7 Ways To Tell That A Game Is Gonna SUCK 

Don't forget the "We are rebooting this beloved series for modern audiences" approach

One of the biggest red flags for me is when a developer says they're going "back to their roots." It's a marketing term meant to trick the fans into thinking a dev is going to recapture their glory days, when in reality they have no interest in bringing back old school mechanics and the like.

Doom 2016 really was an exception for these rules, this video made me realize just how much of a miracle it was. It was in development hell for 8 years, key leadership left and was replaced, they eventually restarted from scratch with a promise to "take the series back to its roots", and were not at all confident in the game all the way up to release to the point where they even withheld review copies. All the signs were pointing to it being an abysmall failure, but it ended up being universally loved and basically ushering in a whole new fps renaissance.

Ironically, Konami's slot machines were their large income stream, until a Japanese law regarding them forced their hand into going back into game development. That's why you see a lot of the these new SH announcements, and the announcement/development of the MGS Master Collection.

Easiest method: Don't preorder and wait for unbiased reviews. It's beyond me how not everybody is doing this

Here is how i avoid bad games: I don't pre-order .

Rule # 1: Never pre-order. Rule # 2: Avoid buying day one. Rule # 3: Don't pay $70. Rule # 4: Don't purchase microtransactions in premium games. Rule # 5: Exercise your consumer rights by using refund/return systems if you can. Rule # 6: Do your research. Rule # 7: Have fun.

the single biggest red flag Bethesda had for Starfish was when Godd Howard said they have 1000 planets in Stripfield, that's extremely bad news to me.

Saying 'We are planning on giving you guys years more content to come.' starts the clock for the Dev team closing shop in 9 months.

"Brace for PVP" always has me howling. The rift between developers/marketers and their supposed target audience is actually an abyss.

From what I've heard, No Man's Sky is coming strong. The Developers stuck to their guns, fixed their game, and have gotten praise from the players as of latest updates.

20:26 I don't know why, but this guy, who looks like Serpentz, taking off his shades, only to have on another pair of shades is just so cool. Like this is the definition of good jank.

I love how short and sweet the Ubisoft section was.

"Keep expectations low and you'll never be disappointed." - Some old dude with an axe.

“Over hype” is exactly what happened with me and We Happy Few. I’d been supporting the game since the beginning and what they put out in the end was still an amazing game that I’m happy to have seen to the end, but was hyped so much in the beginning there’s no way they could’ve met the expectations they’d set.

Recapturing lightning in a bottle isn't always a bad thing. Freedom Planet (Sonic) and BallisticNG (Wipeout) are both amazing examples, though the devs involved were just fans of the games and weren't involved in the companies that made them

"Rockstar has cemented themselves as a trustworthy developer/publisher" GTA trilogy remaster enters the chat

When he said that Evolve and Back for Blood were left for dead, I was stopped in my tracks. I’m never gonna hear a better roast.

my main issue with live services isnt even the battle passes, its the fact they can just be completely thrown away in a near instant if the devs decide its not making enought money theres nothing more infuriating than having a good game that you enjoy have the plug pulled without warning, you feel cheated out of the money you may have spent on it and you wont be able to enjoy it anymore due to lack of players

Hello Games deserves recognition for the work they put into NMS. That game has become something incredible. I'm also surprised you didn't mention Jeff Kaplan leaving, that was a big one.

It Takes Two was the biggest surprise i've ever seen from a studio.

The Ubisoft section was seriously spot on. Their logo and EA are my signs to avoid a game at all cost

Haven’t watched yet, but best way to tell if a game sucks is just to wait until other people play it. Don’t be lured in by pre-order bonuses. Oh, if there are pre-orders bonuses, it’ll likely suck.

19:58 HAHAHA thats funny. No rockstar is just currently milking the shit out of gta online with garbage content, or removing content when they want more money

There's nothing wrong with thinking something's going to suck. If anything, when the game sucks, you get to say "I knew it", and when it's good, you get a pleasant surprise.

I actually burst out laughing when you mentioned Rockstar as a good example to follow. Read up on how they’ve treated Red Dead and GTA V even recently.

Sea of Thieves and No Man's Sky are both AMAZING now. Years of work can change how a game is on launch, we just don't get that from AAA companies anymore.

I was planning on saying something about how Ubisoft didn't really fall into any of the categories, but was surprised to see them get their very own category all to themselves

"Rare who were known for making platformers and kinect sport games then completely pivoted and made the first person Sea of thieves" Who's gonna tell him.

What’s crazy is I have been able to tell almost every single time when a game is going to be a scam/horrible on launch but my “friends” will still preorder and whatnot because they say it will be different. Companies will make money aslong as people stay stupid.

Developers can branch out and make different types of games, however, all that really means is that you have to tempter your expectations and wait until the game releases to see what everyone thinks

No Man's Sky has literally no microtransactions but still provides a wealth of excellent updates. It deserved some credit despite its launch woes.

Metroid Dread had a tumultuous development, and turned out great. It's nice to know there are always exceptions

My video game red flags are: - being overhyped (just like I had no interest in cp2077 until patch 1.5) - focusing on graphics instead of gameplay (probably just a polished crap with no good story) - battle pass (just self-explanatory) - releasing new game from old franchise (never went good) - revolutionary mechanics (about 10% are really good games, but most just don't work as intended)

i have play tested the finals and it is amazing. the devs keep the community informed with daily discord chats and the game itself is wonderful.

I think you should take your own advice with GTA6. Practically all the key people that made those games have left Rockstar, some of them are confirmed to have left on bad terms as well.

Cyberpunk was the first hype train that I boarded. Never bought a ticket for any of the other trains that came prior, but everything around cyberpunk seemed promising. Specifically that the gameplay trailers looked fun and finished. It was only when the game kept getting delayed that I started to worry.

I would add massive advertising budgets to the list. They often use aggressive advertising when they know a gaming isn't going to meet expectations in hopes the preorders and day one sales will make them a profit before word gets out. Not having review embargos lift until the day the game launches is another part of this tactic.

Starfield, for me, has crashed all of one time since launch (about 80hr of play) and the only bugs I've had that impacted my gameplay in any meaningful way were 1. NPCs parking in tight spaces where I can't move past them (unfortunately a regular occurrence), and 2. trying to talk to someone when I'm too close to objects and the dialogue cut scene points me at a wall (happened once). Bugs have been SUPREMELY LESS than I think anyone expected in a Bethesda game. That said, the system requirements were also lowballed and my 2yr old (top of the line at the time) PC can barely handle the game on medium and it runs HOT (like 85-95C) and I can only play for a couple hours before it's throttling down. Absurd that a two year old system can't run this game at the very least on medium with no issues at all. If anything, they oversold us on how many people should be able to play the game without upgrades (SSD notwithstanding). I bought oodles of merch and decor for streaming... and I can't even stream and play at the same time. So until I can upgrade (just bought my wife a new computer so it'll be a while), that is cash sitting on a shelf waiting to be useful in the future after I spend a bunch more cash. >_

Horizon is honestly good. Like extremely good, it allows basically any approach you want, traps, stealth, mele combat, ranged combat, and grenades. The visual fidelity is absolutely ludicrous. And the combat, maybe hard, but it's honestly good.

24:34 I don't think Fallout 3 was very functional either. It wasn't in general as buggy as other releases, but it's bugs are one of the hardest hitting ones

I've played so many bad videogames that my hallucinations are glitching out.

I think in the live service section general trend chasing could be added. Like all the First Person Modern Military Shooters that crawled out of the woodwork when CoD became popular. Or Hello Neighbor being reworked into a mascot horror game a la FNAF instead of being its own thing.

Well, if things go as expected then, GTA 6 should be an absolute mess when you think about how many big names left Rockstar Games during development. Hopefully this is one of the few examples where we get pleasantly surprised

Missed a great opportunity to call Halo Infinite Hollow&Finite.

Tbh the hype train has never effected me because although im an optimist i find it helps to approach products such as videos games with a hint of pessimism. It keeps you asking questions about the quality of the product. you wanna find out as much as possible before forking over that £60. Its great to be excited for whats to come, but too much has a high chance of leaving you with disappointment.

Your segment on predictions is exactly why I mostly get excited to play games that Ive never heard of before, or games that are still being talked about years after release, because I will only hear about that sort of stuff if the game is actually really good

I think a bonus one are small indie games getting large publishers. Deep Silver in my opinion is not talked enough because they have a track record of picking up smaller studio's games as the publisher and they turn into a AA mess.

The problem with the "pivot" tell is that it isn't enough to know if the developer is changing the kind of game they make. You need to know who works at the developer. The people who worked at BioWare during KOTOR and the first two Mass Effect games have largely moved on to other studios or companies. Respawn hired a ton of people between TItanfall 2 and Apex Legends and Jedi Fallen Order. Pivots work when the makeup of a studio has changed or adapted to meet the demand. And even games that should be within a studio's wheelhouse sometimes don't work (e.g. Mass Effect Andromeda, Battlefield V/Battlefield 2042) when the studio isn't comprised of the same talent that used to be there.

If you see a professional game developer using crunch, that's a red flag to avoid the game. Not only because crunch is an awful practice but it also indicates that a lot of stuff in their game is unfinished and is likely going to be broken at launch.

Everything is just about pure greed now, and seeing what they can get away with. Depressing.

Horizon Zero Down was largely well received and Hello turned No Man's Sky into an amazing game

It's really easy to tell us to doubt everything. Now you've gotta tell us how you know when a game will be good.

Another trick that does not demand that you are an expert, like Renn, is to simply wait! Let there go 6-12 month and see what people say, if things fixed, if there is "pay to win" and so on. You both save money and can be sure the game is one you like by seeing lots of videos about it. :-)

That Ubi choosing the worst choice that make sure they stay suck, they put their games for rent with ludicrous price so we don't buy their games, we rent it and if we don't play it, the games just gone from the library.

I fully expect starfield to be a buggy mess on launch, but the mod potential is selling the game so hard for me

I'm sorry but No Man's Sky may have felt incomplete at the beggining but to this date, Hello games still releases updates for the game, no pay wall behind it or grindy battlepasses, you may wanna replay it again, trust, me, there's so much more to do now

Okay, the wrecked cars staying on the track in Dangerous Driving is really cool imo. Doesn't make up for the numerous other missteps though.

So we need to give credit to Bethesda. Starfield didnt end up in a buggy mess. They just did a game

Bro from the opening "I'm at GameStop because games need to stop sucking", I was invested. The Disintegration joke got me. So simple but so effective. Nice video man

I think the 1st point is less about developers being not in their "field" and more about why they decided to switch genres - is it because they have a really cool idea that would fit well with mechanics they worked on prior, or is because they just want to capitalize on success of some of the popular games in the same genre? In case on Hello Games, I don't think they were trying to capitalize on anything, it was simply overhyped and the idea, while cool, didn't really work well on it's own, but when they added more features it became very fun to play

battlefield 5 is actually really good and ive been enjoying it so much lately , its just sad devs stopped supporting it early to work on 2042 that ended up being a disaster

Most of these exampels is "Game bad because developers switched style game = bad" but a lot of the games that he brings up is bad because they are not finished and become good later on when they are fixed.

Remember when the OG Assassin's Creed previews showed that you could push any civilian at any time? I was really bummed when that wasn't in the game.

You should make a sequel video to showcase games that were launched poorly, but updated beautifully from then to now.

This video had so many red flags Dev history: citing horizon as a example just bc you didn't like, I hate souls like game but they're objectively good games you can't call them bad just bc YOU can't play Live service: no man's sky is not a live service, it was not launched as one and is still not one, just bc the game have updates is not categorize as live service, the game has no microtransactions and none of the updates are paid Reacaputering light in a bottle : outer worlds was great and when it was launch it was considered fallout but done right as it came close to the 76 launch

On the Bomb Rush Cyberfunk segment, I am absolutely confused by your statement that the people who are making that, are the same people that made Jet Set Radio Future. Which is absolutely not true. Team Reptile is from the Netherlands, while JSRF was developed by SEGA in Japan, by Japanese. The only link regarding staff is the musician Hideki Naganuma...

I was super confused whenever you said Ghostwire: Tokyo "didn't turn out so well" because it was actually really well received by most people. I can't tell if you just overlooked that or just never played it. (If you haven't played it I highly recommend it not only is the combat super fluid but it's visually amazing, although the story is lacking in length and writing to some degree it's still all in all an amazing game.) Still love the content though I just thought this one thing was off.

I honestly like the way Nintendo does their marketing, previews, and trailers for their games. Most of the time, those trailers are all in game footage taken and edited into their trailers, hardly do they ever do CGI trailers; and in most cases they only release information about their games once they're in a state of quality that Nintendo finds appropriate. 8 times out of 10, Nintendo makes sure their big projects are at a high quality standard before being shipped, especially if it's their respective IPs. I hardly ever get hyped for games anymore, unless it is by a developer that I've purchased their games multiple times, like Platinum Games, Monolith Soft, Supergiant Games, etc. Where their titles may be a bit more niche, but they do hold a higher standard of quality for their games. I've learned from over the years, hyping a game up is just setting oneself for failure, because to a degree that game won't live up to those expectations; unless the game itself, from the developer/publisher, is claiming they will be(which is just false marketing and lying to the face of the consumer). In terms of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, I don't think it's a bad thing that the game is aiming to hit that itch that Jet Set Radio left. Many fans were disappointed that it never got a sequel or any kind of official remake/remaster(I think it hasn't at least). So this is practically, "Fine, I'll do it myself!". As long as the game doesn't cost an arm and a leg, and is like Jet Set Radio in spirit, but polished and fun with support from the devs; I think that's absolutely fine. Though, I do wish the art style was a bit more...less blocky like, and could go closer to like we've seen Hi-Fi Rush did; though I'm sure it's an stylistic choice by them, of course.

For live service, battlefront 2’s player base PLUMMETED when dice said “yeah we actually are gonna cut our service sorry. 😅”

Actually Renn the No Man’s Sky player base has grown the past several years, and is now one of the most played games on steam

Outerworlds was a stepping stone, and the game wasn't broken it just lacked a more enthralling story. Obsidian made the groundwork for future sequels and as someone who played it on GAMEPASS, I'm content with it.

I think it is unfair and out of place to name No Mans Sky in the "Live-Service" examples. The strongest connection to the live-service concept is the ability to pay for upgrades, advantages, skins and often expansions - in addition to a recurring FOMO mechanic such as Battle Passes. The ones mentioned all have one or more, but No Mans Sky is just a game they have since updated 20 times without charging additional $'s. At least that is my impression of NMS after playing it for roughly 20 hours about two years ago. Oh and also, great video as always. Looking forward to more uploads.

The Finals turned out pretty sick honestly. Loved the beta and the launch of the game was smooth

im so thankful for my inate magic ability to just tell a game/movie will be bad based on a single trailer and it has never ever ever let me down.

Another sign can be overly relying on or pushing the idea of Celebrities as VAs or character models. Examples include Cyberpunk, Death Stranding (that one was also lightning in a bottle), and Phantom Pain.

>Armored Core VI shown on when talking about developers going out of their comfort zone isn't Armored Core one of their earlier titles? Wouldn't this be considered "returning to their roots"??

"Free post-launch content!" = "We're selling the game half finished and we'll give you the rest of the content when we're done with it."

A lot of these games eventually got better over time... but yeah, what you're saying is definitely true. I know infinite wasn't going to go well and I was thinking so because of similar reasons. Same with Starfield too. I feel like all the best games nowadays are either older games that are still supported or indie dev games

I think a sign that people often ignore is that when a game gets more than 1 or 2 delays. 1 is fine as that could be the developer team wanting to polish the game,but if it goes over 2 delays,then that's a sign there's something wrong with the management of the game and what comes out is always,if not underwhelming,then a total mess.

Playtronic didn't faded into obscurity, years later they Yooka-Laylee At the Impossible Lair, one of the best side scroller platformers out there. It is a very well made platformer inspired by classic DKC, but with its own spin with the Tonic modifiers and the Beetalion.

Okay but Cyberpunk 2077 now actually goes hard af

there is only one way to know, dont pre order the fucking game and dont buy it on day 1, just wait a little until the press and people start to talk about the problems the game have

Number Eight: It is not Barbie Horse Adventures for the Nintendo Wii.

It's sad that you failed to mention how playtonic later redeemed themselves with yooka laylee and the impossible lair, which is an amazing tribute to donkey kong country that is also able to set itself appart. That game really needs more recognition. Also while i do understand your scepticism for bomb rush cyberfunk, team reptile has had an amazing track record, lethal league blaze is probably one of my favorite fighting games ever made, and it has become one of the very few online games i play regularly because of how sound the fighting mechanics are and how well the jail with the aesthetics, with brilliant character designs and music. I have faith on them, since so far they have not failed at making a good game.

The video says not to trust a game that's completely different than the great games the studio made, and also not to trust a game that's very similar to a great game the creators made hmmm

Good video. I have gotten good at noticing red flags for hyoed games. Last couple of years have been amazing for me as a single player games guy. The success of ELDEN RING is probably the biggest milestone for the VG industry in over a decade. This year so far we have already gotten RE4R and TOTK, and next month comes FF16 which I am optimistic about it (I learnt my lesson with FF15 tho, never overhype a game).

TLOU Pt 2 was one of the most polished games I've played in recent memory at launch and did not appear to have a troubled development, iirc, lmao. SoT was and is pretty great as well. Great points otherwise!

If anyone would include bugs in their game reveal and embrace it like "well it is a work in progress so that's to be expected" then that would sell me on the game more than any epic cgi trailer ever could.

Just found your channel and your videos are great!

Yes. No Man's Sky was a flop when t launched, but it has been improving since then and now the game and the community are better than ever.

4:36 Rare made a bunch of games in many different genres (Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark, etc) before Sea of Thieves so I don't think that really fits.

Also, I played the Finals beta a month or so ago, it was fantastic. The destruction was awesome, main issue was the fps wasn't great but it was an alpha I believe.

"Made for modern audiences" and "Inclusive and diverse" are total red flags

For clarity, Star Citizen did not have "a huge chunk of the project scrapped, forcing them to start over". They did have some rough time adjusting the CryEngine to their development needs in their early days, but no part of the project has been scrapped and started over again.

though hello games launched no mans sky in an incomplete near unplayable state, that game serves as one of the best redemption stories i've ever seen and now it's an amazing sci fi sandbox that now includes so much more than was ever originally promised and it's all put together amazingly

I've also felt that gaming is going to get better again relatively soon. Maybe I'm naive for thinking this, but I have to believe that most publishers are starting to realise that they can't keep getting away with a lot of the garbage they've been releasing

4:35 - Rare made GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark, two games considered among the best FPS of all time. Though that was in the 90s, you felt the need to mention Banjo as your example, which was also a 90s game.

The disrespect to no man’s sky is killing me

I know its probably a hold over from an earlier draft of the script, but in case you missed it i feel like i should mention that E3 this year got cancelled like a few weeks ago