Top 10 Half-Baked Games of this Generation

There's nothing I love more than a Spruce Goose—an idea so big, and so ambitious that it'll either light the world on fire, or go down in a big stinking blaze of schadenfreude. Most of the games on this list fell short of greatness. However, one thing is true—every game on this list could have been mind-blowing, if they only had more time in the oven.

Here are my Top 10 half-baked games of this generation. 

#10 - Just Cause 2

Some of you may remember that I featured this as my number one passed-over game from last year. That still stands. And, if you've done the smart thing by taking my good advice, you'll understand what I mean when I saw this game has an awesome foundation undermined by a few tiny cracks.

Just Cause 2 does so many big ideas right. There's an interesting world to play around in, the developers let you have the freedom to do just about anything from the start, and the game is just plain fun—mostly.

It has its problems. All of the big guns that you'll inevitably want to play around with have to be unlocked. Even then, you have to spend money to acquire them. And they're expensive. Really, really expensive. Prohibitively so. If you've gotten them by adhering to the rules of the game (meaning, no console commands to give satiate your appetite for destruction) you probably don't want to waste the super-rare ammo for that awesome rocket launcher you just bought by transforming cars into ashy black piles of steel. You'll also probably not want to crash that jet you just bought, as you blew your whole stack on it.

This is all predicated on you not being careless enough to have one of those super-expensive items air-dropped to you in a forest, or where there are a lot of buildings for you new plane to get stuck on, thereby keeping it permanently grounded. It's flipped upside down between two buildings, you say? Well, guess you'll just take it out back and fix the problem, Old Yeller style. 

 

#9 - Oblivion

Bethesda does so many things right with their games. They create works with nearly unmatched ambition. Everything from the layout of the world down to the small details like finding books strewn around that fill in the backstory by explaining previous Elder Scrolls games. The kind of things Bethesda pulls off while giving players the ability to explore wherever, whenever are amazing.

But there's just one problem.

Cyrodiil is just so goddamned boring! How is that possible? You'd think with roaming bandits, demons, and reanimated skeletons things would be a bit spicier, right? But the voice acting is so bland, assets like art, character faces, dialogue, and enemies are repeated ad nauseam. And the animations are just plain bad! 

In theory, the game should be filled with interesting people to meet, and exciting things to do, but it's all so repetitive that Oblivion is about as captivating as old wall paper.

With any luck, Skyrim will put to good use any lessons Bethesda learned in its development of Oblivion.

 

#8 - Heavy Rain

Here we have a really cool idea for a game that is essentially an interactive movie. You get to determine the way the plot plays out by whether particular actions you take succeed or fail. Every little movement of the characters is controlled by you, down to the smallest, most mundane detail like putting on eyeliner, or sitting in a chair. 

If you're like me, you were so excited when you first read about it, you told your friend who promptly looked at you like you just told him that you're going to give your checking account number to some Nigerian prince that needs help transferring his vast fortune. 

It then becomes apparent that Heavy Rain is really bad idea, then you think about it and realize it's still cool. After all, consequences stay with you – there's no true “failure” condition in this game. That's a really cool idea, right? Right! It is! I'm saying this with no sarcasm

Then, after spending a couple hours with the game, you realize that it's practically one big quick-time event, and you're practically driven to becoming the next Origami Killer.

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