There are lots of year-end "best of" lists out there. Yeah, this one's more important. If you're planning to pick up some of the 2009 games you missed at the time, avoid these. I wish I had.5. Lord of the Rings: Conquest
Critics didn't give this stinker a lot of love, but it had much better sales than some of the best games of the year, and I can understand why. It's a proven developer with a great franchise license.
The idea was an enticing one: Take the formula that worked so well in the Star Wars Battlefront series and apply it to Lord of the Rings. You and your friends can re-create the epic battles from the films while playing as one of hundreds of warriors on a sprawling battlefield.
Battlefront is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time for a reason. That formula works. Why wouldn't you snap up this game without a second thought? Even the most skeptical gamer expected it to be more of the same, but with Aragorn instead of Luke Skywalker.
It's astounding that it managed to turn out so bad. The presentation is ugly and simplistic - worse than last-generation games that use the same gameplay engine. The controls were changed to a more counterintuitive layout, and it's simply not fun in any way at all.
I wouldn't have thought it was possible for anyone to do so poorly with such a sure thing. But then I played it.
4. Spongebob's Truth or Square
This game didn't get great scores from game critics, but it scored highly enough that some parents could be fooled into thinking this game is playable or watchable.
It isn't.
Here's what I said about it at the time:
The 3D camera hates you, your family, and everything you stand for, and seems to actively try to ruin the game for you by always managing to lock into the worst possible position. ... My 6-year-old, who is a huge fan of the show and has no trouble with far more sophisticated video games, gave up on playing it within minutes. There are segments that even I struggled to finish. Eventually, my son asked to stop watching the game because he was so upset by how often Spongebob was dying.
Read more3. UFC 2009 Undisputed
Several critics picked this mixed martial arts sim as the sports game of the year, and I would agree if it didn't feature one of the most convoluted control schemes in the history of console gaming.
Here's what I said about it at the time:
I'm pretty sure to block a knee strike in a standing clinch you have to hold down the left bumper, the right trigger, make a gentle 75-degree sweeping motion with the right stick, do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around. And when you have dozens of contextual blocks and counters like that to learn for each situation, and have to execute each with split-second timing, that quickly becomes, er, what it's all about.
Read more2. Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood
This highly rated, cinematic old west shooter is a fun game to watch.
Playing it? Not so much.
Here's what I said about it at the time:
The game expects you to know what's coming next and wants you to do it
fast. So you'll find yourself dying and restarting at the most recent checkpoint a lot as you learn the script and figure out what you're supposed to be doing when. ... It's mystifying that Bound In Blood focuses on two brothers, allowing you to choose to play as either one, but does not allow two players to go through the story mode together. That's on the same level of wacky as the Fantastic Four game a couple of years ago that didn't allow four players.
Read more1. Borderlands
There's one way to enjoy the RPG-shooter Borderlands: Online with four friends.
Try to play it any other way, and it's going to be dull, silly, and annoying. In single-player or even two-player splitscreen, the game's many problems, like the poor control scheme, repetitive missions, awful story, and looping, trying-too-hard-to-be-funny dialogue, become a lot more obvious.
It's a decent, multiplayer shooter with an interesting look. Play it with some friends, and you might enjoy it - at least in bursts.
The fact that it's often mentioned among the best games of the year is what makes it the most overrated game of 2009.
