Worst game-related purchase

[saphalline]

In the spirit of darm's post on the "best game", which many of us enjoyed, I would like to invite you to share your worst game-related purchase(s). We have all spent hard-earned money on having fun, but every now and then we spend some hard-earned money on frustration, bad gameplay, and/or just plain boredom.

For me, it was the last console my family purchased: the N64. Although I had plenty of opportunity at the time to change this purchase and I knew the N64 was perhaps the worst decision, for some inexplicable reason I didn't fight for my fun. I've regretted it ever since, with about 5 notable exceptions (the only fun games on the N64, such as Perfect Dark).

Several years and ~$400 later, our N64 sits largely unused and covered in dust. We log more hours on good ol' Starcraft than we do TOTAL on the N64 http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif.

*sigh*

Well, how about your horror stories from beyond boredom?

[steveo]

"Ultraman" pretty much sums it up in the game front.

As far as machines go, I bought a playstation when they first came out but sold it to a buddy a few days later on a lark. Then a few months later I bought another one only to see it vanish during a break-in a few days later (that's a story that could be on "world's dumbest criminals"). So I bought another one and it's been sitting beside my tv collecting dust ever since.

Me and money is a dangerous combination sometimes...

Reminds me of the time I just had to buy 2 snowmobiles...heh
Or when I spent way too much time/money building the ultimate ice fishing shack only to see it burnt down a week later.

[john5211]

Whenever the question of worst game/worst gaming experience is mentioned, the first thing I think of is good ole BattleCruiser 3000 AD. Now, I never actually bought the game, but how many games are so atrocious that they spawn their own usenet group and flame war?

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see http://home.san.rr.com/follies/ )

John

[Ghost_Hacker]

For me the worst games I every had (At the time I thought they where darn good games.) has to be the old DOS flight sims. Games like Falcon 1 and Intruder...

Ah yes, the UFO-like fighters that could make 90 degree turns, the SAMs that would circle you till they got you and who could forget that ugly pink color all CGA games had in common back then. Ugggggg..... And to think I spent hours playing those games.



[This message has been edited by Ghost_Hacker (edited 03-17-2002).]

[Whyzman]

My son wants me to comment about the Sega Saturn which definitely was our worst game related purchase. If I remember I dropped about 4 bills for that one, ARGH! Biggest problem was how the games were marketed.

No one really picked up on the rental of the Sega Saturn games to have a decent look-see as to how challenging they might be. At $50-60 bucks a pop I'd like to see my son be able to demo the game before I'd be putting a second mortgage on the farm to buy one.

He also goes through games (beats them) like Liz Taylor goes through husbands! So, I only purchase the games I know will take him some time to master. Saturn was a major disappointment! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

What really bugs me is when the new systems are tauted as being the fastest and best graphics...and the game designers, apparently trying to capitalize on the novelty of a system, produce games with nothing more than "stick figures!" http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

------------------
May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
----------------------
Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[saphalline]

I don't think we should let steveo near any console whatsoever! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif He's likely to buy 3 of them! Seriously though, the PSX isn't all that bad even by today's standards, if you like console RPG's...

As for the BC3K heads-up, thanx to john5211 for introducing us to yet another flame war! Haha, I remember BC3K being in stores, but I have to admit that the game never attracted me at all so I never knew what went on. Sounds like Derek Smart isn't so smart; perhaps 'moron' would more properly capture his... essence?

Ghost-Hacker: I only remember playing flight sims in arcades, consoles (which is what I played during the DOS age) weren't up to snuff back then. Besides, I rather enjoyed RPG's. But looking back on games such as Wolf 3D and Doom, I can see where you're coming from http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif! Good god, graphics have come so far in just the 10 years that I've been paying attention (SNES to GeForce2 Ti)! And listening to some of the PR people from ATI and NVidia, it looks like the next 5 years will change just as much! I love technology http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Ah yes, Whyzman, I do remember the Sega Saturn when it came out. What fanfare! Of course, every new console starts out like that; then 3 months later all my friends were saying "Sega what?" Even now I know very little about the Sega console that fell off the planet, other than the fact that it was so darn complex that no game developer would touch it. In the end, lack of third-party game support killed the Saturn, just like the 64-bit Jaguar console. Remember that one?

I recently remembered the one PC game that I actually regret buying, which is rare because even atrocious PC games are generally more tolerable than "rent only" console games, so I try to at least play every PC game I have for a few hours. But one game that I never got into was Civilization II. Now before I start a flame war myself (I know there are a lot of Civ fans out there), let me explain. I bought Civ II about a year ago, at a bargain price, because it had the word 'strategy' on it, and I'm a big fan of real-time strategy games (I'm bad at them but I like them). Then I brought it home and, yes, lo and behold it was turn-based strategy. I love turn-based in RPG's, but every other game should be real-time, IMHO. After bungling through about 2 hours in Civ II and getting absolutely nowhere, I went back to my Quake II and The Sims and completely forgot about Civ II. Until this morning when I was thinking about all my bad games.

I'm just not a Civ fan, I guess. Does anyone want a virtually unused copy of Civ II? The manual, tip card, and even registration card are all in mint condition! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

...hmmm... come to think of it, I think the box is even in mint condition...

[This message has been edited by saphalline (edited 03-17-2002).]