11 replies to this topic

[xg4bx]

i recently rediscovered the assassins creed series. i played some of the 1st one and thought it was meh. played the 2nd when it came out and got bored before the first assassination.

however on a recent trip to a gaming emporium i decided to give them another go. the series is extremely popular and beloved and i wanted to get back into them "fresh" and with a bit of distance to see if my opinion changed.

i now love the series and see what the hype is about. it genuinely surprises me that a series of games with a pretty deep story and heavy on history actually does so well in this "pew pew pew" day and age of shooters. i even want to pick up the novels to get more of the story.

any games you "rediscovered" and ended up liking the 2nd or even 3rd time around?

[Austin]

Quake 4. I originally got it for the 360 on launch day, but was unimpressed with it. It had framerate issues, was difficult (in a bad way), and took for-freakin'-ever to load after dying. It left a bad taste in my mouth, especially considering Perfect Dark Zero was more impressive and played better overall.

A couple of years later, I snagged the PC version for a good price. My opinion on the game changed completely with that one. Higher resolution visuals (naturally), a much smoother framerate, keyboard and mouse controls, and nearly instant load times. It was much more of a joy to play and I still go back to it once in a while. I even revisited the 360 version and finished it without too much trouble. Being familiar with the PC game really helped (that, and turning auto-aim on). It's still the lowest point in the Quake series to me, but it's a solid game that I enjoy these days.

[toptenmaterial]

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. Glad I did!

[Skarrj]

Bioshock. I absolutley hated the game when I first played it at launch, came back to it a few years later and had some fun with it. The lack of soutpaw mapping ruined it the first time around. I found a contlroller that lets me remap everything and it worked out ok.

[Emehr]

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Between the horrible acting ("Die monster!") and the extreme guitar-shredding soundtrack at the beginning, I was totally not impressed with the direction the franchise was taking. Tried it again a couple years later and enjoyed it a lot more once I got past the awkward beginning.

I still need to give Super Mario 64 its second chance because I hear it's all kinds of awesome but I'm just not seeing it.

[Reaperman]

Maybe I'll give Assassin's Creed 2 another shot. The drive-by historical references initially made me cringe, and I found the meat of the gameplay to alternate between boring and annoying.

I can't think of any successful second chances recently, but for older games:

Chrono Trigger took me multple attempts for me to get more than an hour or two in. I just could not identify enough to the characters to understand why the story was happening. Once I got far enough in to see some of the neat time-related details it hooked me.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday has a couple really slow intro missions before the world opens up, and that took me a couple tries as well.

[SlowCoder]

Of recent, I'd say Burnout Paradise. I'd bought it with my PS3, played it a couple of times, and thought meh. Left it alone for about a year, until my son picked it up and played. He was doing things with it I didn't know about, so I gave it another chance. Found online mode, and absolutely fell in love. I've easily logged multi-thousands of hours on it, much longer than any other game I have for the PS3.

[cimerians]

GIJoe
Duke Nukem Forever
Spider Man Friend or Foe
Dragon Age II (Sloooooowwww start but by the middle to the end it was ok)

[MagitekAngel]

Fable II - right now, actually.

[Mad Scientist]

Epic Kirby: it was putting me to sleep. I gave it a second chance once my 6 y.o. got more adept with the Wiimote, and it has been a fun co-op game.

[NE146]

1. Stampede. I thought this game was a total dud especially since I only wanted "space" games and the whole western theme seemed out of place on my modern video game system. Well.. 20+ years later as an adult I think it's a great/challenging game.

2., Ok.. Call of Duty (starting with COD4 in particular). Not only was I rabid anti-COD, but I was also rabid ANTI-FPS for years and years since just after Doom. I thought Quake sucked. Duke Nukem 3D? Not for me. I hated FPS with a passion. And after debating and ridiculing people non-stop about playing COD4 on IRC, I ended up playing it for the hell of it one night. Well, my FPS hatred eventually melted away like the friggin Winter Warlock from Santa Clause is coming to Town. Now, it's pretty much the only thing I play on the 360.

<-- COD sucker

[theloon]

I gave up on Fallout 3 as a kid in the vault. Controls were pseudo-PC lame and didn't dig the staged storyline bull. Came back to it months later and really got into it after leaving the vault.

Phantom Brave was waaay too complicated and rather tough to get started. Once again, came back to it a month later and really enjoyed it after getting past the first few levels.

Pretty much shunned GTA: Vice City as just another third person run-and-gun with bad controls. I was taunted into actually trying it and figured out I could ignore the missions and perform 1337 stuntz like mad. Still playing it today.