Poll: Which is videogames best sci-fi universe?

[SalamanderJoe]

Gears of War has a very surprising amnount of detail in its world if you sit down and read the comics and books. However Mass Effect probably has the most expansive universe in gaming.

 

[almostgold]

Mass Effect everyone? Really? I thought it was pretty unimaginative and bland, personally (swear i felt like I was walking around KoToR Locations 90% of the time.). It was extensive and polished, sure, but by no means do I feel it was 'the best'.
At all.

 

[CRAVE CASE 55]

Fallout. enough said.

 

[II2]

So much wrong in this thread...There is no such thing called Science Fiction. You can define pretty easy a fantasy story, but you can't define a science fiction one. That's why there's a lot of subgenres to it. Those subgenres all share certain SF elements(Like aliens, time travel, space travel, different planets, silly science, plausible science etc) to each other, but each is unique, while occasionally blending together.

You can't say something isn't a tree because it has branches.

It's like saying Rock don't exist, but Symphonic Metal exists.

Sub genres (in a sane world) are only as useful as narrowing down interests. The instant you start to take them seriously, you might as well stop expecting people to take YOU seriously.

 

[Gunslinger 1994]

Mass effect, no doubt it all just seems so..... Big.

 

[Dancingman]

Mass Effect= Win, how does anything else even compete, unless its Star Wars.

 

[WhyLater]

So much wrong in this thread...There is no such thing called Science Fiction. You can define pretty easy a fantasy story, but you can't define a science fiction one. That's why there's a lot of subgenres to it. Those subgenres all share certain SF elements(Like aliens, time travel, space travel, different planets, silly science, plausible science etc) to each other, but each is unique, while occasionally blending together.

SCIENCE FICTION SUBGENRES:
SPACE OPERA(Mass Effect, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica)
CYBER PUNK(Deus Ex, Blade Runner, The Neuromancer)
ALTERNATE HISTORY(Man in the High Castle)
HARD SF(The Mars trilogy)
SOCIAL SF(1984, The Man in the High Castle)
APOCALYPTIC(Fallout, The Road, Mad Max)
TIME TRAVEL(Doctor Who, The Time Machine, Day of the Tentacle)
MILITARY SCIENCE FICTION(The Forever War, Ender's Game)

There's still, superhuman, western science fiction, soft SF, biopunk, Spy-fi, science opera fiction and a lot of other SF subgenres.

Star Was IS Science Fiction, cause it belongs to a subgenre OF Science Fiction named SPACE OPERA! In science fiction you don't always need to explain the science part. That's a tip for you.

This. Science Fiction is, in essence, "Wouldn't it be cool if science could do this?" There's very pure scary-plausible SciFi such as the works of Michael Chrichton, and then there's Lucas, and everything in between.

OT: I'm going to give my vote to StarCraft, indeed because of its Science Fiction. I just adore the trichotomy of the races. The Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg are like mind, soul, and flesh, respectively. You have the Terrans, with their lasers and Gauss guns and arclite and neosteel, plus dabbling into psychic powers. You have the Protoss, with their mastery of the energies of the universe and psionic subsistence, all infused into their technology. Then you have the Zerg, which thrive by forcing the "evolution" of its subspecies into the most ferocious and tactically-equipped unintelligent organisms in the universe, all operating under a giant hive-mind consciousness. Just the Zerg's style of Unnatural Selection (if you will) is enough to swing it as my favorite SciFi universe; the technology of the Terrans, the psionic powers of the Protoss, not to mention the overriding story of the creation of the Zerg and Protoss by some ancient mysterious race called the Xel'Naga... well, it becomes no contest for me. And as a bonus, it's the best RTS of all time, so.

Honorable mention goes to Fallout. I'm a sucker for Post-Apocalyptia.

 

[repeating integers]

Warhammer 40k should be on this poll. It wins easily, against everything ever.

In its absence, I vote Mass Effect for its detailed, fleshed out and imaginative universe.

Runner up is Halo, and I also quite like Metroid (from the one game of it I've played, Fusion).

 

[Continuity]

Well relatively few games give us a broad enough vista of the game's "universe" to make this a completely fair poll. Though I guess there are games like bioshock who's universe is very well created but contained as a facet in another unseen world... there's a lot of that in video games.
So do we take universe to mean simply the scope of what we seen in the game, or do we mean universe in a broader sense as in a macro sci-fi space opera?

Bah.

For the first I nominate: Bioshock

For the second I nominate: .... Actually there is only Mass Effect isn't there? :s

Warhammer 40k. Non stop, over the top, balls to the wall awesomeness. Whats there not to love?

it's pre-existant sci-fi, the thread is about sci-fi which have been entirely created in the video games industry.

 

[PanicxBoss]

Mass Effect by far, with Halo and Deus Ex tied for second place. Mass Effect just has this massive feel to it, like anything could be going on, while the other ones are sort of limited scope. I like Halo too much for my own good (all the novels, baby!), and Deus Ex is one of the more immersive limited-scope universes I've played in, so that's why I ranked them the way I did.

EDIT: If we're counting Fallout, that takes second, while Halo and DE take third.

 

[direkiller]

Homeworld:3d space battles ftw

 

[The Night Shade]

Deus-Ex by far

 

[repeating integers]

Homeworld:3d space battles ftw

*fanboy within me explodes in ecstasy*

Another Homeworld fan! Yay! Hi! This is a glorious day...

Ahem.

Yeah, I love Homeworld as well. My favourite game ever... it's too bad that it's not all that fleshed out in the background department.

 

[JPH330]

I'm gonna go with Deus Ex, mainly because I love all the conspiracies involved.

 

[Tanis]

I'm going with 'Other' simply because games like:

Halo & Crysis & Killzone are all medicore to me.


Mass Effect I've never played.

Half-life & Deus-Ex & Starcraft & Metroid all have strong points, but there's also some real failures in the series.




Also, most of those are FPS...which I don't think can do Sci-Fi all that well.

I'd rather play a game like Homeworld or Rouge Galaxy or Phantasy Star or GALACTIC CIVILIZATIONS (!!!) because I find their game play and presentation more fun or interesting.

More so Masters of Orion or Galactic Civilizations, both series which I've sunk more hours into than I care to admit.

 

[direkiller]

Homeworld:3d space battles ftw

*fanboy within me explodes in ecstasy*

Another Homeworld fan! Yay! Hi! This is a glorious day...

Ahem.

Yeah, I love Homeworld as well. My favourite game ever... it's too bad that it's not all that fleshed out in the background department.

yea its back-story wasn't all there(as it set the mood for the first game) but the story it did give you was amazing.

 

[repeating integers]

Homeworld:3d space battles ftw

*fanboy within me explodes in ecstasy*

Another Homeworld fan! Yay! Hi! This is a glorious day...

Ahem.

Yeah, I love Homeworld as well. My favourite game ever... it's too bad that it's not all that fleshed out in the background department.

yea its back-story wasn't all there(as it set the mood for the first game) but the story it did give you was amazing.

I did love Homeworld's storytelling. It was very effective and atmospheric, and at times emotional.

Homeworld fans are so rare, it warms my heart whenever I find another one...

 

[JWW]

Half-Life: Humanity fighting for its very existence with its alien allies against an alien/robot/zombie collective.

Fuck yeah.