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[kyn]

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles
I don't know why, but I have a huge fetish for catching all of those Emeralds over and over again every year.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
It still remains undisputed my all-time favorite game, I just have to play it, although I have every item and every dog tags by now.



There are of course those games I just play a little in long periods of time, like Street Fighter games, Counter Strike, Metal Slug, Dead of Alive 2, but never getting too serious about it.

[William Broom]

Link to the Past

Jak and Daxter and to a lesser extent the other Jak games.

Okami,Shadow of the Colossus and Knytt

See a pattern here? For me, the best replay value always seems to come from a beautiful, immersive world to explore. None of this 'realistic' randomly generated bullshit you get in Oblivion et al. A really good world is one that's carefully crafted down to the last detail.

The Jak series is particularly telling. The first one I love so much because the world is so lovely. In the second one they ruined all that with their GTA ho beating nonsense. In Jak 3 they brought some of the old stuff back with that awesome desert to explore, but it was still pretty empty compared to Jak 1. And the city in Jak 3 was just awful because you couldn't walk hardly anywhere without something shooting lasers at you.

I guess that's also why I like Knytt more than Knytt Stories. All the powerups seemed to me to be rather missing the point.

I would love to see/make a Zelda-style game with no main quest at all, just the world.

[kyn]

I completely forgot about Jak & Daxter, that game is beautiful, though a little bit too short, it is hands down the best platformer of the last gen. I also played Jak 2 and it was awful, it didn't even seem from the same series. And I haven't played Jak 3 because Jak 2 completely killed my expectations.

My question is... is Jak 3 still worth it, considering I only liked the first installment?

[Alevice]

Fallout - I want Dogmeat to survive! he keeps dying!

Good fucking luck. I have never manged to make him survive Mariposa's Military Base.

[dEnamed]

There are some games I frequently go back to.
The first one to be mentioned would be, Shadowrun for the Genesis. I don't care that much about the story anymore, I just dive in, do some Shadowruns, crash some Computer Systems or do similiar stuff. For a game of that era it offers insane amounts of freedom. Plus the atmosphere is spot on. And while I enjoyed the SNES Version, I never looked back to that one. Too linear and somehow not even remotely close to how I envision Shadowrun.

Next one on the list is Front Mission: Gun Hazard..
I've yet to see a game that catches the "Mecha" Atmosphere as well as that one. To anyone that never heard about that part of the series, well it was shunned by most because it strayed from the Strategy Genre. Well, it's their loss. From pilots ejecting from defeated mechs, an interesting dramatic story, to rich details like sparks and smoke when you land towards a superb soundtrack from the master himself, Nobuo Uematsu. Gameplaywise, it's like a spiritual successor to Cybernator.

And the third entry is a more recent one. Dark Messiah of blablabla.
The game itself isn't really that great. The Story sucks. The graphics weren't that overwhelming. Still, it's one of my favorite games of all times. I really loved Xana's constant sarcastic remarks and subtle whispers. She was constantly trying to sway and control your actions through means like praising you for your combat proficiency when you just butchered lots of enemies or badmouthing other characters in the game. And speaking about combat, best melee combat, ever.
It just feels right.
How your movement affected the way you attacked. It was very easy to get into but really hard to master and in the end, it looked like actual swordcombat. A heavy swing dragged your POV along, jumping tilted your view, holding the sword up high, your view pulled back a bit before your slash, etc. The way movement was done, jumping, everything. It was done in a way that was very believable.

[Melly]

Also Planescape, but I've never actually beaten it.

You poor, poor person.

I guess one I tend to go back to a lot lately is Shadow of the Colossus. It's just plain fun to kill colossi as fast as possible, or just horseback ride around the place (and practice actually riding within the forest).

[Xion]

Next one on the list is Front Mission: Gun Hazard..

I was never a fan of the strategy games, but that was the first of the series I'd played, and the first mech game I'd played, and remains the most awesome mech game I've played. Hard to find a rom anymore though. But seriously, I ditto your recommendation. Ossum game.

I would love to see/make a Zelda-style game with no main quest at all, just the world.

That's actually my dream-game (or one of them [the only one that's not a platformer.])

[Radnom]

Fallout - I want Dogmeat to survive! he keeps dying!

Good fucking luck. I have never manged to make him survive Mariposa's Military Base.

I was probably playing on easy, but I managed it  goddamn laser walls. I had to use soo many stimpacks on that goddamn dog. I third or fourth or whatever Fallout 1 and 2. Those games are... incredible.

[Inane]

Next one on the list is Front Mission: Gun Hazard..

I was never a fan of the strategy games, but that was the first of the series I'd played, and the first mech game I'd played, and remains the most awesome mech game I've played. Hard to find a rom anymore though. But seriously, I ditto your recommendation. Ossum game.

I actually prefer Metal Warriors, just for the fact that it has awesome multiplayer (which Ciahnensy sadly hates.)

Also, I only play through them about once a year, but Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and X-Com are both great(est) strategy games with a lot of replayability.

[Garthy]

GeneralValter: Phantasy Star 4 eh? Then you'll understand this:

Phew, that was frustrating, working my way through that maze. Those triplets were a pain, but nothing overly difficult. Okay, this guy looks kinda mean. Better be careful. Take that! Obviously you're somewhat tough. Might take a while.

What exactly is "Another Gate"?

Why is my whole screen moving in a wave. This can't be good.

OH DEAR FREAKING GOD HE JUST TOOK OUT HALF MY PARTY IN ONE SHOT!

On playing it through recently I found that I couldn't fight you-know-who at the top of the anger tower, even when I knew the true nature of you-know-who (having already completed the game). It just didn't feel right to attack, so I just used defensive abilities and tried to find a way to end the battle without killing. It was around thirty rounds before I gave in and attacked.

The first Zio battle was a good "we are SO screwed!" battle. He was a great villain.

About the only RPG-like I've played through several times.

---

Amen to the original X-Com. The item limit in base defence broke my heart though. First time it happened I was stockpiling and got stuck with old inventory. Also got a bit tedious after you got powerful: Oh boy, another terror site. Can't we just say I won this, so I can get back to attacking landed UFOs and tailing UFOs to alien bases? But apart from those two things, AWESOME.

Is there a decent remake or similar of this out there yet? I had meant to work on something with a similar theme at some point. There have been plenty of attempts, but apparently not much in the way of a successful one.

Don't forget the original Legend of Zelda. I can still "sing" the game music. That was a fun game to map too.

[moshboy]

I return to Blocksum and Deathworm a fair bit.

[William Broom]

I completely forgot about Jak & Daxter, that game is beautiful, though a little bit too short, it is hands down the best platformer of the last gen. I also played Jak 2 and it was awful, it didn't even seem from the same series. And I haven't played Jak 3 because Jak 2 completely killed my expectations.

My question is... is Jak 3 still worth it, considering I only liked the first installment?

Hm, well, it depends on what you didn't like about Jak 2. They scrapped most of the GTA elements, since it's no longer possible to get a 'police alert', but instead they made the city into a warzone, which means you're always getting shot at anyway. On the plus side you can eventually clear most of the enemies out of the city by completing missions.

The best part of the world is the desert. It's very big, and you can only traverse it in a dune buggy.

As for the gameplay, it's kind of like Jak 2 but with even more variety... sometimes the platforming gets lost amidst the driving, flying, hoverboarding, shooting and so on.

[Türbo Bröther]

I always go back to DooM, every day. I couldn't imagine owning a PC without a copy on there. HeXen is another one I go back to frequently, I could play both games in my sleep from the amount of days I've put into them.

I've just recently gone back to Quake because of this. I don't think that I
will ever feel the need to buy any more games.

[Lucaz]

Doom... nothing more fun than playing Icon of Sin with cheats, until the game crashes for sprite overflow.

Amen to the original X-Com. The item limit in base defence broke my heart though. First time it happened I was stockpiling and got stuck with old inventory. Also got a bit tedious after you got powerful: Oh boy, another terror site. Can't we just say I won this, so I can get back to attacking landed UFOs and tailing UFOs to alien bases? But apart from those two things, AWESOME.

I never found terror sites to be easy, or the game becoming easier as you advance. I mean, I've seen Mutons resisting like 4-6 hevy plasma hits, and then killing two guys with flying suit with the reaction fire. And let's just not talk about Chrysallids qith their 100 TU and one hit instant kills.

Is there a decent remake or similar of this out there yet? I had meant to work on something with a similar theme at some point. There have been plenty of attempts, but apparently not much in the way of a successful one.

There are some similar stuff. I have UFO Alien Invasion, and seems like being the same, but without the great intro, and worse aliens. There is Xenocide, but never played. Both are freeware.

[Garthy]

Lucaz: Later in the game, when your squad is full of bad-ass psi warriors who can fly, it's a fair bit harder to be taken down by a terror site. Move only half the squad each turn, stay out of reach, and visit psi devastation on anything that moves- or shoot it to pieces. It takes a while to get to that point, but when you're there, only landed UFOs and bases present much of a challenge. That, and the first move when you leave your craft.

Xenocide doesn't seem quite finished yet. Going by the docs, good chunks of UFO:AI aren't quite done yet either, though it appears to be further along in development.

[OryBand]

• Hearts of Iron 2 - Always install it, read FAQs & guides for two days, then uninstall the game.
• Bladur's Gate 2 - Always stop somewhere in the middle for what not reason - Because it's not 3rd edition D&D, because i'm getting sick of hack & slashing, whatever.
• Icewind Dale 2 - same.
• Oddworld - It's on Steam now, btw.

[kyn]

As for the gameplay, it's kind of like Jak 2 but with even more variety... sometimes the platforming gets lost amidst the driving, flying, hoverboarding, shooting and so on.

Huh, I think I'll pass

[Mischief Maker]

Giants: Citizen Kabuto.

It's superior to Halo in every conceivable way.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Starcraft

That's about it, I don't go back and play old games very often, because there are so many new games, especially new indie games, coming out every day.

[GregWS]

Hmm, way to many to list here but...

C&C games; rarely the ones before Tiberian Sun though

Wipeout Pure/Pulse; speed! speed! speed!

F-Zero GX; more speed! ahhh!

Knytt Stories; it's really relaxing to play an old favorite story in one sitting; sort of like watching an old movie to me.