This gaming generation seems to be one of the most mainstream ever seen. Consumer interest in video games has become ever growing, mainly thanks to Nintendo for rapidly expanding the market by bringing new gamers into the mix. As the industry becomes more commercial, the amount of hype that circulates big game releases has been magnified a tremendous amount. There are certain games that have received a huge amount of hype, but not necessarily lived up to it. That’s not to say the games are bad, but maybe the hype surrounding the game was blown a little bit out of proportion.
The following are games that I (and a few other people whom I consulted) feel has received a preposterous amount of hype for no real reason. I created this list after asking the opinions of many different gamers, so you can be sure that there are many out there who will feel the same way. Once again the point is not that these games were poor. Just think of it as, there may have been other games that deserved some shine but we’re sidelined by the hype of these.
Being over-hyped is very different from being overrated. The term overrated refers to games which have been deemed better than they actually are. The term over-hyped refers to games that got more attention than they possibly should have. As long as you understand the difference, you can confidently agree with the list below.
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Too Human
The fact that Silicon Knights spent over ten years developing this game automatically put a pressured amount of hype on Too Human. People were feeling like a game being developed for that long had to be something unseen before in the gaming industry. I actually own this game, and for the most part I enjoyed playing it. RPG lovers who enjoy raiding areas and collecting loot should be very drawn to the experience that Too Human has to offer. However given its hype, the game clearly does not match up.
Little Big Planet
Even though I am a big fan of this game, and fully respect what Media Molecule have done. After speaking to numerous people on the issue, I have to agree that this game was indeed hyped to an unexplainable degree. Though I believe that it was more the sales of the game that let down the game, as far as living up to the hype. I believe Little Big Planet did show a lot of innovation, and it managed to build a community on a console similar to a PC game community. However when you consider how humongous the hype around Little Big Planet was, the pay off should have been much bigger for both Sony and the gamers themselves.
Halo 3: ODST
It is a very controversial decision to put this game on the list, and I am sure many will hurl insults at me for including it. Halo 3: ODST had some very tricky circumstances to consider. However when you take into account the fact that this was genuinely being treated like a full successor to Halo 3, you cannot ignore the fact that there was indeed way to much hype over it. The game basically offers a new campaign, from the perspective of a completely different character to which we are used to. Not to mention that the campaign was deemed way too short by many fans; and although the game featured a new co-operative multiplayer type, it is hard to ignore that you are also being sold a disk with exactly the same multiplayer included in the original Halo 3. In Bungie’s defense; they don’t think of ODST as a completely new addition to the Halo franchise, but then why did it have the same amount of hype that a completely new Halo should receive?
Dark Void
Perhaps this one was down to the usability being unable to match the mass market appeal. After all when you think of mass market appeal, you have to consider the fact that the product has to be able to translate well to all audiences. Many casual gamers felt that Dark Void was too complicated to get to grips with, and therefore chose not to bother with it. Which was in fact a shame because there was a lot of attention surrounding this game for a while, and then once it was released consumers chose not to act upon it.
M.A.G
Ever since gamers heard that a shooter would accommodate up to 256 players, the hype instantly materialized. M.A.G was in many ways being seen as the military shooter that could possibly topple Call of Duty’s online presence. Although the game was indeed enjoyable, it failed to give shooting fans the kind of engagement that Modern Warfare’s online mode provides. Being a part of a squad in a game of over 200 gamers is definitely a thrilling concept; the problem was that the aims of each squad we’re not direct enough to force players to get strategic. For the amount of hype the game received, M.A.G should have been groundbreaking.
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Many games have been hyped and given a substantial amount of attention, where as other deserving games suffer. This is the main reasoning for me to write an article like this. The purpose of creating a game is to entertain people, and no matter what level of hype they receive they are all capable of doing so. The main thing that makes us deem a game complete garbage is games that set the bar so high, it becomes hard for anyone to appreciate anything which offers less. As usual I like to hear opinions of others, as it is not just my opinion that counts. So please leave your comments letting us all know what you think. Feel free to disagree with me if need be, as discussing games is also a part of the entertainment they provide.
