What games did you take a chance on but ended up liking.

[triggrhappy94]

Borderlands and Left 4 Dead.
Friends rented it and told me about it, and I had read about it before. So I thought, might as well.

 

[Nomanslander]

Dark Souls really, I never really got into Demon's Souls so I expected the same from this game. Instead the changes to mechanics suited me more and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the game.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Baten Kaitos
Katawa shoujo
MoH: Airborne (worth all of the 5 bucks I paid for it on steam)
Saints Row 2
9 hours 9 persons 9 doors

 

[Yureina]

Fallout 3, Assassin's Creed II, Civilization III, Red Faction: Guerilla, Europa Universalis, Baldur's Gate, and Call of Duty 4.

All of those games I ended up liking... quite alot.

... I don't get it ... you approached those games 'to take a chance on'? Sweet Jesus, what kind of games to you approach on purpose? Amongst those are some of the most famous of the last 10 years.

All the games I named were the first games in those serieses that I actually played, and I had had little to no exposure to any of those franchises up until that point. All I had to go on was the word of some friends, which isn't always 100% trustworthy.

As for what kind of games I approach on purpose... most of them are either sequels or games i've had enough exposure to to make me confident in choosing to purchasing them. Examples being Fallout: New Vegas, Europa Universalis III, Baldur's Gate II, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Shogun 2: Total War.

Generally speaking, I am skeptical of the quality of any game unless i've had some sort of opportunity to get a good indication of how good it is, either by playing it or hearing way too many positive things about it.

 

[Gerishnakov]

Battlefield 1943. I thought I was done with the FPS genre, then I downloaded that little gem and now I can't stop. I have now graduated to Battlefield 3 though.

At the other end of the scale I took a chance, based on ok to moderately good reviews, on Mafia 2, and it was the biggest let down I've had in gaming yet. What an awful game. Everything about it was terrible - the plot, driving mechanics, weapon handling, dialogue, soundscape - just bad.

 

[DanielBrown]

Was in a game store about a year ago(I buy all games online normally) and decided to pick up Singularity and that Ghost Busters video game because they were cheap as fuck. Ended up having tons of fun with them.
Not many other games apart from that. I tend to do a lot of research on games before I buy them, unless it's from a serie I know already.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Dawn of War was probably the most significant one.

"A game where you just click on stuff and sit back? That sounds like crap."

*Plays the game*

"Holy shit I love this game! Go my Chaos marines, destroy them!"

Katawa Shoujo

My very first visual novel, and damn was it a good introduction.

Although, to be fair it is free so I didn't have anything to lose and neither do you!

Most of these I picked up in the last few months of 2011:

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction

It warms my heart knowing that one more person out there has experienced this fantastic game.

 

[Sandjube]

Recettear. Now I compulsively buy anything by Carpe Fulgur, so I guess they got me pretty good.

 

[9thRequiem]

Recently? The Old Republic.
Having a long experience with MMOs, it looked like exactly the same, but with some story. But having reached the "second job you pay for" stage on my last MMO, gave it a try.
The story lines make all my various gripes melt away. I don't foresee this lasting longer than it takes me to play through all 8 of them, but right now I'm having a lot of fun.

 

[The Night Angel]

Mirrors Edge (I know, I know, how could I ever have doubted it?)
Infamous
DA:O

 

[Vivi22]

I bought Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon on the N64 way back when based on the description on the back alone I believe and because I liked the name (not an uncommon way to choose a game when I was a kid actually, and strangely it never failed me). It ended up being my favourite N64 game to this day.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Mass Effect.
Bought it so I could import a Shepard into this renowned superior sequel.
Little did I know I would actually really love this game.

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Dragon age: Origins dismissed it when I saw the trailer thought Bioware was going to just be phoning it in but picked it up a year later one of my favorite games of the last decade I vowed to buy the sequel the second it came out and boy did that blow back in my face .

 

[Soxafloppin]

I rented the Green Lantern game..Not really a risk since it was only a rental but was pleasantly suprised by it. Good weekend rental.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Dark Souls? "Like" is too stong a term though. I think "begrudging respect" leading into "disk snapping rage" is more suitable.

We both attempt to kill each other fairly often(I've come close to the aforemented disk snapping.) I think it keeps our relationship interesting

And Okami, seems only fair to buy Ammy's game since she's given me so many glorious, spammy wins in UMVC3.

I would say Persona 4, but it was obvious i'd like the game just from reading about a paragraph about it. Same with the Ace Attorney series, except the only thing i knew about that game before I got it was that it was an overly melodramatic (the best type of drama, obviously) "court is fucking awesome" type VN.

My gut feelings about games i know very little about are never wrong.