What game is your gold standard?
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Great develepor, fun constantly evovling game play, have been playing for over 6 years. Story is non existant, but the game play is just great, even if it is in a bit of 'AoE and Stun' rut.
If multiplayer games don't really count, i'll say KotOR II. Star Wars games done in a dark setting are amazing, considering the moral principles the universe tries to put up, but is always slapped down by kiddy good verse evil stuff.
Great develepor, fun constantly evovling game play, have been playing for over 6 years. Story is non existant, but the game play is just great, even if it is in a bit of 'AoE and Stun' rut.
If multiplayer games don't really count, i'll say KotOR II. Star Wars games done in a dark setting are amazing, considering the moral principles the universe tries to put up, but is always slapped down by kiddy good verse evil stuff.
Baldur's Gate 2 isn't my Gold standard game its my Platinum standard game. The chances of it actually being matched are pretty slim, even by Bioware themselves.
fallout 3 for it's amazing game-play/immersion, HL2 for good gun play(i don't know, but I always found it's gun fights more spectacular than Halo's or CoD's), and an honorary mention to portal for it's dark humor(and the puzzle's are good too, but the humor is how the game drew me in).
In terms of aspects, as opposed to genres:
Narrative: Now, narrative is more than simply the script before anyone gets confused but I'd have to say Red Dead Redemption gets my vote.
Presentation:God of War III. The game itself is a hack 'n' slash and not much more but the way everything is presented is awe-inspiring. The scale in particular.
Detail: Not graphical fiedlity, you must understand, but the amount of stuff happening in the world. Grand Theft Auto IV is unrivalled in my experience in this department.
Atmosphere: Condemned 2. Up until the last level a least (which I can forgive) this game was pant shittingly atmospheric. Demon's Souls is also a contender but I haven't played past the first level of it due it's nut-crushing difficulty so I felt it would be out of place.
Fun: Just Cause 2. I mean, c'mon, you can surf goddamn fighter jets while a mook flaps about suspended by a cable below it. It's not perfect, but my god is it entertaining.
Mutliplayer Awesomeness: I do indulge in mutliplayer from time to time and most of those times it is Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game is robust, fun and has a strategic edge which I immediately preffered over Call of Duty. Sure, the PS3 servers have been wonky the past few weeks but that hasn't deterred me.
Non-Categorised Awesome: The Darkness. I just wanted to mention this game because of how good I found it. I understand not everyone will agree but in the three years since its release few games have compared to the feeling I got just playing this game. I don't even know what it is about it.
And finally...
The Metal Gear Is Now Over award for Plot I Can Sink My Teeth Into: Assassin's Creed, please give me more of your batshit insanity and conspiracies, I can't seem to get enough since I've polished off Metal Gear, Lost and The X-Files O____O
Narrative: Now, narrative is more than simply the script before anyone gets confused but I'd have to say Red Dead Redemption gets my vote.
Presentation:God of War III. The game itself is a hack 'n' slash and not much more but the way everything is presented is awe-inspiring. The scale in particular.
Detail: Not graphical fiedlity, you must understand, but the amount of stuff happening in the world. Grand Theft Auto IV is unrivalled in my experience in this department.
Atmosphere: Condemned 2. Up until the last level a least (which I can forgive) this game was pant shittingly atmospheric. Demon's Souls is also a contender but I haven't played past the first level of it due it's nut-crushing difficulty so I felt it would be out of place.
Fun: Just Cause 2. I mean, c'mon, you can surf goddamn fighter jets while a mook flaps about suspended by a cable below it. It's not perfect, but my god is it entertaining.
Mutliplayer Awesomeness: I do indulge in mutliplayer from time to time and most of those times it is Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The game is robust, fun and has a strategic edge which I immediately preffered over Call of Duty. Sure, the PS3 servers have been wonky the past few weeks but that hasn't deterred me.
Non-Categorised Awesome: The Darkness. I just wanted to mention this game because of how good I found it. I understand not everyone will agree but in the three years since its release few games have compared to the feeling I got just playing this game. I don't even know what it is about it.
And finally...
The Metal Gear Is Now Over award for Plot I Can Sink My Teeth Into: Assassin's Creed, please give me more of your batshit insanity and conspiracies, I can't seem to get enough since I've polished off Metal Gear, Lost and The X-Files O____O
It depends on genre and features like:
RPG: Mass Effect 2 (still my favourite game of all time)
FPS: Halo for Sci-Fi and Black Ops for realistic. NOT THE MULTIPLAYER BECAUSE I DON'T PLAY THE MULTIPLAYER THAT OFTEN.
RTS: Halo Wars and Age of Empires II.
3rd Person Shooter: Gears of War.
Horror: Left 4 Dead.
SURVIVAL Horror: Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
And for features:
Story: Mass Effect 2.
Fleshed out universe and characters: Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins.
Travelling that takes me in: Fallout: New Vegas.
General fun: Prototype.
RPG: Mass Effect 2 (still my favourite game of all time)
FPS: Halo for Sci-Fi and Black Ops for realistic. NOT THE MULTIPLAYER BECAUSE I DON'T PLAY THE MULTIPLAYER THAT OFTEN.
RTS: Halo Wars and Age of Empires II.
3rd Person Shooter: Gears of War.
Horror: Left 4 Dead.
SURVIVAL Horror: Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
And for features:
Story: Mass Effect 2.
Fleshed out universe and characters: Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins.
Travelling that takes me in: Fallout: New Vegas.
General fun: Prototype.
All multiplayer FPS to Battlefield 2. Battlefield 2 was, and is still, the best multiplayer first person shooter ever made.
I'm not entirely sure I understand what the thread asks for. I can't really say I have a game that I hold every other game up against, even in a specific genre. Sure, I have a few games that I consider near flawless (in concept as well as execution), but they have done their thing and succeeded at that, I wouldn't want any other game to do the same.
I guess there is a level of perfection that a game can reach regardless of shape or form, but it's almost easier to tell if a game has reached that 10/10 without holding it up against anything else.
But regardless, just because I love to do it, here are a couple of games that I think hit the jackpot.
Time Splitters 2
SSX3
Half Life 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Pokémon Silver/Gold
Super Smash Bros. Melee/Brawl
And the ones that came really close
Audiosurf
Mass Effect
Jedi Academy
I guess there is a level of perfection that a game can reach regardless of shape or form, but it's almost easier to tell if a game has reached that 10/10 without holding it up against anything else.
But regardless, just because I love to do it, here are a couple of games that I think hit the jackpot.
Time Splitters 2
SSX3
Half Life 2
Baldur's Gate 2
Pokémon Silver/Gold
Super Smash Bros. Melee/Brawl
And the ones that came really close
Audiosurf
Mass Effect
Jedi Academy
Resident Evil 4. No matter what the genre, I always nitpick the similarities other games have to it. Where do you think Left 4 Dead got the idea to include a button that let you do a 180 turn?
Although I will say that Uncharted 2 could teach this generation a thing or two about story.
Although I will say that Uncharted 2 could teach this generation a thing or two about story.
Always Half-Life 2. I dunno, I think it's because that's the game that really brought me back to gaming and I was really excited about. I still replay it now and then. When I play a new game I always compare it to the feeling I had first playing Half-Life 2, even though it isn't my most favorite game anymore.