I'm curious if there was a game out there that people played that they absolutely loved, spent hours and hours upon but nobody else had ever played or even heard of (not a blockbuster title).
For me this game was
Way of the Samurai on the PS2. Way back in 2002 it was a simple game where you played as a samurai entering a mountain pass and there was a branching storyline where your actions determined the outcome of the conflicts between two warring Samurai clans, the local village, and the Meiji government.
I loved the open ended narrative that allowed for multiple endings (a series of still pictures rather than animation, it was a budgeted title). But my favorite aspect was the attention to detail when it came to the brief role playing sequences. There would be an event going on, such as a group of samurai from a local clan shaking down a restaurant for protection money. You have the option of ignoring the conflict and going on your way, telling the samurai thugs that they have to leave (causing a fight between your character and all three thugs), personally challenge their leader, or egging on the thugs.
And within these options there are variations of
how you could accomplish these goals. If they were accosting the restaurant owner and you pull out your sword the game recognizes this and the thugs take it as a challenge, same if you kicked one of the thugs. Imagine if you were doing a roleplaying sequence in Knights of the Old Republic and you responded to someone threatening you by saying nothing and just whipping out the lightsaber (which would be awesome, I think). The game even recognizes when you have your sword drawn so NPCs run in fear from you and people react angrily to you for your lack of responsibility with the sword. Didn't Elder Scrolls just barely add that kind of recognition in Skyrim?
I'm really big on options for solving problems/roleplaying so games like Oblivion, Fallout, and possibly Deus Ex are my bread and butter. What is your greatest game on one ever played?
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Specifically, I loved Trauma Team for the Wii but from what I've heard, it bombed big time. A little surprising since the earlier Trauma Center games sold respectably.
EDIT: I read that the Bit.Trip.Collection for the Wii didn't even sell 1k in its first month. The individual games are good and the collection adds new stuff so it's a shame the collection did so poorly.
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Amazing game with incredible multiplayer.
Split/Second was pretty overlooked too I remember, both brilliant games.
Didn't help that they both got released around the same time along with Modnation Racers too.
Criminally underrated game. Many people did play it but for the most part it got swept under the rug and for years we fought to get it released as freeware but finally it got released out for us again.
Goes from your top down RTS to a fully controllable 3D camera view, Unit customization...Massive tech trees so online games got crazy we used to have 5-6 hour long games with good players that would just escalate and escalate till WW3 basically broke out which would be amazing. 3 remote bases set up and they each get swarmed with 80 units a piece...sooo good. There were so many units on screen at a time for that time period it was just crazy. It had just so many great features for its time. Check it out as its freeware now!
http://wz2100.net/
Loved it though :P
My friend and me played that on the PS1! It was awesome!
So many good memories. :^:
"Oh that wrestling game?"
: (
For a more recent example, I am depressed that The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky for PSP didn't sell well for XSEED Games. It's super-popular in Japan, and for good reason. It's a charming JRPG with an delightful cast and a fun adventure story. XSEED did an incredible job localizing it, to the point where every time you check an empty treasure chest that you'd already looted, you get a different sarcastic message... something that wasn't present in the Japanese version. There are so many people who whine about how we don't have those great JRPGs like we did in the PS1-PS2 era, but then when this game appeared nobody bought it. Boo, hiss.
maybe WARGASM! Greatest game name ever. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wargasm
Codename Eagle maybe? That game was awesome, I sat at my computer for hours playing the demo over and over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtUrwcRF0PA
I don't know if this next one is really a game nobody played, but I loved it and I know it didn't do very well: Future Cop L.A.P.D.. Not for the single player (which was fun), but for the multiplayer, which was basically Herzog Zwei.
Well you answered your own question when you typed the word "PSP".
I was dusting the game shelf the other day when I passed over Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts. It's almost criminal how badly that game tanked. But on the other hand, I can't exactly blame it because the writing was nearly on the wall. An atrocious demo, released into a market that by and large wanted Banjo Threeie, not "Bear and bird go racing with a bucket of legos". If you went out on a limb and gave it a chance, you were rewarded with a pretty awesome game. I'm not one for do-it-yourself customization, and even I had a blast. But I can't fault anybody who passed it. They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but this cover and sample paragraph made it look like junk. I don't blame people for looking at it and walking away.
HOLY SHIT THIS!
Basically the game took place INSIDE THE INTERNET where wars were now fought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfLqqGFHHTA
It had multiplayer and was basically Battlefield WAY before Battlefield existed!
This game engine turned into a small game called Battlefield.
edit: actually, way more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYtQGzV_kEk&feature=related
was boss as fuck. The music is phenomenal.
Fable
Imperium Romanum
Both of these games names were later reused for other, completly different games. Always wondered if they were just never a "real" IP.
It was kind of cool, though. I think that Raw Danger was the greatest game that no one played, etc
Another game that was criminally poorly reviewed and didn't do well was Chibi Robo on the Gamecube. Most of the reviews knocked it for being a game primarily about doing chores, which if you played for more than an hour or two you'd know was bullshit and that they had put in 2 hours tops into their reviews. It was a fantastic game with fun gameplay and a quirky, heartwarming story. One of my favorites to this day. The DS sequel wasn't quite as good but had lots of new features that would have been fun to see in a proper sequel, like vehicles and building placement.
To this day no other game has managed to mix gameplay styles like that.
Oh man, same here, I loved this game.
I only realized years later what it actually was. I guess it's a sequel to a game called Shadow of the Comet, another Cthulhu mythos based point and click. I've been meaning to hunt it down sometime to play it.
They were released in 1985 and 1987, and (imo) still are the most advanced CRPGs ever released. They're non-linear sandbox games that feature, amongst a myriad of other things (which people were still discovering 20 years after release), NPCs with memories and personalities, NPC reactions based on what you wore, carried and your alignment, shopkeepers you could haggle with, rivaling guilds, disease carrying monsters with incubation times on the diseases and each disease carrying different symptoms, the ability to get drunk, starved, or bloated, tired (with blackouts as a result) and overencumbered (with slow movement as a result), weather simulation which included wind which could make your character cold (and prone to get a cold), magical weapons with their own personalities (if you were a good guy who stole a Sword of Demons, it would scream at you and summon more demons), and the list goes on and on and on... you could bribe zombies with corpses from other monsters you've killed for crying out loud!
Oh, and get this: The games were really musicals, with lyrics presented in a karaoke like fashion!
Also, it was released seven years before Wolfenstein 3D, yet features smooth scrolling texture mapped and mip-mapped 3D graphics. All in 128kb of memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Heaven
The start of this game was slow, confusing and boring and i'm sure most people who rented it were immediately turned off because of that. But once you got past the beginning it was a ton of fun. It has interesting turn based wrestling style combat that turned into a something awesome as you went through the game.
I only ever got a chance to rent it once, but Hybrid Heaven definitely left an impression on me, in a good way.
Hi 5. I only played it's cousin, Sacrifice, and it's descendant Brutal Legend.
Battlezone 1 and 2 however run circles around all three. It had mo-fuggin hover tanks every tank you build had it's own weapons, health, ammo, and pilot inside and was pilotable by the player, who could either charge into battle with a ton of tanks at their command, or jump out of the cockpit and into the comfort of a control tower to command in a traditional RTS perspective.
Even had a freaking documentary with the game.
All the Deception games are twisted fun, but this is Tecmo madness at its finest.
Shiiit, I remember this game. There was a port for the NES called Rescue: Embassy Mission or something like that. That was awesome, like a proto-SWAT/Rainbow Six.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
Shake shake!
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
Baten Kaitos was holy shit amazing. The backgrounds were some of the most beautiful in any RPG.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6VhyMzu12c
Freespace 2 - One of the best games ever made. Sold less than 100,000 on release, if I recall correctly. Killed an entire genre. I'm required by law to post it in every underappreciated/underplayed game thread.
YES! Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is the obvious one. Another Wii game that I have to keep shouting about is Trackmania. This is so completely ridiculous since it's been dropped to $10 months ago and is at least on par with Mario Kart Wii in every way.
I don't think they made a lot of copies of it. In Canada, I didn't see it be sold anywhere except at EB Games but only through their website.
But you want to know of a game that didn't even get that? A game that came out in the U.S. but not in Canada? TRACKMANIA! (except a little while ago on Amazon.....but only the french version.)
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
Spoiler contains Friend Codes. Won't you be my friend?
More Friend Codes!
Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
Genius bit's in the puzzles, with each character specializing in something to get through various environments. It's really more of an adventure game where you occasionally shoot stuff. Good level design too, there's a good sense that you're going into places that've been abandoned for years. Also, quicksaving and quickloading are literally instantaneous; to date I have not seen a game that loads as fast. It's a small thing, I know, but still impressive.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
I still play this with some friends of mine every once in awhile. I also introduced this to a guy I work with (the portable version from portableapps.com) and he played it non-stop at work for months. I love the huge research trees and all of the options for designing your units, and I love that you used radar units to let your mortar and artillery units shoot farther.