Worst Games of the Decade: 2010

I like to try to review mostly good games, but there are some bad games out there that no one has ever heard of or known about and that’s for a good reason. Some of these games had good potential, but had untalented or lazy developers, some games were just bad ideas, some games had good aspects but too many poor design choices in other areas. Some of these games are just down right funny, they are that bad. A lot are based on movie licenses (surprised?) some are retro remakes, and some are brand new ideas that got flushed down the toilet. I dug up the worst games ever made in 2010 to keep you away from them, or you can give them a try out of sheer curiosity. All games got 50% or lower on GameRankings. The lists are already long enough, anything above 50% is at least passable.

Army of Two: 40th Day

Release Date: 1/12/2010

System: PSP

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: EA

Developer: EA Montreal

Sales: 30,000

Here’s a real winner. The Army of Two series is already well hated, it’s one of EA’s worst original IPs to come out in a long time. The console versions didn’t score too hotly, but the PSP version was just plain bad. It was an over-the-top arcade game, but looked ugly and just controlled so badly. It was boring, uninteresting, and just…boring. Boring is the only word you can come up with for this game because you will be so uninterested you can’t think of any other words!

Twin Sector

Release Date: 1/19/2010

System: PC

GameRankings: 45%

Publisher: Got Game Entertainment

Developer: DNS Development

Sales: <10,000

Adventure games tend to be very low budget, but some come out on top like The Longest Journey. Twin Sector had a good idea of using physics based puzzles, but at least get your physics engine right! They were so bad that they would flub puzzles even if you were solving them right. The graphics were bland with no character, the story was boring, and failing puzzles wouldn’t lead to game over screens…you were stuck. Any PC adventure fans out there may have played this, I feel bad for you.

Bloons

Release Date: 2/8/2010

System: Wii

GameRankings: 19%

Publisher: Hands-On Mobile

Developer: Ninja Kiwi

Sales: <10,000

Gamers don’t like it when you charge for something that’s already free somewhere else. Bloons was a free flash game so Ninja Kiwi charged Wii gamers $5. This is why it got such bad reviews, don’t charge for something that’s free. I hope they learned their lesson. Other than that it’s a pretty boring and bland game.

Last Rebellion

Release Date: 2/23/2010

System: PS3

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: NIS America

Developer: Hit Maker

Sales: 70,000

Most Japanese games these days, the low budget ones, are pretty bland and boring. Last Rebellion is exactly that. Bad AI, primitive gameplay, sloppy controls, uninteresting story, the list goes on. There’s not a single redeeming thing in Rebellion. Save yourself a headache and skip this Japanese RPG.

Samurai Shodown Sen

Release Date: 3/30/2010

System: X360

GameRankings: 50%

Publisher: XSeed

Developer: SNK Playmore

Sales: 60,000

Samurai Shodown is an under appreciated fighting series, and it didn’t translate well to 3D. With this being the first outing  it was hit or miss. The game was just really bad, sluggish controls, laborious boring single player, and was just uninteresting. It also didn’t help that no one was playing online, so you were stuck with single player. Seeing the sales, SNK needs to promote this series better.

Mimana Iyar Chronicle

Release Date: 3/30/2010

System: PSP

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: Aksys Games

Developer: GungHo

Sales: 70,000

The PSP has more bad JRPGs than good and Mimana added to that. The game was your typical slog of a JRPG, boring story, takes way too long to get interesting, repetitive dull combat, and outright nauseating exploration. The only thing notable in Mimana are the cut scenes and voice acting. Only the hardest of core JRPG fans will find anything even remotely interesting here.

Dead or Alive Paradise

Release Date: 3/30/2010

System: PSP

GameRankings: 37%

Publisher: Tecmo

Developer: Team Ninja

Sales: 130,000

Put large breasts on screen and everyone will come running. PSP gamers finally got their chicken choking game to hide in the bathroom with. The only problem is that nearly everything from Xtreme 2 was cut and the game was so simple it really wasn’t a game. Honestly, there wasn’t really anything to do here. Only a few mini-games were put in, it was also nearly impossible to figure out how to make friends with the girls. What a waste.

Prison Break

Release Date: 4/1/2010

Systems: PC, X360, PS3

GameRankings: PC — 40%

PS3, X360 — 39%

Publisher: Deep Silver

Developer: ZootFly

Sales:

PS3: 210,000

X360: 180,000

PC: <10,000

Honestly I’m surprised Prison Break sold as much as it did. It was considered one of the worst games of the year because of how much attention it got. This game seemed to have been released in alpha stage because everything was wrong. Bad camera, sluggish controls, terrible combat, broken animations, you name it.

Kick-Ass

Release Date: 4/29/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 38%

Publisher: WHA Entertainment

Developer: Frozen Codebase

Sales: <10,000

It’s odd for a movie based game to be console specific, but the less systems this turd was available on the better. The game was just incomplete. Bad AI, unresponsive controls, and glitches everywhere. Despite the movie being great, the game was not and fans of the movie thought so to. It sold very poorly, thank God.

Kung Fu Funk: Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting!

Release Date: 5/3/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 17%

Publisher: Stickmen Studios

Developer: Stickmen Studios

Sales: <10,000

With a name like that you would expect disaster. The problem here was that the controls were 99% broken. They just didn’t work most of the time and it was very unappealing. Most WiiWare games are bad, but this is at the top of the Wii shovelware turd pile.

Iron Man 2

Release Date: 5/4/2010

Systems: X360, PS3

GameRankings: X360 — 44%

PS3 — 43%

Publisher: Sega

Developer: Sega Studios San

Sales

PS3: 330,000

X360: 230,000

Another crappy movie tie-in. Surprised? Iron Man 2 was one of the worst games of 2010 because it was unfinished. The sense of speed was really slow, the controls sucked, the menus were confusing, and the combat didn’t make you feel like Iron Man. While the movie was brilliant the game was not. Across all systems it sold 1.51 million copies which is just sick. It was a minor financial success for Sega, and I honestly hate every single person who bought this game.

Attack of the Movies 3D

Systems: Wii, X360

GameRankings: Wii — 38%

X360 — 36%

Publisher: Majesco

Developer: Panic Button

Sales 

Wii: 80,000

X360: 30,000

It’s this kind of crap that will make Majesco go out of business. The game was just a bland arcade shooter with no soul or appeal. It was ugly as sin and just very basic and boring. It was slightly more acceptable on the Wii, but was even worse on the 360 without the motion controls. It sold poorly and deserved it.

Ben 10 Alien Force: The Rise of Hex

Release Date: 5/31/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Black Lantern Studios

Sales: <10,000

A few of the Ben 10 games are actually fairly decent, but this is one of the worst. The game was just badly designed. Poor level design, awful difficulty spikes, and the story was nonexistent. Disgusting fact of the day: Ben 10 has sold over 10 million copies in total. Another fun fact: This game sold the least out of all of them. Just a hint to stay away. The Wii version was slightly better, but not by much.

Pure Futbol

Release Date: 6/1/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: PS3 — 44%

X360 — 41%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Vancouver

Sales

PS3: 200,000

X360: 150,000

Another bad sports game, how surprising. Pure Futbol should have been Pure Turd. It might have sold more. The game had no commentary, a must have in any sports game, bad defensive play, lack of modes, and lots of slowdown. Why? Because screw you, that’s why.

Arcade Sports

Release Date: 6/14/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 47%

Publisher: Icon Games

Developer: Icon Games

Sales: <10,000

Yet another crappy WiiWare game, will it ever end? Arcade Sports is just so bad that it doesn’t even tell you how to play the games, the graphics are N64 quality, and the controls hardly respond. What kind of game is that? One that belongs burning in hell for all eternity.

Naval Assault: The Killing Tide

Release Date: 6/15/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 40%

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: 505 Games

Sales: 150,000

Here’s a game that just plain sucks. There are no checkpoints, the graphics look like an early Xbox 1 game, and there is no excitement. You would have more fun watching paint dry than playing this awful sub sim. The whole point was to battle people online, except that’s hard when everyone picked better games.

Dance on Broadway

Release Date: 6/15/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 47%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Longtail Studios

Sales: 960,000

Wow hold the phone! This piece of crap sold almost 1 million copies? Seriously…Brothers in Arms barely sold that many! Thank all the lonely housewives and pre-teens. Almost everything that can go wrong in a game went wrong here. Badly animated dancers, motion controls do not register half the time, no downloadable tracks, and lack of any single player structure. Why did this pile of crap sell so well? Just look at that freaking cover.

Transformers: Cybertron Adventures

Release Date: 6/22/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 40%

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Next Level Games

Sales: 240,000

Most Wii ports are bad, Transformers is no exception. This is a port of the excellent War for Cybertron, a sad soggy port. The graphics were terrible, the driving sections were uninspired, it is also incredibly short, just a few hours long. What was the point? At least High Moon Studios didn’t taint their reputation with this garbage, let some other unknown developer take the crap right? Surprisingly, it sold about half of what War for Cybertron sold, sad.

Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project

Release Date: 6/23/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 47%

Publisher: 3D Realms

Developer: 3D Realms

Sales: <10,000

Hey kids! It’s Duke Nukem! Yeah, no one cares anymore. The problem is that these games just did not age well. All those damn key card hunts, Duke gets old and stale after about 3 seconds, and the gameplay just does NOT hold up. Pick up the muck better Duke Nukem 3D instead.

Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans

Release Date: 6/24/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: Slitherine Software

Developer: Virtual Identity

Sales: <10,000

Yet more Wii shovelware. Bad presentation, unresponsive controls, boring gameplay, just everything you can imagine went wrong here. This was an “edutainment” game aimed towards parents. The only thing kids would learn is how to break their Wii the fastest with this sin of a game.

Naughty Bear

Release Date: 6/25/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: X360 — 45%

PS3 — 44%

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: Artificial Mind and Movement

Sales: 

PS3: 380,000

X360: 370,000

Killer teddy bears. What could go wrong? Absolutely everything! This was considered one of the worst games ever released for 2010. The combat sucked, the graphics were last-gen, the storytelling was awful, and most of the content was locked off. This pile of doo-doo sold almost a million copies because of the hype. That’s a way to sell games. Give a teddy bear a knife and no one will care how bad your game is.

Robin Hood: The Return of Richard

Release Date: 6/28/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 23%

Publisher: Nordcurrent

Developer: Nordcurrent

Sales: <10,000

Ever wanted a game where you play as Robin Hood and press A over and over while you stare at the screen? This is your game! That’s literally all you do. It’s like Robin Hood Space Invaders, but not as cool as that sounds. This has to be one of the worst WiiWare games to ever exist. I feel sorry for anyone who about it.

TNA Impact: Cross the Line

Release Date: 6/29/2010

Systems: PSP

GameRankings: 49%

Publisher: SouthPeak Games

Developer: Point of View

Sales: 50,000

A bad wrestling game? No way! TNA Impact was one of the worst. The main issue were the controls, they barely worked, second, there’s no character customization. A MUST have in any wrestling game. Add in the fact that the game was so damn hard you could barely get through a few rounds, what a shame.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Release Date: 6/29/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: City Interactive

Developer: City Interactive

Sales: 1,030,000

Ghost Warrior went on to sell over a million copies because if you look and sound like Call of Duty, you will sell well. When you are trying to create a sniper simulator, makes sure those parts actually work. Sniper had terrible enemy AI, absurd difficulty, and crappy stealth mechanics. The second game wasn’t too bad, and this one looked better on PC.

N3II: Ninety-Nine Nights

Release Date: 6/29/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 50%

Publisher: Konami

Developer: FeelPlus

Sales: 150,000

You would think developers would learn from past mistakes, FeelPlus didn’t. N3II is extremely dull and has repetitive combat, annoying boss fights and the game is so hard you won’t care! It also doesn’t help that this game has the generic and boring Japanese fantasy story. The first game was a highly anticipated Xbox 360 game showing off the tech, but it was quickly forgotten.

Tournament of Legends

Release Date: 7/6/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 49%

Publisher: Sega Europe

Developer: High Voltage Software

Sales: 40,000

A lot of Wii games had this problem: Unresponsive controls. Until the Motion Plus came out all controls were canned. Tournament of Legends helps drive this into the ground with controls that completely break the game. It doesn’t help that this is an uninspired and boring fighter.

AquaSpace

Release Date: 7/19/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 44%

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Sales: <10,000

This being a first party game you think it would be good, but it’s not. It directly competed with Hudon’s My Aquarium, had less features, and pretty much made your TV a virtual fish tank window. Yawn. For $6 I can buy a burger and get more happiness out of that.

Clash of the Titans

Release Date: 7/27/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: PS3 — 45%

X360 — 44%

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Developer: Game Republic

Sales: 

PS3: 240,000

X360: 140,000

It’s no surprise that the excellent movie Clash of the Titans turned into a flop of a game. Even if they completely ripped off God of War it may have been saved. The camera sucked, the combat was dull and boring, the voice acting was terrible, and the list goes on. This is usually typical for most movie licensed games and has been for decades.

Enjoy Your Massage!

Release Date: 8/9/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 19%

Publisher: Microforum

Developer: Microforum

Sales: <10,000

Now here’s a real gem. Any game that has Enjoy, Your, or Massage in it is garunteed to be bad. This is basically Simon on a woman’s back. If the game even had nudity it might be worth it, but seriously? What was the point. Some people thought it had something to do with the Wiimote vibrating like those weird Xbox 360 Indie games.

Kung Fu Rider

Release Date: 9/7/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 41%

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: SCE Japan Studio

Sales: 170,000

The PlayStation Move had a terrible launch, just as bad as Kinect. There really weren’t any games worth buying the device for. It seemed it followed the same path the EyeToy did for the PS2. Kung Fu Rider didn’t really have anything good about it. The controls were unresponsive, not something you want to show off a motion controller with, the physics were terrible, and it was only a couple of hours long. This was probably one of the worst Move games ever made.

TerRover

Release Date: 9/7/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 41%

Publisher: SOE

Developer: Create Studios

Sales: <10,000

This is probably one of the worst games on PS3. The controls pretty much don’t work, the game is glitchy, and the difficulty is so hard that you will break your controller in half. There are much better PSN games out there, skip this.

House M.D.

Release Date: 9/13/2010

Systems: PC

GameRankings: 39%

Publisher: Legacy Interactive

Developer: Legacy Interactive

Sales: <10,000

What’s worse than movie licensed games? TV show licensed games. House M.D. isn’t just a bad adventure game, but it doesn’t even get stuff from the show right like the devs never watched it. The chance of at least suckering in the fans is even out the window. The game was boring, had bad puzzles, and was just a bad game.

Truth or Lies

Release Date: 9/14/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 23%

Publisher: THQ

Developer: THQ

Sales: 100,000

Most board game to video game translations are pretty bad. Truth or Lies is like truth or dare, but without the fun. The questions were terrible, the announcer was annoying, and it just wasn’t any fun at all. For $40 you can buy some wine and play the actual game with friends instead.

Racquet Sports

Release Date: 9/14/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 41%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Osobo Studio

Sales: 290,000

The Move wasn’t doing too hot, and yet another crappy sports game came out. The controls didn’t respond well, there were only five games, and you got bored with it in less than an hour. However, Move users were desperate.

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Release Date: 9/14/2010

Systems: DS

GameRankings: 33%

Publisher: Warner Bros.

Developer: Tantalus Media

Sales: 130,000

While the console version weren’t too bad, the DS version was abysmal. It offered nearly zero challenge because every single battle was canned the same way. It also didn’t help that there were invisible barriers everywhere and the game looked like complete crap.

Blade Kitten

Release Date: 9/22/2010

Systems: PC

GameRankings: 49%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Krome Studios

Sales: <10,000

Blade Kitten was a huge disappointment, even to me personally. I was really excited for this game and it turned out to be a complete pile of crap. The game was glitchy, dull, and just plain boring. It didn’t even have a good story.

Quantum Theory

Release Date: 9/28/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: PS3 — 45%

X360: 39%

Publisher: Tecmo

Developer: Team Tachyon

Sales: 

PS3: 160,000

X360: 100,000

The Gears of War clones were pretty bad, but Quantum Theory was the worst offender. It had awful controls, a lame story, and no one was playing online so multiplayer was a bust. It didn’t even have graphics as good as Gears, but copied the same gameplay almost to a T. Good job for screwing up a clone.

MorphX

Release Date: 9/28/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 41%

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: Buka Entertainment

Sales: 40,000

Another crappy Xbox 360 exclusive. This game was just bad all around. A stupid story, poor checkpoint placement with sparse ammo, cheesy dialog…sounds a lot like Resident Evil 6 actually.

Final Fantasy XIV Online

Release Date: 9/30/2010

Systems: PC

GameRankings: 50%

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Square Enix

Sales: 660,000

FF 15 Online was probably one of the worst MMOs ever made. It was released unfinished. It had a terrible interface, there was barely any quests, the economy stunk, and just everything that makes an MMO good FF15 screwed up. Due to this, the game didn’t sell very well and Square nearly canned the whole game.

Dead Space Ignition

Release Date: 10/12/2010

Systems: X360, PS3

GameRankings: PS3, X360 — 40%

Publisher: EA

Developer: Sumo Digital

Sales: <10,000

This is the worst Dead Space game ever made. It had shallow and frustrating mini-games, a dull story, and was just not a necessary game. It was given out for free for people who pre-ordered Dead Space 2, it actually wasn’t even worth your HDD space.

Winter Voices Prologue: Avalanche

Release Date: 10/15/2010

Systems: PC

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: beyondthepillars

Developer: beyondthepillars

Sales: <10,000

Winter Voices was a very broken game. The AI and combat hardly worked at all, and there was hardly any gameplay here, it was mostly story. It had nice art, but who cares at that point?

Power Gig: Rise of the SixString

Release Date: 10/19/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: X360 — 42%

PS3 — 41%

Publisher: Seven45 Studios

Developer: Seven45 Studios

Sales: 

PS3: 120,000

X360: 100,000

Power Gig was probably the worst Guitar Hero rip off ever. While the band rhythm genre was pretty much dead, this golden turd came out. It had stupid gameplay that wasn’t anything a rhythm game should be, the guitar was a piece of crap and had you resorting to Guitar Hero controllers, there was no challenge, and honestly, no point. It didn’t help that it had crappy songs.

Saw II: Flesh and Blood

Release Date: 10/19/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 49%

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Zombie Studios

Sales: 140,000

The first Saw game was a boring broken mess of a game, it also failed to capture the terror of the movies. Saw II was no different, with slightly better graphics it wasn’t tense at all, it also had endless mind numbing puzzles. The Xbox 360 version was slightly better performance wise, but not by much.

Dream Chronicles

Release Date: 10/20/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: PS3 — 40%

X360 — 37%

Publisher: Hudsonsoft

Developer: Playfirst

Sales: <10,000

Would you like a sample of a game? Buy Dream Chronicles. The game can be beaten in about 45 minutes and has puzzles so bizarre and so obtuse that you will be glad it’s over. This is one of the worst downloadable games out there.

Flip’s Twisted World

Release Date: 10/25/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: Majesco

Developer: Frozen North Productions

Sales: 50,000

This is what happens when you have great artists but lazy programmers. Flip’s has a great character and story, but playing is so frustrating and glitchy that you will flip your house over in anger. Yet another Wii game that had a lot of potential and fell completely flat.

Deca Sports 3

Release Date: 10/26/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 39%

Publisher: Hudsonsoft

Developer: Hudsonsoft

Sales: 180,000

Seeing a pattern? Hudsonsoft makes terrible games. Deca Sports was an onslaught of puke for motion based games. It was literally one of the worst It had awful motion controls. That should be the first thing you get right! Deca 3 used the Motion Plus and it still sucked! The game looked bad, the games were boring, and it was just dull all over.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Fatal Conspiracy

Release Date: 10/26/2010

Systems: PS3, X360

GameRankings: X360 — 47%

PS3 — 40%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Telltale Games

Sales: 

PS3: 150,000

X360: 150,000

This was a game that put a dent in Telltale’s reputation. I was actually in a game store when some sorry sap picked this up brand new. He even asked for it by name. I wanted to jump out and smack it out of the clerk’s hand. This was the third game in the series and Telltale didn’t learn their lessons. The graphics were laughably bad, the puzzles were so shallow that you will fall asleep before finishing even the first one. Stay away from TV show branded video games.

Haunted House

Release Date: 10/28/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 44%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: ImaginEngine

Sales: <10,000

The original Atari 2600 game is a cult classic, but this remake is a disaster. It’s really easy, not scary at all, and the game is so simplistic that 5 year olds will get bored. Do yourself a favor and stick with the original.

Megamind: Ultimate Showdown

Release Date: 11/2/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 38%

Publisher: THQ

Developer: THQ

Sales: 110,000

Like all movie based games this one is a disaster. You literally just wonder around collecting things with no goal. There’s no direction in the game and no reason to care about anything. That is the current state of most of these 3D cartoon games. Megamind was a great film, but the game doesn’t show that at all.

Blood Drive

Release Date: 11/2/2010

Systems: X360, PS3

GameRankings: PS3 — 49%

X360 — 40%

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Sidhe

Sales: 

X360: 80,000

PS3: 60,000

Yet another generic and boring zombie game/racing game. The sense of speed sucks, the graphics suck, the zombies are boring, and there’s just nothing exciting about this game. Running over zombies should be fun, but Blood Drive proves how it can’t be.

Fighters Uncaged

Release Date: 11/4/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 35%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft

Sales: 550,000

The Kinect was a complete failure, so why not let the games help prove that? Fighters was the worst Kinect game ever made. It actually showed you just how much money you wasted on this paperweight. The controls hardly registered at all, the art sucked, there weren’t any rewards for anything, and the animations looked awful. Leave it to games like this to prove that motion controls suck.

MotionSports

Release Date: 11/4/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 45%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Milan

Sales: 610,000

Another game to prove how uncool the Kinect is. Half the games didn’t respond very well, it got boring after an hour, the animations were terrible, and it was just another rush job to make money off the huge Kinect sales during launch.

The Fight: Lights Out

Release Date: 11/9/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 50%

Publisher: SCEA

Developer: Coldwood Interactive

Sales: 490,000

Settle down Kinect fans, the Move had games that were just as bad. The Fight was probably the worst for the Move with nearly unresponsive controls, the graphics were dull, and the Move needed constant recalibration for some reason. Thank Microsoft and Sony for single handedly helping ruin motion control gaming.

Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2

Release Date: 11/9/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 45%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft

Sales: 80,000

HAWX 2 wasn’t all that great to begin with, but the Wii version just drove it into the dirt even more. The graphics were muddled and looked ugly as sin, the controls sucked, and the camera was all over the place. This is how you screw up and already screwed up game even more.

Beyblade: Metal Fusion — Battle Fortress

Release Date: 11/9/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 35%

Publisher: Hudsonsoft

Developer: Hudsonsoft

Sales: 170,000

Taking toys and turning them into video games has always been a disaster. This game takes the spinning top franchise and keeps your interest for about 2 minutes. It’s also another crappy game on the Wii for kids who don’t care. You will have more fun spinning a top then playing this game.

Naruto Shippuden: Dragon Blade Chronicles

Release Date: 11/12/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 44%

Publisher: Tomy Corporation

Developer: Takara Tomy

Sales: 160,000

Oh no, a Naruto game! The fan boys will get mad! No, even fans will agree that with pile of dog crap shouldn’t exist. It was a sad attempt at a JRPG that was shallow, boring, ugly, and just plain shouldn’t exist. I have to admit, I don’t like Naruto (most people don’t) but the fighting games are pretty damn solid. This game isn’t. Even fans would see that this more like Shitpuden.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 45%

Publisher: EA

Developer: Exient

Sales: 420,000

Developers always handed Wii ports off to nobody developers. This is a perfect example. The Wii version was a disaster that had terrible graphics, poor controls, and had a game that wasn’t even close to the other versions. How can you screw this up so bad? Ask Satan.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Systems: Wii, PS3, X360

GameRankings: X360 — 43%

Wii — 42%

PS3 — 39%

Publisher: EA

Developer: EA Bright Light

Sales: 

Wii: 500,000

X360: 400,000

PS3: 290,000

Another great film turned into a crappy game. EA went the route of a third person shooter to capture the more gritty and darker theme of the last Harry Potter films. The problem is those shooting mechanics are broken and all the other mechanics don’t really work. It leads into a disaster of a game, yet somehow it sold over a million copies.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Next Level Games

Sales: 100,000

Another crappy Wii port. Ghost Recon doesn’t look or sound like Ghost Recon on Wii. The controls are terrible, the gameplay is boring, the shooting is just bad, and the action is dull. How can you screw Wii games up so badly?

Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet

Release Date: 11/16/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Griptonite Games

Sales: 220,000

Another crappy cartoon tie-in. The gameplay is utterly boring, the sound effects and music are forgettable, and the graphics are bad, even for Wii. Why was everyone picking on Wii so much? Just look at the sales of most of these games and you will see why the games were so bad: Low sale expectations.

Deca Sports Freedom

Release Date: 11/18/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 25%

Publisher: Hudsonsoft

Developer: AI

Sales: 260,000

These Deca Sports games just wouldn’t stop coming! Terrible controls, bad animations, boring mini-games, and just overall everything a motion based game shouldn’t be.

Zumba Fitness: Join the Party

Release Date: 11/18/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 49%

Publisher: Majesco

Developer: Pipeworks Software

Sales: Unknown

Don’t kid yourself. Zumba Fitness has sold nearly 10 million copies in total. Just because it’s a crappy fitness games doesn’t mean lonely house wives and pre-teens won’t eat it up. Join the Party helped propel the Kinect into the ground by offering more unresponsive controls, terrible online play, and a bad interface. Good job guys.

Doctor Who: Return to Earth

Release Date: 11/19/2010

Systems: Wii

GameRankings: 25%

Publisher: Koch Media

Developer: QVS

Sales: 160,000

Uh oh, now we’re treading in dark territory. Making fun of Doctor Who? Now I’m asking for it! Actually this game is an insult to the gaming community and fans as a whole. The graphics were terrible, the scripting was equal to a turd, and it didn’t bring the show to life at all. Just stick with the shows.

Dragon’s Lair

Release Date: 11/23/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: Digital Leisure

Developer: Digital Leisure

Sales: <10,000

Some games are better left in the past. Dragon’s Lair is remembered for its historical appeal rather than the gameplay. It has nice art, but when you can beat this in 20 minutes, and the game doesn’t offer anything new, you realize just how bad it was. The whole game is context based so there’s not much gameplay anyways. Too bad.

Fable III: Understone Quest Pack

Release Date: 11/23/2010

Systems: X360

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: Lionhead Studios

Sales: <10,000

Most DLC is hit or miss. The Understone Quest Pack was one of the worst and made a big stink in 2010. It was literally two combat arenas and one mini-game. If you beat the game you were too powerful to be presented a challenge. After that you return the game back in its box and move on to better stuff.

Deadliest Catch: Sea of Chaos

Release Date: 11/29/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 46%

Publisher: Crave Entertainment

Developer: Double Tap

Sales: 70,000

Never play games based off TV shows unless you want to kill yourself. The graphics are ugly, and you have to love the TV show and fishing to find even a little bit of interest. Just roam around in a boat and look at fish that you caught. Could it get any more dull?

Yogi Bear

Release Date: 11/7/2010

Systems: DS

GameRankings: 42%

Publisher: D3 Publisher

Developer: Monkey Bar Games

Sales: 130,000

Another horrible movie tie-in. Not only was the movie bad (Justin Timberlake…seriously?) but the game was worse. The game was just easy and boring. You just jumped around platforms with no challenge. I would rather get a swirly in a toilet then watch the movie or play the game.

Qlione Evolve

Release Date: 12/7/2010

Systems: PS3

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: SOE

Developer: Rockin’ Android

Sales: <10,000

Ever wanted to play a game like flOw but without the fun? Here you go! There is almost no gameplay, it’s ugly, and just plain boring. Yet another crappy PSN game.

Starpoint Gemini

Release Date: 12/15/2010

Systems: PC

GameRankings: 48%

Publisher: Little Green Men

Developer: Little Green Men

Sales: Unknown

This was just a bad indie game overall. It had a hard tutorial (what?!), terrible voice acting and localization, and was just boring. There is hardly anything good about this pile of crap you can get on Steam.

Well there you have it. I know it’s a long list, but there were THAT many bad games in 2010. There were a lot of great games too, but these are games you probably never heard of or new that existed. Most sold terribly, but some sold surprisingly well. There’s also a few lessons we learned here. Stay away from TV show, kid’s toy, and movie based tie-ins, the Wii has a ton of crappy games, and motion control gaming has a bad rep with all those bad games.

History of History: World War II Strategy: Company of Heroes

There were dozens of WWII strategy games, almost more than shooters. Strategy allowed you to see the tactical side of the way and could play out real scenarios in a more realistic manner. Many of them were boring and bad, but the king of them all is Company of Heroes. It revolutionized the strategy genre and surprisingly pushed PCs to their limits with DirectX 10 graphics. Who would have thought a strategy game would do that? Company of Heroes had a great interface, tons of levels, addictive multiplayer, and great strategy elements. The only issue was that the game was as buggy as sin, but slowly got patched over time.

Company of Heroes

Release Date: 9/13/2006 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 93%

Sales: Unknown

 

Company of Heroes was a fantastic game and one of the best strategy games ever made. It was just one of the best WWII games period. It had great tactics, a wonderful interface  and really showed the gritty depressing tragedy of the war. You got down to the individual tactics that only a strategy game can do. It was praised by everyone for all the great features. It also used DirectX 10 graphics and really pushed PCs to their limits, it was  a benchmark game and a graphics card seller. It only received some nit-picking about long load times, a lot of bugs, and the small amount of factions you could choose. Every strategy gamer needs to play this.

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Release Date: 9/24/2007 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 87%

Sales: Unknown

 

Opposing Fronts was the highly anticipated expansion and was received warmly. It added new factions that were really needed, and a whole new campaign that was a blast to play. The destructible environments really helped push the game’s surreal atmosphere, it honestly didn’t get better than this. Bugs still remained despite being a year old, yet fans at the game up like candy.

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Release Date: 4/7/2009 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 71%

Sales: Unknown

 

I can’t say it enough, even the best games can fall from grace. Two years was a long gap for an expansion to come out. By now people had moved on, why Relic released an expansion 18 months later is a head scratcher. You can really feel the lack of attention to the game because the new campaign could be finished in a couple of hours and was just lacking. It only added a few new maps and was just nothing compared to the previous games. THQ must have forced Relic to make this, it also looked really dated at this point in time. It goes to show that you can’t force and rush even the best of games. The series would take a long 4 year hiatus for the next sequel.

Company of Heroes 2

Release Date: 6/25/2013

GameRankings: N/A

Sales: N/A

 

I know this game isn’t out yet, but the fact that a WWII game is coming out in 2013 is pretty weird and scary. Can it live up to the original game? Will it have ground breaking graphics again using DirectX 11? It focuses on the Russian front in 1941 which will be interesting. After all these mediocre WWII strategy games have come out what else can Company of Heroes offer? June 25 will tell all.

Sharp HT-SB40 Power SoundBar and Wireless Subwoofer

Manufacturer: Sharp

Release Date: 3/11/2013

MSRP: $299.99

Wattage: 310

 

 

The Good: Sleek design, no hassle setup. wireless subwoofer means less cords, great 3D audio sound, crisp, warm, and vibrant subwoofer, wall mountable, plenty of input options

The Bad: Long and cumbersome, doesn’t come with wall mounting screws

Sound systems for TVs are pretty expensive, and when I was wondering the isles of Fry’s Electronics I honestly didn’t know what to look for. I’m more of a video guy, so sound was new to me. I was tired of hearing everything from my plasma screen’s speakers and wanted something to bring my games and movies to life. After looking at the PC speakers I found out that they aren’t really designed for digital audio despite being much cheaper. The other route was to get a receiver box and then buy expensive speakers that go into that. What was I to do? These things caught my eye and it was one of the best purchases I ever made.

Sound bars emulate surround sound and 3D audio. It’s not as great as a 5.1 or 7.1 system, but the average person won’t notice a difference. First thing’s first, don’t ever buy a sound bar with the subwoofer built in. It distorts the sound and drops the quality of audio significantly. These tend to be the lower budget sound bars that are under the $150 range. The Sharp HT-SB40 has a separate subwoofer that’s made out of wood and not plastic. It gives the bass a rich and vibrant sound rather than being tinny. The 310 watt speaker is plenty and enough to blow anyone out of your house. Compared to the average TV speakers that are about 20-25 watts. The sound is crystal clear and there are some nice features on here.

The whole system is easy to set up. If you don’t want to constantly swap cables just buy a separate optical audio cable and plug it into the back of your TV. The power bar has 2 HDMI input and 1 HDMI output which is actually a quite a lot for a sound bar. There is an aux jack as well for plugging up MP3 players and other devices. Thankfully, the subwoofer is wireless so there’s no hassling around with cables and keeping them close together. I didn’t even have to pair anything. I plugged everything up and I was ready to go.

There’s not much to fiddle around with once you start using it. The bass is VERY loud and booming. Even with the subwoofer and bass turned all the way down it was still pretty bassy. People who live with whiny neighbors in apartments need to watch out for this. The sound coming out of the bar itself was rich and some of the best audio I heard, it sounds just like you’re in a theatre. Speaking of which, on the remote there are several audio presets like cinema, gaming, night, sports, news etc. Cinema really sounds the best because the other sound too tinny. I also love the 3D audio button. There are 2 presets and the speakers don’t sound very good with it off.

There’s also an option for AV sync which lower budget sound bars don’t have. If you hear stuff before you see it (video delay) then you can turn it up to adjust the delay. You can even dim the display on the power bar and put it in standby mode.

With all that said, this was worth every penny. The power bar is even wall mountable which is nice, this thing is long and you don’t want it on the floor.  My only complaint would be that it doesn’t come with screws to mount it on the wall, and it’s very cumbersome and big. Other than that I don’t think I’d want any other system.

Nintendo Wii U

Manufacterer: Nintendo

Release Date: 11/18/12

Basic MSRP: $299.99

Deluxe MSRP: $349.99

Colors: White/Black

The Good: Clean OS, friendly community, opportunities for fun for both casual and hardcore gamers, virtual console, HD graphics, original controller which presents a lot of opportunities, awesome internet browser

The Bad: Huge lack of games, Miiverse feels like a police-state, not anymore powerful than current gen consoles, lack of structured online modes in games, too many controllers, feels more like a current-gen update of the Wii, overpriced

I’d like to state beforehand that I am a Nintendo fan and while I may name many negatives of the Wii U in this review I do not hate it. It is not a bad console by any means. It just has many shortcomings which I believe Nintendo can fix if they put their effort into it.

Overview

My feelings about the Wii U are very conflicted. First things first, this console is very overpriced for the amount of space it can handle. A PS3 with 500GB and one year of PSN for free (which includes 12 amazing games) is $299.99. The Wii U with Nintendoland and 32GB (Deluxe) is $349.99. Sure, it does work with hard drives, but that’s hardly an excuse for the price.

Gamepad/Controllers

But  price is hardly the most noteworthy nor important element of a gaming system. The GamePad is obviously the system seller here and my feelings on it are mixed. When used properly by developers, it can benefit a game experience. Games with off-tv gameplay are a solid solution to television arguments, yet developers that use this never utilities the GamePad’s unique features and it often feels like an lazy excuse to avoid making GamePad specific features. When used improperly, the GamePad feels gimmicky, just  like the Wii remote often felt. This is specifically noticeable in the scanning moments developers for some reason decide to add to their games (I’m looking at you Zombiu).

The GamePad’s touch screen works well but does not accept more than a finger. It never feels too big and the screen in the middle is just the right size. Its battery does not last long which is very disappointing however if you get the Deluxe version you get a cradle which charges it. The stylus is fine and is my preferred method to touch the screen. The microphone and camera work fine however they aren’t anything special and you’ll rarely, if ever, use them.

The GamePad is not the only controller though. The Wii remote can be used in most, if not all games on the Wii U. I would say Wii remotes are basically necessary for this console and it is disappointing that they do not come with the console (although the sensor does come with Deluxe) They are mostly used for multiplayer experiences. As well as that, the new Wii U Pro Controller (very similar to the Xbox 360 controller) can come in handy depending on what type of games you play and the Classic Controllers (both versions) can be used in some games as well.

OS

The first thing you’ll notice about the Wii U OS (after installing the first two updates) is that it feels very clean and the music is soothing. The way the Gamepad plays some beats from its speakers and the TV plays other beats feels almost majestic even though it is such a small feature. However, this will all be lost the moment you click on an application and are forced through a long loading screen. Opening up system settings can take up to 8 seconds! While the loading times were much longer before the update (nearing 20 -30 seconds), it still feels really annoying.

Mii’s return in the Wii U and are more refined this time around. The “make a Mii based off of your picture” feature still sucks just as it did on the 3DS. Or maybe I’m just really that ugly. Miiverse, Nintendo’s version of Facebook, is a mixed bag. On one hand, the community is very nice, helpful, and supportive. Gone are the friend codes of the past, however you have to add someone from Miiverse (not friends list) if you ever want them to see your friend request. On the other hand, you get the feeling that everyone’s being watched and is frightened of what Nintendo might do if they speak out. I’ve heard of people’s posts getting removed for simply offering a link to their youtube account because they were “giving away too much personal information”. Honestly, I was afraid to write anything bad about Wii U on it. I love the way you can take screenshots in game and upload them to Miiverse seamlessly however. The drawing feature is also pretty nice even though I suck at it.

Speaking of seamless features, the internet browser is a great example of one. Let’s say you are stuck in a game on a particularly challenging puzzle. You can pause the game, select the internet browser, look up the solution, and then return to the game. The internet browser works surprisingly well. It’s unusual (not in a bad way though) to consider that the internet browser runs so quickly considering that downloads go incredibly slowly (Injustice first said it would take 8 hours, then 11, then 2, then it had an error, and finally when I restarted the download it took about 2 and a half hours).

In-game online features are lacking because Nintendos’ Miiverse is not structurally integrated throughout all games unlike Xbox Live or Playstation Network. This means no achievements and leads to many developers ignoring social features such as private matches in their Wii U versions of games. This is very unfortunate.

Also, don’t toss your Wii games away yet. You can run the Wii in its full glory on the Wii U. This is a nice feature even though you have to reset your console to open up the Wii mode. I used to play a lot of Wii games back in the day so this feature is incredibly useful for me.

Games

No matter how good the Wii U’s GamePad is, it is not nearly as important as the games released on the system. I’d prefer a gaming console with a crappy controller and amazing games (such as the Gamecube and PS3) over a console with an amazing controller and lackluster/very few games , hence the name gaming console. This section is not a review of Wii U games, but instead is looking at the games of the Wii U as a whole and judging on whether or not they make this console worth it.

So, the number one question on almost everyones head is, “How do the Wii U ports of games hold up to the other versions?” Well, it seems to vary from game to game. he one thing that stands true with almost every game is the Wii U has worse frame rates than its counterparts (with the exception of Injustice: Gods Among Us, which according to user reviews looks better and runs better than its counterparts). Graphics are basically the same, with lighting looking a little bit worse however textures looking a little better.

Nintendo’s biggest struggle with their games is finding a core audience. On one hand, the games for younger people might be too difficult for non-gaming parents to jump in and play, which was one of the beauties of the Wii. On the other hand, mature games have been dumbed down for the Wii U, with Catwoman put into a more modest outfit in the T-rated Batman: Arkham City and Ninja Gaiden Razor’s Edge taking out guards who plead for their lives. These are all minor nitpicks, but are very disappointing from a gamer’s perspective.

I’m not trying to be Mr. Negative however. Some games really benefit from Off-TV play such as Black Ops 2 and the Wii U GamePad is helpful in Injustice because it can display a moves list. Games such as ZombiU use the Wii U GamePad well, however the best use of the GamePad can be found in the multiple minigames of NintendoLand. The Wii U has some very good games, it just doesn’t have any system sellers. We’ve already seen games like New Super Mario Bros. U multiple times before, and games like AC3 are available on other systems and anyone really interested in games like that would already own an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3.

The rest of the year, however, seems very hopeful for the Wii U. For the past few months the Wii U hasn’t had many game released,  but with some major announcements coming this E3 such as the new Super Smash Bros. Game and 3D Mario as well as the upcoming Pikmin 3 and Bayonetta 2Nintendo could really improve their console. I believe that the Wii U can and will become the greatest current gen console by 2014 and this is because Nintendo knows better than anyone else that gaming is less about the specs and graphics and more about the experiences they can bring.

– Second Opinion –BinaryMessiah–

The Wii U is a system I swore up and down I would never get. My girlfriend brings one home and I’m standing there looking at the thing like after you had an awkward fight. There’s Injustice: Gods Among Us sitting there in it’s tantalizing glory waiting for me to play it. I pull open the box and hook it up. Setting up systems is a nice feeling and doesn’t happen very often.

After setting it all up, I realize that the first feature to really get me to like the console is the TV remote feature. It’s really neat and not something that has ever been implemented into a console before. After I create my Nintendo account and pop in Injustice I start liking the system. The gamepad is easy to hold and super light. This was key to be sure that long periods of play time didn’t cramp your hands. The dual analog sticks are very nice and the button layout is perfect. The ergonomics of the gamepad are just spot on. Anyone in doubt, even hardcore haters, just know that this is one of my favorite controllers. The DSi XL stylus comes out and that even surprised me. The triggers and bumpers in the back are laid out perfect. I applaud Nintendo for getting this right. It’s so useful! There’s so many possibilities with this thing, but the system is only 6 months old.

I then notice that the game is playing on the screen. Even if you hate Nintendo it will make you giddy. It’s a really cool thing to see. You can take the gamepad, plug in headphones, and play while someone’s doing something else on the TV. Why wasn’t this around 20 years ago?! This is only for games that don’t use the gamepad for much though. My only major complaint is the battery life. Nintendo made this huge oversight and it needs to be fixed.

The Wii U was designed for people who already own a Wii, that’s obvious. It comes with a Wii sensor bar but no Wiimotes? Pretty stupid actually. I do like that it emulates the Wii menu and you can still use the Wii shop channel. It’s nice to see Wii games upscaled into HD, not as crisp as the Wii U games, but still nice.

This is also Nintendo’s first HD console. They are behind in times (they always are) but the Wii U looks razor sharp on my 50″ 1080p plasma. The colors are rich and vibrant, and some of the games look pretty good. The only issue is that the Wii U has weaker hardware than current gen consoles when it comes to processing power. Nintendo fan boys can scream all they want that it’s a next-gen console, but in terms of power it isn’t. This is what the Wii should have been.

The Wii U has a tri-core 1.24 Ghz “Expresso” CPU. Sad. My Nexus 7 tablet has a more powerful CPU than that. I think Nintendo was trying to keep down costs, but the gamepad seems to have cost them more than the unit itself because it seems like two systems in one. The Wii U has a 550 Mhz GPU “Latte” that is AMD based and totally custom made. It’s about on par to what the PS3 has right now compared to the Xbox 360′s 500 MHz GPU. The 360 and Ps3 have a tri-core 3.2 GHz CPU so right now, the current gen consoles are nearly twice as powerful as the Wii U. The Wii U has 4GB of DDR3 RAM at 1600Mhz which is about slightly above average RAM speed that people use in PCs. 1GB is held off for system stuff so developers still only have 3GB to work with. Still better than the 256MB that’s on current gen consoles, so this is the only leg up the Wii U has. It’s still 10x as powerful as the Wii, but that’s not saying much.

In the end it comes down to games, right now the Wii U is lacking. There are quite a few high budget ports, but they’re ports. These games people have played on other consoles. Thankfully there’s a huge Wii library out there you can play while you wait, but even the eShop is pretty much empty. I’m impressed with the hardware, but not so much the software. All we can do is wait and see.

History of History: World War II Shooters: Hit & Miss Franchises

While Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and Battlefield became the established juggernauts, there were some other games that tried out the WWII genre craze, but also helped propel it into the dirt. Some franchises were successful such as Day of Defeat, Red Orchestra, Sniper Elite, and others. Some weren’t so successful, in fact, some were so bad they weren’t even playble or enjoyable. WWII was an easy genre to make money off of and some even tried telling their own non-fictional story through the war. A lot of these games just missed the point, recreating a war that was devastating and intense. The games either didn’t get the tragedy across, the action wasn’t what you would expect, or more often than not, the games were just poorly made. A lot were low budgets and were rushed. Many featured terrible enemy AI and the a lot of them had terrible graphics which were a selling point with WWII games.

Hidden & Dangerous

Release Date: 7/29/99 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 75%

Publisher: Take-Two Interactive

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: Unknown

Hidden & Dangerous was one of the first forays into the WWII genre. It offered tactical gameplay that was very solid, but featured many bugs and glitches that made the game nearly unplayable. It still received high enough marks despite these complaints. The game was a step in the right direction but needed a lot more polish before being truly great.

Hidden & Dangerous

Release Date: 7/9/00 — DC

GameRankings: DC: 71%

Publisher: TalonSoft

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: Unknown

Illusion ported the game over to Dreamcast to reap the revenue from the hot new system. Take-Two dropped Illusion after the poor sales and reception of the first game. While the game was the same experience as the PC version, it suffered from interface issues and didn’t fix any of those bugs and glitches and also had audio problems. Hidden & Dangerous wouldn’t stop here though, the series would be rebooted half a decade later.

WWII: Normandy

Release Date: 1/31/01 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 57%

Publisher: Third Law Interactive

Developer: ValuSoft

Sales: Unknown

Here we have a winner, Normandy is considered one of the worst WWII shooters ever made. The game was ugly (even for back then) and was only 2 hours long, can you believe that? The game was bad in just about every corner you could imagine. Only 4 weapons, bad AI, lack of any suspense, stiff animations, bad hit detection, and just overall broken. The game was only $20, but it proved that budget games back in the day were exactly what you paid for. Take that $20 and buy the Saving Private Ryan Blu-Ray instead.

Deadly Dozen

Release Date: 10/31/01 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 61%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: Unknown

Deadly Dozen passed under most people’s radar because 2001 was a busy year for WWII shooters mainly because Allied Assault was on the way, and Serious Sam was just released. It was a fun bargain bin game, but nothing more. It suffered from terrible AI and an overall lack of polish like most cheap games back in the day. It’s worth a play through now if you have a hankering for a squad based WWII shooter. Deadly Dozen was one of the last low budget/one-off WWII shooters to be released in 2001, however everyone was ready for the 2002 releases.

WWII: Desert Rats

Release Date: 5/17/02 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 69%

Publisher: ValuSoft

Developer: Canopy Games

Sales: Unknown

Desert Rats managed to do something a bit different in the budget WWII arena and that was by letting you drive a jeep with a machine gun on it everywhere you went. You weren’t on foot here, instead you were in the back of the jeep during the Africa theatre. This was a budget game done right, but still lacked the fine tuned gameplay and various other things that made Call of Duty and Medal of Honor so popular. The game had terrible cut scenes, a lot of audio was drowned out due to bad editing, but overall a fun shooter until the next big budget WWII game came out.

Prisoner of War

Release Date: 7/19/02 — PS2

GameRankings: PS2: 73%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Wide Games

Sales: <10,000

Prisoner of War was released first on PS2 and it was liked for the nice stealth elements, but the game was short and easy. However, it was a breath of fresh air from the one-man-army shooters and the bland budget WWII games. The PS2 version was knocked down a peg for having pretty bland graphics and having typical graphical issues with the PS2 like aliasing and poor animations. This game is worth a play through (PC version is recommended) for people wanting a more slow paced approach to their WWII game.

Prisoner of War

Release Date: 8/26/02 — Xbox

GameRankings: Xbox: 68%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Wide Games

Sales: 80,000

Prisoner of War debuted a month later on Xbox, but nothing changed from the PS2 version. Everyone expected better graphics on the more powerful console, but everything remained nearly the same. The excellent stealth gameplay was intact, but Xbox owners had the game under their thumb because Splinter Cell was due out soon and everyone quickly forgot about this game. The Xbox version was the best selling of the three.

Prisoner of War

Release Date: 9/30/02 — PS2, Xbox, PC

GameRankings: PC: 64%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Wide Games

Sales: <10,000

The PC version came out last, while everyone had already played it on consoles, PC owners finally got a crack at it thinking they had the superior version. PC owners were disappointd that nearly all previous problems existed and the graphics weren’t enhanced really at all. The draw distance was pushed back a bit but that’s about it. The game is still solid and was being compared to No One Lives Forever 2 and other PC shooters at the time. This game was put under a lot of heat for each consoles’ heavy hitters, but it stood up well, surprisingly. Three months of Prisoner of War and everyone was done and ready for the next big thing. The series sold less than 100,000 copies across all systems and was considered a retail failure.

Deadly Dozen: Pacific Theatre

Release Date: 10/31/02 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 78%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: Unknown

Deadly Dozen proved to be popular enough to garner another budget sequel. Pacific Theatre addressed all the problems from the first game, but was still rough around the edges. It did have improved visuals and slightly better AI, but it still was lacking. The game finally had a multiplayer component and co-op which really won PC gamers over. This is probably one of the best budget priced WWII shooters out there, and is still fun even to this day. Deadly Dozen was one of the last budget WWII shooters for 2002 and somehow saw some light through the AAA WWII titles.

Day of Defeat

Release Date: 5/6/03 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 78%

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Valve

Sales: Unknown

Day of Defeat was one of the surprise hits of the year, while everyone was waiting on Half-Life 2, Valve released Day of Defeat to collect on the popular WWII craze at the time. It was an online only shooter and it was well liked for having addictive class based multiplayer, but was released with tons of bugs and it looked really dated from using the original Half-Life engine. The engine was 4 years old and just couldn’t compare to games that were out at the time. It became very popular with a niche group and WWII shooter fans loved it. The game was later patched over time and became more stable and balanced.

The Great Escape

Release Date: 7/23/03 — PC, PS2, Xbox

GameRankings: PC: 59%

PS2, Xbox: 58%

Publisher: Gotham Games

Developer: Pivotal Games

Sales: PS2: 200,000

Xbox: 60,000

PC: <10,000

The Great Escape was one of the few WWII movie based games, and like all movie based games, it was pretty bad. The game was sloppy, had pointless stealth mechanics, and was full of boring fetch quests. It didn’t help that the game didn’t look all that great, and the PC version wasn’t improved at all. Splinter Cell really turned people’s minds around about stealth games at the time so everyone was comparing all the stealth games to Metal Gear Solid 2 and Splinter Cell. The Great Escape was a huge disappointment. I remember seeing this at Blockbuster as a kid and passed on it several times, I’m glad I did. The game sold about 260,000 copies across all systems and bombed.

Hidden & Dangerous 2

Release Date: 10/21/03 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 76%

Publisher: Gathering

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: <10,000

I told you it would be back! The unpolished, yet decent budget squad based shooter came back with a sequel, but many issues from the first game returned. The mistake was using the dated LS3D engine which was used in Mafia. It was a bad engine, rendered blurry textures, and just didn’t look good overall. The game was still a lot of trial and error because it was based off stealth and you would reload quick saves constantly. The AI still sucked, and just lacked polish that this sequel needed. Illusion had to get a third publisher, and by now everyone pretty much gave up on this series, but it would come out with an expansion before saying goodbye for good. Hidden 2 was pretty much the last budget WWII shooter for 2003, everyone was starting to get tired of the genre by now thanks to Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, but PC players were in the background playing all these budget shooters.

Hidden & Dangerous 2: Sabre Squadron

Release Date: 10/21/04 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 69%

Publisher: Global Star Software

Developer: Illusion Softworks

Sales: <10,000

Illusion had really bad luck with this series by going with their fourth publisher. This budget expansion just didn’t do enough for fans hoping for that amazing fix that would bring the series to the forefront of the genre. A lot of new missions felt recycled and the same AI problems existed. The only appealing feature was that missions could be played co-operatively. That wasn’t enough to keep fans interested and the series finally died. 2004 was a slow year for budget WWII shooters and but it was a nice break for PC players.

Airborne Troops: Countdown to D-Day

Release Date: 1/7/05 — PS2

GameRankings: PS2: 39%

Publisher: Mud Duck Productions

Developer: Widescreen Games

Sales: 120,000

Want way to start the year off? How about one of the worst WWII games ever made? Airborne Troops was so bad that it was literally unplayable. The controls were actually backwards, up was down and left was right. The graphics were God awful, even on the PS2. The animations were bad, the game would do things all on its own, the AI was terrible, the list goes on. Thankfully this game is hard to get a hold of and hopefully no one will have to experience this mess of a game. The game sold about 120,000 copies worldwide so it did surprisingly well for  budget game, but not well enough to continue the series.

Day of Defeat: Source

Release Date: 9/26/05 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 81%

Publisher: Valve

Developer: Valve

Sales: Unknown

After the huge success of the first game and the launch of Half-Life 2 the previous year, Day of Defeat comes back using the (then) state of the art Source engine. The game is less buggy than the last one and more balanced, but only comes with four maps at launch. The game still has a strong fan base to this day, 7 years later, and is one of the finest online multiplayer games out there. Despite it being WWII, and right at the peak of the genre, PC gamers ate it up regardless of the setting. After the abysmal Airborne Troops and various other WWII games released, this is the best WWII shooter out right next to Call of Duty 2.

Sniper Elite

Release Date: 10/18/05 — PS2, Xbox, PC

GameRankings: PS2, Xbox: 76%

PC: 72%

Publisher: Namco

Developer: Rebellion

Sales:

Ps2: 190,000

Xbox: 90,000

Wii: 80,000

PC: 10,000

 

Finally a high budget stealth shooter set in WWII. While better than Prisoner of War it has its issues. The game had very satisfying headshots and long range combat, the missions were very fun to play through but they were way too long. The game also required a lot of trial and error which was common in stealth games back then. The PC version looked slightly better than the consoles, but the graphics overall were very bland and boring. Sniper Elite hit it off well with WWII fans and the game sold pretty well. It just requires a lot of patience. The game would see a reboot several years later. The game only sold 220,000 copies and 10,000 on PC. That’s hardly any at all. Namco didn’t like those figures and dropped Rebellion shortly after.

Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers

Release Date: 11/21/05 — PS2, Xbox

GameRankings: Xbox: 60%

PS2: 59%

Publisher: SouthPeak Games

Developer: BattleBorne

Sales: 

PS2: 60,000

Xbox: 30,000

The holidays of 2005 were the biggest release period for WWII shooters. Three Call of Dutys were out, and all these low budget shooters. Combat Elite was an utter failure, so much so that the PC version that was released four months later sold nearly zero copies. In fact, there isn’t a single review for the game. The game tried an over the top approach to the action, but was just so boring and dull that you just didn’t care. The game featured a weird shooting mechanic and had bad camera angles, you couldn’t see the action coming at you. Another low budget WWII shooter proved that this type of model just didn’t work out well. Thankfully this was the last crappy low budget WWII shooter for 2005, but 2006 held a lot of surprises. The game only sold 90,000 copies  and was considered a failure, those 90,000 people suffered.

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

Release Date: 1/24/06 — Xbox

GameRankings: Xbox: 22%

Publisher: Groove Games

Developer: Direct Action Games

Sales: 30,000

Here it is everyone! The king of the crappiest WWII shooter every made. This game actually went on to make a sequel! I have no idea what the developers were thinking, but the game was actually unfinished. The friendly AI shot at you, the graphics looked 6 years old, and it was just no fun. Not a single thing worked in the game. It didn’t help that no one was playing online. This was probably one of the biggest bombs of 2006. This was a perfect example that low budget WWII shooters just shouldn’t exist. This game was just bad on every level, I recommend playing this game just for something to laugh at. This is also the lowest selling WWII shooter than I can imagine. It only sold 30,000 copies and so few on PC that there’s no record of it (assuming less than 10,000). I feel sorry for every one of those 30,000 lost souls.

WWII Tank Commander

Release Date: 2/14/06 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 50%

Publisher: Merscom LLC

Developer: Sylum Entertainment

Sales: Unknown

Oh boy, the crappy budget WWII shooters kept on coming through 2006, this was the worst year for them. Tank Commander was playable, it was just so boring you wouldn’t want to. You literally just drove a tank around and shot other tanks in bland empty areas. It didn’t feel like WWII at all. If fact, you would find more action in a McDonald’s bathroom than these battlefields. The game was heavily scripted and the same tanks just came at you one after another. There was no online component so why even bother?

The Outfit

Release Date: 3/13/06 — X360

GameRankings: X360: 70%

Publisher: THQ

Developer: Relic

Sales: 220,000

The Outfit was one of the most anticipated games of 2006 because it was for the shiny new Xbox 360. A WWII shooter that promised to be more raw and have memorable characters. The fact is that the game just didn’t play right. The shooting didn’t work, it wasn’t satisfying, and it looked like a really good Xbox 1 game. It let fans down quickly and the game sold poorly and was quickly forgotten about. 2006 was a bad time for WWII shooters and the year just didn’t start out right for them. The reviews really hurt the game because it only sold 220,000 copies and THQ quickly scrapped the game. I’m surprised they didn’t drop Relic for it, but they were selling millions with their Warhammer strategy games on PC.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45

Release Date: 3/14/06 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 79%

Publisher: Bold Games

Developer:  Tripwire Interactive

Sales: Unknown

Finally the year was looking up! A realistic WWII simulator that was online only. While everyone was enjoying Day of Defeat still, Red Orchestra came along. The game was a literal simulator. Multiple players had to work together to operate vehicles, there were one-shot kills, and various other things that other WWII shooters didn’t incorporate. It was a little much, and the game lacked graphically using the Source engine which was starting to look dated. The learning curve was really steep and it turned most players away, however there is a lot of fun to be had in this game and each kill was satisfying because you had to work at it.

World War II Combat: Road to Berlin

Release Date: 4/3/06 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 20%

Publisher: Groove Games

Developer: Direct Action Games

Sales: <10,000

Why would this game be released on PC 2 months later? What was the publisher thinking?! Probably fullfilling a contract most likely. The problem is the game was just as bad on PC with nothing fixed. The devs could have gone back and fixed many issues, but I guess it wasn’t worth it. The game sold almost no copies and every gamer turned the other way.

Commandos: Strike Force

Release Date: 4/4/06 — PS2, Xbox, PC

GameRankings: PS2, Xbox, PC: 63%

Publisher: Eidos Interactive

Developer: Pyro Studios

Sales:

PS2: 60,000

Xbox: 20,000

PC: <10,000

While the strategy games were really successful and doing well, the series though to jump ship and go for an FPS before the genre died. It didn’t do very well and was just another boring WWII shooter. The game looked fairly decent, but the levels were boring despite being open-ended. You could control a couple of soldiers and that’s about it. It also didn’t help that no one was playing online thanks to the bad reviews. It was another crappy WWII shooter swept under the rug by gamers. The genre was really hated at this point and no one really cared. Being on the then dead Xbox and dated PS2 didn’t help either. Why it wasn’t on Xbox 360 is beyond anyone’s guess. The sales alone proved that they should stick to RTS. only 80,000 copies were sold, what a failure.

 

World War II Combat: Iwo Jima

Release Date: 7/21/06 — Xbox, PC

GameRankings: Xbox, PC: 25%

Publisher: Groove Games

Developer: Direct Action Games

Sales: 10,000

I’m not sure if this $20 budget game was released as a joke or to prove that Direct Action Games are awful developers. The game was just as bad as the last one, there isn’t a single redeeming thing in this game, not a single one. Usually in bad games something is at least done right, but not Iwo Jima. This was just another crappy budget WWII shooter, and there’s a reason why this publisher and developer vanished off the face of the Earth. The PC version was released four days later, but once again it sold nearly zero copies and bankrupted the studios. Thank goodness for that! World War II Combat is probably the worst WWII franchise ever made. Iwo Jima was, thankfully, the last low budget WWII shooter for 2006 and these started to taper off as console development got more and more expensive. The game sold only a third of the copies of the first game, just 10,000. What a surprise. That’s barely enough to pay a couple of people’s salary on the development team. What a waste.

Hour of Victory

Release Date: 6/25/07 — X360

GameRankings: X360: 38%

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: 120,000

2006 was just full of awful WWII shooters. Nfusion, makers of Deadly Dozen, made a huge comeback with the highly anticipated Hour of Victory. It turned out to be the second worst WWII shooter ever made right next to World War II Combat. The game was just unfinished, it was buggy, ugly, and extremely short, there was no challenge to the game, and most people couldn’t even finish it because it kept crashing. Why Midway allowed this game to be released it beyond me, but I remember playing the demo and it froze up three times. Good job guys, way to ruin your already shaky reputation. The game would be re-released on PC to just Australia and UK due to poor reception of this version. Thankfully, Hour of Victory was the one and only awful WWII shooter for 2007, it was a nice break. The game actually went on to sell 120,000 copies anyways which is quite a lot or such a poorly rated game.

Death to Spies

Release Date: 10/16/07 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 69%

Publisher: Atari

Developer: Haggard Games

Sales: <10,000

Death to Spies was a nice change of pace for lower end WWII shooters. Death to Spies is probably the best WWII stealth action game ever made. It wasn’t perfect, but it won genre fans over and sold pretty decently. The game was praised for being very realistic and having great level design, but was extremely difficult and a lot of the interface design got in the way of the game. If you have an itch for a stealth action game Death to Spies comes highly recommended.

Hour of Victory

Release Date: 2/22/08 — PC

GameRankings: 84%

Publisher: Midway

Developer: Nfusion

Sales: <10,000

What a way to start off the new year. WWII was quickly fazing out of the console market, but Midway thought it would be funny to release Hour of Victory to the PC suckers with almost no changes. The 84% review is just from one site that reviewed the game, however that review is no where to be found. Why it got 84% is beyond me, may be the game was actually better? Hour of Victory was the only budget WWII shooter for 2008, gamers got a nice long 2 year hiatus from them the games would continue to pepper the shelves throughout the next few years however.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty

Release Date: 2/26/08 — PC, X360, PS3

GameRankings: PS3: 45%

X360: 44%

PC: 40%

Publisher: Codemasters

Developer: Spark Unlimited

Sales: 

X360: 280,000

PS3: 230,000

PC: <10,000

Oh man, the bad WWII shooters just didn’t stop coming. 2008 also had only one awful gem and that was Turning Point. It was highly anticipated and had a fairly big budget. It promised to do something new, but the game was just awful. I remember renting this and turning it back in half-way through the game. It was extremely frustrating, the guns didn’t fire where you aimed, and the controls were terrible. The animations were stiff and there were so many bugs and glitches, the game froze up a lot and the FPS dropped own into single digits often. I don’t know what it was but 2006 onward just bred so many bad WWII shooters. Call of Duty and Medal of Honor were pretty much done at this point in time, yet these just kept coming. I would pin Fall of Liberty was one of the top 5 worst WWII shooters ever made. Surprisingly, many gamers were suckers for it because it sold 500,000 copies globally. Why such a bad game sold so well is anyone’s guess, but it was highly anticipated so those could be pre-orders.

Velvet Assassin

Release Date: 4/30/09 — PC, X360

GameRankings: PC: 60%

X360: 58%

Publisher: SouthPeak Games

Developer: Replay Studios

Sales:

X360: 140,000

PC: <10,000

2009 wasn’t much better. Velvet Assassin was a highly anticipated stealth action game because it had a female as the protagonist which was never done in a WWII shooter. I remember renting this game for that alone, but the stealth mechanics were just broken and didn’t work. Sneaking around was pointless because enemies saw you no matter what you did, the kill moves were slow, and her crouch walk was like wading through molasses. The animations were stiff and the AI was just terrible. The levels were also badly designed because they were confusing mazes. I bought the game a few year later on PC to give it a second chance and the problems were just more obvious. Another example of how the WWII genre was kicked around like a sick dog in the late 2000′s. The poor reviews weren’t in the game’s favor because it only sold 140,000 copies. That might be why we haven’t seen a sequel.

Death to Spies: Moment of Truth

Release Date: 8/10/09 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 71%

Publisher: 1C

Developer: Haggard Games

Sales: <10,000

Death to Spies didn’t sell well enough so Atari dropped Haggard, 1C liked their new game idea so they picked them up. Moment of Truth was another solid sequel, but the game suffered from the same insane difficulty that seriously hampered the last game. The AI also was pretty bad so when the action kicked up the game acted like it had down syndrome. It was still a very realistic stealth game and remains the best WWII stealth action game to date.

The Saboteur

Release Date: 12/8/09 — PC, X360, PS3

GameRankings: X360: 75%

PS3: 74%

PC: 73%

Publisher: EA

Developer: Pandemic

Sales: 

X360: 460,000

PS3: 410,000

PC: 20,000

The Saboteur was a highly anticipated action game set in WWII. It had high production values and was one of Pandemic’s last games before they went belly up. The makers of The Mercenaries and various other open-ended games were masters of their craft, but the elements never really blended together right. The Saboteur had a great story and looked amazing, but all the mechanics didn’t work right. It suffered from clunky controls, climbing around was boring, and the stealth just didn’t work right. I enjoyed this game a lot (hey there’s nudity!) and was very enjoyable. If it had some more development time it could have been perfect. 2009 was a year of WWII stealth games and Death to Spies won the show. None of these games were perfect and had many flaws, but it was nice that developers were taking more time with the much dated genre and steering it in a different direction. This was probably the most successful underdog WWII game selling 890,000 copies. That’s quite a bit, nothing to scoff at all. However, EA quickly dropped the franchise because it wasn’t a million seller like their other franchises.

Dino D-Day

Release Date: 4/8/11 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 50%

Publisher: Digital Ranch Interactive

Developer: 800 North

Sales: <10,000

Dino D-Day was a highly anticipated indie game, it was late to the WWII game because the genre died a while ago. It promised Nazi online shooting with dinosaurs. It was supposed to be funny, and who would have thought it could go wrong? Well everything went wrong. The game was just boring and sloppy. The guns didn’t feel powerful, the controls sucked, the maps were boring and badly put together. Overall it was just lacking in every department and players quickly forgot about the game.

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

Release Date: 9/13/11 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 74%

Publisher: Tripwire Interactive

Developer: Tripwire Interactive

Sales: 90,000

The self published game returns with excellent visuals and one of the most realistic reenactments of WWII infantry. The game was still knocked down for having such a steep learning curve, but the game was a lot of fun and had well designed maps. It had some really bad single player AI that nearly killed that portion of the game. Red Orchestra is still the most realistic WWII shooter ever made, and still has a strong online following. 2011 is a bit late to release a WWII shooter since everyone has moved on from that genre craze. However, the shooters kept coming.

Sniper Elite V2

Release Date: 5/2/12

GameRankings: PS3: 71%

X360: 68%

PC: 65%

Publisher: 505 Games

Developer: Rebellion

Sales:

PS3: 600,000

X360: 590,000

PC: <10,000

After the not so great reception of the first game Rebellion needed another publisher. V2 had an amazing kill cam that would show X-Ray kills of the bullet entering the body and was really gory, but the game rest of the game was a total mess. The shooting was sloppy, the game was overly difficult, and the stealth was broken. It was highly anticipated, but just fell flat and disappointed everyone. Despite the poor reviews the game sold really well at 1.18 million copies across all systems. I guess that wasn’t enough for 505 because they dropped Rebellion shortly after the game’s release.

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 

Release Date: 2/28/13 — PC

GameRankings: PC: 60%

Publisher: Rebellion

Developer: Rebellion

Sales: Unknown

Here we go, the last WWII shooter to come out, and what do you know, it sucked. Rebellion isn’t all that great of a developer anyway and they never learn their lesson. Nazi Zombie Army tried a Left 4 Dead/Call of Duty: Zombies spin-off of their game. It was boring, frustrating, and had all the problems from V2. It was released at a budget price, but no one caught the bait. It shows that WWII shooters just don’t have the care like they used to.

So there it is. Almost every WWII shooter that came out and as you can see 80% were really bad. Not a single one really shined, it just made the whole genre look bad. It is a lot of money that can only make WWII shooters good? Call of Duty and Medal of Honor always had high production values but even they started going downhill after a while. These games were in the background being slammed by critics and ignored by gamers. A majority were on PC so only a niche group could get a hold of them. Prisoner of War proved to be a great stealth action game early on, while World War II Combat crowned itself genius by being the worst WWII shooter ever made. Death to Spies helped raise the genre from the ground a bit, but others like Velvet Assassin brought it right back down. The WWII shooter era peaked in 2005 and slow dripped out after that. Very few of these games are worth playing, but go ahead anyway for a good laugh.

Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Gearbox Software

Release Date: 3/15/2005

Rating: Mature

MSRP: $39.99

Also Available On

 

 

The Good: Great graphics, smart AI, great squad controls, authentic feeling, lots of attention to detail, great extras

The Bad: Feels repetitive, not much variety, tank AI has pathfinding issues, requires a lot of patience and can be very difficult

World War II shooters were everywhere, but Ubisoft and Gearbox took a dangerous risk and released one so late in the game. 2005 was a year where WWII shooters were at their peak and when gamers hated them the most. Brothers in Arms proved to be a more authentic and smarter shooter and won fans of the genre over.

Gearbox painstakingly recreated Carentan and many parts of France where the 101st Airborne Division landed on D-Day. The game also uses squad tactics and realism unlike any other WWII shooter out there. You will notice when you play how well the guns feel when you shoot them, and how you can’t nail an enemy from 100 feet away with a Thompson. You have to flank the enemy or you die. It’s that simple and that difficult. Red circles will appear above enemy squads. You can issue commands to your squads to suppress them. Their circle will turn grey and then it is safe to move up and find cover around the area to flank them. It sounds simple, but it’s not. Your squadmates can die and so can you if you aren’t careful. You have to watch out for MG fire which will kill you in an instant, and some times even tanks.

This realism and authenticity can’t be done without good AI and BiA delivers and is even impressive today. The only issue I had with AI were with tanks. Some times they wouldn’t go around each other or go the other way to follow a command. The game also requires a lot of patience. Some times even trial and error. You can’t just rush every enemy like in Call of Duty and save the day. You can order squads to rush and attack while your other squad suppresses, then you can charge in with them to kill them all. You can also order squads a set positions that you want so you have total control. It feels good and is a key part to the game. Without mastering this you won’t get very far.

You also can’t just use an M1 Garand and snipe an enemy’s head while he’s in cover. It just doesn’t work that way, you also can’t kill an MG unless you flank them. This isn’t Medal of Honor. This gave a great feeling of realism, but it was also very difficult. I died quite often because I chose a wrong tactic or I flanked the wrong way. Some times my impatience got in the way as well. I even found different weapons to help certain situations. When I finally got the Springfield sniper rifle it was like a weapon from God. After all the inaccurate weapons that couldn’t hit crap this thing made life easier, but only for a few levels at the end.

When it comes to looks, BiA looks great even to this day. The lighting looks real, the grass flows, the models and textures are pretty high-res (for back then) you will be impressed. The game holds up and is still better than a lot of shooters today. My main concern is that the game feels the same throughout. I just went around killing everything and maybe planted a few charges. I could mount an MG some times, ride the back of a tank, but overall there wasn’t much variety in the game which I find the biggest issue.

What’s here is one of the most authentic shooters around and fans of the genre won’t be disappointed at all. The game looks great, has smart AI, and  tells a sad story of Baker Company and the 101st Airborne.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Publisher: EA

Developer: EA LA

Release Date: 11/11/2003

Rating: Teen

MSRP: $49.99

Also Available On

 

 

 

The Good: World War II movie clips are interesting, you can use cheat codes, new arsenal of weapons, fun opening level

The Bad: Wonky controls, terrible AI, boring gameplay, horrid framerate, ugly visuals, an overall lack of polish

Pearl Harbor was one of the worst terrorist attacks on the US, and was what got us involved in World War II. EA decided to leave the frontlines of Europe and head to Hawaii at Pearl Harbor and into the Japanese and Philippine frontlines. It’s a nice change of scenery, especially back in the day when WWII shooters were coming out nearly every day. The problem is, Rising Sun is a reskin of Frontline with the lack of polish, detail, and just doesn’t feel complete. Rising Sun needed about 6 months more of development before being anything remotely decent. What we have here is a sluggish, boring, and mediocre shooter, probably one of the worst shooters of 2003.

The game actually starts out pretty nicely. The bombing of Pearl Harbor feels epic in this game, you are just a nobody sailor who gets woken up by the bombings. After you see the poorly pre-rendered cut scene you start controlling your guy and it feels very similar to Frontline, too similar. Right off the bat you realize the control issues haven’t changed. The aiming is really sensitive and finicky, there’s no iron sights aiming, and the controls just suck still. Once you run around the boat trying to escape you notice you can save at checkpoints. This is actually one of the only two major issues that were fixed from Frontline. The missions are very long and you no longer have to start at the beginning of every level when you die.

Once you get out you notice the framerate is worse than Frontline. The FPS drops into single digits often and it actually affects gameplay. Trying to shoot someone when the game is chugging along at 5 frames a second is nearly impossible. It doesn’t help that the aiming is already wonky. The change of pace in the beginning using the turret on the boat and shooting down planes is fun, I also have to mention that the only great part of Rising Sun is the music. Medal of Honor has a fantastic score across all the WWII games, but Rising Sun needs more than that to save it.

Once you start the next level you realize the game is just so bad. The level design is abysmal with confusing mazes, it was cute for EA to try to make you feel like you have multiple paths but you really don’t. It just makes things more confusing. There are also secondary hidden objectives this time around but they are nearly impossible to figure out, hell even the regular objectives are hard to figure out. Items don’t flash so you can’t tel if it’s part of the scenery or something you need to interact with. Most of the time you just get lucky when a prompt comes up on screen when you pass something.

I like the new selection of weapons, the shotgun, Type 99, Sten MKII, and a few other Pacific Theatre weapons. That’s probably the only other great change from Frontline, but the guns control so horribly that you won’t care. The most annoying part of Rising Sun is the forced and failed implementation of stealth. During one of the last few levels you get recruited into the OSS and have to infiltrate a Japanese summit at a hotel. The game gives you the Welrod which is a one shot silenced pistol. Sure that’s fine, but Rising Sun wasn’t built for stealth. I shot the first few people silently then all of a sudden I was being attacked. I had to run around the whole level with just a pistol and the Welrod. Not very fun. The hints say to stick to the shadows and stay in the column areas. Yeah sure what shadows? The stealth is just completely broken, but at least healing items give you more health so the game is a bit easier in that regard.

Let’s finally talk about graphics, the game is butt ugly, even uglier than Frontline. During the jungle levels the devs just put a flat texture of a forest on the walls. Yeah good jobs you lazy jerks. The game is just ugly and is so unpolished. The events in the game are so unbelievable that it’s hard to think that these things actually happened. Did I mention there’s still no blood? The last thing to go is the terrible AI. The friendly AI just stands there while they’re being shot and completely ignore enemies, the multiplayer is also as boring as ever.

Rising Sun sold millions of copies, but couldn’t live up to the previous games quality. With ugly graphics, horrible framerate, terrible AI, bad level design and various other issues, Rising Sun stands as one of the worst games in the series.