In recent years, with the advent of online patches in the console realm, sending a game out the door with a few bugs isn't just an option; it's commonplace. Many games now feature Day 1 patches to tidy up last-minute issues in an effort to make release dates. And if they do tidy up those problems, "no harm no foul" tends to be the general feeling from gamers. But two recent titles - from Ubisoft and Sega - have been released so ridiculously broken that it's impossible to ignore. They're virtually unplayable.

Ubisoft's Prince of Persia HD collection comes after the successes of God of War I & II in HD, and the more recent release of The Sly Collection in HD. Instead of going the disc-based route, however, Ubisoft decided to release the original Prince of Persia series in $14.99 installments, downloadable on the PlayStation Network. No complaints there.

But after redeeming codes for both Sands of Time and Warrior Within, this reviewer waited patiently for the big downloads. When the first game finished, it was time to relive the series in glorious high-definition. Except, watching the opening footage never really screamed "HD." Still, God of War had its issues with cinematics not transferring well (or being transferred at all), so Prince of Persia got a pass.

The gameplay itself doesn't look very good either, but that's more of an aesthetic complaint. The bigger problem was that not more than 10 minutes into the tutorial level, the game froze and locked up the system, requiring a hard reset to turn it off. Trying it again, Sands of Time lasted even less than 10 minutes before another freeze.

Forums have lit up with complaints of such problems. Gamers have offered solutions, such as making sure nothing is downloading while playing the game, not skipping the long opening cinematic (or any cinematics for that matter) and playing the game with the system "offline." Some have even complained that the system would not properly delete the defective game.

Given, some of the solutions do help it run, but gamers shouldn't have to alter the default ways their systems runs to make a game properly play. Solutions or no, it means the game is inherently broken. And long before fixing the problems, Ubisoft has released the following two titles to cash in on hastily developed remakes, with unimpressive HD "upgrades" and bugs. That is just unacceptable. A game can always be bad, which is an opinion, but when it simply doesn't work gamers deserve nothing less than a quick fix or an all-out refund (refunds conveniently not provided in the digital realm). The most a gamer can hope for, though, is a clean delete to free up the hard drive space.

Sega's gem comes courtesy of the Xbox Kinect launch catalog - Sonic Free Riders. The idea is an arcade racing title featuring the core cast of the Sonic series, in which players use only their bodies to control the characters on boards, bikes, jet skis and even mine cars. It is a promising concept, considering the success of Sonic and Sega All-Star Racing - a wholly better take on the cart racing genre - and what should be the simplicity of controlling things by leaning one way or another.

But Free Riders is anything but responsive. Jumping works well, but the simple act of leaning back and forth to steer the hoverboard takes precise tinkering to discover just the perfect spot where Kinect will recognize the position and accordingly turn left or right. Unlike the bothersome ring grabs and kick dashes, this is a crucial function of being able to play Free Riders, and with its problems, it can be almost impossible to get through the tutorial races, let alone into the game proper.

To give the game its fair shake, there have been differing accounts of Free Riders' responsiveness, and questions have been raised about whether body size plays a role in how it responds. That explanation isn't good enough, though. Sega is developing for a mass audience, not one particular body type. And with the accuracy other developers have found with Kinect, there's no excuse for Free Riders' poor controls that leave it nearly unplayable for some.

Both Sonic Free Riders and Prince of Persia HD have what essentially amount to game-breaking issues. And both have issues so obvious that it doesn't even take quality assurance testers to recognize them. Their presence makes it doubtful that either of these titles even saw testers. Because if they had, these "games" should never have seen store shelves (physical or digital) when they did.