Games that have taken you by surprise

[Ashbax]

well, the first halo, I picked it up years ago and went 'woopee...more killing aliens as a super soldier... -.-' surpirsed me by being, well, Awesome, then ofc bought halo 2 on release, and H3, and now they are pretty much the most popular fps series...and Army of Two surprised me by being pretty fun, at first i thought the gameplay was alot like Gears of war + Gow2, the game eventually grew on me as a fun CO OP game...
And Left4dead sorta surpirsed me, at first I just thought it was gonna be like steam stapled together all the zombie mods from CS, It turned out to be one of my favourite games...evah.
(I LOVE zombie games, so deadrising is up in my top ten as well, cant wait for sequel )

 

[SirCannonFodder]

Prey. I hadn't heard very good things about it, and the fact that it hit the bargain bins so quickly prepared me for the worst. Instead I got a polished shooter that completely nailed the basics, and then added lot of very nice (and occasionally innovative) touches, like the large variety of songs to choose from on the jukebox in the bar at the start, and the whole gravity-flipping concept, and the spirit-walking mechanism, and the biological look of the weaponry, and a huge number of other cool little things.

 

[quack35]

Everyone was telling me how horrible Oblivion was, how terrible of an RPG it was, blah blah blah.

It's now one of my favorite games.

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[GnomeThief]

The Force Unleashed. I still managed to enjoy what there was, but I found it surprisingly lacking compared to what the hype had promised.

 

[Bananganator]

I was surprised at how horrible Tenchu Z was. And I was excited...

 

[xavix]

Everyone was telling me how horrible Oblivion was, how terrible of an RPG it was, blah blah blah.

It's now one of my favorite games.

Agreed. I loved oblivion, but everyone who I got an opinion on whether or not I should buy it, hated it.

 

[New Troll]

World of Warcraft Closed Beta

I swore after trying out such MMOs as Ultima Online, Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot I would never get sucked into a pay-to-play. But then Blizzard invited me into another one of thier Betas for this game and the very first day I found myself hooked. Funny thing is I only even installed the Beta to try out the Ranger and Druid classes, but niether one of them had been incorporated into the game yet. And that's how I fell in love with the Shaman.

 

[Dr.Sean]

Neverwinternights 2 was not great. WAsn't bad, just not great.

Farcry2 sounded like the holy-grail of gaming. It was a grail, just not a holy one.

 

[Rational-Delirium]

I usually don't like racing games, so I was rather surprised by how good Jak X and Burnout Paradise were. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly exceeded what I considered terrible. And I don't like shooter games but Uncharted turned out to be one of my favorite games ever.

 

[Worgen]

after hearing all the hate for assassins creed I expected it to suck but I really got into it, even watching altier climb was fun altho by the end of the game you do get tired of picking pockets and evesdropping

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I tried playing Final Fantasy IV on a GBA emulator a while ago, story was intriguing but I hated the gameplay.

I'm playing Final Fantasy I and quite enjoying it though.

 

[Bootkiller]

I figured MySims Kingdom was gonna be a childish failure for the Wii. I was very surprised when the game was really funny and worth the rental/purchase.

 

[Raikazu]

Iron Man for Xbox360.
I just thought...come on, it's Iron Man, how can this go wrong.
Bad controls for one.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

When I first saw Okami trailers, I thought "Oh boy, an artsy game, how good could that be?" And it didn't help at all when it was tagged with the not so endearing description of a "Zelda clone."

My girlfriend finally convinced me to pick it up, and... I was shocked. The game makes the entire Zelda series seem like an "Okami clone."

 

[kanester2k11]

At first I thought Saints Row 2 was just another GTA4 knock off but when I played it I found out how awesome it actually was. One of the best games I've played so far.

i really loved saints row 2 its possibly one of my favourite games

 

[Tryzon]

Gun, one of the few wild west games, is great fun at its best, combining gritty violence with arcade-style shooting that proves addictive due to its satisfying feel. I'd heard good things, so I paid the £3 (including p+p) entry fee and am glad I did. Western games are unexplored territory: why are there so few? The only ones I know are Gun, Red Dead Revolver, and a crappy couple of cartoon-licensed ones on Playstation. Wasted opportunity, people.

 

[kanester2k11]

i have to disagree it seamed the most fun realistic depiction of africa but it did have some things that made it annoying the way you could clear out a whole base leave for 2 mins and come back and it was full again the amount of camps full of bastards on the way to youre mission but that didnt mean it wasnt fun