Hello all!
I thought it would be interesting if we all shared our favourite games. What are your top 5 games of all time? 1 through 5. It’s a difficult question with so many games these days. It would also be interesting if you could describe why you chose number 1 and what makes it so special?
I will have to consider this question myself and write a response at a later point.
Edit: They don’t really have to be numbered if you don’t want. Also, feel free to add more if you can’t help yourself, every award ceremony has its ‘special mentions’.
1. Command and Conquer: Generals - Lots of fun with this game. I’m a huge fan of the whole franchise but this one had it all for me. Choose a general, kick some ass. 2. Final Fantasy X - Logged a lot of time with this one, very fun and awesome graphics for the time. I found a way to generate infinite XP but I had to leave the game on for hours. So I set it up then left for school. My Dad heard the PS2 running so he turned it off. Womp womp. 3. Final Fight - Always a fan of beat em ups. This one I could finish in a couple hours and it was fun every time. 4. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Just awesome. 5. Secret of Mana - This game really got me into RPGs.
So there’s my list. Probably different than a lot of peoples’. I could go on listing games but you said top five, so I’m sticking to the original post.
I’ve always been terrible at RTS games even though I enjoy them, but I have much to say about Symphony of the Night! WOW, I played it for the first time a couple months ago and it was unbelievably good. When I realised I had to [SPOILERS] replay it again upside down [/SPOILERS] it was like BOOM my mind exploded. Such a great ‘spooky’ atmosphere and music but the mechanics were on point.
Everyone keeps telling me to play Secret of Mana, but i’ve never gotten around to it!
*By the way I’ve relaxed the rules a bit, perhaps I was being a jerk. Feel free to in a few extra games on the list if you can’t help yourself, no need to limit it to five *
@headrollsoff : I wasn’t being strict or anything, I just though I’d set a challenge to try to narrow down the pure gold of the gaming world. But really, put up your list of 20, or 100 if you want, un-numbered! Honestly I haven’t answered my own question myself yet, it’s going to be difficult. Stick to the rules if you want a challenge, but ignore them if you want.
@8bithero - I have much to say in response to your but I’ve got to run out the door, busy morning! I shall return.
Yes! Metal Gear Solid. I still think of the Vulcan Raven boss fight as one of my all time favorite video experiences. Also Psycho Mantis reading my memory card was incredible.
There were a lot of moments in that game that were jaw dropping. I’m sure it doesn’t hold up as well if you played it fresh now, but for its time, that game was revolutionary. One of my favorite gaming experiences ever.
Finally getting around to sending in my own results, I’m gonna stick to my mean rules too:
Okay this was very painful and difficult for me, but here’s my top five, numbered 1 through 5, my favourite games of all time:
Riven - Because this is the game that changed my life, it gets #1. This is the only game I’ve ever played that has drawn me into a real living and breathing world. Even though (by today’s standards) some may argue it’s just a bunch of slides/PowerPoint presentation; the amount of depth and lore and beauty. I’ve never been so immersed and astonished and surprised… the beauty, the depth and just the world of it. This game transformed me, it’s almost like a spiritual experience.
Dwarf Fortress - This game is more like a work of art, it’s like a sculpture that Toady has been working on for over a decade. It’s beautiful and impossible to summarise in a couple sentences. All I can say is that if you can get past the clunky graphics/interface, this game is a work of genius, and it continues to grow and evolve.
STALKER: Call of Pripyat - Similar to Riven, this game is all about immersion. Going into this barren apocalyptic landscape and exploring the wastes, meeting the weird people and creatures. I feel like I’ve lived in that world and I want to go back there. They aimed so high with this game, too high in fact, so it’s a bit of a buggy mess, but the community kind of finished off the game. The “MISERY” mod is kinda cool too, but brutal. Great game. I really wish they would get together and make another game like this, but their new game Survarium or whatever it looks terrible.
System Shock 2 - The most scary game I’ve ever played. So much atmosphere and a deep rich RPG/shooter done right, great story… I think cool games like Dead Space and Alien Isolation stole a lot from SS2, this is where it all began. I would love to see a System Shock 3… the Bioshock games never interested me, I don’t think they ever quite compared to this masterwork.
Demons’ Souls - I had to put in one of the ‘Souls’ games and this is my favourite. This game just sucks you in and then devours your soul. In was a shame how they screwed up Dark Souls 2 so bad. Demons’ Souls absolutely nailed the atmosphere, level design, creepy enemies… so surreal and bizarre. It’s like wandering through a James Gleeson painting at times. Challenging and addictive, and RPG elements perfectly balanced. Brilliant game, I bought a PS3 just to play this one game.
Honourable mentions go to:
Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure (1992)
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Deadly Premonition
Omikron: The Nomad Soul - I would maybe put this up near 1 or 2 on the list, but in all honestly I haven’t actually re-played it since 1999 so I’m not sure whether it’s a masterpiece or whether my teenage Bowie-obsessed brain just thought it was. (I really wish the GOG version had controller support. )
Miasmata
ICO (2001, PS2) - This almost made it to my top 5 list.
X-COM: UFO Defense (1994) - This was also almost on my top five. Very painful decisions…
Gazillionaire Deluxe (1996)
The Longest Journey
Looking at my list I’m a little ashamed at my lack of older class/retro titles. I played a lot of MS-DOS games when I was little and I love them so much. Perhaps I need to re-think my list. It was really difficult to make these lists. Perhaps I should have put Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure at number 1, followed by Crystal Caves, Biomenace, Hugo’s Haunted House, Secret Agent, etc. etc. I guess the though the games that pop in my head are the more recent titles (lol, although I guess Riven 1997 isn’t really “recent”).
@8bithero
I only recently played Symphony of the Night (for the first time!) this year. Wow, that game, just wow. So awesome. I wanna play it again. I did it using emulation (yes, I am hanging my head in shame as I type) and it played perfectly with an xbox controller. I never had a PS1 or a PS2 or any consoles at all until the last couple years. First console I ever bought was an N64 a couple years ago. I was raised on MS-DOS. Also recently played River City Ransom for the first time, loved it, I want to find time to sit down and play it all the way through. I’ve shamefully never played Secret of Mana but everyone keeps telling me about it, another one I gotta add to my to-do list.
@headrollsoff
I loved The Last of Us but I’ve shamefully not really played anything else on your list. I have to try some of these. I looked up “River Raid” very interesting choice!! What brought you to that decision? I wanna try it.
River Raid has always been one of my favorite games as a kid. It always felt faster and more fleshed out than other games of that era. It has held a soft spot in my heart over time. If people came to it fresh now, they may not understand what is so special about it. However, it was an excellent game that always made me want to keep playing over and over.
I understand what you mean. Particularly because I was raised on MS-DOS, seems like practically no one gives those old titles any nostalgia love on the internet. For example Hugo’s House of Horrors (1990) , Jetfighter (1988) and Alley Cat (1984) are games that I come back to over and over and I love them dearly but yeah, unless they had similar childhood experiences, it’s difficult to get people to see the magic of them today.
It sucks that the “retro-craze” has been basically only focussed on the NES and SNES games… for example, I would fall on my knees and cry with joy with I saw a Hugo’s House of Horrors plushie for sale at EBgames but that’s never going to happen.
Here ya go, you can play it in your browser right now! Wow, it even emulates the classic build-in IBM “PC speaker” music.
I love this game so much. This game taught me to read; I learned to read when I was really little just cuz I desperately wanted to play this game and my little squishy brain was like “what on earth are these bizarre hieroglyphics?” when looking at standard english text characters. I actually did a 6 minute speedrun of the game and uploaded it to youtube… but I won’t post the link. Too many spoilers, play the game!
Btw, this game (abandonware link above) isn’t piracy or anything, the “Hugo” series consisted of 3 games (I guess you’d call them “episodes” these days), and I believe this first one was ‘shareware’. I think the dude who made it still runs a weird old website somewhere (the whole game was made by 1 guy). There was later a sketchy Hugo3D game, kinda like a Doom Clone, I remember it being quite awful… but it was cool for the kid-friendly aspects… For example you use a magic wand instead of a gun, and I think enemies “fall asleep” or ghosts “disappear” and things like that.
Star Wars: Tie Fighter: The best Star Wars game I’ve played. It’s a space flight simulator where you get to play as the Empire and it has a great campaign.
Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword: The deepest and most complex Civilization game that just sucks away hours and hours.
Icewind Dale: My favorite D&D RPG so far. The atmosphere and music were amazing and the battles were really challenging in a good way.
Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction: I couldn’t stop playing this game for years and I had so much fun playing online with friends and other players in public games. Diablo 3 was so disappointing.
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link: My favorite Zelda game from my childhood.
Thief: The Dark Project: The best stealth game I’ve ever played.
Counterstrike: Global Offensive
Halo: Combat Evolved: The first Halo game was the best one for me and playing on college LAN was the most fun I’ve had playing console shooters.
Silent Hill 2: A masterpiece in the survival horror genre.
Final Fantasy 6 - FF4 could have been here since that game was responsible for my introduction to both Final Fantasy the series as well as JRPG’s the genre, but FF6 was the game that really brought me home. This was the game that really taught me how to experience a video game story. Every thing about it is amazing, and still resonates with me, and if I had to guess it’ll be the first game I give a 10 to in my project.
Chrono Trigger - Technically tied with #1
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - It’s just… so… good!
World of Warcraft - Okay technically not one of my “favorite” games but it’s literally the only game I can say I’ve played nonstop for eight years straight! I quit about a year ago but damned if it didn’t have an impact.
Super Mario World - I could play this game all day. Comfort game.
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening - I didn’t like 2D Zelda games until I played this one.
Mega Man X - Another comfort game. I enjoy speedrunning it.
Harvest Moon 64 - It doesn’t hold up, but I put triple digit hours into this game in high school and I look back at it extremely fondly. Could possibly be interchanged with Friends of Mineral Town. Karen is my waifu.
Pokemon X/Y - For reminding me I had a childhood.
Magic: The Gathering - Fun fact, I’m the co-founder of mtgsalvation.com and worked as a writer for nearly three years at puremtgo.com
10a Marvel vs Capcom 2 - Because if I could only play one fighting game for the rest of my life it’d be this one.
Dude. Too awesome. I’ve been playing magic for about 15 years and still love the game. Got into limited seriously in the early 2000s, ranked in the top 100 in NH. Then I got more into casual after that. Sold all my duals and now I just have a few pricey cards but nothing too expensive. Haven’t played MTGO.
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