maxbarry.com
Wed 23
Jan
2008

My Top Video Games

Max A few nights ago, Jen, Moo (Jen’s brother), and I got to talking about our all-time top computer games. Naturally, this quickly devolved into a bitter, insult-strewn debate about whose top-ranked games were ground-breaking titans of their time (mine), and whose were mindless, derivative trifles (theirs, except where overlapping with mine).

We did settle on the criterion that we should rank games based on the impact they had on us personally. This still left plenty of room for argument. Initially we were going to pick our top 5, but this got pushed out to 10. I still had too many classics left over, so successfully argued for 15, plus an “Honorable Mention.”

Three days later, we were still debating and re-arranging our lists. Clearly this was an important topic for us. In fact, it was surprising how much we cared. Games aren’t usually considered up there with books or movies, but these ones all meant a lot to us. They left a lasting impression and we wanted to give them their due.

So here is the result. My list:

  1. Elite (1984, Commodore 64): My mother bought me this for Christmas when I was about 11. I don’t think I did anything else that year. I never made it to “Elite” status, though. At least, not in the game. Ha ha!
  2. Doom (1993, PC): Ranked this highly for the multiplayer: Jen and I played together. Not competitively. Oh no. Jen lacks that part of the brain that lets you distinguish between reality and a computer game, which means if we play head-to-head, she tries to kill me in real life. We play co-operatively. (Fifteen years of marriage, bud. Fifteen years.)
  3. Shattered World (1990, MUD): A MUD is an online text-based game, usually swords-and-sorcery based. You type in commands, like, “kill goblin”, and read the responses, like, “The goblin dodges your swing. The goblin cleaves your head from your shoulders. You die.” I wrote tons of content for this game when I should have been studying for my marketing degree.
  4. Age of Empires II (1999, PC): I wrestled with the ethics of including a sequel when the original was much more, uh, original. But while Jen and I lost countless hours to both, this is the one we really pounded. Our strategy to defeat the computer-controlled hordes was to pour arrows upon the endless tides of units throwing themselves against our walls until our opponents had consumed every single resource in the game, reducing themselves to small groups of peasants standing around with nothing to do. Then we would ride out and butcher them.
  5. Half-Life (1998, PC): I was roundly ridiculed by Jen and Moo for not fitting HL2 into my list as well, but although it’s an amazing technical achievement, I didn’t really feel it, you know? No, Jen and Moo didn’t buy that, either.
  6. Paradroid (1985, Commodore 64): Ah, brave little 001 droid. I used to get up at 5am to play this before school.
  7. Portal (2007, PC): The only game I’ve played through since Fin was born. Portal is wonderful. I especially love how its story evolves from nowhere.
  8. NetHack (1987, PC): Sadistically difficult game that can strike terror into your heart by revealing a “D”.
  9. Warcraft II (1995, PC): The reason that for about five years there every single game on the shelves was a Real Time Strategy. Zug zug!
  10. Diablo (1996, PC): Diablo II was fantastic, too. But this game I knew I wanted the second the demo loaded.
  11. Unreal Tournament (1999, PC)
  12. Rygar (1986, Arcade)
  13. Battlefield 1942 (2002, PC)
  14. Defender of the Crown (1986, Commodore 64)
  15. Speedball (1988, Commodore Amiga)

Honorable Mention: Half-Life 2.

Obviously the mid-80s were very good to me. For comparison, here is Jen’s list: (1) Battlefield 1942 (2) Age of Empires II (3) Diablo 2 (4) Doom (5) Age of Empires (6) Warcraft 2 (7) Prince of Persia (8) SimCity (9) Railroad Tycoon (10) Carnival [for Colecovision] (11) Diablo (12) Venture [for Colecovision] (13) World of Warcraft (14) Warcraft 3 (15) Pancake [Vtech]. Honorable Mention: LadyBug [for Colecovision].

And Moo’s list: (1) Counter-Strike: Source (2) Team Fortress 2 (3) Runescape (4) Dynasty Warriors [for PlayStation 2] (5) Unreal Tournament (6) Half-Life 2 (7) Warcraft 3 (8) The Sims (9) Diablo , (10) Portal (11) Freelancer (12) Populous (13) Age of Empires II (14) Driver [for PlayStation] (15) Hitman: Blood Money. Honorable Mention: DragonBall Z [for PlayStation 2].

Moo is a teenager, by the way. You might have guessed that already.

Comments

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Machine Man subscriber Bushra (#36)

Location: Fremont, California
Quote: "www.caffeinatedmuslim.com"
Posted: 5899 days ago

I was never really into computer games - more into console games. My brother and I went from the Atari, to Nintendo, to Genesis, to Playstation, to Xbox, and now we have the Xbox 360. However, I made a conscious decision to stop playing video games before we got the 360 because it took up way too much of my time. . . and messed with my reality.

After playing hours of Splinter Cell on the Xbox, I had this desire to climb fences, sneak around, and knock people out. On one occasion, I wanted to use my night vision goggles when I realized that, hold on, I don't have night vision goggles in real life. The list goes on. After playing Driver on the PS, I wanted to speed through red lights. Oh well.

Machine Man subscriber Adam (#24)

Location: Morristown, Indiana
Quote: "Why do I blog? Simple, because Max Barry blogs."
Posted: 5899 days ago

MY TOP LIST

I didn't play many computer games in my younger years...mostly console. Here's my list...

1. Sonic 2 (Genises) This was probably the only game I played from age 6-10. other than...
2. Super Mario World (SNES) classic
3. Metal Gear Solid (Playstation)
4. Command and Conquer (PC)...I guess PC does make it.
5. Final Fantasy 9 (Playstation)...my first RPG. I didn't play it until Jr. High. But Vivi is awesome!
6. Halo 2 (Xbox) Master Chief is the Chuck Norris of videogames.
7. Black and White (PC) There's nothing that matches the feeling of smiting an entire village, and feeding the survivors to a giant cow.
8. Mario Kart Double Dash (Gamecube)
9. Grand Tourismo 3 (Playstation 2) Made me more manly...I had to start caring about cars.
10. Grand theft Auto 3 (Playstation 2) I feel weird saying this, but I like to beat up the old women because they have the most money.

HR: Medal of Honor (Playstation)

-adam speicher

Jeremy (#3401)

Location: Behind you
Quote: ""...and that's why you should eat fried lettuce.""
Posted: 5899 days ago

As far as standard setting, Doom, Diablo, Warcraft, and Half-Life are excellent choices. I also agree with Unreal Tournament, and Battlefield 1942. So I'm not going to repeat them.

Valve games in general deserve a mention so to kick off my list:

1. Valve's Source Engine Games (2004-present) - While not a "game", this umbrella includes the classics like Half-Life: Source, as well as HL2, Portal, etc. This engine is just amazing like the games that use it.

2. Starcraft (1998) - The game that made me a gamer. I never actually played Warcraft, but it's basically the same thing in space.

3. Halo (2001) - Great multiplayer. Set the modern standard for first-person-shooters.

4. Pong - Come on people. (note: google Plasma Pong)

5. Total War - from Shogun to Medieval 2, this was a great series.

Honorable Mention: GTA Series. I wanted to keep this short, but I thank GTA for making the sandbox game popular.

You need to open Moo's eyes. Show him some good games for God's sake! Hitman? Dragonball z?!

Machine Man subscriber Topher Cox (#3402)

Location: Colorado
Quote: "Fiend is like Friend without the "R.""
Posted: 5899 days ago

My 15, in no particular order:

The Longest Journey / Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (And people say games can't have a good story)
Freelancer
Portal
Age of Empires 2 (Mainly because it was the first RTS I really enjoyed playing)
Dawn of War + Expansions
Trackmania
Day of the Tentacle
Full Throttle
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Unreal Tournament series
NetHack (everyone should at least try the game)
Black & White
Diablo II
Gears of War
Pathologic (I'm not sure what it is about this game. It's near impossible and poorly translated, yet I can't seem to let myself uninstall it).

Honorable Mention: Stubbs the Zombie

Chris McBride (#1977)

Location: Belfast, N.Ireland
Quote: "Plagiarism saves thinking time"
Posted: 5899 days ago

Been in those silly arguments before. I once got into a fight with someone over whether Gary Numan or U2 made a greater impact on their respective music genres. I still haven'tlooked the guy in the face since that incident

Brittany O. (#1688)

Location: Montana
Quote: "people are kind of overrated "
Posted: 5899 days ago

i am really pleased to know that other people had a Commodore 64. my favorite for that was b.c. quest for tires...
i am a big nerd on that one.

Ed (#3191)

Location: Dark Side of the Moon
Quote: "The future is much like the present, only longer."
Posted: 5899 days ago

Yeah, I never had a Commodore. But then, I was born in '91. I grew up on Sim City and Grand Theft Auto. Can't wait for GTA IV. It looks like it'll be completely amazing. Not psyched about the new Sim City, though. It looks awful. But then, I'm a hard-core SC4 addict.

Abgrund (#3357)

Location: Atlantis
Quote: ""Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority." - Ayn Rand"
Posted: 5899 days ago

I played Space Invaders a couple of times. It was addictive, in a damn-I-thought-I-had-a-whole-pocketful-of-quarters-just-a-second-ago kind of way, but I wasn't any good at it and my monthly allowance of five dollars didn't last half an hour. Video games, bah. What a ripoff.

Machine Man subscriber Roger (#1653)

Posted: 5899 days ago

Dude, I didn't know you were a gamer!? That's freakin awesome.

Obviously, you're into PC gaming, but what are your thoughts on console gaming?

Greg Cunningham (#1743)

Location: Norrisville, Maryland
Quote: "quick...be funny"
Posted: 5899 days ago

With Nation States and all, I pegged you for a "Sid Meier's Civilization 4" lover. Of course, I think everyone should not only love it but buy it as well. ;)

dredd (#3403)

Location: Melbourne
Quote: "Buy the ticket, take the ride."
Posted: 5899 days ago

Pfft. Max, how could shattered only be #3 :-).

My top 11:

1. Shattered World.
2. Zork.
3. Rogue.
4. Fallout.
5. Lemmings - 2 player.
6. Zelda - Windwaker.
7. Speedball.
8. Galaga.
9. Conker's Bad Fur Day (n64).
10. Full Throttle.

Special mention to Reach For The Stars and Simcity for spawning stacks of genre copy cats.

Only 1 game in the 00s because most games these days are mildly engaging derivative crap.

Machine Man subscriber Katie Ellert (#207)

Location: Calgary AB Canada
Quote: "Where's Lola? WHERE'S LOLA?!?!"
Posted: 5899 days ago

I'm pretty much a total Nintendo, and completely obsessed with Mario....... my list is as follows.



1. Super Mario 3(NES)
2. Super Mario 64(N64)
3. Super Mario Sunshine (Gamecube)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)(see a theme here.. lol)
5. Resident Evil 4 (Wii edition, though the game cube one was great too)
6. Portal
7. Bubble Bobble (NES)
8. Duck Hunt (NES)
9. Mario Kart Double Dash (Gamecube)
10. GTA Vice City (PS2)

Honerable mention: Oregon Trail. I spent so many hours in computer class playing this game. XD

John Reynolds (#2534)

Location: New York, USA
Posted: 5899 days ago

I've always been a console guy, I didn't have a computer until like 1998, so consoles were my only option as a kid. My list would probably go something like this:

5. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
4. Super Mario World
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker
2. Psychonauts
1. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

Myrth (#22)

Location: London, UK
Quote: "A quote must have a beginning, a middle and an"
Posted: 5899 days ago

Your marriage survived World of Warcrack? Impressive.

Douglas Bushong (#44)

Location: America (Virginia)
Quote: "When you are trying to teach someone a new job, it's best to just throw them into the fire and beat them. They'll get sharp or they'll break. Either way, you won't waste precious time teaching them a job that they aren't meant to do."
Posted: 5899 days ago

I'm pleased to see that Defender of the Crown was on your list. That was definitely one of my favorite games of all time. Wilfred of Ivanhoe and Cedric of Rotherwood (of you liked to joust) were my favorites. By the way, if you happen to have a PS2, they remade that game in the form of "Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown."

I'd have to say the 10 games that were most influential to me were:

1. Defender of the Crown (C64) This was my first crack at a strategy game, and I loved it. Many games followed, but this one will always have a special place in my memories.
2. Bard's Tale III (C64) Long before I had ever heard of the Dungeons and Dragons games, a close friend introduced me to this game. I was amazed at the depth of the story, and the amazing variety of characters that I could have. This was the spark that lead to a lifetime of fun in RPGs.
3. Champions of Krynn/Pool of Radiance (the D&D games for C-64) This was my first experience of actual D&D on the computer. Being a fan of the table top game, I loved the way these games recreated that experience. Most of the D&D games today are more action oriented, and don't have that turn-based, strategic feel.
4. Diablo II (PC) This was my first ever experience with an online game. I loved just hanging around and having discussions with people who I am sure were over the novelty already.
5. X-Com UFO Defense (PSOne) An amazing game that involved strategy, huge guns, and aliens! The sound effects for this game were great, and I can honestly say that this is the only game that has ever scared me during gameplay.
6. Kingdom Hearts (PS2) This was my first experience with a Square-Enix game. While many people wept over Final Fantasy 7, I didn't catch up to this company until many years later.
7. Punch Out (Arcade) The green outlined boxer with the big blue button for the "Knockout punch." I spent many, MANY days at Clay's Park in Ohio playing this game while soaked to the bone and wearing swimming trunks during the "safety breaks" in the pool area.
8. Metal Gear Solid (PSone) I got the demo disc for this game back during my Navy days. In fact, if I recall, it was during a port visit to Freemantle/Perth where I got the magazine that had the demo disc. We played that demo for days on end, waiting for the actual game to come out. As Max said with Diablo, I knew the moment the demo loaded that it was something I wanted.
9. Jackie Chan's Stuntmaster (PSone) This is the only game that I ever pre-ordered. When I went to pick up the game, the guy behind the counter said "so YOU'RE the one." As a huge fan of Jackie Chan, this was a game that I really wanted to be good. This is the most time that I have ever spent playing a game that I really didn't think was that good.
10. Gunship (C64) A very close friend of mine introduced me to this game, and I thought it was one of the best helicopter simulators of all time. There was so much you had to be aware of as you played, and no other flight game has ever consumed even a tenth of the hours that I spent on this game.

Doug

Carly (#2091)

Posted: 5899 days ago

The Sims kicks so much ass..

Mick (#2190)

Location: East Coast, Australia
Posted: 5899 days ago

Turrican 2, for the C64. Hand-down, the best. Game. Ever. I have the exact same game for PC now.

I also love GTA: Vice City on PC.

Hobbie (#1359)

Location: Cornwall, England
Quote: "There was a little man in his hair!"
Posted: 5899 days ago

Hmm... Christ, I'm going to have a bloody hard time picking 15 (and honourable mention) considering I have roughly 800 or so games in my library (800 goes a bit beyond a mere "collection" methinks).

1. X-COM Enemy Unknown (UFO Defence) - MS-DOS/Windows 98, 1993
2. Command & Conquer Red Alert - Windows 95/98, 1996
3. Unreal Tournament - Windows 98, 1999
4. Soldier of Fortune II - Windows 98/XP, 2002
5. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Sega Megadrive, 1992
6. Star Wars TIE Fighter - MS-DOS/Windows 95, 1994
7. Freelancer - Windows 98/XP, 2003
8. Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords - Nintendo DS, 2007
9. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - Gameboy Advance, 2001
10. Metroid - NES, 1987
11. The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker - Gamecube, 2003
12. Disgaia - Playstation 2, 2004
13. Final Fantasy VIII - Playstation, 1999
14. Advance Wars - Gameboy Advance, 2001
15. Worms 2 - Windows 95/98, 1997

Honourable Mention. Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion - Xbox 360, 2006


Obviously I'm old enough to appreciate the classics (seriously, if anyone says X-COM isn't the most awesome game ever made I will cut you, and help the ludicrous stereotype about anti-social and violent gamers), but still a big enough nerd to play the new stuff just as religiously as when I was a kid.

Jeffrey (#2286)

Location: Right here
Quote: "Mathematics is a powerful language. Just look at how mathematicians destroyed the housing market."
Posted: 5899 days ago

lol that's awesome. I love arguments like that.

Machine Man subscriber Kyle (#3321)

Location: Burnie, Tasmania
Posted: 5899 days ago

Noone mentioned Deus Ex 0_0

Mark Tran (#3249)

Location: Canada
Quote: "If you lived here, You'd be home."
Posted: 5899 days ago

Naturally, since Max decided to mention videogames, every videogame nerd and their videogame nerd brother is going to list their top 10 here. Of course, I am a videogame nerd too.

Super Mario World
Super Smash Bros.
Megaman X
Mario Kart
Street Fighter
The Incredible Machine
Sonic 2
Pac-Man
Minesweeper
Mortal Kombat

Most of these come from my childhood memories which occured mostly in the early 90's. Yup. There goes.

Simon (#3192)

Location: Melbourne
Quote: "I'd rather be arrogant than wrong"
Posted: 5899 days ago

The Secret of Bastow Manor - c64

Best...game...ever

Mark Tran (#3249)

Location: Canada
Quote: "If you lived here, You'd be home."
Posted: 5899 days ago

Argh! How could I have forgotten these ones... Duck Hunt for NES and Donkey Kong 64! Those ones rocked! I guess those are my honorable mentions.

Robert Belton (#3176)

Location: The best city in australia.
Posted: 5899 days ago

I wanted to note that you said of course Moo is a teenager, but POPULOUS???? And yeak it rocked, I'm all for it.

But all time is Wolfenstein/Doom, Sim City, Pac Man, space invaders, Mario, Sonic, Madden (wahatever), Need for Speed/Colin Macrae, and the landscape will never herald another massive worldwide hit.

Machine Man subscriber Myke (#2316)

Posted: 5898 days ago

Hooray, another Dynasty Warriors Fan!

Anyway, hands down, the Civ series, the most serious offenders (in terms of total time-wastage) being Civ II and Civ III

Robert (#2152)

Location: Berlin, Germany
Posted: 5898 days ago

I like Top 15 + Honorable Mention lists and I love video games:
1) Metal Gear Solid (PS)
2) Day of the Tentacle (PC)
3) Final Fantasy VII (PS)
4) Gran Tourismo (PS)
5) Riddick - Escape from Butcher Bay (Xbox)
6) Halo (Xbox)
7) Double Dragon (Master System)
8) Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox)
9) Virtua Tennis (Dreamcast)
10) Shen Mue (Dreamcast)
11) GTA III (PS2)
12) Transport Tycoon (PC)
13) WWF Raw (SNES)
14) Secret of Mana (SNES)
15) New Super Mario Bros. (NDS)

HM: Medal of Honor (PS)

Du'Loque (#3361)

Quote: "duloque.blogspot.com"
Posted: 5898 days ago

I don't really play videogames, per se, which is kinda funny-- in my generation, even the jocks are addicted. But I can manage a list, and thus...

1.) Thief - While I wasn't playing computer (or video) games when this first came out, it's still the first a game personally affected me. Really, really affected me. The first zombies (you know if you played) creeped me out, and I played levels over and over, trying to "ghost" my way through. (Get through a level with no combat, hell, no detection.) I could not play this game at night, because if one floorboard creaked in our house, I would freak.

2.) Thief 2 - Seriously. Best games ever, bar none. Except for the rest on this list.

3.) Neverwinter Nights - I know, I know... I'm not even a DnD player. And the game they ship you isn't amazingly good. But the toolset, and what other players have done with it, turn it into legend. Stephen Gagne's games spring to mind.

4.) Phantasy Star I - Surprisingly deep storyline, female protagonist, tough-yet-not-annoying-combat, and catchy theme song. Speaking of...

5.) Zelda: Link's Awakening - My first journey with Link remains my favorite. Do I need to explain why I love this?

6.) Portal. Portal? Portal!

7.) Portal.

8.) Eve Online - This game beats the player, mocks them, thwarts them... and then the other players repeat. But it also lets you do all of the above to everyone else, in whatever way you want. Spying and thieving is allowed. You can literally take over the game world. Every choice you make matters. Grinding boredom is replaced by a primal flight or fight response. Or maybe not.

9.) City of Heroes - The opposite! It's loot-lite, ridiculously easy to group, fun, cartoony, and you can make anyone! Kinda.

10.) Advance Wars - Considering I hate strategy games, my addiction to this series speaks volumes. Maybe more about me, than anything else, but shut up.

Kit (#850)

Location: UK
Posted: 5898 days ago

i think top 15 would take too long so... top 3 offline games:

1) deus ex
2) final fantasy vii
3) half life 2 (i really did feel it)

top 3 online:

1) ultima online (before EA saved my life by destroying the game)
2) counter strike (beta 7)
3) unreal tourny

id like to mention other games that had me hooked for hours like civilisation but these games didnt quite have the storyline that left me with a sort of nostalgic glow when looking back. Portal would have made it but it really didnt last quite long enough, great ending though.

Linnea1928 (#2654)

Location: Rosemount, MN
Posted: 5898 days ago

Ummmm, wow. The only one on your list I recognize is Doom. I was never a computer-gamer (because I would be horrible at it). And I've never had a gaming console of any kind, but when I'm at friends' places, I do love Super Mario Party on Wii (even though I'm horrible) and Guitar Hero! DDR used to be a big thing, but when I did it, it was dangerous.

Will (#2384)

Location: In the depths of Yorkshire.
Quote: "You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."
Posted: 5898 days ago

Max, you really ned to experience Medieval Total War.

That game has soaked up veritable days of my life and i'm fairly sure stolen more than one 'a' or 'b' grade from me.

But it's worth it.

Elliot Halpern (#3259)

Location: Orangetown, New York
Posted: 5898 days ago

Who was your favorite civilization to play as in AoE II, Max?

Japanese ftw!

Austin Grossman (#3407)

Quote: ""When your laboratory explodes, lacing your body with a supercharged elixir, what do you do? You don’t just lie there. You crawl out of the rubble, hideously scarred, and swear vengeance on the world.""
Posted: 5898 days ago

Clearly Rygar is the oddity here. I expected a couple pre-Internet era outliers, but how does Rygar fit?

Patricia (#3408)

Location: Suburbs
Quote: "Why?"
Posted: 5898 days ago

Well, picking my favorite is a nobrainer:

NationStates!

But other than that, Total War's pretty cool. And pretty much anything for N64.

~Patricia

Chris (#1228)

Location: London, UK
Posted: 5897 days ago

Well, I'm glad to see X-COM has made a couple of lists (though, guys, it's "UFO: Enemy Unknown" or "X-COM: UFO Defense"). Should be #1 in my opinion. But I am amused to see its platform listed as "Windows 98" or "PSone" when it was released in 1993... it was on the Amiga ffs :-)

Hobbie (#1359)

Location: Cornwall, England
Quote: "There was a little man in his hair!"
Posted: 5897 days ago

I actually said X-COM was an MS-DOS slash Windows 98 game Chris. I knew about the Amiga version, but frankly, it and the Playstation versions were clumsy and shite compared to playing it on a PC.

And Windows 98 is perfectly acceptable when you discover they revamped the graphics (they look the same, but the resolution is epicly improved) and tweaked the in-game clock for a Win 98 special edition that worked with newer (at the time) machines.

X-COM is actually abandonware now, since the copyright expired and nobody renewed it, so everyone needs to go and download a copy from somewhere and play it. And I mean NOW. Best. Game. Ever.

Seriously, I've lost years of my life to that game, since the MS-DOS version was released in '93.

Jason Bender (#3410)

Location: Fountain, Colorado
Quote: ""The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings." - Caius Cassius"
Posted: 5896 days ago

I love your list, Max! Full of great RPGs! I always thought that computer games were far more superior to console games. I recently got Halo CE on my school laptop. I'm usually all against Halo, but I*'ve been playing it like mad ever since I got it on Pc. My brother has Age of Empires III, Diablo and Diablo II, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft on his Mac. I wish I had more PC games.

Lottie (#3093)

Location: Sheffield, UK
Posted: 5896 days ago

I pretty much agree with Moo. (What a name!)

Then again, I am a teenager as well...

Chris McBride (#1977)

Location: Belfast, N.Ireland
Quote: "Plagiarism saves thinking time"
Posted: 5894 days ago

Just another post to show some of your predictions coming true. Here in the UK McDonalds has been registered as an exam board and can now award A-Levels to its employees:

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/skynews/20080128/tuk-mcdonald-s-offers-burger-bar-a-level-45dbed5.html

Scary or what?

Yenzo (#829)

Location: Secret underwater pyramid base in the Pacific
Quote: "In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe (Carl Sagan)"
Posted: 5894 days ago

I'm a total Nintendo guy, so my list would almost completely consist of console games. But what really makes me wonder about your list is the absence of Civilization. Did you never get the chance to play it or did it actually fail to make your top 15?

Travis (#3416)

Location: Box Hill, Melbourne
Quote: "Would I do a Thing like that?"
Posted: 5887 days ago

Diablo II
Civilization III
Warcraft 3
Starcraft
Unreal Tournament

this is not a list of favorite games, this is a list of all the games I've played in the last week

Starcraft 2 will probably be the next new game I play

Lepidecko (#3428)

Quote: "why don't girls ever put the seat back up??"
Posted: 5880 days ago

Vote early, vote often.

There's a short story death match going on at:
http://www.brokenpencil.com/deathmatch/

So go and vote!

Ps.. Speedball rocked, only game where you could score a goal by ramming your opponent into the goal while he's holding the ball.

Pps.. not telling you which story's mine 8*P

Zeb (#3024)

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Quote: ""Crime is totally unknown." - Minister of defence, "Mortens Imagination", NationStates"
Posted: 5878 days ago

GOD! I wish my parents had bothered to play those games too ... my dad was sort of into the old dos arcade games, but now it's just solitaire all the time, and my mom's playing sudoku if anything. If my parents had ever bothered trying out UT, warcraft or any of those other games for that matter, i think my childhood had been a lot more fun... oh well ;) good to see you provide a top notch home for your kids Max :D

Phill Sacre (#1822)

Location: London, UK
Quote: "Computers are like air conditioners. Both stop working, if you open windows."
Posted: 5877 days ago

Reading some of the comments here has made me feel all nostalgic... my first console was a NES and I remember playing Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt etc - losing a rather large number of hours.

Then I had a PC for a few years. IMO Quake was a better game than Doom (controversial, much?!) - I lost way more hours to Quake than I ever did to Doom. In fact the other Quakes were pretty good as well.

Half-Life and Unreal Tournament I much enjoyed as well (I was a bit of a first-person shooter fan back then).

Warcraft II I spent an inordinate amount of time playing, III is also pretty good.

Does anyone remember Theme Park / Theme Hospital? I spent a long time playing those games as well :-)

Also, someone else mentioned Worms - absolute brilliance. Loved that game, I spent ages playing it.

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