Scarlett O'Hara

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 The first two games were very innovative for their time and even though their rpg style is out of date now I still enjoy playing them often.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!



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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mr dave

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



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.

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Thom Yorke

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.

Exo

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.

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Unknown Soldier

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.

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Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

LoathsomePete

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.

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101 Albums That May Not Change Your Life, But I Really Like And You Might Too

Plankton

+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.

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duga

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.

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RVCA

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!

Key

Ocarina of Time gets my vote.