What definitely was distracting from my experience was that it's not as good as Infamous and not nearly as good as Infamous 2.

I wasn't hyped one bit about this game until like 2 days before release. I knew it couldn't beat Infamous 2. Still I was disappointed in the end.

no hype + game ends up being shit = no fun at all
boarding the hype train + game ends up being shit = atleast you had a good ride until it crashed

no hype + game turns out good = half the fun
boarding the hype train + game turns out good = epicness.

Therefore hype > no hype.

With a bit of research, I tend to balance those I like and what the media promotes.

Out of curiosity does mystery or discovery bring joy or not for you? For example if Uncharted 4 released tomorrow and you had no idea what was in store would it make it better or worse for you? Do you like knowing every aspect of the game before you play it?

red/infamous path is sooo much more fun

I don't buy into pre release hype, but it's funny to watch. Games get praised to high heaven, get released and disappear off the face of the earth. Games that survive being released get praised even more making sure that anyone playing it after release feels unimpressed.

It's the reason I haven't played Demon's souls yet, although I have the free ps+ version installed. Dark souls was an awesome surprise, but Demon's souls has been praised so much by now it can only disappoint.

@Spurge It happens to movies too but Gravity wasn't that great to begin with. All the praise was for the visuals and sound editing, which doesn't translate well to cable. All I knew about the movie in advance was that it would have amazing visuals, and it delivered in that department.

Except a few games like Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros WiiU, I rarely get hyped regarding gaming!

Apart from story spoilers, I like to know everything, especially in the online part of games.

But this only applies to watching. In the past I have played betas (including uncharted 3 beta) and it killed the hype when the actual game came out. But watching someone play something you dont have makes it even more exciting when you do get your hands on the game.

I cant say for certain because I dont think there has been a time where I have known EVERY aspect of a game before I played it.

Those were the days, walking into a store, browsing the shelves and a new NFS is out, great! I've bought plenty of games on box art alone too, or just because it said cloth map included inside (boxed pc games were always fun) I didn't know anything about Final fantasy or Zelda when I gave FF7 and OOT a try. Baldur's gate, Dungeon keeper cool box.

PS+ now provides that discovery experience. Knytt undergound, never heard of it, total surprise how much fun it was. Indie games are pretty fun like that anyway, usually all I know about them is from scanning half a review, buy it and play it the same day, for example Closure, Anti chamber, Fract OSC. That pleasant surprise is something AAA games can't deliver anymore. At least not when you frequent gaming sites, no matter how careful you are.

The secret of hype is to hype such that your expectations are below that of reality.
Man of Steel for instance gets quite polarizing movies, but I was hyped for it simply because of the flying seems, meanwhile I knew Last Airbender was going to be crap before I even saw the trailer, so I didn't even bother watching it.