How could I have deprived myself for so long?

[tippy2k2]

We've all had THAT game. "Oh yeah, I keep hearing great things about it" you say to yourself, smug in self satisfaction that it can't be THAT great. I mean, if it was that great, you'd already be playing it, right?!? What a bunch of stupid sheeple lemmings everyone else is for going all ga ga over some silly looking game.

Then, you finally play it. Maybe it was bargain bin. Maybe it was at a friends house. Maybe it was free until Sunday on Xbox Live like a certain race car themed soccer game? We're not naming names here.

Now that you have gotten your hands on THAT game, it has changed your life. What you thought was happiness was a pale imitation of what you are currently experiencing. It's like you've only been able to see black and white all your life until someone opens a curtain to a field of colorful flowers.

Rocket League

I have heard such great things about this game. I love me some sports (I own most sports in video game form of some kind) and I've heard that Rocket League was great. I figured I'd give it a try eventually but I don't NEED to play it so if I end up missing out, big whoop. Past me is going to get a kick to the fun zone for denying present me more Rocket League. I am in love with this game.

So what is your THAT game? Was it some epic game but in a genre you didn't think you'd care for? Was it something completely out of left field that blindsided you? Was it a game that you had wanted for a long time but whether it was time or money, you just hadn't picked up until late? What is your Rocket League?

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Probably the Total War games, it was maybe back in 2012/2013 when I bought Total War: Rome during a sale because why the hell not, Civilization never looked good to me until I tried it myself. So I started playing Rome and I was like, this is great! So I ended up buying Total War: Shogun 2 because I felt like I needed something more recently released and ended up spending 100 hours in to it.

Total War: Rome 2 kinda killed it for me though.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I saw Gone Home was on sale on as part of GOG's summer sale recently. I figured it was a good time to finally give a go, since I sort of wish there were more games where romance is the focus, not a sub plot/side mission. I was rather impressed actually. It did a great job of bringing together romance-focused story with detective-like adventure, two things I wish more games did.

I don't expect myself to get into "walking simulators", though. Gone Home had a lot more to it that got me interested during the initial hype and subsequent backlash.

 

[Captain Marvelous_v1legacy]

It was Kingdom Hearts. I feel like I've typed this before, but there was a time I avoided Kingdom Hearts like the plague. I looked at it and thought it was a game for girls probably because of the heart and Disney characters, so my childish mind immediately assumed it was not the game for me. Then, one day, a friend let me borrow his copy and convinced me to play the game.

Now, I'm madly in love with the series! Kingdom Hearts is my absolute favorite game. If I made a top ten list of my all time favorite games, the KH series would take up the first 4 slots, easy.

 

[Hawki]

For me, it would probably be The Wind Waker.

Now, I actually got it around the time it came out. Didn't like it then, partly due to the gameplay, partly due to the animation style. On the Gamecube, Twilight Princess was my "go to" Zelda game. It wasn't until a few years ago that I actually decided to sit down with Wind Waker and convince myself to play through it all.

And I loved it. Absolutely adored it. Not only did Wind Waker become my new favorite Zelda game, it became my favorite game of all time, period.

I'll give an honorable mention to Doom (the original), as while I did play it for a bit back in the day, GoldenEye was my FPS jam. I played Doom completely when I got the BFG edition. And...it's good. Surprisingly good for a game that came out in '93. Even the storytelling (key word on "telling," not "story") is done surprisingly well. Now, I don't really "love" Doom in the same way I might for other works of fiction, games or otherwise, and I still hold GoldenEye as the superior game (or at least my preferred one), but it did find a place in my top 10 FPS list. And while I'm perhaps the only person on Earth who considers Doom 3 to be the best Doom game out there, I'll give kudos to Doom '93 - the game I thought I'd really dislike, but didn't.

I'll give a second honorable mention to Torchlight, but I've probably dragged this post on long enough.

 

[aozgolo]

Not so much a game, but a genre:

Roguelikes.

I always liked classic turn-based top down RPGs, but Roguelikes had this whole "permadeath" thing that was like an instant no-buy tag word for me for a long time. I die enough in casual romps, but a game that hypes up it's difficulty only to throw permadeath on top of it? HA! Fat chance...

Then I picked up Dungeons of Dredmor in a bundle... and OMG what have I been missing? These games are so much fun, I have lost tons of hours to Don't Starve, Tales of Maj'eyal, Dungeons of Dredmor, UnReal World... it's fantastic!

 

[Maximum Bert]

I wouldnt say it changed my life (well it did in a very small way I suppose) but trying FFVII was easily the biggest impact a videogame has had on my life.

Before this game I hated RPGs I had tried others such as some dungeon crawlers, some CRPGs and other JRPGs although back then I made no distinction between any of them they were just RPGs to me and gotta say I hated them all. Then FFVII came out and everyone was going on about it (before internet for me and lots of people then) then I got the chance to try a small section in a shop demo and I was blown away by how it looked and I found I actually wanted to know more about the characters and world.

It was the first RPG that ever hooked me enough to finish it since then I have gone back to some I tried before its release most notably FFVI and really enjoyed that one as well. So I suppose I have it to thank for widening the game types I play and broadening my horizons so to speak not only opening RPGs back up which was a genre I had pretty much given up on but also other genres I would never had touched before.

Even after all this time it is still my favourite game of all time with my favourite cast of characters.

 

[Kingjackl]

For me it was Dark Souls. Because all everyone talks about is how difficult that series is, I assumed it's popularity was in being some kind of throwback to old school coin-stealers that I had no interest in because I didn't spend my childhood staving off parental neglect in some arcade. What encouraged me to give it a go was the Best Friends' LP of Dark Souls 2, which made me realise it was actually just a really good, really deep action-RPG series that's actually quite manageable once you know how it works. So then I bought DS1, then a few months later Bloodborne came out and I've never looked back since.

 

[gorfias]

Toss up between Skyrim for PC and Fallout 3 for PS3. Both were games I bought as everyone was raving about them and they sat almost unplayed. Then I found mods for Skyrim (I still think it menacingly boring without mods) and was hooked. I played through it multiple times. I lost track of hours.

Fallout 3 for PS3: I didn't realize the need to grind. Once I did, it became playable and it was a fantastic adventure. I had the GOTY edition so I played everything.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Probably the Total War games, it was maybe back in 2012/2013 when I bought Total War: Rome during a sale because why the hell not, Civilization never looked good to me until I tried it myself. So I started playing Rome and I was like, this is great! So I ended up buying Total War: Shogun 2 because I felt like I needed something more recently released and ended up spending 100 hours in to it.

Total War: Rome 2 kinda killed it for me though.

Total War: Rome 2 killed it for a lot of people, but don't let that shitty game ruin things for you, since there have been good Total War games before and since. You've already mentioned Rome and Shogun 2, so I'd recommend progressing with Napoleon and Attila. Napoleon is the good version of Empire and Attila is kind of like the good version of Rome 2 as well. The new Warhammer one is apparently good too.

 

[Jeroenr]

This is why is is a shame that Demo's aren't a thing any more (or at least incredibly uncommon)

Nowadays we must form an opinion about a game from the trailer, YouTube review/lets-plays, and written reviews (less so, but stil..).
So things seems to get over-hyped a lot.
Demo's could really help to form a players own opinion about a game.
And boost sale as a result.

Take DOOM for example.
Its almost a pissing contest amongst reviewers/critics to yell who likes the game more.
So it gave me a bit of hype feel, and usually that makes me lose intrest.
A Demo level of the game could really help doubters make there way to the store.

But i did pick it up on steam (not for 60eu though) and it is a good and fun game.
Is it the best FPS ever? No, not by a long shot. But is fun to play.

 

[Mister K]

So, when I was young kid I didn't play any JRPG except for Final Fantasy, not because I thought that everything else was bad, I just didn't know much about games at that time.

I saw an article about SMT games, how they represent "the darker side of JRPG's", or something like that and it got me intrigued.

Later I saw Persona 4 in store and decided to give it a try. What a great damn game.

 

[Fox12]

Most recently it would have to be Undertale. I played it a few months ago, but I got bored and quit. I think I expected something a little more serious, so it's obvious goofiness threw me off a bit. Last week I finally commited myself to finishing it, and I've been hooked ever since. There's just so much depth in every nook and cranny. The pacifist route almost felt like a different game. I couldn't even finish genocide. There really isn't anything else like it. It also managed to have some of the absolute creepiest moments I've seen in a game. Seriously, that silent hill music that plays during the genocide route... That's just wrong.

It makes me want to go checkout earthbound and mother 3.

For me it was Dark Souls. Because all everyone talks about is how difficult that series is, I assumed it's popularity was in being some kind of throwback to old school coin-stealers that I had no interest in because I didn't spend my childhood staving off parental neglect in some arcade. What encouraged me to give it a go was the Best Friends' LP of Dark Souls 2, which made me realise it was actually just a really good, really deep action-RPG series that's actually quite manageable once you know how it works. So then I bought DS1, then a few months later Bloodborne came out and I've never looked back since.

Pretty much this. I thought Dark Soul's was going to be yet another generic fantasy game, probably filled with orcs, elves, and dwarves. Then everyone started talking about how hard it was, and I promptly lost interest. It just sounded like some awful old school throwback title.

Then Yahtzee basically called it a metroidvania game, and I promptly bought it for about $15. Good thing, too. I think I knew I'd found something special the moment the title music started. Me and Dark Soul's have been enjoying a happy BDSM lifestyle ever since.

 

[NotEvenOnce]

For me, this is 100% the Witcher series. I've had The Witcher 1 sitting in my library since 2011...
This has been without a doubt the most I've enjoyed anything since Snake Eater. I just finished the entire franchise in one long back-to-back play-through over the last few months and it took me about 350 hours, not to mention that Blood and Wine just came out and I haven't finished that yet. I'm half way through the novels right now too and I'm loving every second of them. I'll probably end up playing through it again somewhere down the road once I've finished the books, so I can cringe at all of the horrible decisions I made last time.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Wolfenstein: The New Order- Heard a lot of good things about it when it came out. In my head I figured it could be one of those games I could pass, thinking it was just a full high action romp that I could pick up whenever I was bored.

Man, if I had only known...this game quickly became one of my favorite shooters in a long time. I loved everything about it, the shooting, the graphics, the story, the characters, I certainly did not expect to enjoy the story as much as I did.

 

[lechat]

castlevania lords of shadow.
I actually booted the game up twice but couldn't get past the first boring 2 hour slog at the beginning, In a fit of pure boredom I managed to boot it up a third time and I'll be damned if it is't one of the top tree hack and slash games of all time.

 

[baddude1337]

The Castlevania series. Never played any of them. But somehow watched a few videos of them so decided to try out Dawn of Sorrow for DS and having fantastic fun with it. Metroidvania gameplay really is addicting. I've now gone back to play Aria of Sorrow on GBA before continuing on.

 

[Zhukov]

I don't think I've ever quite done that.

Closest I can think of is FTL: Faster Than Light.

I was initially put off by the promotional materiel. It's not a game that sells itself well in trailers or screenshots.

After hearing a bunch of good things said about I checked it out anyway, it was only $15 after all, and ended up having plenty of fun with it.

 

[tippy2k2]

Wolfenstein: The New Order- Heard a lot of good things about it when it came out. In my head I figured it could be one of those games I could pass, thinking it was just a full high action romp that I could pick up whenever I was bored.

Man, if I had only known...this game quickly became one of my favorite shooters in a long time. I loved everything about it, the shooting, the graphics, the story, the characters, I certainly did not expect to enjoy the story as much as I did.

Similar thing happened for me with New Order. I had gotten it in my yearly "Christmas and Birthday present bash!" (It is very common for me to get six or seven games with my birthday and Christmas and divorced parents) and had put it aside since it was a game I had wanted to play but wasn't at the top of my list. I eventually got to it and it ended up being one of my favorite games. My only real regret with it is that I had gotten it for the 360 since this was pre-One days for your hero tippy2k2 but from what I've seen, I don't think it was that big of a deal.