Favourite computer games of all time.

Ever heard of Dragon's Dogma?

Can't say that I have. What is it

It's this open world hack n' slash game with rpg elements. I've been really enjoying it.
They have this "pawn" system where the player designs an npc that other players online can rent to use in their party. The character creation is pretty in depth; it's great.
The story telling elements are a little frustrating though and there's no fast travel option. Coupled with the random enemy spawns make traversing the map a pain.
But I love that Dragon's Dogma attempted so many things. I hear that CapCom wants to make it a franchise which is cool.

Sounds pretty interesting, especially the character and pawn creation bit.

Sounds interesting, I shall have to take a look at that.

Though I haven't played it, awesome reference Petty!

You havent played halflife? Any of them?

If you watch the first 20 minutes off this (basically the games opening sequence up until he transports) you will quickly see I think why the HL gams ae no ordinary fps games.
Great plot, engaging characters and excellent set pieces.



There are also some ecellent fan made live action flms- this is my current favourite.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:You havent played halflife? Any of them?

Nope, have hardly even watched a gameplay. I've thought about getting the orange box for 360, but its hard to find in stores.

If you do find it snap it up- great deal- great games.
The gameplay vid above will give you an idea- if you prefer your fps like CoD its probably not for you-play Team Fortress in the Orange Box instead- but if you like a bit of character and depth and a quality narrative to your shooting then the Halflife games are still yet to be surpassed in that regard.

I beg to differ! Halo has quite a story as FPSs go. COD is mindless though.

Half life makes the characterisations in Halo seem 2D- ok Halo make its characters seem 2D all on its own, but you know what I mean.
In terms of interaction, dialogue with your character, each other and the game world I reckon HL has the edge- one thing about Valve- they tend to know what they are doing more than most.
Downside to that is you can wait a long time on them to finish something to their satisfaction- like HL episode 3.

Is it half life 2 episode 3 or just half life 3. Either way, valve has a hard time counting to three. Well see if Portal 3 is ever made

Halo has good characters, just have to pay attention to what's going on, and to the previous games.

Halo has got better at stroy within the game world, but HL mamages to make it feel more personal and immediate somehow.
Although Halo stole a story telling leaf or two out of the HL book it has to be said (my little brother is a huge Halo fan- obviously Im merciless about that! )

So far there is Half Life 1&2.
Then instead of Half Life 3 they made Half Life 2- episodes 1&2- about 4-5 hours long a apiece (so about half a full game each).
Episode 3 was suppposed to be the final part.
And what 4 yars later or something still waiting on it.
But then its a testmant to Half life 2 and eps1 &2 that much in them still feels fresh and unsuprassed in the intervening time. Says a lot about how far ahead of their time they were on release.
And like the first HL they influeced everything else afterwards.

Curious, what did halo steal from HL?

Some of the physics stuff. And almost every fps that followed borrowed bits and pieces of gameplay.

Big valve games, and Rockstar and over time a few other companies games, those who can afford to keep a game in develoment as long as it takes to be right- tend to do this- they introdue elements a whole generation of games then take and build on. Not justthe usal cheap knock offs of a popular formula but genuine A ist games.
The last big thin to do this, althouh I cant actually rem,eber who started it- was cover based shooters- then every shooter was duck behind cover. Before that it was GTA and sandbox games- then every game was sandbox.

The first HL in paticular was like that. With special attention on how it told its story completely within the events and goings on of the game world, no cut scenes as such (you start the game with a five minute train ride into work, chat to the guard on the way in, get suited up- it created a sense of solidity to the stroy telling when no other games took that amount time over their story and narrative).
So every time in Halo the story moves on by someone in game teling you stuff, or you witnessing it in game- no cut scene- thats HL1's long influence.
Valve is one of those companies I always keep an eye on, few others are as innovative.

How are the characters in Halo 2D? What about the juxtaposition between the Chief and the Arbiter, Thel?
"This one is machine and nerve, and has it's mind concluded. This one is but flesh and faith, and is the more deluded."
Through him, we see the inner machinations of the prophets and their hierarchy - How they rule their society with notions of faith and honor, all the while playing backroom politics with genocide and playing the Jiralhanae against the Sangheili. We see Arbiter's resolve as he clings to the only faith he's known his whole life. We see his disbelief when it all crumbles around him through the prophets betrayal. We see he retains his sense of duty even after having his entire belief system broken when he takes his vengeance on Truth. " I'll have vengeance on a prophet, not a plague."
I'll admit the characterizations of the Chief are a bit harder to read. In Halo 1, he was pretty much just a silent protagonist.
But Halo 4, and Halo 3, and even 2 to a limited extent, have gone quite a ways to establishing a character. He doesn't really have an arc like the Arbiter, however I think that's sort of the point. He's the stoic soldier who feels nothing - " machine... and concluded."
At least that's what we're lead to believe. We never see his face. The viewer is forced to simply imagine what he's thinking while the world burns around him, while mankind is slowly destroyed before his eyes. The last of the Spartans fighting a doomed conflict. Well at least for the first trilogy anyways. In Halo 4, the roles of human and machine are blurred as the Chief detaches further while his A.I. Cortana descends into rampancy.

"he was pretty much just a silent protagonist....We never see his face. The viewer is forced to simply imagine what he's thinking while the world burns around him, while mankind is slowly destroyed before his eyes."

Thats Gordon Freeman from HL you are describing - see what I mean?

And is not just the quality of the story or the chracters, I said 2d becuase when I interact with those charaters in the game world they are simple, dont seem real. The manner in which HL tells it story, through the people and the world you interact with makes for a more 3d real worl feeling experience. Less false feeling.

Half-life
"IGN described it as "a tour de force in game design, the definitive single player game in a first person shooter". IGN has also respected the game as one of the most influential video games.
GameSpot claimed that it was the "closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken."
"Before Half Life, FPS game plots involved running around in mazes, finding keys, opening doors, and blowing the shit out of things. Half Life raised the bar; there was an actual storyline, character interaction and plot-driving game mechanics."
Allgame said "It isn't everyday that you come across a game that totally revolutionizes an entire genre, but Half-Life has done just that".
Hot Games commented on the realism of the game, and how the environment "all adds up to a totally immersive gaming experience that makes everything else look quite shoddy in comparison"
Gamers Depot found the game engaging, stating that they have "yet to play a more immersive game period".

Half-life 2
"It received an aggregated score of 96% on both GameRankings and Metacritic"
Sources such as GameSpy, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and The New York Times have given perfect reviewing scores, and others such as PC Gamer and IGN gave near-perfect scores, while the game became the fifth title to receive Edge magazine's ten-out-of-ten score. Critics who applauded the game cited the advanced graphics and physics.
Maximum PC awarded Half-Life 2 an unprecedented 11 on their rating scale which normally peaks at 10, and named it the "best game ever made".
Other records awarded the game in the book (Guniess Book of Records) include, "Largest Digital Distribution Channel" for Valve's Steam service, "First Game to Feature a Gravity Gun", and "First PC Game to Feature Developer Commentary".
In 2009, Game Informer stated that "With Half-Life 2, Valve redefined the way first-person shooters were created".
Half-Life 2 was selected by readers of The Guardian as the best game of the decade.
According to the newspaper, it "pushed the envelope for the genre, and set a new high watermark for FPS narrative". One author commented: "Half Life 2 always felt like the European arthouse answer to the Hollywood bluster of Halo and Call of Duty".
Half-Life 2 won Crispy Gamer's 'Game of the Decade' tournament style poll. It also won Reviews on the Run's, IGN's best game of the decade and Spike Video Game Awards 2012 Game of the Decade."


Really, there is probaly few, if any other games, who have influenced the design of FPS more than HL.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: "he was pretty much just a silent protagonist....We never see his face. The viewer is forced to simply imagine what he's thinking while the world burns around him, while mankind is slowly destroyed before his eyes."

Thats Gordon Freeman from HL you are describing - see what I mean?

In his initial conception, Chief was little more than a silent protagonist. His character has gone quite a ways in the last ten years though. Especially in Halo 4. Despite it not affecting gameplay, we do know what Gordan Freeman looks like. Yes, we still have to imagine what he's thinking as events in the world happen around him, but the player is already given something on which to base that because we know what his face looks like.

My point is, I'm not trying to argue that Halo has had more influence on fps's than Half Life, though Halo was one of the first major fps to have online multiplayer and it helped revolutionize that aspect of the genre.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: ok Halo make its characters seem 2D all on its own

I just don't see how this is true. None of what critics praise about Half Life takes away from Halo's characters, just as a praise towards Halo doesn't take away from HL or any other fps.

Pettytyrant101 wrote: I said 2d becuase when I interact with those charaters in the game world they are simple, dont seem real.

HL uses in-game scripted events to progress the story. I'll definitely agree HL uses these it far more often than Halo. However aren't those merely substitutions for cutscenes? Outside of the events, the npc's in Half Life behave rather simply too I'd argue. Freeman can hit people in the face with a crowbar or use the gravity gun to hit them with large crates and no one says boo. It's not easy to get away with that in Halo though. Continued friendly fire is met with betrayal - retaliation.

My point is not about which is the better game merely that games like Halo are walking in the long shadow largely cast by the HL games- its just they are the single most influencial games in that genre (regards single player at least- and Team Fortress probably had a simialr influence on multiplayer- and originally it was an offhoot of HL).
Its a bit like fantasy books- anyone who writes a fantasy story now does so in Tolkiens shadow- you cant avoid it, he set the pattern- HL is like that for single player FPS- everything after it owes it a little something and borrows something from it.
That was my point, probably.

I'm not trying to argue Halo is better either. Merely that the two are different enough to warrant being judged on their own merits. The setting and characters have their own flavor, so to speak.
Where the analogy with fantasy books breaks down I think is in the fact that Science fiction has a bit more variety than modern fantasy. As you say, modern fantasy is too derivative of Tolkien, it's a safe choice since the movies, whereas Star Trek, Star Wars, Mass Effect, even Halo can exist in the same genre. Each is vastly different enough for each to have its own identity. Not that everyone of those things I listed is necessarily good by virtue of that fact alone.
Take a game like Dragon Age. That's a great game that is in the shadow of its setting. Far too derivative, I think.
For me, Halo is different enough to have its own identity.

Yes sci-fi is broader I agree.
But I was thinking more in terms of mechanics regards HL games- the way in which story is conveyed, the way the main character remains silent allowing the player room to roleplay their character as they see fit. The way in which the story is progreesed as you play.
And some gamplay mechanics- the way physics work in game not just part of an enviroment but as part of the gameplay are all things HL has 'given' to the genre lets say that almost evey other fps game afterwards adopted something of, Halo included.
Thats not to try to take away from Halo as a game, merely to point out it probably wouldnt be quite the game it is if the HL series had not precedeed it.

I beg to differ, Halo largely drew from Bungie's previous forray into the FPS genre: Marathon, which came before Half Life. Halo CE would have been in developement (though not as an FPS) before Half Life was released.

And I can pull all of those praises that you posted about Half Life just as easily with several of the Halo games.