Pajiba

Contra. Once I learned how to beat it without the Konami code, I felt I had made up for an entire childhood of dying on the second level.

WOW (puts on nerd glasses)
Super Metriod was incredible, but Prince of Persia Sands of time was just a joy to play.
I cannot leave off ICO as it was a game of such wonder.
If this blog or site starts reviewing games, I will have to bring extra under garments to work!

Video games of great worth:

Bioshock, Rule of Rose, Shadow of the Colossus (and Ico), Katamari Damacy. World Ends with You for the DS.

I usually love best whatever enjoyable game I just finished playing. I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed. I'm looking forward to Bioshock 2 and Uncharted 2.

*confused, damnit!

three uninterrupted days of my life.

Seriously?!? I lost two months to Baldur's Gate II, spinning my sleep cycle around the clock by playing it 20 hours straight and then sleeping 10 hours for weeks on end. Beautiful, epic story.

Planescape Torment has perhaps the best story I've ever read/played. I read somewhere that there were over 200,000 words of description and dialog in the game (that's the rough equivalent of an 800 page novel).

Fallout and Fallout II are brilliant. Deus Ex as well. I was furious when the pilot died.

More recently, I loved Knights of the Old Republic (now that's a motherfucking Star Wars story, George Lucas you pompous old twat). Mass Effect was a bloody fun story, though we'll see how well it holds up with the scheduled sequels (it's supposed to be a trilogy).

Holy crap, I just outed myself as an utter video game geek. Was this post just a honey pot to snare people like me?

legend of zelda: ocarina of time nearly caused me to drop out of first semester of law school.

i never finished that game. i even bought the nintendo guide. i may have even scoured a video game chatroom for help. but this was back before broadband and dialing up on my modem so i could ask a bunch of 14 year olds for help seemed ridiculous when i was in my most difficult year of law school.

so i gave up zelda and focused on kicking ass at mariokart. when i finally learned how to jump the barrier in wario stadium, i knew i had arrived.

i gave away my N64 a few years ago to goodwill because i thought, "really, you're never going to play this." now that my ass got laid off by the man, i REALLY wish i still had it.

I don't know much about games. Growing up we had an even cheaper console than Atari, but I forget what it was called. Favorites ever are the typical old school ones for original Nintendo: Paperboy, Tetris, the first three Mario Brothers. And I loved the Jaws game, though god knows why.

For Sega, I loved the motorcycle game where you could upgrade to better bikes and beat people with chains. Road...something. Rash? I think Road Rash.

And a few weeks ago I was visiting my aunt and uncle in Delaware and me, my brother, and my brother-in-law spent five hours playing the Wii's Mario Kart with the wheel. That game is crazy awesome.

I'm gonna have to go with Super Mario World, Banjo-Kazooie, Kingdom Hearts, Bioshock, and to round it out to five, I'm gonna second twig on The World Ends With You.

stopthemadness kicking ass at mariokart

Mariokart is pure brilliance in game form; whatever platform it's on, it's always win.

( Yoshi is my default player, don't know what that says about me...)

I'm not big on video games, but only because so many fail to capture my attention. Here are my votes:

1. Zelda Ocarina of Time
2. Spyro the Dragon (laugh all you want, this game is so much fun!)

Some of my favorites:

X-Com: UFO Defense Force

Civilization IV

Football Manager/Championship Manager Series

Half-Life 2

Current Favorite:

Left 4 Dead

Old School Favorites:

Auto-Duel

Ultima V

Wasteland

I keep my life blissfully free of video games. The last video game that grabbed my attention was Tetris.

My parents never let us have video games growing up, so I don't understand the appeal. I spent my youth playing outside and engaging in shenanigans the old fashioned way. Fight clubs, dice games, underground poker rings, cock fighting, good old fashioned high stakes Russian roulette in 'Nam... you know, kid stuff.

Oh shi vidya games?

I like blowing shit up a little too much. Also this new gen shit can fuck off. I'd rather play my n64 than any of the new consoles. Mario Kart, Mario Party, Super Mario 64 and GoldenEye for the fucking win.

TOEJAM & EARL!

Anyone?... Anyone?

I'll show myself out.

I'll be a little different and name some that haven't been mentioned. Syberia (PC), Beyond Good and Evil (PC) and Psychonauts (Xbox) currently stand out in my memory.

"GoldenEye for the fucking win"

4 player split screen. Played that shit like a Motherfucking FIEND.

Also forgot to mention Shadow of the Colossus, superb game.

I also used to really be into the Splinter Cell series. Michael Ironside, anyone?

Holy cow, how could I have forgotten Civilization? I played the original every moment of free time for two straight years. And Civ2 ... the WWII scenario alone I probably sunk 500 hours into. Civ3 never happened just like Star Trek V. Civ4 back to the awesome ... I didn't take classes that summer session of my master's program mostly because I was planning on playing Civ4.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This game was my world in middle school. I have most of the music from it on my mp3 player right now.
One more thing...

Dear water temple,
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU STAB STAB STAB
*bursts into tears*

Donkey Kong Country. Back in 6th grade my best friend and I would play it all day. I would love to play that one again.

Hands down Wonder Boy from the Sega Master System (pre-Genesis). You couldn't save it, so you just had to learn to be good with the couple lives you had to beat the whole thing in one sitting. Once you figured out how to got through the final castle, it only took about 45 mintues.

And my middle school sleepovers were spent playing Golden Eye and Mortal Combat. Nothing like violence when you're hanging with your girlfriends.

Let's see:

Fiendish Freddy's Big Top O'Fun (Commodore 64)
Super Mario Brothers (Series)
Donkey Kong Country - my ring-tone is the water theme.
Diablo Series
Warcraft Series
Starcraft Series
Tetris
Oregon Trail - the Apple IIe version.
Kingdom Hearts I and II (what I'm a Disney fan)
Lego Star Wars for the Wii

I haven't played any new games for so long it's sad. But I'm a nerd so I know about all the games I'm missing. I have a list of games I plan on playing, someday.

I have an addictive personality, I loose all track of time when I'm playing, plus I work in IT and don't feel like playing on my computer when I get home.

Shit, and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune on the PS3 was pretty amazing.

Anyone else here think fucking PORTAL was one of the simplest yet utterly wonderful experiences in gaming ever?

Or did I overshoot that?

the cake is a lie...

...and how could I fucking forget StarCraft and Leisure Suit Larry (all iterations) (...more nudity).

and my comment from 3 comments ago...should say Lucas

All I've ever really played is old-school Super Mario Bros, aside from one non-stop, headache-inducing night of Guitar Hero, and a few extremely frustrating nights of Super Smash Bros. I'll go with old-school, 2D Super Mario Bros.

Ack! I loved that game Sabrina! I think it was for Sega.

Galaga.

Represent.

SaBrina I also liked Aladdin. My ex-brother-in-law had a Sega and I would play it every time I visited.

I also liked playing Echo on the Sega.

Last year I won a PS3 at a Christmas party at work, had a Epson projector and Yamaha sound system installed. Crank it up with Call to Duty and Resident Evil, the shit will blow your mind. I mainly use my PS3 to watch movies, but now I’m into gaming.

I rented FF8 once and also dropped it like a bad habit. It was like "when the fuck does the game start? And how the hell does this work? I'm in a classroom?!"

I liked VII and X a lot. I played VII on lunch breaks from 2nd shift Wal-Mart, I'd dash home, get in 15-20 minutes, come back and play more for a few more hours. I stalled out on XII after I was just getting my ass handed to me in 30 seconds late in the game. Not fun, but I'm still looking forward to XIII. KOTOR's where I learned about modding, and half the damn fun of playing the game is giving your players ridiculous powers and ridiculous outfits.

With a few cheat codes "The Force Unleashed" is a hell of a lot of PS3 fun.

Also, Mario 2 is just the cutest fucking game ever. The dream credits at the end? Ohhhh, so good.

Wow, really Jim? i could never do that..

Takes a lot of tries, roodle. Am yet to get through the game without dying, but that'll be the next thing to try during video export downtime.

Man, I'm totally leaving out some good older games:

Toejam and Earl
Ghostbusters II
fucking Sonic, obviously (I mean, cmon)
Earthworm Jim was pretty fun
Resident Evil 1-4
Twisted Metal 1, 2, and BLACK

I would add Mortal Kombat to that list, but I sucked at it and hated playing it. My cousins all played it and always wanted to play it and beat the shit out of me all the time.

But none of them played Street Fighter, so I Hodukened the shit out of them in return.

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man. There was a time I was too poor to get my broken washing machine repaired, so laundry was done once a week at the local laundromat. There was a Ms. Pac-Man game there, so I wasted lots of quarters on the game while my clothes were on spin cycle.

SaBrina You might want to check out New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, it's done 2.5D style (Ala Donkey Kong World)

Iiinteresting. I had to look up what DS is, and I'm not sure if I want to start burning up my free time and money with video games, but if I decide to, I know where to go.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Yeah, it's recent, but it kicks ass. Plus, it's the only video game that I beat before my older brother did.

Runners Up
Mortal Kombat
Mutant League Hockey & Mutant League Football
Sonic the Hedgehog
Legends of Zelda (the old ass version on pea green Game Boy)

Does The Sims count? Because that shit kept me up for hours!

CRAP how could I leave out:
Half Life 1-2
Quake 2
Resident Evil 4
Donkey Kong Country
Diablo 2
Starwars Knights of the Old Republic
Portal

and SaBrina, Capcom made Aladdin, many fond hours with that game.

WOW currently rules our household.

And Fallout was awesome.

But ultimately, Diablo II FTW!!!
"Stay a while, and listen!"

Okami, anyone? That game is simply gorgeous. It made me a video game nerd for all time (I was a late bloomer...)

And I love kicking ass in Soul Caliber!

DIABLO! That is all.

I've played games for 25 years and I write about videogames for a living, so this is like choosing my favourite child.

I can shortlist about 50 games that have made me lose my shit, from Duck Hunt on the NES Link To The Past on the SNES, and Snatcher on the SEGACD, through Mario 64 (N64) and Ico on the on the PS2 to Half-Life 2, Bioshock and Fallout 3 on the 360. But for my favourite game of all time? I'd probably have to go with Portal as well.

Seriously, I defy anyone who has never played a videogame in their life (even those people who say 'fuck games' on general principle) to give it an hour of their time and not be completely enraptured. It's a beautiful, minimal sci-fi universe, wrapped in a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in Mike Patton playing part of the end boss.

It. Is. Entirely. Perfect.

Well, either that or Tiger Woods.

did anyone ever play perfect dark on n64?

that game kicked ass. plus, it made me feel british and all feministic and whatnot.

Time to ostracized from the Pajiba community, but I play a shit-ton of World of Warcraft

Horde on Ysera-US - character name Marloro.

I didn't realize computer games could count for this, but then I have to add Rollercoaster Tycoon. Fuck The Sims, I wanted to make the most unrealistic, dangerous rollercoasters possible in between moving miniature men around to sweep up the inevitable vomit piles that clogged up the pathways after people rode those coasters. Jacking up umbrella prices whenever it rained was fun, too.

For sheer playing time:

- Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
- Donkey Kong Country 1-3 (SNES)
- Goldeneye (N64)
- Metal Gear Solid; Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; FFVII; MediEvil (PS1)
- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater; NHL 2003 (PS2)
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

I'm a mostly a PC gamer and love many of the previously mentioned (e.g. Starcraft series, HalfLife series, Fallout series, DOOM and the many 1st person shooters that followed), but the game I remember most fondly is Tecmo Bowl from Nintendo. When I was in college (1989 - I'm old), the guys in my dorm used to get together, put $10/person and then have a random drawing to see which team we would get. We'd then have the equivalent of a March madness tournament w/all the teams and would split out the winnings 70/20/10. Playing Ronnie Lott or Lawrence Taylor on Def and Bo Jackson or Walter Payton on Off was a blast even w/8 bit graphics. The winner was usually gracious enough to spring for beer and pizza afterward as long as you were willing to their smacktalk for the remainder of the evening. Good times.

Hm. I'm one of those girlie-non-gamer people, really. Mostly, I like quiet puzzle-y games. I'm TERRIBLE at driving games and shooters. But, I do have some games that I've loved over the years.

When I was around 13 or so (that'd be 1984), my brother and dad went to a soccer game, so I had the Atari 2600 to myself for 8 uninterrupted hours (the game was far away and they went out ot eat too). That was the night I hit 1 million points on Defender. I was quite proud of myself, let me tell you.

I loved Duck Hunt on the original NES.

I loved Myst on 3DO, and the one after that on Playstation, even though I never finished that one.

I love Tetris in all its forms (and on all its platforms).

For Christmas, I got the DS and the Legend of Zelda/Phantom Hourglass, which was fun (until I started classes again; I haven't touched it in like 8 weeks).

Over the weekend, I played Flower on my friends PS3 Live thingie. I really liked it; it's very quiet and pretty and non-violent or difficult. I was making them dizzy with the crazy steering of the petals, though. As i said, I'm not so good at the driving games...

My friend's bf thinks she and I should play Fable together, but I think she'd probably kick my ass soundly. Oh, he played some thing on the PS3 or Xbox that had amazing art and these robo-creature-things with like little kid voices that were terrifying. I forget what they kept saying, but it was super creepy. Damn, I can't remember the name of the game either.

The pseudo-hubster's been playing GTA IV pretty much non-stop since I gave it to him for Christmas. Except for eh week he took a break to play some thing with giant alien ants that were falling out of spaceships and he had to kill them. It might have been called Earth Defense Force. That was pretty cool.

Three-way tie and all of them are sequels.

Thief II.
Master of Orion II.
System Shock II.

Goldeneye, by damn.

My freshman year of college my roommates and I were all dating girls in the same sorority, and were naturally obligated to go to their spring formal. It just so happened that this event was taking place on the same day as our dorm's Goldeneye tournament. We realized we could go to both events, but wouldn't have time to change after the tournament, so we did the only thing possible - we wore our tuxes to the Goldeneye tournament.

We crushed the field, and swept 1st through 4th places (I was fourth).

I know I'm late, but the Altered Beast is the single greatest game of all time. Just fucking awesome idea and awesome graphics.

jiggity>> That's a great story. Bond, James Bond, indeed!

courtney 2>> That was a great game. I spent almost all night playing it once at an arcade all-night fest.

We, unfortunately, weren't allowed to have a games console when I was a whipper-snapper. I had to console (natch) myself with the "educational centre" that my sister and I found ourselves saddled with one lonely Christmas eve of yore.

Its name? Socrates.

Wikipedia's telling me that some of the games I've since repressed included such thrilling titles as: Fact 'N Fractions, State to State, and Memory Mania.

Tell me that doesn't send a shiver through your calloused, arthritic, semi-opposable gaming thumbs ... and I'll call you a punk.

The Diablo series by Blizzard.
Diablo
Hellfire (an expansion to Diablo developed by Sierra)
Diablo II and its expansion
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction

...and anxiously awaiting the release of Diablo III, currently in development.

Too much to mention:

WoW, Bioshock, I have no mouth and I must scream, KOTOR, COD4, Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4, Wing Commander, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect.

And and of my favorite game memories:

Cruising down the boulavard, listening to Mr. Mr. "broken wings" in GTA:Vice City.

Thanks to this thread, I can temporarily forget your previous blasphemy and number of toes. It's about time we started talking about games in this motherfucker.

Various games appeal to me, and though it's not my favorite, I do wish people would pay more attention to games made by Tim Schafer. And I also would like to acknowledge Shadow of the Colossus. If you haven't played it, you're genuinely missing out.

I want anyone who reads this to buy Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2. It's a truly remarkable game. Also, Pajiba should review games when it gets bigger. That way we can complain together about the sales of Tim Scafer games. I would have been here earlier if it wasn't for the fucking competetency exam.

As a kid I didn't have Nintendo or anything cool like that (the low end of middle class, yo) and the effects of that are far reaching indeed--I still suck ass at Mario.
However, in 1992 or so, we got our first home computer. And it came with Loom and The Secret of Monkey Island. I thought they were fucking great, and still kind of do. Even though, in 1993 my father, filled with the religious fervor of the newly saved, BURNED my copy of Loom in the backyard because "it is evil and uses witchcraft in the game." Uh . . . huh.
And then somewhere around 1996 I got all obsessed with Duke Nukem 3D because, seriously, he rips off an alien's head and shits down his neck. Also, he sounds like Ash from Evil Dead. Awesome.
And then when I worked as a nanny in 1997 that family had a Sega system and I played the stuff they had for their kids like Ristar, Aladdin, and the Lion King.
So it's mostly computer platforms for me because I still suck with the various controllers for game systems.
My girlfriend bought a used PS2 a couple years ago and it's pretty much been gathering dust. I don't know what she was thinking. If I feel the need to play a game these days, I go see what weird shit is up on Adult Swim. Zombie Hooker Nightmare is wicked.

Of course you can't have this list without the Metal Gear Solid series. They just got better and better, and they will always have a solid place in my heart!

It's all about Kingdom of Loathing. The only kind of computer game I can stand.

KoL limits you to 40 turns a day, roughly, which is a big selling point for someone who doesn't have the time to get unexpectedly caught up in a game.

I can't believe there's no Pajiba clan on KoL, actually. It seems right up our alley.

Resident Evil 4
Shadow of the Colossus

OK...new thread within the video game topic...who else had a sibling or parent who just couldn't play video games, no matter how hard they tried...to the point where they would move the controller paddle in the direction they were moving, jumpting, or turning in an effort to make their character move faster or more efficiently?

Well yeah...we all know someone like that...but my mom did it with Tetris. I know kids who smell like the inside of a sneaker and like to write with their own shit who could beat my mom atr tetris.

Spyro. I own that shit. It stole thousands of hours of my childhood, and I don't regret even one of them. Even though I know the movie is going to suck balls, I'm more excited about it than an eleven-year-old boy who just found his dad's lesbian porn stash.

Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar. I'm the only person I know who actually owned that console, and as such one of the few people to fully appreciate the stripped-down, old-school arcade perfection of that game. I was shit-hot at it too, but could never get past level 64. That level was one of several levels in various games that could make me bite through my control pad in frustration at its sheer impossibility. See also: mission 8 phase 1 of Cannon Fodder on the same console, level 4 of R-Type II on the Atari ST, and most of the original Defender.

My drug dealer was Bioware/Black Isle, and my fixes were Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate 2. Played each of them four times, and I loved every minute. I lost a couple of years of my 20s to those damn games.

ooh! yay. i've played quite a few games listed, but my favorite due to the sheer childlike joy i experience while playing it is katamari damacy. i just got the second one and it's just as fun, i'm addicted to rolling! and for added measure i have the soundtrack on my mp3 player.

my favorite when i was wee and the first video game i ever played was ff7, and it's still pretty high in the ranking now. i had lots of fun kicking chickens in fable and running over pedestrians in stolen cars in gta as well.

oh and silent hill was terrifying. those damn pterodactyls! i could only play while there were other people with me but it was hard to find anyone that wouldn't be too scared to watch. i remember playing mortal kombat and super mario 64 obsessively. i just had to get all the stars and find yoshi.

games that get better if played while drunk with lots of people:
mario kart, super mario galaxy (what? no one else loves this game?), mario party.

my brother and i have very different tastes in video games but we both love ape escape for some reason, it's not even really a good game. it's just fun sacking monkeys.

i feel like i'm leaving so many great games out... it really is like picking a kitten out of a litter.

Aw crap, now that I've actually read the rest of the comments, I've forgotten about the Donkey Kong Country series. Man, I used to hope I'd get sick during elementary school so I could stay home and spend some more time playing that junk. It's so ridiculously simple and childish, but it's just so goddamn fun! I actually replayed the three of 'em recently. I seriously burned how I played that game into my brain, so it was like I was on autopilot.

I also forgot to mention Skies of Arcadia in my last post. No oceans, no terra firma, just exploring a vast sky with a few floating islands (some inhabited, some not) here and there. It's why video games were made. Shame that the enemy encounter rate was diabolically high.

Also: Descent3 and Age of Mythology, which is basically Age of Empires II in 3D and on acid. Forget Joan of Arc marching on Orleans, gimme Hercules and some Greek soldiers fighting a horde of minotaur.

I need to get laid.

HA! aww gee I totally remember that dude. Completely random. And I fucking LOVED Sonic, Aladdin, Carmen Sandiego, The Lion King, and Mortal Kombat. I wore those games out on my Sega. Remember when the games would freeze and you'd have to take out the cartridge, blow on it just right, and pray your Sega-fu was strong enough to make it work? I gotta say though, all that blowing really prepared me for a future full of, um, wind instruments.

I was never much into video games, but my mom and brother were. Final Fantasy Tactics definitely comes to mind.

I killed at Mario Kart 64 and Tony Hawk 2.
I spent hours upon hours with The Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon.
I never played it (too young) but watching my brother play Resident Evil 2 screwed my 7-year-old mind up so much, it must have been decent to play.

Ah, whatever the game is, I can be sure that if I start playing it, at some point I will play it Way Too Much. Even if it's *Minesweeper*.

Past addictions? Zork, King's Quest, Tetris, Diablo, some MUDD, and several others that wasted so much time but whose names I can't even remember. A few years ago . . . a particular Neverwinter Nights mod called Bonds of Blood which became an all-consuming time and brain suck.

These days I stick with Zuma, because I know I can stop when I need to.

i love metal gear solid i haven't played the fourth one yet because PS3s are too expensive right now. i also like megaman, metroid ,halo and mario and tomb raider. i think megman samus master chief and a team of characther from their respective series should form up, steal a prototype gunship belonging to the arbiter and go on a galactic adventure.

I'll be 39 years old this year. I remember walking into a restaurant in Italy and seeing that they had removed the pinball machine and replaced it with Space Invaders. That shit used up so many 100-lire pieces during my childhood...

I took a break from video games, but never gave them up. Now I have an xbox 360 and love it to death, and am waiting for a price drop. I play a lot of different games and have a lot of favorites, many of which are mentioned here, but so far the game that I play constantly is a game called Battlestations: Midway.

It's sort of a cross between a Real-Time-Strategy game and an action/arcade game. I am not into RTS games but I fucking love it. You get to control a battlefield composed of WWII battleships, destroyers, cruisers, submarines, all these different kinds of aircraft.

The learning curve is steep, but the payoff is immense and it is THE best experience on Xbox Live for me. Four vs. four multiplayer matches where you absolutely have to communicate. Plus the learning curve keeps the 12 year old Halo tards away.

The sequel is coming out this May, and it looks awesome. Half the campaign is from the Japanese point of view, and you get to win the war against America, which is a welcome change from most war games, and definitely a welcome change after the jingoistic mind-set of the past eight years.

Like I said, I've been around. I love movies, but they are starting to stagnate. Some hack director in an interview once said something I thought was really profound. He said that Hollywood doesn't want to make movies that will succeed, they want to make movies that won't fail.

This is the reason why you have these Michael Bay gold-spray-painted dog turds witht the budget of a small african country's gross national product, and this is why you also find me at home playing games rather than dropping a ten-spot at the local cineplex.

Games are no longer a form of mindless distraction or cheap entertainment, but are fast becoming a legitimate art form. One, that like movies, but on a far more global level, provides a shared emotional reaction and response amongst the population that are exposed to them.

I love Pajiba, and have always wondered why you haven't written reviews on games. God knows it's not because this site feels above them. I'm quite pleased to see this tentative step in what I believe is the right direction on your part. Should you decide to start reviewing games on this site I wish you to know you have my full support, and yet one more among many reasons why I keep reccommending it to friends and family and complete fucking strangers I meet on the street

TheUpsetter: I agree - heck, I'd be the first to admit - that video games boast some incredible aesthetic and narrative features, but to have, say, a section devoted to 'em here on Pajiba? Hm. While this place is getting cozy with other mediums like books and music, the reason why this succeeds is because the reviewers are both extremely literate and, like everyone else on this planet, music lovers. Additionally, so are a vast majority of us Eloquents.

However, video games are an entirely different beast altogether compared to other forms. I've heard this said about comic books and I think it applies to video games as well: they haven't had their cahiers du cinema yet. Sure, they're becoming increasingly more sophisticated on some levels, they've not yet broken through as an artform yet. It's hard to try and make them more interesting and intellectual when the goal in making them has been to A) entertain and B) make money, a 'problem' (depending on who you talk to, of course) that's consuming films right now as well.

There does seem to be hope, though. I visit gamespot.com every now and then and they have a feature called "soapbox" where users can write just about anything concerning video games. I've seen some extremely intelligent articles dealing with everything from genre definition to the subject of video games as art. Furthermore, there's places like Penny Arcade, which, love 'em or hate 'em, are led by two pretty damn intelligent people.

Nevertheless, I would like to see more places similar to Pajiba with brainy, literate people reviewing and criticizing and being bitchily scathing about video games. But I still can't see Dustin and co. starting another section about it. I'm more than fine having this place being primarily about films. Maybe if some Eloquents start up a separate blog with Pajiba's blessing, sure, but I don't see a place for 'em here.

Atari XE: Ballblazer, from Lucasarts (ping!).

Master System: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, where Wonder Boy gets cursed by the MECHA Dragon and transforms into different sorts of animals. One of the few 8-bitters with a save mode (Thank God fr that).

Mega Drive (aka Genesis): Sonic 1 & 2, and Spinball (didn't care for 3); Earthworm Jim obviously; Mortal Kombat 2. Soft spot for Kid Chameleon (kid collects helmets and transforms into a samurai, a rhinoceros, Jason, a fly, ...)

PS2: Shadow of The Colossus, GTA III and GTA San Andreas. Vice City had too much pink & green.

PC: Leisure Suit Larry 2 and Quake.

Wii: Wii Fit.

TRIPLEPOSTHOLYDANG

JPguy: I've been Planescaping my Torment for the past couple of weeks and it's awesome. The whole thing feels like an old point and click adventure game with RPG bonus meat. And it's been fixed up and prettified by the fanbase so that it's not buggy and runs at high resolutions now.

I'm an old-school adventure fan, so

Gabriel Knight Series 1-3 (PC) - kicks every other game's sorry ass. Plus, Tim Curry, people. Tim MF'ing Curry!

Honorable mention:
The Longest Journey
Dreamfall (sequel to TLJ)
Syberia I & II
Quest for Glory Series
King's Quest Series

Side note: Confession time
Stupid things I did for video games:

- Stole money from my parents
- Played on at a friend's house while he and his family were having dinner in the next room, which is like breaking an 11th commandment over there.
- Switched off all the electricity at home while my brother was playing because I couldn't bear the thought him getting farther ahead in the game than me.
- Dropped my dog-walking chores for my aunt to continue playing Time Bandit on a Tandy. Forgive me, Milou.

More:

Halo 2 was actually pretty fun to play multiplayer

Metal Gear series (just, wow)

There was a PC game called Aliens VS Predator 2 I think that was pretty wicked

there was a cartoon olympics game on Sega that was pretty addictive, I don't remember what it was called

Wizardry.

Wasteland.

The Gold Box AD&D games (Pool of radiance, Azure Bonds, etc)

Castlevania.

Pick Axe Pete on my Odyssey.

Yeah, I'm old.

I've read through all of them. All of them, and I haven't played a video game in ages. I just wanted to see whether anyone would mention my game. Not one of you motherfuckers did so. I'm putting it down to (for reasons which I don't understand) the PC as a game platform being mostly ignored. Being so comfortable, robust, adaptable to different games and being something which everyone, being a gamer or not, owns anyway, I don't know why the pc isn't given much more love.

The game I used to like the most when I was about 13 was Commandos. Commandos, Commandos 1.5 and Commandos 2. It ruled. Great strategy game based on World War 2. I spent many hours trying to finish those missions. Seriously, there's no better console for strategy games than the PC. I've never owned another game console. Why buy one when a computer can do anything and everything? Nowadays consoles are trendy and different for example the Wii and PsP which makes it understandable on why the game companies do not look on the pc as something to invest much money into anymore but until a while ago it always seemed to me like the PC was king. It's surprising it isn't given any more love.

I used to play more games when I was young like Mortal Combat, Tomb Raider and others. Then I stopped playing games until two years ago. The most recent game I played was GTA: Vice City which I loved because it was such a big world to explore with a good story line. That reminded me that video games are fun and this thread has given me the urge to find some good computer game to play to see whteher I can refind the love I had for games when I was 13-14. I'll see whether some of the interesting games mentioned here exist for PC. If they don't I know a Guitar Hero for PC exists and there are magazines and websittes dedicated to PC games so all is not lost.

Those who have given up on the PC as a game platform should think again. Games are still developed for it and it's the cheapest way to have a game platform because you own or are about to buy a computer anyway. The PC as a game platform is really a no-brainer... Ok, now I'll stop ranting on the greatness of the PC now.

P.S My mate used to play Final Fantasy on the playstation and it was the most boring thing I had ever seen. Never tried hard to understand it to be honest. It looked like too much hard work.

Tekken was awesome though. I loved the Doctor who couldn't stand straight and was always falling to the ground.

9 years old at school I used to LOVE playing the game with the bouncing ball and the paddle where you had to break the wall above brick by brick to get to the next level. And there was that game where you were a detective or something and had to travel around the world to solve mysteries. I think someone mentioned it in the posts above and I had not thought about that game since I left primary school. Thanks for the momories. (Both names of these two games escape me and too lazy to track them down)

Barf, the PC is by no means ignored as a game platform. Hell, most of the games I play now are on PC (but many of them are through console emulators). If you look at the list, you'll see a ton of PC games.

Elfrieda, I'm with you on TLJ, but Dreamfall and Siberia sucked. Siberia didn't have enough detail (she gave the same bland comment on every unusable object in the game) and Dreamfall's story was a huge disappointment following the impressive, immersing TLJ. Some games you left off the adventure list:

Grim Fandango
Full Throttle
Monkey Island 1-3

Holy crap, I just realized that no one mentioned Grim Fandango. Shame on you all. Anyway, Elfrieda, you haven't played an adventure game until you've played Grim Fandango. And you should consider playing Planescape: Torment, which is very adventure-esque.

Don't need no scepter when you gots an arm cannon.

Can we get this on a t-shirt? Because this, right here, is my new motto for life.

Also FF7 was the best one of the series as far as I'm concerned. Stole countless weekends from my youth but it was all spent with my sister so.. not so bad.

I'm trying to comment but the new comment preview fucking hates iPhones

Scorched Earth. The original.

Wormer: I know it was a typo, but from now on, I'm calling it "Residential Evil" in honor of you.

Anna VB: I'll make a shirt design of it if you want. Can't afford to get it printed, but I'll send it to you so you can print it yourself.

Snath: Let's go play tetherball.

Shit, forgot Tekkan.
Look to your lives.

Ain't no eight in the kode, son.

Silent Hill 2 is definitely up there. The fact that you don't fight a single enemy in Silent Hill 2 for about 40 minutes, yet those 40 minutes are the scariest, most engaging part of any movie or game I've ever seen in my life says a lot for a guy who's flat-out bored by horror movies. It was very original in a horror premise because of how the game characterizes its cast. Instead of just murderous monsters patrolling around town, it was the town itself that would bring on physical manifestations of psychological troubles of the character (faceless sexualized monster nurses appealing to the character's sexual frustrations, etc.). It was a neat way of developing characters, and creating an atmosphere of helplessness versus an enemy that you can't see or feel.

The Gabriel Knight series - though Gabriel Knight 2: The Beast Within will always to me be the best freaking video game out there! It beats most movies I have seen, for crying out loud. :) (And I love Dean Erickson as Gabriel - Tim Curry never did it for me. Sorry!)

The Longest Journey is epic. Just epic. (Dreamfall was good, but not as epic as TLJ.)

The Kyrandia series - nostalgia right there!

I never really got into the action-adventure genre - but right now I'm giving Zelda a try on the Wii.

Oh I really really really liked Tetris on Gameboy too! But I only got as far as level 11.