The best games ever.

[Hammerskjold]

>First off, I don't agree in that games get better, they might have better graphics and sound but for game play, don't agree.

Hell yes. Personally I can't wait until a landmark game reaches the pinnacle of photorealistic graphics supremeness, to the point where everyone that has ever seen it will say yes, everything in it looks absolutely 'real'. The sooner that happens, the sooner I think more people will move on to the idea that it's ok to have styles other than photorealism for video games. (Who knows, more developers might even think that gameplay is just as important as graphics. But I'm probably a naive optimist in that way.)

Thankfully I think it might happen sooner than later, with games like Katamary Damacy and this http://www.darwinia.co.uk/about/screenshots.html


>Ultima Underworld

Yeah I really enjoyed Ultima Underworld 1&2. There was some modders who were trying to recreate it, http://reconstruction.voyd.net/index.php?e...yword=remakesuw Unfortunately I haven't found any that are fully completed.

[Flymo]

No-one has mentioned, possibly because it is so old that few posters got to play it, the first MMORPG (and probably first MORPG), MUD. This was later reincarnated by Compuserve as British Legends and used to be notorious for causing addicts to run up phone bills they couldn't afford. It was text based and only came in hardcore mode - i.e. if the character you spent months levelling got killed it was permanent.

The state of the art was somewhat primitive when this game was first launched, and a 1200 bps modem connection was as good as you were likely to get. An early exploit was to use the game's version of the Mind Control spell to force someone to type "help". You'd then kill them at your leisure while their screen very slowly filled up with useless information.

[--Pete]

Hi,

No-one has mentioned, possibly because it is so old that few posters got to play it, the first MMORPG (and probably first MORPG), MUD.  This was later reincarnated by Compuserve as British Legends and used to be notorious for causing addicts to run up phone bills they couldn't afford.  It was text based and only came in hardcore mode - i.e. if the character you spent months levelling got killed it was permanent.
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Actually, a MUD is a multi user dungeon. It is not one game, but rather a game system that allows people to create their own game environment. Most MUDs that I'm familiar with have all the dull parts (farming, fishing, community building, etc.) and few of the good parts (adventuring, quests, etc.) of the RPG genre. Of course, that varies a lot based on the community, and especially the DM(s) of the individual games.

As to best game? I just don't know. I've probably clocked more hours on the original Diablo than any other game. But Falcon 3.0 got to me so much that, between computers, HOTAS controllers, rudder pedals, etc. (I stop (just) short of actually building a cockpit) it was the most expensive outlay ever. And then there are all those board, pnp, card games that have sucked up my time and limited my RL accomplishments (but I have fun ;) ). And I still have a soft spot for Zork 1,2 and 3 :)

And, yes, I think that computer games in the last ten years or so have focused too much on technical (graphics and sound) and too little on game play. Partially because that is what the customers seem to want, partially that with the improvements in hardware, that is the easy path to follow. On the other hand, a number of new concepts (Black and White comes to mind) have flopped and that seems to have made developers reluctant to try anything new. As long as games can be pigeonholed into existing categories (FPS, RPG, flight sims, etc.) there probably will not be much improvement in games. But time will tell.

--Pete

[Flymo]

Actually, a MUD is a multi user dungeon.  It is not one game, but rather a game system that allows people to create their own game environment. [right][snapback]105463[/snapback][/right]

Actually, it isn't. MUD was the name of the first one and after that became used as a generic (like Hoover).

Edit: There's a history of MUD here

[--Pete]

Hi,

Actually, it isn't.  MUD was the name of the first one and after that became used as a generic (like Hoover).

Edit:  There's a history of MUD here
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Thanks for the link, I learned something new today and that's always good :)

Did you ever get to play the original? Was it as bad as the link seems to imply?

--Pete

[Flymo]

Hi,
Thanks for the link, I learned something new today and that's always good :)

Did you ever get to play the original?  Was it as bad as the link seems to imply?

--Pete
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I did play the original a bit, but not until late in its life when the bugs had been ironed out and it was more or less in its final form. It was in fact very good and immersive - imagine WoW without the graphics but hardcore and with GMs (wizards) who occasionaly intervened in the game to make life more interesting for you. Pvp made it quite difficult to survive and got the adrenaline going: if you had a reasonably high level character you entered a game very cautiously and tried to work out whether there were other high level characters stealthed who might try to take you out. It didn't help that you could be summoned against your will.

I played its second incarnation, British Legends, a lot, and did eventually beat that game, i.e. become a wizard. But I had to do it twice because the first time I was within a few exp of making it an existing wizard destroyed my character for what she considered unacceptable behaviour (I mind controlled an opponent in a fight and made her rape a zombie. Well, I thought it was funny even if the zombie didn't).

It's strange that the game that was first in the MMORPG genre has just about been forgotten now.

[Rhydderch Hael]

I don't know if games have gotten any better. Two of my XBox 360 games, the big bad hi-def effects superfest machine thingy, are spectacular hi-def effect superfestivals of frustrating gameplay through lackluster or shoddy game design.

The first offender, Full Auto, had to have been designed by a team of six-fingered men. You need that extra digit in order to successfully use the control schemes they devised for the game. The kicker is that the one control scheme that would have worked—mapping the accerlator/brake to the Y axis of the left stick so that both triggers are freed up to fire the weapons—is the one scheme they never put in. Instead, you end up with your middle fingers glued to the triggers, index fingers on the bumbers to, steer the car with your left thumb, aim the gun with your right thumb, and to shoot that gun you—you—well, if you can't crane your pinkie finger up and over to press the button, you can always mash down on the right stick (the stick you're deflecting so as to aim accurately at a maneuvering target) and hope that you didn't upset your aim as the gun pops a round off.

The second offender just came out. No, I'm not talking about Oblivion. I'm talking about Blazing Angels. Funny, that. You'd assume that when a game company that makes its name with flight sims such as IL-2 Sturmovik decides to market a WWII flight game for the XBox, they could have assumed that part of the target audience might just happen to have an interest in flight games— people who would assume that we still live in a world where airplanes are controlled with the right hand and the throttle is controlled by the left hand! But nooooooo, we're in Gamerzville, where we have to have primary controls mapped to the left stick and secondary controls mapped to the right stick. And, of course, this just happens to be the one and only control setup that's available for the game, a combat flight game that can be flown only by those who have never studied nor contemplated the genre of aviation before. Anyone else would be in for a rude surprise as they instinctively tried the throttle up and find themselves instead doing a nosedive into the beautifully-rendered high-definition earth.

[eppie]

My list of favorite games:
Closest to my heart - Final Fantasy VII (my only friend in middle schoolB))
Diablo
Morrowind
Half-Life 1 & 2
Doom
Tekken 2, 3, and 5
Starcraft
World of Warcraft
Everquest (early on)
Katamari Damacy
Chip's Challenge!  (just kidding)
Pong
Magic: The Gathering (does that count?)
Total Annihilation
Descent 1 & 2
Myst et al
Threshold (www.thresholdrpg.com)
Counter-Strike
Unreal Tournament et al
Sim City (original)
The Sims 2 (just because of the face manipulator)
Soon: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion!

I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch, and some fantastic games are excluded, of course, simply because I haven't played them!
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Great, I don't even know so many games.

I would go for diablo2.

eppie

[Hammerskjold]

> but they were awesome in their time and in some cases are still awesome.


I just replayed Lunar 2: Eternal Blue,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_2:_Eternal_Blue

There are certain elements that's somewhat dated, like the uneven voice acting, the few cornball jokes, but to me there's some timeless qualities that still appeals to me.

The story is fantasy\romance\adventure, roughly along the same vein as "The Princess Bride". There are serious moments in it, but for the most part it doesn't take itself too seriously.

The characters though, is what really makes this game stands the test of time for me. Ignoring for a second the anime visual style (which might not be everyone's cup of tea) , the voice acting that varies from passable to overacted, the characters themselves are very well done and believable.

The pacing is not like most other CRPGs, where the end fight against the big evil fazoozle to save the world is usually the completion of the game. Instead that roughly takes place about 3/4 of the way, the rest is an epilogue where the 'real' quest begins. You trying to find a way to re-unite with your true love. For me this is where they did a really brilliant thing. Some of the best love stories are the ones that doesn't have a happy ending. Yet it's also a common desire to want the 'and they live happily ever after'. The way they did it accomplishes both, you can walk away without the epilogue, and get your bittersweet ending. Or choose the epilogue, and try to get the girl you love.

The music also sets the mood nicely. At times it evokes a sense of adventure, melancholy, and yes some sappy love songs. But this is a game with romantic elements, so I can't complain. There is one selection though that just really stands out for me, it's the music for the final tower in the epilogue. It really captures the feeling that you're so close yet so far from your beloved, that you're ready to fight tooth and nail just for the chance to see her again.

So for me, even though it's not perfect, the game does stand the test of time where it counts (for CRPGS). The characters and the story still entertained me today as it did when it first came out on the Sega CD.