Poll of the Day > Is anyone else kinda burnt out on "hype" games?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It feels like every other week there's a new must-play title with a 90+ Metacritic score, ten+ reaction videos, and about 50 think pieces and I just dont feel like touching any of them. Maybe it's just me, but Im finding more joy in older games, nicher titles, or sequels to games/franchises I already play.

Anyone else hit that point where the hype just doesnt hit anymore?

I have been for a while. I can't remember the last game I was actually hyped for.

I stopped caring about Metacritic scores not before it Metacritic was a thing but before Metacritic bought GameRankings

What are some recent examples?

VioletZer0 posted...

What are some recent examples?

I suppose the most recent examples for me would be Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy, both had huge hype but didnt quite live up to my expectations. The marketing blitz just made me feel overwhelmed rather than excited, didn't even finish them. A bit of a let down really.

Try being completely out of the loop like me. I dont know any hype for any game, and by the time I do actually hear about something its been out for a year or two and if it has legs then you know its good

I just got into baulders gate 3 recently, who knew this game was so good?

The_Guess_WTF posted...

and I just dont feel like touching any of them

if you're not hot for it, you'll never get burnt out.

The games I get hyped are rarely games the mainstream gaming audience gets hyped for. Games like Pikmin and Kirby

I stopped caring about game hype about 15 years ago, because it's usually artificially manufactured BS for substandard games. Which is why hype usually dies a few weeks after launch, and no one ever remembers or talks about the game in question again.

For the few cases where the hype is actually organic and deserved, it's usually for a genre of gaming I don't actually care about so it's meaningless to me anyway.

About the only case I can think of where "hype" actually encouraged me to play a game was Stardew Valley. I started hearing so much about how great it was that it led me to look into what sort of game it was and I liked what I saw enough to try it.



Damn_Underscore posted...

I stopped caring about Metacritic scores not before it Metacritic was a thing but before Metacritic bought GameRankings

Metacritic was garbage from the jump because an aggregate score based on weighted calculations from specific biased critics means the final result is always going to be a wheelbarrow full of horseshit.

Sites like IGN or Polygon wouldn't give an unbiased score to a game if you held a gun to the reviewer's head, and those are the sorts of review scores that are being fed into the Metacritic machine.

Stuff like Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes will almost always spit out a number that has no real bearing on anything - any sane and rational person should avoid them like the plague. You're far better off finding amateur critics on places like YouTube who share your taste in games/films, then seeing what they say about a new game/film. Especially if you can find reviews that describe multiple aspects of a game and show elements of gameplay in review videos.

Stop buying into AAA game promises and games in general, I re-found a love for gaming after dropping most of them, there are occasional good-great ones, but oftentimes you're not even given those versions close to launch anyway. Cyberpunk2077 is one of my favorite games, but I waited 2 years for every major issue to be fixed before I played, if I had been a sucker at launch I probably would have hated it.

I don't think I ever cared about that in the first place.

I don't care about video games as a big cultural thing anymore. They completely changed the focus and the demographic that they're going for and I can't blame the market for that, they need to stay viable and keep people employed. I'm not even making mention to stuff like Concord or whatever, I just mean that AAA hype titles of the 90s/00s were very different games than those of the more modern era.

I really do pin most of the cause on TLoU, GTAV, Fortnite, and Souls. Almost every new massive game tries to ape at least one of those in some form or fashion.

I'd say my current gaming lineup is
50% retro
30% modern indie
20% modern AAA

Also hopping on my soapbox here for a second, but if you have been part of a hobby for more than a decade, you ought to have developed a keen sense of knowing what you'll probably like or dislike within seconds of seeing something.

Nobody can sell me on any "hype" games anymore because I know what it's all about with a glance.

The_Guess_WTF posted...

I suppose the most recent examples for me would be Starfield and Hogwarts Legacy, both had huge hype but didnt quite live up to my expectations. The marketing blitz just made me feel overwhelmed rather than excited, didn't even finish them. A bit of a let down really.

Those games are insanely bland and they are bland by design to not offend the tastes of the masses.

Is it possible you are burnt out on bland games?

I don't know if this is exactly what you are saying, but gaming is kinda overwhelming compared to when we were kids. It was easier to feel like you were keeping up when there were fewer games releasing routinely and of course far fewer cumulative games over time than there are now. Plus as a kid you probably didn't have much money to spend on games and things like free to play or 90% off digital store discounts were not a thing, so people had to be choosier. Hearing about games from word of mouth, magazines and maybe some niche TV programs was a far smaller hype circle than the one the internet creates.

As for all these current hype games, I don't think they are always worth dismissing, but I definitely think we're seeing less true innovation in games at this point, and I've played games long enough to have a pretty good sense for what I'll like or not. Streaming and reaction videos are all noise to me because that's such a rat race; it's hard to tell when anyone is actually being sincere. Professional critic review scores aren't totally worthless to me but the problem I have is what a narrow band of their supposed 10-point scale is actually used. What the hell is the difference between an 88 and an 85 on Metacritic? Nobody knows this, and anyone who claims to know is lying. At this point it's just crap that immature people can use as fuel for their stupid flame wars about which game got a higher score

I just pay attention to games I'm interested in and not really scores so no.

There's probably been more to it, but I still cite Duke Nukem Forever as the game that burned me with Hype Games, lol. I even payed 100 dollars for the collector's edition. The art book and the little Duke statue were probably the best things about that package.

But now, hype is much more likely to turn me off from anything really. Even things that are probably very good and deserve it. It took me years to watch Breaking Bad, and it turned out to be one of my favorite shows. I still refuse to play Baldurs Gate, but a lot of that also has to do with me not caring for the DnD genre. I knew months before release Cyberpunk and Starfield and Avowed would be trash while everyone sang them praises, and then watched the public tone do a 180 in real time. And I can tell the same for the upcoming Pokemon game. I've gotten very good at telling the signs. I was even (sort of) vindicated with TotK, highly suspicious with the lack of what was being presented ahead of time. It did turn out really good, but there were a lot of things about it that came out subpar.

The only thing that I'm still a victim to is my own personal hype for things I care about and want to succeed. Not much I can do about it, but it has burned me plenty of times and will continue to do so.

Although, I will say very recently Oblivion Remastered has been a hype game. I've been very jaded with Bethesda and at first I was completely dismissive of it. But watching streams and videos and reviews of it gave me more of an interest. And I really did respect how they shadow dropped it.

I ended up getting it on a sale. And of course it still has all the Bethesda problems... But it has been a really fun experience so far. So hey, I guess I'm not perfect.

What defines a "hype" game? If it looks fun I'm getting it.

The gaming industry is so large these days that it's pretty hard to keep up with every interesting game that comes out, even if you aren't plugged in to the mainstream hype cycle.

I just got a notification on windows to play ReFantazio.

I think it really depends case by case and which developer we are discussing. Ubisoft or Bethesda and I assume it's over rated and repetitive. Square I'm apprehensive. From software or Nintendo, I'll probably like it.

Extreme_light posted...

What defines a "hype" game? If it looks fun I'm getting it.

I would say, if the majority of streamers are playing it on release, it's easily a hype game.

BADoglick posted...

From software or Nintendo, I'll probably like it.

I used to feel this way, but Elden Ring 2 looks like absolute pointless garbage.

In an age of streaming, I've found it very easy to check out new releases and dismiss them if they're all glamour. Spending 15 minutes watching a few people play something gives you so much information to work with. When I buy games now, I always feel like I have a very solid understanding of the experience I'm getting compared to the old days.

I have been for a long time. I hate trends.

I pretend they don't exist.

My software tends to be older and usually based on recommendations from people in my own circle whose tastes I trust. I am usually not much aware of what is hyped and that has usually died down by the time I come around anyway. For an example of this, I played through Dragon Quest XI last year (most of the year as I had trouble finding time to play), and have been on Fallout 4 this year so far (same reason).