The original Command & Conquer. It was my brothers' game and they would sometimes have a go at me for always playing it, but it was incredible! I think a good year and a half of my life was given up to playing my way through this game several times and some missions I'd play over and over just for the sheer joy of building a base and training my own little armies.
What was so wonderful about C&C was it's simplicity, the lack of restrictions and the character of the forces. I loved playing as the Global Defence Initiative trying to rid the world of NOD forces. Brilliant! I remember, at the time even, thinking that the only thing the game needed to be perfect was a skirmish mode. I never had a chance to play it multiplayer, but I bet that was truly great!
After C&C my brothers and I moved onto C&C: Red Alert. That was fantastic and I played it for much longer, but it all began with the original C&C, so I won't go into it. Oh, and Red Alert DID have a skirmish mode, so they learnt from their mistakes.
My next big adiction, which relates back to my post on where my love for gaming comes from, is Baldurs Gate. This was, for me, the original Dungeons and Dragons master piece! I loved creating different characters and exploring the world, different dungeons and following the dark story over and over again. It had a replayability that I've not seen in games since.
From Baldurs Gate I then went on to play and love Baldurs Gate 2 and it's expansion, Throne of Baal, and even the more open game Icewind Dale, which was really designed for co-op multiplayer.
So C&C was my first addiction, Baldurs Gate was the first game to indulge my deep love for fantasy adventuring, but the first first-person-shooter that got me hooked was Unreal Tournament - the original and still the best! I never got into it's later incarnations. My friends and I must have player UT for 3 years or more, it was so brilliant! Some of the mods that came out for it were fantastic, but just the core game was simple and wonderfully designed, a true pleasure for violent gunnishment.
Other notable games I've been hooked on have been:
Need for Speed: Underground - the drag racing was brilliant, modding cars and racing between traffic was exhilirating and it had me and a mate of mine hooked for many years, if you include it's sequel.
C&C: Generals - IMO this was the original action/strategy game. A fantastic mix of the class C&C base building and resource gathering, with the fast pace, brutally tactical, micromanagement of characterful and vastly different armed forces.
Ultima Online - The original open world, sand box MMO (massively multiplayer online) game. So wonderful. Some of the guilds in the game were enormous, with hundreds of players combining to rule vast tracts of land in the wonderfully constructed, dark world of Ultima. This was 4 years of friendships and adventure that I miss. But it was dangerously addictive and I won't get sucked into a game like this ever again!
Fable 2 - The original Fable was excellent, but didn't quite have the ease of play that Fable 2 had. Fable 3 had the open areas to explore like Fable 2, but lacked the depth of emotion and character which you felt and was just too easy. I have completed Fable 2 twice now and am playing it a third time! I've also played with friends. Such a magical and wonderfully gripping game, which you can play in different ways for different out comes.
Doom 3 - This game was ID Software's finest moment as far as I'm concerned. I loved it and have played it again and again over the years just to get a fix of this perfect example of an FPS.
Red Dead Redemption - The story was emotional, deep and interesting and I achieved 100%. I loved the wild west theme and the multiplayer was innovative and brilliant. I played hours and hours with friends online roaming the wild west fighting bandits and rival player possees. What it lacked in replayability in single player it more than made up for in it's epic multiplayer.
No comments:
Post a Comment