Thought I'd try a positive spin on the "Your Most Disappointing Games" topic.

Are there any games you didn't expect much of but ended up loving?

My pick is Anachronox. It seemed quite interesting (SciFi RPG with black humor) but got mediocre reviews so I completely forgot about it. Years later I got it from ebay for a few bucks after having read good things about it on a forum. Expected absolutely nothing of it but it completely sucked me in. Probably the last game I really loved.

Then there is Serious Sam. I remember seeing an ad for it and thinking "god, that looks crappy." Not so, it became one of my favourite FPS games. I can't think of another FPS that's so much about skill in single player. Love it, even though I suck. Coop is great, too.

I was surprised by how long Final Fantasy 7 was. I started the second disc and never finished it, though I really liked it nonetheless.
I'll probably get it from PSN when I get the chance, but I wish they'd just remake it finally.

Original War was the game that sucked me into GOG (still have it's main character as an avvie) and i really didn't expect an old game like that to surprise me in such a way.

I was completely sucked in by the origonal Panzer General. I was strictly an RPG Gamer until I played that game and it totally openned me up to the other games out there. I can still play it for hours even after all these years.

Max Payne. The massive hype made me figure it probably wasn't worth much, but then I played it, and it turned out to be one of the finest shooters ever made.

I'd have to go with Painkiller. I've played Doom and Quake before, and I'm familiar with the "if it moves, kill it" motif, but when I popped in PK for the first time...DAMN! Never before had I seen a game so brutally gory and rockin' in my life!

The soundtrack, the ragdolls, all the meaty chunks flying, the weapons, and (oh god) the Painkiller itself. How often do you get to use a flesh weed whacker? To top off all that was the brilliant Music Video of the titular song by this Polish band Mech that came with the Black/Gold edition.

In a word to describe my love for this, "Metal!".

Do you know if it's easy to get the soundtracks for both of them?
I think they're great too, but the music is perfect.

Iron Storm for the Sega Saturn.

I got it as a replacement for PTO (I hated that game). Turned out to be my favorite game on the system.

Bioshock.

descent, stalker, another world, gothic 3. but mostly: STALKER

Gothic, I actually turned it off in disgust, but gave it one more shot before uninstall the next day. It's one of my favorite RPGs.

Little Big Planet, which I had reecently made a thread about here

It seemed I had read a lot of message board comments on how disappointing it was, so I put if off for a long time. The only reason I tried it was because it was available at my library for free.

Turns out I think the game is awesome. Yeah the platforming isn't that great because of the controls( I don't think it's bad though either) but the levels in the single player were really good, and the user created levels can be amazing. It's one of my favorite games ever

I was pretty skeptical of Risen after Gothic 3 but it ended up being a really amazing RPG. Shows what a supportive publisher and enough time can do for a game (suck it JoWood).

After Oblivion was dumed down from Morrowind to almost hack n' slash game levels I was really worried Fallout 3 would be a shooter more than anything else, but it actually added a little bit of RPG back into the formula compared to Oblivion. A little bit.

I was surprised at how much I loved the recent Tomb Raider games, Tomb Raider Anniversary especially... thought that series was dead when I got Legend on a whim.

My biggest gaming surprise is probably The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. I expected a decent movie game from the early positive hype but it ended up being seriously one of the best games of all time. OF ALL TIME.

Batman: Arkham Asylum. My gawd, it's like for 8 glorious hours, I got to be the Batman I've always dreamed of being. I've played it through three times now.

Spider-man 2. I still haven't played another game that captures the sensation of diving off a high building or swinging around that has been as fun as this game. Even the voice acting and stories surprised me. I got to be Spidey. :D

Dragon Quest IX. There's a short animated clip that looks all old school cell shaded that just blew me away. Best dragon fight ever put on to a screen ever.

Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic. The voice acting, the main story, that twist ending. If I could get this game working on this computer I'd still be playing it. Apparently it's really picky about graphics cards.

Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer. The horrible, horrible, horrrrrrrible movie gave us this really fun pod racing game. I was really surprised. It's another one I'd still play...if I could find where the CD went. 8C

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. This game draws a lot of parallels from the themes of the original trilogy, and by direct extension, Joseph Campbell's hero of a thousand faces. They miraculously manage to do this while telling an original story without any hack writing, with a couple really nice plot twists.

Mechwarrior 2.

"We are Jade Falcon. Great among the Clans, We are warriors who fight with the strength of the Falcons claw and ascend to the heavens on the wings of the same. We remember with the clarity the falcons fight for the words of Kerensky, through the smoke of time he speaks to us, his chosen, and urges us onward with the promise of Eden. We will retake what is ours by right, that shining jewel Terra. Not the vastness of space nor the Wolf’s obstinate howl will stay us from our righteous goal. We are Crusaders and will trample all who stand in our way!"

Still gives me shivers. :D

Planescape: Torment. Ho. Lee. Shit.

God of War. I was expecting a hack and slash, and I got that plus a proper Greek tragedy. And boobies.

Gears of War 2. This game surprised me on a technical level. I still haven't seen a game match its cover mechanic, nor its team interaction in-game and during cut scenes. And Marcus Fenix is Bender; how cool is that?! The story was pretty meh, but they did them some really good military sci-fi here.

I'm still working my way through my GOG games, and I'm sure I'm going to find some real gems there as well.

Well, Hexen was a game I was really hooked on back in the day. I never knew a shooter could be so complex and atmospheric up until then. I played it for hours upon hours until I actually managed to beat it.