Tom has posted his list on the front page. I have only played numbers 10, 6, 5 and 3, but I agree completely on all counts. In fact, I think the little blurb for 3 crams in more actual reviewing than most reviewers get around to in a three page feature. It sums up my feelings more-or-less in full.
Link - http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2015/01/13/overrated-games-2014/
As a counter point, of the games I played on that same list (10, 9, 6, 5, 4, 3) I have to say only Banished was something I feel was perhaps over-blown. The rest of those games I enjoyed the shit out of, and I can see why people fell in love with them enough to gush to others about. I didn’t play the other stuff, but I know there are folks who enjoy those titles (such as Elite) quite a lot, as well.
Sometimes I can’t “get into” a game, but if it’s a good game I tend to try weeks, months, or even years later and often I get much more into them then. For example, Shadows of Mordor to me is by far the most overrated game this year, but I can totally imagine a few months from now when things are slow and I re-install it that I could get super into it, and even complete it and want more. Games can be funny, sometimes.
I played
10) Banner Saga - Agree that it was overrated, but I was able to overlook the oddness of the battle system and found a good game.
9) Banished - I agree. This game has a ton of positive reviews. I played 1 city to 100+ population and felt it just became repetitive after that. Nevr played again.
5) Civ: Beyond Earth - Fully agree.
3) Dragon Age: Inquisition - I actually agree with most of Tom’s comments but I loved the dialog, story, and exploring the world. So much so that it was my #2 game of the year. The war table could have been made so much more meaningful. It did add flavor though.
I agree with BleedTheFreak that Shadow of Mordor is the most overrated game of the year. Civ BE is a worse game, but I think Mordor is more universally highly rated.
I haven’t put the time into it to make a fair judgment, but I’ll agree that the first few minutes’ impression of Elite: Dangerous matches Tom’s complaints exactly. It just feels like work to me so far.
Edit: Gat damn at that “baby’s first CCG” comment for Hearthstone. Brutal.
#1 Elite Dangerous most disappoint
“TOM JUST SAID UP YOURS, BABY.” - Shaft (1971)
I wish Elite had a fatter set of content & world-building at release, but the core is solid. Hardly most disappointing of 2014.
It’s not disappointing to Tom. It’s overrated.
I’ve played:
Banner Saga: Only an hour or so in, not enough to have an opinion yet
Hearthstone: It was fun for a week but the CCG aspect turns me off. Plus I think there better card games out there.
Far Cry 4: Totally disagree. This improved on FC3 in a lot of ways. Aside from the terrible Shargri-la missions and one awful boss fight, this game was great. I would put it in my top three for the year.
Dragon Age: Inquistion: Totally agree. The combat is awful. The world doesn’t feel alive. I keep picking it up, playing for an hour or so and putting it down for another week. At this rate I might finish the game at some time in 2037.
Elite: Dangerous: Haven’t played, but I get the sense there isn’t a lot to do in the game. I’m not in a position to buy any new games now but I’m on the fence whether I want this or not when I’m able to spend money again.
You are as confusing as your username. :)
There’s a ton to do, it’s just a sandbox. Your gameplay isn’t directed in a campaign.
That’s why I haven’t purchased it myself. What I really want is Tie-Fighter 2, Freespace 3, and Wing Commander 5.
I’m reading around it. I can hardly call ED overrated in any event; right now, it appeals to a core set of players, and everybody else is wonder WTF the big deal is. Overrated assumes the masses love it. When I become dictator, I will move Tom’s choice from the overrated list to the most disappointing list, where it’s obvious he feels it belongs.
Tom Chick - Elite: Dangerous is the most overrated game of 2014.
Me - Elite: Dangerous is one of the biggest game releases in 15 years.
Differences are awesome, aren’t they? ;)
I can see its overrated-ness. It’s basically the standard for everyone to hold up in the current crop of in-development spaceship games. Plus, I haven’t seen a bad review of it yet.
From Tom’s own post:
It just means I’m surprised more people weren’t more critical, that the conversation wasn’t more often about ways the game could have been better.
I do my best.
Good, there needs to be a standard, lest we want more shit like The Tomorrow War and Darkstar One.
There’s a reason for that, son. ;)
I love sandboxes but what I’ve heard makes sound like a lot of down time and work between things happening. It sounds a lot like the ARMA games, where you can spend half an hour in a helicopter getting to a mission. Even if the mission is fun, that half hour could have been spent doing something interesting in another game.
I hope I’m wrong.
I’m mystified by Hearthstone. I’m a big CCG fan and have played WoW since launch, but it bounced off of me. But my friends who I would have guessed would never get into it are regularly playing.
So while I expected to love it and ended up not being thrilled, it was certainly a disappointment for me personally. However, I wouldn’t put it on my disappointment list because of what it has done for the industry. It’s set a great example of how a high quality free-to-play title can succeed with a non-exploitative or time-gated FTP business model. That’s a great thing in my book.
I’ll be honest, you wouldn’t like my review if I had to write one. I love the look and audio of the game, but so far it’s a struggle for me to play.
Doesn’t “overrated” mean it has to be well-regarded by most people other than Tom? Because I didn’t think Beyond Earth is well regarded by anyone. I defend it pretty regularly, but I don’t say it’s good, it’s just not anthranx and ebola combined. Or Master of Orion 3, which would be worse. Banished was pretty highly rated on first contact, but I think that popular opinion went highly negative once they got beyond the initial learning stages.
Destiny’s kind of a corner case. It’s very popular, but almost everyone is pretty critical of it anyway. I enjoyed my time with it, but I don’t really understand the people who are still playing.
Banner Saga and Elite Dangerous are awfully niche. How many people have played either one? Elite has the cache of the Elite name, so I guess I could be wrong about how popular it is. I’ve been meaning to look into it, but since my name isn’t Brian I’ve been more interested in making inroads into my backlog.
Everyone has to stop bringing up Master of Orion 3, so the healing can finally begin.