I guess I should explain why I think that then. For the record, I've liked every other Castlevania game I've played(SotN, I-IV on the NES/SNES, the three GBA ones. I even played Lord of Shadow last year and loved it despite it being God of War in Castlevania land) I still think HoD was a horrible grind required mess. For a game that was meant to encourage cooperation and level repetition to prolong gameplay, it had an almost non-existent tutorial or explanation to the mechanics behind it. I did not have a group of people to play the game with so I was left trying to play with randoms when the game came out. It never felt cohesive or connected and as someone who loves loot collecting and rogue like games it did not compel me to keep replaying levels over and over in the least.
I gave the game a second chance when the game's DLC went on sale sometime last year and tried to play it with some CAG's on here. While the experience was slightly better since I was able to socialize, I was still horribly underleveled and had no real way to contribute to it as it was played. I really feel like I gave it two fair chances to hook me or keep me interested and it never did.
I loved Monday Night Combat, more than a lot of folks, that's for sure. Raptr has me clocked in at almost 900 hours played since its release 2 years ago. I don't normally like shooters either but it hooked me. It had a smarmy presentation, a fun competitive scene(that only died in the past month) and was a great combination for me, keeping a balanced focus between player killing and objective gameplay.
I also picked up Lara Croft as soon as it was released and loved it as well. If you were playing it through solo I could see it being pretty forgettable as just another twin stick with shooting elements but with a co-op buddy, especially in person like I had, the game was a ton of fun. Figuring out the puzzles in tandem, working through the tense action sequences by having to think quick on your feet and combine your abilities really made it rise above the genre stereotypes for me.
Anyways, I don't want to derail the deal thread, but I personally got a lot more enjoyment out of the other 4 games that year!