Games that you took a gamble on

[Drummie666]

I got crysis 2 on a whim. It was pretty damn solid.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was a gamble. Not great, but not really bad.
Fallout 3, because I was looking for an RPG and thought "Hey, awesome reviews, it can't be too bad and it's only $20! My lord did It turn out be a horrible game.

 

[piinyouri]

Makai Kingdoms

Totally a blind buy, never even heard of NIS or Disgaea at that point. I was very happy.

To balance it out, also blind bought one called Eternal Poison which was AWFUL.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

I've only really thrown my dice onto the table twice.

First time - Mass Effect & Mass Effect 2
I bought them just because I wanted a game I knew had a universe I could lose myself in again and liked the sound of your choices actually carrying some weight and defining your experience and character. Turns out I had one of the greatest experiences of my gaming life (large thanks to Mass Effect 1)

Second time....

Gears of War 3, and I lost....

I played number one and just couldn't let this series go unfinished, so I hastily bought this game and a week later (that's how long it took for me to work up the enthusiasm to beat it) I sold it.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Spoiler: Full House

Demon's Souls, Fallout: New Vegas, Picross DS, Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll. This is all I can remember for right now.

Spoiler: Dead Man's Hand

Hyperdimension Neptunia, Atelier Rorona, Cross X Edge. This is all I can remember for right now.

 

[zehydra]

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Golden Sun - The Lost Age

I did pretty well, lol.

 

[Reyold]

I don't remember any gambles I really took except for Last Rebellion. The game sounded good on paper, but... yeah.

Don't buy it.

 

[elvor0]

Henry Hatsworth in The Puzzling Adventure for the DS.

Sound obscure? It was. And it was a great game.

Good show!

On topic, Kingdom Hearts by far. At first I just wrote it off as someones insane fever dream. But then I thought I'd give it a go, and damn it was a good game, I must've 100% that game so. many. times.

 

[octafish]

Good Gambles:
FIFA 12, first football game I bought in six years and it is great.
Battlefield 3, pre-ordered, best MP game in years, but it still could be better (squad chat, better netcode)
Skyrim, I was very reluctant to buy this, but it turns out it is the first ES game I've enjoyed since Daggerfall.
Minecraft, the game wasn't even finished at the time, turns out it didn't really need to be.
The Saboteur, I'd heard it was a poor AssCreed clone, but it had one thing that AssCreed was missing, FUN!


Bad Gambles:
Saints Row 2, barely even functions.
Saints Row 3, functions just fine but is irredeemably vacuous.
Assassins Creed 2, a big gamble with the shitty DRM, turns out it is just a dull as the first game, only with a worst PC port, with my (supported) controller incorrectly mapped.

Just about every game is a gamble...and gambling 's for fools, but that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live forever...

Yeah, BS&T are better than Motorhead.

 

[Bato]

I took a gamble on APB.
Sufficed to say, I came out with the short stick after having lost maybe $90 from the game + pre-bought game time. Then the servers imploding.

They brought APB back as a Free to Play thing, and somehow made it worse.

 

[FallenTraveler]

Borderlands was my most memorably awesome gamble, saw the commercial, saw it again, so the art style, said "FUCK IT!" and ran out and traded in a couple games to get it. Best purchase EVAR! I've played that for at least 300 hours. Yes, that much.

Other gambles that paid off-

Lost Planet 2
Orcs Must Die
Section 8 PRejudice
Mass Effect 2 (because I don't particularly like bioware games)
Catherine
Brutal Legend
Heavenly Sword
3d dot game heroes

And a number of psn/xbla games that are totally fucking rad.

I have also made a few mistakes, such as-
Naughty Bear
Brink
Alpha Protocol (bought on sale, like most of these, but regret it still)
Nuclear Dawn (which I only regret because not enough people play and the devs aren't trying hard enough to add new stuff... btw anyone who wants a free copy of ND please message me.)
The Void (Because I just haven't played it enough)

 

[gbemery]

Good Gamble:
-Mario Brothers, Super Mario 2 and 3
-Run Like Hell (Never heard of it picked it up in the bargain bin started playing and only stopped to eat and sleep)
-Mass Effect (Still easily the best game I ever played)
-Dragon Age: Origins
-Civilization (SNES)
-Imperium Galactica (Best 4x space genre I ever knew)
-Silent Hill
-Knights of the Old Republic
-Civ IV
-Jungle Strike
-Sudden Strike
-Ace Combat 4 and 5
-Half Life
-Homeworld
-Homeworld Cataclysm
-Chrono Cross
-Metal Gear Solid

Bad Gamble:
-Mass Effect 3 (If it gets game of the year it'll be the same feeling of Obama getting a nobel peace prize)
-Dragon Age 2
-Civilization 3
-Prototype
-Universal Combat
-Half Life 2 (introduced me to steam)
-Hegemony: Legions of Iron
-Indigo Prophecy
-Homeworld 2

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

Gamble that paid off:

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2
I was not initially aware of the Shin Megami Tensai series and I just wanted a decent PS2 title to get through a slow month of gaming. I had seen some of the gameplay and was intrigued. I had no idea how awesome the game was and I have not regret the purchase ever since.

Gamble that was a waste:

Pokemon Black
I was initially not planning on buying this title, as I was not impressed with what the game had to offer. I took a chance and decided to not judge a game until I played it. I was hoping to have a lot of good things that might change my mind on the new Gen. Unfortunately, what little is good to be found in this Gen is swallowed up by the overwhelming bad. It literally felt like a downgrade from any Pokemon Gen that has ever been released.

Future gambles that I will not take:

Pokemon Black 2/White 2
Any future installments of Marvel vs. Campcom 3
Kingdom Heart titles that do not progress the story

 

[Mirroga]

Even after watching some gameplay footage of Resident Evil 5, I thought it was fairly safe to gamble. But oh boy did it bite me in the ass. RE5 is in no ways a bad game. But it didn't live up to my expectations. My expectations of RE5? THIS TRAILER!


Why of why didn't it turn out like this? I blame possibly the replayability issue and the whole racism issue both being solved by a not-so-black co-op PARTNA! Gimme anURB!