Final Fantasy VIII and MGS2 are probably my favorite entries of their respective series.
You know, every since I remember I kept hearing people talking about FF8 in negative terms (MSG2 less so, only occasionally, got ~85/100 in computer mag I used to read so dunno), but every now and then I find a small but vocal group of people who say that 8 actually isn't so bad and it is in some ways even better than (supposedly over-hyped) 7. Makes me really interested in trying it. Not to mention the demo of it was my first ever FF experience.
But back on topic, I've been thinking about it and my first choice was a game I mentioned once in a similar thread (wasn't it something like "games that were bad but you still played them" or something?) and that was Star Wars: Episode 1 the game. That game had it all, weird camera, annoying bosses, being quite liberal with license it was using (Jedi with rocket launchers, hooooo) and platforming sequences that, as you neared towards the end, required near Jedi-like concentration and precision to pull of successfully. But oh
boy was the game
fun. I did play it when I was younger, sure, but something tells me playing ping-pong with lighsaber and laser blast, stun-bombing gungans to make it through to Boss Nass (at least on that level I never tried anything more harmful than that gungan stun bombs) and just being a Jedi with a gun? That shit never gets old, mang. Dunno how bad the game is supposed to be according to critics though, I remember it got ~74/100 or something somewhere.
Another Star Wars game I think was actually pretty damn decent but got pretty low score in that one mag I used to read (again) was Bounty Hunter. Dunno what the problem was, but I found the game terribly fun. Sure, the bounty mechanic was a bit wonky at the times and I never finished it so I can't judge it completely, but dangit, the game was solid. Not to mention you had nice amount of interesting unlockables.
But seriously, the game that is most fitting for this thread has to be:
Two Worlds. Panned at it's release, still hated by some (even by people here, as I saw), and true, there are some parts where it could be better. But the polished, patched version (like the one from GoG) presents a pretty interesting, at times surprisingly in-depth game that, imho, saw a lot of love being poured into it's world building. Not to mention it's just pretty solid ARPG. Fight me if you will, but I can't see me hating on it any time soon.
There's this old-ish PC game called Urban Chaos
You can get it on GoG. I played demo, long time ago. While it was a tiny bit annoying, as you had this time-based mission with a mini-boss with a shotgun, it did intrigue me. There was a lot of stuff to like about it. I need to get it, one of these days.
edit:
Honorable mention. Dawn of War Soulstorm. Un-modded even. The game gets a lot of hate, some going so far as to call it utter shit, never-play-it-ever, worst expansion ever etc. But really, if one takes a few steps back, you could realize that while SS doesn't offer that much more content compared to Dark Crusade (2 new factions being the most obvious), there might be some bugs (never experienced one), some imbalance (never noticed one) and apparently some liberal interpretation of WH40K lore (which, tbh, even if you are hard-core WH40K fan should bother you that much because it's nothing compared to what GW does anyways) - if you can tolerate all that AND just roll with the hammy voice acting (why hate it when you can enjoy it, campy movie style?), the game is quite fine.
edit 2:
And if I'm talking about Final Fantasy - 10 was my first FF game that I played to a length (at least, I think I didn't get it before FF:TA...) and dunno, I like it. People seem to make fun of it due to story/voice acting? While it can be a bit silly at times, thinking about it, it kinda makes sense there are awkward moments because two most important characters are hella awkward themselves. Plus, it seem to me Japanese style of story-telling sometimes just doesn't translate so well into English. At least that's my opinion. *shrug*