2018-09-05 Pick Five Video Games

This is a companion piece to Pick Five RPG Games. *#Pick5Games* is this: “If you had to recommend someone play 5 games to really get a feel for you/your tastes, what five would you pick?”

Pick Five RPG Games

• *Mass Effect* – I finished all three games in the series. Given how few games I actually finish, this is surely a measure of success.
• *Soul Calibur II* – I think this one was the best of them all. The earlier one was clunky and the later ones are too sexualized. The women look younger and younger, the boobs look bouncier and bouncier... I don’t like that. Zeno and I played this for hours, always ending with me playing Mitsurugi and him playing the guy with the *bo* stick. Best beat-em-up game. Not too hard to learn but still fun.
• *Burnout: Takedown* – I liked it better than the sequel (”Revenge”) and again, Zeno and I played this for hours. This was the best racer.
• *Skyrim* – I’ve played this for many hours. My orc specializing in making my own enchanted weapons and armour was the best. And I finished the main quest, too. This is rare! And I still like playing it. It was much better than the previous one in the series: Oblivion got on my nerves because I was playing a bad combo (archer wood elf) and when I gained a level, everybody else kept getting stronger and stronger, and so one of the last things I did was disturb a troll at the bottom of the dungeon, then running all the way up and out onto the street until I met a guard who then proceeded to kill the troll for me. That’s when I decided that there really was no point.
• *Ultima IV* – I’ve recently tried playing it again and it wasn’t as interesting as I remember it being back when I was fourteen. This was the best! Sadly, I never got the answers right at the bottom of the last dungeon (or mistyped them?) and then I decided I was done trying. I also played Ultima V for the longest time and don’t remember why I didn’t finish. I did finish Ultima VI. But really, IV was the one that showed me how great this game could be.

I spent way too much time on this silly meme! I removed *Final Fantasy Tactics* and *Vagrant Story* because *Skyrim* and *Ultima IV* were stronger influences on me. FFT reminds me: I also didn’t mention *Advance Wars* although I liked that *a lot*. Oh well.

As for racing games, I guess I also liked *Project Gotham Racing*. I never played any of the follow ups.

I really liked *Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 + 2*. Perhaps I should have put these in place of Ultima VI. Those first person shooters that moved slowly, where patience is valuable, where the number of enemies is fixed and picking them off one by one actually works. Those were good games!

I sort of liked the authentic feel of *Medal of Honor: Frontline*. I didn’t play any other game in the series. I remember seeing movies about World War II and finding scenes eerily similar to the game. That was well done. But the entire concept of endless waves of enemies is so *stupid*. That always annoys me. Same for *Call of Duty8.*

​#Games