The Top 10 games I would love to play -- if I only had the time :(
In no particular order.
1. Alan Wake
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| "Psychological Thriller" is a lofty tag. But if anyone could deliver it would be Remedy. |
Max Payne was my first xbox title. I remember buying a used copy at the dingy little Gamestop on Lower Broadway on a winter night. It snowed all weekend and I holed up in my walkup apartment on Ludlow street, playing it straight through. It was like I was living the game and loved every cliche-ridden, bullet time enabled massacring minute. Who could forget the boss battle in the attic above Club Ragnarok? Or the nightmare dream sequences? And beyond the super evocative soundtrack, game-changing bullet time, and uber-noir story, Remedy delivered the pitch-perfect M-rated action adventure. So Alan Wake was the one that got away. I have never played it, I love Remedy and I love horror survival games. And that Alan Wake 2 teaser demo really got me excited to go back and correct this oversight.
2. TimeSplitters 2
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| Remember how the sighting had this elastic bounce to it? Everything about this game is fun. |
Why? Because this game is FUN.
Disclosure: I played the hell out of this game. And man did I love it. In many ways it's the perfect first person shooter, with a time-jumping framework that provides a range of eras and settings, and a series of game modes that let you revisit them all in amazingly fun ways. And who has ever made a zombie mode as manic as the one found in TimeSplitters 2??? Free Radical was founded by the guys from Rare who made Golden Eye, and you can tell. It's bouncy, fast and fun -- I wish I could be playing a round of Capture the Bag right now.
3. Destiny
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| On second thought, maybe Destiny is trying too damn hard? Starting with that name. |
Ok, I have been so far out of it I had barely heard of this one until the Gamestop Go Big promotions kicked into gear. But I am curious to give it a go.
4. Evolve
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| Big monsters vs. specialty class team = Left4Dead evolved? |
Why? Because this might be the next Left4Dead.
More or less the same criteria as Destiny. Though I have always loved a squad-based shooter, and the asymmetrical boss vs. team, hunt and be hunted setup sounds like a promising evolution of what made a multiplayer session of Left4Dead great.
5. Day Z Standalone
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| Roaming bands of survivors engage in small arms fire. |
Why? Because this is a big Human Psychology experiment. With guns. And Zombies.
Any game that is this unforgiving -- die and you lose everything -- is an intriguing premise. Not surprising for a game with its origins as a mod of ArmaII, one of the more punishing games I have played. Oh, and it's set in the Zombie apocalypse, where the zombies are just the beginning of your problems...it's every other survivor on the server and who do you trust? Talk about a paranoid forcing-function for cohesive squad-based play. Sold.
6. Dishonored
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| Ok. Head on combat against three AT-ST walker things...not very stealthy. |
Why? Because I love me some Stealth.
I still remember the first time I played Manhunt. The moment of elation mixed with revulsion when I successfully killed a Hunter with a plastic bag (or maybe it was a shard of glass) was a mind-altering experience. Stealth gaming was an entirely new and nerve wracking game play mechanic that made my palms sweat and my heart rate race and I loved it. While Tenchu was technically my first foray into the genre, it was the original Splinter Cell that made me a Stealth Fan for Life (I know, that whole Metal Gear thing...I missed it. And frankly at this point, where would I ever begin?). So steampunk setting, short and punchy dedicated single player experience? Dishonored has been on my list since I first saw the concept art.
7. Bioshock Infinite
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| A world as fully realized as Rapture? Yes, please. |
Bioshock? I loved it. Story, setting, gameplay. So how can I not want to visit Columbia and spend some time in Irrational's last triple A release? And given the ink dedicated to Emily as the first NPC that emotionally matter is worth the trip as well.
8. Eternal Darkness
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| Um...this screenshot makes me a little uncomfortable |
Disclosure: I never owned my own Gamecube. So I never got to play Eternal Darkness. But I loved the idea of the sanity meter and the way it would impact game controls and visuals. Like the headset / Director voice effects in Manhunt, why do so few games push the envelope and mess with our expectations like this?
9. Fallout 3
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| This is, like, the very first screenshot released for Fallout 3. And it still kicks ass. |
Why? Because all my gaming friends spent a year and half of their lives playing it.
I had Fallout. I escaped the vault. I got to the outskirts of D.C. I salvaged some decent ranged weapons and mastered the fundamentals of the V.A.T.S. combat system. Then I had a kid in the real world. And that was the end of my Fallout adventures. But with all that rich post-apocalyptic world to explore and all those amazing DLC packs? Man, would I love to return.
10. Alien: Isolation
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| Cat and mouse with H.R. Geiger's Alien? Methinks you die a lot in this game. |
Why? Because I love survival horror games. And it's got the xenomorph. Game over, man.
By now you are seeing some recurring themes: First person and Stealth (I will not bore you with my long standing Resident Evil: Code Veronica obsession). But has there ever been a longer series of grave #fails when it comes to videogame adaptations of beloved film franchises? Sega is guilty of many missteps, but no crime is greater than their endless mishandling of the Alien franchise. And yet every time a colonial space marine shows up in an artist's rendering, or a screenshot shows the motion tracker, I would stupidly hope this time might be different. And finally with Alien: Isolation, it appears Sega has finally delivered a pure and worthy Alien experience. You are alone and unarmed, stranded on a labyrinthian space hulk in the deepest depths of space and being hunted by horror defined, all slitherine exoskeleton, omnivorous jaws and implacable unreasoning killer instincts. Sign me up.
