Favorite Game, Yours, What is it? Why?

[omega 616]

There are loads crowding my top list but .... it has to be MGS3.

Awesome story line, even if you know NOTHING about MGS and this is your first MGS game. Graphics (for the time) are awesome MGS always delivers great graphics for it's time. The music is perfect James Bond-y camp and I think suits the time period. The gameplay is good, with the camo rating, face paints (from comical to special abilities), healing wounds more accurately (rather than ration = health).

I know I said story line but The Boss deserves a special mention, I think she is a perfect character.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Zelda: Ocarina of Time. My favorite traditional(meaning a game involving Link,Zelda,a villain, and the Triforce) Zelda experience, I personally cannot think of anything the game does bad. The story may not be special, but the many memorable characters it introduced to the series make up for that. Controls feel great, it perfected a 3D targeting system, good action, great puzzles, good environments. Plus if the visuals bother you with the original for being too old, get the 3DS version to be more current. Still play it once a year, maybe twice if I feel like it, and I never get tired of it.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Fallout 3.
Hell yeah.
Loved it way more than the original Fallouts, and although New Vegas was great it just wasn't the same. The Fallout universe is great- really imaginative and quirky without being annoying.

 

[Sixcess]

DOOM/DOOM II

By modern standards it's unsophisticated - no jumping, no vertical aiming, block visuals and a story that can be summed up as Kill All The Things - but none of that matters because the gameplay is simply brilliant. DOOM plays as smoothly today as it ever did, it's fantastically well balanced - even to this day I still find Ultraviolence a challenge, but it never ever feels unfair - and for sheer run'n'gun action nothing else comes close.

 

[Terminate421]

Battletanx: Global Assault.

Storywise, doesnt matter. It just all says "here are some badass looking tanks, now go kill each other on these maps with AI on your side. Also, here are some very wacky weapons to play around with.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I would say it's either Stronghold Crusader or Age of Mythology. Two class strategy games. Loved Oblivion to pieces too, even though everyone in the game looked like Michael Jackson's ripped cousins.

 

[Cranky]

Mass Effect 1 and 2. Too many close contenders with it but these come up on the pile.
2) Fallout series
3) The Last of Us
4) TWD by Telltale (noticing a pattern here woth post-apocalyptia)
5) Bioshock
6) Halo: CE

 

[thmz]

Yay, mine hasn't been mentioned yet!
It has received certain criticism, but my favorite game is (at least right now, opinions change) without a doubt:
Red Dead Redemption
I...the world...the characters...the music...it leaves me speechless and almost in tears.
The first time I rode out of Armadillo is a gaming-moment I'll never forget.
It is also one of the few games that made me cry, not sniffle or feel sad, NO! I cried!
That ending...it was...beautiful.
That and it left me with an intense hate for anyone daring to defend the actions of Edgar Ross.

Now I will acknowledge the much criticized inconsistency between gameplay and story with the actions of John Marston,
but...yeah, I got nothing to say, except that most games with a protagonist that's trying to change act this way.
I know John says he doesn't want to kill and then shoots a whole camp of bandits, or even a whole town of civilians if the player feels like it, but in a way, that's part of the message the game is trying to convey.
You can't escape your past, especially if people like Ross are involved, who kidnap your family and then blackmail you into doing his bidding, only to then claim he's the good guy! Taxpayer's money at work people!

 

[mechalynx]

I can't narrow it down to one specific game so I'm going to list the game that would have sustained my gaming appetites if I had to choose the 16 titles I could not live without.

Skies of Arcadia
Legacy of Kain
Shenmue
Skyrim
Guild Wars, 2
Final Fantasy X and X-2

If held at a knifepoint, Guild Wars 2. So that I at least can call on my guild mates for help.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Spoiler

Dark, epic, bizarre yet beautiful atmosphere? Check.
Beautiful graphics (for the time)? Check.

Spoiler: An incredible soundtrack? Check.

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A protagonist you actually care about? Check.
Hilarious dark humor? Check.
Tight controls, creative puzzles and an all around amazing game? Check!

Oh hey! I wasn't sure if I should put Abe's Exoddus as my favourite game, because I felt that my huge amount of nostalgia for it was giving me a bias in its favour. Now that I've seen someone else put it as their favourite, I feel less guilty about calling it my favourite as well!

 

[Fijiman]

I would probably have to say Rainbow Six Vegas 2. I can play terrorist hunt on that all day long. Well, so long as I have a group of people who have at least some idea of how to play the game and know how to use the damn mic.

 

[Smiley Face]

The Mass Effect Trilogy. I love that series, despite what flaws it might have. It wasn't about the story (which is why, for me, the ending didn't spoil the whole series), it was about the journey - about bringing the whole setting to life, and taking a diverse and interesting cast of characters and really get you to invest in them. And it looked great, and it sounded great. Other games have their strengths in gameplay, or open-world-ness, or whatever, but Mass Effect was a really great game that happened to push my buttons.

 

[A Username Not In Use]

Rogue Galaxy.

There are too many things to list about what I love about the game. I really wish the team that made it would be given the chance to make some more RPG's.

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

It was initially more nebulous, between several great games, but now they are all runners-up to this gem of a game:

Spoiler

It's been described as the "DIY NASA game", and it features a bunch of crazy little green men called Kerbals as your pilots. Obviously, you need to visit other planets and moons in their star system FOR SCIENCE!
And it is gorgeous...

And those are just some of the smallest images I could find. In my search for those, I found many large, but just damn beautiful screenshots.

Also, as you can probably guess from the one image, quite a lot of humour pervades this game.

But, above all, it is about the self construction and piloting of multi-stage rockets to get probes, artificial satelites, and Kerbals to different oribts, planets, moons, and even assemble bases and space stations. It's a sandbox.

And it isn't even complete yet! They haven't actually got versions of all the possible planets, dwarf planets, and major moons for the Kerbal solar system, nor have they got any asteroids or comets yet, nor have they even finished all of the possible rocket/ship/station/base parts/engines/scientific equipment. But, when you get the paid alpha, it updates whenever a new version with new goodies and fixes come out (and it is by now rather bug-free; usually, bugs in this game surface with major new versions, and are quickly fixed by sub-patches).

And even though those parts are not complete yet, the physics engine is pretty much complete, ironclad, and realistic. You can even simulate gravity in space by judicious creation and operation of a ring space station, though IVA isn't fully implemented yet.

Finally, there is a nice community going on the game's special forums, as well as a handful of great Youtubers with accounts mainly devoted to this game. You can always check out Scott Manley's or HOCgaming's channels for videos of this game.

 

[Reyold]

There's a lot of games I really like, but I have to go with God Hand. What other game lets dispose of dominatrixes by spanking them, suplex a gorilla in a luchador outfit, and kick enemies with enough force to send them into orbit?

Craziness aside, I don't know of any other beat-'em-up that lets you customize your moveset, with so many moves to choose from. And the difficulty! You wanted a challenge, you got one.

On a related note, screw your 3.0 score, IGN.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Both the Metro games and Carmageddon are my most favorite games. Metro due to it's atmosphere (and sometimes it can be a tearjerker) and Carma due to the arcade fun it gives, allowing you to do whatever you want in it's game limits.

There are many games that are close second but to much to name.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Tales of Symphonia, no contest. Absolutely beautiful game that definitely has no aging problems, amazing music that is so brilliantly utilized at key points to really drive the story home. Phenomenal, addictive gameplay that keeps you going for hours and a sizable amount of content to go with it. The story is full of humor and the plot twists come out of nowhere, even with their allusions.

It's just overall a brilliant game. Easily my favorite of all time.

 

[speight88]

Probably a toss up between:

FF9 (i love the characters, the story and the world)

Football manager 12 (yeah Bury F.C to the champs league final! easily one of the most addictive games, if you like football/soccer)

Transport Tycoon Deluxe (i don;t really know why but i've been playing it since you still had to go into DOS to access it so it must be doing something right!)

 

[thomaskattus]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. I absolutely adore this game. I wouldn't say it's the best game I've ever played(either best gameplay, or best story), but it IS the one I enjoy replaying the most, it's my favorite game world to experience and explore. Everything fits in together so well, it's perfect. The fantastic music, the superbly written dialogues, maybe the best voice acting I've ever seen in a game, the hubs, the amazing game mechanics(aside from the combat, that is), everything. There is no sidequest that is wasted and pointless and contributes nothing to the game world, everything contributes to the world-building, everything fits perfectly. And of course the main plot, which is fantastic in and of itself. So much wonderful vampire politicking, so many exceptional characters, such a great, constant sense of impending doom, such an awesome resolution.

Hate to to use the ol' Bethesda buzzword, but it is the most immersive game I have ever played. Shit, I might just go and replay it right now.

I 3> you, VtMB.

I have to concur with you on the awesomeness that is VtMB. I played the hell out of the game. I still go back and play it when I want an immersive RPG experience.

Thank goodness that there is a fan made patch that takes care of most of the bugs (as well as restoring deleted content).

 

[DishonoredElderSouls]

I might look odd for this, but Fallout: New Vegas is probably my ultimate favourite game.

New Vegas is anything but a flawless game- in fact, the first time I tried to play it, I absolutely hated the game. But over the course of a year or so, Obsidian really went out of their way to patch it up as much as they possibly could (since they were given only eighteen months to develop it by Bethesda, rather short for a game this scale) and turned it into something jaw-dropping.

To begin with, the dialogue and characters in this game are simply fantastic, and some of the best you'll ever come across in gaming. They will connect with you in really special ways and even change your course of action throughout the story. For instance, I met a follower named Veronica- a Brotherhood of Steel member- who, over the course of a week of travelling with me, became someone I genuinely cared about. When my employer in the game's main quest, Mr. House, demanded that I eliminate all existence of BoS in the Mojave Wasteland, I realized that Veronica would loathe me forever and I would never see her again. Thus, I proceeded to murder Mr. House- just beforehand, I explained to him that he had betrayed my personal interests- and then left his home, told Veronica that we should leave, and went on with my journeys through the wastes.

The fact that a collection of pixels combined with a voice could lead me to have emotional conflicts with what I should do next is something that no game with forced 'moral choices' has ever placed upon me. This is only one example of many throughout the game, however. There are plenty of other situations just like this, and the characters and dialogue throughout New Vegas are just consistently works of art.

New Vegas also provides excellent exploration and combat, all very well-balanced and fun. The game makes you feel powerful at what you do, but being a true RPG from a true RPG developer, also ensures that you have plenty of weaknesses and faults in your character. The possible character builds are nearly limitless, and there are narrative and gameplay choices abound. I was amazed by how dialogue with almost every character lands you in another interesting quest, and you'll find yourself with tons of distractions no matter where you go.

This game simply changed my perspective of gaming in a way that I can't quite explain, but its atmosphere, masses of content, excellent humour, addicting combat, wonderful design, and even touches of realism really blew me away.

Runner-ups: Oblivion, Destroy All Humans! 2, BioShock, Assassin's Creed II, Far Cry 3, Star Wars Battlefront II, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, Red Dead Redemption, Shadow of the Colossus, and Batman Arkham City.