Monday, March 19, 2007

Best video games

I've played only one computer game worth playing: Baldur's Gate II. An actual plot, complex enough to be interesting, and real characters. Baldur's Gate I was okay, the expansions weren't too great. Baldur's Gate II, however, is awesome. Classic fantasy, but not hack-and-slash. The world felt real. The characters were real. The plot was interesting and exciting.
Any suggestions, and I'll look into them.

Over-rated games: Just about anything that's popular. Warcraft/Starcraft come to mind. Very addictive, but not all that great. Diablo II is even worse--it's not even addictive. Just boring. Hack-and-slash gets old real fast. At least Warcraft involves a lot of strategy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

You may not agree with me, Tim, but my all-time favorites are as follows:

Civilizations 4: A strategy game, supremely addicting (I keep it at my parent's place for special occasions).

Master of Orion II: Along the same vein as Civilizations—researching, manufacturing, war-mongering—but in space. Quicksilver should have stayed closer to the original two games in developing MOO3.

The Myst Games (especially Riven (2) and Revelations (4)): Cliche, perhaps, but I like a quality puzzle game, and the foundational concept of the Myst universe (writing books through which you can link to other worlds) resonates really well with me.

Shivers: Another puzzle game, a la Myst, only in this case you're exploring Professor Windlenut's Museum of the Strange and Unusual. It is a deliciously spooky setting, and I love the fact that while the game focuses on puzzle-solving, you still can get injured or killed by wandering elemental spirits that haunt the museum.

X-Com: UFO Defense and X-Com: Terror from the Deep: In my opinion TFTD is The Great Strategy Game, and the original is just a hair behind. This series is another case where game developers should have stuck closer to the original formula in the third game. Even now I love thinking back on my X-Com missions—it's something akin to remembering old GURPS campaigns and characters.

Other games I've enjoyed to varying degrees and for various reasons: The Journeyman Project III, The Pandora Directive, Sim City 4, The Sims 2, Titanic: Adventure Out of Time. I should give Baldur's Gate II a try sometime ...

caron said...

So I don't have anything to say about video games since the last contact I had with a controller was for Mario cart about 6 years ago. but I just fixed my link to your blog, Tim, and so now I can check in again! Hooray! Checking out blogs is my favorite thing to do during lunch at work. I'm kind of a geek that way. :)
Cute picture of you and April, by the way.

Unknown said...

Star Control 2