I guess I never explained why I call my blog "Conglaturation!!" huh? I have heard several times that I misspelled it, but really it's an homage to one of the earliest and well-known flubs in video games. It's even better because it comes from a really bad game.
This end screen comes from Ghostbusters for the NES. A real bad game hoping to cash in on the classic of a movie. I remember playing a lot of this game mainly because I love the movie, and really wondering what in the hell was going on with this game.
While I will save the retrospective for a later post, just figured I would share the inspiration behind the title of my blog.
Now we done did it. We have reached the beginnings of the blockbuster months, the end of Q3 2014, and it promises to bring many hit titles to a console (or PC) near you. Let's get right into it!
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September 2nd: Dance Central Spotlight - (Xbox One)
The successful dance series' debut on the new consoles, get your floor space ready.
The Sims 4 - (PC, Mac)
Welp, there goes any free time I had left....
September 9th: Destiny - (Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, PS3)
Yeah, this is going to be something special.
NHL 15 - (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
As a die-hard hockey fan (Go Penguins!) I always look forward to EA's yearly release, just one step closer to the beginning of the season.
September 16: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - (3DS)
The original Theatrhythm was a fun rhythm game. I expect the same from the sequel and recommend it highly.
September 23rd: Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes - (PS3, PS4, PC, WiiU, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS)
The Marvel Universe gets their turn inside the giant sandbox of Disney Infinity.
FIFA 15 - (PS3, PS4, PC, Xbox 260, Xbox One, 3DS, Vita)
The world's most popular sport gets its annual release and is set to cause gamers to break their controllers all over again.
Gauntlet - (PC)
The remake of the "Grandaddy of the Dungeon Crawlers" looks to be a lot more than just a fresh coat of paint.
September 26th: Hyrule Warriors - (WiiU)
The Dynasty Warriors meets Legend of Zelda mash-up looks like a bunch of mindless fun. Much like a review I saw for the recent Ninja Turtles movie: "Don't think, just enjoy".
September 30th: Forza Horizon 2 - (Xbox One, Xbox 360)
The much anticipated sequel hits current and previous-gen consoles.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Looks really promising. Being able to play a Ranger with Wraith-like abilities sounds awesome!
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - (PS3, Xbox 360)
As a fan of the Persona series and the original Arena, you bet I will be picking this one up. Ultimax adds more characters and more story.
- Wasteland 2 is set for a September 19th release as opposed to TBA August.
- Fable Anniversary comes to PC on September 13th
- Dead Rising 3 hits PC on September 5th
- Cooking Mama 5: Bon Appetit! arrives on 3DS as "TBD"
That's just SOME of the highlights in a jam-packed month for releases. Expect more news to come out of PAX Prime this weekend, and Tokyo Game Show in September. I can not wait to get this month started. Also, FYI, I will be playing Destiny on PS4, so if you would like to join my posse, add DaredevilJD to your PSN friends list.
We have finally made it to my all-time favorite game. The long and winding road towards the top has reached its conclusion and I present to you my favorite game ever. To think it was released in America when I was only 2 years old.
When I was very young, my parents ended up buying me a Nintendo Entertainment System (a NES if you will), and my love affair for video games began (I'm sure my parents were hoping it was just a fad). It came with the combo cartridge of Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and International Track & Field. While I have plenty of fond memories with Nintendo's well-beloved plumber, the Light Gun, and that track pad that you ended up using your hands on, little did I know that the best game I will ever play would show up in a shiny gold cartridge.
This should be no surprise that I happen to love this game as much as I do...
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#1 The Legend of Zelda - First released (US) August 22nd, 1987 (NES)
From the opening title screen, you knew this game was going to be something special. The opening music, the waterfall, the dark color switch, the backstory, the driving heroic turn in the music, epic for the term "epic" was overused.
The game opens, the music kicks in, and you are off on your quest. Games nowadays take forever to get going (2 forevers for a game in the Metal Gear Solid series). You pick up your first sword (since "It's Dangerous To Go Alone" and all) and scroll through screens, kill enemies, and find the first dungeon.
By the way, Link was the first to prove you CAN bring a knife to a gunfight, as long as your knife is a sword that SHOOTS OTHER SWORDS OUT OF IT (if you are at full health...gotta read the fine print, always).
The game was full of secrets to explore, and this was a time before the internet, before GameFAQs, before cell phones that could spit out information at a moment's notice. If you a kid at this time you asked your parents to subscribe to the best magazine of the time: Nintendo Power, and looked for the answers in there. Of course now you can go to YouTube and watch a speedrun, or do a quick google search and print out the entire game map, but back then you had to check every pixel, bomb every wall, burn every bush, and push every rock, hoping to hear the "you figured it out" jingle. Also, Heaven help you if you got stuck in the mountains where the screen repeats itself until you figured out the right combination.
The Legend of Zelda was the beginnings of what would become a consolized RPG. While it's missing some core aspects of a typical RPG, such as experience gaining or leveling up, it did have many tropes of what we now refer to as an RPG; a Fantasy universe, collecting currency to purchase new weapons, potions, and upgrades, a vast, open world to explore (and die a lot in) to save the princess and the land of Hyrule.
What was also big for the game was the different monsters and enemies that you found different ways to defeat. The boomerang was my favorite thing to use since it stunned enemies, leaving you to run up and stab them with the Master Sword. The boomerang also killed those pesky bats and ooze drop things (I always thought they were chocolate chips) in one hit, so that was nice.
Then, of course, entering your name as "LINK" at the sign-in screen allowed you to play the more difficult second quest. Again, wouldn't have known that without Nintendo Power.
The game was really hard anyway, though I attribute that more to just finding out where to go, where the dungeons were found, and all the times I would inadvertently backtrack just to turn around and get hit by an enemy while I was at 1/2 a heart and die.
The video for The Legend of Zelda was a real no-brainer, It's the opening credits, which has since been permanently etched in every young gamers brain:
I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have played through this game. Whether it's via the eShop, the Wii Virtual Console, or my many MANY times through on the original NES, The Legend of Zelda is one of the greatest games ever made. That may sound like a bold proclamation for an 8-bit title from the late 1980's, but very few games have the impact on an industry like this one did. I love every playthrough and still boot it up every now and then to this day. The Legend of Zelda is my favorite game of all time, and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
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Thanks for taking this road down memory lane with me and visiting my favorite games of all time. This list may end up changing this year with many blockbusters yet to come, and in the upcoming years, so be prepared for new entries. For now, though, I can go back to my regularly scheduled posts.
10 years ago, the world was a different place. I was in college (discovering a thing called alcohol), there was a lot of talk of these new, upcoming consoles from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360. The biggest super-hero movie of the year then was Spider-Man 2, and Blizzard decided to unleash the most addictive drug ever upon the world.
While technically, it's not the first to cause PC gamers to leave permanent butt imprints in their chairs (Everquest was very successful when it released in 1999), it stands as the best and the gold standard to which every MMO has been (and will be) compared to. #2 on my list of all time favorites sends us to the ever expanding world of Azeroth.
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#2 - World of Warcraft - First released November 23rd, 2004 (PC, Mac)
My first trip through the game came in 2007, I was working at a GameStop at the time and was behind the counter for the midnight launch of WoW's first expansion: The Burning Crusade. I had never played WoW before because (A) I didn't have a capable PC to play it on and (B) I figured I would be hooked just like all these people in line, some of which dressed up for the part. My manager at the time acted as the enabler and said "just try it, you'll absolutely love it". Giving in to the peer pressure, I bought a copy of the basic game, took it home that night, installed the 4 CD's (a sign of the times) on my crappy laptop, and created my first ever character, an Orc Warrior, For the Horde!
My initial experience was not remarkable but that was mainly because of the aforementioned laptop which, even on lowest settings, stuttered and chugged. Once I upgraded to a better computer, the doors were unlocked and I was able to see what made this game so special.
This was my first foray into the world of the MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game....whew), so I had nothing to compare it against, but it was very easy for me to jump in and get a basic grasp of the MMO tropes.
He either has a quest or just saw Solid Snake
The biggest thing that still astounds me is how big and seamless the world is in WoW. Since I started playing WoW 7 years ago, I have tried countless amounts of MMO's, whether it's The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Rift, Age of Conan, DC Universe Online, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (have I mentioned I have tried many MMO's?), and so on, being able to run from one section of the world to another and not have to run into any load times is an amazing feat that really helped immerse me into the world and the game. It also helped that these landscapes were varied and looked great, one minute I'm in the vast deserts of Durotar, the next, you can travel to Ashenvale and see a lush, colorful forest.
Sure, a lot of the quests amount to "Get 6 of these", "Get 15 of these", "Kill this dude", "Get 10 of these", and so on, but the big thrill in the game is exploring, seeing the world, and getting loot for your hero to make him/her even better, stronger, faster, etc. I always preferred "Soloing" so I can play the game and complete quests on my own schedule, but doing the occasional dungeon run or raid can still be a lot of fun and rewarding if you have the time and the people to help.
Through the various patches and expansions, however, they have varied up the quests a bit by throwing in vehicles you can ride in, like tanks and wood-cutting robots. You can even fly a dragon to rain death upon your foes below.
The expansions have also added more land masses like Northrend and The Outlands, totally ripped apart the world with Cataclysm, and added races like the Worgen, Blood Elves, and Pandaren. Blizzard also made it easier to level up quick, which is a divisive issue amongst its players. Back when WoW was in its infancy, it would take you many dedicated hours/weeks/months to get your character to level 60 (the original level cap). Now, you can get to level 90 (soon to be 100 with the new expansion due out this November) in a lot less time, hell, you can pay a small fee and just get a level 90 character now. At this point, I am totally ok with the current system because I just want to see all the game has to offer, and with my work schedule, I don't have days upon weeks to sit there and dedicate myself to this game.
Of all the classes in the game, I usually stick to the Warrior class, since I enjoy tanking and melee. Though right now my main is a Pandaren Warrior (who went Horde), with my 2 alts being a Human Paladin and a Blood Elf Mage.
There is always the "carrot-on-a-stick" mechanic that kept me going. Random loot drops, new skills, leveling up and making my character's stats go up, etc. All of which was represented by the purple (or blue if rested, gaining double XP) XP bar on the bottom of the screen, and I would find myself wanting to take a break from the game, only to look down and see I am on the verge of leveling, say "Well let's do that first, then I can take a break so I can end on a high note", then end up playing for a few more hours and level up a few more times. Once you get in a groove, it's REALLY hard to stop.
It's worth mentioning that the cinematics department at Blizzard is the best in the business (along with Square Enix) and it really showed with WoW and its expansions. Check 'em out here:
and the recently released Warlords of Draenor cinematic:
It's astounding to me that this game is still as popular as it is, and even after losing several subscribers over the years, it is STILL the most popular game in the world, more than Call of Duty, more than Madden. With the new expansion giving the entire game a graphical overhaul, it's like giving the game its second wind, which will lead to people returning to the game, or lead new players to try the free trial (and sure, players always quit WoW for various reasons, but always come back at some point). World of Warcraft has been going strong for 10 years and shows no signs of folding anytime soon. Many other games have tried, but ultimately ended up failing or going exclusively free-to-play. Whether you are For the Alliance, or (correctly) For the Horde, World of Warcraft is one of the greatest games ever made, and the most addictive game ever made.
Open-world games lend themselves to their own brand of craziness. Whether it's a game like Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, Saint's Row or even a game like Burnout: Paradise, there is sure to be plenty to do and a lot of chaos.
However, this wouldn't be the case if it weren't for the game that set the bar for the open world game. Which finds itself here at #3 on my list. Rockstar knows how to make a hell of an open-world game, and it all started here. There is a reason why every game in this genre is labeled a "GTA-Clone". While many games succeed in being great, they owe that success to this franchise. You may have seen this coming. So here we go!
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#3 - The Grand Theft Autoseries - First released October 1997 (PC, Playstations, Xboxes, handhelds, a lot of things ok?)
Originally, the game was supposed to be titled "Race n' Chase". Just a fun fact.
The original GTA was developed by DMA Designs (which we now know as Rockstar North) who were famous for the Lemmings series as well as Uniracers for the SNES (if you haven't played Uniracers, you are missing out). The first game took place in Liberty City, Vice City, AND San Andreas. Of course, these weren't nearly as huge as they are now, but it is very interesting to see that all 3 major cities in the series appeared in the very first game. I remember playing the original on the PS1 and liking it a lot. It was a fun, mindless game where I could just screw around and cause crime.
I REALLY starting getting into this series with Grand Theft Auto 2 which I played on the Dreamcast. Being able to do missions for rival gangs and be in the middle of a gang war, plus adding side missions like taxi missions, and bus driving missions. I had not played the London games at that point, but I knew after playing GTA 1 and 2 that this was going to be something I would want more of.
Then, we got word that a new GTA game was coming to these newer consoles of the time (PS2, Xbox) and was going to be 3D. This was 2001 so 16-old-me was flipping out. Grand Theft Auto III was released in October 2001 for PS2 and October 2003 for Xbox. The game was delayed following the 9/11 attacks, halting production and forcing Rockstar to make significant changes in the wake of the tragedy. I played GTAIII primarily on PS2 and at the time I knew this was going to be something special. Of course, the controversy followed, being able to just gun down anybody, commit crimes, pick up hookers, staples of the franchise. GTA III also laid a lot of the foundation for what we got with GTA V: the beginnings of a big, open world, many more side missions, full cutscenes, picking up hookers, etc.
GTA III also kicked of the trilogy of games, adding Vice City and San Andreas. I still have a love of Vice City for the atmosphere, the setting, and the music (which I will touch on later). San Andreas had the most stuff going on. Adding the mechanic of staying in shape at the gym, or letting CJ go and make him a fatass. Yes, San Andreas is best known for the legendary "Hot Coffee" cheat, and with all the publicity surrounding it, it only succeeded in selling more copies to see what the hell everyone was so worked up about. The series is well-known for its controversies and that's a reason why it sells so well. It's a "What are they going to do next?" scenario.
After the trilogy of III (and the subsequent Stories games for the PSP) GTA set its sights on the PS3, Xbox 360, and the PC for the next version: Grand Theft Auto IV. New systems, more power, bigger and better Liberty City. The classic tale of the American Dream through the eyes of a refugee looking to make it big. Full of interesting characters (Brucie, Little Jacob, just to name a few), bigger world to explore, more activities, likable characters, and 2 great expansions with The Ballad of Gay Tony, and The Lost and Damned. Another instant classic, though players were looking forward to get out of Liberty City.
Chinatown Wars was released around this time for the Nintendo DS and PSP and stayed in Liberty City, but returned to the top-down perspective of the original games, pretty fun, but again, we were looking forward to the next big thing in the series.
What we got was a masterpiece in Grand Theft Auto V. For the first time, you could play as three different characters in an interweaving storyline though an absolutely gigantic environment. There is just so much to do in V with all the side missions, parachuting, yoga, triathlons, diving for treasure, heists, etc. The characters are likable and memorable, I knew I laughed at several jokes and said "That's awesome" a number of times. Great looking environments (that will look even better on the new consoles and PC)., the list goes on.
Yes, Grand Theft Auto online had its fair share of bumps in the road, but the concept is sound. It can definitely work. The fact remains, though, that GTA V is, in and of itself, one of the best games ever made.
The music has been a huge staple in the series and compliment the action nicely. Vice City with its 80's music really helped set the tone for the game. San Andreas with the California hip-hop, GTA IV and V incorporating DJ's and music of the era and helps fill in the world. It is all so well put together.
I could gush about Grand Theft Auto games all day. They are the best games at "You wanna go there? Go for it! You wanna do that? Go For it!". Just watch and admire the evolution of the open-world masterpiece.
It is so easy to get yourself lost in any of these games. With so much going on and only your mind as the limiting factor, Grand Theft Auto stands as the best when it comes to doing a lot of dumb shit, but doing it your way. Absolute classics and I can't wait for the new consoles to get their version of GTA V.
Fighting games have seen a recent "rebirth" of sorts, with the market once again being flooded with various originals, sequels, complex games, two button games, and whatever the hell JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle is (a good kind of weird, but still, WTF?).
Of course, the mainstays make an appearance in today's landscape. Street Fighter came out with the latest (and, presumably last) iteration of IV with Ultra Street Fighter IV, we saw an appearance from Tekken with Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and hey, we've even seen a reimagining of Killer Instinct and it's freaking kick-ass theme song (which is still my ringtone).
One franchise, however, still stands as my favorite fighting franchise ever, and believe me, I have played A LOT of fighting games. In 1992, we as gamers were shocked to see a game not only use actual people, but showed these real people have gruesome things happen to them, such as being set on fire or having their goddamn spine ripped out of them. This was UNHEARD of at the time (sure, Pit Fighter came out in 1990, but MK was actually good), which helped it stand out in the Street Fighter-ruled genre. This also helped the franchise make its way to #4 on my list of all time favorites.
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#4 - The Mortal Kombat series - First released 1992 (Arcade, basically every home and portable console ever)
It was more than the Fatalities that helped MK stand out. While Street Fighter used commands like "Down, Down-Forward, Forward, Punch" or "Hold for 2sec, kick" or even "complete circle, punch" (which I could never get the hang of cause Zangief would always jump. I know, user error), MK took a more direct approach with a "Down, Forward, Punch" or "Back, Forward, Punch". This little tweak helped make it more accessible to people who had quarters to burn or didn't have fightsticks at home. This doesn't mean the game was simple by any means, you still had to know when to use special moves and when to use them in combos for maximum efficiency.
Those special projectiles did seem to matter more in MK, however. In SF, they all sort of felt the same, whether it's a Sonic Boom or a Hadoken, it was a projectile that hit you and did damage. In MK, you had Scorpion's famous spear that brought an enemy closer for more damage, Sub-Zero's Ice beam that froze an opponent, giving him a free shot (usually an uppercut or a roundhouse kick), or, later on in the series, Stryker firing a damn pistol at you, because why not?
Keep in mind, I am only using Street Fighter as the reference point because that has always been (at least in the States) the biggest competition. SF is an incredible franchise and there is a reason it is still relevant. I am aware they are 2 different styles of games, but these are the biggest fighting franchises in the U.S. Cool?
The first 3 entries in the MK series stuck with the 2D style, my favorite of these has to be Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, which is a remastered version of MK3 with more characters, more levels, and better gameplay. With MK4, 5 (Deadly Alliance), 6 (Deception), 7 (Armageddon), and 8 (MK vs DC), they went with a 3D engine and were fine games, I just always felt MK belonged on a 2D plane. The 3D games tried interesting things, even being able to create a fighter in Armageddon. Also, the story mode in MK vs DC laid the groundwork for what would be used in MK9 and Injustice: Gods Among Us (another freaking awesome fighting game) and is the best way to tell a story mode in any fighting game to date.
When I first heard that the series would be going back to its roots for the ninth entry, simply titled Mortal Kombat, my geek-dar was going off and I started to get stoked. What came was was my favorite game in the entire franchise. The story mode was told exceptionally well, it looked phenomenal, it had all the characters we wanted (even including Kratos and Freddy Krueger, cause hey why not?), and was an absolute blast to play. The King of the Hill style online mode was a blast too, with your little avatars emoting as the fight plays out in a theater-like setting. For as gory and mature as the game can be, the series does a great job of being tongue-in-cheek, ridiculous, and funny at the same time, especially with "Friendships" and "Babalities".
The Mortal Kombat games have always been notorious for easter eggs and over-the-top nonsense. The character Ermac (which means "error macro") was a line of programming Ed Boon made in the original MK that players found on the audit screen and assumed was a secret character. Of course, Boon and John Tobias took this and ran with it, teasing gamers with the old "I can not confirm nor deny Ermac's existence" schtick until he was finally a playable character in UMK3. Also, as you well know, Noob Saibot backwards is Tobias Boon, the last names of the two creators. Blaze, who is a boss character from Armageddon is said to first appear in MKII on the bridge level in the background. The list goes on and on, and of course we all love the "Toasty!" guy, Dan Forden, who does make an appearance in MK9.
Of course, what most people think of when it comes to MK are the Fatalities. The brutal, savage, R-rated, way to end a fight and your opponents life. These were a huge deal back in the originals since the idea of ripping a man's head off a realistic looking person was shocking. Later on, the development team looked to make them more and more memorable and over-the-top. While I always loved Liu Kang dropping an MK arcade machine on his enemies, there is still something satisfying about Stryker prepping a grenade, planting it into his foe's chest and watching him explode. Or having Sub-Zero rip his enemy's spinal cord out, freeze the body, and use said spinal cord (with head still attached) to shatter the body. Or Smoke blowing up the whole fucking planet!!!!
Which is where the video comes in. Yes, MK is about more than just gruesome endings to fights, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy them:
The new Mortal Kombat (titled Mortal Kombat X due out in 2015) is going to push the series even farther. New characters, new systems (Xbox One, PS4), new (and even more gruesome looking) Fatalities, different fighting style versions of characters, and what Netherrealm is calling a "persistent online experience, where every fight matters", all will add up to what looks to be an amazing game that could end up being my favorite in the series, and I can not freaking wait!!!!
Mortal Kombat will always be my favorite fighting franchise. Chalk it up to the easy to pick up controls, the gorgeous graphics, the humor, the characters, the over-the-top violence, you name it. While I do enjoy my fighting games, especially Street Fighter, I always prefered "GET OVER HERE" to "HADOKEN!".
It's time for the home stretch, my top 5 games of all time. These are the biggest of the big and really helped make my gaming life the way it is today.
When the original Xbox was released in 2001, I ended up getting it as a Christmas gift that year, and I remember my cousin and I going to Best Buy to find more games for our new system. I remember picking up Max Payne and some first person shooter set in space, I dunno, it looked cool.
Little did I know, that game would go on to become a massive franchise, end up owning my high school nights with friends, and end up becoming one of my favorite series in gaming. So the whole series goes here at #5
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#5 - The Haloseries - First released November 15th, 2001 (Xbox, PC, Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
I always love a good space story, guess it dates back to my initial love of Star Wars (the original trilogy, let's not be crazy here). So the idea of a huge space shooter on my new Xbox console had me excited, plus this was the beginning of me having my own money to buy games, which was great news for my consoles and bad news for my bank account.
My excitement kicked in the second I put in the first game: Halo: Combat Evolved and heard the famous choir chant, and got a good look at the Halo weapon. Master Chief awakens from hibernation and it's on. The Pillar of Autumn is attacked by the Covenant and your adventure begins. This was the birth of "Pistol Sniping" (which would be taken out in some later games, but make a reappearance later on), which stands as one of the best weapons in gaming. This also was the game that saw the rise of the "LAN Party". Since the original Halo was not equipped with online functionality natively (there was a way to get online, but it involved your computer and some questionable software), the way to play this game was with your buddies, 4 Xboxs hooked up with LAN cables, surround everyone with pizza and soda, and let the swearing begin.
This was also perfect timing for me since I was in high school at this time. I can not put a number on how many times my friends and I would get together and play Halo till we passed out from exhaustion. I remember my friend saying, "If I would choose my all-star team, I would take Jeff because he gets the shotgun, gets up in your face, and doesn't give a shit". I feel my Halo skills have gotten better over the years but I knew the Sniper Rifle was not for me.
Many of us gamers knew where we were when we saw the reveal for Halo 2 and how we lost our damn minds when Master Chief pulled out a second gun and gave us dual wielding. Seriously, this was huge. Halo 2 was also the first to include online, and, subsequently, the reason I started giving up on online voice chat. While many people say Halo 2 is the weakest in the series (it is), that doesn't mean it was a bad game, in fact quite the opposite, there was a great structure there that got us really excited for the first next-gen Halo game on the new Xbox 360 console. A franchise was born.
Of course we now know the Halo series to be one of the biggest on the planet. Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST gave us a really unique perspective of the war. In one game you are playing as the big badass Master Chief, and in the other, you play from the perspective of the "grunt", the "frontline soldier" fighting on a different front. It took a more somber tone and it was really powerful. Then we got to the prelude with Halo: Reach which was an amazing game, I would even go so far as to say Halo 3 and Reach are my favorites in the series. Reach told the story of the "Band of Brothers (and Sister)" that got us to where we knew. How the sacrifices of a few saved millions. The last level of Reach (the last stand versus countless enemies till you died) was absolutely amazing.
The two off-shoots, Halo Wars and Halo: Spartan Assault, I thought were fine, nice diversions that you knew were there just to cash in on the name. Nothing out of the ordinary and nothing fantastic, but worth playing.
Halo 4 was a big risk. With Bungie out of the mix and 343 Industries taking the reigns, and the beginning of a new trilogy, the expectations were high and I felt they nailed it. They did what any first game in a trilogy does, answers maybe 1 or 2 questions while raising about 20 more questions. I am VERY interested to see where they take this with Halo 5: Guardians.
Of course, the multiplayer, I found, got better and better as the games went along. All the perks, the leveling up, the modes, the community, the endless joy, the Grifball. One of, if not THE, best multiplayer experiences out there. I will have to play some of this tonight.
I've got a couple video ideas for the series, first of all one of my favorite cutscenes from the series, this from Halo 2:
And this is the final bit from Reach that I was talking about earlier, the "Lone Wolf" mission where you just fight until the end comes. (This is the END of Halo: Reach, so...spoilers?)
The Halo series is as huge as any other in gaming and for good reason. It's not just another first person shooter, but a space epic that also happens to have some of the best multiplayer ever created. Expect many people to feel the rush all over again when The Master Chief Collection is released for the Xbox One, which includes Halo 1, 2, 3, 4, AND every multiplayer mode and map EVER MADE. I absolutely LOVE these games.
Let's face it, if you owned an N64, you owned this game. We as gamers were bred to believe that all video games based on movies suck, though there are some exceptions, most notably this game. I remember many sleepovers when I was in middle school, where we would bring over our N64 controllers, get a couple 2-liters of Mountain Dew, and get our licence to kill.
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#6 - Goldeneye 007 - First Released August 25th 1997 (N64)
In today's industry, we are used to seeing movie-based video games released alongside the film for a promotional boost, and normally, as previously stated, they suck. Goldeneye the game came out a full 2 years AFTER the movie. In fact, 4 months later, in December, Tomorrow Never Dies would hit theaters, so maybe the game was getting us ready for a new (albeit not nearly as good) movie with a game based on the last (and one of the best) Bond movies.
Either way, childhood me (and many others gamers) always dreamt of life as a secret agent, and James Bond always was and will be the premier name when it comes to that. Smooth-talking, girl-getting, world-saving, shaken not stirred-drinking, gadget-wielding, ridiculously good-looking, he had it all and we wanted to be in his shoes, and this was the best way of doing it.
Worth noting, this was not the game the developers had in mind when they set out to recreate the James Bond experience. The idea was to make this an on-rails shooter, much like a Time Crisis or House of the Dead. I can guarantee you that this game wouldn't be on my list of all-time favorites had it been an on-rails shooter. Before that, the game was originally proposed as a 2D Side-scroller on the SNES, due to the success of Donkey Kong Country, but the team decided it wanted a 3D shooter for Nintendo's new (then still in development) "Ultra 64" system.
The game was shown at E3 1997 (full 3D shooter mode by the way) and showed poorly. The media figured this would be a flop and an afterthought. Just goes to show, you never know what you are getting until a full release. The first-person shooter was still a genre dominated by PC (some argue it still is today), so a console shooter was a bit of a novelty. That "novelty" feeling went away pretty quick after you drop down from an air duct and kill a guard in the men's room. It was Bond time!
The campaign was full of espionage, betrayal, women, villains, all the makings of a great Bond experience. The game followed the plot of the movie pretty closely, with all the characters from the movie. Again, it helps that Goldeneye the movie was pretty awesome, which made playing the game equally as awesome.
Of course, the game wasn't just about getting from level to level and telling the story. You wanted to do it as efficiently as possible, like James Bond would. Higher difficulties meant more objectives to complete, and doing enough objectives in the shortest amount of time will unlock cheats like "Big Head Mode" and (my favorite) "Paintball Mode". This put the replayability through the roof.
The star of the show here was, naturally, multiplayer. Up to 4 players could choose their favorite Bond characters (except Oddjob cause that's cheating) and shoot each other a bunch in some of the most iconic maps in video game history, like Facility and Complex.
Let's look at what not only set the bar, but CREATED the bar for console multiplayer shooters:
That takes me back.
And to think: the multiplayer wasn't added until very late in the development cycle and was described as "A complete afterthought".
After the massive success of this game, companies tried their best to capitalize on Bond and the Goldeneye name. No future Bond game could top this though. We as gamers just compared everything to this and nothing could beat it. Recently (As in 2010, so might be a stretch) Goldeneye 007 was released for the Wii and was a reimagining of this game, with Daniel Craig replacing Pierce Brosnan. It was actually pretty good and featured online multiplayer. A year later, it was HD-ified and released on Xbox 360 and PS3. I may have to play that game again.
However, like many things in life, the original stands as the best, and it is no different here. Goldeneye 007 for the N64 will stand as the best shooter on the system, one of the most fun experiences of my gaming life, a game that revolutionized the genre and made it console-friendly, and #6 on my list of all time favorite games. If you think that's too low, just wait until you see my top 5.
Ah, the Wild West, a time of outlaws, savages, gamblers, pretty ladies, bar room brawls, and everything else we learned from John Wayne movies. Many games have tried to capture the spirit and tension of America's Frontier, with varying levels of success. There's the Call of Juarez games, GUN, Mad Dog McCree (ok that might not be the best example, but any chance I can get to mention MDM, I gotta take it).
Leave it to Rockstar to come in and try their hand at the genre, which they did with Red Dead Revolver in 2004. While Revolver was a fine game, its spiritual successor would arrive and become the greatest Western game ever made, and #7 on my list of favorite games of all time.
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#7 - Red Dead Redemption - First released May 18th, 2010 (PS3, Xbox 360)
When you live in Iowa and happen to have had a Grandfather whose idol was John Wayne, you get exposed to a lot of western movies. It helped that these movies still hold up today. While I may never have owned a 10-gallon hat, or owned a pair of snakeskin boots, and the fact that my favorite "Western" movie is Blazing Saddles, I always found the Wild West a fascinating landscape for storytelling. I always wondered what it was like to be like Billy the Kid, or "Wild Bill" Hickok.
Rockstar set out to make Redemption larger and more ambitious than their previous release, Grand Theft Auto IV. While many people feared that Redemption would end up being "Grand Theft Horsey", they ended up creating a game that stood on its own, while pushing the open-world genre forward.
You are John Marston, an outlaw who is separated from his family by the Bureau of Investigation. He will get his family back if he cooperates and turns in the members of his former gang. This already gives us a reason to like John and gives us a good reason to understand why he's out here doing all these (mostly illegal) activities; A man who would do anything to see his family again.
The main story starts in 1911, near the end of the "Frontier" Era, and takes place in 2 fictitious American counties: New Austin, West Elizabeth, and the fictitious Nuevo Paraiso, Mexico. All of these locales feel like they were ripped out of Hollywood and really immerse you in the world. The opening mission has John confronting his old gang at Fort Mercer, after a bit of dialogue and failed convincing, John is shot by his former gangmate and current gang leader, Bill Williamson. As John is left for dead, he is found by Bonnie MacFarlane, a local rancher, and and healed with the help of a $15 doctor's bill, which she loves to remind him about. The first few missions in the game involve Marston doing some odd jobs around the ranch to pay back the $15, or basically how the game decides to introduce all the mechanics.
While the main story is amazing, what sets Red Dead apart from GTA is the random events. Since the game doesn't take place in a sprawling metropolis like Liberty City or San Andreas, Rockstar needed to make the wide open areas still exciting and interesting. You may randomly get ambushed, you may see a robbery take place, you may have to hijack a stagecoach, or prevent a hanging. All this kept you on your toes even if you were nowhere near "civilization".
Of course there are side missions/activities to take part in, just because this isn't Liberty City doesn't mean there aren't a lot of things to do. You could to some bounty hunting and bring criminals to justice, take part in iconic duels and show who is the fastest trigger, play poker (naturally), gather herbs, or hunt and collect hides from fallen wildlife.
Along the way, your actions factor into the game's morality system, doing heroic deeds, like saving a woman from kidnapping, will raise your honor and raise your fame, which will cause NPCs to feel safer around you and cause stores to give you a discount, while doing criminal acts will reverse these effects.
Red Dead Redemption also features multiplayer for up to 16 players. Every game began with both teams in a Mexican standoff, waiting for the round to begin, opening fire on each other, then taking up positions for the respawning members. I always thought that was a nice touch, appropriate for the time period and generates a lot of tension before the match even begins. The typical modes are here: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag, etc. You also could team up to do some free roaming as well as attacking another posse, or taking down computer-occupied strongholds. The DLC from Undead Nightmare added zombies and a "horde" mode. I loved the multiplayer here and I imagine people are still playing it, so I may have to jump back on.
Rockstar put out a series of videos in preparation for Red Dead Redemption's release, here is one that goes more into "Life in the West", and shows a little bit of everything, really.
We have all thought about what Grand Theft Auto would be like in different cities, but Rockstar showed that it can take several of the GTA mechanics, put it in a different historical era, and still put enough content in it to make it stand out and not just be "GTA: Wild West". Red Dead Redemption stands alone in the street, waiting for any future game to try their luck and outgun it, which will be a tough and almost impossible endeavor, partner.
There was a time in video games where "twitch shooters" were king. These were fast-paced, heart-pounding, nausea-inducing games that required fast thinking and even faster mouse clicking. Some of these games were Quake and Serious Sam.
However, the series that always stood out to me was this one. A brutal bloodsport that packed some of the coolest weapons in gaming AND was an absolute blast to play.
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#8 - Unreal Tournament 2004 - First released March 16th, 2004 (PC, Mac, Linux)
The original Unreal Tournament was one of the first games I ever played on my PS2 and it hooked me in right away. I just must have been the right age and of the right mindset to enjoy a sci-fi, fast paced, action packed shooter with humans and aliens turing each other into tiny gibs (pronounced 'jibs' by the way, hard G on 'GIF" and 'J' sound on 'gibs', deal with it). Unreal Tournament 2004 was the expansion/replacement for 2003, actually replacing it on store shelves. The big things that 2004 added were the use of vehicles and the new Onslaught mode, where you had a HUGE map and had to control several power nodes between your base and the enemy base, once you controlled the nodes, you had to go into the enemy base and destroy their power core. This added a whole new layer to the series with large-scale vehicle warfare.
2004 featured the standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes, as well as several others, including my favorite: Bombing Run. A ball spawns in the middle of the map and your team has to take it to the opponent's hoop to score. 7 points if you are holding the ball while you jump through the hoop, and 3 for shooting it in, basically Grifball meets Football.
There was also Mutant mode, in which all players first spawn in with all weapons, with the first person to get a kill becoming the mutant, which grants them unlimited ammo, camouflage, increased rate of fire, and super speed. Of course the downside is that you constantly lose heath and can not acquire pick-ups. The person who killed the mutant became the next mutant.
The guns in the UT series are some of the best in gaming. While the Rocket Launcher is great, and the Lightning Gun can be super-effective (if not a little newb-ish), my favorite UT weapon will always be the Flak Cannon. The primary shot fires bits of shrapnel that you want to use at close quarters. These bits will bounce off walls and floors and whatnot, but that weakens them. If you use it like a shotgun, it can be VERY effective. The secondary fire launches a ball of shrapnel like a grenade launcher, exploding upon impact and can cause instant death. Very fun weapon to use.
Of course, some players swear by the lightning gun combo, shoot the secondary ball of lightning out, then hit it with primary-fire bolt of lightning, which causes a deadly shockwave. I always found the Bio-Rifle the hardest to use and least like my style of play. You shoot green acid which sticks to walls and players, causing damage over time, the secondary fire could be lethal, though, since you could charge up a massive ball of ooze that, if it contacts an enemy, is instant death.
That's the kind of craziness that I loved about the series and this game in particular; the fact that you could die at any moment, but you had the ability to kill anyone with one pull of the trigger, and then have your character taunt them with the old "You Suck", it was awesome!
The game also was very easy to mod, and of course the community went crazy with it, so you can find new maps, models, modes, etc. to keep the game fresh. The best part of all this? I was checking the servers just a couple days ago, and people are still playing this game. Of course you can go against bots, but the human element always made it more fun.
Let's show off the fast-paced action if you have never seen it before:
In case you didn't know already, UT was created by Epic Games, the same studio that produced Gears of War. So these guys know how to make damn good games.
The fact that people still play UT2004 online is a testament to how good it is and the fact that the twitch shooter can still exist today. Unreal Tournament 3 was released in 2007 and was fine, I actually enjoyed it a lot, but I keep coming back to 2004. I am, however, very excited for the new Unreal Tournament that's currently being worked on and will be absolutely free.
You all should already know that I am a superhero nerd, pretty much comes with the territory of being a "geek", and there have been plenty of video games based on comic creations, one of which I just recently mentioned at #10 on my list.
In the ongoing battle between Marvel and DC, it is obvious that Marvel is winning at the box office with movies like Guardians of the Galaxy (go see it, seriously) and with DC putting out movies like Green Lantern (ugh) and playing catch-up by putting so much into the new Batman v Superman movie. I will give DC this: their TV shows are excellent. Arrow is fantastic, The Flash and Gotham look equally as promising.
All that aside, both companies put forth great video games, and I think it's fitting that both companies have good enough games to each have a spot on my top 15 of all time. Believe me, this is not just me pandering to both sides, it's really because both Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and this game are both amazing games. So let's talk about the best DC game and #9 on my list of all time favorites.
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#9 - Batman: Arkham Asylum - First released August 25th, 2009 (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac)
Truth be told, the whole series can go here, and while I will touch on the later games later this post, let's just start where it all began.
Batman has always been a beloved character, which is a true testament considering Batman first started popping up in 1939. Through a cheesy (and yet awesome) 60's TV show, an amazing animated series, and mostly great movies (Batman & Robin never happened to me and I still think Forever is ok), Batman has usually avoided the real clunker (with the exception of Dark Tomorrow for the GameCube). Which means making a Batman game already garners high expectations.
Luckily, Rocksteady knew exactly where to begin, by making sure to get Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to reprise their roles as Batman and The Joker respectively. Right there, they had already hooked those of us who loved the animated series, I mean those are the voices we hear when we think of those characters, which immediately made us interested in this game. Throw on the fact that this game would be used with Unreal Engine 3, as in the same engine Gears of War (and several other) games used, and we knew the game was going to look great.
Batman arguably has the best who's who when it comes to villains, so why wouldn't you want to put as many as you can into a game? You really get the true scale of the type of situation you are getting yourself into when you walk The Joker through Arkham Asylum at the very beginning of the game. Batman has the feeling that something isn't right when Joker made it way too easy to capture him in the first place. During the long walk through the halls of Arkham, Joker treats it as a homecoming and you can feel that something has the inmates all stirred up (probably since Batman is the one that put them there in the first place). The two scenes that really stick out for me are: (1) The elevator scene when the power goes out, presumably because of something Joker planned, only to come back on with Batman holding Joker by the throat, "Don't you trust me?" (2) The appearance of Killer Croc, who is massive, promising to kill Batman, downright frightening.
Then you get into gameplay and the game opens with its best feature: the combat. This was the first to use the "free-form combat" system and you really felt like you were kicking ass as you jumped around from one enemy to another delivering fists and boots of justice to bad guys' faces. It's a really satisfying system, made even more so when the game cuts to slow motion as you deliver the final hit to the last enemy in the group, along with an accompanying bass thud. I think it was after that first fight I said to myself, "OK this is gonna be something special".
The deeper you get into the Asylum, the more characters/villains you meet, including an early (and rare in Batman games) appearance from Zsasz. You get to see Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Harley Quinn, and more, and you really get that lonely feeling, knowing you are on enemy turf and you aren't getting any backup. I will say my favorite Batman villain is The Riddler, so giving him the main collectible in the game (Hidden Riddler Trophies and in-game riddles to solve) made me very happy.
Also, worth noting, it's not just Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill who own the show, the voice acting is superb from top to bottom here, all the villains sound like they could snap at any time and start killing people. The Riddler especially sounds creepy with the overlaying static, really helps set the overall tone of the game throughout.
Then you get into one of my favorite collectibles of all time that incorporates the fantastic voice acting: the Audio Tapes depicting each villain's interaction with an Arkham psychiatrist. These are some of the more chilling and "Whoa" moments in the game as you delve into the psyche of these deranged characters. The most notable ones involve The Joker since he is being interviewed by Dr. Harleen Quinzel, and you get to hear how she lets herself fall for him. Gripping stuff here.
Then you get into the Riddler Challenge maps which are either stealth based or combat based and get a high score while donning your favorite costume from the comics to take part in the games best mechanics. Nothing is more frustrating than losing your combo in the middle of a fight, it's kind of like hitting a wall in a game like Mirror's Edge or Sonic the Hedgehog.
After the success of Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady created a series out of it with Arkham City, Arkham Origins, and the upcoming finale; Arkham Knight. City really upped the ante with more baddies, a bigger environment, and more challenge levels, while Origins did a really neat job at showing a younger Batman dealing with his first few mega villains like Black Mask.
The videos I have selected for this post encompass a couple of these games (like I said, the whole series is great) and I wanted to focus on the superb voice acting. Starting with Mark Hamill's portrayal of The Joker from Arkham Asylum:
Then later on, it became Troy Baker in Arkham Origins, since Mark Hamill retired from the role due to the strain on his voice, can't say I blame the guy.
That is Troy Baker, one of the busiest men in voice acting, performing a monologue from "The Killing Joke" at NY-Comic-Con 2013 while promoting Arkham Origins. Sends chills up your spine doesn't it?
Much like the most recent Batman trilogy being the best 3 Batman movies (hey I love Keaton/Nicholson, but c'mon), the Arkham series stands as the best Batman games ever, some of the best superhero games ever, and definitely belong in my top 10 favorite games of all time. Rocksteady set out to make a game where you could truly "Be the Bat" and they accomplished that and so much more.
