I really enjoyed reading the other posts in the thread. Also since Gen 5 of Pokemon came up daily reminder that Gen 5 is best gen though it seems like more and more people are finally appreciating this. I will probably write a second post interacting with the other games because there were a lot of interesting observations already.
Favourite Game: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Always Morrowind. Yes the game is janky, but it's janky in a fun way and it's certainly the most immersive action RPG that still has serious CRPG elements like skills and attributes that matter. The setting is a very immersive and bizarre yet grounded fantasy that gives a strong impression of authenticity in how the game portrays its own lore and world. The magic system slaps and you can basically do anything you want include become incredibly OP and have the life of any NPC held in your hands and steal the souls of living gods. The game world is small and yet jam packed with secrets hiding in nooks and crannies, fun and sometimes bizarre sidequests. It also doesn't hold your hand and you can explore however you want but you may be raped by high level enemies. This is just one of those games many people come back to every few years for nostalgia and it can still feel fresh and new as demonstrated (or perhaps facilitated) by its vibrant modding community which continues more than 20 years after the game's release.
Best Story: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. I think most people know what the story in this video game is about now because of video essays and stuff but the way it treats terrorism, social control, mass communication, and freedom of thought. The game has been heavily criticized for changing its protagonist in the middle of gameplay however I think this was something that people realized wasn't really bad in hindsight, just people got blindsided after playing the first game and getting a bait-and-switch away from playing the same character as the first game. Truly "absolute cinema" as the youths say.
Favourite Art Style: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I only realized this on replay this last year, but the visual style of Wind Waker is just great! The game's toon style works really well with the graphical capabilities of the GameCube console. The toon shading used for lights and shadows is impressive, both visually and from my perspective as a very amateur graphics programmer (see this post for more examples of graphics stuff. I'm also counting music in terms of "art style" even though that's not conventionally interpreted, I think the music is part of the art and it really contributes to the Wind Waker "vibe". I especially love the four part choral harmonies that play whenever Toon Link conducts the music.
Biggest Personal Impact: Since there's already a thread on The Fruit of Grisaia on the forum, just read the review there since it's better than what I could've written. However the main gimmick of the character stories is deeply impactful and changed my perspective on approaching the issue of the problem of evil and suffering in the world.
Best Combat: Not much to say here other than when you get into a gun fight in any of the Stalker games for the first time, you are probably going to soil your undergarments.
Overhated: Fortnite is actually pretty fun with friends. Don't get me wrong--there are MASSIVE problems with this game; but now that Marvel Rivals exists, can we all team up and hate that instead, please?
Underrated: I remember when Bravely Default was teased for 3DS as a revolutionary JRPG back when I still played lots of JRPGs as a kid...and then I just...never played it, or even heard about it again. Gave it a try a few months ago and I was instantly hooked! It's a simple and cookie-cutter story, but it's endearing and the gamplay mechanics are good. I'm not saying it's the best thing ever, but it needs a little more love and I barely see people talk about it. By the way the music in the game SLAPS
Overrated: Undertale doesn't suck. It isn't bad, and is in fact pretty good, and overrated doesn't mean bad. But I think the people who overrate Undertale as the best game ever are falling into a common trap, the same trap with DDLC and other "subversive" games. Usually "subversive" games tend to be overrated because the story relies too much on the subversion and everyone gets obsessed over subversions. It seems like we're in a culture where everything has to be subversive nowadays, everyone likes Deadpool etc...but this is also a matter of personal taste.
Needs a Remake: Shadow President was an old DOS game where you essentially controlled the US and made decisions on behalf of the President. You have to win elections and if you do controversial stuff your cabinet officers will resign. The overall goal is to prevent Saddam from invading Kuwait and create peace in the Middle East. Given how advanced map games are nowadays, this game definitely deserves a remake because it could be a lot more engaging than slop like HOI4.
Criminally Underlooked: Uplink is a game about Hollywood-style hacking. The tagline is "hack the world" and the world is your playground to break into computers...for good, or for evil. The main story involves a virus designed to destroy the internet, and offers two polar opposite endings. The game isn't particularly difficult, but it's really really fun to play for the first time.
Favourite Protagonist: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but this really applies to any of the MGS games in the "Big Boss" trilogy. The character of Big Boss is, for those who don't know, basically a villain and a hero, depending on which game you play and how far along in his life he is. Just play the games and find out. Everyone likes the Metal Gear series.
Favourite Antagonist: I like antagonists who have grand evil plans to destroy humanity, the world, etc. and the Master from Fallout easily goes in this category. Fallout: New Vegas's Caesar is highly praised for being motivated by his political ideology but The Master is basically like turning that up to 11. Rather than realizing a certain political regime he wants to evolve humanity by turning them into a new master race (the Super Mutants). Also talking to the Master is really creepy with how he speaks in multiple voices because presumably other people have been absorbed into the Unity. Yeah this guy rocks, and he has a much more difficult peaceful path to defeating him than Legate Lanius or John Henry Eden.
Best Soundtrack: There were SOOO many categories that Umineko no Naku Koro ni fits in, and I was originally planning on putting it in the category of game everyone should play. However, it is simply too long for that. What makes the music of Umineko so great is hard to say, because there are so many tracks and several composers each with their unique styles and ticks. If there is a single word I could describe Umineko's soundtrack with, it would probably be "sentimental". The best songs in the OST either remind me of my childhood, or some classical piece, or a certain time/era/place/whatever. Or otherwise, a certain emotion that we've all felt at one point or another. Please check out this game, because I would write so much more if it were in any other category here.
Best Multiplayer: Team Fortress 2. Need I say more? Seriously--need I?
Not Usually My Thing: OpenTTD. It's just fun dealing with logistics, designing different interchanges for high stress networks (especially when you're on a hilly terrain or have limited space), making sure your finances line up, growing your cities and building bus networks, competing with other players...I'm just listing gameplay elements but man, it's just a bunch of fun.
Turn My Brain Off: Destiny 2 is pure slop. However, this game feels GREAT to kill stuff in, the guns are fun and look awesome, the soundtrack is good, the gameplay loop in PVE is basically totally mind numbing. Pure slop but it's fun as hell.
Best With Friends: Hearts of Iron 3 is my favourite map game. It's a shame that the realistic turn HOI3 had, trying to get closer to micromanaging units, chain of command, supplies etc. was abandoned in HOI4 for the casual-oriented frontline system. Playing HOI3 is much closer to the board game origins of Paradox, but it has complexity that's best handled on a computer game. It's really the only Paradox game that isn't total slop IMO.
Best Retro Game: Deus Ex hands down. Where did all the memes about replaying Deus Ex every year go? IT'S A CONSPIRACY! I don't know when those discussions stopped but man EVERYONE needs to go back and play this game. It's the best Unreal engine game hands down and it really gets the retro vibe just right. The story is superficially just about conspiracy theories but it does have a bit of a philosophical undertone and deals with a lot of similar themes to Metal Gear Solid 2.
Nostalgic Childhood Game: I first played Minecraft in Beta 1.2, though I had seen videos of the game going back to infdev. Old versions of the game hit especially hard. I'm sure Minecraft was part of other people's childhoods here too, so there isn't much to add here honestly.
Game Everyone Should Play: I put Earthbound here because it's mostly inoffensive, though it's fun and wacky and emotional. It's a good family-friendly game where the overall theme is beat the bad guy who has been influencing all the game's towns to make everyone morally corrupted and filling the towns with monsters. The Starmen remind me of David Bowie. Playing Earthbound feels like playing a normal JRPG but microdosing acid especially with the really weird chords in the music tracks and the psychedelic battle backgrounds and colour palettes. I also put this game here because it is mildly subversive though less so than Undertale and as a clear source of Toby's inspiration if you like Undertale you will certainly like this game too.
Favourite Game: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Always Morrowind. Yes the game is janky, but it's janky in a fun way and it's certainly the most immersive action RPG that still has serious CRPG elements like skills and attributes that matter. The setting is a very immersive and bizarre yet grounded fantasy that gives a strong impression of authenticity in how the game portrays its own lore and world. The magic system slaps and you can basically do anything you want include become incredibly OP and have the life of any NPC held in your hands and steal the souls of living gods. The game world is small and yet jam packed with secrets hiding in nooks and crannies, fun and sometimes bizarre sidequests. It also doesn't hold your hand and you can explore however you want but you may be raped by high level enemies. This is just one of those games many people come back to every few years for nostalgia and it can still feel fresh and new as demonstrated (or perhaps facilitated) by its vibrant modding community which continues more than 20 years after the game's release.
Best Story: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. I think most people know what the story in this video game is about now because of video essays and stuff but the way it treats terrorism, social control, mass communication, and freedom of thought. The game has been heavily criticized for changing its protagonist in the middle of gameplay however I think this was something that people realized wasn't really bad in hindsight, just people got blindsided after playing the first game and getting a bait-and-switch away from playing the same character as the first game. Truly "absolute cinema" as the youths say.
Favourite Art Style: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. I only realized this on replay this last year, but the visual style of Wind Waker is just great! The game's toon style works really well with the graphical capabilities of the GameCube console. The toon shading used for lights and shadows is impressive, both visually and from my perspective as a very amateur graphics programmer (see this post for more examples of graphics stuff. I'm also counting music in terms of "art style" even though that's not conventionally interpreted, I think the music is part of the art and it really contributes to the Wind Waker "vibe". I especially love the four part choral harmonies that play whenever Toon Link conducts the music.
Biggest Personal Impact: Since there's already a thread on The Fruit of Grisaia on the forum, just read the review there since it's better than what I could've written. However the main gimmick of the character stories is deeply impactful and changed my perspective on approaching the issue of the problem of evil and suffering in the world.
Best Combat: Not much to say here other than when you get into a gun fight in any of the Stalker games for the first time, you are probably going to soil your undergarments.
Overhated: Fortnite is actually pretty fun with friends. Don't get me wrong--there are MASSIVE problems with this game; but now that Marvel Rivals exists, can we all team up and hate that instead, please?
Underrated: I remember when Bravely Default was teased for 3DS as a revolutionary JRPG back when I still played lots of JRPGs as a kid...and then I just...never played it, or even heard about it again. Gave it a try a few months ago and I was instantly hooked! It's a simple and cookie-cutter story, but it's endearing and the gamplay mechanics are good. I'm not saying it's the best thing ever, but it needs a little more love and I barely see people talk about it. By the way the music in the game SLAPS
Overrated: Undertale doesn't suck. It isn't bad, and is in fact pretty good, and overrated doesn't mean bad. But I think the people who overrate Undertale as the best game ever are falling into a common trap, the same trap with DDLC and other "subversive" games. Usually "subversive" games tend to be overrated because the story relies too much on the subversion and everyone gets obsessed over subversions. It seems like we're in a culture where everything has to be subversive nowadays, everyone likes Deadpool etc...but this is also a matter of personal taste.
Needs a Remake: Shadow President was an old DOS game where you essentially controlled the US and made decisions on behalf of the President. You have to win elections and if you do controversial stuff your cabinet officers will resign. The overall goal is to prevent Saddam from invading Kuwait and create peace in the Middle East. Given how advanced map games are nowadays, this game definitely deserves a remake because it could be a lot more engaging than slop like HOI4.
Criminally Underlooked: Uplink is a game about Hollywood-style hacking. The tagline is "hack the world" and the world is your playground to break into computers...for good, or for evil. The main story involves a virus designed to destroy the internet, and offers two polar opposite endings. The game isn't particularly difficult, but it's really really fun to play for the first time.
Favourite Protagonist: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, but this really applies to any of the MGS games in the "Big Boss" trilogy. The character of Big Boss is, for those who don't know, basically a villain and a hero, depending on which game you play and how far along in his life he is. Just play the games and find out. Everyone likes the Metal Gear series.
Favourite Antagonist: I like antagonists who have grand evil plans to destroy humanity, the world, etc. and the Master from Fallout easily goes in this category. Fallout: New Vegas's Caesar is highly praised for being motivated by his political ideology but The Master is basically like turning that up to 11. Rather than realizing a certain political regime he wants to evolve humanity by turning them into a new master race (the Super Mutants). Also talking to the Master is really creepy with how he speaks in multiple voices because presumably other people have been absorbed into the Unity. Yeah this guy rocks, and he has a much more difficult peaceful path to defeating him than Legate Lanius or John Henry Eden.
Best Soundtrack: There were SOOO many categories that Umineko no Naku Koro ni fits in, and I was originally planning on putting it in the category of game everyone should play. However, it is simply too long for that. What makes the music of Umineko so great is hard to say, because there are so many tracks and several composers each with their unique styles and ticks. If there is a single word I could describe Umineko's soundtrack with, it would probably be "sentimental". The best songs in the OST either remind me of my childhood, or some classical piece, or a certain time/era/place/whatever. Or otherwise, a certain emotion that we've all felt at one point or another. Please check out this game, because I would write so much more if it were in any other category here.
Best Multiplayer: Team Fortress 2. Need I say more? Seriously--need I?
Not Usually My Thing: OpenTTD. It's just fun dealing with logistics, designing different interchanges for high stress networks (especially when you're on a hilly terrain or have limited space), making sure your finances line up, growing your cities and building bus networks, competing with other players...I'm just listing gameplay elements but man, it's just a bunch of fun.
Turn My Brain Off: Destiny 2 is pure slop. However, this game feels GREAT to kill stuff in, the guns are fun and look awesome, the soundtrack is good, the gameplay loop in PVE is basically totally mind numbing. Pure slop but it's fun as hell.
Best With Friends: Hearts of Iron 3 is my favourite map game. It's a shame that the realistic turn HOI3 had, trying to get closer to micromanaging units, chain of command, supplies etc. was abandoned in HOI4 for the casual-oriented frontline system. Playing HOI3 is much closer to the board game origins of Paradox, but it has complexity that's best handled on a computer game. It's really the only Paradox game that isn't total slop IMO.
Best Retro Game: Deus Ex hands down. Where did all the memes about replaying Deus Ex every year go? IT'S A CONSPIRACY! I don't know when those discussions stopped but man EVERYONE needs to go back and play this game. It's the best Unreal engine game hands down and it really gets the retro vibe just right. The story is superficially just about conspiracy theories but it does have a bit of a philosophical undertone and deals with a lot of similar themes to Metal Gear Solid 2.
Nostalgic Childhood Game: I first played Minecraft in Beta 1.2, though I had seen videos of the game going back to infdev. Old versions of the game hit especially hard. I'm sure Minecraft was part of other people's childhoods here too, so there isn't much to add here honestly.
Game Everyone Should Play: I put Earthbound here because it's mostly inoffensive, though it's fun and wacky and emotional. It's a good family-friendly game where the overall theme is beat the bad guy who has been influencing all the game's towns to make everyone morally corrupted and filling the towns with monsters. The Starmen remind me of David Bowie. Playing Earthbound feels like playing a normal JRPG but microdosing acid especially with the really weird chords in the music tracks and the psychedelic battle backgrounds and colour palettes. I also put this game here because it is mildly subversive though less so than Undertale and as a clear source of Toby's inspiration if you like Undertale you will certainly like this game too.