Games you consider overrated

[Rheinmetall]

Well I thought it over. It's a Rockstar Games release again: Grand Theft Auto IV. How could I possibly miss this? Not that it wasn't a good game, but the hype was so crazy, that there were even stories on TV describing the "GTA IV phenomenon"! I bought a fucking Xbox 360 only to witness with my own eyes this phenomenon! And I ended up playing as Niko hanging up the phone all the time on cousin Roman and the girlfriend to avoid stupid rendezvous for darts and bowling.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Okay gameplay mixed with a forgetable story. Snooore. I did like the conversation battles a lot, though. They really gave the game an intelligent approach.

Gears of War: Military cover shooter with browny brown-ness. Need I say more?

Fallout New Vegas: I loved 3 but this one just didn't reach it's maximum potential. It just left a big "meh" impression, which was a real shame.

Oblivion: Generic fantasy at it's best.

Ocarina of Time: Good, but not "Best fucking game ever created" material.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations: The series needs more innovation, give me more Desmond. His backstory in Revelations was interesting and I want to see how he deals with his assassin powers in his time period. (Warning: I didn't actually finish Revelations)

Half-Life 2: Fucking. Boat. Level.

 

[Rheinmetall]

FF7, I tried to play it through but just could not get into the game.

Maybe it would be a good idea to use a guide to help you. When I first played FF7 I was clueless about FF and Japansese rpg in general, so I used a printed guide and it did help me a lot not to get lost in the game and follow the story more easily. As I was finishing the game I said to myself: what a game! What did i just play...

 

[Scarecrow1001]

I'm going with Fallout 3, I heard great things, but I just couldn't get absorbed in it. I found it boring

 

[drh1975]

Call of Duty, Halo, Brutal Legend (and its creator, Tim Schafer), L.A. Noire. I could name more, but these should be enough to get the hate-filled responses from everyone.
This list was kind of hard to make, because I do like the Modern Warfare series and L.A. Noire. But Noire has little replay value and I don't do multiplayer, so CoD makes my list.

 

[Xannidel]

FF7, I tried to play it through but just could not get into the game.

Maybe it would be a good idea to use a guide to help you. When I first played FF7 I was clueless about FF and Japansese rpg in general, so I used a printed guide and it did help me a lot not to get lost in the game and follow the story more easily. As I was finishing the game I said to myself: what a game! What did i just play...

I LOVE FF8, my fav out of the whole series, but 7 did not really click with me like 8 did. I am not sure what it is about 7 but it just isn't for me.

 

[The3rdEye]

Minecraft.

On the first page alone people mention Skyrim, Deus Ex HR and of course the obligatory mentions of anything Bioware related. But even with their flaws, to one extent or another all those games have a story, character development, secondary content and actual artwork. Minecraft, on the other hand has none of those things. Even if you want to look at it as a creative application, letting people tinker with 3D, you can just as easily go grab a copy of Blender and create something truly beautiful or original. But one mention of Minecraft or Notch getting involved in a project (Psychonauts 2) and accolades rain from the heavens and people squeal with barely contained elation.

Why?

 

[midget_roxx]

Final fantasy for me. Just don't find JRPGs interesting

 

[KingofMadCows]

Grand Theft Auto IV - They tried to add too much realism to the game that it really detracted from the fun. The vehicles had a bit too much inertial. The story was just depressing. All those little activities you do with your friends just get so annoying after the first two or three times.

Fallout 3 - Fallout has plenty of wackiness but there has always been a logic to the world. People in Fallout still behave in understandable ways. Fallout 3 completely abandons that. There's just so much stuff in FO3 that make no sense even within the craziness of the Fallout world.

BioShock - It's a great game but why do people keep treating it like it has the best story ever written? The whole thing with the Little Sisters seem more emotionally manipulative rather than anything really meaningful. Having them be little girls basically means they don't have to have any real development since people naturally feel sympathy for children.

 

[Blue Musician]

OT: That military shooter, you know, the one beginning with C.

Cattlefield?

OT:
-Morrowind. Found it quite boring.
-Minecraft. Same as above.
-Fable. Really disappointed by this game one hour in.
-Deus Ex. Found it boring, switched to SS2 instead.

 

[Tanis]

Final...Fantasy...7
It's treated like some perfect JRPG...when it's barely a decent FF.

When a 2D game has 3D characters like FF6, I consider it better.

I don't care how damn PRETTY the game is, if the game is suppose to be 'TEH UBEREST JRPG' the damn game better have some GOOD characters, story, music, and game play.

FF7 was mediocre in EVERY aspect, even the in game graphics were BEATEN but NiGHTS and PD a year or two before.

 

[Treblaine]

The only thing I see Niko doing the entire game is to look at a situation, complain to Roman about how this isn't what he imagined America to be like, and then to go out and continue the cycle of violence with the flimsiest of justifications. I can't extrapolate how I feel Niko would react in any other situation because I see his character as inconsistent and illogical. I feel CJ is only slightly better characterized, but the tone of San Andreas is different enough that I focus less on the characterization.

Also, on the topic of horses, I've been around horses for the majority of my life, and I find them to be filthy, crushingly stupid animals. I've had multiple neighbors get seriously hurt or even killed because of accidents while riding horses. The popular image of horses as some beautiful, graceful creature that forms meaningful bonds with little girls or cynical old men or whoever really rubs me the wrong way. I see people who ride horses as the same as people who free climb rock faces or skydive or whatever in terms of putting their life on the line, but at least in the other cases, you don't have to rely on a creature who will rear up or throw you or otherwise panic at the sight of a plastic bag or something. They may be breaking their backs for us, but they break their share of backs as well, so I really won't feel sorry for any virtual horse that happens to end up at the other end of my gun barrel.

You're almost touching on admitting Niko's characterisation and you hit the nail on the head in comparison with other Rockstar characters being similarly weak. That's not the selling point of said game. The character that sells is the city, the open world gameplay, the style, the soundtrack, the blend of gameplay modes and variety.

Oh I won't dispute the remarkable and awe inspiring stupidity of horses, I'm surprised "stupid as a horse" is not an idiom, as they seem to have no canny sense that most other domesticated and work animals have, they are still slaves to their animalistic flight-instinct at the most benign provocation breaking peoples backs.

But I don't hate them for that. I can't. Maybe it's just me but I can't hate any man or beast who fails because of their lack of intellectual capacity. I don't hate stupid people, I hate stupidity itself. I despair and get angry but I NEVER TAKE IT OUT ON THEM! If anything I hate myself for failing to control what should be a simple creature from factors that confound their functionality. Read the story of Moby Dick, all about a man seeking vengeance on a creature that knows no reason, and his folly.

But people who know better and still wrong me, knowing they wrong me... then they will taste my righteous wrath.

You're completely right that characters are not the selling point of GTA, but I also didn't like the gameplay. The recreation of NYC was phenomenal though. In my mind, that's the one really exemplary thing about the game.

On the topics of horses again, I am under no illusion that horses can be trained in any way to make them anything more than crushingly stupid (my mom has been trying for years with no luck, which is again not surprising). What does frustrate me is that they are treated as much more than they are by most people, with little girls all wanting riding lessons and Black Beauty and War Horse having so many idealistic portrayals of horses as caring creatures. Real horses care about you only because they think you have food or because you are sitting on their back and kicking them, and it's misleading to people who have no other experience with horses to perpetuate that horses are anything else.

Thus, it frustrates me to see so many people spending so much time on a creature which can easily crush an experienced rider by responding to its instincts. I can't really tell people not to ride because it's something they enjoy and it's their life to live, but nonetheless you obviously cannot exert perfect control over any situation, so putting your life in the hands of an animal which will always act instinctively and that is 1000 lbs more than you- it drives me nuts. I've tried to have as little to do with horses as possible since the age of 9, but I nonetheless think about them and all their issues more often than I would like, and dead horses in RDR is just my twisted way of getting some of my frustration with horses out on some virtual surrogates.

Hmm, I much prefer RDR's bounty hunting and cowboy chases to GTA4's bowling or any other civilised recreational activities.

Horses may be put on an unfairly high pedestal but you can hardly blame them for that, blame the owners and film directors and educate them of their ignorant idealism. But in RDR horses are what they are, they are not unduly revered but they are suitably respected. Certainly not given much intelligence or humanisation.

Have you considered you might have somewhat of a phobia of horses. First step of a phobia is recognising that your negative emotions exist BEYOND your ability to reason and rationalise, I don't think killing virtual horses will help you with that. The thing is if you have the right attitude to horses and don't treat them like human beings but like the beasts they are. They can be controlled with the right approach to their training and handling.

 

[uhddh]

Halflife 2, Battlefield 3, CoD MW2, CoD Blops, CoD MW3, Bioshock, Skyrim, Gears of War, GTA, starcraft, minecraft, mein kampf, Dragon Age; Origins, Red Dead Redemption, Fallout 3, Duke Nukem 3D. The list goes on. All have praise and fanboys coming out their asses and aren't "that" good. Yes Skyrim, Halflife 2, Minecraft, RDR, fallout 3 and Duke nukem are good, but not jesus (Or in skyrim's case god)

 

[Treblaine]

BioShock - It's a great game but why do people keep treating it like it has the best story ever written? The whole thing with the Little Sisters seem more emotionally manipulative rather than anything really meaningful. Having them be little girls basically means they don't have to have any real development since people naturally feel sympathy for children.

Yep, what's wrong with that? How much development can you have with an agent that is being constantly guarded by a giant armoured body guard, there has to be an instant appreciation of vulnerability.

Really the relationship with the Little Sisters is NOT the main appeal of bioshock but rather;
-the highly original setting of art-deco, diesel-punk, dystopic underwater city.
-the highly varied weapons and plasmids for a shooter
-the weird and unique enemies who babbled to you insanely
-the challenge of hunting Big Daddies to level up
-all the other little things like hackable sentries and bots and security cameras
-All the supporting characters like Sander Cohen
-THEN the better than most plot that had variety and twists without going over the top into Metal-Gear bullshit

Really, what game or even film has a better plot considering the design brief of the archetype of the silent protagonist? Remember it is intentional to have the silent protagonist as a COMPROMISE to increase greater immersion, you cannot step back to make comparisons as in practice it means a whole lot different when Andrew Ryan is speaking to some character called Jack or speaking to YOU when you are role playing as Jack. And chatty protagonist can disturb that immersion as you don't have conscious control over everything they do.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I don't think any game ism overrated, at least not in a general sense. If someone is a big old fanboy and is saying how good a game is I may say he is overrating it but I don't think any game is inherently "overrated" without context.

 

[KingofMadCows]

BioShock - It's a great game but why do people keep treating it like it has the best story ever written? The whole thing with the Little Sisters seem more emotionally manipulative rather than anything really meaningful. Having them be little girls basically means they don't have to have any real development since people naturally feel sympathy for children.

Yep, what's wrong with that? How much development can you have with an agent that is being constantly guarded by a giant armoured body guard, there has to be an instant appreciation of vulnerability.

Really the relationship with the Little Sisters is NOT the main appeal of bioshock but rather;
-the highly original setting of art-deco, diesel-punk, dystopic underwater city.
-the highly varied weapons and plasmids for a shooter
-the weird and unique enemies who babbled to you insanely
-the challenge of hunting Big Daddies to level up
-all the other little things like hackable sentries and bots and security cameras
-All the supporting characters like Sander Cohen
-THEN the better than most plot that had variety and twists without going over the top into Metal-Gear bullshit

Really, what game or even film has a better plot considering the design brief of the archetype of the silent protagonist? Remember it is intentional to have the silent protagonist as a COMPROMISE to increase greater immersion, you cannot step back to make comparisons as in practice it means a whole lot different when Andrew Ryan is speaking to some character called Jack or speaking to YOU when you are role playing as Jack. And chatty protagonist can disturb that immersion as you don't have conscious control over everything they do.

I never said that the Little Sisters were the main appeal of the game. It was one particular story element that I found to be too over the top. It was one of those "you can either save the puppy or kill it to earn some money" type decisions that games, especially RPG's, tend to use a bit too often.

Also, my complaint was about the story, which some people treat like it's Blade Runner. I didn't say anything about the weapons, the enemy variety, art design, etc.

 

[Treblaine]

BioShock - It's a great game but why do people keep treating it like it has the best story ever written? The whole thing with the Little Sisters seem more emotionally manipulative rather than anything really meaningful. Having them be little girls basically means they don't have to have any real development since people naturally feel sympathy for children.

Yep, what's wrong with that? How much development can you have with an agent that is being constantly guarded by a giant armoured body guard, there has to be an instant appreciation of vulnerability.

Really the relationship with the Little Sisters is NOT the main appeal of bioshock but rather;
-the highly original setting of art-deco, diesel-punk, dystopic underwater city.
-the highly varied weapons and plasmids for a shooter
-the weird and unique enemies who babbled to you insanely
-the challenge of hunting Big Daddies to level up
-all the other little things like hackable sentries and bots and security cameras
-All the supporting characters like Sander Cohen
-THEN the better than most plot that had variety and twists without going over the top into Metal-Gear bullshit

Really, what game or even film has a better plot considering the design brief of the archetype of the silent protagonist? Remember it is intentional to have the silent protagonist as a COMPROMISE to increase greater immersion, you cannot step back to make comparisons as in practice it means a whole lot different when Andrew Ryan is speaking to some character called Jack or speaking to YOU when you are role playing as Jack. And chatty protagonist can disturb that immersion as you don't have conscious control over everything they do.

I never said that the Little Sisters were the main appeal of the game. It was one particular story element that I found to be too over the top. It was one of those "you can either save the puppy or kill it to earn some money" type decisions that games, especially RPG's, tend to use a bit too often.

Also, my complaint was about the story, which some people treat like it's Blade Runner. I didn't say anything about the weapons, the enemy variety, art design, etc.

Well the little-sisters was your main body of your criticism in stating the game was over-rated, you acted like it was the main point of the game.

And what precisely is the problem with asking the player to make an ethical decision that is weighted with varying personal benefit? That internal conflict, that's drama, that's meaning and something of worth.

"complaint was about the story, which some people treat like it's Blade Runner"

You can't compare the plot of completely different works of fiction. I have actually never heard that comparison, I've heard people accurately describe it but not make such weird comparison. You got any example like from a professional review that makes such an unfair comparison? Otherwise if it is only you who has made this unfair comparison then isn't that a straw man argument? It's like saying "well Die Hard hasn't got as good a plot as Citizen Kane" doesn't change what makes Die Hard a good film and it's very subjective any way.

Blade Runner is too different to compare with Bioshock. However, Red Letter Media (Plinket reviews) did show how you make comparisons like the Star Wars films with Citizen Kane by comparing Kane with Darth Vader/Anakin and how the films approach them differently and he argues with comparison how the prequel trilogy is so ineffective. THAT is a fair (if harsh) comparison, even though he modestly says it is not fair.

 

[Athinira]

The difference is that Hideo Kojima never wanted to make MGS2. He deliberately used meme theory in MGS2 to deconstruct the very idea of a video game, went out of his way to insult the player, and made the ending so deliberately confusing and indecipherable that you would just give up on trying to understand it. This was all part of his insane plan to get fans to hate him so he wouldn't have to make more games. Comparing that to something where the game cocked up the ending that badly, while actually trying to do well, is insulting.

So, do you have anything to back up that claim, or is it something you learned at Conspiracy Theory College?

 

[ABLb0y]

Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur. Just... So... Bland and boring.

Battlefield. You can tell they're just doing it to piss off Activision. Everything they do has been done before and better.

That's about it, actually.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Art games. Any artsy game, at this point.

I'm more and more bored by that stuff every day (save for Shadow of the Colossus, that shit had great gameplay too) so whenever something like Journey makes journalists wax poetic on their previews/reviews, I wanna claw my eyes out.