Games that HAVE lived up to their hype.

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Mojozing

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Dec 29, 2007
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I've recently bought myself a Playstation 3 for the sake of two games; Assassins Creed and Call of Duty 4. Needless to say, Assassins Creed wasn?t quite what I was expecting and even after reading so many negative reviews towards it, I bought it regardless. I thought with all the hype and coverage the game received its GOT to be as good as it seems. Well, no. I was also slightly disappointed with COD4. Don?t get me wrong, it is a fantastic game but I was just expecting a little more from it (perhaps that?s because I?m yet to play it online?). I don't know, perhaps I was just expecting too much from a ?next gen? console.

Why is it though that games which are hyped for months and months never quite turn out as expected. Examples include Halo 3 (not that I could give a flying fuck about Halo anyway) and more drastically, kane and lynch (which doesn?t even seem worthy of being capitalized.) I hope this isn?t going to be the case for games like GT5 and MGS4 or I?m going to end up throwing my Playstation off a bridge and posting it on YouTube.

Off the top of my head, the only relatively recent games that were as good as I thought they might be were Fahrenheit and the PC version of Mafia (a game which far exceeded my expectations).

So, which games do you feel actually lived up to all the hype that they generated?
 

Mojozing

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Bugger, I seem to have posted this in the wrong place. Could a Mod please move it to Gaming Discussion?
 

John Galt

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I feel Bioshock's hype was well deserved. The setting was original, and the story was nice to follow. Even if it was a watered down, prettied up System Shock, it was still worth the hype.

Halo 3 however, promised me everything and delivered only a clone of Halo 2 with better graphics and a dicked up meelee system. I almost regret buying into the hype but I still feel it is halfway decent.

Finally Kane & Lynch looked horrible for me from the start. When you see adds for somehting popping up on Youtube, you know something horrible is about to happen. When I saw a clip of the multiplayer mode, I knew my worst fears had been confirmed.
 

PhoenixFlame

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Dec 6, 2007
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Honestly? Not a one.

Not for the fact that I'm a hateful bastard (I'm sunshine and rainbows, really!), but because for every piece of hype a game has, there are always, always inevitably a bunch of people who will, sometimes legitimately, sometimes not, say the game failed to meet their expectations and thus, not live up to the hype.

Every single game that has been hyped can only really say it "lived up to the hype" if it exceeds its own expectations. By defintion, highly hyped games can't really do that.

The games that truly are spectacular are those who either meet the low-to-middle bar they have set for themselves or which become pleasant surprises far beyond the advertising and attention they have been given. Portal is a good example of this.
 

Niccolo

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Dec 15, 2007
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I can only think of one game off the top of my head that has truly lived up to it's hype.

Portal.

It certainly lived up to its hype - and exceeded it by such a huge amount that you could drive the megalithic EarthMover (tm) through the gap left between it and it's hype level.
 

wilsonscrazybed

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Dec 16, 2007
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Here's the "real hype" surrounding Creed.




Beautiful, but lacking substance. The game that is, not Jade.
 

modris

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Jul 17, 2006
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I'd say Portal lived up to the hype, at least the pre-release hype. I'd be curious to see what someone who was exposed to all the post-release hype before they played it would think. I know plenty of people think Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed didn't live up to their hype, but both games have exceeded my expectations. But then I tend to be a bit skeptical about any marketing, so maybe my expectations aren't an accurate reflection of the hype around certain games.
 

HSIAMetalKing

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Pokemon Diamond/Pearl lived up to the hype. I had decided after playing GSC that I was going to lay down my Pokegear and let the series go on without me. The hype of DP hit me hard, though, and I succumbed because I needed something to do with my DS. 300 hours logged in that game, and I don't regret a single Poketastic one of them.
 

tiredinnuendo

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I'm going to play the cheater card and say, "Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time"

And maybe Mario 64, because it was so revolutionary.

- J
 

fatguy3232

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Jan 3, 2008
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I think that the elder scrolls 4 oblivion lived up it its hype it was able to live up to the 300 plus hours of gameplay with a deep story and fun gameplay
 

J-Val

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Nov 7, 2007
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It is impossible for any game to live up to it's hype, because hype is the creation of the gaming community, not the game producers.
Not even Gears of War lived up to the hype. Do you remember the advert? Poignant music? Sombre scene? The horror of the alien attack?
Well, where was that in the game?! The plot was so obscure and secretive that you didn't understand anything without reading "Destroyed Beauty", the soldiers were a stereotypical bunch of jarheads - complete with token black person - and really no emotions were conveyed at all. As good a game it was, it didn't live up to the hype.
And Halo 3's hype wasn't that it would be better than Halo 2. It's hype was that it would be the most epic, brilliant, emotional rollercoaster.
Instead, it was Halo with a graphics update, a few system tweaks and no change to the repetitive formula of seven years ago (Small Corridor - Kill Aliens - Open Space - Kill Aliens - Repeat For Several Levels).
 

Mr_Cynical

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Dec 3, 2007
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modris said:
I'd say Portal lived up to the hype, at least the pre-release hype. I'd be curious to see what someone who was exposed to all the post-release hype before they played it would think.
I didn't buy the Orange Box until a few weeks after it's release, and as such was exposed to the post-release hype. I saw Yahtzee's review, heard people talking about it in work (I work for a second-hand games retailer)etc, and I still loved every second of it. I still maintain it is one of the best games I have played in YEARS and will quite happily recommend it to anyone.

J-Val said:
It is impossible for any game to live up to it's hype, because hype is the creation of the gaming community, not the game producers.
I disagree with your point here. It is not impossible for a game to live up to the hype, just unlikely. Also hype is generated not only by the gaming community, but by production studios/publishers etc. It HAS to be. who in their right mind is going to produce a game ant not big it up in any way? It's all part of the marketing process. Very few people (myself included) are going to buy a game they have never heard of, or that has not been marketed in any way. Hype is an intrinsic part of video game production, and it is up to the gamer as to whether or not they feel the game has lived up to their expectations.

I try not to buy into all the hype surrounding games, but inevitably, a small part of me does. It's human nature. You want something you are interested in to be as good as everyone says it's going to be. My method, even after hearing the hype, is to expect the end product to be complete and utter toss. that way, when it's not, I'm pleasantly surprised, and when it is a big pile of wank, I'm not disappointed.
 

Fire Daemon

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Dec 18, 2007
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I would have to say fable..........










Just Kidding!
I suppose Gears of War lived up to its hype because the only thing that was hyped about it was the graphics and they surely did live up to it. The multiplayer wasn't hyped much but proved to be very popular.
 

PurpleRain

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Sinfulfate said:
Halo 3 lived up to its hype imo by surpassing Halo 2 in every way. And so did Gears of War.
Xbox fanboy go home!

Gears of War let me down... waaaay down; as in: "Hmm, I heard this game was good" (que hard kick in the balls) "Oh god why?" Aside from the amazingly godlike graphics and engine, the game is a major let down in every sense. Story, characters, depth, replayablilty, enemies, funfactor. I finished the game in a night and I was glad I did. I couldn't give a flying poop if the main guy made it off the train at the end (oh yeah, spoiler for anyone who couldn't see it comming from a mile off) I was hoping he was on it when it crashed and the helecopter crashed into the bridge. Also, who the hell was that last boss?! There was no back story to him, also what the hell was tha story about anyway?! One day orks come out of the ground and kill everyone. None of the enemies were fun to fight. I rarely used my chainsaw because any time I got close enough I was butt raped by them. The stupid bat things, beserker things and all the rest were just annoying rather then fun. I miss fun.
 

intplee

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Dec 27, 2007
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Ico did not receive very much hype with the exception of some hopeful previews, and it surpassed that hype quite magnificently, and then some.
Shadow of the Colossus received more hype than Ico, a gawking anticipation if you will. I do not think that it surpassed its hype, but it certainly met it competently.
Grand Theft Auto III was almost barren of any prerelease hype. It quietly appeared on store shelves, and the consequences for the videogame industry could hardly be overstated.
Portal, the last game I played on The Orange Box. Why would I be in a rush to play a silly little puzzle game with portals? Possibly the best game ever.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was another movie tie-in (a bad movie, at that). There was surely no hope for this one, right? It turned out great.
Thief: Deadly Shadows was developed alongside Deus Ex: Invisible War. The latter received the far greater share of hype, whereas the former was a far better game.
 

Virgil

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Interpreting your question as which games lived up to high expectations, in no particular order:

Burnout II (Director's Cut)
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
SSX: Tricky
TIE Fighter
Portal
Diablo II
Ultima Online
Kings Quest V
Mario Kart
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Civilization IV

I could probably think of more if I spent more time on it. Of course, 'living up to the hype' can be simply translated to 'extraordinary' - any game that could be considered a 'classic' will have done that, making it a lot easier to pick out older games. Especially sequels that surpassed their originals.

The only one I would qualify is Ultima Online - I don't think history will treat it with the same respect that it deserves simply for being so incredible when it was released. Not many 10+ year-old games get to be compared to the newest, and it doesn't compare well anymore.
 

Golem29

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Jan 3, 2008
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Half-Life 2 delivered on the hype and so much more. Can't think of a game that delivered as much on my anticipations. Some of the sequences and set pieces (and in the episodes, especially ep 2) just left me numb after playing them for the first time, and they still blow me away today.
 

tiredinnuendo

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fatguy3232 said:
I think that the elder scrolls 4 oblivion lived up it its hype it was able to live up to the 300 plus hours of gameplay with a deep story and fun gameplay
I'ma veto that. Oblivion was a blight on the Elder Scrolls series. Not to say that it wasn't a decent game on its own merits, but 'tweren't no Elder Scrolls 4.

- J
 

greygelgoog

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Dec 29, 2007
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Looking for games that lived up to their hype means following that old political joke: the guy who promises the least will be the least disappointing. Take for example Dynasty Warriors: Gundam. They promised Dynasty Warriors with giant robots. That's all they promised. That's exactly what we got. I'm happy that they didn't promise an entirely glitch free game, because they wouldn't have been able to deliver on that.
Then there's the issue of pre-release versus post-release hype. Unless I'm a hopeless fanboy of a franchise I tend to wait a healthy amount of time before putting down cash for the game. My most recent purchases are Gears of War and The Orange Box and I can say I'm quite satisfied with those games.