The Five games that define you as a gamer

[Bvenged]

I really want to post a whole horde of games, or even groups of games like "Tom Clancy games pre-2007" but I'll be strict and post the 5 games I would say define me as a gamer, i.e. what they've done for me in a respectable skill-sense and how I find such games entertaining today. They'll be in no particular order as it's hard enough just picking 5


Unreal Tournament
Got me into multiplayer FPS and a good understanding of how multiplayer servers worked. At quite a young age it actually developed my reaction times IRL for throwing, catching, dodging tackles in sport, etc.


Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
Taught me that you can't take anything for granted and that good planning will likely pay off. Because of it I will spend as long as I need to work on a plan, strategy, whatever. I'm not the most organised person in the word but I sure as shit plan myself out, which is always a good fallback.


Halo 3 Introduced me to competitive multiplayer. Up to that point I preferred playing bots and co-op because the only multiplayer I knew up was on PC, where I didn't take it too seriously, and splitscreen Goldeneye or Timesplitters, where it was easy to get annoyed at your friends and vice versa. Developed my social skills by communicating with strangers nicely, or plain sternly when angry. Also gave me the confidence to call out on others faults. While I will call them out, I rarely insult someone online as I like to follow the "return fire only" rule of engagement with others. My comebacks are intelligent, not derogatory, because I have a reason to argue and not to just spout crap for trash talk.


Shogun: Total War Either this or Medieval 1: Total War. Gave me an interest in long-term games where you can invest a few hours a week over many months and still enjoy it. Casual and slow strategic games. I still enjoy playing them every now and then.


The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Sucked me into western RPG's, modding, character development, lore, further reading into a subject. Most people love it, some people hate it, but I'm not afraid to say it was the first RPG to really catch my interest.


<color=black>Honourable Mentions

The Sims
Building houses and stuff. I nearly followed a path for architecture because of this game.

World of Warcraft
Captured my interest in MMO's. I also ran 2 guilds on 2 separate occasions. The second was far better than the first, but both were crap regardless. roughly 150-odd people in the second guild with 120-odd mothballed alts in it.

Splinter Cell 1-3
Stealthy, whilst requiring patience and reconnaissance.

Swat 3 & 4
SWAT is one of my favourite games because the AI is really smart and the way you analyse a situation under heat that could lead to a favourable victory or the demise of an officer is just pure gold.

MoH Underground/CoD 1/CoD 4/BF1942/BF2142/BF3
Fast-paced shooters, real-time cutscenes, large-scale battles, small cog in a big machine effect.

NFS: Hot Pursuit (Original)
Countless hours of fun with my brother on the PS1. Got me into Racing games (kind of).

Time Splitters 2/Goldeneye
Glorious split screen fun on the Xbox and N64.


That raps it up. Some really good games there. I've missed a few such as RTS's, but I didn't want to make this post any bigger than it is.

 

[ledchicken]

1) Oblivion: First big open world game I played, first experience with downloading and installing mods, and probably most hours sunk into than any other game, I like skyrim better but I played Oblivion first, and they are very similar my only regret is after skyrim the combat in oblivion puts me to sleep

2) Bioshock: SUCH A GOOD STORY. SUCH GOOD CHARACTERS, brilliant art design great atmosphere, great music, interesting concepts and the first 'mature' game I played. Also lots of other stuff, pretty much my favorite game, definitely my favorite shooter.

3) Zeno Clash: Easily the weirdest game I've played (and enjoyed) and the only first-person-beat-'em-up I've ever seen (that wasn't shit) so memorable just for how different it was to any other game I'd ever played.

4)TF2!: Most time spent in an online game, all my friends have it, so many lols to be had

5) Mass Effect 1 and 2 (haven't got round to 3 yet ) ACTUALLY GOOD DIALOGUE AND CONVERSATIONS. WHY DON"T MORE (rpg) GAMES VOICE THE MAIN CHARACTER *GOHL*. But yeah, really entertaining story, great gameplay in the second game and you get really attached to good old Shep. I live in hope that a game will be made one day with the quality of narrative/main quest, characters and dialogue from mass effect and the game-structure of an elder scrolls title *sigh*

Also just cause 2, I have yet to play ANY missions on that game whatsoever after 40+ hours of playing

 

[babinro]

1) Ninja Gaiden (NES) - I originally wanted to put Super Mario Bros 1 or 3 but really this is a better fit. This game represents most elements of a game I'm drawn to today.
It's controls feel perfect. It's got a more adult themed story and draws you in with an amazing soundtrack. It's one of the key games that introduced me to the world instrumental music as well.

2) Rock Band (drums) - This is the ultimately example of the kind of difficulty I love in gaming. The challenge is gradual and extremely rewarding. More than that the challenge is customizable. I've long since grown out of the punishing difficulty found in games like Ninja Gaiden. These days I want a game that allows for a casual experience but can expand to add punishing difficulty of the game itself is something I want to master.
It also represents how I'm willing to try unique games. I've owned the wii, I've tried peripherals over the years. Gaming for me is not strictly limited to the controller or keyboard/mouse.

3) Final Fantasy 1 (NES) - This is the game that best exemplifies my love of RPG's. The mechanics of character building and watching that growth in action is THE main thing I love about D&D as well as like Magic: The Gathering (with decks of course). Final Fantasy is what brought this to life in video games. I lean towards tactical combat, choice in character building and great music in gaming. RPG's are my favorite genre's of all-time, and Final Fantasy's ability to choose your group from scratch makes it stand out even today.

4) KOTOR - This is the game that brought RPG's to the next level for me. I brought the element of choice and consequence to the character building in RPG's. While I'm not much of a 'role player' in tabletop, this type of game showed my that RP is fun in gaming. This element of choice brought a new level of replay value to the games I love, be they RPGs or other titles like inFamous.
I consider Dragon Age:Origins to be the pinnacle of these games.

5) Starcraft - This game highlights my love for strategy in gaming and really hooked me into the RTS genre. It emphasizes perfect controls, decision making and balance between choices in gaming. This game made me realize that I really do care about balance and diversity. It's why I care about balancing class skills in a PvE game like Diablo 3, Skyrim, or Dragon Age 2.
Warcraft 3 ended up becoming my all-time favorite RTS though.

 

[floppylobster]

1. Phoenix (Arcade) It wasn't my first game, nor even my favourite. But when I search my memory, this one keeps coming up. I think it was because I played it at a local takeaway and there was a social scene there of local gamers.

2. Lode Runner (Apple II / SG-1000) - It got me hooked on gaming. My parents gave it to me for my birthday (on SG-1000). But two weeks before that I had faked being sick several times, found where they hid it and played it many, many times.

3. Phantasy Star (Master System) - The weight of the cartridge, the challenge, the battery save. The first time I loved an RPG. The first time I couldn't explain to my friends what made it so good.

4. Sabre Wulf (Spectrum) - The first time I mapped a game. There's something in that skill that lead to my love of RTS games (that hadn't been developed yet).

3. Castle of Illusion (Master System) - I sold it to a lady who I trusted to pay me for it later but she never did. My first really bad experience with games. My first realization that not all gamers were nice people.

There are many more but I'll stick to the OP's suggestion and leave it at those five.

 

[The Last Parade]

Katawa Shoujo
Halo
Borderlands
TES
and Age of Empires

I still feel like there's more though... I think it should be like 15 or 20 games that define us

 

[legendp]

Halo 1 on the PC
(in about 2004), Before halo I didn't really care for any fps games, now it's one of my favourite genres (when done right)

Riven
One of the first games I played, it pushed me to think differently, and showed the story a game can have, the detail and imersion (I was born in 1994, so I was like 4-8 when I played this)

Age of empires 1 and 2
I am a huge lover of a good RTS (favourite is bfme2), and age of empires really introduced me to rts and indeed multiplayer.

Bournout takedown
The reason I bough a ps2 and got so invested in gaming, it was soo damn fun (favourite being revenge on 360)

Mass effect 2
I had played the first mass effect but up until then I didn't care for most RPG's, they felt cumberson and the task seemed menial (collect 12 of something), I had played mass effect 1 but that was only for the story, mass effect 2 showed me how imersive a game can be (building on riven)

Honorable mentions go to mirrors edge and the original crysis on pc, I have played each atleast 5x because I feel like they truly did innovate, crysis with it's huge AND destructible environments (yes ive played farcry) and mirrors edge whith it's unique challenging platforming (personally I liked the difficulty, too many modern 3rd person platformers feel sticky like you don't have much control and there too easy

Edit: O yeah, and I can't forget abes oddessay, probably the first game where I was that interested in the story AND gameplay (Riven gameplay was a bit boring, especially at my age)

 

[Rafe]

Final Fantasy VIII
Love the music, battle system and overall futuristic European feel of it. The moments with Laguna make me laugh out loud as well. I tear up a bit as well during the Garden battle where Squall stops being a little ***** and musters all the students into one final effort while it plays 'The Oath'.

Deadly Premonition
I love everything about the game, except those darn wall-crawling enemies. I found the plot genuinely compelling, the mystery fantastic and the pay-off doubly so. Music, humour again I love.

Wind Waker
In my view the best Zelda game. Never grew bored of the sea travelling, it felt like every trip was an adventure. Also I got it with the Gamecube on my birthday when I was young and it opened wishing me a happy birthday, blew my fucking mind at the time.

Lost Odyssey
Nobou Uematsu composing the music made the game feel fantastic. It was a great return to the turn based battle system, it was similar to FF X which worked well to me. Also features the best voice acting in any game I've experienced. Natural dialogue that cuts over itself is incredible. The funniest moments were the things Jansen would mutter in the background. Shame we don't see enough of that.

Silent Hill 3
Although I'd say 2 is objectively just better. I found 3 just terrifying. Most horror protagonists just have a blank face at all times but Heather looks like she might throw up at any second when all the creepy shit is going on. I liked having one sane person in the game as well, always loved seeing the detective to break things up. Shame it was attached to the cult stuff, but they managed to make something great out of it.

I'm not saying the not-as-popular iterations in the series like Silent Hill 3, Wind Waker and FF 8 to be unconventional and different. They really are the ones I love to play again at least once a year and I never get tired.

 

[Rai^3]

The game that got me into games, and most likely created the tastes I have today, favoring an open, player-oriented experience. This is the one that taught me that games can be more than idle entertainment- they can contain worlds. Open to exploration, always something new to see.

Although Soul Reaver is my favorite out of the series (particularly considering the sharp decline afterward), Blood Omen really covers why I feel so strongly about the "games as art" argument. I really can't explain the specifics of it nearly as well as this fella [http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=bo], though.

Again, with the whole player-driven world argument thing that Spyro kicked off, but this time with the additional encouragement of giving the player options on how to tackle the world. I had so much fun just experimenting with different character builds, the brevity of which no other Elder Scrolls game has really even neared. Nothing better than just making your character and jumping right in, fuck that Starting Dungeon shit.

One of only three games to date (the other two being Condemned 2 and Fatal Frame) to put real fright into me, proving that horror has to go beyond just aesthetic to be scary (looking at you, Dead Space).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/57/Dead_Space_Box_Art.jpg
But fun, no matter how you slice it, is fun. Dead Space is one of the funnest shooters I've played in some time, and the emphasis on action is actually why I'm looking forward to Dead Space 3. They were never survival-horror to begin with. And it doesn't have that fuckstupid regenerating health model.

 

[psychguy57]

The five games that define myself as a gamer are probably:

1. Fallou 3 - I have spent somewhere around 700 hours into this game. Across 4 years, 3 consoles, 9 disks, and different interest levels. I love post apocalyptia, destroyed environments, and well done character. Fallout fills all of those need.

2. Hitman Series - I love stealth games, and this one came down to a cross between Hitman or Splinter Cell, but Splinter Cell has been a major disappointment lately. I think that the only game of recent memory that gave you so many option is Dishonored but even that is nothing compared to the Hitman games.

3.Minecraft - I love the ability to build my own content in games. That is the only explanation needed really.

4. Heavy Rain - I love games that have story. And that is all Heavy Rain was. And i loved it for that. I look forward to more games that are similar to this one.

5. ? - I always leave this spot open for any new games that come out. Like Dishonored hold this right now, but it could be the Splinter Cell, or Assassins Creed 3, or any other game that comes out or that i havent played yet.

 

[TecnoMonkey]

1. Deus Ex - I can safely say that this masterpiece of a game changed my life, on a small scale obviously but it's still a big part of my life. I usually do one playthrough a year and the game made me an avid fan of electronic music and made me prefer grittier and dark games for the rest of my life.

2. MediEvil - First game I played on a home console, it's great fun and it also contributed to my love for darker games.

3. Doom - First FPS I have ever played, pretty big deal since it's my preferred genre.

4. Journey - THIS GAME MADE ME FEEL LIKE I NEVER FELT BEFORE. Although I argue that it was Deus Ex that made me believe video games were art it was Journey that made me KNOW that they are art.

5. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas - What can I say, it's GTA: San Andreas, it's spectacular.

 

[the doom cannon]

Battlefield series, minus bad company

My first shooter was 1942, and I've loved all of them since, except for bad company. Battlefield also got me into my current gaming clan

Guild Wars

Easily the most play time of a single game at 2100 hours. It got me into the online community and if GW2 wasn't out I would still be playing.

Super Mario World 3

My very first video game. I started playing this when I was like 3 years old, and it introduced me to gaming.

pokemon

red version. Soooo much fun and so much time spent. I still pick this one up diamond version when I go on road trips or other long distance travels.

I can't think of a 5. All other games I've played haven't been very impactual

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

1. Metal Gear solid (in particular 2). The metal gear series was at the time to complex for me a 9 year old to understand, but I didn't stop playing it, I learned and kept playing it over and over understanding more of the story every-time. By the time mgs3 came out I had played had a full grasp of the metal gear series before the age of 12, nothing more need to be said.

2.Fallout 3, this was a game that I bought on release day as a hunch not knowing wtf it was, and god was it the right choice. I played that game to near death and it began my love and understanding for rpg's, even though it was far from my first one it was the best.

3.Kotor, It was my fors introduction the company known as Bioware, and while I don't have quite the love affair with bioware that I used to Kotor still sits in my heart as my favorite game. Amazing interaction and story and combat that was cool to watch and not shit to play.

4.Halo 2, lan parties and friends.

5.DDR, it allowed me to play video games and exercise, I was good, no I was great at this game and at the time I was the my grades biggest(not fattest) kid. I could beat you up then beat you at DDR. luckily I just beat you at DDR.

 

[Adventurer2626]

Pokemon Red:
This was my "gateway drug" that started me on video games. Played it everyday to and from school and a couple hours each night. Also road trips.
C&C Tiberian Sun:
Even though I'd played games before, this beauty turned me into a "gamer." It also opened me up to PC gaming which became my core. It also started me on my favorite genre, the RTS.
Runescape:
It was free and introduced me to MMOs and social gaming culture. Because of it I'm a happy member of the LOTRO community.
Morrowind:
Started me on my other favorite genre, RPGs. The only plausible reason I can come up with for my addiction to Bethesda is that they managed to apply some alien technology to their software which flashes microseconds of kittens, rainbows, and chocolate that keeps gamers subconsciously coming back for more.
Call to Power:
This was a tough one to pick. I say this one because it got me into the more broad spectrum strategy games which focused on the city and nation level. I later picked up Rome: Total War which meshed well with my love of Risk.

I don't actually play any of them at the moment but they were integral to my development and, as I mentioned, segued me into other similar games.

 

[Pharsalus]

TIE Fighter: glad to see this one in the second post, used to play this late at night when i could get the damn DOS sound settings to work on my mom's desktop. Hardcore, complex, and effing immersive.

Rome: Total War: A military history student's wet dream made reality, I wanted this game so much that I scraped together money to get a desktop that could run it and literally got into a car crash the day I picked it up because i was so amped.

NBA Jam: Never been much for sports games but this fun interpretation and the types of games it spawned(Looney Toons Basketball, NFL Blitz, etc.) had a big impact on me.

Half-Life: I bought this used for like 12 bucks having no idea what was getting into. A world of great gameplay and a ton of community mods kept me hooked for years. I still don't see why people hate on the Zen sequences so much.

Sid Meyer's Civil War: Posting this more because no-one else will but goddamn was it good. I love the history of war, but wargames as a genre are fucking terrible, they just are. They hide behind the tradition of their genre to have terrible interfaces, no graphics, and dull turn-based gameplay. Sid Meyer's simple, quick, and fun to play effort made it clear that grand tactical level warfare can be a fun and kinetic experience, not just a terribly drawn out board game.

 

[God'sFist]

5.fable 2
first game I got for my 360. I just love black and white choices they are fun.
4.fable 1
had this on the original xbox and gave me my first major boss fights.
3.age of empires
I played this on the computer when i was in grade school just brings back good memories
2. KOTOR 1
loved the story litteraly got schlorped into it.
1. KOTOR 2
Great story, great play, and gave me the power to be a jedi master or sith lord. the best part I chose what the destiny of the character was just awesome.

Top five games for me

 

[Brixton6]

Pokemon (Yellow, Gold, Ruby, and Emerald to be specific)(GB/GBA)
Pokemon is definitely the game that defined my childhood. I would carry my Pokemon themed Gameboy Color with me wherever I went. I believe I can point to Pokemon as the reason why I love RPGs. I can't even imagine how many hours I put into those games. It certainly surpasses any play time I have with games nowadays.

Duck Hunt (NES)
Duck Hunt is the first console game I remember playing. It was bundled with Super Mario Bros, but I don't remember ever getting past the first couple levels of the first world in that. Duck Hunt, on the other hand, was incredible. Shooting those pixels with the infrared gun and hearing the ducks thud on the ground was so unbelievably satisfying.

Time Splitters 2 (Game Cube)
This was the first FPS I played. I still have fond memories of long nights shooting up bots as Captain Snow or Captain Forest. To this day I haven't finished the story mode. I've tried going back a few times to beat it, but it's never as fun as multiplayer for some reason.

Halo 1 (PC)
This is really the first PC game I played extensively. I never owned an Xbox and I didn't realize it was available for PC, so it wasn't until well after Halo 2 was released that I picked this one up. After I did though, I really got into it. Plus, the free online multiplayer was tons of fun. Looking up Halo 1 trick videos that I could recreate is what lead me to Red vs. Blue and Roosterteeth.

TES IV: Oblivion (PC)
I really wasn't interested in Oblivion for the longest time. One of my friends showed it to me once but I thought it looked fairly bland. Then my sister's fiancee was talking it up pretty big and convinced me to go halfsies on an Oblivion/Bioshock bundle that was at Wal-Mart (I got Oblivion, he got Bioshock). I popped that disk into the drive and just couldn't stop playing. And the mods. Ooohhh the mods....

This list was actually much harder to write up than I thought it would be.

EDIT: Shoutout to Runescape for being a time sink and Assassin's Creed for getting me into the runny, jumpy, stabby genre of games (Prince of Persia, in particular)

 

[poundingmetal74]

Worms World Party (Great casual game. Always loved the worms series)
Goldeneye (For me this is still the pinultimate shooter. Many a weekend were spent with my neighbours and friends playing this)
Final Fantasy IV (This and 6 I've played every single North American port of. Love the classic FF series).
Carmageddon 2 (Great driving game).
Wayne Gretzky 3D hockey (I've spent a lot of time playing various NHL games, this one still remains one of my favourites).

 

[Okamiyasha]

Halo Combat Evolved
Assassin's Creed (1)
Fallout 3
COD4: Modern Warfare
Demon's Souls

They be mine. I shall also explaineth at a later date.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

No order. These games all bring me to a different place. As in, a childhood wonderment. Words can't explain, but you know that feeling.

1) UN Squadron - This game really just cemented my need for difficult games and customization. I love this game so much.

2) Super Mario RPG:Legend of the Seven Stars - My favorite game of all time. Easily. I play this game annually just to remind myself of how amazing it is.

3) Godhand - Odd game to throw on here, but it's just such a satisfying game to play. I can't get enough of it.

4) DotA - My friends and I have been playing this game for literally years. It's kept us together in a way that I don't really think anything else ever would. I keep in touch with my friends through games since I live so far away, and this really just helps immensely.

5) I was going to say I don't have one that I can think of, but...

Legend of Zelda:Ocarina of Time - Yes, I had to have this one. Super Mario 64 showed me what 3D worlds were about, this game gave me a reason to enjoy them. It ushered in an entire new gaming dimension for myself and many others. I still enjoy this game to this day.

 

[GreenTeaGal]

Marvel Vs. Capcom - Really all side scroll, 2D, cell shaded, fast paced beat 'em up games with life bars & time limits and colorful characters. Also see: Samurai Showdown 4, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear

Bonk's Revenge (Turbo graphix) An old school and maybe slightly obscure cute platformer. These will probably always win points with me, but this one had a unique often bizarre premise. Also, I loved the idea of becoming all powerful simply but eating ham on the bone and beating dinosaurs to ash with my forehead.

Devil May Cry Series Super stylish action, with a very diversified weapon & skill system. Main character was hot and had an over the top personality. Where many male protagonists are mute, a blank slate or a fat space marine, it's a refreshing change. The games were ridiculous, but stupid fun.

Super Mario World First game I ever owned. As a kid it took me a full year to beat its 90+ levels. I actually teared up a bit at the ending screen at the ripe age of 9

God of War II I actually prefer GOW 2 to 1. This game just felt so much bigger, there was just MORE I thought. I know in ways it's not as hard as the 1st game, and it often conflicted with my morals, but I felt so magnificently badass playing it.

6-10: Blazing Lasers (Gunhead), Mrs. Pacman, Crash Bandicoot Games, Sonic 2 & Bubsy