I’m being lazy today, so I figured I will make a post in which you can do most of the talking, and I can just sit and listen and post smart ass comments and correct the typos in this post as they are pointed out by our friendly neighborhood grammar Nazis in real time.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell me about the bestest, most epic game you have ever played. Or rather about the game that affected you most. A game that you remember most fondly, and that you keep revisiting. Tell me about that time when you went “damn, this game is awesome” every 10 minutes. Please talk about that one special game that made you squeal with joy either literally or figuratively.
If you don’t have a favorite, most significant game like that, tell me about your top 2 or 3 best games. I don’t really care what genre or type. If you don’t play video games, you can talk about RPG’s or Monopoly. Simply tell me what was the game that you had most fun playing.
I think that my favorite single player video game is Morrowind. I’m sure some you could see this coming because I bring it up nearly every time I talk about game design. It’s actually a funny story – I found it in the bargain bin at Wallmart. I didn’t know anything about it at the time. I have not read a single review for it – neither positive or negative. I had no clue what to expect. But it captured my attention because the box had all the magic words on it: RPG, expansive world, and first person perspective. I figured that you can’t go wrong with that.
I brought it home, launched it and that was it for me. It was love at the first sight. As soon as I saw that huge Silt Strider in Seyda Neen I knew this game was awesome. It had giant floating jelly fish things, living gods, ancient prophecies, an extinct race that left behind mysterious ruins, a mysterious plague, and an unseen evil enemy of Sauron like qualities. The world felt old, full of legends, secrets, old feuds, ancient conflicts and alliances. Not only that, but the game had a well designed, mouse driven interface that was intuitive and compact (unlike Oblivion’s interface which requires at least 8 mouse clicks to even initiate an inventory action). It had an engine that was robust and stable enough to offer enjoyable, frustration free player experience, but glitchy enough to allow for fun exploits that would allow you to gain an edge over your opponents. It was also full of Easter eggs, and interesting items and NPCs. Not to mention that the game as designed in such a way that you couldn’t really do all the interesting quests for all the interesting factions with a single character. Once you joined a great house or one of the many guilds, you would often be given orders to kill important quest givers from other factions effectively locking you out of some content. But that was ok. The game was so huge you could level up 2-3 different characters without ever actually repeating a single quest.
Of course Morrowind was not devoid of flaws. It’s character designs were atrocious. The conversation menu was a bit confusing and counter intuitive at first (as opposed to the rest of the drag-and-drop driven UI). The lack of quest objective map markers on the map, and vague directions meant that you often spent a considerable amount of time lost. The game however shipped with a mod making kit, and the thriving community quickly fixed most of these flaws with user made mods.
My second favorite would probably have to be HL2. Same as Morrowind it has a great story and very memorable characters you actually start to care about as you play. I heard a lot of good things about this game, and when I finally bought it, I had really high expectations. I was pleasantly surprised when the game surpassed them. I knew I was hooked when I played the original, but the Episodes with their very cinematic scripted events and more story driven (as opposed to combat driven) game play was what really did me in.
When it comes to multiplayer, I think I remember the original team fortress (the Quake mod) most fondly. We used to have weekly lan parties and played that game obsessively for hours on end. I sucked at it something fierce, but it was still a great experience. If you haven’t played a competitive FPS game with 10-12 of your friends all sitting in the same room, you really don’t know what you are missing. And no, playing online with voice chat is not the same – you can’t for example throw your shoe at the asshole who is spawn camping.
Funny thing is that since then I have played many multiplayer games that were far superior to the original TF. Among them TF2 from Valve which is an very different game – at least in my mind. It’s better, more polished, more balanced and well designed. But somehow I always remember the blocky, pixelated TF quake mod as the most fun multiplayer experience I have ever had.
I think I must also mention Warhammer Fantasy RPG. It was the first role playing game I have ever played and it was a blast. It had broken and exploitable gameplay mechanics and the universe was mostly lifted from the tabletop game but we didn’t care. We loved it.
I remember that I got the rulebook for Christmas, and spent the whole holiday studying it with this goofy enthusiasm. My GM said that he didn’t mind that I didn’t know the rules or the universe, but I really wanted to catch up with the other players who have been gaming for years. I pretty much inhaled the whole book and showed up to the next session full of knowledge and rules related questions. My enthusiasm for this hobby was so intense that the GM lent me his copies of Cyberpunk 2020, Vampire the Masquerade and Mutant Chronicles RPG which I proceeded to read cover to cover but didn’t get to play until much later. WFRP was my first experience with RPG and as such it has a special place in my heart.
Now it’s your turn. Tell me about your favorite games of all time.
Oddly Morrowing is definitely there…got it as a copy from a friend, played it for about a week, then went and bought it. Loved it.
My first major, and probably most fun experience ever, with a PC Game would have to be Ultima IV for the Apple IIc. It had floppies you actually had to flip over :) I have the ported, free version for the PC. Still love it today.
Well, it’s not funny for me, because I have pretty much the exact same ones than you. Except HL2. HL2 proved a bit too hard for my machine and also to difficult to survive. When a game kills me too many times in the beginning, it makes it hard for me to appreciate it fully, even if it later proves more interesting than expected.
So in video games, Morrowind is still, more than 8 years later, a game I love to play, replay and never try to finish. It is still my best game evar.
Table RPG wise, and although Warhammer was also my first one, I would say the ones I most enjoyed were both Deadlands and L5R Rokugan. Deadlands is trashy, pulp, gore and full of very bad jokes, but it is the RPG which made me laugh the most. The setting is consistent and the game mechanics (using poker cards) are part of the general hilarity. And who never dreamed of blasting hordes of zombies with a gatling gun while wearing a Stetson? Rokugan has the major advantage for me of being a setting which changes every week with the players (thanks to a lively global community and meta-game mechanics). And it is a Japanese med-fan setting, so I am happy… :-D
[Free proofreading] you misspelled “Grammar Nazis”. “pleas”, “sequel with joy”, and “The game as designed” are also wrong. Monopoly could use a capital since you’re talking about the game instead of just some random monopoly. You often spent… “considerable amounts of time” or “a considerable amount of time”, not just “considerable amount of time”. The ‘the’s in “the HL2”, “the voice chat” and “the TF2” are redundant – names don’t need ’em, isn’t English fun? :mrgreen: [/proofreading]
I love me some Valve games too. HL2, TF2, Portal, Left4Dead, they’re all awesome. I think HL2 is probably up there for my favourite game, definitely my favourite singleplayer game. Possible exception for the original Half-Life, because it’s a classic, but it’s not realistically a better game… the technology has moved on since then to allow for better physics/graphics and importantly better AI. Makes the other characters that much better to play with.
There is also a HL2 mod in the works called Black Mesa: Source, seeking to remake HL1 with full Source Engine support to make use of the enhanced physics and AI, as well as making new textures and models to upgrade the graphics, basically a full conversion. So that might claim the top spot by virtue of taking the best of both worlds… maybe.
@Alphast, I find HL2 fairly difficult to die in, especially in the early stages… I hear they purposefully adjust the amount of damage you take as your health declines, to try and keep you alive but on the edge for as long as possible (without it becoming unbelievable – they have to let you die before you notice they’re doing anything or it would destroy the illusion). I dunno… but it’s a great game and it’d be a shame for you to miss out.
The best and greatest game I’ve ever ever played for me is X-COM: UFO Defense.
Part RPG, part sim management, part tactical turn-based squad game: it combines all my fav genres into one huge pile of awesomeness. It is a simple game at heart, but has mind-numbingly complex gameplay mechanics.
You start off with little: a disheveled base, poor funding, usually poor soldiers, little staffers. Over time, your base facilities get better, your soldiers learn from battle experience, and your scientists and engineers work together to make your operation entirely self-sufficient. And once that’s achieved, the feeling of satisfaction is too good! But the twisted irony here is that no matter how rich you get, the best reverse-engineered alien weapons can still remain out of your grasp, because of that elusive Elerium-115, which you can only get by attacking landed UFOs, not that ones you attack and crash.
Oh, and I also love the fact that you can rename your soldiers; I get more attached to them that way.
I curse the Snakeman who killed my soldier with a high accuracy stat. I dread meeting an Ethereal while investigating a landed or crashed UFO. I love it when a Cyberdisc I shot exploded and killed the 3 Sectoids hiding behind. I laughed when a civilian got infected, turned into a zombie and eventually into a Chryssalid. So many memories and emotions!
Of course, my original floppies are already gone with the wind, but through the magic of the Internet, I found them again through semi-legal abandonware sites, then cursed Steam for releasing it only for the US, then praised Gamersgate for having the same pack as Steam, and immediately making a purchase.
The “sequel”, Terror From The Deep, wasn’t enjoyable at all. It was basically the same game, but instead of on land, everything’s underwater, which makes the whole alien premise sound a bit dumb. (Aliens are attacking from the ocean? Seriously?) Aftermath was a refreshing modern take, but it has too many flaws and the turn-based-cum-real-time squad missions is too easy to exploit. The rest all just sucked after that.
XCOM:UFO Defense will always be that special, irreplaceable game to me.
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Illwinter/DOM3/DOM3_page.html
Dominions 3 – best TBS ever, graphics are awful, but is the deepest strategy game ever played with infinite replay value – a bit of a learning curve (you don’t know what you’re doing until you do it sort of thing…), but well worth the effort, playing it is like unraveling a fantasy novel that writes itself…
Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns – favorite RTS, incorporated wargame strategy of zone of supply, squad based, fantasy themed (runner-ups – Age of Empires, C&C (the original), Majesty (SimCity/RTS meld))…
WoW – favorite MMOG, have not played in a couple years tho, kind of burned out after EQ, DAoC, SWG, Shadowbane and then WoW…
Nethack – cannot make a list of games without this old school 24×80 text screen favorite…
@Matt`: They are actually “cheating” with health upgrades in episode 2. In there, once you step on small bugs that go “squish”, they drop some pellets that restore health. But the amount it restores varies. The more life you have, the less they restore. Thereby, the allow unlucky players to be away from eminent doom, while the hardcore ones will have to struggle to keep it at the top. I recommend all to play with commentaries after their first playtrough, since it generally enhanced the experience :)
My favorite games? Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I have a hard time to determine this. Well, Half Life 2 and it’s episodes are the best fps’es I have played, hands down. Great pacing, fun to shoot, good writing and story, memorable npcs and G-man. The single greatest moment in gaming for me is the long scence you get with him in episode 2. It is so nervewrecking and awesome.
Then KotOR 2. Sure, it was rushed, some places were unpolished and it was rushed (apperently by LucasArts, but I am not sure). Still, the writing was phenomenal and it made me think! It made me question who to believe, who I could trust. I was always intruged by the idea that Star Wars wasn’t so black and white.
And then there is Gears of War 2. Man, that is mindless, fantastic and superb gameplay mechanics. When I play it and win firefights against thoes grey bastards, I feel so bloody hardcore. It is a great action flick and extremly fun and gory! It should be experienced and I highly recommend it.
@Steve: Funny thing is that I never actually played any of the Ultima games. Go figure.
@Alphast: Maybe it was the lag that killed HL2 for you? This sort of thing can ruin the experience and make you blunder into easily avoidable traps.
I didn’t find HL2 that difficult and believe me – I’m not the best FPS player out there. I love FPS games but at the same time I suck at them. I don’t know how does that work. The original FarCry ruined the game for me with the ramped up difficulty. HL2 was just right – though I struggled with the Strider/Hunter battle at the end of Episode Two.
My secret is the quicksave button. I quicksave after every battle, and do a proper save every 10-15 minutes. This combined with auto-saves means I never actually lose more than few minutes of progress.
@Matt`: *groan* Ok, fixed. Thanks!
The black mesa project looks awesome. I never actually finished original Half Life. I tried playing it couple of times after I was done with HL2 but I couldn’t get used to the low-res graphics.
@Mart: UFO was one of these games I keep hearing about but which I never played. I think I briefly had the Amiga version at one point. It was a pirated copy of course – Poland at that time had no copyright law regulations for software so it was actually perfectly legal to “copy that floppy”. Unfortunately the UI was in French and I could never figure out what was going on so I never really experienced the game.
I might actually try and install it one of these days. My only problem is that playing these games so many years after they were released is just not the same. You know you are playing a retro game, and you miss the high res graphics and stuff we take for granted these days.
@Naum: Never played Dominions or Kohan but I must agree – Nethack is where its at. It is such a simple, and yet such a deep and complicated game.
WoW burned me out all by itself. Arguably it is the best MMO I played (I tried Guild Wars, Eve Online and couple of crappy free ones). Still, after I hit level 40, got my first mount it just got boring. I just realized that the only missions outside of instances boil down to “Kill X of Y”. At least Guild Wars had some ongoing story that kept you pushing forward.
@Jakob: KOTOR2 was good – up until the very end which made me angry. It was such a cop out. I loved both KOTOR games for the stories and the characters.
In KOTOR2 I especially liked how you could train your team mates to become Jedi or even make them turn to your side of the force. I trained the Handmaiden to be totally badass Jedi, and made Visas turn to the light side. I also liked how you could sort of flirt with the ladies. I would usually take Handmaiden and Visas with me on most missions just so that I can score dialog points with them and develop the relationship further. My character totally had a forbidden love triangle going on – and I felt incredibly bad ass to have two hopelessly devoted female padawans following me around everywhere. Good times!
Never played Gears of War – but it is on my list of games to play. Is it out for PC or is it a console only thing?
Gears of War is available for PC (and Xbox 360). Gears of War 2 is only out on the console so far, but there’s hope it will follow its predecessor and eventually be released on PC as well. Having played the three of them (the first on PC and Xbox, and the second on Xbox), I have to say the lack on split screen co-op on the PC version is a total letdown. Unless you have two fairly good computers at home to play over LAN, you’ll have to either play alone (good but not great) or coop through internet which just isn’t the same as having your teammate right next to you during hard times.
My best game evar would have to be Fallout. I actually learned english (mostly) because I wanted to understand it more. I was around sixth grade and knew only a few words when I started it, yet I still enjoyed it very much. Since then I was always top of the class in english lessons, so it was both fun and educational. I still play it every 5 years or so, out of pure nostalgia I guess because [rant on] they don’t make them like that anymore[rant off].
@Zel: Actually, I think it makes sense that there is no split screen coop on PC. Think about it – most PC players use Keyboard + Mouse to play this type of games. PC’s are designed for network gaming, rather than split screen.
On XBox you usually play on the couch in front of the TV and your console can support multiple input devices. It makes sense. :)
Oh, and btw – I started learning English because I wanted to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles tabletop game, and the rulebooks were not available in Polish at the time.
@Zel: Cliff Bleszinski has denied that it will arrive on the PC before, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up :/
Oh, and Fallout is great. Here, I shall provide a link for others so they can try this masterpiece: Fallout at Good Old Games.
If only PlaneScape: Torment would be on sale. I really want to try it.
@Jakob: Hey, I fixed your link. You forgot to close the anchor tag.
Re: Planescape – it’s interesting, if old fashioned game. I had a pirated copy once but It was tiresome playing in 640×480 resolution. I think there is a mod that allows you to increase the screen resolution significantly to play it on a modern machine. It wouldn’t run with my cracked copy.
I might purchase it one day from GOG and see if it works. :)
Also, I think I’ll play Fallout 3 before I try the original. This way I won’t experience the crushing disappointment all Fallout fans do when playing it.
@ Luke: I’d have to agree that Quake TF, IMO, was the most fun multi-player/LAN game evar. Maybe it’s because I was just starting college and TF bridged my all nighters with social interaction or that it took Quake out of free-for-all fast paced death match and into the not yet realize team based multiplayer or that I could hone my skills based on map: rocket/grenade jumping for soldiers, sniper, demo-man jumping, etc. That game holds a special place in my online life.
A few years ago I found a complete packaged solution for quakeworld TF. It’s a free msi/exe that’s includes server search built-in. I can’t remember what it’s called but it runs under wine and there are still people playing!! I’ll see if I can find the link when I get off of work and post it here…
1. Quake 3 Arena: I lost a year of my life to this game. Pretty much the best online multiplayer experience I ever had. Once I started trying to correograph my own rocket-jumping videos I decided it was time to quit. I don’t let myself play these FPSs anymore due to poor self-control.
2. Blockout: 3D-Tetris. I still love this one and sneak a few games every so-often. This one is truly timeless. I even have blockout on my cell-phone.
There have been many others, but these two stand-out.
Hmm, there seem to be a lot of FPS fans here. No one mentioning Civilization 2, Simcity 2000 or Star Control 2? :D
@Mart: excellent point. Sim City (all of them) were transformative for me. Anyone remember ‘The Incredible Machine’? Also ‘Lemmings’ should probably be on here as well, but that’s going way back.
I’m not saying split screen is common on PC, but in this case it made sense to implement it. The gameplay is obviously designed for a Xbox 360 gamepad (and no other, with my standard one the control scheme was a complete mess and required multiple .ini files editing to fix). With keyboard & mouse, as usual with console ports/multiplatforms aiming is too fast and precise which scales the difficulty way down.
I wouldn’t be so sure about Gears of War 2 never coming out on PC. If I remember right the same statement was made concerning the first game, yet it still came out a year or so after the release on console.
Planescape – Torment is a very good game but it has too many flaws to enter my favorites. The combat system is slow and broken. The interface is quite annoying, especially for magic users. However, the writing is very good and detailed, the plot is original, the characters all have well defined and different personalities, and it looks quite beautiful with the mentioned high-resolution hack.
Wow, this is a pretty hard question for me to answer:
*: The original System Shock, it was a DOS game from the mid-1990s, I’m not sure if it predates WIN-95. Great plot. The graphics are dreadful by today’s standards, but the plot and the antagonist more than make up for the graphics.
*: Half Life 2, and it’s episodes. (did anyone notice that the Half Life (source)) version that came with the game was easier than the original Half Life? especially the final boss battle)
*: God of War 2; Yeah, it’s a Playstation game, but I’ve replayed the game so many times that I feel compelled to mention it.
Have to concur with the comments re Morrowind. It was also the first game that I felt any real attachment to. I think I noticed it as a promotional video on one of the ‘free’ Xbox demo CDs but went on to purchase a PC version first. I was an RPG virgin and completely new to PC gaming. It was initially arriving at Balmora that hooked me – that and encountering the guy falling from the sky outside of Seyda Neen. I used to hate how I was always getting wasted by Mudcrabs in the early game and it still surprises me that I’ve never actually completed it.
Right now there is a new love in my life. The game is called A-Train 8. It’s a train company management simulation. Looks all playful and lightweight but is nothing of the sort. Alot of people originally mistook it for some type of Simcity clone and it (as well as last year’s A-Train HX on the 360) has been generally ignored or panned by reviewers because no one knows how to play it.
Part of the mystery surrounding the games has been that, until recently, there was no English language guide or walkthrough to help newcomers. Even the official manuals do practically nothing to ease you into the game. It was shameful, really. The game series has a long history in Japan, but even Japanese gamers still struggle with it.
Essentially you are laying down stations and tracks, supplying them with materials for building, and developing a city within which you continue to expand your railroad company. Everything rests upon efficient time tabling, smart investment on the stock market, being in debt to the bank and squeezing the very most out of your trains (there are over 200 trains in the JP version; 50 in the Euro version).
I’m totally hooked on this game. I think I’ve spent more time with this game than any other (including Fallout 3) in the last 3 years. It’s compulsive and a real treat for gamers who enjoy tinkering with scheduals and management-style games.
I liked it so much i’ve started a fan site dedicated to the game
A-Train Fan Site
@Mart: Yeah, odd. Then again, considering that I’m not a huge strategy/RTS fan not particularly surprising. :)
My favorite RTS games are probably StarCraft. Spent countless hours playing it – probably because of the story.
I did love Civilization back in the day, but I would usually get bored with it before I reached sufficiently advanced technology stage, ditch it, and then start over again later.
There was a wonderful little game on Amiga called Centurion. I remember playing it obsessively. You were basically playing a centurion conquering new provinces. Each province would yield income, and allowed you to buy more troops and I think there was some resource management and investment component to the game too. The main part of the game was the real time battles. It was interesting because your ability to give commands to your troops was based on the leadership of your commander and his shouting distance. You would have to move that guy up and down the lines to make sure the units behave the way they are supposed to. Loved that game.
@gabe: I never really got into the original simcity. I would usually build it up a little bit and then unleash Godzilla to destroy it.
Oh man… Lemings were something!
@Kevin Benko: Never played God of War but I keep hearing bad things about it. I think people are just really hating the quicktime events it sort of introduced.
@Mark Harding: Holly shit dude! The original A-Train was my dad favorite game EVAR! When he used to work the night shift, he would come home, get us ready to school then fire up the Amiga and play the fucking game all day. I sometimes would come home and find him sleeping at the keyboard. :)
I didn’t even know this A-Train 8 existed. I think I know what I’m getting him for fathers day now. I just need to figure out if it will run on his laptop.
@Luke
mate, I’m playing it on a 7-year old Compaq Pressario 6000/Geforce 7600.
If i can manage it I’m certain your ol’ man can, too. It’s a very scaleable game, anyway.
About Morrowind – now we’re talking about it I’m recalling some of the fun I used to have. I confess I once played a whole weekend straight, only leaving my PC to take a dump and eat some dry bread&cheese. Ah…those were the days.
I also got into the habit of dimming the lights and playing w/o the music. It scared the shizzle out of me when I was attacked from nowhere by a creature. Totally unexpected after wandering for 10 mins through the wilderness.
@Mark Harding: Ah, never mind then – it will definitely work on his machine. :)
Re: Morrowind – the weird chanting/whispering when you explore tombs still freaks me out. No matter how much I play that game, it is still unnerving and I’m always relieved to leave these places. I especially don’t like to hang around the weird pits and altars where the chanting gets louder.
I never experienced anything like that in Oblivion.
@Mark Harding: Btw, where did you get this game? I’m looking online but I don’t see it anywhere. I’m wondering if it’s even out in US at all…
A couple of my all time favorite games are Tie Fighter, X-Com, Duke Nukem 3D, and Everquest.
Tie Fighter to me was one of those games way ahead of its time. It really put you into the Star Wars universe and IMHO one of the best Sci-Fi flight simulators ever created. I remember there were so many controls that I needed a second person to co-pilot with me. It even had a kinda morality type component where you could either do you mission as stated, or secretly help the Emperor ignoring your main mission.
For X-com, i didn’t get to play it when it first came out. I only got into it after reading something similar to Mart’s post, praising it as one of the best games of all time. Once i played it, i immediately got hooked. From the creepy pulsating music that plays when you arrive at an alien crash site, to getting shot from the darkness and losing your top gunner, all that intense tenseness i experienced has not been replicated in any other game.
Duke Nukem 3D multiplayer on the Lan… Nuff said.
As for Everquest, I loved this game when it first came out, before all the MMO speak, online maps/quest sites, and raid days. Just exploring the first 3D fantasy world with the playing field being equal. No online sites to help you find your way, or old experience players with a sense of elitism. I remember getting lost in Blackburrow and diving into the unknown, visiting the halfling village for good eats, taking a boat to the woodelf city of kelethin to purchase an awesome bow. It really was a magical experience before MMOs got all serious. Thats about the time I quit MMOs for life.
@Mart X-Com: never since have I had an experience like that and it is without a doubt my best gaming experience ever.
Otherwise my list covers the games I found most enjoyable and immersive or spent far too much time on. The numbering doesn’t indicate any ranking.
1. X-Com: UFO Defence (still unmatched mix of strategy and tactical gameplay with a great storyline)
2. Doom II Multiplayer (modem to modem ipx/spx can you imagine!!!??)
3. System Shock (atmosphere like nothing else on a 486)
4. Deus Ex (incredibly exciting and immersive – and a great story with a real sense of freedom of choice)
5. Quake I Multiplayer (first real 3d game and probably the biggest gaming time sink of my life)
6. Bioshock (the best 360 game i’ve played and a fantastic imaginary world)
7. Linley’s Dungeon Crawl (there’s an amazing amount of depth and addictive gameplay in roguelikes)
8. GTA Vice City (opened my eyes to the possibilities of sandbox world games)
And there are so many others, arcade games, ZX Spectrum games – but I thought I’s stick with PC and Console games.
Holy shit yes, Lemmings!
That was awesome… all those little dudes trudging their way to the goal, and if they (by which I mean I) ballsed it all up, there was always the nuclear option.
Also Psychonauts. If you have not played it then go and do so right away. It’s on Steam for cheap, and it is brilliant.
@Rigel: Duke Nukem deathmatch mode was indeed fun. I especially liked that shrink gun that allowed you to step on your opponent.
@copperfish: Dude, Doom 2 FTW. We used to play it on old 486’s over a COM cable. It was intense!
Bioshock is on my list of games to play. Does it still have Securom when you buy it from Steam? Last time I checked it still did. :(
@Matt`: Yeah, I keep hearing good things about Psychonauts. I sort of ignored that game cause it looked like a console platformer for kids but everyone keeps raving about it.
StarCraft. Definetely.
Those who’ve played it will know why I don’t display my reasons.
I’m re-installing Morrowind! I’m going to take my time and actually finish the game for once.
@ Leo: I’m a closet fan of RTS, so what made StarCraft so good? Does it still stand up against more contemporary RTS? If so I might look for it to try.
@mark harding: If I had to choose one single statement to describe the game I would have to go with: The stability and balance that exists between all three races is unprecedented.
From that fact on, all the advantages that derive are just awesome.
Once you complete the basic learning curve and begin with the more complex-cross-race-multiplayer-mapAndBuildingsPositionAndMessurement learning curve the game becomes so addictive and excellent compared to others that you just want to play it over and over again and send Warcraft and AOE to hell so they will never get out of there again.
Cheers.
@mark harding: The main story is definitely worth it. You’ll probably need to use the UESP Wiki to look up some of the obscure locations on a map.
I also highly recommend printing out these two maps in color and keeping them on your desk at all times. They totally help you plan efficient trips using the public travel routes.
As for Starcraft – I believe that Koreans actually televise StarCraft matches sometimes. It’s huge over there it seems. @Leo: is right – it is probably the most balanced RTS’ of all times.
I don’t have a favourite game, as I’m not really able to compare games from different genres, but Super Mario 64, Theme Hospital, GTA:Vice City, Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid are on the top of my list.
But if I had to choose I would say Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey and Exodus, they just mix great dark humor, excellent puzzles and great 2D art in two fantastic games! I just wished I had a Xbox to try Oddworld: Munch’s Odyssey, but I’ve never seen the game on sale again :|
Metal Gear Solid is on my top 3 too. WITHOUT ANY DOUBT.
And I add Tibia in the third place (MMORPG).
Shenmue (Dreamcast) and Shenmue II (Dreamcast, Xbox). Epic. F.R.E.E.
GOW:Ghost of Sparta…. Good story, awesome artwork , and a hell of a gameplay….
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