What video/computer games have changed your life?

[Lancer]

In light of the book/movie thread, I thought it would be fair to start one about computer/video games since... face it..

 

If we are that obsessed about computer/video games that we would post on a forum about them, then I am sure SOME of you have interesting stories to share with us..

 

 

I would say that Target Earth, Hellfire, Super Hydlide, Planescape Torment, and Xenogears changed my life.

 

Target Earth- If caught at point blank and asked what was my favorite game of all time. I'd probably blurt out "Target Earth" for the Genesis. This game was incredible and since I was soooo into UFOlogy, and astronomy when I was little this game touched my heart like no other.

 

Hellfire- Also on the Genesis, and one of my favorite games ever... The Captain of the spacecraft CNCS1 was named "Lancer" and hence where I get my name. I just thought it was the coolest name ever.

 

Super Hydlide- Probably the first RPG I ever played. I was just amazed, and awed by the whole concept of a video game roleplaying game.. The graphics suck (even by Genesis standards) but the whole concept of being able to explore a large world and solve an ancient evil in a non-linear fashion was too cool. It has great music, inter-dimensional travel , and nice touches of realism (night/day, hunger, banking accounts..etc) that even comtemporary games don't have. It's this game's fault that I got addicted to RPGs...

 

Xenogears- Simply put this game made me look at religion in a light I had never considered before...

 

Planescape Torment. My favorite RPG of all time and the game that converted me from being a console gamer to a PC gamer.

 

 

 

So what were your most influential video/computer games?

Edited February 20, 2006 by Lancer

[Llyranor]

Secret of Mana was the first game to *really* hook me into gaming. I played NES/SNES games before, but I wasn't really a 'gamer' until this game claimed my soul.

 

X-Wing vs Tie Fighter was my first PC game. It was the also my first exposure to online gaming. Completely hooked me in.

 

IWD was my first PC RPG. I was totally addicted to that game, hehe.

 

PST was my first MCA game

 

UT2K4 was what got me into FPS games. <3 assault.

 

Dawn of War was what got me into RTS games. <3 strategic points.

 

Xcom is the greatest game of all time.

[Lancer]

Xcom is the greatest game of all time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Sad to say I have never played X-COM: UFO DEFENSE.. Heard so much about the game. Need to play it sometime.

[RevanRedefined]

Chrono Trigger was what really threw me into the Final Fantasy scene and other Turn based RPGs.

 

Other than that Mega Man X was what really got me into gaming in the first place.

[kumquatq3]

Apparently I OWE you a spelling lesson too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

If only you could teach me to be clever too

 

 

 

On topic, if a VIDEO GAME changed your life in any meaningful way......ya, dunno....but that can't be a good sign unless you're making them for a living now or something.

 

People are responding to the topic by "This game got me playing more games/got me into this genre", but that's not really "changing your life" in a meaningful way. If the topic wasn't intended to mean change in a meaningful way, then the topic is retarded, as EVERYTHING you do changes the course of your life. So every game you ever played would have changed your life. Hence why I am owed 60 seconds of my life and the meters running.

Edited February 20, 2006 by kumquatq3

[Llyranor]

Well, it changed my life in the sense that I now play genre X.

 

 

What can change the nature of a man?

[Lancer]

On topic, if a VIDEO GAME changed your life in any meaningful way......ya, dunno....but that can't be a good sign unless you're making them for a living now or something.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Don't be hypocritical. So says the guy with over 2500 posts on a video game forum

[Lancer]

Well, it changed my life in the sense that I now play genre X.

 

 

What can change the nature of a man?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Agreed. Video game RPGs actually increased my interest in PnP as well.

 

If it weren't for Hellfire, My name wouldn't be Lancer! Imagine that..

[Llyranor]

Wait, that's just sad.

[Lancer]

Wait, that's just sad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Although Lancer is not my name in *real life* :ph34r:

[kumquatq3]

Don't be hypocritical. So says the guy with over 2500 posts on a video game forum 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

....

 

....noted

[baby arm]

pong

[Lancer]

Pac-Man yeah!

[alanschu]

I don't know if any game has really changed my life.

 

I've been a game geek as long as I can remember. For changes in gamestyles.....hmmmm.

 

Uprising taught me the joys of mouselook in FPS games. Ultima VII was my transition to PC Gaming (though I had already attained years of gaming on Apple computers). FF7 got me into Final Fantasy Games. Ultima VI into RPG games. Doom made me like FPS games. Privateer 2 was the first game that made me get a joystick for my computer. Half-Life pretty much single handedly bring PC gaming back into my life, after being almost exclusively a console gamer for many years. I'd say it probably put me on the PC bandwagon for good.

 

Baldur's Gate 1 initially sold me off AD&D based RPG games, since I struggled with the game and felt the first level characters were weak enough to make the beginning of the game unnecessarily frustrating. This was in spite of my previous knowledge of AD&D CRPG games...but I hated level 1 characters then too. It was with the insistence of a roommate that I play through BG1 again. THough I think learning that Bioware was a local developer also helped.

 

As for consoles...hmmm. Mario 3 got me an NES. Starfox got me a SNES. GoldenEye got me an N64. FF7 got me a PSX.

 

 

First game I remember playing: Lode Runner for the Apple II

[Ichabod7]

i've to say the first Kotor.

Since I used to play only sports and driving games. Kotor introduced me in the Rpg world.

[alanschu]

Welcome

 

 

Perhaps Lancer's optimism is not unfounded.

[mkreku]

I took a break from gaming between 1995 and 2002. I had a Spectrum ZX 48K from (I think) 1982 to 1985, when I bought my Commodore 128. I played my games on that trusty machine for 10 years! Imagine trying to use the same computer for 10 years now. When the Commodore 128 scene died, so did my interest in gaming. I hated the Amiga, I hated the PC (and expecially dumb was the idea that you had to buy an extra card (GPU) just to play games when the Commodore 128 had it all built in!) and I was bitter that an era had come to an end.

 

I did follow gaming between 1995 and 2002, meaning I read magazines and had friends who played all sorts of games, but it wasn't until a friend in my dorm lent me his computer during the summer break in 2000-2001 that I got started again. The game that got me interested again was Gothic. I had never seen anything like it before and I had never imagined the powerful immersion a game like Gothic could bring. In 2002 I bought my own PC and now I'm a computer geek again.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Wow. Hence the Gothic 3 love.

 

My story's just like Mkreku's, except the break was shorter ('96 to '01) and the game that got me back into gaming was Arcanum. No pretty sequels for me.

[alanschu]

You mentioned you went "back" to gaming Steve. Why did you stop?

[SteveThaiBinh]

I moved to Japan and had my hands full with other things: work, learning the language and so on. It was a huge and abrupt change of lifestyle, and I found I didn't miss gaming at all - until much later...

[alanschu]

Didn't miss gaming!??!/1/1/4LKGDsdfjer...

 

 

Error: Unhandled Exception: FabricOfRealityWarped was not caught and handled. Initiating Reboot...

 

 

 

Anyways, off to bed

[Dark_Raven]

Garbage/spam deleted.

 

Moving to C&C since this deals with computer games.

[SamuraiGaijin]

Karate Champ (old stand-up, coin-op video game) sucked away more of my allowance when I was in Junior High School than anything else ... I probably could have bought one of those game cabinets with the amount of quarters I plunked into that thing.

 

StarCraft was the first computer game I honestly got addicted to ... sure there were late nights with other games before SC, but SC was the first one that I would schedule time to play (online with b.net friends ... actually my first "social" experience gaming online, as well).

 

Freelancer was the next addiction ... I never played online, but I spent hours and hours exploring every facet of that game ... it was the game that really got me interested in 3d games, how to make them look better, work faster, etc., and ultimately into upgrading and building computers.

 

KoTOR/KoTOR2 was the next addiction ... and are probably the only games that I've played completely through more than a handful of times.

[astr0creep]

What got me into gaming in the first place was Wolfenstein3D.

 

Some kid was able to install it in the computer class at school and we would play during class. It was a "computer use" class so even if we were supposed to make a little drawing or something, any usage of the machine was ok. Until the teacher realized it was a game about shooting Nazis in the face.

 

I didn't have a computer or a console at home since my father was religiously against all forms of entertainment except for playing sports and work, so I am a child of the arcades. I remember a version of Duke Nukem that was a first-Person Sidescroller that really kicked ass. And I played and mastered Mortal Kombat 2 for a few years.

When I finally got a computer it was a 386 and played a lot of Space Quest, then Betrayal at Krondor and Finally DOOM, XCom and Master of Orion changed my life. I played those 3 games way beyond their popular lifespan and I still play them sometimes today. DOOM still has no equal to me when it comes to simple atmospheric, visceral, gory action. X-Wing/Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2.

Then I had a break for a few years when I worked a lot and went to school. My free time was spent writing, drawing and building Star Wars and Star Trek model ships. I would also go out with coworkers and get drunk out of my mind.

And then I bought a Playstation with Final Fantasy 7. I played that game exclusively for months, finished it twice in a row with both times all my characters at level 99and crying almost everytime at the end of Disk 1. After FF7 my game of choice was Metal Gear Solid. Shorter but I still played it for weeks, over and over again. I just couldn't put it down, crying almost everytime when Otacon takes SniperWolf in his arms...

 

A few games have hooked me since but not as much or as passionately as those mentionned above.

Edited February 20, 2006 by astr0creep

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Not sure about life changing. But FFX certainly changed my gaming habbits completely.