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

Autumnflame

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Sep 18, 2008
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I sued to spoiler myself something fierce.
now i refuse to watch any beyond inital concepts.

So The last of us, Beyond two souls, GtaV, Fahrenheit were all surprises that i enjoyed
 

Proverbial Jon

Not evil, just mildly malevolent
Nov 10, 2009
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This happened to me a LOT back in the Xbox/PS2 era when I didn't follow gaming news nearly as closely as I do now. Literally only the big names reached my ears then.

Oddly enough Silent Hill 2 was one of the games I picked up on impulse and knew nothing about... boy was that a good decision! It's my top favourite game now.
 

NeutralDrow

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Mar 23, 2009
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I've done it a few times. I think only once was I really burned on the deal (Summoner, the only game I've ever taken back to the store). On the other hand, that method led me to Tales of Symphonia, among other things, so my experience has balanced out to overwhelmingly positive.

Oddly enough, while that was my GameStop experience, my J-list experience buying physical copies of visual novels was similar. Generally positive, with one disastrous burn (Xchange), and one incredible counterbalance (A Drug That Makes You Dream).
 

Yopaz

Sarcastic overlord
Jun 3, 2009
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I prefer to do this actually, but in practice I don't really do it that much.

I grew up with really slow internet that was expensive to use so I couldn't research games. I saw games at the store, looked at the box and based my decision on how it looked. It was great, my experience wasn't tainted by reviews or anyone else's opinion of it.

As a rule of the thumb I research games just enough to know if I might be interested in it or not. I generally buy any new Tales game without looking into it, I might watch the intro of it, but that's just because I am curious.

Tales of Symphonia, Monster Hunter 3, Killing Floor, Xenoblade, Banjo Kazooie and a whole lot of other games (including pretty much all SNES games) are games I have bought blind. I find that I generally get burned about as often from buying blind as when I research so why bother? Research kill my sense of wonder while not guaranteeing that I'll like it.
 

Spectrix

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Oct 20, 2008
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GZGoten said:
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. :p
That's because Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, does the character design for the Dragon Quest games. Sorry for bothering you if you actually knew that but I just wanted to make sure.

The only ones I can think of are Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Metroid Prime.

For The Lost Age, I hadn't actually played the first one and at the time, probably barely knew it existed but it's still one of my favorite games.
For Metroid Prime, I knew of it mostly because of Smash Bros and nothing about the actual games. I found it at a Gamestop and the first disc I had was scratched and stopped working right before Samus reaches Talon IV. I had to go back and get a different copy but it was still an amazing game and the Monday after that, one of my friends asked me if I had ever played it. It was a funny coincidence.

Maybe those don't count but those are the closest I could think of.
 

lunavixen

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Jan 2, 2012
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A few times years ago, but not something I do a lot of now, especially with AAA new releases, seeing as they're between $100-$110AU a pop.

I picked up Odin Sphere, Okami, Beyond Good and Evil, The Bouncer, Dark Cloud, the Atelier series and a few others with no prior information, and I've only been burned once or twice, same with pre orders, I've only ever been let down once, but I wasn't expecting a fantastic game from it anyway.
 

Estranged180

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Mar 30, 2011
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Twice, and both times, I was not disappointed. The first, was Unreal Tournament (the original one, came from the Unreal game as the multiplayer aspect, which was tacked on, as an afterthought).

The second was (and many people will agree with me) Painkiller. There's just something about shuriken and lightning that makes a guy happy.
 

flying_whimsy

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Dec 2, 2009
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Katamari Damacy was a game I bought knowing nothing about. I research all of my purchases, but that game just kind of leapt out at me for reasons I still don't understand.

It's also one of my favorite games of all time. It's like it chose me.
 

Mister K

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Apr 25, 2011
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The funny thing is that my favourites were bought blindly.

- My father bought Final Fantasy X because we wanted to buy something with PS2 and we greatly enjoyed this game;

- I bought Jade Empire because "Wow! Kung-Fu RPG";

- I got Def Jam: Fight for NY because I was one of them white boyz that liked black music and this game had Snoop Dogg in it;

- I bought Persona 4 with only bit of prior knowledge about SMT games being that they are darker then FF games.
 

Ihateregistering1

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Mar 30, 2011
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Years ago, when I was young, I purchased "Krush, Kill, N' Destroy" (aka KKND) for no other reason than I thought the name was really cool (and it featured a giant crab monster on the cover). Definitely wasn't the greatest game ever, but still a lot of fun and definitely one of the more memorable RTS games that came out during the era when it seemed like 5 new RTS games came out each month.
 

BathorysGraveland2

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My household was a latecomer when it came to getting the Internet. It wasn't around until 2008 or so when we finally got it installed. So before then pretty much any game I bought was a blind buy at the store (there were a few I played at a friend's house prior). I distinctly remember the first Witcher being one of the last I bought completely blind, having never heard of it before. I saw it at the store, saw the few tiny screenshots on the back of the box which looked cool and decided to get it. It was a gamble, but fortunately it paid off. Loved the game.

But yeah, ever since our home got the Internet I've researched games before buying them. GOG.com had a massive sale awhile back, and I bought quite a few games I hadn't played or seen any footage of before, but I was still aware of what kind of games they were, so it wasn't a completely blind purchase.
 

spartandude

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Nov 24, 2009
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I know I've done it a couple of times in my youth but the only time i can think of is Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on the 360.
 

Sandjube

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Feb 11, 2011
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Yep. Monster hunter. All I knew about it was that you hunted monsters...it was the best gaming decision I've made in years.
 

Bizzaro Stormy

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Oct 19, 2011
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In the days of the Computer Show it was the rule not the exception! However, in recent years it was responsible for getting me into the Warriors games from Koei. $10 well spent and Dynasty Warriors 2 and 3 are games I still own.
 

Katherine Kerensky

Why, or Why Not?
Mar 27, 2009
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Yeah, I did. First that comes to mind was Robotech: Battlecry.
That was a fun little game. Can't remember how much it was.
Actually, a lot of the game for XBOX and before, I bought after seeing them in the store with no prior knowledge.
 

Quellist

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Oct 7, 2010
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Not since Wild 9 on the PS1. That game sucked donkey balls...once bitten twice shy!
 

mrdeclandeadly

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Feb 24, 2015
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I've bought one or two that I just seen in stores and looked like a good game. I remember picking up Fahrenheit on sale in Game, never heard anything about it before, but I like mystery games. I was hooked to the story, thought it was brilliant; until half way through it turns into this insane game that felt completely disconnected from the great mystery that had been building for the first half, and it turned to shite. That was disappointing.

I have picked up one or two on Steam sales that I'd never really known about. Pixel Piracy being the most memorable, got it cheap. Love that game.

Mutant1988 said:
I wouldn't blindly buy a game priced at $60 though. That is reserved for especially excellent games only.
Agreed, you'd have to be mental to drop $60 on a game you haven't researched before hand. Especially since even games I've dropped that money on after being hyped about turn out to be a waste of money.
 

J Tyran

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Dec 15, 2011
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Back in my Xbox and PS2 days, when I had to actually go to a shop to get games I would. They would have cheaper and older games and I would grab some to try.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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Only one game come to my mind at the moment-

Dai-Gata Defender on the DS. Ok technically I did know about them since it was based on this cartoon in the freeview kid channel that I watched when I was bored but I didn't know they release a game!

Once I learned about it I had a read on it online to find that it had below average reviews (it wasn't super bad) and seeing how it was super cheap (preowned) I bought it. Overall it was somewhat a decent game but it could had been better given if it had more funded (would of been cooler if I had chosen my own dices than using the group selection I was given and why did I had to stick with one set throughtout the game instead of being able to switch it out?).