Black and White
Peter Molyneux is a genius, but he needs to shut up. Any one of his games could have made this list due to the ridiculous hype he is able to generate for his projects, but Black and White is the one game of his that should never be disregarded as being over-hyped. The deep gameplay and the incredible creature AI all lead to an experience that has yet to be bettered since. It’s just a shame that this disappeared from the collective gaming subconscious before it really started to shine.
Prey
FPS titles are a pound a penny these days, and things weren’t all that different back in 2006. Prey was deceptively generic as a sci-fi styled shooting romp, but it’s beautiful story, sensitivity toward native American culture and awesome gravity defying puzzles made it a memorable and invigorating experience. It was all ruined by the game’s needlessly protracted development cycle. Any game that spends over ten years in development is bound to full into over-hyped obscurity, but it was a fate that Prey just didn’t deserve.
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy 7 was, and still is, the most popular JRPG ever made. It was thus that number eight had a tricky act to follow. The impressive ad campaign launched by Square gave the game an immeasurable hype to make good of, but fans felt hard done by on account of drastic changes in tone and gameplay FF8 made upon its predecessor. That said, these changes were never all that bad. The junction system, though not quite as accessible as the materia system of number seven, offered some of the most versatile and deep gameplay of any of the Final Fantasy series. Likewise, the story, though very different in tone from seven, offered a very different mix of emotions and an affecting cast of characters. It deserved better than the place it has since been given as the “black sheep” of the series.
