It is often easy to see gaming’s successes, they are well covered in the media, receive accolades and high review scores alike and their achievements are spread throughout the gaming community. It may be more beneficial, therefore, to focus on some of the industry’s more vexing occurrences so that one may avoid such pitfalls and the subsequent loss of their pocketbook contents. Consider then my top five most disappointing developments in gaming of the past year; they are either games that failed to deliver on the promise and potential of the franchise, or video game fads that were lauded to change the industry but perhaps only did so for the worse. Let us know your thoughts on my picks as they are by no means fact, but rest merely in the domain of personal perception.

[UPDATE: Switched out FFXIII for Duke Nukem Forever. Thanks to those who pointed out our release date oversight.]

For years the idea of a next-gen Duke Nukem had fascinated the gaming community. Originally announced in 1997 as the sequel to the immensely popular Duke Nukem 3D, its successor ended up being in development for almost 15 years, switching developers and publishers in the process. After lawsuits, boastful teaser trailers, repeated delays and intermittent years of silence, the game was finally released in North America on June 14, 2011. In truth it was hard to imagine any other outcome, but the game looked and played like a last generation title. The visuals lacked detail and polish while the gameplay was utterly derivative and unsophisticated. It was obvious that the incredibly long production cycle and change in development team had taken its tole. In the end it was the fans who were hurt the most, as many years of patience were rewarded by a lackluster game not worth anyone’s time or money.

Remember that whole thing about mobile gaming supplanting console gaming? Well I am not saying it will never happen, with Apple’s iOS devices and the many different Android tablets and phones offering more and more bite-sized gaming the video game landscape will never look the same again. Where Sony went off the deep end is by thinking they could offer a viable handheld gaming experience bundled with a cell phone without making adjustments for the limitations of the platform. The Xperia Play was never going to beat the PSP’s graphics, nor was it going to attract the same development talent found on the Nintendo DSi. It also failed to adapt gameplay for the portable medium it represented, as Apple had done so successfully with its iOS platforms. Although Sony Ericsson was never forthcoming with the phone’s sales figures, about two months into its launch, the total worldwide downloads of its fledgling game library were numbered in the mere thousands. Unsurprisingly, most people have since gone back to their iPhones…

This is likely one of my more controversial picks ? Uncharted 3 ended up with an aggregate score of 9.5 for crying out loud! Uncharted 2 is even one of my top 3 all-time favoruite PS3 games, it just got so many things right and improved dramatically on what was already a great game. For me Uncharted 3 feels like a step back for the series. The story is predictable, it’s immediately obvious that this time around we’re visiting Drake’s past, which doesn’t offer the most dramatic of revelations. The same likable characters are still there, however just as in the previous games we are after a historic treasure that proves to be something completely different from what was expected. Worse yet, the superbly refined gameplay from Uncharted 2 was defaced with a stubborn, less-responsive camera, jerky character control, frustrating gameplay sequences and a tendency toward glitchy animation. Don’t get me wrong, what remains still stands head and shoulders above the majority of games out there, but I will always compare a sequel to previous games in the series. So, considering the pedigree of this franchise, Uncharted 3 is a huge disappointment when “bigger and better” was the only acceptable result.

I boldly and incorrectly, predicted the new Nintendo 3DS would set all kinds of sales records and set a new standard for handheld gaming. After all, with each subsequent Game Boy or DS release, Nintendo reached new highs in both hardware and game sales. With the 3DS promising enhanced graphics and being the first mass-market device to offer glasses-less 3D, I thought it would naturally become another Nintendo success story. First released in Japan in February 2011, it took the company almost four months to reach 1 million sales domestically. The biggest culprit contributing to lackluster initial sales were a hefty price tag and an incredibly poor launch lineup of games. The average aggregate score of the 3D’s launch line up is a mere 6.6 and included none of the strong Nintendo-developed titles (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land and Starfox 64 3D) promised to the public close to the console’s launch. Nintendo had to make some hefty corrections which included a significant price cut from $249.99 to $169.99 a mere 7 months after launching the console in Japan and rushing to release the aforementioned Nintendo titles to market. In the end it worked, sales took a huge boost and a year after its release the 3DS domestically sold more units than the Wii or DS had after having been on the market for 52 weeks. Whether that counts as a true success I would call into question, slashing prices to the point of incurring losses and once again taking the reigns in software development to compensate for disappointing third party support is hardly worth celebrating. The console’s longevity will have to be proven over time and will almost certainly be strained by a possible lack of quality software titles and the looming threat of mobile gaming.

“Wait a minute!” I can hear you yell, “Motion gaming wasn’t introduced in 2011!” You would be right, motion gaming came into the limelight when the Nintendo Wii was launched near the end of 2006. However as this sub-genre in gaming continued to evolve and receive additions in the form of Sony’s PlayStation Move (launched in September 2010) and Microsoft’s Kinect (introduced on November 2010), the hype increased. During last year’s E3 conference Sony and especially Microsoft appealed to core gamers by promising to incorporate Kinect and Move support into more established gaming franchises instead of titles geared toward the casual crowd. It is a song and dance that has been in the air for a long time and has never been delivered upon. Customizing weapons in the latest Ghost Recon title by making simple hand gestures or flinging lightning bolts by making a throwing motion in a new Fable title looks great, but so far all these have proven to be are tech demos. When we were promised realistic lightsaber action we got Kinect: Star Wars (aggregate review score 5.6), when we were promised one-to-one motion tracking we got The Fight: Lights Out (aggregate review score 4.6). There have been some exceptions, mostly in sports compilation games, but for the core gamers motion gaming has been as pointless as the male nipple. Here’s hoping that 2012 will bring some of that lustre back to the gaming market that has quickly fading over the past couple of years.