The Four Most Overrated Franchises

@big_jon said:

@MordeaniisChaos: Everything about it, it feels floaty, lack of animation, there is barley any reaction by those being hit, and the health levels are super high.

It is the reason I didn't like Fallout, and the reason I didn't love Skyrim.

Power attacks stagger, no idea what you mean by lack of animation or floaty when everything's pretty weighty and you aren't aiming or jumpin around... Health levels aren't that high either, unless you are under leveled for the enemies you are fighting.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

If Skyrim is so shitty, I wouldn't have spent 200 hours playing it, and I wouldn't be planning to go back to it when I build my next rig that'll be able to run it a lot better.

Thinking something is overrated doesn't necessarily mean I think it's bad. I think Skyrim is just a good game, and nowhere near Game of the Year level that many places awarded it.

Coming from someone I'm pretty sure is a defender of Final Fantasy and other JRPGs, I'd say your arguments are pretty piss poor considering. But maybe I'm confusing you with someone else.

You must have me confused with someone else. I only made it about 2/3rds through FFXIII before I quit and traded it in.

So basically any game that's awesome enough to deserve multiple sequels is over rated.

Just what we need, Hipster Gamers.

I don't think most people actually know what a hipster is. Just because someone doesn't like something popular doesn't make them a hipster. In the same way that driving a pick up truck doesn't make you a racist. If you call a truck driver a racist, you may be right, but it's a complete stab in the dark. Just like looking at a twenty something guy with a beard and an opinion and calling him a hipster.

@Cyrisaurus said:

So basically any game that's awesome enough to deserve multiple sequels is over rated.

Just what we need, Hipster Gamers.

Just what we need a, dismissive comment.

@Cyrisaurus said:

So basically any game that's awesome enough to deserve multiple sequels is over rated.

Just what we need, Hipster Gamers.

Just what we need a, dismissive comment.

@Dagbiker said:

@Cyrisaurus said:

So basically any game that's awesome enough to deserve multiple sequels is over rated.

Just what we need, Hipster Gamers.

Just what we need a, dismissive comment.

Hey look were both acute observers.

No article on overrated video games is credible IMO without a heavy mention of Rockstar and GTA. Talk about over-hyped, critic-darlings that recycle the same exact tired formula and call it a series. And what about all those EA sports titles, eh? No wait, EZ option 4 EZ popularity: CALL OF DOODY SUXXXXXXX.

At least those other games you mentioned try to do stuff differently. I fail to see how they're worse than Madden or another third-person shooter in another fake crime city.

@sofacitysweetheart said:

No article on overrated video games is credible IMO without a heavy mention of Rockstar and GTA. Talk about over-hyped, critic-darlings that recycle the same exact tired formula and call it a series. And what about all those EA sports titles, eh? No wait, EZ option 4 EZ popularity: CALL OF DOODY SUXXXXXXX.

At least those other games you mentioned try to do stuff differently. I fail to see how they're worse than Madden or another third-person shooter in another fake crime city.

But I think to be overrated, something has to be rated higher than it deserves. Who the hell is rating Madden so high? If people were going crazy about Madden 13, I'd agree with you, because that franchise is as stale and risk averse as it gets, but I think it gets appropriately panned as a result. It still sells because it's the ONLY NFL game. And a lot of people will take what they can get.

I feel like you're confusing overrated with over-saturated, these are all franchises with a wealth of detractors, the closest to overrated would be Assassin's Creed.

@MEATBALL said:

I feel like you're confusing overrated with over-saturated, these are all franchises with a wealth of detractors, the closest to overrated would be Assassin's Creed.

No I know the difference, but in these particular franchises, I believe oversaturation combined with unwavering praise has made them overrated. It's not necessarily why, but in these cases it's my biggest complaint. Like a square is a circle, but a circle's not a square. If you put God of War 3 in a vacuum, where none of the other games existed, I'd still complain about the horrible camera and simplistic repetitive gameplay, combined with the worst protagonist this side of Leisure Suit Larry. I think if you put a different label on a God of War game post PS2 era, it'd have a completely different response. The franchise is stuck in PS2 mechanics, but people forgive it because it's God of War.

@ERoBB: I'm not sure I understand. The player base who consumes those games rate them pretty highly, but then, wouldn't that just cause the critics to appear wrong? It would prove that scores don't matter if those games really are as panned as you're saying but still, there's not a whole lot to be amazed by in those games. So if that's the case, who is really the authority on good games? The reviewer or those who play them and enjoy them?

Is a game overrated if it receives high scores but has low sales and is regarded poorly by video game players? Does it have more to do with it's contradicting popularity outside of gaming circles and in the mainstream media? Are we talking strictly about the amount of mechanics and depth?

Still, I'm not buying that a game can be unexceptional, sell well and not be overrated to some extent of whatever meaning you're going for.

@sofacitysweetheart: I refuse to define the word overrate or subjective again in this thread, lol, these are commonly used words with understood definitions. But as for Madden, that's a unique case because it is quite literally a monopoly. People love the NFL and want to play football games. Yet they have literally no other options. So that's a perfectly logical explanation of Madden's high sales yet mediocre reviews. I suppose an argument is justified that it's not as good as it's sales, therefore it's overrated. But the clause EA has with the NFL is the sole reason. I personally don't feel there's much to talk about there. It'd be like reviewing WalMart's food court after it puts local businesses out.

On the other hand, Call of Duty is not the only game in town, yet receives the same yearly iteration with little improvements, and rabid sales.

@ERoBB: Call of Duty has the Call of Duty brand name. That's just as valuable to it as the NFL name is to the Madden series. Difference being, Call of Duty has good ratings and sells well. One might argue it's appropriately rated ;)

All games are overrated. The end.

@ERoBB: Your points are valid criticisms of the franchises you listed, but I fail to see how it makes them overrated. It's really fun to stab dudes in Assassin's Creed, Halo has a great multiplayer component in forge mode, Call of Duty made the carrot-on-the-stick component of multiplayer, and God of War revolutionized character action games. At the end of the day pitting one's opinion against another's opinion is kind of pointless.

@sofacitysweetheart said:

@ERoBB: Call of Duty has the Call of Duty brand name. That's just as valuable to it as the NFL name is to the Madden series. Difference being, Call of Duty has good ratings and sells well. One might argue it's appropriately rated ;)

You definitely could make that case. I don't dislike CoD nearly as much as some people. But I do think it's shocking how much that game sells.

@c0l0nelp0c0rn1 said:

@ERoBB: Your points are valid criticisms of the franchises you listed, but I fail to see how it makes them overrated. It's really fun to stab dudes in Assassin's Creed, Halo has a great multiplayer component in forge mode, Call of Duty made the carrot-on-the-stick component of multiplayer, and God of War revolutionized character action games. At the end of the day pitting one's opinion against another's opinion is kind of pointless.

No way! The discussion is the point. Debate is healthy. There's no "win" in a conversation like this, but there's nothing wrong with having it, you know? I think it's fine that a lot of people seem sick of topics like this, but I always enjoy the back and forth.

@ERoBB said:

@sofacitysweetheart said:

@ERoBB: Call of Duty has the Call of Duty brand name. That's just as valuable to it as the NFL name is to the Madden series. Difference being, Call of Duty has good ratings and sells well. One might argue it's appropriately rated ;)

You definitely could make that case. I don't dislike CoD nearly as much as some people. But I do think it's shocking how much that game sells.

But it's not shocking. They are competitive multiplayer games. CoD came to be what it is for the same reason World of Warcraft did. Bob bought it because his buddy Jim bought it who bought it because his brother plays it. You've said yourself that it doesn't distinguish itself greatly from other shooters, but the reverse is also true; other shooters do little to make people want to walk away. Each year, the same people go and buy the new CoD game because they assume everyone else is going to and they don't want to be left behind. Plus I am sure they don't mind getting new maps to play on, considering how well map packs sell. CoD didn't just come out and blam, best selling game ever. They built a reputation, year over year, for delivering a high quality multiplayer experience and people responded to it. That is how franchises grow. This is why every new CoD game sells more copies than the one before. That franchise has established itself as the game you buy if you want to play on online shooter. The fact that other people keep trying to compete with CoD is what's shocking to me.

That's coming from someone who played 45 minutes of CoD 4 and got bored. It's not my cup of tea, but understanding why those games sell the way they do is not difficult, at all.

@mitsuko_souma: But lots of people DO think it's worth that. They didn't make it that because they are retarded, or because they were paid to. They did so because they spent hundreds of hours playing the game and fucking loving it, much like I did, much like a very large number of people did. Just because you dislike it doesn't mean it's over-rated it just means you aren't a fan. Which is fine as long as you are honest and accepting of that.

Also, my bad. Dunno who it was but their name/picture musta been real similar.

@ERoBB said:

I don't think most people actually know what a hipster is. Just because someone doesn't like something popular doesn't make them a hipster. In the same way that driving a pick up truck doesn't make you a racist. If you call a truck driver a racist, you may be right, but it's a complete stab in the dark. Just like looking at a twenty something guy with a beard and an opinion and calling him a hipster.

Hipsters are trend setters, and therefore if they don't enjoy unpopular things, they aren't setting trends and stop being hipsters. Most hipsters are posers, but all are giant douche bags about at least one thing. Often many things. Also nice addition with yourself at the end there. Nice snark.

@Totori said:

@Dagbiker said:

@Cyrisaurus said:

So basically any game that's awesome enough to deserve multiple sequels is over rated.

Just what we need, Hipster Gamers.

Just what we need a, dismissive comment.

just what we need handjobs

Need fulfilled!

@sofacitysweetheart: GTA IV and Red Dead did things in terms of tone, character, story, and amount of worthwhile content in an open world game that hadn't been achieved before and both were pretty different from past games. If you think GTA IV was just a rehash of old GTA games, you haven't finished that game.

The biggest thing people seem to be gravitating towards are really popular, clearly well crafted games that are received well by consumers and critics alike, but because they don't find it impressive and a lot of people disagree, it's over-rated. However, if something is over-rated, it's thought too highly of, not thought highly of too often. So the disparity between an honest look at a game like Halo 3 and a fan's view is very different than the disparity between a game you dislike or are unimpressed by, but a large number of people have positive feelings on. So I think the use of "over-rated" needs to be clarified to avoid a bunch of whiners who don't like popular games.

OMG of War. I don't understand the appeal of those games. Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden were far better and deeper experiences. How did it take 3 games for people to start saying "It's kinda the same thing over and over" Dude I've been saying that from the start.

Halo 3 is an amazing game so suck it.

• Fable III
• Uncharted
• Dead space

I was expecting something better from those games given the hype around them but it appear that they don't have anything we haven't seen before, however people enjoy them so maybe it just a matter of taste.

Spartan Ops might be the first time we really see "episodic gaming" done right. 343 might just do Halo justice, which is pretty impressive considering all the content Bungie put into it.