The more hype and anticipation we put onto a single game makes the sting of failure hurt a million times more than a thousand games that we haven't heard of letting us down. This is the sad fact that has become the video game industry where a large backing and plenty of flashy adverts and multimedia packages can cause a game's hype to increase 20 folds overnight. These marketing campaigns can mislead gamers and undoubtedly cause conflict between mainstream game reviews and user reviews, leaving hordes of young males with burning holes in their pockets and a game publisher with quick millions from what seems like a small advertising blitz.

This may not be the case for all of these games, but an underlying issue of too much talk before a release and not enough after is one that needs to be discussed further from beyond just a marketing standpoint. In the meantime, here are 10 recent games we got super hyped about, but were out of the headlines before we could even finish them.

Dead Space




Dead Space was a work of beautifully disturbing art that left you feeling completely engulfed in a HUD-less world of loneliness and fear. It looked to be a combination of Resident Evil and Doom 3, with a little Metroid Prime thrown into the mix. However, the game shipped without any sort of co-op (an easy to understand decision considering the game's story) or multiplayer, leaving the game's fans confused about what to do upon completion. The lack of extras allowed this gem to slip in and out of the spotlight like butter.

Mirror's Edge


Mirror's Edge was one of the most interesting games to come out in the past few years. The first-person only perspective in an action-adventure is pretty uncommon and was a daring move by the creators. Putting the interesting and creative gameplay aside however makes you realize how repetitive the gameplay actually is. Moving from one building to another, fighting the same silly AI over and over, and the ridiculous story take away from that original innovation that got you hyped in the first place. One of the only redeeming qualities of Mirror's Edge is when you pull off some incredible super jump or fight combo that looks amazingly fluid and a tad bit of satisfaction creeks your way in the form of a smile or girlish squeal. In the end, few have found or will find everlasting qualities to keep this game or a sequel alive for long.

Tom Clancy's End War


Ubisoft takes great advantage of the Tom Clancy brand and all the sales figures it can help draw; and End War was no exception. While the game had nothing to do with Tom Clancy, there was a book...it was released nine months before the game was though.

End War is an RTS that takes advantage of optional voice commands over manual commands to move your armies of troops into battle. This is something few games have done and none have gotten right, but End War looked to write a new chapter in strategy games with an intense story and multiplayer capability across the board. That is until it was released and flopped, despite positive reviews. Maybe it was before its time.

They were hoping the Frag Dolls could sell you on the voice command system:



Spore


Remember those cute, yet ugly little creatures from that one game where you did all those weird things? Yeah, Spore, that was it! That thing is probably booming after that awesome YouTube campaign, right? Oh. Nevermind.

And who could forget Spore's Creature Creator contest in which celebrities like Disney twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse battled C-list burnouts Melissa Joan Hart and Mario Lopez.

Haze

Hyped by PS3 fans itching for a pre-Killzone 2 "Halo Killer", Haze made plently of news headlines before its unsuccessful and disappointing launch in May of 2008. Crippled by bad reviews and slammed by its once excited audience it fell through the cracks and landed in the dead pool. The games major falling points were unimpressive graphics and buggy gameplay that gave through to frustration, then anger, which led to plenty of forum fights and GameStop visits.