14 Most Polarising Video Games Of The Decade (So Far)
Good luck getting two people to agree on L.A. Noire.
In a world where hot takes, reactions and sensationalism has taken hold of the mainstream, we gamers have been trading incendiary opinions for years. Thanks to a solid cycle of overhype leading to expectations that are rarely met, the vast majority of games occasionally boil down to "It's a must-play/best thing ever!" to "Avoid like the plague."
Indeed, with bigger budgets come bigger sales demands, factoring back into how trailers are created and the games themselves are mass-marketed. Something like No Man's Sky stumbled through every beat of this; being lied about pre-release to guarantee traction, face-planting the floor at launch thanks to being a threadbare version of what was shown beforehand, and finally standing up straight, one year later.
Though, Hello Games' debacle isn't entirely unique, and whether it be advertising qualms, cut content revealed to be missing at launch, removed mechanics or offline servers, it can result in a games' fractured status forever being referred to as "Yeah it's great, BUT..."
Those conceits and addendums go on to reverberate through time, though in retrospect - and with greater access to gaming's pantheon than ever - do they hold up?