what was the worst experience you had with a videogame?

[mashers]

Interesting thread. I think I would have to say Eve Online. I really, really want to love this game. In principle, it's everything I could possibly want in a game:

Sci-Fi? Check.
In space? Check.
Huge universe to explore? Check.
Awesome technology? Check.
Skills training? Check.
Combat? Check.
Online play? Check.

Despite all of this and how much I want to love this game, I just find it so boring. There's sooooo much grinding needed to get anywhere, and every time I finish training a skills and grinding for enough ISK to buy and use the latest tech I've had my eye on, I just feel disappointed. All that work just lets me mine 2% faster. So I grind hundreds of hours of boring mining all so I can... grind hundreds more hours of boring mining. The expedition to faraway stations to collect my stuff is the most interesting part of the whole process, so I thought maybe I'd just go and explore to see what I could find. And you know what I found out there? Space. Loads of space. And not much to entertain me inside it. Even combat is tedious: lock on to target, turn weapons on, wait until the target is destroyed or you're nearly destroyed. If the latter, fly away before you explode, repair, then return and repeat until target is destroyed.

I think what's missing is more communication between players. Sure I could join a corporation, but that seems like a commitment I don't want to make. I want it to be more like Star Trek where people meet, have an adventure for a little while, and then go their separate ways. But that doesn't seem to be what Eve is all about.

 

[Taleweaver]

UT3. Most notably: the user interface and the story.

Here's the thing: I've been a fan of the unreal-series since Unreal 1. Unreal Tournament (UT99 nowadays) was very different in that it was an area shooter, but great in every aspect. Unreal 2 and UT2003 I've barely played, but UT2004 was just such an absolute blast that nobody really bothered. It's still my favorite game of all time.
Still, after three years of pretty much only playing that game and rumors of a new installment (first named UT2007, later rebranded as UT3), it was eagerly anticipated.

It was a huge letdown. The demo came and quickly divided the community in lovers and haters. The user interface was, simply put, an abomination. You had to wade through a ridiculous amount of slow-loading screens just to get a match started. Even just changing a single setting during a game (say: sound volume) meant a loading screen. Many blamed the design was dumbed down because it also came on consoles, and I had to agree to it (you could easily put twice as many options on most screens). Even though it could've been done better by a twelve year old even with that in mind.

Despite Epic's claim they were going to listen to community feedback, that same common complaint was in the full game for at least a year (it's been improved with UT3 black edition to a state of "somewhat acceptable"). But then there was the story aspect. As with other area shooters (eg quake 3), the "story" in previous games was just a simple fighting arena. For some reason, this came with an actual story that had to be shoehorned in with the gameplay so badly I'm still amazed this even got past a first design phase, let alone actually be in the game. Apparently, you were some sort of angsty soldier (meaning: you couldn't pick your own character or team) being angry because some faction attacked your village for no explained reason whatsoever. Despite all the level layouts, pickups, arena sounds ("first blood", "headshot", "rampage", ...) and obviously RESPAWNING, the cutscenes tried to convince you, you were really at war with the other factions (meaning: you always fought the same models of enemies) and you somehow had to destroy them so many times so they wouldn't be able to respawn anymore.
And if you think this piece of storyline was written by a lousy fanboi, you hadn't entered a capture the flag match yet. Despite it looking like a flag, it was supposed to be a "Field Latency Generator", which you should bring to your base three times in order to...

I mean...you see what I mean, here? Thousands of players with me were busy attempting to like the game but instead it was like watching a movie with a ten year old next to you who had to comment on every scene with retarded side story. The cutscenes were unskippable and I don't think you could've disabled the audio without also disabling the important parts to hear like whether or not your flag was captured.

On hindsight, I think they attempted to make it campy. Instead they just went full retard.

 

[teegeeack]

For some reason, this came with an actual story that had to be shoehorned in with the gameplay so badly I'm still amazed this even got past a first design phase, let alone actually be in the game. Apparently, you were some sort of angsty soldier (meaning: you couldn't pick your own character or team) being angry because some faction attacked your village for no explained reason whatsoever. Despite all the level layouts, pickups, arena sounds ("first blood", "headshot", "rampage", ...) and obviously RESPAWNING, the cutscenes tried to convince you, you were really at war with the other factions (meaning: you always fought the same models of enemies) and you somehow had to destroy them so many times so they wouldn't be able to respawn anymore.

if i remember correctly, around that time cliff bleszinski was very fond of mentioning that he was a big fan of mortal kombat, and that he wanted to infuse the unreal series with some influence from mortal kombat. unfortunately that probably meant that he not only admired mortal kombat's freaky & colorful character designs, but also its crappy storytelling.

 

[joyoshi]

FE Fates, playing with permadeath, no resets. I have a 99% hit chance. I miss. Enemy has 1% crit chance. They crit. RIP Oboro.

 

[Sakitoshi]

I recently finished Omega Quintet on PS4, the game is good and I liked it, but then enter the normal ending and everything went to shit. The normal ending is awful, that awful that I started a new game plus right away and played 10 hours straight just to get the true ending (and failed because I missed something, but that was my own fault. I started once more and followed a guide to no make the same mistake again) which is what the game expect you to do as it continues instead of just end there.

 

[TecXero]

I could go on about plenty of terrible games I played on my SNES and Genesis back in the day, but there's only one in recent memory. I got Skyward Sword, against my better judgment to check reviews, and that was just a disappointing mess. The controls were terrible and there wasn't really much to explore, and exploring was my favorite part of Zelda games, so that just killed it for me. Since then, I've been far more strict about checking to see if I like a game before I buy it.

 

[Weyu]

Probably Diablo 3.
I used to be a major Blizzard fan, but after that I gave them up completely.

But they were never the same anyway after their merger with Activision and most of the original talent already moved on from the company as well.
But man, talk about a disappointment.

 

[Touko White]

being ranked up in WAW because some idiot invited me
I blocked and deleted him from PSN right after that, ha ha ha ha

I was level 58 at the time as well I want to do things legit.

 

[PolarKoala]

Sansara Naga for the NES. I'm still waiting for someone to make a comprehensive review or series on how much of a mess it is.

You should probably experience this for itself, I wouldn't want to ruin anything.

Now, the game is aware of how absurd and ridiculous it is. It knows about every one of its awful design choices, and it taunts you with them. It wants to crush your spirit. It wants you to loathe yourself. It is nightmarish.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

I was about 8 years old when dad came home with this weird console made of black plastic, wood-grain paneling, and metal switches called an Atari 2600
It had a handful of games with it like Combat, Asteroids, Pac-Man.....and the infamous ET
These were the first games I ever played. I had no idea that ET was literally a horribly made piece of shit. I just thought I wasn't good enough to beat it. So repeatedly I kept going back to it, playing hours upon hours upon hours, constantly getting stuck in pits, can't float my way out, dying, restarting. Never getting anywhere, didn't have anyone to ask about it, slamming those thankfully indestructible joysticks on the ground in frustration.
It would be another eight years before the internet was a thing and I could finally learn that the problem wasn't me and that the game had sucked so bad that thousands of copies had been buried in the desert.

 

[LittleFlame]

Hm most recently would be having my character that's lived for a year die in Project Zomboid gotta love that RnG

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Not really the worst but I was severely disappointed by The Last of Us when I played it.

I didn't care about the story because the whole zombie apocalypse thing feels overdone to me, and the goal in general was underwhelming. I get that a lot of the important stuff is happening on Joel's way to the destinations, but the main objective was boring and dragged out enough to make me disregard that.

I felt no reason to care about any of the characters at all, since nobody was particularly likable, and too annoying and jerky to sympathize with. I get that this type of design is supposed to be more "realistic" and that's what I thought the problem was. Realistically I would consider people who act cold and hostile to everybody a massive asshole, so that's what I considered the characters.

I also didn't care for the variety in the gameplay. The game is represented as a survival horror game, but it's more of a stealth game. I have no problem with stealth games or mechanics, my problem was the fact this was ignored a lot. The game frequently forced you into situations where you had to kill all enemies before progressing. Not only did I find that it conflicted with the stealth tone of the game, but also the survival part.

Bosses and big fights in general were very disappointing because they didn't feel very interesting. I really don't enjoy running away from a boss just to unload my gun into it. Or do this but with explosives.

I honestly considered the game to just be average. I think hype played a big part in the success (not just financial, but also reception) of the game. Not expecting this to be well received, but it's just an opinion anyway.