That game that would have been better had you heard nothing about it before playing...

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

In honor of Peter Molyneux's little interview and most gamers calling him a shit, I thought I'd ask a simple question.

Would any of the Fable have been better received had Peter kept his mouth shut? And actually, I think so. I was 14 when Fable 1 came out, and I'd never heard of Peter Molyneux and you know what, I liked Fable. My expectations hadn't been hyped out the ass and I was more than willing to accept Fable for what it was.
Same with Black & White. No idea who Peter was, and it was a perfectly decent game. Likewise for 2 & 3. Were they great games? No, not really. But would they have been perfectly decent had Peter not promised us puppies and the moon with each press release? I think so! Absolutely!

And just to show this isn't all about Molyneux, Daikatana. I had never heard of it before, and didn't know its story until years later. What I knew was that I went from Pilot Wings 64 to Daikatana, and it was pretty damn good. Now looking back, I know its shit. But at the time, having heard nothing of it before hand, I was much more receptive. I mean traveling through time, killing plague zombies and Minotaurs with plasma rifles and Roman gladii?! I thought it was pretty damn amazing!

So I'm curious. What game would you have been kinder to had you never heard of it before? Or, what game did you enjoy before learning of some horrible shenanigans during its development that soured the game for the community at large?

 

[Elfgore]

As someone who has played Black and White 2, Fable, and Fable 2 without hearing a single world from Peter. Those games where fucking awesome. More creatures would have been nice, but eh.

Anyway, I can't help but feel I would've bought Evolve of I had heard nothing about it. A game where four hunters try and slay a monster sounds awesome. Add in everything else and it kinda goes downhill.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Halo 2. It was the title that taught me not to listen to the hype. Anyone remember this little demonstration?

Turned out it was all smoke and mirrors [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bungie-halo-2-e3-demo-was-a-fake] because Bungie was pressed for time to present something at E3. It was the Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer of its day, only it got a free pass by most because the final product was actually good.

It might have not been so bad if that was all, but it wasn't. There was hype info everywhere that didn't come to pass, including a focus on the Earth invasion, a moon level and the assertion that the game was going to be the conclusion of the storyline. It was a hard pill to swallow for a single player Halo fan like myself, to the point that it negatively impacted my impression of the finished game. My feelings gradually shifted from initial excitement to a niggling but growing unease as I progressed to betrayal as the credits rolled.

Fast forward after multiple playthroughs and sequels and I'm willing to admit I had set unreasonable expectations. Halo 2 is a good game, a great one in fact. I honestly think if I had gone in blind I would have indeed been blown away. It's damn impressive what Bungie managed to pull off, particularly given how tumultuous the game's development was. Still, there will always be a part of me that pines for what might have been, the "dream version" I had built up in my head from the hype train.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Halo 2. It was the title that taught me not to listen to the hype. Anyone remember this little demonstration?

Turned out it was all smoke and mirrors [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bungie-halo-2-e3-demo-was-a-fake] because Bungie was pressed for time to present something at E3. It was the Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer of its day, only it got a free pass by most because the final product was actually good.

It might have not been so bad if that was all, but it wasn't. There was hype info everywhere that didn't come to pass, including a focus on the Earth invasion, a moon level and the assertion that the game was going to be the conclusion of the storyline. It was a hard pill to swallow for a single player Halo fan like myself, to the point that it negatively impacted my impression of the finished game. My feelings gradually shifted from initial excitement to a niggling but growing unease as I progressed to betrayal as the credits rolled.

Fast forward after multiple playthroughs and sequels and I'm willing to admit I had set unreasonable expectations. Halo 2 is a good game, a great one in fact. I honestly think if I had gone in blind I would have indeed been blown away. It's damn impressive what Bungie managed to pull off, particularly given how tumultuous the game's development was. Still, there will always be a part of me that pines for what might have been, the "dream version" I had built up in my head from the hype train.

That was weird trailer. The music was so wrong and it seemed to be lacking some sounds. Other than that, how was this trailer misleading? I was still eating ice cream with my hands in kindergarten when Halo 2 came out.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I get the impression that this is the case with Watch_Dogs for a lot of people. Which is at its worst a mediocre game.

 

[Erttheking]

Portal. I thought it was a good game but it wasn't the "best game ever with absolutely no flaws" that people had been telling me it was. Same with Half Life.

 

[babinro]

Five Nights at Freddy's

I spoiled myself by watching this experience on youtube and then playing the game personally. It was still crazy tense/stressful but any fear factor and surprise factor of the game was completely lost.

Upon watching FNAF2 I realized I'd be better off saving my money and no longer buying these games. It's just more entertaining watching over the top youtubers like Marktiplier play these games than actually playing them yourself.

 

[sageoftruth]

Any game with a twist or a surprising moment. For me, I'd list Spec Ops The Line and Final Fantasy 7.

Thanks to all I'd heard about Final Fantasy 7 back when I played it, Aeris's death didn't move me at all because I knew it was coming.

 

[Bizzaro Stormy]

I think most over-hyped games fall into this category. I remember playing Bioshock for the first time and thinking, "That's it? This is a prettier version of a 90' shooter with an above average way of dealing with button/key hunting. I love the plot twist though!" My second play through was much more fulfilling. I just sat back and enjoyed it.

 

[kasperbbs]

I get the impression that this is the case with Watch_Dogs for a lot of people. Which is at its worst a mediocre game.

Yeah.. Nothing else compares to that fiasco. I was pissed off when i found out that it's nothing like the trailers and ignored it. I bought it recently and it's actually not that bad, i would give it a 7/10, though i'm tempted to reduce it to 6 since the last mission was the most annoying thing i ever encountered.

 

[Treeberry]

I think most over-hyped games fall into this category. I remember playing Bioshock for the first time and thinking, "That's it? This is a prettier version of a 90' shooter with an above average way of dealing with button/key hunting. I love the plot twist though!" My second play through was much more fulfilling. I just sat back and enjoyed it.

Ooooh. Same. In my case not only did I hear that it was an amazingly amazing game of amazingness but I actually had The Twist spoiled in real life when I was walking behind some guys talking about the game. I never made it to The Twist when I played the game though because I found it...*hangs head*...boring! *gasp*

And don't you dare ever try telling people you didn't like it because that means you want your hand held and have the intelligence of a mule's ass because apparently gamers are the Borg these days. I had a similar issue with Dragon's Dogma.

Actually, it's not that I dislike Bioshock. I think it was the smug attitude of other gamers that got to me back then. I'll give it another go sometime.

With Dragon's Dogma I was fooled into believing it was some kind of hybrid of Skyrim and Souls with its owner unique-ness added to the mix. What I got was a linear game with no exploration or story or character. A game for a game's sake. (Also, I'm aware that people here like that game and there's something about it that clicked with them, but not for me. Don't take it personally.) I did like a handful of NPCs though and some of the enemy idle animations.

Since somebody mentioned Watch Dogs - I just started playing this and it reminds me of hacker movies. I'm finding it unintentionally funny in how serious it tries to be. I'd probably be quite dismayed though if I had been interested in it at release.

 

[Dingobennyfred]

Half Life. Not just the first one. I mean all of them. With so much hype and the "Do you remember when" moments within the gaming community at large, it lead me to believe that it was a really great game...

And they were right. Problem is, it was kind of less extravagant when I played it. I call it the "wedding ring" theory. If the box is black and solid, the ring shines so much more brightly when you open it. But when the box is clear and has "Oooh, you're going to look at this and drool" written on a post-it attached to the box, it kind of spoils things. You enter into these things with higher expectations, which change based on your own experiences.

As for other games, World of Warcraft would have been fun to play before hearing anything about it. I had heard and seen all the negative stereotypes of WoW players, and the complaints of how long it is before anything within the game became fun, so I stopped playing after a month of trying it out, not wanting to waste my time when I could be playing other games. I might have been really into it before I heard all the criticism.

 

[happyninja42]

As someone who has played Black and White 2, Fable, and Fable 2 without hearing a single world from Peter. Those games where fucking awesome. More creatures would have been nice, but eh.

Anyway, I can't help but feel I would've bought Evolve of I had heard nothing about it. A game where four hunters try and slay a monster sounds awesome. Add in everything else and it kinda goes downhill.

Yeah, same here about BW and BW 2. I'd never heard Peter's name at the point that I was playing those games, nor when I was playing Fable 1 and 2. I really loved them, and still do. The opening cinematic to Black and White 1 still makes me tear up. xD

I'm probably still going to pick up Evolve eventually though.


For me, the game I might have liked better without any previous info, would be Homeworld 2. But, I dunno. I don't think it was so much pre-game hype that made me disappointed, I think it's more simply that the game didn't hold up to the legacy of HW 1 and Cataclysm for me.

 

[Flammablezeus]

Depth. It looked a lot more unique before they made it as arcadey as possible. Now it looks like a multicoloured HUD with a bit of ocean in the background, with regular guns somehow. Sure a bit of fun, but nothing you can't get from any basic fast-paced shooter.

 

[Dalisclock]

Thief: Deadly Shadows.

I didn't get around to playing until after it had been out for a while, so I heard a lot about how the Cradle was super scary. So when I got around to playing it, I didn't think it was terribly scary. Unsettling and creepy, yeah, but not scary.

 

[Darren716]

Wonderful 101, I wish I didn't hear about some of the set pieces and fights that happen latter in that game, they were still enjoyable and over the top I just wish I could have been fully surprised by them.

 

[laggyteabag]

Well, any. I am someone who likes to research the games that I am interested in, and a side effect of that is that I tend to know a lot of what the game is about before I even play it. The reason I do this is because I have been burned by bad games in the past due to lack of research, and I value the money that I have instead of just throwing it around at every game with a vaguely decent CG trailer.

I wish I didn't have to, but I just don't trust these developers as far as I could throw them.

As for specific examples:
The Walking Dead - I jumped on the Walking Dead train after the last episode of season 1 was released, and everyone was raving about how sad it was. And whilst it was great knowing that the game had a lot of praise, knowing that the ending was sad is like knowing that a story has a twist in it, so you just end up expecting it and dulling the impact of the surprise. The Walking Dead is a great game though, so I would recommend it.

Mass Effect - Another example of me being late to the party. I jumped on Mass Effect after ME3 was released, but I already knew how bad the ending was, and I had already watched it. Knowing how the story ends is admittedly kinda pointless, but the series was still a fun ride regardless.

 

[Evonisia]

I probably would have been much kinder to The Last of Us had I not heard the hype over it. I basically got a grasp on the major plot details and the world building excellence and stuff. As it stands it's a game that I enjoyed but don't really enjoy thinking about and I think it's a good but not great game. Then again, The Last of Us' hype was a large reason for my desire to get a PS3. Hmm...

BioShock Infinite counts as well, but if I'll be honest Infinite would have bored the shit out of me even if I hadn't played BioShock right before it it. BioShock lived up to dat hype and the storytelling spooky scary secrets though.

GTA V, too, but at the very least I was a bit hyped for it anyway which made the disappointment all the more crushing. I think it's mediocre because of a series of ups and down, the downs mostly being in the shit gameplay, but I probably wouldn't take much issue with it if people didn't keep going on about how amazing it is and how it had "improved" on GTA IV (like that meant a damn).

 

[josemlopes]

Halo 2
Turned out it was all smoke and mirrors [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/bungie-halo-2-e3-demo-was-a-fake] because Bungie was pressed for time to present something at E3.

You are going to love these, especially the second video at 5:40, these are all devs from Bungie.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm actually gonna throw another one up. Silent Hill 2. I honestly didn't get around to playing it until I heard Yahtzee and Jim Sterling both call it the best game ever made. So I got the Silent Hill HD collection, and oh man was Silent Hill 3 superior in every way! But I know I would have liked Silent Hill 2 much more if it hadn't been praised as the greatest game ever for so long.