Name your favorite games OTHER than Half Life

Technology and Gaming
#1

We all love Half Life, but there has to be other games you all love besides it, and I’d like to hear what and why.

Here, I’ll go first (in no order)

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 - Most people know the first game but the second is lost because it was forced out the door by poor management by LucasArts, but if you played it you’d realize that it is the superior game. Yes, you need the restored content mod to play it to the full extent, but even with out that it goes where Star Wars never has - Into reality. Obsidian got rid of the age-old formula of the light/dark dichotomy and made it all shades of grey, and worked beautifully. You get to see what the average people think of these conflicts between light and dark, and then you see the flaws in both philosophies. And let’s not forget how excellent the characters all were along with Obsidian’s awesome dialogue writing. Seriously, give this game a chance.

Fallout: New Vegas - Another obsidian game, basically same situation as above. Everyone praises Bethesda for re-invigorating Fallout as a shooter/RPG hybrid, but Obsidian got it right by putting Role playing into the game as an actual feature rather than as a pseudonym. As much as I love fallout 3, New Vegas takes the cake not only as the best Fallout, but quite possibly the Best RPG of all time.

Mass Effect 1 - Another RPG, but this is the last one. Mass Effect 1 was the best of its entire trilogy and quite possibly Bioware’s last great game. Afterwards they got in bed with EA and it all went downhill. This game truly feels like a sci fi with all of the elements from Star Wars and Star Trek we love with a quite wonderfully woven story. It’s somewhat flawed, but the flaws are exaggerated, as I thought the mako missions were fantastic in their aim to give the player the sense of exploration of the universe. Also, it may not have been original, but the execution was great. It’s sad that the following games turned into a gears of war esque third person shooter trying to cater to a “wider” audience while sacrificing story and RPG mechanics. And let’s not talk about how bad Mass Effect 3 was

Deus Ex Human Revolution - This one I don’t count as an RPG despite the dialogue choices. Truly this game is the only stealth game that gets it right other than the MGS series, and in my opinion is superior to the original in story as well. Can’t wait for Mankind Divided

Tribes - This one is pure multiplayer and the only one I’ll list. I love the classic shooters, and this one in my opinion never got the attention it deserved. I still from time to time find servers on its latest incarnation Tribes Ascend, freakin fun.

GTA V - What can beat running around a fake Los Angeles doing whatever the **** you want?

Wolfenstein: The New Order - This one is on purely because it has some of the best story execution used, I love the idea of alternate timeline and it’s the first to truly go all the way with it. Killing Nazis in a 60s-future esque environment is so awesome

Now gimme yours, what do you got? And Feel free to debate and discuss!

#2

Other games? What? I don’t understand.

#3

I’ll play ball.
No particular order, also not all top 5-worthy, just some favorites off the top of my head.

Rock Band - There’s no deep story, incredible graphics or immersive atmosphere here, but I’ve put countless hours into it over the years. It’s incredibly fun for me, and who doesn’t like music?

Fallout 3 - An incredibly detailed, rich world with a seemingly endless amount of quests, RPG elements that don’t generally just seem in the way, and extensive lore. Combine that with it’s unique , dark yet somehow upbeat atmosphere (where else can you blow away drug addicted psychos w/ laz0rz outside the crumbling capitol building while listening to upbeat 50s tunes punctuated by a spunky-as-shit radio DJ?), it’s humor and endless replay value, and you have one of the greatest games ever.

Life is Strange - I went into this expecting artsy hipster trash and came out with a game that broke years of my relatively unshaken top 5. A lovely hand-painted art style, a detailed, believable world, and the only game where I’ve actually become extremely emotionally invested, nearly attached to the characters, who are impressively detailed. Even the minor background characters have personality. Fantastic humor, nice soundtrack, excellent cast performances and an emotional roller coaster of a plot.

Penumbra: Overture & Black Plague - I throw these two together because despite some minor technical changes, they may as well be two halves of the same game. Worth mentioning that the Penumbra series is the only horror game(s) I’ve ever managed to complete, and that was largely driven because the story is just so damned nice. It’s narrative is fantastic, and the way you slowly start to learn what’s going on through examining the world is great.

Bioshock Infinite - A detailed, beautifully designed dystopia in utopian clothing to satirize United States history as the backdrop to a great plot with fun gameplay that’s not overly complex, and a lovable sidekick that’s never in the way. My jaw was sort of on the floor as the credits rolled, the game is so good. Maybe it’s only me, but I actually found it very replayable, and played it all the way through multiple times in a month.

Also GTA5 swallowed up a few of my weekends and I’m afraid to go back because I’m sure it’ll happen again and I have shit to do.

#4

I really love the Batman Arkham series

#5

Alien Isolation. Such a good game. 10/10 am actually playing again

Also, Skyrim if you have time for mods and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which I was surprised to say was a pretty awesome game. Unabashedly stealing every good idea out of popular titles is a terrible idea if you are making a movie, but apparently a pretty good idea if you are making video games.

#6

Earthbound - That game changed the way I look at some things. It’s hard to explain… but the game is just magical.

Undertale - Just finished this yesterday and it just strikes a cord that Earthbound had been able to really strike. Like seriously, it’s on Steam for $10, please go get it.

Final Fantasy VI - If this isn’t your favorite Final Fantasy, then you’re a monster. By far the best story of the whole series, as well as upstanding gameplay and amazing sprite-work. Everything in that game works fantastically together. And the music. The music.

Portal 2 - I want to put Portal also, but I’ll limit it to one per franchise. Portal 2 is the perfect puzzle game, and with a surprisingly well done story on top of amazing voice acting(but then again, Valve’s voice acting has always been awesome so no surprise there).

Fallout 3 - I have played an ungodly amount of this game. It’s terrible. Mods make a game last way longer than it should.

1917×1017

TIME TO SPEND ANOTHER 1,000+ HOURS FALLOUT 4 HERE I COME[/size]

#7

SYSTEM SHOCK 2 !

PERIOD

#8

I don’t get around to play a lot of games these days so most of my fondest memories are related to older games

Silent Hill 1-3, The Room (to some extent)
I remember clearly the first time hearing that siren, walking through that dark alley, only with a lighter, lights getting dark and the walls getting all gritty and the alley more and more confusing. That siren still gives me the creeps. Part 2 and 3 were so awesomely creepy as well, with Part 2 standing out. The surreal horror, manifestations of the characters own inner horrors…it’s all so memorable. I remember playing the games in a completely dark room until deep into the night and then - after turning out the console - lying in my bed, eyes wide open, still not believing what I just had seen and felt.
While having some strange and annoying gameplay descisions, The Room managed to be creepy as hell as well, mostly through a very uncomforting feeling of claustrophobia.

Metal Gear Solid Series
I only played parts 1 to 3 and Peace Walker. Though I understand that to some it is annoying to listen to all the overlong conversations, I always found myself impressed by the depth of thought that has been given into the games connecting it to real historic events. Also I loved the characters and bosses being somewhat superhuman. It gives the game a magical realismn. I love that. Also the way the boss fights are handled is just epic (Just think of The End in MGS 3). I’d really like to replay all these games and then getting into part 4 and 5. I just don’t have the time and the rigs :fffuuu:

Jagged Alliance 2
Ok, this is a really old one, and one that did not come to my mind straight away. But I used to play through this game like ten times or more, modding it a lot, too. I could spend days fighting myself slowly but thouroughly through the map, building better and better mercs. Since then there hasn’t been any decent entry into the series, but I know if there’d be one to come, I’d be all over it.

I guess I WOULD enjoy GTA5, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and 4 a lot. A little bit frustrating not being able to estimate when I will have the time to play through these games. With my current every-day life, I should like games that you can give a quick go - like for half an hour or so - and then quit again. But I am just into games that consume you so much…aw, a shame really. But I’m okay, dealin’ with it :freeman:

#9

In no particular order:

  1. Castlevania Symphony of the Night- I know a scary amount about this game. One of the first games to truly suck me in.

  2. Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind- best elder scrolls game IMO, such an amazing world and a story 10x better than most modern RPGs

  3. Uncharted 2- Gotta love the uncharted games, its really hard not to.

  4. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2- Gotta agree with OP. I actually prefer KOTOR 2 for its creepy atmostphere and darker storyline, but only if restored content mod is installed.

  5. The Last of Us- really shows us what story based games can be, and you know what? It was fun as hell while doing it.

#10

Rather surprisingly, I’ve become very hooked on an MMO called Aion. Somehow I’m a giant robot class in a fantasy MMO and it’s lore-justified.

#11

No particular order:

  • Halo Series

[list][]Own all the games, own all the books, can recite Cortana’s serial number from memory, the model numbers of every UNSC weapon in all the games, the Arbiter’s full name, and the opening lines of the founding document of the Covenant. I’m a hardcore Halo nerd. Sorry.
[/:m][*]Mass Effect Series

  • Toss-up between the first and last games as my favorite. Leaning toward ME1, since the gameplay was much more open-ended and the environments were much more interesting to explore. I’m assuming the patched version of the ME3 ending, of course.
    [/:m][]Command and Conquer Series
  • RIP Westwood :frowning:
  • Red Alert sub-series is my favorite, though I also enjoy a good C&C 3 or C&C Generals/Zero Hour match.
  • Favorite game out of these is Red Alert 2. Fast, good, stupid fun.
  • Excludes C&C 4. That game is a disgrace to the franchise in all ways except the soundtrack (which I’ll admit is a pretty fantastic soundtrack, but not a good enough excuse to actually buy the game, even in a sale).
    [/:m][]Any non-Treyarch Call of Duty game before, but NOT including, MW2
  • Yes, this excludes Call of Duty 3.
  • IMO the series got stupid after CoD 4, then it all just went downhill from there.
    [/:m][]Kerbal Space Program[/:m]
    [    ]Crysis Series
  • Crysis 3 maybe less than the others, but it’s still enjoyable in ways OTHER than the story, so I’m not excluding it outright.
    [/:m][]Company of Heroes Series[/:m]
    [    ]Total War: SHOGUN 2
  • This game ATE my time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. :frowning:
    [/:m][]Counter-Strike games, although I’m very rusty from inactivity these days[/*:m][/list:u]
#12

I’d say story wise my favorites are Fallout 3/NV/4 and the Mass Effect series, cause I have spent many many hours on them (maybe not FO4 yet, it’s still new) and the all have amazing lore and background to their stories that make for great history to imagine on.

Gameplay wise my favorites are Fear 1/2, CoD (the first 3), Dishonored, and MGSV, cause honestly they all have unique and interesting elements to their gameplay that I find addictive and fun.

Multiplayer wise I think I’d hafta say Day of Defeat Source, since I’m part of its community and also cause it’s probably my only multiplayer game I’ve put real time into.

My all time favorites that kinda combine everything just right (in no particular order) are Unreal (original), Max Payne 1 and 2, Fallout NV, Fallout 4, and Witcher 3.

#13

Copypasted from my favorite games list I’ve compiled ages agoOff the top of my head:

Quake
Quake II
Quake III
Doom
Doom 2
Wolfenstein 3d
Half-Life 1
Half-Life 2+Episodes
MGS1
MGS2
MGS3
W40k Dawn of Warr
Gran Turismo 4
NFSU
Shadowman
NFS High Stakes
GUNMAN CHRONICLES
RUNE
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2
Devil May Cry 3
Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks
God Hand
Comix Zone (genesis)
Any Game with music done by Matt Furniss
Postal
Postal 2
Vampire The Masqafuckingrade
Manhunt
Manhunt 2
Alan Wake
Sin
Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park : Rampage Edition
Jurassic Park : Lost World
Streets of Rage
Revenge of Shinobi
Golden Axe (genesis)
Columns
Lion King (genesis)
Eco the Dolphin
Diablo 1
Diablo 2
Fallout 1
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics
Commandos
Commandos 2
Deus Ex
LEGO FUCKING ROCK RAIDERS
Freespace
Descent
Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance & Mercenaries
Mechcommander 2
Unreal Tournament
Unreal
Witcher 3
Portal
Portal 2
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Kingpin
Prince of Persia Snads of Time
Prince of Persia Warrior Within
Battlefield 2142 (whatever the numbers were)
Brothers In Arms Road to Hill 30
Brothers in Arms Earned in Blood
С.Т.А.Л.К.Е.Р. Тень Чернобыля
Team Fortress 2
Counter Strike
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
Max Payne
Max Payne 2
Enter the Matrix
HoMM 3
C&C Tiberian Sun
C&C Red Alert 1-2
Giants - Citizen Kabuto
Sacrifice
Planescape : Torment
The Darkness
Chronicles of Riddick : EFBB
Cossacks
Rage’s Incoming
Soldier of Fortune
Wizardry 8
Jagged Alliance 2
Halo 1
Pharaoh/Cleopatra
Duke Nukem 3d
Shadow Warrior
Arcanum
Final Fantasy VIII

#14

That’s quite the list you got there.

#15

whoah man…you’re raising some serious memories here! Totally agree on most of your list. Haven’t played all of them, but these (as quoted) make my stomach tickle.

#16

I might go start with the StarCraft series because it’s definitely the first game I played ever since I’m young. With the release of Legacy of the Void, I’m definitely gonna complete it very soon…

Then, there’s Serious Sam series, a good FPS game, and I really want to tear my enemies with the Minigun, Laser and Cannon. DON’T FORGET THE SERIOUS BOMB!

Cities Skylines, another alternate to SimCity since the new SimCity gives me problems and SimCity 4 just crashes to me. OF COURSE: I did get After Dark.

Doom, one of the revolutionary game to me because it just changes the FPS genre like Half-Life. I’m always using Brutal Doom or let’s just say Project Brutality while playing this game because I want to RIP AND TEAR!!

Diablo series, also good… I only got to play Diablo 2 (and Lord of Destruction) up to Diablo 3 (and Reaper of Souls) only.

WarCraft series, I only played WarCraft III (Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne only)

Command and Conquer series, I heard it is good… I played some of them, but I really don’t want to play Red Alert 3 and Command and Conquer 4.

Portal series, I’m thinking with portals!

and more that I cannot count…

#17

My favorite games are the following (in no particular order):

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Absolutely. It was my very first fantasy RPG I’ve ever played (before this I’ve been monsly and FPS guy) and also by far the best. I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing it, both vanilla and modded. The only problem I’ve ever had with it it’s that after playing so much the savegame somehow slowly becomes corrupted, thus more and more crashes start occurring, which at a point renders the game unplayable. I even had such a broken savegame that the game crashed every 5min., which was monumentally annoying given the fact that I’ve put a massive amount of work in that character. But aside from these technical issues, the game is truly a masterpiece, a Half-Life for RPGs from my point of view. I’ve never had so much fun with a game. Obviously I also played the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLCs, which made it even better. The only letdown is that Dawnguard itself is very buggy, and certain quests are impossible to complete unless you install the Unofficial Patch for it. Unfortunately I’ve never played TES IV and III, and can’t really bring myself to do it, they feel… strange. I guess I shouldn’t have started the series with Skyrim but I don’t regret this one bit.

Batman Arkham Series - I don’t know if there are actually other Batman games like these, but anyway, they’re damn great. I can’t pick up only one and say which is better than the other with the possible exception of Origins. It’s not a bad game in any way IMO, but it isn’t delivering such a great experience and is not as enjoyable as Arkham Asylum and City. The only Batman game from the series I didn’t play is Arkham Knight, I’ve seen only a couple of walkthoughs, but that’s it. The reason for this is that the game was plagued by various glitches at release, especially performance ones, and it was just no way I could play it on my crappy system. Beside these issues, this Batman series are definitely one of the best games I’ve ever played. They also made me more open-minded to the genre because, like I said above, before these I’ve been mostly a FPS guy.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - An awful lot of people compare it with the Fallout series and they are similar in many aspects indeed, but the premise and gameplay are just too different. I personally prefer Stalker over Fallout. Yes, the Fallout games are surely awesome and I do like them, but not as much as Stalker, they’re just not my kind of games unfortunately. I like Stalker’s setting a lot more than Fallout’s, and the gameplay itself actually. I enjoy the experience this series deliver, although some are better than others and that was quite obvious from my perspective, especially in the case of Clear Sky, which is the worst in the series, although not a bad game per se. I like the seriousness of the games, the setting, gameplay, story and, simply, the overall experience they deliver. I didn’t play them so much as other games however, but even so, they’re still worthy of a place in my list of favorite games.

Dark Souls - One tough series of games right here. They’re by far the most challenging and exhausting games I’ve played recently, but also one of the most frustrating due to the way they’re made and played, and that’s exactly what I like so much at them. If I am going to play something challenging and definitely not for the average gamers, this is what I’d play. And they’re awesome games anyway.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Pretty much the only horror game that truly delivers a terrifying and nightmarish experience. I’ve never played something that scared me as much as this game, which is great :smiley: . Unfortunately IMO, the sequel didn’t live up to the expectations and wasn’t as good as the original.

Crysis - Can’t really say much about these games, I’ve recently replayed all 3 but due to the unique gameplay they’ve managed to make it into my list of favorite games.

Other games I like include the Bioshock franchise, Metro, and Witcher, but I didn’t play those game as much as the others, thus I can’t really say what I like so much at them more precisely.

#18

Very good games I’ve played (not sorted)

  • Adrenaline Gamer
  • Prey
  • Quake 1 & 2 (Singleplayer was lots of fun, also Quakeworld duel and ffa is very good)
  • Doom 1 & 2 (Doom 3 is ok, too…)
  • HeXen
  • Painkiller (original or PK++ promod)
  • Quake 3 CPMA
  • Reflex
  • Unreal
  • Unreal Tournament 99
  • Call of Duty 4 Promod
  • CoD: Modern Warfare 2 (Singleplayer and Coop was fun… I also had lots of fun with it’s multiplayer back in the days.)
  • Goldeneye 007
  • Tomb Raider Aniversary
  • Uncharted 2
  • C&C Red Alert 2
  • StarCraft 2
  • Max Payne 2 & 3… (Still have to play the first one… )
#19

Red Alert 3 isn’t as good as Red Alert 2 in my opinion, but I still think it’s a solid game in its own right. It plays very differently from the other Red Alert games, but not in a terrible way. There’s a certain rhythm to the game that makes it unique among C&C games, I feel.

C&C 4 is just terrible in all ways except the soundtrack, which is fantastic, but not a good enough excuse to actually buy the game, even in a sale. Never waste your money on that trash.

#20

Bastion.
The Binding of Isaac.
Left 4 Dead.
FEZ.
Dishonored.
Mass Effect (the first one).

And I’ve got a soft spot for the Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank series on PlayStation, even though neither of them is that Earth-shattering.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.