Worst game you've played to completion

[bgmnts]

No it's not, but you'd be hard pressed to find a player who hasn't found themselves backed into a corner after fucking things up and needing an alternative. Getting spotted dragging a body into a bathroom or whatever and the cavalry arrives with loads of guns.
I fully understand your view here. But it's a sandbox game. To remove certain mechanics is a step backwards.

Making things clunkier to appeal to one crowd, rather than giving options....

I hope you see my point? Why limit creativity or reduce our options. I'm not a champion of absolution, I understand it was a very story-specific game with issues, but it had so many good things too.

Yeah totally understand. Depth vs quality of life I think isn't it? I assume the devs wanted to just focus more on the open world stealth rather than the combat. The stealth element is much better than Absolution, but yes you lose the depth to play the way you want.

[Kryton]

Exactly that. I'm sorry if I came across abrasive, I don't mean too and I was previously typing on my phone.

In regards to the Hitman games I much prefer stealth . But having options when you're backed into a corner is better than none. Giving players the option of Rambo vs Shadowy mysterious guy works for both styles.

That said, the disguise system in Absolution was awful and supports to your argument of that particular Hitman game being weak. If I'm not wrong in Absolution you could say, disguise as a gardener but other gardeners would recognise you, whereas in the later games you're mostly sound in any disguise besides the random patrolling enforcers, which is a better mechanic in my opinion and slightly more realistic.

I think I just miss pulling people out of windows, taking cops as human shields (when things go awry) and occasionally pushing people over.

I'll try and keep this on-topic (good thread btw) - I'll have a good think about what shit games I played to completion and come back into the thread. Sorry for derailing slightly.

[bgmnts]

Exactly that. I'm sorry if I came across abrasive, I don't mean too and I was previously typing on my phone.

Ha I think I am used to more volatile, hateful confrontations as I had no idea that was abrasive.

No worries. Apologies if I was a cunt.

Anyway, my non-joke answer is probably Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, or some shit mediocre crap like that.

[This isnt witty sorry]

That said, the disguise system in Absolution was awful and supports to your argument of that particular Hitman game being weak. If I'm not wrong in Absolution you could say, disguise as a gardener but other gardeners would recognise you, whereas in the later games you're mostly sound in any disguise besides the random patrolling enforcers, which is a better mechanic in my opinion and slightly more realistic.

Haven't played the later games but I always thought the disguise system got a lot of shit unfairly.

The ones before still had the get too close to someone else in the same outfit and they'll blow your cover (the Japanese valley levels in 2 being a particularly unforgiving example) the instinct bit just let you keep your head down to slip past them if they got too close. Felt like a natural step forward to me.

[popcorn]

Heavy Rain, because all my friends and all the internet were playing it, and I didn't realise I wasn't enjoying it, even as I sailed right towards the ending.

Heavy Rain about the only game I played to completion out of morbid fascination. I was gripped by its awfulness.

It's like the Room of video games. It's that level of disastrous. I don't understand why it isn't just roundly mocked by everyone.

[Ferris]

Heavy Rain about the only game I played to completion out of morbid fascination. I was gripped by its awfulness.

It's like the Room of video games. It's that level of disastrous. I don't understand why it isn't just roundly mocked by everyone.

It took itself incredibly seriously, even though it was utter toilet. I had a hoot playing it but for all the wrong reasons.

Edit: mind you, I really liked Gone Home and Life is Strange for their cozy low-stakes mystery, so take my opinion for what it is worth.

[H-O-W-L]

Kryton, I'm not going to quote any one specific post but most of what you've said was removed in Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2 actually, legitimately, wasn't. The only feature that actually was removed is human shielding, which has been requested by fans to return and the devs have said they are considering it. You can still pull people through windows/over ledges while hanging or wall-climbing, and you can still blindfire over/around cover.

To further this, Agent 47 in 2016/2 basically uses all of the exact same animations and movesets as he does in Absolution, to the point that a lot of Hitman purists who hated Absolution also hated H2016 on previews because to them, short snippets looked like Absolution with the saturation turned up. It's only on release that they realized they were just reusing a lot of his animations.

I'm going to rant a bit about Absolution, here, but it's not directed at you, Kryton, I'm just expressing my feelings on the game itself, which is shit and was known to be shit by the devs.

Absolution is probably the worst Hitman game not just because of its game play (which I'll say is basically the minimum update a 6th-gen Hitman game could've had. Yeah, it played well, but considering Blood Money played fantastically when it came out, there is almost no excuse for how simplistic the play was) but also because of its unfathomably offensive plot and content. The constant sexism, racism, the horribly mishandled undertones of paedophilia and sexual abuse (some of which is a remnant of the fact that Victoria, a girl implied to be 14-16 in the game plot was going to be assaulted and tortured to death on camera in the original draft before Square Enix suits walked into IOI's office and started waving a gun around) and the constant, unrelenting goofy-seriousness of the plot make it actually miserable to play.

Why did you complete it? The start was so good that you kept telling yourself it'd improve?

Bit of that, and the fact I really liked Lovecraft lore at the time. It really wasn't worth it but it gave me perspective on broken games.

[madhair60]

Running Battle on Sega Master System, an absolute feast of glitchy ineptitude. As a child, though, I had so few games that I just played the absolute bollocks off what I had, so I finished it numerous times.

[Kryton]

Kryton, I'm not going to quote any one specific post but most of what you've said was removed in Hitman 2016 and Hitman 2 actually, legitimately, wasn't. The only feature that actually was removed is human shielding, which has been requested by fans to return and the devs have said they are considering it. You can still pull people through windows/over ledges while hanging or wall-climbing, and you can still blindfire over/around cover.

Oh yeah I know human shielding has gone, but I don't think I've ever seen the option to pull people through windows in hitman 2016/hitman 2. I know you can throw people over balconies, but I'm talking about hanging below or at the side and dragging them over from the outside (like Splinter cell style). How do you do that?
Is it prompted?

Also how do you blind fire? I know you can pop out of cover and aim fire, but I'm sure in Absolution you used to be able to just flip your gun around cover and fire without revealing yourself to lesser accuracy?

I fully agree with the plot of Absolution being dire btw.

[H-O-W-L]

Oh yeah I know human shielding has gone, but I don't think I've ever seen the option to pull people through windows in hitman 2016/hitman 2. I know you can throw people over balconies, but I'm talking about hanging below or at the side and dragging them over from the outside (like Splinter cell style). How do you do that?
Is it prompted?

It's context-sensitive, you have to have someone near the ledge (not too close, but not too far) to do it. An easy place to do it is the bridge between the ruins and the mansion in Sapienza, or the restaurant window where the chef smokes in the same map. It is 100% there. You can also do it at the ledge at the back of the garden in Hokkaido where the guard smokes, and similarly at the other ledge where the gardener goes for a fag break.

Also how do you blind fire? I know you can pop out of cover and aim fire, but I'm sure in Absolution you used to be able to just flip your gun around cover and fire without revealing yourself to lesser accuracy?

Just press the fire button when you're in cover. I don't know what that is on console but it's just LMB on PC. I know for sure that blind fire is ingame because I usually use it in my "go nuts" firefight runs. Especially since 47 is still almost-deadly-accurate in blindfire mode.

[Kryton]

It's context-sensitive, you have to have someone near the ledge (not too close, but not too far) to do it. An easy place to do it is the bridge between the ruins and the mansion in Sapienza, or the restaurant window where the chef smokes in the same map. It is 100% there. You can also do it at the ledge at the back of the garden in Hokkaido where the guard smokes, and similarly at the other ledge where the gardener goes for a fag break.

Just press the fire button when you're in cover. I don't know what that is on console but it's just LMB on PC. I know for sure that blind fire is ingame because I usually use it in my "go nuts" firefight runs. Especially since 47 is still almost-deadly-accurate in blindfire mode.

Thanks HOWL, I'll try those.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus was kind of shockingly shite, mostly because of the horrendously balanced difficulty. I stuck with it to the anticlimax of an ending though, because I wasn't about to let the developers defeat me
I didn't have much fun, but at least I had the moral victory.

[C_Larence]

Wolfenstein: The New Colossus was kind of shockingly shite, mostly because of the horrendously balanced difficulty. I stuck with it to the anticlimax of an ending though, because I wasn't about to let the developers defeat me
I didn't have much fun, but at least I had the moral victory.

I had to give up not long after starting because it gave me motion sickness, something i'd never experienced from a game before.

[Blue Jam]

I had to give up not long after starting because it gave me motion sickness, something i'd never experienced from a game before.

There's definitely something off with the way corridors and floors look while you're moving in both The New Colossus and The New Order. It wasn't enough to give me motion sickness, just enough for me to find it a tiny bit annoying until I got used to it.

Fallout 4 is far worse for that. It feels like the whole environment is actually a very sophisticated bouncy castle.

[Golden E. Pump]

Soggy Biscuit.

[Blue Jam]

Russian Roulette

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

In no order
Mortal Kombat: Special Forces
Mortal Kombat Mythologies
Rugrats In Paris

Thought Mortal Kombat was the bollocks when I was younger and that the 9% rating for Mytholgies in N64 magazine must have been from some idiot who just didn't GET it.  played it on PlayStation and found that yes, the game was a load of arse with some appalling acting in the cutscenes. I might be wrong but I think I persevered in order to see a blooper reel at the end.

Special Forces I have no excuse for.

[thenoise]

Like many people I have a lot of nostalgia for the Sierra adventure games, but they were completely shit weren't they?  Especially compared to the (still wonderful) LucasArts titles.  Years later I downloaded a guide and plodded my way through King's Quest, Space Quest and (the occasionally amusing) Leisure Suit Larry - I felt that I owed it to myself after the hours and hours that I plugged into it as a child, wandering around and achieving very little, but getting very excited when my 'score' went up by a few points, seemingly at random.

I started doing Police Quest too, but finally realised that I wasn't really enjoying the experience.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Ha I also thought I owed it to my 6 year old self to complete Leisure Suit Larry once I was older and knew what the hell the game was about.

Printed off the guide, got bored and went to bed. Found out next morning my mum had binned the guide thinking I'd been up all night desperately trying to crack one off.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Duke Nukem Forever.

I completed it because I was in denial about buying such a terrible game.

[Utter Shit]

Played to completion doesn't really apply but I honestly think the latest FIFA is the worst game I've invested serious time in. It just doesn't resemble real football in any way. There are no recognisable tactics, every element of the game engine is practically visible, at no point does it feel like a proper game of football. It's not a total write-off because Clubs is still decent, but FUT and Seasons are terrible, infuriating wastes of time. It's the only game that has ever made me truly angry while playing it.

[bgmnts]

Played to completion doesn't really apply but I honestly think the latest FIFA is the worst game I've invested serious time. It just doesn't resemble real football in any way. There are no recognisable tactics, every element of the game engine is practically visible, at no point does it feel like a proper game of football. It's not a total write-off because Clubs is still decent, but FUT and Seasons are terrible, infuriating wastes of time. It's the only game that has ever made me truly angry while playing it.

https://youtu.be/8OAwBwWly6c

This video typifies how utterly abhorrent EA are as a company. Just a way to con children out of a shitload of money with their TOTALLY NOT IMMORAL OR ILLEGAL GAMBLING MECHANICS.

Utter scum.

[Ferris]

Played to completion doesn't really apply but I honestly think the latest FIFA is the worst game I've invested serious time in. It just doesn't resemble real football in any way. There are no recognisable tactics, every element of the game engine is practically visible, at no point does it feel like a proper game of football. It's not a total write-off because Clubs is still decent, but FUT and Seasons are terrible, infuriating wastes of time. It's the only game that has ever made me truly angry while playing it.

Every fifa game has one or two of glaring holes that make it super easy.

'98 and '00, tapping circle in the box was an unsaveable slide rule pass into the bottom corner, '15 and '16 a "finesse" shot outside the penalty box (from about level with the 6yd box) lofts a gentle ball over the keeper and into the far corner of the net, one of the more recent ones you can score with cross+header incredibly easily.

The game becomes "how do I get the ball + a striker to [instant goal area]" and you end up bossing it and winning every game 8-0. Simultaneously satisfying and infuriating.

[Bazooka]

One of the PES games circa 2003/4 had an almost unsaveable corner curve kick.

[Utter Shit]

https://youtu.be/8OAwBwWly6c

This video typifies how utterly abhorrent EA are as a company. Just a way to con children out of a shitload of money with their TOTALLY NOT IMMORAL OR ILLEGAL GAMBLING MECHANICS.

Utter scum.

I don't even understand what has happened there. I mean I get the idea that it is scripting, but why did the ball end up on the centre spot?

[bgmnts]

I don't even understand what has happened there. I mean I get the idea that it is scripting, but why did the ball end up on the centre spot?

A lazy development which has been barely been tested.

[Dewt]

A lazy development which has been barely been tested.

You do talk a lot of shit.

"Lazy"? You think they're just heading to their desks and chilling out, instead of being massively overworked (as documented) and tackling the extremely difficult problem of developing a complex system that has to look natural to players as well as being fun and controllable, with far less resources then they actually need, and then they are subject to people who don't even understand their jobs saying "yeah mate, I'll blame every department in the company that puts in 80 hour weeks in shit conditions for fuck all pay" when an edge case bug crops up?

[bgmnts]

Lazy cunts aye.

Fuck making the game better, lets just focus on making more money by introducing gambling mechanics to kids.

Of course there are a shitload of poor programmers getting crunched to fuck, thats almost every single AAA game ever, wasn't talking about them.

[Dewt]

If there is going to be a gambling mechanism in FIFA (BAD, BAD BAD) then having it work the way you saw above is better than realistic physics.

You need every outcome to be a pick from a selection of possible outcomes for it to pass regulations and to weight the game fairly. You can't have it being skill based, it's basically got to be a slot machine with a set average return on play that overlays the facade of a football game on top.

(I don't actually know what this game is and I'm piecing it together from your objections though)

[Wonderful Butternut]

If there is going to be a gambling mechanism in FIFA (BAD, BAD BAD) then having it work the way you saw above is better than realistic physics.

You need every outcome to be a pick from a selection of possible outcomes for it to pass regulations and to weight the game fairly. You can't have it being skill based, it's basically got to be a slot machine with a set average return on play that overlays the facade of a football game on top.

(I don't actually know what this game is and I'm piecing it together from your objections though)

The gambling refers the method of acquiring players for the main competitive online game mode, FIFA Ultimate Team. You get them randomly in purchasable packs with a 4.5% chance of a player rated above 84/100 dropping. A significant portion of first choice players from the top 6 clubs in each the biggest European leagues would fall into that category. The chances of someone truly world class like Messi or Salah rated over 90 by the game dropping is not disclosed, but it's assumed to be a lot less. Aside from the competitive advantage of having a team of these players over a team of farmers, you're also more likely as a football fan to want to have famous (which usually means better) players in your Ultimate Team. Packs can be bought for in game money or for doing certain challenges, but grinding that out is really long an the easiest way (which the primary playerbase of kids/teenagers are likely to go for) is to throw real money at it.

Beyond impacting the players you have available for Ultimate team, gambling doesn't effect the game engine itself, which should function as realistic simulation of a soccer match.

"FIFA Scripting" is a long held complaint about the series. Basically, it holds that game engine sometimes handicaps teams by changing elements of the game the players have no direct control over (goalkeepers and whichever outfield players they're not controlling at any given time, ball bounces after tackles) or are partly assisted by the game (such as exactly where passes and shots go) to impact results without telling you. It's called scripting because it's seen as the game engine deciding the outcome rather than the players. The reasons given for why EA allegedly do this include:

- Reducing the in-game earnings is of good players by having them draw or lose games they should win so they'll have less in game currency to spend on packs and will need more real money.
- Stopping bad players from losing constantly so they won't quit and will keep spending money.
- General bastardry.

The goal in the vid is a result of a major bug, would be illegal under the rules of Association Football and disallowed in real life (assuming the ref even let him get to the center circle with the ball in the first place). It was a corner kick, so it has to be taken from the corner flag instead of the center circle where he did take it from. Normally, the game automatically places the ball at the corner flag, so this is not something the person playing was able to dictate. You'll notice that the majority of players are crowded around the goal as if they're expecting a cross in from the corner flag. This is because that's what's supposed to happen. Now that'd be bad enough, except he goes and fires it right into the goal. It is possible to score from the halfway line in real life football, but usually requires an error from the opposition goalie and the curve and dip on the shot is difficult to achieve in real life. So effectively, the game awards a team an impossible goal through physics bugs. It's an extreme example of 'alleged' scripting.

I say 'alleged' because EA deny scripting exists and until someone decompiles the code, no one can prove it exists.