Do any of you find excellent games only mediocre?

When I look at previews and read articles for a really "great" game, I become so excited to play it, and when I finally get my hands on it, it feels only mediocre and boring. It feels like "Yeah, I've played this thing before." I'm not just talking about hype; even when I haven't done much research on a game or even heard about it really but see that everyone loves it so much AFTER playing the game, I still think the game only mediocre.

This has happened with:

GoW2, Fable 2, The Orange Box, Halo 3, CoDWaW, Mass Effect, GTAIV, Left4Dead, Bioshock, etc.

The only two games that I own that absolutely blew me away were GoW1 and CoD4... i'm not saying the other games I listed aren't good; they are. Definitely. I just got kinda bored of most of them and had to work to complete them (which I did for everyone). GoW1 blew me away because it was the first 360 game I played and I only had the gamecube from lastgen consoles, so you can only imagine how much better this experience was. CoD4 blew me away because it was so damn intense and realistic. It's the only game I've replayed at least 3 times of the ones listed. Anyways, I'm not trying to flame or call any of these games bad. Maybe I just have overly high standards haha. Anyways, does this happen to any of you guys? Thanks for the input.

I definitely got that feeling with Bioshock. Everyone makes it out to be an amazing game, but to me it just wasn't all that great.ZacharyT1

When I look at previews and read articles for a really "great" game, I become so excited to play it, and when I finally get my hands on it, it feels only mediocre and boring. It feels like "Yeah, I've played this thing before." I'm not just talking about hype; even when I haven't done much research on a game or even heard about it really but see that everyone loves it so much AFTER playing the game, I still think the game only mediocre.

This has happened with:

GoW2, Fable 2, The Orange Box, Halo 3, CoDWaW, Mass Effect, GTAIV, Left4Dead, Bioshock, etc.

The only two games that I own that absolutely blew me away were GoW1 and CoD4... i'm not saying the other games I listed aren't good; they are. Definitely. I just got kinda bored of most of them and had to work to complete them (which I did for everyone). GoW1 blew me away because it was the first 360 game I played and I only had the gamecube from lastgen consoles, so you can only imagine how much better this experience was. CoD4 blew me away because it was so damn intense and realistic. It's the only game I've replayed at least 3 times of the ones listed. Anyways, I'm not trying to flame or call any of these games bad. Maybe I just have overly high standards haha. Anyways, does this happen to any of you guys? Thanks for the input.

sicknastyman

i normally dont read too much into previews so that i dont hype the game up too much. because once you do that then you will be dissapointed. the one game that was actually alot of fun for me like someone else said was n3. i dont know why but the story was horrid but the combat was fun for some reason

When good games come out it makes the ones that 'used to be good' not look so good anymore. So if you started out playing crappy games it might not be so bad. But then again there's no rules about making games progressively better. Games that are just plain junk come out all the time. It seems the good ones are few and far between. It's disappointing when a game like GTA LC come out and you feel like there's nothing to do after. I mean you could get in a lot of situations with that story, even after you complete it. But I guess a constantly evolving life like[or dream like] game would take a long time to develop the story let alone making it constantly evolve. Plus there's money in sequels. I'm sure it will come some day but until then we'll just have to suffer through short games lol. One of the reasons I like Game stop, you can buy a used game that just came out and return it within 7 days if you don't like it for what ever reason, seems like that's going to change. I know I haven't actually bought as many games that way. You find out how many sucky games are out there though and usually the good ones don't show up used for a while because people like them lol.

I really disliked GTA4, Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge

GOW2 was iffy, Fable 2 was middling as well.

Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming were my favorite games of the fall.

L4D was real good, but wayyyy to slim on content to be my favorite.

GTA IV was a total letdown from its predecessor.

On the opposite side of the spectrum though, Dead Space suprised me with how freaking awesome it was.

[QUOTE="ZacharyT1"]I definitely got that feeling with Bioshock. Everyone makes it out to be an amazing game, but to me it just wasn't all that great.kamikaze_pigmy

I felt the same way too.

This kind of thing happens when you play too much, too often.

Get another hobby or do something productive. I think a lot of gamers have spent too much time in the past playing games for hours on end, and now that they're used to it, they expect every great game to be fun for hours on end. It just doesn't work that way. Take a break, come back, and see if it isn't still fun. If you don't feel better about it, then you could say that game devs really aren't trying new things like they used to. I mean, most FPSs are pretty similar, and other types of games usually end up feeling repetitive. It's hard to make a game that stays fresh 20 hours later.

Gears 1 and Fable II.

Oh, and GTA4. That thing is the biggest **** biscuit I've ever seen.

I'd have to say the biggest let down for me was gears of war 2, that game was soooooo hyped it wasnt funny, i never played the first so i was like, ok ill get the second one because everyone seems to be saying (except for a few, which is normal) that it was the next best thing in gaming, first off i was pissed because there was no splitscreen online with a guest account (i actually found out later that i could actually play splitscreen online but needed 2 gold accounts, which doesnt bother me because of money, but the fact that everyone was going on about how GoW 1 had it like halo with guests allowed)

second, i know i suck at the game, but i can suck at many games and like them alot (halo 3, rainbow six l.v 2, battlefield bc, to name a few lol), it pisses me off that it takes forever to kill someone unless you got a shotgun and blast them when they are not looking, or setup proxy mines and then shot gun them to death, the chainsaw battles were kinda fun, but get old quick, i mean the game has alot of potential but personally its not a game for me, or most of my friends for that matter

but my biggest issue with the game is the time it takes to actually get into a game, i can seriously search for a game, go outside to the store comeback, and theres a 50/50 chance the game will just start to begin or it is still searching for either team members/opponents

hey but some still like the game so if thats what you like, i got no problem with it, im actually happy that you would like the game cause at least you wouldnt feel like you wasted time/money/hope and joy

but its like that with everygame, so games just are more fun for others, i liked gta IV and mass effect, and i was iffy about getting both cause of hearing peoples negative comments, always rent or play a demo first, thats what gears has taught me, and for that i feel like atleast i did get somethin out of it :)

i know that feeling man, CODWaW, Fallout3, FableII, and yes even Gears2, was disappointing for me,

only recent game that i can say imo was worth it is Far Cry 2,

but iv learnt not to hype myself up anymore,

Although I had HL2 when it came out for the PC, I still don't think any shooter has surpassed it; most shooters, these days, have such a terrible story line with characters that I just don't care about, HL is just the complete opposite to me; plus, many shooters are so similar to one another, I don't see why critics have been handing out AAAs like candy to these games and there's little to nothing that sets each of them apart. Then again, I loved Mass Effect and BioShock; at least, Halo 3 offers split-screen as well as Left 4 Dead and GoW compared to most shooters.

I do agree that GTA IV was way overrated and CoD has always been pretty overrated to me; I guess I've been around since MOH: AA came out for the PC.

I guess, at the end of the day, I typically do agree with the average of critical reviews, which is why I use metacritic and not just rely on one source.

This kind of thing happens when you play too much, too often.

Get another hobby or do something productive. I think a lot of gamers have spent too much time in the past playing games for hours on end, and now that they're used to it, they expect every great game to be fun for hours on end. It just doesn't work that way. Take a break, come back, and see if it isn't still fun. If you don't feel better about it, then you could say that game devs really aren't trying new things like they used to. I mean, most FPSs are pretty similar, and other types of games usually end up feeling repetitive. It's hard to make a game that stays fresh 20 hours later.

Draylorn

I understand your logic, but I really don't play that often. I have classes to go to and life tends to get in the way of gaming haha. I play pretty much on the weekends when I have nothing to do or the rare occasion during the week when I'm not busy (like a once per month occurence). So playing too many games is not the cause of this. Keep in mind that I enjoyed all of the said games; they just didn't blow me away and I got bored of most of them rather quickly and had to work at completing the game. Thanks for your input though.

sicknastyman, I know exactly what you mean. I also think I know why it is you feel this way. It's because of the hype created by review sites or friends that you feel like that when you get a highly anticipated game. If you were to purchase and play games blindly this fact would most definitely change, but of course I couldn't tell you to do that because you could very well end up buying crappy games. So, what I advise you to do is the following: Don't expect ANY game to be great b/c when sites say they are great they are looking at that game from an overall view, and not having your concepts or taste in mind. For exemple, when you see a 9 rated game, your brain automatically builds up gigantic expectations for the previously stated game, leaving you wanting more after experiencing it. Now, that doesn't happen with not-so-great games, does it? It's because you didn't expect them to be great at all. Smthing like that happened to me these days; I recently bought Dead Space and Silent Hill: Homecoming. The first one I bought b/c it got great reviews and the second one b/c I've been a hugeee fan of the franchise since forever, despite the mediocre reviews. Can you guess what happened? I loved SH to death b/c I had terribly low expectations for it and I only liked DS on a regular level b/c it was pretty much what I thought it would be. So, even though I try to lower my expectations for all games, I would never be able to lower them to a level where it would be the same as if I hadn't read the review, but it helps a little. From now on, I advise you and all of the gamers here to do the same. But again, the ideal thing to do (having the whole "hype" thing in mind) would be to buy games blindly. I don't have the guts to do that but if someone does then they'd get a lot more outta really great games b/c for all they know that same game could be a terible, 5 rated one. Btw, I think that Oblivion is the greatest game I've ever played in my entire life right after FF7 and FF8 even though I read the reviews bfore purchasing it. So, based on this, everything I've said so far could be bs. Anyway, even if it is bs, it's smthing I believe to be true. Cheers. o/Tom_delonge555

Hey man, great advice. Like you, however, buying a game before reading any reviews would be too much of a risk for me! I'm definititely going to try and mentally lower my expectations for AAA games though so that I don't feel as dissapointed. Btw, I've never played Dead Space or Silent Hill; they look scary as hell and I play on a 150 inch HD projector with 12 speaker surround sound in the dark alone normally at about 2am - I couldn't handle horror games like that haha. Btw, I played Oblivion but only played 4 hrs and then stopped. I found it very boring and slow moving and the whole beginning part where you have to escape into the world left a bad taste in my mouth; I just didn't like it though. I should probably give that game more of a chance though. Thanks for the input

Left 4 Dead was verydisappointingto me after a few hours, which hurt a lot because of been a huge zombie movie fan since I was 10.

Everything in the Orange box but Portaldisappointedme.

When I look at previews and read articles for a really "great" game, I become so excited to play it, and when I finally get my hands on it, it feels only mediocre and boring. It feels like "Yeah, I've played this thing before." I'm not just talking about hype; even when I haven't done much research on a game or even heard about it really but see that everyone loves it so much AFTER playing the game, I still think the game only mediocre.

This has happened with:

GoW2, Fable 2, The Orange Box, Halo 3, CoDWaW, Mass Effect, GTAIV, Left4Dead, Bioshock, etc.

The only two games that I own that absolutely blew me away were GoW1 and CoD4... i'm not saying the other games I listed aren't good; they are. Definitely. I just got kinda bored of most of them and had to work to complete them (which I did for everyone). GoW1 blew me away because it was the first 360 game I played and I only had the gamecube from lastgen consoles, so you can only imagine how much better this experience was. CoD4 blew me away because it was so damn intense and realistic. It's the only game I've replayed at least 3 times of the ones listed. Anyways, I'm not trying to flame or call any of these games bad. Maybe I just have overly high standards haha. Anyways, does this happen to any of you guys? Thanks for the input.

sicknastyman

yeah me tooLeapordking123

gears 1 was just not fun to me at all

and i didnt really like Cod 4 or Waw, i prefer Far Cry 2

at least the multiplayer is more competitive and there arent as many cheaters and glitches, plus it has the map editor

Well if you believe mass effect is mediocre i think u just dont realize what boundries the game pushes. Or u just dont like it. There are many game that i dont like but i still recognize they are great games. (ie. pretty much every racing game forza, PgR).

But i personalize believe, upon many levels and for many reasons that both Assasins Creed and GTAIV are extremely overated.

yeah oddly, i didn't like GTA SA and i loved GTA4 beyond words

Oblivion is still my favorite game on the 360 to date, so when Fallout was released i was stoked, only to resell it back to gamestop 1 mission before the main story ended....i just couldn't play it anymore i was bored out of my mind.

No. If I don't like a quality game Im not foolish enough to call it "mediocre". That title is reserved for games that actually are mediocre. I just say I don't like the game instead of trying to look like a douche.vashkey

i think i see a head on your shoulders. touche

I definitely got that feeling with Bioshock. Everyone makes it out to be an amazing game, but to me it just wasn't all that great.ZacharyT1