Name 10 favorite games

[Drasca]

Let's all play a game. We'll all list up to 10 games at a time with a few guildelines, so we can all see a little flavor and possibly get into something new.

1) No repeats.
--The rarer the game the better, the point is to see new stuff
--Take a glance at the list. Accidents happen, but it would be pointless to see Blizzard games repeated 100 times.

2) Include a description of the game.
--Just the name itself isn't enough if we're going for rare names that's supposed to be new to everyone.
--Say what was special about it. Even if your writing skills aren't up to par, there's likely someone else to recognize the game and contribute to it.

3) Try to limit discussion of a particular game under its proper thread

4) Themes to your list are very welcome.
--70's & 80's themes
--Text Adventure (boy they were hard at first)
--Macintosh
--Shareware
--and more!

5) Up to ten at a time please
--Doesn't have to be 10, a singular name and description contibrution is enough alone.


I'll begin with a few of my own favorites


Asterix

--This Macintosh shareware game resembled the old game asteroids, with 8-bit color sprites and a new replayability and physics. TOne would shoot asteroids, and wait for Crystals and shield power-ups to be taken out. Only, your shooting can also destroy the cash mineral crop you'd collect! Asteroids would explode and fragement into other smaller asteroids from largest-->medium-->smallest--->destroyed, all of which could hit you and take out your shields (save dust) or have a chance to drop Crystal credit (cash) and powerup. Physics applied, as the direction of your shots would affect the resulting directions of the asteroid, you ship would accelerate until a top speed and continue floating at that speed until you'd accelerate in the other direction or crash into an asteroid (and die). The best part was the shopping round in-between, where one would have a multitude of options from 6 systems, each having 8 different purchase-able add-ons for your ship. Weapons alone had, Safe shots (so they wouldn't destroy your crystal cash crop), multi shot streams, longer/faster rounds, more rounds fired at a time and scatter-shots. Better shields, Brake systems, power ups for mid-battle shield-recharge, and more. All made this game replayable and memorable for a long time. Two player option was also available if you could mind-sharing the keyboard with your buddies.

Dungeon Keeper 1/2, windows

--Some of Bullfrog's best, playing on the evil side, one would dig out a 2 dimensional playing field a Dungeon from a 3D view (First person availabe with spell, possession of your creatures), setting up traps for heroes, training your troops (each having their own experience levels, personalities, abilities and racial hatreds--would attack each other on sight). One would manage the dungeon, with the imps digging out elaborate mazes filled with traps or functional dungeons filled with torture rooms to capture get drop enemy troops in for information or to turn to your cause, prisons for your imps to drag the incapacitated bodies of your enemies and hold in (and turn into undead skeletons if they starved to death in there), Graveyards for dragging the corpses of the enemies and summon vampires in, Libraries to research spells, and more. This game was extremely memorable for its cool unique style, epic battles against the goodies and and neato stuff. It could be called RTS, but had too many RPG elements. One of the first true "role-playing strategy" games around.

Majesty Win/Mac

--"A fantasy kingdom sim"

Made by Cyberlore, it is the good younger brother of Dungeon Keeper, making an above ground fantasy kingdom. No tiles, open space for buildings to hire heroes, each with their own personality and each could not be directly controlled. Classic Warriors were grunt starting troops, Wizards the most firepower, but most fragil. It was pure chaos. You as the rule could only influence the heroes by placing bounties of various gold rewards on moving to a point or destroying a certain lair or creature. Rangers would explore as they will, buying healing potions, running away from enemies too hard. A Paladin would most likely go beserk running off to slay everything and occasionally coming back to buy weapons and armor upgrades from the blacksmith you've built, or buy interesting other equipment from buildings with their own money.

There was everything, including several distractions for your heroes against adventuring-- Gambling Casinos, Elven Lounges (Brothels really, just imagine the Barbarian, the Necro-sadist Priest and the Dusty old wizard and Bear-shapeshifter...), Meditation Rose Gardens, Gazebos, or they'd simply sleep and lounge around in their own guild/temple buildings they were recruited from if there was nothing to do, or no incentive to do it--Even while the Dragons are at your doorstep, destroying everything but your Palace (only when their homes or the Palace are attacked will certain heroes ever "Defend the realm" on their own) Of course Rogues from the would always be pilfering from even your own building's coffers, as well as the recently dead (enemies or friends) and do tasks for the least cash.

The Heroes had so much personality and the situations were so unpredictably chaotic. I loved it. Soo much replay value =)

Those are my three starting contributions. I look forward to yours.

[LiquidDamage]

Unfortunately, most of my gaming history is from consoles. I didn't get a PC until 1996, and even then it was far enough behind the times that I couldn't play most of the new games. Here are some pre-PSX console titles that I found to be... special. These are all games that I haven't seen discussed on this board before.

If you happen to have the console system required, or have an emulator, I'd recommend looking for these games, as they were very interesting and fun.


Warsong (Sega Genesis)

If you think the idea of heroes with auras that support their expendable troops was introduced in Warcraft III, you are wrong. I first saw this concept in Warsong (Though it may not even have originated there).

Warsong was a turn based strategy game that reminds me a great deal of Warcraft III. You had several heroes that you met throughout your campaign, and each had a unique "command aura" that provided special boosts to troops within their range. Heroes could gain levels, and at a certain level they could go through a class change (much like Shining Force, which I believe drew ideas from Warsong). Each hero had a choice of two paths, twice, resulting in 7 total classes per hero (but you could only see 3 per game). For example, I seem to remember one character starting as some sort of warrior, then being able to choose a path of a knight or a paladin. Then each of those had another two choices later on, with different special abilities.

I don't believe there was a head to head version, I think there was only the single player campaign, which did follow a storyline, and the characters did have some personality.

King's Bounty (Sega Genesis)

This game, when you first play it, seems pretty cheesy. The graphics are a bit silly and the music is a little goofy. An old friend of mine, whenever he'd get nostalgic for Warsong, would forget the name of it, and wind up renting (or buying, once they stopped renting Genesis games) this game. It still was great fun.

About 2 years ago a bunch of my friends were playing Heroes of Might and Magic III. I figured I'd give it a shot, and I kept getting deja vu. The combat system was familiar, and the units were eerily familiar in both their names and functionality. Some of the powerups for the heroes were familiar, and as I continued to play the game I was amazed to feel like I had played this game before, yet it had just been released and I remembered no specifics.

One day it dawned on me: King's Bounty, that silly game we had played so many times, was nearly identical in playstyle. It had 90% of the same units, it had places where you could hire monsters and warriors, and it had a little guy on a horse waving a flag that you moved around when controlling the game. The battlefield functioned exactly the same: a side view of a hex-based field with opposing units starting on opposite sides.

King's Bounty actually was the game that started the Heroes of Might and Magic series, though the HoMM name didn't appear until the next game they released.

If you want to play this game with updated graphics, apparently you can if you get Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the DragonBone Staff for the PS2.

Master of Monsters (Sega Genesis)

Another turn-based strategy game, Master of Monsters could be played in either a single player campaign mode (there were two campaigns) or against other players (I think up to 4).

At the beginning, you got to pick one of several "masters" that could control a different variety of monsters. You would start in a base on a hex-based board, and be able to summon a number of monsters equal to the number of "towers" you possessed. A tower was possessed simply by landing on the hex that represented it, and it would remain yours until someone else landed on it (they would have to kill any creature you had on that hex first, if one was there).

The board was covered with different terrain that different monsters could move across at different rates, depending on their specialities. Most flying characters could move over any terrain at maximum movement rate, while land and water creatures had preferred terrain.

Monsters could gain experience, and would upgrade after a certain amount of it. Most monsters had 3 levels, and at the final level, they could gain up to 255 experience (which was a huge amount), which would increase the damage they dealt.

Overall, the game was very fun.

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Drasca,

This list is in no particular order: just as I think of them.

Shining Force II:
Duh, like I'd not list this gem ;) I played this game continually from when I was 10 until I was 14. I am not sure what exactly drew me into it, but I think it was a largely due to the variety of characters you could bring into your small army - also, how unusual many of them were. I was a big fan of the art at the time too.

Final Fantasy VI:
I'm a massive Final Fantasy fan, having copies of every one of them from the original until VIII (I don't have IX or X because I do not have a PSX). Again, the variety of characters - and how each was so unique - was what drew me into this game. I could mix-and-match to my hearts content, and find new ways to play it every time I started a new game.

Seiken Densetsu III:
The broadness of the classes in this game was again somewhat of a draw card, but in the end it was the art that won me over: I was stunned by how good it was the first time I loaded the game up. Not being able to read Japanese I found myself unable to pick up on the story the first few times I played it, but once I got a translation of it I was quite happy :)

Diablo series:
Sorry, but it's a given here: you cannot post such a thread on a Diablo forum and not expect people to list the Diablo games. Again, it's the possabilities that drew me to the game - even though it is quite different in style to most of those I play. For me, it is variants that make the game!

Zork series:
Classic gaming! Not a real fan of the modern graphical ones, but the originals are great fun! A lot of time has gone into them, and the first time you play you really do have to think to put together all the pieces. Would have been better if I had a list of basic commands handy before I started playing for the first time, but I picked up the idea quickly enough.

Not a favourite as such, but one I'm looking forward to, is Hourai Gakuen no Bouken: from what little I have heard, it sounds like a classic. I recently got my hands on it, and look forward to starting in the near future (once I finish Treasure Hunter G). Some other good'uns that didn't make the list are Bushi Seiryuden, Final Fantasy V, Rudora No Hihou, Tales of Phantasia and Terranigma; NetHack and ADVENT are always good too, but I've never put as much time into these as I have the others.

[Raz]

Hail Elric,

Ever tried beating Final Fantasy I with a team of 4 Black Mages??? That is tough and expensive :)

I could only finish it with a team of a White Mage and 3 Black Mages.

[Thecla]

...but going back to the golden age of arcade games, and leaving aside the obvious ones like pac-man (1980), donkey kong (1981), frogger (1981) etc. I really liked

-- Gauntlet (1985): an arcade precursor of Diablo with an elf, mage, and/or warrior fighting through maze after maze. Even then, I liked the elf (i.e. rogue) best (ouch! I still remember how much those darn ghosts hurt -- "elf is about to die").

and my all time favorite

-- Mr. Do! (1982) Dig tunnels, eat cherries, drop apples on the nasty monsters (who moved ever faster as you cleared levels), or throw your ball at them, all to the sound of cheery circus music. What's not to like? Mr. Do! was one tough hombre

http://www.mrdo.com/mrdo/doscr1.gif

I can say with pride that there was no better (or more practised) Mr. Do! player than me in my neck of the woods.

[Dozer]

Wow, 10 games? I'm not smart enough for that :D . I think I'll start with two.

Fallout (and its good, but rather the same sequel). this game is one of the only RPGs besides Diablo II and the second Baldur's gate games that I have played through more than once. The perks system is ingeous, the combat is simple but incredibly fun, and the plot is teriffic (although it drags by the second game). You can play through as an evil character or a good one, getting almost a completely different experience both times.

Jedi Knight (but NOT the sequel, it felt too much like Quake 3 or half-life). This is the best Star Wars game ever made. I have played through this one AT LEAST four times, and only on the fourth time stooping as low as to get a list to find all the secret areas. The choose-your-force-path thing was a very cool thing, and was sorely missed in the second game. Oh, and it had good multiplayer (although it was sooo easily cheatable, all the weapon information files were notepad-editable and the didn't have to be the same on each client - but even that was fun sometimes!)

More games that I have enjoyed over the years:
Goldeneye (No one said ths was PC exclusive :P)
Worms 2 / Armageddon
(as mentioned above) Baldur's Gate 2 and expansion, and Half-Life
Civilization 2 + 3
Starcraft and expansion (never liked Warcraft)
The Metal Gear Solid Games
The PS2 Grand Theft Auto Games
King's Quest V - Old School!
Almost all of the fianl fantasy games, FFX being my favorite

I'm sure there are more, but I'ts 2AM and I need to sleep. :)

[DeeBye]

1) BC's Quest for Tires.
I loved my old ColecoVision ADAM.

2) Suikoden (1+2).
Great games. 108 party members kicks ass.

3) Star Ocean 2.
Lovely stuff. SO MANY secrets!

4) The "Breath of Fire" series.
I loved each and every one of them.

-list ends due to incompleteness-


-DeeBye

[Feryar]

When it comes to adventure games, I don't think anyone beats Sierra.

Quest for Glory Series
First game was called Hero's Quest, but they had to change the name to Quest for Glory because someone else was already using the name "Hero's Quest". At least that's what I heard happened. It's still called Hero's Quest on my box though.
You get to choose between 3 classes; Fighter, Thief and Wizard. You have lots of stats (like Strength, Vitality, etc.) that improves as you play. If you throw knives then your throwing improves, if you climb trees then you get better at climbing etc. There's a fair share of humor and the game is not too hard or not too easy. Recommended!
The second game in the series is Quest for Glory 2: Trial by fire. This one is also very good, and runs the same concept as number 1. You can also import your character from Hero's Quest. In this game the concept of becoming a Paladin opens up if you're a Fighter. This one is also very good!
The third game is Quest for Glory 3 (d'oh ;)). I can't remember the subtitle for it. You can still bring you character with you from the two previous games. It's more of the same, really, still a very good game.
I remember my computer not being able to run the 4th game in the series, so I dunno if that is any good. Come to think of it, I might just go looking for it since the computer I have now should easily be able to handle it.

Police Quest Series
Classic games. It's not Sierra at it's best but I can recommend the first and third one.

Space Quest Series
In my opinion this is the second best series of adventure game ever made. Not much more to say about that. If you never tried playing Space Quest then give it a try. Main character through all the games is Roger Wilco, a janitor and a true anti-hero. A great dose of humor, creative plots and a lot of challenges.
I've played the first 5 of the games, and I've enjoyed them all.

[Taem]

Hail Elric,

Zork was such a fantastic game, I do agree with you there! What I liked best about the non-graphic versions (pre 86' or so I believe) was that you were forced too use your imagination, and usually what you thought up was far better than any illustrated computer graphic, especially in those days of computers. For me, it was a dark, eerie feeling when it described the house and the celler. I felt there wasn't much for a storyline, but the puzzles were pretty good. All in all, I loved Zork. I also bought Zork Beyond but never played it.

[Taem]

Hail Feryar,

Hero's Quest was owned at the time by Hasbro (before the Inc.?) who had a board game out also called Hero's Quest. I had both the game board and the computer game on my old Atari ST and remember the lawsuit and the sudden name change to Quest for Glory. Hero's Quest was also one of my favorite games and I always wished they made a MOD for it to enhance its possibilities. I also enjoyed QFG 2 quite a lot. QFG3 was fun, especially since I could play the Paladin, but was lacking in certain elements that QFG1 excelled in, such as that whole D&D monster/wild forest feeling. QFG4 sucked IMO. I just wasn't into the whole Transylvania thing, not to mention it didn't seem to follow the QFG series that well. Also, the combat in QFG4 was terrible compared to the previous versions. I still believe QFG1 had and has the best combat system of the entire series. And I never played QFG5 because I was noticing a disappointing trend in the series and wanted to put my money into something else, like CIVILIZATION 2.

[Taem]

Hail Drasca,

My favorite games of all time are:

1.) Dungeon Master (PC) - This game was one of the original first person perspective games and was the pioneer for RPG's in this manor on the computer. Dungeon Master involved having you start off as a ghost or essence if you will, walking down a "Hall of Heroes". Your mission is to pick four "heroes" frozen in time and, using your essence of control over them, guide them down through a complex dungeon filled with puzzles and traps and avenge the death of your master and I believe yourself. The best aspect of this game was how your characters improved. For every action you did, you would gain experience in that area, thus if you threw a stone around everywhere you went, you would gain 1 exp in strength and the throwing skill and after enough exp, your strength would go up or your throwing skill or both. The system was incredibly intricate. And the magic casting system would blow your mind, giving you almost limitless possibilities. You would choose a power level from 5 (or 6) different runes, then an element, also from 5 (or 6) different runes, then an action from 5-6 different runes, and finally an energy. The spells could be anywhere from 2-4 runes in length and could be of any combination of results, with most producing certain effects. When you start the game, you don't know any of the spells so you have to figure them out for yourself. Such a great game.

2.) Civilization 1 & 2 (PC) - I think we all know about the CIV series. I lost my steam talking about the Dungeon Master game, so if someone else has something to add to this, please be my guest.

3.) Curse of the Azure Bonds (PC) - well, the whole SSI series of Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, Secret of the Silver Blades, and Hillsfar.

4.) 007 Goldeneye (N64)

5.) Perfect Dark (N64)

6.) Pirates - not the newer version, but the OLD version by Mircoprose where you were a dread pirate of one of 6 (I believe) nationalities and scourged the seas between Spain and the keys, fighting other pirates and sacking port cities, stealing their loot. After awhile, you gained royal titles and accumulated quite a few enemies. You could search for treasure and get in sword fights. This was a truly enriching game.

7.) Doom series

Had some more great games I've played, but I still need to revise this list and add more description. Too tired to do it right now.

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Raz,

No, but I remember someone telling me about the time they did it with four White Magi! I couldn't even get them through the first battle with Garland :P I believe it was someone at Realms Beyond who told me about doing this :)

Besides, I like variety ;) I have to have both White and Black Magi, so I have access to every spell; beyond that it depends on my mood.

[Elric of Grans]

Hail Meat,

You also forgot that no graphics can take the place of a black screen when it comes to being fearful of grues ;) I have Zork, Zork II, Zork III, Zork Zero, Beyond Zork, Return to Zork and Zork Nemesis - I heard Zork: Grand Inquisitor was pretty good, because it returned to the roots of the series, but never tried it out. Return to Zork was OK, but Zork Nemesis was so bad that it permanently turned me off graphical Adventure games for good: it was everything that people hate about the genre, amplified by a magnitude of 10! Oh, and I believe Beyond Zork (or maybe it was Zork Zero - my memory isn't great on things like this) had a few basic graphics in it, but at the core it was still a text-based game - and all the benefits of such were present :D

Oh, and for a bit of a laugh, here's how I worked out how to do commands in these games ;) I was typing anything that came to mind, but nothing would work. In the end, I got POed and typed `bite me': the response from the game (try it sometime :P ) suggested to me that it must work on some kind of a verb-noun parser, so I tried `look house', `go north', etc. I finally (after something like 20 minutes of trying) got it :)

[Jedi Knight]

1- Freelancer : I like this because the universe is huge, you can do whatever you want, and space shooters are always cool! Of course the single player campaign could have been a lot better, but still it shines in MP. Can't wait for an expansion pack...

2- Landstalker : One of the best games the Sega Genesis has to offer. Imagine playing Zelda III but with the Diablo viewing angle (there's a name for that, but I don't remember). You're an elf called Nigel, and you are a treasure hunter. You can upgrade your sword, armor, boots and rings, you'll fight lots of tough monsters and will have to solve riddles, and some of them are a real pain! Sometimes the game gets frustrating, it's tough, but it's really a great game, for RPG fans anyway.

3- Unreal Tournament : I like it because of the mods, however they are harder to find now, because now all sites cover UT2003 instead. Still, there are lots of fun mods to play! Some even turn the FPS into a flight sim - showing how the UT engine is powerful and flexible. There are mods for everybody, ranging from realistic combat to uber weapons of destruction. You can also download maps, which also adds to the already great replayability.

4- Star Trek Elite Force : You are on USS Voyager, and you are part of the Hazard Team - when there's trouble ahead, you're the first to go. You will fight against humans, Klingons, Borg drones, and aliens. USS Voyager goes through a wormhole and ends in a "space junkyard" along with other derelict ships. The ship has no energy, no sensors, you don't know where you are, and you have to leave. You will fight to find what drains all your energy, but the other species won't be too happy. Great game based on Quake III engine, lots of attention to detail and a total immersion in the Star Trek universe.

5- Star Trek Armada II : Like Starcraft, but in 3D and in space. You must harvest dilithium from moons, and mine iron from planets, which you must also colonize (you need people for ship crew and officers). The campaign is great, but nothing is better than playing with some friends - and assimilating them :D

6- MegaMan series
7- SimCity series
8- Mordor II : great RPG! haven't even got through the shareware version yet...
9- Need for Speed series

There are many other games I enjoyed, I just can't mention them all (or were already mentioned, like Fallout and Shining Force).

[NiteFox]

Sounds fun. Quite a few of my favourites have been listed (Dungeon Keeper, a zillion SNES RPGs. Diablo.) but there's quite a few gamus obscura in my collection, as well as a couple that others missed.

HardWar (Also Hardwar, Hardw[a]r, HardW[a]r)
Between Elite and Freelancer was HardWar. Essentially a space trading game taking place within a collection of craters on the Titan. Formerly a mining colony, the corporation behind the city of "Optimism" pulled out leaving many of the colonists stranded with no way off. Now every individual of Misplaced Optimism as it's now called (Also MisOp or MO) ekes out a living however they can. While the monorails that worm their way through the collection of craters is fine for pedestrians, the only way you can get from Highrise to Riverside in MisOp is by Moth, a small flying craft so-called because of the fact that it's solar-powered, and is therefore drawn towards light sources such as the massive Lightwells in nearly every crater.
The game is truly open-ended. However you want to play you can. You can either be a vicious bounty hunter, working your way down the Wanted lists of Police stations, or through the Enemies lists of the various factions. You can trade by hauling cargo between various hangers by consulting the Sales and Needs lists available in the many trading centres. If going's a little slow you can either scavenge crap from the moon's surface, or even pirate what you need. Heck, you can even buy your own hangars for storage of excess Moths/goods, or open them up to the public as repair bays, stores, or you can even install your own manufacturing facilities to produce goods for sale or personal use. If you wish to follow the plot, but there's not much I can say without spoiling it.
A damn fine game, and while it was slated for a sequel the company that produced the game (The Software Refinery) went under recently, probably no doubt due to its poor choice of publishers (Gremlin in the UK, who went bust years ago, and Interplay in the US) which pretty much accounts for the game's rarity.

Uplink (US title - Uplink: Hacker Elite)
Another small-time success story. Uplink was, essentially, coded by three former students much in the vein of pretty much every game in the 80s. Uplink is a hacker game. Starting off as a low-end Agent in the Uplink Corporation with access to a very crappy Gateway computer and a $3,000 loan, you must work your way up the ranks (And earn boatloads of cash) by accepting jobs from clients on Uplink's BBS service and then completing your nefarious deeds. Needless to say, your hacking must go undedected, and nothing must lead back to your Gateway lest the Feds find you. Of course, the lower-risk jobs only result in having to pay (Descreetly) a fine to the company you bummed, but as you start ripping the guts out of the systems of the major companies you should be expected to install a motion sensor and self-destruct on your Gateway, 'cause when the Feds come knocking, you'd better start bombing.

Grim Fandango
You've probably heard of this one. If you haven't, then it's a LucasArts adventure in the Land of the Dead. Manny Calavera, travel agent, has to work off a debt owed in the Land of the Living by selling travel packages to recently departed souls for their four-year journey across the Land of the Dead, the quality of the package depending on how good or bad a life they led. Once, he was a good salesman, selling dozens of tickets for the Number Nine (An express train that takes you right to the end in four minutes, in perfect luxury) but now things are drying up. The most his clients deserve to have these days are walking sticks, and for some that's too good. When Manny "intercepts" Mercedes Colomar, a client slated for Manny's high-flying rival Domino, and finds out that, despite living a saintly life she's nowhere near elegible for the Nine, he begins to suspect his employers.

[Nicodemus Phaulkon]

Karateka by Jordan Mechner for the Apple ][e.
- Scrolling hand-to-hander that was one of Mechner's first successes into his developmental career. The game was essentially movement from left to right, pausing to do battle with individual foes. In battle, one could choose high/middle/low punch or high/middle/low kick. Your chances to actually connect and not be blocked were hinged on timing with your opponent's movement. Part of Karateka's elegance was the fact that there was no text descriptions or character dialogue. All the "mood" of the game was handled with visual "acting" by the characters and musical cues. A revolutionary thought, at the time.

Traversal between opponents was done at a run (instead of "ready-stance" shuffling). However, any hit while running cost you your entire life (I believe you could withstand several hits while in ready-stance). Even a pesky falcon's claws could kill you if running. Highly annoying, that. Karateka was my first ever purchased game for a computer platform. While it was repetative... it was fun at the time and place.

Can be downloaded here.

*tips helm*

[Korror]

I didn't start playing computers games as long ago as some of you but let's see what I remember.

1: Master of Magic

This was the game that really got me into computer gaming. Imagine civilation but with a improved city interface, a tactical combat battlefield, two worlds existing on alternate planes, heros that leveled up, being able to customize your wizard (the ruler of your empire) choosing how many magic books of 5 difference schools and other non magical picks, over 16 different races and hundreds of units. It is one of the greatest turn based strategy games of all times only lesser to...

2: Master of Orion 2

I know that many people prefer the first master of Orion game but the second one has much more depth. It resembles an updated Master of Magic set in space and steals most of the qualities that made Master of Magic good. Ship combat was great in MOO2, especially in mutiplayer where the possibilities for design and strategy were unlimited.

3: A mind forever voyaging.

An old text based free form adventure where you explored a city. It was completely open ended as you wandered around observing the various events in the city and watching the cities descent into anarchy. They just don't make games like this any more.

4: M.U.L.E

Speaking of games they don't make any more, this was one of the first games I ever played. It was surprisingly complicated yet simple to play. I ran it on my old Commodore 64 and it never crashed and I never found the slightest bug. Wish I could say that about more modern computer games.

5: XCOM: UFO defense

A great squad based shooter, a genre you don't find anymore. It had a strategic interface where you built bases, researched, required, and shot down Ufos and a tactical interface when your solders encountered the aliens. They did make better computer games then than they do now or maybe I only remember the good ones.

Korror

[Swarmalicious]

Another Zork fan here too!

(God, I must have been... 9 or 10 years old!) "swing sword" - now that was a game!

Agree with MEAT there about the player's imagination making up things being superior to having it drawn out for you - I can still remember the details of the jewel-encrusted egg (that you put into the display case in the house) even though it wasn't described at length. Ahh the good old days.

I've tried several MUD's since but none captured my interest like Z did. Truly great game.

[Nyves]

Here's a few of my favorites:


Escape Velocity, EV Override, Yet to play EV Nova -
A little known shareware game for the mac, Ambrosia Software is finally doing a PC port of the game. Thankfully it is almost done. A 2d space action game where you accept missions and explore the universe, fighting off pirates etc. Or join the pirates and fight everyone else. This game has all the things you'd ever want to do in the game, with multiple storylines depending on the faction you choose to ally yourself with. Add in the ability to dominate planets and make them pay tribute to you, and you end up with one of the best games I've ever played. This is the game that I wish freelancer had taken a bit of inspiration from. I bought freelancer hoping it would have half the replayability of EV. Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way... On a side note, just about every other Ambrosia game is impressive, especially considering they are all shareware and done by people in their spare time.


Might and Magic Series - Great games from top to bottom, everything you could want from an RPG when they were new. Massive good storylines, with character development that had alot of depth. Unfortunately, they lost their originality towards the end and became much to similar to previous titles in the series.

Gothic - One of the best RPG's I've ever played. This game has just about everything you could want from a less traditional RPG. With people that actually react to you going into their house, and most of the dialogue being voice acted I rate it much hgiher than Morrowind could ever hope to be. As well as having better graphics than Morrowind in my opinion. An amazng game that you can pick up in bargain bins. Also has multiple storylines and immense replay value. Gothic 2 is going to be released soon in the US as well. The company, Piranha, is based in Germany.

Planescape:Torment - This game is simply amazing. An original take on the AD&D rules set and a story that is engrossing puts this game near the top of my lists. Black Isle put out so many good games during the late 90s. Baldur's Gate, Fallout 1 & 2, Planescape:Torment, Baldur's Gate 2...

Deus Ex - I'm amazed noone has mentioned this one yet. An engrossing story, a solid character development system, and multiple ways to approach any situation and you have a game that many people say is one of the best games of all time. Deus Ex 2 looks like its going to be even better.

Arcanum - Yet another excellent isometric rpg. An original universe with a massive amount of variation with what you can do in the game. The choice between using magic or machines is a great feature. Another game that you can find at stores for $20 now.

So many good games... And so little time...

[Kryn]

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - PC

Possibly my favorite FPS of all time. Created by Raven Software and published by id Software, the game uses the same basic engine as Doom. The setting is a kind of dark medieval gothic feel. You run around finding keys, collecting weapons (such as the Ethereal Crossbow and Hellstaff), and battle monsters (like the mass of Mummies or the brutal Maulotaur). It's basically your standard oldschool FPS, but it just stands out to me. What really excited me was when I found a site called Doomsday HQ, which heads a project updating and changing the graphics to 3-D.


System Shock II - PC

Another FPS, but totally unique. Instead of being a basic FPS, you can choose between three classes: Marine, Navy, or OSA. From there, you have stats you can choose to upgrade: Strength, Agility, Cyber-Affinity, Endurance, and Psi. Also, there's an array of abilities and weapon classes you can choose to upgrade on. The setting is a spaceship in which everyone has been murdered, and the only help you have comes from the ship's mysterious computer. If you enjoy the horror of Silent Hill and Resident Evil, then System Shock II should give you a nice scare as well. Overall, it's a great innovative and unique FPS that everyone should experience.


Earthbound - SNES

When you think of RPG's, mainly what comes to mind is swords, warriors, trolls, magic, and such. Earthbound broke the mold is so many ways. Earthbound came in a massive, colorful box which held both the game and the player's guide. The player's guide came standard with scratch n' sniff cards in the back. If you could figure out one of the smells, you would get a free prize, which turned out to be an air freshener. The game features Ness as the main character, a boy that comes in contact with a bee from the future, setting him off on an adventure that involves using the ATM, bashing New Age Retro Hippies with bats, blasting Territorial Oaks with Psi powers, and other various off-the-wall things. The game is so different and silly as opposed to most other RPG's, yet it makes the game incredibly fun. I believe it's quite possibly the most over-looked RPG to date.


Super Mario RPG - SNES

While we're on RPG's, I must list the RPG I've probably played through the most. Once upon a time, Square and Nintendo came together and created a masterpiece. The story? One day, Peach is hanging at Mario's Pad when all of a sudden, (guess who!) Bowser comes and kidnaps her. Doing what he always does, Mario heads off to Bowser's castle to rescue the Princess. After defeating Bowser once again, something totally unexpected happens: a giant sword crashes into the Keep. This is but the beginning of Mario's story as he sets off on an adventure meeting new friends, unexpected allies, and battling new foes.


Dynasty Warriors 4 - PS2

The Dynasty Warriors series of games lets you choose between a variety of generals from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era. In a Third Person perspective, you control your general and go through campaigns, battling hundreds of soldiers and enemy generals. It's basically a hack n' slash game where you go higher in rank by killing more enemies and upgrade your stats by collecting power-ups from defeated enemy generals. The newest edition is DW4, in which a few things have been tweaked, such as graphics, weapon level-up system, and items. I find it a very addictive game, especially when you have someone to play it with.