You might call me a 'polygamer'; my tastes in games span a wide variety of genres and platforms. Sure, I prefer some genres (shooters, CRPGs, platformers, fighting games, RTSes, adventures, puzzle games) to others, but you might still catch me playing a sports game (for example) if you look hard enough
. . There is already a topic covering favorite CRPGs over at the General CRPG forum, so I'll refrain from naming those.
Enough of the introductory blah blah. These are among my non-CRPG favorites:
1)
Realms of the Haunting (action adventure, 1996, PC): The best ever. A true underdog. The only game that came close in spirit was Undying, but it wasn't as good.
2)
Zork: Nemesis (graphical adventure, 1996, PC): The most sober of the Zork games, but it was hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric. I also loved the rest of the series, but none of the others made it into my top …errrm… 15 list.
3)
Thief 2 (action adventure, PC): The best of the Thief games. Brilliant. The Children of Karras were… well, they were something, I'm sure of that - I love this game. It kept me on the edge of my seat. But I also loved the other two games, so let's just make this 'The Thief series' instead.
4)
Day of Defeat (MP CTF shooter, HalfLife-mod, PC): my favorite WWII-themed MP game. Nerve-wracking CTF action.
5) The
Heretic/HeXen series (shooters/action adventures, PC): I just can't decide which one I liked best… I just know it wasn't Heretic II (I'm not partial to the third person perspective, though I must admit their 3rd person solution was close to perfect. Okay, then let's just say I like the Towers of Darkness collection the best, which includes Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Rider, Hexen and Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. I still replay them at least three times a year for a quick fix.
6) The
Wolfenstein 3D series (shooters, PC and SNES): I could never stick to my top ten… errr fifteen list if I didn't group some games, even if they were not meant to be grouped, so I have to bundle Wolf 3D, SNES Wolf 3D, Rise of the Triad and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Wolf 3D was the game that convinced me to buy a PC, so here we go.
7) The
Doom series (shooters, PC and N64): by which I mean Doom/Ultimate Doom, Doom 2: Hell on Earth, and Final Doom; I hereby officially exclude the N64 Doom and Doom 3. Another set of games I replay regularly.
8) The
Unreal/Tournament series (shooter/MP shooters, PC and Xbox): Unreal, Unreal Tournament, UT2004 and Unreal Championship 2. I won't include Unreal 2 or the first Championship for a variety of reasons (meaning, I'm too lazy to explain).
9) The
Tekken series (fighting games, Arcade and Playstation): I ran into the first Tekken (on arcade) during a vacation. I fell in love with Jack, and I'm still in love.
10) The
SoulBlade/SoulCalibur series (fighting games, arcade, PSX, Dreamcast and Xbox): My favorite armed fighting games. Love the Katas.
11) The
Diamond Mine type games (puzzle games, for every platform under the sun): by which I mean Diamond Mine, Columns, Bejeweled et. al. All that glitters may not be gold, but if it also explodes… all the better.
12) The
Kyrandia series (adventure, PC): Kyrandia 3 is my favorite part - thanks to Malcolm, the grumpy protagonist, and the studio audience.
13) The
Turrican series (platformer, Amiga, SNES and PC): This definitely is my favorite platfomer franchise. The music is great, and the two SNES games were graphically brilliant as well.
14)
Mr. Nutz (platformer, SNES): My favorite stand-alone jump'n run game, if a bit on the tough side.
15)
Keen Dreams (platformer, PC, 1991): Keen Dreams is my favorite Commander Keen game - don't ask me why, as the other 6 are pretty much the same...
16) The
Mortal Kombat series (fighting games/adventure, Arcade, SNES, PC, PSX, Xbox): I'm not sure about which I'd consider my favorite MK game. Either the Trilogy for PSX or MK: Deception for the Xbox; the latter has an extended adventure/exploration/story mode which may be a bit shallow as a questing game, but good for a quick fix.
17) The
C&C series (RTSes/shooter, PC): My favorite RTS franchise. I loved all the C&C games, including the shooter Renegade (and I really liked the C&C cameos in Lands of Lore 3). Generals, however, wasn't quite as good. The FMVs were what had set the other C&C games apart, and Generals' FMVs are pitiable. They shouldn't have dumped their film team. Thinking of it, they shouldn't have dumped Westwood to begin with ^_^ (can you tell that I'm quite partial to Westwood games? Probably). - Oh. Wait. I also like their Dune RTSes…
See? Now it's a list of seventeen, and I fear I have many more favorites, but I can't think of them right now. Should have made a Top Ten list for each genre...
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Wow, long post.
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