10 Video Games Everyone Loves To Hate (That Totally Don't Deserve It)
Hype is only skin-deep.
Outside of perhaps sports fans, I can't think of any medium that brings out passion on any side of a given property quite like gaming. We LOVE getting stuck into the year-long hype-cycles, picking apart footage and dissecting trailers, hoping every single game will be the next Final Fantasy VII, GTA III, Skyrim etc.
We love hype and heightened expectations because we want to... but such an insanely pent-up sense of desire can turn on a dime - especially if something starts to feel a little off at any point before or during launch.
To that end, many games are doomed from the start - maligned creations that misjudge their fanbase or the wants and needs of the public, releasing to a fanfare akin to pathetically blowing their own party horn with no guests in sight.
These are those games. The only problem is, like every good underdog, they've so much more to offer, if you'd only give them a chance...
10. Halo 4
The Consensus: "Master Chief's story is finished, we don't need another", "It's not Halo without Bungie"
The Truth: The biggest killer for Halo 4 was its placement in the story. Master Chief's arc wrapped up after a solid third instalment saw him drifting off into the cosmos, and even Halo: Reach already took the "Okay, fine, one more game" slot in our minds, leaving Halo 4 to be a latecomer to the party - albeit the one who's still dressed to turn heads.
343 Industries were always going to have one hell of a mountain to climb when it came to inheriting the franchise, too. Let's be crystal clear: What Bungie did shaped the face of gaming forevermore, changing the very paradigm of how we think first-person shooters should look, feel and control.
To step into the ring after that? They didn't stand a chance.
Still, innovation was present as 343, injected Halo with a way more heartfelt story centred on the Chief and Cortana's relationship. Altered controls royally peed off the fans (but could be changed back) and a new enemy faction named the Prometheans brought with them a host of new morphing weapons to play with.
Halo 4 is easily just as good as Bungie's entries and then some, a product of wrong timing incarnate.