Favorite Video Games

It seems to be destiny requiring that my first blog entry right after college finals to be about video games. Ever since Facebook added the ability to add favorite games and of course the advent of The Loading Bar, I couldn't wait for my finals to be over with so I could talk about my top 5 favorite games. Now keep in mind that I haven't played every single video game known to man, but I have been playing video games since I was young. The point of this blog isn't really just to talk about my favorite video games, but more of what I consider to be a great game. So with that said, here we go.

5.) Halo

For those who have been living under a rock for the past decade, Halo follows Master Chief who is a human super soldier called a Spartan. While Master Chief isn't in all of the games, the Halo universe revolves around a fictional future where humans are in a desperate struggle to survive in the war against the Covenant. The story is a long one, so if you are interested click on the title link.

In the first Halo, Master Chief awakens only to find that the ship he is on is running away from the Covenant. Unfortunately, they can't escape, but fortunately, they find an artificial ring world called Halo and escape to it. Master Chief along with the other humans fight against the Covenant while also discovering the dark hidden secrets of Halo.

So one of the common themes that you'll find in most of my favorite games is that they have a great single player campaign. This is perhaps the most important factor in deciding which video games are my favorite. This is the main reason why I chose the first Halo game in my top five games versus the other games of the series. Now most people when talking about the Halo series, always talk about the multiplayer. Now I will agree that the first Halo game probably has the weakest multiplayer out of all of the games, but there are two things to remember. One, the multiplayer in the first Halo is still pretty awesome which compliments a fantastic single player campaign. Second, there is no online play. The multiplayer found in Halo 2 which I consider to be the best out of the entire series does have online play. The funny thing about the multiplayer in Halo 2 is that now the servers for that have been shut down thus disabling online play. If a game relies on online multiplayer, it doesn't impress me especially because of things like a server shutdown. Plus if you ever play online, the other players are insanely good and/or complete disrespectful jerks. Halo has two types of multiplayer: your typical player versus player and cooperative campaign. Player versus player was fun, but for me cooperative mode was the best part. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was my first experience with cooperative mode, but it was terrible and pointless. Halo was the first game where cooperative mode actually enhanced the experience. Cooperative mode was just like the single player campaign except you have a meaningful partner aid you in your journey which was really cool. Plus being able to exploit glitches in cooperative mode was coolio.

Now cooperative mode made the campaign twice as cool, but I think I should talk about the single player campaign. Unfortunately, the passage of time has made the graphics look worse, but despite that the look and feel of the levels can be only be described as epic. Then just to add icing on the cake, the soundtrack to the game was phenomenal. Variety of play was another great aspect. While it had some unique weapons, the use of vehicles and the variety of the types of vehicles added a lot of new caveates that created the illusion of little repetition. All of these elements just made the entire experience epic and the ending left you satisfied.

4.) Sonic Adventure

Oh how I miss the good ole Dreamcast days. Sonic Adventure came out at a time where I was in love with everything Sonic the Hedgehog. I loved the Sonic games back in the 2-D side scrolling era, the cartoons, and even the comic books (which I still collect to this day). A lot of the things that I liked about Halo, I felt Sonic Adventure did a lot better. Now it is hard to judge the game play between the two because obviously one is a shooter and this is a platform game, but Sonic Adventure just wins hands down when it comes to the ambiance.

Sonic Adventure stars Sonic the Hedgehog as he tries to stop the evil Dr. Robotnik from destroying the town of Station Square. To accomplish his goal, Dr. Robotnik needs all seven chaos emeralds in order to awaken an ancient monster, Chaos, to its full destructive potential. To aide in Sonic's latest adventure are Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, and others.

When the game starts you are treated to what I consider one of the most awesome cut scenes ever. You see a city becoming engulfed by water, and then you see a godzilla-water monster and then Open Your Eyes starts playing. It turns out that this monster is a creature released by Doctor Robotnik (let me repeat ROBOTNIK not EGGMAN!!!!). Even cooler, this game gives a history and story to why Knuckles was on the Floating Isle and the origin of the Master Emerald. Besides these new back stories, the stories within Sonic Adventure are just awesome and can even be touching. As you play throughout the game, whenever you run into a particular character, you unlock their campaign which have different play styles. You start playing as Sonic, but you can eventually play as Tails (another platformer), Knuckles (treasure hunter), Amy Rose (platformer but you are also constantly running away from a mean botnik), Big the Cat (fishing), and E-102 Gamma (third person shooter). I don't want to spoil anything, but beating all of the campaigns then unlocks a final level which is a super cool ending.

I don't know why, but the Sonic Adventure games have the best music of all video games. I already mentioned Open Your Heart, but there are other pieces of music throughout the game that just compliment the visuals perfectly (want to make a specific mention to the egg carrier).

Another neat game play element was the addition of the chao. Unlike other 3D Sonic games, the chao are actually important to the story of the game. Besides that though, the chao were just another different game included in this already amazing game. The chao are essentially like a virtual pet which can become very addicting. The different campaign play types and the chao's are the perfect example of how important variety is to me when I play a game. Sometimes playing a game becomes like work because I just want to beat the game for the story. Having so much variety actually made me sad when the game ended because I never got bored. I wished the game could go on forever.

One more thing that I want to say about 3D Sonic games. Sonic Adventure 2 was the last great Sonic game. My theory behind this is that Sonic Adventure 2 was the last game that mentions the surname Robotnik. Sonic Adventure was the last game that actually had Dr. Robotnik refer to himself as Doctor Robotnik. I didn't mind Sonic and friends insulting him as Eggman, but when Robotnik adopts it, it gets stupid and I blame the downfall of the Sonic franchise on this fact. His name is ROBOTNIK!!!!!!

3.) Gears of War 2

I really can't judge this game fairly unlike my other games. The main reason why this game is so high on this list is because my best friend from college and I would play this game obsessively. We would quote the dialog constantly and play through the campaign multiple times usually in increasing difficulty. Gears of War 2 added a particular game mode which I found to be even more fun than cooperative campaign. Horde mode. The reason why I think I judge this unfairly is because I have someone who I could always play Horde mode with whereas other games I don't have this ability. I honestly do believe that if it weren't for him, there is no way this game would be so high on my list; however, I don't know if there are any other games that could do this. Cooperative campaigns end. Horde mode could theoretically end, but considering that there are fifty levels to each map (which there are 19) and four levels of difficulty, there is a seemingly endless amount of Horde to play.

Like Halo, the different weapons and enemies do add a lot of variety, but while not as "free" as Halo, the vehicle levels do add to the variety. Being able to not just ride tanks, but also the Locust vehicle-animals were really different. Also improving from the previous Gears of War game were the inclusion of more boss battles which except for Skorge were essentially fighting against the environment (the leviathan for example). It's kind if hard to explain, but for a game which is a duck-cover-shoot game, the levels are extremely unique. Rarely do I feel the game be repetitive (except for certain instances that we have to repeat over and over because my partner and I get separated and can't revive each other). I can't say the music for Gears of War 2 is anything special, but it certainly puts you in the correct mood when playing.

My favorite aspect to the campaign that I've alluded to earlier but want to specifically mention is the characters. The dialog and way the characters interact with each other make the campaign an unforgettable experience. Classic lines like "Cole Train Baby" just make this game really stand out. The variety with the game play is important, but the attention to making this a cinematic experience with witty humor and banter as you play really is a nice touch.

2.) Super Smash Bros. Melee

The greatest multiplayer game of all time. Nothing more needs to be said, but I'm not getting paid to write nothing (wait a sec, I'm not even being paid at all to do this ...).

Super Smash Bros. Melee has no real story. It is basically all of your favorite characters from Nintendo who try to smash their opponents out of the level.

What makes Super Smash Bros. stick out as a multiplayer is the camera. It is really cool that four players share the same screen instead of hogging a fraction of the screen. This simple game play element makes the experience so much more fun and feasible. It can get very frustrating if you don't have a large enough screen to see what your character is trying to do, but Super Smash Bros. takes care of that problem completely.

Unlike some multiplayer games where you have to master the controls and memorize certain button sequences in order to do all of the moves, Super Smash Bros. Melee has a very simple control scheme. You basically just press the A button or the B button in sync with a direction and voila a move. Granted there are more advance moves like dodging, but their execution is still simple just requires a good reaction time.

Granted Melee is more fun with another person, but I've been able to entertain myself for quite a while collecting trophies and unlocking new features. I've even been able to entertain myself by just practicing against the computer-controlled characters. This is very important because a good game really should be enjoyable by just yourself. Also just trying to play as new characters adds a lot of variety that makes even single player fun and can make multiplayer even more fun.

The reason why Melee is number two on my list and not the other Super Smash Bros. games is because I believe Melee is just the best balanced of the three games. The original Super Smash Bros. has the fewest characters and is even missing a move (left/right + B) which the later additions correct. Also that game can feel sluggish at times while fighting. Brawl is just a mess. Some characters' moves are useless, and they even had the audacity to remove characters. Yes Brawl added new ones, but they didn't need to get rid of Mewtwo!!! (and others of course). Brawl too felt sluggish at times with characters movements. There are other complaints too like weapons and levels, but these are the main things for me when playing them. Melee was always so fluid when playing and while some characters were clones (Ganondorf and Captain Falcon), they were still different enough for me to realize they were different (Ganondorf being slow but strong, and Falcon being fast but not as strong).

1.) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

While all Zelda games are awesome, this one stands out to me mostly because of its story. This was easily the greatest single player experience ever. The music, the environment, the emotion, and just everything else you could want in an experience is practically perfect.

For the poor souls who have never heard of this game before, a boy named Link finally gets his fairy, Navi, and leaves his village for the first time onto the greatest adventure ever. From fighting giant spiders to skeletons to twin witch sisters, Link encounters all sorts of danger to save Princess Zelda and the kingdom of Hyrule from the evil Ganondorf (my favorite villain).

I've been clamoring about variety throughout this entire blog, and I don't think you will find more variety than this game. Every dungeon is different. There are multiple ways to solve puzzles given the kind of weapons/equipment you have. The world is so captivating, and every location is different too, even when you have to revisit certain areas later in the game.

Aside from the incredible amount of stuff you get to do in just playing through the game straight, there is so much more you can do whether it be fishing, side quests, or even just exploring the land of Hyrule. Musical people may also just like fooling around on the ocarina (anyone figured out the Simpson's theme yet?).

I really could go on and on about how awesome the Zelda series is, but Ocarina of Time has the best story of all of them and a cinematic final boss fight that still gives me goosebumps.

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Well those are my top five favorite video games. As you can see variety and a great single player experience are really what make a great game to me. Please share your top five favorite games or any comments about mine in the comments section.