Most welcome surprise/biggest dissapointment of pre-Holiday '09?

My biggest disappointment was The Return of Matt Hazard. Despite my better instincts, I wanted that game to be great. I bailed after that awful, broken boss battle with the giant squid. Immediately popped on some Arrested Development and forgave Will Arnett. 
 
Conversely, I wasn't really paying any attention to BlazBlue before it came out. Love the mechanics, love the art, love the insanity. I just wish I could have got one of my friends to buy it.
 

Resident Evil 5. I thought I would have fun. Oh well, cannot discourage others who did. 
 
Biggest surpirse would be Battlefield 1943. Did a lot better in performance and I had lots of fun with people.

Biggest disappointment - Resident Evil 5, by far. 

I still gotta check out 1943. 
 
Gotta say, I loved RE5

Biggest Disappointment = Scribblenauts controls totally ruined the game.  
Surprise = Borderlands, totally off my radar before.

Matt Hazard? I didn't know anyone actually cared about that game at all. I had a feeling it would be bad. It's just a bit silly how they created him. Hmm, I can't think of any surprises or disappointments as I havn't played any notable titles lately. Also, Aha!

RE5 was a real big disappointment to me as well.  I absolutely loved everything about 4 and 5 just didn't seem right.

" Matt Hazard? I didn't know anyone actually cared about that game at all. I had a feeling it would be bad. It's just a bit silly how they created him. Hmm, I can't think of any surprises or disappointments as I havn't played any notable titles lately. Also, Aha! "

"I'm just very stupid and foolish in that I tend to get excited about projects people I adore are involved with. I bought Blasto for Phil Hartman (terrible game), just like I bought Matt Hazard for Will Arnett. There are so many others. So much time wasted... "

Disappointment:  Scribblenauts.  Great concept, but the controls were absolutely awful and many of the puzzles difficult, merely because you can't get the game to do what you want to do, expect to happen or because you don't understand what it's trying to tell you.  Playing around in the main menu was fun, but it really failed as an actual game.

Surprise:  Arkham Asylum.  It was just shockingly well made, especially for a liscenced game.  In my opinion, it's probably going to be Game of the Year, although I'm sure Uncharted will nudge it off from getting that spot from most sites.

I was really disappointed in Bionic Commando. I wanted that game to be good so, so badly. Ah well, hopefully a better game with a better swinging mechanic comes along. Those are always a blast.
 
I know it doesn't fit with your topic question, but I predict that my biggest surprise this year will be Assassin's Creed 2. I've watched a couple videos on the combat in that game and it looks truly improved and insane.

Biggest Disappointment: GTA4-it was good, I'll give it that; it wasn't as good as any of the others though, IMO.
 
Biggest Surprise: Infamous-I didn't think I would enjoy, in fact, I didn't even buy it; it was a birthday present from my friend. And it did kick ass pretty fuckin' hard, IMO.

Biggest Dissapointment - Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny 
Most Welcome Suprise - PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe. 

2009 in general is pretty dissapointing 
Surprise- Risen. did not expect it to be so awesome, that or 'Splosion Man

Wow, first I've heard of someone trashing InFamous. hahah.
 
I played the demo for RE 5 & boy did it suck!  I knew I wasn't going to buy it after the first 10 minutes of game play.  In the past, there weren't that many zombie games so you could have a zombie game like Dead Rising with extremely shitty controls & nobody would complain as there weren't any other options for zombie games at that time.  Nowadays, the Zombie games like Left 4 Dead or COD:Waw, or whatever make it a lot easier to control.  So when RE5 comes out, you see this funky controller system & why bother when other zombie games are easier & more fun to play?  RE 5's controls were a serious detriment to playing it.
 
My biggest disappointment is hearing about Alpha Protocol being pushed to May 2010 or perhaps that Prototype wasn't as good as it should have been.
 
As for suprises, can't say I have any. Other than just buying Prototype for cheap & some Fallout 3 DLC & XBL games, I don't think I have paid full price for any video game this year!  Nothing was really as striking as last year, up til now anyway.

Biggest Disappointment: I would have to Say Bionic Commando because I saw SO much potential while playing it, Just the radiation spots and insane liner design, Like I mean whoever you are reading this if you haven't played Bionic commando think of it like this, your playing Mario and you have to stay in the middle of the level so 33% of the screen, if you touch the other 66% for any reason for 2-3 seconds you die and it Killed that game.
 
Biggest Surprise: Well I can see this has already been tread upon but Batman AA all the way I heard about it didn't care to much just assumed it would suck major balls and then I played that beautiful beautiful game and my faith in humanity went up a notch.

Very disappointed with Brutal Legend.  Granted, I only Gamefly'd it, but it just didn't click with me.  I like the world and the characters, and the script is top-notch.  It's just not very fun to play...I sort of feel like the only reason I am is because I want to see what happens next.  It's a bit of a chore really.  Another part of me keeps hoping that something will happen soon that makes me fall in love with it, but as it stands, it's definitely my biggest disappointment of '09.

" @thecleric: I still have to try Risen. I'll probably pick it up sometime mid next year, though, from the way Q1 looks. "

Biggest Disappointment: Scribblenauts

Biggest Surprise: Batman: Arkham Asylum

Surprise - Arkham
 
Disappointment - Killzone 2 (really found nothing to keep me playing that game)

Suprise - Definately Batman
 
Disappointment - No one knows about Columbo!

Biggest disappointment: Brutal Legend
Biggest suprise:  Batman: Arkham Asylum, that game was fucking awesome.

demon's souls....on both accounts....

I can't think of a disappointment. As for a surprise, that would have to be Uncharted 2. I certainly didn't think it would be bad, I just didn't have much interest in it. Luckily, the reviews enticed me and now I can say it's easily one of my favorite games ever.

 
Disappointment: COD: Modern Warfare 2for the PC
 
Surprise: Uncharted 2