Conquering the Pile of Shame: which to play first?

Hey Bombers, I need your help choosing where to begin hacking away at my gaming backlog. I wrote up a list earlier today (mostly for myself, but there are notes for each game should anyone else care to read them). My question is a simple one: which game on this list is your favourite, and why should I play it?

Machinarium, man. It's the best adventure game out there. Oh, and you can skip TRAUMA. You can finish it in less than an hour, but it's an utterly pointless game.

I'm going to have to agree with Video_Game_King and promote Machinarium. As someone who hasn't played a lot of point-and-click adventures, I really got into it and enjoyed it. It's a gorgeous-looking and great-sounding game, and for the most part it avoids the adventure game trope of completely nonsensical puzzle solutions. It's also the only game on your list that I've played, so I can't actually speak for any of the others.

I wish you the best of luck whittling down your Pile of Shame, duder. Thanks for the mention on your list, too!

Doom.

@Video_Game_King said:

It's the best adventure game out there

You obviously haven't played many adventure games.

@Unknown_Pleasures:

Obviously. However, I have played Monkey Island, so I can at least say it's better than Monkey Island, which I understand to be "saying something." (Also, I agree with your Doom proposal.)

@Unknown_Pleasures: I have and yet I agree with him. How odd?!

26 games that I haven't played. I'm no help

@Video_Game_King: Yeah Monkey Island was great for its time but it doesn't hold up as well as someotheradventuregames do......considering how great doom still plays I wonder how it felt to play that game back when it was released, people must have been blown away.

Return to Wolfenstein needs to be played. Not sure how it plays without nostalgia, but I still love it. The shooting feels so solid and the first half is perfectly paced.

There really is no need to play some of the games on your list though...

• Bf2 - Will be way too late to get into it, and it is just time to leave it in the past.
• Ghost Recon - Has aged horribly
• Unreal 1 and 2 - Both past their use by date
• Wolfenstein 3D - If you have no nostalgia, there is no point.

The others are either worth playing, or I have never played (the majority), but seriously, don't waste your time on the above.

@SuperSambo said:

Return to Wolfenstein needs to be played.

No it does not.

@Video_Game_King said:

@SuperSambo said:

Return to Wolfenstein needs to be played.

No it does not.

@SuperSambo:

The strange thing about that picture is how much better it looks than anything in Return to Castle Wolfenstein.

Doom, obviously. Then Machinarium. It's seriously charming.

DOOM. Because it is a damned fine shooter. HAH Puns.

Both Ghost Recon and BF2 were awesome in the day, but probably not now I'd guess. Really dug Doom 3 too.

I've really only played the Unreal's, dooms, and quake III's on that list. Id say you gotta play DOOM.

Darwinia.

Machinarium is great - "charming" is a fitting word - but I'm gonna stump for The Void. Really beautiful and atmospheric; the art direction is superb. The design can be frustrating, and the mechanics obtuse, but it's worth dipping into at least a little more. The pace definitely quickens, to the point where it's almost stressful...doesn't get any less weird, though.

I really liked Trine. And I agree that some of those games probably haven't aged all that well. I'm still a fan of Doom and even Doom 3 to an extent. Shadowgrounds is quick dumb fun. You can beat it in a day. I played Return to Castle Wolfenstein when it first came out. Don't know how it would hold up today. Eufloria is a slow burn. You could play that while playing one of these other games. I think those are the ones I've played. I'd go with the Doom games or Trine.

I'd say Trine. With so many games on the pile of shame I doubt you'll reach them all so play the modern ones first.

i've played very few of those, but i will be another to attest to machinarium's greatness. gorgeous artwork, a super neato setting, and puzzles that will challenge and reward. do it!

Machinarium is worth your time.

Trine, out of that list seems the easiest to pick up again and finish.

Then Doom at some point, I'd recommend using Doom Legacy, ZDoom or another open source port. Even though if you've played the first campaign, you have played the best part.

Trine and Machinarium are the only two games in your queue that I'd recommend that anyone play.

Don't hesitate to take a break if you get stuck in either game as they're both the kind of games that you can keep butting your head into a wall over.

DOOM

You can stop playing Dungeon Siege 3

Doom. Play on Ultra-Violence, the way it was meant to be played.

Start with TRAUMA; it's actually a relatively interesting/unique game. Also, it's very short, which means you can cross something off your list fairly soon. I'm not sure why you think a good story can only be told with a large budget though =/

@BeachThunder said:

I'm not sure why you think a good story can only be told with a large budget though =/

TRAUMA. That's why :P.

I pick Doom 3 cause it was the first PC game I ever pirated, or ran at close to max settings. It was also enjoyable enough that I finished it, so there's that. People complained about the flashlight and the monster closets, but I thought it was all pretty fun.

@MideonNViscera said:

I pick Doom 3 cause it was the first PC game I ever pirated, or ran at close to max settings. It was also enjoyable enough that I finished it, so there's that. People complained about the flashlight and the monster closets, but I thought it was all pretty fun.

Yeah, monster closets have been an id Software classic move. I would like Doom 3 less if it didn't have any.

Thanks for all your suggestions; I reinstalled Doom and Unreal and I'm having a surprising amount of fun with both of them. Going to move on to one of the weirder indie games once I finish them.

Also, personal opinion question: is one "finished" Doom when he has played every level of every expansion pack, or is he only finished once he gets less than the par time on every level?

Instead of the original Wing Commander, go to GoG and buy Wing Commander: Privateer. This game was my favorite space combat game until TIE fighter came out, but even then it was close.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/wing_commander_privateer

Trine! Awesome game. It's fun by yourself, but if you have someone else to play co-op with, it's even more fun. And Trine 2 is even better, so you might wanna add that to your games radar for future reference as well.

Doom is one of the greatest FPS ever made and it still is. Seriously. Play it now.

Unreal is really, really good. Did you like the first Half-Life? This is actually just as good. Not kidding.

I'd go for those two first. If you want to play Quake 3, just go for Quake Live, it's basically the same, and since it's multiplayer, you really only need to play a few matches to see if you like it and if you do, keep playing, if you don't well just stop.

Trine, for sure.

And I think every gamer owes it to themselves to play a few of the great games of yore. I'd say Doom and Wolfenstein 3D, as well.