Biggest Gaming Letdowns

[Zaine]

Just a question to find out your biggest letdowns.
I decided to ask this since after taking AGES!!! to completely finish Rayman 1 I get to the final boss battle and I don't get to fight MR Dark! I just fight some muckup which I beat after a few lives lost and then Mr Dark runs away! The End! Complete with a congratulations message!ARRRRRRRAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!
<collapses>

[EER]

As my expectations of games in the Rayman franchise are so abysmally low, that for it to qualify as a letdown, it would have to physically break my arm.

Anyway, my biggest letdown would be IW. I know, I know, big surprise. Still, it is one of the few games that I saved up money for, the others being GTA 3 and Shadow Warrior. Other games I have never anticipated as much, and as such have never let me down. Reminiscing, IW is quite acceptable, but back then it was a big letdown to me.

[bobby 55]

The latest version of Alien versus Predator, that btw, cost me $75. It's a boring generic shooter basically, and I've only played like fifteen minutes. Steam also wanted to update it with an 11 gig Direct Ex 11 download and my card only supports 10... that's when I uninstalled it.

[Jonas]

Alpha Protocol.

[Jaedar]

The latest version of Alien versus Predator, that btw, cost me $75. It's a boring generic shooter basically, and I've only played like fifteen minutes. Steam also wanted to update it with an 11 gig Direct Ex 11 download and my card only supports 10... that's when I uninstalled it.

I got it for free with my graphics card... but yeah, it wasn't really good.

My biggest letdowns? Don't know where to begin really, heroes 4 maybe? Hellgate London deserves a mention to I feel.

Half-life 2? The way people hyped it up like the goddamn messiah but I only really found it to be a decent shooter.

[bobby 55]

Wow that must have been some graphics card.

It's totally none of my business, and off topic, but what card was it?

[gamer0004]

I loved Rayman 2 and I still think it is one of the best games I ever played.
And yes, IW was a real letdown. I only bought it years after release, but I really liked the demo (not realizing that was the best part of the game, and there wasn't much more complexity than the demo offered). But still, a good game and not a waste of money.
A real letdown was Medieval II Total War. I loved R:TW, and with a few improvements (pathfinding being one of the most important issues, besides naval battles and being able to choose whether or not other armies would reinforce your army as well in which order (so not first 10 groups of town guards entering the battlefield, only then to be followed by cavalry and heavy infantry). However, literally none of my real issues with R:TW were solved, in fact, some were worse. That's also the reason why I still haven't bought E:TW, especially considering the large amount of bugs (from what I've heard, or have they been fixed?) and even bigger pathfinding problems &c. (which really was the only thing in R:TW that would ruin my day).
I didn't like Overlord II either (obvious port without any improvements for PC) and GTA4 was a huge letdown. I had pirated it, thinking it was a really bad port. But then I found out I could map keys and performance was fine so I bought it.
But of course, games for windows live didn't like that. Oh no. People paying for games? Such nonsense.
At first, it didn't install correctly (no problems with pirated version). After several tries, it did install, but I had problems creating a windows live account (no problems with pirated version). After I managed to create a windows live profile (the whole process had by then already taken several hours), it couldn't update (no problems with pirated version). This left me with an unpatched GTAIV, which also meant I had very few graphics options to change (I don't recall whether it was possible to map keys or not) and extremely bad performance (apparently, GTAIV (at least unpatched) doesn't support CFX, which resulted in worse performance with CFX than without (disabling CFX did not help) (I had no such problems with my pirated copy since back then I did not have CFX)).
So I now have GTAIV on my HDD, and I just can't be bothered to try to get it to work again. I have already spent many hours in trying to get the damn thing to work. So only after I bought it I found out it was a bad port after all (not even supporting CFX), as well as Windows Live bitching me so I couldn't even update the game in order to make it playable. Fuck you GfWL, fuck you for fucking paying customers.
Also, LOTRO was a letdown, since a LotR MMORPG could be the perfect game, but it just wasn't true to the books enough for me.

[Xesum]

Half-life 2? The way people hyped it up like the goddamn messiah but I only really found it to be a decent shooter.

It welcomed a lot of people to the Steam Platform, Steam is rather successful and people put that down to the coolness of Half Life 2 with it's nifty physics and brilliant story.

[Hassat Hunter]

@ Jonas; I hate you.

@ Everyone else: GTA IV, Oblivion

[Jaedar]

brilliant story.

It's totally none of my business, and off topic, but what card was it?

Radeon HD 57XX... I think it was 5770 or 5780.

[bobby 55]

It's totally none of my business, and off topic, but what card was it?

Radeon HD 57XX... I think it was 5770 or 5780.

Nice! Thanks for the info.

[EER]

brilliant story.

Obviously it has a really great and unique story. It's about a rat, trapped in a maze and only one way to escape, which is to keep pushing forward and shooting everything in it's way. The tragedy is that in the end the rat realizes that he is ultimately doomed to run straight ahead shooting forever, the only way out would be death. After trying to stay alive for hours on end, the rat finally decides he has had enough and dies. Only to respawn instantly. The confused rat rages at this madness, but cannot help and can only persevere to the end. By this time he is completely cynical and wastes lives by the dozens, that's hundreds of combine wives and kids that will never see their husbands again.

Valve obviously intended us to see the pointlessness of it all. Yet then, somehow, suddenly it ends. So now we're waiting for Episode 3, to see what really happens once we complete the maze. I expect to see the combine wives and children lament at the loss of their husbands/fathers, vowing to avenge them and kill Freeman, even if it's the last thing they to. Then there will be a level where there will be wave after wave after wave of combine women and children, eager to kill you dead. The moral choice is yours, will you kill all you can and then be brutally murdered once your ammo runs out? Will you surrender to them, as you know you are guilty of atrocities? Or will you run, like you have done for as long as you remember?

It is definitely one of the most compelling stories I have ever seen in a videogame, yet it is so subtle that not many people seem to pick up on the true meaning of the game.

[Hashi]

Deus Ex was overhyped and a massive let down, I mean the physics and animation just suck and sound quality was not all that good either. Also no fingers

[Zaine]

I have to say that Rayman 1 isn't my biggest letdown. I have some far worse than that. Now I'm not sure if I should buy Alpha Protocol now. I'm still geeting Fable III however. I liked Fable II, even the ending which many believe sucked.

[Duke Floss]

there have been many for me - Boiling Point, Invisible War, any Spider Man game, etc.