Your Benchmark Games.
You know the ones you personally compare specific games in genres to. For me its like this.
1. FPS - Deus Ex. There really hasnt been one close to this for me yet.. Here's hoping that Bioshock finally trumps DX. Riddick certainly came close..
2. RPG (Single Player) - Ultima 7 pt.1 and 2. Still to me the finest CRPG ever made. The first person ones have never really captured the magic of the party system and exploration like Ultima did for me. Baldurs Gate 2 came close.
3. RTS (Total Annihilation)- Nothing has even come close to this for me.. I guess I should give Supreme Commander a shot some day but reviews sorta turned me away.
4. Console RPG- Secret of Mana. To me this is what console RPG's should be like.. Actiony.. lite RPG type games.. probably why I liked this and Final Fantasy Legend on my GB the best. Still waiting.. perhaps that new Zelda DS game will be the one.
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
Down in the Park with a friend called Five.
Multiplayer FPS - Joint Ops and Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - Both are very strong on teamwork, very different on pacing.
Strategy - Civ 3 and 4, Alpha Centauri
Racing - Burnout 3: Takedown - I love getting points for crashing, and it's on rails enough that my 4-year old has played it since he was 3.
RPG - Diablo and Morrowind
Edit:
BEST Overall Game Ever: Elite on the C64
BEST Overall Game That Should Be Remade as a Flash/DS Game: M.U.L.E. on C64
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
FPS: No One Lives Forever. It's never been equaled. There are many FPSes (nearly all of them now, actually) that will best it in one or more areas, but no other FPS has ever had the sheer panache of NOLF. I still replay it every couple of years, and love it as much now as I ever did. Hated the sequels.
I do have to say, though, that HL2: Episode 1 got very, very close. It's not *quite* up to snuff in storytelling and voicing, but it's so much better in other areas that I'd call it a wash.
Deus Ex would be a close third to those two.
2. RPG: Dead tie between Planescape:Torment and Baldur's Gate 2 + sequel.
3. RTS: I've never been very good at these, but Dawn of War has gotten a metric assload of skirmish playtime over the years. I've played it more than any other RTS.
4. Console RPG: Chrono Trigger. I've played a lot of the others and none of them even come close. I didn't even find Chrono Trigger until I was tinkering around with an emulator. That game grabbed me so hard that it broke my Counterstrike addiction for two solid weeks... and this was well after the SNES was entirely obsolete. 99 or 2000 sometime.. and the game was released about five years earlier. I ended up buying a used SNES and that cart just so I could play it properly, as the emulator had trouble about halfway through.
5. Adventure (a category you didn't mention): Longest Journey, by miles.
Edit to add after reading duckilama's post: Yes, Burnout 3 is really excellent. I don't like the racing itself too much, the rubber cars are silly, but the crash mode is tons of fun.
Adventure: Grim Fandango. Even with the stupid control scheme, it's hands-down the best adventure game ever made, in my opinion. And I've played a lot of adventure games.
Platformer: I know most people will say Mario 64, but since I've never played that - Jak & Daxter
jRPG: I can't choose between FF6 and Chrono Trigger. Both are fantastic, but for different reasons.
Survival/Horror: Resident Evil, the GC remake (never played the old one).
Nostalgia Game: C64 Pirates!
"Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you, Kat. You." - Haakon7
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FPS - Goldeneye on the 64. It didn't hold up to the test of time at all, but I have fond memories to the point that I judge all the newer FPSs on.. hoping one day something with surpass the amount of fun I had. HL-2 has come close.
RPG - Earthbound. Cuz, well, ya know
. I shouldn't even have to explain my obsession with the game. (Side note: I'll be making a thread about the EB Siege happening over at starmen.net.. which is our last stand to get Mother 1 and 3 in the states. So far we've raised over $6000 dollars for the project, and our efforts have already started to spark news at NOA. We're really excited it's going to work 
)
Puzzle - Tetrisphere on the 64. I know, I know. I'm the only person who liked the game. Shut up. It was crack to me, and one of the main reasons why I still hold onto my 64. Besides that is the old Tetris machine at the beach arcade that I still pump a dollar or two every few months.
Action Platformer - Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Maybe Paper Mario if it counts (it looked like a 2D side-scroller!)
Adventure - The first Monkey Island game on PC. Bar none.
RTS - The first Command and Conquer game before the '95 edition was released. Not counting that? Starcraft. I played many a game of that online with friends.
Yet even then we ran like the wind,
whilst our laughter echoed under cerulean skies...
I guess it's going to look like I'm mostly mimicing Crouton here, but hey, he's got good taste in video games.
FPS (console): Halo series
FPS (pc): Half Life 2
RPG (Japanese style): FF10 -- previously I would have said FF6 or Chrono Trigger, but FF10's story, character, and beautiful world design now sit higher in my regard than those old 16 bit classics.
RPG (Western style): Oblivion -- while I prefer the character building and story presentation of the KOTOR games, nothing can top a huge open world to explore when it comes to Western RPGs.
RPG (Action style): Zelda series -- Okami is a very close second, as is Vagrant Story
RPG (Tactical style): Disgaea -- Front Mission 3 is a close second
Racing (sim): Forza/Forza 2
Racing (arcade): Mario Kart 64 -- Burnout 3 is a very close second
Platformer: Mario 64/Sunshine
Action: God of War 2 -- the new Ninja Gaiden is a close second, so we'll have to see how Sigma works out
Puzzle: Lumines
Fighter: Street Fighter Alpha 3
XBL/PSN: zeroKFE | BHA: zeroKFE | Halo Stats
FPS: Half-Life
Adventure: KQ5
1P RPG: Ultima 7, Krondor... occasionally Morrowind
Puzzle: Tetris
RTS: Warcraft 2 & 3
Platformer: Mario 3
Beat 'em Up: Streets of Rage 2, TMNT: Manhattan Project
Console RPG: FF3
MMO: Ultima Online private shards
Sports: Joe Montana Sports Talk Football, NHL '93
And now it's obvious what time period I did most of my gaming in. Oh those halcyon days.
The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid. - Elysium
Wordsmythe is my hero. - rabbit
XBL: E Munnie
Single Player FPS - System Shock 2: The whole game was so amazing and the atmosphere created by everything from the audio, to the way the story progressed.
Multiplayer FPS - Goldeneye: It is old, on a console, and I have never had so many good times with three friends sitting in one room staring at a quarter of the screen on my tiny TV. The level design, the weapons, the unlockable characters, this is the one FPS where I had all the multiplayer levels memorized. Truly amazing.
CRPG - Baulder's Gate 2 was just too amazing. The fact that I played through it numerous times, and had a blast finding new ways to play, and creating new interesting characters was great. Your party's interactions were well thought out, the battle system was great, and it looked amazing. Torment comes in a close second.
RTS - Command and Conquer: Red Alert used to hold this title, but Company of Heroes is my new jumping off point. It is one of the first RTS games in a long time that I have actually felt like the Strategy portion is there. I feel that there are numerous ways to win a fight depending on what tree you take, and what your fighting. The redefind resource gathering aspect is one I would also like to see uitilized more. All this, and the single player missions are fun, challenging, and use great material to draw you into the fray.
Fighting - Soul Caliber for the Dreamcast. To this day the game still looks amazing for the hardware it was running on. THe single player story mode was engaging, and the multiplayer was everything a fighter should be.
Console RPG - Final Fantasy 6: The game still looks awesome to this day. I am most likley a little biased and view this as the best due to the rose colored glasses of nostalgia, but I love this game. With such a huge cast, they really fill out almost all of the characters. So many of the optinal side quests and missions did a great job of letting you get to know the people in the story (Edgar and Sabin's flash back in the Castle being one of my favorite). The battle system , is still fun as every character had their own specialty giving each party a unique build. The large three group battles were great for making you utilize your entire team.
Chrono Trigger is a close runner up to this, and really was the more innovative game utilizing same screen battles that you could avoid. It has aged beautifully as well, and I feel also lets you get to know your characters and relate to them.
"Uranus is positioned for summer surprises." - from Tarot.com's mailing list
Xbox Live Gamertag - Yoreel
Gonna Mimick Crouton and Zero here.
Multiplayer FPS - Counterstrike. I have to say I much prefer "round" based combat to Deathmatch games.
Single Player FPS - HL2 and HL2E1. Nothing I've ever played comes even close.
RPG - Oblivion (and Morrowind) / BG2, each for their respective sub-styles
MMO - WoW. Need there be more explanation?
Action RPG - Zelda TP. It's far and away the best of the series, IMO.
Turn Based Strategy - Civ4 / HOMM 3.
RTS - Starcraft.
Adventure: QFG4. The inclusion of RPG elements just made the series that much better and it's unfortunate that more of this hasn't been done in the adventure genre.
Morrolan wrote:
XBLA / Steam: Dysplastic
Riddick? Close to Deus Ex?
WHAT?!
DX is like Noam Chomsky + Half Life + Blade Runner. It is a good story. It is a great run-and-gun. It is a good stealth game. It is a fun RPG. It is insightful and exciting. It has unique and varied weaponry. It has clever and useful gadgets. It has massive and fun level design. It has impressive voice acting and dialogue. It is everything good that has ever happened to video gaming, and Riddick comes in a close a second? Are we even talking about the same games?
DX is my favorite FPS and RPG.
RTS would be X-COM: UFO Defense.
Adventure. Monkey. Island.
Fighter: DOA4
Sim: Gran Turismo 2
Also, what genre would Pirates! be in? Seems like it should be on the list somewhere...
don't you wonder sometimes...
FPS: Difficult one for me. Aliens Vs Predator 2. Loved the single player campaign and have replayed it numerous times. The graphics a bit dated but the contrast between marine, predator and alien gametypes is brilliant plus the MP is decent as well.
This could also easily have been System Shock 2... but perhaps that is too much of an FPRPG.
Multiplayer FPS: Quake 3 arena. Played in clans, TDM and CTF and have just started playing the game again as casual CTFS mode. Love it and the community has really helped keep this one alive. The graphics may not be fantasitically pushing but then when you play properly you turn the graphics way down and focus on the gameplay mechanics. Almost perfect, IMO.
Console RPG: Final Fantasy 8. My first FF... no other compares.
Computer RPG: Planescape torment. 'Nuff said.
RTS: Total Annihilation. Totally agree on this one - though i never played very far into the campaigns i played so many skirmishes and multiplayer matches i can't even think about how much of my time this game sucked up. Dawn of War came close to dethroning it but there just wasn't so much of the overall battlefield tactical setup and it was more for skirmishes.
Console Action RPG: Again, i agree on this one: Legend of Mana. None of the Mana series have recaptured the basic lessons learned in this classic... an no other series has come close to recreating the magic that was in this game. Shame really.
Computer Action RPG: Diablo
Adventure Game: Day of the tentacle. No explanation needed.
Platformer: Banjo Kazooie/super mario world - can't choose between the two.
Beat em up: Golden Axe
Fighter: Tekken 3
Of - power - insessantly
Plagued - by - malefisense
Doomed - to - insidious -
Death - is - he - who - breaks
this - monument - i - prophesy
First-person shooter (SP): Quake 2
First-person shooter (MP): Battlefield 2142
Roleplaying game: Fallout 2
Real time strategy: C&C Generals
Turn-based Strategy: Civ 4
Fighter: Street Fighter 2 Championship
Adventure: Bioforge
Fedaykin98 wrote:
So far its interesting to note how many different games are showing up.. there are a few repeat offenders though so far..
Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter
Down in the Park with a friend called Five.
http://wumusicgroup.com/
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I'll echo what some others have picked and add a few new ones.
Console FPS: Halo Series
PC FPS: Half Life / Counterstrike
RTS: Warcraft Series
Turn-based Strategy: Civ 4
Versus Fighter: Virtua Fighter 2
Beat Em Up: Golden Axe
Platformer: Mario 64
Action RPG: Knights of the Old Republic
Sim (kinda): Mechwarrior 2
Racing: Rallisport Challenge 2
Xbox Gamertag: Armchair Jockey
FPS: HalfLife2, though STALKER comes close on this for pure atmosphere realization.
RPG: Torment or Fallout 1 & 2. Difficult to call it, for me. Both were such deep, moving games.
RTS: Total Annihilation, though C&C3 just came up and blew me away. Again, very, very hard to call it.
Adventure: The Dig. Classic, mature, excellent Sci-Fi story. Beneath a Steel Sky also falls in here.
Space Combat: Freespace 2. I mean, come on.
Console RPG: Gotta go with FF3/6. I never really got into Chrono Trigger the way I did with FF6. Big, deep, and emotional.
Console Adventure: Metroid Prime 2. I drool for Prime 3. I may have a problem.
TBS: Alpha Centauri. I'm sorry, but until Civ4 allows me to alter weather patterns with my Civ, it's less than AC.
Mystic Violet wrote:
I only really do two genres, those being RTS and Shooters so my list will be short.
FPS: Half-Life 2
RTS: Tie between Starcraft and Company of Heroes. Close second (third?) to Supreme Commander.
Guru you really should give Supcom a shot if you enjoyed TA that much. It's essentially just a slight evolution of that game with more thought put into pretty much all aspects of the gameplay.
XBLive: Thin J
PSN: Thin_J
I don't imagine master craftsmen leaping away from completed projects and shouting "Done, motherf*ckers! - 1Dgaf
You will if you know what's good for you.
HOMM3 was close for me, too.
XBox Live: Croutonic | Bungie.net: Croutonic
Bacon is like monkeys - it makes everything better. - Bagga
FPS: System Shock 1
RPG-PC: Plainscape Torment and Pool of Radiance...Old Gold Box game - I know more then 1 person who started playing pen & paper RPGs AFTER they played the gold box games. Bard's Tale, the original... lost 6 months of my life to that game.
RPG-Console: KotOR
RTS: Pax Imperia... old Mac version... it also reigns as best space 4x game IMHO. Not the perfect game but certainly a great one if you played it. If we are talking more modern, then Starcraft.
Turn Based Strategy: thats difficult for me, Shogun Total War - maybe not the best of the series but it opened eyes. Also Uncommon Valor or its Apple IIc predecessor, War in the South Pacific - lost probably a whole year of my life to this one if you total the time (we were not rich so I had the Apple IIc as my main computer for 8 years... still have it too)
Sports: Old School: the original Hardball from like 85... New School: eh... I guess they are all good but none of them club me over the head
Flight Sim - Freespace
There are two kinds of men in the world, those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.
My list goes something like this:
First-person shooter (SP): System Shock
First-person shooter (MP): The original Team Fortress
Roleplaying game: I'm in agreement with GG...Ultima VII for the win
Real time strategy: Nothing compares to Starcraft
Turn-based Strategy: Fantasy General
Fighter: Virtua Fighter IV
Adventure: Zork II or Suspended
Console RPG: Going to have to go with Final Fantasy VI
"It's so much easier to suggest solutions when you don't know too much about the problem." - Malcolm Forbes
I don't like twitch FPS, RTS, or jRPG.
FPS: a tie between Rainbow Six: Vegas and Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight
RPG: a tie between Fallout 1, Darklands, and Pool of Radiance
TBS: a tie between X-COM, Civilization 1&4, Master of Orion, Master of Magic, and Panzer General
Fighter: Soul Caliber on Dreamcast
Action RPG: Diablo 1 and Titan Quest w/ Immortal Throne expansion
Racing: Burnout 3
Space Sim: Wing Commander 1 (not really a sim, but what do we call this genre?)
Special "Cars + guns +creativity" Category: Interstate 76
My favorite genre is CRPGs, but the list of CRPGs I've completed is minuscule compared to the ones I've played but not completed. I wrote them all out (as many as I could remember) here at work one day. It was kind of depressing. I've played, and enjoyed - until about 2/3-3/4 of the way through for some odd reason - every RPG Bioware has put out, and never finished one (excepting NWN OC).
XBox Live: Khoram
Warhammer Online: TBD
Revision!
RTS: Close Combat
Turn-based strategy, multiplayer: Battlegrounds: Gettysburg
Single-player turn-based: I'll settle on Civ 4, because that's the one I've done the most recently. But really, the Civs and AC were all great.
Finance/trade?: Railroad Tycoon 2
The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid. - Elysium
Wordsmythe is my hero. - rabbit
XBL: E Munnie
Single-player FPS: System Shock 2
Multi-player FPS: Team Fortress
Multi-player console shooter: SOCOM II
RPG: Fallout
RTS: Total Annihilation
Adventure: Grim Fandango
Strategy: M.U.L.E.
Flight Sim: Falcon 3.0, 4.0, and Aces of the Pacific
Racing: Gran Turismo (probably Forza 2 soon)
Fighter: Street Fighter II
Platformer: Psychonauts
I'm sorry, Deus Ex is many things (a great game first and foremost), but the ham-fisted story is not something I would hold up as anything more than "decent for a video game".
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: Blast Processing - www.blastprocessing.net
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"Damn, your comedic timing is awesome." -- Spaz, *Legion* Fan #1437
Ugh how could I forget Darklands! Yeah I would add that into my RPG:PC list as well...
There are two kinds of men in the world, those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig.
I don't really have benchmark games for whole genres, but I definitely have benchmark games for aspects of game design and presentation.
Boss Battles: RE4, Shadow of the Colossus
Animation: Shadow of the Colossus
Humor: NOLF 2, Sly Cooper 3, Sam & Max
Quest Design: Oblivion
AI: Half-Life 2, Far Cry, F.E.A.R.
Platforming Puzzles: Wind Waker
Console Shooting Mechanics: Halo
PC Shooting Mechanics: Half-Life
Online Multiplayer: Halo 2
Hack & Slash Brawling: God of War
Giant Robots: Shogo
XboxLive: Fly GWJ | PSN: The _Fly | Blog: Lowspec | Twitter
RTS: Starcraft
RPG: Balders Gate
Strategy: Civ 2/Alpha Centari/MOO
Space Sim: Elite Plus
FPS?:Mechwarrior2
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing noise they make as they fly by." -- Douglas Adams
First Person Shooter: Halo. The most important element of a shooter is the enemy AI, and Halo's still holding that crown. HL2:E1 is pretty close, but the best AI is reserved for Alyx; there's no real engaging enemies.
Third Person Shooter: Resident Evil 4. It's all about the more realistic control scheme, picking your battles, and making a last stand.
RPG's aren't roleplaying to me unless I make the character from scratch and play him exactly the way I want, so that pretty much eliminates anything that isn't Elder Scrolls. Still can't pick a favorite there.
Platformer: Vexx. It's Mario 64 with a better everything.
Sidescroller: Yoshi's Island.
Danjo Olivaw Lives
I only have a few....
FPS: Half-Life
RTS - Squad Level: X-COM. I still can't beiieve that noone's managed to outdo a game created over 10 years ago now.
RTS - Army Level: Combat Mission. Ruined every single other RTS in history for me. If it's got lifebars, I don't care anymore.
Quote:
XBL Tag: Prederick
Also, I still don't know how Chomsky is supposed to figure in there. Is that supposed to imply some sort of intellectual self-fellation?
Why do I remember X-COM being turn-based?
The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid. - Elysium
Wordsmythe is my hero. - rabbit
XBL: E Munnie
Because it was.
Fedaykin98 wrote: