101 Games you must play and why.
 

After books, songs, movies, this one was inevitable. Post a game you think everyone should play at least once. It can be a computer game or a console game, arcade game, board game if you want to, doesn't matter. Just state in your post which format the game is in.

Post only one at a time please, and wait for someone else to post first before posting again.

The list thus far...

Page 1 (posts 1-16)
1. The Elder Scrolls Franchise - Bethesda (PC, console)
2. Wizardry 8 - SirTech (PC)
3. Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 - Bioware (PC)
4. Vandal Hearts - Konami (PS)
5. Dragon's Dogma - Capcom (PS3, Xbox 360)
6. Devil May Cry - Capcom (PS2)
7. Diablo Franchise - Blizzard (PC/Mac)
8. Ratchet and Clank series - Insomniac (PS1/3)
9. Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 - Bioware (PC/Mac)
10. Cards Against Humanity (card)
11. Talisman revised 4th Ed. - Fantasy Flight (board)

Page 2 (posts 17-32)
12. Age of Mythology & Titans Exp. - Ensemble (PC)
13. Star Ocean Series - Square Enix (PS2)
14. World in Conflict series - Massive/Ubisoft (PC)
15. The Mana Khemia series - Gust (PS2)
16. Amnesia: The Dark Descent - Frictional (PC/Mac)
17. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Silicon Knights/Nintendo (GameCube)
18. Fury of Dracula - Fantasy Flight (board remake, Orig. Games Workshop)
19. Cthullu Gloom - Atlas Games
20. Citadels - Fantasy Flight (Orig. French "Citadelles" by MultiSim)
21. Bloodborne - From Software (PS4)
22. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Rockstar (Console/PC)
23. Until Dawn - Supermassive Games (PS4)
24. We Know the Devil (Visual Novel)

Page 3 (posts 33-)
25. Ori and the Blind Forest - Date Nighto (Xbox One and PC)
26. Morphies Law - cosmoscopegames
27. Undertale - Toby Fox (PC)
28. Armello - League of Geeks (Comp/Console)
29. Dark Souls 3 - From Software (Comp/Console)



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1. Elder Scrolls Franchise, Bethesda (PC)

Can't really pick one, so yeah. All of them. I've played Morrowind, Daggerfall, and Skyrim and they'll all been good for more or less the same reasons. The open ended gameplay is the most freedom I've had in a game. Look! There's a mountain. I'm going to walk up to the top of it! I'm going to catch butterflies to make potions! I'm going to walk into the holy temple and kill the god-priest! Yeah, you can do those, or rather, try.

The games inevitably start out the same: you wake up, you are in prison for some reason, you get out of prison for some reason, and off you go. The details vary a little, but the basic premise is the same. There is a story, but it's up to you if you actually want to bother following it, and there's no irritating fairy friend to get mad at you if you don't.

Such as massive project each times means the games are always riddled with bugs that need patches and fixing, yet despite this the games are still popular, and the glitches are an accepted hazard. I've only played the PC versions so I can't say if the bugs propagate the console versions as well.

I have to add that the score is my favourite game music so far. The same theme can be heard in Morrowind and Skyrim (and Oblivion I'm told) but altered to match the tone or mood of the game. The Morrowind theme is something I'm hoping to learn to play one of these days.

2. Wizardry 8

From what I understand, the crown jewel of the "hardcore old-school dungeon crawl" genre. And let me get it out of the way: this game is TOUGH. Hand-holding is not a thing here. But as far as D&D-influenced RPGs go, this is far and away the greatest of them for me.

First off, the party creator. Hands down the best I have even seen. You get to create six characters from a myriad of classes (Fighter, Valkyrie, Lord, Samurai, Rogue, Ninja, Monk, Ranger, Engineer, Mage, Priest, Psion, Alchemist, Bishop) crossed with an equal myriad of races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Gnomes, Dragon-people, Cat-people, Wolf-people, Lizard-people, Wookies, and Fairies). There's something insane like 600 trillion different possible party combinations, and of course each character has 8 core stats and a multitude of skills and abilities to level up. The complexity and level of customization available is just wonderful (for those who like in-depth RPGs).

Now, the gameplay. It's in first-person, but the combat is turn-based. It all has a very Dungeons-and-Dragons feel to it, which is exactly what the game is going for. And oh, the battles. They are never, NEVER able to be hand-waved away. Every single fight is a struggle to the death against a vicious foe, and you are nearly always outnumbered. Your characters start off very weak, and in the beginning running away from encounters is often the best move. You need to plan, find suitable terrain, make sure all your buffs are cast on the right people, and get your party formation just right for each confrontation.

But that's the beauty of it. The game is totally non-linear. You can go wherever you want as soon as you exit the starter dungeon. You can brave the hardest areas in the game and rely on your wits and luck to see you through to powerful treasures, or you can take things slow, it's totally up to the player, and the level-scaling works to balance the difficulty just right most of the time.

The graphics are dated, but they actually hold up really well. For a 3d rpg from 2000, it's surprisingly smooth and easy on the eyes. The locations are all vividly realized and the Fantasy-meets-Space-Warfare theme makes for some really cool atmospheres.

The story is fairly basic, but also rather unique in the genre. Your a group of mercenaries whose ship crash-landed on Dominus, the planet of the Cosmic Lords, and literally everyone there is on the "Quest of Ascension" trying to become gods. And you join in, playing the various factions and races against each other all the while thwarting the designs of the Dark Savant.

The game just got re-released for cheap on both Steam and GoodOldGames, and I highly HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who's a fan of classic RPGs.

If that doesn't sway you, try this: "Half-dragon samurai with a lightsaber". This is a thing you can have in this game.

Edit: actually, I thought of an even better one. "Fairie valkyrie with a pistol that shoots lightning" :D

Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 - Bioware

The first game of it's type that I played, a third person, top view rpg that used the rules from Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition and it set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. A lot of the game is recognizable to people who are familiar with the novels and the setting in general.

Baldur's Gate 2 is definitely considered the better of the two but both games feature a good story and lots of technical game play for people that like to be meticulous about battles and such. You create your main character (for BG2 you can import a character you made for BG1) and you pick up other game-created characters along the way until you have a party of 6.

I'm not sure what to say about it but Baldur's Gate can likely be credited as a frontrunner (edged out by the original Diablo) of the 3D, top down role play games like the Icewind Dales series and Neverwinter Nights that followed.

Tales of the Sword Coast is the only expansion I played and goes with BG1. In it's package it adds to the map a location called Durlag's Tower, which is essentially a massive dungeon crawl. Good loot, but harsh challenges. Never did get into the place.

Vandal Hearts

Turn-based tactical role-playing game.

This could just be nostalgia making me biased, but I loved this game. It's about the only tactical role-playing game I could stand....maybe because of it's story line. It's from the 90's, so while it's graphics aren't the best, it isn't the worst. You can't choose classes of every character or anything, but you can choose what path they take within their classes (they branch off) and, from what I remember, you get two of most/all classes.

It's also one of the first rpgs released for 32bit systems.

(Feel free to disagree with me all you want, but I STILL want to replay this game 17 years later...)

So why should you play this? Story line. STORY LINE. And (this could be good or bad) it's easy to tell what will be effective against what, kind of like rock/paper/scissors....minus the not knowing what the other person is going to pull....though that won't always save you.

5. Dragon's Dogma

It's like Skyrim, but way better combat :P

No, really. The concept is remarkably similar: an open-world fantasy action-RPG centered on slaying dragons. Except DD is 3rd-person to Skyrim's 1st, and the open world is much smaller, but it makes up for that with the truly incredible combat mechanics.

To get it out of the way: Buy Dark Arisen, it contains both the original game and the amazing expansion pack all in one package, and fixes several flaws in the original.

Now. Why the combat is so amazing. For one thing, you tend to fight really epic enemies like the eponymous dragons, as well as giants cyclopes, chimaerae, gryphons, ogres, beholders, and more, and these fights are EPIC. The main mechanic is the ability to scale these giant monsters and attack their weak points, and the way it plays is so fluid and enjoyable the combat never gets repetitive. And the DRAGONS! Oh, the dragons. These things make Skyrim's look like cardboard-cutouts of how dragons should fight. They will strafe you with breath and fly away before you can retaliate, they will snatch your party members, crush them, and drop them to their depths, they will smash down on top of you and crush you with their weight, they will sweep you aside with their tails, overrun and trample you to reposition, rend you with their claws, and of course bite you (often accompanied by flying off and dropping from considerable height). Oh, and they do all this whilst spamming fireballs and thunderbolts and maelstroms. The AI is just incredible, and when you finally kill one, the feeling of triumph is incomparable.

Next: the character creator. This should appeal to everyone here, since this game essentially doubles as a dress-up game. And the body editor is simply the most detailed I have ever found. You can pretty pretty much any character you can imagine, and *re-make* your character's appearance whenever you want. There's a hundreds of pieces of armor to kit yourself out in, it's just endless fun recreating OCs and then running around slaying dragons with them.

Third: The "multiplayer". Okay, so this game is single-player, but with a twist. When you start playing, you make not only your player character, but a "pawn", a customized NPC who travels everywhere with you (and yes, they are fully customizable!), and what happens is this: you can have a party of up to 4 characters, and you send your pawn to other people's games via XBOXlive or PSN to join their parties while recruiting other players' pawns to fight in yours. Pawns gain experience and often receive gifts from your fellow players while they're away (and they can visit as many other players as invite them, there's no limit. And they're always with you regardless, so there's so downside to it). I've never seen a system like this in any other game, and it's just really cool. Seeing the characters other people make is awesome, and trying to find ones that fit with your other characters makes for some fun role-playing.

4.: The expansion. Bitterblack Island is simply epic. It's a dark, dingy delve into a labyrinth filled with death knights, liches, undead dragons, armored giants the size of a castle, flying demons, minotaurs, and more. The whole time you're in there, you are chased by Death Himself, an incredibly difficult superboss with a great reward for finally killing him. The atmosphere is just incredible, the fights are thrilling, and the treasure is awesome. A flawless expansion to a great game. Cannot recommend it enough.

If I can ask, how does it compare to Final Fantasy Tactics? I've heard a lot of good things about VH but never gotten around to playing it. FFT is pretty much my gold standard for RPG stories.

I didn't like the story line of tactics as much (I care more about story line than other things, though is every thing else is horrible, I can't do it...Note: I haven't played Tactics as much as VH or as long)

It has (to me) similar combat from what I remember from Tactics. Oh, and gold is not infinite...there are only so many battles.

6. Devil May Cry, (PS2)

This game is the reason I bought a PS2. Action adventure game, completely over the top, and I like the music. The battle music makes no attempt to be scary, it's all about killing something. It's fun!

Reality is overrated. It's so much more fun to wave swords around like they're flimsy sticks and hover in mid air while you pepper something with bullet holes. It also is the only game I've encountered where your best bet to survive after getting your ass kicked is to fight more things.

That said, this game also has one of the hardest early boss fights I've ever dealt with, but there comes opportunity to vent one's rage and frustration later.

Tech-wise, the control set in DMC is one that I've often transferred into other games that allow you to pick your settings. It's easy to use, and menu navigation is breezy, even mid battle.

I haven't actually finished the game, and DMC3 is still sitting in it's case until I do. I will get around to it someday, really.

7. The Diablo Franchise, Blizzard (PC/Mac)

First, I'll go with the story. It explores the conflict between the High Heavens and the Forces of Hell (Prime Evils and their minions) in an attempt to destroy each other which leads a group of both who are weary of the fight to create a place for themselves away from it all named Sanctuary. If you look at it, there are biblical references both obvious and subtle. Basically it is the conflict between good and evil with mankind (the descendants of ancient angels and demons...therefore Nephalem) caught in the crossfire and trying to be swayed to shift the balance of power to one's favor.

Second, the series really draws you into it with the story and the characters. There are those who are fallible and those who exemplify traits and virtues that are exalted as being possessed by heroes. This is to include the Demons and Angels themselves...showing that they are not without fault and therefore can be subject to "weakness" despite what they claim. My basic point is that it makes you think and gets you involved.

One downside (well, in some's eyes) is that the gameplay has evolved and changed quite a bit and become much more dynamic in terms of mobility, timing, and chaining of abilities. I personally enjoy that as it shows what the company is capable of producing and advancing the overall capacity of the game for different styles of play and use of items/gear.

Finally, the universe itself expands beyond the games with books, short stories, and even plenty of fan fiction that has been considered being integrated into the lore/main storyline (or a secondary or tertiary storyline).

Basically...this game is awesome and you will love it. At least that's my opinion.

@Alpha
I would have posted Diablo, but I would have went on like a rambling through the story line ruining it for everyone XD

Cause I love it. Way too much XD Though I could never get the first one to play right on my computer.

Ratchet and clank series
(Original ps2 ones and then the ps3)
Huge fan of insomniacs games. All of them with a gun toting lombax. Each one with its own perks and damage. The weapons are different in each, but some what the same start up on all. A wrench, plasma gun of some sort, and a glove. Later weapons to be purchased with bolts and hidden stuff to be found for secret unlocks. I give it a 9/10. Needs more boom boom for that 10... I like pretty esplosions

Not familiar with that series, though I know the name. Never played.

9. Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2)

Gods, I don't know where to begin. Firstly, Neverwinter entered thescene with AOL instant messaging - it was one of the first ever online games. When AOL closed it down (despite much anger) Bioware took the game and made it an unofficial "step up" from the Baldur's Gate series...

This game admittedly has bad graphics and somewhat monotonous fighting mechanics (think TERA without the graphics)...but the engine it was made on was one of the most flexible and freely moddable I've known, and the storyline...and the characters (though not as good/engrossing as Baldur's Gate/Dragon Age)...were lovely. Each additional release added a new, more engrossing story, and people have went wild on making mods and new stories to the game. I mean, you take a game that is essentially Baldur's Gate with +1 to graphics and a mobile camera...and you make a fully functional/visual Jousting tournament as a side quest to your story! You take a D&D based game, and make it a Science Fiction work where humanity is "contained" by other species, and make magic run like technology - Shadowrun Style...and the characters that you work with or accompany you are akin to the depth of Eschaton characters. Or a story where the Narrator is actually a god that uses/kills off heroes in order to tell his whimsical tales of adventure...BEFORE PORTAL! Or a story of an alchemist who discovered how to live past death...and it's curse. A game where a person who knows just 2 years of programming can take and make a rogue/assassin realm, or 12-year-old me could use to create a castle/port city that was a work of art, mixing medieval Asian and European influences. It is a great game and had a modding community I have never seen since (1998-2014 and still going despite Windows/Mac issues). And people borrowed elements from EVERYWHERE. A Mod that retell's Poe's Raven. Songs from Oblivion, Anime, Baldur's Gate, and Icewind Dale. Continuations of stories from such places (One mod tying in the Original Campaign to Viconia from Baldur's Gate). There is a comedy sketch machinima that ran 3 seasons using this game...and an hour long Machinima Movie!

Neverwinter Nights 2 is almost as good. The storyline for the initial campaigns were loads better; the expansion Mask of the Betrayer is...epic - a shorter story that rivals the depth of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. However, stories made in mods were a lot...less creative, this time around. People made up for it with new mechanics. Developing Characters that you could take on different campaigns by just adding one hak to the file, new spells and races, making this possible in the actual old campaigns!
Sadly, the Windows/Mac issues also have plagued this one (worse than the original) and I myself can no longer play NWN 2. It was overall more bugged, and so never left the same impact.

WHAAAA
you have to play
especially if you like explosions

Explosions are good.

10. Cards Against Humanity (card game)

If you only play it once, which I'm sure might be all some people are inclined to. It's essentially this: a random question is pulled from the stack, and players answer it using the cards they have in their hand. It's a horrible, horrible game for dirty minds and makes you think things you would rather not have thought of, but it can be pretty darn funny. Mature content advisory, at the very least.

If you have issues with racy things or just...yeah...there's always "Bubble Talk." Same style of game but with pictures to which you add a caption from the cards in your hand. Much, much more family friendly.

11. Talisman (Revised 4th Edition)

A bit of a mix of D&D and Monopoly, it has all the fun and anguish of adventuring with none of the character setup or roleplay. You draw one of many characters with varying abilities that will help you throughout the game. Each turn you roll the dice and move to a different area of the board. There is no restricted movement, so you are allowed to move back and forth throughout various areas of the land. On most tiles you will draw an adventure card(s), which has you encounter everything from rats to dragons to blizzards and pestilence to Mephistopheles himself. Or, you know, a hag.

You obtain followers, magical objects, items, gold. Killing enemies allows you to boost your strength and magical prowess, allowing you to be more formidable in combat. You may attack other players, mess them up with spells, or just be downright nasty and make it your mission to kill everyone you land on.

There is a goal, however: Get to the center of the board. Use the Crown of Command. And murder everyone else. If a player dies in normal play, they are reborn as a different character. This lets players jump back in the game after being murdered or stepped on after being turned in to a toad (Being a toad is a thing).

However, once you get to the Crown of Command, you start killing everyone. And if someone dies by your hand at the Crown, they don't come back. The endgame turns in to a race to see who can make it to the Crown. It is tough. Traps and awful things await. You could die, or you could wind up being thrown back to the very beginning of the map. Great treasure or colossal failure awaits you!

Oh, and there's a crap ton of expansions. Some are simply card and character based, others are quite literal board expansions. Using multiples is fun and makes for a humongous board and adventure.

12) Age of Mythology & Titans Expansion

If anyone wonders what started me on mythology, the Strategy Game Age of Mythology would be it. AoM combines a moderately complex resource set/limit (Wood, Gold, Favor, Population, and Food) with a complex research tier set. (You chose 1/4 sides, 1/3 Major Gods, and 3 sets of 1/2 minor gods, plus technological research)

The sets are relatively creative, with all 12 different Major Gods having variation in the building appearances, 6 Wonders, 3 Titan beasts, etc.

You actually create a small set of villages, rather than just "build a base, slay the enemy, win". There's a simple economy/trading system, farming, houses, and (if I recall correctly) town influence. Even after a game over, it was fun to just continue building.

Now, as to the mythology, for the most part it was Wikipedia-accurate for the origins, stories, ect. of Heroes, peoples, units, and Mythological creatures. You could just access it from their description/information. That was how I first learned of Hercules (Not via Disney) and Perseus and the Nidhoggr.

Strikes against it would be yes, the game is polygon 3D with a skin over it, and yes, there are things in the campaign that you can't have outside of it (a pet peeve in strategy and FPS games in general)...so no, you can't host a game where everyone fights to release the Gates of Hades (though the game does have chaotic and neutral factions to compensate).

Finally, you can create your own maps in AoM. I am fairly certain someone did one for Carthage or Rome a good while back.

13)The Star Ocean Series

Namely, out of them, I've played 'Star Ocean: The Second Story' and "Star Ocean: Til The End of Time" all the way through. Although I did play a bit of the new Star Ocean, "The Last Hope". I can pretty much say this series is one of the best I have so far.
Since my favorite one is 'Til The End of Time', it'd be easier for me to tell about that one. XD
But as for it, it's for the Playstation 2. It's in my personal top 5 games. xD I've played it countless times. Even going on challenge runs such as 'Use 'X' Character Only' or such.
I love the game's battle system, through and through. It's free-time based, you can run around, dodge attacks, set up yourself for a nice position to attack, etc. There's weak/strong attacks, where weak is fast, but weaker, and strong is slow, but can break guards. You can have up to four moves, a weak/short range, a weak/long range, and then short and long range for the strong attack button. The awesome thing about it is the ability to 'chain' moves together by using them back-to-back. Say, you had a kick that sends enemies into the air as a weak move, then you have a 'Triple Kick' that kicks them while they're in the air twice, then the final kick sends them sprawling back. If you do one right after the other, it gets a 50% bonus in power. It keeps going up and up til it gets to 300%. With quite a few unique moves for each character and like. 10-12 characters I believe, it's really fun just trying out new move combos on each one. x3

But that's just the battle system. XD Since it's my favorite part,I figured I'd just list that. If I realllly went into the finer parts of the game, I'd be here forever. XD Like, I can go on. Seriously.
But yeah. It's at least worth a try. x3 It's really fun.

14) World in Conflict Series:

This game ranges from a relatively in-depth campaign to a revolution in strategy games. World in Conflict re-imagines the Soviet Invasion of the USA. It's collector's edition even included a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Now, World in Conflict removed the resource system, and the "unit construction facilities" and instead gives you a limited budget with which to call in parachuted troops/vehicles behind allied lines. In addition, the maps/world has very interactable structures and terrain - you can have (and see) soldiers invading and fighting through buildings...and securing/guarding them afterwards. You can order in air strikes and helicopters to also level said buildings, or to blow up parts of the land (creating cover).

Multiplayer had a ranking system that rewarded those who played online more with a larger budget. :|

Singleplayer had a campaign of soldiers, depicted rather realistically. I don't want to spoil it, because it has some incredible tear-jerking moments mixed with "WTF, you Computer A-hole" moments (not a flaw in the Computer's AI) mixed with "camaraderie."

Some say Supreme Commander is one of the most complex Strategy games, but after playing it, Age of Mythology, and World in Conflict, I strongly urge you to play the latter two if you can.

16) Amnesia: The Dark Descent:

Adding to the "Alchemist" games, we have Amnesia. This game is one of the few to add a strong component to recent horror gameplay - the Sanity meter. This meter, while not as scary as some of the others (Eternal Darkness) in its effects, can add some real helplessness to the situation. Not only do you lack any means of self-defense (beyond a barrel, or Markiplier's chair), but also you have to avoid looking at your threats (and other things) lest you collapse, paintings change, and experience auditory hallucinations...while the nearest man-eating grunt is alerted to your presence/state.

It also has a rather strong storyline - akin to Lovecraft's madness, with a twist incorporated in. It is a rather solitary gameplay, unfortunately, but it's first person horror (With situations that require you to hide in the closet...and the still may get you...or a part of the game where the floor/water has a monster that you never see other than a splish-splash. The atmosphere is creepy, and the story ranges from sad to mad to creepfest.

Amnesia is another game with the ability to make custom stories/custom content, though I lack experience with it. It has allowed some creative modders to make trippy dreamworld-like games, exploring inside of the dark aspects of the mind, or alchemy, or the Cthulhu-like "Shadows"...along with minigames and other unique creatures.

I will say that Amnesia take a decent bit from Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. They both have a mysterious Horror/Victorian Science Fiction styled game theme/story. The twist in both is similar. Also, Amnesia's sanity meter is a "watered down" version of Eternal Darkness's meter (which combined the hallucinations and harder gameplay with Creepypasta and 4th wall horror). However, Amnesia seems to have more of its own universe, whereas Eternal Darkness relied heavily on the Lovecraftian mythos. Also, Amnesia has better graphics, is more widely supported, and makes more sense. I'd consider Eternal Darkness the "test run" for Amnesia.

Amnesia, overall, I recommend as an introduction to PC Game Horror.

Alright! Think this is all updated now.

Thinking of two games here but not sure what to go with. Let's go with this one:


17. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GameCube)

What's this? A GameCube game! It's hard to say much about this game because I think it really shines best on the first playthrough with very little knowledge of what's actually going on. As far as statistics go, it's a survival horror sort of game, with some detective work involved as you play a young women who's investigating her grandfather's mysterious and gory death.

That's all I'm going to tell you. Have fun!

this threads existence, I shall break my own rules and add two in a row! *gasp* but it's a different medium of game so I'll say that it's sorta okay. ;)


18. Fury of Dracula - (board game) Fantasy Flight Games (remake)

The original was by Games Workshop and I haven't played it, but I loved this version but have only played it once. Like Talisman t's a game for people in for a long haul, with sessions taking several hours to get through. Experience with tabletop games is useful as the rulebook is pretty large and fairly detailed.

Essentially, the game involves 5 people or fewer. The characters (each from the book) and Dracula. One person plays Dracula and effectively guides the game, while the other players run the characters and try to catch him. Dracula's movements are made in secret, and planned a few steps in advance, while clues drop that hint to the players where he may be.

While the players are trying to kill Dracula, Dracula is also trying to kill them. I like this game over some other guided RPG-like board games because the "GM" has a legitimate character to play, rather than just running encounters. Movement rules, day and night cycles, and character abilities make for a lot of strategy behind the game play. Again though, it's not a short game.

Wait? Board Games are an option?
O.O

*Goes to grab Dad's old Hobbit and Blitzkrieg strategy Board-games*

Of course they are! I think a lot of people don't realize what is available in board games if you look, though you generally need to find a specialty game storeor go online rather than look in a general place like Walmart or something.

I have two or three to add then. One was even the reason I found the Vassal Computer-boardgame engine.

One of my favorite things to do is introduce new players of the game and watch their reactions. :p-evil:


19. Cthulhu Gloom

This game ties with Cards Against Humanity in my very short list of card games I enjoy. The premise is that you have a family of five and you basically have to kill them off and make them as miserable as possible before you kill them off. The person with the lowest score after killing off their family wins. You can sabotage the other players as well by giving them positive point cards, among other things. Definitely worth playing at least once. I'm keeping my eye out for an inexpensive set for conventions and other things. And I really don't care for card games most of the time, so consider this an unofficial endorsement by me.

Haven't heard of that one.

Keeping with the card game theme, this is one of my favourite games in general:

20. Citadels (Fantasy Flight)

A European import, the premise of the game is fairly simple. There are eight character cards (without the expansions) and each round the players (anywhere from two to eight) selects their character role (in secret) for that turn. The roles determine turn order and what each player can do that turn. The object is to be the first to build eight buildings.

Rules are easy enough. For example, the Assassin always goes first, and can kill any other character, meaning that character's player loses their turn. The thief always goes second and can steal 2 gold from any character except the assassin (because the assassin's player is already known). Character selection starts with the King player (4th in turn order) even if the king was assassinated.

Strategy gets intense when deciding which character to pick, or trying to figure out who picked who. For instance, you can tell who the people in front of you in selection order picked by seeing which character cards are missing, as well as who the characters are that you are passing down the line, so you always have some basic info for guessing who's who. In the full eight player game, the second and second to last people to select characters always know who at least one person is.

Since the point of the game is to build, there are characters that can destroy buildings or allow you to build extra buildings. The Warlord goes last and can destroy any one building. The Bishop's only ability is to defend a player's buildings from the Warlord. A player about to win will likely pick the Bishop to avoid losing the building. However, that does them no good if the Assassin player decides to kill the Bishop, perhaps having guessed that's the character the winning player had.

It's a very fun for people who like brainy games.


Oh, and a note on Cards Against Humanity: apparently Apples to Apples is the G-rated equivalent.

(Quiet is definitely not making me post in her thread. I am super social on the forums all the time. Everyone knows this.)

21. Bloodborne

Are you a masochist? No? Get out.

*ahem* Those of you who are left, Bloodborne is the best game on the PS4, that's all you need to know.

Okay, okay. It's a branch-off of the Dark Souls franchise set in the Lovecraft-inspired steampunk city/world of Yharnam. You play the role of a Hunter, trapped in the eldritch nightmare that has taken hold of the city, and must slaughter your way through terrifying enemies to find your way free.

Oh, and you die. A lot. It's a game mechanic. The combat is brutally unforgiving, almost every single enemy can kill you in two hits or less, most move extremely quickly, and they love to sneak up on you or jump at you from outside your field of view.

But dear God, is it fun. The controls are the most responsive I've ever experienced in an action game -- if you die, ever, it is 100% definitely completely all your fault. And this allows you to learn, adapt, and eventually become a total badass sheathing yourself in the blood of your enemies as you massacre all manner of physics-shattering horrors. (if you've ever seen the movie Edge of Tomorrow, the basic idea of the gameplay is pretty much that. Die, and die, and die, until you have every tiny movement of the enemy muscle-memorized and you can end them rightly.)

The absolute #1 strength of the game is its atmosphere, and the way the gameplay ties into it. You see, there is an extremely complex story at work in Bloodborne -- and you are never told ANY of it. It is completely up to you to piece together the mystery of what happened to Yharnam, so in some ways the game gives back what you're willing to put into it. If you're just looking for some challenging hack-and-slash, it certainly has that on offer, but there is so much more beneath the surface, secrets layered upon secrets, all contributing to the chill-inducing unease that comes with every new insight (pun totally intended) you gain into the lore.

I don't want to spoil anything, but as you go through the game, doing different things makes your Insight stat go up -- which is your connection to the transcendental eldritch planes of existence upon which dwell horrors beyond your imagining, and as your Insight increases... you start to SEE things, things that were always there, watching you with unhuman eyes, while you were totally oblivious in your fragile human delusions.

...this game is amazing. I don't know what else to say. The mechanic of having to hoard your experience points (Blood Echoes) without dying even once (you lose them if you die) makes you genuinely horrified of what's lurking around each corner, but the deranged curiosity to look anyway is always present.

I'm gushing. Holy Cththulu am I gushing, but I don't even care! It's that good! If you haven't played it, and have any interest in supernatural horror, you're the real masochist for depriving yourself of this amazing experience! That's right! Go play it!

23. Until Dawn (PS4)

A bunch of teenagers go spend a weekend in a cabin on the mountains, and you know where this is going. ;)

You know when you're watching a horror movie and you can't help roll your eyes or yell at the TV at the dumb choices the characters make that get themselves killed? This is that, but you get to make those choices!

The game is a horror story that takes place on Mount Washington, BC (I've totally been there!) and as it says in the title, you need to last until dawn. I played this game for the first time with my niece while on holiday here, and it was quite the entertaining game to watch.

The game's signature mechanic is "Butterfly Effect" where the choices you make along with some event results affect the narrative of the story, along with what ultimately happens. The game is a mixture of decisions and quick time events (moments where you need to hit the right button on the controller in the right time frame to do whatever if it you need to do) as you try to survive the 10 hours until dawn. It's roughly in real time, and you control all the characters at one time or another, depending on the situation. There is a significant amount of replay value as different choices lead to different options.

I'd like to play it some more, but we've been distracted by Fallout 4. ;)

24. We Know the Devil (Visual Novel)

Remember the recent string of Magical Girl deconstructions? What about experiences in religious camps? Crystal Radios?

We Know the Devil is a visual novel that is surreal and distant. It breaks traditional storytelling by not going into the characters minds, but tells the setting and story through everyday dialogue and actions. The main choice you get here is that you chose which characters to follow, and that affects the outcome for four different endings.

I am putting this up due to the themes it crosses. It is rather good at showing what folk who don't fit in with strict religious upbringing and all may go through. Also, because one of the characters really got to me.

Criticism would be that, like many works, it does come across as a binary solution, and presents picking one side of the binary as if it can resolve one's troubles. (As opposed to self-acceptance therapy, which would have fit well in the character's efforts to deal with the struggles of juggling ideology and their sense of self)

It is short - a few hours at most.

Woops, been a while. Do you have a production company or any sort of equivalent to add to that, Law? Some sort of entity that made it?

Uh. How has Undertale not been suggested yet?

Nope, go for it!

Oh, and the game was made by Avee Bee of the group Mammon Machine:ZEAL, and published on Sep. 15, 2015 by Date Nighto.

I was going to suggest Undertale! That is an amazing game.

Ori and the Blind Forest. Ii think it is on Xbox One and PC. It is a puzzle platformer game. The graphics are beautiful and the story is amazing!

Morphie's Law.

It's a shooter game, but with a twist.

Right now, it's in alpha testing, but it should be available soon via Steam. I want to play it because even if I'm lousy at it, there's great potential for hilarity.

Seeing as how no one has made a review yet...

Undertale by Toby Fox - September 15, 2015


Undertale is a roleplaying experience with graphics and humor similar to Earthbound. However, that is the minimum one can say - Undertale is a roleplaying experience that deconstructs other elements common in 2D roleplaying games. From dating to puzzles, it will laugh at the rules of other RPG's.


That said, Undertale also offers something rather innovative - it's turn-based combat style. Unlike most of its kind, Undertale has encounters where it goes full-out black-and-white Tron. The enemy character covers the upper half of the screen, while the game turns your character into a heart...inside a box...and uses abstract bullet hells that fit your enemy's personality to attack you in real time. It's a good way to mix first-person and top-down perspectives. As a game that deconstructs material should do, this battle mode is used for more than bullet hells. Platforming that normally would not work in either of the perspectives works here, as well as self-referential humor and things like a dog eating the opponent's special attack. I'll point out that there are also "Mercy" and "Act" buttons...but I fear I am already saying too much.


The story...it's best not to mention much of. It has elements typical of a good fantasy story - go check out Monster Rancher season 1 for similar feels - but generally it's about the characters one meets in the game. Toby makes these monsters who will summon man-eating butterflies...human, and not in the "brooding angst" way. They have loves, hobbies, are rather nerdy, and are both fun and groan-worthy enough to want to like/be around them. Like the music Toby uses, a good bit of the story uses leitmotifs for each character, making them rather easy to get into/recognize.
Other than that, there are three endings that are very different in gameplay based on your actions towards all the monsters. (Typically, they are named "Pacifist, Neutral, and Genocide" routes). Oh, and the game remembers your actions in past saves and runs.

It's a ten dollar game for 8-16 hours of game, so go check it out. If you want, there is even a free demo of the game. Hide your puns.


(I will warn you, the fanbase is as bad and good as MLP or FNaF...they make some good content, fan-games, and art...but also have youths who will curse you for playing the game on your own terms.) Now, be very, very quiet. I'm hunting Floweys.

Forgetting numbers here! I'm getting lost putting these up. Update and new game in just a minute! On 28 now.

28. Armello (League of Geeks)

A digital 4 player board game, with 8 playable characters (currently). Can play with all online people or fill in with AI if other players are hard to find. Just started playing it but it's a good game, charming, and there is a decent variety in strategy to win, but enough chance that the game can vary quite a bit in terms of how well things go, which can be good and bad if one doesn't adapt well. The art is nice and the animations are smooth but it can feel a bit slow between turns.

It's easier to appreciate the game by just going to check it out yourself than by my describing it.