Game of the Year 2015 – Most Disappointing Game

What a disappointment…

With our Best of the Year coming up over the next few days, we thought it only fair to run down a couple of other categories as well. Today, we get the bad stuff out of the way, with our suggestions for the Most Disappointing game of the year. Overall, we feel it’s been a strong year for games, but there have been a few black marks on this otherwise great 12 months. Remember, the below are our personal picks, with the “winner” being given to the game that’s received the most votes.

And the “winners” are…

FIFA 16

Nick: The truth is, FIFA 16 isn’t an inherently bad game. My distaste for the gameplay has been a slow burner, slipping from joy to disappointment and back for several years. For the first year since I began playing the series consistently, I feel the franchise has taken a step backwards through its lack of innovation, constant failure to find a balance in gameplay, and the big ‘AI’ problem that EA seem to have no answer for on a yearly basis. Some things will need to change sooner or later.

Adam: There is no doubt that FIFA sells well. Year after year, sales are always above average compared to other titles. It is alright having those sales, but for me, it fails on the pitch, where it is most important. EA hype new features each year, but I seriously think FIFA has gone ‘stale’ in terms of the gameplay they have to offer, with everything feeling recycled from the last 2 or 3 years. I was seriously looking forward to FIFA 16, and I am disappointed to put it in this category. EA have a lot of work to do if they are going to win me over next year.

THE ORDER: 1886

Charles: What a terrible game! Visually it was awesome, but it failed to live up to expectations at every turn for me. The game play was just far too linear and repetitive. If this was done by a kick starter you may forgive it, but for Sony to give it the shiny stamp of approval… they should be paying us all to play it.

Nico: In February, we received the beautiful The Order 1886. However, that’s all it was. Beautiful with no substance. The Order is essentially Derek Zoolander; really, really, ridiculously good looking but with not much going on inside his head. It’s a huge shame as it appeared to have so much promise early on.

Other disappointing picks from the team…

TELLTALE’S GAME OF THRONES: SEASON 1

Gari: I was extremely excited when Telltale revealed that they’d be developing an episodic series based on the super popular tv series, Game of Thrones, but once I started playing it on my PS4, I realised I just didn’t care about the story or the characters involved. As well as not really caring about what was going on around me, the game felt rushed and with an engine thats as reliable as a paper umbrella, it started to dawn on me just how much I didn’t need this in my life. The series improved over time, but by then, it was to late for me to care. Forgettable characters, a dull story and an age old engine couldn’t pull me back in like previous Telltale titles had. Its a shame as I had high expectations, but with Life of Strange pushing this category of games to the next level, Game of Thrones felt poor in comparison.

TONY HAWK’S PRO SKATER 5

Ben: Where to start? Tony Hawk was one of the all time great franchises of the PlayStation and PS2 eras. Many a night was spent listening to the first 2 minutes of the best pop-punk soundtracks in video games, with the controls nailing that “easy to learn, difficult to master” balance. How, then, did it all go wrong? Forced online lobbies that throw you into a new group when you launch one of the modes, sloppy controls, a drastic change in art style with only months to go until release… It’s the dictionary definition of disappointment. This could have been so much more than it was, but rumour has it that the license was expiring unless Activision put out another THPS game. A cash-grab of the highest order, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 is not only the most disappointing game of the year, but the biggest disappointment of this generation so far.

JUST DANCE 2016

Deb: Just Dance 2015 I felt had much more to offer than this years. The song selection was questionable and some great features were taken out for the current gen versions which honestly makes no sense. I think Just Dance has had its time, at least for a physical and yearly release. Don’t get me wrong it is a great party game or if you just fancy a little boogie but the yearly release just doesn’t offer a great experience as when it was first released. The introduction of Just Dance Unlimited also put the final nail in the coffin. The expectation for consumers to pay for the game then another subscription fee on top of that is ludicrous. Now this may be their intention and if not I think Ubisoft should consider it; ditch the yearly physical release and retain the Unlimited subscription service. You can then pay for it as and when you want it and you get access to the full catalogue of tracks you expect would come as standard. To sum up; it is a great party game, a bit of fun but I believe the series has had its time as an annual release.

FALLOUT 4

Asim: As someone who played the hell out of Fallout 3, even if it didn’t break the mould or reinvent the genre, I was at least expecting to enjoy Fallout 4 on a basic level. Sadly, I did not. After spending six hours with it, I ended up trading it in. After all the hype from Bethesda claiming the real time FPS mechanics would be so good you would hardly need to use VATS, I was left extremely disappointed. They’re shoddy at best, resembling a sub-par FPS from the last generation. Seeing as you spend the majority of you’re time in combat, it rendered the game unplayable for me. Oh and then you have the mountain of technical issues. Bugs galore, and I’m not talking about the ones you fight. Conversation options disappearing, slow down, hard crashes, companions vanishing and an overall underwhelming look… Yeah, not even a big open world mask this stuff. Most critics gave it a free pass. Not me. Disappointing. Overrated.

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3

Robin: Call of Duty: Black Ops III – this actually looked like it was shaping up to be the most interesting Call of Duty in years, and just ended up feeling like all of the others, and not feeling like it did anything really next-gen.

So there we have it! Stay tuned to NGB right here and on YouTube this week for more of the Game of the Year 2015 content!