Category: Games

A Life In Lists #3: Games

March 2, 2014

And so we get to the last list, the one you were probably expecting and the one you were waiting for!

My favourite video games of the last 42 years

1972 – n/a
1973 – n/a
1974 – n/a
1975 – n/a
1976 – n/a
1977 – n/a)
1978 – Space Invaders (arcade)
1979 – Galaxian (arcade)
1980 – Rogue (unix)
1981 – Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (Apple II)

1982 – Robotron: 2084 (arcade)
1983 – Moria (unix)
1984 – Elite (BBC)
1985 – Super Mario Bros. (NES)
1986 – The Legend Of Zelda (NES)
1987 – Final Fantasy (NES)
1988 – Final Fantasy II (NES)

1989 – Cadash (arcade)
1990 – Super Mario World (SNES)
1991 – Street Fighter 2 (arcade)
1992 – Shining Force (Genesis)
1993 – Ogre Battle: March Of The Black Queen (SNES)
1994 – Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

1995 – Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (SNES)
1996 – Super Mario 64 (N64)
1997 – DoDonPachi (arcade)
1998 – Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX)

1999 – Valkyrie Profile (PSX)
2000 – Diablo 2 (PC)
2001 – Final Fantasy X (PS2)
2002 – Metroid Prime (Gamecube)
2003 – P.N. 03 (Gamecube)

2004 – World of Warcraft (PC)
2005 – Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS)
2006 – Elite Beat Agents (DS)
2007 – Etrian Odyssey (DS)
2008 – The World Ends With You (DS)
2009 – Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)

2010 – Monster Hunter Tri (Wii)
2011 – Minotron: 2012 (iOS)
2012 – Diablo 3 (PC)
2013 – Puzzle & Dragons (iOS)
2014 – ?

Games are listed by the year of first release (not necessarily when I first played them) with the platform they were first released on. If this says Apple or BBC, then I would have played them first on the Commodore 64, probably a year later.

As I formed this list I asked myself: Would I still play this game today? For everything listed, the answer is yes. This doesn’t mean I overlooked games I loved in my youth for games I prefer as an adult, because you can rest assured I played the hell out of all of this stuff way back when it was released as well 🙂

This was another near-impossible list to assemble. In my youth I must have played virtually every single arcade game I ever saw, and over the years have played thousands (no exaggeration!) of console games. How to distill such an experience down to 42? In 1985 alone the release of the timeless Super Mario Bros. meant that other classics such as Paradroid, Ultima IV, Star Quake and a wealth of arcade shooters (Gradius, Exed Exes, Slap Fight, Tiger Heli) missed the list. 1990 was another impossible choice, with Super Mario World facing off against Ultima VI and Wizardry VI! In recent years I have spent more time on fewer games. It’s very hard to single out just one 🙁

The choice of Diablo 3 for 2012 may require some explanation, since I once described it as the largest disappointment and did not give it my ‘game of the year’ award. Since then, I have played the PS3 version inside out and enjoyed every moment of it. Furthermore, just last week Blizzard (finally!) massively overhauled the PC version and ‘fixed it’. The wrongs have therefore been righted, it seems, and I believe that Diablo 3 will be giving me enjoyment for a long time to come.

So, fellow gamers, what do you think? I’m sure I have a few controversial choices on here. What did I miss?

How Did My Resolution Go?

January 21, 2014

Last year I made a post detailing what I felt was an enormous amount of books, games and DVDs on my ‘list’ that I felt I really needed to get through. It became a resolution or sorts, to shrink all lists in 2013. How did I go?

Books

I made great progress in this category, reading the majority of the approximately 50 volumes that were sitting on my shelf this time last year. The only one I haven’t yet found time for is In The Wake Of The Sea Serpents, the 800+ page magnus-opus by Heuvelmans. In addition to those I had this time last year, I purchased and read many new books during the year, mostly manga and fantasy novels. I try and read every single night before sleep at the least.

However – and to my delight since I love books – I have to admit my ‘to read’ list is hardly smaller than it was last year, replenished as it was by a large variety of other books. Heuvelmans tome is now accompanied by 3 other cryptozoology books, and they share a shelf with about 20 novels (mostly fantasy), a handful of manga (not much I am interested in is released nowadays), and a half-dozen or so RPG manuals such as the one pictured above. Add to this a couple of Doctor Who books, an art book or two and four books on video-game and pinball history and I should have enough to keep me busy well into 2014!

Movies & TV

As with my books, I made great progress on the DVD ‘watch list’ of February 2013. Ultraseven, Lexx, Claymore – all the box sets have been watched. In fact almost every single item we owned last year has been watched months ago, and many more have now filled their place.

In fact, the ‘watch list’ as of today is actually longer than it was last year. Two items alone: the Inspector Morse DVD box set and the Monkey DVD set sum to over 100 hours! Add to these several other anime DVD sets (Spice & Wolf, Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!), another Japanese sci-fi set (Ultra-Q) and about a dozen assorted DVD movies (almost all sci-fi/fantasy) and we’ve got our watching cut out for us.

Games

As with the other two categories, I made bold strides into my piles of unplayed games. As of today I have:

– 8 unplayed PSP games, only one of which was actually purchased in 2013
– 8 unopened 3DS games, most of which are less than 6 months old
– only 1 unopened Wii U game (Pikmin 3, which I may start playing today!)
– 2 unopened PS3 games (both of which I owned last February as well…)

As you may recall from the blog post a month ago, I purchased much less games in 2013 than I usually do, which allowed me to play a lot more games I already owned. I expect during this next year to ‘finish’ the PSP games as well as possible the PS3. Since I currently have no plans to obtain a PS4, I imagine this section of the list will be much reduced this time next year.

Last time I looked at the piles of unopened/unread/unwatched media and thought “Why do I even buy more stuff?!”. Now I look at the smaller piles and think “I’m looking forward to opening that!”.

In other words, I think my resolution was a success 🙂

Masters Of The Game

January 14, 2014

Yesterday Bernard and I went to the Powerhouse museum to see this:

Overall I thought it was a good, but not great exhibit. It focuses on individuals (rather than genres or eras) and showcases many playable games from creators like Ed Logg, Hideo Kojima, Yuji Naka or Chris Metzen.

We were most interested in the retro room:

There were about 20 games on free play, including classics (Pac Man, Asteroids) and obscure examples (Reactor, Ripoff, Bee Gee). Ultimately we settled comfortably in front of Defender and Robotron, playing each for about an hour.

After twenty+ games, I was happy dominating the high score chart (#4 overall!) on Robotron even though the firing joystick was a bit wonky. Bernard wrestled with Defender (the hardest game of all time after Defender 2) and ended up with a top score over 8,000.