ColumnBreaker's top 30 Part 1: Off the Top of My Head

SpecTackle

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#1 Edited By SpecTackle

30. City of Heroes/Villains

I'm not exactly a fan of MMO's in general, but the idea of the genre intrigues me and I've tried a lot of them because of it. The City of titles are really the only ones that have grabbed me in the past. From the virtually limitless character customization possibilities visually, to the balance and depth of each archetype and it's power sets, mixing and matching a hero that plays well and looks unique from everyone else you meet in the game is very satisfying. I haven't played in at least a year, but I believe they are in the process of adding a system that will allow players to create their own missions, which should prove to be pretty interesting. All in all, I feel as if this is one of the most under appreciated MMO's around. I can definitely see it's influence in other games made after it, and I hope the trend continues. For an MMO that was released about 5 years ago, the fact that it's still going strong with new free content updates every few months still speaks volumes of it's quality in such a cut throat genre.

29. Golden Sun

Golden Sun had me hooked from the first hour I played it. The out of combat puzzle solving, the combat itself, the story presentation. It will always stand out in my mind as a fantastic game because of the unified feeling everything had. There was really no disconnect to me with anything, I had such a good time solving puzzles, and the combat was pretty compelling with it's obvious influences from 16bit RPG's before it, but just enough of it's own style to keep things fresh. This was actually the first GBA game I couldn't put down, which is something I don't find very often with games on handheld platforms. The game's sequel, Golden Sun: The Lost Age wasn't quite as compelling to me although I enjoyed it, I didn't feel like they even thought of trying to deepen some core aspects. It wasn't so much that I felt they needed to change things up completely but a little added depth would have been nice. The Lost Age is a faithful sequel in terms of story and gameplay quality, though.

28. The Darkness

What made me fall in love with The Darkness was the quality of the story, the pacing of the story and the characters. I loved the unique take on certain things like the idea of Hell. I loved how the plot of the Darkness itself overtaking the game's main character Jackie was at the same time it's own plot thread a long side the main story, but also intertwined with the main story in specific points where either plot thread was beginning to feel a little weak. It felt as if the writing didn't take much of a backseat to the gameplay, and the in-game character development was synced very well with the flow of story telling. The powers Jackie acquires throughout the game all felt fairly useful, and I enjoyed how the game used lighting to determine the state of your powers and how much the player could use them during combat. I'm anticipating a sequel very much so.

27. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

The story in Max Payne 2 never stood out all that much while I was playing, but looking back it was actually fairly interesting, but also kind of standard. I played this game because of it's gameplay, to put it simply. I enjoyed all aspects of this franchise, including the now beaten to death slow motion mechanic that allowed Max to perform impressive maneuvers all while retaining pinpoint accuracy by slowing time down considerably during firefights. Max Payne 2 took the bullet time mechanic from the first and refined it for a more rewarding experience. But I'll be honest, I spent more time with various mods and conversions than I did with the retail game. Most noteably, Hall of Mirrors was the main mod I found myself playing. Hall of Mirrors was an attempt to bring the movie Equilibrium into a game world, and it did it fairly well. There were other mods available and even ones that attempted to make the game more cinematic, but Hall of Mirrors stands out the most to me.

26. Sins of a Solar Empire

The one thing holding this game back from stepping into the eye of the mainstream of the RTS genre is the fact that games take a considerable time to complete. I absolutely love the formula of gameplay in Sins, even over the likes of Homeworld which is another game I've spent a lot of time with. What makes Sins special to me is how it's also an economic simulation of sorts, while at the same time offering a take on the standard RTS affair of making combat units to mix and match squads known as fleets. There's really no campaign to speak of in Sins, but it's definitely a game you should experience with friends anyway since games take such a long time to finish. Each of the three factions offer specialized economic and military choices, which makes for a fairly deep experience as really the only way you can learn how each faction truly differs is by playing each so you can better deal with them as enemies as well. Of course there's always unit differences, but understanding how each faction's economic and military structure is built and upgraded upon is sort of key to playing well against others. I have yet to try the recently released expansion, but it looks promising with the addition of star bases.

I'm counting on taking some flack for putting Max Payne 2 up since I really only played it for the mods, but I feel the game deserves to be where it's at all the same. I'll try to get part 2 up within a reasonable amount of time.

15 years ago

Red

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#2 Edited By Red

Golden Sun is an incredible game, although, I think I'm the only one who (slightly) preferred the Lost Age over the original.

15 years ago

SpecTackle

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#3 Edited By SpecTackle

I know some others that did as well, and it was a great game but it wasn't as gripping as the first simply because it was more of the same.

15 years ago

crunchUK

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#4 Edited By crunchUK

garbage, garbage garbage, garbage.

I'm kidding!! seriously though way to make an odd list

15 years ago

AgentJ

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#5 Edited By AgentJ

Red, you arent the only one. I felt that Lost Age was an upgrade in every way, most notably the length (I finished the first one way too quickly).

15 years ago

ZeroCast

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#6 Edited By ZeroCast

Good old memories with Earthworm Jim, definitely on my top 30 List.

EDIT: And that comment was supposed to go in your last Blog, sorry Cynage, great list dude.

15 years ago

SpecTackle

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#7 Edited By SpecTackle

@Agent J - I enjoyed The Lost Age a lot but I kind of felt like it was needlessly long. It's been awhile though, maybe another play through could convince me otherwise.

@ZeroCast - It's all good man, thanks for reading :)

15 years ago

30. City of Heroes/Villains

29. Golden Sun

28. The Darkness

27. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

26. Sins of a Solar Empire

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