10 Video Games You Know Are Bad For You (But You Play Anyway)

10. Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Assassin's Creed Valhalla was released in 2020 as the twelfth entry to the series, but crucially the first one in the ninth generation of console wars. Thanks in part to the new direction its predecessor Assassin's Creed Odyssey had taken the series down, but also due to the game being launched with the biggest amount of marketing the franchise had ever seen, Valhalla was hyped up as one of the most hotly-anticipated titles of the year.

And, the results in terms of sales and reception largely justified this hype, with Valhalla being seriously praised for its gorgeous visuals, strong acting performances, and the open-world centred around the Great Heathen Army's invasion of Saxon England.

However, the game is certainly far from perfect. With the base singleplayer mode featuring lengthy parts of its campaign in Norway and then in England, the storyline alone can take up to sixty hours to fully complete, creating a bloated feeling across Valhalla at times.

Couple this with a very public series of criticisms aimed at the game's online microtransactions being prioritised over in-game updates, and Valhalla is one of the best examples of a frustrating and potentially even wasteful way of spending hours and money, but still a video game you can't help but love all the same.