2008: The Year Of The Flop Killer

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

If you've spent any time in video game forums over the past decade, you're well acquainted with the world "flop." Most used by the useless fanboys that infest and infect, this is the word the hostiles absolutely can't wait to use. Due to the fact that their lives are so pathetically miserable, they want games to fail, especially exclusive titles on consoles they don't prefer. But we carefully follow the hype line of most every big title that comes down the pike and in retrospect...was there a high-profile flop in 2008? Did everything deliver?

Er, let's take a quick list at the best of the best, as determined by the likes of GameRankings, Metacritic, and the perceived popularity of gamers everywhere (in no particular order):

Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Gears of War 2
LittleBigPlanet
Fallout 3
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Rock Band 2
Guitar Hero IV: World Tour
Call of Duty: World at War
Prince of Persia
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Left 4 Dead
Dead Space
Resistance 2
Fable II
Burnout Paradise
Devil May Cry 4
Soul Calibur IV
Wipeout HD
Far Cry 2

Now, these are 20 titles, and while some could get all anal and argue that World at War didn't top last year's Modern Warfare, or that Wipeout HD was too hard, or that Soul Calibur IV was more for the casual fighting fan...that doesn't change the bottom line. It'd be ridiculous to label any of these great titles a "flop," and for the life of me, I have difficulty remembering a year that didn't have at least a few massive "flops." Even EA delivered with Dead Space, and despite some discrepancy in a few reviews, Mirror's Edge also delivered as well. We suppose the extremely mediocre Legendary could be considered a flop, but we really didn't hear much hype for that one leading up to its release.

What really failed after enjoying a great deal of hype and build-up? Alone in the Dark? Rock Revolution? Maybe. But anyone who says they're disappointed with how the hugely hyped titles turned out this year is asking for way too much. 2008 is the year of the flop killer, and thank GOD the fanboys didn't get a chance to abuse that word this year.

12/4/2008 Ben Dutka

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Comments (Beta)

killzone100
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 12:53:29 PM
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LOL but yeah i think your right every game that has had hype has lived up to it. Now lets bring on feb.

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Ewillis911
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 12:54:04 PM
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Haze was a definite flop that was supposed to be a killer fps.

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Saber1989
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:24:38 PM

fo sho
Haze is the worst $30 i ever spent

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:49:03 AM

Agreed!

Saber, u spent $$$ on that game?! The demo was enuff proof for me.

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Gabriel013
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:07:46 AM

I personally enjoyed the Haze demo but never bought the game.

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Saber1989
Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 1:43:08 AM

well there was a chick involved lol, the demo to me wasnt that bad since i believe demos dont usually do justice for the game. for example MGS4 demo is not that good

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Ewillis911
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:04:17 PM
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But thats the only one i remember so this was definitely a year filled with alot of great games

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Random_Steve
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:11:29 PM
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Ben, you forgot Haze-maybe it's so bad people have completely forget that it exists. Shame, I really thought it would be good.

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ThePoetRazel
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:11:41 PM
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Yep, Haze was the only 2008 title i'd really call a flop. Everything else has been great.

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Arvis
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:17:46 PM
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I'd lump Too Human in there with Haze... When The Hype is using words like "world-changing" you could say it's a flop when The Reality calls to mind words more like "meh."

-Arvis

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ec0li
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:08:31 PM

Oh hell yah Too Human was a flop. What was it, over 3 years in development? At best it's a 7/10 but in reality it's closer to a 6/10. Flopadocious!!!

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QuasarSquirrel
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:47:09 PM

I think it was closer to a decade in Development. Started out on PS1 I believe.

Too Human could have been good with a few tweaks (but starting out saying it's a trilogy and then selling WAY short on the story is super lame). A patch that would make health easier to get based on skill combos instead of stupidly random would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by QuasarSquirrel on 12/4/2008 2:48:08 PM

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Ultimadream
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:20:24 PM
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i disagree, GTA4, Little Big Planet and Devil May Cry 4 were all disapointing. MGS4,Resistance2, Dead Space and Fallout all rose to the occassion though.

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Saber1989
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:26:37 PM

Whoa GTA 4, LBP were disappointing what man your too crazy or maybe the expectation that you had were too high for those games man.

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aaronisbla
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:27:07 PM

i didnt care too much for Far Cry 2, but what ben is saying is they arent massive flops. i cant stand far cry 2 but to say it flop wouldn't be the truth now would it?

Last edited by aaronisbla on 12/4/2008 1:27:43 PM

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ec0li
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:12:19 PM

"If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand!" -Worf telling Picard off in Star Trek: First Contact-

LBP is Unflopadocious! just my opinion =)

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somethingrandom
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:50:59 PM

DMC4 is in my top 3 for game of the year! WTH are you talking about?

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djjake
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 6:06:24 PM

don't know why everyone is slatting this guy, he is expressing HIS opionin of what flopped

and i agree, i'm a huge gta fan, i got so hyped up about the game i read news on it everyday and went to midnight launch and ran home to play it all night. All i found myself thinking is, 'this is boring', 'done this like three times already'. So it may not be a flop to you guys but it was to us, i still think its a good game but to me its a flop because it gave me no replay value like the old ones.

LBP- i was never fond of what i had heard, sounded boring, looked repetative and just not my kind of thing. then everywhere said it was great so i went and got it this week. So far i have found controls fiddly i.e winging on things, they feel like they need a jump off to make it but you swing off. Tutorial useless as it doesn't wait for you to do what it tells you, when i finally got to unlocking the create your own level feature which i was confused about that it wasn't there from the get go i found you had to watch a tutorial on every item before you could use it, and not just that, you had to kind of copy the video to finish the tutorial which didn't always work i.e in my case the music player, because it won't register that i've done it all i can't use that feature, there should be a skip button or something. And lag, is still there, i joined a friend for some co op and i would press the buttons and 10seconds later my sackboy would fly around the place in fast motion doing everything i had just clicked in, how are the servers not done after a month of release and beta testing before that?!?!

Resistance 2- first one didn't feel heavy enough for me to enjoy it and it seemed that all you do was shoot creatures with guns in different environments so i never purchased the game (this was based on the demo). But because of hype and reviews i got the second one to find that it was the same. Just doesn't feel heavy and challenging. THIS IS MY OPINION.

still need to try a 1/3 of the games on the list but everything else to me has been top notch

how come motorstorm pacific rift isn't on there? although i didn't like the environment change to start with it's grown on me, but saying this i haven't put it in the ps3 for a few days due to NAZI ZOMBIES!!! :D

o and one more, ghwt was at a party i went too and it didn't seem to get people going like the old gh's and rock band.

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djjake
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 6:07:14 PM

oyeh, dmc4 came with my ps3 and i sold it after a day, just so boring...

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AntDC
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 8:24:22 PM

I agree with GTAIV being dissapointing... I just get so bored playing that game now... it's like I've done it all before...

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tramp
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:24:04 PM
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GTA4 and LBP were high flyers m8.

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Wage SLAVES
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 9:49:03 AM

(GTA4) I think some of us feel we got the short end because of possible fringe cutting due to the dvd version having limited space...

Last edited by Wage SLAVES on 12/5/2008 9:49:27 AM

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noshownogo
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 1:53:19 PM
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"GTA4 and LBP disappointing"...has to be one of the strangest opinions i have ever read on this forum. I would say Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 was disappointing.

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coldbore
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:00:37 PM
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I found almost all of these games lived up to there expectations espesually mgs4. although resistance 2, i seemed to find the original better but that is most likely do to the fact that there was a lot of stuff missing since the original (vehicles, mounted turrets, more than 2 Guns at a time?) but one thing is for sure, every game here had many WOW moments in them.

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somethingrandom
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:56:26 PM

I wish Resistance 2 had kept that gun that had ricocheting bullets with an auto turret feature (Kick Ass!). I think R2 is the better game, but I had more fun with R1 (or was it just beating it with my friends on split-screen co-op?)

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Scarecrow
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:19:53 PM
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Crisis Core?

what?

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Arvis
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:20:07 PM

Easily one of the best games I've played this year... Easily.

-Arvis

Last edited by Arvis on 12/4/2008 3:20:15 PM

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:41:13 PM
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No. Resistance 2 flopped extremely hard. I know a lot of people who were hardcore Resistance fans. None of them like R2. It is the most boring competitive online game I've played all year.

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QuasarSquirrel
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 2:53:31 PM

Along the same lines though, many diehard fans of Gears 1 are not happy with Gears 2. They are both still rated well and selling quite well.

I haven't played R2 competitively yet, just the coop which is fun, but I was a little concerned with 60 peeps in a room. Care to elaborate on why you think R2 VS is boring Shadow? I'm just curious.

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Aftab
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:35:35 PM

Moderator? What the flying ^&*$! Are you new, or do you just not care?

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FLYING_APE
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:43:29 PM

What you talking about everyone loves geow only haters don't like it.

geow, geow2, mass affect, dead rising and forza are the only games i like on xbox rest don't interest me.

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Aftab
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:13:26 PM

Nah, man, I was talking to Shadow the Moderator. Wasn't talking about Gears2, which I got and like, or those other games which are good.

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AntDC
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 8:26:21 PM

Hey Flying Ape if you liked Dead Rising you'd probably like Left4Dead. That's one of the few games on the 360 that interest me.

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:32:11 AM

I can't put my finger exactly on why it's boring but I simply cannot play more that 2 rounds without thinking about how much I would rather play CoD4, CoD:WaW, or Socom. It probably has something to do with the weapon system in the game. I either want class based or pick up and shoot (not a good description, think R1 or UT). R2 kind of copies the systems found in Rainbow 6 Vegas and Socom but it's not a tactical shooter so it kind of defeats the purpose. The only reason (IMO) you should be able to die and get any gun you want is if you need to counter a specific tactic used by your opponent. R2 tries to have tactical ideas but all of it's modes (except the objective one) are arcade like. That in my mind is extremely boring.

And I know a lot of huge GoW fanboys they all absolutely love Gears 2 so I haven't expirienced any of that. But I have 7 guys on my friends list who were huge fans of R1 every one of our comments said "F*** R2" at least once after the release. And everytime I talk about R2 during a Call of Duty match I hear at least one guy mirror my opinion. The co-op is absolutely amazing, but they should have brought that class system over to competitive as well.

And yes I'm a mod. I was one of the first two people ever to comment on this site. I don't do much talking on the comment section because it's hard to sustain any sort of conversation. I'm active in the forums (when they work that is). But while I'm not always commenting you can trust that I'm hiding in the shadows (get it? tis a pun!) with banhammer in hand ready to strike down upon those who do evil in this section of the intertubes. (was that last part a little over-dramatic?)

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:58:46 AM

Did it just get a lil' darker in here?...?....Shadow?...Is that u?

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Jut420
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:01:10 PM
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I believe I have seen almost all of those games called a flop somewhere along the lines on different forums. Sometimes I think people say the word flop just to make themselves feel better. People say LBP was a flop because it lacks in sales and Gears 2 was a flop because the first one was better. People just make any excuse they can find to downgrade the oppossing system of their choice.

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Ultimadream
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:28:50 PM
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Lol right, ill explain myself as some of you seem confussed to why these games let me down.

GTA IV - Was over hyped and said to be the best game ever made, i found after you got past the 1st island the game got repetative, not to an assassins creed exstent, but i pretty much just found myself playing through the missions, while on previous GTA's id go on rampages and side quests and everything else, i found the framerate choppy and the graphics really dodge on a HDTV, I sold GTAIV once the story beccuase i just never played it.

LBP - The main problem i had was that they took out the most intruiging feature, getting photos from your ps3 HDD and placing them on the game, i was looking forward to doing some photography of rought buildings and stuff and creating areas but once i heard this was taken out, i had my doubts. The second reason is connection, ive never had a porblem with an online game up till LBP, MGS4,Resistance,Burnout Paradise CoD4, but LBP was horendous! for the week i played it i only played 2 games that didnt cut out or have Lag issues and most of the time it took 10 mins to connect! it just wasnt enjoyable, i gave it back and got Resistacne 2 which is far more satisfying.

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FLYING_APE
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:38:12 PM

Your... THAT TYPE OF GAMER

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docpain
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:18:41 PM

you are what i like to call, "a dumb blonde gamer"....

getting rid of a game because of online problems in the first week is one of the dumbest things any gamer can do

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:29:24 PM
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Hmm...yeah, I forgot about Haze. But to be honest, I never really thought it'd be too fantastic.

And no aspersions cast towards R2, damnit. It's bigger and better than the original in every conceivable way, and I'm standing by that analysis.

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ffrulez
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:05:12 PM

I was considering getting it as well as MGS4 along with my ps3 purchase, but it had absolutely no positive reviews at all. and it was pretty expensive to add onto the bundle

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somethingrandom
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 6:03:33 PM

Come on Ben... you have to miss the vehicles, the regular offline co-op, and that wicked ricocheting gun, and even that blob firing gun had it's moments...

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 8:44:40 PM

I never miss vehicles in FPSs (I just don't think they belong there), and I think the new weapons in R2 are WAY better than the ones we lost from R1.

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somethingrandom
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 9:48:17 PM

Okay, I understand your opinion, but I was pretty frustrated when I couldn't play split-screen co-op with my friends in the campaign. I remember how fun it was in R1. I mean, even Gears 2 has a split-screen campaign instead of the unworkable co-op in R2 (it really is impossible with only 2 people, you need at least one of each class unless you are both medics).

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:39:32 AM

The guns are better. Getting rid of vehicles was a good idea. Too bad they built a single player story that was confusing, made no sense, contradicted the character created in the original game, and was extremely predictable. They also created one of the best co op games ever but botched the competitive. I love Insomniac but while many (Ben included?) call it the most underrated of the year I call it the most overrated.

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:00:52 AM

Damn right Ben! R2 for the winter! And K2 for the Spring!

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Wage SLAVES
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 9:53:34 AM

I hate the "Just look at the sales!" opinions anyways...R2 was astounding. I loved it. Tight shooter. If the sales dictated anything it would be, apparently, that wagon hopers are rampant...(Wii)

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FLYING_APE
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:36:23 PM
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R2 flopped because it never got over or 90 on metacritic, i can't have that in my collection.

GTA4 flopped harder then every will smith movie lately. repetive, boring, over rated, flawed but yet excellent. BUT STILL FLOPED. FLOPY FLOPY FLOP... im a grumpy gamer :)

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docpain
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:23:29 PM

you said "GTA4 was excellent, but still flopped" lol nuff said

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FLYING_APE
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:19:28 PM

*TURNS GREEN* HOW DARE YOU MAKE A GOOD POINT AND ENBARRASS ME ON THE INTERNET AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH RROOAARR

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:04:33 AM

LOL!! oh Flying Ape, how do u do it?

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WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 3:45:07 PM
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How did you all miss this? Fracture was hyped to the max, every other day someone was talking about the innovation of being able to alter the landscape, and how it would outdo Gears as a shooter. That game was touted as the messiah by some sites, and now we see a measly 20,000 copies sold on PS3. THAT was a flop.

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:19:50 PM

Dude...I barely knew what Fracture WAS. I barely recognized it when it came in the mail. Seriously. :)

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docpain
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:22:25 PM

yeah i never heard of any hype surrounding Fracture

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Aftab
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:35:15 PM

Ah. Free games in the mail. Tis the life. (I wonder how many years mailbox theft would get me?)

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WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:57:05 PM

Maybe I was on some fringe forums then, everyone in the posts was amped to the max for that game. PSU did a big story on it. (Of course they DO kinda suck donkey balls)

Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 12/4/2008 5:02:07 PM

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FLYING_APE
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:22:49 PM

hahaha im high and you said donkey balls * runs away giggling like a litle girl*

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:07:06 AM

I never believed in Fracture the minute I saw a gameplay clip. Plus, LucasArts and 3rdPS's never sounded right to me.

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docpain
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:20:43 PM
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Haze is 2008's poster-child for FLOP....they should get a Flop Award in the VGAs

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ec0li
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:30:01 PM

If Haze is #1 flop, Too Human ain't that far behind at #2. I found myself just mashing the buttons for melee attacks. Using long range weapons was useless when it got hectic on screen. Camera angle control was atrocious. These are probably 2 games you would give to someone you hated.

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:11:01 AM

LOL Ec0li, u just reminded me of this G4 video. Hilarious. Check it out...

Holiday Buyers Guide: Games for Gamers You Hate:

http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/35122/Holiday_Buyers_Guide_Games_for_Gamers_You_Hate.html

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Ogibillm
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:23:59 PM
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Force Unleashed? not really a flop but i don't think it lived up to expectations.

turning point: fall of liberty was hyped and it was awful.

still, can't complain too much about a handful of stinkers when there have been so many good games.

(incidentally, i don't think haze was that bad, it was just mediocre and had it not been crushed by it's own marketing it might have fared better, at least in the minds of some)

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docpain
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:30:19 PM

i think we can settle on it being a "mediocre bad game"

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:20:29 AM

Force Unleashed was not a flop but it was a fail. That game was so buggy and glitchy. I mean the last stage had game code written where the mission objective should've been! Did the LucasArts staff just quit working that day?!

*sighs and looks at his copy of Force Unleashed and says to it*
"You just abused my Star Wars fanboyism, didn't you?"

Last edited by King James on 12/5/2008 1:20:51 AM

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tramp
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:32:28 PM
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HAZe takes the cake,what were they thinking.
Niko,sackboy or old snake for president.

i got one of those cool news paper resistance 2 things,it fairly impressive.

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WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 4:58:57 PM
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I guess people just use "flop" willy nilly, someone should make a wiki that defines it as a game expected to be great but actually blows, and expected to sell through the roof and actually sells very little.

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Aftab
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 11:39:40 PM

This definition fits the bill, mos def. However, in my wierd parallel universe, I don't take sales number in to account. For example, a "sleeper-hit" is a game that may or may not have been hyped, it delivers, but doesn't necessarily well. Those games aren't designed for a particular market in mind, and therefore are more experimental, innovative, and independent. This is why I typically chose Sony's platforms.

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Aftab
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:35:43 AM

Oops, I meant, "doesn't necessarily sell well." I should go to sleep.

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Fane1024
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:21:55 PM
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You could also MAYBE add most of the 360's exclusive (J)RPGs, which have underperformed in both critical opinion and sales, though not to the degree of Haze. The exclusivity hasn't exactly accomplished its intended goal, though (thank God).

How much hype is necessary for something to be a "flop"? And by how much does it need to underperform?

p.s. LBP has sold around a million copies already and had mostly 9+ reviews; BY NO STANDARD is that a flop.

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Joe_III
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 5:24:47 PM
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Shocker that this may be since it's coming from me, but I don't think GoW2 lived up to the hype. Neither did Dead Space. Fracture was seriously hyped when it first was announced, but then all the PR people shut up quick when the devs told them the game was goign to suck after all...

There was no larger scope or feeling of being a part of a larger picture in GoW2 that Epic and all the major sites said there was going to be. Yeah, the cutscenes showed a lot more people and enemies, but rarely did you actually deal with any group for very long, and it was always, "Me and Dom will continue the story, you extra guys go back to base."

And Dead Space was a complete sham. It's nowhere near "the scariest game ever." It's pretty much a retelling of Doom (or Aliens). there was no suspense, no actual horror, it just had things jumping out at you constantly.

Those two would be huge flops in my book. Granted, sales were pretty good, but that's because with the kind of marketing involved, sales will always be good. Plus I think a lot of reviewers were getting head in a backroom or something. 80 should have been the metacritic average, not the lowest score -- well, 85. And Dead Space should have been dropped about 8-10 pts too.

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WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 10:09:11 PM

Knew I wasn't crazy.

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Aftab
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 11:49:28 PM

Dude, if Deadspace didn't do it for you, either you've been jaded by the survival/horror genre, or you didn't play it right: lights off at night, with 5.1 surround sound (subwoofer is key) if possible, or headphones, and HD-TV (720p at least). The game, imo, nailed everything right. Furthermore, a game need not be particularly innovative to be a good one, as long as it perfects those borrowed features.

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:27:18 AM

Joe, Did u actually believe it when someone said Deadspace is the "scariest" game ever?! I mean, come on guy. Some things u just gotta filter outta of the hype. Deadspace is a great game. Didn't disappoint me at all.

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shaydey77
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 6:16:54 PM
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Haze was a total and utter flop.GTA4 didnt flop.It should have but sold on the name alone.

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DeadReaper
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 7:02:41 PM
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Now I DID NOT read every post cuz theres a lot and some are long. But 2 games I did not see were Mercs 2 and TNA Impact. Would they be considered flops? I saw hype for both but (for me) they didnt live up to said hype. Mercs 2 gets old after about 20 mins. Impact was just not what I thought. Now I know that doesnt mean they didnt live up to hype, these are just my feelings on them.

Last edited by DeadReaper on 12/4/2008 7:04:50 PM

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djjake
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 7:13:25 PM

true true, i love sandbox games and was looking forward to mercs but it was so bad in terms of glitches and game play.

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AntDC
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 8:33:40 PM

I hated Mercs 2. The stupid A.I., glitching...

"There's the enemy!" repeated time after f***ing time...

Last edited by AntDC on 12/4/2008 8:34:01 PM

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LightShow
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 8:59:11 PM

i didn't so much hate mercs 2 as wish they had about 3 months to polish the game so it worked very well. Disappointed, for sure.

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FreQaZoiD
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 7:07:55 PM
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Considering it was a cover story on PTOM, Haze is a definite flop. It was also the only game I was looking forward to in 2008 that really did disappoint.

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Douchebaguette
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 8:18:25 PM
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Last Remnant had bad reviews. Shame.

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ceedot
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 9:40:14 PM
Reply

GTA IV - Biggest upset in gaming history. The gameplay was sh**, and nothing like the old ones. The city was dull and weak and very boring with a bland atmosphere that had nothing to remember. The main character, although was tough still lost personality and was flawed many times that did not make sence. The endings were absolutely shocking. The game was meant to release october 16, and was delayed 6 months. And in those 6 months it seems like they did nothing because the game was still buggy, and still sh**.
Compared to the other GTA's, IV was very dissapointing and too serious. Vice City and San Andreas were 10 out of 10 games with amazing atmospheres and a range of sights and sounds while IV was all the same.
GTA IV - shocking and an ultimate dissapointment to all hardcore GTA fans.
Fu** you rockstar games.
(P.S. Midnight club was another stupid game that could have been better with just a few little tweaks.)

Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 12/4/2008 10:04:17 PM

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WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 10:02:03 PM

Lay off the PCP dude, or smoke more and play GTAIV again...

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 10:04:28 PM

...damn good thing you don't review games.

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Daedusian
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 10:21:38 PM

He has a point tho. If you were a loyal fan to the GTA franchise you'd be every bit upset as he is because I know I am. While GTA4 was a great game in its own rights, it was a 'flop' to the fans of the series, and there is no denying that!

But, then again, this tends to happen when you roll into your fourth or fifth entry into just about anything, whether it be a movie or a game. Can anyone say SAW? (going into its sixth!) lol. So I was kind of expecting it at some point but was afraid to accept the facts.

Last edited by Daedusian on 12/4/2008 10:27:43 PM

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 10:36:59 PM

No...there was no bigger fan of the first three GTAs than me. And while GTAIV wasn't my favorite GTA, I could easily recognize its vast superiority over most anything else out there. Personal preference doesn't have any impact whatsoever on quality...something critics need to understand.

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Saber1989
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 10:47:11 PM

Hey to me, its
Vice City
GTA4
San Andreas
GTA3

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Aftab
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 11:54:37 PM

"Personal preference doesn't have any impact whatsoever on quality...something critics need to understand."

Ben, what you said in those few words was exactly the meaning I was striving for in my ramblings with Chicko in the article about Edge's disgusting view of R2.

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:51:28 AM

Yes GTAIV was serious but it's not like it was some sort of big surprise. It was marketed that way, it was hyped that way, if you didn't want a serious game you shouldn't have bought it.

For me it goes.
Vice City
IV
III
PSP games
original playstation games
San Andreas (damn I hated that thing)

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Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:41:44 PM

Saber: In terms of personal preference, I completely agree. :)

Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 12/5/2008 12:42:13 PM

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isaya85
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 11:26:51 PM
Reply

I guess Im the only one that enjoyed fracture

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:51:43 AM

Yup.

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:47:12 AM

LOL!! Yes u are.

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superjew
Thursday, December 04, 2008 @ 11:42:06 PM
Reply

I've probably said it a million times before and I'm sure everyone who is on the message board will be sick of hearing it, but I cannot understand how anyone could think that this year was a great year for gaming. Fallout 3 has got to be one of the most overhyped and mediocre games of this generation, possibly bar none. But it's competing with GTA IV for that honor. I see 90s thrown around arbitrarily and there's an incredible amount of inflation in gaming today. I can't seriously think of many games I played this year that I'd consider in that 90 caliber. I would think the only valid excuse for handing out 90's and things like that if you evaluate it compared to its current peers, but evaluating it against some of the games of the past? No way, there are not too many 90's in 2008 and there were possibly even less in 2007.

I like this website for the news, don't get me wrong, but I feel like sometimes you write more as a cheerleader and not a journalist, but if you believe what you believe then good for you, I wish I agreed with you.

1 up, 2 down

Aftab
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:00:11 AM

And you write more like a jaded, bitter one than anyone who actually enjoys games. I think I'll go with Ben's take, instead. Move on and get over yourself.

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 12:48:25 AM

Superjew you aren't allowed to hate on Fallout 3. You were dissing the thing 3+ months before the thing came out. You knew you were going to dislike it. You hated Oblivion, you hate Bethesda, and you bought Fallout 3 anyway. You deserved to be disappointed. Actually I don't think you WERE disappointed because as far as I can tell you wanted to hate the game, so you can just sit in your hole and pout it's what you deserve.

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Aftab
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:29:38 AM

Shadow. I thought I saw you before. Yeah, I've been around, too (since DMC2 was reviewed whenever that was). Only was being overdramatic for self-amusment in the other posting. But you gotta admit, R2 was a competent title. I couldn't even consider it for possible flop-status, because the franchise hasn't recieved nearly the same marketing hype as other games of the same tier to begin with. I admit, I wasn't blown away by it, but it does have it's moments, and I do enjoy the quality and the general feel of it.

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:50:52 AM

U see that, Superjew? It just got darker in your area. Shadow just pwned u.

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Joe_III
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 2:30:43 PM

Superjew is actually right. Fallout 3's reviews stopped me from getting it. It got great reviews, but everyone was saying the same thing -- It was a reskinned oblivion.

Fallout is not, has never been, should never be Oblivion. But since Oblivion got good reviews, so did Fallout 3.

But then again, most of the people on this site probably never played the originals...

_All reviewers_ (and sorry, this includes the ones here) give games a softer eye if the game is big enough, or enough is spent on marketing, or if the hype is big enough...

If you go to metacritic and look at the top list for any console, you will that for every game that deserved above 90, there is one that didn't.

Last edited by Joe_III on 12/5/2008 2:31:44 PM

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WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 12:22:42 AM

never even seen u b4 dude

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BazookaJoe
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:43:55 AM
Reply

CoD5=Flop - I took it back 3 days later...

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King James
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 2:18:58 AM
Reply

KJ's Flops of 2008:

(Top Pick) Haze - The demo was proof enuff
Fracture - game copies Gears, Halo3, and Mass Effect and STILL sucked
Too Human - 10 years of development and still sucked
Last Remnant - Wow Square! Wow! I had higher hopes for this game
Infinite Undiscovery - I didn't like it and apparently everybody else felt the same. Sales are laughable.
Mercs 2 - SUPER HYPED they even gave out free gas in two countries, mediocrity followed
Legendary - Nuff said
SOCOM - *tear comes to eye* I pick this just because Slant Six should be ashamed for releasing an unfinished game.
Turok - I hate the ppl responsible for mixing my great N64 memories with this piece of "next-gen" mediocrity

And last and most DEFINITELY least...

Haze(again) - because it was that bad. It was like Lair all over again.

Last edited by King James on 12/5/2008 2:29:55 AM

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Daedusian
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 11:36:49 AM

lol very true.

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Saber1989
Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 1:49:38 AM

LMFAO awesome list but really the Last Remnant, is it that bad
lol you put haze there twice, all i can say about that game is the song was good lol

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BikerSaint
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 2:25:11 AM
Reply

If a hater looks into a mirror, can he not see his own jaded reflection too????

Last edited by BikerSaint on 12/5/2008 2:28:36 AM

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FLYING_APE
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 9:05:38 AM
Reply

I love this site man everyone's passionate about games and i find myself coming back here 4 times a day just to read ppl comments. Everyone debates gracefuly instead of flamebaits or whatever.

well done psxextreme you have created possibly THE greatest gaming sit of all time. KUDOS

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FLYING_APE
Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 9:03:10 AM

MY comment was the biggest flop of 2008 hahaha... i need to get laid but i got the bi**h pregnant again

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superjew
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 10:39:33 AM
Reply

You can say what you want shadow, but I played Fallout 3 so I could see for myself. I don't think it would have been fair to blast a game that I never played, and not that I can prove it but I thought it was odd that the consensus of most of the people who played it was that it wasn't a very good game on the forum. But sure, try to blame me making a topic about thinking it was going to suck. Hype = ratings most of the time. I'm just saying, of the big hits I played and was interested in, I didn't feel like any really delivered. Not that I'm one to fall for hype most of the time, but I always back up stuff with reasons on the forums, you can tell me that I hated FO 3 before I even played it if you want, but I know plenty of people that will agree with my reasoning, not to mention it wasn't really the focus of my post or anything.

I could make a list a mile long of what is wrong with FO3, but it wouldn't matter to you, since all you see is someone who is jaded or whatever, I praise as many games as I dislike, I enjoy games plenty, but I'm pretty critical of games. I thought FO 3 sucked, I have plenty of reasons as to why I think it does. It's called reasoning, I never go on a forum and say ___ sucks without backing it up.

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Aftab
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 11:44:35 AM

"...Fallout 3 has got to be one of the most overhyped and mediocre games of this generation, possibly bar none. But it's competing with GTA IV for that honor...."

"I thought FO 3 sucked, I have plenty of reasons as to why I think it does. It's called reasoning, I never go on a forum and say ___ sucks without backing it up."

Um, you just did.

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SHADOW [Moderator]
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 4:15:09 PM

He has backed up his point multiple times on the forum. My only problem remains that your main criticisms of the game have everything to do with the fact that it is (and was always meant to be) Oblivion With Guns. If it hadn't had Fallout in the title you wouldn't even have considered picking it up. You have a bias towards the Fallout franchise and that obviously jaded your opinion about buying the game. I agree you shouldn't blast a game without playing it... but you don't HAVE to blast a game... ever (except Haze everyone should blast Haze). It has been awhile since I read those forum topics but I still think that you knew what the game was going to be like long before you bought it. And you hated what you "knew" it was going to be. You flat out should not have purchased this game. At least that's the way I see it.

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shaydey77
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 1:26:08 PM
Reply

Aftab..this isnt a forum..its a comments section dude..lay off..hes made his point.I agree he didnt back up anything but hes perfectly entitled to dislike games the exact same way you are.

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Aftab
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 11:10:34 PM

Y'all got me wrong. I didn't have a problem with his opinion. This had to do with something else. Kinda like the same reason the two of you are responding to me. Get my meaning?

Last edited by Aftab on 12/5/2008 11:27:35 PM

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Aftab
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 11:30:27 PM

I'm getting the impression there's some negative vibes going around, here.

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cadpig
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 9:43:30 PM
Reply

Legendary, Too human, Haze, Fracture, Socom are the biggest flops of this year.

C'mon Fallout 3 is just sweet.

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cadpig
Friday, December 05, 2008 @ 9:43:30 PM
Reply

Deleted by a moderator.

Zorigo
Saturday, December 06, 2008 @ 6:58:41 AM
Reply

* Grand Theft Auto IV - maybe
* Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - hell yess
* Gears of War 2 - i dont care bout xbox
* LittleBigPlanet - yes
* Fallout 3 - hell yes
* God of War: Chains of Olympus - is that out?
* Rock Band 2 - no
* Guitar Hero IV: World Tour - yes, even though i'm not bothered
* Call of Duty: World at War - yes
* Prince of Persia - yes, i suppose
* Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - that out?
* Left 4 Dead - no
* Dead Space - yes, even though i'm not bothered, was abit but just to busy, poor lol
* Resistance 2 - yes
* Fable II - not bothered with xbox
* Burnout Paradise - yes, the game hasn't stopped being fun, and more stuff next year makes it better.
* Devil May Cry 4 - no, NGsigma was better
* Soul Calibur IV - yes, i suppose
* Wipeout HD - not bothered
* Far Cry 2 - yes, i suppose

ur missing , and GT5p.

Last edited by Zorigo on 12/6/2008 6:59:04 AM

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Nerull
Sunday, December 07, 2008 @ 8:54:09 PM
Reply

I'm with those disappointed by GTA4. It was the game that I thought I had to get a ps3 for and I still have yet to finish it, I just got to the last isle but I got almost as far before and started over when trophies came. Bottom line though, the missions are all too often unfun and feel like they've been copied from the past games and the characters for the most part are more annoying than endearing, oh and the radio sucks big time despite so many stations. I think San Andreas was better done for its time. Practically ever mission had some little mechanic or setting or something that made you forget about how cruddy the graphics were.
Most of the other ones I haven't played, IMO MGS4 was insanely overhyped and I couldn't wait to get it off my hands but I've said that all before, but I should be getting LBP soon. Hopefully it's as fun as it's supposed to be. Oh and I'm still loving Burnout, just wish it had some splitscreen, don't see why that hasn't been in any of the updates.

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Norm
Monday, December 08, 2008 @ 9:08:46 PM
Reply

Flop: Big hype - did not deliver

SOCOM Confrontation (I'm still hoping they fix it)
Madden (I paid $60 bucks for this! New training and Dynamic AI?)

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PS3_Wizard
Tuesday, December 09, 2008 @ 8:37:57 AM
Reply

Mercs 2 and turok top my list of flops.

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