Jusal on 22/12/2008 at 11:26
The Witcher and F.E.A.R. both surprised me. I wasn't expecting particularly much from either, just a run of the mill RPG and a mediocre shooter.
dj_ivocha on 22/12/2008 at 11:49
10 years ago PC gaming wasn't really that widespread in Bulgaria - even pirated games were damn hard to find. So when a friend found a pirated version of Starcraft (a full CD one, not ripped - an even more rare occurence!), he immediately bought it, even though he wouldn't buy a PC for some 8-10 more months.
Since I was just about the only person in our class at school that already had a PC, he gave me the game so I can test it and see if it works. I'd never even heard of it, having only had a computer for a few months, so I asked him what it is about. When he explained it to me, I thought - "a STRATEGY game?!? :eww: real men play space sims and car games and 3d action!". Of course, the only game I'd ever played until then was Duke3D but that didn't stop me from hating those blasted RTSes and turn based strategies.
But since he was a friend, I said "yeah ok, whatever" and took it home. A week or two later, after he kept bugging me to test it, I finally installed it.
:wot:
3 years later, having played it almost daily and mostly single player at that!, I had to stop playing since I came to Germany and didn't have a PC for a while.
A year and a half after I started playing Starcraft, I got ahold of HOMM3. "A TURN-BASED STRATEGY? no wai! I didn't buy a PC to wait while IT plays :tsktsk:" ... I don't think I need to tell you how that turned out. *downloads a few dozen more HOMM3 maps*
That taught me about how good prejudice is. :D
Jason Moyer on 22/12/2008 at 12:22
No One Lives Forever. At the time it came out I didn't really pay attention to it, as an FPS where you play as a woman didn't seem like it would be very immersive, and I did the usual "install the demo, play for 10 seconds (which basically meant doing the sniping sequence at he beginning), think 'what the hell is this shit, and uninstall" routine. Someone recommended it to me around the time the GOTY came out and I gave the full game a chance, and I was completely hooked.
Morrowind was another one. At the time I really hated RPG's after finding all of the early Bioware/Black Isle stuff to be tedious and boring (aside from the epic Knights of Legend, I always preferred the first-person Bard's Tale/Dragon Wars/Eye of the Beholder stuff). A coworker thought I'd like it based on my love for SS2 and Deus Ex (which was actually another "install the demo/what the hell/uninstall" game) and I ended up wasting an entire 2 weeks of vacation plowing my way through it.
Malleus on 22/12/2008 at 12:29
Crysis. I expected it to be a glorified tech demo, 'all graphics no gameplay' as some people said, but I though it could still be a good benchmark to see how it runs on my PC. I installed the demo and realized that this is something great, bought it and, well, I still regard it one of the best games of 2007.
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Dead Space. Started off feeling like a 3rd person Doom 3 and turned into one of my favourite new games.
Same here, biggest positive surprise of the year.
I also felt the same way with the Witcher. A friend kept suggesting that I try it, and I gave in after a few months and tried it this spring. Turned out to be the best rpg I played in years.
suliman on 22/12/2008 at 13:24
STALKER. All the stuff that's been cut before its release led me to believe it would turn out shitty. I was hooked as soon as I saved Wolf's brother, got all the way to Agroprom in one go, and now it's probably my favourite new FPS.
michaelg on 22/12/2008 at 14:27
Project Snowblind comes to mind for me. Saw it on Steam for 10 bucks about a month ago and figured why not. Cliched as all hell, but lots of fun.
Deus Ex light!
Arx Fatalis is another one. Never paticulary liked RPG's but heard about it on this forum 5 or 6 years ago. Once I heard it was first person I gave the demo a try. Picked up the full game and had a blast with it.
gunsmoke on 22/12/2008 at 18:13
Deus Ex, Project:Snowblind, Thief: Dark Project, Vampire:Bloodlines, Tomb Raider:Legend
Briareos H on 22/12/2008 at 18:16
Crysis, Deus Ex IW
sh0ck3r on 22/12/2008 at 18:16
Quote Posted by Malleus
Crysis. I expected it to be a glorified tech demo, 'all graphics no gameplay' as some people said, but I though it could still be a good benchmark to see how it runs on my PC.
your expectations were well-founded.
As for me, HL2 pleasantly surprised me, as I played it originally on the Xbox and wasn't too impressed but then played the whole thing on the PC and was immersed in it. But even more so, Team Fortress 2, which is my favourite online FPS since Unreal Tournament
EvaUnit02 on 22/12/2008 at 18:38
Alone in the Dark (2008) - The gameplay mechanics are innovative and always interesting. The art direction is great. The score by Olivier Deriviere and The Voices of Bulgaria is absolutely marvelous. The game has some really exciting, well directed set-pieces.
The title's flaws are certainly bearable and never game breaking; a lot of them are the age old Survival Horror annoyances like crappy digital movement and camera issues. The cheap padding device where you had to burn the X number of tree roots sucked hard though.
It's a real shame that we'll likely never see a PC or 360 patch with the PS3 version's improvements.
Quote Posted by gunsmoke
Tomb Raider:Legend
*Nod* I too was surprised by how good the Crystal Dynamics Tomb Raiders were.
Quote Posted by Briareos H
Deus Ex IW
I started playing Invisible War expecting an utterly dire game with no redeeming features, but it never came even close to sinking to those depths.
