10 Times You HATED Yourself For Buying A Video Game

Considering that AAA video games aren't exactly an insignificant financial investment, it makes sense for money-minded gamers to do their required reading before throwing down their hard-earned cash on a new title.

Ideally, conscientious players will wait for reviews before making their purchasing decisions, ensuring that they're far less likely to end up disappointed or feel like they've been ripped off.

But let's be honest, we've all pre-ordered games on sheer hype alone, believing that there's no way for a developer to do wrong, or that a certain troubled franchise might finally be on the mend.

And so release day comes and you play the game for yourself, only to discover that you've basically wasted your money on a sub-par effort that's probably worth a weekend rental at absolute most.

These 10 video games all left players absolutely irate with themselves for buying into the hype and the manipulative PR spiel, rather than waiting for reviews and making a smarter decision as a result.

If nothing else, take this list as a reminder that no matter how shiny a game might look, looks can be oh-so-deceiving...

Despite its world-class gunplay, original Destiny launched in an infuriatingly piecemeal state, with only the bare bones of an actual campaign, a totally forgettable story, and an empty end-game with a disappointing focus on soulless loot-grind repetition.

Destiny did improve substantially with the post-launch expansions - which players had to pay for, mind - and when Destiny 2 was eventually revealed, fans were optimistic that Bungie had learned lessons from the first game's reportedly strained development.

And though Destiny 2 was similarly a well-engineered shooter with terrific visuals, the tide quickly turned when it became clear just how lackluster the launch content was once again.

The story was more pronounced but still incredibly underwhelming, the class system was "streamlined" considerably from the first game, and effectively Destiny 2 just felt like less of a game than the original did following the release of its final expansion, Rise of Iron.

To many fans, it was too much of a step back, and though Destiny 2 also improved substantially after its iffy first year, a lot of fans were kicking themselves for giving Bungie and Activision their day-one money for two utterly mediocre launches in a row.