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The game industry keeps changing, and the games we play along with it. Each year turns out to be more tumultuous than the one before, with no end in sight. Some gamemakers are able to navigate these waters better than others. But even if they are generally able to make the transition from old models to new ones, there are still going to be bumps in the road — many of which affect players.
This year, the things that disappointed the Wired staff weren't just bad games — they included inelegant aspects of good games that dragged down the experience, questionable choices by game publishers that caused excellent games to get overlooked or damaged, and shaky launches of new gaming hardware that are either opening-night jitters or a sign the whole production's going to go under.
Here are Wired's picks of the biggest gaming disappointments of 2012.
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The return of the Steel Battalion series this year was a moment roughly analogous to the time Michael Jordan tried to play baseball. The original game used a massive controller with over 40 buttons, giving players the feeling of piloting a huge Japanese mecha. Unnecessary sequel Heavy Armor, by contrast, was reviled for its frustratingly inaccurate Kinect controls. It would occasionally give you the feeling of piloting a complex robot, but take it away just as quickly as the camera fell back into the depths of incompetence. Swing and a miss. — Andrew Groen Screenshot: Capcom
- Steel Battalion Heavy Armor’s Very Existence
The return of the Steel Battalion series this year was a moment roughly analogous to the time Michael Jordan tried to play baseball. The original game used a massive controller with over 40 buttons, giving players the feeling of piloting a huge Japanese mecha. Unnecessary sequel Heavy Armor, by contrast, was reviled for its frustratingly inaccurate Kinect controls. It would occasionally give you the feeling of piloting a complex robot, but take it away just as quickly as the camera fell back into the depths of incompetence. Swing and a miss. — Andrew Groen Screenshot: Capcom
