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Ask Slashdot: What Are the Best Games To Have In Your Collection?
SternisheFan writes: I am not a "gamer," per se. I grew up on "old school" arcade/Atari-type games. My question is: What are the very best games to own? Let's assume platform is irrelevant — any console, any computer, any operating system, any mobile device. I'd just like to know what you think are the most indispensable games to have in your collection.
Let's expand this to include board games and other tabletop games as well. What games do you make sure to always have on hand for get-togethers?
leave the circle-jerks to reddit.
River Raid
That's like asking what's the best food to have in your fridge. What is the best color is along the same lines...
Neverwinter Nights
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
-Possum Lodge Motto
All 56 GB of them. Now if only Mac MAME could catch up with games made in late '90s.
For get-togethers the easiest thing to use is just plain old cards. The number of games that can be had from just a couple decks is great.
Common games for us -
Blackjack, Hearts, Pinochle, Poker, etc
for more entertainment you could always Check out Cards again Humanity for those with a twisted sense of humor.
If people aren't too uptight, cards against humanity is great.
Mario kart (any version)
trivial pursuit
subjective lists are awesome! If you don't know your friends well enough to know what they like, you have other questions you should be delving into first :)
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. Single-handedly the best N64 game, nay the best video game of all time.
Super smash bros on n64 but the recent versions are nice too
Mario 64, by today's standards, is a pretty boring platformer.
By 1990's standards, it, and zelda orcana of time, were earth shattering. Today?
Some people are happy with AngryBirds, some people need Gothic 3. One game can be completed in 5 minutes, the other takes 5 months.
Also, when you're grown up, the games you used to play that were so fantastic are faded.
So this is a very subjective request, and really, just flamebait.
Do we really need this on /.? Every gamer forum is full of threads like this. Why repeat that here? It's not news and it's not stuff that matters.
-- Cheers!
NetHack, preferrably on a public server
Years of time can be wasted
CLI paste? paste.pr0.tips!
You could look up games based off of their annual sales rank or based off of the number of awards they've won. Probably more accurate than asking everyone for their personal favorite. Some of the lists are broken down to genre specific categories, so if a first person shooter isn't your thing, you can always look for what is.
I'm a big fan of the old Atari stand-up arcade games, so I'd include Tempest, Marble Madness, and Centipede on my list of essentials.
MOO2
Civ2 - Call to power
Descent
NeverWinterNights 2
Tribes (I & II)
Seawolf
MechWarrior
Dark Reign
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
completely agree on both of these! I would also say yatzee and scrabble are must haves. I always find myself replaying Super Mario 1 and 3, so personally I'd include them as well.
Uno for long time friends who probably won't end up hating each other. Scrabble for a small group of newer friends. Apples to Apples for larger gatherings, since it can scale up to accommodate teams.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
Oops, posted as AC by mistake. Forum is here
My favorite video game of all time and all platforms is Star Control 2. Released in 1992 on PC Favorite NES: Dragon Warrior 4. Favorit SNES: Tie! Super Mario RPG & Chronotrigger.
The best games are the ones I have played between the ages of 10-18.
The ones before that are too primitive, the ones after that are just full of eye candy and attempts to just harness a bunch of money.
Oddly enough a lot of my favorite movies and TV shows were during that time too.
I guess things were just better during the time where you didn't have any responsibilities.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I like to play a game called "Troll the Internet"
You pick some category (music, books, movies, etc) and then ask a question along the lines of "Which is better?". You can even do it with entire categories (e.g. "What are the best songs to have in my music collection?" "What are the best books to read?")
It's hilarious watching the infighting and attempts to justify responses to a subjective question.
The game has gotten a bit out of hand though. I've even seen it being played on popular tech forums like "Slashdot".
Baldur's gate II is the best of the infinity engine games, all of which are already great. Dark Souls and Dark Souls II have the best method of story delivery in any RPG I've ever seen, as well as easily the most engaging and immersive combat. To illustrate, when I was fighting one of DSII's new DLC bosses recently I did something I hadn't done since I first picked up a controller: I moved my physical body to dodge an incoming blow, instead of pressing the relevant button. The last time I did that I was 7 years old and jumping on goombas. It's that good.
I'll "me too" on this a bit.
I own a MAME cabinet, with a (nearly) complete collection of ROMs and CHDs.
I own an RFID enabled poker table, with the kit from VideoPokerTable.net
I have a makeshift craps table, one Bally 70's era EM-series slot machine and an antique 36" roulette wheel.
We're an XBox family, now with a One.
My Cards Against Humanity set is mostly complete, only missing the extra-rare PAX sets and the misprint set, plus nearly all possible expansions, including 3rd party ones.
I've been a Magic nerd since the 93's (with time off in the 2000's for good behavior).
We do some of the newer deckbuilding games.
I rarely go a week without an organized poker tournament AND cash game, a sanctioned magic match and some "fun" Magic, CAH with friends, and some light gaming on the One. When we throw a party, nearly everything else ends up getting used.
Old Skool: The Mario Bros and Donkey Kong games are where my heart lies. 2D side scrollers.
Tabletop: I've always loved the German style board/card games -- fun for the whole family, the outcome is pretty much random, and someone doesn't get ganged up on or eliminated early in play. The goofier the premise the better, it's the mechanics which makes them enjoyable to play in groups, and sometimes strategy is pointless or impossible.
New Skool: I'm afraid I'm pretty much eternally hooked on Skyrim. I like not being constrained to a linear plot or where I can go.
My wife and some of our friends are also huge fans of the Kinect games, because drunk people dancing is hilarious. Also good for a girls exercise night, while the guys play a golf video game.
I also miss my copies of Rock Band/Guitar Hero ... because I learned to appreciate a vast amount of music and greatly expanded my music collection as a result of it. The sheer amount of punk rock I now own is directly attributable to those games.
For those of us who are old and creaky, and grew up where video games took quarters, and had a joystick and two buttons ... many modern games left us in the dust years ago, and simply stopped being fun. I doubt I could beat a 6 year old at a first person shooter.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Dominion! This is an excellent card based game. Not difficult to pick up, a warmup game clears up things quickly, and as a bonus they've got an official electronic version online at http://playdominion.com built using html and js, and there is a chrome extension too. You can play without signing up or logging in and against bots or other players not to mention the entire base game is free. You are not hindered with the "base game" and there are several expansions which add additional cards to the game. The game itself uses 10 cards at a time which you can randomly draw to keep things interesting or if you prefer you can build decks. Dominion shines with 3+ players and maxes out at 8. Games last anywhere from 10-45 minutes. I'm actually working on an IRC port of this since everything is better on IRC >.>
Munchkin is another great party game.
Man blir trött av att gå och göra ingenting.
Even if you never play them, if you have more than a few tabletop games and don't have these, your collection is incomplete.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Computer Games: The original Master of Orion
Card Games: Dominion (also on Mobile), Poker,
Pure Board Games: Chess, Ra, Power Grid.
My club's favorite boardgames: 7 Wonders, Dominion, For Sale, Forbidden Island, High Society, Incan Gold, Kingdom Builder, Kingsburg, Pandemic, Power Grid, Power Grid: The First Sparks, Puerto Rico, Qwirkle, San Juan, Stone Age, Ticket to Ride: Europe, TransAmerica, Tsuro
Red Storm Rising, played it for years.
Here are what I consider to be the best games I've ever played (in no particular order):
Skyrim
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Doom
Pac-Man
Tetris
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 9
Megaman 2
Megaman 3
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Super Metroid
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
God of War II
The Orange Box bundled:
-Portal
-Half Life 2
-Team Fortress 2
Seven years later, all three are still among the best games to have and play.
Much less tractable than chess, anyway.
Now running the Linux distro of your choice.
And maybe Tony Lazaro's Ultimate Super Speed Racer
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
Seems everyone I know over the age of 76 plays Solitaire. Almost exclusively.
The "best" games depends on how many people you have to play, not to mention their tastes and time commitment.
Nothing beats Diplomacy, but you need seven people, a whole day, and people who can be bastards when required.
Other games I keep going back to are Civilization (the original board game that has nothing to do with Sid Meier), Kingmaker, Pictionary, Scattergories, and the Combat Mission series of digital war games.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
You don't actually need a board game or someone's pre-made list of cards with choices, either, but the Pictionary folks have done a pretty good job at providing some ideas, sorting them into categories, etc.
Bananagrams is the most age-independent word game I know; Scrabble can be pretty frustrating when playing with people of vastly different ages (and thus, often, vastly different vocabularies), but nearly any age can play with Bananagrams, and older players can adjust their style as they deem best suits the players as a group.
Set: as above.
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
for taking years of my life (Fallout and Elder Scrolls Series). My love will only return as soon as you publish something else
Others are complaining, rightly, that this topic is junk. It's all down to taste, and these media are too widely varied for us to give useful answers even if it weren't.
With video games though, there is one that can be considered more or less objectively a must-play: Deus Ex. Even if you wind up not liking it for some reason, it's important. It's like not reading any Shakespeare.
For table games, it's much harder. They're definitely worthy of being called art, but they are obviously much less "literary" in nature. There's no paradigm-shifting cultural messages to receive.
Despite that, there is one that I think kind of encapsulates the state of the art, and depending on how your group handle it, it can be either a light party game or a total brainfry, so it's got that going for it: The Resistance. Funny thing is, I fucking hate it, so you know that recommendation has at least a little objective value.
(...and rather reinforcing the gamer=misogynist riff...)
Death Race (Exidy arcade version)
Custer's Revenge (Mystique, for Atari 2600)
Leisure Suit Larry (Sierra)
xboing is my all-time favorite game. I wasted many hours in the late '90's playing it on a Sun workstation and later on linux. It's too bad it doesn't seem to be available any more, and none of the more recent games like it are as good in my opinion.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
Masters of Orion 2 -- just one of the finest space 4X games ever.
Table games: Risk, Rummikub, and, of course, Cosmic Wimpout
Pacman
Ms. Pacman
Pole Position
Battle Zone
Jungle hunt
Defender
Dig-Dug
Frogger
and
Robotron
And they all fit on 2 150k (664block) floppies for my commodore 64 or 1 double sided 5.25" floppy. :P
I have over 1000 games at this point, and I have no idea how to answer this question. The problem is that games that I like might not line up with games you like. I would call Panzer Dragoon Saga a must-play, but if you don't like JRPGs, then you won't like it. I consider Radiant Silvergun the pinnacle of the vertical shooting genre, but if you don't like those, then why would you waste $120 and go through the hassle of making sure you can play Japanese Saturn games? At the same time, I'm not big on the hardcore simulation games, so I have no idea if Train Simulator is good or not. I don't like sports games, so even though NBA Jam is widely considered one of the best of the genre, I'm uncomfortable recommending it.
That said, I think there are a few classics that most people will enjoy if they have even a passing interest in games. Games like Super Mario World (or SMB3), Mega Man X, Metal Slug, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are very safe bets. They're quick and accessible without being too hard or too easy.
I think a better way to approach this question is to look at what would be the best introductory game for various genres. Here are a few of my picks.
Adventure games: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis; Legend of Kyrandia 2: The Hand of Fate; Myst (or Riven)
FPS: Doom (1 or 2); Half-Life 2; Wolfenstein: The New Order
Platformer: Super Mario World
Shooter: Radiant Silvergun; Ikaruga
Run 'n' gun: Metal Slug; Contra
JRPG: Chrono Trigger
CRPG: Planescape: Torment; Baldur's Gate 2
WRPG: Oblivion; Skyrim
With any list of this nature, there are glaring omissions, and many people would disagree with my choices (though I did pick popular games). One thing to note is that I pretty much picked single-player games. I think the best thing you can do is download ROM packs for various consoles and try the games out. See what you like, then research more games like them.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
UT2004, certainly if you can invite some friends over.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
Personally I think Planescape: Torment is the best infinity engine game by far.
I have a full-sized Dance Dance Revolution machine, always a hit at parties. If you don't have the space then Rock Band is a good party game too, basically karaoke + plastic instruments for the introverts. Other video games I like at parties are You Don't Know Jack and Typing of the Dead (for Sega Dreamcast as it supports 2 players) and Wii Sports. For Board games Apples to Apples and Cards Against humanity are popular party games but I find that The Resistance is a lot more fun once A2A and CAH have been played to death.
Collector's Edition
When you have to entertain large groups of people, and you don't want to worry about any of them having to sit down and learn a new time-consuming game, keep copies of The Resistance and Are You a Werewolf around. (Yes, Werewolf is fine with scraps of paper, but the cards are fun.) You can explain them in minutes, and they make people a heck of a lot more social than most board games. The Resistance is better if you don't want any players to be eliminated, but you should only use it in groups that already know each other...it's a lot of fun to see the evil scheming side of people, but it makes terrible first impressions.
All of my friends are assholes, so i only have Mario Kart 8 and Dokapon Kingdom around for game night.
also now I don't host game nights.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
70's Pong
80's Tempest, Mario Series
90's Sonic Series, Gran Turismo
00's Gran Turismo again
10's Nothing Special
-Civilizations 3 or 4; -Uno (for mixed age family games); -Medieval 2- Total War
'2. All of Infocom's text adventures.'
Text adventures are still being produced. The Interactive Fiction Archive has many old and new games. Many are very good.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Board Games (broad-ish appeal, nothing heavy):
Cards Against Humanity
Zombie Dice
Settlers of Catan
Ticket to Ride
Pandemic
Dominion
A couple of Magic the Gathering starter sets
Plain old deck of cards
PC:
Diablo II - This is the only game I think I consistently install from one PC to the next. It usually involves one of my friends saying "Hey, we should start an old-school D2 night once a week!" Because of this, I think every PC I've had since 1997 has had Diablo on it at some point.
RPGs:
Pathfinder, or whatever your favorite flavor of D&D is
Shadowrun
Android/iPhone:
Clash of Clans
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
I'll go ahead and hope that this is already posted on here somewhere, but you've got to include one of the greatest monoliths of strategy gaming (any game that becomes a country's national past-time, had continuous support for more than ten years, and put eSports on the map for a lot of people deserves a mention). Starcraft (the original, with Brood War if you'd like) is one of the most well-balanced and well-respected strategy games out there, so if you like RTS at all, this should be included. Also, it runs perfectly on ancient machines, so if you can find a few friends with a PC of any kind, it's easy to get a LAN party going. Plus, no always-online requirements, and you only have to own one copy of the game to play it legally with friends! Many fond memories... Also, Munchkin is a blast.
Tabletop/paper and pen: Axis and Allies (any version) Shogun/Samurai Swords/Ikusa Settlers of Catan Carcasonne (any version) Stone Age Agricola Chess Rifts (Palladium books) Go Puerto Rico Computer: WoW Diablo 1-3 Age Of Empires 1-3 Hearts Of Iron (any version or anything Paradox makes basically) Total War games (Shogun, Medieval, Rome, Empire) Civ (any version been playing since it was just Civilization) Master of Orion (1 or 3) Neverwinter Nights series Baldur's Gate series Runescape (don't laugh too hard)
And I'll agree with others that Mario Kart is a good choice. I was always partial to the older Battle Mode part of the game. I think that will serve you well in your interstellar travels.
Let me add Pikmin3 to round out the list. It's beautiful and intelligent and endlessly playable. I'm sure your machines can design algorithms to solve some of the levels, but the zen of it is to play until the ancient parts of your brain kick in and guide you to the right solution.
I hope humanity passes the test. But if not, could you take me to live in the intergalactic zoo?
#1 STOP USING 'old school', you aren't, and you sound like a douche bag.
#2 DICE - Zilch, 10,000, liar's dice...etc
#3 A deck of cards, Canasta, Bridge, Poker, Pinochle.
#4 Risk, Stratego, Masterpiece, Chutes and Ladders for the youngsters, and of course Monotony, aka Monopoly.
#5 Dungeons & Dragons, or more preferably Gurps, but any pen and paper RPG is awesome.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Attack From Mars
Monster Bash.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
The rules are simple and you can play with almost any number of people. Even people who don't like to play games often give a try.
Video of some good progressive thrash music
I don't understand how you kids can play Nethack on a phone.
This old nerd needs all the keys.
What we need more of is science!
...seems to me somebody should address the question that was asked. My personal favorites have NOTHING to do with my answer, though many of you will find that unbelievable. From my experience:
Jenga
Darts
Wii Sports (Wii)
Mario Tennis (N64)
Mario Kart 64
Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
Here's a listing of some of the most popular multiplayer games on iPhone. I've enjoyed playing all of these in groups.
Super Bomberman for the SNES w/ 4-way tap. Done!!! That's all you need.
Life is not for the lazy.
is that a game? Seems like Slashdot is trying to win that one so it must be.
PlanetVulkan.com
Munchkin, Illuminati, the games are addictively fun. And a huge factor for losing friends.
Many years ago, in the old DOS days, I loved a nice little game that most folks probably have never heard of called Chip's Challenge. Anybody remember that?
Evidently, a modern imitation of it called "Tile World" is available. Maybe I'll have to try that sometime.
Modern awesome ones to have (not going to name super obvious classics or reading other comments first):
Beat Hazard has everything that was great about old arcade games made for a modern systems and interlaced with music you provide.
I consider World of Goo to be a must-have.
As for social meat-space games Cards Against Humanity is a favorite, but not exactly for all company.
One of my favorite board games as a kid isn't being produced anymore and I can't think of another that screams it needs to be considered so, meh.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Only if you hate yourself, in 2 player there's a game breaking bug where you can't get past the snake level. Not that it matters because you can't get past the speed bikes unless you're some sort of savant
Twinstiq, game news
Throw in:
Battlezone
Stargate (defender upgrade)
Joust
Doom
T-Mek
Descent
Mortal Combat
Virtua Fighter
Space Lords
Police 911
Crazy Tax
Nethack
Rtype
BattleTech (mech pods version)
Out Run, Space Harrier, Arkanoid, Ghost'n'Goblins, Commando, Boulder Dash, Sokoban, Tetris, etc.
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
Pick a system that relates to you and your friends' nostalgic gaming eras: NES, Genesis, N64, etc. Track down a nice console for cheap on craigslist, and then just buy an Everdrive for it. The Everdrive is a flash cart that allow you to jack up an SD card with roms and play them on the real hardware. For the price of five to ten common games, you could instead buy an Everdrive and have every game ever made.
I personally avoid subjecting friends to Atari or emulated games.
My Essential (old-school) Games:
- Camageddon (the first one, or the High Octane re-release, which the Android version is based on)
- Final Fantasy VII
- Kirby
- Nethack
- Crazy Taxi (way more fun than it should be!)
- Die Hard: Arcade
- Time Crisis II
- Mortal Kombat II
- Street Fighter II
- Tony Hawk Pro Skater II (for the soundtrack as much as the gameplay)
- Battletoads
- BattleTech
- Command and Conquer (original)
- Frogger (original)
- Spyro the Dragon (original)
- Breakout
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
You just can't beat C&C Generals Zero Hour. It's the most fun RTS I've ever played. It doesn't stress you out like Starcraft II and is isn't thoroughly unintelligent like Tiberium Wars and isn't clunky like Red Alert 2.
Hide The Salami.
Copyright (c) 1990 - 2014 Dice. All rights reserved. Use of this comment is subject to certain Terms and Conditions.
Age of Mythology
let the all nighters begin.
Dungeons & Dragons RPG (Gary Gygax era).
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
My list:
Rogue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...
Seriously been playing this game since the early 80s and have never "Won" there are thousands of variants but there's a particularly nice Android version: https://play.google.com/store/...
Ultima 7/7.5: http://www.gog.com/game/ultima...
Revolutionary when it came out. My friends and I in high-school literally sat their with our mouths hanging open the first time we launched the game. The MMO based on it was one of the first I'd call a true mmo: http://www.uo.com/ (let the flame wars begin on that statement, just so you know ahead of time: I don't care)
https://www.everquest.com/ -- first 3D mmo worth its salt. Huge time sink though.
Robocraft -- Build robots out of legos... then blow them up. Super fun. It's my current game. http://store.steampowered.com/...
Raystorm Next Tetris
In no order as order changes per mood:
Knights of the Old Republic (1 & 2)
Dragon Age: Origins
Everquest
Counterstrike (all versions)
Half-Life (1 & 2)
Portal (1)
Syberia (1 & 2)
No doubt about it. X-Com is the greatest game ever created in the entire history of mankind. Even once I figured out how to win in the first turn it was still fun to play.
Next would be TOAW. It's the best war boardgame ever made. If it's been improved upon, please let me know.
I also loved Delta Force Land Warrior--until the cheaters destroyed it.
FPS+RTS was awesome. Buggy launch killed it but still maintained by one of the original programmers.
Bananagrams is the most age-independent word game I know;
We have a good time with bananagrams as well, I just have to remember not to be too happy when I do better than my kids.
Set: as above.
I absolutely loved it when my 9 year old daughter would beat me at set. Well, after the initial pain of losing went away.
Anyone else like Rummikub? Similar to these games, anyone can play and do well, it just takes a little bit of a different way of looking at games when you can re-arrange the tiles to suit your needs...
It would take hours for me to learn this game again, it is difficult to play. My brother Pete had a collection of challenging board games and our dad threw them in the trash after Pete moved out to goto UC Berkeley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
For group get-togethers, here are some great board games to have on hand.
Can't Stop -- 2 to 4 players. An elegantly simple "push your luck" game. You only need to make one decision: keep going, or stop?
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41/cant-stop
Incan Gold -- 3 to 8 players. This is a reworked version of a classic called Diamonte. It's another "push your luck" game, but it's very different from Can't Stop in that it's group game. The whole group plays in parallel: they all decide whether to keep going, or stop, and all reveal their choice simultaneously. This means that the 8-player game doesn't really take longer than the 3-player game!
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37759/incan-gold
I'll second the vote for Pandemic. But if you want something a little simpler than Pandemic, with a less depressing theme, you can play Forbidden Island (2-4 players). Forbidden Island was designed by the same guy who designed Pandemic, and uses many of the same game mechanics. I love the art, which reminds me of Myst; and it is inexpensive and doesn't take up much space in your closet. Very suitable for kids.
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/65244/forbidden-island
All of these suggestions are good for convincing non-gamers to try playing a board game.
P.S. When I was a teenager, some friends and I used to play Wiz-War, and had a blast. It's a simple game: either steal two treasures from other players, or be the last player standing. There is a deck of cards, which includes all kinds of crazy spells you can cast.
Once when I was playing, another player hit me with Slow Death, which makes you lose one hit point for each card you draw; I countered with Reversal, which reverses the effects of a spell, and started drawing two cards each turn (the max). I thought this was a good thing, but the other players were now very worried about me, and they all ganged up on me and just killed me. So the Slow Death worked after all, in a fashion. :-)
The game is now available in a deluxe edition (which I haven't played yet).
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104710/wiz-war-eighth-edition
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
NES: Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!, Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man 2 & 3, Blaster Master, North and South, River City Ransom, Double Dragon, Bionic Commando, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Bros. 3, Castlevania 2 & 3, Bayou Billy, Batman, Guerilla War, Shadowgate, TMNT: The Arcade Game, Terminator 2, Rampage
Game Boy: Gargoyle's Quest, Metroid II, Tetris, Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, Dr. Mario, Duck Tales
SNES: Super Metroid, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy IV and VI, Breath of Fire, Super Mario World, Starfox, Secret of Mana, Street Fighter II Turbo, Contra III, Earthworm Jim, Mario Kart, Killer Instinct, Final Fight, Demon's Crest, Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge, NBA Jam, Super Ghosts & Ghouls, Magic Sword
N64: Goldeneye 007, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Smash Bros., WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
PSone: Final Fantasy VII, Tekken 3, Wipeout 3: Special Edition, Star Ocean 2, Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, Driver, Tenchu 2, Final Fantasy Tactics, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
PS2: Dynasty Warriors 4, Samurai Warriors 2, Guitar Hero series, God of War series, Okami, Soul Calibur 2, Katamari Damacy, Primal, Psychonauts, Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick, Spawn, the Punisher
PS3: Skyrim, Dynasty Warriors 7, Arcana Heart 3, BlazBlue series, Tekken 6, Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F, Flower, Braid, The Walking Dead: Seasons One and Two, Portal, NCAA Football series, Dragon's Crown, Marvel Ultimate Alliance series, Borderlands series, Mirror's Edge, Fat Princess, Castle Crashers, Hard Corps, Transformers: War for Cybertron, Rocksmith, Brutal Legend, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
PC: King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Uplink, Star Wars/TIE Fighter, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Diablo, Shogun: Total War, Battle Chess, Zork, Neverwinter Nights
Board: Settlers of Catan, Arkham Horror, Kill Doctor Lucky, Fireball Island, Cosmic Encounters, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Pandemic, Risk: Legacy
Card: Munchkin, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Ninja Burger, Before I Kill You Mr. Bond, Chrononauts, Cards Against Humanity, Magic the Gathering
and the older the game board and pieces the better
Linux modi 2.6.26-2-parisc
watch films/listen to music/appreciate art/play sports (etc.) what are the best of these in their genre? Let's expand it to include life the universe and everything. Just tell me what's the bestest shit ever.
http://www.acetonestudio.com
I don't play anymore either, but I recall really liking the Myst games. The graphics, music, and the puzzles were all terrific.
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
A Tabletop game that challenges anybody over about 5 (assuming normal vision)
You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
After Burner II (1987 Arcade) Call of Duty (2003 PC-Mac) Descent (1995 PC-Mac) Discs of Tron (1983 Arcade) Gears of War (2006 XBox 360) Heavy Barrel (1987 Arcade) Mass Effect (2007 XBox 360) Metal Gear Solid (1998 PS1) Myst (1993 PC-Mac) Omega Race (1982 Arcade) Phoenix (1980 Arcade) R-Type (1987 Arcade) Section Z (1985 Arcade) Sinistar (1982 Arcade) Space Harrier (1985 Arcade) Spy Hunter (1983 Arcade) Steel Talons (1991 Arcade) Time Pilot (1983 Arcade) Uncharted (2007 PS3) Unreal Tournament (1999 PC-Mac) Zanac (1987 NES)
For quite some time my gateway game has been Ticket to Ride. Easy to learn how to play. Doesn't take hours to finish and the game has a good visual aspect. For a more fun party time, I would say Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity. Just taking a quick look at my collection http://boardgamegeek.com/colle... , another good one to have is Acquire, plays quick and easy rules. I also like to pull out 7 Wonders for light gaming. For more involved games my go to's are either Eclipse or Twilight Imperium. Just depends, 2-3 hours or 10+ available?
-- Slashdot, making the Left look conservative since 1997.
Not saying these are the best games, but these are some of my favorites from some classic systems: -Atari 2600: Hero, Pitfall, Pitfall 2, Combat, Frogger, Yars Revenge -NES: Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3, Bionic Commando, Battletoads, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, Mega Man 2, Castlevania 3, Dr. Mario -SNES: Super Mario World, Pilotwings, Final Fantasy 2 (IV), 3 (VI), Secret of Mana, Street Fighter 2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, E.V.O -N64: Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarnia of Time, Cruisn' USA -Arcade: Daytona USA, Star Wars (the original vector one), Willow, Attax, Street Fighter 2, Final Fight, M.E.R.C.S, Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Virtua Fighter 1, 2, 3 -3DO: The Need For Speed, Gex, Wing Commander 3, Star Control 2 -Gameboy: Tetris, Super Mario Land, Gargoyle's Quest, Final Fantasy Adventure, Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker -Sega Saturn: Virtua Fighter 1, 2, Daytona USA, Street Fighter Alpha, X Men: Children of the Atom, Panzer Dragoon 1, 2
I grew up on Ultima IV and V, and when Ultima VII (Black Gate + Forge of Virtue) came out... well now. I'll just happily exist in this virtual world forever.
The card game (for groups of 7 is best).
OIDS — for the Atari ST, and the Mac OSX (powerPC) — combines the best elements of Defender, Lunar Lander, Asteroids, Gravitar and Thrust, with its inertia based movement, and level editor. one of the best early games. :-D
Mac OSX version by David Hewit: http://www.xavagus.com/
Atari ST ROM by David Hewit: http://www.atarimania.com/game...
My wife and I very commonly play games with our friends. We break games up into two types: party games, and "long-form" games.
The party games are meant for slightly larger groups, with high iterations.
Long-form games are good for 4-6 people, spending the night playing one game in a more "serious" manner.
Favorite party games:
* Catchphrase (great party-starter)
* Turbo Cranium
* Charoodles
* Imaginiff
Favorite long-form games (3-4 hours):
* Settlers of Catan (with at least Seafarers or Traders & Barbarians)
* Ticket to Ride (Europe)
* Carcassonne
We tried Pandemic, a co-op game, but it wasn't that big of a hit. I'm hoping we try Robinson Crusoe: Cursed Island soon.
Robot Odyssey
The Space Game (Flash)
The Ancient Art of War
Wesnoth
Trap Master (Flash)
Stars!
Fracas (Bomberman clone)
Tetris
Helps that there are crazy steam sales all of the time, and many of these games can be had for 99 cents.
I am sure there are more games you could add to the list, but if you have those 4, odds are you can find a game in common with pretty much every PC gamer out there.
Bottles.
Might as well throw in my own picks:
Final Fantasy VII (Just because it was my first RPG, which dates me) /SC2
Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy Tactics
Chrono Trigger
Super Mario Brothers (Just for it's legacy)
Zelda
X-COM
Civ (the first, and possibly IV)
Nethack/Slash'EM/DungeonCrawl
Whatever the latest RTS game is: Dune / Warcraft / Starcraft / WC3 / C&C
Scorched Earth
Exile
Natuk
Dwarf Fortress
Spleunky
Minecraft
Portal
Gish
Tori-Bash
Kerbal
Thief
Wait... Boardgame/tabletop?
D&D
Shadowrun
Paranoia
Chess
Don't over think this, the question is fishing for cool games that are worth investigating further. Just drops some names for people to go look up.
As a kid, had played all the good video / rpg games, and could talk about them in depth with others. Nowadays, I don't think I could even name all the game genres...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
If you want to go for fun tabletop games, forget this smoking pile of s*** that is Catan. It was nice 15y ago, now it's just clunky, random and too complicated at the same time.
So, if you want all fun and no brain, Munchkin, Dobble or Smash Up. If you got time on your hands (2 or 3 hours), Talisman is still pretty intense. If you want something brainier, but still fun, 7 Wonders is a quick learn and fun. Rab and his cardboard children features on RPS would be a good pointer for other cool tabletop games.
For console party games, Mario Kart, Rayman Raving Rabbids, good ole Super Bomberman 4 or 5, or even Street Fighter IV will do the trick.
Stupidity is the root of all evil.
I find myself strongly favoring the cooperative board and card games I've played in the last few years. Sentinels of the Multiverse, Forbidden Island & Forbidden Desert, Hanabi, and Pandemic are excellent and the experience of working together is something that I never thought I'd find outside of a computer game.
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
I wish someone would update this for Windows or OS X. I played this for hours with my buddies in the ND computer lab back in 1990-1991.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
I'm probably on the younger end of the scale according to /. - however my list would personally look like this: I don't think games should be included if I wouldn't enjoy playing it today. Good games should traverse time with ease, time is a true test of a games fundamental design.
Guitar Hero (perhaps controversial, but its phenominal success and light hearted fun captured millions)
DotA (wc3 mod, genre defining anyone?)
Half-Life (could include Counter-Strike here)
Pokemon (red/green, hand held adventures)
Doom (or Quake, I had wolfenstein, but I believe Doom was more fun)
Starcraft (or Dune II, hard one... personally I love Dune II, but the fact SC is still played today speaks volumes)
Morrowind (3D RPG)
Streetfighter II
Civilization
Super Mario Bros
I've probably put 80+ hours into dwarf fortress. And I haven't even started doing megaprojects yet. I did have a king set up residence once, before everyone died.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Yes indeed, Go doesn't get enough love. Although it's only two player and isn't co-operative, as a two player game, it is outstanding.
Portal
Porta2
SouthPark Stick of Truth
Monkey Island 1+2 (+3)
HalfLife (Source), Opposing Force, HalfLife2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Unreal Tournament '99
Quake, QuakeWorld, Quake2, Quake3Arena
F.E.A.R.
Splinter Cell and/or Thief
Sam & Max
Neverwinter Nights
Gianna Sisters
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." - Mark Twain
These are in no particular order of preference, as I heavily prefer these to most other games. I'll try to put them in broad categories and mention the platform.
Mac OS, Mac OS X, PlayStation 2, Windows
I thought you guys were nerds... nexus, xcom, everquest, battle tanks over dialup lol I could go on forever...
Side-splittingly funny.
Does anybody else remember Koules? It's sort of a breakout game, but your market get moved around by the ball and you can get bumped off the screen. It's hard to describe, but I want it back. The Home Page for Koules indicates that it's for X and for OS/2. I remember having difficulty building it for 'modern Linux' with sound support about ten years ago.
It's really good and I've never seen another game like it. It was a binary package, I think, on Slackware in the 90's, I believe that was where I first encountered it.
I MUST OWN THEM ALL HRRRGRRBLLL DIGITAL HOARDING
*ahem*
Sorry about that. I tend to get a little foamy when I digitally hoard. Anyways, counter to your point it's fun (for me, YMMV of course) to have as many as you can get. Sometimes I'll fire up MAME and simply pick out old games at random. Some I remember, some I never have seen before. It's like being an archaeologist in your own past. I'll do the same thing with C64 archives and Amiga archives (look for Amiga Tosec). Scores of Atari 2600 games. All the video discs for Daphne (the videodisc game emulator). Dragon's Lair, anyone?
It's a wish come true for younger-me. I used to mow lawns just to save up and get an Atari cartridge. Now I can download Stella and inside of ten minutes have ALL of them. Fun! And yes, someday I will make a MAME cabinet. Oh yes. It will be glorious.
So basically TL;DR it's really fun to poke around with. And really, with the price of storage these days you can store the entire library of an entire genre on a few blu ray discs. A 3 Tb hard drive is about $100 at NewEgg. Why not have them?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Duke Nukem, dammnit!
Most played PC games list (from most to least): Rome: Total War (most number of hours played by far) Master of Orion 2 (love this game to bits, but a pity that you can't terraform toxic planets) Deus Ex 1 (perhaps my most favourite game, replayed it from start to finish dozens of times) Skyrim (Still haven't finished it; I never get around to finishing the main quest line before another game comes along to steal my attention away) Fallout 3 (and New Vegas) Starcraft 1 (favourite LAN game of old) Freelancer (favourite space shooter of all time, EVE doesn't even compare to this game IMHO) Mass Effect 1, 2 & 3 (about equal amounts of time on each, #3's ending was a let down) Hitman (loved them all, Blood Money is probably my favourite) Counter-Strike (second favourite LAN game, still play Counter-Strike: Source from time to time) Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 (KOTOR) (Force Choking and Force Pushing enemies off cliffs after a hard day at work is a great stress reliever) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 1 & 2 (see comment above, should be played on PS3, PC version is a bad port) Star Control 2 (love the story line, was saddened by how bad Star Control 3 was) Civilization 2 (used to play as a LAN game, almost always played as the Germans, the Panzer tank was just too much fun to Blitzkrieg the enemy with) Rome 2: Total War (playing it now, hopefully they will get all the bugs out some day soon, finished as the Romans and as the Spartans)
Quake III Team arena, of course. Or QuakeLive nowadays which in some ways is even better than q3. Say what you wanna about cards, RPG and like but nothing builds up your rage and adrenaline like quake. Mix up with few friends and some alcohol and you've got yourself a pretty bloody gorefest.
Those games are remarkable because:
- with those I've spent the most hours of my whole recreational time
- for those I'll always say Yes if I have the opportunity to play (unless mentioned otherwise)
- they have been ported on new platforms, have clones, etc (for the old ones), and that matters.
(from old to recent)
Lode Runner on Apple //e //e //e //e
Boulder Dash on Apple
Conan on Apple
Transilvania on Apple
RISK tabletop
Monopoly tabletop
Duke Nukem 3D on PC
Age of Empire on PC
Civilisation, for me it was CivNet, on PC
StarCraft on PC
Half Life on PC
DVONN tabletop
Worms Armageddon, on PC
Bridge Builder on PC/Mac (any clone)
OGame on Web (I stopped to play however)
Hordes on Web (I stopped to play however)
Uncharted, the 3 and also the 2, on PS3
DarkSiders, the 2, on PS3
Star Drone on PS3
Terraria on PS3 (on going)
Kerbal Space Program on PC (on going)
Path Of Exile on PC (on going)
I was looking for this comment. TA and DK practically defined my later childhood. So many good memories...
TA's new successor is Planetary Annihilation (AKA TA V2).
DK's new successor is War For The Overworld (AKA DK 3).
ntr
Karaoke, or if you insist on it being a competitive game one of the many console karaoke games.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Split Second (the first one only) servers are down so no MP, but playing against a buddy is the really fun part
Rubber Ninjas is also another fun 2 player (local only)
Continuum is a fun little MP top down space shooter
Been playing Firefall a while; f2p rpg shooter (PvE/PvP)
Trine 3 player platformer (make sure the wizard isn't too drunk)
Nobody mentioned StarCraft?
If you are looking for an FPS game, then the Half-Life series is #1 in my opinion and many others.
For turn-based strategy, Civilization V is the best.
For board games, Settlers of Catan is the greatest.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
Rummikub used to be my family's go to game for vacations. Now a simple game of dominoes is it,
Junta is one that I did not see here and for all of you who are commenting about Settlers of Catan and Diplomacy, give this one a shot. In other news the CTO of our company has recently decided to give away his entire classic game collection to the best blog post about a hackathon. More details here: http://www.windward.net/great-... He wrote the game Enemy Nations back in the 90s and if you haven't checked that out, you should give it a shot. TR
I've seen a lot of good posts but haven't seen anyone mention x-wing and it's sequels. Tie fighter is one of my favorite games of all time, and the original x-wing and x-wing alliance are excellent too. They strike a great balance between realistic tactics and complex missions without being too much to learn. They clearly put a lot of effort into designing each mission. You can't really call it a simulator, but it's more sim-like and less arcade like than games like rogue squadron and whatnot. A very rewarding experience.
I laughed at some posts, learned from most. No, this was not meant to be a troll, or a marketing gimmick. It was an honest question from me. I've been greatly helped by everyone's responses. I thank you all. ;^)
For any platform?
XCom, the original. Can be made better with XComUtil (a tool to work around some of the shortcomings of the game's UI. Yes, this is an old-school, low-res DOS game.
If you like magic: the gathering, then the original M:tG game (based on 5th edition cards) is great on old, slower computers, but runs too fast to be playable on modern computers. (Microsoft Windows, worked on 3.1 and 95, if I recall)
On the Amiga: Titans of Steel was a Mech Warrior game with actual time-based physics and time-based heat (instead of turn-based heat). No more "I have generated 15 units of heat, and sink 10, so I'm only heat 5, and take no penalty". Now it takes time to sink that heat -- and all the old FASA mech designs turn out to be horrible when you have real heat issues to worry about.
Finally, Killing Game Show (Amiga) -- you need the original disk, the crack did not work properly -- is a platformer with a "timer/clock" to keep you going. But it has one wonderful feature -- when you die, it replays the level you died on. So you can see where you made your mistake. And, *** You can take over during the replay***. So you can take over *before* you make your mistake and avoid having to do all the drudge work over and over again.
The best.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.