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Basically, posts should be a two-parter. First, the moments in games that will stick with you forever. Second, games you recommend.
My first night in Minecraft. It was the first time ever I had played a game that wasn't Sonic, Mario, or Yoshi, and my first time playing a PC game. So basically, Minecraft was my gateway game.
I had been vaguely aware of how to play Minecraft, as several of my friends had played it, and I was warned to watch out for the night.
I didn't manage my time carefully enough, and spent my first night in Minecraft in a 2 by 1 hole going: "WHAT IS THAT SOUND? IS THAT A SPIDER? THERE ARE SPIDERS IN THIS GAME? NOT COOL!"
The dark brotherhood quest 'Whodunnit?' puts you in a slasher film where YOU are the monster. (Read: They lock you in a house with 5 other people you have to kill, and make it look like it isn't you that did it.)
I had so much fun, I wish they made a full game out of it. (I'm not sure how they could, as I imagine it'd be a very short game, but I'd play it twice.)
In Black Mesa, I had managed to end up weaponless for the first hour. My theory is that the guard I was supposed to take the first gun from died before I could get to him. I got a gun after that, but it quickly ran out of bullets. And the crowbar you were supposed to get was stuck in a door. I still had to get to the crowbar.
With the more terrifying Half-life 2 zombies having taken the place of the half-life 1 zombies (As it's a remake of half-life), I decided to veto that, crawl into a vent, and hide there for about 20 minutes.
I'll admit, I wasn't a big Batman fan before the games converted me. (After them, I bought the movies, and have put other Batman stuff on my list to look at.)
But, the very first room where you have to take down the henchmen one-by-one was amazing. (Even without The Joker's running commentary, which makes subsequent rooms even better.) I found, if you drag it out long enough, the henchmen started shooting at the pipes when they made sound, absolutely terrified of you.
You were the monster.
And of course, the Scarecrow scenes, especially the third one. The fact it was not only playing on Batman's fears, but yours (by mimicking a 'game crash' before the sequence started) was amazing.
I'll keep this spoiler-free if you just happened not to know, but the death of a major character in Fallout 3 was crushing, and really gave the game an emotional weight I didn't expect.
I almost feel this goes without saying for anyone who has played Half-Life 2, but yes, Ravenholm will forever be in mydreams. nightmares.
Along with Father Grigori.
Skyrim, if you haven't touched it, is well worth it for RPGers.
The Portal games, and the half-life games. The entire series of half-life, including Blue Shift and Opposing Force.
The Stanley Parable and Decay Half-life mods. I love these so much I'm considering teaching them in class some-day.
The Stanley Parable: You play a person named Stanley, who has been doing a blue-collar job, until he realizes he hasn't seen anyone. From there, the game entirely changes depending on whether or not you decide to listen to the narrator, who gets more and more irate if he realizes you aren't listening to him.
Decay: This follows the story of a person from childhood to adulthood, culminating in the possible decision about whether or not to kill yourself. It's dark. It's pretentious. It's good.
The Basement Collection: Particularly Time Fcuk and Anti-Matter.
Anti-Matter is a shooter-style game where you fight various mental illnesses. The first level is stress, the next is anxiety, and so on.
Time Fcuk is just... a weird game. It's basically a puzzle platformer game where you spend the entire time talking to you from the future... who is always just one room ahead of you.
I was expecting very little from the Assassin's Creed series, Batman Arkham series, and Dishonored. (Because I live under a rock, for the cases of some of these.)
They're well worth it. Dishonored is a completely different game depending on how you play it, which is something I quite enjoy in games. You can play it as pure stealth, or you can kill everything in your path. (For a game that discourages the kill everything in your path method, it can be surprisingly gorey.)
I wasn't expecting Assassin's Creed to be as smart as it was, or as fun as it was. I wholeheartedly recommend Assassin's Creed 2 as the starting point for the series, even though I greatly enjoy the graphics decisions in AsCred1.
As for Batman Arkham Asylum/City... I wasn't expecting it to be nearly as much fun as it was. Zero Punctuation accused it of cheesy writing, but if the writing was cheesy, I bought it. The actors sold every bit of it. I admit disliking how much harder the riddler trophies are to get in City, but that's more of a lazy nitpicking complaint than a game-ruining one.
Anodyne: Its visual style is a lot like Pokemon. I'll admit to not having finished the game just yet, but I'm pretty much right in the middle. What I can say from this point is: It's got a dark sense of humour (sometimes it is just plain dark), more than happy to make fun of itself (and you), and it is very interesting. I feel those who have played a lot more games in this style than just Pokemon are going to love it more than I do.
Poker Night 2: It's a poker night between Sam (and Max making commentary on Sam) from Sam and Max, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros, Ash Williams from the original Evil Dead series, and Claptrap from Borderlands. You are one of Valve's patented Silent Protagonists. Best part? GLADOS is the dealer.
Shift: This is the only free game on my list (last I checked.) It's like Time Fcuk. It uses white space, and you can press the shift button to switch between the white space and the black space. It's also run by a person similar to GLADOS.
Antichamber: An anti-puzzle game. It's extremely philosophical, and you won't know what to expect from it.
Audiosurf: This introduced me to the whole 'music-shaped-games' genre, which I was more than happy to be introduced to. This one is a racer game. You load it with a song you like, then you get to play through a world developed around the song you gave it.
Finally, a game to keep an eye on: Project Zomboid. The idea is to make the most realistic zombie game out there. I have played the game as-is, but if they get multiplayer working, and the ability to keep playing the game as a zombie, I am sold a million times over. And, it is coming to Steam. (Eventually. It was greenlit, but I think they want to put another update out before putting it on Steam.)
Immortal Gaming Moments:
1: Minecraft
My first night in Minecraft. It was the first time ever I had played a game that wasn't Sonic, Mario, or Yoshi, and my first time playing a PC game. So basically, Minecraft was my gateway game.
I had been vaguely aware of how to play Minecraft, as several of my friends had played it, and I was warned to watch out for the night.
I didn't manage my time carefully enough, and spent my first night in Minecraft in a 2 by 1 hole going: "WHAT IS THAT SOUND? IS THAT A SPIDER? THERE ARE SPIDERS IN THIS GAME? NOT COOL!"
2: Oblivion: Dark Brotherhood: Whudunnit
The dark brotherhood quest 'Whodunnit?' puts you in a slasher film where YOU are the monster. (Read: They lock you in a house with 5 other people you have to kill, and make it look like it isn't you that did it.)
I had so much fun, I wish they made a full game out of it. (I'm not sure how they could, as I imagine it'd be a very short game, but I'd play it twice.)
3: Black Mesa: Running and Hiding
In Black Mesa, I had managed to end up weaponless for the first hour. My theory is that the guard I was supposed to take the first gun from died before I could get to him. I got a gun after that, but it quickly ran out of bullets. And the crowbar you were supposed to get was stuck in a door. I still had to get to the crowbar.
With the more terrifying Half-life 2 zombies having taken the place of the half-life 1 zombies (As it's a remake of half-life), I decided to veto that, crawl into a vent, and hide there for about 20 minutes.
4: The Batman Arkham Series: Stealth and Scarecrow
I'll admit, I wasn't a big Batman fan before the games converted me. (After them, I bought the movies, and have put other Batman stuff on my list to look at.)
But, the very first room where you have to take down the henchmen one-by-one was amazing. (Even without The Joker's running commentary, which makes subsequent rooms even better.) I found, if you drag it out long enough, the henchmen started shooting at the pipes when they made sound, absolutely terrified of you.
You were the monster.
And of course, the Scarecrow scenes, especially the third one. The fact it was not only playing on Batman's fears, but yours (by mimicking a 'game crash' before the sequence started) was amazing.
5: Fallout 3: His death.
I'll keep this spoiler-free if you just happened not to know, but the death of a major character in Fallout 3 was crushing, and really gave the game an emotional weight I didn't expect.
6: Half-Life 2: Ravenholm.
I almost feel this goes without saying for anyone who has played Half-Life 2, but yes, Ravenholm will forever be in my
Along with Father Grigori.
Now, for game recommendations:
The Obvious:
Skyrim, if you haven't touched it, is well worth it for RPGers.
The Portal games, and the half-life games. The entire series of half-life, including Blue Shift and Opposing Force.
The pretentious:
The Stanley Parable and Decay Half-life mods. I love these so much I'm considering teaching them in class some-day.
The Stanley Parable: You play a person named Stanley, who has been doing a blue-collar job, until he realizes he hasn't seen anyone. From there, the game entirely changes depending on whether or not you decide to listen to the narrator, who gets more and more irate if he realizes you aren't listening to him.
Decay: This follows the story of a person from childhood to adulthood, culminating in the possible decision about whether or not to kill yourself. It's dark. It's pretentious. It's good.
The Basement Collection: Particularly Time Fcuk and Anti-Matter.
Anti-Matter is a shooter-style game where you fight various mental illnesses. The first level is stress, the next is anxiety, and so on.
Time Fcuk is just... a weird game. It's basically a puzzle platformer game where you spend the entire time talking to you from the future... who is always just one room ahead of you.
It Surprised Me:
I was expecting very little from the Assassin's Creed series, Batman Arkham series, and Dishonored. (Because I live under a rock, for the cases of some of these.)
They're well worth it. Dishonored is a completely different game depending on how you play it, which is something I quite enjoy in games. You can play it as pure stealth, or you can kill everything in your path. (For a game that discourages the kill everything in your path method, it can be surprisingly gorey.)
I wasn't expecting Assassin's Creed to be as smart as it was, or as fun as it was. I wholeheartedly recommend Assassin's Creed 2 as the starting point for the series, even though I greatly enjoy the graphics decisions in AsCred1.
As for Batman Arkham Asylum/City... I wasn't expecting it to be nearly as much fun as it was. Zero Punctuation accused it of cheesy writing, but if the writing was cheesy, I bought it. The actors sold every bit of it. I admit disliking how much harder the riddler trophies are to get in City, but that's more of a lazy nitpicking complaint than a game-ruining one.
Games for geeks:
Anodyne: Its visual style is a lot like Pokemon. I'll admit to not having finished the game just yet, but I'm pretty much right in the middle. What I can say from this point is: It's got a dark sense of humour (sometimes it is just plain dark), more than happy to make fun of itself (and you), and it is very interesting. I feel those who have played a lot more games in this style than just Pokemon are going to love it more than I do.
Poker Night 2: It's a poker night between Sam (and Max making commentary on Sam) from Sam and Max, Brock Samson from The Venture Bros, Ash Williams from the original Evil Dead series, and Claptrap from Borderlands. You are one of Valve's patented Silent Protagonists. Best part? GLADOS is the dealer.
The Three 'indie' games:
Shift: This is the only free game on my list (last I checked.) It's like Time Fcuk. It uses white space, and you can press the shift button to switch between the white space and the black space. It's also run by a person similar to GLADOS.
Antichamber: An anti-puzzle game. It's extremely philosophical, and you won't know what to expect from it.
Audiosurf: This introduced me to the whole 'music-shaped-games' genre, which I was more than happy to be introduced to. This one is a racer game. You load it with a song you like, then you get to play through a world developed around the song you gave it.
Finally, a game to keep an eye on: Project Zomboid. The idea is to make the most realistic zombie game out there. I have played the game as-is, but if they get multiplayer working, and the ability to keep playing the game as a zombie, I am sold a million times over. And, it is coming to Steam. (Eventually. It was greenlit, but I think they want to put another update out before putting it on Steam.)
, and tried it out, with a friend or two drifting in and out, watching me play. I quickly settled into a Pac-zen mood or something, and discovered that I was actually better on the fast version than the normal, slower one o_O
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