morgos

Great pick. I've been playing this game for years and still come back to it. I agree with you on the point about graphics. I never even finished the storyline to this game, just got enthralled in custom scenarios. I love games like this where you can spend a week just playing out one scenario.

Comus

With the exception of WoW and Planescape Torment (just couldn't get into it), this would be very similar to my list indeed.

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Zoboomafoo

Haha that's is true, damn I haven't played heroes in a long time. but I remember I got the game in like 3rd grade from one of those scholastic magazines. Also got heroes 4 which isn't a bad game at all.

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LoathsomePete

Alright here's mine:

(In no order)

10. Grim Fandango (Lucas Arts 1998)

Possibly one of the best adventure games to come out, the artistic style was incredible for the time, the puzzles were well crafted and intuitive. The voice acting lived up to Lucas Arts' high standards and each of the characters was memorable.

9. DOOM I and II (id Software 1993/1994)

The first games I ever played, I was six of seven when my dad first showed me how to play so he could go off to the pub and get drunk. While they were no parental substitute, they did succeed in killing the time before my mom's custody days came in.

8. The Curse of Monkey Island (Lucas Arts 1997)

My first introduction to the Monkey Island series and I don't know if there really could be a better one. The cartoony graphics were very child friendly and the puzzles were well crafted so that younger audiences could complete them. The game succeeds in creating an atmosphere for both the younger and older crowd, something most games struggle with.

7. Duke Nukem 3D (3D Realms 1996)

The game took everything I loved about the DOOM series and added new elements, such as the video camera aspect, the ability to jump, and an assortment of fun weapons. When word got out that not only did I have a copy, but my parents knew and allowed it, I suddenly became very popular because it was a chance for friends to see pixelated boobies.

6. Perfect Dark (Rare 2000)

Tough choice between this one and Golden Eye, but I eventually had to give it up for the spiritual succseor. The original story, intriguing weaponry, and updated graphics ensured that this game was almost always in my N64.

5. Half-Life (Valve software 1998)

After I saw screen shots and a video back in '98 I knew that I needed this game. Luckily my mom is a huge tech junkie and periodically made enhancements to our PC to ensure that both of us could play the newest games. I remember going with her to EB games in '99 to pick it up and the clerk gave us the weirdest look because of how excited I was to get it. My mom explained to him that I had been playing First Person Shooters since the original DOOM came out that she had made sure to teach me the difference between real life violence and the violence in video games. He reluctantly sold us the game and I'm convinced he called child support, but nothing ever came of it. Both my mom and I got the game and there were times when we would have to kick each other off the computer so the other could play. Intelligent A.I. coupled with beautiful graphics (at the time) and new and innovative game play elements, no other FPS has had such a profound effect on me as this one.

4. Age of Empires/ Starcraft (Ensemble Studios 1997/ Blizzard Studios 1998)

My dad never really advanced with the FPS genre and instead chose Real-Time Strategy games. He thought that RTS games were more of a thinking man's game, whereas FPS were more reflex orientated. My dad is an extremely intelligent man and as such, he took great satisfaction in watching his careful planning pay off as the enemies quickly succumbed to his thought-out attacks. He then tried to teach me how to probably utilize my forces in Age of Empires, but I was young and far more interested in entering cheats to just obliterate my enemies. A year later Starcraft came out and I took far more interest with the careful planning and staging of my attacks, usually mimicking his style of playing. My dad and I never bonded on much, but I will never forget the hours we use to spend staging our attacks on the helpless Zerg or Terran enemies. I would honestly say that some of our greatest bonding moments were created by those two games, which is why they're both tied.

03. The 7th Guest (Trilobyte studios 1993)

There came a point somewhere in '97 or '98 where my mom stopped playing First Person Shooters in favour of puzzle games. Like my dad, my mom is a very intelligent and cunning woman, so for her games like Myst, The 7th Guest, and 11th Hour were perfect ways to utilize her intellect on the nights where I was with my dad. She eventually wanted me to start playing puzzle games as well as a way of helping my own thought and puzzle solving process flourish. She would sit behind me and offer me hints at how to proceed with a puzzle, and would scold me when I started to get frustrated and threaten to quit. However her instance paid off as I hit some kind of epiphany in the 11th Hour and solved a puzzle before she did. She was so proud of me and it was perfectly timed because I had just failed a test in school which she scarcely noticed.

02. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo EAD 1998)

The only other console game that will make it on this list, but it was really one of those games that struck a chord with me. It was truly the first "epic" game. My mom and dad were never big fans of console gaming, they always cited controls as extremely limiting and confusing. I think the fact that most of the ones I liked were one player games made them feel a little out of place. They could never really offer me any guidance because the games were usually easy enough to get through (minus the fucking Water Temple). My best friend at the time and I would take turns sleeping at each other's places on Friday, bringing our copies of Zelda to each other and taking turns playing. There was just a certain kind of magic to the game, that's the best I can really do, cite magic as the main reason I love it.

01. Tex Murphy: Under A Killing Moon/Pandora Directive (Access Software 1994/ 1996)

Very few games melded game play and a movie-like atmosphere in the same way that the Tex Murphy series did. Set in a futuristic San Francisco after World War III, you play as down on his luck Private Investigator Tex Murphy. Living in a crummy part of town where both normal residents and mutants congregate. My mom and I were both a little perplexed at first as how to proceed in the game, but when we started to understand the concepts of investigation and conversations we quickly became consumend by it. With an original story, fun game concepts, and great voice and visual acting, this game really became one of those things we both bonded over. We later purchased the sequel, Pandora Directive, which I still hold as one of the freakiest games I've ever played, and found it to be just as fun and addicting as Under A Killing Moon. The last game in that series Tex Murphy: Overseer failed to intice us the same was the the other two. If anyone is curious as to why my IM screename is overseer, now you know why.



Some other honorable mentions:

Dues Ex (Ion Storm Inc. 2000)
Mario 64 (Nintendo EAD 1996)
Indigo Prophecy (Quantic Dream 2005)
Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward 2007)
Army Men (3DO 1998)
System Shock 2 (Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios 1999)



Looking back on this, I really started to remember how much time my parents dedicated to gaming with me. Before I was born I don't think they played very much or at all, but once they saw the bonding capability that games could deliver, they quickly utilized it. Sure it wasn't going out and playing catch (although my dad and I would do that occasionally) they did take a gamble and it paid off. I think scenarios like this will become more common as the generation of people raised with video games starts to procreate, we'll definitely see a rise in parents paying attention to what their kids and playing or conversely, introducing their children to the wonders of gaming, making it a bonding experience like my parents made it for me.

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Piss Me Off

I don't mind the Water Temple to be honest. Most games struggle to have a detailed and intricate level like that even today. Have to set a good few hours away for it though.

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Mr Sensitive

You forgot to mention the best thing about that game..

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mr dave

HELL YES! this game kicked tons of butt. so awesome hahaha. you remember rad racer?

rock and roll racing anyone?

funny how those two excellent racing games were some of the first titles made by companies only known for one or two franchises now (squaresoft and blizzard).

by far one of the best in the series. part 4 is really good too, unfortunately the powers that be decided that part 5 needed to be eff you hard even on the easiest settings.

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as for me there are only 5 games that really 'changed' my life.

1 - crazy climber (arcade)



i remember my old man having to hold me up to the cabinet so i could reach the two joysticks you had to move in order to make your character climb the building. it's where it all started. i was 4.

2 - metroid (nes)

my first taste of a game that actually had a 'story' and an ending. it was an actual adventure, you actually had to think and reason your way through the game. at least until you memorized the main path through it all haha. this is the first time i considered the possibility of a video game being more than just a high score.

3 - duke nukem 3d

not so much the game, but what came with the game - the build engine. the power to make a game was in my hands. it also inspired me to go back to school after dropping out of my first attempt at post-secondary education.

4 - quake 2

again, this one was less about the game and what i could do with it. the original quake was awesome but the tools for quake 2 were superior (the author of the user made world editor actually got hired by id software). unlike duke3d this was actual REAL 3d development. it opened my eyes to a whole new way of seeing the outside world (everything in wireframe - literally).

5 - crazy taxi

after graduating i started trying my hand at being a professional level designer with various development studios. i got paid to ripoff this game not once, but technically, 3 times. the last time i worked it, the first attempt almost tried ripping off my 2nd attempt to hand over as prep work on the 3rd attempt. i don't know if the NDAs are still in place but i'd rather not air dirty laundry.

regardless, this is what you get when you try ripping off a rather 1 dimensional game with development cycles shorter than a full term pregnancy.

Ambulance Driver Review for PC - GameSpot

the only thing incorrect in this review is that the announcer's voice was a graphic artist's instead of a programmer's. it changed my life in the way that i will NEVER work on a video game for a living again, i also hate the offspring now, and also refuse to play 'wacky' racing games.

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crash_override

Quake 2, a game that featured music that ACTUALLY makes you want to shoot ****.


Oh man I wish I could play this right now. One of the only hames I've ever actually stopped because of the music and said, "this is badass".

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mr dave

i remember slapping in ministry as my killing soundtrack of choice for the original quake hahaha

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Piss Me Off

Crazy Taxi was the tits. What it lacked in any sort of longetivity it made up for in a good hours of pure fun.

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