000Ronald said:
1) What are three of your favorite games? What is it about them that you enjoy so much, if you know?
This is a very difficult question to answer, but an important one for anyone doing what I am doing here to answer. So let me try to explain my favorite games by giving only 3 examples.
I love RPG's. I could just list 3 RPG games and still feel it's not enough, I could list 12 can feel constricted, I could listed the top series of RPG games that start with each letter of the alphabet off the top of my head and I would still be over looking some games (The letter S is very popular). With all that, my one choice for my favorite RPG to represent all my favorites is Xenogears.
I know it is not perfect, there are many things I can tear apart about the game including the worse example for how not to handle a unskipable cutscene found in any game ever made: an wall of auto-scrolling text that goes on so long, the cut scene has it's own save point.
Still, for all the faults I can find in the game, Xenogears tries to do more than any RPG out there, and the results are is succeeds in doing more things than any other RPG. If you want a perfectly polished RPG go play Chrono Trigger or Breath of Fire 3. But having replayed more RPG's than an average player plays, let me say Xenogears is the one game whose story and game play continue to offer more each time I pick it up. And I really respect games that are over ambitious, but still mange to offer a great time.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
I probably don't need to explain why I like this game. I haven't met a gamer yet who doesn't like a Metroidvania adventure game. And Link to the Past does it perfectly. The puzzle and free exploration is just that right level of different but not impossible.
It is also a perfect example of telling a story without dialogue or cut scenes. One time when asked to tell a bed time story, I actually just narrated what I did in Link to the Past that day, and I was begged to continue telling this story. How many games are interesting from just hearing the narration of what the player does? That's how good of an adventure game this is.
Alright, now I need to list out one of my favorite multi-player games. Should it be a shooter, a driving game, a fighting game, a sports game. I know! I'll pick something that's all of those: Twisted Metal. Drivers fight each others with cars that shoot things, in a competition to grant them any wish if they can win. Play it co-op or versus.
Any of the Twisted Metal games David Jaffe made (1, 2, Black, and the one coming next year) are great fun. He is famous for making violent games, but he clearly treats violence with the respect as an art work it deserves. He makes destroying things fun, but also seems to make rather well develop characters among the mayhem, who all get short but nice character arches in story mode.