Virtue's Last Reward. A visual novel/"escape the room" puzzle game on 3DS? I can't see how this didn't become the most popular game ever. But it's so damn good.
You'll have to play 999 to understand anything that's happening, though.
Resident Evil Revelations. I know that sounds silly given what a huge franchise it is but I was expecting it to be nothing more than a naff side-project but it ended up being my favourite RE game ever (apart from the GC remake of course).
I think to some degree Hidden jems don't exist any more. Any little game be it an indie thing or some obscure Japanese thing get a lot of press on the internet. Good games just seem to find their way into the public now
Lone Survivor grabbed me way more than I expected it would. It's got about 3 sections, and the middle section (the basement) kinda drags, but it is otherwise neat. The greatest disservice it does to itself is never having your character acknowledge his mental wellness vocally despite doing just that for his hunger and thirst levels. If the game at least tried to say "Hey, it actually matters whether or not you try to do things that would calm you down, to balance out all the freaky shit around you", then it wouldn't require you to go to a guide to find out about all of the neat little touches in the game. The story has a cool payoff, and when I fully grasped what was going on with the main character and the events leading up to the game, it gave the ending an interesting emotional impact.
Malicious. Seriously, if you like beautiful character action games and Megaman Style mission select with character progression based on getting abilities from bosses, PLEASE check this game out on PSN.
@BamurDeadd: Isn't spiffy an adjective to describe something good? That's how I've used it all this time. Anyway, controls take a bit to get use to, but after that it feels great!
FTL wasnt even on my radar and even after it came out and I heard a lot of positive things I still didnt think I would enjoy it that much but then I found myself unable to play anything else for about a week.
I wasn't a big fan of Quantum Conundrum, but I'm 100% behind Dustforce and Grimrock. Especially Dustforce, everything about that game feels so great.
I have issues with the way the dash system and momentum work in that game, but I do really, really like the visuals of the game, and the music is superb. Still, I only played it for about 10 hours, at which point I had nailed most of the easier levels and decided getting the super gold keys that dont do anything unless you get all of them just wasn't worth the effort.
I thought They Bleed Pixels was an exceptionally well done one of those games. It had a lot of really cool ideas, especially the checkpoint system, and it played really well, even with a keyboard.
That said, I don't think a whole lot of people played it.
@LordXavierBritish: Isn't Twisted Metal almost universally frowned upon as the poorest game in the series (perhaps barring some of the portable releases)?
Tales of Graces f, Risen 2, Gravity Rush, Yakuza Dead Souls.None of these games got the level of coverage they deserved.
lol no.
@BisonHero said:
Lone Survivor grabbed me way more than I expected it would. It's got about 3 sections, and the middle section (the basement) kinda drags, but it is otherwise neat. The greatest disservice it does to itself is never having your character acknowledge his mental wellness vocally despite doing just that for his hunger and thirst levels. If the game at least tried to say "Hey, it actually matters whether or not you try to do things that would calm you down, to balance out all the freaky shit around you", then it wouldn't require you to go to a guide to find out about all of the neat little touches in the game. The story has a cool payoff, and when I fully grasped what was going on with the main character and the events leading up to the game, it gave the ending an interesting emotional impact.
It never even appeared on Patrick's top ten did it? In fact as far as I remember Patrick didn't acknowledge it at all during any of the GOTY talk.
@Yummylee: I expect he just never played it again after that one Spookin' with Scoops. Not to be a dick, but it doesn't surprise me that no one at GB mentioned the game, when they all seem to have grown used to games telling them how to do absolutely everything. Drew (with DCS) and Dave (with Dwarf Fortress) seem like the big exceptions, but the rest of the staff seem pretty unwilling to get into games with obtuse systems that you sort of have to figure out on your own/read up on.
I really enjoyed Edna & Harvey: Harvey's New Eyes. I hadn't played the previous game or anything else made by Daedalic Entertainment so I wasn't really expecting much. Also not really that hidden, but after seeing all the hype surrounding Hotline Miami, I thought that I was going to feel like it was overrated and disappointing, but nope, That is one of my favorite games of 2012.
Quantum Conundrum and Legend of Grimrock are great selections. Those were two of my favorites of 2012 and they fell off the radar pretty quickly. Can't really think of any off the op of my head though.
@LordXavierBritish: Isn't Twisted Metal almost universally frowned upon as the poorest game in the series (perhaps barring some of the portable releases)?
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