After Watch Dogs, Titanfall, and Destiny, is 2014 the Year of Too Much Hype?

Tony at Twinfinite asks: With three of the most anticipated games of the year having such moderate receptions, has the video game hype train gone off the rails?

[swishersweets20031]

No way, the developers just went to the jordon belfort school of business.

Spend game budget on hookers and blow and 26k on sides that cured cancer. Make a average game. Then let the people and the media turned it into a hype machine.
Everyone ooooooohhh oooo.. ooooohhh ooo Kaaaa ooooohh oooo. I got to stop watching wolf of wallstreet. lol.

[Magicite]

look at dark souls 2 - nearly zero overhype, but goty contender.

[sho0ok]

Lol @ Dark Souls had no hype! Titanfall was great I don't know what you guys were expecting but the game was very entertaining.

[3-4-5]

2014 has been a year of solid games.

Only the Media has overhyped EVERYTHING.

So yea, Twinfinite....YOUR to Blame.

[swishersweets20031]

you can go back on just about any destiny topic before it released and see the people hype themselves into believing it was going to be the greatest game ever. You can't deny that.

[kratoz1209]

Best games will be persona 4 arena 2, kh 2.5, shadow of mordor, Driveclub and littlebigplanet 3

[trywizardo]

actually i played TF on 360 and it lived to its hype (super fun and addictive) , i played WD and it was a mediocre game (story and gameplay) , but i didn't play destiny yet (sold my 360)
so far TF is the best IMO

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

too much:
overhype
delays
remasters
not much new

[_FantasmA_]

You speak the truth sir.

[Funantic1]

Titanfall is the best out of those three. But next gen has disappointing so far. I have both PS4 and X1. I'll try to be patient tho.

[Muzikguy]

Why is it that when there's a slow news day one article gets 20 submissions?! This is the 4th one I've seen today

[BootyBandit]

Keep it up. That's all I'm saying to the media. Keep up the sensationalism and pass the blame on the devs, publishers and consumer base when we all damn right well know it's you, the media, that is perpetuating this nonsense all for hits and revenue. This is a 500 million dollar project being overly criticized for the most ridiculous reasons. Where is the consistency with games in the same genre like BF4, GHOST or TF?

Seriously this challenge goes out to any and everyone. Tell me how Destiny is a lesser game than TF, BF4 or GHOST and than explain to me why it's rated lower than all of them. I can think of one and only one reason. But the floors yours. Don't be a coward and hit disagree. Please, the floor is yours. Explain it to me how the media doesn't have an axe to grind and isn't hurting this industry while doing so. Have they learned nothing from Sessler and Gertsman

[user367272]

Quote-Tell me how Destiny is a lesser game than TF, BF4 or GHOST and than explain to me why it's rated lower than all of them. I CAN THINK OF ONE and ONLY ONE REASON.

Huh..., the one reason is maybe Destiny is just not as good as the other games you had just mentioned? Just a thought. More content does not mean it should score better if the gameplay element and other part of the game is mediocre, repetitive, and NOT Fun.

I'll give you an example. One of the best and top rated shooter of last gen is Left4Dead and its sequel. The game is relitively bare bone, was not that expensive to make, ran on the waaayy out-of-date Source Engine. But why do critics and gamers love it so much over similar FPS online shooter that has way bigger budget, prettier graphics and more content? Think about that for a second and get back with me.

[ToneDeezy]

Please explain your one reason in detail, and be specific.

On Metacritic, Destiny has a 5.4 USER review score--lower than the critic score. The one reason Destiny is getting lesser reviews is because it was more hyped and is a massive letdown. It's not some insidious plot.

[Einhert]

This is directed @BootyBandit misclicked.

A lot of sites changed how they reviewed and scored games not to long ago because they were critiqued for being far to lenient.

Different reviewers have different opinions and tastes which can affect review scores and you cannot expect one person to possibly review every game releasing that is just absurd.

You are trying to force your OPINION as FACT, it is not I am sorry to tell you. You think Destiny is a good game and better than your mentioned games...well that is your opinion but not everyone thinks that way.

You are trying to use reviews as an aggregate to say what game is better than others and that is just a complete farce. There is no BEST game out of the games you mentioned...it is whatever you prefer.

Also believe it or not People may have Actually liked COD: Ghosts more than Destiny, that is an actual possibility and they do not need to justify themselves to you because they like something you do not.

Yes people can like Marmite more than chocolate, it is possible.

There is no general greater or lesser game, there is only what you enjoy more so please for the love of Kaz and Gaben pull your head out of your hole, stop worrying about what other opinions think, grow up and be comfortable with your own.

[Sketchy_Galore]

There is an aspect of personal taste but I honestly believe The Last of us is an objectively better game than The War Z. I understand that many people may not feel the same way but I feel comfortable saying that that's because their criteria for judging games is way off.

Of course 'better' and 'worse' are very limited terms but in the sense we usually mean them in every day conversation I do believe there are better and worse games if not an absolute best and worst. Put it this way, if we had to put one game in a time capsule to demonstrate to future civilisations the pinnacle of the medium we enjoy I would argue against Watch dogs being that game, no matter how many people felt it should be.

[Sketchy_Galore]

It's the year the stakes for top level games got too high to take creative risks, and that's sad. It's the year the industry finally shook the last nerds (creative people) off the top spot and got taken over by money and marketing folk. Aside from one or two people grandfathered into the industry and too respected to be shackled our only hope for real creative and technically impressive games lies in the mid-level indie studios. Our only real hope is that the technology reaches the point where beautiful looking and sounding games can be made by smaller teams.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Well everything else got delayed, so...

[diesoft]

Maybe it's a good reminder for people to temper expectations and ask yourselves why you bother to preorder anymore (especially digitally).

In this weird time of preorders meaning a great deal to publishers, remember WHY they existed in the first place: to ensure you had a copy of a game when it came out. Very rarely anymore will you find big games with any kind of shortage. Digitally you WON'T see that (making a preorder almost pointless unless you count preloading).

So don't reward hype. Reward great games. We need to vote with our wallets and not reward unproven hype anymore. It's just not worth it.

[captainexplosion]

It's definitely the year of hyped new IPs that disappointed. Of those 3 games I can't believe Destiny has the worst Metacritic score.

[ToneDeezy]

Totally agree. Destiny's letdown compared to the level of hype it received is something I imagine the industry will be talking about for quite awhile.

[SpiralTear]

Note that these three games each represent one of the "Big 3" of third-party publishers: Activision has Destiny, EA has Titanfall, and Ubisoft has Watch Dogs.

Everyone else seems to be doing okay. Sony's in-house stuff is doing fine and Nintendo has an awesome 2014 lineup. Even Microsoft is simmering down their assault. None are overhyping what they have; they're showing us the games and simply letting them do the talking. The indie crowd is also keeping their work pretty down to earth.

It's not gaming that's the problem; it's third-party publishers and their hype factories that don't know when too much is too much.

[Big_Game_Hunters]

Smash will live up to the hype, the ground game is already confirmed faster than melee.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

2014 When Next-Gen Started a Year Prematurly!

[Revengeance]

I think Destiny is the best out of those 3 but they were all overhyped.

[DFray919]

every game with hype is goin to fail this entire generation! gamers complain too much. people are still saying the next gen consoles suck. smh.

im always like speak for urself. im enjoying my ps4, i enjoyed Watchdogs. im enjoying Titanfall, and im enjoying Destiny.