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It's a sad truth indeed that some terrible games in the past have actually had seriously solid ideas. A good idea does not automatically mean a good game, as demonstrated countless times by an industry that, more often than not, produces the very best products when creativity is all but bankrupt. A real shame, but that's the truth of the matter.

Budget constraints, technological problems, or a simple case of being too ambitious for one's own good can all have an effect on a title, meaning that no matter how deep your narrative, unique your gimmicks, or breathtaking your vision, concept alone cannot save a game. With that wretched fact in mind, let's take a look at some examples of absolutely killer concepts that went wrong somewhere along the line and ended up as bad videogames...

It’s a good day for a beta. Today, we’re pleased to bring you closed beta keys for ARGO Online. Set in a futuristic world ravaged by war, ARGO forgoes the classic fantasy trappings found in most MMOs. So it’s more about futuristic rifles and hover bikes than longbows and horses…

For this week's roundup of iPad games, we're looking at a couple games that are sort of like other games you know: Coin Drop!, which takes some cues from casual favorite Peggle, and Caveman_HD, which is essentially Lemmings with added prehistoric grunts. Beyond those, we've got Arkanoid HD, which comes exactly as expected, as well as a pair of movie-related games – Scream 4 and LEGO: Harry Potter: Years 1-4 – that fall on very different ends of the quality spectrum. And if you're without an iPad but have an iPhone or iPod Touch, both Coin Drop! and LEGO: Harry Potter are universal apps playable on any iOS device, so you don't have to feel left out as we dig into these five iPad-ready releases...

What happened to gaming? The past two years haven’t been about blockbuster games. The most exciting, most innovative, most playable games aren’t from the usual suspects. Instead, they’re being made by coffee-shop artists who are absolutely outclassing the establishment. Who are these heroes? Where did they come from? How did they do it? And, anyway, what the hell is indie gaming?

In real life, everyone knows sharks are perfectly lovely creatures that hold down good jobs, drive responsibly in hybrid cars, and almost never prey on humans. In popular media, however, they’re vicious aquatic bastards who like nothing better than to sneak up on unsuspecting swimmers and devour them as gruesomely as possible, preferably in front of an audience.

“Guns don’t kill people, bullets do.” But do they have to? Not at all, and in fact, this is all the destructive power you’re going to get out of shooting bullets.

To clarify, this isn’t about dialog captions, which are also referred to as “subtitles.” This is about the wastes of ink which game publishers love printing after game names. Take “Halo 3: ODST,” for example. “ODST.” What is that? It’s some letters that provide no information other than, “Hey, this isn’t the original Halo 3, it’s actually something a bit different.”

In all honesty, some games would be better off left on the whiteboard at the design meeting. Whether they're too ambitious, too expensive or simply too good to be true, we're frequently led to imagine great things only to have our expectations dashed when the game finally arrives. How could these games be so good on paper yet underwhelm so spectacularly? Let's take a look...