Tuesday, 21 January 2014

50 Greatest games of all time (part 5)

Why are there ads appearing on this blog? Just so you know, it has nothing to do with me, so... WTF?


35. The Darkness


   Note: This is another picture that might be from a sequel.

The first FPS to make the list, but not the last (although given the state they're in these days, maybe it should be), the Darkness takes you on a crazy journey of revenge, involving mobsters, demonic powers, the undead (dressed in first world war uniforms) and literally another world. Jackie's (the protagonist, better mention that) story begins simply enough, you're in love with a girl (Jenny) and you're in the mob (probably not that normal, but a classic media trope). You go wrong in a mission though, and the head Mob guy (godfather?) orders your death, but it turns out that these otherworldly powers run in your family, known as the Darkness (The name of the game!( also voiced by Mike Patton, best known for Faith No More, but also plenty of other things that i shan't list off here))). Anyway, these powers help you escape your certain fate, but Jenny gets captured and killed!
Anyway, after that, you get revenge on her death whilst also trying to get rid of the darkness even though you end up embracing it. The great thing about this game (besides the great story) was that it had great FPS gameplay but with some very useful powers, the likes of which normally turn out to be lame in video games (but these weren't). These include, but are not limited to, big tentacle things (which you can see in the picture above) that impale/eat enemies, "creeping dark" which take out enemies from a distance and the ability to summon black holes. These powers can only be used in the dark though, so make sure to shoot out light bulbs. It also spawned a pretty good sequel too.


34. Fable 2


   Another game I never played the original of then (though I hear it's good, and the anniversary edition is coming out soon, so I might give it a go (that said, I never played the first Halo, so I played the anniversary edition, and couldn't get in to it)), but this game was great by it's own right. This game had so much to do, you could start a family, sacrifice people to a cult, build and furnish a house, play with a dog, hunt for bounties and more. Plus, depending how good/bad and pure/corrupt you were, you're appearance would change. You could get horns, a halo, get blue veins all over you (not varicose though, these are the good type of blue veins (apparently)) and get spotty, or even get un-spotty! Plus, as a dog owner, your dog would also change in to more or less evil breeds of dog, though I don't know who decides which are which. There are jobs you can get too (I know, sounds lame), but I got a ton of money from blacksmithing, and selling on what I had made, and it didn't take that long either!
   The story takes you on (another) tale of revenge, out to take down the man who killed your sister during your childhood, and you have to recruit 3 heroes to do so. This tales time, obviously, because that's basically the games, but as you get towards the end of the game, lord lucien (the antagonist) kills any families you may have had, and far more importantly, your dog (that bastard)! Obviously you get your revenge in the end, and it gives you the choice of 3 endings, and if your anything like me, you'd choose the family/sister/dog resurrection one, how could i go on without my dog??? In this case of this game, I would suggest giving the sequel (Fable 3) a miss, because it's a massive step down from this one, try the first instead, I know I should.



33. Minecraft


   Yep, that's definitely the kind of thing you could make. Minecraft has become a phenomenon, selling across nearly every platform possible, and to people of all ages, with all kinds of crazy things being made, from replicas of real, sprawling cities, to castles, to the Starfleet fleet, and beyond (just google it if you really need to see). Some people commit hundreds and hundreds of hours to making these things, but i struggled to put in an hour to make some crap tower. Don't get me wrong, I thought the game was great, why else would it be on the list, I just know for others it would be a lot further up the list. I spent a lot of time playing this game, but I couldn't get focused on one project, and about a third of the way through one, I would just start another.
   I also had the enemies turned off, because I got sick of creepers coming in and blowing up what I had just spent the last 15 minutes creating, but this made the game too easy, I just needed some happy medium. Co-op was a great distraction too, sneaking off from your friend that you  were sharing a world with, making something, then calling them across to see it, or even just having them over to your world to see what you had created (even though in my case, the other way round proved far more interesting). Yes, this game is great, and I really enjoyed it, but there was too much to do, I just wanted to picture something in my head, and it just be there without any of the work (the story of my life, really).



32. Dishonoured



      What was that about first person super powered based games? Okay, so this isn't a first person shooter, but it is in first person. This is a stealth game, at least it was to me, it didn't have to be, depending how you played it, where you were an assassin trying to right the wrongs that had fallen on yourself and the empress to be. The game is set in a steampunk themed world, with enemies on big stilts (as seen above), and others with superpowers too. The powers you posses in this are less evil than those of the darkness though, and include the likes of "blink", where you can teleport a small distance, "posses" where you can take control of other humans or animals (eg. fish and rats) and "devouring swarm" that summons a swarm of rats to kill an enemy. You probably just noticed a lot of references to rats, and that's because the main basis of this game is around the plague and how the upper classes would escape it.
   Another game with a great story, and a great twist, which i wont go in to too much detail on as it would spoil it, this another game that deserves all round praise for it's story and gameplay. The game didn't release with much grandeur, and though it was received well by critics, it seems it was mostly missed by a lot of people, which was a shame because it was an excellent game. As mentioned before, one of the main reasons it was so good is that you could play it like you wanted, you could use stealth to sneak through levels, or you could just go for it, all guns blazing. The collectibles were great too, because they helped boost your mild RPG based stats, and they weren't useless statues or a snippet of a diary entry that you know you'll never get all of, so, what's the point?


31. Wii Sports



   What's this doing on here then ay? Well, I'll tell you. When the Wii first came out, it was the likes of Wii sports and Wii play that made it seem like a great idea. Of course, in the end, with a slew of tat coming to the system, it turned out not to be (there were other good games though). Wii sports though, showcased what was possible for the system, and how you could play it, even with your elderly grandmother (or so I've heard, I never tried that personally). Of course, bowling and tennis were what it was all about, sure it had golf, baseball and boxing too, but for me, you only needed the bowling and the tennis. I remember being at university when this hit the shelves, and everyone cramming in to one room to play.
   So the multiplayer aspect was great. The single player just seemed to give you a chance to hone your skills for when the next gathering would be so that you could give yourself a better chance of winning. Plus, what was better than the constant danger that someone behind you would inadvertently smash you around the head, or that the wiimote would fly out of your grip and smash the TV (side note, I had that happen, but thankfully i missed the TV and just left a big dent in the wall, phew). So this game makes it in on multiplayer alone, but this certainly wont be the last game to make it in here on that basis.

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