What's the best/worst video game of all time?

[Frothingslosh]

Heh. I've played every game I mentioned save Ascendancy and Sword of the Stars, and quite a few more (Civilization: Call to Power 1 & 2 and Kohan II all come to mind). Some, like Master of Orion II, Civilization V, and Endless Legend were really, really good, and some (such as Master of Orion III) were TERRIBLE. (In fact, MoO III killed the franchise for over a decade, although there's an interesting-looking early release reboot of Master of Orion available on Steam right now.)

I was a tabletop wargamer and RPG player since I was a kid in the 70's, and it has kind of stayed with me - even today, my preferred genres are strategy (both TBS and RTS) and RPG's. If you could see my Steam collection, that would pretty much leap out at you.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I used to be a "sit-around, roll-dice, and eat-pizza" type of D&D player (no board, no tokens; just friends, paper, a DM, and some imagination) before computer gaming became an issue.

Most (not all) of my games were/are shooters, and I prefer 1stPS to 3rdPS. DOOM 1, 2, 3 and add-ons; Heretic 1 & 2; Hexen 1 & 2; CyClones; Blood; Strife; Unreal; Rise of the Triad; Wolfenstein (and Return to...) ; Sin; Half-Life and many of its add-ons; Witcher; Singularity; Pariah; Quake 1, 2, and 4; Mech Warrior 2, 3, and 4 plus many add-ons... Fallout - 1, Tactics, 2, 3, 3/New Vegas (and 4 is waiting to be loaded); I've also got some of the earlier Call of Duty variants.

I've missed a few shooters, I'm sure - but I've played every one of the ones above plus a few that I might have forgotten (due to their having been eminently forgettable...). But every now and then I switch to a 4X for a change of pace. I even have some of the old D&D games in the genre of Icewind Dale and many others, though they do less for me than even the 4X games.

As I've gotten older, my perspectives change - but my grandson has discovered that his grandpa has some of the neatest games he's ever seen! So as long as I can keep these games running in Compatibility mode on one of my systems, my 9-year-old grand-stinker, rotten kid that he is, will come visit me happily!

 

[Frothingslosh]

LOL

A number of the games you mentioned are available to run on modern systems still, via Steam and/or gog.com. Baldur's Gate, BG2, and Icewind Dale even have Enhanced Editions out specifically rewritten to work on modern systems.

About the only FPS games I've done are DOOM, Unreal Tournament, and Battlefield 2014, although I'm looking forward to Blizzard's new game Overwatch.

Of the others you've listed, The Witcher and Witcher II both rock (I've yet to play number 3), I loved Mechwarrior 1/2/3/4 as well as Mech Commander (but I've played BattleTech since the late 80's when FASA was still publishing it), and the entire Fallout series (including Tactics but not Brotherhood of Steel). In fact, I've been replaying Fallout 4 lately in my free time.

I'd love to get an oldschool tabletop D&D group going again, but finding a group these days is awfully challenging. Pathfinder works as well, but in both cases, finding and getting into a gaming group is a giant pain, not to mention a 'buyer beware' situation. Last time I did so, one player insisted on lecturing us every week on the evils of eating meat, while two others had to tell us weekly, in explicit detail, how not only were they ( a married couple) both bi, but that it was an open marriage because monogamy is so boring. (The open marriage didn't bother me, but hearing them talk about it ad nauseum every week sure started to.)

And yeah, when I played D&D weekly, it was you, your friends, your books, a BUNCH of dice, pencils, graph paper, your imagination, and pizza, chips, and soda, all evening long on a Friday or Saturday night.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

a BUNCH of dice

Not that I ever found a real use for it in any game I ever played, but I found a couple of true d30's somewhere. They appear to be "regular" solids though I don't know the name of a true 30-sided regular solid. (Would it be a tridecahedron?) The individual faces are rhomboids with about 1.75:1 major:minor axis ratio, estimated.

In a way, I pity the kids who play their games on-line because their gaming experience doesn't open up their imaginations so much. Sort of like the difference between the "other" suspense directors of the time vs. Hitchcock. To him, the greatest suspense came from what you COULDN'T see - but could imagine.

 

[AccessBlaster]

In a way, I pity the kids who play their games on-line because their gaming experience doesn't open up their imaginations so much. Sort of like the difference between the "other" suspense directors of the time vs. Hitchcock. To him, the greatest suspense came from what you COULDN'T see - but could imagine.

I think they would be bored to death playing old school games. It's a generational thing. Likewise most of us would get totally creamed when we try and enter their world.

For them the competition comes not only on how well you play the game, it's also how bad ass your gaming rig is.

 

[Frothingslosh]

it's also how bad ass your gaming rig is.

Let's be fair. Geeks have been bragging about that since home computers were a thing.

 

[J2thaE]

Tomb Raider on the PC
Mortal Kombat (All of them)

 

[Hoffman]

Best: Minecraft
Worst: Farmville

 

[hercules]

Best Game for me is:
Metal Gear Solid 2
and the worst game is:
Metal Gear Solid 2

 

[whqlmethis]

Best: AOE 2

 

[ducouer]

The best: The Sims
The worst: building city or similar games. They drive me crazy.

 

[scott-atkinson]

In a way, I pity the kids who play their games on-line because their gaming experience doesn't open up their imaginations so much. Sort of like the difference between the "other" suspense directors of the time vs. Hitchcock. To him, the greatest suspense came from what you COULDN'T see - but could imagine.

My kids play Sandbox games online, Roblox and Minecraft, the former they are both pretty adept in Lua scripting so use their imaginations to build games and environments. They bounce off each other being only a year apart in age..

As for me, like you, I enjoy FPS games, and used to love also old school D&D sessions.

My partners daughter is into AoS part of the War Hammer family, she has intricate models that she builds and paints then plays off against other players with them with a rule book that looks more like an encyclopedia

Not for me really, taken some of the imagination away and just turned it into a money tree getting kids to buy more and more figures and packs, and believe me they aint cheap...:banghead:

 

[Frothingslosh]

Yeah, the Warhammer games get pretty complex. They also rewrite the rules every couple of years so they can sell more books and models. It's been an ongoing complaint about Games Workshop for decades now.

Personally, I've been a HUGE fan of Warhammer: 40,000 for probably 25 years now. You should have SEEN the rulebooks back then.

 

[harpygaggle]

BEST: Fallout series
Everquest

WORST: Shadowbane

 

[Horsehead]

BEST: Star Wars Battlefront II (the old one - still like to play it after all this years
WORST: Minecraft (boooring)

 

[Cosmos10]

Worst Video game I have played: Hatred

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Reviewing the list, I have one more game to add in the "plus" category: Skyrim.

When you have a powerful enough system and good, large-screen display plus a decent surround-sound system, the ambience is incredible. Some of the overland treks (avoiding roads) are downright beautiful and their treatment of water is mostly spot-on.

My favorite character type is the scout + assassin. Once I can start building up the enchantment and smithing skills, I can get a bow that is a one-shot kill for any humanoid. And it does well on larger critters. High-level chaos damage on a Legendary Ebony bow using at least Ancient Nord arrows can even take down a small dragon in only three or four shots.

 

[Frothingslosh]

I always tended more toward melee in Skyrim. After maxing out and creating sufficient buffing items for enchantment, smithing, and alchemy, it wasn't hard to create a light armor set that hits the armor max (don't even need buffing for heavy armor to reach it), as well as a two-hander that will wreck anything. (Sometimes I go sword-and-board for the extra enchantment slots and special shield skills, though.) Coupled with high skills in healing and abjuration plus the Dragonrend shout, there's pretty much nothing that gives you trouble, not even Alduin himself. Basically, think 'paladin with holy 2-handed sword'.

It's ironic, though, that in Fallout 3 and 4, I gravitated to scout-sniper. I guess it's because Skyrim doesn't come with customized double-shot .50 caliber sniper rilfes.

 

[Frothingslosh]

...and now I have the Skyrim theme stuck in my head.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Actually, I found a video online that compared the Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim themes side by side. Same melody but three different treatments.