My biggest disappointment

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Cheery subject for a Friday I know. So let's crack on, lance that collective boil (swollen as it is with discontentment and disappointment) and then go on to having an enjoyable gaming weekend, okay?

Everyone has at least one; a moment that feels like someone has just kicked you in the crotch unexpectedly. A disappointing end boss (Batman: Arkham Asylum, BioShock) dumb gameplay elements that makes you wonder if play-testing ever happened (Dead Rising's solo game save, most of Bullet Witch) or just a game not living up to your own personal hype (which I'll get to in a minute).

And while we've all got a some cracking Xbox 360 moments to recollect on, it's the irritations, annoyances, disappointments that (arguably) make for more interesting talk. And allowing us to happily add our own spin to proceedings, discuss, compare and generally air grievances. The rich tapestry of our gaming life includes both the first time you stumbled out of the sewers in Oblivion and that magical moment when you inadvertently wiped two years of game saves by accidentally formatting your memory card.

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Therefore, with that firmly in mind, I present my biggest disappointment this generation so far: Resident Evil 5.

The mention of Resident Evil 5 alone alone had me excited from day one. Who wouldn't be looking forward to seeing what magic the development team at Capcom would be casting for the long-running series newest iteration? Yet the shift to action-orientated gameplay bugged me the more I played various preview builds.

All franchises change and evolve with time; it's now the done thing in order to survive in a ever-demanding market. Even Bungie is taking a leaf out of Infinity Ward's book with the inclusion of perk-style bonuses for its new Spartan crew. Yet something didn't sit right in this instance.

Capcom had seemingly ditched the genre it itself had coined. Where was the Survival Horror? It made a once-revered series seem bland next to the competition. The game lacked that fear-tinged atmosphere of old and all the massive bosses and set-pieces couldn't sell me on the change to my much beloved franchise.

Neither did the inclusion of a secondary character result in a RE2-style overlapping duel storyline. Instead we got a tag-along partner that needed near-constant supervision.

Sheva - great character design, but about as useful as Paris Hilton in a gunfight. As a secondary AI-controlled character she lost a huge number of IQ points somewhere between preview build and retail release. I never remember her being that dumb in previous hands-on with the title. Any annoying sub-escort mission that has appeared and ruined part of your favourite title had just been expanded to the length of a single payer campaign.

I really can't muster the energy to play through it, even just to see the first reunion of Jill and Chris in thirteen years. I'll youtube that instead.

I'll give that the change was a brave move by Capcom to try and reinvigorate the series. But for me Resident Evil's new form had sucked the love I had for the franchise completely out of me, spat it on the floor and then stamped on it a few times for good measure.

That's one. There are many other moments, some I've listed at the start of this blog and plenty I could still go into - enthusiasm for Ghostbusters being killed stone dead by Sony's last minute exclusivity deal, game delays and cancellations...but for you, what's your personal disappointing 'highlight' from your Xbox 360 days thus far?

Gillen McAllister