What Game Surprised You?

[Geraldine]

Hi Folks
Thought I would start a little fun thread for gaming gems you might have discovered in bargain bins or sales. I am talking about the sort of game that when you looked at it you might have thought "looks likely to be rubbish or boring but I will try it anyway" and then when you fired it up, it really captivated your attention by being surprisingly good. If you have discovered something like this, drop in a few lines of explanation on why it's so good. Any game of any age and in any format you like including freeware or open source games too.

The only proviso is it must have impressed you.

To start off, a good while ago (years) I saw Flight Simulator 2002 (Standard Edition) in a bargain bucket for £1.50. Although I had played a great many flight sims up to then I never tried any of Microsoft's FS range. On firing it up I was amazed at the detail it had (for back then) and the fact you could fly right around the world if you wanted and with 1000s of airports to land at. Later I discovered the other great thing about these games; it's community. The amount of add-ons and tweaks for all the FS games is staggering, 1000s of aircraft (some spacecraft and other things too ), airports and other things all available for free. Have a look at Flightsim.com and Avsim to get you started. I am still playing Flight Sim all these years later all because of that bargain bucket find, although I have moved on to FSX these days.

So over to you forum. Any games surprised you by being how good they were despite being in a bargain bin or sale?

 

[STABB666]

Kairo

Hi Geraldine,

Purusing the $4.99 list on Steam and my Wife asks me to find her a game with no killing, no racing and some puzzle element. Came up with 'Kairo', which was surprisingly good for its price. Has a really nice stylized 3d world to explore, if a bit limited 'on the tracks' type of thing. Puzzles aren't too hard, but some of them are next to impossible, but not required to complete the game. It can be done pretty quickly (6 and a bit hours), but it has a nice sense of it being something much bigger, but that does leave a feeling of what if? the developer had more time and cash- would it have been so much grander in scale?

On the flight sim note...do you happen to know off the top of your head if they have WW II planes you can fly?

 

[JeffRyan]

Knights of the Old Republic. I played it long after it came out. And was amazed by how much I enjoyed it (I avoided RPGs at this time, was more into strategy games), but the 'big twist' really shocked me. Hadn't seen it coming. I was sad when it was over.

 

[Geraldine]

On the flight sim note...do you happen to know off the top of your head if they have WW II planes you can fly?

If you mean add-on aircraft for Flightsim, yes 100s upon 100s of them. However if it's WWII combat your after, perhaps one of the IL-2 games or Combat Flight Simulator 1,2 or 3 might be a better option.

 

[STABB666]

Leisurely re-enactment.

If you mean add-on aircraft for Flightsim, yes 100s upon 100s of them. However if it's WWII combat your after, perhaps one of the IL-2 games or Combat Flight Simulator 1,2 or 3 might be a better option.

Nah, just looking for a fly about for my father in law. Thanks!

 

[Nagual]

Hmm, this is a tough one. I've played many many many games over the years, and while I know I've really enjoyed them at the time, I just can't recall them now. A mate of mine has recently got a few emulators ZX Spectrum, C64, MAIM etc. and got tons of ROMs. Things is he can quite happily fire one up and play for a good while, I can't. The simple reason is games have moved on so much in terms of what they can deliver, and while story telling may have become second base to fancy graphics in some titles, many older games were quite awful, or had some particularly bad element (I'm looking at you Mr ZX Spectrum sprite collision detection)

I used to play a broad spectrum of game types, now I mainly play RPGs / fantasy games as I get bored quickly with most others.

Best game I ever played on the Speccy was Elite, I consider it a bargain.. does that count? I mean that honestly without bias too.

Lords of Midnight, was intense at the time too. All those encounters, armies and weapons to find. The number of locations was mind boggling.

Tempest on the Jaguar was a brilliant game, adrenaline pumping insane speed shooting arrggghhh!

Ultima 4 on the C64. The first Ultima game we played, and we didn't have a clue what to do, or even that there was a plot to follow - so we played for over a year before realising that we can actually complete the game - so nearly an open world sand box game, but not quite.

Bards Tale on the Amiga - RPGing happiness, which took an age to understand properly and complete. Not sure I ever did..

Best bargain game on the PC - Wipeout, some of the tracks are mental, once you get good at controlling your craft you can get some great speeds up and it's just fun.

Ballistics comes a close second as a bargain winner too - you fly down a tunnel and silly speeds trying to avoid various obstacles, it gets fast very very fast. I think this might be freeware now...

 

[Frank]

Never Spiting My Face

Real Racing 3 was quite a pleasant surprise for me. I got if for my Nexus 7 and I was expecting the worst from EA's pay-as-you-play model. The freeloader penalty just isn't that bad for me. I don't mind having to wait an hour when I purchase a new car, or get some servicing done. I guess my game is being subsidised by the impatient.

The further you get into the game the longer the waiting time gets. I don't know how bad it gets because I'm only halfway through the game. But I've enjoyed what I've played so far. I do feel I got my money's worth.

 

[withnail]

I bought a copy of Uplink from a bargain bin.

It's by a small games developer called Introversion: http://www.introversion.co.uk/uplink/

I found it incredibly addictive, best £1.99 I ever spent considering the hours spent playing it.

They also produced a tactical nuclear war game called Defcon. It had single player and online multiplayer capabilities and was also incredibly addictive.

Edit: would you look at that, they are making Prison Architect.

http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showpost.php?p=137960&postcount=28

 

[Magma]

I did like Uplink and I got it from a discount shelf.

Heavily influenced by the film "Sneakers", even down to the unpatched release version having a "Too Many Secrets" cheat code.

If you've not seen Sneakers, it's a great film. It's like a modern version of "The Sting".

 

[Fromhell]

1. CRYOSTASIS
Seriously. Go play it. Totally unknown but a true gem.

2. HOTLINE MIAMI
Warning, it may turn into an addiction.

3. THE SECRET WORLD
A buy-2-play MMO for fans of Stephen King/Lovecraft type mystery adventures and horror

 

[Geraldine]

Looks like lots of good games are getting mentioned.

Fromhell? I know Cryostasis, based on a frozen ship and very creepy if I remember correctly, but what was it about that game and the others you mentioned that surprised you about how good they were?

Which reminds me.

Anyone ever watch Das Boot?

Another game (a bit more recent this time and one for you budding Kaleuns out there) I discovered was Silent Hunter III. Now this game is a sub sim but done to such a degree it really captures the intense atmosphere of naval combat beneath the waves. Again I found this languishing in a bargain bin at my local store and what a game it turned out to be. Sinking my first ship in the game was epic. Chased it for miles and finally nailed it with a spread of torps, but most of all it made me feel a little guilty too because you could hear the bulkheads go as the water flooded the ship and its moans of stressed metal giving way to the pressure echoing through the water toward me as it plunged to the cold dark depths.....then the destroyers came looking for me to get their revenge. In a blink, in this game you go from hunter to hunted. To round this off, once again all the Silent Hunter games (5 in all) have seen a very active community build up around them. One of the best is Sub Sim. Drop by there for a load of mods and tips that will improve the standard games way beyond what it's devs originally planned.

 

[Nagual]

Where is this fabled bin of yours? lol My local games shop is a Blockbuster which generally is fairly poor, and the prices not so much a bargain.

 

[Geraldine]

It was a place called Gamestation located in Paisley, but it has since been taken over by GAME and lost all (or most, haven't been in there in years now) of it's focus on PC games sadly. Picked up the PC version of the Collectors Edition of Elder Scrolls IV (included a Septim coin, funky maps and lore books) from there for a tenner back in the day, that was a result!

 

[Nagual]

It was a place called Gamestation located in Paisley, but it has since been taken over by GAME and lost all (or most, haven't been in there in years now) of it's focus on PC games sadly. Picked up the PC version of the Collectors Edition of Elder Scrolls IV (included a Septim coin, funky maps and lore books) from there for a tenner back in the day, that was a result!

Aye, they have moved their focus a tad. A tenner eh? Nice one, I got that edition on release... Not sure that was a clever idea in hind sight.. lol

 

[mjr]

The games that have most impressed me have all been indie games for the most part.

Wargame European Escalation/Wargame Airland Battle (a realistic combined arms strategic RTS)

AI War (realtime space based 4x/RTS/Tower Defense)

Hegemony Gold (Think of a realtime Total War style game but all played out on a huge scalable map battles included)

Dominions 3 (Like HOMM/Age Of Wonders but more epic)

 

[Styggron]

When I first read the thread OP I immediately thought of

Ascendency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascendancy_(video_game)

I remember it being really good at the time. I still have the CD/Box etc. I need to dig it out and give it a go again.........I remember being impressed by it.

 

[Geraldine]

That does look good Styggron, kind of a Moo type game? Which reminds me, the free game Far Colony has a new Alpha (0.6) incoming very soon.

 

[szyzyg]

Kerbal Space Program - seriously, I was surprised that the devs managed to make a sandbox rocket building game into a somethign as successful as this.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Super Hexagon

It's an incredibly simple, pure arcade/twitch game. If you survive as long as a minute, you're doing well. It's common to die within 3 seconds of starting. And I've played around 20hrs so far, because it's really quite addictive. So far I've complete the first two difficulty levels - Hard, and Harder - and am trying to complete it on Hardester. After that, there are 'Hyper' versions of the same, which I suspect I'll never complete.

 

[Geraldine]

Thanks Slawkenbergius & szyzyg for your posts.
Here is another, have you ever bought a game because it has a cool mod? As in putting the mod before the game as it were? Well I just did. The game in question is Vehicle Simulator. Now this is an indie simulator that allows you to drive, sail or fly any vehicle that has been created for it. Now, the graphics cant hold a candle to the likes of FSX, but it comes with mod tools to create new vehicles, has quite an active community around it and simulates the entire surface of the Earth for use in adventures and missions.

Now to the mod that brought the game to my attention. This is called Mars Expedition1 and simulates the entire surface of Mars this time with a range of different vehicles (from landers, buggys and even airships) with a range of missions to do. It's free and looks fun!

Note: The game itself still needs to be purchased though.

EDIT: Ive just found out that Vehicle Simulator has loads of add-on scenery that improves the visuals by quite a bit, also with regards to Mars Expedition 1, there seems to be a slight hitch with the download link on it's site. I have contacted the author though so hope that the problem can be remedied soon.

And Oh! here is a vid
[video=youtube;Crv5kfc4_pw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crv5kfc4_pw[/video]