10 Video Games It's Cool To Hate

We’re going to kick things off with one of the biggest names in recent gaming memory (if not the very biggest): Fortnite. When this title first landed in July of 2017, it would have been tough to predict what a phenomenon it would become. The gaming landscape would never be the same again.

When titles become pop culture events in their own right, they change the entire gaming landscape around themselves. Fortnite didn’t revolve around the battle royale concept when it first arrived (that part of the game was inspired by the success of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds), but that’s become its legacy: as the face that launched a thousand free-for-all deathmatch games. This is where part of the Fortnite hatred arises from: it wasn't particularly creative and it wasn't the first, but it's now become the yardstick by which all battle royales are measured.

The concept is simple enough to understand: a great crop of players land on Fortnite’s iconic island at the same time, and must scramble to loot useful items and weapons with which to defend themselves and outlive everybody else. Perhaps it wasn’t the very first battle royale title, but Fortnite popularized the concept that has utterly flooded the market now.

Titles as wide-ranging as Forza Horizon 4 (with its The Eliminator mode) and Tetris (in the shape of the battle royale title Tetris 99) have adopted the battle royale concept now, however awkward a fit it may be, and Fortnite is widely blamed for that. Epic Games' title is far from the most consumer-friendly, as well, with its much-criticised loot boxes and the push to make in-game purchases for silly cosmetics.

Battle passes, the constant drip-feeding of achievements and XP, the addictive nature of playing and trying to emulate popular streamers... these are some of the most criticised elements of the industry today, and Fortnite has had a huge part to play in making them as widespread as they are.