I discovered in writing this that I seem to be incapable of being brief in talking about something I like.
I have played a lot of different kinds of games. Some, I don’t play so much anymore, now that I’ve (sort of) grown up and have got adult responsibilities. In the last year or two, I’ve played almost nothing but console games, specifically Xbox, but I used to play nothing but computer games.
Short answer, a bit of everything: FPS, Strategic shooters, Stealth, Role Playing, Open-Ended, Adventure, Platform, Puzzle, etc. I’ve played computer games for most of my life.
I used to like time-sucking exploring games like Escape Velocity and Civilization. Sim-City was another time sink I now can’t afford. The Sims is surprisingly engrossing too. Damn my fiancee for introducing that thing to me.
Right now, I need stuff I can drop and pick up again. Halo 1 and 2 are great FPS games, I think probably the best representatives of the type, and nice relaxing fun most of the time. Reaction paramount, some strategy required, brain mostly turn off, pull trigger, enemy fall down dead = fun. I played Marathon back in the day [90s]What’s that you say? It’s a great game but only available on a Mac? Why don’t they port it to Windows? Mwuah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Now you know how it feels, worm.[/90s]
I get frustrated playing online because there are some people out there who are frighteningly good. I can beat H1 on Legendary with some trouble, and can slowly work my way through H2 at that level, but my online survival is usually measured in the amount of time a single snowflake would last in hell; fuck the snowball.
I really like stealth games. I played through Splinter Cell twice within the same month when I got it. I liked the CIA level for the challenge, though I did want to make head shots from extreme distances with my shiny new rifle. I did it a few times anyway, just for fun :). I’m a sneaky underhanded bastard when it comes to stealth games, and I like it! I like the strategic thinking, planning, patience along with good timing, and the relative overall realism of these games. I just got a few older Xbox games and am playing Thief: Deadly Shadows (very good, I need to get the earlier titles now) and Riddick.
Deus Ex is one of those games that doesn’t slot in nicely to any genre. I played it mostly as a Stealth/Shooter, but I also liked the background elements that were there for you to fit into the unfolding story, or not depending on your predilections. I’ve heard that Half-Life had some of this, too, though I unfortunately have not played it, and Marathon definitely had some interesting plot develop from communications console messages.
Strategic shooters like Rainbow Six and its sequels and Ghost Recon, et al. are enjoyable for much the same reasons I like stealth games. The only things I don’t like about them are that your squad-mates are often quite stupid (as are the enemies sometimes) and the perceptions of the game are sometimes better, sometimes worse, than reality. In games that get so much right, I occasionally find it annoying to get killed with a shot or two from some doofus with an AK-47 at a range where I can barely see him with a scoped rifle. Other than the occasional violation of the illusion, I mostly like these games though.
Adventure/platform games are also enjoyable. I got Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time recently, along with those other games in my wanna-play backlog. While I’m kind of stuck right now (a reverse-chimney move that I just cannot seem to time properly) I’ve loved it so far. I played the originals, too. I liked the first couple Tomb Raider games, though I never got the chance to play them extensively. They’re a combination of puzzles and reflexes that can be very addicting.
Myst and Riven were great games for their time. I like finding out little bits of information at a time and putting it together into a story. Silent Hill (what little I played of it at my friend’s place) and, like I mentioned above, Deus Ex had a bit of that too. To me, the unfolding story aspect of SH was more interesting than the horror aspects, though I did jump and yell the first time I ran into something in the beginning of the game; well-done atmosphere and building suspense are always good things.
I kind of like racing games, but steering with a controller is painful. If I had a wheel setup, I could probably shave whole seconds off my best times; consequently, I don’t play them often. Besides, the one racing game I own, Project Gotham, is a dirty, dirty cheater. Coming out of nowhere, ramming into me, and making me spin out when I’m on my second to last turn in first place is not my idea of fair play. Mario Kart, which my friend has on his Game Cube, is a whole 'nother thing. Fun, fun, fun, as long as you’re playing against someone you can trash-talk to, like an actual human being.
While I liked Baldur’s gate and Fallout when I played them, I think I’m starting to dislike dice- or stat-based games in general now. Not only are hit points and percent-to-hit chances both dumb and unrealistic for someone who knows at least a little bit about what real fighting is like, but the whole leveling to get skills, improving your stats, killing stuff, finding better equipment grind just isn’t that interesting to me anymore. I tried playing Knights of the Old Republic and found it boring as hell. Not only is it contrary to everything set up in that universe that a lightsaber or vibroblade doesn’t lop stuff in half with a single hit, but there’s way too much watching your character do things and not enough doing them yourself. Games with more active involvement like Diablo or Dungeon Siege are more fun, but much more brainless, so I’m pretty much done with those too, though I liked them a lot while I was playing them.
Same thing with RTS games; I really liked Warcraft I and II, played quite a bit of Starcraft, though I came to it late, and played the non-Blizzard TNA. I like them for what they do, but I got really, really tired of the micromanaging and I never got around to making macros to deal with some of it. I bought Warcraft III on sale not too long ago, but haven’t gotten around to playing it. I may never.
Black and White is sorta-kinda RTS along with all kinds of other things mixed in. It takes too much of a time commitment and I have never been able to play it as much as I would like. I barely made it off the first island before I had to drop it for a while to do other stuff, and when I came back to it I’d forgotten half the things I was supposed to be doing. It seems like a very cool game, with a surprising amount of depth and flexibility, but I can’t give it the attention it deserves.
I played a bit of Kingdom Under Fire at a friend’s place. Damn good. You have real skirmish tactics come into play, the essence of what a battlefield commander must have had to deal with, units working together in a realistic way, terrain concerns, unit movement speeds and formations that actually make a difference. Wow, just wow. Somebody did some homework on medieval warfare, figured out how to put just enough realism from that into a game to make people like me go, “Yay!” and yet keep it simplified and fun enough that people who only see the surface can get into it too.
I’ve heard great things about Worlds of Warcraft and Evercra. . .er, Everquest, but I haven’t ever been much into the social aspects of gaming. I love the way WoW looks, and I like what I hear about the quest-based and real roleplaying aspects of it, but I usually play games when I don’t want to interact with people. If I wanted to talk or hang out I’d, I dunno, talk or go hang out with someone in RL. Doing so virtually feels blah to me.
The other things I don’t like about MMORPGs is that when you start playing, you have to learn the ropes, avoiding people who want to shit on you just because you’re a newbie, while seeking out new friends for support, protection, and possibly even fun. Can you say, I did this several times growing up, and it’s called transferring to a new school? I didn’t like pack behavior then and I dislike it more now. Besides the forced team-building social aspect–as is required with many high-level quests–there’s a steep time input requirement and learning curve associated with those games, and I’m a late adopter so everybody and their cousin seems to have high-level characters and know everything about everything, including bugs and optimal paths to take in building characters, while I’m still trying to figure out how to make things work. I may still give WoW a go sometime, but I may never get around to it either.
