Unbelieveably: It's: Lysander's top 10 games

[Lysander]

10: Doom3.

I have to put this on almost despite myself. I do have a propensity for the horror games, and I am among the generation who played Doom for about 69105 hours a year when I was very young. So I'm giving it a nestalgia bump. Blow me.

The scares are by and large very predictable, the plot somewhat stitched together and uninspired. But considering Doom kicked off the "one person alone in a science fiction setting with horrible monsters after him" genre I feel it can be allowed to largely crib from... itself. Part of it is that it is such a completely different game that makes you feel like you're playing something that vaguely ripped them off, rather than a continuation of the series. Since it's basically a series reset, I'm okay with it. Actually, most of my pieves with it center around it more directly ripping off another game I have on this list.

When it does work, like in the coolant tubes, it's amazing. You're doing all you can to fight off the evil flying monsters of Hell while a computer calmly intones the rising core temperature, after hearing a dead man's rantings that the reactor is unstable and could blow up the whole base, , and in amongst all that chaos you are forcibly distracted by this:

[youtube][/youtube]

It's linearness really bothers me. I don't like that you can do nothing at all to change the outcome of the story or have any form of control over what happens to anything or anyone but you. I've no doubt that the whole flashlight thing must have been an incredible stupid pain in the ass. The sound has a really horrible problem where certain ones play about 3000 times louder than others--I hope it's a bug, because the idea of them deciding on purpose that that would be a good way to scare people is just dickishness. It could have been better. But it's still pretty good. I also enjoyed the way the old weapons and enemies were re-used and fitted to the new style--in that sense it's like seeing the potential of the idea the old game presents played out for "real" on the screen.

[Lysander]

9: Silent Hill 2
The plot of this game is not only very strong but more importantly, it relies on something that would never work in straight pros: finding out the truth about your purpose there isn't nearly as interesting or meaningful to someone reading about a character in a pros novel, or even watching it on screen. The fact that it's you makes the impact felt in a way no other medium can replicate. The setting is quite well done, and the way the plot is revealed to the player is rather unique. It's also very detailed--I could go on about the significance of each monster's appearance, for example, if I were so inclined (I'm not; the point is it's there.)

That said, the control scheme seems pretty painful, and I doubt the mist does much more than make it harder to see something that's already scary. The repetitiveness of survival horror's obsession with various gems and riddles and murdering creatures with pipes is kinda distracting as well, though, the voice acting is much more effective at this. Mari's is good, quite good sometimes actually, and Laura's is decent, but the rest... a few good moments but overall, ouch.

In the end though, absolutely worth all of it for the plot and the character development.
[youtube][/youtube]

[Lysander]

8: DAIKATANA!!!

...No, just kidding.

[Lysander]

8: An IF game.
Yeah, sorry about brevity on this one. Picking a favorite IF game was a huge difficulty and I won't say anything more because I had enough favorites that I could make a separate list of favorite IF. So I decided to make a separate list of favorite IF. Make no mistake: IF developers are making some of the most intriguing, entertaining, new and fun games for free, and with nothing even close to the budget or resources available to major game companies.

[AArdvark]

I like the style of IF that hooks me right into the game. There aren't many that have done this. The story unfolds and all I do at work is think about how I'm going to get home and advance the plot. So far I think there were only two or three games that did that for me.

[Lysander]

7. Capcom VS. SNK2
This entry probably will not be seen as worthy on this list by anybody else; to you all I say: fuck you, it's my list. I can't count the hours--nay, full months of my life that I have poured into this game. Fighting games are one of the few kinds of games I can hope to have any sort of skill at, and this one gives you a good opportunity to play however you like, with characters well suited to your style that can hold up against almost everyone with about as good a chance. If you take out roll canceling and a few other bugs, it's the most versatile example of the genre and I applaud it for having so many different ways to play.

[youtube][/youtube]

As there is no sound on that video, I have NFI if it's a good one or not. Seems to be, though.

[Lysander]

6. Psychonauts.

It's hard to doubt that this game belongs on everyone's top10 list. One of the most talented developers from Lucasarts adventures, who made a lot of my favorite games that aren't on this list but still awesome, making a game in a fully capable engine that combines psychic powers with summer camp? I am on board with all of these things. The game goes on a bit longer than it should and also drags in other places but is still very entertaining, consistently funny, and also brain-bendy enough to make the puzzles fun challenges rather than frustrating tear-your-hair-out ordeals. This is very much calibrated to the specific player so it makes sense for other people to find it too easy or too hard.

[youtube][/youtube]

[Lysander]

5: Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus

What I love about this is the dark glee it takes in portraying horrible things, and the ease with which you are drawn into the depths of its madness, laughing all the while. This game has got to be the most violent platformer I have ever heard of, and it's executed with such childlike innocence that you almost don't even realize it. But it's not a violent game at heart, it's a puzzle game. Each screen has its own set of challenges and you often have multiple ways of passing them. There's usually one way you are "supposed" to do it, but deceptively complex AI often allows you multiple ways of solving each screen. And sometimes, something that clearly wasn't supposed to work will, on a totally random chance and you get to tear everything they planned apart. That is awesome.

I pick the second one over the first one because, though its difficulty curve increased dramatically and thus its fun decreased accordingly, it added in enough new things without sacrificing the old that it made the game more refreshing and new than the first one did. Also, quicksaving. Replaying the same slice of game for half an hour IS NOT FUN if you already know how to do 90% of that slice, or even a hundred, but your hands aren't responding to what your brain is saying.

The third game added a lot of cool stuff but I think the added resolution made it difficult to capture the feel of the others. Which would be fine, but it seems to be trying to be "the old Oddworld games but with new graphics and overhauled NPC interaction and oh yeah a totally different POV with ten thousand new things in it" which would rather make it not the same kind of game anymore. It's good in and of its own right, but the added clarity makes it feel a lot less cartoony and, to me, less fun.
[youtube][/youtube]

[ChainGangGuy]

...who made a lot of my favorite games that aren't on this list but still awesome...

Let's hear'm! It'll be sort of a Lysander's Honorable Mentions list, if you will.

[Lysander]

Basically all of them. Grim Fandango, The Dig, Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island, Sam and Max, even Day of the Tentacle and the Fate of Atlantis. Pretty much every Lucasarts point-and-click adventure game ever made was made of total win, and ranking them is kind of a waste of time. I don't even know which of them are Tim Schafer games and which aren't, and don't really care.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Was Abe there a PC game? I've always meant to play that one.

[Lysander]

That youtube I eventually settled on was from the PC port, yes. It is inferior however, IMO; the sound definitely takes a hit (couldn't tell you about graphics obviously), but more importantly, the control scheme was very much based around a PSX controller and the way it's replicated on the computer makes some of the puzzles where quick reflexes are necessary more difficult than they would be otherwise. So, even though there's a PC version available I would recommend playing it in a PSX emulator. Well, the steam download might be okay, I've never tried it. That may seem insane to you but it's just... how I feel.

Speaking of that youtube--it's apparently a hacking video, so most of that stuff isn't presented the way it is in game. How-ever it is a good little showcase of some of the weirder things you end up doing.

[Lysander]

4: Destroy All Humans
You might be sensing a general misanthropy trend with these games, but DAH is a whole lot of fun. As sandbox games go it is by far the most creative with what it allows you to do with the world around you, and thus, how to manipulate it to serve your ends. The plot, though ridiculous, is energizing enough as the other side to be an effective platform for the writing, which is stellar. All (well okay, most) of the references to '50s pop culture are hilarious--if you're not very, very careful you will miss out on huge chunks of it as people you walk past on the street have their own conversations which are great to eavesdrop on. The voice acting is unusually good for a video game as well, everyone's clearly having a good time with it. Especially Zim!

The sequels, as is almost a given, totally ruined everything--they're not fun, they're not funny, they're uninspired and just tedious and boring in general.

[youtube][/youtube]

The sound on this is painful as the guy recording it set it too loud, and the clipshows are annoying, but this mission is a pretty good showcase of all the crazy crap you get to do--all it doesn't show is hypnosis, which is largely useless, and most of the ground weapons--you get a zapgun, as well as the very aptly named... anal probe. The saucer also gets more weapons unlocked as the game progresses.