[GOTY] Most Disappointing Game Nominees

The GameSparked Team
GOTY 2012

There were a lot of great games that came out in the past year, but there were also a ton of games that just didn’t deliver on some of their promises. Or they just ended up not being very good. Here are our nominees for Most Disappointing Game of 2012.

Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin’s Creed III promised huge changes, but what we got instead was something very similar to past titles. The conveyance was poor, the missions tedious, and even the story fell flat. For such an anticipated title, it didn’t fail to disappoint us.

I Am Alive

I Am Alive showed a lot of promise up until the last few minutes of the game. For a game that was in development for so long (and had a complete makeover), it’s disappointing that this is what we got. Maybe we should just count our blessings that we even got this much. Either way, we were left with a feeling of disappointment.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning just didn’t live up to its promise. Everything in the game eventually spelled out tedium. The combat, the questing, the exploring, the dungeon-crawling, and even the inventories. All of it was an incredible disappointment.

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

Promises of an open world turned out to be false. The game’s open world was just a hub for each of the game’s tedious, annoying, and confusing levels. The only thing holding it up is its superb cutscenes and acting. Other than that, this is just another LEGO game. Disappointing.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

We don’t believe this game should have the word All-Stars in it. How can you be called PlayStation All-Stars, when so many key characters are missing? On top of that, the fighting system just isn’t that great. As a whole, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is disappointing.

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil 6, you are seriously disappointing. Resident Evil 4 and 5 before you were both great games. We don’t know what happened along the way; you’ve not only disappointed us, you’ve disappointed a lot of your fans. It wasn’t even a radical change to the type of game Resident Evil used to be. It’s the quality of the game that was made that was disappointing.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD

The gameplay wasn’t that disappointing. It was the lack of game modes and levels. It was the new additions to the soundtrack. It was a lot of the stuff around actually playing the game. This is what made Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD disappointing.

Sony at E3: You’ve Read It, Now Watch It!

Mat Paget

These articles will show a bunch of the demos, and trailers, that we thought were awesome during the conferences. Sony finishes the day with their presentation.

Beyond: Two Souls

PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale

Far Cry 3 Co-op

Book of Spells

God of War: Ascension

The Last of Us

In a Nutshell: Sony at E3 2012

Mat Paget

This, and future press conference write-ups, will be written as events happen. Things may be missed, but I will do my best to cover as much as possible. 

Sony’s press conference starts off with a montage, accompanied by dubstep, of a bunch of crazy Sony crap. This includes stuff that has already been released, and some new games that are still to be shown. The music has since changed from dubstep to some kind of weird alternative rock song. And now it’s Cee Lo Green! Definitely a different intro from what we’ve seen from the other companies. It doesn’t seem to end. Alright, I think it’s over.

Jack Tretton takes the stage because it’s time to begin! He takes a second to soak all of the attendees in. Jack Tretton is still charming. Before he starts, he wants to pay tribute to the most important people in the industry — the gamers. I honestly thought he was going to say the developers. Tretton is now talking about someone who is sitting in the audience who is very important to company; it turns out it was Kaz Hirai, and Jack loves him. 

Jack mentions Heavy Rain, the 2010 Game of the Year? Anyway, David Cage takes the stage to show off Quantic Dream’s new game Beyond: Two Souls. Cage poses the question, “What’s on the other side?” The game will take place throughout the main character Jodie Holmes’ life. She will be played by Academy Award-nominated Ellen Page. A video is shown, and it’s shocking how good everything looks. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s based off the same technology used in L.A. Noire. Jodie is being questioned, not interrogated, by a police officer. He wants to help her. As he notices a scar on her head, his coffee cup flies off the table, smashing into a dozen pieces. He leaves to check a missing persons list, and she says, “I know they’re coming.”

Next thing you know, SWAT shows up and demands to know where she is. They prepare to bust through the door, when the lieutenant orders the police officer to go in first. That’s when it cuts to a montage of scenes of her running away from her pursuers. It’s obvious that she’s telekinetic, and played by Ellen Page. It definitely seems like a game that Quantic Dream would put out. It will definitely be interesting to see if this plays like Heavy Rain.

Next up is PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale. All previously announced characters are shown in a short teaser trailer, but it looks like we could be seeing an actual gameplay demo pretty soon, as a group of people walk on to the stage. They’re announcing that the game will be available on the Vita, and will support cross-platform play. They jump into a game with two people playing on the PlayStation 3, and the other two on the PlayStation Vita. It looks like Super Smash Bros. with Street Fighter-like super bars. The supers themselves, however, are more in-line with Super Smash Bros. The game mode they’re playing requires the players to get the most kills with the supers to accumulate the highest points total. To finish off their demo, they unveil two new characters: Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series, and Big Daddy from the BioShock series.

Jack Tretton talks about how the Vita can basically work as Sony’s own version of the Wii U Touchscreen controller. LittleBigPlanet 2 will be the first game to incorporate such a feature through DLC. Sony will also be adding 12 free games to PlayStation Plus including inFAMOUS 2, and LittleBigPlanet 2. Everyone attending the press conference will leave with a 1-year subscription to PlayStation Plus. Vita will be receiving more than 60 games in 2012, and PlayStation One Classics will also be made available. Crackle, Hulu Plus, and YouTube are also headed to Sony’s handheld.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified will be arriving on the Vita before the year is over. 

Ubisoft will also be putting an Assassin’s Creed game on the Vita, that’s based during the same time period as Assassin’s Creed III. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation stars the first female protagonist the series has seen, and will also utilize the Vita’s unique features. Cross-platform play will help unlock new gear. It’s available October 30, and not only will it be sold separately, but it will also be bundled with a brand new Crystal White PlayStation Vita. Now, they’re going to show off a new demo of Assassin’s Creed III now.

The setting is the Caribbean Sea, and it features Connor as a pirate captain. I’m very confused by what’s going on with that, but we have other things to worry about. Connor is steering the boat, while they’re fired upon by enemy ships. Now, Connor’s ship is firing back, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much… There we go! Connor’s crew finally sinks one of the enemy ships. It’s actually really cool watching the sea devour the ship. The demo ends with Connor running onto an enemy ship, tomahawk in hand. There will be exclusive DLC on the PlayStation 3 for this new entry in the Assassin’s Creed series.

PlayStation seems to be doing a lot of work with Ubisoft, as Far Cry 3 is up next. It’s announced that the game will have four-player co-op. They’re showing pretty typical first-person shooter co-op — lots of shooting. Oh, and how could we forget about the neck stabbing? The game will also feature a map editor. Just like Assassin’s Creed III, exclusive DLC, AND insanity, will be coming to the PlayStation 3!

Jack Tretton is talking about the Move now, and mentions LittleBigPlanet Karting, and Sports Champions 2. 

He introduces Andy House, who is talking about innovation, and is going to unveil a “new experience.” A commercial is shown, which has a little kid reading a book that comes to life. He plays the book, and can even change the outcome of the story with choices he makes. The product is titled Wonderbook (my guess was the PlayStation Book). It uses augmented reality technology with PlayStation Eye to bring the books to life. It seems like they’ll be able to utilize this with an array of books, including education — FUN! A “tale” is being developed called Diggs Nightcrawler, which is based on detective noire fiction. The first title for Wonderbook, however, is called Book of Spells. It’s a collaboration project between Sony and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling wrote it herself. That’s actually really awesome!

J.K. Rowling isn’t here to perform the demo, but Dave Ranyard will have to do! They open the book to reveal some brand new writing from the Harry Potter author. Content in the book includes the description, history, and tales of spells. There’s also a dragon, and a Hogwarts student has warned us to avoid it. It shot some fireballs, and now the book has caught aflame. What a jerk! Don’t worry, though. You can clean the soot off the book with your hands. To learn different spells, it may require you to know previous spells. Unfortunately, the demonstrator can’t seem to cast any spell. But eventually, she prevails! Essentially, the game helps you become a student at Hogwarts.

Wonderbook’s Book of Spells will be released this Holiday.

Andy House is back, and he’s saying Sony will be bringing the PlayStation Entertainment experience to Android tablets and smartphones in a HUGE way. There are a bunch of games being developed that are PlayStation Certified, and we’ll be able to play them very soon. HTC will be the first non-Sony partner to share PlayStation’s experience. PlayStation Suite is also getting a name change to PlayStation Mobile.

Jack is now jumping into first-party exclusives, starting with God of War: Ascension. The demo starts with Kratos on a dock by the bay, when he comes across a man with something sharp and pointy that has been put through his body. Some goat men jump down and confront Kratos, so Kratos does what feels natural — turns them into a bloody mess. It looks pretty similar to past God of War games, but with a more cinematic combat experience. Kratos then looks off into the distance to see a Kraken absolutely obliterate a ship. Kratos proceeds to pull some crazy voodoo magic, and scales the cliffs he has now built a makeshift ladder on. 

When he gets to the top, he finds more goat men putting sharp, pointy things through–what I can only assume are–innocents. Kratos is then confronted by the Kraken itself, quickly dispatches of it, and then faces off against another enemy. It seems like Kratos can’t catch a break! The demo continues with an excellent-looking elephant enemy, who Kratos is probably going to murder. I was right. The Kraken makes a quick return, and the demo ends. The game will be out on March 12, 2013.

Something quite odd is going on. Everything is dark, and the camera is panning across the crowd. Sounds of The Last of Us emanate through the crowd, and some gameplay is shown. As most of you probably know, it’s a third-person game that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world. The game looks beautiful; a city overtaken by the beauty of mother nature. There are some really breathtaking environments, even if they are a little flooded. 

Eventually, they come across some looters. As they do, a HUD magically appears. Joel, the protagonist, stealthily takes out one of the looters, then attempts to take out the others with the ammunition he picked off their friend. An enemy breaks into the room, and a melee sequence occurs. After Joel disposes of him, another enemy hears that he’s all out of ammo, and reacts accordingly. The encounter ends with our protagonist smashing the face of an opponent into a desk, knocking him unconscious. There are are a lot of excellent combat sequences being shown. Joel, finding himself in deep trouble, is eventually saved by Ellie, his young partner. The demo ends with that scene.

Jack Tretton approaches the stage one last time to say some final words, and ends the conference. No mention of the new Sly Cooper game? Very odd, but we are sure to see more of that throughout the show!

[NEWS] Sony Confirms Their Own ‘Super Smash Bros.’

Mat Paget

If you want more Super Smash Bros. action, but don’t want to wait for Nintendo to release the next entry, you may be in luck. Sony has confirmed the existence of a PlayStation Super Smash Bros., which is aptly titled PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Confirmed characters include Kratos, PaRappa the Rapper, Fat Princess, Sly Cooper, Sweet Tooth, and Mael Radec from the Killzone series. Aside from the PlayStation-centric characters, the game looks to be almost identical to Nintendo’s brawler.

What characters would you be interested in seeing?