The 7th generation is coming rapidly to a close. With the Playstation 4 and Xbox One having been released, it is only a matter of time until game releases for the 360 and PS3 dry up and people pack away these machines in closets, attics, and garages. So I decided to look back at the games that I loved the most. The list goes down in descending order.
Starting off this list at Number 10. Dark Souls was one of those games that I heard nothing but praise and anger for. I watched videos about it and was really interested in it. The difficulty scared me away however, and I never gave it a chance. That was until Load Your Last Souls began in 2013. After watching two videos, I went out and got a copy. It was rough in the beginning, but the more I played it, the more I got comfortable with the way it played. The more comfortable I got, the more I explored around the world. And what a gorgeous world it is. I'm usually not one for the fantasy setting, but the look of the enemies and bosses were outstanding. I was always excited going into a new area just to see what I was going to attempt to take down next. The idea of the multiplayer was definitely different. I only ever used it once, and was real hesitant in doing it. I needed help in defeating Ornstein and Smough, however. So after summoning a player and fighting our way to the arena, we proceeded to crush them. It was so awesome to pull off a mess of teamwork without any form of communication other than the taunt system and just going on instinct. In the end, I was astonished that I ended up beating the game in the span of two and a half months and now, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Dark Souls 2.
Number 9 on my list. Syndicate was an incredible First Person Shooter experience placed in an awesome cyberpunk setting. While I loved the single player campaign, the real bread and butter for me was the multiplayer. A mixture of co-op and competitive gameplay, it was something that was well executed and had a deep system of researching upgrades for your weapons. I feel it was better than "Left 4 Dead" and that I could get really into it. The only reason I never played more of it though, was because not a lot of people bought it and it was hard to find a full room. It's such a great game and it's a shame that we will never see a sequel. Also, Miles Kilo is an AMAZING name.
Chain-sawing into Number 8. Gears Of War 3 was a game that actually did something not a lot of trilogies did. It closed the book on the main story arc and gave you the feeling that you had successfully completed everything there was to complete story wise. Not only that, but it looked awesome. Gone was the brown and dull grey surroundings that plagued the first two games and traded it in for very colorful areas with forests, deserts, and abandoned cities. But the true reason why I loved this game, is that I got real deep into the multiplayer. This was the first shooter I got invested in from a competitive aspect. It was a rewarding feeling roadie running behind someone and blowing that person into a gibbed up mess with the Sawed-Off. Doubly so, when you killed two or more in one shot. And the way Epic revamped Horde Mode was a smart addition with upgradable decoys, barricades, and turrets. What a great game, for the end of an important trilogy.
Now to Number 7 on this list. Mass Effect 2 is, without a doubt, the strongest entry in the franchise. It blended the RPG elements that made Mass Effect great and changed the shooting style to make it even better than the original. The story was also great. Commander Shepard, in an effort to stop a mysterious race called the "Collectors", has to go around the galaxy to recruit his own misfit death squad to uncover the truth and stop the universe from dying off. What truly made this game for me was the cast of characters you befriended and the loyalty missions associated with said characters. Every time I recruited another person, I would immediately head to them in the ship and talk their ears off. Bioware really out did themselves in the rich backstories for these characters and for that, M.E.2 deserves to make it on my list.
It's time to oil up for Number 6. Street Fighter IV got me back into seriously devoting time into fighting games again. I played hundreds of hours just piledriving everything in my path. Then this game came along and made me devote even more time into the franchise. Super Street Fighter IV is where this game reached its peak, I feel. Not only did it have the original eight warriors, but it also included fighters from Alpha, Street Fighter III, and two brand new fighters into the mix. The online, while janky at times, was still amazing. It was a blending of new and old that made me enjoy this game while it lasted. It was also great to get hate mail for beating people with the greatest fighter around. The Olive Oil King, HAKAN!
Hitting the half way point of my list. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition was my favorite fighting game of this generation. The people at Iron Galaxy really outdid themselves with this HD remake of one of my all-time favorite games. I had own 3rd Strike on the Dreamcast and played it for HOURS against the CPU. Then I did the same when the it came out as part of the Anniversary Collection when it was released for the Xbox. Fast forward to 2011 when it was announced that Capcom was going to bring back S.F.III with online support. After hearing this news, I flipped out with glee that I was going to finally be able to fight real people instead of the CPU. I hooked up my original Xbox, dug out my copy of the Anniversary Collection, and knocked the ring rust off my Q game. I was so thrilled when it came out to fight against people, that I didn't care if I lost. I wanted that tense competition against people who felt the same way about this game that I did. In the end, I did really well with my main man (robot?), Q. and when I stopped playing it, I ended up with my best W/L record in any fighting game to date.
Crawling out of the Vault at Number 4, comes the game that convinced me to buy a 360. Watching videos of Fallout 3 sold me on how awesome video games were becoming. I'm a sucker for a post-apocalypse setting in any media. Seeing a war torn Washington D.C. sent an alarm through my mind that I had to play this game. I had little knowledge of the past Fallout games, but knew enough that I had a good chance of enjoying it. I was instantly hooked when I escaped Vault 101 and saw the vast wasteland around me to explore. And explore, I did. In my first play through, I spent a little over 120 hours searching every nook and cave I could find, finishing every side quest I ran across, and killed many creatures and bandits that crossed my path. I even created a new character and spent another 100+ hours going through the game with nothing but Unarmed weapons and making the most dastardly, evil choices that popped up. While the main story was average at best, It was the side quests and the majority of the DLC that made this game so memorable for me.
Taking the bronze medal at Number 3, is Metro: Last Light. I was so happy that after playing Metro 2033 so much (more on that later), that 4A Games was able to make a sequel to a game that gained a strong cult following. Back in the role of the nearly silent protagonist, Artyom. You must try and stop an oncoming war that will tear the Metro and it's denizens apart with the aid of old friends and new acquaintances alike. This game improved on the shooting, graphics, and feel of its predecessor in every way. The redesigns of the creatures were not only scary, but beautiful. The new monsters are also skin crawlingly worthy of that universe. The first time I was on my own in a room covered in sticky webs and hearing huge, hairy mutant spiders crawling around, I was floored at how well the atmosphere made me feel. I felt like I was about to commit suicide by running in that room. Every station you come across feels very different from the last one you came from, which is a testament to the story writers for creating such a lively world out of something as mundane as subway stations. Not only that, but the times you make your way to the surface is some of the best level design I have ever come across. The story is also great, but not as good as 2033. The only thing I have a gripe with, is that Ranger Mode is something you had to get by pre-ordering the game, or just straight up buying it on Xbox Live/PSN. However, in Metro 2033, it was a free download via a patch. Ranger Mode is THE way to play this game and having it locked behind a pay wall seems like you are denying an intricate part of the game to the people who want a full, immersive experience. Other than that, this is a damn good game.
I'll be honest. When I received Battlefield 3 through a random drawing from my co-worker getting rid of games he never played, I was initially letdown that I got this game. I wasn't really a fan of the modern military genre of shooters and I was still going strong in Gears 3 to even care about Battlefield 3. Then a month passed and I was starting to get burned out of Gears. I just happened to see it sitting on top of my pile and thought, "Eh, why not?". I jumped in a match as a Recon, got my first long distance headshot, and fell in love. I never would've even imagined that for long stretches of time, Battlefield 3 would be the only game I would ever play. This game really killed a lot of time in my life and I never regretted any of it. What made the experience better though, was that my cousin and his friend were already playing this game almost non-stop at the time. Getting together to 'Squad Up' and wrecking everything and everyone in our path was just a great experience that only Battlefield could bring to the table. The amount of time, and Hard Drive space used to play this game still shocks me even today and far surpassed Gears of War 3 as my favorite online shooter.
Now it's time to descend back into the Moscow Metro System for my Number 1 game of the 7th generation. So, here's a funny story. I started playing this game and was liking it. Then I went up to the surface for the first time and I loved it. Then I came across a glitch where every enemy was invincible, and I became so angry at it, that I put it in the box and threw it across the room. It ended up breaking the game case in the process. It left such a bad taste in my mouth, that I put it behind my pile of games so I didn't have to see it. There it stayed, collecting dust. One year later, I was tired of the games I had and none of the new games that came out didn't interest me. Looking at the pile, I noticed it was a bit lopsided and found the broken case containing Metro. Out of desperation, I popped it in. A patch downloaded, I played up to the part that was glitched, and it was fixed. So I decided to keep on playing and ended up loving it so much, that I played it close to 20 times and it became the first game I ever unlocked all the achievements for. I couldn't get enough of this bleak world and the wonderfully gloomy and oppressive atmosphere. The story had me hooked with Artyom traveling across the entire Metro to defend his home station from the Dark Ones. The characters were unique and great to interact with. While the creatures and human enemies offered different strategies when it came to combat, or the lack there of, if you decided to be stealthy. And the bullet economy was not only a neat idea, but also could help or hurt you depending on what difficulty you were playing the game at. A lot of people had issues about how the guns felt inaccurate, but I found it fitting. Artyom wasn't a trained mercenary, he was a normal guy. The subtle way the Moral System was implemented was also great. It was so subtle, that I accidentally unlocked the "good" ending. Which brings up maybe one of my favorite things about this game. The "bad" ending ended up being the true ending. As a man who likes bad endings and tragic heroes, this game became, far and away, my absolute favorite game in the 7th generation.
