entrerix

lol no i was really invested in my character as he was proposed by the opening of the game, a normal guy (with excellent speaking skills and marksmanship) who literally drew the short straw to go out into the wastes to save his friends and family.

well if obsidian can beat diablo 3 to the punch by 6 months or more then they can still completely succeed with dungeon siege 3 by acting as a warmup, and filling the void in 2 player console action-rpgs (the last good 2 player action rpg on console was what, baldurs gate: DA?)

man i cant believe I forgot about super metroid. one of the best end sequences ever. interesting that so many people agree on planescape torment (and metal gear solid 3 has gotten quite a few votes as well i thought I'd mention a weird one: Mass Effect 2, one of the best game beginnings ever (except you cant skip it on later playthroughs...), but a totally average-at-best ending. also, a few people mentioned the cell shaded PoP ending, I liked that ending quite a bit as well, but felt it was in some ways similar to the end of shadow of colossus, which had, imo, a superior ending (as well as being superior overall game, though PoP was pretty damn good too)

What emotion did you feel Fallout 1 evoked? I had Bloody Mess the one time I played it and I thought the result of that perk was fitting for me. Fallout 3 most certainly did not try emulating that aspect of the ending. It didn't give me anyone to shoot. honestly its a little hard to put into words. going through all that effort to save your home only to be turned away again out into the wastes... particularly after I lost dogmeat and tycho while storming the masters lair... it was a bittersweet moment, and then the music starts to play as you saunter off into the sunset, damaged and shoulder-slumped... I guess the emotions were a bittersweet mixture of melancholy, hope, ache, resignation, resentment, defeat, and a forlorn desire to find some peace out there, but a deep knowing that there will be no such peaceful end for you, nor any other great adventures lying in your future - all mixed with a big spoonful of loneliness.

my "go back every year or two" games are as follows: 1. Fallout 1-2 2. Deus Ex 3. Final Fantasy 6-9 4. diablo 2 5. planescape torment 6. zelda ocarina of time 7. metal gear solid 1-3

More Bests: ending/final encounter: Final Fantasy 6. omgkefkasotall ending cinematic: MGS3, not all the cinematic, (the whole china twist was a bit meh), but the office salute where you can see in snake's eye the resentment that would eventually lead him to terrorism is so poingnant, and the song that plays is really really great ending music ending scene: shadow of the colossus. *tears* worst: fable 2. totally contrived and tacked on "choice". laaaaaaame.

Ok so remembering how awesome the end of fallout1 is made me wonder what other games have AAA endings. NOTE: you dont just have to list the post game cinematic, but the whole climax of a game is acceptable (ie the last fight and then ending of Zelda OOT is soooo awesome, but without that last ganon fight and then run through the castle the cinematic is way less exciting) NOTE: lets try not to spoil TOO much since many endings have surprises in them which are best seen unspoiled. A few of my personal favorite game endings: Fallout 1: heartbreaking and melancholy, it fits the setting and atmosphere of this game perfectly. One of the all time best endings (and the encounter with the Master is one of the all time best "final" boss encounters EVER.) Planescape torment: the ending cinematic I can take or leave, but the entire last dungeon is a real gem and ties up so much of the game. A perfect cap for a near-perfect game (i know im totally corny, deal with it) Zelda OOT: possibly the best console game ending of all time, fighting ganon in the rain = so goddamn awesome Metal Gear Solid: tied with zelda oot for best console game ending of all time. Also has the best music for a game ending ever, which is put to fantastic use in MGS4. Double Dragon: wait what?? I have to fight my friend now?? omgwtf?! Red Dead redemption: cant talk about it without spoiling it. I've got more, will post later. oh and for fun: some of the worst game endings of all time fallout 3. nuff said. golden axe 2. I went through ALL THAT FOR THIS?

i felt like fallout 3 was written with the intent to make the player feel a certain way when the credits rolled, that kind of emotional hit that fallout 1 so ably evoked on its completion. That part 3 completely and embarrassingly fell on its face in attempting it is better left forgotten for the sake of everyone involved... just be glad we have new vegas (which although it doesnt pack much of an emotional punch compared to the original either, it certainly didn't miserably fail to ape it, but merely went a different direction altogether). on a personal note: fallout 1's ending is quite possibly my favorite game ending of all time. which gives me an idea for a thread....

Final Fantasy 6,7,8,9, 98/100/93/94/ Deus Ex 98 Fallout 1,2 100/98 Planescape: Torment 98 Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 100 TIE Fighter 97 Diablo/Diablo2 97/96 StarCraft 98 Metal Gear Solid 1,2,3, 4 100/94/97/90 System Shock 2 97 Fallout new vegas 95 Half Life 2 95 Morrowind 92/94 BioShock 92 Resident Evil 4 98 Baldur's Gate 1,2 94/95 Mario 64 95 Legend of Zelda Windwaker 94 Rock Band 1,2 95/96 Shadow of Colossus 93 Chrono Cross 91 Perfect Dark/Goldeneye 97/96 Street Fighter (series) 95 Warcraft 2 93 Virtua Fighter (series) 92 Star Wars KOTOR 1,2 90/92 Tony Hawk 2 95 Braid 93 Call of Duty 4/5 92/93 World of Goo 97 Portal 96 Persona 2 92 Left 4 Dead 92 Oblivion 92 Riddick Butcher Bay 91 SSX 92 Twisted Metal Black 93 Silent Hill 1/2 92/94 Mass Effect 2 93 Red Dead Redemption 91 Guild Wars 92 Batman Arkham Asylum 90 Civilization 4 94 Dragon Age 90 Empire:Total War 91 Final Fantasy 10/12 89/91 Borderlands 91 Starcraft 2 92 Other great Games: Red Faction Guerilla 87 STALKER 84 Mirrors Edge 86 Assassins Creed 2 89 Rainbow 6 Vegas 90 Shadow Complex 87 Fear Effect 92 Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 90 Max Payne 90 Nostalgia games Contra Megaman 1-2 streets of rage 1-2 gunstar heroes mutant league football golden axe and many more... the games are in order of my personal taste (ie favorite games to lesser favorites) the number corresponds to what score I would have given the game when I first completed it (thus the scores are intended to be in context for the games year of release etc so graphics and interface issues would only be compared to contemporaries and what had come before. This explains why oblivion has such a high score (a 92) because I only noticed its more severe flaws after multiple playthroughs. also note, i change these all the time.

awesome, i didnt catch that line but it's gotta be a reference to that perk... though wasnt that a "quest" for crimson caravan in broken hills? now i cant remember...

yeah i got idolized by ncr and i wasnt even trying. i was just attempting to do every single quest i could get my mitts on and ended up being idolized by quite a few factions. (just like fallout 2...

these previews just do not look like the kind of ultra positive previews one usually sees for a soon to be released AAA title. usually they are all gushy gushy omg so coooool, not "we'll have to wait and see whether these bold changes pay off" i'd rather they postpone the game another year or so and completely overhaul the game than release a crap title. then again, maybe its awesome and the demo is just way too short to tell.

playing new vegas has made it impossible to ever go back to fallout 3, the near-constant requisite dungeon crawling was very obnoxious in fo3, seemed like every quest involved a dungeon of some sort

wow this was a way better response, i should have let you go first

Because it's largely unwarranted. If someone wants to argue that As I Lay Dying is a magnificent English work and that comparatively The Amazing Spider-Man is pig slop, I'll hear them out. If someone tries to tell me that Deus Ex is a magnificent work and that comparatively Halo is pig slop, I'll laugh at them. Sure, there are very intelligent people in the world and very non-intelligent people in the world, but if you hope to impress people with your intelligence via games, join a chess tournament. If you manage to get through Myst or Riven without using a guide or help, I shall be impressed at your intelligence. If you managed to play through the original Deus Ex, then you've only shown you're as smart as the fourteen year old I lent my copy of the game to. first off, imo halo is pigslop compared to deus ex in terms of writing, atmosphere, level design, and themes. Deus ex is the pigslop in terms of action gameplay. that said... you are hammering my point home about intelligence when you bring up the fact that a 14 year old can beat deus ex. I wasn't much older than that when i first beat the game, and it was not very challenging regardless. So if a stupid 14 year old (i assume the person you lent the game was stupid because you implied that I was only as intelligent as he/she and you probably were not trying to compliment me with your statement) can beat deus ex then WHY does the game need to be streamlined further? its already a very playable and beatable game, even for very stupid teenagers (the audience that I assume they are trying to streamline it for) don't anyone go too crazy though, there are parts of deus ex I think need streamlining (i already mentioned how i feel about the passive v active augs), so i'm not firmly in either camp. edit: except the camp that believes intelligence absolutely is relevant to gaming, and that elitism is not always bad, and can even be good for society.

yes, sigh, i still have not played either xcom or jagged alliance. i tried JA2 a year ago, but couldn't get it to work with vista, and after about 4 hours of screwing with settings etc i just gave up and moved on. I'll probably try again in a year or so

i know i said this way earlier, but I too love inventory tetris, and believe it to be the best type of inventory system implemented in games so far. system shock 2 deus ex and even resident evil 4 all fantastic inventory systems imo, re 4 gets special mention because you can spend money on a larger "briefcase"/inventory grid.

STORY TIME: ok I've been posting on these boards for a while now and so this may or may not come out of left field, but I really, really like call of duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2. I've never played them online (ok maybe for an hour or two about a year ago). I don't really like online shooters (except left4dead, but thats different). so why do I like them? honestly? i don't really know but maybe this long ass story will explain: I got CoD 4 for xmas when it came out and popped it in, knowing nothing about it except that it was considered a better than average console shooter. The last console shooter I liked was perfect dark, I thought halo was a crappy game with bad art and level design and good but totally ill-fitting music trying to church it up. anyway, so I started up CoD 4 and was totally caught off guard by the opening of the game. (SPOILER!!!! you die in the opening, then begin play again as a totally different character END SPOILER!!!!) as soon as that happened I thought to myself "hey that was pretty cool, maybe this game has a bit more to it than just pew pew or whatever noise guns make in video games". The gameplay really gets going and its pretty fun, but fairly mindless. A few hours later I got to the sniper mission and the subsequent escape from said sniper mission. bam. now I was in heaven. Those two missions were a self contained little story about a junior sniper and his badass scottish senior officer going deep into enemy territory to snipe a bitch and then snipe a helicopter pilot and then run like hell through minefields and explosions and chasing dogs and gunfire and then badass mr. scotsman gets his leg shot and you carry him while still running like hell until you get to the field where the chopper is waiting (except of course its not there) and you have to hold out for a few agonizing minutes while being swarmed by enemies and just when it looks like the end the chopper arrives (but its not over yet!) and then you have to pick up your commander and run through the swarm to get to it and escape. never before in a fps (not even alyx in ep 2) have I felt so close to an npc as that awesome scottish dude who I had to carry through the level. I was totally immersed in the game and in what was happening and I REALLY wanted to save him and escape. to cut things short I will say there is another moment in MW2 that also made me completely and totally WANT something to happen in the game to the point where I became heavily emotionally invested. Not to mention that MW2 lacks the annoying infinitely spawning enemies that CoD4 had. so actually, that long story did help, cause now I realized why I like them so much, they actually get me absorbed enough that I develop an emotional response to the game. Halo and its ilk never came close to making me care about what was happening, it was just pew pew pew and explosions and no heart. almost all of my favorite games are ones that make me care about the characters, story, or world. If a game can't grab me, then its just a diversion. So me, entrerix, whose favorite games are Fallout 1, Planescape torment, and Deus ex. (in roughly that order) totally loves Cod4 and MW2. Why did I write all this? because some people on these boards wonder why anyone could like call of duty who isn't 12 years old. Now you know why at least one grown up 28 year old 22 year gaming veteran does. the second reason why I wrote this? I want someone who owns black ops to tell me if the game is worth getting if i will never touch the multiplayer and think that CoD4 and MW2 should not have had multiplayer either. call me crazy, im sure some already do.

just posting to say this is an awesome terminator reference. I totally understood what you meant immediately.

i don't know man, it just was. which is why it stuck out to me. "this desert should be really boring, but its not!" *shrug* *shurg*

7 and 8 definitely feel a bit like retreads/recreations of 6, but still look fantastic in their own ways, so I included them. 12 i just kinda threw on there without thinking much about it cause I liked that there was a lot of arid desert-like areas in it.

it's a bit like a petulant child. everyone knows stuff gets dumbed down nowadays, this is a long ongoing trend. no one who has been playing games for 20+ years is disputing the fact. But demanding that developers must insult their casual buyers is just silly. if you walk into The Transporter 3, do you demand that jason statham walk onscreen before the movie starts and say "all you people who bought tickets to this dumb movie are retards, go home and watch yojimbo" ?

rpg games with good/interesting fantasy art design? imo: morrowind planescape torment final fantasy 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 diablo 1 guild wars i'm sure there are many many others

why do people always talk about elitism like its bad? some people really are smarter than others, it doesn't mean the inferior person has less rights, just less ability.

i could see some streamlining for deus ex, having to constantly toggle your augs on and off to conserve energy etc was a pain, i wish there was an option to set some of those to "low power" which provided a smaller boost but had no drain on your energy. does that make me a mouth-breather because I hated the constant toggling? maybe. but I still finished the game despite that annoyance (silent sniper rifle = king) Now I don't know what other kinds of streamlining they have in mind, I just pointed this out as an example of something that I can imagine being improved for the new game that perhaps is a "dumbing down" but is something that I, an original fan, would enjoy. (I call myself an "original fan" because I bought the game on day 1, have beaten it 6+ times since then, and consider it my 3rd favorite game of all time)