While no official announcements have been made yet, most of the buzz seems to point to the year 2020 being the start of the next console generation...whatever that ends up looking like. This means that the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are likely in their twilight years, and we shouldn't expect to see too many more huge AAA releases for either console beyond what has already been announced, with most publishers beginning to shift developmental resources over to the successors to the PS4 and XB1 over the next year or so.
Barring some completely unforeseen event that leads to all PS4 sales coming to a screeching halt and XB1 sales suddenly tripling, it is pretty unlikely that Microsoft's third(ish) console is going to end up being the king of this console generation. Still, sales aren't everything, and plenty of gamers would argue that the XB1 has been the best current console for a variety of reasons.
Ultimately, nothing is more important in the battle between game platforms than software libraries — and to that end, the XB1 has had a great one. As the console's life begins to wind down, we thought it would be a great time to look back at some of its most over-hyped games as well as some of its underappreciated gems.
Just to be clear, "overrated" doesn't mean "bad"— it just means games that we think aren't quite worthy of all of their acclaim. Not a single game on this list is a bad game by any stretch, it's just that they get more love than they probably deserve.
30 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Cuphead
First things first: Cuphead is one of the most beautiful video games ever made. There is no denying that. But it's perhaps because of the game's gorgeous visuals that a lot of its flaws have been overlooked.
Essentially, Cuphead is just a boss rush — which is fine and all, but doesn't quite match up to the ambitiousness of its graphics.
Following early backlash, the developers added standard run-and-gun stages to Cuphead to mix things up, but those just end up feeling forced and half-hearted.
29 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Killer Instinct
Rare hasn't quite been able to produce for Microsoft what it did during its fifteen-or-so years of making games for Nintendo, but one of the few bright spots of the new partnership has been the revival of classic fighter Killer Instinct.
Slowly doling out new characters over a series of "seasons" is a novel approach, but has also meant that Killer Instinct never got to a have a major, all-encompassing launch. That's a big reason why it has flown under so many XB1 owners' radars — which is a shame, as it is one of the best 3D fighters of this generation.
28 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
When your franchise goes as far off the rails as Resident Evil had prior to the release of its seventh core installment, it doesn't take much to win fans back.
All Resident Evil 7 had to do to be better than RE6 is not be a complete failure and it was going to be seen as a glorious return to form.
Shamelessly ripping off Hideo Kojima's ultimately canceled Silent Hill reboot — as well as just about every other horror game of the last ten years — RE7 is a nice comeback attempt for the series, albeit a completely derivative one.
27 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Batman: Arkham Knight
The backlash against the fourth installment of the Batman: Arkham series mostly had to do with the broken PC version grabbing all of the headlines at the time, and people not bothering to notice that the Xbox One version actually ran great from day one.
The hate against the Batmobile segments was also way overblown.
Taking all that into consideration, you have a game that was a great installment in a great series and is a must-play for both fans of the franchise and of the Dark Knight himself.
26 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Middle-earth: Shadow Of Mordor
The nemesis system in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is very cool — for the first couple of hours. After that, it falls into the background of an otherwise pretty by-the-numbers open-world action game that doesn't have much else going for it to set it apart from the pack other than a familiar license.
As soon as you hear that a Lord of the Rings game has an "original, non-canon story," you're immediately skeptical — and rightfully so. Yes, we know the books like the back of our hands by now, but a familiar, classic story is always better than an original, boring one.
25 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Nier: Automata
While the original Nier was technically a spin-off of the Drakengard series, it was essentially its own original game, flawed but very rewarding for those who could look past its rough edges.
Sleeper hits like Nier rarely get sequels, but when they do, they are often a treat — and Automata is most certainly that.
Shifting focus to more action-heavy gameplay and polishing up some of the rough patches of the original, Nier: Automata is one of the weirdest and most entertaining games released this generation. Go back and grab it now before it gets expensive like the original has.
24 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Hitman (2016)
The Hitman games have never quite seemed to get as huge as fellow stealth franchises like Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, but it has remained one of the most consistently great series —stealth or otherwise— of the last twenty years or so.
It is perhaps because Hitman has struggled to quite reach those upper echelons of popularity that its developer went the episodic route for the latest release. But it just doesn't quite click as a cohesive overall experience, despite some admittedly excellent individual missions. Hitman is better when it feels like a movie, not like a TV series.
23 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Mirror's Edge Catalyst
One of the biggest tragedies of the previous console generation was the lackluster sales of Mirror's Edge, an excellent game that wonderfully set itself apart from a glut of first-person shooters. Publisher EA, who tends to prefer making tons of money to not, didn't see fit to give the game the sequel it deserved for many years.
The long wait meant expectations for Catalyst were impossibly high, and it was inevitable that it would come off as a disappointment.
Those who could separate the game from the unfair hype found a fantastic experience and a worthy sequel.
22 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Call of Duty: WWII
Labeling a Call of Duty game "overrated" is low-hanging fruit, we admit. But we felt that CoD: WWII deserved to be called out because it was praised as some kind of return to form for classic, pre-Modern Warfare CoD — and it really, really isn't.
Very little of modern CoD's bombastic trappings are toned down for WWII — ditto for another linear story mode that feels more like a carnival ride than a video game. It's all fine for what it is, and it's another solid CoD sequel, but to call it some major revitalization of the franchise is short-sided.
21 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Ghost Recon: Wildlands
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a victim of bad timing. Mainly, it came out around the same time as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, one of the most acclaimed open-world games since, well, ever.
Despite being on another console, Zelda's pre- and post-release hype definitely stole all of Wildlands' thunder.
To be fair, open-world games have become a very crowded genre, and is full of games that eat away a lot of time — but XB1 owners owe it to themselves to carve out a few months to play this unfairly overlooked and underappreciated open-world adventure.
20 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Rare Replay
How can a retro compilation possibly be overrated, especially one that includes 30 games — many of which are indisputable classics?
Beyond the usual retro compilation nitpicks of what games are missing and all that —can't really blame them for no Goldeneye or Donkey Kong Country— Rare Replay makes some annoying choices that it doesn't get enough grief for. Only including the N64 version of Conker and not the Xbox one is a biggie, as is the way all the collection's 360 games aren't even technically on the disc and essentially boot you out of the game to play them.
19 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: The Witness
Jonathan Blow —creator of indie hit Braid— is one of those developers people love to hate, extremely cocky and seeming to loathe the gaming community from which he makes his living. Perhaps that is why a lot of people were so quick to dismiss his artsy puzzler The Witness — though if you did, you missed out on an experience unlike anything else.
The game's obtuse nature and complete lack of a narrative will definitely turn many players off — but those that can stick with it will find it to be the rare game worthy of the label "masterpiece."
18 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Fallout 4
Fallout 4 has already gotten its comeuppance in terms of a post-release backlash, where the community questioned the game's stellar review scores when it was found to be a largely uninspired follow-up to Fallout 3 and wondered why more critics didn't see it that way.
Perhaps Bethesda was putting the bulk of its resources until Skyrim Remastered instead.
We hate to kick a game when it's already down, but we're still just so disappointed that Fallout 4 ended up being such a lazy sequel after such a long wait. Maybe Fallout 76 will make things right.
17 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: The Evil Within 2
Resident Evil had spent years on a steady creative decline basically since RE4, and it's no coincidence that series creator Shinji Mikami had left Capcom during that time. But he was also busy creating classic RE's spiritual successor, The Evil Within.
To be honest, The Evil Within 2 isn't quite as good as the first — but that's not to say it isn't still great.
Mikami may have been out for this one, but his DNA is still felt through every inch of Evil Within 2 in its superb atmosphere, gameplay, and visuals. And, yeah, it's definitely better than RE7.
16 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Overwatch
After spending much of the previous 20 years or so coasting off the success of StarCraft and Warcraft, Blizzard finally decided to embark on a rare original IP with the development of competitive FPS Overwatch. And it being a Blizzard game, the PC crowd was ready to love it the moment it was announced, sight unseen.
There's no denying that Overwatch is a well-crafted, well-polished, and enjoyable experience — but what should have just been a fun little game that people played for six months has turned into an inexplicable juggernaut. Must be that Blizzard voodoo.
15 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood
Max & the Magic Marker sounds like the kind of game that five-year-olds will play for a week before going back to Subway Surfers. But it turned out to be a surprisingly well-made platformer that even adults could tolerate.
Follow-up Max: The Curse of Brotherhood feels like a game made by developers who were emboldened by the positive feedback of their previous game and used that newfound confidence to craft an even more refined experience. It's still a kids' game, but don't be surprised if you keep playing it even after you get Junior past the part he was stuck on.
14 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Rise Of The Tomb Raider
Yes, the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot borrowed pretty liberally from Uncharted — but Uncharted also wouldn't have existed without Tomb Raider, so it was a fair exchange of creative ideas.
Promising to fully dive into the Lara Croft we all know and love after watching her slowly transform into that in the previous game, Rise of the Tomb Raider should've been a slam-dunk. But it ended up feeling too similar to its predecessor and didn't take any big risks — which is always what gets the franchise into trouble and ends up leading to yet another reboot.
13 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Quantum Break
Some developers always swing for the fences, and that definitely applies to Remedy Entertainment. They've only released seven core games in their 20+ year history, but with two of them being Max Payne and Alan Wake, it's clearly a matter of quality over quantity.
Quantum Break is definitely their most uneven modern effort — but also their most creatively-daring.
There are certain games that you forgive for not quite coming together because of what they were going for and what they do get right, and Quantum Break is a great example of that. Far from perfect, but not to be missed.
12 TOTALLY OVERRATED: Forza Horizon 3
At some point in the last couple of generations, gamers decided that they weren't big fans of arcade-style racing games anymore. We've seen former heavy-hitters like Burnout, Ridge Racer, Midnight Club, Test Drive, TOCA/Grid, and others either disappear completely or be reduced to mobile-based shadows of their former selves.
Those desperate for any sort of AAA racing game that isn't a hardcore sim are willing to play just about anything — which is why the fairly bland third Forza Horizon game gets more love than it should. It's better than nothing, but it's no Burnout Paradise or Midnight Club 3.
11 WORTH A SECOND LOOK: Assassin's Creed Chronicles
It's gotten a bit difficult to parse out how we truly feel about the Assassin's Creed franchise — we remember loving it at some point, and look forward to new installments, but there have just been so many that it's tough to even remember which ones we liked and why.
The 2.5D Chronicles spin-off trilogy completely got lost in the deluge of Assassin's Creed releases.
Like the core series itself, each subsequent Chronicles game has felt a little less special than the last. But they are all worth playing for anyone interested in a more compact, streamlined AC experience.