Pick 5

[Neo]

I took this idea from gamespot.

You can only take 5 games with you, wherever you're going. These games will have to last you a lifetime. Which do you choose and why?

1) The Sims 2

I've easily logged more hours with the Sims franchise than any other series, though I bet Dragon Quest comes close. I still play the sims and write stories associated with their activities. I swear I will one day finish season 2 of "Unnatural Selection". My latest show has been suffering production delays due to unavoidable real-life activities. The Sims is a game which never gets old. It's scope is limited only by your imagination.

2) Elder Scrolls IV

Haven't played this one yet, but if it's anything like Elder Scrolls III then it could quite possibly keep you busy for a lifetime.

3) Columns

I'm talking the original Game Gear version. Could be the most entertaining puzzle game I've ever played.

4) Warcraft III

No explanation needed.

5) Super Mario World

Can't complete a list w/o a mario game. Have to remember where you came from.

[DarkMaster]

Yeah, if I made a list it'd be very similar to yours I think. Games like the Sims, Warcraft, and Elder Scrolls are titles that you always come back to; you can never really finish them, so those would definitely be good choices if you planned on playing only those for the rest of your life.

[Typhoid]

1. (Whichever the newest EA NHL game is) So at this point, NHL 2006.
-Because I love EA hockey games. I can usually play them for hours when I'm really into it.
2. Battlefield 2
-I've never played it. But I assume it would be much better than Battlefield 1942.
3. Zelda: Ocarana of Time
- I just love this game. It's the only Zelda game I've really gotten into, other than the NES versions, excluding "Link".
4. Final Fantasy 7
-My favourite Final Fantasy game ever. The first one I ever played, the first one I ever beat. I've beaten it about 10 times, now.
5. The Sims + All expansions
-Because I love it. Much like all my other explanations. I dont like The Sims 2 as much as I like this one, and I dont know why.

[Neo]

5. The Sims + All expansions
-Because I love it. Much like all my other explanations. I dont like The Sims 2 as much as I like this one, and I dont know why.

Funny you should mention that. I kinda feel that way too. I think the original has a kind of goofy simplistic charm that the new one may be lacking. I'm actually going back to play the original when I write a reunion movie for my first series "Nothing Sacred."

[KillerGremlin]

1. Half-Life (original)
-Man...what a game. The single player was enticing, and talk about some of the best multiplayer support ever. Day Of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, Counter-Strike, Natural Selection...yummy

2. Rollercoaster Tycoon
-I never really got into the Sims like I did Rollercoaster Tycoon. Loopy Landscape was one of those rare expansions that made the game twice as much fun. Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 kind of sucked, and Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 doesn't have the right feel to it...plus it's choppy as hell at times. I've clocked hundreds of hours customizing my parks and building custom rollercoasters.

3. Warcraft III
-Gonna have to agree with Neo on this one. What a game. Blizzard has a knack for crafting, in my opinion, the best RTS games.

4. Rayman 2: The Great Escape
-Prior to this game, I felt that Banjo-Kazooie held the crown for best 3D adventure game. Rayman 2 isn't a huge game, but it has awesome graphics, great characters, and gameplay that never gets old or boring.

5. Solitaire
-The other other game. I play lots of Solitaire, especially when I'm doing things in Windows like chatting on AIM, burning CDs, or watching TV. There's no learning curve and the game never gets old. Classic way to spend a few minutes.

[DarkMaster]

Now that I've Warcraft on the mind, I'm reminded of how a large majority of Warcraft fans proclaim part III to be significantly inferior to the first two games. I've only ever played Warcraft III, so I'm just wondering if anyone could shed some truth/untruth on this matter.

[Neo]

I think the basic complaint is that there is less strategy involved. There are certain strategies which seem to always work and if you get behind it's impossible to win no matter how clever you are.

[KillerGremlin]

Warcraft 2, for it's time, was a pretty big step for the RTS genre. I played a lot of Warcraft 2, I thought it was a pretty sweet game.

But then there was Starcraft...
And, honestly, I can't see how people didn't convert from Warcraft to Starcraft.

Warcraft/WC2 might be credited more, in terms of gameplay it took more steps for the RTS genre. Starcraft and Warcraft 3 offer some new features, but they are mostly just super-refined, near-perfect, games.

Warcraft 3 has that RPG element to it, and it's kind of focused on micro management. I think a lot of it is just preference though. For instance, I've always preferred Warcraft and Starcraft to Command & Conquer. And even within that series, Starcraft was always my game of choice. Warcraft 2 is a lot of fun though. You get some pretty big sea battles going, and there are some cool units/spells. Warcraft 3 is so much prettier and has more stuff though.

And then there was Age of Empires...which I've always considered a sim-strategy game.

But yeah, I think it's just an individual preference thing.


Edit: Who needs strategy. :p

[Blackmane]

1. Tetris - Face it, you can never be done with tetris, and its so addicting

2. Warcraft 3 - I can agree with everyone here

3. Guild Wars - Already clocked in hundreds of hours to that game, and I'm still loving it. There is a lot to do and the developers really try to keep the game fresh and challenging for everyone. Its great.

4. Half Life 2 - I love that game, it is so immersive, and it comes with Counter Strike, so you can't beat that!

5. Zelda OoT - So good, so fun. Even after some new games come out, I still think longingly of that very first moment in 3D Hyrule.

[Dyne]

Hmm, probably:

1. Chrono Trigger - I never get tired of playing this one. And 12 endings? Sign me up.

2. Jet Set Radio Future - I know it's not as good as Jet Grind Radio, but there's a lot more to do.

3. Tetris DS. Man there's a lot to do in that game.

4. Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Maybe I'll figure it out one of these days. That, and I can make unlimited maps.

5. Skies of Arcadia. Because everyone loves pirates.

[Neo]

Crap I forgot about Skies of Arcadia....

I might have to make a substitution.

[DarkMaster]

Skies of Arcadia, as long as it's the GameCube version. The random battles in the Dream Cast game made me go insane, and that was back when I was younger and had a lot more tolerance for video games.

[Typhoid]

****, I forgot about jsrf.
I'd take jsrf instead of Battlefield 2, easily. Any day.

[Ginkasa]

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Are you retarded? Its the goshdarn Ocarina of Time!

2. The Legend of Zelda: Marjora's Mask
- I can switch between the two.

3. Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
- Its a fun game.

4. Star Wars - Kinghts of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
- Its a sequel to a fun game. And its fun, too.

5. Eternal Darkness
- Just because I always eventually want to play it again. Always.


/me shrugs and walks away

[Stonecutter]

*Exhale*

Oh man.

Ok (we've got a broadband connetion, right)

1) War Craft 3 + Frozen Throne. Every 6 months or so I go back to this and play Footies and an assload of TDs and I play nonstop for like 3 months. Can't go wrong with that.

2) Tecmo Super Bowl, the NES version. When NFL 2kX (99% of the gaming community can pretend I said Madden XX) came out, I played the hell out of it for a few months, if I were to put it in now, I couldn't stand it for more than 30 seconds. I can STILL play TSB for months on end, in fact, I think I'm going to fire it up soon as I finish this post.

3) Rise of Nations + Thrones and Patriots. I never thought any game would ever supplant Age of Empires 2, but I think RoN:T&P did. I've only had it for a few months so I hesitate to put it here, but....

4) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The best Zelda game, and rot in hell if you think otherwise. I've probably beat this game over a dozen times, and I still really enjoy a majority of the dungeons to almost the same extent that I did the first time around.

5) Mario Golf. GC or N64? I'm so torn. I think I'd have to go with the GC version because of the added depth, even though I don't particularly care for the swing mechanics as much (hypocritical of me in that the main difference is that GC's swing mechanics are more involved.)

Game's I'd strongly consider:

Metroid Prime: Only beat it once, and I'd really like to do it again, but will I enjoy it the 15th time through?

Panzer Dragoon Orta: I think it's been about 18 months since I've begged the board to buy this game, but I'm not sure I wouldn't eventually tire of it in much the same way I might tire of Metroid Prime.

Ace Combat Anything: I enjoy too many specific parts of the indivdual games to take just one, and I can't justify taking more than one.

Civ #: Civ 2 was so good, but later games did so many things that I wish it was able to do, so it loses a lot of it's charm. Civ 3 really sucked. I haven't played Civ 4, but I hear good things, maybe that could make the list one day.

Secret of Mana: Haven't played it in about 5 years, I fear if I fire it up it won't be anywhere as good as I remember it.

[Perfect Stu]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
Hot Shots Golf 4 (PS2)
Madden NFL 2006 (2007?) (PS2)
Baseball Stars (NES)
Goldeneye 007 (N64)

[BlueFire]

1)Pokemon Silver
**** you, that game is so much fun. And it's portable. What else could you ask for?

2) Silent Hill 2
Always a good story, great art, blah blah.

3) Super Smash Bros. Melee
Hey, I know I'm going to be around people, so why not this game? It's one of the best party games. Ever.

4) Zelda: OoT
It's still the best game of all time.

5) Chrono Cross
It proves to be the only RPG I can play over and over. Chrono Trigger was an amazing game and this game did justice.

[Neo]

5) Chrono Cross


I'd probably be happy with the soundtrack.

[BlueFire]

I'd probably be happy with the soundtrack.
Yeah, it has a great soundtrack, but it's also a great game, despite the crazy fans of Chrono Trigger who were expecting Crono to go on another time-traveling adventure to find his mom and cat.

[Dyne]

Damn, I forgot about Pokemon. I wouldn't choose Silver personally. Maybe I'd pick Emerald, because I haven't played it, and it's apparently the best you can get now.

[BlueFire]

Damn, I forgot about Pokemon. I wouldn't choose Silver personally. Maybe I'd pick Emerald, because I haven't played it, and it's apparently the best you can get now.
I chose Silver because it was the last Pokemon game I played. It was also the longer and the more fun of the two Pokemon games I played (Blue and Silver..). It just got old and repetitive afterwards.

[GameMaster]

1. WarCarft 3: Frozen Throne
- I play this game every. single. night. 4 vs. 4. I'll never tire of it. I'm surprised so many other people have listed it. We should really set some kind of match up.

2. Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine
- A diamond in the Genesis puzzle rough. Very fun. Very addicting. Have it as a ROM on my computer and also bought Sonic Mega collection because it's included on there. Part of my ever missed childhood.

3. Pokémon Yellow or G/S.
- Fun to make teams, raise Pokémon, battle, etc. No one can deny the Pokémon legacy.

4. Super Smash Bros. Melee
- My friends and I have clocked tons of thousands of hours into this game. Even the original was great. Go Mewtwo!

5. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
- Another piece of childhood. The debug code adds replay value. Couldn't really think of another game.

[fingersman]

1. Star Craft: Brood War

2. Super Mario Bros 3 ( best Mario ever atleast IMO)

3. Chrono Trigger ( one of the best rpg's of all times it never ends and you have different endings, great storyline what more do you want?)

4. LOZ. OT ( It's one of those games you can play over again and again, although I wish it would run at 60fps instead of 30fps)

5. The last one I would have to give to either Ninja Gaiden 3 on the nes, wrath of the black mantis or Bionic Commando.


Well that's my list.

[KillerGremlin]

Doesn't the gamecube version of Ocarina run at 60fps?

[Neo]

I run at 60fps.

[Dyne]

Doesn't the gamecube version of Ocarina run at 60fps?

I think it only has the higher resolution.

[Jason1]

1

4. LOZ. OT ( It's one of those games you can play over again and again, although I wish it would run at 60fps instead of 30fps)




Id be suprised if OOT ran anywhere near 30 FPS...And dont even get me started on Majoras Mask. That being said, OOT is still the greatest game ever made. And no, the Gamecube version dosent run any smoother. Its not even a higher resolution, actually. It is simply progressive scan enabled and that is all.

[Dyne]

And no, the Gamecube version dosent run any smoother. Its not even a higher resolution, actually. It is simply progressive scan enabled and that is all.

Source, please.

GAF reads,

Now, the good news. While nothing graphically has been changed in Ocarina of Time, the game seems to take advantage of the GameCube's higher resolution. Some fogging also seems to have been removed, so it's a bit easier on the eyes. Certainly the differences will be made clear once you pop the original cart into your N64 and look at it for 5 minutes.

I've visually compared the two myself. There is an improvement.

[KillerGremlin]

From IGN:

The Port
Now for the bad... As great as the two Zelda adventures on this disk are, the port to GameCube is rather lackluster when you think about what could have been. The graphics engine has been upgraded to run in 640x480 high resolution (which gets rid of the overly muddy look the N64 original displays when running on modern big-screen TVs) and it even supports 480p progressive scan mode for HD and DTVs, but other than that the visuals are unchanged. The biggest disappointment lies in the framerate department. The game appears to run at a framerate in the mid-20s, just like the original. It's steady -- some of the slowdown that happened in OoT's Water Temple is gone -- but given the low-poly characters and environments, a more able developer would have been able to get the game to run at a smooth 60 frames per second. On the audio side, the game presents itself in the same Pro-Logic (1) surround sound as the original. The music sounds dated by today's standards, but the great environmental sound and sound effects still manage to impress. Just stand still in the fields and listen to how much you can hear -- even when nothing is happening in the game.

So, no improvement in framerate, my bad, don't know where I got that from.

The increased resolution does make it look a bit crisper though.