Said I, to my wife: "I'm buying Fallout 3."

[SimuLord]

Said my wife, to me: "Really? I thought you didn't have any interest in it because of the setting."
I replied, "Initially I didn't. But after all the positive buzz I've heard about it, I'm intrigued the way I was when Oblivion came out and everyone and their sister told me to play it."

So, in short, the Escapians (from Russ Pitts in his review to the many forumites who have fallen in love with the game) just one-upped Bethesda's marketing department.

Now then, since this is, after all, a discussion forum: What games in your collection got there as a result of forum buzz, positive press, or word-of-mouth from friends, that wouldn't otherwise be there? And was that, on balance, a good thing? Have you ever had some total clunkers recommended to you that made you want to go to the person who said "you have GOT to get this" and say "Give me fifty bucks to make up for the money you just made me waste"?

 

[Samurai Goomba]

The God Hand message board on Gamefaqs convinced me to buy Urban Reign, because they wouldn't shut up about how good it was.

It really is good, though.

Eh, most of my games get into my collection based on user reviews, pro review averages and especially well-written reviews. That said, I tend to give more weight to the opinions of the people who have played the game the longest, i.e, the "common man" viewpoints. Although I do have to clarify that by saying that I always check for "fanboy syndrome" in trolling (not internet trolling, the other kind) for opinions. People who say a game is "TEH BEST GAEM EVAR" don't persuade me very much.

 

[TSED]

GTA4.

Gods I hate that game. I can't wait for my friend to get a PS3 for Christmas so I can give it to him as a present and then guilt trip him into getting me something.

Oblivion was a huge disappointment. I guess it was still ok, though.

I'm sure there's more, but those are the first and second place winners BY FAR.

Frigging GTA4. (I bought it when I was up for 60something hours so my judgement was impaired, I never would have bought it normally. It's just not my kind of game.)

 

[N.K]

Halo 3, I originally loathed the character design and I am still not a big fan of the green space-suit and piss-yellow visor. I thought I'd give it a shot and while not everything I had heard lived up to the promise, it was still enjoyable for the time I played it.

Mass Effect, being largely ignorant as far as BioWare's earlier releases (such as KOTOR) I was turned of by the quasi-turn-based combat, turns out I was wrong, very, very wrong - great RPG with a good amount of sidequests and some pretty interesting aliens (fat mole-men in space-suits!)

 

[SimuLord]

Speaking of BioWare, they're one of the reasons I will never, ever in my life again listen to my wife's game buying advice. I despised Neverwinter Nights, even though my wife said "it'd be perfect for your tastes, you'll love it." She also told me I should buy The Witcher, but thankfully Yahtzee talked me out of that one.

Gods bless my wife, she's a gamer and a sweetheart, but I have to look at her taste in games (Blizzard, Nintendo, and not a hell of a lot else) and think she needs to use her brain more. She has a lifetime record of 0-43 playing me at Rise of Nations because she thinks "strategy" means StarCraft.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

When I read the title I thought it was going to end "no way are you wasting our hard earned money on games *whip*".

I think it's easy for people to get excited about a game when people talk passionately about it, It's the reason I bought Fable 2 on release.

 

[SimuLord]

When I read the title I thought it was going to end "no way are you wasting our hard earned money on games *whip*".

If she tried that angle the next thing out of my mouth would be "OK, then you're not keeping your WoW subscription active, then." She's a gamer too.

Incidentally, how's Fable 2 working out for you? As good as advertised? (I don't own a 360, otherwise I'd probably buy that game too.)

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

When I read the title I thought it was going to end "no way are you wasting our hard earned money on games *whip*".

If she tried that angle the next thing out of my mouth would be "OK, then you're not keeping your WoW subscription active, then." She's a gamer too.

Incidentally, how's Fable 2 working out for you? As good as advertised? (I don't own a 360, otherwise I'd probably buy that game too.)

lol that's lucky.

Well Fable 2 is indeed a very good game, it's rpg-like with the typical things from an rpg with exploring, slaying monsters and completing quests, but it also has another side which is like a life-sim where you immerse yourself in the life of a hero in Albion by buying properties, working a day job, and getting married and raising a family.

One of the main features is choices and consequences of your actions which I think it succeeds in doing very well, some of the choices are difficult to make.

I enjoyed the game a lot it's got everything you need from an rpg, there were some downsides being glitches and a fairly short main quest but there's a lot of other stuff to do as well.

Replayability mostly comes from creating new character's and trying out different paths through the game such as being evil or corrupt one playthrough and good and pure in another.

If Fable 2 really lived up to the hype created by Peter Molyneux it would be hailed as the greatest game of all time and angels would sing everytime Fable 2 was mentioned, it's still an awesome game but incredibly overhyped.

 

[Altorin]

If I had the money, I would have bought Fallout 3, instead of renting it

and if I had, it would have landed in my collection just because of the buzz around the forums, and then after I had played it, I contributed to that buzz

so you're welcome.

If Fable 2 lived up to the hype created by Peter Molyneux it would be hailed as the greatest game of all time and angels would sing everytime Fable 2 was mentioned, it's still an awesome game but incredibly overhyped.

Peter Molyneux did a MUCH MUCH MUCH better job keeping his gigantic mouth shut about Fable 2 then he has about any other game he's ever made. That being said, he said a lot. But, he also held back a lot. He could not stop talking about the first fable. Not even once. You got him to do an interview, and he would talk your ear off for 20 minutes about stuff that had only the most vestigial pruned down version of whatever awesomeness he was describing in the actual game.

But in Fable 2, he basically let himself have his one pride and joy, and he allowed himself to talk at length about that one thing and that one thing only, and that was the Dog. He left everything else for everyone else on his team to potentially spoil, and luckily, they're a lot more tightlipped.

 

[haruvister]

If Fable 2 really lived up to the hype created by Peter Molyneux it would be hailed as the greatest game of all time and angels would sing everytime Fable 2 was mentioned, it's still an awesome game but incredibly overhyped.

To be fair, he called it a 9 out of 10 game, which is what it is. Every game's overhyped these days, from GTA4 to LBP to CoD5... It's not enough to peer above the parapet any more - it's like the fucking Hype-o-Tron 2000's gotta scream onto the battlefield of public consciousness all cannons blazing.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

If Fable 2 really lived up to the hype created by Peter Molyneux it would be hailed as the greatest game of all time and angels would sing everytime Fable 2 was mentioned, it's still an awesome game but incredibly overhyped.

To be fair, he called it a 9 out of 10 game, which is what it is. Every game's overhyped these days, from GTA4 to LBP to CoD5... It's not enough to peer above the parapet any more - it's like the fucking Hype-o-Tron 2000's gotta scream onto the battlefield of public consciousness all cannons blazing.

One of his quotes was something along the lines of when we were making Fable 2 we were trying to make the greatest rpg of all time.

Although every game has hype where they may pull a stunt or show a trailer or two they don't promise the world and then some.

 

[Altorin]

If Fable 2 really lived up to the hype created by Peter Molyneux it would be hailed as the greatest game of all time and angels would sing everytime Fable 2 was mentioned, it's still an awesome game but incredibly overhyped.

To be fair, he called it a 9 out of 10 game, which is what it is. Every game's overhyped these days, from GTA4 to LBP to CoD5... It's not enough to peer above the parapet any more - it's like the fucking Hype-o-Tron 2000's gotta scream onto the battlefield of public consciousness all cannons blazing.

One of his quotes was something along the lines of when we were making Fable 2 we were trying to make the greatest rpg of all time.

Although every game has hype where they may pull a stunt or show a trailer or two they don't promise the world and then some.

everyone's trying to make the greatest RPG of all time.

It's the holy grail, carrot on a stick, and I'm sure the only thing that keeps some developers going, especially a visionary like Peter Molyneux.

The truth is, compared to earlier projects, peter molyneux was tight lipped with fable 2. The man has been a monumental gasbag over his games for 10 years if you'd cared to listen. Black and White was supposed to be the best game ever created, Fable was supposed to revolutionize the RPG landscape. He said many times throughout the development cycle of Fable 2 "I'm not going to talk about that because I've made a complete arse of myself in the past"

I happen to really like Molyneux, despite me calling him a gasbag. He seems to care about his games and the players that are going to eventually play them.

 

[TheDean]

Said my wife, to me: "Really? I thought you didn't have any interest in it because of the setting."
I replied, "Initially I didn't. But after all the positive buzz I've heard about it, I'm intrigued the way I was when Oblivion came out and everyone and their sister told me to play it."

So, in short, the Escapians (from Russ Pitts in his review to the many forumites who have fallen in love with the game) just one-upped Bethesda's marketing department.

Now then, since this is, after all, a discussion forum: What games in your collection got there as a result of forum buzz, positive press, or word-of-mouth from friends, that wouldn't otherwise be there? And was that, on balance, a good thing? Have you ever had some total clunkers recommended to you that made you want to go to the person who said "you have GOT to get this" and say "Give me fifty bucks to make up for the money you just made me waste"?

I don't think F3 is as good as Oblivion. I don't like the setting, i don't like that everything that gives me health also posions me, i don't like needing ammo, and i don't like always getting killed by mutants.
And i hate the map, because it doesn't have lots of cities marked on like oblivion.
Most of all, the NPC dialogue isn't as funny, and there are no guards to yell "Stop right there, criminal scum".

Depsite this, it is a really good game, and i like the game as a whole. I've gottne used to VATS, the combat, the charactres who swear at me, etc.
for a while i hated the game, but now that i've started doing some quests i'm enjoying it.
Even so, i'm in Rivet City atm, and am a little bit afraid to leave, because i know i'll go back to battling mutant brutes with a baseball bat again.

 

[ThePlasmatizer]

Said my wife, to me: "Really? I thought you didn't have any interest in it because of the setting."
I replied, "Initially I didn't. But after all the positive buzz I've heard about it, I'm intrigued the way I was when Oblivion came out and everyone and their sister told me to play it."

So, in short, the Escapians (from Russ Pitts in his review to the many forumites who have fallen in love with the game) just one-upped Bethesda's marketing department.

Now then, since this is, after all, a discussion forum: What games in your collection got there as a result of forum buzz, positive press, or word-of-mouth from friends, that wouldn't otherwise be there? And was that, on balance, a good thing? Have you ever had some total clunkers recommended to you that made you want to go to the person who said "you have GOT to get this" and say "Give me fifty bucks to make up for the money you just made me waste"?

I don't think F3 is as good as Oblivion. I don't like the setting, i don't like that everything that gives me health also posions me, i don't like needing ammo, and i don't like always getting killed by mutants.
And i hate the map, because it doesn't have lots of cities marked on like oblivion.
Most of all, the NPC dialogue isn't as funny, and there are no guards to yell "Stop right there, criminal scum".

Depsite this, it is a really good game, and i like the game as a whole. I've gottne used to VATS, the combat, the charactres who swear at me, etc.
for a while i hated the game, but now that i've started doing some quests i'm enjoying it.
Even so, i'm in Rivet City atm, and am a little bit afraid to leave, because i know i'll go back to battling mutant brutes with a baseball bat again.

I have to admit he is entertaining and it sounds like he does care more about the player's experience but he has made promises that weren't kept and giving us previews of Fable 2 which were basically tech demos of what they could have put in, it's a shame the people from Microsoft they sent to keep him in line didn't tape his mouth shut.

 

[Altorin]

I have to admit he is entertaining and it sounds like he does care more about the player's experience but he has made promises that weren't kept and giving us previews of Fable 2 which were basically tech demos of what they could have put in, it's a shame the people from Microsoft they sent to keep him in line didn't tape his mouth shut.

I'm just trying to defend the man somewhat (while somehow calling him a gasbag). If you were around for Fable 1's lengthly dev process, or Black and White, you might understand a little better.

The "tech demos" he released for Fable 2 were at least at a working stage when he showed them.

During Fable 1's development, he would talk for hours about things that were just coming out of his head or had just been discussed in a meeting and they hadn't even began to impliment them into actual gameplay as if they were in the final game.

my views of his behavior during Fable 2's dev is tempered by that.

 

[Copter400]

Even so, i'm in Rivet City atm, and am a little bit afraid to leave, because i know i'll go back to battling mutant brutes with a baseball bat again.

The Super Mutants generally avoid the road by the river. There's a couple of bases, but if you run, you should get past them toot sweet and feeling fine.

I own Viewtiful Joe by the whim of Penny Arcade, who made a [a href=http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/7/7/]comic[/a] talking about how good it was.

And it was pretty good.

 

[Altorin]

Even so, i'm in Rivet City atm, and am a little bit afraid to leave, because i know i'll go back to battling mutant brutes with a baseball bat again.

If you're using Melee, you can get a sledgehammer from lucas Smith's house, and you can buy them in rivet city.

they're great.

 

[Clov3r]

omfg yes! ahaha

games I own for the PC that fit said category:

-COD4
(just, bleh. I liked 2 better.)
-Enemy Territor Quake Wars
(it was fun and I wasted hours playing it, but there was nothing there. It died rather quickly)
-Quake4
(Don't even get me started, lol.)
-Spore
(got bored with it once I reached the space stage)