Help me pick the next games I'm going to play!

[FKSSR]

***If anyone knows how to do tags on this board (if there are any), please let me know, as it will help make this thread more manageable.

Basically, 2012 is the year of the backlog for me. I'm going to be playing as many games as possible to clear out a huge list of games that I never got to for one reason or another (or haven't played in a very long time and want to go back to).

So, I figured it would be fun to ask you guys to help me pick the next games I'm going to play. I also started a website (ingamestories.com) in which I write about a lot of the games I play, so you are also helping me pick some future posts.

Right now, I'm playing Mass Effect 3. After that, I'm definitely going to play Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. However, after Brotherhood, I'm going to use this thread to inform the order I'm going to start playing games.

So, here's how it works...

• To make things easier, I'm going to list a small-ish number of games for people to choose from (games I'm most interested in playing soon).
• I will also post a larger list in spoiler tags in case people want to look through that...if you want more options.
• These are for single-player experiences. Even if the games have a multi-player portion, I am only playing through the single-player portion as far as this thread goes.
• NO SPOILERS, PLEASE! Please do not give any spoilers for games on this list, since I obviously haven't played any of the games (or barely remember playing them before).
• People can give up to five games in their reply (i.e. just giving 1 game in your reply is fine, but I welcome lists of up to 5)
• I will be assigning a point value to your lists. The first game in the list will be worth 10 points. The second will be worth 7 points. The third is 5, Fourth is 3, and Fifth is 1 point.
• If you only give 1 game, it will be 10 points - since I will treat that as your "first" pick.
• If you suggest a game not on this list, it will be given the score two below where it is on your list (minimum of 1 point). So, if it is 1st on your list, it will only get 5 points. I'm not guaranteeing I'll play any games not on my list, though! ;)

I WELCOME ANY FEEDBACK!!! Please share if you want to help me tweak my system or give me feedback on certain games or how to play them (i.e. MODs or where to put skill points, etc. - NO SPOILERS).

Also, If you have any questions, please ask, but I'll put some FAQs here:

• Please don't tell me to take games off my list. I put them on there for specific reasons.
• It's tragic that I've never played through some of the games on this list. I know that. That's why I'm trying to go through them now!
• I have played some of these games before, such as Baldur's Gate. However, if they are listed here, it's because I want to revisit them - usually to play sequels I never got to...like Baldur's Gate 2.
• In most cases, if there is a sequel, you can assume I will play the sequel down the line. So, when you see Crysis, you don't have to say, "Play Crysis 2!" I will play Crysis first and then move to the sequel.
• Some of the games are small and/or indie games. I'm not separating those, because I want to play those just as much as bigger games.
• I could have done a poll in this thread, but I want to get actual replies instead of people just ticking something in a poll. Hopefully, I'll get replies with multiple games listed as well so my point system is being used! :D

Here's the short list of games I want to play most:
Alan Wake
Alpha Protocol
Baldur's Gate (replay series)
Braid
Crysis
Darksiders
Deathspank
Fallout: New Vegas
Grim Fandango
Hard Reset (Extended)
Jade Empire
Just Cause
L.A. Noire
Saints Row: The Third
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Torchlight
Total War: SHOGUN 2
X-Com: UFO Defense

I'm going to keep this thread open for as long as anyone is interested in voting and just updating the main thread with games I finish (maybe how long they took me to "complete") and the games that are up next. Since I'll never get through every game, there will always be an opportunity for people to help me order my backlog.

I will post the final results and update the thread as I play through some of the games. Once I finish a game, I'll just take it off the list and play the next game with the highest point value from the votes.

*Also, I'm not 100% committing to the results, though I will be referring to it the most when playing through my backlog. If a newer game comes out, it will take precedence. Or if I want to squeeze a short game in, I will just go ahead and do that. Or if I play a game and want to play the sequel(s) right away, I will sneak those in.

THANK YOU!!!


Here's the LONG list:
007 Quantum of Solace
A.R.E.S.: Extinction Agenda
AaAaAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity
AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! for the Awesome
Alan Wake
Alpha Protocol
Anachronox
And Yet It Moves
Anomaly: Warzone Earth
ANOTHER WORLD: 15TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
AQUANOX
Aquaria
ARCANUM: OF STEAMWORKS AND MAGICK OBSCURA
ARX FATALIS
Atom Zombie Smasher
Avadon: The Black Fortress
Aztaka
BALDUR'S GATE: THE ORIGINAL SAGA
BENEATH A STEEL SKY
BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR PACK
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Bionic Commando: Rearmed
BIT.TRIP BEAT
Blocks That Matter
Blueberry Garden
Bob Came in Pieces
Braid
Breath of Death VII
BROKEN SWORD: DIRECTOR'S CUT + THE ORIGINAL GAME
Bulletstorm
Cave Story+
CELTIC KINGS: RAGE OF WAR
Costume Quest
CRUSADER: NO REMORSE
Crysis
Cthulhu Saves the World
Darksiders
Darkstar One
Darwinia
DeathSpank
DEFCON
Diamond Dan
Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time
DRAGONSPHERE
Dungeon Siege
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: DRAGONSHARD
Dungeons of Dredmor
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
Eets
Eufloria
FALLOUT TACTICS
Fallout: New Vegas
Fatale
Fate of the World: Steam Special Edition
Flotilla
FORGOTTEN REALMS: DEMON STONE
Fortix 2
Freedom Force
FREESPACE + EXPANSION
From Dust
Frozen Synapse
Full Throttle
Gemini Rue
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
Gish
GOTHIC
Gratuitous Space Battles
Greed Corp
Grim Fandango
Guardians of Graxia
Gumboy - Crazy Adventures
Guns of Icarus
Hacker Evolution
Hamilton's Great Adventure
Hammerfight
Hard Reset
Hinterland
HOARD
Hydrophobia: Prophecy
ICEWIND DALE COMPLETE
INDEPENDENCE WAR DELUXE
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
inMomentum
INTERSTATE ’76 ARSENAL, THE
Iron Grip: Warlord
Jade Empire
JAGGED ALLIANCE: DEADLY GAMES
Jamestown
JOURNEYMAN PROJECT 2, THE
Just Cause
King Arthur - The Role-playing Wargame
King's Bounty: The Legend
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
L.A. Noire
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
LITTLE BIG ADVENTURE (RELENTLESS: TWINSEN'S ADVENTURE)
LOOM
Lugaru HD
Mafia II
Magicka
Max and the Magic Marker
MDK
Mount and Blade
Mr. Robot
NEVERWINTER NIGHTS: DIAMOND EDITION
NightSky
Nimbus
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness
Orcs Must Die!
OUTCAST
Painkiller
Plain Sight
POLICE QUEST 1+2+3+4
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Puzzle Bots
Rag Doll Kung Fu
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
Renegade Ops
Revenge of the Titans
RoboBlitz
Rock of Ages
RUSH
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Saints Row The Third
Saira
Sanctum
SANITARIUM
Sequence
Shadowgrounds
SHATTERED STEEL
SIMON THE SORCERER
Solar 2
Space Channel 5: Part 2
Space Pirates and Zombies
SPACE QUEST
SpaceChem
Splinter Cell
Stacking
Star Trek Away Team
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
STAR WOLVES
Stranglehold
STRONGHOLD
Super Meat Boy
Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection
Syberia
System Protocol One
TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL EVIL, THE
Terraria
TEX MURPHY
The Ball
The Binding of Isaac
The Dig
The Graveyard
The Maw
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
The Path
The Tiny Bang Story
The UnderGarden
The Wonderful End of the World
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Time Gentlemen, Please! and Ben There, Dan That! Double Pack
Tomb Raider Anniversary
Torchlight
Total War: SHOGUN 2
Trauma
Twin Sector
Uplink
Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption
VVVVVV
Warcraft
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine
Windosill
WING COMMANDER
X-COM: UFO Defense
XIII
Your Doodles are Bugged!
Zombie Shooter

[Internetlad]

THINGS I KNOW BECAUSE I PLAYED THE GAMES.

Skip Just Cause 1 altogether, and check out 2. there's little if any continuity that matters between the two besides "Rico is an anti-government agent and these are his freinds". The second game is superior in almost every regard, graphics, gameplay, explosions, vehicles and mission variety (the variety is still mediocre at best.) IIRC JC2 can be had for 5 bucks or so, can't remember if that was a sale price. for the cheapo price you pay, it's worth it for hours and hours of explosions and grappling from helicopters.

If you're patient, and i mean like grindingly slow gameplay patient, X-com is still a fantastic game. I devoted some time back when i had no internets to it. It must have blown the pants off people for it's day.

Crysis is worth one (1) playthrough, mostly for the eye candy and random funny stuff (I always start the game by throwing a washing machine at a korean soldier in Strength mode.) An alternative i'd suggest to this would be Far Cry 2. Same basic idea (sneaky jungle warfare) but with an open world, more easter eggs and stuff to find, and the fire physics thing is pretty cool too.

I found thief to be somewhat entertaining, but not so much to hold my attention for long. It's basically Skyrim played as a sneaky character.

If you liked Fallout 3, you'll like new vegas, end of story. They're pretty much the same game in different places.

Space quest was okay, the ones with GUI were my favorite, I prefer point and click to trying to figure out how to TYPE to TELL him to TAKE GUN FROM SHELF *Cannot take shelf* etc.


If i can throw some personal favorites at you, i'd suggest checking out Nuclear Dawn (MP only, but still look it up) and Civ V (the AI can be retarded at times, but overall plays a solid game.) Both can be had for about 20 bucks, i believe. (40 for the GOTY of civ V IIRC.)

Also, if you have a gamecube/wii lying around with a controller, do yourself a favour. FIND A COPY OF KILLER7. It's a fantastic mindbending game. I've played it 3 times now and i still don't understand the plot fully (in a good way)


THINGS I'VE HEARD ABOUT BUT DO NOT KNOW FIRST HAND:

Avoid alan wake, at least on PC. The camera is clunky and the battery system for your flashlight punishes you for exploring.

Hard Reset is a pretty good game.

[IvanIvanovich]

Alan Wake
ARX FATALIS
BENEATH A STEEL SKY
Bulletstorm
Crysis
Dungeon Siege
E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy
Fallout: New Vegas
Freedom Force (vs the Third Reich)
Gemini Rue
Grim Fandango
Hard Reset
JOURNEYMAN PROJECT 2
Just Cause (2)
Mafia II
MDK
Painkiller
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
SANITARIUM
SPACE QUEST
Splinter Cell
Syberia
TEX MURPHY
The Path
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption
XIII

Some of those games, I don't know, so I just removed them from the list. Others were removed because I did not like them at all. What's left is games I played and liked. I'd also like to highly recommend something that's not on your list, if you haven't played it you should check out Singularity. There are way too many to comment on what I liked, disliked and why... and I am feeling pretty lazy today.

[chel-]

I just finished playing Shogun 2 (and by finished I mean playing for a week and got bored). Its definitely a fun game with quite a bit of replay but if your not playing online there's not much to do. Have you played Deus Ex? If not you should consider it. The graphics are crap because its so old but still a great game imo.

[Nighted]

Splinter Cell Conviction: By far the best of the series, because of the new movement system, gorgeous animation, and the Deniable Ops missions, I have to put it ahead of the incredible Chaos Theory. Play this first and you will HATE 007 Quantum of Solace because you will wish for the fluidity of motion and freedom that makes Conviction feel so natural like you are in the game.

Limbo: Definitely add this to the top of your list. (will take you about a day to complete, totally worth it)

Gatling Gears: Friggin' awesome shooter.

Syndicate: Damn slick looking shooter based in the SNES/Genesis classic. Really cool concept of "hacking" enemies and the environment. Really sweet guns.

Atom Zombie Smasher & The Binding of Isaac: Avoid these pieces of shit!!!
If you want a great indie game with a loyal and growing fan base, try UnEpic! Good times! Plus you'll like the numerous references to pop sci-fi culture.

Alan Wake is excellent but I suggest you take your sweet time and savour it on the first run as this game is basically a one time run and I doubt you'll want to pick it up and play again anytime soon unless you decide to punish yourself on Nightmare mode. There have been a few updates on the PC, so most glitches mentioned have been fixed.

[Internetlad]

Oh, wow, how did i miss stalker. Get all three. They're all fatally flawed in some way, but that only seems to increase their charm.

EDIT: also repetative ****ty pretend russian accents.

Walk up to somebody and they constantly say EYE-M LEEZENEEGN! (I'm listening!)

[Nighted]

Walk up to somebody and they constantly say EYE-M LEEZENEEGN! (I'm listening!)

In Russia when you answer the phone, you don't say hello, you say "I am listening" but in Russian, not English.

[FKSSR]

Skip Just Cause 1 altogether, and check out 2. there's little if any continuity that matters between the two besides "Rico is an anti-government agent and these are his freinds". The second game is superior in almost every regard, graphics, gameplay, explosions, vehicles and mission variety (the variety is still mediocre at best.) IIRC JC2 can be had for 5 bucks or so, can't remember if that was a sale price. for the cheapo price you pay, it's worth it for hours and hours of explosions and grappling from helicopters.
...
If i can throw some personal favorites at you, i'd suggest checking out Nuclear Dawn (MP only, but still look it up) and Civ V (the AI can be retarded at times, but overall plays a solid game.) Both can be had for about 20 bucks, i believe. (40 for the GOTY of civ V IIRC.)

Also, if you have a gamecube/wii lying around with a controller, do yourself a favour. FIND A COPY OF KILLER7. It's a fantastic mindbending game. I've played it 3 times now and i still don't understand the plot fully (in a good way)

I've been hearing to skip Just Cause 1 and just go to the second, so I'll probably end up doing that.
I play Nuclear Dawn at least twice a week with a group. It's my favorite MP game right now!!
I played through Civ V once, and I do plan on going back through it, but I didn't want to put it on here, since I did technically play through it once.

I heard about KILLER7 a while back, and I do really want to play it. I have both a GameCube and Wii in my house.

I'd also like to highly recommend something that's not on your list, if you haven't played it you should check out Singularity. There are way too many to comment on what I liked, disliked and why... and I am feeling pretty lazy today.

That's actually on my Amazon "Wishlist" to buy at some point. It has been pushed down my list a lot, as well, so much that I haven't even purchased it yet. However, I'm putting it on the list.

Have you played Deus Ex? If not you should consider it. The graphics are crap because its so old but still a great game imo.

Yep! I've played all 3 and personally like all of them, though I like the heavy RPG/choice system of the first one the best, still.

Splinter Cell Conviction: By far the best of the series, because of the new movement system, gorgeous animation, and the Deniable Ops missions, I have to put it ahead of the incredible Chaos Theory. Play this first and you will HATE 007 Quantum of Solace because you will wish for the fluidity of motion and freedom that makes Conviction feel so natural like you are in the game.

Limbo: Definitely add this to the top of your list. (will take you about a day to complete, totally worth it)

Gatling Gears: Friggin' awesome shooter.

Syndicate: Damn slick looking shooter based in the SNES/Genesis classic. Really cool concept of "hacking" enemies and the environment. Really sweet guns.

Atom Zombie Smasher & The Binding of Isaac: Avoid these pieces of shit!!!
If you want a great indie game with a loyal and growing fan base, try UnEpic! Good times! Plus you'll like the numerous references to pop sci-fi culture.

I'm not sure I can skip straight to Splinter Cell Conviction without playing the others, because I'm just a story junkie, but I'll at least count your vote for the Splinter Cell series.
I played through LIMBO last year. Great game!
Never heard of Gatling Gears or UnEpic. I'll look them up!!
I added Syndicate to the list since someone else mentioned that one as well, and I have been wanting to buy it to play it.

[FKSSR]

Thanks for all of the responses! Please keep it up!!

I'm going to keep this thread open for as long as anyone is interested in voting and just updating the main thread with games I finish (maybe how long they took me to "complete") and the games that are up next. Since I'll never get through every game, there will always be an opportunity for people to help me order my backlog.

I will post the final results and update the thread as I play through some of the games. Once I finish a game, I'll just take it off the list and play the next game with the highest point value from the votes.

[Internetlad]

In Russia when you answer the phone, you don't say hello, you say "I am listening" but in Russian, not English.

I'll add that on my list of "things to do when i'm a spy pretending to be european"

Actually the only two things now on my list are that and "count on fingers starting with thumb"

On topic, Are we mainly looking for large, arching stories that take weeks to complete, or just little **** to piss away time, because i've got some suggestions (off list) for the latter, mostly indie or older crap.

[FKSSR]

Anything. On my "long list," I have indie titles, AAA titles, 80-100 hour titles, et cetera. So, suggest anything.

[Glukos]

The longest journey
Super Meat Boy

[IvanIvanovich]

Bad Russian pretend accents in STALKER bother you? Play the Russian version then! I have Russian version of the first 2 in the series as they were available much earlier. If you don't understand Russian there is a work around to use the English subtitle and mission texts with Russian voices. Probably much better this way really.

[Internetlad]

They don't "Bother" me , per se, I just find them unintentionally hilarious sometimes. Often they're okay but when they're repeated seventy times in a row it gets old quick lol

[FKSSR]

The longest journey
Super Meat Boy

I love The Longest Journey & Dreamfall! I need to replay them with my wife sometime, though, because she's never played through them.

I'll put a vote in for Super Meat Boy!

[davkol]

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[Glukos]

You can check "psychonauts" as well

[FKSSR]

NetHack ~,^

Adding to the list!

You can check "psychonauts" as well

Played that one a while back. Great game!

[modulor]

Games on your list i love (and you need to play):
Another World (also check out Flashback: http://cyxdown.free.fr/reminiscence/ )
Braid
Frozen Synapse
Grim Fandango
Jamestown
MDK 1&2
Mount & Blade series
S.T.A.L.K.E.R series
KOTOR
Stronghold
Super Meat Boy
Torchlight
VVVVVV
X-Com: UFO Defense

[audioave10]

I didn't notice F.E.A.R. (a pure PC game) or FEAR 2 on your list but they are good shooters if you like FPS.
The STALKER series has a HUGE mod community behind it and I don't have problems with those games...but they take a lttle more learning than some.
I also vote Just Cause 2 because its a huge sandbox to play in.

[FKSSR]

I didn't notice F.E.A.R. (a pure PC game) or FEAR 2 on your list but they are good shooters if you like FPS.

I'm not usually a fan of "scary games" which is why I also don't have Dead Space on there. However, I'll look more into them. Thanks!

[keyboardlover]

I personally thought the fear games were excellent.

[scrubadub]

I just finished Fallout: New Vegas along with all 4 DLC. At times it was great, other times not so much.

I need to finish Bastion, but I just loaded up Homeworld 1 which I've been looking forward to for some time. I heard Journey on the PS3 is great too if you have a console.

[davkol]

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