10 Video Games Ruined By Overhype

Few new IP have made as much impact with their first gameplay reveal alone as Watch Dogs, which was announced at Ubisoft's 2012 E3 presser and categorically stole the show.

The brief gameplay slice showed off eye-wateringly beautiful next-gen graphics while focusing on its deliciously enticing gameplay loop: the ability to hack and manipulate seemingly any technology in the vicinity to your will.

Ubisoft did a frankly fantastic job of hyping Watch Dogs up to be a game-changer that'd reinvent the open-world action game as we knew it, perhaps even offering a rare worthy challenger to Grand Theft Auto's mantle. Fans certainly believed it.

And though Watch Dogs released to strong sales and solid reviews, the consensus across the board was that it fell far short of the frothing hype.

The visuals were ultimately majorly downgraded from their original E3 showing, the hacking mechanics were more limited than expected, and the story and characters were relatively generic, even dull.

It was a decent stab at remixing the GTA open-world formula for sure, but left shockingly little of a lasting impression, in turn hobbling a franchise right out of the gate that's failed to make a dent ever since.