Phantom Hourglass. Holy @#$% I hated that game.

Also, Morrowind. I hear all these great things about it online and from friends, but I hated it when I actually started playing, empty world, nothing to do, ugly graphics, worst @#$%ing combat system, boring quests, terrible world/city design.

I LOVE Oblivion though, unlike almost everyone else on the internet... 

Assassin's Creed was indeed a let down. It could have been a lot better because I loved the art, the historical settings, and the premise of the story. Puzzle Quest doesn't offer any compelling quest. I can't force myself to play Yoshi Island DS unless I live on a desert island.

With so many disappointing games (for me anyway), I tend to be overly cautious about purchasing a game. This is especially because I rarely sell my used game.

Buying a game feels like making a commitment. If I don't like a game and don't play it, I'll feel guilty about wasting money. So I force myself to play it anyway, then I wonder why the fuck I'm torturing myself with it. It's like a double bind - wasting money or doing a chore.

It kind of makes you wonder - how do you know beforehand whether you'll really like the game you're buying.

There really is no good way. Reviews give me some rough idea of what's what, but I often end up seriously disagreeing with their lax standards. Game forums are filled with hypes (and anti-hypes).

One thing I do is that, when a lot of people rave about a game, I usually ignore most of them and instead pay closer attention to those who, in the middle of hypestorm, dare to explain why s/he didn't like it. I only have so much disposable income for gaming after all.

Gears of War. Hated every second of it. Got halfway through and ebayed the game.

A lot of games mentioned in this thread are some of my favorites, including Odin Sphere, RE4, and Twilight Princess. I chose not to comment on others opinions though. Big hyped games are going to have people who hate them, no matter what.

I'm glad you mentioned that before me, I didn't want to be the first to mention Mario Galaxy. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the game (my favorite level is the Sweet Tooth Galaxy) but it got a bit tedios in the last third of the game or so and even though I liked the begining levels it has no replay value to me.

I'm pretty good usually to not get dissapointed in games but I was slightly with Zelda. I had all the Zeldas up to Ocarina of Time and skipped MM because of money and the GC because of FF10 and the PS2 and I come back to Twilight Princess and there is even less voice acting in it than there was in OoT. It is 2008 Nintendo, you can at least give voices to other people if you don't want Link to talk, and the gay Adam Sandler in Waterboy smile he gives in response to people was nasious.

edit: btw, is it to much to ask to give mario a decent camera?  most of my deaths in that game were because I didn't know where I was going to land when I jumped. 

idk Ubisoft's Wii support.

Zing!