While gaming's successes are fun to play, the abject failures are more fun to talk about. Enter Wikipedia's entry, 'The List of Commercial Failures in Computer and Video Gaming', which covers in excruciatingly compelling communal details all the games that landed with a big, wet splat, for practically ever system under the sun.

Our good buddy Trespasser is there, for one:

The game employed a unique but unwieldy interface in which the player controlled Anne's right arm and had to look down at a tattoo on her breast to determine her health level (not very practical in a combat situation).

And you checked your inventory by reaching inside Anne's crotch and pulling out keys! Florian Eckhardt

List of Major Commercial Failures in Computer and Video Gaming [Wikipedia]

We're not afraid to post dissenting opinions, so be warned that Chick doesn't find Au's point to be particularly salient or elegant. On the other hand, he has some interesting thoughts on the nature of writing previews and getting sucked into the still-hypothetical world of the game designer. How does he know? He once proclaimed Trespasser the second coming of Christ. Here's what Chick has to say about that:

I remember being enamoured of a game called Trespasser many years ago.

Until it came out.

But until then, boy, was I enthusiastic listening to Seamus Blackley and Brady Bell tell me all about what it was going to be like. I could probably cull some excerpts from those previews and we could all enjoy a good laugh. I might even be eligible for some sort of special recognition from Wagner James Au's Preview Ho Awards.

He goes on to offer some advice to gaming journalists on how to write good previews. Definitely worth reading as a sometimes opposing but sometimes complimenting perspective on Au's editorial.

Pure Au [Quarter to Three]