Or you could strike it rich and build yourself that library.
And I could come visit.
Or you could strike it rich and build yourself that library.
And I could come visit.
There's a videogame bar in Osaka, Japan with pretty much all the consoles and big libraries of games! Free to play as long as you order a drinkOriginally Posted by ToriJ
On with the list!
#6
(it was on number 5 but changed my mind last minute):
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Tenchu 2:
Birth of the Stealth Assassins
This sneaky ninja PS1 classic snuck into my house and took the following awards:
'Best ninja sim'
'Most inventive gadgets'
'Best game set in feudal Japan'
'Best ninja drama'
'Dumbest guards'
'Best mission editor'
'Hardest boss fights (yes, even harder than that one game yet to come)'
'Most screenshots for a game in this thread so far'
Carrying on with the fondness for stealth games next on the list is a PS1 classic. Tenchu 2 follows the story of young ninjas Rikimaru, Ayame and Tatsumaru in feudal Japan. Technically this ninja sneaker is not the best game ever made: the draw distance which is essential for planning routes and spotting guards is a huge letdown, enemy AI is mediocre at best and combat is a bit clumsy and hard to get used to.
But the sneaking works excellent, level design is awesomely atmospheric and diverse, the game has good pacing, a well written credible story and it does some unique things in it’s presentation. The latter is why it is stuck in my memory so strongly.
Starting the game only Rikimaru and Ayame are playable and even though the overhanging story and environments are largely the same, both characters have a completely unique 10-set of missions shining light on different details of the bigger picture. The missions are divided into three chapters working towards a grand climax. There’s a lot of drama involved but it’s always on the good side. Things never go cheesy or unbelievable and all main players are 100% credible in motivations and actions. Even the love triangle is well done and the game has many tragic moments, deaths, victories and losses. After finishing Rikimaru’s and Ayame’s campaigns Tatsumaru is unlocked, and we get a chance to play as the good guy defecting to the bad guys, again adding a fresh perspective to the already excellent story.
The poems on the game over screens unique to each character have stuck with me forever.
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The opening cinematic always got me hyped to spend more time in the world of ninja. I hope it makes it to the PSN so I can go on this adventure again (my copy no longer works).
PS: By the lords! I almost forgot one very important aspect: Tenchu 2 had an incredible mission editor letting us create our own missions including bossfights. I spent hours and hours crafting and building my own sneaky levels and it was glorious. Ah, fond memories!
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And I leave you with one of the biggest challenges in my personal gaming history:
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YES! YES! YES! I only ever played the first one, but still, YES! YES! YES! YES! I approve of this entry so much.
#5:
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Deus Ex: Human Revolution
This literature-like piece deserves the most honourable award of all:
'The one game every single person should play and consider'
I had a really hard time trying to write a fitting piece for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It’s a phenomenal philosophical game and I love it for many reasons, but one of them I feel is so incredibly important, it is the only thing that matters.
Deus Ex: HR does something games (or any other entertainment medium) rarely dare thread upon: it addresses issues, events, hypotheses and scenarios about the world we live in in today and does so by questioning it from multiple perspectives. Some examples: after a terrorist attack one of the NPC’s on the street comments something in the sense of: “Was this an inside job like 9/11?”. Augmentations are very close to becoming reality as real life scientists already messing around in the brains of rats, purposely disabling their brain functions to later 'fix' them with brain augmentations. Who are we to cut up these creatures? Aren't they good enough what they are already? Are we not good enough? And how arrogant are we to consider us more valuable than any other living thing? And what about Google glass goggles and the cellphone in your pocket? Will they eventually be implanted in your own body? The list goes on with bigger things like theories on information control, media controlling the masses, the difference between poor and the rich, indoctrination, what is humanity and who has it or who has lost it, fraud in politics, a society that is being distracted at all times so the big players can keep their power and how much can one pawn in this insane world change?
This rat's brain was hooked up to the internet and transmitted it's sensory information to another rat thousands of kilometers away.
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The endings that got a lot of negativity are in my opinion excellent. It rises for a birds eye view of morality from different perspectives and because it provides those different perspectives and does not give judgement itself, it is a sign that this is a message derived from an honest vision. A scientific one. One open for discussion. The game sets an example that should be followed by every single person in the world. Yet whenever I have these idealistic discussions others often jump to conclusions, do not consider others’ perspectives and hide back in their safe, tv-show distracted environment and refuse to see how deep things really go in the long term perspective.
That said I wonder why I haven’t put Deus Ex on number one, as it does something more important than any other game. It educates, considers morality, humanity, our use of technology, our past and our future.
That can not be praised enough.
If only the ending wasn't so bad.
Please discuss, don't troll.
I like how Pete was able to write a substantial post on what makes it so good without even digging in to the gameplay - a testament to how robust Human Revolution truly is. I thought it was a really fun game to play, I looked forward to a lot of the encounters and challenges. The first boss battle was the only one I had any problems with.
I didn't take any issues with the endings. At that point, everything that needed to be resolved with the plot had been taken care of. I thought the soliloquy expressing the ideology the player developed for themself throughout the course of the game was a classy, thoughtful way to ride out. Can't wait for the next one!
Please don't use the word troll so inaccurately in the future.Please discuss, don't troll.
The ending was terrible. The game defines itself largely through choice - it presents multiple options, different avenues of approach, dialogue that leads in different directions, et cetera. Then, at the end, the entire system is revealed to have been absolutely meaningless. No choice you made has any actual consequence. You literally just press a button on one of four endings, and that's the outcome of the game. It undermines the entire philosophy of the game itself in one cruel moment.
That's in addition to the fact that the endings aren't even very good.
In other words... it's Mass Effect 3.Please don't use the word troll so inaccurately in the future.Please discuss, don't troll.
The ending was terrible. The game defines itself largely through choice - it presents multiple options, different avenues of approach, dialogue that leads in different directions, et cetera. Then, at the end, the entire system is revealed to have been absolutely meaningless. No choice you made has any actual consequence. You literally just press a button on one of four endings, and that's the outcome of the game. It undermines the entire philosophy of the game itself in one cruel moment.
That's in addition to the fact that the endings aren't even very good.
Can't help it came across as such.Please don't use the word troll so inaccurately in the future.Please discuss, don't troll.
I see your point, but I think it is being bashed on way too hard for what it actually is. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have a similar ending system and they hardly ever get bashed upon. Not that pointing at other games is an excuse to get Deus Ex off the hook, but I do sometimes wonder why Deus Ex seems to get a little more rage. As said, I personally like the endings and I'm happy with the Souls' ones too.
At least the choices along the way do determine the experience of playing through Deus Ex itself and are pretty successful in being morally grey and intriguing because of it as opposed to games like InFamous where the morality system is very obvious (and therefor the choices are too).
Technically providing separate endings depending on choices made through the entire game seems like a huge challenge and the only game I can currently think of doing that very successfully is Heavy Rain. But the scope of that game is way smaller and I can certainly understand the design choice of keeping things a bit more simple for development sake. I can also see it as the developers vision of wanting you to make the choice based on all information gathered, in a way granting you the most freedom at the end. It's a theory.
I'd also like to know why you think the actual ending scenes are bad.
I agree. Well said!
It doesn't matter to me what other people think of it, or how it is generally perceived; whatever that may be, I simply find the ending unfaithful to the game's own philosophy.
Yes, most games don't do this very well. Even games with choice typically don't come with a real variety of endings based on those choices (like Dragon Age or DX:HR itself), although sometimes they do (like Gothic 3 or Fallout: New Vegas). But if a game is going to use choice as the pulpit from which it preaches like DX:HR does (rather than as a garnish to the gameplay), then I really appreciate it if it at least tries to take the idea to completion rather than lazily setting up a literal multiple choice machine.Technically providing separate endings depending on choices made through the entire game seems like a huge challenge and the only game I can currently think of doing that very successfully is Heavy Rain.
I'm with Spuuky on this one. I want an ending to a game that shows me the consequences of all the effort I put into the game. That choice at the end of the game should have followed up with an actual ending that shows what happens to my character, what happens to the others. Telling me "Use your imagination" is a bit of a slap in the face. I think DE:HR was a really good game, but as Spuuky said... if only the ending wasn't so bad.
I think less people complained about the DS endings because less people here actually played DS, let alone through to completion. I don't know much about the DS games at all, let alone how their story runs, but in DE:HR (and ME3) I feel the game works towards an epic climax and then it doesn't show you the climax. Think of great films... can you imagine a great film suddenly ending without telling you what happens to the main character? Urgh, I would hate that. I like a game to have a conclusion, a proper ending. I don't even know if the main character lives five seconds longer or for a hundred years. I played the game as Adam, I did not play the game as a philospher but as a man with his own story. Sadly, we don't know how that story ends at all because they neglected to write an ending for it.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
No Country For Old Men.
A film that has high praise for it's content but has been criticised for a disappointing ending? Ya don't say.I had a similar (although lesser) disappointed reaction to that film when it ended. It was going so well. Why end it like that? Urgh. Film noir is a bitch. Still, even NCFOM had more ending than DE:HR did.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
I know, right? I was getting so into it, and then it ended. It was like that time this hooker Disapparated on me once.
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