Biggest surprises and letdowns in gaming for you

[dessa]

So I wanted to start a topic so everyone could put their two cents in as to which games were the biggest surprises for them as well as the biggest regrets of even buying them.

Right now I can only think of my two biggest regrets which would be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and more recently Batman Arkham Origins. I was at least able to force myself to finish CoD: MW3 but as far as Batman goes, I stopped playing that before even a quarter of the way through. It was just that bad for me.

The best I've been surprised by has to be Bastion, no matter how many times I've played that game it's just as good as the first time I played it. It probably helps that the soundtrack is just so darn amazing!

So what's your biggest top's and low's?

[Girlzilla]

Welp, regret is pretty harsh, but I guess I could say that I really regret Thief (2014 release) - I was PRAYING it would bring back the love I had for the original Thief 1 & 2, but... It's a good game, just not stellar.  Garrett's hands are lovely, but it just didn't make me want to play it through more than once.  I had pre-ordered Thief at the time - if I could do it again, I would have waited for the price to drop.

 

Hmm... as for biggest positive surprise - I'd say Mass Effect 1.  I started the series late with Mass Effect 2, and LOVED it, and then people were saying the story was better in ME1, so I went back and tried it and HATED it.  It was just too soon.  The game felt so outdated and I just couldn't stand the old graphics and the differences in combat.  So I left it alone, unplayed for... I don't know, months.  Then I came back to it, totally fresh, and, yes, I was happy in the end.  It does have a great story and the old game didn't feel so old. 

Edited July 24, 2014 by Girlzilla

[shaftiel]

My biggest regret is Counter Strike.  I hate it sooo much! GAH!  SOOO MUCH!!

 

My biggest surprise was finding out that I was a masochist, because I HATE COUNTER STRIKE SO DAMN MUCH!!! But can't stop playing it.  Help me.....  please....

 

 

 

 

 

Shaftiel

[dessa]

My biggest regret is Counter Strike.  I hate it sooo much! GAH!  SOOO MUCH!!

 

My biggest surprise was finding out that I was a masochist, because I HATE COUNTER STRIKE SO DAMN MUCH!!! But can't stop playing it.  Help me.....  please....

 

 

 

 

 

Shaftiel

 

You should probably talk to someone about these feelings you're having. XD

I agree on CS. For me CS:GO is so terrible it's awesome... I think.

I'm complete crap at it but when I'm drunk I think I'm amaze-balls. Yep

[onyxdragoon]

Biggest surprise: Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid

 

Biggest letdown: Street Fighter x Tekken

[crasx]

watch dogs has made me so sad. rip chicago

[JackieChan]

Biggest regret? SimCity 5 and Diablo 3.  At least I got a refund for SimCity.  Diablo 3 just sucked out the gate, but it took them until recently to make it better.  SimCity still sucks.

 

As for what was the biggest surprise...I'll get back to you on that.

[Wolfsblood]

Biggest letdown has to be Battlefield: Vietnam. Bought it full retail, played it for a several days, and absolutely hated it. Hated it so much I was happy to get less than $10 of my original $45 back on trade-in. That way I didn't feel like I lost all that money. To this day, I flat out refuse to ever play another Battlefield game.  That's how much i hated it.

 

Biggest surprise? That's trickier.  Biggest bang for the buck almost has to be Mass Effect, for the little moneyI spent on it, I got waayy more out of it, but the real surprise was X3:Reunion. I bought the game at the insistence of a friend who raved about it. The learning curve was so steep, and I felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the universe, and the sheer openness of the game. It was hard to figure out what to do, and often where to go. I put it aside for months, never thinking about it, except to be irritated at the money I threw away.  Finally I had a lull in gaming and wanted something different and gave it another shot. Well worth it. Hundreds upon hundreds of hours got poured into X3, and watching massive space battles playing out between gigantic capital ships, with smaller fighters zipping in and out of the fray.... sometimes it was hard to not just stop and watch it, and forget you were in command of one of the armadas.

 

Though i have to admit Pong was a great game back in the day too.

[Architect]

I would have to say Mass Effect 3 and Rage.  Mass Effect 3 didn't do it for me because it was like riding a roller coaster, you could only run around exactly where they wanted you to go.  What really made it bad for me was just finishing up Deus Ex.  I wish they would come out with another one of those.

 

And then there was Rage.  I bought into the Carmack hype and bought it.  Never even was close to finishing it.  

[Architect]

Oh, and as for biggest surprise...  Deus Ex.  I played the first one, and skipped the second one.  I didn't know what to expect.  I was not dissapointed.  If only it had multiplayer...

[walkingCat]

Biggest surprise: Minecraft. Didn't expect so much fun.

Biggest letdown: CS series. Strong addiction that ruined my life. Love it though.

[dessa]

It's nice to see everyone's variations on their biggest likes and dislikes in gaming.

And it seems basically everyone is in agreement when it comes to CS:GO lol We love to hate that little red headed step-child. XD

[Architect]

Never played CS

[Smokey]

Welp, regret is pretty harsh, but I guess I could say that I really regret Thief (2014 release) - I was PRAYING it would bring back the love I had for the original Thief 1 & 2, but... It's a good game, just not stellar.  Garrett's hands are lovely, but it just didn't make me want to play it through more than once.  I had pre-ordered Thief at the time - if I could do it again, I would have waited for the price to drop.

QFT.  The Dark Project is my favorite game of all time, and Metal Age is my 2nd favorite game of all time.  I remember exactly where I was the day they announced THI4F and I remember how excited I was.  But as more details got released, my hopes started to fizzle, until I decided not to pick it up upon release.  I bought it on a steam sale last year, and I've played about halfway through.  Whereas the first Thief games made you need to do the next level because of curiosity and excitement, in THI4F I would finish a mission with no real urge to play the next one.  The biggest problem?  The utter lack of freedom of movement.  The levels are unbelievably linear.  Rope arrows can only go in SPECIFIED PLACES (that's insane!), there's no free jumping (that's truly insane) which makes it feel like a Mirror's Edge ripoff, the game won't let you fail by accidentally falling off a cliff, the 'loot grabbing' animation is terribly clunky, the special skills are cliche'd and corny, the voice acting is awful, the story is cliched and corny, the story is confused because it tells us we are 400 years after the Garrett we know and love, and most importantly, THEY DON'T USE THE WORD TAFFER!  They truly did an injustice to a brilliant franchise.  [This game made Deadly Shadow's look incredibly good]. 

 

Secondly, I'd have to say Oblivion.  [To this date, the last game I ever bought on release day].  Morrowind is my 3rd favorite game of all time- a classic blend of fantasy, rpg, open world, strong story telling, good graphics, and great atmosphere.  The province of Morrowind was a rich blend of original fantasy setting, with well developed political intrigue, historical back story, well defined and related factions, and the utter freedom to do what you want.  In Oblivion, the game will not let you kill a story-critical NPC, but in Morrowind you can kill even Vivec if you want.  The ability to become a Vampire AND a Werewolf was superior to Oblivion's cliche'd vaparism.  The lockpicking minigame was beyond stupid, because it's not done in realtime [similar to Thief: Deadly Shadow's issue, that since it doesn't happen in realtime, if you're being persued, you have all the time in the world to pick the lock].  The setting was totally unoriginal.  Instead of Nix-Hounds there are wolves; instead of Guars there are sheep, instead of Silt-Striders there is fast travel (don't even get me started on fast travel).  The walled cities are annoying.  The objective marker is a fantastic example of dumbing games down for the newer generation.  In Morrowind, in a quest you'd get sometimes good, sometime vague instructions on where your objective was.  This allowed you to explore the world, use your brain and figure out where to go.  The constant leveling of enemies denied any feeling of growth, since you're often facing enemies that are leveled up to match you.  There are 27 skills in Morrowind, but only 21 in Oblivion [they removed the distinction of long/short blade, medium armor, spear, axe, and enchant].  They removed mark and recall and replaced it with fast-travel.  The voice acting, while somewhat interesting, seriously limited the possibility of backstory, since all dialog had to be spoken, instead of the rich volume of text allowed in Morrowind.  I'll say one thing though: I did enjoy Shivering Isles.

 

TL:DNR - Most of the time sequels suck. 

[Snowflake]

Best game of all TIME>>> Black hawk down hands down!! I loved that game and miss it sooooooooooo much. It was the best surprise ever...

Edited August 19, 2014 by Snowflake

[Lookback]

Biggest regret: SimCity 5, and probably a few others that I don't even remember

 

Biggest surprise: How I miss you BF1942, what an amazing game, and of course Rockstar 2014 because I can legitimately play guitar now!  L4D2 10v10 (GC only) ranks up there as well, reinvigorated a game I had walked away from and gave me at least 2,500 more hours on it.

[Biggs]

Biggest surprise... hmm.  The whole Civilization series.  Never been disappointed, which surprised me after so many sequels :-)

 

Biggest letdowns... Spore was a huge disappointment for me--SimCity V as well.

[onyxdragoon]

Looking at the thread. No one seems to play on consoles.

[Biggs]

Hmm... Perfect Dark Zero was really bad

[Architect]

Looking at the thread. No one seems to play on consoles.

Console? Oh that is called a command line window right?

[TheLaw]

Biggest Surprise : Metro 2033 i have heard good and bad things about this but i went in neutral and although its not the best shooter it was really immursive .

Biggest Let Down: Battlefield 3 (PC) premium ruined this game for me all the hardcore servers were either premium or gone

                              Two Worlds(360) cool concept horrendous fps that made it unplayable.

[ValenAlvern]

Biggest Regret Diablo 3, No, nothing will make me forget the worst game launch in history and I didnt even care that the servers were shot for a few days. Poorly designed game was poorly designed.

 

Biggest Surprise: Megabyte Punch.

[Fairweather]

Biggest letdown was Wolfenstein for the xbox I had such fond memories of that game as a kid.  I was so excited to get it for xbox only to be like this sucks monkey butt.

 

Biggest surprise was Mario party.  I remember my buddy renting it way back when we were 13 and just being blown away with how much fun we had playing it

[Lookback]

Still lovin' Rocksmith 2014.