Thursday, July 17, 2008

Phrank: Best game evar!

If I had to explain my favorite game, as the challenge states, it would be a game that encourages multiple playthroughs, choices/endings based on skills and morality, so you can use skills A or B and be evil or good for both of them. This game should offer depth and breadth, providing characters who are deep and possess stories and feelings, while providing a whole world to explore. This game would ideally combine a magic fantasy setting that I enjoy, with some of the more futuristic elements of science fiction. Clearly, my favorite game is Arcanum. The real clincher in that game for me is the fantasy philosophy, it's incredible and like nothing I've seen in any video game.
There are lots of good games, but here is my list of games I'm surprised no one has mentioned so far, and the three games my older siblings picked that are not mention worthy, in my humble opinion.
No one picked KoL, which is a great game, for humor and for the fact it's free. Four of us play it, and two of us play it almost daily, I figure it deserves a mention.
The closest thing to an RPG they picked is a tie between Kingdom hearts and Guild wars! Neither of which are really RPGs, since kingdom hearts is an action-rpg and Guild wars is a mmorpger, so they don't really count. Bill's not much of an rpg gamer, so that's understandable. But Anne and Greg, pseudo rpgs are the closest you get to an rpg in your top five! I could understand if an rpg wasn't your favorite game ever, but not one real rpg out of five games! I was surprised by that.
As for games I didn't think should make the list, Guild wars and Phoenix wright are the two clear picks for me. Perhaps Guild wars is more fun when you're playing with friends, but that doesn't make grinding through zones any less tedious or the insanely complex rune/insignia system any more forgiving. I've never played Phoenix wright, but it has never looked remotely interesting to me, and I'm really surprised it beat out several other good games for a place in the top 5.
Enough negativity, a lot of classic awesome games made the list, I remember the donald duck game, that was a blast. I remember commander keen, simcity, where in the world is carmen sandiego, all wonderful classics. All in all, I say we like a wide variety of games and we all have pretty good taste. Except for Bill, who only likes total war. I keep meaning to give those games another chance. That's all I got, great challenge Elizabeth, can't wait to see what games you pick!

Quick plug! My friend Pete is starting a blog about being a med student, it's pretty cool, check it out here!

Here's the Zero Punctuation for this week, good game poorly executed: Alone in the Dark

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

1st comment, great post, me!

Anonymous said...

The Zelda/Link games are the best in my personal opinion. Specifically A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. Nothing beats those.
I've never played Arcanum. Sharing time?
Oh, and DDR totally wins at the best interactive game. Mario Kart for the SNES for best racing game. (or would the 4 version be better? they're both great)
Tetris 64 for the best puzzle game.
Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES) for best Mario game :)
But, Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past are definitely tied for best game of all time.

Anonymous said...

4=64, btw

Anonymous said...

Frank you're a comment whore...
And the game is you're looking for is "Donald Duck's Playground".

http://www.mobygames.com/game/pc-booter/donald-ducks-playground/screenshots