GamerSushi Asks: Potential Flops?

re5We’ve all been there. That game that you’ve been waiting for finally releases. You rush home with it, open it, put it in the disc tray, and start playing… only, it’s not what you thought it was going to be. You keep waiting for it to get better, but alas- it never does. This has happened far too many times in our pastime, and the sad news is that it won’t be going away any time soon.

So, out of the games that are coming out for 2009, which do you think are going to flop, or have the biggest potential to flop? Are there any particularly hyped games that you think/worry might be disappointing once you get your hands on it?

For me, I’m thinking that Resident Evil 5 might be one of those titles. After playing some great games so far this gen, not being able to run and shoot to me seems like a card poorly played. I’m also thinking that Prototype might not be all its cracked up to me, as well as Halo 3: ODST. Not getting to play as the Chief I think will really hurt this game.

What about you guys?

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

18 thoughts on “GamerSushi Asks: Potential Flops?”

  1. Well, I havent really looked into my crystal ball yet… But.. I think whatever the next GTA will be ( NOT DLC, i mean full game ).. will be like Vice City to GTA:III.. Sure, it was decent; but.. cmon.

  2. If the success of RE4 showed anything, I think that would be most people probably won’t care that much about stopping to shoot like in RE4.

    Also, not playing as Chief in ODST? I’d kill to play as something that doesn’t have the most bland and non-existant personality of such video game icons. Or does a float spell when he jumps, which is never explained.

  3. [quote comment=”4487″]If the success of RE4 showed anything, I think that would be most people probably won’t care that much about stopping to shoot like in RE4.

    Also, not playing as Chief in ODST? I’d kill to play as something that doesn’t have the most bland and non-existant personality of such video game icons. Or does a float spell when he jumps, which is never explained.[/quote]

    Perhaps you’ve missed all the fuss over the RE5 controls? Possibly?

    Also, I think you’re operating under the assumption that whatever character they replace the Chief with won’t ALSO be bland and non-existent personality wise. Personally, I think this will be the case. If I’m going to be in some bland dude’s shoes, I’d rather it be a badass super soldier. And besides, that wasn’t even the point I was making. I don’t think that will make it a bad game to not play as the Chief, I just think that people won’t be interested in not playing as the Chief (see: people complaining about playing as the Arbiter in Halo 2), leading them not to purchase the game.

    Ha, and the float spells bit made me laugh. So true.

    In addition, I’m also thinking the new Chronicles of Riddick has the potential to flop.

  4. Eddy has a point. Master Chief and whoever you play as in ODST (worst name ever) will likely not be too different, but that bothers some people, for some inane reason. I liked the Arbiter levels, but some people whined and cried about it.

    As for RE5’s controls, honestly, its a deliberate choice that enhances the horror of the game. I agree that if you liked RE4, you should like RE5.

    I don’t want to run and shoot because that ruins the mood of standing your ground and being very precise in what you are doing. I think RE5 will be a success and the people crying about the control scheme should give the game more of a chance. It takes a little getting used to, but the 3rd time I played the demo, I felt right at home.

  5. Well, the thing that bothered me about the RE5 demo was that I’d get cornered by some badass monster that I couldn’t kill with the ammo I had on hand, so I’d get cornered, and we’d be standing next to each other, me trying to slash at him with my knife, and him generally standing there and only attacking once every minute or so.

    This would inevitably result in me dying because I couldn’t kill the bastard with what I had on hand. I don’t necessarily mind the accuracy required to kill the baddies, but when you DON’T kill a baddie and he gets that close to you, the game falls apart.

    From what I remember of RE4 (it’s been a while), there were baddies that took a bunch of shots to kill, but if you did it quickly enough, they were downed. If you didn’t do it quickly enough, your head got sawed off, and that was that.

    It felt a lot more intense than having a super baddie standing next to me that isn’t particularly killing me that quickly that I also can’t kill particularly quickly.

    It’s a major shame, too, because I was really pumped for RE5 and the graphics are absolutely stunning. I won’t write it off completely without playing the final version, but for right now it got bumped from “buy immediately” to “rent when I feel like it”.

  6. This year has the biggest potential for flops, I think. All the big titles seem to have some sort of flaw in them that’s apparent even months before their release.

    GTA IV: Lost and the Damned. I think that now that GTA IV has descended from “Gift from God” to “Mildly Interesting Open World Game”, Lost and the Damned will be met with a more cautious approach then the balls-to-the-wall enthusiasm that GTA IV had.

    Chronicles of Riddick: Now, I’m as big of a fan of Vin Diesel’s sexy baritone as the next guy (maybe?), but just by watching the previews, I can see that this game is kind of a one-trick pony. Hide in the shadows, and make your kill. Granted, that’s what Riddick is all about, what with them crazy eyes of his, but we’re going to need something more than a lethal game of hide-and-seek.

    Halo 3: ODST: Not only do you play as one bland protagonist, you get to control several stereotypical ODSTs in flashback scenes. These inculde: The Rookie’s “by the books” commanding officer, “Dutch”, the heavy weapons guy, and “Romeo”, the sniper, just to name a few. As great as the Halo Golden Tripod is (guns, grenades, melee, in case you don’t know), it probably won’t be enough to save us from drowning in the deluge of cookie-cutter military combatants. Dutch, really? I mean, I liked Predator too, but comon. There are far more interesting character types, even in the Haloverse.

    Resident Evil 5: Controls. I mean, we all get the RE is supposed to be “scary”, but even your most basic shooter lets you move and shoot at the same time. I think that sometimes this games goes out of it’s way to enforce the survival horror setting. Limited ammo, pausing to aim, and really slow movement speed all feel like forced constraints. Even though he’s an elite agent of a anti-Bioweapon task force, Chris Redfield never learned to operate all four of him limbs simultaneously.

  7. [quote comment=”4496″]I think that sometimes this games goes out of it’s way to enforce the survival horror setting. Limited ammo, pausing to aim, and really slow movement speed all feel like forced constraints.[/quote]

    Valve has it right, look a Left 4 Dead’s unlimited pistol ammo, do you see anyone complaining about that, or the fact that your character is constantly running?

  8. It’s Resident Evil. You’ve NEVER been able to run and shoot at the same time. Why start now? And the controls aren’t that bad. My favorite was Type A since they were the most similar to RE4. The combat requires a bit of strategy (not much but a little). I think the game would be too much like another run of the mill 3rd person shooter if they let you run while shooting. Personally I’d like it better if they went back to pre-RE4 gameplay style since the way it is now is too much action and not enough survival horror, but I know that’s never going to happen.

  9. I have no qualms with the controls in RE5, and would that really be enough to make it ‘flop?’ The reason L4D has run ‘n’ gun is because that’s how the game was intended to be played. In the same way, RE5 is a slow paced survival game inteded to leave you vulnerable. The creators stressed that it isn’t just a shooter (could’ve fooled me) and they WANT the player to feel helpless. Valve did a similar trick by outnumbering you in epic(er) proportions and making you rely more on your team than your aim.

  10. Well yeah, the creators did say that. They want you to feel freaked out and vulnerable to these attacks. However, I think just in this day and age, you need to upgrade your controls. I mean, I know they’ve done it for every game, but suddenly, people seem to have a problem with it.

    I mean, I’m still going to play the game, it looks great. It’s just a feeling I have that it won’t do quite as well as a game that’s been hyped for a few years probably should.

  11. Yeah I had this feeling when I brought home Saints Row 2, it did better over time but to me it was like a weekend game, same with L4D… OMG WHAT DID HE SAY!? I love Left 4 Dead but after my first play through I was shocked it got even a 9.0 on IGN. After a few play throughs with different (not ahole) friends I realized there much more then meets the eye. This year is going to be full of bad games, but the ones I know Ill buy and have a feeling they will be bad are Arkham Asylum, Watchmen: End is Nigh, and I have a sick feeling in my stomach COD Modern Warfare 2 is going to be COD4 with some new shiny guns… but I hope Ill be proved wrong.

    Anyone whos complaining about RE5 needs to chill out lol, if they get too close use the quick turn around and book

  12. I am behind Capcom on this. Everyone loved RE4. I hated all RE’s UNTIL number 4. So they kept the controsl the same and now everyone is crying. I enjoy the controls and I think running and shooting would detract from a lot of the suspense.

    It has nothing to with next gen. Dead Rising had a save system that people didn’t like, but it was part of the game’s design.

    In Halo, you could only carry 2 weapons.

    These are choices the designers made and I think that RE5 will be a fantastic game. People have anticipated an action game, but its survival horror.

  13. i think halo OSDT will be a flop as for prototype the game looks good and is trying to take games to a different perspective by being the evil guy with badass powers

  14. [quote comment=”4495″]What monster are you referring to?

    Also, I think the choice of levels was poor for the demo.

    They were hard![/quote]

    Ummm, there’s a dude with a chainsaw and a dude with an axe(?), one guy in each level. I only played through both levels once and got frustrated pretty quickly and died.

    I’d like to emphasize that I’m not necessarily complaining about the controls. I just feel like the sample I played in the demo was a bit unbalanced and not particularly scary.

    I’m not really sure what you’re supposed to do when it takes a half-dozen shots to kill each zombie, and then you run out of ammo, and then you get cornered by something that takes even more than 6 shots to kill or an untold number of knife-wounds to even faze. It just felt like the game was over for me before I could even think about getting used to the controls.

  15. [quote comment=”4487″]Also, not playing as Chief in ODST? I’d kill to play as something that doesn’t have the most bland and non-existant personality of such video game icons. Or does a float spell when he jumps, which is never explained.[/quote]

    Read the books. For people who NEVER read the book, so much is unexplained. Even him being silent, just read the book, Spartans DONT REALLY TALK. Books > > > > > X1000 Game. Plus it explains EVERYTHING

    Ok so I am worried about ODST as well. Please…bring something NEW to the table. And quit making all this shit up. I better not see ANOTHER race I swear. The only one they can do are the Engineers, which are so far a BOOK ONLY race. And F.E.A.R. 2. Demo is fun but SHORT with a capital…well everything. And the scare factor is all jumpy. Really good graphics though.

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