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Dgon92

Most underrated game AND overrated video games?

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Pure Hellspawn said:

Underrated: FFXII

I hate how ignored XII is. I need to get some time set aside to finish that one.

As for FFVI vs. FFVII, my preference should be a little obvious. FFVII wasn't a bad game really, but it did have a lot of things that put me off and I can't see how it gets the massive amount of praise and fanboyism it does. The biggest thing that put me off was the thing it's praised most for: it's story. It's just a rehashed, butchered FFVI with the generic anime art direction aimed at preteen girls with bishies like Cloud and Sephiroth. And 13 year old boys with Tifa. For the most part I found it difficult to follow with too much unexplained stuff, loose ends, holes, and annoying characters. (I hated Aeris.) In terms of gameplay I found it compitent but the difficulty tends to wander all over the place. And don't get me started on the ending. Could they have made that summon any more irritating? The ending sequence itself is really stupid, rushed, and not satisfying at all.[/rantover]

Despite all the nasty things I just said I still think it's worth a play just to check it out. But definitely not worthy of the praise it gets. Really the whole game is just and average JRPG to me.

Back more on-topic, and with less sarcasm this time-
Overrated: Metal Gear Solid. On second thought, World of Warcraft. Ick.
Underrated: Painkiller. Yeah it wasn't perfect. But it's still a good game, and the closest thing I've played to a modern Doom game.

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Scuba Steve said:

Ascendancy

YES! one of my most favourite games. although it suffers horribly from demented opponent AI and tedious management in later parts. so it's just like civilization, heh. but the ship design and space battles are incredible.

most underrated game ever is Dune from Cryo. most overrated game ever is Dune 2 from Westwood :)

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Maes said:

Most overrated: any sports game with a year in its title, especially socccer/football games.

Most underrated (or better: underestimated): Doom (a couple of years after its time).

Let me elaborate on the last one: believe it or not, there was a time where Doom's importance to gaming was not universally accepted and recognized, mostly in the years between 1994-1997.

On the grounds that Doom 2 was little more than Doom repackaged, and that Final Doom turned out to be more of Doom 2, a lot of bilious reviewers took every chance possible to describe Doom as "outdated", "old", "an aging athlete that has to hang his boxing gloves", "fake 3D", "not as hot as it once was", "The King (Doom) is dead, long live the King (some crappy game xxx you'll have never heard of) etc.

Plus, they were all eager and hasty to praise every new shovelware FPS as the next "Doom killer", not realizing that Doom was not just an FPS like all the others, but a whole gaming philosophy on its own, based on a solid and unique engine. The aftermath? Most of these "Doom killers" you'll probably have never heard of, while Doom pretty much outlived all of its contemporary games in terms of support and replay value by light-years.


Could not have said it better myself.

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Lich said:

On the subject of Blood, I would agree that was a terribly underrated game. But Postal 2? I dunno... I feel it got the attention it deserved, since it was just a shock piece.


Well it's just a personal opinion as far as Postal 2. I've had quite a bit of fun with it, even after getting past the shock value. Some of it's humour is actually pretty hilarious, and the Apocaplypse Weekend expansion is really great, one of the better zombie games I've played. And just the off the wall stuff that still makes me laugh, like having to kill a herd of mad cow infested cattle, little possessed gary coleman's. Plus the weapon variety and uses are really impressive, reminds me of Blood in the creative weaponry department.

I'd also like to add SOF2 to my underrated, and not for the multiplayer. It's one of the few games aside from Doom that I've actively played since it's released, I still love playing through the single player on the hardest difficulty, using 1 or 2 saves per level with weapon innaccuracy on, it can be pretty tense. However it just kind of died off aside from the hardcore multiplayer fans, and the single player was generally lambasted for various bugs, but I still find the enemy AI in it to be generally harder and more clever than most other games I've played as far as retreating, using cover, flanking, and use of grenades.. Myth and Myth 2 might as well be on there. I remember they were critically well received when they came out, but it doesn't seem like they ever really caught on or lasted for more than a few years. Great games though.

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Dgon92 said:

Nuxius, are you talking about entire series, or just the games after 7?

The entire series.

I still remember playing FFIII (US, FFVI Japan) and being bored to tears. After a while I just ended up flying the airship around the world map (nice Mode 7 effects), pretending like I was playing a better game, desperately trying to glean something meaningful out of my wasted funds. Eventually I admitted defeat, and returned to the Videos to Go down the street and rented something else.

And don't even get me started on my first experience with FFVII, ugh.

Besides, Square as a company was overrated anyway. They were pretty much a one trick pony: traditional Japanese RPGs, and that was it. Anytime they ever tried to step outside that boundary and make a non-RPG game, they failed miserably (Bushido Blade notwithstanding). I mean, look at some of the rest of their releases: Ehrgeiz? Tobal #1? Driving Emotion Type S? The Bouncer? Give me a break.

Heh, I still remember when this guy I knew at school at the time tried to trade me Tobal #1, Battle Arena Toshinden 2 and Dungeons & Dragons presents: Iron & Blood - Warriors of Ravenloft (yay for games with excessively long titles) for my copy of Tekken 2. I laughed in his face. Let's see, 3 shitty games for one great game? Go fuck yourself. It's not my fault you bought shitty games! :p


Moving on, here's another overrated series: Dynasty Warriors. One only needs to glance at the Wikipedia page to understand what I'm getting ready to say:

To Koei: HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. PLEASE STOP ALREADY.

Who keeps buying those things anyway? It seems like just about every time I go to take a dump they're releasing another one; I swear Koei is hemorrhaging Warriors games. I honestly don't think there's any series released in North America (no, not even sports titles) that can even hope to compete with the "needlessly excessive sequel and spin-off regurgitation" of that thing. It's an unstoppable force of destruction, spilling its crap all over everything in existence, filling every possible void with its toxic ooze. It's like HIV in Africa.

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Scuba Steve said:

Make sure you play it with the antagonizer AI Module to make the AI more challenging.

i'd call it less retarded, but not exactly Alpha Centauri level.
and by the way - i checked the Logic Factory's site a few weeks back and they're apparently still alive and working on their mmorpg project Seeker. the sad thing is this game was first announced even before Duke Nukem Forever... but i saw mentions of Ascendancy 2 development, too. i'll report about the progress in another few years, so stay sharp.

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Nuxius said:

I still remember playing FFIII (US, FFVI Japan) and being bored to tears. After a while I just ended up flying the airship around the world map (nice Mode 7 effects), pretending like I was playing a better game, desperately trying to glean something meaningful out of my wasted funds. Eventually I admitted defeat, and returned to the Videos to Go down the street and rented something else.


Really? I thought the game was amazing. It didn't bore me one bit. As a matter of fact, I'm playing it right now. Oh well, to each his own, I guess.

Nuxius said:

Moving on, here's another overrated series: Dynasty Warriors. One only needs to glance at the Wikipedia page to understand what I'm getting ready to say:

To Koei: HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT. PLEASE STOP ALREADY.

Who keeps buying those things anyway? It seems like just about every time I go to take a dump they're releasing another one; I swear Koei is hemorrhaging Warriors games. I honestly don't think there's any series released in North America (no, not even sports titles) that can even hope to compete with the "needlessly excessive sequel and spin-off regurgitation" of that thing. It's an unstoppable force of destruction, spilling its crap all over everything in existence, filling every possible void with its toxic ooze. It's like HIV in Africa.


WOW. Never seen so many of the same game. Although I don't think it's overrated, because the gaming industry's getting tired of the "updated" Dynasty/Samurai Warriors releases, I still can't believe that they released THAT many games. Maybe it's popular in Japan or something, I don't know.

As for the underrated/overrated discussion, Journey to Silius and Shatterhand (both for the NES) are two pretty underrated games. Both of these games were awesome, action-packed, and had good graphics.

One overrated game is Dune 2 by Westwood. Sure, it revolutionized the RTS genre, but with such punishing limitations such as being only able to control one unit at a time (even infantry), the low resolution, the foolish enemy AI (would you believe that they can only attack one side of your own base? You only need to reinforce that side of the base and you're set), and the lack of multiplayer. I never had the patience to complete the game, and I am usually very patient.

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Underrated: Shadowrun (360/PC) - It's probably the best multiplayer experience I've had since Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II was popular. But a lot of people didn't like that it was a multiplayer-only game, and it never really took off.

Overrated: I don't really dwell on if a game is overrated or not. If I had to name something off the top of my head, I'd say World of Warcraft, or annual sports games.

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Underrated: Ron Paul
Overrated: Barak Obama

EDIT:
Underrated: Doom 64
Overrated: Quake 2 for N64

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I think you may have gotten those reversed. I believe Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike source are still the most played online FPS PC games at this point. It's one of the few community mods that have actually gotten a retail release, and then a multi-platform single player and multi player game made out of it. As far as being influential to the mod community, it just took what Team Fortress did and ran with it. Although at this point it seems mods take far too much time and work for many of them to be fully realized on the newer game engines, so it's influence may be short lived.

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Overrated: Diablo 1 or 2. They're action RPGs but in action they just aren't as good as Doom or other FPSes, for obvious reasons. In the Diablos nearly everything counts on luck, less so on movement and control. The big thing about those games is being lucky to find good equipment and learn powerful attacks, which Doom can't do unless modded. But you don't get much of the enjoyment from actually dodging volleys of homing rockets while hiding behind a pillar from two archviles. I play the Diablos for their powerful ambience but when it comes to gameplay I often think I should switch back to Doom.

In short: I'm quite sure they fail as RPGs (they aren't, period), and as action games you'd better get a FPS. And if you like Diablo so much, try your best to be creative and make a Doom/Quake/HL mod that looks like Diablo.

I may add any kind of top-bottom RPG with too much slaughter and little character, simply because you just can't do the same moves you'd do (see) in any action FP/TP game (movie). I pretty much got bored of Icewind Dale because I had to micromanage my six characters way too much and rely on luck not to have them killed by arrows.

Underrated: perhaps Descent. Not by reviewers, but by the mass of dumb average gamers who aren't up to the innovative true 3d full-freedom environment. Because of them today we're still stuck to Doom clones where we're, as always, stuck to the earth.

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Most overrated: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I honestly don't get why this game (and the series in general) get so much praise.
Most underrated: Heretic

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Underrated: Painkiller, Killer Instinct
Overrated:Halos, Madden games

Yes the Halo games where fun but not as good as people tend to think. I thinik it comes from the fact that console fps gamers tend to get crap ports of fps games or just crap console fps's. Other then Perfect Dark, Goldeneye and Timesplitters I cant think of other good fps games.

But, one huge grip I have with the game has to be its fan base. More or less the people that play online. I cant reamber the last time I heard such idiodic and childish people. There should be an IQ test for xbox live.

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Underrated: Blood. Easily the best game on the Build engine. Just an incredibly satisfying experience.

Overrated: Half-Life 2. Repetitive, frequently irritating because of driving sequences, and unabashed physics engine whoring. Yes, the seesaw puzzle is very nice, you can stop now. And you don't get a shotgun for a while, AND it only takes six shells per reload, despite being the same from HL1 and taking eight then. And don't get me started on having to look at every fucking post-it note on the wall in order to piece together the story. The opposite of Blood, meaning that playing it felt like a chore.

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OverRated: At the top of my list comes All MMORPGS in all manifestations, though for the sake of scapegoats, I will direct my contempt at World of Whorecraft. Get a [real] life.

On that note, any game that has you substitute a real life skill that learning in a virtual world wont give you jack shit in real life is frankly one of the most horrifyingly stupid concepts. As such, Guitar Hero and parts of Rock Band, (ipso facto) also make me grimace when witnessing their viral popularity. (And i mean viral in the disease way)

Also, Halo in all forms, but I honestly have no real reason for this aside from a personal vendetta against XBox Live.

UnderRated: The most under rated game ever is so under ratedI haven't even heard of it, but I am forever searching. For the moment i will just go with Dynamite Headdy. Though I seem to know a lot of people who have heard of the game, it obviously didn't get well enough known to get a well-warranted sequel.

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Satyr000 said:

But, one hugher grip I have with the game has to be its fan base. More or less the people that play online. I cant remember the last time I heard such idiotic and childish people. There should be an IQ test for xbox live.


Yes, it's like what I said in the first post of this thread, the majority of the people who play Halo online (and online multiplayer in general) are foul-mouthed ignoramuses that don't know how to treat others with respect. It's sickening. And you know what's sad about it? your IQ test that you suggested is actually a good idea.

In terms of underrated games, I'll refer to the two rare gems on the Super Nintendo by Enix (not to be confused with Square Enix), Soul Blazer and Terranigma. Both of them can kick Zelda's ass any day, especially Terranigma. That game had very realistic graphics and music, and was kinda ahead of its time (Jumping?? In a Zelda game?? What blasphemy!), which is probably why that game didn't sell well. If you want to play it, good luck. It's very rare nowadays.

Two overrated games I've played were Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Again, like Dune, Super Mario 64 was indeed revolutionary, but it hasn't aged well, is pretty buggy and its camera controls are broken. The first time I've played Zelda, I didn't like it at all, and wanted to play Paper Mario immediately (I only had two games on the N64 at the time). I also got stuck at numerous places, especially at the end, and stopped playing for 3 months before I finished it. Even though I eventually got to playing through it, with this kind of game being this "perfect," it should never have you going around all over the place finding ways to progress the game.

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printz said:

{SNIP}
Underrated: perhaps Descent. Not by reviewers, but by the mass of dumb average games who aren't up to the innovative true 3d full-freedom environment. Because of them today we're still stuck to Doom clones where we're, as always, stuck to the earth.


That was unique in it's day. What Decent also had, depending upon the level of difficulty you play, the enemy AI would learn how you play, and adjust the enemy movement. If you're a sniper, the enemies would do the same. If you're a kamakaze pilot, they'd do that too.
The map was annoying, though. It looked more like a mess of lines, than a helpful tool. I got around much better without it.

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Shit, I said "dumb average games"? Heh, I meant gamers. Correcting the post... I hope it becomes intelligible now.

As for MMORPGs being considered overrated by some of you: I hope it's not all subjective, out of paranoia of addiction. Game addiction doesn't exist, it's only (mental) laziness. WoW's high popularity proves that it's not overrated. :)

Those of you who said Heretic is underrated I agree with you. Though I don't remember it getting any low reviews, by the gaming community it is quite visibly and obviously underrated (more like underused). Instead I dare say Heretic is better than Doom. It has that fine balance between straightforwardness and tricky encounters. For example Strife has too much dialogue and an unwieldy warp system, Hexen again an unwieldy warp system, and Doom's main difficulty setting is too forgiving.

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Not that I've played many of their games, but as a whole I like Square-Enix. FF7, 8, 10, KH 1-2, TWEWY are my favorite games ever.

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overrated: definitely Halo 3
underrated: I'd say that Final Fantasy X was probably underrated by most. I don't know, I think that it's a hell of a lot easier to find overrated games than underrated games.

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Georgef551 said:

The map was annoying, though. It looked more like a mess of lines, than a helpful tool. I got around much better without it.


People keep saying that. But IMO either they are just blind, stupid or just didn't bother enough.

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Butts said:

overrated: definitely Halo 3
underrated: I'd say that Final Fantasy X was probably underrated by most. I don't know, I think that it's a hell of a lot easier to find overrated games than underrated games.


As I recall FF X was creamed over by almost every review I read, and anyone I talked to that had played it. I never actually played it myself, after getting 3/4ths of the way through FF VIII and FF IX and getting completely bored, I never played another Final Fantasy game. FF VIII it was because I actually spent time levelling up, and since the enemies level up with you, I was getting raped by enemies I killed at level 10 with no problem because they were using destruction magic and stat effect magic at every turn when I got to level 60. Got rather old after awhile. FF IX because the characters weren't enjoyable or interesting in any sense.

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printz said:

As for MMORPGs being considered overrated by some of you: I hope it's not all subjective, out of paranoia of addiction. Game addiction doesn't exist, it's only (mental) laziness. WoW's high popularity proves that it's not overrated. :)

Agreed. I have a WoW account. I do sometimes play it for 12 hours straight. Sometimes I play it every day for two weeks. But that's no different than any other game. The thing I like best about WoW is that I can talk to my friends while playing it. In fact, sometimes I just pop on to see if any of my friends are on, and if they aren't I go play something else. Much more social than playing any single-player game. Heck, the fact that it's an RPG makes it more social than FPSs. Instead of just shooting each other you can sit around and do some role-playing. Of course, me and my friends are D&D nerds, so your results may vary.

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kristus said:

People keep saying that. But IMO either they are just blind, stupid or just didn't bother enough.

Seconded. With all the options for rotating, scaling and moving it around however you wanted you'd have to be severely impaired to find it messy and/or unreadable. Between coloured doors, keys and hostages that are marked on the map, the ships position and the markers that you could place yourself even the most convoluted of Descent 2's maps could be navigated with ease.

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