I read a lot! Like all the time, I always have a book on the go. However I very rarely read a book more than once. Only those that I truly love have I gone back to enjoy for a second time. Master and Commander, Northern Lights, Pride and Prejudice, these great novels I have... what was that? Yes, of course Pride and Predjudice, it is a amazing so shut up! These greats I have read many times. It is the same with games, only those I truly love will I give a second run through and those rare treasures are below. I may have mentioned them once or twice in the past.
5. Freelancer.
I don't know what it is about freelancer. Jennifer Hale helps, but otherwise the story is fairly standard sci-fi, the combat most simplistic and arcadey, the world open but ultimately empty. Something keeps pulling me back though. Once you have completed the story you are free to roam at will but other than the collection of more and more wealth there is little to do. Pretty soon the waffer thin effect of a living world crumbles away. Despite it all though, it just works. It is accessible and enjoyable and you are given the opportunities to do what you want! Every time I play as a smuggler, dodging police patrols to supply drugs to the wealthy youth in liberty space. I think I like the game because I can make that choice, and actually succeed. I have played X3, but I would never survive as a pirate or smuggler in that game, it is just too vast needing such an investment of time that it intimidates me. But with Freelancer I know I can sit down and enjoy it right from the first flash of laser fire, and have fun.
4 X-Com Apocalypse
I have discussed this game on this site before but I just love it! I know it isn't the best in the series and I know there are elements left unfinished and promises unfulfilled. I even know that most die hard X-Com fans think the real time mode took too much development time away from the turn based mode, leaving the latter too easy and unfulfilled. But I can't help but love it! The cityscape just feels more alive than the geoscape of the first two games. The interface, while still not great, is a little cleaner and easier to use. The political element of the game, while not deep, adds more layers of interest - wayward shots while attacking UFOs can cause no end of trouble. It is the first X-Com game I played and I will never forget the terror I felt when I first heard the sound of a Devastator Cannon.
3. Knights of the Old Republic
This one explains itself surely? I am not a fan of the Star Wars movies, even the originals. The new trilogy was criticised for bad writing, bad characters, bad direction, bad acting and so on. Yet these are all features of the original trilogy but they seemed to be judged by a different standard. I love the Ewoks like everyone else but... when you think about it... really? So when this game came out I was interested, but not overly excited by it. I now own the game three times (it used to be four) and have completed it in on two different platforms. I know every side quest, every loot chest, every weakness of every enemy and I still really love it. The story is was makes it work and the characters are varied and interesting to talk to. The moral choices, while unrealistic with a linear good or bad outcome, sits well in the dark side/light side moral conflict of the Star Wars universe. The locations are new, but pleasingly familiar and recognisable as part of the extended lore. And you get to make your own light saber!
2. Mass Effect
In my view Mass Effect was groundbreaking. The RPG genre had often provide engaging and epic stories with sometime nuanced and engaging characters but Bioware added a whole new level of grandeur with Mass Effect. The pace, story telling and animation gave it a film like quality full of huge spectacle and quiet moments of emotion. The change from silent protagonist, whose dialogue you choose from full sentences but never heard, to a wheel with simple phrases was a big one. It probably divides opinion and could sometimes frustrate when the words used to describe the next lines of dialogue did not quite match the resulting speech or actions. For me however, it was a massive step forward. It moves the pace of the exposition quickly meaning each line flowed into the next one and made the dialogue feel like a conversation rather than disjointed statement and response. Okay, the combat wasn't incredible but it was better than a lot of people give it credit for and did give some diversity to the different classes. And yes the exploratory elements of the game were fairly superficial. But the whole game made me feel incredible, it made me feel like my character really was saving the galaxy and there truly were some memorable and emotional moments. Sometimes when I read a really good book I can't settle into another one for a few weeks as I can't think of anything but the story I have just been told. Mass Effect is one of only two games that has ever had that effect on me. Once I had finished I could not play another game for three weeks because, well, it just wasn't Mass Effect.
Nearly there!
Before I get onto the number one spot these are some other games that I love, but just didn't quite make it to the top five of my list.
- To the Moon - Oh it made me cry, like a baby, for a full twenty minutes. More of an interactive story than a game but definitely worth anyone's time for its clever story and the maturity used to tell it
- Freespace 1 and 2 - Few space sims come close to these two. I will never forget watching two capital ships beat the crap out of each other as I flew by.
- Bastion - So, very, beautiful. It is the music that does it, oh and the narration, and the game play is pretty good too. Look its basically just fucking fantastic.
- Darwinia - Quirky, different and fundamentally British. I doubt we would see another game like it (shhh Multiwinia never happened okay! No-one needs to know)
- Sid Meier's Pirates! - I'm a huge fan of sailing and any game set in that era, the pinnacle of sailing, gets my vote. Also it is just bloody fun.
But, in the end, the winner is....
1. Beyond Good and Evil
Some may see this as a odd choice, but they have probably never played it. The combat is simplistic, the stealth merely a timing puzzle and the story easy to predict and a touch cliche. What makes it great, in my opinion anyway, is the charm it injects into it's world. The characters, the environment, the photography all give the game a sense of warmth. To make money, which is a method of limiting progression to the required pace, you are tasked with taking pictures of the local wildlife. It creates, if you are a completionist like me, a frantic moment at the beginning of combat where you struggle to get the giant worm thing into shot for that perfect picture before you start bashing it to death. And the wildlife you do find is designed with imagination and is wonderful to explore. The game follows the story of Jade, an investigative journalist as she tries to expose a government conspiracy. You will sneak through facilities, race hover boats, fight aliens. What more could you want? It can be twee at times, but its humour, sweetness and sometimes dark twists make for a fun game. And fun is all I want. Is it the best game ever? No. But my favourite anyway. 
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