Amazing throw-away games I've never heard of

Whether I'm browing Steam, Direct2Drive or even Stardock's Impulse game download service I'm always inundated with a ton of games I've never heard of (most of them RTS/TBS games). Most of this stuff seems like shovelware.. but I'm sure there must be a gem or two in the mix.

Does anyone have any experience buying and downloading these games only to be pleasently surprised by a good game? I've tried a few times and am always dissapointed.

I bought Audiosurf and Ghost Master from steam. I enjoyed both quite a bit.

I never buy any game without researching first.

Yeah, impulse buying, or "buying because it looks cool", isnt the way i buy games.

The last time i did that was Gothic 3, kinda sucked dropping 50 bones on a game, to play it for an hour and say "damn that game blows".

Like the post above, i always research.