Your top (3/5/10/15/20) favorite games!
I haven't seen one of these being done in a while, so i figured that i would make one myself. I've always enjoyed to read about what games people like and it has helped me find some amazing games i haven't played myself, both mainstream i never bothered to get or hidden gems that i didn't know about.
It's up to you how many games you put on your list, but i would like you to write a few lines about the game and why you placed it on your list. For this list BG/IWD is the same as BG:EE/IWD:EE, I'm just naming the original name.
Here is mine, i'll throw out a 20 games list. This is the short version.
1.) Planescape Torment
2.) Fallout 2
3.) Baldur's Gate 2
4.) Fallout
5.) Arcanum
6.) Morrowind
7.) Dark soul
8.) Silent Hill 2
9.) Baldur's Gate
10.) Fallout New Vegas
11.) Final Fantasy 9
12.) Vampire Bloodlines: Masquerade
13.) Icewind Dale
14.) The Last of Us
15.) Deus Ex
16.) FInal Fantasy 10
17.) Resident Evil Code Veronica X
18.) Septerra Core
19.) Geneforge
20.) Might & Magic.
And now for the longer version.
1.) Planescape Torment: The undisputed king when it comes to gaming for me. The only flaws this amazing games has is the poor combat and that it pigeon holes you into playing a certain type of character to fully enjoy the game (WIS,INT,CHA). The story and NPC's are one of a kind and you won't find any other games that can spin a tale like this one can. It also let's you play evil without feeling that it wasn't a part of the game.
2.) Fallout 2: The options are endless! There is so much you can do in this world and so many different paths you can take. Want to complete the game in less than 30 minutes? You can do that! From a gameplay view the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system is awesome and the turn based combat is both entertaining and challenging. The reason i placed Fallout 2 here instead of Fallout is that it has more content. While it does have certain flaws, i feel that the game is an overall improvement over Fallout.
3.) Baldur's Gate 2: Here we go! While there are games out there that are better at certain parts than Baldur's Gate 2 (Torment = History, Arcanum = World, Fallout = Options). The thing that makes Baldur's Gate 2 stand out is that while it doesn't excel at one thing, it does everything exceptionally well. It's a wonderful blend of good gameplay, immersive story, well written NPC's and much more. With the exception of the difficulty for new players and the requirement of a manual, this game doesn't have any flaws in my opinion.
4.) Fallout: This is where it all started, and this is the reason we have games like Fallout 2 and Arcanum. Here we have a game that showed us how wonderful and exciting an apocalyptic wasteland can be. The atmosphere in this game is incredible and it belongs in any top 10 list.
5.) Arcanum: This pick might be a little bit controversial. Arcanum is a flawed gem, no doubt about it. This game has the worst combat system out of any game i have played, it is lacking a story and it came with so many bugs that it took a miracle to get it to play properly. Even with some very big and glaring flaws, this game succeeded in delivering an open and interesting world where you could play a revolver wielding bandit, dwarven smith, elven beauty pagan or a mage using an elephant gun. The crafting system in this game is also amazing and it makes it seem natural for you to scavenge every single trash bin in the game for spare parts.
6.) Morrowind: Here we have another game that has quite a few glaring flaws, but the things that it succeeds with still haven't been beaten in any other game to date. This game does not hold your hand, it has no arrow to guide you to where you go, you walk out the door of the census office and you're on your own PS: love your journal, cherish it and even touch it when you're alone in the dark, it's your most important tool. You literally get dropped into this world with the clothes on your back, a few gold coins and some table spoons you stole from inside the building without anyone noticing. If we look at some of the bad sides we'll see the horrible combat system, it's dice rolling without seeing the dice. If you don't have a good combat skill you'll swing 10 times with your sword and be happy if you connect once. The level up system is an abomination and it forces you to play the game a certain way so you won't ruin your character (good thing is that you can download a mod for this). And the dialogue you have with people aren't dialogues, they are wikipedia windows with information. But while this game does have some rather huge flaws, it also delivers the good stuff. You won't find a bigger or more well done world in any game than you have in Morrowind, it even puts Oblivion and Skyrim to shame. You also won't find any game with as deep lore as this game has, if you do read the dialogues and pick up a book or two, you'll get surprised how much lore and information there is in this game. Last but not least the roleplay options in this game are ridiculous. This game doesn't hold your hand or point for you where to go, this gives you a free reign of your character, what s/he will do and where s/he will go. You don't even have to finish the main quest, there is so much content in this world that you can pick where to go, play it for 30 hours and still have only explored 10% at the most. Also plus points for one of the best magic systems in any game.
7.) Dark souls: You play this game because of the atmosphere and the gameplay. There is no RPG out there that does combat better than Dark souls, you won't even find a game that does it equally as well. This game should be played for the gameplay and enjoying the atmosphere, it gets 10/10 in both categories. If you actually take time to read the item descriptions you'll find out that it does have a nice story filled with some obscure lore you really have to search for to find. This game is difficult as well, at least when you start out. There is a reason there is an edition of this game called Prepare to Die and you should listen to that, because as a newcomer you will die, a lot.
8.) Silent Hill 2: The king of horror games. Calling a game the king when it's in the same league as other incredible games (Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, Amnesia, Last of Us, etc) is an achievement in itself and shows how amazing this game is. The atmosphere, characters and story in this game are phenomenal and every single piece of paper you read leaves you with a sense of dread while your imagination runs wild. This game stands as a beacon that you don't need graphics to make a scary game, you don't create a horror game, you write one.
9.) Baldur's Gate: And here we have our dear Baldur's Gate. As with Fallout i feel that the Baldur's Gate 2 takes the good parts from Baldur's Gate and improves on them. This doesn't make Baldur's Gate a bad game though, it's an amazing adventure and there are certain things this games does better than its sequel, like exploration and having you start on level 1. It might be nostalgia but i hold this game closer to my heart than its sequal and do spend more time playing it.
10.) Fallout New Vegas: What is this? The third installment of Fallout on the list? While this is a Fallout game it's completely different than its predecessors with the exception of the world you play in and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system. It changes the game from an isometric view to first person and introduces first person shooting into the mix. This game has an unique game world with a ton of items, easter eggs, quests and even small settlements hidden and ready to be found by an explorer (You!). It Introduces you to two main factions and several small ones in the game and it let's you decide what route to take. Want to help one faction? What about two factions? What about changing your mind in the game and backstab your old one? You could also play the other factions against each other and take the throne for yourself. The choices are many and the dialogues are well written, there aren't many white or black areas in Nevada, just a lot of grey.
11.) Final Fantasy 9: For an JRPG this game does everything right. It has stable combat, great characters, an immersive world and an amazing story to follow. It takes a more old school approach to the genre and goes from realistic (Final Fantasy 7 & 8) to surreal. You'll find a ton of different races in the game that make you raise your eyebrow in confusion, but in this world it doesn't seem odd at all, the unrealistic approach seems perfect for this setting. This is an amazing, solid and well written JRPG with few flaws (trance system).
12.) Vampire Bloodlines: Here is another flawed gem that seems to be unknown to many people. Let me put this game into perspective by using one word: Atmosphere. It does have many flaws like a bad combat system, original game being unplayable because of bugs, very combat heavy ending and a few other things sprinkled on top. But what it does great, it sure as hell delivers on. The atmosphere in this game is 11/10 and you'll have a hard time finding a game that does it better. It also has many ways to handle and complete every quest, the dialogues are well written and persuasion is an awesome skill that should not be missed out on. Would also like to mention the unique vampire 'races' you can pick which sometimes let's you play a completely different game (Malkavian, Nosferatu)
13.) Icewind Dale: This game often gets described as being Baldur's Gate with less story and dialogues, with more focus on combat. While this is somewhat true, there is so much more to Icewind Dale than just that. Yes this game was created to be a dungeon crawler that let's you make your own party, but this doesn't mean that it's a bad game compared to Baldur's Gate, it just means it's different. It does actually improve on Baldur's Gate when it comes to combat, music and atmosphere.
14.) The Last of Us: Between the new Silent Hills and Resident evil, this game showed us that you can make a new mainstream horror game that is actually - good. This game is an enjoyment to play from start to finish with some great characters, awesome voice acting, incredible intense combat and a world that you get to experience through an entire year with different seasons. If you haven't played this game, GO DO SO! I would buy an PS3 just to get this one game.
15.) Deus Ex: Here we have an obscure game that barely anyone knew about before one of its sequels (which is actually a prequel) hit the market in 2011 (Deus Ex: Human Revolution). But while it has had a few sequels and spin-offs ranging from different qualities, the first game is where it all started. It's hard to explain what Deus Ex really is, some people are still discussing if it's mainly a shooter or RPG. But if you're looking for a good game that is unique and flavorful, you should definitely get this game. I have a soft spot in my heart for Deux Ex as it's one of the games i randomly found when i was bored, i got into the game with low expectations and my mind was blown by the interesting story line, surprisingly deep dialogues and many amazing RPG elements. Who doesn't like to use his technical skills to rob an ATM?
16.) Final Fantasy X: Right up there with FF7 this is the most known and played Final Fantasy game. It was the first one to be released on the PS2 and it had revolutionary graphics back then. There are many Final Fantasy games out there and so you have to question why i placed this one here. There is one thing that this game does better than every single other Final Fantasy title, and that is the game play. The game play and combat in this game is incredible and for the first time ever in a JRPG i wasn't bored by random encounters. The monsters are all unique with different flavorful racial abilities and passives. You have a ton of options between how you chose to play out the fight and how you want to level your characters. This game is a solid game with very few flaws that has incredible game play. While the remastered version comes with better graphics, it really isn't needed as the original has aged very well, and no the remastered sadly doesn't come with a skip cut-scene button.
17.) Resident Evil Code Veronica X: Now if you're into the Resident Evil series you might question yourself why i picked this title to put on the list. It's actually pretty simple, while other games in the series did things better, this is the one i enjoyed the most. It had improved combat over its predecessors, it had a great story, interesting characters and it was a large game. If i could i would want to put every resident evil game up to 4 on this list, but i can't. This is the one game in the series that i found the least flaws/frustration in, and enjoyed the most.
18.) Septerra Core: What is that? A hidden gem that is a JRPG and produced in the west, played on the computer!? What kind of sorcery is this!? Yes it's actually a really good JRPG that was developed by Valkyrie Studios. When it comes to JRPG they have a lot of competition, there are so many good JRPG's released in Asia that you'll have a hard time choosing which one to play. I bought this game from a bin in a local store once and was going to take it with me on a trip to visit some family, play it on my lap top over the weekend. Let me tell you right now that my family didn't see much of me that weekend. It's a really immersive and fun game with some great characters (both playable and non-playable) along with some rock solid voice acting. The combat isn't the best and might take some time getting used to and it gets very heavy on combat the last 5% of the game. But up until that part you have a unique world with several large cities to explore and some really neat adventure game aspects that have you scratching your head for clues. It's one of those games that don't leave areas behind, you'll be flying across the world between the different cities doing small or large quests all the time. Aaand the villains look AWESOME with some SWEET voice acting! It's also one of those games that have villains join you, but i won't spoil any more!
19.) Geneforge: Now you might ask yourself, what the hell is Geneforge? Then you'll probably wikipedia it and say "Damn, this game is old" and then you'll see a screenshot from the game and once you look at the UI you'll most probably want to vomit. But if you can get past this then you got a really solid game with some unique and out of the box story, world and game play. It's a rough gem but if you can get into it you'll find it very entertaining and surprisingly well written. And if you did enjoy it, look up spiderwebs and you'll find 15+ games just like it, that's an entire gaming world that just opened its door for you.
20.) Might & Magic 6: Oooh the fun I've had with this game. For its time this was an incredible game that delivered on so many fronts. I'm sure we've all died to that sneakily placed dragon in the starter area, the one that you had to escape, the same dragon you probably died 20 times trying to kill, and if you're into challenges and pretty hardcore you might actually have killed it. It would take me an article to explain this game and its game series, so I'll just say that if you're going to start with M&M then pick this game to start your adventure with. I would also like to mention that while 8&9 might not have been that good, the last one released (10) is very good in my opinion.
So this is my long and flawed list, took me around an hour to write in one sitting! I do know that certain titles got a tiny descriptions while others got a larger one, but it's just to give an idea about the games from my point of view and hopefully get someone interested in one of these games.
Feel free to add some of your own games, could be your top 3/5 games, or even your top 10/20. But it would be nice if you wrote something about the game and why you enjoyed it. It also doesn't have to be RPG games, we're here to talk about games that we love and perhaps get people to try them out.
[Edited] : Grammar and a short version.
It's up to you how many games you put on your list, but i would like you to write a few lines about the game and why you placed it on your list. For this list BG/IWD is the same as BG:EE/IWD:EE, I'm just naming the original name.
Here is mine, i'll throw out a 20 games list. This is the short version.
1.) Planescape Torment
2.) Fallout 2
3.) Baldur's Gate 2
4.) Fallout
5.) Arcanum
6.) Morrowind
7.) Dark soul
8.) Silent Hill 2
9.) Baldur's Gate
10.) Fallout New Vegas
11.) Final Fantasy 9
12.) Vampire Bloodlines: Masquerade
13.) Icewind Dale
14.) The Last of Us
15.) Deus Ex
16.) FInal Fantasy 10
17.) Resident Evil Code Veronica X
18.) Septerra Core
19.) Geneforge
20.) Might & Magic.
And now for the longer version.
1.) Planescape Torment: The undisputed king when it comes to gaming for me. The only flaws this amazing games has is the poor combat and that it pigeon holes you into playing a certain type of character to fully enjoy the game (WIS,INT,CHA). The story and NPC's are one of a kind and you won't find any other games that can spin a tale like this one can. It also let's you play evil without feeling that it wasn't a part of the game.
2.) Fallout 2: The options are endless! There is so much you can do in this world and so many different paths you can take. Want to complete the game in less than 30 minutes? You can do that! From a gameplay view the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system is awesome and the turn based combat is both entertaining and challenging. The reason i placed Fallout 2 here instead of Fallout is that it has more content. While it does have certain flaws, i feel that the game is an overall improvement over Fallout.
3.) Baldur's Gate 2: Here we go! While there are games out there that are better at certain parts than Baldur's Gate 2 (Torment = History, Arcanum = World, Fallout = Options). The thing that makes Baldur's Gate 2 stand out is that while it doesn't excel at one thing, it does everything exceptionally well. It's a wonderful blend of good gameplay, immersive story, well written NPC's and much more. With the exception of the difficulty for new players and the requirement of a manual, this game doesn't have any flaws in my opinion.
4.) Fallout: This is where it all started, and this is the reason we have games like Fallout 2 and Arcanum. Here we have a game that showed us how wonderful and exciting an apocalyptic wasteland can be. The atmosphere in this game is incredible and it belongs in any top 10 list.
5.) Arcanum: This pick might be a little bit controversial. Arcanum is a flawed gem, no doubt about it. This game has the worst combat system out of any game i have played, it is lacking a story and it came with so many bugs that it took a miracle to get it to play properly. Even with some very big and glaring flaws, this game succeeded in delivering an open and interesting world where you could play a revolver wielding bandit, dwarven smith, elven beauty pagan or a mage using an elephant gun. The crafting system in this game is also amazing and it makes it seem natural for you to scavenge every single trash bin in the game for spare parts.
6.) Morrowind: Here we have another game that has quite a few glaring flaws, but the things that it succeeds with still haven't been beaten in any other game to date. This game does not hold your hand, it has no arrow to guide you to where you go, you walk out the door of the census office and you're on your own PS: love your journal, cherish it and even touch it when you're alone in the dark, it's your most important tool. You literally get dropped into this world with the clothes on your back, a few gold coins and some table spoons you stole from inside the building without anyone noticing. If we look at some of the bad sides we'll see the horrible combat system, it's dice rolling without seeing the dice. If you don't have a good combat skill you'll swing 10 times with your sword and be happy if you connect once. The level up system is an abomination and it forces you to play the game a certain way so you won't ruin your character (good thing is that you can download a mod for this). And the dialogue you have with people aren't dialogues, they are wikipedia windows with information. But while this game does have some rather huge flaws, it also delivers the good stuff. You won't find a bigger or more well done world in any game than you have in Morrowind, it even puts Oblivion and Skyrim to shame. You also won't find any game with as deep lore as this game has, if you do read the dialogues and pick up a book or two, you'll get surprised how much lore and information there is in this game. Last but not least the roleplay options in this game are ridiculous. This game doesn't hold your hand or point for you where to go, this gives you a free reign of your character, what s/he will do and where s/he will go. You don't even have to finish the main quest, there is so much content in this world that you can pick where to go, play it for 30 hours and still have only explored 10% at the most. Also plus points for one of the best magic systems in any game.
7.) Dark souls: You play this game because of the atmosphere and the gameplay. There is no RPG out there that does combat better than Dark souls, you won't even find a game that does it equally as well. This game should be played for the gameplay and enjoying the atmosphere, it gets 10/10 in both categories. If you actually take time to read the item descriptions you'll find out that it does have a nice story filled with some obscure lore you really have to search for to find. This game is difficult as well, at least when you start out. There is a reason there is an edition of this game called Prepare to Die and you should listen to that, because as a newcomer you will die, a lot.
8.) Silent Hill 2: The king of horror games. Calling a game the king when it's in the same league as other incredible games (Resident Evil, Fatal Frame, Amnesia, Last of Us, etc) is an achievement in itself and shows how amazing this game is. The atmosphere, characters and story in this game are phenomenal and every single piece of paper you read leaves you with a sense of dread while your imagination runs wild. This game stands as a beacon that you don't need graphics to make a scary game, you don't create a horror game, you write one.
9.) Baldur's Gate: And here we have our dear Baldur's Gate. As with Fallout i feel that the Baldur's Gate 2 takes the good parts from Baldur's Gate and improves on them. This doesn't make Baldur's Gate a bad game though, it's an amazing adventure and there are certain things this games does better than its sequel, like exploration and having you start on level 1. It might be nostalgia but i hold this game closer to my heart than its sequal and do spend more time playing it.
10.) Fallout New Vegas: What is this? The third installment of Fallout on the list? While this is a Fallout game it's completely different than its predecessors with the exception of the world you play in and the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system. It changes the game from an isometric view to first person and introduces first person shooting into the mix. This game has an unique game world with a ton of items, easter eggs, quests and even small settlements hidden and ready to be found by an explorer (You!). It Introduces you to two main factions and several small ones in the game and it let's you decide what route to take. Want to help one faction? What about two factions? What about changing your mind in the game and backstab your old one? You could also play the other factions against each other and take the throne for yourself. The choices are many and the dialogues are well written, there aren't many white or black areas in Nevada, just a lot of grey.
11.) Final Fantasy 9: For an JRPG this game does everything right. It has stable combat, great characters, an immersive world and an amazing story to follow. It takes a more old school approach to the genre and goes from realistic (Final Fantasy 7 & 8) to surreal. You'll find a ton of different races in the game that make you raise your eyebrow in confusion, but in this world it doesn't seem odd at all, the unrealistic approach seems perfect for this setting. This is an amazing, solid and well written JRPG with few flaws (trance system).
12.) Vampire Bloodlines: Here is another flawed gem that seems to be unknown to many people. Let me put this game into perspective by using one word: Atmosphere. It does have many flaws like a bad combat system, original game being unplayable because of bugs, very combat heavy ending and a few other things sprinkled on top. But what it does great, it sure as hell delivers on. The atmosphere in this game is 11/10 and you'll have a hard time finding a game that does it better. It also has many ways to handle and complete every quest, the dialogues are well written and persuasion is an awesome skill that should not be missed out on. Would also like to mention the unique vampire 'races' you can pick which sometimes let's you play a completely different game (Malkavian, Nosferatu)
13.) Icewind Dale: This game often gets described as being Baldur's Gate with less story and dialogues, with more focus on combat. While this is somewhat true, there is so much more to Icewind Dale than just that. Yes this game was created to be a dungeon crawler that let's you make your own party, but this doesn't mean that it's a bad game compared to Baldur's Gate, it just means it's different. It does actually improve on Baldur's Gate when it comes to combat, music and atmosphere.
14.) The Last of Us: Between the new Silent Hills and Resident evil, this game showed us that you can make a new mainstream horror game that is actually - good. This game is an enjoyment to play from start to finish with some great characters, awesome voice acting, incredible intense combat and a world that you get to experience through an entire year with different seasons. If you haven't played this game, GO DO SO! I would buy an PS3 just to get this one game.
15.) Deus Ex: Here we have an obscure game that barely anyone knew about before one of its sequels (which is actually a prequel) hit the market in 2011 (Deus Ex: Human Revolution). But while it has had a few sequels and spin-offs ranging from different qualities, the first game is where it all started. It's hard to explain what Deus Ex really is, some people are still discussing if it's mainly a shooter or RPG. But if you're looking for a good game that is unique and flavorful, you should definitely get this game. I have a soft spot in my heart for Deux Ex as it's one of the games i randomly found when i was bored, i got into the game with low expectations and my mind was blown by the interesting story line, surprisingly deep dialogues and many amazing RPG elements. Who doesn't like to use his technical skills to rob an ATM?
16.) Final Fantasy X: Right up there with FF7 this is the most known and played Final Fantasy game. It was the first one to be released on the PS2 and it had revolutionary graphics back then. There are many Final Fantasy games out there and so you have to question why i placed this one here. There is one thing that this game does better than every single other Final Fantasy title, and that is the game play. The game play and combat in this game is incredible and for the first time ever in a JRPG i wasn't bored by random encounters. The monsters are all unique with different flavorful racial abilities and passives. You have a ton of options between how you chose to play out the fight and how you want to level your characters. This game is a solid game with very few flaws that has incredible game play. While the remastered version comes with better graphics, it really isn't needed as the original has aged very well, and no the remastered sadly doesn't come with a skip cut-scene button.
17.) Resident Evil Code Veronica X: Now if you're into the Resident Evil series you might question yourself why i picked this title to put on the list. It's actually pretty simple, while other games in the series did things better, this is the one i enjoyed the most. It had improved combat over its predecessors, it had a great story, interesting characters and it was a large game. If i could i would want to put every resident evil game up to 4 on this list, but i can't. This is the one game in the series that i found the least flaws/frustration in, and enjoyed the most.
18.) Septerra Core: What is that? A hidden gem that is a JRPG and produced in the west, played on the computer!? What kind of sorcery is this!? Yes it's actually a really good JRPG that was developed by Valkyrie Studios. When it comes to JRPG they have a lot of competition, there are so many good JRPG's released in Asia that you'll have a hard time choosing which one to play. I bought this game from a bin in a local store once and was going to take it with me on a trip to visit some family, play it on my lap top over the weekend. Let me tell you right now that my family didn't see much of me that weekend. It's a really immersive and fun game with some great characters (both playable and non-playable) along with some rock solid voice acting. The combat isn't the best and might take some time getting used to and it gets very heavy on combat the last 5% of the game. But up until that part you have a unique world with several large cities to explore and some really neat adventure game aspects that have you scratching your head for clues. It's one of those games that don't leave areas behind, you'll be flying across the world between the different cities doing small or large quests all the time. Aaand the villains look AWESOME with some SWEET voice acting! It's also one of those games that have villains join you, but i won't spoil any more!
19.) Geneforge: Now you might ask yourself, what the hell is Geneforge? Then you'll probably wikipedia it and say "Damn, this game is old" and then you'll see a screenshot from the game and once you look at the UI you'll most probably want to vomit. But if you can get past this then you got a really solid game with some unique and out of the box story, world and game play. It's a rough gem but if you can get into it you'll find it very entertaining and surprisingly well written. And if you did enjoy it, look up spiderwebs and you'll find 15+ games just like it, that's an entire gaming world that just opened its door for you.
20.) Might & Magic 6: Oooh the fun I've had with this game. For its time this was an incredible game that delivered on so many fronts. I'm sure we've all died to that sneakily placed dragon in the starter area, the one that you had to escape, the same dragon you probably died 20 times trying to kill, and if you're into challenges and pretty hardcore you might actually have killed it. It would take me an article to explain this game and its game series, so I'll just say that if you're going to start with M&M then pick this game to start your adventure with. I would also like to mention that while 8&9 might not have been that good, the last one released (10) is very good in my opinion.
So this is my long and flawed list, took me around an hour to write in one sitting! I do know that certain titles got a tiny descriptions while others got a larger one, but it's just to give an idea about the games from my point of view and hopefully get someone interested in one of these games.
Feel free to add some of your own games, could be your top 3/5 games, or even your top 10/20. But it would be nice if you wrote something about the game and why you enjoyed it. It also doesn't have to be RPG games, we're here to talk about games that we love and perhaps get people to try them out.
[Edited] : Grammar and a short version.
Post edited by SionIV on
12
Comments
I don't think I can manage to make 20 games on my list, especially when we are talking about games we like the most. But I'll give it try, regardless. Keep in mind that I'm not entirely sure of the order. Also, I can like these game for entirely different reasons.
In the end (all bows to death), I did manage out to find 18 games. Screw 20.
1. Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
2. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls
3. Fallout 2
4. Fallout
5. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3/Revolution
6. The Witcher 2: Assasins of Kings
7. StarCraft II: Heart of The Swarm
8. Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
9. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Exoddus
10. Baldur's Gate
11. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
12. Little Big Adventure 2
13. Rayman 2: The Great Escape
14. Little Big Adventure
15. The Witcher
16. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal
17. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
18. Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen
Now, I think I have to say something about this, eh?
1. Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal. What I can really say? The game took Baldur's Gate and make everything (or almost everything) better than it was in previous game! Better graphic, more fluid animations, NPCs felt alive (and you could romance, which was quite shocker for me back then), the story was great. All that + excellent polish language version (glares at Trent Oster dangerously)... I've spend hours at this game, and I still didn't try all of party combinations and still didn't see anything the game has to offer. I'm still waiting before buying enhanced edition, thought. But it will be great when I finally do.
2. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. Diablo III wouldn't definitely be that high on my list, in it's state after release. But everything changed when (the Fire Nation came) Patch 2.0 was out, and about month or two after, the expansion pack. Now, with current leveling system, loot system, difficulty system, greater rifts and seasons the game is very enjoyable to play. It might bore you after a while, but I found myself going back to this game very often. Also, which is good to current me, the game doesn't really have complicated mechanics. I also like the lore entries you can find during the game, the fact that your characters have their own personalities and backstories, same for the followers. The game still has it's flaws, sure, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
3. Fallout 2. Much like Baldur's Gate 2, this sequel does so many thing better than the first game. The world is huge, there are more options, companions, weapons, more levels to obtain and so... And yet, despite all that, Fallout 2 does 2 things worse than Fallout 1...
4. Fallout 1. It has less options and content than Fallout 2, but it greatly excells in two things Fallout 2 lacks. First of all, the overall feeling of the game's world. You just feel how unfriendly and unforgiving the world is around you. Also, how desolate and hollow it seems. Second, the main antagonist is one of the greatest characters I saw in videogames. Original, interesting, creepy and utterly dedicated to his goal. Enclave with Richardson doesn't even come close to that.
Aside from that, typical Fallout mechanics, turn based combat and other element that made 2 first games great.
5. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3/Revolution. This is kinda like Diablo III in some aspects. Both games have their glitches, imbalances and shortcomings. Also, they are very easy to learn basics of them. But, they do provide a lot of fun. Storm 3 with it's story mode, and Revolution with it's multiplayer and new mechanics. I often play online there, even thought ranked is very stresfull and sometimes infuriating. Does the game count as guilty pleasure, I don't know. But I'm Naruto fan, so...
6. The Witcher II: Assasins of Kings. First of all, I am a fan of mr. Sapkowski's prose. Second, the Witcher II is much better game than The Witcher I. It has more dynamic gameplay, the story is good and involving, the combat is faster and more skill based than it originaly were. Also, it's the witcher. Geralt of Rivia at that! It's like, my favourite character from the novels ever.
The Witcher II also has more mature approach to erotica and, well, Geralt's love life. There was something absolutely infuriating in Witcher 1, but I'll get to that in time.
Also, I'll proabably hate the Witcher III for some time, due to the fact my PC is not strong enough to play it. Despite being able to run Witcher II in Ultra settings...
7. Starcraft II: Heart of The Swarm. I've never really were into the original StarCraft, since it's mechanics were really dated and that was scaring me off. But the sequel doesn't have this problems
8. Diablo II: The Lord of Destruction. What kind of parent would let their 8-9 years old kid play this game? I wasn't allowed to, yet I played anyway. Oh, that demon-slaying childhood... The forbidden fruit really tastes great. Probably my first character was Necromancer and he ended his journey in the Nightmare Difficulty.
9. Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus. I simply can't decide which game of the two is better. On the one hand, Abe's Exoddus is more user-friendly and bigger game. On the other hand, Abe's Oddysee has really wonderful mood and feeling about it. It's not something that can be copied, I think. So, I consider both game equals. And yes, I started to play this thing as a kid, much like Diablo 2 (I observed my bro playing it and I've thought I will give it a try). The game world is interesting, the gameplay is excellent with the ideas to it that were never used before, I believe (like gamespeak, possesing your enemies etc.). Can't wait till 25th to try out New'n Tasty
10. Baldur's Gate. The first game that made me care about the plot, which is something really worth noticing. Also, despite being difficult to get into, due to DnD, I somehow decided to try learn how to play this. And here I am, years ago, on this forum.
11. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. Excellent RTS game, good story and different approach than StarCraft II. Also, each race felt unique (same for SC) both esthetically-wise and gameplay-wise. I also remembering spending long time on it just to learn how to play. And playing with other people on Battle.net felt good, too.
12. Little Big Adventure 2. How often do you find new little thing in a game you beat multiple times? This game is really good at these little things. Replay value is huge for this non-typical adventure game. I think being non-typical is what makes Little Big Adventure series really great. You are collecting items, use them on things, you combat, use the magic ball, talk to people... Back in the days, that was something. Also, visiting another planet was really cool.
13. Rayman 2: The Great Escape. Guess what is the only 3D platformer I come back to after some time... One of the games I could call "game of the childhood". Rayman Origins and Legends have both nothing on this game.
14. Little Big Adventure. See nr. 12 without wisiting other planet, but with exploration focused on the Twinsun.
15. The Witcher. I love Geralt and witchers in general. We already established that. This game, unfortunately, it's not as good as sequel, but still very enjoyable. Also, the mechanics are closer to traditional RPG game. What really pisses me off in this game is those freaking smex-cards and the fact that Geralt's love of life is not even MENTIONED there. Instead, we have Triss, a character I had enough of in by the end of Witcher 2.
16. Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal. I think it's my favourite pokemon games. Good starters, interesting and more developed region, cool new pokemons, legendaries included... This game felt really cool back in the days. I haven't played the SoulSilver or HeartGold yet, so I cannot say how much the game changed since then, but well. Maybe someday, maybe never.
17. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. If it wasn't the one disadvantage in new pokemon designs, it could be above Gold/Silver/Crystal with interesting region, weather conditions being added, two types of bikes, new ways to explore the world and nicely designed protagonists (and also, having 2 rivals, one main and one lesser). Also, for the first time the Legendary Pokemons were directly involved in the plot.
18. Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen. Just like Red and Blue, just better
Lol, I surely got lazy at the end....
Frontier: Elite 2 - One of the first games I got for my PC, and spent countless hours playing. Unfortunately I didn't get to play the original Elite until years later.
Daggerfall - The second game in the elder scrolls series was also one of the first games I had on PC. And like it's successors, buggy, buggy, buggy... but you had to admire the ambition of it at the time.
The Settlers 2 - I conquered the world. What more can you want in life?
Master Of Orion 2 - And then I went on and conquered the galaxy.
Doom - First and only shooter to date that I've played to completion.
Phantasy Star 2 - First JRPG I played and finished. Still get teary eyed over Nei until this day.
Eternal Champions - First fighting game I owned, and never finished. At least not until years later when I played it on an emulator.
Dungeon Keeper - I'm always looking for more games like this, but nothings ever enthralled me quite as much yet.
Fallout 1 + 2 - Damn, I've replayed these so often, and still do.
Baldur's Gate 1 + 2 - I'll put them both together. I really like the world map and being able to explore a bit in BG1, while BG2 has the characters I love. I couldn't really choose between them though.
Actually after all the IE games there's about a decade of games I never really got into so much. But, in recent years games I've enjoyed include:
The Last of Us
The Walking Dead (Telltale)
Tales Of games
Batman: Arkham Asylum + City
"Though I do play some newer games, I tend to balance it out by revisiting many of my favorites multiple times. Anything after 2000 is relatively obvious. I love Titan Quest; Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim; the Knights of the Old Republic duology; and the Mass Effect trilogy. However, going back further...
1: Quest for Glory series (1989, 1990, 1992, 1993)
I grew up playing Sierra games, and QFG perfectly blended adventure and RPG elements while having amazing replay value for their time due to the multiple solutions and game events unique to each class. Combined with the quirky humor and consistent world, they highlighted just how good Sierra was in the early '90s. And no, I don't count V.
2: Ultima V, VI and VII (1988, 1990, 1992)
While many older gamers remember IV most fondly, I feel V took it in a new direction, both technologically and in tone. I loved the darker story that V established, as well as the more dynamic gameplay. VI took it further with VGA graphics and a huge game world, and VII was absolutely unique at the time with its full-screen approach and excellent writing. If you've never experienced them, I highly recommend that you at least read through the game plot summaries of I to V and play VI through Nuvie and VII through Exult.
3: Might & Magic VI (1998)
I had never played any of the M&M games until VI, and after trying both those that preceded and followed it, have no desire to do so. VI just struck the right tone with me. It has a wonderful combat system, great variety and awesome gear. It's a hardcore RPG designed for those of us who want to play just ten more minutes in order to get a ring that grants one more point of strength...
4: Gold Box series (1988-1992)
These games got me hooked on AD&D, and without them I never would have touched BG. The stories and gameplay, while never the best, always struck the right balance for me. Secret of the Silver Blades and Death Knights of Krynn in particular rank as two of my favorite traditional RPGs. I also loved the sci-fi twist offered by the Buck Rogers games.
5: Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny (1997)
The first Lands of Lore was a great game and a good example of a pure RPG, but I just can't help but love the sequel despite its flaws. Guardians of Destiny threw out the option of playing anyone other than Luther, but how often do you get to step into the role of the villain's child who randomly morphs into other forms? How often do you get to play as an evil character, if you want to, and actually have it make a significant difference in the game? How often do you get to have a full SEVEN different endings, all with full CG cutscenes, that are very different and in line with your choices throughout the game? Great story, great gameplay with an immense number of approaches and solutions, and (with patches) decent graphics, it still ranks as one of my dark horse favorites.
6: Spirit of Excalibur (1990)
It's not quite an RPG, nor is it an action game, nor is it an adventure game, nor is it a strategy game. Spirit of Excalibur was utterly unique and blended multiple genres in what I still consider to be one of the best games to ever delve into the Arthurian legend. It was also immensely challenging, with the bulk of the game based on real-time movements of armies. Take too long as you venture around Britain (which you will inevitably do as you hunt clues as to where to go next), and you'll quickly find out how easy it is to be completely destroyed. I still consider it one of the most rewarding games I've ever played. While the sequel, Vengeance of Excalibur, was still very entertaining, it doesn't match up to the original.
7: Dragon Wars (1989)
While I love the original Bard's Tale and still play it occasionally, I love Dragon Wars even more. It's like BT on steroids, and I've played through the game perhaps more than any other. (Just to give you a sense of how much, you can start over with the same characters after you finish. I've done that so often that I dropped all but one...and he's now level 327.) The story and gameplay are superb, with a massive number of optional quests, secrets and choices. Get past the dated graphics, and you'll find one of the most entertaining, unique RPGs ever made.
8: Castle Adventure (1984)
Another game that's not exactly a true RPG, I still remember it as one of the most enjoyable gaming experiences I had on my first computer. Ignore the lack of a story and the character-based graphics and just enjoy trying to figure out the puzzles as you escape or fight the many monsters in the castle.
9: Return of Heracles (1983)
This is absolutely the best mythology-based RPG I've ever played, and I'm not joking. Counting both the initial characters and those that you meet in the game, over 30 (!) characters can join you, all at one time no less--including Achilles, Jason, Pegasus, Theseus, Perseus and many more. Don't want that many? Then take only one; it's entirely up to you. Many have unique strengths and abilities, as well as items that can only be found if they're in your party. The game simply requires you to finish twelve tasks (yes, many based on Heracles/Hercules) and gives you the freedom to explore and complete them in any order you like. I won't even go into the massive number of creatures and items. It may be old, but this is a game I'm still happy to revisit over and over again."
2) Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn + Throne of Bhaal. It is not usual for a game to surpass its predecessor. In my opinion, SoA tried to get past this monument that is Baldur's Gate, and succeeded. The depth and the replayability of this game is something you don't usually find anymore. The story is compelling, NPCs are extremely well characterized, the score is fantastic. Also, David Warner.
3) Baldur's gate + Tales of the Sword Coast. What can I say about this game that hasn't already been discussed at length, and by far wiser men than I? This game and just a handful others have and will continue to go through the history of video gaming as benchmarks, something to take up as a model, not to be trifled with, but only spoken with the utmost respect. Plus, we wouldn't have had SoA, IWD 1 & 2 and probably Torment without Baldur's Gate. It opened my eyes to a completely new world (the Forgotten Realms, D&D and all the books and adventures that came down the road). It deserved to be higher, but I'm sure as an older brother, it would be proud of leaving the higher spots to his siblings.
4) Zork Nemesis: I recall it was one of the very first PC games I played. It was 1995, I was 14 and my brother and I asked my cousin to bring us something from Amsterdam. She picks up this gem. Amazing graphic adventure for the time, solid story with well built characters. It was so much fun to play it with my kid brother, and my mom that used to love helping us figuring out how to solve the puzzles! If you feel nostalgic about the '90s, I recommend giving it a try.
5) Diablo: for me, Diablo is an earlier version of Baldur's Gate. The concept is similar, you have your hero in times of needs, he goes on a quest, equips himself and goes after the bad guy. It had the advantage though of coming out one year earlier, and that made all the difference. It was the originality back then that drove gamers to play. In a sense though, it was good that it came out before BG, because without Diablo we probably wouldn't have had BG the way we had. The story is solid, the gameplay very simple yet appealing, the score is amazing. Matt Uelmen still haunts my dreams with that solo guitar.
6) Star Trek: Birth of the Federation. I am not aware of whether it was successful or not. What I know is that I still play it to this day, every once in a while. Think of it as an Age of Empires, but in set in the universe. The exploration factor was great. It somewhat lacked in the interaction between the various factions (Ferengi, Klingon etc...), but those are forgivable sins. It crashed after about 300 turns, but hey, you shouldn't have needed that long anyway! There was one random event though that makes this game stand out. You know, you're well on your way to win, you're just keeping the Romulans at bay because you really want to see your ships hit maximum level, and then... it happens. You see a small metal cube in a corner of the galaxy. Well, you don't see it at first, you just see that one of your planets has been completely wiped out. And then another, and another... You realize right then that resistance IS futile... Also, it was one of the very first games I used to play in coop. All these aspects make it a great game in my opinion.
7) Icewind Dale 2: in my humble opinion, it's superior in every aspect to the first installment. One thing that disappointed me was that the final bosses were not characterized as well as the earlier ones (Sherinkal for example). Other than that, a fine piece of a game. If they will ever release an EE, I would buy it. YA HEAR ME, OVERHAUL?
8) Lords of the Realms 2. If you've never heard of this game, I wouldn't be surprised. It was released by Sierra sometime in 1996, and it's basically a turn-based top-view medieval strategy game. The gameplay is very simple and immediate to understand, but where it shines it's the conquer-the-castle system. You drive your army to an enemy castle, and then you find yourself in a new map, in a real time attempt to guide your troops storm the castle. A little gem.
9) Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far: no matter how hard you try, you cannot change history. This is the basic lesson of this strategy second world war game. I've never been a big fan of war games, but this I really liked. There were some times in which I would spend 20 minutes positioning my troops in special positions, to prevent them from being hit by enemy tanks or snipers. And then, you press "play" to start your mission, and you hear that low noise, like if someone had just fired a panzerfaust. In the split second between the firing of the bazooka and the hit you would realize your mistake, your tank is doomed. And it was atrocious and great at the same time! Plus, the game has a pretty sizable database on WWII tanks, weapons and places. It was a great source of information, back then. Remember, this game came out in 1997, eons before Wikipedia.
10) Icewind Dale: some say IWD is the weakest of the series, some tip the scale to IWD 2, but the thing is, it does its thing just fine. If BG had not seen the light of release, IWD would have been loved and praised as much as we love and praise BG today. I see this game like the smart, but shy brother of that really prestigious family. You're still part of the family, IWD, and we love you for that. If not better than BG, at least it's BIGGER! Monsters are huge compared to Baldur's gate, and the fact that you *have to* create a party of 6 (or 5, 4... whatever) right from the beginning opens up to a whole new level of game play. All in all, a very solid game. As I said, it is so low on my top 10 just because... I mean, look at what I placed before it!
Edit: I placed the videos in spoiler tags, feels like it looks better that way.
1. Baldur's Gate 2
2. Mass Effect Trilogy
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
4: The Last of Us
5. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
6: Mario 64
7. Goldeneye 007
8: Final Fantasy 9
9: Populous: The Beginning
10: Star Wars: Jedi Knight, Dark Forces 2
11: Command & Conquer
12: Diablo 2
13: Half-Life Episodes 1+2
14: Duke Nukem 3D
15: Pokemon Blue
16: Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey
17: Civilization 4
18: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
19: Neverwinter Nights
20: Virtual Hydlide
The two games I've played the most over the years are the Civilization Series and EAs NHL series followed closely by Baldur's Gate. In replayability, those would be my top three.
Other games that have sucked a whole lot of time from me and created a lasting impression, however, I rarely play them now would include:
Super Mario Bros 1-3
Command and Conquer (series up to but not including Generals)
Tetris (could possibly be placed in the top 3)
Neverwinter Nights (and mostly its online play)
Sim City 2000
And I went through an Online gaming period where I would completely destroy people playing:
Online Pool
Online Euchre
Acrophobia
Modern Games that I have enjoyed but I believe haven't been around enough to crack a top list would include:
Dragon Age: Origins
L.A. Noire
Red Dead Redemption
Assassin's Creed 2 (or entire series)
XCOM: Enemy Within
Mass Effect Series
Arkham City
Mortal Kombat
Injustice: Gods Among Us
The Walking Dead Season 1 & 2 (Telltale)
So ATM, top 20 would probably look like:
1. Civilization
2. EA NHL
3. Baldur's Gate
4. Tetris
5. Mortal Kombat
6. Command & Conquer
7. Neverwinter Nights
8. Sim City 2000
9. Super Mario Bros
10. Dragon Age: Origins
11. Mass Effect series
12. The Walking Dead
13. Injustice: Gods Among Us
14. L.A. Noire
15. Red Dead Redemption
16. XCOM: Enemy Within
17. Assassin's Creed 2
18. Arkham City
19. Acrophobia
20. Yahoo Euchre.
This list probably changes on a daily basis so, atm this is it.
Baldur's Gate games
EA NHL games
Civilization 1-5
Planescape: Torment
Icewind Dale games
Fallout 1+2+NV
Journey
Disgaea games
NWN2: Mask of the Betrayer
Morrowind
Alpha Centauri
Mass Effect trilogy
System Shock 1+2
Master of Orion 2
Demon's Souls+Dark Souls
(hopefully soon added to this list Bloodborne and Pillars of Eternity!)
Well I couldn't think more of the top of my head so I guess this should be my current top 10+
2. Icewind Dale (Including Heart of Winter)
3. Baldur's Gate (Plus Tales of the Sword Coast)
4. Super Smash Brothers (as a series)
5. Heroes of Might and Magic 3
6. Super Mario 64
7. FIFA games in general
8. Temple of Elemental Evil
9. Pokemon Gold/Silver
10. Planescape Torment
11. Age of Empires 2
12. Chrono Trigger
13. Icewind Dale II
14. Rogue Squadron 2
15. Uh.... Neverwinter Nights I or II or Heroes of Might and Magic 5... can't really decide
Being one of the few crazy people who actually LOVE Throne of Bhaal I would actually place it in the top five/six if it was a separate entity!
1) Baldur's Gate (Includes Tales of the Sword Coast) (PC)
- Nuff said.
2) Icewind Dale (Includes Heart of Winter) (PC)
- Funny enough, I almost ranked this one as number 1, despite its detractions when compared to Baldur's Gate. I simply love this game. The region of Faerun the game is set in makes for some of the greatest backdrops to any infinity engine game, the musical score and voicework are epic (Tony Jay as Kresselack the Black Wolf anyone?), and I enjoy building an entire party despite losing out on pre-built NPCs and their associated banter. Almost better than Baldur's Gate... but not quite.
3) Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (PC)
- Simply the finest Point and Click strategy game ever made for PC. Even better with the Wake of Gods unofficial expansion. Stay away from the new HD release, as it includes none of the expansions or the efforts of over 20 years of modding. Not worth your dime or time.
4) Baldur's Gate 2 (Includes Throne of Bhaal) (PC)
- Lacking when compared to its predecessor (despite what some may tell you), but how can you go wrong with a sequel to the greatest game of all time, built by the same people, on the same engine?
5) Chrono Trigger (SNES)
- The greatest SNES RPG ever. Chrono Trigger still blows my mind. With amazing characters, mutliple endings, wonderful music, and a top notch storyline, you really can't go wrong with this game. I played it again recently and was just amazed at how well it held up. That said - Updated does not always mean bettter. The Playstion version (While possessing some great cut scenes) has horrendously slow load times that criple the game. The Ninendo 3DS version adds content that in my opinion is uselss and confusing (read: Game ending and new boss). Stick to the classic SNES version and you can't go wrong.
6) Final Fantasy VII
- This game was a catalyst not only for the Final Fantasy franchise, but for RPGs as a whole. A game that in my opinion made the original Playstation a success. While its graphics don't hold up today, especially compared to later entries released in the FF franchise, its story, characters, and music will likely never be topped by another Final Fantasy game.
7) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- The greatest Zelda game ever made. Amazing music, Wonderfully brilliant overhead graphics which harken back to the original NES release, and innovative features which still are a staple in Zelda games which have been released in the many years since. If you haven't played this one, and consider yourself a fan of the franchise, I advise you to check it out!
8) King's Quest VI (PC)
- This one will always hold a place in my heart. Without question, the best entry in the King's Quest franchise, with voice acting and puzzles which will make you feel like a kid again. Its available at GoG.com, but the only downer? The GoG port of the game uses the DOS based graphics rather than the improved Windows graphical version. Don't ask me why. Probably because porting it to DOS Box was the cheapest and easiest solution. Ah well.
9) Dragon Warrior IV (NES)
- A long, satisfying game with an ingenius "Chapter Based" system which would revolutionize RPGs. Incredible music, fun character-centric quests, and a massive world makes this game one of my best ever. An absolute classic.
10) The 7th Saga (SNES)
- The 7th Saga packaged a great story and challenging gameplay. This one may make you pull out your hair when its all said and done -- but in a good way. If the difficulty of this title doesn't frighten you, you might just find it rewarding.
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate II
Lords of Magic
Mech Commander
Mech Commander 2
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of Vesperia
Final Fantasy X
Might and Magic VI
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
Wizardry 8
Super Mario 64
Star Fox 64
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Legend of Zelda OoT
Pokemon Blue/Gold/Sapphire/Snap/Coliseum
Gauntlet Dark Legacy
Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance
I can't decide which ones are best, but those are the games that I recall playing the most.
Elite: Dangerous - you might have seen me mention this game once or twice on here.
XCom: Enemy Unknown/Within - a remake of the old UFO: Enemy Unknown series, although gameplay is more simplistic and not quite as deep, it's still a very good strategy/resource management game. Build a base, build a team of soldiers from all over the world, research captured alien technology and try to apply that research to your own kit (that's the theory...in reality you're just desperately trying to get as many satellites up as possible before countries start pulling out of the XCom project!!
Medieval 2/Rome: Total War - in my opinion, those two are the best Total War games. The later ones lost something (granted I haven't played Rome 2 yet but for some reason I'm finding it harder to get into Napoleon, and from what I see, Rome 2 is similar). In most strategy games, you have to use your imagination quite a bit, because one 'figure' represents a whole unit, but in the Total War games, every soldier is represented on the field - granted, they look identical, but come on, who spends that much time zoomed in close enough to spot this? Either way, they are good strategy games.
Portal 2 - Valve's famous first-person puzzle game, now featuring voice acting from Stephen Merchant (for those who don't know, he stars alongside Ricky Gervais in BBC comedies such as The Office and Extras), and the most cynical computer AI ever created, it's difficult not to fall in love with GLaDOS at the end. True, it's the kind of game where you can only really do one playthrough (since any subsequent playthroughs will be identical) but it's such a fun game to play that it's well worth second playthroughs just to hear those GLaDOS and Wheatley quotes again. Without those two characters, the game would be pretty 'meh'; I think I can safely say that the voice acting makes this game.
Mount and Blade - it's rare that a game comes along that actually does something totally new. This is one such game. It is, essentially, a first/third person swordfighting game. Such a simple mechanic, and yet it works so well - you simply have four lines of attack, and four lines of defence. Left clicking attacks, right clicking defends, and the mouse direction chooses the line to attack/defend. If someone attacks you, you have to defend the right line of attack to not get hit. Add in the mechanic where you can use the right mouse button to cancel an attack, and if you're quick enough, turn it into a feint, and you can get some really intense sword fighting going on! Of course, the title implies that there is horse combat in it somewhere...and you're right, there is! Sadly, the single player game isn't much - after a while, you reach a point where there seems little purpose in continuing, and I do wish they'd make a version of it with an RPG style story-driven campaign, because I think it'd really work. But anyway, the Mount and Blade franchise is well worth checking out. There are countless mods for it too, including a Lord of the Rings one, and a Song of Ice and Fire one.
Neverwinter Nights 2 - on its own, the game is...okay. Just okay. Where it really comes into its own, though, is with the community. Mods, multiplayer, and the possibilities it allows...I used to spend a very long time on a server called Tales of Moonsea (set in and around Phlan), and actually became very well known there, to the point where I actually met one of the players in real life when he came to visit the UK! The community seems to be dying a bit, sadly, as most people flock to the various MMORPGs out there (and also the game is no longer available in shops - not only that but Gamespy has gone, meaning finding servers is no longer as easy as browsing the list and thinking "this one looks nice!"), but for those who prefer hardcore roleplaying and more of a localised community, rather than thousands of players who talk in cyberspeak and rarely communicate wit anybody, you wouldn't go far wrong by finding a decent NWN2 server.
Dragon Age: Origins - okay, as a medievalist, I find it very hard to look at the art design for this game. Bizarre leather doublets with Roman style belts/skirts, huge pauldrons, samurai style cuisses, Games Workshop style vambraces, etc...however, the game itself is really good. Bioware put their heart and soul into it, and it showed. There's some great voice acting, a well designed world, interesting characters (oh Leliana...
Rise of Flight - I've always been a bit of a wing nut, though there haven't been many good flight sims out lately. This one, however, is probably the best. Set in World War 1, it has you flying Fokkers, Sopwiths, Nieuports, SPADs, even the early pusher planes like the DH2. I think it's a free download, but you have to buy the planes separately. Or you can buy the Channel Battles edition, which includes most well known late-WW1 planes (the camel, the DR1, etc). It's a proper hardcore sim, and one that you'll have to spend some time learning how to fly. It looks, and feels, amazing - you can almost feel the wind on your face, and I've toyed with the idea of buying a fan to place in front of me when I fly. XD If you're into WW1, this is a must. If you're not into WW1...try it anyway! You might find it interesting. These old planes, when they were experimenting with different designs, are actually very interesting...more so than Spitfires and Hurricanes, I think. Although I still can't figure out why Thomas Sopwith decided to call his best plane "camel"! At least in WW2, they knew how to name planes properly.
Also, not out yet but the following games look promising:
Star Citizen - similar to Elite in some ways, made by the guy behind the Wing Commander series.
Shroud of the Avatar - a spiritual successor to Ultima Online, made by the person behind the Ultima series.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance - a story driven first person RPG set in medieval Europe.
Pillars of Eternity - do I really need to introduce this one?
Max Payne I'm also terrible at FPS games but Max Payne was so, so, so great story-wise that I absolutely could not put it down. 2 was "okay" in my books and 3 was another winner. The characters and atmosphere really make these games.
Gone Home Is it a game? Is it a story? Whatever it is, I love it.
Dire Grove Ok this one is weird because it's a tablet "hidden object" game. Yeah, the $5 ones they crank out in the app store with nonsensical adventure-game-style puzzles. Only Dire Grove had exceptional acting, a really cool and scary storyline, and beautiful art. One of the only HOGs I've played multiple times. (They made a sequel called Dire Grove: Sacred Grove that's just abysmal).
Planescape: Torment My fave. Everything about this game is just great, and I have always loved the Planescape setting.
Edit: Oh, and for shorter games I love A Dark Room and The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo, both of which are free online.
Edit edit: Also Gemini Rue for old-school adventure gaming.
1.BG saga ( otherwise I wouldn't be on this forum would I ?
2. Mortal Kombat 9 / Injustice: When I'm angry or frustrated I just like to kick some behinds you know
3. NWN2: I have the feeling not a lot of people like this game like I do , but for some reason I just can't stop playing it. I think the graphics are okay but I'm just in love with the interaction between the characters. The way Neeshka and Khelgar argue in the beginning of the game. And Neeshka is just so sassy and badass but sweet and kind of innocent at the same time. I think if she would not have been in this game I wouldn't like it so much.
Metal Gear series- I LOVE these games to death. Every time I play I feel like I find something else out that I missed the other times because the story is just so complex! The stealth gameplay, the bosses, the story are all just perfect. That isn't to say they've all been perfect though. MGS2 dissapointed many with raidan, whom didn't end up very likable. MGS3 I love the camo system, but it can also be really OP if you watch it always and change camo when it decreases. MGS4 was much too cutscene heavy. Still, they've all been generally excellent games, and I look forward to Phantom Pain. Also yes, Ground Zeroes was a rip off at $40 release on console, but at least I got it for $13 on it's release during the Christmas sale and I got my money worth.
Baldur's Gate series- might as well get this out of the way. and now I am moving on because we all know everything about these games that we need to know
Mass Effect 1 and 2- this was my introduction to Bioware games, and no matter what I say about ME3 I still think back fondly on the first 2 games. without playing these I would never have played Baldur's Gate, so it was still worth it. if ME3 had just not ruined it for me, I am sure I would call this series my favorite of all time over Metal Gear, but alas I just need to name the first 2 games, and they can't have my top spot because just playing these would leave me with an incomplete story.
Dragon Age Origins- I also played this due to Mass Effect. It is still the best of the Dragon Age games, but I am ok with Inquisition, it just isn't deserving of being on my list like Origins. I love the tactical combat, characters, and story. This game also features my absolute favorite final level and ending of all time! You feel like you are in a massive battle where you are fighting hundreds of enemies and cutting through them in one hit, even though there are actually much less on screen at once and they just constantly respawn. Then in the end, whether you live or die, you get a satisfying conclusion. The funeral scene is certainly my favorite death ending I've seen, and living required sacrifice, or the other way of course
Elder Scrolls series (especially Oblivion and Morrowind)- These are all great open worlds to just lose yourself in. Oblivion was my first, and so it may have that advantage over the others when I look at which is my favorite, but I've also enjoyed Morrowind. I think the thing I like most about Oblivion, however, was it's variety of climates. Snow, forests, coastal plains, mountains, swamps. The area around each town felt unique, unlike skyrim where it was pretty much just snow everywhere.
Dark Souls series- Admittedly I've never played Demon's Souls, so I am just going to say Dark Souls. I don't really call them as challenging as other people say, but these games aren't what people are used to nowadays where you mow through 1000s of enemies with ease. This game does have difficulty, and thus some people call it hard. That isn't to say I am the best and I never died, because that would be a lie. However you should have to die a bit in a game I think. Similar to MGS I will praise the mechanics, bosses, and stories, but they are quite different. This is especially true in the way story is told, as MGS is cutscene heavy while Dark Souls hides the lore in item description, hints in the map, and some dialogue. I still prefer MGS, however, probably because not many other games feel like that for me, and I prefer to not have to look this deep to find the story as I am not good at picking up on these things and tend to look on youtube for the answers to the lore.
1. Baldur's Gate series
2. Skyrim
3. Crusader Kings 2
4. The Witcher 2
5. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out
6. Super Smash Bros.
7. Final Fantasy IV.
8. Final Fantasy VI.
9. Chrono Trigger.
10. Kotor.
11. The Sims.
12. Halo
13. Dragon Age
14. Mass Effect 2
15. Earthbound
16. Maniac Mansion
Stopping there cause nothing else comes immediately to mind.
Here are my top ten and I didn't put a lot of effort into their order, with one exception:
BG 1 & 2: They occupy the two spots at the top, no question about it.
Everquest: When this game came out, I had just moved away from most of my friends. It was simply an amazing experience to be able to hang out with them in-game. I never played the expansions, but the original game when it was released was mind blowing. It had its problems, but it was so revolutionary and addictive that I can overlook them. I played an enchanter and I absolutely loved the gameplay as that class. In fact, I have yet to play a character whose tactical enjoyment comes anywhere close to the EQ enchanter in any other game. CC was a lot of responsibility, but when it all came together the satisfaction was second to none.
Might and Magic III: I don't remember a lot about this game now, but it was my favorite game back in the day. I had a completely full spiral bound notebook of notes for this game. I loved the puzzles. I wish I could remember more! Unfortunately I don't suspect it would hold up too well now, so my (fading) memory of this great game will have to suffice.
Alpha Centauri: I loved all the Civ games, but the attention to detail and incredible amount of backstory in this game puts it above the rest, imo. It remains the apex of the Sid "one more turn" crack games, imo.
Civ IV: I could have gone Civ 2 here, but 4 is where it all came together for me.
Sid Meier's Pirates (1987): More Sid love here. I played this game on my friends Apple II to death. We had so many hours of fun with this one. Like many of the older games on my list, I remember more now about how much I loved the game, than the actual game itself.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The best console game I ever played by far, which admittedly is not saying a lot. I listened to the soundtrack just now and it instantly transported me back. God I loved this game!
Dark Wizard: This one is different than the other older games on my list, in that @BelgarathMTH recently showed me how to run it on Windows. I played it through twice and still found the music and gameplay incredibly enjoyable. This game harkens from the era of very unfriendly UI and very few directions though, so a walkthrough (or hours of frustration and reloading) is almost mandatory to complete it. Still I have never found a game quite like it and it was a joy to play once again.
Diablo II: This was another game that connected me to my friends from afar and we played the hell out of it. So many fun times with this one.
I debated about making this list go to 15 and include Oblivion/Morrowind/Planescape/Dragon Age, but I thought I'd save myself deciding between them and just left it at 10. I am currently playing Planescape again and am really enjoying it more than I did when it came out, so this may have to be reevaluated when I am done.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts everyone!
1. Elite - 1982 Ian Bell and David Braben. BBC Micro. A docking computer was always my first ship improvement.
2. Dizzy (the collection, but Fantasy Island was my favourite)- Codemasters Commodore 64
3. Creatures (A rare one this but had sort of cutscenes where the creature was placed in a trap and you either saved the creature or wathc them get pulled in two, chopped in half, mashed... Spraying blood all over the inside of the monitor. I loved it. Commodore 64.
4. Lemmings (classic Oh dear! and Oh no moments.) PC
5. Worms (Kamikazeeee!) PC
6. Elite: Frontier. David Braben 1992.
7. Chuckie Egg. (Mario before Mario) Commodore 64
8. Commando. Spectrum. For a short time, it was the BEST game ever. You could ride the jeep and run bad guys over! You had a gun AND a bazooka! One bullet killed you. Three lives and back to the beginning.
9. Another World. Great graphics does not make a great game. But this had it all. Atari ST.
10. Day of the Tentacle. The attention to detail was enormous. Funny, witty. I even remember laughing at the dos prompt you had to use start dot. PC
11. X-wing (the series) Who did not want to blow up the death star? Oh. And more cut scenes (mostly completely useless story wise than you could shake a stick at. PC
12. Micro Machines. I had a micromachine party and eight kids playing all at the same time on my Amstrad Mega PC. Good times. We had pizza. The kids sorta never left again for the next six months... Codemasters.
13. Civ. The series. I agree Civ 4 was my favourite... But Civ 2 got me playing most. It had educational video clips. (placed it in my machine recently and the once full screen videos appear as postage stamps...) PC
14. Sim City. Ugggh. Wasted so much time on this... Just waiting for something to build... or happen. Oooh a house! Yay! TAX THEM FOR ALL THEY ARE WORTH! Oh. They left. PC
15. Quarantine. You drove a taxi in a prison asylum. You could upgrade your taxi with chainsaws and get extra tips for running, mowing down and destroying other vehicles. Atari. Sounds very similar to...
16. GTA III. Detail, story and great graphics. I fell in love with the advert and was hooked.
17. Lure of the Temptress. Oh yes. My 14 year old fantasy was fulfilled. 1992 was a great year for games.
18. Baldur's Gate. I'm still playing it. Nuff said. Beamdog / Bioware 1998 (Same year as X-Wing Alliance, caused headaches)
19. Tetris. I played this a lot on my Gameboy. I snuck into superstores to play on the display gameboys (that would have the power turned off every 10 mins to get rid of us... We still stayed.) To see a shuttle take off was most fulfilling.
20. I have one slot left... IK+ was awesome. Star Wars Supremacy, awesome. But I am going to have to choose... Usagi Yojimbo. Commodore 64. You played as a ronin rabbit. Kill a peasant and you committed hari kari... Oh how I killed peasants just to see that...
I enjoyed making that list.
...
I feel I should mention that I have wasted my life on computer games...
But I feel I have spent my time wisely.
(Completed Rockateer and Dizzy Treasure island in one day for instance... No time lost there!)
Civ 1: The windows version really was awesome. High difficulties were mindboglingly cheatastic jerks, requiring either 10lbs of gouda stuffed with cheddar or extraordinary luck. The odds calculator hated my battleships, though the mental image of a Man With Stick somehow scoring a Home Run vs my Veteran Battleship, resulting in presumeably a 14-16 navy shell sinking my warship. Don't talk to me about Fortified Veteran Riflemen with City Walls on a Hill.
Warcraft 1 and 2: Warcraft 1 was a special, special game, and came out just before mice became 100% standard and essentially mandatory for every PC to have. This meant to select multiple units, you had to hold ctrl. And capped at an astonishing 4 units! Multiplayer games almost never ended, we just keep sending 4 Daemons or Elementals at each other to watch our catapults anihilate them in a couple shots. Warcraft 2 was awesome for multiplayer though, played it a ton. Cheese tactics were so fun back then! Loved naval battles though, epecially multi-island base scenario.
Master of Orion 2: A really well done game all around. Graphics vary from still reasonable to 'my eyes hurt'. Updates really make the game better though, initiative and less terrible AI for several combat-based races finally let them compete. I just wish Impossible didn't always mean 'you are everyone's preferred target'. You could actually get by reasonably well with even an Uncreative race, if you could ironicly get creative with ship designs. The ship design btw was utterly amazing, and it seemed to be the only thing MOO3 got right. Seemed, cuz I did not enjoy that game nearly as much. I should give it one more shot, maybe someone modded it.
Caesar 2: The battles looked cool, but were pretty darn simple, but the economics were really thorough. You could viably run an industrial colony or a cultural hub with crazy land taxes. The built in corruption, ie setting your own pay is humorously accurate for Roman politicians, as was the requirement to not run a deficit longterm.
Sim Anything: Loved SimAnt, Farm, and City 2000 the best, but all were deeply interesting. Never have I seen the likes of SimAnt since!
Street Fighter 2: SNES was the only machine optimal for this game, having 6 standard buttons, one for each attack. Of course, Guile was abdurdly overpowered, but I sucked st special moves, so I was best with Chun Li. Combos ftw, cuz her Specials were really awful.
Stronghold: The original and Crusader. The high resolution option for it is nice, but gets laggy when you have 400 Horse Archers running about. J/K, I think I maxed at 250ish, and 100 used right could take most enemies down, though with substantial losses vs some. Preferred Crusader, as Assassins and Horse Archers were totally boss.
X-Wing: The whole series pretty much. Alliance gave us some nifty things to try, but having your Corellian Transport not disable it's guns while you are picking up a container was utterly moronic. Especially if umpteen Tie Interceptors are trying to kill you or your cargo... either of which costsnthe mission obviously. Also, how X-wing's Admiral Ackbar sends you on suicide mission afyer suicide mission, with no complainijg possible. You could beat Tie Fighter without dying imho, but X-wing was bloody impossible nearly. It WAS impossible if you had no joystick though.
Eternal Darkness: Yakov may have joked about Soviet Games playing you, but this game REALLY DID mess with you. Seriously. Cthulus all up in your 'Cube! Great game though.
Any Decent First Person Shooter: Played Nightfire too much, and Halo 2 as well. Sucked st Halo 2 with anything but pistols and stickey grenades, but enjoyed the Alien campaign levels the most. Invisibility rocked.
Custom Robo: Straight up cool.
Pokemon Red Blue Yellow: Great games, but all thr early pokemon end up sucking pretty much. Golem could be decent, but required trading, same with Alakazam. I liked Hypno better anyways though, or even Mr. Mime (...Marcel?!)
Super Mario: Especially Super Mario World, as save games were flipping genius, and allowed the devs to make stupidly hard levels in the Star Road Special area. Beautiful game too actually, looks crisper than most games +15 years newer. Super Mario Paint was awesome too. The SNES mouse was far and away the most rugged mouse I used until laser mice. Used to go through mice and trackballs like crazy.
Mario RPG Games: Thousand Year Door was a masterwork, and still looks great.
Various Jrpgs: Played a bunch back in the day. Final Fantasy III in NA was amazing... thats 6 I think? Loved that game though. Breath of Fire 2 had a cool story, if questionable translation.
Oh, I liked those Infinity Engine games too.
GTA - the very first one, which was a top-down sprite based game! I even remember those cut scenes... "I got a warnin' fer you from bald man Sonetti!"
Midwinter - a very interesting but very difficult game to play, you basically had to ski around and recruit more people to your team to defend an island from an evil fascist dictator called General Masters, and blow up snow cars, armed with heat seeking missiles, with...a sniper rifle?? Apparently this is getting a remake too.
Gunship 2000 - Microprose were the grandaddy of flight simulators! Gunship put you in charge of a helicopter and had you blowing stuff up. So many hours in an Apache, I could almost be a US Army helicopter pilot!
Doom - the classic game that made the FPS genre famous. You've probably heard of it.
Jetstrike - an interesting, and somewhat light-hearted, side-scrolling shooter type game which had you flying lots of planes against an evil faction consisting of terrorists and traffic wardens, according to the manual.
If you're into classic games, check out this guy's channel on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYrTgnLsQebvJJv6K3gseVw
1) Baldur's Gate
2) Planescape: Torment
3) WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
4) Gothic
5) Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
6) Fallout
7) Quake II
8) Unreal
9) StarCraft
10) WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos
11) Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
12) Transport Tycoon Deluxe
13) Anvil of Dawn
14) Doom II: Hell on Earth
15) Diablo
16) Legacy of Kain: Defiance
17) Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
18) Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now
19) Golden Sun
20) DarkEden
CBNC: League of Legends
This was a lot harder than I thought, especially the second half. Now, it's time for some explanation/rambling/fanboyism:
1) Baldur's Gate - The original, unmodded, vanilla, as it was in 1998 (with some minor fixes and tweaks). I already wrote numerous stories explaining, why I love this game so much. I won't paste it here, because it would make a hilariously long post. Instead you can read my long story with this amazing game here:
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/596612/#Comment_596612
2) Planescape: Torment - The game that changed my view on life itself, it's by far my favourtie story in any media (games, movies, books). Just about any aspect of the game is just perfect (yes, I even enjoy the combat). The world of Plancescape is so unique and fascinating and since the graphics are 2D, the painted backgrounds are still to this day just wonderful. The characters are really well thought out and I like all of them (contrast with BG2 where I like almost no one) and their background. One of biggest strenghts of Planescape: Torment is that many stories/backgrounds are not directly told/explained with just some hints and fragments here and there. I absolutely love the ending and must admit that I was in tears mainly because it was the end of such an amazing story.
3) WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness - My very first RTS and my favourite to this day. Even though the races have almost no differences, apart from spells, the gameplay is still full of fun. The style of graphics, sound and music create this great world, even though sometimes silly, bloody nonetheless. This was the game that introduced me to Orcs and here they're to most awesome (evil and green, damn you Blizzard for that stupid retcon). Having land, naval and air combat make for some great battles/maps.
4) Gothic - One of my favourite worlds, similar feeling when playing Baldur's Gate. I sometimes feel like home (weird, considering it's full of criminals) in the mining colony. I just like walking around camps talking with people and doing normal stuff, like hunting, or making weapons. The atmosphere is just so amazing, there are many abandoned and mysterious places I enjoy visiting. Even though I don't like dungeon crawlers, here the mines, Orc cemetary and the temple are really well made. Even though the story is not as complex, I still really enjoy it (and hate the fact that they retconed the ending just for the sake of making an excuse for the main character to be weak in the sequel).
5) Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - One of my favourite series of games. Has very deep story with the dilemma of fate vs free will. The characters are just amazing and voice actors did a wonderful job. Simon Templeman is probably my favourite voice actor for what he did with Kain. This is the first game in the series and my favourite, since it has more of a cRPG vibe than the rest. I was surprised many times while playing the first Blood Omen from the very beginning.
I plan to revisit the whole series someday, and oh boy this is hell of a ride with time travel, paradoxes and vampires that are awesome.
6) Fallout - My favourite game set in the post-apocalypse wasteland. Not only the world has the amazing atmosphere, but the story and characters as well (and that ending!). Fallout 2 was ok, but to me sometimes less is more and the first Fallout is a great example of this. It is more focused and has more interesting characters. The interface may be a bit clunky, but looking at my list, this is not that much of a problem for me. The replay value and character creation is pure fun.
7) Quake II - Oh shooters, I wish they would have a similar renaissance as cRPGs these days. Quake II is my favourite FPS for its great singleplayer and mutliplayer experience, as well as the atmosphere. I was scared when I played it for the first time (was 10 years old). It has my still all time favourite map - The Edge, I played on it countless of hours and still wasn't bored of it. I haven't mentioned music in the above games, but I absolutely love it (each game in my top 20 has an amazing music) and Quake II has my all time favourite soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem.
8) Unreal - I couldn't decide which shooter I liked more between the two and where Quake II has better gameplay, Unreal has better world and story. I think it's less a FPS and more a First Person Exploration Shooter. The world is just so amazing, so unreal (I had to). It is more for a singleplayer experience, but playing a co-op is great as well. Too bad the series didn't return to this type of game. Even though I enjoy the UT series, the first Unreal is still my favourite.
9) StarCraft - I like WarCraft II more, but StarCraft is in my opinion the best RTS in terms of unque races and great gameplay. I really enjoy the campaign and played many fun games in multiplayer with friends (on a weird maps sometimes). I even watched Korean tournaments in 2007-2012. It was by far my favourite e-sports game and I don't like that they replaced it with a boring sequel. I enjoy plying all the races, with Zerg being my favourite.
10) WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos - Here I enjoy the game for the singleplayer, since I haven't played much multiplayer. The campaign and the story is really good and RTS with heroes plays better than I thought it would. This is the last amazing game from Blizzard in my opinion and it went downhill, beginning with WoW. I really enjoy making maps in the editor and playing custom scenarios.
11) Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - Awesome intro with Raziel, another amazing character with great voice actor (Michael Bell, who voices Nimbul in BG1). This time Kain is the antagonist (not really) and the world is more of a wasteland. The game is much more cryptic with unique dimension changing. The story at first seems to have little in common with the first game, but unfolds later with some neat surprises. The gameplay and especially the controls are really clunky at times with some paindful puzzles, but the atmosphere, the story and especially the characters outweigh the bad controls.
12) Transport Tycoon Deluxe - My favourite game about economy and, of course, transport. I've spend so many hours building railways and roads. I really enjoy having maps with hills and trying to connect facilities with as little change to the landscape as possible, with some crazy tracks. OpenTTD lets me play an updated gameplay with original graphics and music, which is just amazing.
13) Anvil of Dawn - One of the most underrated cRPGs, overshadowed by Stonekeep, with similar gameplay. However, the story and especially the world is just great. The game has that sense of defeat, and depressed uphill battle. It has some very unique creatures and freedom to explore the amazing world. You can meet the other heroes, you didn't choose, later in the game. A bit of annoying puzzles, but the gameplay overall is great.
14) Doom II: Hell on Earth - I like both first Doom games, but the second is a bit better overall, since it has one progressive story, rather than divided to episodes. It is the classic FPS that made the genre popular, still really fun to play to this day. I remember playing a source port that divided the screen to two and playing co-op on one PC.
15) Diablo - The game that spawned the hack'n'slash genre and the best in my opinion. For one simple reason: atmosphere, really dark atmosphere. All cinematics reflect this and especially the ending. It's the only game that doesn't bore me with dungeon crawling. Has some memorable characters, enemies and great replay value.
16) Legacy of Kain: Defiance - Yes, another LoK game, the one that ends the story, with both Kain and Raziel playable. It ties loose ends from previous games (Soul Reaver 2 and Blood Omen 2) and even though seems rushed (uses music from previous games) the story and characters are, as always in this series, awesome. The gameplay is much better than in e.g. Soul Reaver, less clunky controls, but I had to get used to the camera at first. I liked the ending, and even though fans would like to see another game in the series (I won't count that MMO), I'm happy with this being the last game. Plus Tony Jay has passed away (voice of Elder God and Mortanius in Blood Omen).
17) Age of Empires II: Age of Kings - Close second to StarCraft in terms of multiplayer RTS. Playing with other 7 people on a huge map for hours is really fun. Creating maps in the editor is great as well. I just love the medieval setting and this game captures it flawlessly. It has the balance of economy and battles with some great and challenging campaigns.
18) Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now - A bit silly, but hell of a fun game. Cars getting destroyed left and right and the overall mayhem. There are actually 3 ways to win regular maps: go for checkpoints, kill all the pedestrians, or destroy the enemies. The last one is the most fun of course. I'm glad they're making the new one, I hope it'll be as good as this one. The design of cars is just amusing and silly. Too bad I never managed to make mutliplayer to work.
19) Golden Sun - The only jRPG that I enjoy and must admit, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Mamorable characters, great story and huge world do explore with creative puzzles. The constant random battles are annoying as always in jRPGs, but I can forgive that. Some interesting and challenging fights, without ridiculously huge weapons. Very unique magic system with djinns, overall a fun experience.
20) DarkEden - My favourite MMORPG that was unfortunately shutdown (international server) some years ago, with other servers popping out and then dying as well. It had similar gameplay to Diablo I/II with vampires vs humans setting (later there was another race of all female ousters added). The one feature I really missed in many other MMOs was that, apart from the situation where your character was evil (for killing your own kins) you didn't lose experience, or items. In fact, it was easy to die in this game. All races had different leveling system with different roles and abilities. Very dark setting with dangerous monsters. Sadly the other servers have not been the same after the international died.
Close, but no cigar: League of Legends - The only MOBA that I'm playing to this day and quite fun. I must admit that back in 2012 it was much more enjoyable for me personally, but Riot's philosophy is to constantly evolve and saldy some of my favourite champions have become obsolete, or changed in a weird way. I don't like the dominance of the mobility, but I don't play ranked games at all, just normal games for fun.
So, here it is. My list of my favourite games. I plan to revisit some of them in the near future, but Pillars of Eternity is close by and I'm hoping it'll be good.
And feel free to add more games people, for every game added, there might be a chance that someone finds a new favorite game they didn't know about!
Golden Sun
Golden Sun 2: The Lost Age
Tales of Symphonia
Tales of the Abyss
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn
Icewind Dale
Age of Wonders
Civilization 3
Pokemon Crystal
Pokemon Sapphire
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Final Fantasy 9
Legend of Dragoon
Threads of Fate
And for a little more detail and fun stories...
-Golden Sun and Golden Sun 2: I love these games. LOVE THEM. Not only are they easily the most beautiful games on the Gameboy Advanced, but I adored the storyline, the characters, and the PUZZLES! You play as a bunch of adepts, basically elemental magicians, and not only do you get to use your powers in combat, but you also have a poopton of magic spells to help you navigate dungeons and solve problems. I've beaten both of them at least five times, spent countless hours and days perched on my couch, below the lamp on the end table, because it was the best lighting I had for my measly no-back-light Gameboy. FOR A HANDHELD GAME.
-Tales of Symphonia: my first "Tales of" game, and one very near and dear to my heart. This is the game that helped bring me and my beloved together. ^_^ In short, he had never played the first Symphonia game, but was rearing up to try the inferior sequel on the Wii. Being the good hardcore fan that I was, I made him borrow my copy of Symphonia to play before he tried the new one. He loved it just as much as I did! And with this common bond between us, that opened us up to spending more time together and sharing other things, and... Wo-lah! Been dating six years ever since. ^_^
-Tales of the Abyss: my second of the "Tales of" games, and personally, one of the best well-written ones. I have never hated a main character as much as I hated Luke in the first twenty-or-so hours of gameplay. But man oh man, everyone else was so fantastic that I trudged my way through. Finally, when you get to the "twist"--you'll know it when it happens--our hero makes a complete 180, and I actually found myself rooting for him all the way to the end. This guy that I despised and labeled as a whiny, self-absorbed idiot. The combat was a thousand times better than in Symphonia too.
-Baldur's Gate 1 and 2: does this need to be said? These games are awesome! I played the second before the first, because that was the one my mother owned. I used to watch her play when I was little, until eventually I felt old enough to tackle the game myself. But I've only ever beaten the second Baldur's Gate once, without Throne of Bhaal, because I spent more time in character creation than in the actual game! The customization, the races, the classes, the dozens of downloaded custom portraits...! The possibilities felt endless! I had so many character ideas, I wanted to play them all!
-Icewind Dale: pretty much all that I said about Baldur's Gate, but six times worse because of the fully-customizable party. So many hours in character creation...! SO MANY. I still have yet to beat this one, but that will change by the end of this year. *shakes her fist full of resolve*
-Age of Wonders: this is another one of those games that I used to watch my mother play endlessly, until I installed it for myself and took a crack at it. I've played almost every scenario, every campaign episode, every race that you can that I have certain maps memorized. I still boot it up and play it every now and then because it's just so ageless. Like the Baldur's Gate games, despite being made back in the late nineties, Age of Wonders still looks as beautiful today as it did then (and it runs smoother too, since it's not bogged down by heavy graphics).
-Civilization 3: pretty much all of what I said on Age of Wonders. Except what's great about Civ 3 is that every game is always different--not just in terms of what country you can play, but the ability to generate random maps of various climates and sizes really added to my addiction. This is another game I've very rarely beaten--let alone won--just because I enjoy the early phase so much more than the late phase. Discovering the land, building the cities, meeting the other countries... I usually get bored and stop after the Middle Ages, when I've created boats and explored every inch of black fog on the earth.
-Pokemon Crystal: my first Pokemon game was actually Pokemon Gold (sorry Red and Blue fans), but the one that took all of my attention was Crystal. Why? Because it was the first Pokemon game where I GOT TO PLAY A FEMALE TRAINER! How is that not awesome!? In Gold I'd always named my character after myself, and pretended that I was a girl character stuck inside a boy's body because The Laws of the Universe Demanded It. But with Crystal, I didn't have to do that! And what's more, my female avatar had blue freaking hair! You can only imagine how upset I was at Soulsilver/Heartgold when they announced their redesign for the female character. They took away her blue hair! Whyyyyyyy??? ;_;
-Pokemon Sapphire: the second title on the Gameboy Advanced that ate my life. It's my favorite region in all of Pokemon, second only to Johto. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy the storyline of this game--Team Aqua and Team Magma were the best villains that came after Team Rocket--but Gamefreak added so much more to do after you defeated the Elite Four. They introduced contests, secret bases, along with a slew of legendary pokemon that could only be found by the most ridiculous of puzzles (lookin' at you, Regis). I mean, it wasn't as awesome as journeying to Kanto and sweeping through their gym leaders after Johto, but it was still a lot to do and a lot of fun that kept me playing well after the main campaign was done.
-Fire Emblem: Awakening: okay, I'll be honest and say that I haven't played a lot of Fire Emblem titles. Path of Radiance on the Gamecube was my first. But Awakening... Oh my god, Awakening! It's amazing! You get a customizable character, an epic storyline, an awesome army of characters with unique personalities, and a marriage system that lets you pass down skills and stats to recruitable children! It's like Pokemon...but in Fire Emblem! And a first for several Fire Emblem titles--you can GRIND! I have intentionally stalled out the plot episodes just to grind and make my characters stronger, something that you really couldn't do in previous games, and thanks to that, you can max every character to their greatest potential. As opposed to dealing with any dead-weight characters you just couldn't train because they entered the story too late/or they were too high level too early/they were too low level too late/they had a bad class and X character is SO MUCH BETTER at it/etc.
-Final Fantasy 9: despite it being my favorite of the Final Fantasies... I've yet to beat 9 to this day. ;_; I had really bad luck as a kid with every copy I owned. I first bought a Greatest Hits edition, but I couldn't make it past the first disc because right at the time of the Village of Dali, the game would freeze. I thought it was a glitch with the Greatest Hits versions, so I found a used black-label copy. Low and behold, the game still froze, at around the exact same spot. ;_; It wasn't until years later when my boyfriend brought his copy that I finally made it past disc one. The good news is I enjoyed the early game so much--most specifically the built-in card game, Tetra Master--that I have it almost memorized. I restarted many times, hoping it would work...
-Legend of Dragoon: another title my mother started playing before I did! My mom was quite the gamer back in the day... But ah, anyway, Legend of Dragoon takes a slot because of it's epically long storyline, memorable characters (and memorable character DEATHS that STILL make me cry to this day ;_; ), and having some of the best-looking magic spells in any game ever. I mean, look at some of these sequences:
I know I've said this before, but HOW IS THAT NOT AWESOME!?
-Threads of Fate: probably my favorite game on the original Playstation. It was the cover art that caught my eye in one of those old video-rental shops. I took it home one day and loved it so much that I continued to rent it from that store, again and again and again, until I finally got a copy of my own for my birthday. An adventure title that not many people have heard of, where you get to play as two protagonists--each with their own story--and follow their quest for a mysterious [relic]. Yes, that's with the brackets. To this day, I still don't know what they're there for. ^_^ This game is SO BEAUTIFUL for a Playstation title. It doesn't have any fancy cutscenes, but it's just so bright and colorful and has way better proportions than most Final Fantasy games.
And I'm certain that there are more games that I've come to love (or in the case of Super Smash Brothers, love/hate), but this list is already far too long. I'd better stop there. ^_^;; Fun topic!
Gladius: Pretty interesting gameplay, and the story had much untapped potential. This game could have evolved into an amazing online game actually, the immense customization and different strategies (and how good at clicking a player was... I couldn't do combos for Lights, for example). The varying arenas also would give enourmous playability. Some pretty heavy rebalancing would be necessary though, and a reworking of how recruitment ultimately worked. Still, excellent game with many difficult to find secrets!
F-Zero: played the SNES, 64, and GC versions and really enjoyed them. Note, the Storymode is bloody insane. I have my doubts anyone bothered to verify that an average player could ever beat it. Loved how incredibly sensitive your performance was, IE each track had an optimal way to race it for each car, and on high difficulty, one mistake could move you from 1st to 10th instantly. Verh unforgiving games, but pretty for their time, and enjoyable for the most part.
Quest For Glory: a really silly but still well written experiment in adventure RPGs, I loved all of them. Very creative, and could be pretty challenging. The diffierent 'regions' felt very alive, IE Germanic, Mesopotamia, Africa, Eastern Europe and finally Meditranean.
Tetris: Especially for the Gameboy. Amazing game, great soundtrack. No, really, best bloops, bleeps and blips ever done.
Skies of Arcadia/Skies of Arcadia Legends, on the Dreamcast and Gamecube respectively.
The Sims 1 + 2. Never got into 3 or 4 though.
Spore. Creating a creature and having it evolve is fun, although in the end it becomes a galactic empire type of game, but luckily I quite enjoy those as well.
Phantasy Star Online... again, I'm not into online or MMO. I just played this one because I remembered the old Phantasy Star games.
And Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3, and lately on the PC as well.
in no order
1) VTM:bloodlines - so good nothing more fun then schmoozing your way through unlife with a Toreador
2) FF9 - so good and the greatest original soundtrack of any game imo and contains my fav moment of any game ever. Also the last FF game I liked (also Freya
3) FF6 - yep pure quality not much else to say
4) Valkyria chronicles - beautiful game an unappreciated great
5) BG1 and 2 - duh
6) ocarina of time - a little obvious, but truly amazin
7) ice climber - one of the most entertaining games ive played and fgreat in 2 player
8) demon's souls - this game was an obsession for some time I adore the atmosphere and the story telling, deeply depressing when you delve into the lore abit. I wish we could return to Bolateria
9) mass effect 1 and 2 - the last great bioware games perhaps?
10) resident evil 2 - this is the epitome of the genre imo
11) street fighter 2 - I like fighters and this is still the best imo
12) Metroid - cant think of much to say never beat it, was one my fav games for my hand me down snes and holds a place in my heart
13) mirrors edge - a niche game but its like therapy for me
14) mgs3 - I like stealth I like mgs and this ones pure class, great gameplay and good story
that's it of the top of my head probably forgetting a ton