Sadly, the old adage that beauty is only skin deep can easily be applied to some of this generations' video game releases.

We've all salivated over upcoming titles based on gorgeous-looking screenshots, waited patiently for the release date and then eagerly handed over our cash expecting something special... only to be bitterly disappointed. Look beneath their beautiful veneer and there's actually very little to shout about.

What follows are 10 titles that have split opinion; some reviewers have absolutely loved them while others can't help but feel they didn't quite live up to expectations... Have we missed any obvious games off the list - leave you suggestions below.


Crysis: Have you ever seen those internet videos where a bunch of internet geeks in a shed pour gallons of liquid nitrogen over an overclocked motherboard in a desperate attempt to get the flop rate up to record breaking speeds? You know why they're doing that? It's because they're trying to get it to run the Cry Engine. Seriously, it's a gorgeous game, but we're pretty sure that not many people haveactually been able to experience it. It's not that this wasn't a great shooter and there's no denying that it was the deserving recipient of many favourable reviews... but unless your PC was an absolute behemoth with enough power tucked under the hood to power a small city, you'd be unable to experience Crytek's creation. Hopefully, its powerhungryness will be toned down a little for the upcoming sequel...

 Final Fantasy XIII: Preposterous names, beautiful cinematics and the occasional androgynous bumshot, that's what you expect of a Final Fantasy game. If you play the 13th installment however, you also get about ten hours of linear corridor fighting thrown in for good measure. Fans will tell you that no one complains about linear corridors in an FPS, and that the game opens out after those first 10 or 12 hours, but you know what? I don't care. In an FPS I'm not armed with a damp twig and desperately trying to level up - and having a good second half is no excuse for having a tedious first half.

 Lost Planet 2: The long awaited sequel emerged earlier this year and admittedly, it was gorgeous to look at with big, bold visuals. Nevertheless, a frustrating single player mode and disappointing maps were among the main criticisms. The co-op element proved to be its saving grace but when you pay top dollar for a new release, you don't want half the game to leave you cold. Could only muster a mediocre 68% on Metacritic of the 360 and PS3.

 Metal Gear Solid 4: Too much of a good thing can be the demise of any game. While there are those that have always lamented the Metal Gear series' heavy handed moralising and interminable cut-scenes (we've always been rather partial to them) but for this fourth, and supposedly final, installment of Solid Snake's adventures it finally got to be a bit too much even for us. After the powerful conclusion of MGS3 it didn't even seem like a sequel was necessary, but we got one anyway, complete with all the heavy, doom laden geopolitics, but with an added sense of Snake's impending demise hanging over the whole thing and not enough Meryl or Otacon to lighten the mood.

 Call Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Sharp edges, realistic textures, authentic lighting effects and smooth animation all made Modern Warfare 2 one of the best looking shooters we've ever seen. Sadly, a desire to up the stakes on the original Modern Warfare was to be it's sequel's undoing. Instead of a shockingly believable terror nuke we got a ludicrous intercontinental ICBM barrage, instead of an unexpected character death we got a string of murdered players that became predictable and insignificant, and instead of glitchy but enjoyable online play we got glitchy and somewhat predictably-mapped mutli. All in all, Modern Warfare 2 was the recipient of many a rave review but it left many fans of the series disgruntled.

 Naughty Bear: It promised so much; cuddly bear goes postal and disposes of his bear friends in various vicious ways. How could that not be a hit, right? Problem is, despite its cutesy appearance, pretty much all critics labelled it dull, repetitive and uninspiring (43% on Metacritic for both the 360 and PS3). Make it through the first hour or so and you've apparently seen all there is to see. Question is, will the DLC and new content convince you otherwise?

 Pro Evo Soccer 2010: How could it all go so horribly wrong? Traditionally the purist's football sim, Pro Evo is known and loved for the fluency of its control system and its refusal to put sensationalism ahead of realism. When you made that key tackle, passed that killer throughball or curled a free kick into the top corner, the sense of achievement was unmatched. Alas, Pro Evo 2010 is also the game that was soundly thrashed by FIFA 2010 in terms of graphics, strength and smoothness of online play and general presentation, something that must have particularly stung after so many years of being Utd to FIFA's City.

 Resident Evil 5: The surest sign that modern gaming technology's graphical capabilities are leaps and bounds ahead of where they were just a few short years ago is the fact that Resident Evil 5's dynamic backdrops look better than the pre-rendered backgrounds from the series' classic installments. So now you've got something nice to look at while your infuriating AI partner takes peashooter potshots at uninspired monsters and wastes all your medicine healing the scratch you picked up from one of the game's many unavaoidable cheap shots. The surest sign that Resident Evil has gone off the boil? The fact is, you'd trade all the modern graphics in the world just for it to be 1996 again.

 Sniper Ghost Warrior: Dubbed by most critics as a flawed shooter with little longevity, irritating glitches and poor design (Metacritic: 360 45%, PC 55%). Nonetheless, it didn't look half bad. The stealth aspects have also been deemed disappointing in many reviews, while the AI has been shot down. Nice to look at but it's unlikely you'll want it to stay on your screen for too long!

 Haze: An uninspiring story and an obvious plot twist might almost have been compensated for by the cool character designs and competent first-person-shooting if Haze hadn't been hailed as the next Halo. Alas, that was too much weight of expectation for it's mediocre shoulders to bare. Laughable AI makes the game a pain to play and a disappointing story doesn't exactly reel you in. It promised a lot and was hyped beyond belief but it can now be found in many a bargain bin. Metacritic rating... 55%.