Gaming may have taken a massive leap forward in the last few years, especially 2014, but that doesn't mean it hasn't dealt with its own internal demons in the process. In fact, there have been instances where we have been treated to titles that are below par, to say the least.
Game developers often get a lot of stick for releasing games that are either broken or dicey in terms of the end product. If you pay for a Call of Duty, you deserve the Call of Duty experience, for example. That's how the entire business of buying and selling stuff goes. You should get your money's worth.
While developers, most of the times, are on the wrong side of the blame game, the fingers are also pointed at big name publishers. Since most of the biggest games in the Industry are published by the likes of Sony or Microsoft, it's absolutely imperative that they keep a check on the final product before letting it out of the door.
But since we are only humans, and end up making mistakes more than once, we take a look at few of the worst games released for the new PS4 console to date. Also, we apologise beforehand if your favorite game is included in the list.
WWE 2K15
To be very honest, we have no idea why this game is out there in the first place. When we were growing up to the usual Monday night RAWs and Friday Night Smackdowns, we dreamt of a day when these characters will go digital in every proper sense. However, we now see that we had different opinions on "all things digital" than what 2K Sports envisioned it to be for WWE 2K15. As if NBA 2K15 wasn't a big shock already, 2K Sports decided to do a double with this new WWE game. We aren't even starting when we consider the insanely bad character modelling and unforgivable animation, especially when we, alongside a million WWE universe fans, expected some sort of evolution heading into the 2015 edition of the game. Sure the characters look plastic from all possible angles, but these guys have even taken out most of the customization modes that were adored so much. 2K Sports should have done better.
Thief
If it was some other day, we would have sympathised with the fact that Thief's aura was killed by Arkane Studios' Dishonored. However, to get on the real side of things, Thief hasn't got any such aura. For the more detail-eyed folks, you could say that Thief is an early example of how the entire next gen console business should not deviate from the path it had taken earlier. Sure we cannot judge a console based on a single game, but the game came around the start of 2014, and we had hopes that it would live up to the expectations of next gen. With relatively boring environments and a main character (Garret) who wasn't up to the mark, the concept of tactile first-person stealth went out of the window. And moreover, Dishonored was offering more in terms of similar gameplay anyway than Thief.
Transformers: Rise Of The Dark Spark
Remember the good old Saturday mornings when you used to make yourself active in front of the TV over a bowl of cereals enjoying your favourite Transformers cartoon. Well, those days are long gone, and have been replaced with hopelessness. That too in the form of Transformers: Rise Of The Dark Spark. The biggest question we have is why the developers opted for a Gears of War rip-off? And even made a mess out of that with unimpressive characters and pitiful enemy types. In fact, the only good thing about the game was veteran voice actor Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Surely, Spidey deserves better than this. Step aside Dr. Octopus and Venom, Spider-Man's biggest nemesis is currently a badly crafted game that tries to do justice to the CG-generated adventures of the web-slinger. First off, Spider-Man's costume looks nothing like the ones we are so used to seeing, and is more of a pathetic excuse in the name of a costume. Apart from that, the game's iffy frame-rate faltered the moment you tried to swing spidey from one corner to another, while the auto-climb mechanic was of no apparent help if one tried to move out of a fixed mission.
Killzone: Shadow Fall
When Killzone: Shadow Fall came around, it was almost instantly awarded with the tag of 'Halo-killer.' Hence, you can imagine the kind of enthusiasm and excitement it might have generated even before its release. However, the game now stands as one of those dreams that got crushed by their own weight. The weight of expectations and rising to the top, that is. While the game never really got the better of Halo, Sony still persisted and invested money into the franchise just to make a point. Moreover, the overall combat factor of the game fell flat, irrespective of it running on the next gen. And animation for the enemy Helghast troops was pathetic. Simple, no good!
Assassin's Creed: Unity
We were almost near to tears seeing this one. Assassin's Creed, since its inception, has been the kind of breakaway we have always desired from the regular gaming norm. And add to that a storyline that's better than what we usually get. However, Assassin's Creed: Unity broke away from everything that's good and replaced it with hopelessness and bland offerings. While the characters seem like they have been created for the sake of it, the frame rate easily got rid of any sign of reality. And this will also probably be the first (and hopefully the last) in the Assassin's Creed line to get rid of the core features out of the gameplay experience. Nonetheless, Ubisoft did acknowledge the kind of almighty howler they made with the game and tried putting out a few patches to give the game at least some worth. But the damage was already done in the first place.
Watch Dogs
Oh my! Where to start on this one? If you remember the previously laid out campaigns for Watch dogs promised sorts of innovation that actually made a lot of people invest on next gen consoles as soon as possible. Sure it wasn't the end of the world, but it was outright lying to the very fans that gave you such status in the first place. And being a videogame game fan for this long, this is something we don't take kindly to. Nothing in the game, if we remember correctly, has been made with care and it's as if these guys were in this massive hurry to push out the game. And the end result being a Mass Effect 3-esque disappointing finale. But whatever that may be, it still left a bad taste in our mouth at the end of it all.
