What's Your Silent Hill 2?

[KAPTAINmORGANnWo4life]

For a song: "Come Sail Away" by Styx. It is my favorite song of all time, and it gets more awesome every time I hear it.

For a motion picture, I'd say either Braveheart, Shawshank, or Forrest Gump.

For a game, The Bard's Tale (PS2, X-Box). It has a great sense of humor, and it never takes itself too seriously.

 

[PurpleLeafRave]

The Darkness. The story is the most emotional I've ever seen or heard or read. Plus It's kickass.

 

[Elesar]

Final Fantasy VII. Don't ask why, don't question and please don't trash, but it's my favorite game of all time.

 

[blaze338]

god of war series

do i need to say anything else?

/thred right there, amen man!!

 

[Amarok]

I know I'm going to sound like an utter twat but my Silent Hill 2 is... Silent Hill 2 :/

That or the Oddworld series, particularly Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus - While on the face of it you had a guy with a goofy voice who could control his own farts, Oddworld itself was an impressively realised dystopia, chock full of disturbing parallels to our own world. I will forever remain a fervant fanboy of the Oddworld series, and will defend it to the death (though I have never needed to, nobody seems to care enough about Oddworld!)

But yeah, in terms of making me feel something, Silent Hill 2 it has to be. Mary's full letter was tragic

 

[Timewave Zero]

Despite his avid atheism, he really had an amazing imagination

Please tell me this doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

I don't know what you're thinking about, because what I mean is his imagination was so incredibly vivid, he created entire bizarre dreamscapes and alien worlds and underground civilizations, plus the essential Mythos creatures. He didn't directly describe them, but gave you enough to give a sense of dread and awe.
'Cthuhlu slid greasily into the water and gave chase'. Freakishly descriptive, in my opinion. His most full description was for his crowning horror, Great Cthulhu which is described several times in The Call of Cthulhu. A description is never given for Azathoth or Shub-Niggurath, but the monikers 'Blind Idiot God' and 'Black Goat of the Woods' are enough to inspire fear. Monsters needen't necessarily be dripping with slime or covered in spikes and have descriptions that might has well have been drawn to save time.
Shapeless, indescribable, protean, unspeakable, blasphemous: words that give you the perfect yet imperfect impression of Lovecraft's creations.

OK, ok, I asked you what the greatest piece of art you've ever come across was and you told me. I believe you when you say Lovecraft's books are great. But, why'd you use the word "atheism"? It seems you are saying atheists tend to have limited imaginations.

No! You've got me wrong. What I meant to say was that despite his heavy grounding in reality and total dislike of the supernatural and lack of any mystical outlook, he could really tap into the mystical and strange, despite his groundings in total materialism.
Such things as mankinds irrelevance in the universe as something unique and amazing abilities of thought and creation would usually be the realm of the dark fantasist (as he was), but he could tap into such brilliant things at whim. Perhaps it was his lucid dreaming, or the fact that he had close experiences with insanity, including his own mental breakdown.
I'm not sure I'm explaining this all clearly, I don't have the ability to convey my meaning with the vocabulary at my disposal.
Basically, I meant that even though he didn't believe in the fantastic, his work made it like that he did.
Still doens't sound right.
But I mean no offence to anybody.

 

[Ciarang]

For me it would have to be dark cloud and it's sequel, dark chronicle

 

[Christemo]

Titan Quest. its the perfect example why THQ could´ve made Diablo so much better than Blizzard. the epic story, the diablo-style gameplay, the soundtrack, voice acting. everything was just awesome, only surpassed by Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Does it have to be a game?

Either way, Im going to say Chrono Trigger, it isn't my favorite game ever, but it exemplifies story, art design, and gameplay.

 

[WayOutThere]

Despite his avid atheism, he really had an amazing imagination

Please tell me this doesn't mean what it sounds like it means.

I don't know what you're thinking about, because what I mean is his imagination was so incredibly vivid, he created entire bizarre dreamscapes and alien worlds and underground civilizations, plus the essential Mythos creatures. He didn't directly describe them, but gave you enough to give a sense of dread and awe.
'Cthuhlu slid greasily into the water and gave chase'. Freakishly descriptive, in my opinion. His most full description was for his crowning horror, Great Cthulhu which is described several times in The Call of Cthulhu. A description is never given for Azathoth or Shub-Niggurath, but the monikers 'Blind Idiot God' and 'Black Goat of the Woods' are enough to inspire fear. Monsters needen't necessarily be dripping with slime or covered in spikes and have descriptions that might has well have been drawn to save time.
Shapeless, indescribable, protean, unspeakable, blasphemous: words that give you the perfect yet imperfect impression of Lovecraft's creations.

OK, ok, I asked you what the greatest piece of art you've ever come across was and you told me. I believe you when you say Lovecraft's books are great. But, why'd you use the word "atheism"? It seems you are saying atheists tend to have limited imaginations.

No! You've got me wrong. What I meant to say was that despite his heavy grounding in reality and total dislike of the supernatural and lack of any mystical outlook, he could really tap into the mystical and strange, despite his groundings in total materialism.

Oh, good.

 

[WayOutThere]

Does it have to be a game?

no

 

[No One Jones]

My anti-drug/motivation/locus/focus/center/Silent Hill 2/Ad Nauseam for gaming is Planescape Torment. Totally original and strange (even by Planescape standards for people who recall the pen and paper) this game was just perfect for me. I loved the art direction because it felt alien and at the same time...amalgamated...you felt like Sigil (the setting for most of the game) was truly the center of the multiverse with the most diverse environment and characters. As for the storyline of the Nameless One, at one point I loved him, hated him, wanted him to succeed and to fail all in one play through. A character with possibly millions of lives behind him and possibly ahead of him is just so open without being a blank fucking slate like the proverbial FPS/JRPG/RPG/Sandbox RPG/ character. This game truly felt like art...and it may not have been a critical financial success upon its release, the people that did play it(all the way through that is) definitely know what I'm talking about. I hope. If I had to use a metaphor, then Planescape was that truly amazing painting in the forgotten wing of the museum that only the occasional passerby gets to look at.

As for movies it would be There Will Be Blood. Its hard to describe why I loved it so much and truly consider art in film. Maybe its because its like looking into a mirror. Maybe because its so hard for me to hate the main character regardless of his sometimes Coffin Joe like antics. Maybe its the ridiculously good and original soundtrack combined with excellent cinematography and setting. But to me that movie is perfect without a single stain upon its presentation and my confident belief that it is truly a work of cinema art.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Mother 3 is my Silent Hill 2. Story, Characters, Humor, Gameplay, it's all there. And it all comes at such a high caliber.

I counter that with it's predecessor, Mother 2. But that's just because I haven't played Mother 3 enough, methinks. Though I do love those signs, and how you save. And the amazingly ironic chapter where you're, what, dead? Only to fall into a giant haypile? Fun stuff.

 

[vladtehimpaler]

Persona 3. The only game i could get really emotionally attached, even with a silent protagonist. The game is a friggen work of art.

 

[Strategia]

Beyond Good & Evil was a game that had good design in spades, a deep backstory, involving gameplay, good characterisation. It's a pity it won't run anymore, I loved that game

Guild Wars, IMO, also has this a lot. The world is very fleshed out and it has a very good backstory. I usually play it as a single-player RPG, with only AI allies in my party.

An obvious answer would be the Half-Life series. That should speak for itself.

The first time I played Call of Duty, it just sucked me in. I'd say that the IW CoD games are also good examples. I've yet to try Modern Warfare, but from what I've heard, I expect it will be even MORE of an example than the other two games.

GTA: Vice City is also one of my favourite games because of this, the characters are interesting and the world is well-designed. I really, really hope Rockstar will make another Vice City-esque GTA at some point in the future, I love the '80s.

 

[CodiferL]

Silent Hill 2; also, Ico/Shadow of the Colossus

 

[quiet_samurai]

KOTOR

or

The Suffereing

 

[A Weary Exile]

Hmm.

I can't think of a film off the top of my head that was able to tap serious emotional tones, but for a game, Bioshock was the latest one. While it wasn't a "scary" game, nor was the gameplay incredible (though it was a top-notch game), the atmosphere was so brilliantly done, that it actually made me feel as if it was real, in a way.


The enemies actually felt like they were once people, the whole design was very believable, and the characters were brilliant. It's hard to explain, really.

As I said, it wasn't scary, but it felt eerie, and wrong. Much like Silent Hill (another game that would be in this list), though more subtle.

My pick would also be Bioshock because it asked many important questions: What is free will? What is the cost of freedom? What is moral and what is not? Is absolute freedom possible or will people inevitably take advatage of it (Fontaine)? Also like Joshimodo said I felt like the splicers were still people, everytime I shot them they'd react like I'd expect myself to react to injury, with disjointed cursing and threats.

And when you discover that your free will is a sham and you've just murdered a great man because someone ordered you to you look back on all those splicers that you killed and wonder: Did they deserve it? I felt like they were the victims of a cruel plot that they couldn't escape. And you know what I felt? Guilt. Like a murderer. Even though I had no control over my actions and they were all violent drug addicts. You realize that you're the villian that, Ryan is the true hero, that Atlas is a lie. The game completley changes your preception of right and wrong three-quarters of the way through. All the characters, even the bit parts, were so well characterized I felt everything they felt watching the decay of their beloved city like I was there to watch it crumble. Altogether a distrubing and enlightening experience.

 

[Sansha]

Blood.

 

[A Weary Exile]

Another would be The Watchmen movie it's just a beautiful piece of art that thankfully didn't go the way of The Spirit.