The Worst Of 2006

I think we can say with a fair amount of certainty that 2006 wasn't such a great year for games. Sure, there were some fabulous titles released this year. And yes, we had two notable console launches. But it seemed like that for every Gears of War or Oblivion, there were 10 awful titles. There were far too many mediocre and unoriginal games and poorly designed and poorly conceived titles. In fact, many things about gaming this year were truly bad. So instead of doing another "Best of 2006" list, I figured it was time to take the whipping stick to the worst of 2006.

One important note before I begin: there are plenty of bad games out there, but I tried to select games that came with an expectation of quality. A game like Bomberman: Act Zero didn't have a lot of promise and wasn't expected to be a great game, so we shouldn't be surprised that it was bashed across the board. So the games on this list are titles that had potential and looked intriguing but ultimately stumbled. Here it is:

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Most Disappointing Game: Prey. I was looking forward to Prey a great deal. I had been hearing about the gravity-defying game play and portal features for some time, and it seemed like it was time for a new game to shake things up on the whole "first-person shooter that involves defending mankind against alien invaders" genre, which had become extremely tired. Plus, Prey was being hyped as a major addition to the Xbox 360 platform. Given the game's prolonged and tumultuous development history (work began in 1995), I suppose I should have been warned. The thing about Prey is that the design is pretty much flawless and the visuals are beautifully constructed. So why did the game disappoint me so much? Well, enticing graphics can only get a game so far. The narrative was boring, the game play wasn't very exciting, the various enemies were completely unoriginal and the maps and levels inside the alien sphere all blended together into one undistinguished mess. Even the gravity walks and portal jumps got old after a while. Prey got good reviews from a lot of critics and has sold more than one million copies, but to me the game was an utter disappointment.

Worst Shooter: Black. If nothing else, EA's Black proved that even following a tried-and-true formula (FPS with lots of guns, firefights and explosions and little else) followed with heavy marketing and slick advertising doesn't automatically translate into a hit game anymore in today's ultra-competitive environment. Black is an extremely thin game that brings absolutely nothing new to FPS' and may even set the genre back with its stunning lack of depth, dumb story and style-over-substance approach. The relentlessly mind-numbing and monotonous action, coupled with terrible writing and so-so game play, lulled me into a zombie-like state. At one point, my wife found me looking like Robert DeNiro in "Awakenings." In short, Black is nothing more than a video game version of your average Jerry Bruckheimer-Michael Bay action movie: a lot of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing.

Worst Sequel: Call of Duty 3. I don't quite fathom how some games these days get such glowing reviews, but that's another column for another time. Call of Duty is one of my favorite titles of all time. And the expansion pack United Offensive was an excellent addition to the series, too. But then I fired up Call of Duty 2 earlier this year and was crushed with disappointment because the sequel brought no compelling new features to the table other than a short single-player campaign and redundant maps and missions. It seemed like Activision was gunning for nothing more than building an online multiplayer title for the consoles. Well, Activision and new developer Treyarch followed the same pattern with Call of Duty 3. Let's see...what's different about the game? First, entirely annoying cut scenes with weak dialogue and poorly designed characters that run every time you start the game. Second, the hand-to-hand combat mini-games, which are boring, scripted events that are poorly designed. Third, an elaborate but ultimately meaningless bomb-making procedure that does nothing more than slow the game down. Fourth, rowing a freaking boat with your right thumbstick. The only thing I liked about this game was the enhanced grenade features, which allows players to pick up an enemy grenade and toss it back and also hold grenades for a few seconds before tossing it to time the explosion. But that's pretty much it. Activision should have waited another year, brought back Infinity Ward, and come up with a good sequel that would have shown gamers something different than the same old song and dance. Now the WWII franchise has gotten so tired that Activision and Infinity Ward are moving Call of Duty 4 to the present day (hello, Ghost Recon!). Well, I'm not falling on that grenade, thank you very much.

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