Disappointing Games of 2008

The guys at gametrailers picked Star Wars The Force Unleashed as the most disappointing game of 2008. Thats a little harsh. The gameplay wasnt amazing but the production values were out of this world, the Euphoria physics engine worked extremely well with The Force, and although at 10 hours long it was too short and the combat was too shallow to recommend buying it (except for the most hardcore Star Wars fans), I think its a fun rental.

There were several Capcom games that came out this year that I was pretty sure were not going to make the cut - but turned out to be great. Everything Capcom touched in 2008 was solid gold. Looking at what they've done with their intellectual properies, they have as much of my respect as any gaming company in the world.

Some of my favorite games of 2008, were in ways disappointments, because they were so great but fell short of perfection. Fallout 3, GTA IV, Prince of Persia, Gears of War 2, Ninja Gaiden 2 - those games were almost perfect 10s. Those are easily in my top 10 favorite games of the year, but they are also disappointments in how they brush up against perfection without achieving it.

So now that Ive confused you by telling you all my favorite games actually disappoint me, what games actually bit the big fat one in 2008? PS Home. Spore. Age of Conan. Too Human. Far Cry 2. Mortal Kombat vs DC. Legendary. Wii Music. Alone in the Dark. Sonic Unleashed. Fracture. Shaun White Snowboarding. Golden Axe. Turok. Those games, as great as certain parts of them might be, are crippled by glaring flaws that render the overall experience much less enjoyable than it should be. Burnout Paradise, I might add, was a fun single player game but had absolutely none of the depth we wanted in an online racing game, so in that regard it was a huge disappointment. Some games, like Civilization Revolution, I was simply expecting too much from. Age of Conan just didnt have enough fun quests. Sonic starred in another comic-tragedy. We kinda expect Sonic to suck now, but still.

Spore, the biggest flop of 2008 on the PC, was just too dumbed down and too short. It still sold a million copies, so what do I know. I think the biggest bomb of the year for the 360 was Silicon Knight's Too Human. Both Spore and Too Human are games with nearly 10 years of development behind them, and tons of hype, so for them to finally debut in 2008 and be so lackluster left a lot of fans shaking their heads. But really we cant complain, as overall it was one of the best years ever for gamers, second maybe only to 2007. But thats another discussion entirely.