A Land Far Away

So, with the discussion of Bioshock going on, I got to thinking about what the best games of all time have been for me, and I came up with my top 10 list!

10. Bioshock: Haven't finished this yet, and it almost didn't make it here, but it is good. Good story. Good graphics. Good fun. Slightly too difficult with a few too many minor logical problems and too much use of unexpected spawns as a horror hook to make it into the top 5 though.
9. The Sims: Stupid game, with no real point, but lots of fun just doing nothing, making your sims happy and designing houses. Sims 2 was just a copy of The Sims with better graphics.
8. Neverwinter Nights 2: Potentially this will make it into my top 5 list, surpassing NWN, as the official campaign is a lot better and it has a lot more potential, but in its current state, multiplayer isn't up to scratch.
7. Age of Empires: The one and only RTS for me. Ever other RTS has just felt like a clone of AoE to me. I was crap at it, but still lots of fun.
6. Counterstrike: I play this a lot. It's good for a decent distraction for half and hour or so of just going around shooting people. Reasonable graphics with good online performance.
5. Neverwinter Nights: Didn't rate it much when I first played it. I didn't even finish off the official campaign until after I'd had the game for a couple of years. But with online playing and eventually ALFA, it has become the game I have played more than any other apart from Counterstrike.
4. Medieval: Total War: The original wins out over the more recent titles for me. M2 had too many problems, and still has a lot of poor response issues. And I quite liked the simplicity of the Risk map over the movement point system, where it was too easy to lose track of armies. Obviously M:TW doesn't stack up to M2:TW, but in its time, it was much much better. After years of being sick of RTS games, I didn't have high hopes for Medieval, but with its mix of strategy and RTS it was a breath of fresh air.
3. Diablo: No story to speak of, powergaming clickfest. Endless hours of fun. Diablo 2 was better obviously, but by that time the market was saturated by Diablo clones already, so Diablo wins.
2. Call Of Duty: This is the game that got me into FPS games, and online shooters. It's only when this game stopped working online for me that I switched over to Counterstrike. I was pretty disappointed by Call Of Duty 2.
1. Baldur's Gate: I think this may have been the first PC game I ever played, and I played through it a number of times. A decent D&D based computer game, with good replayability due to the wide range of characters you could pick up for your party.




Your turn!

Aww geez, no way I can arrange these in any sort of order.

wolf3d - simply a classic as it was the first solid FPS

morrowind - found it quite enthralling, moreso than the other elder scrolls series

starcraft - an amazing RTS, despite all of its flaws

master of magic - similar to civilization - if you've never played this you've been missing out

simcity2k - an amazing game and the best of the series, imo

natural selection - half-life mod that was both RTS and FPS, quite intriguing

planescape: torment - need one explain why?

fallout 2 - pure undistilled awesome

operation flashpoint - one of the most fun and nerve-wracking games I've ever played

space quest 5 - I needed to put a sierra adventure game here, so here's one of my favorites

There's probably about a half-dozen I've forgotten about, so.. meh.

Assuming we're talking computer games:

Elite - not just the ultimate space sim, it's the game that made me a gamer
Stars! - there's no telling how many hours I spend on that littlle gem

Wolfenstein 3D - first PC game. Real time 3d interiors: a miracle!
Doom I - first game that made me upgrade my PC. Best sound evah.
Civilization II - they're all great, but that's the one I played most
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards - all those little dialogue details. All adventures should be text based, they feel a lot less linear that way.
Heroes of Might and Magic II - better than III, IV and V together!
The Elder Scrolls: Arena - a whole world. Really, a whole world. Go anywhere!
Neverwinter Nights 1 - I'm here, ain't I?
Lemmings - sadism isn't inherently funny: fun is inherently sadistic!

torment

Yes. Planescape: Torment.

The words "What can change the nature of a man?" still send shivers down my spine.

1. Planescape: Torment
2. Deus Ex
3. Baldurs Gate 2
4. Fallout 2
5. Bioshock
6. Half Life 2

I forgot about Deus Ex >:|

- Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin (Best of the series; hoping CMx2 irons out some of its flaws before they tackle WWII again)
- RtCW: Enemy Territory (I got in too late for RtCW, plus this one was free; I've always liked Q3-style over CS or UT2kX, and at least four of the original six maps were just insanely good)
- Planescape: Torment (see everyone else's comments)
- Fallout 2 (it's like Torment, but substitute plot and nuanced character development for geek/pop culture humor)
- Half-Life 2
- Heroes of Might and Magic III (I like the system in V, but the AI limitations really hurt it for overall fun)
- Deus Ex
- Thief 2
- Quest for Glory I (dammit, I remember when this was Heroes' Quest)
- Wizardry 8 (RIP Sir-Tech)

I would have loved to join Paaz with Operaton Flashpoint because of scope, but the maddening AI ruined it for me long-term.

Cassiel wrote:Yes. Planescape: Torment.

The words "What can change the nature of a man?" still send shivers down my spine.

A Divorce?

FASA's Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries

"Think of the good side, kid. You get to keep -all- the money..."

Back in the day when a crit was a crit... a Medium Laser was king and PPC's were little balls you could play dodge'em with (Still think MW3 graphics on a MW2 engine/game stats would have been the ultimate....)

and assuming the best game doesn't have to be a PC game....

FFVII?

This one goes to eleven!

1. Planescape: Torment - Duh.
2. Deus Ex - Also duh.
3. Fallout/Fallout 2 - I think I said duh? And they share a spot because I could never choose between MY CHILDREN.
4. System Shock 2 - There is no scarier game, and I love SHODAN.
5. Bioshock - I'm not sure where this goes yet but it's around here somewhere. I rate it lower than SS2 only because it lost the RPG system, but they're pretty much interchangeable.
6. Civilization 4 - Including the expansions, this is the finest turn-based strategy game ever.
7. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - Simply awesome. It has everything--great plot, characters, atmosphere, gameplay, Malkavians arguing with stop signs, vampires that aren't lame. Troika.
8. Starcraft - The king of RTS for good reason.
9. Team Fortress Classic - Screw realism. This is the best multiplayer game ever made.
10. Knights of the Old Republic 2 - For all its flaws, it's the best story ever told in the Star Wars universe. Including the movies.
11. Baldur's Gate 2 - I CANNOT BE CAGED. I CANNOT BE CONTROLLED. KNOW THIS AS YOU DIE, EVER PATHETIC, EVER FOOLS

Honorable mentions: Half-Life 2 (great but not enough room), SimCity 4 (king of city building), SimCity 2000 (YOU CAN'T LEAVE THIS GAME OUT. YOU WILL REGRET THIS!), Command and Conquer (much respect for starting a genre), Master of Orion 2 (former king of space TBS), Galactic Civilizations 2: Dark Avatar (new king of space TBS), Total Annihilation (redefined RTS), Rome: Total War (ROME HAS CONQUERED), Neverwinter Nights 2 (a solid, if unremarkable campaign--this and NWN aren't on because I don't count user content, only what's in the box), Morrowind (cliff racer flyyyyyyy), MechWarrior 2 (robutz), oh god there are too many games.

Vincent van ’t Hof wrote:

Grand Fromage wrote:Command and Conquer (much respect for starting a genre)

Dune II

Yes, I know, but no one cared about Dune 2. C&C got the ball rolling, much like Doom wasn't the first FPS, but it launched the genre. I guess popularized would've been the more exact term.

10. Knights of the Old Republic 2 - For all its flaws, it's the best story ever told in the Star Wars universe. Including the movies.

What the hell? The original was better.

Burt wrote:

10. Knights of the Old Republic 2 - For all its flaws, it's the best story ever told in the Star Wars universe. Including the movies.

What the hell? The original was better.

HK-47 in the original was better, otherwise no. It was a good game but... immature, I guess? Very straightforward Bioware save-the-universe crap with no nuance. KOTOR2's story was much deeper, more adult and more interesting. 1 did stick to the Star Wars formula more closely, but I don't consider that a good thing.

Grand Fromage wrote:

Burt wrote:

10. Knights of the Old Republic 2 - For all its flaws, it's the best story ever told in the Star Wars universe. Including the movies.

What the hell? The original was better.

HK-47 in the original was better, otherwise no. It was a good game but... immature, I guess? Very straightforward Bioware save-the-universe crap with no nuance. KOTOR2's story was much deeper, more adult and more interesting. 1 did stick to the Star Wars formula more closely, but I don't consider that a good thing.

KoTOR2's story was deeper and until the end of teh game it was much more interesting. But as I got to the end it just left me with the feeling of a rushed half-finished game, which in fact made me hate it with passion. Aside for that it was a superior game.