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What Game Do You Love?
It's that time of year again, when a person's fancy turns to new games. It's still nice to think of old flames, though, and eToyChest wonders about games you've loved. From the article: "In 1992 I was spending time getting my gaming legs on a then-aging 486 PC. It was loud, ugly, and far from state-of-the-art. But it could still run games off the shelf, and when a friend of mine brought over what he was calling the "best role-playing game he had played since Ultima V", I knew I had to check it out. What began that afternoon stands out as one of the most important events in my life as a game, for as I installed each of the two high density diskettes comprising Sir-Tech's Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant, I somehow knew that I was in for a treat. What followed were two years of swords, sorcery, and the slaying of many humanoid rats." So what game do you still remember fondly, even if you haven't played for quite a while?
Half-Life blew me away
Half-Life 2 blew me away again
Other worthy mentions
M.U.L.E.
Diablo
Quake 1/2/3/4
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
I still go back once a year and play Legend of Zelda all the way through. Earthbound and MarioRPG get at least once every two years. I still play Mario 3 pretty often. The classics will live on...
As for modern games:
Diablo2 and d2:LOD
KoL
and now, WoW
How Jaded Are You?
Its the legend of zelda: occarina of time and Majora's mask
I recently completed Occarina of time again and its as good today as it was all those years ago. Easily the best games I've ever played and truely defining moments in me growing up.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
FFII for SNES (really FFIV). I was really sad when Tellah died. And I orgasmed when I found out that you got to go to the moon.
This was of course back in the day when LucasArts made good games. If only that was still true.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
The games that I remember the most are the first Doom and the first Warcraft. Those were just both amazing to me at the time. I've always had a special place in my heart for Super Mario 3, but who doesn't? I went Genesis over SNES, and I had a lot of fun playing Sonic 2, but I also had tons of fun playing the first Mario Kart at my friend's house. And then, there was the hours of Goldeneye fun on the 64. Oh, and Baldur's Gate 2:, Shadows of Amn on the PC was fantastic... I was captivated by that game. All of the other rpgs in that genre are just me being nostalgic about that game. Later, there was KOTOR, which I loved... I guess those are the highlights of my gaming life. I'm currently enamoured with Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town. A farming rpg sounds stupid but I got it as a gift and it is terribly addicting. You either have to be embrace its time-consuming wonder or avoid it like the plague, there is no middle ground...
-Da3vid-
Doom was the first game that really blew me away, and I still have a copy of it that I play from time to time. What made it even better was that there were a host of different maps for it, so even when you got to the point of being bored with the original, there was always something new. It's nice to see that there's still ongoing development for it.
Dungeon Master" on the Atari ST was the best game of its time. It was a very early ST game and was a real eye-opener for anyone used to 8-bit computers. It probably sold almost as many STs as Doom did for PCs. The use of the mouse was perfect and I can still recall many of the rune sequences to cast spells even now, almost 20 years later.
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
Sim City 2000. 3000 was lame because it required too much micro managment. Anything that Sid did with the Civ saga. I still play my old dos Civilizations from time to time.
We are the Borg...
Doom 2 co-op by in large my favorite game of all time. X-Wing and TIE fighter.
Metroid (NES)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
JetFighter
Rogue
GoldenEye (N64)
Tetris64 (N64)
Tony Hawk 2(DC)
Warcraft II
Command & Conquer
FFIII (SNES)
-- taking over the world, we are.
The original Bard's Tale trilogy was a personal favorite. I can't tell you how many times I played thru each of them on my old Apple IIE.
And of course, by extention, I played quite alot of Wasteland.
These are the main ones:
Fallout
Quake 1
Privateer
All three Descent games
Commander Keen
All three Thief games
Mechwarrior 2
Tyrian
I hate making lists like this since I always know I've forgotten lots of great games.
*cough*
What do you mean, "nothing says WOW!"?
Okay, okay, bad pun.
... I'm a turn-based gamer. Reaction-time games are just not as compelling for me. That promise of "just one more turn" just leads me on ... there's no accounting for taste, I suppose.
Civ 2 had a lot of improvements but the basic concepts were in Civ 1. I found Civ 3 to be boring ...
Similarly, Heroes of Might And Magic 1 was wonderful; I skipped 2; HoMM 3 was an improvement in every way but still basically the same concept; HoMM 4 wasn't worth the upgrade, to me at least.
Perhaps there's some basic "fun" concept at the core of any game that you can mess with, and you HAVE to mess with if your income depends on continued sales, but messing with doesn't necessarily mean improvement.
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
Don't ever leave out Fallout, Fallout 2, and Arcanum. Definitely along the same vein.
I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
Uh uh. Computers were for work. Spreadsheets, databases, programming. Well, OK, word processing for the character sheets for the home-brew dice-and-pencil RPG we played. Consoles? Fuggeditaboutit. Kid stuff, right?
Until my buddy asked me to advise him on the purchase of a new PC. When I asked him what he was looking to use it for, he named all the regular Office stuff, and then added, "And of course, games. I want to be able to play games."
So I studied up on graphics cards -- in the computer magazine articles I had always skipped prior to then -- and made my recommendations. When his box arrived, naturally he invited me over to configure it, for a few beers. In the course of my new research, I learned that the "Game of the Year" in everybody's graphics categories was something called "Mechwarrior II," so on my way over I picked up a copy for him to christen the new box with. He had a state-of-the-art graphics card and monitor, so I wanted to see what a state-of-the-art game looked like running on it.
When the opening cinema played, "I Am Jade Falcon," and that unbelievable by anybody's musical standards score hit, our jaws hit the ground and we did this kind of Beavis-and-Butthead-Watching-NIN-Video take to each other. It was nothing like anything we old dice-throwers had expected in the least.
So, um, yeah, about 400 BattleTech miniatures, countless PC games, and several dozen console games later, I guess I'd have to say that "MechWarrior II" was the most memorable, if not the most, influential, in my experience.
This was one of the best Futuristic RPG's of it's time. (Fallout 1+2 were very well done also)
No question...fun game AND you could make your own levels. Sweet!
If the world is invaded by aliens, we will be safe, thanks to my hundreds of hours spent training for that very scenario.
Star Control 2 is one heck of a game. Exquisite sense of humor, great story about galaxy-wide genocide, ancient technology, and what not. Part 3 sucked, though. The "Melee" part of the game is also fun. It is being resurrected for contemporary Windows and Linux systems at http://sc2.sourceforge.net/.
Rise of the Triad - best quirky mutliplayer experience
Duke Nukem 3D - best multiplayer FPS (out of the box)
Total Annihilation - best RTS. Ever. Well, until Supreme Commander comes out.
Full Throttle - The last great adventure game.
Half-Life - best single-player FPS.
Spider Solitaire - best waste of time.
Civilization II - best improvement upon a great game
Medieval: Total War - best Braveheart simulator.
X-Wing - Most entertaining space sim
Babylon 5: I've Found Her - most realistic space (combat) sim
X-COM: UFO Defense - most addictive game, best turn-based combat
Honorable mention: Civilization, Master of Orion, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake, Half-Life 2, Unreal, Far Cry, X-COM: Apocalypse, Lode Runner, M.U.L.E., Yar's Revenge, Adventure, TIE Fighter, Wing Commander series, Jane's flight sims, Falcon 3.0 and 4.0, Sid Meier's Pirates, Homeworld, Homeworld 2, a few dozen others I can't think of at the time.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Come on guys, doesn't anyone remember Leela, Durandal, and that crazy bastard Tycho? And all is not lost if you don't happen to have an old Performa sitting around--come join us at source.bungie.org and work on Aleph One, the open source version, now available for Linux, Windows, and just about anything else you can think of! (Some nut even has it working on Irix!)
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Any idea where to find a copy these days? Even better yet, a playable copy that doesn't come on 5.25" disks? I would think that if someone had the time, you could recreate the whole thing via a java applet, but I would love to get my hands on a version.
Go here and head to the download section; the author of Tyrian released it as freeware a while ago.
The Realm 2 had a very good balance between the tech and the community sides of the game. Actually, the tech side was just a fun interlude to community events.
Then came The Realm 3, where the balance disapeared. The community side was forgotten, with Norseman putting the final nail on the coffin.
The Realm was a Sierra game. Sierra was never about bleding edge graphics, hence the "Sierra Classics" look and feel of the game. When the game shifted from that line, it became easy pray for the other software houses and their "bleding edge graphical" engines.
The Realm 1 was focused on the community aspect mostly. The Realm 3, on the tech side. The real golden era of The Realm was version 2. These days, The Realm (I refuse to call it Realm Online) is pretty much "kill & gather", filled with teenagers who can't even type.
morcego
My first MUD-like game was Island of Kesmai. At the ridiculous per-hour charges of compuserve, this grew into an expensive habit. After I found Gamestorm's Legends of Kesmai, they had me hooked for $9.95 per month from the time I found it until the time they pulled the plug, after selling out to EA to give them the Aries engine. I never had, nor have since, found a community quite like Kesmai.
The truth about Scientology, Xenu, and you: Operation Clambake
1024x768 in 24bit color (8 for the low-end Personal Irises) made these machines the cat's meow back then.
The worst bug on the sim was that that the guy who did the aerodynamics equations didn't know how to handle stalls, so he just turned it into a uncontrollable spin. This made landing without crashing really difficult. The correct way to land (as I understand it) is get above the runway and go into a controlled stall. (spin - splat!). Unfortunately, a decent (touch) landing was the only way to refill your missiles, so you had to learn how to do hot touch landings (often while under fire).
I wasted hours on that game!
The early version of dog also had a watcher program that gave you an AWACS type view of a dogfight. I don't know why they got rid of it. (perhaps the military convinced them that it might give 'the enemy' some ideas -- the cold war was still on back then).
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Worms 2 & Armageddon: I'm suprised no-one has suggested this one already. I got into playing Worms 2 about 9 years ago, when I was in either 7th or 8th grade (I forget which), and bought Worms: Armageddon when I was in High School. They're absoutly wonderful games, and if it wasn't for pricks on WormNet (and no way to have admins ban the fuckers), I'd play Armageddon online more often.
NetHack: NetCrack more like. Killing Grid Bugs has never been more fun (unless you read that Scroll of Punishment. Oh, and I always avoid the Gnomish Mines, they still give me nightmares, damn gnomes).
Gabriel Knight 1 & 2: Two of the greatest adventure games ever. Period. (Alas, I have not found a copy of #3 yet.
Extreme Warfare Revenge: The greatest booking sim ever, and has none of the atrocious copy-protection crap that was put in Total Extreme Warfare.
Civilization Series + Alpha Centauri and Colonization: Must... play... just one more turn!
Starfleet Command: I was always a fan of Star Fleet Battles, and this game did not disappoint in the least.
Fallout 1 & 2: Two of the greatest PC RPGs ever.
Smackdown vs. Raw 2006: Possibly the best console wrestling game outside of...
Fire Pro Series: Which is the best console wrestling series. Ever.
And that's all I can think of for now. I'll probably come up with more later.Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
YES! Mechwarrior 2 had awesome game play, and was one of my most favorite games ever even though the graphics were not that great. Then M$ took it over and dumbed it down for Mechwarrior 3. Sure it was prettier, but was no where near as fun. But I bought it and played it anyway. Then came Mechwarrior 4. Exact same thing. Dumbed down even further, and prettier graphics. No wonder the franchise died. Now to parallel: Tribes. This FPS had revolutionary open game play with a permanent jet pack and HUD scripting. No more running around in dark corridors. The freedom to fly! and emphasis on team play. I was instantly hooked. Then Tribes 2 came out. Again better graphics, but never quite felt the same due to several rules changes, but still playable thanks to Mods. Then the final nail: Tribes: Vengence. Vivendi killed this game almost before it was launched. Despite the big graphics upgrade, it was so dumbed down that they had just turned it into another Deathmatch game. I wanted to love it, but it just didn't hold me the same as the previous Tribes. Then with the patch fiasco's, they basically killed it too. I mourn the loss of my favorite games. Hopefully Volitant Assault being developed by former Mod developers will make it and be everything the next Tribes should have been.
Nevermore.
I'm not a gamester. But I got HW (the original) as a birthday present from a friend who assumed all "geeks" were into computer games. I tried it out one Saturday morning, and didn't emerge from my cave until late Sunday night. As I say, I'm not a game-player, but it was the STORY that drew me in. There are a handful of films and books that, from the time I was a kid, made me WISH that I could "go there." This was the first and only computer game that made me wish I could "go there." I found myself wishing I could "see inside" the mother ship, see the people in there and watch their lives. The "aura" surrounding that game is like nothing I've ever felt, before or since. (And yes, I've tried the sequels, and no, they just weren't quite the same. The Storyline is the difference. (Ever wish you could "forget" some of your favorite books and movies so you could go back and experience them again "for the first time?")
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
And, oddly enough, both for the same reasons: planning. Falcon 3 had a mission planning mode where you would set waypoints, speeds, weapon loads, etc. for you and up to 8 of your wingmen. I would spend 2 hours setting up the mission, and 20 minutes or less flying it. I never could land on hi-fidelity mode. Crashed just about every time.
Same with SC2K, what I liked was getting the freeway onramps to look right. Or I'd spend $250K to deepen a river so I could get a suspension bridge on it. The reverse interest money cheat made sure I wasn't constrained by cost.
It wasn't really the way the games were meant to be played, but I loved them for it.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
(This is an exact repost of something I wrote back in January.)
When I found out the music in SC2 was MOD files, I found a ripper on my local BBS and promptly extracted the music. That was in June of 1994, and the files have followed me from drive to drive, filesystem to filesystem, with their timestamps intact. I still love listening to that music, having burned bits of it to CD for the car, and all of it still enjoying a place in my Winamp playlst.
Occasionally when a discussion of game storylines crops up, I'll pitch in a few kind paragraphs for Star Control 2. The conversation archives on The Pages of Now and Forever still relate the same compelling story, and I still remember my horror when I initially learned of the Kohr-Ah's plight. The most convincing villain is one you feel sympathy for, and they had that going, for sure.
A few weeks ago, I downloaded the most recent build of The Ur-Quan Masters. The first build I tried a year or so ago wouldn't start up, but this version ran flawlessly. The music was perfect, the graphics were just as I remembered them, and the interface took a little getting used to but then felt very comfortable.
So why did the game bore me? I played for probably half an hour, and couldn't seem to get interested. It's not that I knew the ending -- I played the game through 3 or 4 times back when it was new, and it didn't seem any less fun the second time around. I haven't been much for games in the last few years, and I'm still struggling to figure out why.
Still playing it.
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
Ultima Underworld was game that made me give up on the Amiga and get a PC. After seeing a friend play it I had to have it. Making long leaps in the darkness to barely visible platforms actually made my stomach flip over.