Rant: Freakin crappy games/game companies

[sandorski]

***This is not a request for help(if you know something specific about a game mentioned, share it), this thread is to serve as a warning to others!***

WTF!

A friend picked up this $20(CDN) game: Midnight Outlaw: Illegal Street Drag Nitro Edition made by Valusoft/Canopy Games

I'll skip the minmum requirements and just list the recommended:

PII 500
128mb ram
16mb 3d accelerator
DirectX 8.1

Seems rather low and one would expect older(dated) graphics/sound and all, but you'd be shocked how it runs on this:

Athlon XP 2800 Barton
512 mb ram
128mb Radeon 8500LE

Choppy as hell! Unplayable really. Craptastically even.

Anyway(back on topic), I thought we could list the games we have come across within the last few years that were just junk! Now I don't want to see games that were not liked such as UT, Q3, or some other game that actually worked. The point here is to list games that didn't work or didn't work well(as advertised).

I'll add 1 more game here, a game I bought for my Nephew last year, Auto Tycoon. I don't recall who makes it, but I bought it and sent it to him(lives 700ish miles away) then was told it wouldn't work. My sister sent it back to me, I installed it, it wouldn't work for me either. I downloaded a patch and it still didn't work. Then I found a messageboard where most of the people couldn't get it to work!


Crappy games

Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drag Nitro Edition
Auto Tycoon

 

[igowerf]

I've never heard of either of those games. I usually limit myself to buying games that get decent reviews to avoid incidents like that. Just about anyone can put out a crappy computer game.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: igowerf
I've never heard of either of those games. I usually limit myself to buying games that get decent reviews to avoid incidents like that. Just about anyone can put out a crappy computer game.

Ya, I usually avoid unknown games too, but when shopping for someone who is out of the genre that I pay attention to, sometimes one picks a loser.

 

[tenoc]

sandy, I won't spend a single loony on a game (never mind twenty of them) without checking reviews.

 

[Dudd]

WWIIOnline, at least the first few months after launch. Haven't played it in probably a year and a half, but when I did, it was one flaming pile of junk.

 

[Rand]

I suppose it goes without saying that one should check for potential compatibility/driver issues before immediately blaming the game itself for any issues.
Having not heard of either game I can't speak for them personally.

One relatively recent game that IMHO was extremely poorly coded and ill-optimized for modern graphics cards would definitely be Morrowind.
Excellent game, but a very poor rendering schemata.

 

[Harabecw]

Originally posted by: Rand
extremely poorly coded and ill-optimized for modern graphics cards

How so? Are there specific problems or just all-around bad performance?

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: Rand

One relatively recent game that IMHO was extremely poorly coded and ill-optimized for modern graphics cards would definitely be Morrowind.
Excellent game, but a very poor rendering schemata.

I'd have to agree, and add GTA 3 and Enter the Matrix as other examples of poor coding.

EtM looks worse than Max Payne ever did and runs slower. GTA 3 isn't so bad, but you can't really crank up the options that much (the original version of the game with no patches that is).

 

[rbV5]

GTA...Tribes2...come to mind

 

[EmperorRob]

Tomb Raider AOD

 

[Mucman]

Never played them but wasn't Trespasser and Battle Cruiser 3000AD the two heavy weights in this category?

 

[GreyParrot]

My ex G/F got that game (Midnight Outlaw) for me a while back. I wasn't really interested in it, but I installed it or I would have felt bad about her totally wasting her money.

Anyway, the game ran fine for me, although it was pretty boring. I'm running a 2.53 P4, 512 pc2700, 9500 Pro and dx9.

I wouldn't waste a lot of time trying to get it working, there isn't a whole lot of fun to be had playing it.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: GreyParrot
My ex G/F got that game (Midnight Outlaw) for me a while back. I wasn't really interested in it, but I installed it or I would have felt bad about her totally wasting her money.

Anyway, the game ran fine for me, although it was pretty boring. I'm running a 2.53 P4, 512 pc2700, 9500 Pro and dx9.

I wouldn't waste a lot of time trying to get it working, there isn't a whole lot of fun to be had playing it.

Well, 2 different systems(nearly identical configs) ran it like crap, a third system though(my bro's Sony Vaio) ran it well. So I suppose the game might actually work( ), but you are correct it hardly seems worth the effort.

 

[hudster]

Originally posted by: Mucman
Never played them but wasn't Trespasser and Battle Cruiser 3000AD the two heavy weights in this category?

hmm, I thought Tresspasser was cool...

 

[kylebisme]

unreal2 ran awful when it first came out. the patch a few months latter helped though. devastation was one that i hoped would be good and turned out to be total junk.