Just finished one of the best games i've ever playd, 13 years too late.

[Owen Robertson]

I never actually played FF9, if that counts for anything. I watched my brother beat it, and I enjoyed every minute of it, but I never played the thing. I didn't beat Paper Mario until 2009. And maybe if someone makes this thread in another 10 years I'll have played through all of Mass Effect 1 or beaten the main story-line of Morrowwind. We'll never know.

 

[bafrali]

I played Deus EX in 2011. It was pure briliance. So detailed, surprisingly witty and mature and mysteriously fun.

I am beginning to think that one of the developers had to sell his soul to the devil for it during development.

 

[krazykidd]

I played xenosaga episode 3 about two months ago. First game to make me cry ,it was . And not just get wattery eyed , oh no . I cried like a little ***** .

I have all 3 games, but I just cannot get into the first one. The combat is just so bad... I wonder if it'd be worth it to just start playing at 2 and go on from there...

If you can , force your way through it . For the story and the characters it's totally worth it . I agree the combat is TERRIBLE, but i swear if you play all three games back to back , it will all be worth it at the end ! Now if you cannot do that , put in Episode 3 and read/watch the summary for episode 1 , THEN go play episode 2 .

The third game has the best combat and story . But if you go through all three ( like i did ) you get attached to the characters and their personalities.

 

[Smeatza]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Got it on a steam sale, remembered reading about it in gamesmaster magazine when I was a kid.
Loved it, probably because of it's similarity to Deus Ex.

 

[Sonicron]

I picked up Final Fantasy VII back in 2006, and to this day it's one out of a small handful of RPGs I've actually finished. Damn fine game, that one.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I played and Beat Earthbound about two, three years ago, and Now I really want to find a copy of Mother 3 legally so I can play the next chapter.

Likewise, I played Earthbound about a year ago, it's so wonderful.

Then I moved on to Breath of Fire...yeah, nowhere near as good, but still compelling nonetheless, somehow.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

gameplay being a tad flat due to age?

Negative. Gameplay was never a strength of Planescape. Game is all about 'story' elements.

Since you really liked PST, I would also recommend the Mask of the Betrayer. You don't need to play through the very mediocre NWN 2 OC. Jump right to MotB. Also Vampire: Bloodlines.

The thing that really *Grabbed me and would not let go* was the engaging possibilities inherent in the game (i've modded the game with the cut out content so i'm not completely in the clear of how much was removed, which might invalidate my opinion) Have a scalpel? cut out your former camrades zombified heart. High enough wisdom? Transcend the mortal coil. Good enough reasoning? Talk a devil to death.

My friends did try to get me into NWN, but it never really gripped like BG II or Fallout I&II. But if you say NWN is a good game i'll give it a swing. Just two Questions.

I) is NWN II vanilla THAT bad that i don't want to play it just to get a MC into MotB?

II) have you played a dance of rogues, if so. is it as good as i've been led to believe?

 

[keiji_Maeda]

Yes, I played the original fallout recently, fucking class game (Still not finished it).

it's a tight lil' thing. Did you get the restored content mod from No mutants allowed?

 

[keiji_Maeda]

Same deal. I picked up Planescape: Torment a few months back when Good Old Games was doing a buy-one-get-one-free promotion with all D&D-based games. Somehow I missed it when it first came out, and for years I didn't play it because it was fairly rare to find a physical copy (that didn't cost a fortune, anyway) and digital distribution of it wasn't a thing yet.

Sooo glad I finally got the chance to play it, as it's very deserving of its praise.

I (of course) agree completely, it didn't give me the same "i want to live here" feeling that BG did. but the characters,the plot, the DEPTH, oh me-oh-my-man THE DEPTH Of it all. It was so engaging. I'm just waiting for the "Spiritual sucessor" kickstarter to throw my money at.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

I didn't play Half Life 2 and the episodes until early 2010.

Still loved it. "You had to be there" my arse.

On the other hand, I played the original at about the same time and wasn't impressed. That level design has not aged well.

I disagree,a lot of the elements might have been redone to death since, some even better i'd argue. But it's still a good game, never really got the "You had to be there"

 

[keiji_Maeda]

I didn't play PS:T myself until late last year. I only beat Half-Life 2 and it's Episodes this year, too and now both PS:T and HL2 are amongst my favourite games of all time.

Same goes for Silent Hill 2, actually. I only played that either this year or last year and it is, again, one of my all time favourites.

*Secret shame* i never finished SH II. But i loved what i played, and the haunting beauty of the music folows me to this day.

 

[Zhukov]

I didn't play Half Life 2 and the episodes until early 2010.

Still loved it. "You had to be there" my arse.

On the other hand, I played the original at about the same time and wasn't impressed. That level design has not aged well.

I disagree,a lot of the elements might have been redone to death since, some even better i'd argue. But it's still a good game, never really got the "You had to be there"

Disagree with what exactly?

Are you referring to the original Half Life, the sequel, or both?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I played it awhile back, but I never finished Legend of Dragoon.

Now that I finished it about a month ago, I now know how some people feel about it getting a sequel.

Also, dat cutscene artwork! That's how Dragoons should look.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

Lucky bastards. I wish I could play Planescape Torment for the first time again.

Spoiler

The part where you read "Don't trust the skull." and hearing Ravel say "What can change the nature of a man?" are two of the best moments in anything ever.

Don't really have an old game I just got in to. Picked up Psychonauts from the Steam sale, but I'm trapped by FTL at the moment.

Since you really liked PST, I would also recommend the Mask of the Betrayer. You don't need to play through the very mediocre NWN 2 OC. Jump right to MotB. Also Vampire: Bloodlines.

Might want to throw Arcanum, another Troika game, into that list.

I've actually played arcanum. i Bought it when it came (young teenage me fell in love with the estethics of the cover art,) and as soon as the main theme started playing i was hooked. i love that game, it was/is buggy at times. But i love the game, the environments and the themes touching on the inherently negative traits of industrialization.

Spoiler

Mage me Nameless one tried to kill as many "True shadows" as possible, when i actually realized that each and everyone was an aspect of my deaths. Even in meta games i kept thinking "that's the one from when i was to lazy to walk, and just died" and "that's the one death i got paid 2000 coppers for dying"

also really fell in with the lingo and the meeting with ravel. And the sad death of mebbeth the midwife, or the horrifying scene where i got my guts opened to get out a ring, and got to keep the guts, that were then made into a prod-bottom wristlet
It's undeniably a sly game, particularly the way in introdcues several opposing schools of philosophy without detracting from their separate merits.

 

[keiji_Maeda]

I didn't play Half Life 2 and the episodes until early 2010.

Still loved it. "You had to be there" my arse.

On the other hand, I played the original at about the same time and wasn't impressed. That level design has not aged well.

I disagree,a lot of the elements might have been redone to death since, some even better i'd argue. But it's still a good game, never really got the "You had to be there"

Disagree with what exactly?

Are you referring to the original Half Life, the sequel, or both?

Sorry for being Vague. i disagree with the assumption that HL2 doesn't stand on it's on merits to this day. I don't know if it's been a consensus that it doesn't. But i've heard it said (people i know and thar' intrawebs) that the gameplay, graphics and the totality of the game is too dated by todays standards. I don't like all the physics puzzling. But i didn't when it got released either. The first one was pretty whoop-ass. But i was rather younger, and believed most of the hype so when i had to do the "boat and floating objects" puzzle i thought "Yeah, of course you should be able to do that"

 

[blackrave]

Vampires The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Haven't finished it yet, but I'm in process
Most funny thing is that without shitload of fixes I most probably couldn't play it, due to how many bugs initial launch had
Anyway NOW game is really good

 

[Norrdicus]

Thief: The Dark Project would be my case of "Why the bloody fuck didn't I play this game before?", as I've only played it this year, almost 14 years late.

The atmosphere is fantastically creepy, I like the FMV style in the cutscenes, the gameplay is fun and encourages you to explore every nook and cranny of a level, and the difficulty level differences are very unique, mostly adding more specific objectives for beating a level, requiring less brute force, and requiring you to grab more loot on the way (It's actually really smart they added that, because you get to use the money you've earned during the next level)

Deus Ex gets an honorary mention, but its quality has been made so abundantly clear over the years by the gaming community so it didn't ever really surprise me. It hasn't aged quite as well as Thief though in my opinion

 

[Jfswift]

Didn't Planescape torment start you with that undead fellow and his floating skull friend? I always hear how good it is but I wasn't really interested in playing it way back when. I'll definitely give it another try though considering the overwhelming positive reviews the escapist members give it.

For me it was Half Life 2. It was "that other game that came with the orange box". I just wanted to play TF2 and Portal tbh. Years later I was bored and remembered I still had that game along with episode 1 and 2. All I have to say is wow.. they were really well made games actually. I'm still bummed about the lack of an ep. 3 along with everyone else now.