Best Computer Game..

[robbieboy]

Re: Best Computer Game..

'Wizball' for the Commodore Amiga.

Crazy game man, haven't thought of it since i was a kid, not sure if it's the best but certainly one of the most unique and bizarre.

[sally 1973]

Re: Best Computer Game..

cannon fodder on the amiga.

[spuggybridge]

Re: Best Computer Game..

It's got to be Nodes of Yesod on the speccy, after 26 years i still play it and can't complete it.
Closely followed by The Chaos Engine (Amiga, completed) and Serious SAM and its spin offs (Pc, completed)

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

I wouldn't even know where to start, I've played so many great games the list would be 100 games long.

[darren]

Re: Best Computer Game..

I wouldn't even know where to start, I've played so many great games the list would be 100 games long.

go on give it a go.

just a few i love.
OCARINA OF TIME.
link to the past.
mario 1.2.3.
super metroid
mario world
yoshis island.
jet set willy
renegade 1,2.
MK 1,2.3.

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Mortal Kombat? You're having a laugh with those? They were rubbish when they came out. lol

If you have a Nintendo 3DS you might want to know they just re-released Ocarina of Time with completely new graphics, new areas and 3D. I'll probably get it when my current pile of shame goes down.

[darren]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Mortal Kombat? You're having a laugh with those? They were rubbish when they came out. lol

If you have a Nintendo 3DS you might want to know they just re-released Ocarina of Time with completely new graphics, new areas and 3D. I'll probably get it when my current pile of shame goes down.

fantastic they where and still are.

Ok some like JSW
are very basic.
but for me the very basic games are amongst the very best.

ill not get the new oot the original is the best.

graphics and 3d is a waste of time to me.

to many people worry about graphics.
some of the greatest games like SM are nothing in terms of graphics yet its a legendary game and the best in the series to me.

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

We'll just have to agree to disagree on the MK front. I think they are terrible and poorly executed as far as 1 on 1 fighters go.

Graphics are a funny thing. If the game was made in 2D then chances are it's still playable to this very day. 3D games on the other hand tend to age very badly. I doubt you could play a modern 3D game and then go back to Ocarina and say it holds up, because from a gameplay perspective it really doesn't. It's just the rosetints coming into play there, I know I've loved games and then gone back to play only to have my heart broken over it. Design teams are learning all the time and videogames are one of the few fields of entertainment where year in year out the output gets better and better. You cannot say that about any other media. I'd go as far as saying 99.9% of Playstation, Saturn, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube games would be so hard to play now just because of how they were programmed and designed, coupled with how they look. The reasoning behind this is that 3D graphics took time to find their feet, artists and designers had to think in new ways of getting them to work. 2D graphics had been going for 20 odd years by the time 3D was widely introduced, and it's only now that 3D games are getting to the point where they work as well as the 2D ones did all those years back.

Good graphics often gets mistaken for good art design, which is another argument entirely. There is a world of difference between good graphics or good art design (Rez, Okami, Parappa the Rapper, Jet Set Radio and Katamari Damacy) and realistic graphics or generic art design (Any first person shooter on the market at the minute). Both styles have their place in game design, but we all have out preferences.

I can at least agree with Link to the Past though. That game is immaculate and it never gets old despite it being released on the SNES. If I do a list that one will definitely be in there.

[Wil]

Re: Best Computer Game..

I think you're right about 3D dating more quickly than 2D but I don't think I'd go as far as to say nearly all pre 360/PS3 and Wii 3D games are unplayable. The graphics might be more detailed now but control methods and how the player navigates the 3D space haven't advanced much beyond those PS1/Saturn days (discounting motion-controls).

I agree about Mortal Kombat, though. Rubbish then, rubbish now.

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

I like to play old games as much as new games. I recently replayed Pikmin on the Nintendo Gamecube and for a lot of it I was wrestling the controls. Before that I played Metal Arms: Glitch in the System and it was the same story. The controls are more or less the same, but today they are much more fluid and don't get in the way of the game.

If you look at the Pokemon games you will notice that the game mechanics have not changed at all hardly, but from the old red/blue generation where you had to go into menus to do everything where as in gold/silver doing stuff like surf or strength could be done in the playing area. They made it so that you could assign equipment like the bike and fishing rod to a button so you didn't have to go into menus each time you wanted to use them. I know these are not in 3D, but it's the best series I can think of where you can see the evolution of the design being streamlined.

It is this interface streamlining I am referring to that holding back older games compared to their newer counterparts. If you look back, all the 3D games that are still enjoyable are the simpler titles where there is little design decisions to go wrong. If that makes any sense?

[Wil]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Yep, what you say does make sense. However I still don't see that much of a progression of 3D controls unless you go back to the early PS1/N64 days (unless, like I said, you include motion controls). I must admit to never having a problem with Pikmin's controls and I've played that and many other Gamecube/PS2/Dreamcast era games recently.

And being able to assign items to buttons only comes about because the DS had more buttons. It's not just an evolution of the game design. After all, the N64 Zelda allowed for items to be assigned to buttons because the buttons where there on the controller to make use of. That design hasn't progressed any more through the Gamecube or the Wii.

Games that require a lot of menu navigation are just as cumbersome on the PS3 are they were on the PS2 and while framerates might sometimes be better (although many times they're not) the actual game camera that makes navigating a 3D space work is, in many cases, no better than in previous generations.

All in my opinion, of course. Yours may well (and it sounds like it does) differ.

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Yeah, cumbersome games still exist (I'm currently digging my way through Dragon Age: Origins <_<), but in general all those little touches such as full analogue control, aim assists and tighter and more focused camera make playing a lot easier now. A good example of a cumbersome game by today's standards would be GTA where you have control over the camera, but you also have buttons and triggers for locking on to targets. When you compare it to something like Saints Row 2 where the camera also controls the aiming for shooting it feels like a better fit. It's no biggie we disagree though, at least we did it without insulting each others Mum's like would happen elsewhere on the internet.

Also, Pikmin is an excellent game, there literally isn't anything quite like it unless you count its sequel.

This has gone way way off topic. Maybe I should bang my top 10 down or something to get it back on track. Sorry Mods.

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Lemmings (Acorn) 1991

Whittled many a school pleasure time guiding the green haired ones to safety. Unless I couldn't do the level and then I blew them up.

Creatures 2: Torture Trouble (C64) 1992

One of the best titles on the C64 that still stands up today. Like all other games from this era, it's brick hard.

Syndicate (Amiga 1200) 1993

This is the type of game a lot of game haters dream about. It had guns, drug use, brain washing and extortion at it's core gameplay. It was excellent, there has been nothing really like it since, apart from the sequel on PS1 which was OK I guess.

Theme Park (Amiga 1200) 1994

I spent hours and hours designing my park to be all tightly knit together and making sure punter spent every last penny they had.

Destruction Derby (Playstation 1) 1995

Smashing cars up was always the fun thing you did when you were bored of racing games. This took it one step further and made it so that you had to smash them up to progress.

Tomb Raider (Playstation 1) 1996

I think even none gamers know what this is. Sadly, instead of getting better the sequels got worse and worse due to them stepping away from the exploring and focusing on killing stuff.

Grand Theft Auto (Playstation 1) 1997

The birth of a genre that caused controversy wherever it goes, GTA gave gamers the keys to a sandbox and let them play their way.

Gran Turismo (Playstation 1) 1998

A lot of driving games before never really focused on being 'real' with real world cars from real world marques. It's another game that started a genre that wasn't filled at the time. I spent really too much of my life playing this game, I absolutely adored my green racing spec TVR Cerbera.

Colin McRae Rally 2.0 (Playstation 1) 1999

For the time this game sported the best graphics I'd ever seen. The handling model was sublime as well, sliding round corners was never so easy or such a pleasure.

I tried to pick one a year and it was a lot harder than I thought. The latter end of the Playstation one's life was immense for the time, they might not seem like much now, but the leaps and bounds in quality over the previous years was astounding. Sadly this misses out the years I really started digging into games consoles pasts I hadn't been able to sample when they came out. If the forum ever decides it's to allow 00's discusion then maybe I'll go into it some other time.

[Palazzo]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Totally agree with the point made about Tomb Raider. I was never a massive Tomb Raider fan but I always respected the original games, being a big PS1 fan especially back then, it was amazing to see just how popular the games and Lara Croft were. Seriously, Lara was everywhere back then, even if you weren't a gamer you knew who she was. I can remember Tomb Raider 2 being one of the most anticipated sequels in gaming.

There is a new Tomb Raider on the way but the series and Lara herself don't seem as cherished anymore.

[Sly]

Re: Best Computer Game..

Tomb Raider sort of evolved into Uncharted while nobody was looking. I like those games, but there's way too much shooting involved.