Have you ever looked forward to a game for months (or longer) and it turned out to have bad reviews?

[WelcomeToTheNextLevel]

Did you get it, and if so, what did you think of the game?

I have two: Driv3r and Sonic '06.

Driv3r came out on June 21, 2004, I believe I got it within a week of launch day. Its Metacritic score is 57, which isn't awful, but it is below the average game (about 70). Having grown up with Driver 1 and 2, I was looking forward to 3. I saw some of the reviews at 3, 4, and 5 out of 10 and thought the reviewers were crazy. I really enjoyed Driv3r and played it frequently until GTA IV came out four years later. Yeah, it had a lot of glitches and bugs and was months from being complete, but it looked good and the cars crashed good for the time. Maybe it's because I was 11 when I got it, but I don't think that Driv3r deserves the hate it gets. It's certainly not a masterpiece and it hasn't aged well. But I'd call it a solid C grade game. At least it's easy to pick up and play, and is fun in short bursts.

Sonic '06, on the other hand, did worse on Metacritic with a score of 46. But this game deserves to be A LOT more than 11 points below Driv3r. On top of its own fair share of bugs and glitches, Sonic '06 is set in this vaguely Italian town called Soleanna. You have to perform tedious tasks like finding some kid's dog before you can go into the actual Sonic-like stages. I don't do tedium, especially in a Sonic game. Sonic's supposed to be easy to pick up and play. Another major flaw that if you die during the first level, you're sent back to the opening cut scene and have to go through the whole Soleanna section again. Add to that a craptastic story and you've got a game that may have gotten a 46 on Metacritic but probably deserves more like a 25.

Here's the difference: Underneath all of its bugs and glitches, Driv3r is still fun to play. Sonic '06 is just a pain to play.

A bit off-topic: I got Duke Nukem Forever on December 10, 2011 for only $4.98 . That's right, less than 5 bucks for a game that had launched 6 months earlier at $60. Never played it, but at the price, I just wanted it for the collection. I hear it's pretty bad. Probably slightly better than Sonic '06 though.

[Aussie2B]

A significant portion of the current gen games I buy. Most of the new games I get are pretty niche, and even if fans of similar games like them, the mainstream reviewers often don't seem to "get" them (if not flat-out admitting they're not in the target audience and have never played a game like it before; I couldn't even count the number of times I've seen reviewers who don't play visual novels review them and complain that they have "too much reading", or men reviewing otome games, or people reviewing something like Shiren the Wanderer 5 when they've never played a roguelike, or reviewing a fanservice-heavy game when they're put off by that kind of content, etc. etc.) And sometimes it seems like, even if a reviewer really enjoys a niche game, they feel like they have to temper their score and praise because god forbid a niche game is praised as highly as a AAA game that everyone expects to be showered in praise.

But none of this affects my own enjoyment. Even if everyone in the whole world thinks a game I love is garbage, I'm going to keep loving it and thinking it's a good game.

[Greg2600]

Well, back when all we had were small screen shots in magazines to get interested in an upcoming game, sure many times.....

[Steve W]

I remember reading a preview for Wild Metal in the Official Dreamcast Magazine that was short but glowing, bought the game, realized it was a turd, then a short while later getting the latest issue of the magazine where they crapped all over the game, rightfully so. But their short blurb about it made it sound so promising originally.

[BlastProcessing402]

WWF Raw for the orig Xbox. Was part of the reason I wanted an XB to begin with. Game as released was essentially still at alpha build level it was so bad. WWE Raw 2 on the same system was better, but still very much more in line with a beta build. Then THQ (the pub) canned the devs and had someone else do a Wrestlemania game for the next and last XB WWF/E game. It wasn't much better, and in some ways worse than Raw 2.

[Niku-Sama]

Rage on PC

no more carmak, no more

[TwinChargers]

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 was a pretty big letdown. Its shocking that it was for a bit being sold at full price. Fortunately I got it months after the release for cheap at GameStop (PS3 version). I mean, it isn't the most miserable game in the world, but it is far from the Tony Hawk I played as a young man. Talk about stripped down!

[Edmond Dantes]

Not quite "months" but.... two that come to mind immediately are Pac-Man 2: the New Adventures and Earthbound.

At the time, both of course had middling-to-negative press. Despite this I found myself eager to play both of them without any logic or reason behind my desire and, well, it eventually happened and I couldn't be happier.

[DeputyMoniker]

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (PS2)
I was all over that game until it came out. It was the first TR on PS2 and I was pumped! Really turned out to be a bore, though. Just kept thinking, "Where are the tombs??" I learned a lesson that time. Legacy alone isn't enough to make a good game. Haha.

[Koa Zo]

Steal Princess on DS
I had all my hopes on it that it was to be a return of Climax/Landstalker
That dream will never come to be.