The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Stargate was the only video game I ever got into. We dropped many quarters playing near my college.

Centipede

Geez... so much for a productive day, heh.

Computer & Console:
Carmageddon 1 & 2. Stubbs the Zombie. Myth 1 & 2. Bungie's Marathon series. Ambrosia Software's Escape Velocity series. That submarine game for the Atari 400/800 computers.

Arcade:
Discs of Tron (the environmental cabinet).

In no particular order

Half Life 1&2
Portal
Monkey Island 1&2
UFO: Enemy Unknown

There are multiple criteria for all-time favorite game. If it's based on my enjoyment of it when I played through it, I think Zelda: A Link to the Past would have to be it (or maybe Ocarina of Time). As far as games I keep going back and playing when I feel like playing something, it's a bit harder to decide.

Although there will of course always be a special place in my heart for Super Mario Bros.

fluffy wrote:There are multiple criteria for all-time favorite game. If it's based on my enjoyment of it when I played through it, I think Zelda: A Link to the Past would have to be it (or maybe Ocarina of Time). As far as games I keep going back and playing when I feel like playing something, it's a bit harder to decide.

Although there will of course always be a special place in my heart for Super Mario Bros.

i have one of the first carts of ocarina of time with the chanting in the fire temple. dealing with the chanting as i was trying to get through the temple was really, really creepy. years later, i learned that the chanting was a muslim call to prayer and was removed from the game. at the time, i had no idea what it really was, but creepy voices chanting in the atmosphere of the fire temple really left an impresison on me.

What?! They removed the chanting?!

Apparently, they also changed Ganon's blood from red to green. Lame.

OoT came out the day before my birthday that year, so I got a "first edition." Thankfully.

Chrono Trigger
Star Ocean (the SNES original, unreleased outside of Japan)
Final Fantasy IV

SNES > all other systems ever

If we're talking "games one has spent the most time playing," then Battlefield 2 and Day of Defeat.

john m wrote: Final Fantasy IV

if you mean the one that was originally released in america as FF2 , then heck yeah! i played that game neurotically, to say the least.

SNES > all other systems ever

i definitely have some of my fondest memories playing on SNES.. between the above-mentioned FF, zelda, castlevania IV, SMB world.. ahh yeah...

-craig

hmm, tough one. I'd probably go with Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. (yeah, I play JRPGs, wanna make something of it? ) Other top-scorers: Persona 2, Chrono Trigger, Morrowind, Fallout 2, Master of Orion 2.

My PS2 just stopped working. Again. I will probably be shelling out 500 bucks for that PS3 + MGS4 bundle. I never thought I'd spend that much on a console. Weird.

starfinger wrote:if you mean the one that was originally released in america as FF2 , then heck yeah! i played that game neurotically, to say the least.

That's the one. FF2 is FFIV, except an easier edit of the game (bosses are easier, secret passages are highlighted, several character-specific battle commands are removed, etc.).

FFIV is still my favorite story of the whole series. VI could have been if it didn't slow down so much in the second half of the game.

I take back what I said before. Banjo-Kazooie is the best.

What the hell was I thinking before????

Arcade - Centipede

Console - Yars Revenge for the 2600.

P.C. toss up between Sim-City and Civilization. Civ III was my favorite out of the Civ series.

I'm pretty sure I could reinstall Civ II, sit down to play it, and become inaccessible for a week. Such a brilliant game.

There is that. It was always, "oh, one more turn." That game was impossible to get away from, for piddling things like using the bathroom (get it, piddling) and eating. I did have to stop playing because I was in college at the time.
-bill

john m wrote:

starfinger wrote:if you mean the one that was originally released in america as FF2 , then heck yeah! i played that game neurotically, to say the least.

That's the one. FF2 is FFIV, except an easier edit of the game (bosses are easier, secret passages are highlighted, several character-specific battle commands are removed, etc.).

FFIV is still my favorite story of the whole series. VI could have been if it didn't slow down so much in the second half of the game.

Goodie Goodie, Final Fantasy discussion.

Been a Final Fantasy player since '92 or so, so I enjoy talking about it.

VI was my favorite for years and years and... really, still is kinda my favorite Final Fantasy (and game ever). Most people jumped on the bandwagon at the release of VII because of graphics, but VII has a good story as well. Music-wise, VII was Nobuo Uematsu's best. It wouldn't be until X until Uematsu would write such awesome songs, and even then he couldn't out-do himself.

But getting back to gameplay:

FF IV (FF2 on SNES) was the first really great one, because of the story and all of that. From a logistical standpoint (i.e. character development and levels vs. the difficulty of the game as you went through), it was well put-together. Video games have a REALLY hard time with this point, as there will be peaks when the game gets easier or harder than is practical at certain parts, but the balance was well done. Rydia still to this day is one of my favorite ficticious characters. Gotta love the green hair...

FF VI (FF3 on SNES), as mentioned above, is just awesome. Kefka is the ultimate bad baddy. Everything he does in the game just bleeds of evil, and you just can't help but form a disgust for him. It also was the first (at least to Americans) Final Fantasy that left skills mostly customizable (with learning spells via Espers for anybody). This allowed the player to choose the four favorite characters and run with them. (Usually, for me, Gogo, Edgar, Sabin, and Terra. Maybe Mog sometimes, but I hated that you couldn't control him after he starts a dance. Relm was my other backup [FakeMustache, come on, you know that's an awesome relic]) The whole subplot with Locke and Rachel was sad, also. I think it was at that point you start to really sympathize with Locke. Still a fav.

FF VII (FF7 on PlayStation). It took me many, many years to truly love this game. I just couldn't get over having to buy a whole new system just to play the next Final Fantasy Game, after I had bought my N64... I also was HORRIBLY put off with the dystopian future setting for a Fantasy game. My wife argues that VI did it with Figaro, but a transporting castle by means of an engine is NOT futuristic like VII was, Big Black Men with Guns Grafted On Their Arms, for instance. Still, once you get past Midgar.. about the time you get to Nibelheim, the game starts picking up and doesn't stop until Sephiroth is dead. As I mentioned, the music to this game is an 11 out of 10.

VIII was probably par for the series. The story was written by an Emo-wannabe and the magic system was created by a retard. Other than that, I guess it has some redeemable points. But definitely my second-to-last Final Fantasy (FF5 is worst... I know I'm not alone in this..)

IX got ripped by many for being 'childish' in it's animation. (VII and VIII were very realistic in character design, while IX was just a few steps away from Anime.) That the Main character has a tail turned my friend off from the game. However, I liked some of the characters (Freda and Amarant, for instance), and even enjoyed the *sighs* comic relief of Steiner. It was a couple of points about VIII to me, because at least Zidane didn't mope and complain every 5 seconds about life and girls and whatnot.

X brought the series back on track. Sure, Tidus complains like a little girl for the first 3 hours of gameplay, but once the Self-Narration helps us to see just how out of place he really felt, you could kind of see what his motivations were. Yuna continues to be the hottest of the heroines, and Seymour continues to be the most 'wish-he-were-a-good-guy-cause-he's-cool' villian in a FF game. Auron was the biggest bad-ass EVER, and I'm fairly sure that no one EVER took him out of their party at ANY time... This one would probably be my favorite after VI and VII.

XII I'm playing right now. It's completely different in its style, as Hironobu Sagaguchi, the producer and designer of the first 10 Final Fantasies only had a supporting role in developing this one. The story is VERY in-depth, and kind of hard to understand unless you play it through a couple of times. Still, it's a great game for side-quest afficianados. And, probably my favorite point, most of the bosses, espers and weapons are winks and odes to previous monsters and bosses through the Final Fantasy series. Nothing like getting espers based on the Final Bosses of FF1, 4, and 5, in addition to some other interesting homages (such as the Empire's Airship Fleet).

Ok, I guess I've wasted enough time talking about something people don't care about... Um... My Favorite FF ties between VI and VII then...

Diablo II was pretty addicting... I'm scared about D3 coming out... Life Drain!