[QUOTE="Grammaton-Cleric"]Frankly, your list comes off as some type of hipster-contrarian nonsense but assuming you are serious I'd love to know what you consider the apex of this medium. I mean it's cute that you deride games like Arkham City or Dark Souls but at some point I'd love to see some example of what you actually consider a great game and why. I usually wouldn't even bother asking the question in this type of thread (which is a garbage topic to begin with) but when I read a list that denotes some of the best-reviewed and loved games of this generation as "overrated" I'm genuinely curious as to what somebody like you plays.famicommander
A game being well reviewed means precisely dick in this day and age of "journalism". I don't base my opinions on popularity or critical response, positive or negative. I base it off my personal experience with the game, demos, developer history, videos, etc. I don't care if a game averages 12% on Gamerankings or 100 on Metacritic. Twelve year olds on GameFAQs are no less credible than your average review source, and that's sad. If you want a list of games I've enjoyed this generation, here: Super Mario Galaxy Super Mario Galaxy 2 Virtua Fighter 5 Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II Binary Domain Yakuza series Valkyria Chronicles series Xenoblade Chronicles Bangai-O Spirits Sin and Punishment 2 Total War: Shogun II Super Smash Bros Brawl Super Meat Boy Child of Eden Red Dead Redemption New Super Mario Bros Wii Sonic Colors Sonic Generations Sonic Rush Tales of Vesperia Fragile Dreams The House of the Dead Overkill Muramasa: The Demon Blade Little King's Story Zack and Wiki Crush (PSP) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions Patapon series LocoRoco series Lumines series Dead Rising Batman Arkham Asylum (my problems with Arkham City mostly have to do with the game seeming to do things "for the sake of doing them", while AA felt more inspired) No More Heroes Ivy the Kiwi? Fishing Resort The World Ends With You Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Amnesia: The Dark Descent Deadly Creatures Condemned I and II Lost Odyssey Zelda series on Wii and DS Saints Row 1 and 2 Just Cause 2 Tekken series Red Steel 2 (the first one sucked though) Portal 1 and 2 Alpha Protocol Trackmania Metroid Prime 3 Wipeout PSP/PS3 gamesCritical consensus is far from my only metric but I'm also not myopic enough to believe games receiving universal acclaim are the result of some deficiency within gaming journalism. (Or more specifically the editorial content therein)
Objectively, many of the games you list could be argued, easily, as top tier experiences as many of them contain both innovation and excellent mechanics.
For example, Arkham City is objectively a better game than the already excellent Arkham Asylum. AC quite literally extrapolates and improves on just about every facet of the previous game, including locomotion, combat, and even detective work. However, the game was far less linear and more open-ended which caused some people to like it less, which is a perfectly valid but entirely subjective opinion. From a non-biased viewpoint, calling Arkham City overrated is inaccurate when in reality it does almost everything found in Asylum better.
The rest of your list contains some very good games but what is interesting about that list is how many of those games have flaws that are far more pronounced than in many of the titles you cite as overrated.
Something like Alpha Protocol, which I played through and liked very much, is still a clearly unpolished experience and I find it almost paradoxical to venerate it while denouncing something like Fallout 3. (Also unpolished but far larger in scope while doing many of the same things)
The rest of your list reads like somebody more or less entrenched in older game modalities (with a few exceptions) and rejecting many of the more innovative games of the last few years. You call the Assassin's Creed franchise overrated even though it is easily one of the most uniquely divergent franchises out there yet you apparently love the Yakuza games which are, fundamentally speaking, nearly archaic in terms of execution.
My point isn't that you must love these games but rather that calling them overrated seems disingenuous merely because they don't conform to your particular tastes. Something like Demon Souls may not be to your liking but to call such an expansive and unique RPG overrated while extolling the virtues of Sonic Colors or New Mario Bros. Wii strikes me as bizarre.
Personally, I loathe the term overrated because objectively, few games I've played, regardless of my personal opinion of them, could be classified as such. Most games deserve the praise heaped upon them even if I personally felt underwhelmed by the experience of playing them. That is why I prefer to focus on games that are underrated. (which I think is a far more common occurrence in gaming journalism)
That said, it's just a personal pet peeve of mine so do as you will. That list you provided as a rebuttal is actually populated with some damn fine software and you get an extra gold star for you inclusion of Just Cause 2 (one of the best games ever made in my honest opinion) and Binary Domain. (A fantastic shooter criminally underrated by the gaming press)
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