Poll: Have you ever bought a game you knew nothing about before seeing in the store?

[CaitSeith]

Maybe it was an impulsive decision right at the moment. Or maybe you went to the Internet after seeing it, just to learn a little more about that intriguing title before you finally bought it. The main point is that you knew absolutely nothing about the game or the series (not even a mention of it in forums or Youtube) before seeing on display (or in your screen, if it was an online store or downloadable game).

Once I needed a Nintendo Wii Pro Controller to play a Virtual Console game on my Wii. While walking in the store, I found a black controller bundled with Monster Hunter Tri. I have to admit that I was more interested in getting the controller than the game (which, as the poll points out, I knew nothing about). So I checked some scores and reviews at home about it. The scores were a little low for my taste, but the reviews pointed out something that caught my attention: the difficulty curve. With that I made my decision and bought the game the next day. I ended up killing far more time (like "mass murder" rate of killing) in Monster Hunter than with the game I bought the controller for.

 

[go-10]

this was years ago but when Dragon Quest VIII first came out I had no idea what the game was about but at the time I was really into DBZ and the characters looked like DBZ characters so I got it. Luckily for me the game was amazing and to this day even after the DBZ fever died down DQ VIII remains amongst my favorite games of all time... I think Jessica is partly to blame

 

[Elfgore]

A long time ago, before I used the internet. I walked into a EB Games, which no longer even exist in my area anymore. A young lad noticed a game called Mass Effect. He knew nothing of the game, who made it, what it was... but he wanted it. Who would of thought that game was made by Bioware, developer of Jade Empire and KoToR, two of my favorite games at the time?

To sum it up, I spent sixty bucks on a game I never even heard of before. Totally fucking loved it and became one of my favorite series.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think so, back in my PS1 days. Couldn't tell you what though.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I used to, back when I was younger, stupider and didn't have ready access to magazines or (later on) the internet to inform myself.

 

[thoughtwrangler]

I can't remember the exact circumstances, but when I was young my mom and dad had to skip out a birthday present once. So one day, she gives me a choice- I could pick any NES game at K-Mart. (Why yes, this was 1989. How did you know?)

They didn't have any of the really cool ones I'd read about in my friend's Nintendo Power magazines, and the only thing I knew about Dragon Warrior was that the games were "complex" (I was 7 years old and new to the game thing.) So after looking over the boxes for what felt like an eternity, I picked...

FESTER'S QUEST.

It didn't go well.

 

[Catfood220]

I think the last time I bought a game without knowing anything about it was de Blob on the Wii. I just looked at the box and it looked fun so I bought it. And it was fun thankfully, the controls were a bit annoying but overall, it was a good game. Sometimes things work out like that, I remember the joy of picking up Beyond Good and Evil on the Gamecube and just loving it.

And then there are the games like Daikatana...

 

[Mutant1988]

Once or twice. I think I picked up Battle Fantasia on a whim. Really, if I have the money for it anything that looks even remotely interesting and is priced around $10-15 I might pick up.

I wouldn't blindly buy a game priced at $60 though. That is reserved for especially excellent games only.

Someone looking at my collection is likely to ask me why I have so many shitty games.

For the novelty of it mostly. But I tend to appreciate good things even in mediocre games. It's fun to be pleasantly surprised by something you had no real expectations for except as a means to pass the time.

 

[The Madman]

Yep, but only once or twice.

I remember that's how I ended up getting the first Splinter Cell game. Was going to get the then new Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness but bad reviews turned me away at the last moment despite being a big fan of the series, instead I ended up picking up Splinter Cell because I thought it looked nifty and I'd always like the stealth genre thanks to the Thief series.

Turned out to have been the right choice. Angel of Darkness is widely regarded as the worst Tomb Raider game ever made while Splinter Cell was a great stealth-action adventure.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I got Armored Core 4 and Gundam Dynasty Warriors in one weekend, because I was on a serious mech trip. Both were only meh.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

Only one I can think of was Submarine Titans. I was at Best Buy with my mom one day buying a new printer for my parents' computer. I had a $25 gift card to Best Buy that I got in the mail that morning for my birthday from family out of state, so I figured I'd check out the PC games while I was there.

I'd never heard of the game before, but it looked interesting and it was on sale for $25. It also seemed fitting, because one of the relatives who gave me the gift card was serving on the SSBN-742 USS Wyoming (an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine) at the time.

I actually ended up enjoying the game quite a bit. I tried a year or so ago to get it running on Windows 7 64-bit, but it didn't seem to work and I couldn't find any patches. If it ever ends up getting resurrected and modernized on GoG or Steam I'd definitely rebuy it for the nostalgia.

Added:
Other than that, no, I don't make blind purchases. I rarely buy anything on a whim.

 

[SoreWristed]

I can't do this anymore. When I was younger and my source for game releases and quality of games consisted mostly of word of mouth, I often picked stuff out of the secondhand bin or from the platinum release rack.

I still thank my dad for making me put back 'Spyhunter II' and pick something else, so I took some totally unknown new release called Jak and Daxter. Which turned out to be my all-time favourite game.

This mostly worked out, i've only ever returned one game due to it being unplayable and out of my collection of around 250 games; i'd only label about 10% as being bad purchases.

Nowadays, I have too many channels from which I recieve news about releases. So the chance that I'll come across a game I know nothing about is becoming slim. The last game I bought on blind luck was The World Ends With You, because it had a similar box art to Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I have indeed. That is how I discovered Planescape: Torment. A successful venture I say! It was much more common in the old days before the internet was the way it was now.

 

[Ieyke]

Waaay back in the day when the internet was a primitive thing, yes. Otherwise, hell no.

 

[Pyrian]

Just once that I recall; I just don't do that, and never did. But I was particularly bored and wanted a new game. Walked into a game store, walked out with... Deus Ex: Game of the Year edition. Ho. Ly. Cripes. Did I get a whole lot more than I was expecting.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Ahhh... the very first game I ever purchased with my own money as a lad, simply because the box looked cool and the back sold it so well!

Master of Orion 3

Suffice it to say, I haven't made the same mistake since.

 

[FPLOON]

Yes... Those games are:

Ys I and II Chronicles (PSP)
Fate EXTRA (PSP)
Hyperdimension Neptunia (PS3)
BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (PS3)

The PSP games were all in Limited Edition packaging, Hyperdimension Neptunia was bought used only a few months before Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 was available for pre-order, and BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend was technically an "impulse pre-order" for the Limited Edition version...

Granted, these impulse buys were all done during a time when I wasn't actually saving my money and shit... So, I don't think I could ever fully do that again without me buying a sequel to a game I like and/or it's coming from developers I trust...

Edit (3/17/15 9:10AM PST): I just remembered that I downloaded Skullgirls on the same day the base game came out for no other reason than "It was on the front page of PSN's new releases"... I honestly didn't know it was actually a fighting game until I started playing it...

 

[LostCrusader]

I remember doing it once when I was first buying my PS3. I was getting it as a blueray player at the time and never had a PS2 so I didn't know anything about PS game series. But the one game that I bought with it was a used copy of Demon Souls because I thought it looked interesting. The guy at gamestop even tried to talk me out of it by saying that the game was really hard, but I ignored him and that got me hooked on my favorite series.

 

[shrekfan246]

Spoiler: Yep.

I didn't regret my purchases.

There are probably a bunch more from when I was younger, but I didn't buy many games myself back then. I'd have to wait for Christmas or my birthday, unless it was something like Pokemon in which case my dad would buy copies of the games for himself, me, and my brother.

Nowadays it's incredibly rare for me to jump on something without waiting for unedited, unscripted gameplay to come out showing what it looks like.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Yes, when I was young and stupid. I got burned more than once. That was also back when I was naive and thought that movie licensed games might be good. They never are.

Those two things are connected by the way, I didn't do any research on the games but I bought them because I had liked the movies. Never do that kids, never do that, learn from my mistakes.