So, since I have surplus X-Coms, I am proudly announcing this giveaway, due I have no idea what would I do otherwise with them!

Winner will get X-Com: UFO Defense (Steam version, mind you!).

But for that, I want something small. Hence, I present a challenge:

Hate your game, which you truly like/love.

Games are not perfect. You all know that, but we let small things like bugs or illogical story or harsh learning curve slip through due how much we love that particular game. Not today. Pick any game you like/love and give it some hate for once!

Omnipotent thread creator will pick the funniest and wittiest from all descriptions and that lucky winner get aforementioned X-Com: UFO Defense (Steam version).

Giveaway closes on 19th of August, 6.00 PM/18.00 Finnish Timezone UTC/GMT +2 hours. Winner will be on same day.

Remember: best games are free!

Good luck.

Not in since I already have it, but +1:)

First's things first: Thank you for the giveaway.
Secondly: Not sure if you mean free like in "free to play" or free like in "cracked", but anyway you are right about that :)
Now, my entry: One of the many games I love is The Witcher 2, now for the hate...hmmm...The Witcher 2 is too mature for some RPG fans...it is too good for this generation of console's and it is too long, the plot is, on it's best moment's good and the characters (especially Triss) have a big...how to say it..."personality". The overall graphic is great but some levels are too empty and big. In conclusion the game sucks and all should play Dragon Age 2 :))
(Please forgive me CD Projekt RED).
Good luck to all entries.

Oh, oh, oh.

Oh.

Let me tell you about Baldur's Gate 2, a game designed to give people stomach ulcers. Let's look past the 2nd edition AD&D rules, which only a true grognard could appreciate, and just go to the game design (because, honestly, there's not a lot to hate about the art, music, voice acting, or characters - lookin' at you, Minsc, buddy). So you start in this stupid linear dungeon with no equipment. God help you if you're a wizard because resting more than once is going to be more pain than it's worth. You've got a garbage-heap monster that diseases you so thoroughly that unless you've got a healer handy with the right spell, you're going to rot and die without recourse. There's a room of nothing but murder-your-face traps where you go because some pitiful tree spirits begged you to, and another face-murdery room that ends in a vampire and a trap that follows you around waiting to spring, assuming you aren't dead yet (hint: you are.) You get out of the dungeon and you've got, at most, one crazed bodybuilder on PCP, one arrogant treehugger who won't shut the hell up, and a shifty ninja-wannabe who you just *know* is going to be bad news in the end. The one decent companion you don't want to stab? Kidnapped, deus ex machina, you can't do crap about it.

So you're in this huge city and you do a bunch of things and eventually stop sucking assuming you haven't died first (hint: you have.) Just when you think things are turning around you either: fall into a lair of vampires which kill you; anger a mafia-like organization who kills you; get shipwrecked and sucked into the bowels of the earth where demons and things still darker kill you; or you get eaten by a dragon.

Not dead yet? Haven't had a heart attack? Wait, it gets better! Eventually you think you've got things under control, you're getting awesome, time to go kick in the teeth of that guy who has been ruining your day, every day since you started this thing, and finally you get your wish! There's the bad guy right there, past the insta-death spells, the traps that kill you, the things that you can't damage that kill you, and the things you already killed that come back to kill you one more time. Got the big bad guy? Oh, look, time stopped and he killed you! You're on fire and you lose! You got caught in a spider's web and abruptly exploded because, why not?

Think you're done? Oh, no. We're going to make an expansion where there's this giant "screw you" of a dungeon that ends in you dying, everything you see is thirty feet tall and steps on you then sets you on fire, and if you somehow make it to the end without dying (hint: you don't.) everyone you killed comes back to have at you again, twice, with new powers, and if you're about to succeed, the game will just crash and you'll die. GAH!

The worst part, of course, is that the game is brilliant, and after 100 hours you begin to find out some of the things you've missed, and the lore of the game, and the way the characters feel alive. You have to play it again. You have to find the demilich; you have to reconstruct an ancient artifact scattered across the worlds; you have to find out what makes these NPCs tick and what they want, and so you go back again and again, and maybe you've got Gaider's rebalancing mods, or maybe you're trying out Saerileth as an NPC or just have a good old munchkin time and getting everything there is and curb-stomping all the bad guys because you glow with magic. There aren't too many games that - absent multiplayer or custom mods - can give you something to play for two to three years, but Baldur's Gate 2 is one of those games; if you haven't sunk 100-150 hours into it, you haven't really played it, and if you've sunk 300 hours in, there's still something you've never seen in that living game world.

You know what this giveaway needs? A subgiveaway. Here's a brace of BG2 codes for someone who hasn't played it yet:
5J38-EW57-6437-TK8Q
X6WL-ZAPH-56HY-R6HP

EDIT: forgot to mention that I own XCOM like nine times. Not in; it was just fun to hate on a game I really like ^_^

Redeemed the second code and thanks for the story and giveaway :)

Could actually give a small hate myself (though I can't enter this giveaway due mysterious reasons):

Dota 2 (and basically, WC3 Dota)

What's not to love? Over 100 heroes unique heroes, bunch of items with different stats, depth deep as Mariana trench, strategic, enjoyable and is packed in ~30 minutes of goodness. Lovely. And tasty.

But there's a massive problem. Two of them, actually. First, a game which is designed to be competitive game by nature, it's freaking hard to enjoy public games at times. The individual can change a match so much (especially then there's only five players in a team), it's a clusterfuck, to be said nicely.

Secondly, rules don't make any sense. Sure, many spells are balanced by this, but the problem is that game never tells about these. You have to seek these bits of information OUTSIDE OF THE GAME, since there's no place where game indicates that "this non-ultimate spell goes through magic immunity". You have to learn it, hard way.

As someone said about Dota once: "Dota is more like a hobby. You have to invest time in it to truly enjoy it".

Got the first code. Thanks, the game was on my wishlist for a while :)

Not in but +1 to you, and to onefiercepuppy as well.

The Elder Scrolls 3. It was the very first open world RPG I ever played, and has many of my fondest memories and moments from all of PC gaming.

However, it's buggy. I fall through the floors randomly. With a conjured bow and arrow, firing at a berry netch (Which are big ass beasts) I'm lucky to hit it one out of 30 arrows without a high level character because of the full D&D style of combat, where you not only have to aim, but have a good roll. My games are frequently lost. It's difficult to find anything, sometimes leading me to go around in circles a half dozen times looking for one single cave in the middle of the wilds of the far east of the map. The first expansion end-boss is nigh impossible despite taking enough potions, tonics, charms, buffs and boosts to drown all of Balmora five times over. And if you're not careful, you can wind up killing a character that makes the entire world shake around you, warning that you've just made it impossible to finish the story. Holy shit.

Not in but thanks for your generosity, Palvikinkku and OneFiercePuppy.

A friendly reminder: Last 24 hours clocks in NOW! Place your bets before the casino closes!

Also, I voice my thanks to OneFiercePuppy for sidegiveaway! Thank you for making this thread even better!

I'd love UFO Defence, really would. But in all fairness, OneFiercePuppy has me beat to rights. So, not in, and thanks Palvikinkku!

Prepare your defense from the incoming Unprovable Flying Object!
BUMP :)

Not in, but thanks for your generosity, both Palvikinkku and OneFiercePuppy (great post, mate)!

Contest-Giveaway has ended officially and winner has been chosen! I'll inform him via PM so we can continue dealing beyond this thread.

Thank you everyone, see you next time!

EDIT: Nvm, I am blind and dead.