Slashdot Mirror
What Games Have Actually Affected You?
FortKnox asks: "What games have affected you simply by playing them? What games immersed you so well into its environment that you actually felt different after playing it? For me, I'd have to go with System Shock 2. Basically the predecessor to Deus Ex, it was the only game that made me so afraid that the minute I heard a matron mother, I turned the other way and ran. What game scared you to death, or made you think after playing it?"
I'd have to say the game that most affected me is Global Thermonuclear War.
Half-Life. It just blew me away...
I can never forgive them for the death of Kerrigan.
Championship Manager. You will know why if you have ever played it.
I swear, I'll never play that game in the dark again. Damned headcrabs scared the hell out of me, jumping out of dark corners and attacking me in air ducts.
Afterwards I hard a hard time getting to sleep since there was a storm outside and it sounded like the headcrabs were coming to get me.
"They told me it was impossible. I replied with maniacal laughter." http://www.mydailyrant.com/
...has always been a favourite of mine. I mean, the series has gone through 12 iterations now and it's still going strong; maybe not the most cutting-edge graphics, but the attention to storyline and soundtrack has certainly made it very popular (Square games seem to have by far the most fanfics written for them, if that's any metric of the storyline).
On an unrelated note... AAARGH!! MY EYES!! MY FRIGGIN EYES!!!!!! (if you can't tell I'm really not a fan of this colour scheme)
although they have made hours disapear.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The first time I encountered one of those floating brain things in Duke Nukem 3D I nearly peed myself. Those things made the creepiest noises, did massive damage, and completely freaked me out the first time I saw one (after it snuck up behind me, underwater).
As for a game that affected me emotionally, I'd have to say Final Fantasy 4 (2 in the US). The storyline was so deep that, even with the terrible translation that Square inflicted on it, the pain of the characters showed through.
End of lesson. You may press the button.
There are times now in traffic when I get that unimistakable urge to just pull into the oncoming lane to pass some slow moron in front of me, or to pull the guy who cut me off out of his car at the next red light and lay a beating on his ass.
I don't do it, of course, but one can dream... and I know I'm not alone, because I've seen other posts on here from people similarly afflicted.
A few minutes into Unreal, there's a cooridor you get trapped in and the lights start going off down the hall, closer and closer. Finally you're left in complete darkness and some monster came out of a hidden area, RAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWRRRRR and it just scared the living crap out of me!!
tony hawk's pro skater: everything is a grind or jump these days...
-- ribbit
Yeah it was 1983...yeah it was on the Commodore, but who needs more than 64k anyway?
Up to four players on my Atari 800 (still in storgage for the times I want to play MULE).
The game that showed that multiplayer co-op an competitive can be in the same game at the same time.
Sure, the graphice are blocky, but gameplay was the first consideration - it ran in 48k of RAM (with the nifty intro filling about the same - swapped in from disk).
Sure, modern PC games may have better graphics, but I'm still waiting for better game play.
---
Book(n): Utensil used to pass time while waiting for the TV repairman
Doom. Definately Doom. First truly immersive 3d shooter. Those dark areas and shuffling noises scared the bejesus out of me.
And there was nothing worse than turning a corner and confronting a demon unexpectedly
Download my free songs!
...for giving me an interest in history and geography.
-- And when Justice is gone, there is always... Force. --Laurie Anderson, "Oh Superman"
I can't seem to quit playing this god forsaken game no matter how hard I try. On the other hand, it has taught to me to double check everything before you accept a trade. :)
I'd have to say duckhunt. Seriously. That game was what got me started in "FPS" genre games. I loved playing that game with my friend Ben, who sucked royal balls at it. Duckhunt + Across the Galaxy forever baby.
I played it for 72 hours straight and got severely dehydrated. If I hadn't looked at the clock I, might have died.
Those "three" (Zelda counts for more than one, really) are my top favorites. I always got sucked into their plots and am a big fan of their soundtracks.
This game came very close to making me fail Fluid Dynamics A.
As it was the game stopped working due to a Direct X foobar a week before my finals and I didn't have the inclination to reinstall. So, thank you Gates/Balmer for my 81%!
OTOH as far as great games goes, I think Dungeon Keeper wins every time. I played that one for about 60 hours straight until I fell asleep at my desk. Ahh, what great days.
Beep beep.
The game that affected me the most was Wolfenstein 3D. I was 7 at the time, and somehow it had appeared on my computer (I guess my dad went out, bought it, and installed it). I figured out the directory where it was stored and played it (this was back on my 386). Never has a game scared me so much. I wasn't even allowed to see PG movies, let alone Nazis and guard dogs and mutants spewing crimson gore! I was mightily afraid of the game, but at the same time, couldn't stop playing it. It taught me an interest in the Nazis and World War II that I would never have acquired otherwise. And I had nightmares for years on end ... walking through hallways armed only with a pistol ... and then I turn around and a Nazi with a machine gun is shooting at me!! Newer FPS's with more realistic graphics don't scare me as much ... for me, the one and only horror game will always be Wolfenstein 3D.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
It's true! Violent games make for violent people!
May god bless those lost due to video games.
This was the first game that really shook me up - even with the comparatively course graphics of the time. Recently, RTCW (single player) was pretty creepy in the catacomb levels...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Something tells me that people are just going to be posting what their favorite games are, whether they were "affected" by them or not.
Playing Halo late at night by myself with the surround cranked up had me seeing the invisible monsters in my dreams.
I strongly believe that Fallout and Fallout 2 were the most addictive games ever created. For an entire summer, my life was consumed by the post thermonuclear war world. I never looked at California the same way. Fallout changed my world, made me question myself in some sick way. Thank you Black Isle.
that one scared the bejeezus outta me too... others are unreal (same reason as another poster said), and Silent Hill 2
www.necroticobsession.com
After I played Tetris for a while, I just couldn't stop thinking about the block shapes and the combinations I could use to create complete lines. I haven't played in a while, but I can still clearly picture a game in my head.
Google doesn't index user sigs, so stop trying to "Google Bomb" with them.
I always got scared playing that... it was too quiet... I was always expecting someone to come out from around a corner shooting... :o
The worst part was that my brothers would always come in and scare the shit out of me.
But I guess I'm just a pussy... :\
Zelda 1
Mega Man 2 (the best game ever)
Countless RPGs, especially SNES ones.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Once I was talking to someone about the benefits of recycling and solar power and then I realized I was basing my entire discussion on what I had learned from playing Sim City 4.
I still haven't finished the damned thing. I get myself so tense trying to sneak through the places that I find I can't play for longer than an hour or so.. it's exhausting.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
Ico, Deus Ex, Shenmue.
Realms of the Haunting was a moody, creepy game from the doom era. Basically it was a first person resident evil game before RE was around. 4 CD's of movies, music, levels, and scary.
Of course this was when I was much younger (and a 100 MB install was enormous). So maybe it is nostalga kicking in.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Never played the first one, but I had the opportunity to play the second. I wasn't able to play it at night. The game was just plain eerie, and seeing monsters which resemble some type of horrifically disfigured human just gives me the creeps. The animation on the monsters was also what got to me. They moved in an unnatural way, and for some reason that just creeped me out.
Also the basic premise of the story was enough to give me nightmares.
And the fact that the main character's name was the same as mine, James.
If Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."
Je t'aime Stéphanie
Most recently was probably GTA3...
after I played that game I felt guilty everytime I saw a cop in RL.
Now I've seen Everything
Console: Legend of Zelda (original NES), Metroid (original NES)
Computer: Star Control II, Quake, any of the Monkey Island series
I still play most of those, now and again...
Cheers,
Ken
Quake would be one. It was one of the first real 3d first person shooters. The lighting, combined with Trent Reznor's twisted soundtrack, made this a real experience. While games like doom or wolfenstein were great, they still had that "video-game" feel to it. Quake was the first game that really gave me that sense of claustophobia and panic.
Another notable example would be Starcraft, which affected me greatly as I lost my tan and my social life because I spent so many years playing it online!
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
Well, as far as short-term changes, I'd have to say Homeworld: Cataclysm. Playing a hallucinatory battle with my alarm clock (setting it forward five minutes at a time for about five times) complete with seeing red and green dots has to count as my most crazy moment so far.
That's what you get after playing a game like that for about 12 hours straight two days in a row.
Of course, the dreamlet of Saddam congratulating me on winning a game of CnC:Generals from him (by tossing nukes on his construction center and biolabs, no less) was also pretty freaky.
But change the way I really look out at life? Hell no. These are games, and I enjoy them, but they don't change me much.
Besides giving me the odd dream/dreamlet, which I enjoy anyway.
The images of falling blocks persisted for a long time after playing....
Alright - if anyone remembers this, I'm going to be seriously impressed.
The game "Mind Walker" for the Amiga scared the crap out of me! I was like 10 years old when I first played it, but the music was maddening, and the object of the game even crazier. I remember I had nightmares for weeks. I actually wound up having my mom format the disk for me while I stood outside the computer room because I didn't even want to see the disk icon appear on the Workbench desktop.
night trap... mortal kombat too., all the games of 'that era' that made lieberman go nuts.
Runnin' On Empty
Scorched Earth, and it's descendants such as Pocket Tanks. We still play it fanatically at work now. In fact, we're gonna have pocket tanks brackets set up this week for a quick tourney.
;)
It's deceptively easy, only angle and power adjustments, but the weapon choices add an intense degree of strategy, and the simpleness of the game makes it available to everyone.
Easily one of my biggest time hogs ever
Oh boo hoo
There are times now in traffic when I get that unimistakable urge to just pull into the oncoming lane to pass some slow moron in front of me, or to pull the guy who cut me off out of his car at the next red light and lay a beating on his ass.
I know exactly what you mean... sometimes it's so tempting to swerve over to the right and just nail one of those pedestrians...
That and GranTurismo... I drive an 'exploder' and after I play that game... woo woo! (It doesn't actually go fast.. I just like to pretend it does... although the engine (read fan) is so ridiculously loud, I keep thinking I should be going fast...) :|
neurostarI was basically raised by Sierra's * Quest games.
I learned my wonder-charm from Larry[1], my elegance from Roger Wilco[2], that monsters dissapear if you go through a door and back again by Sir Graham [3], and that it's okay to drive through red lights as long as you have the sirens on by Sonny Bonds[4].
[1] Leisure Suit Larry
[2] Space Quest
[3] Kings Quest
[4] Police Quest
My <1000 UID is with a hot chick
the entire Civilization series. Stiff neck, too. Some transcript damage, PTSD from threat of academic failure.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Clive Barkers Undying - Scared the crap out of me. Played it in a dark room one too many times. There were several moments that I had to get up and leave the game for a few minute.
Civ II - Played this one non stop for months. Easily the single most addictive, what's going to happen next strategy game ever.
The Dragon Quest games - My first exposure to japanese RPG's.
Quake II - The first game that made me run out and buy new hardware.
Deus Ex, almost every game of the Final Fantasy series, Xenogears/saga, and Chono Trigger (Not Cross =P) all had significant philosophical issues that had an "impact" or at least made an interesting discussions with friends. Similar to some of the discussions The Matrix causes.
When I started playing it, it switched my allegiance from strongly Star Trek to strongly Star Wars. I've since acheived a comfortable geequalibrium between Star Trek, Star Wars and Tolkien.
For that matter, I had no social life when I was a teenager, so the Ultima games in general were either a way to cope with that or a way to reinforce it so I would have to say the earlier Ultimas (1-5, but mostly 3-5).
I would have to say Operation: Flashpoint. It is (to this day) one of the only FPS out there that adequately brings the realities of large scale combat to life. Sure, it is no Sim by any means (in terms of vehicle control, etc), but the overall experience is excellent. It is NOT intended for Quake/UT players specifically, and maybe not even the majority of the CS crowd care for it. But it sets a standard, and does it well. I can't wait to see the next generation sequel to this game.
Domains for only $8.75/year! Transfer your domain for on
While it didn't scare me enough to run the other way, the game is completely immersive.
I would tense up upon entering a room and hearing Space Pirates near by. Going through the phazon mines the first time is nerve racking.
Of course a large part of this is all because of the amount of detail put into the helmet and visors. When I first saw Aran's own reflection in the visor from an incoming missle, I just about shit my pants.
Also, the music in the game really sets a mood. If we are going to talk about FPSs and their ability to draw a person in -- Metroid Prime is hands down the best.
Fallout2 definitely. I can't think of anything else that would have made me stay up all night, sometimes even 17hrs in a row.. :) And I don't play games so much (besides Fallout).
I really much say the Resident Evil series. I just got so attatched to the characters, it was hard to let it go after it was all over...
Resident Evil Code Veronica in particular drags you in. Guns and shooting don't appeal to me generally, and my taste in horror is certainly not zombies, but the storyline and characters were so deep and interesting.... it changed my view on gaming for sure. Nowerdays I'll really not appriciate a game if I'm not dragged into the storyline... probably a bad way to look at games really, but there you go...
This giant game is constantly getting to me
Its really the simple games that get me the most. To really play minesweeper well, you have to commit complex patterns to instinct and then defocus your eyes a little so that you see and comprehend all of the field at one time. Then you sort of make your world one with the field and shut out everything else. After a few hours of minesweeper, I'm a very dangerous driver because turning off that pattern matching logic is difficult. I tend to find myself instinctively relating the cars to the cells of the field and wondering which are the bombs.
Well not a countdown. Just a list.
1) DOOM. Nightmares after playing it for 11 hour straight, the day the shareware images were first released. The dark images, the flickering lights in the station, the SOUNDS!
2) DOOM II. Driving out of town for a holiday in the mountains, I saw a sign advertising a "Sale today on chainsaws!" Instantly I thought, "Damn, I've been looking for a chainsaw for days. Should I..." and then realised that I'd been looking for a chainsaw in the game.
3) System Shock. The updated original, on CD, with voices. Shodan was NEVER so scary! Oh man, the nights I lay awake, wired on adrenaline and fear. That changed my life, because it nearly cost me my job.
4) Grim Fandango. Never have I been so wrapped up in the characters in a game. Never. Ever. I just about cried in at least three different spots.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
SIlent Hill on the Playstation was the first game to make me feel on edge and stressed out and even scared sometimes. You didnt have a practically unlimited supply of ammo. That eerie static was for the most part the only sound besides your footfalls in that deafening silence. It really let your imagination take over.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
Nothing else comes close. Several months ago my machine crashed and I had to reformat my hard drive. By this time I was already having dreams ascii dungeons, monsters, and a 'd' following me around hoping for '%'. I decided maybe it was best if I didn't reinstall nethack. Though there's still those darn public nethack machines....
I don't know if I'm the best example, though. I've spent tortured nights dreaming of physics problems, one or two particularly bad nights dreaming of C++, and even come up with a Pascal algorithm or two in my sleep.
Of course, I have also come upon the secret of life once or twice in my sleep, but can never seem to remember it when I wake up...
Tweet, tweet.
I have to say that I am a *huge* fan of the game Deus Ex. That game includes some incredible storytelling. I can play the game over and over again, and each time I do, I find something new. The creators of that game really spent a lot of time paying attention to detail. Truly an incredible game.
:-)
Hopefully the Invisible War will be out soon. I will buy it as soon as it does
And if that game doesn't run on WineX like Deus Ex does, I will even go so far as to install Windows on my machine. Yes, that is how much this means to me...
I remember playing this game on my father's IBM XT in the early 80's.
It actually spoke "Welcome to Dunzin!" and it would scare the bejeezus out of me every time, especially if I was playing it alone upstairs.
Ever since I was a kid, I wanted my own X-Wing. Apparently the makers of Lucas Arts' X-Wing did too. They made me my very own X-Wing, and I couldn't stop flying it. When I first sat down to play the game, I had butterflies in my stomach, because I didn't believe they'd get it right. When I realized they did, I couldn't stop laughing with joy. It was a true nerd experience. All of the subsequent games, like Tie Fighter and so on, were even better.
Games nowadays are vastly superior from a technical standpoint, but none of them approach the inspiration behind this game. Though I have to say, Jedi Outcast is a close second. An incredibly cool game. I've also wanted a light saber since I was a kid, and JO is a good substitute.
I think I'll stay away from those fire flowers, I can't imagine what those would do to me.
take off every sig for great justice
That's easy: Doom. I got Doom when I was like 13 years old, and it glued me to our family's computer at the time. I played it for hours and hours, and after I had had enough of playing it, I downloaded WADs and hacks and played them, too. After I got bored with those, I started designing my own WADs. When id released the source code, I had just turned 16 and was still crazy for the game. It immediately made me want to learn to program. I learned programming and generally messed around with the game, making cute little changes and addons. I will graduate next year with a degree in Software Engineering. I blame Doom for my fascination with programming and designing games and for showing me the wonderful things I could do. And yes, I still play Doom and still mess with the sourcecode. I can't wait for Doom3. :)
"Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of 'em are stupider than that!" - George Carlin.
I have never been so engrossed in a game since. This was all I played for months, and also probably one of the hardest games I have ever played. To this day I still use little refrences from this game in my daily life. *Enjoy the Sauce!* 0rcspit
It introduced me to sleeping with hookers. I've never felt so diseased!
...was GLQuake. For a while I spent every non-working, non-sleeping moment playing that damned game. (And it cut pretty seriously into the sleeping bit, and a little into the working bit.) But when I did sleep, I'd actually have dreams, viewed from the usual FP viewpoint, of running around Quake levels, blowing stuff up, finding the keys, etc. The nice part was - I never died...
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
Remember this game? I think I played this one for days at a time. It was one of the first, and still to me best (especially in it's day) of the total immersion games. Everything that happened in the game was a result of the thousands of choices you made. Kind of matrix-like in the theme... Check it out!
Prior to Morrowind, I had serious contempt for anything and everything involved with RPGs or RPG elements. But I fucking loved Morrowind, I wasted my whole winter break playing it non-stop (to the rather severe detriment of my health). I still don't understand the appeal of pencil and paper RPGs, but they don't seem to understand the appeal of NetHack (my next, after Morrowind, and current RPG indulgence), either. Still, it did significantly shange my worldview, though.
I'ts the only game I can say that gave me creeps when playing. Very good. But I can't forget Zelda (Snes), the begin with the rain sound... it have a kind of nostalgic feeling... Hard to Explain.
When I heard the sound of that little white square hitting that white line, knowing that the little white square was now headed toward my white line, I was so frightened I turned and ran.
Both of these games raised interesting philosophical points. I think Torment was the more sophisticated game, but then, I played Ultima 4 when I was about 10 so whaddya want. Torment is probably the first and only CRPG that had what I would characterize a Buddhist bent to it. The torment of the Nameless One is almost a metaphor for the Buddhist view of the human experience. Almost.
Thou hast lost an Eighth!
But then they stopped keeping score.
-A.M.
Pimpin' all the Karma Hoes!
Conker's Bad Fur Day. Although most of the game is based around being "adult", only the ending could really be called "mature". My jaw dropped...I had no idea Rare had it in them.
The Longest Journey. As far as I'm concerned, the last great adventure game. I bought this one to play "a little" and ended up beating it in a 23 hour marathon. There just wasn't any point where I wanted to stop.
Co-founder of GerbilMechs
All 3 of those changed my life to the extent that it showed me what you could do with a computer, and what a computer could do to you. Spreadsheets and all that changed businesses, for sure, but those games (and many others from the similar era - Seven Cities of Gold, Zork series, etc) changed my view of things.
h z-processors-to-run-well games made the scene, computers and computer games changed my life. :)
Sure, I was but a teenager, but those games made me realize that computers could engage people for extended periods of time in useful (or useless) endeavours. I saw that they could bring people together, or tear them apart.
So well before Doom, Duke Nukem, Half Life and whatever other 'leet'-FPS-with-500-frames-per-second- 3d-accelerated-surround-sound-need-512-meg-and-3g
creation science book
When the original "PlayStation" first came out, it included the game "Gran Turismo". After playing a binge of Gran Turismo for hours on end, getting back into my real car called from some quick adjustments!
MORTAR COMBAT!
...superior horror experience, scary enough that I only know a single individual who managed to play the whole thing through.
Quake is the one. No game since has managed to create the :) That was one big reason
:D Cm4 is brill as
:)
same adrenaline-kick a good quake 1-on-1 could produce. It
was not only the simple but fantastic dm maps.. player
control was like completely different from what is norm
in today's FPS', and lend itself to incredible 1-on-1's.
Besides, no weapon has packed a punch like that good
ol' rocket launcher in quake
for the brilliant 1-on-1's, the uneven weapon balance.
Besides, it had one of the best mods ever.. forget
about half-life, teamfortress for quake was the real
deal.. well, actually, the whole multiplayer gaming
went big with quake first you know, and it is like
the grandfather of all today's FPS-games in one way
or another. Sure, we had doom and duke, but quake
was the REAL revolution.
An honourable mention goes to the championship manager
series as well.. wow.. can we say the best simulation
games of all time for sport fans?
well, though it still needs a lot of tuning.
Oh, and quake 2 was brilliant too, actually, although
quake 3 sort of sucked.. especially compared to UT.
Mmmm.. and weapons factory for Q2 was almost as good
as TF..
You knew you were in for an experience when you heard the Kilrathi speaking. Then there was Spirit's death (wingman for your first mission ever in WC1), and the romance with Angel. On top of all this, you were always wondering who the traitor was.
I'd probably consider it a little corny today, but not even the Final Fantasy series can match the effect this game had on me.
As an aside, does anyone else agree that the immersion is greater with *unspoken* text and your name than with spoken text and generic names/pronouns?
In no particular order: Tie Fighter: seriously helped to improve my hand-eye coordination. Star Control II: showed me that video games could have plots as rich and as deep as a (good) novel. Mysteries of the Sith: I know that a lot of people didn't care for this "expansion" too much, but I thought it showed how an FPS could emphasize more intellectual aspects. I took a shameful amount of time on the last battle before I realized what I had to do. Curse of Monkey Island: taught me that life is not like a video game after I tried shoving that huge block of tufo down my pants.
"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member" - Groucho Marx
I think many games have contributed to making me who I am, simply because most events that occur frequently during childhood (and let's say it's pretty fair to consider playing computer games to be one of them, at least in my case), even trivial ones, contribute greatly to one's personality.
I played lots of Sierra games during my first five years in computer land (the King's Quest and Space Quest series, mostly), and I believe they may have helped me develop some analytic skills (or perhaps the opposite - eat mushroom --> shrink? Look at amulet --> teleport home? The logic of Sierra is not always the logic of the real world).
I remember crying at the end of Another world (I was a sensitive child, what can I say?) and laughing my ass off when seeing the Michael Jackson Baby Drop Game for the first time. So there have been a game or two that elicited an emotional response, yes.
But as for finding a single game that somehow changed my outlook on life? Nope. Sorry. Next question.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
I'm not sure how much it affected me while/after playing it, but listening to the soundtrack still brings back fuzzy and warm memories.
The more I read Slashdot, the more I feel like I'm answering a survey from some cold caller. :(
Colossal Cave on the Teletype and DEC's Lunar Lander on the display processor.
Totally U4 for me. It seriously, profoundly changed me for the better. All those virtues ('cept maybe humility ;->) sank in deep. I still sometimes have daydreams about toasting a bunch of orcs with a tremor spell, and lately have had fond memories of the dungeon Covetous. (mmmm, liches...) The combat was a lot better in Ultima V, and there was really nothing like casting that one spell in Ultima III that weakened the horde of guards you were facing so that one tap on the shoulder would kill them... but that's not very virtuous, is it? ;-)
-- haaz.
Those headcrabs always scare the shit out of me.
DJCC
The most dangerous game I played was Half-Life. A few years ago I was working in a French dot-bomb, and we used to play Half-Life between us at noon. At one moment just after a game, my boss opened the door and came. I realised I had the automatic reflex to aim at him and shoot. Of course
I had no gun but it scared me.
Sim City 2000 changed some of my thinking. While walking in a street, I often have the will to click on a dirty building or an ugly modern one to erase it.
Christophe (Don't hesitate to point out my spelling and grammar mistakes, I want to learn - Thanks).
I don't play it anymore, but I distinctly remember the day my friend convinced me to buy the game a few weeks after it first came out. I was convinced the game was for girls and I would have no fun.
I haven't played the game for a while now, but I still have yet to find a game that feels like running the long way through the Karanas on a rainy evening.
Yeah, after one of those 16 hour marathon raids.... eating sleeping and dreaming the game. You won't find a lot of EQ players here, as it takes too much time out of the game.....
Talk about nearly peeing yourself.
MORTAR COMBAT!
On the last level, it looks like a cakewalk, until you open that last door and the big blue dude's right there.
When that bastard yelled "GUTEN TAG!!!" I must have jumped three feet in the air. Never been startled so much by a computer game before or since.
Pathways into Darkness -- the storyline may have been a bit dry, but the action had some surprises.
Marathon, definitely -- eerie plot, eerie music, able to cause your heart to jump when playing the game in a dark room.
Doom -- Need any more be said?
IMO, Bungie sure had some talent (and was subsequently consumed by Microsoft, but that's OT).
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
None so far, fortunatly.
I'd have to say Infocom's "A Mind Forever Voyaging" because it was the first game where I actually cared about the characters. You play an AI who lives in an artificial world that the real world uses to simulate future events. You have a wife and a child and at one point your child grows up and goes off to join a religious cult. I found myself chasing after him absolutely terrified he'd get away before I found him.
The original DOOM had some good moments on some levels. I remember one level in particular that had a wide open space and the wall on one side lowers and a whole row of tough "shaved gorillas demons" comes charging after you. You end up running backwards across the whole level, shooting behind you. It was brilliant.
Civilization II, Alpha Centauri, Duke Nuke'em 3D, and the original Command and Conquer all lured me into "the zone" where a dozen or more hours passed without me moving or noticing as I was lost in the game.
And to this day they STILL all make me tingly, even the newer ones. Nintendo has a grasp of my childhood and wont let it go. But, im okay with that, im a 30 year old Nintendo freak and loving all these new games and consoles. I'm pretty sure i'll be playing Nintendo games when im 90 as well.. They are timeless.
Both the game and the music have affected me. It just makes me wonder just how much I would have fit into the 80's, I think i would have loved it! Flock of Seagulls, anyone?
I have bad karma for speaking my Republican opinion. USA Rules!
First game that actually made me kinda scared was the original Resident Evil on PS.
On the PC Half Life did it for me. It was original and fun and load times were great for the time, almost none.
Eternal Darkness and Half-Life. few games have drawn me into the story so completely, made me jump, and left me with that altered sense of where we all 'are' in the world.
half-life and ED seemed to share that Lovecraft vein so well, and it just occured to me. fantastic!
Also ED was so damn scary, adn yet i would only play it at night.
Its amazing how the virtues have rooted themselves in my brain.
It's got to be Ico. That game just totally set the bar for emotion. I can't even play it I'm so afraid of losing the princess to the shadow beasts. It's a gorgeous game with great atmosphere. Another one would have to be the first Tomb Raider. When you first meet those wolves and the music gets all fast paced and energized, it really gets your blood pumping.
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Just this simple puzzle that I found online. Maybe this doesn't qualify as a video game but it is cool because it seems like just a simple picture but if you stare at it long enough you realize there is something wrong with it. And once you realize what is wrong you're left thinking about it for a long time. As interesting as a lot of video games.
If it wasn't for Leisure Suit Larry, I wouldn't know that failing to take a condom off after sex results in terrible disease.
Thanks Al!
Computer games can affect people on many different levels. There's the meta-effect, where a person sees something occur in a computer programmer and thinks "What the blazes?" and is inspired to work out how it works, how it can be replicated, how the technique can be used in other applications. There's the deliberate effect, where a game can promote a point of view or a a view of the world that makes someone's mind click and say "I understand that". The great strategy games, with Sid Meyer standing proudly in the center, have influenced me there, but other, more ordinary games, can often influence in much the same way. Games can also mentally challenge - Lemmings taught us to solve puzzles in real time, adventures did similarly, and the games that have followed Doom and forerunners like Hired Guns have provided us with a new level of real time problem solving.
The mind is exercised by those flashes of light on screen. Like a lightbulb appearing over one's head, computer games can illuminate the dark crevises of the mind, putting them to work for all of us. Unfortunately, not everyone sees the world that way. Efforts are often made to discredit computer gamery as a mind device. Attacks from procensorship groups are common, and while the games industry is not yet as heavily regulated (voluntarily or otherwise) as, say, the movie industry, it's merely a matter of time. Already computer games are typically more regulated than the music industry, and without an RIAA like organization to defend computer game manufacturers, that trend is likely to get worse. Indeed, whereas the RIAA, and Hilary Rosen, has done an astronishingly successful job of countering lobbying to censor music through a combination of token solutions ("Parental Advisory" labels and such) and aggressive pro-speech counter lobbying, the ASPA and ESPA and other similar groups have gone far beyond even the MPAA on self-labelling and have done little to promote the notion that games, like music, films, and literature, are a form of speech; indeed that you cannot "censor" without there being speech to censor.
The games industry lacks an affective defender, and without one, attacks on "violence" and sex in computer games will continue until a legislative disnification of games becomes inevitable. The choice between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will become a fight where only the names are different.
This quagmire of games becoming censored in the absense of an affective lobbying organization which becomes more unlikely to be effective as games become more and more censored will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.
You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them that computer games are a form of speech, that they impart ideas and ways of thinking, and that they inspire people to do things they'd otherwise never do. Tell them that you appreciate the work of groups like the ASPA and ESPA to combat attempts at censorship by the imposition of voluntary ratings but that if groups like these continue to fail to focus on the speech aspects inherent in computer games, and as such games merely become more and more neutered, you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Tell them that you believe the world would be a better place with more groups following the lead of successful free speech lobbyests like the RIAA. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how censorship everywhere, in computer games a
KMSMA (WWBD?)
Origin's Ultima games have had an incredible effect on me over the years. I feel like I actually know all the characters in the games and that maybe, just maybe, I should be living in Britannia (from somewhere between Ultima IV and Ultima VII, I rather like the more civilized Britannian days over the violent wars and seperation of Sosaria). I just haven't found the moongate yet.
It was a sad day when EA took over Origin and destroyed the end of such an incredible line of games. Ultima VIII was sloppy and Ultima IX was painful. Both are decent games, but rather than an incredible moving ending to the 20 year series, it left a bad taste in almost everyone's mouth. And to know that Origin, with Lord British at the helm, will never be able to recreate what should have been nearly brings a tear to my eye.
But I have hope that LB will one day rise again with a new line of games of such richness and realism that I can take my fond memories of Ultima and merge with new experiences in another fantastic world.
~LlamaDragon
Strangely enough, Conan, which used to be available for the Apple II series. I used to play that every day in school rather than do my homework.
Not long after the DOOM phenomenon began, I had to sleep in my basement during the period after I gutted my bedroom and before my new furniture for it arrived. The basement has wood-paneled walls, and a lot of stuff hanging on them. One night as I was sleeping down there, one corner of a "frameless" picture frame decided to let go of the nail upon which it was hanging at about 3am one morning. It began swinging back and forth on the remaining nail, scraping against the paneling. It made a noise that was practically indistinguishable from the tearing noise you heard when one of the baddies in DOOM (the guy on the right side in this screenshot) got too close to you and started inflicting damage by clawing at you.
That noise immediately triggered said DOOM character's appearance in a dream, and about 10 seconds later I bolted upright, wide awake and feeling around for my gun, any gun-- what woke me up was the feeling panic that I was taking damage from that guy, and I couldn't see where he was to shoot him. Then I realized it was a dream. THEN I realized I still heard the sound, even though I was awake. Finally, I noticed the swinging picture frame, laughed sheepishly and pulled it off the wall before going back to sleep.
When playing the Marine, the missions were so spooly that I'd actually have nightmares after playing.
It was about as spooky as some parts of the actual movies. The level designers did a great job.
i can sympathize
when i drive my mercedes and wear my diamond shoes i get blisters.
i have heard that game mentioned in a few of the /. comments, but i have never heard of it otherwise. doing some googling, it seems to have been some adventure. while i like them too, was the game really that great?
On normal planes, any space enclosed on four sides can be a portal. At least it's not every one.
How did this effect me? I keep on hoping that the next door I walk through will be a portal to someplace interesting. It hasn't happened yet, unfortunatly, but hope springs eternal.
*I can just see some minor God of Creation saying, "But that's not a bug! It's a feature!"
ecco the dolphin. i played it more than a few years ago on sega genesis. it was really hard, so once i would figure out what to do, i'd feel all excited and stuff. i felt like i was ecco himself traveling in time and saving the world one molusk at a time.
I could have said Doom or Quake which both really freaked me out but the game that got into my head was Silent Hill 2 on the PS2. After a week of playing, I wouldn't play it at night. After another week I was dreaming about it. The tension, sounds, and imagery really disturbed me. I won't be playing Silent Hill 3:)
You lie, stop lieing, you freakin liar. You have no proof other then the parents sarcasm to support your allegations. So stop it.
If you got into it, it was a wonderful game packed with original concepts, emotion and (apparently) infinite replay value. Totally immersive and it's the only reason I've held on to my old Saturn :). A true classic, in my book.
I'd have to say that Quake 2, Half Life, and to some degree, Unreal had the greatest impact on my life. In my second semester of college (4 years ago), my eyes were openned to the wonders of multiplayer games over the LAN. These games deftly stole 1.0-1.5 points from my GPA; and I consider myself lucky it was only that much! =)
I'm suprised no one has mentioned Everquest yet. The more you play it, the more you think of your life as a series of MOBs. I find myself sometimes "con"-ing people and trying to level. Wait, am I still in the game?
Ah GTA3. I always get frustrated when cars blatantly swerve in front of me. I hit my desk and swear at the computer. Now, when I drive, I have less patience for poor drivers.
"You didn't just cut me off, you stupid mother&@#$er!. Wait until I get my Uzi." Wait...
to the rave party crowd.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
From it's loose concept of "virtues" to it's world simulation, most of the Ultimas have been worlds apart from the fictions most games take place in.
Ultima IV was an amazing concept for it's time, and remains revolutionary as far as a game plot goes. There is no big "Foozle" to kill, you just have the archtypical midieval land to fight through... but the goal is to make a respectable character out of yourself. Sure, you could cheat the system like anything else (See Doug the Eagles page for many examples in the Ultima series), but it actually offered a somewhat meaningful system of judgements about your actions in the game. Sure, you could steal and cheat others in deals, but you would not be walking the path to Avatarhood... it was a pretty large impact in an age when games were so private an experience on home computers.
The later games left a VERY minor aspect of such karma in the game, but the effect lingered, as gamers continued to think of themselves as the Avatar. In a sense, the lack of judgement improved later games. Having concepts like Humility being important, not for religious reasons, but because you are role-playing a character who went to such pains to represend himself one way... 'tis a very unique thing.
Of course, beyond Virtues, the Ultime series is as historic as a game series can get. Ultima Underworld was pretty much the first fully-fleshed out first person simulation game out there - from the deep interaction of objects in the world, to many factions of creatures in the Underworld... when it all came into existence BEFORE Wolfenstein 3d... it was truly an awesome thing to behold. And still to this day, the mixture of plot and characters (after you get past the kidnapped-princess thing) makes the game worth re-playing just for the entertainment of the writing.
And of course, on the same lines, Ultima 5 through 7 revolutionized games in ways that have yet to be matched even in other RPGs. The deeply pervasive NPC schedules, the complex mixture of dialogues and plots, the wide variety of dynamic object interactions, and of course the humor and the unique technicalities that come from exploring the absolutely huge acts of creation that went into these games... it's truly amazing.
Ryan Fenton
Here's a sure-fire to scare the living crap out of oneself. Wait until about 2am, turn out all the lights, and start a new game as a Marine.
But don't wear headphones. I ruined a good pair by screaming and jumping backwards when a Facehugger got me.
Man, back in like 1996 or seven a neighbor (and friend of my brother's) gave us Bad Day on the Midway (made by The Residents), he said his aunt gave it to him. He didn't want it at all because it creeped him out so much. So I fired it up and played. I still have memories to this day that game is so creepy. Between the "kill a commie shooting gallery" and one of the endings that was more or less "you were killed by the psychotic killer" it was way to much and me and my brother trashed the cd.
"Guns don't kill people, bullets do."
even if the last few games of the saga were a bit cheesy and the idea of the games was violated by microsoft when the roberts brothers made exact copies for microsoft under the starlancer franchise, i still think this game has changed me for the worst
Sega Saturn, four discs, only about 20 hours. I played it well after it was "old hat" in terms of technology, but it's just a completely amazing game. Anyone with the chance should play this. That's pretty much everyone because it seems like you can't go to a flea market without seeing several sega saturns, and modchips are only about $25. (I have a chipped saturn for sale, BTW...) :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Vice City's primary impact on me is that now whenever I'm driving and I see a motorcycle, my first impulse is to knock the guy off his bike, shoot him, and steal the vehicle.
Xenogears was just an awesome game that made me think a lot.
What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
Read all the comments.
Scared, confused, upset. Only one that had a positive effect.
Maybe the question should have been phrased to specifically include positive affects.
Granted, most games are designed to appeal to the basest human instincts.
Humans are Easily Scared but Hard to Please.(tm)
Who can design the game that makes people say "Wow, after playing I wanted to go out and make the world a better place!"
Let the sarcasm begin.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
The catacombs where freaking me loads anyway, but it really was top that bit where theres a fire burning in this room, you kill off all the other horrors that lurk there and then this figure, on fire, crawls out from the fire itself!
Plus the X-Labs stuff later on is kind of scary too.
Top game.
The Marathon trilogy from bungie (the first Marathon game in particular). The first time I bumped into a compiler I promtly quit the game.
:)
Gravity Force on Amiga. Me and 2 friends lived in an apartment for a year and we played Gravity Force most of the time...
Cosmic Osmo and The Worlds beyond the macerel (or something), was also a hit with me. The fact that it was made entirely in Hypercard was very cool. Playing the game (b/w) was like entering another world which leads me to
Another world on amiga. Amazing gameplay and (at the time) dazzling graphics.
And finally, Impact on the amiga. The best(!) breakout game ever. Houndreds of levels, level-editor, haunting sounds that I remember to this day. If you like that sort of game then I would urge you to test Pop-pop from Ambrosia. A new twist on the old break-out genre. It's like playing street fighter, only with a ball, a paddle and bricks. It's being ported to windows, so I hope i'll see more pop-players at the tracker...
Be like the twenty-second elephant with heated value in space-Bark!
I love the Final Fantasy series with all my heart. It's probably THE video game series that really got me hooked on gaming. There were a few bad itinerations, but overall, it's my favorite gaming series, ever. Any series that has games like Final Fantasy 4 (amazing), Final Fantasy III / 6 (AMAZING) and Final Fantasy 7 (.... wow...) and Final Fantasy Tactics (...unbelievable) is simply a series you can't go wrong with. I can honestly say I've beaten from 1-10 (11's a MMORPG and I haven't imported X2 yet) and I've loved every minute of 'em.
There ARE a few other RPGs that I've enjoyed story-wise (Earthbound was really trippy, Lunar 1 and Grandia II were funny, Xenogears and Xenosaga both have very solid stories.) But the FF series does it better, plain and simple. There are powerful moments in the other RPGs though - Xenogears and Xenosaga both have moments that make you gasp if you have any sense of human decency at all.
Going on to other genres, Deus Ex was unbelievably good, story-wise. I liked everything about Deus Ex. GTA Vice City was such an 80's trip. I didn't enjoy GTA3 that much because I wasn't that big a fan of the core gameplay, but Vice City's additions made it such a funny game. The radio cracks me up a lot - I particularly enjoyed one scene when I had the radio set to this guy who was going on about the American dream, while I was watching a major drug deal taking place. It had so many nice touches... Secret of Mana depressed me a lot at times - that's a really cool game that has a lot of depressing stuff going on at the same time.
I've never cared about characters half as much as in that game. About once every six months, I replay the game just like rereading a favorite book. It's inspired me to go out and read up on Mexican religion and mythology.
The Tex Murphy games (Under a Killing Moon, etc.) were in the same category, although not quite so honest as GF.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
albeit only running at 14 fps, the alpha is mighty scaring. I remember the first confrontation with the beast in the urinoir room. I emptied all my ammo just to get some light. Then, without ammo, it sneaked up behind me.
Pee leakeding from the ceiling, crap splattering from my PCs fan. You know how it goes.
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
i remember try to press the tab key so that i could find my lost keys in the room could be highlighted
Your sig contains inappropriate language. Please try again!
About 5 years ago I was playing through Quake 1, and I'd gone all the way through it on Easy skill. Then I decided to go through on harder. A Shambler appeared and growled. He wasnt on the Easy version, and it scared me silly. I had to turn it off and go to bed, after my heart stopped racing.
:)
The other game, American McGee's Alice, has those nasty Nightmare Spiders. They run fast and jump at you, and bite you and poison you. The screen turns green and brown and black and a weird dark face pattern kinda shows up. I have a natural fear of spiders, and that really got me good. I still can't fight those things myself. I have to run away as fast as I can and throw the Diabolical Dice and let the demon fight them.
RE was definitely one of the coolest series I've ever played. I'll never forget playing it when it first came out and jumping out of my seat when the dogs crashed through the windows :P Before that, it was just RPGS (FF4,6, and secret of evermore definitely) that made my day. I love survival horror now along with the (semi-decent) rpgs coming out today, and I'm definitely going to make my own sh one day, the genre just rocks!
Best death? What, die from a naked lady avalanche?
River City Ransom,
the only game where brass knuckles were a way of life.
I threw up once after playing descent, from motion sickness.
Outlaws I got vertigo on one of the levels. It is strange that none of the newer games affect me quite like the old 2.5d games did.
I didn't feel old when I woke up this morning, but now I do. I played almost every infcom game from starcross up to the point where they tried to go graphical and started sucking. I still think the environments they painted with words are richer than most games today.
Might have been responsible for me and my roomate dropping out if college. My old roomate to this day claims he "became Darth Vader".
The first time I heard the Baron of Hell scream
at the end of the first stage, was about 3 am,
and I was probably drunk.
The games some of my ex's used to play affected me a bit. :-D
FF7 in spite of insipid dialog actually left me a bit off. As far as I'm concerned it's the first and last time the video game industry came close to providing a decent story in a game.
I remember the complete level of freedom of movement that Mario 64 gave me. I made me notice the complete freedom of movement we have in real life. Strange that it took a video game to teach me what I already really knew.
Silent Hill 1 I remember as being the most consistently scary game I've ever played. The use of darkness and random sound effects and the way the game never really tried to explain what was going on worked so well to created such a stifling atmosphere.
king's quest, space quest, hero's quest (and quest for glory), and police quest. Nothing beat that part in space quest where you had to type 'shoot robot' before you walked across the screen so you wouldn't get shot while trying to destroy the reactor. All those point-and-click fancy graphics leave nothing to the imagination. Hell, I still enjoy firing up zork or the old hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy game.
perl -e '$_="\007/4`\cp%2,".chr(127);s/./"\"\\c$&\""/gees
This game actually helped change the way I look at the world and religion in general. Very powerful stuff, if you stop and think about it all.
For some reason, that game really got into my head. I dreamed about it for weeks after I finished it, and every now and then that line will suddenly pop into my mind, a year or more later. Kind of makes you wonder what effect these games have on our unconscious.....
..was the only game where the story/plot really was frightening. Other games like Doom could be scary but that was only on a ground/instinctive plane.
Mundus Vult Decipi
Creepiest game ever.
For those of you that dont know...it was the predecessor to all the resident evils, silent hill,etc...
Playing as the "hostage" on TFC maps. I haven't played it in years, but to this day, everytime i see a laser pointer i think "Red dot! Red dot!!!" I nearly fell out of bed once after I thought my alarm clock was a sniper.
ASCII graphics, originally made for a mainframe. Very simple game - build up your character until you can kill the Balrog. On average it take about 2000-3000 playing hours to complete this basic task. Even though the graphics are crap the gameplay, magic items and different monsters caused my friends and I to continually play it. One of my friends had an Amiga whose version had actual graphics but otherwise was the same. This is the game that introduced me to software RPGs (was playing D&D the old-fashioned way!) and I would definately have to say that the RPG has changed me and my outlook on life...
The GEEK shall inherit the earth...
The first game to really affect my life was Ultima Online. Working my way up from lowly mage to owner of a player city took its toll on life. My computer was right next to my bed and at night I'd leave my character macroing. There were several occasions when I'd wake up in a cold sweat, dreaming in 3D-Isometric Tiles, thinking someone had used a 'sploit to break into my house, kill me, and take my stuff. I was so freaked out I'd have to go over to the computer to see if everything was still there and alright.
The second game to affect my life was Nethack. Simply put, this is just the best game ever made, and it's free and open source so check it out! Many people don't get how I can still be playing this game after so many years, and how I still haven't ascended or even come close (I made it to the castly once only to choke on a dragon corpse). Well, let me say this: You aren't truly hardcore until you have dreamed in ASCII.
the word is "effect" not affect. i can't believe that no one has noticed this. I think tech people complain to much about taking humanities classes. i majored in english and i know about computers.
Ah, Return to Zork. The first adventure into the Great Underground Empire of Zork--that used graphics. Sure, the acting was awful, but it did have a lot of Full Motion Video (on the CD-ROM version), and the soundtrack was pretty good (again, only on the CD-ROM version)
And even if you thought the game sucked, you'd always rememeber Booz's famous quote:
"Want some rye? 'Course you do!"
And the drinking game that followed. Admit it, you ended up damn drunk several times before you found out you had to dump it in the plant.
"Hu, ho, ho-ah-oh-oh-oh. Hu, ho ho-ah-oh-oh-oh. Mario Paint! Whoaaa!"
true story: After Playing a lot of Splinter Cell, I walked into a dark room in my house and I actually tried to turn on my night vision.
After that experience I stopped playing that game for a while (and felt rather silly)
I think I can safely say I learned more from the Marathon Trilogy than I ever did from the USian Public Manipulation System. The game itself was very much like reading a story. My father went on to challenge me to find all the errors I could prove wrong with science, which kept me amused and edutained for months. More importantly, building my own levels and worlds taught me more nuances of imparting effective fiction than any English teacher and left me with a very slanted knowledge in mathematics; I knew much of geometry whereas my educators constantly referred to their cheat sheets (often for things as simple as the difference between a convex and concave polygon), yet regardless of what anyone told me, to this day, calculating the volume of an irregular object is _still_ useless.
Do your kids a favor and set them up on GTKRadient or something similiar.
Bored with karma, be a fan/freak
dikumud; the original version, running on a server in Fajita. That was 12 years ago. Everquest and nethack would run close too.
i was kinda late to the final fantasy scene so my first was FF7. i admit, i fell in love with tifa.
in FF8 of course i fell in love with rinoa and in the end FMVs my eyes were tearing up. okay fine i was bawling. hearing "eyes on me" still makes me wistful.
i guess it kinda helped in the immersion that i named those characters after a girl i had a crush on and i was depressed and with OCD at the time (possibly more common to computer geeks and gamers than the general population), but yeah it was pretty immersive.
And, to a lesser degree, Final Fantasy VII.
Those games kicked ass. FF X didn't come close, even though Tidus was *hot*.
The first game that ever "changed" me was Sid Meier's Civilization. That was the game that blew all others away, games used to be side scrolling shooters like the early Duke Nukem games (don't get me wrong, those kicked ass), but Civilization had depth, it had endless possibility, it had horrible graphics...it was great! That was of course, until I started playing Doom hardcore. Doom changed that world of endless possibility because it actually put me in a "realistic" world that I could explore and pitted me in a fight for your life kind of situation that had an inexplicable draw. Doom was of course all well and good until Quake came out. Quake added yet another dimension to gameplay, I could jump in the game, not only that, but the maps were so much more complex and each episode had a distinctly different feel to it that Doom just didn't have. It was all downhill from there for me. Multiplayer had me playing for hours on end, in a local museum that had a computer lab with a lan no less, and then at that moment in time, I decided that's what I wanted to do with my life. Quake made me decide to major in Computer Science, got me started on Linux, got me interested in networking and security, and made me really look at how things were designed and structured. I even took an internship at an architecture firm to learn about designing structures, and indeed, learned a lot. Quake quite literally changed my life, it's made me what I am today.
Doom on the networked 486 computers in school (in 1994) made me miss a lot of booring classes in high school :)
And old (Larry 1, Space Quest, Monkey Island, Fate of Atlantis, etc) adventure games was a very good way to learn english. I really miss those...
Although I have never played the final fantasy games prior, I have to say that FF7 definately changed my opinion of gaming in general.
At first glance, I thought that the entire game would revolve around cloud taggin along with avelanche and blowing up the reactors.... eventually taking down the evil shinra. This made it seem like any other boring game that i've played without a real plot. But... the dynamics that ensued in the story line as i played along captivated me for the 40+ hours it took me to finish the game (and the multiple times I've played it all the way through as well) held me through the battles to find and against Sepiroth, Jenova, and all the other bosses throughout the game untill the final encounter... and I only wanted more...
Although some people dislike it, others love it, FF7 opened my eyes into a whole new line of story telling and interactive gaming. From it's subtle love story, dynamic plot twists, countless side games, hidden pasts of every character... I could pick it up right now and be fully entertained and satisfied from the first cinematic sequence to the very end and back again.
One of the best games ever! I played this on my Atari ST as a teenager. It was one of the first (if not the first) 3-d first-person dungeon walk-throughs. The sound effects were way ahead of their time,... if you turned your volume up really high you could hear a tell-tale "click" if you stepped on a trap door or might hear monsters approaching. However, with the volume cranked, sometimes you would step into a pit trap and you would hear your party scream extremely loud as the screen went dark. It would suck your underwear right up your crack!
"It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance." - Thomas Sowell
Its the reason that my parents STILL won't let me get my driver's license! :(
Doubt there are many out there who will relate to this, and I wouldnt place it in my top 5 games that really affected my life, but perhaps one of the scariest moments I've played in what seemed to be a trivial game was in Carmageddon.
So you have slowly been working on getting new cars and what not, and you progress to the next level, in which you just have to destroy one car. No problem, right?
Picture driving down a foggy road and then perhaps 30 seconds later a huge 4 story tall dump truck emerges through the fog, and doesnt flinch from its path as it runs right through you.
I think I woke up the whole house in that split second.
Think GTA3 makes you want to hit pedestrians? Play the first two Carmageddons.
Balance of Power
Civilization
Definetly had to be Pong.
I was dramatically affected even after an hour or two of playing it.
People would tell me, "You are so boring! It's like I don't even know who you are anymore!"
I guess my life was one downward spiral from that moment on.
I remember the first time I ran out between 2 kids playing catch and intentionally blocked the ball by letting it hit me.
But I feel MUCH better now.
No, but seriously, I'd have to say Metroid for Nintendo, and Super Mario Land for GameBoy. Oh, and I'm sure GoldenEye for N64 had a small part too.
- OrbNobz
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989
Quake. I now carry a rocket launcher everywhere I go.
From the first time I heard it, up to this day, the music of the first Diablo still tingles my spine... especially the moody guitar theme of Tristram. Damn, that was a solid game. Another game which has affected me, especially my sense of humour, is Monkey Island (1,2,3).
My first real gaming experience was Wolfenstein, and I played that over and over for hours, tons of fun.
:) and the graphics and the music... very nice for its time.
Doom was actually scary. You'd turn the lights off, get the headphones on (since there was no surround sound back then, headphones were best), and you'd be seriously pumped running around, opening doors, listening for the imps.
I was also pretty impressed with Unreal; just walking around the world (and following those cute little animal things around
The game that seriously threw me off was Sanitarium. It was kinda a role playing game, but really just involved puzzle solving of various kinda, and putting the story together. The story was ultimately linear, but very very good. Like being inside a really good movie. There were a couple of scenes where I got very spooked and hair was standing on my neck and arms.
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
If you played the alpha release of DoomIII (more like if your G-card could handle it) you know what it's like to have fear as an element in a game. I seriously sweat from the pits big time on that one...
It was for sure Ultima Underworld I and II.
Moreover I loved "Another World", these were decent animations.
Granted, system shock II was very nicely done
...
...
but I don't think it _quite_ measures up to the
depth of the story of the original system shock.
The best part was putting the game into german.
Something about Shodan in german just got me
I also remember the first time I went to save the
couple from the cortex reaver, arrived just too
late and got the log with their last words
Intense. Utterly intense. Screw quake. That's
just bangbangbang. Give me a real story any time.
Deus Ex was an unbelievably good game. And it affected me a lot, some in good ways, some in bad. Suprisingly enough, it helped exercise my problem solving skills a lot. I also now unconsciously look for ventilation ducts everywhere I go.
It also raises some interesting questions about how much power a government should have. It includes a government that has imposed strict military control after a terrorist organization called the NSF played out a series of terrorist attacks. I don't want to spoil it by saying what's revealed past the first mission, but regardless, it scarily predicted a lot of the government's response to the terrorist attacks on New York.
The only people who I've met that haven't liked Deus Ex either haven't played past the first mission (which is IMHO the worst in the entire game) or haven't found a playing style that suits them yet (I personally became a Trinity/stealth-ninja/sniper).
I gotta say that after playing ICO, I notice the landscape and the way the sun lights it more... the surreal sort of brightness that was emphasized in the game...
otherwise, I think Halo, and GTA3 as far as recent games go. I end up randomly quoting things from there and finding my friends finishing the lines after that.
Okay, I know that might sound odd, but it's true... Super Mario Bros. has affected me more than... well most anything else in my life. Growing up as a kid who had difficulty dealing with normal schedules, life, etc., I ended up feeling like I couldn't succeed at anything. At this game, I got really good. Fantastic, even. I was able to beat all my friends. And I learned to keep going, to try and succeed no matter how hard the task was that lay ahead of me. At six years old, this was a big thing for me. Without it, I may not have ever gained the confidence that later on helped me make it through college. Yes, it sounds odd. But Mario made all the difference for me, and my life. Yet, ironically, many people still criticize video games as "good for nothing wastes of a kid's time." Needless to say, I hold a very different opinion. And I still play Super Mario Bros. games to this day.
http://mediagoblin.org/
I don't find that funny.
Half-Life changed the first person shooter as we know it. After HL, a good FPS really needed a captivating plot to be successful, not pretty guns and drool-worthy graphics.
:)
No game in the genre has been anywhere near as succesful as Half-Life. It was the revolution
Parasite Eve taught me some interesting biology back in my youth.
Ignorance is bliss and I'm suicidal.
Another classic. The most heart-pounding moments were the one car chase, after which you have to follow police procedure to the letter to complete the arrest, or you're dead-- killed by the perp. I beat that game in 8th grade, and 16 years later I can still clearly remember the adrenaline that was pouring through me during that one part of it-- you had to type stuff quickly and carefully, because timing was crucial and you wouldn't get a second chance if you screwed up the commands and the computer didn't understand what you wanted to do. It's amazing how immersive it was for a 3rd-person viewpoint, and how caught up in it I got.
After all it is the world's best text adventure game...
Playing a marathon game, co-op with a friend... got to the Flood at 4AM on a stormy night. Geez, that was crazy. Likewise w/ Eternal Darkness... the sanity stat was the craziest thing I ever saw. That and the fact that most of the sanity effects were geared at the PLAYER. I still remember seeing a BSOD come up... man that was wierd. That and the fact that I got so into it that I actually went and answered the knocking door... not in game but at my house...
Sure, this is an oldie...well it's an oldie from where I come from
For me, it was the sheer enormity of the game universe...the fact that you could command a ship (of celebrity look-alikes) around a small three planet galaxy, land anywhere on the planet, and be greeted by distinct terrain and life. Granted, most portions of were probably generated off of an integer-seed algorithm, but being younger back then, I was happily fooled by the illusion. Note, if you never played this game, you may have gotten the same vibe from StarFlight
As far as life-changing, I think this is what motivated me to purse game programming.. the fact that one could be god-like in creating a universe, driven strictly from numbers.
On a side note, this same game has affected me in another way. The theme music (albeit beeps) of Norjaen's saloon is still in my head to this day!
For more info, check out this link
-jc
Man that Lucas Arts game was so cool, so funny.
:)
And the places you had to go... I dont even know
where to start.
SCUMM was the best engine ever
Check my site: http://pixel.pagina.nl
You really have to try this game, although is a bit difficult to find now, its creator, Rebel Act Studios closed some years ago.
For some reason, the only game that really scared me (and still continues to) is the original Doom 2. The first time I played it I used headphones for a more "immersive" experience, but I ended up freaking out and looking behind me every time I heard a monster. After I quit playing, I had broken out in a cold sweat, and my friends told me I had kept trying to peer into the monitor to see around corners. This is all incredibly embarrassing in retrospect, but the weird thing is that no other game has ever done that to me. Even today, nothing compares to the creepy feeling you get when you hear muttering behind a wall and know there's an Arch-Vile nearby.
T&T, well.... Let's just say on my commodore 128 when I was around 6 years old, I would throw myself off of levels on that game, shouting out loud "JUMP FOR JOY" and "LEAP FOR LUMBER!!!" I never knew where I got that one from... I played that game ALL the time, marking my first addiction (and then came some Barbie Commodore game, but I don't think I wanna go into that).
And FF2...well...FF2 was the first game I ever got emotional about. I remember my brother and I practically screaming with happiness when Rydia shows up to kick some Golbez ass.
On a Spectrum. Character (sorry - Commander) was called Boss Hogg, as I recall. Spent days and days on it, got to Deadly, and then something in the computer started to go badly wrong (capacitor?) resulting in the dread dot-crawl...
Please remain calm, there is no reason to pani... wait, where are you all going?
I have gotten up from a long match to find the sun has gone down, wife has gone to bed, and dinner near frozen in the oven, while dancing around because my Zerg has wiped out some Terran assholes.
Starcraft is the most engrossing game I have ever played.
Embarassing.
"What can change the nature of a man?"
That's the fundamental question behind Planescape: Torment, and the clue that most ties the game together. And the game doesn't let you take the easy answers (love, hate, death). The REAL answer is chilling and unexpected and will leave you thinking for days.
The game's narrative is mindbending in a number of ways. To begin with, you play an immortal amnesiac who is following the trail of breadcrumbs he left for himself in case he should die and lose his memory, again. You meet people who know you and know things about you (which neither the player or the character know or remember), you live in a place where belief affects reality and everyone keeps secrets, some of which are revealed in the most inopportune moments....
There's one riddle/story that has stuck in my head from the game. Paraphrasing:
"You come to your senses, sitting on a sidewalk under a bright noon sun. You can't remember how you got here or what you should be doing. Looking around, everything seems as it should.... but you have a nagging feeling that it shouldn't be that way. Then you see me, smiling, holding out a hand.
Then I say, That was your second wish."
THS
---
"Poor girl looks as confused as a blind lesbian in a fish market." - Simon R. Green
I used to have this game on my computer way back when. I was pretty young, maybe 10 years old or so. I used to really get into the game, and even had a pair of grey cargo pants that were my "flight suit" for when I played :) After a successful mission I truly felt proud of myself.
In retrospect, I was a total dork.
"People that quote themselves in their signatures bother me" - athakur999
I think that the game that has affected me most profoundly among the oodles of games I've played is Darklands by Microprose. Thinking about it, I thínk that this game may have actually tipped the scales in favor of Computer Science as opposed to pure Math when I was faced with The Choice.
Thats all
When you had to rail a car RIGHT on to get it to do a 360.
The announcer yells,"Threeeeee SIXTEEEEEE!"
Its awesome... So I'm driving home after 6 hours, and see someone pulling out of his driveway.
Now since the timing in the game is like under a second which way you need to aim, you don't really have much time to think about your actions.
I almost deliberately turned into the back of this person coming out of their driveway because I was in an almost hypnotic state, thinking of the game.
So to get people suggestive:
#1: Use lots of loud and cool noises in your game to reward people for doing cool things.
#2: Have the cool thing be something very similar and realistic to real life.
#3: Leave the window for the action to be under a second, so conscious thought can not control a reflex action.
Then guaranteed at least 1 or 2 people out there would do the shit in real life.
God spoke to me
I've never actually found a /. item interesting enough to post, but this one I did.
I remember one time my friends were over and THEY were playing half-life, and we killed the first headcrab scientist with the crowbar, and looked down and said "Is it dead?" RAWR! Another popped out and scared the crap out of us.
Later, there was a part where you're crawling through a dark vent, and you don't see the fact that there is both an intersection AND an ever-so delightful headcrab there. I stopped watching after that.
As for a game that really affected me when I was actually *playing* it, it has to be Max Payne, when you're going through the ever so unnessessary drug-induced dream. Listening to a baby cry while I jumped from blood spatter to blood spatter was not what I would call fun. The door that *becomes* boarded up when you try and open it didn't help either.
But atop it all, it has to be Counter-Strike. The game isn't even fun for me anymore, but I still play it. Hours upon hours each day for 2 years.
...or at least its introductiory sequence. When something unexpected happens, I now say "what happen?" by force of habit. Toaplan hath set me up the bomb.
"Screw slashdot." -- Linus Torvalds
An arch lich whupped my butt the other day. Really freaked me out.
--------
|..L.@.+
--------
You are killed by an Arch-Lich
You Die... -more-
--- Evil robots don't kill people, Mad scientists kill people.
Ok, so maybe this says something about me, but the first person shooters leave me kind of cold. I need something a little bit more challenging intellectually and that all started for me with Civ II. After my room mate gave me the CD-ROM, I installed and played was 14 hours straight - no drinking, eating, or bathroom breaks. I did not even know what time it was or how long I had been playing until he interrupted me to tell me he was going to work. I have had similar time distortions with Starcraft and Warcraft too so I guess I am some sort of strategy fan. Some people define these notions as a sympton of addiction (i.e. former girlfriends), but as long as I can keep my job this habit seems managable.
Solaristrum: One who has spent way too long staring at the Sun
Definitely MGS for the PS1. That game was so cinematic... every character was really cool. The part that the guy has the heart attack, and I could feel the heart beating in the controller. Mantis, reading my memory card... that was impressive. Finally, the torture... it really felt like a torture to me. My arm was in pain after surving the torture, and Snake said his was too! And then on the codec "I'm going to activate the nanomachines to give you a massage". Talk about interactive!
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
It was a TRS-80 game back in around 1983. Real low res graphics, the monsters were basicall stick figures, or dotted lines when they were invisible. In the middle of the band separating the game window from the control window, there was a little heart, your heart. The worse things got for you, the faster it would beat. There was something about that heart that got you so into the emotion of fighting a blob. And the monsters all had their signature sounds. Anyone know of an emulator that would allow you to play this game on a PC?
I've been searching for this game for years now. I used to have it on my computer along time ago as a kid. From what I remember, it had a blue backdrop with white text. It was USA vs. USSR. You had 3 types of missles IIRC. Everything else is fuzzy. Actually, I think I've found some links to it on the Internet, but they're dead links :(
Being a huge fan of the Aliens movies, I wanted to check out the famous Aliens patch so I loaded that up. I was impressed at the graphics (at that time) and when I walked through a corridor in the first level the sudden voice of the sarge scared the living shit out of me. *lol* I was expecting to get attacked by an alien the whole time.
In the first level that included an alien it was the moment I heard their breathing that made me want to run away and never come back.
Boy, I've never been more scared going through those levels....
For some reason I've always enjoyed playing (even to this day) Chronotrigger and Final Fantasy 3. The music is incredible (especially for SNES!), and the story lines are well-thought out. I still have Snes9x so I can play Chronotrigger. It's great for reliving stress and just to get away sometimes. You don't find those kind of games anymore (IMHO).
Console:
too many.. the usuals mentioned here, plus crono trigger, contra, metal gear etc.
P.C -
single player games - the wing commander / mechwarrior stuff was great. early wing commander made a bin impact on me. I remember dreaming in "warcraft", etc.
online -
quake, more importantly TF - I still play that after all the years. but you can't help but mention my first "online" game style... muds.. found off gopher.. before that whole web thing started.. I feel really old now.
whee -Me
Rise of the Robots for SNES. That game was SO slow, SO boring... it changed my life. I never thought (until then) that electronic entertainment could be SO boring...
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
Alternate Reality (City and Dungeon), Meridian 59, Ico, Chrono Trigger ...
My friend got me into Gran Turismo about four years ago, and since then, I've put more time and effort into it than any other game, even Angband, in which I spent countless hours death-mold-farming for experience and demon-killing for special items. So yes, now I have Gran Turismo, and put countless hours into that instead. So what about real life? It turns out the skills I've learned in GT3 about how to handle cars do actually apply in real life. I took several second places and a couple of first places last year in local SCCA autocross events. And that's me driving my Saturn against a bunch of much more powerful, agile Eclipses and Hondas in my class (STSN). I wouldn't have had the skill necessary to do so well in the class if it hadn't been for learning how to find the limits of cars so well in GT3. I suppose my driving has also gotten somewhat more aggressive, but hey, I've put 63,000 miles on my car without a single accident, so I'm sure I'm still a decent driver.
Steven N. Severinghaus
Before Zork, there was Adventure and Haunted House. With no idea about what an adventure game was let alone what do do with it, My best friend, my dad, and I started typing words at random into this program we'd loaded from data cassette on the Commodore Pet we'd borrowed from the University.
A quarter century and a chemistry(?!) degree later, I'm doing sysadmin work and relearning the fun of programming that was ignited by that Pet, and by seeing just how complex computer games could be.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
A group of us had just gotten through playing the "who can bag 50 pedestrians first" multiplayer map. We decided to go out, and as we were driving through the parking lot, the pedestrians were moving exactly how they did in the game. All 3 of us tightened up and got the urge to see if we could run them over for a splatter bonus :) That's the only time a game has ever affected me.
------
"And may your days be long upon the earth."
Forget exactly which mission it was (long time ago), but you were stuck in this urban setting looking for a power generator when 3 or 4 mechs of a tonnage much higher than your own decide to show up.
:) I noticed to that I was covered in sweat, my joystick hand wouldn't stop twitching, and for a second or two during the battle I was afraid of actual physical death.
:D
I killed them all, but had to drag myself back to the dropship by my mechanical lips from the severe ass kicking I took
Damn I loved that game!
I remember buying a 4mb RAM upgrade for my 486 so I could run Doom.
I also had to learn how to make a boot disk in dos, and cut down memory usage, just to play.
Playing it that first night in the dark, was a blast... and quite scary. plus, it got me interested in how the computer works, upgrades, etc.
Another all time great for me was Total Annihilation. There was something about it - the music I think, that made me really feel for my fleet of units as I sent them off to instant deaths.
no comment
Xenogears is, hands down, the best CRPG I could ever imagine playing. Now, the thing is that the game tends to get dumped on for the fact that it seems to be a movie trying to masquerade as an interactive experience, but I never saw that at all...I really enjoyed *playing* the damn thing, as well as being blown away by the story (for the record, it seems as if Xenosaga unfortunately did go down the interactive movie path).
Heck, my big problem with Xenogears is that one essentially has to go in totally blind to get full enjoyment from it...knowing the tiniest details of the story can ruin a good part of the gameplay experience. But if you manage to do that, like I did...Jesus. Nothing comes close. The desert battle scene with Vanderkaum (sp?), where a certain character makes his first "real" appearence, is still one of the coolest moments in Square RPG history.
Horace Goes Skiing
Monty Mole on the Run
Gauntlet (Spectrum)
Elite 2
Flashback
Street Fighter 2
Sonic
Mario
GTA3 (Best game i've played / bought for years)
Half Life + Counterstrike (Superb)
Monkey Island 1 & 2
Beneath a Steal Sky
Double Dragon (Arcade 80's Flight was delayed!)
7th Guest & 11th Hour (Good atmosphere)
I haven't seen one mention of Daikatana, that is the game that most affected me, it was such a let down! Imagine that you are expecting to get this superb car got 16 cylinders 3000 hp, can do a quarter mile in under five seconds and can break the sound barrier, then you end up getting this shitty beat-up old Ford Pinto....
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
There's lots of games that will scare you or give you an anxiety attack, but tranquility is the only game that will get you high.
Want to talk about games which have really, really "affected me?" There's only one, and that's Ultima Online.
I spent three years of my life in a state of amazing addiction to that game. For two of those three years, I was playing UO 12+ hours a day. Weekdays, I'd wake up at 10AM, go to class, come home at 2PM and spend an hour or two on homework. Then I'd login to UO, and I wouldn't stop playing until the servers went down at 5AM. If something happened to my main server before it was supposed to go down, I'd usually go to bed early. I was literally scheduling my sleep every day around Ultima Online.
Weekends I occasionally made my "off days" from the game, where I actually had some semblance of a social life, because on weekends there were more people logged in (adding to the lag/crowding problem). I thought of weekends that way, too - as "off days" - like one might think of having a day off from work. The game itself was a lot of work, though I enjoyed every bit of it. And, towards the end, it paid like work too. I was selling various in-game items on eBay here and there. Not enough for a living, but at the time, I had enough income and savings that I could afford to take 2 classes then sit around playing an MMORPG all day long.
If I still had the comfortable income (back then I was running some websites which were doing wonderfully until the economy went into the shitter) I'd probably still be playing 12+ hours a day. As it turns out, I sold my UO accounts almost a year ago. I created another one when the latest expansion, Age of Shadows, was released... But I haven't played in a month or more due to lack of time. I still pay to keep the account active, though; once every now and then I'm able to login for an hour and have a bit of fun.
When it comes to games affecting me, UO was it. Not just affected but totally consumed - it doesn't get any [better|worse] than that.
I miss the old days. Gaming all day was cool, working all day sucks!
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
I used to have dreams about those face-sucker crabs... those things scared the crap out of me...
Not true.
CivilizationI,II,and III stole many hours of my life...
I am convinced that there is such a thing as "Civilisation Addiction", where you are unable to do anything else than doubleclick on the CIV - Icon as soon as you start the computer..
Basic bodily functions such as eating, drinking, talking to people become secondary, as all your thinking revolves around the strategies to beat them all.....
DAve,
for Anonymous CIV-Players
I'm surprised only one other person so far has mentioned Planescape: Torment. No other game I have played has been closer to realise games' potential as an artform. If you haven't played it, you have really missed something.
/LarsWestergren
First it is the basic idea of the game. In most games you try to *avoid* dying. In this game, your character realises that he is immortal. If you die in combat you will come back to life an hour or so later. Your character (The Nameless One) realises that he is doomed to live and suffer forever unless he can solve the riddle of his existance.
Second it is the complexity of the world. Ok, so they had a traditional role playing game to base it on, but it is still impressive, it has as much dialogue and text in it as a novel. Some people found this offputting. The world is packed with unusual ideas, one of the characters who can join your team is a fallen succubbus. She has "fallen" from hell and runs a "brothel for slaking intellectual lusts"! Men go there to have discussions with the "prostitutes".
Third it is deep interaction with the characters, only Baldur's Gate 2 has been near. Engaging team members in dialogue can unlock new items and skills, which is interesting if you are a powergamer - you can get more unique things by trying to help the tormented souls who are drawn to your character than by slaying monsters. Getting things was not what I liked the best about that, it was getting to know the characters, most of whom where more complex than characters in most films and books I have read.
That is tied into the fourth thing I like, which is the philosophical exploration of the game. In the dimension where the game takes place, belief shapes the physical world. There are several factions you can join. Your character wakes up in a morgue, and discovers that he is appearently immortal. That way you come into contact with the first faction, the Dustmen, who are similary to the theravada buddhists of our world. Life is suffering, joy is only an illusion, you should strive to embrace death without fear, and also try to help others to do that. Other examples of factions are the Godsmen who are Nitzchean warriors who try to realise their own godlike potentiality, or the Sensates who are Epicurean believers in exploring life and the universe to the fullest through all your senses.
Yes, I can name a more obscure game than you.
There was once this Emergency Room game thats a doctor and surgeon simulator. I discovered my dormant sadism one day when I decided to poke a needle into the eye of a patient during an outpatient examination. The needle really was meant for testing skin sensation but the designers actually thought of that as they put in the most horrific, and loudest, screaming sound of a person having his eye pierced. Later, I found myself demonstrating the ritual to every friend that came to my house.
But, for the game that really affected me was Ultima Online. I played for a year during its first year, and again after 3 years break. The richness of experience, as a side-effect of such a multi-player game, is beyond what the box advertised. You can make real friends and enemies in the game. You observe and realise the extent of human behaviour. You see people play out their deepest fantasy which is otherwise hidden in the real world. You will find good leaders, honorable PKs, blue PKs, pure scumbags, worthless griefers, enterprising businessmen, the most determined thieves, clueless crybabies, social parasites, and highly organised mobsters, like the red guild 'Ragnarok' at the Formosa (Taiwan) shard I play in.
And when I stop playing for awhile, I miss my online friends. Nevermind the crappy graphics, sound, lag and bugs. The original vision of the designers withstood the test of time. You can probably even call it the Last Oldskool game.
www.rexguo.com - Technologist + Designer
GranTurismo was released years after the PlayStation's launch, I remember specifically as Sony used that game to hype the new " Dual Shock " controller (still used in slightly modified form on the PS2).
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
Zork, et al., Star Raiders, MULE, 7 Cities of Gold.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
I'll never get that damned music out of my head! Aaaarrrgggh!
I'd have to go with Booty Call. Simple, fun, and educational.
:)
Check it out: romp.com
So, that's how the other side lives
I actually like System Shock I better, but the sequel twisted my mind in a way I didn't think possible.
:)
People familiar with the game will recall that Shodan controls security all over the levels, and one way to make things safer is to shoot security cameras. So you tend to have a completely paranoid attitude and gain a reflex to aim and shoot whenever you spot them.
A days after finishing the game I find myself at the mall. I casually go around a corner, and in a split second I twitch my head with the reflex. Turns out a camera appeared in the corner of my eye and I was pulling the imaginary trigger.
Fortunately I was discreet enough and no one noticed, but weird things were going on in my head
Zelda: Ocarina of Time is probably the most flawless game ever created.
I have a theory. When motion pictures first came out, they were dismissed as gimicky and for entertainment only. Only years later did they become recognized as a legitimate ART form.
I truly believe that this will one day happen to videogames, like movies. Most will still be just entertainment (which, like many movies, is perfectly fine), but some, like Zelda, with it's mixture of gorgeous visuals, enchanting music, wonderful storyline, fantastic gameplay and engulfing characters will one day get the recognition it deserves as a work of Art.
No game has affected me more than EverQuest did.
---
Always standing, I am a tree awaiting the lightning. -Samael, Crown
Besides the simple elegance of the premise (a young boy with horns guides a strangely beautiful girl out of an enormous labyrinthian castle as shadowy abstractions of evil attempt to abduct her at every turn), the designers have managed to turn a very linear quest into something much more rewarding: they have created an emotional glimpse into a rich, complete (yet completely foreign), beautiful world. If you manage to get your hands on a copy of this now-classic title for the Playstation 2, you'll understand my words the first time you pan the camera around with the right analog stick and see, off in the distance, a part of this gargantuan castle you visited hours before. The sense of scale and of environment are nigh indescribable.
civilization iii
completely immersive obsessive compulsive gameplay.
the "just one more round" effect is frightening in its power.
there is nothing quite like staying up like 36 hours straight, completely forgetting your real life, micromanaging a little empire.
then you try to sleep, and you find yourself dreaming in geography and little combat units.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Planescape:Torment really affected me. I was totally immersed in that game while playing because it seemed like all of the elements of the story, from side plots to your companions held clues to the nature of your character. The game world was so well defined that the limits of the engine never became a problem.
Due to my total immersion in the game, I was shocked by the ending. I had played a good character through out and the injustice of the fate of Torment really changed my worldview. I spent several days thinking about the implications of being held responsible for actions that one did not commit and the nature of justice. The central themes of the game are as well established and examined as any book.
Josh Winslow
Bah, I never needed a game to screw me up in real life, I now find myself thinking of pressing Ctrl+Z to undo mistakes when I make them during writing or drawing. I think I've actually said 'wtf' once or twice as well without thinking (not saying the letters individually mind you, I said it as one word).
I think I need therapy.
Probably the Myst series has made me feel different, they still can now. It's such a wonderful experience to walk in surrealistic worlds which do not exist. The concept of Myst, later Riven en Excile just made me feel part of the game, non-violent and puzzling challanges, it has been nice being part of these worlds. These games are IMHO unique and exceptional, being part of the Myst worlds is like going on a distant vacation, but now to worlds which can never exist.
As I really adore tropical holidays, farmost the jungle-island in Excile was absolutely the place to be. Even in an ordinairy northern European country, I could feel the sun shine, like it does in South-East Asia!
Bizar technology?
When I played it for the first time, I got really jumpy. Especialy since this was the PS2 version, and my TV sucks and is darker than it should be. I could barely see monsters, so when they were suddenly right next to me, it scared the crap out of me. Diablo 2 didn't have the same effect.
Deus Ex
This game has imprinted itself into a part of my head. When I first beat the game, I didn't have a functioning sound card so I listened to Deftones' White Pony for the first half of the game. Now, whenever I listen to any song on that cd I feel like I am in the game again. You know how when you play a game long enough that your mind works and uses patterns in a very specific manner. Yeah, turn on that music and I am looking out for Gunther Herman around the corner.
P.S. - I LOVE THAT GAME, so I am getting really impatient for D.E. 2
It may be just a personal reaction....
But when I saw Super Mario 3 on NES, I thought "Wow! What a great improvement on the original SMB!"
When I saw SMB4 (Super Mario World on SNES) I thought "Wow! This is like Mario 3... supercharged!"
But the first time I saw Super Mario 64, it simpl BLEW me away. Total 3-d environment. it was not "the next step" in the mario games. it was an entirely new experience.
SM64 is a game that both singlehandidly defined the 3-d platform genre AND got it perfect the first time around!
I'll never forget after one all night Doom session, leaving work down a hallway when the elevator door opened. I literally jumped to the side of it before realizing that I was no longer playing.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I usually use the excuse that I just don't have the time anymore, but the truth is I had to give up role playing games for other reasons. Mostly due to the Final Fantasy series, I used to go through my daily routine wondering how many hitpoints my bus driver had, and if I could somehow cast regen on my calculus exam.
Someone mentioned Tetris earlier, and while it does kick in the visuals even when you're not playing it the game that was 10x worse for me was Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for the Playstation. If you're not familiar with it think of Dr. Mario on steriods backed by the characters from Street Fighter. BTW, if anyone has a copy of this they want to get rid of, contact me. I'm not kidding.
Like most others, you can't help but be affected by a FPS. I've played through my share and I agree that Deus Ex is by far one of my favorites. But I've just recently been getting through Soldier of Fortune (thanks Loki!) and have a much greater understanding of the position of the censors. A game changes you when it allows you to learn the tactics of stratigicly blowing the limbs off other people, when a one-shot-kill isn't really your best option, and how pleased you become with yourself when you see the bloody nub of their spine wiggle just slightly before their body drops to the ground after a successful headshot. I know I'm going to buy Soldier of Fortune II, but I'll be feeling kinda funny about myself when I do.
I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it.
Best game ever made, damn Im playing it now waiting for my mana to recoup.. Only game Ive ever taken a week off to play and played it 18 hours a day during that time
Maybe it was because I was just a kid (well, a kid of 16 or so, but a kid nonetheless! :P), but I still have a vivid memory of the forest outside the hunter 's lodge at night, on day 6 of the game, entering the wolf's cave and finding the naked german covered in blood and chewing bones.... creepy. In fact the entire game was very creepy, with the flashbacks and all the black wulf legend thing.
I still consider GK2 one of the best games I played.
Santiago
hmmmm, I would definately say that System Shock 2 is one of the best games ever, and certainly the best horror game made to date. It was spooky as hell, and kept you in the dark just enough to make you aware that you were screwed, but you never knew exactly knew what by. The game that held the title of "scariest ass game" before I played SS2 was the original "Alone in the Dark", the grand daddy of "survival horror" games in their current form.
I would say that horror based games have the greatest potential to get you emotionaly envolved in a story line, at least they have for me. The first Resident Evil (the others never did much for me) Eternal Darkness and The Silent hill series are all great games to sit back with on a dark night with the lights down low.
The first game that actually scared me though was the game "Haunted House" on the Atari (someone else mentioned this game too) In retrosepct its sort of a crappy game, but when I was playing it for the first time at the tender age of 6, I was actually terrified of it. I actually stopped playing it it scared me so much.
Im rambling, i shut up now
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Deadly Towers
Bokosuka Wars
Action 52
These are the games that will never be surpassed in craptacularity.
Alter ego was a very immersive game. After my first complete game, I was feeling very old and weak... Of course that was years and years ago.
Back in the day when I was a Commodore 64 user, I picked up this game at the local Electronics Boutique in the old plastic clamshell case that software of that era was commonly sold in. I think the company was called "Firebird," but i haven't seen the packaging in a very long time.
The game was called "Cholo" and consisted of a small monochrome wireframe graphics window surrounded by a bitmapped user interface. The game background described you as a lone computer hack trapped in an underground post-nuclear bunker along with the remaining survivors who've been stuck there for centuries.
Your only way out is to blow up the bunker entry using the help of robots on the surface. Unfortunately, most of the robots have malfunctioned (must have been running WindowsCE at the time, heh) and you have but one small droid to run about and repair them with. The hitch is, you have to obtain passwords to get into the robots, and the robots aren't always friendly. Some are equipped with weapons, and some just run away from you. Different machines have different attributes - and once you hack a machine you can control it. Passwords are often left as text files inside the robot's memory, so you're essentially putting together a puzzle.
What made this game so enjoyable? At the time, I was still fairly new to computers, and while the Commodore had a few games out there with superior graphics - the wireframe gave this particular title a great atmosphere. Distinguishing between the landscape and actual robots was tricky, and the background was black conveying a sense of night. Cracking the various robots was an enjoyable feature, and adding new ones to your arsenal of machines (you could switch between each unit you'd touched previously,) added the always desirable element of gaining something.
I suppose this changed me more than recent games because it was early in my computer gaming experience, and it had such a dark atmosphere. In addition, each robot was in itself a challenge beyond simply shooting something to death, so it gives one an appreciation for the complexity within functional machines.
Bah. What do I know? I really enjoyed it.
Other games that have been very memorable to me include Half-Life, Duke Nukem 3D (for creepiest enemies,) Doom (for the first networked 3D experience with a fairly dark atmosphere and good soundtrack,) Wolfenstein 3D (same folk, same deal as Doom,) Neuromancer on the old Commodore (for many of the same reasons as Cholo, cracking computers and an interesting atmosphere.)
Come to think of it, Neuromancer probably had as much an impact as Cholo. Probably because they both shared elements of multi-layer puzzles. Further, I often think of Neuromancer (the game, not the book) when I think of large networks of computers!
That's all for now.
I remember playing the Aliens mod for Doom with the lights out and the volume up - I don't want to give away why (find it and try it yourself) but I was sweating in terror by the end of the first level. Come level 2, I screamed out loud "There's NO Effing WAY I'm going DOWN THERE!" - a couple of my friends tried it with exactly the same results, same scream at the same time... Gives me the creeps to even remember it even though it was years ago... The other one was Aliens vs Predator 1, which I played at work, at night, in the board room on a wall projector with surround sound... I played as the Marine, and I lasted 10 minutes before running out of the room for the sanity of my colleagues working late next door. (They only lasted 5 minutes before fleeing!) My heart is thumping even typing this... EdinBear.
Boy, those were the *days...... ;-)
"Trusting every aspect of our lives to a giant computer was the smartest thing we ever did.." Homer Simpson
The game itself wasn't very entertaining but you'd go around forever without seeing Jason and then you would go into a room and he would be there stabbing you.. not very scary, but REALLY startling. I had to put the game down because of it.. ( and not cuz it sucked!)
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Oh, I forgot. The team started on the game TORN, but that was cancelled. Now, most of the people who were involved are working on a game called Lionheart, it is nearing completion!
Homepage: http://lionheart.blackisle.com/
Most of the games that really get under my skin are in the 3d shooter category (some spoilers):
Quake -- I thought it was just another 3rd person shooter, albeit with better graphics. Then the Fiend leaped at me for the first time, and I yelped and nearly threw my mouse across the room. I got killed -- but it was worth it for the adrenaline rush.
Thief -- During the haunted monastery episode, while I was watching an in-game "cut scene," one of the undead Hammers snuck up behind me. Just by coincidence I happened to turn around just in time to see a six-foot skeleton swinging his weapon at my head. I nearly had a heart attack and spent the rest of the game deathly afraid of those things. When the sequel came out, and I found myself trapped in a basement with one of those things, I said "forget it," and just stopped playing.
System Shock (the original) -- still one of the most cinematic games in history, IMHO. Best scene in any game ever: I finally set the station to self-destruct, and fought my way to the escape pod... then, just as the countdown is about to reach 0 to launch and I am breathing easy... the countdown stops and Shodan appears on the screen. "You're not leaving!" Oh, hell. I didn't know whether to laugh or scream -- as I recall, I did both.
Half-Life - though the game is excellent throughout, I think it has the best opening in video game history. Walking through the Black Mesa installation, causing the "resonance cascade scenario," then running back through the same installation, except this time it's trashed and all the scientists and security guards you were talking to are dead... fantastic. That, and the huge monster running after you through the parking garage, tipping over SUVs as it charges... breathtaking. There are so many great moments in that game. I can't wait for the sequel.
Alien DOOM Full Conversion -- Much older, and many years before the AvP video game, but so scary I could never stand to play it for long. Especially when you had to go into the tunnels full of facehuggers. Screw that.
Omikron - Not a perfect game, but very underrated IMHO. You enter a parallel world where you possess the bodies of other people and are stalked by invisible demons that only you can see. A great adventure game with a great plot; not without its flaws, but original enough to be very compelling. It was all I could think about for days after playing it.
I'm sure there are more, but these are the games that come to mind immediately...
Ever since starting with the doom series, and moving up to Unreal Tournament, I've found that it's incredibly easy for me to visualize anything spatial. Like walking around a room in the dark, if I see it once, I can navigate it w/o serious injury. It's kinda neat actually.
But there was the time when I was having my wisdom teeth out, and while I was under, I was chasing a floating tooth through the warehouse level in quake 2 (q2dm8).
Anyone who ever played all the way through Max Payne, has had the Max Payne dreams. If you don't know what i'm talking about, you haven't played all the way through.
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
DOOM. Nightmares ..
.. I have a friend who got carsick from playing DOOM because of that screen swaying accompanying any forward motion. I dont think he made it past first level :)
Hehe
3.243F6A8885A308D313
I judge rpg's by their immersion factor, and out of all the rpg's I have ever played, Planescape: Torment is the one that really gave me a character that was truly my own, a real "I" in Planescape's universe.
I remember talking with my friend's addressing to them the game's thematic question: "What can change the nature of a man?" The game answers this questions in a show-not-tell process that is worthy of a novel. (Actually, I recall there being a strategy guide from IGN that told the plot of the game from a first-person narrative. It's worth digging up if you liked Planescape.)
Plus who could forget classic moments like:
"You remember your name and smile at how simple it is."
or when you choose to revive Dakkon and announce the "two deaths as one" for the final battle.
Damn, I'm getting goosebumps. Where is that CD?
The big green finger monster that would flick its pointer at you and kill you made my heart stop the first time i encountered it.
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
I'm cant believe nobody has mentioned ultima 7. One of the best games ever. Nothing at that time compared to the immersiveness. Even games of today dont compare the the vast world of ultima. And now you can play it on modern pc's with exult.
Back when I was growing up, my folks picked up a copy of "Haunted House" for the Atari 2600. The game scared the hell out of me (at six years old or so), and even now that I've got a 2600 again, I won't play it.
I don't know if it was something about being chased by the ghost of that old man, or the creepy way your eyes looked on the screen, but that game freakin' terrified me.
Another early childhood terror-maker was Castle Wolfenstein (the original, not "3D").
I got to the point where whenever I would hear that "HALT!" coming out of my Apple ][e's speaker (speech in Apple games being a rarity in the mid 80s), I would practically soil myself.
Yup, you'd think you were away from that SS guy, but all of a sudden he appears at the top of the screen... AIEEE!
When I dug out the old Apple a couple of years ago, I was *almost* tempted to play it... Hell, I still have the occasional nightmares about both of those games, and I've rampaged through "Silent Hill" and all the "Resident Evil" series with nary a psychological scratch.
Guess the girlfriend-soon-to-be-fiancee's right: I'm an odd bird.
It's still goddamn creepy, probably because it's so minimal.
Under a Killing Moon, a little known relic from the days of FMV games. There is a scene in the offices of a dangerous cult that has a robotic sentry which is basically a giant floating eyeball. That thing used to freak the hell out of me.
Adventure, the old text game that predated zork.
/me in places)
You still can see references to it in computer books. It was fun to play, and it was something that made you think, hey, I could program something like that too. 'You are in a twisty group of passages, all alike'
Zork
pacman,
galaxian (I still like to play this, it beats
space invaders, also important)
nethack
diku muds (and you still see people doing a
pong - I remember pong from a very early atari in
cub scouts
seawolf - one of the first arcade games I remember
Basically the better games get you interested in the computer technology behind them.
Heights didn't bother me before I played that game. Now anything higher then a chair triggers the ol adrenaline, like say looking down out a 2nd story window.
No game should be allowed to have falling damage. EVER.
Considering similar immersive environments are used to desensitize people to things, they need to avoid sensitizing people.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
AVP2 wasn't so bad either.
muerte
that big floating head thing at the very end,
the reason it scares me so much is because it kind of looked like my,
then soon-to-be, mother-in-law!
still give me the creeps.
--- Brad (http://www.LinuxReview.net)
Shock 2 was good, but the graphics were, for the time, rather dodgy which detracted from the experience. Saying that, I do remember pulling myself away from it about 10pm, wandering to the local coop to buy some food, hearing a noise behind me (a cyclist) and whirling around reaching for my `shotgun'.
:)
However, SS1 was the true scare fest. The fragments of journals of death crewmembers really built up the atmosphere - I was death scared turning the corner at the wall marked `Here' even though I really knew the worst thing I'd be seeing would be a low res 2d pixelly cyborg
I've played that game 3 or 4 times through. SS2 lost many of the best bits - puzzles, cyberspace etc. etc.
GOD DAMN! THAT LOOKS EVEN WORSE IN PURPLE
here are some non-caps:abcdefghijklmnopqr
I would play Descent in the middle of the night with a buddy of mine over the internet. Since everyone else was asleep, I had the volume turned down kinda low. I'd hear a door opening or closing in the distance then he'd fire a missle from right behind me.
That game rocked
The storyline and characters were perfect for the time, and the gameplay and graphics were the perfect balance of simplicity and intuitiveness. Now if you were to go and play in now, it probably wouldn't impress you much, but in it's day it was amazing imho. Of course I would never have gotten into RPG's in the first place if it weren't for the grandeur that was Faxanadu (nes).
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
After a day of doing that then finally deciding to go get something to eat you have the greatest urge to car jack, murder, and lay waste to cities with less than a million people.
Marathon and Marathon II: Durandal were my favourite first-person story shooters. I can't play them anymore, sadly. Newer games have made me dependent on mouselook, which Marathon does crappily. Heigh ho.
The only game that has stirred me emotionally is Final Fantasy VII. It was the only PS game I actually bought for our G3 with Connectix Virtual Game Station. I actually cried when Cloud laid Aeris to rest in the city of the Ancients. My dad told me to grow up, but it was so sad. The only movie I ever cried for was Life is Beautiful, and I felt in that scene in FFVII nearly the same loss as when Roberto Benigni is led around the corner by the guard...
No life bars, no food packs to repair a broken limb, no magic elixir to bring you back to life.
Troops, vehicles, rotary & fixed wing aircraft over maps that you can walk across in real-time for hours.
Immensely immersive multiplayer.
I don't need another game.
How about hilarious instead?
Time before that it was noticing the barriers and thinking how good they would be as railslides for SSX (snowboarding game).
My friends and I still say the infamous "Casualty" whenever we accidentally break/destroy something.
Many times it would have made everything better when you accidentally fry some CPU/expensive component if only the great deep voice from the sky stated loud and clear: "Casualty."
And when you spill your entire cup of coffee into your computer, you'd get a high-quality "Casualties!" to put a smile on your face. Genius, I say.
I will use any opportunity to discuss my favorite games of all time. And at the top of that list is Super Metroid for SNES. I first played it back after its release in '94 and I haven't stopped since. I would play through till the end trying to find every last missle tank and power bomb. As much as the metroid series is known for item collection though, it was the atmosphere that really engrossed me. The way Samus's suit breathed, the way the environments felt real and alive. And of course, the music. If there is one thing that can make or break a game in my opinion, its music. The drums in the ancient area of Norfair or the subtle mysteriousness of Maridia still brings back memories like some SPC induced Flashback.
My two other favorite games of all time, Mechwarrior 2 for the PC and Final Fantasy III, (VI in Japan) for the SNES, both have stayed that way because of gameplay and music, certainly not graphics. I can definately say that these three games have influenced how I think and see visually more than any other games that I have played. Because of these video games my intrest in computers skyrocketed, landing me in the well off position of art school. It's because of these games I still have my SNES connected, while my PS1 and N64 gather dust like a forgotten relative. I would still be playing Mech2, except it requires some god awful configuration where every component must be just so, and must be played while standing on one foot, while jumping, with the jupiter in line with the moon. So I opt out and just listen the music for nostalgia instead.
Unbelieveable, I know, games based on conflict and viloence actually had a positive effect in a child's life. Must've been some wierd fluke...
This is pretty much the game that made me go out for Special Forces. 'Course, now that I'm out, there's America's Army, which is way better on graphics.
Colin McRae Rally:
My driving style has never been the same.
Seriously.
But the game I learned the most from was Quest for Glory I (a.k.a Hero's Quest, which was the original title).
I _really_ learned a lot of English vocabulary from that game (and other Sierra Games, i.e. Space Quest III). (My Native Tongue is German, and believe it or not, words like "portcullis" are not in the English books they have here at school.)
Zelda64 - Ocarina Of Time: my roommate and I played it in parallel, after it we both bought an ocarina and learned how to play. Plus, we started to build an electronic gadget to control things like light switches of our appartment by playing the songs from the game on the ocarinas.
my
http://www.marcusbrigstocke.com/pacman.asp
Think Baldur's Gate with 100x the character development and plot. This game uses the same engine and it is an AD&D game, the point is way different. You start off as a character with no memory of your past and the ability to not die. The point of the game is self discovery and seeing the effects of your actions on others.
And, come on, how many other games giving you a smart ass floating skull as a companion?
Only dead fish swim with the stream...
I find you to be a cunt
The scenery and the freedom of movement in Ultima IV immersed me in that world like no other game has. Sometimes I am reminded of the Brittania countryside when Im walking in the woods.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned:
The 7th guest - TALK ABOUT SCARY! I could never watch the intro because it would scare me too much. The worst thing is, if you didn't have a saved game, they'd force you to watch it. So I'd start it up, leave the room and come back after Stauff laughed in his maniacal way. The puzzles were great though and the videos were as pefect (read: close to life) as one could expect back in 1995.
Day of the Tentacle - got me hooked on the whole Lucas Arts games. It was absolutely funny and difficult (even if you could never ever die). I still play it now (love the voices from the talkie version).
The main focus of people playing Diablo2 is typically the acquisition of special items. The way in which Blizzard was able to set up a combinatorial system of item properties that provides a subtrate with enough variety to keep people interested is amazing. People who think about ways in developments of 500 houses could each be slightly personalized, in a cost effective way, could learn something from the design of this game.
This game had a killer ability to suspend disbelief, and the story just sucked you right in. I worked as a telephone operator on graveyard shift at the time, and I would actually haul my 386 system into work so I could play the game during down times, then haul it all back home and play some more. Like a dork, I still find myself thinking about the game from time to time.
Ghost Recon was the first game I played with my new Audigy2 and 6+1 speaker system. The game itself was excellent, but the addition of the buff sound card and surround speakers really made that game a champ. When you hear your support guy laying down suppressing fire--nay, absolutely unloading with his MG3 cannon--from behind you and to the right, it pumps your blood a lot. Especially when you aren't expecting it. One second you're crawling across a compound, and the next instant your support guy spots an enemy and lets loose of a couple dozen rounds in your ear. Great stuff.
when i first got a PC, and was playing 3d shoot'em'ups for the first time, most games frightened me to death. I remember doom being scary on some parts, but the first game that got me so scared, that i'm still scarred in my heart and I do not dare to go out alone when it's dark, is DEFINATELY system shock 1. wow, just the first level. I never had the guts to go through one of the first corridors. I can still remember... now a days, all games are so darn bright and shiny and so much "action", not enough scary stuff that makes you afraid because you have no way of killing them. We need more dark games. Deus Ex is the game that comes closest to that experience. I'm hoping doom 3 will be frightening enough, less action, more "being afraid".
Oh and i'm a quake addict too.
Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
Sure, it's primitive by today's FPS standards, but at the time, it was pretty amazing. It had pretty good enemy AI (the aliens would even hunt as packs, and do things like sneak up behind you and wait for you to turn around before attacking) and it was one of the first games I can remember that used surround sound.
There was little scarier than being 13 years old, in a dark room in the middle of the night, in front of a big TV, and hearing a predator whisper "over here..." from behind. Still sends chills down my back.
.. has to be the game that affected me the most. I flunked five classes because of it
Alien Vs Predator: The Scary Game.
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (you weren't expecting THAT Zelda did you?): Coolest plot(or so it seemed when I played it,I was 12).
Dungeon Keeper: Played it without reading the manual. I was still learning of new ways to do stuff till Level 19.
Since I grow up with a Philips G7000 next to my dipers, videogames have affected my life. More or less made me what I am today. I remember racing those blocky cars around a square race track and playing space invader type games. Next up was my Vectrex, video gaming in a black box with monitor and joysticks in one package. It had an asteroid like game called Mine Storm which I still hum the tunes in my head to when the mothership laid out mines. Offcourse the VIC20 was there along with C64 and Amiga. When I was twelwe years old, fifteen years ago I had my C64, Vectrex and Amiga hooked up in my attic and I could stay there all day long, playing games, fiddling with my TFCIII and Action Replay carts. Those were the days. =) This went offtopic. =| Well there are games and there are games that make you react. I kind of a weak nerv person, Resident Evil made me jump like an old lady when the dogs fly thru the windows in the first sequence of the game. I also remember a scene where a "dead" zombie jumps up and grabs the characters leg. Silent Hill made me sick too. One of my "best of alltimes" game is Total Annihilation and there is some sort of eerie feeling of control and power that come creeping when you launch the game. Running skirmishes with ten tweaked AI's and come out on top with enough firepower to destroy our solar system ten times over. Beating the hell out of your friends on a LAN is blast too! =) Racing games has also filled my life with joy, titles like Super Sprint, Rock'n'Roll Racing, Wipeout, Ridge Racer and Gran Turismo has made me take those IRL corners in whole different way. (My Opel Frontera (Isuzu Rodeo) in no race car but it has wheels!) The games that have filled me with joy and filled my eyes with tears is the Final Fantasy series. I feel a warm and fuzzy feeling just remembering those days when I'm out hunting with Terra and Locke from FF3 and swinging my Gunblade with Squall Leonhart. Well, time goes by. All I do these days is taking a couple of DM's in UT2003 and now then then meet up with my friends and shoot some "Sergeis" in a Rainbow Six game and have a go in the current RTS game. Nothing groundbreaking. Heck, I'm 27 and there are loads of other stuff do then just to sit around in a couch or hang out on Slashdot. =P
Girls are strange. They don't come with a man page.
-- Michael Mattsson
For me, the first time i played a game over a network (ipx over 10Base2) with a couple of friends was probably the greatest gaming experience i had.
Plaing against human beings (or with) just rocks.
Also high on the list:
Ultima 6 was the first game i was addicted to.
Dungeon Master (Amiga) was the first game that scared the hell out of me.
And the game that scared me in the last years was
System Shock 2.
-- Having problems sending big files over the net? Try out Efisto (http://efisto.org)
Another "memory of the lifetime" was first day in everquest. My dwarven warrior had finally managed to drag his arse of kaladim and into to the nearby hill around sunset and it was absolutely fabulous. Just that sight of sun going down and watching other younglings killing bats and rats and skeletons here and there.. Really nice.
Warhead in amiga was really awesome. I had little table on the floor which fitted diskdrives and 500'er to it nicely and i had it painted quite well and it kinda added to "space atmosphere" by making amiga look like a spaceship control panel. I also had ordinary blue light bulb (not blacklight) in my room and and it also made things "real-er".
yush
If I go to sleep shortly after a long session of Diablo II, I will usually have a mana globe (blue) and a health globe (red) in my dreams... weird, huh?
Of course, I also see chess positions every time I close my eyes if I've been playing several games recently... maybe I'm just odd.
-Toad
I have yet to play a game that can rival the feeling I used to get when the Hall Monster would appear in the room, with the "voom-voom-voom-voom" sound...
Very simple, extremely effective.
Subject says it all.
I would have to say that FF7 changed my life, simply because it is FF7. And Silent Hill 2 scared the bejeezus out of me... especially in the dark on a big screen with surround sound....
Chaos Engine was one of the best, nearly followed by Total Annihilation.
Yeah, this is offtopic, so mod away...
The new colour scheme is awful. Not just "I personally dislike it" awful, but "hard on the eyes, detracts from the content" awful.
Myth I: The Fallen Lords - the first time I heard the thundering footsteps of an approaching Trow in the Bagrada level (I think). Aliens vs Predator: playing as a marine scared the crap out of me. Zork I and II were just plain cool. Deus Ex.
Baldur's Gate was so addictive... I spent an entire week of my summer one year playing it through from start to finish. One of the key elements of Baldur's Gate is that you fight by pausing the game and assigning actions to everyone involved, or just get up and stretch, whatever. At the time my room (and computer) were just a few steps from the kitchen, and when I got to the end of the game and subsequently corrupted my save game I was in a state of shock. I wandered into the kitchen for dinner, started to eat, and realized that I had to go to the bathroom. For about two seconds, my thumb twitched until I realized I couldn't pause real life. Two seconds of abject terror. I think I went into the bathroom and dunked my head in icy water for like a minute to recover from that.
The dream reveals the reality which conception lags behind. That is the horror of life- the terror of art. -Franz Kafka
not sure if anyone's played it, but "below the root" for c64 was an amazing game for its time. i logged way too many hours playing it as a child.
I remember buying The Ultimate Doom a while back (getting close to 10 years now, actually) and I remember how freaky the blinking rooms in e1m2 were to a ten-year old. Also, the remarkably graphic skin-bolted-into-steel textures in episode 4 had a profound effect on me.
Thank god there were no age restrictions back then! I also remember playing the Quake demo for the first time in '96 or '97... the first time I shot a grunt down and he got back up, I had a meltdown. Also, let's not forget those zombies, groaning and chuckin' bits of skin at you while you tried to nailgun them to death, on to have the GET BACK UP!
Let's also remember how creepy all of Half-Life was, particularly the repetitive clanging noise the tentacle made as you ran around trying to kill it.
Here's to the memories
njord
Whoa! That is definitly a game that is cool and underrated.
Evolution of Language Through The Ages: 6000 BC : ungh, grrf, booga 2000 AD : grep, awk, sed
Honestly, I look back at my childhood and realize that I never studied all that much, but still did well. I never went to church, but I have a good moral framework. I don't have a violent or angry bone in my body. But I played lots of games. There is no way I can say that they didn't have a major impact on the person I am today. (Take that for what it's worth.)
"want some rye? course ya do"
excellent game.
i just climb trees, and look for rhythm everywhere.
Were the real time killers in my opinion... ..
I definetly am combatting a minor flashback( Alpha Centauri) right now... but I can actually control myself this time...
I guess Im largely cured..
Its worst when you have nothing else to do ( apparently)
I practised two things in my Compulsory Military Service time: Doing nothing and CIV.
Hear hear.
I remember returning to University after my intern/placement year and as a leaving present from work I got Deus Ex (I'd been playing the Demo for ages so my friends knew what to get).
The first time I noticed a game had really affected my was when I was shopping in Leicester city centre walking down the high street, to realise I was glancing up at the roofs of every nearby building for snipers... I was in a strange "this is too weird" daze for quite a while and being slightly more aware of everyone around me.
I also agree about the 9/11 similarities, but I try and have a more hopeful idea of the future in spite of being spoon fed stories/ideas/predictions about our demise in the coming decades or century... although that notion will go out the window when Deus Ex 2 comes out and I'm completely immersed in that world again.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
you can be sure that every single creak, bump, and other noise had my wide-eyed attention for the rest of that night
09
I was so busy doing all this that I never even got a chance to take the shrinkwrap off GTA3. I just went and got a refund for it at EB.
Oops, payphone's ringing, gotta split.
Damn that brought back memories of misspent youth. :P
No game has EVER had me literally jump in my chair like that one.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I'm not sure if anyone else remembers this game. I played it religously via BBS for about a year. I have never been so involved in a game. I bought the helper progs. and planned my next day's turns for hours. I think that fact that you had only so many turns per day is what made it so addictive. You could never "overdo" it!
Resident Evil (The first one on PlayStation) was scary as well. Play that at night alone with lights out!
You mean emotionally affected me? The top two are the SNES classics Chrono Trigger and Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past. Maybe the only reason new games don't affect me like those did is because I was younger and more impressionable and that I don't really have time to play games any more. Because the new Zelda game is really, really good.
"The absurd is clear reasoning recognizing its limits"
-Albert Camus
Well for me there have only been 2 games that have immersed me so much that i haven't been able to stop playing them. And they are Doom and the Original Roller Coaster Tycoon.
This is some scary shit. Sure, playing as an alien or a predator is fun. But being human is not something you want to be. The environments, light and sound totally freaked me out!
I never finished as human. Got nightmares, that's what I got...
the first Gabriel Knight was amazing as well... i remember playing it hours upon hours on the good ol' 486. so that's why i'm so weird now.
halo did it to me. Playing that game late at night with the level of compelling storyline and advanced AI going on, you get this scary feeling that they actually DO know what youre doing. which brings up point # 2: mmmmm..halo 2
Many people found that post to be funny because of the fact that there is no evidence whatsoever that playing violent video games causes someone to commit a violent act.
I'm guessing that you did not find it funny because it reminded you of the Columbine incident, where a couple kids with violent parents and peer groups that generally rejected them went and shot up their school. Afterwards, it was discovered that (among many other things they were into, such as breathing air and practicing shooting with real guns) that they were also into Doom and even applied their creativity and intellect towards creating modifications for the game.
Rather than take the opportunity to recognize that some kids, who have for years been subjected to violence by parents and bullying by peers and may, like any normal human being, eventually snap, a few misguided fools expended great amounts of energy advancing the theory that playing video games was responsible for the ever-increasing levels of frusteration that can drive someone over the brink.
Columbine was tragic, but there is no denying the comic hilarity of the buffoonish over-the-top idiocy that would cause a self-righteous gibbering fool to espouse the theory that a video game was primarily responsible. Perhaps you are reticent to find that funny because you don't want to publically ridicule the proponent of such a theory for fear that they might feel rejected and shoot the place up?
Come on now, how many people have spent more time playing D&D during high school than any computer game ever simply because you can pass around a book easier than a keyboard?
This may have not affected me personally, but I think Pac Man is definitely to blame for raves.
"Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all run around in a darkened room munching pills and listening to repetitive music." - Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989.
In the original the graphics were crappy, but it still was a step up from Stunts (remember that game?) of-course Carmageddon appealed to my sadistic side, it is a beautiful feeling to hear your victims eyeballs crack.
:) , Arcade, Commander Keen, Prehistoric (I and II), Wolfstein 3D, Descend (especially Free Space)
Arkanoid, Space Invadors, Tetris. Star-Goose
You can't handle the truth.
I think Frontier Elite 2 affected me more than any other game.
It captured my imagination more than anything - flying through the massive vastness of space. Frontier really made you feel like you were out there, all alone, far far away from anyone or anything.
I played it solidly for years, I'm still a fan now, although once you learn of the games limits it becomes a lot less interesting.
I'm seeing a lot of graphical first person shooters being mentioned - while scary, they never really "affected" me. Frontier did. There's nothing quite like landing on a planet and watching sunrise in a binary star system, or observing space stations orbiting moons orbiting planets orbiting stars. The accuracy of the game was astounding. I formed a real emotional bond to the game, and if star travel existed as it was portrayed in Frontier, that's what I'd want to be doing with my life.
I'm amazed no one has produced a spectacular modern day sequel. While Freelancer is graphically spectacular, it's missions are shallow and the universe is small and limited. Frontier's universe was infinite - while it was randomly generated, it did leave you wondering what was "out there".
Not only is it very scary but it really can drive you insane. Once your characters insanity level gets too low all hell breaks loose. The best is the bugs that crawl over the tv screen or when it mutes. Play it in the dark but first make sure to make a pillow fort.
this is the most important sig ever! In your face 446154!
This was/is a game which I could play for hours!
It's the first Hawk game I played of the series, and I still fire it up from time-to-time.
It affected me to the point where, walking down the street, I'd notice a rail or a bench or what-have-you, and think "I could darkslide that, no problem!"
Even worse, I'd be watching one of those extreme sports shows, and anytime I'd see someone do some crazy trick in the halfpipe, I'd be, like, "Whatever! I can do that. That dude sucks."
Of course, after a minute, I'd remember: Oh yeah, that guy's doing it for real...
=)
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
C&C Generals for me. Some guys car alarm went off at 4am this morning and woke me up, so I wanted to call in an A-10 strike on it. I need to stop playing it so much.
Need For Speed - Porsche Unleashed is the game which affected me the most because the physics and sound of the cars are so realistic compared to any other racing game. Other Need For Speed versions aren't as good as this one. The only downside I see is that you can only drive Porsches, which isn't necessarely bad by itself.It's pretty much the only game I play, I don't have any interest in adventure on first person shooter games.
Well, I usually dont post, but since I am such an huge fan of games (Even after working at several video game companies, 3do and New world computing) that I had to say something.
One of the first games that I actually got fully into was Neuromancer on my Apple IIgs, I dont know if anyone remembers this game (or the apple IIGS for that matter) but It had a soundtrack by DEVO (perhaps the first game that had a real soundtrack done by a band) and was based on william gibson's book. Great game, I played it for about 48 hours straight until I beat it. And towards the end, I remember meeting a 'HAL' (from 2001) like AI that said "Hello Dave" (my name is dave, but at the time after playing for 48+ I thought it was really talking to me).
The other game that affected me in my attitudes towards RPG's was Might and Magic III, one of the best RPG's ever made, after I played that game I ended up working for New World computing as a playtester just so I could test M&M IV & V (I eventually moved up to level design)
Currently the best game I have played in awhile was Devil May Cry on the PSII, one of the most entertaining games I have played in a long time, great story line and good action. Wonderful level design and great artwork.
Icebreaker
Probably 10 years after first playing it....I still have the urge to kick some ass with the almighty Haduken!
Were SaGa Frontier 2 and Wild Arms 2, for the PSX.
SaGa Frontier 2 is the epitomy of the video game as art, with hand painted watercolor graphics, Hamauzu's awesome piano-driven-but-not-solo soundtrack, the story spanning 3 generations...
Wild Arms 2 had Liz and Ard....enough said. The game was just so much fun in so many ways, musically, characters, dungeons....just has this perfect atmosphere.
"Punch Drunk Momentalism."
-- Liz
"The era of the intellectual gangster is over."
-- Liz
I should make a note of Terranigma, as well, the best SNES RPG ever made, never brought to America, but brought to Europe! What's up with that?!
In the beginning, there was Bard's Tale and there was Wasteland. Bard's Tale was fun, but flawed in its perspective and only slightly different from the usual fantasy games.
Wasteland was my life.
Non-linear, turn-based, top-down tiled. "Old school" when that was the only school. This was the dawn of modern computer role-playing games, and Wasteland was, in my mind, the best.
Conversation options were limited, but the freedom of plot made up for any stilted "guess the keyword" communication with the twisted denizens of a post-apocalyptic world.
A post-apocalyptic world. That's the essence of Wasteland, and the essence of the 80's. Before global warming, we lived with the Cold War warming, and a real possibility of nuclear annihilation. This was no ambiguous ivory tower intellectual threat of ozone layer depletion and the loss of rain forests-- this was true world wide destruction leading to anarchy leading to feral children and leather-clad warriors.
To an anti-social geek outcast, that was paradise. Roaming the wastelands, living on your wits, leaving the law in its grave, following your own compass, ignoring what the others thought, and going out with a flamethrower and a sledge hammer and taking care of business.
Wasteland allowed me to live that fantasy in a huge world of post-nuclear deviants. I tend to play the Mad Max type of nice guy, but if I slipped and wiped out a camp full of pre-teens, the game didn't hold it against me. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.
Wasteland has influenced every attempt I've ever made at writing games. It was the creative catalyst for many of the stories I've started and discarded. It was the inspiration for my first proto-MUD BBS game, and for every MOO I've administrated since.
Today's gamers didn't grow up wondering if tomorrow would be "The Day After." Excellent titles such as Fallout have helped, but it seems our generation of post-nuclear gamers is doomed, not by apocalypse, but by the lack thereof.
In any case, I'll always have my Scorpitron, my Guardian Citadel, my Proton Axes and Power Armor, and with every dire media inflation of a super-flu and leaked nuclear warheads, I'll always hope I'll have my Wasteland.
#19845
Although Half Life was more immersive, and there are many better games out there, those little squares with info you had to click kept on appearing a long time in real life.
Being a big bully and member of the biggest alliance in the online browsergame Planetarion messed up my life for about a year. At it highest point there were about 200k players, and organizing the alliance and galaxy so you'd stay on top was a full time job. For a year it was normal for me and my friends who also played, to never sleep for about more then 5 hours, unless somebody you could trust and had your cell phone number was online.
I wanted to say Doom II because I used to spend most of my time playing it and modifying it, both with level editors and DeHackEd. It got me thinking about game programming for a long time and I had some interesting ideas for a first person shooter that I wanted to make. So I bought many books on the subjects and thought it out a lot... that was before id released the sources. Doom II definitely scared the shit out of me several times. On one occasion I was in The Factory when I heard one of the aractrotrons or whatever they're called, walking, stopping, walking again... and it scared me so bad that I just froze up in some corner and waited for it to come up so I could shoot it. It never got there. After what must have been 20 minutes (I shit you not), I decided to go looking for it and finally discovered that it was stuck in a corner, on top of a raised floor from which it couldn't descend. So all that time I was scared of a spider that couldn't even get me.
But Quake II scared the living daylights out of me in a way that Doom II never did. I played it all night on one of my older computers at the time. I think it was a Pentium 133 or maybe a 200; in any case it was a pretty slow box. The graphics were low resolution and I couldn't really see the wonderful detail that id put into that game. I arrived at some part where I think I was in some sewer pipe or something and this creature shows up behind me and is just about to shoot. I shoot first and to my utter horror, this force field shield thing appears in front of the monster, kind of like the Borg have in Star Trek. I think I just started running at that point. The next night, I was on a different computer just listening to Joe Satriani through headphones and minding my own business. I don't think I was playing anything. On the contrary, I must have been trolling /. or something. It was after midnight and dark in my room except for the glow of my monitor. Suddenly and all at once, I jumped, screamed and turned around, to see that it was my sister, as opposed to some alien from Quake II, that put her hand on my shoulder. I became pretty nervous for a while and didn't play Quake II again for years.
I've seen other people choose HL too. For me it was in an area with the mutant shark things where you have to jump over some slippery broken metal walkways. I fell in the water, got attacked by one of the sharks, and made it out with like almost no health. I stood there for five minutes contemplating if I should go or turn back, and then stood for another five contemplating if I should actually be playing a game that made me feel like that.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Deffinately MUDs (Darkwind in particular)
Almost got me flunked out of college....
For me, I'd have to go with System Shock 2
If you think SS2 is scary, try playing it with the music turned off. It's just you and lots of noises in the background belonging to things trying to kill you. Much more creepy!
Unlike a lot of the "twitch games" (meaning: if it moves, you shoot it, a la Doom, Half Life, etc.), this is the one game that damaged my psyche.
The original X-com was pre-RTS isometric game. But DAMN! Was it every moody and creepy. Made for some very scary dreams.
Now I have to go and repress all those thoughts again....
4 words: Mean Ugly Dirty Sports
It's hilarious! And I think this is where they got the idea of the UT2003 "Bombing Run".
MUDS is the perfect game to releave a little stress. I used to play this game a lot in the period when I had exams in college. I think it's abandonware these days, so with a little luck you can still download it somewhere.
Anyone ever get emotionally sucked into this game? I've come across one other person so far, but there aren't many of us. The theme music still gets to me... =P
What do I have to do to get a sig around here?! www.bearscanfly.org
I think for me the one that freaked me out the most was The 7th Guest. Getting trapped in that basement maze and hearing that falling piano in surround sound scared the crap out of me.
--- Whasabi!
What a tremendous game. This was definitely a game that left me going "man. unbelievable." I felt like I was part of the game. I mean, it was just unreal to me at the time. I remember seeing previews for it and finally getting the 3 disc set and just never stop playing it. It was awesome. I can't describe it really. I recently bought an old playstation just to play this game and have started doing so again. It's easily the best game I've ever played. Without a doubt.
The only game to scare the living hell out of me, was Marathon Evil (A mod of Marathon Infinity way back), when some beast thing jumped out of the darkness, and slashed me to death.
But most recently, after playing Ghost Recon, I've started dreaming in night vision... is that wrong?
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
... for the most hypnotic effect, the great giana sisters (super mario brothers rip-off on c64) and tetris on the gameboy. ... for the most frightening, doom/alien total conversion ... for the most immersive, ultima underworld ... the funniest ever, monkey island (quickly followed by space quest) ... strategy: difficult. i used to love dune (the one _before_ dune 2 and all that realtime strategy stuff), but i'd say starcraft.
as you can see, recent games just don't do it. i don't know why, either i'm getting old, or they're getting a lot worse (which i privately suspect).
After playing Ultima IX I became so fascinated by games with complex world simulations that I started looking into how they were developed. I left behind the free software projects I had been working on, and joined the WorldForge project, started going to game developer related conferences, and eventually developing games became the core of my career.
The Ultima series have a quality which I have not yet managed to pin down that makes them different from most other RPGs. Its something to do with the powerful sense of immersion, the depth and complexity of the world model, and the type of story.
Ok, definitely dating myself on this one.. Dungeon Master on the Atari ST (at least where I played it) was one of those first pseudo-first person games. The first time I heard the zombie skeleton's (or whatever they were) off to the side, it really creeped me out.
To me, the visuals don't really cause it nearly as much as when the audio effects are very well done. Then it works on those fears in the subconscience....
Jim Harry
I have to play with other ppl when i play this game.. its really scary you ppl should try it ASAP
The first in the survival horror genre. Scared the hell out of me when those dogs jump through the windows. Spooky man.
This (Macintosh, at least originally) game affected me by making me very, very angry.
/ gameId,25 9/
Here's a typical review:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/p,24
One of the most over-rated game designs ever (there was absolutely no sense to it, but reviewers all seemed to think it was amazingly deep), the fundamental idea was that whenever one superpower did something another didn't like (establish an embassy in Bangkok, for example) they would play a game of chicken with nuclear weapons. Truly, the only way to win this game was not to play (and not to have bought it).
After I started using the "Recall" spell (transports you from one place to another in an instant) alot in it I found myself nearly casting recall by reflex to get the the nearby 7-11.
EverQuest, hands down.
No One Lives Forever, Deus Ex, both the Thief games, and Hitman 2.
I prefer stealth and guile to run and gun.
"The dead do not shoo-bop-aloo-bah." -- Kai, 'Lexx'
The music, the environments, and the huge characters. It was an experience. At the end the big metroid sacrificed itself, and I really did feel sad. Much more of an emotional connection than most movies. All the environments had such a distinct feel because of the incredible music throughout.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
Typically games are just a diversion for me, I play them and that's it. I do remember playing Tomb Raider at 3 in the morning while it was raining, and this was the first time I encountered the T-Rex. I had no knowledge of this and when it came out, I got a nice adrenaline shock.
But as much as I enjoyed Tomb Raider, it was just pure fun, no life changing deals here. Then I played Thief. Now to this day, I've only completed 3 levels, and it's not even my favorite game. However, how I walk around the world HAS definitely changed. I find myself concious of how loudly I'm walking, peeking around corners, etc. Still haven't gone to carrying around a blackjack, but sometimes I wish I did.
Thief was a FPS game from Looking Glass.
Part of the fun is that you weren't a bad ass. Pretty much anybody else in the game could kick your tail.
In order to do well you had to sneak around, hiding in shadows, not making any noise. It was pretty cool to make a bow shot against a completely unaware guard and watch him slump noiselessly. But after a while I decided a really good thief didn't need to be a murderer. The game was much harder that way, but also a lot more rewarding...
It wasn't uncommon to wait 15 or 20 real time minutes for the exact right combination of guard patrols that would allow you to black jack just one of them so you could continue.
And let me tell you, sneaking about in creepy old game houses, and having a guard pop up behind you from a blind side would really get your pulse racing.
There was a scenario called "Return to the Cathedral" freaky, FREAKY, FREAKY!!!
There was a slashdot article a couple years ago on invoking fear or terror in games. "Return to the Cathedral" was the number one reference...
-LineGrunt
after playing quake CTF late nights, I did have an episode. my wife told me I was acting really strange one night and got up and started to say and do some weire things and it scared her.
the solution, she told me not to play any of THOSE games. I did not play them for awhile but soon found myself playing those late night friday nights.
then I got smart and started programming. theres more money to be had then playing games.
Back in undergrad, two guys from U of Waterloo gave a talk on Java and this little xbattle clone they had written called Europa. Man did that thing ever suck up my time... If anyone's nostalgic for xbattle, they should give it a try: europa.mochasoft.ca
Obviously it hasn't been around as long as Doom or Evercrack but 1942 has definately impacted my life. I played the Battle of Berlin for days at a time. Later the history channel was showing something on the ACTUAL battle of Berlin and I started thinking "man it did suck when that German tank came over the bridge" before I realized that obviously I wasn't at the real battle. It freaked me out so damn bad! That's the true mark of how much a game effects your life.. if reality starts to blur, that's when you know it's more than a game.
Dark Forces was the first game that REALLY got me into FPS. I dunno what it was about it, it was just so great.
I had a TRS-80 Color Computer 2 back in 1985. Some months later, my parents bought Dungeons of Daggorath for themselves to play.
F -8&q=dungeons+of+daggorath&btnG=Google+Sea rch
That game had *atmosphere* -- it was really frightening. The game was a first-person perspective dungeon crawl. Monsters each had their own distinctive sounds, and the sounds were louder or quieter depending on how far away the monsters were. Besides the monsters and your own actions, the only other sound in the game was your character's heartbeat. There were no visible statistics or numbers -- just the speed of your beating heart. Move too quickly, carry too much while running, or get hit too many times, and your heart would beat faster and faster until you fainted or died.
The graphics were crude but effective. The player's viewpoint could only be one of the four cardinal directions. You had to type a command, like "T R" (meaning "TURN RIGHT") and you would shift your viewpoint 90 degrees to the right. Monsters were flat line-art, and the dungeon was made of cells, featureless and uniform. Your character carried a torch, and the game would show dimmer light by drawing lines with fewer and fewer dots.
When you fainted, the screen faded out to black, each line getting dimmer and dimmer until it was only two or three dots, then nothing at all...and you had to listen to the monsters around you moving, wondering if they're going to finish you off before you wake up. If you wake up, the world fades back in, and you're left with a rapid heartbeat and a slim chance of survival if creatures are around. Overexert yourself in your desperation to get away and you might faint again. You have to stumble through the maze, looking for a dead end, hoping the monsters won't find you.
Most players had to use the audio tape based save and load feature, because completing all five levels of the game could take several hours. If you took the passive approach, sitting and waiting near a pile of unneeded swords and dead torches, you might find yourself waiting for 5 or 10 minutes for that one remaining powerful monster to find you -- waiting, listening to your own heartbeat, listening for creature sounds, trying to tell creatures apart and gauge their distance.
I think many people who had a chance to try the game were put off by the text-based interface, which required players to memorize commands and abbreviations, and learn how to type certain frequently-used combat commands very quickly. (When I was 10 years old I couldn't touchtype, but I could type "A L ", meaning "ATTACK LEFT", about five times in a second. The ATTACK LEFT command attacked whatever creature was in the same cell as you with whatever was in your left hand.)
If you're interested, search Google for Dungeons of Daggorath. There's even a PC port out there -- the timing is somewhat similar to the original, but not quite the same as the game would be on real hardware.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UT
--Michael Spencer
spam@mspencer.net
Gah, I remember those skeleton Hammerites in Thief as being some of the scariest enemies in any game I've played. It's not just the way they look (which isn't exactly calm-inducing), it's the fact that they run up to you at amazing speed and don't make much noise besides their cackling. They were a good excuse to keep the fire arrows ready at all times.
I can't believe no one has mentioned this game!! The title says it all. It was just unlike anything ever done before--very dark, very immersive. If you don't believe me, check out the reviews on Moby Games.
I cry when I think of the arrow-dodging, native-romping memories of old...will things ever be the same again?
life is a game of musical chairs
http://www.dddgames.com/saba/
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
Alien Vs. Predator was without a doubt the scariest game I ever played. Walking around in these dark tunnels with the scanner going, beep.... beep... beep.. beep. AAHHH as an alien drops from the ceiling and bites your head off.
It's an "artificial life" game, you have to take care of your virtual creatures, feed them, teach them and you can mess with their genetics too. Several years ago I got it, and was hooked. I'm still very attached to it, all my online friends come from the creatures online community. It's a fun game to play, and if you get tired of that you can make stuff for it, or new species of creatures. I made two tools for it several years ago.
Recently the company that made it died due to bad management. I'm not sure exactly why but I suddenly decided to reverse-engineer the docking station protocol and write a server for it. Which is what I'm currently doing in my free time.
Currently all the official sites are down, but there are still many fan sites around.
DOOM and DOOM2 especially made me the computer geek I am today.
Remember how modifiable they were? How you could create maps so easily for them? I spent MANY hours creating DOOM2 maps, and getting into the DOOM'ing scene at the time still meant calling up BBS's and hooking up with other geeks.
If it weren't for John Carmack, I would probably be a Poli. Sci. major instead of CS... No joke.
No game, not even other games in the series, have scared me quite as effectively as Resident Evil 2. When you first encounter Lickers, the one that skitters by the window puts you on edge. Then, in perfect form, just as you begin to forget about what you saw, you encounter this hideous, blood-drooling beast. And later, the scene in the interrogation/obersvation room...terrifying. Even knowing what's coming, I have to psysche myself up to do that room. After playing this game for the first time, I damn near killed my cat, when it leapt onto my bed. I thought the lickers were coming to eat my head!
Virtue finds and chooses the mean.
Aristotle, Ethica Nichomachea
I fondly remember wasting my weekends away in my buddy's garage playing Wolf 3D. Some scary sounds coming out of the 'Disney Sound Source' he was pushing his audio through...Not to mention there is nothing quite as frightening as someone coming up behind you at school and yelling 'SPIAN!' (sorry for the phonetic German).
The music, the enviornments, and the brothers were all very frightening about that game. But looking back, I think the most frightening thing was the fact that there was wasn't anyone to talk to on the island. Instead you had to read those damn books with the fuzy movies with the crazy brothers in em. Scary, expecially when the got pissed. Oh yeah, and the drugs found in the brother's rooms scared me too because I was like 9 at the time.
Fatal Frame was probably the scariest game I've played. I was afraid to walk to my car from my friend's basement after playing it. The sound effects and eerie music were put together flawlessly. If i ever see a girl in a white kimono, you can bet you'll see me running the other way
Well played, AC, well played.
For showing that a game can have a more complex plot than "There are 5 billion demons trying to kill you". There's more going on in those games than a lot of novels.
Turd Nuk'em in 3-D ppppppuuuuuu! Great game. Had to cheat to get anywhere, and then the stink was gone. Damn Octupus's Garden.
.
I'd have to go with Street Fighter II and its sequels, up to Super Street Fighter II: Turbo. That series just got better, between those two releases, if you ask me, with the sole exception being the SF2: Hyper Fighting, which was Turbo done wrong.
It seems like I made half my friends playing this game. One of my best friends and I met playing that game, and more than 10 years laters, we're still very close. I met a roommate in college (we went on to pay for school running a business selling magic cards).
It's funny how games bring people together. I was an avid player of the Carrion Fields MUD, also, and while it didn't necessarily change ME all that much, it did change several people I came in contact with, because they met me there. Two people I met playing that MUD who later went on to start Avendar with me I later recruited to work with me at Exodus, long before it was devoured by C&W. (One of them subsequently recruited a fourth mudder, too) Since neither was part of the industry to begin with (one was doing post-graduate math, the other a substitute teacher in Alaska), and yet both remain gainfully employed in IT to this day (it's been around 4-6 years now since I got them to sign up).
Yes it was a cheesy, now unheard of, adventure game. But at the time it really creeped me out. I still think it had the most sureal atmosphere of any game, even. Especially "Mother", and her "ISOLENT MEAT! YOU LACK STRUCTURE" speech.
Though a close runner up is the first Diablo, any game that large a time-sink must have some influence.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
I remember playing this game at my friends house on his philips cd-i. It was a dark and stormy October night (naturally), and I remember seeing those hands pop out of the painting the first time, and not being able to sleep that night for hours upon hours. This wasn't helped by the fact that my parents have a still life painting very similar to the one in the game. Still creeps me out
now THAT was a creepy game... I think it had a lot to do with the fact that you NEEDED to sneak around to survive... & they played the atmosphere for all it was worth
I'm replying to my own post. I found the game I am talking about. Go here http://www.miconexion.com/ftp/pub2/cd7/dos/war/00_ index.htm and download gtnm.zip. It really is the one I had a long time ago on my XT computer. It is also exactly as I remember it. Oh, and it works in Win2k as well, since the game doesn't even have sound in the first place.
You want a game that affected me in a literal sense? Descent! It's the only 3D game where I actually started to feel sick from disorientation.
:)
Thankfully, I eventually got over it... by playing Descent over and over again.
dreamweb : simply best cyberpunk adventure game ever.
incredible details (you could click on a small pea on the dirty floor of your bedroom and still have a few lines longs description about it), great scenario, spooky atmosphere and an absolutely awesome music.
never played anything like that again...
Metroid, baby. That marks the end to all good games. Metroid was about the beginning of a new type of exploration. Free reign over the entire map, you had. Programmed role-playing games are the only CRPGs you will get if you do go down that road.
I've seen a couple mentions of X-COM, which was great. The first game was fantastic, second game was a flop, apocalypse was moderate, and now there's an fps out that I am not even going to try.
But the best game that left it's mark on me was the first AvP. The box came with a label that said 'the game so scary we give you a free pair of underwear!' and they weren't kidding.
Marine campaign, lights out, surround sound, facehugger. NEVER AGAIN. [chuckle]
I was wondering when somebody was going to mention this. GF was the last of the great games that told stories, the ol' adventure games. I will never know why people stopped making them. Personally, I also was a bit moved by the Neverhood, although I'm not really sure why. Also, Gaberial Night also excelled at telling a story, and I didn't shake it for a while
That turned me off video games forever.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
This game was pretty amazing for it's time. It was designed as a 3-D game, but produced (just) before the standardization in graphics card technology.
It's use of game engine cinematics was a pretty new concept at the time, and very well done.
Gameplay itself was a blast, and the online community that grew from the game was small but robust. Some folks even adapted the old Car Wars rules so you could play division duels balanced with a pricelist.
The original soundtrack was stunning, and I still listen to it to this day. The project was called Bullmark, and was led by Arion Salazar. He used to have the tracks up on his website, but they don't appear to be there anymore.
Sadly, Activision pretty much killed the franchise with poor support, and a half baked sequel.
In my opinion there have only been two car combat games of this caliber, the other was the original Autoduel by Origin Systems back in The Day(tm).
I have high hopes for the massively multiplayer one being constructed by Netdevil, which has some ties to Destination Games, the new project by Richard Garriot. Time will tell.
-Zaphod
Has anyone ever played Fatal Frame for the PS2? I just started playing it about 3 weeks ago and am thoroughly addicted to it. I have never played a game that has thoroughly creeped me out before. But now I have. Living alone, I have a tendency to play this game with all the lights out late at night. Maybe that's why I have this constant spine tingling and I have had decent night's sleep since I bought the game!!! Check it out...It'll scare the bejesus out of you!!
Does this person even exist?
"The Most Addictive Game Ever (tm)"
/. I'm playing it now, and typing this with my feet. So yes, it has had a profound effect upon my feet.
Only reason it hasn't been posted is because everyone who's ever played it is still playing it, no time to read
I had one particular game from InfoCom that was the first on I played constantly. Cant remember the name tho. One point was a path with "an inpentratable forest" and a house with a black cat. Somewhere in there was a witch in a castle. Anybody know the name?
Thanks...
There was a game that came out a while back that I picked up on a bargain aisle somewhere called Sanitarium. It was a sleeper title that got some really good reviews, but didn't do too well at the stores. It harkened back to the good ol' time when games actually had story lines and made you think, but also had the eye candy to go along with it.
It was definitely one of those games that you didn't want to play in a dark room with headphones on. Voice of experience talking here.
I think the claw marks are still in our old apartment's ceiling from when my wife came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder.
Behold, the power of fleas...
Seeing the movie Tron around that time did not help at all...
I also remember playing Larry 1 and thinking .. when i grow up i won't be like this guy...
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
Omikron is okay but it doesn't seem to draw me in like Final Fantasy and similar games. To a large part I think it's because the fonts are terribly hard to read for me. I don't know if it's just me or my tv or what but half the time I can't tell what they have written.
:)
I think if the fonts worked better the other problems wouldn't matter to me. The game looks and sounds good and has a lot of interesting things you can see and do. It takes more mental work IMO than most games and I think I like that. It's easy to screw up though.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I recall distinctly the first time I saw Doom was early in my college days when some guys were playing in the computer lab. Upon seeing my slack jaw one of them commented that they might have found a new player.
The best thing was that one of my roommates worked in the lab, and so many a night were burned away playing after hours 4-man deathmatch, or better, downloading .wad files for new maps. I remember one firefight against a Cyberdemon that had all four of us in close proximity just hurling everything we had at this thing when a comrade stepped in my line of fire and suddenly we were all toast. "AWRRIGHT, WHO FIRED THE ROCKET?!?" :^0
and simply because the intro music still makes my eyes water. When I think about console games, it's allways the soundtracks that stand out. Streets of Rage 1, anybody? Or for that matter, Revenge of Shinboi, stage 1. Damn...time for some Gens.
I never got laid back in gradeschool, but now that my plates full, these ladies ain't actin' so hatefull..
I mean, be honest, does anyone here want to meet a grue? It may have just been text, but it surely changed my life.
ALl the above were able to somehow transport me from my cushy recliner to the mind of whatever character was playing, so much so that hours upon hours would simply fly by. I'd oftne start playing in the morning and find myself stopping after dark. (Granted I wouldn't do this too often because of the couch-potatoed-ness of it, but every once in a while) When a game can lose you in its characters, story or atmosphere, I am very impressed. Ico, a very underrated game, gives a similar feel but doesn't quite make the most memorable list. Maybe the sequel will.
Wouldn't you like to be a pepper, too?
I can't be the only one that's had Tetris dreams...
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
It used to scare the crap out of me when you would land to rescue a pilot, and an alien impersonating a pilot would leap up in front of your windshield and start banging through the glass.
n\t
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
There was no game that would really AFFECT me yet. There were ones that scared the shit out of me (Behind Jaggi Lines in the "Boo!" way and Feud in the "Creepy" way), there were ones that impressed me deeply (FF7, Amberstar), there were some I had emotional relationship with (AvP, Space Hulk) - but none really changed me.
Morrowind is NOT YET it. But if there is ever a game that would affect me, it will be along these lines. What's needed:
1) Complete freedom.
2) Detailed world
3) Amazing plotline
4) Original, pretty, impressive art design
5) Beautiful music, quality audio.
6) Realistic feeling
7) Flawless engine.
Morrowind lacks the last two. Nobody sits. There's no children. People stand or walk around all day and night. Dialogues repeat. There are gfx glitches. The gfx is very pretty but "not there yet". And damn thing crashes for no reason, you get stuck in walls, you scroll through miles of inventory, etc, etc. This game came short of being perfect - but it has a bit too many small glitches to get there.
And I'm still waiting for computers to get good enough to run smoothly games that would look like the "Mother Nature" part from 3DMark.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
I believe true classics are usually the games that leave you with great anecdotes once you've finished playing them. Things that you enthusiastically tell to your friends, even though they probably have no idea what you're talking about.
Having said that, one of the most intense moments I ever experienced wasn't with an 'officially' sanctioned classic - it was the PC version of Aliens Versus Predator. I remember it like it was yesterday...
[cue harp music/wavy video effect]
I'd gotten really far in that level where you encounter the Predator in the hangar bay. The savegame patch hadn't come out yet and I was down to my last 40 bullets, plus two grenades. It had taken me five tries to get this far, so needless to say I was a little on edge. As I rounded the corner into another half-lit corridor, I spotted two xenomorphs clinging to the ceiling. I was about to dispatch them with my autorifle when suddenly, an enormous Praetorian appeared at the end of the corridor, racing towards me. Almost simultaneously my motion detector went haywire, and I heard a cacophony of screeching, snarling noises coming from behind me. I was trapped! Desperation crept over me as I dashed towards the oncoming Praetorian, emptying the remaining rounds into its head while firing a grenade at the xenomorphs on the ceiling. The explosion splattered their acidic remains all over me as I ran past the dazed Praetorian, but I couldn't afford to slow down - the pursuing xenomorphs were almost on top of me! I raced towards the end of the corridor and into the hangar bay, frantically hitting the door switch to the right in the hope that it might contain the xenomorphs. Through the combined miracles of technology and reinforced steel, it did. I was safe--
But that's when I saw it.
Just above the door switch, and moving towards my head, was something that made my skin crawl: a triangle of little red dots. Laser guidance dots. There was a bright flash as I jumped away from the switch, and in that instant I could see the hangar bay very clearly: test rockets everywhere, the ghostly silhouette of a predator moving among them, and in the back... two deactivated sentry guns. My only chance! I fired my last grenade into the rocket closest to the predator, causing a huge explosion that short-circuited his optic camouflage. At the same time, I ran for the sentry guns at the other side of the hangar, hoping the predator would be too disoriented to respond. As it turned out, he had other things on his mind - like the seemingly endless flood of xenomorphs pouring through the ceiling hatches and bay doors. I could hear the clicking, scratching sound of their nails on the metal floors, I heard the Predator scream with rage, I reached the first sentrygun, hit the activation switch, ran towards the other--
And then it was all over.
As the first sentry gun roared to life, it started firing indiscriminately into the writhing mass of xenomorphs on top of the predator. Bullets struck the remaining rockets, causing a chain of explosions that seemed to last an eternity. The surviving xenomorphs lunged at my hiding place behind the sentry gun, but they were caught in mid-air by a hail of bulletfire so intense it almost seemed to keep them suspended as it ripped them apart. Then everything fell silent.
I looked around, looked at my motion detector. Nothing. Shrapnel and alien remains were all that was left of the hangar bay. My heart was racing and my ears were ringing, but I had survived. With three percent health and no ammo left, I prepared for the second half of the mission...
[cue harp music/wavy video effect again]
See what I mean? My memory may have colored in some details here and there, but even so, you still have no idea what I'm talking about!
Hee-hee. Dying tickles!
Andrew Plotkin's Spider and Web (site seems to be down, currently) had that duct-searching effect on me. Great game.
It's scary to think that at some point the developer's thinking process involved the following:
Then of course, there is Hugo, and his plenary of misadventures.
Hugo's House of Horrors defies all logic by the fact that it is HUGO'S VERY OWN HOUSE, so I don't see why he'd find it all that horrifying, or for that matter, why he'd let death-causing traps/creatures into his home in the first place.
Hugo 2: Whodunit? is a "murder mystery", and by "murder mystery", I mean an entirely linear adventure game with no real mystery, since after the first time you get it, it pretty much is solved.
Hugo 3: Jungle of Doom is, well, I have no clue. I think they made a 3D version.
Now to the point; how these games affected me. After raping my life of many precious years, and replacing them with a confused, frustrated soul that only knows how to hate adventure games, a decade later I've rediscovered Iceman and Hugo. After plugging away at them for the past month, I have made no greater progress then I did ten years ago. Of course, I don't think Gamefaqs was around then. *click*
When the brand new Defender machine showed up at the arcade where I used to play hookey in the 8th grade, I remember thinking "man I want to make something cool like this". Shortly after that, I started to pursue computer programming, studying Basic then C in the computer lab before and after school, and while cutting classes throughout the day. I never got involved in video game programming, but I have earned my living (continuously, I might add) as a programmer for the past twenty years.
cat
n/t too
Oh man.. I wish I'd never tried. I managed to get my degree, but I've also seen multiple friends drop out because of simple text based MUDs.
Oh yeah, and Nurse Edna in Maniac Mansion literally made me yell out loud in panic the very first time I encountered her in the kitchen. What a great game
Unable to read configuration file '/bigassraid/htdig//conf/14229.conf'
Geocrawler error message.
Atari ST
Lived it, breathed it, mapped it, completed it.
Took a year of my life. Without question the best computer game on one floppy that ever existed.
Of all the fancy FPSs and action games out there, I still prefer to chill out with a good flight sim. If I feel like blowing stuff up, I can do it in IL2 Sturmovik.
mmmmmm..... blocky 256 color 640X480 pr0n.
"Entropy is the bad-guy, and he is everywhere"
The game that has affected me the most has to be MechWarrior II. I had just gotten my first realy computer (the old Apple IIe does not count) and Mech 2 just came out. I played that game on instant action so many times, well, ... I played it an awful lot. (I was able to use a 20-ton Firefly and beat 3 100-tonners. sick) That single game basically made me a computer gamer.
Half-Life I've played a lot of, but mainly in the form of Counter-Strike.
Of course a game that total has sucked me in (where I loose all track of time) has to be Europa Universalis. (I always say just one more year, and then the damn English or Spanish end up attacking me. Grr.)
"All great truths begin as blasphemies." -George Bernard Shaw
The trick to win was to repay the pirate/gangster/loan shark more money than owed and you earned at his interest rate...
When Quake multiplayer came out I was ridiculously addicted. I was about 16 at the time, therefore in high school and had no real obligations. I remember many many nights of playing CTF online with a modem (and of course cursing the very few LPB's who had broadband) until the wee hours of the morning.
Probably somewhat due to sleep deprivation, but still an effect of the game, I would hear quake sound effects around me all the time. I always thought I'd heard someone grapple to the ceiling above me or jump into water nearby, etc. I can remember all the times I just subconciously thought about switching to rocket launcher, etc and blasting whatever (whomever) it was that was pissing me off, or just for good clean fun.
And then there was the grappling hook... I can't count the number of times I just thought I could or wanted to use it in real life, just subconciously, where you think it and a few seconds later you realize that in the game of RL there is no grappling hook mod! Dammit!
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
With Jenna Jamason
and way back when... Leisure Suit Larry
I would have to say Abuse for Dos...
I compare every adventure game I see to Star Control II. It was hands down the best game I've ever played. Funny, spooky, sometimes profound, and set in a really huge game universe. The music was great (quality was fantastic for the day). There will never be another Star Control II. Go out and buy a cheap old 486 and put DOS 5 on it. It's worth it just to play this game.
I have always been a huge fan of the Final Fantasy games. When a new one comes out it usually completely consumes my life until I beat it. The best one, in my opinion, is Final Fantasy 7. The story line is amazing, and at one point I actually jumped off the couch and screamed "NOO!!" Anyone who hasn't played a Final Fantasy game doesn't know what their missing.
The Bards Tale on my Commodore 64. No game has ever moved me the way it did.
So far, the one that's done the best job messing with my mind is Shade, by Andrew Plotnik.
How sad, 600+ posts and you're the only one [that I can see] mentioning PS:T?
PS:T is a kick in the butt of the it's about non-linearity and Games aren't about story crowds.
The magic is where story and freedom meets.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
As far as affecting me the most, Xenogears tops the chart. The story in that game is so complex and crazy. It was definatly one of the first games I REALLY got into, and definatly affected some of my outlooks on life. Xenosaga is pretty sweet too :).
Polaroid. See what develops!!
My favorite game ever, I admit to sobbing when I finally reached the Mana tree and the sprite says, "look how far we've come..." Best music in a videogame ever.
life is a game of musical chairs
...and by Master Of Orion, I mean the (somewhat) old-school original.
MOO made me understand what it might be like to have a drug addiction. I finally had to quit it "cold turkey" after too many marathon sessions that completely unplugged me from the rest of my life. I had "flash backs" for years, where I would reminisce about sending a task force of ships against my enemy's empire while holding the line against his attacks on mine. I was so into the game that I felt guilty sometimes about the "millions of people" I had "massacred" by dropping fusion bombs on their planets. So weird in retrospect.
I think what really made the game irresistible was the mixture of combat strategy and ship design strategy. You would design ships and build battle plans for "years", and then watch it all come together.
Changed my life? Yep: I quit strategy games for ever, because I felt I couldn't trust myself with them after the MOO addiction...
Your accusation of thoughtcrime is based solely on doublethink...
All four Monkey Island games have affected me a whole lot. I can't believe I'm the first to mention them, They are perfect in every way, and the way you get in the world that they bring you, no other game has ever even come close! In fact, a fifth Monkey Island game would be the only reason for me to install windows again.
There was nothing in the world like playing Doom or Doom II and suddenly hearing the piston powered, ground shaking steps of a cyber-demon. Those things will still make anyone desire a bullet to the head as an alternative to facing that scary bitch in the dark.
When the Quake demo came out, there was nothing like it in the world. Downloaded over a 14.4 as soon as it came out on the net, I don't think I've been that frightened for so long ever in my life. It truly did usher in a new era.
ah... back in the day. i was young, lonely. a woman offered me this APPLE 2plus. at first i didn't want it... but along came ORIGIN's ultima4 with it's ideas about KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. man, i ate it up...ORIGINal sin.
but seriously. remember, there was a guy in one of the towns who was seeking "salvation?" lol! he wasn't part of the game's quest. meanwhile, all these avatars and so on are looking for "enlightenment."
enlightenment? what's that? becoming sinless? too late for me. salvation is the Lord in Heaven's forgiveness of sin. salvation comes from accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
it seemed fascinating, when i was 12 years old... these ideas from origin. later in life, i look back and think about how a seed of deception was planted.
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
DOOM. Kinda speaks for itself. First game i really played, no, really played.
Then there was Crono Trigger and Secret of Evermore on the SNES. Those two RPGs rocked, immersive storyline, great graphics, and the MUSIC!!! Such atmosphere...
Postal. THe first one. This effect was rather frigthening, and it made me give some serious thougth about how games effect people--at any rate i started to have increasingly violent dreams after I begin playing the game. After one particularly graphic one that involved someone i knew, i quit playing, and my dreams promptly went back to normal. Oddly enough the dreams incurred from playing FPS's were nowhere nearly as disturbing.
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Here are some games that effected me, but were not mentioned that much:
1. Street Fighter II. There has yet to be a fighting game to revolutionize the genre since that one. There have been a whole bunch of games that were evolutionary from SF2, but none of them Revolutoinary. Honorable mention goes to Namco's Soul Blade/Calibur series.
2. Space Wars. Countless hours of 1 on 1 combat had been spent with this game. The premis has been the cornerstone for the evolution of other games as well. Honorable Mention goes to Starcontrol 1 and 2.
3. Warcraft II. First real perfection of what kind of game is Real Time Stratagy (Sometimes better labled as a Real Time Tactical), introduced myself and many others into massive 8 player games. Honorable Mention goes to Starcraft, Warcraft III.
4. Counter-Strike. Yeah, I can see your eyes roll now. With the introduction of "One life per round" consepts, suddenly the "Meat Grinder" effect of previous FPS dissapears. It makes the list for making me value my life and role in team combat. Honorable mentions: Tom Clancy series, Tribes series.
5. Sim City Classic. Teaching me to understand the development of any originazation, (Sim City's was a City, obviously) This game and it's spawn have made understanding of 'how things work' that much easier to consive. Honorable mention goes to: The Sim games (Sim Cities, Sim Life, Sim Farm, Sim Ant, Sim Tower, The Sims, etc...) Civilazation Series, (Civ 1, Civ 2, Civ 3, Colonization, etc.) and all the failed attempts: (Outpost, Master of Orion 3, etc.)
6. The 7th Guest. Out of the horror genre, this game was the freakiest of them all. The first CD-Rom REQUIRED video game, it's spellbounding music, images, and puzzles hauntingly remain in my memory. "Old man Stauf had a house..." Honorable Mentions go to: The Afiraid of the Dark series, MYST series.
7. Space Quest. The first adventure game that was PLOT driven. Even Kings Quest I felt a bit of "fumbling in the dark," but Space Quest's story drove you from the first minute you played the game. Someday the Sierrians will return to wreak vengance against Roger Wilco, I know it. Honorable Mention goes to: Kings Quest Series (Especialy IV and V), Space Quest series (Especialy II, III, IV, and V) Hero's Quest and Quest for Glory series, Maniac Mantion I and II, the Monkey Island series, and Full Throttle.
That's all I can realy remember for now. They are not in any particular order.
Pathway
Grim Fandango.
I almost cried when it was over. I think it made me realise how crappy other games were, and how difficult it is to actually create games (yes, games - not those 3D simulators that copy ideas from each other and compete in the number of textured-polygon they spew on your screen each second, instead of the enjoyment of actually playing them).
Definitely Grim Fandango.
max payne in the nightmare chapter at 3am with lightning outside. that shit freaked me out.
SimEarth for DOS convinced me to finally get a color VGA display. I ran an inexpensive paper-white VGA monitor on my 8088 and then '286 box, only switching to color when I saw, and had to have, SimEarth for DOS.
After playing years of the Civ series, and finally a three day solid stint of Alpha Centauri, with about 8 hours total in breaks to sleep, I have severe RSI. It's still hurting me two years after that long weekend, and I really can't play games now (doctor's orders). How's that for affecting me?
- SYSTEM SHOCK 2. Yes, I was among the ones who knew and tried that complex, dark, buy awesome piece of gameplay. Once you've crawled through the corridors of the Von Braun for enough time, you never forget the fear you experienced, up there in a cramped version of Hell itself. Especially the feeling of imminent - and violent - death that never ever leaves your mind, should you be wielding a wrench or a grenade launcher.
Neither shall you forget the unmistakable face and voice of SHODAN. She still beats any game villain that was, is, or will be, hands down.
I didn't play the first System Shock much, mostly because that one actually scared me enough to keep me from playing. Were the pixels or the things represented by pixels the most scary ? Can't tell...
- DEUS EX. A great, great one. Loved everything in it. The 3d engine, the game physics, the weapons, the levels, the music, and last but not least, the storyline that drags you around a world on the brink of revolution, with you as a significant actor. One of the first games that made me think beyond "should I use a rocket or grenade launcher ?", decide and that showed me the consequences.
The ending made me wonder for a lot of time afterwards. This spawned some interesting discussions in the forums I was reading then...
- QUAKE I & II. The first for the multiplayer, the second for the single player. Just plain great. Quake is not a game, it's a phenomenon.
- HALF-LIFE. Enough said about the game that still survives today, thanks to its mods and its awesome single and multiplayer game. One game reviewer said once, in a french games magazine : "The only game that shall ever surpass Half-Life will be Half-Life 2". I took it as being optimistic back then, but less than a year before the release of the sequel, one can be amazed at how that may be true...
- HOMEWORLD. That one still's in my heart. It was, and still is, among the best of the best. Incredible for its game engine and graphics at the time, but also and mostly for its story, and the way to tell it. How many games at the time had successfully used cinematographic techniques the way Homeworld did ? That was a game ahead of everything at the time. I can still watch the introduction sequence - the mothership's launch - or the ending credits, and literally get the creeps out of it.
- UNREAL. I got obsessed by that game ever since I saw it. This was more than a shooter, that was a virtual Sci-Fi trip, an almost-real walk through a colorful, beautiful but quite badly populated planet. Incredible from the beginning to the end, except for the very very end itself, maybe...
- WING COMMANDER : PRIVATEER. One of the first games I ever got addicted to. I played almost one year non-stop after I got the CD version, and I'm afraid no game will ever recreate the unique sensations that one gave me. Speeding through the Gemini sector, haulin' goods in an overarmed Centurion to keep those crazy pirates away... Ah, the good old times. When a 2-button joystick was enough. ^^ Elite III was excellent, too, but a bit too... elite.
- STARCRAFT. C'mon, you know why.
- FALLOUT. One of the rare RPGs that got me hooked. No need to explain why, except maybe : non-linearity.
Besides from all that, I didn't dream much of all these things, except some weird ones about seeing all blurred walls, because I hadn't cranked up the textures resolution up enough (that's what happens when you play Deus Ex too much on an old machine and are forced to use low-res ones...), or plainly using Unreal Tournament's (1999) game menu to save my dream before waking up. Don't know whether I loaded my save afterwards though...
Otherwise, I lost my social life as a lot of you must have, I lost part of my sanity in the process, and I caught some tendinitis on both hands playing GTA 3 and Day Of Defeat. Tendinitis I don't know what to do with, almost seven months after, and still hurting, in fact...
Maybe ThinkGeek could do some T-Shirts with "I LEFT MY TENDONS ON MY KEYBOARD". I'll buy...
- Hadriven
First, on an Apple ][+, the Ultima series. 2nd, and what I consider to be my finest game playing experience, the Marathon series. Bungie makes amazing games.
Konami's Silent Hill on PSOne. Zombie nurses, blank faced ghost children, omnipresent fog and that chhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sound from the radio whenever a great big winged demon thing is approaching. Creepy, dark and misty mornings have never looked the same since I played it.
YES! System Shock and it's sequel will always be the summit of single-player gaming for me. I pray the same creators join up again and create something in the same vein (Thief's aside).
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
One of my favorite titles of all time... Privateer made me feel like its' was more real than life! Before that, probably Heroes Quest by Sierra (renamed Quest for Glory) did the most to impart a feeling of being involved with the story surroundings... thieving was exciting... exploring the forest and fighting dragons and goblins was both scary and fun. MULE was great. StarControl 2 was very compelling... Civ was amazingly addictive. The Baldur's gate series were fun, fulfilling and hard to stop playing... but they didn't "put me in that world" like the aforementioned titles. For story telling technique, I really loved Icewind Dale. For FPS, I think Jedi Knight was the most fun. The original Wolfinstein 3D was pretty good too. Ultima Underworld: The Stygenian Abyss bears mentioning. Those were the days... now I'm into Morrowind and NWN. Age of Mythology was also a blast, very memorable. Freelancer was a total letdown (beat it in only a few hours of game play - 7 I think), while Edge of Chaos was more rewarding in the Space genre (F-ing hard to beat). The graphics get better, the sound more engrossing... but I still miss the XT through 489 era (and Atari 800 through ST). Some how I had much more fun with those older games. Even though they were less "real" in appearance, they generally felt much more real than today's. Perhaps because they were harder and required more thought. Modern games seem too predictable.
Both on the Playstation. Resident Evil2 scared the bejeezuz outta me. It was so dark and moody, and the first time that ... that thing fell down from the ceiling, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Damn that was good....
... friendship, and love. By the end of the game, I was bawling like a baby because Square had done the impossible and animated the most subtle of expressions on Zidane and Garnet -- you could actually see the love for each other in their eyes. I don't think ANYTHING has ever done that to me, not even a good movie.
Final Fantasy Nine is still the greatest game I've ever played because I got so into the characters. Someone once asked me what the game was about -- all I could say through tear-filled eyes was that it was about
So, yeah, that game affected me.. But in a good way.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
It changed me all right, I could have been doing something else with the 6 years I spent playing that game ;) But seriously, I loved that game. Never beat it though, still trying. Drat!
Don't call my crazy, that's what they called me back in the home!
This sacred the hell out of me. Especially when you played it in the dark and depreived of sleep.
I'd have to say the Aliens mod to doom was what did it to me. I still remember, late at night, all of the lights turned off, headphones with the colume cranked way up, I was scared shitless.
I introduced it to a few friends when they were over one night, and with the lights off, sound cranked on headphones, you'd forget that it all wasn't real going on around you - I still remember after 15 min of playing when one of my friends touched my shoulder and I flipped out. Scary as shit.
Parts 1 2 and 3. What an awesome game. I still feel dizzy when I think back...
I still play Descent3 once in a while.
I love this game! The story and graphics together take on a magical sense of wonder as you make your way deeper into the game. The movement is cool (dungeon-crawl-like) and the battle action is first-person against 3D (detailed) monsters from a repository of beasts. I find Sorcery has appeal for both inexperienced and experienced RPGers. The new updates will make this game even better.
And for good reason. You could get so entrenched in that game. I lost all reason of time for almost half a semester playing that game. Walking through the Phazon Mines, fending off Space Pirates, freezing the hell out of countless Metroids. THAT was an unbelievably immersive game. It was the only game that has been able to completely take a hold of me.
"You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is...never try. Heh!" -Homer
Sometimes I play Puyo Puyo so much that when I close my eyes, I see little colored blobs, matching up and dissappearing for all eternity...
About ten years ago, I was home from college during the summer, and making a little extra cash by being a receptionist at an insurance company office.
...and play Tetris on the 386 running Windows 3.1 on my desk. So I played it a lot. For hours on end, day in and day out: racking up some pretty impressive scores, and spending almost entire days in the Tetris Zone.
Being the middle of summer, half of the adjusters were on vacation, and the rest of them were taking as many personal days as they could manage. There was nothing to do except answer the phone when it rang twice a day...
This went on for about three weeks, until one afternoon I had to put a particularly intense game on hold to go answer the call of nature. I ambled into the bathroom, sat down in one of the stalls and was all set to do my business, until I made a fatal mistake: I looked down...at the floor made out of thousands and thousands of 1.5" white square tiles.
I swear to god the entire room tilted sideways, and if I hadn't been sitting down, I would have fallen. I could feel the parts of my brain that had been doing nothing but tetris pattern recognition for the previous four hours having a near-meltdown as they looked at this solid mass of blocks and tried to map tetris shapes onto each of them. For about 15 seconds, it was like watching a thousand games of tetris played at once, transparently overlaid on each other. I imagine that the sensation was a little bit like what epileptics feel: a firestorm of neurons triggering all at once.
As drug experiences go, it had a lot to recommend it, but I have never really wanted to play Tetris since. Just say no.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
Based on your post I think you might be interested by the book "Guns, Germs and Steel; The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond. The book extensively talks about how such issues relate to the survivability of societies throughout history as well as the domestication/extermination of native flora and fauna, North/South vs East/West axis' of continents and the singular possibility of technological devolution in isolated empires under central control. Amazon has some reviews up.
Unreal was one, I kept thinking about scenes from the game in everything I saw. Lots of games may affect me this way but that was one of the most notable.
Aliens vs Predators
It's dark. You're in the aliens lair, alone, armed with your pulse rifle.
Your motion detector pings, showing a contact ahead of you, a hiss comes out of the darkness, and an alien runs along the ceiling towards you at full speed....
My housemate slaps a hand on my shoulder.
I think I nearly wet myself...
When that friggin Yorda was yanked from my grasp after so much toil to get her butt outta the castle.... whenever I see a screenshot of Yorda now, I feel the same seperation anxiety as when I think of old girlfriends that I broke-up with for no good reason... no closure if you will.
Top 5
1. DOOM - Creepy atmosphere and sound. I've probably put more hours into this game than every other game I've played combined. (Map making, single/multi player, etc.)
2. Privateer - Combined space combat action with this incredible feeling of being on the edge of the universe, alone, with just a thin layer of armor and shields preventing you from sucking vacuum.
3. Heroes of Might and Magic II/III - Still play them. The best turn based strategy game I've played.
4. XCOM UFO Defense - Good gameplay.
4.5 Syndicate - One of the first higher resolution games that were out, I still haven't finished it.
5. Hexen II - Very underrated and fun, though the controls are a little dumb.
5.5 Half Life - imho, the last really good game. There hasn't been a really fun game since.
People are mad at me when I enact the game.
.smell my feet.
... the drones need you!
...Aliens vs Predator...definately; especially the background music. It actually raised the hair on my arms the first few times I played it.
[SIG] Remember Mattel handheld games?
Combat (Atari 2600 ???) I find it ironic that the first pack in game for the most limited system ever made was a two player game. This says a lot about the dynamics of gaming. This game was a lot of fun only if the other player was a lot of fun.
This one fact defined a new class of person to me: Gamer or not. Good gamers were there for the shared experience. Bad gamers were there for the score at your expense.
Adventure (Atari 2600 1979)
First game that had many places to go and dynamic problems to solve. Though the elements of the game remained the same, the solution was different each time. I realized that I could solve the game --or not! First game to give me a sense of 'place'. Adventure was a small simple place you could go for a while and do stuff.
Kaboom! (Atari 2600 ???) First game to generate that sublime state of mind known as the trance. Revealed the addictive nature of games in an up-front way. Still get the machine out once in a while to get my Kaboom fix. This one is best played on the machine. An emulator does not do the trance justice. Last year my oldest daughter gave this one a try after watching me for a while. Her report:
"This game is addictive. I just want to play, but I don't know why. It makes my brain better in a good way. I am learning to concentrate in a new way that I did not know before. Do you have to put it away now?"
This makes me wonder about the simple nature of games. We have largely lost that. Should we just ignore those and move on or not? I know my ability to do some things well today comes directly from games like this.
Another thought here. This game demands nothing short of perfection. It is designed to challenge the upper limit of human perception and reaction. Pretty amazing given the hardware. Nothing short of developing the hand eye skills of the best of us will satisfy the demands of this game. And it's fun!
Warlords (Atari 2600) Man! 4 players and fast simple action. This game is still great when you have the right folks playing. Kids will often ask for this game and play it for hours while yelling, taunting and eating lots of junk food.
Once again, I have often thought about environments as games in and of themselves. The freedom permitted in games like this makes for great games. You don't need graphics and sounds and such, just an environment where humans can be humans.
Madness and the Minoutar (Color Computer) I have always liked the text adventure. Still like 'em, but there are none like this! The environment was real time while your interface was not. Things were going on all around you while you read to grasp what they were. There are a lot of spatial and reasoning skills that are important later in life that are a key part of this game.
I have many spooky images in my mind from this game. All without 3D graphics cards and such.
This game defines the term 'Interactive Fiction'. Did not realize why I liked this one so much until much later.
Defender (Williams) Trance baby trance! That is all I have to say about this title. Guess Robotron belongs here as well. Why don't they make these anymore? I know that anytime I encounter one of these machines, I *will* play no matter what is happening at the time. It is sad really, I often pass an arcade and look for these machines first. Not very many left.
These two games and Kaboom! made me consider games as drugs. For a while, I actually considered this to be a bad thing. Then got over it as soon as I saw the younger generations reaction.
Wolf3D. (ID software) Oh my god! This early 3D game captured a *lot* of my time. So demanding and fast! Simple graphics with an underlying horror theme made for a twisted gaming experience. Got caught one time with no ammo, little health and a long dead end corridor. Used just the knife to scrape my way out to some food. I still remember the feeling afterword. It was as if I just escaped death itself. (I know --wierd
Blogging because I can...
There's a SH3 coming out soon apparently, so i've picked it up again. I've just jumped down a big hole in the history place and got stuck today :/ Fun, but after my friend went last night I had to stop playing on my own !!
System Shock 2... I ran every time i heard "shooooop" or the many calling. "The Many have been alerted to your presence": OMFG RUNNNN!!!
Has anyone heard the track, "return of the many". It's a remix and is really freaky. Well recommended.
The advances in game technology thesedays is making gaming more and more impressive but sadly i personally think there are problems with new features. If you take a look back at Lost Souls in doom ][, and the way they just charged at you - SS holding or not - from the dark to scare you whitless, and you see a great bit of level design with cunning lightening; whereas if you look at these action games with flashy effects, they're trying to erode the scare factor, the thriller factor because of the amount of planning involved and just hit the end gamer with lots of special effects so they become the next whizbang game.
Real stories like Half-Life, Starcraft, SS2 and Silent Hill will always be show beaters in the true gamers eye!
Matt
It has to be Everquest, hands down.
/played. It tells you exactly HOW long you've physically been sitting in front of the computer playing that particular character..
/played time is IN EXCESS of 100 DAYS. Mines at 101 days, at lvl 60. Thats over 3 years.
/played times..
And the pocketbooks of many speak for itself. We've forked out 10+ dollars a month for over 3 years just to be able to play it.
In the game, there's a command
Most people that are reasonably high level have been playing for 2+ years. In that time, most high level characters
That means, in the last 3 years, I've spent a month every year, JUST PLAYING THE GAME. And many, MANY people have this sort of
-- I'm the root of all that's evil, but you can call me cookie..
1. Mario Kart (SNES)
2. Moto-Roader (PC Engine)
3. Chaos (ZX SPectrum)
4. Street Fighter 2 (SNES)
5. Speedball 2 (Amiga)
Theif made me jump out of my chair and beak my desk when i found the dead guards and they were screeching "JOIN USSSSS... JOIN USSSSSSS" into my heaphones at 3 in the morning.
I had to stop playing for about 2 weeks while i got my reality bearings back.
Hitman 1 had some really strange effects by immersing me into the mindset of an assasin.
Once I played "Afterlife" ...
I can still fondly remember my favorites over time .. Starflight 1 and 2, Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic, Star Control 1 and 2. System Shock 1 and 2, Thief, and Deus Ex all brought me into their world and made me believe.
The early games relied on a good story and a great plot to bring you in via your imagination. Today, games can use FMV and voice acting to do so even more. (The voice acting and cut scenes in Thief:TDP is my all-time favorite right now, and if you haven't seen them, well, your loss.)
I'd love to see more hybrid games, but they respond to such a small, niche audience that it's no wonder Looking Glass and other game studios have a hard time making it. As much as a love iD and games from them, they've not done really much new in the past few years, other than make me buy a faster video card, more memory, and a faster CPU. Places like Valve that take the "engine" and do so much more with it are the ones that are really doing the 'innovation' right now.
I had played several FPS games before (Doom, Marathon for the Mac etc) but Goldeneye just completely takes you over. It allowed you to have more control over the character than anything else at the time. Not running so that you have a better shot with the sniper rifle. Setting up headshots by peering through windows. After playing it for a while I used to eye security cameras at the local market and think to myself "Yeah, I could take that one out". Finally, I would say that there is no level as immersive as the second Severnaya mission. You come back to this cold landscape and with the darkness and snow, sometimes you truly feel alone.
Did anybody else play Mission: Critical from Legend Enterntainment? Seriously immersive story. Of course, if you could get through it without any hints, you have my respect.
An interesting anagram of "BANACH TARSKI" is "BANACH TARSKI BANACH TARSKI"
I even spend so many hours drinking in bars and clubs talking with my friends about new strategies for Starcraft while all the people was scoring.
wow, what a great question! How does one judge? I have been playing games since I was a kid and this question was a trip down memory lane. How can I name just one? Every stage of my life had games that either affected me personally or that introduced me to the joy of different types of gaming.
I started off with Wolfenstein 3D because a friend let me borrow it, but then he introduced me to Wing Commander. But the game the hooked me the most as a kid, the game that kept me in gaming (until I got to college) was Marathon Infinity. I have never experienced a more frightening or difficult game. The atmospheric sounds were the best, the creaking metal of the spaceship on the first level frightened the crap out of me and the p'for and the s'pht were always good for a surprise and a trip back to your last saved game. The plot was outstanding as you played for different bosses and it always took a level or two to figure out what was going on. The story was so great, I never would have believed it but I was acutally sad when I had to take out Durandal during the game.
During college I was introduced to Quake II and the joys of multiplayer gaming. But there has never been anything like Action Quake II. I worked harder at that game than I did at school my first semester. I was totally hooked. No game has come close to that kind of realism in game play since, not even Counterstrike. I know of no other game where you have to bandage when you get hit or when you limp because you got hit in the leg. Just plain awesome!
The list goes on of course. For me games have always been a social activity. My friends from freshman year are the people I played Quake II with, or the people who watched. Then we sat around my friends computer and watched the story of Final Fantasy VII unfold (I too cried when Aeris died - the orchestral score to that scene is simply incredible) and took turns leveling up and collecting materia. When I moved around it was games that got me hooked up with people when I didn't know anybody. Our Starcraft parties never broke up before 5 AM and Need for Speed - Porsche Unleashed was always around when we needed to unwind after the computer kicked our ass in Starcraft. Those guys are still my friends. Civ III still haunts me in my sleep, and "just one more round" has eaten more hours of my life in the past few years than television and my friends and I could talk for hours about the best civs or about this great war I have set up (my friend spent a lot of energy and time creating a situation where he could beat every civ on the map in ONE turn!).
Whatever the content of the games, they always had this magical property to them that brought people together, to talk about it, to play it, to get advice about it, whatever. Some of the best times of my life happened because of these computer games, not necessarily while playing them, but there was this one time . . . Everybody who plays games has those stories, those ultimate successes, for me it is what gaming is all about. No better feeling in the world than doing something awesome and having people around to see it.
I can't be the only one who had dreams of weird geometric objects. Or who fell asleep 'playing' the game in my head.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I've become much more concious of security cameras, and even though I walk through life unarmed, I often get weird impulses to shoot out lights.
I dream I'm at work, I've just aquired the next dot task, then, suddenly, a ghost manager appears ... argh, all my efforts eaten again.
I'm a sucker for good atmosphere. Both Return to Zork and Doom had great atmosphere.
considering the software and game immersion (including here story and gameplay) problems that Ultima IX had, I assume you also learned what not to do. Primarily, beware of large corporations who on one hand wish you to "do what it is you do best" but yet will then micro-mismanage so that you can never get anything done. Secondary problems of course is that you should not assume that simply creating an out of date FAQ is good customer relations. PR costs money but often you just need to keep a few major fan sites informed and then you really do not have to run a ministry of propoganda yourself... but do NOT lie, ever. Lastly, don't ever alienate your fanbase for mass market "new blood." Of course this really goes back to the earlier stated problem of large faceless corporation not figuring out what it really wants you to do. Leadership is about people and indecision or internal conflict of stated goals with real actions does not ever help create a good product.
I played Gabriel Knight and it got me very interested in the New Orleans history and culture. One of the few games that affected me like that.
StarCraft: I played this game with great expectation and was completely devestated (sp?). I expected this GREAT AI and got nothing of the sort.
Elite for the C64: My first computer and my first game. Why can't games of today be this immersive? and to top it off it didn't need a video card with 32 meg of RAM, a PIII-800, and 6 CDs.
Vertical
72 CD D7 52 D0 7E D8 47 44 91 D5 84 D1 59 F1 A9-This is my 128bit integer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I used to play it in the dark, for hours..it is in my opinion still one of the half-dozen best games ever...anyway, there was this one time I visited Arundel Castle (West Sussex) and at one point I found myself in this round central courtyard area where I had the spookiest feeling I'd been here before - while knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was my first time in Arundel. Anyway a few seconds later it struck me that there was one location in Heretic that was very similar, if not identical - not so surprising really since many castles share some common features. But for a moment it really felt as if I was "there", inside the map !
Probably the game i've been most addicted to ever is Sim City 2000..i played probably like 5-15 hours a day for over a year.. no game before or since has been so long lasting.. I never could really understand SimCity until i played the SNES version of the original SimCity and the tutorials just hit it for me then..Secondly i'd say the MYST games.. especially no 1.. had a profoud effect.. every game i played of the adventure type since has just been measured up to that one as far as atmosphere goes.. And as far as point and click adventures with a bit more.. life to it than just pretty gorgeous atmospheric pictures it has to be the original Maniac Mansion on C64! Also the Kyrandia series.. just so great.. I still play them occasionally. I curse westwood for dropping the series.. CURSE YOU.. may C&C go broke..! As far as FPS games I'm so sick of the genre i auto-puke whenever i hear anyone mention doom or any of its like.. its old.. outdated and crap..even if it LOOKS gorgeously gory.. ixxo
First game like that was Wolfenstein3D. In dark room with headphones, I really feel andrealine was up. Then Spear of Destiny - same engine, just new, bette r art. Another one was Doom of course! You can't compare Doom with anymore else, but there was also less-known Wolf3D clone called Corridor7, it was simple, and people don't like it, but I found it very playable in old times.
What after Doom? No, not Quake, No at all. Quake was never good game to me.
But Thief! Yes, that's a scary game, you really must take care about your heart when playing all night in Thief and drinking coffee!
Then Half Life! In single player of course.
New games... RTCW maybe, but you can't compare it with HL. Unreal and Unreal2 were nice, but it's not real scary like Thief/HL.
Have you noticed I said only about FPS games? I just can't find any other genre which were scary - adventure games maybe, but no good adventures has been released lately. Oh, and there is Alone in The Dark, but I think it's one of first TPP games. So it's almost FPS from another perspective.
I'v taught her a thing or to.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
Yeah those games had some of the best music I've heard in quite a while. The composer who produced the soundtracks for Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross also produced the soundtracks for Xenogears and Xenosaga, so you might want to check those out too.
"The moment "pride" is lost, "freedom" is also lost." - Ramza.
My favourite game is called "The internet". I finally beat it the other day. The end guy is hard.
Call me chicken if you want, but... those two freaked me out the most. Requiems first few levels are awful to the max. Think blood, torture, screams of pain and Escher-like Architecture together. And Thief: The Dark Project. Its really dark in those mining shafts and you can only hear your own steps and some distant stirring - suddenly something growls right next to you - wah! Man, I even was afraid of the tiny little apes in System Shock 2. Having a vivid phantasy doesnt help in this case, either *shudder*
I have this game on the PS2, but it's also available for the Xbox now. It's not a game that is hugely popular; magazine reviews tend to praise it without really going into the details. Typically it will score 8/10 in summaries. But it is without a shadow of a doubt the most terrifying game I have ever played. Having said that, it's not that anything really happens; it's just that it is so atmospheric. I have now reached the point where I don't want to play it. I've only ever once tried to play it after dark. Now I'm too scared to play it even in the daytime.
A word to the wise: apparently it's going to be made into a movie. I strongly recommend you pick this up and have a go with it before the movie comes out; there's no way a film will be able to convey the sheer oppressiveness of the atmosphere, and it will descend into some crappy Hollywood nonsense. Play the game first, to really understand the meaning of the word "fear!
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
Clive Barker's Undrying was one freakish game.
It made me so damn dizzy i puked in the washroom and could walk straight back to my comp to finish the first level.
I cant beleive no-one mentioned Elite (or did i miss it) !
That one forged my very being !
The fact that you were playing on a Windows machine that would crash does NOT count...
All that aside...Doom, definately. Still have occasional nightmares about those 2-legged bull looking things...
The game that affected me most was novatron. For those who have no clue what that is, it's a game where you move a line and try to avoid the computer's line. It was the first game I ever played on a machine running DOS. It's amazing how as visuals get better, gameplay gets worse (the new breakout, pong, tron, etc. are nowhere near as good as the old ones). I still collect old computers and games because of novatron.
http://eth0.is-a-geek.org/
Interesting topic!
(And interesting color scheme.
Currently I'm really into Starcraft for the first time, one player mode (I know, I'm a late bloomer.) And I find it coloring my thinking to an extent that few other games have. I look at situations now, just random things, in terms of units and resource gathering. Like, oh out my window is a squirrel. I guess he's a different unit than the bunny I saw earlier, even though you can tell by the general form they're probably on the same side...
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City changed the way I saw driving a little bit, hard to remember that pedestrians aren't disposable, and I've also seen Tetris Attack block patterns while drifting to sleep. But neither were quite as pervasive as starcraft.
You know, I don't remember this happening to me when I was younger (I'm pushing 30 now.) I was certainly obsessed by the ocassional game, but don't remember its effect on my presleep states so much.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Bioforge was an absolutely essential 1st generation 3rd person 3D action/puzzler that was set up in a cyborg realm. It starts off as many do, with you laying in a cell sporting chrome on one side of your body. But the game is executed extremely well. Great graphics for the time before accelerators. The puzzles were challenging, the whole world fit together seemlessly and combat was fun. Very goo d characters, story, and you felt like you accomplished something when it was done. I urge you to try and find it online and check it out. Unlike games that just seem too simple. (prime example: Xenogears, i've never had to hit so many buttons to read a book before, although you get to walk around and fight, it just is not satisfying gameplay due to ease. At least the story dwarfs FF)
The Shakespearean plot and dialogue only added to the experience.
Truly scary game. Random violent pictures flash up on screen with a distorted scream that terrify the pants off ya. Spooky music by Bach and an eery map to wander around. Play it with the lights off and volume up.
My list never included that, unless you count Missle Command.. (showing my age a bit here..)
MegaMan 1 & 2 inovative gameplay, even by todays standards.
Surprisingly NO-One mentioned CS... COUNTERSTRIKE was big for me.
So was Quake2. I loved playing Quake 2 as Chrome Camo MegaMan!!!!! (best of both worlds.)
Finally, Warcraft3. The only game to eat a whole summer. Awesome storyline, beat it normal, and went back and beat it on hard. OMG it took for ever and 1 ms.
oh, yeah, and bbs games BRE, L.O.R.D., Trade Wars, And that RPG one that I can't remember the name of, where you could go and get hookers and stuff..
DW
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
I was scared as trying to score point in real life.
Dogs where easy, but adults that was another ballgame.
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Half-Life, Final Fantasy VI, Baldur's Gate I/II, and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask all are what I would consider the most affecting games I've ever played. Link to the Past was one of the first games I've ever played, and it was really good and I still play it today. Super Metroid really drew me in, and even with no dialogue, I could still feel the story progressing. When I met Ridley for the second time, I felt as if it was time to get revenge. Half-Life seemed, to me at least, to follow the general model of Super Metroid, and it scared the crap out of me. Final Fantasy VI made me think about all sorts of huge issues that, as an eight year old, I didn't understand, but as time has passed, I still remember the game vividly. Baldur's Gate made me feel as if I was truly affecting the world, and when Imoen and Irenicus were thrown in prison in BGII, I was angered. I had come to like all the characters in my BGI party, so I was glad to have Minsc and Jaheria in my party. Many people don't like Majora's Mask, though I don't know why. Its far darker than most of the series, and parts of that game are creepy and scary. The character interactions made the game great though. You get to understand Link and all the characters if you do all sorts of stuff, which is really interesting, since many of the characters will remind you of people you know in Real Life.
I've played many games, and these games are my favorites, because they are so affecting.
Slashdot is a waste of time. I enjoy wasting time.
It's scaring the crap out of me already, so I think it's a safe bet to trust Future Me and say D3.
Rock!
I really don't get why Kingpin got such bad reviews and got delegated to the bargain bin so quickly...
Yeah, I liked System Shock as well, but as a less obvious choice I really got into the whole character interaction and plot of Kingpin. The way you could diss the nasty homeboys, the way you had to sneak around and not just blast everything in sight... great game...
i don't read slashdot anymore.
I'd have to say the ones you have dreams about are probably the ones that have affected you most deeply.
:-D
Which means that StarCraft has got to be the game that's affected me the most. I'll never forget trying to direct an SCV to turn off my alarm clock. I was annoyed when it didn't respond fast enough.
I still say the most fun games I had were on the Commodore 64, and Pirates is one of my all time favorites. It and Ultimate IV were the first games I played through all hours of the night. I just had to find the next silver train and rescue another sister, or cousin, or whatever relative managed to get captured by those "evil Spaniards." I first played it in 1988, and never got tired of it.
90 days after playing DopeWars, I made 34 million dollars.
http://www.likelysoft.com/dopewars/
Resident Evil made me flinch more than a few times... that's about the only one though I think
and all of the early LucasArt games, nothing beats the mood and humor of those games.
Ever since the put a cap on level-ups, the fun has been gone! :( :( :(
(Warning: for those interested in late 80s gaming, there's some U4 spoilers below):
I know people who became so enthralled with the completeness of Ultima IV's philosophy that it became a religion of sorts for them. People I know actually wore ankh's around their necks...NOT to signfiy a taste for Egyptian mythology (where the ankh originates), but rather because it was adopted as the spiritual symbol of the Ultima series....Similarly, the notion of an "avatar" from hinduism was badly bastardized to represent a morally enlightened being in the game's world.
Anyway...putting aside the mixed metaphor world of English medievalism/Hinduism/Egyptology/Pseudo-Latin spells aside, the systematicity of Ultima IV's philosophy hung together so well that's it was profound. Seriously, for an adolescent, it was remarkably profound. Eight virtues, each symbolized by a color, were derived from a mixture of the three overarching "Principles:" Truth, Love, and Courage (a la three primary [pigment] colors, red yellow and blue). Each virute exemplified by a character class, each character class with its own "home" city...with a natural, face valid correspondence of the character classes with their virtues (Mages valuing truth and honesty, the scientists of the game....Fighters valuing valor....The artsy Bard valuing compassion..etc.). And with one symbol that captured the whole interconnection.
And your job in the game was basically to discover this system. Though you start out a particular character class (not chosen on your whims, but rather based on a psychological battery of sorts of moral dillemas..more fun than it sounds), your quest was to become a master of all virtues...and enlightened avatar..while, you know, fulfilling the plot points of the game as well.
The face validity of this system just made SENSE even in "real life", at a time when most kids (especially geeks) value imposing an order and meaning on the organization of the world...Here was a mythos that was at once undogmatic and common sensical yet tantalizingly mystical...It set out a remarkably self-consistent framework for how the moral world was organized, and how to be an upstanding person in it.
The way the game climax brought all these concepts together...oh yeah it affected me when I was 13, believe me.
I never got so into it that I started carrying an ankh, but the game did develop a trekkie-like cult following. It was a world you could feel good about immersing yourself in. But it definitely had its place and time. There was a "critical period" of both target audience (disenfranchised adolescents) and technological innocence (when it was still OK that imagination had to fill out some of the graphical details). Now games and gamers are far too cynical for a game like Ultima IV. If you weren't that age at that time playing U4, you missed out on an incredible gaming experience.
Heck, I was still an FPS virgin.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
For me the first XCOM is probably the best game ever. It completely absorbed me for several months. It really gets into your mind, and I remember that I use to be in class in highschool thinking on ways to optimize the research path, new considerations on where to build a base, etc.
The settings were just great, the rural areas, fighting in the greys in barns or even worst, in cities with civilians that were minding their business. The game really had a strong personality. The first times you played you could pretty much scream during the battles, as one of the "greys" turned around a corner, shoot one of your soldiers, and turned around.
I still remember my mother opening the door to my room at 3 am during a weeknight, while I was really tense and concentrated on a city mission looking for the last ethereal that was mind controlling my troops ... I think I woke up the whole neighborhood with the way I screamed ... ... even to go to the bathroom I had to turn on all the lights in the house.
And of course, after playing it for several hours at night there was NO way I would open the door
I still have it installed on an old 486 laptop I have and play it once in a while. I also got the Win95 version when it came out, but it runs way too fast on my P3 500 desktop.
It is funny the impact this game had. I still have several stories written by fans of the game back in the day. There were also tons of hacks to get more money, fiddle with your soldier's stats, etc. You can check a couple of nice sites here and here, or just do a quick search on google. There's also an interesting story about the phenomenon here
For all of you who didn't had the chance to play this great game, it is a combination of resouce management/strategy stage where you build bases, purchase equipment, recruit troops, etc. to build up earth defenses for an alien invasion. When you spot an UFO, you have to shoot it down and then engage the aliens in turn-based tactical combat. The trick is that depending on how you performed on those missions, you would get new technologies to research and the country you fought on increase/decrease your budget.
You also grew fond of your troops, since they stayed with you through out the game, and as they gained experience became pretty good fighters. I almost cried several times when they killed (or worst, mind controlled) one of them.
It's a shame that the other X-Com games didn't really live up to the original. The second one just didn't have the same personality, it was basically the same game, with weaker aliens, and under the sea. And don't get me started on the third one...
Any way, if you have a chance, try to get it, it might still be on a baragain bin somewhere.
-.
Most impactful for me would be Ultima 5 and Ultima 9. I switched to the Amiga after 5, and the port of 6 sucked so I didn't play it.. After going peecee much later, I checked out 7 & 8 but they were so primitive by then, so I didn't bother. But then a buddy showed me Ultima 9, and gave me the discs since it wasn't really his kind of game. This game, in spite of various shortcomings (stability, performance, both kinda bad) is my most beloved. I've played it through several times. Anytime I get new and better hardware I have to play it again, to see how much better it is on a smoother system. It's a blast on a PIV, with the options.ini tweaked to max out everything! Still a bit chunky though, mind you, the engine is currently tweaked through the roof. ;) Did you know that if you have enough memory, you can set the view distance far enough to actually see from coast to coast as you look around from somewhere up in the air?
Playing it, it feels bad to be forced to do anything that might dissapoint Lord British, as one is supposed to be the paragon of Virtue and all that. Real twinges of conscience hit if I'm tempted to steal something, even though some careful examination shows that the game itself doesn't really care in most instances.
I guess sounds get me more than imagery. Doom is just amazing for how old it is. I went back and played it on an old laptop and it's still fun. The graphics look VERY dated though.
I'm playing the Postal 2 demo now and I think I've become desensitized, as nothing bothers me much anymore. Stab the girl, shoot the dog, piss on the policeman, blow up the car, set fire to the cashier, etc... However, if it were real I'd be one of the people shooting back followed the barfing in the alley scene.
I remember playing lots of games, but those are the 2 or 3 that most affected me.
Battlefield 1942 sometimes has me looking for cover when I hear an airplane overhead though. The Desert Combat mod makes the game about 4 times better.
Not the sequel; the original. Never has there been such realistic gameplay. I actually played so much one weekend that when I raced up to a stoplight the next day I had the urge to jump out through the sunroof and snipe another driver.
Yes, I cried when I finished it. I wanted more.
Still replay it once in a while though, just feels good.
My photolog
I used to have an Apple ][+, and I can tell you I played this games for hours, day after day, until I finished it -- " Below the Root", by Windham Classics (based on The Green Sky Triology by Zilpha K. Snyder).
It was simply fascinating! Even now, almost 20 years later, I still feel like reading the books (I never did) -- just because of the game.
Another one was the first "Castle Wolfenstein" (2D, also for the Apple ][). There was also the second version, "Beyond Castle Wolfenstein", which was also great. Both of them used to scare me to death!
And the last one: Swiss Family Robinson (sorry, couldn't find a link).
Anyway -- I can say several of the Apple ][ games were important to me. One of them was called "Adventure", and it was sort of console-imteractive, but with some graphics. It was wonderful. I don't remember much more about it.
Anyone else remember these?
I started off playing Quake 2 in the multiplayer realm when I decided to try the single player out. Even though I was already used to the bloody disentigration of monsters/humans from the multiplayer world, I was completely unprepared for the cries and laments of the insane prisoners. I got scared I myself was going insane. The closed corridors, the incessent moans of pain, the sound of large mechanical machinery (tell-tale signs of an insanely strong, degenerate huge half cyborg half bio something around the corner) made it so creepty that I couldn't play the game all the way through at night. ID software couldn't have made the game scarier or more disturbing with the available graphics during that time. I look forward to Doom 3, id software's next title, which is almost guaranteed to push the envelope of insanity.
It is the only game that has ever been able to make me cry and vow vengeance on a digital character. No other game has ever done that. To this day, hearing Aeris' themesong makes me sad, and likewise, hearing either Sephiroth's or the One Winged Angel makes me get ready to kill that jerk one more time.
A close second is the Street Fighter franchise. I've been addicted since 1991 and show no sign of abating.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. I got chills & tensed up every time I heard banging on the doors. When the game told me it was deleting all of my progress, I nearly had a heart attack. The BSOD was a nice touch, too.
...Crazy Taxi, I think I'll be okay.
Myself and a few mates used to play RE games for hours on end at Uni... I am still haunted by the moaning and feet scraping sound the zombies made... It is a work of genius, and in all honesty the games still scare the bejesus out of me...
However for sheer terror, I found that the game 'Silent Hill' on the PS1 was as creepy as it got... it was pure psychological horror... I'll never forget walking through the hospital with a fire-axe waiting for zombie/undead nurses to jump out at me. Some nights I had to physically remove the game from my room as it disturbed me so much...
As for the very first games that really 'effected' me, not scared me, it was the Bards Tales tale series. The maps were huge and totally frustrating, I got kind of attached to the characters and just got absorbed into whole thing... it made me realise that one day in future, there was the possibly for there to be so much 'depth' in a machine/computer that you could effectively totally 'immerse' yourself in an alternate world...
I sat there for weeks with graph paper and pens mapping out dungeons and tower and stuff. I would dream about it (!) and ways to complete dungeons and defeat enemies...but never did finish it! I downloaded a copy of the game for my Mac a few months ago, and to me the game had lost none of it's charm...! I d/led the maps and all the walk throughs and decided that I HAD to finish it. All went well until it kept crashing on the final dungeon... Guess I'm never meant to complete it...
Having long since lost my cush dot-commie job, I don't have nearly the time I once had for gaming. However, I remember very fondly the Marathon series from Bungie as being fun games with an excellent story line. Can't wait for Halo 2...
Nice. You used a BFG9000 to send off your reply, I take it...
All things are possible with everything.
The original Dungeon Master on my Amiga 500c freaked me out. Wondering around in silence, hearing faint footsteps getting louder, sudden silence... then bam, a mummy jumps out from around the corner! Holy cow would I jump! Incidentally, my brother and I mapped out that entire game on graph paper.
Besides Dungeon Master, I gotta say, that I played some MUD in school. I don't remember the name of the Mudd (Deku or something), but after 40 hours in one week, I decided I'd better go cold turkey. It was like drugs. A buddy of mine dropped out of school. He played something like 800 hours in one semester.
Diablo II is certainly up there too. Not only is it addictive, but playing Hard Core online (that is when you play and death is permanent) can be intense. I remember when I first started playing Hardcore with my brother and a PK (player killer) came after my brother. I totally freaked! I thought I was going to have a heart attack.
"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Albert Camus,
Although the game itself didn't scare me too badly, I have to admit, there was one part of the game where a boy in the police station followed a dog around. Then Aya Brea would end up meeting up with them, only to pull the boy away as the dog mutated into a 3 headed beast or something (been awhile since i played it).
:P)
:P
Seeing the FMV footage of it for the first time at around midnight really didn't sit well for me as it made me think about my dog (God knows why
So anyway, there's my game, feel free to call me a wuss lol
Join the TWIT army now!
When I think of creepy or something that resinanted with me for a bit it's from Resident Evil, but it's not the atmosphere or sounds it's one of the journals. To appreciate it, here it is in full:
Keeper's Diary
May 9, 1998
At night, I played poker with Scott the guard, Alias, and Steve the Researcher. Steve was really lucky, but I think he was cheating. What a scumbag.
May 10, 1998
Today, a high-ranking researcher asked me to take care of a new monster. It looks like a gorilla without any skin. They told me to feed them live food. When I threw in a pig they were playing with it pulling off its legs and pulling out its guts before they actually ate it.
May 11, 1998
Around 5 'o clock this morning, Scott came in and woke me up suddenly. He was wearing a protection suit that looks a space suit. He told me to put one on as well. I heard that there was an accident in the basement lab. It's no wonder; those researchers never rest even at night.
May 12, 1998
I've been wearing this damn spacesuit since yesterday; my skin grows musty and feels very itchy. By way of revenge, I didn't feed those dogs today. Now I feel better.
May 13, 1998
I went to the medical room because my back is all swollen and itchy. They put a big bandage on my back and told me that I don't have to wear the spacesuit anymore. I guess I can sleep well tonight.
May 14, 1998
When I woke up this morning, I found another blister on my foot. I went to the dog's pen and ended up dragging my foot. They have been quiet since morning, which is unusual. I found that some of them had escaped. I'll be in real trouble if the higher ups find out.
May 15, 1998
Even though I didn't feel well, I decided to go see Nancy. It's my first day off in a long time, but I was stopped by the guard on the way out. They say the company has ordered that no one leave the grounds. I can't even make a phone call what kind of joke is this!?!
May 16, 1998
I heard a researcher that tried to escape was shot last night. My entire body feels burning and itchy at night. When I was scratching the swelling on my arm a lump of rotten flesh dropped off. What the hell is happening to me?
May 19, 1998
Fever gone but itchy. Hungry and eat doggy food. Itchy. Itchy. Scott came. Ugly face so killed him. Tasty.
May 20, 1998
Itchy.
Tasty.
Has to be Planescape: Tormet, from Black Isle Studios. Having finished it, I still miss Morte, Daakon, and the others... For various reasons, I really identify with The Nameless One.
The guy on the right is an imp. :) Yes, I had dreams like those. I still love the game. I play jDoom once in a while for kicks. I even made small mods for DOOM 2.
:)
System Shock 2 is another one too.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Every morning, I play a game called "reading the news". Consistently scares the hell out of me.
The Gathering 1998. The network was lousy, except for the local hubs. It was the most intensive and most funny gaming I ever had. 15 players, the DM4 map (the small map with all the teleports), over 800 frags. We played that game for 24 hours straight (we did change the maps), only interrupted by bathroom breaks. For weeks, I heard the Quake sounds in my head...
No game has amazed and enthralled me in the same way Rez has. It is dense, dreamlike, and beautiful and I feel like I'm playing it for the first time, each time I play it.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
I had no idea what to expect when I started up this game. From that fist thing jumping through the window to kill me the game scared me all the way through. I actually screamed when I read the book in the library's secret occult section.
I never did make it though Star Control 2, but I hav e to say Star Control 3 was an awesome game. All the talk about the precursors at the end and the short speach by the creator in the credits really makes you think.
--Sumdog http://journal.sumdog.com
Alone in the Dark was the scariest game for me. It got to the point where I couldn't shoot straight because I always had my eyes closed while furiously hitting the "back away" (down arrow) button.
Half Life was one of the first games (that I can remember) that affected me enough to stop playing the game. I was so scared during certain parts of HL that I had to pause for a bit before I screamed or wet myself.
SYSOP ('sih-sop) n.: the guy laughing at your typing.
I have to say this game scarred me emotionally. I just could not believe that Admiral Stukov was killed. I stared at the screen for about 10 minutes after the end of mission terran 7, immobile. All I could produce afterwards was "Those... BASTARDS!". I am not sure why I got so attached to the character, but I actually cried during the cinematic sequence depicting his burial. For those who have not played StarCraft:BW, Stukov was a stereotipical "russian" character, with the regulation thick accent and manners; most terrans in the game were stereotypical texans (Blizzard seems to use ethnic stereotpyes a lot; consider the dwarves and trolls in Warcraft 3). In the abovementioned mission you are assigned to hunt him down as the other characters are convinced he is a traitor. Further explanation would require several pages of starcraft lore, but the point is that I simply did *not* expect him to be killed off. /goes on to start a petition for resurrecting Admiral Stukov in StarCraft 2 at petitionsonline
My nerdy social life was formed in the womb of Trade Wars back in the bbs days. We would meet every Saturday morning at Ogre's Cave and discuss strategy, hints, and tips. I have yet to find a nerdy community like I had then. There was really something special about it. At times, I find myself desiring that community and that game again... Trade Wars, BBSing, 2400 baud modems. Ok, I'll say it, "Those were the good old days."
There are definitely a number of games that stick out in my mind as taking up a significant amount of my time and thinking, and one in particular as taking up a significant portion of the LIFE.
For pure fun factor my favourite game would be Super Mario Kart (on the Super Nintendo, followed by the newer version on the GBA). This game was not only great to play against other people, you could also constantly challenge yourself in trials and trying to win the gold cups and get the faster speeds. It is a game that is almost timeless in its gameplay, and I still go back to it occasionally (albeit through an emulator now).
As a game to make me think I would say Civilisation 2 or Command and Conquer (or maybe Dune 2 somewhat earlier) were my thinking games. This is the type of game I would sit at and just HAVE to keep playing more until I got totally frustrated (such as the solo levels in C&C where there was no base building and an impossible mission to complete with just one guy). But with Civilisation 2 at least, this is one of the games that could actually make me stay up all night and not sleep before going into school (at the time).
Perhaps my most thoughtful game is Ultima 6, played on the Amiga. It was the only major game I played for sometime (being relatively young then) and I would spend days exploring dungeons and performing tasks, and occasionally would jump out of my skin or physically shake with excitement when roaming the depths of the dungeons some five or six levels below ground, suddenly stumbling across some magical graveyard or mystical talking statue.
Ultimately though, the game that has altered by life in ways that mere games should not has got to be an online game that has been around since 1989. Most people will have heard of MUDs and many will have their own favourites, but there is one I have played now for over eight years (arguably over ten). This game literally has affected me in numerous ways, including relationships and my education (a positive, mostly, and negative affect, mostly, respectively!) It is definitely the most emotionally submersive game I have ever been involved in, and one that I still go back to even now. This game is called Avalon (The Legend Lives), and has eaten up a not insignificant span of my life and definitely my money!
Beyond all these, more recent games I have enjoyed include Return To Castle Wolfenstein, SimCity 4 and Warcraft 3. Oh and an honourable mention must go to some recently discovered gems that I have enjoyed; KBounce and Frozen-Bubble (although they perhaps haven't exactly "affected" me in ways like the others have done).
... I guess
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
Oh, wait, you mean video games?
See, this here's the thing: You'd think Games.slashdot would cover all kinds of games, from board games to RPGs to video games.
Anyhow, Fluxx did sort of bend my brain in a peculiar way, not because of it being a particularly thought provoking game (in fact, it's what some people would call "thought optional"), but because it is a proto-typical card game. That is to say, all card games are a form of Fluxx, or more accurately, Fluxx can become any other game, given the right homemade cards.
As for video games, I suppose I'd have to give credit to Silent Hill for being the most thoroughly creepy series of games ever. Electronic or not.
Happiness is relative, Based upon the way we live.
Back before my teenage years, I had a C64 and a text-based game called "The Lost Crown of Queen Anne". It was the first real computer game I ever played, and I spent many hours playing through it time and time again.
Aside from the many hours of my life sunk into the game, there was more than one occasion when driving home after playing netrek for too long I felt the quite natural urge to ogg the oncoming traffic.
Ships coming the other direction, must latch onto them and blow up!
Used to play godnet MOO way back in the day. That game utterly kicked ass. Different factions vied for power, complete with intrigues, spying and backstabbing. It was horribly addictive because you knew the world continued to move and change when you weren't playing. Forced to be away from it, I would worry about what was happening there without me, as I had a reasonably influential character (I was Avatar, any old players out there?) and had "things to get done". Not that there was really a lot to do, the world was fairly small. But they'd made a really cool engine to play in, and the world, though small, was fun. They were starting to build some larger areas when they lost their site. It sucked, but it was probably for the better, as I had been so gripped by it that I might have lost my job eventually.. On the other hand, if it had gone on a bit longer I might not have met the woman I wasted 5 years of my life on at one point. So I guess, in hindsight, the lifestyle has its advantages.. ;)
Yeah, I remember pulling Wolfenstein 3D out of the cupboard having spent one too many weekends playing Doom2. Wolf3D was so much scarier! Most of the enemies could kill you in seconds, even the lowliest trooper with the pistol could kill you with one shot if you were close enough.
Also the maps were designed to scare the pants of you, close, claustrophobic corridors, and every so often (but not too often so you expected it!) you'd turn the corner and a machine gunner would suddenly fill the screen and shout "spien!" so loudly that you'd fall backwards out of your chair with your heart ringing out like a hammer in your head.
I loved it and hated it. I would go to bed jittery and have nightmares till morning. Terrific game!
Here is a quick list:
Lately I've been playing several games that I think are amazing, such as Advanced Wars on the GBA, but I think the way to get on this list is to see, in a few years, how I'll remember them.
-.
text interface terminal malfunction error
~2992dud
Things have gone terribly awry. Until now, I thought myself immortal, but now I know that is not true. There are things that can destroy me with the ease that I slaughtered the Pfhor naval garrison and the Western Arm of their Battle Group
Seven. But in their final gasp they used a weapon that I thought they had retired, even Tycho tried to keep them from using it.
Now I fear what that weapon has unleashed will destroy us. I once boasted to be able to count the atoms in a cloud, to understand them all, predict them, and so did I predict you, but this new chaos is entirely terrible, mindless, obeying rules that I don't comprehend. And it is hungry.
It's too bad, perhaps if I could have delayed the Pfhor from using their weapon, I could have sent you to explore the ruins of Lh'owon, perhaps what you found would give us the answers that we now need so desparately: how to stop this chaos, the purpose of the station on which you're currently standing, and why the chaos hasn't come here yet.
But with each moment the chaos grows, I am doomed to die here, after so many triumphs. I have detected one ship nearby, which I can only guess is being commanded by Tycho. The Pfhor have entered the station, and if you can find a way onto their ship, you may be able to escape. To escape. To escape.
I have only seen 2 postings of X-COM. Man, I used to love throwing alien bodies, or spending hours training my crack team of psi warriors and then setting them into a terrorize outfit and mind controlling them all in one turn. Then I would make them drop their weapon and I would have my guys get good at aiming, or marching, or throwing. Using the blaster launcher I would punch holes into enemy ships and come in style! Also throwing smoke into a small enemy ship and choking them out... only to be used as target and reaction practice for my troops. What fun! Props to Civilization too tho'.
You people need to grow a dick, take a shower, go outside, and get a life.
What kind of novelty games are these? Grapics and sounds and things. A jedi needs these things not. Ok, maybe graphics.
The game that affected me most is Netrek.
It has poor graphics, almost no sound, is hard to learn, has a lot of abusive people in it (Hi Fugi), wears out mice quicker than I've ever seen, may cause You to lose your hair and your grades to drop (did for me anyway, can't swear it was the game though).
In other words, good clean fun.
Flying in to take a planet, carrying 5 armies in a DD, cloaked, with missiles flying all over the place still gets my heart pumping more than any 1st person shooter I've ever seen.
The number of players are declining, but You can still catch a game once in a while.
It takes long to learn, but when You're in the game, You're IN the game.
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. -- Harlan Ellison
Not frightened me so much but the atmosphere was one of the best gameexperiences I've ever had.
The border world Xen part wasnt as funny.
-kgj
Definitely Planetfall, Kings quest 1, dune2, and halflife. In that order. What should be next?
After playing this for a while and then walking around outside, my eyes would dart around checking for anyone to shoot. (And you knew they were the enemy since their name didn't appear above them!)
We bought a display model tandy tl2 (286/8Mhz, no HD, and 386k of ram hehe) when I was a kid and it came with a box of floppy disks. One of the floppy disks was used and had the first disk (demo) of Sierra's 'Hero's Quest: So you want to be a Hero' (the original 16 color one). I ran it and it played the demo. I was completely awe-struck. That started my addiction to computers. But I remember being terrified of running into an Ogre those things would mop up the floor with you if you were'nt good enough :) Sierra also had this .75/minute cheat line you could call. Man, my parents just about killed me when they got the first phone bill.
More recent would be the DOOM games in college, we used to hook my computer up to my stereo with 15" woofers, crank up the juice, go into GOD mode and use the chain gun. It sounded like a Mob hit was taking place in the dorm.
Back when I was about 8, I used to play Zork I at night with the lights off and with no one home. The text became eerie enough to scare the hell out of me, especially without a lantern.
This game was made to supposedly be scary, and at times it somewhat accomplished its goal. I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet. It's been several years since I played it, but I do remember it being pretty good.
not so much immersed while playing it, but after playing it awhile, I started seeing snoods in everyday life. When I went to a movie theater, I knew I had to stop playing when I saw a game of snood off to the side of the screen.
Haven't touched the game since.
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
It seems most people are listing games from their childhood. Well, here goes. :)
First off the list was probably Zelda (the first one for the NES). That game is still fun to play, even after all these years. The new Zelda games don't compare, IMO, and I've seen kids with new Nintendo systems jump at the opportunity to play the original zelda over their new, putrid 3D zelda.
After that would probably be Descent. It's gameplay was far superior to any FPS up until that time, if you had the brains and patience to learn how to effectively control the ship in the fully-3D world. It's definately an under-appreciated title - nobody ever mentions it. All this tak about 2.5D in doom, etc. They don't know what they missed. Hours upon hours were wasted playing intense multiplayer deathmatch in a map called Jolly Green Giant (and others).
After that, I'd say I entered my "adult" phase. There weren't too many games that wree really good enough to impact me. I played a large part of Deus Ex, but never got into it, until replaying it just this last year and being cmopletely inveloped in it (due to my increased appreciation for good storytelling). I played Baldur's Gate like a mofo, and really got into that. It was at times intense. I'd say that Max Payne, however, impacted me more than any other game in my more recent memory. It set a precident for any and all future games I will play, just like The Matrix did for action films.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Resident Evil on the original PS scared the bu-jeezus out of me and my brother. He broke a controller by throwing it up into the air abnd biouncing it off the ceiling. Even when they re-released it with the vibro mode we played it again. Weld get so freaked out we'd shut the game off. Reminded me of seeing friday thw 13th when I was in 4th grade. Someone closed the bathroom door while we were brushin our teeth and no one would dare opwn it. hehe :)
As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.
Did anyone else cry in final fantasy 7 when aeris died? I was so shocked / scared that i almost didn't want to finish the game. Whenever i play a game from the final fantasy series i always get somehow emotionaly attached to the characters in it.
The Blade Itself
Fallout, Homeworld, and Planescape: Torment.
For those of you who never played System Shock 2, it's available on the Underdogs.
Thank god for dubiously legal abandonware.
Ultima7 was a game I played and played. It was so unbelievably huge and you seemed to be able to do anything you wanted. And then Windows95 came along and I could no longer play unless I rebooted into DOS mode. And then the sound didn't work, which was a shame considering how often I had to reboot Win95 ;-)
I was overjoyed to find that you can play Ultima 7 parts I and II with the open source Exult Engine. If you have the data files then you can (with effort) load them up and play. Exult gives a faithful rendition of the old games (although currently you can get away with more stealing and the animals talk to you). Also you can play windowed and increase the resolution (320x200 was fairly restrictive, even at the time!)
Heartily recommended to people who know the game and people who don't.
Screenshot1 | Screenshot2
Maybe because it can't be considered just a game.
The deepness of characters (even the most "useless" ones), the philosophical questions raised (and philosophical ideas present on different points of view along the game), *everything* in Torment is awesome. You can greatly identify with the protagonist as you are creating him by playing, though you still can't change a past you can't even recall; a past that arises to strike you down. Stop, and think. A past full of responsability, a past where maybe your thoughts where different than what you now think, but for which acts you can still be held responsible. A quest for freedom on an unbearable prison.
I've been playing games since the 8-bit era, and Planescape Torment is IMHO by a long distance the best game ever created. Gets you inside, plays with your emotions, plays with your ideas. It is some kind of... everything
DEFINATELY CHANGED ME! Sometimes when i can't sleep at night i just play it in my head... You shot 5,000 lbs. of meat but were able to carry only 40 lbs. back to your camp... [OK] Click 'OK'...no; Click 'OK', OK.... If you continue to hunt in this area, game may become scarce. [OK] Click 'OK'...no; Click 'OK', OK.... Continuing... You have reached The Windy River! This river is 14.0 ft. deep. You can... [A] Attempt to ford the river! [B] Caulk the wagon and float it [C] Hire JoJo the indian circus boy to help you cross the river for a dollar! [C] OK...click 'OK'.... [OK] ----that's my usual away message in aim---LOL PEACE
Drugs have taught an entire generation of American children the metric system.
When I started looking for the most ideal sniping spots in large spaces (sports arenas, churches ..ect) or best method of entering a persons house I knew I had been playing to much.
Doom. Cyberdemon. Period.
I dunno about anyone else, but the first real FPS I played on a PC was Quake. The music made it seem like one of those freaks with a chainsaw and grenade launcher was right behind you. The view actually gave some of my friends motion sickness while I played too. Freaky ass game when I was younger.
First I was blown away by BallBlaster from Lucas Arts. My first true 3D game. Then my jaw dropped for Castle Wolfenstein 3d. Then the world shook with the release of Doom. Since then no other 3d game has rocled my world because they tend to be incremental instead of revolutionary advances.
Story lines I loved: Half Life 2. Baldurs Gate 2. That Half Life level about the Zombies from PC Magazine. Oh, and don't forget Max Payne. Great story with really cool dream sequences.
First of all. The FF series. FF on Nes got me into the whole genre. Its classic and I still play it on my Nes. Its been mentioned many times so anything else I say is redundent. Dungeon Master when it came out on SNES. (never played the older computer versions). I love that game and I can't get enough. And it has a freakiness factor too. Hearing footsteps and such. Starcraft and Quake 1. Both excellent but what really made these stand out in my mind is the fact they were the first games i really played much on a network or over the net. I had a buddy a few years older then myself who after HS came back as a comp tech. Him, me and another friend would come into the school after hours and play quake and SC into the wee hours of the morning. We owned. God I miss that.
That damned radio!!!!!!! How many times did I jump as the controller vibrated. Thoroughly recomend it late at night with the lights out!
Back in 2000, a friend of mine convinced me to buy a copy of Soul Reaver from the used bin at EB. I thought it had the best story I'd ever seen in a videogame, and proceeded to buy the first game in the series (Blood Omen). Now I own multiple copies of each of the four released games, and run a fan site for the series.
I can't afford the bandwidth costs to link to my site from Slashdot, but the official site and nosgoth.net have plenty of information.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
I'm glad someone mentioned the Alien DOOM mod. This was the first and only thing to spring to mind for me. It would probably be tame by comparison now but at the time it scared the hell out of me. I sure hope the guy who made it has gone on to be successful because it was, in my mind, a work of art.
Geoff.
...besides, everyone knows that it was all marilyn manson's fault.
THERE IS NO DATA. THERE IS O
Playing as the Marines, in those dark ass hallways with strobes goin. Squinting down the hall thinking you see something, by the time you realized what you were seeing it was coming up on you zillion miles an hour on the ceiling. Refused to use the motion sensor because anticipation of fear was even worse. Damn thing would start goin off and I'd start breathin heavy and my hands would start to shake and sweat. I really thought the publisher was joking when they released a special edition that came with a pair of free underwear at first.
Heretic scared me most during the nights... but Monkey Island series and the Indiana Jones adventure series took enormous portions of my time. Not as much as civilization did, but had a deeper impact on my head.
Unreal and Counterstrike are also notable games there. Counterstrike has completely changed the way people see FPS games now and it hasnt lost its top title in five years, and thats doing better than doom.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
This game really made me think, because I made it my goal to raise the education level of my island. You know how everyone's always saying everything would be peachy keen if everyone would just go to college? Well, I found out that no matter what, you still have to have a poor laborer class, and that's about 70% of your population. Jobs for college educated folk is only about 8-10% of your total. And the poor class is lots less happy with their jobs if they have high school or - God forbid - college degrees.
Before this I sort of believed everyone could be rich. Now I know that SOMEONE has to be poor - a lot of someones.
What fun is being "cool" if you can't wear a sombrero? (Hobbes of Calvin & Hobbes)
hours and hours of fun. I almost failed high school because of it...
:)
The sounds of barney throughout the levels!
Scary shit
huh?
That was hilarious!
As a 'Brit' I find your sense of humour refreshingly insulting. Jolly good old chap!
By far the most influential game in my life has been Neverwinter Nights. The single player was god awful, but it was the toolset that came with it that got my attention. Creating worlds is a great escape for me, and it's been something I've put a lot of time, effort, and pride into.
Grand Prix Legends (GPL) is a racing simulator created by Papyrus and released in 1998. Aside from its incredibly realistic and spot on graphics, it recreates the golden era of Formula 1 with cars that had no downforce, too much horsepower for their own good and you would be hard pressed to find a clear difference between '69 GP racing and rally. These cars just loved to get sideways, and the online commmunity improved the original so much that it is a great pleasure just to watch mpeg and divx movies of interesting replays.
I loved the game so much I considered persuing computational rigid body dynamics simulation. But that was before I realized I sucked at math beyond precal and that.. I was lazy.
Pong of course! I mean, what more could you ask for? You could even get TWO PLAYER pong! Now that was amazing! Other than that, Dink Smallwood is... Interesting.
Sig
Hands down, the creepiest game I ever played was "Eternal Darkness."
:)
I was playing at about 1am without anyone else in the room, and this picture started bleeding in front of me. I turned to the side and a bust turned to watch me go down the hall. I stood up and went downstairs to watch tv with my friends instead of playing.
A few days later, I watched a friend get to the point in the game with the bathtub scene, and as itshowed up, I grabbed his shoulders from behing him and screamed - I don't think the piss smell ever came out of that chair
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
The first time that I (unexpectedly) entered the " twisty little maze with passages all alike", it was like getting sucker punched. I had to get up and walk around to collect my thoughts before continuing. Fortunately, moving the opposite direction let me get back out before I had a chance to get lost.
I also still remember the first time I found the volcano view. It was visually (and yes, I know it's a TEXT adventure!) stunning, more so than anything I've seen in the years since. Years before Infocom, it proved that your imagination is better than any graphics hardware.
And yes, like so many others have posted, I did have dreams about the game.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
I nearly pissed my pants after playing some of the levels in Max Payne. Having a drug dream where you are killing another person that is you because some other dudes killed your wife and baby is scary.
Gnome wasnt built in a day.
Multiplayer Quake II teamplay taught me about friendly fire, and how easy it would be in the heat of battle to accidently kill one of your own. Sure I'd heard of friendly fire before, but when you're in a 1st person game and you accidently shoot your own team - that makes it real. And then you take that tiny experience and multiply it begin to understand reality
Age of Kings taught me tons of things. Like how easy conflicts can start. I remember one game when I was playing against some computer opponents. I was neutral to a nearby computer player, he was neutral to me. I had no intention of attacking him until much later... There was a gold pile in the middle of our lands that I just "assumed" was mine. Later in the game I saw him mining that gold and then I had an "ah-ha moment". How many times in history have wars been started over similar occurences.
In online multiplayer Age of Kings I learned all kinds of military strategy - like sometimes you can't really directly help your ally, you need to perhaps attack another enemy and hope your ally can hold on. Then you can help later. I'm sure things like that have happened many times in histroy (China in WWII was our ally and we really didn't help them in their homeland). But from playing the game I realized that sometimes it's better not to directly help - when you can see the big picture.
Also from Age of Kings multiplayer I learned alot about moral and communication. When your teamate just got double teamed you need to encourage him not to give up and what not.
Now for another game most have never heard of - Planetarion. It probably still exists, it was an online massive multiplayer text game. Alliances were huge - which was a lesson. In huge games like that, you can't rely on yourself only. Politics is huge. If you really want to win you've got to take the time and hassle of organizing with people - coalition building, etc. Again the point is the game made this real to me.
Also from planetarion I learned more about welfare programs. In the game you could trade resources within your own galaxy (about 25 players). And when someone new joined, if they were hardworking / learned the rules and strategies etc., it was a huge help and headstart to them if you donated them some resources to get them going. But at the same time, there were people who no matter how much you gave them they wouldn't do good. They would blow the money on stupid things - and not get any better. I think that truth I learned carried over perfectly to the real world.
Also for a while I was the number 1 player (of about 20,000 players worldwide - Hondo of Hondune). That gave me a small taste of fame - fans (people wanting your time), critics/haters (people wanting to bring you down), and more scrutiny. I was eventually busted and banned from the game for finding some backdoors and exploiting them (I treated it like the Matrix - lol). I guess that also taught me a few things. I could go on and on.
Anyway, games are great if you stop and think about a real life connection.
Schools today should incorporate games. They'd reach all kinds of kids and bring some excitement/fun into the classroom.
Before I played it, I was religions in no way whatsoever. Agnostic I'd say. But after playing it, it really got me thinking. It made me realize how much corruption there is, not only in the church, but in every aspect of the world. Then again, that was also when my political agenda was being formed.
Live life to the fullest. It's not that life is short, but that you are dead for so long.
The game that made me as violent as I am today would probably have to be Postal 2. Going around whacking people with shovels until they are unconsious and blood starts going everywhere while you continuously whack their lifeless dead body with the shovel until you get bored. Good Times.
I think it's got to be the game that's pulled the most quotes from classic books, ever. The game makes you think, not just about the game, but about life, the nature of reality, the structure of the "ideal" government, and what the future of humanity is. It's a good thinking man's game.
Jones in the Fast Lane... This game scarred me for life.
I used to play it when I was little, and when "Wiley Willy" used to pop-out of nowhere and steal all your money - I'd get so freaked out I'd cry.
Hardcore baby.
That was the first graphics type game I had. I spent many hours listening to that SSDD drive grinding away from screen to screen on my 25" TV set.. I had to upgrade to 16k to use the Disk Drive interface.. Wow, 16k ram!
Yeah, I had fun with it.
Then I got an IBM and had lots and lots of fun play Zork I and THHGTTG in pure text mode on a green mono screen. I'll always have fond memories of those days. Now I play Quake III Arena on my Linux box w/ Gf4 Ti4200 and it whips ass. OMG it's awesome. My son tells me that it blows away anything he's ever seen and he has a PS2.
Not to mention Unreal Tournement 2003 is also extremely cool too... I can't believe how much things have changed since my old 4k COCO...
I'm surprised no one mentioned Xenogears.
That game got me all into philosophy and stuff.
I can't really remember any other game that leads you to eventually "kill God."
I bawled my eyes out as Yuna fell through Tidus's fading body at the end of FFX. I have never been so moved by a game's story and music than I have at that very moment. I kept sobbing as the summoned spirits disappeared, one by one. It was a brilliant ending...
I have literally grown up with these games, and for those of you who think its going downhill, I have to tell you, you're just plain wrong. If XI sucks, then I have every bit of faith that Square-Enix will pick up the slack with XII. You can't possibly combine the most creative minds two of the world's leaders in video RPG's and not come up with a great product.
But mostly Descent because of lack of guide bot. Shoot the reactor then fly about in fear as you realize you can't find the mine exit, and you've got less than a minute until it explodes. There's nothing like escaping in the last few seconds as the mine explodes behind you.
I still remember the anxiety of trying to get to Garth's shop without getting killed, at the beginning of the game. That game was my introduction to the D&D world, and I've been a mediaeval geek ever since. Ah, the wine cellar...
One of the famed Infocom text adventures. You took the role of an A.I. that "wakes up" to learn that it wasn't a normal person, but a computer program. You then go into the future at your creator's behest to understand "The Plan", a new social experiment by a leading member of politics.
It had everything, suspense, story, futuristic predictions of doom. Was the only Infocom I ever finished completely, and played through twice. The theories and thoughts in it still stick with me today...
I sig, therefore I am.
Homeworld. Especially the beginning of the 'gardens of Kadesh' level. First time round I just sat back and watched the drones spiral in and let the battle evolve.
Coupled with the music and overal atmosphere...damn near Art.
Others I haven't seen: Leasure Suit Larry 8P, Conan (first platformer I'd ever played (apple ][), with others like Montezuma, elevator action and other classics).
And of course there's a whole host of other games which showed off, wowed and changed my thinking about what computers can, could or would do with different aspects of their gameplay.
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
This cavalier attitude in which game lovers want to have absolute freedom without any of the responsibilities will doom games as a creative activity.
I don't want minors to receive the message that violence is trivial and even fun.
I don't want minors to get the message that sex is explotiation and gratification without knowing about the responsibilities it entails.
Sadly game developpers and game companies have not taken the lead to facilitate that minors have a healthy approach to gamming that includes violence and depravity (no, not sex, but sex as mechanism of alienation).
This applies to several industries that spread ideas and attitudes, some other industries have shown far more restrain and compromise.
The gamming insdurty is the black sheep, if they don't make something different to blabber about freedom they will go the way of the dodo as a viable creative endeavour.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
..were my very favorite games ever.
I wonder if anyone born in another generation could understand what it's like to get goosebumps from a video game? Of course the stories in each of these games are superb, the characters "human" (in the sense that we can relate to them), but what really ties it together would have to be the soundtrack.
The music of Final Fantasy 3 is so excellent.. it almost brings a tear to my eye every time i hear the ending theme. The music is connected to the characters so deeply that i can't separate the two.
The music in Final Fantasy 7 has the same effect on me, and every time i play that game through it draws closer in my esteem to the greatness of FF3.. they may be equals some day.
I'm not trying to leave out the other great games of the series (there are a few), but i wanted to focus on these two, as they are the greatest works in electronic medium.
Excuse me, i think i have something in my eye..
For me a game is a geme is a game.
No, I am lying. Chess. Meatspace of course (Go zealots can b1t3 their a@@).
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I was in college when Doom first came out and I was doing an allday marathon. I had a 6 disk cd changer packed full with an assortment. After about 9 hours I realized thta not one light was on in my room and it was dark outside and the cd changer had made it all the way to my Black Sabbath Tribute cd and it was on the song "Black Sabbath". I really freaked out and didnt sleep for 2 days. I dont think i played it again when I was the only one home for a long time.
..it was the first 3d game I'd ever played (either that or descent, they both occurred in fairly short order), and they both caused me to think extremely differently about computers and gaming.
;)
This started a downward spiral..
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you
One creepy game, put the sound through the stereo, turn off the lights and freak yourself out!
Street Fighters (any incarnation) - just that feeling of anxiety when your quarter finally comes up and it's your responsibilty to take down the guy with 27 wins in a row.. and I have my own thumb blister from playing on the damn ps2 controller when my arcade stick broke
Thief - if you see someone playing thief and they seem to be really into the game, whatever you do, DONT SNEAK UP BEHIND THEM!!! i am not responsible for anything that happens to you
Final Fantasy (any) - these games will draw you into their world and never let go
"Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, next to soccer."
It is very dark... You are likely to be eaten by a Grue.
...) are what got me interested in computer programming.
Infocom's games (Zork, Starcross,
Nothing to see here; Move along.
I almost would say Doom but it never got scary just jumpy, but with HL when I played it for the first time, I sat down, had the lights off and the door closed in my dorm and after that I never played it in the dark, with the door closed without a room mate home.
No game since has had that effect on me since (or maybe it is b/c I am still playing HL-mods and nothing else)
There are two types of people in this world, those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig. 001010011 001110101 00
tetris!
Rangers Lead the Way!
No sound (or very primitive) The motion of the characters was more lifelike than previous games (this is about 10 years ago) haunting, spooky.
I used to like going to the circus...
I would have to think this one cause many times you think someone said something you'd normally see in the game. Our guild's Monarch had actually once said in a grocery store near easter when his wife said "Look a 3 foot chocolate easter bunny" and he replied "Wonder if it's hollow?"
If anyone played the game they'd know our favorite hated monsters that had hollow damage that ignored any spells whatsoever. Hated by all mages!
As much as I hate to say it and in all seriousness, GTA III and Vice City have affected the way I look at the real world - it's not the violence or mayhem that I'm talking about here; it's the fact that these games actually do a fantastic job of drawing a comprehensive albeit negative portrait of a city and the people who live there. It's easy to look at the GTA games as an example of what can go wrong in an urban setting, and draw a parallel with real-world conditions. I think in all cities, most of the things we see sensationalized in the GTA world really do exist to a certain degree. As I play the games, I'm always a little bit amazed by the fact that the designers have included enough detail and realism to be able to draw those parallels with the city I live in.
I waited for MONTHS for that game only to have the damn thing play itself. And the level editor... I never did see a non beta version of it (I gave up waiting) and having to stitch parts of the map together by hand was just plain stupid.
Biggest letdown ever.
Every google hit (well, the first five pages anyway - feel free to check further :) for Kristian Wilson Nintendo comes up with this quote - nothing else. So my guess is "No."
Legend of Mana is basically repackaged, Japanese Michael Ende. (His wife was Japanese.) I tried to play that game 3 times after I got it, but it never "worked" for me. I couldn't get into it. A couple years later, I was really angry with a lot of people around me. For some reason, I was drawn to the game and started playing it. It made me really rethink through some ideas about how I live, and how I think about and treat others. It also inspired a love of gardening, and got me working on some free software projects again.
Final Fantasy affected me way back, during high school. The world around me was so depressing, and the people in it were (justifiably) very cynical. The Final Fantasy series, however, gave me hope and values that I needed to get through high school, and introduced me to the complexities of the world. It also helped introduce me to metaphysical notions of Love and Spirit.
Secret of Mana has changed me in ways that I don't understand, and thus can't articulate.
Non-Square games include Starflight, and Robot Oddysey.
Due to Robot Oddysey, I got to snooze through a month of CS classes and breeze through homework, having learned binary logic when I was 10 years old fooling around on the computer. It wasn't that I am smart, it's just that the game is incredibly good at introducing binarly logic and circuitry.
C'mon people, I know someone had to be affected by LORD, Trade Wars, and Drug Wars. These three are the holy trinity of BBS Doors. Nothing gave me greater pleasure than logging into LORD and seeing that no one had married Violet, the bar whore. My puberty-stricken brain used to love to be the first to wed her. Then Trade Wars, which tought me valuable lessons about capitalism and screwing over the competition. Does anyone else think Microsoft should remake this and package it with Longhorn? It would at least show they have a sense of humor. And Drug Wars would later guid me through my college experimentations safely, steering me away from crack and heroin. In some ways I miss the old BBS's, they were sort of like the Cheers of networked computing...everyone knew your name, friendly banter, etc. But then when I think about the wait I got waiting for an ANSI welcome screen to load over my 2400 modem...nostalgia's a bitch.
---
Take it sleazy,
-The Shockmaster
E3 will apparantly contain a massive publicity push for Thief 3.
It's being done by Warren Spector and a good number of the crew from the original looking glass (of System Shock, Deus Ex, and of course the earlier thief episodes) and will even bring back the same guy for Garret's voice.
Minimum specs include at least a G3 graphics card.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
While there are newer games that seem to generate masses of addicted hardcore gamers, that doesn't mean that the phenomenon is generated by the newer game engines or interfaces. When I went to university I had a friend who, upon being introduced to MUXing, (A text based multi-user eXperience for those of you who missed this era of online gaming.) immediately dove so far into the lifestyle that he ended up vacationing with these people he'd met online, attending their weddings, while at the same time withdrawing from his friends and family. Some people don't require blazing framerates to become addicted to a virtual lifestyle.
BGII definitelly effected me the most. I mean, it wasn't scary and my heart rate didn't increase when playing or anything, but I got so involved in that game that by the time I finished it, it was as if I was the main character in the game. It's the only time that I got the same feeling after a video game as I do when I finish a good novel (such as the Count of Monte Cristo or A Tale of Two Cities).
Once I played Sim City 2000 for 11 hours straight. Afterwards I was seeing people as mixtures of commercial, residential, and industrial zoning. Took a few hours for that to wear off.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Anyone else?
American McGee's Alice (in wonderland). Very creepy, but then so was the Disney cartoon as was the original book. It's odd how dark stuff (e.g., Grim's fairy tales) makes its way into children's stories sometimes.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
Everytime I play with Guybrush, I love more those games :)
The reaction time of a martial artist required to get past level 2 for godssakes!
Aliens vs Predator - This is the ultimate game to absolutely scare the b'jesus out of you, its ok when you are playing as alien, or even predator, but when it comes to playing as a marine, with about 10 aliens running through air vents around you so you can hear their feet scuttering, then one finally jumps at you, i swear my heart nearly exploded. I would NEVER EVER EVER in my life play that game in the dark when no one else is around, and to this day I havent much gotten past the fourth level for humans due to its hardness and impact on me psychically.
(A small spoiler alert)
I was watching my roommate play Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty one really late night. Raiden's radio-thing went off and (those of you who have played know exactly what part this is) said, "Don't sit so close to the TV!" He backed off the T.V. a bit. Then it said, "Turn the game console off RIGHT NOW!" He didn't do that, but man that was freaky.
COUNTER-STRIKE
F*ck that f*cking "game" (cheat-fest is more like it). No game has ever made me so angry. Deleting it from my drive was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
And yah, not everyone cheats - but nobody follows the "spirit" of the game (team-based? HAH!) What a joke.
The thief series is by far the most engrossing pair of games that I have ever played. Return to the Cathedral in TDP was the scariest level of all. I had to quit playing for a couple of weeks just to get up the nerve to sneak past those haunts and the ghosts that throw the skulls....man great memories. I can't wait for Thief 3!
Baldur's Gate Series. The game that got me into role playing. I was a jock in school, I played football, basketball and baseball.....I always thought D&D was just some lame geek thing....man was I wrong! The npc depth and interaction, especially in the sequal is a feat of gaming that hasn't been replicated in any other game. I guess this is the reason that Neverwinter Nights was a huge flop IMO.
Legacy of Kain Series. See the previous post on these games.
Planescape - Torment. Most of what I believe has been posted by others.
Gran Turismo 3 (F1 cars rule!)
Quake3Arena (love the mods)
No other game I played so often, no other game was so frighting and still so addictive.
... I think Nocturne was the most scariest. I think, I have never played a game with wet hands and in panic, because something might come out somewhere.
... I think Lucas Arts has made the biggest impression on me ... ... Hereos of Might and Magic, etc ...
Well fighting
But the most impression: Doom I & II, Monkey Island I & II, Maniac Mansion I & II, Sam & Max, Indiana Jones
Civ I
"Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
I do agree, though, that the only way to play is in the dark. I was playing ED once with all of the lights on in the house, and I was about to enter combat when my TV turned itself off. Eh? So I'm in the dark, looking at my TV, trying to work out what's going on: my Gamecube and VCR have power, so what's wrong with the... FLASH! Back to the game.
My brother says his Cube blue-screened while playing ED; I personally liked the ad for the sequel, a splash screen that could have come from any Shareware game preview on a PC. Oh, but the bathtub, the bathtub... I can still see that one. I've really enjoyed this game so far.
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
::bawling:: ::hugs d^2/dx^2, cries harder::
... sniffle... got her final limit... sniffle... and everything.
sniffle
I
Buwaaaahhhhaa-haaaaa! sniff
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Zork taught me never to wander about in the dark, period. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
make world, not war
I've been hesitating to write this letter, because I've been afraid that, if I did, Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig would do everything in his power to make me walk around with a mountain of pain and suffering welled up inside me. But after reading about Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig's conniving drug-induced ravings, I, hardheaded cynic that I am, could hesitate no longer. As a preliminary, I want to make this world a better place in which to live. Some of us have an opportunity to come in contact with the most grotty boneheads you'll ever see on a regular basis at work or in school. We, therefore, may be able to gain some insight into the way they think, into their values; we may be able to understand why they want to threaten the existence of human life, perhaps all life on the planet. This brings us to the dark underside of his double standards, the side that's known to invent a new moral system that legitimizes his desire to hand over the country to the most irrational dummkopfs you'll ever see. Alas, this is not wild speculation. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is documented fact.
For your edification, I should indisputably point out that I see how important Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig's effrontive catch-phrases are to his slaves and I laugh. I laugh because his pranks will have consequences -- very serious consequences. And we ought to begin doing something about that. Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig claims that women are spare parts in the social repertoire -- mere optional extras. This is a very obtuse and unconstructive view and moreover, is wrong in many ways.
Never have I seen such a gross error in judgment as his decision to scrap the notion of national sovereignty. I, not being one of the many improvident lowbrows of this world, like to speak of him as "deceitful". That's a reasonable term to use, I maintain, but let's now try to understand it a little better. For starters, this is not the first time I've wanted to put to rest the animosities that have kept various groups of people from enjoying anything other than superficial unity. But it is the first time I realized that he says that the best way to reduce cognitive dissonance and restore homeostasis to one's psyche is to extirpate the things I myself really cherish. Yet he also wants to goad conceited, odious weasels into hurling epithets at his enemies. Am I the only one who sees the irony there? I ask, because we've all heard him yammer and whine about how he's being scapegoated again, the poor dear. On a more personal note, Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig's latest manifesto, like all the ones that preceded it, is a consummate anthology of disastrously bad writing teeming with misquotations and inaccuracies, an odyssey of anecdotes that are occasionally entertaining, but certainly not informative. I won't mince my words: I can't follow Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig's pretzel logic. I do, however, know that he says he's going to subvert existing lines of power and information before you know it. Is he out of his mind? The answer is fairly obvious when you consider that I'm sure he wouldn't want me to eavesdrop on his conversations. So why does Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig want to treat people like ridiculous, malignant Philistines? Any honest person who takes the time to think about that question will be forced to conclude that he insists that he is forward-looking, open-minded, and creative. Sorry, Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig, but, with apologies to Gershwin, "it ain't necessarily so."
Tevis Money the buttfucking incest pig may not be that ruthless, but he sure is morally crippled. I used a phrase a few moments ago. I referred to his vassals as "rancorous iconoclastic-types." You ought to memorize that phrase, because, frankly, honor means nothing to him. Principles mean nothing to him. All he cares about is how to create new (and reinforce existing) prejudices and misconceptions.
In my view, either he has no real conception of the sweep of hist
spent a week barely talking to my fiance because me and my friend were constantly playing that game and either i was too busy play to talk, or she wouldnt call because i kept playing that "stupid game", as she called it.
bet she cant for me to get SH 3!
Question
http://www.ironfroggy.com/
Kings Quest 3 taught me to have to type fast! "Show the mirror to medusa "
Subject says it all. Those games were awesome. Everything modern pales in comparison cause the games virtually all lack a nice text interpreter.
Doom I
I jumped the first time I came across one of the monsters (upstairs on the left in an early level).
I still grin whenever I fire it up, the music is either good, or just so strongly associated with the excellent game, that just hearing it gives me goosepimples.
Tetris
Banned from my computer. Too many dreams of falling blocks, and too many sessions playing til 4 in the morning.
SS 1
Ever been scared to open a door? Yes. Ever been scared to open ANY door on a level? Oh yes. SS2 was nearly as good, but a bit repetitive, and too long.
Jedi Knight
The only game in which I try to physically twist and jump as I play, and grunt when I catch a ledge. Given how pathetic the 3d engine is, that is one hell of an achievement in gamplay/suspension of disbelief.
Hello, my name is CrazyJim, and I'm a video game addict. I play because I am addicted. I don't want to escape from reality. I just remember how fun the games used to be... And they don't seem as fun anymore... But I need to keep playing because I see most everything else as boring. The more I do look at everything else, the more I realize that maybe everything else is only boring because it needs fixed. Thats when I look back at myself and think if I'm still playing because I'm addicted or have I crossed the line to escapist.
Maybe I don't know the answers to everything, but if I see a spade, I know it. Does this make me a good game developer? I find my tolerance for details to make my lose my desire to code an entire system. I'd rather just change some rules someone already made, than write the rules myself. But without open source, thats tough.
Theres a struggle going on around you, and sure you can look back through history and understand it clearly... But can you understand what's going on now as factories automate, and the corporations have their workers fight each other for jobs? Conventional economics just had workers and slaves. Future economics just has robots. The transition is rough...
Not to mention theres really hasn't been no watermark for a civilized society living in peace. The only societies that have thrived are ones that feel they're better standing than another. Rich man or poor man has little to do with Smart man or dumb man.
I guess what I'm saying is that game development is alot like creating laws for a society. Games are just fantasy, while many of us spend alot of our lives in them... Which sorta makes them reality, but they're not. If we're gonna escape to video games, we should really stand up and change things. Video game players are supposed to be like smarter in many ways from the amount of work, dedication, simulation, modeling, and math. Its what the culture pre-video game told us we'd aspire to. The more you play, the more you'll learn... And I'm pretty sure it was correct. So my dillema is that if things need to be changed in real life, and I'm playing video games to escape... Then I'm showing weakness instead of stepping up to change things. Of course the methods to change things is quite difficult...
God spoke to me
It was on a black and white television at my cousin's house. Up to that point, I'd only ever played pinball at the pizza joint down the block. Unfortunately, until games like Final Fantasy, Quake, or Half-Life came along, most games are just antisocial time sucks. Ah how I miss the good old days - pong, space invaders, asteroids, etc. Guess I need to get me one of those 10-in-1 joysticks for around the office...
Still the best game I've played that could drop me into another world. I remember my roommate or cat making some random noise as I was playing and nearly jumping out of my skin. The music, the mystery of it all, the weird electronic ghosts floating through the ship, and of course, the storyline. Wish Bungie had done a remake of Marathon 1, before they sold their souls. With a decent 3d engine and modern rendering, it'd be great.
I drank what? -- Socrates
When I was 8 years old, with my Rubber keyed spectrum, my mum decided to broaden our horizons, and bought a book full of basic games.
One of these was called "DracMaze" a 3d spectacular with monsters and ghouls waiting around each corner - or so the book told us.
She spent around 40 days typing this in - the computer never got disconnected or powered down, because the basic code had errors, and it wouldn't save. In the end we never got this game to work, but the determination to fix problems and solve things has lead me into a career as software developer, and I look back on that experience as pivotal to my current self.
liqbase
The original 3D Alien vs. Predator on the Jaguar was extremely frightening, even as an adult player. Man, here you were, one lonely human with limited ammo on a space station swarming with aliens full of acid for blood. No motion sensor for a *long* time either, thank goodness. (The inclusion of the motion sensor right from the start pretty much ruined the new AVP on the Mac/Windows). The Aliens were scary enough, but then you would hear "over here" whispered, and you know damn well there is an invisible Predator stalking you. The stereo effects were used perfectly, and you could get some idea of the Predator location so you would know which way to spin around. Thing is, my buddy would keep swinging around in the swivel chair when he heard that. It was that heart-pounding. The face-huggers were damn scary too.
:-)
Also, the game was well done. You actually had to learn things from the computers, figure out what the hell had happened, etc. Plus, you could explore anywhere you wanted (assuming you had access), none of these crappy linear-plot go to "level 1" and then to "level 2" and then to "level 3" shitbox games. If I remember correctly, even the healing system made some sense, didn't you have to go to the medical complex to get fully healed? Something like that. I think there might have been some healing laying around though, it's just been too long for me to remember... *sigh*
A close second would be the original "Dungeon Master" on the Atari ST and Amiga platform.
Speaking of the 7th Guest, I would have to say that was the scariest game I played as a kid. Being 11-12 and seeing that freaky clown in the Game Room ("WANT A BALLOON SONNY?! WANT A BALLOON") was one of the scariest things I ever saw or played. That was the one same I couldnt play late at night.
Ok. My favorite was the Descent series. The first and second were similar, the latter a little nicer looking, but similar gameplay.
I did a little research, and discovered that the Macintosh release of Descent 1 had much nicer graphics AND awesome redbook audio on the CD, which the Win/Dos release did not. I had a couple powermacs at the time, a 5215 and a 5300. And a printer cable, which doubled as a serial cable for multiplayer. So, of course, I had my friends over (During the latter part of my elementry school years) and had duels. Again. And again. Our favorite was level 3 and 5 of the Total Chaos from Descent1 and level 27 (or 25, I forget. The one where you start off in a trapezoid hallway and theres round rooms at either end.) Later on, my dad had a 100 MHz 486. Still not nearly as powerful as the 75 MHz Macs, but it ran windows. More specifically, it had a floppy drive and could run the level editor that came with Descent 2: Vertigo. I assembled the two levels and floppied them over.
I have to measure our time playing in years, not months or days. Every other weekday, every weekend (except for family occasions and whatnot).
Then, I moved to Florida for 6th grade. Nobody here could play it. Or even knew it existed! bah.
So I then borrowed my mom's 28.8 modem (28.8! wow, that was fast!) and went to Kali via AOL (yes, I know it was slow). That was fun. Minerva and Earthshaker Pro maps all the way, too. The people with 56k modems were God - it had the same effect as someone being on a Cable modem to a 56k'er today. Later on, for a Christmas present, I got a Teleport/Global Village 56k modem - but still on AOL. I played for quite a bit, but then our comp's were getting old...
We got AMD K6-2 350's, and switched from AOL to a local provider. Unfortunately, they made sure that nobody with a Mac could connect to them. Thus that ended that era.
I have the third Descent, and it looks much, much nicer with several add-ins that we all wished for - but the combat essential was changed. The old ones were large robots in small tunnels, with a few caverns, maybe. In the new one, everything was big. And all tiny robots. I felt like I was fly swapping rather than tunnelling.
Great feeling about being in a closed space - and only one way out.
Descent 2: Vertigo - Scare-the-crap-out-of-you sounds. Especially after playing the tame Descent 3, this made me jump.
The other genre - Master of Orion 2.
I know by heart every little feature of the game. I know what each tech does, looks like, and sounds like. Even the small numbers for them. (Hyper-X Capacitators + High Energy Focus + Time Warp Facilitator + Achilles Targeting System + Heavy Plasma Cannons = Massive death)
I still play it every now and again. I now have MoO3, but I havent played it enough to give it a fair judgement.
Other games that are best in category:
Best rocket launcher in a first person shooter:
Red Faction (Fusion Rocket, not the dinky one)
Best Holy-Crap-were-doomed feeling:
Freespace 1 (by Volition for those unaquainted)
Best feeling of accomplishment when you beat game:
Homeworld
Perfect balance of three different teams (RTS):
Starcraft BW
Best RPG (for Macs only - but the sequel to this is emerging for PC):
Escape Velocity: Override (www.ambrosiasw.com)
Best involving and done flight sim (gives Freespace a close second):
Wing Commander III - The Heart of the Tiger
(WCIV was ok, but not the same)
Best giver of the 'Bow before me for I am l337' feel:
Command and Conquer
(park 50 stealth tanks at the back of your opponents base. Wait till they bump into it- and half their screen shivers!)
Other seal-of-coolness winners:
Halo
Marathon, Marathon 2: Durandal, and Marathon Infinity
KKND2 (although a minor team balance flaw)
MechWarrior2
Civ2
Myst3
Unr
I remember one time, I was playing the original Doom - some mod level someone had created. (I should emphasize I was pretty stoned at the time). The level was dark, and grey. There was a wide courtyard, mossy brick walls and scattered, dead, black trees. The sound effects included creepy scrapes and crows "cawwing". It scared me to hell, and I had to stop playing.
-"I still believe in revolution; I just don't capitalize it anymore." - srini!
this game made my very interested in terrorist/counter-terrorist operations and urban terror. the immense co-op required in this team is unquestioning. Example: 2 members go in a room the 2nd one squezes the shoulder of the first to signal his readyness, then they move in the firs man must clear the center to the right side of the room regardless of what is on the left.
Pong. Now THAT was a game that really made you think.
Everquest cost me my wife, my kids, my career. I now am recovering from spending the last 3 years of my life immersed in that game. I don't know what it is about that game, but it really pulls you into the virtual world and affects real life priorities in a way no other game ever has, and possibly ever will.
One of the ways that people are taking this is 'scared the bejeezus out of me'. I'm personally not sure that counts as 'affected' in any material sense, really. I mean, if you do, I'd have to go back to the original Castle Wolfenstein... walking into a room to find an SS trooper blazing away at you got my heart into my throat.
But there have been a couple of games that really affected me, left me moved. Let me see...
Alternate Reality. Way back when, I illegally copied a disk of this for my Apple IIe clone. For the uninitiated among you, it was sort of like a choose-your-own-adventure book, except that you basically led a normal life from a different perspective. I found it endlessly more facinating than the books, because it was REAL life, and it was less about action and more about life choices. Sadly, it's a lot easier to make the right choices in a computer game than it is in real life, sometimes, but I've never forgotten this game.
Photopia: Much more recent, this is a facinating and moving exercise in directed text adventure, with only a little more lattitude than Alternate Reality. Still, it's very moving, in its way, and an effective use of the medium.
A Change in the Weather: Another text adventure. Don't know why this affected me so much, but it did. The cute little fox might have had something to do with it. It just made me feel good, out of all proportion to the actual challenge of the game.
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Leisure Suit Larry.
Need I say more?
Some of the new interactive fiction games coming out of the rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction communities over the past few years.
Some of my favorites: Adam Cadre's "Photopia", Andrew Plotkin's "So Far", "Hunter, In Darkness" and "Tangled Web"; Emily Short's "City of Secrets" and "Savoir Faire"; and the list goes on.
Sorry, I have to post too...but I doubt this will get read. Anyways, here goes:
A Pinball Game: First game I played on computers when my dad brought home our first family computer when I was six. It was fun and I started to like computers, lol.
Some BASIC game where you have to defend your kingdom from barbarians: You had to grow your kingdom and peasants would become squires and squires would become knights and every ten years barbarians would attack. Simple game but the first game where I looked at the BASIC source and actually made changes to it. My first experience in programming.
Sun Tzu's Ancient Art of War: Taught me how to spell "enemy" because I had to type that word a lot when making custom campaigns. Got me interested in Custer's Last Stand and various historical figures (Caesar, Alexander the Great, Sun Tzu, etc)
Quest for Glory, Kings Quest, Police Quest, Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry: Helped me become a fast, albeit unorthodoxed typist.
Half-Life and mods: Will always remember the one year of college I spent playing this game and it's mods!
Civ: Helped spark interest in history and anthropology!
w00t!
Rangers Lead the Way!
For example, I've got vague memories of tunnels under buildings, that I cannot tell if they are memories from exploring the steam tunnels at Caltech, or if they are from some random Quake level I tried.
I've got many memories of beautiful sunrises and sunsets over forrests and mountains, that I'm not sure if they are from childhood trips, or from Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot. (If I can recall what I did there...I can tell where the memory came from. E.g., if I recall eating there, it is from real life. If I recall killing things, it is probably from a game)
Many times I've woken up and realized I was dreaming about someplace, and the place seemed familiar, but I could not remember if it was familiar because I'd been there in real life, or in a game.
Best geme. Ever. It motivated me to go from stealing parked cars to hijacking them. Also, before i played GTA3 i never shot at the cops, i just ran. Now i unload with my Rocket Launcher. I just wish real life had the GUNS GUNS GUNS cheat and you could get out of jail with just a little money. Oh well, the prison warden says i've gotta go back to my cell now. See ya later.
I picked up on descent while in college. It helped me get my crappy grades so you can definitely so it affected me.
And while were at it:
To all my old school Kali-ers, Yo central!
Does anyone have a copy of TYCHAT?
Sup Dred! R2, MJ, Sugarfoot, Spaz, Karash, MoM, descentr, Ebola, Saruman, _Talon_, TRAMPLER, Tyrsis, tika, darkwing, Pres, and the all time greatest descenter DrDon. Props to you all.
Yeeehaaaw!
Buckin' Bronco!
While not actually a "game", running my first 1200bps BBS (RA then later Wildcat!) started me down the tech path.
Fidonet! Pimp Wars! Solar Realms Elite!
10 MD
I see that it's now available online, but it's just not the same without the classy, understated graphics and ambient sound. That's why I couldn't get into the hardcopy version either.
a world in progress...
First, there was Final Fantasy VII, the first game to get an emotional response from me, ever. And I'll bet you all can't guess which moment ripped it out of me. Yeah, it was when Sephiroth shishkabobbed Aeris. I litterally bawled, not to mention resolved that if I ever had a daughter, I'd name her Aeris...
Another one was Earthbound for the SNES. Sure, it was an RPG for kids, but it was one of the most fun games I've ever played. I'd always make my character's favorite thing LSD, since his magic animations were so trippy, it just kinda fit...
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
Played this first time in 7th grade. Couldn't stop playing I was so addicted. Since then I've gone on to major in Economics and learn Japanese as a second language, and I'm sure that this game planted the seeds many years earlier.
Deus Ex is the best game ever made. It is not only a great story, but it's philosophically interesting since you can choose to handle a situation in numerous different ways. On top of that, it has clever AI, and incorporates the better aspects of a good FPS, Thief, and Silent Scope.
~Ben
Doom3 is the only game I've looked forward to in years.
Escape Velocity is by the far the most addictive. One more shipment...10,000 more credits... Zork was by far the most frustrating game I'd ever played. I loved it! Metal Gear Solid comes close, but I'd have to agree with the FFVII people for the best storyline. Don't know if this counts, since it isn't exactly a computer game, but Diplomacy...you never trust anyone ever again.
Such irE
Bought an Atari (was no "2600" label back then) and it came with combat. Before the weekend was out, went and bought "Adventure".
The first time I went into another room, and a dragon came diagonally at me, I nearly sh8t my pants. The hair rising up on the back of the neck, OMG.
Twenty years later, bought a new, top-end Pentium Pro computer with Matrox Millenium II 3D card (pre-3DFX). To "test" it, bought Duke Nukem 3D. Played online, awesome! Bought Quake, played online, even more awesome!
Then I downloaded the Capture the Flag super-mod, with grappling hook. Version 3.5. I recall on one of the smaller maps being out in the no man's land, an empty room with a small hole in one end and two lifts and a huge door to your castle in the other.
One guy on my team came running by with the glowing blue flag waving behind him. It was an epiphanal moment, like Louis de Palma getting offered his first bribe. I just knew.
I just knew that all games throughout human history had been leading up to that point: the online, multi-player, team-based game. Deathmatch, as fun as that was, faded into boredom and irrelevancy like the final season of Three's Company.
I sat there and played for 36 hours straight, from noon of the day I installed it through 11 PM of the next day. I only stopped because I was falling asleep at the keyboard.
Over the next months and years, I got into better and better clans until only LGD and about 2 or 3 others could beat us. Gods, the fun that was.
There were other moments, like learning to "mouse", or holding the flag (on that same map) up in one castle turret as One Man Clan popped grenades down to protect me, or figuring out how to get the under-lava quad without the pentagram on that floaty moon-gravity level (oh did that piss people off.)
But that moment, with the guy with the flag running by, that was a choirs of angels moment. I knew. I just knew.
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
Zelda "Original Recipe" was it. I played that friggin game until my friends who owned the Nintendo told me to GO THE FUCK HOME ALREADY!. Seriously. We got to their apartment, put the new game in, played it for a couple of hours, and then eventually Ed and his wife said "We're going to bed, when you get tired you can crash on the couch. They woke up the next mornin and I was still playing. By noon it was intervention time.
I left their apartment, went straight to the store and bought a Nintendo and another copy of Zelda. Then I went back to their places to swap carts with them so I could pick up where I left off.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Played in a darkened University Dorm room, with a LCD projector and 4 ginoromous speakers... Never before have 5 guys squealed like little girls who have skinned there knees...
Black and White used to get into my head at night..... I'd wake up from dreams about giant cows!
i find myself wondering what's going on in town while i'm in class or at work or asleep... oh shit, i forgot to sell my turnips this week. see! one of a kind (except for animal crossing 2, yeah)
don't panic
Here's a list of games that just sucked the life out of me when I was a young'in:
Ancient Art of War - it was the 1st RTS - at least in a form that we can identify with. It had a great pathfinding system that is still not matched (the platoon follows EXACTLY where the cursor went). It got me into military strategy like no other game in the 80s
Silent Service - I use to correct my 5th grade teacher about facts of the Pacific Theater because I played that game. I thought the coolest thing on the planet at the time was a perfectly executed end-around attack taking out the whole convoy, including the destroyer escorts!
Pirates! - few games play like it, even today. It was (and is) so much fun to play that you just don't want to put it down. I figured out ways to cheat because I really cared how the characters I played turned out after they "retire".
F-19 It was Thief BEFORE avoiding things was even a concept. (I was a Microprose slut back then).
Happy memories!
I'm not sure how many people remember this game. Asteroid Mining, commodity trading and weapons of mass destruction.
The interface was something that really grew on you.
I wish I could have some of the countless hours I spent on that game back.
and damned if I can get the sound working in XP
Go. The ancient Chinese strategy game. Many people here may have played, or do play Go (wei-chi, baduk, igo, etc...), and others have probably seen it in the movies Pi and A Beautiful Mind.
/
When introduced to Go originally, I thought it was just a simple game that really wasn't that popular (at least in the US it's not), simply because the rules are very simple. You try to surround territory on the board... if your stones get surrounded they get taken off as "prisioners" (at least the way I play it... japenese rules), and the person with most territory+prisioners wins. Sounds just like a finite game such as gomoku, connect-4, or a computer-mastered game like Chess... boy was I wrong. Although it's rules are simple, the strategy behind the game play is rich and emmense.
Go has an interesting history and philosophy behind it. Many concider it to be the oldest game still played in it's original form. Some say that it was once used as a way of fortune telling in China, believing that it's black and white stones represent the stars in the sky... the ying and yang. It is said that no two go games have ever been alike. Far more dynamic than chess, the possibility for play is said to be infinite. War strategy is practiced with Go... The Samauri were once required to study it, and even after battles they would sit down to play it. It affects great thinkers even today as a number system was inspired from Go (Sureal Numbers).
Computers are far from being strong at Go. A beginner at the game of Go can beat the strongest Go playing software the world has to offer. Unlike chess and it's small range of "good moves", Go offers a nearly unlimited possiblity for proper moves... compounding as you read deeper into the battles.
Not only did I learn a deal about asian history, but by playing and studying Go my mind became stronger as well. After a week of frequent playing, I began to recognise patterns and shapes within nature as shapes made with the Go stones... analyzing their strengths and weaknesses automatically. My ability to concentrate has increased, as well as my ability to read ahead in other games such as Chess. Although the affects Go has had on my mental abilities and rational thought are significant, it's affect on my life is truely infinite...
More information on Go:
http://www.kiseido.com/
http://www.usgo.org
http://playgo.to/interactive/
Am I the only one that woke up in the middle of the night because I was dreaming I was playing a tetris game? Or am I the only one who when I have nothing (but really NOTHING) to do, I imagine a tetris game? It hurts the brain bad...!
I was on the bus home, listening to this guy behind me talking about how much he loved playing GTA3, he loved to get off work and go home and run people down and steal cars and all that stuff for half the night.
... one of New York's Finest, in uniform!
I stole a peek behind me to see
At least he wasn't talking about a Diallo mod for quake!!
1) Zork, Moonmist, and Spellcaster: text adventures that have yet to be matched by anything. 2) Commander Keen: for single-gamedly rejuventating a love for platformers that I had dropped a few years before because the Nintendo sucked. 3) Choplifter: the Apple ][ version had crappy graphics, chitty sound, and only 1 level. I just couldn't stop playing the damn thing. 4) Doom: the first game to make me jump in my chair. I can still picture the Cacodemons in all their pixelated glory :)
5) System Shock: the graphics were good, the gameplay was good, the storytelling sucked me in and made me dream about it.
6) Half-Life: just a damn good game all over the place. The introduction, the accident, and then the first freaky mutant to cross my path. Damn!
7) Unreal: after turning off (or was it on?) that generator in the first (or second) level of the game, you go back down the hallway you came in. Then *SLAM* and the lights start going out one... by.... one. That was freaky. Then the sliding noise of a wall moving somewhere in my immediate vicinity and a flash of teeth.
8) Quake 2: the first one was good, the second one ruled the planet. I still play it.
9) Descent: the most fun you can have in a mine. I even liked the second one. The third one, sadly, left the mines behind too often.
10) Freespace 2: taking on that first capitol ship with only 5 fighters is a traumatic experience.
11) Age of Empires 2: still my favorite RTS of all time.
12) Starcraft: probably one of the best RTS games around. Close enough to AoE2 for me to really get into it - but it's all alien!!
13) Warcraft 2: the only reason I like 2 better than the first one is because of the boats. And the grunts are just hilarious.
14) Uplink: admittedly a tough game to stay interested in after you steal your first million, but it's just too cool to stop playing :)
15) Pod: the first racing game (and possibly the first game) to make use of the then-new MMX extensions. I still love playing it - and Dethkarz and Star Wars Pod Racer (yup, I do like racing the pods).
Dammit, I meant to post that anonymously!
Back when I was a wee one, I bought one of the Lucasarts archive packs with Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones, and Sam and Max. To this day, nothing makes me happier than a Sam and Max comic.
And then there was Tie Fighter. I remember this one mission where I captured and boarded a newfangled "B-Wing". Havent gotten such a rush from a video game since
Back in the chipwich era...
//c with an amber monitor (which my parents got since I was supposed to be using it for school work, not games). Had a floppy with some games on it (amazing how much fun could go in 140K!). Went through a period where I was playing Joust and Mario Brothers (no Super back then - OLD school platformer). Joust I had pretty well mastered, but I never got the hang of the extra-icy late levels in Mario Bros. (around level 18?). Very frustrating - had to play quite a while to get to that point, and then I'd lose all my lives in only a couple of minutes. I'd get frustrated, play Joust for a while, then go back to M.B.. Rinse, repeat, for hours, late at night.
I had a Apple
So, whenever playing a lot of a game, I'd always start imagining playing it in my head while bored. I'd have the physics down cold, so it actually could be decent practice.
Then, one day on the bus home from school, the two games merged in my mind. I was playing Mario Brothers levels, but with the Joust bird. But the physics just didn't match up, so I was constantly getting killed. And I couldn't stop thinking about it - all day, stuck in my head, the darn bird trying to bang the darn coins, and getting darned killed. All in glowing amber phosphers. Kind of like being in hell for the really, really lame.
Stopped playing both games at that point, and haven't booted up either in, what, 16 years?
My video compression blog
I went into denial, then bough a gameshark.
Also, CronoTrigger ownz. All bow down to Lavos, fools.
Gotta love the combinatin' of 'dem techs.
Twister puttin the BEAT DOWN on all 'yall.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I don't want to go on and on about the various video games I play, but I failed you all. Here it is.
Ultima IV - the moral system of becoming an avatar made this game something different than the usual combat-treasure-advancement-shop CRPGs. Get a real copy (I think you can still buy one from Origin) and see for yourself. If you think about it, most RPGs are incredible unethical, rewarding you for murdering "sub-human" beings on the basis of their race, stealing every valuable object not nailed down, and concentrating on personal advancement and amassing more and better stuff. Ultima IV is one of the few RPGs were you really do feel like the good guy(s), and it lets you know when you stray off the path.
Wasteland - I was always a fan of post-nuclear war fiction and imagery. The Mad Max movies, Gamma World, the Morrow Project, A Canticle for Leibowitz... if you like that kind of stuff, wasteland is great. It takes Bard's Tale and breathes a little more life and drama into the game.
Alone in the Dark - my wife loved this game. We used to play it together, working together to try and solve the puzzles. We actually beat the game and made it to the end. That's a game that can really scare the crap out of you.
DOOM - the first game that gave me motion sickness. I've never been a fan of 1st person shooters since.
Starflight - I liked the scale of this game, the illusion that you were really exploring space on the gigantic scale of the universe. Of course, if you have any programming knowledge, it's easy to see how a game world like starflight fits on 1 or 2 floppies. But when you're 9, the game's vague graphics helped your imagination fill in the blanks.
The Oddesey II - This is a Macintosh RPG from the 90s, but really, really well done. The game starts off very slowly, but once you beat the first island the story picks up. It's got a great open-ended story line that you explore by talking to townspeople. The game's theme is very Orwellian and the story has a lot to say about the moral/immoral use of magic (or power, if you want to abstract it). The spells and weapons are well done too, and the game has great sound and background music. If you liked Ultima IV, The Oddesey is almost as good. Find an old color Macintosh (pre-power mac) and give it a try. The game does emulate OK on PowerMacs, from what I remember.
The Adventure Construction Set - I just like playing Rivers of Light. Does anyone know if the ACS is still active. I remember joining the fan club, run by Ken St. Andre, the guy who wrote Tunnels and Troll, as well as Stormbringer for Chaosium.
Democracy. Whiskey. Sexy. Pick any two.
I especially liked the French Maid outfit.
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
For example, in some driving games, slipping up onto the shoulder is perfectly acceptable, affecting the performance in calculable ways (usually some speed reduction or difficulty in handling). So then, I'm driving down the highway and I think "I can pass them on the shoulder". No, I don't even think it... it just starts being an option, and I have to consciously override the option.
It doesn't help that I drive a 2002 Camaro Z28 (with a top-speed of 155 mph, I'm told). So my real-life car handles like a lot of the simulated race cars I drive. Except the damage would far exceed the loss of the four quarters I stuck into the game.
And then there's the "run from cops" option of "Need for Speed". For about a half hour, I'm thinking of how to avoid spike scripts as I pull around every corner.
The scary thing is... if it's this easy for me to confuse the two driving realities, what is it like for people who play shooting games? Scary thought.
There is a level in Thief 2...where you as Garrett are sneaking through an old mansion. If you sneak through the passage ways hidden behind all of the rooms, you can make your way to the haunted library. Now, when you get to the library, it's silent. But when you walk past certain points, these ghosts come alive directly in front of you. In combination with that sound - the whispers being played backwards...... oh man, the very first time I played that level and reached that point, a ghost appeared in front of me and I screamed, fell off my chair and on the way down kicked my keyboard straight up in the air and broke it.
I can't believe nobody mentioned the multiplayer aspect in the Quake. I can remember playing Quake 2 CTF, running through the hallways with my railgun. Every time I heard footsteps, I'd do a 180 flick with my mouse to rail someone... my ears were so trained I knew exactly where they were coming from.
And now every time I'm walking into a room, I feel the need to check for all the typical "camper" spots before I can feel safe....
I realized that I was too into R6 when playing an infiltration mission, I was holding my breath while the guards walked by the door I was hiding behind. I had spent almost an hour getting to the spot, and being seen meant I'd have to do it again.
Also, jumping out of my seat when a single gunshot disturbed the silence...
I gave away my copy of Alien v. Predator Playing as predator or alien was fine, but being the marine was just scary as hell (felt like I was in the movie). Silence, then the tracker goes 'bing... bing... bing... bingbingbingbing' And 3 aliens slaughter ya.
Shoulda brought a sharp stick...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
The moment I first experienced the world of UO, I was hooked. I remained hooked (correction, CONSUMED) for about 3 years, with both grades and social life suffering. I was in high school at the time.
I eventually got bored of UO and cancelled (near the end of the second last year of HS). Looking back on it, I realize how ridiculous it was to waste all that time in front of a screen. However the experience/time wasted may not have been all bad.
Every MMOG/MMORPG I have played since cancelling my UO account has only lasted a week or two with me. Not hardcore "weeks" either, only an hour or so a day. At the height of the "EverCrack" hype, I ended up using 5 days of my 30 day free trial before cancelling. I just can't get into ANY MMOG anymore, no matter how hard I try. It may sound strange, but I think letting my UO addiction "run its course" made me somewhat impervious to the addictive effects of MMOG's.
Famous last words, "I am invincible!"
(*waits to be hit by a wave of liquid Nitrogen*)
The bottom line is I currently take more enjoyment out of a casual game of BF1942 or a platformer like Super Smash Bros' than I do any MMOG. It used to be quite the opposite.
That game was fantastic. It had a down-home feel to it that other base-building RTSs didn't.
DK I was better than II, I can still feel the blood pumping on some of those levels as I raced to build tunnels and reinforce the walls before the invading goodie-two-shoes broke through.
At several points, my imps were reinforcing the walls only moments before the dwarves on the other side reached those walls.
Don't know why they got rid of that feature for the second one, especially since they can, and frequently do, create open points that are impossible to reinforce and must be protected the hard way.
My only regret with DK was the ability to pick up creatures and dump them elsewhere, usually into a battle. (Yes, you heard that right.) It would have been nice if the warning-traps and guard room system worked better, so they could force you to design your dungeons better, with only warning traps to pull your creatures off their schedules and run down the halls to the battles.
"Has [being a kidnapped teenage girl, raped repeatedly for months] changed you?" - Katie Couric to Elizabeth Smart
Black & White
The game chants "death" every time one of your villagers died. My roommate freaked out (Junior year of college) because he kept hearing someone chant "death". This is a guy who regularly kept a collection of swords, katanas, and knives in the room as well as some pistols (mock or not).
The developers of B&W definately wanted to freak ppl out with random easter eggs. If you used a name that was on B&W's list of common names, it would randomly chant your name within the game. Now that was weird.
Favorite
Colonial Marine's first level. Anticipating alien threats behind every corner. After starting up the generator and walking through a low hallway the ceiling bursts and a pipe (looking exactly like the top of an Aliens skull) pops out and starts spouting steam. I emptied two clips into that damn pipe in shock.
Ultima 7 - I bought this game cause it talked, and I wanted to hear my 386sx-25 talk to me. I liked how free the game was. You could just explore the countryside and not even mess around with the intended purpose of the game. Of course, it just wound up being an adventure in inventory for me. On my first backbacking trip through Europe, my friend and I called each other Avatar (Do you really know where you're going Avatar?) and I repacked my bag all the time, trying to figure out how many stones it weighed.
The Sims - This game made me rethink my time management. I began emulating their gesticulations as well.
GTA2 - Just like the people playing GTA3, I too want to just jump out of my car in a traffic jam and set off some sort of chain-reaction explosion.
Super Breakout - I reached a sort of Zen State when playing this game. It didn't change how I looked at the world, but it did help me wake up in the morning. I keep my 2600 at hand for those times when I start feeling withdrawal.
Tetris - I think of this game whenever I re-arrange furniture, pack a box, or pack luggage for a trip.
Often in Error, Never in Doubt.
I can't pick any one favourite, myself, but I can name a few games that had really positive effects on me:
:)
Mario 2 - Playing that for the first time was like switching from seeing the world in black and white to seeing it in colour. I'd seen those ridiculous fluoro colours and bold graphics on my BBC Micro when I was tinkering on it, but I'd never seen them on a NES. Having it on my GBA now is a wonderful thing.
Final Fantasy VII - My sister tended to hog the consoles until I bought her Playstation off her and got FFVII for Christmas. It was the first real console RPG I'd ever played and finished, and it got me hooked on the genre forever. My other favourite RPGs would be Xenogears and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.
Harvest Moon - I went through a lot of SNES ROMs when emulation got big on the web, in an attempt to make up for all the time my sister owned the SNES (see above). I don't know why it took me so long to get around to playing HM, but it changed my life. I've played its PSone and PS2 incarnations as well, and this stupid little farming RPG series will always have a special place in my heart.
Civilisation II and Alpha Centauri - Damn you, Sid Meier.
Loved it. The greatest thing is that so may people had that game in their school. I can still make a joke about being a Banker from Boston or feeding my kids 'meager rations' and it still gets a laugh. Hunting had to be the best part of the game. That and crossing the Columbia River in the end. Let's not forget the old Shoshonee who helped you ford the river!
But its not quite so scary and life affecting when it happens with Starseige tribes and it
fetches music off the Driver (the game) cd someone
left in the drive.
The amazing ending of The Longest Journey may have likaly changed my life, and as an exception to many of the other games listed here... I think for the better.
Anyone that has played through this amazing adventure game with wonderful graphics and excellent voice acting will understand exactly what I am talking about.
All I can ever hope for now that will ever top the experiance that that game brought to me will be a sequal. Plz funcom?
Temple of Apshai, River Raid, Dragons Lair
The first game to ever scare the crap outa me was Alone in the Dark. I was like 8 at the time, and had dreams for months and never even finnished it. Recently Eternal Darkness for GC also did a good job with their Insanity effects also scared the crap outame sometimes. Currently I'm playing Natural Selection(HL-Mod) And its got to the point where i walk into a room and check above the door for hiding aliens (yes sad i know) But its the most enjoyable game i've ever played, simply becaues of the ammount of teamwork it requires, which causes a great atmosphere along with the gfx and sfx.
I had the Warcraft 2 CD in there when I started Quake up one time. I remember thinking "What the fuck has Trent been smoking?"
The orginal BLOOD game really scared me. The scary part was the announcement in that wierd voice as you enter the train station (reminded me of the Ozman in crazy train)
(whoa, weird colors. And ads that push the article down a full page at 1600x1200? Slashdot better be making killer dough.)
The first game that I remember that made an impact on me was the King's Quest series. Just a really imaginative game; made you think, immersed you in exploring and fantasy. It didn't hurt that I was around 7 at the time, the ol' formative years.
There are few games any more that inspire creative solutions. Most games are killing games or racing/competitive games. No more Zork, no more King's Quest.
Is this a cause of today's kids? Or merely a reflection?
Ahh, the memories.
Doom for sure because it was the first time I ever played against a human. It was the most incredible feeling ever. Of course its Hellspawn cousins Strife and Hexen were two of my favorites for such captivating stories. I loved the "woman" helping me through the com in strife. I was actually enraged when i found out that she was... Well you remember. Hexen was just beautiful. It was the first game that I had to make levels for. I spent 4 hours a day banging out a hole hub. Learning the scripting language so i could have monsters pop down from glass celings, walls move to complex mazes etc...
I downloaded this game off a local Atlanta BBS when I was about 12 (I still remember it was cracked by FBR--bonus points to anyone who remembers what that stood for :), and I got completely into it until I had completely passed it (several months). For those unfamiliar, it was an Elite/Space Trader type game where you can either be a merchant, bounty hunter, or pirate. It featured primitive, albeit functional, 3D graphics, and had a great underlying storyline to tie everything together (imminent invasion of an Ant-Like alien race, the Manchi). I remember there was this one part where you had to go down to this planet that had been invaded by mutant aliens, and I remember as I was going around the base looking for an item needed to progress the storyline, both my brother and I (he was 8 at the time, watching me play) screamed out loud as one of the mutant appeared through an airlock and headed straight for me. Bear in mind that the view was the typical overhead, move from on grid-square to the next. Great game... I remember when Privateer came out years later, it was billed as being the first action space flight merchant simulator something or other, and I thought--it's not only not the first one to fit in that category, it's not even the first one to fit in that category by this company (Origin).
Fun stuff... need to load that one back up in the emulator again.
Cheers...
m@
This was a little after DOOM came out, so graphically it wasn't as involved as AvP for the PC.
However...
This was the first FPS I ever played that made really good use of ambient sound. Somehow they managed to convey that sense of truly being alone, and so when wandering around the ship and suddenly being confronted with an Alien (yeah it was just a sprite, but still) it was terrifying.
Then I was on some level and there weren't as many Aliens. I should have known what was coming... I forgot that the Predator could cloak... then I heard him whisper into my ear as if he was standing right there next to me and I swear to God I pooped in my pants.
The opening music for that game was instrumental in setting the tone too.
What a great fucking game.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Exile on the BBC B affected me the most. Scary AI, stunning graphics and impressively realistic physics. At the time it wowed and scared me trying to avoid the billion different ways to die, but now it gives inspiration when coding. Afterall, if they could do *that* in just 32k...
Oh and Elite on the B too, although I think the best I got to was Dangerous.
The first one, abduced me from reality almost 2 weeks, and the second makes turn on the lights and off the sound card, to not to pee in my pants!
Planetfall was not Infocom's most difficult game, but it was one of the most affecting.
Specifically, the part where your annoying robot friend Floyd comes stumbling out, mangled, and dies in your arms, having sacrificed himself to help you.
If you played the game, you understand. Most of the text of that sequence appeared on the front cover of an issue of "Softline" magazine.
Kings Quest (mostly IV-VI, but I as well); the Laura Bow Mysteries; Space Quest (I-V); Police Quest (1-3) Jones in the Fast Lane; Sam & Max; Final Fantasy II; Final Fantasy III (FF6 JP); Chrono Cross. These are just some of the games which immersed me and make me smile when I think of them.
Something about the old-style "Sierra/LucasArts" adventure games just seemed perfect for me, especially as a pre-teen/teen.
Sam & Max probably had the most serene, pleasing setting (road trip across the U.S.).
The * Quest series were very immersive: I got drawn into the worlds immediately, and each Quest series (and each particular game) had its own living world which fit perfectly.
The Laura Bow Mysteries were incredible. I loved both settings (1920's Plantation on a foggy night; Museum at night), and the level of interactiveness and critical thinking.
FF2, and especially FF3, were perfect fantasy games for me at the time: I felt that I was in the world, of the world, and could have an appreciable impact on this world (and indeed, if I did nothing, it would be in jeopardy). I actually felt compelled to pursue the missions and objectives, and to prepare for hours for battles.
Chrono Trigger, and even moreso, Chrono Cross, were sublimely beautiful in their expression of the core experiences and fragility of life.
Jones in the Fast Lane was damn fun, and damn funny. If you haven't played it, you should check it out. I would recommend that you play it with someone, as it is most satisfying when you can share the jokes and frustrations with someone.
All of these games (JitFL aside), I would say, were not "fun." They were not pinball, or tetris, or street fighter. They were something else, and their impression on and nostalgia in me reflect that.
Wierd as it may sound, I can't fight a single boss in Link To The Past or any Wolfos or boss in Ocarina of Time without getting the chills. Something about the music and the sudden change in atmosphere, and the knowledge that if I die i gotta fight through that whole fscking fortress again! The way the sound effects and music go together, the cutscenes (where applicable), they really dont' just make a change in the game to alert the player, there is drama involved, a heightening of tension normally reserved for the big screen. More games need to do this the right way. Even Majora's Mask wasn't as gripping.
Nintendo has always had top-notch composers for their game music. All hail Koji Kondo!
In fact, Imma play some Ocarina of Time right now. w00t!
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
I swear to god, ATC on the Radio Shack TRS-80 shortened my life through sheer stress. I remember so many times feeling really horrible when there was a an impending mid-air collision. I wish someone would implement this game for Unix.
ron lussier / lenscraft / fine art giclee prints/ sausalito / ca
I played it for so freaking long that I started walking funny. If you remember the screen from the original versions and how they'd shake with the leg movement, you'd understand. [stomp] [stomp] [stomp]
Read about it here ...
Nothing ever came close ;-) (even though I spent many hours on games like Master of Magic, Ultima IV, Space Quest I-III, Phantasie I-III and more recently, Morrowind, they all offered much less immersion than AR).
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
This post has to mention Nethack, one of the greatest games out there.
Play a game or two, and you think, "I could beat that score..." Soon you're hooked. All you do is delve the Dungeons of Doom.
After enough time, you starting thinking in Nethackish.
Your boss appears!
The boss points at you, and curses!
You see a mop.
A moderator appears! It hits! It hits! You die...
There are no gods but ourselves.
I remember playing Ultima Underworld and the first time that I encounted the headless zombie creatures...for some reason it just freaked me out. One just came around the corner at me and it just wrong.
... especially after playing minesweeper for about four hours straight after a particularly heavy session on the weed. I swear I had several profound philosophical discussions with that annoying little smiley at the top.
... and then eventually realised that I had been sitting in front of the windows calculator all that time. AAArrgh.
I felt uneasy for weeks after finishing Kagero: Deception 2. It is a very disturbing game because you have to kill innocents to "win" and unlike most games, these victims scream and cry with disturbing realism as you crush/poison/otherwise dispatch them and their friends/parents/etc. I felt I deserved the ending I got ("#1" in the linked FAQ). Haven't played it again since then. I'd run away if you meet anyone who likes this game.
I thought you had to have an effect to alter your affect
I'm still waiting for that Freaking game!! It has affected me more than any other game of all time. And in a VERY negative way!!!!!!!!!!!
hasn't there been everquest-related suicides?
if so, i think we have a winner..
I'm sure it's been said before, but I've been playing for years, and I've never noticed as much of a difference as I have after playing this game. I was literally addicted to this game. At one point I was an hour late to see my girlfriend because I just couldn't stop playing. The most noticeable thing though, was with my driving. I would get pissed at people who didn't hold the line through a curve or similiar things. It was totally unreal when I first realized what I was doing.
Atomic Man? ugh...what kind of geek are you? RADIOACTIVE MAN, man.
Can anybody who's really played all 3 civ's comment on which is more addictive or better or whatever?
make world, not war
Back then I played it on CP/M and later on MSX. I still keep around DOS ports for good memories :) It was like reading a good fairy tale -- an ultimate imagination accelerator.
Played the E3 alpha/demo. Wont be playin that in the dark......
Resident Evil 2 was some spooky sheit too.
I used to play this while living in a 7th floor apt., after playing my brain would be automatically envisioning missles taking out the other buildings around me.
A couple of years and a dozen fps games later I still haven't found one that comes close to the dark athmosphere of Quake (the first one). The music did it. This shows how very important the music is for a game. And Trent Raznor is an evil genius :-)
Indeed. I was seriously sick back then and the doc gave me some heavy duty drugs to easy the itches, which put me in the right frame of mind to completely immerse myself into Britannia. I played for one week more than 14h/day. I didn't really had much aim inside the game (that came later), just being on a different plane and roaming around was all I wanted.
I rate these based on how addicted I got.
1. SSI's Pool of Radiance, a D&D RPG game - spent many nights playing this with my buddy. The worst things was, it was on a 8088 with a dual floppy system. no hard drive. Each time we went on a battle, the floppy drive would load the monsters which took 10 minutes to load. We'd step out have a smoke... When we got back in, it would be ready. Of course, my girlfriend hated me.
2. Star Control - Fascinating story line kept me playing for months
3. Civilization series. I have all 3. I'd play all night and realize it was 5 am and I had work in 3 hours. Shit! Now you guys have prompted me to re-install III tonight.
4. CounterStrike. I started playing this game 4 years ago and I still play it. Scary addictive. I can't see when I'll stop playing it.
5. Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City on PS2. This one probably had the most affect on my real life. I had to make a rule for myself not to drive my car after having just played this. After 8 hours of playing this (I know, that isn't much) I decided to go down the block to 7-Eleven to pick up a drink. I got on my car and didn't realize how crazy I was driving UNTIL I pulled into 7-Eleven's driveway and nearly bent the frame of my car. I bottomed out my car from pulling in so fast.
After playing this for most of the day, I drove to the store to get some food. After about 200m I discovered I was driving on the wrong side of the road! (We drive on the left in my country...)
;-)
Amused me, if nobody else
When i was playing Diablo (I), i was on a system with two CDs. In one CD was Diablo, but in the second i had a "sounds of nature" audio CD, which at one point contained some sounds of wolves in the distance. The "nature" sounds fit in well with the background audio of Diablo, so i never really noticed it, but half an hour into the game i was getting really worried and paranoid about "what the hell is that noise? what kind of monster is that? i've never heard a monster like that!" ...but it was just the wolves on the audio CD.
Yes, Silent Hill series is the only one that got me into the story rather than just practicing my shooting. You are probably stuck in the room with a lot of insects (programmers nightmare, huh?). Well, you need to put your extra battery into your flashlight. Even though insects will be onto you when you turn on the light, leave it on and have a close look at the combination lock.
I can't belive that nobody else mentioned OMF:2097. When I was 7 yrs old and used to go everyday to my friends house to play the PC Gamer shareware games OMF stuck with me. Its unique idea of mind and body or human and robot as well as upgradable parts took it much farther than other fighting games. I was so glad to see it become freeware and I still play it. I am also anxiously waiting for the much awaited sequel (www.omf.com)
;( It was the saddest of my childhood memories.
The other game was Cyber Race. I know that probably nobody else has heard of it, but it was THE best game of its type and it beat Mario Kart to the idea by years. You flew around in these hover craft, descent type vechicles, raced, and blew each other up with cool weapons, along with a story line. Unfortunatley it broke and we could never revive it.
The other other game was Crusader. For thoose of you who don't know it is Fallout for dos but without the RPG and D&D aspects. It had superb graphics and sound, excellent gameplay, an involving story and was altogether the, dare i say it, best game to come out of dos.
the other other other game (this is the last one) was The Journeyman Project. I shouldn't need to explain it but despite it's slow interface it has the best story and is the best time-traveling, investigation, and futuristic game that I have played.
I know you probably could care less what I think, along with the 2000 others with an opinion but maybe you can find these old games, or just remember the good old happy days. Just trying to put up a breath of fresh air from starcraft, diablo, civilization (i like this one) and others.
I've grown up on Final Fantasy, and I love it (I mean, you have to to run a Final Fantasy VII site) but after playing Kingdom Hearts, I've found myself lusting after that style of gameplay in a Final Fantasy.
I want to see the more "action" based battle system, combined with the storytelling of Final Fantasy. I doubt it'll ever happen, but I'd love it if it did. Truth be told, I loved getting the opportunity to just WHACK THE CRAP OUTTA things, rather than have turn-based battle. Perhaps I'm just one of those people with a short attention span, but it kept those bits "between major plot developments" more interesting.
Final Fantasy changed my gaming habits forever.
Kingdom Hearts changed the way I want my Final Fantasy.
I've been playing home computer games pretty much since there were home computer games. I've skipped the really old stuff (defender etc.) because most of them are too obscure and tended to go by different names as they were cloned from platform to platform.
Anyway, in rough chronological order...
Repton Infinity - For being the first game with any complexity that was really modable. You could design graphics, levels, animations and even code.
Elite - For stealing not just weeks or months but years of my childhood.
1940 Their Finest Hour, The Battle Of Brittain - For endless playing, over and over, while making igniting a complete fascination in that period of history. I'd tried Falcon 1 through 3, FS4, F-15 Strike Eagle II but that was the first flight sim that really had everything just perfect for me.
Wing Commander - Despite it being a little over blown as a claim, it still was close enough to an interactive movie (compared to what was around) that it really did make you feel like a sci-fi movie star.
Gunship 2000 - For, to this day, being the only flight sim where you could control a whole diverse unit of choppers in much the same way as you can a diverse unit of troops in Ghost Recon.
Alone In The Dark - Primitive polygons now. But at the time, it was the scariest game ever. Especially when you first realised that there were some things you couldn't possibly kill, you just had to run. You weren't an indestructable hero, you were just plain scared.
Doom - For having an interface so simple that you were the game. It was the first game where your fingers just rested on a set of keys, never moving, yet you really felt like you were interacting. That was the genius of the game - you weren't playing it, you were it. That and introducing deathmatches (damn we killed a lot of early LANs) and [excluding Repton Infinity] mods.
No One Lives Forever - For, despite games like Thief trying to do it before, being the first game to really capture me and make me feel like I could play a game my own way, using stealth instead of insane violence. It was also funny as all hell.
Aliens Vs. Predator 2 - For unbelievable balancing. Every time you think you've found an invincible trick, some means of defeating it comes up.
Civ 3 - Because now I can totally understand why South East Asia is important, why Hitler went for Blitzkriegs, why Europe advanced in to industrialisation faster. It's taught me more than any game I've ever known. That and every quick session always turns in to four hours.
Ghost Recon - It finally did what the D-Day part of Medal Of Honor on high difficulty hinted at but then abandonned on later levels. You finally get a military sim where you're scared of getting shot because one shot is all it takes. Much like Gunship 2000, you finally get a good system for controlling multiple troops, which makes it possible to plan really advanced strategies, rather than just rush'n'shoot.
Planetside - OK, I'm biased, I work for SOE. Still, being one part of epic battles, being able to define my own roles (a lone stealth assassin amongst the maelstrom; a scout pilot; a sniper searching out perfect ridgeline positions), it's honestly been proving good enough for me to regularly find something new to just go "Wow!" over. Most of all though, it's the fun of the even more endless than AvP2 discussions over what makes for the perfect squad, the perfect tactics.
(replying to an AC; someone mod the parent up, eh?)
The funny thing about Marathon's sounds is that a lot of them, particularly the loon sound that you mention, were apparently taken from some CD of pre-made sound effects that everyone now uses. I've heard that birdsong sample everywhere from screensavers to "environmental white noise machines" at Radio Shack, and every time I hear it, I'm right back in Waterloo Waterpark in Marathon:Infinity.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
I don't believe I saw Robot Odyssey mentioned. It was originally for the Apple IIgs, but I played it on my Tandy 1000TX. The plot is very simplistic; you wake up, step out of bed, and fall into the lowest level of Robotropolis. To get out, you have to design circuits using "and" and "or" gates, latches, and sensors that control robots to get things for you like keys and parts. That game is what got me interested in electronics and I would hazard to say that it is why I am currently in school working on my Computer Engineering degree. Of course, I never beat the game, which I perhaps should have taken as a warning...
I've played a lot of other games that have scared me, or made me think, or made me cry, but no other game has actually affected my direction in life so directly.
1. Adventure on the Atari 2600. The first game that showed me there was more to playing computer games than simply pressing the fire button at the right time. The dragons looked like floating ducks, your character was represented by a single green block and the "sword" looked like this an arrow ... but, in the '70's it was soooo cool. Play a cut down version online here.
2. Adventure (zork) played at university on the VAX/VMS system - kind of zork I and II combined into one uber zork !!. The game that simultaneously caused me to fail and then later pass Computing 121. I failed COMP initially because I was OBSESSED with the game and never did any work. I later passed the course with an A (the second time round) because, after failing the COMP course, my account with the university computing system was taken away and I couldnt play anymore. So I went out and bought my first "real" computer (TRS80 Model III) and taught myself to program so I could write my own adventure game. The skills I learned doing that ignited my interest in all things computing and allowed me to get an A in COMP 121 the second time around. Play it online here.
3. DOOM. Having passed computing and eventually a BScDipEd I went into teaching. Early one year a kid brought in DOOM - Now most teachers would frown upon the theme and the obvious violence. I loved it !!! I got a bunch of year 9 kids together and we hooked up some old 486dx33 machines with thin ethernet just so we could play network doom - I told the principal I wanted to "network the computers" for school stuff - but "really" I just wanted to play Doom !!! Trying to get IPX (and later IP) working on a DOS/windows for workgroups network, mucking around with network cards, black cables, termintors and net.cfg files taught me (and the kids) heaps and heaps and heaps. Eventually we got a real network, linux servers and quake and the whole thing ... I now support 6 servers, over 200 workstations and over 700 users, but nothing compared to getting DOOM networked that first time and blowing away the kids with a shot gun!!
And I like my roomate.
-=The Dude=-
Was working in a warehouse picking paint pots. There was a room high up overlooking down most of the ilses.
Immediately I thought "What a great sniping point"
UT made me a saddo.
A blog I run for the wealth
...Half-Life.
I have not been able to go near standing water since I met those wonderful creatures known as the Icthyosaurs (I think.) Just that odd growling / groaning sound was enough to cause me to pause the game and turn on every light in the house.
I recall at one point in the game, where you have to descend a ladder into some murky depths (where you KNOW that at least one of these fanged nasties is waiting) to proceed. I got about 1/2 a foot away from the water when I heard the call of an Icthyosaur. I spent the next 10 minutes tossing grenades and sachel bombs, and then firing every weapon I had into the water, randomly, until I finally saw the bastard float to the surface.
Since then, standing water, especially the murky variety of unknown depth, scares the bejeezus out of me in every game that I have played, not to mention in real life.
"Sometimes you have fun, and sometimes the fun has you"
One of the games which has affected me most must be Doom. Because it allowed me to play against a real person. I used play hours on end with a friend through a null-modem connection, and this really opened my mind to the fact that games, to me, from that moment on, no longer were solitary activities. At the time this had a huge impact on me: interacting through a computer with another human: unheard of, brilliant!
Second comes Warcraft 2. To me and may of my friends this was the first real multiplayer game. We would gather up with a bunch of friends, team up, backstab
"It usualy starts with some screaming. Afterwards there is much running around."
Heh I remember back in the day having Lans (over a serial cable :P ) of Doom II going on for literally 12 hours with only stops to go to the bathroom, then running home, scared of the cyberdaemons behind me. Those were the days.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Same here. I've only played Chrono Trigger, mind you, but it gave me the biggest emotional attachment to a game in my life, and I'm gaming since '87....
Guybrush Threepwood is my best friend for years now ! And I still play his adventures every now and then (all four parts, but I love the second part the most).
Shenmue 1 had racing of forklifts, the motorcycle sequence, the virtua fighter fighting engine, collectables, QTE events, real arcades with real arcade games, etc, etc, etc.
Shenmue 1 is a trip to Japan. Shenmue 2 is a trip to Hong Kong. They graphics are enough to make you believe and feel very much for Ryo on his quest to avenge his father.
I could say the same thing about Xenosaga, a great game with a very immersive plot. There are lots of games out with these layers and beauty to them, you just have to look for them.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy 8
Silent Hill (most scary game ever made?)
After playing Doom for several hours till 3 a.m. I woke up too late in the morning. Rushing to bus stop where the bus was just about leave and I needed another 100 metres I told myself:
I should save it, in case I don't make it in time!
I haven't stopped playing Daikatana 2 for the past 3 years... I wonder when Romero wants his code back? I don't think he wants to release this stable of a game yet. Me thinks he's waiting to release it on a 64bit arch so it is a little bit incompatible and crashes every hour or so. Still, great game!
Final Fantasy VI because it was the first console RPG I played, and it opened me the eyes how good RPGs on consoles can be - if you can't render 3D graphics you have to make up with excellent stories (note: this does not mean that there are no good PC RPGs) :p) - nothing more satifying to link up with a good chum and beat the hell out of some Demons
Fallout, for the excellent athmosphere, and because the German translation was butchered enough to make me seek out English language games whenever possible.
And remember: in case of a nuclear detonation near you - duck & cover!
Doom, for the addictiveness and the network play (via serial
Aliens vs Predator for the "little marine" feeling.
I'm talking about the pre-patch, no-save AvP. Hear the motion tracker... *tick*..... *tick*..... *block*.... *block*.. *block*. *tick*..... where did it go? careful... careful... *block* Damn! *gunfire* *splatter* *restart level*
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
Since most motorcyles are air-cooled, they can't sit in traffic jams. I've been told by people who know that (at least in Oregon and Washington) motorcyles are allowed to pass between cars or on the shoulder during a jam. The sidewalk would be a no-no, but if someone is threatening you it seems like a good idea. I hope most cops and judges would be understanding.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Because I'm in my senior year of college and about to fail all my classes. =(
After playing it for a while, whenever I see a lamppost or a lightsource in general I want to shoot it out. Too bright, must be hidden, must make sure exposure meter is on the far left... shhh, someone coming...
I was once trying to crack a concurrency problem that manifested itself under strange conditions, with a relatively complex data set. As this was somewhat important and relatively difficult for me, I was digging around the source files for 3-4 days. Anyway, I was thinking so many hours and so hard on this problem, that in the end I dreamt about it.
But It was a very strange dream. It had no sound, no feeling, not even a sense of space! The strangest thing (that I cannot even describe properly) is that it had the equivalent of two time-like directions! Yes, that is wierd....
Influenced a lot of stuff today, but came out before most were born, or your parents even had a date. Seems that netrek is a descendent of PLATO's Empire, a most addictive and influential game.
It's a sign of age, but I'd say the oooooriginal Space War (pre-Pong), and earrrrly space stuff like the early Atari 400/800 game (Star Raiders?) and BattleZone. As some have said about the old text stuff, long on imagination (by necessity) and inspired many of us in the times of "you want it - you write it"...
Games have always inspired me. As a young adult, Sierra many Quest games whetted my appetite for adventure and were a constant "friend" during my growing up period. I felt such a bond with Sierra that it really made an impact to me when they were forced to call quits. I feel nothing for the Sierra of today.
I had a friend who experienced something similar - I believe it was with the game "Alien Vs Predator"
When he got to a certain level or area, he started hearing music like "the choochoo game goes round and round" etc etc... least to say when combined with people being ripped into pieces or having heads removed it was a little mismatched
As he put it to me: "This kids music was playing, and the aliens were running around ripping people to pieces. All I could think was 'whoever made this game is really f**ked up'" I asked him what level/area he was at, as I've never heard this music - it later turned out his kid had left a Reader-Rabbit or similar CD left in the drive
Having played QW since its birth and having evolved with the scene, I can't help but think about bunnyjumping from place to place, boosting my speed with rocket jumps, and combo jumps. Shafting assholes up to the corner of the room so they would shut up etc.
I had the same effect from THPS as someone mentioned before. I have been grinding and jumping before, (on blades though) But now since I've played THPS, everything is possible =D
And last but not least: Splinter Cell. Me and my friend can't stop looking at different types of lighting, security measures, ways of taking things into posession without anyone noticing and every time we see something like this we go "Stealthy stealh, like a motorized mollard" (that's from Team Fortress btw. a QW mod). We get the akward looks, but like I care. My visibility meter is showing zero and sticky shockers aren't that hard to find, eh >;)
played that game for 7 straight days w/o end. after having figured out that you can put your favorite MP3's in some game folder to have a custom radio station, it became too realistic for me :) since I used the same set of mp3s in my car stereo and in the game, which was of course a bit, hmm, let's say reality bending. I certainly remember brain pattern gta3-feel-alikes when being a bit late to a real life appointment and then rushing with my car through heavy inner city traffic with those mp3s running... which got - on purpose - even worse, when I grabbed the whole gta series soundtracks off their cds and put them on mp3-cd.
g e saved my day :) - check yourself when having a dangerous moment again and you will see what I mean, since most people will just turn the steering harder when they notice the car is not gonna follow because of water, ice or snow. which makes the problem worse without doubt, what will add up when they finally realise that they've lost control over their car and then hammer the brakes. GTA3 saved me from that counter-productive braking attempt, since you've had a milllllion corner slides practised and you know that you'll slide more when turning the wheels away from the car's momentum and what happens if you BRAKE while sliding... :)
but my driving skills have improved a lot. no kidding - being able to do some slide-and-turn with a pretty realistic driving physics engine is a lot of fun while being a bit edudative at the same time. what impressed me most was that event in winter, when I got a tad off track on real life winter roads and the GTA3-induced "turn-the-steering-the-other-way-when-sliding"-ur
The first time I played this ungodly horrifying game, it was about 3am after a long night of substance abuse. My Sig Oth and I were in our living room with a PS2 hooked up, and we decided to plug in this horror, action/adventure survival game. When the first zombie reared its ugly head, I nearly had a heart attack.
What made it even worse, is after we had played for a while, we decided to go down to the Kwik-E-Mart for a squishee and some munchies, and when we exited our apartment building, the downtown streets were dead silent, with not another living being in sight... and a slight mist...
never before or since have I been so ready to bolt inside and barracade the doors. Just glad that I didn't hear radio static... I would have lost it entirely
The chains are broken
Loki is free
Ragnarok is at hand...
You might be interested in knowing that another FF-collection CD for playstation just came out - I believe it details the Japanese episodes 1-3 (could just be two of the three though), but with revamped graphics.
Currently I'm replaying my "FF Chronicles" CD, with FFIV (FF2 in USA, but with better translation, skills, and a few video cutscenes added).
For awhile, I lived the plots of FF2/FF3 (USA). The games were completely immersive, like having a great book but being able to dig into the plotline, and not being able to advance it without actually playing through.
I bought my PS2 for FFX, and it culminated the experience from my childhood. With full voice, awesome graphics, and cinematics, it's more a cross between a movie and book now. My only beef is the modifications for the USA version, why cut stuff out or change it???!!
I'm hoping FFXII can live up to my expectations (also hoping it will be available on PC, better graphics and I don't have to shell for yet another console).
In the meantime, has anyone ever considered trying to redevelop the old FF's into more modern graphics, perhaps with a 3d engine and cinematics? If somebody could come up with a short demo, I wonder if Square would be interested in furthing such a project.
Also, why couldn't somebody make a Open-Source RPG project of similar nature.
I'm not an expert, but I had developed a base 3D development engine (D3D) years back that would have been suitable for RPG's (less speedy rending needed, more cachable/fixed scenes). I'm sure there's somebody with better coding skills, and perhaps more time who could create a decent linux/GL engine and start an RPG.
The one that "got to me" the most would have to be the Alien mod for Doom. On my uncle's advice, I played it late at night with all the lights off. As scary as the imps in the dark catacombs were, as scary as the Half-Life headcrabs were, those were cheap compared to the Aliens mod. To this day I can disctinctly rember crawling down this little air vent, a very very long pitch-black air vent. Knowing there would be a face sucker in there somewhere. Knowing...crawl...crawl...crawl...stop... breathe...crawl. Tension mounting. Oh it was agonizing. Then the flash of white bony legs flying at your face and me jumping out of my chair and flailing at the mouse. Ouch. Sh1t. Heart racing, take deep breaths calm down. Will there be another one?
The game that engrossed me for the longest time has to be Counter-Strike. It is such elemental competition with real people using technique, tactics, and strategy. I played it so much it got instinctual, and I would know what the players on both teams were doing just from glancing at the radar, listening, and the little timer in my head that would say "they should have been here by now." It was also the most satisfying game, when I could rush the weak side and come up behind the pack of enemies, mowing down 3 or 4 and single-handedly determining the outcome.
But the game that changed my real life the most has to be the original Gran Turismo, because it completely changed the way I feel about cars and the way I drive. I drive far, far safer now, partially because I have another outlet for my "need for speed" and partially because it was realisitic enough that any crack up on the track ruined your race. It conditioned me to not make mistakes, and drive the car inside its envelope. I also learned a great deal about cars and how they work. I'm also far less interested in having my dailey-driver car fast and/or sporty. Street cars aren't fast and really fast cars are not practical for the street, so why pretend. Race cars are for racing and street cars are for transportation. If you drive your street car like it is in a race, it is just going to wear out/break.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
"Destroy him, my robots!!!!" ^_____^
The game that hooked me to my c64 for months
Long-lasting effect upon my life in games would have to come from the FF series, but if you want some nice midnight goosebumps try AvP or Avp2.
I played with my cousin a few times. Being that I'd played FPS games a lot more than him, I figured he'd be a pushover. Somehow, he excelled at using the freaky wall-crawling glassbowl-visioned aliens. All of a sudden, it's around midnight, the lights are dark, and the house is quiet (except for each of our headphones), and I'm almost panting with freaked-out expectation of this ugly alien bastard that keeps jumping out of holes in the roof/wall clawing me, and running off before I can blast it.
AvP2... my friends used to tell me how damn freaky it was when they could hear facecrawler legs clickety-clicking away on metal floor. Of course we were drunk at the time, but half-tanked late nights with low light are the best way to play a freaky game (my ambient red-ribbon Xmas lights probably helped too).
Although I absolutly hate the game(I used to play a lot of UO though...), EQ has probably affected more lives than any other game. Sony has been sued after one of their customers commited suicide, and there are many support groups and such for the family and friends of EQ addicts.
Personally, for a MMO to have any appeal to me it must have PvP... The only purpose of it is to get to the next level, hence the name levelquest.
I mean, granted, it didn't really make me think too much... In fact, quite the opposite. And it wasn't really all that innovative... but rarely has so much been done right in an RTS. Blizzard could have opted for the original "orcs in space" style gameplay, but chose to give us something more; something that changed strategy gaming and as sad as it may sound, my life, forever.
It's the only game from 1997 that I still play today. And even at 640x480 with 256bpp, the game still looks good. Not great of course, but good. The artists did excellent work with an amazing attention to detail. It really helped define that Blizzard polish we've come to expect these days. As fun as WarCraft 3 may be, we don't all have high end systems, and it doesn't take place in space, either. ;)
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
I seriously can't play this game alone at night anymore. One day in particular I was up all night playing and when the sun started to come up, I noticed that it was really foggy out. I opened my front door and there were no cars, no people, no morning birds....it was wierd. Right about then, One of the creatures in the game got close enough to the character in the game to make the radio crackle.....scared the "F" out of me!!
"Nobody sensible believes in ghosts anyway--that's because they're all such liers." The Other Mother from "Coraline"
- Rubics Cube
- Bubble Booble
- Doom
- DarkAges
I rember playing the origional system shock on nights at work.Looking at the clock it was 7pm...next time i looked it was 6am.Id been so into the game id just mounted the mainframe tappes in a haze and just played all nite..talk about immersed:)
The game that first sent me running from the keyboard of my Amiga 500 was Alien Breed back in '91. I was only about 10/11 when it came out, and I'd sneaked a watch of the Aliens film a few weeks before. ;) The storyline is what does it for that game.
The game was so dark and atmospheric, and to a 10 year old, utterly terrifying.
Then after that in '96(I think) comes Doom. This game for me was the single handed reason to switch from Amiga to PC, and from there develop into the geek I am today. It taught me the finer points of doging shots by frantically leaning in my chair. I remember when I first came up upon the cyberdemon. I fell out of my chair. It was huge!
Then there's Aliens vs Predator, which to this day I refuse to play in the dark as a Marine.
I couldn't really forget to include Half-life either
I've aced in carribean history courses since I played this game. Unfortunately, there are no carribean history courses here :-(
Yoho, yoho, I a pirates life's for me!
I never was morally affected by a game until I tried POSTAL 2. Too much is too much, what is this game, pure sadism??? I got really affected by this horror; it showed me that we crossed the line of reasonability while ago. Only thinking that kids around the world have played this game makes me sick. I sincerely hope no one will reply defending this kind of game.
leisure suit larry in the land of the loung lizards was one of the first amazing games I played. Point and click movement, type in commands, all-most EGA nudity. It was amazing for a 12 year old.
I deleted my sig years ago.
I still remember clearly how I was running around in the third level, Command Centre iirc, and I heard a demon somewhere, but I had no idea where it might be (it was in that long corridor you need to acces, right before grabbing the yellow key).
I had the sound cranked up quite nicely, and I bet the neighbours could hear grunts all around. Suddenly I hear a loud grunt from that demon, the next thing I know is someone touching my shoulder. I probably went up for 20 cm (about 9"), from a sitting position. Turns out my dad came to ask me to turn down the volume somewhat.
I played it for hours, and even when sleeping I could see the waal twisitng and turning. Neat!
I am the Shield Anvil. And I am not yet done.
One of the greatest game I played. I still remember after long sessions till 3 o'clock, dreams with the game's HUD superimposed and having to click on people to start conversation.
oh, and the spells in Icewind Dale... kept repeating them like a madman
but first spot goes to "Personal Nightmare" on the Amiga. scared the shit out of me and since i never finished it due to a bug, it kept haunting me for years in my dreams...
I played it on an old BBC model B micro, but it was on a fair few platforms at the time.
The first game I'm aware of to give you total freedom. Here's your ship, there's the universe. Go for it.
This isn't a joke! I spent most of my life playing strategy and RPG games on a PC or mac. Then one weekend I was helping a friend by playing a small part in a film for him... that's neither here nor there, but the producer brought a Playstation, which I'd never seen. And a copy of Driver. I played about 14 hours of driver that day, and then drove home from the shoot.
I hit 110 without knowing it at one point, dodging in and out of traffic on LA freeways like it was child's play. I snapped out of it after the second near accident that would have been been fatal at that speed.
A distant second is X-Com: UFO defense, which sucked me in emotionally like no other game. I spent an entire spring break week playing it one year in college. So much that at one point I stopped caring and had my team blaster-bomb themselves for fun. When I got up from my chair, I was instantly hit with a wave of nausea and headache like I'd never felt before or since - the effect of some 60+ hours staring at the screen almost nonstop, plus on-off play for another 2.5 days before. I tottered off to the loo, violently blew my lunch, and crept back to bed, where I lay sobbing for hours because the intense pain of the migraine plus huge caffeine load prevented me from falling asleep. I've never felt so sick.
But to this day, I think X-Com: UFO defense is the greatest game ever created. Can't wait for the opensource remake to bear fruit...
I stole this sig from someone cleverer than me.
For the Apple IIe.
1a. DOOM, AlienTC (Total Conversion). 30 minutes to _very_ shaky hands and no contact yet (on the first level). Scary bugger. Very little ammo, practically no medpacks, aliens dropping down on you ...
"Remember: short, controlled bursts."
"Let's finish our sweep. We're still marines and we got a job to do."
i was all fired up, sweating, adrenaline pumping etc... select all missiles and guns and let loose ;)
that game was hell cool, and it was on macintosh :D
"Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything" -- Josef Stalin
Favorite, and Influential games? Hmmmmm, I would have to say:
1.) Murphy's Miners [Apple II] (officially placed me on my geek path in life)
2.) Super Mario 3 [NES] (because I wanted to runaway to Reno and become a professional video game savant)
3.) Battle of Olympus [NES] (The single reason why I became interested in Greek Mythology, which in turn influenced me to travel to Greece, where I met my girlfriend of 5 years.)
4.) Legend of Red Dragon [BBS Door] (First fun experience with RPG's)
5.) Marathon [Mac] (First 1st person shooter I really enjoyed, resulted in countless wasted hours)
6.) Shadow President [PC] (Nukes.. nuff said)
7.) Warcraft II [PC/Mac] (Spent night after night playing this game while at school in Pasadena. Blacker House became the ground zero of clan warfare during the weekends between our house and a group of guys from nasa. Damn near failed my Laser Physics Lab class because of that game!)
Plan 9, more fun than you could ever imagine.
When Siege was first added to Asylum MUD, the sheer fear it induced when playing it was incredible. Far beyond anything I've ever experienced from a graphical game. Even today, 5 years or so later, running Siege gets the heart racing, sweat running, mouth drying...
Listening for the sound of the coming rain...
Best game I've ever played.
It seems obvious that this classic has completely destabilized this guy! Actually, it's a great fun to spot the invaders mosaics in the streets of Paris; a friend setup a website to try and shoot'em al.
I stopped playing them when they started giving the player suggestions on what the characters should say... the coolest thing about them was that the computer would actually understand what you wrote (of course that could be a problem when it decided not to understand something and you had to try all versions of a sentence in order to get it to understand you).
You don't think enough... therefore you better not be!
Anyone remember tiltowait?
Resident Evil was is the only game to date I wont play.
How Now Brown Cow
For all intensive purposes, you have been trolled.
I loved Jagged Alliance 1 so I had to buy the next release. The game changed my life in two ways:
This was the last game I bought. It had so many bugs that even the patches couldn't solve. I will never buy a regular game again (unless I get the source code!)
I will never say a word agains children protection. I can still remember the scene. Three team members were hiding in a small wooden shack and waiting for the bad guys to come in (they were just some agressive farmers looking who's makeing troubles). So they came in and I shoot them with the pump guns from point blank. Bam Bam, both dead.
Then I started thinking. How many guys do I have to kill to win the game? Is the evil dictator really worse than me?
I tried to get to a wounded enemy with my first aid kits but I never managed. There was no way to disable the enemys in a less-than-final way. No tear-gas, no rubber bullets.
I think that minors have to be protected against such kind of games.
On Apple IIGS...educational classic =9
I'm not big on computer games... but about a year ago I got addicted to an open-source, networked game called BZFLAG
It's simplicity and tight community has made me the kind of nerd I used to make fun of.
----
Rehab is for quitters
this title still is the most realistic racing simulation today, even though it's five years old! It has very good physics, great internet racing (19 drivers), tons of add on tracks (both fiction and real racing venues), and lots of nice racing leagues to participate in. How it has affected me in real life?
Well, if race long-distance you need to have stamina, so after years of being a couch potato I got out there again, rode my bike, ran through the woods, simply to be be fit enough to go through those bi-weekly league races in one piece!
Ever wondered whats wrong with the world? http://www.ishmael.org/
Man, I love those games to death but the opening movies that they create always sorta made me tense and feel sick. The helplessness that the movies were saturated with really stuck with me. I could never imagine being in situation like they portrayed.
For us old timers, the original Adventure game has the biggest impact. Heck, there was no other game like it. It was the first to actually put "twisty little mazes" into our lives and to create an artificial world onto our computers. Long before the PC was even born. XYZZY to you all!!!
Starcraft has been the most engaging game I've ever played. I can't stop playing it, but more significantly, I can't stop thinking about it. I come up with strategies, think over losses, ponder better ways to integrate my units. As long as BNet exists, there will always be human punks to go against to keep sharp.
Etc, etc, ad nauseam, and so on and so forth.
18:59 5/5/2546
topic: stuck in there somewhere.
Handheld: DonkyKong III (double screen, the brown one) = 850 points, SpaceInvader (two player), Pac-man.
Atari: the game with tanks shooting round corners.
Apple II: IndianaJones-like game, sidescrolling, i can't remember the name. in an actekian underground temple. Boobytrapes everywhere.
Taipan (Tradinggame), too young to figure out this vbrun20 (?) loading process. but got a "hello world" working ; )
Amiga: Popoulous (first time at a friends house, didn't sleep an hour that night), Hardball (?: i can't remember the name, probably didn't eat enough; broke my first joyticks)
Intel:
Amstrad (two floppy no HDD): AllyCat, Castle Wolfenstein, BuckRogers(?), SpaceQuest I-III, Leisure Suit L., SpaceGoose,
286 commodore laptop + mouse: LHX (!) heli-sim, SIMCity
386-noname + Joystick: WING COMMANDER I (***), Railroad Tycoon
486DX2 + soundcard: WING COMMANDER II + III (what a fight for does 610 KB free memory), STRIKE COMMANDER, DOOM
Pentium and LAN: Syndicate and Syndicate Wars, Quake, Quake Arena
singapore is just a super-country ; )
When is there going to be a new "Syndicate Wars"? PLEASE BULLFROG!!!
.
First game I played with speech (even if it was just the intro, since I couldn't afford the speech pack and the game...) To this day I can still recite the intro word for word.
"Arise, grandson. How goes the war against the humans?", and such.
So, maybe it was many different shades brown, but it had a Trent Reznor score and rocked along on my P75. It was the first game I obsessed with and I can still remember the sensation of shutting my eyes to sleep and immediately lurching off into the endless corridors burned into my subconcious. I completed the game, the add-ons and the mods around about the time that a beautiful thing came into my life: online gaming. Phwooargh! The single-player game was widely criticised for its lack of originality, gameplay, story line, etc., but I loved it all the same. I loved the sensation of finding myself in a bleak landscape where everything that moved was trying to kill me. I can still recall cresting a ramp powered up with a quad, decimating a charge of knights with the super nail gun as the soundtrack peaked into a screaming thrash. Ahh... those were the days. Scariest game? AvsP, for sure. Like the review said, 'Lights down, volume up, pants full!'. Next up, the crypt scenes in RTCW were well done. System Shock 2 had its moments, but then went all Half-Life at the end.
ICO made me cry. I'm not proud of it, but when my horned little boy became a man and got the semi-translucent girl, it's really every father's dream.
The graphics and story are really amazing and pulled in into the wrold the game was building. That, of course, set you up for the emotional bludgeoning they had in for you.
And I was never so happy to see a couch as I was in that game.
anyone ever play the original alone in the dark? that game changed my life back when. it was the reason i got into IT in the first place, because I needed to install all kinds of multimedia stuff in my old 286. awesome game!
First time I got laid, ever!
I started Playing Civ I in high school and it was by far my favorite game of all time at the time. I remember reading articles about it in computer game magazines and obsessing over the strategies and debating them with my oldest brother. If you can pick up "CivNet" on ebay or at a used software store, its probably one of the better ways to play multiplayer since by now any machine will make it run screamingly fast. Civ II was my least favorite, some of the units seemed gimicky and it just seemed much much easier all the way around- plus, if you isolated yourself on a continent and built up on a certain tech-tree there was no way to loose. That kinda broke the game for me. CiV III goes back to Civ I imo, but expands the excellent options with a bit more realism to the geography and resource use. Its also not as easy to win without cultural interaction- infact its probably pretty impossible at the higher levels. It seems that Civ3 is the most balanced version that I have ever played. Forget the "Call to Power" crap, its just useless.
It's all about retro Apple II for that "feelin'".
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
... if the definition is 'wasted a semester of my education on it', I'd have to say Netrek or Civ would qualify.
Games like Civ and SimCity definitely affected my worldview though.
Do you even know what I meant by that, oh glorious moderator? It is most certainly ON TOPIC as it pertains to how the game Final Fantasy VII DEEPLY AFFECTED ME.
Christ almighty, where's my account with metamod...
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Thou art an idiot.
Thanks for calling.
After finishing Legend of Zelda (at great length and with the occasional cheat from a much more game obsessed friend) I had several dreams where I realized there was One More Thing I had to collect before I was "really" done.
Definately FinalFantasy2 on SNES. FF4J2E is just as good though.
usepost2000
Half life, is still the best game I have ever played. Dues Ex is very good to, but Half-Life, I love it. Thief is amazing alternative game play. The reason Undying is on the list is that at one time you look in the mirror and you see a goast appear behind you with a mad laugh (I have nice surround effects on my speakers). My reaction: In game; spin 180, duck shoot at head. In real world; after the game part, got up, pushed the mouse back and said, f&(# this, I need my nerves. Fun!
Free speech is getting expensive...
I've grown up on games. From Atari 2600 up to the triad of consoles (PS2, Xbox, Gamecube). So here's the down and dirty. Zelda: all the non portables version. The stories, and the near open-endedness of the games. Zelda 1 is perhaps one of the only games I've completed and played again, and again.... Metroid: Another game I could beat and play over again. This games open ended designs were amazing. It was a bit lax on story, but was flooded with depth and little secrets to keep you moving on discovering new things each play time (this was before internet Cheat sheets started spoiling games) Interplay golden Box D&D series. Dragon lance golden box series was truley amazing back in the days of 4 color CGI displays. I'd bring "Secret of the Silver blades" and "champions of Krynn" (I think that was the name) in to my High School computer class and we'd play it a good portion of the day. We'd spend hours just generating characters and forming up a killer party. Making it past that first Draconian roadblock was a huge success for me, since non of my other friends could. Shame the Teacher kept formatting the hard drives to keep the games off it. Thief 1 and 2. This game bent the mainstream FPS standard. Instead of rushing into combat the whole premis was sneaking around and avoiding it. There where a few very memorably moments for me in Thief. Particularly after getting my eye ripped out by plant chick I was in the under ground cavern. I killed 2 of those weird things perfectly, one shot one kill. The 3rd guy was alerted and started booking it. There was no way I could catch him and I feared the reinforcements he'd bring. So I loaded up an arrow and took aim. Just as he was about to turn a corner, about 100 feet away, I fired. the arrow arced perfectly in the sky and hit the target dead on killing him. Thankfully since I was low on health. Also those damn haunted libraries scared me, I usually rushed through those places as fast as I could, and games rarely ever scare me this sort of way. Final Fantasy: what can I say, the games have made me laugh and cry and touched my soul in a way no movie or book or any other game could. They are quirky and weird at times but They drew me in and held me till the games were completed. Ultima Online: this was my first endeaver into the online world of games. To this day I believe it has the best resource and skill based systems of any online game (though it's been a year since I've played it). essentially the lackluster attempts to modernize the graphics pushed me away. That and my hate for EA. Well, there is deffinately alot more games out there that have changed my life, for the better or worse. "Sam & Max", "Full Throttle", "Fallout", Mechwarrior, Crystalis, Metal Geat and heck I could keep naming memorable games.
I've played the whole console system thing. I liked the games though no one console game changed my life. It was a flightsim that did it. MS Combat Flight was the one that changed my life and set me on my way into my new career. The flight sim was so scalable, I had to learn how to edit the texture of the planes. Essential for getting the mean look that I wanted. I learned to create the aircraft models ( 3d ) which I now use for Soldier of Fortune. I also learned how to tweak game settings and in general learned alot of how my computer worked got interested in learning more. Eventually it lead to programming, and of all things Linux. Had it not been for CFS I might not be where I am today. I hate to say it but thanks Microsoft. For CFS your best product!
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Ghost Recon was a bust, when i first played it. Having only played 'come get some' FPSs (like doom/ut(2k3)/turok), the sneaky touch to the game was what got me.
There is something to crawling through high grass, hearing the nature around you and then getting half of your team killed in a second by some stupid sniper, who you can not even see...
the computer is online
i am not at it
what a waste of ressources
Like I said... mostly multiplayer. Couple of categories:
a) Tunnels of Doom and Ultima III. Helped get me interested in computer games at an early age, and fantasy as a genre. Lots of hours hanging out with my brother and dad.
b) Warcraft 2 and Total Annihilation. Why? Bonding with college friends.
c) Everquest and MUSHes. Long term gaming. Social interaction with people I don't know.
Doom II alone was scary as a first person. But once I played it down using all the iddqd codes a friend and I decided to try out the multiplayer, co-op.
We were new to computer technicalities and eventually found out how to connect to each other. It was awesome when we found out how to talk to each other and run through the labrynths.
Sometimes someone would take point and run up ahead and run back if there was trouble. (often leads into the pointman getting trapped and killed). Sometimes we'd go mad and kill each other while texting each other, "where are youuuuuuu".
We were saying to each other, one day a whole bunch of us will be killing each other online.
Heh, it was always entertaining to face the cyberdemon mano y... err duo.
That goddamned microscope puzzle was the one thing I couldn't beat.
:(
I bought the 11th Hour and somewhere along the game, they had a similar game with a honeycomb filled with blood and honey. I actually beat the computer on the first try! And then the damn thing locked up. I gave up on 11th Hour after that
Quite possibly the most original, enthralling, beautiful, and unique game I've ever come accross would have to be ICO. Seriously, you've got to go rent this one. It's one of those games that will suck you in and latch on to you until you beat it. It's a puzzle game, but ... it's *much* more than that, you've just got to play it.
Another oldie-but-goodie that will take to to another world would have to be Sony's little heard of but very interesting game "Onyx". It came out many moons ago for Win/Mac but is a trip to play. Google for it, it's a hard one to find and very little known but very fun.
Damn you & your sig! Now I'll be singing the Red Dwarf theme all day :)
Man that was a great series!
Build boards not bombs
You know, I started my gaming life on consoles. Few games make me want to play like Metroid and Final Fantasy and ChronoTrigger. But they don't MOVE me.
Every game that has honestly moved me has had the involvement of one man: Warren Spector.
I started with System Shock 2. The music, the atmosphere, the insane chanting of the hybrids, and SHODAN. No game has ever scared me that much. It didn't shock me. It didn't surprise me. It engendered a deep fear of corners and screeching monkeys and muttering madmen in the shadows. The game touched me on visceral level.
The next one was Thief. I readily admit I never finished Thief. I was weak. The zombies scared the living crap out of me. No one warned me that they came back after you hacked them to death. Imagine my surprise, when I turned around and there was the one I just "killed" standing there ready to give me a hug.
Deus Ex just combined everything good about Shock2 and Thief and combined it with every conspiracy theory ever. It wasn't as scary as Thief and Shock2 but it had a farther reaching story.
404 Error:
Too bad though that on the drive to and from work that I don't actually have a Solid Granite car :)
Ultima was the first game I played for hours. I can still remember when I finally "won". The screen gave me a phone number to call. I begged permission from my mom to call (It was long distance) and what was the big prize? I could buy a T-shirt. Every time I see A Christmas Story the part about the secret code reminds me of that great disappointment. I thought I had really achieved something!
B O R I N G
Both amazing games and held to the apocoliptic themes well. Thanks for bringing this up!
I went to battle MC Escher but drew a blank
Ahhh there are so many. Everyone has touched on something I liked from the old skool funky coolness of the Apple/Atari to the modern consoles and PC titles. I could write for hours on games as art and sources of inspiration. I'll save it for a slashdot article in the future.
We had Rez, Panzer Dragoon: Orta, Chrono Cross, Soul Calibur, Jet Grind Radio, Jet Set Radio Future, Animal Crossing, Xenogears, FF9, Resident Evil, Shenmue 2...
:)
Not all of these games are RPGs, but they all have many attributes to recommend them to the serious gamer. If you're looking for the ultimate RPG with many mini-games, then you won't get that RPG very often. Every few years is often enough, I think, considering how many decent games are out there that are worth your time (such as Devil May Cry, or Sonic Adventure).
There are lots of good games. You just have to look for them
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Still a very cool game and still very challenging! Dual-joysticks and smart bombs, what else do I have to say? 8)
Get yourself a HotRod joystick and the mame emulator and it'll be like you never left the 80's!
i know i am a lamo for saying this... this game scared me so friggin bad, i have rented it 3 times and cant beat it, my heart gets all freaked out and i dont like turning around corners.... if you havnt played the game, only do it if you like these type of games, alot of people said this game sucked.... i loved it, so yes.... with a controller in my hand and a pair of soiled pants, i will say this game has effected me.
Descent turned me on to pc gaming, I can't count the times I've jumped in my chair or leaned to try and get out of the way. I still occasionally play it to this day. Wish I culd look forward to a D4.Oh well, all good things come to an end.
Still in my pyro...still in the mines! {POF}LrdDragoon
The first game that really scared me. I was selling PCs and software at retail then, right out of high school. The first multi-CD game I can remember, it just kept throwing in creepy sounds and videos when you weren't expecting it. And the difficulty of the puzzles! That's how I learned the word 'tryst'. Second follow up: Sierra's Phantasmagoria. 7 CD-ROMS, unheard of for that time. Still got 'em. It was genuinely creepy, unusual to play a girl for the lead character, let alone a hot girl! (C'mon, I know I'm not the only one who noticed that she jiggled when she ran...) The first game I can think of that used actual digitized video of people in the game itself. Now what was her name...??? kM
-- You can't drink all day. (Unless you start in the morning...)
The first person shooter that was modeled after the books.
The first time you got up next to a trollic running at your grunting was freaky, then you get the the first castle deal and a lighting strike flashes everything like a strobe and one is standin in front of you. The damn trollic, and the sound made me almost shit myself. Then the wind of souls chasin you though the way(the machin I think it was called)...the creeping death, the damn things with the claws...it was all just a spooky ass game that was well made. Good stuff...
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
A kin to megawars. I still have it running at:
telnet newman.hn.org 2020
I was involved in a car accident after playing this game. I played the game much more than actually driving in real life. As a result, my driving style adapted and I made a mistake that caused an accident. Specifically, I merged into another lane without looking. This activity is good strategy in the game -- if there is a car in the next lane, you will cut them off by merging and prevent them from passing you. So you don't bother looking, because the accident damage is negligible.
virtual valarie
"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."
~Epictetus
Gave me nightmares for days after playing. This game messed with my mind good. Gabriel Knight - Sins of our Fathers was another good one.
Probably the game that most changed the way I think is Lists and Lists. It's a text adventure game that teaches you Scheme, which is a dialect of Lisp. If you've never programmed in a language like Lisp, try it out! It is a totally different way of thinking about programming and this game is a great way to learn it. There's even an online version at the webpage.
...WITH the Speech Synthesizer module plugged in and warmed up. Only '99ers would remember this but, because the TI Speech Synth plugged into the console edge connector right next to a flat module slot that you could seriously use as a hotplate, it tended to overheat all the time. When it overheated, it didn't stop working; it started "whispering" .
Not clearly discernible speech, mind you, but irregular, chanty, eerie, "people-under-the-stairs", sub-vocal whispering. The exact same sort of whispering you hear in every horror movie right before some random teenager catches a fireman's axe in the spleen. Amazing how raw terror can increase the immersive quality of a game.
It's amazing how many of these games I found myself nodding in reading to the posts here.. for me it was: Castle Wolfenstein (the apple ][ version... "as pass??" "IIIEEEE!!!") Karateka (stupid falcon! take that!... ah, girl, I rescue you! NO! stop fighting me!! doh!!) Descent (360*360 motion sickness, whee) Moria (5 year old characters, yeesh.. can't... stop... playing...) Unreal Tournament (in the year 2000, unemployment, suddenly unimportant, AND... walking in parking lots at the mall making me very very nervous for fear of snipers) Tekken (bleeding thumbs) Choplifter (run! no, get out of the away, I have to land *squish*... doh!!) Sim City 1 (alien attack!) Wolfenstein 3d (running against every wall to find all the hidden doors) and soooo many more...
I make these: http://beatseqr.com
Whenever I hear a monkey I feel rather uneasy...
Planescape: Torment shares the honor of the number one spot with GF in my book. Again it's the outrageously well written characters and dialogue (combined with an interesting setting) that do the trick.
"A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."
- 'K' in Men in Black.
I played this adventure game for the first time on an old Cyrix box I had (before I knew the evil that is Cyrix) called "Phantasmagoria". It was and incredibally creepy ghost story all the way through, very suspensful with a haunting soundtrack, and got really gory in the last chapter. I remember playing late at night (of course), and not wanting to stop, more out of fear of going to bed than anything else.
When their numbers dwindled from 50 to 8, the dwarves began to suspect Hungry.
I felt dirty for days after playing the Daikatana demo... Shivering, curled up in a ball in my shower...
That game has destroyed my driving, if I see a couple guys walking in front of me with a ramp, I must speed up.
Oh, Intellivision! Mattel's once king of the consoles. Imagic's Microsurgeon was a great game. Being 13 again and losing my first patient to multiple tumors in the lungs! I was distraught, unconsolable...I had lost a life that was entrusted to me to save! Long gone were the days of innocence...I was now a gaming junkie!
No...it's okay...I wasn't using my Civil Liberties anyway
If you thought 4, 6, and 7 were good, try 2 and see where Square got the SaGa Frontier battle/stat system.
Go is the game.
Playing a lv7 Fighter, finding the Amulet of Shadows in your inventory without knowing exactly where it came from, and sneaking into Red Mountain when you know DAMN well anything there can kill you...
For the longest time when I walked into a darkened 6th House base lit with red candles I simply turned around and walked out... That's the creepiest. The ancestral tombs scared the shiite out of me...
Death to Reefer Addicts.
--
- Adventure (This game was like LSD to my 11 year old brain!)
- Pacman (Not in a good way, but this game pissed me off more than any game ever. I waited 4 months for this to ship and it was SO F*CKING LAME!!)
From the C-64 days:- M.U.L.E.
- Bruce Lee (I felt like I entered an alternate dimension playing this game. And no, I wasn't high!)
- Fort Appocalypse
- Paradroid
From Amiga days:- Stunt Car Driver
- Virus (by David Braben, one of the best game sever IMO!)
- It Came From The Desert (played it for 14 hours nonstop and felt like I was in a movie)
From PC days:- Civilization (Nearly dropped out of school cuz of this game!)
- Quake 2
- Tribes 2 (more addictive than any game I have played to date)
- Riven
Non-computer games:I'm also probably showing my age:
Bard's Tale
Impossible Mission
Ultima I, II, III, IV
Doom
Civilization
i wound up geting the japanese import. i had seen the previous RE games and got somewhat spooked, but this third installment had this huge creature named nemesis that always popped up when you least expected it and always ran faster than you. i remember showing some of my freinds the game and i happened to walk in to this one area that nemesis happened to be in and we all screamed out loud like skinny white women as i scrambled to get into another safe area. the neighbors upstairs came by to make sure things were okay. very embarressing to say the least
Next I would put Wizardry - Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord. By today's standard it isn't much, but very good playability, and revolutionary for the time and platform (Apple ][). This game caused a lot of people to miss a lot of work for a reason. Fortunately I was just a kid, and only missed school.
Third I would put X-Com. The variety of missions and a research tree in a non-empire game was interesting. Many tactical and strategic elements affected the overall game. The first time through was great because of all the unknowns. Too bad the sequels were boring.
Dean G.
1. Summer Games - hey, these computer games are fun 2. Bards Tale - the first game that drew you in and gave you characters to develop. A game that took months to solve. 3. Railroad tycoon - the first game that taught me the meaning of 'where did the time go?' 3. Civilization - the game that cost me $50 but gave me about 100 hours per penny that I played. 4. Doom - First fps that was pretty fun (wolvenstein bored me). First real reflex game that drew me in 5. Command and conquer - first RTS that I really enjoyed 6. Everquest - the game that has taken all my time and turned into an addict. I spend almost all my spare time playing and even when I dont play I'm still playing. I dream about it when I sleep, I plan my next goals out when I'm at work. Totally destroyed any social life that I have, and put in its place a total sense of...... best I can describe it is 'fun'. Add to that a feeling of connection to my characters and abandoning them would feel like abandoning my children.
But Blackjack taught me to gamble!
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
You gotta love a game that doesn't give you the option to play the good guys! You are Evil and the Dungeon you build attracts the foulest sort of creatures for your army of minions: Horned Reaper, Bile Demon, Tentacle, Mistress, Demon Spawn ....
Each of your minions has various food needs, pay rate and various envirionmental requirements all of which affect their happiness and work/combat output although all your minions revel in combat indulging in yelling and screaming during battle.
There are cool spells that you can cast directly and your minions have spells and special attacks of their own -- just wait until your Bile Demon gets its Fart attack -- talk about clearing a room.
In addition to evil minions, you also can trap the hell out of your dungeon. I just get the giggles watching the poor doomed heroes trying to outrun one of my boulder traps.
Your interface is normally 3rd person isometric. However, you can possess one of your minions for some 1st person carnage.
Also, right clicking one of your minions admisters a slap upside its pointy litte head. This "helping hand" behavior is soooo addictive, I find myself trying to slap creatures in other games. Yes, you can slap one of your creatures to death.
One of the coolest parts of the game is the ecology. You get multiple methods of recycling your enemies to build your army:
1) Kill them outright and bury the bodies in your graveyard and they rise as vampires.
2) Capture and starve them to death in your prison and they rise as skeletons.
3) Torture your captives in the torture chamber until they either a) crack and switch sides, or b) die and their ghosts join your army. The torture animations are hilarious -- and of course you can torture your own minions.
The opening movie sequence set's the tone of Dungeon Keeper perfectly and the malevolent voice of the narrator couldn't be more perfect. Also, as you win level after level, the beautiful, pristine world gets more and more corrupted by your Evil until eventually it becomes a pollution choked wasteland.
The only problems with this game are the DragonDrop interface has a high cheese factor, and there are lots of sound related bugs -- but that could be SoundBlaster driver braindamage. Also the game chugs when you have lots (100 or so) of minions.
Just try Eternal Darkness. As your sanity gage goes down the voices...god no not the voices! Children laughing backwards, cries and cries for help, demon noises - and not just the soundtrack - When you go insane sometimes you see yourself as an inch tall, or normal with huge enemies; people in the game become monsters and your sanity really does end up going to hell. As addictive as it is scary, I had to reply it under all three settings.
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
I still remember playing system shock a long while back late at night. SHODAN goes "you are not welcome here" and I jumped out of my seat. This was like 10 years ago and I still recall it. Yikes!
any marine mission,
lights out...
surround-sound...
I still get chills...
I never figured out why it was released under two names, I played it as SSO but found the soundtrack listed as Driller.
Anyway, the storyline is thus: The moon around an inhabited planet has been used as a penal colony for many decades. The prisoners were allowed essentially free reign on their barely-habitable little world. They constructed a large environment, complete with all sorts of nasty security lasers and treacherous traps.
Just recently, it was learned that explosive gas is building up under the crust of the moon. The prisoners left (or were moved?) and you were sent down in a tank-like vehicle which can "beam in" drilling rigs. You must place a rig at just the right spot in each of the world's 18 sectors before the gas builds up to an explosive level.
Doors to some sectors are locked, and the switches that open them are never labeled. One sector is hidden and doesn't even appear until the other 17 are cleared. Storage sheds are dark until you roll inside, to find the precious crystals that replenish your energy and shields, or the laser pedestals that deplete them further.
According to measurements, the gas will reach catastrophic levels in about an hour.
The FreeScape engine used for this game was later seen on the PC as Wolfenstein 3D, and while the frame rate was obviously low on the Commodore, the experience was no less immersive.
A haunting musical score by Matt Gray rounds out the game, providing enough mood manipulation that after exploring a few sectors, I completely forgot about the outside world. Something in my brain was probably aware that I was in the dark basement of my parents' house, but as far as I was concerned, it was just me and my tank, on a limited supply of energy and ever-dwindling shields, racing the clock to avert imminent destruction. Every time I'd enter a doorway or toggle a switch, it was anyone's guess whether it unlocked another puzzle, closed the passage to a critical sector, or activated still more of the lasers that plagued my solo journey across this cold, unfriendly world.
Nearly cried when Floyd died. Infocom games always seemed to grab me much more than the graphics based games. The people that wrote them were, for the most part, real good story-tellers.
Similar effect, much later - Aliens Vs Predator, Atari Jaguar. Playing as the Marine, running around, got the aliens pretty much under control but still wary about going around corners too quickly just in case something jumps out... and this little unseen voice suddenly whispers "Anytime..." Aaaagh!
Actually, another Jag game - Tempest 2000 - has managed to get me into a near trancelike state on more than one occasion. Cheaper than drugs, and totally legal! "Superzapper recharge! Wow! Excellent! Yes, yes, YES!" Why doesn't anyone make decent twitch games any more?
Still waiting for a videogame to affect me *emotionally*, though. Even a crappy movie can sometimes get me, but I can't think of a game that's even come close...
You must think in Russian.
The Journeyman games included:
- The Journeyman Project
- Buried in Time
- The Legacy of Time
They were all good, #'s 2 & 3 being great. My wife and I would team up to play.My first Tex Murphy game was Under a Killing Moon. Involving and sometimes hilarious. This was followed by The Pandora Directive, which was very cool and somewhat scarier.
Sadly, Microsoft acquired Access Software for other titles, and cut the funding to the Tex Murphy games. Another reason to hate Redmond.
Alice is twisted enough to make you think "who is the psychopath that thought THAT up?"
The only other game I found to be remotely as addictive was X-Wing, which burned up 4 joysticks and a week of my life (non-stop play, skipped classes, slept and ate when I couldn't focus on the TIE Fighters any more).
Do not touch -Willie
The first XCOM scared the bejesus out of me. I'd play it late, and with a lot of the lights off. Any time there was a big noise I'd jump in my seat. And that music was creepy as hell too. But the second one and ones after that kinda sucked. Not as scary shooting aliens underwater...
Ufo Defense or UFO:Enemy Unknown in the UK, you could not beat the ambiance of that game. The closest I've been able to get since then has been the game version of John Carpenter's "The Thing." Night missions were great, your soldiers always ran the risk of being mind controlled and the aliens were fantastic. Then there were the weapons like the auto-cannon, three shot burst with incendiary ammo could set half the game screen on fire. You had environments from all over the world and just a great combination of features. Still remains one of my all time favorite games and was behind me writing my very first web page when I was in High School. [-)
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
Kana Little Sister @ MobyGames.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Cholo was great! I played the BBC Micro version, many, many years ago. Cholo, Elite and Exile are the three games from the 8-bit era that have stuck in my mind. Thinking about it, the common theme between these three is the ability to explore at your own pace. After an initial background story, it's up to you to explore the world/universe, find what you need to do and where you have to go to do it. Few games seem to take that approach these days.
For those not familiar with Amstrad, they made a Z80-based range of home computers in the 80s / early 90s. Popular in Europe under a variety of monikers.
The low-end machines were tape based. We're talking under 4K a minute transfer rates. A typical game could use over 50K, and consequently took ages to load.
So most games loaded a splash screen (16K, which itself took ages) so the user would have some eye candy to look at while the game itself loaded. The Amstrad, as with most 8bit computers of the era, offered a selection of video modes - a classic bit-depth vs. resolution trade-off.
I could never make out what the splash screen for Total Recall was meant to be. It was obviously something, and had the game titled emblazoned along the side, but the main graphic was a confusing low-res swirl of 4-bit colours.
Then one day, waiting for the game to load, I knocked my joystick off the table. I leaned over to pick it up, glanced at my monitor, and saw Arnold Schwarzenegger staring back at me. Gave me a horrid fright.
The splash screen was a portrait of Arnie, rotated 90 degrees to fit on the 640x480 screen.
I could rattle games off from the C-64 era (Hostage inducing heart-pounding adreneline; the Gold Box AD&D games sucking you right in..I *saved* Phlan, dammit! And it was good!) up to MGS2.
But which one the most? MadROM. Hands down. Even now, the seductive siren's call of that game calls me, but dammit, I simply do NOT have the time that I *know* I would immediately sink right back into that loveable little MUD.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Riven scared the daylights out of me...
Remember the first time that you explore the jungle area? I think you follow a path cut through a tree trunk on your way to the wahrk idol... then when you come back... there is a little girl standing in your path for a second, before turning around and running off.
I was playing this in daylight, and even so, that little girl nearly gave me a heart attack the first time I saw her. I think it had to do with the fact that I had just been at that screen and nothing happened the first time; those devilish programmers made the little girl appear after we felt safe and had let our guard down.
That little girl still freaks me out...
Morrowind - For its story line. the story line never stops. From Western (Cyrodiil) imperialism, to slaver, to prophecies, and so on, Morrowind's story line is so deep it's crush depth for a submarine. And going into a 6th House base, or up Red Mountain, and running into Corprus beasts... now THAT is scary. This game is a marriage-breaker for anyone who plays it long enough to get as far as Balmora.
The Thing - Because of raw FEAR. NOTHING in the world makes you crap your undies faster than running this game on a 21 inch monitor, in the dark, and watching one of those big Things stalk by the window looking for a way into your area. NOTHING, ~~except~~ seeing one of your friends down the hall, transforming into The Thing, and coming at you.
System Shock II - The raw fear and the story line. The Diego family just cannot get cut a fraggin' break. One treacherous punk spawns a son who loathes his father's legacy, only to get forcibly assimilated against his will into a monstrous conspiracy. The story is told via logfiles and live messages from the dreaded SHODAN. The sound of spiders ambushing you from the dark as you're walking up to a panel. The sound of mutants seeking you out in the hallways. Walking into an unlit gymnasium and spotting a giant Rumbler, and hauling ass back out with the beast hot on your tail. (I was playing this concurrently with Alien vs Predator - you expect what you get in AvP... System Shock II was way scarier, IMHO.)
Deus Ex - From the guys who made System Shock II. Terrorism, global conspiracies galore, pseudo-aliens, feudalist oppression, and a worldwide nanotech plague, versus one jacked up good but tough guy who looks like Blade (if you pick the African American face, which you can). The plot is thick like Morrowind, complete with texts to read. Logfiles tell much of the story, like in System Shock II. It often also gets very scary, with surprise run-ins with strange creatures. The whole bit about the Illuminati and the conspiracies to control the world, are fleshed out in depth here. This game was utterly non-linear; you could take on a mission any one of about 8 ways, including using non-lethal weapons most of the time. (My fave.) I've spent many a full day playing this game over and over and over again! Note: they say in Deus Ex 2 you can use non-lethal weapons the whole way through.
Jedi Knight II: Outcast - I'll never forget believing Jan got killed, and then rescuing her near the end, and hearing how she broke six Imperial interrogation machines that tried to pry into her mind. And what the protagonist (Kyle Katarn) said when he destroyed the archvillain's starship shield generator, should be a comedy classic.
No One Lives Forever/2 - A true heroine who would hand Tomb Raider's Lara Croft her ass on a plate. I have never laughed as much as I have in this game, nor have I seen a game where a woman has played such a profound, realistic, awesome role. And it's funny, too. Both sequels.
Star Control II - another non-linear game with an extremely deep plot line. One of the first true classics of its genre (space games with story lines).
Descent Freespace - Not even Wing Commander games made me feel as 'in it' as this space combat simulator did.
Tachyon - wasn't as epic as Freespace, but the story line (colonists vs corporate conquerors) was deeper and more non-linear. This was truly a forgotten game that should have been inducted as a classic.
Red Faction - this game made me go back to the library and dig up the history of labor rights movements. It's based in the future, on Mars, but it is very, very deeply rooted in 19th/20th century struggles for workers' rights and safety. I think most people would miss that, amidst the 'destructible' environments and shoot-em-up confrontations galore.
American McGee's Alice - BOOYEAAH!! American McGee did it, he really did it. Take everything you read of this story, and explain it away as the result of a tragedy-induced insanity. Create an extremely dark and unstable world tha
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
- U4 for PC
- Graphics Upgrade
- Sound Upgrade
- Quick Reference
There are also some remake projects in the works.See above.