Hello, everyone! Phil Owen here, stepping in for Mike on this here Sunday. And I’ve got a question for all of you who are hanging around today.
What games do you really, really like, secretly or not, that few other people enjoy?
Being a contrarian of sorts, I have a whole list of these: Dragon Age 2, Alpha Protocol, Lost Planet 3, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and Mars: War Logs to name a few. Also, I tend to agree with Yannick on the topic of Transformers movies.
What I’ve discovered through writing about my enjoyment of these games is that I’m never alone in my unpopular value judgments. It actually usually turns out that I have many brothers and sisters who agree on all of those things. Folks just tend to stay quiet once it becomes clear most others disagree.
And so I wanna know more. I want you to tell me about all the games you like even though The Internet has decreed they are bad.
Comments
200 responses to “Phil Asks: What Games Do You Like That No One Else Does?”
I love the dynasty warriors series, can’t get enough of them I can play them for hours
So repetitive yet so enjoyable. Spent hours playing this with my younger brother.
I am a big fan of Dynasty Warriors – Particularly the Warriors Orochi series.
I loved Dynasty Warrios 4: Empires. Was rather let down by DW5. I think I only like the “Empires” version of those games for some reason. It’s been way too long to remember why though.
Conquesting through the land and taking all the areas split screen with friends was wicked – DW4: Empires was the first one that I really took a shining too.
I had Dynasty Warriors something waaaaay back on my PS2. I want the new one now
3 was my all time favorite, used to play so much of that with my brother, recently got 8 for the PC and the game is still a blast,
Enjoying DW8 on PS4 Currently – Have even been able to sneak some game time in before bed using remote play on the Vita. Works Great.
Farming Simulator 2013
I have NFI why, but damn that was addictive for a while!!!
Everyone loves Farming Simulator 😛
I love Farming Simulator, it’s awesome. The multiplayer is extremely hilarious especially when you get on vent with your mates and try and farm seriously.
We tried serious farming but found that it always degenerated into tractor demolition derby
The best sort!
Farming Simulator is great. Also Euro Truck Simulator 2, everyone I tell about that game stares at me like I’m stupid, but I find driving around really relaxing. It also has a built in internet radio thing, so you can tune in and listen to real streaming radio stations live while you drive.
I absolutely loved Murdered: Soul Suspect and Beyond: Two Souls.
+1 for Beyond. Quantic Dream can’t do anything wrong imo.
Yeah, they keep making games, I’ll keep playing them. 😀
Is it the games you love or do you just love titles with colons?
I have a soft spot for those 7/10 games that go quietly – things like The Saboteur, WET, Remember Me and so on. Not big enough to become cult games, but also more fun than their score indicates.
I loved Wet! It was like second or third on my list of games to get once I landed a 360.
Had the weirdest perception problems though, differentiating between camera movement and manual aiming.
The Saboteur, i loved that game
I only bought Wet because the lady I was dating at the time wanted to play games with strong female protagonists. I liked it until there was some stupid level with a time limit.
Yes. The Saboteur. To me this game is the definition of what Nazi Occupation actually felt like – at street level. No other game has projected that environment so well. And as Pandemics last game, what a way to go out! I rate it even higher than their Star Wars: Battlefront series.
Out of all the studios that EA closed, I miss Pandemic the most 🙁
Battlefront, Saboteur, Destroy All Humans! – that studio gave me hundreds of hours of entertainment.
You forgot their greatest creation, Battlezone 2 😛
I know what you’re saying- a couple of my favourite games of all time (Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2 and Tales of Xillia) were pretty low-rated, yet amazing fun! I reckon that, as long as a game isn’t broken (think less than 5/10), then it can be really enjoyable, depending on who plays it.
I’m really enjoying Remember Me. Nice atmosphere and story, interesting mechanics. Definitely best with a controller, though.
borderline unplayable without a controller I think you mean
Minon: Everyday Hero.
Ain’t nobody likes that.
Final Fantasy 13, I’ll admit it has problems but I still enjoyed it.
There is something about it, isn’t there? It’s kind of an awful game, but I really enjoy playing it even if I’m laughing at it’s terrible design the whole way through. It’s pretty and mind-numbing.
Watch_Dogs… i love it
Agree.
It has issues, but like that lumpy little puppy with odd markings… I still really liked it.
Apart from the drinking games.
They are the tumor you just can’t live with and take the little funny thing to the vet to get it removed.
Because, you know, even the neighbors are taking about that one.
That’s what I was going to say!
Dead Island is my favourite series. I found the game play to be fun regardless of the numerous bugs at the beginning. I could slash up zombies all day if I had the chance!
Brothers: Tale of Two Sons. I haven’t met anyone who has played it, and when I try tell them about it and show them a trailer they don’t think it looks all that good. FOOLS!
Prince Of Persia (2007 version). Absolutely LOVED this one! Especially that ending, whoa! Never tried the DLC for it.
Brothers was amazing, Prince of Persia too. You’re okay. 😀
Finally someone who knows what I’m talking about. That Prince of Persia was dreamy, and truer to the source material, though many people thought that not having combat every 5 seconds somehow made it bad… they are wrong 😉 Sadly looks like we’ll never get a sequel to this Prince of Persia, as the devs were forced to make the garbage that was The Forgotten Sands to “cash-in”
on the lacklustre, Hollywood movie (and to think that Hollywood still thinks its OK to have a white-American playing a Middle-Eastern, instead of getting an actual actor from the country they need… it really is only one notch below “hey, somebody get the boot-polish”)
You mean this Prince of Persia, eh; http://hdwallimg.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Prince-of-Persia-Sword-Game-Wallpaper-Pictures.jpg
I have just met a kindred spirit over the internet. Hyper, lets be friends!
Brothers is a most amazing game in that it tells a dark, adult tale in the guise of a children’s puzzle platformer, all without a single word of actual dialogue. It was quite the pleasant surprise.
2008 bro. @mashaa and I also enjoyed it.
PoP – that was a fantastic ending, really elevated the game from ‘fun’ to, as you said, ‘whoa’.
Freedom Fighters. Made by EA around 2006 I think. I don’t know why I liked it, I don’t know if I would STILL like it, but at the time, that game for me was perfection. No one else really cared for it but me, no matter how many times I tried to convince my mates of it.
I freaking loved this game. I would love IO to make a sequel instead of another Hitman. :'(
Yeah, I would even take a remaster right now. I tried putting it back on my PC but I get major graphical errors when I play it. 🙁 Goodnight sweet prince.
This game is amazing. I loved every second of it. The only game from EA I liked. Probably because I prefer third person shooter more than fps.
I got stuck in the story. First 3rd person shooter I fell in love with. Some of the harder levels and difficulties were so good too. you really had to be scarce with ammo and seek out ways to get through the level with as much left over as possible! Oh and being able to command your crew!!!!
add another person to the list of people that fucking loved that game. I sold off all over about 5 of my original xbox games, and this was one of the keepers.
Oh wow, Freedom Fighters – that takes me back. That one was fantastic.
Crimson Alliance
Diablo 3 on console. Same room co-op gaming at it’s best.
Add my voice to DA2
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It’s completely batshit insane.
The advanced visuals to ADOM. You hipster gamers don’t have to moan. The original visuals are still there in the game. Let me enjoy the update without whining.
Thoroughly enjoyed Diablo 3 on console.
I won’t say “no one else” likes it, but I feel that Final Fantasy IV (II in the US and presumably Australia) is superior to all other Final Fantasy games. Except for graphics, of course 🙂
Nope. Because we never got the original SNES release, the only number it has ever had in Australia is IV.
Good game. I prefer 6.
I actually didn’t mind Assassin’s Creed 3 – once you got through the overly long introduction sequence which was basically two several-hour tutorials. Get through that, and the rest of the game was pretty solid I think. I can understand why some people gave up on it though.
Also didn’t mind Resident Evil 5. Thought it was a pretty good natural evolution after RE4 and I liked the fact they did away with the suitcase thing and just has specific slots for items. Weapon quick-switch was good too. I haven’t played RE6 though.
The Ar Tonelico series. Well, less so the third one, but I and especially II were some of my favourite games on PS2, even though objectively they were extremely poorly made, buggy, full of framerate issues and in AT2’s case given an absolutely terrible, incomplete localization as well. Yet despite all that I enjoyed them immensely.
Def Jam Vendetta.
I just liked slamming a Wu Tang members head, continually, into a speaker in an underground fight club. I actually, honestly enjoyed that game. So much.
Def Jam Vendetta was good…but I liked Def Jam: Fight For NY better
Yes I have to agree…smashing a fighters head (in my case Sean Paul) into a speaker or my favorite…the jukebox
Makes me wanna connect up my old PS2 and play it again
Im gonna rip ya tongue, and lick my assssss with it!
I loved Vendetta! (and Fight for New York) don’t know what they were thinking when they made Icon though…
Def Jam Vendetta would be one of my most played games of all time.
yeh I enjoyed this too. I don’t know many ppl that didnt like it.
It got poo-poo’d by a lot of people and ignored by a hell of a lot more.
Yeah…I think I need to bust out the old ps2 for this one too.
I still bust out the xbox to play some Fight For New York. Being Henry Rollins and being able to beat the shit out of Sean Paul? YES PLEASE.
Turning on Vendetta selecting Joe Budden then repeatedly irish whipping DMX into the ropes and suplexing every ounce of hope out of him was a regular before bed activity for me.
the original settlers in all its pixelated glory – my brother and I spent hours playing that with a mouse and joystick on the 486 back in the day
I liked Settlers 2. The silly thing that really hooked me in was the fact that after a road was used a certain number of times it would upgraded to a cobbled/paved one. I don’t know why, but it brought the game to life.
There is a hd version of settlers 2 floating around. Loved that game.
I think this may be what you are looking for there: http://www.gog.com/game/the_settlers_2_10th_anniversary
Yeah that would be it.
My Mum got me hooked into that game. I loved the idle animations when the Settlers had nothing to do. Another tiny detail that brought the game to life.
I played a ridiculous amount of Settler2 from some random Bluebyte demo cd 😀
Enter the Matrix. Loved it.
Now YOU sir have the gist of this post!!!! Thumbs up!
I did actually hate that game though.
Same here! Despite it being a horrible buggy mess with insufferable loading times I still to this day play and adore Enter the Matrix!
I really enjoyed RAGE. No idea why but I played it through and had a blast.
Yeah agreed, pretty much all of my mates enjoyed Rage too, I’ve only recently discovered that this isn’t normal. Ill play anything by Id
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. No seems to have a clue this Game exists, or pass it off as a simple movie tie-in game (which it is far from)
So good. Soo good. The stealth was fantastic in that game.
Riddick was in my top 5 games on the original Xbox.
It’s an absolutely brilliant game and did get very solid reviews even if not a lot of people bought it.
The setting, graphics, the stealth mechanics, switching from 1st and 3rd person, hand-to-hand combat, the pacing of the story…. Everything about it was great.
I don’t know how well it’s held up (given it was ported from the gen before and is now quite old in its own right) but I’d recommend that anyone who can get hold of the 360 remake do so. The Dark Athena chapter that was added wasn’t anywhere as near as the original Butcher Bay content though.
I’ve never played it but heard nothing but great things.
I mean it when I say that i think it’s a better franchise based game than Arkham Asylum/ Arkham City.
Not by a lot, but it’s that kind of good.
God yes, it’s really fantastic. Currently playing the remake. Have heard the follow-up chapters aren’t quite as good though.
I heard plenty of good things about it – enough to pick up the sequel on 360.
Just got Dark Athena which comes with Butcher Bay from the GoG sale. Can’t wait to try it.
Shadowrun the FPS version. Loved that game but many hated it but I still find myself drawn to it when it comes to a LAN.
you know what I actually enjoyed Aliens: Colonial Marines. Picked it up for pretty cheap recently. I started it with the lowest of expectations thinking ok this aint too bad. Good fan service if your an Aliens/Prometheus fan.
See, that game was not terrible unto itself… just terrible compared to what it could have been and what we were promised.
The multiplayer (if you could actually find anyone) was fun (if repetitive) but then came bug hunt and OMG that was awesome. I jagged a team up with three other good players and played through ALL of Hadleys Hope. One of the best moments in gaming for me… over an hour of strategically moving and supporting one and other through to the end.
Family Guy BTTM, Ryse (absolutely LOVED it), LBP Karting, AC 3, Dead rising 2 (like them all).
Also Puppeteer, but that doesn’t really fit here since it got great reviews but it didn’t sell many copies.
A lot of the ones above. FFXIII. Wet. Remember Me. My big one though;
Too Human.
Myself and a few of the other guys I worked with at Game (Store 49, represent!) sunk so many hours in to this game. So much co-op. So much comparison on the leader boards. Random texts “hey dude found some sweet staves for you zerker!”. Discussing story, future DLC and sequels, how good a Vs mode would be so we could see who’s character would come out on top in a fight.
Good times, man. Good times.
Oh, so much this. Such a broken masterpiece. So much wrong with it, but for some reason it just worked. Me and a friend sunk crazy hours into that co-op.
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City was a similar deal for me – universally poo-pooed, yet me and 2 friends played the pants off that game. Solo, it would’ve been boring as hell, but co-op made it all better.
Too Human was legitimately not that great a game and it certainly had some frustrating moments and also made my 360 RRoD in protest, but I also enjoyed it quite a bit as well. Especially the story elements. Kind of sad that the studio went under afterward, always wanted to know where they were going to go with it.
Resident Evil 5 seems to be the standout. Played the first 3 on PSX back in the day, loved them – but missed RE4 entirely. Tried to get into RE4, years later – PS3 remake I think and I just couldn’t handle it. Might’ve been the port, but it played like dirty arse, and Leon Kennedy is just awful.
While not a traditional RE, I thoroughly enjoyed RE5.
Actually, @vapor reminded me about FFXIII. I ended up dropping about 150 hours on that I think – maxed every character out and did all the achievements except for two. (Acing the C’ieth Stone missions, and posessing every item in the game) Characters were the weakest out of pretty much any FF ever, and the story was just what-the-shit, but as a game it was great. I loved the combat system. Won’t compare it to ATB like many do, because it was it’s own thing. Paradigms were also actually quite satisfying.
RE5 and RE4 are quite different, both amazing in their own way. RE5 is such a great co-op experience in the room with a friend.
Yeah, they’re extraordinarily different. I find most people like one or the other, but rarely both. Apparently the Wii version of RE4 is the best one? Might have to go back and try it one day.
I dislike the Wii version because it makes things too easy 😛
No way my friend should have been able to unlock the hand cannon, he’s just not that good…
It is tons of fun. The controls are seriously impressive.
Didn’t we have this question about a month ago?
I really enjoyed colonial marines, mostly just getting to explore the scenes from the movie was a real buzz.
I would have to say Timeshift, one of those little gems i enjoyed a lot more then i thought i would. Stopping time, popping an enemy in the back of the had, restart time and watch them ragdoll never gets old. Story was decent which left itself open to a sequel which i have absolutely no hope for it ever coming to fruition. Is Sabre Interactive still around?
Lastly is Duke Nukem Forever, not the best game i have ever spent money on but it’s certainly not the worst, it’s decent enough that i replay it every now and again. I certainly hope to play some more Duke Nukem in the future made by a somewhat competent studio (Aliens: Colonial Marines not withstanding)
I liked the demo of Timeshift, but never gave it a try really. Maybe I should have.
DNF I enjoyed, apart from the regenerating health and checkpoint system. I really hoped we’d get old-school combat.
The expansion, “The Doctor Who Cloned Me”, is actually pretty good – nice puzzles, a fair amount of funny moments, interesting stuff. Just a really nicely polished experience, which the main game seriously could have done with.
Easily Arma. Played it back when it was Operation Flashpoint. So difficult and frustrating but so god damn fun. Cant get enough of it now either.
Other from that, Biker Mice from Mars
Metro!
NBA Street pretty much the whole series incl homecourt for the ps3.
Hunted: Demon’s Forge, I loved playing co-op in that game, even though it was loaded with bugs was still so much fun.
Dragon age 2. Despite a lot of people hating it I found it a great addition.
I hated FEAR 3…most overrated game ever. After the first game, the series went downhill to me.
I really liked the story concept for Dragon Age II.
There was the potential there to tell a smaller story than the ‘hero of the world saves everything’ that we’re used to in other RPGs.
The idea of a smaller group of characters, with a story set in just one city but playing out over multiple time periods could have been great. You don’t need a cast of thousands travelling from one side of the planet to the other if you have sharp writing and characters you care about.
In the end it almost worked. I think the characters were interesting and the story wasn’t bad, it was just that instead of putting the time and effort into properly building the gameworld they just created 4-5 locations and cut and pasted them repeatedly. If you’re going to set the whole game in one town it needs to be a living-breathing place, it should really have been the most detailed single city ever in a game.
In the end it was just a dull, repetitive shithole inhabited by about a dozen very cool characters.
Enter the Matrix.. i never played it without unlimited health and bullet-time.. but those cheats alone made this game awesome for me.
All time favourite game.. BUSHIDO BLADE.. best fighting game (in my opinion).. EVER!!
True Crimes:Streets of LA
Gamecube
Awful game but you get to play as snoop dog!!!
I loved that game! It was so unintentionally stupid!
That’s the one and only game I’ve ever taken back to the store for a refund.
Purely as a game, I thought TC was actually pretty good. A bit buggy, and terrible writing, but the mechanics were pretty solid and there were a lot of fun little surprises built in (like thrown weapons sticking into the enemies, etc.).
Heavy Rain
come at me, bro.
I really enjoyed Heavy Rain, actually. Some debate if it counts as a game, but whatever it was, it was a great experience.
I loved Croc: Legend of the Gobbos as a kid and feel it still holds up as a relatively imaginative game today. Though I’m probably pretty blind my nostalgia there 🙂
Also, did anyone ever play Codename Eagle multiplayer? The game the guys from DICE made before Battlefield. It’s so gloriously unrestricted and goofy. Imagine a whole battlefield map but just for you and a few other friends – nowhere near as serious. I’ve never had a better multiplayer experience.
Haha Croc, such a gem from the past. Thought I was the only one who remembered it 🙂
The days I spent at school playing this game on our old computers! I was hoping to find it on GoG but no luck!
The 2009 Wolfenstien. I swear I’m the only human being to ever to say a kind word about that game.
I postponed my university assignments just to get some more time with that game.
Oh shame on you lol
Far Cry 2, way better than 1 and 3.
Malaria.
Dragon Age 2 easily. I didn’t think it was game of the year or anything but the elitist hatred for that one is batshit insane.
The Beatmania IIDX series. My kingdom for a 2P. Also bullet hell shmups.
I tend to classify mine more as a list of games most people passed over, as opposed to games that gained infamy. The Saboteur, Wolfenstein (2009), Singularity, Metro 2033, Spec Ops: The Line; though those last two seem to have turned themselves around in the last couple of years.
Singularity is great fun, good pick. However I think everyone who plays it likes it, its just that nobody has played it!
Banned in Australia on PC, not banned on consoles.
Wow… I did not know that. That’s freaking weird. Any idea why? The most informative reason I could dig up was “for some f******g reason”…
I can’t remember exact reason, something generic like ‘nazi regime + high impact violence’ or something.
The classification database entry is multiplatform/MA15+. There’s no separate entry for PC, so the PC version is technically classified MA15+ in AU… and Germany has the game listed on Steam.
That’s just plain bizarre.
I won a 360 that came with Transformers War for Cybertron, Singularity and Blur. I was incredibly surprised to enjoy all three titles. Shame the latter two never really seemed to get much of a mention by anyone.
Singularity would go on my list. I bought The Saboteur during an Origin sale a while back, but I haven’t played it yet. I’ve watched @aliasalpha play (badly) it soon after it came out, but I bought it anyway.
Dead Island Riptide: i had a blast with this games and the physics engine when running and kicking zombies with the new Aussie guy. played this game through to the end and enjoyed every minute.
also Command and Conquer Generals + Zero Hour – i sunk i dont know how many hours into this one.
Also Age of Empires 3 i spent ALOT of time playing.
CC Generals and AoE3 I’ll second.
third
Oh God, I just rebought AoE3 in the Steam Sale and I’ve already sunk more than a dozen hours into it, plus the hundreds as a kid
Jagged Alliance: Back in Action, gimme order & go games over turn based anyday!!!
Soldiers of Anarchy, by far the best post apocalypse game out there.
Jones in the Fast Lane… doesn’t need an explanation.
Anyone has suggestions for similar titles please let me know!!!
Jagged Alliance 2 took a lot of my childhood.
If I remember correctly, the older JA’s were all turn based. I did play them at some stage but Back in Action has by far been my fave of the series. Unfortunately the new JA: Flashback has adopted the original turn based style too.
Little Big Adventure 2 (Twinsen’s Odyssey).
I don’t think people don’t like it, but no one I know has ever heard of it, nor cares for it.
Oh boy I vaguely remember playing this back in the day, from what I remember it was pretty hard. But I was only young. I downloaded it not long ago to try and relive those memories but it didn’t run properly 🙁
Far Cry 2. Admittedly there were an enormous number of issues with balance and AI and all that – but damned if it didn’t just NAIL the feeling of being completely outgunned, having the odds stacked overwhelmingly against you. Real survival-oriented, especially when out of the blue you could just get the malaria fevers and pass out if you weren’t keeping up with the meds. In FC3 it’s too easy to become overpowered and just take on the world, but FC2 keeps you feeling fragile, which kept me interested.
There’s a wild goose out there who would agree with the Far Cry 2 love.
All my mates played Goldeneye on N64 but I preferred Turok, and they laughed, oh they laughed, but fuck them. Turok was rad.
old game called Gladius made by lucasarts i had it on original XBOX adn my frind had it on PS2 or 3
played the crap outa that game finished it 3 times but not many people remember it
Wii Music.
For me it’s Prinny: Can I really be the Hero on PSP. Never knew why I picked it up originally, other than it looked fun and I was in the middle of a Disgaea playthrough at the time. Cheap/frustrating mechanics, yet still was a heap of fun to play. Managing to finish it on the hardest difficulty (ie. one hit = you’re dead) definitely ranks as one of my better gaming achievements (although it took me nearly 500 lives!).
Bonus mention for Dissidia 1 on PSP as well. Reckon I had well over 150hrs+ of playtime on this, first on the US version and then again once we got the retail version in stores (several months after!). For a title that was basically Fan Service: The Game, I enjoyed the hell out of it, despite it’s many shortcomings.
Duke Nukem Forever! Man I really l..o…v.e… Man I really ..l…o…v… Oh who am I trying to kid that game sucks.
On a more serious note I did quite enjoy Mafia II. Sure it didn’t compare to the first ones awesomeness but it was pretty fun. Last time I checked it did cop it’s fair share of hate on the forums.
I, on the other, did genuinely like DFN.
Final Fantasy XII. It’s so underrated and I’m really hoping they give it the HD treatment.
I think FFXII got a bad wrap, partially because a lot of the series staples (the usual summons, Tonberrys etc.) are noticeably absent.
Good point. I can generally understand why some games are received the way they are, but for the life of me I can’t work out why this isn’t considered a classic. My favourite Final Fantasy and one of my favourite games of all time!
Kung Fu Chaos on the original xbox, so much fun playing with friends
L.A. Noire: Yes the open-world areas are pretty barren, but everything else hits the nail on the head. L.A. Noire is essentially an interactive L.A. Confidential. And watching L.A. Confidential again recently, the resemblance is uncanny. Both the film and the game really feel like stories that exist in the exact same world. Well they do, but, you know what I mean.
Alan Wake: Stephen King esque story, interweaved with Max Payne esque action. One of my favourite survival-horrors of all time.
Shenmue: Some people just don’t “get it” and that’s disappointing to me… most people don’t give it much time, and don’t get to see what makes the Shenmue series Legendary. Still the only game series that truly captures Hong Kong’s Kung-Fu film legacy, in interactive form.
Alan Wake was one of the best buys I made last year for $4 on Steam. A pretty sweet game although I wasn’t a fan of the dlc.
I loved the DLC. You were actually playing through the madness of Alan Wakes own mind. Though I can see if you interpreted it as the “physical” continuation of the story, it would probably come off as complete nonsense… coz remember by that time, Alan Wake is actually realising that he may not have left his desk at all to begin with… I hope we get a sequel someday, though as it stands we can interpret the story in many different ways.
Or, he really could be actually moving through the alternate dimension that he may, or may not have, been being dragged into. Who knows… 😉
Or maybe he really is committed in that Mental Institute on the Lake…
It could be any of those things I guess but I saw it as Alan just having a really bad dream. That would explain the title American Nightmare, but that said it could be a living nightmare. The idea of him truely being mental is actually kinda cool.
But my problem with the dlc was repeating the same environments and it was lacking in the creepyness the main story had (the forest setting was awesome). I generally don’t like dlc much for any game but a light just dinged above ma head :p and I’m thinking it’s probably because I expect too much from them.
Oh you’re talking about American Nightmare… I thought you meant “Special Ep. 1: The Signal” & “Special Ep. 2: The Writer…” yeah American Nightmare was a bit underwhelming, though I did like the “Doomed to repeat the Nightmare until you get it right” mechanic (at the start – but it does give ya the feeling of, “is this all its going to be?”), experiencing the same event from multiple angles/times – but after all that it devolved into backtracking & a boss battle. Yep, I def. agree with you there.
Whoops my bad. I was under the impression that American Nightmare was the only dlc available for Alan Wake.
You should play the Special episodes if you haven’t – they’re buried in the Chapters menu (if I remember right) on the Main Menu.
One of my favourite stories to come out of last gen. The combat was only okay, but the story and setting were great. And I freakin’ love Night Springs.
Haha Night Springs :p
Night springs was awesome. If you bought the humble bundle, it came with a lot of bonus content, including all the night springs episodes.
You mean “Bright Falls” http://youtu.be/TX6J0yy-qKM
Here’s my favourite Night Springs Episode “Quantum Suicide” http://youtu.be/50V3eA2YYFI
Essentially “Night Springs” is a TV show that is a bizarro world of the real place Alan Wake is in, “Bright Falls.”
The twist is the nightmare that Alan Wake talks about through the game, is also Night Springs. When you look closely in the intro you can see, “Entering Night Springs” on the road sign… http://youtu.be/z1L91CqTb88?t=34s
Def. a spiritual successor to “Address Unknown” http://youtu.be/QUXUyItb1ys from Max Payne. Watch till the end for the twist – classic, but may still get ya :p
Alan Wake and Shenmue are two of my favourite games of all time.
FF12 gets far too much hate but I love the odd little foray into single player MMO territory, a little game made by Namco called Urban Reign that the Def Jam fans here might enjoy and MK Shaolin Monks is still my favourite MK game and is severely underrated.
Also I really liked the first ZOE, there was a pretty great game in that case with the MGS2 demo 😛
Clayfighter 63 1/3.
I’m serious, maybe it’s nostalgia, but I loved this game and playing with my brother provided me with some fond memories.
On the topic of under appreciated games, De Blob (2008) is severally underrated and Croc Legend of the Gobbos, though flawed, deserves some credit.
Halo 4
I’m always playing the niche games no one ever appreciates, but I’d have to say the latest instance of liking a game that not a lot of other people do is Witch and the Hundred Knight. It has a bunch of design flaws (Too much Diablo 3, not enough Secret Of Mana) and the random crash happened to me a billion times but the story was really good. I’ll openly admit I really liked Metallica as a character and wish more games could do crass and abrasive characters without resorting to puerile, juvenile humour.
I really loved shadow the hedgehog when i was younger… i know it’s bad, that’s why i refuse to go back and play it. however in my mind it’ll still be a fun game.
Oh and Anarchy Reigns, that game had awesome multi-player, it was too bad Sega didn’t advertise it at all and botched the english release 🙁
Did anyone else like Jade Cocoon 2? I can’t find anyone else who’s heard of it.
The Starship Damrey and Crimson Shroud on 3DS should have been much more popular.
-Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness and Time
-Timeshift
-Stuart Little 2 on PS1
-Mario and Sonic at the Olympic 2008 games for DS (way better than the Wii version)
-Mario Party DS
-Assassin’s Creed 1
-Bionic Commando 2008 (I enjoyed it more than I didn’t)
Man, M & S at the Olympic Games was great. I loved the records and the minigames as well.
ZombiU
Since only one other person mentioned it but wasn’t serious,
The game i liked that 99% of people don’t, and still have a soft spot for is:
DUKE NUKEM FOREVER, i know it wasn’t great, and had many issues but for some reason i enjoyed it, i guess because it took me back to a time when games were actually like that, and reminded me of the 90’s, LAN Matches with the boys on DUKE 3D, man what a great time. And i guess i had fun with Multiplayer i think i only lost 1 or 2 matches all up (got to about level 40), and dropping those Laser Tripmine’s in random places or behind you when someone was chasing you and killing them never got old. Don’t get me wrong i see why people hate it, but anyway i liked it more then most.
I really enjoyed The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
Metroid: Other M. Story was absolute rubbish though.
Yes! Everyone craps on Other M, but like I keep saying. It was a great Metroid game, it was just a gigantic steaming turd on the Metroid timeline.
And ZombiU is indeed rad.
Ratchet: Gladiator
Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright
Pokémon Ranger Games
Actually, just about any pokémon spin off
Mario Baseball (no idea how this did)
Also, I don’t think the Star Wars Prequels or the 4th Indiana Jones movie are that bad…
Ultima 8 & 9 were a fair departure from the format of the series and many hated them for it, but I played the hell out of them and enjoyed every second.
A lesser known and little loved game of its time was Full Spectrum Warrior. If only I could get it to run on a newer PC without sound issues.
More recently I could be considered in a camp of people who enjoyed Hitman Absolution, which may be to the chagrin of Hitman purists.
Some worthy mentions which probably fit the theme (and I can recall) – Binary Domain, The Darkness, Bulletstorm, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Driver: San Fransisco, Mirror’s Edge, Project IGI (& IGI 2), Vampire TM Bloodlines, Severance: Blade of Darkness, Vietcong, Hidden and Dangerous 2.
Heavenly Sword!
harvest Moon and then Rune Factory! Was absolutely shattered when they went bust and RF4 were no longer coming to Australia.
Dragon Age 2, definitely!! Ryse, Beyond: Two Souls. There’s probably more.
Wizards & Warriors and Dungeon Lords – D.W. Bradley could make a hell of an enjoyable game, if only he could get them finished and the bugs ironed out before releasing them. Would probably have got The Orb & The Oracle too if it hadn’t been sucked into limbo.
Two Worlds 1 & 2 although I only ever played 2 with the WorldMerge mod.
XCOM: Apocalypse – Fans of the original XCOM (UFO: Enemy Unknown) bagged it at first, especially for the option to run battles in “real time” or traditional turnbased mode but I still haven’t seen a modern remake/reboot of the series yet that draws me back like this (or the original but everyone liked UFO:EU)
Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Syndicate (2012)!
Very underrated, but just so much fun! While the game isn’t very ground-breaking, all the game mechanics and audiovisual just fit together and work so well. It’s just so stylised 🙂
RAGE online 4 player car combat multiplayer was easily one of my favourite multiplayer games on the PS3, they could have expanded upon that idea with more maps and weapons and really been onto something. it handled how Twisted Metal should have handled, but that game was rubbish.
Mass Effect 1-3, Dragon Age 1-2, Alpha Protocol, Fallout 3 & New Vegas, Deus Ex Human Revolution,
The amount of hours I’ve clocked into these games and the several iterations of new profiles and paths , and I only have a friend that I can talk about Fallout NV with… Better than nothing though haha.
LA Noire!
Heavy Rain!
Dragon Age 2!
The ending of Mass Effect 3!
Assassin’s Creed 3- Can’t understand why everyone seemed to hate Connor
Prince of Persia (2007)- really wish they made more for this series. I found the sands of time trilogy to hard to get very far into, so never enjoyed that. These games allowed me to pull off combos and tricks without me having to spend hours learning how to do so.
Harvest Moon Series- Mindless fun that I never seem to get bored of.
Lord of the Rings: War of the North- While the game got repetitive towards the end and some enemies had horrible cheap moves. The story and characters were fantastic.
Maybe its not universally panned however I rarely hear people mention it – The Ghostbusters title that was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 a few years ago gets my vote. Had a heap of fun with that game and despite some bugs and minor issues it was a blast.
Loved most how all the original cast from the films returned and the story was both funny and true to the series. Felt like it is the closest thing we will ever get to a third film!
Agarest Zero and Analogue a Hate Story
Daikatana…. John Romero made me his Bitch.
Manhunt, have never met another person who liked it as much as me.
Mercenaries 1 and 2 (RIP Pandemic studios), Harvest Moon and also Divine Divinity
Dark Void: Episode 1:Chapter 6 a.k.a. into the void
best level ever made period
the game is subpar because the game was unfinished thanks to a lawsuit that killed the developer mid production
“Total Overdose” and its PSP little brother “Chilli Con Carnage” have always been favourites of mine. They’re very stupid, they’re a bit buggy, the open world bits in TO are poor, but by damn they’re a lot of fun once you get into the shooting bits and are trying to maintain your combo.
Elder Scrolls Online. Really don’t see why all the hate. It’s fairly generic but what MMO isn’t?
Also: Shaq-fu. Was actually a pretty fun game.
Amy. There, I said it.
Also, Alpha Protocol is one of my favourite games.