Predict the most overrated game of 2016

[meiam]

Overrated would be a worthless criticism if we lived in some perfect world were everyone had perfect knowledge of every other game in existence, and they wouldn't be influenced by things that have no effect on a game quality, like marketing, hype, developer fame and games pushing people pet agenda/social causes (Is Atlas Shrug really an amazing novel or do people love it cause it align with there world view?). We do not live in a world like that (I sincerely apologize if I just shattered anyone illusion).

As it is, people will play a mediocre but well marketed game in far greater number than a good but unknown one. If both game are very similar to each others someone that has played both will recognize that the heavily marketed one is mediocre but someone that has only played the marketed one might think it's an amazing game without realizing that you can do so much more. Have you never went back to play an old game and notice it didn't hold that well now that you have more video game reference and experience?

 

[Rastrelly]

So you don't like third person games. Got it.

As a person who is mostly agreed with the list from OP, I suppose I don't like third person games too... Oh, wait, I DO like third person games! Like KoTOR, BG&E, old DMCs or even Space Marine! Maybe you'd better not make those snarky assumptions on highly subjective matters?

 

[Bombiz]

Have you never went back to play an old game and notice it didn't hold that well now that you have more video game reference and experience?

Wouldn't that have to do more with nostalgia than it being overrated?

Side note: if Witcher 3 is the over hyped over marketed mediocre game than what is the unknow good game equivalent(?) to it?

 

[ObserverStatus]

Mass Effect andromeda[/b]: Its my number 1. its going to be extremely overrated because its first ever next gen mass effect game. it will barely RPG more of cover shooter and will gone open world. it will be more dumbed down than mass effect 3. but it will recieve too much of 10, critical acclaim from various critics. i predict its undoubtly most overrated game this year.

I'm expecting it to be 2 parts cover shooter, 2 parts city builder, 1 part RPG myself tbh.

 

[BX3]

Can we maybe not jump the gun on throwing a fit over people liking something. It's bad enough as it is when the games are actually out.

Yeeeahh.... I'm starting to see this mentality get spammed around a lot these days and I'm not sure what's causing it. I thought it was pretty odd as a kid, and becoming older hasn't really changed that. I guess I just have to get a little older. Enlightenment of the early 30s, here I come!

------------------------

Isn't predicting what will be overrated kinda on the impossible side?

I mean let's leave aside how I feel about the term in the first place; in order for something to be overrated, it needs to both:
A) Be something whose quality isn't as good to the individual as it is to the general populous that has played it
and
B) Exist, because otherwise, what are we basing this judgement on?

So trying to predict it is already kind of a lost cause, because as far as we're concerned, they don't exist yet, so posing the question is basically short hand for "Let's name games that are coming out that I don't particularly care about, but others might... in... the future..? Which annoys me...?". So that's out.

Secondly, is it really feasible to predict something being overrated when its predicted sales are up in the air? Like, I guess for Doom it makes a bit of sense, since there's so much money behind the project, but what about No Man's Sky? I'm seeing that name being thrown around a lot and honestly? I don't think it's gonna sell well enough to qualify. Expectations are already starting to sour on it because of how much they've shown off, and a lot of people agree that there doesn't seem to be much to do. So how on earth could it be overrated, when how barren it is is the first thing that comes up? It'll probably have a cult following sure, but then would it even be overrated, since in order to be, a MASSIVE amount of people would need to have a positive reaction to it (ie Undertale or Last of Us)? If that's not the case, can we really use such a subjective term in such a general way? Is OFF overrated? I've barely heard of it, but the 5 people that have played it says its amazing, when it just looks okay.

I dunno, I'm with Xsjadoblayde. The whole thing just seems kinda ludicrous. Maybe I and the people that think that way are thinking too hard about it?

 

[meiam]

Have you never went back to play an old game and notice it didn't hold that well now that you have more video game reference and experience?

Wouldn't that have to do more with nostalgia than it being overrated?

Side note: if Witcher 3 is the over hyped over marketed mediocre game than what is the unknow good game equivalent(?) to it?

Nostalgia makes things in the past seems better not worse than they are, so I'm not sure why your bringing in nostalgia.

As far as W3, I didn't say every game was overrated because another better game exist, I just gave an example.

I dunno, I'm with Xsjadoblayde. The whole thing just seems kinda ludicrous. Maybe I and the people that think that way are thinking too hard about it?

You're not thinking about it hard enough, everything you said apply to prediction in general, yet there's still plenty of reason to predict stuff. Yeah it's inherently inaccurate, that's why it's called "predicting", but it doesn't mean it's impossible or pointless. Future event are the results of present events which are the results of past events, by studying the past events and there effects on past/presents event we can make reasonable assumption about future events. Predicting is a very useful skill, someone who would have correctly predicted that MS would drop the Kinect 2 from the XB1 would have known to wait and buy the cheaper version without it since now that it's not bundle in it's little more than a 100$ paper holder, since few people have it and the % people who do own one is decreasing. By looking at this we can make prediction about the future, like the oculus rift which in another accessory that few peoples will buy which means there won't be much incentive to make game for it which will result in it being a 600$ paper holder.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

I think people misuse the term, most mean they don't like a thing and furthermore wish others didn't like it.

Quite often it's not used as an actual critique, but just a way of trying to sound superior I find. I wish the term would just disappear to be honest.

 

[BX3]

You're not thinking about it hard enough, everything you said apply to prediction in general, yet there's still plenty of reason to predict stuff. Yeah it's inherently inaccurate, that's why it's called "predicting", but it doesn't mean it's impossible or pointless. Future event are the results of present events which are the results of past events, by studying the past events and there effects on past/presents event we can make reasonable assumption about future events. Predicting is a very useful skill, someone who would have correctly predicted that MS would drop the Kinect 2 from the XB1 would have known to wait and buy the cheaper version without it since now that it's not bundle in it's little more than a 100$ paper holder, since few people have it and the % people who do own one is decreasing. By looking at this we can make prediction about the future, like the oculus rift which in another accessory that few peoples will buy which means there won't be much incentive to make game for it which will result in it being a 600$ paper holder.

But those prediction have a practical use.

I'm not sure if that can be compared a term that's mostly thrown around to--

I think people misuse the term, most mean they don't like a thing and furthermore wish others didn't like it.

Quite often it's not used as an actual critique, but just a way of trying to sound superior I find. I wish the term would just disappear to be honest.

Yeah, that. The thing about it is that overrated doesn't really mean bad, it just means that the game doesn't hit a threshold of "goodness" with you that it does with other people. Which is fine, but again, we're running into another problem of a subjective term being used generally. I'm not sure what the point of doing that is, even if you actually could.

I guess the divide I'm hitting is that when something I otherwise don't care about hits terminal popularity, I manage to continue not to care.

 

[Ishigami]

Let me Change that a bit: Let's say disappointing game of the year.
I got one prediction for that

The Division

1. UbiSoft: I don't know about you people but for me UbiSoft is THE publisher that got mediocrity down like no other. Their entire AssCreed franchise is based on it and they thought it be a great idea to clone that one (WatchDog). So betting on a UbiSoft franchise to underperform is pretty safe.
2. Destiny: The Division is little more than a Destiny New York edition. Aside from the fools that still linger in the skinner box we all know who that turned out. I mean common after the beta you surely see the parallels in gameplay and design?
3. History repeats itself so do I: Destiny again but this time its setup of the hype train: Amazing graphics at certain locations/view points: Check. Amazing (ly scripted) gameplay reveal: Check. Oddly underwhelming Demo/Beta: Check.

I be damned if that games turns out to be actually decent (and by that I don't mean the review scores as any game with half decent production values gets a 7 out of 10 anyway). Calling it now: Three weeks after release most people will jump ship, just like Destiny (again).

 

[EternallyBored]

Let me Change that a bit: Let's say disappointing game of the year.
I got one prediction for that

The Division

1. UbiSoft: I don't know about you people but for me UbiSoft is THE publisher that got mediocrity down like no other. Their entire AssCreed franchise is based on it and they thought it be a great idea to clone that one (WatchDog). So betting on a UbiSoft franchise to underperform is pretty safe.
2. Destiny: The Division is little more than a Destiny New York edition. Aside from the fools that still linger in the skinner box we all know who that turned out. I mean common after the beta you surely see the parallels in gameplay and design?
3. History repeats itself so do I: Destiny again but this time its setup of the hype train: Amazing graphics at certain locations/view points: Check. Amazing (ly scripted) gameplay reveal: Check. Oddly underwhelming Demo/Beta: Check.

I be damned if that games turns out to be actually decent (and by that I don't mean the review scores as any game with half decent production values gets a 7 out of 10 anyway). Calling it now: Three weeks after release most people will jump ship, just like Destiny (again).

While the Division might indeed fail, you are factually wrong about Destiny, most people didn't jump ship 3 weeks after the game launched, the game incresed its week to week sales for months, and Activision reported a player base base of 16 million in January of 2015, increasing to 20 million by March, even its current active player base is still in the millions. Considering the game came out in 2014, those numbers are why Activision considers Destiny to be a resounding success.

There is a disconnect here, Destiny is kind of like CoD, in that a lot of people on gaming sites seem to hate it, and critics gave it a bunch of 7's and 6's but the mainstream audience can't get enough of it. Even the conservative estimates put Destiny's peak activity times around the size of World of Warcraft.

Also, you can think the beta was underwhelming, and I'd even agree with you, but Ubisoft has reported an increase in pre-orders after the closed beta, to the point where they have announced an open beta (demo) next week. Pretty much every mainstream site is full of people that liked the beta, there is grumbling and people that were disatisfied, but most of what I've seen about the beta from casual audiences is positive.

Ubisoft is likely wishing for the Division to have half the success Destiny has. Tt may fail fast, as I don't know how well the grounded enemies and setting will hold up against Destiny's ability to get much more diverse with their enemy types and environments, but if it gets anywhere near even just Destiny's current active player base, Ubisoft will likely consider the title a success and push for a sequel from the developer.

 

[Bombiz]

Have you never went back to play an old game and notice it didn't hold that well now that you have more video game reference and experience?

Wouldn't that have to do more with nostalgia than it being overrated?

Side note: if Witcher 3 is the over hyped over marketed mediocre game than what is the unknow good game equivalent(?) to it?

Nostalgia makes things in the past seems better not worse than they are, so I'm not sure why your bringing in nostalgia.

It's more that if someone went back to an old game and thought it wasn't as good it would be because of nostalgia was blinding them tan it being over rated.

As far as W3, I didn't say every game was overrated because another better game exist, I just gave an example.

Because you said that people would be more likely to buy a heavily marketed mediocre game than an unknown good one
I thought that if Witcher 3 was the mediocre one than what would the good unknown one be?

 

[K12]

So you want me to predict what the overall reaction to upcoming games will be and also predict how good they actually are (objectively?) and then say which of thoses game will have the biggest disparity between those seperate predictions that I've just made.

Pass.

How about I predict 2016's most overused word used by people who don't like something as substitute for bothering to illustrate or argue a real criticism... have a guess!

 

[Saetha]

Ahh, I'm sure this thread will be friendly and well-received. Yes. I can't imagine how it might be otherwise.

As someone who's got my eye on both Horizon: Zero Dawn and Last Guardian, I'm interested in having a little bit detail as to why you've dismissed them.

Quantum Break is going to be particularly terrible. Oh look, a shooter with slo-mo. How original. Press the freeze time I Win button and click on everybody's heads. Yawn. Plus they're making a big deal about being able to pay a bunch of TV stars to come along and humiliate themselves by trying to deliver video game dialogue with a straight face. At least that will be something to laugh at.

Hitman will be rubbish too. It's getting sliced up so you have to pay for each level. Or you can pre-order all the levels up front, then have to wait for them to come out anyway. And hope Square Enix doesn't just phone it in after they get your money. But I just know the mindless sheeple will love it anyway because the developers said "returning to roots" a few times.

Oh man, anyone who buys those games is going to feel like such a fool, amiright?

You. I see you. I see what ya did.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

I would say that Quantum Break could end up being a huge flop. There are plenty of reasons to believe that the game will be fine, but the gameplay videos shown thus far are hardly compelling...the plot and characterization will need to be top-notch if the shooting mechanics are as ho-hum as they seem based on first impressions.

Based on gameplay videos, The Division strikes me as incredibly mediocre as well. There is something about most Ubisoft games that rubs me the wrong way...the consistently similar presentation style or the heavily desaturated colour palettes used. It's hard to describe really.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

I think people misuse the term, most mean they don't like a thing and furthermore wish others didn't like it.

Quite often it's not used as an actual critique, but just a way of trying to sound superior I find. I wish the term would just disappear to be honest.

Same thoughts here, I kinda jumped in here just to piss myself off.
But as long as we're talkin' about it, I feel the same way about how people say "objectively", sure it's used right here and there but often it's as if it makes one's personal taste a bulletproof standard, "the yardstick by which you should measure your enjoyment of something IS MINE."

"This thing is objectively bad."
"Why?"
"[list of personal distastes]"
"Got it."

 

[meiam]

Let me Change that a bit: Let's say disappointing game of the year.
I got one prediction for that

The Division

1. UbiSoft: I don't know about you people but for me UbiSoft is THE publisher that got mediocrity down like no other. Their entire AssCreed franchise is based on it and they thought it be a great idea to clone that one (WatchDog). So betting on a UbiSoft franchise to underperform is pretty safe.
2. Destiny: The Division is little more than a Destiny New York edition. Aside from the fools that still linger in the skinner box we all know who that turned out. I mean common after the beta you surely see the parallels in gameplay and design?
3. History repeats itself so do I: Destiny again but this time its setup of the hype train: Amazing graphics at certain locations/view points: Check. Amazing (ly scripted) gameplay reveal: Check. Oddly underwhelming Demo/Beta: Check.

I be damned if that games turns out to be actually decent (and by that I don't mean the review scores as any game with half decent production values gets a 7 out of 10 anyway). Calling it now: Three weeks after release most people will jump ship, just like Destiny (again).

I'd mostly agree BUT there's one important things to note when comparing destiny and the division, the division can be played on PC I think that alone make them different enough as far as commercial success go.

Now for the game itself, it has one major disadvantage compare to destiny, it's setting. Destiny can have all kind of crazy weapon and monster and not break world immersion, the division can't really, at most it'll have maybe zombie and maybe some slightly sic fi weapon but nothing remotely close to what destiny and borderland can have. Even in skinner box, it'll be pretty hard to get excited about grinding for a weapon that's mechanically the same and just has different numbers.

 

[FPLOON]

Overwatch?
Persona 5?
Serial Killer Round 75??

I don't fucking know... I bet the game that ends up being "overrated" is a game I haven't played yet... unless it turns out to be Pony Island... I fucking hope not... That's game's the shit!

 

[DefunctTheory]

To be honest, I'm not even really aware of what's coming out this year. I know the names of some PC games coming out, but after Arkham Knight I've successfully disengaged myself from the hype machine. And Games Workshop, with their terrible (Though not unique) pre-order practices have successfully gotten me off that train as well. 2015 finally cut me loose.

From what I know, though, I would have said Doom. From what I've seen, its a return to movement based, story light, high impact visual shooters, and I think there's a huge opening for that. It will get rated highly simply for being a return to something old, at the core of what video games once were.

However, I think people are still sour about Fallout 4 (Which was in no way terrible, but was easily the most overhyped game of 2015). Because of this, I think critics and fans are going to be a bit more critical on anything that has Bethesda on the box. I don't think they'll burn it for FO4's sins, but I don't think many people are going to give them a pass on whatever they fuck up.

So... most overrated game of 2016 will be... whatever this guy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/profiles/view] thinks the best game of the year is. Because whatever it is, it will suffer from the same problem as The Witcher 3 - It may very well be the best game of the year (I thought W3 was), but it most certainly wont hold up to the hype and the ratings given to it. The best game ever made could never live up to the best review written or the best hype generated. Never.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I'd say the Division. Every time I've seen a game come in claiming to completely change the first person shooter formula, it ends up being completely underwhelming. We had Destiny try something similar before, and it ended up fading into the background without making any waves. I expect that the Division will end up being a perfectly functional multiplayer FPS, and some people will get hooked by it, but it won't be anything groundbreaking.

The Last Guardian.

First of all, how dare you

Secondly, since you're new here, there's rules against low content posts, so you should try to expand on your posts and explain why you think Last Guardian is overrated. I realize that will be difficult here because you've adopted a completely indefensible stance, but this is for future reference.

 

[CaitSeith]

Overrated would be a worthless criticism if we lived in some perfect world were everyone had perfect knowledge of every other game in existence, and they wouldn't be influenced by things that have no effect on a game quality, like marketing, hype, developer fame and games pushing people pet agenda/social causes (Is Atlas Shrug really an amazing novel or do people love it cause it align with there world view?). We do not live in a world like that (I sincerely apologize if I just shattered anyone illusion).

As it is, people will play a mediocre but well marketed game in far greater number than a good but unknown one. If both game are very similar to each others someone that has played both will recognize that the heavily marketed one is mediocre but someone that has only played the marketed one might think it's an amazing game without realizing that you can do so much more. Have you never went back to play an old game and notice it didn't hold that well now that you have more video game reference and experience?

Maybe, but usually the Internet (and the OP) use the term for "games that other people like a lot, but he doesn't". It has nothing to do with the game itself being good or mediocre; but with the comparison between that person's preferences versus the rest of the world.