Great Video Games

I wanted to title this "Best Video Games" or "Favorite Video Games" but best would be problematic for some users who may stumble upon this as it would start senseless arguments, and favorite would just be too hard to decide on (except for Homura-Chan). So, what are some great video games that you guys have been playing and what makes these games so great?

Right now I am playing Legend of Grimrock. How many games can you dungeon crawl with a team of Malcolm Reynolds, Gandolf, and members of team Avatar? Legend of Grimrock is a throwback to old fashion dungeon crawler games with new age graphics and features. It is a blast to play and has surprisingly deep combat. It is relatively cheap on steam and I recommend you give it a shot.

Unlike most people, I do have an all-time favorite game, and it also happens to be a great game, but since I know I talk way too much about it to begin with, I'll refrain from writing an essay-esque post about it. Right now I've been playing through the original Assassin's Creed on the Xbox 360, and it's an absolute blast. I've played AC2 and bits of AC3, and honestly, although the gameplay in the sequels is more polished and complete, the story in AC1 is by far the best in the series, as well as the setting. Unlike 2 and 3, the original really creates personalities and deep characters out of the Templars, something I feel no other games in the franchise do. There's a sense of wonder and mystery that pull you into the story, even on Desmond's side, which becomes a bore in the later games. The Crusades setting is also amazing; how many other games do you know of that let you scale up the Dome of the Rock in medieval Jerusalem?

Also, has anyone ever played Persona 4? I've been looking for a good RPG/J-RPG to sink some time into, and I was really intrigued by what I've heard about it. If you have let me know.

I think Assassin's Creed 1 was the best as well. The story was very compelling and it was developed for all your targets too. I never actually completed the others. I'll be content pretending the story past the first was meant to be a mystery.

So Legend of Grimrock is quite difficult. I keep dying on the 4th level because poison damage is crazy. I've put it to the side for a bit though because I found Faster Than Light. I bought it 4 days ago and I already have 23 hours on it. It is safe to say it hooked me. It is a crew focused space battle simulator. The game play is great and surprisingly fast paced mid to late game. I love how it is procedurally generated and has a small, score based campaign. That plus the difficulty curve has kept me playing every day since I bought it. I've only beaten it twice in 23 hours, and only on easy.

I love FTL. I pretty much have the same stats as you do Crow; 22 hours played, and only 2 wins on easy (done with the Zoltan ship and the Federation flying-space-dick). It's an extremely hard game, even on easy, and a lot of fun once you get rolling. I wish it was more skill-based though, rather than luck. I know it's a rogue-like, but so many runs have ended with me think that failure was basically because the game screwed me over; not giving me an Ion Bomb or a Glaive Beam, having only Mantis sectors available, not having enough scrap no matter how much I save up, or never having the chance to get more crew members. I love the game, yet I can't help but not like it.

Another rogue-like I've been playing a lot is The Binding Of Isaac. It's a twin-stick shooter, with hundreds of items to collect, tons of levels, and randomly generated floors and enemies so every playthrough is different. Similar to FTL, there's a luck element to the game, but it's a lot less prevalent in getting you to victory compared to pure skill. I've sunk over 70 hours into it and I still play it all the time and keep finding new item combinations and ways to play it.

I know what you mean about the feeling of luck being a major factor in the game but the more I played the more I learned to be adaptable. There are a lot of micromanaging tricks and different ways of fighting that make all the difference. I think once you get past that first barrier of it feeling like a luck based game and crack into deeper elements of it more control will appear. I know at first I was looking for certain weapons and I was constantly disappointed but then I learned the beauty of the teleporter and then fire bombs and Rockmen combo, or triple ion canon with drones, or just a tight run to the end with no missiles and using three bomb guns to murder the crew on the mother-ship so they can't repair. I think ultimately the skill in the game is decision making depending on what the game throws at you. Haven't gotten good at it yet, but I think the skill is there.

Binding of Issac is a great game too, but I enjoy it much less. I guess that goes to show the ways different games resonate with different folks. I really like it but there is so much trial and error with the items at first just learning what each one does, and there are so many. There is a stronger sense of agency in the game but because of that I feel more disappointment when I screw myself over by doing the wrong thing. In FTL I feel as if I wasn't good enough to overcome a very difficult run, but in Binding of Issac I just feel like I should have known better.

The Binding Of Isaac was a lot easier for me to get into since I had watched NorthernLion play it for a few months before I got it, so a lot of the "What does this do?" and "What do I do?" moments never happened with me. Good old NL ruining games for me since 2011 (sorry Bastion.) I also agree with you're thoughts on FTL; I'm pretty bad at adapting strategies or finding new ones. My best run was with max engines, Glaive Beam, Ion Bomb, and max cloaking. Only those 2 weapons. So now whenever I play, I try to get that same combination, which hasn't worked since (my second successful run was with 2 Pegasus Missiles and max Federation Beam.) I've never even tried using a teleporter like you said you like doing, so I guess that goes to show how different play styles can be and still come out with victory.

As for new games, I've been getting into BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger on Xbox and I'm really enjoying it. It's a fighting game, which automatically makes it a very difficult game for me (fighting games are about the only genre of games I really can't play well, it's still a pretty niche category), but I'm learning and having the CPU on beginner helps. The art is all hand-drawn 2D animations, and they look gorgeous, and well as all the characters being unique and cool. The story is awesome as well (something you don't expect from fighting games), and it has anime-like cutscenes and visual novel dialogue interactions. Playing it has definitely made me want to save up for an Arcade Stick.