Six Games that Failed to Deliver

Haze

Moving right along, we come to a game that was so horrific that it actually resulted in the closing of an otherwise remarkable game studio. These were the same guys who had brought us the wonderful TimeSplitters series, many of whom had worked on Goldeneye 007 and Perfect Eye for the N64. Free Radical had the talent – again, what could possibly go wrong?

For starters, the game is ugly. Early concept art and screens were promising, but seeing the game in motion was nauseating. The story is extremely short and predictable, and the multiplayer was lacking. Most importantly, the game just wasn’t fun at all to play. The game was built around Nectar, a drug that helped your character perform better, but what was the point when the AI was so bad anyway?

Don't Haze me, bro.

Don't Haze me, bro.

A few months later, Free Radical had shut its doors after going into administration, the UK equivalent of going into bankruptcy. Early last year, they were scoped up by Crytek and are currently working on the multiplayer for Crysis 2. Here’s hoping that this chapter of their story is a little sunnier.

NBA Elite 11

This failed to deliver because, well, it got delayed. This is unprecedented in the sports game realm as games usually come out a month before that sport’s season kicks off, but if the demo was anything to go by then the game was far from ready for commercial release. If EA Sports announces a new release date that spills into 2011 – well after the NBA season starts this Tuesday – then they’re better off forgetting Elite 11 and start working on next year’s game.

Good thing for NBA Jam!

Halo 3: ODST

This wasn’t a terrible game by any stretch – for the most part it still played like Halo, Firefight was a fun addition, and the soundtrack was totally different from any Halo before while still being really good.

But it was just so boring. The story was lackluster and even playing with a friend in co-op mode could barely contain the boredom. Maybe we had been spoiled after spending so much time with Master Chief, but playing as the totally mute Rookie was a drag. Then again, Halo: Reach faced the same challenge of giving you a nameless character, but ended up faring rather well. Maybe we just couldn’t shake the fact that this had originally been planned as a $40 expansion to Halo 3 before being stretched into a full $60 release, but it just didn’t have the same mojo that the three main games had before it.

Meh.

Meh.

Like I said, Reach made up for ODST and is a solid game overall. Let’s just hope that Bungie can channel some of the magic from the original Halo trilogy and can put make something worthwhile with the folks at Activision.

Readers Comments (15)

  1. Seriously don’t get the inclusion of 360 games on a list on Playstation University.

    As for the list ODST had one of the best campaigns in the halo games.

  2. ODST shouldn’t even be on the list. It had an awesome story. Other than ODST, list seems pretty spot on.

  3. @One-Shot

    Because Editorials and Opinion Pieces are open to all topics within the industry. We don’t report on 360-exclusive news, because we’re a PlayStation new site. However, an opinion piece/editorial is open to the entire industry.

  4. I see.

    Just really seems out of place.

  5. i dunno man too human was a good game the deaths seen’s were hell tho took way to long but it did has a good story even tho it was a little short and their should of been a part 2

  6. I agree that you have the liberty to write whatever the hell you want, I wouldn’t say you can’t do it, but talking about games that are not on the Playstation on a Playstation news site is really out of place.

  7. I completely agree with Too Human, and you know how I feel about Brutal Legend and ODST. 😆

  8. I thought Silicon Knights, at that time, were either partially or wholly owned by Nintendo (I.E. 2nd party to Nintendo)? What I mean is that I thought Too Human started development on GameCube?

  9. Glad to see Lair and Haze there, both video game stinkers. If you ever want to play a Lair demo (just to see for yourself) the Hong Kong PSN store has an almost 2gb demo you can download. XD

    Personally Little Big Planet failed to deliver for me. Great concept and direction but horrible play control. I hope the platforming controls are more Super Mario World for LBP2.

    ~d

  10. Brutal Legend is a fucking awesome game, and listing it among those other shitty games is a travesty. You weren’t “lied to”, there were videos and details about the RTS combat system for at least 6 months before the game’s release. It isn’t the game’s fault that you can’t learn a basic system that works surprisingly well on a console.

  11. @wampdog — SK had a short exclusivity contract with Nintendo, but were never owned by them.

    @zero — Again, from the demo available on PSN and XBL, there was NO indication of the RTS gameplay. Personally, I didn’t hear much about the game until it was picked up by EA, and I don’t read a lot of previews anyway. A demo should say “this is what to expect for your $60. And the notion that I couldn’t learn the game is ridiculous, and so is your qualifying statement of “surprisingly well on a console”. I beat the game and thought it controlled like ass, for any game. It’s an opinion piece, not a fact sheet.

  12. I admit I might be in the minority here, but I found ODST fun the whole way through. Maybe it’s just because I like pistol-sniping grunts, though.

  13. i gues its a matter of any individuals taste, but i found lair one the best aviation game ive ewer played, not just because it wasent placed in a nother endles desert, but because the controls just worked, and i newer got lost in battle(witch hapens to me a loot in aviation games)
    but i agre that sixaxis dosent do much for games exept flight controls, melle and reloading, but for what it does do good, its more than worth being implemented into a dualshock3

  14. I enjoyed ODST Firefight and the Campaign wasn’t too bad either. Bungie could have supported the game with new Firefight maps!

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