You know the sort, real gems of a game that you run out of your house to tell the world about only to be met with a " What are you talking about?" or " It looks crap." We must let the world know about these games.

First up is ICO. The game is pure genius. You play as a child who has been taken from his village and exiled in a mysterious castle because of the evil looking horns sprouting from his head. Something goes wrong and our would-be hero is set free from a chamber where he would surely die. It' s up to you to guide Ico to safety.

But it' s not that easy. Early on you meet a mysterious girl with a glow of white about her. Evil black monsters try to drag her into portals to take her away and it' s up to you to protect her. She acts as a key and can open doors you cannot. Without her it' s game over.

The game really builds up a strong bond between the two characters. Indeed, when she gets pulled toward the black abyss you rage with anger and attack the moster with full force to free her. She cannot move about as acrobatically as you and most of the game you will be guiding her through obstacles literally by pulling her through them running hand in hand. Puzzles are really well thought out. You may be able to get everywhere but sooner or later you need to make a path for the girl.

To those of you familiar with Prince of Persia: Sands of Time the whole dynamic must sound a little like the one found in there with the princess Farah. But ICO came first and does the job much better. Well, POP is a great game in its own right but I felt Farah got in the way a bit. The girl in ICO though does not and is much more integral to the gameplay.

I can' t say enough good about this game. I' ve played through it and enjoyed it every time I have. If you see it anywhere I implore you to pick it up.

By now, just about everyone has heard of ICO. A year ago, I would' ve agreed but ICO is such a high-profile " look what everybody missed" game. But now, with the reviews and every forum on the planet talking about how people missed it...well, it doesn' t really qualify as a game that " nobody has ever heard of before." Still a great game, though.

I' ll throw in Shadow of Destiny to start things off. It came out only a month after the PS2' s release, and it was an adventure/puzzle game that had an absolutely wonderful and ingenious story. You needed to solve the mystery of your own death. At the start of every chapter, you would be killed, and the Homunculus (philosophy buffs might now what I' m talking about) resurrects you. Your mission is to find out how and why you were killed, and then find a way to stop it. You would travel through time in all kinds of increments; a few minutes, or 150 years. It got extremely complex later on, but here' s just a small example-

You wander into the park in the center of town, and you are killed by a run-by knifing. So how to stop it? Well, you first travel back in time about an hour before your death. There was nobody in the park at the time, so the murderer had a clear and open shot. So you arrange to get people to come to the park to watch a street performer. You also know he was hiding behind a tree, so you travel back in time 20 years, and you find a man in the center of the park (where the tree will be), and he asks you what he should put there as a town landmark: a bed of flowers, a statue, or a tree. Clearly, nobody can hide behind a bed of flowers, so you choose that one.

When the moment of truth arrives, you have a bunch of people in the park with you, and no cover for your assailant. He recedes into the shadows, and you have solved your first puzzle. The story gets so twisted and awesome, that your brain will probably fry when you find out the truth about everything...

I' ve had this game for a long time. My daughter still plays it alot. It is a cool game.

My entry:

Serious Sam

For those who love the FPS games, Serious Sam is awesome!!!

Here' s my quote from another post (in this forum):

" I remember that day, when I entered the Blockbuster video store...I looked at maybe 20 previously played XBOX titles that they were selling off.

I came across this game I had never heard of called Serious Sam. The pictures on the back of the box seemed cool enough, the storyline seemed as interesting as could get for a first-person shooter, and the box front had this cartoony dude...cool, but yet I was leary...

Little did I know when I purchased the game for $9.99, that I was in for one of the best FPS games of my life!

Graphics were awesome, sound appropriate to each scene, and awesome onslaughts of enemies beyond one' s imagination! There must have been almost 200 onscreen enemies at one time in this particular scene!

The enemies ranged from large frog-sized creatures to towering monsters of at least 100 feet!

Your adrenaline pumps so hard that you sweat buckets wondering if you' ll have enough ammo to make it through to the next area.

This game has a co-op mode and a multi-player deathmatch mode.

As for options, you can adjust everything from the color of the enemies blood to the split-screen orientation (horizontal or vertical). The level difficulties are significant, with the highest difficulty being insanely difficult (but not impossible).

This game currently sells for about $5-7, and is well worth any gamer' s money."

fathoms, I know ICO is a well known ' look what everybody missed' game, but it' s still being missed. Hehe. Nobody I know had ever heard of it anyway and I love it.

Shadow of Destiny sounds cool, I' d not heard of it before. Found it on Gamespot where it got a good review. Had a look around for it on Amazon.co.uk and got worried because I couldn' t find anything about it. After a bit of detective work (Okay, I looked for info on Game FAQs) I found out it was renamed Shadow of Memories in Europe for some strange reason. Go figure. It' s also out for the X-Box too.

I' ve got a theory on the ending though and it is indeed frying my brain. Wonder if I' m right. It' s all of a fiver on Amazon I may pick it up.

Amazon reviewers are funny though. Some are great... and then there’s this guy:

I have tried to endure this game over a period of a couple of days in the hope that it might get better...All I have to say is: I' ll never get those couple of days back!

This game is truly awful...Gameplay is mind-numbingly boring, the plot is tedious and the overall aesthetic is just plain dull.

If anybody out there wants my humble opinion, here it is: Don' t waste your money on this poor excuse for a game...Don' t waste a perfectly good Xbox on rubbish like this!

Hmmm...Shadow of Memories, huh? It was never released here in the U.S. as far as I know. We only consider it to be a PS2 exclusive.

Anyway, that fool doesn' t know what he' s talking about. GameSpot is right, IGN is right, EGM is right, and every other critic on the planet is right...because they ALL heaped praise on SoD.

I can see why it wouldn' t be for the ADD-riddled, must-have-screen-flashing-at-all-times-or-I-collapse gamers. See, you actually have to THINK. There' s no guns, no gore, no zombies, no weapons, etc. I know that' s a tragedy for the brainless kind...but trust me, if it sounds intriguing, you just might like it.

Another game is Wings Of War by Silver Wish and published by Take Two Interactive.

Despite the strangely low scores given by the few sites that have reviewed this game, Wings Of War gets high marks in the individual categories.

It is a bi-plane combat game that offers part arcade-like play mixed with part simulation.

Some may think that this is beneath them, but this game offers a lot in the graphics, options and replay departments!!! All this for only $20!!!

There are very few bi-plane games ever made...this might just be the only one for this, or any current, console system.

I will be getting my copy on 02 September 2004, will you...?

Here' s a link for more information.

2nd link.

What about the Clock Tower series. I know that Clock Tower 3 is the most recently released one today. But few people know of the games before that. Clock Tower for the PSX was by far the greatest one. It really gave gamers fear of being chased by a killer. Also very few know that the one for the PSX is a sequel to the Super Famicom Clock Tower -First Fear- . Check this game out for the PSX it' s really rare and well I am a big Clock Tower fan the game was made by Human. Human is no longer with us I think Capcom has the rights to the Clock Tower series now.

Deathrow- It lacked in variety but was a very high polished looking game that is actually quite fun. Its a sportgames that takes place in the future we the sport (a common cliche of future sports) is very violent. I always find it fun to beat the crap out of an oppenant til they were lifeless. The arenes are plentiful, especially in action veiw mode. And its only $10(US)

Another sports game that came out feburary of this year is MX Unleashed. A very good moto cross game that didnt get all the attention it deserved. For starters the game uses ragdoll physics, which makes crashing quite a painful site. The amount of tracks is massive like in the 40 or 50' s with 4 fully roamable outdoor freestyle tracks, and the outdoor race tracks dont really have a boundry if you wanna go out and explore and also the stadium races. It doesnt limit you to a dirt bike, theres a monster truck, Dune buggy, Helicopter, and a one seater plane. All fully usuable in mulitplayer which adds an extra level of fun. Also included are dirts bikes from 50cc to 250. It also allows custom soundtracks. However the drawbackas are replays limited to just races but the rpelays artn good much at all and cant be saved, also theres no xbox live.

I can see why it wouldn' t be for the ADD-riddled, must-have-screen-flashing-at-all-times-or-I-collapse gamers. See, you actually have to THINK. There' s no guns, no gore, no zombies, no weapons, etc. I know that' s a tragedy for the brainless kind...but trust me, if it sounds intriguing, you just might like it.

do u always say people have ADD? is that the only insult u can come up with? i heard the same comment in the shenmue thread. give it a rest.


anyways, i found it on gamespot and amazon for PC

hey i really do have ADD
I think they greatest game anyone has ever missed is Amplitude.
They made a prequel to that game called frequency but discontinued it. what it is is you make the music you select. you have a bar that goes over the notes on a track. if you miss too many YOU SUCK and lose. its awesome.

Deathrow- It lacked in variety but was a very high polished looking game that is actually quite fun. Its a sportgames that takes place in the future we the sport (a common cliche of future sports) is very violent. I always find it fun to beat the crap out of an oppenant til they were lifeless. The arenes are plentiful, especially in action veiw mode. And its only $10(US)

Fantastic game. Proud to have it in my collection.