It is important to distinguish the difference between overrated and disappointing when considering a feature like this one. When we asked the staff to list their games of frustration, it was made clear that an "overrated" game can still be a good one -- take StarCraft 2 for example. On the other hand, an overrated game can still be a massive disappointment -- see Jeff's take on Alan Wake. Disappointing games, for our purpose here, is a game that the writer felt failed to deliver on its promise whereas an overrated game merely didn't deserve all the lavish praise it received -- at least according to the writer in question.

So, in that sense, I guess it's better to be overrated than a disappointment. Such is life, I suppose.

Bill's picks:

Most Overrated Game:

I was going to put Red Dead Redemption in this spot, but since the staff played pinata with that game I decided to go with Civ V.

Civilization V, when you first jump into it, is a revelation. It’s gorgeous, has some cool new twists, and looks like it has the potential to be a neat blending of Panzer General and old school Civ. What could possibly go wrong? Then after a while you realize that the game is incapable of playing inside its own design and it effectively falls apart due to terrible AI and scatterbrained diplomacy.

I recently reinstalled Civ IV with the expansions and have started to dabble with some of the better mods available and it’s clear to me that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever at this point to play Civ V over Civ IV and when you look at the general press scores for Civ V I think it defines the term overrated because if the new version doesn't make the old one obsolete...there's a problem.

Most Disappointing Game:

Disappointing doesn’t begin to describe my feelings toward this game. What could have been the evolution of Master of Magic, or really even Fall from Heaven (a slick Civ mod) turned into a buggy, boring, ugly monstrosity. Stardock has patched the game non stop since release but I still question whether or not bug fixes and gameplay tweaks alone can save this game from its overly “brown”, lifeless backdrop. Just a truly sad fate for a game that showed so much promise.