Top 10 BAD Games With GOOD Graphics!

This game strapped on a jetpack and flew too close to the sun. Set in a mysterious world known only as “The Void”, and filled with hostile alien life forms, spaceships, and rag tag human survivors, “Dark Void” gives you a mysterious environment to explore, and a cool jetpack to explore it. Unfortunately, the game never takes advantage of it’s interesting setting, and instead settles for being a bog-standard cover shooter with a forgettable plot that’s over way too soon. While it had the potential to soar, “Dark Void” couldn’t even make it off the ground.

Just like lightning, this JRPG is all flash and no substance. As the final entry in the highly divisive “Final Fantasy XIII” trilogy, expectations were high for this confusingly-named sequel. It was therefore a surprise when “Lightning Returns” lived up to very few of those expectations. Quests were trivial and boring, characters weren’t interesting, and the whole game was plagued by a maximum 13-day time limit that ended up discouraging players from going off the beaten path. Having said that, this is still a “Final Fantasy” game, and the world and characters of “Lighting Returns” are visual marvels, both artistically and technically. But not even beautifully rendered chocobos can save “Lightning Returns” from mediocrity.

Giant mechs usually make everything better. Regrettably, this was not the case for “Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor”. After the first “Steel Battalion” failed to impress thanks to it’s unfair difficulty and ridiculously over-elaborate controller, Capcom decided to take the opposite approach with the sequel, which was mostly controlled with the Kinect, the Xbox 360’s infamously unreliable motion control sensor. The result is a complete mess of a game that either misinterprets or just plain misses all of the player’s attempts to control it, no matter how much they flail their arms around. Which is a real shame, because who wouldn’t want to pilot these badass looking mechs around a haunting apocalyptic version of Earth?

This one still hurts. After years of grand promises, the hype for “No Man’s Sky” was built up to insane levels. And with those trailers of beautiful, mysterious worlds and weird and diverse alien creatures, it looked like the space sim would really allow us to live out our greatest space opera fantasies. But then the game came out, and though the “18 quintillion” planets did look colourful and vibrant, there really wasn’t much to do on them. The gameplay was barely more engaging than a shallow “Minecraft” clone”, and there weren’t many reasons to explore the massive galaxy in the first place. Turns out a huge sandbox with no toys in it isn’t that fun to play in.

How do you mess up a game that revolves around badass knights riding equally badass dragons into epic battles? By implementing forced motion controls, of course. Just like “Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor”, “Lair”’s awe inspiring visuals and totally rad dragon-riding concept got completely brought down by the control scheme, which uses the PlayStation 3 controller’s imprecise and finicky SIXAXIS motion sensor. While tearing through the skies on a terrifying winged beast looks terrific, actually flying it with any sort of precision is nigh impossible. While this may be more “realistic”, gamers aren’t really looking for realism when it comes to dragon-flying simulators.

This shooter should have stayed classified. The first “Call of Duty” title to arrive on Sony’s handheld PlayStation Vita console, there’s no denying that “Black Ops Declassified” nails the look of the main series, with technically competent weapons, characters, and environments. But when those same weapons, characters, and environments all lack personality, and the gameplay is just as bland, those nice graphics don’t mean a thing. Add in awkward touch screen controls, glitches galore, and a story mode that can be finished in under an hour, and you have a game that even hardcore “Call of Duty” fans would like redacted from their memory.

This is one city you don’t want to live in. A reboot of developer Maxis’ classic series, “SimCity” was meant to be one the most fully featured city simulators ever. But after a promising beta, the finished product ended up being unplayable,thanks to server issues caused by the game’s forced online features. Making matters worse was that even after some of these issues were fixed, the game lacked many of the features from previous “SimCity” games, including subway building and traffic control. And while the graphics were smooth and streamlined, the maximum size of cities was drastically smaller than the previous installment. In the end, this city is as artificial and hollow as a movie set.

When you take the scares out of a horror game, you’re not left with much. “Resident Evil 6” found this out the hard way. After the success of the more action-oriented “Resident Evil 4” and “Resident Evil 5”, Capcom decided to almost completely abandon the series’ survival horror roots for the sixth entry. Unfortunately, they also abandoned the wacky charm and white knuckle tension of previous installments, and replaced them with generic third-person shooting and more quick time events than you can shake an analog stick at. Having said that, the environments still have a spooky atmosphere, and the monster designs are deliciously creepy. But the lack of actual horror still managed to drive series fans away.

The best looking cutscene you’ve ever played. As a launch title for the Xbox One, “Ryse” looks absolutely beautiful, and the sweeping Roman vistas and brutally chaotic battle scenes do a great job showing off the power of Microsoft’s console. If “Ryse” had only been a tech demo, it would have been truly impressive. But instead, Crytek’s visually stunning sword and sandals epic was sold as a full priced game, and when people got their hands on it, they were mostly disappointed. Combat is shallow and repetitive, the campaign is short and lacks replay value, and despite the meticulously rendered environments, the game is frustratingly linear. If “Ryse” were a gladiator, there’s no doubt it would get a “thumbs down”.

If you follow gaming, you knew this one was coming. Set in an alternate universe version of Victorian London, every facet of the “The Order’s” world explodes with details, from the crowded streets of the city to the lavish halls of opulent mansions. The game’s characters, including stuffy aristocrats and savage half-breed Lycans, are given plenty of personality and backstory. But in the end, none of this matters, because the game plays like a barely interactive theme park ride. As you move from one generic cover-shooting section to another through static environments, it becomes clear that the game’s main philosophy is “look, but don’t touch”. It’s best to just put “The Order” down with a silver bullet.