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Seeing the "worst company in gaming thread" gave me an idea for this thread:

We all have a few games where we immensely enjoyed it, but suddenly one or two things really killed it and you found yourself saying "man, this game woulda been freakin awesome if only it had..."

For me, one game that I find myself saying that about is Rage... It's borderlands, but not yes, but to me, it seemed like the game just stopped, rather than actually ended. If they had had a better ending or longer gameplay that led to a better ending than the one in it, I think it woulda been a much better received game.

My vote goes to DK2 (Dungeon Keeper 2) There are two things that they changed from the first DK to the 2nd DK which really ruined the game to me.

1)Your enemies have the ability to mine through your fortified walls. This came as a rude surprise to me as I had nothing set up since i was doing my usual tactic of get the treasury, lair, and hatchery built before opening the portal. That made me loose the first level....... I remember a few levels from the first DK where if the enemy could do this you would be insta fethed (I'm looking at you Skybird Trill and Blaze End) where it legitimately takes a few days of careful planning to beat the level with any form of victory as you are surrounded and have maybe 100k gold in the level and you are surrounded by multiple squadrons of heroes ranging from lvl 6 to 9.

2)Timed levels. I like to take my time and enjoy the game, and how is it that I lose when some priest gets onto the map? Would it not make more sense for me to wait for him to get there and then try to capture him for the mistresses to torture/ sodomize/ do very unpleasant things to.... or even try to get the old fart to fall off a bridge into lava and laugh as he wades back to shore.

Jade Empire ... could have been great if it had a respectable length.

Dark millennium, need I say any more?

Six Days in Fallujah, so much potential, killed because it's publisher wimped out.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Six Days in Fallujah, so much potential, killed because it's publisher wimped out.

Yeah, I just read about it. It does sound like an interesting game.

I'd actually say that Company of Heroes could have been so much better if the Germans spoke well duh German and not some half broken English, Also it would have been nice to have a few more sides to the game as well like the Italians and the German Afrika Korps. British 8th army and even the French, for being a WW2 game it falls very short in my opinion but it's still a good game to kill some time with.

Fething Spore.

Would have been awesome if they had actually kept all the game in the game rather than cutting everything out for the release version.

Dragon Age 2.

Fable.

IT WAS SO GODDAM CLOSE. If they hadn't hyped and struggled and such at Lionhead, and focused on making everything as polished as possible, I believe I would have played my favourite game of all time.

Also, Spore. If only it was as in depth as we hoped...

 Manchu wrote:
Jade Empire ... could have been great if it had a respectable length.

THis. There was a lot of cool stuff in Jade Empire but then I got to the end and I was like "wtf that's it? Really?"

I'd also throw in SWTOR. A lot of really cool stuff there but I think they got too caught up in the fully voiced story lines and other things slipped through the cracks.

Ninety-Nine Nights. I loved the game play, but the lack of any real story, or conclusion, just killed it for me. I felt they could have done so much more with that game.

If only they made a Too Human 2.

Too Human could have been good too if it weren't so bad.

KOTOR 2 - improved gameplay, some serious awesomeness, and then the last third of the game happened.

Dead Island - could have been awesome, one of the best trailers ever... didn't deliver.



Agree with Fable, Spore and Jade Empire. - And Too Human. Great idea, and .... that. And I finished the game anyways.

 Bromsy wrote:

Dead Island - could have been awesome, one of the best trailers ever... didn't deliver.

completely agree here, it just seemed to drag on and on, and I barely did 10% of the "story" missions on one character. It also seemed to just be the opposite of what I think zombie games should be like, but maybe thats just me.

Aliens Colonial marine for obvious reasons sadly.

Diablo 3 due to its RMAH and changes to make it horrible to keep replaying / farming.

I want Sacrifice 2...

I second Diablo 3, so much potential and so much fail. Why it had to be subscription i,ll never fathom

Blood Omen 2. Could have been amazing had they modernised the open world style of the first Legacy Of Kain game; even if they had used Meridian as a hub instead of level based progression. Pity.

Space Marine just lacked...something. But I play it nontheless.

Aliens vs predator (the last one for ps3) I enjoyed all 3 (yes 3- about an hour per faction) hours split across 3 different campaigns.
Well done whoever released that.

Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage, amazing story, glitchy as feth with clunky ass fighting mechanics.

Any Ultima after 7.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Bromsy wrote:

Dead Island - could have been awesome, one of the best trailers ever... didn't deliver.

completely agree here, it just seemed to drag on and on, and I barely did 10% of the "story" missions on one character. It also seemed to just be the opposite of what I think zombie games should be like, but maybe thats just me.

Apparently, its not meant to played as a survival horror game, but as a co-op adventure game with RPG elements and zombies.

Which is why the trailer is complete, utter, bs.

I really enjoyed Dead Island.... Still, Horses for courses and all that stuff *shrugs*

As for what could have been, well, the last Duke Nukem game springs to mind. Just goes to show what 10 years in development hell will do for a game. Gran Turismo 5 gets my vote though. After playing the hell out of the 4th iteration on PS2 (including the real time 12 hour race at the Nurburgring), I was very excited when the 5th one dropped on PS3. High def cars, awesome backdrops and proper close racing. What I got was nearly 90 minutes of saving to my HDD, racing that verged from average to downright frustrating ( the first race around the Top Gear test track with everyone in VW camper vans) and having to purchase High Def cars..... It blew, but it was so damn close to utter perfection...shame.

 BlapBlapBlap wrote:
Fable.

IT WAS SO GODDAM CLOSE. If they hadn't hyped and struggled and such at Lionhead, and focused on making everything as polished as possible, I believe I would have played my favourite game of all time.

Also, Spore. If only it was as in depth as we hoped...

why fable? I actually really enjoyed it, it was a great game even till the end where you get an awesome boss battle

Tiberius Atellus wrote:

 BlapBlapBlap wrote:
Fable.

IT WAS SO GODDAM CLOSE. If they hadn't hyped and struggled and such at Lionhead, and focused on making everything as polished as possible, I believe I would have played my favourite game of all time.

Also, Spore. If only it was as in depth as we hoped...

why fable? I actually really enjoyed it, it was a great game even till the end where you get an awesome boss battle

Spoiler:

Ending the game killing a Dragon? come on thats pretty sweet!

I only liked Fable 1 because I missed the run-up and hype to it. I bought it because I played it at a friend's house once and liked it for what it was because I didn't know it was lacking so much of what had been promised.

Reading about what Molyneux said would be in it, I still like it, but I also understand why people who followed it from the get-go with all the hype and promises feel the way they do.

Aliens: Colonial Marines.- Frankly to make this thing good it just needed a few minor tweaks like co-op should have been designed from the get go and everyone can customize their Marine (a SmartGunner, Rifleman, Shotgun, Grenadier, etc)

KotOR2- A more epic story and focused story with an actual conclusion and climax (KotOR 1 was trying to uncover the secrets to a Sith super weapon, KotOR2 was finding a couple of people you can ask them a question that you already know that answer too. )

EndWar - The entire game should have been designed the way the prologue was. You pick your faction and you fight a series of battles with each mission having a reason you fight. Enemy commanders troop choices should have reflected the commanders they were. Ending victory scenes should have been at least 1min in length of story, prefebly more.


Shattered Union - Each faction should have had it's own ending. It made no sense why California, the first faction to succeed, had the same ending as the EU. Minor tweaks to the AI also.


Dragon Age 2 - Just minor tweaks to the AI and the story. Biggest one, make the Templar a little less evil and done more to suggest Mages are fethed up. I sided with the Templar but It was pretty hard to side with them and I dont even like Mages in games.



Also for all the games I listed. I liked all of them (Except KotOR2 which I activelly hated) but a few changes can turn them into okay (or bad in KotOR2 case) to amazing

Brutal Legend. Having only battle against demons killed it for me. I was hyped after Ophelia got her heart stolen by Doviculous; I was prepared to wage all out war on the demons and take back Blade Henge. But nope; one (albeit cool) stage battle and an easy fight with the Emperor is all you get.

I was disappointed.

Journey to the Centre of Arcanum

Never heared of it? Doesn't suprise me, it was meant to be the sequel to Troika's Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura; an Isometric RPG set in a high fantasy/steampunk setting. One of my favourite games of all time.

Sadly the company had issues with their publisher and had to be shut down and never got to realise their full potential.

Journey to the Centre of Arcanum was meant to be done in the Source engine in a similar fashion to Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines. It wouldn't have been the same as the original but the potential for greatness was there.