most of the games i think were overrated aren't terrible games, i would say either average or above average. this isn't in any order, but off the top of my head:

GEARS OF WAR. in general this was a mediocre game in every way except graphics. the story isn't interesting at all, it ends up going no where, the AI is really bad, and a lot of the parts in the game just aren't fun (have no idea what the fuck they called those bats, but any level that had them in sucked). people really bought into the graphics for this and i think is why it got such high ratings.

the HALO series. i could go on forever about the problems with the three in the series, but i'll simply say halo only did well because the console it was on did terrible.

XENOGEARS. this is at most an average RPG. the battle system was terrible, the game was much longer than it should have been, the pacing was bad, the story was ridiculous, and even the storytelling itself was poorly done. the one credit i give to this game is that is does a decent job with the locations and being a pretty big scale, it was an ambitious game but it executed a lot of it badly.

METAL GEAR SOLID 2. i have no idea why this game is so highly acclaimed. the game had the fundamental metal gear set-up, but did mostly everything wrong. i don't have a problem that they let the story / cinemas hijack the gameplay, but they did terrible in this regard. it would have been a great game if they could have succeeded in telling some kind of meaningful story with better characters, but this wasn't the case. technically this game is very sound, and has good core gameplay, but it is very hard to get into when the main drive of the game is such a trainwreck (for those of you who played MGS2 and may have forgot, THE PRESIDENT GRABS YOUR DICK).

man, i could spend all day listing stuff. i'm going to cut off here and just say generally everything is wildly overrated.

also, ICO and SoTC aren't fun games. they heavily rely on the story and atmosphere to drive the game, and if you're not into it, you won't like the game. that said ICO didn't appeal to me at all, but i liked SoTC a lot more because i thought it was very unique in going for a boss only game. i wasn't really impressed with what they did in terms of storytelling or atmosphere, but i admit they did a better than typical job with it.

maybe games get good ratings because they are given by professionals doing their jobs, and not random people that whine about it on the forums? idk

there is nothing professional about the vast majority of video game reviewers. the average rating for any given game last time i checked on gamerankings.com was something to the effect of 72% across all sites. i have played maybe a handful of games this year, but according to what the average of these sites say i should virtually be checking out every game. most reviewers are just guys who somehow land a job rating games, and there are huge conflicts of interest because you don't want to piss companies off with low ratings when they give you exclusive previews and send you free shit.

you are much better off reading what people said about the game who actually had to dish out money for it and don't have to speedplay the game to get a review done in time.

XENOGEARS.

METAL GEAR SOLID 2.

I agree with these, oddly enough. I love Xenoha to death, but sometimes the story dragged on forever, or you'd waste your items on boss battles you're Supposed to lose, or Disc 2 happened... I mean, yeah, it was great (imo) but had some major flaws.

MGS2 (being a huge MG fan, it's sad to say this) sucked. The tanker mission had me hooked, but when you get to Raiden's chapter, it sort of... felt confused. Like it wanted to copycat MGS1 (for obvious reason later) and at the same time, have you running around doing seemingly random shit. I get what they were trying to do with the series, or what they were trying to say in the story, however this game is definitely overrated.

Eh, whether FFVII is overrated or not is debatable but it was an amazing game for its time. It was one of the most influential RPGs ever and it pretty much redefined the genre.

It didn't redefine much. It was a paint-by-numbers Final Fantasy.
I do agree that the level of easiness is kind of like a pain killer sometimes. In the past, I've enjoyed speedplaying FF7 through, skipping as much text as possible and loling at that death sequence. (I seriously find this one of funniest deaths in videogames, ever... and it too was over-rated, ha!)

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!"

I know like two people have said this but it bears repeating this is exactly what happens.

also I think Kezay got to review some shit for Nintendo Power once so yeah it's pretty much completely fucking meaningless.

It didn't redefine much. It was a paint-by-numbers Final Fantasy.

that second part has nothing to do with that first. we're talking about the game that essentially saved the playstation, reestablished the genre, had a general cinematic feel, and is pretty much the reason any of us are on this board. however much you may disliked FF7, its effect on the next generation of games is pretty undeniable.

Then I digress into my original statement about FF7, and leave it at that.

I would dare say Dead Rising is overhyped since I just got 360 and didn't like it, being one of 3 games I bought, but then again Hundley probably liked it (he's a scholar), so nvm.

How was Dead Rising overhyped when no soul on the internet ever spoke or speaks of it?

How was Dead Rising overhyped when no soul on the internet ever spoke or speaks of it?

if at least one person says anything good about a game(or anything else) you don't like, it automatically because over hyped and over rated, regardless of how many people have even heard of the game before.

How was Dead Rising overhyped when no soul on the internet ever spoke or speaks of it?

All I ever hear from the 360 crowd is 'go play Dead Rising it's da bomb' or some variant.

eer... I've never heard Dead Rising being the selling point of the 360, but okay.

By the way, Nintendo is Scientology and Smash Bros Brawl is overhyped, yes sir.

GEARS OF WAR. in general this was a mediocre game in every way except graphics. the story isn't interesting at all, it ends up going no where, the AI is really bad, and a lot of the parts in the game just aren't fun (have no idea what the fuck they called those bats, but any level that had them in sucked). people really bought into the graphics for this and i think is why it got such high ratings.

I just have to defend this by saying that, well, the single player is shit and I haven't played more than like 15mins of single player in it. The whole deal with it and why everyone loves it, is the co-op. It's only like... the best co-op game I have ever played. In single player it's a pointless shooter with a cover system, but in co-op it's a mindblowing experience where you can flank the enemy, work together to clear tough areas, parts where you have to rely on the other player to save your ass, cover the other other player so he can reach a turret and gun down the room, and so on. It does a two-man army a million times better than Army of Two and is probably the best FPS experience i've ever had.

One game that got me that felt overhyped, was Hoshigami, I dont' recall if it had positive reviews or not, but that game was just downright terrible, when I first played it I swear it took me 2 fucking days to figure out that damn combo system, it was too confusing and I couldn't get passed the 3rd mission, hell the 2nd mission took me half a day, well... it could've been less, but I'm sure it was around there...
After the 2nd day, I wanted to smash this thing to bits, because the battle system was ridiculous, I wanted an FFTactics, not a tactical game with a twist that confuses the living fuck out of the guy... christ...

For overhyped I am going to say anything Nintendo, BY FAR.
Seriously, they make like... 50 god damn commercials for every game they do release, which are invariably show on EVERY GOD DAMN CHANNEL DURING EVERY GOD DAMN AD BREAK (sometimes more than once).
I was watching TV for an hour or so earlier on today, and saw about 12 ads for Wii Fit (and I am pretty sure they were all different). They are already in the lead this time, so why do they feel the need to shove so many ads in peoples faces??

because they make horrible games that appeal to people who would be influenced by ads?

i'll have to go with the Halo series. all three of them are really, really mediocre and in no way deserve the MASSIVE amount of hype and acclaim they have.

Finally some people agree with me about Metal Gear Solid 2, I hated that game after playing the quite enjoyable(Yet no where near as EPIC as people say, that kinda goes for the whole series as well) original.

Chrono Cross(And sorta Trigger) is an overrated game, seriously the game had everything going for it, incredible music, graphics, and a nice selection of characters(A few characters) and a good back story from the Trigger but they STILL managed to fuck it up with the boring story, gameplay and so many characters were not even needed or done well for that matter. Trigger was great, but from what everyone was saying about it I kinda was letdown, but I don't think it was the game it self that let me down because I quite enjoyed it, but the HUGE expectations I had for it.

Mana Series(PS/SNES) - Legend of Mana is like Chrono Cross, a beautiful game with good music and an alright battle system, but the actual game behind that was fucking boring, I didn't even know what I was doing half the time or what the point in everything I did?

Seiken Densetsu/Secret of Mana I just didn't like, it was cool to see where most of my graphics came from but I didn't really like the games themselves and thought they were overrated from again what people were saying about them.

Jade Empire MY GOD that game was over hyped, I thought it was an alright game but seriously it deserved the score Gamespot, the only big review site I know that gave it an accurate score. The combat sucked, wasn't nearly as much decision making as KOTOR and being evil hardly effected anything in the end.

Halo series is probably the most hyped series in the industry, I thought they were fun games to play and did kinda get me more into FPS games but they don't warrant that much attention in the end.

I think I'm done.. until more games I play are over hyped that I don't like!

I second Gears of War.

Played it with some friends and the whole experienece was "egh" for me. The graphics were all so gritty and boring to look at, hardly differentiating the levels we played, and I just wasn't having much fun playing it. It wasn't all EPIC either like everyone and their dog had led me to believe.

I like almost every game mentioned in this topic, so I won't bother defending any of them.

I would dare say Dead Rising is overhyped since I just got 360 and didn't like it, being one of 3 games I bought, but then again Hundley probably liked it (he's a scholar), so nvm.

I'd say that Dead Rising is such a good game because it doesn't take itself seriously at all. There's a sort of enjoyment in replaying it, and I loved that game. I still want to go back and play it again. It had some of the best bosses in a game I've seen, even though they were simple; it was the insanity that brought the game to life.

Also, I would agree with Marcus on Final Fantasy XII. I got so bored to death of the game I stopped playing it.