Okay, this thread is a crime against humanity. It doesn't mention River City Ransom ONCE. For same. Or Ultima 7, but I will forgive you for that because for some reason everyone seams to have forgotten about it. But forgetting River City Ransom is unforgivable.

Okay, my list of games that everyone should be forced to play at least once in there life, because they are _sooo_ awesome. (In the order that I came up with them, not so much because I am lazy, but more because it's hard to rate these games in a top ten list like this.)

River City Ransom (or better yet, the version set in the feudal Japan.)

Ultima 6 and Ultima 7 Part 1 or 2 (Think Morrowind, only not mind-numbingly dull. Or 3d. Screw 3d.)

The Quest for Glory Series (The whole thing. It's really meant to be played form start to finish. Use can save your character when you win one and import it into the next one. Thought .hack was the first series to do that? No way.)

Final Fantasy 5, 6, and 7. (These were the best ones. 2j and 3j were cool too, 10 was okay, I am undecided about 1, 9 was uninteresting, and 8 sucked out loud)

The SaGa Series (Except for SaGa Frontier 2, all of the SaGa games kick ass. Yes, including the Gameboy "Final Fantasy Legend" games.)

Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 (Father of Thief, System Shock, and Dues Ex. And, IMO, better then all of them... or at least as good as them. Also proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that Carmack isn't the innovative 3d programmer everyone thinks he is, at least with Wolf3d. Compare the graphics. UW looks more like doom, yet it came out BEFORE Wolfenstine. )

The Sully Chronicles (Oh wow... I mean... WOW! A carrot sword? Lord "Stan"? Brilliant! I don't know WHY it's not at the top of everyones list...)

Romancing SaGas. Separate from the Seiken Densetsu series which Final Fantasy Adventure was the original Seiken Densetsu.

Many Romancing SaGas have been released under different names from Square in America. It's apparently a very popular series.

Final Fantasy Legend (Game Boy)
Final Fantasy Legend II (Game Boy)
Final Fantasy Legend III (Game Boy)
(These were apparently SaGa games in Japan)
(um, my list gets fuzzy after this...)
Romancing SaGa 3 (SNES)
SaGa Frontier (PSX)
SaGa Frontier 2 (PSX)
Unlimited SaGa (PS2)

By the way, I played Unlimited SaGa. Geez. Whoever's in charge of game design...they're imaginative. That's all I can say.

There are probably a lot of holes in that list. I know the Game Boy FFLs are SaGas, but I don't know what came between them and the Japanese SNES Romancing SaGa 3.

I know Wolfenstine was built for speed. but still it could have been way better. It just looks so unfinished to me. I hear originally there was going to be a lot more stealth stuff, like picking up dead bodies and wearing enemy uniforms, like the original Wolfenstine on the apple.

I should point out though that while Ultima Underworld LOOKS a lot more like Wolfenstine and Doom, the engine used textured polygons and not raycasting, hence why it's slow.

I should also point out that Ultima Underworld's map format was more like Wolfenstine then Doom. It used tiles/blocks like wolf did. the difference is, every block could have a different floor and ceiling height, and walls could run diagonally at 45 degree angles as well as 90 degree angles.

Also, I love Unlimited SaGa to death.

Two more to add:

19. Nox (PC). By the sadly departed Westwood Studios.

Nox came into being around the same time as Diablo 2, so nobody noticed it. It is, however, better than Diablo 2. I pity those who have never availed themselves of this amazing shining disc of wonderfulness, and it is a pity there will never be a sequel as Westwood have given up making games that don't have "Command & Conquer" in the title. No doubt this policy has been enforced by their evil overlords, Electronic Arts, who, as we all know, abhor everything original and good, and will go to any lengths to put a stop to such noble activities. I mean... what was the point in them buying Westwood? Why didn't they just buy the rights to Command & Conquer and let Westwood continue with their own stuff? I don't like Electronic Arts one bit. I remember when they made things other than sequels. Then John fucking Madden signed on the dotted line, and they turned to the dark side. But they are not to blame to succumbing to temptation... no one should be blamed for being weak-willed spineless cretins, it's just in the nature of some people. But they SHOULD have been shown the error of their ways by having their incessant sequels SHUNNED and VILIFIED by the people who buy games. US. We are to blame. But I'm still buying Fable. :D
I would like to see Electronic Arts bought, and liquidated. Or failing that, FORCED to produce original games again. No more yearly games bearing the names NFL or NHL, no twice-yearly FIFA games, no more 007, Medal of Honor, or Lord of the damn Rings. There have been fifteen FIFA games since 1994. They are exploiting stupid people who don't know any better than to keep buying them. Devil's Work. And I mean it this time.
Obviously the dissolution of EA would piss some people off... the aforementioned stupid people for a start, but that's a price I'd be willing to pay for a better gaming world. :)

Oh, and:

20. Medievil (Playstation)

Quote:Originally posted by Troupe

What system is Outcast for, it sounds cool.


Outcast was for the PC. In its time, it was fairly CPU intensive since it didn't use traditional polygons for rendering: it used voxels, and hence didn't use even half of the grapics card's rendering power. For its time, it looked AMAZING. Lo-res due to its radical way of rendering (it was in the 500s, I think). that thing managed anti-aliasing, depth of field blurring, real 3D footprints, realistic water, smooth landscaping and enormous environments long before Morrowind. Anyone with a 450mhz PC, 64mb of RAM and £5 (or American equivalent) can and should play it. Now.

Outcast 2 would have been incredible. Unfortunately, Appeal (the developers) went bust. A sad loss. Just to give you an idea of how amazing I'm talking, check out HERE for some old screenshots of OC2. It was planned to be released on PC and PS2.

Sadly, there are a lot of games here that weren't and still aren't available in England. Us UK gamers are treated like crap when it comes to RPGs and the like. We STILL haven't got Animal Crossing and the average Joe on the street here thinks Disgaea is a disease of the digestive tract.

Damn, Outcast 2 looks like Halo only better...

Yes, we aren't treated well as regards games. Always third after Japan and America. The only advantage to that being that "issues" have usually always been ironed out by the time we get our paws on them. But whatever happened to the precedent set by Sega with Sonic 2 in 1992? They released it on the same day worldwide because they were afraid of grey imports or something. Obviously it wasn't worth the bother.

No Animal Crossing? Heh, yeah I cry myself to sleep every night. :p

EDIT:
Zip! Your links are missing a few letters.
Troupe! The new GBA Shining Force is just a rewrite of Shining Force 1, apparently.

FURTHER EDIT:

21. Golden Axe (Genesis). How could I have forgotten? I'm a moron.

In no particular order

Castlevania
Contra
Super Mario Bros 3
Yoshi's Island
Ocarina of Time
Wind Waker
Perfect Dark
Half-Life
Super Mario RPG
Super Metroid

Quote:Originally posted by Troupe

Zip! Your list was awesome!

Shining Force was a badass game, and I just found out they are bringing a real Shining Force (no more Shining Soul bullshit) to GBA! YES!!! Have you played SF3? Thats my favorite of the series by far.

I am stil convinced that the FF5 job system is the greatest thing ever.

Grandia had a really sweet battle system, and was a pretty infty little game.

Oh yeah, and I never played Ogre Battle for SNES, but Ogre Battle 64 was really really awesome. It was the most addicting strategy game ever.

Oh, and Call of Duty.

Ta. :D

Missed out on SF3, and saturn emulators haven't quite made it yet. Getting parts 2 & 3 fan-trans-ed would be very nice... Played Shining Force CD on emulator, but really not as good and the Megadrive games.
I just can't get enough of progressive class systems. When they are done properly, like in FF5 and Ogre Battle, it really makes the game.
Call of Duty? I've not really got into the most recent wave of FPS games - partly because I had a computer that wouldn't run them for ages, and partly they all seem to have abandoned the arcadey element for pseudo-realism.

Anyway should be finishing off my little demo...

Zip

Hot damn Alex, I will buy the new SF either way. I don't care if its half the first game minus the second game, I just can't wait to get my hands on it!

Zip, I would LOVE to see a fan translation of part 2 and 3 of SFIII, when I found out there was more and I couldn't play it I nearly died. I'm studying Japanese though, so if someone wants to make a proper Saturn emulator, maybe I will take it upon myself to do a translation. If you bribe me.

Oh and hey, I had no idea FF Legend was a SaGa game orginally! That game was so awesome and wacky. The monsters advanced by eating the "meat" of other monsters. Heheh. Yeah... But that was cool shit, I really liked choosing your party in the beginning out of Humans, Mutants, and Monsters. MAN that game was cool! What the hell, I demand a remake for GBA! Or maybe DS.

My favorite games, in no particular order, from no particular genre, era, system, or anything:

• DOOM / DOOM2 [PC]


• Giants [PC]


• Anachronox [PS]


• Phantasy Star IV [Genesis]


• Kid Chameleon [Genesis]


• Wonder Boy in Monster World [Genesis] - it pwns you bitch!


• MUSHA/Aleste [Genesis]


• R-Type [SMS or Turbografx]


• Master of Orion 1 [PC]. The best Moo! They went downhill from there.


• Zillion [SMS]


• Panzer Dragoon Saga [Saturn]


• Lunar 1 / Lunar 2 [SEGACD god dammit]


• Popful Mail [Sega CD]


• Super Metroid [SNES]


• Metroid Zero Mission [GBA]


• Super Mario Bros 3 [NES]


• Oh sure, Sonic 2 is the pinnacle of all that is Sonic [Genesis]


• Landstalker [Genesis]


• Undying [PC]

I'll add that 'flight combat games' are dumb, yes, but flight simulators, like, say, Flight Simulator, for the sake of like, learning to fly and stuff, are pretty cool. Not so much for being like a game tho.