Rdr4evr

Since we have a most under-rated game of 2004 thread, it is only fair to start a over-rated thread, only this time, list your most over-rated game of all time, not just 2004.

I personally would have to give this reward to Halo. After months of listening to all the hype of "this is the greatest game of all time" and "game of the year" and this and that, I figured, "holy crap, this must be some amazing game!"

I don't have an X-Box so I decided to wait it out till the PC version was released. Anyways, I purchased it when it came out for the PC and after about 1-2 hours of gameplay, I thought to myself, this is the game that everyone is going crazy over?

Not only is Halo one of the worst single player experiences I've ever had the displeasure of playing, but every other aspect of it (I didn't play Mp) was absolute crap!

Never have I played such a repetitive and boring FPS in my life. Every level seemed to be a rehash of the previous level, either that or it was the same level except played in reverse. Not only that, but the amount of enemy re-spawns every 5 seconds was absolutely ridiculous and tedious.

In a nutshell, the gameplay consisted of this: kill 50 enemies, move 10 feet, kill 50 more enemies, move 10 more feet, beat the level, play the same level again in reverse, kill 50 more enemies and so on.

I give the single-player a score of 3/10.

If I hated Halo 1 this much, should I even give Halo 2 a shot, or is it the same garbage?

List your most over-rated game of all time.

Omar12

I agree with you on Halo 2.
I was expecting much more.

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Nimbletoe

First of all, Halo wasn't meant for the PC. If you haven't played it regularly for X-Box, you still haven't experienced it. Also, people don't really play it for single player. The fun parts of it are multi player, and co-op. Halo 2 is even better.

As far as overrated games go, I can't really say. Before I play a game, I make sure to find out if it's good or not, and what's good about it. I don't like to waste my time. Although, I was really dissapointed by FFX-2. Ugh.

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buclao

I'd say Halo too, but not because of your reasons.

Halo is a GOOD game, not a GREAT game. Halo had nothing groundbreaking or different than any other first-person shooter out there. I just don't understand why people are getting a hard-on over this game when there are other first-person shooters that are original and different from the norm.

FngKestrel

Actually, Halo was developed in 1997 by Bungie for initial release on the Mac, with porting to be done to the PC. Microsoft bought Bungie and held onto Halo so that it could be their flagship title when the X-Box came out, several years later.

Lasereth

It doesn't change the fact that the game was still designed for XBox and not the PC. I'm a big-time Halo fan and I put down the craptacular PC version in about 10 minutes. The Xbox version is way better...it's simply unfair to judge a game based on a port that is known to be trash. You also have to remember that Halo came out a damn long time ago. FPS like Halo were simply not on the market at the time. The physics of the game is just now starting to catch on with other FPS. It's not the innovation that Halo is famous for, it's the physics engine, perfect controls, and awesome single-player/multiplayer experience. Saying a game is awesome doesn't mean it's revolutionary...it simply means it does what a FPS should do better than everyone else.

I don't think many games are overrated. Overhyped maybe but not overrated. I'd say the fighting game genre overall is overrated but I just don't like the genre period.

-Lasereth

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Ten

I think Metroid Prime is pretty overrated. It get's really borring after a while.

titsmurf

Chess, it's overrated.

TheShadow

Halo 2. By far. People were almost calling it god. It was at most average and kept me interested, even on a multiplayer basis, for maybe a few hours at the most.

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bing bing

minesweeper.... i just don't see how it's "fun".

Stompy

Pong is the most overrated game ever

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portwineboy

Myst, I really didn't enjoy that and it seemed like it was one of the few games back then to get any mainstream acceptance.

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blitz.fenix

Mario. I just dont see whats so great about it

Mr.Deflok

Where do you live?

Rdr4evr

LoL, you gonna hunt him down?

Pellaz

I vote for a tie between Final Fantasy 8 through x-2.

The franchise came roaring into the modern gaming realm with FF7, which was mind blowing. While I enjoyed 8 for the setting and the rather ballsy style change, loved 9 for the nostalgia, and 10 seemed enjoyable but tedious and more of the same as I watched my wife play through it (and neither one of us has touched x-2, but I'm assuming the same holds true there).

These games have offered little that is new to the franchise, and have actualy devolved in what I consider 'value' complexity (take the magic system-they set the bar high with the materia system, and systematicaly worsened it with every incarnation. Drawing in 8 was interesting but tedious, 9 was a throwback, 10s grid system, while interesting, was unforgiving (which brings me to my next point...))

The 'pointless' complexity, however, has increased dramaticaly as the series has matured through the last two generations. The pinacle of this was hopefully reached in 10. The process for requiring the master weapons were almost all far beyond complex and tedious, and felt like they were added solely to help pad that all important "Over X hours of gameplay" number. The inclusion of this type of thing is not elegant, and it's very purpose is counter to what a game should be.

And yet, somehow, each of these titles has been met with player and critical acclaim over and over again. And with that acceptance, other console rpg developers have split down two paths-cloning the formula of tediousness and pointless complexity over game design, or devolving to the point that they're little more than souped up versions of Gauntlet (not that I don't like Gauntlet).

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aa1037

Halo (11/14/2001) was unique, yes, but to name a few...ahem...comparable games that had been on the market before Halo:

Unreal Tournament (11/30/1999)
Half-Life / Counter-Strike (1998/2000ish)

and that's just off the top of my head.

My argument against Halo (and 2, I guess)

Techincally:
Ok, so Halo had a great story, but Half-Life revolutionized FPS story telling. Halo had fun multiplayer (16 people - if you had 4 xboxes and 4 tvs in one place, or a network tunnel), but UT was already trumping it with player # and game types

Halo 2 is kinda like Halo with some fancier bump mapping. Still tells a nice story (albeit not as good as the first) and whatnot. It allows you to play in some different multiplayer scenarios, but UT2004's multiplayer features are far beyond that of Halo 2.

Also, once you are finished with Halo 2 and worn out on the multiplayer, there isn't much else going for it. Now take a look at Half-Life 2. Solid single player story. However, the Source engine is going to provide us with tons of great mods in the future (CS: Source is pretty nifty already and revitalizes CS for those of us who quit)

Opinion-based:
Halo (2) just seems like a stepping stone to greater PC games out there. I guess I am a PC fanboy, but I feel like consoles are best for sports and fighters and are the weakest at FPS. It's just so irritating when these kids in my dorm get all horny over Halo...I wanna jump in and sit em down with a mouse and a keyboard but I figure they will eventually learn and break away from the dark side.

just my 2cents...hope this doesn't turn into a flame war

omega2K4

ANY Final Fantasy game. Its the same shit every single fucking time.

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Willravel

Hmm. Most overrated of ALL TIME?
-any Doom game
-Sid Meier's Pirates
-Mechwarrior after Mechwarrior 2 (best game of all time, imo)
-Quake/Duke Nukem
-Marathon (1,2, or Infinity)
-You Don't Know Jack (aparently, I knew jack)
-Prince of Persia (besides fluidity, it's completly inferrior to the original)
-All the Warcraft Games (after playing Starcraft, they seem like crap)
-Everquest and all games like it (too huge for words, repetitive, lvl, rvr, etc.)
-Oreagon Trail
-anything involved with or resembeling the pokemon empire

Faygo

Halo is pretty damn gay. I played it over my girlfreinds house for about an hour when it first first came out. I thought it was pretty damn weak.

But I tend to hate any FPS on any console. You can't match the keyboard and mouse for just ease and simplicity.

hulk

I think the original Half-Life was over-rated. Hugely. Possibly because not many PC gamers ever experienced Marathon, which thoroughly obliterated Half-Life with story.

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Luquado

HURRRR ....

OK, I 'd, I can't lie.

I might catch flak for agreeing with hulk but: Half Life. I don't get what was so spectacular about the "story" that everyone always spooges over when they start talking about HL1. Yes, it was a more involved story than almost any FPS up to that point, but, c'mon guys, not that much more evolved! The whole concept of "OH SHI an interdimensional portal due to government conspiracy, maybe pie eating, and perhaps a giant alien baby!" or whatever isn't really Shakespeare. I liked HL1, but I still think it's a quite overrated game in that respect. Not in others, mind you.

Of this year I'd have to say Doom III. Yay pretty graphics. Nay to horribly repetitive and boring gameplay.

EDIT to add:
Awwww hell naw. Oregon Trail gave birth to the Oregon Trail drinking game, which is one of the greatest drinking games of all time. Thus, by association, Oregon Trail doesn't belong on that list.

Paq

most over-rated of the year: Doom 3
of my memory, Half life 1...HL2 isn't shaping up to be much better, but the interaction is infinitely more enjoyable...

Halo, to me, is mindless fun, but i missed all the hype over it as i bought it a year or two after it originally came out and didn't pay attention to games for the years prior...

ummmmmmm....as for games that delivered: Rome, Total War, Sims 2...

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cataklysm

I'll agree with Paq, Doom 3 was definitely the most over-rated. Nothing innovating as far as weapons or levels, and got tedious after a while.

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ZenFilthPig

For me I'd say the Sims plus any add-ons. I tried to get into it but just couldn't bring myself to play more than 10-15 minutes. Too frustrating.

Judging by the apparent massive sales though... I guess I'm in the minority on this one.

FngKestrel

Sims...hahahah...you have no idea...

My point about Halo is that it was originally designed for a PC, and then was converted for a console and then ported back to PC. That's like going to Babelfish and taking an English phrase, translating it into Spanish and then translating it back to English. You get a mess. It was also delayed 3 years and wasn't nearly as revolutionary as it could have been if it had been released on time.

I do agree with Lasereth's comments on the physics engine. Bungie has always developed great physics engines with their Myth series of games, and the physics is definitely what caught my eye in their E3 movie way back when.

Viros

I would say Doom 3 by far.

Fremen

In my opinion, Tetris and Pac-Man were the most overrated of all time.
The same thing to do, all of the time.
Turn and fit the shapes together, eat all the dots and run from the ghosties, ad nauseum.
Good for the doctor's waiting room on a hand held (Tetris), but not worth all those quarters I spent as a kid trying to get good at it. (Pac-Man)

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qweds

7th legion

wow did that game suck. Or all the age of empire add ons. The first was great but goddamn the had to beat that horse to death.

HL cannot be overated, hundreds of thousands still play counter-strike original which is just a hl mod and the overall, wow what a great game.

oregon trail, well if you're talking about later versions maybe. I used to have an apple 2e, green and black. oregon trail was the shit. hunting buffalo. hot damn those were good times...

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tim(mah)

Paradise Lost

Probably the last 3 Grand Theft Autos ( 3, Vice City, San Andreas ). My brother has both of them, and to tell you the truth, I sat down and maybe played then for about 15 minutes total before I got bored to death. It was always fun to watch a friend or brother
just blow up stuff, but even that got boring after about 20 minutes. So I gave up even
trying to play.

And whoever posted about the FF8-X2 being overly complex and stupid... You are correct! I went back to the original 6, and the simplicity, yet overall grandness of
the games are what made them great. Not some lame stats grid, or mastering weapons, or useless Esper/Magic systems.

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Echodork

Most overrated game of all time is clearly Final Fantasy 7. As far as the FF series goes, it rates squarely in the middle, below the crafted mastery of 4/5/6 and above the utter spunk that was 8, 11, and X-2. But you can't take two steps on the internet without meeting some kid named xXSephirothXx or J-E-N-o-V-A or some such nonsense. The plot was below average and full of nonsensical holes, with no ending whatsoever. You're telling me you can fight 70 foot tall monsters, summon the king of all dragons, and survive the sun going supernova, but you can't heal a little girl of a single stab wound? Right. Add a classless system where any one character was as good as the next during combat, ten million plastic figurines, and 400 hours of chocobo breeding and what do you get?

The world's most over-rated video game.

Architeuthis

There can be only one:

Everquest

Irishsean

Myst...

Absolutely sucked...

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Glory's Sun

I think all games are over-rated.. except for one

and that's Donkey Kong.

Halo is boring
Metorid (any version) is tiresome
GTA is too long
FF is too fancy and time consuming
Fable was dumb
and.. I'll just stop there

Krycheck

Doom 3 for me. After about 6-8 hrs of game play it really doesn't change much.

HL2 on the other hand I couldn't put down.

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t3m3st

I've got to say Halo 2. I enjoyed Halo, but saw that there was a whole lot of room for improvement. I don't think this was as good a sequel as it could have been. The graphics and sound are great. The gameplay, control, and level design just don't sit right with me. And the story is terrible. I didn't like the story in Halo, or the goofy looking aliens, and when people told me the story was much better this time around, I had high hopes. I've got to stop listening to fanboys.

As for Final Fantasy 7, you've got to understand that this was the first time alot of us experienced RPG's. This game and its characters will forever hold a special place in my heart, despite the plot holes and the spelling errors. FF7 did great things for video games and the RPG genre, and spawned a whole bunch of new RPG players.

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animal909

doom 3 also, game was too dark and with the gamma up, it really made it look crappy. And the power required to play that game... geez.

M.T. Promises

Another vote for Myst. What a pile of steam'n boredom. If you could measure the actual hype vs. suck, I don't think any game touches it. Doom3 never got the press Myst did; there was TV News coverage of Myst and its popularity/sales.

Paq

ahh, all time...definitely myst...I forgot just HOW much hype was around that game and that i even bought it back in the day.

I ended up giving it to my gf who finished it in a few days. I barely had the patience to get through the first puzzle...

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LLL2

I got to say Warcraft 3.That game just felt like everything that they made like the first 2 warcrafts and starcraft.Plus you could only have small armies.