Any Gamers Here?

[Florida Bullfrog]

I have an aunt now in her 70s that became a hard-core because of the original Xbox. She’s kept up through all the subsequent console generations and plays it all.

This got me thinking about Halo: Combat Evolved on the original Xbox. It was the game that hooked my aunt. It was also a game my grandfather enjoyed watching me play at night. He’d get in his recliner and eat Oreos and drink milk and watched the game like a movie. He enjoyed the difficulty of the combat and the story. I was a young but grown man at the time. I was doing my undergrad work and when I was home with free time he loved to watch me play. He also loved Windwaker on the Gamecube. He liked to watch me solve puzzles.

That got me thinking about special games that have an impact on people. Games that are “great.”

Let’s list our top 10 “great” games. No rules. You define what makes a game “great.” For me, “great” can mean its impact on my life, its importance to the video game culture/industry, or what an elaborate work of human craftsmanship it is.

I’ll need to put thought into it. I know several games that need to be on my list. What I’ll have to think on is the rankings, or whether I want to rank them at all.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I’ll start with #10.

Dragon Age: Origins tied with Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Between the two, I think Dragon Age: Origins is a greater achievement. KOTOR came first. It had a great story. Its just that its gameplay and exploration had major guiderails. You generally went where the game wanted you to go when it wanted you to go there. Didn’t seem like it at the time, just in hindsight. But KOTOR was one of the first RPGs I can recall that felt like an epic movie and it had that epic plot twist that shocked me to my core. At that time, a game of that level of story telling polish was new to me. Plus it was Star Wars.

Dragon Age: Origins is IMO the greatest RPG of its type of all time and its a crying shame the sequels were the dumpster fires that they were. If you’ve played the sequels but not the original, you could be forgiven for thinking the original isn’t worth your time. But you’d be wrong. Its amazing. The story and world building are fantastic. I remember the gameplay itself also being fun. But what sticks in my mind, what may still be in my mind when I’m 80, is the world building, characters, and story. It wasn’t that popular of a game. It is great because of how much work had to in it to make its long, winding, story (that was never the same twice depending on your choices) work.