Top 3 Most Disappointing Xbox 360 Purchases

Probably what I did anytime I lost a receipt

     Disappointing purchases, we as consumers have all had them. It not that something is always bad, its more of just it wasn't what you expected, and thus you're annoyed you spent a certain amount of money on it. It make you want to tear your hair out, smash your laptop, rip a hole in the space time continuum and then eat a chicken taco (not necessarily in that order). Its not even that you bought something bad, hell you could still end up enjoying it, its just you wish you looked into it harder or you should've waited til it was on sale or something. Keep that in mind throughout this list as many games I post here I probably put a lot of time into and generally enjoyed, I just wasn't truly satisfied that I bought it.

#3: Turok

not an N64 classic sadly

      I've heard many people call this a terrible shooter, but honestly I disagree. I thought all in all it was a fair well rounded shooter with enough variety to help me make it all the way through til the final boss fight (which I never ended up beating). However; loose controls, a short campaign and frustrating difficulty made me feel upset over the $5 I spent on this game. I bought Rainbow Six: Vegas that very same day and it was disappointing transitioning between the games, epically since I had much higher hopes for Turok (since I assumed Vegas would end up being pretty much a first person GRAW). When I got this game, I had five FPSs in my 360 collection (excluding Rainbow Six). Turok sadly lacked the fluid shooting of COD: WAW, the open ended levels of Far Cry Instincs: Predator, the bot matches of Perfect Dark: Zero, and the simple fun of Soldier of Fortune: Payback. In the end it was a game I did almost complete, but I eventually lost interest in it once I got other games. I ended up gifting it to someone a year after I bought it. Sadly the person who got it didn't even give it a chance.

#2: Mirror's Edge

Proof of concept, nothing more

      This is another fairly controversial game when it came to reception. Many people believe its unique concept pushes past whatever flaw it may have. Other however feel the small package and limited gameplay hurt it too much for salvation. I'm closer to the later half of the group sadly. I bought this game during a "buy 2 get 1 free" sale on used games back in April of 2012. I wanted to do a semi-theme for some reason so I ended up buy three games with female main characters; this, FFX-2 and Resident Evil: Zero. I had extremely high hopes for this games, as I was growing sick of the slow, stereotypical first person action games I owned, and I was getting back into platformers, so I felt this game would be perfect. Hell even before I had a next gen console I saw commercials for this game and thought it looked amazing. Sadly all these good feelings were not meant to last. I honestly did have a good time with the game for a little bit, but after a while it sort of fell into a funk. The free running was far to linear and the combat was awful. I tried to compare it to Breakdown, a 2003 Xbox game that had a heavy focus on a realistic first person perspective, and honestly it didn't really stack up. I believe I just totally gave up at a section where you had to run up a building, since it was slow and not very exciting at all.

Special Hardware Mention

     "Sigh" I don't know what I was thinking buying this piece of crap. I was always worried I would get a Red Ring of Death the entire time I had my console, so in early Summer of 2013 I ended purchasing one of these cooling fans at a pawnshop for around $6. All this thing did was make my console louder than a freaking lawn mower. I even went online and found out these things actually increase the chances of getting a Red Ring by draining power from the console. Probably the most infamous moments with this thing was when I downloaded Assassin's Creed 2 in July of that year, and then Sleeping Dogs in January of 2014. The later was even funnier since I was playing my PS2 while it was downloading and I actually had to turn my TV up to hear my game!
     Also for an honorable mention we have a headset I purchased in December of 2011 for $14 at Radioshack. This was a third party one and for months it was pretty much useless since I didn't have Live Gold (or even a wireless adapter). When I finally got a wireless adapter, I was using it for the first time one a free Gold weekend playing Halo: Reach and GRAW. It worked perfectly fine that night (I even got yelled at by a 12 year old for singing). Flash forward to the next day and the thing didn't work at all. $14 and 7 months of waiting all for nothing.

#1: Stoked: Big Air Edition

The title was not how I felt

      Remember how I said most games on this list would be games I generally enjoyed? Yeah this one is the exception to that. I do want to make sure that I say its not really a BAD game, it was just not my things at all. This is a very sim based snowboarding game. So much so that I got bored with it very quickly and ran up to my Gamecube to play some more 1080 Avalanche. But the most disappointing thing about this game was that I ended up paying a disturbingly high $15 at Gamestop. Before this the most I spent on a game was $20, and that was because I bought it off of a friend (it was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood). To make matters worse, the not much different regular version was only $5 and this version went down to $5 a few months later. So I ended up spending a decent amount on a game I didn't put more than 10 hours into. For the same price I could've afford up to four of the other games I eventually ended up adding to my collection. Again this was honestly not a bad game, and it even had some features I really liked (a pretty sweet soundtrack, nice graphics, open world mountains) but it was not at all what I expected. I almost ended up selling it in the Summer of 2012, but at the last minute I backed out. I did try to give it another try multiple times, but nothing made it better. That is why Stoked: Big Air Edition was the most disappointing game I bought for the Xbox 360.

Number 9: Tomb Raider: Underworld

Finding the cover for this game was a pain

    Some might consider a game that I probably didn't put more than 15 or so hours into within the 3 years I owned it an odd choice for this top ten. Hell it even beat out the previous entry, which I have far more time put into. Probably the reason I didn't put too much time into this was because I got a shooter and a racing game the same time (along with three gamecube games). Pretty much every one of the other five games I purchased that day had more pick up and play value than Lara's adventure. But I'll get onto that later, here is the number nine spot.
     Tomb Raider: Underworld is an action adventure game released in 2008 on the 360, PS3 and PC (in more or less the same form) as well as the Wii, PS2, mobile phones and DS (which vary in faithfulness to the HD versions). It is the third game in the Crystal Dynamics reboot trilogy of the former PlayStation classic. Being a direct sequel to "Legend" the game picks off around where its predecessor left off. From there is plays off in a series of flashbacks (starting I believe two weeks before the into training mission). Basic gameplay elements include platforming through complex levels, puzzles, and combat.

its a balancing act deary

     This is a game in the franchise that time seems to have recently forgotten about. People will often think about the PS1 classics, Legends, and the 2013 reboot. This was the first strictly next gen installment into the series, and it seemed to have garnished mixed reviews due to its sort of half gen feel. By that I mean many elements feel "next gen" while others didn't exactly feel new, original, or fresh. Thankfully, Crystal Dynamics gave the players a backstory feature, so players who didn't get to Legend two years prior could know what going on. My biggest complaint about the game would have to be its glitches however. There seemed to be times where Lara would get stuck in an area and you would have to sort of jiggle the thumbstick to get her out. Hopefully that wouldn't happen over a huge ledge, or you'd be done for. An area I had no complaints on was the audio/video presentation. The graphics in this game were, and still are excellent to me. Beautiful complicated vistas are the game's specialty, and it makes sure you get a front row seat to the view. Character models are also wonderful, even if a little more dated than the environments. Your ears get some sweet candy as well, with film quality music and superb voice acting. Guns are loud and the creatures you fight sounds wonderfully convincing.

a vista not unlike this one

     I purchased this game in April of 2011. This was in the first batch of 360 games I bought outside of the two that came with my console. Its worth noting I bought these around 14 hours away from my hometown on a beautiful spring thunderstorm. Come to think of it, the memory of buying the game could almost be considered my best with it. Honestly this game seems to hold a place in my heart for the memory of that Summer, as it was pretty much felt like my last true childhood Summer. I remember getting home from one of my last days of Sophomore year and turning this game on, stuck at a part with a huge green and grey vista in front of Lara, not unlike the weather we were having that muggy June day. Had to stop playing for an hour to talk to a friend of mine on the phone.All these superficial memories may make it sound like I didn't enjoy the gameplay, but its quit the opposite. I've been dying to play this game ever since I got rid of my console, and I'm thinking of rebuying it on the PS3. Tomb Raider is one of those franchises I grew up with (which might be why, unlike many people, I have a hard time looking at Lara as a sex object) and getting this game resparked the interest in the franchise that I lost by playing Tomb Raider 4 on the Dreamcast (....just don't do it). Its a wonderful franchise, and its persistence is generally why Underworld is number 9 on this list.