Half-Life's Box Art.
Copyright Valve Software.
Originally created Febuary 23rd, 2023
I've already discussed this a bit on my About page, but I have a lot more I'd like to say on my favorite games. So this is my "Top Ten" list of games, in no particular order.
Half-Life's Box Art.
Copyright Valve Software.
Half-Life is a 1998 first-person shooter developed by Valve Software and
published by Seirra Studios. It follows the story of Gordon Freeman, a
scientist who messes up an experiment, causing an alien invasion. Gordon then
has to run through the Black Mesa Facility to escape. Then the millitary finds
out and attacks everyone in Black Mesa, so you end up having to fight them as
well.
I could go on about how else this game innovated, being one of the first games
to really focus on story. Half-Life's use of enviromental storytelling by
having almost no cutscenes where you can't at least move around in was
incredibly unusual for the time.
this game did a lot of stuff really well, and still holds up 20+ years later.
,
Among Us' Box Art.
Copyright Innersloth.
Among Us is a 2018 Online multiplayer game, which became extremely popular
in 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic. It is a really fun game, both for
the crewmates and the impostors. I don't play it nearly as much as I used to,
but I still have fond memories of being a Crewmate and reporting bodies, and
contributing to discussions to find out who is sus. Same goes for being an
Impostor, and trying to appear as a crewmate.
The game still gets frequent updates, even though it's not as popular as it
was at it's peak. It's fun to check in whenever something new comes out.
Apparently, the developers of Among Us plan to release map 5 sometime this year,
and I can't wait to check that out when it releases.
Happy 5th anniversary to Among Us!
,
Super Mario 64's JP Box Art.
Copyright Nintendo.
Super Mario 64 is a really influential game. Being one of the first 3D platformers,
Mario 64 has stood the test of time remarkably well. Mario controls well, especially
for a game released in 1996. This game was one of the launch titles for the
Nintendo 64, and it convinced many people of the power of 3D gaming.
According to Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve, the game covinced him that games are art.
I own the DS port of Super Mario 64, and used to own the Nintendo Switch version from
Super Mario 3D All-Stars. It has undoutably influenced most video games
released afterwards. I have a lot of respect for it
just for that, but on top of being influential, it's also a very fun game.
,
Tetris (NES)'s Cover Art
Copyright Nintendo
Tetris is a game that is on basically every platform ever made, officially
or not. Tetris' gameplay may just be a test of endurance, how long one can stack
blocks until they invariably mess up, but it is incredibly fun to play Tetris.
There is a reaon this game is on everything from the
Philips CD-i
to the
Commodore 64.
I can't think of a single game that has been on more devices, at least officially.
There are so many versions of Tetris on almost every device, it is truly incredible.
There are
annual competitions to play just the NES port of Tetris.
Tetris is listed on
Wikipedia's list of best selling video games
twice, with both the Mobile and Gameboy/NES variants selling several million
copies. I can't think of a more well known game besides Minecraft, which is
another game on basically every console ever made. I could go on about different
variations of Tetris, there are so many interesting facts about the series, and one
of the most important video games of all time.
,
Portal's Cover Art.
Copyright Valve Software.
Portal is a 2007 Puzzle game developed by Valve Software. It follows Chell, a
test subject at the Aperture Science Computer Aided Enrichment Center,
solving puzzles to test the Portal Gun, a device which can create a portal,
allowing for instant teleportation from one surface to another. These puzzles can
be extremely creative and challenging, despite only featuring a few elements for
the portals to interact with.
This game is extremely short though, I can play through the entire game in around
an hour and 30 minutes. But it is filled with really interesting additional
challenges, such as the Advanced Chambers, which are modified versions of some of
the tests in Portal that are made more difficult, additional challenges to beat
levels with, like using the least possible portals, steps, or having to beat a level
in the shortest possible time. It's great.
,
Deus Ex's box art
Copyright
Ion Storm and Eidos.
Deus Ex is an
Immersive Sim
developed by Ion Storm and Publshed by Eidos.
In Deus ex, You work at UNATCO in the year 2052, and over the
course of several missions quickly discorver that the place you work at is part of
a massive conspiracy to create a plague. You end up going to areas all across the world,
trying to stop the conspirators from succeeding in making a plague as your former
coworkers try to hunt you down.
The story is super interesting, but the gameplay is also amazing. You can approach
things in so many different ways. You can play the game as a stealth game, or go in
guns blazing, adding a lot of really cool variety to how you approach every challenge.
I can't think of many other games that allow for this amount of variety in how you
play. Deus Ex has so many choices in dialogue as well, that end up affecting things hours
later. This blurb doesn't do it justice. It's brilliant.
,
Undertale's Box Art
Copyright
Toby Fox and Fangamer
Undertale is an RPG developed by Toby Fox, which switches up the typical structure
of role playing games by making it so no characters have to die. It does this by
giving you the ability to act and spare in combat. This, by itself is pretty unique,
as few other games allow for pacifism, but Undertale has many more things seperating
it from the typical RPG.
Undertale really messes with your expectations in a lot of ways. Most other RPGs
have no consequences for your actions, but not Undertale. Undertale's entire game is
filled with moments where your previous decisions affect what other characters say,
which is something a lot of other games I like do, such as Fallout: New Vegas and
Deus Ex. Undertale takes this a step further though, in that choices persist between
saves. For example, if you kill the first boss, a character will remark on how you
didn't spare the boss, despite the boss promoting using mercy throughought the
begining of the game.
If you reload here, The character will remark on how you went back in time and
spared them. You can even uninstall and re-install the game, and some of your decisions
will still impact the ending you get. It's an amazing game, and few others do anything
nearly as cool.
,
Portal 2's Boxart
Copyright Valve Software.
Portal 2 is a Puzzle game that expands on everything it's predecessor did in clever
and creative ways, making for an incredible puzzle game. It incorporates many new test
elements, expands on the lore of Aperture Science, and even adds a puzzle editor in-game.
Portal was already incredible, but Portal 2 blows it out of the water in so many aspects
it isn't even funny. What was once a campain that took only around 2 hours initially
is now a game that takes around 10 for a first time playthrough, a co-operative gamemode
to play with friends, and support for custom levels, allowing for many creative people to
make the game basically last forever.
Portal 2 is amazing. It takes everything people liked from the first game, and added more
to every aspect. There was a brief segment at the end of Portal 1 where you were able to
explore outside of the designated testing spaces, and Portal 2 took that idea, and put it
all over the game, making really interesting areas to test your puzzle solving abilities.
Also, this game's writing is really good. lots of funny interactions between characters.
,
Minecraft's Box Art
Copyright Mojang
Minecraft is a pretty cool game. It's basically a virtual sandbox, where you
can build basically whatever you want. There aren't many objectives beyond that.
If you don't feel like building something, you can find many custom maps,
minigames, and mods.
I used to play Minecraft a lot more, and I hope to get back to playing it.
1.20 honestly looks like a pretty nice update, so I'll probably check the game out
again when that comes out. It looks like a lot of interesting things will be
implemented, which is always exciting.
,
Steam Cover for
Fallout: New Vegas
Copyright Bethesda
Fallout New Vegas is epic. I picked it up recently, and it's amazing.
New Vegas is filled with dozens of interesting quests and locations,
and has really cool gameplay. FNV is a lot like Deus Ex, in that your
choices end up having ramifications way later, but applies it to an
open world game, with even more cool content. Having a full world to explore
and do quests in, while having interesting gameplay and characters, alongside
having really fun combat and a interesting story is incredible.
The story quite literally starts with the player getting shot in the face
while trying to deliver a really important iten to one of the most important
people in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. You end up running around and finding
many cool sidequests on your quest to track down your package and make the
delivery, before being involved in a conflict between all of the factions in
the area. It's incredible, and only around $20 to get with all of it's DLC, so
it's an incredible deal.
Honestly so few games can really compare to this one.
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