Topic: Biggest Surprise of the Year?

It's been a pretty solid year for gaming this year, although not in the way that we usually view it. While before there were many high quality AAA titles hitting store shelves throughout the year, indie games took a larger stage presence than ever before. A new console released that focused on innovation rather than graphical upheaval with the Wii U, and a portable system released that focused on being graphically intensive and innovative with the PS Vita. PC gaming also had quite the profile this year, with it being ever clearer that it's about time for a new generation of consoles to show up. Additionally, Kickstarter has started to garner quite the impact on the way this industry works, with the method of costumer-funding becoming a popular method for people to make games.

Throughout the whole year, what was the biggest surprise for you?

For me, it was a game called Mark of the Ninja. I had never heard of it before it came out, at which point it started to get some of the most positive review scores this year. Frankly, I'm glad I played it, because in my opinion it is the best stealth game ever made. By changing the perspective in which the genre was viewed, its most pure entry was formed, and boy is it stellar.

anything that combines "Nintendo", "online" and "successful". Replacing "online" with "3rd party" is acceptable.

Also, while the rise of indie gaming and stuff is cool, none of it really surprises me too much. While I love a large chunk of AAA releases, they have also become a complete joke of sorts of awful endings, terrible play testing, dying companies and people terrified of changing anything so in the grand scheme of things, taking away their almost dominance of the gaming industry is nothing but a good thing.

I was surprised that Xenoblade actually lived up to all the hype. Not that surprised though since great JRPGs still exist and I had heard enough about why the game's awesome.

Honestly, Capcom making a fangame official is still kinda surreal to me.

Game freak working on something that isn't Pokemon for a 5th? Time

appendicitis was my biggest suprise. My girlfriend got it Christmas morning.

Fez, I guess. Not that many games surprise me these days. It's just that I expected Fez to be a boring artsy game, and it turned out to be a fun adventure platformer.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 actually being pretty good might've surprised me if I was as jaded as every other FF fan out there.

Xenoblade, Dust: An Elysian Tale, Retro City Rampage, Tales of Graces f, Code of Princess, Gravity Rush, Persona 4: Arena, Rhythm Thief, Ace Combat V, and EX Troopers all being as good as I expected sure surprised the heck outta me.

Oh, and My PS3 dying was certainly a surprise...

Bayonetta 2 announcement I guess. It got me by surprise.

My biggest surprise of the year has to be FTL: Faster than Light.
Didn't know about the Kickstarter for it unfortunately, but as soon as it was released I looked into it a bit and decided to buy it.
Ended up being my most played game on Steam this year, with over 70 hours put into it.
Amazing fun - and an instant recommendation from me.

japanese is getting anouther tales game(tales of heart R) we are most likely not o wait thts not a suprise at all -_-

Who said we weren't getting it?

This year didn't have many surprises. I guess Kid Icarus: Uprising selling well was a shock.

Rayman Origins more so since it was originally confirmed that it didn't sell well...and then it did sell well.

Both selling well are nothing but good as far as I'm concerned.

And a WiiU exclusive by nintendo

Kid Icarus Uprising. It the only non-pokemon-like game (if that makes any sense) I've played over and over again without ever getting bored. Plus the online was fantastic！

the entire thing with Platinum and Nintendo working closely together has been pretty unexpected.

Sometimes life hands you lemons, and sometimes you buy them (and by "life" I mean Sony).

I'd say Journey, but like someone already mentioned, Fez. Fez was not only a good game but it was crafted by one man and it has executed more innovation into the sidescrolling genre than any Japanese developer in the last 5+ years.

Yeah, I guess that is surprising. I find it complimentary, though, because the way I see it Platinum games has a pretty huge emphasis on fantastic gameplay. I have yet to play a game that the studio didn't absolutely nail. Vanquish has the best 3rd person shooting mechanics of any game I've played and Bayonetta does so for action games. Heck, Madworld did a great job at making murder as fun as possible. In my eyes they're the best Japanese studio out there.

The Pikmin 3 reveal at E3. Rock Pikmin?! Pikmin, by their very nature, are half plant and half animal, so they are supposed to be organic, not rock. I guess they will grow on me though.

The creatures revealed in the latest footage of Pikmin 3, and just Pikmin 3 in general.

I forgot the most obvious one. Ubisoft DOMINATING EVERYTHING. I should have noticed this sooner and Ubisoft's been a major gaming company for a long time but they single handedly saved E3 this year and used it to show how they would dominate.

Seriously, at this point in time, Ubisoft has one of the biggest casual gaming series in the world (Just Dance), one of the most highly praised games of the year (Far Cry 3), one of the top selling hardcore games of the year (AC3), a game single handedly making survival horror and 3rd party Nintendo titles relevant at the same time (ZombiU), a platformer that many are already calling superior to a Mario platformer launch title (Rayman Legends) and have one of the most hyped games of next year that could possibly be the best GTA-like game ever made (Watch Dogs). This is Ubisoft's world, and we're just living in it.