Game of the Year 2017: Most Disappointing Game

We deliberate about the Most Disappointing Game of 2017
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[@sonicyewth]

Here are the timestamps, enjoy! 00:01:50 - Assassin’s Creed: Origins 00:14:42 - Yooka-Laylee 00:15:10 - Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite 00:16:10 - Double Dragon IV 00:16:47 - Night Trap - 25th Anniversary Edition 00:18:13 - ARMS 00:19:10 - RUINER 00:19:54 - Agents of Mayhem 00:21:53 - BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk 00:22:56 - Friday the 13th: The Game 00:24:48 - Mario Party: The Top 100 00:26:03 - NBA Playgrounds 00:26:52 - 1-2-Switch 00:28:07 - Danger Zone 00:29:29 - Super Bomberman R 00:30:01 - Call of Duty: WWII 00:30:46 - Star Wars Battlefront II 00:33:37 - Middle-earth: Shadow of War 00:37:33 - NBA 2K18 00:40:46 - Forza Motorsport 7, Need for Speed Payback 00:44:05 - Brad reaching boiling point, and a little about Mass Effect: Andromeda 00:45:32 - Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp 00:48:32 - Removing some games from the list, and AC: Origins 00:53:08 - Mass Effect: Andromeda 00:55:37 - Friday the 13th: The Game, Middle-earth: Shadow of War 01:00:53 - Need for Speed Payback 01:03:35 - Middle-earth: Shadow of War 01:04:20 - Horizon Zero Dawn 01:05:46 - Final discussion (Brad reaches boiling point at 01:12:39)

[@RekkabitesThirteen]

Pedro Teixeira thank you

[@sonicyewth]

You're welcome!

[@PaulLundgren1970]

THEY KILLED MASS EFFECT!!!! Brad is all of us M.E. fans.

[@tissot233]

Dan's "EA is close to a hat trick here" sums it all pretty nicely.

[@Cyrribrae]

That was a brilliant comment haha

[@aarongarza4769]

tissot233 1:01:01

[@ArthurAugustyn]

Brad's quick and dismissive "No," to the suggestion that Andromeda isn't as bad as it seems is hilarious.

[@Cyrribrae]

Yea... Iono. I liked the game. It was bad and disappointing, but it works and I thought the story was not nearly as bad as they're making it out to be. It's missing A LOT and it should have been so much better, but it is an ok game that is fun to play. That said, I don't think they're wrong to put it on the list either.

[@Cyrribrae]

That's unfortunate, what didn't you like about the story? I watched the quick look and that was a disaster. I played the game after that (choosing female Ryder) and I thought the voice acting was overall fine. Character animations, yes, continue to be bad (but I read the subtitles more than I watch their faces anyway). The plotholes are bad, it's clearly missing a lot of things, and I hate how choices don't seem to make a difference to the world. My goodness, though, the world and lore there could be so interesting! They put a lot of thought and work into making the universe something that could be expanded on and paid off. It's a shame they'll never get to.

[@thinkforaminute]

Andromeda was so bad, EA closed the studio!

[@shinluis]

Remember right at the start where they establish you can effortlessly fix a broken helmet with your omnitool, and then about TWO MINUTES LATER a Heroic Sacrifice must be made because someone has a broken helmet? What happened? Everyone forgot the omnitool they use literally every day?

[@Newt0rz]

@@shinluis There's a lot of established lore shit Andromeda just lays a fat one on. The biggest being that your ship can somehow jump around a brand new galaxy WITH NO MASS RELAYS. They don't even establish that your ship has the technology to produce the effect of a mass relay. It's like they forgot the title of the fucking game, MASS EFFECT.

[@troyisfilming]

THEY KILLED MASS EFFECT! Truer words were never spoken Brad.

[@robhuanout5443]

Lawbreakers was soo shit they actually forgot it existed

[@happyfundave]

I think it met their expectations.

[@kalinroar3366]

Bisskits maybe most forgettable. Maybe ever

[@robhuanout5443]

If a well known video game critic praises a game and that game would go on to have

[@PantsPocket]

A good game mechanically for about 3-5 hours and after that you've seen the extent of it. That's why 288,000 tried the beta like yourself, but only 3003 were playing on day 1 (all time peak for retail). A highly disappointing game given the pedigree, 3-year development and multiple trade show stage appearances.

[@sungahymn]

1:12:39 And here we observe the cry of a Brad Shoemaker, part of the Giant Bomb genus. His unmistakable cry of distress serves as part of a funeral rite as he watches an old friend die in a pitiful--though in this case, deserved--manner.

[@shinluis]

I'm so glad Vinny picked up how disastrously away from the original spirit Assassin's Creed has gotten after the original creator was fired by Ubi back around the time of Brotherhood and how the new devs either don't get or don't care about the original themes and ideas.

[@julianreed7]

You're 100% correct, but the problem is all that lore and those themes created baggage that made it difficult to keep justifying putting out a new game every year. The former creative director who led the ACIII team acknowledged it earlier this year. They got a mandate from Ubisoft to kill off Desmond for the same reason I mentioned.

[@boochtron]

Hey past people. Assassins Creed has become way too long, but they aren't bad games. Origins was a great game. I prefer the older style of Assassins Creed which is rumored to be coming back. However, they needed a change because no one cared for Unity and Syndicate.

[@Vub.]

Orgins was the best AC since black flag.

[@RicardoPleasure]

a nearly 80 minute video that was concluded within the first minute

[@BUDDYBEATS]

12 oz mouse!! havent seen that show in forever lol

[@thelastcopier]

Remember how in Assassin’s Creed games you could hide in a crowd or sit on a bench to hide your identity? AC Origins feels like The Division and Wildlands with no guns, and no co-op.... but Origins is still the first AC game since Brotherhood that I didn’t bail on after the first 8 hours for whatever reason. I can definitely see what Vinny’s getting at though. Especially the part where he talks about how the loot management hurts the immersion factor.

[@Chilla221]

Love the split up videos, probably how I'll digest the GOTY talk this year.

[@Cyrribrae]

Did everyone forget how down everyone was on Shadow of War before it came out? EVERYONE was shitting on it, and they were going ballistic over the microtransactions. When those things ended up being not an issue and bigger villains arose, people kinda forgot about it and moved on. I'm honestly just surprised that the game worked and played well at all, considering how critical Jeff and Brad were beforehand.

[@dustbusta]

My reaction to the Shadow of War loot box stuff was "That sounds shitty, I don't want to play this game anymore, and I hope this doesn't become a big thing." And then EA immediately made it a big thing in like all of their games. So... Fuck WB, but SUPER Fuck EA.

[@boochtron]

@@dustbusta Shadow of War was a great game. I don't care what anyone says

[@Phaze718]

lol i like how alex looks so so pissed during the AC:O discussion. its it's hilarious 13:27 edit: added an extra 'so'

[@Kilborns]

How Vinny felt about origins is how i felt about Borderlands 3 :\

[@boochtron]

Borderlands 3 is just more Borderlands

[@helloimtom100]

god dammit the reminder that they killed mass effect makes my heart sink. ME2 one of my favorite games of all time, how could they fuck it up SO BAD!

[@aarongarza4769]

This is Tom EA

[@theNadeFace]

I understand there have been alot of games to try to get to on top of LIFE. But for the arguement I felt like a caveat was almost needed when switching to another game of who actually finished it (not necessarily 100% the game and platinum it) or how far you got into it. Which can either lessen or support your point about it. It may have just not been compelling to finish. Which is fair. But for our listening and following pleasure, I personally would appreciate it. Don't know if I am the minority in that. Thank you guys again for doing these, by the way. This is some amazingly juicy game design talk and I love it!

[@ithinkitsaurus]

Vinny isn't wrong.

[@NSMike87]

Jeff nearly said "Make Bomberman Great Again."

[@DanishingAct]

Bringing up horizon and not destiny seems insane.

[@RiskyFriskyHandle]

OMG how did they forget Destiny 2?

[@ArchKnight47]

Because they all actually liked Destiny?

[@Vub.]

Is that a joke? Density is still insanely popular till this day

[@DanishingAct]

@@Vub. this is a six year old post. Why are you here?

[@Vub.]

@@DanishingAct Videos don't stay up for one day buddy, Welcome to youtube

[@williamnownes7173]

Jeff's genuine sadness about Bomberman makes me feel bad.

[@rememberamnesia1995]

..they spelled 'possible' wrong on the sponsor ad...is that on purpose?

[@DeToxCommunity]

Ubisoft makes the most "gamey" games and it's my biggest problem with them. You get beat over the head with the mechanics of the game so much so that after the first hour you feel like you've seen all there is to see. All that's left is collecting things and making numbers bigger. This applies to just about every major release Ubisoft puts out. I completely agree with Vinny on Assassin's Creed Origins and what it was that made older Assassin's Creed games special. They really dropped the ball on Origins in the sense that they failed to find an identity for the series. It's an alright game, but there's no way in hell I'm buying a sequel with the same mechanics.

[@RiskyFriskyHandle]

I have always thought that people were too hard on EA. On occasion I have been disappointing by their handling of good IPs. But they have ruined so many franchises at this point... Its... Just... Baffling. I do not think they can redeem themselves at this point. Where are the good studios nowadays? I really do not think that there is a single developer that I feel I can rely on to make a quality game. I just feel like every developer/publisher is approaching games with a, "how can we squeeze as much money out of the consumer", mentality. Rather than, "let's make a cool/awesome/rad game!". What happened???

[@allclevernamesgone]

I feel like this is could be used as a very unimportant guide to modern diplomacy in action.

[@CPUT99]

Ruiner was definitely disappointing for me. I was mega hyped for it as well, finally snagged it on sale and it's more or less a snoozefest. Looks great, but the twin stick twitchy type gameplay is pretty played out as of late. If it had co-op or something might bring it some more longevity but I don't have much interest in continuing to slog through it :( the dash ability seems clunky af.. maybe I just need to "git gud" at it...

[@azfaru4367]

WHAT? Where's Destiny 2?? Biggest hype and biggest disappointment of the year by a looong mile

[@Smokron]

Brad totally would not let that hit the list

[@azfaru4367]

i was hoping this will be the cathartic moment where all my saltiness and disappointment over the game would manifest... alas, i'll have to go return to r/destiny for that.

[@g1nobleteam]

Nah as EA has this category on lockdown.

[@DesiertoDigital]

Most Disappointing Game is always about expectations and after Destiny 1 (wich was a runner up in 2014 but lost to Watchdogs) and the lead up to 2 I don't think anyone expected more than "Hey it's more Destiny"

[@Watsisface]

It wasn’t disappointing for people who played it casually, which they did.

[@DilainMedia]

Can't wait for Anthem to win this category this year.

[@zookwick]

Assassin's Creed: Origins was like Top 3 best games of 2017 for me. First Assassin's Creed game I've ever liked at that.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

An yes that one game, I had great hopes for it, well not that great because I heard about it being made by the B-Team of Bioware but still I had hope, I had hope... It isn't a terrible game. But it is just not Mass Effect. It lacks so much, it just isn't. It all felt just wrong. And yes, the "Well looks like the game is dead, sorry read the books since you won't get DLC." Thank you, but you are still willing to sell us multiplayer credits for lootboxes. Sure!

[@user1point0]

Yooka Laylee is aggressively bad

[@Cluter]

"Made posible by". Oops!

[@WarAndPosting]

No Ghosts?

[@Clipeuh]

ESKEEETIT

[@FunkSoulBrother6000]

IT'S HAPPENING

[@16jigabytes28]

CHAD STOLE MY FUCKING GF AAAAAAHHHHHH

[@everydaybodybuilding2282]

I didn't get shadow of mordor at all. I thought it was super overrated. Felt like an empty world hamster wheel of respawning randomized orcs. The nemesis was kind of cool but it was pretty pointless because there was no point to killing more orcs. Still finished because the combat was fun enough, but if this new one was even worse then I won't even touch it lol.

[@GreekJR2]

I felt the same about the original but I liked the second one more.

[@boochtron]

You have bad taste then

[@everydaybodybuilding2282]

@@boochtron this comment is 5 years old and my opinion has not changed lol

[@car060383]

That's a tough list to create. Do you go with bad games you weren't really expecting to be good in the first place or do you go with games you thought were going to be great, but didn't live up to the expectation? I agree with the top 3, for the most part, as I was looking forward to BF2 and ME:A, but I can't lie and say I wasn't skeptical about whether or not they would be good, because EA likes to fuck shit up. I think I'd put Shadow of War on there over Need for Speed, because for awhile now, the best a Need for Speed game has been described as is "It's alright" or "It's better than X shitty NFS game". To me, Payback couldn't disappoint me, because I expected it to be maybe slightly better than the last one.

[@NealFowler]

bringing up horizon? lunacy.

[@Tsuna2221]

In think the absolutely disapoint was Sonic Forces. I expect something, something bad. But it was so bad that get disappointed by the game being way worse than i expected

[@harkavianbalvis6623]

Want to know something that will absolutely ruin listening to these podcasts for you? . . . . . Noticing just how often Abby uses 'it's like' as a bridge phrase when she's explaining something. You're welcome.

[@TheDaniel9]

Man, I know Brad hated it, but I really enjoyed Mass Effect Andromeda. I was really into the story the whole time and it had much better side activities than previous entries.

[@Clay3613]

You just wanted to have inter-species sex didn't you?

[@rayrey5899]

Vinny puts Origins on this list, while its #10 on his game of the year list.

[@Forcen]

Sounds like he liked it as a game but not as an AC game, sounds fair. Also this was recorded about a month ago so he played it more and warmed up to it a bit probably.

[@aarongarza4769]

All those Apple laptops Lmfao.

[@eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeo]

Probably paid for by CBS

[@renopants]

ITS HAPPENINGG!!!!

[@theomega616]

You can top Mario off the list, you guys LOVE Mario so much that giving it that title might cause some of you to die like a robot encountering a paradox

[@TheJay1976]

For me Mafia 3 should be on this list not a bad game just Expected more far as missions design

[@g1nobleteam]

Jstreet it also can't be on this list as it came out last year.

[@mt0s375]

Mass Effect Andromeda is my favorite Mass Effect game. +Great looking environments like acid lakes, endless deserts or the lightning struck Habitat 7. +A restriction-free skill system that does allow the best combat in the series (the support drone with the Cryo-ammo being my favorite). +A jet pack which totally changes the movement in or out of battle. +Characters like Cora, PB and Drack which bothered me less than every other character in the Mass Effect universe. +The Insanity difficulty that created many memorable fights, like the one over the Kett HQ on the first planet, that took every ounce of my gaming ability. Naturally there were bugs but they didn't bothered me too much and they weren't game-breaking. If I learnt anything from Euro-Trash games like Boiling Point or White Gold, is that brilliance sometimes hides behind mediocre-looking experiences.

[@ClintEllis]

I really liked it too. People love to hate things on The Internet.

[@dustbusta]

1:12:35

[@Alstor_H2O]

I'm surprised that no one made the argument for Persona 5 given how much the writing bombs the farther you go into it.