The most over-rated/overhyped game of 2008?

[Hengst2404]

I think the major titles, Metal Gear Solid 4, FF13 and GTAIV will all likely be a tad overrated and will likely benefit from better than deserved review scores. Its really the nature of the beast these days as franchise blockbusters seem to get a pass on their lack of innovations. Just look at the reception Halo 3 got as a guide to how these 3 games will be treated.

I am not trying to imply that any of these games won't be a lot of fun, quite the contrary. I just doubt that they will revolutionize anything. I am losing my faith in established IPs as they all seem to play it safe.

 

[Saskwach]

I think the major titles, Metal Gear Solid 4, FF13 and GTAIV will all likely be a tad overrated and will likely benefit from better than deserved review scores. Its really the nature of the beast these days as franchise blockbusters seem to get a pass on their lack of innovations. Just look at the reception Halo 3 got as a guide to how these 3 games will be treated.

I am not trying to imply that any of these games won't be a lot of fun, quite the contrary. I just doubt that they will revolutionize anything. I am losing my faith in established IPs as they all seem to play it safe.

You're confusing novelty and quality. What you're saying is that these games will be overrated simply for not doing something new. However, you admit that they could still be fun and, by implication, good or even great. This is the only meter a game should be judged by, not its "innovation". From what I know of these games' marketing, none have been touted as revolutionary so if they're good then they aren't overhyped.
Leave the innovation to Spore.

 

[shadow skill]

I think alot of the ype sorrounding Haze has a great deal to do with who is making the game. They have a proven track record with Perfect Dark, (When those guys were a part of Rare.) and the Timesplitters games which are also highly regarded. Honestly if you think highly of a company as many of the people really looking forward to Haze think of Free Radical would you think that the game would not be good or even great?

Just look at what happened with Bioware and Mass Effect.

 

[Mymla]

Surprised nobody's mentioned Warhammer Online, since the hype for that is almost palpable. I'll probably be playing it, but, meh.

Oh yeah, first post. Hi!

 

[Dectilon]

Every game that isnt Brawl is overhyped this year. Brawl is gonna be great. Some may say its more of the same, but if a system isnt boken dont break it.

Oh, how I hate that saying, more than anything. With that attitude we'd still be scared of fire : P

If a game is derivative then it's derivative, and if originality is something reviewers value then it's going to warrant a lower score. Might still be a kickass game, only not deserving credit for being more than it is.

 

[ratix2]

Crysis by a mile. The PC magazines are more guilty of spreading the hype than the company itself. It's a barely average shooter and they treat it like god's gift just because it looks pretty. In the meantime, nobody with a life cares. I thought gaming magazines were over the whole "it looks good so therefore it must be a great game" thing but obviously not.

were talking about 2008 ya freakin idiot, not 2007, and if we WERE talking about most overhyped games of all time the winner would be undisputable: daikatana. and while i agree that crysis was a dissapointment (keyword: dissapointment, not failure or sucked, except the last few levels) its far from an average shooter (like say, halo 3 or cod4). and its not just "pc magazines" that rated it highly ya stupid git, good reviews for it came from basically everywhere.

on that note, killzone 2, the orginal is one of the 2 games ive ever returned to the store, was excited about it for months before its release and the second i got it the only thing i found myself doing was trying to keep from saying god why did i waste my money. and all i hear about killzone 2 is that its going to be the best game ever, things that were said about the first, and then the fact that the game is looking to be another average shooter as well.

while im hoping it doesent i have a feeling that far cry 2 will dissapoint as well, so far the hype generated for the game has been deserved (cant think of a better word at the moment), but i just have a feeling it will end up not living up to it (just like crysis, had the game been what they said it was going to be when they started talking about it then it would be best shooter ever, but it didnt come close to that). and of course i really have to put a refrence to stalker in here somewhere since whats been said were many of the same things said about stalker as well.

the orginal mgs is one of the best games ever, that being said 2 and 3 didnt live up to it in any way in my opinion, but they were pretty good, i expect 4 to be the same way, not living up to the orginal or even its predacessors but still a good game.

and as for fable 2, look at peter molyneuxs track record.

and for all the people saying dnf................ITS NEVER COMING OUT!!!!!! and even if it did its gonna be damn difficult to live up what it should be after 12+ years in development.

 

[runtheplacered]

@ ratix2 in regards to Crysis,

"its far from an average shooter (like say, halo 3 or cod4)."

Gonna go ahead and say.. I thought it was just about universally accepted that COD 4 is by far the superior shooter in relation to Crysis? I didn't even know there was debate on that. Oh well.

 

[Thaliur]

The constant delays that have plagued this game don't give confidence that it'll be any good.

A delayed game doesn't need to be a bad one. Take a look at Two Worlds for example, or Half Life 2 Episode 2 (OK, I hate the hunters and would have preferred more of the Martian Fighting Machine Clones, but thats just personal preference)

I might make a lot of enemies by saying this, but I'm pretty sure StarCraft 2 will be a big disappointment, except maybe for hardcore fans. It doesn't seem to have any innovation in it at all, not even copied from other games, so it's basically StarCraft in 3D, with exactly the same repetitive gameplay. It would have been OK for me if Blizzard had copied some game elements from, say, the Earth series, or Machines.

 

[Zera]

Every game that isnt Brawl is overhyped this year. Brawl is gonna be great. Some may say its more of the same, but if a system isnt boken dont break it.

Oh, how I hate that saying, more than anything. With that attitude we'd still be scared of fire : P

If a game is derivative then it's derivative, and if originality is something reviewers value then it's going to warrant a lower score. Might still be a kickass game, only not deserving credit for being more than it is.

Yes Originality is one thing. But unfortunatly not many of these hyped games have it. Just because its original doesnt make it funner either. For example I played Bioshock and though it was a cool game, I had more fun with Galaxy. So as long as the game is fun, it trumps originality.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

A game doesn't necessarily have to be original to be good. (see sequels of: Street Fighter, Megaman, Guilty Gear, etc) A lot of good games take things from existing games and expand upon them, or take old ideas, and mix them with new ones.

Starcraft 2 has a hell of a lot to live up to. So far, it seems like it'll end up like Starcraft 1, except shinier, but also with a new campaign, new units, and (hopefully) new strategies. The question is, will Blizzard still manage to keep the game balanced? Because they can't afford to change around too much stuff without ending up with imbalance.

Brawl has a hell of a lot of content additions (stage builder, campaign, several co-op modes, more characters), and on top of that, the AI has been improved, the gameplay itself has been altered (made somewhat slower, and characters don't fall to the ground as fast, wavedashing is gone, etc).

 

[Katana314]

Probably Duke Nukem Forever (has nothing to add, and doesn't fit in today's world)
and Starcraft 2 (now looks like every RTS ever, no longer fresh)

Duck is right; it may not look it but Brawl does add quite a lot of important things, the essential one being online play. And no mics that I know of, so you won't hear the spam of whiny kids.

GTA4 has looked impressive to me. I'm disappointed to hear they'll be cutting down on landmass and removing planes, as some of the funnest moments in San Andreas were out in the countryside. Still, as long as the new additions don't turn out to be just "wow-factor", it looks like it'll be a really fun sandbox.

MGS4 would probably get a thumbs up from me just from the cutscenes alone; as long as the story is capped off and Raiden kills Vamp, I'm fine. Also it looks like they've really modernizing it, making the combat a lot easier. Hopefully it'll still have that Kojima charm to it.

 

[m_jim]

My money's on Killzone 2 not being worth my money. As someone who actually played the first one to the bitter end, I was continually frustrated by a crap checkpoint system, worse story/writing, weapons that don't shoot where you aim, and garbage hit detection for melee combat. I don't expect this new one to be anything other the same with a fresh coat of paint.
<\bitterness>

 

[PsiMatrix]

Which upcoming game do you think will be the most overhyped game of 2008?

Share your opinions.

Ask me in a year and I'll tell you.

At the moment any answer will simply be speculation. I thought Halo 2 was great but after a few months it felt like one of the most over-hyped pieces of crap I'd ever bought.

My answer right now will be any game which uses the words "innovative", "revolutionary" or "ground-breaking".

 

[stevesan]

Which upcoming game do you think will be the most overhyped game of 2008?

Share your opinions.

Ask me in a year and I'll tell you.

At the moment any answer will simply be speculation. I thought Halo 2 was great but after a few months it felt like one of the most over-hyped pieces of crap I'd ever bought.

My answer right now will be any game which uses the words "innovative", "revolutionary" or "ground-breaking".

and, "never been done before".

and also, "the most realistic dog ever seen in a video game".

 

[sapient]

This is all speculation - none of these games have come out, and we have no solid information.

MGS4 gameplay footage seems to be suffering from a 'Yahtzee's nightmares'-esque ailment that can only be called "stealth-to-warfare syndrome". A lot of the game has Snake stealthing and using the Metal Gear REX, but is equally filled, from what the E3 demo shows, with a large amount of warfare in the traditional war game style, if not Metal Gear Solidified somewhat.

Half Life 2: Episode 3 is not going to come out this year. Valve have spent months on the last 'Meet the Team' sketch, and it's concrete that EP3 will have to wait as long as 2010, god forbid. Valve is murderously slow, and I think before releasing a new title they'd like to shine the already-blinding TF2. Flooding the market with games adhering to Valve's high standards at the same time will only raise expectations and hype, therefore ruining their next few titles.

Killzone 2 is hyped, yes, but there is no telling what a game like that can get to - it looks like another COD4, loved by repetetive FPS fans and hated by people who wanted something different. It's a lot like Crysis, in the sense that the fans and critics aren't going to play it the way the developer intended. Run'n'gun mindsets ruined Crysis, and people really just avoided the nanosuit as opposed to utilizing it.

Spore cannot be overhyped in the sense that we've seen nothing like it before. It's too different to be hyped, it's not the killer of anything, it's the creation of a new genre. I guess some hype is classifying it as the RTS/Sims killer, but there's no telling what it's going to be like because we don't have any precedents with games on this scale and idea. I personally do not see anything in Spore that interests me.

The new Final Fantasy will be an improvement on the last, as all Final Fantasy games are, but again nothing groundbreaking. The series should have quit while it was ahead. I'm not saying I hate the entire series, it's just that the bare frame beneath the glossy sparkle, overhype, rabid fans and quaint Japanese 'normality', which we would call 'ridiculous' is starting to show and Square Enix is doing extremely well in using the same format to make different games.

Finally, SSBB depends entirely on whether Nintendo is trying to make the SSBM lightning strike again, or initiate new users into a decidedly - and embeddedly - gimmicky format. I don't know any details of the new game, I don't have a next-gen console (though I'm considering a PS3) and the PC is my main gaming output, yet I still love it. SSBB may be overhyped, it could just be gimmicky, or it could be groundbreaking. We'll leave that for the critics and playtesters to hype, and the actual market to confirm/deny.

 

[monodiabloloco]

Dirty Thirties II: This time we don't have the Soviet Union to Blame!

Wait...you guys blamed the Great Depression on the Communists too?

We blamed everything on Communists in those days. Ignorance needs a scapegoat!

Oh, and on topic: I go with KZ2 and Spore.. a bit... I think that I picked Spore 'cause I REALLY REALLY want it to be super great and I am sure I'll be let down a bit.
Oh, and DF-Forever? I don't think that counts anymore. It's not even being hyped up. I don't think anyone thinks it's going to be a great game. I think most of us are really just kinda hoping it'll be OK at least. Most of us that are more grey in the beard..or head (for you ladies)are probably going to get it since we set aside that $ years ago and are shooting for nostalgia by reinvesting in an old friend. There a whole generations of younger gamers who may be more like, "Duke who? Meh.." And Yes... I am one of those who played Duke Nukem when he was a 2D platformer/shooter... right along with Commander Keen...
Now I have to go yell at children for being on my lawn...

 

[Melaisis]

lol. It has to be Fable 2. Even though I've heard no hype around Fable 2 but I bet theres a truckload of it somewhere

There's been very little hype, especially since Peter Molynieux is involved.

I agree. The entire thing has been really, really downplayed by the entire gaming Internet community. Aside from the odd published magazine who treats an interview with Molyneux as some sort of divine gift (I'm looking at you, PC Gamer UK) and believes everything he says (like last time, then? Nice TREES. Nice RAISING A FAMILY!), the vast majority of people just think he has a whole lotta vision, but doesn't go about it practically.

Superfreak, superfreak, she's superfreakae yaol.

Or, in the case of Raiden:

Superfreakae, Yaoi.

 

[shadow skill]

Let's not talk about Yaoi here......................

 

[EzraPound]

Starcraft 2 (now looks like every RTS ever, no longer fresh

Oh yeah, Starcraft 2's is going to suck. It's going to suck a mountain of ass the size of a Protoss carrrier.

Blizzard fans should just find a new hobby now before the crappy company they've deified tapers into developing even worse drivel - and save face in the process.