7 Deadly Gaming Sins: PRIDE

There's nothing wrong with taking pride in one's work. That extra attention to detail, that extra dedication to delivering a perfect product is often what separates the quality from the quantity, and it's often what will end up becoming a huge talking point within circles of the gaming industry when it comes to well made and lovingly crafted titles.

However as with everything, there is always the danger of tipping the scales and indulging in excess too often, which can lead to some games becoming convoluted as they try and show off each trick they know, or excessively bloated with self-assuredness that their artisan offering is the best there ever was, and ever will be.

Problem is, is that video games are made by humans, and as such become an extension of all our greatness and all our horrible flaws, and pride is no exception. From games that thought they were too big to fail, to those who sold their pride for a quick buck, things have become a veritable quagmire of self-indulgence.

It's a well-known saying that "pride comes before a fall". These games fell straight into Gaming Sins Hell.

It was the ad campaign heard throughout the world, a gaudy splash of striking red with the words "John Romero's about to make you his b*tch". It was head-turning that's for damn sure, but sure set a tone to which Daikatana, Romero's touted "b*tch-maker" wouldn't come anywhere near achieving.

On paper, this rather ostentatious and pompous move actually isn't without merit, as Romero and his team were the ones that brought DOOM ripping and tearing into the world to mass critical acclaim and the ire of every news outlet around the world. This perfect storm of free press PR and word of mouth that this was THE game to play made DOOM a household name overnight. So it's with this head of steam (or at least hot air) that Romero approached his next project, Daikatana.

This was going to be the FPS game to topple even his previous monolithic creation, and with an antagonizing marketing stunt like this, he sure had a lot of eyes on the project. Problem was, is that the game was about as pleasant as being served a refried dog leg when being promised a steak and the only sauce you have available to bury the awful taste, is a jar of salt that Romero has wiped his balls on.

Had the development focused more on actually making a decent game and less about getting a rise out of the public, then maybe we'd be happy to wag our tails for Johnny boy, but as it stands this absolute skip fire of a title proved that Romero was the only one dragging his dirty arse along the carpet.