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deanb
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Now here's a list of my 9 favorites. Some of 'em I'm less strongly tied to than others, but they're all faves (not really in any kind of order). I also feel like I'm forgetting some really obvious ones, but what can ya do...

 

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Final Fantasy VII - (also on my most influential list)

 

Metal Gear Solid 3 - I always have to think about this one, because I also adore MGS1 to an insane degree. In the end, I give it up to Snake Eater just because there's more to it. The story is more fleshed-out, and the ridiculousness is there but isn't overwhelming. There's a lot to the gameplay (almost too much when it comes to having to heal yourself up), the game is fucking incredible-looking, and it basically epitomizes all of Kojima's strengths.

 

Uncharted 2 - This game is just fun in every sense of the word. The story isn't revolutionary but it's extremely well-told, the characters are interesting, the music is great, and it nails that feeling of spontaneity that I enjoy. I can just choose any chapter and have a great time with it.

 

Streets of Rage 2 - I've never played any brawler as much as this game. Whether it's coop or solo, the game is gorgeous, smooth, and its music is catchy as hell (probly my fave soundtrack from the 16-bit days). Final Fight had nothing on it.

 

Parasite Eve - (also on my most influential list). The feeling of isolation in the city was also pretty incredible, and the soundtrack was outright amazing. Yoko Shimomura did an excellent job setting the right tone for every moment of the game. The gameplay is a bit gimmicky and not as deep as other games, but it works within the structure of Parasite Eve well and is interesting because of its focus on Aya's positioning than anything else.

 

Chrono Cross - (also on my most influential list)

 

Sonic the Hedgehog - Mario may have set the tone for my gaming-addicted life, but Sonic was probly the first game that made me feel like an unstoppable badass. It had the right mix of platforming and flat-out speed that Sonic games have such a hard time with today.

 

Devil May Cry - I wasn't big into action games before this one, and it still remains one of my favorites. Compared to later games, it's a bit simpler, but it has the best setup (creepy castle, creepy courtyard, creepy coliseum, Hell), the best bosses, and the best music (before the lameass Metal took over). Dante's also pretty fucking cool in it, without being hilariously overstated.

 

Shadow of the Colossus - (also on my most influential list)

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Pokemon Yellow Version - Back when Pokemon was awesome. I got this game when I was a kid along with a matching yellow Gameboy (because my mom is awesome). A very good introduction to RPGs and packed with content.

 

Golden Sun - Another great RPG with lots to do, on the surface it seems like a simple turn-based but it has a couple of good mechanics that make it more unique.

 

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 3 and Vice City were pretty damn good, but I consider this one the best. Tons more to do, huge environment, better characters, and lots of fun cheat codes.

 

Mass Effect - The game that convinced me to get a 360. One of the best story/character interaction in any game, it's one of the few that really manages to suck you into the game and make you feel like you're Commander Shepard. Some disagree but I also thought the gameplay was solid, with lots of skills and equipment upgrades.

 

Metroid Prime - Without a doubt the greatest game ever made. Amazing gameplay and graphics, memorable bosses, plus an interesting spin on how to do storytelling. All the areas are very well designed and for once it's actually fun poking around and finding every last collectible.

 

Resident Evil 4 - Fun fact: This was the first M-Rated game I ever owned. So the plot and voice acting were fairly iffy, but ignoring that this game is fantastic. Polished shooting mechanics plus challenging gameplay, and it's incredibly replayable.

 

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Besides being a gigantic love letter to any Nintendo fan, this game just has so much damn content. Tons of characters, stages, items, songs ... it just goes on. I also personally loved how the SSB series discarded the thing I hate most about fighting combos - billions of complex combos that are unique to each character. Instead it opted for a simple control scheme that allowed you to easily switch characters, and left the complexity in how the moves and attacks interacted with each other.

 

Super Mario All-Stars - As far as I know, this was the first game I ever played. If you've never heard of it, it has SMB1, SMB2 (both the American and Japan versions), and SMB3, all in one package and redone with improved graphics. 3 Mario games in one package basically makes it infinitely replayable.

 

Tales of Symphonia - This game is just amazing. Again the plot is a bit meh, but the actual characters are very memorable. The gameplay very engaging since it's real-time and uses a combo system that's not too hard to get a hold of, plus an awesome feature where you can control your allies AI to better shape how a battle turns out. Besides that, it has all the hallmarks of a great RPG - tons of stuff to do, tons of items to collect, but it pulls them all together nicely.

 

I have a bad memory so I'm probably forgetting something ... but these games are definitely pretty huge in my eyes.

 

Ahhhhh, I forgot about Metroid and Tales of Symphonia! I guess if I remembered all the games I really loved though, the tile would have been much harder to make. I really feel like I should change mine now. -.-

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I know it's not new, but this is a good topic and I will contribute to it someday. It's gonna take some thought, because I'd probably make two separate grids or make some attempt to combine my picks into one.

 

Also, did you mean the topic could perhaps be a little flexible, Dean? So, instead of just doing favourites and influences, maybe you could have a grid of favourites of a certain type, from a certain platform etc. Maybe characters, or even gaming moments or themes. Those last two obviously can't be encapsulated in a small image, but that could just be a thumbnail image for a proper explanation? Or is that stealing possibilities for other topics? :scratch:

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I get what it means, but there are just SO many games that affected me in different ways. I don't really know how to say which ones were the MOST significant.

 

I've got plenty of games that fit the bill, but I picked the 9 that impressed me the most. Also note that a number of these games do not appear on my top ten, but if I were to pick the games that define me, as a gamer, it would be these 9.

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I dont know whats going on, but I went with my top 9. I didnt think too much about it, but I think this is basically it. if there was a ten, it'd be the Revenge Of Shinobi.

 

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Super Mario Bros. 3 is perfect.

 

Final Fantasy 8 was my first final fantasy game i ever played. I still love it to this day.

 

Darkstalkers 3 is basically if Street Fighter was personalized for me. It was made for me.

 

Breath Of Fire 3 was the first rpg i ever played. Its such a beautiful game with an amazing, yet very strange soundtrack. Plus, dragons are badass.

 

I dont think SOTN needs any explanation.

 

I love Fear Effect to death. It's an amazing game. It's kind of like RE, but better in every way.

 

DMC3 is the one game i can go back to and just tear shit up over and over and never get bored of it. It also oozes style while having a lot of substance in it's gameplay. I still think this one is better than Bayonetta.

 

Im a sucker for the MGS series and MGS2 is my absolute favorite. This is the game that changed my perception of videogames into something deeper. sounds lame, but it's true. it was so interactive and played so well and looked amazing. the man who made it clearly made it with patience and love.

 

Uncharted 2 is what every modern third person shooter wishes it could be. But they aint.

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@Iamaquaman:

 

I almost substituted the Oracle of Seasons/Time games in place of Link to the Past. Those, I think, are the two finest Zelda handheld games available. What amazes me though is that they were developed by Capcom, and not Nintendo. Odd.

 

Really? I never noticed because when I played them I was so young, and didn't really care about who made what.

 

That's kinda odd.

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Those are either games I've played a whole lot of, or games that had a huge impact on me.

I still have vivid memories of when I played most of them for the first time.

 

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Thief II: The Metal Age

 

I played this years ago and it is still to this day the best stealth game there ever was, in my opinion.

I had played other stealth games before it, but that one had that little something special about it.

The levels were just memorable and if you were going about it like a moron, the enemies would have little troubles ending you.

 

 

Deus Ex

 

It's hard to pick an all-time favorite game when there are so many good ones, but the original Deus Ex is always the first one that comes to mind whenever I need to pick one. The only thing I can fault it for is that it's so goddamned ugly, even for its time. But the story is so good, the gameplay so deep and varied depending on what skills you focused on, that if you can get over blocky characters and generic artistic design, you're pretty much guaranteed to have an experience both memorable and unique. I replayed it last summer and it was just as thrilling as it was when I first played it about 10 years ago. The presentation isn't exactly cinematic, but the game feels like you're playing a movie because so much detail went into crafting the story.

 

 

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

 

The first Splinter Cell is hardly the best in the series, but it was an eye-opener for me. It is the reason I am a big fan of the Tom Clancy license to this day. I mean, I had played stuff like the first Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon long before, but they were too hard for me at that age so I didn't enjoy them very much at the time.

 

Not only was SC visually impressive at the time (mainly for its lighting) it also offered very rewarding gameplay. Whatever you did in that game, when you did it well it made you feel like a complete badass.

 

 

Half-Life

 

I considered putting HL2 but decided to go with the original. I played it long before HL2 came out and it was one of the first FPS I played on my PC. Also, Half-Life is the game that made me realize that while there's nothing wrong with cutscenes, a game doesn't need them to be cinematic and/or tell a good story.

 

The first time I walked Gordon Freeman through that failed experiment that started the incident at Black Mesa is definitely a standout gaming memory. It made you feel like you were Gordon Freeman that much more because you had literally caused that mess yourself, by proxy of him. No cutscene can accomplish that.

 

 

 

Metal Gear Solid

 

I'm a huge MGS fan. I love the stealth genre in general and while the MGS series isn't the best when it comes to stealth, it has a pretty gripping story and more interesting characters than most games in the genre. The first time I played this game wasn't actually when it first came out on the original PlayStation because I never had one. No, it was years later on my PC and it freaking blew my mind. Solid Snake's mission through the Shadow Moses facility ranks high on my list of "most epic stuff evar".

 

Personally, I love it when a game is cinematic, whether it's through elaborate cutscenes or in-game scripted events. That's why I love stuff like Call of Duty or Uncharted. Metal Gear Solid is, I think, what made me realize how awesome a properly executed cinematic game could be. People may complain all they want about how the MGS series has overly long cutscenes, but I think this one was perfectly paced.

 

 

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

 

Like I said above, I'm a huge MGS fan. I love them all, even MGS2. So there's not much else to say here that I didn't just say above except for the fact that I think MGS3 is the best game in the series. Even MGS4 didn't live up to it, for me.

 

Sure, Octocamo was pretty insane and impressive and they improved the shooting mechanics a lot. MGS1 had the better story.

But MGS3 put you in the shoes of motherfucking Big Boss. And the controls were so deep that it took me multiple playthroughs before fully mastering how to do everything. Before this game I had never realized how pressure sensitive the Dual Shock 2's buttons were. I played this game to completion more times than I can recall. I even did a run where I shot all the freaking hidden frogs ( think it unlocked stealth camo ) and that was BEFORE trophies and achievements.

 

 

Chrono Trigger

 

CT wasn't the first JRPG I played, but damn if it didn't put all the others to shame. Sadly, I never finished it.

And even if I ever do get around to finishing it, I don't think I'll ever see all the possible endings.

But this game is the genre at its best. The story is insanely epic and so are the characters.

 

This game is why I love JRPGs as much as I do. When done right, they can be amazing.

 

 

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

 

While OOT is often regarded as the best Zelda game, ALTTP is the one that made me a fan of the series.

I remember watching a friend play it back when it had just come out, and I just HAD to play that game. It was unlike any game I'd ever seen or played before.

I had picked Genesis over SNES, though, so it took a few years before I could play it. But when I finally got it, I just couldn't stop playing.

 

I played and replayed this game to the point where I knew it by heart and I wasn't even having any fun doing it. It was just better than doing nothing.

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Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

 

I hesitated to put U2 on my grid. I had already replaced KOTOR with Half-Life and putting Uncharted 2 meant there would not be room for Resident Evil 2.

But Uncharted 2 kinda speaks more of who I am as a gamer and ties things up nicely as it fits with other games I picked.

 

I mentioned how I love my games to be cinematic. Well, Uncharted 2 is the epitome of that. It is the cinematic game by excellence.

MGS4's cutscenes were overly long, even for a die hard fan like me. I loved every second of them on my first playthrough. But when I replayed the game a year later, I found myself skipping over half of them. Uncharted doesn't have that problem. The cutscenes are short and to the point.

 

And not only that but it mixes the two kind of .. cinematism (?) I mentioned so far. You've got the cutscenes, but you've also got the in-game scripted events. Stuff like when Drake's being chased by the truck at the beginning of the Urban Warfare level or the whole helicopter chase on the rooftops, especially the part where you jump out of the collapsing building. That's the kind of moment I game for. When your jaw drops and you just stare at the screen and can't believe what the hell just happened.

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Ok, I managed to make a TENTATIVE list. I reserve the right to change my mind later.

 

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Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt

First game I ever owned. I'm sure it's like that for a lot of people. It all started here, baby.

 

Final Fantasy

First RPG. Up until I played this all I really knew of gaming was running and jumping and shooting. Those are all fine, of course, and I still love doing all that, but this is the game that really opened things up for me and gave me a game that challenged my ability to strategize instead of my reflexes. It made me realize I love RPGS.

 

Chrono Trigger

I didn't actually play Chrono Trigger until after the SNES was obsolete, but it did so many things that were still very unique at the time, and this was the game that made me really care about the characters. It was a tough call between this, FFVI, and Phantasy Star IV, but the gameplay mechanics give this one a slight edge. It all blew me away.

 

Sonic 3

I had Sonic 1 and 2, but this is the first one I played over...and over...and over and over and over and over and over and over. Sonic 3 was practially a religion for me for a good while. Having a save file (unusual for a game like that at the time) made all the difference.

 

Vectorman

This is the first game I REAALLY drooled over as a kid. I wanted it more than anything. The ads made it look so amazing, Sega built up all kinds of hype, and I think I actually dreamed about it a few times. This was my personal intro to aggressive advertising by a game publisher. I never did own it, although I did get to rent it. I was probably looking through rose-tinted glasses at the time, but I just felt this sense of fulfillment in finally getting to experience this game that I obsessed over.

 

Final Fantasy X

Whether you liked or hated FFX really doesn't matter. This was my first PS2 game, and when I saw that opening cutscene I was in awe. This was my personal proof that the next generation of gaming had arrived.

 

Doom

My first FPS and I am pretty sure my first M-rated game. Primitive by today's standards, but blasting demons with a shotgun was something I could and did do for hours on end. I think my testicles may have descended when I finished the first shareware episode.

 

SimAnt

SimCity was too complicated for me and I had a crappy PC, so for a long time this was my primary (only?) PC game, and I was fine with that. I learned more about ants than I will ever need to know. If you know what you're doing you can beat this game in about 30 minutes or so, but that didn't stop me from playing it over and over. The only reason I stopped was because my next PC wasn't compatible with it.

 

Day of the Tentacle

Not only did this make me fall in love with adventure games, but it showed me just how much difference a sense of humor can have. Without the fantastic writing, Tentacle would be an okay game, but not great. Frankly, I think more games could benefit from a well-crafted joke in just the right spot. So many games these days are super srs bsns. I like games that don't take themselves so seriously.

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FFVII:

This wasn't my first RPG, but it was certainly the first one that absorbed me into its story. It was also what really got me into the Final Fantasy series.

 

Silent Hill:

This game became an instant favorite the moment I saw its cover in the game store. I've always been a fan of scary games, but they had always been direct shooters. The story, the monsters, the characters, the town itself--everything about this game quickly had me obsessed with horror games. I still love the series even now.

 

Spyro:

This game used to drive me nuts as a kid and was my first game I played on my brand new Playstation. I learned how OCD I am with collecting every last little thing in the games. All the gems, eggs, and unlocks HAD to be found. I literally would grind on this game for hours until I got Spyro to land juuuuust right on a certain little spot to get that laaaast little chest.

 

Mario Bros/Duck Hunt:

My very very very first game. I didn't own it--but my daycare had received a donated NES. We all had to take turns (when your lives was up, the next person played. This is also where learning all the little secrets like jumping on the turtle shell on the shares for extra 1 ups became crucial. Sadly, the game was destroyed when another child threw it across the room during a tantrum.

 

Lands of Lore:Guardians of Destiny

A little obscure for you guys, but just an amazing PC game. Exploring foreign, magical lands in hopes to find a cure for your curse. This game really tested your skills as far as gaming ability (aiming, timing jumps, picking up items and making a run before you are crushed to death, dealing with the 100% random morphs caused from your curse) But all in all, it was a gorgeous, intriguing, and well designed game for its time. RIP Westwood Studios.

 

King's Quest VII:

I started out with the last entry to the KQ Series, and this was by far the easiest of them. But this game got me into point-and-click adventures. I also became a Sierra fan from it. I love games that require you to think outside the box to solve a problem.

 

Pokemon:

I'm not a rabid fan of the series--but this was the first game that allowed me to be social with my gaming. Since all the other kids had it, I felt the urge to try the game myself. I soon made some friends I could trade Pokemon with, and had something to talk about in school. All the other games I played no one had ever heard of.

 

Elder Scrolls Oblivion:

I love a game that you can reply over and over and still have a little different of an experience each time. Also, the first game where I could sit and spend two hours customizing my character. I was very happy with my thief wood elf agent. I could quite literally just stand still in sneak mode and I would be invisible. So it's fun to come up with new characters--good or evil each time.

 

Fable:

I loved this game. It was unique, it was new, it was funny, and it made you feel like a dick no matter what decision you made. I love games with a sense of humor. Just hearing the townspeople's reaction to me used to have me rolling. I loved the available options at key points in the game: It was like those choose-your-own-adventure books made into a game with its option for decision making.

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Silent Hill:

This game became an instant favorite the moment I saw its cover in the game store. I've always been a fan of scary games, but they had always been direct shooters. The story, the monsters, the characters, the town itself--everything about this game quickly had me obsessed with horror games. I still love the series even now.

 

 

Yeah, the original Silent Hill is an amazing game.

It shames me that I only played it for the first time when it got released on PSN last year :(

It creeped me right the fuck out and I loved every second of it!

The atmosphere in that game is just perfect and it's quite an accomplishment that it's not ruined by the horribly dated graphics!

 

Got the bad ending, though.. So I need to replay it at some point.

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Was the original Silent Hill the one where you walk through the school and bodies start falling out of the lockers? Does it also have that skinned guy hanging in someone's backyard, or was this SH 2?

There's a school in the first one but I don't remember bodies falling out of lockers. So that probably was in SH2, which I did not play. :(

 

I really want them to release a Silent Hill HD Collection for the PS3...

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You know, I've been thinking about this thread for a week now and I've reached some interesting conclusions.

 

The following is not necessarily a list of my favorite games, but rather the most influential. In most cases, I found these games to be very enjoyable-- even addictive -- but in some cases the games listed were heavily flawed.

 

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1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

 

My love for this game was heavily influenced by The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Even at the tender age of 10, I dreamed of a version of LttP on steroids; a Zelda game of the future where Hyrule was a massive, living breathing world conveyed with realistic graphics. When I bought Oblivion on sale, I had no idea that it was in fact the game of my dreams. Oblivion made me fall in love with Bethesda's tangible system of items and locations. I loved the size of the world and the freedom it offered to its players. Oblivion was also very influential in that it essentially destroyed what little love I had left for Nintendo. Two days into Oblivion, I realized I would probably never buy another Zelda game again.

 

2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

 

I really loved LttP because of the world it created. The trees, flowers, and creatures still capture my imagination to this day. Also see #1.

 

3. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

 

I love Mass Effect more than KOTOR, but KOTOR makes this list because without it, I might never have tried Mass Effect. I loved the size, freedom, story and dialogue system of KOTOR. When ME was first announced, I knew that I would love it.

 

4. Metal Gear Solid

 

By the time I finished MGS, I couldn't help but notice that the first two hours of the game were dramatically different from the latter portions. I loved the beginning of MGS -- the real world locations, politics, weapons and military jargon got my blood pumping, but I thought the over-the-top characters like Revolver Ocelot and Psycho Mantis to be really stupid. MGS was very influential in my gaming tastes because it showed me that I loved gritty, realistic military games, and that I really disliked some of the preachy and weird stuff in Japanese-developed games.

 

5. Contra

 

Contra influenced me in many ways as a young gamer. It made me realize that I found guns and muscular warriors cooler than fatass plumbers. It challenged me to hone my skills until I didn't need that wussy Konami code. The game's ending also had a cinematic flair that was groundbreaking for its time.

 

6. Grand Theft Auto III

 

I had played the original GTA on PC years earlier and thoroughly enjoyed it. When GTA III came out, it dominated my free time for the following two years. I loved the sandbox freedom, the violence, and the way that stunning action movie moments could occur at any time based on the immediate circumstances. To this day, I prefer an incredible action sequence that occurs randomly as opposed to the scripted action of a game like Call of Duty.

7. Super Metroid

 

This game introduced me and millions of other gamers to a concept that would be critical in modern-era games: atmosphere. Super Metroid was masterful in its ability to set tone. I'll never forget the moment I first returned to planet Zebes. Unlike every other side scrolling game to date, I didn't rush through the beginning. The creepy fog and music made me proceed slowly and carefully. It perfectly conveyed the phrase, "it's quiet... too quiet." Also, much like Contra, Super Metroid had some very cinematic moments.

 

8. Half Life

 

Even though I had played and loved Goldeneye just weeks prior to playing Half Life, I consider the latter to be my first real first person shooter. Half Life kicked my ass and I loved it. Half Life was in many ways a nightmare. Scientists died gruesome deaths before your very eyes. Headcrabs lept from every darkened corner. Armed commandos and helicopters taught me time and again how to think on my feet, aim carefully, conserve ammo and walk into every room expecting the fight of my life. I still think HL2 doesn't come close to capturing the intensity of its predecessor.

9. Battlefield 1942

 

BF 1942 was my first online game. From the moment I leapt into the backseat of a fighter plane in the demo I was hooked. The fact that I was relying completely on the skills and whims of a human being I'd never met blew my mind. I came to love the large maps, vehicle variety and intense conflicts of Battlefield, and I still love it in Bad Company 2 today.

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4. Metal Gear Solid - By the time I finished MGS, I couldn't help but notice that the first two hours of the game were dramatically different from the latter portions. I loved the beginning of MGS -- the real world locations, politics, weapons and military jargon got my blood pumping, but I thought the over-the-top characters like Revolver Ocelot and Psycho Mantis to be really stupid. MGS was very influential in my gaming tastes because it showed me that I loved gritty, realistic military games, and that I really disliked preachy, weird, Japanese-developed games.

No love for MGS3 then? Shame.

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