What games surprised you in terms of their quality?
- Thread starter Ironshroom
- Start date
Pikmin 3. Expected it to be wank, but I bought it because I didn't want my Wii U to collect more dust. I was totally wrong. It was cute and charming and had great exploration. Easily my GOTY.
Not many games surprise me as I can tell from gameplay videos if it's good or not like 99% of the time, but back on PS2 I bought Mercenaries on the whim and that game still blows most sandbox games out of the water, no GTA has touched what Mercenaries did. Mercenaries gave you a sandbox world with open-ended ways to complete missions instead of the boring and repetitive go to Y and kill X enemies. The game had several factions and you had to keep them all happy. For example, the Americans would give you a mission to destroy Chinese tanks or something, and there was always a way to complete the mission without letting the Chinese know it was you. It was almost a puzzle game of sorts trying to figure out a way to secretly complete each mission. Mercenaries was designed in a manner where each mission was created and design as a standalone mission, then they put all these designed missions on a canvas to create the open world instead of most games like GTA where the city is created first and then they make the missions. Because of Mercenaries, I can't play GTA without becoming bored almost instantly.
Uncharted 2 surprised the shit out of me because I hated Uncharted 1, it was literally just a tech demo as only the graphics were there; the shooting mechanics were shit, the level design was shit, and those damn jet ski sequences. The demo of Uncharted 2 actually had to sell me on just giving it a try because of the bad taste left from Uncharted 1. Unfortunately, Uncharted 3 was bad for other reasons; they failed horribly with the story, the set-pieces just weren't good (nor did they make sense), there was barely any Elena (best character of the series), and the levels just felt like not-so-good retreads from Uncharted 2.
Uncharted 2 surprised the shit out of me because I hated Uncharted 1, it was literally just a tech demo as only the graphics were there; the shooting mechanics were shit, the level design was shit, and those damn jet ski sequences. The demo of Uncharted 2 actually had to sell me on just giving it a try because of the bad taste left from Uncharted 1. Unfortunately, Uncharted 3 was bad for other reasons; they failed horribly with the story, the set-pieces just weren't good (nor did they make sense), there was barely any Elena (best character of the series), and the levels just felt like not-so-good retreads from Uncharted 2.
What? Gears of War doesn't even have shoulder swap, that's a requirement for a TPS. MGS4/MGO has bar none the best TPS mechanics. And, yeah, Naughty Dog doesn't know how to make a TPS but Uncharted 2 is still awesome (1 and 3 suck though).ShinyCharizard said:
Suprised at the people bringing up Bethesda. I have always thought of them in my top two gaming companies.
My elderly grandmother would always send us presents near christmas, generally practical things like socks. Christmas 2005 though I got a copy of American McGee's Scrapland with the bargain bin 5$ sticker still attached, I was unimpressed. A week later I satirically put the game in the xbox.. HOLY CRAP. It may be almost 10 years old now, but if you are into playing hidden gems check out Scrapland.
Another one was Tail Concerto. A cutesy asian game my sister got for me when I was about 13 and all about spawn and inuyasha. I can't even explain what made the game so great, it does however fetch an easy 100$+ for a used copy nowadays so people agree. Another hidden gem to anyone manly enough to try it out.
My elderly grandmother would always send us presents near christmas, generally practical things like socks. Christmas 2005 though I got a copy of American McGee's Scrapland with the bargain bin 5$ sticker still attached, I was unimpressed. A week later I satirically put the game in the xbox.. HOLY CRAP. It may be almost 10 years old now, but if you are into playing hidden gems check out Scrapland.
Another one was Tail Concerto. A cutesy asian game my sister got for me when I was about 13 and all about spawn and inuyasha. I can't even explain what made the game so great, it does however fetch an easy 100$+ for a used copy nowadays so people agree. Another hidden gem to anyone manly enough to try it out.
Tales of Vesperia: I originally played the demo and absolutely hated it. I had no intention of buying it, but I needed a third game from Gamestop for one of their sales, and there was no other game even remotely interesting. As a result I decided to pick it up and was highly impressed by the results. Turns out, the part featured in the demo was probably the only truly terrible section of the game.
BlazBlue: I hate fighters. I absolutely hate them. I was sort of interested in BlazBlue because of its artwork, but I never expected it to be an actually good fighting game. It's the only one outside of the Smash Bros. games that I'm willing to play extensively.
Dark Souls: From my experience, games that are based around difficulty are a mixed bag. Some are horrible, but some are great. I expected Dark Souls to be the horrible type, but my curiosity couldn't keep me away from it forever. Man, when I got into that game, I had no clue how engrossing it would become or how fun failure could be. It's the primary reason I'm currently regretting not having my 360 right now.
Super Meat Boy: Pretty much the same experience as Dark Souls.
The Walking Dead: Honestly, the only reason I started playing it was because the first episode went free. Even then I really just wanted to point out all the flaws because I couldn't believe an adventure game about zombies could be as engrossing as people said it was. It turned out that it was one of the most compelling stories I've ever had the opportunity to follow, and I don't regret playing through all five episodes even if I lost some much-needed sleep that week.
Those are the ones from recent memory at least. Then again, I've started buying more games out of curiosity these last few years, not so much because I really wanted them. Surprisingly, this has helped me find quite a few enjoyable games and currently has a much higher success rate than I anticipated.
BlazBlue: I hate fighters. I absolutely hate them. I was sort of interested in BlazBlue because of its artwork, but I never expected it to be an actually good fighting game. It's the only one outside of the Smash Bros. games that I'm willing to play extensively.
Dark Souls: From my experience, games that are based around difficulty are a mixed bag. Some are horrible, but some are great. I expected Dark Souls to be the horrible type, but my curiosity couldn't keep me away from it forever. Man, when I got into that game, I had no clue how engrossing it would become or how fun failure could be. It's the primary reason I'm currently regretting not having my 360 right now.
Super Meat Boy: Pretty much the same experience as Dark Souls.
The Walking Dead: Honestly, the only reason I started playing it was because the first episode went free. Even then I really just wanted to point out all the flaws because I couldn't believe an adventure game about zombies could be as engrossing as people said it was. It turned out that it was one of the most compelling stories I've ever had the opportunity to follow, and I don't regret playing through all five episodes even if I lost some much-needed sleep that week.
Those are the ones from recent memory at least. Then again, I've started buying more games out of curiosity these last few years, not so much because I really wanted them. Surprisingly, this has helped me find quite a few enjoyable games and currently has a much higher success rate than I anticipated.
Devil May Cry 3. After the disappointment that was that was Devil May Cry 2, I never even bothered looking at 3, until a friend sat me down and pretty much made me play it. And then I couldn't stop playing. They pretty much corrected every mistake they made in 2 and improved on the good ideas that were poorly implemented.
Valkryia Chronicles. The demo was kinda fun and interesting, but I had no idea how much I would fall in love with pretty much everything once I started playing the game.
Sleeping Dogs. I'm normally not into open world games. This one still has some issues that I have that are prevalent in the genre, but the gameplay options and mechanics raise the standard in what I feel should be acceptable in these type of games.
Valkryia Chronicles. The demo was kinda fun and interesting, but I had no idea how much I would fall in love with pretty much everything once I started playing the game.
Sleeping Dogs. I'm normally not into open world games. This one still has some issues that I have that are prevalent in the genre, but the gameplay options and mechanics raise the standard in what I feel should be acceptable in these type of games.
Definitely Katawa Shoujo. I mean the basic premise of the game sounds so distasteful and weird. You date a variety of disabled chicks using flags and routes like a standard VN. If I had to explain it, their disabilities never define their character, it's never "Lily the blind chick" it's more "Lily is a chick who just so happens to be blind" if you get what I mean. It's always there but never the focus.
Seriously I was so, so cynical going in but it really is well made. It's a five year project made by some scrapped together collaborators on fucking 4Chan and it beats almost every game out there in terms of writing and quality, not to mention the soundtrack and art style. Bioware writing looks fuckin' shite compared to this masterpiece. Admittedly some people would say that doesn't mean much of late (Mass Effect 3 lol)
Their use of Hisao as a main character and framing device is genius, instead of ignoring all the awkwardness that comes with dealing with disabled people they have Hisao blundering in being tactless as fuck and eventually stop making a fuss over everything. The genius being since the main character gets over it then the player follows suit.
Seriously I was so, so cynical going in but it really is well made. It's a five year project made by some scrapped together collaborators on fucking 4Chan and it beats almost every game out there in terms of writing and quality, not to mention the soundtrack and art style. Bioware writing looks fuckin' shite compared to this masterpiece. Admittedly some people would say that doesn't mean much of late (Mass Effect 3 lol)
Their use of Hisao as a main character and framing device is genius, instead of ignoring all the awkwardness that comes with dealing with disabled people they have Hisao blundering in being tactless as fuck and eventually stop making a fuss over everything. The genius being since the main character gets over it then the player follows suit.
I thought of another one to add to this. Pretty much any Katamari game! The premise seems so silly, that you're just a tiny guy rolling stuff up, but damn if that isn't an addictive game with some of the very best music ever. I think We <3 Katamari is my favorite.
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth, all three of them. They are surprisingly good and replaying the first one to play Rohan and kill entire armies by walking over them is likewise surprisingly long-lasting entertainment. I also really liked the Create-a-Hero system in the second one, despite the lack of visual options...
Oh YES. My flatmate convinced me to play it and I ended up spending half the night on it, yelling at pinata's to breed.Padwolf said:
Not gonna lie here... Telltale's The Walking Dead.
Prior to playing the game my only exposure to the universe was the first season of the show on AMC. I was pretty unimpressed by it. I mean, sure, the effects and makeup were pretty damn good for TV... but I found most of the main cast to be completely unlikable. Basically, I didn't see what the big deal was with the show.
Anyway, some time later, when suddenly everyone is raving about the Telltale game, I found myself pretty skeptical. Everyone raved about the series too, and I just couldn't get into it. Eventually I caved in though when all of the episodes appeared in a Steam sale for around $10 total.
And now I especially don't see what people are so fond of within the AMC series, because I found the game to be sooo much better than it in just about every single way.
Prior to playing the game my only exposure to the universe was the first season of the show on AMC. I was pretty unimpressed by it. I mean, sure, the effects and makeup were pretty damn good for TV... but I found most of the main cast to be completely unlikable. Basically, I didn't see what the big deal was with the show.
Anyway, some time later, when suddenly everyone is raving about the Telltale game, I found myself pretty skeptical. Everyone raved about the series too, and I just couldn't get into it. Eventually I caved in though when all of the episodes appeared in a Steam sale for around $10 total.
And now I especially don't see what people are so fond of within the AMC series, because I found the game to be sooo much better than it in just about every single way.
Two games come to mind.
Spec Ops: The Line: Not much more needs to be said. I had very low expectations, and I was completely unaware of what was in store for me. I now consider it to be one of my favorites.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger: I did really want to play it beforehand, but I was fully prepared to accept that I might have blown $15 on a really shitty game, especially in light of The Cartel. Instead, it was an incredibly enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek yarn that played well and sounded great. Well worth it.
Spec Ops: The Line: Not much more needs to be said. I had very low expectations, and I was completely unaware of what was in store for me. I now consider it to be one of my favorites.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger: I did really want to play it beforehand, but I was fully prepared to accept that I might have blown $15 on a really shitty game, especially in light of The Cartel. Instead, it was an incredibly enjoyable, tongue-in-cheek yarn that played well and sounded great. Well worth it.
Gears of War: Judgment... /raises flame shield.
I was a bit dismissive of it because it was blatantly just Gears of War 3 re-released to cash in before making Gears 4. When I got it I was a bit disappointed by the fact that they changed some things (two weapon limit, switching weapons with "Y", the Kryll still being awful and there aren't any Locust in Multiplayer outside of a game mode). Overall though I did enjoy it a lot and I was very surprised by how much it feels like a Gears of War game. It flows just as well as Gears of War 3, it still has the top notch shooting of the series, it certainly changes the formula with the those challenge modes for the missions (and the little way they're woven into the story), the villain is also crap just like most Gears of War villains.
On top of that it's ending is better than 3's which isn't saying much. A game could end with a cutscene of happy dreams and serenity (BioShock) or pseudo-gameplay narrative bullshit (BioShock Infinite) and it would still have a better ending than Gears of War 3 but still, there's that. Gears of War: Judgment was the game we needed to get Gears of War back on track after the disaster that was 3.
I was a bit dismissive of it because it was blatantly just Gears of War 3 re-released to cash in before making Gears 4. When I got it I was a bit disappointed by the fact that they changed some things (two weapon limit, switching weapons with "Y", the Kryll still being awful and there aren't any Locust in Multiplayer outside of a game mode). Overall though I did enjoy it a lot and I was very surprised by how much it feels like a Gears of War game. It flows just as well as Gears of War 3, it still has the top notch shooting of the series, it certainly changes the formula with the those challenge modes for the missions (and the little way they're woven into the story), the villain is also crap just like most Gears of War villains.
On top of that it's ending is better than 3's which isn't saying much. A game could end with a cutscene of happy dreams and serenity (BioShock) or pseudo-gameplay narrative bullshit (BioShock Infinite) and it would still have a better ending than Gears of War 3 but still, there's that. Gears of War: Judgment was the game we needed to get Gears of War back on track after the disaster that was 3.
Morrowind was a huge surprise. I first played it on the xbox and bought an xbox just to play that game after watching my cousin play it. So i knew it was good, but playing it myself i just love every second of it. The depth of the game is amazing that no other elder scrolls game has come close.
Was that the WW2 jrpg turn based game? Played the demo on the 360, was awesome and then it became a PS3 only title. The demo was excellent, may have to get a PS3 to play its back catalog. Im a sucker for WW2 inspired games.Arslan Aladeen said:
