Biggest Surprises and Letdowns in Gaming?

[SpOoNmAn]

Another wild and wacky thread from yours truly The Surprises will be of the positive type Thank You

*My list will change as time goes by and I remember more......

-Not in any specific order:

Pleasant Surprises:
1. Tomb Raider 1 was as good as promised and then some! [Saturn]
2. Soul Calibur was waaaaay better than I expected! [Dreamcast]
3. Brute Force 4player system-link weekend parties, best time ever! [Xbox]
4. Unreal in 1998. Not only a graphical feat but the Skaarj moment changed gaming for me. [PC]
5. Condemned, freakin creepy and great story! [360]
6. The Rallisport Series killed all other rally racers b4 them [Xbox]
7. Tomb Raider Legend..Lara is back baby!! [360]
8. Bill Gates threw his hat into the Console market via the Xbox!
9. Half Life, no comments needed [PC]
10. Oblivion being as big as it is! Is this possible?! [360]
11. GUN being very fun to play and being well balanced [360]
12. Unreal Tournament (1999), still most fun MP game ever! [PC]
13. Code Veronica, I despised all RE's before this one [Dreamcast]
14. FABLE. I didnt let the hype monster get me and Loved this one! [Xbox]
15. Aliens Vs Predator on Atari Jaguar!
16. Splinter Cell changed stealth gaming. Go Sam! [Xbox]
17. Splinter Cell 3 actually surpassed the original masterpiece! [Xbox]
18. Dead Rising [360]


Letdowns:
1. Halo 2. Still disgusted it lacked Coop syslink/Live. SP story was horrid, playing as Arbitor was a joke.
2. Tomb Raider 4(Revelations?) was the 1st in a long line of crappy TR games [Dreamcast]
3. CSK wouldnt save Sega and let them die, forcing them to bow out of the hardware race.
4. Sony buying rights to Tomb Raider 2 and 3, forcing me to buy a ps1, only to have it try and slice my neck! SOLD!
5. Aliens Vs Predator(FPS) didnt make it onto Xbox
6. Ken Kutaragi is still breathing
7. People still buy EA games even when year after year they complain that their quality continues to drop. STOP supporting them!
8. Chrome Hounds...Oh my [360]
9. Team Shanghai was put in charge of Splinter Cell 2 [Xbox]
10. PD Zero...TOTAL PILE! [360]

[Wondermonkey]

Pleasant Surprises:
1. Halo 2: Playing as the Arbiter. I don't think the gaming public was ready to play from the point of view of an enemy, which is understandable. It shook their world. I liken it to people in the current state of the world being forced to see something from the point of view as a Taliban member, most don't have the life experience to do that. This is unfortunate because it added a brand new dynamic to First Person Shooters, and forced the player to see that the enemy is only the enemy by title.
2. Oblivion: That I actually enjoyed playing as much as I did. Never have I enjoyed an RPG before, and even though it was a hybrid RPG, I loved it.
3. Condemned: Reviews weren't the best so I was reluctant to pick this up. Scariest game I've played to date.
4. Psychonauts: Just plain awesome.
5. Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (co-op): Loved it, didn't expect that at all. The whole game was just amazing.

Letdowns:
1. Dead Rising: I never thought a save feature or timed everything could ruin a game so much for me. Plus, it killed my 360, so it had that going against it.
2. Battlefied 2 Modern Combat: what?
3. Enter the Matrix: The final level transported me back to 1987, and not in a good way.
4. Barbie Wild Horse Adventures: lack of nudity killed this for me.
5. Chrome Hounds: I didn't buy or play it, but was really excited for it and then when I watched all the videos and game play reviews, dropped it from my want list.

[SpOoNmAn]

Thanks for posting, it got lonely in here! Reminder, this doesnt just deal with Xbox and 360. Post anything that deals with the Industry on a whole. Post up people!

[Crankbait]

Letdown -

PacMan- Atari 2600, after all the hype, this is what it looks like?

[Rhino Chaser]

When I found out that Wondermonkey was really a person and not an intelligent typing ape who had escaped from some govt lab and who had been plotting the overthrow of our current society until he discovered beer, couches, and the xbox.

[SpOoNmAn]

*sigh*

my threads are never taken seriously

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by Rhino Chaser

When I found out that Wondermonkey was really a person and not an intelligent typing ape who had escaped from some govt lab and who had been plotting the overthrow of our current society until he discovered beer, couches, and the xbox.

Wait, was this a letdown or a pleasant surprise?

[blars]

Pleasant Surprises:

- Halo 2: I played Halo only one time before Halo 2 came out (had a PS2, and eventually decided xbox was better). One of the best multiplayer games I have played. It's tons of fun and frustrating at the same time (12 year olds, anyone?).

- COD2: Had never played a COD game before, or any game in the WWII genre for that matter, but the graphics, single player, and multiplayer turned out to be pretty darn good (especially after they patched the multiplayer).

- Twisted Metal 2 for PS1: This game got my roommate and I through our sophomore year in college.

Letdowns:

- NCAA 2005: Stadium Pulse = gay.

- Ghost Recon 2: I was really into Ghost Recon and Ghost Recon Island Thunder for xbox, and was looking forward to GR2. They shouldn't have messed with a good thing. I understand trying to tinker with something to make it better, but they took a big step backwards in my opinion.

I'm sure there's some others, but cant think of any at the moment.

[SpOoNmAn]

Originally Posted by Wondermonkey2k

Pleasant Surprises:
1. Halo 2: Playing as the Arbiter. I don't think the gaming public was ready to play from the point of view of an enemy, which is understandable. It shook their world. I liken it to people in the current state of the world being forced to see something from the point of view as a Taliban member, most don't have the life experience to do that. This is unfortunate because it added a brand new dynamic to First Person Shooters, and forced the player to see that the enemy is only the enemy by title.

My reason for disliking it is simpler than that.

I waited 2 years to play as the Chief to save humanity. The story line b4 I was thrusted into the arbiters world was already tediously lame, so that didnt help matters. If I felt the overall plot was really good, maybe I wouldnt have felt so negatively about playing as the arbiter, but that wasnt the case. Bungie has a LOT to make up for b4 until I buy what they are calling Halo 3.

I played thru the game twice in SP to make sure I wasnt missing something. I was right the 1st time unfortunately

Halo had many moments/cutscenes that were memorable, the best being when he met the flood. That scene where he opened the door and heard voices and the soldier fell on him. One of the best moments in gaming, period. I cant think of a single thing in part 2 that had me looking forward to getting to the next area.

[Wondermonkey]

Originally Posted by SpOoNmAn

I waited 2 years to play as the Chief to save humanity. The story line b4 I was thrusted into the arbiters world was already tediously lame, so that didnt help matters. If I felt the overall plot was really good, maybe I wouldnt have felt so negatively about playing as the arbiter, but that wasnt the case. Bungie has a LOT to make up for b4 until I buy what they are calling Halo 3.

Interesting. So you think that Chief was fighting for humanity?

[KEEZY]

I'm glad you mentioned Enter the Matrix. Terrible. That hacking option was pretty cool though!

For now, I'd have to mention PDZ, Battlefield 2 for Xbox/360, LOTR:BFME as let downs. Not huge letdowns, but letdowns nonetheless.

I'm feeling really lazy, so I'll just list one pleasant suprise. My dad bought me this strange looking game called "The Neverhood" when I was growing up. It was some odd claymation game, but it turned out to be one of my most memorable gaming experiences. I know I always bring this game up, but it's because it's so fun and different from other games.

[Jon Liu]

Real Time Weapon Change!!!

[CamDawg]

Biggest surprises:
COD2 on the 360: I still can't believe how much I enjoyed this game. This is my second favorite game on the 360 so far (right behind Oblivion).
Star Wars Jedi Knight series (normally First Person shooters make me sick, but these games were so awesome I was able to play through them).
Mech Warriors on the Xbox - great game
Mercenaries -- Great Game, came out of nowhere.
Rainbow Six Series on the PC - Loved these games
Thief Games on the PC - The first one came out of nowhere and was awesome
Baldur's Gate - Bioware's 1st major game -- a lot of folks were concerened that these may be more hype than anything else; were they ever wrong.

Biggest Letdowns:
- Unreal on the PC -- complete waste of time/money for me. It had enormous system requirements at the time and just didn't seem to deliver much. I've enjoyed some of the follow-up games.
- Halo on the XBox (let the flaming begin). I enjoyed it at first, but am I the only one who thought the indoor levels sucked!!! They were the same thing over, and over, and over again.
- Battlefied on the 360 -- I just think this one sucked.
- Pools of Radiance remake on the PC - any game that formats your hard drive for you has to be considered a major disappointment.I was really, really, really pumped about a remake of a classic gold boc AD&D game for the PC. This game was just filled with bugs (including the infamous hard drive formatting one).

[KEEZY]

Poolrad! My dad had me playing that. I will agree that the indoor levels of Halo were a bit much at times, but overall I still loved the game.

[SpOoNmAn]

Youre not alone in your overall Halo opinion.

Halo wasnt a letdown for me because I had no expectations of it. Some of the cutscenes were memorable but other than that, the levels were bland, the 4 player split screen was fun for only a couple of days(I cannot stand splitscreen anything), and I still think the graphics sucked compared to other titles. It made for some decent lan parties with 8 of us but that was only because there were no others out yet. That changed when Recon and others hit!

Oh, and like its predecessor, the only thing I really liked was the music/soundtrack See, I can be objective. A blinded MS zombie would say it rocked just because Bungie is owned by MS. I see it as them having a higher standard to adhere 2, and thus far they've failed me miserably(I'm in the minority seeing as how many fans there are), as has Rare. Thats for another day

[SHIBUMI]

Originally Posted by blars