In your opinion, what's the most overrated video game ever?

[UrinalDook]

As expected, this thread is mostly people stating games they don't like based on personal taste and calling it 'overrated' when they found out other people like it.

My pick for most overrated game? It's been said once before in this thread, but Portal.

Let me stress that I really like Portal. I may even go so far as to say I love Portal. It's a great game, and an important milestone in gaming history, but holy cow is it overrated. Gaming culture seems to hold a certain reverence for Portal that I don't get. Maybe it was, like most things, all in the timing. Maybe over-dominance of shooters led to a first person puzzle game being held up as more than the fleeting breath of fresh air it was.

Despite my opening snark, I won't deny that personal bias colours my view as well. I like my games to tell a story. Despite people's praise for Portal's supposed ability to convey a lot of meaning and nuance with a threadbare plot, I don't buy it. So it's hard to say why I find it overrated without expressing some modicum of opinion that it underperformed in a key area for me.

I just feel that the praise heaped upon what has to be argued is not a lengthy experience, on the little atmospheric touches in the turret banter, on the humour in GlaDOS' commentary, even on the psychological effect of anthropomorphising an inanimate box, builds the game up into something it isn't. It was a ton of fun, it was funny and it was engaging. But ultimately, it was just a puzzle game with a vague premise slapped on top. It was a throw back to on older era of games.

If it weren't for people on the internet endlessly parroting lines about cake and the end credits song, I honestly don't think I would have remembered much about the game beyond the admittedly rather iconic 'vwooooop' 'bvvvvv' portal gun sounds.

 

[VeneratedWulfen93]

The Half-Life series. I'm gearing up for a playthrough but I know for certain it won't be as good as everyone says. There are so many shooters I have played with better mechanics and generally seem to trounce it thoroughly. It is by no means bad but the zealous vigour that Half-Life fans defend it just feels unjustified.

 

[IronMit]

Mario?
I hate mario so much. Maybe it's cos I grew up with Sega megardrive (genesis) but that fandom&bias passed when i switched to N64 so I tried to play any mario (2D& 3D) and I can't think of one good thing about it. I watched youtube retrospec videos to try to figure out why it's good.
I would rather play castle/world of illusions..or even animaniacs

Loved mario kart though

 

[veloper]

I don't know about most overrated, because for one, overrated is a relative term - for example, if something is well executed but lacking in substance/depth/whatever and people are calling it the best game ever made, is that game really more overrated than something that is for all intents and purposes a piece of shit which people call decent?

A good question. The thing is that even the rating in overrated is hard to define. A 10 out of 10 is a maximum score sure, but which reviews do you allow? Mags, users?
Hype? Even harder to measure.

I do know that nobody really cares about "decent" and other safe opinions about less than stellar games. Calling a game decent is not a recommendation. Games that receive mere 6 out of 10s, 60% metascores and no hype might aswell be total crap for the attention they receive.

So the starting point always remains the same: look for games with plenty 5 star ratings and 10/10s and generally favourable ratings (a 90+ Metacritic score for example) and then among that set of game titles, look for the game which you reckon is the worst.
If you do this then you'd probably end up with a short list of incomparable titles from different genres, that you personally reckon to be shit or maybe just mediocre.
Gamers finally, who bring up decent little titles like Portal aren't trying hard enough or simply lack all perspective.

 

[FFP2]

Hands down FF7... In addition to the flaws pointed out in previous posts, Mr. T irritated the shit outta me and that cross dressing bit is really messed up if Cloud gets chosen. I get that for it's time it was an incredible achievement in all aspects but it just doesn't hold up anymore.

Also DMC3. I get why people say it's the best hack and slasher ever made but I gave up like 2 levels before the end. And it ain't got shit on Bayonetta.

 

[Zeh Don]

Grand Theft Auto IV.

While a technological masterpiece, the...

"Hey cousin, you want to go bowling?"

...game part of GTA IV is pretty boring, repetitive and, frankly, not very fun to play. It's...

"Hey cousin, you want to go bowling?"

...not realistic enough to be on the same level as Goodfellas, and not "fun" enough ...

"Hey cousin, you want to go bowling?"

...to be on the same level as GTA: SA.

Criminally overrated game.

 

[Nazulu]

I have no idea. I usually look for the greatest instead of the worst (you know what I mean).

I'm gonna go with the Pokemon games. It's probably because there is still many around me that believe they are the best games for the hand helds, but what ever.

They are hardly challenging, at all, for any one. I got addicted to them because of all the Pokemon popularity at the time, but this seriously needs to be fixed. You may have probably found some Pokemon so much stronger than the others that most are pretty useless. Also, I've had someone try to defend it saying how deep the game play can be, but that's with all the coding changed just for the official tournaments, and even then there is still a lot of luck involved.

Oh go on then.

Mario 64. Horrible camera, horrible controls. As soon as the whole novelty of a 3D Mario game wears off you've got to realise that platforming is flat out superior in 2D. Feel free to disagree.

I disagree, but I'll give it to ya since I found it disappointing that Bowser was always the main boss, and it took me ages to learn how to swim with out getting stuck

I would have to say the team ico games. Don't get me wrong, they are not the worst games I have played. I just think that for all of the praise that is heaped upon them, both games leave a lot to be desired.

Ico is one giant escort quest. Go do something to advance, run back every so often to fend of shadow things before they whisk the girl away, run back to accomplish more things, repeat over and over. I felt like the game actively wanted to piss me off. I really dislike escort quests so I guess that makes sense.

Shadow of the Colossus is visually and thematically interesting, but there is only so much of the "move, hold on for dear life, move some more" gameplay that I can take. Even when other games use the same mechanic (Castlevania: LoD, God of War, etc...) it is still annoying, but at least those games have something else to do. I wanted to enjoy SotC, I really did, but it just wasn't enjoyable.

I won't decry others for enjoying either of them, but they are overrated in my opinion.

You know, you may just win this. I liked both games but there was a lot of room for improvement and it really bugs me.

Spoiler: spoiler

Like the giant flying snake thing for example. It didn't even want to attack me so I literally felt unchallenged. It just floated away from me. And trying to reach the second last colossi's hand to kill it was lame and boring compared to the previous challenges.

 

[Nazulu]

Can we all agree on Tetris being hideously overrated? I mean yes it's fun, yes it can be addictive, but so can so many $.99 games on the App Store. Despite this, Tetris is regularly rated as one of the greatest games ever, alongside the Marios, Zeldas and Grand Theft Autos of this world, reaching the Top 5 of countless best games ever lists. It was influential, yes, but that doesn't instantly make it a brilliant game. It only gets so much love because it's "classic", otherwise why would it get more acclaim than something like, say, Jetpack Joyride? Or literally any other endless runner? It's fun, but one of the greatest games of all time? Not in a million years

I'm with ya, but I also understand why people see it as 'the greatest'. It's important to realise they say greatest but not 'best', because they believe that it was very influential and made video games in general, a lot more popular. You see it a lot more often when people like to make the greatest songs lists. Most of them are filled with mainly classic music because of either how popular it was, or how it effected the industry, or both. While I'll pick games that gave me the most exciting/interesting experience.

 

[Arfonious]

Diablo 3

Ridiculusly over-rated. The entire feeling of the older games are lost, the gritty artstyle is replaced with plasticy derp-fantasy stuff and the skill system so dumbed down that leveling stopped feeling noticable

 

[blackrave]

I can think of few examples
Final Fantasy (all of them)
Resident Evil (all of them)
Sonic (not even the games, but that spiky peace of shit itself)
Diablo (all of them)
Starcraft and Warcraft(overrated knockoffs)
Mass Effect2


P.S. Overrated=/=bad
P.P.S. Overrated=not as good as people claim

 

[Tom_green_day]

Oh ho ho this thread has so much potential just to be people attacking each other.
I'll have to go with Rockstar games. RDR I could stand, just. GTA4 is just painful. I find the controls stupid, the car mechanics baffling, story uninteresting and the city just boring.

 

[s0p0g]

oh, that's easy!
...
......
damn, it's not; either Half Life 2 (hype much?) or FF VII (hyper hyper much?)

perhaps FF because its fans are waaaay more atrociously obnoxious than HL's
and HL 2 was fun, while FF just didn't float my boat (one of the very very few games i didn't complete) (although i've been given to understand it's something like the holy grail of (J)RPGs)

yep, it's easy: FF VII ^^

 

[A Red Robot]

Dead Space, Final Fantasy 7 & 8, and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

I never found Dead Space to be scary or creepy, and the combat felt too awkward to be a good action game. The necromorphs also seemed more funny looking than scary. I liked the real-time inventory and the universe it was set in, but not the res of the game.

Final Fantasy 7 I never found appealing. I didn't like any of the characters and I found the villain to be boring. The story was pretty average, like most FF games. I just don't understand why people like it so much other than nostalgia. And FF8 felt like it was trying to be too much like 7, but with a horrible magic system for some reason.

I didn't grow up with Ocarina of Time, so maybe that's why I don't like it as much as other people. My only experience with OoT was playing the HD remaster on the 3DS, and I didn't really enjoy the dungeons in the game, and I didn't really like the bosses. I can see it being good for its time, but it hasn't aged well.

 

[AT God]

I have to agree it is Skyrim. It was a very well made game but the fact that the combat was almost criminally bad seems to be ignored by almost everyone.

I understand it was a big game for console gamers and that may be the major draw but for PC players who are used to high resolution, large worlds it doesn't stack up to even the most mediocre MMORPG, which is basically what Skyrim was but without other players.

That said, it is a good game and I will play it again once the 4.4GB high resolution pack finishes downloading.

 

[elbrandino]

Other good picks would be God of War III and the Sly Cooper franchise. For Sly I played through the HD collection and was only mildly amused by the game. I may never understand why that game is a fan favorite of many.

I LOVE the Sly Cooper series. Though I completely see why you might consider it far from perfect. It has its issues. HD collection destroyed all the fun in the Mz. Ruby fight, too. So damn difficult when it gets out of sync. As for the OT, I'd have to say I'd agree with you on God of War III and actually expand it to all three console God of War games. Mediocre hack n' slash adventures at best, but still good enough to keep me playing through all three. So not terrible. I'd also like to mention Super Mario 64. Clunky controls, annoying-as-hell camera, and the same main boss fight three times.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Nintendo first party games.

All the bloody time, I hear gamers preach about how;
"Super Mario/Zelda etc. games are the best games ever made!"
and how
"Nintendo does not just release the same game each generation!They vastly improve gameplay and graphics!"

Honestly, I'm glad that I was disinterested in my brother's N64 as a child: every time I meet someone who was "raised" by Nintendo games, it feels like I'm talking to a cult recruiter.

The games aren't even that good:

Super Mario(any of them)<Braid & Quantum Conundrum(I liked the platforming as it felt like I was making an out-of the box decision when choosing how to progress to the next level)

Zelda>Dragon Age Origins & KoTOR II, hell even Borderlands 1 beats Zelda outright(deeper RPG elements, more interesting dungeons & loot, not to mention gripping stories(except for Borderlands 1))

Metroid, out of all Nintendo first party games, is the only one that I feel deserves its praise.