I wrote this a while back, but never actually posted it… here goes nothing.
Keep in mind, it’s an old list. If I did it today, BAM VR would definitely be there-- it’s absolutely exceptional as an online shooter.
POST:
Not too many threads on Chrono, sadly, so even if I’m late… might as well drop something.
Now, I’m going to sound like a broken record here, because a lot of these were listed last time I was trusted with a “Top 1 Underrated” list (falsely placed trust, as I put down at least five -_-).
That said… Psychonauts. Just… Psychonauts. Pretty much everything I said that was positive about Grim Fandango, minus some of the more frustrating puzzles (looking at you, Rubacava Cat-racers), and add some very solid platforming with impressive physics tech. It’s such a hidden gem, that enough people told their friends about it to make it… an unhidden gem.
Hard to call close favorites, but Killing Floor 2 comes pretty close. I don’t feel great about putting such a new game here, but after >100 hrs I think I can safely say it’s awesome in every way. Way better mod support (audio and material crashing needs to be fixed though), more satisfying gunplay, streamlined gameplay without losing the original idea, awesome use of lighting tech for a mechanical purpose in-game, impressive visuals, it basically takes KF1’s shortcomings and turns them into the strong points. There’s very little I can knock it for, except kf_blackforest. !@$% that map.
Quake Live is also worth mentioning here, with a MASSIVE asterisk. I have a lot of nostalgia for it-- as my first Quake MP game (ET QW for Xbox doesn’t really count and I didn’t play Q4 PvP), I played it because there was nothing else to play on an already-slow Vista laptop that SecuROM tore to shreds. I got my ass handed to me. I wore my participation award with pride. I passed every single lowest-rank test with flying gibs. AND IT WAS GREAT. I do like the Steam version, and while player count is low, there’s enough to play.
Burnout 3: Revenge and Takedown both score equally, the original Xbox versions that is (never played the 360 port of Revenge but it seems alright judging by the demo). When I was younger I played a fair amount of NFS3 on my dad’s PC, but that poor game didn’t stand a chance against the absolute sensory assault that Burnout had. Everything was extremely fast, cars were everywhere to take you out (or in the latter, BE taken out), and every second felt like it actually counted. Taking a step back from cars, SSX Tricky and 3 need a remaster ASAP. They put Steep to shame, not because Steep is bad, but because the peak of the mountain has already been reached. 3 was especially fun with the kind of open-worldy singleplayer campaign, like SkiFree with more stuff to do and without the barbaric yeti-monster.
Metroid Prime 3 is also an old favorite, and I might buy a Wii-U just so I can play the entire trilogy at some point. There’s little I can really describe MP3 as, just the perfect Metroidvania with excellent pacing and level design that nails the balance between simple and overwhelming. If you have the old Wii lying around, maybe even a Wii-U that you regret buying, go get the Trilogy as soon as you can find it for a sub-$100 price.
Rollercoaster Tycoon is probably the only other thing I can undisputably put down on this list. It’s the perfect sim game, the undisputed crown. As a theme park builder, it has well-aged isometric visuals, plays nice with modern Windows (most of the time), and offers a ridiculous amount of content. Take it from me, I’ve been playing it for at least 14 years now. It really is perfect, and I never even played half the scenarios. I just kept replaying Forest Frontiers and seeing how ridiculous I could get.
Oh, and Halo 2/3. Of course those belong here, they’re perfect in every way. Go buy the MCC for Xbox One, it really does the originals justice. Stay away from the crappy new control scheme, play with the original setups and press the Back button to get the real audio/visuals back. My sole complaint with MCC is some of the new art direction, especially the perfect energy sword sound being replaced, but this can be fixed at the flip of a button.
One last entry that I almost forgot to put down: Gears of War 3. Really, it should be 2, but 3 knocked it so far out of the park that I can’t even play the older ones anymore. It gets a lot of flack as a third person cover-based shooter because so many people tried to copy its one-touch cover mechanics (usually with a clunky mess of unintuitive animation locks and crappy feeling), but GoW 1 had a great concept and 2 got it right. GoW 3 is a genuine step up in every sense of the word, it feels way more refined than the others in every field I can think of. The combat is perfectly paced, movement feels smoother, the level design is worthy of the Epic Games label, Horde 2.0 is absolutely insane, and… yeah, I’ll stop now.
Now, I’m really tired of textwalling here, so I’m going to go ahead and just namedrop a crapload of great ones you should all play at some point if possible:
- FEAR
- SSX Tricky
- Zelda N64 (either one’s great)
- Rogue Trooper
- Star Wars: Dark Forces: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (consistently awesome games, horribly inconsistent subheaders
) - Alan Wake/Max Payne 1
- OpenXcom (X-COM UFO Defense modded for native Windows 7+ support and streamlined)
- XCOM Enemy Unknown (my first X-COM game and a split tie for my favorite with the original)
- Prison Architect (still my favorite modern builder, though RimWorld may be tough competition)
Sorry most of these are console games, but SecuROM really ruined everything a decade ago.
