Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:33 pm
I haven't played all that big of a variety of games (I tend to play a few games to death), and aside from the ancient Atari 2600, the only systems on which I've played games are the Sega Genesis and PC. But if I had to pick just one game that I thought was the best ever, it'd have to be Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Anybody who has played this game can understand why I picked it. Besides a few minor annoyances (e.g. how long a game of Pazaak takes and the inherent unfairness of always having to get your card first), this game is as close to perfect as I've ever seen. For anybody who hasn't played it, get it and play it now! You can get the PC version for like $10 or $15. It's a damn shame that the sequel was rushed out so quickly just so it'd be on shelves in time for the holidays- it was still good but could have been much better.
Planescape: Torment is good from what I've played of it so far (I got maybe a third of the way through it then had to stop because it's on my desktop at home and I'm traveling for work- it doesn't work on my laptop, probably because my laptop has a widescreen monitor), but I can't really judge it since I haven't finished it. So far, I don't quite like it as much as BG2:SoA (see below). Sadly, I wasn't able to play TIE Fighter since I didn't have a functional joystick when it was out. Honorable mentions, some surely for sentimental value (all PC games):
Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon (1991)- Old-school pseudo-3D AD&D RPG, long and very challenging.
Wing Commander: Privateer (1993) - An approach to the Wing Commander series from the civilian angle, you inherit a ship and can be a mercenary, merchant, pirate, or combination of the three. Included an absorbing but optional storyline. It could have been even better but was limited by PC technology of the time.
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (1993) - A 3/4 view RPG similar to, but older than, the Baldur's Gate series, set in the long-defunct but awesome Dark Sun AD&D campaign setting.
Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994) - A revolutionary title that was great fun to play and had a good storyline. The first PC game to use full-motion video with big-name actors.
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000) - The expansion pack allowed the characters to get ridiculously powerful, but a great main storyline, tons of interesting quests along the way, and good character development made this a truly outstanding game with lots of replay value. I played through it at least three times, trying to do every single side quest, but there are so many of them (many not obvious) that I think I still missed several even with the help of various Web walktrhough pages.
