The 2008 Halfie Awards: Biggest Disappointment

Written by Jim Squires

Tuesday, 08 July 2008 01:00

Grand Theft Auto IV - nominated by Kevin

Repetitive mission-based game play? Check. Ethnic stereotypes and crudeness? Check. While most people found GTA IV to be a breath of fresh air, a select group felt it was just going through the standard GTA motions. While there's a lot new in the series, it just didn't shine bright enough for some to take away from the sameness.

Ninja Gaiden 2 - nominated by Ryan

As is often the case, Chris Kohler summed it up perfectly. His review Ninja Gaiden II Gets Combat Right, Everything Else Wrong hits the nail right on the head. The first Ninja Gaiden revolutionized the way people thought about hardcore combat, but with the sequel I think we were all expecting something more. Expectations not met, Itagaki.

Pirates of the Burning Sea - nominated by Dan

An MMO with pirates? In theory this is a title that couldn't fail - it should only have been made better by a ninja-themed expansion. And yet a focus on economy and privateering took all the wind out of our sails. Besides -- being the only one online really takes the M's out of playing an MMO.

Iron Man - nominated by Jim

Getting our hopes up about a movie license? What were we thinking? But there was enough hype and positive talk surrounding the pre-release of this one that we couldn't help but get excited. Besides -- it was Sega! Ok, ok, we're sorry. We'll never get excited about a movie license again, we promise.

Up next? The Games That Most Surprised Us!

Comments (6) Add Comment

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written by Brisk317, July 08, 2008

Of the 4 games listed here, 2 of them are my faves right now in GTA IV and Ninja Gaiden II, I guess like Dalton once said "Opinions vary".

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written by Ryan, July 08, 2008

What sucks about Iron Man is, you can go look at the trailer for Dark Void and see how cool it *could* have been.

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, July 08, 2008

Definitely an opinion, since GTAIV was also on our "AAA title" list!

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written by Kevin Alexander, July 08, 2008

I spent two podcasts talking about what I didn't like about the 6+ hours I spent with GTA IV. I understand what people liked about it but it was still a huge disappointment to me.

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written by Mookie, July 10, 2008

I'm gonna have to say Pirates of the Burning Sea. Ever since I quit WoW I had been looking for a suitable MMO fix... and I thought PotBS would deliver... it did not.

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written by Xerxes3rd, July 10, 2008

Even though I've not played it and it may have come out just recently (i.e. outside the release date window for the award), I'm gonna have to nominate Too Human for the sheer fact that it's NOT Eternal Darkness 2.