I don't mind a serious story, I just can't stand it when the gameplay and setting contradicts said story. The story would've been damn good in a different game, but in GTAIV, seeing Nico lamenting how shitty his life is and how hard it is to survive the mean street of Liberty City right after a spending six in-game months doing nothing but joy-riding in other people's cars and murdering random pedestrians in many different ways just for funzies, all while the oh-so whacky radio stations play in the background is just impossible to take seriously.
I didn't say it's a bad game. On the contrary, I said it was amazing for its time. It just gets far more praise than it deserves, to the point where people seem to think it's the greatest game of all time. It's really not, it's good, but future Zelda game improved the formula even further and were all around better games. Wind Waker was better, Twilight Princess was better (at least if you played the waggle-free Gamecube version), hell, Majora's Mask was better, and it came out only a couple of years after Ocarina.

Similarly, I think we'd probably agree that Psychonauts or Age of Wonders are brilliant games, but to say they're the absolute best of the best of what gaming has or will ever have to offer is just going a tad to far.

Anyway, I thought up a few more.

Overrated.

Assassin's Creed. I'm only talking about the first game, since it's the only one I've played, but why it got so popular as to start a massive franchise, I'll never understand. It was repetitive, aesthetically dull, more padded than a novelty sumo wrestler outfit and just plain boring. Not to mention, further up its own arse than it had any right to be.

Underrated.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. Definitely one of the best hand-held Zelda games I've ever played. Basically, if you've played Phantom Hourglass, it fixes everything that was wrong with the game. There's no more repeating the same areas over and over in the central dungeon as well as no time limit, collecting train parts is far less tedious than collecting ship parts and there's a warping system for traversing the overworld in a more reasonable time frame (albeit not a very good one, but it's better than nothing). All in all, a great game.

Jaws Unleashed. Fuck Goldeneye 007, this is by far the best movie tie-in game of all time. Basically, you play as the shark in an open world sandbox that is the seas around the island which Jaws took place on (hopefully that sentence makes at least some sense). What's not to love about a game where you can shatter a boat into hundreds of tiny pieces and then tear the occupants' limbs off one by one? It's the most fun you can have while wearing pants.

Thats a problem in all games, in STALKER, I killed a bunch of soldiers to steal their AKs, but when I go to a army outpost where I have to pay to pass through, it as if they don't know that a STALKER killed their guys down south.

If it was more real, the soldiers in the outpost would have shot me on sight.

Oh, definitely. Far too many developers seem to think that story = cutscenes and dialogue and that the gameplay is a completely separate entity. All the more reason to discourage such a mindset, if you ask me, at least in story driven games (which GTAIV was clearly trying to be).

Ooh, not even heard of that one, sounds... strange

I was going to say that licenced games are a bit of a mixed bag generally, maybe because there's not much chance of them coming to DD sites

But while there's plenty of people asking for and talking about Blade Runner, Star Wars, Star Trek and LotR games other good ones like Godfather (which I thought was an excellent, gritty, GTA like, as good as the similar 'Mafia') and Spiderman (which is still sitting on my physical shelf but I only read good reviews for) seem to have been a bit forgotten about
I even loved 'The Simpsons: Hit and Run', another GTAish thing only in Springfield with platform bits instead of shooting protitutes

Sorry, but Gothic 2 was never been underrated. It is praised by almost every RPG fan. With the addon it got very high scores and most critics are about the controls.

Okay, I can only speak for the german community where Gothic 2 received very high reviews from both magazines and players. I don't know how Gothic 2 was received in other countries, but I think it wasn't underrated.

G2 was greatly received in Romania too.
All my friends were playing it, i found out from them how good and realistic it felt, the dialogs, the exploration
Gothic series is appreciated even now, we also have http://worldofgothic.ro/

That Gothic was well-received in some nations doesn't change the fact that it wasn't as popular as say the TES games, especially on the American market. And yeah, considering that the TES games were so much better received it's easy to consider Gothic underrated by comparison.

But more importantly, IMHO, the Gothic series is not getting nearly enough credit for the way it creates a believable virtual world which it does almost effortlessly, it almost feels like the developers did so by accident and barely any other developer (if a single one) adopted those ideas, especially so well. The impact the Gothic series had on its genre was not nearly as big as it should have been IMHO and that's why I also consider the series underrated in some ways despite not considering it quite as brilliant overall as some other people do.

It is a German game, so you'd expect it to be more well known in its homeland. In most of the English-speaking world, however, not so much (I'm guessing it was marketed far more strongly in Germany than anywhere else back when it was new). You ask anyone, even RPG fans about it and most will say that they've never heard of it. Of those that have, most will say they couldn't stand the controls and rage-quit only a few minutes into the game. Hell, the only reason I've played it is because of an impulse buy during a sale.

I felt Gears of War was overrated along with Halo.

Goldeneye & Ocarina of Time = "you had to be there" ;)

Underrated or just more unknown or rather less popular ? Do you think it is the same? I don't know.

Overrated:

Final Fantasy VII (PS)

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (SNES)

Beyond Good & Evil (I love it but too much of this game was spent on boring dungeons. And a few of the sneaking/stealth sections were an exercise in frustration. The city & Jades lighthouse were the best parts)

Mario Kart: Double Dash (NGC)





Underrated:

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (It gets overlooked in favour of Lucas Arts point & clicks)

Shenmue (DC)

The Last Express (PC) (This and the previous title go down in history as the biggest budgets spent on games that flopped - or something like that. But they are both extremely good games. Both were very ambitious in what they were trying to achieve)

Goldeneye 007 (N64) (It USED to be overrated going back a few years but nowadays you get ppl who think it's trendy to attack the greatest games ever)

Advance Wars (GBA) ("kiddie" title hid a brilliant strategy game. Frustrating yet addictive. AW2 was good too but relied on gimmicks)

Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening DX (GBC)

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (NGC)

Super Mario 64 (N64) (People roll their eyes @ "3D Platform games". Worse if you use "N64" - you mean you weren't one of the cool kids who all had Playstations back then??)

Banjo Kazooie (N64) (As above)

Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask (N64) (Games that come out at the end of a systems lifespan tend to get overlooked by the majority. Plus this was not your typical Zelda game. Moody, melancholic and with a doomsday storyline. And the whole lose-all-current-progress-since-your-last-save-if-you-don't-timetravel-back-before-3-days-are-up took a while to get comfortable with).

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (GB) (Possibly the greatest 2D platformer on a handheld)

Wario Land 3 (GBC)