World of Warcraft. After it, a lot of player retention mechanics became super obvious in other games for me, especially because a lot of said games were copying “the king of MMOs”
Dwarf Fortress is my main go-to example of procgen done right. Whenever there’s discussions of “game X sucks and is lifeless because it’s mostly procgenned”, I look back at DF. Lazy procgen is the problem.
I know at some point I saw a game with absurdly high damage and health numbers, I can’t remember which one it was, whether a mobile thing around 2014 or a korean mmo, but that was the point where I very easily understood “big number better” is total bullshit
Elder Scrolls Morrowind was the first game I’ve played that gave almost complete freedom to the player, with lots of things carrying consequence, especially in relation to NPCs. That shopkeeper you killed? Still dead. This essential NPC that is a literal demigod? Yeah, you can kill him, have fun in this broken timeline you just created where you can no longer advance the main quest.
I wonder if that MMO with big damage numbers was Shaiya Online?
Doesn’t look like it goes into the millions of damage per hit, which is what I recall seeing back then
- Knights of the Old Republic, and KOTOR 2
- Tales of Symphonia
- Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
- MegaMan Battle Network series
- Persona (whole series)
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.
- 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.
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.
Dishonored
This was a pinnacle showcase of how interactive a game could be. The sandbox design not only encouraged your creativity but met it beat for beat. This was also the game that made me understand how much world design and atmosphere matter. Making a world feel believable with environmental story telling is incredibly difficult but so satisfying. To this day, not been dethroned.
Team Fortress 2
Balance, class design, character design, game mode design, and a touch of jank; all in the name of what is the most fun. I see this as the grandfather of Deadlock and The Finals; both games I come back to more often than TF2 but who’s DNA matches closest.
UNBEATABLE
Trusting your audience with regards to story telling and leaving things unsaid. Also importance of a banger soundtrack.
Sekiro
Importance of tactility and flow. Quick, slow; quick, quick; slow. Technically a rythm game too.
Z.A.T.O.
A showcase of how little you need to make a game and still have it feel impactful. Also importance of picking a target audience and nostalgia. Also visual novels rule.
NieR Automata
Do NOT **** android women
Star Control 2
Dungeon master 1 & 2 The Secret of Monkey Island
Indiana Jones Fate of Atlantis / Last Crusade
LOOM
The dig Escape from Tarkov The Division Ultima 7 Wing commander series Strike commander Battletech crescent hawks inception/revenge Mech commander Payday 2Elite - a huge 3D vector universe to explore.
Tetris - adictiveness distilled.
Driller - oh wow, filled 3D graphics on a 3.5MHz 8 bit micro?
Wolfenstein 3D - shooting nazis is fun.
Doom - incredible, improved graphics and more fun.
Quake - full 3D now, but not as fun as Doom.
Half-Life - oh yeah, now we’re talking. Great storytelling and gripping fun.
Portal - fun, engaging and funny.
Bioshock Infinite - I guess I enjoy riding the skylines.
Torchlight - There’s something cozy about those dungeons, I dunno.
Skyrim - how did I lose 900 hours of my life?
Man, I spent so long playing elite! Docking with those space stations took a whole lot of practise. And the graphics seemed amazing at the time, amazing how far and fast things have changed.
You never forget your first successful docking procedure.
The legend of dragoon.
Chrono Cross.
GTA-all of them, (all rockstar games)
Gran Turismo-all of them.
Final Fantasy 7,8,9
Metal Gear Solid-all of them. (Except survival)
Minecraft.
DayZ.
Damn, I hadn’t heard Legend of Dragoon mentioned like ever and Chrono Cross is always ignored or dismissed in favor of Chrono Trigger. Definitely loved those games though. Nice list!
I used to have a hard time ranking my favorite games. Often the order would change based on how I was feeling at that time.
That all changed when I found Satisfactory. I no-lifed that game for months. Never before have I felt as though a game had been made for me.
Now my ranking is
- Satisfactory
- (a huge-ass gap)
- Hades 1&2 4-∞. idk like every other game that is conventionally good?
Minecraft, Warframe and old school Runescape.
Everything else I’ve loved over the years has fallen out of favour with me, but I’ll happily dive into those 3 for a few hundred hours again
ITT: A bunch of people misunderstanding the question
As expected. Many people just see it as an opportunity to talk about their favorite games. That’s okay.
Honestly I love reading about peoples favourite games! I thought it was funny in this thread
But I mean aren’t our favorite games naturally the ones that have most influenced us and our views on gaming?
In a way, I see it more as a square/rectangle situation. A game that helps to shape you is probably a favourite one, not necessarily the other way around. It’s a good thread either way.
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…
- TIE Fighter
- GoldenEye 64
- Diablo II
- NetHack
- Doom/Doom II
- Descent/Descent II
- Galactic Battlegrounds
- Super Mario World
- Dark Age of Camelot
- World of Warcraft
- PlanetSide
- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (yes, it’s my favorite game in the series, fight me)
- Wing Commander: Privateer
- Torchlight II
- Hammerfight
- Carmageddon 2
- Freelancer
- DoomRL
- N/N++
- FreeSpace
- Katawa Shoujo
- Unreal Tournament
- Minecraft
- Cave Story
- FTL
- Dark Souls
- Slay
- Terraria
- Ender Lilies
- The Binding of Isaac (and Rebirth)
- Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
- Dead Cells
- Hollow Knight
- Kerbal Space Program
- Transformice
- Soldat
