3 Games We Knew Would Suck Before Their Release In 2015

It’s a subject that rarely garners much attention, games that people just have that gut feeling about. The game you see the advert for and just think to yourself, this game won’t do well in the current climate. It happens for a few different reasons. Firstly gaming genres, like clothes or music, go in and out of fashion. Sometimes the coolest game that spins up a whole boat-load of clones is a first person shooter, sometimes it’s a third person RPG. This can mean that general public opinion to the game is already negative and people are looking for the flaws. Then you’ve just got games that don’t look like they’re going to be anything special, be it because they have a boring concept or there are a million and one games in that genre already. But enough about why this happens, there were a few games that stuck out to us this year that we just knew were going to be absolute clangers, let’s see what topped the list.

1. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5

Unfortunately this one was a victim of circumstance. Some people really like the Tony Hawk skating games, but a lot of us just aren’t really into that thing and it would take an absolute miracle to blow us away and make us reach into our wallets. This game was so far away from that benchmark it hurt. The mood was already set and people expected this one to flop when it was revealed just a few months before the release of the game that the studio had decided to completely re-do the art style and some of the features in the game. They expected to be able to overhaul the entire games graphics with just a few months left until launch meaning the game was incredibly short and scrapped together and there was little hope of a positive reception. As expected, the game was a flop with a Metacritic score of 32.

On another note, could we get Skate 4 please EA? We’ll forgive you for Titanfall if so.

2. The Order 1886

The Order was a game that was hyped on and off for a long while, but when it came down to the run-up to the release of the game people weren’t expecting anything huge. To add to the fact that people had been waiting for this game for a while, when people finally did get their hands on the game the overwhelming consensus was that the game was far too short. Then when people finally got their hands on the game, they found that the leaks were accurate and the story/gameplay wasn’t exactly thrilling either. Playstation owners like to wave around their exclusives to make Xbox fans jealous but this 63/100 wasn’t pushing anyone towards buying a PS4.

3. Mad Max

Finally, we have Mad Max. A game that seemed forced from it’s movies success. This game was actually quite anticipated, some overly anticipated with ridiculous claims like “Fallout on wheels” in previews. We knew it wasn’t going to be a masterpiece and we got exactly what we expected. Yes, there are some really intense action scenes that leave you on the edge of your seat, but more often than not this action is sewn together by hours of tedium, spent collecting scraps and lowering enemy threats in an area before progressing the story. It felt shallow, not much to do, lacking features from it’s RPG brothers and sisters at the time and didn’t really bring a huge deal to the table. The game wasn’t a complete disaster according to critics however, but it only managed a meager 60 on Metacritic.

Although there are some disappointing showings from this list, all told 2015 was a great year for gaming. There really were some masterpieces created this year as we saw some really stunning graphical titles, incredible adventures and amazing storytelling. Let’s hope we see the same out of 2016!