Hate the hype, not the game

aGamingSite writes: 'On May the 20th when the first reviews were revealed for Haze, me and my friends were deflated. It wasn’t a ‘Halo’ killer. It wasn’t even that good, apparently. But was this really down to the game, or the media and public hype of the game?'

[Greywulf]

The game is hated because of its content, lack of progress, lack of advancement in game engine, lack of features, bad animation, DLC rape, and seasonal releases. These things are held as standard must haves by COD fanboys that claim that sales > game content. The media then falls over itself awarding the game perfect scores and turning blind eyes to glitches and problems, claiming that "if you like cod, you'll love this one!" While for other genres, being more of the same is a death sentence Come review time. Mainly because smaller publishers can't afford 1000 dollar swag bags and first class tickets to review the same boring game again.

Its a stale franchise. Its like hating Justin Beiber at this point, sure he sells millions but there are far better artists out there. Lets not pretend hes the best because he makes the most money.

[Shackdaddy836]

Best explanation I have heard yet.

[NatureOfLogic]

N4G told me to hate COD, but I like it, so I'm not a gamer./s

[Nitrowolf2]

you pretty much summed up everything that is wrong with this gen. I feel that because of COD we have many other trying to following this line. Look I like COD but i would like to see some progression other then a re-skin.

DLC has really gotten out of hand and us consumers aren't doing a dam thing about them. Not gonna blame COD for it, but they did have an influence on pricing. Not only that i feel like they really saturated the market with FPS. I can go into every month with a new FPS coming out but i can't get a new RPG/JRPG or games like heavy rain or Shadow of colossus for years.

[showtimefolks]

i agree with everything.

uncharted 2 didn't bring anything new to the table as gametrailers said well i ask what has cod of the past few years?

and every game's fanboys whether its cod,gta,halo,gears etc,,,,

always back their claims by sales well some of the best games of all time never sold 1 million how come?

Indigo Prophecy
Okami
ico
sotc
shemnue
mafia 1
system shock 2
shadow run
etc,,,,

so yeh keep buying this crap that you call cod and soon that's all we will have left.

its a proven fact with 100million plus advertisement budgets anything could be sold to fanboys and casual gamers

[upturned2]

Why do you only have one bubble? Those jerks! I clicked helpful because now that you summed it up so nicely as the first comment, nobody else has to explain it. Especially, since it can't be said any better than that.

[showtimefolks]

only have 2 or fewer bubbles and that's just sad

[creatchee]

@Greywulf

I understand your points. Some of them I agree with. Others I do not.

Sales do not necessarily mean that a game is high quality, but one also must consider that if a game truly isn't good, then people will stop playing it. The most played games on both XBOX and PSN are COD titles, with even COD4 hanging on in the top ten after almost 4 years. If the games were not good by any reasonable definition of the word, then people simply would not play them.

You say that there are far better artists than Justin Bieber out there. However, to his fans (both hardcore and casual), he is the best out there. It is an elitist position to say that the majority is wrong simply because you do not agree with or support what they like. Same goes for COD. COD hatred is akin to the heavy metal community's hatred of anything "pop" or claims of bands "selling out" if they gain more than 20 fans, and is found almost exclusively on internet boards such as N4G.

In response to the game engine - I agree that the game hasn't really been visually upgraded since COD4, but is that really a bad thing? The game looks great still. I would much rather the game maintain its smooth 60FPS than drop down a bit for more photo-realism or destructibility. The game is meant to be fast paced in terms of combat and would suffer if this benchmark was not maintained.

I totally agree on the DLC rape, but not the price point. The price ($3 a map) is fine. However, I do NOT agree with them simply holding maps off that were ready at launch and could have very well been included on the retail disc. This is gouging and not good business, and is in the same greedy vein as on-disc DLC.

I do not understand your complaint over lack of features though. Honestly - the most recent release of Black Ops had a single player campaign. zombie mode, multiplayer mode, and theater mode. Are these not enough features for a $60 retail release? I think so.

Finally, I agree with your reviews assessment. I do not like the idea of gift bags being given with review copies. The game should arrive like it would to a consumer, or at least as much as it can because of the preemptive nature of the review process. And while I agree that COD and a few other games get a pass when it comes to not innovating where other games do not, you also have to consider that highly-received products, whether they be games or cars or household cleaners or types of food, will not be significantly changed in updates as long as they remain highly-received. Changing such a product may alienate the willing consumer base and cause loss of profit. In a business sense, companies give people more of what they want and like until they don't want or like it anymore, and judging by the sales numbers (which is very important in this line of thought), the public likes COD very much.

Bottom line - COD is a good game that is very profitable for the company that produces it and makes the people who purchase it happy. It is successful and lives up to its hype on every scale, whether or not the dissenters want to acknowledge that fact.

[bwazy]

Really? Because when I played Black Ops I was EXTREMELY unhappy, as were A LOT of players. Black Ops had the absolute shortest honeymoon period of ANY game I've ever played.

[Gamer_Z]

@Greywulf

Well said sir

[L6RD7BLU3]

Except Bobby Kotic's face, it's just something about his face that needs changing with a hard object lol

[PS360PCROCKS]

How bout I hate the hype AND the game? Cod 4 was a fantastic game and I still own it. But the popularity of 4 ruined it for this entire gen. Because greedy Activision had to include Treyarch and make it a yearly frickin update. I have nothing against IW or Treyarch, Activision is pushing the DLC prices and pushing these games out so quickly when the hell is their TIME for innovation!?

[GunofthePatriots]

Hate the game, and the hype

[debian_zac]

While i loved call of duty 4, now seeing lack of new things, lack of any real engine progress, yet it requires higher system requirements makes me question how stable the code base is. so i hate both the hype and the game.

[earbus]

Hype ruins games i thought uncharted 2 would be epic everyone went on and on got it finished it was one of the most over hyped games i ever played ,homefront got the hype 2 i might just buy crap games with low scores from now on then there is only suprise rather than dissapointment.

[dinkeldinkse]

But some people can hype it up way too much. That is why it is a good idea to not put much stock in other people's opinions about games. If I would listen more to other people's opinions, I would have a game collection full of dogshit like the COD series.