TechSmart 121, October 2013 TechSmart 123, December 2013 | Page 45

GAMES

2013:

THE WORST OF

2013 HAS BEEN

ONE OF THE

BIGGEST
years we’ve seen in the

gaming industry
in a while. But what of the

By Pippa Tshabalala

games that left us

Picture courtesy of
Adriaan Louw from we-are-awesome.com

in the wake of their release?

disappointed

T

here are a number of games that had us excited in the lead-up to their launch, but which
sadly failed to deliver. I’m going to divide this
into two categories, just for clarity’s sake.

Low expectations
Firstly, games that nobody really expected
to be very good, but which somehow I feel
are worth a mention, if only to warn you off
buying them in the bargain bin. The Walking
Dead: Survival Instinct is probably one of the
worst games I have ever played. Ever. I don’t
even want to talk about it more than this, it
pains me too much.
It’s followed by the ultra
disappointing Aliens:
Colonial Marines. The
only positive thing I
can mention about this
game is that I was given
a pretty cool t-shirt at the
launch. SimCity sadly is
a game I was really looking forward to playing,
but in which my interest
flagged after a couple of
hours. A game that just
doesn’t live up to its predecessors no matter how
much shinier it may look.

Underwhelmed
Secondly, there are the games
that I was really, really hoping
would be amazing. Imagine
then the disappointment when
I was significantly underwhelmed when playing.
The first of these is The Bureau:
XCOM Declassified. This is not a
bad game, but the demo I played
December 2013 | TechSmart

focused on specific battle situations that were
really engaging and exciting. The final product ended up being not quite as interesting
as the demo suggested, and when up against
some of the other recent XCOM games, really
just lost a lot of the glamour.

I don’t even want to talk
about it more than this, it
pains me too much.
Remember Me is another game where the pre-release demo showcased the best parts of the
game. It the impression that there are regular
moments where you can remix memories, when
in fact this occurs only a handful of times throughout the game. While this is an awesome gameplay concept, the game as a whole is ultimately
let down by the fact that the rest of the gameplay
becomes uninteresting and uninspired.
I loved Heavy Rain and after seeing Beyond: Two
Souls at E3, I was preparing myself for another
epic narrative experience from Quantic Dream.
Sadly what I got instead was a slow, at times boring, and at other times pointless experience that is
decidedly ‘meh’.
I was already apprehensive about Batman:
Arkham Origins when it was announced that
Rocksteady, creators of Arkham Asylum and
Arkham City, were no longer the developers. Unfortunately the result is as expected. Not a bad
game, but forgettable.
Forgettable – sadly the word that I think describes
most of these titles.

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