Games We Hate

"Love is in the air…" Screw that. Following Alan Wake developer Remedy's assertion that everyone should go and play PS3 thriller Heavy Rain, we felt there was a bit too much love going around the video game industry. So, we've decided to address the balance by bringing some much-needed hate to this oh-so sickening love-in. Here, we reveal our most hated games. But there is one proviso: each hated game must be loved by the vast majority of people. That should make it interesting.

Tom Orry, Editor - Counter-Strike, PC

Usually I love first-person shooters, but I can't say I'm the biggest fan of online shooters. If there's one game I really can't understand the love for, it's Valve's Counter-Strike. At one point, I'd guess around seven years ago, I tried to play it in a somewhat serious fashion. I had a group of friends to play with, we got together online at roughly the same time each evening, but did I enjoy it? Not one little bit. It's such a demoralising game. I spent most of those evenings over a period of about two weeks being shot in the head by someone I couldn't see, hiding behind or on top of strangely large boxes, and worst of all being made to run around as a chicken. A chicken. Some might say my dislike of the game is simply down to my lack of skill, and those people might have a point, but that doesn't change the fact that I just don't get what all the fuss was about.

Wesley Yin-Poole, Deputy Editor - Grand Theft Auto IV, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Yeah, not for me. I guess I don't get it or something. I love open world games, but only those with traditional RPG elements, such as Fallout 3. What I love about Fallout 3 is the that you can go anywhere, do anything, and it'll have some consequence. In Fallout 3, if I go into a town and act like a complete anus, people will usually get very upset, possibly even attacking me en masse. And, get this: they'll remember what I've done. In GTA IV, if I kill lots of people, blow up lots of cars and steal a whole bunch of stuff, no-one cares beyond the moment. If I leave and return a bit later, it's as if my actions never happened. Sure, I can appreciate the technical achievement that is Rockstar's virtual New York, but for me it lacks proper cause and effect. This is why the recently released Red Dead Redemption is so much more interesting: it's got a quasi-karma system and your play style affects a change in the way people react to you. This, for me, is true next-gen gaming.