There's all this talk about games being released that are rip-offs of other games such as God of War, Gears of War, or Halo.  The problem is that I don't have the time or the budget to play the games that are the basis for the inspiration of future games.  I never played Gears, God of War, or Halo so I can't judge upcoming games on something I haven't experienced. 

During the Terminator: Salvation QL, the GB crew kept mentioning that this game was released in a post-Gears world and that was the basis for their judgement of the game.  I know Gears is popular and I am familiar about how they took the Kill.Switch formula and improved on it.  But I don't know nor do I have the desire to find out  just how good Gears is.

Maybe it's the fact that I'm getting older, but it's like I don't even know about video games anymore. 


Consider this... how would you rate games if Gears, God of War, or Halo never existed?

The morality system and how poorly it's implemented.

Unlike the first two games where the decisions made in game during the quests actually affected the ending, the choices in Fallout 3 have no affect at all on the ending.  You could play through the game as an evil character; nuke Megaton, sell off people to slavery, murder entire towns, and just be a complete douche. Only to make the "good" decision at the end and get the "good" ending.  What's the point of having a morality system when all decisions in the game are inferior to the final ultimate decision? 


Mass Effect was just like this.  You could play through the game as an evil character, but the big major decision you make at the end of the game dictated the ending.  A good example of a recent game that implements a morality system correctly is Fable 2.  The decisions you make during the course of the game determine how the game plays and the ending that you get. (Mind you I haven't played Fable 2, but I have researched it enough to know this...correct me if I'm wrong tho)

Note: I still haven't gotten any of the DLC's (I'm waiting for my third and final playthrough to get them all and 100% of the achievements)  so I don't know how exactly Broken Steel changes the ending.  I doubt however that the ending will change that drastically. 

(When I finished the game for the first time, I expected to find out what happened with all the side quests after I finished.  There were so many questions left unanswered that could have easily been made for the ending.   What happened to Agatha? What if you decided to torch Harold, or let him grow?  Did the citizens of Arefu get along with the gang?  After Fallout 2's ending, Fallout 3's was a complete let down. )

Does this annoy anyone else?

Hey all.

I belive you can tell alot about a gamer just by looking at this top 10 favorite game list.  So I took the time to remember my favorite games of all time and ranked them accordingly.   I am not putting this down in blog form because I actually think you people care which games are or aren't on my list.  But rather as a reference for myself in the future.  It took me some time to put this list together, and now I have an article that I can link to for other internet forums or if I ever forget where I placed a certain game in my top 10. 

1 more thing to keep in mind.  While growing up, I didn't own all the systems nor all the games that came out for them.  I also didn't play many of the "must play" games of all time.  So games like Super Mario 64, Half Life, Halo, and Ocarina of Time will not be on this list.  Not because I disagree with their quality, but because I simply didn't get a chance to judge them for myself. 

With that all out of the way, here are my top 10 favorite games of all time.


10. Bioshock -  My only modern game on my favorites list. Great story, great gameplay, great setting, great concept. Seems worthy enough for me.

9. Neverwinter Nights - One of the few post Baldur's Gate PC Rpgs that I still play regularly. Fits on my top 10 games of all time quite nicely.

8. Monkey Island - One of my favorite games of all time. Some family game nights in my house included spending time around the computer trying to get through this game. We would all contrbute ideas and solutions to solve the various problems. This is a game that got me deeper into gaming. Definitely belongs on my top 10 list.

7. Tie Fighter -  I like this more than X-Wing and this game was instrumental for me to get deeper into gaming.

6. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - I loved the whole series. But this was by far the best game in the series for me. They kept it simple in terms of story, and this game was more of an action/rpg than the others that followed. The games that followed confused the story too much and even created a paradox where the story in Blood Omen2 never happened. The storyline in the later games were too difficult to follow with all the constant time traveling and secret villians appearing out of nowhere.  Even with the storyline problems, I still consider this series one of the best I have ever played. In my opinion, the later games tarnished the legacy of such a great series.

5. Deus Ex -  I have to add this game. I loved it and consider it to be a fantastic game worthy of my favorite games of all time list.  I wouldn't be a true cyberpunk fan if my list didn't include this great game.

4. Shadowrun - Of the 2 Shadowrun games for the Snes/Genesis generation, this one is my favorite.. And is going on the list. This is the game that got me really heavy into cyberpunk.  After playing this game, I went on to buy Shadowrun books, play the table top Shadowrun with friends, and started reading William Gibson.   Without Shadowrun, I wouldn't have appreciated Deus Ex or any other cyberpunk game/movie as much as I do now.   No other game on this list has affected me in quite the same way as Shadowrun did.  As a game, it's not the best in terms of gameplay, or innovation.. but it's influence can not be measured.

3. Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn - One of the best RPGs ever made.  I still think of different characters to make just for 1 more run through the game.  The game is huge and offers pleanty of hours of gameplay..but I still keep coming back.  Brilliant and in my opinion, the best game Bioware has ever made and a triumph of the infinity engine.

2. Civilization (series) - With every game released in this epic franchise, my love for it grows.  I play every Civ game to death and don't even get bored of it by the time the next game in the series is released.  I am now playing CIv 4 and I doubt I will ever get bored of this series.  Endless replayability and different ways to win/lose a game makes this series stand out for me.  I have probably spent more time playing Civ in my life than playing any other game on this list.  The only hard part about putting this series on my list is putting it at number 2, right behind...

1.Fallout 2 - The best RPG ever made and my favorite game of all time.  I enjoy making choices in games and the choices in Fallout 2 made the game for me.  I simply can't get enough of the opportunity to play the game with a different character and having the game be totally different.  I still play the game to this day and the gameplay still feels fresh because of that.  The story, the setting, and the moral/mature choices in this game help make it the great game that it is.  I could go on and on about Fallout 2, but much of that has already been said by people more eloquent than me.  


There's my list.  Like it or hate it; that's fine with me.