Can Too Much Hype Ruin a Game?

From Spore and Resident Evil 5 to Fallout 3 and Left For Dead, The Checkpoint looks at a couple of games where the hype behind them could potentially ruin them before people ever play them.

[Drekken]

Not if said hyped game is as good as it should be. Hype doesnt ruin games, bad devolpment choices ruin games!

If a game is hyped, a lot of people want it. When the game comes out and is a shell of what it COULD/SHOULD of been... then the disapointment in that game would be greater then a less wanted title. So the devs of hyped games need to step it up a notch... call kojima if you have any questions.

[Organic_Chemistry]

I agree,

Only games like RE, MGS4, SH etc. live up to the hype, MGS4 wasnt even half as hyped up at GTA4 and look at its pure beauty and perfection. Simple math...

Hyped Game (+) + Poor Delivery (-) = a negetive result (or net 0)
Hyped Game (+) + Great Delivery (+) = a positive result

[pharmd]

the only thing hype helps is sells.... hype doesnt help gameplay, maybe just builds up expectations.... so $$$$ it helps but it doesnt ADD anything to the experience

[Hellsvacancy]

wot a stupid question of course it does Halo 3, Kane and Lynch, GtaIV anybody

[Tawnokoi]

Kane & Lynch was a terrible game, regardless of the hype. The whole Gamespot controversy didn't exactly help its image either.

[sprinterboy]

I personally think it is the gamer who hypes the game up to much for himself imo. I normally watch 1 or 2 trailers of a game and if that interests me then I will play the demo and go from there (if there is a demo, Failing no demo, I would then rent the game 1st before purchasing. I think the gamer over hypes the game for himself. Watching to many trailers and reviews spoils the game when you come to finally play it.

[Cynical-Gamerzus]

WHo cares we all want HD and HD graphics and such!
Were a graphics driven generation who pays top dollar for graphics and cutting edge crap.
hype is good if the game lives up to it..GTA4 was crap technology and didn't live up to crap thats where hype is bad..

[Silogon]

Hyping any Resident Evil game is cause for it to be ruined. No Resident evil has truly ever come thru for the audience it set out to claim. Sorry.

Everyone past part 1 was a let down in more ways than one.

[kazuma]

i personally don't agree in putting left 4 dead next to the other games.
spore is hyped because it promises high customization, character evolution and user interaction in a massive scale, fallout 3 is hyped because of the massive following it has since fallout 1 and 2 and the sheer greatness of those games, resident evil 5 because of the sucess of re4 and past resi's and the return of one major character in playable form, but left 4 dead just doesn't fit. hey don't get me wrong i will play it the day it comes out, and looking forward to it, but i don't think the hype is even near those 3 games level.

[Dark General]

It can temper with the experience from a gamers perspective. Maybe not so much as the hype a game gets from the press but from the actual gamers. Usually when i hear a game is the best of all time or a masterpiece or whatever wording that's used i usually end up extremely skeptical of said title. Case and point i'm a pretty big MGS fan and because i hear people saying it's the best ever and reading some reviews i'm questioning things and analyzing it more than i would have. It's still a really, really good game. And i'm enjoying it but i'm still being critical on the game subconsciously because of "best game ever" moniker being put on it. It can't ruin a game but certainly cause you to become skeptical/analyze a game more than you normally would.

That being said MGS4 is so far a 9.5 in my book after finishing 3 acts. So i figure i'm halfway through and i still have some time to go. But i need some more really spectacular moments to amp it up to a 10 for me.

[Marceles]

I actually liked 2 and 4...I wasn't much of a fan of 3 with the juke button. Code Veronica was fun too. I think the only one ever truly hyped was 2, but that lived up to hype in my opinion.

[Spydiggity]

plus those games aren't really overhyped. they are talked about, but they don't dominate the headlines. it's not like halo 3, Metal Gear 4, or Gears of War. those games are OVER hyped. not that i'm saying they don't deserve their scores. just that when one game is over half the articles, then you know that it's getting too much hype.

[MK_Red]

Why he mentions Iron Man among games that were ruined by Hype? That game had NO good hype.

-Every mag and site that previewed it said it sucks months before it came out.
-Trailers and gameplay vids looked like rather poor.
-It was a game based on a movie.

How on earth is that hype?

Anyway, nice games mentioned there though I think Spore could suffer the most. Even if RE5 was a exact copy of RE4, people would still enjoy it and be happy. L4D is a completely new ip and I haven't seen much hype for it aside from few multiplayer fans.
Fallout 3 is pretty tricky. As article suggests, Fallout indeed untouchable for real RPG gamers and fans but that's for Fallout 1 and 2. This a completely different game from a completely different dev. This will never be the true Fallout 3 that can join th ranks of untouchable Fallout 1 and 2.
With the exceptionally overrated and shallow Oblivion behind them(A good game but really watered down and simplified compared to Morrowind which wasn't as deep as Fallout to begin with), Bethesda can go nowhere but up and make a deeper game. The question, is how deeper will it be and how deep are the expectations of people?

I for one look at it as Bethesda's chance to redeem themselves to both classic Elder Scrolls fans and classic RPG fans in general but a lot of RPG gamers are already hating the game and have very very low expectations and the game might surprise them. Me on the other hand have put my faith in Bethesda even after the disappointing Oblivion. I may be the one that will be disappointed in Fallout 3 in the end.

So, I've prepared myself for a Fallout 3 that is to Fallout 2 what BioShock was to System Shock 2. A casualized version of Fallout that hopefully has some classic elements and is at least a well made and fun game. Plus, Bethesda has kept the blood and gore... You can never go wrong with gore in games. Gorehounds FTW!

[pharmd]

good ol mkred, LOVIN him some Fallout 3 ;)

[MK_Red]

:)
Fallout 3 FTW!!! (Fallout fanboy here!)

[mepsipax]

"Fallout 3 is massive, I mean we were amazed at how big the game world turned out to be." Uh no you weren't you designed it to be that way, I remember back in the late 90's when I picked up the first Fallout I read the back and it peaked my interest so I bought it for 12 bucks and took it home, the game completely blew my mind, I was getting lost wandering around not knowing were to go next, all with the weight of saving my vault from extinction on my shoulders. I knew practically nothing about Fallout when I first bought it, there was no hype and it was one of the single most amazing experiences I've ever had in a game, next to System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Duke 3d. Hype kills a game no matter how good it is, your expectations are always higher than the quality of the game, so I just try not to find every piece of info I can on things and ruin the overall experience when I get it. I love reading about games but sometimes we read to much and create an image of the game we want in our head that doesn't match the actual game, just a thought to all you people scrounging for information about upcoming games.
Edit: Mostly directed @ MK how do you think the humour of Fallout 2 would translate, with facial expressions and sub par voice acting to fallout 3?

[Aclay]

I wouldn't say that hype can ruin a game, it's the game itself that plays the major factor.

GTA4 was a really hyped game title, but personally it didn't live up to the hype for me.

MGS4 was a hyped game title but there wasn't excessive hype for the game like putting the game on a Mountain Dew can or whatever. MGS4 was a game that actually lived up to the hype and more because the game was nearly as perfect as it could be. Also MGS4 lived up to the hype because everything in the game was nearly flawless, but you've got GTA4 that had pop-in and had worse graphics than MGS4, but it still got 10/10's across the board.

When it comes to hype, Microsoft is the posterboy for hype, that's for sure. I think that Microsoft should just let their games run their course and advertise for their games properly, but they shouldn't overhype a game to death to the point where people end up thinking that the game is God or something and it turns out being less than what they expected.

[sether82]

We live in an age of hype - it's a by-product of the digital revolution. So let's come to terms with that and move on. From movies to TV shows to video games, everything gets hype. And it certainly sets a very high-bar. Best example: Assassins Creed.

Imagine if you walked into your local game store and saw AC on the shelf, having no idea what it was or what it promised. You buy it, take it home, and boom, you're in Awesome Town. It's a good game. A very good game. But because of hype, people's expectations went up and the game couldn't deliver.

At this stage, I've found my gaming niche. I know the titles I'm going to buy, regardless of how they perform. I don't need to watch trailers and gameplay footage of Gears 2 - I'm definitely going to buy it regardless. I'm a huge MGS fanboy, but I managed to get through the hype blitzkreig without seeing much about it. I just ignore it. As a result, the game kicked ass.

The hype will always be there. It's whether you choose to allow it to hype you or not that makes the difference. Tune out the static and focus on the music.

[MK_Red]

Superb post and great points about AC. Definitly a game that was hurt by hype. Still, some parts did manage to surprise me and fully impress but midway trought the game, things got a bit disappointing but the whole design was still beyond awesome.

I wish I could be like you but I just can't resist a trailer or gameplay vid of a game I'm interested in. Great work on MGS4 because it was rather impossible to dogde :)

[mepsipax]

I basically just posted the exact same thing up above, sorry to steal your thunder but It's true no one game has ever lived up to the hype surrounding it and I tend to just ignore most things, screenshots don't kill hype to bad, anyway I should read further down the page before I post, sorry.
oh and as for AC I still haven't fully exited out of the game yet.

[The BS Police]

Halo is a perfect example of why it is held in such high regard, there was no real hype for it, or atleast there wasn't for me, it was only word of mouth that got me to buy an Xbox and Halo 1.

As soon as I started playing the game, I was completely blown away, the two Halo sequals were good games, buit none really blown me away as much as the first did because I pretty much set my own expectations to high... then again Bungie is aprtly to balme on that atleast when it comes down to what I expected in halo 2.

[Clinton514]

Nope. There will be people to purchase games regardless of critical praise or distaste. Games and gamers speak for themselves.

[aiphanes]

Halo 2 and Halo 3 suck in comparison...

Same thing will happen to Gears 2...Gears 1 will be the better game.

But MGS4 is the best MGS game...

San Andreas is still better than GTA4.

RE5 will be the best resident evil game...