Do Brand name games get inflated scores based on hype?

[Mythmaker1]

Michael-5 said:

Mythmaker1 said:

Michael-5 said:

Mythmaker1 said:
To a degree, yes.

96 - Resident Evil 4
94 - Gears of War

I fu**ing loved these two games. Resident Evil 4 is by far the best Resident Evil, and I don't think any survival horror will ever match it.

Gears of War 1 was pretty awesome too, so melancholy. That Mad World commercial was just amazing.

Maybe highly rated score are good, just haters gonna hate?

My problem with Resident Evil 4 has much to do with its punishing difficulty. Sign-posting is a major issue, long series of quick-time events are tedious to work through, and the game often decides to insta-kill you with no warning. A good game, certainly, but with significant issues.

Gears of War was fine, but nothing special. The gameplay was a bit too shallow for me to really appreciate it, and the plot was perhaps overly simplistic.

Not exactly sure what you mean by the last bit...

You thought Resident Evil 4 was difficult? Have you ever played something like Ninja Gaiden, Too Human, Devil May Cry, or even Vanquish's Challenge Mode? I thought RE4 was a bit on the easy side, but the quick time events were a bit tedious.

For the last bit, maybe highly reviewed games are awesome, and as individuals, we all might disagree with a game or two (you think RE4 is over-rated, I thing MGS4 is over-rated, etc).

Not simply difficult, punishing.

When you die in a game, there should be some indication that death was earned, like if you charged in recklessly and just died. In this game, however, it's common to encounter a situation where you will die because the game blind-sided you with something you couldn't possibly see coming. Instant-kill attacks or quick-time events you couldn't possibly see coming. Invincible enemies (or semi-invincible enemies) that you should run from, and not fight, but the game doesn't tell you that's the case. And quite a few times, I had rage-inducing glitches that forced me to restart from earlier saves to clear, but that might have just been a PS2 problem.

As far as the that sentiment, yes and no. RE4 is not the best example, since the game came out a while back, and standards were a bit less defined back then. I decided to put it on the list mostly because it was the last thing I personally played.