2013's Most Overrated Game

All of the above.

Not sure how you managed to omit GTA from this list. Seems like the very definition of an overrated and over-hyped game.

And since voting for Other is not fun, I picked DOTA 2. A HD-ified sequel to some-mod with some pointless micro-transactions... OMFGGOTFY.

Last of us. I hate the combat with a fire passion of a thousand burning suns. But if you like all the more power to you! Also Dota.

I can appreciate a ton about The Last of Us, but I feel like I have the same fundamental problem as Jeff. Just can't get down with the way it plays, feels. Turned me off every time I tried to play it, stopped ~halfway through. Good journey with an amazing look, but there was no other game I wanted to like more that I didn't.

The complete lack of editorial dissent when it came to Gone Home always bothered me. A lot of people don't like that game, and I understand completely why someone would really love it, but I thought it was kind of lousy too.

Overrated is a weird statement, but I think that's the one game on the list that is really and truly overrated by the gaming press at large. I've heard negative opinions on pretty much every other game on that list from a variety of sources. And no, it wasn't that good.

Gone Home. The story was good but not that good. And the game is basically hunting for audio logs with some puzzles between them. The playing part of it really sets it back for me.

What puzzles? The closest things to puzzles were the three lock combinations which you could easily find, with only one needed for progression. Heck, thinking back on that compared to the puzzle locks on Device 6 has convinced me to drop Gone Home out of my top 10 in favor of Device 6.

Way to oversimplify something to a hilarious degree.

I don't understand how any game can be overrated. That assumes there's a single correct rating for a game and anything deviating from that is either over or underrating it. I can understand if you think someone has reviewed a game more favourably than you would but that doesn't mean they've overrated it because your opinion isn't the default.

I think there is actually too much game in Gone Home. I stopped playing for that reason. I just wanted to click on stuff and search through drawers.

But that is literally the only reason to call something overrated.

Everyone hated Bioshock Infinite but now is overrated Argh! make up your mind internet mole people.

You're an overrated game.

Infinite, by default. I haven't played a lot of the super hyped games, I guess. Or, most of them I've enjoyed. Plus I think the way Infinite was lauded like the second coming back when it was released was more than a little overblown. It seems like the praise for the game, even by those who still love it, has been reeled back to a reasonable degree now. Still, I didn't particularly love the experience, though I did enjoy my time in the world, and the more I look back on the game the less I want anything to do with it. I'm still trying to convince myself to visit the DLC that I foolishly bought the season pass for (not even commenting on the quality of the DLC, but how much I've come to fucking hate the idea of the season pass).

Edit: But I want to add that I fucking hate dismissing things as overrated. It's incredibly lazy. This should read more like mainstream game that I felt most disappointed by.

MAN is there a lot of people out there who enjoy hating things.

All the games on your list are pretty good and have fans who love them. They're maybe not your thing but that doesn't make them overrated. Also, stop using that word, it makes you sound like a self important dick.

PS: I chose windjammers only because the GB staff couldn't seem to praise any other game more than that one in the history of all games ever. I mean, come on guys, it's a good game but it came out 20 years ago, get a grip.

I don't think that is true at all. At least in my own personal case, I don't assume a single correct rating by one person, but take a preponderance of professional reviews and critical ratings and compare to my own rating. Like a Metacritic or GameRankings score, or what I observe from visiting various gaming websites.

Specifically, most professional review(er)s gave The Last of Us very high scores. My score is way lower. Therefore, in my opinion, The Last of Us has been overrated in public outlets. I don't see what is so hard to understand about that.

Say BioShock and I will fucking cut you.

Brothers even though it's hypocritical for me because I dislike it for the same reason many dislike Bioshock which was my game of the year. I hung myself now you guys don't have to do it.

Also when the view changes to be too close to the characters I feel the aesthetic of that game falls apart.

You're basically saying your view of a game is the correct one and anyone who deviates from that has over/underrated it. Look, I disagree with reviewers all the time but that doesn't mean they've over/underrated something. If those reviewers genuinely feel that way about a game who am I to say that they gave it too high/low a score? I can't control their experiences or feelings on a game.

Divekick! Love you Dave Lang. But Jeff at times talks like it's the second coming of fighting game christ. It's funny and it looks tense as fuck, but when it comes down to it, it's just a novel idea.

GTA V

DotA 2, but maybe that's just because I've owned Warcraft 3 since it was released and it has ceased to seem like anything special. I'd be more excited if Wintermaul or Stronghold (Tower Wars ain't cuttin' it) had received the DotA 2 treatment though, to be fair.

Oddly enough, I don't think any of those games are overrated. If anything, I think GTA might fit this list.

Gone fucking Home. I am absolutely baffled at the level of praise that game gets.

No, I am saying that my view of a game is the correct one FOR ME, which is really the only view that one can have. To do otherwise would be to at least tacitly allow that there is indeed an objective correct answer, which is most certainly not the case - which is something that I must assume you agree with. To look at something that is overwhelmingly rated by the industry as being one of the best games, or by reviewers here at GiantBomb as being number one, or by the community as a whole as one of the best games of the year - or even just a very good game - and to think otherwise makes it very much overrated to me.

They are overrated from your point of view. I don't think anyone here is saying a review is objectively wrong, just wrong according to their subjective point of view. The word overrated doesn't inherently mean you're comparing it to some factual, predetermined premise.

If we can't debate a review score then what's the point in having them in the first place?

For me it's a tie between the Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite. I felt like people were so desperate for a major "grown-up" game, they looked past the flaws of them. Not saying they were bad. They were both good games, but certainly not the ground breaking masterpieces some people claim.

Tomb Raider.

@elixirbronze: This is kind of beside the point of the argument, but in response to your question, I don't think that there is a point to having review scores at all. They seem to only serve the purpose of having something for developers to point to and brag or for people to scream about on the internet.

In fact, I would suggest that we would probably have better debates about the merits of games without scores. Reviews should simply describe the game experience itself, any high points and any flaws in the games and end with a simple recommendation by the reviewer on playing or not. No more messing about with silly, inflated numbers that don't really mean anything anyway as the review system is completely skewed towards the upper end of review scores.

Windjammers is nearly 20 years old...what kind of moron would vote for that?

For me, it's a toss-up between Bioshock, The Last of Us, and Papers Please. Since so many people like TLoU so much, I voted for that to be a confrontational bastard.

It is the second coming. It boils fighting games down to what really matters, timing and strategy. There are no ridiculously overcomplicated move lists that you need to learn, it's simply a chess match and that's what makes fighting games fun. Also, it has GGPO.

I think that part in Brothers that people like is really cool, I think it's a pretty game for the most part, and I had way less trouble with the controls than everybody else seemed too. The positivity surrounding that game is higher than I felt it earned however. Most of the game is spent solving really simple puzzles, and the unique control scheme wasn't enough to make those puzzles interesting. Also that game is super buggy, I had two crashes, which also brought to light how poor some of the checkpoints were. Also I feel like it patters about for too long after the climax. People seemed pretty willing to forgive the games faults for the one moment it did really well.

I see what you're coming from but do you think reviewers shouldn't like the game as much as they do? My problem with the word overrated is that it implies I want reviewers to have the same view on a game as me, when I'm perfectly happy with people enjoying a product more than I do.

There's something inherently narcissistic about describing a thing as overrated. I can understand someone saying a game "didn't click for me" or "I couldn't get into it," but calling it overrated puts the issue back on the rest of us, like somehow the people who liked it are in the wrong. Dissenting opinions are totally fine, but don't throw everyone else under the bus because you disagree.

I agree. It sold the most copies, scored probably the highest, and yet if you look at sites and read top tens it is completely absent from almost every list.

Bioshock, no contest. Though I liked parts about it, it ain't all bad.

Not to derail from OT too much but I disagree. For me, time is fairly limited, on average I probably play like 9-10 games per year. As a result, I appreciate the distinction between what's good, and what's very good. That said, I never use review scores as a prime indicator as to wheather or not I should buy a game (although if a game gets perfect scores all around, it's probably worth my time). I've been around long enough to know my own tastes well enough to see what I would or would not enjoy. But I'm sure not everyone has, and I could definately see a scenario where review scores might be important for someone.

I agree with your point about better debates though. I hate when people go "A Link Between Worlds is better than Last of Us huh? Well, let's see what metacritic has to say".

Gone Home was fantastic and is the best storytelling of the year. GTA V doesn't seem like it got too much undeserved hype, tbh it kinda should get a lot of props for how detailed that world is...and that it somehow runs on such old ass consoles. I do wish the actual gameplay in GTA V was better though, the shooting still wasn't very fun, which is annoying because Max Payne 3's combat was a blast.

BioShock got too much of a free pass for what is essentially 8 hours of generic FPS combat arenas. If it wasn't for the very impressive first hour or two, that game would have got crucified. The gameplay is a step back from both BioShock 1 and 2, less varied combat, less varied weaponry and a lot more linear. Elizabeth being undetectable by AI was hella goofy too. (same with Ellie in Last of Us)

Actually I forgot about Divekick. Yeah it's probably Divekick. I still can't tell if people are sarcastic or not when they say that game has depth, that entire game was a joke that somehow turned into something people paid money for. Insane.

Tomb Raider, very average game and the worst reboot of the year.

Guess what on a website about video games, video games in general will be (hopelessly) overrated. Any kind of group-think, consensus or discussion may put a game into an appropriate critical context or paint a completely false picture, overestimate the importance or overemphasize the praise for a title.

There is such a thing as overrated games, in other words a runaway success with critics. In the same way the Oscars overrate some obscure and/or possibly undeserving films. Though honestly GiantBomb's policy of full disclosure, during the deliberations is a pretty good method to keep things in check.

The Last of Us.

I guess our fundamental disagreement on this issue lies with the interpretation of the term "overrated" and the implication(s) that it may or may not carry with it.

I rate something a 60 (using MetaCritic scaling) and the industry as a whole rates it a 95. From my perspective, this game has been overrated, but in saying and thinking that, I have no intention of also saying that other people should change what they think about it.

I do not care one way or the other whether a reviewer or the industry as a whole rates something higher or lower than I do. Clearly, you do not either. But I think that the term "overrated" can be used without an accompanying desire for others to alter their viewpoint. You seem to be of the opinion that using the word overrated inherently carries with it the belief that one's opinion should override that of professional reviewers. I am not sure that either of us could be considered definitively correct. My persistence in this matter is largely an attempt to combat the numerous posters in these types of threads who automatically dismiss anyone who voices a dissenting opinion on a game as someone who believes their opinion is the only correct one - which is certainly not true (at least in this case).

The vast majority of that was frivolous and not much of a game. I'm not saying Gone Home isn't a game, it's just not a very good game that is held up by its story. I liked the story, but it might not be for everyone.

The game felt like a third-person visual novel with no real choices and one predetermined outcome. The game tricks you into thinking you're in control exploring the house, but it's pretty much on rails, guiding you to the next journal entry in the order they want you to encounter it.

The other games on this poll had their game mechanics scrutinized and were often called out on anything that was considered lacking. GoneHome was pretty much exempt from this.

The bad game design has been given a pass in favor of the story by game journalists like Patrick. Nostalgia might have also blinded some. Because of that, I feel the game was the most overrated this year, even though I liked the game overall because of the story.

@theht: What you said.

I haven't gotten past Havana in AC4. I understand it's supposed to open up but i can't bring myself to play any more.

windjammersssssssssssssssssss

It only breeds negativity, but I was curious so I clicked 'other'