The Most Overhyped Video Games This Generation

Gary A Swaby of TheKoalition.com writes:This gaming generation seems to be one of the most mainstream ever seen. Consumer interest in video games has become ever growing, mainly thanks to Nintendo for rapidly expanding the market by bringing new gamers into the mix. As the industry becomes more commercial, the amount of hype that circulates big game releases has been magnified a tremendous amount. There are certain games that have received a huge amount of hype, but not necessarily lived up to it. That's not to say the games are bad, but maybe the hype surrounding the game was blown a little bit out of proportion.

The following are games that I (and a few other people whom I consulted) feel has received a preposterous amount of hype for no real reason. I created this list after asking the opinions of many different gamers, so you can be sure that there are many out there who will feel the same way. Once again the point is not that these games were poor. Just think of it as, there may have been other games that deserved some shine but we're sidelined by the hype of these.

Being over-hyped is very different from being overrated. The term overrated refers to games which have been deemed better than they actually are. The term over-hyped refers to games that got more attention than they possibly should have. As long as you understand the difference, you can confidently agree with the list below.

[Icyhot]

Without looking at the list...

Halo (add whatever number you want at the back)
KZ2
GTA4
COD:MW2

EDIT: Just peeped into the list.. CRAP list IMO.

[moegooner88]

Agreed wz ur list, but KZ2 is my fav fps this gen so far.

[playstation_clan]

if killzone 2 was as hype as gta and mw2 then why didnt it sell half of what they did.
what about halo 3?

[meetajhu]

Killzone 2 was not overhyped bud. If it did it would have sold like hot cakes like MW2,Halo 3 or GTA4

[cry from the sky]

looks terrible. most likely going to be the most hyped, failed game this gen.

[Darkstorn]

Killzone 2 may have been overhyped, but it's still the best shooter on the PS3. And possibly this gen.

LBP, on the other hand, was NOT overhyped.

[Montrealien]

not only is the list crap, but it made me realize that anyone can publish articles now a days, and it breaks my heart.

[SeanRL]

KZ2 was NOT the greatest shooter on ps3, the graphics were pretty, but the gameplay never felt right.

[N4BmpS]

Little big PLANET? WHAAT? Okay where was MW2, Halo 3(no offense but it was) GTAIV(with all do respect)ehem FFXIII? I don't even know why MAG was up there it was hyped up alot but nowhere near as much Halo or MW, hell Killzone 2 was hyped more than that by the media. To be honest if pay attention he's going off of other peoples opinions example: "After speaking to numerous people on the issue, I have to agree that this game was indeed hyped to an unexplainable degree." Of course I might be mistaken but that's just my observation.

[ThanatosDMC]

I would say:

ODST
the WoW expansion
SupCom2
MW2
Burst Limit
GTA4
Overpriced DLCs for Megaman 10
Dragon Age: Awakening <-- full of sound glitches and glitches in general
Sector 8

[Mista T]

I agree ODST was a bit overhyped, but really the only level I liked in the game was Uplift Reserve, and that level had a great soundtrack

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

0:00 to 1:00 and 3:50 to 5:44 are the best in it

[kneon]

I thought MAG and LBP lived up to and exceeded expectations, Dark void though I agree, I really wanted to like that game but it was just lame. I never played too human and I've never liked any of the Halo games so my opinion there is irrelevant.

Where are MW2 and BF:BC2, those were seriously over hyped to the point that they could never live up to the expectations.

And just to be clear, I'm not talking about sales at all.

[FragGen]

This guys a retard. MAG had virtually ZERO hype outside of hardcore gamer word of mouth. LBP was not hyped to death it was just absolutely brilliant and got the awards/praise it deserved. And anyone who had any sense at all wasn't expecting anything from the other 3. Here's some truly over hyped games:

Halo Anything
MW2
Haze
GTA Anything
Bayonetta
Assassin's Creed 1

[Mo0eY]

Where's Gears 2? Splinter Cell: Conviction? Metro 2033? Ninja Blade? Anyone?

[RedPawn]

Tony Hawk Ride
Red Steel
Too Human
Haze
Section 8
Wii Music
Dark Void
Dj Hero.
Enemy Territories, Quake Wars
Dark Sector
Fracture
Prince of Persia

So Many, this list should be like some woman's muffin top, bursting at the seems.

[Persistantthug]

But I must admit, I don't remember the "hype" because I didn't have my PS3 yet.

But regardless of hype it may or may not have recieved, it certainly met its hype as it has sold nearly 4 million units to date and it was GAME OF THE YEAR....AIAS GAME OF THE YEAR in fact.

Hype met.

[HolyOrangeCows]

Halo: ODST and Splinter Cell: Conviction could have gotten 9s and 10s even if it caused a bombing of a hospital every time you played.

These titles got raving reviews despite being short, under-polished, under-optimized, etc.

[Anon7349]

Had a better list than this sh!tty piece of crap list.

MW2 has to be the most over hyped game ever, and it's not even on the damn list.

[Icyhot]

Wow why are people disagreeing with me? Did I say OVERHYPED=BAD GAME?? Hell no, KZ2 infact is my favorite FPS, but it still was hyped a lot...

Again OVERHYPED does not mean a BAD GAME.

[BannedForNineYears]

LITTLE BIG PLANET!??!?!?!??! WTF?!????????????????!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!1
LBP IS THE BEST FREAKING SIDESCROLLER I'VE EVER PLAYED!!!!!!!!!11
FVCK THIS ARTICLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!
http://globesmeek.files.wor...

[Tachyon_Nova]

Apart from Too Human, what a crap list. MAG and LBP are great games. Halo is undeniably over hyped, although not necessarily a bad game. Where is Haze on that list, not to mention Forza 3, although I guess that was only hyped by the devs... Anyway, to those saying Alan Wake, does anyone actually care about that game? And of course GTA should be on that list.

[edgeofblade]

I would say that KZ2 was overhyped to a degree, but I still played multiplayer quite a bit when I got my mits on it, so I might put it in the top 20 or so. But not in the top 10, that's for sure.

I honestly think that this list is pretty accurate. ODST was way overhyped. I haven't touched it since I finished the campaign.

But, what about Haze? It's hard to forget how bad of a train wreck that was.

[PopEmUp]

I thought it was Too Human what happen to that game :P

[Dee_91]

thought that was like 1 of the most successful games ever lol
online is still fun

[Megaton]

I dunno what the author thinks "overhyped" means, but he's doing it wrong.

[amogrr]

The Conduit.

[Sheikh Yerbouti]

but I was sick of the hype. I avoided any article on Killzone weeks before it released - saving my excitement for the game.

LBP and MAG doesn't belong on that list. Not a game, but Natal definitely is overhyped.

[ico92]

How was LBP overhyped, its one of the few games this gen to actually surpass the hype, wheres GTA4, MW2 ? this list was terrible

[Al80]

MAG doesn't belong on that list. Anyone who doesn't dig MAG probably hasn't played it enough

[Killakap]

he never said he didnt dig any of the games he listed.

[Baka-akaB]

still is silly , weither he like them or not . How can MAG be overhyped ? Most people found it ugly from the very first videos and expected it to tank .

Instead it was a decent performer so far .

[mikepmcc]

"Anyone who doesn't dig MAG has probably played Battlefield".

fix'd

In all seriousness though man, don't invalidate people's opinions like that.

[Montrealien]

well, I will invalidate peoples opinions if I want to, and the guy that wrote this crap has an invalid opinion, in my opinion.

Anyone who thinks of the head line first, and the story second....fails.

[ThanatosDMC]

He must suck at aiming in MAG. You know, when there's little aim assist. Yup, there's a little aim assist in MAG when you scope with your iron sights. After 100+ hrs on it, i just noticed it.

[mikepmcc]

So you're literally saying it's impossible to not like MAG if you've played it. Unbelievable. This isn't Mario 64 or Uncharted 2 we're talking about here, it's a mediocre game that people are allowed to dislike. I'm not saying it's wrong for you to like it, but it's not that great of a game to defend that unreasonably.

[ViciousBoston]

How is LBP on that list? It lived up to what they said. It wasn't overhyped at all. Millions still play LBP daily.

[Darkstorn]

This is about HYPE, not whether or not the game delivers.

[N4BmpS]

Whether game delivers or not helps in weighing it to see if it's over hyped or a let down. So he's pretty much justified in his comment.

[XxRoosterxX]

Dark Void had hype?

[tiamat5]

Add Splinter Cell Conviction to that list

[Baka-akaB]

WTF ? Dark Avoid isnt hated by casual players because of "complex controls" , it's disliked by well everyone because it's crap that plays like crap , and had the sale figures matching the general dislike.

[Slimshadyn]

Yeah, I was looking forward to it, I couldn't get through the demo, I'll probably rent it and grab a few trophies. I don't think LBP was over hyped at all, It sold a couple of million copies, won all types of awards including some GOTY's, and many people still play it online and have made some levels that rival the story levels.

[blodulv]

Ads for this sh*t were all over the place.

[divideby0]

2 Human
ODST
last GTA....

may have not been the most hyped but both were major letdowns and I have bought every Halo game up to ODST and SK is one of my fav. developers who just fell flat

article says LBP...that is so far from the truth...LBP usher'd in a new way of FREE user content...author is just lame with that one..

MAG was also disapointing, I didnt think it was overly hyped

[Montrealien]

I really enjoyed Too Human, in fact, I probably played that game more then Uncharted 2, GoW 3 and Mass Effect, combined. And I love all four games I just named.

then again, who the f*ck am I. Just an shlub who likes video games and hates people's knee jerk, wagon hoping opinions about them.

[divideby0]

^ to be fair, 2 Human is my fav. genre....just the gameplay got so repetitious for me...I did enjoy it till a point....
than again, I really enjoyed Heavenly Sword which many didnt...if we all liked the exact same it would be boring

[SeanRL]

Great list, lbp had pretty good sales though. So it did live up to the hype in that category.

[playstation_clan]

lbp and mag did deliever for me but too human and halo odst were unbelievable hyped by xbox fanboys

[Wrathman]

the first halo was good.KZ2 was overhyped and i have to be honest the def think UC2 and MGS4 were super overhyped.but LBP was def not overhyped.

if you compare sales to overhyped.then almost all ps3 exclusives fall into that category of overhypedness

[keysy420]

whats wrong with lbp and what with all the mag hate it my favorite shooter this year

[JackBNimble]

MAG is just to limited in what it offers, there simply isn't enough to the game to keep people happy. If Zipper wanted to give MAG a boost they should add new MAPS and new MISSION objectives.The game could/should be so much more then it is.

I'm mot a hater, I'm a fan , but seriously , I'm getting bored.

[Halo3 MLG Pro]

Pretty good list. It's good to see that Halo 3 is not there since that game is one of the few titles that actually met and exceeded the hype. ODST was pretty good but nobody took it as the next real Halo. I agree with LilBigPlanet as being overhyped. Many have said this was going to be as big as Mario. The whole LBP hoopla died down very quickly after its release. MAG is another over hype game. Just another average shooter. Too Human had a few problems that prevented this game from being epic, although I still enjoyed it after I bought it brand new for $10.

I would also add Killzone 2 since that game was supposed to be the best shooter ever but failed miserably in the end. The low sales shows that ps3 owners also agree with my statement.

[cry from the sky]

dude, are you serious! are you right in your head? little big planet is one of the best games this whole decade! it got goty 2008. how in the world is that game overhyped?

[UP]

LBP delivered if you like those typ of games and like user created content. MAG was barely hyped at all. Halo 3 lol. And Killzone 2 salves were far from low. Many studios would kill for that amount of copies sold.

[1-oj]

HAHAHAHAHA! what happened to your bubbles little boy? you dropped the balls? HAHAHA! :D

LBP = GOTY 2008 deal with it. :D

[Dayngls]

mlg pro is hilarious if its on ps3 then it sucks yeah okay...yeah halo 3 lived up to its hype by bringing nothing new to the fps genre...at least mag pushed some tech, and emphasizes on using teamwork along with its chain of command..but in the end it will only be as good as the people who play it.

[N4BmpS]

It's official, if it's a PS3 game MLG will be there to say it's over hyped. Seriously there isn't Platformer to date that can completely match Mario and I love LBP. And he said Halo didn't need to be on the list? What a hypocrite, oh well

[playstation_clan]

im sorry to say buddy but this is what i think about you after that comment

[UP]

Besides Too Human (though some people like it) that list was fail. I am pretty sure MAG was not hyped at all (though i like MAG alot). LBP delivered everything it promised and then some (go back and look a user levels there are so many amazing leves that will blow your mind).

[KeiserSosay4788]

@AI80 umm....I played until platoon leader and still didn't like it half as much as bc2

[UP]

thats your opinon (which is ok). Some people disagree like myself. But BBC2 was a good game though.

[ATLGAMER]

Bad List

[darthv72]

I always believed that you have two types of hype. Media hype and personal. In that everyone has different opinions of things so therefore the same holds true for hype.

If you bought a game (or whatever) and feel satisfied with the purchase, you could say it has meet you personal level of satisfaction (hype).

I tend not to lean to heavily on what others are saying about something as opinions differ.

[gamingisnotacrime]

how the hell, they just announced the game, made a E3 presentation of the first ever console game to have 256 players matches, and launched without that much of advertisement. list fails.
LBP is awesome, the community has gotten soooo good, those community levels are very polished and high quality

[divideby0]

^ yea... MAG was not overhyped...as you said the number of players was mentioned, but the game was not overhyped...

[Dnied]

I think this is a list of games he didn't like instead of overhyped. Either that or he doesn't know what hype is.

Dark Void had hype?
MAG had hype?
LBP was OVERHYPED? LOL

The only games that were SERIOUSLY overhyped were Too Human and Mw2.

OH and mw2. Also, i think mw2 was as well.

[Dayngls]

id just like to add to your list....mw2

[bviperz]

The media is the very one who over hypes games in the first place. Remember Halo 3 review swag bags?

[Reeperdotcom]

seriously...articles like this exist for hits..nothing more.

[Baka-akaB]

Actual hype , aka press (over) exposure is easy to check and verify .

Wich is why that "i thought those games would be better list" is rather awful , that and hits fishing

[IHateYouFanboys]

depends who the article is talking about. i never really saw any of the big publications over-hype any of those games. fanboys though? they did PLENTY of hyping, mainly for (off that list) LBP and MAG. why? because PS3 fanboys hype EVERY exclusive PS3 game purely because its exclusive.

[5tgyw3ty34]

here we go:
gran tourismo 5
heavy rain (not even being a game, but ok)
god of war
anything metal gear
halo's

And all the other god awful mediocre title where the publisher has invested millions of dollars to make sure you WILL KNOW how awesome these are. If they could point a gun to our heads to make us buy they surely would.

[Rageanitus]

halo 3 should be number one... it was so hyped that fanboys would justify that the graphics were decent

Assasins creed.... it was hyped because geeks were drooling over the director

Bioshock.. sorry it was bland

GTA....

lair / haze

Gears 2.....

[rezzah]

Makes sense, except for LBP. I think it is very innovative because there were no other games like it before. Completly make any kind of level you want? No two level will look the same.

[Relientk77]

I dont think there was hype for Dark Void like at all

Where is Haze, to me that was overhyped it didnt live up to the Timesplitter series at all

Also where is GTA 4, that was overhyped

Anything Halo obviously duh lol

[Gun_Senshi]

It was not overhyped and its actually under rated

[kraze07]

KZ2 was under-hyped imo. Remember how many people thought it was going to flop? It was the gaming media that were labeling it a Halo killer and hyping it up but even so it still doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

[saimcheeda]

Call of Duty MW 2
Halo 3
GTA IV
Killzone 2

Not saying that these games were bad(except MW 2) but these were hyped a lot!

[danielle007]

Halo 3, had a lot of hype. But, they delivered. Forge was something completely new, and being able to save videos recorded of you playing was also flippin awesome. Plus, the campaign was super fun, and multiplayer, as always, was a blast.

What we're talking about in this article are OVERhyped games, as in games that did not deserve the hype. Such as, Haze. or Too Human. Not actual amazing games.

Grand Theft Auto IV I do agree though.. It just wasn't very fun. I liked Niko, but I wanted to kill everyone that ever called me on that phone, and it was just to gritty and realistic, not pure fun like the rest. Plus, I can get to a plane no problems, but I can't fly it? Srsly?

[rohail88]

Halo
Halo
Halo
Halo
Halo

[yogaflame]

ONE WORD "HALO" PERIOD.

[SacredWizard]

Little Big Planet? What?

[PS360_37]

The only overhyped Halo game is ODST. Halo 1 2 and 3 delivered EVERY SINGLE time. There is a reason each game is on top of the overall bestsellers list. There is also a reason why Halo 2, which came out in 2004 just got shut down yesterday. Halo 3 still has at least 50,000 people on at all times.

You ps3 fanbabies need to stick to your very overhyped KZ2 and let the real grownups talk.

Edit:

LBP is an amazing game and was in no way overhyped.

[CAPT IRISH]

what a bad list

[midgard227]

LBP? really, wtf, alot of casual gamers dont even know wat it is.

gears shuda been on that list. and too human wasnt too hyped, no one cared bout that game nor did they buy it, freakin morons who did this article.

next up it shud have the Natal as being most over rated thing ever. ppl need to stfu about it

[PS360_37]

good work fanboy

[danielle007]

I sincerely do not agree that Little Big Planet received too much hype. Plus, your basis that it just didn't sell enough, so it didn't live up to the hype, is just plain stupid. Everything that Media Molecule said that LBP would deliver, it did. It's truly innovative and really opened up the door to more of the PlayCreateShare kind of games, such as Modnation Racers.

"However when you consider how humongous the hype around Little Big Planet was, the pay off should have been much bigger for both Sony and the gamers themselves." How did LBP not pay off for gamers in immense ways? People get to design amazing levels, have complete freedom, and it actually seems to be invaluable for practice in level design. Plus, for the rest of us less creative people out there, there are a bajillion amazing levels to play, the ones that came with the game are genius, but some of the user created levels are truly works of art, and so awesome.

This is the one game this generation that truly lived up to the all of the hype.

[BrianC6234]

LittleBigPlanet doesn't belong on that list. Even based on his comments it doesn't. It wasn't really hyped. And it has a lot of replay value so I don't get that one at all.

What is overhyped though is lists of overhyped games. These lists are just stupid. If you think a game got too much hype why are you writing about it? Shouldn't you want the hype to end?

[gypsygib]

That list is pretty bad and LBP delivered on all of its promises, i'd say

Too Human
Killzone 2
Halo ODST
Gears 2

[spektical]

people are retarded when they make this list.

In the internet world the most overhyped this gen have been
halo
forza3
SM: Galaxy
KZ2
Too Human
GTA4

in the real world, like in public:
Halo
forza3
godofwar3
GTA4
SM: Galaxy
Mario Kart

public, meaning, seeing advertisements for the games shown. I saw plenty of godofwar3 at 711's, forza 3 adds on tv, MANY halo adds. The Wii games ironically were more hyped do to word of mouth, because of the Wii and nostalgia.

i'm not bashing on the quality of games i listed, im saying these are games that were overhyped. Some of them delivered, but not all. Ex: GoW3 delivered, Too human failed.

the most hyped game of all time is Halo3 though. I remember seeing ads on buses, at BK, 711, etc.. so much hype for this game.

[Trroy]

Games like Too Human belong on the list, along with Lair, Haze, anything Halo, Call of Duty, etc.

LBP does NOT belong. It was hyped, but honestly.. it deserved it.

IMO, MAG doesn't belong on this list so badly, that I propose it goes on a new list: Games most deserving of hype after they launched and proved themselves worthy of more hype.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

Halo (any of them).