This year had some really great moments for video games and fans of the medium, but it also had several cringe-worthy moments, as well. Here, in no particular order, are the ten video game moments that had us cringing the hardest.
9) Reggie at the VGX
What we have here is nearly 11 minutes of watching someone forced to be somewhere they don’t really want to be. From the very moment the video opens you can tell, just by the look on his face, Reggie Fils-Aime is not happy about being where he is. It only gets worse from there, with the video finally culminating in forced memes. Truly a low point for us all.
8) Alleged rape jokes at E3
Regardless of whether or not you think this presenter at E3, playing Killer Instinct against a female presenter, was actually making a rape joke or not, the internet comment-storm that blew up after this was pretty painful to watch unfold. As with any gender-heavy issue, the creeps really came out of the woodworks on both sides, and suddenly we could no longer just play games together.
7) Pornhub endorses the PS4 (Tweeted picture is NSFW)
Why buy a PS4 for gaming when you can buy one for fapping! @Pornhub is the first porn site to fully support PS4. pic.twitter.com/OSBpof5V52
— Pornhub Katie (@Pornhub) November 16, 2013
As if video games haven’t had a hard enough time sheding their reputation for being a “boy’s club,” porn streaming website Pornhub decided to pledge their full support for the at-the-time-unreleased Playstation 4. Good thing gamers have their priorities straight.
6) Phil Spencer leaves his Mic on at E3
As if the non-reaction from the audience wasn’t awkward enough, Phil Spencer apparently didn’t properly turn off his microphone after leaving the stage, letting us all hear his disappointment that we weren’t happy about the “new” price of the console. This was just painful to watch.
5) Hideo Kojima posted these tweets
I’ve been ordering to Yoji to make the character more erotic, and he did it well. Recently I’ve been making characters this way. (cont)
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 4, 2013
The initial target is to make u want to do cosplay or its figurine to sell well.
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) September 4, 2013
For those of you not in the know, these tweets are referring specifcally to the character of Quiet in the upcoming game Metal Gear Solid V who will be wearing very little tactical gear… or anything else for that matter. Yeah, there’s definitely something a little cringe-worthy in seeing a respected game director putting cosplay and figurine sales before logic or common decency in a character’s design.
4) Fish A.I. in Call of Duty: Ghosts
Skip to 4:10 in that video for just the good bit. Yes, that’s right, let’s all just remember that there was a moment this year when Activision and Xbox tried to sell us all on the idea of the next generation of consoles by talking about a fish A.I. system that had already been implemented nearly a decade ago.
3) Playstation 4 owners decided to stream themselves having sex
Playstation 4 allows users to easily stream any gameplay to their twitch.tv accounts. It also comes with a game called “playroom” which, when used with the Playstation Eye peripheral, is supposed to turn your living room into an interactive game environment. Unfortunately, throw these two things together, and some dirty-minded people, and you’ve got a disaster on your hands. Aside from some mostly unsubstantiated examples of people straight up having sex, the above picture is one of the more extreme examples, wherein twitch user Darckobra streamed him and his wife drinking, only to strip off her clothes after she had passed out. Despicable? Yes. Cringe-inducing? Only if you care about how gamers are portrayed to the public.
2) This “helpful” Microsoft letter to loved ones
Man, Microsoft did not have a pleasant year. This form is no longer available online, as far as I can tell, so at least Microsoft did that much right, but what this “helpful” fill-in-the-blanks letter was supposed to do was help gamers convince their non-gamer loved ones that an Xbox One was a smart purchase for all parties involved. What it did instead was come across as if Microsoft assumed that all gamers’ girlfriends were overbearing female cliches. Beyond that, the letter also makes anyone who used sound like a whiny man-child. I sure hope they weren’t actually expecting us to use this.
1) This moment at the VGX
While I could very easily say that the entire VGX show was cringe-worthy, I’m going to highlight the abomination that happens at the 2:12:02 mark as the most cringe-inducing part of the entire show. Prepare yourself for the longest, most painful two minutes of your life.
