Every year has its ups and downs, but 2013 was had some pretty disheartening moments across the board, and horror gaming certainly took a couple of direct hits. From hypocritical outrage to out and out lies, here are what I felt were the worst moments from 2013.
Worst Gaming Moments 2013
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#5
Dead Island Riptide’s Mutilated Torso Controversy: Special Edition statues are expected for big releases, zombie games are no exception. And what are zombie games but hours and hours of gut munching and flesh ripping? For some reason, this was forgotten when Dead Island Riptide announced its UK edition which included a half-eaten female torso. Within the hours a slew of complaints came through social media denouncing the company’s choice, calling it shocking and pro-violence against women.
Deep Six issued a statement immediately: “We sincerely regret this choice. We are collecting feedback continuously from the Dead Island community, as well as the international gaming community at large, for ongoing internal meetings with Deep Silver’s entire international team today. For now, we want to reiterate to the community, fans and industry how deeply sorry we are, and that we are committed to making sure this will never happen again.” Of course the statue shipped on time so they couldn’t have been that sorry. There wasn’t much said after that either. It seemed like people just needed something to gripe about for a moment.
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#4
Plants vs. Zombie Sequel Goes “Free To Play”: Plants vs. Zombies is a great game. It’s a standard tower defense scenario but just so addictive and fun. Of course, when we heard about the sequel, we were beyond excited. Then the news dropped, PVZ was going “Free To Play”! A game that we loved quickly turned to frustration as key plants and other items were blocked from higher levels making the game a test of will and ultimate frustration. That is of course unless you shell out coin left and right making the game an endless money pit.
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#3
The Walking Dead Survival Instinct: TWD: Survival Instinct seems like a home run. Featuring the voices of Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker, it is a solo adventure centered on mainly Daryl Dixon. This would sell to the masses AND turn hot women into gamers overnight! Ah…no. It should be called Daryl Dixon and the Curse of the Licensed Video Game Tie-In. Shoddy graphics and boring game play made this one DOA. Yes, the cross bow is cool when Daryl uses it on the show. But let’s face it. In a game, we need variety and this one simply didn’t have it. Adding insult to injury, it performed so badly that it was the nail in the coffin (or bolt to the head) for studio Terminal Reality. Ironic name isn’t it?
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#2
ZombiU Ad Controversy: Who knew zombies were so controversial? We had two zombie controversies this year and both were marketing related! Not only that but both were unwarranted as well. The constant argument over sexism in gaming is as old as video games themselves. The elitists snob gaming (and yes, there are many, the moral watch dogs, and of course, the hypocritical gamers themselves who rail against sexy imagery but whose avatars portray that EXACT image). A lot of the controversy surrounding this one was by critics, followed by a few random readers that chimed in. The visibility of the articles made the whole thing seem bigger than it actually was, but there is obviously an ongoing hypocritical belief that sexual or “Idealized” imagery in gaming is actually offensive to the average gamer. I hate to break it to the moral minority but E3, like Comic-Con, is nothing more than Spring Break for nerds! It’s the reality of life and big business of which gaming is definitely a part of. If you are gonna rail against something, how about something that matters, something in the real world.
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#1
The Greatest Gaming Lie Ever Sold – Aliens: Colonial Marines: Aliens is synonymous with nightmares, but these are usually in our psyche, not our wallets. This entire fiasco is so convoluted it reads like a Tom Clancy novel. I’ll give you the highlights:
Sega announced a game that wasn’t even being worked on yet. Sega hires Gearbox who spent big Sega money on hiring Visual Futurist Syd Mead to design portions of the Sulaco that had been previously unseen and cranked out an impressive and awe-inspiring demo.
At some point, Gearbox hires Timegate to work on it. Gearbox was hard at work on Boarderlands and decided to outsource this new (and lucrative) revenue stream. As the Sega checks got bigger, the development team working on the game got smaller; they were constantly putting more people on Boarderlands. Meanwhile, Gearbox's CEO Randy Pitchford went on record about how much he loved the franchise and how awesome the game was going to be…then it shipped.
Aliens: CM bared little resemblance to the demo and was an absolute mess. Sega denied any outsourcing took place to save face. In the end, several sources came forward naming not only Timegate, but Demiurge Studios and Nerve Software as guns for hire. The worst part is that with four studios working on a game for six or so years, they still couldn’t meet a release date. It was rushed through redesign and certification just to get something out. The result: The worst fiasco in gaming history, resulting in a class action lawsuit against Sega and bad feelings for the upcoming Aliens: Isolation. Does time truly heal all wounds? We’ll see.
For more on this one, click here. See below for a gaming demo.
