The video gaming industry has evolved to be one of the most lucrative forms of entertainment in the world. Major developers are now dedicating a substantial amount of cash to their projects. Their budget can easily be compared to blockbuster movies, whose numbers are easily past the million mark. Like in the film business, employees are also subjected to the stress of continually delivering state-of-the-art content while maintaining due dates. It may sometimes bring them to release games that are either catastrophic or simply not to the quality that was initially anticipated. Thanks to the web, gamers now act as watchdogs to such practice as they are more alert to pinpoint even the slightest of change in a game.

As such, we’ll take a look at 25 Playstation game that shows why people have trust issues. It would only be fair to talk about it since we’ve all experienced frustration towards an anticipated game, that turned out to be trash (Kinect, I see you). It’s also important to note that the entries are not necessarily PlayStation exclusives, but titles that also came out on Sony platforms. As always, please feel free to share and to leave your impressions, disappointing or not!

25 The Greatest Polygons Of All Time

Even more than 20 years after It’s release, Final Fantasy VII’s still regarded as one of the best JRPG of all-time. Thanks to its popularity, it has spawned an array of complimentary games, which is unusual for a Final Fantasy title. While the FFVII was the first 3D title of the series, many gamers were surprised to see the actual in-game graphics. Before YouTube existed (that’s a long time ago, kids), TV ads were one of the few ways people could watch game trailers.

For FF VII, most of its trailers were only CG cutscenes, which led fans to believe that it was the actual gameplay of the game.

Instead, players were treated with the pre-rendered graphics and the polygonal figures that formed VII’s gameplay. Despite that, its story and characters were enough to make it up for the misleading graphics.

24 Aliens: Downgraded

If you’re searching for the most misleading game of all time, then Aliens: Colonial Marines is the perfect answer. The game was such a letdown that It stemmed a lawsuit from a group of gamers against its publisher Sega. Again, false advertising was the main cause of it. Back in the original E3 2012 demo showcase, the game looked very graphically detailed. Unfortunately, the final product was far from the eighth-generation specs as It looked more like a high definition version of a PSP game. The game was critically panned by game reviewers, and the Sega canceled its intended Wii U port. Good thing the classic Aliens movies make us forget about the game.

23 No Fun Sky

If we were to compare video games with politics, No Man’s Sky would have been easily elected with false promises and unreachable expectations. When developer Hello Games was demonstrating the game during Sony’s E3 2014 Conference, It was shown that players could fully engage itself in the limitless planets and that factions could even be created with other players. When No Man’s Sky finally released on the PS4, players were massively disappointed by its content. While the game kept his word about the endless planets,

the gameplay was merely repetitive and didn’t offer the same features that were initially promised.

Furthermore, players criticized the lack of multiplayer elements in the game. Players reactions were so adverse that even the UK Advertising Standards Authority launched an investigation on the game.

22 From A Fan-Favorite To A Pretty Boy

For numerous fans of the series, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty is the pinnacle game of the Metal Gear franchise; to me, Its the worst of it. Yes, the game was a significant step to the iconic Metal Gear Solid game, with better graphics and a far more advanced plot, but It also misled many gamers to believe that Solid Snake would’ve been the sole protagonist. Before the game release, the promotional media predominantly featured Snake, in different visible locations.

After being released, players were shocked to know that they’d only control Snake, for the prologue of the game.

They would instead get to play Raiden, a blond-haired mercenary that acts more like a pretty boy than anything else. Metal Gear series creator would later be revealed that he intentionally hid Raiden from the promo of the game.

21 Dude, Is She Into Me? I Can’t Tell!

The Mass Effect franchise is not uncommon to controversy: Mass Effect 2 was plagued with bugs and crashes, and Mass Effect 3’s ending was intensely criticized by players. Unsurprisingly, its latest title, Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) followed the same trend. While the game was a commercial success,

it was heavily criticized for the characters’ facial animation and models.

They do not get visually emotional when required to, and their body movements are relatively limited. While a few patches managed to address part of the issues, the game is far from completing solving all of them. Mass Effect: Andromeda has to be one of the most disappointing video games in gaming history — for shame, EA.

20 United We Fell

Two Assassin’s Creed game on this list is not a very good look for Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed: Unity came as the next installment after the Colonial Era timeline. There were much hype and expectation as It was also the first Assassin’s Creed to be played in 4-player co-op. Sadly, the game failed to deliver for many reasons.

Unity was mostly filled with bugs and frame-rate latency.

It’s infamous “no face glitch” even became a meme sensation on the Web. Though Ubisoft corrected most of its issues with patches, there have been many awkward gaffes that ensued, shortly after Unity’s release. For instance, Ubisoft imposed an embargo for reviewers to release the game reviews, only 12 hours after its release—which is unusual for a developer to make such a request. If you ask any hardcore fan of the series about their impressions of Unity, the chances are that they’d just walk past you.

19 From A Gun To A Fishing Rod

As of now, gamers know the particular story of Final Fantasy XV. Being in development limbo for ten years, the game was altered so much that It even switched from being part of the Fabula Nova Chrystallis project to being a stand-alone entry. Despite that, XV released to critical acclaim and ended up being in many reviewers’ top-games’ lists of 2016. Players were also hyped that the game would feature some Play Station VR connectivity. Sadly, they were met with disappointment. During E3 2016,

Square Enix released a trailer, revealing that gamers would be able to play as the gunslinger Prompto, in VR mode.

The feature was also reported to be free of charge. While gamers were excited about the upcoming feature, the developer instead pulled the plug on the initial project. Their excuse: Prompto VR was merely a tech-demo for the PSVR. We won’t forget that insult anytime soon, SquareEnix.

18 Sold Their Souls For Graphics

The Souls games are relatively well-known thanks to their fantasy-medieval setting, RPG gameplay, and challenging difficulty. Dark Souls (2011) was released to critical acclaim, which prompted developer From Software to create a follow-up game, Dark Souls II (2014). When they unveiled their debut gameplay trailer, the graphics and the lighting of the environment were visually impressive. When the game finally released on consoles, players have noticed the graphics being majorly downgraded.

According to the developer, “resource management” was the main reason for the downgrade. Though the explanation is a bit vague, it may suggest that they decided to choose quality over graphics, as the console might’ve not been able to adequately withstand the game (lag issues, frame rate issues, etc.). Regardless, Dark Souls II was still critically acclaimed by the media and another sequel, Dark Souls III (2016).

17 Division X Blurriness = Mess

The Division was a highly anticipated third-person shooter game when it was first unveiled, back at E3 2013. The public was so charmed by its high-end PC like graphics and squad-based gameplay, that the game’s success was nothing but assured. When Ubisoft released the game two years later, the game didn’t have the same lust as its previous acclaimed trailer.

Though the game retained its squad-based shooter, the graphics were significantly downgraded.

While the trailer’s graphics displayed the environment in a very detailed way, the end product’s graphics were simply too mushy and condensed. Furthermore, many features were also misleading. For instance, the game promised a global PvP experience to players in the Dark Zone. Instead, players are in limited rooms and must aim to gain and extract powerful weapons from powerful foes.

16 Oh, Catherine…

Out of every game that I own, Catherine is probably the most deceptive of my collection. When Atlus first announced the title, most gamers were surprised. While the developer is mostly known for their unorthodox JRPGs (primarily for its Persona series), no one expected them to release such a “revealing” mature-rated game. What’s more surprising is that it’s not even that “sort” of grown-up game you initially thought it would be.

In the numerous trailers of Catherine, the videos are mostly highlighted by artful cutscenes of Vincent’s love triangle, without any clear indication of how the game would play. As players mostly expected it to be an entirely interactive drama title, it turned out to be a “bizarre” puzzle game. While the game also keeps a certain interactive content, It was a hard pill to swallow for gamers.

15 Don’t Watch Me Dawg, Watch TV!

Watchdog’s concept is unique in its genre. In a nutshell, the player is put in the open-world of Chicago and must mainly master the art of hacking and stealth, to progress in the game. When It was first announced in E3 2012, the in-game graphics suggested being of next-gen quality. When the game released two years later,

players noticed a significant graphics downgrade, compared to its E3 demo.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot later admitted the changes and promised to showcase games as expected on the affected consoles. Despite that, the game was a commercial success as the company sold more than 10 million units. It’s a bit baffling, really, but the video game’s success sale-wise did permit them to make a much stronger sequel.

14 The Misguided Path Of Final Fantasy XIII

Hardcore gamers will remember E3 2006 as a legendary expo. The PlayStation 3’s final design was officially unleashed, and Konami finally revealed the first look of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots. Its other most significant announcement was the long-awaited Final Fantasy entry, Final Fantasy XIII. Mostly charmed by its interactive gameplay and stunning visuals, expectations were high for XIII as critics often claimed that it would bring the series to a new level. Little did we know that It would’ve brought it six-feet under.

When the game released in 2009, many fans were shocked about the gameplay changes. While players would initially get to move while attacking, and create mase bonus chain attacks, these features were later tweaked to classic ones. Alternately, characters movement are reminiscent of previous Final Fantasy titles, and the masse bonus chain attacks were replaced with a chain bonus gauge that could only target one enemy at a time.

13 That Time When Ubisoft Toyed With Us

The Assassin’s Creed series has forever impacted the video game sphere with its innovative parkour gameplay and stealth approach. When the game was first presented in 2006, It showcased much of its concept and medieval setting. Its other video trailers did the same, while accurately displaying the gameplay.

When people got to play the first minutes of Assassin’s Creed, they were shocked to find that the game was set in a futuristic setting.

Indeed, Ubisoft has never revealed the sci-fi part of the gameplay. Instead, the main protagonist is Desmond Miles, a bartender who has been captured by the modern Templar, due to its Assassin’s bloodline. The game then switches to Altair, as depicted in the trailer. While It doesn’t impact the core gameplay, It would’ve still been nice to be aware of it.

12 Another One Bites The Dust

Oh Ubisoft, when will you learn from your mistakes?! Rainbow Six Siege is one of the company’s latest gaffes. The game was first unveiled at E3 2014. In the demo, the graphics were shown to be very polished and sharp. In the released version of Rainbow Six Siege, the graphics have been majorly downgraded, and the vivid colors have disappeared from the game. Heck, even the sound effects of the game sound dull compared to the rich sound of the original demo. I pray that Ubisoft won’t use that vile method for E3 2018. That’s too many now! Granted, Rainbow Six Siege finally turned things around —not visually mind you— and made it a beloved video game among its community of players.

11 Why Would I Include A Werewolf In My Game?

Let it be known, but the last Sonic title I’ve enjoyed playing was Sonic Heroes; It was 15 years ago. Since then, Sega has failed continuously to develop enjoyable titles for the last three generations of consoles. Its closest attempt at revitalizing the series was Sonic Unleashed. When Sega released the first trailer of the game, many fans were excited as it seemed to return to the root of the series, with its fast-paced action. When the game came out with the subsequent videos of the game, the reception was mostly negative. Why? Because of Sonic’s infamous Werehog form.

While players were initially expected only to use the Blue Hedgehog, they learned that Sonic could only be used in the daylight segment of the game.

Werehog can only be used in the nighttime period, but he’s considerably slower than Sonic. As anticipated, the game received negative review when it was released, as Werehog’s mechanics were mostly criticized.

10 A Sense Of Duty, But Not Of Honor

It is fair to say that the Call Of Duty franchise is perhaps one of the most popular FPS series in the video game universe. While It has traversed throughout different historical eras, we’ll originally remember the series for its World War II setting. Call of Duty II is a perfect embodiment of this. The game was critically acclaimed mostly for its visuals and gameplay. However, the game was also subjected to controversy. In 2006, Call of Duty developer Activision was accused of false advertising due to a misleading TV commercial that they released.

The ad featured graphics that were greater than the official product.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority even ordered Activision to take down the commercial off-the-air. Though the game sold more than six million copies worldwide, this saga will forever haunt Activision.

9 Capcom-O-Nomic

Though the game featured two of the most iconic fighting video-game franchises, Street Fighter X Tekken didn’t live up to its hype. While the game was positively received, It suffered from its sales with only 1.8 million copies sold. Its biggest con: toying with the fan’s trust.

Data miners discovered that post-launch DLC characters were already included in the original game disk.

In other words, players would be forced to pay for characters that are already included in the disc. Players criticized Capcom for not being fair to players who expected to use the full disk content. Capcom would respond by claiming they purposely left the files to save hard drive space. Yeah right, Capcom!

8 The Mega Man That Never Was

One of Capcom’s regrettable mistakes was to neglect its Mega Man franchise, in the last recent years. It was one of the main reasons why people decided to crowdfund Mighty No.9. With a project helmed by Mega Man creator Keiji Inafune, you’d think there would be little room for failure, right? Well, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The game was a total disaster for many reasons. For starters, the game was delayed continuously by Inafune, which frustrated fans. Once the game finally released, gamers were instead treated to a different experience than the initial Mega Man feeling they were promised. Instead, the game was relatively less challenging than the Blue Bomber series—which is known for its hard difficulty, and its artwork didn’t impress players enough. In the end, Mighty No.9 will forever be known as another failure to revive the Mega Man era. You’d be best to play Shovel Knight, for now, kids!

7 Thumbs Down, Soldier

Since its debut entry in the PlayStation 2, the Killzone series has been one of the most popular IP on Sony consoles. When Killzone 2 was announced at E3 2005, players were treated to a gameplay trailer which showed incredible graphics and fluidity. While fans responded positively, many game critics found it impossible for the game to be running at such a resolution. Though Sony initially denied it, they later admitted that the trailer was only a pre-rendered video that served as a tech demo for the PS3. When the game finally released in 2009, it significantly differed from its original trailer.

Don’t get me wrong, Killzone 2 is still an overall gorgeous game, and it provided me hours of couch fun. In the end, Killzone 2 was still critically acclaimed by reviewers and is often considered a strong contender for the best PS3 shooter game.

6 I Thought The Order 1886 Was A Movie

The Order 1886 was a game with so much potential. It’s 19th century Victorian-era London setting, and Its graphic seemed to add a unique feel for gamers to experience. When the gameplay was first showcased in E3 2014, players believed that the game had a strong emphasis on action mechanics, such as shooting and quick-time events. However, the game was not what players initially anticipated. Instead of the heavily focused action gameplay, the game is mostly consisting of cutscenes and passive gameplay, where players must head to a location. Even the gameplay didn’t feel great as the shooting seemed very sluggish. In the end, The Order 1886 is a good game, but not that good.