For me, personally:
Assassin's Creed
When this was finally announced for the 360, I was so happy I was jumping with joy. Finally, an open-ended assassination game with a focus on pursuit and evasion! An open-ended platformer from the team behind Prince of Persia! Who could not be excited?
Then the game was actually released, and all my expectations evaporated up in a cloud of smoke. There was no pursuit and evasion. There was no platforming. All there was, was "Hold the button" gameplay. "Hold the Jump button to go anywhere." "Hold the Parry button to block any attack."
Mass Effect
Along with Super Mario Galaxy and Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect was one of my top three most anticipated games for 2007, if not this generation. It certainly was my #1 most anticipated game last year. I expected a return to form for BioWare. I knew it wouldn't have the epic scale or combat intricacy of Baldur's Gate II, but I at least expected it to match Knights of the Old Republic.
Boy, did THAT go wrong.
Major conversations led nowhere. Oftentimes, during major cutscenes, I would be presented with three dialogue options, but no matter which dialogue option I chose, Shepard would just say the same damn thing. FFS, why even bother with the dialogue options, then? And then there was the disjointed storyline, which was half the scope of KotOR's, and made even less sense. There was no continuity between the three main quest planets at all. Only Virmire seemed anywhere near right, while the other two felt like they should've been sold on XBLA as downloadable content
Overall, a major disappointment.
Resident Evil 4: GC and PS2 editions
First let me say that I love RE4: Wii Edition.
Second, let me also say that RE4 for the GC and PS2 has some of the WORST CONTROLS EVER MADE. Not nearly as bad as previous Resident Evil games, but that's like moving up from crapping in a hole in the ground to crapping in a hole in the ground inside an outhouse. It's seriously terrible, and made the game unplayable for me. No wonder RE4 sold poorly at first.
That said, the Wii version fixes all the control issues of the previous versions. I won't play RE5 for the sole reason that it doesn't have a freehand pointer. I'll wait for the Wii 2 if I have to.
World in Conflict
Much hype was made about WiC in recent months. It was hyped up to be a change in the way RTSes would be designed.
Bull. IMO, it just didn't work. Then again, I'm not a multiplayer gamer. While WiC is fun on a multiplayer level, it falls completely flat in single player. At no time do you get the opportunity to enact strategy, or even tactics. Most missions can be blown through using rush tactics.
Maybe if WiC had the same level of tactical depth as Company of Heroes, it would be different. Company of Heroes added so many variables to its combat system that battles truly became tactical duels that had to be managed. With WiC, more emphasis was placed on convenience than tactics, and combat became more about luck than anything else. The special abilities and support abilities were nice, but at the same time felt like they compromised the focus on the game.
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