Games you are happy you bought

Cunning Alias

The "Games you regret buying" thread seems interesting so I though a "Games you are happy you bought" might work.

Guideline:
Stay away from the standard Halo's, Metal gears, Final Fantasys etc.

What random purchases were you happy with?

Happy with:
Skies of Arcadia (DC and GC)
Mirrors Edge (I might be on my own here......)
Zone of the Enders 2 (1 was rubbish though)
Vandal Hearts (PS1)
Suikoden 1/2 (PS1)
Lunar Kinghts (DS. If you can find this and enjoy Zelda LTTP type games grab it. Best I have played in years)

StopNotWorking

Halo
Halo2
Halo3
Halo Wars
Crysis
Crysis Warhead


YEAH RIGHT!

CoD4 is the only one that comes to mind right away, I play that online 24/7..

Overheal

Prey
Orange Box
Audiosurf
Simcity 3000
Theme Hospital
Armored Core Masters of Arena
FF7/8/9/X
C&C Red Alert
Link to the Past
Starfox
Zone of the Enders 2 (Full Price! Still happy. Even though the copy is now lost or destroyed. Sad day)
Megaman VI
Megaman X
Mechwarrior 2: Mercs and Mechwarrior 4
Morrowind

But now I have to grief a sadness. A long story short its recently come to my attention many if not all of my PAL console games have been trashed or lost. Someone was packing boxes and clearing stuff out on my behalf and I guess they felt I had no need for video games.

****ing parents. There goes my childhood. Though technically its the 2nd time I've lost reams of stuff like this because of an intercontinental move. Sigh.

Retr0gamer

Panzer Dragoon Orta: Bought it on the strenght of it's good reviews. I totally fell in love with the world it created and knew I had to play the previous game panzer dragoon saga. It was the game that made me take the dive into the sega saturn.

Jeanne D'arc: Got okay reviews but I had a feeling it was due to being released the same time as FF Tactics. Don't regret buying it, an excellent strategy RPG with some great characters and soundtrack.

Persona 3: Saw Persona 4 was going for 25 euro so decided to make an impulse buy. Asked if they had P3 and they had one copy left behind the counter so took it as well. It's quickly becoming one of my favourite games ever.

Suikoden 2 and Grandia: Both games received fairly mixed reviews since they came out around the same time as FFVIII. Bought games are so much better than FFVIII.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night: Searched high and low for this game and couldn't find it until I found out one of my relatives worked for Konami and he sent me their last promo copy. It was worth all the effort.

Odin Sphere: Okay reviews again and while I can see it's flaws I really enjoyed it.

Fallout 3: I thought Oblivion was one of the most boring cliche riddled games ever created but for some reason I really wanted to try this game. Currently playing it and loving it.

Gunstar Heroes: I bought it on the strength of Stuart Campbell waffling non-stop about it in Sega Zone. My favourite megadrive game and a game I'm a bit too passionate about at times. Add rocket knight adventures also for the same reasons.

Final Fantasy VII: Got a lend of it off my brothers mate and ended up buying it since he wouldn't hurry up with the last disc. No where near the best JRPG made but it was the game that started my love affair with the genre.

Zone of the Enders 2: As stated already, first game was crap, this one was amazing.

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan!: More impulse purchase again after hearing people rave about it.

There's probably loads more but those are games I bought on an impulse or surprised me off the top of my head.

cian1500ww

GTA: San Andreas, never played any GTA before it and was pleasently surprised

FearDark

Half Life (PC)
Unreal Tournament (PC)
Mario 64 (N64)
Super Mario World (SNES)
Sub Terrania (Megadrive)
Micro Machines (Megadrive)
Guardian (Amiga CD32)
Fury Of The Furries (Amiga CD32)
Sega Rally (Saturn)
Powerstone (Dreamcast)


Um, yeah I really need to start playing games again I have a 360 but I cant be arsed, I think its called getting old.

Podge2k7

GTA III
GTA Vice City
GTA San Andreas
Gran Turisimo 3 A-Spec
COD WaW
Saints Row
Fifa Series
Colin McRae Dirt
Smackdown series

Is all i can think of now!

Sephiroth_dude

far cry 2

I know a lot of people hated it but I had great fun with it,I loved drivng around the africa

Stalker

I loved the randomness of the A.I,there were alot of wtf moments and the mutants were cool.


Company of heros

Saw this by chance in pc gamer magazine,I then read a review of it thought it sounded good,I love how realistic the game is,destructable buildings,cool units and a great campaign.

mle1324

Call of Duty Modern Warfare
GTA IV
Grand Trismo 5 Prologe (considering i got it for 20 quid)

Jazzy

viewtiful joe
eternal darkness
powerstone
super metroid (i wanted megaman x instead, my brother persuaded me otherwise... wasnt happy at the time. then i played it of course)
warcraft 3 + expansion... for DotA purposes

TinCool

Any game that I bought that wasn't ****e.

Weidii

World of Warcraft :pac:

TPD

Mario 64, Lylat Wars, Ocarina of Time, Smash Bros, Smash Bros Melee, Mario Kart Double Dash, Morrowind, Black and White...

Can't think of any more at the minute.

Edit: GTA 3 and Vice City. Those games were the shít back in the day, I've probably sank more time into each of them than I have studying my entire life.

Ross_Mahon

Quake 4
Gears Of War 2
Starship Troopers (RTS version)
C&C Red Alert 3
Ace Combat 6
Oblivion
The Orange Box
Shadowrun
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Doom 3
Red Faction
Battlefield 2

noodler

I guess if we're just talking about games I took a chance on, FF7, DQ8, KH nd VC would all have to be up there. ICO too.

Maybe PES2 as wel since it was my first non-Fifa game.

Wow, FF7 praise Retro! Thats exactly the same way I got hooked on it, he wouldn't give me disc 2 so I had to buy it, ended up with way too high a level going into the brilliance that is disc 2.

EDIT: Mechwarrior 3 came with our first PC and I loved that.

CCCP^

Hard to say. I will go with the games I bought that turned out to be personal favourites and games I was really surprised with.

Jade Cocoon for the PS1 - I liked mixing the creatures, liked the anime style and the story, shamefully I still have not finished this.

Cold Winter for the PS2 - Probably the best FPS on the PS2 and one of my favourite PS2 games. The action is good, the story is really good and the cut-scenes are some of the best I've come across in videogames, thank you Warren Ellis!

Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit for the PS1 - I spotted this when I was in Gamesworld on Middle Abbey Street, it was playing on the demo machine and I really wanted to get it, the idea of not just racing, but racing against the police, was brilliant and I played this game to death. I believe in someway it carried on the legacy of the now defunct Road Rash games.

Retr0gamer

noodler wrote: »

Wow, FF7 praise Retro! Thats exactly the same way I got hooked on it, he wouldn't give me disc 2 so I had to buy it, ended up with way too high a level going into the brilliance that is disc 2.

people think I hate the game but I think it's brilliant just not as good as some people make it out to be.

uberpixie

Fallout2: bought on a whim for a tenner, boxed original copy back in the day. Blew my mind.

Thief 1: barely ran on my ****e box of a pc but what an amazing, ground breaking game all the same. Picked up an old cheap 2nd hand 3dfx1 4mb just to get it running smooth at the time :pac:

Close Combat 2 and 3: best world war 2 strategy games ever, had most of the realistic features that people ****e on about when speaking about Company of Heroes: Close Combat did it back in 1997.

Diablo 1: played to death multiplay via serial cable with 2 mates back in the day when we were too poor to get nics .

Orangebox: Portal and TF2 were well worth it.

Viewtifuljoe: an absolute bastard of a game that I felt proud just have beaten it on easy.

Operation Flashpoint: first game I bought played on the 1st PC I ever built. Love it and hate it and love it all over again while playing it. It really was the 1st hardcore soldier sim. Took tghe pis out of the deltaforce series.

corcaigh07

isn't this just a different way of saying "your favourite games of all time"?

KarlNedCarew

Dragon quest 8, splinter cell 3 (never really enjoyed stealth games nut the co-op in this was some laugh) and the discovery of pes on a relatives whim at christmas (I've never looked back since)

Mr. K

This thread is more about games you took a chance on buying (by ignoring reviews or knowing nothing about them beforehand).

In my case, Suikoden II is the big one. I knew nothing about this before I bought it, I just wanted a long RPG to play for the summer. And it was brilliant! Most other games, I've known what I was getting into. In fact, I think I follow the industry too closely now, there's little mystery and surprise left in buying games. Maybe I should pick up some random RPG this summer...

Jazzy

corcaigh07 wrote: »

isn't this just a different way of saying "your favourite games of all time"?

no. its games that you are glad you bought that you might not have necessarily.

Sim City on the snes
Mr Nutz was good too.... but sh1t hard dunno why but i still rate that as one of the hardest games i owned. never finished it

Retr0gamer

uberpixie wrote: »

Viewtifuljoe: an absolute bastard of a game that I felt proud just have beaten it on easy.

You haven't beaten it if you only played it on easy :P God I wouldn't touch easy mode in that game it just spoils it, you are given way too much health.

Bugg

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence - Almost made three times the amount I paid for it by selling it:D

death1234567

Orange Box.
All the GTA's except IV.
PES 2008/2009 for the Wii
Rise of Nations.

um7y1h83ge06nx

Lost Vikings (SNES)

Civilisation 2 (PC)

FF VII (PSone)

Left 4 Dead (360)

Those are the games I sort of bought on a whim without major research. What crackers they turned out to be.

Civ 2 was dangerously good.

Dacelonid

FarCry and F.E.A.R for me were a random purchases. Knew absolutely nothng about them (unusual for me) and just picked them both up one day and have loved playing them ever since
Also picked up the Hitman boxset (Hitman 2,3 and 4) simply because it was cheap and thought it was a fantastic buy

Furious_Daz

Deus Ex - Passed over it for years on the budget shelf but when I eventually bought it, it blew me away! Awesome story and great gameplay. Still waiting for the third installment though!

Galactic Civilizations - Another budget shelf gem. Not as mind blowing as Deus Ex was but still kept me absorbed for months.

Noffles

Dead Space on the PS3, had to be my favourite game for a long time, good story, gameplay, atmosphere and great in game videos... couldn't ask for more really..!

Played and completed twice.

Gummy Panda

Noffles wrote: »

Dead Space on the PS3, had to be my favourite game for a long time, good story, gameplay, atmosphere and great in game videos... couldn't ask for more really..!

Played and completed twice.

I have to agree with this. I bought it expecting it to be poop due to EA then realised how good of a game it is.

Was a nice surprise.

silvine

COD4,
Halo 3,
Fallout 3
Oblivion,

Sephiroth_dude

cod4 how could I have forgotton that.

DarkJager

GTA (3, San Andreas, Vice City, IV) - All have eaten up large chunks of my life at one time or another. Always good to throw on for some instant gratifcation.

Fallout 3 - Loved the original Fallout series and was looking very forward to this. Kept me entertained for almost 3 months non stop.

Saints Row 2 - I enjoyed the original, but Saints Row 2 was better than I could have expected. Played it until I had finished everything (including the hidden "Julius" mission).

Call Of Duty 4/5 - COD 4 was an absolute masterpiece in FPS gaming. I was weary about WAW, but after buying it and playing through the great campaign, it lived up to the COD name in my eyes.

Fight Night Round 3 - Apart from this game "bricking" my 360 the first 2 times I had it, its still an unbelievably good boxing game. Flash KO's ftw! Bring on round 4.

Oblivion - I'm sure anyone who's played this knows exactly why it is a worthwhile purchase. Over 60 hours+ of engrossing gameplay make it worth every cent.

cherryghost

Team Buddies!

I do not regret buying it, despite looking in horror at it before i said 'feck it, i will'

truebluedub

Folklore and Castle Wolfenstein.

nix

Super Mario
Super Mario 2
Super Mario 3
Kid icarus
Double dragon 2
Sonic the hedgehog
Streets of rage
Streets of rage 2
Golden axe
Street fighter 2
Mario kart
Donkey kong country
Fzero
Resident evil 1 and 2, CV
Final Fantas 7
Final fantasy 8
Final fantasy 9
Final fantasy 10
Grandia
Star ocean
Tekken 3
Soul calibur 2
Goldeneye
Banjo Kazooie
Zelda OOT
Diablo 2
Commando's 1,2 and 3
Delta force 1
Half life 1 and 2
TF2
Metal gear solid
Metal gear solid 2
Syphon filter
All GTA's

Why is my list alot longer than everybody elses? o_O

I'm pretty sure i missed alot too

EDIT: i guess the reason mines longer is because i included alot of "standard" games :P

turnfan

Sheep Dog N Wolf on PS1 - Metal Gear Solid Meets Looney Tunes! Mind bendingly good.

CiDeRmAn

Seeing as I have over 500 games, it'd far easier to just say, there have been few games I have been miserable playing after purchase, the rest were all great.

But particular mention should go to,
Halo series,
Fire Warrior,
BioShock,
Deus Ex,
Gran Turismo,
Road Rash (3DO),
Need For Speed (3DO),
Need for Speed 3 (PS1),
Wipeout 2097,
Super Mario Allstars,
Super Mario Galaxy,
Tekken 3,
MGS (PS1),
MGS 4,
Knights of the Old Republic,
Star Wars Commando,
MSR,
PGR 2,
Medal Of Honour: Frontline,
COD 2 (360),
Resident Evil 4 (GC),
FZero GX,
Tetris (GB),
Tempest 3000,
Robotron (XBLA),
Geometry Wars 2,
Sonic 3.

They're just a few off the top of my head.

Retr0gamer

I'd add Metroid Prime. I was looking forward to it so much and I'd kind of got bored of gaming at the time. Despite the hype it was a far better game than I imagined it would be and gave gaming a new lease of life for me.

Kiith

Not going to post the obvious ones, but the games that i remember taking a chance and loving are below. Not that many come to mind actually.

Homeworld
Freedom Fighters
Morrowind (had never heard of it at the time)
Dead Space
Final Fantasy VII (rented it from xtra vision before i knew anything about the series)
Ace Combat 4 (again, knowing nothing about the series and being blown away by it)

Grayditch

Fallout 3
Killzone 2
MGS4
Fable 2
Left 4 Dead
Rag Doll Kung-Fu
Tekken Dark Ressurection - Despite the constant online beatdowns
Resistance 2
Little Big Planet
Saints Row 2 - For the fun Co-Op times.

Sarky

I'm happy I bought Thief Gold nearly a decade ago. I've been taking care of it- the CDs are still perfectly unscratched. I got it working almost flawlessly on Vista today (No small feat considering the trouble getting Indeo codecs don't work well with Vista at all), and it's aged well. I intend to play the whole thing through again on expert. It's truly timeless, a textbook example of how to do stealth and sound right. I'd kill for an OST.

ShiverinEskimo

Beyond Good and Evil.

'nuff said.

Kinetic^

The Orange Box,no contest. The value for money is unquestionable in terms of how much game play is on offer. Thankfully valve are continuing to release updates for TF2,take note EA, ubisoft etc.

skaterboy

killzone 2
defo
my best game:)

Vyse

Psychonauts - great game and thoroughly deserving of Eurogamers GOTY

Beyond Good and Evil - looking forward to Part 2

Skies of Arcadia - One of my fav RPGs of all time. Still waiting for that elusive sequel.

Jet Set Radio - pure style

Sonic Adventure - best 3d Sonic game, not much of a contest though

Soul Calibur - the first game I can recall that out did it's arcade counterpart in every single way

Magic Carpet - one of my first games on PS1, spent hours on it

Halo - never played a FPS before this. Had me hooked from the opening scene. Don't care what anybody says, this game is brilliant.

Valkyria Chronicles - my fav game of this generation so far. Has it all, great graphics, music, gameplay and an engaging storyline.

Oblivion - don't think I've ever spent as much time playing a single game

PSO - my first steps into the world of online gaming. Limited offline experience but online this was mind blowing.

Secret of Monkey Island - the wittiest, funniest game I've ever played.

tororosso

:DHave to say the one at the moment is Dead Space
In the middle of playing it on the PS3 and only got it because some lads on boards recommended it as a bargain alert when HMV were selling it for €16.99 Anyway another one would have to be Commandos 2 on the PC!

L31mr0d

Little Big Planet... first game I've actually bought for the PS3 (not including PSN exclusive titles) since I usually rent or get loans from friends.

Can see myself ploughing days into the level designer... I actually was thinking this morning, as I tried to sneak 20 minutes in before heading out to work, that getting let go wouldn't be so bad as I'd have loads of time to play Little Big Planet (it's because of thoughts like that that I will never play WoW )

Sraw

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis: Spent what seemed like an age searching for this game all those years ago when I first got a pc. Was definitely worth the effort.
Gran Turismo 3: Just perfection(at the time at least)
Grandia 2: I'm not a fan of JRPGs, or RPG's in general for that matter. But this and Shining Force 2 on the Megadrive were the exceptions. I was hooked on them from start to finish.
Freelancer: Similar reason to Grandia 2. Not a big flight sim/space sim guy. Never liked the XWing/Tie Fighter series. But this and Starlancer were fantastic.
Grim Fandango: Loved it.
Half-Life: So good HL2 couldn't even surpass it.

I could go on but for my 1st post I think I'll stop before a wall of text smacks people in the face.

Mitch Connor

Recently, Left 4 Dead and Bionic Commando: Rearmed are the two titles I have felt gave me the most value and fun playing time.

DarkJager

UFC Undisputed: Only got it this morning but can already seeing it giving me hours of entertainment.