Games Inbox: What is the worst modern video game?

The Wednesday letters page is fascinated by the awfulness of MindsEye, as one reader manages to 100% Mario Kart World with relative ease.

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Worst of the Worst
I’d find all this coverage of MindsEye hilarious if it wasn’t probably going to end up with hundreds of people being made redundant, again. It does truly sound very bad, which got me think of whether it was the worst of this and the previous gen?

That’s hard to say because most people don’t play a lot of really bad games but looking on Wikipedia I tried to get an idea for the front runners. I discounted some, like Warcraft 3: Reforged and Cyberpunk 2077, because they were basically just broken at launch and aren’t bad games when fixed. I also discounted The Day Before because it only lasted a few days and there’s only a handful of reviews.

That leaves Balan Wonderworld, Babylon’s Fall, and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. I don’t really know anything about Balan Wonderworld, other than it’s by the creator of Sonic (what is it with creators of famous games going onto make complete rubbish?). Babylon’s Fall I have played though, because I’m a fan of Platinum, and it really is pretty bad. But more insanely repetitive rather than completely broken.

I haven’t played Gollum, but I did watch (well, skipped through) a playthrough and it seems to me that best fits the description of worst modern game ever. A terrible idea, terrible graphics, and bad, repetitive gameplay. Could GC comment, since you have presumably played these.
Purple Ranger

GC: We’d say it was probably Gollum, out of those suggestions. Silent Hill Ascension was pretty dreadful too, as another contender.

Unholy grail
It is fascinating to see a game as bad as MindsEye being released in this day and age. I thought it was practically impossible for a big budget game to be that bad, beyond having a broken launch due to technical issues.

But MindsEye seems to be the real deal: a genuinely terrible game that was designed that way. The fact that the producer of the most successful video game ever is behind only makes it more fascinating.

I agree that they must’ve been working to some kind of deadline, that forced the game to come out right now, but that has very clearly done more harm than good. Whatever Everywhere was supposed to be I don’t think we’re going to see it now.
Cranston

Spend to save
If there is one good thing to come out of slogging my way through the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour ‘game’ it’s that it taught me my poor eyesight cannot see the difference between 30fps and 120fps. The advantage of this, of course, is not feeling the need to ever upgrade to a 120Hz television, £7.99 (potentially saving me hundreds) well spent. Happy days!

Now back to playing Cyberpunk 2077 and being mainly oblivious to any frame rate dips.
Elliott

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Mission complete
So I’ve just got the final Knockout Tour in mirror mode 3-starred, bringing me ‘complete’ in the game…

I’m in the same boat as others with the open world hub part of the game, so apart from a few people that may want to play online, I’m done with the game until the inevitable 200cc comes out.

I will say I had a blast, and a few sweary moments (especially in Knockout – that is more like a hardcore mode to get all three stars!) but it was far too short. I’m very glad (as the current state of the game is) I had it bundled with the console, as I would not have been impressed with the price they were asking for physical – and that includes not even using the console for two days since launch… whereas I still haven’t 3-starred all cups on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe yet!
Johngene (NN ID)

13 year sabbatical
I know exactly how the player who lost 20 years of his Pokémon during a system transfer feels!

In mid-2005, I had a faulty GAME GameCube Memory Card delete my save file when transferring to/from Pokémon Sapphire/Pokémon Coliseum.

I, too, couldn’t be bothered to start all over again, so left the franchise and got into Custom Robo: Arena.

I did get into contact with GAME and Nintendo, but no one helped.

I didn’t play a Pokémon game again until 2020, with Let’s Go, Eevee! and the others that followed.
LeighDappa

Retro hunter
Amazing at what you can come across when you’re walking outside of CeX. Only one of the rarest PlayStation 2 games to exist to this day. I’ve called for a remake beforehand, so I’ll refrain from repeating myself. I truly wish so much that this game was better reviewed. It has the narrative to push through the game, but it lacks the gameplay to match it.

I actually count myself quite lucky, in some accord. I’ve also come across copies of Forbidden Siren 2, which if you ask anyone who’s a child or a millennial, they most likely have never heard of this game or even know the original had a sequel. I also found Haunting Ground from Capcom, which I deeply pray is remade. We don’t need Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, we need Haunting Ground in Unreal Engine 5.

I’ve also found Silent Hill for PlayStation 1, which is due to be remade in just time, and now Rule Of Rose for PlayStation 2. I always thought, due to the rarity of these games, I’d never come across or gaze upon a single copy of these titles. I’ve seen a fair few now. That’s just some luck. Not many can say that.

The craziest thing is, in my honest opinion, I’ve come across Rule Of Rose before. I’ve even seen a copy of Project Zero 3: The Tormented in person. That’s truly crazy. Especially when Rule Of Rose is rarer, more heavily priced, and more of an addition to a retro gaming collection. Funny how life works.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Transfer error
To restore Pokémon save files from a Nintendo Switch to a Nintendo Switch 2, you’ll need to perform a system transfer or use Pokémon Home.

System transfer will move your user profile, game data (including Pokémon save data for some games), and other settings. Pokémon Home, a separate service, allows you to transfer Pokémon between compatible games and store them in the cloud.
Anthony

GC: The person in question didn’t seem to use Pokémon Home and the whole problem occurred because of a fault in the system transfer.

Games of the year
Although I won’t pretend that I don’t use it from time to time, I do think Metacritic is useless for comparisons between games. It’s fine for seeing what the overall response for a game is, and getting all the reviews in one place, but the second you start making lists or comparing one game to the next it all falls apart.

I’m sure they do their best to compensate but there’s just no point comparing one game that got 150 reviews with another that got six. But that happens time and again with indie games, and a lot of these new Switch 2 games that people haven’t had time to review yet.

Zelda is a bad example, because of course they’re 10/10 classics, but it’s still pointless, from a mathematic point of view, trying to compare their score to anything else with a normal amount of reviews.

I also agree with GC’s rules for its Top 20 of the year, where they automatically discount remasters and remakes and ports. These aren’t supposed to be lists of the best games ever, they’re the best of the year and we should be celebrating new blood and exciting new IP.

Zelda doesn’t need the extra promotion or the sales but indie games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Blue Prince do. So yeah, they’re my games of the year, not something that came out eight years ago.
Casper

Inbox also-rans
I’ve just received an email about a digital game I have downloaded, called Dark and Darker, which is being removed from my game library! This is why I like to buy physical versions on disc, with the whole game on the disc.
Andrew J.

Nobody is going to buy that rebranded ROG Ally handheld. Practically nobody bought the original, so I cannot even begin to understand what Xbox is thinking right now. Or, as others have pointed out, since the Xbox 360 era.
Johnson

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The small print
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