Anticipating the Wrong Games

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deckard

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#1  Edited By deckard

I've had this problem with games. For whatever reason, the games I get hyped for prior to release usually end up being disappointments, both personally and critically in general. I've had this issue dating back to the SNES days, and it still occurs today. Case in point: Ghost Recon Wildlands and Mass Effect Andromeda. I was excited for both going back at least a month, and both have ended up leaving a lot to be desired. Ultimately I know by the end of the year I will have a top 10 games list and the vast majority of these will be pleasant surprises that will just drop almost out of nowhere; usually smaller indie titles or AAA titles that at first glance I would have no interest in yet end up being great. Does this happen to anyone else on a regular basis?

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TobbRobb

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A veeery long time ago, I wasn't really that invested in games. I did more sports and outdoorsy shit and usually stuck to reading for relaxation. At that point 95% of the games I played were because of my friends suggestions or what they were excited about or just plain what was new at the time. This led to a pretty decent chunk of games that I was hyped up for, but ended up not quite getting into like I had hoped.

Over time though, as I dove deep, deep into this silly medium I developed an understanding and learned to recognize the traits of games I like and games I don't like, and I'll generally know what I think of a game before even playing it. So nowadays, I'm almost never surprised. Perhaps a blessing and a curse?

That said, in both cases for Wildlands and Mass Effect, they mostly seem disappointing if your expectations where high, they are both supposedly still alright? If those are the kind of games you are looking for, I doubt there's anything better on the recent releases. I'll personally stick to Nier for now. AKA my most anticipated game since Witcher 3, and also my favorite thing to come out all year edging out Nioh.

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WynnDuffy

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Warning signs went off for me when they said Dragon Age Inquisition is their blueprint going forward

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Teddie

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#4  Edited By Teddie

Don't worry, when you get a little older you won't anticipate anything.

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Arabes

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@deckard: I have to ask, when you get excited for a particular game, do you actually look at what is being said/shown about the game or do you tend to imagine what it could be and focus on that?

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guthwulf

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I've had a similar kind of "problem" for a little bit. I somehow failed to realize for some time that my taste in games had changed a bit, due to the fact that my life (kids and all) had also changed, so that it became difficult for me to enjoy massive 100+ hours JRPGs. For whatever reason (maybe old habits dying hard or nostalgia) I was still looking forward most to those games, while I already enjoyed different games more when playing them.

Luckily now, my subconscious has caught up and I'm looking forward to those games I end up having the most fun with as well.

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deactivated-629ec706f0783

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@teddie: Which, as cynical as it sounds, actually makes the surprises even better!

When you think it's all gonna be shit, the ones that aren't are even more amazing!

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huntad

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MezZa

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#9  Edited By MezZa

I tend not to set my expectations high for any game really. I know when I want to buy a game but I try to make no assumptions about its overall quality before I see enough of it. Part of the reason why I'm okay with mass effect is because I wasn't expecting a second coming of ME2. I was just expecting a game with mass effect gameplay and mass effect races. And with Zelda I was extremely surprised by how good that game was, so in both good and bad cases having pretty neutral expectations works out.

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MrBGone

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@teddie: Except death. #whatIlostinlustforlifeIgainedinadeathwish

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Shivoa

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With time I've gotten a lot better at treating everything not here yet as something of questionable quality (which makes obvious sense but remember that big publishers are spending many millions on trying to make you think otherwise). Avoid pre-orders, expect a demo, expect unrestricted coverage, read the tea-leaves on the swings of emotions out there (Doom has a big swing down before release so the praise may well oversell it because the final expectation was so muted that even a generic good would result in lots of praise), find coverage from people who generally agree about what great games are.

I do quite like the Ubisoft model of doing closed (but easy to sign up for) betas and then open betas for their (large, online enabled) releases before launch. Gives me a very good idea of what The Division, For Honor, or Wildlands was going to be without anyone expecting me to hand over money first.

I've also got a lot of friends who are going to provide a lot of good details about why they're enjoying something and so that really helps as long as we remember to keep each other in check about pre-release hype and only start gushing once we've got the actual game and can say exactly how it plays and what it's doing for us.

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Fredchuckdave

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#12  Edited By Fredchuckdave

I anticipated Nioh and Horizon personally; that perception/taste value. Though to be fair both games are a shitload better than expected. Persona's the only game where it'll be good and no one will be surprised (and I still won't play it for 10 years or something).

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dafdiego777

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I tend to be pretty mellow about games these days. Last time I got truly hyped for anything was ME3, which was maybe not the best choice to get hyped for. Since then, I think I tend to care more about games as a whole, as opposed to an individually one.

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BaneFireLord

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From a critical reception standpoint, I've gotten pretty good at pegging what's going to be good in advance and properly gauging anticipation...I've been right on the money most of the time, even when the common consensus was going in the other direction (I remember getting laughed at on this forum for predicting that Far Cry 3 was going to be on the GOTY list a few months before it released). I think the only times in recent memory where I was off by a really wide margin were Mafia III and AC Unity...I thought they were going to be much better than they wound up being.

I'm much more likely to write something off and then be surprised when it winds up being better than expected...recently, I was pretty convinced that Horizon was going to get a lukewarm critical reception at best and wrote it off, but the Metacritic speaks for itself.

On a personal level, I'm much more hit-or-miss...I was hyped as shit for Dark Souls, GTA V, Dying Light and DA: Inquisition, watching all the videos and reading every preview and press release that came out. Though they all reviewed well to varying degrees and ostensibly ticked a lot of my preference boxes, none of them held my attention (with the exception of GTA V...I pushed through it on 360 though really not enjoying it due to some real life shit...I appreciated it more with the rereleases).

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deckard

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@arabes: After some reflection (and the good points brought up here) a lot of the anticipation/later disappointment comes from the fact that I'm usually on the lookout for the next "Big Game". Now to me, this doesn't mean Big as in budget or marketing or hype per se. To me it's more about a game that I enjoy and I can sink 100+ hours into before moving on to another "Big Game." For example, some of my favorite games from the last few years are Overwatch, DA: Inquisition, and The Division. Going back further there were games like Team Fortress 2, Skyrim, and Diablo III. With my limited free time as a full-time working adult, I like to have games (usually action RPGs but there are others) that I can jump in, get a few tasks done, then go do something else or take care of real-world situations. So I guess when I see something like MEA I say "hey that will be a game that will tide me over for 2-3 months until the next Big Game arrives" - and then when it doesn't deliver I'm not that interested in anything else out there (except for many short indie experiences as I previously mentioned).

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GERALTITUDE

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@teddie said:

Don't worry, when you get a little older you won't anticipate anything.

Ain't that the truth.