Gaming Forums => General Gaming => Topic started by: Evan_B on February 04, 2016, 12:52:32 PM
Title: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 04, 2016, 12:52:32 PM
I will not rest until the entire first page of this forum is threads started by myself.
I also decided to revamp this thread for longevity's sake. What is your favorite game? We might gain some insight into YOU depending on what it is.
Title: Re: "Special" Games. Break out the tissue boxes.
Post by: Evan_B on February 04, 2016, 01:08:56 PM
I'll start with a game I tend to wax nostalgic about very often- Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. While I don't believe it is a perfect game- there's definite issues in backtracking- the narrative, mixed with its core gameplay mechanics, created a near-perfect experience that changed the way I looked at video games, and it's an experience I still look for in today's games.
The story is comedic- simplistic at its core, but the dialogue is often so clever and packed with personality that it evokes a cartoonish and charming atmosphere at every point. Up until I played this game, I was unaware of games with stylistic stories, at least in the vein of comedy. I found games either took themselves a bit too seriously or presented things in too stark a contrast, and while that works for some games, it has its place and it doesn't speak to me all that much. TTYD had a narrative that kept me guessing, but it also displayed a surprising amount of heart, wearing its emotions on its sleeve and delivering them with a pure and satisfying punch.
The gameplay also presents itself as simple, but has multiple layers of depth and can be approached from so many different angles. The fact that the game turns its genre on its head for several chapters, the Gutzville and train sequences, in particular, gives the entire experience variety. But the core mechanics of the turn-based system, stripped down to small numbers and featuring level, progression, and skill systems, makes the game seem approachable from the outside and extremely replayable to the veteran. Not to mention, its combat was active- in a sense- and featured wrinkles like the stylish system which were not just explained outright, but discover-able. That's absolutely wonderful design.
It was very unlike any experience, and its climactic moments, both in story and gameplay, offered highs that have been matched only several times in my history of gaming. It made me think about how story could be presented in games, and I have since seen many other titles that match its narrative notes and surpass it, but it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Title: Re: "Special" Games. Break out the tissue boxes.
Post by: TOPHATANT123 on February 04, 2016, 05:30:51 PM
It'd have to be the Layton series, both trilogies (+ the movie I guess) and Layton Vs Phoenix Wright. So many moments that left me feeling something, either it be humous with it's total insanity, or something just really sad. I thought that every game in the series ends on a bitter sweet note but also an optimistic one, I'm finding it really difficult to put into words. Imagine Hershel Layton is your uncle, and you represent your brain, and you and your uncle visit the Church with the priest and the congregation, only there's no Church no congregation no priest and your uncle is molesting you.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 04, 2016, 05:53:44 PM
...Is that from a comedy sketch? Because I have heard it before and it's hilarious.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: TOPHATANT123 on February 04, 2016, 07:28:55 PM
I got the expression from my man, pure white product blood soaked hands, Mr Ricky Cocaine.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Wah on February 04, 2016, 07:35:10 PM
My favourite game? not possible to say, but the game a play the most and come back to all the time would be skyrim!
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Triforce Hermit on February 04, 2016, 07:39:54 PM
I could never peg down 1 favorite game so I'll just list the few I hold in extremely high regard.
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask- The best application of the Zelda formula to date and probably hands down my favorite game of all time.
Xenoblade Chronicle- I never liked the Xeno games, but this one had a memorable world and loved this game.
Final Fantasy XII- Large world, large content, wondeful combat system, money is well applied, and plenty of superbosses.
And as of recent I'd have to add Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War because the game itself has a beautiful flow and story too it.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Wah on February 04, 2016, 07:55:10 PM
I could never peg down 1 favorite game so I'll just list the few I hold in extremely high regard.
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask- The best application of the Zelda formula to date and probably hands down my favorite game of all time.
Xenoblade Chronicle- I never liked the Xeno games, but this one had a memorable world and loved this game.
Final Fantasy XII- Large world, large content, wondeful combat system, money is well applied, and plenty of superbosses.
And as of recent I'd have to add Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War because the game itself has a beautiful flow and story too it.
*cough, fire emblem awakening best game cough* Is any one else getting really pissed with the Undertale fan base? It's a really good game, yeah but stop shoving it in my fucking face!
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 04, 2016, 11:26:21 PM
My favorite game has been Super Mario World for quite some time. Before that it was Pac-man (or specifically Ms. Pac-Man) but today it is a tie between Ms. Pac-Man and Super Mario World.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 04, 2016, 11:39:57 PM
Just in terms of how much I go back to it, I'd have to put EA's FIFA series into this discussion, considering I spend literally hundreds of hours every year playing it. But really, the answer for me has to be Super Mario Bros. 3. It's not very challenging to me anymore, but I still go back to it time and time again. It's like an album I've listened to dozens of times before: I know exactly how it goes, but I can't help but be completely absorbed by it every time through. I once played through it 100% three times in a week, never getting tired of it.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 05, 2016, 12:19:47 AM
I like Super Mario Bros. 3, even loved it when it was new, but I always thought of it as a poor mans Super Mario World, I know it technically came out first but I didn't learn about it right away, we got our NES late in it's life and SNES was already out.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: NWR_insanolord on February 05, 2016, 12:44:03 AM
To me, Super Mario World tried to fix what wasn't broken in Mario 3. In pretty much every significant difference between the two, I vastly prefer the way Mario 3 did things.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Adrock on February 05, 2016, 08:50:36 AM
Super Metroid is my standard answer. It's one of the most complete video games ever made and it came out in 1994.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: nickmitch on February 05, 2016, 02:15:09 PM
Tetris.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 05, 2016, 02:25:28 PM
To me, Super Mario World tried to fix what wasn't broken in Mario 3. In pretty much every significant difference between the two, I vastly prefer the way Mario 3 did things.
While I do agree with this, especially the power ups being handled just about perfectly in SMB3 and only so-so in SMW, what keeps taking me back is that SMW levels are just more fun to play, they aren't as frustratingly difficult and SMW has happier music, and the retro 90's Groovy star road stuff just always fit my personality. I love SMB3 also but it feels outdated to me where SMW feels timeless.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Mop it up on February 05, 2016, 03:04:21 PM
From the original name of this topic and your first post, I get the feeling this was going to be something more specific, but then you decided to back out of it for some reason and make it more general...?
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 05, 2016, 11:29:02 PM
It was a trap, we all fell for it.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 07, 2016, 10:38:32 PM
From the original name of this topic and your first post, I get the feeling this was going to be something more specific, but then you decided to back out of it for some reason and make it more general...?
Yeah, it was. Much more artsy, introspective, and personal. But then I'm reminded of how I seem to "care" or at least get a little more worked up about the subject than other people on this board and I pulled back a bit.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: ejamer on February 08, 2016, 08:56:58 AM
From the original name of this topic and your first post, I get the feeling this was going to be something more specific, but then you decided to back out of it for some reason and make it more general...?
Yeah, it was. Much more artsy, introspective, and personal. But then I'm reminded of how I seem to "care" or at least get a little more worked up about the subject than other people on this board and I pulled back a bit.
For what it's worth, I saw the original subject and liked that approach more. :)
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 09, 2016, 01:44:11 AM
Well then, why not give it a shot?
I've always been interested in video games as an artistic medium. I know many people have argued otherwise, but the tactile, reaction-based nature of games pushes them into a different realm of entertainment, and I think that (as someone else has stated before, maybe Ian), as more people are brought up exposed to the medium, it will gradually gain a bit more acceptance as an art form and we might see this discussion rear its head once more.
But games don't have to be artistic masterpieces in order to resonate with a player. Indeed, there's titles that may succeed in one aspect that is immensely satisfying to a specific type of gamer which may not have the same effect on others. My example was Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door- a sequel with its fair share of flaws. You know what else has flaws? A Tale of Two Cities, man. So I ask you all- what is a game that has had an emotional impact on you, that may have changed your perception of video games? Maybe a title that made you reconsider the medium as something that was MORE than just purely enjoyable and perhaps emotionally fulfilling, or satisfying in another sense?
I can think of a few other examples, but I'll type them up later.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: pokepal148 on February 09, 2016, 02:35:10 AM
Link's Awakening is not only the best 2d Zelda but that narrative as a whole is brilliantly setup. It's remarkable how it can be, easily, the most whimsical game in the Zelda series while at the same time throwing in a twist that makes the whole thing darker then even Majora's Mask. And the entire story is told so minimalistically, I mean it's just an extremely well put together game.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Khushrenada on February 09, 2016, 06:01:55 AM
My favorite game?
There's clearly only one obvious choice and I'm not sure why everyone else hasn't chosen it yet. Maybe they feel they need to promote a more obscure title. My choice:
Because just imagine!!! Babies, man!! And not just babies. These are extreme babies that spell their identity with a Z! These are extreme Babyz! Can you imagine that? Well, now you can with Imagine: Babyz.
It's great. You get to feed the babyz. change the babyz and put the babyz to sleep! My favorite method is with a pillow over the face to ensure the babyz have been truly put to sleep. This game made me realize what a great mother I truly could and can be! I thought about adopting some children from Africa but after playing this game, it just felt like doing it all over again would be redundant with diminishing returns and could ruin the magic I felt from my experience playing this game.
Oh, and lest you think this game is only about babyz, you are wrong! There's also minigames around vacuuming or trimming hedges!!! This game is packed. Or should I say, thiz game yz packyd, yo! How did Ubisoft do it? To this day, I'll never understand why Rabbids caught on and not Babyz. The only thing I can come up with is that the development team knew they could never again surpass, much less match, the incredible product they had been able to create because it was like they were given the computing code by God himself so the whole team just performed a mass suicide to ensure Ubisoft would not besmirch what they had done and cheapen it with endless sequels or force them to create and sell a lesser product following its release.
Imagine: Babyz, may you always be the shining beacon of great gaming goodness in every videogame age. I salute you!
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 09, 2016, 12:09:00 PM
Glad to have you back, Khush.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 09, 2016, 02:51:01 PM
Well I won't get into the whole games as art debate, I don't see toys as art, I don't see board games as art either. Instead I will focus more on games as serious entertainment, since art is too hard to properly define anyways either people are too broad, or too narrow in their definition.
If you are still going on about Paper Mario, I will give you my honest assessment of that series and see what you think of that. I try not to get too deep into some of this stuff because when you begin to reveal things about yourself people look at you differently. Of course a guy who enjoys Michael Bay films and Nintendo video games probably is already being judged anyways.
Quote
A Tale of Two Cities, man. So I ask you all- what is a game that has had an emotional impact on you, that may have changed your perception of video games? Maybe a title that made you reconsider the medium as something that was MORE than just purely enjoyable and perhaps emotionally fulfilling, or satisfying in another sense?
I can name a few video games that I have had an emotional experience with that made me think deeply about life and other stuff but they aren't the games you would expect.
The first time I played Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life for the Game Cube I not only fell in love with the Game Cube, literally I to this day have a strong emotional attachment to that machine, but I also realized that a person can enjoy simple things in life without having to listen to all the clutter and noise of our busy lives. Despite everything going on around me in my life during that time, whenever I sat down to play that game it wasn't just escapism, it was me entering another world, another state of mind. I think people are too quick to compare anything that has that affect on us to being like a drug, I spin it the other way having never done drugs. I see drugs as a way for someone who can't appreciate life for what it is as a means of artificially experiencing what other people can without the drug.
In a way I think that better translates to the experience of being sucked into a video game world and not just sharing in the experience but being a part of it, being there spiritually even if not literally.
I also felt this when I was playing Turrican on the Sega Genesis, Final Fantasy 7 on the original Playstation, Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland on the NES, and most recently in Minecraft on the PS4. Escapism is a part of art but it is also being able to get into the mind of the artists and see what they saw, feel what they felt, experience what they experienced.
Literature is different to me though, so I might stray from the line of thinking you are expecting. I suppose coming from a more literary background, not just being a writer but also reading books and enjoying them far more than anything else in this world, I can say I consider art and literature to be two entirely different things. Similar in many ways but not quite the same. I would be more inclined to argue video games could be considered literary in a way more so than artistic, but if one were to interpret art as I do it would alter their reasoning. See people look at video games and they see the visuals and to many visual= art but I think of art not as strictly visual but it has to have emotion, it has to have meaning, and deep down it has to deal with life and death in some way. Video games do often have emotions, they do deal with life and death quite often but given the nature of video games and the abundance of "resurrections" possible I am inclined to dismiss the notion they actually deal with death rather they gloss over it or even outright dismiss it entirely, thus disqualifying them as art.
Not literature I consider to be narrative in any form, video games can have a narrative even if they lack the more strict definition of art. To me in order to be literary it must have a beginning, middle, and end, that is all. I cannot think of a single video game that does not qualify as this. I consider sports to be literary, I am a sports writer for a newspaper and I write my stories from the perspective of a narrative, the team I am covering is the protagonist, the opponent the antagonist, there is conflict and resolution, these can be found in literature and they can be found in video games, but I do not consider art to be literature, not saying literature cannot be art. It gets complicated but for the sake of simplicity suppose that you could consider a work of literature to also be a work of art but I cannot accept a work of art as a equal to a work of literature. You know like how all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs. Well not that extreme but along those lines.
Video games that I DO consider art do exist but they are not the same ones I consider to be literature, if that makes sense. Maybe literature isn't the correct word, I don't know but let's stick with it for the time being.
Since this has past TL:DR territory I will end there and allow you an opportunity to absorb what I wrote and reply accordingly.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Khushrenada on February 09, 2016, 05:28:23 PM
Thanks. I appreciate that. It's good to be back hanging with you all again.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 10, 2016, 12:30:28 AM
Well, that got interesting!
You know what's art, Mikey? Spongebob Squarepants.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: lolmonade on February 15, 2016, 10:32:53 AM
My favorite game currently? Rocket League, since it came out, is my go-to game if I want to have some silly fun for a brief period of time.
My "favorite" game of all time? Would go along with Mario 3 or Super Mario World based on how often I revisit those games.
To your more substantive question, I have a tie between Chrono Trigger, Ocarina of Time and Shadow of the Colossus as standard-bearers for my "emotionally impactful" games, but I played all as a teenager at a time in my life where I had the ability to get truly immersed into these stories.
Lately, my most recent "impactful" game was MGSV. For whatever challenges there were in production and the parts that got cut, I got bang for my buck on that game both for story (despite it not following typical Kojima loonyness), and amount of time played.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 15, 2016, 02:36:18 PM
You know what's art, Mikey? Spongebob Squarepants.
Only if you view it under the influence of Mary Jane.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 15, 2016, 07:55:35 PM
You know what's art? Michael Bay films. All of them. Especially Pearl Harbor.
Thank's for taking my question seriously, lolmonade! I think that the games we play in adolescence are very impactful in general, but I like your choice of MGSV. That is an emotional experience in itself.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 15, 2016, 09:57:43 PM
??? I took your post very seriously I gave a very thoughtful response and was treated with sarcasm so I responded with sarcasm in kind.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Evan_B on February 15, 2016, 11:50:02 PM
Oh, sorry. I completely forgot to respond to the Harvest Moon comments! Which was indeed very serious. I have never played a Harvest Moon title but a game like that, which has the potential to feel like and require the commitment of, well, a job, all have incredible potential to trigger emotionally satisfying and resonating responses from people. It's why I like RPGs, but more for the narrative commitment instead of the "day-to-day" cyclic gameplay. The Game Cube, in case you hadn't noticed, was also a huge part in the formation of what I love about video games, so I'm right with you there.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Phil on February 17, 2016, 05:28:02 AM
My favorite game is The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. It was formerly the N64 version, but the 3DS version fixed everything I had a problem with in the original, and then some issues I didn't even notice or thought heavily on.
Then there's Banjo-Kazooie, my favorite 3D collect-a-thon platformer. There's Perfect Dark, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, A Link to the Past, A Link Between Worlds, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime, and Mega Man X. Those are in my top favorite games.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: riftzzz on February 24, 2016, 04:16:19 AM
Clash of Clans ! :D
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Wah on February 24, 2016, 04:40:26 AM
U like playing Coc bro? ;)
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: Spak-Spang on February 25, 2016, 08:28:59 PM
This is such a hard question. When I think of favorite games I think of games I could endless play...and have endlessly played. I don't want to limit it to games I am playing now, but games I would actively play again and play through entirely again. So I would have to say:
Super Mario World, Super Metriod, and Legend of Zelda Link to the Past are my favorite games. They are basically perfect games in each of their respective genres.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: sudoshuff on February 25, 2016, 09:35:44 PM
I'll probably have to go with Majora's Mask. It's certainly the game that I've spent the most time thinking about...something about the world design really drew me in.
Title: Re: What's YOUR favorite game?
Post by: sudoshuff on February 25, 2016, 09:41:24 PM
... but I played all as a teenager at a time in my life where I had the ability to get truly immersed into these stories.
I think a lot of my fond memories of video games, books, and movies from childhood are less about the content itself and more about the time I spent immersing myself in the universe, lore, fan fiction, etc. I do sort of miss being able to do that :-\ .
