Something of a surprise entry on this list - let's call it a dishonourable mention - Real Racing 3 earns its unenviable place among these other cretinous monsters for one reason: it should never be as much trouble to buy a McLaren F1 in a game as it is to buy one in real life. Ok, that's rather cynical, bordering on overextended hyperbole, but the principle is sound. To save up enough virtual currency in Real Racing 3 to buy anything more exotic than your uncle's Morris Minor you would have to quit your job and spend day and night waddling around these impressively-rendered tracks until your mind implodes in a shower of sparks and bits of rubber. This is central to the vile darkness of the freemium business model - make a good game, but make it hollow, a vacuous hole eager for your cash or your time, or both. The result is a pleasant game so violently strangled by its own structure that it reeks of gamer exploitation and manipulation. What we're left with is yet another free-to-play release that wears its ravenous greed like a badge of pride. Which titles have you attempted to play only to be thoroughly put off by repeated prompts for cash to keep going? Let us know in the comments!
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
