First impressions matter, especially when it comes to entertainment items. The development cycle for a game should be long enough to generate, polish, and fix any significant issues or defects. At launch, no video game is flawless. However, the majority are functional and stable, with very sporadic faults.

However, some video games have significant issues or false beginnings throughout their creation. Others don't have enough time to develop before release to be polished in any way. Others only experience poor quality control. Even if they eventually became popular, several games are notable for their horrible technical performance when they were released.

Assassin's Creed Unity's Characters Lacked Faces

The open environments in the Assassin's Creed games are vast and grandiose. This provides several possibilities for bugs to flourish. Many Assassin's Creed games are infamous for having bugs or running slowly. None, however, is as well-known as Assassin's Creed Unity.

The first Assassin's Creed game made for multiplayer was called Unity. Despite this, its mediocre performance overshadowed it. There are several bizarre graphic flaws. Characters loaded in, in particular, often without showing their faces. Even worse, it had several connectivity issues that made using multiplayer challenging. Ubisoft expressed regret for the issues and halted progress to address them.

Cyberpunk 2077 Became Infamous For The Wrong Reasons

female v in cyberpunk 2077 on a yellow backdrop.
One of the most eagerly anticipated video games of 2020 was Cyberpunk 2077. Due in large part to the star power of Keanu Reeves, there was a ton of buzz around it. However, after its publication, it was debated for very other reasons. The performance of the game was terrible.

On last-generation platforms, Cyberpunk 2077 ran so poorly the game was essentially unplayable. Even on PC and more sophisticated platforms, it had technical issues. Characters' clothes vanished, T-posing was commonplace, and automobiles really dropped from the sky. The gameplay and plot of the game were obscured by these issues. Despite CD Projekt Red's substantial improvements, the game's launch still ranks among the most notorious in history.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection Struggled With Multiplayer

From Combat Evolved to Halo 4, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is an upgraded re-release of the Halo games. It allows players to play multiplayer from earlier games and remasters past campaigns. However, when it was launched, it significantly missed the second objective.

For its connectivity issues, The Master Chief Collection became well-known. Halo 2: Anniversary in particular deserves accolades for how well the single-player operated. The majority of players, though, reported having trouble locating multiplayer games and connecting when they did. Players were given a free copy of the Halo 3: ODST campaign at the time while 343 Industries worked to resolve the issues.

Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Struggle On The Switch

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet's two NPCs united into one.
Pokémon games often eschew complex gameplay and keep things simple. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, on the other hand, were more ambitious games, and as a result, they had a wide variety of technological issues. These included memory leaks that caused slowness and repeated frame drops.

Other issues with it were odd motions, badly drawn graphics, and a lot of errors. The music never stopped playing, mounts were invisible, animations broke down, and raids paid awards even after they were lost. The many bugs in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet marred the games' debut. The game, in the opinion of many players, was hurried.

Saints Row Disappointed Many On A Technical Front

In the Saint's Row 2022 remake, the Saints shoot out of an automobile.
Many fans were apprehensive before the 2022 Saints Row remake was released. The tone and comedy of the game had issues. When it was first released, it also sparked controversy because of how poorly it performed.

Saints Row in particular had a lot of issues and crashes that made it difficult to even play. Players sometimes had to retry missions, the game occasionally crashed for no apparent reason, and the launcher for the game frequently failed to function. Pop-in, draw distance, physics, and opponent AI were all typical complaints, even when players were able to make it work.

Arkham Knight Suffered From Huge Issues On PC

On sometimes, a game may run perfectly on one platform while being absolutely unplayable on another. The PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight generated some of the greatest gaming debates of 2015. Consoles performed well since they were well-optimized for the game. On PC, it had severe technical issues from top to bottom that made it unplayable for some.

Even though Arkham Knight's frame rate was limited to 30 frames per second, it had trouble getting there. The game's frame rate has been observed to dip as low as 10fps during less demanding gameplay moments. Numerous gamers also mentioned crashing often. A number of game updates were applied to enhance PC performance. Additionally, up until the end of 2015, Warner Bros. provided players with complete reimbursements.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition Failed To Revive Classics

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition made an effort to expand the fanbase for three classic titles in the genre. Instead, it turned become one of the most controversial releases of 2021. Its graphics upgrades were positively welcomed all around. Its technical performance, however, gained notoriety.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition's three games all had issues. Reviewers and fans alike specifically mentioned that they had hardware problems when playing all of them. Beyond that, the low-effort and ugly rain mechanics were a point of contention for gamers. Some people thought the three games were tiny and unimpressive due to the poorly executed increased render distance in the game.

Bugs Were Just One Of Battlefield 2042's Issues

Battlefield games are renowned for their shaky beginnings. In the game Battlefield 2042, a group of troops is assaulting. Battlefield 2042, on the other hand, enraged their player base more than any other. Fans condemned the game for a variety of factors, including a weak storyline and contentious gameplay adjustments. However, the largest cause of contention stemmed from its technological issues.

Numerous issues in Battlefield 2042 completely crippled the game, causing crashes and failed launches. However, there were several issues with the gameplay. Hit registration was specifically broken. Only a handful of the shots that the player fired at the adversary would hit. Players even started a petition for complete refunds, claiming that 2042 was unusable, due to the issues. Despite DICE's efforts, many believe it is now too late to patch the game.

Aliens: Colonial Marines Had Glitches & Questionable AI

In Alien, a Xenomorph assaults. Aliens: Colonial Marines generated controversy due to the gameplay's dissimilarity from the game's promotional materials. Even without its iconic graphics reduction, the game had performance issues. It gained a reputation for having terrible collision detection, frequent screen tearing, and poor lighting.

However, the Colonial Marines' most known flaw is the AI of the Xenomorph enemies. The adversaries are nothing like the frightening, well-organized predators from Aliens. Instead, they are sluggish, awkward, and prone to completely ignore the player. Even worse, a little error in the game's coding is partially to blame for this. Fixing this mistake in mods makes the game much better.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Suffered On PlayStation 3

Known for having bugs in its games, Bethesda Softworks has even lightheartedly admitted this. No different is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It is notorious for its script errors, crashes, and physics bugs. The majority of them are humorously received by the fandom. But its PlayStation 3 release condition was worse.

The PS3 version of Skyrim had memory issues, which caused the cached memory to fill up rapidly. As a result, the Happy Wheels game had extreme slowness when played for any period of time. Due of this, many people thought the game was unplayable. However, the Xbox 360 and PC versions were far more stable, and the PS3 version was patched.