what are your top 10 games of all time? Name one game per franchise

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Castlevania 1 has a place in my heart, but 3 did just about everything that made 1 good even better. I regret nothing!

My experience with Castlevania is pretty miniscule, but I thought that 3 was pretty universally regarded as being the best of the original NES games?

Well, I'm a big fan of the series and I think 3 was the best of the original NES games. It had multiple characters and choices of levels. However, while they are both very difficult I can see people getting frustrated easily at 3. The lack of mobility or ability to attack on the stairs mess you up frequently - even more than in 1 because of the enemy placement.

A lot of casual fans consider Castlevania 3 to be the best of the NES games and sure, it's a lot better than Castlevania 2, but anyone who's actually familiar with game design will tell you that 3 suffered significantly from its focus on trying to be "bigger" than the first game. Multiple playable characters! More levels! Branching paths!
Except those playable characters are horribly unbalanced compared to one another (Grant is pretty much always useless, Alucard makes some sections easier but is completely helpless in other sections, Sypha can be either the best or worst character depending entirely on her subweapon, and Trevor is basically the only one who's actually good for the most part), only about half of the levels are actually designed well (fuck the Abandoned Mine in particular), and even the best levels lack the polish of those in the first game, and the branching paths are a neat idea but end up just exacerbating the problem. Remember all those weird random platforms and candles lying around in a lot of the levels that there's no way to reach? That's kind of a great microcosm of how messy the design of Castlevania 3 really is when you actually look at it.
The game as a whole is just bloated.

You ain't wrong, but I'll still say that for me the end product was greater than the sum of it's parts.

You might fault me for nostalgia as well, since I played these games when they were brand spanking new (Hell, the original Castlevania was second NES game I ever picked up right behind Ghosts n Goblins), but I put what I put on this list based on the experience I felt when I found them.

 

[RedRockRun]

1. Superman 64
2. Yooka-Laylee
3. Metroid: The Other M
4. Candy Crush
5. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
6. Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)
7. I Wanna be the Boshy
8. Master of Orion III
9. Destiny 2
10. Drake of the 99 Dragons

 

[Arnoxthe1]

2. Yooka-Laylee

Yooka-Laylee wasn't that bad.

 

[Buccura]

10) Soul Calibur
9) Neverwinter Nights
8) Star Wars: TIE Fighter
7) StarCraft
6) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
5) Portal
4) System Shock 2
3) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2) Thief II: The Metal Age
1) Wing Commander: Privateer

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I'll preface my list by noting that a lot of these games are not so much objectively great games as they are games that were significant to my gaming history that stayed with me. These are in chronological order from oldest to newest, because if I tried to order them by preference my head would explode.

1. Karate-ka (1984) - Probably the first game I ever got seriously into, and the first game I ever beat, this side scrolling fighting game was my jam in primary school.

2. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985) - My first ever CRPG and the game that got me into the genre that has been my favourite ever since. I was still a kid and had no idea what I was supposed to do, but the scale of the world was amazing at the time.

3. Rastan (1987) - Sidescrolling platformer Conan knock-off on the SEGA Master System. I played this for hundreds of hours and beat it numerous times, despite it being pretty challenging.

4. Mechwarrior (1989) - My intro to one of my favourite series in both videogames and P&P rpgs. This mech sim provided an
impressive amount of player choice and "roleplaying" for such a relatively primative game.

5. Eye of the Beholder (1991) - One of my all time favourite CRPGs. A school friend and I played this every weekend for months and still never managed to finish it. I bought it again recently on GOG and started it again, but have yet to actually finish it.

6. Street Fighter 2 (1991) - I remember when SF2 arrived in my city and drew people like no other game before it. Local arcades, video stores, and take away shops that had one were always packed, with people lining up to fight each other. SF2 began my love of fighting games.

7. Wolfenstein 3d/Doom (1992/1993) - I'm counting these together because they pretty much existed in the gaming landscape at the same time. These were the grand daddies of all FPS games, and my first foray into multiplayer and the games that made me a PC gamer.

8. Syndicate (1993) - Distopian scifi is one of my favourite things, and Syndicate combined it with great tactical gameplay that kept me playing for hours.

9. UFO Enemy Unknown aka X-Com: UFO Defense (1994) - Probably my favourite strategy game to this day. I spent many a frustrating evening beating my face against it.

10. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (1998) - I love a good stealth game, and I also love fuedal Japan, so Tenchu was right in my wheelhouse. Remains one of my all time favourite games.

11. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002) - Another favourite stealth games, I spent dozens of hours mastering each level and perfecting each kill. Contributed significantly to a relationship break-up, but I still have fond memories of it.

12. Dead Space (2008) - I normally don't like horror games, but I do like dark scifi, and DS knocked it out of the park with its design, atmosphere and intriguing story (even if it did all go off the rails in the sequels).

13. Infamous (2009) - A highly enjoyable comic book inspired open work action game that I spent several weeks binging, and which I have returned to from time to time.

14. Dragon Age Origins (2009) - My favourite Bioware game by far and probably my favourite game of all time, DAO hits the perfect balance of storytelling, characters, and gameplay all in one to produce a game that has stuck with me like no other.

15. Red Dead Redemption (2011) - I normally dislike Rockstar games and open worlds, but RDR managed to overcome those hurdles by making me engaged by its story, characters, and setting/world building, something GTA has consistently failed to do.

16. The Last of Us (2013) - I love story and character driven games, and TLoU hit those elements better than pretty much any other game I have played. 10 playthroughs later, and it still grabs me with its incredible atmosphere.

17. Bloodborne (2015) - The game that made me finally "get" the Souls genre. Combining Souls combat with Lovecraftian horror produced an incredible experience.

18. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) - Pretty much the pinnacle of the story/character driven style of action RPG. It managed to achieve an incredible level of quality in its content, and then somehow maintained that level for 150 hours.

Honorable mentions:

International Karate Plus aka IK+ (1987) - Precursor to what would become fighting games, this side scrolling multiplayer martial arts game was all kinds of fun with friends.

Golden Axe (1989) - Classic side scrolling multiplayer beat 'em up ripe with fantasy tropes. Great fun with friends.

Another World aka. Out Of This World (1990) - Sporting incredible animations for its time, Another World was a short but highly enjoyable side scrolling shooter/puzzler/platformer for the Amiga that really grabbed me.

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) - One of the classic point-&-click adventure games and easily the funniest.

Wings (1990) - A WW1 flight sim/rpg/arcade game. It shouldn't work, but it does.

Mega Lo Mania (1991) - A quirky RTS game for the Amiga, I spent hours battling friends in this game.

Turrican 2 (1991) - A fantastic metroid-like for the Amiga, with quite possibly the best videogame soundtrack ever.

Diablo (1996) - Blizzard's classic isometric action RPG. Great solo or multiplayer.

The Longest Journey (1999) - One of the last of the point-&-click adventure games, it features a strong story that is
both whimsical and poignant and fantastic voice acting.

Manhunt (2004) - Infused with Rockstar's dark humour, this slightly mind boggling survival horror game blew my mind and I continue to be baffled as to how it was ever even made and released. Extremely worth playing even though I had to evade the ban in Australia to get it.

The Punisher (2005) - Awesome third person shooter that really wore its comicbook origins on its sleeve, right down to the comic sans font on all the in-game text.

Call of Duty 3 (2006) - CoD before it jumped the shark.

Wolfenstein The New Order (2014) - Who ever imagined that BJ Blazkowicz would become an empathetic protagonist?

 

[Worgen]

1. Superman 64
2. Yooka-Laylee
3. Metroid: The Other M
4. Candy Crush
5. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
6. Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)
7. I Wanna be the Boshy
8. Master of Orion III
9. Destiny 2
10. Drake of the 99 Dragons

If you really want to do troll picks then you might want to replace Advanced Warfare with Ghost since Advanced Warfare is actually pretty good. You might also want to specify the story of the Other M since the gameplay worked but everyone hated the story.

 

[Hawki]

1. Superman 64
2. Yooka-Laylee
3. Metroid: The Other M
4. Candy Crush
5. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
6. Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)
7. I Wanna be the Boshy
8. Master of Orion III
9. Destiny 2
10. Drake of the 99 Dragons

If you really want to do troll picks then you might want to replace Advanced Warfare with Ghost since Advanced Warfare is actually pretty good. You might also want to specify the story of the Other M since the gameplay worked but everyone hated the story.

Replace Other M with Hunters.

'Nuff said.

 

[Squilookle]

Ah hell- why not.

snip

A couple things.

1. Where the hell is Freelancer on this list? If there's an arcade space-sim that deserves commendation, it's that one, and besides MAYBE Elite Dangerous, there hasn't been a single game that's truly taken its place since. And not to mention, Freelancer literally revolutionized space-sim control and allowed people with just a mouse and keyboard to adequately control a ship.

Simple- I can't include a game I've never played.

I had a quick look at some retrospectives and it looks pretty good (some of that soundtrack gives me goosebumps), but here's the thing: I like my space well scripted and utterly chaotic, delivered in short bursts. I've never really been one for the Star Trek style slow plodding, exploring and discovering. The only game that managed to get me to enjoy that was Star Control II. All I want from a space sim is WW2 in space, and that's exactly what TIE Fighter delivers in spades. Giant, twisting, objective based space battles, and I love that shit.

Also if your spaceflight is controlled with the mouse of all things, you might as well just play Asteroids.

2. Mercs has some amazing open-world mission design, but what I remember it most for was its almost flawless Merchant of Menace system. The only game that's kinda done that since is Just Cause, and even then, you can't order any airstrikes in that game so it's undeniably worse.

I preferred infiltration to airstrikes wherever I could get away with it, but I'm with you about Just Cause. Never have I seen a battle of sequels so comprehensively flip the tables over which series was getting better. If anyone can one day top Mercenaries 1 though, hands down it's going to be Avalanche Studios.

3. If you're gonna praise Goldeneye over Perfect Dark for emergent gameplay then you should have placed Far Cry 2 way ahead of it. FC2 is the undisputed king of that.

Hahaha- yeah no. While I'll admit FC2 was at its best when I was trying to clear out missions using nothing but a silenced pistol, and no game tops it for 'guards getting slowly more terrified as you whittle them down,' FC2 has far too many flaws holding it back from greatness. Not enough variety either. Both FC3 and 4 learned from 2, and are far more emergent. Not least because FC2 only putting herbivores in as the wildlife is basically a waste of time. Besides, when I have to handicap -myself- to get the most out of a game, then it's not performing at peak performance. Goldeneye delivers more thrills by knowing exactly what to give you, what obstacles to put in your way, and avoiding dumb design decisions such as giving the main character malaria and not allowing them to stock right up on pills, or letting weapons degrade but forgetting to give us any way of repairing them ourselves.

I'm seeing you critiquing other's lists a fair bit in here. That's fine and everything, but when do we get to see your top 10?

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

1. Superman 64
2. Yooka-Laylee
3. Metroid: The Other M
4. Candy Crush
5. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
6. Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)
7. I Wanna be the Boshy
8. Master of Orion III
9. Destiny 2
10. Drake of the 99 Dragons

We get it. You're edgy. Now run along.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

2. Mercs has some amazing open-world mission design, but what I remember it most for was its almost flawless Merchant of Menace system. The only game that's kinda done that since is Just Cause, and even then, you can't order any airstrikes in that game so it's undeniably worse.

I preferred infiltration to airstrikes wherever I could get away with it, but I'm with you about Just Cause. Never have I seen a battle of sequels so comprehensively flip the tables over which series was getting better. If anyone can one day top Mercenaries 1 though, hands down it's going to be Avalanche Studios.

The great thing about Mercenaries was that you could do both infiltration and airstrikes; you could sneak in and set up the beacon or whatever, and then run away without anyone knowing it was you as everything blows up in the background. I did every single mission without the faction knowing it was me and some of the missions were damn tough to pull that off and the game felt like a puzzle game at times. Mercenaries was the game that made me start hating open world games way back then because it showed me what an open world is supposed to be like and it literally ruined GTA and all Rockstar games for me.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

if your spaceflight is controlled with the mouse of all things, you might as well just play Asteroids.

Haha. Yeah, no. Trust me. It's really damn good.

While I'll admit FC2 was at its best when I was trying to clear out missions using nothing but a silenced pistol, and no game tops it for 'guards getting slowly more terrified as you whittle them down

If the game is too easy, you really need to bump up the difficulty at least by one notch. I know that Normal for me is now too easy but Infamous is where you're now pretty much as weak as everyone else, health wise, so that may be too much.

FC2 has far too many flaws holding it back from greatness. Not enough variety either. Both FC3 and 4 learned from 2, and are far more emergent. Not least because FC2 only putting herbivores in as the wildlife is basically a waste of time. Besides, when I have to handicap -myself- to get the most out of a game, then it's not performing at peak performance. Goldeneye delivers more thrills by knowing exactly what to give you, what obstacles to put in your way, and avoiding dumb design decisions such as giving the main character malaria and not allowing them to stock right up on pills, or letting weapons degrade but forgetting to give us any way of repairing them ourselves.

You call them flaws but all these things are actually what enhances the emergent elements over even Far Cry 3 or later. You can't make a game about improvisation if the game never, you know, makes you improvise and adapt. If it never puts you in an uncomfortable position due to your actions. And that's the thing. It's FAIR. If your weapon starts breaking down on you, it's YOUR fault for not replacing it earlier. If you start falling down in battle due to malaria attacks, it's YOUR fault for not taking the time to manage it. Get spotted? Your fault. Get flanked? Your fault. Get your Jeep blown up? Your fault. You didn't watch these things so the game mercilessly (yet fairly) punishes you for it. This is why I say that Ziggy's Mod is pretty much non-negotiable in playing Far Cry 3. Without it, it's too easy and thus, the game lose a lot of its edge.

I'm seeing you critiquing other's lists a fair bit in here. That's fine and everything, but when do we get to see your top 10?

Well, for two reasons. One, I don't think anyone here cares about it. And two, I don't know if I can do it. There's SO MANY games that deserve at least a mention.

 

[Saulkar]

Well now, in no order as I will write them as they come to me.

10. Battlezone 2: Combat Commander
9. Command and Conquer: Red Alert
8. Machines: Wired For War
7. F.E.A.R.
6. Goldeneye 64
5. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat - Misery Mod and The Armed Zone
4. Mass Effect
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
2. Mechwarrior 3
1. Halo: Combat Evolved

A mix of old and new(ish) titles that hold vast nostalgic value and/or games that I play to this day and still legitimately enjoy.

 

[Kyrian007]

I'm seeing you critiquing other's lists a fair bit in here. That's fine and everything, but when do we get to see your top 10?

Well, for two reasons. One, I don't think anyone here cares about it. And two, I don't know if I can do it. There's SO MANY games that deserve at least a mention.

I care to see it, but yeah... there is so many it is hard.

And Squilookle, our lists only had one game in common. But yours was so good otherwise (and I liked Vigilante 8 well enough) that I just picked up Interstate 76 on gog because I never had played it.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

2. Mechwarrior 3

Yay, someone else has played MW3!

I care to see it, but yeah... there is so many it is hard.

Ugh. Alright... I'll do my best. So these games are not only my absolute favorites, some of these are also incredibly ground-breaking when they first came out. They are ordered by those two things.

10. Perfect Dark

Goldeneye was very necessary for console FPS' but Perfect Dark, well, perfected it. Or at least, got it as perfect as you can get using a controller with only one analog stick. It's at #10 though because unfortunately it doesn't hold up all that well today, but it still has a place in my heart and it was my introduction to the "Multiplayer Suite" that we would later see again with Halo and other games. (More on that later.)

9. Project M v3.6

The best fighting game I've ever seen. Ever. A logical culmination of the groundwork that Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee did before it. Anyone can play it too, but only an absolute demigod of games can truly master it. The skill ceiling is pretty much non-existent. Unfortunately though, Nintendo decided to be FUCKING DICKS and waved their big lawyer cock around and forced the PM team to shutdown operations. THANKS, NINTENDO. Fuck off.

8. Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast

Although Jedi Academy would later add to the Jedi Knight multiplayer scene and be the final game to go to for this sort of thing, Jedi Outcast did all the groundwork first and also outclasses it with a better single-player portion. Besides that, it has the best "Star Wars/Jedi" gameplay I've seen and is just generally a really outstanding third-person slasher outside of Ninja Gaiden.

7. Banjo-Kazooie

This is the game that first taught me to dream. Well, maybe not the FIRST. Super Mario 64 got there before BK, but like Perfect Dark, it perfected the formula. BK and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie are so successful because they give us these massive worlds to explore that are built around, and this is actually VERY important, consistent and awe-inspiring themes. Add a creative and freeing moveset to this and some humor and you have one of, if not the best platformer around.

6. Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition

Getting into the RPG genre a bit now finally, we have NWN, which captured me deeply when I first played it. I think this was actually my first formal introduction to the D&D universe and I was blown away. The ONLY complaint I have with it is that the first part of the first campaign is kinda long, but after that, it quickly picks up. Neverwinter Nights, and by extension, D&D, also has some of THE COOLEST spells I've ever wielded in an RPG. Notable ones include the Shapechange spell where I could turn myself into an almost unstoppable adult red dragon and the Gate spell which ripped three huge stone spikes out of the ground, forming an infernal portal and summoning a badass balrog to the Meteor Shower spell. (self-explanatory.) And THEN there was the multiplayer. A full DM client AND mini-persistent worlds AND a fully-featured editor? Yeah, this game was ahead of its time.

5. Timesplitters 3: Future Perfect

The Perfect Dark team, not satisfied with making Nintendo 64 awesomeness, decided they were gonna be even MORE awesome and made Timesplitters 3. A game that was actually BETTER than Halo CE/2 in many ways. It was so PACKED full of features and content, it was mind-boggling. So many weapons. So many characters. So many maps. So much to do. And the campaign is great too. You don't need to play any of the past TS games in order to enjoy it. And it has a huge and accessible level editor inside it. Holy hell! The monumental triumph that is this game was incredibly unfortunately only matched by its failure to sell. And it's so sad that it didn't. And it's even more sad what happened to Free Radical. The team behind the TS series. FR deserves so much fame and recognition for this game but instead, they got crapped on and mishandled by some of the biggest publishers. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive the gaming industry for what happened to them.

4. The Elder Scrolls: Arena/Morrowind/Skyrim

I don't think these games need any introduction. They are some of the ONLY quality fantasy sandboxes around. However, I'm sorry but I don't think I can pick any one of the three. Please don't make me do it. They're all equally important and great in their own way.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

I remember distantly when OoT first came out. It was the shit. You were cool just to own it. People came over to play it. To even watch it being played. And looking back, it's no surprise why. Nintendo took the formerly 2D Zelda games and utterly KNOCKED IT OUT OF THE PARK transitioning it from 2D to 3D. It's so good, I think it still holds up well even today, and it's one of the games alongside Banjo-Kazooie that first taught me to dream. OoT may have been when I first decided I wanted to be a game designer.

2. Halo 3

I also remember, this time vividly, when Halo 3 first came out. And when it did, it was, again, the SHIT. Some of my absolute fondest gaming memories are sitting around with my friends and/or high school classmates just having so much freaking fun playing Halo 3 splitscreen. This game was and is still to this day the pinnacle of console shooters, topping a ton of PC shooters and making AAA games today look like fucking amateur hour. OoT was when I first wanted to be a game designer but Halo 3 brainwashed me for a while into a Bungie fanboy for good reason. I wanted to work there for so long. I read their blog posts and mailroom posts on their website regularly. But then... Destiny/Activision happened. And soon, one of the dearest game studios I've seen got corrupted into another souless husk. So when I say what I'm about to say, you know I mean it.

Go to fucking hell, Activision. And take your shitty Destiny with you.

1. Unreal Tournament: GOTY Edition

If there was ever a game that I could call flawless in almost every sense of the word, this would probably be it. UT99 is FAR more than just an arena shooter. Underneath the guns and the violence is so much more than that. The sounds. The menu. The bot AI. The maps. The music. The gameplay. The mutators. The damn server browser even. Everything utterly perfect and so well thought out and so well implemented and so functionally POWERFUL. And the editor, when it first came out, was HANDS DOWN the best and most fully-featured level editor anyone had ever seen and would see until maybe the Crysis days. Maybe. I know it was a common thing in the modding circles that the editor was seen as the pinnacle of level design tools. Still kinda is with the UE4. But anyway. This game was so good that Quake 3, the game everyone was looking to at the time, just about got its throat slit by it. I want you all to think about that for a good long while. This game comes out of nowhere and almost UNSEATS id. The king of FPS gaming at the time. And the mod system is still so good to this day. When gaming was still derping around with its clunky modding, Quake 3 included, UT99 came in and fixed EVERYTHING. It showed everyone how to do it. And it has to this day some of the best map design I've ever seen anywhere ever. And the music. THE MUSIC. Everything so damn good. *begins to salivate* But yeah. There isn't a single thing I can complain about UT99 with. Not a single thing.

-

Oh gosh. I missed so many games already. Crysis. Aliens vs. Predator 2. Riven. Burnout 3. Garry's Mod. And most recently, Dust: An Elysian Tail. Just to name a few. All of these and more are very standout titles that I just simply didn't have the room for. *sigh* Well, I think this list is as good as I can make it so I'll just leave it like that.

 

[KissingSunlight]

This list is going to seriously date me. Oh, well.

Ms. Pac-Man - I always play this arcade game anytime that I see.
Tetris - I don't think you can call yourself a "gamer" if you don't like this game.
Defender - I played the Atari 2600 version of this game nonstop when I was a kid.
Gauntlet - All I got to say is, "Please don't shoot the food."
Halo: Reach - It's hard to pick against the first Halo game. I'm going with this one, because the story is so good.
Portal - This game is simply brilliant.
Burnout: Revenge - Any game that makes someone who hates racing game, become obsessed with this racing series is doing something right.
Bloodrayne 2 - Yeah, I know it's simply a mediocre game. It's a sexy, mediocre game.
Doom 3 - Realistically, it's not that hard to have a flashlight being used while shooting. However, as a game mechanic, having to choose to see what is going on and defending yourself from what is going bump in the dark was an awesome, horror game experience.
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance - It's hard to pick just one MK game. This one was the one I felt that the got all the parts right.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Close Combat: ABTF (RTT)
Jagged Alliance 2 (Turn based tactics)
Bloodborne (ARPG)
Final Fight (Beat em up)
Ninja Gaiden 1 (NES) (Side Scrolling action?)
Burnout: Revenge (Racing game for non-racing game fans)
Monster Hunter (any one really) (Action Adventure)
Master of Orion (4X)
Fallout 1 (true RPG)
Perfect Dark (Shooter)

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

6. Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition

Getting into the RPG genre a bit now finally, we have NWN, which captured me deeply when I first played it. I think this was actually my first formal introduction to the D&D universe and I was blown away. The ONLY complaint I have with it is that the first part of the first campaign is kinda long, but after that, it quickly picks up. Neverwinter Nights, and by extension, D&D, also has some of THE COOLEST spells I've ever wielded in an RPG. Notable ones include the Shapechange spell where I could turn myself into an almost unstoppable adult red dragon and the Gate spell which ripped three huge stone spikes out of the ground, forming an infernal portal and summoning a badass balrog to the Meteor Shower spell. (self-explanatory.) And THEN there was the multiplayer. A full DM client AND mini-persistent worlds AND a fully-featured editor? Yeah, this game was ahead of its time.

If you like magic based stuff in RPGs and lookingfor positively the best wizardly stuff, I suggest Mage: the Awakening (2nd Ed.) if you're looking at an RPG that caters specifically to spellcraft stuff. Being able to modify spell power, heighten it, shape it, and everything. Wrapped up in very, very cool worldbuilding second only to old World of Darkness stuff.

And certainly not the tropish; "wizards can't take a punch" garbage. More the; "this wizard can mutate fangs and claws and tear out your spleen", or "This wizard can manipulate fate that can allow them to parkour that shit over the cityscape, while manipulating time around you so you get hit by that bus chasing them down...", or "this wizard can pull off a 2km long shot with a magically crafted bullet fired from a murder spirit-bound rifle they built and bound spirits into themselves ..." types of wizards.

Either that or Changeling. nWoD Changeling is probably the best rpg and best 'magic' in a rpg I have ever played. Plus who doesn't like a story with inhuman, frightening Fair Folk and their twisted cadres of formerly human slaves and escapees twisted by their exposure to Arcadia. Living as if betwixt two worlds of one of insane metaphysics and themundane reality of modern urban cityscapes?

Goblin markets where you can trade even your memories for strange, double edged tools and 'contracts' that both empower and yet restrict you. Strange beasts, and different worlds. Terrifyingly inhuman fairies and running as far and fast as you can away.

Changeling might be a bit hard to adapt to a videogame format. That being said they really need a Werewolf and Mage game based on the WoD/CoD rpgs.

A turn-based rpg of any Mage release would be wicked, assumingthey give the same amazing degree of spellcraft manipulation. That being said, having a whole of 8 different choices to make when casting a spell just so that it works exactly as you like, and how many targets, and the area of effect, and how much spellpower behind it might be a bit of a slog ...

A Werewolf tactical RPG could offer the same depth, same awesomeness of """magic""" that would put 3.x to shame, however.

The """spellcraft""" stuff available to werewolves regardless of build is better than 3.x ... in terms of coolness of effect and complexity and depth of meaning. You can be that bad ass Rahu Blood Talon, and youstill have access to """magic""" ... just that it has a very specific bent of Mr/Mrs/Ms. Murders-a-Lot.

Like picking up a sedan and one-shotting a hunter with it through what are called "gifts". Always fun when you turn some upstart hunter into human gravy via 1 ton of tossed steel and glass.

The biggest disappointment of D&D is the fixation on classes and levels. Hit dice is a fundamentally bad RPG holdover. A 0XP WoD character can have the same 'hitpoints' as a 50XP character. But then again, characters who really want to trick out their characters to the point where they can seriously take a beating can take the tools, the merits, and simply boosting their stamina so that hypothetically they can have twice or more the effective 'hitpoints' as either that 0 or 50XP character.

It's just that that other character will be spending their XP elsewhere and being better at other things...

You can easier die in WoD, but at the same time it's your fault if you do. Unlikein D&D even in 3.x where they tried to mollify that idea of having no control, with so many basic save or die because I did a thing. In order to 'do that thing' in WoD, typically you have toset up the opportunity first ... or being tricked out to make that situation of 'doing a thing' actually occur.

After playing a shitload of RPGs, I feel like D&D magic systems are just atrocious.

Crushing that Hunter with a car involved me investing in the right things with XP, and luring some of their group out onto the street so I could ambush them. And it just so happened the street had really good improvised munitions like said sedan that I knew could one shot a hunter with them at range with my gifts.

Because silver blades hurt and I'd rather thin the herd first before my packmates and I engaged them proper.

But I haven't played 5th ed yet, so I can't definitively state that ....

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Gauntlet - All I got to say is, "Please don't shoot the food."
Halo: Reach - It's hard to pick against the first Halo game. I'm going with this one, because the story is so good.

You should play Gauntlet Legends on a spare N64 if you have one. It's one of the best co-op games I've played. But that's the big problem. You have to have an N64 or else forget about playing it. N64 emulators universally seem to hate GL's guts.

I was actually somewhat bored with Reach's campaign. At least until the end. Lone Wolf. Now THAT was an ending. A truly amazing sendoff for Bungie and Halo.

So long, guys... After Destiny, it looks like Halo: Reach was the very last time we would truly see you.

If you like magic based stuff in RPGs and lookingfor positively the best wizardly stuff, I suggest Mage: the Awakening (2nd Ed.) if you're looking at an RPG that caters specifically to spellcraft stuff. Being able to modify spell power, heighten it, shape it, and everything. Wrapped up in very, very cool worldbuilding second only to old World of Darkness stuff.

snip

I should have said, NWN has the best spells I've ever wielded in a video game RPG.

But yeah, Mage does look interesting actually. Keep in mind though, magic in D&D is more limited than it would be in a separate magic focused pen-and-paper RPG because D&D needs to be at least somewhat restrained because they need to balance ALL the classes together. Not just have some magic-wielding classes reign supreme. And even with that, in 3.5, magic could still be OP'd as hell as long as you weren't dealing with some ridiculous Spell Resistance. (Thank goodness they tossed that SR crap in the trash where it belonged for 5e.)

5e I think is actually the truly definitive D&D edition, incorporating all the best elements from all the past editions. 4e was indeed a mess but surprisingly, they really got their heads out of their asses for 5e. Outside of 5e, if I had to pick a favorite edition, it would be Pathfinder. But the problem with Pathfinder and 3.5e by extension is how utterly long combat takes. 5e fixes this for the most part while still allowing for great build customization.

 

[KissingSunlight]

Gauntlet - All I got to say is, "Please don't shoot the food."
Halo: Reach - It's hard to pick against the first Halo game. I'm going with this one, because the story is so good.

You should play Gauntlet Legends on a spare N64 if you have one. It's one of the best co-op games I've played. But that's the big problem. You have to have an N64 or else forget about playing it. N64 emulators universally seem to hate GL's guts.

I was actually somewhat bored with Reach's campaign. At least until the end. Lone Wolf. Now THAT was an ending. A truly amazing sendoff for Bungie and Halo.

So long, guys... After Destiny, it looks like Halo: Reach was the very last time we would truly see you.

I used to play Gauntlet at the arcades when I was a kid. It was a great experience to have random people coming up and join you in the game.

The ending of Halo: Reach is one of the best endings of all time. I liked the campaign, because I read the book before I played the game. So, I was more concerned about what happen to the squad during the game.

I haven't played Destiny yet. I do have a copy of the game. However, I haven't been enthusiastic about playing, because of all the stuff I heard about the series.