oh man I love that game
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Very good game, really surprised me.
Not sure if this counts, but this game pleasantly surprised me when I got it free from the App Store:
Especially the Christmas version where the little guy rings a bell every once in a while or puts on antlers… D’aww…
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. I rented it assuming it was just another piece of shit game. But the Brillant voice acting and facial expression got me excited. And the first level was enthralling. The short comedy was fast and sweet - it got me to giggle. The ending was phenominal, but was out of place. It did’nt make sense, but if you pretend it did, than the ending blew you away. Thing about the ending is, it is awesome to pull one of those endings for a game where you are so sure of good v.s. evil, but it did’nt make sence in a way. You people who played it should understand why it was strange…
The ending literally made me tear up because of how good the writing and acting was in it. Great game, good upgrades, good character relationships/voice acting/facial expressions/ etc, and fun as balls gameplay. 5/5 Get it.
Beat Hazard
Addictive little thing.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
I heard SO MANY bad things. I got it on STEAM for ~$1.50 a year or so ago. It is one of my favourite games. A great atmosphere. Took a bit to get into it, but it was well worth it.
Track Mania Nations Forever
Free racing game with tracks straight out of a Hot Wheels kit (loops, jumps, etc.). Great fun timekiller.
Fuck yeah.
Sneak king is okay too.
I’d say Minecraft.
I tried the free version and almost immediately after I bought the full version, and now I couldn’t stop if I tried.
Toystory III. Toybox mode only.
Eh… the WII version of Tron: Evolution (battlegrids)
Did you just say Killing Floor had great voice acting?
D:
It’s not “great” in the same sense that HL2 has good characters, but it’s very fitting and B-movie style. At least it’s not absurdly serious, and fits more with 6 friends having fun in a server than 6 survivors desperately shooting horrifying monsters.
I think of Aquaria: A game I got as sort of an extra in the original Humble Indie Bundle. Now, having finished it, I think it’s on the same par as Braid.
Also, King’s Bounty. I didn’t know what to expect, and it turned out reminding me of Heroes of Might and Magic, but without the base-building aspects or timing your attacks RTS-style.
AvP 2010
Batman: AA
CoD 4
It’s a re-make of the game that Heroes of Might and Magic was based off of 
NFS Hot Pursuit.
It’s pretty fun, but it has far far too many time trails. Hot Pursuit is about bashing the shit out of other cars forcing you to play tons of events that are nothing but getting from point A to point B kind of defeats that purpose.
How in my God’s name could you possibly think Hot Pursuit would be a surprise? :mono:
We all knew it would be good, considering Criterion was in on it and sent it back to its roots. Who the hell are you again?
Hmm, a game that surprised me? Mirror’s Edge kind of did.
The original Hot Pursuit games were the shit too, only thing that was bad about this one is no split-screen.
The Simpsons Game, bought it preowned for a fiver as a Christmas present for my gf, but it was actually a decent enough game in its own right. Only problem is, it’s turned my gf into an Achievement whore, she’s banned me from the 360 until she gets at least half of the achievements on all of my games and/or reaches 2000G. 
Deadly Premonition
Deadly Premonition
Deadly Premonition
New Vegas is a good one, but I was more surprised by how much I liked Singularity, especially since I didn’t care for Raven’s Wolfenstein reboot.
Singularity’s campaign was probably the most fun I had in a single player FPS this year.