Bargain bin games you found by chance and love

[Zontar]

Pretty much the title, what are games you've found in a bargain bin that you really enjoyed and got your money's worth out of?

For me, the best example would be X3 Reunion 2.0
I'd never heard of the game. It was in my small town's electronic/video rental store (yes, my town still has an open video rental store. If blockbuster had set up shop in towns like mine it would still be open) for 3$ marked down from 5$, which itself was marked down from 10$.

I had no idea what the game was even about, but the cover art and the description/images on the back sold me on it. And what a sale it was. It took me about 10 hours to finally figure everything out, but today I've got well over 600 hours on that game and it rightfully sits in my #1 spot for my favorite game of all time, and got me into a really go IP (at least until Rebirth killed it to the point where we will probably never see another game be released again).

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

I remember randomly buying Gauntlet Dark Legacy for the Gamecube many years ago from a PC World - the only time I think I've bought a game from there - without ever hearing of the series before.

My siblings were doubters, but it turned out to be quite the time sink.. and fun!

RED JESTER, IS NOW A LEVEL 99!!!! LEGEND!!!

Epic.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Saint's Row 3. Steam sale for 75% off. I had previously been of the conviction that Saint's Row was GTA's poorer cousin that tried to compensate for inferior gameplay by being juvenile and whacked out. But hey, for 9.99 it was worth a shot I thought... And so began the love story of 2012. The entire game just blew me away with its' consistently excellent gameplay, high level of humor, self-depreciation and satire. It is, to this date, the only game that I can claim to have achieved 100% in and along with SRIV one of two games in which I've actually bothered to find all collectibles.

 

[josemlopes]

Jagged Alliance BiA, heard bad things about it but after buying the remake collection (BiA plus DLCs and Crossfire expansion) for 90 cents I was plesently suprised. Never played the originals but I do enjoy the mix of realtime and orders, kind of like if Commandos had a bit of Frozen Synapse in it.

It does have some faults and I know that the game was even worse before a certain patch but I still managed to have fun for the first 30 hours (then the patrols just never stopped coming and fighting against 40 Level 5 soldiers is a test of patience).

 

[raeior]

Bards Tale (the "new" one) for about 1? in a local electronic store. Never have I gotten so much fun for so little money. Had no idea about the game except for a friend telling me a bit about it and saying that it's great. He was right.

 

[Liquidprid3]

Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii. My brother said a friend had it, so he bought. We never did anything online for the Wii, besides COD4, so I was a bit excited after. After doing the starting missions, getting some good gear, and going into online,mi proceeded to sink over 400 hours in that game, and my brother sunk like 600. Since we both have the 3DS enhanced port, we can both play together now. We're also eagerly awaiting 4. This is probably the only game that my brother and I both REALLY got into.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

When I was a kid, my mother came home from the city one day with a copy of Gothic II she got from a bargain bin for like $9.00. I didn't like it at first, but when I gave it a second chance it grew on me and is now possibly my all-time favourite video game. Talk about a random chance find for sure. Thanks Mum!

 

[Lilani]

I got Psychonauts on the PS2 from the used bargain bin at GameStop. I'd already heard of it because of Zero Punctuation, and damn not a single praise Yahtzee gives it is overstated. Hell I don't think he gives it enough praise: there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore which really rounds out the world and reinforces the whole "summer camp for psychics" thing.

 

[RESURRECTION21]

prey for 360 I think I got it for 10$ back in 09 or 2010 and loved it if you have not played it you should

 

[-Ezio-]

.Hack//Infection

bought it on a whim coz the cover looked cool. then it took me a year to track down the other 3 (i had no internet at the time).

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I got Psychonauts on the PS2 from the used bargain bin at GameStop. I'd already heard of it because of Zero Punctuation, and damn not a single praise Yahtzee gives it is overstated. Hell I don't think he gives it enough praise: there are lots of nooks and crannies to explore which really rounds out the world and reinforces the whole "summer camp for psychics" thing.

Same here! Except when i bought it, i had never heard of zero punctuation. I thought there's a high chance it could be a dodgy platformer from the box. But i played it from start to finish and loved it all! Apart from the end due to the post-awesome-game blues.

Aside from that...there was a ratchet and clank racing/battle game that was a magnificant surprise. Not sure on the name or the price, but im not a gambler so it wouldnt have been much.

 

[Akiraking]

Pretty much half my wii collection. I got Batman Brave and the Bold, Zack and Wiki, Red Steel 2 and No More Heroes 2 in a bargain sale. All amazing games in their own way.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Damn I haven't had a good bargain bin purchase since the 3D craze started around 5th gen and I bought like 10 SNES cartridges dirt cheap right out of the pile.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I got Ninja Gaiden Sigma for a fiver years back, not knowing anything about it, only that I'd heard good things about Ninja Gaiden Black. Turned out to be a remake of that game and one of the best games on the PS3.

I got Avernum: Escape From The Pit and Avadon: The Black Fortress in some bundle or other and now I'm addicted to Spiderweb Software's games. Some of the best CRPGs I've played. Fun combat and decent writing.

 

[L. Declis]

I remember picking up Armoured Core 2 and Theme Park Tycoon for my Playstation 2 when I first got it because I had £15 left over. I LOVED ARMOURED CORE 2! I look forward to when they release a PS4 Armoured Core and I'll get back into it.

I remember another game called Freedom Fighters, where you played as a plumber when the Russians attack America and then you have to lead a small hit team through. I loved ordering my men to hold here, defend there, attack there. Made me feel like a badass. The final level of the game I remember storming the fortress and feeling awesome; it was tough, but daring gambits would break open defences. It felt like a real squad game. Multiplayer was gritty as all the fights would be in corridors and windows above and ambushes in streets and then dashes across the ground under machine gun fire.

As you can see, I think very well of it.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I'm actually an "expert" at finding amazing games at bargain prices...

I found Zone of the Enders 2 for $10, Skies of Arcadia GC Version for $5, Valkyrie Profile 2 for $3, Star Ocean 3 for $5 by essentially trolling the bargain bins of video rental stores (back when they existed in western Canada).

 

[Michael Tabbut]

Sacred Gold for the PC. I got it at a Five Below near a bookstore I usually go to. Good times with that game.

 

[Quazimofo]

"What's this 'Dawn of War' game? It looks kinda like something I saw in an x-play review I saw once that sounded interesting, so why not?" (this was on steam by the way, as circuit city was my primary source for pc games and this was post-bankruptcy).

*5 years pass*

Ethereals be praised, a new edition of 40k which shall allow a fully-mechanized list without ForgeWorld product!

So yeah, that game indirectly started me on the path to all of my current hobbies, save videogames. Not to mention the hundreds of hours I've poured into it and the expansions/sequel/sequel's expansions.

Basically, I really fucking love Dawn of War.

 

[Brennan]

"Echo Night: Beyond", on the PS2. An odd little Japanese import 1st person survival horror title in which you play an astronaut wandering around a deserted moon base. You'd encounter ghosts of the base's former residents, and had to puzzle out what each one needed in order to "move on", while at the same time managing your fear levels around them to keep your heart from popping. It was kind of awkward, but it had AMAZING atmosphere.

Part of the reason "Routine" (1 [http://www.routinegame.com/] , 2 [http://www.lunar-software.com/]) is the game I've been most looking forward to for the last year or two is because it reminds me so very, very much of EN:B.

 

[Treeberry]

I found Yakuza 4 for the PS3 in a bargain bin without even knowing that they'd made a fourth game. 'Twas a nice surprise and turns out that I really, really like that game. So far I have found it to be much more enjoyable than the third game although a couple of...things that characters have said or done have made my eyebrows shoot up to the sky. Then again, this is a game about Yakuza and the characters aren't typically as crass as in certain other crime-related series...