What 2023 games fell below your expectations? Which ones exceeded them?

Fell Below Expectations

• Fire Emblem Engage: granted I played about 5 hours, but the story and characters seem so generic compare to the last few installments.
• Forspoken: it’s a Square Enix game, so I expected more. From what I played, it didn’t seem as refined as Final Fantasy 16, for example.
• DeadSpace Remake: maybe I expected more, considering how great Resident Evil 4 Remake was. But this game felt pretty familiar to my experience in 2008.
• Shadow Warrior 3: I only played the opening, but right away it didn’t feel like the original, which I enjoyed the most. Also, they replaced the voice actor lol.
• Like a Dragon Ishin: maybe I finally hit the point where I’ve played so many Yakuza games, but I didn’t feel very compelled to play this one. Will try again.
• Final Fantasy 16: it’s actually a great game, but still didn’t meet my high expectations. They had the dude form Devil May Cry! The combat is more streamlined than I would like.
• Starfield: I wasn’t that hyped for it, but I still thought Bethesda would at least make a good game. But from what I played so far, felt like a stale, repetitive FPS shooter. And it lost the sense of wonder I had from playing Skyrim and Fallout 3.

Exceeded Expectations

• Octopath Traveler 2: one of my favorite games of the year. I hope the franchise doesn’t get screwed over because it doesn’t sell Final Fantasy type numbers.
• Bayonetta Origins: I liked that Platinum made this game its own type of thing. It didn’t really feel like a cash in. The game mechanics are unique and interesting.
• WWE 2k23: had a lot of fun with this game playing with my buddy.
• LoZ Tears of the Kingdom: I had high expectations, but they even topped that. The build mechanics were an awesome improvement over the original.
• Pikmin 4: I‘ve only played a few hours, but from what I played, it’s a big improvement and I’m actually interested in continuing to play it.
• Spider-Man 2: it’s Spider-Man, you kind of know what to expect when it comes to these games. But Insomniac has honed in on their story telling skills and they found ways to make the gameplay even more fun. The only thing negative I can see so far is that the side-quests aren’t that special.

What about you, SW? What 2023 games fell below your expectations? Which ones exceeded them?

Forspoken fell below my expectations.

Lies of P exceeded my expectations.

Callisto and Lords of the Fallen lul.

Expected BG3 to be good, but never thought it being very possible the game of the generation.

Turds of the Fallen, Hardwenzen said it was the second coming of the almighty himself. But considering they play Diablo IV and other trash games we know not to even listen to them again.

Super Mario Wonder has exceeded my expectations. I didnt think id like the always running feature and making the coop less aggressive, but the game is a masterpiece. One of the greatest Mario games ever made.

Exceeded expectations: RE4Make, and Lords of the Fallen. RE4 I wasn't excited for, but the demo sold me. Lords of the Fallen had a -100 expection. LOL. I had no hope for that game, but it's a lot more fun than I could have ever imagined. :)

Fell below: Dead Space Remake. Granted, I've played the original and thought this second run would be great considering it looked like a great remake, but I played maybe an hour and sold it. :/

Resident Evil 4 exceed. didnot liked original. was not looking forward to remake but it surprised me how good remake is.

didnot even liked RE2 remake that much but RE4 remake is step above any RE game.

I was very much looking forward to playing SF6, but the launch absolutely pissed me off. Probably get round to playing it properly but really left a fucking massively sour taste in my mouth when it comes to Capcom or generally buying AAA games at launch. Got burnt prior to with RE8 and that should have been the danger sign.

But this shit where they are raising game prices but still happily releasing broken crap, they can **** right off with that shit.

Overall fav game this year so far has been The Quake II: Remaster which got completely free on PC. One of, if not the best Remaster of a game played and makes all the other cynical attempts look like the garbage they are.

@SolidGame_basic: Regarding Ishin, I uninstalled the game after facing the ninja boss in chapter 1. The combat system wasn't very interesting, the story wasn't interesting at all, and worst of all the boss was a bullet sponge who took at least 100-200 hits. Man I hate that stuff.

Dang.. are you gonna try the new Yakuza games coming out?

Exceeded - Remnant 2 I had big expectations and it blew them away.

Atlas Fallen, I wasn't expecting too much, but I found it to be a cool little game with good combat, traversal system, upgrade system etc.

Didn't exceed AC Mirage, the game isn't bad it's just that the combat is boring af and very repetitive after a while. I mean you have light & heavy attack, parry and a roll function, and that's basically it. Luckily you had some tools to mix it up a bit.

Forspoken fell below my expectations...and many others

Re4 exceeded my expectations. Wasn't a huge fan of the original, but this game changed my mind

I think I've done good to temper my expectations ever since Cyberpunk 2077.

Even with something like The Callisto Protocol I thought the warning signs were telegraphed ever since they started releasing gameplay footage, so it seemed to iffy to jump in blindly, and they never released more footage to change my mind either way, and I was on the fence getting it until I saw people's initial reactions and I'm glad I didn't spend $70 to get it at launch.

Closest buy regret this gen was BF2042. And I was on fence but it was holidays, felt a splurge inclination. I had even done some basic diligence watching various reviews and I liked what they all had to say, but I was most sold by classic rush mode on classic BF maps (which they eventually pulled from the game!). Fair to say in the end this is probably the closest thing to No Man's Sky (after Cyberpunk 2077 of course) where the reviewers just got it so wrong, and perhaps instead of relying on professional reviews all the time, perhaps wait for the user reviews too.

Perhaps another was at the tail end of last gen during the pandemic, Remothered: Broken Porcelain. I liked Remothered: Tormented Fathers that came before it. Figured this was a safe bet, but oh my gosh it was borderline shovelware bad. I'm not sure if the game ever got improved by I've considered firing it up to see, but what I saw convinced me it was irreparable.

Disappointment doesn't always equate with having expectations. You can want something to be good but doesn't always mean you come to believe it will be, not if you manage those expectations. Hype and falling for it is more about believing something to be something that it won't achieve. Perhaps my worst case of gaming blue balls was way back when Colonial Marines released. I was so convinced it would be good because I saw Randy Pitchford right in front of me in a small room at PAX years earlier sold it was going to be great from the live gameplay I saw in real-time. I didn't even bother reading too much into as it neared its release until days before game footage was getting uploaded and realized something was sooo wrong. I stayed up the night of its release just to see the review embargo drop and I wasn't even disappointed, more just anger, but it was rather humorous what developed over the course of several hours was devs working on it pointing the finger at who was to blame, and before the sun came up the next day, everybody had like 90% of the story already.

Not having expectations is smart, and not just because it means saving yourself disappointment, but perhaps even with good games you can appreciate them for what they are, and not because what you built them up in your head to expect.

@SolidGame_basic:

Agreed on Shadow Warrior 3. The wall running was meh

Below:

-The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom: I said a lot on this, but BOTW is my all time favourite game because of its atmosphere, effective story telling, sense of wonder, and immersion. Tears of the kingdom failed at almost every single one of those aspects that made the first so special to me. It lacks that important cycle of build up and pay off that BOTW nailed.

-Street Fighter 6: I honestly should have expected this. The first season of every fighting game is pretty bad. I expect this one to improve over the years but at the moment it's an unstable drive rush fest that promotes thoughtless aggression over thoughtful consideration. Risk reward and gameplay variety are in a bad state at the moment.

Met

-Pikmin 4: I love pikmin and Nintendo really packed this installment full of content. It's a great game, but I'm more fond of Pikmin 1 and 3 with their above ground time management focus.

Super Mario Wonder has been great so far, but its too early to make a judgment.

Games that have exceeded my expectations:

• Dead Space Remake - Love the OG and this remake really improves the gameplay so well, it truly needed that remake touch.
• Resident Evil 4 Remake - granted, I never played the OG at all, can't comment what the OG did or didn't do but the Remake however was freaking amazing, I was blown away as I was so new to RE4.
• Ravenlok - That one game Xbox fans never talk about, but I ended up enjoying it and this is coming from a PC gamer.
• Hogwarts Legacy - I'm still somewhat of a HP fan who like the movies, the inspiration game making you as a wizard was the HP game it needed without playing as HP.
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Despite it had a rough start on the PC side of things, the gameplay was still playable for the likes of me, this Star Wars game really blew me away and the combat was helluva fun, I really like this game, I'm still replaying it from time to time.
• Baldur's Gate 3 - Man oh man, what a freaking awesome game, the more you play, the more you keep on going. Totally set my expectations higher.
• Cyberpunk 2077 2.0/Phantom Liberty - No need to explained this as CDPR truly have reinstated there statues and I really like the skill tree changes they did here. Still playing Phantom Liberty though but so far, it's meeting my expectations more so.

Games that met (standard) my expectations:

• Atomic Heart - While I appreciated that Bioshock style set in Russia/Soviet Union style, it had its faults at times for losing me and not continuing the game itself, the combat wasn't as fun as I had for Bioshock games, I expected more. Atomic Heart did delivered my expectations set in the middle of the road.
• Tears of the Kingdom - I was NOT a huge fan of the first game, this sequel barely meets my expectations and I understand why its on everyone's list, but as a Zelda guy, I prefer the old Zelda ways but this isn't me saying Tears of the Kingdom isn't all that great, it's really good. I just think it's vastly overrated for what it bring to the table.

Games that fell so below my expectation:

• Starfield - Yeah, I'm gonna come and say this isn't Bethesda best game and it has so many flaws, I don't even know where to begin with. For one, Skyrim is clearly Bethesda's best game and I'm still finding way to enjoy Skyrim and Starfield does not. I'm glad I wasn't hype for it but never truly expected it to be the bottom of my expectations. It's okay, but not as good as Xbox fans are making out to be.
• Forspoken - I like the magic stuff in this game, but it started to show lots of flaws and I did enjoy the main character cursing a lot which is just comedy funny to hear. Half-assed optimization for the PC but at the very least, it was playable but nothing mind-blowing either. Between Forspoken & Starfield, I think I would rather play Starfield than Forspoken to tell you the truth.

Exceeded expectations:

Tears of the Kingdom

I didn't plan to get that sucked into it. The trailers made it look very samey to BotW, but it was much less so than I thought.

Fell below expectations:

Battlebit Remastered. Thought it would be fun, but it sucked.

Met expectations:

Blasphemous 2

Tears of the Kingdom fell below my expectations. I didn't like it at all, and I'm a sheep. I think having breakable weapons was a terrible design choice. Maybe one day, if I run out of games to play, I may try it again from the beginning. I doubt it, though.

Tears of the Kingdom is the same game as Breath of the Wild, so that sucked, because BOTW was kind of boring.

Starfield is turd that every lemming here is trying to polish for some weird reason. Just accept that the Xbox is a third-tier console, as always. Sheesh.

Jedi Survivor, while an amazing game with a fantastic story and awesome gameplay, was a complete sheet-show upon release.

SF6 - No. Capcom ruined the franchise.

This thread is based on what you've played, and there's no way you played Starfield.

Above: Dead Space Remake.

Met: Starfield + SMW.

Below: Redfall.

Forspoken looked nothing like that original reveal trailer. In fact it looks bad and bland. And still it requires a lot of hardware to run.

Even if it didn't it'd still be a bad game

Redfall doesn't play like an Arkane game and it doesn't play like a Far Cry game. It just has a bad and bland open world and Forspoken and Redfall should really stop doing that.

Gollum wasn't a good game, but it in no way was it the worst game I ever played. So it exceeded my expectations. And it was a small game by a small studio. Which can't be said about Forspoken and Redfall which are just bad games made to deceive customers. Terrible games, downright awful.

Exceeded...

GamePass

Fell below...

BS Jive and Bait & Switch. lol :P

Below Expectations:

• Spider-Man 2
• Star Wars Jedi Survivor
• Redfall
• Hogwarts Legacy

Above Expectations:

• Starfield
• Final Fantasy XVI
• Forspoken
• Forza Motorsport 2023

Exceeded - Cyberpunk

Met - Forespoken (I knew it was hot garbage the moment I saw the first but of gameplay)

Below - Tears of the Kingdom. ( I don't know if I wasn't in the mood or I just couldn't get in a rhythm, but this one did not resonate the way botw did.)

@last_lap: I played starfield on pc. Used ms rewards points for a month Of pc game pass. I’ll never be dumb enough to buy another Xbox.

Yep,but only if it is Gamepass or gets good reviews.

Dang, gonna have to buy that now!

@SolidGame_basic: you felt spiderman 2 exceeded your expectations?? 6 hour game play with 4 hours cut scenes and identical to the last 2 games??

Also if I were to add my 2 cents, I'd say redfall definitely disappointed. Starfield met expectations, it's by far a very solid Bethesda title and will only get better from here on.

Let's not forget lords of the fallen.

Spider Man 2 fell below my expectations. I was hoping they could improve on the open world concept, and they failed.

@SolidGame_basic:

Wow. I am just, like, so f***ing shocked that you added Starfield to your "disappointment" list and Spider-Man 2 (despite the only thing it being long on is the bug list) to your "Exceeded" list.

I mean, you are such an unbiased manticore, right? This has never happened before. I guess I should really listen to what you have to say about Xbox games, huh?

IDK what it is about Forza, I am just having a hard time getting into it; and I can't put my finger on it.

Redfall was a huge crapburger that I had to take a big bite out of - I really took a pounding from cows on that one...

Ah so all the shit talk and you still use MS products, but, but, but I used rewards lol.

Game is awesome.... Most surprised by how much fun combat is and also how well the game brings new players into its systems. I don't feel overwhelmed like a lot of big rpgs. Game is slick, runs really well on SteamDeck and I'd say at this point is definitely a must play. Glad I waited too!

The only game that wasn't what i expected is Fire Emblem Engage, I saw red flags in the trailers, but my love for the franchise made me play it, it has been years since i dropped a game and still to date i hardly believe the one i dropped is a Fire Emblem game.

Exceeded expectations: Phantom Liberty

Fell below: Starfield

Well my problem is I am extremely good at predicting the quality of games and know the market very well - I can always tell when a game is overhyped (Starfield, Cyberpunk, Redfall, Forespoken etc)

and I can always accurately predict GOTYs/GOTG contenders (TLOU1-2, GOW games, Elden Ring, BG3, etc.)

• Resident Evil 4 : expected a 9.5/10 - got a 9.5/10
• Spiderman 2: expected a great game but not a GOTY contender - got a great game that isn't a GOTY contender
• Starfield expected 6-7/10 slightly above average game - got 7s from the major reviewers and is just out of top 50 highest rated game of 2023.
• Baldur's Gate 3 - expected a 9.5/10 masterpiece - actually got a 9.7/10masterpiece that is almost the highest rated PC game ever.
• Forespoken expected trash - got trash
• Redfall expected trash - got trash
• Final Fantasy 16: looked rubbish and epic at the same time - got a game that at its best is the most spectacular game ever but the majority of the time is mediocre.
• Dead Space remake: excpected good but not great - good but not great.
• Zelda:TOTK expected one of the highest rated games of all time - has a metacritic of 96/100
• Armoured Core VI : expected a superb game that is really fun but not up to the standard of FromSoft ware's last 7 masterpieces - mid 80s metacritic and still my 3rd or 4th favourite game of the year despite coming in 8th place out of the last 8 games made by FromSoft, just behind DS2.

Below expectations I would say Starfield

Above expectations would be Cyberpunk & Counter Strike 2

So as for what actually surprised even me:

Below expectations:

Diablo 4. I thought we we were getting a modern Diablo 2, not the overly casualised streamlined broken garbage Blizzard gave us. 2/10.

Above expectations:

Lies of P and Lord of the Fallen.

LoP mid 80s meta and LotF mid 70s. I would have guessed both in the 60s.

Thought Lies of P would be a generic Bloodborne wannabe and while it is no where near the GOTG contender Bloodborne is, its a phenomenal game and one of the top 5 best of 2023 IMO. best soulslike ever. (Soulslike as in not made by From Software)

LoTF I thought would be a mediocre UE5 game. Its actually really good.

I have no clue wtf they're doing with it. A while ago, I'd be hyped and ecstatic for a new FE game. Now, everytime I see the later ones, I cringe.

Loved the series when it was more like Berserk or something. Just strong strategy RPGs with some story. That was cool. Got no interest in what it became later.

Fell Below

• Rain World Downpour: While the content isn't bad, it also isnt as good as the base game content, the new slugcats had a bit too much of a protagonist syndrome.
• Baldur's Gate 3: Zzzzzzz... zzzzz... zzz...
• Cities Skylines 2: Nice City Builder. Shame my 1070 can barely run it. But I don't really feel like upgrading until the next generation of graphics cards comes out. One game is not worth the upgrade. That said really good game in there once they fix the optimization.

Met

• Fire Emblem Engage: I expected bad writing but excellent gameplay. I got bad writing and excellent gameplay. THe game was EXACTLY what I expected.
• Tears of the Kingdom: I got to build big dumb machines, and solve problems using troll logic. That is exactly what I got.

Exceeded

• Pizza Tower: I expected something on Par with Wario Land 4. This game exceeded Wario Land 4. And Wario Land 4 is a masterpiece.
• Street Fighter 6: I expected a competent fighting game that nonetheless felt like it wouldnt capture the glory of SF3:3rd Strike. What we got was arguably the best street fighter since 3rd strike. A worthy addition to the franchise.

Cyberpunk defnitely exceed compare to 2020 version which was failed. still far from masterpiece.