There are just too many games for too many different instances and genres to list, but as far as both story quality and an ideal female lead for a game goes The Longest Journey set my standard.
What game is your gold standard?
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Quality-wise Red Dead Redemption. The missions are just so well done, pitch-perfect voice acting and stellar combat scenes. Also, the believability of the world is phenomenal.
Plot/Plot twist Bioshock/Black Ops. The plot twists and general immersion and storytelling in both are stunning.
RPG-ness (For me, anyway: Customisability, exploration opportunities, amount of stuff to do, and Roleplaying opportunities) Fallout 3/WoW. While playing them they sucked my life away, and I fucking loved it too much to care. Just so much to do..... So many options and RP options..
Plot/Plot twist Bioshock/Black Ops. The plot twists and general immersion and storytelling in both are stunning.
RPG-ness (For me, anyway: Customisability, exploration opportunities, amount of stuff to do, and Roleplaying opportunities) Fallout 3/WoW. While playing them they sucked my life away, and I fucking loved it too much to care. Just so much to do..... So many options and RP options..
For me it's.
for PS3; Ether Dead Space or Castlevania Lords of Shadow.
for xbox 360; Enslaved Odyssey To The West or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
for Ds;Kingdom Hearts
and for wii; Trauma Team. :3
for PS3; Ether Dead Space or Castlevania Lords of Shadow.
for xbox 360; Enslaved Odyssey To The West or Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.
for Ds;Kingdom Hearts
and for wii; Trauma Team. :3
Oddly, my gold standard has more to do with setting than anything else. My approval for a given game goes up substantially if it's set in ancient (BC) times; bonus points if it isn't set in ancient Rome. Likewise, my approval of a game goes down substantially if it's set in the modern era, or in a "dystopian ruined future Earth," but up again if it's a classic sci-fi setting. This pretty much dictates my approval of any given game.
I'd say this is partially based on my "sample and forget" approach to gaming, whereby I have a gigantic (300+) library of titles I've maybe played an hour or slightly more of, at most. (Incidentally, this buying approach ties in well with the habit of buying several years down the road from release dates - I get cheap games, which I enjoy for short periods. Everybody's happy.)
Within specific genres, I have several standards to compare things to: Age of Empires for RTS; Titan Quest for looting-adventure; Risen for RPGs; lots of stuff for action-adventure; and Half-life 2 for FPS.
I'd say this is partially based on my "sample and forget" approach to gaming, whereby I have a gigantic (300+) library of titles I've maybe played an hour or slightly more of, at most. (Incidentally, this buying approach ties in well with the habit of buying several years down the road from release dates - I get cheap games, which I enjoy for short periods. Everybody's happy.)
Within specific genres, I have several standards to compare things to: Age of Empires for RTS; Titan Quest for looting-adventure; Risen for RPGs; lots of stuff for action-adventure; and Half-life 2 for FPS.
I mainly play RPG so
Chrono Trigger and FFVII (had that unique mix of story and grindingyou love to find in MMOs) are jrpg standard
Morrowind is standard for Western RPG. Open exploration where for weeks of play you can just wonder and never do the story quest. Oblivion was a lot bigger but the fast travel made the game feel smaller in comparison...
Hand Call of Duty 4 for shooters.
Chrono Trigger and FFVII (had that unique mix of story and grindingyou love to find in MMOs) are jrpg standard
Morrowind is standard for Western RPG. Open exploration where for weeks of play you can just wonder and never do the story quest. Oblivion was a lot bigger but the fast travel made the game feel smaller in comparison...
Hand Call of Duty 4 for shooters.
There are a few greats that are my benchmarks. The ones that rise to the forefront, however, are Fallout, Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape: Torment, Half Life, and System Shock 2. If I had to pick one as that amazing unreachable game, I would pick Planescape: Torment. While some games surpass it (Baldur's Gate 2 is a better true-blue RPG), the dialogue, characters, creativeness and world just skyrocket it to a work of genius.
It depends more on the experience: what a game makes me feel as I play it. I can analyze all day, but in the end, how I feel playing a game is often more important than a technical appraisal of the game.
Time-losing addiction - My first real experience with this was the original Warlords. I played 8 hours straight. I am extremely vulnerable to Just One More Turn syndrome when playing turn-based strategies: the Civilization games, Alpha Centauri, the Heroes of Might and Magic Series... The king of this for me has to be Civilization IV (I haven't played V yet). I once played that game for a full day without eating or sleeping. Honorable mention: Almost any Bioware RPG. (Back in September, I spent about a week staying up till five in the morning playing Dragon Age: Origins.)
Tightly-focused viscerality (I don't think that's a word, tho') - Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret. God, I hate that EA killed the sequel to those games, and it happened like ten years ago. I've rarely played a game so uncompromising in portraying what it wanted to portray--that being, a bloody revolution.
Fanboy thrill - Transformers: War For Cybertron. I have never seen a game that made me feel as appreciated as a fan as that game's single-player experience. And that was with the PC version!
Full-world immersion - This one is a toss-up. On the one hand, while I still love it, Deus Ex doesn't do this to me anymore, even though it did until about 2005. On the other, GTA IV has numerous flaws, but what can you say about a game where a viable play style is to ignore the story and just live in New York City, driving around, going to stores and restaurants, taking friends out to bars and having conversations with them, and listening the radio?
Satisfying accidents - After I beat Morrowind, I went back to the initial town, and found myself standing on the docks where I entered the game world as the sun set. Beautiful.
Text adventure game - Planescape: Torment. (I keed! But that game was a unique experience; I can't classify it as anything else.)
The Game - The one that makes me think, this is what video games are meant to be. This is why video games were invented. This is the pure, platonic ideal of Game...
TIE Fighter. Back when Lucasarts hadn't gone off their fucking nut. Back when you could say "I'm a Star Wars fan" without having to qualify the statement. Back before the Internet allowed all the closet fascists to come out and say, "Yeah, I think the Imperials were the real good guys in Star Wars"...you had this masterpiece. Take everything good about X-Wing, take out all the bad, and then have you fly as the "bad guys"...but do things you never considered the bad guys doing but which make perfect sense. Fighting pirates, raiders, traitors, political dissidents who think the Rebels need to commit more atrocities, flying as Darth Vader's wing, saving the fucking Emperor...I personally think this game gave rise to have the Imperial sympathizers on the interwebs.
Time-losing addiction - My first real experience with this was the original Warlords. I played 8 hours straight. I am extremely vulnerable to Just One More Turn syndrome when playing turn-based strategies: the Civilization games, Alpha Centauri, the Heroes of Might and Magic Series... The king of this for me has to be Civilization IV (I haven't played V yet). I once played that game for a full day without eating or sleeping. Honorable mention: Almost any Bioware RPG. (Back in September, I spent about a week staying up till five in the morning playing Dragon Age: Origins.)
Tightly-focused viscerality (I don't think that's a word, tho') - Crusader: No Remorse and No Regret. God, I hate that EA killed the sequel to those games, and it happened like ten years ago. I've rarely played a game so uncompromising in portraying what it wanted to portray--that being, a bloody revolution.
Fanboy thrill - Transformers: War For Cybertron. I have never seen a game that made me feel as appreciated as a fan as that game's single-player experience. And that was with the PC version!
Full-world immersion - This one is a toss-up. On the one hand, while I still love it, Deus Ex doesn't do this to me anymore, even though it did until about 2005. On the other, GTA IV has numerous flaws, but what can you say about a game where a viable play style is to ignore the story and just live in New York City, driving around, going to stores and restaurants, taking friends out to bars and having conversations with them, and listening the radio?
Satisfying accidents - After I beat Morrowind, I went back to the initial town, and found myself standing on the docks where I entered the game world as the sun set. Beautiful.
Text adventure game - Planescape: Torment. (I keed! But that game was a unique experience; I can't classify it as anything else.)
The Game - The one that makes me think, this is what video games are meant to be. This is why video games were invented. This is the pure, platonic ideal of Game...
TIE Fighter. Back when Lucasarts hadn't gone off their fucking nut. Back when you could say "I'm a Star Wars fan" without having to qualify the statement. Back before the Internet allowed all the closet fascists to come out and say, "Yeah, I think the Imperials were the real good guys in Star Wars"...you had this masterpiece. Take everything good about X-Wing, take out all the bad, and then have you fly as the "bad guys"...but do things you never considered the bad guys doing but which make perfect sense. Fighting pirates, raiders, traitors, political dissidents who think the Rebels need to commit more atrocities, flying as Darth Vader's wing, saving the fucking Emperor...I personally think this game gave rise to have the Imperial sympathizers on the interwebs.
game? singular?
hardest question ever, what is this sophies choice?
well heres my favourite...s
fallout2 ( just the perfect game, best text box in a game ever)
Baldurs gate 2 (npc's and characters that totally rocked, Magic = happiness)
Knights of the old republic 1 (best story ever!!!!)
Dawn of war 1 (FOR THE EMPEROR!!! best random unit phrases!)
Heroes of might and magic 3 (dude where's my life gone)
Might and magic VI, VII, VIII (awesome leveling system, Super music)
Hitman 2,contracts,blood money( spas twelve; handy)
Unreal tournament (Muh muh muh monster kill kill kill, best taunts ever!)
Sims 2 ( greatest mix of facial expressions and animations in a game)
hmm, i've probably left something out... but that should cover most genres!!!!
hardest question ever, what is this sophies choice?
well heres my favourite...s
fallout2 ( just the perfect game, best text box in a game ever)
Baldurs gate 2 (npc's and characters that totally rocked, Magic = happiness)
Knights of the old republic 1 (best story ever!!!!)
Dawn of war 1 (FOR THE EMPEROR!!! best random unit phrases!)
Heroes of might and magic 3 (dude where's my life gone)
Might and magic VI, VII, VIII (awesome leveling system, Super music)
Hitman 2,contracts,blood money( spas twelve; handy)
Unreal tournament (Muh muh muh monster kill kill kill, best taunts ever!)
Sims 2 ( greatest mix of facial expressions and animations in a game)
hmm, i've probably left something out... but that should cover most genres!!!!
Allot of people mention "Fallout". I guess it's theoretically possible that some of them are talking about the original and not FO3.... It's not very likely though =( Most of the people here seem to fall in the age group that grew up with games made after 2000 and never really played any of the older games because they were too young to play them. Allot of them are also console players that never or rarely touch PC games.Blurr[SOAR said:
Well this fellow answers a few of my favourites. Also like to add the Mass Effect series.Saltyk said:
Never have I been so immersed in a gaming world. Some argue that its not an RPG however, the way its story works... Its very similar to a table top RPG. The story is fantastic, the gameplay is brilliant, it looks beautiful... Its a perfect game and I'm hoping the third game doesn't disappoint.
Forza is also up there. I hate racing games, I can't stand racing games... The only way I'd play a racing game is if some one left it at my house. However... Forza is just amazing... I can't understand why but its brilliant. One of the few racing games I'll play.
Also next to come is the Fight Night series. These games may not have much of a story and such and I'll probably be boo'd off for saying them. However, I've yet to have the amount of fun with any other game. Brilliant party games. Brilliant game in general.
The UFC games are also skimming for my gold button. One of the few sports games sequels that actually improve over that last year. 2010 is a brilliant sports game and it really, really improved on 2009 that it makes 2009 virtually unplayable after it.
The combat system as been greatly expanded where you can built up your own fighting style, you can bob and weave and even chose from pre-recorded words for you name (sadly they don't have Skelly or even Kelly so I couldn't have my name). I hope for next years game they put in a camera thing so I can put my face on the character. Also I hope they add the chance to record your matches and replay them.
Ho and how could I forget the other GOW series. Yeah, Gears of War... Brilliant series and I can't wait for the third. I know its amassed a good amount of hatedom... I just don't care, I love the games. The combat is excellent, I love the cover system they have, I love how daft the story is and how hammy the characters are... Brilliant game.
I imagine most of the hate for Gears comes from how many games have copied that cover system since Gears. However, you can't really blame the game for that...
RPG: Fallout 2, Vampire the masquerade bloodlines
Shooter RPG: Deus ex, System shock 2
Online shooter: Red orchestra
Tactical shooter: Rainbow 6: Raven shield
Shooter: Half life
Stealth game: Hitman 4
City builder: Tropico 3
Grand strategy: Hearts of iron 2, Europa universalis 2, Victoria: Empire under the sun
RTS: Starcraft or Warcraft 2
Point and click adventures: Monkey island
Shooter RPG: Deus ex, System shock 2
Online shooter: Red orchestra
Tactical shooter: Rainbow 6: Raven shield
Shooter: Half life
Stealth game: Hitman 4
City builder: Tropico 3
Grand strategy: Hearts of iron 2, Europa universalis 2, Victoria: Empire under the sun
RTS: Starcraft or Warcraft 2
Point and click adventures: Monkey island
Let me check my standards list...
WRPG: Oblivion
JRPG: FFVII
FPS: Deus Ex
RTS: AoE III
General: Devil May Cry III
WRPG: Oblivion
JRPG: FFVII
FPS: Deus Ex
RTS: AoE III
General: Devil May Cry III
FPS- Deus Ex
JRPG- FFVI
USRPG- Morrowind
RTS- Total Annihilation,
Adventure- Monkey Island
Third Person Shooter- Uncharted 2
Sandbox- San Andreas
JRPG- FFVI
USRPG- Morrowind
RTS- Total Annihilation,
Adventure- Monkey Island
Third Person Shooter- Uncharted 2
Sandbox- San Andreas
Depends on genre.
RTS: Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade or Dawn Of War 2(both are awesome games, can't decide which is better)
RPG: Fallout 2 or Baldurs Gate 2(same here)
FPS: Rainbow Six: Las Vegas
RTS: Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade or Dawn Of War 2(both are awesome games, can't decide which is better)
RPG: Fallout 2 or Baldurs Gate 2(same here)
FPS: Rainbow Six: Las Vegas