Oh, I just rememberer a couple:
Best dice game: Cosmic Wimpout
Oops! Hit submit too soon. “A couple” usually refers to two items…
Best board game: Cosmic Encounter
Calvinball.
I agree with Half Life for best computer game. It completely changed the POV game genre, and for the better.
For best arcade game, definitely Tapper. I know. There is one sitting in my living room! I would wager that I am the best Tapper player in the world today.
I know IMHO isn’t really the place for arguing, but I fail to see how Half Life did anything for the FPS genre other than make online FPS gaming a little more mainstream. Half Life hardly revolutionized the genre. I can’t think of anything in it that I hadn’t seen before.
I prefer Find the salami
Well maybe these are things I hadn’t noticed in other games before, but here are a few:
-
Popularized the use of “user-made” levels. This was done with Jedi and a few others, I think. But Half Life is where this idea seemed to take off. It gave the game an extended lifetime - people stayed interested in it because there were always new levels.
-
Had characters speech actually match their mouth movements.
-
Half Life really told a story. While you did run around and blow away lots of stuff, there was a reason for it. Duke Nukem did this to a lesser degree, as did Jedi. But Half Life made me feel I was within the story - almost like participating in a film. None of the other FPS games had that effect on me until Half Life.
“Love the kitty, pet the kitty, pay attention to the kitty, play with the kitty, cater to the kitty’s every whim…” You get the idea.
Anyone ever play an addictive on-line game called Subspace (actually, its not called Continuum).
Lots of fun, easy to learn, difficult to master, requires a lot of team coordination to win the multi-player games.
Check out http://www.extreme-games.net
This is just one of the Subspace “arenas”, and IMHO the most fun to play.
I can’t believe that no one has said anything about Othello.
A minute to learn a lifetime to master.
Aha! All props to Mullinator ! In order to be a good, indulgent dad (yeah, it was for the kids. Yeah, that’s it, the kids.) over the years I purchased Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 for the kidlets (and a passle of games for each.)
Now that they are out of the house at college and such I find myself returning to the basic Nintendo and the ever-fascinating Dr. Mario. I’ve been playing it for many years, to the point where I start at the highest level (20) and the highest speed each time. I win about one game in eight or nine (more if I play every night for a stretch) and the highest I’ve ever gotten was level 24, briefly. My Holy Grail is to make it to level 25 and see if there is another piece of animation out there as there is on every previous five levels.
Nothing seems to sooth in the evening like those falling capsules and those lo-rez graphics played on a 27 inch screen. I have even managed to hook my wife for the last 3 years and she is a consistent level 16 or 17 player.
The only difference is she actually likes the insidious tunes that come with them, while I play in blissful silence.
You got me on the mouth movements, but ever since Quake 1 days, usermade levels were incredibly popular. Quake 2 had just as many if not more user made levels as Half Life. Sin had a story too, and IMO it was better than Half Life’s. It had cut scenes, and had a more action-movie feel than Half Life.
You got me on mouth movements, though.
Sigh… It is cool that someone is pimping Subspace, but why direct them to Extreme Games which is not a true Subspace zone?
I’ll second Ferrous regarding Cosmic Encounter.
I’ll also second or third everone who has voted for go.
Frogger