Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, whether Shawn Michaels is really retiring, the idiocy of Arthur Abraham, or Big Ben not reporting to the Steelers’ voluntary conditioning camp, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
No, today’s Coffee Talk is not about Public Enemy. It’s about videogame hype and disappointment. You see, over the weekend I played a lot of Final Fantasy XIII. Obviously, it was one of the most anticipated games in years. Surprisingly, the reactions to the game — from critics and gamers — have been all over the place. Some love it, while others find it incredibly disappointing. I don’t remember the last time a game this big received so many negative reactions.
Personally, I don’t understand what all the uproar is about. I’m 13 hours in and I’ve really enjoyed the game. It’s not the best or my favorite Final Fantasy game, but to me FFXIII lives up to the hype. And Reona Rewis completely rules.
Today I wanted to see which “big” games have disappointed you. Do you recall any games with monstrous hype that left you wondering what the hell the big deal was? (In case you were wondering, my choice would be Fable, but this is way more about what you guys and gals think.) Use today’s column as your Monday therapy and rant about over-hyped games that left you flat…or worse.
Left 4 Dead… liked it for a day or 2…. sold it within a month.
Gears 2 I really didn't like either.
WoW – Pretty and neat to look at, but my god it bored me to tears.
Assassin's Creed – Looked nice and the story was decently written but… It reminded me of every comic book turned game ever released b/c of it's repitition. Save the same people, pickpocket, eavesdrop, stab stab, next plot.
SW: TFU – Don't get me wrong tho, this game had potential.
Heavenly Sword – Eh?
The Last Remnant – Only b/c it hasn't been released for ps3 yet lol.
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition – I hate shooters to begin with. I gave it the benefit of the doubt. But gimmie a shooter with an even slower reaction time for mechs too = snore. Sold it back the next day.
@cami
take it back! WOW is amazing you noob!! :p
@smartguy – :P Make meh lol!
Mebbie it's b/c I never really was interested in it's "endgame" instances. Hell, I never made it to 80 lolol.
@cami
not interested = Rag pwned my ass!
Fallout 3. Take everything good about Oblivion, remove it, put what's left in a post apocalyptic DC, and you have Fallout 3.
@Sandrock – then why in the world did you finish Fallout 3? You seemed to enjoy it when we've chatted about it at work.
@smartguy – Is it that difficult?
@cami
Initially yes.
@sandrock
agree
Awww I like Fallout 3….it was the only "shooter" I'll probably ever enjoy. People have been dropping hints for me to pick up Borderlands…but idk yet.
@smartguy – I guess I would have had more fun with more challenges. @ first I was impressed with WoW "instance" system. I came from FFXI where it's all open world and it's first come first serve when fighting huge bossess like all the giant wyrms.
@N8R – Oh man, I loved Oblivion too. Give me a western based castle/kings/dragons type of RPG and I'll love you for life.
The Force Unleashed.
Assassin's Creed.
Legends of Wrestlemania.
@idiocy of Abraham
The Matrix was clearly beating him and i think he did it out of frustration.
@Erik Morales
I can't believe he won and called out Pacquiao! His little brother Ivan looks like he might be a handful.
@ cami
Castles/dragons/kings from either hemisphere… are not my cup of tea. I never got in to the lure with few exceptions. I sort of liked the Fable games, but once they were done I had no replay interest. I also like Zelda games, but I think that's due to the nostalgia element.
Oblivion almost made the mark for me, but I hated the fact that I knew enemies were near by the game lag. That totally killed it. I couldn't get too far in to it because of that. Unlike Fallout where I'd be walking through the Wasteland and a Deathclaw would sneak up on me from behind and startle the crap out of me.
Normally though, I avoid the middle ages unlike the plague (get it?).
I completely agree with Smartguy about Bionic Commando and Cami about Lost Planet.
As for Final Fantasy XIII, it's certainly not my favorite in the series, and it's neither as great or as horrid as some of the reviews out there would make you believe. It's kinda right in the middle. There's a lot of stuff that was good, and a lot of stuff that was average or poor. Put it all together and you get a decent, but flawed game. I wrote a ginormous article about my feelings on the subject, so I'm not going to completely repeat myself here.
http://www.gamerswishlist.com/news/549-Final-Fant…
There's absolutely nothing memorable about Reona Rewis or her song in this game. It's like it was just thrown in at the end to give the game a somewhat famous name attached to it.
@thundercracker – as a matter of fact i've just recently gotten that from gamefly, just haven't gotten to it b/c of XIII ^^
@N8R – Hehe I've always dug the castle/dragons thing since I was a little girl. My living room is full of wizards and dragons figurines. I wanna collect the McFarlane dragons….And the DnD ones… /drool.
But huh, I never noticed the lag for monsters on Oblivion. I usually saw them before they saw me, when my knight finally got to move silently instead of clanking around like a giant trash can. Fallout has startled me numerous times, lol prolly only thing I didn't like about it :P
And lol on the plague :P
I have had Demon's Souls sitting here for a month from Gamefly and have yet to play it because of all the stuff I bought in March. I'm working my way through GoW3 now, so once that's done I think I'll finally give it a shot.
@Smartguy: Thanks for the complement, and the tips. I'm looking forward to giving it a shot. Having just played FFXIII and the Dragon Age expansion, I'm a little RPG'd out. Hopefully after I'm done slaughtering the Gods I'll be ready to jump in. I also have Bioshock 2 out from Gamefly, and that's another one I really want to try out.
@nightshade
you are welcome. When you get to the Nexus in demon souls, go to the very top to the hall of champions. Those guys are tanks.
My back log of games is growing as well. This summer I plan to play and beat Bioshock 2, ME2, iNfamous, perhaps KZ2, and maybe God of War 3 if it goes on sale.
so I have tried to post this about two or three times now and it keeps reloading and I lose what I had just typed.
Gears of War 2 (waaaaaaay to overhyped)
DiRT (do like it a lot, just not what I expected)
Skate 2 (the first was better)
Guitar Hero: Van Halen (extremely difficult, not as much fun. good songs though)
Shadow Complex (I still want to get to level 50 and complete the minimalist achievement, just because…but I still feel like I wasted $15)
IGN and G4 seem pretty fond of Just Cause 2, although I hated the demo for the first game I think they may have something here. This could be my next purchase.
@RROD
Thank you i knew i was forgetting another game. Resistance 2 was pretty lame. i really hater the multi-player on it!
crap, I meant really hated the multi-player.
@RROD, did you use a different email when you signed up for Rpad.tv or something?
@Nightshade386 Now that the site has user accounts, I should ban you for speaking ill of Reona Rewis. :P
@Ray
I have to agree with Nightshade.
@Ray: Admittedly, her style of music isn't generally my cup of tea. But her song was literally just tacked on at the end. I've got to say, there's nothing really memorable about any of the music in FFXIII. There's no "One Wing Angel" or "Liberi Fatali" that you'll be humming in your head later on.
@smartguy, @Nightshade386 I'm kidding. I think "My Hands" is a pretty crappy song…but I can't stop listening to it and mocking it. That said, I actually like some of her other songs and I really like that she became a star for winning The X-Factor. Go Simon Cowell!
As for the overall soundtrack, I completely disagree with you. I think it's a great piece of work. I hum the battle theme all the time.
@Shockwave
Yes, I did use a different email address. I'll get a new gravatar soon.
1. BIonic Commando. I had such high hopes for this game. Capcom was attached to it, the previous year’s E3 vids looked great. I was fully anticipating a beautiful, fun, and action filled game. Oh how disappointing.
2. All Madden titles since 2001. I feel that EA only adds a gimmick here and there. The overall presentation is lacking and to me cannot justify the yearly $60 price tag. This year’s Madden is supposedly the best ever ( a line used every year) but I played it as well…more of the same. Until EA doesn’t have exclusivity, I’ll pass on football games.
3. Force Unleashed. I was looking forward to this..it let me down. Enough said. I should have bought the PS2 version since it was cheaper.
4. Assassin’s Creed. I played this game for approximately 30 minutes. Some say that I didn’t play it long enough. I disagree. It’s an action game. If the action game can’t convince that it is worth my time within half an hour, then it isn’t worth my time. If it were an RPG, I’d have been more lenient. I’m not trying to learn a new skill, I just want to play a game!
5. Fable. This game was a good game. Molyneux described this game different from what it actually was. You weren’t able to do all of the things he said, however what was there was a very fun game in my opinion. It had great style, awesome music, and fun combat. The two most disappointing parts of the game to me were a) the lack of the dragon from the missing fresca and b) the ending. I’d recommend the game to anyone though.
See, I loved Fallout 3… and didn’t like Oblivion.
@ Cami
Borderlands is much less of an RPG than Fallout 3. The story is easily breezed right through.
However, it’s definitely more of an RPG than say COD as far as shooters go. But it can drag out.
I love Borderlands, but I don’t think it’s for everyone who liked Fallout 3.
@sandrock
totally agree on the fallout
@cami
i think youd really enjoy demons souls, if you havent played it already
I’d say one of my larger disappointments was Halo 2, but I was much younger back then. The hype was huge, although I admit it was a pretty good game, just not as good as the world expected.
Same goes for Kotor 2. I don’t think anything could have lived up to Kotor but I sure wanted it to. The story was all jacked to begin with and never properly finished. though I still like the game for some of the new features it was a big let down.
Little Big Planet was a game that I was hugely excited for. Sad part was I really wanted to like it more than I do. The game just never grabbed me though.
Perfect Dark Zero was one of my first 360 games and I wanted to be impressed but sadly wasn’t at all. I did play it a lot though, what else was I supposed to play besides COD 2
@nightshade
good work on the review. Demon Souls is tough but fun. I will say though that once you begin to gear up that you won’t go down so easy and you can one shot numerous mobs. You can walk and fall off of ledges..no amount of gear helps you there.
ya my back log is growing too. right now I’ve got demon’s souls, brutal legend, borderlands, darksiders and God of War 3 on there.
I agree that Shadow Complex was overhyped.
@shockwave
at least it gets cheaper. I saw brutal legend for $20 at bestbuy
@smartguy – I’ll definitely give you that. Now all I need is a break in this release schedule, games have been coming out like crazy since before Christmas
Most CoD games are a disappointment to me also. I can’t say I really enjoy the online element all the time, and I absolutely hated the single player on Modern Warfare 1. The games never really grabbed my attention too much.
Resident Evil 5- I was expecting a step up from RE4 (which I liked a lot). Instead, I got two steps back. Thank god my wife played as Sheva.
Super Smash Bros Brawl (The Wii one)- More of the same is alright when you have a large group of people and general digital mayhem, but goddamn that “Story Mode” was long, drawn-out and BOOOOOOOOORRRINGG.
Assassin’s Creed- Pretty much what everyone else here griped about. A bit too drawn out and repetitive. The story was nowhere near as good as the gameplay. A shame, since the game seems to be all about the story. Also, the “ending” sucked out loud.
Half-Life 2, Episode 3- …
…
…. EXACTLY!
-M
Resistance 2. Resistance 1 was great and the multi player had me hooked but Insomniac ruined it in Resistance 2 by trying to make it like COD.
@Iceman
Oh God, how could I forget Resident Evil 5?!
Lots of disappointments I had forgot about. R2, RE5, LBP, Legends of Wrestlemania (though the hype on this one was a niche crowd).
I’d like to add Age of Conan (the MMO), AION, Tabula Rasa. (WoW is a juggernaut).
I forgot about resistance 2. that was a shame. I’d like to see the franchise go back to its roots if they make a third.
@RRODisHere You can have multiple email addresses under one Gravatar account, I believe. So you just have to add this addy to your original Gravatar account.
@Ray: I didn’t say I thought it was bad, just not very memorable.
@Raymond Padilla
How exactly do I access my gravatar account?
@RRODisHere Go to http://en.gravatar.com/
@Nightshade386 Yes, and I’m disagreeing with you. I think it’s fantastic.
@ Cami
Sorry, I fell asleep.
Funny you mention McFarlane Dragons. I actually collect action figures, mainly those made by Todd McFarlane. I don’t have any of the Dragons, but I’ve bought a bunch of them as gifts for multiple people. In fact, there’s a bunch of them in my garage that my brother in law left here.
I got in to the Movie Maniac series pretty hard and I have all the Steelers he made (minus Jerome Bettis and Santonio). I also have one of his Sidney Crosby’s, his Evgenie Malkin, and Mario Lemieux. Hell, I got one of his Elvis figures sitting right here on my desk.
I even have a limited edition figure of Todd McFarlane by Todd McFarlane.
Can someone remind me again why the Duelshock 3 comes with an internal battery that can’t be switched out and only a 3 ft cable for plug and play? I mean, who sits 3 ft from their 50″ plasma?
@n8r
wow! The Macho Man is pretty good at rapping. I wish he would come back to WWE for a bit and call it quits.
@ tokz
I'm not sure how true this is, but I'm pretty sure there's some seriously bad blood between Macho Man and Vince.
He came to TNA a few years back, but left due to his health. But I agree that it would be awesome if he at least guest hosted RAW.
@n8r
No, i believe the bad blood is true. Where's our favorite verbal entertainer to confirm this?
I just figured that if Vince can make up with Bret why not Macho Man. I never knew he was in TNA! I would've watched it more. I miss Macho Man and it's one of the reasons why Jay Lethal is my favorite wrestler in that brand.
@ Nightshade
Maybe it’s because Japanese people are generally shorter and live in smaller spaces?
Or it’s more cost efficient?
@ off topic
Who knew “Macho Man” Randy Savage had a rap album?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i2v1b0BsbA
This is not a joke or a mix.
@ “Macho Man” rap
This one is a must hear:
@N8R Yes, I heard Macho's album years ago. It's wonderfully bad.
Supposedly the bad blood comes from Macho hitting on Stephanie. That could be a rumor started in the dirt sheets though. *shrug*
@nightshade
I had the same issue just look at bestbuy or walmart for cables on clearance. I found some like that. Or you could use the amazon links and buy a cheap pair from Hong Kong.