Gaming (Epic)

[Nano]

Guys... I'm out of ideas. I've had gaming in my blood ever since the womb. For all my sixteen years, I've never been too far from a controller or a keyboard. And for admittedly not the first time in those sixteen years, I'm stumped. I don't know what to do next. I just canceled a WoW subscription. I've played through all the Fallouts and Diablos and KotORs, I've played Final Fantasy and even beaten a few. I went through BioShock in one sitting. I've puzzled my way through Portal several times. I play Team Fortress 2 a couple hours almost every day. I survived every campaign on Left 4 Dead on Expert. My family owns a collection of MMOs somewhere in the realm of twenty five or thirty. So...

What now?

I can't figure it out. What do I play?

Ever since I canceled my WoW account, I've managed to actually play little. This is rather disturbing, considering the sheer amount of time and opportunity I have to do so; I tried Torment, but after a mishap with a misplaced hammer and an eerily sentient alleyway, I was rather turned off to it. Baldur's Gate I've never quite managed to pull through, and I do intend to try sometime, but... In the meantime.

What do I do? What are the most epic, entertaining, incredible games you can think of? What should everybody play, at least once?

If you want to recommend a game, or just rant about one of your favourites, feel free to do it here.

Please.

I need your help. :smallfrown:

[Dispozition]

What gaming consoles do you have? Clearly you have a Playstation of some sort, and a Computer or Xbox...But clearing it up would be good.

I'd say get some Zelda's, they're great games, keep you well entertained and have some replay value. If you have a PS2, get Okami, it's zelda but better, or so I've heard. Since you've played FF, try Kingdom Hearts 1+2, good games.

I'll probably think of more later :P

Oh...the FEAR series is good, and are you opposed to hand helds?

[Nano]

I have (or have access to) a PS 1, 2, and 3, and also a PSP. And an Xbox 360. And a Wii. And a game boy advance, or DS. Aaand a gamecube, N64, rather high end gaming computers... um... I'm sure there's more.

I also actually failed to install FEAR earlier, AND I've played all those other games. :smalltongue: Beat none of them, though.

EDIT: Oh, except for Kingdom Hearts 2.

[Dispozition]

Ok, with that...I advise...:scrapped, didn't read your post properly: Star Ocean: First Departure, Star Ocean: Second Journey, Valkyrie Profile Lenneth, Luminous Arc 1+2...

Yeah, I might be able to think of more, but screw that.

House of the Dead is a good one for wii, it's a rail shooter, great fun though. The Unreal games are good, Oblivion can be good also.

[chiasaur11]

Oooo!
Got one you haven't played, that you should like.

Minerva Metastasis, a mod for Half Life 2. It's awesome. Great levels, the AI knows how to kill you on hard, fun plot...

Awesome times. Also free on PC, so that's a plus.

http://www.hylobatidae.org/minerva/

[Nano]

Urk... Half Life 2. >.>

I got stuck in a sewer while I was on the run... spent hours searching around like two rooms for a way to advance. I think it was actually the most shameful part of my gaming career. I may well check it out, though.

[chiasaur11]

You got lost?

Well, try to finish sometime. The whole series there is awesome. Worth continuing.

[Cúchulainn]

Morte has a few choice words for people who stop playing PS:T before meeting Fall-From-Grace, and none of them are repeatable here!

[chiasaur11]

Morte has a few choice words for people who stop playing PS:T before meeting Fall-From-Grace, and none of them are repeatable here!

What about "and"?

[toasty]

Starcraft and Defense of the Ancients.

That is all.

[Dispozition]

Starcraft and Defense of the Ancients.

That is all.

DotA is part of Warcraft 3...Not a game unto itself...

[Freako]

What do I do? What are the most epic, entertaining, incredible games you can think of? What should everybody play, at least once?

If you want to recommend a game, or just rant about one of your favourites, feel free to do it here.

Well, if there's one game I can't recommend enough, it's Cave Story. An epic, often emotional plot, a charming cast of characters, smooth gameplay, challenging boss fights, huge and varied areas to explore, multiple endings, a hellishly difficult secret final dungeon... And some of the music is simply incredible, considering it's all done 8-bit style, using chiptunes. Did I mention that it was all made by one guy? Over five years? You can really tell that he put his heart and soul into making the game perfect, something you so rarely see with games made by big-name developers. It's a real gem of a game, one that any gamer should be able to appreciate to some degree.

You can download it here (http://www.cavestory.org/downloads_1.php), and you can find pretty much everything else Cave Story-related on that site as well (including a much longer and better essay on what makes the game great, under "Game Info"). Oh, and it's also coming out on Wiiware some time in late April/early May, with improved graphics and music, and some new features as well, supposedly.

Sorry for the rant. But hey, you asked for it. :P

[Dallas-Dakota]

D3 when it comes out?

[Shikton]

My tip is to just get started on Baldur's Gate with EasyTutu and go through the whole series. The beginning will be slow, but it'll pick up pace soon enough.

Also, just get a hammer in PS:T and keep playing. You won't regret it.

[Triaxx]

Oh the possibilities! Fallout Tactics, Supreme Commander. Total Annihilation. Freelancer, The X-Com series. The Age of Empires Series, and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. Star Wars Rebellion, X-wing, TIE Fighter, X-wing vs. TIE fighter. Dungeon Siege series. Sacred series. Icewind Dale series. Ghost Recon Series. Battle for Wesnoth. Bejeweled.

Pick up the Pokemon games, they're addictive like any MMO. Resident Evil 4: Wii, even if you've played it elsewhere. Metroid Prime 3, Smash Bros. Series. The Zelda Series. Hunt down a copy of the Turtles Arcade game on the NES. The two Megaman series have been released as compliations. Legend of Dragoon. Syphon Filter series. Metal Gear series. Twenty-some odd years of Mario Games, the Metroid Series. Final Fantasy Tactics. Street Fighter series. King of Fighters series. Soul Caliber series. Star Ocean series. Phantasy Star series. Quest 64. Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage. Turok series. Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark series. The Tales series. Battle Chess 64.

There are so many other little niche games. Mech Quest is a fun online game, that'll work in most browsers. Adventure Quest is in the same vein. Yahoo even has an awesome online chess game if you can find players.

[SilverSheriff]

how about Savage and Savage 2?:smallcool:

[Om]

Go back and play the games you didn't complete. I mean, you really got lost in HL2? :smallconfused:

[Cúchulainn]

Go back and play the games you didn't complete. I mean, you really got lost in HL2? :smallconfused:

Granted I can remember 2 parts in the sewer escape where I was stumped for a little bit. Though if he can finish portal he has no excuse for getting lost in any game.

[toasty]

DotA is part of Warcraft 3...Not a game unto itself...

I disagree. Its a mod yes, but no one would call Counter Strike part of Half-life, would they?

DotA is just about the only game I play. Its amazing.

[Darth Mario]

how about Savage and Savage 2?:smallcool:

This. Savage and its sequel are what they call "RTSS" games -- Real Time Strategy/Shooters. One person plays as the commander, playing the game as if it were an RTS from a top down view, but all their units are controlled in a first/third person view by the rest of their team.

The first game has a learning curve from hell, which may appeal to a gamer like you. The second only has a learning curve from purgatory.

Oh, they're also both free.


I disagree. Its a mod yes, but no one would call Counter Strike part of Half-life, would they?

DotA is just about the only game I play. Its amazing.

Except it's not a mod, it's a map. It is totally contained within the original game. Just like every other custom map like it.

[Egiam]

Half life 2 totally seconded. Or thirded. It is the best, most epic, game I have ever played. By the end I ACTUALLY cared about the NPCs.

[Nano]

Starcraft and Defense of the Ancients.


Did it. Never quite wormed my way through the entire SC campaign, though, think I got turned off by a particularly tedious mission. DotA, though, I still play.


how about Savage and Savage 2?:smallcool:

This too. Never played commander, though...


Oh the possibilities! Fallout Tactics, Supreme Commander. Total Annihilation. Freelancer, The X-Com series. The Age of Empires Series, and Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds. Star Wars Rebellion, X-wing, TIE Fighter, X-wing vs. TIE fighter. Dungeon Siege series. Sacred series. Icewind Dale series. Ghost Recon Series. Battle for Wesnoth. Bejeweled.

Pick up the Pokemon games, they're addictive like any MMO. Resident Evil 4: Wii, even if you've played it elsewhere. Metroid Prime 3, Smash Bros. Series. The Zelda Series. Hunt down a copy of the Turtles Arcade game on the NES. The two Megaman series have been released as compliations. Legend of Dragoon. Syphon Filter series. Metal Gear series. Twenty-some odd years of Mario Games, the Metroid Series. Final Fantasy Tactics. Street Fighter series. King of Fighters series. Soul Caliber series. Star Ocean series. Phantasy Star series. Quest 64. Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage. Turok series. Goldeneye 007, Perfect Dark series. The Tales series. Battle Chess 64.

There are so many other little niche games. Mech Quest is a fun online game, that'll work in most browsers. Adventure Quest is in the same vein. Yahoo even has an awesome online chess game if you can find players.

Done all the bold. :smalltongue: Final Fantasy Tactics especially is a favourite of mine... I've played through it a couple times, with several different party setups. Love that game.

I really should go back and finish some of the ones I haven't, and I've been meaning to, but for some reason I can't fathom I never end up -doing- it. Or rather, it's an entirely fathomable and pathetic reason. :smalltongue: I'm lazy. Still, I figure I'll find my BG(2) disks this weekend and start on that, and maybe some other stuff.

[Pronounceable]

Try the legends: Doom, Duke Nukem, Quakes, XCom, Civilizations, various Marios and Sonics, Princes of Persia (new and old), TIE Fighter, Age of Empires, Monkey Islands, Street Fighters... (might need emulators for some of those)

A game usually becomes legendary for a good reason. If you know a name to be a famous title, odds are it's something worth playing.

Or you can try the (somewhat) wonderful world of freewares. Shining examples are Cave Story, Iji and Spirit Engine. Also includes the whole family of roguelikes, which might be hazardous to one's health.
And there's always the goddamn tetris.

And if I were to get completely subjective: There's no excuse for not having played Torment a number of times. You iz muckin' aboot, get to it!

Plus Doom, Dungeon Keeper (the real one), Dawn of War.

[AJWB]

You're 16 and bored with video games? That's exactly how I got into ultimate frisbee. Fresh air, running around with potheads who are eerily good at throwing around a novelty flying disk, it's great times all around. My friends and I at my high school started an ultimate frisbee club after we got bored with Diablo 2 back in the day. I can still drive by my high school every Wednesday and see them playing. It's pretty satisfying to know you left an impact (even a small one) somewhere.

If that's not your thing, go on ebay, buy a Genesis or SNES and brush up on the classics the way they were meant to be played. Emulators just don't do Shining Force, Sonic, and Turtles in Time justice. Oh, and dare I forget Crono Trigger?

In a similar vein, buy a Wii and get almost any Nintendo game ever from their online store. There are quite a few Megaman games that would be a good challenge for you.

Failing that, one game of Sins of a Solar Empire will absorb 6 or so hours of your life. Get some friends together and watch the hours fly by. Starcraft and Warcraft 3 also offer a number of custom maps that allow you to take a break from RTSing and do whatever you want (footmen madness ftw!).

The bottom line: when modern gaming gets boring, kick it old school, get some friends together for D&D, or go toss a frisbee around at the park.

And if that doesn't work, a solo Baldur's Gate 2 run on Insane difficulty with the Ascension mod is always a good call. Happy gaming!

[Myatar_Panwar]

If you have the money, and are looking for a hobby which will consume your entire being (soul and all :smalltongue:), maybe take up a tabletop game if you arn't already.

I would of course recommend Warhammer 40k. Even if you are not playing the game itself, the hobby'ing aspect will consume ALOT of your time if you enjoy painting and conversions and what not.

-

Also for some actual video game time sinks, I would recommend Puzzle Quest (like 10 bucks on steam) and ADOM (http://www.adom.de/adom/download.php3) (which is free).

[Nano]

As far as tabletop games go, I'd love to try some (namely, D&D) but I have the issue of lacking people to play with and the initiative to find them. :smalltongue:

[Mando Knight]

What's this I hear? A plea for help? A cry for mercy? A call for time-consuming gaming?

NEVER FEAR, for FIRE EMBLEM (http://serenesforest.net/media/ssb/J02%20Fire%20Emblem%20Main%20Theme.mp3) is here!

Come, join us (http://serenesforest.net/media/fe11ost/28%20Come,%20Join%20Us.mp3)! For Together, We Ride! (http://serenesforest.net/media/fe7music/046%20-%20Together,%20We%20Ride!.mp3) We shall ride upon the Path of Radiance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Path_of_Radiance), searching for Sacred Stones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_The_Sacred_Stones) and slaying vile Shadow Dragon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Shadow_Dragon)s, while awaiting that gloriously Radiant Dawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Radiant_Dawn)! If we do not bring light to the darkness in these lands, the shooting stars will soar over a wasteland!

Fire Emblem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQQVSElo2hw) is a turn-based tactical game, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, but has more games, dating back to the Famicom. And is awesome. And has awesomeness.

[Dispozition]

I disagree. Its a mod yes, but no one would call Counter Strike part of Half-life, would they?

DotA is just about the only game I play. Its amazing.

DotA is a map, not even a mod. CSS is a game by itself. Yes it uses another games engine, but so many games use the Unreal engines that it's actually stupid to try and count them all. The most recent being Mirrors Edge, which bears about as much resemblance to UT3 as Halo does to Peggle.

[chiasaur11]

DotA is a map, not even a mod. CSS is a game by itself. Yes it uses another games engine, but so many games use the Unreal engines that it's actually stupid to try and count them all. The most recent being Mirrors Edge, which bears about as much resemblance to UT3 as Halo does to Peggle.

Well, it was started as a mod.

Times change and games change with them and all that. Still, if DoTA is just one map, yeah.

Not the same thing really.

[Terraoblivion]

If you have access to a PS3, and you say you have, then you absolutely have to play Valkyria Chronicles. The game is just beauty in motion, it moves away from the typical real is brown look or colorful, attempted realism that dominates modern gaming and to an extent has ever since technology became able to create either of them. Instead it has a watercolor look largely reminiscent of Miyazaki movies. This look that is best show-cased by the opening cinematic in which you see a watercolor painting as it is painted, transitioning to the in-engine graphics somewhere along the way, but it is very hard to see just when the transition happens. The gameplay itself is tactical RPG, but featuring various modifications that makes it flow faster and all but eliminates both grind and tedious attempts at setting an enemy up for the right character to strike the killing blow. It basically takes the genre and eliminates all the boring stuff, while looking absolutely stunning doing it and telling an orthodox, but extremely well-written story full of likeable characters.

The other games i'd recommend are all for the PS2. They are Okami, Persona 3: FES and Persona 4. In some ways Okami can be seen as an inspiration for Valkyria Chronicles, featuring graphics meant to have the look of Japanese woodprints. This is further used in the forms of the feedback you get for your actions, which basically make a barren wasteland increasingly beautiful as you go along, making the trees bloom and the animals fed and happy. All the while having traditional storybased feedback as you go through the game. The previous poster who described the gameplay as Zelda but better is quite accurate, which should give you an idea of how it works. And really who cannot love a main character who is the head of an entire pantheon incarnated and acting like a dog?

The two Persona games are very similar in most senses. Persona 4 is the most refined of the two and the one i would recommend, even if nostalgia makes me prefer Persona 3. The games are an odd hybrid of JRPG and social sim that works much better than it sounds. This is largely achieved through some of the best characters and writing in the history of gaming, with quality voice acting, as well as a quite well-developed visual style with clear thought put into the use of colors and composition. The gameplay itself focuses on managing the main character's time in order to both build social relationships and managing to deal with the occult horrors lurking beneath the surface of society, the first making you stronger for the second.

[Oregano]

Hmm... if you have a DS or Wii I'd suggest getting Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time(preferrably on the DS). It's probably best described as a Platformer/Adventure/Dungeon Crawler/RPG-Lite.

The best way to play is multiplayer(because the AI is rubbish but also because the people are cool). You can up to four people in the party(including you) and it can get hectic when there's a loot drop.

It might be a good replacement for MMOs as it has many of the same things that make them addicting and it's some good old fashioned RPG fun.

You can also send friend requests in game(unusual for a DS/Wii title) which is good if you meet some cool people.

[Geno9999]

What's this I hear? A plea for help? A cry for mercy? A call for time-consuming gaming?

NEVER FEAR, for FIRE EMBLEM (http://serenesforest.net/media/ssb/J02%20Fire%20Emblem%20Main%20Theme.mp3) is here!

Come, join us (http://serenesforest.net/media/fe11ost/28%20Come,%20Join%20Us.mp3)! For Together, We Ride! (http://serenesforest.net/media/fe7music/046%20-%20Together,%20We%20Ride!.mp3) We shall ride upon the Path of Radiance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Path_of_Radiance), searching for Sacred Stones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_The_Sacred_Stones) and slaying vile Shadow Dragon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Shadow_Dragon)s, while awaiting that gloriously Radiant Dawn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Emblem:_Radiant_Dawn)! If we do not bring light to the darkness in these lands, the shooting stars will soar over a wasteland!

Fire Emblem (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQQVSElo2hw) is a turn-based tactical game, similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, but has more games, dating back to the Famicom. And is awesome. And has awesomeness.
*obviously fake french accent* CURSES! You beat me to it!
I was going to ask him to join me on my campaign of fire (http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe7music/032%20-%20Campaign%20of%20Fire.mp3) and strike (http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe7music/026%20-%20Strike.mp3) and rise to a new challenge (http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe7music/029%20-%20Rise%20to%20the%20Challenge.mp3). Hurry! As the Black Knight lives (http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe10music/67%20-%20The%20Black%20Knight%20Lives.mp3)!