Jesterka
Water Chip? Been There, Done That
1) Fallout 2 (Black Isle, 1998)
It isn´t worth to write anything, FO2 is simply a prodigy. I highly value his replayability and huge, but still more or less compact world. During that time I almost kicked from school because of FO2, but it was worthwhile. In time I "discovered" many of its rubbish like talking rats/flesh-eaters/deathclaws, but it is still my nr. 1.
2) Quake 3 Arena (ID, 1999)
Excellent multiplayer which lived through 3 generations of Unreal games and will live through at least next two. IMO the best weapon ballance and the best movement ever.
3) Fallout (Black Isle, 1997)
Above standard written plot, very atmospheric, very small, very buggy. Unhappily it seems to be not so much replayable to me...
4) Far Cry (Crytek, 2004)
IMO better game than unseemly overpraised Doom 3/Oblivion. Great graphic and world generally, running surprisingly fast on today´s low-end PC. It turned out that STALKER is not so RPG-like how GSC promised at one time, but from the point of my view it is even not so excellent action. Far Cry is.
5) Thief 3: Deadly Shadows (Ion Storm, 2004)
Maybe it was a little heresy of me that I have not ever played first two Thiefs and started with Deadly Shadows, but... it´s definitely a big piece of game art in spite of technically it is often quite poor. I rate Shalebridge Cradle mission as one of the greatest (and bizzare) stuff what gaming industry has ever produced.
6) Half-Life 2 (Valve, 2004)
It was clear long before the release date that HL2 will be once a golden classic. Above all I really enjoyed Highway 17 and Sandtraps missions.
7) Unreal Tournament (Epic, 2000)
Another golden classic. Epic is very good at building deathmatch maps and implementation of all sorts of game types, but in the rest was IMHO better ID/Quake.
8) Aliens vs. Predator 2 (Monolith, 2001)
Stupidly slow alien (in AvP 1 the aliens were often a masters of the world just thanks to its quickness) and completely stupid predator, but during the Marine missions I was pretty scared. Good design.
9) Mafia (Illusion Softworks, 2002)
Almost all the mafioso games are stupid in some way. Mafia was not. I was proud to be Czech... rarely.
10) Railroad Tycoon 2
As you can see, I evidently prefer 1st person, ideally with good plotline. I don´t play a strategy games because they are less and less about strategy, but RT2 was so cool that I was playing it for many many hours.
So, that is my Top 10 list... I warn that I didn´t played a lot of classics like System Shock, Deus Ex, Planescape: Torment, so they logically can´t be taken into my account.
It isn´t worth to write anything, FO2 is simply a prodigy. I highly value his replayability and huge, but still more or less compact world. During that time I almost kicked from school because of FO2, but it was worthwhile. In time I "discovered" many of its rubbish like talking rats/flesh-eaters/deathclaws, but it is still my nr. 1.
2) Quake 3 Arena (ID, 1999)
Excellent multiplayer which lived through 3 generations of Unreal games and will live through at least next two. IMO the best weapon ballance and the best movement ever.
3) Fallout (Black Isle, 1997)
Above standard written plot, very atmospheric, very small, very buggy. Unhappily it seems to be not so much replayable to me...
4) Far Cry (Crytek, 2004)
IMO better game than unseemly overpraised Doom 3/Oblivion. Great graphic and world generally, running surprisingly fast on today´s low-end PC. It turned out that STALKER is not so RPG-like how GSC promised at one time, but from the point of my view it is even not so excellent action. Far Cry is.
5) Thief 3: Deadly Shadows (Ion Storm, 2004)
Maybe it was a little heresy of me that I have not ever played first two Thiefs and started with Deadly Shadows, but... it´s definitely a big piece of game art in spite of technically it is often quite poor. I rate Shalebridge Cradle mission as one of the greatest (and bizzare) stuff what gaming industry has ever produced.
6) Half-Life 2 (Valve, 2004)
It was clear long before the release date that HL2 will be once a golden classic. Above all I really enjoyed Highway 17 and Sandtraps missions.
7) Unreal Tournament (Epic, 2000)
Another golden classic. Epic is very good at building deathmatch maps and implementation of all sorts of game types, but in the rest was IMHO better ID/Quake.
8) Aliens vs. Predator 2 (Monolith, 2001)
Stupidly slow alien (in AvP 1 the aliens were often a masters of the world just thanks to its quickness) and completely stupid predator, but during the Marine missions I was pretty scared. Good design.
9) Mafia (Illusion Softworks, 2002)
Almost all the mafioso games are stupid in some way. Mafia was not. I was proud to be Czech... rarely.
10) Railroad Tycoon 2
As you can see, I evidently prefer 1st person, ideally with good plotline. I don´t play a strategy games because they are less and less about strategy, but RT2 was so cool that I was playing it for many many hours.
So, that is my Top 10 list... I warn that I didn´t played a lot of classics like System Shock, Deus Ex, Planescape: Torment, so they logically can´t be taken into my account.