That time of the year again - biggest supprise of the year

Gizzard

Civ 4 is excellent, was realy expecting another lazy upgrade but they really did a great job of it.

Dragon Quest 8, best console RPG I have played in years, that includes recent FF games

Nokia Ngage discontinued (only joking)

RE4 on the PS2 was as good as the Gamecube, pleasently supprised

DS better then the PSP so far in the gaming department, shocked more then supprised

steviec

Fahrenheit, I'd never heard of it, then read an intriguing review, then played it and loved it, for a whole weekend at least...

Mercury, gotta be one of the least hyped games on the PSP and also one of the most interesting and original.

Psychonauts managed to be a fresh platform game and a lot of fun to play.

Microsoft seem to have finally made a controller that doesn't cause permanent injury when you attempt to hold it.

December Son

Quake 4 being surprisingly enjoyable.
Dod:source being more fun than battlefield 2.
The amount of noobs who jumped on the BF2 stat whore bandwagon and helped ruin the game for veteran BF players

madrab

warriors, i wasnt expecting anything from it & then blown away by how good it was
another surprise was the actual graphical difference between the cube & ps2, never noticed it my self until playing re4 on both

Retr0gamer

The DS doing so well and being a far better console than the PSP. Even I had my doubts. I never expected the DS to come close to PSP sales. At the moment it is doing slightly better than the PSP. Never thought the stylus would be such a great idea either.

God of War came out of nowhere and became one of the best action games of this generation. Who would have thought that the developer behind twisted metal would have made such a great game. Just like Gunstar Heroes it is a testiment to what a developer can do when allowed to make the games it wants to create. They also listened to all the criticism they received from their preview builds.

madrab

you didnt like twisted metal? tm2 is one of my favourite 2 player games ever

Retr0gamer

They weren't exactly classics and I found the early Destruction Derby games more fun and was playing better DM games on PC at the time. Also they weren't exactly filled with the freeform combat or excellent art style that was present in GoW.

thelordofcheese

Lego star wars, i'm not sure if it was released this year, or at the end of last, but nothing else i've played this year has come close to putting as big a smile on my face.

The only thing i demand is a sequel, set during the original three films.
DEMAND! *shakes fist*

Illuvatar

Three words GOD OF WAR. By far it was the most entertaining game it did what it was supposed to and more. I just hope if they make a sequel (which they probably will) it will be just as good as the first. Yes the PSP has and still sucks a little bit but the DS is nothing to be happy about the touch screen is just plain annoying and I will expect them to change it with their next version.

Ciaran500

Illuvatar wrote:

the DS is nothing to be happy about the touch screen is just plain annoying and I will expect them to change it with their next version.

Huh?

Stephen

December Son wrote:

Quake 4 being surprisingly enjoyable.
Dod:source being more fun than battlefield 2.
The amount of noobs who jumped on the BF2 stat whore bandwagon and helped ruin the game for veteran BF players

I agree 100% (except for quake 4, haven't played it and am reluctant to get a doom 3-engined game after D3 being such a boring *monster-spawns-behind-you-in-the-dark-all-the-bloody-time* experience). BF2 was amusing for a while, but the lamer/stat whore ratio eventually shot through the ceiling. Since DoD source came out I haven't touched BF2.
I get bored of DoD source after a while due to there being only 5 maps, so I go play something completely different, such as a racing game. Then I come back to it and its all good again

December Son

Stephen wrote:

BF2 was amusing for a while, but the lamer/stat whore ratio eventually shot through the ceiling. Since DoD source came out I haven't touched BF2.
I get bored of DoD source after a while due to there being only 5 maps, so I go play something completely different, such as a racing game. Then I come back to it and its all good again

Yeah i played BF2 for a few months until it became apparrent that all the CS kiddies with thier 'OMG I GOTZ MY SPEC OPS BADGE IM TEH LEET' were ruining my enjoyment of it.
Dod is excellent, it even eclipsed the multiplayer of Cod 2 for me. Cod 2 MP is like the axis and allies playing hide and seek, Dod is like a full on fist fight between patton and rommel in a wardrobe. Bad analogy but you know what i mean

madrab

December Son wrote:

Yeah i played BF2 for a few months until it became apparrent that all the CS kiddies with thier 'OMG I GOTZ MY SPEC OPS BADGE IM TEH LEET' were ruining my enjoyment of it.
Dod is excellent, it even eclipsed the multiplayer of Cod 2 for me. Cod 2 MP is like the axis and allies playing hide and seek, Dod is like a full on fist fight between patton and rommel in a wardrobe. Bad analogy but you know what i mean

thought that was a pretty good analogy, rommel ftw!!!

another surprise
darwinia really came form nowhere & turned out quite special

OptimusMime

Has to be the DS, who would have thought this time last year, eh?

It is the most fun console I have ever played with and I for one have spent more money on it that I've ever spent in the first year of any console I've ever owned!

Not just because it's impossible to pirate on either

Even though it is so new, some of it's games have to be in my All Time top 20, which I could waffle on about for pages, but I'll spare ya!

Also the PSP turning out to be so 'meh' despite the fact that against all odds, also most of its dozens of racers were actually ****ing great.

Another surprise, for me, was how 'meh' some of the year's biggest releases were... GT4, GTA:SA (PC), and MGS3 i am looking at you!

Also Shadow the Hedgehog... How the feck did they think that would be a good idea, eh?

Bet ya that meeting didn't go anything like this :rolleyes:

SonicTeamGuy1: Hey how come our 3-d Sonic games were received so poorly?

SonicTeamGuy2: I dunno, maybe their wasn't enough guns in there for those gaijin fecks.

SonicTeamGuy1: Yeah we definitely need more guns I guess...

SonicTeamGuy2: ... Are you serious? I was joking. Isn't the whole idea of Sonic a non-violent utopian society ruined by modern technology...

SonicTeamGuy1: Um, yeah I guess...

SonicTeamMoneyGuy: Did someone say guns??? Hmmm guns=profit... DO IT! Maybe we should use that **** Shadow so we can disavow it if it goes tit-up...

SonicTeamGuyMarketer: Genius guys! I can totally sell this to those foolish yankees.

...

Or how about Shadow of the Collosus not being the greatest game ever, that totally surprised me too. Oh and for teh PeeCee, trackMania Sunrise was EVEN MORE FUN than it's predecessor, great stuff.

I've got more, but I'll stop there...

Laguna

Biggest surprise?. Perfect Dark Zero, for being utter ****.

OptimusMime

Laguna wrote:

Biggest surprise?. Perfect Dark Zero, for being utter ****.

Ah from RARE's recent track record it would have surprised me if PDZ wasn't ****.

And I used to be one of their biggest fans way back when...

Retr0gamer

OptimusMime wrote:

Or how about Shadow of the Collosus not being the greatest game ever, that totally surprised me too.

Not the best game ever but very nearly game of the year for me. I adored it while it lasted which unfortunately wasn't very long. The framerate was also atrocious at times. Wasn't a surprise for me. I expected it to be brilliant:D

sprinkles

Biggest surprose of the year:

DS - I have both a DS and PSP and I really only play my DS, advance wars DS...brilliant.

Call of Duty 2 - Don't really count on sequels but this was almost perfect.

But the biggest fo them all : King Kong. Best movie adaptation ever?? I think so.

Oh: everybody's golf for th PSP was a surptise also. Great game and imo the best on the psp

madrab

yeah sotc was really good, just finished it on christmas eve, short but good pity about the framerate, imagine what their ps3 offeringswill be like

OptimusMime

Retr0gamer wrote:

Not the best game ever but very nearly game of the year for me. I adored it while it lasted which unfortunately wasn't very long. The framerate was also atrocious at times. Wasn't a surprise for me. I expected it to be brilliant:D

haha... what the feck are ya on about?

Are you agreeing with me?

What I said was that I was surprised that SotC was not excellent and was in fact so shallow, short and ultimately irrelevant, it was good, but I doubt I'd ever play it again. Whereas I (and everyone else, I guess) was expecting a magnum opus of a game.

Kare Bear

Dragon Quest 8, best console RPG I have played in years, that includes recent FF games

Is that out in europe?

Retr0gamer

Not yet but will be out in February. Have to agree that it is rather special. i'd like to say it's the first decent game from Square Enix since FFX but they only published it.

I'm not agreeing with you OptimusMime. I thought Shadow of the Colossuswas one of the best games of this generation probably one of the top 5. Definitely wasn't shallow for me. Haven't been as involved in a game universe since Panzer Dragoon RPG.