What Game Surprised You This Year?

[Daystar Clarion]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

I second this.

It's a truly great JRPG if I haven't strangled myself with my own intestines after a few hours.

Its a JRPG for people who hate JRPG's, is essentially the overriding opinion on that.

Like Twilight is the book for people who typically hate reading.




On topic, Mortal Kombbat. I was suprised by how much I really liked playing it, getting a feel for the combos, the special moves, the Fatalities, it was really enjoyable for me.

There are two things that make or break a JRPG for me.

Is the voice acting annoying?

Is the plot an angsty piece of Japanese soap opera shit?

If the answer is no to both of these things, I'll probably like it.

If your answer to both of those pretty much involves removing all plot and characters with a scalpel, then you may have made a mistake.

Uhuh, I don't see where you're coming from but whatever.

It's better than Final Fantasy 13, that's for sure.

 

[blokrokker]

Saints Row the Third. I was expecting epic levels of crazy awesome (and just downright crazy) stuff packed into it, especially after playing Saints Row 1 & 2. I wasn't expecting an unplayable waste of $60.00. Literally, I can't actually get beyond the main menu, and I only got THERE because I got lucky on one attempt. I can't even get the Initiation Station to work properly.

 

[Rhatar Khurin]

SW:TOR i wanted it to be shit, but it wasn't. CURSE YOU BIOWARE!

 

[Dfskelleton]

Just this year I decided to try Deadly Premonition, which has a tendency to be hailed as the greatest thing ever or a worthless pile of steaming feces.
I picked it up at gamestop for $19.99, and learned that it was not only worth every cent, but it now ranks 3rd place on my personal "Top 5 Best Games Ever" list, only behind Doom and Silent Hill 2.
Maybe it's because I am a huge fan of Twin Peaks, and since Deadly Premonition is essentially Twin Peaks: The Game, it's pretty much made for me.
Speaking of Twin Peaks: The Game, did anyone else play that Black Lodge 2600 game? I'm surprised that the Atari 2600 and the Black Lodge compliment each other so much, but they do.

I know I sound like I'm advertising, but seriously, a free pixelated Twin Peaks video game (featuring a chiptune version of "Sycamore Trees") is more awesomeness than should be allowed to exist.
Ok, putting aside my fanboyism for Twin Peaks, RAGE was really dissapointing. Id Software, how could you, of all developers, create something so boring and generic? The graphics were nice, but good graphics aren't worth anything if you can't have fun while looking at them.

 

[jacobythehedgehog]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I was excited for it, but it was a dam good game. Very dam good!!!

It is my game of the year

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

I second this.

It's a truly great JRPG if I haven't strangled myself with my own intestines after a few hours.

Its a JRPG for people who hate JRPG's, is essentially the overriding opinion on that.

Like Twilight is the book for people who typically hate reading.




On topic, Mortal Kombbat. I was suprised by how much I really liked playing it, getting a feel for the combos, the special moves, the Fatalities, it was really enjoyable for me.

There are two things that make or break a JRPG for me.

Is the voice acting annoying?

Is the plot an angsty piece of Japanese soap opera shit?

If the answer is no to both of these things, I'll probably like it.

If your answer to both of those pretty much involves removing all plot and characters with a scalpel, then you may have made a mistake.

Uhuh, I don't see where you're coming from but whatever.

It's better than Final Fantasy 13, that's for sure.

And a fuckload inferior to any Persona game.

Good for you?

Am I supposed to say something else now so you be contrary again? Or can I state how I like a game without you coming along and telling me I'm not a 'real' JRPG fan?

 

[Kae]

THAT one game, you know that game, the one everybody is talking about.
Ok you got me I didn't play any games that I hadn't played before this year, but to be fair it's because my PC sucks and I no longer have my PS3 because it died in a fire along with all of my PS1 games, that bastard, but at least I still have my N64 and Gamecube, and well PS1 too but without games.

 

[Subwayeatn]

I had my doubts before i got Skyrim. I've never playing an elder scrolls game beforehand, and i felt like it was over hyped. Boy was i wrong.

Also i finally got Starcraft 2. (a little late) It always seemed like a game with deep mechanics and lots of variation in gameplay. It is hard to get into since i'm new to rts, but winning brings great satisfaction and i looove to see my enemy panic in replays.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

I second this.

It's a truly great JRPG if I haven't strangled myself with my own intestines after a few hours.

Its a JRPG for people who hate JRPG's, is essentially the overriding opinion on that.

Like Twilight is the book for people who typically hate reading.




On topic, Mortal Kombbat. I was suprised by how much I really liked playing it, getting a feel for the combos, the special moves, the Fatalities, it was really enjoyable for me.

There are two things that make or break a JRPG for me.

Is the voice acting annoying?

Is the plot an angsty piece of Japanese soap opera shit?

If the answer is no to both of these things, I'll probably like it.

If your answer to both of those pretty much involves removing all plot and characters with a scalpel, then you may have made a mistake.

Uhuh, I don't see where you're coming from but whatever.

It's better than Final Fantasy 13, that's for sure.

And a fuckload inferior to any Persona game.

Good for you?

Am I supposed to say something else now so you be contrary again? Or can I state how I like a game without you coming along and telling me I'm not a 'real' JRPG fan?

You are free to like the game and I don't mean to say you shouldn't. I just hate the people who act like its a revolution of JRPG's because it stripped out everything unique about them and rendered it as just an RPG. An alright put together RPG, but certainly not deserving of the scores its getting.

What exactly doesn't make it a JRPG?

Because I'm interested to know how you think it isn't.

 

[CRRPGMykael]

Driver: San Francisco. I expected another really terrible GTA knock-off (even though the first Driver game came before GTA III, which was when the series revolutionized the genre of sandbox-iness-things-etc-whatever), but when I found out that this game was driving only (no on-foot sections, shooting, etc) I became even more distant to it (especially when they showed that teleporting mechanic thing), but I found it to be a great game, actually. Play it.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Xenoblade Chronicles.
A JRPG I still want to play after 30 hours?
WHAT IS THIS MAGIC??!!

I second this.

It's a truly great JRPG if I haven't strangled myself with my own intestines after a few hours.

Its a JRPG for people who hate JRPG's, is essentially the overriding opinion on that.

Like Twilight is the book for people who typically hate reading.




On topic, Mortal Kombbat. I was suprised by how much I really liked playing it, getting a feel for the combos, the special moves, the Fatalities, it was really enjoyable for me.

There are two things that make or break a JRPG for me.

Is the voice acting annoying?

Is the plot an angsty piece of Japanese soap opera shit?

If the answer is no to both of these things, I'll probably like it.

If your answer to both of those pretty much involves removing all plot and characters with a scalpel, then you may have made a mistake.

Uhuh, I don't see where you're coming from but whatever.

It's better than Final Fantasy 13, that's for sure.

And a fuckload inferior to any Persona game.

Good for you?

Am I supposed to say something else now so you be contrary again? Or can I state how I like a game without you coming along and telling me I'm not a 'real' JRPG fan?

You are free to like the game and I don't mean to say you shouldn't. I just hate the people who act like its a revolution of JRPG's because it stripped out everything unique about them and rendered it as just an RPG. An alright put together RPG, but certainly not deserving of the scores its getting.

What exactly doesn't make it a JRPG?

Because I'm interested to know how you think it isn't.

Stripping out the gameplay style and the character focus.

Silly me, I thought it had something to do with it being an RPG that was made in Japan.

I don't know which game you played, but there was plenty of character focus, and I don't even know what you mean by 'gameplay style'.

 

[Smeggs]

RAGE, actually.

I was expecting some 16-20 hour campaign of generic Falloutiness+Shooterness. What I got was an actually enjoyable and different game that was fun to the very last minute, when it abruptly ended.