Week 2

   It's looking more positive on the ability to finish this now. That may however do with how work has worked out, only working 3 of the last 7 days, but I'll probably do 7 in a row now, so that wont help. Before I start I just want to mention a couple of good films I've watched, The Lego movie is great, very funny and smart, though I did see the big reveal coming a mile off. As a bonus, it had the fun element of trying to figure out who all the voice actors were, needles to say, I didn't do very well. I also watched This is the end (yeah, that Seth Rogan film) and it was actually pretty good, so long as you don't take it seriously, and also Kick Ass 2, of which I liked the first, finally got around to watching the sequel, and it was really violent and crude, which I why I liked it so much, but I'm not surprised Jim Carey wanted to distance himself from it, maybe someone should've stopped him... (that's right, I wrote this whole bit about films for that one joke).

   Okay, so games, and I'll start with Donkey Kong country tropical freeze. Yeah, that's right, another 2D platformer, but, if you hadn't noticed by now, I love 'em. I had never played one before, but I figured I need to get some use from my Wii U, so I scraped the dust off of it and gave it a whirl (also, it got good reviews, which was the main reason really). It was good, with some nice level design, and different side characters that gave you different abilities, though you could normally find that any of them would give you as good of a hand as any of the others. It looked great too, with some beautiful levels and background art, but the music was pretty uninspired, no catchy tunes that made me want to search youtube after I'd done it to rehear them (yeah, I've done that before).
    So, yeah, it was good, but not great, like many reviewers made out. I'd heard a lot of comments that didn't seem to hold up to me, like it was groundbreaking and full of things never done in 2D platformers before. No it wasn't. There were also on rails levels that were either riding a run away mine cart or flying some kind of barrel rocket (best way I can explain it) which were more about trial and error than any actual skill.
   Something else that was praised was the bosses, and how they were 'fun' to play. I was very sceptical on this comment, because I never like bosses, you just do the same thing over and over again whilst it gets slightly harder. Of course, I was right. The first boss was a seal, and to be fair, i had a seally good time with that one, it was a nice change from the other levels, and it was nice to seal a bit of a change in the game. In the end I sealed the victory though and carried on. The bosses moved on, an owl (owl the hell did I beat him) on to some kind of monkey threesome, then a blowfish (but I blew it away) and by the time I got the penultimate boss, a Polar bear fielding a hammer, I just couldn't bear it anymore. The last boss was a walrus, and I have no puns for that.

Also, this is what it looks like (though the word 'freeze' isn't well represented here).


   So that was one down, and next up was Crimson Dragon, a spiritual successor to the Panzer Dragoon series that hit my favourite ever console, the Sega Saturn (obviously that is a joke, and yet here is a selfie of me holding mine that I took just now:

See).
   Anyway, the Panzer Dragoon games were basically on the rails shooters where you flew on a dragon (you were the guy riding it) and shot at other bizarrely designed creatures, which included, despite my comment just a few paragraphs ago, good bosses! That was mainly because you'd have to pick at certain areas of the boss to aim at whilst tyring to dodge there attacks. This is a good point to mention that you could move around the screen, it wasn't totally fixed.
   Crimson Dragon got a lot of the same feel to it, and although I'd probably say it wasn't as good as the first 2 (only out 19 years ago) it was a pretty decent homage (I never played Orta on the first Xbox (It seems really awkward, with the new Xbox being called Xbox One and referring to the original Xbox as such, not that I think I ever called the original the 'Xbox one' anyway, it just feels like I've been cheated out of saying it if I ever wanted to (maybe it's because most people refer to the 'Playstation' as the Ps one now))). They added some light RPG elements about buying powerups, evolving your dragon, choosing which attacks you wanted and some other bits, but the basics were essentially the same. It still had the weird looking enemies with crazy names, and you still dodged around the screen frantically trying to avoid getting killed whilst trying to kill (that makes it sound like a generic FPS). Okay, I haven't really explained this game very well, but what more can you say other than you ride an on rails dragon, dodging and shooting (that sounds even worse).
   I had a lot of problems with it though, I had to spend a good chunk of time going around the same early level trying to get a golden Vespin seed to evolve my dragon, and you would be able to get it about one time in four, and when you're at a point when you're way too overpowered for this level, it takes about 10 minutes and barely gives you any xp, it got pretty damn annoying. Another thing that was annoying was the fact that creating a save file isn't the automatic option on the home screen, as I found out having got a couple of hours in, then, when i came back, all my progress had been lost, due to the simple fact of the bit of the menu at the start of the game that says 'do you want to create a save file, yes/no' was automatically set to no, so when you're tapping away at the A button to get to the game, you end up not creating a save file and losing a load of your time. After I had done this, I thought I would be too annoyed to continue (it was touch and go on controller smashing, but It survived), but, unlike my usual self, I pushed on and redid it all over (much better this time too, I was terrible at it the first time around.
   Another thing I want to mention/complain about is the graphics. Now, I'm not one for feeling that graphics is a key part of gaming, it's more like the icing on the cake for a game if it looks beautiful, but it's a long way from a top priority for me. However, this was a launch game for a brand new console, so it had to show off what it had, but it was very disappointing in that regard. I'm not saying that the Xbone has bad graphics, I don't want to jump on this 720p up scaled to 1080 p argument that's going on, as it doesn't bother me that much. Hell, Ryse looked amazing, as did Assassins Creed 4. But not Crimson Dragon, so, for arguments sake, here is a screen shot

   and for comparison here is a screen shot of Kameo: Elements of power (a 360 launch game)

   Can you honestly tell me that Crimson Dragon looks much better than this?
In the end though, all of these complains aside, I enjoyed, and finished it, so scratch it off the list.

   Speaking of things that are annoying, on to Grid 2 again then, and no, I Haven;t finished, nor have i played it since last Friday (the day after i wrote the last entry). After finally winning a season (season 3, I came 2nd in one and two) it finally removed the annoying pre season section where you had to try and get other racing clubs to join the WSR. I thought this was going to be great, but how wrong i was. I'll just prefix this by noting I'm not particularly good at racing games (yeah yeah, excuses excuses) but the difficulty level has shot through the roof. I'm now having to do a race 20 to 30 times to get a podium finish, and considering there;s normally 3 or 4 races in a tournament, and 8 tournaments until you can unlock the final, you can imagine what a ball ache this became. What's more, there is going to be a season 5 as well (sigh)! I am beginning to wonder now if I'll ever finish it, and truly I do not know, but I'm a fair way in to it now, so I might go back sporadically to play it, and in the course of the next 10 weeks I'll (hopefully) get it done.

   Just before I wrap this up, I'll give you a taste of what's to come next week (nom nom nom) as I started Metro Last light last night, and got a couple of hours in. Now, i never played the first, but I read the synopsis so it's fine. The original (Metro 2033) was based on the novel also (coincidentally) named Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky (apologies if miss-spelt) and is about a post nuclear war Russia where the survivors are forced to live their life in the underground train Metro tunnels (hence the name). There's rivalling factions though and nuclear abominations to deal with too.
   As I said though, I didn't play the first, and I don't want to repeat the synopsis I read on Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge). The second follows on from the story of the original, but goes in a completely different direction from the book sequel, the aptly names Metro 2034. You're tasked with righting the wrongs from the original, but you soon get captured, and although only a few hours in, there's been plenty of good signs, with varying gameplay styles throughout, from classic FPS action (it's an FPS by the way), stealth and survival horror. So with lots of scope to expand on these varying styles of gamplay, and a very interesting setting to boot, I'm looking forward to playing it some more (not tonight though, I'm jiggered). One problem I do have though, is the terrible Russian accents. A friend suggested to me that maybe Russians did the voice overs, but if they are, they should be ashamed, it's enough to make Dick Van Dyke blush.

   Additionally, as I mentioned House of Cards S2 at the end of the last one, I'll just add that I've finished that, and it was amazing, everyone should watch it. Bare in mind you really should watch season 1 first, not only because it's really good too, but also the plot would be difficult to pick up without it. However, season 2 is better.

Finished: Mark of the Ninja
              Donkey Kong country tropical freeze
              Crimson Dragon

Underway: Grid 2
                  Metro last light

Week 1

   Only 1 week in, and already I question if this is do-able. Maybe it's because I've read more about South Park the stick of truth (which sounds like it's gonna be really long (not that I have anything against that, hell, I'm all for it, but it makes this challenge more difficult)). Maybe it's because I got really confident over the first couple of days, which I was off work for, but since then it's really been difficult to make much headway. Nevertheless, I shall endeavour to finish.

   So, what have I been playing? Well, let's start with what i said would not count (and still doesn't) the Last of us: Left behind dlc. So, I've talked about the last of us before, so I'll skip that. Left behind is a couple of hours long story from Ellie's perspective, split between 2 times, firstly, before the main game begins, and then during the part where in the original game it says '6 months later' (or some time period, that was a total guess). So, in the part missing from the main game, you (Ellie) have to head in to a shopping centre or 'mall' (if you insist on Americanisms) to find medical supplies for Joel who has, of course, landed on a big spike that went through his gut. It is in the ha;f of the game where the majority of the fighting takes place, because this is after Ellie has been forced to learn how to handle herself, unlike the prequel section, where she's just scared.
   The major problem i had though, is that it seems like much of the fighting was forced. I can't remember now what it was like in the original game, and sure, I can appreciate that the game needs some gameplay, and that's what this half of the game is for really, some full on gameplay, but the situations encountered just seemed to be so squeezed in that they didn't really make sense, and you could really tell it was a game. There is a part where you turn on a generator and then get swarmed with enemies, and it just felt so gamey. The ending of this half of the game too, led you in to a shootout with a large group of human enemies, that seemed the antithesis of what the game was supposed to be.
   The prequel section was much more story focused though, ad Ellie and her estranged best friend, Riley, as they too go in to a shopping centre to have some fun. They go to a toy store and muck about, play videogames (sort of), use one of those photo booth things, there's even parts where you can do the run/balance across small wall edges that we all used to do as children. Also, there's a carousel

   Now, nobody tell Ellie, but they're actually really lame. This childish fun however turns out to be the cover for some bad news Riley has for Ellie, but they get over it (despite her evil deception) and carry on. From here. I'll stop talking now, because it's about to get spoilery.
   Overall it was good, but I think it would have been nice to have less forced combat sections (although I'm not one of these people who have been lobbying for having no combat in it, that's be well boring). If you have still got the Last of us, this is a must buy.

   Right, on to what counts So, the only game I did finish this week is Mark of the ninja. what this is then, is a 2D platformer stealth game. The story is fairly light, basically pertaining to you having some special tattoo's that grant you powers (like Far Cry 3 (or am i just thinking of Far Cry 3?)). The tattoo's will lead to your forced death, because to have these makes you a deadly assassin (which was required for your mission) but also drives the user mad, and it is tradition inside the (ninja) tribe to kill their selves after whatever their task is, is complete. There is a twist though, but if you're anything like me, you'll see it coming from a mile off (that is, if you didn't from that blurb, which is more or less just a synopsis of the third level). The good thing to say about the cut scenes though is that they are beautiful.
   The whole game looks great, the in game graphics look brilliantly cell shaded, and pulling off a stealth assasination kill brings you in to a close up, that shows you how close the in game actually looks like the cut scenes. The main problem I had however, was my lack of ability at it. It may have had something to do with me playing it on this old crummy laptop (I got it on a sweet humble bundle deal (yeah, i do my part for charity when it benefits me)) which led to a lot of slow down on the game, sometimes making it nearly unplayable, but I forced my way through it, but if the game weren't so good, nor was I challenging myself to this 12 games in 12 weeks, I probably would have given up. Anyway, that excuse went off topic, and it's probably not the reason, it's more to do with the fact that I'm not very good at being sneaky.

   Now, that's how it should be played, and sure, sometimes this is how it would work out for me, but more of often than not, it would turn in to...

... a shootout I was ill equipped for. Especially seeing as levelling up seems mostly based on being sneaky, and not being spotted, granting you better weapons and so on, but of course, I got stuck in the classic videogame vicious circle of sometimes, when you're not very good at a game, you don't get the weapons or abilities you need to make it easier, so the fact that you're finding it difficult makes it even more difficult because you can't get the tools to make it easier, and these are given to the people who are fining the game easier in the first place. It's like why so many people give up at COD online.

   So I said that I was going to force myself in to playing two games at once, and I have been doing so, and it's another game that I got on the Sly (get it), this time from Playstation Plus, GRID 2 (ha, gotcha!). It was difficult to think what genre to go for, as I was thinking to have a platformer go as the second game to whatever I was playing as the 'main game' if you will, but as Mark of the ninja was a platformer, I had to consider my choices. Did I want to make Mark of the ninja the B game? It had such great reviews (91 on metacritic) that i had to consider that if this game is so great, then it deserves to be the A game, which meant I needed a B game that wasn't a platformer, so I searched through what I already owned, and it seemed inappropriate to have many of them as B games, such as story driven FPS' and long winded action/adventure games. So I thought, what about a racing game? I haven't played one of those in a while. So, I saw GRID 2 downloaded from Playstation Plus (a fantastic service BTW, but more on that another day), but as it was a racer, I wondered if it really had an ending, in a traditional sense. With Games like Gran Turismo that can just go on indefinitely, I wanted something with a distinct ending, and as it turns out, yes it does, so I fired it up.

   

Even though I don't play online I thought as this was during a crash, it seemed most appropriate for me

   Okay, so firstly it is beautiful, although most racers do as there's really not that much to animate, plus, when you add in you own livery, it's even better, especially as mine always looks like a bad trip at 70's themed nightclub. This is a racer with a story too (well, loosely). Basically, you're some billionaires puppet who has to bring his 'World Series Racing' (WSR) idea to life, by travelling around the world and getting famous racing clubs to enter. This involves pre season races to beat these clubs, and get their best racers onboard. It is also an opportunity to add some interesting race types to racers. Of course, there's the usual racing, checkpoint challenges, drifting challenges and so on, but there is the more interesting 'faceoff'. It's a simple knockout 8 car tournament. 1 lap, winner goes through, with as much contact as you like (just how i like it). I was quite impressed by this idea, though simple, it added a new interesting spin on the racing game (it's probably been done before, but whatever that was on, I didn't play it).
   What didn't impress me so much was Togue. This is also i 1 on 1 race, but this time against the same opponent each time, and no contact is allowed. This goes completely against how i play racing games, as far as I'm concerned, racing should be a full contact sport, hell, it's good that racing games these days seem to have this rewind feature to go back and correct your mistakes (GRID 2 inculded), but with Togue, I ended up using almost all of these trying to simply pass my opponent, but that car would end up cutting me up, and I'd plough straight in to the back of him. Now granted, this is great defensive driving, but when I'm sitting there for an hour, trying to do this one race, it makes me want to kick the TV in.
   Another thing that's in it is 'live racing' where the track changes as you go around. Now, this seems tough, and is, especially as it doesn't even give you a mini map in the bottom corner, so it's difficult to judge how sharp a corner is until you're half way around it, which also leads to you using a lot of your rewinds. However, this mode is made easier as it seems the AI is dumbed down somewhat for it, as I'm pretty sure I've won every one so far (something I can't claim in any other mode).
   After all this malarkey is done, you head in to the eventual WSR tournament, where you come across the names you now recognise from sending hours courting them. It's interesting that, even though there's many racing challenges in here (mostly consisting of small, 2 to 3 race tournaments) that there is no running tally of how each racer is doing, and in the end, it just comes down to how you do in the final tournament to determine your final standing. The season is then wrapped up by some guys off ESPN (I don't know if they're real people on ESPN, and nor do I care) yammering on about how the world is getting i to it.
   The main point to remember here is that I'm not yet finished on GRID 2, in fact, I'm pretty much halfway, as I'm halfway though the third WSR tournament, and there are 5 of them in the game. So, hopefully, I shall have knocked this out by this time next week (so long as Donkey Kong doesn't take up all my time (or house of Cards season 2, which is amazing)).

Finished : Mark of the Ninja
Underway: GRID 2

Games completed: 1


(this section will make more sense in a few weeks when there's more here.)

12 weeks, 12 games

It's a simple premise, can I complete 12 games in 12 weeks?

   Not so long ago, this would just be the normal, run of the mill thing for me, sadly, I have work and other commitments now that limits the amount of time spent having fun, both in front of a TV screen and away from it. This is a way to get me back in to games, where I have found myself drifting from. Far Cry 3 has definitely helped me realise this, having just finished it and feeling it was fantastic, hell, if I'd played it before the top 50 list, Peggle may have been in some trouble.
   So, a couple of parameters then. Firstly, I can't have finished the game before. This is not to say that I can't have played it before, there's many games that I've started, got an hour or so in and never come back to. If i were to play any of these games though, I would have to go back to the beginning and start again. Secondly, this isn't about 100% every game. In this time period, I wont have the time to scour the Internet to find a guide to some hidden secret down a 20 minute maze just to unlock a new colour of jeans (or something). It's just completing the main game/story.
   There's a few other gaming things that may get in the way though. Firstly, DLC. Now, it won't count, as it's not a full game (I may reconsider this on Far Cry Blood dragon as you can purchase it on it's own without the main game, so is it still DLC?). In this time period though, both The last of us left behind and Bioshock Infinite burial at sea part 2 will come out. Obviously, these will take time, I'm not complaining, because I'm really looking forward to them (hell, left behind is out tomorrow), but this will eat away at some time (plus, there may well be the walking dead S2: E2 in there).
   Another issue is how long will South park the stick of truth be? This is probably my most anticipated game of the first half of this year, and I've been waiting with baited breath for around 2 years for it now, and it's nearly upon us. I want it to be long (with the caveat here that it's also good), and deep, with replayability, but of course, this too will eat in to my time. On top of this, Titanfall is coming out (and everyone's raving about it) an as it's online multiplayer only does it have a story in the traditional sense? I'm hearing yes, but my heart tells me that it will just be some ongoing, never ending quest for xp.
   With these factors then, it means that I'm going to have to go against my usual style of playing only one game at a time. I will have to think what game i can play as my 'main' game, and what i can sneak in on the side (cheating on a game behind it's back, how dare I?). This may lead to some games being slowly chipped away at over the weeks, but I'm hopeful I can do it.
   I will just add before I finish that I'm not going to go out of my way to play short games. I'm not saying I wont, but I'll just play whatever I fancy, or more likely, whatever I already own and have never played/finished. So, join me weekly to see the progress, hear about the games and how I'm probably going to be cutting corners wherever I can. It's Thursday 13/2/2014, so I've got until 8/5/2014... Okay, Go!

50 Greatest Games of all time (part 11)

   This is it then, the end of the road, what will be top? what will only reach the lowly depths of 5th place? Well, first, here's a summary of what has come before.

50. Disney's Aladdin (Megadrive)

49. Lego Star Wars 2

48. Peggle

47. Dead Rising

46. Star Wars Battlefront

45. Assasin's Creed 2

44. Sonic R

43. Street Fighter 2

42. WWE Smackdown! Here comes the pain

41. Saints Row

40. Earthworm Jim 2

39. Red dead redemption

38. Batman Arkham city

37. Worms 2 (1997)

36. Championship manager 01/02

35. The Darkness

34. Fable 2

33. Minecraft

32. Dishonoured

31. Wii Sports

30. Pro Evolution Soccer 4

29. New super Mario bros. (DS)

28. Command and conquer: Red alert

27. Crash bandiccot 3: Warped

26. Just cause 2

25. Gran Turismo 2

24. Halo 4

23. Tomb Raider (2013)

22. Metal gear solid 2

21. Super Mario galaxy.

20. Sonic Generations

19. Timeslpitters

18. Xcom: Enemy unknown

17. Sonic the hedgehog 3 and Knuckles

16. Bioshock infinite

15. Mashed: Drive to survive

14. Grand theft auto 5

13. Call of duty 4 modern warfare

12. Sonic the hedgehog 2

11. The walking dead, a Telltale game series, season 1

10. Bioshock

9. Toejam and Earl

8. The Elder Scrolls 4. Oblivion

7. Fallout 3

6. Pokemon Red/Blue

   Please scroll down the older posts to see more insightful ramblings on the games, and a few gags too. Anyway, here goes the top 5:

5. The Last of us.

   So, I said in a previous blog that I couldn't decide on the 2013 game of the year between this game, GTA V and Bioshock infinite, well, I guess that I've chose now. 

   Just like Bioshock Infinite before it, the game focuses on the relationship between an older man, and a young girl (unrelated), who he is forced in to being taken care of. So, the basic synopsis is that it's some time in the not too distant future, and a fungal spore has taken control of most of the human population, with most either dead of turned in to plant like predators, whilst the surviving humans have to struggle to survive in Judge Dredd style locked away cities (though not as fancy).

   So, the game starts by introducing you to Joel (the main protagonist (and again, like Booker DeWitt in in Bioshock Infinite, is voiced by Troy Baker, good year for him)) and the horrible circumstances that make him such a hard ass in the future. So, fast forward 20 something years, and Joel is working with a woman (Tess) as smugglers in one of the police state style towns, and after things go wrong, you end up being offered double what you were after if you escort a girl (Ellie, the other protagonist) out of the zone and in to down town Boston (you're already somewhere in Boston). After a short while, you find out that Ellie is so important because she has an immunity to the virus, and hence the key to finding the cure, and, after finding the group you were looking for had been wiped out, Tess decides to sacrifice her self to the military in order to let Joel and Ellie escape (she had been bitten though, so it's not as noble as it sounds). The game then ends up being a journey around the country, trying to get to where you need to go, on what for a while seems like a wild goose chase (it turns out not to be, though you are messed around a lot), while the game tears at you heart strings constantly, with the collective amount of saddest moments in games ever made (I assume, there was a bucket load).

   The way the game makes you feel is a testament to how great the game is, and how well written it truly is. The gameplay is good and varied too, with more classic 3rd person action when fighting bandits, but more of a survival horror feel when taking on the infected, but what makes it so atmospheric is that for long sections in the game, no gameplay happens, and you are exploring the areas, but expecting something to happen at every turn of a corner. When the appearance of a giraffe walking by is one of the most memorable, and talked about moments in a game, you've got to know it's either terrible, or amazing (or Zoo Tycoon).


4. Mass effect 2

   After much talk about sequels and game series, we're back to another where the case of one standing above the others is accurate. Mass effect 2 however, from a story perspective, seemed list the least epic of the series, with the first setting the stage for all the events and Shepard (protagonist) learning of the 50,000 year cycle of the Reapers (a race of non organic sentient giant space ships) of wiping out all organic life in the galaxy has come again (not that they knew it had come before... until now!). This is whilst trying to fight off the Geth (a race of non organic foot soldiers, helping the Reapers to fight on land) from laying down destruction and the Spectre gone wrong, Saren. The third one comes around to having the Reaper Invasion of the Milky Way, and starts off with the attack on Earth, and it's your job to end the 50,000 year repeating cycle. Much has been made of the eventual ending to Mass effect 3, and the series as a whole, but i thought it was fine really, yeah, your decisions didn't factor in to the ending, but they factored in to the entire rest of the game, hell, you went around and spoke to everyone you knew from the game series before the final assault on Earth at the end, what more do people want? What's more, Bioware (developers of the game) gave in and released a new ending! it's your story, not the small group of moaners, most people were fine with it, just end it how you wanted to! Rant over
   Mass effect 2 then, seemed more like it stood alone, mostly battling the collectors, a race never mentioned before in the first Mass effect, and only in passing come 3. You had also been forced in to leaving the spectres and joining Cerberus, a group that tried to protect humans above all other races (but of course, your trying to protect all organic life, so there's a bit of a clash of interests (they did bring you back from death though, so you can't complain too much)). So, you build your team again and go to war against the Collectors, and the Geth, eventually finding out a big reveal on the Collectors (I wont spoil it here), an defeating a new type of Reaper.
   There is plenty great about this game, the combat is certainly far better than the first Mass effect, that was barely passable when it first came out, when I eventually played it some years later (I couldn't get in to it at release, when Mass effect 3 was announced and people were all excited, I played Mass effect 1 and 2 back to back in a month or so). Mass effect 2 took the kind of 3rd person action cover shooting that was so heavily used during the last generation of gaming and made a great game out of it, an, even though the first Mass effect had a great story, this improvement certainly made the 2nd one far more playable. There was also a change to some of the RPG elements, with the loot collecting style gone from the first Mass effect and more of an XP building improvement system in place. They also removed the random exploration of planets (which to be fair, wasn't very good in the first one).
   They did, however, add far more investment in to your team mates. You see, on every mission you could take 2 of them with you, each of them with certain abilities, so it was about picking which was best for which task (of course, Miranda and Jack were the dream team, because they just picked people up in the air with their minds while I shot them). You got to learn more about these characters than you did in the first (many returned from the original) in the form of loyalty building side quests, which also affected the ending of the game, where none to all of your squad could die depending on many variables (including on if you had completed the loyalty missions). These mission gave you more insight in to these characters and fleshed out the universe, making it seem like more was still happening beyond the building war (although you are often thinking 'do I have time for this? isn't there a war going on'?).
   Of course, I wouldn't recommend just playing Mass effect 2, you've got to play them all, and 3 is still a great game, but this one seemed to me like the best, and even though much of it seems inconsequential come the end of Mass effect 3, you'll have enjoyed the ride.


Okay, top 3, in to the business end, do you know what it is yet?


3. Portal 2

   Portal 2 was a masterful sequel to an already masterful game. It had a puzzle solving mode that seemed so simple, and yet could create such complex puzzles that you would get stumped over and over again, whilst feeling like an idiot, because there's not really that much to do, yet it could be so hard. Then there's the 2 antagonists, Wheatley (voiced by Steven Merchant) and of course, GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System).
   Wheatley then, is a computer core who helps Chell (protagonist) to escape the test chambers and eventually the facility, but comes across GLaDOS, who gets replaced as the controller of the facility by Wheatley thanks to help from Chell, only for Wheatley to turn on you, become power-mad and take charge of the facility and dump you, and the remains of GLados into the bottom of the facility, miles underground.
   GLaDOS plays not such an evil role as in the first, because, after these events, when she gets put in to a potato battery, you form a reluctant agreement to work together to stop Wheatley (as his idiocy will destroy the facility), return GLaDOS to power and escape.
   This sequel has a far more in depth story than the original (though to be fair, this is a full game, the first one wasn't) which delves in to the origins of Aperture Science and allows you to see where it came from and why it exists (I wont spoil it here though). It also allows you to see the facility in a different light, as it is set many years after the first, the facility is now in disrepair an parts of it are falling apart and it is overgrown with plants. As you are sent down in to the depths, you get to see the beginnings of the facility, that has more of a mid 90's feel to it, and as you work your way up, and come back towards the top, the decor of the environment follows suit, in a very well thought out way. This really shows how much care and attention Valve put in to this game.
   Of course, there was a multiplayer mode put in as well, and it was also very good. Even though the story is much lighter, there is one there as a (once again) sinister GLaDOS is looking for new test subjects, but needs robots (Atlas and P-Body) to learn the techniques to be able to find them. Granted, this just seems like an excuse for gameplay, but that's fine. Each area focuses specifically on one type of puzzle solving (there are 5 areas) and nearly all the puzzles require you to work together, and many are very well constructed, including parts where you and your friend (or whoever your playing with) need to be able to be in total sync in order to time a specific action. It is very testing but also very rewarding when you get through one of these difficult test levels together.
   On  a whole then, Portal 2 is a fantastic sequel to an already amazing game (I wonder why it's not been on this list yet? hmm...), that gives you a lot of back story that wasn't there in the first game, there is still plenty of humour in it, and if you stand around in areas where Wheatley or GLaDOS are talking to you for a while, they will continue talking and you'll be glad you stayed and listened. There is a fantastic art style throughout and a lot of challenge. What more could you want?
   


2. GTA San Andreas

   Forget GTA V (well, don't really, but it's about to make sense in the context of the sentence), San Andreas is the ultimate Grand Theft Auto (see). GTA 3 set the stage for what we have to day, and created a new genre of games that we've seen over and over again, from the getaway and Driv3r through to Saint's Row, Sleeping Dogs and Just Cause. Again and again we have the criminal element, car thieving, police shooting, pedestrian killing (wheeler dealing, WOOOO! Son of a gun!) action that has made people so happy over and over again, that's why people have copied this format, and why they are so popular.
   So, GTA 3 might have been the trend setter, but San Andreas set the formula in stone, with a sprawling open world and crazy storyline. Most importantly of all though, is the control system, they fixed them. Try to go back and play GTA 3 or Vice City now and you'll find it insanely difficult to control, and makes no sense from modern gaming control set ups, but San Andreas finally caught on, fixing camera, driving, targeting and other controls.
   By modern standards, Liberty city (in 3) and Vice City are quite small for open worlds, but San Andreas finally opened up, with 3 different cities, and greenlands, deserts, mountains and small towns (and more) in between. There truly was a big world to explore, an lots of secrets to find, and to drive around the ring of the map would take you a long time. The game also finally gave you easy access to planes and helicopters, including the Hydra, a Harrier copy that I'd constantly fly around the map with, thinking it was easy to land due to the turnable engines, but of course, I'd always end up crashing. Also, there was a jet pack.
   So, the story was basically about CJ (Carl Johnson) coming up from the street and gangs of Los Santos to end up running the city, whilst in between burining down Cannabis farms, buying businesses, becoming the body guard of a famous rapper and getting in to a 'scuffle' with Samuel L Jackson. It was far more insane than I'm making it sound here though. I never really play games through more than once (have i mentioned that before? (I genuinely can't remember)) but this appears on a very short list of those games, and is easily the longest on that list.
   Yet, it really is just the fun you can have messing around in the world that makes it, sure, you can do the same, if not more in GTA V, but back in 2004 this truly was incredible, and a true stand out game (hence it's high position). Also, it was set in the early 90's, so the music was awesome.


1. The Orange Box

   What a jip, this is a collection of games, not a single game, I hear you say. Well, I got it in one box (it was orange) so it's being counted as one. This also makes the top 3 a valve sandwich (with Rockstar being the meat I guess). There are plenty of acclaimed games collections down the years, hell, Metal Gear HD collection came out recently, and i remember there being loads of them back on the Megadrive, because when i rented them from Oscars (my local video and game rental store) you would get way more worth from your money because there was 3 or 4 games on them. Anyway, this is one incredible collection

   So, let's start with Half Life 2 (and it's episodes). Truth is, i never really played the first Half Life. My computer wasn't up to scratch as the time it was out, i ended up picking it up on PS2, but it was a terrible port (at least, so I've been told, and I hope that's true because it was awful) and i couldn't really get more than an hour in. This may seem to make my views on the sequel to be a bit strange (especially as i didn't play Half Life 2 or episode 1 until the Orange Box came out) but bare with me.

   Even though the game was the best part of 3 years old when i played it, the gameplay was solid. The shooting was very satisfying and it looked fantastic (i suppose that's the benefit of PC gaming over consoles, but i don't have £1000 to spend on a gaming PC so never mind (also, there's loads of great console exclusives, wheras most great computer exclusives tend to be smaller indipendent games, which i can play on this laptop anyway)). The story of course was great too, and had a nice road trip feel to it, which meant as you were travelling you were passing through all different kinds of environments so it didn't turn in to a boring setting like Killzone did (which has a sort of similar enemy).

   To cover the Killzone comment then, the story is that you are awoken by the G-Man to save the day again (yes, i know what the plot of the first half life is, i can read), and due to the resonance cascade that Gordon Freeman (you) caused in the first half life, the alien species known as the Combine invaded Earth an quickly took control, turning Earth in to a police state, even having humans join the Combine as members as the army). Gordon Freeman has to help restore the Earth to human control. By the time you get to the end of Episode 2 you haven't really gotten very far with that, spending most of the time cleaning up the constant messes you cause. You do make many friends along the way, and there's plenty of twists, and as mentioned, varying environments, from City 17 to Ravenholm, and from a canal to an ants nest (lots more too). You still get to face more enemies than just the combine though, with the likes of Headcrabs and their zombie like infestations of humans, antlions, hunters, striders and many more. The main problem with Half life 2 is, of course, the cliff hanger ending and that since then we've been waiting 7 years for episode 3, come on valve, forget your Steam machines and get to it!

   I'll do a bit of a bad news sandwich now and cover Team Fortress 2. I say bad, that's not at all fair, I barely played it. It was around the time I was playing a lot of COD online with friends, and none of them owned the Orange Box, so I couldn't convince them to join me on it, so subsequently, I'd only played it a few times, as I wasn't overly keen on playing an online FPS alone when I could do it with a group of friends on another. Sorry Team Fortress 2, my comment is no comment.

    On to Portal. There isn't much more to say that i didn't in the coverage of Portal 2, but I'll try. Portal definitely started something special, and even though the same team had made Narbacular Drop before (which had a similar puzzle solving idea) Portal was where it took off. Maybe it was because it came in the Orange Box with the highly anticipated Half Life 2 episode 2, and also bought Half Life 2 to console gamers, that it had a wide spread catch of players, that gave it a go and found it great, It's hard to say if the game would have ever have taken off if it hadn't been in the Orange Box, but you have to suspect probably not. (it's a good job it did though, because we probably wouldn't have gotten Portal 2 without that having happened).

   Anyway, on to the actual game. Talk about a meme factory. GLaDOS was introduced to us, with her insane desire for you to complete puzzles to learn about you, and yet hoping for your death, with fantastic writing for GLaDOS and the promise of cake a friendly cube. You can also follow along Rattman's guide to the maze of test chambers, how to escape, his truths about the cake and love for the companion cube. GLaDOS quickly became one of the most beloved villains in video game history, and to top it all off, she sang 'still alive' at the end (I say her, Ellen McClain would be more accurate, as she was the voice of GLaDOS). 

   So, what do you think of the list, do you agree or think I've missed yours, or some obvious games (Final Fantasy VII, Mega Man 3, MGS, Counter-Strike, Theme Hospital etc.). If you're on google plus you can leave a comment, and you may be honoured with a response... thanks for reading and again, scroll down to older posts for more depth on numbers 50-6

50 Greatest games of all time (part 10)

10. Bioshock

   For all the praise I already gave to Infinite, the first was better. Talking about how Infinite had one of the best endings in a videogame, the first Bioshock probably had the best twist (it's okay, it came half way in (also, I won't spoil it here)).
   The gameplay was fantastic as well, it had a kind of loose feeling that at first doesn't feel right by comparison to other FPS', but over time you realise that it's done like that on purpose. It's also not the first time that special powers in addition to guns have been in an FPS, but it is one of the best ways that it has been done, with the added moral choice in how you obtain the ADAM to be able to afford the plasmids in the first place. What is ADAM, well, a plot summary should answer that.
   The basics is that an underwater utopia was created for all the elite of society to live in a dreamland, and while they were there, scientists found sea slugs that created ADAM, a drug which helps humans heal, and gives them the abilities to use powers (such as plasmids), however, it also drives the user nuts. There was not enough ADAM created by sea slugs though, so they had to be put in the stomach of orphaned girls (who became little sisters) to create much more usable ADAM than from just a slug by itself. Due to Rapture creator Andrew Ryan's belief for a free market, there was no restriction placed on the ADAM, allowing for former gangster Frank Fontaine to create cheap plasmids to spread to everyone, which Ryan wasn't keen on. Anyway, one thing leads to another, and by the time you get there, there has been a civil war, with barely any sane people left alive, and splicers (who are humans hyped up on ADAM, and have lost their minds), running rampant, while the little sisters try to stop them to try and harvest their ADAM (of course they're aided by big daddies, the diving suit wearing brute-like enemy that can kill you in seconds). You end up joining with Atlas in order to stop Ryan and create order back in Rapture.
   The main issue that i have with the game is with one plasmid, that you get towards the end of the game, allowing you to take control of Big Daddies (well, they protect you as if you were a little sister), which means you end up actively seeking them out so they can mow down the splicers and security droids for you, as opposed to sneaking past them.
   The moral issue explained earlier, comes upon the defeat of a Big Daddy, when it's time to harvest the little sister for their ADAM (this essentially is the currency to afford more plasmids), you can either rescue them from their fate, for a smaller amount of ADAM, or kill them to get the full amount. Depending on what you do, it can give you totally different endings, and for once I played it nice and saved them all (which is rare for me, as I'd usually just take the easy way out). So all I can say is, if you haven't played it, then would you kindly? (how cheesy was that?).


9. Toejam and Earl

   So, what genre was this game? This game was unlike anything else before, and (mostly) since. What more can you need other than 2 outer-space rappers who crash on earth that have to find the pieces of their spaceship to get home using presents they find for aid, and with earthlings to try and stop you (though there are a few that help, like the wizard, carrot man and viking).
   The brilliance then, was how it was done, you could either play one of two player, where the screen would split apart or some together as you got nearer or further to each other, not to mention the fact that you could high-five one another to share your life bar evenly between you. Another great idea, is falling off levels, and going down to the previous one, where you still have as much of the map uncovered as before, n=hence you should be able to get back up quickly, as you know where the lift is up to the next level, but of course, it doesn't always work like that. You could be spawned on the opposite side of a map full of enemies, or a floating bit of land in the middle of nowhere, with no Icarus wings to get you back on to land, so you can only go back down yet another level in order to get back up. The added beauty here is on 2 player, you could be 5 or 6 levels apart in the end, but in order to get to the next level that neither of you had been to yet, you both have to be in the lift together, so you could be waiting for you buddy for ages.
   There was plenty of humour in it too, with food like ice-cream and cake filling up your life meter, but things like cabbage taking it down. The enemies (or 'earthlings') were strange as well, going from the simple enemies like devils, dancing hula girls (who made you dance along) and giant hamsters in balls, to the harder enemies, like the vanishing ice-cream man, the chickens with a tomato cannon, and the bogeyman. Plus, levelling up is done by clearing squares on the map (which gives you extra lives, and builds your life bar, as usual), but they are done in rappin' themed names.
   If you can complete the game (which took me about 15 years to do), you get to go back to your home planet, have a look around and meet Toejam and Earl's families, which is a fun ending.


8. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

   Ignore what others may say, this game was better than Skyrim. For console gamers especially, as it was one of the first major games on the Xbox 360 that showed what the consoles could do, and it was fantastic. It seemed (to me, at least) that Skyrim (the sequel) wasn't that much of a step forward after Oblivion, even though it was great. Both had great stories and plenty to do on the side, but Oblivion had the arena, and the Oblivion gates.
   The main plot is that the emperor (Patrick Stewart! (well, voiced by Patrick Stewart, not a character actually based on him)) is killed, and with no direct heir to replace him, due to an old covenant, Oblivion gates opened across Cyrodill (the location of the game). Oblivion gates were gates to another realm full of evil Deadra (basically hell). Your job then, was to find the rightful heir, get the amulet of kings back from the dastardly Mythic dawn (a daedric cult, who are responsible for all this mess anyway, as they killed Patrick Stewart at the start of the game) and relight the dragonfires to banish Oblvion from the lands of Tamriel (the larger location of which Cyrodill is a part and all of the Elder Scrolls games take place).
   There is much, much more to it that this of course, especially when you add on all the guilds, like the dark Brotherhood, thieves guild, mages guild, fighters guild and the arena. On top of all these full on extra story like quest chains, there are plenty of single quests you can find exploring the land, artifacts to be discovered, Oblivion gates to be closed, weapons to be forged and much, much more. It is this freedom that really makes this game so great, and it also includes a fantastic piece of DLC in the horse armour pack Shivering Isles, which is another world which a gate opens too, and is such a different location to Cyrodill, that it makes it seem like almost a sequel in itself.
   It may not be the first sprawling, open world fantasy RPG, but it's by far the Best one that I've played, and it leads straight on to...


7. Fallout 3

   The spiritual successor to Oblivion was Fallout 3, both created by the same studio on Bethesda, based on the same engine, with similar areas of gameplay, and very similar in the fact that they were both incredibly good.
   The Fallout game series was created in the 90's by Interplay (remember them? they made Starfleet Academy) as a PC only top down RPG, but there was a 10 year gap between Fallout 2 and 3 (though there were some spinoff games in between) and when Bethesda had acquired the rights, there was only one way Fallout was going to come back.
   The basic idea is that the lore of the series goes seperate from the world as we know it during WW2 where different technologies were created, which led to robots being seen around 1950's decorations, which eventually lead to a war due to lack of resources that wiped out the USA after a nuclear war. The specific story of this game however, is the tale of your character truing to purify the water in the Capital Wasteland (where the game is set). It is a long route to get there, and again, like with Oblivion, there is tonnes to do outside of the main story, with dozens of side quests, hidden weapons, armour and other items, and some places just to go and explore, like finding Oasis, or the town of Cannibals, or the vault full of clones.
   There is so much in this game to wrap your head around too, from the different types of enemies, like the US military forces of 'the enclave' through to Super Mutants, Feral Ghouls, Centaurs, Radroaches and right the way through to Deathclaws, whilst also having help from the likes of Humans, Ghouls (un-feral type), your pet Dog, Fawkes, and more. Not forgetting the characters in between like the hotel full of the richer folk that still exist in the wasteland.
   This is another game that came with great DLC as well, 5 pieces in fact, and, although not all of them were winners (operation anchorage, Mothership Zeta), there was certainly enough there give you many more hours of gameplay, and much more to see and do, and much like with Oblivion, very different environments to explore.
   As an extra bonus, it probably has the most useful weapon i can think of in any game, The Rock-It launcher, that let you fire off all the useless junk you pick up around the game (cups kept on piling up for me), so you couldn't run out of ammo, because you could just keep firing the same cup over and over if necessary, as long as you could reach it first to pick it up, handy ain't the word.



6. Pokemon Red/Blue

This idiot made the wrong choice, who would pick any of the 3 other than Charmander?

   I'm not one for grinding, which is why I've never really got in to JRPG's, despite how great people always say they are (shut up about FF VII already), but for some reason Pokemon just grabbed me. It's the reason i bought a Gameboy and perhaps it was because of this easy pick up and play access, where you could just have a little play in the car, or at lunch at school, or while visiting your grandparents or whatever boring occasion you wished to fill, you could drop half an hour in to it, and advance. Then again, maybe it was simply the 'gotta catch 'em all' basis, because kids love collecting things (I remember the full Premier League sticker albums I had and backpack full of Pogs). For whatever reason, Pokemon became an obsession for me at the time, and even though i carried on playing right through to Diamond and Pearl, my interest couldn't be recaptured (probably because there were way too many Pokemon by that stage, and no age appropriate TV series to do a rap to tell me what they all were). Granted however, the GBA games of Fire red and Leaf green (which were new stories based on the original 151 Pokemon) was an inspired move, for me at least.
   The trick in these games was learning what type every pokemon was, what was strong against what other, which moves did the most damage and what was the best variety of team you could put together. It was far more tactical than it may seem to outsiders, and when you're first playing it and having to fight off Rattata's all the time (though you should catch a Pidgey early doors). There's a loose story running through the game as the player has to fight off Team Rocket (blast off at the speed of light) from capturing rare Pokemon, whilst also catching 'em all for yourself (not that you actually can), defeating the gym leaders, defeating the Pokemon league and finally getting Mewto when you no longer need it.
   There was some additional parts to the game too, like the bonus fighting gym, where you could get a free fighting type, one where you could get a Vulpix, and a hunting ranch to be able to corner and catch helpless pokemon by relentlessly throwing Pokeballs at them and chucking food in their faces as a way to teach young children playing the game the proper way to hunt for animals (or so it seems to me).
   There was plenty to do, and go back for, including fighting your friends in a battle to the faint over the wired up connection you could get on an original gameboy, including trading Pokemon too (which is how you 'catch 'em all' (but, if you're being given them in a swap with your friends, how is that catching them?)). One thing to remember though is not to get Pokemon yellow, screw Pikachu.
     

50 Greatest games of all time (part 9)

15. Mashed: Drive to Survive

   It's another of those games to make it on multiplayer alone. Basically, Mashed: Drive to survive (hereby referred to as simply 'mashed') is Micro Machines, but better. It doesn't have the fun aesthetics that driving around a kitchen table gives you, but it does have polar wharf, perhaps one of the best racing tracks ever.
   In case you haven't played this game, or micro machines for that matter, the idea is that you, and up to 3 other cars drive around a track (duh) with weapons, in an attempt to knock them off the side of the track, or damage them enough so you can get away from them because you get a point by getting so far in front all other players go off the screen. Then it mixes up other points, for example, if 4 are playing, the person who wins will get 2 points, the last other person standing, 1, 3rd -1 and 4th, -2. This means you can be there for 10-15 minutes without generating a winner, despite the fact that you only need 12 points to win (and you start on 6) and each point tends to take between 10-30 seconds to gain.
   Back on polar wharf then, it's basically a big over, that is icy, with 2 big 180 degree tuns at the end. It sounds so simple, but it's perfect for multiplayer as it means the game comes more down to what you are able to do to an opponent to remove them from the race, rather than racing ability. Sure, there are other good tracks too, but this is the standout. Hell, it was even included in the 2012 spiritual sequel 'wrecked: revenge revisited' (but let's not besmirch the name of mashed by talking about that).
   There were other game modes, sure, you could team up and have 2 on 2, or a handicap 3 on 1, there were time trials and chases (on single player, but the only reason to play single player was to unlock all the tracks and cars), so there was a decent mix of things to do, but the simple 4 person face off was always the best. Of course, the biggest question of all is, do we want to put the air strikes on?



14. GTA V

   It was exceedingly difficult to find a picture that encapsulates this entire game, so this one will have to do (it's got police in, what more do you need?).
   Everyone knows what GTA (grand theft auto) games are about by now, at least, you should do. It's about being a master criminal in a giant free roaming world, having shootouts, 'jackin' cars, police chases, finding hidden packages and constantly getting rang to go bowling in the middle of a mission (or was that just GTA IV?). Everyone waited for years for baited breath for this to come out, it was 5 years since GTA IV had come out (the worst since 2 if you ask me, but most don't seem to share than opinion) and when we all knew a release date, everyone rushed out to get it, making it to this date, the single fastest selling game, and even entertainment product of all time, making over $1 billion in 3 days. Which means that if you need me to tell you about it, then have you been under a rock?
   Nevertheless, the story revolves around 3 men looking for a big payday by pulling off a series of heists, and all the build up and prep in between. For the first time it allowed you to play as 3 different characters and switch between them whenever you wanted, with each character completely different on the personality spectrum, as well as big gameplay differences, such as different special skills, their own personal wealth (no shared stuff for these guys) and separate levelling up on the basic skills for each character, as well as different starting points for them all.
   Of course, it wouldn't be GTA without an array of silly jokes, which some people complained about being too on the nose, but the satire of LA (which Los Santos  (where the game is mostly set (as well as Blaine county, the map is massive after all)) is based upon) can be excellent at times. A lot of it done through Michael's daughter, who wants to become a celebrity herself. There's plenty to do outside of the main story and just general messing around too, there's hidden packages to find, spaceship parts, UFOs to see and a military base to try and break into in order to nick some coll stuff and attempt desperately to get it back to your garage before you get killed (which is exceedingly difficult) as well amongst hundreds of other things
   Then there's GTA online as well, which gives you the open world too, populated by others, with lots of online games to play (although it has all been done before, races, death matches, smuggles run style of objective grabbing and delivering and more), and with the freedom to tackle these however you want, due to the open nature of the game.
   This is a game with everything in it, and one of the most complete experiences that you'll ever play. It probably doesn't excel at any one particular thing (hence why it's only 14th), but does so much very, very well.


13. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

   Don't immediately smite me, there was nothing wrong with this game. Granted, you can look back at it now, and blame it for what COD, and general FPS' have become, and it's probably accurate, but it was only copied because it was so good, the problem is that there has been very few improvements since. I had played both COD 2 and 3 before it, and they were fun, including online, but I was always playing these alone, plus at the time, we had WW2 shooters coming out of every crack in the gaming hemisphere, and I'd had enough, which is why the more modern (warfare) setting was a nice change.

   Single player first then, and it was actually quite good, in fact, the whole modern warfare series had a pretty good story running the whole was through (especially MW2), but I imagine that by the time MW3 came out, about 10 people probably played that. It also had the mission 'ghillies in the mist', which was a truly outstanding mission. The series of games leads up to a breakout and finish of WW3, and the first modern warfare can be compared to the first Mass effect, where the plot of the first seems somewhat small in the grand schemes of things, but sets up everything to come.

   On to the big seller then, multiplayer. I spent a lot of time playing this online with friends, and it had everything that you would want. Varying game modes, great maps, encouragement to play over and over to unlock more. It has been argues that you shouldn't be rewarded for playing so much, as some people play none stop, and when you start you stand no chance as they are both better players, and better equipped,but what are you going to do, take things away as you level up? what kind of idea is that?

   It started the small child insulting culture that now exists in online gaming, being told what they had done to your mother by an eight year old (how proud their parents must be). Which is a set back, but isn't really the games fault, but the culture that has been formed around it, which is one of the (many) reasons why traditional gamers hate it so much now, as well as issues discussed above, but it should not be forgotten that COD 4 was played by this group, and everyone enjoyed it so much, that it slowly built in to what it is (sadly) today.

12. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

   Maybe it's because i didn't play the first Sonic the hedgehog until after this (or maybe it's because the boss on the labarinth zone was so hard (and it wasn't even Bowie themed)), but this stands as my favourite platformer of all time, and by far the game that I've completed the most times in my life. I'm not one for playing games through more than once, so playing something twice is a rare happening for me, but I've probably finished this dozens of times. The reason for this is hard to point out, why I prefer it over the previously included sonic 3 (and knuckles), but maybe it's because it's first, or there wasn't any levels that annoyed me like in nearly every other platforming game, they even removed (mostly) the water level from the game (who in the world likes them, seriously, why are they included in games?).

   There was a great mix of levels, and a debug mode, the best put together multiplayer of the Megadrive era Sonic (racing on some of the main levels). It also had the best super sonic music, because it was so unfitting and silly (which is always fun). The special levels where you collect the chaos emeralds were tough, but do-able given enough patience, but even Super Sonic didn't help that much, because you got no rings for the final boss, actually there were 2 (To be fair they weren't that hard, so long as you had a few spare lives you could learn metal Sonic's moves and what order they came in, and the Death Egg Jr. was exceedingly easy (just duck down in the corner).

   I grew up on this game, and was probably the start of my controller smashing (that still exists to this day), and I will never forget it, hell,  I'll probably still try playing it again when I'm on my deathbed.

11. The Walking Dead, A Telltale Game series (season 1)

   Maybe I played the wrong games as a child, I never played the secret of Monkey Island, or any adventure game, and this is probably why the Walking Dead is so high up on this list, but that's fine by me. 

   So, is it really a game? What constitutes a game? This goes for all adventure games really, as there is little to no gameplay, are they videogames? They're like choose you own adventure books really, but you've got to class them as a game really, they're interactive, and even though they don't have much gameplay, you do decide on the way the story heads, which is something most games don't include, so maybe they aren't a game in the more common understanding of what a game is, but they exist in their own space, where the game really is the decisions that you make (Not that, that doesn't happen in other games too, but it's far more important here).

   The game itself is, obviously, set in the same world as the TV and Comic book series 'The walking dead', which is a tactic that Telltale games love, having made Back to the Future and Jurassic Park games in the past (though never to any real success) and now having acquired the rights to do a Game of Thrones game, amongst others, with their series based on Fables (Comic book series) already under way, with the second episode releasing just yesterday. Yes, the game was not a big single release, but released in 5 episodic (almost DLC like) parts. It helped, because it spilt the game up, rather than playing through a whole game, with no gameplay to keep the excitement going, so you couldn't really get bored, but could get you hyped up for the next episode, which seems like a great tactic by Telltale.

   The story relates to a man, Lee Everett, a prisoner who escapes due to the zombie outbreak, who ends up finding a young girl, Clementine, and becomes a father figure to her, and helps her both grow up, and, with the help of other characters you meet along the way, learn to survive in a world fallen apart, and try to find a new home. There is such a great dynamic between them that leads you to care so much, and, not to spoil anything (although it kind of will), the ending is devastating. Season 2 has become now, and looks set to keep the great story going, but the way I see it is as a sequel, hence why I haven't included this.

   It is all about the story here, the gameplay sections are few and far between, and usually just fetch quests anyway, but it is such a well told story, in a world already beloved by many due to the pre-existing comic and TV series', and a great justice is done with the source material and a fantastic story is told.

50 Greatest Games of all time (part 8)

20. Sonic Generations

   It's the game that I had been waiting for, for 20 years. For the first time since 1994 Sonic was back in it's 2D best. They had tried the Sonic 4 episodes, but it was poor to say the least. They had tried sonic rush and other hand held games, which were fine for what they were, but for someone who loved Sonic on the Megadrive as much as me, this was it. It also nailed the 3D platforming at last in a Sonic game (to be fair, the platforming in Sonic Unleashed was good, but the rest of that game with the 'warehog' was atrocious (also, I haven't played Sonic Colours, which was supposed to be good)). 

   Of course, the idea here is some kind of time/parallel universe switch where modern Sonic meets old Sonic and they have to fix time and save their friends. The story doesn't matter really though, when has it ever in a Sonic game. What is important is how the levels come together. They basically took 3 era's of Sonic games, and re-did certain of the levels. For example, the first level is green hill zone, however, it isn't a recreation of the original from Sonic 1, it is just in the same setting with the same badnicks (that's the name of the enemy robots). Then, the second act is done in 3D in the same setting. The 3 era's they cover are the Megadrive era, the Dreamcast/PS 2 era and finally current gen (well, last now, but it was current at the time of it's release). As well as levels, there are also boss battles based off of classic bosses.

   Perhaps the best part, however, is the music. Not since San Andreas had I never got bored of a soundtrack and ended up muting the TV, until when this game hit. It dd modernised versions of the classic music from the original levels they were based on, with the act that wasn't in the same dimension as the original game (be it 2D or 3D) would have an alternative feel to it. On top of this, there were other unlockable tracks such as the classic 'Sonic boom' title track from Sonic CD and what's more, you could change the song on any level to whichever of these you wanted. Also, this game looks beautiful.

19. Timesplitters

   With every other game series, I managed to pick out one particular game from the series, but for this one it's a lot harder. They were all great, and the different games had different strengths and weaknesses. For example, the first game had the best multiplayer maps, but it didn't really have a lot of single player gameplay, whereas timesplitters 2 had and extra single player mode in 'arcade league' in addition to the story mode where you could unlock lots of extra characters. Then come Timesplitters: Future perfect (henceforth referred to as Timesplitters 3) EA got it's hands on it (only published though, Free Radical still made it) and the style went to another level, it finally looked as good as it played, and it had a fully fleshed out story at last (it was quite weak on the others), but it did have an annoying commentator on the multiplayer, plus, they got overly obsessed with monkeys for some reason.

   This is another game(s) that mostly gets in here for it's multiplayer features, although you could play the multiplayer modes alone, because back in these good days, there were bots (AI controlled enemies/team members), which could be used to play the multiplayer alone, or to add more in to a multiplayer game, after all, only having 4 of you in a whole map would be pretty sparse. Timesplitters also came with a map creator, (which is fairly self explanatory) that was simple, and yet gave you plenty of options to create some pretty good maps. Of course, there was also a wide array of options when setting up multiplayer games, with lots of different game types, you could choose which bots you wanted, how many there were and how difficult they were, as well as what weapons there were, what order they were, how many kills to go to in a deathmatch, how many bags needed in capture the bag and dozens more.

   There was a good helping of humour in them too, with an array of stupid characters (like the handyman/ the gingerbread man, the Shoal and plenty more) as well as some genuinely creepy characters (like the deer haunter, Jo Barf Creepy and many more) too. There was a great selection of character bio's as well, with mostly brilliantly stupid back stories for all of the characters, and not forgetting the great array of weapons across all of the games too. 

18. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

     I had never been one to play turn based combat games before, but this game open my eyes wide to it. I know now how much I missed, I remember playing the original xcom when I was 6 or 7, but i didn't get it, but when I saw the ratings this was getting, I knew I had to give it a try, and I wasn't disappointed. So, there's an alien invasions, and you have to prevent it, with some RPG elements mixed in with turn based strategy gameplay. While having to make sure you had everything you needed to fight off enemies that (naturally) got more difficult as the game went on, you had to research projects to advance the game, but also supply help for different nations of the world to keep them happy, or they would withdraw your funding. This meant that there was a lot of panicking and a lot of death amongst your men, which could be heart wrenching at times. 

   See, you could name all the soldiers you hired (if you so desired), so when you named someone after a much loved TV show character, who you had levelled up so they had great attributes and then they died, it would be very hard to replace them. However, there was a great stat keeping system, where you could see every single soldier you ever had (or still have) and how many kills they got, how many missions they went on, what level they were and the date and mission of their death. There was also plenty of tactical nous involved with the different types of soldiers, and what skill set you wanted them to focus on to make the best team you can, so you may find if one key man in your team died, they might all follow suit.

   There was plenty to think about, and you'd often find the actual gameplay getting distracting when you are trying to get to a certain date to be able to build enough of something to send it over to whichever country it is that needs it before they withdraw from the programme and take their money (and ball) home with them, but then suddenly, you'll have a mission, and end up not going to some country, then some other country will get pissed off, and then you have to decide which of these 2 you want to keep now. I would often find my mind drifting when i was doing something else planning what i wanted to do, it was akin to playing chess.

17. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Knuckles

   Okay, so technically it's 2 different games, but they were supposed to be released as one, plus, if you plugged Sonic 3 in to Sonic and knuckles you could play the whole game through with a bonus level at the end (if you collected all the chaos emeralds through both games).

   So, I've covered before my love of Sonic as a child, and this game is right up there, it;s got all the classic Sonic action you could want, as well as being able to play as knuckles (and for the first time, Tails), and the games were different if you did. Playing through as Sonic (or Tails), you would have to have a boss fight against Knuckles (see above) and end up on the death egg having to defeat the Death Egg junior again (just like in Sonic 2). Whereas playing through as Knuckles, you don't have to fight Sonic, just the Emerald powered metal Sonic (he has no emerald power when you play through as Sonic).

   Other differences were that there were certain places where only one character of another could get, be it only somewhere tails could fly to, somewhere only knuckles could climb/glide to or somewhere only Sonics special shields or higher jump could get you to. Sonic 3 also came with a game save ability on the cartridge, which was very rare back in the time it came out, which was a very welcome addition, meaning you didn't have to sit down all day to finish it, or leave you Megadrive running for days on end so you could come back to it later (my old favourite trick). It had everything you could want in a classic 2D platformer, with widely varying levels, great music, powerups and bonus stages, and of course, different playable characters with different skills. Not to forget the multiplayer race mode (actually, do forget it, it was awful). What with it coming out in the early 90's it was of course, very difficult to boot. 

   

16. Bioshock Infinite

   In one of 2 great man and young woman relationships (sounds dodgy) in gaming in 2013, Bioshock Infinite provides one of, if not the best story ever told in a game (plus, a boon for Troy Baker as he played the lead male in both). I don't want to spoil the story for Bioshock Infinite too much, which will probably result in this being quite a short round up of the game, but basically, you have to rescue a girl (Elizabeth) from the tower she's being captive in, which all takes place on  a city floating in the clouds, controlled by the evil Zachary Comstock, with just you, Booker DeWitt to do it all. Of course, the story ends up nothing like this in the end, but never mind, that's what it sets out to be at the start. 

   It is a beautiful game tough, with Columbia (the floating city) looking great, with lots of different areas throughout it, even including slums, but also including a great acapella cover of the Beach boys, as well as other hidden bits of music in the tears found throughout the game. Plus, you briefly get to go back to rapture (the location of the first 2 Bioshocks), which is pretty exciting (although made less so as both parts of the DLC take place there (well, there's actually 3 DLC's, but I've chosen to ignore 'clash in the clouds' because it focused on the wrong thing)).

   The main problem is that the gameplay is good, but doesn't live up to how good the story is, or that of other games in this list, in fact it's probably a step back from the original Bioshock, and if it were better, it would be even higher on this list. Not that there isn't some good gameplay elements, there's some good action on the skylines, plus you can smash people gruesomely in the face with your skyline hook, and there's some pretty handy vigors (no longer plasmids), like using a wave to send enemies flying off the city (water way to go...), or distracting enemies with the 'murder of crows'. 

   There is a loss of iconic enemies though, such as Big daddies and splicers, because the handymen and motorized patriots (which appear a lot) are poor replacements, plus you get a lot of just normal FPS style enemy types, just guys with guns, which never really happened in the first one. (note, i never played Bioshock 2, so can't speak for it). Not that there aren't any tough enemies, the crows, Sirens and boys of silence are all interesting. Of course, the most interesting part of the whole game though, is how so many people manage to fit pineapples in their pockets.