In 2011, the new millennium entered its awkward tween years, and so did gaming. The videogame industry grew like a weed, although some of its rapid developments were of the squeaky-voice and facial acne variety.

The editors of Wired magazine, Wired.com and Ars Technica have joined forces to bring you this year’s list of gaming disappointments. This should not be considered a list of the worst games of the year, as we assiduously strove to not actually play those.

No, the following are the games that we let ourselves get at least somewhat excited about — even putting some on our Most Anticipated Games of 2011 list earlier this year — that just ended up letting us down.

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This game represents a stupendous achievement for Axis Animation. Unfortunately, Axis Animation is the team that made the riveting CG trailer that convinced over a million people to shell out for a buggy, mediocre open-world zombie game made by Techland. Its previous series Call of Juarez was a poor man’s Red Dead Redemption, just like Dead Island is a poor man’s Dead Rising. The most unforgivable element was the inconsistent combat: I’d swing an axe and bury it in an enemy’s chest, and it wouldn’t register. Then I’d swing again and miss them by several feet, and its arm would fly off. --Chris Baker

Image: Square Enix