Maybe I've just played it too much, but even through my first playthrough, I  had no problems remembering and thinking fondly of much of the cast.  Lydia was annoying, yes, but I remembered most of the Jarls, the greybeards, the different faction leaders, I liked them all.  I agree their presence was muted by their stiff acting, if you get my drift, but I thought they were all pretty damn well done, as far as writing and unique visuals are concerned.  

OF course that's just me.  I totally see why someone would have a hard time remembering these people.  Then again, it's MUCH more detailed and well developed than its predecessor; that's a point I will not concede.  I never finished oblivion, but I played and beat skyrim 100% twice (once as the stormcloaks, one as the empire), and I did the Dawnguard review.  

I liked it, but it had its issues.  I jsut don't see the issues listed as significant issues.  worth noting, of course, but nothing significant, I wouldn't say

Of the games I own and I've played for over 30 minutes, Final Fantasy VIII, followed by Final Fantasy X. It'll take less time to explain what does work properly in those games that what doesn't.

Star Fox. I found it to be totally unplayable. The graphics were horrid. The control was non-existent. And it resembled other games too much.

Mike from Morgantown

PS -- Of course I meant the Mythicon title for the Atari 2600 -- not the unrelated game (and series) by Nintendo of the same name. http://www.atariage.com/company_page.html?CompanyID=37

Most disappointing: Final Fantasy X

Worst: Robot Wars Metal Mayhem

I tend not to buy 'bad' games where possible, but I bought Robot Wars when I was really young and into that kind of thing. Even then, I could tell it was bloody awful. Barely even a game, to be honest.

Final Fantasy X followed on from three of my favourite games of all time and was just a linear mess. Didn't like the characters, didn't like the setting, didn't like the plot. Music and combat were okay but the game as a whole just wasn't for me.

For this gen only, I'd say it's a 3-way tie between Oblivion, FFXIII, and The Incredible Hulk.

I would love to hear your reasons for what 'doesn't work' in those games.  Drawing was repetitive, but that was about the extent of the actual issues with VIII, and X had no world map, but nothing didn't work :P

Why do so many people dislike Final Fantasy X? 

terminator salvation. borrowed it off my cousin, WORST THING EVER. a top developer can probably recreate the whole game now in less than an hour.

This is going to take long....

Final Fantasy VIII:

Leveling up makes the game harder. Yes, harder. When you level up enemies do as well, and they gain better stats than your characters. Only with some GF abilities your characters get decent level ups. And you can't do that until the end of disc 3. And even then enemies have some advantage because their stats aren't capped (they can  have more than 9999/999 HP/MP).

Equipment is almost nonexistent. Only one weapon per character, and all they do is to give a rather crappy STR bonus. Only Squall weapon upgrades are worthy because they are needed for his limit breaks. No armor, no nothing else (this isn't that bad per se but makes the next point worse).

There are enemies, but you don't want to defeat them. Hell, you don't want to WIN battles. Running is better. Why? Let's see:

Gaining EXP is a bad idea because it makes the game harder. No equipment to get or steal. There are some items you can get, but it's better to get them with the card game (no EXP gained in the card game + you'll need good cards to complete a quest). You don't get money from battles. So yes, it's better to run from enemies. In fact, if you can use the no encounter ability, do it. Everytime you enter a new area, remove no encounter, enter one battle, draw all the new spells, run and equip it again.

Polished limit break system. Cast aura and bad status ailments on your characters and tap triangle until the limit break option shows up.

There are tons of magic spells but you don't want to cast them. If you do and you have that spell junctioned your stats will decrease, because the more copies of that spell you have higher is the bonus. The most powerful spells are the ones that give the best junction bonuses (and on top of that they are hard to get). So the only spells you will use in combat are the crappy ones. But you'll probably do more damage using attack with Meteor junctioned to STR or abusing limit breaks anyway. To make things worse there is a limit to the number of different spells each character can carry.

Restocking magic isn't easy. There aren't magic shops to buy spells, so you'll have to draw more. Or refine some items you can't buy as well.

It's hilarious that the characters are so worthless that they can't use a potion without the help of a GF.

The game is horribly broken. Before checking any guide, etc, one hour after I started playing the game I went to a store and bought some tents. I found that I could refine them into Curaga, so I did it. Then I found that I could junction them to HP. They gave +2200HP, so my characters had almost 3000HP, and that was after the second dungeon, when enemies were dealing 5-10 damage.

With all this and auto-haste, auto-protect, etc you barely have to plan your battles.

There are no words to describe how awful and boring drawing is.

I'm not sure if I've missed something.

So at the end FFVIII is a game with enemies you don't want to defeat, battles you don't want to win, levels you don't want to gain, magic you don't want to cast, and broken mechanics.

Of course the game is so easy that you can ignore all of this and still be able to beat the game. But if we are going to play every game in the same way ignoring how things work in said game, how are going to differenciate the good games from the bad ones?

I'll write about Final Fantasy X when I have more time, things are trickier in that one.

As far as biggest disappointments go this generation, after thoroughly enjoying Marvel Ultimate Alliance when it came out, I was hugely disappointed by Ultimate Alliance 2.  I was also looking forward to playing Metal Gear Solid 4 on my brother's PS3 when I got it for him.  I put the disk in and sit there staring at Snake smoking for 10 minutes while the game loads.  A new experience for me in gaming.  Then, still before the game starts, I have to sit through an exercise commercial of all things.  The game finally starts, and Snake, who is a an old veteran mind you, has someone telling him "Don't engage the enemy, hide under that truck while we tell you how to fire a rifle" or something very close to that effect.  Far be it from me to tell an accomplished game designer how to design his game, but couldn't there have been an opening stage tutorial that plays out like a flashback of a younger Snake in boot camp learning how to do these things instead of the paradox of him being dropped into a combat zone in his 50's and being instructed to hide under a truck while his comrades are being blown away in the streets?  Then, out comes these robo-minotaurs that literally "mooo'd" at you.   You are very specifically told not to engage the mooing robo-minotaur, but to run away from it.  And when it is finally defeated, you derive no personal satisfaction from it, because the game does it for you in a cut-scene.  I know that there are people who loved the game and think it's a masterpiece, but to me it's a case of a game trying to bowl you over graphically without anything else mattering.  I would take Metal Gear Solid from PS1 (which I loved) with it's 2 generations old graphics over MGS4 any day.  That's just my opinion anyway.

The Walking Dead

#sarcasm