by marino
I've whittled it down to the Top 25, and I think that's the best I can do.
List can include games from:
Only one game per franchise can be on the list.
Showing 1-10 of 25 items
Mass Effect 2 was an easy choice for my #1 spot for many reasons, but there really isn't much left to be said about it.
I've logged well over 200 hours in the northern reaches of Tamriel and I honestly wish their had been more DLC. I'm gonna miss my wood elf rogue for the next few years.
Rock Band is special. For a long, long time, it was the go-to game whenever people were over or even when I lugged it all to someone else's place. So many great memories from the series as a whole (including playing on stage at Harmonix's PAX Rock Band night twice), and RB3 really was the culmination of everything that is/was great about music games. Also, on a personal level, I never could get good at Guitar Hero, but, somehow, I learned to play drums quite well, which allowed me to finally join in and contribute.
I love Assassin's Creed. Yeah, all of it. Even the first one. Yep, even III. While I will not argue with anyone who says Brotherhood is the best, I went with II because A) it's really great, B) it was was such a huge leap over what was presented in the first game, and C) that mindfuck at the end!
I played the last 80% of Uncharted 2 in one sitting that ended somewhere around 3:30 AM. For one, there was no real stopping point, but I didn't want to stop anyway. Just amazing from beginning to end.
I'm an MK from the beginning. My late best friend and I used to make index cards with moves lists on them and take them to the arcade while trying to figure out fatalities and whatnot. This was a pre-Internet world, you fetuses! And MK9 just tapped into all that nostalgia by masterfully retelling MK 1-3 with some crazy twists and turns. MK9 also sets the standard in terms of single player content in fighting games.
Everything about Dragon Age Origins was right up my alley. I played through all of the origin stories, but ended up spending the majority of my time (over 100 hours) as the city elf. Side note: Leliana's voice.
Fable II is probably the closest Peter Molyneux has come to achieving his grandiose visions and promises. It's such a whimsical, goofy, and sometimes dark world to be in and just downright fun to play.
I didn't really have much interest in The Walking Dead until someone told me that the main character was from my hometown of Macon, GA and that most of the first episode takes place there. Well, I'm glad someone told me that, because that was a hell of a ride for the six months or so that those episodes covered. Is it weird to like a game so much when all it does is kick you in the teeth every 20 minutes? Oh well.
It's astounding that such a small crew of people could come right out of the gate with their first game and make something this incredible. Every aspect of this game is excellent; the combat, the story, the narrator, and especially the soundtrack, which I still listen to often.
