The Hot Topic Returns

[spatular]

Unclear if this counts but driveclub, not sure how much this was hyped, but I think it was? I was a bit sceptical, although it looked good, I think the handling in the motor storm games is a bit boring, although I liked the rc one. Then driveclub comes along and the handling/graphics/tracks are all great, shame the online/leaderboards (a big part of the game) was totally screwed for a while after launch.

[DANGERMAN]

Street Fighter 4 I thought was being built up to fail given how idiosyncratic the Street fighter 3 games were, but it was outstanding.

 

Witcher 3, I wasn't really sure I wanted an open world Witcher game but it's one of the greatest games of all time and somehow better than the already pretty special Witcher 2

 

edit: the king of this is probably Sonic 2. It had its own day, Sonic 2sday and is regarded by most as the best in the series 

[mfnick]

I’ve got a recent one for me but I don’t know if mine counts because the hype and acclaim was over 20 years ago. 
 

Final Fantasy VII. From what I remember the hype around it was ridiculous at launch and it has basically been hailed as a classic ever since. I only played it recently and my expectations were definitely exceeded. Although I definitely had lower expectations to what I would have back then just because of the passage of time and how things improve. But I can’t emphasise enough how much I loved it.  
 

Like I say, not sure it counts because of time and how my expectations will have changed over it but that’s my immediate choice. 

[bellow]

I think Breath of the wild fits the bill. Of course the hype surrounding any Zelda is a bit weird, but I remember stories of unknown freedoms for this. And then Nintendo released a statement about the game being 'open air' rather than 'open world.'

 

Of course everyone just assumed Ninty had fucked up and were arse covering in some way. Then the game released and the reality of what had been achieved became apparent.

[Hendo]

Yeah, BotW for me too.

Aside from all the glowing reviews and online opinions, a mate was raving about it and then lent me his copy when he was done.

I was initially sceptical and didn’t have the best time with it at the start but I carried on going and it truly is one of the best games I’ve ever played.

 

I can also add Deadly Premonition to that. First impressions weren’t good and all I could think was that the whole praise behind it was an elaborate ironic joke that the internet was in on.

Turns out to be a (heavily flawed) masterpiece.

[one-armed dwarf]

BOTW is the answer I'd have to the opposite question to this. A game from a series I did not like that looked like crap from a distance but actually ended up being one of my all time favourite games.

 

Just turn off the HUD and wander around. It's so good that it made me want to travel more.

[Nag]

FF VII is a perfect shout @mfnick

[mfnick]

I need to give BotW another shot.

Initially I enjoyed it but fell off so hard. Most areas I tried going to or exploring were just a utter pain in arse to get through. I went somewhere it was too cold and kept dieing from that before getting anywhere, another area had enemies which killed me almost instantly. Another route I went basically had a massive cliff which would have taken an age to either climb of walk around. Having such a landmass while only being able to run for a short time due to that stingy stamina meter was really annoying. The controls are confusing as hell. It just seemed to make exploring too much of a faff to be enjoyable IMO. I’ll give it another try though, far too many people rate it so highly I need to see if it’ll click for me. 

[spatular]

yeah botw and witcher 3 are good shouts for the same reason, i didn't want them to be open world but they turned out really great anyway, although i still probably prefer earlier games in each series.

[DisturbedSwan]

Probably my Top 3 (Fallout 3, Skyrim and TLOU). 
 

I picked up Fallout 3 second hand on eBay about a year or so after it came out, I had never finished an RPG before that and I hated what little I played of Oblivion. It was a revelation to me and went on to become my favourite game of all time.

 

Similar story with Skyrim. I liked Fallout but was trepidatious about picking up another Elder Scrolls game after having a bad time with Oblivion. Played it and the rest was history, completely lost all sense of time and place playing that game, incredible.

 

With TLOU I always thought Naughty Dog were a little overrated due to never quite loving the original Uncharted trilogy as much as others. With TLOU I had no idea what to expect at all, and I was absolutely blown away with it, the opening to that game to this day is one of the very best ever, it astounded me and had me in tears within the first 30 minutes, what a game.

[HandsomeDead]

I'd agree with everyone else that said The Last of Us.  I'm a bit trepaditious around Naughty Dog games but I got it and was delighted at it being the kind of game I'd like and solved the problems I personally have with the Uncharted series.  2018's God of War is also a very similar situation. 

 

I'll say Splatoon too.  I was so stoked at its E3 reveal and when it came out it exceeded the considerable amount of hype I had for it.  Its a total A-tier Nintendo game for me. 

 

Speaking of which I want to say Super Mario Odeysee.  Mario games are a safe pair of hands and pretty much always enjoy them a lot but Odeysee still surprised me.  For the most part I think 3D Mario games just get better but I started to wonder if they can keep it up, especially since they'd not done a "true" 3D iteration for so long.  But I think they killed it.  Love Odeysee. 

[Jimboxy]

@HandsomeDead good to see some love for Odyssey, I personally love it, but a lot of people seem indifferent about it.

[radiofloyd]

Final Fantasy IX - I loved FFVIII. It’s probably “the” game that made me a gamer, so i was very excited for this. It cost 50 Irish pounds at launch which i’m pretty sure was more expensive than any other game my parents had bought for me up to that point. I remember having a fight with my mother because it took ages for me to reach the the first save point and she was screaming at my to come off it (simpler times). Well, it didn’t disappoint and i played it at least three times.

 

San Andreas - I had huge expectations for this game, all my friends had been playing it and telling me how good it was. I was still getting all my gaming news from magazines at the time. I remember Play magazine gave it 99% which is something i’d never seen before. And i loved it from start to finish. I remember pedaling around Grove St at the beginning thinking “holy fuck”.

 

Guitar Hero 2 - We got a double whammy of GH in 2006.  I’d been hammering the first game since it launched in April, and i think this came out in November. Needless to say it surpassed my expectations, stole about two years of my life and drove my mother up the wall.

The Witcher 3. I finally played this last year and it easily deserves the accolades and critical acclaim. Where do you even start? They just knocked it out of the park.

 

Final Fantasy VII Remake - Loved this from start to finish too, so good. FFVII is not my favourite classic FF but i still played it in primary school and have very found memories of it, this game reminded me of that and managed to feel like a Squaresoft game as well as a cutting edge 2020 game.

 

 

[Nag]

 

Quote

GameCentral readers name the most famous games they’ve never played, from Skyrim to Resident Evil.

 

The question for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Podge, who asked what’s the most famous video game that you’ve somehow avoided? Was it because you didn’t have the right console or PC, because it didn’t appeal at the time, or simply because you didn’t have the money?

 

Almost every famous franchise of recent times got a mention, but as you’d expect it was format exclusives such as Mario, Halo, and Uncharted that were the most common.

 

[Rikzilla]

I have never played Half Life 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, or Minecraft.

[mfnick]

A lot of PC based games for me. Including a few genres I’m just not interested in.

 

No MMO’s, barely played any RTS games like Starcraft, No MOBA’s. 
Never played Minecraft. Zero interest. 
 

 

Cant think of any major, famous console games which would surprise anyone such as Mario, or GTA or something like that. From what I can remember I’ve at least tried all major ones. Maybe Skyrim? But even that I don’t see surprising people even though it’s a huge seller and on every platform ever. 

 

[Nag]

I've never played a single Zelda game...

 

And tbf there's a shitload of "classics" I've not played.

[mfnick]

1 minute ago, Nag said:

I've never played a single Zelda game...

 

Wow! That’s a biggie. 

[OCH]

I'd second the PC stuff, including games like Diablo, Minecraft and WoW. As far as console games go: Animal Crossing, Borderlands, Crash Bandicoot, Monster Hunter, Red Dead and Call of Duty. I also haven't played a "normal" driving game since Gran Turismo on the PSOne.

[Nag]

Just now, mfnick said:

Wow! That’s a biggie. 

 

It's no great secret that I have no real love for Nintendo but I can at least say I've played a Mario and Metroid game.