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[Aurelius]

Starfield.

It makes an amazing first impression. But after a dozen hours the cracks really start to show. Not just technically (old engine, NPC's, loading screen) but also in the gameplay (boring quests and characters) and virtue signaling that becomes comical when you start to notice it.

So much wasted potential.

 

[kurisu_1974]

Starfield and Forza Motorsport, hard to decide between these.

Diablo IV and Final Fantasy XVI are the runners-up.

 

[Beer Baelly]

Forza Motorsport. 6 years. Build from the ground up.

 

[sertopico]

Starfield, no doubt.

To quote a famous trailer,
"it's one of those places where expectations and reality collided, resulting in a heap of disappointment."

 

[xrnzaaas]

Forza Motorsport. I was a HUGE fan of the previous games and I really don't have the urge to keep playing this one - I don't like the changes to the concept (especially leveling cars), how barebones it is in terms of career & track list and how many little things annoy me (like the penalty system or how long it takes to skip practice). Not to mention the first month was a nightmare because of the progression bug.

 

[Spyxos]

Final fantasy XVI

Bag o shite

FF16 and Starfield

Final Fantasy XVI easily.

/thread.

What a fucking dull, basic, by the numbers game, that strips away all of the FF charm, exploration and character, in favour of mindless spectacle, linear corridor environments, and a terrible GoT rip off plot.

Fuckin’ slag heap.

Damn, i still haven't played it but every time I want to buy it, I see the negative reactions and decide against it. And mine is probably Diablo 4.

 

[Spyxos]

Luigi wins by doing nothing. The issue with Jill is she does nothing and loses. Such a bland character.

Please use spoilers.

 

[KungFucius]

Starfield.

All that time and money could’ve gone towards the next elder scrolls.

All that time and money did go to TES6. They refined the worst parts of Skyrim and FO4 and kept the worst things as-is. TES6 is likely going to be more of the same minus the bad exploration. Todd Howard is so full of himself he told some employees to argue with people who gave it poor reviews. Asshole thinks people will play it for ten years. He thinks designing games with tons of repetitive content for the tiny fraction of players who will keep playing it for a long time is a good way to spend resources.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

FF16

 

[FeastYoEyes]

Starfield. Paid to play early and was kind of in awe of the scale of it for the first thirty hours. Then you keep playing and it eventually makes that awe go away and make what you already experienced feel smaller and the revelations, while surprising, feed into that. I enjoyed my time but I think Bethesda will need to make big changes for their next game in design.

Spiderman 2 was also more of a snoozefest than I ever expected. The story was awesome but man, Miles doesn't have anything to do, Peters dark side isn't all that dark and the gameplay is stale. It also looks really bad in some places in a surprising way. It's made me think I may be done with their third person story games.

Funny the two tentpole games for Xbox and PS5 end up being the two worst games of the year for me.

 

[Zathalus]

FF16 and Starfield. Expected one of the best FF games ever and one of the best Bethesda game ever. Both are among the worst offerings either studio has done. I still mostly enjoyed both of them, but I was expecting far more.

 

[Fake]

Spider-Man 2. The Spider-Man Remaster is way better.

 

[Hudo]

Disappointments of the year for the past decade:

2023: Starfield
2022: The Callisto Protocol
2021: Grand Theft Auto Trilogy: The Definitive Edition
2020: WarCraft III: Reforged
2019: Rage 2
2018: Onrush
2017: Destiny 2
2016: Overwatch
2015: Fallout 4
2014: Destiny
2013: Sim City

 

[Mythoclast]

TOTK.

Mechanics (ultrahand, ascend) are amazing but:
Had my hopes up for actual themed dungeons, turned out to be bigger shrines again.

Story has exactly the same format as the last one (visit 4 corners of the map, pick up memories in random map memories). Side quests do not have any real staying power or relevance.

Open world Zelda unfortunately will not die, but it definitely should.

 

[Nukedisk]

Probably Diablo IV.
I played it shortly after release and then again in season 1. There's nothing interesting in the game after the story is finished. I still play Diablo 2 (D2 Resurrected now) from time to time and it's still fun to play.

 

[Reckheim]

AC6, i'm a huge from software fan and this game just didn't click with me at all.

 

[Svejk]

It's a toss up between FFXVI and TOTK.

Neither were worth the $70 at all.. At least I finished FFXVI because the fighting was still engaging to a certain degree. TOTK makes me want to slash my wrists.

 

[Alan Wake]

Alan Wake 2.
Turned out you play 60% of the game as some lady with super powers and the ending sucks ass

To be fair, Saga's chapters are the superior ones gameplaywise.

 

[Interfectum]

Three way tie between Starfield, Final Fantasy 16 and Spiderman 2.

 

[Quezacolt]

Starfield.

Finished the main story and i feel its a game i never need to play again. Too many issues that end up making the experience boring and annoying. Doesn't help that it also has the most boring story and side quests of any bethesda game i played, i think i prefer to replay fallout 4 over this one.

 

[Schmendrick]

Torn between Starfield, Final Fantasy VI and Spiderman 2.

 

[Putonahappyface]

Why all the hate for Starfield?

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I’m surprised to see so many people say TotK. Honestly I find Zelda games kinda bland but I thought the Zelda fanbase practically worshipped this game. What was disappointing about it?

 

[MDSLKTR]

Warhammer Boltgun. With the license and today's tech it should have been a homerun, instead it's the worst retro shooter with the ugliest sprites I've seen since games on sega Saturn. The cringey marketing didn't help either.

 

[Wiz]

The answer is Starfield. The most overhyped and underwhelming game in recent memory.

 

[GymWolf]

Between starfield, callisto, spidey 2and ff16.

But i kinda expected some fuckery after ff15 and past bethesda games, and spidey still has fun combat and traversal despite the dogshit writing and pandering, so it's probably callisto.

 

[GymWolf]

Torn between Starfield, Final Fantasy VI and Spiderman 2.

Not exactly a 2023 game

 

[MagiusNecros]

Warhammer Boltgun. With the license and today's tech it should have been a homerun, instead it's the worst retro shooter with the ugliest sprites I've seen since games on sega Saturn. The cringey marketing didn't help either.

Wow rude. The only bad thing about Boltgun is the lack of a map.

 

[RaduN]

By far Re4 Remake.

Thing is, it's a good game, no doubt about it. In some aspects it is even great!
But in others (of too much importance to me to just ignore), it is such a damn downgrade from the original, that makes it the biggest dissapointment in recent memory.

 

[Fermbiz]

Mortal Kombat 1. What a complete shit beta fest early access game.

 

[StueyDuck]

Literally each of the tentpole "big exclusives" for each platform

 

[Mr Hyde]

Starfield

I was so hyped for it. Even invested in a PC just to play it, and then it just ended up as a wet fart in space. What a bummer.

 

[Majormaxxx]

I'm staying optimistic. There's still time in 2023 for a new contender

 

[SCB3]

AEW Fight Forever

What started as a great idea turned into a hot mess and failed so hard

 

[rofif]

To be fair, Saga's chapters are the superior ones gameplaywise.

If gameplay is walking around and solving baby puzzles…

 

[Ristifer]

AEW Fight Forever

What started as a great idea turned into a hot mess and failed so hard

This is the real answer. Looked like it was turning into a great alternative to the 2K games and it just didn't deliver at all.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Starfield and its not even close, not even a little

 

[Dynasty8]

Final Fantasy XVI. Most brain dead and barebones experience I've ever played.

 

[VideoGameEnjoyer]

Damn, i still haven't played it but every time I want to buy it, I see the negative reactions and decide against it. And mine is probably Diablo 4.

It had some really cool cutscenes, and the combat wasn't awful, though very redundant. It's kind of infuriating that they insisted on making this 6-8 hours worth of good content into a 40+ hour giant game when it had no business whatsoever being that.

I'd love to get to the end and see all the cool cutscenes and big fights. No way in hell I'm going back to the grind of getting to all of that. There is absolutely NOTHING interesting happening in-between the big set piece moments. So I'll forever have seen only about 20% of the game.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Loads of games came out this year and plenty of them weren't as good as I'd hoped.

Biggest disappointments for me were FFXVI (demo stuff was good and it literally falls apart after that), Firewall Ultra (shite) and the worst offender by far was Starfield.

There have been some good games though. BG3, Dead Space and RE4 as well as a few others.

 

[Black_Mamba]

I’m surprised to see so many people say TotK. Honestly I find Zelda games kinda bland but I thought the Zelda fanbase practically worshipped this game. What was disappointing about it?

It was Bad Design: The game. Beautiful world, huge potential, but for me it felt like the dumbest mobile game in relation to challenge, rewards and balance. To mention just one aspect, the game has thousands of hidden chests, secrets, side-quests, etc, but it never rewards your efforts for finding/completing them. The reward is always an item that will break in 1 minute and a copy of other you had to throw away a moment before because you've run out of space for junk in your inventory. It's a game designed for kids, probably inspired by Roblox.

 

[JimmyRustler]

Starfield

Man, I made a Twitter account for the bots to get a XSX and bought it basically for this game only. 10 hours and 50 fetch quests in it dawned on me that I made a mistake.

The disappointment is on RE6 levels for me. Bethesda has lost their way. I have no hopes for TES VI.

 

[FloopCookiefix]

I've only looked at this last page of the thread, so I can already easily see I'm not alone in this, but.... FFXVI. It was not bad, and I certainly enjoyed some aspects, but it was unbelievably mediocre in too many areas, and I'd maintain that opinion whether it had Final Fantasy in the name or not:

Spoiler

-Combat and spectacle was satisfying in the moment, but honestly had no overall depth: no meaningful skill/upgrade tree, the gear and equipment upgrading system was incredibly basic, predictable, and repetitious, and even things like elemental damage or status effects aren't here

- Party members: I can't even choose their fighting style or give them commands? That should have been there at the *minimum,* somebody tell me if I overlooked it

- Plot that hammers the same theme/problem to infinity, especially early on (I GET IT FFXVI, racism + slavery is bad). I think Tales of Arise as a whole handled it significantly better, and it's not like that was super subtle either.

- Boring, same-looking peasant towns and people, along with the worst side quests I have played in recent memory (and genuinely, possibly ever)

- Sense of scale is severely off- traveling between a town feels like walking down the street, despite what the characters say. Sidequests are usually the biggest offenders in displaying this ("We need to find this missing person!" --->walk like 10ft outside of town, oop there they are)

- NOTHING extra/fun to do on the side. Not a single minigame, side dungeon, ANYTHING. Any exploration leads to a single chest with generally the same boring materials, nothing ever felt surprising or exciting to find. In a way, however, I was surprised they even added the combat challenges...

- More personal, but almost nothing here that actually made it feel like a FF game to me. Things like the tacked on Moogle character, the M rating/GoT energy, etc. truly make me think it just shouldn't have been titled a mainline FF game...? Also only liked a few characters in pretty much the whole game.

I went into this game after playing the demo, and also without reading reviews and word of mouth. I went in with a mind as open as possible. I know this all sounds a bit negative, but like... there was just so much that baffled me. To put it another way...

FFXV had some gameplay jank and story confusion, but by the end of it, the game, world, and outcomes of the characters still hit me. Y'all... I felt nothing when I finished FFXVI

 

[AJUMP23]

FF16. I was going to get a PS5 for this game, but the previews made it look like something that was not a Final Fantasy game. I may eventually get it, but what I played at my sisters house wasn't that engaging.

 

[DragoonKain]

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor.

I would pick FFXVI, but the reason I didn't is because I didn't have high expectations for it, so I wasn't disappointed. I've long lost total faith in Square Enix, and I didn't like the game at all, but I expected to find it mediocre.

But I LOVED Fallen Order, so I was super excited for Jedi Survivor. And while I thought it was good, I thought Fallen Order was better. They made Jedi Survivor too big, they made fewer areas, and I thought watered the experience down. It became so tedious traversing some of the areas, it sapped a lot of what I loved about the experience in Fallen Order. And they had too many sections where they threw waves of enemies at you where Fallen Order was more methodical and better paced. Took the challenge out of it, Jedi Survivor felt easier and less thoughtful.

I thought I was going to get everything Fallen Order did, just better, but what I got was I felt a lesser experience.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Redfall considering it was made by fucking Arkane. It's not like writing wasn't on the wall but it was still shocking to see how far you can plunge after Prey and Dishonored 2.

 

[Gudji]

That's easy Starfield.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

Also, Alan Wake 2 is shaping up to be a joke of a game made by a dev so far up their own pretentious asses that they thought any semblance of engaging gameplay wasn't necessary because the story is that brilliant. It's not. It's an overly gimmicky pastiche of actually great other media. When it even happens, the combat and bosses are a day late and a dollar short by all measures of 2023 game design. The Mind Place actually not involving any puzzle-solving nor engaging anything is baffling and the thing you do the most, walking sim-ing, even feels sluggish.

I'm currently 8 hours in and I'm not sure I can handle much more of this shit. The best part so far has been that my girlfriend gifted it to me so at least I didn't buy it. I hope this turd doesn't rub off on Control 2.

 

[Lupin3]

Diablo 4. What a snoozefest.

 

[Muffdraul]

FFXVI. I wasn't hyped for it at all, but I at least expected I'd probably get into it and enjoy it once I started playing. Big fucking NO on that. I suffered through about 15-20 hours until it was clear, this is it, this is the game. It's not going to suddenly 'open up' and transform into a proper FF game. I do not have a particularly high opinion of XV, but I would rank XVI far, far below it. I just didn't see that coming.