01. Half-Life
For the longest while I was endless addicted to First-Person-Shooters like Duke Nukem, Doom, Shadow Warrior, and Redneck Rampage which all were fun in their own little ways but really failed to tell a story. In 1998 I was starting to get into the Adventure Game genre which placed story in the drivers seat while gameplay took the passengers seat. It was my mum that actually was interested in Half-Life because of the platforming/ puzzle element and as I watched her mow down wave after wave of Marines I wanted to have a go at it. I remember coming home from school and starting my own game and just being totally enthralled by the opening sequence, also trying to get use to the control scheme because it was the first one that really incorporated the WASD and mouse controls. It was before long that I was hopeless addicted to the action, the mystery, the puzzles, and the length.
02. Grim Fandango
I never played the first two Monkey Island games, but I did really enjoy The Curse of Monkey Island, however it was Grim Fandango that really sold me on the whole Adventure Genre. The puzzles were incredibly challenging in this game, but the fact that I couldn't die or get to an area that you couldn't get beyond because you forgot to pick up some item in a previous area that was now off limits. The game features LucasArts incredibly funny and witty humor, characters that all feel important, and some of the best voice acting I had ever heard in a game. Grim Fandango is one of those games that I can play over and over again, never getting dull or boring, even if I know how to solve all the puzzles and know what's going to happen next, it just presents itself in such a way that that is what you're playing it for, the presentation.
03. The Pandora Directive
In 1996 my mum and I played Under A Killing Moon which was the 3rd game in the Tex Murphy series. We did what we normally did with games, solve the first level together so we both get a feel of what the rest of the game will be like, then go our separate ways and play our own game files. I remember that it took us almost a week to figure out exactly what we were doing in the game and how to go about it and that's what sold me on the game. Later in 1997 we found out that The Pandora Directive was released and went out to the mall just before closing so we could get it. The game was vastly improved compared to Under a Killing Moon, but it was also a lot more challenging. It was also one of the games that really truly terrified me. For the longest while I wanted to be a Private Eye because of this game.
04. Age of Empires
It's hard for me to choose between this game and Starcraft because they were pretty much the only Real-Time Strategy games I played until 2003 when Warcraft III came out. While my mum was more into the First-Person Shooter and puzzle games, it was my dad that loved the Real-Time Strategy games. He did his best to teach me how to manage units (something which I always laughed at) but I never really took well to it because I would always feel bad when they died, mostly because of my time playing FPS' where you yourself were in the action and not just controlling the outcome. In all truth, the only thing that puts Age of Empires over Stracraft is the cheat where you can get a pink lowrider car that shoots rockets. Nothing is more cathartic then watching some overpowered piece of modern technology blast cavemen to pieces.
05. Starcraft
More or less like with Age of Empires, except my dad never really took to it the same way he took to Age of Empires. It's because of this that I started playing online which was fun, but because of the sympathy I felt to all my fallen soldiers I was never very good at it. Still the game is a lot of fun and is one of the most respected RTS' on the planet.
06. Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time
Pretty much one of the only reasons to have owned a Nintendo 64. For myself and a lot of other gamers it was one of the first real true adventures in full 3D. It had an incredibly engrossing story and a lot of fun shit to do in the mean time.
07. WWF: No Mercy
Pretty much the best wrestling game ever made. I really liked their way of being able to use special moves and their presentation was really well done. Not only that but their create-a-wrestler left you with a number of new wrestlers to create. Not only that, but they included a lot of moves from some of the wrestlers who were left off the roster so you could create them if you were so inclined. This game offered a lot of fun for my friend and I over the summer of 2000 and 2001. A lot of people hold the Smackdown games in high regards but after playing Shut Your Mouth (my first PS2 game) I was incredibly let down. Sure the graphics were a lot better, but the story was incredibly short and it was such a departure from No Mercy that it really took awhile to get use to it. Wrestling games in general are really only for fans, but WWF No Mercy was a really fun way for you and your friends to beat the crap out of each other.
08. Battlefield 1942
Pretty much the only online game I'll willingly play anymore. It did so much right for it's time when games like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress 2 were dominating the online market. What I think a lot of people loved about BF1942 was the large maps that encouraged exploration. Also the fact that you could pilot a plane while your friend took the gun turret was absolutely amazing for the time. I remember the first time I ever played BF1942 at an Internet Cafe on a LAN server with my jaw dropped in awe at the fact that my friend next to me was driving a Jeep and I was riding shotgun. This game felt like there was a lot more strategy involved rather than just random bunny hops and mastering an overpowered/ overcompensating rifle. Not only that but the mods that came out for this game were a lot of fun as well. I have yet to play Battlefield 2, Battlefield 1943, or Battlefield: Bad Company, or Battlefiled 2142 however I will eventually get to all of them.
09. Grand Theft Auto III
Yep... pretty much the game that inspired the largest amount of clones since Doom came out. It was truly a revolutionary came at it's time that is still widely regarded as one of the best games of all time. Sure parts of the game were overhyped but this was pretty much one of the first times you could play as the bad guy, causing as much death and destruction as you could. The game featured some incredibly solid voice acting, fun side missions, hilarious commercials, and most importantly the freedom to do what you want at your own convenience. While I think GTA4 is still the best of the series, this is the one that really sparked a whole new generation of thinking, and while that does entail a lot of shit games you can't be mad at GTAIII for that.
10. Dues Ex
This was my first look at RPG's that didn't involve turn-based combat. I wasn't aware that such a thing even existed. I had been playing the first two Pokemon for about two years by the time Dues Ex came out and I had seen friends play Final Fantasy VII a few years earlier on their Playstations, but I was always a little turned off by turn-based combat. Pokemon was an exception because of the cartoon that portrayed it that way so I just learned to accept it, but I never really could get into it. Well in 2000 Dues Ex came out and completely changed my idea of what an RPG entails. It took me awhile to get use to the points system and steep difficulty, but after I died about 20 times on the first level I learned that I couldn't play this game the same way I would play Half-Life. The story was also incredibly engrossing, featuring conspiracy theories galore and at that time I was huge into The X-Files so the two went hand-in-hand quite well.
Well there you have it. While I took a more personal approach to my choices, I feel that a lot of people had similar experiences and thus I am speaking for a larger majority.
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