Your "Must-Play" games

[Azrael Strife]

Which games in your list are "must-play"? I find it today as I play new games that I tend to go back to the old ones, from before 2000 even, in fact I'm playing Planescape Torment right now and haven't had this much fun in a while, recent gaming disappointments like Half Life 2, UFO Aftershock (at least to me...), F.E.A.R. and others made me go back to my old collection. So, which ones are on your permanent top 20? which would you say are a must-play? (please note that this is not a "top 20", this are the BEST games you have ever played and the ones you think that *must* be played, at least once)

 

These are some of mine (in no particular order):

• Deus Ex (Excellent FPS-RPG hybrid, can't play this one enough)
  
• Planescape: Torment (Probably the best RPG made, IMO)
  
• Half-Life (One of the most fun FPSs around, even with the now outdated graphics, the maps and levels are simply genius)
  
• Final Fantasy VII (Best FF for PC, the story rocks, the only Final Fantasy game to have a movie made, another movie on its way and two or three prequels)
  
• FreeSpace: The Great War and FreeSpace 2 (Two of the best space-sim out there)
  
• Wing Commander IV and Wing Commander V (Same as above, I love those cinematics, make me feel like I'm watching a movie instead of playing a game, plus the battles are awesome, though I like a bit more the more galactic scale of the FreeSpace series)
  
• X-Com: Apocalypse (One of the best squad-based combat games, its pausable-real time is simply great, too bad the game was never finished)
  

And no, I'm not listing X-Com: UD or TFTD

[Crazy Gringo]

You asked for it Azrael....

Only 20? I can not make any promises

 

Here are mine in no particular order: In short....so many games so little time

 

Baldurs Gate 1 with Tales from the Sword Coast Expansion

Baldurs Gate 2 with Throne of Bhaal Expansion

Icewind Dale 1 with Heart of Winter Expansion

Planescape Torment

Fallout 1

Fallout 2

Knights of the Old Republic 1

Knights of the Old Republic 2 (even though it was rushed through production)

Final Fantasy VII

Arcanum (Magic and technology rules)

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Jagged Alliance

Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games

Jagged Alliance 2 and the various mods out there

Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business.

Silent Storm

Silent Storm: Sentinels

Hammer and Sickle

Postal 2(Fight the system!)

Civilization

Civilization 2

Civilization 3

Civilization 4

Simcity

Simcity 2

Simcity 3

Simcity 4

The Sims 2 with expansion (We all need to be gods!)

Railroad Tycoon 2

Railroad Tycoon 3

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middleearth

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middleearth II

Medieval: Total War

Mafia

The Godfather (The 2006 version of the Game)

Grand Theft Auto 3(There is nothing like a bit of unlawfulness)

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Miami Vice go home)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Yo! Bust a cap dis Foo)

Need for Speed: Underground

Need for Speed: Underground 2

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

UFO Aftermath

UFO Aftershock

UFO: Enemy Unknown

UFO: Terror from the Deep

Steel Panthers

Steel Panthers II

Steel Panthers III

Panzer General

Allied General

Peoples General

Max Payne

Max Payne 2

Colonization

Masters of Magic

F-15E Strike Eagle

Gunship 2000

F-117 Nighthawk (A clone of the excellent F-19 Stealth Fighter)

USAF

US Navy Fighters

Farcry (even if goes total Resident Evil in the End)

[Accounting Troll]

Star Trek: Birth of the Federation. It has its faults, but there aren't exactly many empire building games set in the Star Trek universe. And the five empires (the liberal Federation, the merchantile Ferengi, the fascist Cardassians, the warlike Klingons and the isolationist Romulans) have very different characteristics, which enhances the replay value.

 

Colonization. The graphics in this 1994 Civilization spin-off may be dated, but I love micromanaging my economy as I develop my colonial empire, and the economic model was very well designed.

 

Medieval: Total War. Brutal wars against one's European rivals are such fun

 

UFO: Aftermath. I love the dark atmospheric tones to this game. You get the feeling that humanity is finished even if you defeat the aliens.

 

X-Com Enemy Unknown. This needs no explanation

 

X-Com Interceptor. Not everyone liked Interceptor, but when you've had a stressful day cracking out the gatling lasers and blowing up a few alien ships can be theraputic.

[Azrael Strife]

You asked for it Azrael....

Only 20? I can not make any promises

No, I didn't say 20, in fact, I said "this is not a Top 20" post as many as you feel are must-play

[Crazy Gringo]

Okay. I'm on it

[FullAuto]

Although a must-play list will always be fairly short anyway. Must-play games are rare compared to should-play games.

 

Final Fantasy Tactics - Probably the best fantasy-themed TB game. Cracking.

X-Com Enemy Unknown - A classic.

Energy Airforce - Best flight sim of recent times.

Resident Evil 4 - Although the least scary of the Resident Evils, it's an excellent shooter.

Advance Wars: DS - Great TB strategy.

Streetfighter 2 - The greatest fighting game ever.

Broken Sword - Essential adventure game. Funny as a very funny thing.

Timesplitters - Frantic FPS. Absolutely crazy multiplayer deathmatches.

Metal Gear Solid - Stealth without being boring.

Panzer Front - Top tank sim.

Panzer General - Zer Reich vill last vun zousand years!

[Azrael Strife]

Okay. I'm on it

You sure like a LOT of games!

[Tiger]

Oooooh.....my go, my go...

 

Not in any order though Had to deviate from PC titles too...sorry.

 

"Laser Squad" - Spectrum 48k -My first taste of turn-based squad action.( think I'm showing my age now!!)

 

"Rebel Storm" - Spectrum 48k - as above

 

"Lords of Chaos" - Spectrum 48k - Again turn based. be a wizard and have hordes of creatures following ya!

 

"Metal Gear Solid" - Playstation original version - I was still working in the games industry at the time when this came out... I wet my pants... then wet them again!

 

"Worms" - PC - so simple but such a laugh.

 

"Bomberman" - Playstation - Get the guys round, get in the beers, pizza and pringles...one of the best multiplayers ever!

 

"Silent Storm series" - PC - Still playing, still hooked, still moddin and mappin.

 

"Halflife" - PC - superb FPS, great storyline too.

 

"Call of Duty 2" - PC - the best multiplayer online FPS I've ever played....still playin'.

 

"Star Wars Galaxies" - PC - I was lost in this online stunner for over a year.....££££££££££

 

"Silent Hill" - PS2 - Res evil meets Stephen King.......very cool and creepy.

 

"GTA" - PS2 - A groundbreaker...Nuff said.

 

Oh well I'm sure I've missed lots...standby for an Edit or three

[Crazy Gringo]

Okay. I'm on it

You sure like a LOT of games!

Yep!

[smithter]

I'll say one..

Starwars Battlefield 2!

It's awesome!

[Gimli]

There's a lot of games I consider good, but only a few which are the games I'm very attached to, the games that I return to, the games that had that "something" that most games today don't, be it either story, characters, style etc:

 

1.) X-COM 1, 2, 3

2.) Serious Sam: The First Encounter

3.) Fallout 1, 2 (actually 2 more than 1)

4.) Sam & Max: Hit the Road

5.) Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (aka the original C&C)

6.) Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura

7.) Earthworm Jim 2

8.) Civilization 1 and 4

9.) Worms

10.) Broken Sword: Shadow of Templars

 

Then there's a few others in no particular order:

 

Old Lucas adventure games - Monkey Island, Indian Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Day of the tentacle etc.

Prince of Persia - Sands of time (haven't played the other two)

Heroes of Might and Magic III

 

There's more, I'll add them when I think of them. Unfortunately, there's many games mentioned in other posts, that I have never got around to playing.

[Matri]

I'll say one..

Starwars Battlefield 2!

It's awesome!

That's Battlefront.

[Azrael Strife]

5.) Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (aka the original C&C)

The original C&C was just called C&C, Tiberian Dawn was a later game

[smithter]

QUOTE(Gimli @ 18th April 2006, 9:54am)

 

 

5.) Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (aka the original C&C)

 

 

The original C&C was just called C&C, Tiberian Dawn was a later game

 

 

It's actually called Tiberian Sun not Tiberian "Dawn" I previously owned it and I sold it 2 a friend.

[Azrael Strife]

Actually, Gimli was right, the original C&C was called "Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn".

Command & Conquer is the original game in Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy (RTS) computer games. The game takes place in the 1990s, and tells the story of the struggle between two warring factions, the UN-backed Global Defense Initiative and the quasi-terrorist Brotherhood of Nod. Players gain funds by harvesting valuable tiberium, which can then be spent on building military units or new buildings.

 

The game is widely known as Tiberian Dawn among the fan community, to avoid confusion between the original game and the series as a whole, and to match that of the game's sequel, Tiberian Sun. A similar title, Tiberian Twilight, was unofficially given to the cancelled third game in the series, which was only officially known as Command & Conquer 3.

[Crazy Gringo]

Ah yes. Command and Conquer....Lots of fun with that game especially with the editor when I created a breed of hellhounds when giving the unmodded hounds flamethrowers as primary weapons....Poor enemy....

[Sorbicol]

Must play games eh? Mmmmm.

 

Well I would have to start with the original Elite from the old BBC micro days in the mid 80s. I used to play that game for hours and hours and hours.....!

 

From there we go to UFO: Enemy Unknown for the same reasons.

 

Championship/Football Manager from CM2 onwards. I have lost months of my life to these games.

 

Quake III & Team Arena. What an introduction to online play.

 

Half Life & Half Life 2. Any game where you play catch with a mechanical "dog" has to be a must play! Half life lead too......

 

Counter Strike. Still the best Online multiplayer.

 

Civilisation 2 and Civilisation 4. Corruption totally ruined Civ 3 IMHO.

 

Galactic Cilivisations. The best AI I have ever encountered. I still only beat it about 2 games in 5. I am about to start on Galactic Civilisations 2.......

 

Silent Storm & Silent Storm Sentinels. Well Duh!!!!!

 

Freespace 2. Bought from ebay last year and I wish I'd picked up on this when it was originally released.

 

Space Rangers 2. This is the oddest game I've bought in the last year but worth every penny. Only problem is that it is Starforce "protected".

[Thorondor]

Must play:

 

- X-Com Enemy Unknown / UFO Defence

- Full Throttle

- Dune 2

- System Shock 2

- Starcraft

 

::

 

A blast from the past, looking back on it. But it just goes to illustrate the fact that some games really should be played on their own day and age, because, if not, chances are you won't ever get around to doing it or won't capture the true measure of their impact given the inevitable relativization a present-day perspective will broker.

 

Ten years from now we might be fortunate enough to brand as many titles a "classic". If we are very lucky...

[Praetoris]

I could write a huge list all my favourite games (or series) all the way back to the release of Nintendo 8-bits, but I'll just keep it simple and do a top 5 (unsorted order)

 

- Call of Duty

- Max Payne

- Resident Evil

- Fallout

- Halo

 

 

...oh, this was a strategy site? Sorry 'bout that.

 

- Homeworld

- Command & Conquer

- X-Com

- The Settlers

- Warcraft

[Azrael Strife]

How could I miss Command & Conquer!

 

I'll add Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn (the first), Command & Conquer Red Alert 2, The Curse of Monkey Island (the first one, DOS game, you can't miss this adventure game...), Master of Orion II and Ascendancy.

 

Ascendancy is one of the greatest 3x strategy games I've ever played, it's got everything I could want from such a game, I am just itching for The Logic Factory to release Ascendancy 2, long due, Ascendancy being from the DOS age the only downside was the rather dumb AI, but that didn't make it any less fun for me!

 

edit: ooops, almost forgot about WarCraft II

[Blehm 98]

*sigh*

 

All C&Cs

Star Wars Battlefront and Battlefront 2

Battlefield 2

Xcoms 1-3

UFO Aftermath, i have to try aftershock

Alpha Centuari

Civ 3 and 4

SW Empire at war

all i can think of ATM, i'll come up with some more in about 5 minutes and want to post a new list, but i won't

[smithter]

Actually, Gimli was right, the original C&C was called "Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn".

Command & Conquer is the original game in Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy (RTS) computer games. The game takes place in the 1990s, and tells the story of the struggle between two warring factions, the UN-backed Global Defense Initiative and the quasi-terrorist Brotherhood of Nod. Players gain funds by harvesting valuable tiberium, which can then be spent on building military units or new buildings.

 

The game is widely known as Tiberian Dawn among the fan community, to avoid confusion between the original game and the series as a whole, and to match that of the game's sequel, Tiberian Sun. A similar title, Tiberian Twilight, was unofficially given to the cancelled third game in the series, which was only officially known as Command & Conquer 3.

 

No it is Tiberian SUN not DAWN.

[NKF]

Re-read that last paragraph you quoted.

 

Tiberian Dawn is used to diffirentiate the very first C&C from its sequel Tiberian Sun. It appears they wanted to name the games from Dawn, Sun (as in, afternoon) and Twilight. An obvious progression from dawn to dusk. Tiberian Dusk would've been good too, come to think of it. Ah well.

 

Meh - I don't care as long as you get to enjoy using a Mammoth tank somewhere in the game. Didn't like the MK-II as much as the MK-I's, which feature in almost all the games.

 

--

 

As for games - I can't possibly remember all of them. There's just too many... so sad. A lot are mentioned throughout the thread too, like Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle. I'll pull a few random games out of my "Must play again" list.

 

Crusader: No Regret. I never got to play No Remorse. I just want to complete this on the hardest difficulty level. I managed to get past the first locked door at one time!

 

Strike Commander - by the same folks that brought us the Wing Commander series (and the Ultima Series). But what I liked most about this was the cockpit. You could look freely around the cockpit (with some distortion in HUD detail). Quite novel for the time where all flight sims had fixed views.

 

Master of Magic - Similar in vein to the Civilisation or Alpha Centauri type games, but with wizards. I seem to remember enjoying this more than SMAC. But as with all good memories, sometimes they're better left good memories, so I really don't know how I'd look at it were I to play it again.

 

Ultima Underworld I and II - I lean more towards Underworld II because it's the most polished of the two and has the interface on my preferred side, but that said, both games are very good games, albeit with dated graphics.

 

As a quick aside for those who've got it: have you noticed how you can make infinite use magical items by damaging (throwing, fireballs, etc) said magical object until it turns into ash? The ash retains the magical properties, but will not get destroyed when used. Amazing when done with a powerful health restore and a mana restoring potion, or maybe an iron skin potion. Only problem is that it takes a long time between casting these ash magical items. It's much slower than using proper magical items, like potions and wands. Rather an unexpected means of abusing the game, but amusing to think about at the same time.

 

- NKF

[baby arm]

I'll only list a few to avoid much soul-searching and shuffling of CD cases on my part.

 

Fallout - of course

Fallout 2 - of course

Arcanum - must play if you liked Fallout at all, lots of similar qualities

Tactics Ogre (PS1) - one of my favorite console games and a solid turn-based tactical game

No One Lives Forever - funny, action packed, and plenty of cool weapons and devices

Deus Ex - 2nd best RPG/shooter hybrid

System Shock 2 - best RPG/shooter hybrid, awesome atmosphere

Planescape - amazing despite the iffy combat

Conflict - my favorite Nintendo (NES) game and my first strategy game (many, many years ago)

[Matri]

Didn't like the MK-II as much as the MK-I's, which feature in almost all the games.

Did you notice that the Mk-2's cutscene was very Hoth-like? Minus the towcable speeders, of course.