Let's face it: no matter how much time we dedicate to gaming, there's never enough time to play everything. Thousands of games are released each year, and whilst some are swept away in a wave of popularity, others fare more modestly (and sometimes not at all). For every new Call of Duty there's a hundred other games that will be released without most gamers realizing they even exist. There's a multitude of complex reasons that determine a video game's success or failure. Poor marketing, simultaneous releases or high pricing all contribute. So here's 10 awesome games that went by generally unnoticed (this article contains no spoilers or plot reveals - wouldn't want to ruin these fantastic games now, would we?).
10. Perimeter (PC) (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UF3f-oVX3o On the surface, Perimeter appears to be your run-of-the-mill Real Time Strategy game. Dig a little deeper and you'll find one of the most innovative strategy games ever developed. With Perimeter, the land is your primary resource. Players need to Terraform the land around them to fit their gameplay style. Land mass could be both raised and lowered, stretched and compacted. This feature forces players to frequently expand their base while transforming the landscape into heavily defensible organic fortress. Terraforming formed the basis of Perimeter's core gameplay and suffered as a result. Rebuilding the enviroment while facing off against waves of enemies took a great deal of skill. The steep learning curve and complex control scheme didn't prove hugely popular with gamers at the time and as such, Perimeter failed to sell. Despite the gameplay innovation, Perimeter suffered from poor enemy A.I and horrible frame rate issues. Patches released from Developer, KD-Labs fixed many of the games problems, but not before the initial fanbase had moved on. A cult following emerged in the years after release, but sadly never developed into one big enough to support the game's surprising sequel, Perimeter 2. Released in 2009, Perimeter 2 went largely unnoticed by gamers everywhere.