whats the best game ever

[The Demon Lord]

Half Life

Greatest game ever.

Brilliant level design, Unique and original game play. No annoying Cut Scenes, In depth story told through the characters encountered in the game. Bitchingly difficult AI with marines that worked as a squad and finally:

Easter Eggs in levels

[Tiwaking!]

Half Life

I dunno.


It was poos shooty gameplay with a brilliant setting, narrative, and characters.
For the time: Poos shooty gameplay games had little narrative beyond "You shoots the people and they fall down"

In that respect: Ico is similar. Poos escorty quest gameplay with a brilliant setting, narrative, and characters.
Or Tetris. Poos puzzley gameplay with a simple design and interface.

[The Demon Lord]

I dunno.


It was poos shooty gameplay with a brilliant setting, narrative, and characters.
For the time: Poos shooty gameplay games had little narrative beyond "You shoots the people and they fall down"

In that respect: Ico is similar. Poos escorty quest gameplay with a brilliant setting, narrative, and characters.
Or Tetris. Poos puzzley gameplay with a simple design and interface.

poos? Poos?!? POOS?!?!?

Heathen, Unwashed, Heresy!

also with my reasoning for the greatest game ever is what it did for all subsequent games - it forced the story to not only be integral to the game but also be told through the game. No longer was the plot an after thought with a screen of text telling you something had happened...

[Tiwaking!]

poos? Poos?!? POOS?!?!?

Heathen, Unwashed, Heresy!

also with my reasoning for the greatest game ever is what it did for all subsequent games - it forced the story to not only be integral to the game but also be told through the game. No longer was the plot an after thought with a screen of text telling you something had happened...

I was having a look through games from 1996, games from 1997, and games from 1998 and you know what?


You are totally, totally right. It is like someone from Vave in 2005 teleported back to 1998, took a look around, and said, "Why hello their chaps! You seem to be trying to make First Person Shooter video games but can only seem to theme it around fantasy or fantasy horror with no story. This is how you should do it.", plonked Half Life down and then promptly disappeared back into the future.

And when 2005 rolled around the same guy was there in his top hat and monocle
"Well well. Took 7 years for you chaps to catch up? Heres Half-Life 2. I'll see you in another 10 years"

And promptly vanished, never to be seen again until 2015.


We should call that man "G-Man"

[Tiwaking!]

I was having a look through games from 1996, games from 1997, and games from 1998 and you know what?

Actually, if you have a look back a little further you run into this game by Bungie of all people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon_(computer_game)

Marathon is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Bungie, and released in December 1994

Although Marathon features action-heavy, first-person shooter gameplay similar to Doom and other contemporaries, the game is renowned for having an intricate story line that is also an essential element of its gameplay

UNFORTUNATELY:

it was widely seen as a Macintosh counterpart to Doom

Seriously: Games for a Mac? How laughable

[Tiwaking!]

Elite on the amstrad was great as well, tough to dock though!

If you want a revisit to Elite you can try Oolite
http://sourceforge.net/projects/oolite-linux.berlios/?source=directory

Description

A cross-platform, user-modifiable three-dimensional space trading and combat game.

I just crashed into a space station. I cant remember Elite being this hard!

[Retardobot]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert.

I've never had such a satisfying experience with a video game as I did one day when I sat down and had a skirmish, almost getting wiped out and bringing my army back from the brink of annihilation and slaughtering every son of a bitch.

Next to that, probably playing Final Fantasy 7 and allowing myself to get headaches from too much game time.

[AvatarFACE]

Actually I was just thinking I really liked Morrowind, played that heaps, I liked being able to create my own spells. Also FF7 was great, ultima VII was also awesome, Doom, also awesome. Ok now that I have started thinking about it there are quite a lot of games I really like but I can't give one the title of best.
Also great games:
BF2
BF1942
Goldeneye on the N64
Ultima VI
Gran Turismo 2 and 1
Diablo
Diablo II
Half Life
Quake II
Gran Theft Auto Vice City
My Hero for the sega master system
and I should probably include alex the kid as it was built in to my Sega and I ended up being able to clock it without dying.

I'm sure I have probably missed some.

[The Demon Lord]

and I should probably include alex the kid as it was built in to my Sega and I ended up being able to clock it without dying.

My Missus owns all challengers to that game - she can clock it without dieing after all those years still - and she remembers all the glitches and codes

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

DUKE3D

[The Demon Lord]

DUKE3D

I'm here to Kick ass and chew Gum...

And I'm all outta Gum

[AvatarFACE]

yes that should have also been on my list, had good times playing that.

[oefox]

I remember playing duke3d and being wow'd by the fact the environment actually allowed you to be on a level directly above someone.

Forgot to add, my first foray into online FPS was Unreal Tournament, cannot remember what NZ servers I played on but back at the end of 1999 and for most of 2000 this was all I did online. I had played duke3d 'online' first via modem head to head.

[AvatarFACE]

My first online game was Command and Conquer renegade, was fun times, that has quite a unique multiplayer setup. Played on dial-up, awesome pings.

[Tiwaking!]

I remember playing duke3d and being wow'd by the fact the environment actually allowed you to be on a level directly above someone.

I remember hiding in a cupboard while shrunken with a jetpack.

When I flew out, my friend stood on me, like stepping on a sweary, vicious bug


Bastard

[Cowwie]

 

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Those movies are awesome

[Retardobot]

I usually don't bother with horrors because they're usually just "oh look, doing stuff, doi-CHEAP SHOCK TACTICS TO SCARE YOU UNEXPECTEDLY".

That Evil Dead remake actually looks genuinely scary.

Still not going to watch it.

[Black Heart]

todays shooters take themselves waay too seriously. sticky bomb like you.

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Duke 3D Lan this weekend in Auckland
http://www.meetup.com/Tangleball/events/101929232/?a=socialmedia

[Pyromanik]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHDJm1D2ELw

"Content Warning

This video may be inappropriate for some users.

Sign in to confirm your age"


Oh yeah?
Fuck you youtube, I'll watch what I want! MUAHAHHAHAHAA http://www.youtube.com/embed/BHDJm1D2ELw

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

[Apostrophe Spacemonkey]

Creepy!

[Pyromanik]

Not sure about the tree rape scene. That girl caught evil like an STD.

[Tiwaking!]

Games, like movies, require experience. The more games you play the better chance you have of spotting a really good one, which is why the "Best Games" always tend to fall on the oldest or most influential of the type.

This is why games like Elite keep getting brought up. Because it is a simple idea i.e Get Rich or Die Tryin' with many intricacies. Plus the many many remakes never caught the originals charm, which a possible exception being Freelancer.
However the "Best Game" would have to be M.U.L.E as later games have taken one aspect of that game and turned them into full blow games.

Other great old games are:
Universe and from The same Universe: Breach 1,2,3/Rules Of Engagement 1 and 2 - Gameplay which would be instantly recognisable to players of The Xcom Games. You build a ship, you attack other ships, and you can board their ships or planets with your squads to perform missions.

Kind of like Xcom, except you are the aliens, not the defenders.