Most regretful purchases?

[JarlFrank]

Oblivion, it was the last time I ever pre-ordered a game and the last time I ever got truly hyped for something.

The release of Oblivion turned optimistic young Jarl into the bitter old fuck posting daily on the Codex now.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

1. Spore (2008)
2. Oblivion (2006)
3. Empire Total War (2009)
4. Hellgate London *before F2P (2007)
5. Star Trek Online *before F2P (2010)

Spore because Will Wright is a blatant liar and the team was utterly incompetent. It's a great editor but it's a terrible game and it's annoying that EA never created a commercial license for the Zbrush exporter because I would actually use spore to make game models as it's probably the fastest tool for building base meshes and kitbashing. Wasted potential.

Oblivion because Todd is a blatant liar and the game just isn't that good it was a huge drop in quality from Morrowind and the level scaling and oversimplification of mechanics really got to me. It was so insulting and incompetently made given how many show-stopper issues the game had at launch and never got patched out.

Empire Total War because 1.0 was unplayable and still to this day it's a terrible game even despite modding because the AI is hardcoded to do dumbshit, especially the diplomacy, the naval battles were dreadful, siege battles didn't even work the AI would just sit on the flag while you fired canister at them over and over. That pic btw is of the Ottoman AI giving the Native Americans Greece this was vanilla unmodded latest version. The game is still borderline unplayable.

Hellgate London I fell for and even bought the big box copy. I was attracted to the idea of playing a game inspired by Diablo with shooter mechanics because I had ideas of making such a game myself so it appealed. My god the game was so poorly developed that it barely functioned and the team half jumped ship almost immediately after the game shipped.

Star Trek Online, I bought in pretty heavily because I was looking for an MMO to really get into. 1.0 was just terrible but unfortunately I was unable to get a refund, I fell for the bait. Fortunately though once F2P happened the game ended up being ok and I ended up with a lot of free paid content as a result so it made me a lot less bitter.

ok I can stop grinding my axe. Felt good to get it off my chest.

 

[Sunri]

I also regret buying Total war Warhammer III, but there is at least a glimmer of hope that the game will get better copium

 

[JarlFrank]

I also regret buying Total war Warhammer III, but there is at least a glimmer of hope that the game will get better copium

It was clear from the start that the TW series is getting worse with each new release, you should have known.

 

[Sunri]

I also regret buying Total war Warhammer III, but there is at least a glimmer of hope that the game will get better copium

It was clear from the start that the TW series is getting worse with each new release, you should have known.

I Enjoyed Warhammer I second not so much, but I still had fun with mods and multiplayer but third installment is complete failure at least now.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Black and White in 2001, I think I paid 60DM $\approx$ 40€. I have no idea why that game has such high ratings, a handful of interesting ideas cobbled together don't make a good game.

because journos told npcs so.

Oblivion, it was the last time I ever pre-ordered a game and the last time I ever got truly hyped for something.

The release of Oblivion turned optimistic young Jarl into the bitter old fuck posting daily on the Codex now.

for a while i thought we were long lost brothers, but now... are you me?

 

[Curratum]

I loved morrowind, was hyped out of my brain for oblivion, but didn't have a PC that could run it on release. I kept collecting mods and money, and eventually upgraded, but only played the game heavily modded about 12-16 months after launch.

Wonder if that's why I didn't hate it and actually enjoyed it a lot, because I never touched vanilla and played with gameplay balance / de-scalers, new items and enemies (LORE FRIENDLY LOL) and all that jazz...

 

[Modron]

Thanks for reminding me i bought Morrowind on release...

 

[Curratum]

Played Morrowind heavily modded too. I'm autistic like that and if a game has mods out, I have to compile my personal edition of it before I play.

I did spend years and years tweaking, adding and subtracting from my Doom "always on with every map pack" mod kit too, but hey, if it exists, you have to do it, because it might be potentially a 2% better experience than the one you have right now!

 

[LostHisMarbles]

The release of Oblivion turned optimistic young Jarl into the bitter old fuck posting daily on the Codex now.

Can someone tell me if Oblivion had lots of feet and ankles in it, would explain a lot.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

an someone tell me if Oblivion had lots of feet and ankles in it, would explain a lot.

Can anyone link me a venn diagram that charts the crossover between Oblivion players and Argonian foot-fetishists? Academics pls respond.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

In the age of digital distribution, I've bought dozens of games that turned out bad or that I didn't even play, but I don't think I care.

If we're talking about times when it mattered, my definite number one would be Neverwinter Nights. It was the combination of shelling out on a big box, literally 10/10 reviews in the local press and expecting something really amazing after how much I liked BG2. The game was just plain shit, nothing much to add there.

 

[Alienman]

Rome 2. It will always be Rome 2. I blame myself of course, falling for the hype. Remember watching documentaries and everything just to get even more psyked. Then the game got released.

 

[AdamReith]

Two kickstarters that disappointed the shit out of me and are basically the reason I'll never back anything again.

1. Broken Age

They intentionally made something the target audience would despise. Awful "puzzles", no humour. All people wanted was Monkey Island 2.5 but, well, it probably would have sucked so maybe we were better off with something that could be instantly forgotten.

2. Battletech

Again the blueprint was so clear for what was expected that when we received a clunky, pozzed and unfun pile of shit it was quite surprising.

Oh, also.

3. Empire: Total War

Still remember the innocence destroying power of booting up this mother. It was quite a new concept for me at the time to buy a game that just did not work.

Building grenadiers and slowly trudging up to some line infantry before tossing those little bombs was probably the most retarded thing I've ever seen in a video game.

 

[Grauken]

For me it was Bard's Tale 4

 

[Modron]

You fell for the big kickstarters meme. I only backed smaller studio stuff like Legends of Eisenwald, FtL, Xenonauts, and a handful of point and click adventure games and was largely satisfied with the process.

 

[Alan]

Money purchases are not valuable enough to inspire regret

 

[rusty_shackleford]

you guys realize you can try these games before you buy them, right?

 

[RobotSquirrel]

2. Battletech

Play the 80s games IMO. Much better.

Building grenadiers and slowly trudging up to some line infantry before tossing those little bombs was probably the most retarded thing I've ever seen in a video game.

There is nothing more fun than having an army of mostly artillery and grenadiers in that game. The AI pretty much walks up to take a shot and is immediately destroyed by 18th-century napalm. The only thing they did right there was limit how many grenadiers you could recruit because they were a hilariously broken unit and even worse every nation got them excluding the natives.

 

[Blaine]

Numanuma is definitely #1. I upped my pledge when they announced they were going with turn-based rather than RTwP; got the art poster, the signed physical box, the copy of Numanuma tabletop, all that shit—whatever the tier beneath "annoy the developers for a day IN PERSON!" was, that's the one I went with. It was hundreds of dollars' worth, of that I'm sure.

I popped the end cap off the art poster in its tube, and nowadays it's home to a spider down in the garage (this is actually true, she's in there right now). Nothing wrong with the artwork of course, because the artist didn't fuck up the game, but obviously I don't want to be reminded of that poignant moment of sharp regret.

At this point, I don't even look at crowdfunding campaigns. I've become convinced that the corporate money-grubber breathing down these dweebs' necks is 100% necessary and very healthy to a game's production. Turns out game developers can be grifters just like anyone else; their goal is to fund their expensive-ass Californian hipster lifestyles, in most cases, and then you're supposed to be grateful for whatever rubbish they manage to eventually produce.

 

[talan]

My #1 is the kickstarter Project Takedown, released as Takedown: Red Sabre.

Months after backing it, I looked on here to see what Codexers were saying about it--and the news wasn't good, even going back to the original KS campaign.

And surprise(!) they released a pile of trash.

Lesson learned, always use the Codex as a north star.

Also, they sent me a unit patch years later, probably just to rub it in.

 

[Valestein]

I contributed to the Mighty No. 9 kickstarter. Need i say more?

 

[Jasede]

Disco Elysium, the only game I refunded twice. (thanks Steam)

Also Cogmind, a very polished and interesting-looking roguelike. Only it was boring as fuck.

Edit: also DOS, both of them. Boring af, unfunny.

 

[Arbiter]

Diablo 3, bought on release for 60 EUR. It was the end of Blizzard for me.

 

[ADL]

Saints Row 2 on PC. Pretty sure it's the worst PC port of all time and this was before Steam had the ability to refund.