Today’s recap features three big games from EA and two licensed games, so without further ado let us dive headlong in to the the top third of our countdown.
35. Deadpool
“Deadpool should be a blast,” noted Blair back in December, “It’s not tied to any upcoming movies, so there should be a lot of freedom for the developers; don’t write this off as a cheap tie-in – just look how great the Batman Arkham games were. Could it be another comic book to game success? We think so.”
Oh dear. Deadpool languishes on Metacritic with a rating of just 61.
Things were looking hopeful before release. Stefan went hand on with the game and said: “This is looking like a solid bit of fun. The script and acting will often have you chuckling to yourself, whilst there’s a fair bit of challenge to the combat.”
Sadly the final product was found to be lacking, Giant Bomb describing it as “intensely grating and largely frustrating in equal measure,” whilst IGN damned the game with feint praise, “It’s not bad, but it’s not particularly good, either.”
34. Dead Space 3
Stepping even further away from the claustrophobic scares of the original, Dead Space 3 dropped co-op gameplay, micro transactions and human enemies in to the mix. It also had a rather silly embargo which meant reviews were released after the game had hit digital stores.
Most publications drew the same conclusions: the game was a decent enough third person shooter but it just wasn’t Dead Space. “The changes thrown into the game inevitably damage its charm, though, and make this a step down from its prequels,” commented Destructoid whilst Kotaku offered this advice: “This isn’t how Dead Space should be remembered. Play 1 or 2 instead, and savor the happy (creepy) memories.”
I picked up the game a few months ago (it seemed to take forever to drop in price) and after playing it for half an hour it was dumped in the big pile of games marked “Meh, will play it when I’ve got nothing better to do.”
The final words on the game go to Alex, “Dead Space 3 – the difficult third game in a series – will likely leave very mixed impressions.”
33. Crysis 3
Crysis 3 managed to top the charts for a few weeks before plummeting down to the bottom half of the top twenty, deposed by the likes of SimCity and Tomb Raider. “I’m one of the reasons it’s in the top third of our list,” said Blair in our original Top 100 countdown but it seems he was in the minority as our recent WeView only had three responses for the game.
The PC version has a Metacritic rating of 76, ten points below that of Crysis 2 and seventeen points below that of the blockbusting first game.
Described as a “technical tour de force” by Official PlayStation Magazine most reviewers found the single player campaign to be rather short and lacking in depth, but the multiplayer lifted scores.
32. Star Trek
Set between 2009’s Star Trek film and this year’s sequel, the simply titled Star Trek featured an original storyline along with co-operative gameplay featuring Kirk and Spock. “Marrying Star Trek’s leading duo to a co-op oriented game is such a logical move, I’m surprised nobody thought to do it until now,” noted Teflon in our preview.
However there were signs the game may not quite hit the mark, “the facial animations felt a bit wooden..platforming could also feel a little awkward and clunky at times.”
The game finally settled on a rather poor score of 46 on Metacritic and suffered from camera issues, dodgy platforming and graphics that “Resemble a polished up PlayStation 2 title in terms of sprites, backdrops and animation.”
31. Battlefield 4
A wildcard back in December as at that point the game had yet to be announced but now we know Battlefield 4 is a thing, and a next gen thing at that.
EA’s marketing plan went out the window when EB games prematurely released a poster detailing the DLC and commander mode and since then there has been a steady stream of information including the multiplayer with up to 64 gamers, a ridiculous amount of merchandise and the smart phone enabled Battlelog which features exclusive next gen features.
However, mention Battlefield 4 and there is just one thing that springs immediately to mind, the jawdropping moment in the E3 reveal when an entire skyscraper collapses.
