Find out about us BG fans--what other video games do you play or like?
caruga
Member Posts: 375
28/June: Updated for grammar and a bit more commentary.
Are you a gamer? Do you stick to RPG's, or do you play other genres as well--or is it even just Baldur's Gate that you like? Do play a wide variety or stick to just a few you think will be worth your while? What platforms have you played on? How long have you been gaming?
I've been playing video games since I was 5, on the Amiga 600. I've also had a Super Nintendo, Sega megadrive (genesis in the US), Amiga A1200, a PS2, and four different PC's (A pentium, an AMD Duron, a celeron PII laptop, and my current i7 920 rig, probably the biggest leap i've taken in computing power). I've not owned any consoles of this generation; I was going to wait for the releases God of War 3 and Final Fantasy 13 and buy a PS3 for them, but it turned out not to be worth it (GOW3 was really short, FF13 sucked) and nothing else has been a system seller either.
I tend to go for games I estimate I will like; if a game ranks less than an 8/10 on my scale I will question whether it was worth my while; I generally either love a game or it makes me feel empty and like I wasted my time. I'm not sure how commonplace it is to be all-or-nothing like this.
Anyway, without ranking in order, here are some of the games I've loved and played (and a few that I haven't) in the last 20+ years:
Are you a gamer? Do you stick to RPG's, or do you play other genres as well--or is it even just Baldur's Gate that you like? Do play a wide variety or stick to just a few you think will be worth your while? What platforms have you played on? How long have you been gaming?
I've been playing video games since I was 5, on the Amiga 600. I've also had a Super Nintendo, Sega megadrive (genesis in the US), Amiga A1200, a PS2, and four different PC's (A pentium, an AMD Duron, a celeron PII laptop, and my current i7 920 rig, probably the biggest leap i've taken in computing power). I've not owned any consoles of this generation; I was going to wait for the releases God of War 3 and Final Fantasy 13 and buy a PS3 for them, but it turned out not to be worth it (GOW3 was really short, FF13 sucked) and nothing else has been a system seller either.
I tend to go for games I estimate I will like; if a game ranks less than an 8/10 on my scale I will question whether it was worth my while; I generally either love a game or it makes me feel empty and like I wasted my time. I'm not sure how commonplace it is to be all-or-nothing like this.
Anyway, without ranking in order, here are some of the games I've loved and played (and a few that I haven't) in the last 20+ years:
From when I was a kid | |
|---|---|
| Lemmings | I was a bit too young to really get far with this, but it holds a special place for being my very 1st video game. |
| Banshee | Vertical-scrolling shooter with crunchy sound effects and a kick-ass intro music. |
| Super Mario World | |
| Super Mario All Stars | |
| Streets of Rage | Mona and Lisa, those b*tches  |
| Street fighter 2 Turbo | |
| The Secret of Monkey Island | |
| Monkey Island 2 | I actually played the sequel before the 1st one; as a 7 yr old, got stuck on the 1st chapter for years, then revisited it and cracked it only to be greeted with even harder puzzles. |
| I'm probably forgetting a ton off of this list... | |
From when I was a teenager: | |
| ADOM | I would say this is the best roguelike ever, but I haven't played any others; I don't think a normal human lifetime has enough time for more than one! Has the most replay value and depth of any game i've played, period. |
| Baldur's Gate | This game awed me. |
| Baldur's Gate 2: SOA | In regard to TOB: wasn't as keen: too much cramming of 'shiny ones' to steal a term, that ended up making the special feel unspecial, and it felt rushed to me, and the dialog choices didn't matter and several of the voice-actors were annoying--I may be in the minority though? And in regard to SOA, while it didn't enrapture me as much with the plot or characters compared to BG1, it can't be denied that it had more depth and gameplay to it, and it's still one of my all time favourite games right behind BG1. |
| Thief: The Dark Project | Actually the gold edition--also wasn't nearly as keen on the sequel--again probably in the minority on that one, the core fanbase seems to prefer the second one--this is my highest ranking game from an artistic point of view--if any game is a work of art, it's this one. |
| Doom | I actually played this on the amiga, of all things; it kicked ass and it still does--sometimes it's the simple things in life... |
| Half-Life | The first one--simply the best shooter. |
| Final Fantasy X | Probably moved my emotions more than any other game, although I felt emotionally 'swindled' by the ending and found it distressing, took my mind a long time to rationalise it. |
| GTA: Vice City | Just kicked ass. |
From my 20's: | |
| I'm hard pushed to mention any. Most games these days just don't do it for me. But here are a few: | |
| Final Fantasy XII | Probably the most rewarding, well-paced level progression in an RPG I've seen and they rightly threw out the old-school FF battle system--though the MMORPGish loot-randomness was stupid, and the plot wasn't really a plot at all, just a string of random events. |
| Mirror's Edge | Gave me a unique experience, but it had no replay value. |
| Half-Life 2 | It lacked something that Half-Life had: maybe just my nostalgia? Still a solid game, but I felt it lacked soul, somehow. |
| (Super) Street Fighter 4 | I actually really like this, it's really addictive with online play, though the execution barrier is a bit hard for me--you can find me online playing Cammy if you have this game on the PC, under the same screen-name. |
| Resident Evil 2 | I actually bought it in my early teens while on holiday in America--I remember the shop owner giving my mother purchasing advice on the game's violent content, lol--took it home and never played it. About 10 yrs later I dug it out, struggled to get it to work on my PC, and then beat it in a day... then I felt I'd memorised the game so well, that I played through the game again without using a single savepoint (it has a rationed save-system with 'tape reels'--I think more games should have this concept!--if 'survival horror', why not 'survival-anything-else'?)--the fewer saves you make, the higher score you get at the end of the game. I got hit about 3 times across the entire game, got the highest possible score and beat it in a 4 hour sitting. Then the game spazzed out due to running in an NTFS environment and broke the savefile so I lost the highscore--fun times. |
| Resident Evil 4 | Got it because it was one of the highest rated PS2 games on a review site--i'm inclined to agree, although it was a bit 'camp' in tone. |
| Tomb Raider: Legend | Completed in a day; arbitrarily challenged myself by not using a single healthpack for the entire game, which made it a lot more fun. |
| God of War | Solid game, played on the highest difficulty available and beat in a day; that said I've no urge to replay it; I also actually didn't like the violence, funnily enough, it felt like Kratos just went out of his way to do the grossest thing possible rather than being practical. |
Games I've tried to like based on rep, but failed: | |
| Shadow of the Collosus | that horse is called Agro for a reason! |
| Batman: Arkham Asylum | I don't know what people's fascination is with this game, the combat is just stupid 'hit buttons and win', and I was done with it after 'Games For Windows Live' happily lost all my saved progress--maybe part of it is failing to realise is that nightmare difficulty is normal difficulty of 10 years ago, and you don't discover the depth of the mechanics unless the damage output is high enough to force you to observe attack patterns and refine your defenses--I also hate a token weapon upgrade system that has no gameplay to it, it's just 'there'. |
| Bioshock | This made me yawn, too repetitive, beating the first two levels took ages, and after I spoiled myself in checking the full enemy list and realised I'd be facing the same enemies for the rest of the game and I was about 5% of the way through, it was a no-brainer to call a halt to it. |
| Planescape: Torment | Don't kill me; I never really gave it much of a chance--I swear I will one day. Maybe in time for the enhanced edition? |
| Dragon Age | Well I actually got through the game and it was only a 7/10 for me, but I'll never forgive the marketting slogan 'spiritual successor to baldur's gate'--which is BS. |
| Neverwinter Nights 2 | This game just burned me out because I spent so long trying to plan a minmaxed character. I may attempt it again sometime. |
| Morrowind | it just felt aimless, ES games seem to prove that absolute freedom can be as bad as on-rails gameplay. |
Games I'm looking forward to/have trepidation about: | |
| Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition | |
| Thief 4 | |
| Dark Souls PC version | |
| As you can see the list is short; looks bleak... | |
Games that I own but haven't played or given much of a chance, or only partially completed: |
|
| Bioshock | |
| Crysis | impressed the heck out of me at first and not just because of the graphics, I loved that there were a 101 different ways to deal with enemies--yet somehow it became tedious later on? |
| Alice: Madness Returns | Beat the 1st chapter on nightmare mode yesterday, decided that's enough for now--I think EA ruined this game by cutting development short, there's a leaked trailer that shows tons of features and plot that never got into the final release, hope they do a directors cut sometime. |
| Deus Ex: HR and Deus Ex | Got on the cheap during a recent steam sale, but don't know if I'll touch it for a while, I got it on reputation alone, rather than because the surface appealed to me--that's the reason it took me 10 years to play Resident Evil 2, lol. |
| Loom, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis | I don't know, I used to like point&click adventures as a kid but maybe I'm spoiled by the flash-bang modern games and can't settle down to play this... regardless they're just sitting on my hard-drive. |
| Fallout | got for free on gog.com signup, but for some reason my brain is wired to think that RPG means a high-fantasy setting and futuristic means a shooter or strategy game; futuristic rpg's are like a square peg going in a round hole for me and rub me the wrong way... maybe one day i'll open my mind a bit--and you can forget about the Star Wars RPG's. |
| S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat | Shockingly bad production values slammed me in my face on my 1st and only attempt to play--things like crouching causing my character to clip into the ground without animating the legs bending--things like gunshot going through enemies (not intentionally), things like the subtitles saying something entirely different to the voiceover--things like needing to jump everywhere like a rabbit to get a decent speed, and the character not handling very well when moving--I'm assured that if I see past all this I'm in for a hell of a game, but I don't know if i'll ever know... |
| Mass Effect 2 | Bought because of rep/was on sale. Played up until Shepherd gets mended and goes to look at some 'place' and umm, lost interest. I never played the 1st game, maybe that's why it hasn't hooked me? |
| GTA: San Andreas | it's Vice City but with hip-hop culture--I'd already played Vice City and this didn't offer me anything new that I couldn't get from a replay of Vice City. |
| Thief: Deadly Shadows | I heard if I like the 1st two games I'll be dissapointed--I don't want to experience finding out that this is true. |
| Tomb Raider: Underworld | Was on sale and I liked the prequel. Just hasn't hooked me, can't say why. |
| Portal | Got because it was a free download on steam, but not felt the itch to try it. |
Games that have a high rep and I've been always meaning to look at: | |
| Any of the old-school final fantasies | |
| Any old-school western rpg's pre-dating baldur's gate | |
| System Shock series | |
| The Witcher 2 | Just waiting for it to come down in price. |
| Skyrim | Might pass even if it goes on cheap, I've heard your actions have no consequence and everything I didn't like about Morrowind seems to be in there, +consolitis. |
Post edited by caruga on
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Comments
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I have no chosen genre. It is not genre, but overall quality and presentation of the game which make it great. And that is the reason I won´t tell you any other RPG game except BG which I consider to be worth mentioning even though BG as RPG is like my absolutely the most favourite game. But to my top favourites belongs Hexen/Heretic, Thief(mainly first one), old Warcraft/Starcraft, Settlers.
I was also into Civilization and the Colonization spin-off, and Pirates! the Sid Mier classics, for a year or more.
My first RPG was this JRPG called The Legend of Dragoon; i was amzed by it, so i got myself another one: Final Fantasy IX; i still think this one is one of the greatest, almost perfect, i hope to see a remake for it. A few others titles on PS, we're Gran Turismo and GT2 and Tomb Raider 4, Warcraft series and Mortal Kombat etc. Now about PC games, well i got my PC fairly late, i think Diablo 2 was the first game that really impresed me for a while, but nothing took me to the loony bin like World of Warcraft for 4 years. Now i only play RPGs and of course the occasional PES. As a list of some of the best RPGs: Divine Divinity, Arcanum, but nothing comes close to the greatness of Infinity Engine. As for ES series, i can't even take it serious, and NWN had something really awful about it.
P.S. I really have high hopes for Divinity:Original Sin.
More is coming back to me now after reading what you said... before I even owned a computer I had a 'friend' who owned one... we played Alex Kid and Sonic on the master system, and Space Harrier 2 (or was that the megadrive/genesis?) Also played MK 1&2 on his computer. He was a spoiled brat and got whatever games he wanted, and it did make things more fun to play against a live human.
I've had Arcanum recommended to me, but that's by someone who also adores Skyrim. I think we like different things in games. But who knows, it could be one of my favourite games right under my nose (and I don't have a nose for telling). My selection process is more about avoiding mediocre (or even above mediocre) games than finding great ones. LOL careful, @TrentOster had a big part in making that game.
I remember Sonic, Tekken, Spartan etc. Double Dragon 3:The Sacred Stone was great.
Arcanum, got nothing to do with ES, if you enjoy Infinity Engine's titles, i'm sure you'll appreciate Arcanum too; people out there we're nice enough to create a widescreen mod for it.
Amongst my favorite PC games are:
Baldur's Gate I&II
Fallout I&II
PS:T
Half-Life
There are many games I've played that I'm sure I can't think of now, but those definitely stand out. As far as games I'm looking forward to...
BG:EE & BGII:EE (obviously)
Wasteland II
Age of Decadence
The Stick of Truth (the upcoming South Park RPG)
Enhanced Edition of PS:T and most likely any other future TrentCo releases
On topic when I was around 10 when BG came out, I played a lot of Sim City 2000, Civilization 2 and Settlers 2 which I got in a bundle pack! I remember good times on Theme Hospital too. Too many great games since then but a memory I like to toss around is that I played Warcraft 2 online a lot on AOL back in those days.
I played it since the European release until midway WotG. I really love the game, but 4 years was enough and it was feeling more like a chore than fun. I still get the urge to reinstall it and pick up my character again though, I really wish I could have played through the rest of the storyline.
What have you never finishedd it? your missing out!! yes i know the bleak horror theme is offsetting, but you get used to it real quick
From the time of Amiga, i still remember and liked Turrican( all 3!) , Sword of Honour, the First Samurai, Another World( yeah i played it there first), Dizzy games!( the egg that walks and talks lol).
From then on, it was just consoles and more "today's pcs" ( like 486 and then on, till today).
I am a huge fan of adventure games, until up to a point because either i stopped looking, or they stopped appearing >_< my favorites were :
Monkey Island 1,2,3 i loved them, i played 4+5 too but they were not as good.
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. This was one of THE best adventures i ever played.
Broken Sword series. Epic adventures. Shadow of the Templars and the Smoking Mirror are noticeably better than Sleeping Dragon and Angel of Death, but i had become a fan of the series by then so i played them as well :]
The Dig. THIS has to be even better than Indiana Jones. What a nice adventure it was, pretty much the most interesting thing involving "aliens" or whatever created for pc for me.
Full Throttle. A shame the series did not continue, but just playing this was enough, awesome adventure, badass protagonist.
I also liked Harvester( this was pretty twisted ) and Noctropolis, two adventures that were not as good as the rest i listed, but i got hooked nevertheless ^^
DAY OF THE TENTACLE! ( ahahha this was so awesome and funny! ) i don't need to say more.
Gabriel Knight 3 Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned was pretty awesome too. I never got to play the previous 2.
From then on, my favorite RPGs were
Baldur's Gate 1+2. Especially Shadows of Amn( together with TOB ), is the second best i have ever played.( of course i still port the BG1 models and animations to fully enjoy the game! :P , i HAD to say it 0:] )
Planescape Torment. I am a barbie dressing whore, an equipment whore and more important, an armor whore, i like the looks of armors in games, even 2D, i get ecstatic when i see nicely designed armor in games, like from the arcade Knights of the Round. Planescape did not have ANY armor, all the weapons looked like daggers or axes ( even if the were swords) and your character was prefixed. I still consider it the BEST RPG i ever played for it's story alone. Enough said :P, although at first i was alienated by the weird atmosphere and looks, nothing looked like what i was used to. The dialogues and options of this game were awesome.
Neverwinter Nights, all games(not 2) i enjoyed it, but i liked the feel and look of BG better, a nice story IMO but this awful 3D environment took away from the atmosphere.
I played a lot of games as well like WoW, Oblivion and Skyrim, Diablo series but nothing had that BG - PST feel.
Also, i DID NOT like Dragon age. There is said it :P
I'd like to now make a poll of our forum readers....