I was hoping to reminisce some of the gaming history. Please join me if you will. As the line between genres tends to be blurry let’s be forgiving here. Let me start with me owns:
aRPG: Grim Dawn
MP shooter: Halo
fighting: Tekken or Virtua Fighter
strategy in general: Total War
pure RTS: Starcraft
slasher: Ninja Gaiden for the mechanics with God of War at the second place for the magnitude
story-driven Hollywood shooter pseudo RPG (don’t really know how to call it but this game deserves a mention anywhere): Mass Effect
jRPG: Final Fantasy VII for the historical significance and XII for the mechanics
action in general: Metal Gear Solid
retro platformer: Flashback and Prince of Persia 2
RTS: Cultures
RPG: Gothic, always had balanced gameplay and you never felt left down if you didn’t push your character to the tryhard zone
aRPG: Titan Quest (yes, I do prefer TQ over GD, hands down)
Strategy: Cultures
Shooter: Call of Duty 2, the only shooter I’ve actually played and liked. Overall I don’t like nor play shooters. Okay, let’s say I don’t have a favorite shooter game because the last time I played CoD 2 was… I don’t even remember, 2008?
That’d be about it. I am not a big fan of games in general nor play currently released games.
MP shooter: Blacklight: Retribution or UT2004. Tough call. UT is a classic and one of the best LAN games I’ve ever played, but BL:R had the most amazing customizability and general gameplay I’ve ever seen in a shooter.
fighting: Super Smash Bros. Melee.
strategy in general: Can Darkest Dungeon go here? I’m putting Darkest Dungeon here.
pure RTS: Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance.
slasher: Not really a fan of this genre but Darksiders 2 was a lot of fun, so sure, DS2.
story-driven Hollywood shooter pseudo RPG: Wolfenstein: The New Order Edit: Eh, didn’t see the RPG part. But uh…Wolfenstein TNO has “a” choice, I guess? So you can still Role-Play.
jRPG: Another genre I don’t really partake in…at all, really.
action in general: Borderlands. Full series.
retro platformer: Also not really my cup of tea. Super Meat Boy comes the closest, I guess.
MP shooter: Not played this category much but I sunk lots of hours into Timesplitters 2 back in the day with friends.
fighting: Tekken
story-driven Hollywood shooter pseudo RPG: The Last of Us.
jRPG: FFXI had perfect gameplay and mechanics. I know its an MMO but they royally screwed up FFXII in comparison (it was still great but it had horrible flaws like spell queue and quickening/summoning system). They should have made offline FFXI :P.
action: Ratchet and Clank series (I prefer the later ones for more in-depth weapon xp and customisation elements)
retro platformer: Crash Bash. If I have a few spare minutes sometimes I emulate it to play the ball arenas that are so addictive! (not exactly a platformer though).
IMO XII’s gambit system was one of the best ideas for RPG game mechanics in the history of the genre. True enough, the actual implementation was flawed but the idea itself was genius. I remember arranging and tweaking those gambits for hours and hours so that by endgame I was able to roll through almost all content without giving a single manual command. I was shocked when I learned they abandoned it. I still can’t believe nobody ever copied it (afaik).
arpg - TQ/TQ:IT
gen-rpg - Fallout 2
4x strategy - MOO2
turn-based strategy - HoMM3
rts - Dune 2000
gen-strategy - Alpha Centauri
fps - Unreal Tourney
mmorpg - EQ
old-school platform - Ghosts and Goblins for NES
old old old old school quarter-arcade - Black Tiger or Commando
Action: Splinter Cell 1-2-3
Action-adventure: Legacy of Kain Series
RTS: C&C Generals Series and Act of War Series
FPS: FarCry
FPS/RPG: Bioshock and Vampire the Masquarade
RPG: Fable The Lost Chapters and The Witcher
ARPG: Titan Quest
I agree, the gambit system was amazing and I too am surprised it wasn’t copied or carried forward to future titles. The level of customisation it gave to the player was so great; no AI complaints because you basically had total control.
It has an mmo playstyle similar to FFXI, and Ivalice games were typically job-system based. I was just sad that they diluted so much of what made FFXI great (and introduced those flaws I mentioned); if only they had faithfully conserved those brilliant aspects then FFXII would be been 10/10. The job system was so shallow in IZJS compared to XI
I’m left to hope for a future title that makes use of FFXI mechanics + FFXII gambits. XI was their most profitable game for a reason; the gameplay would be so good they are crazy not to have done it already.
Chaos Theory is still really amazing, if a bit too easy for my tastes. Too bad I could never complete a playthrough without being spotted, at the highest difficulty level there’s one room that’s just impossible. Also has amazing music.
Interesting categories they remind me of gmaes I used to play a lot when I was younger. The first I would pick twisted metal black. Second Crash Team Racing ps1 game.
I am going to list absolute favourites, because there are too many great games that I would list.
ARPG: Grim Dawn and Borderlands 2
FPS: Unreal Tournament, Borderlands 2
TPS: Max Payne
RTS: World in Conflict
TBS: Age of Wonders 3
Stealth: Hitman
RPG: Skyrim (as playground for roleplaying), but I don’t usually play them.
Horror: Condemned: Criminal Origins
Action-adventures: Sleeping Dogs, Mafia (2003) and Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Platformer: Ori and the Blind Forest
Racing: Need For Speed
City building: Anno
FF8
Parasite Eve
Gran Turismo 3
FF Tactics
X:Com Enemy Unknown
KOTOR
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Silent Hill (original)
Path of Exile
Popeye (Intelivision version as it was 1st game I can remember enjoying)
GTA: San Andreas
aRPG: Grim Dawn, Titan Quest, Torchlight 1-2, Diablo 2
cRPG: Neverwinter Nights series
turned-based RPG: Divinity: Original Sin series, Fallout series
RTS: Warcraft 2, Starcraft 2
Combat Sim: X-Wing, TIE Fighter, X-wing Alliance
Arcade: Streets of Rage, Golden Axe, all of Capcom and Konami’s beat-em ups.
