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Made in gb
Is 'Eavy Metal Calling?





UK

As a counterpoint to the discussion on games we tried and gave up on, let's talk about the opposite, the games you tried on a whim or picked up in a sale/bundle or never really expected much from, but that turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable and made you stick with them.

The big one for me was Fallout 4 actually. I picked it up some time last summer after Bethesda announced Skyrim Special Edition; I wanted to see what a Bethesda world would look like on the Xbox One and what sort of capabilities the platform had for the newly announced modability. I paid about £15 and basically planned to just treat it as a tech demo for SSE, and for a while I was worried I wouldn't even get that; for the first couple of hours I found the world unengaging and the systems baffling and the difficulty punishing (early-game Skyrim being a piece of cake, and early game Fallout being brutal). But then it clicked, and a couple of weeks later I had around 100 hours in, had completed the main quest and hit about level 65. A month later I played another run through of similar length and scope, but a lot more confidently. Not bad for a game I bought to see how exactly mods worked...

Dishonored was another one. I am terrible at stealth games and tend to avoid them (never played Hitman or much Assassin's Creed ect) but Dishonored was on sale for about £7 and I decided to chance it. It now stands as one of my favourite games of all time. The wonderful aesthetic, the slick mechanics, the fascinating world and story, the superb level design. For a game I had no expectation for, it kind of blew my mind just by virtue of being so exceptionally well put together. I reckon Arkane are doing some of the best work in the business at the moment, and while I've yet to play Prey or Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, I consider their work to put a lot of higher budget offerings to shame.

So, over to you...

 
   
Made in au
Grizzled Space Wolves Great Wolf





If we ignore online games, The Witcher 3 hooked me pretty good. Skyrim also hooked me, but I got bored about 50 or 60 hours in so compared to a lot of people I haven't played it much

The Witcher 3 took a few hours to get in to, but then hooked me enough that I kept playing even when I was busy with work. In other words, when I couldn't find time to play I still kept coming back to it in my free time. Usually me being busy at work is the death knell of any game because if I can only play for an hour or two a week I won't stay focused enough on the game to stay interested.

Fallout games have always failed to hook me, there's only so much yellow/brown wasteland I can deal with. I haven't even played Fallout 4, I only played Fallout 3 for about 20 hours (stopped after the main quest) and New Vegas for about 25 hours.

If we include online games, Call of Duty 4, I played that for a couple of hundred hours. It was a game I was naturally good at, I'm not normally naturally good at FPS games, but the fast pace and only requiring a few hits to kill suited me down to a tee.

I also played Warhammer Online for a while.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2017/10/07 20:10:57


 
   
Made in us
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

Planescape Torment!

I picked it from a bargain bin, and it was packaged with another game too. i had no idea what it was about or anything, it just looked a bit more interesting than the rest of the stuff in the bin. I really was excpeting it to be... well not much good. I was expecting a bargain bin game.

I was still unsure when I started it up, but then i got to the game and Morte hovered over and started chatting, and that was that.

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in us
Pyromaniac Hellhound Pilot





Shadow of Mordor for me. I was all geared up to hate the game for trashing the lore and skipping off with some quick licensing money, although everything I was hearing about the Nemesis system sounded interesting; I had basically settled into "put your cool mechanics in your own damn fantasy world, stop injecting weird stuff into Middle-Earth", until a friend of mine convinced me to buy it on sale. And, well, the flashy magic stuff did seem a little out of place, and it felt weird to see all these "OC" type monsters because they didn't get all the licensing they needed to do wargs and such, but...little flashes of stuff from the Silmarillion kept popping up. Half the collectibles made it clear that they had someone on staff who'd delved pretty deep into their Tolkien. And not only that, but when it became apparent that they were doing more than just paying lip service to the themes of industrialized evil and corruption of power, I realized I'd been totally wrong and wasted way too much time hating on something that was actually an absolute blast.

I'm pretty sure I spent a bunch of that time during their marketing cycle salivating over Colonial Marines, too, but the abrupt reversal on that doesn't belong in this thread.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

Gladius.

I'd still be playing it... If I had one!

   
Made in ca
Enigmatic Chaos Sorcerer





British Columbia

Final Fantasy Tactics. Youngin me rented it expecting an RPG like the earlier entries. Never played a game like it before. Completely engrossed me.

Never took it back. Told them someone stole it and just paid them the replacement fee so I wouldn't have to go without it until I could go buy a copy.

Indirectly led me to Wargaming when a friend showed me a White Dwarf and I immediately saw it as an extension of FFT crossed with my predilection for collecting figures/cards etc.

Still play it all the time. Actually maxed out the time played counter on my original save file. Have bought it at least two or three times on PSP, Vita, Phones etc since.

Will probably fire it up after I hit submit now actually.
Thanks.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
A young business man named Tom Kirby, who was a pupil of mine until he turned greedy, helped the capitalists hunt down and destroy the wargamers. He betrayed and murdered Games Workshop.


 
   
Made in au
Homicidal Veteran Blood Angel Assault Marine




Oz

Alan wake (the first one). I've always been a sucker for stephen king / hp lovecraft type stories, and i ate it right up. The combat mechanics were simple but elegant, and mixed things up with some varied scenarios during missions. And the ending was appropriate. I basically didn't stop playing until it was done.

 
   
Made in fi
Foolproof Falcon Pilot





Finland, Espoo

For online games it must be Killing floor.
We bought it on sale with a group of friends couple of years ago. "Another zombie shooter, oh well". After couple of rounds I was hooked. On of the best co-op games out there, if not the best. When they announced a sequel, it was an instant buy on early access. Did not disappoint.

For singleplayer games I think it is Witcher 3. So many of my friends told me that "it is so good" and "you really have to play it". After all the hype and stuff I finally borrowed it from my friend a year ago. After few hours I had to buy it for my self too. There is maybe a bit "too much" stuff to do, but what really got me was the fact that each sidemission was hand written rather than "go there and kill all these".

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/10 08:41:19


   
Made in de
Experienced Maneater






I have a few of those!

Spec Ops: The Line
Generic Third-Person Cover Shooter, but holy hell, the story is amazing and feths with the player through 4th wall breaks throughout the game.
Best one: near the end, you're confronted with a former squad mate and if he kills you (he gets the drop on you and has a minigun so it's likely he will kill you when playing in the harder difficulty settings), instead of loading a previous savegame, it features a flashback and replaces the squad mate with a generic enemy.

Dark Souls series
Gave up the first one after seeing no way to getting past Ornstein&Smough. Half a year later, I started watching lore videos and engrossed by the hidden story throughout the game, I started fresh over and was getting the way it is played this time. Love the first one to death (heh) and the other ones are also great games.

Jagged Alliance 2
One of the first games I bought for myself, rather than having it handed down by my brother. Had to got my mum to agree to buy it, because it had a age restriction of 16 years, and I was 12 or something.
Still one of my favourite games of all times, I play it every few years with various mods.

XCOM (reboot)
Wasn't expecting it to be this much fun. Mods add even more to it and make replays rather enjoyable.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/10 08:58:53


   
Made in fr
Longtime Dakkanaut




Civilization 2. Got it from a friend who said it was meh and didn't play it anymore. Got hooked right away, and spent countless nights playing it. I later bought Civ 3 to 5, which were good but never got the same grasp on me.

If we include MMO, Everquest is by far the game I played the most in my life.
   
Made in us
Did Fulgrim Just Behead Ferrus?





Fort Worth, TX

Stardew Valley
I don't think I've ever played a game like it before (who wants to play a game about watching plants grow?), but picked it up on release due to the good reviews and low prices to give it a try.
And I've sunk 150+ hours into it.

"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me."
- Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks 
   
Made in ie
Norn Queen






Dublin, Ireland

AC Black Flag. Picked it up for about 20 quid last year and was genuinely blown away. Slightly samey in places and the "real world" bits stank but overall a really terrific game as my first of the AC series.

Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be

By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.

"Feelin' goods, good enough". 
   
Made in gb
Ultramarine Librarian with Freaky Familiar





 Spinner wrote:
Shadow of Mordor for me.
Spoiler:
I was all geared up to hate the game for trashing the lore and skipping off with some quick licensing money, although everything I was hearing about the Nemesis system sounded interesting; I had basically settled into "put your cool mechanics in your own damn fantasy world, stop injecting weird stuff into Middle-Earth", until a friend of mine convinced me to buy it on sale. And, well, the flashy magic stuff did seem a little out of place, and it felt weird to see all these "OC" type monsters because they didn't get all the licensing they needed to do wargs and such, but...little flashes of stuff from the Silmarillion kept popping up. Half the collectibles made it clear that they had someone on staff who'd delved pretty deep into their Tolkien. And not only that, but when it became apparent that they were doing more than just paying lip service to the themes of industrialized evil and corruption of power, I realized I'd been totally wrong and wasted way too much time hating on something that was actually an absolute blast.

I'm pretty sure I spent a bunch of that time during their marketing cycle salivating over Colonial Marines, too, but the abrupt reversal on that doesn't belong in this thread.


Yeah, it was a fun game. Its a shame they poisoned the well with micro transactions and loot boxes in the sequel though.
   
Made in us
Confessor Of Sins




WA, USA

Persona 5.

Never played a game in the series and was honestly pretty negative towards jrpgs in general when I picked it up. But the style and character of the aesthetic caught my interest. 120 hours later, I'm still not done with my first NG+ and it's occupying one of my top RPG slots.

 Ouze wrote:

Afterward, Curran killed a guy in the parking lot with a trident.
 
   
Made in us
Pyromaniac Hellhound Pilot





 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
 Spinner wrote:
Shadow of Mordor for me.
Spoiler:
I was all geared up to hate the game for trashing the lore and skipping off with some quick licensing money, although everything I was hearing about the Nemesis system sounded interesting; I had basically settled into "put your cool mechanics in your own damn fantasy world, stop injecting weird stuff into Middle-Earth", until a friend of mine convinced me to buy it on sale. And, well, the flashy magic stuff did seem a little out of place, and it felt weird to see all these "OC" type monsters because they didn't get all the licensing they needed to do wargs and such, but...little flashes of stuff from the Silmarillion kept popping up. Half the collectibles made it clear that they had someone on staff who'd delved pretty deep into their Tolkien. And not only that, but when it became apparent that they were doing more than just paying lip service to the themes of industrialized evil and corruption of power, I realized I'd been totally wrong and wasted way too much time hating on something that was actually an absolute blast.

I'm pretty sure I spent a bunch of that time during their marketing cycle salivating over Colonial Marines, too, but the abrupt reversal on that doesn't belong in this thread.


Yeah, it was a fun game. Its a shame they poisoned the well with micro transactions and loot boxes in the sequel though.


I'm about six or seven hours into the sequel so far; I've opened one loot box that I got for doing a mission to avenge another player and I've got three or four more that I've picked up for doing other missions (I think?) stashed away. Other than that, there's been absolutely no indication that microtransactions even exist in the game.

The whole controversy was completely overblown, as far as I can tell, and I can highly recommend it if you liked the first game. Nemesis difficulty is kicking my ass.
   
Made in gb
Ultramarine Librarian with Freaky Familiar





I did like the first game but I never actually got round to finishing it, I lost patience with all the typical open world grinding.

I probably wouldn't finish Shadow of War either.
   
Made in us
Pyromaniac Hellhound Pilot





Ah, yeah. It's basically the same game, but bigger and with more fleshed-out nemesis and upgrade systems; if you got tired of the grind (a term which here means 'stalking and brutally murdering orc captains', for those unfamiliar) you probably do want to avoid it.
   
Made in us
Courageous Questing Knight





Texas

I spent a TON of time with Witcher 3 and all of the expansions - loved every moment. But, this was something I did expect to enjoy, and thoroughly did! There have been a lot of games and series I have enjoyed - too many to list.

As far as something I picked up so ultra cheap and was shocked at how much I enjoyed playing, it has to be the old Xbox game 'The Suffering' - gad, that was an unexpected thrill.

My Novella Collection is available on Amazon - Action/Fantasy/Sci-Fi - https://www.amazon.com/Three-Roads-Dreamt-Michael-Leonard/dp/1505716993/

 
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





Most recently? Samus Returns on the 3DS. Nice update to the original for the most part. Not perfect (new last boss battle is incredibly dumb) but Metroidvania gameplay is still strong, even if this game is significantly more linear as a remake of a rather limited Game Boy game.
   
Made in gb
Boosting Ultramarine Biker






Cardiff,Wales.

Resident Evil Outbreak File1&2 both games.
Trying to play either game on the hardest difficulty,2 solid hits from most things and you were on the floor bleeding out and crawling,or trying to fight 3 on 1 with a Sweeping-Brush and a Aerosol Can Flamethrower as weapons.

   
Made in se
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator






Sunless sea. I watched a review of it and thought it looked pretty cool but damn. I sank so many hours into it, being completly engrossed in the world.

Battle brothers. So good. I eventually gave up on it but for what it's worth: so good

Shadowrun dragonfall was also just amazing. Expected more of the same from the first one (which was good too) but damn. I got hooked. So many improvments story wise, a great villain, getting me to care so much about the hub and that amazing hidden ending when all pieces fall into place and everything just makes sence. Also the best runner team. Punk band lead singer shaman ftw.

Edit: ah, some people have been mentioning resident evil. I remmember playing the remake of the first one with my sister when we where kids. We got so hooked and scared. Playing after dark togheter, reading the diary entries and solving the puzzles.

Then there's the big one. A game where I went in blind, didn't know what to expect and had stayed away from reviews. It blew me away and kept my mind spinning for days. The big one is undertale.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2017/10/18 21:58:56


His pattern of returning alive after being declared dead occurred often enough during Cain's career that the Munitorum made a special ruling that Ciaphas Cain is to never be considered dead, despite evidence to the contrary. 
   
Made in ca
Rampaging Carnifex





Toronto, Ontario

Shadow of Mordor for me. I bought it cheap from EB games cause I really wanted something to play and didn't care what. I was expecting a totally forgettable action game experience but instead got a fething awesome Arkham city clone that I absolutely could not put down until I finished it. Currently playing shadow of war now.
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






It's an oldie, but a goodie - Stronghold, the castle combat sim.

Not much of a gamer, but that got me hooked. Completed it in the end, which is nice.

   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut







Way back on the Gamecube, Gladius by LucasArts. I found it in a Sams bargain bin and gave it a shot, and was surprisingly engrossed. A "tactics RPG" where you played a travelling gladiator school (with its share of fantasy, so minotaurs and skeletons and Amazons could fight alongside your Secutors and Murmillos and Centurions) and fought in numerous arena circuits. Some arenas would be trapped, others would have high ground you tried to seize or treasure to acquire, etc. Obtaining the favor of the crowd could also be just as important as straight-out smashing your foe too. The internal balance was a bit off, the game had a rushed end (there are a lot of "unfinished"/dummied out elements), and the game ended up with a silly "setup for the sequel" cliffhanger. However, such a sequel never came, Lucasarts was disbanded, and the source code to Gladius lost to the mists of time. That game ate a lot of hours, both the single-player and multiplayer (you could pit the gladiators from your savefile against another team) which is a success as far as a 5 dollar title goes.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

 MagicJuggler wrote:
and the source code to Gladius lost to the mists of time.


A sad day.

   
Made in gb
Ultramarine Librarian with Freaky Familiar





 MagicJuggler wrote:
Way back on the Gamecube, Gladius by LucasArts. I found it in a Sams bargain bin and gave it a shot, and was surprisingly engrossed. A "tactics RPG" where you played a travelling gladiator school (with its share of fantasy, so minotaurs and skeletons and Amazons could fight alongside your Secutors and Murmillos and Centurions) and fought in numerous arena circuits. Some arenas would be trapped, others would have high ground you tried to seize or treasure to acquire, etc. Obtaining the favor of the crowd could also be just as important as straight-out smashing your foe too. The internal balance was a bit off, the game had a rushed end (there are a lot of "unfinished"/dummied out elements), and the game ended up with a silly "setup for the sequel" cliffhanger. However, such a sequel never came, Lucasarts was disbanded, and the source code to Gladius lost to the mists of time. That game ate a lot of hours, both the single-player and multiplayer (you could pit the gladiators from your savefile against another team) which is a success as far as a 5 dollar title goes.


Hey I had that on Xbox. Quite a fun game though I recall it being quite hard and didn't get far.
   
Made in us
Secret Force Behind the Rise of the Tau




USA

I think Gladius was a game of deceptive difficulty that really came down to one thing; can you master the swing meter. If you can, you basically get assured crit hits, making the game somewhat rudimentary. If you never did, or played the game hard mode (no swing meter) the game was considerably more challenging. I think the later was the best way to play imo, as with the swing meter lights were never a threat to your heavies (crits don't miss), and your Gungnirs and Peltasts would be one-shot KOing basically everything that wasn't a Samnite or a Scarab, which had a ridiculous health pool.

Some of the item combos were op too, like one that gave Secutors +1 movement (constant flank bonus Surprise attacks), and one that let Centurions or Samnites 1HKO anyone (the executioners sword).

   
Made in us
Angelic Adepta Sororitas






Not sure yeah but my game was Ages of Empires (honestly, anything over head strategy based).....i know what you are thinking, but damn. Warcraft was a huge part of my life as well

1500pts
500pts
 
   
Made in au
Hungry Little Ripper




Melbourne

Kingdom hearts (surprisingly in depth rpg elements.for a disney game)
Beyond good and evil (would still pay top dollar to buy that today)
   
Made in ca
Longtime Dakkanaut





Creeper World 3 Arc Eternal. To this day no one I know has ever heard of this one and its fantastic.
   
 
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