Nord.redWhat are your hallmark games? What games have shaped how you view games?
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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.
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
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.
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.
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 5
Yeah I’m old. Some modern ones:
Breath of the Wild
Valheim
Outer Wilds
Your 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.
@hesh
Loom - loved that one.
Missing Quake tho^^
@Gonzako
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):
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
Nothing has shaped how I view games more than Dark Souls.
Spyro the Dragon:
This is basically the pinnacle of game design to me. It is a collect-a-thon of course, but the gems always sparkle no matter how far you are from them so that if you are in line of sight you will know that they are there making it easy to find them.
Far off sections of the map are basically always reachable and rewards you for trying to get there and utilizing uncommon paths through the map.
When you beat the game to 100% it rewards you with extra stuff and a little more game to show it had fun being made as much as you hopefully did playing it.
All with a fun story that wraps it up and doesnt require anything special to jump in. I want to see games that have thoughtful level design and world building while using the game mechanics in fun ways. The fact that you jump into levels directly and the loading screen is akin to you actually flying to the world is all engrossing to the world.
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.
There’s actually an official “back path” for the Morrowind main quest if you killed Vivec. You need to take an item from his corpse to Yagrum Bagarn, but you also need a high reputation. If you muck up the back path, too, you can brute force the main quest by completing the final step anyway, but good luck figuring out how to do that without a quest pointing you to what you need.
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
Maplestory?
When I was younger, my friends used to play the usual shooters and competitive titles. I never enjoyed that. What got me more into gaming was the original Life is Strange. The game has its weaknesses, but at the time I just connected with the characters and felt emotions I didn’t expect to feel in a video game. Still love this kind of story driven and (somewhat) decision based games. Another one is Detroit become human. Still need to find something that matches the impact the player’s decisions have in that game.
I grew up with DOS games - Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Defender of the Crown, Hanse, Strike Commander and Wing Commander, Aces of the Pacific, Flight Simulator 3, Stunts3D, Hot Rod - Those are the games that showed me what unlimited amount of worlds can be inside of a computer. System Shock 1 didn’t hook me because of the cumbersome controls (but the remake has), first time playing System Shock 2 and Thief blew my mind, and I will love the Art Deco Style of Prey(2016) until the day i die.
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
Elite - 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.
I’ve been playing games since the 80s. I wouldn’t call myself a gamer. Here are a few personal hallmarks…
My Younger days:
More recently:
Mostly tried to stick to a single release per platform for the earlier games. I’m sure I’ve missed some.
Newer games…I know the AC and Fallout titles aren’t most people’s favorites, but I love those worlds. Games are all about comfort for me.
Oh man.. I was #1 on so many LORD leaderboards in my area code. The trick was to stay 1 level below the other top players, and to assassinate them in the inn.. they couldn’t get you back, because you were a level lower! Good times. Thanks for the reminder about the good old BBS days! 😁
Ohhh shit someone else who has visited Rubi-Ka? Loved that game when I was younger
I miss it so much. Last time I tried to fire it up again, it just wouldn’t even run under Windows. And I just haven’t ever found something that hits the same.
I had no issues running it a couple years ago…though it was a pretty disappointing. Very very dated and plain. I couldn’t remember how to get anywhere either and for a game so reliant on portalling around, it was rough
Half life 2. I could conceive of shooter games but until playing HL2 as a teenager, I didn’t quite understand how much storytelling they could pack in. Suddenly, it felt like games could be thoughtful and entertaining pieces of art instead of solely fun time
A few that seem under represented here:
Oregon Trail
Sim City 2000
Earthworm Jim
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.
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.
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
Ff9, here too!
Definitely Ace Attorney. It hits a lot of marks; it gives you the feeling of beating enemies by being clever, rather than powerful. It ties in with a sense of justice, and contains some murder mysteries that rival some of the greats of Agatha Christie with twisted, complex motives and multiple lying witnesses. It has VERY creative character designs, making each new face very memorable. Its localization team had their own sense of humor, conveyed well with how they chose to adapt many things. In spite of the humor, they often follow through with deeply emotional endings to each case.
Playing Minecraft multiplayer in 2010 blew me off my socks and I will never experience anything as intense as that, video game wise.
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 2
In the order I played them in: * Pokemon Ruby + Pokemon Colosseum * Final Fantasy Tactics Advance * Fable * Dragon Quest Monster Joker + Dragon Quest 5 * Risen * Dark Souls * Dragon Age: Origins * SMT Devil Survivor * Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology * Xenoblade (as a series) * Witcher 3
There are probably others, but that’s the list I came up with in the moment.
Star Control 2
I really thought there’d be more OSRS representation here! Been playing forever and still love it. It’s kind of ruined games for me - nothing else really scratches the same itch.
Some that I don’t think I saw mentioned, roughly in the chronological order I played them in:
Halo
Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
Metal Gear Solid 2
Xenoblade 2
Monster Hunter Rise
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Link’s Awakening (GB)
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.
tes3, persona 3, gothic 3, angband
3and diablo. Also f.e.a.r. and arx fatalis.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
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!
Thank you :)
Based on how many times I have started the game, but never finished
Based on number of hours played
Little Big Adventure 2.
It’s a massive game with both a 3D open world and isometric gorgeousness. Some character progression (not experience points), full voice acting, and a lot of character.
In many ways it set the bar for me in terms of how much a game should contain and the level of quality I expected.
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 1. Satisfactory 2. (a huge-ass gap) 3. Hades 1&2 4-∞. idk like every other game that is conventionally good?
Sonic - halo - wow - Skyrim - crusader kings
The Metal Gear Solid Series
Rhythm Doctor is the baseline I would want from how Early Access is done. Also an amazing game with a simple control scheme
osu! showed me that even putting the same thing over and over to improve yourself could be really addicting.
Chrono Trigger showed me even with hardware limitations you can achieve stunning visuals.
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. First really high quality storytelling I saw in games. Setting is so unique I never saw really any copycats
I thought hallmark only made cards ?
Have you never heard of a hallmark film?
Zelda: Link to the Past.
How it shapes how I view games is how Zelda creates a lot of subconscious rules we take for granted until we see it not being used.
For example:
You’ll often find the “locked door” before finding the key.
You’ll see the treasure chest at the end, but no way to get there.
You see the cracked walls with no bombs.
A lot of puzzles are clearly pointing out the problems without words.
Elite
Unreal Tournament
Halo
Skyrim
Destiny 2
Baldur’s Gate 3
A discord community I’m in has been sharing 3x3 cover image grids of the games that “define you”. I’ll just paste my response from there:
DUSK was the game where shooters finally clicked with me, I’ve played many of them before, whether it was CoD, Serious Sam or DOOM but DUSK is where it finally all clicked and I started to enjoy them. Chrono Trigger completely changed my outlook on RPGs from boring grindfests with pointless texts where you get confused every second to making it my fav genre and finally Yakuza and Zelda BotW completely changed how I viewed open world for better or for worse
Super Smash Bros — I play better when I play to get better and have fun. Worse when I try to win. Was a great lesson in general.
Hollow Knight & Silk Song — art and music and such tight games
Slay the Spire — hedging bets and long term thinking in a way that’s much more nuanced than standard RPGs
Sekiro — like playing an instrument
Pharaoh, sims (1), sim city, minecraft. And gta of course, every part except Chinatown wars.
Mischief makers
Factorio kinda set the early access bar so high I doubt another Dev team could come close to their early access stability and openness with the FFF.
Aaaaaaaa slop Games have shaped how how I view games. I consider any aaaaas company to product trashy predatory garbage and I just never give them money or care to play it. they have pushed me to Indy studios, single dev teams etc… they deserve my money… not trash like ubisoft, ea, rockstar and so on..
Minecraft and Terraria are to me the definitive mining/crafting games you can find.
Stardew Valley sets the bar for farming sim.
The Messenger holds a nice contender of a well-balanced game, one of the best in its ranks.
There will be no better ARPG contender to me than the Diablo series, even if Diablo has made some questionably dumb choices.
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall/Fallout 1 and 2 are some games that demonstrate the importance of depth and how your choices matter in their games. Something I feel nearly all RPGs should have.
I think these are very much the games that just have immaculate systems that are simple and rewarding, yet coupled with a layer of polish that when all the parts are combined, you’re left with something even greater.
Clair obscur.