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Weekend Open Forum: The most underrated video games

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On August 20, 2010, 7:27 PM

It's a cold hard fact of life: we can't all be winners. No matter how fun or unique a video game may be, the reality is, there's a chance it's destined for the eternal void that is Best Buy's bargain bin. Those odds increase substantially if the title isn't backed with media hype or the marketing budget of a multi-billion dollar publishing conglomerate. Even then, undeservingly harsh critics can steer consumers in the wrong direction. And sometimes, by the mysterious workings of an unjust universe, awesome games just slip between the cracks.


Whatever the case may be, we know there are hundreds, if not thousands of gems that have been tragically overlooked -- and you've undoubtedly come across at least one. A few examples from the last decade include Psychonauts, No One Lives Forever, and more recently, The Saboteur. Although we generally favor PC game discussions, all platforms, generations and genres are welcome in this edition of our Weekend Open Forum, so grab your soapbox and tell the world why a certain under-appreciated game deserves a little more attention.

User Comments: 86

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  1. Oh, I wouldn't say that Prince of Persia was underrated. It was the greatest game of its genre at that time. We all played it for months, didn't we

  2. I have to agree with two users on here. While Westwood was the unofficial king of RTS around 1995, it was Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper and DK2 which I really loved. The sangiune humor and heavy metal music added to the feeling of being evil, without actually being evil.

    Also, another poster mentioned Shogo: Mobile Armored Division. This flawless shooter was so clean and the story was so massive. I wondered why the series never took off. I seem to be the only person in my group of gamers who's ever played this game tho.

    My addition to the list is a PS1 game titled MDK (Murder Death Kill). You played as a chick in a battlesuit similar to Samus Aran, but it was a shooter much like Serious Sam and Painkiller where stuff just constantly comes at you.

  3. My favorite story of all time and a highly underrated game, Planescape: Torment. Beyond Good & Evil was a sleeper as well. The Witcher before loyal fans went nuts this year at E3.

  4. Staff

    Deus Ex, (the original) it received awsome reviews but I don't think it sold very well, very few people know of it

  5. Americas Army

  6. The Witcher, of course.

    Can't wait till assassins of kings comes out!

  7. My addition to the list is a PS1 game titled MDK (Murder Death Kill). You played as a chick in a battlesuit similar to Samus Aran, but it was a shooter much like Serious Sam and Painkiller where stuff just constantly comes at you.

    MDK was amazing, and the second one was even better! It was a dude in the suit though.

    @Per, I don't think Deus Ex was underrated; it was more like under-appreciated. It did garner a massive number of awards and high ratings across the boards.

  8. Thief II for sure. Deus Ex and System Shock 2 to a lesser extent, they're obviously held in high regard in games journalism and serious games, but they didn't have the mainstream awareness of the big name releases like Half Life 2, Doom 3, etc.

  9. serious gamers*

  10. When i stumbled on Max Payne that ide never heard of for £2 a few years ago... Absolutely fantastic

  11. Carmageddon. The only game I mis on today's PC. Still wonder how an up-to-date version would look like.

    And Flight Simulator (MS is making a new one it seems).

  12. The "Penumbra" series by Frictional Games.

  13. Geometry Wars. Any one of them. I'm glad that Tejb started the youtube challenge of geometry wars. Their original high score by Shorewarz was 118 million or so. Now FPS Kyle has achieved over 3 billion. No one knows if that was legitimate or not, but SAM5000 got a score of over 1 billion, and had never played the game before this challenge.

  14. Dark Ages of Camelot, one of the first and best mmorphs, massive 3 way realm verus realm battles that would get every body from all realms involved, the elite and the casual.

  15. Populous, like TomSEA said defo. Well all Bullfrog Games for that matter!

  16. Civilization 2 is brilliant, as well as some RPG games like Tales of Symphonia for the consoles.

  17. benny26 said:

    When i stumbled on Max Payne that ide never heard of for £2 a few years ago... Absolutely fantastic

    so unknown that they mad a max payne movie and are working on the third game XD

  18. The 2003 FPS Chaser by Poland developer Cauldron Software, did a first rate job with the grapfics and the story telling and the game was very long.

    I would love to see Cauldron remake the game in its current state on there current Cloak NT Engine. Only on PC the first go around and a Sleeper Hit, So most PC users porbably never played the game.

    Remake it on the XBOX 360, PS3 and of course PC.

    Sentient 6

  19. Ohh great article, Im glad to read all of these

    Most Underated RPG: PlaneScape: Torment

    FPS: Outcast

    Cult Fav: American McGee's Alice

    Horror/Puzzle: Sanitarium

    Childrens/Brain Game: The Island Of Dr. Brain

    RTS: Dune 2000

  20. the "penumbra" series by frictional games.

    this.

  21. kg363 said:

    benny26 said:

    When i stumbled on Max Payne that ide never heard of for £2 a few years ago... Absolutely fantastic

    so unknown that they mad a max payne movie and are working on the third game XD

    Lol..i know, i meant a few years ago before 3 and film

  22. Monkey Island!!! The whole serires was amazing, the first being one of the best, and still to this day one of the wittiest games around. Anyone who's played it loves it, but there's alot of people who haven't even heard of it...

  23. ^, Absolutely. The Curse of Monkey Island is the best of the series IMHO.

  24. My all time favorite, DeusEx

    Thief 3

    System Shock 2

    Hellgate London

    -DeusAphor-

  25. Also,

    vampire the masquerade

    -DeusAphor-

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