I'm a gamer. Well duh, Reid! All you ever write about is games (and occasionally music). But the funny thing about being a gamer is that, as a gamer, I'm vastly different from every other gamer in existence. Just like music, video games are a matter of taste and preference. Some people like sports games, some people like first person shooters, some people like roleplaying games. Some people like games with epic storylines, some people like games where you can customize your character to look like yourself (or a giant walking penis), some people like games with funny dialogue. With such a broad array of gaming tastes, we all have different games that we consider "good" and "bad." Now, I'm not talking about tastes based on unbiased and unambiguous qualities. I think we can all agree that the Lord of the Rings is a more significant cinematic experience than Dumb and Dumber (which isn't to say that some people don't like Dumb and Dumber, perhaps even more than Lord of the Rings), but our preferences make our gaming experiences different to us than they would be to other people.
And of course I only bothered writing the bull-shitty tripe up above because I feel like I should pad this blog out ad nauseum. Largely because I haven't written for months.
In any case, I was discussing video games with a friend from work. I've recently been moved to electronics at WalMart, which is nice because I finally know something about the things I'm supposed to sell, not to mention the fact that I can relate with the people I work with and indeed may even be able to call them friends, unlike the more casual acquaintances with whom I shared nothing in common back in the garden center. As such, I spend a lot of time discussing video games with new people who I don't have a lot of familiarity with yet. And, of course, whenever two unfamiliar nerds get together, they must introduce themselves by stating what their top video games are. As such, it got me thinking that I wanted to make a list of my favorites, perhaps my top 10. And if I'm wasting my time with such an endeavor, I suppose it would be prudent to post it to that blog thing that I never update.
So, in keeping with my Reid's Picks music list on Facebook, I will call my top 10 video game favorites "Reid's Picks" as well. So, without further ado (what a cliché...), here are my Reid's Picks top 10 video games!
10. Star Ocean: The Second Story
I don't remember everything about this game since it's been over 10 years since I played it, but this is a game from an era when Japanese Roleplaying Games weren't so bogged down in convoluted writing and linearity so as to completely ruin the experience. Star Ocean: The Second Story had a number of things going for it in my opinion. The graphics were impressive for the time, with a beautiful cartoony style that really fit with the feel of the game, the mechanics were decent, and I loved the skill system, which included an unobtrusive and entirely optional crafting system (the best kind, in my opinion). The best thing it had however (again, entirely in my opinion) was the 80+ endings and the fact that you could not get every single playable character in one run through. Later games did this only minimally (Final Fantasy VII had two "hidden" characters, both of which were so laughably easy to get that they might as well have been forced on you anyways, and later Star Ocean games, specifically Star Ocean: Till the End of Time had a "one or the other" choice that, while not horrible, simply failed to compare to Star Ocean: The Second Story). You may be saying "but Reid, how can a game be good by DENYING you things?" Well, way back in the day, games weren't 150% forgiving. They weren't afraid to shut the door in your face. While this could be frustrating if you found a character you loved and they couldn't join you, it still added a richness, a realism to the game that I find lacking in games nowadays. It also gave the game world a feeling of consequence. Your choices meant something. In a game like Final Fantasy XIII, nothing you do matters because the entire game (even beyond simply the physical surroundings you found yourself in) was a corridor. You just went through a linear line of events without any sort of reaction from the story itself. In Star Ocean: The Second Story, if you decided to help person A, person B would (or wouldn't) join you later because they were childhood friends (or couldn't stand) person A.
Rule number 1 in Reid's book of video game must-haves: choice.
9. Saints Row 2
Saints Row 2. Now, a lot of you might think less of me for even listing this game in my top 10, but hear me out. Yes, this is one of those cathartic video game experiences where you drive around real fast killing police officers and pedestrians. And, while this is fun, it certainly seems, on the surface, to keep it from becoming truly great. However, if you follow the story of Saints Row 2 through its twists and turns, you begin to find a rather deep and meaningful plot hidden somewhere under the surface of banality and silliness. I'm going to get bludgeoned to death for even suggesting this, but the ending of the game is even a bit reminiscent of the Godfather films, when the main character comes face to face with the person who betrayed them in the first game and is told that his (or her) appetite for power and wealth is insatiable. "Where will it end?" the game seems to ask. It was a poignant scene and well delivered.
And then THQ throws it all away to make Saints Row 3, a game where you can beat someone to death with a giant dildo. Sigh.
Saints Row 3 was fun, I won't deny that. Even more fun than Saints Row 2. But it gave up too much that made Saints Row 2 great. Saints Row 2 had a silly facade where you would be doing drive-bys and killing rival gang members by the hundreds one minute and spraying high-priced real estate with sewage from the back of a septic truck the next. But beneath it all there was a darkness, a poignancy (that seems to be the word of the day) that seemed to hint that, though things were paying off for the bad-guy-good-guy in the short term, it would all come tumbling apart for him/her eventually as his/her appetite would eventually become all-consuming and he/she would be smothered by his/her desires. This was good storytelling. And the boss his/herself was a facinating character--again, in much the same way that Michael Corleone was in the Godfather movies. Horrible on a level of horrible that you could scarcely imagine existing in the real world, "The Boss" spent the game swapping tattoo ink with nuclear waste, crippling people affiliated with rival gangs, and stuffing rival gang leaders' girlfriends in the backs of cars (that were then crushed by that ignorant gang leader in a monster truck rally). THQ threw this all away for Saints Row 3 in lieu of a Michael-Bayesque plot filled with silliness and explosions with none of the depth or darkness of its predecessor. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, especially since the third installment of the series tightened up the gameplay to near perfection, removing the ONLY complaint I had about Saints Row 2 (it didn't play very fluidly).
Of course, all of my praise for Saints Row 2 is lumped on top of one of the most ludicrously over-the-top character customization systems I've ever seen in a video game (and it wasn't even a roleplaying game), which is another one of my "buttons" and another thing that Saints Row 3 pared down on, sadly. Its successor's failings aside, Saints Row 2 is an amazing experience that I feel belongs on any list of top games. I feel like THQ really missed the boat on Saints Row 3 when they tightened up the gameplay but left the depth of the plot that intermingled perfectly with the goofy, over-the-top action behind.
8. Diablo 2
I can only wonder if Diablo 3 will match the sheer addictive quality of Diablo 2. This is a game that I played the hell out of. It was the first of its kind, that sort of randomized dungeon crawl loot grab game (well, Diablo 1 was) and it has, so far, done it the best. Hands down. The addictive quality of always knowing there is something amazing, something great out there to use against the legions of the Burning Hells cannot be overlooked. The writing and plot always seemed to take a back seat to everything else in these games. They weren't bad, they just didn't stand out to me at the time, so I have to call them forgettable (because I literally forgot the nuances of the writing and plot over time). It is still one of those games that I consider going back to on those boring, lonely nights when I have nothing better to do.
7. Minecraft
Ok, so, Minecraft. It's one of those absolutely prolific games that, despite its overall simplicity (dig and build), has exploded into something bigger than God. I love Minecraft...but I am not a junkie for it like some people are. I do find that, when I play it under the right conditions, it devours my soul like few other games before it, but I find its sandbox approach to construction to be somewhat limiting on how much I can possibly enjoy it. Not like my sixth pick, Terraria (see below). The sheer depth and breadth of what you can do in Minecraft is staggering, but beyond the building, there's not much to it. And even the building is almost limited to simply structural things. Until more "flavor" items are added, I just don't feel like my 7 mile-high castle in the sky is truly mine.
6. Terraria
I know, I just know I will catch hell for this, but I can't deny that I enjoy Terraria more as a game than Minecraft. Minecraft is, by far, the deeper experience. But as far as games go, Terraria is just flat out more enjoyable to me. I actually enjoy the building a bit more in Terraria though, even though it's 2D. I feel like you can personalize your house a bit better than Minecraft, with a great deal more "flavor" items that make it feel a little more...homey. The very depth and breadth of what you can make in Minecraft is staggering. But, as I said before, its sandboxy approach to it kind of limits its enjoyment as a game to me. Terraria's developers were wise to make their game a platformer first and building simulator second.
That being said, I hate comparing the two games. They're both amazing entries into the annals (teehee) of gaming history. They are not the same game, with one in 3D the other in 2D platformer style. They both have their strengths and their weaknesses. I just happened to enjoy Terraria marginally more.
5. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Exploration. That was the name of the game in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Under the veneer of a fair plot with some interesting if not award-winning plot is a positively massive setting with more nooks than WalMart (get it? Barnes and Noble Nook? Hahahah) and more crannies than the Crayola factory (God damn I am so clever). I remember spending many, many, many hours digging through this game, searching for every object, every weapon, every item that there was to find. I remember after my friend and I had beaten the game, we, even then, realized we hadn't found everything and spent even more time filling in that 100% completion rating (I doubt we ever even got there). The gameplay itself was solid too. As Benjamin "Yahtzee" Croshaw said, it faithfully stuck to a 2D gameplay style in lieu of switching to 3D, which was becoming popular at the time, and in doing so, it was able to maintain a tight artistic style as well as a massive game world that wouldn't have been possible in 3D (at the time).
I don't mean to write off the story either. I've never been a huge Castlevania fan, but I fondly remember playing Castlevania III back in the good old days (a game to which there was a shout-out in Symphony of the Night that made me squee with nostalgia) and even a bit of Castlevanias I and II. The story in all of these games is good. Not great. The writing in Symphony of the Night just misses great, I feel, with some over-the-top performances by the voice actors that somehow fits just right with the gothic setting ("What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!"). Alucard was a vampire (half vampire even) before being a vampire was edgy and cool (and sparkly). His rather tragic past is compelling in a way that Stephenie Meyer couldn't even dream of accomplishing.
Symphony of the Night is an amazing experience, and I suggest everyone who has an XBox 360 checks it out on XBLA now.
4. Portal (1 and 2)
Gameplay-wise, Portal was clever but nothing unique. It's a puzzle game where your main character wanders through various "test chambers" with a gun that shoots portals. You use these portals to guide your character through the chambers and solve each test in turn. Pretty simple, really, and nothing to write home about. It's clever, but by itself, nothing special. But you pair this up with, hands down, the best humor writing out of any game ever and a surprisingly great plot for such a simplistic experience and you have one of the greatest games ever made. I lump Portal 1 and 2 together here for, while Portal 1 was a solid experience that set the stage for Portal 2, they are, essentially, the same game. I still have my doubts about the necessity of Portal 2's existence (I think Portal 1 was a solid experience that did not and still does not need a sequel), Valve did alright in convincing me that it was not completely superfluous and has merits all its own, not the least of which being its own superb writing and twisty plot.
Valve showed the power of writing with these games. As I said before, the gameplay itself, taken by itself, wouldn't make much of a game. It would be a fun little experience, but ultimately empty and forgettable. But with the addition of its own unique canon, as well as HANDS DOWN THE GREATEST VIDEO GAME VILLAIN EVER CREATED (I may write a blog about why I feel this way someday), Portal is and will remain a timeless classic.
3. Final Fantasy VI
JRPGs didn't used to be linear extravaganzas of high production value graphics painting over a cracked and worn foundation of muddy writing, convoluted plots, and linear gameplay with no sense of choice and consequence. Back in the day, JRPGs used to be solid gaming experiences. I largely blame the Final Fantasy franchise largely for this shift into mediocrity since I see Final Fantasy VII as the beginning of their downfall. However, I also count Final Fantasy VI as one of the best entries into the genre (if JRPG by itself can be a genre). Why is this? I don't know. It has an intangible quality about it. The story, while possessed of a minor undercurrent of some of the things that would bog down its successors, was engaging on a level that no other Final Fantasy game could hope to engage me (not even the ones that came before FFVI, which were all also amazing games). The characters were solid and well-rounded, they interacted with one another in amusing and real ways, and the world felt huge. There was plenty to do and plenty to discover, secrets to find, amazing weapons and items to plunder and exploit in battle (I still remember some of the retarded combinations of accessories and weapons that you could use to finish some of the hardest battles in the game in one round of combat). Final Fantasy VI is simply the best entry into the Final Fantasy series ever, and given the current trend I see Squenix following, I doubt that will ever change.
What happened to you, Squenix? :-(
2. Chrono Trigger
What was it about this game? Only a few JRPGs make it onto this list, largely because I feel like a roleplaying game should have some modicum of personal choice and personalization. Neither Star Ocean: The Second Story nor Final Fantasy VI nor Chrono Trigger have character customization and, in general, the major events of the game were not influenced by your choices in any of these games (though they did feel like they were at some points through a combination of amazing writing and well-conceived set pieces). I honestly can't put my finger on why Chrono Trigger is so amazing. Of course it has amazing writing, amazing characters, amazing music, amazing art, etc, etc, but plenty of games have these things (not so many these days, I feel). Perhaps all of these JRPGs get a free ride on the nostalgia train. But whatever the case may be, I remember all three of them engaging me on a level that no other game before them and no other game after them has (with the exception of the games on this list, of course). Chrono Trigger had a unique plot (for the time) involving time travel in a pseudo fantasy setting with a bizarre but ultimately fulfilling mix of steam-punkesque technology and magic. There was nothing about this game that let me down, not back then, and not today when I play its ports on my Nintendo DS.
1. Bastion
Bastion is just...one of those experiences. The game isn't perfect, but every individual part is so gorgeous, so spit-polished, so amazing that the experience, even just as a sum of its parts, is one of the greatest of all time. And I believe that the game is better than the sum of its parts. The gameplay is solid, the voice acting and narration are top notch, the writing is superb, and the music is some other adjective that I don't have the time or wherewithall to think up. The story kept dragging me back in a way that few stories in the history of gaming have and layer all that on top of a foundation of stylistic art that is some of the most gorgeous I have seen in a game (especially a game under $20) and you have, in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best, games of all time.
Honorable Mentions
Obviously there are games that just couldn't make the list. Ten spots just isn't enough to list all the games I've enjoyed over the years, so here are a few more just to make myself feel a bit better for not leaving some out.
Pokémon
No, it's not a typo. I refuse to pick a "generation" because Nintendo's been making the same damn game for over a decade. Still, while I won't even pretend Pokémon is artistic or even a meaningful experience, I've played the game for most of my life, child or adult, written fanfictions about it, roleplayed it, watched the cartoons, watched the movies, and otherwise had it on my mind for the better part of a decade (...almost two at this point). I would be remiss if I left it out of this list. While it has very little of what I value in a game (writing, story, character customization, etc), the sheer amount of choice you have in constructing your team of Pokémon, choosing their skills, and what have you, makes this series still one of my favorite in gaming history.
That being said, I believe Nintendo is really missing the boat with Pokémon...largely simply by being Nintendo. Good old Nintendo. Afraid of change. If they would innovate with this series, do something different from the norm, then I feel like this series could really explode and stand the test of time. I already feel like it's slipping away, falling out of favor. But I suppose after nearly two decades, it is to be expected and is no surprise. But still, I feel like this series could be so much more...but that is, perhaps, a story for another blog.
Not the Sims 3, though the Sims 3 added quite a bit to the experience. I just feel like, even after a comparable amount of expansion packs, the Sims 2 was much more complete and successful at what it was trying to be: a life simulator. The Sims 3 had some good ideas, but I feel like Maxis/EA were trying to reel in people who weren't necessarily in The Sims' usual demographics with things like World Adventures. But really, the Sims 2 kind of hit my sweet spot of choice and customization and I loved it for many, many years. That love dropped off a bit with the Sims 3, which was buggy and dropped out a lot of things I really enjoyed until much later expansions than I felt was necessary, but I still played the heck out of the Sims 3. The real problem isn't the game. It's EA.
EA is the devil. I don't say this lightly, but they are. They have really, really screwed the pooch on their policies, particularly involving DRM. DRM doesn't work, EA. People are still pirating your products and all it does is piss off people that actually sunk money into it. I haven't been burned TOO bad by EA in the past, but I feel like if a company does things I don't approve of, it's my duty to stop giving them my money. I put up with a lot of shit from them, especially their business practices (releasing copious amounts of expansion packs and opening up the Sims store for things they used to give us for free being two of the biggest things), but I feel like I've finally had the last straw.
Still, I did enjoy the games at one time. They were enjoyable and I would be remiss if I didn't put them in the honorable mentions at least.
Dwarf Fortress
The decision to leave Dwarf Fortress out of the top 10 was a difficult one. For those of you who don't know, Dwarf Fortress is a nearly impregnable indie game about dwarves. And a fortress. You don't command the dwarves so much as give them helpful suggestions and watch them scurry about trying to do what you ask (though sometimes it's difficult as they get caught up with silly little things like the need to eat and drink and sleep...lazy layabouts that they are). The game itself is positively labyrinthine with a depth that Minecraft could only dream of and I think I could possibly be swayed into loving this game even more than Minecraft and Terraria combined. Sadly, it is hampered by a positively horrendous UI, the development and improvement of which has taken a backseat to other things with the programmers. Right or wrong, this really limits my enjoyment of the game. I have still logged many, many hours into the game (though I haven't played it lately) and suggest that anyone with time to kill and a willingness to learn a difficult but otherwise rewarding game check it out.
It's still in its alpha stages, so I hope, by the time it reaches its final release, it will be a user-friendly experience. I may be revising my top 10 list at that time.
Ultima 7
I have fond memories of this game. Yes, Richard Garriot is a complete loony, but he knows how to make good games. Knew, anyways. The world was absolutely huge, and it had so much character, so much flavor, that it was hard not to feel drawn in. It was like a Bioware RP before Bioware even existed. Your party felt so alive, a living, breathing thing. Your choices had actual weight, and...well, it was just one of the best western RPGs of its time. Really, the only thing keeping this from the top 10 is likely time. I haven't played it in so long. I wish someone would do a remake/port of this game, because I have a feeling it would stand the test of time...
