Dark Souls 3 - Initially I bought Dark Souls PTD edition, and no matter what I did I couldn't "Git Gud". Managed to "Git Gud" in DS3 and love it even though it shits me to tears sometimes.
Medal of Honor (reboot) - At the time 'everyone' said it was the poor mans COD or BF, I loved that game though. Much more enjoyable than COD and BF, mostly because it wasnt designed as a multiplayer with a shitty and short campaign tacked on at the last minute. A perfect example of this would be the 'leak' regarding BF1 having only 6 missions for the campaign. I guess we will see at release.
Rise of the Tomb Raider - I really liked the reboot, but sequels tend to be crap. Oh how wrong I was about this. This game is my favorite of this style of game and a refreshing change from AC and Uncharted. AC got boring a long time ago, and Uncharted is not on PC. Not saying Uncharted is bad - it met my expectations, but no PC = no me.
And as OP didnt specify digital games only - Cards Against Humanity - holy crap this game is hilarious.
Halo CE on PC. There was a whole user created content version where the CE meant custom edition instead of combat evolved. This shit came out around 2001, I started about '03. It was fucking INSANE. Some of the PC exclusive maps were fucking massive.. like bigger than any other game I'd ever seen. I think Battlefield 2043 or whatever wasout but I didn't ever get a chance to play. I just was completely engulfed by the multiplayer as I had literally never played an online game prior. Was my entry point into pc world, used to spend weekend at my grandparents just so I could run it at a smoother FPS.
GTA V, was very pleasantly surprised with how much depth the game had. To be able to sit down and watch television, or go to a movie with your friend, or even pickup a stranger on the side of the road and get in some weird hostage situation.
Uncharted 2 Among Thieves was a breakthrough technical marvel on the PS3. The jump between the first uncharted and this second one, was immense. It was like a whole different studio did the second game, or they got a way bigger budget.
Unreal Tournament 2004 was very fun, especially with mods like RPG and the Matrix. Adding 200 bots with a buddy was insanely awesome. It was chaos! Played this one constantly with my stepbrother and friend.
Garrys Mod - Did not expect that this was more than a physics sandbox. The RPG servers were very fun, especially roleplaying. I would either be a mad scientist that controls the vault doors to the nuclear bunker, and only let in people that would pay me. Or I would be a Hitman that would setup landmines near peoples houses, by making an explosion barrel invisible and welding it to the ground after physics shooting it. Hilarious to hear and see the aftermath.
Everquest - I played this game for over a decade. Hundreds if not thousands of hours put into it, over the course of my life. The great part of it was the necessity to make friends. It was such a difficult game to traverse and progress through, that soloing sometimes wasn't an option. I especially appreciated the era of the game where everyone traded at westcommons, without an automated auctionhouse. This was the most realistic way of trade in a fantasy world and immerses you that much more, to have a true economy.
Also this game blew me away. It's a bit of a cult classic. Advent RIsing. What made this game great was the storytelling and how big the scope of the game is, taking you around the universe, and unlocking powers to ascend. You have to actually use your powers and find hidden items in the game to level up and branch your powers out.
Most of the games have the indescribable 'Je ne sais pas' of just being fun.
Bulletstorm:
That game was so much fun I have played it at least 5 times.
Just Cause 3:
I think this game is criminally under rated but I know why that is so. The physics and graphics on the title are so intense it will tank any system you play it on. I had to buy a new $350 GPU just for this game. Even the console kids cant play Just Cause 3 and those bad reviews are holding the game back.
Rocket League:
This is complicated. I usually pirate games to demo try before I buy. I heard Rocket League was good and tried it and thought it was stupid. No Sale. Then people were going crazy for it and I got it on sale. I thought "Racing games are all you are good at this will be easy." But it wasn't, so it sat idle. Then I picked it up a third time, I studied some tutorials and now Rocket League is my eSport. I am addicted to RL now.
Spec Ops: The Line. I got it because I had just played a bunch of Call of Duty and was looking for a basic generic third person shooter to play on the couch.
That is exactly the right expectation to have going in to that game.
World of Warcraft vanilla was by far the most mind blowing experience I ever had. My expectations were already pretty high but I had no idea how huge that world would be. From elwynn forest to the depths of molten core and all the people I met along the way. It was a remarkable journey and I don't think anything can ever come close to that again.
DXHR. I played ten minutes and thought it was shit. Then I decided that I needed to get out of the intro. When I got to the city I was surprised. A little dissapointed, but surprised. Its my game of the year now.
Agreed. Might honestly re purchase it. Hasn't been any game quite like Halo CE since then... I'll shit if Halo5 fully becomes a PC game. Probably would revive the series
The Orange Box. The whole thing. My friend convinced me to buy it several years ago because we were playing TF2 on his Xbox 360 and I liked it a lot. I remember it was only $20 at Sears and I bought it for PC.
The Orange Box basically started my PC gaming love. Sure, I had played WC3 and SC before, along with a few other games back in the Windows 95/98 days, but I never REALLY got into PC gaming until I got The Orange Box.
Just a few more: - Morrowind. I bought the GotY Edition from Blockbuster for $20 on Xbox from a recommendation of another friend. I dumped soooo many hours into that game and never beat it. - F.E.A.R. - Dragon Age - Firewatch - Rocket League
These aren't necessarily my absolute favorite games, just games that I was kinda skeptical about and turned out to be amazing. The Orange Box games and Morrowind are definitely among some of my favorites of all time though.