What turned out to be pure hype?

[SozzlyJoe]

PT was literally pure hype as we got the teaser and then they canned the game. But man, what hype! Everyone got stoked about this amazing reveal. I was so caught up in it. Wow! NORMAN REEDUS. I didn't even know who that fucking was and I was hyped. Can't believe Konami threw away all the solid gold marketing buzz. Only to crawl back, years later, with Bloober.

[ryodi]

10 hours ago, Gorf said:

Did an expansion pak cost £60? Maybe it was half that, still a kick in the balls at the time

I think it was £40 but I assume everyone got it with DK64 which only had it to fix a memory leak

 

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/05/donkey_kong_64_required_expansion_pak_to_prevent_game_breaking_bug

 

Quote

 

Marlow explains that a glitch would cause the game to randomly crash, but only when configured to work using the N64’s standard 4MB memory setup. As Rare was unable to identify the cause of the crash, it was eventually forced to release the game with the Expansion Pak bundled-in for free.

This naturally came at a great expense to the developer and Nintendo at the time, but former Rare employee Chris Seavor (perhaps best known for providing the voice of Conker) states during the same video that this ended up working in Perfect Dark’s favour (which released a year later), as that game actually did require the Expansion Pak in order for all of its gameplay features to work. Perfect Dark ended up selling more than 3 million copies worldwide.

 

 

As an avid reader of N64 Magazine I totally bought into their hype for Turok 2 and was hugely disappointed by it.

[Kevvy Metal]

8 minutes ago, dumpster said:

That's true, and maybe my view is affected by working in games retail at the time.  But back then it felt so hard to build up excitement about what we had in store because PS2 was coming out.  If I remember, back then a DVD player was still going to set you back £200 or so, and PS2 would play DVDs so it was a no brainer.  And the emotion engine! This thing feels emotion! 

 

It felt like the forthcoming PS2 was going to be streets ahead of the competition and to be fair (as stated above) once you had Metal Gear 2 etc you could see it was a decent bit of kit.  But before launch the whole store felt a bit stagnant with people unwilling to invest in anything new because the PS2 was coming, would play DVDs, was 10 times better than anything, it makes the tea, wanks you off, does the dishes, best thing ever....  Pre-order demand was through the roof... And yet there was a lot of great stuff happening that was being overlooked because PlayStation was coming.  And when it launched, it was a box, a controller, and Tekken.  Nothing wrong with that, but the hype had lead some people to believe it would be world changing and it really wasn't... At least not until the Metal Gears etc came along.

 

TTT one of the best fighting games ever? and RR5! So you know, an amazing time!
Every single PlayStation since the dawn of time has an "early adopter" period of a year or so before it all heats up. 
PS2 arguably had the shortest time till the absolute gold came. 

[Qazimod]

Jurassic Park: Trespasser? I think the story was that the engine tried to be way too ambitious and everyone got excited for features that were pretty innovative for the time - the physics system, the AI-generated animation, the detailed outdoor environments. When it was all put together it resulted in a buggy mess with animation all over the place, physics objects sliding around and distant sprites popping into 3D models when close.

 

A victim of ambition, then, but that same ambition led to all of the hype.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Platinum Games, Square Enix. What could possibly go wrong.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

BioWare, massive Destiny style shooter with mechs. What could possibly....

[Kevvy Metal]

4 minutes ago, Opinionated Ham Scarecrow said:

Platinum Games, Square Enix. What could possibly go wrong.

 

Neir: Automata?

Nothing then?

[Qazimod]

I think (hope) he means Babylon's Fall, because Nier was fine (if not to everyone's tastes.)

[deKay]

11 hours ago, Keyboard Koala said:

And Perfect Dark.

 

And Turok Rage Wars

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

@Qazimod Yeah I was pretty confident I didn't even need to give the name there.

[Siri]

15 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

TTT one of the best fighting games ever? and RR5! So you know, an amazing time!
Every single PlayStation since the dawn of time has an "early adopter" period of a year or so before it all heats up. 
PS2 arguably had the shortest time till the absolute gold came. 

 

Yeah, the period between the UK end of November launch and ZOE was, what, four months? I think most of that was spent playing WWF Smackdown 2 and FFIX. and THPS2 came out September of that year, and back then everyone chewed the bones of that game for time immemorial.

[JamesC]

I remember WatchDogs being hyped to hell in magazines after E3 appearance. They made it sound so amazing with all the control you would have over the environment.
There was also a rumour that it was going to tie into the Assassin's Creed story (not sure where that came from) that turned out to be bollocks.

The game was playable but fairly dull and the hacking was often less useful than just hitting people with a stick.
It also had that cringey thing pop cluture does, where they turn hackers into counter-culture heroes who have loads of piecings and love nu-metal.

[barkbat]

Personally, the hype of Halo 2 vs the reality of actually playing the thing after queuing all night for it has to be the biggest corporate slapping I've ever recieved.
I just couldn't believe that turning 180 resulted in seeing the level being built. I thought I must have a dud copy. But then the more I played, the more I realised what a cobbled together bit of bollocks it all was. Bland level design. Unfair enemy AI. A dual weilding weapon system that just added complexity for the sake of looking 'cool'. It was like Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, then just handed his brushes to a random teenager outside and said "could you paint the church next door pal, cheers". And so what if the multiplayer death match was good. Is that what made Halo 1 a fucking global phenomenon? No. It was the campaign. Bungie still owe me £44.99.

[Kevvy Metal]

9 minutes ago, Qazimod said:

I think (hope) he means Babylon's Fall, because Nier was fine (if not to everyone's tastes.)

 

I knew he meant that yes, I was being a little pedantic. 
Also, NeiR appears to be a pretty huge thing in the gaming community at large if you look beyond a forum full of hard to please & disgruntled 40-something year olds. 

[dumpster]

28 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

TTT one of the best fighting games ever? and RR5! So you know, an amazing time!
Every single PlayStation since the dawn of time has an "early adopter" period of a year or so before it all heats up. 
PS2 arguably had the shortest time till the absolute gold came. 

Ridge Racer 5, much as I love Ridge Racer, was a terrible PAL conversion and had a flicker to the graphics. I *think* that Tekken wasn't PAL optimised either.  I'll stop derailing, but I just think the PS2 hype was so huge it made the existing marketplace stagnant as everyone waited for this incredible forthcoming machine that could not have been as powerful and world changing as everyone seemed to believe .

[Flanders]

25 minutes ago, Kevvy Metal said:

 

TTT one of the best fighting games ever? and RR5! So you know, an amazing time!
Every single PlayStation since the dawn of time has an "early adopter" period of a year or so before it all heats up. 
PS2 arguably had the shortest time till the absolute gold came. 

There is a very weird belief among what seems a sizeable subset of this forum that the Dreamcast failed because of this campaign of lies and marketing hype for the PS2, as opposed to the PS2 being an objectively much, much, much better console with an infinitely greater games library, including a good launch lineup and the best first 18 months of any platform ever, and the ability to play DVDs. 

[SMD]

5 minutes ago, Flanders said:

There is a very weird belief among what seems a sizeable subset of this forum that the Dreamcast failed because of this campaign of lies and marketing hype for the PS2, as opposed to the PS2 being an objectively much, much, much better console with an infinitely greater games library, including a good launch lineup and the best first 18 months of any platform ever, and the ability to play DVDs. 

 

I think it's just gaming enthusiasts in general, seen it on other forums. I think we've found all the Dreamcast owners at the time in one place. 

 

In all seriousness, most launch periods are crap anyway so trying to pretend that the PS2 launch window was any worse than other consoles is weird. Also it very much delivered on the hype given the library it ended up having, if you bought a PS2 in the first year then sold it more fool you?

[kiroquai]

Oh man, I remember feeling totally spoilt for choice with the PS2 launch! SSX, Tekken Tag, Timesplitters, Ridge Racer 5... yeah, loads of good stuff! PS2 didn't kill the Dreamcast, obviously. More like the final nail in a coffin SEGA had created themselves with 32X, Sega CD and Saturn.

[Kevvy Metal]

11 minutes ago, dumpster said:

Ridge Racer 5, much as I love Ridge Racer, was a terrible PAL conversion and had a flicker to the graphics. I *think* that Tekken wasn't PAL optimised either.  I'll stop derailing, but I just think the PS2 hype was so huge it made the existing marketplace stagnant as everyone waited for this incredible forthcoming machine that could not have been as powerful and world changing as everyone seemed to believe .

 

By the launch of the PS2, I was already well into importing and a member of ntsc-uk forum. 
I did buy a PAL machine, in early 2002 but with the knowledge that a "Ghost 2" mod chip was going to be installed, it boots everything with zero fuzz auto-switching to the PAL PS2's proper NTSC mode. 
I bought almost zero PAL games for it. Everything was from Play-Asia, videogamesplus.ca or Tronix. 

I still have all of it, bar a few traded games. My PS2 still works perfectly (touch wood) and it's all hooked up to a Sony PVM via RGB. 

[MattyP]

31 minutes ago, Flanders said:

There is a very weird belief among what seems a sizeable subset of this forum that the Dreamcast failed because of this campaign of lies and marketing hype for the PS2, as opposed to the PS2 being an objectively much, much, much better console with an infinitely greater games library, including a good launch lineup and the best first 18 months of any platform ever, and the ability to play DVDs. 

Indeed. Sega killed the Dreamcast. Great console and sterling effort by the team in place at Sega at the time but it was too little to late. I never bought one at launch or a PS2 for that matter just waited to see how everything panned out. Did eventually pick a DC up after Sega had effectively wound it down but when you looked at something like Gran Turimso 3 A-Spec it just put things into context a bit.  

 

Never believe the hype anymore or get sucked into anything.. haven't for a long while. Only console I've ever bought at launch was the Xbox 360... and well look what happened there (RRoD). Although never had any issues myself. However hardware aside it was an impressive console.

[Sabreman]

The Konix Multisystem. Holy shit did I want one of those. At the end of the day it was just a bunch of plastic gubbins surrounding an Amiga-level console, and ironically the only taste of it I ever got was the Amiga version of Hammerfist.

[Benny]

It's all personal opinion at the end of the day, but I'm taking the spirit of the topic to mean: games which were massively hyped up, and when they came out widely received breathless reviews from critics with 90%+ scores, but when us proles actually got to play them they were widely regarded as a bit shite.

 

Obviously loads fit those criteria. These come to mind presently:

 

Bioshock Infinite - problematic story elements, and combat that was simplistic and boring and nothing like what was promised

Turok 2 - sluggish as fuck and not fit to sniff Goldeneye's boots

 

And a recent one which I think will age poorly in future: Deathloop - more a personal opinion here but (genuine) opinions from players do seem much more mixed than critics.

 

 

[Stanley]

Yep Bioshock Infinite was a letdown, it was still enjoyable but nothing like the hype build up for it. 
 

I loved Deathloop and my expectations weren’t great given how it divided fans, but coming to it a year after release I loved it. 

[Oh Danny Boy]

1 hour ago, Flanders said:

There is a very weird belief among what seems a sizeable subset of this forum that the Dreamcast failed because of this campaign of lies and marketing hype for the PS2, as opposed to the PS2 being an objectively much, much, much better console with an infinitely greater games library, including a good launch lineup and the best first 18 months of any platform ever, and the ability to play DVDs. 

Definitely as a factor in its failure. SEGAs well running dry for a variety of reasons was the main reason. 
 

The PS2 was well disappointing for the first 18months, it took a while to get going. Whilst the Dreamcast had an insane amount of amazing software during the equivalent period in its lifespan. 

[Giddas]

19 minutes ago, Benny said:

It's all personal opinion at the end of the day, but I'm taking the spirit of the topic to mean: games which were massively hyped up, and when they came out widely received breathless reviews from critics with 90%+ scores, but when us proles actually got to play them they were widely regarded as a bit shite.

 

Obviously loads fit those criteria. These come to mind presently:

 

Bioshock Infinite - problematic story elements, and combat that was simplistic and boring and nothing like what was promised

Turok 2 - sluggish as fuck and not fit to sniff Goldeneye's boots

 

And a recent one which I think will age poorly in future: Deathloop - more a personal opinion here but (genuine) opinions from players do seem much more mixed than critics.

 

 

 

WIth you on Deathloop, although I am comparing it to my favourite games (Dishonored).

[Steve McQueef]

3 hours ago, englishbob said:

Elden Rings performance mode

 

[Benny]

I think what frustrates me about Deathloop is that it's not bad at all, but a lot of quarters seemed to completely ignore Prey at the time, and it didn't review as well and yet that's a so much better and deeper "sim" type game. But Deathloop slaps on some "attitude", makes all the trailers focus on how violent it all is, and the hype train lapped it up.

 

 

[The Mighty Ash]

2 hours ago, KriessG said:

Games like Astro Bot, Superhot, Beat Saber and more gave me experiences and the wow factor with games I’d not had since a child. VR is only going to get better too. Basically, 1 is nothing like the other.

 

Sure, they're all great but it's been slim pickings since they released.  

[Nick R]

13 minutes ago, Oh Danny Boy said:

The PS2 was well disappointing for the first 18months, it took a while to get going. Whilst the Dreamcast had an insane amount of amazing software during the equivalent period in its lifespan. 

 

That's what I've always thought: the PS2 did become a great console, and some of its early titles were good (Fantavision at launch, Gran Turismo 3 in summer 2001). But it wasn't until Christmas 2001/early 2002 that the UK started getting exclusives that I was really interested in playing (GTA3, Jak and Daxter, MGS2).

 

In comparison, the DC had loads of stuff in its first PAL year that I wanted to play (helped by the backlog of a year's worth of Japanese titles, of course). Soul Calibur, Sonic Adventure, Virtua Tennis, Crazy Taxi, Marvel vs Capcom 2, Ecco the Dolphin, Jet Set Radio, F355 Challenge, Power Stone, Metropolis Street Racer, Quake 3 Arena, and Shenmue were all out in the UK by the end of 2000. All of which I wanted to play, and all of which I ultimately enjoyed.

 

So I really disagree with the idea that the PS2 built up a great library anywhere near as quickly as the DC did!

 

(Mileage may vary for those who don't care about arcadey stuff.)

[Parappa]

12 hours ago, carlospie said:

Metal gear solid 5

🤨