The Best Game Of All Time
 

Pretty simple really, I want to know what you think is the best game and the best game series. Give reasons why.

Personally I love the Fallout series, it has such originality and has my favourite theme which is post apocalyptic. The first two games were very innovative for their time and even though their rpg style is out of date now I still enjoy playing them often. The more recent Fallout 3 and New Vegas is a bit different with better detail and stronger character development. The series is highly addictive and it is fun being either a good character or a bad one, such as being a slave trader. My favourite perk is the bloody death where you get far messier kills and organ exposure. It's even cooler with plasma guns because people melt!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...af/Fallout.jpg

The best game in my opinion is Diablo ll, I'm sure Diablo lll is even better but sadly for me my computer specs aren't good enough. This goes for Skyrim as well which is most likely a huge favourite of many. I adore the theme with Diablo and feel the missions are at a good difficulty level and the fighting of creatures is addictive.

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No. It really isn't :( Maybe someday, but I find some of the core philosophical differences in the design to be detrimental to the experience. Basically they took away the Player's ability to actively develop their character, all leveling up does is unlock the next predetermined step in a 60 step tutorial on a particular class' skill set. The Player is essentially expected to grind through the exact same content at least 3 times over just to 'start' the real game.

For me the best game of all time is Chess. It's never the same thing twice and it's a great way to learn about how another person thinks and behaves - who plans ahead and who can analyze a situation and react on the fly etc. I find it really interesting to play a match against someone who I thought was cool and level headed only to hear them get mouthy and sullen if they find themselves in a trap or lose a key piece.

As for a favourite series, Fallout would definitely be up there. I personally quite enjoyed Fallout Tactics though a lot of purists found it lacking. It's apparently possible to complete Fallout2 without firing a single shot or melee attack (doping the President to death with Super-Stims doesn't count as an attack hahaha). I did make it to the final boss but couldn't defeat him.

Though personally my top video game series / franchise is Neverwinter Nights

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The original NWN wasn't the first title to bring the 3rd edition DnD rules to the PC but it was the first one to do it right. The story is epic and the ability to tailor and customize your character's skills and abilities was 2nd to none at the time. Each expansion in the series added a substantial campaign and none of the stories felt contrived or half baked.

The series caters itself well to players with different expectations and desires as well, if you want a classic solo hack and slash type game, run through the original campaign, if you want to manage a classic 4 person party then you'd probably enjoy the final expansion more, etc. Though personally the best of the series is the first expansion for the sequel - NWN2 - Mask of The Betrayer.

I'd go so far as to call Mask of the Betrayer the best RPG game I've ever played. You start as a mortally wounded individual waking up in a cave with a cursed soul (literally). As you progress through the world you'll come to make sense of your condition while you either try to suppress the urges from your curse or revel in consuming the souls of your fallen victims. The story gets pretty heady and existential when it starts considering the ramifications of a dying god and how it affects the nature of multiple realities but that's exactly the kind of story that tickles my mind in the right way the most.

Favourite game may be ToeJam & Earl for the Sega Genesis. I'd actually forgotten about it until I randomly found my Genesis, and all the memories came flooding back, where my brother and I would play this non-stop. Coolest game of all time, with awesome music.

HM: Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Bioshock, Resident Evil 4

Favourite series is probably Zelda.

The ToeJam and Earl theme song was one of the first songs I learned on bass. Great game.

Super Smash Bros for n64 is my favorite game of all time. I can't tell you how much fun I've had playing this game to this day. Nothing like getting a bit retarded on what have you and playing this game on mute making your own sound effects with your best friends.

Zombies Ate My Neighbors was a great fame. I love all the Resident Evil games but 3 always holds a special place. Love all the Zelda games even though I've still yet to play the latest.

Ocarina of Time gets my vote.

I actually prefer Majora's Mask and think the Windwaker the very best Zelda game.

As for best game ever, well that has to be Final Fantasy VII.

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Half-Life

A pretty generic choice, but this has been my favourite game since 2001 when I first played it. While the game's engine isn't much to write home about by today's standards, I still find the game works just as well as it did back in '01. The game's well paced with great transitions between gameplay style, start with tense survival-horror at the beginning, to more tactical based gameplay when the marines show up, then everything thrown out the window when you get to Xen. The action is intense and well rounded, I found all the weapons useful in some way, and I liked how the story rewarded you for paying attention, but otherwise wasn't hard to follow.

I went with OoT for nostalgia value, however I did enjoy Windwaker a lot. It's like the happier version of OoT I think.

I think, from an objective standpoint, Majora's Mask is the superior game to OoT. While you would be justified in saying that the fact that its just using the same engine with some minor graphical tweaks, I think that with all the time saved on working on the technical aspects helped make MM's world more fleshed out. The characters felt more developed and with that Bomber's Notebook, you learned more about them and could sympathize with them more. I also have to say I really enjoyed the darker tones found in this one, like that Deku tree you meet just after being cursed by the Scarecrow Kid at the beginning of the game, he's apparently the son of the Butler in the Deku kingdom, and that your Deku mask actually contains his soul. While there were really only four temples, I really enjoyed finding all the masks, and found more than half of them to be useful in some way.

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Not sure if Pinball falls under the guidelines. Used to play this for days on end.

What I found sound great about The Windwaker was its magical feel, as you explored a world full of islands and strange and quirky places. It reminded me so much of the Narnia book "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" which as a kid mesmerized me along with the Hobbit.

You've basically hit it right on the head why I feel MM was better than the OoT. OoT was a groundbreaking game and does deserve its plaudits and the first half of the game is superb but what I felt let it down, was the second part as it just became one temple after another and I felt that took something away from the brilliance of the game.

+1 here. I finished that one a few times.

Actually my all time favorite has to be Command and Conquer: Generals. I've logged more hours on that game than any others... and my first video game was pong... well ok, maybe not as many hours as Pitfall, but pretty damn close.

Me as well. The quirkiness was what made it for me the most I also found the find with Gandalf one of my favorites of the Zelda series, and the process of getting up to him. There were some parts in the game that were extremely difficult, but in a good way, not in an annoying frustrating way. For example, getting the power to use the whirlpool to teleport to other islands.

Did you fill up the map as an extra thing in the game? It took me forever but I did.

It's difficult. The game that has captured my imagination more than any other is Ocarina of Time, but I do prefer Wind Waker as a game. I think Gary's Mod will always be one of my absolute favourite games as well.

They are probably my Top 3, with Ocarina taking it.

I know what you mean about paying attention...this was the first game I played that didn't treat me like an idiot. You knew as much as the protagonist and slowly pieced together what was actually going on by looking at clues. Plus, it was so mod-able that it provided hours and hours of fun with other people's games based on it. I was obsessed with the expansion packs as well (even Blue Shift). Half-Life 2 improved on every aspect in my opinion, and I can't wait for the story to be finished out with the last episode. Seriously, you wouldn't have any idea what was really going on in that game unless you paid attention to your surrounding and inferred things with clues...every NPC in the game just assumed you knew what was going down and didn't bother explaining anything at all. Just trying to find other clues to piece it all together prompted a lot of replay value.

Anyway, I'd probably have to go with Final Fantasy VI. It had the best fighting and level up system of any RPG I have played since and the story is so deep and touching that I'm surprised by its quality every time I play it through. In fact, it was so dark at times that they had to throw in comic relief just to distract you from the fact that Kefka was a genocidal maniac and really tragic **** was going down left and right. It's the only JRPG that used it to great effect, not just to throw it in just because. For that reason, it beats out VII and X, which would be close behind in my book.

Others I could still play and love it: Diablo II, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (I don't care what you say, it's still the best), and Resident Evil 2.

Syphon Filter was my **** back all the way to the Playstation 1. I wish they would have rolled out a newer version of it for PS3.

Hell I need to play this game again one day and yes I'm pretty certain I filled the map up. BTW I think you mean Ganondorf and not Gandalf:)

When I bought my PS1 back in 98 Syphon Filter, Silent Hill and FFVII were the first games I bought. Syphon Filter was a great game and highly original in the stealth/action genre and second only to Metal Gear Solid, which I also think as one of the greatest games ever made. Syphon Filter gradually faded away over the years and its place has now been filled by the Splinter Cell series.

Anyone remember the first Dino Crisis game, another classic.

I'm a fan of that game too. I wish they made more Zelda games that had a similar look and feel.

I just realized I said gandalf and not ganondorf.

EDIT: Thanks US :P

The Fallout Series. Master of Orion 2. The Civilization series. Master of Magic.
These are, imho, the absolute best.
Fallout was mature, back when it was released this was something very rare and if a game was directed at adults, it consisted mostly of either blood and guts or boobs. Or both. While not good for children, I wouldn't call it mature ;) Fallout though, oh boy. Choices, morality, no black and white situations. And of course the setting is cool.
Master of Orion 2 - much better than the disappointment that was it's sequel, it's my favorite 4Xgame (eXplore,eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate). Designing your own ships, creating an empire, it's never been as fun as it was here.
Master of Magic - an old strategy game that looked and played like a cross between civ and an rpg game. Build cities, develop them, crush your enemies etc .. but also hire heroes, arm them, level them up, research spells, fight monsters, travel to another planes of existence... there was a lot to do.
Civ series - Hell, I'm addicted to these time stealing bitches. Steam is showing me almost 400 hours of civ5 ....I could write pages and pages about it. i won't. You're welcome.
As for shooters, a honorable mention must go to Unreal Tournament, the game of my High school, my first real online experience.
Yac.

I tried the Civ series, but turn based strategy games just didn't do it for me. I love turn based RPGs so I thought I'd like it...but I don't.

Although this was roughly 10 years ago, so maybe my opinion would be different these days...

I usually hate any type of turn-based game, but Civ may be the only exception, and particularly Civ 4. I thought 5 was definitely a step back.

Dude, if you don't like Civilization, I think that means that you may be missing a chromosome. ;)

Not the gamer I used to be, but I still indulge when the opportunity arises.
Gonna jump the Zelda bandwagon, with Majora's Mask and Windwaker being my favorite. I also love the Mass Effect (particularly 2 & 3), Fable, Smash Bros, and Pokemon Series.
I tried to like Half-Life, I really did, but something about it just didn't click with me.

I think my favorite game all time is probably this, now that I think about it:

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The fable series got better with each release imo. Some people didn't like the 3rd game but I personally liked it a lot. It was just too short.

I still have Heart Gold for my DS and I love it. The original Gold version was my favorite pokemon game ever, so it just adds to the awesome.

it's a bloody port from the Atari ST, but this is the most intense and engaging game I have ever played, get it if you have an Amiga emulator:-

My favourites were probably the first two Oddworlds.

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All of the Fable releases are too short imo. And I absolutely agree that they got better each time. It was great to hear the hero talk for once.
And yeah, HG/SS is <3.

Story wise, I think the 2nd one surpasses them all. But the play style and graphics of the 3rd were beyond expectations.

Not to mention the awesomeness that is Jasper's dialogue.
BATS! TAKE COVER!

I knew there was a reason I am in love with you!

Super Mario Bros 3. Just brilliant level design from beginning to end.

Games may be more advanced today, but can you kill the sun with a turtle shell? Well? CAN YOU?

:laughing:

Very true. I love that game.

i don't really want to

Understandable. But that's like, Greek mythology levels of powerful.

How the Mushroom Kingdom didn't immediately freeze over afterwards killing everybody has always been a mystery.

Anything to do with Super Mario is amazing. I thought Super Mario 64 was incredible based on the graphics alone.

I'm going to have to agree with Pete, but I'd like to add that my primary reason for choosing Half Life is because it's responsible for the creation of Counterstrike and Team Fortress, and perhaps largely the original force behind user-created mods for PC games. I cannot begin to explain how important Counterstrike was to me as a kid, and the fact that I'm in Denmark until January and can't play Global Offensive until then kills me. Team Fortress 2 has morphed into something else entirely but honestly it's the most easygoing and instantly fun multiplayer game out there, with a high skill ceiling and the potential for great competitive matches that makes it very rewarding to dedicated players. Not to mention the hats!

Very Incomplete List Of The Best Games Ever:
Elder Scrolls III
Dragon Age Origins
Gothic I
Ultima Online until T2A came out
Mass Effect I
GTA San Andreas
Starcraft
Quake II
Ambermoon
Civilisation I, II, III
The Clou
The Secret Of Monkey Island
Lemmings
Populous
Xenon2
Speedball 2

Oh and I forgot Wing Commander IV and Freelancer