PS Fanboy 2007: Disappointment of the Year

Stay tuned all this week as we reveal the our nominees for the very best games of 2007. Winners will be declared on December 27th.

Every year, no matter what console you own, there are a few games that fall to the market with such a thud you feel your reputation for playing video games drop a little. Yes, these games damage everything we've come to support and whether the game itself is bad or suffered from a gigantic hype machine that everybody jumped on for no apparent reason, the games simply didn't do what we wanted. This award isn't for "worst" game of the year, no, but the biggest disappointment. The games that could have been something, but weren't. For all intents and purposes, this award could actually be construed as "worse" than the "worst".


Assassin's Creed
Ubisoft Montreal | Ubisoft
A lot of things worked well in Assassin's Creed -- jostling through a crowd, battle mechanics, a decent story with a lazy (read: exciting and unexpected) twist all worked out well for the game. But don't you remember how this game was going to be "the best ever" and looked "better than anything else in development" or whatever other pseudo-quote we want to use? The game is good, but for over a year this previously PS3 exclusive game was getting so much buzz about blowing our minds we couldn't help but feel an overwhelming stench of disappointment when we played the final version. Especially when we see how weak the PS3 version was in comparison to the 360 one.




Heavenly Sword
Sony Computer Entertainment
Reminder: this award is not for a game that is deemed "bad" because all things considered, Heavenly Sword is an okay action game with a decent and amusing story. What makes the game disappointing is the whole time you play it, you feel something is going to come along to raise the bar into awesomeness, but instead you get a smattering of mediocre shooting missions relegating use of the SIXAXIS. It breaks the rhythm of the gorgeous game and before you know it, it's all over. Nothing happened. Quite disappointing.




Lair
Factor 5 | Sony Computer Entertainment
When it was first announced, people thought the game looked nice but controlled horribly. Factor 5 promised the media the game was in an early demo stage and would look completely different when it was closer to completion. The game did get some graphical upgrades, but was slaughtered by the media for having a horrid framerate and controls more difficult to master than a lightsaber. It didn't help the otherwise mediocre title that there was a horribly long train of hype running for it. People wanted this game to be fantastic -- a Rogue Squadron with dragons -- but it ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of the year, hurting the PS3's image.




The attention on the framerate problems of PS3's The Orange Box were largely exaggerated. However, to say that they're non-existent would also be a lie. While we're glad EA Games took the effort to bring the game to our console, we're utterly disappointed that Valve refused to develop for the PS3, forcing development to an external team that delivered a less-than-stellar port more than a month after the Xbox 360 and PC versions. Ouch.




Stay tuned to PS3 Fanboy on December 27th for the winners. Best of 2007 image based off of work from Studio469.