What is your recent biggest gaming disappointment?

For me it's...

... Dragon's Dogma II.

For those who came in late...

... Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen is my favorite game of all time... of any genre. It has exploration, atmosphere, a strong combat system, resource management, party management, great ally AI, giant boss battles, and some interesting survival elements. While there are certainly games with more well-told stories (I contend DDDA has a great story poorly told), there are few games IMO with these gameplay elements so masterfully woven together. For me, it feels like an action-oriented D&D session with friends who happen to be AI.

Now, Dragon's Dogma II...

... Dragon's Dogma II is a pastiche of elements -- some old, some new -- that sadly lack the focus and polish of the original. While the graphics pretty to look at, there is never anything akin to walking over a hillside and seeing Gran Soren (the capital city in DDDA) in the distance... with Blue Moon Tower further still (if you squint). There is never a moment of awe generated from the art direction / design. Instead, the world feels like it was made functional, not inspiring.

There is never a musical theme as biting as either that of the original DD or DDDA. And for quite awhile I wondered if the devs hadn't simply cannibalized B takes from DDDA into Dragon's Dogma II and called it a day! Again, function over inspiration. And the worst of all...

... the action feel strangely imprecise.

While showy, the combat in DDDA was very precise. Rarely did you lose sight of where you were and what action your character was accomplishing. Here? Too many characters taking too many simultaneous actions with a camera that's far too close. It all becomes a muddled mess. Dragon's Dogma was never Dark Souls, but the combat had a precision that kept combat from being an utter mess of effects, movement, and button-mashing. Here? Sadly, it's devolving.

I could go on for pages, but will refrain. Maybe I'll write more on this later or make a video? But for now...

... I haven't been as disappointed in a game since Red Dead Redemption II.

Both games look GREAT, but both fall short of the masterful art direction (and focusing of the eye / attention) of their predecessors. Both games have expanded character movement, but in so doing both have a "sluggish" imprecision of individual action. Now, with that said...

... I think Dragon's Dogma II (and RDR II) is a pretty good game -- especially if you've never played the first. I can see people enjoying it... and... truth be told I have not yet finished the game (I will finish the game. It's not a train wreck, just not my hopes for a sequel), but...

... almost every moment I'm playing...

... I'd rather be playing Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen... again!

Maybe I'm starting to see that my favorite games came out around a decade ago (10 - 15 years ago)? Starting to seem like that. Dragon's Dogma (and DDDA), Red Dead Redemption, Mafia II, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, Max Payne 3, etc.

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Update:

Played a lot today and...

... I'm softening to Dragon's Dogma II. There are a few mechanics and options I didn't know existed; after learning them the experience was a lot better. Also, exploration is great. So...

... still hate the opening few hours (one of the worst openings of a AAA fantasy I've ever played!)...

... still think the story is mid...

... still like the first game more, but... Dragon's Dogma II is growing on me (although a big minus for the modern hair cuts and character "low fives").

I very rarely buy games full price anymore, so my "disappointments" tend to be a bit behind the times, but recently:

Against the Storm. Absolute rave reviews all over the place, but I just find it boring, repetitive and frustrating. I won't knock the game design - it is a finely made game and I can see how it appeals. Just not to me!

Age of Mythology: Untold. AoE 2 is one of my favourite games of all time, but this doesn't come close. It's based on the awful AoE 3 engine for a start and the delicate balance perfected in AoE 2 is all but gone here. A swarm of myth units seems to devour everything. I find the campaign uninteresting and, despite praise for the game's visuals, I think it's a bit of a pig.

Age of Wonders 4. I flip-flop between thinking 'eh, it's decent' to 'it's terrible'. The claims of "best 4X ever!" puzzle me. It's not even the best fantasy 4X, and doesn't even come CLOSE to Civ IV, Old World and co. The build-a-race mechanic was a major misstep for me. When I find a build works, I tend to go for that often, which is apparently against the spirit of the game. I'm meant to find "fun" in making sup-optimal builds and "role-playing". No thanks. If I want to role-play, I'll get a role-playing game.

Empire of ants.

I would say that "Empire of Ants" is my fault for being disappointed. While the game isn't bad at all, I should have kept myself more up to date on its development.

This game is nothing like the 2000 version with the same name. Although both are based on the book, I expected an RTS with the depth of the 2000 version, just updated with modern graphics and controls. Instead, I got a game more akin to "Pikmin" or "Mount & Blade," gameplay with a paper-rock-scissors style of tactical strategy and little to no base building.

For me, the game rates a 7 out of 10. I just wish it had been more of a remake.

The best thing about Retold is the 6 euro "Legacy deity portrait pack". Hey, you want the .pngs from the original game for the god images when you are advancing an age? 6 Euro please!!! I'm still laughing to this day.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2991160/Age_of_Mythology_Retold__Legacy_Deity_Portrait_Pack/

At least the reviews are roasting it!

Well, I barely buy games because I expect most of them to disappoint.

One thing I did recently buy is the DLC for Factorio.. and unfortunately it has not swayed my opinion of the game much. It's an improvement, but the game is still meh.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown.

I was very interested in it because Test Drive Unlimited 2 is my favorite racing game of all time... until the developers said it required a constant internet connection at all times. Every sane person knew the game will be a disaster after that news.

Not only that but the game has so many problems it doesn't feel like a TDU game at all, and the developers called themselves "GTA 6 competitors" :) Even if it has a offline DRM-free version i wouldn't play this game for free.

Buying an unplayable Hogs of War copy from GOG

I'm pretty disappointed that we didn't get Mechwarrior 5 Clans for sale here on GOG. The original Mech5 is here, but for some reason they skipped the stand-alone game.

That said, there is also a number of games that have been floating on my wish-listed that are only listed as 'coming soon' on their GOG pages. Including some games that have already received their full release on other platforms. Star Truckers, Moon Mystery, ROGUE SHIFT, etc.

It's getting kind of annoying how it seems like game publishers are treating this platform with more and more disrespect. Starting to wonder if maybe GOG is just not easy to work with from a publisher angle of if maybe these publishers are getting more and more lazy. Given the state of the industry, it could be either way.

I would not say it is a specific game as i surely may make many "bad deals" i do regret, but in usual i rarely make a bad deal at any "higher priced games". If it happens in most cases i already knew "it is a risky deal, so i should not pay to much".

The biggest "recent true disappointment" is clearly not a game, rather a company named "Sony". Just to many bad decisions they made not so long ago and i can only hope it may become better... which is not so hard given "how worse it already is":

Starfield got a lot of flak because people for some weird reason had the idea it would be a space sim. Of course it was just a game in the type range of the Fallout series. There are also the loading screens at several places. Strange enough nobody was upset when it happened in Fallout 4, Skyrim and other games build on this engine, but do not accept it in Starfield. Personally I am glad they kept a upgraded version of the original engine, because it makes modding Starfield a lot more easy.

The Veilguard is (for me) a fun game. Yes - It's different from Inquisition, but personally I think (at least game-play wise) it's a lot more fun to play. If you like the story and characters is debatable, but personally I do not hate them at all. As said - I have fun with the game.

Lol ;-)

Dunno, I don't remember really strong bad feelings connected to a particular game I played recently. Maybe that I honestly enjoy playing Assassin's Creed Syndicate, after I was never able to get into any of the other AC games for long, only to then run into an issue where the game goes from perfectly smooth to just freezing for a second now and again, especially when riding carriages, which kind of ruins the fun. Sure, my system is a bit outdated, but it still meets the system requirements of Syndicate and that's an odd issue I've never seen in any other game that's otherwise running this smoothly.

Or really loving Grounded, but getting stuck in it too often because the pace and progression curve can be a bit off. You think you're finally getting somewhere, after working hard to unlock new tool levels, allowing you to make a long trek to somewhere new, only to run into the next roadblock that you can't interact with because you haven't discovered the according tool level yet. Feels a bit too grindy in single player, and that's a shame, because it caused me to take a long break and who knows when I will pick it up again, after I was playing it so enthusiastically for a time.

And I decided to give the Storms of Zehir expansion another try, despite having my difficulties with Neverwinter Nights 2, and I really got into it and thought, maybe I could actually have fun playing NWN2 - until I ran into a big bad mess of a bug. I was able to navigate around it with temporary fixes, but that dampened my enthusiasm again. And the final battle feels like a huge difficulty spike. I'm still in the process of preparing for it and was wondering whether the game expected me to grind more random encounters (which would suck).

World of Tanks, the fact that the female crew members are unlockables that you have to unlock during events or campaign missions, which I've only recently found the latter to be pretty difficult to pass with flying colors since they're basically sets of objectives that you have to complete in multiplayer matches. Initially I thought there would be singleplayer missions that you had to play through in order to reap the rewards (female crew members), and to my disappointment, campaign missions are nothing like that. v.v