What game is your gold standard?
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WoW was my first MMO, so whenever I've tried another MMO there has been a lot of comparison. Unfortunetly WoW was always superior in every way, so the new MMO quickly got boring or just seemed bad to me. These days I don't like WoW much. It's nostalgic, but it's gotten so damn dumbed down that it's not fun to play anymore.
it really depends on game to game. and its all very subjective. but kotor has been and always will be the one game that i can replay again and again no matter how much of the game i have memorized. i love it.
but if i had to break it up into categories that would be a bit hard..
but if i had to break it up into categories that would be a bit hard..
It depends on the genre. And what I'm looking for.
Final Fantasy 7[sub]what a surprise[/sub]
It may not stand up under the test of time, but I have a ton of fond memories with this game. It was my first RPG of any merit, so that's probably part of it. But more than anything, I had fun with it.
Breath of Fire 3
Another early RPG. In some ways the polar opposite if FF7. It did a lot right, though. Characters were all unique and each felt different in combat. The Master system was unique and could be abused once you knew what you were doing in the game. And the hero's powers. The ability to turn into a dragon. Awesome!
God of War series
Stupid mindless slaughter. But very well done. The controls were top notch. Fighting was fun and it was somehow very rewarding to take down a huge monster. The story of the first one was excellent. The second felt more like it was the Titan's story, but Kratos was in the middle of it, and the third...
Bottom line, though. The games were fun. Combat was great, the gold standard for any game that tries to copy it.
Knights of the Old Republic
One of the first games that made me think in terms of morality. It also had fun rewarding combat, and designing my old Jedi/Sith couldn't be more satisfying. On top of that, there was a deep story.
Uncharted 2
This is a AAA title. Great control. So much to do when you want to take down enemies. Compelling characters and a funny and fun story. Also gotta love it when your character says things at the same time you do.
Here's the thing. If I can have fun in the game, that is what matters. I had fun with all those games. If a game doesn't make me relive my fond memories of those games, then that is a good thing.
Final Fantasy 7[sub]what a surprise[/sub]
It may not stand up under the test of time, but I have a ton of fond memories with this game. It was my first RPG of any merit, so that's probably part of it. But more than anything, I had fun with it.
Breath of Fire 3
Another early RPG. In some ways the polar opposite if FF7. It did a lot right, though. Characters were all unique and each felt different in combat. The Master system was unique and could be abused once you knew what you were doing in the game. And the hero's powers. The ability to turn into a dragon. Awesome!
God of War series
Stupid mindless slaughter. But very well done. The controls were top notch. Fighting was fun and it was somehow very rewarding to take down a huge monster. The story of the first one was excellent. The second felt more like it was the Titan's story, but Kratos was in the middle of it, and the third...
Bottom line, though. The games were fun. Combat was great, the gold standard for any game that tries to copy it.
Knights of the Old Republic
One of the first games that made me think in terms of morality. It also had fun rewarding combat, and designing my old Jedi/Sith couldn't be more satisfying. On top of that, there was a deep story.
Uncharted 2
This is a AAA title. Great control. So much to do when you want to take down enemies. Compelling characters and a funny and fun story. Also gotta love it when your character says things at the same time you do.
Here's the thing. If I can have fun in the game, that is what matters. I had fun with all those games. If a game doesn't make me relive my fond memories of those games, then that is a good thing.
It was Jade Empire for me until I played Mass Effect 2. Then that took the top spot.
I got half a year out of that game and still haven't done everything. Yet I have a feeling that DA2 will top even that.
I got half a year out of that game and still haven't done everything. Yet I have a feeling that DA2 will top even that.
Wow...after reading through this thread it made me feel very old. Of all the games mentioned (well, most of them anyways) they all seem to have been made in the last 5-10 years.
What about a classic like TIE Fighter? It was one of the BEST uses of the Star Wars franchise, had a terrific story with intrigue, political backstabbing, crushing the Rebel scum under the boot of Imperial might combined with outstanding gameplay and excellent production values.
How about Transport Tycoon? One of the best "tycoon" type games out there which has yet to be matched, even by it's own creator, Chris Sawyer (his laughable Locomotion sequel was...well, laughable). And now with a dedicated community creating an open source version, it's even more awesome than it was.
And have we all forgotten Fallout 1 and 2? Games that redesigned the CRPG genre for the better. Black Isle was way ahead of it's time with the writing and game designs on these ones. Sure, I hated the turn-based combat, but I put up with it because they were just awesome games.
Just my $.02
What about a classic like TIE Fighter? It was one of the BEST uses of the Star Wars franchise, had a terrific story with intrigue, political backstabbing, crushing the Rebel scum under the boot of Imperial might combined with outstanding gameplay and excellent production values.
How about Transport Tycoon? One of the best "tycoon" type games out there which has yet to be matched, even by it's own creator, Chris Sawyer (his laughable Locomotion sequel was...well, laughable). And now with a dedicated community creating an open source version, it's even more awesome than it was.
And have we all forgotten Fallout 1 and 2? Games that redesigned the CRPG genre for the better. Black Isle was way ahead of it's time with the writing and game designs on these ones. Sure, I hated the turn-based combat, but I put up with it because they were just awesome games.
Just my $.02
Three games actually. The Bioshock series because it is so in depth, the design is amazing and I have always wanted to shoot fire from my hands anyways; The Metal Gear Solid series because of the story line and the plots; and the Pokemon series because I have been a pkemon fan/collector/enthusiast since Red and Blue came out. Those are my golden games of choice.
Pac-Man or Q*bert. Seriously. Addictive, fun games with no tacked on story to bog them down with anything deeper than "these things want to kill you, don't let them". They never get old, anyone can play them and have fun (without needing to memorize 120 configurations for buttons or inventory) but mastering them takes a whole lot of time and practice and other than the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man, the graphics never matter or suffer.
The reason is because it has been developed over so many years that its pretty much set in its place at the top. A lot of companies have attempted to replicate the success but without the time and man power that blizzard have put into the game i doubt there will be anything that can topple it when it comes to an MMO standard.DanielBrown said:
As for me I'd say there are 2 games that fit the gold standard for me.
The first for me would have to be Guilty Gear X2: The Midnight Carnival. It has one of the best balances in a fighter that I've seen for a very long time. Not only that but it excels in all areas of design (visuals, soundtrack, etc) and really pushes a player to play 100%. Controls are very precise and smooth and the action is well paced.
The other is Goldeneye for the N64. Best console shooter ever in my opinion, Timesplitters came close but Goldeneye was so well developed and received that it inches past.
MMO... WoW, ive played others.. it wins in my books.
FPS... GOLDENEYE, N64... if you played it you know it.
RPG... Xenosaga 1, I have never been so excited for round 2 (and subsequently let down) for a game in my life
sports... ESPN football, short lived, made maden see what it should be.
RTS... Warcraft, had good game play and story
over all, Gold Cartridge Zelda for the NES, its the one game I can think of that at any point in time if someone said... hey i have this game wanna play.. I would say yes in almost any circumstance.
Edit: I forgot fighter, Tekken... just my fighting game of choice
FPS... GOLDENEYE, N64... if you played it you know it.
RPG... Xenosaga 1, I have never been so excited for round 2 (and subsequently let down) for a game in my life
sports... ESPN football, short lived, made maden see what it should be.
RTS... Warcraft, had good game play and story
over all, Gold Cartridge Zelda for the NES, its the one game I can think of that at any point in time if someone said... hey i have this game wanna play.. I would say yes in almost any circumstance.
Edit: I forgot fighter, Tekken... just my fighting game of choice
Minecraft.
Don't think I had this much fun out of a 10 euro game before
I don't have 'one golden standard'. I've played a variety of games throughout the years and usually all games have things I like, but it's hard to compare games as none is perfect and thus picking the 'golden standard' is impossible for me.
Don't think I had this much fun out of a 10 euro game before
I don't have 'one golden standard'. I've played a variety of games throughout the years and usually all games have things I like, but it's hard to compare games as none is perfect and thus picking the 'golden standard' is impossible for me.
I have a few for different genres, and often I have two games serving as counterpoints to one another when I compare one to them - "where does it fit on the scale?" etc
Half Life 2 is an obvious one for traditional FPSes along with Bioshock for more deep, nuanced FPSs (in terms of gameplay I mean) and Serious Sam/Painkiller/TF2 if I'm comparing creative weaponry and design. Doom, Borderlands and Left 4 Dead/2 serve as my respective counter standards for those. Doom is Half Life without the compelling story, characters, weapons, environments etc, while Borderlands is Bioshock without the environmental design, and mechanical depth (though I consider neither to be RPGs). Left 4 Dead 1 showed me how variety is important to keep a repetitive task (like shooting things) fun and interesting. Left 4 Dead 2 reminds me that remaking the same game with melee weapons isn't enough to justify a sequel no matter how much Valve wants me to believe that, and helped kill any interest I had in murdering zombies.
I tend to use the fallout series as my standard for RPGs with the Mass Effect series for character interaction and specifically Mass Effect 2 for things like combat in RPGs. A special mention goes to Deus Ex for epitomizing that kind of "here's a situation, tackle it however you want" gameplay. Mass Effect 2 does however write the book on how to fail at a main plot, making it railroady, insultingly stupid and canon-breakingly irrelevant to the series overall arc. Morrowind is the opposite of Fallout, serving as an example of a game that, no matter how how expansive it's world is, can still shut me out completely if it's gameplay is useless. Fable is similar in that it taught me a valuable lesson about how role playing can't be boiled down to 'good' and 'evil'.
Psychonauts is my gold standard for creative, funny dialogue and imaginative scenarios. and Mirror's edge is my pick for how first person games should function, even if it was a bit rough around the edges. I contrast that to any given gamebyro game which couldn't make me feel more like I was playing as a camera with a gun. Penumbra: Overture serves as my pick for both horror and physics integration to which I contrast Doom 3 and again, any gamebyro game. In terms of story however KOTOR and in particular KOTOR 2 serve as shining examples of how to deconstruct an otherwise simple and black and white universe in an interesting way. Warrior Within was not.
Half Life 2 is an obvious one for traditional FPSes along with Bioshock for more deep, nuanced FPSs (in terms of gameplay I mean) and Serious Sam/Painkiller/TF2 if I'm comparing creative weaponry and design. Doom, Borderlands and Left 4 Dead/2 serve as my respective counter standards for those. Doom is Half Life without the compelling story, characters, weapons, environments etc, while Borderlands is Bioshock without the environmental design, and mechanical depth (though I consider neither to be RPGs). Left 4 Dead 1 showed me how variety is important to keep a repetitive task (like shooting things) fun and interesting. Left 4 Dead 2 reminds me that remaking the same game with melee weapons isn't enough to justify a sequel no matter how much Valve wants me to believe that, and helped kill any interest I had in murdering zombies.
I tend to use the fallout series as my standard for RPGs with the Mass Effect series for character interaction and specifically Mass Effect 2 for things like combat in RPGs. A special mention goes to Deus Ex for epitomizing that kind of "here's a situation, tackle it however you want" gameplay. Mass Effect 2 does however write the book on how to fail at a main plot, making it railroady, insultingly stupid and canon-breakingly irrelevant to the series overall arc. Morrowind is the opposite of Fallout, serving as an example of a game that, no matter how how expansive it's world is, can still shut me out completely if it's gameplay is useless. Fable is similar in that it taught me a valuable lesson about how role playing can't be boiled down to 'good' and 'evil'.
Psychonauts is my gold standard for creative, funny dialogue and imaginative scenarios. and Mirror's edge is my pick for how first person games should function, even if it was a bit rough around the edges. I contrast that to any given gamebyro game which couldn't make me feel more like I was playing as a camera with a gun. Penumbra: Overture serves as my pick for both horror and physics integration to which I contrast Doom 3 and again, any gamebyro game. In terms of story however KOTOR and in particular KOTOR 2 serve as shining examples of how to deconstruct an otherwise simple and black and white universe in an interesting way. Warrior Within was not.
I can't say that I have a one game that holds a supreme golden rule among all genres. Much of the time the standard comes solely from a genre itself. Take racing, for example. I love the genre, but I can't stand to play the ultra realistic ones that come out. I look at Grand Turismo and think "why should I bother?". Sure it looks pretty but ultimately you're recreating an experience that is able to be replicated outside of the game. Part of the problem is that I didn't bother to get my license when I was a teenager and therefore I cannot relate to driving a faster expensive version of what is reasonable. The bulk of the problem, however, is that I compare each racing experience into the ultra fast pace of futuristic racing (F-Zero), or the fun party experiences of the Mario Kart games. Anything that can offer an impossible-to-replicate experience will automatically trump the shiniest, ultra realistic driving sim.
This, I suppose, is what I could call my golden rule. Realism vs Impossible, because most of the time realism or pseudo-realism just will not compare to the impossible. Sometimes I take liberty with the line, as I consider games like Fallout that try and demonstrate a plausible future reality as "impossible".
But, this is off topic so I'll give one series as my 'Golden Rule' of gaming. That series is Pokemon, because in sheer numbers I have spent more hours on that collective series than likely everything else combined, minus the hours of the Final Fantasies. What's more is that I enjoy every bit of time I spend collecting battling trading and raising all those different monsters.
This, I suppose, is what I could call my golden rule. Realism vs Impossible, because most of the time realism or pseudo-realism just will not compare to the impossible. Sometimes I take liberty with the line, as I consider games like Fallout that try and demonstrate a plausible future reality as "impossible".
But, this is off topic so I'll give one series as my 'Golden Rule' of gaming. That series is Pokemon, because in sheer numbers I have spent more hours on that collective series than likely everything else combined, minus the hours of the Final Fantasies. What's more is that I enjoy every bit of time I spend collecting battling trading and raising all those different monsters.
Your right, I compare everything to Ocarina of Time. It's a game that did almost everything right or very well at least. Possibly the most interesting adventure I've ever been on with characters that weren't that special but didn't give me the shits either (No, Navi didn't annoy me, the owl did though). Also, it was really special for it's time bringing in the lock-on system, context-sensitive buttons and using music to solve puzzles and what not.
Of course I don't expect every game to live up to that standard but to be at least be half as interesting.
Of course I don't expect every game to live up to that standard but to be at least be half as interesting.
Well there are 20 other types of things to kill, but you are right HL2 is a story shooter, and unless you are at some severe stage of Alzheimers you can't claim endless replayability.Akalabeth said:
The types I play:
- pure fun shooter: Painkiller ( it's just extreme fun madness )
- story shooter: Half-Life 2 ( got polish up the wazu, I wish others would do their sh*t this well )
- pure RPG: Baldur's Gate ( everything an RPG should really be, compared to this all the new stuff is barely touching the RPG aspects )
- strategy: Homeworld ( it's like space chess, every unit has a weak/strong point, and it doesn't seem to suffer from the StarCraft mad-clicker syndrome )
- platformer: most Mario games ( it's just done right )
- story/FPS/RPG: Deus Ex ( ya it's a mixed type, but I just had to mention this gem of a game )
Mass Effect (ONE, not two, mind you). Extremely Immersive world; Epic story; Relatable and genuinely interesting Characters; the ability to lift people into the air and send em flying. What more could you possibly ask for in a game?
