An Indepth Look Into A Geek's Soul

The return of the top ten is a glorius thing indeed.  This one has been brought you to by a request from Joel, which I was only to happy to oblige.  The names of each of the games is a link to a video which represents the trailer (or closest I could find to one).  WIthout further ado, lets dive into the list.

Number Ten:  Elder Scrolls IV:  Obilivion

Starting off the list this week is Oblivion, the huge, open world RPG by Bethesda.  Why is this ranked number ten?  Well, it has mostly to do with the fact that it is open ended.  Something tells me that if this game was more themepark, I would enjoy it a slight bit more.  As it is, I tend to get lost doing all manner of quests that has absolutely nothing to do with the storyline.  Makes the game drag to a crawl at points, which is probably why I've never finished it.  However, this game is simply gorgeous to look at and a thrill to play.  Your character can be whatever you want it to be.  I always go for the more sword-and-board style of character myself, but I've made up a pure magic use that probably hasn't attacked once in the game with anything resembling a weapon.  Even if you get tired of how your character plays, you can start using completely different skills and change your armored warrior into a holy cleric that does nothing but heal.  You might level up a bit slowly, but it is more than possible to do that multiple times in a single game.  All in all, this game is fantastic, and it never seems to get old, no matter how many times I reload it onto my computer.

Number Nine:  World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is on the list because it is the one game that has gotten me hooked on a whole new genre of video games.  While WoW wasn't my first MMO, it was the first one that got me to pay for it.  And pay I did.  I have probably put more money into WoW throughout the various years than I have in any other series of video games that currently exists.  There is just something about WoW that keeps me coming back for me.  I think it's the idea of being able to have an effect not only on the game world, but also on other people who play the game.  I'm not just some guy saving Westfall from the Defias.  I'm a guy that is keeping my entire team alive by soaking up as much damage as I possibly can.  It's one of those games that builds teamwork, whether you want it to or not.  True, I do perfer to do mostly solo missions in the game, which is totally fine, but it is nice to know that when you need someone to help you get through a dungeon, there are plenty of people that will have your back.

Number Eight:  Final Fantasy X

Coming in at number eight is Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2.  This one I debated on for a long time, because I have long held that Final Fantasy VIII was my favorite game in the series (well, that I've played at least).  However, I think FFX beats it.  It could be that I was just more involved with this game than I was in the other one, but there is something about the game that is just captivating.  Even after being out for all of these years, you are looking at a game that still holds my interest when I pick it up again.  Have I completely destoryed it like Joel has?  No, I don't put that much time into most of my games.  However, I have picked up a legendary weapon or two along the way and have played countless hours of blitzball in the process.  The game is the pinacle of what makes an RPG, Japanese or not, worth playing.  Sure, the company might have made a mistake in making a sequel to it, but hey, everyone makes mistakes.

Number Seven: Mass Effect

Mass Effect managed to take a genre I feel so-so about, add in the right amount of RPG elements, sprinkle in some game altering choices, and come out a game that I absolutely love.  The game is primarily a third person shooter, though there are some times when you want to go first person.  Normally third person shooters are tough to control, but this one was never troublesome.  In fact, the only trouble I have with the game is that I feel like I have to play it twelve times over to see all the parts the game has to offer.  Choices include whether to exterminate an entire alien race, who to fall in love with, and which character you have leveled up to die.  This game really made me think hard about what consequences my typicaly goody goody choices might have in the future, mostly because there are no right and wrong answers to any of these.  I haven't played the sequel(s) yet, but all the choices, including who died, transfers over from one game to the next.  That level of immersion and attention to detail is something that keeps me coming back to this game time and time again.

Number Six:  Age of Empires II

Age of Empires II is hands down my favorite RTS.  Now, I understand that most people would declare Warcraft of Starcraft as the superior item, but seeing as how I have never played them (though Starcraft 2 looks sweet), they are not even in the running.  This game made the learning process nice and even for a relaitve newbie into the games, and I think that's what got me hooked in the first place.  The campaigns were horrendously hard to me, so I never much bothered with them but I would play random matchs all day long.  Plus, there were plenty of easily available cheats for the game, which made doing some simply crazy things easy to do.  I still remember walling off an entire island, just because I could.  Probably my favorite thing to do with the game though was destory an enemies town center then build a castle in its place.  It gives you that right amount of glory while still fortifying the surrounding area.  Makes me want to load up the game even as I type this up.

Number Five:  Timesplitters Future Perfect

The only true first person shooter on the list, Timesplitters Future Perfect is one of those games that drew me in not because of any deep gameplay or awesome story, but simply because it is fun to play.  The last (so far at least) game in the series brought everything that I enjoyed about Timesplitters 2 and added in a humorous, if rather average story.  The mutliplayer aspect of the game is what drew me in, spending hours in this game with Steven, just trying to slaughter as many computer opponents as possible.  Of course, he was the better of the two of us, but that is to be expected.  I still remembering trying to collect all the various characters you can unlock (something well over 100) and Beheading the Undead with shotguns.  Until I added Killzone 3 to my game collection, this was my only first person shooter in my possession.  It is still my favorite.

Number Four:  Champions:  Return toArms

This one was a tough choice to be honest.  I hold Champions:  Return to Arms on the same level as Baulder's Gate Dark Alliance 2.  They are both awesome games that I never get tired of playing.  However, when I think back during my time in highschool and early college, this game is the one that sticks out more.  It was probably because I remember playing this almost every single weekend with at least Steve, if not Chad and Joel as well.  Our team was essentially unstoppable, even with Chad falling into every pit that there was.  The amount of items in this game was awe inspiring.  You could play through the game multiple times (which we did) and not use the same set up of armor and weapons in each one.  While the story was kind of weak (DA2 wins in that particular regard), playing it with friends more than makes up for that.  Plus, being able to go one on one against Joel's maxed out elven ranger was always a fun, if short lived, adventure.

Number Three: Sim City

Sim City for the SNES is the first game I remember falling in love with.  Who would have thought that city planning would be a thing that would interest a young boy?  Well it did, and is probably the reason I love world building in DnD.  It's just so open.  This is easily my favorite sandbox game, and my favorite of the series.  Yes, the other games got more sophisticated in what you could do and more complex in what you had to control, but I think this game blows them all away.  I still remember playing on good old map 696 for hours on end.  I played that game until I hit a century in game time, which took forever.  Then my sister deleted my file because she was pissed at me.  It was a fairly terrible day in my young life.  Needs to say, I've picked up this game from time to time when I could get my SNES working and just build a town and watch it grow.  Nothing more is needed.  Just watching the city change could easily eat up an entire afternoons.  Definitely a must have.  Also, it's free to play now on the sim city website, but only if you have a really old computer.  Alas, my fancy new one is too much for it.

Number Two:  Civilization III

  The mighty and expansive Civilization series is one that I launched into a long, long time ago.  I want to say Civ II was the first computer game I ever bought.  I still have no idea why this gem caught my eye, but I'm glad I did.  When the sequel came out, I was even happier.  They added so many revolution ideas, the favorite of mine being the idea of culture.  With increased culture meant you have larger boarders and if you have enough culture you could actually acquire whole towns and civilizations!  There is nothing like taking over the entire world with art and literature.  I played this game to death, and I've even loaded it up on my current computer just to try it out.  It definitely shows its age, but that's okay.  It is still my favorite one to play, even if Civ V has the better mechanics.

Number One:  Pokemon Black

Yes, Pokemon Black is my favorite game I've ever played.  It takes everything that I love about the Pokemon series and updates, makes it new, and perfects a tried and true formula they've used since the first pokemon games first came out in Japan all those years ago.  Pokemon Black is the only pokemon game where I haven't restarted the file countless times over, which is something of a miracle.  I find that I still have enough stuff to do once the Elite Four has been defeated that I don't want to start over.  Well, I did try to start over once, on a ROM that I downloaded, but that was only because I wanted to trade and battle over wifi.  Alas, this is not possible with the ROM I have either, but oh well.  I will continue playing my cartridge version, and maybe just going down to the school more often to get my trade or battle on.  I may only have 74+ hours of gameplay in Pokemon Black, but this will be the game where I catch them all.  Also, here's a bonus video for you guys.  It's a video of a Magikarp sweeping a team of legendary pokemon.  Enjoy.

So there you have, my top ten favorite video games.  This list changes all the time of course.  For instanced, I'm sure the Old Republic will move up to the top three places easily when released, as will Skyrim if I ever get my hands on it.  Until then, that's that.

Peace Out.