Assassins Creed 2... Don't even really know why, but every time I pick up the controller and boot the game up, all I can think is..."blergh"

@OmegaX: I really loved Alpha Protocol :) It sure didn't (IMO) deserve all the bashing it got by the critics and I would love to see the sequel. But sadly it's quite unlikely they ever make one.

Totally worth it for the non-FLUDD levels. Is that even what the water pack was called? Can't remember anymore.

I was also very disappointed with Bioshock. For me, though, it wasn't so much the shooting bits I didn't like (although they weren't particularly great) but actually the plot and atmosphere. It was weird, because everyone was saying that the game was steeped in atmosphere and had a really good plot, but I didn't find the characters to be believable at all, and the level design felt like a video game, not a real place. I pushed through to the end but it didn't get any better.

Also, it was annoying how similar it was to System Shock 2. I am OK with the game not being System Shock 2, but when every single mechanic was so clearly taken straight from that game, from the hacking, to the voice logs you find lying around, to the villian who keeps talking to you, it just stressed how System Shock 2 did every one of those things way, way better.

That's usually the danger with Me-Too Syndrome.

Theoretically, it's by the same people who made System Shock 2, so I was hoping for more of an evolution of that style of game. Instead it was a far inferior rehash.

Correction: That's the danger about claiming to be a spiritual successor. It will bone you badly if you don't live up, and given nostalgia's effects this can be very hard to achieve. I only played the Bioshock demo on 360, it played like crap, didn't feel so bad for having missed it on PC (due to boycott).

A few:
Dragon Age: I'm a huge Baldur's Gate fan and I heard spiritual successor from Bioware. How could I not want to love this thing? It was everything I had been hoping for since finishing Throne of Bhaal 5 years ago. That is except for the excessive dungeon crawling, bad writing, total lack of caring for any of the characters except Liliana and Shale, and DLC IN THE MAIN FUCKING CAMP.

X3: The concept sounds amazing, I get to enjoy a huge universe and can build a trading empire or become a mercenary. Well... I get into the game after reading the manual and am completely lost. A learning curve is something I can handle but this game doesn't even have a learning curve, it has a wall.

Morrowind: I hear all the praise about this game and know I should like it. But I don't because of the combat. It is a bloody chore to do anything and makes me scratch my head as to how someone can stomach it.

Fable...It's just so damn awful.

Doom 3... I really wanted to like this, but when I tried all i felt was so very bored... how many shades of gray corridors is it possible to make? why does it look like every NPC is made out of Plasticine? yawn, oh look - an imp teleported behind me, and again, and again... thinking about the design and gameplay of original Doom - this is not even halfway there.

Also GTA IV - where has all the fun gone?

That's the thing though... I was expecting Bioshock to be different from System Shock 2. It's not that I was looking for more System Shock and it didn't measure up, I was looking for something new but instead I got a poor imitation of System Shock 2. Every single thing in the game reminded me of System Shock 2. It was impossible to ignore. I wanted to treat it as its own game, but every few seconds it was reminding me how the things I was doing had been in System Shock 2, and were way better in that game.

And I actually only played System Shock 2 for the first time about a year ago, so it's not purely nostalgia.

One of the most overrated game I have ever seen.

I didn't play System Shock 2 until after I played Bioshock, and yeah, I agree that Bioshock really does come off as a shiny plastic imitation. It is System Shock 2 - just without most of what made System Shock 2 so good.

Bioshock is sort of like a Silly Putty impression of SS2: although instantly recognizable, it's really just a ghost of the original.

E.T. on the Atari 2600. I was a huge fan of the movie. But, even as a ten-year-old, I knew that games was a complete and utter PoS.

Of a somewhat more recent vintage, Medieval II: Total War. I really, really wanted to like the game. It seemingly had everything I enjoy. But somethig felt...I don't know...lacking. I just couldn't get emotionally invested in it. I wish I could be more specific about why it falls short for me.

BUT IT BOUNCES.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Seriously, honestly, I have tried maybe a dozen times to play this game, and only twice have I been able to play it for longer than two days. I love the concept, I love the atmosphere, but I just can't get into it. Part of it is the combat. I don't like the real-time behind-the-scenes dice roll thingy. Still, I've tried so many times, and I want so much to like it, but I just can't. Oh, and I've never been able to get a level higher than two. I'm not complaining, though, as it is most definitely my fault.

This also happens with strategy games in general. I've only ever finished two (Company of Heroes and Halo Wars), but I've tried several others that I wanted to like, but couldn't get into them. Part of it is most likely the fact that I stink, but the rest of it... I don't know, actually.