this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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I'm just sitting here thinking about all the hoopla around palworld right now and I was wondering what other titles out there have been in the controversy filled category in the past few years/decade? I can think of a few, but my game interests are kinda narrow.

What are some of your picks?

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[–] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 13 points 9 months ago

"Hatred" caused a big controversy ahead of its launch back in 2016, for being a game where the main objective is mass-murdering innocent civilians. Then it released, turned out to be a pretty sub-par uninteresting game and was promptly forgotten by most people.

[–] Malix@sopuli.xyz 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Kinda feels like any big release has some kind of controversy added to it, be it poor performance, bugs, riddled with mtx/day1 dlc/seasonpass-nonsense, denuvo/horrid-drm-in-general, invasive anticheats, unnescessary launcher apps... you name it.

Off the top of my head the few "hooplas" I can remember. Also I'm not claiming to remember 100% correctly on the reasons/details

  • Arkham Knight
    • poor performance, 30 fps lock
  • Cyberpunk 2077
    • poor performance, bugs. BUGS. No 3rd person camera, cut content
  • Starfield
    • poor performance, lacluster gameplay, bugs
  • No Man's Sky
    • performance issues, content not what was promised
  • The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition
    • horrid performance, technical issues
  • Diablo 3
    • always online, in-game auction house (real money & in-game currency)
  • Diablo 4
    • seasonpasses, mtx, etc. IMO, on the surface level it looks like it's monetized like F2P game.
  • Diablo 2 remake/remaster
    • "p2p matchmaking, we promise" -> "oh hey, blizz servers only, no offline. kthxbai"
  • Diablo Immortal
    • "don't you guys have phones?"
    • pay-to-win gatcha game
  • Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
    • whatever is going on with this game. Seems like the usual shitshow with haters hating and coping users coping, trolling eachother.
  • Basically any 2k sports game, possibly others too
    • at minimum 60 £/€/$ entrance fee to virtual casino
  • HATRED
    • caused a concern storm about in-game violence (shooting civilians/innocent etc)
    • Haven't played it myself, but it looks like a nothing burger. Fairly mid twinstick shooter with edgelord paint over it. Wasn't Postal already doing this eons before?
  • Payday 2
    • "we promise we won't add lootboxes" -> "Oh hey, we added lootboxes"
  • Aliens: Colonial Marines
    • apparently was quite the shitshow on launch
    • isn't stellar now either, but on heavy discount at 5€ or so, it aint that bad for coop.
[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wasn't Colonial Marines the game that gearbox "stole" budget from so they could fund Borderlands 2?

Iirc, it also had absolutely abysmal AI, with Alien(s) standing perfectly still in clear view, not reacting until they had been shot multiple times.

Then someone found that there was a single value in one of the game's ini configuration files you could change from 0 to 1, and the AI would become competent. The switch had been there since release, over multiple years the game was never updated to flip the "make the AI not braindead" switch. As far as I know, it still hasn't been updated to flip it.

[–] Malix@sopuli.xyz 2 points 9 months ago

Not a clue about budget stuff.

Iirc the config value key was mistyped, it was supposed to read "tether" (like, alient ai "tethers" to player, so it can find a path to the player, or somesuch), but it was mistyped in the config. ref: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Aliens:_Colonial_Marines#Improved_Xenomorph_AI

haven't tried the fix myself yet, not THAT keen on replaying it. :D

[–] ramble81@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago

Surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention “Postal” or “Bully”.

From the wiki for Postal… “ A man referred to simply as the "Postal Dude" has been evicted from his home. He believes the United States Air Force is releasing an airborne agent upon his town of Paradise and that he is the only individual unaffected by the ensuing "hate plague". He fights his way from his house to an Air Force Base through various locations, including a ghetto, train station, trailer park, truck stop, and an ostrich farm.”

[–] Deconceptualist@lemm.ee 5 points 9 months ago

Super Columbine Massacre RPG was pretty damn controversial (Wikipedia link).

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 4 points 9 months ago
[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

No mention of Postal yet?

[–] Caliper 2 points 9 months ago

I remember Carmageddon making the news in 1997. It made the game immediately a lot more interesting.