The 10 Most Disappointing PC Games of 2009

They were hyped, they were highly anticipated, they were meant to be GREAT. But they simply disappointed the fans and therefore were thrown in the bucket of shame. Ladies an gentleman, read on to find out the titles of the 10 most disappointing computer games of 2009!

10. Ghostbusters

This poor game was mostly hyped because of what it promised to be: a revival of the great Ghostbusters movie series, a game that was supposed to bring back sweet memories to the middle-aged gamers who know “who you gonna call”. Unfortunately, after being passed on and forth from publisher to publisher and being delayed for ages, Ghostbusters tried to come in through the back door but wasn’t allowed to stay, especially because it failed to be a computer game. Sorry, Terminal Velocity, but you simply failed to port a good concept to the PC!

9. Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Oh, my. The once successful LSL franchise keeps going downhill for years now, but Box Office Bust was going to change that – at least that’s what the developers keep promising and many of us did believe them (or, better said, HOPED it was true). Unfortunately, it was not and Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust probably became the last game in the franchise, a shameful and disgusting ending to something that started out so well. Not only that the game doesn’t bring anything new into play, but it also lacks to be humorous, it is repetitive, boring and completely disgusting. RIP Larry!

8. NecrovisioN

Somehow, this horror first person shooter became very popular within the community even though it was barely marketed. This surprises me a lot since the game itself is a complete mess, minus the few concepts that could’ve been fun, like the combat system and the idea for the plot. It was linear, it was repetitive, hard to control and with an AI that went from dumb to dumber, it was disappointing.

7. Rogue Warrior

For a game published by Bethesda and created by rebellion, Rogue Warrior is the definition of “wrong”. With a main character called Demo Dick, with blood and brutality giving Jack Thompson goosebumps – but repetitive to tears for the regular gamer, with a weak script and a campaign that ends so soon that you might think you’ve skipped a few chapters, Rogue Warrior is a title both companies (and gamers) will try to forget ASAP.

6. The Godfather II

We’ll have to give EA credit for trying. They tried to re-create The Godfather and improve it so it no longer becomes a “crappy GTA clone”, but unfortunately they failed. The new concepts are great, the story is great, the game itself has a lot of potential but it fails because everything that should’ve been right is wrong: the game becomes boring and frustrating (taking one building after another is one of your main jobs in the game) and extremely simple. But at least there are some nice concepts hidden within and hopefully The Godfather III will finally be THE GAME.

5. Borderlands

Another hyped and quite well received game – usually on “game of the year” listings, Borderlands managed to disappoint me to tears and probably did so to any person that played Fallout 3 and saw how well a post-apocalyptic game can be done. Compared to it, Borderlands is just a newborn that still has years of growing up. As a standalone product, the shooter-RPG simply disappoints: it is repetitive and non-interactive, the missions lack any depth and fail to tell any story – actually, the only reason why one could still be playing Borderlands after 50 minutes is to collect more and more weapons, and nothing else…

4. Lord of the Rings: Conquest

This game failing was one huge surprise for everybody. Not only that it was developed by Pandemic, but it also had all the correct ingredients: a great world for the story to take place in, tons of different types of enemies to hack your way through and a solid fanbase. What did the gamer get, however? An awful camera similar to those of the mid 90s, mindless hacking and button mashing and lots of bugs. Fortunately, the multiplayer saved a bit of the game’s honor, but it was still one of the major disappointments of the year!

3. Prototype

As I said in my Prototype review: it “is not a game, it’s not a sandbox game, nor an action game, nor anything else: it is a huge explosion”. Unfortunately, it is a random one, a chaotic one, one you can’t really control and one that had the potential to become better. It was hyped and highly anticipated, but right now nobody talks about it anymore. Because it was a quick blast: nothing memorable, nothing to make you go “Wow” even though, strangely probably, it wasn’t a poor game either. But probably that’s what happens when the hype goes too high and the product is mediocre: you simply forget it!

2. Empire: Total War

I was (and still am, to be honest), a huge fan of the Total War franchise and I had really high hopes with Empire: Total War. Unfortunately, it was disappointing even though overall the game was a solid RTS and certainly one of the best released lately. However, it had some big problems, like an incredibly stupid and predictable AI and some “sure thing” tactics that made the game too easy and completely unchallenging. The balance in the game was also flawed and, overall, I considered Empire Total War a big disappointment.

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II

The best selling game in the history of video games and yet a computer disaster. Modern Warfare II is one of the biggest disappointments for the computer gamer not because it is a poor game, but because it managed to screw up the PC gamer like they were never screwed before. And no, that’s not a good thing! MWII didn’t deliver a Prestige Edition to PC owners, it didn’t give us Dedicated Servers back, it didn’t allow us to mod the game and there were no real reasons behind that. At least no official ones. As a result – combined with a very short single player experience and a crappier multiplayer experience compared to the first game of the series – Modern Warfare II will remain one of the most bitter memories of the modern PC gamer.