Holy shit, that was actually good

[Godhead]

Papers, Please was a punch in the face in terms of unexpected quality. I picked it up thinking it would be a silly little pencil pusher game, and then it turns out to have some of the best moral choices I've seen in a game.

Secondly, I was incredibly surprised at how fun and challenging Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator is, it's just that you need four peeps with you in the same room, and a smartpone/tablet/projector to really make it come alive.

 

[Adamantium93]

I'm with you on Rise. I was afraid it would be another reboot cashing in on love for a forgotten franchise, but I actually like it (and now Dawn) better than the originals, which is unexpected (although everything past the first Apes is pretty bad).

Quick side comment:

But that's precisely my issue-- it all comes down to Caesar. It's not the story of a species, it's the story of one member of it, and the explanation rests on that single individual rather than anything... broader.

I can see where you're coming from, but I think Caesar is only supposed to be a spark that lights the fuse, and the bomb hasn't even gone off yet. Have you seen "Dawn of the ..." yet? I think it does a better job of showing the Planet of the Apes as more of a trans-species movement than the work of a single, influential revolutionary.


Back on topic:

Other movies you say? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm...Thor? Yeah, let's go with Thor. I assumed he'd be one of those "too weird for the big screen" heroes but I really liked that movie more than I expected.

I guess the TV show "Arrow", mostly because I find that dark "re-imaginings" of super heroes tend to be bad. To be fair, Arrow is two-thirds crap to one-third awesome, but that one-third is worth watching.


As for video games:

FTL
Bastion
The Walking Dead (Telltale)
Assassin's Creed 4
Papers Please
XCOM
Dark Souls

That last one may seem odd as its one of the most praised games of the modern era but I tend to be wary of anything that is popular because "its so hardcore man!". I don't believe that difficulty alone equals quality, and no one ever talked about all the other great things it has. It's broad and immersive, and one of few games I've played where the combat actually resembles something from real life and not anime. Seriously, any game that let's me wield a spear and shield combo and emphasizes well timed blocks/dodges over face-tanking is good in my book.

 

[Silvanus]

I can see where you're coming from, but I think Caesar is only supposed to be a spark that lights the fuse, and the bomb hasn't even gone off yet. Have you seen "Dawn of the ..." yet? I think it does a better job of showing the Planet of the Apes as more of a trans-species movement than the work of a single, influential revolutionary.

I haven't seen it yet, and that's heartening. I'll withhold judgement, in that case!

 

[Adamantium93]

Again, hey, it looks cool, but logically speaking, it violates the no-kill rule.

I never saw it as a "no-kill" rule, but rather a "no-murder" rule. He's OK if humans die in the fight because the survival of his comrades is most important in those moments. He'd prefer if the deaths were kept to a minimum, but he isn't going to command his followers to die needlessly so that they can leave all the humans alive. When a flying machine is massacring your friends all around you, you aren't going to take the time to formulate a decidedly non-lethal way to bring it down. Your priority will be taking it out of the fight at any cost. None of those deaths were murders (well, maybe Jacobs, but its a karmic death so I'll allow it), but simply casualties of war.

 

[Valkrex]

Captain America, the first of the two movies. I wasn't expecting much. We hit 50/50 on Hulk, 50/50 on Iron-Man, and I didn't really like Thor, so I didn't expect too much. Well, I was quite happily mistaken.

In gaming, Spec Ops: The Line. I had played the demo, checked it into "thats alright, I should keep this in mind" and I proceeded to check it into my "Get this for $5" folder. Then Extra Credits did a video of it where they simply said "The game, go play it. Now." It just may be my favourite game ever.

That's actually how I got that game as well. I had never even heard of the game before seeing that Extra Credits video, but I am VERY glad I decided to give The Line a try, as it is indeed amazing.

 

[FPLOON]

Huh... This is a bit tough with me, since I seem to already know how I'm going to feel about something beforehand and beyond...

With that said, believe it or not, the movies Grown Ups and That's My Boy kinda took me by surprised, since I did end up enjoying them in the long run... Granted, the formal had some slapstick humor I didn't find funny at all and the latter's first third of the movie was already leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth (with both movie's soundtracks keeping me from giving up on any of them outright), but the character dynamics in both got me invested in those movies to the point that I was rooting for whatever character Adam Sandler was playing in either of those movies... Will I ever re-watch those movies again the same way I re-watch, say, Happy Gilmore or You Don't Mess With The Zohan for example? Not really, but I don't regret wasting time watching either of those movies overall...

Other than that, the anime series Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends surprised me with its "harem subversion", in that I didn't know it was a harem series until someone pointed it out to me... (Well, that and its second season reminding me it was a harem series, but I digress...)

 

[Redryhno]

Other than that, the anime series Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends surprised me with its "harem subversion", in that I didn't know it was a harem series until someone pointed it out to me... (Well, that and its second season reminding me it was a harem series, but I digress...)

To be fair, it's still a bit of a deconstruction of the Harem genre. Only thing that really bugs me is they keep the "perfect girl that's always nice to everybody is the real love interest" trope...Then again I'm a fan of anime characters whose boobs don't stick out past their body far enough their body length is longer laying down than standing up, for some reason I can't put into words what my mind has pictured right now. Also I'm a Yozora fanboy so that might have something to do with it...

Kokoro Connect sorta does this too, I love it. Too bad it's not getting a second season because the studio pulled a prank on a amateur VA and the pr backlash screwed it over...At least there's still the original source materials to read though...

As for OP, I didn't expect I'd enjoy Borderlands2 as much as I have, especially considering how much of a grindtastic, single-player punishing, claptrap-ridden "humor" the first one had. It took the over-the-top glimmers from the first game and blew them up into blinding high-bright beams on a cloudy, dead in the middle of winter-night monstrosity that's as stupid and fun as it looks, which the artstyle really helped with.

Then there's a really weird turn for me really enjoying Korean 4-10 episode dramas for some reason lately. Really standard soap opera openings honestly, but the music and characters become really top-notch as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

The new Transformers. My boyfriend, our two best friends and I went opening day with our minds turned off and just going to have a fun time and we love it. We're actually still quoting it to today.

 

[Kotaro]

I genuinely enjoyed the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime as a kid (I was like, ten when the show and the cards first came out), and to this day, it remains a guilty pleasure of mine.
A friend and I decided to give Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal a watch, just so we could see how awful it is. Turns out, not very. The first half isn't all that great, but it wasn't the train wreck we'd expected going in. And then the Barian World arc happened and we were like "Wow, this is actually pretty good."

Also happened with a game once. I was rooting through a bargain bin and saw a copy of the critically-panned P.N.03 for GameCube for like $1.50, and decided on a whim to buy it. I ended up genuinely enjoying it; it's like a bullet-hell shmup as a third-person shooter!

 

[Sean Hollyman]

I really thought Thor was going to suck. Something about it just seemed off to me. Then I watched it and really enjoyed it!

Also Gurren Lagann. I thought it was about some kid who rode around in a giant robot that was just... a face.

Well it did turn out to be that... BUT HOLYFUCKBOLLOCKS WAS IT GLORIOUS

 

[Crazy Zaul]

New Robocop. Like everyone probably was I was expecting a dumb action movie, but It wasn't.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Tangled

The promotional material made it look like your regular pop-culture referencing Dreamworks snarkfest. And for Christ's sake, it's called 'Tangled'. I mean, we need a hip title for a fairy tale, right guys? We can't just call it 'Rapunzel' or something, that'd just be stupid.

Lo and behold though, the movie was actually very good. Really good to honest, and I got quite smitten with it. It's got great characters, a great villain, actual growth in the relationship between Rapunzel and Flynn, and a animated comic relief animal that genuinely adds to the narrative. The script is so freaking tight you could bounce a quarter of off it, and the songs and music are terrific.

Came here to say this. Just watched it on Netflix, and found myself liking it more and more as it went on. Would definitely reccommend it.

 

[RealRT]

Thor didn't impress me right up until I saw it.
I also thought X-Men: Days of Future Past is going to suck, especially Quicksilver. The movie turned out to be pretty good and Quicksilver was the best part.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengance. I don't like Japanese stuff and Metal Gear wasn't in my list of interests. It is now.

 

[ExDeath730]

Let me see...

The most recent movie i had this was actually the Need for Speed movie, i genuinely liked it, it was fun and made me actually care about the characters. In theaters, Edge of Tomorrow. I went because i like Emily Blunt, and was surprised with an amazing sci-fi movie, and liked Tom Cruise's performance as well.

Other movies that i was pleasantly surprised:
- Kingdom of Heaven Director's Cut
- Evil Dead Remake
- Fright Night Remake
- Star Trek (The new one)
- Warrior
- Rush

Games there were some:

- Rogue Legacy
- Castlevania Lords of Shadow
- The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing
- Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines
- War Thunder
- The Banner Saga

In tv shows?

- Boardwalk Empire
- Sleepy Hollow
- Dracula

And last but not least, in anime/manga:

- Tegen Toppa Gurren Lagann
- Vandread
- Beck
- Claymore
- Vindland Saga
- Eyeshield 21

 

[FPLOON]

Other than that, the anime series Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends surprised me with its "harem subversion", in that I didn't know it was a harem series until someone pointed it out to me... (Well, that and its second season reminding me it was a harem series, but I digress...)

To be fair, it's still a bit of a deconstruction of the Harem genre. Only thing that really bugs me is they keep the "perfect girl that's always nice to everybody is the real love interest" trope...Then again I'm a fan of anime characters whose boobs don't stick out past their body far enough their body length is longer laying down than standing up, for some reason I can't put into words what my mind has pictured right now. Also I'm a Yozora fanboy so that might have something to do with it...

Kokoro Connect sorta does this too, I love it. Too bad it's not getting a second season because the studio pulled a prank on a amateur VA and the pr backlash screwed it over...At least there's still the original source materials to read though...

True... The deconstruction still caught me by surprise, though, because I was too focus on the irony that is the Neighbor's Club... Plus, despite being a Rika fanboy through and through, I actually didn't want Yozora, Sena, or anyone else to be with Kodaka anyway...

Also, now I want to check out Kokoro Connnect... Still sucks the anime couldn't have a proper continuation, though... (And now I just realized it's going to be a while until Haganai gets a third season, I guess...)

 

[Hannabella Doe]

With me there was two movies I can think of at the top of my head, the first one was Les Misérables (yes the one with Russell Crowe) at first I thought I was gonna hate it or just find it meh; but then I watched it in theaters after a friend recommended it; and I actually LOVED it and became obsessed with it for months (but I understand it isn't for anyone.) Another movie is Phantom of the Opera (the one with Gerald Butler,) only this time I rented it on DVD.

With TV Shows, it would be My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, I didn't even consider watching it at first; but I decided to what the hype was about after hearing about it a lot online. Then after watching the first episode, I was hooked.

Finally with books, the only book I can think of was Lord of the Flies; I thought I was gonna hate it when I started reading it in High School. But I ended up loving it and it was actually the book that inspired me to be a writer.

 

[Zen Bard]

"Starship Troppers". Seriously, staring Casper Van Diem, Doogie Howser AND Denise Richards? What could possibly go right? Ah...but it was directed by Paul Verhoven. And he made a smart, satirical movie that, ironically, took the opposite point of view as the novel.

And...throw me in with the rest of the people who were pleasantly surprised by "Rise of the Planet of the Apes". When I was a little tyke, the original movies were my favorite. And since I still had a bad taste in my mouth from Tim Burton's "re-imagining", I expected more of the same. Then I saw it and was genuinely blown away. Everything...the story, the effects, the acting...was excellent.

For video games, "Darksiders II". Figured this would be a cheap "God of War" knockoff for the XBox. But it was a richly imagined original world with great gameplay elements and the great Michael Wincott (of "The Crow" fame) voicing Death. What's not to love?

Oh and finally, classic "Diablo". I never thought a point-and-click game could suck me in so deep. But it did and I've been hooked on the franchise (even "Diablo III") ever since.