2008 Gaming Hype and Regrets

Chase

Chase

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In 2008, what hype did you believe but afterwards feel foolish about believing after actually playing the hyped game?

After not enjoying a Grand Theft Auto game since Vice City, I bought into the hype for Grand Theft Auto 4. Sure, the online multiplayer can be interesting at times, and the game looks pretty, but the single-player story mode is boring; the story, uninteresting. I also did not enjoy constantly maintaining relationships in a most tedious way. Crackdown and Saints Row are much more enjoyable than Grand Theft Auto 4. I cannot believe I actually believed the hype.

I'm close to listing Gears of War 2...
 
GTAIV would be the only one for me. I didn't like GTA 3 and hadn't played any of the games since but gave this one a shot from all the reviews/hype. I liked it more than 3, but still couldn't really get into it and stopped about 21 hours in.

Other than that there really hasn't been anything as there wasn't much in 2008 that I really wanted and there are still a lot of games I haven't played and will check out next year when I have time.

Gears 2, however, I loved. At least the campaign. The multiplayer is a mess with the broken matchmaking system making it near unplayable at times with it taking so long to get into matches.
 
GTAIV here too, archiac weapon-selection (should be a pin-wheel), hated the computer, hated the dating, tacked-on mini-games, uncustomizable controls. I wish they would just put regenerative health in GTA games, it would solve the "I don't know where I'm getting shot at, now I got to redo this mission." problem and the annoying instances of getting hit while crossing the street and finding a burger joint to heal. They need to stop putting your character at a police station once you get busted with your weapons gone, EVERYONE just reloads the last checkpoint.

Dark Sector I was hyped up about, but was disappointed with its linear level design that wasn't masked well. If I see another yellow-hazard bag, I'll lose it!

And CoD:WaW, read my blog to find out why. http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=4757
 
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yeah gta4 was kind of a letdown. it was a step up in some regards and then a big step down in alot of ways. i was hoping for more overal. more weapons, more side missions more secrets just more. the online gaming is very fun and you can see why the single player experience is kinda lacking. i was hoping you could go into more buildings too.

itd be cool if hey could make san andreas with this engine and make it into the game they wanted it to be. thers things in all the previous gtas i liked that got cut out like holding up stores or the diff odd and interesting race types. i liked the country areas of san andreas too and yeah i was hoping they would add in bigfoot or maybe some zombies.

san andreas was the epitome of a sandbox game.
 
Mirrors Edge wow ever since i had seen that game i had thought it was going to be amazing. Today i finished the game and i have to say the free running did work well and that part was not bad but everything else was so bad! Mostly being the combat is janky, it tries to almost try to be the assasins creed thing but it fails to do so well. Also there wasn't much game there and i dont mean that its short even tho it was i just mean you really dont do much dodge a few guys make it to the end. Lame!!
 
GTA IV, the Wii the second time I bought it thinking that the titles that came out this year would somehow fix everything wrong with the system. I have plenty of 360 complaints but all the games I bought are old since I just got my box this year.
 
GTA4, Gears 2 somewhat (broken multiplayer essentially), Fable II (horrible, horrible ending), Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (horrid, horrid controls) although playing Sonic Unleashed made me like this more, but not much more.
 
It's really hard to say because I've mostly been happy with what I purchased. My biggest regret was mostly purchasing older games on 360, Wii, and other platforms.

Biggest regrets off the top of my mind are:
Wild Arms XF (PSP) - While I thought the gameplay was cool, it got hard quick and found myself having a hard time wanting to play it (but then again, I don't play handhelds much). The game wasn't bad IMO, I just didn't play it much (and I paid $40 for it too). I just mostly regret buying it at launch.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - While I got the game on Amazon for $26, I just didn't like it as much as Melee. I like the addition of online, but I felt the only proper way to play it was with a GC controller (loading was beyond terrible too). Since my GC controllers are wired and hard to use with my Wii setup, it made me not care even more about playing it. Thankfully, I got more than what I paid for it back at GS which went towards Buzz! Quiz TV (PS3), which I really liked.

Devil May Cry 4 (PS3) - It's a good game, but I did feel it was a bit overhyped. I really wish I waited on it, because it was one of those games I played early on, but stopped playing and never went back to (don't know if I ever will). But there are a lot of things I like about the game.

The most disappointing demo that turned me completely away from buying the game (from wanting it) was Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

I hope there's a thread on biggest surprises of the year, because there are some games I liked WAY more than expected.

I was much more selective in my buying this year.
 
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My biggest regret this year is My Word Coach for the Nintendo DS. A lot of the mini-games are stupid and you don't retain anything.

Its just better reading a book.
 
Little Big Planet ... maybe I just need to give it a 2nd chance. Resistance 2... It just doesn't feel right to me after playing so much CoD4. Maybe thats another one I should give another chance.
 
[quote name='necrojustice']For me it would be Spore.[/quote]
Aye. All of the interesting ideas presented in the early previews and demos got left out and we got left with a really nice creation tool paired with a boring sim. What could have been, could have been, could have been.
 
Ninja Gaiden 2. I loved Ninja Gaiden, Black, and Sigma. I was hyped up for NG2, then I played it. It starts off decent, but it just lacks the polish and soul that NG had. It felt very rushed. Obliteration is sweet, and is my favorite thing in NG2.

GTAIV was decent, but I wasn't expecting much. I haven't really dug the series since GTAIII, and even then it wasn't anything remarkable. Sure it's fun to drive around and cause chaos, but even that gets old. Missions suck ass, and I didn't like how the cars handled in IV.
 
Castle Crashers simply because nothing is still yet to be fixed. We get teased that they're going to do be doing something, but instead nothing still.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, terrible online and it just wasn't as fun as the first two or maybe was expecting too much.

Grand Theft Auto IV, completely agree with Chase in single player was boring. Multiplayer was pretty ho-hum overall too unless with friends, but that's something that can be said about nearly any other multiplayer game.
 
I rented all of them, but I still regret it...

- Fallout 3
- Far Cry 2
- Midnight club LA
- NFS: Underground

That's all I got for now.
 
I was really hyped for Left 4 Dead, after playing the demo I didn't even buy it (until it's cheap).

Makes me sad, I love zombie games and online multiplayer... it felt like a perfect match.
 
[quote name='Jest']Little Big Planet ... maybe I just need to give it a 2nd chance. Resistance 2... It just doesn't feel right to me after playing so much CoD4. Maybe thats another one I should give another chance.[/QUOTE]For R2, it took a bit to grow on me. Once I changed the control scheme to be exactly like CoD4 (since that's what I played for a while), it helped quite a bit and it really started to grow on me. Now, I can't play another FPS until Killzone 2 comes out (it would mess up my rhythm). They are very different though (one goes more realistic while the other goes heavy sci-fi/hectic.

I could say that same as Hank for NG2, but I never bought the full game (just played the demo). It didn't excite me like the first NG did when I played it.
 
GTAIV. I thought it would be the GTA to pull me in, but not exactly. I won't say I didn't get any enjoyment from it, but after a couple of hours of playing I was already tired of it. The missions just aren't fun no matter how you look at it, the characters and story are intolerably irritating, and the open world can only be interesting for so long. It was an ok rental, but I feel the utmost pity for those that bought it new.

DMC4. It's one of those games that seems perfect, but then you play it. I don't feel like there's enough variety in the gameplay. Bashing guys over and over just isn't my cup of tea I guess.
 
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Yeah, I could list NGII as another I picked up off Goozex and didn't like. But I don't think it fits the bill hear. I wasn't hyped for it much and hadn't played any of the versions of the first games as I don't like action games much and hate hard games so I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it.

But I wanted to give it a shot so I got it off Goozex for 1000 points, didn't like it much and traded it back for 1000 points so no skin off my nose.
 
While GTA4 was not the "OMGZ teh gr8est thing s!nc3 tha enter-webz" I was completly satisfied with the money I spent on the game.

My 2008 disappointment was a double whammy. I bought my 360 in *2007* in anticipation of SW:TFU. I preordered it @ BBV the same day the demo came out (b4 I played the demo). When I got home and played the demo, I was immediately sad I preordered the game. I ended up *not* buying SW:TFU, and tried to switch my preoder to RB2, but this particular BBV wasnt carrying RB2 (wtf?!?). Instead, I switched to Fable 2, with the intent on switching again when something better was available for preorder.

In the meantime, I found myself getting excited about Fable 2, thinking that the combat could be fun in a Kingdom Hearts kind of way. So I decided to go ahead and purchase Fable 2. Well, now I cant stand Fable 2. I have no interest in the story and the combat does not seem as fluid as I envisioned it. It takes too much time to charge up the stronger spells. The melee combat is just mediocre hack n' slash. And the gun/crossbow is about as unsatisfying as a ranged weapon can be.

I stopped playing the game for a month, then listened to an older CAGcast and decided to give the game another shot. I had money to buy the good weapons and am still unsatisfied. Then to top it off, the ridiculous loading times have not been aleviated even by the install to my 120GB hard drive.

So yeah, IMO, this game pretty much blows!
 
Here are my '08 regrets:

- Not selling my Wii... there's absolutely nothing going on with that box that interests me.

- GTA IV... overrated hype.

- Little Big Planet... massive disappointment that only got worse post-launch with server issues, absurd premium DLC, and user-created level deletion.

- Lego Batman... reminded me how burned out I am on Lego games.

- PSP... what a downer year for a downer of a game platform.
 
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