I have been a 'gamer' for just about 25 years now and I think I can say with confidence that 2021 has been the most disappointing year for gaming in memory. My complaints are not around delays but the games themselves and I personally feel we would be in the same position, COVID or not, with a lot of these titles.
* Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite feels great to play - I'm not a huge fan of the sliding, but I know that's just my boomer gaming sense coming into play. That is where the good stops.
Progression is fucking abysmal. I know there has been a lot of debate around why people care about progression - "shouldn't you just play the game because it's fun?". I agree to a point, but when the customization screen is 90% locked cosmetics, with the only way to get a majority of them through paying, it's hard not to feel grifted. I am so sick of hearing devs talk about how they are listening - they had multiple test flights where feedback was given (including myself) and they are only 'listening' to the rage of a crowd instead of it's dedicated fans.
This is the first Halo launching without a dedicated slayer playlist. Let me repeat: a FPS game is launching without a dedicated TDM mode. This straight up boggles my mind and is totally unacceptable from AAA company infamous for their FPSs.
The game feels incredibly lonely. Gone are lobbies, where you would stay with the same players and vote on the next match. You silently wait in queue until the game starts where you engage in a silent game of halo until it ends, no reward for winning, and are booted back into the main menu before you can even mutter a GG. I made so many friends in Halo 2/3/Reach, I can't imagine how you would meet anyone in Infinite and it makes me sad for the isolated future of gaming.
* Forza Horizon 5
This is another game that looks beautiful and, when it works, can be an awesome experience. However, over a month after launch, the game is terribly broken with the latest patch this week completely breaking my game. Infinite loading screens, Crashes after spending in game currency and then, reloading the game to see that the currency is gone but you didn't receive your purchase.
Multiplayer has been broken since day 1 and I have not once been able to play with friends online. You aren't able to see each other's cars in convoys and every race you enter together is a dice roll for who's game is going to crash and burn, preventing you from playing. Instead of getting these issues ironed out, MS has gone out of their way to patch out 'exploits' from the game.
To add the Cherry ontop, I was banned from Forza 5 for week for "profanity" in a design I created. I have made two designs: one that says "Lets go Brandon!" and a mediocre pepe. After a week, I logged back in, all of my designs are still there so I still have no idea what triggered this and I have 0 recourse or information on how to prevent it from happening again. Take your vote: was it the pepe or the Brandon that got me? Either way, fuck modern coddling studios, this is pathetic.
* Battlefield 2024
I think this game has been dissected and torn to pieces enough that there's not much more I can add. Just another game to add into the disappointment pile, with Games as a Service becoming an ever growing death knell for franchisees I love. Forget about the abandonment of classes, which is still insane to me, but there isn't scoreboard! Another game that feels empty, vapid, and a *far cry* from what a modern FPS should be. Speaking of...
* Far Cry 6
Yet another uninspired, vapid Ubisoft Farcry, filled with bugs and lackluster gameplay. I was actually excited for this one, with a great cast and very promising trailers. A few months after launch it's safe to say this is even worse than Far Cry 5, which was worse than Far Cry 4, itself a crappier version of Far Cry 3.
* Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny
While debatably AAA, I am a huge fan of the franchise and the pathetic frame rate and optimization of what should be one of the best in the series is depressing. A big step back from 5 in many ways, hoping the PC release allows these framerate issues to be put by the wayside.
* New World
Amazon's forray into the MMO world was lukewarm to begin with and then was plagued with a myriad of issues due to development oversight. Disappointing game.
* Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy
I think there has been enough said on this one that, just by putting the title here, everyone will agree and understand. A pathetic cash grab from a company that could and should do better.
* Blizzard.
Yes, this is a company, not a game, but every asset and aspect of Blizzard has been disappointing at a minimum, disgusting at a maximum. Hearthstone is pathetic now, WC3:R was abandoned completely, Overwatch 2 is most likely dead, World of Warcraft has become a shell, must I say more?
Am I just getting fucking old? I feel like every AAA drop is worse than the last and Games as a Service is destroying my hobby. And then the Indie communities are swamped with Troons so there's no fucking winning - it's either embrace games made by BRAND for consoomers or engage in Troon Indie games that are mechanically solid but make me play as a queer BIPOC with they/them pronouns.
