Post by isobellefox on Jun 22, 2008 20:29:12 GMT -5
This is kind of tough for me, as the top position changes occasionally depending on my mood, but in general:
1. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - crazy russian sci-fi meets real world disaster meets first person shooter meets role playing game. Sure, it has a few issues, but I've played if five times and its awesome. Awwwwwwwesome. And the prequal, due out in a couple of months promises to be even better.
2. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - technically this should have first place. Its the biggest, longest game I've ever seen with some of the most amazing graphics. Two years after its making its still one of the prettiest games I've ever seen. It has an unbelievable amount of highly customizable play, especially if you include the two rather large expansions. It took me almost 2 years to "finish" the main quest and the two expansions, but technically, you could go on for a lot longer if you finish all of the guild missions and side quests. Definitely the best buy for the money, ever, with a video game.
3. Myst - And by Myst, I mean the whole series. Myst, Riven, Exile. Revelation. Uru, and End of Ages. It has its weak moments- some of Revelation was weak, and really the story on that one contributed nothing, but the graphics were breathtaking and the puzzles were good. Uru was wierd, but possibly one of the most imaganitive and ambitious game projects of all time. Riven is easily the BEST puzzle and story telling game ever. Its a perfect 5 out of 5. This series, as a whole, defines what gaming COULD be, if people were more into art and imaginative story telling that twitchy hollywood style shooters. Read the books too.
4. Half Life 2 - I dont care about the original half life at all. It might have been great for its time, but its just kind of a regular shooter: run down this hall, shoot this, shoot that. Blah. But the sequal.... this has one of the best, most well rounded, and all around amazing dystopian-surrealist-alien invasion stories ever. It has humor, atmosphere, memorable characters, interesting environments, inventive game-play, scary moments, and just all around replayable awesomeness. The expansions have so far been wonderful if a little short of the original game. The whole experience is incredible if played straight through. Really, if you just want a shooter, here is what can be done with that genre, without too much ambition, but still with the best possible results. If all games took a lesson from HL2, they'd be infinitely better for it.
5. Metroid - the series, the whole thing. Wow, what can I say? Its legendary for a reason. Inventive, cross genre puzzle solving shooter with a female lead. Samus Aran is one of the coolest character concepts in all of video gaming. I l.ove the art and the clever level design of these games. They're really simple, but they totally suck you in and keep you interested. Awesome stuff.
Runners up:
Ok, so this is cheating, but whatever.
Portal - Best concept and execution for a short video game ever. I would love to see someone learn a lesson from this and revolutionize gaming in the future. This is everything a game needs to be, especially a really simple game.
Jericho - Inventive and just a hell of a lot of fun. The pyro-technics alone in this game make it worth playing. The fights are so chaotic with 6 or 7 characters going full blast at once that its hard to play because I get so distracted by the coolness of the destruction going on. Never mind the insanely bloody nastiness and the funny dialog. This game delivers all the way to the end, even with the old school run and gun system. It proves that even the cheesey old architecture of Wolfenstien and Doom based games can still be done in an entertaining way. Highly recommended.
Morrowind - for all the same reasons that Oblivion RAWKS the universe, this game is terrific too. All it lacks, honestly, are the graphics. Everything else is 5 for 5 stars.
Tron 2.0 - You wouldn't think so, probably, but here is a really inventive and fun shooter. Its also awesome for just the purely eye-candy vector. It looks great. Very surrealistic.
Pokemon - Yeah. You know you love it. Actually, my favorite was Mystery Dungeon because I am a sucker for the pretty graphics and the sweet story. Its the Pokemon game that made me cry. ::laughs::
Gears of War - Lives up to all the hype. Its just a run of the mill third person shooter, but its sooooooooooooooooooo awesome. Incredibly cool graphic DESIGN. By this I mean that while the graphics are not top notch any more, the art is still superb. This is one of those games that will ALWAYS look good because so much care was taken to make the most of what was available. Also, like HL2, it has good characters, interesting concept, and fun dialog. I loved this game tremendously.
Sometime I should do a worst of list too. There are so many bad games, but some of them really do deserve mention. : P
1. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - crazy russian sci-fi meets real world disaster meets first person shooter meets role playing game. Sure, it has a few issues, but I've played if five times and its awesome. Awwwwwwwesome. And the prequal, due out in a couple of months promises to be even better.
2. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion - technically this should have first place. Its the biggest, longest game I've ever seen with some of the most amazing graphics. Two years after its making its still one of the prettiest games I've ever seen. It has an unbelievable amount of highly customizable play, especially if you include the two rather large expansions. It took me almost 2 years to "finish" the main quest and the two expansions, but technically, you could go on for a lot longer if you finish all of the guild missions and side quests. Definitely the best buy for the money, ever, with a video game.
3. Myst - And by Myst, I mean the whole series. Myst, Riven, Exile. Revelation. Uru, and End of Ages. It has its weak moments- some of Revelation was weak, and really the story on that one contributed nothing, but the graphics were breathtaking and the puzzles were good. Uru was wierd, but possibly one of the most imaganitive and ambitious game projects of all time. Riven is easily the BEST puzzle and story telling game ever. Its a perfect 5 out of 5. This series, as a whole, defines what gaming COULD be, if people were more into art and imaginative story telling that twitchy hollywood style shooters. Read the books too.
4. Half Life 2 - I dont care about the original half life at all. It might have been great for its time, but its just kind of a regular shooter: run down this hall, shoot this, shoot that. Blah. But the sequal.... this has one of the best, most well rounded, and all around amazing dystopian-surrealist-alien invasion stories ever. It has humor, atmosphere, memorable characters, interesting environments, inventive game-play, scary moments, and just all around replayable awesomeness. The expansions have so far been wonderful if a little short of the original game. The whole experience is incredible if played straight through. Really, if you just want a shooter, here is what can be done with that genre, without too much ambition, but still with the best possible results. If all games took a lesson from HL2, they'd be infinitely better for it.
5. Metroid - the series, the whole thing. Wow, what can I say? Its legendary for a reason. Inventive, cross genre puzzle solving shooter with a female lead. Samus Aran is one of the coolest character concepts in all of video gaming. I l.ove the art and the clever level design of these games. They're really simple, but they totally suck you in and keep you interested. Awesome stuff.
Runners up:
Ok, so this is cheating, but whatever.
Portal - Best concept and execution for a short video game ever. I would love to see someone learn a lesson from this and revolutionize gaming in the future. This is everything a game needs to be, especially a really simple game.
Jericho - Inventive and just a hell of a lot of fun. The pyro-technics alone in this game make it worth playing. The fights are so chaotic with 6 or 7 characters going full blast at once that its hard to play because I get so distracted by the coolness of the destruction going on. Never mind the insanely bloody nastiness and the funny dialog. This game delivers all the way to the end, even with the old school run and gun system. It proves that even the cheesey old architecture of Wolfenstien and Doom based games can still be done in an entertaining way. Highly recommended.
Morrowind - for all the same reasons that Oblivion RAWKS the universe, this game is terrific too. All it lacks, honestly, are the graphics. Everything else is 5 for 5 stars.
Tron 2.0 - You wouldn't think so, probably, but here is a really inventive and fun shooter. Its also awesome for just the purely eye-candy vector. It looks great. Very surrealistic.
Pokemon - Yeah. You know you love it. Actually, my favorite was Mystery Dungeon because I am a sucker for the pretty graphics and the sweet story. Its the Pokemon game that made me cry. ::laughs::
Gears of War - Lives up to all the hype. Its just a run of the mill third person shooter, but its sooooooooooooooooooo awesome. Incredibly cool graphic DESIGN. By this I mean that while the graphics are not top notch any more, the art is still superb. This is one of those games that will ALWAYS look good because so much care was taken to make the most of what was available. Also, like HL2, it has good characters, interesting concept, and fun dialog. I loved this game tremendously.
Sometime I should do a worst of list too. There are so many bad games, but some of them really do deserve mention. : P