General News - The best Sidequests

Yep. Or the rumor in Seyda Neen about how some fool lost Mentor's Ring in a tomb near the coast. Go exploring some Ancestral Tombs in the area and you'll find it, the legendary Mentor's Ring. Never marked in a journal, never pointed to, nothing except rewarding the player for acting on a rumor they heard by talking to NPCs. NPCs they didn't "have" to talk to. A rumor they didn't know was even true or not.

More of that in RPGs nowadays, please.

Edit - Look at how detailed the guy is who gives you that rumor. A completely "non-essential" NPC -

Albecius Colollius is an Imperial and a veteran battlemage. He is currently staying at Arrille's Tradehouse in Seyda Neen. People around Vvardenfell will tell you to speak with him if you are interested to know about the trade of the battlemage and how it is practiced in Morrowind.

He wears a common robe, pants, shoes and shirt along with an incomplete set of iron armor: the greaves, both bracers, the boots and the right pauldron. He also carries up to 20 gold. In battle, Albecius will fight using his steel axe and an array of spells (although three of them are identical).

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Plus he has his own unique spell layout, etc.. More here - http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Albecius_Colollius

So you may even discover him by asking around and finding out from others he is an interesting Battlemage to talk to. Yet he's just as non-essential to beating the game as most of the other inhabitants in the game.

It doesn't get much more organic than that.

That "I Remember Me" Mass Effect 1 side quest is the sole reason why I'd have a hard time starting with a non-colonist background. The quest is a truly exceptional material.
Speaking of which, its author, Chris L'Etoile, is imo the most underrated/underrecognized person who worked on the ME games - besides the above mentioned quest he's also the author of some other Citadel side quests (the interview for example), Ashley, Noveria (probably the most multiple-quest-solution-heavy part in the series) AND all codex entries, as well as all planetary descriptions.
For ME2 he did all of Citadel (incl. Bailey, Isaac Newton ambient talk or superb Thane interrogation scene), Thane, Legion and EDI.
Pretty much a spotless record in my book and quite likely the biggest reason why ME1's world building tends to be held in high regard.

Also, the Harper quest is pants, especially in how it plays out when Jaheira romance is going on - way too complicated for its own good. I'd pick Windspear Hills or Umar Hills/Shade Temple instead.

BoboTheMighty said:

Witcher III ( storytelling, presentation) and New Vegas ( roleplaying) are kings here. But too many older games also count.

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I think if PC Gamer came in here and asked what side quests MUST be on that list for it to be legitimate, we would probably come up with at least 50 of them. Then we would come up with even more the next day.

Fluent said:

Sacred 2 was 'meh'? Meh. It's the best Diablo-style Action RPG out there. Still.

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Nah, that title belongs to Titan Quest

Sacred 2 was okay, but I prefer the original myself. That said, I'm really not the biggest "Diablo-like" fan out there, so even the best of them are pretty meh in my opinion.

Zloth said:

I think if PC Gamer came in here and asked what side quests MUST be on that list for it to be legitimate, we would probably come up with at least 50 of them. Then we would come up with even more the next day.

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True, but if PCG came and asked us to name one best sidequest in some gamelist they decided to advertise, for some of those games we would say "there is none".

Never marked in a journal, never pointed to, nothing except rewarding the player for acting on a rumor they heard by talking to NPCs. NPCs they didn't "have" to talk to. A rumor they didn't know was even true or not.

More of that in RPGs nowadays, please.

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Less is definitely more. I love these vague, low-input directions like, go find a cave called Gjaeleftuznt caverns. It's east from Caldera near a weird rock formation. But in reality - north from Ald-Ruhn . And then there was the brilliant use of fog and natural barriers.

Yeah, Dark Brotherhood quests in Oblivion rank among my favorites. The ones in Skyrim were great, too - but Oblivion had better DB quests.

I also really enjoyed the Thieves Guild quests in Skyrim.

Pretty much any sidequest in Witcher 3 was excellent - with the Keira Metz ones being particularly strong.

The quest related to Glory in SR: Dragonfall was the highpoint of that game to me. Great quest all-round.

So many great ones, but for some reason I can't think of more right now.

Well, how about some more from the game you adore and I... Didn't.
Prey.

DeepO said:

That "I Remember Me" Mass Effect 1 side quest is the sole reason why I'd have a hard time starting with a non-colonist background. The quest is a truly exceptional material.
Speaking of which, its author, Chris L'Etoile, is imo the most underrated/underrecognized person who worked on the ME games - besides the above mentioned quest he's also the author of some other Citadel side quests (the interview for example), Ashley, Noveria (probably the most multiple-quest-solution-heavy part in the series) AND all codex entries, as well as all planetary descriptions.
For ME2 he did all of Citadel (incl. Bailey, Isaac Newton ambient talk or superb Thane interrogation scene), Thane, Legion and EDI.
Pretty much a spotless record in my book and quite likely the biggest reason why ME1's world building tends to be held in high regard.

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That was the highlight of writing/dialogue in series, and some of the best BW has ever done.
I remember noticing some inconsistencies with how they portrayed Legion in ME II ( emotional response to Shep, but game leaving it as a dead link), then looking online as to why.
It ended up some of higher ups wanted things differently ( he didn't want Geth to show any emotion or have Pinnochio complex), so he had no choice but to keep it under control.

luj1 said:

Less is definitely more. I love these vague, low-input directions like, go find a cave called Gjaeleftuznt caverns. It's east from Caldera near a weird rock formation. But in reality - north from Ald-Ruhn . And then there was the brilliant use of fog and natural barriers.

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It's funny, because I never had any problem finding stuff in the game! Maybe I got lucky.

But I agree. Less is more.

That design also lends to exploring the world. It was from a time before gamers had 10 minutes to play and they had to accomplish something "big" in that 10 minutes.