Nothing has shaped how I view games more than Dark Souls.
Halo comes to mind straight away. The way the enemies react, dodging out the way or charging towards you was something special. Also the music score and freedom it gives you in the semi-open levels to play differently.
I like that sometimes taking your time is not the best strategy. Sometimes you need to be aggressive and push the attack relentlessly otherwise you’ll just get blown to pieces.
Ocarina of Time is my GOAT. Finishing it as a kid and realizing that games could be more than just killing time, that they could be epic journeys with satisfying endings, that they could be a whole art form was really transformative.
In case you’re not aware, check out Ship of Harkinian, an updated PC engine for OoT. Grab a proper controller if you have the cash.
OoT in 2K at 200fps is wild.
Hey, hope you don’t mind my asking but maybe you could help me with a question about those controllers - they also sell a DIY kit, how is that in comparison?
No problem! Unfortunately I haven’t tried their DIY kits, but I’ve bought several things from them and they’ve all been solid, so I imagine they’d be good.
Questions like these always reveal the core audience of millennials and older Gen Z.
Caught me, I’m a CIA plant doing statistical anilisis on the fediverse
Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3
Super Mario World
Mortal Kombat 1 & 2
Wolfenstein 3D
DOOM
Commander Keen
Starcraft
Diablo 1 / 2
Unreal Tournament 2003/4
Counter-Strike
Half Life
Everquest
World of Warcraft
The Secret of Monkey Island
Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis / Last Crusade
LOOM
Resident Evil 1 & 2
Legend of Zelda 1
Ocarina of Time
Mario Kart (SNES & 64)
Ogre Battle 64
WCW/NWO Revenge
Portal 1 & 2
Grand Theft Auto 2, 3 and 5Yeah I’m old. Some modern ones:
Breath of the Wild
Valheim
Outer WildsYour not old, your me!. Most of these plus some others definitely, plus a bunch of modern ones as well. Shocked you only liked Half-Life 1 and not 2. I thought 2 was mind blowing at the time and still feel like it’s the first game to bring us into the modern era of games to this day.
- Halo
- Life is Strange
- Final fantasy VIII
- World of Warcraft
- Expedition 33
None of them are perfect but they all made me think about games in a different light and keep me wanting to play.
Life is Strange was perfect.
I also went to Arcadia Bay in real life, and found the most sleepy, boring town with a really good fish and chips joint. Aside from the good food, I came to appreciate more why Max and Chloe yearned to leave.
When I was 6 I was so excited to get a SNES. I wanted the bundle with super Mario World but it was sold out. So my parents gave me the option of waiting of getting this other bundle with this Zelda game. That sounded kind of girly to me being 6 and knowing nothing, but I was also 6 and had no patitience so Zelda it was.
I got home and started playing and was immediately hooked. I spent the next few years exploring every inch of Hyrule and the Dark World.
To this day I still don’t have Super Mario World and have only played a few levels but I have played every Zelda since.
I’ve played dozens or hundreds of games since thrn, many that were absolutely amazing but nothing until Breath if the Wild gave me that same magic of wanting to discover every nook and cranny of the world just to see what’s there.
tes3, persona 3, gothic 3, angband
3and diablo. Also f.e.a.r. and arx fatalis.Fallout New Vegas set my expectation for quest choice and faction interactivity. I could go on about that, but everyone knows what people think about New Vegas.
Last year, I beat Dark Souls. That’s now set my standard for RPG gameplay. There’s bullshit, same as any game, but I don’t think I’ve ever played another RPG where I’ve felt my skill going up alongside my in-game stats. Then you get to the Bed of Chaos, and that kinda goes out the window…
Here is my Quality Slop list (I only like them because they are good):
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Metal Gear Solid
- NieR Gestalt
- Test Drive Unlimited 2
- Halo Combat Evolved
- Dark Souls
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Half-Life: Opposing Force
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
- Silent Hill 2 (the original, not the remake)
- Super Metroid
- Need for Speed Underground 2
- Shenmue 1, 2, and 3 (Shenmue 3 is probably the worst game on this list, but its still pretty good regardless)
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
- Age of Empires II
- Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour
- Policenauts
- Panzer Dragoon Orta
Each of these have contributed to my high bar of expected quality for games. Most of these games were made on a very tight budget and schedule, with pretty harsh hardware limitations, usually with a small team of less than 100 people, and are the greatest games of all time. Modern game studios have no excuses for the awful quality they launch games in today with more time, money, more people on the dev team, and lack of hardware limitations.
I’m really intrigued by your one and only C&C entry being generals? Not red alert 2?
I liked it more. Red Alert 2 was good but I just prefer Generals Zero Hour.
RA2 isnt bad, I just wanted to really limit the list to not repeat a bunch of games from the same series if they werent equally as good IMO (which is why Danganronpa 2 is the only one in its series, for example). I just had more fun with Generals Zero Hour.
Can’t really argue with that, RA2 was just such an icon and a mainstay whereas I feel like the C&C brand was largely on the way out by the time of generals, personally
Its hard to argue with Russian Tim Curry. He was such a fun pick for that role.
An absolute joy to watch, as always
I thought hallmark only made cards ?
Have you never heard of a hallmark film?
I’ve been playing games since the 80s. I wouldn’t call myself a gamer. Here are a few personal hallmarks…
- Crash ‘n’ the Boys: Street Challenge on NES was the first time I had fun playing multiplayer.
- Metroid II: Return of Samus was the first game I was addicted to. Super Metroid is still my favourite game.
- UMKIII was the first game I actually got pretty good at.
- Starcraft. My brother played this and I loved being a spectator, in hindsight I realized that gaming could be a sport that people would watch at this moment.
- Quake and Descent were the first times I got motion sickness playing games!
- Counter-Strike because everyone played it at university.
- FFVII because I never played it and it is apparently kinda famous…
- Starcraft
- Gothic
- Magic the Gathering
- Warcraft 3 + dota
- FTL
- Nuclear Dawn / Natural Selection 2
- Supreme Commander
- Eve Online
- Factorio
I could list a few more RGPs, like Mass Effect, Fallout New Vegas and the Witcher games that are also top tier experience, but they all sort of the do the same thing, in that a story you might expect from a novel or movie, can be told in a game, but also the game offers more interactivity.
Early games are easy to say like Ocarina and such but I think the games I really started to compare to:
Ratchet and clank- sure I played mario64 but I didnt really grasp the breadth of platforming until ps2. The Jak/Ratchet games really secured my expectations in future platformers for what I expect from movement and targeting in games. Especially by Deadlocked, being able to strafe and fire/keeping your gun/ camera on target and snappy switching between them is something I notice even new games not get right. A great example of this is Darktide - for all its fun sometimes the button inputs for weapon swap dont trigger due to input overload. For me this is the “Why doesn’t this third person game just have Ratchet controls”
Exploration was easily shaped by Ocarina of Time. Where checking behind the waterfall isn’t an easter egg, it’s an expectation. The temples certainly stretched the imagination for puzzles, and modern game puzzles genuinely don’t feel like they rise to it. Being older and sharper has helped but perception wise it felt like the first game to challenge me like an older game did was Portal 2 for difficulty, and Genshin Impact for small fun puzzles. (Not that they are particularly hard but it takes some thought and intentional placement) for me some games just hit the “exploration and puzzles should challenge the player”
This one isn’t new or controversial: but gaming in the 360/ps3 era and older, seeing cash shops lock up cosmetics you used to just…unlock. like whole ass costumes and easter egg outfits. Colors and reskinned weapons all sold back to players now. I get the whole f2p “gotta make a sale to stay free” but holy shit $20 for a fortnite skin is disgusting considering how many people buy that specific skin. It pays for itself and THEN some, and they drip these every week or so - and every single one sells a thousand copies to different users. “Game companies got greedy, and cut content to sell back to you after swearing they wouldn’t”
Black ops 2: I didn’t play earlier games and mostly grew up with cartoon violence, so this was my first real foray into an online environment and experience that I compare shooter level design to. I still compare the new(ish) call of duties to it. Moreso like “how the fuck are spawns still this fucking dogshit, have they learned nothing in 20 years” and “How the fuck is nuketown still a map its too small to make any really plays, it’s just spawncamping for 10 minutes” (the answer is kids like it for some reason). And why I haven’t bought a cod since cold war (the homies all wanted to play so we made a game night out of it).Anyway BO2 is what I compare shooters to. If you can’t match a 2012 game in terms of how easy it is to traverse a pvp level, and the player feedback of a kill (like how impactful it feels to secure the kill is almost on par with Doom2016) “Kills should feel punchy, dynamic, like you actually hit that fuckin dude through a wall, not just tickled him and he ragdolled”
Pokemon gold/silver and Emerald. "Games don’t have to have super deep or complex stories, or fantastic budget breaking graphics to be fun
fallout 3 and then skyrim changed my life. it was incredible i could just go anywhere i wanted. i could kill (almost) any npc i wanted to for any reason. i never felt more immersed in a world in my life
I came here to say this. Plus, when I got the PC version it opened up a whole new world. The nexus was a dazzling place I never knew.
