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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 1 year

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About Me: Favorite Video Games

So you may not know this, but I’m a gamer. Shocking, right? Who’d ever have guessed it? But to be totally fair here, I rarely talk about video games on Tumblr. I talk about movies, and there have been a handful of times where I reviewed video games, but I focused more on the story, characters, and all that then I did on whether or not the gameplay was good. In my earliest days, before I found my niche, I talked about games a fair deal, but that fell by the wayside so I could focus on films (my true passion).

So hey, look at this! You’re all going to get to see what my favorite video games are now! Remember, everything here is just my personal opinions; I'm not trying to give actual reviews of each of these games in a couple of sentences or trying to sell you on them, I'm talking about the stuff in them that makes me love them. All of this is my subjective opinion, and I'm not asking you to agree with me here, I'm just trying to talk about stuff that I love.

Oh, and here are some honorable mentions: Super Mario Bros. 3, Banjo-Kazooie (I still haven’t finished it and I don’t want to include games I haven’t played through), Kid Icarus: Uprising, Bayonetta 2, Injustice 2, BioShock, Doom Eternal, Super Metroid, Dragon Age II, God of War II, Castlevania: Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, The Wolf Among Us, The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando/Up Your Arsenal, and Heritage for the Future. Also a shout out to Tell Me Why and Life is Strange, games I watched my wife play and loved the story of but that I didn’t actually play myself; the former in particular has all sorts of elements I love in my stories.

Now, without further ado, here’s my top 50! Oh, and only the top 30 have pictures because there's image limits on posts! What a load of BS!

50. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Ok, maybe this game is lacking in a few areas at the expense of its massive customization system… but boy howdy what a system it is! I cannot tell you how much time I’ve sunk into decorating my island, reorganizing my villagers, and just making all sorts of weird themed areas. It’s a lot of fun, and I get to do all this work while hanging with a bunch of weird, cute animals.

49. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R

The original game was a lot of fun, but even I’ll admit it felt like it was missing something. That something was probably Foo Fighter, but guess what? She’s in the updated rerelease, along with aslew of other new characters like my favorite minor antagonist Mariah and the bane of Heritage for the Future players, Pet Shop! Add onto that a much better campaign mode with some fun little AU shenanigan matches and you have the most loving fighting game tribute to JJBA imaginable! Now if only they’d give Part 8 a little more love...

48. Batman: Arkham Origins

This is the redheaded stepchild of the Arkham series, and on some level I get why. It is very much aping City, right down to the map despite their being some expansions here and there, and the combat is much more of the same with little in the way of evolution, and don’t get me started on the fucking Joker showing up again. But this game also features some of the best bosses in the series such as Firefly and especially Deathstroke, a Bane who isn’t just a mindless mass of muscles like in the other games, and some interesting sidequests that make this early look at Batman’s superheroics a worthwhile entry in my eyes.

47. Miitopia

This is one of the easiest games out there, what with the autopilot combat and minimal difficulty (though there is a big spike late in the game). But the sheer vastness of the facial customization means that literally anyone from all of art or history can take part in a wacky, cliché RPG adventure. Hank Hill can fight the evil overlord Seth MacFarlane with a crew consisting of Chowder, Thor, and Japanese comedian/director/actor Beat Takeshi. If that’s not worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.

46. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

The DS is where Castlevania truly shined, and my favorite of all the handheld entries is this portrait-hopping journey to defeat a mad artist and his evil vampire children. The locations are pretty great, there’s tons of sidequests and alternate game modes (my favorite is the one where you play as the Old Axe Armor), and there’s an awesome brutal bonus dungeon where you get to fight the bosses from Dawn of Sorrow without the stupid drawing bullshit!

45. Maximo vs. Army of Zin

The original game was a fun, yet very flawed action platformer. This game veers more into the hack-and-slash genre to great effect; it’s not the deepest combat ever, but it’s a lot of fun, with much better platform, bosses, and story than the first game. There’s just something cool about a world that mixes Gothic horror, steampunk, and other fantasy elements together all in one place.

44. God Hand

This is one of the most deceptive games you’ll ever come across. On the surface, it might seem like an ugly beat-em-up, but it’s so much more than that. The bosses are brutal yet fantastic, the music is fucking incredible, and the humor is just the right level of absurd to be incredibly charming. It’s ball-bustingly difficult, but let me tell you, when you finally overcome a fight or a boss battle that’s been giving you trouble? It is literally the best feeling in the world.

43. South Park: The Stick of Truth

‘Member when South Park was funny? I ‘member. And The Stick of Truth really brings back all those memories because this is a hilarious and loving tribute to the series made with the help of Trey Parker and Matt Stone to deliver the playable South Park experience of your dreams. It’s gross, immature, raunchy, and funny, and best of all it doesn’t get too preachy or up its own ass with messages—no, it gets up Mr. Slave’s ass to defuse a bomb. Peak South Park right here, though the gameplay is kind of basic. It’s all carried by that stellar writing.

42. Crash Bandicoot: Twinsanity

This game mainly scores a spot on my list for being fucking hilarious. This is the funniest Crash Bandicoot ever got, with all sorts of wacky gags and clever dialogue. Cortex really is the MVP here, with the constant slapstick that befalls him combined with his snarky dialogue making him a standout. It’s a bummer so much was cut from the game, and it does feel a bit incomplete in some areas, but for what it is it’s a damn fun time.

41. Pokemon White/White 2

It was genuinely hard to pick a single game from the series to go on here considering how much I loved Gens III – V. Emerald perfected the generation I first got into the series, LeafGreen is the definitive Kanto experience to me, Platinum polished up Gen IV’s uneven debut and made it incredible, and SoulSilver is a fantastic remake of the first Pokemon game I ever played (Crystal). But I think I have to go with the Gen V games I played as my favorites. They’re fun and challenging, and while the first game has a ridiculously restrictive regional dex and the second has an overreliance on defunct wi-fi features, the fantastic story and fun new Pokemon make up for it. Can’t be too mad at the games that let me make trashy cult classic B-movies with my boy Garbodor, can I?

40. Batman: Arkham Knight

I put off playing this for years, because I wasn’t happy with some of the things I heard about it, such as a lack of traditional boss battles and an overreliance on the Batmobile. These are still problems, but not near as bad as I feared (obviously, since it’s on this list); everything about the gameplay is the series at its peak. The main story is a bit lacking and ends up being a tad too predictable for me to love it as much as the other entries in the series, but the fact it has Professor Pyg and Man-Bat really helps make up for its shortcomings.

39. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This game is just as silly and clunky as I imagined an older Bethesda game would be, but to my surprise I think it holds up incredibly well even compared to Skyrim. It’s a bit more complex in a lot of areas, but it’s not too daunting. What really strikes me is how this game actually has a really good story; it’s nothing groundbreaking, but when you look at how bad the Civil War plot in Skyrim was it feels like Shakespeare in comparison. Throw in a ton of unique sidequests with interesting plotlines, a gruesome Dark Brotherhood plot, an interesting villain, and Patrick Stewart for all of about five minutes, and I’d almost say I like this more than Skyrim. Almost.

38. Wolfenstein: The New Order

Sure, it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel when it comes to FPS games, but does it need to? All I want from a Wolfenstein game is a horde of Nazi motherfuckers to mow down, and guess what this game gives me? What really surprised me was how genuinely cool and likable BJ was. He might be one of my favorite heroes ever after this game. It’s a shame they couldn’t keep this level of polish up in the sequel.

37. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

In a lot of ways, this game is objectively worse than its predecessor. Like the story is ass for sure; I could not give less of a fuck about the Stormcloaks and the Imperials and their stupid civil war if I tried. But the vast world filled with things to do is so much fun to explore, and there’s all sorts of sidequests and shenanigans to get into. This game is pure, stupid fun, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve restarted it just to play as a different race or class. Maybe someday I’ll make it to the final boss. Maybe.

36. Psychonauts

The original Psychonauts is one of the last great platformers, and among them it’s a lot more unique than many of its peers as you’re platforming through the minds of all sorts of wacky characters to help them overcome their issues. Bouncing through the conspiracy theory-addled brain of a disturbed milkman or decimating a city kaiju style inside the mind of a hyper-intelligent mutant lungfish are the kind of off-the-wall ideas this game throws at you, and in my opinion the only thing that could hold it back is if it had a really janky final level that combines meat, circuses, escort missions, and an underwhelming final boss… Oops. Still a great game in my eyes, one that’s 95% perfect.

35. Final Fantasy VI

For a lot of people, this is the best Final Fantasy game, and I definitely see why. It has a truly massive playable roster of unique characters with their own special gimmicks (of which only a handful are actually useful, mind you) and one of the greatest video game villains ever conceived in the mad clown Kefka, plus it is so focused and tightly plotted for the first half of the game. I think that after Kefka takes over the story becomes a lot more aimless and unfocused, but that’s also where the game becomes a lot more fun and challenging too. It’s a bit uneven, but after how hard the opera house scene goes I think it’s allowed to trip a little bit.

34. Dragon Age: Origins

A lot more praise is thrown at this series’ sci-fi sibling Mass Effect, probably because that series is a lot more consistent with how good it is across the board (Andromeda notwithstanding), but I’m much more fond of fantasy settings myself and this game delivers a fantastic one in ways its sequels couldn’t quite manage. This is the only game in the series where I genuinely loved every single party member (especially Leliana) and actively tried to get them the happiest endings possible—yes, even the douchebag anti-villain who joins you if you play your cards right), and the plot is just the right level of epic fantasy cheese seasoned with some delicious side quests. If the dwarf plotline wasn’t such a slog and if Varric was in the game, this would be a lot higher on the list, but this game still holds a special place in my heart.

33. Batman: Arkham Asylum

Our first trip into the Asylum really did kill the notion that licensed games had to be the most obnoxious shovelware schlock imaginable by making a Batman game that actually makes you feel like Batman. Sure, the detective part is a bit minimal here compared to the sequels, but the combat is so fun and refreshing that I’m not too bothered by the lack of crime scene investigations. There’s a clear love for the entire mythos here, and best of all a clear love for the animated series—Hamill and Conroy reprise their roles as Joker and Batman respectively, and Arleen Sorkin gives Harley one last ride before her retirement. It’s a real love letter to the Dark Knight, and it spawned one of the most consistently good video game series around, so I’ll forgive it for having the lamest final boss I’ve ever fought just this once.

32. Kingdom Hearts

What I like about the original game is how it struck such a nice balance in its absurd premise, with it never feeling like the Final Fantasy or Disney elements are really overpowering each other. We have the grandiose, convoluted plots of the former and the magic, whimsy, and awesome villains of the latter combining together into one impressive package. Yeah, a lot of the level designs are dogshit (looking at you, Deep Jungle and Monstro), and some of the stunt casting is really bizarre (Lance Bass as Sephiroth?!) but overall this is a game way better than you’d think by hearing that it’s a game where Mickey Mouse and Cloud Strife exist side by side.

31. Super Mario 64

Mamma mia! It is genuinely impossible for me to not feel nostalgic for this game. So many 3D platformers that came out in its wake took what it did and polished it to absurd degrees, but there’s still something so special about diving back into one of the portraits in Peach’s castle and going through those levels again and again. The music and atmosphere of the game add onto it; every time I play it, I feel like a kid again. It’s just such a charming game.

30. MediEvil

If Tim Burton made a Gothic horror fantasy movie, I imagine it would be something like this game. It really uses the limitations of the PS1’s graphics to the fullest extent, with the jagged polygonal looks of the characters enhancing the experience, and it has such a crazy variety of levels and enemies, from a phantom pirate ship to a crystal cave with a dragon to a village of posessed villagers to an ant hill. Sir Daniel Fortesque is one of my favorite video game protagonists around because of his posthumous journey to live up to the legend fabricated around him.

29. God of War III

Every single one of these games just escalates from the previous one. Oh, you fight the hydra in the opening of the first game? How about you fight through Rhodes and then battle the animated colossus that once stood in its port in the second? And how do you top that for the third game? Beat the ever-loving shit out of Poseidon and gouge his eyes out from his POV. And this game only gets more brutal from there! Titans and gods all fall to Kratos in epic and gory boss battles, but honestly even without that I’d put the game on this list for the simple reason that you get to fucking murder Kevin Sorbo as Hercules.

28. EarthBound

Nintendo’s quirkiest RPG makes the cut, mostly on the basis of how weird and charming it is. At this point I’ve essentially memorized everything you need to do in this game, which is good because if it’s your first time you desperately need a guide or you’ll be fucked. There are points where things get a little too grindy (mostly for Poo’s weapons) but it’s genuinely a game whose charms outweigh any negatives there are. Plus, that final boss battle is something else entirely.

27. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Rebirth and all of its DLC updates took everything great about the original game and polished it into absolute perfection, with so many different item combos you could potentially get and so many bosses and endgames you could encounter. No two runs ever really feel the same, and it’s so satisfying to become so overpowered you nuke the screen every time you attack. The fact there’s a thriving modding community to continually generate new and crazier content also adds to why I have a ridiculous number of hours dumped into this game.

26. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

This is the first Resident Evil game I ever played and, wow, I sure was missing out all those years! This is one of the most tense survival horror experiences I’ve played through, with a creepy family of hillbilly horrors to avoid as I creep through their ramshackle domicile. It’s fun, creepy, and even a little campy, and it has raised my interest in the rest of the series. Hopefully the game with the giant vampire mommy will live up to how good this one is when I finally get around to playing it.

25. Portal 2

Yes, the puzzles are great, but this game really soars due to its writing. The first game was fun and all, but it was mostly just GLaDOS insulting you the whole time with Chell being an entirely silent protagonist. In this game, we get the lovable idiot Wheatley and the greatest mad scientist ever conceived Cave Johnson to listen to as well, and the way GLaDOS bounces off the former and reacts to the latter help make this game a fun and engaging puzzle-solving adventure.

24. Doom

The legendary FPS series got revitalized after years on the edge of relevancy, and its return is one of the most metal games imaginable. Slaughtering your way through the forces of Hell while heavy metal blares in the background? It really doesn’t get much better than this. While I do think Eternal improved the formula and gameplay in a lot of ways (particularly with the addition of an awesome hub level), I find the original to be way more fun and balanced in terms of difficulty. The lack of Marauders is really what gives it the slightest of edges.

23. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Nobody got left behind for this one. Everyone across the series came back, and then they went and added even more to give us the most ambitious crossover of all time. Ridley, Simon Belmont, Sora, Sephiroth, Kazuya, and more all get to duke it out on the best stages of the series as well as some fresh new ones, and every character plays even better and more balanced than they ever have before. While the single player campaign isn’t quite as exciting as Subspace Emissary from Brawl, it still manages to be a pretty epic quest with fun boss battles. This is just the definitive Smash experience in my opinion.

22. Red Dead Redemption

My daughter has affectionately labeled this game “Horse Movie,” and she’s not wrong. This is a true cowboy experience right here, with lots of gunfights and horse wrangling, and it’s all a blast. The story in particular is really well done, and there’s plenty of fun side quests too. Maybe the gunfights get a bit samey after a while, but it’s an enjoyable open world to explore and is filled with oddities and mysteries galore.

21. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

The first Metal Gear game to make the list, and easily the most underrated of the bunch. It gets a lot of flak for the missing final episode that would have had Venom fight the young Liquid Snake, and while it does suck that that moment isn’t in the game, the story still feels plenty complete and well-done without it. Venom might be one of the most fascinating characters in the series, and the game has some of the most brutal gutpunches and tearjerking moments in the franchise. Maybe it’s just because I’m predisposed to love Metal Gear, but I loved this game even though I was well aware of what it didn’t have.

20. Final Fantasy VII

Not to be a basic bitch, but this is my favorite Final Fantasy. I mean, the cast is all so cool and fun, the story is great, Sephiroth is an amazing villain, and there’s plenty of obscure and obtuse ways of finding secrets that make a strategy guide practically mandatory if you want the most out of the game. What’s not to love? I think I was mostly surprised by how good the game actually was; it’s always high on lists of the best games ever, and it definitely earns that. The fact that Aerith’s death still made me tear up despite being common knowledge is a testament to just how amazing this Fantasy is.

19. Mother 3

EarthBound coasts by on its fun, lighthearted quirkiness… but what if you took that and applied heaping helpings of darkness and a more solid story? That’s Mother 3, a beautiful tale filled with the same out there humor as its predecessor as well as a lot of more mature and deeper themes than even the original tackled (mind you, Earthbound wasn’t devoid of deeper themes to begin with, so this is saying something). The ending is one of the few times I have openly sobbed while playing a video game. They need to officially release this in the West, because I will buy it day one. Fuck, I’ll pre-order it!

18. Yoshi’s Island

If this game was only one of the most charmingly animated games ever made, that would be enough to earn it at least some respect. But it’s also one of the best platformers in a series that invented the genre, centered around a truly inspired baby-carrying gimmick and featuring all manner of creative boss battles and one of the most earwormy soundtracks ever made. That’s enough to get it a spot on this list, but the fact it solidified Shy Guys as a Mario mainstay and not just a one-shot enemy? That gets it into my top 20.

17. Spyro Reignited Trilogy

It’s kind of cheating since it’s all three games in one package, but it’s my list, I make the rules. I view this as the definitive way to play Spyro; the redesigns are all fantastic (especially Elora) and the fact Tom Kenny is now the lovable purple scamp across all three games is wonderful. They even made the first game more enjoyable and even visually interesting, even though it’s still the weakest link in the series! And as much of a Crash Bandicoot stan as I am, the fact this game allows you to switch between the newly composed arrangements of the songs and the original Copeland tracks is a big W over the Bandicoot remakes only having the new versions of the songs.

16. Metal Gear Rising

This is perhaps the most badass game ever made. The first level has Raiden battling through a war zone and then fighting a RAY singlehandedly, leaping across missiles and slicing it in half while the most fucking awesome metal music blares in the background. The game just decides to get even more insane from there. People have argued against it being canon for years, but these people are stupid. This game is just as insane and politically-charged as the rest of the series, so in my book, it’s fucking canon.

15. Undertale

This game’s time in the spotlight has faded a bit, but that only makes it easier for me to look back on it and say, “Damn, that’s one of the finest games ever made.” It has all the quirkiness of the Mother series with unique combat and a stellar story, a cast of likable characters, and some of the best boss fights I’ve ever been through. Best of all, it’s a game that practically encourages and even rewards you for being nice! I still love it, even after all the discourse and skyrocketing popularity, and nothing will make me budge on that love.

14. Hades

I’m a big fan of Greek mythology, so this is yet another game that would have had to try really hard to make me hate it. Thankfully, all its efforts were put into areas that made me love it instead. While the roguelike gameplay is well done, the writing and story are really the stars here, with fantastic character interactions between desperate god Zagreus, the gods of Olympus, and the various denizens of the underworld really making this game something truly special.

13. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Sometimes this game feels like the designers saw all those articles and reviews comparing the first game to Dark Souls and took it to heart, because some of the levels in this game are absolutely brutal—especially if you’re going for 100% completion. But that same difficulty makes playing through the levels a lot of fun as well; it’s probably the most challenging Crash outing to date. It really polishes and updates the Crash formula for the modern age, and hopefully they expand on this in a future game. If nothing else, it finally lets you play as Dingodile, which is a dream come true.

12. Grand Theft Auto V

It’s wacky. It’s cartoonish. It has a surprisingly good story about three criminals from different walks of life becoming fire-forged friends as they violently work out their emotional issues. There’s just so much to do and so much to see, all sorts of collectibles and side missions, and more black comedy than you can shake a stick at, and all of it is made all the more enjoyable because the main villain protagonists are a likable bunch of nutjobs. Hell, sometimes I just like to hop into a car, put on some tunes, and cruise around until I can cause some mayhem, and the fact that’s just as valid as doing a bunch of story missions really makes me love the game.

11. Silent Hill 2

While the first and third games are good in their own rights, I vastly prefer the psychological horror and the monsters manifesting as living allegories for trauma with heavy and dark symbolism as opposed to the evil cult narrative. Plus, you know, this one has Pyramid Head in it, and his presence makes sense instead of simply being there cuz he’s cool.

10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials & Tribulations

The Ace Attorney series is one of my favorites, and I love just about all the games in it and even the ones I don’t love always have one or two solid cases that keep me coming back. But pound for pound my favorite game in the series is the third one, the one that lets you play as Mia Fey, introduces the callous murderer Dahlia Hawthorne, and has you match wits with the coffee-guzzling prosecutor Godot. Even the filler cases are entertaining, with the one where Phoenix has to get to the bottom of a murder involving his evil doppleganger being wildly amusing (which is more than can be said for that circus case in the second game or cases two through three in the fourth).

9. Live A Live

Few games can boast the sheer variety this game has on display, with levels changing up their style to give everything from standard RPG fair to a prolonged timed puzzle to a fighting game pastiche to an incredibly tense survival horror experience. We also have the precursor to Undertale here in a ninja-themed level where you can spare everyone you come across or otherwise brutally murder them. And while the stories remain relatively simple in every time period you visit, it doesn’t stop them from hitting hard when they need to, like with the fantasy RPG deconstruction that is Oersted’s chapter. This game would easily have switched places with the next game if the final level played a bit more to the game’s strengths, but hey, it’s still good enough to be in the top 10.

8. Chrono Trigger

Square’s other time travel story is definitely the superior one even if it’s a traditional JRPG through and through. Of course, that is because it completely and fully takes advantage of its premise, with actions you take in one time period affecting others in turn, not to mention the vast amount of bonus bosses and sidequests there are to keep the multiple playthroughs to acquire all the endings fresh and fun. I’ve sunk so much time into getting all the endings on the DS version, and I’ve never once been bored even after visiting the Middle Ages or the ruined future world a dozen times.

7. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

There are few games that I love revisiting more than this one. This is Metroidvania at its peak, a perfect blend of action, platforming, and RPG elements into one glorious Gothic horror monster mash package. What’s truly fun with this one is the myriad ways there are to bust the game right open. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve grinded for hours so that I could dual-wield Crissaegrims and trivialize the Dracula and Galamoth battles.

6. Psychonauts 2

The original Psychonauts is fun and quirky, and is only really held back by a pretty sloppy final level. This game, though? This game is damn near perfect. Nearly every level here is fun and memorable, and the ways Raz has to help each person deal with their mental trauma is a lot more nuanced and tasteful than the original game’s fair-for-its-time takes on dealing with mental illness. The minds of Ford’s old crew as well as Ford himself provide some of the best Psychonauts content to date, and really, who can hate a level that ends with Jack Black as a gay psychic rock star viking performing a musical number to obliterate his own insecurities?

5. Kingdom Hearts II

This is where the Kingdom Hearts franchise peaked, and it’s a high note they’ve yet to reach again. Sure, the tutorial prologue level drags on for quite a long while, but once you get to play as Sora again, ooh boy is this basically the perfect meeting of the worlds of Disney and Square. The Disney worlds are a lot more fleshed out and have twice the plot due to midgame return visits, the combat is more exciting with fun little reaction commands to let you pull off crazy maneuvers, and you get to hang out with Tron and the most based of all Disney heroes, Chicken Little. Best of all, the story manages to strike the perfect balance between being complex and silly without disappearing all the way up its own ass like later entries would.

4. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

In my house, there was a legend that I had beaten this game to completion one hundred times. I’m not entirely sure how accurate that is, but considering how often I replayed this growing up it can’t be too far off. This is one of the most gorgeous platformers around, and Naughty Dog’s final shot at a genre they’d perfected with their Crash Bandicoot games. Even all these years later the visuals are breathtaking; I still am in awe at how you can see the entire world from atop Snowy Mountain. Every day I cry because they decided to turn the series into GTA clones instead of continuing to explore the gorgeous fantasy world they created in this game.

3. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

The original Crash Bandicoot was the first game I ever played, and the rest of the series were cornerstones of my childhood. Imagine how elated I was when they not only remade the games, but they created the single definitive way to play them! Sure, the soundtrack being redone can be a little hit or miss, but they completely unfucked the brutal difficulty of the first game (and this is even with adding back the ball-bustingly hard “Stormy Ascent” level) and for the most part left the latter two games entirely untouched save a graphical boost and the ability to play as my girl Coco. Playable Coco alone makes this a dream come true.

2. Batman: Arkham City

The Arkham series is one of the most consistently great series, and this is its greatest entry. The titular city is massive, with so many things to do, and the combat and puzzles are polished to perfection. Add in some actual detective work, some truly epic boss battles against iconic Batman villains like Clayface and Mr. Freeze (and also Solomon Grundy, because why the fuck not?), the ability to play as Catwoman, and one of the most shocking and tragic tales the Dark Knight has ever been in, and I’m more than happy to call it my second favorite game ever.

1. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Of course, there was no hope Arkham City had at overcoming this game. This is Kojima’s magnum opus, not least because the entire rest of the Metal Gear series revolves around the events that transpire in this story. After the mindfuck that was the second game, it’s nice to return to a more coherent story, one detailing how Big Boss came to be the man that Snake fought in Zanzibar Land. Everything in the series sprang forth because of the actions the characters take here, and each subsequent game just makes this one better and better. Every single boss battle is unique and engaging, and the final battle is one of the most heartbreaking moments in all of gaming. I still cry every single time I get to the ending. It's such an amazing game, with a relatively simple yet still strong and convoluted story populated with a Russian madman with inexplicable lightning powers, a spirit medium's ghost, and a man who controls bees. God bless Hideo Kojima, that absolute madman.

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breakingarrows · 5 years

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Bioshock (2007)

[This was originally published on VerticalSliceMedia.com in 2018 and is republished from the latest draft I have]

Bioshock is a game that succeeds on the shoulders of one character: Andrew Ryan. His charisma and speech are enthralling, even if you disagree with the beliefs he puts forward. Ryan founded Rapture, a city under the sea hidden from the rest of the world and the setting for Bioshock. While Ryan is not the only person to live in Rapture and engage with the player, his presence is felt throughout the city through audio diaries and propaganda. The city would not exist were it not for Ryan, and the city would be nothing were it not for those special few who occupied it.

Rapture is both a location that allows compromised characters to either redeem or damn themselves on the moral scales, and a condemnation of the ideology of an unregulated, free market, unrestricted by meddling governments whether it be democratic, communistic, or religious. Andrew Ryan declares he does not believe in any god, but rather as the founder of Rapture he occupies in his own mind the position of omnipotence. It is this stubborn denial that any could usurp his position that leads to his downfall at the hands of Fontaine, who desires Ryan’s power but knows it is not something that will be willingly shared. Ryan is recorded in an audio log dismissing Adam, the chemical that gives the character’s of Bioshock their abilities, and its powers as trite and not worth his time, until it begins to take hold and dominate the population’s time and money. It is then that he seeks to be rid of Fontaine via the police, despite the supposed freedom Rapture affords. Ryan desired a utopia free from regulation, but only if he was at the top. When confronted with the flaws of his system, Ryan retreats ever inward and seals himself in from the rest of Rapture. Having already founded a city under the ocean, separated from the rest of the world, Ryan chooses to further separate himself from the own world he built, delving even further into his own inability to change. An audiolog even captures the moment Ryan rejects introspection as he ponders whether he has made mistakes building Rapture. Instead he throws any reflection away as a distraction from destroying Atlas, Fontaine’s alias for a majority of the game.

Could I have made mistakes? One does not build cities if one is guided by doubt. But can one govern in absolute certainty? I know that my beliefs have elevated me, just as I know that the things I have rejected would have destroyed me. But the city... it is collapsing before my... have I become so convinced by my own beliefs that I have stopped seeing the truth? Perhaps. But Atlas is out there, and he aims to destroy me, and destroy my city. To question is to surrender. I will not question.

Another example of Ryan’s true intentions and the failings of Rapture is with the splicers, your common enemy throughout Bioshock. Killing splicers is never given a second thought throughout the game despite being regular citizens of Rapture. Due to the lack of regulation, plasmids were allowed to flood the market with little regard to inform citizens of its side effects. Plasmids required constant Adam injections and continued usage deteriorated their body and mind. Thus splicers were born, disfigured citizens whose desire for abilities such as telekinesis led to their dehumanization to the point that they become nothing more than hideous monsters for the player to shoot, beat, and kill in the variety of ways Bioshock affords.

Doctor Suchong, frankly, I'm shocked by your proposal. If we were to modify the structure of our commercial Plasmid line as you propose, to have them make the user vulnerable to mental suggestion through pheromones, would we not be able to effectively control the actions of the citizens of Rapture? Free will is the cornerstone of this city. The thought of sacrificing it is abhorrent. However… we are indeed in a time of war. If Atlas and his bandits have their way, will they not turn us into slaves? And what will become of free will then? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Ryan and his ideology are responsible for the splicers and he continues to exploit the citizens of Rapture even further via pheromones. The same audio log that explains how Ryan can control splicers shows his true nature: one who is willing to compromise his ideology so long as it serves him. Ryan doesn’t actually care about allowing the people of Rapture to benefit from the freedom given when government and religion is removed, he just wants a place where he can benefit freely without having to give anything to help those below him. Ryan wants complete and total freedom, but if Atlas is going to turn the lower class against him, then Ryan is okay with taking away that freedom he used to lure people to Rapture in the first place.

Ryan’s adversary, Fontaine, is a con man who saw in Rapture the opportunity of a lifetime. Realizing that Ryan cared little for those who could not pull themselves up by their bootstraps and ascend the socio-economic ladder stacked against them, Fontaine gathered and empowered this collection of people to fight for him against Ryan. While Ryan surrounded himself with artists such as Sander Cohen and scientists like Yi Suchong and Brigid Tenenbaum, Fontaine created housing for the poor and orphaned. Fontaine did not do this out of the goodness of his heart in order to free these people from their oppressors. Instead he converted them into Adam addicts, turning them into the splicers who you, the player character, kill throughout your time in Rapture. Fontaine turned them over to death and tortured living by feeding them Adam, all so that he could kill Ryan and take full control of Rapture.

These sad saps. They come to Rapture thinking they're gonna be captains of industry, but they all forget that somebody's gotta scrub the toilets. What an angle they gave me... I hand these mugs a cot and a bowl of soup, and they give me their lives. Who needs an army when I got Fontaine's Home for the Poor?

While the poor had ample reason to turn against Ryan, even some in the upper class found themselves dissatisfied with Ryan’s utopia. Sander Cohen was an artist who was very sensitive to criticisms of his work and who grew to despise Ryan for damning him to a city full of doubters who couldn’t see the brilliance in his work. As Rapture fell, and Cohen descended into Adam fueled madness, he began to regard people as disposable as paint brushes and their bodies as merely canvases for him to use. Cohen isn’t actually a very good artist, as his masterpiece is simply a collection of photographs of dead bodies of former disciples. Most of his work is never seen or heard; the player merely comes across various corpses encased in plaster and placed in poses around Fort Frolic, whether that’s sitting at a dinner table or casting shadows in a spotlighted bathroom.

I know why you've come, little moth. You've your own canvas. One you'll paint with the blood of a man I once loved.

Despite being a hack artist, he does reveal some insight into the production behind Bioshock as a game: that the location of Rapture is the player’s canvas upon which the choices made during gameplay begin to create an image determined by your style. The lasting impression left by Bioshock is one the player created, as well as the one the developers presented in its characters. Bioshock is a stage play, yes, but one in which the player is able to arrange and execute their own scripts in between monologues.

The creator of Adam, the catalyst for Raptures downfall, was Brigid Tenenbaum. She survived the Nazi concentration camps of World War 2 due to her betrayal of her own kind by aiding the Nazi’s in their “science” expirements on prisoners. In Rapture she discovers the foundation for what would become Adam and despite knowing its addictive and deteriorating effects on humans continued to develop it for Fontaine in return for funding. She initially detested the Little Sisters but realized her hatred for them was really for herself. Although her Adam creation process was already standardized she began seeking a way to reverse what she had done.

One of the children came and sat in my lap. I push her off, I shout, "Get away from me!" I can see the ADAM oozing out of the corner of her mouth, thick and green. Her filthy hair hanging in her face, dirty clothes, and that dead glow in her eye... I feel... hatred, like I never felt before, in my chest. Bitter, burning fury. I can barely breathe. And suddenly, I know, it is not this child I hate.

Early on in Bioshock you are required to obtain a key from Dr. Steinman in order to progress. Steinman is a former surgeon who began to pursue creating the perfect body via Adam and his own sculpting which frequently led to “failure” and the death of the subject. He rejected the Hippocratic Oath, which Rapture’s ideology allowed for, and instead was more interested in serving his own interests than that of his patients. It is hinted at that this venture of his began prior to New Year’s Eve 1958, the fall of Rapture. You come across his many creations throughout the medical ward, usually bloodied bodies seemingly stapled to the walls. This pursuit for beauty consumed him just as much as the Adam consumed his mind and showed him visions of Aphrodite, the goddess he sought to please and gain advice from. As the first major character the player kills in Bioshock, he also serves as the template for the effects Adam had on the populace, and how it drove people deeper into their own obsessions.

I am beautiful, yes. Look at me, what could I do to make my features finer? With ADAM and my scalpel, I have been transformed. But is there not something better? What if now it is not my skill that fails me... but my imagination?

Rapture, as a place without regulation, is one where people are free to kill those who stand in their way, where people freely go missing, to experiment on people with your scalpel in the pursuit of beauty, where everything is privately owned and has a price. Ryan frequently denounced the “parasite” the altruistic leanings of liberals to utilize the power of the many to help the poor. Parasites are those who would seek to undermine free enterprise through the hacking of vending machines or by gaining something without putting in the work to earn it. Rapture is free from social programs and regulations that would bog the market down. And in return, Rapture destroyed itself through the lack of structured law and common goodwill.

Ryan’s philosophy is one of selfishness, of providing for you and only you and if someone was unable to provide it was their own fault. This Ayn Rand philosophy fails as the exploitation of those below the elites can only be tolerated for so long before rebellion. Even without Fontaine, the lower classes’ anger would have run over into violent revolution. Adam merely sped up this process by giving regular people the power to create fire literally at their fingertips.

Despite any abhorrence for this type of thinking, Ryan’s charisma and frequent postulating can momentarily keep you enthralled. I despised his unwillingness to help the poor, but I couldn’t help but wish that he had prevailed over Atlas prior to his unfortunate meeting with a golf club. Ryan is the greatest asset of Bioshock, and his death serves as the climax of the game, even if it continues on towards a stock revenge plot afterwards. Rapture dies with Ryan.

You can kill me, but you will never have my city. My strength is not in steel and fire, that is what the parasites will never understand.

#Bioshock #Andrew Ryan #Fontaine #Rapture #Irrational Games #Criticism #writing

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your-dietician · 3 years

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Best Prime Day, Day 2 tech deals 2021 at Amazon

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Best Prime Day, Day 2 tech deals 2021 at Amazon

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TVs and headphones and laptops, oh my! These Prime Day deals are off the charts. (Photo: Yahoo Life)

Spent the first day of Prime Day not sure what to pick up? You’re in luck! Prime Day — Day 2 is now in full swing and the discounts are even deeper. So take advantage of these Prime Day tech deals.

Take out your wish list and check it twice. What have you been waiting on? Now’s the moment to grab it, whether it’s that big-screen TV, that cushy pair of headphones or that new smart home device. These price drops are epic.

We’ve gathered the very best Prime Day tech deals on everything from Apple AirPods to Nintendo games to Lenovo laptops and beyond. More good news: Amazon will give you free shipping on everything here. And if you have Amazon Prime, you’ll get even more — access to new movies and TV shows, discounts at Whole Foods, exclusive deals and two-day shipping on many, many items. Not yet a member? Why not? You can sign up for your free 30-day trial here.

Read on for the Prime Day — Day 2 tech deals calling your name.

Best TV deals

Not a typo: Just $100 gets you a top-rated HDTV! (Photo: Amazon)

This deal seems too good to be true…but it ain’t! Amazon has one of its top-selling TVs, the Insignia 24-inch Smart HD TV — Fire TV Edition, on sale for just $100 for Prime members only!

Instant access to Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video and so much more will soon be yours. Alexa is included in the remote, so browsing will be a snap. Shoppers are just as shocked by the quality of this TV as we are by this incredible price!

“I am honestly very pleasantly surprised with how much I like this TV,” wrote a delighted shopper. “As far as clarity goes, I believe 720p is plenty for this screen size…. I have been very pleased with the Wi-Fi reception of the built-in Fire TV. It actually works a lot better than the USB-plug-in external fire sticks, for whatever reason.”

Shop more TV deals below:

Insignia 24-inch Smart HD TV — Fire TV Edition, $100 (was $170), amazon.com

Insignia 39-inch Smart HD TV — Fire TV Edition, $180 (was $250), amazon.com

Insignia NS-43DF710NA21 43-inch Smart 4K Ultra HD — Fire TV Edition, $220 (was $320), amazon.com

Toshiba 43-inch 43C350KU C350 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, $260 (was $370), amazon.com

Insignia 55-inch NS-55F301NA22 F30 Series LED 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV, $350 (was $500), amazon.com

Sony X80J 55-inch 4K Ultra HD LED Smart Google TV, $748 (was $800), amazon.com

Sony X80J 65-inch 4K Ultra HD LED Smart Google TV, $898 (was $1,000), amazon.com

Best headphone and earbud deals

Story continues

Good thing you don’t already own these — you’d never hear us shouting about what a great deal this is. (Photo: Amazon)

Sometimes, we get really lucky, and a big name drops the price on luxe headphones for Prime Day. Well, this is one of those times! These wireless Sony WH-CH710N Noise-Canceling Headphones are on sale for just $78 — that’s a whopping $122 off! Don’t you feel whopped? Shop now and save 61 percent — this is the lowest price we’ve ever seen on these top-rated cans!

The wireless headphones feature the crisp, clear audio you expect from Sony. Their Dual Noise Sensor Technology blocks out nearly all background and ambient distractions. No humming from your air conditioner or thrum from the washing machine — it’s just you and your music! Any birthdays coming up? These make an impressive gift (they’ll think you spent a fortune).

“The Sony headphones are perfect. They sync easily and the sound is clear,” raved a solace-seeking husband and dad. “The noise-canceling feature is great and often annoys my wife and kids when I can’t hear them. These are very comfortable….The charging is quick and the battery life is very good.”

Shop more headphone and earbud deals below:

Echo Buds, $80 (was $120), amazon.com

Apple AirPods Max, $522 (was $549), amazon.com

Apple AirPods Pro, $190 (was $249), amazon.com

Beats Solo Pro Wireless Noise Cancelling On-Ear Headphones, $170 (was $300), amazon.com

Bose Noise Cancelling Wireless Bluetooth Headphones 700, $229 (was $399), amazon.com

Sony WF-1000XM3 Noise Canceling Wireless Earbuds, $148 (was $230), amazon.com

Sony WF-SP800N True Wireless Sports In-Ear Noise-Canceling Headphones, $88 (was $199), amazon.com

Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones, $120 (was $200), amazon.com

Apple AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, $160 (was $199), amazon.com

Powerbeats Pro Wireless Earphones, $145 with on-page coupon (was $200), amazon.com

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless Bluetooth Earbuds, $149 (was $300), amazon.com

Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus, $85 (was $150), amazon.com

Jabra Elite Active 65t Earbuds, $60 (was $100), amazon.com

Best gaming deals

FYI: This RPG features lots of DLC, and at just 15 bucks for three games, it’s a pretty BFD. (Photo: Amazon)

It’s time to join a mayhem-fueled thrill ride — at 70 percent off! In Borderlands Legendary Collection for Nintendo Switch, you’re whisked away to the planet Pandora, where you’ll be tasked with stopping the Calypso twins from getting all the bandit clans together and claiming ultimate power in the galaxy. Shoot, loot and role-play your way through the high-stakes action and collect a whole boatload of gadgets along the way.

This is the Legacy Edition, which includes all three games and DLC (downloadable content), is packed with new missions and stories, and more pillaging and power-ups.

“It’s so awesome to be able to play Borderlands on a handheld system,” raved a delighted gamer. “After about 100 hours in each game so far, All three run silky smooth with no hiccups. The gameplay is just how I remember it on the xbox 360 and I love it. I highly recommend this collection…”

Shop more gaming deals below:

Luna Gaming Controller, $49 (was $70), amazon.com

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (PS4), $16 (was $40), amazon.com

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (PC), $35 (was $60), amazon.com

Mafia: Definitive Edition (PS4), $20 (was $40), amazon.com

BioShock: The Collection, $15 (was $50), amazon.com

NBA 2K21 (Xbox Series X), $20 (was $70), amazon.com

Godfall (PS5), $40 (was $70), amazon.com

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch), $48 (was $60), amazon.com

Runmus Gaming Headset, $20 (was $43), amazon.com

Madden NFL 21: Next Level Edition (Xbox Series X), $21 (was $70), amazon.com

The Falconeer: Day One Edition (Xbox Series X), $22 (was $40), amazon.com

Outriders Day One Edition (PS5), $40 for Prime members only (was $60), amazon.com

Immortals Fenyx Rising (PS5), $30 (was $60), amazon.com

Best smartphone and tablet deals

Normally we’d never yell “Fire!” in a crowded website, but….”YOU’VE GOT TO GRAB THIS FIRE HD 8 FOR JUST $45!” (Photo: Amazon)

How ’bout another half-price sale? Coming right up! On sale for $45 (was $90), the Fire HD 8 has a brilliant eight-inch HD display and works with Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Music as well as hundreds of social media apps, games, and more. With its 10-hour battery life, this baby supports binge-watching.

“This HD 8 boots up extremely fast. The screen movement is very smooth,” wrote a delighted tablet user. “I own an HD 10 but I like this better because the size makes it easier to hold and maneuver…. I had a concern about the sound quality, but the sound quality is very good. The charge time is fast and the battery holds a charge for a long time.” And the price? Ridiculous.

Shop more smartphone and tablet deals below:

Fire HD 8 Plus, $65 (was $110), amazon.com

Fire HD 10, $80 (was $150), amazon.com

Fire HD 10 Plus, $110 (was $180), amazon.com

Kindle, $55 (was $90), amazon.com

Kindle Paperwhite, $80 (was $130), amazon.com

Kindle Oasis, $185 (was $250), amazon.com

Apple iPad (10.2-inch, Wi-Fi, 32GB), $299 (was $329), amazon.com

Moto G7 Plus, $140 (was $250), amazon.com

TCL 10 Pro Unlocked Android Smartphone, $295 for Prime members only (was $400), amazon.com

Ulefone Note 9P smartphone, $145 with on-page coupon (was $200), amazon.com

Best smart-home deals

Want to turn your dumb home into a smart home? Look to the orb! (Photo: Amazon)

With an all-new sphere design, the fourth generation Echo Dot, marked down from $50 to just $25 (we’ve done the math — that’s half off!) for Prime members only, is a small but powerful smart speaker with a glow-light base that can not only channel Alexa but can also stream tunes from Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Sirius XM and more. It offers clearer, more robust audio quality than earlier iterations. With this dynamo at 50 percent off, there’s never been a smarter time to pair it with another Echo Dot to create amazing stereo sound.

Shoppers love the compact dimensions — just 3.5-inches high — which make it great for smaller rooms. “This is exactly what I was looking for,” said a happy Amazon shopper. “The sound is loud and clear. Now I am able to hear all online stations with no interference. The design is space-saving, with rubber underneath to prevent sliding.”

The Echo Dot 4 comes in Charcoal, Glacier White and Twilight Blue.

Shop more smart-home deals below:

Echo Show 5, $45 (was $80), amazon.com

Echo Auto, $15 (was $50), amazon.com

Echo Show 10 (third generation), $190 (was $250), amazon.com

Echo Frames (second generation), $175 (was $250), amazon.com

Echo Show 8 (second generation), $95 (was $130), amazon.com

Fire TV Cube, $80 (was $120), amazon.com

Fire TV Stick 4K, $25 (was $50), amazon.com

eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi router, $83 (was $129), amazon.com

Ring Video Doorbell Wired, $45 (was $60), amazon.com

Ring Spotlight Cam, $150 (was $200), amazon.com

Ring Stick Up Cam, $75 (was $100), amazon.com

Rexing V1 4K Ultra HD Car Dash Cam, $72 (was $100), amazon.com

Govee Immersion WiFi TV LED Backlights, $49 (was $80), amazon.com

Best work-from-home deals

Whether you’re working from home or just playing around, this Lenovo laptop/tablet’s got you covered. (Photo: Walmart)

Here in Prime time, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is on sale for just $399 (down from $520) — over 20 percent off! If productivity is your game, then this machine came to play (by which we mean work). Its brilliant HD 14-inch LED display makes everything look stellar, from spreadsheets to YouTube videos. And thanks to a speedy and powerful AMD Ryzen 3 4300U Octa-Core Processor paired with 4GB of memory and 128GB of on-board storage, the Flex 5 can handle just about any task you throw at it. The laptop even doubles as a Windows 10 tablet — that’s the “Flex” part.

“Amazing laptop, perfect for my everyday needs,” wrote a delighted Walmart reviewer. “Runs fast, touchscreen is awesome and it’s lightweight and small, making travel easy. Extremely durable. Love the ability to use the Lenovo pen, and the tablet mode is such a great feature. Definitely would recommend, especially for the epic price range. Can’t compare.”

Shop more work-from-home deals below:

AcePC AK1 Mini PC, $140 with on-page coupon (was $190), amazon.com

HP Chromebook 11, $180 (was $260), amazon.com

LifeLong Ergonomic Laptop stand for desk, $60 (was $90), amazon.com

AndaSeat gaming and office chair, $240 for Prime members only (was $300), amazon.com

DamKee Massage Gun, $69 with on-page coupon for Prime members only (was $110), amazon.com

Saiji Laptop Bed Tray Desk, $36 with on-page coupon for Prime members only (was $100), amazon.com

SoQool Laptop Stand, $16 for Prime members only (was $90), amazon.com

Canon Office and Business MB5120 All-in-One Printer, $250 (was $300), amazon.com

The reviews quoted above reflect the most recent versions at the time of publication.