10 Video Games You Shouldn't Have Played At Launch

Across the 2010s in particular, DICE had managed to create a reliable competitor to the gargantuan Call of Duty series with Battlefield. Multiple games in the franchoise had been reviewed and received very positively. By comparison, on launch 2021’s Battlefield 2042 became one of the worst reviewed games on Steam.

Players were already prepared to bomb the title due to lacklustre story and gameplay but it didn’t help that the game was missing a laundry list of expected features that were standard for the series and genre. No leaderboards, no team deathmatch and no real matchmaking support. In their place, it seemed, were bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.

The mega franchise’s concurrent players declined pretty quickly and DICE struggled against the wave of fair criticism. In January 2022 they even attempted to remove the popular game type Rush before returning it to the title due to backlash. It was clear they had no idea what they were doing.

Still, DICE maintained they were committed to making the product more worthwhile and the game is admittedly in a more acceptable state now after a year of updates. Still, being the shiniest turd is all well and good but at its core 2042 still remains a turd.