Board 8 > CasanovaZelos's Top 100 Video Games

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Not Dave
07/09/20 5:25:02 PM
#252:


you've done a really great job with this project. i've enjoyed picking through it!

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SeabassDebeste
07/09/20 6:01:40 PM
#253:


amazing topic series - love how your passion shone through in every writeup

what are some games you want to play?
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azuarc
07/09/20 6:12:32 PM
#254:


Very cool list, and respectable picks that I don't think anyone would question even if you didn't justify them with such thorough write-ups.

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trdl23
07/09/20 9:25:34 PM
#255:


Man, this was super fun to read. Thank you!

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wallmasterz
07/09/20 11:11:54 PM
#256:


Ditto to what everyone else is saying, this was a great read. Thanks for doing it.

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CasanovaZelos
07/10/20 12:50:24 AM
#257:


SeabassDebeste posted...
amazing topic series - love how your passion shone through in every writeup

what are some games you want to play?


Tons...finding time for games is hard.

Despite BioShock being my #1 game, I only just played BioShock 2 over the last two days. I placed it in the mid-200 range. Not quite up to level of the other two, but still strong.

In fact, here's my list of important games which did not appear because I have not yet played them (or at least long enough to really judge). It's not like I think these all would land in my top 100, but I at least want to be clear that the below did not appear simply due to my lack of familiarity (as opposed to me judging them as not good enough):
Secret of Mana (could never care enough to commit - does this get better after the first couple hours?)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Planescape: Torment and basically any other classic WRPG
System Shock 2
Deus Ex (I have tried this game a few times; the last ended in a crash in the same exact location repeatedly...)
ICO
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Beyond Good & Evil
Silent Hill 3
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Dead Space
Spelunky
Demon's Souls
Dragon Age: Origins
Assassin's Creed II (and anything else beyond the first)
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Far Cry 3 (or anything else in its series, though I just started up the first and stopped after an awful bug)
Tomb Raider reboot
Alien: Isolation
Until Dawn
Titanfall 2
Dishonored 2 (having just played Dishonored)
Control
Most games from 2020, TLOU2, FF7 Remake, and Doom Eternal especially

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CasanovaZelos
07/10/20 12:52:40 AM
#258:


Which, in regard to the above list, if anyone wants to push me toward one, I have easy access to most of these at this point (beside Silent Hill 3) and simply need someone to help narrow the options

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azuarc
07/10/20 3:03:05 AM
#259:


CasanovaZelos posted...
Secret of Mana (could never care enough to commit - does this get better after the first couple hours?)

Original or reboot? I haven't touched the reboot, but the original is in a weird place. The first hour or two is fun in the "this is a new RPG" kind of way where you know your characters aren't strong but that will change. And then you get to the Spikey Tiger fight. Dear God, the Spikey Tiger fight. Third boss fight in the game, and by far the hardest, most miserable encounter. Absolutely maddening, between the stuns, the damage output, and the fact that you don't have real healing yet. Grind a couple levels in advance.

Right after that you get magic, and that makes the game fun, but the problem is that you're torn between wanting to go fast and blur through the game's content and with taking your time to level everything up. Magic can be especially tedious to grind, but it also makes the game almost trivial to progress. You can just stunlock bosses by chaincasting spells on them. (The bosses can in some cases do the same thing to you.)

The plot's really nothing special. Get the 8 MacGuffins so you can proceed to the endgame and fight the big bad. It's pretty obvious where they had to axe a bunch of the originally planned story. I loved the game as a 13-year-old and I've never really turned my back on that nostalgia. The music's special to me and the style of game suited me perfectly back then. If I played it for the first time today, I probably wouldn't be very impressed.

So, short version: you're asking a loaded question. It gets better, but you might like or dislike it for other reasons that develop. If you give it a try, make sure you go at least a couple fights past Spikey. If you get as far as the Underground Palace (where you get the second set of spells,) you'll have enough of a read on the game by that point.

CasanovaZelos posted...
Dragon Age: Origins

If you're looking for a character-driven adventure and don't mind tactical RPGs (that are not turn-based,) this is another Bioware title from their Mass Effect era. That side of the game, I imagine, you will like. Whether or not you'll enjoy the gameplay, you'll probably start to get the hang of it after finishing the Tower of Ostagar. Or, more accurately, you'll have to in order to not get your ass kicked. If you want to make your life easier in the early game, play a mage, and take healing and crowd control spells. The worldbuilding is the strongest part of DA:O, and the centerpiece that everything else is built from.

CasanovaZelos posted...
Dishonored 2 (having just played Dishonored)

This is another pick I can get behind. Dishonored 2 really got a raw deal from Bethesda, who were in their "we aren't showing anything to the media in advance" period in 2016. It worked out for Doom, and absolutely boned every other game they released. I played DH2 for the first time in December -- before playing the original -- and I thought it was fantastic. So much so that I tried to go back and play the first game...and I couldn't do it. The controls, the expectations...the original was only four years older, but there was a world of difference between the two games. But because it got no press coverage, not many people played it, while the original had heaps of praise piled on it. Since playing DH2, I'm recommending it to anyone who will listen. So while I can't truly say that I've played the first game -- I got maybe 2 hours in and quit -- I have to imagine if you liked it, the sequel can only be better unless there were some mechanics changes I'm unaware of. There's one level in particular, later in the game, that is pretty freaking amazing due to some curious time-bending mechanics you use, hopping between past and present to progress. It's also the rare action game that I've actually replayed the levels just to go achievement hunting.

.

Other games from that list I've played:
  • FFT (it's been ages, though, and it's a very slow, grindy game unless you know what you're doing)
  • Morrowind (best TES game for worldbuilding, but terrible mechanics and it has NOT aged well)
  • Witcher 2 (bailed before finishing the first act; Witcher games and I do not get along)
  • Tomb Raider + Rise of the (finished first game, got most of the way through the second before getting waylaid)
  • only 2020 game I've played is an indie title, Lenna's Inception, which I am also recommending to anyone who would be intrigued by a 2D Zelda clone with a fully randomized world and a fun little story that I really enjoyed.

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CasanovaZelos
07/10/20 9:34:34 AM
#260:


It's really weird waking up and not immediately writing about a video game...

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SeabassDebeste
07/10/20 10:14:55 AM
#261:


It's sad not having new updates! I've been following topics about Breaking Bad, Hunter x Hunter, and this one, and all of them ended in the last week or so.
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yet all azuarc of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness
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NFUN
07/10/20 10:25:35 AM
#262:


CasanovaZelos posted...
It's really weird waking up and not immediately writing about a video game...
this sounds like a job for Trails in the Sky Playthrough Topic

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azuarc
07/10/20 10:44:36 AM
#263:


CasanovaZelos posted...
It's really weird waking up and not immediately writing about a video game...

You still could...but I think your novel needs you now.

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CasanovaZelos
07/10/20 12:44:49 PM
#264:


NFUN posted...
this sounds like a job for Trails in the Sky Playthrough Topic


I was also posting this on another forum and someone there kept telling me to play Trails...

Instead, I started up Planescape: Torment

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_stingers_
07/10/20 1:27:51 PM
#265:


It's time to play Xenogears instead :)

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CasanovaZelos
07/10/20 7:25:39 PM
#266:


So I encountered a glitch in Planescape Torment where one of my party members is permanently dead?? Hmm...

Luckily this doesn't appear to really matter in the long run since you can only have 5 of the 7 party members (you have to straight up kick people out of the team permanently, it sounds like). Still, how did such an issue make it past playtesting? This happens simply by entering a specific area where you only control the protagonist; when you step out, the party members are supposed to be waiting outside and rejoin the team by being spoken to; so it appears anyone who enters this room with a dead party member permanently loses them...

I was also playing the original Far Cry last night and encountered a major bug where enemies can see and shoot through tents, making an early sequence borderline impossible. I am not having any luck.

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CasanovaZelos
07/12/20 2:04:57 PM
#267:


During the first half, I was thinking Planescape would have landed high up in my top 100 range, but then the game largely collapsed in the back half. It felt like a subversion of other RPG games where you could talk your way out of most situations, but then it seems to descend into a gauntlet after a certain point and stopped being as interesting (especially since the combat is kind of garbage). I understand you can theoretically run through a lot of these areas, but it simply lost a lot of the simple charm. I placed it at #117 on my file, so I still really liked it.

(I'm mainly posting these random gaming updates as bumps because I don't want this topic to just die)

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trdl23
07/13/20 9:40:58 AM
#268:


It is widely regarded as the best book you can play but yeah, you can tell they ran out of budget in the end.

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CasanovaZelos
07/15/20 1:34:30 AM
#269:


Playing through System Shock 2 now and it would probably land high up. I think the comparisons to BioShock are overstated however. Even if some plot beats are similar, it lacks the presentation which really made me care in BioShock. Additionally, my love of BioShock comes from the atmosphere and unique setting while System Shock's strongest point is the level design. They're comparable but both have their unique advantages.

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CasanovaZelos
07/15/20 9:38:04 PM
#270:


And finished...I would have placed System Shock 2 at #32 based on my immediate gut reaction.

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RyoCaliente
07/16/20 4:55:51 AM
#271:


CasanovaZelos posted...
System Shock's strongest point is the level design.

panting and sweating as you run through my corridors

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How paralyzingly dull, boring and tedious!
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CasanovaZelos
07/19/20 12:04:36 AM
#272:


Finally caved and got FF7R, starting that now

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CasanovaZelos
07/27/20 12:36:54 PM
#273:


Just got through the Don Corneo sequence; I really loved the HoneyBee Inn segment.

So far, the experience is a fun expansion of this iconic opening. Midgar certainly felt bigger than the several hours it takes in the original game, and this does a perfect job exploiting that. At the same time, some parts feel padded. Also, while I'm finding the combat engaging, I prefer the simplicity of the original.

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