underrated game and overrated games

Jdawg

Jdawg

Rear Admiral
I have been reading a lot of old topics and it really seems we are all mostly some old school gamers. so my question to yall are what are some games that yall think are overrated and underrated.

for a history of me as a gamer, my fav genres are first RPGs, then point and click adventure games, finally third person action/adventure games. of course I do like some fps and the such but they are not my first choice. whats funny is I dont really like simulator games (although wc has more of an arccade feel to it) yet I love wing commander, its my favorite franchise ever in gaming. so without further ado and in no particular order

UNDERRATED
the dig- this is a point and click game made by lucas arts, and it seems that this is a game where gamers either love it or hate it, nobody seems to be in the middle. well I love it. its a scfi game that was originally a movie concept by Steven Spielberg, but the technology was not there yet to make it, sol he passed it to george lucas who made it into a game. basic plot is three astronauts are transported to an alien planet and have to figure out how to get home. unlike other lucas arts adventure games this one is totally serious and lacks the humor of something like monkey island, or full throttle. Anyways its one of my favorite games.

enslaved odyssey to the west- I played this game on the xbox 360, a couple of yrs ago and wow it has a good story, great voice acting and good gameplay. I believe this game was made by Andy Serkis of lord of the rings fame. This is a game much like, beyond good and evil, which could also be on this list as being underrated. enslaved just had no hype behind it. for anybody thats interested you can find it at gamespot for like 5 dollars.

Skies of Arcadia- this is a Japanese turn based rpg, and my personal favorite rpg of all time. I played it on the sega dreamcast, which by the way is my favorite console of all time. The story was great, you played a good pirate that was trying to save a girl ( typical rpg story) but the characters were good the gameplay was challenging and you got to fly yes fly a pirate ship. in this game ship battles took place in the sky. It was a long game took me about 60 to 70 hrs to beat and I didnt do everything.

Grandia 2- another japanese rpg for the dreamcast, once again good story and characters, my wife who is not much of a gamer (she likes guitar hero and rock band) played this game and beat it. thats how much she liked it. just a solid rpg

The broken Sword series- there are five games in the series, and they are point and click adventure games, well 3 and 4 were 3d games that were made more for console gamers. anyways among adventure game fans, broken sword 1 is widely considered the best adventure game of all time, but to the gaming community at large, its barely known. If you like a good story with great characters mixed with history thrown in you will like broken sword. The plot of the first one in basic form goes like this, you play an american tourist in france named george, one day your at a cafe and a clown comes in and blows it up, you survive and want to figure out who he is and why he did it. Just and awesome game.

OVERRATED
Final fantasy series- I never got the hype behind these games, yes I enjoyed 7 but I dont think its the masterpiece everyone else does. The rest of the series has been avg to down right terrible to me.

Gabriel Knight and the sins of fathers- This again is a point and click adventure game and is a lot of adventure gamers fav game of all time. its not a bad game at all has a good cast including tim curry, Mark hamil, Lea Remni sp (the wife in king of queens tv show), but the story does nothing for me, you play gabriel a book store owner who is trying to solve vodoo murders in New Orleans, this is one of those games where I understand why some like it, but I still think its way overrated

Free Space 2- Never played it before I beat WC saga, but I enjoyed that game so much that I wanted to see the original, and it just did nothing for me. I thought the alien ships looked awful and the story had nothing on wing commander at all. It is a good engine with nice control scheme setup but the actual game did nothing for me.

Grim Fandango - Another point and click game. now I do really like this game but some folks act like its the holy grail of adventure games and its just not to me, the 3d graphics look horrible and the control scheme is a mess, and while the story is good its nothing that I think about all the time, once again not a bad game just overrated.

Mass Effect- once again I really like the series but I thought each game got a little worse. Mass effect 1 was my favorite, the choice system seemed to matter, there was actually a real villain that was interesting and had depth to his character. it was also the only game that offered a combat challenge. while there are parts I love about 2 and 3 I felt like the choices really didnt matter and it became a shooting gallery even on higher difficulties. Like I said I really enjoy the series but it is def overrated.

those are some of mine what are yours??
 
Probably belongs in off topic but interesting thread!

It's a nice list I'm a massive Dreamcast fan and loved Skies of Arcadia(both Dreamcast and Gamecube) and Grandia 2 both fantastic games better or at least up there with Final fantasy series also loved Broken Sword series.

I would disagree on FS2 and Grim Fandango both fantastic games which I don't feel were overrated. I actually enjoyed the FS2 story even though it was less personal than Wing Commander and the gameplay was top notch. Grim Fandango was fantastic for its time and I really enjoyed both the story and the graphics.

I do agree on Mass Effect especially 3, they simply tried to make too many story paths and the ending(s) was just horrendous IMO so bad I never replayed any of the games after it (That starchild still gives me nightmares). The first Mass Effect was amazing a real open world space opera and even the second wasn't bad, but all downhill after that. Such a shame. I always wondered did losing Drew Karpyshyn cause it to lose its way story wise.

As for Final Fantasy a bit of mixed bag and maybe 7 was a bit overrated still a brilliant game though. As for the rest haven't played them yet so can't comment one way or the other.
 
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Thrakkath said:
Probably belongs in off topic but interesting thread!

It's a nice list I'm a massive Dreamcast fan and loved Skies of Arcadia(both Dreamcast and Gamecube) and Grandia 2 both fantastic games better or at least up there with Final fantasy series also loved Broken Sword series.

I would disagree on FS2 and Grim Fandango both fantastic games which I don't feel were overrated. I actually enjoyed the FS2 story even though it was less personal than Wing Commander and the gameplay was top notch. Grim Fandango was fantastic for its time and I really enjoyed both the story and the graphics.

I do agree on Mass Effect especially 3, they simply tried to make too many story paths and the ending(s) was just horrendous IMO so bad I never replayed any of the games after it (That starchild still gives me nightmares). The first Mass Effect was amazing a real open world space opera and even the second wasn't bad, but all downhill after that. Such a shame. I always wondered did losing Drew Karpyshyn cause it to lose its way story wise.

As for Final Fantasy a bit of mixed bag and maybe 7 was a bit overrated still a brilliant game though. As for the rest haven't played them yet so can't comment one way or the other.
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Ye

Like I said I like Grim fandango just not as much as everyone else I give it like an 8/10. full throttle is my fav Tim Schafer game though. as far as mass effect, Yes!!!! your one of the only people I know who like the first game the best besides me, KI cant tell you how many people say to just skip the first one, im like why its the only one I still play (just like the first matrix is the only movie I still watch in that franchise. lol).

I agree mostly with the gameplay of fs2, its pretty rock solid, maybe I just dont care for the characters or ship designs, and I felt like all the ships moved way to slow.

Nice to meet another skies of arcadia fan I only ever met one other person that has played it.
 
Slightly off-topic again but if you have a Dreamcast this might interest you http://gdemu.wordpress.com/ its a GD-Rom drive replacement that lets you play GD-Rom dumps of your games off an SD card. The guy who makes them has stopped production for now, but he may do one final run of them. I'm glad of it as sometimes the optical drive can be hit and miss reading games and laser will burn out eventually (I only play originals not backups).

One game(series) I would have added to your list of underrated games is Shenmue 1 and 2, slow paced at times but possibly one of the most immersive RPG's I have ever played, sad thing is its creator has said he would find the finances and team to make a third but Sega wont sell the IP. Very sad but Sega is a hollow shell of the company it once was.

Another underrated title is Starlancer, I enjoyed that almost as much as the Wing Commander even if I wasn't too gone on the Cold War in space storyline. Combat was good and there was actually a Dreamcast version of it as well!

As for Broken Sword I never finished the latest one about 80% complete I must get back and try to finish it. I liked the style of it much closer to the original games
 
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Thrakkath said:
Slightly off-topic again but if you have a Dreamcast this might interest you http://gdemu.wordpress.com/ its a GD-Rom drive replacement that lets you play GD-Rom dumps of your games off an SD card. The guy who makes them has stopped production for now, but he may do one final run of them. I'm glad of it as sometimes the optical drive can be hit and miss reading games and laser will burn out eventually (I only play originals not backups).

One game(series) I would have added to your list of underrated games is Shenmue 1 and 2, slow paced at times but possibly one of the most immersive RPG's I have ever played, sad thing is its creator has said he would find the finances and team to make a third but Sega wont sell the IP. Very sad but Sega is a hollow shell of the company it once was.

Another underrated title is Starlancer, I enjoyed that almost as much as the Wing Commander even if I wasn't too gone on the Cold War in space storyline. Combat was good and there was actually a Dreamcast version of it as well!

As for Broken Sword I never finished the latest one about 80% complete I must get back and try to finish it. I liked the style of it much closer to the original games
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I have played 1-4, my wife is getting me a boxed version for brlken sword 5. it looks great though. here is something I find strange, while I think broken sword one is the better game, I think I enjoyed playing broken sword 2 more
 
here is the launch trailer for enslaved, like I said it has one of the best stories that I have seen in the last couple of yrs.

 
Enslaved looks good I'll give it a try will pick it up next time I'm in Gamestop, keep me occupied while I'm waiting for Star Citizen and Elite to come out:)
 
Enslaved is good with some top notch performance capture from Andy Serkis. The game has a nice cinematic flair and interesting scenery. The gameplay though does turn into a button combo masher at times... which is the only downside for me.
 
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Most underrated games - let me think.

Venetica - it's a really great game, but mainly ignored. And hey, peoply cry these days for games with female lead characters. There you have one. Does anyone know it? Especially those who complain? Definitely underrated in regards to actual developments.

Gothic 3. People think the first two parts were better, and I understand why - but I still like Gothic 3 more. It's all about the atmosphere and especially the variety of different themes. The outstanding music does a lot for this. The first two parts had a denser story and this one is much more open - but it works. This is a prime example why atmosphere doesn't need to rely on a dense story.

Descent 2. It's the game I want to see most in a new engine. I know there's an UE3 port in development out there, but I'm not impressed by now. Especially since it should be done in UE4. Anyway, Descent 2 is unique and was simply a great game - I think too progressive or at least too difficult for the mass market.

A.T.A.C. - The war on drugs. It was a totally awesome game: you could fly both helicopters and planes in the same game! It offered tactical and strategic planning as well as actual flying! It was totally flexible, you could jump in and out of cockpits any time. It had a really outstanding manual, at par with Wing Commander manuals.

Privateer - it's in almost every aspect underrated. The story is great, better than in most games. It was fun, even on a meta level - go ask Admiral Terrell. The atmosphere is outstanding, I know no other game that delivers that feel (although for the feeling of being lost, of emptiness, X³ TC comes close, especially in the Terran Sectors). It's also a great example how roleplay works without RPG mechanics. And when you play it you can see all those possibilities beyond the surface (which Star Citizen hopefully discovers).
Just a tad behind that is Strike Commander, by the way. I don't know why so few people like it. Maybe because few could run it on their machine back in the days and then people thought it was outmoded.

Unreal Tournament 2004 - this game brought what was started with Quake to a whole new level: community engagement. I think it's until today the game with the most and best quality community content out there. Also it has pretty good weapon balancing, only surpassed by Descent 2.

GTA Vice City because it set new marks in storytelling. GTA 3 somehow didn't make it stick, all other GTAs after Vice City never reached that virtuosity, that creativity. Haven't played GTA V though.

R3E - RaceRoom Racing Experience - fairly new and still beta, but it's already the best racing game out there I've ever seen. Again, the sound. But mostly the feel. Forza Horizon 2? Don't make me laugh.

Far Cry 2 - I really don't know why people hate it. Ok, the annoying checkpoints. Ok, the fire not being that great as promised. Ok, the forced first person view. But all these aside: the atmosphere is just great. It's pretty much like Stalker: you're in constant danger (hence the respawning checkpoints, they add a lot to this). But most of all, the atmosphere of being in Africa is simply convincing. It's like in Stalker, when the first night came and you were far away from camp..

Most overrated games:

Skyrim. The only thing I really love about Skyrim is the modding community. So much effort, so much love for detail put into the improvement of female models and armour/clothing. Oh, and some huts. What I despise most is the blatant disregard of proportions in regards to inner space of said huts in relation to the actual outside size.

Halo - seriously.
 
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