Overrated games

[Bomb Bloke]

It's been quite some time since I've played an original/challeging game. I picked up a copy of the original Splinter Cell long ago, but I've yet to play it.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

I'm going to have to go with Halo. Billed as the Half-Life killer. It fails that by giving us cookie cutter single player levels and a very silly story (Zomg! Space Zombies!11.) Oh yeah, to say nothing of the imbalanced weaponry. The pistol beat the assault rifle in everything except ROF and looks, and the plasma rifle was similarly useless next to the uber plasma pistol. (Though, to be fair, it's quite effective compared to the spray and pray assault rifle.)

[Krabjuice]

Eh, well, both pistols were noob-cannons really. One was pointing in a general direction, the other tracked targets.

The rifle, on the other hand, had a sort of artful finesse. The control needed in order to handle the rifle was immense; but when you got a hang of it, you were able to hold your weight in all situations. Its like an oil painting: at first it's messy, then it turns into a Rembrandt (with good practice). At least you never mentioned the rocket whores.

 

Although, ditto on the story part. Cheesy story that could only please the conceited sci-fi nerds.

ZOMG! Historical allusions. I am totally smart, smarter then everyone else.

 

*snort*

neeerrrr!

[NKF]

The Halo pistol - the poor man's sniper rifle. Love it. It takes some skill to score headshots with precision with the camera control stick (X-Box) or even the mouse on a PC that's way under par. Unfortunately it is the only method that works for the more substantial enemies on the harder difficulty levels. Runs out of ammo way too fast though, so I generally stick to the more common weapons, like the plasma rifle. That pretty much balances it out for me. Speaking of the the plasma rifle, it's actually quite a godsend when you're trying to play the game on Legendary. It just mows down elites with a few skillful bursts*.

 

* Ah, to be fair, 'lone' legendary elites.

 

Speaking of other overrated games, here's another from me:

 

Diablo II.

 

It was one of the few (and how few there are!) classic games that were 'still' on the shelves in some gaming shops where I live (when a few recent good games over the last 3 years are nonexistant). A few weeks ago, I decided to finally get it, since I remember all the good wasted hours I spent on the first one looking for the next best uber twig of destruction. What greeted me left me rather wanting.

 

I don't know. It's a critically acclaimed game with fanatics up the wazoo. But the game just doesn't 'click' with me, despite having enjoyed the original. The interface looks like a muddy mess. The characters and their progression... um, no. What's wrong with it? Why am I not enjoying it as much as its precursor? Why am I reluctant to spend good money on its expansion pack just to get a slightly higher screen resolution?

 

I must admit though that it does take a few steps forward over the original, but it also takes a few steps back (like the interface).

 

A bit of a disappointment, but no matter. I've still got Aftershock, Silent Storm and Worms World Party to try and be critical over. I've actually had them for half a year or so. I just never had a DVD-ROM to play them on.

 

- NKF

[Gimli]

I agree about Diablo II. Some things worked better, but it didn't click with me either. The Expansion is much better (because Blizzard likes intentionally leaving the good stuff out of the originals, so they can squeeze more money), except you now can't get set items through gambling, and they are much more powerful and useful in the expansion. Two things I really did like, though, were the story and the animations.

[Cpl. Facehugger]

The Halo pistol - the poor man's sniper rifle. Love it. It takes some skill to score headshots with precision with the camera control stick (X-Box) or even the mouse on a PC that's way under par. Unfortunately it is the only method that works for the more substantial enemies on the harder difficulty levels. Runs out of ammo way too fast though, so I generally stick to the more common weapons, like the plasma rifle. That pretty much balances it out for me. Speaking of the the plasma rifle, it's actually quite a godsend when you're trying to play the game on Legendary. It just mows down elites with a few skillful bursts*.

 

Aye, but it makes no sense. Pistols are fallback weapons, not miniature sniper rifles. The assault rifle should *not* be less accurate or powerful than the pistol in any way, shape, or form. At least the game designers realized this and replaced the pistol's role with the battle rifle in H2.

[Krabjuice]

Well, the rifle spits. Thats the short and simple of it. Good control over the rifle, however, can make you spit on your enemy. How much do I have to stress this? >_>

 

Oh, and another game to add to the list: All the Vietcong games that came out the past two years. They were all overhyped, if anything.

[Strong Bob]

*pops in from the abyss of inactivity*

 

Overhyped games... Hmn...

 

1) Half Life 2. Honestly, I beat the single player game in about two days. (Even less than it took me to mow through Doom 3.) Between the incredibly random and poorly written storyline and gameplay repetitivity that rivaled Halo (The beginning of the game is no different from the end of the game in any way, until your Gravity Gun is changed.) I was left utterly dissapointed after the unknown man in a suit walked away, and promptly hit the "exit" button.

 

Valve should just stick to building engines and not bother with the games themselves anymore. The original Half Life was nice, but this sequel made me sad to have spent 50 USD on it. Granted, the possibilities for mods are endless and rife with potential. But I'm not a modder, and I own the damn X-BOX version...

 

2) Anything Final Fantasy related... I'm as much a fan of Japanese media as anyone else. But thus far I have been thoroughly dissapointed by ever game ever created with the name "Final Fantasy". Idiot proof battle systems and cliched/childish storylines and dialogue had me reaching for the "Power" button with such desperation...

 

And the hype over the newest movie? Hmn... When the Spirits Within came out, I thought it was a great movie with a storyline that had me smiling. It was taken by the Otaku's as a piece of crap... When the newest one came out, I was not amused... At all. Yet it's been crowned as one of the best. Am I just... Living in the land of "Strong Bob must always have the opposite opinion as all Otaku"?

 

3) Black and White 2. All I will say is that I refuse to rub the elderly!!

 

4) The following Star Wars games: Rogue Squadron, Rogue Squadron 2, Battle for Naboo, and Shadows of the Empire. Just one aspect about these games make me wonder how the hell they sold so well...

 

What the fuck is up with the interface? Why is it that the controls change so drastically just because the ship is vertical? Suddenly banking the ship left or right has been changed into simply rotating? Who the hell's idea was that!? Especially in Rogue Squadron 2, where it features space combat, where maneuvers not only require going "vertical", but it's goddamn hard to tell where "up" and "down" is when every direction looks the freakin' same.

 

Lucasarts Developer: "Durr! Let's make it so it is nigh impossible to chase ships that just passed overhead! Oh, I know how! The moment you turn upward, your controls will change completely so you will stop pulling up and just start rotating until you ram into an invisible wall"

 

George Lucas: "Great idea! Now let's talk midichlorians..."

 

5) Ultima Online, and any Ultima game made after Ultima 8. I could write a book on how stupid they all are. I'll just say I hate Electronic Arts for killing the greatest game of my youth forever.

[NKF]

Regarding Final Fantasy, one thing that really bugged me about that series is how the end-game always involves the heroes entering some wierd messed up world that's full of stars, swirly stuff and, well, generally everything's just chaos. And the boss at the end will be or will have mutated into something horrible and generally gigantic in nature. This tradition follows on to Kingdom Hearts as well (which bugs me on a whole different level - but I won't cover that).

 

Here's one I seem to have missed in my first post. Must've cut it out because it isn't an overrated game in the normal sense as some of the big-name games mentioned in this thread. It's one that you'd probably not even take a second glance at were you not familiar with it.

 

Robotech: Invasion (my review based off the X-Box version) - If you've ever seen the original anime, Genesis Climber Mospaeda, or heck, the watered down, rewritten version known as the '3rd generation' in the Robotech series (three different animes crammed together and strung together by turning 'culture' into some sort of ultra fuel thingy), do not get this game. Not even for nostalgic purposes. No, seriously, it won't satisfy. It's a basic and repetitively dull shooter where you get to fight Grabs and other Inbit/Invid mechs from the series by shooting them in the eye with the occasional parts where you're either on a motorcycle (completely vulnerable) or on a turret of some sort. You don't ever get to fly the Legioss or the Tread(Tlead?), and you're stuck with a robot suit that will only let you transform into its motorcycle mode once in a blue moon, and not when it counts. Oh, you move fastest when you jump sideways. Makes for rather crab-like-movement gameplay. It might have one or two redeeming points, but I can't really think of any worth mentioning. Don't even get me started on the clone human enemies and how standing in a shallow puddle of water causes you to explode into millions of bright burning bits (or rather, the mission becomes an instant failure). If you can find it cheap and want a bit of a laugh, get it, otherwise go and buy something else.

 

- NKF

[Praetoris]

Quake 4 and Doom 3

Despite what reviews and fanboys are saying, I don't like it.

 

Hyped beyond belief but still falls short in my opinion. It really doesn't matter if a game is the flagship of game-graphics if it fails to give me good gameplay. I value things the other way around.

 

They both had their moments though, and some very memorable scenes for sure( "The stroggification" in q4 is actually one of my all-time favourites ), but overall I was really disapointed on both of them.

 

A scare in Doom 3 for instance really was great the first time. I enjoyed forcing my mate playing through one of the first levels, laughing hysterical at his reaction of the scares. But someone poping out of the shadows works well occationally, but not on every third corner or so. You really must be half-blind and deaf if you don't start expecting most encounters once you've played it for a while.

 

They both turned out awfully linear and it's almost ironic how some of the most well founded games end up on my most-hated list. Don't even get me started on the idea of expansion packs.

 

Sadly we'll probably see more of this in the future. The 12 year old kid with a paying parent is probably a game-company's best customer. They'll get the game without realising it's crap.

Too bad for the rest of us who enjoy quality