Games you couldn't understand the hype over?

[neonsword13-ops]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Found it painfully bland.

Quests were uninteresting, gun-play felt old, and whoever thought about using energy cells for stealth attacks was an idiot.

The conversation battles were probably the only good thing I can think of. The argument with Sariff before going to Hong Kong was awesome.

Adam's shades were pretty bad-ass, too.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

For me it has to be Journey; maybe I'm just a soulless husk of a person but this game just didn't stir anything in me above a mild admiration for the concept.

...

You are a terrible person. /sarcasm

I see you are new here. Welcome to the escapist, I hope you enjoy your time with us. ^_^

Now, if you will excuse me, I have other matters to attend to.

Bye-bye...

 

[Therumancer]

Pretty much any shooter right now, as they all seem to be slight variations on the same things, and even wind up using the same basic "whack a mole" pop and shoot cover mechanics. There have been some good ones out there, but I fail to see what is so radical and exciting about say the newest "Call Of Duty" or "Gears Of War" installment or clone.

Maybe console shooters, but thats a limit of the platform.

Take tribes:ascend for example, to the untrained eye it just like any other power armor shooter, if you play it for more than 5 minutes it shows itself as something which it clearly isn't, with considerably faster gameplay and much more varied guns than most other shooters.

So while console shooters may be in a rut, i don't think the same can be said of all shooters (sure thats just one example, but there are many like the upcoming planetside 2, painkiller or gotham city imposters which do play differently.


Anyway games i couldn't understand the hype for, this is quite limited because most of the time it makes sense, for example deus ex was a potential rebirth of something amazing (may not of actually become that, but the potential WAS there), similarly saints row the third or brink had interesting features, whether or not they hit the goal on release (they didn't) doesn't mean there was no reason for this.

But one i couldn't get was skyrim, it didn't look fun in the videos, it looked drab and colourless and lifeless, which is exactly what it turned out to be. Its good it can be modded but that should only ever be an extra, no the primary reason to buy a game.

So yeah skyrim shoo!

Well, there are exceptions to every rule, but even most PC shooters are similar to console shooters, and the majority of shooters are multi-platform titles nowadays anyway.

When it comes to Skyrim, it's a niche title, not trying to go for the same kind of mainstream appeal as shooters do. It's just a title with a LARGE niche of RPG gamers, which used to be the dominante force in gaming before the mainstream was brought in.

Skyrim's problem, as far as it has one, is that even as a niche title it decided to focus on a niche setting. It went all out with the entire "Norse" theme including the enviroments to really give it that feel. If you really like the whole viking schtick it was your dream game, if your more into traditional sword and sorcery enviroments, it's understandable that it was less appealing.

A lot of people have reacted the same way to Skyrim's enviroments, and to an extent it shows exactly why the whole "forests, elves, dwarves" motif tends to dominate, people claim they get tired of it, but extreme changes of scenery tend to illicit even more extreme reactions.

I see Skyrim as the most successful attempt of it's kind, and showing that gamers might slowly be weaned into other settings. I tend to look back at games like say "Al Quadim" or "Prince Of Qin" and others with extreme setting changes (D&D Arabian Nights, and Ancient China respectively) as examples of similar attempts in the past that didn't meet with any major success for what amounted to similar reasons.

Personally, I like Skyrim, we do disagree there in overall reaction, but I do agree that the presentation left a bit to be desired. Germany had it's share of thick, dark forests, and really I think we needed a bit less of the icy tundras and annoying "always in your way" mountains and some areas that were a little more traditional.

 

[Cyfu]

The CoD and Battlefield games.
Guild wars 2. I mean it's just an MMO. they aren't really doing anything that revolutionary. it will be just another MMO. That's what i think at least.

 

[LiquidSolstice]

Skyrim. After blowing $60 on it, I don't know how the fuck anyone stays patient enough to play it.

You obviously never played Morrowind. For the first 20-some hours you are effectively being ripped to shreds by Mudcrabs of all things. It is at this point you are graduated to "Nix-Hound kibble". Only after investing nearly a hundred hours worth of time can you confidently stroll the landscape without getting eviscerated if you wander across the random bestiary you did not plan to run into but did.

Skryim moves at lightning speed for anyone who played Morrowind. That said, it's a sort of game that isn't for everyone really. It's a whole lot of "making your own way" with little to no guidance at all. Which is what I have always loved about the series.

I'll admit I never played Morrowind. I jumped into Skyrim because of the hype, and 5 hours into the game, I didn't have a fucking clue who I was, what I was supposed to do, what faction I belonged to (if that concept even existed), how to kill "the vampires in the cave" without getting destroyed, or just anything, to be honest. Everything was so.....vague. Pretty for sure, but vague. I don't mind games that throw me a challenge or complicated system of advancement, but Skyrim was ridiculous.

 

[Norix596]

Basically the iterations of the Modern Warfare Call of Duties -- I have MW2 and had some fun with it, to be sure. But I can't understand how it is the best selling game with each iteration. All the sequels to MW1 have pretty much been dull churned out single player with all the development effort going into the multiplayer... except that the multiplayer changes very little from game to game too.

Certainly not worth waiting for in a line for on release day.

 

[I-Protest-I]

Halo 4, my friends have been overly excited about it and though it is my favourite series to date I am keeping it at arms length for the moment. No game has the same feel in another company, no matter how hard they try (Bioshock 1 and 2.)

EDIT: WAIT STOP THE PRESSES

Deus Ex: HR was boring as shit.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

...Kingdoms of Amalur. Just... why?

Kingdoms of Amalur was hyped...? Not trying to be a smart-ass but I missed a whole lot of the ads and, all of the anticipation for this one. I tried the demo though and it felt like Dragon Age: Origins with a brighter color palette. Then I noticed the Todd MacFarlene name attached to it and figured...well, there's a reason to hype the thing up.

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I agree with OP when s/he mentions Uncharted. It was done before by Lara Croft except for the cover-based shooting but that was done by everyone else around the time Drake was getting ready for his first adventure.

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Dragon Age 2. It deserved all of the hype it got BUT the hype train was really deceptive about the sequel to one of Bioware's (then) greatest new IPs. The thing is, this game was being talked up as a great role-playing game blah-blah-blah...This game played more like a beat-em-up than an RPG and if it were released in any other era or, as an arcade cabinet this would have been classified as a beat-em-up with RPG elements and different quest lines.

 

[Fijiman]

Mass Effect 3- I've not played any of the previous games and with all the bitching and whining that's been going on in the forums since the third one came out I don't think I want to. Ever.

Final Fantasy series- I just don't get it and I could really care less.

Anything that is a PS3 exclusive- Don't have a PS3, so could care less.

 

[Valis88]

Halo...all of it.

I guess this is going to some extremely petty but, I just can't connect with a protagonist that lacks a face. All those fancy dramatics, all of those super emotional moments, and we stare at a featureless green helmet with a gold visor.

If the Master Chief is void of facial expressions, and emotion, why should I care about him at all? he's just a robot, and to me, from my interpretation of the lore, he kinda is.

Story wise I never 'got' why it's so hyped up.

 

[Orks da best]

skyrim, any cod games, quild wars 2, half-life. hmmm ya thats my list, i do not understand why these games are or were so hyped.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

Every Sports Game Ever Made - Barely changes
Every Racing Game Ever Made - Barely changes
Every Modern War Game Ever Made - Barely changes
Every Final Fantasy Ever Made - Barely changes (Starting to see a pattern here?)
Nearly Every Cover Shooter Ever Made - Barely changes AND becomes repetitive (BROKE THE CHAIN!)
Every Dancing Game Ever Made - Barely changes, hate dancing, although DDR can be fun at times.

EDIT: Oh yeah you can throw Journey, Limbo, and Flower in there.

As for games that I actually back up the hype?
Persona 4
Ocarina Of Time
Psychonauts

And finally, games I believe should have gotten more hype.
Dead Island - If people were patient and showed some love this great game would have been fixed.
Psychonauts - Sure it's a cult favorite but it's sales were poor, they deserved so much more.
Brutal Legend - Same as Psychonauts.

 

[distortedreality]

Is it just me or do a lot of people not understand what the OP question was asking?

Seems like it's turned more into a "I don't like game x" rather than "I didn't understand why people were excited for game x".

My vote would be Dead Island. I mean yeah, that trailer was epic, but the game was never going to be like that, the only real press releases prior to release painted the game as a fairly generic zombie game. Really couldn't understand why people were so excited about it.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Recking is one that I really don't get.

There was a big hullabaloo about this game because of all who was working on it and it turns out that it was 'meh'. I wasn't a huge fan of how the game looked, and the combat didn't rock my world when I played the demo when I heard just about everyone tell me how great it was.

 

[DeadYorick]

Mass Effect.

I`ve never understood why fans get so hyped for Mass Effect.

I mean I loved the first one back in like 2008 don`t get me wrong, and I preordered and sort of enjoyed the second one. But never would I have gotten to the point where I start petitions and lobby with Bioware to change the fucking ending to one of the games in that series. I never considered the series particularly well written, nor did I find it`s gameplay as intriguing as other titles released around the same time. I mean don`t get me wrong I enjoyed both ME1 and 2 when I played them but they are the science fiction game equivalent of potato chips really.

I mean it`s insane. I don`t even consider the original Mass Effect Bioware`s best game, not even in recent years. I didn`t even buy ME3 because I didn`t consider it worth my time, but apparently people treat Mass Effect almost like it`s their entire religion.