Last game that pleasantly surprised you? (Or not)

[ibo7]

What game have  you played recently that really exceeded your expectations? Or even a game that was well below par?

I'm thinking of console games mostly.

 

For me it's defo Assassins Creed Origins, complete overhaul compared to previous games. Spent many hours lost in that game, often admiring it for looks and its bounty of quests to do/level up. Loved it

[Arwen]

Hue - Beautifully simplistic.  

[ibo7]

7 minutes ago, Duff said:

Firewatch.

 

Loved it but all too short and no replayability.

Haven't actually played it yet but I know I should 

[Compulsive Reload]

Prey, absolutely underrated and overlooked gem, was essentially game of the year for me. They are bringing a survival esque DLC out for it and a multiplayer mimic/prop hunt type game mode as well. 

[powlimo]

I loves Call of Duty WWII. The effects are just awesome. I can play it for hours.

[Gepard]

Sadly enough Euro Truck Simulator 2. Got it years ago and never touched it until recently. Ended up liking it so much I bought all the map expansions and a Logitech G29 with the whole H shifter, pedals setup. Never thought lugging a trailer across Europe could be so satisfying but there you have it. 

 

[Robert James]

Below par - Crash Bandicoot re master - Boy I was excited. 

 

Above average - Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise ?

[sjhirst]

Firewall Zero Hour.

I was expecting it to be a bit of a fad, but its utterly gripped me! 

[Jedi_Master]

Assassin's Creedy Odyssey.  I have been of a fan of these games (on PC) for years.  The level of detail and graphics in Odyssey is amazing, and it has a great storyline and numerous quests.

[Solly4568]

Titanfall 2 it is still my all-time favourite game and in my opinion is criminally underrated  

[Tackle]

the wife bought me the new Call Of Duty at Xmas, I don't play videogames much, but the new Battle Royale mode is both awesome? & infuriating? in equal measures, & that bastard shrinking ring stops me from camping lol.

[Solly4568]

5 minutes ago, Tackle said:

that bastard shrinking ring stops me from camping lol.

how dare it do that, its not like that's its job or anything ?

[Raytd]

Dayz stand-alone Xbox 

heard tons of bad stuff about it but I love it it’s fantastic but you need people to play with or it’s super hard the game I’m most impressed by tho is insurgency sandstorm pc very well made love it

 

[TheFull9]

I'm deployed atm so no online gaming, but I managed to bring my laptop and cludge-bodge together a table so I'm working through a ton of old stuff (6-10 years) that I got for pennies in steam sales over the years but never got around to back home.  Most pleasant surprise by far has been Timeshift, super solid FPS gameplay, cool mechanics and enemies, nice little RPG elements for a linear FPS and a story that you feel should be cliche yet actually just seems to work really well.  Also Fallout 3 quality presentation of lore and backstory in the world, really good.

[Olive00]

I like horrors. I’m playing Dead Space. There are enough screamers in the game, they represent an unexpected jumping out of the closet of a monster, a monster running at you (from the back, for example). It becomes especially scary when a horde of necromorphs runs at you, and you run out of ammo for the cutter, and there are no other weapons either ... It is very good that the game is from a third person, that is, when someone runs to you from behind, you can notice him and expect his attack or something else. I was glad that the game has a wide variety of weapons. In addition to the cutter, you will be given something like a machine gun, rifle, shotgun and bazooka, only in a space style.

[Stevobeavo]

Timesplitters on PS2. Imo it's the greatest FPS arcade game ever made. 

[Cannonfodder]

If we're going old school the Hogs of War on PS1. Think worms but in 3d and with pigs. Also all the voice overs were done by the late great Rik Mayall 

[Adolf Hamster]

6 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

If we're going old school the Hogs of War on PS1. Think worms but in 3d and with pigs. Also all the voice overs were done by the late great Rik Mayall 

 

now there's a reference that's making me feel old now....

 

currently going through the outer worlds, been on my list for a while and picked it up on sale.

 

not gotten too far into it yet but seems to be if fallout did a borderlands pre-prequel, which sits well with me having enjoyed fallout3/NV (haven't got around to 4 yet) and having sunk more time into the borderlands franchise than i'm willing to admit.

 

doing my usual trick of a relaxed easy mode/relatively peaceful playthrough for the sake of enjoying the plot before messing around with specific builds/characters later on.

 

tbh i'm just glad of any game that has more than 2 hours of plot to it in favor of the lazy development option of making a couple of big maps and adding a battle royale mode.

[Impulse]

Final Fantasy 14. As a vanilla WoW veteran (seriously, been playing since 2004), I was expecting a trash weeb game with a furry agenda (though on that last point I gave it some wiggle room since WoW is pretty bad with that and we all know it...)

 

I found a great game with a pretty vibrant and loving community, as well as devs who seem to genuinely care and take player feedback on board. It's hard watching a grown man break down into tears because he has to announce that he's delaying the launch of an expansion by 2 weeks because he felt it didn't have enough QC time, where Blizzard by comparison would just release unfinished expansion after unfinished expansion with the general feeling of "we've heard your feedback and it doesn't align with how we want to make the game, so you can stick your opinions where the sun don't shine. You whales will keep paying for it anyway".

 

I have now embraced the fact that I am, in fact, a bunny girl and I expect you all to treat me as such.

 

[Shamal]

YES!! 

Finally completed Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It's only taken 21 years!

Buzzin' lol

 

 

 

[EDcase]

Duno if this counts but I recently got one of these which brings back so many memories from the arcades and old game systems.

It was only £130 when I got mine so not sure if its worth £200 as many of the games are repeated with different names and quite a few are in Chinese/Japanese

I went through all 6800 over several days and now have about 520 that I think are worth keeping.  LOTS of fighting games of course.

My favourite is Gauntlet but there's all the classics (several versions) like Asteroids, Asteroids 2, Galaga, Defender, Joust, Pacman, R-Type, Centipede... so many

 

The best part is its two player for when friends are over ?

 

(If you do want one, do some research before buying as there are many versions)

 

 

Edited March 16, 2022 by EDcase

[Adolf Hamster]

I smells a roobit.....

 

Edit: roobit gone

 

edit edit:

to get back to the spirit of the thread: Strange brigade

 

think left4dead done by the mummy franchise and you're not too far off. very arcadey shoot through hoards of the undead kind of deal for 1-4 players co-op.

the narration is incredibly cheesy, but to the point it's somewhat amusing and whilst the plot is shallow, short (although not quite cod short) and predictable, the actual gameplay is surprisingly fun.

 

be warned however to be incredibly triggered by the guns, for example what looks like a mosin nagant being a 10-shot semiauto because reasons.

 

my general rule of thumb is "is it worth it at steam sale price?" and the answer is yes.

[Daymond]

Detroit: become human - I was amazed how  presenting multiple interpretations of the same story can make you play the game with bated breath and all that without much action

[MAX DICKER]

Gran Turismo 7, came in my PS5 bundle.

 

Utterly awful. I'm sure the racing mechanics are great but after an 8 minute into that is unskippable, passing around in a poxy bloody demio, annoying pop up characters who talk you through the convoluted progression system, using Google to try and figure out how I can actually do some proper racing and being told I have to go to the cafe and collect shit cars or something, I deleted it and threw it in the bin.

 

Bloated smug self indulgent piece of shit of a game.

[Cannonfodder]

I gave up on the gran turismo franchise at about 4