What game/company are you most annoyed

[Stig]

I can't be bothered with companies, if they totally ruin a game that's their decision, hell I can't be bothered, I won't buy that game then.
If they forget a MP part of the game, I don't care most of the time I play SP anyway (TW is the only difference really).

I only know of companies who do good jobs, Firaxis, Sunflowers, Ubisoft by buying Sunflowers.

[doc_bean]

Nintendo: for finding new ways to milk old games, over and over and over again.

Square: for making the nth remake of an old FF game (see also: nintendo) and selling it at full price. Also for making FF8.

Bioware, LucasArts, Valve, micro$oft: for not doing the whole budget thing or doing it so late it doesn't matter any more. Also: for trying to push the price of PC games above 50€ (LucasArts might be innocent on this one)

Sony: for screwing over Europe for the nth time, for the price point of the ps3 and the lack of games on it, for the phasing out of the ps2 which seems to have already begun (same thing with the ps1 although they 'promised' to keep it around as a budget console)

Lionhead (EA): for hyping and then not delivering.

Bungie for losing their creative edge and focusing on the nth iteration of a mediocre fps series instead of developing good games (like Myth !).

[Husar]

Bioware, LucasArts, Valve, micro$oft: for not doing the whole budget thing or doing it so late it doesn't matter any more. Also: for trying to push the price of PC games above 50€ (LucasArts might be innocent on this one)

EA is quite good at that as well, more than one year after the release of BF2 it was still on the shelves for 50€ here, could hardly believe that.
Of course I saved a lot of money again.

[FesterShinetop]

Nintendo: for finding new ways to milk old games, over and over and over again.

I'll second this one. And I just can not believe the entire (gaming) world is not utterly sick and tired of Mario by now... I know I am...

[Veho Nex]

Edios

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I've always been mad at LucasArts, they were charging $30 for really old games... until they stopped selling them completely.

Also, no new Tie Fighter.

[Navaros]

Used to be EA which has in my view committed many great crimes against humanity and other grand atrocities against customers and employees alike.

However, EA now has challengers to the Throne of the worst of the worst because of other companies who - unbeknowst to the consumer who buys their product - are gulity infesting their games with Starforce; which in my view is malware.

Offenders of this kind include such vile companies like Ubisoft, Codemasters, CDV, The Adventure Company and many others.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

god I hate EA.

[Motep]

Rockstar...their games just suck. Period.

Capcom - they could try just a little harder to get decent camera angles.

Square - FF8

Nintendo - Too much mario, give it up already!!!

EA - for trying to stick their nose in everything (and seeming to suck at)

Im not going to add LucasArts to my list. But only because they developed Mercenaries. mee likey Mercs.

[econ21]

I'm slightly annoyed - more saddened really - with Troika for going belly up. They produced one of the most atmospheric CRPGs of all time with Arcanum and combined it with one of the worst combat engines. Then they produced one of the best combat engines of all time with Temple of Elemental Evil and combined it with some of the dullest non-combat aspects. Finally, they achieve their full potential with the utterly sublime Vampires Bloodlines and go bankrupt.

The company I am really mad at is Empire Interactive's Wargamer team. They produced a game called Napoleon 1813 that could have been all Total War was and more. Like Total War, it combined a deep strategic layer with tactical battles. It had so much promise, but was ultimately irredeemably broken (as evidenced by my newly recruited French Imperial Guard marching off to join the Prussians). They also made a similar Civil War game that had similarly fantastic potential and utlimately worthless delivery.

[naut]

Shiny, I want Sacrifice 2

:drools:

You said it Frag.

[Kekvit Irae]

Finally, they achieve their full potential with the utterly sublime Vampires Bloodlines and go bankrupt.

It's pretty bad when the number of fan patches outnumber the official patches. But it's also a good sign, as there are plenty of fans who care enough about the game to fix it themselves. They're already up to v3.80.

[TinCow]

I'm slightly annoyed - more saddened really - with Troika for going belly up. They produced one of the most atmospheric CRPGs of all time with Arcanum and combined it with one of the worst combat engines. Then they produced one of the best combat engines of all time with Temple of Elemental Evil and combined it with some of the dullest non-combat aspects. Finally, they achieve their full potential with the utterly sublime Vampires Bloodlines and go bankrupt.

Hear, hear. The ToEE engine was the best computer implementation of a tactical D&D game ever. It was the next generation Infinity Engine in all but name. If only Troika could have lasted long enough to fix the bugs and license it out to other developers... Arg. We need more tactical D&D games! NWN1/2 just don't do it for me.

[Fragony]

I'll second this one. And I just can not believe the entire (gaming) world is not utterly sick and tired of Mario by now... I know I am...

but!

How much mario is there really? A mario rpg is still an rpg, mario-tennis is still a (whacky) tennisgame, we haven't seen a proper mariogame since the nintendo64!

[doc_bean]

but!

How much mario is there really? A mario rpg is still an rpg, mario-tennis is still a (whacky) tennisgame, we haven't seen a proper mariogame since the nintendo64!

What about New Super Mario on the DS ? Or Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube ?

[Geoffrey S]

Exactly. What's all this Tennis, Soccer, Party and Karting lark anyway? We love Mario for his brilliant platforming, so do it already.

[Fragony]

What about New Super Mario on the DS ? Or Mario Sunshine on the Gamecube ?

New Super Mario just rocks. Mario Sunshine was ok at best, waiting for the real deal, mario galaxy

[TinCow]

Exactly. What's all this Tennis, Soccer, Party and Karting lark anyway? We love Mario for his brilliant platforming, so do it already.

Hey now, Mario Kart + Friends + Alcohol = Gaming Brilliance

[phred]

Akella and Bethesda for rushing out the door and then not supporting Pirates of the Caribbean

Bethesda for having the gall to charge for horse armour

[Xiahou]

Bethesda for having the gall to charge for horse armour

Oohhh, that's a good one.
Charging money for simple graphical value-adds is pretty lame imo.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Exactly. What's all this Tennis, Soccer, Party and Karting lark anyway? We love Mario for his brilliant platforming, so do it already.

Mario Kart 64 and Double Dash have got to be two of the most brilliant racing games ever produced.

[lars573]

Akella and Bethesda for rushing out the door and then not supporting Pirates of the Caribbean

Bethesda for having the gall to charge for horse armour

Ohhh, right you mean the PC (aka non-profit) version. They stopped charging for a bunch of downloads on the Xbox a while ago. I got Den of thieves and The wizards tower on a demo disk a while ago.

[Kekvit Irae]

Sadly, the lack of customizing with mods is what's keeping me from buying a 360 version of Oblivion, despite my PC chugging along at 5-10 fps.

[frogbeastegg]

Nintendo's Wii division are presently ticking me off. No PAL dates yet for some major Wii games, and late releases for other PAL Wii games. Haven't we been here and done this before? Say "Yes, Froggy." Didn't they pull their fingers out and eventually sort out very close release dates for Gamecube games? Say, "Yes, Froggy." Aren't most DS games released very close to the US launches? Say, "Yes, Froggy."

So then why in the name of all that is good do we still have no Super Paper Mario date!? Why do we have to wait months for Metroid Prime 3?! 9 months wait for Trauma Centre, a US launch game! No Smash Bros. date! No Mario Galaxy date!

And yes, in case anyone was going to point out that PAL-land gets Mario Kart while the US gets Metroid, then later on each territory gets the other game. I do know that I can't stand Mario Kart. I don't care about it one bit. I wouldn't be bothered at all if they never made one for the Wii. I want Metroid.


At least we got Paper Mario on the virtual console today Wonderful game, absolutely loved it back in the day. Not so loving of the £7 price tag the VC edition has [imagine rant about VC rip off pricing here] I'd have a lot more VC games if only the prices were lower. I may be able to afford the games easily enough, but that does not mean I want to spend so much on them. It's not good when I end up feeling bad about re-buying one of my best-loved N64 games.

[Bijo]

Metroid > Mario Kart

I hardly adored Mario Kart games either. However, back in the day of the SNES it was bearable (not to mention I was a lot younger). But you know, nowadays I must say it appears Metroid has "lost its beauty" due to 3D. Some would disagree, and some would simply concur. No, no, the true beauty of Metroid lies in 2D and it must be put forth in 2D.

Mario Kart in 3D is no problem as it the same in essence, but Metroid in 3D is... criminal for it totally changes it too much. I adore(d) Metroid but the 3D ones no.

[The Spartan (Returns)]

Bethesda for having to pay for their mods. (Oblivion) They should have just added it on a patch.

However Oblivion is a great game.

Firefly Studios for ruining the Stronghold series. Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader (better than AOK IMO) were simply brilliant until SH2.

And to who ever made AOE3.

[Whacker]

Heresy

Are you kidding mate? Metroid Prime was/is one of the best examples of how to take a fresh look at an immortal series without ruining it or losing it's essence. They turned it from a side scrolling shooter into a first person shooter, and they did a fantastic job at it. Prime 2 wasn't all that wonderful IMO, but Prime is still my favorite game ever for the Gamecube.

Edit - We need a burning at the stake smiley. Bijo, suffice to say I am mentally burning you at the stake for your heresy, in the friendliest manner possible.

[Abokasee]

You're quite rightly annoyed with EA but for all the wrong reasons.

1) It was Will Wright's decision to push back the release date on Spore. EA as the publisher were the one's who announced it. For once they realise that this is potentially a game made of pure win if it is done right, so they're letting him have as much time as he wants.

As i've said in the past, get off your high horse with your hate of EA when it comes to the Spore release date. Check your facts.

2) There are valid reasons for no online play with BW2, which i remember reading on their forums a month or so after release - they said they had made a multiplayer mode, but it was laggier than hell even on a high-speed connection on account of the graphics and the physics and all the other things that make it look good. There was no way of optimising it.

Anyway, i'm currently annoyed at EA for the valid reason of their paranoia. They put ridiculous copy-protection on Battlefield 2142, so that it wouldn't run on my PC. It kept asking to insert the disc. After a week of being frustrated trying everything i could, i gave up and sold it to a friend for the stupid price of £6. Now he has the same problems. Not to mention that stats are a bit borked on BF2 right now, and have been for weeks, with no attempt to fix them.

I stand corrected then, will wright is forgiven... just

[Bijo]

Are you kidding mate? Metroid Prime was/is one of the best examples of how to take a fresh look at an immortal series without ruining it or losing it's essence. They turned it from a side scrolling shooter into a first person shooter, and they did a fantastic job at it. Prime 2 wasn't all that wonderful IMO, but Prime is still my favorite game ever for the Gamecube.

Edit - We need a burning at the stake smiley. Bijo, suffice to say I am mentally burning you at the stake for your heresy, in the friendliest manner possible.

It is true that it's a good example of how to change a game that has always been 2D into 3D, but still... 3D for Metroid is unnecessary complication (to me, though it's a breeze to play it). Perhaps it is my old-school nature that adores the SNES (and NES, and so forth). I guess it is... acceptable that Nintendo has been -- and is -- "improving" it via 3D (among other things). Since Metroid's gameplay was already (near) perfect I guess its transition to 3D graphics was the only (logical) option to "elevate" the series' quality.

Still, I'd rather play old-school 2D Metroid on the NES, SNES, and GBA, than 3D Metroid. Nintendo should allow the creation of such another old-school style Metroid on the DS -- or even better GBA(!).

[professorspatula]

I'm most annoyed about the games company who recently fired me for nothing! I won't even mention their name. I just hope their rubbish new 'secret' game is a failure and their profits go down the plug-hole.