Five Games That Massively Squandered Their Potential

It’s been an interesting gen of gaming as far as the Xbox brand is concerned. We’ve seen more ups and downs than a fiddlers elbow, but currently, and more recently to be specific, the path to the future looks bright. The same can be said about the hundreds of games that have dropped this gen, being that we’ve enjoyed some hit titles and on the flip side, have had to endure some pretty bad ones too. Here’s five games that stand out firmly to us, that have almost totally squandered their potential for a varying range of different reasons.

Agony – Trailer

Agony will be forever remembered for being the one horror game we all looked forward to, yet failed miserably to deliver. Agony took the world by storm upon its initial announcement, mostly due to its unique and graphic depiction of hell. I mean, it’s not every day you see rape, mutilation and the killing of the young in one package. Sadly though, the game released to widespread criticism, mostly aimed at its poor gameplay cycle, its nonstop collection of technical issues and above all else, it’s heavy serving of bugs. Agony, is agony.

Friday the 13th the Game – Trailer

Now before I dive in, I want to point out that I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game. Though, that’s not to say that it’s particularly good. If you’re one of the few gamers that have yet to try this out, the game is a cat-and-mouse online multiplayer that throws players into the role of Jason Voorhees and seven camp counselors. It had an interesting premise and some solid elements, but much like Agony, it was held back by poor performance issues and a host of technical problems. It’s also currently facing some legal issues. What a shame.

Road Rage – Trailer

Back in the day I loved myself some Road Rash. That game was exhilarating and unlike anything else on the market. Players take to a motorcycle and race for first place. The kicker, however, is that players could melee each other to get the upper-hand. When its spiritual successor Road Rage was announced, I was instantly interested. How unfortunate was it to see that the end result was one of the most underwhelming games of the entire gen. Not to mention how freakin’ brown the game looks no matter where you ride. Yuk!

Defiance 2050 – Trailer

The most recently released title of this list, in fact it’s not even a month old. Defiance 2050 was said to be a recreation of Defiance, an MMO that offered a deep and engaging plot with heaps of content and lore. It’s certainly a passable game, but much like most flops that release this gen thanks to the “release now, fix later” attitude, it’s far from refined. I dare say that it’s a few hefty patches away from being a strong contender alongside the likes of Warframe, but until these issues are remedied, it’s a perfectly fitting title for this article.

Past Cure – Trailer

We really wanted to enjoy Past Cure. The game’s premise was intriguing; a dark psychological thriller that promised to blur the lines between dreams and reality. It certainly had a lot of potential, but much of this was flushed down the shitter at launch. Instead what we got was a poor imitation of better developed like-minded titles and it didn’t help that some game-breaking issues popped up at a regular frequency. Word on the street suggests that the developers are hard at work on a patch, but they’ll never patch its first impressions.

So there you have it. That’s our top five picks for games that failed to meet the mark. Sure, there’s so many crappy games that have released this gen we could have made an essay of it, but we thought five was a neat, rounded up number that helps to narrow down the particularly questionable ones. What about you? Do you have any games in specific that you thought could have perfectly fit this list? Do you disagree with any of the titles that we’ve listed here? Feel free to sound off in the comments below to make yourselves heard.

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