<img src="https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p/?c1=2&amp;c2=10055482&amp;cv=4.4.0&amp;cj=1"> Skip to main content
PC Gamer PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • Hardware
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Video
  • Forum
  • More
    • PC Gaming Show
    • Software
    • Movies & TV
    • Coupons
    • Magazine
    • Newsletter
    • Community guidelines
    • links
    • Meet the team
    • About PC Gamer
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
PC Gamer Magazine Subscription
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$32.49
View
Popular
  • Memorial Day Deals
  • Computex 2025
  • TES4: Oblivion
  • Elden Ring: Nightreign
  • GTA 6

Recommended reading

The Valve guy from the Portal 2 intro slowly looks over his shoulder in ominous fashion.
Gaming Industry Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'
An image of a corpse with the text &quot;You&#039;ve been re-educated.&quot;
Adventure I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
Gaming Industry 2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Key art for 14 underappreciated games feature, including characters from SKin Deep, Solium Infernum, 1000xRESIST, MechWarriror 5: Clans, and more
Games The 14 most underappreciated games of the last year that you shouldn't have ignored
Altair charges a Templar, wrist-blade extended.
Assassin's Creed I wish Ubisoft had ever made the game it promised with Assassin's Creed 1, but instead the series just spiralled into a weird identity crisis
Oblivion best class - A warrior wearing ornate heavy armour and wielding a sword and shield.
Games The best PC games right now
Promise Mascot Agency art
Games The best laptop games
  1. Games

The 10 most overhyped PC games

Features
By Matt Elliott published 8 August 2016

Whether or not they succeeded, these games were blown way out of proportion.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an commission. Here’s how it works.

Hype is part of the life cycle of a game. It’s the awkward stage of development when the game isn’t finished but still demands attention. At this point games are like lusty teenagers, clamoring for the approval of potential partners. At the risk of over-sharing my adolescent seduction techniques, every pre-order incentive is a pierced eyebrow, every trailer a scaled lamppost. 

Much like high school, some games are sexy and cool enough that they don’t need hype. Others actively eschew it. This list rounds up the games so desperate for your attention they started doing one-armed push ups in the school quadrant. And, just like actual people, some lived up to the hype, some didn’t.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Aliens: Colonial Marines

Aliens: Colonial Marines

What a great idea. A shadowy FPS that brings us full circle, referencing all the cool things that Aliens gave to shooting games. A great trailer helped build momentum, showing off steamy abandoned corridors and gnawing xenomorph menace. Early versions of the game set it between Aliens and Alien 3, giving it true cinematic heritage. 

The finished game was so far removed from the initial reveal that a class action lawsuit was brought against SEGA. The plaintiffs have since dropped Gearbox from the suit, and it’s no longer a class action, but the point is clear: Aliens: Colonial Marines was disappointing enough for people to spend their own money suing SEGA.

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs

There are a couple of Ubi titles that could be on this list—and at least two Assassin’s Creed games—but Watch Dogs is snake oil in digital form. The initial reveal stole E3 in 2012, showing a game which almost too good to be true. And by ‘almost’, I mean ‘absolutely, obviously, outrageously’.

Many of us bought it, though. We believed the immersive world, integrated multiplayer and staggering graphics. Even after lengthy delays, there was hope. When Watch Dogs finally arrived, it wasn't awful, but it was a more linear, ordinary experience than all but the most cynical gamer would have expected.

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Crysis

Crysis

Crysis was a reason to a more powerful machine. A benchmarking game, that showed off the bleeding edge technology achievable on PC. Tired video cards filled every recycling bin, ripped out and replaced on the guarantee of gaming’s greatest foliage. What a time to be alive. 

How could a game demanding enough to actually kill your PC live up to the hype? With great difficulty. Unlike other overhyped games it was exactly as pretty as promised, and the opening hours are incredible, but it wasn’t the transformative shooter some hoped it would be. Still, though: those fronds. Holy shit. 

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online

There was plenty of reason to be excited about Elder Scrolls Online. The idea of exploring all of Tamriel was hugely enticing. Director Matt Firor has serious MMO heritage, having worked on games such as Dark Age of Camelot, which helped define the genre. And then there were those cinematic trailers, which showed sweeping, high-fantasy battles and crackling magic.

For ease, people had started describing Elder Scrolls Online as a ‘Skyrim MMO’, suggesting the same sandbox gameplay would be present. It was obvious from the opening moments this wasn’t the case. We’re accustomed to Tamriel being a fascinating place because you can go anywhere and do anything, and at launch, the Elder Scrolls Online didn’t come close to delivering on that promise.

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Homefront

Homefront

Like a some other games on this list, the hype for Homefront originated from it challenging another big-budget title. In this case, it was Call of Duty. With THQ clawing at the lucrative shooter market, they threw every penny they had at Homefront. The game’s red star and clumsy message was splattered across every games mag. When it looked like the game might be delayed, THQ’s VP of Core Games and cross-media menhir Danny Bilson assured the press that developer Kaos Studios was working seven-day weeks to get it finished. 

Add an uneasy story about the Korean occupation of the US, written in part by John Milius, and Homefront became the definition of a doomed, middling shooter. A 60-day crunch period couldn’t deliver the game that was promised, THQ suffered a 26% stock drop on release, and Kaos Studios sadly closed as a result. 

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
Spore

Spore

Yes, there was a time when we got excited about a game called Spore. Spore! It was designed by SimCity creator and don’t-confuse-him-with-Wesley-Crusher developer Will Wright, and was a hugely ambitious project. And I mean ambitious in the sense that we expected a game about creating life and seeing it develop into a complex civilizations, not just ‘the guns are really good’. 

The reception was generally good. Some believed Spore would change the way we think about games. Other thought it was merely a collection of amusing distractions. Whatever the critical appraisal, the actual product could never live up to the bravado.

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
Dead Island

Dead Island

Dead Island’s biggest mistake (or success) was accidentally making the best game trailer of all time. Before then, we’d seen grubby screenshots and heard developers talk about body part-specific zombie damage. It all seemed ordinary. But then that trailer hit, with its brilliant music, doomed family, and clever, time-hopping cinematography, and we began to wonder: maybe this won’t just be another average zombie game?

We were right, in a small way. It was a less-than average zombie game. Instead of a title that explored the human cost of the undead apocalypse, we got a wobbly-if-endearing curio, marred by ghastly Aussie accents and technical hiccups.

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
Driv3r

Driv3r

Imagine being hopeful about a game that replaced a letter with a number. Imagine being excited by anything that did that. The hubris of man. Driv3r’s marketing campaign was relentless and aggressive, setting the third game up as a definitive GTA-beater. Ridley Scott filmed three promotional shorts. Michael Madsen voiced a making-of doc. It was a huge, big-budget undertaking. And it was terrible.

The on-foot sections of the game simply didn’t work, it was full of glitches, and the thoughtless swipes at Rockstar felt timid and self-defeating, like a resentful unpopular kid shitting in the school president’s rucksack. It says plenty that the excellent Driver: San Francisco—a game about ghost-jumping between vehicles—did so much to repair the prestige of series.

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
Fable

Fable

Oh Peter, you wonderful wizard of deceit. Like a long-fingered warlock in a curiosity shop, you promised us things we didn’t even know we wanted, and for six happy months the world was bright with hope. But it was bollocks. Outrageous, hucksterish bollocks.

What’s cruel and unusual about the Fable hype is how weirdly specific it was. There were no bland platitudes about it being 'visceral'. No guff about sweeping story. Instead, we were promised delicate details that bring a fantasy world to life. Real-time fern growth! Initials carved into trees! Acorns growing into oaks! What we actually got was a cheerful fantasy adventure with few of the expected flourishes. It wasn’t bad, but everybody knows fart jokes are an unworthy substitute for high fantasy horticulture.

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Daikatana

Daikatana

John Romero has done many great things—including the gift of the single greatest image in the history of time—but Daikatana is not one of them. Few games have received such undeserved hype. It was promoted as the creation of a Ferrari-racing, rockstar developer, with Time magazine famously saying, "everything that game designer John Romero touches turns to gore and gold."

Daikatana, however, didn’t turn into either of those things. It was garbage juice.
Romero believed the huge project could be completed by eight artists in just seven months, with Daikatana was intended for release in December 1997. It arrived almost three years late, after high-profile development spats and horribly misjudged ments. Romero has since apologised, even releasing the source code to the community to improve, but it’s too late. Daikatana defined disappointment for an entire generation of gamers.
 

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
TOPICS
Best of
Matt Elliott
Read more
The Valve guy from the Portal 2 intro slowly looks over his shoulder in ominous fashion.
Valve considered making a 'B title' before Half-Life, until an exec told Gabe Newell 'that's just not gonna work… the company will fail'
An image of a corpse with the text &quot;You&#039;ve been re-educated.&quot;
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Geralt, two swords on his back, in the wilderness
2011 was an amazing comeback year for PC gaming
Key art for 14 underappreciated games feature, including characters from SKin Deep, Solium Infernum, 1000xRESIST, MechWarriror 5: Clans, and more
The 14 most underappreciated games of the last year that you shouldn't have ignored
Altair charges a Templar, wrist-blade extended.
I wish Ubisoft had ever made the game it promised with Assassin's Creed 1, but instead the series just spiralled into a weird identity crisis
Oblivion best class - A warrior wearing ornate heavy armour and wielding a sword and shield.
The best PC games right now
Latest in Games
Space Station 13 screenshot
Byond game engine suffers a weeks-long DDoS attack, apparently because a wanna-be Bond villain is trying to force it to go open source: 'Attacks on Byond servers are a symptom of your obstinance'
Bill, a grizzled soldier from Valve&#039;s Left 4 Dead, offers Zoey a cigarette amidst gloomy environs.
Pick up the Left 4 Dead games for cheaper than a pack of gum in the new Steam sale that's all about zombies, and also vampires
WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship screenshot
A month after Electronic Arts mashed the brakes, WRC rally racing games are coming back with a 'complete reboot' under a new publisher
Homelander sniffing his milk in Mortal Kombat 1
NetherRealm says it's done releasing major updates for Mortal Kombat 1: 'Our team … needs to shift focus to the next project'
Morrowind with the textures deleted
Morrowind with every texture deleted is a beautiful magenta fever dream
Vault Boy waves through a Vault door
Tim Cain talks about the challenges facing a Fallout remaster: 'How much are we now changing the original Fallout? Is this a quality of life thing or are you making a new game?'
Latest in Features
Oblivion Umbra NPC close up
The best videogame RPGs are really tabletop RPGs in disguise—and that might just be their secret sauce
A screenshot from Two Strikes showing two sword-bearing men in combat
Five new Steam games you probably missed (May 26, 2025)
the finals and Splitgate 2
Stop messing with team deathmatch
Leif Johnson smiling at the camera
ing Leif Johnson, the gaming industry's one and only cowboy poet
The famous YOU&#039;RE WINNER screen.
One of the worst games of all time got a Steam release, but is it even that bad compared to our current hell of asset-flips and Steam shovelware?
A sun that is about to explode
Nubby's Number Factory is like Balatro if it were a plinko roguelike and instead of Jokers had items like Squirmy, Pedro, and A Ton of Feathers
  1. Annapro carrying case, GameSir Nova Lite controller, SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, and Asus ROG Falchion RX Low Profile keyboard on a blue background with PC Gamer Recommended logo
    1
    Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads
  2. 2
    Best graphics card for laptops in 2025: the mobile GPUs I'd want in my next gaming laptop
  3. 3
    Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most
  4. 4
    Best 14-inch gaming laptop in 2025: The top compact gaming laptops I've held in these hands
  5. 5
    Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I've tested
  1. NZXT H3 Flow
    1
    NZXT H3 Flow case review
  2. 2
    Hisense C2 Ultra projector review
  3. 3
    JDM: Japanese Drift Master review – The most ambitious driving game in years, but that ambition sometimes gets the better of it
  4. 4
    Monster Train 2 review: Roguelike deckbuilder heaven, and a worthy challenger to Slay the Spire and Balatro
  5. 5
    Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny review: Dulled with age

PC Gamer is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • Future's experts
  • and conditions
  • Cookies policy
  • with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please or to comment

Please wait...