10 Top Games!

Seeing as this blog is going to content plenty of articles about video games before long, I may as well start with a list of some of my favourite games. You can agree or furiously disagree with these, but they are ultimately my opinion so shouldn't affect you too much.

This list will only be made up of games from previous console generations, so don’t expect Call of Duty, Forza 4 or Uncharted. Actually, don’t expect Call of Duty at all.

Half-Life 2 (PC, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3)

Let’s get the main one out of the way. If I was going to do these in an order, there’s no doubt in my mind that Half-Life 2 would sit proudly in that number 1 position.

Valve has done something only id Software has done before, which is push the first person shooter genre forwards massively with two different releases. Whereas Half-Life showed that shooters could be more than just run and gun affairs by integrating a well-executed and subtle story, it’s sequel really made you feel like the catalyst of significant events with believable and well-crafted characters with a full range of facial animations and fully implemented physics.

Taking place years after the first game you take on the role of Gordon Freeman again, being sent to City 17 after spending time in an unknown location and state. You soon find yourself joining a resistance against the oppressive regime set up by the mysterious ‘benefactors’ and desperately running from the sinister Overwatch, followed by sneaking through a zombie infested town with nothing but the famed gravity gun before breaking into a high security prison and finally assaulting the Sentinel that towers over City 17. The whole thing is a well-paced, exciting ride that never actively pushes you down one path in the way most modern games do, allowing you to organically find the way and mess around at your leisure.

Even now, Half-Life 2 looks gorgeous with realistic faces that truly look human, beautiful water effects and fantastic animation (Aylx’s pet robot ‘Dog’ is something to behold), making the game highly likely to stand the test of time from a graphical perspective as well as a game play perspective.

These days, the Modern Warfare bug has almost fully infected the first person shooter genre, but if you ever want to get away from the continued madness of those games, just step back and play this gem. You’ll then know just how amazing a shooter can be.

Metroid Prime (Gamecube)

Samus Aran deserves to be more of an icon then she is. Seeing as the Playstation was the first major hit mainstream console, Lara Croft became the female icon of gaming. Samus, however, was the lead of what is considered one of, if not the best Super Nintendo game there is: Super Metroid.

Samus missed the N64 before it was announced the young Retro Studios was developing an entry on the Gamecube. Confusion quickly spread throughout the fan base (which I wasn't part of) over the idea of this unproven American studio handling one of Nintendo’s big franchises, followed quickly by rage when screenshots showed Metroid Prime would utilities a first person viewpoint, causing many to jump to the conclusion they were turning the claustrophobic, lonely exploration series into a full blown first person shooter.

Metroid Prime came out to well-deserved critical acclaim as Samus joined her Nintendo comrades in making the successful jump from side scrolling 2D action to a fully realized 3D world.

Playing in a manner I find akin to a first person Zelda game, Samus finds herself on the planet Talon IV, a former home of the Chozo alien race and the current home for both the sinister Space Pirates and the mysterious mineral Phazon. With no assistance but her wits, skills and power suit, Samus must explore the world to find out what she can of these elements and put a stop to the Space Pirates’ plan. The whole game is beautifully executed, retaining everything that made Super Metroid great such as its claustrophobic and lonely nature, bombastic action and epic boss monster encounters and effortlessly brings it into a new, expansive world that genuinely feels huge.

If you’re ever sick of NPCs telling you exactly where to go and want to be left to your wits alone in a huge, beautiful yet hostile world, there’s no better place to go.

Mashed: Drive to Survive (PC, Xbox, PS2)

 

Micro Machines was one of the best multi player racers ever made back in the days of the Sega Megadrive (or Genesis, if you've found your way here from the States). Several players looking down on their cars as they raced around kitchens, gardens and pool tables was every bit as fun as playing with toy cars as a child.

Step forwards to the naughties (a name I can’t take seriously) and step in Mashed, a game with the same premise by the same guys who made Micro Machines, now blown up to full size with a mean variety of weapons. Use missiles, mines, flash bangs  barrel bombs and machine guns to get ahead of your opponents to win the round and go onto win the race if you can, but watch out for your opponents ganging up on you and sending air strikes your way if they’re knocked out of a round.

While not all the tracks are winners (I almost exclusively played the icy oval track), the laughs and cries of four people sat together as they attempt to screw each other over can’t be rivalled, especially when you find yourself hit just enough to spin you around, forcing you to reverse up the track. That particular revelation will go down in my best gaming moments ever!

F-Zero GX (Gamecube)

Although I never owned one, the N64 was the first console I really wanted. Nintendo’s third home console had so many great, revolutionary and genre defining games, but there was only one game I truly wanted one for: F-Zero X. Zipping along at a smooth and crisp 60 frames a second through twisted and rolling roller coaster like circuits with 29 other racers was a thrill beyond belief, made even more awesome by the fantastic rocking soundtrack.

Jump forwards to the Gamecube and Nintendo got together with former rivals and masters of the Arcade racer Sega to make F-Zero GX. Whereas X had to sacrifice quite a bit in terms of graphics to keep up with the game’s pace, GX could go wild with the increased power of the Gamecube, combining the fast pace and number of racers with dazzling environments and even more complex tracks that shot by at supersonic speeds. Keeping up with everything was as much of a challenge as the actual racing.

With the lack of weapons that WipEout and Mario Kart boasted, F-Zero GX had a difficulty that was more reasonable than its competitors. If you failed, it was due to your own mistake rather than getting hit by a leader seeking power that costs you the win on the last bend. The story mode was the highlight of that difficulty, with even the ‘normal’ mode proving a hell of a challenge and if you wanted to unlock the F-Zero AX content without finding the arcade cabinet, then you’d have to beat everything on the highest difficulties.

F-Zero GX was packed with other features, such as a simple car builder and the aforementioned story mode, but it’s the racing that keeps you coming back again and again. Hurtling through a futuristic city with cranes working and space ships flying around as you race at supersonic speeds never gets old.

Dungeon Keeper 2 (PC)

Before the glut of shooting games that currently makes up mainstream gaming, there was a variety of strange, quirky games. Bullfrog, one of the UK’s greatest game developers, was famed for its ‘god games’ which are basically management games on fairly large scales. Populous, Theme Park and Theme Hospital stood as fantastic examples of PC gaming, but Dungeon Keeper 2 is my favourite out of all of them.

Your goal is simple. Build an underground dungeon, lure monsters to your employ and then send them against the goody goods on the surface or against rival dungeon keepers. Nice and simple but still beautifully deep as not only do you need to protect your dungeon and build new rooms, you need to keep gold coming in to pay your monsters and make sure squabbles don’t break out between creatures that don’t like each other.

A sense of twisted humour also infects every aspect of the game, ranging from the Mistresses who love to have themselves tortured to the farting Bile Demons and your constant ‘Mentor’ dropping quips and remarks as you go (voiced by Richard Ridings, who’s appeared in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Red Dwarf, one of my favourite films and TV shows respectively. Funny how the world works sometimes).

Since EA ‘merged’ Bullfrog with their UK studios, effectively shutting the legendary studio down, the Dungeon Keeper Intellectual Property has been sat in whatever vault EA has for IPs they have no intention of using or selling. Thankfully, they did go so far as to allow sale of both DK games on GOG.com, so if you ever want to see what management games were like before the current glut of smartphone and Facebook games with a million hidden charges, go and check this out.

Sam & Max: Hit the Road (PC)

Lucasarts was very different in the 90s. While they did make Star Wars and Indiana Jones games, they also dominated the market for the point and click adventure game genre with zany games such as Day of the Tentacle, Secret of Monkey Island and the infinitely bizarre Sam & Max.

The adventures of the anthropomorphic dog in a suit Sam and his insane rabbity thing partner Max range from the downright ludicrous to the totally insane as they track down a missing pair of circus freaks across various tourist traps in America while also perusing the plot of a power mad country and western singer. The World’s Largest Ball of Twine, an Alligator infested driving range and a vortex controlled by underground magnets became the backdrops to the lunacy as the adventure continued to get stranger and stranger.

Despite its success, Lucasarts cancelled a planned sequel to focus on Star Wars, almost bringing an end to the point and click adventure genre until the mid naughties when Telltale Games, a company built up of former Lucasarts developers revived the series with a new, equally mad set of ‘episodic’ adventures that made up a full, equally insane story line. Even with such a small number of products within the franchise, it goes to show how far a quality product can go with fans.

Chrono Trigger (SNES, PSone, Nintendo DS, iPhone, Android)

Square-Enix is best known for one series of games: Final Fantasy. The most popular Japanese RPG series has made it to 14 numbered entries and a mass of spin-offs, but only one or two reach the heady heights that this SNES wonder of theirs reached and remains at.

Created by both the creator and composer of Final Fantasy and the creator of Dragon Ball, Chrono Trigger follows the almost fairy tale quest of Chrono and his friends as they travel back and forth through time to stop the intergalactic parasite Lavos from destroying the future.

Like Final Fantasy, the core game play involves roaming an over world to find the next objective or opponent, but rather than jumping into random encounters on a separate battle screen, you take part in deliberately placed battles that keep you on the over world screen as you fight which at the time was quite a technical marvel. The combat system itself is very simple with various normal, magical and team based attacks to use against a wide range of enemies but retains a level of complexity that keeps you challenged against the many challenges the game throws up across its 7 expansive time zones.

Graphically, the 2D sprites still look wonderful and the musical score is among the best in the business, bringing the world to life in a way many modern games simply can’t match. Chrono Trigger did gain a sequel on the original Playstation in the form of Chrono Cross and the three lead developers worked on a sort of spiritual successor Blue Dragon on the Xbox 360, but nothing really stands up to the original.

Soul Reaver 2 (PC, PS2)

Story telling is an interesting beast when it comes to video games. Some of them just hang the story, hand you a massive gun and set demons on you, while others can spend hours filling you in on exposition.

The Legacy of Kain games walk an interesting tight rope where your aims are always reasonably simple, but the world around you contains so much wonder and history that your character is learning of along with you as you play, making you consider your mission and what destiny truly is.

This entry in the series which marked the middle part of the journey of the wraith Raziel as he seeks revenge on his former master Kain, bringing to light the manipulated destinies of Nosgoth and its inhabitance by the mysterious Elder God. Throw in some intense combat with demons and vampire hunters as well as mind twisting puzzles that take advantage of Raziel’s ability to shift into the twisted spirit world and you've got a game that could offer everything.

While there are games with better combat and exactly where you need to go can be as clear as mud, Soul Reaver 2’s well executed story keeps you coming back to see what happens next every time.

Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now (PC)

Some people may think there were no games that allowed you to aimlessly drive around a large world, occasionally running over some pedestrians if the mood struck you before the Grand Theft Auto series (or GTA3, if you want to be awkward). In the 90s, a team from the Isle of Wight of all places developed what was originally going to be a title based on the tongue in cheek Death Race 2000 movie before the license was taken away and they had to do their own thing.

The original Carmageddon was at the time a step forwards in its open world racing and destructive driving, but as one of the potential methods of winning a race was to run over every pedestrian in the level (quite the task as there’s usually 200 of them) brought the attention of the tabloids and the house wives with little to do and the game very nearly got banned before the pedestrians were replaced with zombies.

While fun, the tracks felt dull and unimaginative after a while and the method of unlocking cars was a chore (destroy an opponent and cross everything hoping it was one you were allowed to unlock), but Carmageddon 2 came and fixed not only that but a few other annoyances with the original. Whereas before you had a few city blocks, an industrial plant and a few valleys to explore, Carmag 2 gave you better realized cities and industrial plants, a theme park and a fully functional airport to name but a few locations. Refinements to the car physics and general career design with additional challenges to break up the normal races made this sequel everything a sequel should be.

Thankfully, the Carmageddon IP has returned to the rightful hands of the original creators and they’re busy remaking the original game, though they’d have to go a long way to top their second creation.

City of Heroes (PC)

I'm going to set you a challenge. When you wake up tomorrow morning, try and recite as many of the games on this list as possible. You’ll likely remember the first entry on the list and maybe one or two games you love yourself, but hopefully you’ll also remember the last entry on the list. Why? Because in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game genre, a brand of games that’s dominated to the point of stagnation by an almost endless stream of fantasy games all trying to be the next World of Warcraft, this absolute gem did its own thing and forged a path into brave unknowns other developers simply refused to.

Based on its own super hero mythology that became as expansive, interesting and slightly plot holed as anything Marvel and DC can create, City of Heroes allowed you to be just about any hero and later villain you wanted to be. Want to be a fire ball throwing pixie? Go ahead. Want to be a muscle man who can throw chunks of the ground at enemies? You can do that too. Want to be an anime inspired, spikey haired, enormous sword swinging angsty type? To each’s own, but go ahead. Want to be a permanently grinning, hulking clown man in a bright pink leotard who heals his allies with hugs? You’re really messed up but you can do that as well, just don’t expect many people to come near you.

With City of Heroes pre-dating World of Warcraft by about half a year in the States, the then developer Cryptic went its own way in terms of character power and game design. While in WoW and most other MMORPGs your general effectiveness is mainly dictated by your gear, in City of Heroes your powers and how you enhance them dictate your strength. Other features included a wealth of badges to collect for exploration, defeating enemies and completing tasks, scalable difficulty so any mission could be attempted by anyone with any character build, genre leading ‘sidekick’ system that allowed players of vastly different levels to play together in the same team without either being penalized and a mission creation tool for creating and sharing your own.

City of Heroes had its fair share of faults. The huge number of indoor ‘instance’ missions were in some cases lengthy and repetitive and made the city itself feel a bit empty, Player versus Player combat was very much an afterthought (though I've never been into PvP myself), most of the powers caused the player to be rooted to the spot during its animation and the graphics engine was dated even before its release, but the developers at Cryptic and later Paragon Studios worked wonders within its limits to give the players all sorts of new features, including a massive graphics overhaul and the ability to change alignments as well as one of the better examples of in game stores.

Sadly, despite 8 years of continuing success, the game was shut down very suddenly by its publisher, NCSoft. City of Heroes made enough money to support itself very well but not to satisfy NCsoft in the face of Aion, Guild Wars and Lineage, CoH’s age and the fact it was rarely to never advertised beyond word of mouth not helping. When the servers were shut off without even a thank you for playing from NCSoft, the genre lost something truly special in not just an accessible and imaginative world, but it also lost an inviting and caring community of players. For the time being, the Intellectual Property has been resigned to the same dark vault as Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault and Exteel, but I still hope there will be a day when NCSoft realizes that sitting on properties that people want only makes them look like clueless fools. While I’m at it, I also hope for a device that will instantly generate a Full English Breakfast on demand at any time of day.


Random note: Images scrounged from sources on Google Images