Games you played late, and you were disappointed you didn't play sooner.

I can extend that to vice versa, where you finally played the game, and you were disappointed by the game. For me though, there have been more than a few in which I was disappointed I didn't play on release, or at least sooner. Currently, the game was Fable 2. I adored the first Fable back in 04; I rented it a couple of times, it was when I was 14 and had no money to spend on buying a game unless I got birthday money, and still rented games. I played Lost Chapters in 06 or 07 I believe, and I still enjoyed it, but like my latest time with the Anniversary which I beat before two (as I got the entire trilogy), it was still good, but not as good as my fond memories of it in 04. Two from the get-go, I was impressed and surprised by just how different it was by comparison to the first, granted it still retains many of the same aspects. I just beat it earlier which lasted 22 hours, and I really enjoyed it a lot. Now I am playing three, at the very beginning. I am already surprised by it, just by the fact the protagonists speaks. So, what games do you find it unfortunate to had played late, or games you played late, and wish you hadn't?

I mean its not that unfortunate, but I wish I had played Life is Strange last year. Would have totally ended up in my top 10 list.

Xcom, i bought in 2012 and just played it in decemember. Will not make that miatake with 2 lol.

Fez. I still love it, but a lot of what makes it great was spoiled for me before hand.

As somebody who enjoyed vanilla Diablo III, I'm still kind of shocked at how much better the game is with recent patches and Reaper of Souls. I started my first season character and I'm just having a hell of a time with it the past two or so months.

When I played GTA IV in 2012.

And now that I am playing it for the first time, GTA V.

Well I wish I got into PC gaming in the late 90's not 2005 so I miss some good shit at the time.

Max Payne rented on ps2 and didn't care for it because it was a shit port played it on PC in 2007 or 08 can't remember and became one of my fav games of all time still go back to it to this day.

Medal of Honor allied assault started playing in around 05.

Half Life 2

Max Payne 2 pretty much same story as Max Payne experience.

Metal Gear Solid. I first played the series a couple of years ago, I loved them as a grown ass man, but they would have fucking blown me away if I had played them as they were released.

Too many. Beat Metroid Prime two years ago and had my mind blown. Fucking masterpiece. Also beat Persona 3 that same year, another stunner.

@Levius said:

Verbatim this.

I feel deep into Massive Chalice about a week ago. That game is fantastic and has an amazing score. It's also made me ruminate a bit about the passage of time.

Chrono Trigger is a game that I loved as a 21 year old, still love as a 24 year old, and would have loved as a child. Granted, I would still be coming to it late as it came out when I was five, but I played the SNES a lot even when I had a PS1.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Mostly because it would have been a decent excuse to get an Xbox One. I don't actually regret waiting to play the game itself (it looks fantastic on PC), but I want to have a need for all consoles.

Final Fantasy X

Bought it as a platinum game when physically browsing games. I didn't really want to play it, but I wanted to play something new, and it was the only thing that didn't look like garbage. Turned out to be my favorite game of all time (at that specific time). I was blown away by just about everything about it. And it was my first real RPG. I loved it to death.

Ghouls and Goblins

I loved the game on the SNES, but I was still a child at the time. We rented it, I really wanted to keep it, but wasn't allowed to. I was told I could buy it when I was older. Then there was that magical period all parents love: I forgot about it eventually. But I only realized I could play that game a couple years ago, and by that time it was 'too late'. I bought it, but no longer enjoyed playing it. Which sucks because I remember truly loving it as a kid and I would have liked it if I remembered earlier.

I'm playing Bloodborne at the moment and really enjoying it, didn't really like Dark Souls that much so I'm a bit disappointed I missed out on the main conversations about this last year.

Played my first Etrian Odyssey game (Untold 2 for the 3DS) fairly recently. Why the fuck aren't more people out there championing that series? Holy shit, it's so good.

Borderlands 2 + Pre-Sequel. I owned 2 for some time, but only played it a couple of hours. Then I played Tales from the Borderlands, loved it, bought the Pre-Sequel because it had Athena in it...and now I have 100hrs combined playtime in both games, I literally didn't play anything else in january. I already thought I was maybe lost on the whole loot game formula, but apparently a thin story hook is enough for me to actually enjoy those kinda games.

Like the Etrian Odyssey comment above, I just started up my copy of Elminage Gothic I bought on Steam years ago, and damn, that's one hell of a traditional Japanese Wizardry-like. Kinda ugly in parts, but damn if I don't love me some tile based first person dungeon crawlers with character recruitment at the inn and all that.

@captain_insano: That's a game I haven't played simply because I hadn't finished Dark Souls or Demon's Souls, nor even played Dark Souls 2. I enjoy them other than the fact I feel I have to grind to get through, and I don't like staying in one place for too long, as in those games, what intrigues me are the new locations and new enemies, so I haven't finished them. I'd rather go play a game that grants me faster satisfaction I suppose... Bloodborne looks good too, and it seems like I game I'd be disappointed I didn't play sooner.

Super Metroid - For how much I loved Symphony of the Night, I'm not really sure why I never got into this game as a kid. I was the perfect age when it came out. The game is a masterpiece.

Metal Gear Solid - I played around with MGS2, but absolutely hated the controls, so I never went back and gave MGS1 a chance. I finally got around to it years later, and it's a pretty good game. It might have been mind blowing had I played it around release, but as it is I appreciate how well it was made.

Everything else is only a couple years late at most, so I'm not sure it should really count.

I just got into Titanfall, but I wish I was playing it when it was still active. Best FPS I have ever played.

I didn't play Endless Legend until probably a full year after it came out, but boy is that a good 4X game. It's like what if you played a game of Civ where each faction doesn't just have minor differences, but instead has pretty sweeping differences with what land and resources they can exploit, whether they can do diplomacy at all, whether they can move their cities around like nomads, whether they can capture enemy cities or must instead raze them to the ground because their empire wouldn't deign to convert captured enemy cities into their own. It's great.

There is no such thing for me. I can always play the game later. It's not gonna spoil with time. I don't care about being part of the moment or whatever.

Super Metroid around three years ago. 10/10.

I can think of a lot of portable versions of games in this vein. I didn't have a SNES growing up so I didn't get to play Final Fantasy 4 or 6 until the GBA releases and I loved both of them. I ended up playing Chrono Trigger on an emulator about a decade ago and really loved that as well. Never played Valkyrie Profile until it came to PSP. Didn't play Ghost Trick until it came out on iOS. Didn't get around to Zero Escape: 999 until long after Patrick finished Virtue's Last Reward. During a family road trip last year I played and beat 10000000. All of these are fine examples of games I really wish I had played sooner because they were so insanely up my alley.

I only played through the first Yakuza about a week ago, and now I am about four hours into Yakuza 2 and I am bummed that it took me so long to get into these games because I absolutely love them

I played the first God of War last year and found it surprisingly great for all the shade people throw at that series these days.

For the inverse, I played Jade Empire a few years ago and I think I would've liked it a lot more if I had played it in 2005. I... don't think it's a very good game now, honestly.

Dark Souls. I started playing this in January 2014 because it was cheap on the Xbox store and I'd heard some interesting things.

I played it pretty much non stop for about 5 days but then had to go overseas on a holiday. It was great but it hadn't quite completely taken me over yet. When I got back from holiday, I decided not to go back to it. In fact, my decision was that I would just wait till Dark Souls 2 came out and play that instead. The night before Dark Souls 2 came out, I decided to get some time in with the original again and pick up where I left off.

It grabbed me again, in fact, turns out, it's probably my favourite game of all time and has lead me down some other gaming paths I never expected to get into, the latest being (and one I also wish I had gotten into sooner) Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

Mass Effect 2. played a demo for the first one and hated the shooting controls, found ME2 in the discount bin for $20 at a time when i wanted a new game but did have money to through away. played it and as soon as i finished it a grabbed the dlc so i could have more to play.

There are so many games that I didn't play/didn't play enough off due to the dark cloud that was World of Warcraft. So many games from that era 2005-2009 I never gave their proper due then low and behold when I played them with proper focus I was blindsided by how much I loved them. I never finished KOTOR 2 when it originally came out because of this but then I put in the time and that game was pretty much individually crafted to please me. I was so foolish to let it sit like that.

I played Persona 4 Golden for the first time last year and can definitively say that it is my favorite game of all-time. I didn't really know what Persona was before the P5 trailer hit early last year and had been thinking about buying a Vita for a while, so I decided to jump in and to say I was blown away is a massive understatement. The last JRPG I had played was Pokemon Emerald a decade ago, so I was shocked that I found the game to be so engaging throughout the 75-80 hours I put in on my first playthrough. I have completed the game two more times since then and have even started a fourth playthrough because I can't get enough. Persona 5 can't come soon enough!

@ntm: (not to turn this into a Bloodborne thread) I'm usually the same, I dislike grinding and stuff in games, I just want to see new environments. What I'm liking about Bloodborne is that even in some areas where I am trying to stock up on items or build experience, I'm thinking about exactly how I'm going to beat a certain boss or enemy etc. The main reason I'm disappointed I didn't play it earlier is that all those conversations are long since done. If I try to look up "hey, how did you beat X boss?", there's a million guides, articles or forum threads with hundreds of replies. I wouldn't liked to have been part of the conversation at the time trying to work things out.

Still having fun with it though (til XCOM 2 comes out in 4 days, then that's all I'll play)

The Witcher 2 for me. The Operator fight is complete and utter garbage, but the rest of the game is fantastic.

I swear this isn't a troll answer, but, Final Fantasy 7.

I never played it as a kid as I didn't own a PS1 and I tried to play it about 2 years ago and just hated it.

I played the first three Assassin's Creeds in... early 2011, I think? I really loved that series and felt silly I ignored them for so long. But then what came after...

Suikoden 2 is probably the best answer. It's my favorite game of all time, and I didn't play it until 2009 - more than a decade after its release.

I didn't play Klonoa until the Wii version had come out. Game was great!

I've never really felt like I missed out on anything by playing a typical game late, except maybe Mario 3 (I only ever play World and Bros. as a kid and I've no idea why). MMOs are a whole different story though. I wish I'd started playing City of Heroes when it came out, because that game is gone now and I can never play more. It is soooo nostalgic for me at this point. An extra 2 years with it would've been nice. I didn't get to play The Matrix Online or Star Wars Galaxy at all, and I probably would've liked them.

I wish I'd played Deus ex back in the day, only tried last year and I struggled with it, but man, that must of been mind blowing at the time.

Also with all this Tomb Raider hype and only having a shoddy PC and ps4 I picked up the 2013 game, dayyum it's alright! I'd skipped it on account of thinking it was just a QTE fest.

Also having just played Last of Us and actually getting over the hump of being able to enjoy these interactive cinematic experiences I have all of Uncharted to play, it's not really a regret but it's nice to finally be on board with this kind of thing.

Fez. Seemed like a game I would enjoy a lot, but I just couldn't get into it and I think missing the gaming zeitgeist around it had something to deal with it.

Question to those of you who are playing/have played The Witness: does it seem like a game that would go through a similar process? Like, being less interesting at the end of the year/next year? I'm looking forward to playing it, but I don't really have the time right now.

@sarcasticmudcrab: Deus Ex takes some time to get into at this point, but it's well worth it if you haven't. For me, I couldn't get into it until I got to Unatco, and even then it still wasn't clicking as much as later on. Now they updated it with Revision. It's still an awesome game, and that as well as Invisible War are worth playing through. I enjoyed Invisible War a lot as well, though the ending was a bit depressing to me, in more ways than one, some ways which intrigued me, others I didn't enjoy so much. To go a bit off topic, Invisible War was the first Deus Ex game I ever played, back when it came to Xbox, but I never got through it, so it wasn't until early last year that I got it on Steam, and then beat it. I'm not sure if you personally got through the first, or stopped, but if you had, I suppose I am talking to anyone that wants to get into Deus Ex, especially those that liked Human Revolution and wants to play Mankind later this year. Also, what was the issue with games like The Last of Us?

I started playing the ps2 gta games. Trying to play them now after all the new ones with the better controls, is making me wish I actually completed them back when they first came out.

sigh...

Destiny.

God Hand...finally beat it last month and loved every minute!

@pushtoclose: I like the older GTA's, I have them all in fact (some on more than one system), but I honestly never beat any of them. To me, the biggest issue I have aside from the archaic feeling controls (which is definitely an issue when it comes to the combat), is that there are no checkpoints, so if you die or fail, you have to start the mission all over, and that often impeded my motivation to keep going. I've never wanted to use cheats to get through them either. Yes though, I still love many aspects about them, especially Vice City. GTA 5 I finished though, and thought it was superb on last-gen, but it came with disappointments, while buying and getting through the PS4 version, I loved it even more and it is one of my favorite open worlds to date. I often go back to it when I have nothing else to play. Oh, and I played a lot of GTA 4 (not as much as five though), but only got to the end and quit.

@ntm yeah those no checkpoints were rough. I stopped playing Vice City I was dying all the time at the end of a mission and was sick of starting over.

This hasn't really happened to me. There are many games I wish I had played already but haven't gotten around to yet for various reasons but while playing a game years after release (as is usually the case) I haven't really gotten the feeling that I wish I had played it earlier.

The exception being games which mainly rely on online multiplayer of course. In that case I would probably say Team Fortress 2. I waited quite a while to transition to Steam because the service seemed mostly bad and pointless for a good while. Once I did get into it I found a great online TF2 community and made many online friendships which last to this day.

GTAV Online. Maaaaan is that game dead

I just started playing Transistor the other night and I'm really, really enjoying it. I love the art style and soundtrack. The fun and astoundingly robust and flexible combat system really makes it, though. I enjoy switching up the functions every few fights just to see all of the things I can do. It's really an awesome game.

I'm also thinking of getting Rogue Galaxy. I remember when it came out and thinking it looked pretty neat, but it fell off my radar quickly. Now that it's on PS4 and people are still saying it's a great game after all these years, I may give it a shot soon.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent on PS2 and Xbox. I'm disappointed I never even knew this game was a completely different game from the next-gen versions and was in every way, shape and form superior to the next-gen versions. It had better missions, more interesting environments, more unique obstacles like enemies with night-vision goggles where you had to hide in the light instead of the shadows. The unbelievably boring Safehouse "missions" in the next-gen version where you walk around while undercover hacking stuff without anyone looking were replaced with straight up regular, traditional Splinter Cell missions that happen to take place in the Safehouse.

I suppose it's kind of a similar situation to Assassin's Creed Rogue and Assassin's Creed Unity.