Other than the first date with the one girl you never have to do any of that phone stuff in GTA4. I ignored it all, finished the game easily.

Nobody mentioned Majesty 2 yet? Than I will do it! Majesty 2 is a very disappointing sequel. Although it took me some time to realize why. It seems that the game has everything what it should but the atmosphere is gone. I blame (among other things) the graveyard. If you can resurrect all your heroes any time you want you don't need to try so hard to keep them alive in the first place. This idea is just terrible. Talking care of your heroes what the most important part in the first Majesty but here? "Uh-oh, she/he is surrounded. Uh-oh she/he has no chance whatsoever. Uh-oh I don't care, will resurrect her/him later and she/he will be safe in my base once again". Is that suppose to be funny?

Mass Effect 2 & 3
Crysis 2
Every other Fable game
Assassin's Creed in general.

Compare Assassin's Creed 2 to Assassin's Creed 1, there's so much improvement it's not even funny.
That game reminds me of Battalion wars 2 for wii. All the countries were portrayed cartoonishly and as stereotypical as possible. Japan being obsessed with honour, Russia being as emotionless as possible, America being excitable and cocky and Brtiain were well "British".

I like Assassin's Creed. I own them all, I am playing 3 right now. I have to say though, overall, compared to what that series COULD be, it's pretty disappointing. Take the concept "assassin in an open world setting in the world's most famous cities during their most famous time periods" and then tell me the AC series lives up to that. I don't think it does.

They're fun action games but they could be so much more.

I will admit, 2 was a vast improvement. Did I enjoy them any more? No.

age of empire 3
assassins creed 3
diablo 3
Deus Ex: Invisible War

I could've sworn there were certain characters that wouldn't give you quests if your friendship rating dropped below a certain level.

Empire Earth III
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Command & Conquer 4
Star Wars Empire at War
ArcaniA: Gothic 4
Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands

Ultima IX
Eye of the beholder 3
The "new" Wizardry games
Ys 3: Wanders from Ys
Final Fantasy XII, XII-2
Doom 3
Banjo kazooie Nuts and bolts
Marvel vs Capcom 3
Sonic 06
Master of Orion 3
Leisure Suit Larry magna cum laude, Box office Bust
Perfect Dark Zero
Mortal Kombat 4, Deadly Alliance, Deception, Armageddon

I second Majesty 2 being a massive disappointment.

And Chris Sawyer's Locomotion. Oh gawd...

Unreal 2 was a let down as well, especially after how good Unreal Tournament was.

I think that's one of the big things that bothered me about Assassin's Creed 1 (or what I played of it). I usually try not to judge games based on things like the series legacy, the potential of their concept, their hype, etc... but it was really hard for me to get past the fact that the concept of Assassin's Creed was really awesome, but the game itself played it really unfortunately safe. I kind of hoped for something like Hitman or Thief set in a huge open world, and in actuality it was just an Assassin-skinned GTA-style sandbox game with crappy combat, clunky controls, and relatively linear missions.

I admit that randomly murdering people then escaping via the fluid platforming system over wonderfully detailed city rooftops was fun.

I never experienced that and I ignored every social call, so it must not matter.