View Single Post
Old 05-10-2010, 06:58 AM   #13
UPtimist
Life and times of...
 
UPtimist's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Up there in the mist
Posts: 6,025
Default

Since I can't edit my last post anymore, I'll just have to add that reading certain last posts, I need to add Morrowind to the list. I hadn't really ever played games like that before and everything was just so exciting about it I still also say that with the exception of certain little things (such as the mana bar (the magic meter, whatever)), it's a better game than Oblivion.

Of course there are other games that were very important in my past, but I can't say if they really changed the way I see games. Perhaps more like shaped it (you know, to begin with).

(Edit): Here's better details on my old list (I'm still sure I'm missing some games, but whatever)
Quote:
Gabriel Knight 3 (obviously)
Beyond Good & Evil
Grim Fandango
Psychonauts
Outcast
Knights of the Old Repblic
Samorost (yes, Samorost)
Mirror's Edge (many things in it, but especially the fact that you have the possibility to play it as a shooter of sort, but it basically rewards you from going non-violent (to a certain extent))
Half-Life
Gabriel Knight 3 - just so many things that I can't really even start to talk about it (I'd be at it all night). Let's just say that while it was one of the first AGs I've ever played, that wasn't the only time it has changed the way I view games, but in fact I've often been amazed by what it has to offer and it has changed my views many times since. It's constantly changing my views. It's still to me pretty much the epitome of AGs. Just absolute brilliance, even despite some of its flaws. The best - game - ever.

Grim Fandango - the more I've played it the more I've enjoyed it. It's just the absolute elegance in which the world is built, the story is told, just everything that shows that games can be so much more than what they often tend to be.

Psychonauts & Beyond Good & Evil - surprise to see another Schafer game? Again, the way everything is built and told, the twisted beauty... And, as well as with Beyond Good & Evil, the way that such strong story and adventure elements are combined with the sort of platformer/action games that they are. And in the case of Beyond Good & Evil, the way the seemingly simple and cartoony world in fact has an unusually touching and even tragic story.

Outcast - Again, so much to say, so little space. Still no real rivals, an incredibly rich and open world, the combination of the wonderful story and exploration and a shooter/action game... Also, and this especially nowadays is important: how the world is built in that it is what it is - right from the beginning. As you evolve, further in the story etc. the world doesn't change - only you do. The world the same from the very start and there are places that are simply impossible for you to get into. You can try though, and sometimes it has its own reward and this just makes the world seem so much more real and alive - as well as makes for a very nice rhythm for the story as you later return to the places you once looked at with fear and just make your way in. Also, the way the action isn't about how big a gun you've got but about how good you really are. You can't simply go in with the biggest gun you have blazing, you need tactics, cleverness... And all this in such an old game

Knights of the Old Republic - the first turn-based RPG I've played. The story was (and is) amazingly broad and gripping, the world has so much to do... I can't really describe what it is.

Samorost - something so wondeful and marvelous with such simple ingredients. Really proved to me once and for all how indie games can be the top of the notch.

Mirror's Edge I already quickly covered, so I won't go into that.

Finally, Half-Life - I hadn't even really played shooters before that. Mainly stuff like Tomb Raiders in that area (which I loved, but belong more to the "defining" games rather than the "view-changing" ones, as the demo of Tomb-Raider (#1) was really the first computer game I ever played (I had Commodore and Sega before that though)) but no FPS. However, even on a retrospect it's two or three things that really make it: first of all, the way the story is told. It just starts with an ordinary day, then something goes wrong, and it's never really forced upon you. Then there's the G-man, and the mystery is just so thick you can feel it... And the fact that the story is built without a single cutsene, without you ever saying a single word And of course very importantly - the best main character an FPS has ever, ever, ever seen. Not one of those macho... things, not even a fighter in any way, but a scientist, a PhD with glasses who's stranded in a huge industrial complex. And of course there's the gameplay elements - the puzzles like the missile silo tentacle thing, the radio comm and the music you start hearing when the commandos appear... Just so amazing! HL2 was great, but it just can't capture the feeling that Half-Life had.

Last edited by UPtimist; 05-10-2010 at 07:33 AM.
UPtimist is offline