Hi,
as with most "best ever..." lists, they are dominated by recent products. So I'd like to add some older titles which I feel are superior to most modern games despite having no 3D worlds, cut-scenes or digitized speech. (My feeling that the games of olden times are better than modern ones might be an indication that I'm getting old...)
M.U.L.E...: An economical game from 1983 with support for up to 4 players. Highly original game concept, well-balanced game mechanics, loads of fun!
Nethack: A descendant from the 70's game "Rogue", and the ancestor of all Diablo-like games. I still find it superior to Diablo in many ways, although it has nearly no graphics. Hardcore only, and its fantastic complexity doesn't just come from millions of items and skills, but from more original things. You have random dungeons, monsters, and treasure. You could polymorph into a dragon, lay eggs, and have baby dragons as pets. You had a wand of wishing. For us variant scum, the game supports different kinds of variants in the form of conducts. And the best: You can die in a LOT of different ways, more than you could possibly imagine, and trust me: You will!
Elite: Modern games like Morrowind get praised for their non-linear, open gameplay - Elite was the first game I encountered which was completely open, and it was published in 1984 already! It had 8 galaxies with IIRC 2000+ stars each. You could trade goods, fight pirates (or the police...), buy ships and equipment, and the docking sequence is still a classic!
The Bard's Tale: Hack'n'slash and old-school puzzles at its finest. The most memorable fight to many was the encounter with the 396 berserkers in Harkyn's castle. You would give orders to your party members (usually: attack, attack, attack, cast "mibl", cast "mibl", cast "mibl"), then walk away and drink a coffee and read a good book. Then you would come back after 15 minutes or so to see if your front-line fighters had survived the first round of combat and how many berserkers had died to your spells, and would initiate the next round...
Archon: Chess with enhanced rules, fantasy monsters, spells, and action fights. A classic.
Master of Orion: The best space strategy game ever made!
For non-computer games, I had made a list of my favorite board games over here at Realms Beyond; feel free to add some!
-Kylearan
as with most "best ever..." lists, they are dominated by recent products. So I'd like to add some older titles which I feel are superior to most modern games despite having no 3D worlds, cut-scenes or digitized speech. (My feeling that the games of olden times are better than modern ones might be an indication that I'm getting old...)
M.U.L.E...: An economical game from 1983 with support for up to 4 players. Highly original game concept, well-balanced game mechanics, loads of fun!
Nethack: A descendant from the 70's game "Rogue", and the ancestor of all Diablo-like games. I still find it superior to Diablo in many ways, although it has nearly no graphics. Hardcore only, and its fantastic complexity doesn't just come from millions of items and skills, but from more original things. You have random dungeons, monsters, and treasure. You could polymorph into a dragon, lay eggs, and have baby dragons as pets. You had a wand of wishing. For us variant scum, the game supports different kinds of variants in the form of conducts. And the best: You can die in a LOT of different ways, more than you could possibly imagine, and trust me: You will!
Elite: Modern games like Morrowind get praised for their non-linear, open gameplay - Elite was the first game I encountered which was completely open, and it was published in 1984 already! It had 8 galaxies with IIRC 2000+ stars each. You could trade goods, fight pirates (or the police...), buy ships and equipment, and the docking sequence is still a classic!
The Bard's Tale: Hack'n'slash and old-school puzzles at its finest. The most memorable fight to many was the encounter with the 396 berserkers in Harkyn's castle. You would give orders to your party members (usually: attack, attack, attack, cast "mibl", cast "mibl", cast "mibl"), then walk away and drink a coffee and read a good book. Then you would come back after 15 minutes or so to see if your front-line fighters had survived the first round of combat and how many berserkers had died to your spells, and would initiate the next round...
Archon: Chess with enhanced rules, fantasy monsters, spells, and action fights. A classic.
Master of Orion: The best space strategy game ever made!
For non-computer games, I had made a list of my favorite board games over here at Realms Beyond; feel free to add some!
-Kylearan
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider