Wingless' Top 10 Games [Updated]

[Wingless]

Wingless’ Top 10 Games

 

#10 – Mirror’s Edge: PC, Xbox 360, PS3

Gameplay Sample

 

Mirror’s Edge comes 10th on the list. Mirror’s Edge takes the role of Faith Connors, a runner who delivers information that the government doesn’t want others to know in a city similar to a big brother state.

 

The thing that puts ME on the list is its gameplay. The graphics are stunning, the music is superb, but really the story and the gameplay are flawless. The free running cannot get better and the story, although short, is fantastic. The only thing that could make Mirror’s Edge better is either online play or a free run (non-linear free-roam) mode.

 

#9 – Soul Calibur IV: Xbox 360, PS3

 

Oh, the amount of hours I’ve spent on this game. It’s just me, I love the character creation and its detail… I love making characters on this game and then fighting against each other, like some sort of roleplay battle sort of thing. It’s this single element – not the story, not the online, that puts this game 9th on the list. Not a great reason, I know, but I love it <3

 

#8 – Left 4 Dead: PC, Xbox 360

Gameplay Sample

 

Left 4 Dead 1. Not Left 4 Dead 2. Do not make that mistake, or I’ll be forced to rip your eyes out. L4D2 is utter [cabbage] compared to L4D1.

 

L4D1 is a zombie-apocalypse horror survival game, set in Pennsylvania, and follows 4 survivors – Bill, Louis, Francis and Zoey as they try to escape the apocalypse.

 

There’s a certain element in this game that actually scares me, unlike L4D2, and the fact that the game is completely set at night too (UNLIKE L4D2) adds an atmosphere. The characters, too, are very like-like and people can certainly compare themselves to them.

 

The gameplay too is fantastic, especially online Versus, where it’s Infected VS Survivors – that was always great with 3 other friends. I highly recommend that a group of 4 friends should buy and play this game. It’s very addicting and enjoyable.

 

#7 - Portal: PC, Xbox 360

Gameplay Sample

Music Sample

 

Portal. Yes, I’m sure you knew it was coming.

 

Portal is a mind-bending, brain melting single player game that, although only has 19 levels and has taken me a personal record time of 30 minutes to complete, yet I still love it.

 

The gameplay and detail in this game is amazing. You, Chell, are stuck in Aperture Laboratories which is seemingly deserted, salve GLaDOS (the AI that helps you through the game), turrets and the lovable Companion Cube.

 

Really, what makes me love this game the most is the clever GLaDOS, an omnipotent AI who has killed all of the previous workers of Aperture Science before her Morality Core was installed. The fact that she was voiced by Ellen McLain, too, makes her even greater.

 

#6 – Team Fortress 2: PC, Xbox 360

Gameplay Sample

 

What can I say? I like Valve games.

 

Team Fortress is a multiplayer online game that sets standards and raises the bar. Something about that game is just addicting. I don’t know what really puts it fifth, but I can’t stop playing it… it’s a brilliant game. Let the gameplay sample do the talking because I can’t!

 

#5 – Halo: Reach: Xbox 360

Music Sample

 

Halo had to be here somewhere, and what other Halo game to put other than the latest installment: Reach.

 

I’m sure that most people reading this list have either played, or at least heard of, a Halo game. Although sometimes its engine is usually referred to as dying (or dead in some cases, i.e. ODST), I always look past that. The true thing that brings Halo Reach to 4th place is its amazing story. I don’t want to spoil it either, for people who’ve not got the chance to play it, but I admit it is probably one of the most breathtaking yet depressing games I’ve ever played.

 

The multiplayer too, is rather enjoyable. For some reason, I’ve never compared it to CoD, as I’ve always seen Halo online to be totally different – one that I actually enjoy. Maybe it’s because certain games are seemingly unbalanced cough*MW2*cough, but I’ve always liked Halo’s online.

 

But I can’t finish off this without mentioning Forge. Without Forge, I have to admit, Reach would be nothing to me (after the campaign and achievements of course!). Since Halo 3, I’ve been addicted to Forge, and the Forge in Reach is just superb. They’ve really listened to fans and made it delightfully easy to construct maps – for example, it took me two days to build a clunky, not fully working map on Sandbox in Halo 3, but it took me roughly 2 and a half hours to construct an entirely balanced, fully-working, pretty cool map with Reach’s forge.

 

#4 – Half-Life Series: PC, Xbox 360

 

Half Life... just wow. I have to say, if I wasn't so highly addicted to the Top 3 games, then this game would probably be #1.

 

Half Life follows the story of Gordon Freeman, a highly-intelligent scientist who works in Black Mesa. However, an incident occurs in which foreign species from Xen appear and siege Earth. I'm not going into details cause I don't want to spoil the story, but lets just say there's alot of Alien blood and a Crowbar.

 

Half Life 2 follows Gordon again, but this time to overthrow the dictatorship of Wallace Breen, who has enslaved the citizens of the Earth using force - known as the combine. It is a brilliant, intricate story, and the game is even better.

 

For some reason, I can't explain why I love this game so much, but it is utterly fantastic. The graphics are breathtakingly excellent, the audio is brilliant, and the story and actually gameplay is... beyond words. This game... is just immense.

 

I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend this to ANYONE. This series is just... superb.

 

#3 – RuneScape: PC

 

Let’s face it, without RuneScape I probably wouldn’t be here posting this. I’ve not really much to say about it either. Something that Jagex has put in RuneScape keeps calling me back, whether it’s the quests, the skills, or even the small things like the scenery and areas to be found, I can never seem to put RuneScape down for longer than a few days.

 

#2 – Yume Nikki: PC

 

Yume Nikki comes second out of the ten. What on Earth is Yume Nikki you’re probably asking? Well, Yume Nikki (lit. Dream Diary) is the story of Madotsuki – a very young girl (‘Tropists’ say that she is most likely aged from 9-14) who is a Hikikomori. The entire game takes place within her apartment – a bed, a TV (receiving no signal, I must add), a desk and a barely decorated balcony.

 

Now let me take a guess at what you’re probably thinking – how on Earth is there a story with less than 6 objects in a 9-14 year old girl’s house? Well… it doesn’t take place in her house. It takes place within her bed, or more correctly – her dreams. That’s right, after falling asleep (which takes a mere 3 seconds), you enter Madotsuki’s dreams – one of the most horrifyingly brilliant experiences I have ever had.

 

The dream world starts in her apartment, but after you leave the door you enter ‘The Nexus’ – a chamber of 13 doors which lead to different parts of her subconscious. Each door represents something, and to this date – 5 years after it has been released, we still don’t know what the true meanings of them are. Within each segment of her mind is a vast area that differs ENTIRELY for each door. Within those areas, are more HUGE areas, and within those areas are more HUGE areas and so on. It is an absolutely expansive game, parts of which have yet to be explored to this date!

 

Each area has so many cryptic items, scenery (etc) that make up the experience of the game, and those have lead to many players coming up with long theories about all of them, all of which are horrifying in their own way – which none of them I shall spoil, as they can be an utter shock to read.

 

If you’re looking to play a very terrifying, ambient horror-ish game (and don’t care that its only simple NES-style graphics), then I with utmost pleasure recommend Yume Nikki to you (there is an English download floating on it the internet somewhere – it IS legal as the game is free). It is the greatest games I have ever played, regardless of its nature… just watch out for Uboa.

 

#1 – Xenosaga III - Also Sprach Zarathustra: PS2

Music Sample 1

 

That’s right. The big winner, in my opinion, is none other than the Japanese epic – Xenosaga III. Xenosaga III is the awesome finale to the trilogy of Xenosaga – the story of KOS-MOS, an android created by Shion Uzuki and her team, and their quest to, well – as the slogan goes: Discover the past to save the future.

 

Xenosaga III, for the time it was created (2006) and the platform it was released on (PS2) was both superb and stunning. The graphics rival many of today’s games, the storyline is possibly the greatest, most immersive intricate piece of work that sends shivers down my spine to this day – regardless of me knowing what would happen next in the story. The voice acting, too, is simply amazing – as many others have also said, it is almost like the character is real and is feeling emotions right in front of you. Then there’s the absolutely breathtakingly beautiful soundtrack, by Yuki Kajiura, which holds some of the greatest OST tracks I’ve ever heard.

 

For the most of the Xenosaga trilogy, it is heavily unsung. Not so popular in Japan, even less unpopular in America, and almost unheard of in the EU (only Xenosaga II was released here because of its unpopularity) makes the stunning amount of effort put into Xenosaga go to waste. I personally would choose this absolutely fantastic piece of work anywhere and would probably choose it over friends and food.

 

[it's also where my name, Requiem, originated from! ^3^]

 

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So that's about it! Thanks for reading ^3^

[Demoli]

Xenosaga, such a great series :thumbup:

[Danqazmlp]

Not played the last two, but I definitely agree on a majority of the others. You have a liking for Valve games I can see.

[Racheya]

Yeah he's a total Valve nerd :P

 

I honestly thought Portal would be higher, too :P

[Wingless]

Nihiii, well of course I'm a total Valve nerd :^_^:

 

And as much as I love Portal, it doesn't compared to the 5 above it. Maybe Halo: Reach is more or less a phase at the moment, but the top 3 are cemented in their place no matter what.

[Nadril]

Mirrors Edge :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

I really wish they'd make a second one. If they hammered out a few of the issues the first had it could be such a good game. Also the music in that game was great.

[nine naked men]

Seconding the Mirror's Edge sequel being necessary. I didn't really find that much wrong with it, just the combat was meh and the levels got progressively worse as the game went on. Seriously, whose idea was it to set a few levels of a free-running game inside a ship?

 

>_>

 

I like this list. :3

[Wingless]

I totally agree, Mirror's Edge needs a sequel, and I'm watching every years E3 in the hopes for an announcement. ME did have quite a few problems, but I still enjoyed it. A free-run mode would probably have moved it up to like 5-6th place.

 

I'm pretty interested to see if there are any Yume Nikki players here? D:

[Pepsiguy]

l4d ftw

[Wingless]

Ahhh! No! I forgot to put Half-Life down...

Well, I can safely say:

 

Remove Swimming Under Clouds, push everything above RuneScape down a rank then put Half-Life 4th on the list. That's my proper top 10 games.

 

Edit: Changed OP to reflect this.

[Danqazmlp]

Ahhh! No! I forgot to put Half-Life down...

Well, I can safely say:

 

Remove Swimming Under Clouds, push everything above RuneScape down a rank then put Half-Life 4th on the list. That's my proper top 10 games.

 

 

I did the same in my list. The day after I thought of 4 more games to add.

[Wingless]

Hehe, glad I'm not the only one then >_<

 

But I have to admit, putting Swimming Under Clouds - a game I tried once, in the list then forgetting Half Life is unforgivable :cry:

[Jernlov]

Yume Nikki is amazing.

[Wingless]

Yay! Someone else plays it! ^3^

 

I thought you would play it, actually :P

[Orpheus]

I beg to differ on L4D1. You're saying a game that added more options, actual melee weapons, more variety in enemies, entirely new campaigns, fixed quite a few bugs, and even allowed you to play older ones, is in fact worse than the first one? YMMV on the characters though.

 

Otherwise, interesting list.

[Zierro]

I beg to differ on L4D1. You're saying a game that added more options, actual melee weapons, more variety in enemies, entirely new campaigns, fixed quite a few bugs, and even allowed you to play older ones, is in fact worse than the first one?

 

Definitely. Simplicity can be a good thing. Also, I agree with Wing that the first one had a more appealing "feel" or "atmosphere". The levels were much better too. That's not to say I don't think L4D2 has any better qualities. I did like the additional special infected and weapons. Overall, I'd rather play the first one.

[Orpheus]

I beg to differ on L4D1. You're saying a game that added more options, actual melee weapons, more variety in enemies, entirely new campaigns, fixed quite a few bugs, and even allowed you to play older ones, is in fact worse than the first one?

 

Definitely. Simplicity can be a good thing. Also, I agree with Wing that the first one had a more appealing "feel" or "atmosphere". The levels were much better too. That's not to say I don't think L4D2 has any better qualities. I did like the additional special infected and weapons. Overall, I'd rather play the first one.

 

Yeah, hence me usually tagging my opinions with YMMV.

[Saradomin_Mage]

Reading that thing about Yume Nikki fills me with this urge to play it, but I'm not sure I'm the kind of person with the stomach to handle that kind of thing.

[Wingless]

You should tbh. Admittedly, I am the same. I'm quite easily scared, but Yume Nikki is totally worth playing. Disregard the graphics and you've got a very cryptic, mysterious, yet fun to play game. If you want to download it, there is a legal download here. Just click "Yume Nikki v0.10 English". It's a 7z file.