Best stand-alone game this generation?

[Alphakirby]

Imagine Babies 2006.

Probably.

That is obviously game of the year material,the story,the graphics,the gameplay,everything about it blew me away. It revolutionized video games for all time.

OT:I have no idea seeing as most of the games I played were not stand alone and I'm a bit hesitant to give the prize to Hard Reset.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Oblivion for me.

Dude. And everyone. I'm only going to say this one more time.

Oblivion is part of the 'Elder Scrolls' series, along with Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Skyrim. As such, it's not 'standalone' by this thread's definition.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Its going to be grand theft auto 4 for me

its not exactly a sequel to gta san andreas sooo yea.

No, it's just a sequel to Vice City. And GTA3. And GTA2. And the original Grand Theft Auto. And then we have Tales of Liberty City, Chinatown Wars and Ballad of Gay Tony.

 

[Alphakirby]

Oblivion for me.

Dude. And everyone. I'm only going to say this one more time.

Oblivion is part of the 'Elder Scrolls' series, along with Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Skyrim. As such, it's not 'standalone' by this thread's definition.

Like that will stop anyone.
Also,does The World Ends With You still count even though Neku is going to be in KH: Dream Drop Distance? Your icon made me think about that game.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Well we cant make this decision until the end of this generation. Some big hitters coming out later this year like Skyrim.

So far, Oblivion or Fallout: New Vegas are fantastic games.

Heavy Rain deserves mention, a very cool experience.

Civ V was good.

Starcraft II was apparently good.

Minecraft as well, amazing game.

...Why can't people on the Internet read?

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Angry Birds - It's genuinely fun in a casual way and almost universally loved by most age groups.

There was a flash game that came out years before Angry Birds that was the EXACT same thing called Crush the Castle. But then again this kind of thing happens to flash game all the time.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Also,does The World Ends With You still count even though Neku is going to be in KH: Dream Drop Distance? Your icon made me think about that game.

Kingdom Hearts also uses characters from Final Fantasy and Disney, yet it's not considered part of the Little Mermaid series, or even Little Mermaid (or anything else) canon. I doubt Neku's brief trip into Twilight Town or whatever it's called will affect his life in Shibuya in any meaningful way, except maybe getting more people to play the game, and that's a good thing.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

Im going to go with Skyrim, or one of the Saints Row games

Uh, hello? This is for best standalone game this year. Skyrim is part of Elder Scrolls, and Saints Row is a massive franchise. Neither belongs here. Lern2readkthxbai.

Take a deep breath and relax. He made a mistake.

OT: I have no idea. The only games that are stand alone that I can think of are LA Noire.

I guess Minecraft. Nothing really managed to be as "Holy Shit" good as that game in a while.

 

[Xathos]

You already said The World Ends With You, but I just have to say it again. Love that game so much. Spent like 130 hours on that game.

But I guess some other ones would be Heavy Rain (that game play style! Those graphics!), Nier (That music! The sadness!), or Bayonetta (the...over the top weird stuff!). Hmm, come to think of it, I haven't really played any stand alone type games in a while. Really got to try out stuff like Lost Odyssey or Bastion.

 

[SaikyoKid]

Angry Birds - It's genuinely fun in a casual way and almost universally loved by most age groups.

There was a flash game that came out years before Angry Birds that was the EXACT same thing called Crush the Castle. But then again this kind of thing happens to flash game all the time.

I dunno if Angry Birds should be bundled together so much with Crush the Castle. Yes it does use the same engine and basic goal, but it does have it's own separate characters as well as a plot line. (Albeit a terribly watered down plot and pretty basic characters but they're there nonetheless) Plus, a quick search has shown that Crush the Castle apparently DOES have an actual sequel. I say Angry Birds could be nominated in it's place.

 

[pyrosaw]

Um, Bulletstorm maybe. Nice FPS. (Has come to the realization that he plays lots of franchises.)

Edit: Well, I don't play many stand-alone games this generation. I like Beyond Good and Evil, Okami, Bully, Painkiller, etc.

 

[Mikkaddo]

Personally I think my favorite stand alone game of the generation, is only a stand alone if you don't count DLC as a sequal, despite how much of a sequal the DLC may end up being.

But, to not dance around the point any more than I did there:

RED. DEAD. REDEMPTION.

It was a great story, had a genuinely likable and better yet UNDERSTANDABLE lead character. You actually cared about him and what he was fighting for. Sure you could bring him to a bar to get drunk and start bar fights but that made sense even, since the whole point of "The American Dream" was to be free of anyone's will but your own and he himself was held so tightly to someone else's will it makes sense that he'd sometimes want to do something to forget every trouble and even memory he's ever had.

Even the way he acted toward NPCs without your direct intervention.

Example:

When walking around any given town (Thieve's Landing is the best for this) there are going to be whores. As you walk past they yell out to you to partake of their services, but John, being both married and loyal to his family, responds with quotations such as "no thanks ma'am . . ." or "Sorry, not for me, I got a family." This tells you more than just that he won't pay a whore for sex. It tells you he cares about his family enough that he would turn it down constantly despite how long he's obviously gone away from his family. It doesn't matter what horrors he's seen. How often he's come close to dying so many times. That doesn't matter . . . he's got a family to go home to and he couldn't live with himself if he betrayed his family that way.

Spoiler

Even after the game ends, when John is killed and buried and his son takes up the gun and goes out to tame the wild west for himself, he as well will not partake of the whores, he himself is racked with sadness over the passing events.

This game's lead character, it's gameplay . . . the story, it's all so perfect. And so far there's not a sequal to it that I'm aware of. And it's also not a direct sequal to Red Dead Revolver either but a "Spiritual" Sequal, like Shadow of the Colossus was a spiritual sequal to Ico.

(praise Inglip, peace be on his name XD)

 

[the spud]

Hmm...it's kinda sad that I am having a hard time thinking of a game without a sequel...

OT: I really loved Shadow of the Collosus, since that technically counts.

 

[BiggyShackleton]

If you're counting SotC then it's an easy choice, if not I'd probably go with Metro 2033 (although that soon will be disqualified cause of Last Light).

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Angry Birds - It's genuinely fun in a casual way and almost universally loved by most age groups.

There was a flash game that came out years before Angry Birds that was the EXACT same thing called Crush the Castle. But then again this kind of thing happens to flash game all the time.

I dunno if Angry Birds should be bundled together so much with Crush the Castle. Yes it does use the same engine and basic goal, but it does have it's own separate characters as well as a plot line. (Albeit a terribly watered down plot and pretty basic characters but they're there nonetheless) Plus, a quick search has shown that Crush the Castle apparently DOES have an actual sequel. I say Angry Birds could be nominated in it's place.

I just think it's unfair to give Angry Birds the nod when it's the exact same as a prior game. That wuld be like giving True Crime the nod for being revolutionary without giving GTA3 proper regocnition, you know what I mean?

 

[Sheamus]

this thread is fail, most people haven't followed the directions and the video game industry is based off sequels, if something is good it gets a sequel, hence the majority of good games are banned from this list.

OT: Heavy Rain would get my vote, followed closely by Bayonetta


edit: shadow of the colossus is last gen as is Okami, remakes/ports shouldn't count..
and

RED. DEAD. REDEMPTION.

is a spiritual successor aka sequel, red dead revolver... nice try

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed could have been the winner but sadly, it vomited up a sequel.

I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of a good stand-alone game in general. My favorite games are part of franchises. Saint's Row 2, Halo Reach, Oblivion, Just Cause 2, Pokemon Black, White, Diamond, Platinum; Batman Arkham Asylum.

The only one I can think of is The Punisher for the original Xbox but that game was last gen. Spawn: In the Demon's Hand was on the Dreamcast which was also last gen but another favorite.

I could take the easy way out and vote Minecraft but I've clocked many, many, many more hours on console games.

 

[Quazimofo]

tis a tough question indeed. i would say mass effect, but that was a trilogy from the start. would say bioshock, but that has a sequel and another on the way.
would say deus ex, but that's the second game in the series (and one hell of a prequel to the original. cant wait to see where they go but i digress)
also loved Star wars: empire at war, but they made another.
Terraria is fun, but not the best by any means. nor is minecraft (but both are really damn fun)

I almost forgot about World in Conflict, but that was one hell of a game. the gameplay i remember was great, and i also remember enjoying the story a good bit (which is a rarity for me and strategy games, as i usually don't even pay attention)

but for sheer stupid fun, Vanqush and Bulletstorm. my god i played barely any vanquish (as my brother enjoyed it much more than i and so played it more), but holy fucking shit it was awesome. Bulletstorm... well draging a guy by the testicles into his friends to then cause him to explode killing them all, all with a sniper round from 200 meters, just fantastic.

in short, i cant decide. but among the fantastic sequels of this generation (fallout, halo, gears, deus ex, left 4 dead and so on and so on), we have had many good new IPs, which is a damn good thing to know.

 

[joshthor]

la noire for me. its a fantastic game that had a great story. i wish it was for the pc.

 

[peruvianskys]

Bastion gets my vote - that or Super Meat Boy. There are so few stand-alone AAA games out there (as everyone is trying to make a long-running franchise out of everything) that this category would definitely be dominated by indie games. VVVVVV, Limbo, Braid, Amnesia: Dark Descent, and Brutal Legend are also contenders!