Does the title disappointment of the year go to “Alone in the Dark” or “Haze”?
This year has been choke-full of good titles like Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox 360/PS3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3, but all is not good in video game land as we did have some dark moments this year in gaming. Lets take a look at games that were hyped to high heavens but were brought down with the bolt of disappointment.
Lets take a closer look at these two games and their review scores from the critics that have actually been around the industry for a long time and check out how these games stacked up against each other sales wise.
Haze (Ubisoft) PS3
Ah yes, the black sheep of the PS3. The game that was hyped for over a year and when it came time to deliver it was fatally wounded with silver tipped bullets of critics.
Honestly I was looking forward to this game but with unimpressive visuals, cheesy acting and ridged controls brought this game to it’s knees.
What did the critics have to say? Well, lets take a look at what the reviewers that actually matter have to say from Metacritic.
GamePro – 70/100
Gamespot – 60/100
IGN – 45/100
G4 TV – 40/100
1 UP/EGM – 33/100
AVG Score – 49.6/100
Ouch! What disappointing scores even though IGN is known for being extremely strict when it comes to scoring that a 45 is pretty harsh.
Alone in the Dark (Atari) Xbox 360/PS3 (Xbox 360 version)
This is another game I was pumped up for that just failed to deliver. This game had been labeled as the game that would put Atari back on the map but all indications says that wont be the case.
This is another game that had been extremely hyped for its visuals, especially the flame technology and graphics but according to critics fall flat on its face just like Haze.
Again lets take a closer look at what the reviewers that actually matter gave this game from Metacritic.
1Up/EGM – 67/100
Gamespot – 65/100
Gamepro – 50/100
G4 TV – 40/100
IGN – 35/100
AVG Score - 51.4/100
Another blow from the critics, with comparably low scores as Haze had received. This game was criticized for its nonsensical storyline and awkward controls. The controls are so terrible you might be ready to throw your Xbox 360 controller at the wall at times. Why couldn’t they just assign an action move to a button like other games do?
Ah, I suppose that would have been to easy and not challenging enough to the the players.
Sales/Reception
Surprisingly Haze, even with it’s extremely low score managed to sell a decent amount totaling around 310,000 units, not that great but over a quarter million sold is pretty decent. However since it’s been about three weeks since Alone in the Dark was released its a bit more difficult to compare sales so lets take a look at both Haze and Alone in the Dark’s two week sales.
Alone in the Dark
Week 1: 95,498
Week 2: 23,595
Total: 119,093
Haze
Week 1: 152,126
Week 2: 63,340
Total: 215,466
The gamers have spoken with their wallets, and as you can see Alone in the Dark has the lowest units sold compared to Haze so I have to give the the most disappointing game of the year title to Alone in the Dark, because it seems like more people were willing to buy Haze than Alone in the Dark even after playing the demo and reading about the low scores.
I suppose that goes to show you some people just don’t care too much about reviews, even if they are fairly correct most of the time.
Related Posts:
14 Responses to “Does the title disappointment of the year go to “Alone in the Dark” or “Haze”?”
Leave a Reply:
You must be logged in to post a comment. Don't have an account? Register today!
July 8th, 2008
Tough one to call, I played the Haze demo and nearly puked. Haven’t played Alone in the Dark(IGN review) Can’t they both sit atop the podium of crapulance together?
July 8th, 2008
Well, the year is only half over, so there is PLENTY of time left for some other title to disappoint.
July 8th, 2008
haze for certain. it was hyped since last year as one of sony’s “system sellers” by fanboys from Gamespot, Sony Defense Force, and PS3 sites. but alas, like most of the ps3’s library, it failed to live up to the hype.
July 8th, 2008
nice of you to delete my post… cowards..
July 8th, 2008
what the one where you accuse everyone of using Haze as the next messiah? Still there kevvo….
but yeh, Haze it is for me. Was definately looking forward to it, but alas it failed miserably. Shame really.
July 8th, 2008
oops..nevermind. slow site today…
July 8th, 2008
Umm kev, I see your post right there
July 8th, 2008
Kev, I agree – and I didn’t even have to play Alone in the Dark to decide.
Though I ignored your silly second sentence.
July 8th, 2008
Kevin,
You’re definitely right on this one. Alone got maybe 10% of the hype Haze got.
I disagree with your closing sentence, but would be worried about you if you hadn’t thrown that in.
-Arvis
July 8th, 2008
arvis – hey, man…just keeping it real…
July 8th, 2008
Don’t hand out the trophy (haha trophys ….) Yet. Socom is looking like crap, it may well take the crown from haze.
Wasn’t lair meant to be a system seller too?
July 10th, 2008
harry – yes… lair was supposed to be a system seller as was R:FOM, GT5: prologue, GTA, and MGS4. it’s odd that even with these hyped games, the ps3 still sits in last place…. well, maybe not “odd” given the extreme meh-ness of these games….
not good for sony…. nothing left worth waiting for… mgs4 was their ace in the hole and even that failed to spur agressive ps3 growth…
July 10th, 2008
Kevin,
MGS4 was released last month and we don’t have NPD numbers for that month. You seem to have insider knowledge, though. Do you work for NPD?
Also, I don’t know how many times I will have to suggest this to you, but perhaps you could try playing the games before you judge them as “meh”?
If someone calling himself “harry sachz” is your ally, then maybe you should take an introspective look at yourself and make sure your own level of maturity is much higher than his.
-Arvis
July 11th, 2008
Arvis,
Kevin is a fanboy. Any game that comes out for Sony is automatically “meh” to him even if it is phenominally sucessfull.
He doesn’t, and will never look at things objectively, unless it has xbox360 in front of it..
I have long accepted that his and a few of his cronies opinions, aren’t worth a pinch of s^%$t, as they totally one eyed. (this does of course go for a couple of PS3 fanboys as well)