EPT
Anyway, I recently started a review series on the Steam Summer Sale and while I was writing Part I, I started thinking about all the games that I have played my entire life. My likes, dislikes, and experiences along the way. And then I - as I like to keep tabs on things - decided that it would be interesting to see if I could do some research and try to remember every game that I have ever played and then compile a list of them. Somewhat a means of remembering my experiences, and somewhat an interesting foray into a lot of nostalgia of which I can assure you I got a lot of (and it made me want to go back and play many of these games again).What I found is that the further back I got, the harder it got to really remember the games that I had experiences with. Some I found that I just couldn't remember or track down, but I am actually surprised that overall I was able - with a lot of help from the internet - to create a pretty complete list of everything I've ever played. Now that needs some clarification I think. What does constitute a game being on this list? Well, most of the games I play I don't usually spend an hour or two with only to toss it aside. I have this compelling nature once I've started a game to finish it. Of course this impossible for the competitive multiplayer types (unless you are Flash), but overall I hoped that I could add to this massive list every game that I've played at one point or another (either played a lot, or completed with the two not always being similar).
Think of this as an interim exploration of games I've played throughout my life, a commedia del arte amidst the grand opera. Let's embark shall we?
Commodore 64
The beginning of my journey starts with one of the oldest PC/Console/Gaming boxes to ever exist. I never played too many games on this system as I was very young, but some of these games left a huge impact on me. I don't remember as much about them as I did play them more than 20 years ago but a number of moments and things about these games have remained with me all this time. Out of all of these games, the Ultima series (especially III), Carmen Sandiego, and the Ghostbusters games were the ones I played most; Oh and Caveman Ugh-Lympics, because it was a ridiculous title and perfect for young minds (and admittedly awesome). One additional thing I've found interesting is that one of the events in Ugh-Lympics is a very early precursor to what would become Super Smash Bros. I guess all that has happened before will happen again in gaming as well as life (I'm re-watching BSG right now as well, does it show?). One thing I do need to note is that because of the nature of the Run series, there's no way I'll ever remember the official names of each of these games I played. The two that stood out however was a platforming 'battle-arena' esque game where you were some flying dinosaur or something and had to fight another player. The other being downhill skiing where my favorite pastime was running over pedestrians, cause it was hilarious. but there were plenty more.
It actually makes me laugh at all of these humble bundles, or bundles of games things that have started to surface, as the RUN series is the very first time that I can remember that ever happening, and now it's a 'thing' again. Anyway:
- Caveman Ugh-Lympics
- Champions of Krynn
- F14 Tomcat
- Ghostbusters
- Ghostbusters II
- Pong
- Pool of Radiance
- Run Series
- Slugger
- Snake
- Ultima I
- Ultima II
- Ultima III
- Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego
Arcade or Others
Going to arcades was never really my 'thing', but I have played a few titles here and there. There are more not in this list that I have played in arcades but I've put them with the system that I first experienced them on, like Tetris or Mortal Kombat.
- Arkanoid
- Area 51
- Golden Axe
- Pac-Man
8-bit Nintendo
My first console, and a system that almost every gamer my age likely owned. This is where gaming really started to come into its own and, well, there were new titles on this system that have now been around to see their 25th anniversaries which kind of speaks to the importance of this console. Out of the 33 games here my absolute top choices would be Battletoads, The Legend of Zelda, Megaman 2+3, Final Fantasy, and Super Mario Bros. 3. That being said however, many other of these titles I played the crap out of as well (Guardian Legend, Yo Noid, Castlevania, etc..). In just looking at this list of wot I played, I am amazed at how many of these games became massive IPs in their own right, and how gigantic of a titan the games for this system actually were (apologies to Metroid, I know...). Oh, I almost forgot to note something. For those who played Battletoads on the Genesis, the NES version is about 25 times harder.
- Battletoads
- Bubble Bobble
- Castlevania
- Castlevania III
- Contra
- Dino Riki
- Donkey Kong
- Dragon Strike
- Duck Hunt
- Festers Quest
- Final Fantasy
- Mario Bros.
- Marvell's X-Men
- Megaman 1
- Megaman 2
- Megaman 3
- Megaman 4
- Megaman 5
- Megaman 6
- Punch-Out
- Rampage
- Snake Rattle and Roll
- Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Tetris
- The Guardian Legend
- The Legend of Zelda
- TMNT
- TMNT II
- Ultima IV
- World Cup Soccer
- Yo Noid
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
16-Bit Nintendo
Continuing the tradition of the NES, things really started to gain momentum with the Super Famicom. I do have to say that retrospectively that I still have much stronger feelings towards the original NES than this system, but there are some pretty important games from this generation. The ones that should be obvious here as great games are Chrono Trigger, FF4+6 (originally 2+3 in USA), A Link to the Past, and of course Super Mario World.
- Alladdin
- Batman Returns
- Bomberman
- Bram Stokers Dracula
- Chrono Trigger
- Desert Strike
- Final Fantasy IV
- Final Fantasy V
- Final Fantasy VI
- Jurassic Park
- Megaman VII
- Megaman X
- Mortal Kombat
- Populous
- Super Mario World
- Zelda: A Link to the Past
64-bit Nintendo
I don't have a ton of things to say about this system other than that some of the best games in certain IPs by many people's accounts can be found on this system. Smash Bros. began here. Mario Kart and Mario 64 are here. And then two towering Zelda games (and Majoras Mask is while polarizing, an incredible game). I never owned the system, but man I had cool friends who had freaking amazing games. Oh, and Goldeneye parties were definitely a thing. Nostalgia!
- Goldeneye
- Majoras Mask
- Mario 64
- Mario Kart
- Ocarina of Time
- Super Smash Bros.
Sega Gensis
With Sega, I never played to many of these because I never owned the Genesis like the N64, but I did play through:
- Sonic the Hedgehog
Playstation 1-2
I haven't played many PS games but I had loved Square's FF games and in college Soul Caliber was one of the go to games for killing time and hanging in our dorms. Mainly this was me years later coming back to the PS and being able to finally play some of the FF games that I had heard so much about, and the return to this system was well worth it.
- Final Fantasy 7
- Final Fantasy 8
- Final Fantasy 9
- Final Fantasy X
- Final Fantasy XII
- Soul Caliber II
PC
And here. We. Go... I've played some console titles here and there, but apart from the NES I have been a PC gamer through and through ever since I started playing on the Commodore 64. Up to this point I had around 80 games that would fall under non PC-proper or console titles (remember, played on that system). That being said, when I tried to construct this list I eventually found that I easily eclipsed that number with the different PC games under my belt. I could probably even take all of the C64 games and add them here as that system is ostensibly a PC, but can you tell that I love gaming just a little?
- Aliens vs Predator 2
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Bioshock
- Bioshock 2
- Bioshock Infinite
- Blown Away
- Braid
- Call of Duty
- Call of Duty 2
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Civilization IV
- Command and Conquer
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert
- Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
- Company of Heroes
- Counter Strike Source
- Counter Strike: Global Offensive
- Crysis
- Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
- Descent
- Deus Ex
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Deus Ex: Invisible War
- Diablo
- Diablo II
- Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
- Diablo III
- Dishonored
- Doom I
- Doom II
- Doom III
- Dota 2
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Eye of the Beholder
- Fallout 3
- Far Cry
- FEAR
- FEAR 2: Project Origin
- FEAR: Extraction Point
- Half-Life
- Half-Life: Opposing Force
- Half-Life: Blue Shift
- Half-Life 2
- Half-Life 2: Episode One
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two
- Heroes of Might and Magic 3
- Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
- Hitman: Blood Money
- Hitman: Codename 47
- Left for Dead
- Legend of Grimrock
- Legends of Valour
- Links 98
- Mass Effect
- Mass Effect 2
- Mass Effect 3
- Max Payne
- Max Payne 2
- Myst
- Neverwinter Nights
- No One Lives Forever 2
- Portal
- Portal 2
- Quake III Arena
- Quake Live
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- Sim City 2000
- Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace
- Soldier of Fortune II
- Star Wars Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
- Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Star Wars: Tie Fighter
- Star Wars: X-Wing
- Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance
- Starcraft
- Starcraft: Brood War
- Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
- Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm
- System Shock 2
- Team Fortress
- Team Fortress 2
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- The Return to Ringworld
- The Sims
- The Witcher
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- Thief II: The Metal Age
- Thief: Deadly Shadows
- Thief: The Dark Project
- Unreal Tournament 2003
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
- Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption
- Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
- Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness
- Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal
- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
- Warcraft III: Frozen Throne
- Wolfenstein 3D
But now comes the hard part...How do I choose the best PC games here in my experiences? To be honest coming up with maybe 15 games that had a huge impact on me without excluding titles that were teetering on that cusp of emotional weight is next to impossible. First I get down to 30 or so, and then I laugh at having to make choices about what to weed out. This would be why; my top 30-ish:
- Batman: Arkham Asylum
- Bioshock
- Call of Duty 2
- Deus Ex
- Diablo
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Eye of the Beholder
- FEAR
- Half-Life
- Half-Life 2 (+ episodes)
- Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
- Hitman: Blood Money
- Mass Effect Trilogy (cause let's be honest, this is one game split into three episodes, and episode 1 my fav)
- Myst
- No One Lives Forever 2
- Portal
- Return to Castle Wolfenstein
- Sim City 2000
- Star Wars Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight
- Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Star Wars: Tie Fighter
- Starcraft: Brood War
- System Shock 2
- Team Fortress 2
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
- Thief II: The Metal Age
- Thief: The Dark Project
- Warcraft II
- Warcraft III
So before I go back to work so that I can eventually start playing Planescape: Torment and get to part two of my SSS series, I thought it would be interesting to look at averages and some facts considering the topic. If you tallied every game and the number of years that I've been alive and playing games - assuming started at 5 - then I would have played 1 game every 50 days for the last 25 years. Assuming that I spent an average of 30 hours on each game (lol skyrim, even more lol tf2, sc1+2, and my 150+hrs of dota which I only really started playing in the last 6 months), I would have played 241 straight days of video games so far. Slightly more than 1.5hrs every day for the last 25 years. That of course is a very rough estimate as I know that I've played far more than 30hrs on many of those titles.
I suppose it's this reason that I'm so passionate about the industry, and why I feel the need to talk about these things from time to time, as you can clearly see they have made an enormous impact on my life and will continue to do so as long as I have the time and ability to play. This also makes me really curious as to what the social landscape will look like in a couple of decades. My generation and those in close temporal proximity were at the forefront of this massive change in how we view and consume the industry. Now that everyone is growing up playing games as if it were a normal thing it makes me excited to see what happens in 20 years once people like kollin are my age, and what their experiences are, and how they reflect or differ from mine.
