Games I Recommend People Avoid

Below is a list of games I have played that I recommend people avoid. I don't mean like, "I started playing it and I didn't like it so I stopped." I mean I played these games in their entirety. I've done the whole thing. I've completed all of the achievements/trophies. In essence, I know a little something about what I'm talking about.

Sure, I might have a bit different taste when it comes to these sorts of things, so you may have a bit different experience with them than I did, but if they're on this list, there's a pretty good reason.

	Ben-Hur (Xbox One) Okay, I'm going to start off by saying that this was a free promotional tie-in to a movie of the same name. I'm going to further say that while you can't download this any longer, for those of you who did and never started the game, you're going to be doing yourself a disservice by wasting your time. The game is somewhat glitchy and super short, which is a shame because how many chariot racing games set in ancient Rome have you played?
	Bulb Boy (Xbox One) This adventure game is has zero charm, clunky controls, and an abundance of horrifying gross out moments all while trying to appear somewhat kid friendly. There were tons of times in this game where it felt like the makers of this game had no idea what their target audience was, trying to maintain a silly cartoon like atmosphere yet somehow squeezing in as many horrifying depictions of violence and bodily functions as possible, all the while somehow managing to make it as boring as possible. I had to drag my way through this game, and I wouldn't recommend to anyone else.
	Burly Men at Sea (Playstation 4 / Vita) Okay, so at first this one wasn't so bad. You play as a group of three burly men who go to sea, obviously. Then you get eaten by a whale, which I suppose isn't all that great. From there, it's a choose your own adventure style game where you try to get every ending possible, leading you back to the same island where you started so you can get eaten by the whale again. It's also a bit boring, though it does have one thing going for it that I found interesting: all of the sound effects and music in the game were done a capella style with human voices. That at least made it somewhat interesting while it put me to sleep.
	Elea NEW! (Xbox One) An adventure game about a woman who joined an interstellar expedition to find out what happened to her husband... I think. The main problem here is that the game just about as buggy as it is boring. Several times you're given inane tasks with little direction on how to do them in seemingly disjointed, unorganized environments, and it feels like the developers could couldn't animate a person to save their lives (which is why you almost never see another person actually move), nor give them convincing voice overs (I swear one character was literally Alexa told to read a single line). Serve that up with a heavy dose of bizarre moments like flying space dolphins and you have an experience that is... bad. It's also supposed to be the first episode in a series, which means that even if you enjoy the narrative you won't have any sort of resolution by the end.
	NORTH (Xbox One) The gist of this game is that you are an immigrant trying to jump through all of the legal hoops to become a citizen in an oppressive, Orwellian country on an alien world. You don't speak the language, you have no directions to follow, you don't know what your next step is. While this could have made for an interesting game, it suffers from all manors of issues. The environments are either overly dark to the point of them being a chore to navigate them, or bright eyesores that a long and annoying seeming for the heck of it.
	One Leaves (Xbox One / Windows 10) Yes, its another free game. Yes, its basically a walking sim, and yes, its really bad. While the idea behind it is somewhat noble (its an anti-smoking campaign game), it has hilariously bad controls and surprisingly ugly visuals for a game built on the Unreal (2?) engine. The idea is four people are trapped in a maze, racing to find the exit in order to leave; the first to the door wins, everyone else gets stuck in the maze forever. While the concept is a decent premise and the game is an okay challenge for a playthrough or two (it's pretty short), the game suffers largely from the necessity to make TWENTY successful runs (and one unsuccessful run) in order to complete the game.
	The Park (Xbox One) A walking sim through a dilapidated theme park, where you play a woman with mental health issues as she searches for her lost son and fights her inner demons. While somewhat better than another walking sim about mental health issues further on in this list (The Town of Light,) it still suffers from some random bugs, some super long loop sections, and a horrible ending.
	Past Cure (Xbox One) This buggy dumpster fire of a game is one of the first I would tell anyone to avoid. The sad thing about this is that it could have turned out passable with only a little bit more polish in regards to controls and lighting effects. The story was there, the game play ideas and mechanics were there, the graphics were mostly there (when they would load), but it all falls apart when execution comes into play, typically resulting in your own butt getting handed to you repeatedly for hours until you somehow manage to get past a single point in the game.
	Rememoried (Xbox One) Okay, look. I like to try out indie games. I really do. Some of the more abstract weird ones I can handle. This one... well, this one went above and beyond. I had no idea what was going on or what I was even trying to do. Not one single clue. I think it was a puzzle game at times, I'm not sure. There were times where simply turning to look at something could change everything about the entire level, and other times it wouldn't do a thing. Even when I beat the game I still was left with a huge question mark about what I just played. Even now I wonder what this game was even about, and I completed the sucker.
	Spencer (Xbox One) It's a platformer. You're a box with a face. The box is named Spencer. You jump, you avoid enemies, you collect things, then you exit the level. Super simple, right? Well yeah, along with everything else about this game. The level designs are simple, the enemies are simple, the premise is simple, the story is none existent. It would be a simple kid's platforming game, if it weren't so frustratingly dumb. Your hit box (you know, the area around you that supposedly tells the game whether or not you got hit) is about twice your size, which is stupid because you're literally a square. All the designers had to do was line up the square that is Spencer with the hit box. But no, they made it huge. Then there is the gameplay, which is not only monotonous, but there is a ton of levels that have little to no variation aside from the background and some walls. Do yourself a favor and just avoid this one.
	Things on Wheels (Xbox 360 Arcade) There's something about racing games that makes me avoid them most of the time. Very few of them make me want to play them again, mostly because of the way the AI in these sorts of games have near perfect driving skills that make beating them a chore. This game is no exception in that regard, so in that case it's pretty typical. However, the game also suffers from some horrid controls. Either they're too touchy or not enough, resulting in you constantly over or under compensating even the most normal of turns. Sure, it could be that I just suck at these types of games, but I found this one extra infuriating, which is a shame for a game that is trying to appeal more towards kids with their radio-controlled theme.
	The Town of Light (Xbox One) While the game itself doesn't suffer from chronic, game breaking bugs and glitches, it does suffer from graphic depictions of mental issues, violence, nudity, sexual encounters, and surgeries of various types. That alone might not drive people away, but the slow pacing in what was billed to me as a horror game makes it mostly just horrifying rather than scary. If you're looking to be scared, look elsewhere. If you feel like you need to play a game that makes you want to invest in some eye bleach, be my guest.
	TRAX - Build it, Race it (Xbox One) This is a cheap little game in more ways than one. First, it looks like its supposed to be a racing game. While yes, you do drive a "car," turns out it's actually a slot car. No where in any of the images up to the actual race does the game clue you in to that fact. The main game consists of 12 tracks and 4 cars (each with 4 different paint jobs), and you use one button to control your acceleration so you don't fly off the track in order to beat the AI car in the next slot over. The "build it" part of the game only offers a tiny building area that isn't defined until you actually hit the edge with your track, forcing you to rethink any plans you had for your custom track entirely... if you can even finish building it before you run out of length.
	Where the Bees Make Honey (Xbox One) Where the Bees Make Honey is a game that doesn't really know what it wants to do. Is it a walking sim? Is it a platformer? Is it a puzzle game? Is it a driving sim? The game tries to be all of these things, yet never really nails any of these gametypes whenever they come up. Controls are poor, there is no direction as to what your objective is, and certain areas are frustratingly buggy. That, combined with a story that has to be played through entirely twice to get both endings, this joyless game's only success is that it sucks away your valuable time that could be spent doing something else.