It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

After what could have been an onslaught of great games to choose from, it looks as if the developers gave in to the pressure of having to release the games before the holiday season started.

All ratings from ign.com:
Soldier of Fortune Payback: 6.1 (admittedly, the prior SOF games weren't great, at least consistency is the model in this franchise)
Kane and Lynch: 7.0 (looks like a rental, what a shame, I had high hopes for this one)
Blacksite Area 51: 6.4
Beowulf: 4.0
Cabella's Big Game Hunter: 5.0
Fear Files: 6.7
Clive Barker Jericho: 5.6
Sim City Societies: 5.8
Hellgate London: 6.8

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

yeah, mass effect, orange box, mario galaxy, uncharted, ratchet and clank, (assassins creed), CoD4, crysis, rock band, what a mediocre line up.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

[ QUOTE ]
yeah, mass effect, orange box, mario galaxy, uncharted, ratchet and clank, (assassins creed), CoD4, crysis, rock band, what a mediocre line up.

[/ QUOTE ]

Those games are the exception to the rule. I left out most of the recent reviews and the list of mediocre/awful games would be even longer.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

Those are a lot of [censored] exceptions.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

5-6 of the games on that list that are either sequels to successful franchises or in Beowulf's case, an adaptation of a movie. Often games like those are made just for a quick profit for the company using old games as the model. Nothing new and no innovation, hence the low scores.

but as previous posters mentioned, this holiday season has LOTS of great games. the video game industry is bigger than the movie business now -- so there are going to be lots of games, most of which will be terrible, but that doesn't mean good games won't be made.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

What I'd really like to see some more of: 2D action/adventure/rpg/whatever. I want some next-gen Wizards & Warrios action, some suped-up Faxanadu, twenty more Metroidvania games. Anything good in this vein out lately? My latest system is a GameCube, so I don't know the lineups of the next-gen stuff too well. But, yeah, some good 2D games would definitely pique my interest.

Oh, and I'm more interested in console stuff than handheld, but I guess handhelds are more likely to have this kind of game.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

I think what OP is pointing out a lot of games that were hyped up quite a bit yet turned out to be disappointing. From his list specifically Kane and Lynch, Hellgate, Jericho and maybe blacksite.

This holiday season still has quite a few strong titles, but if you take a look at some lists compiled from July/August, theres a few that got dropped.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

The complaints about Hellgate were worse than I anticipated.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

he listed almost as many ridiculously awesome games as you listed "mediocre" ones. I hardly think that works with your "exception to the rule" argument.

Re: It seems mediocrity is the rule these days...
 

Damn it, what am I going to do in a world where Cabella's Big Game Hunter isn't a game of the year candidate? I was expecting big things out of that one.