Games that surprised you

Tetris Effect is dope. For the longest time, just figured Tetris with pretty visuals... which I mean, it is lol. But that audio-visual experience works very well. Definitely a cool way to experience Tetris, even if you've been on Tetris from the get go. Spark one up and play, just amazing haha.

Would buy DLC stages for that game in a heartbeat.

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Most recently, Vampire Survivors. Dead simple game, but it's basically crack. A steal at 3 bucks.

I think I remember you saying you actually experienced the Tetris Effect in real life lol

@SolidGame_basic:

Damn, honestly don't remember talking about that on here.

But yep, I've experienced Tetris effect before. Long stretches of competing with friends and coworkers, just seeps into your thoughts after a while. Was at its weirdest when trying to sleep.

@ConanTheStoner: lol surprised you don’t see fighting game move lists in your sleep

Is Bloodborne all you ever talk about lol

Desperados 3 ... I thought it was going to be fine ... but it's amazing, i'm pretty hooked.

Pretty good game.

Bugsnax. The game is actually good.😂

@ConanTheStoner: lol the last level of Tetris Effect is brutal. made it to line 76 out of 90.

Yeah, it got low scores for being more of the same... Such cookie cutter classics such as CoD and Fifa on the other hand... :-S

I actually like Arkham Origins more than Arkham City.

Teteisphere 64 ruined other Tetris games for me, but I love Lumines, I get started on that and I can waste hours before I know it, love the music for those.

Marvel's Spiderman, Metroid Dread, and Kirby and the Forgotten Realm.

I thought Marvel's Spiderman would be an Arkham knockoff with different traversal. Thing is, that traversal added a lot to the combat and gameplay in general. With Spiderman being my second favorite hero, I was afraid the world would feel off, but they did an amazing job capturing the feel of the comics.

I knew I would like Metroid, but not as much as I do. The replay value is much higher than I though.

I played the Kirby demo, thought it was decent, but nothing great. My daughter wanted it so I picked it up and the game is so much better than the demo represents.

Play Tetris Effect!

Last of Us 2 surprised in the sense it was a colossal disappointment from the first game. At first I thought the reddit hyperbole about Naughty Dog's Druckmann was excessive, and then after playing it, yeesh.

Fortnite has been a pleasant surprise. For, what, 5 years now people trashed the game and I couldn't figure out if it was aimed solely at kids or what. But it does what PUBG did except it's actually fun, and the quests and things going on really change up your goals and the way you play.

Shadowrun Returns was also a really fun surprise last month. The game is a bit rough around the edges and glitches, but it's been a pretty great CRPG adventure. Will likely get a few playthroughs.

Just beat the main campaign of Kirby and the Forgotten Land and am doing the post game levels. This game ended up surprising me in the second half! Levels got more interesting and challenging. Only thing is the constant reuse of bosses.

Ace Combat 7, flight physics went back to the PS2 days when all the aircrafts felt samey.

You have to inject your own imaginations, "I'm actually in a stealth aircraft", or "this aircraft I've chosen is in any way different from all the others".

TMNT Shredder's Revenge, really surprised me as there hasn't been a TMNT game in decades.

Mafia 2, I remember buying it just from the demo and totally blown away. I never played Mafia on PC as I don't game on PC.

guardians of the galaxy. Its been on gamepass for about 5 months now, but I finally decided to give it a shot. The game is genuinely hilarious, so great job on square for that. Sadly, its a tried and true movie game. Regardless, its still a solid experience, and the comedy aspect clinches it.

Guardians of the Galaxy- such an underrated game which sadly Avengers crushed any support this game would have gotten. GotG is easily the best super hero game since Spider Man and before that game Arkham City...

RE8- after that dreadful baby mansion level the game picks up for me, still not a fan what they did to my boy Ethan but now capcom is adding a 3rd person view mode for this game just gave them some serious brownie points from me

Total War Warhammer- TW games have always been meh to me and at first I thought they were gonna fubar one of my favorite IPs ever, but they delivered another 2 sequel gems after that game so kuddos to the devs.

V Rising- wish I had enough time to go back to this game but damn, a good vampire game is a big win in my books.

Aliens Fireteam Elite- wish this game had more content and had basic features like voice/text chat when it launched cause this is honestly the best Aliens game since AvP in 2010 (yes Isolation is amazing but give me my damn Colonial Marines!!!!!!)

Elden Ring- honestly I had almost zero hype going into this game and its now one of my GOATs

What didn't you like about it?

Should probably mention Gothic.

On first appearance it's terrible. It's like the controls are designed by a space-alien with actors emoting like thy used Stephen Hawking as their aspiration. Clunky. Die in 2 seconds.

The entire introduction of the game screams "bad".

But when get past that, even with all the clunk and antiquated graphics it's quite an engaging experience.

Which one? Dark Corners of the Earth or the recent CoC game from 2018?

Yeah, everyone was surprised at how good this game was at the time. Innovative mix of different gameplay types all wrapped up in a pretty tight package from start to finish. Many argue this was the best game in the series (personally I like City as I think swinging around rooftops is a key part of a Batman experience).

Yeah, for sure. Loved the first one for its emotionally complex story. I know this one was divisive but I haven't played a game that subverted expectations this heavily since Spec Ops: The Line. Every time I thought I had a handle on how it was going to go, it didn't and the directions it took were constantly messed up.

Hahahahaha, yeah. Not at all what I was expecting. I got it for my kids and after they beat it they told me the story. Had a known a little more about it, I might have pre-screened it for them because by the end it's like "Baby's First Cronenberg".

Days Gone. I don't buy games that get low score, but I tried it at at a friend's place and man it was pretty damn good. Then it became free on PS5 so I played all 60 hours to complete it. Arguably the most underrated game of the generation

There's a couple of dope secret levels too. Been a while, but I think one of them is a simple code unlock whereas the other is just through playing the game.

I ended up beating it lol. Had success when I played it in handheld mode. I didn’t see any unlocks :(

Doom Eternal. Not that Doom 4 was a bad game, but it was pretty wack. People far stupider forcused on the glory kills, but like that shit conceptually was fine, the larger problem was that the enemy roster really couldn't stop you from just taking laps around the arena.

And they weirdly fixed that problem? While the previous game was a success no less. Dialing back the ammo econ, making enemies both more aggressive, and giving them more varied move selection while also doing this crazy thing called mixing your enemies together into a combat encounter, and having priority targets and shit like being able to neutralize an enemy attack, but not necessarily kill the enemy, so you can have multiple priorities to cycle through.

The weapons have more specific utility to help make certain enemies to deal with, and then hidden weapon combinations that are even better for a more finesse player, have your fingers dancing on that keyboard and making active decisions constantly. It's the most get good game single player wise to release in ages. And not like the bullshit that gets gassed up where like the player has no like no fucking options, and you play a lame overly cautious game. One where the player actually has to have some finesse and execution. Crazy I know.