Those games that only you seemed to like.

[Something Amyss]

This pretty much sums it up. But, for $3, it's worth it. Gameplay is far from perfect. The combat, while not horrible, can be a bit wonky at times. But there is a solid system to build from. The story is just out there, though. "Pacing" was clearly never used in the development meetings.

But, I'd say play it. Play it with the same expectations you'd have while planning to watch a B movie.

Well, I mean, if DOPO is right, and you're saying he pretty much is, then I'll probably pass. If it got better, I'd possibly be able to talk people into co-opping with me. But if it doesn't, I'd be playing it alone. And for 3 bucks, I can get a game I'm more interested in on the next Steam sale (and if I'm buying games to play alone, I'd rather do it on PC anyway).

But thanks for the candor. I'm not here to hate the game or anything.

No, it gets worse.

Source: I've seen the GPLP of it [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbtEF3ZjTyk&list=PL81DE86E636F5B9BB]. Twice. It's quite bad, but at least serves well for entertaining jokes. At least when the LRR crew play it, not me. I'd recommend watching that. In all fairness, the combat system actually has potential. If it only the rest of the game was a bit better. It's buggy, and the story is presented awfully - it's both too long and yet, bizarrely, it's not even enough for the game.

And I will so be watching this, because Graham could read the ingredients to corn flakes and make it sound charming.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Definitely DA2 and ME3. Personally, I felt DA2 was the high point of the DA series as far as combat gameplay goes. As for ME3, I didn't play any of ME until ME Trilogy came out, so I wasn't deeply emotionally invested in it the way fans were, and thus wasn't all that bothered by the ending; I like phyrric victories in stories anyway, having watched tons of samurai movies. If I had been a died hard fan of the series, I probably would have been more upset, but as it was, I felt the ending was okay (but far from great).

Also, The Punisher (PS2). Realistically, its a pretty generic third person shooter, but it captured the mood and style of the Punisher better than any other game ever has, and I played the absolute heck out of it because it's the Punisher.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm not sure how this is controversial. Most people, even if they think 2 is the best game in the SR series, will agree 4 is pretty damn good. Usually, the only argument is if 2 or 4 is better.

If you want to be controversial, say you like 3. Or even worse, say you thought Gat out of Hell didn't feel like an expansion pack.

Or say you liked SR1 best.

Go on. Do it. DO EEEEET!

...some women just want to watch the world burn, okay?

But seriously, yeah. Saints Row IV is arguably the most popular SR game. 2 put them on the map and is still the better game in the minds of many, but it's not like people hate IV. It's pretty much a given it's either best or second best.

also, isn't GoH essentially an expansion pack? Or literally one?

Some of the choices massively confuse me. Skyrim, for all the criticism it gets, is still a massively popular game both on here and in general. Fallout 4 may be getting review bombed, but it's got like a thousand nines or higher on the PC version on Metacritic alone. Steam's page lists the response as "very positive." The Witcher and Witcher 2 seem to oily be unpopular in the sense that they're not as popular as 3. It's sort of like saying nobody's a Yankees fans.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

The biggest one I can think of, for me at least, is The Old Republic. Yes, the MMO. I've been playing it pretty solidly since it went F2P, and subbed to it several times when I could afford it. While some of the restrictions for being a "higher-tier free player" are a bit annoying, I find the game has an atmosphere to it that I haven't really been able to get from any MMO I've tried, and I've tried plenty.

Sure, the combat may be a bit derivative of WoW, and there are quite some bugs (though IMO, not any more than most MMOs I've tried), but the story, the characters, the lore, those all keep me coming back, despite the fact that it is (supposedly) one of the worst Star Wars games to date.

 

[votemarvel]

Saints Row 4: I think 4 is the best game of the series, even when I know it is not so different of 3 in several aspects.

I'm not sure how this is controversial. Most people, even if they think 2 is the best game in the SR series, will agree 4 is pretty damn good. Usually, the only argument is if 2 or 4 is better.

If you want to be controversial, say you like 3. Or even worse, say you thought Gat out of Hell didn't feel like an expansion pack.

I actually think that The Third is the best of the series. It doesn't have the customisation options of the second game but it controls far better. Plus there are mods out there that add in extra customisation.

Saints Row 4 is good but the super-powers quickly overpower every other aspect of the gameplay, the weapons and vehicles quickly become useless. It is also really jarring when you are forced back into using them.

Definitely DA2 and ME3. Personally, I felt DA2 was the high point of the DA series as far as combat gameplay goes. As for ME3, I didn't play any of ME until ME Trilogy came out, so I wasn't deeply emotionally invested in it the way fans were, and thus wasn't all that bothered by the ending; I like phyrric victories in stories anyway, having watched tons of samurai movies. If I had been a died hard fan of the series, I probably would have been more upset, but as it was, I felt the ending was okay (but far from great).

I've never gotten the praise that Dragon Age II got for its combat. It uses almost exactly the same system as Origins. The only significant difference (camera aside of course) is that console users needed to hammer a button to perform basic attacks. Auto-attack was patched back in on the consoles of course.

The ending to Mass Effect 3 for me was bad, not because of the ideas behind it, but more because of the execution.

We were told that the choices we were going to make would have vastly different repercussions, yet we were then shown three near identical sets ending cinematics. That's why the Extended Cut DLC worked so well. It took those ideas and made each of them unique. Now the game doesn't end how I would have liked but the Extended Cut did let me enjoy the game again.

 

[Poetic Nova]

I actually like Duke Nukem Forever.

Now it isn't perfect (far from it actually) but I like its humor, its level design is varied, and shrinking down to the size of an ant does give a new perspective on things.

And it has a DLC campaign that's pretty fun to play through aswell.

Sure its gameplay is the more generic kind, but honestly? That has more to do with the fact that it is victim of trying to keep up with the trends, but for me, it doesn't dampen the fun. Only real complaints I have is the fact that Dukevison gives a headache inducing high pitched noise and that some later levels have a unfinished feel to it.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Saints Row 4: I think 4 is the best game of the series, even when I know it is not so different of 3 in several aspects.

I'm not sure how this is controversial. Most people, even if they think 2 is the best game in the SR series, will agree 4 is pretty damn good. Usually, the only argument is if 2 or 4 is better.

If you want to be controversial, say you like 3. Or even worse, say you thought Gat out of Hell didn't feel like an expansion pack.

I've seen people who go bonkers when you say that SR3 and 4 are fun games. Or when saying that the 4th one is better than the 3th game in the series.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I've never gotten the praise that Dragon Age II got for its combat. It uses almost exactly the same system as Origins. The only significant difference (camera aside of course) is that console users needed to hammer a button to perform basic attacks. Auto-attack was patched back in on the consoles of course.

Combat was faster paced that the rather slow moving pace of Origins, characters were more mobile, spell combos were easier to trigger, and the Tactics AI was more sophisticated and less buggy. The downside was the parachuting waves of enemies, which were poorly done, but the actual combat itself was very solid; certainly better than the mess that was DAI's neither-tactical-nor-actiony combat.

 

[StatusNil]

Hmmm... since my go-to game on these threads, Alpha Protocol, has already been cited by several people and even Splinter Cell: Conviction got a mention (it's a cool shooter once you get over it not being very Splinter Cell, and Infiltrate mode was good fun), it's time to up the stakes to.... arcade racers!

I really liked Test Drive Unlimited 2. It wasn't necessarily a "good" game per se, but roaming all around Ibiza and Oahu was totally cool. And I loved buying a bunch of swanky houses. I'm an 80s kid, I believe in the Yuppie Dream!

Will that do, or do I have to start digging in the Need For Speed franchise?

 

[pearcinator]

I love Mass Effect 3! Not as much as Mass Effect 2 though

 

[Burgers2013]

This. I actually loved Sonic Adventures 1, Sonic Adventures 2: Battle, and Sonic 2006. Were they good games? I would argue that SA2 was the strongest, but they all had huge amounts of bugs/camera issues/jerky controls/terrible voice overs/etc. All kinds of problems. I still loved them. For SA2 in particular, the various challenges for each level, grinding real fast on rails in space, the occasional Knuckles/Rouge stage, and the Chao mini-games were really fun. I may have played that game more than any other game on the Gamecube. I went back and played SA (DX Director's Cut version) once I had finally gotten bored of SA2. SA1 was not as fun, but I really liked the out-of-level exploration areas.

I actually rate SA1 above SA2. SA2 makes some improvements to the gameplay (e.g. the rails), but I felt in SA1 I had more control over the characters (especially Knuckles), and better designed levels (again with Knuckles compared to Knuckles/Rouge). Likewise, in SA2 I had to deal with the mech levels, which weren't bad, per se, but not nearly as fun as the Sonic ones. In SA1, I get a plenthora of Sonic levels, but the Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and even Gamma levels tend to be fun. Except Big. Screw Big.

Also, there's the story. In a sense, both SA1 and SA2's stories are similar - tragedy happened in the past, has come full circle in the future, Chaos Emeralds must be collected to either enable or prevent said tragedy. However, I feel SA1 is far more subtle (e.g. Chaos vs. Shadow), and far more poignent in how it handles its aspects. SA1, I'd argue, is a tragedy in the literary sense (a character being trapped by circumstance), whereas SA2, not so much. Shadow has false memories of Maria, but is otherwise fully in control of his actions.

Not that SA2 is bad at all - I certainly like the game, but SA1 does manage to edge it out in my mind.

This makes me want to go back and play these. I remember SA1 being glitchier/harder to control. However, it's been so long since I've played either game at this point, I may be remembering it wrong. I do remember loving the SA2 final boss fight. Flying headlong into giant alien thing while dodging bullets/lasers on a time-limit but infinite health? Yes please.

I did hate the mech levels. I play sonic to go fast and jump high (knuckles levels still qualify; mech levels do not). I just found them boring--not really poorly designed, just not what I was wanting to play when I popped in a sonic game.

 

[votemarvel]

I've never gotten the praise that Dragon Age II got for its combat. It uses almost exactly the same system as Origins. The only significant difference (camera aside of course) is that console users needed to hammer a button to perform basic attacks. Auto-attack was patched back in on the consoles of course.

Combat was faster paced that the rather slow moving pace of Origins, characters were more mobile, spell combos were easier to trigger, and the Tactics AI was more sophisticated and less buggy. The downside was the parachuting waves of enemies, which were poorly done, but the actual combat itself was very solid; certainly better than the mess that was DAI's neither-tactical-nor-actiony combat.

I first played Dragon Age II on the PC where auto-attack was the default, the combat didn't feel faster paced at all. It may be all personal perspective but when I played through on my 360 I only felt the combat was faster because I was paying less attention to what was going on. I gave too much focus to Hawke.

Not sure how triggering combos was easier than casting one spell and then casting the other, but we all have our preferences.

We can certainly agree on the combat for Inquisition though. The combat on PC was terrible at launch, it isn't much better now.

 

[daubie]

Lunar/Lunar 2
I don't think it was that poorly received of a game. I also don't think anyone has ever heard of it. Unfortunately the series has been dead since the playstation. The lore is ripe for at least one more story, but no one has done it justice.

Like others here, I also loved Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3. There are some very valid complaints to be made, but its flaws do not outweigh how good those games really are.

 

[Joccaren]

El Snip

I like Platinum a hell of a lot more than X and Y. I found x and Y very very easy and very very boring for the most part, it really hammered home some of the stale elements of the franchise for me. Platinum enhanced everything wrong with diamond and pearl imo; more variety of creatures, better gym order, better UI, everything felt improved.

I enjoyed Black & White for the very fact it only let me use new pokemon, and there were a lot of new ones, and some I really love, Conkelldurr for example is to this day my favourite fighting type by a long way, I replayed those two a lot experimenting with new monsters and team compositions. The world design I can happily concede is very bland and simplistic. X&Y has a nicer continent imo. I also enjoyed the story in black and white quite a bit, and some of the characters are really a lot of fun to me.

Edit: Replaying ORAS and I'm not enjoying Hoenn as much as I did back in the day, frankly there's a lot of monsters I just don't want to use in-scenario because they're weak, niche, or just not compatible with how I play, for example myf avourite water types of the generation are all physical but I need surf, thus I am stuck without my Crawdaunt and/or Sharpedo, I sauppose Tentacruel will do, but it's a shame Huntail/Gorebyss are so late-game.

I really enjoy going back to Leaf Green, the originals not so much I feel they haven't aged well, but the remakes are excellent. HG/SS I can always have a good time with to.

Edit 2: Mega-Evolution is stupid, tacked on nonsense.

Honestly, I think we've got pretty much the same thoughts on everything but Black and White XP

I appreciated the new pokemon in Black and White existing, but many to me just fell flat and weren't that interesting or cool, and of course the world design was really... Bleh. I've heard it, and the sequels, have the best story of the franchise, but I can't find myself caring enough in the game to keep playing. The "Look this is cool" gimmicks everywhere just get really annoying, partially because they're often at the cost of good gameplay that existed in previous titles [Big, windy bridge thing that exists to say "We can do curves", as opposed to the big windy bridges in Kanto/Hoen/Probably Johto ect. where it was an area for quick transport across the map and many trainer battles that you could often avoid if you wanted, but didn't because who the hell avoids a trainer battle in pokemon?], and partially because they themselves are just really annoying to deal with [That circular city and trying to figure out where you're going. Dear god why]. X & Y at least removed that latter concern, as full 3D allows you to move naturally through such environments, but yeah, they felt stale, and anything that was interesting and fun from the previous games - the maze like dungeon crawls, tough rival battles, having to interact with the world to move on - was just replaced with a kinda lame story about friendship ect. with minor romantic tension, that never really went anywhere.

Same feelings as me for ORAS. Back in the day, I LOVED the shit out of them. They were my favourite Pokemon generation. Replaying, I'm having to question that. I have a feeling a lot of balance changes were made, among other things, and that's left it feeling more like just another pokemon game. I don't think you have to use flash in ORAS, whereas I'm pretty sure you did for some gyms in the originals, and some caves. The pokemon seem to not play quite the same way as they did, and either really big rose tinted glasses, or a bunch of the cool worldbuilding stuff isn't what it used to be; I remember really loving reaching the hotsprings, and the volcanic area where you could see the soot falling, and run through grass to clean it. I swear dive isn't as big a part of the game as I remember it being too. If I can find the original, I really want to play each at the same time and see how they compare, as I'm curious as to whether I've just got a huge dose of nostalgia, and the novelty of the region has just worn off now, or if they really have changed all this so that its not as enjoyable anymore.

Yeah, Fire Red/Leaf Green are better than the originals IMO. Though, well, it depends sort of what mood I'm in. The quality of life improvements were great, as was the improved multiplayer capability, and the updated graphics, whilst not severely rebalancing too much about the game. Part of me still enjoys the sheer brutality of the originals at times, and their really old styled graphics, but I'm more than happy with the remake of them. Sadly I never got HG/SS to try and replay, I just somehow missed it coming out. I'll have to rectify that some time, and finally finish the region. Maybe this time I'll figure out how to find that gym leader =P

Mega evolution I'm of 2 minds about. I somewhat like how its at least a new dynamic in battle, that some of the mega evolutions look sick, and how it encourages exploration to go out and find the megastones for the pokemon you want.
Part of me also finds it incredibly lackluster and gimmicky, and not really that much of a gamechanger, that doesn't really make sense. I'd prefer to have new or improved ways of Pokemon and the player interacting with the world itself, rather than gimmicks to try and change up the battle gameplay that has worked for ages, in the next game. Yeah, the battles need to still be kind of new and interesting, but new pokemon, rather than just repeating the old ones, should do that, and with fairy types it should be possible to keep things a bit more fresh than they have been.

But yeah, give me a great world to explore in Pokemon, since that's what you spend 3/4s of your time doing. Some maze like caves, tough puzzles to get to the Elite IV, more use of abilities in interesting ways [Dive as a way of navigating the world and getting to new places, rather than just using cut to get rid of a tree on a normal path], things like the Flute to wake up the Snorlax - and reasons to do each of them, rather than there not being any secret or cool spots. I remember I think there was one cave in Fire Red where you were able to catch Starmie, and it didn't appear through the rest of the game [Might be wrong there, but I'm pretty sure that was the case]. That was cool.

 

[pookie101]

The Mark of Kri

I've yet to meet another person in real life that has played it, or even heard of it. Only person that comes close is my old roommate, and that's 'cause he watched me play it.

I've seen a few people pop up on this forum when this thread gets reborn every few months that say they liked it. But beyond that, it went under just about everyone's radar.

Shame too, as it was a fucking awesome game for the PS 2.

Homeworld: Cataclysm
Many people have played it, but fewer like it compared to HW 1 and 2. I personally loved it, and consider it the best of all 3 titles.

ive always had a soft spot for cataclysm. playing the ignored underdog miners was great fun as well as your mothership slowly turning from mining ship to heavily armed battlecruiser

for me its a game from the mid 80's called theatre europe. its an operational level wargame of a warsaw pact invasion of west germany. as nato you have to hold off the attack for 30 days or take west germany in the same time as the soviets.

pretty standard stuff so far but it was the little things that made it stand out even to this day, the way you would get updates via a ingame dot matrix printer saying how many casualties from that nuke, the way it slowly gets errors if the game goes completely nuclear before finally stopping, great piece of mood setting

other games capture the fighting that could of happened but its the only one thats ever sent a shiver down my spine because it captured the atmosphere. probably wouldnt have the same effect on someone who didnt live during the cold war but thats my pick

 

[stormtrooper9091]

Bard's Tale. The remake that is. I liked the meta bit, it felt like genuine deconstruction of the genre

 

[Xerosch]

Lunar/Lunar 2
I don't think it was that poorly received of a game. I also don't think anyone has ever heard of it.

Actually, you're not alone. I've bought the two big box sets for the PS1 and the remake of the first one for the PSP. Love them, they strike a very nostalgic cord with me that only the PS1 Final Fantasy games and the 'Arc the Lad' trilogy rival. I wish the second one would be available on PSN, though...

OK, returning to thread now:

Dark Souls 2
Far from being a bad game, but there are sooo many people hating this one. Most of the criticism feels like it's coming from spoiled whiners.

Dragon Age 2
For me the characters felt a lot more fleshed out than the ones from Origins. The first game was great with its world building, but the playable crew didn't evolve as much as Hawke's guys did. I also hated Oghren.

Kane & Lynch 1 & 2
I liked how the antiheroes were portrayed and the set pieces. The plot of the first game would still make a pretty decent movie.

Final Fantasy X, XIII and their sequels
While I think XII is the worst Final Fantasy this far, I have a soft spot for the two mentioned candidates. I'm fully aware that their stories don't make sense and there's moronic stuff happening all the time, but that's fine. I enjoy it for the spectacle.

 

[The White Hunter]

El Snip

I like Platinum a hell of a lot more than X and Y. I found x and Y very very easy and very very boring for the most part, it really hammered home some of the stale elements of the franchise for me. Platinum enhanced everything wrong with diamond and pearl imo; more variety of creatures, better gym order, better UI, everything felt improved.

I enjoyed Black & White for the very fact it only let me use new pokemon, and there were a lot of new ones, and some I really love, Conkelldurr for example is to this day my favourite fighting type by a long way, I replayed those two a lot experimenting with new monsters and team compositions. The world design I can happily concede is very bland and simplistic. X&Y has a nicer continent imo. I also enjoyed the story in black and white quite a bit, and some of the characters are really a lot of fun to me.

Edit: Replaying ORAS and I'm not enjoying Hoenn as much as I did back in the day, frankly there's a lot of monsters I just don't want to use in-scenario because they're weak, niche, or just not compatible with how I play, for example myf avourite water types of the generation are all physical but I need surf, thus I am stuck without my Crawdaunt and/or Sharpedo, I sauppose Tentacruel will do, but it's a shame Huntail/Gorebyss are so late-game.

I really enjoy going back to Leaf Green, the originals not so much I feel they haven't aged well, but the remakes are excellent. HG/SS I can always have a good time with to.

Edit 2: Mega-Evolution is stupid, tacked on nonsense.

Honestly, I think we've got pretty much the same thoughts on everything but Black and White XP

I appreciated the new pokemon in Black and White existing, but many to me just fell flat and weren't that interesting or cool, and of course the world design was really... Bleh. I've heard it, and the sequels, have the best story of the franchise, but I can't find myself caring enough in the game to keep playing. The "Look this is cool" gimmicks everywhere just get really annoying, partially because they're often at the cost of good gameplay that existed in previous titles [Big, windy bridge thing that exists to say "We can do curves", as opposed to the big windy bridges in Kanto/Hoen/Probably Johto ect. where it was an area for quick transport across the map and many trainer battles that you could often avoid if you wanted, but didn't because who the hell avoids a trainer battle in pokemon?], and partially because they themselves are just really annoying to deal with [That circular city and trying to figure out where you're going. Dear god why]. X & Y at least removed that latter concern, as full 3D allows you to move naturally through such environments, but yeah, they felt stale, and anything that was interesting and fun from the previous games - the maze like dungeon crawls, tough rival battles, having to interact with the world to move on - was just replaced with a kinda lame story about friendship ect. with minor romantic tension, that never really went anywhere.

Same feelings as me for ORAS. Back in the day, I LOVED the shit out of them. They were my favourite Pokemon generation. Replaying, I'm having to question that. I have a feeling a lot of balance changes were made, among other things, and that's left it feeling more like just another pokemon game. I don't think you have to use flash in ORAS, whereas I'm pretty sure you did for some gyms in the originals, and some caves. The pokemon seem to not play quite the same way as they did, and either really big rose tinted glasses, or a bunch of the cool worldbuilding stuff isn't what it used to be; I remember really loving reaching the hotsprings, and the volcanic area where you could see the soot falling, and run through grass to clean it. I swear dive isn't as big a part of the game as I remember it being too. If I can find the original, I really want to play each at the same time and see how they compare, as I'm curious as to whether I've just got a huge dose of nostalgia, and the novelty of the region has just worn off now, or if they really have changed all this so that its not as enjoyable anymore.

Yeah, Fire Red/Leaf Green are better than the originals IMO. Though, well, it depends sort of what mood I'm in. The quality of life improvements were great, as was the improved multiplayer capability, and the updated graphics, whilst not severely rebalancing too much about the game. Part of me still enjoys the sheer brutality of the originals at times, and their really old styled graphics, but I'm more than happy with the remake of them. Sadly I never got HG/SS to try and replay, I just somehow missed it coming out. I'll have to rectify that some time, and finally finish the region. Maybe this time I'll figure out how to find that gym leader =P

Mega evolution I'm of 2 minds about. I somewhat like how its at least a new dynamic in battle, that some of the mega evolutions look sick, and how it encourages exploration to go out and find the megastones for the pokemon you want.
Part of me also finds it incredibly lackluster and gimmicky, and not really that much of a gamechanger, that doesn't really make sense. I'd prefer to have new or improved ways of Pokemon and the player interacting with the world itself, rather than gimmicks to try and change up the battle gameplay that has worked for ages, in the next game. Yeah, the battles need to still be kind of new and interesting, but new pokemon, rather than just repeating the old ones, should do that, and with fairy types it should be possible to keep things a bit more fresh than they have been.

But yeah, give me a great world to explore in Pokemon, since that's what you spend 3/4s of your time doing. Some maze like caves, tough puzzles to get to the Elite IV, more use of abilities in interesting ways [Dive as a way of navigating the world and getting to new places, rather than just using cut to get rid of a tree on a normal path], things like the Flute to wake up the Snorlax - and reasons to do each of them, rather than there not being any secret or cool spots. I remember I think there was one cave in Fire Red where you were able to catch Starmie, and it didn't appear through the rest of the game [Might be wrong there, but I'm pretty sure that was the case]. That was cool.

Yeah, a lot of black and white had that feel, I guess the monsters and fun characters made up for it for me, but not for everyone. Garbodor is better than you'd expect btw, provided gunk shot hits, and it's a solid hazard setter if you're competitive.

X&Y I need to go back and try again now that I've been away from the series for a short while but when they came out just ugh. The starters being so dull they immediately cave and give me a Squirtle didn't help, it's the first generation where I've not liked any of them. Most of the 6th gen monsters I actually like are so late in the game they're barely viable for me.

Mega-evolution: they should have just given old ones that need it, like Mawile, new evolutions. On what batshit crazy planet did Salamence need buffing? I mean christ, then they gave it aerilate, cuz that's what it needed: STAB on Giga Impact. It's also just a not very interesting mechanic, reminds me of digimon but less fleshed out, I do however like the addition of fairy types; gave some offensive heft to my two favourite types in Poison and Steel.

There's a retro charm to RBY but they're so busted and unbalanced I find little reason to go back to them, not to mention my GBA is somewhere in a closet but my DS is right here. GSC had the same exploration thing for me, with some backtracking and great hidden things like Lapras very early on when you return, the newer games really lack that. H GSS are well worth it, you'll find them hilariously easy for the most part though; Heracross is a game breaker.

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

Dragon Age 2
For me the characters felt a lot more fleshed out than the ones from Origins. The first game was great with its world building, but the playable crew didn't evolve as much as Hawke's guys did. I also hated Oghren.

To be fair, that's not that unexpected. Origins occurs over the space of about a year, whereas DA2 occurs over the course of 7 years (8 if you include the prologue), so the amount people change in that time is likely to less. The Oghren hate is understandable, he rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Rhem. It's basically a dungeon crawler version of Myst. Zero story, just a series of incredibly tough puzzles until the unsatisfying end. Boy do I love that game.