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25 Most Overrated Games of All Time?
AriesGeek writes "GameSpy is running the 1st of a 6-part special on the 25 most overrated games of all time. From the article: 'Over the next several days GameSpy is taking a tour through the 25 most overrated games of all time. It's not a pretty list. It's a tale of tragedy where hype gets out of hand, or good licenses and great ideas fail to live up to expectations.' You think Zero Wing will be on there?" As with previous charts, predictions for the Top 5 are welcome, we'll run another story at the end of the week to see how people did.
I could never get into that game. And I certainly don't have any desire to purchase all of the $20-$30 add ons they produced for it.
The Sims didn't have the same interest level because I have no desire to have a second fake life I need to take care of. I don't want to worry about going to work, reading, excercising, etc... in a game when I have to worry about that in real life.
Games like Sim City on the other hand would let you use your imagintation, and allow you to do things that most people will never get to do in real life are much more entertaining in my opinion.
It had great graphics and an innovative interface but Black and White did not deserve a 10 from Gamespot. (They game a 9.7 to Metroid Prime, their highest rated game in recent memory). The game was supposed to revolutionize the entire industry and reviewers were scarred that they would miss the badwagon.
seriously.. it was just meant as mindless shooting fun. No seriousness or anything out-of-character. Pretty world with lots and lotsa of monsters and lotsa and lots of ammo. Good sound effects (I can still hear the damn suicide bombers or the horse-like-skeletons comming at me from behind).
Serious Sam is a game most would spend 10 hours on. 10 hours over its entire life not in beating the game.
Anyway the game was just meant to be silly and mindless fun, and I think it succeeded in that.
If we're talking mindless viole- I mean, fun, lets nominate Soldier of Fortune II. Again, slow graphics, poor storyline, and plenty of gratuitous violence. Not worthy.
--- Egads, I glow in the dark!
I was shocked to see Mario Sunshine on the list, who hyped that game?
I remember it getting some press, but 'overrated'? Considering that most reviews at the time said exactly what these guys are saying, (good game but no classic), I don't see what was overrated about it.
Now Mario 64, which they call 'perfectly executed', there's an overrated game.
Anybody over at GameSpy played it lately?
The graphics are washed out turdulence and the gameplay doesn't hold a candle to Insomniac's Spyro games.
Yet it was dubbed 'the greatest game of all time' and to this day maintains a reputation as a classic.
I'm just glad I waited until the N64 was selling for $29.99 before I bothered to see what all the fuss was about.
Hmm asking for suggestions for what slashdoters think are the most overrated games ever, how is this not going to turn into a mod-for-trolling-a-thon as opinions clash? I mean, by definition an overated game would be one receiving undue acclaim right?
Anyway, Let me say a few of mine:
Halo: Now hold up before you set fire to me, I loved Halo, it was one of the only games I played on X-box for a very long time. I have never regreted spending the $50 on my copy, and i have never regreted The LAN parties I have attended in which Halo was the top attraction. But, the fact is that despite what a lof of people seem to beleive, it is not the best game ever. Half-life had a better single player, and better multiplayer. In short, great game, but not the "best game ever"
Everquest: Popular? yes. A good game? No.
Splinter Cell: yeah, a cliche trial and error exercise in futility with a bad camera but very impressive lighting effects is the game of the year? please.
Final Fantasy 7: This is the best RPG ever? ever play Fallout? ever play Deus Ex? Arcana? Final Fantasy 4 (2 in the US)Balder's Gate? there are plenty of RPGs that run circles around this game. many of them aren't as pretty as FF7 was in the day, and most of them do not feature a blonde haired blue eyed white dude with giant hair and a even larger sword, but i assure you there are better games.
That is all.
A few words in defense of Myst, The Sims, and Halo. They are prevelant in the threads here, and they may very well end up on the top 25 on gamespy (but I doubt it).
First of all, there's a definitive PC slant here, while my guess is that Gamespy will most likely lean towards the console side in their list.
Secondly, I think it's easy to automatically dislike games that are extremely popular, such as Myst, The Sims, and Halo. They make easy targets, and in a very underground-esque kind of way, it's cool to dislike what's, well, cool. But merely because we dislike something doesn't mean it's necessarily overrated. I really dislike GTA3, but I can't deny its impact nor the fact that it may very well be a good game.
Likewise, and in regards to Myst, I'm not a fan. But Myst single-handedly opened the door for CD-ROM as a viable storage format. Yeah, it also opened the door to an onslaught of FMV and wannabees, and Myst isn't exactly a shining example of design brilliance. It's a slideshow with clicking But it isn't *that* bad, and what's more is that it brought in a tremendous amount of non traditional gamers, more commonly known as "females."
The Sims has done exactly the same thing, and in many ways is the spirital successor to Myst (without the technology push). In fact, long before GTA3, The Sims, very much in the vein of its predecessors, was pioneering open-ended, emergent, sandbox gameplay. More than that though, is that the game is largely played by moms and girlfriends and daughters and sisters; *not* by the guy who just got home from a 72 hour straight LAN party to sit down to play 3 more hours of Battelfield 1942.
Myst and The Sims are mass appeal titles, but merely because they are mainstream doesn't mean they're overrated. I would suggest that their importance in gaming cannot at all be overstated, and would go as far to say that there should be far more of these games. Even if I don't like to play them.
Halo is very much the same way, but on a smaller scale. It's a PC first person shooter...for the console. That alone is significant, and it also explains why it's making the slashdot overrated lists posted here. In college dorms everywhere, Halo replaced Goldeneye as the 2:30am procrastination technique. It revived co-op gameplay. But to many of you, it's just another PC FPS (albeit, you would argee, a fun one). What should prevent Halo from being in any overrated list is its multiplayer. To us, this is nothing new. But to console gamers, Halo is *the* original multiplayer shooter, not Team Fortress, or Quake, or Counterstrike. And there's nothing wrong with that.
My advice? Step out from the standard Doom-Lineage (Doom to Half Life 2)/PC covering and look around again. Mass appeal does not (always) equal overrated. Use Black & White as a paradigm for something not being what it ought to have been, not Myst or The Sims.
DDR is not overrated. Here in Hong Kong this game was a big hit. I got addicted to this game too and lost some body weight because of it. If it didn't get popular in your place, it was probably a cultural thing.
Well, at least in BG2 that would mean you're just not playing well. It's really not a very difficult game.
In BG2 you're supposed to think. Which means building a balanced team, not having all mages or all warriors, learning balanced skills (good combination of defensive and offensive spells), etc.
Of course, maybe you think that's boring. But if you think about it, it's logical. You aren't going to live for very long if you just charge at your enemies yelling like a madman. Now, if you go with a good team, ambush the enemy, use your strong skills, etc, you're going to live much longer.
Then maybe it's just not the kind of game you like.
People... "Overrated" means a game that was, in the end, bad... but everyone said it was so good.
People here keep putting "Enter the Matrix" and "Outpost" as great examples for this list. Those games were POORLY RATED, PLAYED BAD BUT SOLD WELL and LOWLY-RATED AND PLAYED BAD, respectively. Outpost was never said to be great. It was a flop. Done. It wasn't "overrated"
These games, and many others you are suggesting, deserve a place in the "25 most dissapointing games ever," but not "25 most overrated games ever."
I personally think you can't consider Daikatana an overrated game. I've yet to meet one person who had anything nice to say about that piece of dribble. If anything, many reviewers could not wait to go to town on the reviews before the game could ever come out...