Your favorite games that are still good (follow up topic)

Just some context to my post

So, I am posting this in response to two topics. Some of the comments made me think about my favorite games and perhaps what my favorite era of games might be. This is all completely subjective and dependent on a variety of factors. Nevertheless, I think I know what my favorite games are, and which period of gaming I enjoyed most. I was surprised at how specific it turned out to be.

I cut out many games from this list as I went back and played them. Its always interesting to see which games hold up. To be clear, I have played many games aside from the list I am about to mention. I was also taken aback by the games which I now realize, were great at the time but have not aged well, for me. Obviously this does not mean they are bad games. Please do not get too upset, this is all totally for fun, and everyone's list will be different for different reasons.

Here are some guidelines I used for myself. As far as DLC goes, I think that it should be included as part of the original release date you mention, as the additional content is usually as old as the original game, if that makes sense. Not a super important point, but worth mentioning I think. Also, these categories are pretty loose but It helped me narrow the list down. Genres can blend but my determining factor aside from the category applying to the game, was whether or not it scratches that itch, e.g. Mario Kart and Gran Turismo both have racing elements, are quite different, but both satisfy that same inclination. Furthermore, you are not obligated to use any of what I just mentioned. Without further ado:

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List

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*Racer*

Burnout 3: Takedown (Xbox, September 2004)

[Comments: I really thought Mario Kart 64 was my favorite racing game, but I just do not enjoy the items in that game as much as I enjoy the boost mechanics in Burnout]

{Runner ups: Daytona USA, Mario Kart 64, PGR 3}

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*Open-world game with quests*

Fable (Xbox, September 2004)

[Comments: I include the lost chapters in this, even though it came out in 2005, seeing as how it was clearly meant to be included in the original game]

{Runner ups: Assassins Creed 1-4, Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim}

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*Game with Guns*

Halo 2 (Xbox, November 2004)

[Comments: I never thought Halo 2 would be my favorite shooter considering how thoroughly disappointed I was with it at the time]

{Runner ups: Wolfenstein 3D, Ratchet and Clank, Gears of War}

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Closing remarks

As you can see all my favorite games are from the second half of 2004. I was amazed at the games that, whilst still important to me are not as good as I remember. My main reason for choosing the above three games, is that when I played any other game of that genre, I subconsciously missed the elements of my favorite game of that genre.

This was an interesting process for me to look back with a critical eye. I hope you enjoyed reading my answer. I look forward reading to yours.

@gamezrgoodz: How does Burnout 2 compare to Burnout 3 in your eyes? I really didn't like the take down mechanic. Slowed the racing down too much I thought.

Playing Halo 5, which I didn't really enjoy, I thought maybe I was just over that style of shooter. I've since replayed Halo Reach and Halo 3 (introducing it to my son), and nope, Halo 5 was just not good. Reach and Halo 3 hold up fine.

Ninja Gaiden Black, Resident Evil 4, Metroid Prime and Super Metroid. As for my favourite peroid i'm with you 2004 was great although many of my favourite games from that era dont hold up that well. I loved Half Life 2 but the shooting and pacing arent great by todays standards. I liked everything about Halo 2, except all the Arbiter levels. (half the game) DMC 3 and Ninja Gaiden also came out in 2004 but got better versions next year. Painkiller, Doom 3 and Far Cry were all really cool at the time but dont hold up that well.

I'm curious whether all the great games from this year will hold up 13 years later.

@rebel_scum: You know I felt similarly at the time. The take-downs felt like they took away from focusing on the actual racing that I enjoyed so much in Burnout 2. I have since grow to enjoy how tactical those take-downs are in relation to increasing your boost meter. It keeps the racing engaging for me. It feels like a clever way to balance the races and mostly prevents anyone from completely dominating the race. For e.g. in a four man race the person in 4th farms 2nd and 3rd with take-downs to get more boost and then catches up with 1st place. Now in 2nd place they take-down 1st, at which point the car in 1st place falls behind, and has to work to get their boost meter back up and reclaim the winning position.

I also thought at the time that Burnout 2 had a better crash mode as the pick-ups seemed gimmicky to me. However, I now find that I enjoy the pick-ups as it creates a level of strategy that I feel Burnout 2's crash mode lacks. So overall, in comparing Burnout 2 to Burnout 3 I would say that I preferred the simplicity of B2 at the time, but now I lean more towards B3 with its added layer of strategy.

One thing I did not mention, and this is a peculiar occurrence, is that my three favorite games were all slow burns for me. Meaning, they did not grab me at the time as much as they do now. I progressively enjoyed them over time. I can appreciate how good those games are now in a way I could not at first glance. There is a nuance to quality of these games for me. I feel like other games have had the opposite effect on me, where my enjoyment decays overs time. Its strange and interesting.

@jaycrockett: They have increasingly changed the identity of the Halo franchise. Its almost like from game to game it has changed developers; the vision for what Halo is takes a different form for each game.

@boozak: The first few hours of Ninja Gaiden and Resident Evil 4 are still amazing for me.

Half Life 2 was one of the most immersive experiences for me. I was enthralled by that whole adventure. But I feel that it falls into a strange category of single-player games, that are amazing but one-time affairs.

Doom 3 and FarCry Instincts at the time felt so vibrant and alive. Now they feel static, empty and heavily scripted. I think Id and Ubi have improved their game play in later iterations, namely Wolfenstein the New Order, and dare I say Blood Dragon for all my 80s pop culture bias.

I wonder how much of our enjoyment is tied to the age we were at. Maybe someone in 10 years+ will say how important GTA V was for them and that they still enjoy it.

Okami is still a beautiful game. :)

LOTR: Return of the King is a pretty great co-op experience.

I went back and played Morrowind again last year. Don't do it.

I used an overhaul mod that made the game look semi-modern and it was still a huge chore to get through. The one saving grace is that it has maybe the best story in a TES game. But, the way that story is delivered is so clumsy and dated that it almost ruins it.

Almost all tactical RPGs have aged very well IMO, including AD&D gold box, Shining Force, Fallout 1 and 2, Warsong, and X-Com.

Games with an unusual combo of core mechanics can also age well since they still remain so unique over the years like X-Com, Pirates!, Oregon Trail, Deus Ex, Darklands, and Quest for Glory.

Super Mario games dating back to Famicom/NES have aged extremely well in my opinion since I still don’t think any new games do a better job at platforming.

I think Heroes of Might and Magic III and Master of Orion II still hold up really well. They had a lot of complex systems and stats, but they all flowed into each other so nicely in those games that it quickly became second nature. And the graphical styles, while dated, are the kind of "dated" that age pretty well.

Theme Hospital & Dungeon Keeper 2 are still enjoyable.

Max Payne still feels good, even after 16 years. The look felt surprisingly ahead of it's time and manages to still feel good.

Definitely two games that I thought of immediately when I saw the topic title. I'd probably argue that, at this point, Heroes II's cartoony art style is significantly more pleasant to look at than III's Donkey Kong Country-esque digitized sprites, but I'll still play both once in a blue moon no problem (I also think Heroes V is pretty great, and I will even argue that Heroes IV gets a bad rap... though its art style wasn't great in 2002 and I can't imagine it's aged well at all.) Master of Orion 2, on the other hand, is still pretty amazing. It's a little limited in some ways, is hilariously imbalanced, and gets bogged down in micromanagement near the end-game, but for a 4X that came out more than 20 years ago it's a little depressing that seemingly every Space 4X ever made borrows from Master of Orion's template in some way.

I'll be the lunatic who will still claim that the Infinity Engine games are "just fine" if you're willing to quicksave like crazy and accept some of the dumb anachronisms present in 2nd edition AD&D. For what it's worth, I'm also someone who thinks the question of if a game "holds up" or not is a little reductive, especially when people begin throwing it around in regards to stuff from 4-5 years ago as if 2012 was some ancient lost age. The idea that something is unplayable or isn't worth playing because it requires an adjustment on the part of the player or isn't as immediately accessible or convenient as modern fare is still a little baffling to me. Certainly, time makes the weaknesses of some games more apparent, but the insinuation on this week's Bombcast that Mario 64 might not have aged well kinda blew my mind. Like, of all the N64 games out there, I'd think that's probably the one that does stand the test of time.

I think The Secret of Monkey Island still holds up, especially if it's someone's first play and they can get to the re-mastered version. The old school point and click adventure elements are dated, but I think the humour and overall story is still rock solid.

A game that I can keep going back to from a long time ago is Transport Tycoon Deluxe, that is a game I can still easily sink 100s of hours in to and I think it still plays fantastically. The opposition AI is hit or miss, but the real fun in that game is in building your transport network, setting up routes etc.

Resident Evil 5 remastered on the Xbox one: still loooove mercenary mode

Metal Gear Solid 2: still consider this my personal favorite game ever made. I will play it about once or twice a year

Super Mario World: Play about once a month

Yoshis Island: Play about once a month

Trials and Trials Fusion

Tony Hawk remastered on xbox 360

Hangtime on SNES

Whether or not a game "hold up" is always a weird question, to me. I don't think it's a totally invalid one, but I also don't think it's something that can be summed up with a "yes or no" answer. Kind of like a critique of a modern game, it's a question whose answer deserves a lot more attention than most people will give. Also kind of like a critique, it's very subjective - Infinity Engine games might hold up for someone who knows both AD&D and a little about playing CRPG's, but those things will be an impenetrable wall to someone who grew up on platformers and JRPG's and has never touched Dungeons & Dragons.

Personally, there are a handful of games that I think will always be relevant. Super Metroid, Resident Evil 4, Half-Life 2, Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI, and Super Mario Bros are all games that are as good now as they were when they released. They all still stand head and shoulders above almost every similar game released since, even up to today. That's not to say that all of them are spotless - I think parts of Resident Evil 4 and Half-Life 2 go on for too long and you've gotta be able to deal with random encounters if you want to play FFVI. But they all still have something very positive about them that game developers could learn from.

Basically, what I'm saying is, roughly the last half of the SNES era and the last half of the PS2 era are the greatest times in video game history - not just for those consoles, those are just time periods.

Man, I totally disagree with you on Half-Life 2. That game still feels supremely satisfying to play, equally as good as last year's Doom reboot, which is part of the reason I'll still fire it up and run through the whole thing from time to time (as in, I've done this relatively recently). Possibly a mouse and keyboard versus controller thing?

I think Halo 2's campaign holds up way better in retrospect than it did at the time. That ending understandably soured a lot of people on the campaign, but looking back that game does world building and storytelling way better than any of the other Halo games. I will, however, agree that a decent chunk of Halo 2's levels just aren't all that great.

hitman contracts on ps2

the graphics don't hold up that well, but man the gameplay is still great

need for speed underground 2 is another great - soundtrack is on point, the game handles driving so well, even better than some of these sim-cade ps4 games we have now - racing games used to be so much more fun a decade ago, now they're just flashy and graphically intensive and extremely boring and shallow to play.

Borderlands 1 & 2 for me. I remember when Borderlands was first announced there were no other games like it. FPS with (minor) RPG elements and Diablo-style loot... only with guns. And the fact it has 4 player co-op is just icing on the cake.

I can still play it solo and co-op today and still have a blast. Then Borderlands 2 improves on 1 in almost every aspect.

Also worthy of a mention: Age of Empires 2. This classic needs no introduction.

My favourite childhood game was a title for the ZX Spectrum called Head over Heels. I return to it now and again, and still think it holds up well despite it originally being released in 1987. There's a free remake for PC from 2003 on the Retrospec website if anyone wants to give it a try.

*Racer*

Burnout 3: Aqua Moto Racing Utopia (PC,PS4,SWITCH)

[Comments: This is the best new Jet Ski racer I have played. Me and my father have finally been enjoying gaming together again. Last we did that was when the old Wave Race 64 came for the N64 console.]

{Runner ups: Mario Kart}

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*Open-world game with quests*

Oblivion (Many Platforms)

[Comments: I got lost in space and time in this game. I think it literally blew my mind when I played it the first time as a teenager and it still holds as one of the best RPG experiences i have.)

{Runner ups: Borderlands}

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*Game with Guns*

Halo (Xbox, PC)

[Comments: This needs no comment. Dropping from orbit and crashing on the ringworld... Best experience ever!]

{Runner ups: Gears of war}

@justin258: I played the game originally on M&K as soon as it came out, the things that I think have aged poorly is the pacing and enemy AI. (namely the combine) But that could be more of a personal preference thing.

“Holds up” is such an odd phrase, because it is entirely subjective yet often declared in an objective manner. When Polygon published their (bad) Mario list, the comments were full of people telling others that Mario 64 doesn’t hold up. If someone dared disagree, they would just say “go back and play it; it doesn’t.” It’s annoying.

That said, I still think all of the MGS games “hold up” incredibly well. Also, Uncharted 2. Even years later with all of the surprises widely known, it is still such a blast to play through.

I feel like any game I liked will hold up on a personal, subjective level. If I played something in the past and loved it then I'm sure I'll have no problem returning to it. I played a ton of Crash Team Racing on PS1 and it's one of the best kart racers ever made, still very much holds up, played it not long ago. Oblivion and Morrowind still hold up (I always install bugfixes mods but leave the rest 100% vanilla, I don't mind the graphics).

Infinity engine games like Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale etc. also hold up, definitely helps that a lot of them got enhanced editions with support for higher resolutions. If something was good, it'll always be good, for me at least. Just give me high-res and bug fixes mods if it's an especially old/buggy game and I'm good, for console stuff I'm fine playing original versions, but won't discard remasters.

Some games I still enjoy. Only a few, like 0.1% of the amount of all the older games that I still enjoy I will list here :P.

• Sim City 4
• Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom
• Baldies
• Command and Conquer 1, RA1 and RA2
• Fable
• All Bullfrog games, even Gene Wars <3!
• Monkey Island
• X-Wing/Tie Fighter
• LOOM
• Tyrian 2000
• Screamer 1
• Simon the Sorcerer 1, 2

@qrowdyy: Exactly my sentiments. However, check this out.

@dray2k: Ya I've seen that. Looks like it has potential. I decided to go with Morrowind Overhaul.