Year of the hype

[dakrusha]

There seems to be alot of games that have received alot of hype but fell short this year, for example the game Destiny had massive hype but feels like a soulless loot grind for a 300 million budget. What ive learned this year is never believe in the hype, wait a couple of days and see how well the game is received.

[EvilPinkamina]

What other games got super hype then fell off besides Destiny? I mean, Sm4sh and ORAS are getting a lot of hype, and so far sm4sh is living up to its hype.

[dakrusha]

Titanfall was supposed to be the next big fps it was way overhyped but when it came out it was a good game that quickly became repetitive. Watchdogs was showered with praise before it even came out. When it was shown at E3 it amazing graphics, but was lackluster when it launched. It was a good game but the hype made it seem like it was the next big thing aswell.

[EvilPinkamina]

Also, since I mentioned Destiny, apparently a lot of old-school WoW players love it now that raids are a thing.

[MarkeySpirit]

I enjoyed Destiny, but it didn't live up to the hype. Not living up to the hype isn't always bad, and just because you had high expectations for something doesn't mean you should claim it's a bad game. Though I really wish publishers would stop either lying, or setting huge goals that they really just can't reach.

[dakrusha]

it wasnt a bad game mechanically wise, i just hated the nonexistent story. Yeah they need to stop lying about their games, the game industry is walking in the foot steps of the first game crash.

[EvilPinkamina]

I don't understand what a lack of story means for a game unless it was hyped up to be a huge story game. Like, from my perspective its like Space WoW. Hell, tons of games have nonexistant stories and they don't get bashed for it. Borderlands 1, every CoD game, every BF game, LoL, Sm4sh, Melee, pretty much any competitive multiplayer game (though starcraft has some amazing story), Skyrim to an extent, and I could go on and on.

Also, I can almost guarantee that there will never be another games crash ever again. Video games have actually evolved into a natural way of life for most kids to pass on. Plus, you don't get **** on by tumblr if you're heading in the direction of crashing.

[MarkeySpirit]

Skyrim has a horrible story, but has great lore. I remember Skyrim being hyped too, and I still prefer Vanilla Oblivion over, Vanilla Skyrim.

[Crash32]

Nintendo are delivering, can't say the same about Microsoft (except Forza, the only reason I'd ever buy an XBox One)
Does the PS4 even have any games? It's technically superior and the better console, but there aren't any exclusive games to persuade me yet...

[dakrusha]

Yeah the Wii u has came a long way, so many good games from it.

[Nano]

Wii U is pretty bland, same with all next gen consoles.

I think there are some good PS4 exclusives out right now (or coming soon) such as Let it die, Driveclub, Uncharted 4, Disgaea 5, Infamous First Light, Killzone Shadowfall, Ratchet and Clank, The Order, and some others.

Most of the next gen consoles had a hard time delivering because of a lack of launch titles, and I think most all of the consoles are finally catching up to the exclusive stuff.

[retrolinkx]

^

Don't forget Persona 5.

If you hype up a game with bull, people will buy into it, and when they notice that the game is ****, you've already made the budget it took to make the game and then some. Seriously, if I was a game dev who wanted to make tons and tons of money I would put the most of it on advertising and hyping and then leave the rest on the game development.

Casuals are idiots and will consistently be rused into believing they are getting amazing games with brilliant graphics, and we can't stop this, just like Watchdogs, and Destiny.

Then you've got Sony, those liars never stop. They've been lying since 2000 and people are still buying it up, compare The Order back when it was announced and now, there is a noticeable downgrade that has happened, and they will continue to do this for a long time.

However, sometimes games are hyped to look amazing then turn out to be **** due to the companies lying about their hardware of the new gen consoles and we get games that look last gen games running at 24 fps because the devs can't utilise the software to their advantage.

Overall, don't buy into hype, never buy a console early on in it's life, there is very little reason to buy a Wii U, PS4 or Xbox One right now since they all have a very small amount of games, unless you count backwards compatibility then the Wii U has over 2000 games right now.

I just hope The Division won't get a downgrade, we've come this far and it's still looking good ;_;.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

If there is another Crash, I doubt it will look anything like the Crash of 83. As I understand it, the Crash of 83 only really affected the US console market and was due to a combination of bad relationships between Atari and retailers, Atari repeatedly grossly over-estimating initial demand for new releases, and Atari not enforcing any quality control over what was released for their hardware.

If there is a modern crash, I suspect it will be the Triple-A developers and Console makers who suffer most while mid-range and indie developers will remain largely unaffected.

The PS4 and Xbone are both essentially PCs lacking most of the benefits a proper Gaming PC would have over Consoles. This is a double-edged sword as it makes it easier to port games originally developed for PC to PS4/xbone, but it also makes it easier to port PS4/xbone games to PC. This alone removes a lot of incentive for developers to develop exclusively for one platform as they can reach a larger audience with little extra effort.

Another problem facing console gaming is the law of diminishing returns: Unlike previous console generations, where developers could wow consumers with graphics that simply blow away anything the old hardware could do, we've reached a point where giving a console enough raw graphics power to push significantly more polygons at the same or higher resolution and the same or higher frame rate can't be done while maintaining a price-point that both consumers and hardware vendors can live with. To make matters worse, producing such hi-poly, high-res, and high-frame rate graphics is expensive, and even more so if the developer wants graphics that are impressive from both a technical and aesthetic standpoint. I daresay this has been the main contributing factor in the increased number of games with budgets so large that selling millions isn't a badge of honor but rather a requirement to be profitable.

As for Nintendo, I'd say there biggest problem is that the WiiU scared off what little noteworthy 3rd Party support the Wii hadn't. They may have by far the strongest first party line-up of any Console maker(even if some franchises have gotten shafted are mediocre releases lately), but that alone isn't going to do much for console sells. They do continue their dominance regarding dedicated gaming handhelds though, and I could see them weathering a crash that would wipe out Sony and Microsoft's gaming divisions.

On the other hand, I get the impression that Inde developers, many of whom are more concerned with making a fun game rather than showing off the GPU of the target platform, and many other traditional developers who put reason before high-poly counts, are stable if not flourishing and will remain largely unaffected if the Triple-A sector collapses under its own weight.

As for the original topic, can't say there are any games I've heard people get hyped for that didn't get positive reviews this year. Then again, I was never very interested in the Triple-A devs, my interest has been mainly in handheld games since the beginning of gen 7, and my inability to game due to vision loss has made me not seek out gaming news the way I use to. The games I've heard hyped up this year are the US releases of Dangan Ronpa and its sequel, Bravely default, and Disgaea 4's Vita port, and I've heard nothing but good things about those games post release.

[retrolinkx]

The sad but true part of Nintendo is that fact, who here actually buys Nintendo consoles for their third party line up? When was the last time you bought a multiplatform console game on the Wii U if there was an option too if they were all the same game in some way?

The only time you can get a Wii U multiplat is when it's the definitive version in some way (Bayonetta, Deus Ex) and is not on PC.

It's sad but true, if I had the chance to buy the newest CoD on one of the consoles, I'd rather buy it on the Xbox or PS4 due to the fact many of the people I know have bought it and I will be playing with them and more people.

Additionally, Wii U multiplats will most likely be based off architecture such as the 360/PS3/One/PS4 which is very bad. You could see this last gen with some 360 and PS3 multiplats, since the 360 had easier architecture to work off of, the devs would make the game on the 360 and port it to the PS3, and since they're different consoles entirely it would cause some problems on the PS3. This was the case with Bayonetta.

[Chaos the Light Chao]

The PS3's problem was that it was the first and only console to use a CELL processor. The Wii U's processor is based on PowerPC, which is the same thing the Xbox 360's is based on, so I don't think there will be as much a problem creating ports. (For those curious, the PS4 and Xbone use x86 architecture, which is also commonly used in computers, so porting between the 3 is little problem)

As for the main topic, the hype around Destiny always confused me. The alpha and beta fully demonstrated all of its shortcomings, but people still treated it like something far beyond what it could ever be. I got it for the PvP, and that's fun, but I haven't been particularly hyped about the game for a long time.

For those that don't know, the problem with its story is that it basically doesn't exist. The missions are 'this needs done, go do it' and its fully debatable whether any character development takes place at all. There are only 3 characters that do more than just stand around wherever they live: you, your sidekick (who is basically 343 Guilty Spark), and 2spooky ghost exo. The plot consists of tiny arcs of things that need to be done which are separated by each planet, each of with only has, like, 5 missions. Also, the majority of the world building is confined to the Grimoire cards, which you can't excess through the game, and instead need to go to Bungie.net to read.

A game that did disappoint me was inFamous: Second Son. I was hyped for that. My gripe with it is its power sets. You have multiple sets of powers - smoke being the first - and you can only access one of them at any given time. That wouldn't be too bad, except the effects of the power sets are all just variations of the same moves from the other power sets. To make matters worse, there are only like 2 (a dash and a big bomba blast) moves that didn't have an origin in the original inFamous, and some of the most fun inFamous powers were removed to make room for the new streamlined control system.

Sm4sh is fun, though.

[EvilPinkamina]

The sad but true part of Nintendo is that fact, who here actually buys Nintendo consoles for their third party line up? When was the last time you bought a multiplatform console game on the Wii U if there was an option too if they were all the same game in some way?

Lets be honest, most of the good third party companies that have been on Nintendo, they've grabbed up into second/first parties.

[retrolinkx]

The PS3's problem was that it was the first and only console to use a CELL processor. The Wii U's processor is based on PowerPC, which is the same thing the Xbox 360's is based on, so I don't think there will be as much a problem creating ports. (For those curious, the PS4 and Xbone use x86 architecture, which is also commonly used in computers, so porting between the 3 is little problem)

It doesn't explain why the Wii U version of multiplats on the 360 and PS3 are usually worse in terms of frame rate and such, hell the Bayonetta Wii U version runs at varying frames of around 35-50, while the 360 version runs at something like 56-60, can't really put it to lazy devs since Platinum aren't really a company like that.

[Jeffery Mewtamer]

If I remember correctly, The Gamecube/Wii/WiiU, x360, and PS3 are all PowerPC based. The biggest difference in their respective CPUs in speed and number of cores(Zx360 was triple core, the Cell processor is 8-cored, and as far as I know, even the WiiU is using a single-core processor). Then again, I'm not sure the CPU has much impact on framerate unless your running graphics through the CPU, which is uncommon except for emulation. Though, even on the GPU side, the WiiU is kind of a budget machine under the hood and is, as far as I know, closer to the PS3 and X360 GPUs in specs than it is to the other 8th gen consoles.

As for Retro's question, I think Sonic Heroes was the last multi-plat I bought for a Nintendo system and only for a Nintendo System(I own both the Gamecube and PS2 version of Mortal Kombat deception). Then again, the Wii, DS, and 3DS had very few multiplats among their limited selection of 3rd Party games due to being so dissimilar from their contemporaries.

[Mr. Needlemouse]

^
As far as I know, the Wii U uses a tri-core APU which has been overclocked through system updates. If Nintendo hadn't bothered with gimmicks, the specs of the Wii U would certainly be higher.

It doesn't explain why the Wii U version of multiplats on the 360 and PS3 are usually worse in terms of frame rate and such, hell the Bayonetta Wii U version runs at varying frames of around 35-50, while the 360 version runs at something like 56-60, can't really put it to lazy devs since Platinum aren't really a company like that.

There is no way the 360 version can run at any higher than 30 FPS because of the 360's frame lock. :P

I haven't really looked forward to many games this year. I can only name Smash 4 and GTA V PC off the top of my head. Bravely Default was definitely a surprise, especially considering Square Enix's decline with Final Fantasy. Going to try the Halo 5 beta from the Master Chief Collection with my friend when it comes out, so hopefully that'll be fun.

[retrolinkx]

^

Hard to tell if joking or not, but here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZg8ebaARmY