Your favorite game, and why.

[Lilikins]

Didnt see this topic anywhere, if it is, please delete it mods

As the topic says though, whats your favorite game, and why?

Even though I could have a 10 km long list of games I like and thoroughly enjoy for whichever reasons, I have to say my absolute favorite is... 'drumroll--dddddddddddd (Donno..thats the noise that drumrolls make I guess?)'

Game: Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete.

Reason: Its the only game Ive had on every PC Ive owned an always gladly went back to a random map to fiddle around with it and just thoroughly enjoy myself. Yes theres of course ways of making it super easy with specific schools (Necropolis...screw you) and magic, but nevertheless the unending possibilities through random maps/artifacts etc (and the added mod of 'WoG') made you be able to play the games 100 times over without having the same outcome and, atleast for me, the game itself never be boring.

So dear escapists? What are your favorite games and why ?

 

[Maximum Bert]

FFVII its the only gameI can think of that has changed my mind on an entire genre (RPGs) I had tried a few before this game inc FFVI oddly enough and absolutely hated them with their ridiculous amount of text you had to get through (I read a lot so dont know why it bothered me but it did) and the boring combat they just werent visceral enough for me I was an action game fan through and through fighters, platformers, hack and slash, schmups and all that were what I enjoyed.

Then this game came and everyone was playing and talking about it so I decided to give it a go despite expecting to hate it and it absolutely blew me away. The presentation, music, art, graphics (except the crappy field models) it was all excellent and the story actually drew me in and I liked almost all the characters it seriously made me look at RPGs again and re-evaluate my thoughts on them. I even went back and replayed (and completed) FFVI after and actually enjoyed it this time whereas before I thought it was total garbage.

Yeah so FFVII is mine because nothing has topped the overall experience that game gave me or left such an impression on me.

Game: Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Complete.

Got this game recently in a GOG sale im not really a strategy game fan but this game is a lot of fun even if I do suck at it. Master of Magic is also surprisingly amazing despite its age.

 

[Elfgore]

Mine is a close finish with Mount and Blade: Warband winning and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim coming in second.

Mount and Blade: Warband has either my top or second highest amount of hours spent on a game. I've played that game for eight hours straight without ever becoming bored. I just fell into a trance and time flew by. I just love everything about it. The combat system is great. Simple to get the basics in small 1v3 fights, but difficult to master combat once you switch of auto-block and fight in 50v50 battles. For once, a lack of a story benefits this game. One entry in the series tried to add a story and it's just terrible. Moving on, the micromanaging is not tedious, but fun and makes you plan ahead. You have to balance wages, personal equipment, and food for your army. Spend to much and your army starts to desert. You can do anything you want. Merchant, Noble, King, Bandit, even a soldier with mods. And the mods are just great. They take an already great game and makes it even better. I just love everything about this game.

 

[laggyteabag]

Probably Halo: Combat Evolved. It introduced me to Halo, it was one of the few games that utterly shocked me when I first played it, and it was probably one of the most important games of the last few years, at least for shooter games. Even though I don't play on my Xbox all that often anymore, Halo: Combat Evolved is still one of the few games that I love to go back to, especially since the Anniversary edition came out.

 

[MysticSlayer]

I have a hard time giving it to either Xenoblade Chronicles or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Giving it to either feels like a betrayal of the other. Not to mention, they are very hard to compare. But, as of right now, I have been favoring The Sands of Time. It may not have the better world, but it does require fewer mundane tasks, felt way less heavy-handed in its storytelling, and had far better gameplay.

With that said, The Sands of Time was simply one of the most fun games I've played. It had simple platforming mechanics, but it put what it did have to great use and absolutely nailed the pure joy of navigating the levels. Climbing the Tower of Dawn at the end is still the most memorable experience I've ever had in a game. The puzzles were all very enjoyable to try figuring out, and the combat, though not as good as in Warrior Within or The Two Thrones, was very exciting, albeit a little repetitive at times.

The game also had some very good writing, even if it was simple. The storybook style of writing really gave the game a charm few others have. The Prince and Farah are two of the best characters I've seen in any game, and the same can be said of the relationship that developed between them. The game also never lost sight of the fact that it was a game. They minimized the non-interactive parts as much as possible and used the gameplay and the comments made during the gameplay to really help build the characters and relationship without making the player sit through hours' worth of cutscenes. I know plenty of games have done that, but I haven't seen it done in other games as well as The Sands of Time did it.

There are other things that I love about it, such as how the art style has made the game look appealing even after ten years and as the graphical fidelity falls further behind. However, I'd say that the near unmatched gameplay combined with one of the most enjoyable stories, and certainly the best romance story, I've seen in a game is what really sets it apart from other games.

 

[Randoman01]

The Jak and Daxter series is one of the best I have played. I really enjoyed this game and its open world that it has to offer.

 

[carnex]

Tetris
Simply, it's pure endless frustrating but totally fair gameplay.

 

[SadisticBrownie]

FFIX. It's so fantastically done in every way, but so are other games. I can't explain why I love it so much, maybe I just played it at the right age.

 

[scorptatious]

Possibly Shadow of the Colossus.

I love damn near everything about the game. The simple yet engaging story, the sense of scale of the colossi, the feeling of slowly climbing up a constantly shaking giant, the lonely feeling given off by the Forbidden Lands, the contrast between traveling across said lands and fighting the colossi, the amazing soundtrack, your faithful horse, all the small details lovingly placed into the game, I could go on and on and on about how much I love this game.

It's hard to believe that the game is almost ten years old. :/

 

[scorptatious]

FFIX. It's so fantastically done in every way, but so are other games. I can't explain why I love it so much, maybe I just played it at the right age.

Heh, a fellow FFIX fan right above where I posted. With a Vivi avatar to boot! Glad to see other people who also love that game.

 

[V4Viewtiful]

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

When I played it at a young age, I couldn't get into it, I could barely comprehend the mechanics. I went back to It years later and was amazed. Groundhog Day themes aren't unique but trying to save a doomed possibly "not real" land where people actually have lives to live as well as seeing the results of your failure really added emotional weight for me.
It's very rare in games that have such a sense of urgency, that added pressure of time and solving everyone's emotional problems made the NPC's feel real. And what's sad is depending on how you play they will never really remember you.

I wish there was a full HD remake.

Shout out to Xenoblade Chronicles, FF6, Street Fighter Alpha 3 GGXX, Sonic Adventure 2 (Battle), Batman: Arkham City.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

[http://pimpandhost.com/image/33275501-original.html]​

Gothic II. More so the vanilla game, since I've only played the expansion once, but it's great either way. Brilliant atmosphere with a lot of heart and charm, an amazingly enjoyable combat system (the best real-time melee combat I've yet seen), a lot of memorable characters (goofy English voice acting aside ), a well-designed world, plenty of shit to do in a decently sized yet focused open world. Some really fantastic spells as well. It's always fun using an ice spell to freeze an enemy in place and then just bludgeon him to death with your staff, or raise an army of dozens of skeletons and then wreak havoc (army of darkness is OP as fuck!). A fairly solid storyline as well, and a good soundtrack to polish it all off. Of course some nostalgia is also apparent for me as it's the game that made me love RPGs, but still.

I fucking love it.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Mine is definitely Persona 4, describing exactly why would probably cause me to write an essay seeing as I love everything about the game. Everything. Look, i've written about the standard battle music and the final boss battle music in detail before.

Funnily enough, the main gist of Persona 4 is a list of things I like in fiction.

Murder mystery? Check, well written friendship themes? Check, philosophical themes on the nature of truth and the human heart? Check, Anime style? Check.

I do love how they carry the themes through to the end. A lesser game would have dumped some of its themes off halfway through because it's too hard to write around them or because they decide they want to focus on something totally different halfway through for no reason. Looking at you, Bioshock Infinite

 

[Evonisia]

I wouldn't be surprised about this being the only "Favourite" or "Top" (which is essentially Favourite) game(s) thread: 2014 has been suprisingly barren on that front. I suspect because most of the releases have been Steam's splurging of every game ever, and the AAA market not having many games out. Less incentive to talk about games you liked (especially of the year), less incentive to do the obligatory topics. Especially compared to last year where there was at least one per month.

Tangent aside, my favourite game is, and has been since I first played it, FarCry. I find it to be simply a wonderful experience with huge levels, a heartfelt dedication to cheesy sci-fi monster action films, wonderful designs and some fun and tense gameplay. The stealth's broken (a bit) and the game is brutal with forgiveness if you're caught but it does give this desperate feel (more so than 2 or 3 for the record). Even the silly characters are kinda likeable. Also the Trigens are much more frightening and lethal than the very similar looking enemies from Doom 3.

It's just a shame that I'm kinda meh towards 2 and 3.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Mine is a close finish with Mount and Blade: Warband winning and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim coming in second.

Mount and Blade: Warband has either my top or second highest amount of hours spent on a game. I've played that game for eight hours straight without ever becoming bored. I just fell into a trance and time flew by. I just love everything about it. The combat system is great. Simple to get the basics in small 1v3 fights, but difficult to master combat once you switch of auto-block and fight in 50v50 battles. For once, a lack of a story benefits this game. One entry in the series tried to add a story and it's just terrible. Moving on, the micromanaging is not tedious, but fun and makes you plan ahead. You have to balance wages, personal equipment, and food for your army. Spend to much and your army starts to desert. You can do anything you want. Merchant, Noble, King, Bandit, even a soldier with mods. And the mods are just great. They take an already great game and makes it even better. I just love everything about this game.

All of this, word for word. Skyrim was my favourite game until I started playing Warband about 3 months ago. The scale of the game is quite amazing. Starting from a fairly meager character with almost nothing and gradually moving up in the world until you're ready to conquer is an extremely satisfying experience that takes a long time. There are so many ways you can play the game that it really is up to the player to decide what kind of experience they want. Then there's the mods...

I thought Skyrim had some pretty great mods but wow, these make entirely new games with just as much (and in many cases more) depth and variety. My favourite mods so far are Floris Mod Pack (adds a ton of stuff to the native game) and Prophesy of Pendor. Pendor is a really hard mod so I'd almost recommend transferring a character over who has already leveled up because the beginning is brutal. The mod has bigger battles, more customization (you can start your own Knighthoods and outfit them in the exact way you want), and extremely varied factions. I've spent a ton of time on this mod and am still nowhere near powerful enough to take on this 800 strong demon army that's running around. The only thing that I'd say is a knock against the mod is that it pretty much forces you to take a more combative approach to the game (no mostly peaceful trading) since there are different kinds of bandit groups everywhere. Another nice thing about the mod is that cavalry isn't as insanely overpowered as it is in native. There are still elite cavalry units that can trounce pretty much anything, but they are MUCH harder to earn and way more expensive when it comes to upkeep (like 500 gold per week for one unit). The mod also adds a ton of new music with many factions having their own theme music when you battle them. The mod does take on a much more fantasy theme than the native game (there's elves, demons, and snake cultists) so that may turn some people off of it.

 

[Kyrian007]

Been gaming for nearly 30 years... that's a lot to go through. Unbelieveable and "best ever list" games come to mind. SotC, Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy VI, Zelda: OoT... The trouble with most of those is smaller "volume" of enjoyment, but highest quality enjoyment. SotC for example. Moving, groundbreaking, and visually stunning. Most "current" games don't look as good. One of the most perfect gaming experiences I've ever had.

For about 6 hours. Don't get me wrong, that's an amazing 6 hours. But If I'm going to dig out my PS 2 for some retro, I'll have as much fun with Trapt or San Andreas, games that I've clocked waaaayyyy more time with. My N64 is actually still hooked up to an old non hd tv. But when I fire it up I'm more likely to crank in a match or 2 of No Mercy, followed by some Vigilante 8: 2nd, and maybe throw in some Goldeneye or Perfect Dark than I am to start up another OoT or Majora's Mask run.

I have a PC that recently ran Watch Dogs at nearly maxed visual settings. The game it has the most time clocked for... Masters of Orion 2, a favorite of mine since the late 90's.

I thought about breaking it down by genre... but the question asked for 1 game. The best of all time (for me anyway.)

Well, I hope it's yet to come. But... Chrono Cross. The rpg that all at once had the genre's best replayability, a compelling story, and limited grinding required. Still one of the best complete soundtracks of all time, and beautiful visuals with a bright and colorful look that puts today's dirt brown and gun metal grey color palette to shame.

 

[Majinash]

Final Fantasy Tactics.

I could write a massive paper about everything I love about this game. I have purchased the game 4 times now, for the PS1, PSP, IPhone and PSvita and don't regret it one bit (except the slowdown in the war of the lions verions on spell effects). Logged thousand of hours into it and STILL have stuff I look foward to, just started another playthrough 4th of july weekend.

I just love this game, music, story, gameplay, replayability, everything. I suggest t to all our friends.

 

[SweetShark]

I have 96 favourite games.
I don't think I can write something for each of them.
But, mostly I guess it is when the game make my feelings go super saiyan in many directions.

However for the game Saya no Uta........my feeling go in many different directions.....

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

I don't really have a single favorite nor do I do "Top *insert random number*" lists, but I'll just list a handful of games I hold dear:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Ninja Gaiden Black
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master
Super Mario Galaxy (2)

 

[lacktheknack]

Mirror's Edge.

Why?

Because WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Also, it makes me feel superior to other people, because they're busy complaining about the poor combat while I'm busy doing what you're SUPPOSED to do: Run past enemies without engaging. Pacifist runs, people. Sometimes they're not just a challenge, sometimes they're the correct way to play.