Pleasant surprises

[Vanguard_Ex]

And if you look to your left, you will see a thread made by Vanguard_Ex. This thread is thought to be hundreds of years old, and carved out of stone by-
Yeah I'll stop. So, I'm willing to bet we've all had them; those games that you either completely manage to duck the hype of, dislike for no good reason from the moment you hear their name, or just generally don't give a shit about (not entirely unrelated to option 1). Then when you get to playing them, they can actually be great, if not awesome. Can any of you lovely bastards recall any of yours?

For me it would be playing the Dante's Inferno demo on Xbox recently. Yes, it is a shameless clone of God of War to the point that should make Kratos himself cry, but, I fucking love GoW so, roll on the release date

 

[anthony87]

Dragon Quest VIII.

I love RPGs but that one just didn't seem to agree with me when I heard about it but I saw it on sale one day so I figured "what the hell?"

And it was one of the best RPGs I've played.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Had never heard of it when my friend lent it to me.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Dragon Quest VIII.

I love RPGs but that one just didn't seem to agree with me when I heard about it but I saw it on sale one day so I figured "what the hell?"

And it was one of the best RPGs I've played.

I think my sister might have that...I think it's ruined other RPGs for her x)

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Assassin's Creed 2. I was NOWHERE near expecting it to be as big an improvement as it was, my game of 2009 and possibly one of my fav games EVER!

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Had never heard of it when my friend lent it to me.

Ah that game was worth the what-was-quite-a-lot-back-then money.


I know this is a double post, sue me! D:<

 

[Radeonx]

Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO:Millionaire 2001
I found it for $2 at a Gamestop, decided to pick it up, and it is the greatest fighting game I've ever played.
ACII also falls into this category. The improvements were so fast, and even the little things were incredible. The game became my 3rd or 4th game ever.

 

[Kimarous]

Dante's Inferno demo... the ONE action hack'n'slash I've ever found fun!

 

[anthony87]

Shadow of the Colossus.

Had never heard of it when my friend lent it to me.

God dammit how could I forget that game. I suppose I could say the same about ICO too.

 

[Andalusa]

Assassin's Creed 2. I was NOWHERE near expecting it to be as big an improvement as it was, my game of 2009 and possibly one of my fav games EVER!

Most definitely this. On all points.

 

[A random person]

Phoenix Wright: got it for my 12th birthday, and it blew me away much more than a game about lawyers had any right to, or most games, for that matter. On a similar note, I randomly bought Trauma Center one day and loved it.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

Dante's Inferno demo... the ONE action hack'n'slash I've ever found fun!

Punishing and absolving is quite fun isn't it

Capcom vs. SNK 2 EO:Millionaire 2001
I found it for $2 at a Gamestop, decided to pick it up, and it is the greatest fighting game I've ever played.
ACII also falls into this category. The improvements were so fast, and even the little things were incredible. The game became my 3rd or 4th game ever.

Yeah I really didn't think they would make AC2 so impressive but Jesus Christ, did they ever.

 

[x0ny]

L4D, never heard of it, was just looking for some co-op games to play with gf after we had quit WoW.

 

[Katana314]

Expected nothing of Batman: Arkham Asylum, but just from the demo I got a pre-order. Definitely worth it.
Also, Mirror's Edge. Bought on a Steam deal long after it came out, and could find nothing of what Yahtzee disliked.
And Saints Row 2; poor reviews, but so far had more fun with it than GTA4.

 

[Pegghead]

When I bought the orange box I didn't know all that much about Valve and I was mainly in it for Portal. Well aside from that I was pleasantly surprised four times, five if you count Still Alive.

 

[The Red Spy]

Civilization Revolution (360), please here my reasoning. Had nothing coming out until Q4 2008, decided when I wanted something to play when I wasn't working and ended up playing the demo for this... for 20 seconds because I shamefully couldn't be bothered learning the controls. Roll on one week later, I see an ad for it in the Official Xbox magazine, and for no reason I can honestly come up with, just bought it. I've never had such fun from a random game ever, I couldn't understand how it made me forget about any stress I had or any burdens so easilly, it just made me feel so happy! Still proudly playing it today.

 

[TheButtonMashEffect]

Dj hero surprised me so much, i passed it off straight away when it was first announced but then i played it! Oh it was like being *****-slapped, it was amazing fun.

 

[The Real Sandman]

I was expecting Batman: Arkham Asylum to go the ways of most extremely hyped games and turn out mediocre. But no, it actually (get this) deserves all the praise it gets!

 

[bawkbawkboo1]

I wasn't expecting a lot of Psychonauts when I picked it up. God was I wrong there.

I got Mercury Meltdown Revolution for the Wii not expecting much beyond a few easy puzzles with Wiimote waving tossed in. Again, I was proven wrong.

I had really low expectations for De Blob (Wii), but it's actually a pretty fun action game, if shallow.

Back on the Gamecube I got Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and the first levels were like a mediocre Half Life clone except with the godawful C-stick as the aim. The game get so, so, SO much better later on though.

 

[iPatrick]

Unreal Tournament 3. I got it after intentionally ignoring everything read and said about it before the release date.

And blowjobs. They're always a pleasant surprise.