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Overlooked gems this generation.

  • 28-07-2012 8:31pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    It might be a little early for this thread considering the current generation of consoles are going strong but we can all agree they are nearing the end. Anyway, the forum has been a little slow recently as discussed in another thread so lets try to get some discussion going here.

    What games have you played during this generation of consoles that you loved but seemed to be ignored by most people?

    My vote goes to Blur. This was a game that really took me by surprise. I hadn't really seen any coverage of it while it was in development. But I saw a trailer for it and the mix of frantic car combat, similar to Mario Kart combined with HD graphics was hard to resist. As soon as I brought it home it stayed in the PS3 for three solid getting lots of local and online multiplayer. It had been quite some time since I'd found a game that I enjoyed playing online so much. Blur has that instant pick up and play quality that all good arcade racers should have. The cars handle easily and the weapons are all instantly familiar as they all correspond to weapons from Mario Kart. Three weeks might seem like a short time give a game but as they say the light that shines twice as bright, burns twice as fast. In this case it grew a little tired after a while but for those few weeks it was an absolute blast.

    It is a real shame that it failed to sell well. After a few weeks the online community had noticeably shrunk. It was great while it lasted.
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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 23,082 ✭✭✭✭J. Marston


    Alice: Madness Returns and Binary Domain are two recent games that I've played and thought were very good but I don't think they received widespread acclaim or big sales figures.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    J. Marston wrote: »
    Alice: Madness Returns and Binary Domain are two recent games that I've played and thought were very good but I don't think they received widespread acclaim or big sales figures.

    I bought Binary Domain in HMV a few weeks ago new for only €11.99. I'd been hearing very positive things about it but haven't tried it out yet.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    J. Marston wrote: »
    Alice: Madness Returns and Binary Domain are two recent games that I've played and thought were very good but I don't think they received widespread acclaim or big sales figures.

    Alice was great, well worth a look for those who haven't played it.

    Another that comes to mind is Mirrors Edge, not sure if it sold well at the time of release, but might have been played by more since given it's all of €3-5 now pre owned. Doubt we'll see a sequel which is a real shame.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    calex71 wrote: »
    Alice was great, well worth a look for those who haven't played it.

    Another that comes to mind is Mirrors Edge, not sure if it sold well at the time of release, but might have been played by more since given it's all of €3-5 now pre owned. Doubt we'll see a sequel which is a real shame.

    I remember really wanting to play Mirrors Edge when it first came out. I downloaded the demo when it came out but it gave me terrible motion sickness. Haven't tried it since.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    I remember really wanting to play Mirrors Edge when it first came out. I downloaded the demo when it came out but it gave me terrible motion sickness. Haven't tried it since.

    Ha it will do that alright, thats actually a good thing. It means the brain is being tricked into believing it's really falling :eek:


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    Another few come to mind, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Majin and the forsaken kingdom. Really enjoyed both of them.


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    Vanquish, one of the best 3rd person action games you'll ever play. any game where you stop mid firefight, flip the front of your helmet open, spark up a fag, take a drag and flick it away at the push of a button has got to be worth playing :pac:


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    calex71 wrote: »
    Another few come to mind, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

    I have this waiting in my backlog at the moment. Maybe I should move it up the list.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    I have this waiting in my backlog at the moment. Maybe I should move it up the list.

    Do, only found out when I finished the game and the credits rolled that it was written by Alex Garland of 28 days later / the beach fame


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    calex71 wrote: »
    Do, only found out when I finished the game and the credits rolled that it was written by Alex Garland of 28 days later / the beach fame

    That is the part that attracted me to the game in the first place. That and the fact that Andy Serkis did the motion capture and voice acting. I think at the time I got it though I was a little burnt out on 3rd person adventure games.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,126 ✭✭✭✭calex71


    That is the part that attracted me to the game in the first place. That and the fact that Andy Serkis did the motion capture and voice acting. I think at the time I got it though I was a little burnt out on 3rd person adventure games.

    Well worth a play, takes a bit to get going though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 182 ✭✭spirit_77


    the world ends with you


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,084 ✭✭✭✭Kirby


    My vote goes to Blur. Blur has that instant pick up and play quality that all good arcade racers should have. The cars handle easily and the weapons are all instantly familiar as they all correspond to weapons from Mario Kart. Three weeks might seem like a short time give a game but as they say the light that shines twice as bright, burns twice as fast. In this case it grew a little tired after a while but for those few weeks it was an absolute blast.

    It is a real shame that it failed to sell well. After a few weeks the online community had noticeably shrunk. It was great while it lasted.

    I bought Blur because my mates had it and I gave it a chance but it's just not a good racer. When it is quicker to crash into the walls to go around a corner than it is to brake or drift.......you know you have made a mistake. It just completely ruins any skill aspect.

    And it isn't just an 'Arcade vs Sim' argument. Arcade racers need some sort of skill barrier too. Mario kart, Burnout, NFS:hot pursuit are great arcade racers but they force you to corner properly and reward skill. If you hit a wall, you slow down. If you drift around it, you will go faster. Blur is completely devoid of any skill save weapon management.

    Sure, the weapons are fun but it may aswell be an arena game if you just want to blow cars up. I was very disappointed in Blur and wasn't surprised that it tanked. As you said, you were fed up after 3 weeks. Great racers are still played decades later. So I would never call blur a gem.


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,929 ✭✭✭✭ShadowHearth


    Settlers 7 - what an overlooked game. i loved settlers series and those went down hill from 5, but 7 is just amazing! i cant believe noone plays it :(

    Alice madness returns - i would love to know sales for this one, because almost anyone who played it loved it. i havent seen such an amazing artistic design in years. while playing that game you just constantly making screenshots for desktops :o

    Tropico series - just go and buy it. i cant believe i overlooked it for so long myself. its just fun.

    Might and magic Heroes 6 - one more jewel. they did a lot of things right in this one. i reallu love it, but its a shame that new generation of gamers dont even want to see it, because it is not WOW, MW3 or BF3 :(
    funny enough i recomended my friend this game, he never played Heroes series and first thing he told me: wtf is this ****, i asked you for good strategy game. after 3 weeks: its awesome. i finished campaign ( i havent even did that! ) and now playing skirmishes.

    Shift 2 - i am a pure petrolhead. i owned cars with 400hp and drove them daily to work. This is not 100% sim driving, but its not far of it. and i loved it. Where it lacks in realism, it makes up in the feel of race. you always surrounded by cars. AI will fight with you and between each other. the sound and visuals are just awesome. i will say it: i prefer it to forza and GT series.

    Test drive unlimited 2 - again, not a sim, but a lot of fun. celtic tiger simulation as i call it. a lot of fun, but it got a very very bad rep on launch. of you can get it for 10eu or less and like some driving - a must have then.

    Mafia 2 - LOVED it. i was a huge fan of first game and second one was really really good. its a shame that they made such a huge city and did not used it more. there was nothing to do outside of main mission. its going very cheap these days, a must have game.


  • Registered Users Posts: 7,593 ✭✭✭theteal


    krudler wrote: »
    Vanquish, one of the best 3rd person action games you'll ever play. any game where you stop mid firefight, flip the front of your helmet open, spark up a fag, take a drag and flick it away at the push of a button has got to be worth playing :pac:

    +1, i got vanquish about a month ago for peanuts. Smashing game. The controls are spot on, the action gets very intense and hectic and there are some proper difficult parts in the game to get by. Immensely enjoyed.


  • Registered Users Posts: 270 ✭✭Supermensch


    Do indie games count?

    To The Moon. Really nice little game, quirky story.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭ gizmo


    Bayonetta, Vanquish and Mirrors Edge are most certainly the three stand outs for me. It's incredibly frustrating to see such absolutely awesome games be so criminally overlooked. :(

    Some of the runners up include:

    El Shaddai
    Binary Domain
    Shadows of the Damned
    Mini Ninjas
    Afro Samurai
    Earth Defense Force 2017
    Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

    I don't even want to consider the overlooking that went on in the indie/XBLA space.


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,275 ✭✭✭✭o1s1n
    Master of the Universe


    spirit_77 wrote: »
    the world ends with you

    Great game! The main character is a bit annoying at the start, but once it gets going it's brilliant.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    gizmo wrote: »
    Some of the runners up include:

    El Shaddai
    Binary Domain
    Shadows of the Damned
    Mini Ninjas
    Afro Samurai
    Earth Defense Force 2017
    Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

    I have three of those in my backlog. I'm really interested to see how Banjo-Kazooie plays. It sounds really interesting the way you build your own vehicles.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,026 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    Many of the previously mentioned titles (especially the Platinum titles and The World Ends With You), plus...

    Child of Eden - a game that was destined for the bargain bins from its inception. Shame it's the most beautiful, hypnotic sensory experience of its generation. Looking forward to Dyad, as it seems to be along the same sort of lines.

    Sin & Punishment 2 - is the on-rail shooter the single most overlooked genre of them all? S&P2 is big, bold and exhilarating. It's presence as a hardcore shooter on the Wii from one of gaming's most consistently niche studios didn't help its mainstream acceptance.

    Zack & Wiki - a joyful, inventive puzzler that presented a constant stream of gimmicky yet satisfying brain teasers. An early highlight of Nintendo's line-up.

    The Ys series - on PSP, and later PC, these are the most vividly realised action-RPGs in years. Both high-quality reimaginings of older titles (putting the much more successful half-assed HD remakes to shame) and new ones such as Ys 7 are close to the best Japan has to offer.

    Split / Second Velocity - this became a split-screen mainstay between me and my friends. Racing + explosions = endless local fun. The SP is cool too, if slightly marred by rubber banding AI. See also: Blur.

    The Cave shooters - Akai Katana, Mushimesama Futari, Death Smiles, Dondonpachi Resurrection... Giddy, frantic shooting from the masters of dense bullet patterns. Rising Star - amongst the heroes of this console generation - brought some of the titles over to these shores where none had before, to their endless credit, with iOS cleverly furthering Western expansion despite the absence of a joystick.

    Journey - too early to call? If there's any justice in the world, this will be topping end of year lists everywhere in December. I, however, am not optimistic.

    Almost anything good released on the PSP - so many gems, but the console was pretty much entirely dismissed by huge swathes of gamers. Shame.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,764 ✭✭✭farna_boy


    I really enjoyed Darksiders. Third person hack and slash but with a lot of good puzzles in it as well. You can pick it up usually for about a fiver recently if you have a look around.


  • Registered Users Posts: 34,788 ✭✭✭✭krudler


    gizmo wrote: »
    Bayonetta, Vanquish and Mirrors Edge are most certainly the three stand outs for me. It's incredibly frustrating to see such absolutely awesome games be so criminally overlooked. :(

    .

    On the plus side they're dirt cheap everywhere, I paid 15 quid for mirrors edge not long after release. It's one of those games you always see piles of in the shops.


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,659 ✭✭✭CrazyRabbit


    Space Pirates & Zombies (SPAZ).
    http://spacepiratesandzombies.com/
    Such a simple little game yet it will easily suck away 200 hours of your life. Think I paid about €3 for it.

    Likewise for Space Rangers 2.
    http://uk.gamespot.com/space-rangers-2-rise-of-the-dominators/
    t's more well known, but I don't think it got the recognition it deserved. It combined an overhead RPG spaceship shooter with strategy, loot whoring, 3D battles with robots & optional text adventure mini-games/puzzles.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,422 ✭✭✭Josey Wales


    Another game I would like to mention is Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. Back when it came out, in 2009 I think, there wasn't much talk about it on this forum. It is probably my favourite platformer on the PS3. Loved every minute of it. And it is one of the very few games that I have bothered to complete twice since the 16-bit era.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,447 ✭✭✭richymcdermott


    Fragile dreams
    Yakuza series
    Alice madness returns
    Binary domain
    Vanquish
    Shadow of the damned


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,555 ✭✭✭Kinski


    Vanquish is 15euro in Tesco at the moment.

    Mirror's Edge was good, and gorgeous to look at, but a bit hit and miss in terms of gameplay. Still worth a look, though.

    I liked Deathsmiles a lot. Port of an arcade game, hardcore 2D shooter, without being so hardcore as to be insanely difficult and thus inaccessible. Short but very sweet.

    Not exactly this gen, but the remake of Chronicles of Riddick was really good.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭Elysian


    Legend of Grimrock, an amazingly fun old school dungeon crawler.


  • Registered Users Posts: 18,689 ✭✭✭✭K.O.Kiki


    Valkyria Chronicles.

    One of the main reasons I'm keeping my PS3 until it dies.
    And then replacing it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,943 ✭✭✭Burning Eclipse


    My votes go to 2 Japanese games, in an era where (imo) the balance of power has shifted to US devs.

    1. Valkyria Chronicles. A brilliant, and unique, strategy RPG with a fantastic artistic style. One of the first games I bought on PS3. Sequels came on the PSP, but I'm the only person I know who's played the originsl and almost all of my friends are gamers to some extent.

    2. Catherine. Perhaps not to everyones taste... again, I don't know anyone else who's played it. Thoroughly enjoyable block based puzzler, over-layed on the lives of the patrons of a strange bar called Stray Sheep. Great story in this one, and cut-scenes are gorgeous.

    Would recommend both to anyone who would like to play something a bit different.

    Edit... Kiki, great minds eh!? Was typing as you posted :)


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  • Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭Turtwig


    Zack & Wiki and loads of other quality third party titles for Wii that got overlooked by both gamers and casuals alike. Really there were some gems on that console that deserved more love. Little King, Boom Blox. A Boy and His Blob, Murmasa . . .

    Sins of A Solar Empire. Might be just me but I totally overlooked this franchise, got the game in the Steam sale and, well, I'll put it this way, I went to sleep at 7 a.m this morning. :eek: (Would probably have kept playing too but for noticing how bright it was.:o)

    Rainbow Six 3 : Ravenshield. The last of the great tactical military shooters. One shot - One Kill.

    Swat 4: TSS. Another of those great cooperative games, the online community of both this and RVS is still going strong, good to see, but still no sign of either game franchise being continued. In the case of Rainbow Six, the series has long since jumped the shark. :(

    Advance Wars. An utterly fantastic turn based strategy that everyone should try at some point. Charming and addictive as hell. Except, maybe for Jake. Sturm's final battle with Sami and Grit as back up still gives me nightmares but that was GBA.

    Mirror's Edge. Got this during the Steam Sale, took some getting used as the game can quite literally give you motion sickness. Once you get used to it though the game is quite good, it deserves a sequel. Assassins Creed got one and we all know how much of an improvement that series got. ME deserves the sequel too because there's a really great game hiding in that core concept, just needs more refinement. Don't get me wrong the game is fun, but just not as fun as it could have been.


    Picross. Purely because if you're reading this and have no clue what I'm referring to then you owe it to yourself to find out what it is. ;)

    Sins of A Solar Empire : Yes, I mentioned this already, but I don't think I can shamefully plug it enough. :o

    Arma. Thanks to DayZ it's probably no longer going to be over looked but up until DayZ I felt the game was being overlooked by many. Some fantastic mods, BIS actually interact with their community and it's one beast of a sandbox. In fact, I'd argue that the mod that allowed me to simulate the Crusades is better than the current Stronghold 3.:pac:
    (It's not a patch on Stronghold Crusader though.)

    GRAW 2 PC Version. The Cooperative community is still alive for this game and there's a good reason too. The PC version of GRAW II is a gem in many ways. Play it online with a few friends. Few games provide the fluidity and fun in teamwork that it provides.

    Sins of A Solar Empire : They say by now you'll have this game stuck in your memory for what's left of your waking day. I don't know, is neuroscience that trustworthy? Even more pertinent though is whether I have plugged this game enough yet?

    Sins of A Solar Empire : Ahahaha, yeah. . .that thrill of watching a planet being bombarded to shreds in real time : That image - Sins of a Solar Empire.

    World In Conflict. I don't think this one was forgotten or overlooked, but the reason I mention it is because well most computers today should be able to run it fairly comprehensively and at the time it was a game that really require a beast to get the full experience.

    GTA : CW. No comment necessary.


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