Overdoziz's top 15 games you should definitely play.

[Overdoziz]

Here's my personal top 15 of the best games I've played. I was in a bit of a hurry so I just quickly wrote a little bit about each game.

 

#15

Soldier of Fortune 2

It has been quite a while since I've played this game but the memories are still as fresh as if I played it just yesterday. The awesome gigantic maps, the mods, the teamwork. It all felt so great. Sniping someone hundred of meters away on that desert map (which has zero visability) always felt awesome.

 

#14

Medal of Honor Allied Assault

Porbably on the list solely for the D-Day level. So much action brought so wonderfully. It felt like there were thousands of bullets being shot at you and mortar shots exploding everywhere while airplanes were flying overhead picking off soldiers. Taking cover in de holes created by explosions, breaching through the barbed wire blockade, walking across a minefield and finally getting into the bunker, killing everyone setting up a bomb and seeing it explode. Best WW2 level I ever played.*

 

*Brought to you by nostalgia

 

#13

Pokemon Yellow

Oh, did I love my Pokemon. I bet everyone once in their live has played one of the Pokemon games. And I mean the 2D versions. Yellow stood out the most to me as it was my first. I loved collecting all the pokemon and training them until they reached level 100. My pikachu always seemed to be mad, though. Maybe he should stop following me around like a creep.

 

#12

Bioshock

While the game is very linear it's still very enjoyable mainly because of the atmosphere and the story. Finding out that Ryan was controlling you the whole game was quite a nice plottwist (although it didn't really make sense). What also made Bioshock fun were the plasmids of course. They were a nice touch in combat. What's more fun then putting someone on fire, and when he runs to some water electrocute him?

 

#11

Colin Mcrae Rally 2005

Mainly on the list because of its awesome splitscreen gameplay. I've spend tons of hours playing with my 2 brothers playing this game. It was hilarious every single time. Seeing everyone crashing in the same corner or crashing right before the finishline. Ah.. good times. What also made this game special was because it was one of the last COlin Mcrae games which purely focused on rally racing, and not all that Dirt [cabbage]. Rally is so much more fun than driving in some kind of stadium track.

 

#10

Area 51

A nice little gem I played on the Xbox. I don't think I ever finished the game (in the end there were all kinds of aliens and stuff). Bought it for like 5 euros and it was 5 euros very well spend I must say. The game has a kind of spooky horror feeling to it. Changing into one of them zombie thingd halfway through the game also made for an interesting game.

 

#9

Age of Empires II

The first and best RTS I've ever played. It was simple, easy to get into and awesome to play via LAN. Got nothing else to say about this game, really.

 

#8

Far Cry instincts

Loved the gorgeous jungle and beaches. The game kind of turned bad when they introduced dinosaurish enemies who exploded when you shot them. Was pretty stupid. The rest of the game was really enjoyable, though. Paragliding through the mountains was an awesome experience.

 

#7

Grand Theft Auto San Andreas

While a lot seem to prefer Vice City I like San Andreas more. The sheer size of the whole game was staggering. From killing people with a purple dildo while wearing a latex suit, from trying to land a giant airplane on a mountain. San Andeas had it all. What I also liked was the fact that the urroundings were so varied. You had the desert area with Las Vegas (can't remember the name in game), the big New York-type city, the LA-vibe city where you started and the countryside area. All with their own type of music. The freedom in SA was amazing. Like driving up the mountain with all kinds of different vehicles. From bycicles to trucks. GTA IV and Vice City lacked this, so that's the reason why SA is in my list.

 

#6

Half-Life 2

Why didn't I choose Half-Life 1? Because Half-Life 2 beats the first part in about every way. While Half-Life 1 had pretty awful storytelling, combat and surroundings, Half-Life 2 does all of these things a lot better. The weapons, the characters, the levels. Everything feels great about the game. It also still looks pretty well for such an 'old' game. I really wish Valve would hurry up and release Episode 3 already.

 

#5

Dawn of War

A great RTS which I've mainly played in Singleplayer. I love how balanced the different races are. Can't really describe well what I like about the game, though. Maybe because of the Boyz.

 

#4

Timesplitter Future Perfect

While I liked the previous TimeSplitter games, this one stodd out the most. The great humor is what really makes this game. The fact that it controls a lot better than the previous instalments also helps a lot.

 

#3

Fable

The original Fable, when it was still actually a bit challenging. In the past two Fable games your hand was held during pretty much the whole game, but not in Fable (to a certain extend). Potion and food management was quite a big deal, same goes for your weapons and your armour. In Fable 2 and 3 you can pretty much finish the game without actually buying any weapons, potions or food. Death was nothing to fear because the only thing you lost was a bit of xp which you could regain within minutes. The first Fable has so much more depth in regard to combat (not specifically the combat itself, but also the stuff around it) which made it a lot more enjoyable. Defeating all the enemies in the arena (that's what its called right?) was quite a challenge and made you feel like you accomplished something. Nothing like this is the other games.

What also set it apart was.. I can't really put my finger on it, but Fable has more 'magic' to it. Everything just feels so much more special. Hookcoast, the Balverine town, the Heroes Guild. One by one great places.

These things combined makes it number 3 on my list.

 

#2

Portal

Near perfection in such a small game. The way the story is told is so unique. At first I thought the game only contained some puzzles without a real story tied in. When Glados tried to kill me by dumping me in a fire I was looking around in the room and wondering if I could escape this certain death. I tried putting some portals here and there and eventually I could get out! I honestly thought I beat the system. Only to find out that there was a lot more to Portal than the first few puzzles. The whole story around Aperture Science and Glados is really interesting and I'm wondering if it somehow ties in with the Half-Life series.

 

#1

Halo

ah, Halo Combat Evolved. A magnificent beast. The first time I played this game was in a store when it was just released. I played the level The Silent Cartographer, and what a great level to experience Halo with. The (first half) of the levels were simply amazing along with the compelling story and mysteries. Driving through canyons on the level Halo, exploring a free-roamingish island in the Silent Cartographer, assaulting the control room. These experiences were all so great. But the thing I really love about Halo is its sandbox. The types of different enemies, the original and varied weapons, the easy to control vehicles, the all added to a great formula. Every encounter can be played out differently. Having other kinds of weapons in an encounter changed the whole thing. You had to think outside the box, whilst in most FPS's these days (I'm looking at you CoD, Moh and Battlefield) you can pretty much do the same with almost every weapon. The assualt rifles and SMG's are all practically the same, same goes for the snipers, shotguns and handguns. This just makes for a dull experience. Halo keeps every encounter fresh. Another great thing which Halo had was the reveal of the Flood. The first time I played the level I was disorientated and confused. This added to the discovery of the Flood. Me and my brother were [cabbage]ting outselfs whilst fighting against them. We had no idea they were in the game.

The multiplayer of Halo he really shines at LANs. Playing with multiple Xboxen at once against eachother was so much fun. My nephew bought a Xbox specially for Halo just like me and we played against eachother very often. Halo PC made things easier with actualy online multiplayer, but it still doesn't capture the same feeling as sitting on the couch next to eachother and battling it out.

 

Halo is pretty much the reason why I really got into gaming.

 

 

And that concludes my top 15 games, I hope you enjoyed!

[Zilla]

Nice list, it was enjoyable to see a lot of old games I enjoyed or not heard of. Halo also got me a lot more into gaming, more specifically FPS. I also wish GTA games were more like San Andreas, the wide open world made up for a lot of it; and the random things happening from glitches like a plane spawning in a city, you hear an explosion and it's on the street with civilians running around.

[Nadril]

While Half-Life 1 had pretty awful storytelling, combat and surroundings, Half-Life 2 does all of these things a lot better

 

...really?

 

 

Oh and Far Cry is a million times better than Far Cry Instincts which was trash.

[Harakiri]

I agree with Nadril....Half Life 1 was great.

 

I'm just taking a stab in the dark, but are FPS games your favorite?

[Shiny]

Half Life 2 - Nadril begs to differ. Some odd choices there. I liked Fable, but I thought that was piss easy.

[Overdoziz]

Half-Life 1 hasn't aged well, the storytelling essentially stops after about an hour and after that you're just running through corridor after corridor without a real purpose. The combat isn't really amazing as the enemies are quite static most of the time, certainly compared to Half-Life 2's. The surroundings in Half-Life 1 are (at least in the beginning) mostly a dull grey building with some dull brown mountains surrounding it. That's hardly an interesting place to walk through after several hours.

 

Regarding Fable: I was talking about Fable 1 being more difficult compared to the other Fables. You actually had to buy/manage potions, food, armour and weapons. What also made Fable more challenging was the fact that money wasn't as easy to come by. You couldn't earn loads of money by buying every single house in Albion and getting paid every 5 minutes for renting it out. You actually had to buy items from merchants and traders who were walking around and sell them to stores located in several towns to make profit.

This combined with the fact that the story is far more interesting than the sequels makes it so much better.

[Danqazmlp]

I disagree with HL1's story running out, it is just a game with an incredibly subtle story. It fits well, a man on the ground wouldn't know exactly what was happening at every moment in an emergency. I prefer that style over having everything shouted at you in other games. I've been back and played it again, and apart from the final boss, it worked very well for a game which is now over a decade old. If I had the choice of playing either Hl1 or Hl2, it would definitely be 1. That is of course, until 3 comes out.

 

I've actually owned every game on your list apart from Bioshock and Area 51 and agree that they are all great. Apart that is from halo. To consoles it was new and fresh, but to a PC gamer like me it never seemed as though it deserved all the praise. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Halo 3, but the first two I never completed due to boredom once the flood stages started. In original content, the first game was really lacking after the first few levels.

 

They are going back to focusing more on Rally in Dirt 3, but I agree, a proper rally game is needed. We need a game which goes off the proper formula of having continuous stages with time carrying over and minimal time between to repair, going through a whole championship.

 

Also, I'm sure soldier of fortunes gore had it's part to play in making your list ;)

[Overdoziz]

I like the three-way battles in the last half of Halo. And the different approaches to re-used levels kept things fresh. It worked for me.

 

Shooting someone's head clean off with a sniper was always fun in SoF2 ;)

[Dizzle229]

Awesome list! I also agree with what you said about HL1, though I do like the game.

 

As for Halo, eh... great game too, especially when I played my uncle's copy in 2001, but it just doesn't feel satisfying to kill the enemies anymore. Like in Halo: Reach and 3, enemies will flinch when you shoot them. Animations like that are important to me. Since CE and 2 don't have that, it just feels like something is missing from the combat, though it's not as bad in 2, with the BR.

 

I started the series with H3, so it's probably just a matter of comparison, but whatev.

[Overdoziz]

It was my first console game which probably added a lot to it, I guess. :rolleyes:

[Demoli]

Great list, i particulary enjoyed the segment of GTA SA. Las Venturas and San Fierro were great :lol:

[Skully]

No CoD4? :unsure:

[Overdoziz]

I couldn't make myself put CoD4 on the list for whatever reason.

[Nadril]

Half-Life 1 hasn't aged well, the storytelling essentially stops after about an hour and after that you're just running through corridor after corridor without a real purpose. The combat isn't really amazing as the enemies are quite static most of the time, certainly compared to Half-Life 2's. The surroundings in Half-Life 1 are (at least in the beginning) mostly a dull grey building with some dull brown mountains surrounding it. That's hardly an interesting place to walk through after several hours.

 

It's a very subtle story and it most certainly does not "stop" after an hour. Just because you aren't being treated to cutscenes doesn't mean it doesn't have a story. It's really why I think Half Life does story so much better than the second one (though the second is still very good). Just take it from someone who has played through the original Half Life probably 6 or 7 times, there is a lot of story to that game if you think about it even if it isn't right in your face.

 

 

All of this being said though I'd give a guess that you didn't play Half Life when it originally released? I personally think the game (and its engine) have actually aged surprisingly well compared to other FPS games of the time but maybe others think different.

[Overdoziz]

Well after the first part you get a very long time in which you do essentially nothing but going from battle to battle or doing some puzzle without it really having a purpose. After a while it just becomes a bit of a drag.