Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Favorite videos games of all time: 60-51

By Jeff

I'm rolling. I can't wait a day to post the next set. It's just too much fun and brings back so many memories!

You can find 100-91 here, 90-81 here,  80-71 here and 70-61 here.

60: NBA Jam (SNES, Sega Genesis) - My brother hated playing this game with me because I knew how to do a hard foul that was not called and allowed me to steal the ball from him constantly. I can still remember the pure joy I felt every time the announcer would tell me I was on fire and couldn't miss a shot. And on the flip side, the utter dread when your opponent would catch fire.

59: NHL 09 (PS3, Xbox 360) - I have mixed feeling regarding this game. I was used to the early EA Sports NHL games that all had certain tricks you could do to guarantee a goal. Sure, it wasn't competitive, but it made me feel good when my created players would put up 150 goals per season. Then I played "NHL 09". It is arguably the best sports game ever made, but I found myself losing more often than ever before. There were no tricks! I couldn't score at will if the situation called for it. The replay value was great, but my self esteem took quite a hit.

58: Batman: Arkum Asylum (PS3, Xbox 360) - This is modern gaming at its finest. The voice acting, the gameplay, story and fun factor are top notch in this adaptation of the caped crusader. The free fighting style, mixed with the cool gadgets you would expect from Batman make for a diverse combat system.

My favorite part is the progression of the game. You begin being able to go in to any fight and just defeat any of the thugs with brute force and button mashing. But soon enough, the bad guys have guns. This makes charging into a throng of evil doers with nothing but your fists and a batarang a suicide mission. You have to find stealthy ways to take out the enemies or risk being shot and dying very quickly.

57: BattleTanx: Global Assault (N64) - My friends and I would spend hours rocking this game in my parents basement. With a dozen or so tank options and another dozen supplement weapons, this game just allowed us to cause all kinds of mayhem.

There are definitely games ranked lower than this game that are better, like the one directly before it. But you have to understand that this game marked a change in my life.

My brother and I really didn't get along as kids. We hated each other. We fought non-stop. But one Christmas we got this game. We found that it was two-player and came together to conquer it. I honestly was the moment we stopped hating each other. Quite a feat for a video game to accomplish.

56: Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2) - While "GTA 2" is a good game, it has terrible graphics and doesn't have the popularity that "GTA 3" brought to the franchise. "GTA 3" propelled RockStar to near the top of the gaming world. You can follow the story to the letter, or you can just roam the streets of Liberty City looking for trouble. How much fun is it to get your wanted level maxed out and see how long you can last against the army?

While the over the top violence is a turn off to some, it will go down as one of the most revolutionary games of all time.

55: Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis) - Remember the cartoon show based on this game? And the episode they stole Sonic's shoes so he couldn't run fast? I'm embarrassed that I do.

In all seriousness, this game carried Sega for a long time. The levels were so large at the time and the detail was incredible. Adding characters like Tails was stupid, but we'll always have the original.

54: Sim City 2000 (PC) - The power of a god! You build a city to greatness, watch it flourish, and then, when you get bored of your creation, you can set every natural disaster known to man and a monster upon your city to bring it to fiery ruin.

53: Killzone 2 (PS3) - Fun weapons? Check. Excellent gameplay? Check. Cool story? Check. Improves greatly upon original? Check. Scary bad guys? Definitely.

52: Left 4 Dead (Xbox 360) - While you could charge a lot of bad guys by yourself in other first person shooters like "Halo", "KillZone", ect, you could not go off on your own in "Left 4 Dead". Doing so would guarantee death and failure because special zombies would incapacitate you and require your teammates to save you. And don't just give up on your teammate who is probably going to die. You need all the help you can get in order to complete each level. One less player and you have one less person to count on when a wave of zombies strikes.

Finally, a game that revolves around teamwork!

And who could forget the sheer terror when you encounter your first tank? In case you don't know what I'm talking about, a tank is a super large zombie that takes a ton of hits and can kill you party in moments. It always seems to come when you can least afford it.

51: Tomb Raider (PS1) - Just don't watch the movies. Then you might take it out on this great game, and that's not fair!


No comments:

Post a Comment