| Title | Most overrated games of 2012 |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Features |
| When | December 11, 2012 |
Overrated is a loaded term. It looks good in a headline. It's often used for no purpose other than to goad a reaction. But that doesn't mean it isn't useful..
Read the full articleI had a feeling Journey was going to make the famed shortlist. I dunno, but maybe for me Journey's 'less' did more for me. Oh well, I'm surprised to see Walking Dead didn't make this list.
I thought about trying to write something funny to pre-empt the idiotia from sluicing in here to defend the honor of their precious vidya games, but eh. I feel like there's nothing I can do. At the end of the day they will come just the same, troglodytic paws mashing on their keyboards, bellowing their incoherent rage. I think Shigeru Miyamoto said it best: You can't stop what's coming. It ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity.
Hey you take that back, Walking Dead was fantastic.
Well OK as a game it wasn't fantastic but as an interactive story it was as engrossing as a good film or a good book. I really don't have the time or eloquence to tell you how much I ended up loving the game, it really does show how much potential games have for telling us stories.
Dishonored is awesome. That is all.
Darksiders 2. I got a few hours into the game and realized that the only worthwhile part of the game was the dungeons. So I started moving through the overworld content as fast as possible to get to the dungeons. Then I played a few more dungeons and realized that they use the same puzzle mechanics over and over again. I had to stop playing before it ruined all games for me. And did we really need Pinata World 67?
Pinata World 67 sounds awesome! When's that coming out?
Also loved Walking Dead. Less game and more like a modern movie version of those old choose your own adventure books. I can see how folks looking for more game in their games would be disappointed.
I'm not sure what part of the internet you've been frequenting, but the parts I've been to have been practically ablaze with criticism of the real money auction house and DRM issues of Diablo 3. To the point of overshadowing any talk about the actual game.
Agree on Dishonored. I did enjoy it and I'm glad they did well what with the "No new IP:s, everything must have multiplayer and social media tied in" attitude going on, but so many seemed to treat it like a gift from the heavens instead of a solid concept with room for improvement.
In a sense, I also agree with Journey although it is becoming symptomatic to anything with art game elements getting big enough. There is a growing pool of games - even well-known ones - that try to do something different at the cost of most traditional game elements, and it is disappointing how much has been written about how Journey is oh-so-different from Uncharted but so little about how it compares to other art games.
On the risktaking note, I am not a big fan of the Okami HD remake getting so much praise - It is a great game, but why are Capcom not called out for not even pretending to release a new game?
Torchlight 2. The game had plenty of levers to play with (primarily through itemization) for you to build the character you wanted to play. But the game was horrible about feedback. It was extremely difficult to see which parts of your build weren't working (not enough resistance? not enough vitality stats? damage output too low? etc.). Combat moved so quickly and in game messaging for what was working / wasn't working was so bad that actually trying to understand where your builds problems were and address them was nearly impossible. I'm surprised this complaint doesn't come up more often.
Similar to how I imagine Tom feels about others reactions to Journey I feel the same toward his. The co-op metaphor, the music, the visuals, the journey and how it makes you feel when you get to that second to last area with a buddy and then how it ends is just so joyous it made me overwhelmed. Similar feelings I felt with something like Tree of Life (which is a flawed film). It's a piece of interactive fiction that uses game tropes and expectations to create an emotional experience. You can read it literally as a fantasy tale, as religious, or even as a secular pondering of the journey of life. I don't even understand how "characters" could even be an important element to this kind of game. No doubt what I just said Tom finds like it came from the mouth of someone who has little artistic taste, but what can I say? It worked for me.
You are a fucking retarded troll. That is all.
I had no idea this was linked on Metacritic!
Is Tom Chick jealous of all the other people who got meaningful experiences out of Journey?
The chaos affects the ending.
The appeal of Forza is easy to explain: adequate driving model paired with a car list to die for. Shift and Shift 2 drive better, but have something like 1/5 the cars. Everything else on the 360 is more arcadey (at least by reputation), and the only competition for car variety on any platform--Gran Turismo--completely fails at being a game.
On the PC the sim community gets up in arms any time unlocks are even hinted at, much less implemented. Forza wins by default. Maybe some day we'll get an accurate driving sim with an extensive stable of accessible and exotic cars (or even nails a single series, like Can-Am), paired with a game that actually teaches one how to drive fast (an ideal task for video games). But I'm not holding my breath.
No, my read on Tom is that he focuses almost exclusively on mechanics (better than anyone else, I think), at the expense of setting, graphics, story, mood, etc. Journey's mechanics consist of pushing an analog stick in one direction, with the very occasional jump. The pleasure is entirely in the multiplayer, and the atmosphere.
Well this article appears to sum up QT3 very well. Overrated is an out dated term to describe games that receive more credit than they deserve. But whether they or any of you like it, developers work their arses off to ensure gaming quality is up to snuff, and its like a spit in their face if you say their games are overrated.
if anything it's like this dude hates games or at least hates those that have the moxie to be great.