Your list of favorite NON- CRPGs…

Originally Posted by Jaz
Did I make sense? Hardly. But at least I used many, many words.

You did and I fully agree. This is a ridiculous witch hunt once again. Anyone who has read this last guy's (Emsdetten amok run) final suicide note and watched the video (both of which are available in English since he wanted to get his "message" out to the entire world, not just Germans) must have realized by now that this guy was one deeply disturbed individual. Nothing more and nothing less. There wasn't a single reference to games or movies or any other media in his statements. To the contrary. He seemed paranoid about being manipulated by any form of media. Everything that he said just sounded like a compilation of "Rage against the machine" lyrics or [fill in the lyrics of any other aggressive anti-establishment band]. He just wanted to come across as tough and cool. That's all.

It seems crystal clear to me that the guy had serious mental issues in the first place. If you just go by his very statements then what should be banned is 1) brand clothing (yay, let's all go commie/socialist and just wear the same gov't issued clothing brand), 2) hip-hop ('cause he didn't like it as much as the "cool" kids at his school did), 3) pretty girlfriends (because he couldn't have one we all shouldn't have one).

Come on… anyone who does a bit of basic research on the case and actually checks out what the guy had to say, should realize very quickly that video games played just about no role at all. He just couldn't cope with not being a member of the "cool kids gang".
So… he couldn't be a part of them, so then he decided to destroy them. And (luckily) failed pretty miserably at that. End of story.
Of course, a lot of journalists and politicians have simply failed to do that basic research so here we go again with a retarded discussion about 'killer games' *sigh*.

Ah, then we two were the ones responsible for Renegade's high Editor's Choice ratings in the RPGDot Games of the Year contest back then

LOL, I don't remember that at all, but if it was indeed so then Renegade surely deserved every single point it got .

Originally Posted by Moriendor
LOL, I don't remember that at all, but if it was indeed so then Renegade surely deserved every single point it got .

Definitely! Our incredible taste in games brought Renegade a well-deserved 4th place in the Editors' Choice Non-RPG awards back in 2002. UT 2003 was No. 1, and I doubt we two were innocent there, either… at least I know I wasn't .

No real order :

- Indy Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (talk about a good story & immersion ? here you have it. Enough said. )

- Monkey Island I (Same here - plus loads of humour !)

- Zanzarah (one of the most immersive games - you won't believe the feeling you get while walking through this thick wood … sadly most reviewers put it into one box with Pokemon - most undeserved, as I believe, although Zanzarah is looking quite cute and gives you the task to grow fairies you duel with …)

- Commander Keen 4 & 5 (just fun. enough said)

- Tropico (my favourite non-flight sim. it's one of the *very few* games that stays on my harddisk)

- Beyond Good & Evil (a dream - but a dream that becomes harsh reality in the light that shows the corruption in this world)

- Kyrandia Trilogy (especially the middle part) (wonderful games. simply gems)

- Simon the Sorcerer I (same here)

- Homeworld (made me buy the Yes LP "The Ladder" - found out it was the best music for my taste I had heard for ages ! - I would *instantly* buy a Star Wars game using THAT engine !))

- The Longest Journey (very immersive, interesting and weird story)

- X-Wing (fun)

- X-Wing Alliance (even better fun)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
- Kyrandia Trilogy (especially the middle part)

Oh, that was the Hand of Fate! Very, very funny. Unfortunately, the German version was unsolvable by logic alone due to a trivial translation issue: an item needed for making a sandwich was listed as 'a toadstool' - the English language name for a type of poisonous mushroom. In the German version's sandwich item list, it was called 'Giftpilz', meaning 'poisonous mushroom'. Too bad the item actually needed for making the sandwich was a wooden stool a toad had sat on… and making the right sandwich was quest-critical. Needless to say that solving the puzzle in German was pure trial and error. Fortunately, though, you could switch languages during play… and Xanthia was modeled after the game designer's wife. He really had a thing for back-talking blondes… just think of LoL's Dawn.

Damn it! Why hasn't anyone mentioned Bioforge. The control was horrible, but the story really, really sticks. The atmosphere in that game is phenomenal! Return the fork!!!

Yes, I remember that translation issue.

The "toadstool" reappears in several games, and I think *every* game has a different translation for it … It's almost like an wordgame eluding translation.

I just wanted to add two games I only played as Demos, but are as absolute unique as a thing can be : Mike Oldfield's Tres Lunas and Maestro games.

Because these are no games as you might imagine them, they are instead pure fun in exploring. Like a game should be, in my opinion.

It's like experimenting a lot : You do things just out of fun, not really expecting something special - but as soon as you do it, the whole scenery changes !

Of course most of "normal" gamers would be bored of it, because these games don't have any real goal. They don't need to. All they want is provide fun. Nothing more, nothing less.

And of course it's a thing how you define "fun" …

Currently playing Medieval II: Total War, which while fun doesnt quite qualify for this kind of list yet (it might after I've played it some more and if the retarded "make no peace ever" AI is fixed).

Hmm, I suspect most casual gamers would dismiss my taste as rather dry. I like realism, especially in historical games (and I am a bit of a history buff). I mainly play turn based strategy games and subgenres of that when not playing RPGs. It is hard to rank those games, it wholly depends on the situation.

Long siingle player campaigning: Europa Universalis II and Victoria by Paradox Interactive. Use pausable real time (like Baldurs Gate or the Total war games) on a global map featuring nearly all countries in the world 1419-1919. Has functioning world market and the like due to the number of actors (market mechanisms tend to be broken in computer games as there arent enough buyers or sellers). EU2 is the more polished of the two, with more fluid gameplay, but I enjoy the Victorian period more. I have also had fun with the Warlords series, and with civ clones like Master of Magic back in the day. Colonization and Master of Orion II are other memorable classics, but unfortunately bog down in micromanagement hell (unlike MoM which you can win by simply burning all enemy cities to the ground).

Business games:
Railroad Tycoon III is immense fun, much more of a serious business game than Sid Meiers Railroads.
Capitalism II simulates production and retailing business. It is cool and particularly fun to play in MP against my gf (who has a major in computational finance)
Merchant Prince, Machiavelli the Prince, and Merchant Prince II are all basically the same. Buy low and sell high in a Marco Polo-esque renaissance world. Buy cardinals, assassinate the pope, and vote for a pope of your choosing. A humourous yet somewhat historical game.
Port Royale I is the best in a long line of trading games from Ascaron, and the least dry one. Fun for a while, but a bit repetitive.

Sports Games:
The Football manager series, and its predecessors Championship Manager. IMHO FM 2006 is the best incarnation of the series (the latest one for some reason doesnt use a "huge" database, which makes it hard to find foreigners willing to play in the sucky Swedish league, and retaining more players manually slows the game down to a crawl). A number crunching game, but oh so addictive if you are into football.

Action games: Seadogs and Mount and Blade are similar in a way. One is Elite with Pirate ships and rpg-like stats and quests, the other is Elite with swords and rpg-like quests. Mount and blade has the best battles medieval combat engine ever seen in a game, period. You can get a demo from www.taleworlds.com. Seadogs is a pirate game which, while uglier than its successors "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Age of Pirates: Carribean Tales" is reasonably bug free, something that cant be said for the later incarnations. These games have one of the best sea battle systems I've seen.

Quick (completed in less than 1h) games: Gold of the Americas, a strategy game set in the new world with a lot of humour. Exploit slaves, indians, or your colonists. Hide your gold stash from the fat king's taxman. Prevent the colonists from forming stupid "free" nations. Revolution '76 is a turn based game where you try to free the American colonists from evil England, ally with France, persecute loyalists, etc. No Greater Glory is a somewhat slower (2-3h if you know what you are doing) ACW game by the same team, where you have to deal with generals who might be cautious and not press the attack when you ask them to (McClellan) and play as either Lincoln or Davis. Great game but a bit heavy in the logistical part.

Multiplayer: Worms is the king of hot seat multiplayer with mildly drunk buddies. For network gaming with my gf I prefer Capitalism II, Seven Kingdoms I/II, and certain relatively modern AD&D games

The very best games I've played were on the Amiga though. Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge and Supercars II were PERFECTLY balanced hotseat multiplayer games with that drunken buddy. Both came from the same developers and allowed split screen play. Lotus is a very early third person racing game akin to Need for Speed. Supercars II is a top-down car game where you dont just race, you use missiles, mines, and various upgrades to knock out your friend and the AI cars on a course with obstacles such as trains… And then there was the unforgettable North and South, based upon the (French?) comic Les Tuniques Bleues. A humourous ACW game Sensible Soccer was also a blast to play with the old digital joysticks

If anyone has similar taste the Paradox games can be bought online at Paradox website, Mount and Blade can be found at www.taleworlds.com, and many of the really old games can be found at various nostalgia sites. Try demos and check out forums/screenshots first though. Many of my games are an acquired taste….

Not in any order:
Age Of Empires Series
Cossacks Series
Tekken Series
G-Police
Monkey Island Series
Broken Sword Series
Moment of Silence
Ankh
Syberia series
C&C (first one only)
Little Big Adventure
Tomb Raider series
and offcourse Doom3, lol.
…few more…(my list of all time favourites is quite long)

UFO/xcom's

The JA's

Bloodlines

Betrayal Krondor

QfG series

Nubanaunga Ambition

Archon

Pitfall

Contra's

Boulderdash

The Larry Series

Privateer

The Zeldas

The Metroids

The nes game with the car with the gun that could get upgrades (like flying) and you could have the driver get out and do missions.

Golgo 13


Rush n' Attack and UFO:Aftersmath deserve an honorable mention.

Late posting on this list, but since I am a list-loving type, here goes:
MOO2
HOMM II-V
Disciples series--all.
Pharoah (city-builder)
Emperor(ditto)
Europa 1400: the Guild
Alpha Centauri
Also enjoyed the single player versions of Warcraft-thru Frozen Throne, and Spellforce, but RTS is a real challenge for me as I'm not good at rushing, something you probably guessed from all the TB titles.

Originally Posted by magerette
RTS is a real challenge for me as I'm not good at rushing, something you probably guessed from all the TB titles.

Same for me - I'm very good at FPS and action-RPG, but greatly prefer turn-based strategy games … I played and reviewed Dragonshard and Star Wars Empire at War and Spellforce … and have rejected every RTS since …

I used to hang out at the ToEE Atari boards. and I dimly remember all the (mostly negative) talk about Dragonshard--wasn't it supposed to be real time DnD?*shudder*
Spellforce wasn't so bad, tho it got to be too much work after awhile ; )

Yep. Dragonshard = poor attempt to recreate Warcraft III in a D&D setting. It failed just like most attempts to clone Blizzard games .

Yesterday i took a look again at my sister's Zoo Tycoon ( main game with all addons given as presents by me).

I instantly fell in love with that game again. It's still one of my favourite games.

I remember having played Caesar and Pharaoh very much, too.

These were the most time-consuming games of my life.

Originally Posted by roqua
The nes game with the car with the gun that could get upgrades (like flying) and you could have the driver get out and do missions..

roqua,
Are you referring to Blaster Master?

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Yep. Dragonshard = poor attempt to recreate Warcraft III in a D&D setting. It failed just like most attempts to clone Blizzard games .

While not a great game by any stretch, Dragonshard was quite fun for a single playthrough.

Outside of CRPGs I like to play turn based strategy games with RPG elements like Heroes Of Might & Magic, Disciples, Alpha Centauri or Master Of Orion. It's nice to see some Monkey Island fans here.

Majesty
Myth II
Battlezone II
Warhammer 40K: Dawn o' War
all Blizzard games
all Age o' Empires games
Alice

Nobody listed Call of Duty that I could see. Meh!

I loved the first Call of Duty (PC) with its expansion. I found it way better than the sequel.