Top 10: Glitched Games

Glitches. We just can’t get enough of them, good or bad.

This week we decided to take a closer look at some of those games so infamous in their glitchy natures that it completely overshadowed whatever else they intended to represent, before and after launch. Some eventually cleaned up their ways, others just ran with it, while some found it difficult to sort themselves out in time before consumer backfire eventually won over.

NOTE: I had no idea until after I put this list together how many titles were published by EA … go figure.

Battlefield 3

The Battlefield series has been known to be a bit glitchy here or there, with Battlefield 4 not exactly pleasing many fans after launch. But the glitches that caught everyone’s attention came from the game before that, especially during its
beta testing phase. Who could possibly forget one of the strangest glitches of all time, the man worm, which definitely freaked me out the first time I saw it. There are others just as bad, but that one easily takes the cake for weirdest glitch in the franchise.

The Sims 3

The Sims 4 launched with its own set of issues, specifically with its online nature, but the glitches associated with the third entry in the long running simulation series had fans in hysterics more than anger. Weirdly deformed characters and interactions, not to mention some crazy looking babies, created a butt-ton of videos depicting these unusual creations, let alone the way certain Sims found themselves entangled with the environment or even themselves. They aren’t game breaking, but they’re certainly funny.

Medal of Honor (2010)

Once a powerhouse of the console FPS genre until the Call of Duty era began, Medal of Honor’s reboot on Xbox 360 and PS3 was supposed to bring in a new wave of fans and challenge Activision’s magnum opus to the shooter crown. Besides never hitting the sales highs, the amount of technical issues afforded to both the single and multiplayer aspect of the final release didn’t help Medal of Honor’s cause. The nail in the coffin didn’t hit until not long later in the poorly received sequel, Warfighter, but the writing was on the wall almost immediately.

Skate 3

The surprising thing about Skate 3 isn’t its solid skating mechanics or its solid popularity when it was first released, but the fact that so many people continue to play it to this day, perhaps because the glitches made it all the more enjoyable. Not unlike another sporting franchise (see FIFA below), the rag doll physics and environments caused all sorts of havoc, with hilarity often ensuing. In fact, EA had to produce more copies of the game to keep up with demand not long ago after an increase in Let’s Play glitch videos. That’s publicity you just can’t buy, and perhaps why games like Goat Simulator and Surgeon Simulator exist.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim has easily one of the funniest and unintentional opening scene bugs of all time, as depicted below, with your travelling cart towards certain death broken up by … well, some say its gravity, others say its horse physics gone horribly wrong. There’s a few other videos out there showing characters floating away, creatures spinning over and over again, some times even Dragons doing the strangest of things. Years later, people still can’t get enough of Skyrim’s open world and surprisingly funny discoveries, though many games (Grand Theft Auto V included) have done their best to try and come up with some of their own to steal the open world crown.

Assassin’s Creed: Unity

There’s a few titles on this list that launched with a lot of hype, but unlike some games that burned on entry, Assassin’s Creed Unity found fame for all the wrong reasons. Scattered across its HD recreation of the French Revolution, AC fans had much to be concerned about as characters vanished, faces morphed and Assassin’s hung in the air as if suspended in zero gravity. Given the success of AC: Black Flag, Unity’s massive amount of problems came as a surprise more than anything else. The eery screenshots of characters with only floating eyes and a mouth (as you can see to the right) will leave plenty of scars for years to come, which leaves doubts lingering over the just announced AC: Syndicate. Still, it did raise a chuckle or two.

FIFA Football

Sports titles have a habit of coming up with the weirdest, physics based glitches (see another EA title in UFC for some really strange ones), but considering the sheer number of videos online for its weirdest and rather funny moments, there’s no going past EA’s football (yes, football, not soccer) franchise. Whether it’s two characters becoming one, entangled players with goalkeepers or freaky own goals that could never possibly happen in real life, the introduction and improvement to physics and the attempt to make collisions more realistic has brought with it some crazy situations. If only real sports were as funny.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Considering its roots, it’s a little sad to have this collection on the list. Halo’s Master Chief Collection was a mess from the start, with a rather large and cumbersome day one patch, multiplayer matchmaking failures, campaign glitches … the list was rather too long for such a big release. Couple all that with the strange ‘beta testing’ phase that was announced but never utilised and 343 Industries has a lot to answer for. Whether the upcoming Halo 5 will repair any of the damage is anyone’s guess, but the Halo franchise has never looked more uncertain about itself than right now, especially since this game in particular still isn’t fully repaired.

Fallout: New Vegas

Obsidian are making waves with their recent RPG release, Pillars of Eternity, but it was their work on the Fallout 3 sequel, New Vegas, that caught everyone’s attention. Unfortunately it wasn’t all for the right reasons, as there were a number of issues that plagued the game upon release (you can check out most of them here). Obsidian have been known to create some amazing worlds, but it seems bugs like to stick to them like that annoying piece of plastic off your PS4 wrapping that, no matter how many times you wave your hand around like a madman, it just keeps on sticking. Thankfully, New Vegas still went on to forge its own rather successful path.

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Ah Sonic. I could have so easily replaced this atrocious attempt at rebooting the franchise with Sonic Boom, the most recent example of ‘rebooting’ the blue blur with terrible results. In fact, ever since the last Sonic titles on the Sega Mega Drive, it seems the hedgehog has gone from bad to seemingly worse over time. Yeah there’s been a hit in between all the failures, most notable the GBA Sonic spin-offs and a return to form in Sonic Generations, but this Xbox 360/PS3 attempt at rebuilding Sonic for a new generation is a classic example of what not to do with the character. Looks like Sega didn’t learn their lesson either.

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There are plenty of others games that could so easily have been added to this list, why not let us know in the comments below what you think? What game weirded you out the most with its glitches or infuriated you to the point of throwing the disc out the window?