So the other day I was reminiscing how once long ago I bought two really well-received games based almost solely on what other people thought about them. I bought We <3 Katamari and it was one of the best games I've bought for the PS2 and as such a very good purchase. I bought it because I had heard great things about it and with some further inspection it seemed like just my type o' game with them crazy looks and crazy gameplay.

Then there was this other much praised game that everyone just raves about and whenever someone mentions it everyone seems to think its the best game ever. I'm talking about Ico for the PS2. Now, I bought this game upon its rerelease in 2006 or whatever for 20 euros after reading some reviews that just seemed to praise it as the best PS2 game yet but I might've aswell shoved the 20 euros up my ass instead.

At first when you start playing it you prolly think oh my this is the most beautiful game i've seen really awesome!!! and it is for the first 2 minutes i guess but then it just starts a downward spiral that never seems to end. Where should I start? Well lets start from the beginning of the game.

It's all great up until the point Yorda or whatever opens the first set of doors. After that there are approx. a total of 5 new gameplay features that are presented to you at regular intervals like pushing blocks, picking up shit, torches and bombs. Then it stops introducing anything new and thats basically it. You push blocks over and over, then climb a rope, turn a switch, kill some shadows, back to the block pushing, yell at yorda to get her ass over there and after less than hour of this the game is already over. I recall beating this in about 1:30 on my first playthrough and then being all WAIT!! THATS IT?!? I made another playthrough just to see if I could beat it in less than an hour and I did but I recall beating it in 50 minutes, but theres a speedrun that is 52 minutes so I'm prolly confusing the 50 minutes with my Zone of the Enders playthrough, another fucking disappointment although not nearly as hyped as Ico (PS I'm pulling those playthrough times out of my ass but it was something like that, honest).


So if I would have to sum up all that I think is wrong with ico it would be like this:

Its a game that has really limited and repetitive gameplay, the game is not really hard but the camera really seems to hate the player when it comes to precise jumps (especially the prison cells near the end of the game), the enemies are limited to 3 or 4 different types of shadows that dont really put up a fight +the camera, all the puzzles are either pushing blocks around or turning switches which is just boring, and you can divide the gameply into pushing blocks and killing the shadows. There is total of 1 boss in the entire game if you dont count the army of shadows that cant even kill you near the end, and besides the boss tune and the savepoint tune there is no music at all, theres hardly one page worth of dialogue and I can't really say that I liked anything else about this game except the beautiful environment.   

So I really dont get why this game gets some much praise from EVERYONE. I will admit that its the best looking game for the ps2 I've ever seen but it certainly isn't the best GAME for the ps2, not even close. Bashing Ico out of all the games I could've bashed might piss some people off, yes, but come on now, it really isn't all that good.



But what about you, what games have you bought based on excellent reviews only to discover that its just garbage all around?

Fumito Ueda takes a minimalist approach to his game design (he also produced Shadow of the Collossus).  Basically, if a feature is unnecessary then it gets cut.  Ico is exactly what it is; a run and jump adventure game with lots of puzzles.  It doesn't try to encorporate a pretentious storyline with long cinemas or multiple different gameplay styles; it's just you, Yorda, and the goal to escape the castle.

In my opinion (because I'm sure a lot of people had different reactions to Ico considering the game only sold about 75,000 copies before Shadow got uber popular and everyone started masturbating to it), the simplicity of Ico is its biggest appeal.  The puzzles basically boiled down to pushing blocks and swinging on chains but they are were all encorporated into the overall design of the castle which was pretty awesome.  You could see every part of the castle depending on your location and for a 2001 game it was pretty awesome running above a ledge, looking down and going "holy shit i just came from there."  Adding in that there was no music or cinematics interrupting your progress at every turn, the game had a very "natural" feel.  I felt immersed in the game's atmosphere more than any other game to date which was pretty phenomenal for a turn of the century release.

I have yet to play a game where the majority loves but I really hate.  There's solid criticism for pretty much every game but I guess I can put down Final Fantasy 12 because that game seriously bored the fuck out of me.  There's this one point in the game where you go without advancing the story for like... 20 hours straight.

That would be Bioshock for me. One of the most hyped games in recent years that just fell flat on it's face. First time I played it on my friend's system, I loved the graphics, but couldn't stand the choppy framerate. I didn't get far past finding the wrench till I gave up from being disgusted by the framerate. While dicking around on my 360 online, I found the demo and proceeded to download it and play it. Playing less than I did before, it looked beautiful in HD, and the framerate was smooth as hell, but I just couldn't in my right mind play an FPS on console with a controller. Fast forward to me getting my first 8800 and getting Bioshock from my friend to finally try it out for myself. The graphics still amazed me, but finally seeing the gameplay, I was thoroughly disappointed. What was explained in several instances to me as a "FPS RPG" and a "spiritual successor to System Shock 2", became nothing more than a revamp of just about any other FPS I played. Gameplay was flat, upgrades were few, with very little customization, and the whole infinite respawn deal took the whole thrill out of trying to avoid death. Graphics were great, but that's the unreal 3 engine for you. Story seemed alright, but I hear even that starts to peter out about halfway in. I'll never know cause I'll never get that far.

FF7 - Terrible writing, and one of my least favourite FF's, yet there it is with like 5 sequel/prequels. The only saving grace is the materia system. Too bad battling is so god damn easy that it makes this point moot. The sequels/prequels further my distaste. They all kind of went in a weird direction, making FF7 sound like it was this amazing game, when if you go back to it now that you've played Crisis Core or seen Advent Children; it'll be a major downer from whatever style they polished the series with.

Halo (any #) - It's a story-based Quakefest. Each game the story got gayer and gayer, the weapons got nerfed and nerfed, and now it's like this horrible series. The multiplayer is the worst, man. Had more fun with Red Faction 1, for Christ sakes.
Halo 1 managed to keep me interested enough to play storymode, so I'll sidle away from that topic.

Gears of War - I... I really don't see what anyone sees in this. Seriously the worst shooter I've ever played.

Yeah, that's about all. I mean, there's some others, but usually games slide with me. The above however, well, piss me off that they're popular frankly.

That would be the new smash bros game for me.. I mean I know its totally fun but I was expecting tons of new characters... but to me it just seems like they added a couple new ones...changed a few movesets..added a couple of powerups.. but I was expecting a minumun of a 60 character rooster...

let's see for me...


Assassins Creed: A lot of magazines, websites, and people were claiming this game to be so amazing and innovative blah blah blah. well, when I bought the PC release of the game, I was insanely disappointed; the gameplay was really repetitive, HEY GO KILL THIS BAD GUY AND THEN COME SEE ME, KILL THE GUARDS ATTACKING CITIZENS, FIND ALL THE POINTS, BLAH BLAH BORING. I can't believe I actually played through this piece of shit. I guess I can give the story some credit, it was pretty neat, but still the gameplay ajdfsdaflksdjfsajf.  also, the graphics really blew me away! (not like crysis, but still this game has amazing graphics.)


TESIV: Oblivion: I really was not impressed by this game, I don't know how it won game of the year 2007 from so many places. Maybe I'm not intelligent enough to play it's type of game, or something. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was awesome, don't get me wrong, I spent probably over 300 hours trying to get everything on it (don't have xbox anymore ​(), but I just kind of couldn't stand this one.


On another note, I really enjoyed Bioshock, sure it didn't live up to its hype, but it was a really great game. The idea was good, but they didn't implement it as well as they could have I guess.

Crysis - I bought it and it doesn't really do anything for me. It runs great on the High setting and looks beautiful (especially the Icey alien cavern and the no gravity alien place), but people were saying that it was the best FPS ever and that it reinvented the genre, but honestly it didn't. Way overrated. I think the people who hyped it barely played the game, or just saw screenshots and saw how beautiful the graphics were without experiencing the gameplay or story, honestly.

ahahahaha *wipes tear*

and what are you? Some kind of writing/literature scholar?

Ignoring the fact that you are indeed a fanboy, have you ever read Hundley's rants against Final Fantasy games? He's a writing/literature scholar!

I really don't get Majoras Mask at all. I know lots of people appreciate all the little details they crammed in, but all I see when I play it is a shorter, easier and more annoying OoT with... some kind of syndrome.

Worst game purchase i've ever done based on other peoples opinions? Got told by several people that WarioWare for Wii is a great game and awesome if you have lots of people over. So thought i'd buy it, and then a few chums came over and got drunk, and one of them saw it and started playing it. What a piece of dull pointless nerdy fucking crap. One of my chums asked straight out, "is this supposed to be fun?". Changed it in the next day for Burnout Paradise first thing in the morning, which was a good idea because it gave me an hour to try to remember what happened the day before and why I woke up in my bed holding some goddamn cat. MEOW.

Also you're wrong about Ico but whatever.

I like Final Fantasy 7.  I don't really want to fight about it because everything bad people say about it is true but I have fun replaying it once in awhile.  I think it's pretty solid as far as boring jRPGs go but holy crap the graphics are horrible.

Shadow of the Colossus and Resident Evil 4 were both these kinds of experiences for me.  I had read the reviews and chatted with people etc and was expecting the best two games ever made!  I thought that RE4 was okay and that SotC was terrible.  In my opinion at the time, I had judged SotC as boring, cheesy, and I didn't think the boss fights were much fun at all past the first one.  I had rented both and I think it may have been at the same time (RE4 on PS2 came out the same week as SotC I think?).

Later on though someone gave the Greatest Hits version of SotC for Christmas because he knew I am pretty hardcore into games and he was sort of into games and was under the impression that SotC was an ART GAME or something and thought I should play it.  My girlfriend had told him I didn't have it so to him it was the best gift ever.  I hid my disappointment when I opened it and thanked him and said it was a good pick because it was so well-regarded.

So anyway I played it out of courtesy when I got home and it actually clicked and I realized it was really amazing!  I played it nonstop for a weekend and now consider it one of my favorite games.

The same thing happened with RE4 -- when it was ported to Wii I bought it because at the time I was buying every video game that came out (I was depressed for a few months and spent a lot of money =\ ).  It might have been the new Wii controls or something but I was enthralled and now I consider RE4 to be one of my favorite games too.

I dunno I just think it's kind of cool that two of my favorite games I thought were garbage the first time I played them.  I think sometimes that if you are in a bad mood or something you can not like a game even if it's really good?

I really don't get Majoras Mask at all. I know lots of people appreciate all the little details they crammed in, but all I see when I play it is a shorter, easier and more annoying OoT with... some kind of syndrome.

I actually haven't liked any of the 3D Zelda games which is kind of weird I guess.  With Twilight Princess though it has nothing to do with the game but more that the controls make me want to amputate my hands (maybe I should play it again in a year because it will probably be my favorite game).

Ignoring the fact that you are indeed a fanboy, have you ever read Hundley's rants against Final Fantasy games? He's a writing/literature scholar!

I didn't think Hundley thought that badly of 7 or 8.

I think that when you hear a game is hyped and play it, then the experience goes down, more so than if you've never heard of the game before. Like if I hadn't heard of Crysis before and just saw it on the shelf and bought it, I'd say it's an ok game, but seeing and hearing people talking about it all the time gets the idea in my head that this game is mindblowingly good and makes it less enjoyable. If you get what I'm saying.

I'm going to defend ICO here because it truly is one of the finest video game experiences that I have experienced. When I first say it in the discount bin in Walmart I took a look at the cover and dismissed it as a worthless game. Later when I got home and looked it up I was surprised to find it had gotten good reviews, so I went back and bought it.

As for gameplay, of course it is limited and can be considered dull to some people. That's not the charm of the game however - the whole atmosphere, tension, fear, excitement, sense of loneliness is what defines it and makes the game extremely memorable. When I played it I was amazed at the amount of character development that was portrayed in such a small amount of dialogue and storyline. I actually felt for these 2 characters. Right at the outset my sense of justice made me saddened at Ico's plight and Yorda constantly pulled on my heart strings. My heart beat would always increase when I was forced to separate from her - and the game would leave me stumped numerous times, forcing me to closely examine the surroundings and figure out a way to proceed further. Looking back now I don't remember the puzzles or swordswinging gameplay - it's the emotional experience that is long-lasting and ICO will thus forever stay fresh in my mind as one of the few games that was able to reach deep within me.

That may sound corny but seriously, that's how I feel about it.

I'm currently still playing through SotC, and while I like its atmosphere and boss puzzles, it doesn't affect me the same as ICO did. That emotional attachment is just not there. I'm sorry, but I don't really have any personal feelings toward the maiden lying dead on the stone slab - so the game just feels like: Go to location X, fight colossus, repeat. It's a great game, but not as much of an emotional experience.

The Halo series is the most overhyped and overrated games ever. Jesus...I really don't like that series. The single player campaign in the first Halo was pretty good, but the multiplayer really lacked. Halo 2 completely reversed that, focusing only on the multiplayer and not the single player. I do have a blast playing the game with friends, but it simply does not deserve the hype and ratings it gets. Crysis was also overhyped. People who upgrade their system just to play that game are pretty crazy. While the graphics are nice, the single player ends in the worst way ever, and the gameplay seems to change half through the game. The multiplayer is okay, but that also gets boring after a few days.

I just want to say that I don't think something can be "overhyped" or "overrated" I mean, to me I see it as "peer pressure" It's kind of YOUR fault if you fall for the hype. It's not like a bunch of people get together and say "hey, lets force everyone to buy this by saying it's da bomb!"


so I never really seen anything as overhyped... I buy what interests me, I don't read reviews unless I want to find out if I'm being ripped off or something by false advertisement. I certainly do not go by what I hear people talking about. Hell I remember how I got into Halo, I heard for so long it was awesome; but I didn't really feel it until it hit PC and tried the demo and I fell in love with it.

Basically what I'm saying is that I think it's your fault for falling for hypes.  To say a game doesn't deserve the attention it gets is...impossible because  everyone has the right to talk about their favorite game and if that happends to be ff7 or halo or half-life 2, then hell obviously the game deserves it.

now if you want to get into the cemantics of "well those people don't have taste" then why the hell are you falling for there hype?


Anyway there was ONE game who's hype I fell for GRAW PC recently, what a dissapointment, fucking WOW...the xbox 360 version was so much better.