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.

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'.

No, it had characters, but never gave any one of them depth, or any reason for me to give a fuck about them.

I did, so that pretty much blows that argument out of the water.

But it doesn't, because I don't treat my opinion as fact.

You can not like the game all you want, but unless you can come up with something that objectively doesn't make Xenoblade a JRPG, it will remain a JRPG

 

[Hal10k]

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'.

I think he's holding to the "traditionalist" view of JRPGs, which holds that, aside from being made in Japan, it also has to be primarily focused on party-focused turn-based combat, delivering the majority of the story through uninteractive cutscenes. I have no idea if Xenoblade is like that, but if it isn't, I think I've found the point of contention.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Shockingly bad: Dead Island; who would have thought they could make killing hordes of zombies un-fun? It was all okay, fun enough if a little tedious and poorly designed, and then the endless sewer levels started.

Shockingly good: Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker; A game this huge Metal Gear fan never bothered to play for a dislike of Portable Ops and the PSP, when I heard tale of it coming to the PS3 with MGS2&3 I knew right then I'd own the pack if only for 2 & 3. When the day finally came to play it (after an awesome run through 3, where I picked up almost every trophy just due to countless hours sunk into the game on PS2) my mind was blown. It's probably the ultimate Metal Gear aside from the graphics, with a beautiful plot, epic online play which is linked beautifully to your solo game, and endless submissions, not to mention that it fixes a lot of people's main complaint, the long-winded nature of the cutscenes, which are now nicely broken up, still to be enjoyed by plot freaks like me, but easier to get through for adrenaline junkies... like also me sometimes. Anyway, amazing game, not the strongest Metal Gear in any one category, but the best all around I feel, and I am very glad that I didn't just let it pass me by.

 

[Dfskelleton]

DNF. How could a game that took over 14 years to develop suck so much?

You just answered your own question. Due to its horifically long development time, in that time it has taken influence from all FPS trends within those 14 years, the good and the bad. Unfortunately, while I can almost see the good parts at times, they're too far outweighed by the 300 tons of crap on top of it.
Also, I think they got a new writer since DN3D. While it's hard to say how, DN3D used poop jokes cleverly. In DNF, it was more like this:
"It's poop!"
"...so?"
"LAUGH, CONSUMER WHORE. IT IS POOP. IT IS FUNNY. LAUGH."

 

[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'.

I think he's holding to the "traditionalist" view of JRPGs, which holds that, aside from being made in Japan, it also has to be primarily focused on party-focused turn-based combat, delivering the majority of the story through uninteractive cutscenes. I have no idea if Xenoblade is like that, but if it isn't, I think I've found the point of contention.

It does deliver the story through uninteractive cutscenes, the only thing different is that it isn't turned based.

But not all JRPGs have to have turned based combat, so I don't see what the problem is.

 

[MrLumber]

El Shaddai. Probably the most unsung gem of this year, while perhaps not the most innovative in terms of gameplay (that being said it has a ton of gameplay elements, just none of them particularly groundbreaking), in my book it is one of the few games that I believe to be a must play if you want to gain (or cement if you've really got the time in) credence in your opinion of games.

Dark Souls gets an honorable mention though, as a huge fan of Demon's Souls I was worried From would take the route of most developers and essentially just rehash the game, but it damn well improved on near everything Demon's Souls had to offer (IMO Demon's had the better story of the two, as well as more characterization in the NPCs and levels). Its definitely my GOTY.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Arkham City. I bought it only really to see what all the fuss was about, having never played Asylum and assuming that it was only really a game for already established Batman fans, which I am not particularly. By the time I had finished the game had torn up all my preconceptions and left me in a state of Nirvana.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Darksiders. It sucked.

I'd heard reviews in both directions but I wasn't prepared for how much of a letdown it was.

The most interesting character was the horse and this game ain't Skyrim.

You know it came out nearly two years ago, right? Beginning of 2010, not 2011.


OT:
Hard Reset. Coming from ex-People Can Fly employees, I expected something better (I liked both NecroVisioN and BulletStorm). The demo was great, and the beginning was fun, but the more I played the more it bored me. There weren't that many different enemies, and all the levels seemed the same.

 

[Koroviev]

Earlier I would have said Outland, but now I have to say Bastion. It's just a really great time.

 

[Slenn]

WoW because it actually drew me back into its gameplay recently. And NOT because of Mists of Pandaria. I guarantee you the next 3 or so new races will be more anthropomorphs that completely ruin Warcraft's reputation.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

DNF. How could a game that took over 14 years to develop suck so much?

You just answered your own question. Due to its horifically long development time, in that time it has taken influence from all FPS trends within those 14 years, the good and the bad. Unfortunately, while I can almost see the good parts at times, they're too far outweighed by the 300 tons of crap on top of it.
Also, I think they got a new writer since DN3D. While it's hard to say how, DN3D used poop jokes cleverly. In DNF, it was more like this:
"It's poop!"
"...so?"
"LAUGH, CONSUMER WHORE. IT IS POOP. IT IS FUNNY. LAUGH."

tbh, I'm not sure how much of this is really the case. It might just be that the people who liked the humour in DN3D have since, well, grown up...

 

[Koroviev]

Resistance 3

Best FPS sp campaign this year HANDS DOWN

I forgot about this, but it's true. I love the boss fight on the pier, but Satan is pretty underwhelming.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

DNF. How could a game that took over 14 years to develop suck so much?

Do you know nothing of how it was developed? It wasn't one company working on it for 14 years. It started then, and everyone that picked it up had closed down at some point (that or something happened). Plus every time someone else picked it up, they first had to understand the code, then go through and update it all. I don't think Gearbox spent that long on it at all (year or two), and I think that was mostly just to get it out the door. No game could live up to 14 years of hype, plus with all the babies now day that will just hate it to hate it (like when people said it was bad because you could only hold two guns. Really, the only having two guns made the entire game bad? They just wanted a reason to hate it because it was Duke Nukem Forever).

 

[Bvenged]

My most surprising game this year, just for pure entertainment value & innovation within its genre, is From Dust. Outstanding. Truly worth the £10 it is with incredible replay value.

Spoiler: Personal Review

Initially I expected it to be just your average 1200M$P arcade game which you complete once, float around the leaderboards (4th in the world on 1 challenge ) then off it from your HDD without a second glance despite a looming feeling of wasted money. But no, it is 100% worth every penny on Xbox and I just wish it were longer with a build-your-own challenges mode. Campaign was about 10 hours casually, more if you drag it out. Challenges are excellently challenging, not too hard, not too easy - good difficulty curve; and if you fancy mucking around on your favourite campagin level after completion, go right ahead - nothings stopping you. Also, somehow they managed to incorporate entertaining collectibles into a GOD GAME. Marvellous.
Come on Ubisoft, make the expansion / FD2 already!

Now, I would've said GoW3 or Skyrim, but both are not nearly innovative enough. While Skyrim is my life right now it was nothing to From Dust.

Oh and my other most surprising game was *drum roll please* Call of duty: Modern Warfare 3!

I assumed it would be pretty shit, mostly copy-and-pasted and nowhere near worth £45, but as with all CoDs I would complete its short campaign of 6 hours & 1000G it...

While my prophesy holds true for the most part; I completed the game first time, following the story slowly, in Hardened, in 4 hours & 30 minutes [+- 10 mins].
This is the first CoD I will not get 1000G in as it is just not entertaining enough no matter how hard I try to make it so. It is a bollocks game more bollocks than I could ever have predicted. It's been done before, and before that, and before that... so why do it AGAIN? I'd go insane and be sectioned before I play CoD online under Activision again. Or even purchase it again for that matter. Honestly, if they're not going to change it at all at least give the devs some time to fucking patch the thing before release! It's so fucking scripted and basic online all they need is a little more time. Stick the fucking thing in a warehouse for an extra year or 2 and THEN I might buy it without hospitalisation, as I could at least look at it as a renewal of itself.[footnote]Luckily I didn't buy this one, my brother did, so I'm holding strong against the shit-storm that is CoD, but it's Skyrim & Halo I can be thankful for clinging onto while it passes.[/footnote]

 

[Thespian]

For me, probably Bastion and Deus Ex:Human Revolution.
Oh, and Dragon Age 2.

Bastion for me, was my Summer-of-Arcade purchase in lieu of Double Fine's Trenched (which technically wasn't an SoA title but close enough) because Trenched got a "delayed" European release, which still hasn't come. I hope for a competent time-consumer in Bastion and got a beautiful, intricate, and intensely enjoyable game that kept me thoroughly entertained right until I 100% completed it's ass in two playthroughs. Bastion served as sparkling example of masterfully employed video game writing, and comes sporting one of THE best video game OSTs this year, and just in general. Also, it was damn fun to blow stuff up with a cannon.

Deus Ex I had really no expectations for as I never played previous Deus Ex games. Still, I expected a high-quality game to satisfy both my hunger for stealth and my desire for Sci-Fi. DE:HR supplied both of those and so much more. Deus Ex's world immersed me almost immediately, as I got to know the winding streets of the major city hubs, as I explored the various paths of augmentation, as I delved into the fleshed out background of 2027, comprised of newspapers, e-mails, conversation snippets and even crumpled, coffee-stained props lying around the game world as additional details. Most of all I loved the multiple pathways through each goal. One minute I'd talk my way into a complex, the next I'd assassinate each guard methodically, or hack my way in and turn the building's defenses against the enemy, or maybe I'd sneak in without killing or harming anyone, and no one would know I'd been.

Upon hearing Dragon Age 2's imminent release I was... Unenthusiastic. I'd never played Dragon Age: Origins. However, I was a Bioware fanboy by way of Mass Effect and KOTOR and so I decided to pick up a preowned copy of DA:O for ?15, and played through it in the ensuing week. Though environments were drab and combat/level progressing was a little messy in general, some of the characters had heart and it was an engaging RPG experience, so I ended up buying Dragon Age 2 on release day.
And it swept me off my feet. In DA:O I was fond of Alistair(who wasn't?), Morrigan and particularly Zevran, but no other characters appealed to me. In Dragon Age 2, every character caught my interest and had me engaged, for better or worse. There was real drama, real tension, electricity in the atmosphere. It drove me forward in the game almost as much as the fun, intuitive (and not nearly as dumbed-down as everyone claimed) combat system did.
In DA2, I hardly noticed the flaws (such as repetitive environments, annoying random enemy spawns and a godawful ending) that might have crippled the fun of a lesser game. It's honestly one of my personal GOTY contenders (and let's face it, personal GOTY contenders are the only ones that really matter).

 

[Best of the 3]

Orcs must die. It's a solid Tower defence / 3rd person action game, deeper than it looks, great variation in traps, good humor, nice graphics, easy to relax and simple to pick up and play. Great fun and I highly recommend it. It's been the only other game that has dragged me away from Skyrim. That and a little bit of Shogun 2.

 

[AceTrilby]

Tie between Driver: San Francisco and Dead Island for the same reason - they actually turned out to be pretty good games!

 

[JoesshittyOs]

L.A. Noire.

It uh... wasn't that good, but it took you about 13 hours to realize that.

 

[The_Waspman]

While not exactly a huge surprise, I would probably say Limbo. I've made some terrible choices with games in the past (this means YOU, Prototype!!!) but I cringe every time I think about the fact I dropped £10 on this. Not saying it was a terrible game, by any means, but considering its only about an hours worth of entertainment, for what is essentially a flash game of the sort you can find free on the internet, with no replay value and pretentious as hell, I'd say it was a huge let down.