Yeah there was a Serious Sam II released in two-thousand and five, and it rocked if you ask me. I should have put Enter The Matrix in my list as well, it was rather interesting to say the least, and somewhat enjoyable despite its issues.

I'll echo what quite a few others have said, Alpha Protocol. I don't know if it's disliked by a lot, but it probably is underrated, at least by the "critics" if not by the gamers. But who gives a shit what the "critics" rate it as? :D

I think you have to play AP as an RPG with the story and the characters coming 1st, and the gameplay coming 2nd in order for you to really enjoy it.

Most (not all) of the complaints I have for that game really boils down to polish. It could have used one more patch. I think it's still a good game though.

I haven't actually played Serious Sam 2 yet, but having played Serious Sam 1, I always thought that part of the appeal of the Serious Sam games was that they were, well, not particularly serious and quite silly. That's what I liked about them at least, so I find the super over-the-top cartoony style of Sam 2 pretty appealing. I can see why some would complain some of the character designs go a bit far, but I think it suits the series pretty well. I mean, this is a series where you fight headless screaming kamikazes with bombs for hands.

As for games I've played that are disliked, there are a few.

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex on PS2 seems to get a lot of flack as the start of the downfall of the Crash series, but I was personally quite happy with it and it gave me everything I expected from a Crash game. Just a shame about the loading times.

Mischief Makers and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon, both of N64, got pretty underwhelming critical reception at the time, but now they're often consisted classics by N64 fans, so I'm not sure if they'd qualify. I think both games are superb though.

Also on the N64, I liked the Bomberman games a lot. I haven't played Second Attack since it was never released here, but I felt Bomberman 64 did an excellent job of bringing the classic Bomberman formula into 3D, and Bomberman Hero was a solid platformer that managed to feel like it was doing it's own thing and didn't rely on copying other successful platformers like Banjo Kazooie or Mario 64.

Also, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence. Yeah, it's no Symphony of the Night, and it borrows a bit too heavily from Devil May Cry (some of the animations even look similar), but on it's own I felt it was an enjoyable action game with some excellent music.

That's exactly what I think myself, but I have seen some serious (pardon the pun) fans of Serious Sam bash Serious Sam II for being too cartoony and looking more like a kid's game than a hardcore old-school FPS.

Yes, but sadly I don't know where to get it. I just happened to get it from Polish gaming mag CD-Action (and that was ages ago, 2005 I think).

As for the port - well, I didn't play the PS2 version so I don't have a comparison. But the port seemed very good and solid to me. Some reviewers cited serious technical issues, I didn't run into any of those. I played the game on Windows XP and Windows 7 over the years, I only recall crashes on Windows 7 when trying to use a gamepad but IIRC I managed to get past that. Also I don't recall running into the graphical glitches that some people seemed to have. All in all I couldn't complain. Graphics and sound decent (frankly back in the day I considered the graphics amazing, even on PC), playable with keyboard and great fun with a gamepad.

That I do not know.

The PC version of the game is available on Amazon dirt cheap: Chaos Legion.

And it doesn't use GFWL, because the game was released four years before Games for Windows Live made its debut.
I also loved Serious Sam 2, in some ways more than the previous Encounters. While I disliked the obnoxious NPC design and the frequently-flat humour, I enjoyed the game a great big deal. It was even less arena-based and more of an adventure than the previous Serious Sam games. It had more and shorter levels, which was perfect for a quick level or two at a time. It's just a shame that nobody licensed Serious Engine 2, because the game looked great.

The level design was much more varied compared to the First and Second Encounter, and I love those games to death, but I will admit that sometimes the level design can be a bit bland and repetitive. Start in a village, eventually make your way to a swamp in a murky forested area, and then to an insane carnival setting, now that is what I call nice variety. I will have to agree with you there, I was blown away by that game's looks at the time, and I was playing the Xbox port, which is nothing compared to how the PC looks at a high resolution. It has actually held up rather well too thanks to its cartoony design as well.

Thanks. Next time I make an Amazon run I know one thing that will be in my cart.

and I knew it didn't use GFWL. It's more of a Capcom is refusing to do anything about other games that I own that do have it, and I'm not interested playing the part of a loyal customer. I would assume at this point Capcom wouldn't be seeing any revenue from these old copies, so I guess I don't have to worry about that in this case. I'm not buying the RE4 HD remake though, as much as I would like it.

It has already been mentioned but I would say:

Ultima 8: Pagan and Ultima 9: Ascension.

I liked both of them, not as much as the others, but I don't feel they were bad games like people say. They both had different mechanics than the others, but I think those were good mechanics.

Another game I like that most people dislike is Daikatana. I don't know why people say it is a bad game. I consider it to be a decent game with different periods of time and weapons.

Almost everything that Paradox publishes tends to get fairly bad reviews, but are spectacular games. I've quit looking at Paradox reviews and just get the games now. I haven't played a bad bad bad one. I've played a few rough ones, but just about everything has something redeeming to it.

That said, I still have no idea what I'm doing in Crusader Kings 2. I did the tutorials, watched the Youtubes, and still have no idea what I'm doing. One day, I'll master that game. :)

Meh, it's an FPS, not a philosphical treatise on beauty and truth! The gameplay, running and gunning ASO didn't strike me as particularly poor. Or at least not worse than some other games.

It's not a brilliant game by any means, but it was fun, and it did bring back some of the nostalgia.


SS2 left me feeling abivalent. I did like the cartoony setting. I didn't like that it was a Serious Sam game. Not sure if that makes sense! I did like playing through and had a great time looking around. As was written above, if someone else licensed the engine and built another game around it, that would be a good thing!