second is concerned more with being as juvenile and controversial as possibile than a decent game (although it has some moments of cathartic fun).
Unholy Heights - Cute concept, like a parody of Dungeon Keeper, but too limited and grindy (in this case the grinding is "wait for many rental fees before you can buy just one furniture, then wait again").
Monochroma - Beautiful environments, nice variety of environmental puzzles, but the minimalistic storytelling turns against itself: you don't feel any attachment to the little brother you are tasked to protect, he's only a dead weight all the time. Also stiff characters and imprecise controls.
Goat Simulator - "Hey, fun!" 30 minutes later: "Is that all?"
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare - Technically impressive at release, and the interwoven storylines work, along with some "quiet" moments, but it's dragged down by the horribly balanced action part, especially the bosses, and some nasty bugs. It also ends with a big and never resolved sequel hook.
As for my 2014, it's been intense like 2013. Long list to follow.
- Highs
Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons - Short but intense, with the brotherly bond rendered even in the game mechanics. Some beautiful vistas.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Very different from the main series (and the story can get as much as ridicolous) but still a fantastic action game, and the PC port is very good.
Castlevania: The Lecarde Chronicles - To find an old Internet friend, who already made some freeware games I enjoyed, after several years, and see that in the meantime he's crafted a great fangame (although the difficulty is really murderous at times).
Call of Duty: Black Ops II - This episode's single player turned out really good, especially for how there are variations to the endings depending on some choices that aren't always slapped on your face. Also longer than the CoD average.
Injustice: Gods Among Us - After Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm makes another bullseye with DC Comics characters - to think they started with a questionable fusion of the two franchises! On top of that, the PC version has all the DLC characters despite being released only a few months after the console versions.
Bioshock 1-2-Infinite - Although the gameplay gets progressively watered down, and Infinite's story jumps the shark, they're games that kept me glued on the screen until their ends, and then a second run of each, thanks to a combination of plots, art direction and fun situations; at least, Irrational always kept the touch in creating worlds. They've also got some excellent DLCs. Overall, one great game series.
Hard Reset and Shadow Warrior 2013 - FPSes that give their spins on the genre, mixing old and new elements in fantastic combinations - I especially loved SW's sword and upgrade systems. Flying Wild Hog is a new titan of the genre.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein - Beside those bad stealth sections it holds up remarkably well, especially thanks to an excellent level design.
Wolfenstein: The New Order - Hiccups both on the technical and narrative level aside, it's an incredibly solid experience with fun weapons, mostly equal possibilities with gun-toting action and stealth, a level design that accomodates both, and many intense parts.
CarnEvil - Despite its hit detection problems, it was one of the funniest things I played after getting back to MAME for the first time in a long while.
Astebreed - While too flashy at times, and with a questionable story, it's a fantastic shmup with mechanics that make it accessible to both novices, or people who want just to have fun and obliterate enemies, and experts looking for the best scores by using more strategy.
Kamui and RefleX - Old but gold shmups, among the first to show what impressive works the doujin scene could create.
Ikaruga - Incredibly difficult but still fresh so many years after the original release.
Riddick - The two FPSes by Starbreeze are better than most of the franchise with Vin Diesel's character. The remade version of Butcher Bay is also more challenging than the original one.
NiGHTS Into Dreams - Very difficult to get into but equally satisfying when you do, a game from a time big-name developers still tried something different more often.
Valiant Hearts - Practically an interactive Franco-Belgian comic about WWI. Despite the simple gameplay (some puzzles are recycled more than once), it's still a must play, even just to follow the story and enjoy the art direction.
Child of Light - This year's other UbiArt game trips on its own rhymes at times, and the last part feels a bit rushed, but the magnificent art direction and the fun JRPG-inspired combat system more than make up for it. Ubisoft can make all the Assassin's Creed they want if they put out these gems inbetween.
Terrordrome - A fanmade fighting game starring a dozen of horror movie icons from the 1980s and 90s. Surprise, it's actually very good!
Monkey Island 1 & 2 Special Edition - The first suffers lousy character design and interface, but they're still a great new coat of paint on two classics.
Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death - A shameless low budget God of War clone that's aware of its limits and compensates by not taking itself seriously in the slightest, while still being fun enough to play. In short, a great B-game.
Skullgirls Encore - How to take inspirations from all VS fighting series and make a game that still has a strong personality and can stand proudly beside them. On top of that, it's also got a great cast and lore (with those designs, I never expected the world of Skullgirls to be so dark).
Roundabout - Kuru Kuru Kururin + Crazy Taxi + voluntarily bad live-action cutscenes in 70s style = a very imperfect (the "free-roaming" part needs refinement) but delightfully crazy game.
Cry of Fear - A Total Conversion of the first Half-Life (but available as a stand-alone) with strong inspirations from Silent Hill, it doesn't always handle its themes at best, and the choices to determine the endings are slapped on the face, but it's got a true survival horror gameplay and really scary enemies, and it's quite long with several unlockables.
The Journey Down - After the first episode that was more of a prologue, the second fully realizes its potential, with a good cast of characters and a Noir atmosphere supported by an interesting art direction; it also manages to be a good adventure in terms of quality and variety of the puzzles. After an epic cliffhanger, I hope the last episode won't take two more years.
Half-Minute Hero - I expected little more than a "divertissement" and found a much deeper game, with the further surprise of a new gameplay style for each playable character. The sequel loses more than something (only Hero 30 mode, unexpectedly serious story, a questionable DLC) but is still a blast.
Quake - Played often in the past but not really all episodes and every single level, from start to finish, until now. Obviously shows its age, and is "simplistic" compared to more recent offerings, but the level design, the enemy designs (unsettling in their simplicity) and the soundtrack still hold up greatly.
- Averages
Indie Gaming in general - While the scene has given several great games, average to bad productions appear to be unfortunately on the rise. Part of the blame falls also on publishers and distribution platforms, which have lowered their standards to ride on the indie phenomenon (I'm looking at you, Steam).
Resident Evil 4 Ultimate HD - The game itself is always great, but this new version is far from "Ultimate" and, in fact, little more of what should have been on PC 7 years prior already.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate HD - Pleasant enough, but I honestly expected something wider in scope than the three mini-adventures it is in fact.
Outlast: Whistleblower - The plot is very interesting, integrates well with the main game and plants many seeds for future episodes, but gameplay and atmosphere are already stretching thin: putting new enemies that are even more violent and depraved doesn't make the game scary at all - I'm at risk of yawning the next time.
Star Wars: Republic Commando - Excellent use of the license makes this one of the most atmospheric games based on the franchise, and some situations are intense, but it becomes shallow and repetitive after a while; overall, it hasn't aged gracefully.
Contrast - Beautiful art direction and atmosphere (the idea of seeing only the shadows of all characters beside the two protagonists is fantastic), good gameplay ideas, but applied to very simple puzzles and a short story. It started as a much more ambitious project and it shows.
Mirror's Edge - The first minutes you think you're playing a misunderstood masterpiece, then it shows all its limits. Still, it tried something different and would have deserved more.
Oknytt - Based on Swedish folklore, it tells a beautiful tale (also with an excellent narrator) but it's not a great adventure, with many puzzles that cause the "try all with all" syndrome, and very poor technically beside the art direction.
The Simpsons: Hit and Run - Could have been the definitive Simpsons game (Radical Entertainment already showed their ability with free-roaming games) if the timed missions weren't often so frustrating.
Clive Barker's Jericho - Many good ideas, great atmosphere, despite the serious shortcomings in the gameplay (like always playing nurse to the allies) I still liked it enough to go on... and then that sudden cliffhanger that may be never resolved. Clive Barker's games seem cursed.
Battleblock Theater - Fun and with a lot of content, but the variety of the levels should've been higher and they become more concentrated on traps than platforming; also the humour felt very grating to me.
Doom 3 - Never a great game, neither back in the day, nor replaying it after a decade. Resurrection of Evil even apes other games (pseudo-Gravity Gun, slow motion).
Blood of the Werewolf - A good platformer whose two playing styles (powerful werewolf under the moonlight, agile woman with crossbow where such light doesn't shine) are equally enjoyable, and a Hammer-style presentation; it's however a bit too slow-paced, has overlong levels and boss fights that wear their welcome, and a cliffhanger ending I'd rather expect in some AAA production.
Hatoful Boyfriend HD - Reprogramming the game from scratch to avoid compatibility problems, and with new content, is laudable, but the work has been done sloppily; there are even bugs that risk corrupting saved games.
G-String - An incredibly ambitious Total Conversion of Half-Life set in a very desperate dystopian future, with about 60 maps that make it longer that many commercial games, is however brought down by many quirks in those same maps (small objects in the way, hard ot find exits), showing that it's still an amateur project; I can only hope the announced new version will fix all.
Octodad: Dadliest Catch - Many crazy fun moments but it often shows that its concept doesn't fit well in a game of a wider scope, especially when you involve stealth, precision walking on ceiling beams or even sort of a boss fight.
Outland - It risked ending up in the "low" tier because of the inability to configure keys, solved only with an external INI file, and yet even with the use of Ikaruga's mechanics in another genre, I honestly expected something more; it has nothing bad, with the art direction and the bosses being its high points, but I didn't find nothing so exceptional in it either.
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 - Free camera and no QTEs further improve the gameplay but if the production was troubled as they say, it shows: it alternates between fantastic parts and huge drops in quality, and the ending is disappointing. Enjoyable from start to end but the first had a more consistent quality throughout.
Portal Prelude - An incredibly well-crafted mod that unfortunately shows quickly its suffering of the "hardcore for hardcores" syndrome, with many situations that are more convoluted and irritating than fun.
Prey - A lot of good ideas, good setting and some fantastic setpieces. Surely worth the long wait more than Duke Nukem Forever, but it's too easy, the hero is lame and doesn't fully realize its potentials (especially with the portals). given how it sadly ended with the sequel, this seems to be another cursed IP by 3D Realms.
Condemned: Criminal Origins - Great atmosphere, simple yet satisfying melee combat, but the character moves so damn slow, even when he's supposed to chase after someone, like he's got lots of glue under shoes. This partially undermines the atmosphere and amplifies the sensation of a padded out experience. And no sequel on PC.
- Lows
Call of Duty: Ghosts - Never expected much but the story is offensively ridicolous, and throws away any steps forward made by Black Ops II in single player.
Rise of the Triad 2013 - Its incredible speed turns against itself, between framerate issues and slippery platforming. It's admirable in its faithfulness to the original but it's not necessarily a good thing.
Anomaly: Defenders - It's a good Tower Defense but, why the series of Tower Offense games has ended up going to the very genre it inverted?
Judge Dredd Arcade - Well, for every good game on MAME there must also be some stinker. One of the worst lightgun games I ever tried.
The Punisher (2005) - Similar to the more recent Deadpool game: how to render atmosphere and character greatly, showing that you know the source or at least brought the right people in for that part, but then forget you also had to do a game...
You Are Empty - How to waste some of the best cutscenes ever with one the worst FPSes ever.
100% Orange Juice - Doujin board/card game that's cute at first but quickly reveals to be based on nothing but luck. Also an unappealing cast of characters.
ReignMaker - A Match-3 puzzle intersped by a fantasy management sim, depending on the results of each other. Unfortunately it's a case of good idea, bad execution, both technically and in gameplay balance (too much grinding and waits, too much mechanics that supposedly should get the player staying but only annoy him).
Guise of the Wolf - I admit having looked for this just to see how bad it is. A must-entry for YWK.
Costume Quest 2 - Cute game overall, but four years to have only marginal improvements, the biggest problems always there, and some things even worse (no keyboard config at release, saluting it as a great feature for a following patch? No).
Broken Age Act 1 - Not only the second chapter is taking too long due to bad project management, but I didn't find this first chapter a great adventure, with a simplistic interface and easy, sometimes even banal puzzles. I didn't want a Monkey Island style brain-twisting, but it felt so "casual" at times...
Dragon's Lair I-II and Space Ace Remastered - What cheap "remasterings": by wanting to keep them in one gigabyte each they sacrificed the video quality (old masters, true, but video artifacts are often evident), and no extras to speak of.
Postal 1 & 2 - Never expected much but the first is incredibly grimdark and has aged badly, while the second is concerned more with being as juvenile and controversial as possibile than a decent game (although it has some moments of cathartic fun).
Unholy Heights - Cute concept, like a parody of Dungeon Keeper, but too limited and grindy (in this case the grinding is "wait for many rental fees before you can buy just one furniture, then wait again").
Monochroma - Beautiful environments, nice variety of environmental puzzles, but the minimalistic storytelling turns against itself: you don't feel any attachment to the little brother you are tasked to protect, he's only a dead weight all the time. Also stiff characters and imprecise controls.
Goat Simulator - "Hey, fun!" 30 minutes later: "Is that all?"
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare - Technically impressive at release, and the interwoven storylines work, along with some "quiet" moments, but it's dragged down by the horribly balanced action part, especially the bosses, and some nasty bugs. It also ends with a big and never resolved sequel hook.
