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Darviathar

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The games I'll still remember when I'm 80...

I'm almost half way there.  Been playing games religiously since 1981.  New to Giant bomb, but the prospect of making lists is highly appealing.  In no particular order, mind you.
 
Honorable Mention titles:  Knights of the Old Republic,  Heroes of Might and Magic 2 and 3., Masters of Orion 1 and 2,  Microleague Baseball (Unless you're a 30 something that was a baseball fanatic in the 1980's, you won't recognize this title), Second Life (Ok, its not a game, but I made friends there and have poured a ton of hours into it), Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines.

List items

  • This game was a life changer. And not in a good way. I'd played Ultima Online, and been a steady player, but never one of those "Oh jeez its 4 am and I have to be at work in a few hours...might as well go totally without sleep, because even if I log off I'm going to lie there thinking about this game anyway" types until this game. I haven't played it seriously since 2003, and often wish I'd stuck with it during the horrific Gates of Discord expansion, but I'm pretty certain I've played my last hour of it.

  • This game sort of replaced EQ for me, even though it honestly took 3 years to do so. I started EQ 2 a few weeks before Wow's release and initially regarded it as the superior game. It really wasn't until 2007 that I started playing WoW seriously. Like many players I am on hiatus now, but I'm sure even Civ 5 is going to be shelved once Cataclysm is released. I'll have my 2 accounts activating and keyclone up and running as I level up my lineup of 80's.

  • I actually majored in history, and had been interest in the Romans even as a child. But this game...made me break out old college textbooks and read them for enjoyment, not some 11th hour cram session for a test the next day. I became obsessed not only with the Roman history of the period portrayed in this game, but the Seleucid Empire, the Macedonians and everyone else. I played this game mainly before I discovered X-Fire and the joy of keeping track of hours played. I honestly wonder how many I spent in this game, its Barbarian Invasion expansion, and most of all, the various mods I played over the years. I am infuriated that Shogun Total War is their next project, not a return to Rome. My interest in this game prompted a similar addiction to its follow up, Medieval: Total War 2. Six years after release I find it a little difficult to play RTW these days, but MTW2 remains firmly entrenched on my list of "games I must play again soon before they are too outdated". MTW2 was the driving force behind me upgrading my computer in 2007, so that I could fight the battles with the maximum size army. I regard it as superior to its follow up, Empire: total War, which simply never captured my attention the way these two titles did.

  • I had always sort of avoided the SSI wargames back in the early 1990's. They all seemed to revolve around a single battle, and the prospect of fighting a single battle over and over again just wasn't that appealing. I sort of got this game simply because I had to get *something* after returning some horrible (and long forgotten) game to EB back in the day. I let it sit around my apartment for a few days before trying it...and soon became addicted. To this day it stands out as the best branching campaign in a wargame to date. Panzer General 2, which followed it 3 years later was a disappointment, as it scaled down the scope of the game, and left out many crucial battles. Panzer General 3 was an unmitigated disaster, resulting in the end of the franchise. This game stimulated my interest in World War 2 and lead me to another series of games.

  • Hearts of Iron 1 and 2, and the great lineup of 3rd party mods. Notice I do not include Hearts of Iron 3, because more than a year after release, it is still (by most accounts) buggy, unplayable, and inferior to its predecessor. I again wish that I'd had xfire when I played the first two titles, as I honestly have no idea how many countless hours I spent playing these titles, micro-managing my armies, and becoming obsessed to the point of reading up on Wikipedia which German Generals had commands in various stages of the war and trying to follow along in my games.

  • The fact that this game (released in 1994) still doesn't have an official sequel is to me one of the greatest travesties in the history of gaming. It was an absolute MASTERPIECE. Think Civilization type city management/terrain improvement with spell research and fantastical armies and quests and you have this title. 15 years later, and nothing has come close. Age of Wonders tried...and failed. The abominable Elemental: War of Magic was honked as a sequel to this game (and although its graphics are about on par with the original) is virtually unplayable in comparison. Despite all the advances in gaming in the last 15 years, I still think I could sit down and play this title today.

  • I choose Wing Commander 3, my favorite of the series, but I really mean all of the titles. I'll never understand why this saga was allowed to end over 10 years ago, and never resumed by anyone. Wing Commander 3 was a game ahead of its time. An interactive movie with terrific space combat that quite honestly was the reason I twice bought a new computer in order to play the game with optimal settings. Like the Master of Magic franchise, I keep hoping that it is revisited someday, but Mark Hamil sure isn't getting any younger...:(

  • Civ 1,2,4,5. Notice that I do not include Civ 3, because I honestly didn't give it much chance, as it was released in 2001 during not only my EQ addiction, but the release of Dark Ages of Camelot as well. There is little left to say about how great this series is, and continues to be. I can sit and play it for hours and hours on end, logging hours usually only reserved for WoW or other online addictions.

  • This series was really the end of an era started in 1988 with Pool of Radiance. It was an absolute joy from start to finish, and (like so many other great series) I wonder to this day why it is fading away without any real attempts to revisit its success. 10 years after the release of BG 2, and we've still never seen a BG 3. Dragon Age was a good game, but I swear I spent most of the game muttering "this isn't as good as BG 2". I keep promising that I'll play through these games again, and could probably motivate myself to do so if a BG 3 was ever announced.

  • Unlike some of the other titles on my list, I don't consider Fallout 3 to represent the entire series. It towers upon the previous 2 games of the series, and Fallout: new Vegas has some big shoes to fill. I played and enjoyed the first 2 games of the series, but Fallout 1 was so short, and 2 so buggy upon release that I don't hold them in as high a regard as 3. I was initially displeased to hear that Fallout 3 would be the Oblivion engine in the ruins of D.C., but I was quickly hooked. Combat was actually FUN, unlike the latter stages of Fallout 1 and 2 in which your character (attired in power armor and virtually impervious to anything other than rocket launchers) basically yawned his way through combat in the latter stages of the game, shooting super mutants in the eye from impossible ranges and turning them to goo with a single plasma rifle shot. There is just something more satisfying than being in a more realistic battle in Fallout 3. While it isn't on par with Call of Duty Modern Warfare when it comes to combat, it is still a lot of fun. Scouring the ruins of DC in first person, recognizing monuments, fighting my way block to block...this game was basically what I played the previous 2 summers. The mods can make it a lot more interesting (keeping an entire party equipped brings back memories of Baldur's gate!) was a lot of fun this summer, using the phalanx mod as well as others that spawned extra (and tougher) opponents. I had some desperate fire fights in the ruins of DC for sure. I had to serve as a combat medic, as groups of 20 super mutants (spawned by my mod) would attack my team as we exited from a sewer grate. I'm still 7 achievements short of the 72 maximum for this game, so I have no doubt that I'll be playing it again at some point.
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