your top 6 games of all time

[niff]

haha the spathi conversation on pluto was brilliant. all these conversations are. the voice acting is so good.

[Notesurfer]

The only problem with the game, as will become apparent to you very soon, is the battles. The battles frustrated me out of finishing the game the first time through, although I am struggling to keep playing this run. It's way obnoxious though, especially since the glitch that's supposed to make the Spathi Eluder great against Sylandro probes has never worked in my favor. \-:

[niff]

the battles are frustrating as [CENSORED] as i lack maneuverability. a lot of it. it takes me forever to turn round and by then whatever enemy i've facing has circled and thwacked me a good few times.

[Draxas]

I suggest, at least for the start of the game, fighting either with your escorts or simply fleeing from battle (use the ESC key to activate, but it costs 10 fuel to use). Your flagship is very poor at combat until you spend a fair amount of money building it up.

If you need to practice against probes (or any other ship), I suggest trying out the Super Melee. Setting the computer AI to either "good" or "awesome" should approximate the in-game difficulty pretty well.

[Notesurfer]

I fight the probes with the spathi eluder that you can obtain fairly early on, but it's still aggravating as anything. d-:

[N3B]

Boy it's difficult to make this list without being able to look at my entire game library. I included technically 8 games on my top 6 list, but in both cases where I include two in one position, they're direct sequels that take place immediately after the first, using the first one's engine and system and improving on how awesome the first one was.

1. Gothic -> Gothic 2
2. OOT -> MM
3. Doom
4. Deus Ex
5. Illusion of Gaia
6. Super Mario 64

1. It was probably the first video game I'd ever bought of my own free interest. Most other games I had because my brother bought them, cause my parents randomly bought them, or because friends advised me to buy them. It was "my" game. Other than that, it has one of the most immersive atmospheres that I've ever seen in a game. And at the time it had the mos realistic reputation system and realistic character interactions and things like that. It was the first game (excluding OOT/MM) that had a sort of free-roam nature to it which made exploring the wonderfully hand-crafted map absolutely breath-taking. It's also some of the best role-playing I've ever experienced in a game. Dark and dangerous prison colony that actually felt dangerous, and felt alive.

2. Need I say anything?

3. First played it when I was but a wee lad of perhaps 9 years old, was sort of the first FPS I'd played. Of course I sucked so much at it that I HAD to use cheats to get through the game, but it was a heck of a lot of fun. Lots of violence and gore that I'm told gave me nightmares.

4. Deus Ex I'd played several FPSs since Doom, but Deus Ex was one that stood out the most for its incredible story and atmosphere. The RPG aspects put a pleasant twist on using different guns and the strategies for progressing through the game in different ways made it a heck of a lot of fun. And all the little coices you get to make throughout the story (most of which have no outcome on the ending) adding a sort of customization to the game that made it feel more unique.

5. SNES game, sort of on par with LttP. It had EXCELLENT music and good characters. It had so much dialogue in it (much more than a Zelda game, or Chrono Trigger, or Final Fantasy) with so much character development that made it fantastic. The gameplay wasn't anything too breath-taking, but it was the type of thing that was like in a Zelda game where you had to think about what you were doing and sort of work through maze/puzzle. And the transformations you got later were just so cool.

6. I didn't like any of the previous Mario games and I haven't truly played a strictly-Mario game since Mario 64 (only "Mario" games i've played are party games like Mario Party, Mario Kart, etc). I liked that the game was sort of free-roam, that you could run around and explore the castle and the grounds around it, and then pick and choose which paintings to explore, and try to acquire different stars in each one. It was also pretty cool how many little secrets there were and how they didn't explicitly tell you what to do for each star, you had to sort of figure it out for yourself.

Honorable Mentions:

- Shining in the Darkness: Sega Genesis game that my brother and I spent a lot of time playing. Your basic first-person dungeon crawler game. By all merits it's not that fascinating of a game, but we spent a lot of time in it that I was having a blast playing it on virtual console recently.

Resident Evil 4 - excellent action with a satisfying level of challenge for a first-time player.

Condemned: Criminal Origins - scariest game I've ever played, and what makes it scary isn't its scripted events, but the things that go unscripted, just the way enemies behave and how often I scare myself over what turns out to be nothing, faking myself out essentially.

Perfect Dark - certainly one would think it would be on the top 6 merely cause of the PDBA. This is true, it was a tough call. But instead I opted to put the game that got me into FPSs on there instead of the best FPS that I'd played. This game still ranks high on my list of best FPSs ever, because many simplyy can't compete with how much PD had to offer and how fascinating the story, weapons, and level design were.

The Longest Journey - perhaps the only pure adventure game that I've really played. It has such a captivating story that makes you want to learn more. Most puzzles were satisfying in difficult, though as per every adventure game there were a few absolutely bogus ones that no one coul ever think to solve in the manner you're supposed to.

STALKER - it's a free-roam first person shooter, and this made it spectacular. Picture Oblivion (or Gothic) but in a modern setting, with guns, running around a radioactive nuclear power plant. It has some of the most realistic ballistics action in any FPS that I've played, satisfying level of challenge, interesting environments and enemies. Did I mention it's totally free-roam?

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - it's amazing how much the game changes based on what clan you choose and how you build your characte. Of course it has next to no effect on the ending, but how you go through the game is so different that it made for an awesome re-play game. Not to mention some really in-your-face role-playing elements thrown at you around every corner. Loved the dark atmosphere.

Redewen Dungeon 2 - still in production, but a top game among games nevertheless.