Tell Us What We Need To Play!

[Strafe Mcgee]

Right, since most of the other threads on this forum basically come down to this in the end anyway, I figured I might as well formalise it. This is the thread where you get to tell everyone else about your favorite games and why other people should play them. Try to keep descriptions brief (we don't want any 2000 word posts on why you want final fantasy 7 or half-life 2 to be your dad) and just tell us what makes your favorite game so special.

RULES:

1. Try to avoid mainstream games such as Halo, Half-Life, FF7, WoW etc. We've heard everything there is to hear on these games. Nothing you say about these games now is going to make any difference to the way people think of them. So think about the games which really shaped your gaming habits and means something to you.

Thats it really. Stick to that rule, or I won't like you very much

So, to start: Dungeon Keeper. My favorite management game of all time, no question. If you're not familiar with it, you set up dungeons throughout a sickeningly twee and good fantasy world, ultimately aiming to conquer the land and take control of it. You do this by mining dungeons, attracting minions of evil and growing chicken eggs. It was one of the first games that let you play as the bad guy, clearly influencing Overlord. Oh and if you're not sold, you can backhand slap any of your creatures to get them to work faster and if that doesn't work you can just throw them in the torture chamber for a while. Genius

 

[Demson]

Neverwinter Nights. Because of the quality and quantity of user-made content and on-line gameplay. So you think the current games are not up to your standards? Make your own!

 

[Gormless]

Id say pc wise that the ufo series is crimanily overlook by poeple. The second game was great and the third was worthy of the title step child of x-com imo. on the console side of o' things i'd have to say the suffering, the first one not the crappy sequel. it was a fun fast paced action horror game which actually made you feel like you were in the middle of the catastophy as it happened unlike say, doom 3 which made you feel like ud missed the entire incedent and were now left with only the peices dispite the fact you'd only nipped out for a 5 miniete errend.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee

I only ever played a demo for it, & having since read up on it feel that i missed a gem of a game. Something about escaping an alien Soylent Green factory then liberating your fellow slave that just demands playing.

 

[njsykora]

Fuzion Frenzy on the Xbox. Its one of the best party games I've ever played and its on Xbox Originals so there's no excuse anymore.

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

I miss Bullfrog Productions too.

Syndicate came out at about the same time as X-Com and was basically the same concept except you're a global corporation vying for control of the planet from other corps. It's not real time but you still spend the whole game researching tech, taking on tons of missions, and being an evil syndicate hellbent on controlling the planet. The highlight of the game is when you get the mind control device and can recruit an entire army of brainwashed civilians to absorb bullets for you.

That and Magic Carpet. Flight sim + magic carpet riders + wizards + castle building + 40 foot tall monsters = ridiculous fun. Where is a rabid fan base remaking a game when you need it?

 

[Cooper42]

Damn it. I was reading the first post and I instantly thought 'dungeon keeper' - such an amazingly great game I'm always shocked so few people have come across it.

Bullforg are sorely missed. Molyneux's games since leaving, though mostly solid, just haven't had the je ne sais quois of the Bullfrog era - the nah ha ha of the imps, the bouncing peeps flung off of roller coasters, Bloaty Head...



Anyway, Defcon would be the one I'd suggest. Playing Defcon has been like learning to play chess all over again. It seems so simple, but as you get into it, there's just so much depth, so many potential strategies.

It was so unique in gameplay that for the first 9 months tactics would change wildly - from protecting cities to sacrificing them, early launches, late launches, mixed fleets, single-ship fleets, subs as naval offense, subs as launchers only.

Even now, players can still suprise, are still coming up with new play styles. A good diplomacy game can verge off in any number of ways, and really keeps you on your feet.


So two fingers to the numbing inevitability of clickfest tank rushes and other incredibly stale playstyles in other RTS games.

 

[usernamed]

Gribblys Day Out (C64) A simple game with really pleasing control of the player character, it had just the right acceleration and inertia characteristics to make it possible to zip about really fast, but get you really punished if you made a mistake. The basic premise of the game was to find and rescue your little alien children before the bad guys got them.

It was also the first game I saw that had a basic form of evolution. The bad guys floated down from the top of the screen like sycamore seeds, turned into green meanies that flipped your baby creatures upside down if they came across them, then went into a cocoon before emerging as big white flying creatures that picked up your upside down creatures and flew off with them. If you didn't get the white creatures quick then your kids were gone.

There was also a big evil b**tard (called Sean if I remember rightly) who was indestructible and would lurk on each level until you accidentally strayed into his line of sight. From that point on he'd follow you round the level trying to kill you and the best you could do was stun him...

 

[Razzle Bathbone]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

If you ever played any of the old White Wolf "World of Darkness" pen-and-paper RPGs, this one is a must. The WoD schtick (it's our modern-day world only darker, gothier and more depressing) is served up to perfection, with all its over-the-top angst, melodrama and violence. It's not perfect, but it's the most fun I've had in a CRPG since Knights of the Old Republic.

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Play Resident Evil 4. The game has really bad dialog, as the whole series does, but the gameplay, action, and other mechanics make it really fun, and sometimes scary.

 

[usernamed]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

If you ever played any of the old White Wolf "World of Darkness" pen-and-paper RPGs, this one is a must. The WoD schtick (it's our modern-day world only darker, gothier and more depressing) is served up to perfection, with all its over-the-top angst, melodrama and violence. It's not perfect, but it's the most fun I've had in a CRPG since Knights of the Old Republic.

That was a great game. It remains my favourite PC RPG of all time.

 

[NotPigeon]

Hands down Telltale's Sam & Max episodic adventure games.
Obviously not everyone's cup of tea- if you don't like adventure games, you won't like them- but they're great games. The puzzles are great, and more importantly they are hilarious. Some of the funniest games ever made.

 

[Thaliur]

I don't think I saw the Penumbra series mentioned in this thread so far.
This is how horror games should be made, not those ridiculous attempts at scaryness like FEAR, Doom or Resident Evil.

 

[Marleck]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

When I heard about this game, I had just started reading H.P. Lovcraft's works and that made this horror action game that much better