Favorite Games

[Stark]

I saw this discussion in the Bioshock thread, and I'm surprised it never really came up before - so I thought I'd make a thread dedicated to the discussion.

Here's mine. I was born in '96, so I really don't have many retro titles under my belt.

1. Jak II/Jak 3 - The storylines are branched together, so I just consider it one big game. It's been at least four years since I've played either of the games, and it's really not possible anymore since I sold my PS2 last year. Still though, the storylines were solid but I spent tons of time just going around Haven City pissing off the guards. Great games, and for their time (2002 and 2004), the graphics were really good.

2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Oh God, a Call of Duty game. Yes, CoD4 is the best FPS I've ever played, and probably one of the best of all time. Don't let the decline of recent Call of Duty's sway your opinion on this game. It was legendary in its prime.

3. Halo 3 - Halo 3 was actually my first FPS. Great game. Great campaign. LOVED the multiplayer. Still remember my days going for the Banshee at the beginning of every match on Valhalla. I was pretty bad at the game too, but it was just a ton of fun.

4. Pokemon Yellow - First game I ever had, and I still have it. Can't really even describe the game, I'm sure most of you know what the average Pokemon game was like back in the day.

5. Red Dead Redemption - A more modern title, but RDR was (and still is) one of the best games I've ever played. Really deep in things to do, amazing storyline, solid multiplayer, great graphics, and all of that.

Oh, and the original Animal Crossing for the Gamecube has to be up there. I fucking loved that game.

Honorable Mentions: Far Cry 3, Black Ops II, Super Mario Sunshine, Pokemon Colosseum 2, MVP Baseball 2005, Super Smash Bros. Melee

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

Broken Sword: Adventure game series from back in the day. They were never really big name titles so I doubt any of you have heard of them. They were similar to Monkey Island. Perfect mix of humor, history, and puzzle solving. Not a lot of action, it's basically a point and click game. You find random objects and combine them to solve puzzles.

Monkey Island series: I love adventure games. They're all plot driven and there's more to it than just shooting random baddies. You use random objects to solve puzzles. It's also a comedy game so there are plenty of laughs along the way. You do insult sword fighting and the villain is a ghost pirate named LeChuck.

Legacy of Kain series: Fun hack and slash vampire game. This was back when vampires were still cool and not faggy. I love plot driven games and this series had a great overarching plot. This includes the Soul Reaver games.

Uncharted series: As I mentioned earlier, I love puzzle solving, plot driven games. I'm also a history nerd, so when they take historical facts and put a cool twist on them I love it. Like Marco Polo that was used in game 2. Nobody knows what happened to the bulk of his fleet when leaving Kublai Khan. The writers took this tidbit and ran with it. Arguably my favorite series of all time.

God of War series: Awesome hack and slash and a fantastic story. Greek mythology was a hobby of mine when I was younger so that interested me as well. Crazy gore and nudity, game didn't hold back. When I picked up the third one while in college I had a group of guys just sitting around watching me play. That doesn't happen with games like Call of Duty.

Knights of the Old Republic: I love this game so hard. Star Wars, plus choose your own adventure = win. The story was great in the first one, the gameplay improved in the second but the story was far weaker. I really wish they'd make another one that isn't an MMO. I'm not an MMO guy but I love these games. As much as I loved the first one, not as big of a fan of the second.

Far Cry 3: I didn't love the story for this one, which usually would stop this from being a favorite of mine. However I loved running around and killing people. I used the recurve bow almost the whole time and was all about stealth. Although this is my least favorite of the listed games.


Based on these games you people should give me some recommendations. I probably forgot some.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Monkey Island series: I love adventure games. They're all plot driven and there's more to it than just shooting random baddies. You use random objects to solve puzzles. It's also a comedy game so there are plenty of laughs along the way. You do insult sword fighting and the villain is a ghost pirate named LeChuck.

He's also a zombie pirate LeChuck, and then later a demon pirate LeChuck. And then later a ghost zombie demon pirate LeChuck. The Curse of Monkey Island remains one of the best games I've ever played. Awesome animation and art style, great laugh out loud writing, and (at times) obscenely difficult puzzles.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

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[Shakalu M.D.]

He's also a zombie pirate LeChuck, and then later a demon pirate LeChuck. And then later a ghost zombie demon pirate LeChuck. The Curse of Monkey Island remains one of the best games I've ever played. Awesome animation and art style, great laugh out loud writing, and (at times) obscenely difficult puzzles.

When I was little I wanted to name my dog Guybrush Threepwood but my sister vetoed it.

Oh, for anyone who has a DS, check out Broken Sword. One of them is available on the platform. You can also get most, if not all, of them on PC. I think one is Xbox only, not sure. Highly recommend this series to you if you liked Monkey Island.

 

[Jack Brickman]

These (clearly) aren't meant to be a list of my favorite games of all time, but I'm going down the "Beaten" list on my Steam games list and ticking off the ones I feel are worth playing (and why):

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay - If you missed this game back when it came out on the original Xbox, you missed on of the better and more atmospheric first-person brawler/shooter/sneaker games ever made. The gameplay is fun and tight and the story is great. It was (sadly) about a million times better than the actual Chronicles of Riddick film (which was a steaming pile), which means it was a nice and fitting prequel to Pitch Black (an awesome sci-fi horror movie). The voice acting is awesome as well. The sequel, Escape from Dark Athena, isn't quite as good, but it's still a solid game in its own right. Considering they come as a set on Steam, you really can't go wrong. Oh, and these games are both pretty difficult if you're into that kind of thing.

Deus Ex Series - I mean, the original Deus Ex is one of the greatest PC games ever made. Sure, it's archaic as fuck by modern standards, but when it came out it was absolutely ground-breaking. The first sequel (Invisible War) was enjoyable but very forgettable. Human Revolution, the most recent addition to the series, was pretty good. It still didn't come close to matching the magic of the first game and the boss fights are uniformly godawful, but it's definitely worth playing if you're into RPG/shooter hybrids.

Half-Life Series - If you haven't played this series, fuck you. That's really all that can be said.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days - Fuck the haters. I loved this game. It's really short (took me about four hours to beat it on Normal), but it's one of the most visceral shooters I've ever played. The guns feel totally realistic (for example, when you unload an uzi clip, you basically shred the entire room but probably don't hit anything you're trying to aim at) and the sound design is fantastic. The story is totally forgettable, but this game is worth playing for the experience of it. It doesn't relent for a single second as horrible event after horrible event conspire to fuck over both Kane and Lynch. The overall design of the game (it looks as if shot by a handheld camera, and nudity and ultra violence like headshots are blurred out) is what sold it for me. I have no idea why it got such shitty reviews.

Mark of the Ninja - Really fun stealth/puzzle/platformer game. It took me about eight hours to complete and I enjoyed almost all of it. There are a few frustrating sections, but by and large the game is really well designed and a ton of fun.

Portal Series - Utterly brilliant in just about every way. Pretty much par for the course for a Valve game, I guess.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - One of my personal favorite games of all-time. The sequels are worth playing as well, but none of them really managed to capture the magic of the first game. The platforming is just a thing of beauty, and the story is a relatively light-hearted fantasy effort despite the fact that pretty much everyone dies. The sequels tried (and mostly failed) to make things darker and more mature, but part of what made the first game great was a lack of that darkness that most developers try to shoe-horn into their games to make them more "extreme" or whatever.

Sleeping Dogs - To be honest, I enjoyed this open world action game a hell of a lot more than I enjoyed Grant Theft Auto IV (which is, in my opinion, one of the most overrated games of all-time). The action is really fun, especially the melee combat. The setting is also unique enough to set it apart, and the story, while often at odds with how ridiculous some of the actual gameplay can get, is really good and well-acted.

Spec Ops: The Line - It's a really short game (five to six hours on Normal) and the multi-player is worthless, but this is one of the only shooters I've ever played that dares to question the violence inherent in shooters. It's an all-around fantastic game that everyone needs to play.

The Walking Dead - No, not the shitty Activision shooter where you play as Daryl. Get that shit the fuck out of here. This game is an interactive comic book where decisions you make matter. The action got increasingly polished with each subsequent episode, although it remained true to its adventure game roots. The story was excellent and the characters varying degrees of likable or loath-able. It's about ten times better than the TV show that is derived from the same source material.

Dishonored - The best game I played in 2012. It's a refreshing single-player only stealth-em-up that also lets you play it like an action game (should you so choose, but why would you?). Levels are generally open ended and you can play the entire game without killing a single person, which is a notable achievement for almost any game in this day and age, let alone one that casts you in the role of an assassin armed with mystical powers. The story isn't perfect, but the voice acting is solid all around and, perhaps more importantly, the world, art design, and atmosphere in the game are pitch-perfect.

Tomb Raider - We just talked about this one in the other topic, but seriously, go play it. It's awesome. The ending is too abrupt and kind of sucks, but overall the game was great.

Team Fortress 2 - Had to add this one on there. It's the best multi-player shooter ever made. And it has hats. So many hats.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

These (clearly) aren't meant to be a list of my favorite games of all time, but I'm going down the "Beaten" list on my Steam games list and ticking off the ones I feel are worth playing (and why):

Mark of the Ninja - Really fun stealth/puzzle/platformer game. It took me about eight hours to complete and I enjoyed almost all of it. There are a few frustrating sections, but by and large the game is really well designed and a ton of fun.

This reminds me of another one I played in my childhood.

Tenchu Stealth Assassin: Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You're a ninja and you go around killing people. You have to sneak past a bunch of guards to get to your target. It was one of the first games that involved running around on the rooftops. Basically a precursor to Assassin's Creed, but you're a ninja. Also you have a kickass grappling hook that lets you do some pretty sweet stuff.

 

[theshowstoppah]

Born in 1987 so I would say my generation was the first raised on videogames/television. Still remember the day my Dad brought home the Nintendo.

You will notice that my gaming experiences have been based around PVP. I pretty much have used games in the social/competitive sense as opposed to the soloist who goes on the epic journey. I also

1) World of Warcraft - Not even close. Best game ever.

2) Super Smash Bross Series (mainly #1 and Brawl) - Wasn't into Melee as much but between the first and newest one this is probably the game or series I have spent the second most time in my life on. Insane replay value with friends, fun story modes for a fighting game and lots of balanced maps/charaters.

3) Madden/NFL Blitz - Both of these games I spent pretty equal time on and were amazing in their own right. Madden will always be special to me because I love simulator games (bought OOTP Baseball) and that was as good as sports sims were back then I guess. Blitz was amazing fun with friends.

4) League of Legends - At first it seemed a little too high but I have played for like 3 years (I started like the first Xmas it came out) and probabaly like 4,000 or so matches total. Has a lot of flak because of the community now but still an amazing game.

5) Pokemon - Had to do it. So many memories.

Honorable Mentions: Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo (first game ever), Altered Beast, Super Mario RPG, NBA Jam/NBA Hangtime, Grand Theft Auto series (tough one to leave out especially San Andreas), Goldeneye 007 (only FPS that made my list and GOAT by far), Mario Kart games.

And my game going forward right now that I think will gain popularity is Smite. It's a MOBA with a WoW viewpoint where you have to aim your auto-attacks thus making it pretty skill-based.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

Ugh, I just can't stand WoW. I mean, I'm not an MMO guy to begin with, but I don't get the appeal of that one. If I was going to jump into an MMO it would probably be the Old Republic.

 

[theshowstoppah]

Ugh, I just can't stand WoW. I mean, I'm not an MMO guy to begin with, but I don't get the appeal of that one. If I was going to jump into an MMO it would probably be the Old Republic.

I quit at that start of Cataclysm basically so I have not played in awhile but for the length of time I played, the enjoyment I had playing with my friends (we were pretty high-end PVP'ers) and the monthly money Blizzard got from me it has to be #1. From PVP to PVE to even gold farming and selling for IRL money you can do basically anything you want in WoW.

 

[MattyFos.]

Turtles in Time for the SNES and Pokemon Yellow.





I miss childhood.

 

[Shakalu M.D.]

I feel like games have majorly gone downhill since we were kids. They're all shooters now and it's like they care more about graphics than putting out a good story. I love the games where it's like you're playing an interactive movie. Just not nearly as many good ones as there used to be.

 

[MoneyMP3]

6. God Of War trilogy. I loved all of these games and I've played the third one more times than I care to admit.

5. Halo 3. Some of the best times I've had playing Xbox was with this game. Playing with my friends made this game a top 5 game for me.

4. Half Life 2. The first game I bought when I got a decent enough Computer. Loved everything about this game.

3. Bioshock Infinite. I know this game just came out but I loved it. Im already midway thru my 2nd playthrough and finding stuff I didn't find on my first playthrough. Not to mention that ending...

2. Bioshock. My friend told me about this game when it first came out so I decided to try it. So glad I did. Sure the ending wasn't the greatest but it didn't take away from what I already thought of it. Great game. Would you kindly play it?

1. Red Dead Redemption. My all time favorite game. I loved everything about this game. I have spent way too many hours just riding around the country. The story was fantastic even if it got tiresome in some spots. The multiplayer was fun even on that free roam lobby where you couldn't kill anybody, just horses. Many laughs were had in that lobby. I would snipe some dudes horse and watch him go flying off and run around trying to find out who did it. God I love that game.

I wrote this on my phone, so I hope the grammatical errors weren't too bad.

 

[Surge]

I don't know, I just have fonder memories of the games I played when I was a kid/teen:

1.) Shining Force 1 and 2 (SEGA)

2.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

3.)Contra

4.)Joe Montana Sports Talk Football

5.) Final Fantasy Tactics

 

[Jack Brickman]

Final Fantasy Tactics was awesome, as was the version on the GBA.