9. No Man's Sky Doesn't Live Up To The Hype
No Man's Sky came out of nowhere and blew gamers away at last year's VGX awards show, unveiling itself as a procedurally-generated open universe game, in which the player can explore countless planet in their spaceship. If the game lives up to even a fraction of its hype, it should be, with its life-filled planets, combat and deep exploration, one of 2015's most innovative works. The problem is that, while the game pops visually and it's an exciting idea, this instantly reminds us of one game in particular which promised innovation and was ultimately a victim of its own hype: Spore. Spore eventually hit stores in 2008 following multiple delays, and though critics were kind to it, general gamer reaction was far more muted. Frankly, it's a game rarely brought up in discussion anymore other than as a game that fell far short of its promises and goals. No Man's Sky is, of course, a very different game, and coming as it does from British indie developer Hello Games, it's an easy project to root for. We all want it to be the masterpiece it's already being touted as, but it would be very easy for the game's algorithm-based level generation to end up repetitive, soulless and boring. Hopefully this isn't yet another case of the gaming press banging their drums too hard and leaving players ultimately underwhelmed, but we've got a feeling, for all of the game's evident splendour, it might be.