Sorry folks for the long break in the posts, but it’s only me and the holiday season was crazy. Honestly you can blame SWTOR for taking loads of my time. Oddly enough, I am in the groove of this spring semester, and have more time to write (the best part is I can make posts during work).
Well, lets get down to business. I was recently asked one of the hardest question you can ask a gamer. In no particular order, what are your top ten favorite games? Now you can see why this is a hard question. We all have played a lot of great games over the years, and pumped countless hours in to our favorites. But does play time constitute a coveted spot in your personal top ten? I mean I’ve played a lot of NBA Jam (Xbox 360) with my friend frank and had a great time, but I wouldn’t call it one of my favorite games. This list will change because I guarantee you that I overlooked games, but as of right now this is my list.
Again in no particular order:
1) Bioshock
Bioshock has one of the best stories ever written for a video game. It is full suspenseful moments, action, and times where you question human nature and free will. This game is honestly for everyone. If you are good at shooters great play this the guns and ammo are interesting and fun to play with, alternatively if you suck at shooter play it anyways because there is no penalty for dieing. Honestly, if you die you instantly resurrect at a vita station and you can continue the story. Most of all, I had my favorite scene in any game. The moment you descend into the ocean and see Rapture (the underwater city where the game takes place) for the first time is breath taking.
2) Xenogears
There isn’t much to say about this game except that it changed my views on what a RPG could be. It was a mature title from Squaresoft, that was unlike the well known Final Fantasy titles. I had its own combat system that used combination button presses to activate a “Deathblow”, a move with a cinematic feel. For all of you mech fans, you didn’t just fight as a tiny human, but also in your own robot. Overall this game may not have had the best story, but it really left a mark on me because of how amazing the combat was and how cool the cut-scenes were.
3) Monster Rancher 2
Monster Rancher 2 was one of my favorite games on the Play Station. It was a really simple game in which you worked with a single monster, you trained them, and would fight them in tournaments with the goal to be the S-class champion. Now this sounds like Pokemon, I know, but it’s more interesting than that. Unlike Pokemon, your monster has a lifespan. This means that you can’t max out its stats by training all day. If you did that your monster would die before he even entered a tournament. As a kid I remember getting to a C-class tournament was big, and winning was a huge achievement. The best part of this game was its most interesting part too. The way you got monster was you generated them from your music CDs laying around the house. I remember it was an event for me and my friends to get all of our CDs together to see what monsters were living inside them. The challenge was getting the right CD to make a really good monster, and train it. After in game years more monster became active and would be available to get.
4) Minecraft
Minecraft is one of the best indie games ever. Did you enjoy Legos as a kid, then you are going to love Minecraft. you want to explore, go to it. You want to build a replica of your house, no ones stopping you. You want to build a giant underwater glass castle with an automated mine cart transportation system, start reading forums on red stone. The only limit with Minecraft is yourself. When creating by yourself gets boring, you can easily create a server and host a world where you and your friends can create what ever you want. The best parts of this game is its low price and the fact that Mojang is constantly updating it.
5) League of Legends
League of Legends is a action RTS tower defense PC game. This game is addicting and extremely fun. You and four other friends can choose from 92 (as of 1/31/2012) champions to try and defeat 5 other player in an online battle. The more you play you level up which unlocks skill points to add to your skill tree to get stronger, and in game currency to unlock more champions to play. When you unlock a champion the are available forever. You have the option to buy a skin to make your love for a champion known, and to make them look cool. This game is constantly updated with new champions and skins for the champions…. Oh did I mention its FREE!
6) Gears of War
Gears of Was was, for me, was the game that defined the Xbox360. It was the sole reason I saved up money to get one as soon as I could. This game was the first in this fantastic trilogy, and was my absolute favorite. This game not only had fantastic game play, I had a fantastic story. Besides Gears, I cant name a shooter that made you care about the characters. Having a great multilayer experience doesn’t hurt either.
7) Alan Wake
When my Xbox360 red ringed for the second time I was pissed. This meant I was going to have to go out and buy a another console, and being a broke college student, It took a lot out of me. When I finally got around to buying a new one I was one of the sleek new black consoles that came with two games. The games I get were Forza 3 and Alan Wake. To save room in the box and to cut cost, I guess, Alan Wake was a download code. Because of this I didn’t download it and play it immediately. When I finally got around to playing it I was extremely surprised on how good it was. The visuals are stunning. The controls were smooth. The writing kept me entertained and wanting to know more. For me this game had my attention. It is so good one of my friends wanted to be around to watch me play it because of how interesting it was. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the survival horrors of the past like Resident Evil and Dino Crisis, but there is something about fighting your imagination and writings with light that appeals to me. If you haven’t played it try it, you’ll love it.
8) Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid is my favorite out of the series. A lot of people don’t like it for the reason that it is almost the retelling of the original game, just without Solid Snake as the playable character. Of course of you play the game they explain why this is but regardless, it is great. This then new addition to the series made it possible to look down the sites in a first person view. This brought a whole new level to the game, where not you could be more precise with where you shot a guard with a tranquilizer dart. This game also introduced a new character, Raiden, who people hated at first but later became cooler as the series progressed. This game was my first introduction to the series and to this day is extremely enjoyable.
9) Portal 2
I chose Portal 2 over the original Portal for many reasons. First being that Portal 2 is a stand alone game, not an add-on to resell Half-Life 2. Now again I’m not saying Portal was rushed or bad, it was just short. Portal 2 actually felt like a complete game. Like the original it was challenging and funny, even more funny than the first with the addition of Stephen Merchant as Wheatley. not to give any away but the best part of the game is when they added the orange and blue paint…oh and Cave Johnson. This game also included a two player co-op experience that didn’t feel tacked on at the last minute.
10) Spider-man 2
If you were Spider-man, what would be the most fun thing to do? Thats right, web sling. Spider-man 2 for the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox was the first Spider-man game to have this mechanic in their game. When you created a new file for the game, before you started, you were given the option of easy or precision web slinging. This meant that if you chose precision web slinging you had total control of Spider-man from where he shot the web, the angle and speed of your swing. Not only did they get the web slinging physics correct, they also gave you an amazing version of Manhattan to play in. At this point you don’t care if the story is good or what the missions are because you have lost track of time and have been swinging, and running/climbing on buildings for hours.
Like I said, this list is going to change but as of right now I’m happy with it. Leave a comment either here or on our twitter page with your list of top ten. —————-> (Follow button on the side bar)
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