f13.net

If you guys HAD to pick a few games, say, up to five in the last few years, that you would consider your favorites or "classics" fo you. They dont have to be big games, just what you feel are classics. The kind of game you just really really had fun playing, and looking back woulfd be very bummed if you missed them. What would you pick?

I was thinking about this, what would my 5 classic games be.

Beyond Good and Evil
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4
Saints Row
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Those are the only games I can think of that really sucked me in, and where downright awesome for me.

Have to agree on GTA:Vice City.  I liked the other two as well, but Vice City had some indescribable sparkle that the others lacked.
Max Payne.  (The first one.  I try to pretend that the sequel never happened.)
American McGee's Alice.
Half-Life Episode 1.
Vampire: Bloodlines.

Can I pick series of games? If so, it would look like this-

Ultima series
Civ series
X-Com
Pirates!
5th place tie between the Rainbow 6/Rogue Spear/Raven Shield Series and the Battlefield series


If I had to pick individual games, it would go something like this-

Ultima IV
Civ II
X-Com
Pirates!
BF2

Honorable mention to EVE, Elite, Jagged Alliance, Seven Cities of Gold, Madden series, anything by Stuart Smith, and the Elder Scrolls series.

I am sure I am forgetting some fantastic games, but those are the ones that leapt instantly to mind.

Posting in a list thread about Deus Ex and Planescape: Torment.

OMG, 5 GAMES? DESERT ISLAND STYLE?

Deus Ex
Planescape: Torment
Disgaea 2
Super Mario All Stars
Resident Evil 4

Honorable mention goes to Final Fantasy 6.

Edit: That's right, I'm switching things up on you. No one expects All Stars, eh eh? Yea, that's right. I'm the fucking bleeding edge. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

How far back are we allowed to go? You say "classic" games but also "last few years".

OMG!! Someone said vampire the masquerade bloodlines. Samwise is the guru!1. That game blew away my ideas of what a computer game can be. I'll guess it doesn't work for everbody but It sure worked for me.

Huh? We gave it game of the year before the official patches. Noob.

Ya, how far back?? hitchhikers guide of the galaxy was pretty huge in its day ( I can still tell you how to get the babble fish). Zork in its day. The original adventure (what are we talking here? 1977??). Hunt the wompas if you had access to an ASR33. But thats punch cards and paper tape. Ya I was there, Ya I played them and Ya, I was crappy at them but loved every minute of it. There are signposts in the evolution of computer games. Ultima comes to mind. We should do a thread about them some time. Seems like  place for angst but well meaning angst. And thats gotta be good don't ya think??

This is tricky. I mean are we talking games that were teh awesome at the time, and maybe for quite awhile afterwards?
What if they've been superceded now? (ie noone plays them anymore, or you hand a great time but wouldn't go back again?)

I'd go:

BF1942 w/DC (dead game now, since it's effectively online-only)
Everquest 1 (cant go back)
Vice City (yep, there was something special about VC over the other two)
Max Payne 1 (though I enjoyed the sequel)
World of Warcraft (well I'm still playing it, but on and off for nearly 2 years now has to count)

..though, let's face it. three of those five just won't work on a desert island. And EQ1 isn't a game I could honestly recommend someone go and start playing these days.

I'm just not sure if you can call something "classic" a few months after release. To me you kinda have to be able to look back at somethng after at least a couple of years. Sants Row is only a few months old, so you may have loved it but will it age gracefully or badly or indifferently? (think Tekken 1, TohShinDen on PS1, Daytona on Saturn)

BF2 over BF or CS or Quake3 or UT2004?


For me top 5 would be:

PlaneScape Torment
Star Craft
Fallout 2
DeusEx
MoO2

Well it depends how "classic" we're going with this. Doom may have been a classic for example, but I only played the PS1 port. CS may be a classic but I didn't like it. Quake 2 bought but never got around to playing (still have it in the shelf behind me). BF was where *I* had my biggest and longest FPS  :heart:

see?? Angst!! But well meaning angst. BF 1942 is surely a point for at least some of us. PVP centric but a good game. I'm guessing our Aussie friend doesn't get the same experience being half a globe away. Lag and all.

We have servers here for FPS games. Much like any major cities will. Melbourne has roughly the same population as Denver. I'm sure Denver has some servers for FPSs somewhere..

Lag only becomes an issue with games where the servers are located in the US, though games like Planetside sucked while WoW and EQ are just fine.

I'm kind of bending the rules here...

Every BioWare game from BG1 onwards, excluding NWN. Specifically, this includes the entire Baldur's Gate Saga, KotOR and Jade Empire. Yeah, I went there.

BIS's Infinity Engine games - IWD series, Torment. Also, Fallout.

Kohan. This game has a special little spot in my RTS heart.

NOLF 1/2.

Deus Ex.

That should be about it for a very short list.

1. System Shock
2. System Shock 2
3. Soldier of Fortune: Double Helix
4. Civ 4
5. Twisted Metal 2 (Play Station version)

If Schild can slip one in I will too, for Honorable Mention I'd add The Syndicate, with M.U.L.E right behind.

Rulesets never work for these things.

SOF2 was on the edge of my list. I played through it twice and have been thinking about rnning through it a third time. Shame Ravensoft didn't make a third.

TM2 was *the* multiplayer PS1 game for me and my friends. I'd have to add that to my list.
Oh, and X-Com. The first one.

5 Desert Island games, and I'm ignoring the "recent" thing, these are all time.

X-Com
Roadwar 2000
Thief 2
Civilization II
Red Baron

Games released in the last 5 years?

Thief 2
Deus Ex
Battlefield 1942
GTA:SA
THPS 4

[edit]

Would be too hard to list a "Best 5 Games Ever". Not gonna try.

Yeah, SOF2 is a great game, but I admit that a certain amount of egocentrism is coloring my opinion because I was a top ranked league player for a good little run, back when I thought I might play games "for a living"  :roll:  The weapon design and physics in that game are still the best I have ever played IMHO.

And as for TM2, oh lordy how I loved me that game.  I'm surprised my PS didn't melt as much as my best friend(s) and I played it.  If there is ever a TM2 World Tournament I still beleive I can come out of the woodwork and fire up Specter and destroy all who oppose me with my cheeser ghost missle tactics. 

Fir me SOF2 was the first PC FPS that really stuck in my mind after I played and finished it. Not because of the gore either, it just had a great feel to it and a good variety of environments, and was damn good looking, too. Also, Warthog FTW!

LOL Warthog!  Man I miss my days playing that game with my pals *sigh*  Anyway yea, I'd say the only other FPS games in the calibre of SOF are HL2 and Far Cry.

There are too many awesome games. I'd have to break my top 5 down into "best in genre".

1. Builders/Simulators: Sim City 2000. Expacks optional.
2. RPGs: This is a hard one for me. I'd say Fallout 2 narrowly edges out Torment for me. Narrowly.
3. Shooters/First Person Action: Deus Ex, hands down, no questions asked.
4. Adventure: Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Hands down, no questions asked, again.
5. Strategy: Master of Orion 2. Third time, no contest.

(If I can sneak in RTS, then #6 is Total Annihilation. If I can sneak in mods, then #7 is Action Quake 2.)

Oh wait, last five years? Uhm...

1. Shooters/FPA: Deus Ex.
2. Strategy: Civilization 4.
3. Roamers: Oblivion.
4. RTS: Homeworld.
5. RPGs: Knights of the Old Republic.

I'm categorizing Oblivion as a Roamer since I feel it has more in common with the freeform gameplay of GTA than with the story-centric experiences of KOTOR, Torment and other RPGs.

Uggg.. too many games.  Limiting it to 5 seems criminal. 

I'm not going desert island style, because that would mean a special reverence for replayability.  I felt the tone of the original post was a game that moved you in the sense that you feel you'd be less of a person if you missed out. 

Shadow Hearts 2
Planescape: Torment
Fallout 2 Earthbound
Deus Ex
Disgaea 2 (this would cover the replayability)

I'm pissed that I'd be leaving games like SS2, Vampire: Bloodlines and KOTOR.  Games that had a profound effect on my gaming experience.  Of course, if you go last five years, I think Fallout 2 and PS:T fall out of that.  SS2 I only played a couple years ago and it still had a rather poignant effect on me.  Gah, leaving RE4 off is making me cringe.  I feel bad, dirty somehow.

No way can I narrow this down to five games.  No desert-island style for me, either; I'd only be able to play a few of them multiple times before I started trying to make a car out of coconuts.

Games I played that had a big effect on me, how about that?  Games that left a real mark on my psyche, or are just damn fine games.

X-COM/X-COM:TFTD
Thief
Super Mario World
Blaster Master
Ultima VII
System Shock
System Shock 2
Daggerfall
Vagrant Story
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy IV, VI, and yeah even VII
Super Metroid
Shadowhearts
Pac-Man ... yeah, that's right, bitches
Monkey Island
Day of the Tentacle
Ocarina of Time
Diablo 2
Starcraft
Bushido Blade
Deus Ex

I am assuredly leaving out a few.

Oh yeah, HL2 was great and I finally played through FC early this year. Both awesome games as well in the genre but I completely forgot them. I guess SOF2 stands out as the first one of that quality I played. And I guess that's another point about these lists. The differences between something persistant like a MMOG, or primarily online-and-replayable like a BF/2 compared to the SP FPS experience that you put away after finishing. Once I buy my new gaming rig later in the year or early next year I might give one or both of them another playthrough with everything set at maximum. Might do the same for the Max Paynes as well. And hell, one more run through SOF2...

That's a difficulty beyond MMOGs and your CS/DOD/BF games when it comes to finding the time to play new things.. old favorites that are still fun for another-go-round. Not to say anything of the Civ/Sims/Movies type games.

Diablo II
Zelda: The Wind Waker
Dawn of War + Expansion
World of Warcraft
Grim Fandango

I was actually depressed when Grim Fandango ended.  Like you are at the end of a good book (or series of books).  Depressed that the entertainment was over.

If I get to include older games.  Magic Drop, Samurai Shodown IV, and Final Fantasy III (the US 3, I forget what FF it was in Japan). Ohh.. and Super Bomberman 2.

Deus Ex (or the System Shocks, hard to choose one of the three over the others)
GTA: Vice City (Its scary how much better I like it than the other GTAs, I have absolutely no clue why)
Master of Magic
Nethack (The Original Diablo, accept no substitutes)
Planescape: Torment

That would be Rogue not Nethack.

Crap, I'm worried that I am going to ruin what is otherwise a nice thread, but I'm gonna post anyway.  In no particular order:

Far Cry (PC) - talk about an underrated game.  Minus the ridiculous system requirements (at the time anyway) technical and compatibility issues, easily the best FPS I have ever played.

FFVII - opened a whole new world of gaming for me.  Was, at the time, the most amazing thing I had ever experienced...the only 40+ hour (single player) game that I have played through twice.  How the fuck did they manage to do all that shit on the PS1 anyway?

SWG (pre-CU) - yeah, I know.   But it got me back into gaming after more than a year off, plus the fact that it popped my MMO cherry.  No other game has gotten so much of my time, and I don't regret it.

KOTOR - there are probably a million ways that the KOTOR formula can be improved, but this was the first game that showed me that "interactive movie" type of game (maybe that is a poor description...I'm thinking storytelling, voice-acting, decision making for good or ill, etc.) could really shine.

Street Fighter 2 - Best Fighter Ever.  If I could find like minded idiots to sit around with me and drink beer in front of a copy of SF2, I'm sure I could still play it for hours every day.  Sadly, the XBL version is said to be a lagging monstrosity, and I cannot force myself to face that let-down.

Honorable Mention:  Ocarina of Time is probably my favorite from the Zelda series...kept the charm of prior installments intact and brought the series into 3D.  I thought Wind Waker lost some of the original appeal, even if it was nicer to look at.

All Tim Schafer games make me feel that way.

Well, everything except Psychonauts. And even then, that was good fun.

Accoding to the Diablo developers it was both.


A mention of Rogue just didn't make sense when talking about Nethack. But I'm always ready to geek out about Roguelikes, I loved them all to death over the years. The Epyx version of Rogue on my Atari ST with tile graphics? That was the game that started the whole obsession I have for them.

Hm..

TIE Fighter
Master of Magic
Civs

Those games haven't left my hard drive since I bought them.  Even 4 PCs after I bought TIE, I hunted-down a version that would work in XP just so I could continue playing, and searched to find a way to continue playing MoM so they must remain.  Civs i'd just go with the current iteration (4) because I don't have the problems with the new systems a lot of oldtime fans do.

The last two are hard, though.  Let's say

Baldur's Gate II
Lego Star Wars II

Recentish stuff:

GTA:VC
BG2
BF1942
Thief 2
Alpha Centauri

Bah.

Ultima (4,5,7,7.5 never played 6)
Ultima Underworld
SimGolf
Age of Wonders:Shadow Magic
Master of Magic
Wing Commander (1,2)
TIE Fighter
Dune 2
Syndicate
Tribes 2
Dungeon Keeper
Vampire: Bloodlines
GTA (3, VC, SA)
Civ (1,2,3,4 but especially 2)
Alpha Centauri
Colonization
Daggerfall/Arena
UO
System Shock
Deus Ex
XCom
Fallout (1,2)
Mafia
Thief (1,2,3)
Freedom Force (1,2)
KotOR
Gothic (1,2)

And of course the game that got me into computer gaming, Adventure (aka Colossal Cave aka Zork) running on a mainframe, played on a dumb terminal in the 70s.

Just off the top of my head. Just trying to think of games I played a lot of over the years. There were other good games I didn't put in as much time or finish like these.

I forgot about Master of Magic.  At first I thought everyone was talking about Magic & Mayhem, but as far as I know I am the only person that bought a copy.

Street Fighter II Turbo

Hmmm, for me:

1.All Bioware games, yes even NWN, if I'm stuck on an island the toolset alone could keep me busy for months. (I found playing with it to be great fun, I just didn't have the time/inclination to truly make it work like it could have. My biggest achievement was creating a new follower who was a vampire and had a fairly cool storyline to go with her.)
2.Fallout 1/2
3.MOO2
4. Sims 2 plus all expansion packs. If nothing else, finding ways to make my Sims into weird Sim serial killers would keep me entertained.
5. Probably WOW. An mmo can waste huge chunks of time and WOW is probably the one that kept me busy the longest. That or COH, the grind might not be that bad on a desert island.

How many times are we going to do this thread? No one is ever really happy with the results, because you Always forget a title that someone puts up later in the thread.

No.  There is another.

It wasn't a bad little game.  Not great, but it amused me enough that I didn't feel robbed of the $20 I paid for it.

Sorry, I didnt word my post very well. It was an idea that sprang in to my head right as I was leaving work and wanted to post it before I left for the day.

What games from recent years, IE the last 2-3 years, would you consider the "New Classics". Games that in 3 to 4 years from now we will look back and say "Damn, that game was awesome, Im glad I didnt miss playing it, and if you havent, go back and play it now".

Oh, New Classics.  Sure.

Shadowhearts 1/2, maybe 3 but haven't tried that one yet.
HL2
Thief 3
GalCiv 2
TES IV
God of War
RE4
Culdcept
Phantom Dust
Paper Mario: TTYD
Ninja Gaiden
KOTOR
Atelier Iris 1/2
Can I say Mount & Blade?

I'm having that more-than-five problem again, but this list is more manageable.  Still forgetting some stuff.  I'll have to peruse the shelf again.

I'll go with  a publication date of no earlier than 2003.

2003
Knights of the Old Republic
Beyond Good and Evil
Max Payne 2

2004
Shadow Hearts 2
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Rome: Total War
Katamari Damacy
NWN: Platinum Edition (Ok, I'm cheating a bit here, but HOU came out in '03 and it's what makes NWN worth buying))

2005
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
God of War
Shadow of the Colossus
Resident Evil 4
Lumines

2006
Disgaea 2
Okami

All I can think of at the moment.  Games, from my perspective,  that will definately leave you a more enriched gamer.  I want to put Windwaker up.. but Okami is such a better version of it. 

I don't really care much for FPSs and I don't ever think MMOs will be considered classics.  In 2009, I really won't be able to play the WoW I did last year.  Something that evolves so much never really deserves a permanent place in time.

Never played any of the Quakes or UTs other than demos. For small squad v squad games, I vastly prefered the RS series over Counterstrike (the tard factor was far lower). And I like BF2 more than any of the others in the series.

I can't believe I left off Master of Magic. That game ruled. Another oldie but goodie I thought of was Darklands. Buggy as hell, but was just a great game.

Without reading everyone else's, and only going back a few years... (so no M.U.L.E. or Civ 2)

1) KotoR
2) GTA: San Andreas
3) Oblivion
4) Sims 2 (I'm sorry, I can't help it.)
5) Civ 4

Honorable mentions to Diablo II for still being installed, WoW, and Vampire:Bloodlines

ESPN NFL 2k4 (because of the FP football - 2k5 was a better game, but the FP wasn't as good)
Unreal Tournament 2k4
Everquest (yes, I said it, EQ. I played the fucking game for 2.5 years, if that's not a classic I don't know what is)
Vampire: Bloodlines
Resident Evil 4
Deus Ex

Ok, I'll try to tighten mine up (http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:upk9kemtyq7z). Going back to 2003:

Planetside - the best implementation of mmo to date imo
KotOR - wish I had played the pc version, over 100 hours on the xbox version
Gothic 2 - playing this right now
GTA:VC - SA was great, but VC is the classic imo
Vampire: Bloodlines - patch it!
CoH - until the grind :(
Deus Ex - not 2!!
BF:V/BF2 - I liked 1942 the best, though
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic - Master of Magic returns
GalCiv - haven't played the sequel yet

Ok, no earlier than 2003:

Kotor 1/2
Jade Empire
WoW and Coh
Oblivion
Vampire: Bloodlines
Resident Evil 4 (the first RE game that I've truly played more than once)
Gothic 2 (I still need to finish it)

From looking at these lists...especially mine...there seems to have been a sort of Peak in Gaming, particularly PC, between '98 and '02.

All the main Elder Scrolls games
All the Kings Quest games
All the Doom games
All the Infocom games
All the Ultima games

That counts as five 'cause they'd all be on DVD or Blu-Ray or whatever high capacity format is coming down the pike.

Edit: Going back through I see we're talking newer games.

Oblivion
CoH
WoW
WC3 (Footies only. I can't get into WC3 past that).
UT2K4

That perception is probably unfairly skewed by the emphasis on "no more than ~5 years ago". There was lots of good stuff in that era and the years leading up to it.

Looking at the last 3 years though, and I'd be hard pressed to come up with more than a handful of outstanding titles.

Katamari Damacy
Paper Mario 1K Year Door*
Okami
God of War
Shadow of the Colossus

*The N64 Paper Mario really broke it into the genre and IMO is the real classic. I really want to add Lego Star Wars, but it's kinda niche-y.

I still think the single most important game to the birth of my fandom of gaming is Oregon Trail. The End.

That would make a good thread. Most influential games. Etc.

So did you start it yet or shall I?

Ok for newish games.  I really had to struggle way too long on this list.
I guess GTA: SA & VC  (miami >- teh ghetto for aesthetics) but both are great games, still haven't beaten SA.
HL2 - and yet I stil haven't finished it either, must be my out of date computer
Planetside - Played this alot longer then any other MMO even UO and had a blast with it.  If my old outfit was still really active I could almost see myself still playing it.... too bad Sony just would not devote much resources to it besides those crappy expansions.  
BF2 - Hell I play it enough so that's gotta count for something.

bout all I can think of right now.

EQ (see Haemish's post, but tack on a few more years)
At least 3 games from 1982-84 who's name I don't remember that I played on either the Sinclair ZX-Spectrum or the C64
Spaceward Ho!
A REALLY OBSCURE adventure game by Sierra where you were a CIA agent. You were coached throughout the game by actually filmed 'segments' with ex directors of both the CIA and KGB. Does anyone remember this game at all?
Fallout
Deus Ex
Dark Forces (the first one)
Half Life

Some great picks I had forgotten.

Tie Fighter:  We took turns playing this game in college.  Someone went out and bought the Star Wars soundtrack,  and we put the "Imperial March" piece on repeat and played.  Actually used to replay to get each and every bonus objective just to make sure we were advancing in the Order of the Empire.  Fun.

Colonization:  I loved this game as much or more than Civ.  The late game "fight for your independance against your home country" bit overcame the let down Civ-style strategy games give you when you fight past the mid game balance point and it's all just wiping up the remains of the other factions.

Myth:  Great, great, great RTT that pretended to be a RTS.  Formations and whatnot mattered,  and there was a hell of alot of tactics on some of the maps.  Good story (with massive Cook/Black Company influences) in the single player,  very good multiplayer.

I haven't been able to really enjoy resource based RTSes since.

Pirates!:  Old school black & white free form gameplay.  GTA owes alot to this game,  though some of it was bullshit.  I remember that the wind in the carribean was perpetually coming in one direction,  so to beat back upwind across the whole map I'd tack at a steep angle and go away for an hour or so.

Castlevania Symphony of the Night (that was the name of the last one on the original playstation, right?):  The greatest,  and last, sidescroller.

Honorable mentions:

Europa Universalis games and sequals
Total War games
Majesty (I don't know why I loved that sims meets fantasy rpg/rts thing)
The old Lucas Arts adventure games (Loom on through)
Quest for Glory/Kings Quest games
Diablos
The old Gold Box rpgs
Populous

Was it Spytek or Spycraft or something like that?  I think I remember the box.  It was next to 7th Guest and Myst at my store.. ..or the game I'm thinking of was.

Where is Gothic 1!?!?!

Spycraft. Never did finish that one, but I remember it well.

Adventure title like Police Quest, except espionage based.

[edit]

Speaking of obscure CIA games, there was another one that came out in the 90's called "Central Intelligence". It was a strategy title like Romance or Nobunaga, except in modern times and espionage based. Instead of sending out ninjas to assassinate a warlord, you'd pay off disenfranchised South American students to carbomb their president. You could incite coups, arm guerilla forces, make shady deals with cartels, engage in propaganda for political parties, conduct surveillance, and generally make a mess of things.

I really wish you would.

SMOKE THE WEED!!  best buff evar

Gothic 1 was neat but way too short for an RPG for me to be able to include it. Gothic 2 was a much better game. And of course, Gothic 3 comes out at the end of this month. (meaning I better hurry up and beat 2.)

Yeah, Gothic 1 was great. I was playing that when I was jonesing for the yet-unreleased Morrowind. I was a big Daggerfall fan, those epic dungeons were so cool. The funny thing is I ended up enjoying Gothic waaay more than the bland Morrowind, it had so much more character.

But Gothic 2 is a better game, especially the Gold version with the Night of the Raven expansion. I just got through to the new part of the island a couple nights ago and started exploring it last night. Logged off in a pirate camp, arr! I'm thinking it might be the best expansion I've ever seen because of the way it integrates throughout the entire game and adds a ton of content, instead of tacking it on the end. I'm still only Circle 3 magician, but omg Storm spell! One of the cooler spells I've seen outside Sacrifice.

Sacrifice was a great game, dragged down by having to have that hoard of (regretfully named) manawhores following you around to have enough mana for spells. A buddy and I played a shitton of that over the LAN back when we had a LAN group here. The high level spells in that game set the bar that has yet to be surmounted, any developer owes it to themself to play it and check out spells like Volcano and Tornado.

 :-D :-D :-D

The first eight Ultimas plus Aklabeth are all on one CD.

I have to place Ico above Shadow of the Collossus.  Really.

2001!  :-D  That is one I should probably pick up sometime.  It's under $30 on GameQuest Direct.

I can't believe no one mentioned:

Star Control 2
Star Flight

props to sky for Syndicate.

I have Ur-Quan Masters installed on my PC right now.  It kinda makes me angry with the time limit.  I don't like time limits.

Change it in the source code.

I had it installed on my work mac for a while but had to uninstall it before I got fired.

Star Flight, thank you, could not remember the name of that one.  Lost much time playing that game over and over, even though I sucked at it.  And yeah Bullfrog made some great games (insert EA hate), syndicate was the awesome, chain guns and flamethrowers and all assortment of armaments for my killing cyborgs. 

Yep, that's the one. It had an ending that, nowadays, seems ironic; you could interrogate the prisoner with torture or not. If you tortured, you got the wrong answers and got thrown out of the CIA, ending the game. If you didn't, you finally found out who the mole is by simply lying to your superior about the information gathered, and flushing the mole out that way.

Star Control II (I shocked when it wasn't on the first page, but then Furiously mentioned it).
Nethack. (almost 20 years later I can still play that for hours)
X-Com.
Lumines.
Tetris.

I am actually in that sort of mood today, being flush with the success of getting Wasteland to run this morning.  Let's see if it lasts until I get home.

I do too, I just thought it was >5 yrs old. Oopie!

I prefer Shadow to Ico. No helping it really. Ico had some puzzles that broke up the gameplay something wretched. It just didn't flow for me the way SotC flowed. Ico is Nate Dogg to SotC's Warren G.

New Classics

Dead Rising
Europa Universalis II
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Shadow of the Colossus
World of Warcraft

Dead Rising is very new, but I feel that it warrants attention. It really brings something games have lacked... A sense of urgency. The ingame clock is always running in a sandbox envoirment. You get all these cool distractions or you can go on these missions. Shenmue did it, but there was seldom a overarching timer that felt this solid, and the consequences never really felt like that big of an deal in a so realistic setting. The game also looks great and the mass zombie setting is very fitting for a game :)

EUII is just the greatest strategy game I've played so far. You can pace it just as you want to. Realtime with the ability to pause. The diplomatic part feels ok in it, if a bit underdeveloped. But it's so much nicer then Civ3's. Looks terrible but charming.

GTA:VC took what was best of GTA3, and didn't have all the added extra, and un-needed stuff that GTA:SA had. Gold.

Shadow was a really nice surprise. I never really got into ICO, and the whole following the  girl around. And I didn't really like  the brown/gray art direction. But Shadow really blew me away, downing the colossus felt like a real achievement. I dropped the grind, and put you straight to an interesting and challenging bossfight.

WoW got me into MMO's, and I still love the game. Probably return to it once BC launches. Good Times.

I shoud've included the Might and Magic games as well. MM 3, 4, and 5 were the best. The first one I ever played though was the Genesis port of 2. Damn good game there. Kept me on for at least a year.