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Post by chibby on Mar 30, 2018 15:30:29 GMT -5
I understand why this was a big deal. For a lot of kids, Halo was their first taste of online FPS. It was online FPS made easy, good move for Microsoft. I've never cared for online gaming at all, so for me Halo was only as good as its offline single player campaign. Which in and of itself was rather bland. However Halo and its sequel both offered split-screen co-op in which to beat said campaigns. That's the approach myself and a long lost friend took. Even so, after having beaten both Halo and Halo 2, I'd only rate them both 7/10. I still need to get around to playing all the 360 entries. I have this vivid memory of playing the first one, and being on a mission to rescue other members of the UNSC and I totally fouled it up and got them all killed. I'm sure Halo wasn't the first game ever to do this, but when I got through killing the Covenant, there was this moment of quiet and Cortana came over the microphone saying something to the effect of "There's not even one left." and I don't know if it was because I didn't expect the game to actually pay attention to my actions or because the voice actor who plays Cortana did a good job but it really effected me at the time. I started to type out this long thing about my experiences playing through the almost the entire series ( Halo 2 through Halo 4 including the two spin offs) but I realized that the one I was most excited to talk about ( Halo 3: ODST) is still not HRG kosher. So, next year lol.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 30, 2018 17:53:26 GMT -5
Halo 1 was never online. This alongside some Unreal Tournament was the last hurrah of some mega LAN parties for me and such a blast. I lugged around the 500lb Xbox and my own CRT TV to so many places for this game and parties up to the max 16. I admittedly usually dominated too heh, had jokes about one friend who always conveniently tossed grenades as he died so he'd kill people, we gave him shit for having "pocket grenades". So many amazing memories on Blood Gulch, Hang Em' High, the weird two sided spaceship stage, and more. Then there's the co-op and amazing campaign, Marty's killer OST... the Xbox was the first system I bought with my own hard earned money solely for this game. Still one of my favorites. The enemy AI was extremely impressive at the time. Halo 2 was the first that had XBL and I never played online. Hated the dual wield gimmick and just about everything about Halo 2 compared to 1. Eventually got Halo CE on the PC. There was a few official Gearbox maps that were new and then the modding community was absolutely insane. Tons of great times with this one and playing online. As much as I love Duke3D, I don't really like Blood or Shadow Warrior. The hit scanners are beyond frustrating. I play Doom on UC, but these games on their easiest settings are freaking nightmares! Ex and I are pretty opposite on Half-Life 1. I played it when it was new and now, but I just don't think it's that fun anymore even compared to Jedi Knight, or Quake 2, Unreal, etc. The Tram level is one of the longest and most boring levels ever haha. Then there's the entirety of Xen that just freaking sucks, I have only beaten this game once and that's another reason why. I'm not sure what they were thinking with that final stretch. If I can ever punish Ex someday for a weekend, I'd force him to replay Half-Life 1 and 2 back to back.
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Post by Ex on Mar 30, 2018 20:13:36 GMT -5
If I can ever punish Ex someday for a weekend, I'd force him to replay Half-Life 1 and 2 back to back. I'd rather spend an hour in Xen then ten minutes on that stupid airboat.
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Post by anayo on Mar 30, 2018 22:01:13 GMT -5
That’s too bad. I really liked Doom II. I played it first around 1995. When I beat it again in 2015 I enjoyed it about as much as 20 years earlier. I started to get a little tired after getting a dozen or so stages into Final Doom, though. I agree. I meant to express that Duke’s presentation has aged better than Doom’s, but Doom’s gameplay and structure has aged better than Duke’s. So I think I prefer Doom today. It’s crazy how games could get away with outright plagiarism back then. If I had a dollar for every xenomorph/face hugger cameo… I couldn’t get into Hexen at all, and I tried so hard to enjoy the game. I think I put around 10 hours into it in 2008 or so. Navigating mazes and hunting down keys worked for me in Doom because the mazes were limited in size. I can’t track down keys across multiple stages with backtracking that just goes on and on and on. It’s too much. My only exposure to Quake II was the N64 version, which made a good first impression but ended on a rather disappointing note. Weirdly enough I prefer PC Quake in chunky, pixelated software more rather than open GL or glide mode or whatever it was. Maybe it's because I played it in software mode as a kid, or that the higher resolution and anti-aliasing just draw unflattering attention to the low detail of the game's assets. Don’t remind me. I probably wasted a full year of life on online play on the PC version of Halo, but the single player campaign didn’t do it for me. The covenant were fun to fight. They had personalities, intelligent tactics, and generally acted with a sense of self-preservation. The flood just march toward you like windup toys. It was weird cause all the XBOX owners I knew wouldn’t shut up about the introduction of the flood, yammering on like it was some kind of awe inspiring plot twist, but I thought they were so boring they made me gave up on single player Halo. Yeah I can appreciate how Half Life would have blown my mind if I had played it in 1998. I did end up beating it and enjoying it, I was just kinda late to the party.
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Post by Xeogred on Mar 30, 2018 22:27:15 GMT -5
The issue with Duke3D/Blood/Shadow Warrior is that they go for a bit of a faux realistic approach in level design, ie here's a gas station or Burger joint for a level, here's some sheriff debuty's office where there's an ambiguously hidden red button under his desk that might take you 30 minutes to find... this is why I hated Shadow Warrior, lol. With the exception of The Abyss which I think sucks, Duke3D's levels are still generally pretty intuitive and cool. But Shadow Warrior just seemed super sloppy in comparison, I kept banging my head against the wall not knowing how to progress through most of the levels I played at some point. I never play Doom with mouse look or jumping, source port wise I've always loved ZDoom and GZDoom today. This was the first game I loaded up after getting my new monitor this year. It looks incredible. Getting that yearly itch to play more since it's immortal. Final Doom isn't amazing, but I've beaten both TNT and Plutonia a few times over and it's impressive how hard Plutonia is for official vanilla Doom releases... though I'd argue mostly because they abused chaingunners. Doom is humorously kind of like a shmup in ways, with crowd control, infighting, splash damage, and utilizing certain weapons for specific situations, this has all become muscle memory to me and it's so damn fun. The Build Engine games feel totally different with them being closer to Quake 1, where there's less enemies to deal with on screen but any single enemy can be a threat and needs to be annihilated immediately. I think one being harder than the other is up to the player, but yeah it's really neat how different they are if you really break them down. Wolfenstein 3D, Heretic, and Hexen I can't get into at all. Just makes me want to play more Doom. Growing up, I played Quake II on the PSX myself. Both the PSX and N64 version are pretty interesting in retrospect, but I'll probably never touch them again after playing the PC version a few years back... man it holds up perfectly. Although it only has one aesthetic with its gray tint and mechanical levels, Quake 1 on the other hand has more variety with the areas which is cool. Both are still really amazing, it's insane.
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Post by anayo on Apr 2, 2018 16:07:04 GMT -5
Sega Genesis
Around holiday season 1995 my Dad took me to a nearby electronics store where I played Bug! on Sega Saturn. Later I asked Dad if I could get a Sega Saturn for Christmas. He got a conflicted look on his face and said, "Santa will bring you a Sega. It might not be a Sega Saturn, but it will be a Sega." So I got a Sega Genesis instead. This proved to be a blessing in disguise since the Saturn had a dark future ahead of it, whereas Genesis games were cheap, plentiful, and high quality. To this day I get excited when I hear twangy FM synth and muffled speech samples. I also really dig the themes in games from that time period: swords and sorcery, ninjas, dinosaurs, platformers starring anthropomorphic animals, muscular dudes roaming the streets and beating up criminals. Sega Genesis is as much about the old 16-bit look and sound as it is a window into what gamers of the 90's thought was cool. It's my #1 all time favorite gaming console today.
Sonic 3 & Knuckles - I got this for Christmas of 1995 and played it so many times I lost count. It’s my personal ultimate Sega Genesis game. The soundtrack is fire. The graphics are gorgeous, full of color, sprites that look like illustrations, and ambitious 3D special effects. This game is really special to me.
Streets of Rage 2 - I didn’t get into this until 2003 or so. The repetitiveness inherent to the beat em up genre turns this into a slog by the 2/3 mark, but this is still what I use to proselytize non-retro gamers. The colors are so attractive. The music gets my blood pumping. Something about punching goons in the face just makes people want to pick up a controller and play.
Castlevania Bloodlines - I played this first in 2015. While this game’s visuals are way above average, the sprite work and animation aren’t exactly the best the Genesis has to offer. That would probably be something like Comix Zone or Alien Soldier. However, neither of those games will ever hold my interest as long as Castlevania Bloodlines. I just can’t get enough of this game. The setting, soundtrack, and enemies all reinforce the theme of charging into a creepy haunted castle to defeat evil. It’s really difficult, but in a way that I know my death was my fault, inspiring me to keep trying. When I think of Konami at their finest, I think of games like this.
Lightening Force - I didn’t play this one to completion until 2018. This feels like an arcade game in my house. I know it sounds really quaint to say that nowadays, but everything about this is so above and beyond what I’d expect from a 1992 console game. The sound track makes the Yamaha YM2612 sing. The graphics look like illustrations and each stage is a breathtaking set piece.
Gunstar Heroes - I got into this around 2003, like Streets of Rage 2. My first copy was a dirt caked cartridge with a torn label found at a flea market. It has spectacular graphics, a goofy sense of humor, incredible variety, and bombastic music. Its only shortcoming is that it’s kinda easy. But that makes it more approachable, so more people can enjoy it.
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Post by anayo on Apr 3, 2018 21:24:49 GMT -5
I would argue that Quake II had an even greater impact on PC gamers opting for 3D acceleration cards in their rigs. But I buy the stance that original Quake pushed Intel's floating point processors to the forefront. Quake ran amazingly well in software mode if your CPU could handle it. That video wasn't actually LGR, it was The Nostalgia Nerd:
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Post by Xeogred on Oct 15, 2018 21:23:14 GMT -5
Was going through some of toei 's articles on HCG101 and got curious about this thread again... do you not do top 5's toei? Maybe some other newer members have some interesting new choices.
(am I giving out homework?)
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Post by toei on Oct 16, 2018 5:21:20 GMT -5
I didn't post any before because I found it too hard to decide. I'm posting some for the sake of participating, but with a few caveats:
1. I'm only listing games I've actually finished. That leaves out a ton of games I like, but it's easier that way.
2. I rarely replay games anymore, so these are mostly based on the experience I had at the time. I almost only included games I finished as an adult, though, otherwise the memories would be too vague.
3. For some consoles, I made separate lists for RPGs and Action games. I find it nearly impossible to compare the two, and besides, I don't want to bury the lists with RPGs.
4. I skipped all the systems for which there aren't 5 games I've finished that I like enough.
Arcade: Punisher, The Vendetta Metamorphic Force Space Harrier Rolling Thunder
(I only picked games that have no console port, or no decent one.)
NES (RPG): Dragon Warrior IV Final Fantasy III Glory of Heracles II Dark Lord Just Breed
(These are the only 5 RPGs I really like on the system.)
Genesis (RPG): Phantasy Star IV Beyond Oasis Landstalker Shadowrun King Colossus
Genesis (Action/Other): Streets of Rage* ToeJam & Earl (but only in 2-player) Uncharted Waters (although I would never replay this, it took over an entire summer and made me care about geography and history for a while. Even after I finished it, I played until my character died of old age.) Mystic Defender Elemental Master
(The choice was really hard to make, but I decided to go with variety, hence 5 games of 5 different genres. Otherwise there might have been more side-scrollers. I've chosen the first SoR to represent the series because I've played SoR2 too much in my life, and I like that it's harder nowadays.)
SNES (RPG): Chrono Trigger Dragon Quest VI Earthbound Breath of Fire II Final Fantasy VI
(If this were a top 6, Lufia 2 would have been number 6. I could have easily listed 15-20.)
SNES (Action/Other): Famicom Detective Club 2 Shin Nekketsu Kouha - Kunio-tachi no Banka Combatribes, The TMNT IV: Turtles in Time Sunset Riders
N64: lol
(hahaha no way)
GB/GBC: Dragon Warrior Monsters II Legend of Zelda, The: Oracle of Ages Legend of Zelda, The: Link's Awakening DX Gargoyle's Quest For the Frog the Bell Tolls (maybe)
GBA: Mother 3 Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Castlevania: Circle of the Moon Double Dragon Advance Tactics Ogre Gaiden: Knight of Lodis
Saturn (RPG): Magic Knight Rayearth Albert Odyssey Legend of Oasis Shining Force 3: Scenario I or III Blazing Heroes aka Mystara: Realms of the Lore
Saturn (Action): Virtua Fighter 2 Die Hard Arcade Fighters Megamix The Last Bronx Hissatsu!
PCE CD: Exile Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes Xak III: Eternal Recurrence Ys IV: Dawn of Ys Double Dragon 2
PSX (RPG): Alundra Xenogears Vagrant Story Breath of Fire III Suikoden
PSX (Action/other): Tobal 2 Silent Hill Bushido Blade 2 Resident Evil 2 Hokuto no Ken: Seiki Matsukyu Seishi Densetsu
PS2: Silent Hill 2 Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits Growlanser III Dragon Quest VIII Yakuza or Yakuza 2
Non-represented Systems: Growlanser IV (PSP) Virtua Fighter 3: TB (Dreamcast) Snatcher (Sega CD) Legendary Axe, The (TG16) Dynamite Cop (Dreamcast)
This post is so long. Sorry.
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Post by Sarge on Oct 16, 2018 10:51:31 GMT -5
Lots of great games in that list. Also, awesome to see some love for Growlanser and Arc the Lad: TotS.
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