Favorite Game

[Red Mage]

I guess I'm the only one here who goes for the retro FPS games. Many underestimate their potential and there is far greater than the overhyped graphics only games nowadays. In my opinion it went down the drain and realistic shooters don't catch me much, plus other ones are either too easy or don't have hardware to run them, so yeah I am not into that much. The latest FPS games I played were Half Life 2 episode 2/Portal/Unreal Tournament 3. Now you say, wow that's 2007 stuff. Yeah no shit sherlock, as they say. lol
I am pretty much known with my Unreal obsession, the original Unreal, although I own all the other games of the series except the console titles. I absolutely hate unreal tournament 2004 though. I see it about as bad as SGU is to Stargate to the series, but people like it because they don't care for the story and that there are plotholes or that the gameplay just doesn't flow well and that it all looks like from cartoon, lol.
But I like other old FPS games too, Doom, Heretic, Quake, Shadow Warrior (that game even had damagable/repairable vehicles, something which is being taken credit for modern games) are one of those I keep replaying and finding fun again. I am also a level designer/coder for the older games and find it fun, I am right now working on a map for another level design contest I entered, plus I am working on the remake of Unreal PSX when the time allows, I also happen to know a load of people in the gaming industry.

I'm not a huge fan of FPS in general but I also like the earlier FPS games as opposed to the newer stuff like COD. Some of my favorite old PC FPS are: Heretic , Shadow Warrior and Rise of the Triad. Man, that last game is bringing back memories. I played the heck out of the Rise of the Triad way back in the late 90' s. However, the FPS games I tend to like the most are the N64 style FPS games like Goldeneye and its spiritual successors Perfect Dark and Timesplitters 2+3 on PS2/XBox/GC. Those games had the right balance of being easy to pick up and play while being modern enough not to feel too archaic like Doom and Heretic. It's mainly what I hate about new FPS. There's often too much complexity and learning curve. I have no patience to figure out how to manage a squad in Rainbow Six. When I play an FPS I just want to go around blasting bad guys without having to worry about managing team members or mastering covering systems.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

I've played a quite a lot of games in the past on C64, Amiga and PC. No consoles though except a gameboy.
Favorite game for the gameboy was Tetris. (best Tetris version ever made)
I was hooked on a racegame called Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge.
Sensible Soccer was the greatest.
Things I used to play through the night are games like SimCity, Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, Civilization and Settlers.
Also the Monkey Island series is an absolute favourite as are some other Lucasarts adventures.
Age of Empires is awesome.
Recently I was very pleasantly surprised by Portal, really looking forward to playing Portal 2.

 

[Red Mage]

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Also the Monkey Island series is an absolute favourite as are some other Lucasarts adventures.

Green for mentioning Monkey Island. The first three games in that series are among my favorite point and click adventures. I didn't care for Escape from Monkey nor did I like the episodic Tales of Monkey Island from Telltale Games. I definately preferred LucasArts over Sierra when it came to adventure games. Quest for Glory was ok but for the most part nothing Sierra made could match the formentioned Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango.

 

[Gatefan1976]

Green for mentioning Monkey Island. The first three games in that series are among my favorite point and click adventures. I didn't care for Escape from Monkey nor did I like the episodic Tales of Monkey Island from Telltale Games. I definately preferred LucasArts over Sierra when it came to adventure games. Quest for Glory was ok but for the most part nothing Sierra made could match the formentioned Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango.

Ahh, the good old days where it was less about Eye candy and more about substance, Willie Gibson was right

 

[Stonelesscutter]

Green for mentioning Monkey Island. The first three games in that series are among my favorite point and click adventures. I didn't care for Escape from Monkey nor did I like the episodic Tales of Monkey Island from Telltale Games. I definately preferred LucasArts over Sierra when it came to adventure games. Quest for Glory was ok but for the most part nothing Sierra made could match the formentioned Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango.

Sierra had some popular adventure series like Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest and King's Quest. I've never really played a lot of those though. On subject of adventure games I think Another World was awesome as it was something completely new. It was incredibly hard but at the same time it kept pulling me to try over and over again.
But I wonder if someone's eyes will start glowing when I mention a more simple game like, Dynablaster. (a.k.a. Bomberjack)

 

[Red Mage]

Sierra had some popular adventure series like Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Police Quest and King's Quest. I've never really played a lot of those though.

I've played most of King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry as well as a few stand alone games like Freddy Pharkas. The problem I had the most with Sierra was that it was possible (not to mention extremely easy) to accidently save your game in unwinnable situations resulting in having to replay large portions of the game. I got screwed over with unwinnable situations so many times in King's Quest III in particular. For the most part, LucasArts games it was impossible to die and were always winnable no matter what which I felt made them feel like they were much more carefully designed.

On subject of adventure games I think Another World was awesome as it was something completely new. It was incredibly hard but at the same time it kept pulling me to try over and over again.

No kidding. Another World or Out of this World as it was named in the US was particularly difficult. I remember dying over and over and over again from those stupid poisonous leeches and that black tiger thing in the first level. The game got a bit easier as the game went on because eventually you would get used to the absurd difficulty but it was still If you liked Another World, they did make a sequel Heart of the Alien which I felt wasn't as good nor made by Delphine Software but still decent enough. There's also Flashback which was great (also made by Delphine Software) and Blackthrone which was made by Blizzard suprisingly enough.

 

[Stonelesscutter]

I've played most of King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry as well as a few stand alone games like Freddy Pharkas. The problem I had the most with Sierra was that it was possible (not to mention extremely easy) to accidently save your game in unwinnable situations resulting in having to replay large portions of the game. I got screwed over with unwinnable situations so many times in King's Quest III in particular. For the most part, LucasArts games it was impossible to die and were always winnable no matter what which I felt made them feel like they were much more carefully designed.

I agree that was an annoying feature in Sierra games that Lucasarts skillfully evaded. In Larry 1 for instance you will die when you do the nasty with the prostitute without putting on your rubber first, whereas in Monkey Island it is only possible to die when you spend more than 10 minutes under water.

No kidding. Another World or Out of this World as it was named in the US was particularly difficult. I remember dying over and over and over again from those stupid poisonous leeches and that black tiger thing in the first level. The game got a bit easier as the game went on because eventually you would get used to the absurd difficulty but it was still If you liked Another World, they did make a sequel Heart of the Alien which I felt wasn't as good nor made by Delphine Software but still decent enough. There's also Flashback which was great (also made by Delphine Software) and Blackthrone which was made by Blizzard suprisingly enough.

I had the same exact thing with that first level. Damn leeches and monster. But after that it got less difficult. I think I tried the first level at least a hundred times but once I got past it I played the rest of the game in one go. I did know about Flashback but everytime I played that the game crashed fairly early on so I never really got to enjoy it. (even the legitimate version I bought) Never heard of those other games though.

 

[UxmalTrekker]

I generally go for FPS games. Ones I loved have been "Resistance" (the second one wasn't that good). "Bioshock", "Fear", "Uncharted", etc. etc. If it's a FPS I usually will like it enough to play it once.

On a whim I picked up "Fallout 3" and when I loaded it I groaned because it looked like it was going to be a RPG and I'm not the biggest fan of those. I was really surprised though when the game turned out to be fantastic! It was an FPS and an RPG all in one and it took place in this HUGE and weird post apocalyptic world. Very cool game. I can't recommend it enough. The new one "Fallout New Vegas" is much like its predecessor but has a few more options that are cool.

Hey there, shavedape. I too love Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas (also a big fan of Fallouts 1 and 2 – if you can stomach the archaic graphics and a tactical turn-based combat system they are well worth a look). From your post it sounds like you were ensnared by the open-world exploration of the games just like I was. You might want to give The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion a try (which is also published by Bethesda and dirt cheap on Steam). I’d recommend ES III: Morrowind as well for the exploration factor but it is much more of a traditional hardcore type RPG than Oblivion is.

Being a shooter fan, especially one that likes open world exploration, what I really think that you might like (if you haven’t already tried it) is S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. It takes place in the exclusion zone surrounding the Chernobyl NPP and has one of, if not the most, atmospheric and dynamic settings ever created for a video game. There are various anomalies that will kill you, artifacts that will help you, mutants roaming the countryside, deadly radiation fields, ruined buildings, factions of Stalkers, psychic emissions, a military presence, underground research labs, a scientific outpost and many other things.

In addition to the almost overwhelmingly cool atmosphere, the game has some of the best ballistics modeling ever used. There are a load of weapons and a role-playing light system of missions and rewards. You’ll revisit maps a number of times but the experience is not diminished by this because of the way the world acts and reacts around you where cool and sometimes very unexpected things happen. For example – you could stumble across a blind dog dragging a dead body (someone that you didn’t kill) from the road. The first time you see something like this you can’t help but smile at the love that went into the game. These little touches are what make this game (and series) my favorite of all time.

Overall there are some rough edges but most of them are cleared up with the Stalker Complete 2009 mod which doesn’t change the vanilla story at all. The mod does add weapon and armor repair, pitch black nights, and a better selection of equipment from the traders, which can drastically change some elements of the vanilla experience but these changes are all very positive. The mod also adds improved graphics and weather, which are just a nice bonus.

If you like Shadow of Chernobyl there are two other games in the series as well, Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat. Clear Sky is (in my opinion) the weakest of the three but well worth a play or twelve. Call of Pripyat is highly polished and arguably the best game of the three but, it lacks the truly epic scope of Shadow of Chernobyl.

Also, from reading some of your posts, I get the impression that you really like to delve into things. That being the case you might want to check out Roadside Picnic, written by the brothers Strugatsky (Arkady and Boris) and the subsequent movie based upon their book, Stalker (directed by Andrei Tarkovsky) which provided the inspiration for Shadow of Chernobyl. Be warned Stalker (the movie) isn’t for everyone and is definitely something that you (at least I personally do) really need to be in the right mood/frame of mind to watch. It is very philosophical as well as a statement on Russian mid 20th century politics and social attitude. So the greater your knowledge and interest in Russian cold war politics and society, the greater your satisfaction will be.

 

[heisenberg]

speaking of Elder's Scroll, I can't wait for Skyrim the next installment to the Elder's scroll series. Big fan of ES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p4aHNgXud4

[video=youtube;PjqsYzBrP-M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjqsYzBrP-M

 

[UxmalTrekker]

speaking of Elder's Scroll, I can't wait for Skyrim the next installment to the Elder's scroll series. Big fan of ES!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p4aHNgXud4

[video=youtube;PjqsYzBrP-M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjqsYzBrP-M

I’m with you on that, Heisenberg! Skyrim is the game that I am most looking forward to this year. Well, there goes another 500-1000 hours of my life thanks to Bethesda.