What Game Surprised You This Year?

[Boggelz]

Just a discussion about games that you decided to try and either blew your expectations away, or left a bad taste in your mouth. So what game(s) surprised you this year?

For me I will say Bastion. I wasnt really all inclined to buying a small game because of a few cool art directions. But when i picked it up on a steam sale it became one of my top games of the year. Partly from the solid story element. Partly from the easy to use gameplay. But mostly im sure because of that suave narrator that makes you want to keep coming back to the game.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Darksiders. It sucked.

I'd heard reviews in both directions but I wasn't prepared for how much of a letdown it was.

The most interesting character was the horse and this game ain't Skyrim.

 

[Sixcess]

Although not a 2011 release, the game that has most pleasantly surprised me this year was when I finally got around to trying Lord of the Rings Online. I'd expected a lazy WoW clone made to ride on the success of the movies, but it's actually much closer in spirit to the books then the movies were (albeit with inevitable compromises for gameplay reasons) and the world building is the best I've ever seen.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Catherine. I wasn't expecting anything from this game, but I was blown away by its awesomeness.

 

[Fusioncode9]

Driver San Francisco, thought that it would be a junk racing game but it turned out to be one of the best racing games this gen.

 

[Jedamethis]

Well, I shat myself when I discovered Draugr in Skyrim, does that count?

Otherwise, I haven't been surprised by anything. I think. May have forgotten.

 

[Palademon]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

 

[wrightguy0]

Honestly, skyrim.....i just rolled my ees at it when it was announced, then i heard more and more people getting excited and i started to check it out, then i preordered it, and it just blew me away, i went from apathy to love, i love this game, and i wasn't expecting to

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

I second this.

It's a truly great JRPG if I haven't strangled myself with my own intestines after a few hours.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Skyrim. Not the game itself; I don't even own it. What surprises me is that everyone calls it "perfect" despite the fact that it has bugs leaking out of its pores and the PS3 and PC ports were both quick'n'dirty.

OT: I'm sure a lot of you like obscure games - the further they fly under the radar the better, right? Well, it's hard to get any further under the radar than a Japanese bullet hell game released on Steam with no fanfare whatsoever. I refer of course to Gundemonium Recollection, which was released on PSN a ways back but only hit Steam this year. Not quite as good as Touhou, but it's a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to find. Believe me, once you get over the learning curve that comes with no visible hitbox, it's awesome.

 

[MammothBlade]

Psychrim. I was expecting a horrific Dragon Age ripoff.

 

[Kilroy17]

Brink. I was expecting so much more and better execution.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Ghost Trick.

I wasn't expecting much and I was prepared to play a silly little DS game.

I love that game and it's freaking awesome, how dare I doubt this game!

 

[TheIronRuler]

BF3 and MW3, I was surprised how aweful they were. I had hoped for more overall changes and improved gameplay but nooooooooo... Just the same old garbage filled with hype.

.
But you had the chance to KILL A RAT! Where else could you do that? Skyrim only had stinkin' skeevers!

 

[Folji]

Bulletstorm was a pretty pleasant surprise to me. Some of the traces of current generation FPS trends bothered me from time to time, but I actually found the story interesting and the gameplay pretty addicting. Played it through some 3-4 times, which is way more than I've done to any other game this year in which the single-player has been the focus.

Portal 2 surprised me a bit too, though that was really just purely from a story point of view (both the single and co-op story). The gameplay was pretty "been there, done that" and the new gel mechanics I was already familiar with from having already played Tag: The Power of Paint by the time of Portal 2's release.

 

[Edager6882]

Dark Souls. I thought it was going to be the hub based gameplay of Demons Souls but I was blown away by the locals and how each area is connected to each other. Each area is distinctly different but they all feel like they connected to the world as a whole.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

I second this.

It's a truly great JRPG if I haven't strangled myself with my own intestines after a few hours.

Me three. I mean sure it look interesting when I saw the gameplay trailers before the release but once you play the game itself, it's a whole new experience. Seeing the vast landscape, the fluent battle and the wonderful soundtrack ("Engage the Enemy£ is jsut epic) just blew me away.

 

[Alphonse_Lamperouge]

Dark Souls Fo Sho. I hadn't even heard of Demons Souls until a week before the formers release. Its world is beautiful and the monsters are terrifying. people harp on about the difficulty, but its not even the part that got me, although i hear it is MUCH easier post patch. my personal GOTY, if only because i KNEW Skyrim and Shogun 2 where going to be epic.