Games that Lived up to the Hype

[The Madman]

For me it was Far Cry III and Baldur's Gate II.

You embryos probably don't remember all the PC Gamer magazines dedicated to that series. Baldur's Gate II had a LOT of hype.

Many people do, I still even keep the original box right next to me on a bookshelf. Baldur's Gate 2 in many regards was the perfect sequel right next to Thief 2: The Metal Age which is another 'perfect sequel' in my eyes. Even so however that was around, jeez, twelve years ago now. Way to make me feel old!

 

[Bashfluff]

Super Mario Galaxy. People said it was the best 3d Mario, improved the formula, had a somewhat different story, and was really engaging. I called bullshit, and I have never been happier to be proven (mostly) wrong about how good a game is.

Also, Katawa Shoujo. Jesus.

To the Moon. T_T

And Paper Mario: TTYD.

 

[hazabaza1]

Probably The Walking Dead.
I heard people going "it's so emotional!" and "Best characters ever!" And I just thought "psssh, it's a point and click, it can't be that good."

Well fuck me sideways after I played it.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I was like this, I flat out refused to buy it at first because I really wanted another Elder Scrolls game instead. Then I decided to play it.

Holy shit. Holy. Fucking. Shit.

I've bought it twice (regular and GOTY) and have a total of like...9 characters I think? It's so addicting.

I'm glad to see that someone else understands the greatness of Fallout 3.

I think you'll find a few. That's the only game this gen that has gone beyond my expectations. Got vanilla (ps3) as a gift then later bought goty for the PC.

Last gen I would say San Andreas and Burnout 3 were the ones that surprised me. They sounded good but none of the hype could prepare me for all that awesomeness.

 

[Squilookle]

As one of the perhaps 5 or so people who followed everything in the lead up to the release of Conker's Bad Fur Day- I can say that definitely delivered on the hype it had.

I was just hoping for Just Cause 2 to be at least as good as Just Cause 1, perhaps a bit better. Never expected it to smash it out of the park there!

Also all hype I got for Mount and Blade was from this site- and having got it I can say that definitely lived up to it.

 

[Padwolf]

To The Moon for me. I wasn't expecting it to hit me that hard.

Also Catherine, that was a fantastic game.

The Walking Dead, after everyone saying how emotional it is, how it was the best game of the year, I had my doubts. Then I played it. I cried so much and the game was so damn good!

 

[dimensional]

I dont really buy into hype now because no game will live up to it if you believe to much of it but for me I suppose back in the day FFVII exceeded all my expectations for it by an absolute mile but then again I was ready to hate it not exactly being an RPG fan back then.

Only other one I can remember hearing a lot about and still being massively impressed when playing was Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast holy hell man that game improved on SoulBlade/edge massively gameplay wise to an extent I didnt think possible its still my favourite 3D fighter ever I even bought a Dreamcast for that one game.

Its easy to build hype beyond reasonable expectations particularly with words like greatest, revolutionary, unparallelled etc really for most people that is setting it up for a fall.

 

[squidface]

My vote definitely goes for The Walking Dead, as one I can remember playing recently. I didn't cry, I wanted to when certain things happened, but oh man, some of the moments I heard other people get emotional about I was fine with, and other parts really got to me. I think by the end I could slightly see the direction it would take, and there was one thing that just before it happened I was like "yup, I can see what's going to go down in about 2 seconds". It was sometimes predictable, but also unexpected things happened, and I liked the mix of both. By the time I got to episodes 4/5 I was really emotionally exhausted with it. And that's awesome.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Bastion is an amazing game. It blew my mind and all the reviews said it would too.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Going by what you posted I am assuming you meant from this gen, in which case sorry, I can't say much. The last games I played that I specifically remember living up to their hype was the original God of War, Twilight Princess and Metal gear Solid 2. I've played a lot of great games since then, but nothing that was overly hyped... at least, not like the aforementioned games were.

 

[Creator002]

Lollipop Chainsaw.
Yeah, yeah, I know, there was pretty much no hype, but I find it absolutely amazing.

The Walking Dead
I bought it when episode 2 was released and I found it superseded what everyone else was saying. I still love it and want to play it again, however it's one of those games you can't really replay and enjoy the same way.

 

[OpticalJunction]

Guild wars 2, at least before you hit level 80. Incredibly MMO and well deserving of all the praise.

Fallout 3 is another one.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Borderlands 2, mainly due to improving on the previous game.

 

[ComradeJim270]

I dont really buy into hype now because no game will live up to it if you believe to much of it but for me I suppose back in the day FFVII exceeded all my expectations for it by an absolute mile but then again I was ready to hate it not exactly being an RPG fan back then.

Only other one I can remember hearing a lot about and still being massively impressed when playing was Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast holy hell man that game improved on SoulBlade/edge massively gameplay wise to an extent I didnt think possible its still my favourite 3D fighter ever I even bought a Dreamcast for that one game.

Its easy to build hype beyond reasonable expectations particularly with words like greatest, revolutionary, unparallelled etc really for most people that is setting it up for a fall.

I had this realization a few years back, which is why I don't even seem to have the ability to get hyped about games anymore and tend to tune out hype or find it downright annoying. That makes it really hard for me to assess whether games have lived up to it.

I didn't used to be that way, though. It's hard to remember really old examples, but the last couple of examples I can remember are GTA: San Andreas, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Both were presented to me as being incredible fun and damn near flawless, and that's exactly what I got.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

To me God of War III delivered on all fronts. SO did Borderlands 2. It fixed all the problems the first one had. But oddly enough it somehow didn't have the same spellbinding effect on me the first one had.

Also Super Meat Boy. A superb platformer, period.

 

[lRookiel]

I'm gonna say that the new XCOM lived up to the hype. It's just awesome :3

 

[Rblade]

Starcraft 2 for me. And we'll World of warcraft, I think expectations where high and boy did they knock that one out of the park.

other then that, I think LA Noire, for all it's fault, was better then most persimists would have thought.

The rest of my entries have pretty much been mentioned.

 

[Rush Syks]

Well, in recent memory there was Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the new XCOM.

I originally wanted to play DE:HR right when it came out, but because of the release delay it had, I only had time to play it after christmas that year. Played it five days straight (including the DLC) and loved every second of it. Although the lack of cutscences in quality of the trailer was a little dissapointing.

XCOM just took the entire first weekend when i bought it, even though I had enough other stuff I should have done instead. That was fun but I really felt a little bad afterwards.

Oh, hi everyone btw.

 

[ComradeJim270]

You know, I'm going to kind of backtrack on what I said earlier and agree on Fallout: New Vegas. That's probably the closest I've been in the current gen to getting genuinely hyped up about something, probably because it looked like what Fallout 3 should have been (when my friends hear me say "the real Fallout 3" they know what I mean). It absolutely did not disappoint and I was actually surprised it wasn't better received than it was.

other then that, I think LA Noire, for all it's fault, was better then most persimists would have thought.

I second that. The main things I saw hyped (animation and an authentic-feeling representation of 1947 LA) were very impressive, even if other parts of it fell short. I enjoyed it a lot.

 

[Not Matt]

duke nukan forehehehehehe awhhhhhh. as if.

batman arkham asylum. or maybe that's just because i am such a major geek for batman.