10 Most Disappointing Video Games Of 2023 (So Far)

Video game delays can be a blessing or a curse. Sometimes a long-delayed game can be worth the wait. Other times, a long gestation period results in something that only a Mother can love.

Which seems somewhat appropriate considering the odd choice to take the fantastical setting of Middle-Earth and develop a game based on it's most wretched character in LOTR: Gollum. From early looks, the game probably needed a lengthy delay.

So whilst it was initially hard to be too excited about Gollum, it was at least an unexpected return to the Lord of the Rings world. Perhaps it could surprise us all! After all, it had been nearly a decade since the last non-Lego game set in J.R.R. Tolkien's world.

It goes without saying at this point that the only surprise Lord of the Rings: Gollum mustered was the depths it could sink to. It's been rightfully pegged as the worst game so far this year, thanks in part to just how horribly ugly it is. In fact, Gollum's character model is worse in the final build that pre-release material and the UI looks like it was made in an hour.

More than this, the entire engine the game runs on feels like a house of cards that could fall down at slightest provocation. Crashes, broken geometry, bad camera, you name it. High-definition games having trouble running could almost be excusable, but Gollum was ugly and busted.

Back into your cave, Sméagol, and don't come out until you've figured out basic pathfinding.