Hello, hello, my beloved Lusi-sprites. Not rain nor sleet nor exploded computer can stop my blog posts. I have nothing else to do after work while waiting for the bus adore our readers too much to go two whole weeks without a post. So here I am, and there you are!
One of the most enjoyable (for me) posts that I recall writing here was my editorial on the best games that you guys likely did not play. These were mostly obscure fan-translated J-RPGs. Today, though, I thought we could discuss the best games that I have not played, and hopefully you all will name and shame yourselves and confess to the epic titles that you have neglected. Admitting the problem is half of the battle, and the first step on the road to recovery. Hopefully by sharing our (previously) secret shame, we will all be inspired to play these games.
1. Dragon Age: Origins I simply have not gotten around to it, and I am very sorry. I have it, and someday when the computer fairy (the nice FedEx lady) delivers a new PC to me, perhaps I can play it. It is probably better than most of the dated classics that I tend to play.
2. StarCraft. I just lost a lot of nerd cred, huh? Yeah, I have not played what I am told is the quintessential RTS of all time, ever, for infinity and beyond.
3. Xenosaga. Considering that Xenogears is one of my favourite games in the history of gaming, it is a bit surprising that I have not played anything from this series. Now I do admit that partial blame for this can be laid upon all of the poor reviews the game has gotten, but still, as a Xeno fangirl, I really am obligated.
4. Doom, Quake, Halo, Unreal Tournament, etc, etc … every version and incarnation. These are boy games. I do not play boy games. I do not play games with guns and little targeting thingys, and voice overs declaring “head shot!”. Nope, I just do not.
5. Po-ke-mon! This is for Lusipurr. I have not, will not play it. Ever. Most gamers have, I believe, at least tried Pokemon. Not I, though! I do not care how many gazillion million copies of the games are sold. I do not care that it is such a phenomenon. In the immortal words of many a lolcat … “DO NOT WANT”.
So, fess up. Bare your soul. Admit to the gaping holes in your gamer resume.
Lusipurr
Bup
Ginia
Lane
Eric J
Jenifer
2010.02.11 at 10:50
Agreed on 1, 2, 3, and 4. I’ve sadly never played any of them, though I really do want to get around to the Xenosaga eventually…but that statement is about as hollow as ‘I’d like to cure cancer eventually.’
And I have played the Mons of Poke, but I have a good excuse! I was a tween when Pokemon was OMFG HUEG, so I absolutely needed Red and Blue. NEEDED THEM. Though that excuse kind of falls apart when considering I was almost 20 when buying Diamond. I’m sorry dammit, Pachirisu is just too fucking cute.
The quintessential game I’ve never played but have always been curious about is Everquest. I’m not a huge fan of MMOs to begin with and my perpetual state of being broke puts any pay-to-play games at a disadvantage. But Everquest hold such a high reputation as THE original MMO of psychotic addiction, I want to play it just to see how vampiric it really is.
2010.02.11 at 11:53
Pokémans is tops, yo!
Tip tops and a half!
2010.02.11 at 12:27
You really should play Heart Gold or Soul Silver. They are truly excellent.
@Jenifer: Everquest has been utterly supplanted by WoW, which is far, far, far more addictive than EQ ever was.
2010.02.11 at 13:13
@ Lusipurr: Do you guys have that already?!?! I preordered mine and they said March!! Gold was my first PKMN game, so there’s no way I am not buying this on release day.
As for gaps in my gaming, there are an embarrasing number of games I have never played, partly because I was born too late. The fact i’ve never played on a SNES is explanation enough.
2010.02.11 at 13:22
kenjuju has 1 month to play Chrono Trigger or Earthbound before we ban her. <3
2010.02.11 at 13:32
@ Ginia: …..erm, now, is Chrono Trigger the one they ported to DS? And don’t they refuse to release Earthbound here?
2010.02.11 at 13:45
Yeah, I guess you can play CT on the DS or PSX. It all counts.
As for Earthbound …. NO EXCUSES, or I swear, Lusipurr will beat you down with a yo-yo and a baseball bat.
<3 !
2010.02.11 at 14:34
@ Ginia:….I realise Lusipurr has a very strict no-piracy stance, but perhaps you could direct me to somewhere that might possibly have a link to a site that may have less morals and perhaps are distributing the game illegally which I would never condone or would never dream of using on a Virtual Game Boy on my computer. Perhaps.
2010.02.11 at 14:35
<3
2010.02.11 at 16:01
@ Jujube
As soon as my PC is un-exploded, you got it. *wink-wink, nudge-nudge*
2010.02.11 at 16:45
Awesome! *nudge-nudge, wink-wink*
2010.02.11 at 18:08
WHAT!?
SOMEONE HAS NOT PLAYED EARTHBOUND!?
GO GO BAN HAMMER!
2010.02.11 at 19:48
Sadly, I, too haven’t played Earthbound (or at least haven’t finished it). It suffered from emulator fatigue and I only got about 1/2ish (maybe) way through it. It’d one of those games I always wanted to go back and finish.
Like Kenjujuu, I never had an SNES, but I’ve been picking up a lot of those games (especially RPGs) as they’re remade for the GBA/DS. I just finished Chrono Trigger on the DS late last year, and it was quite enjoyable. That’s probably where most of my gaming backlog lies, though, in the SNES generation.
Speaking of Xenosaga, that’s been on my backlog for a while now. I actually bought Xenosaga 3 off Lusi recently, so I went back 2 weeks ago and cracked open my copy of Xenosaga 2 again. I think I’m just about at the final boss of the game, and I’ve gotta say it is SLLOOOOOOOWWWWWWW. Not that that’s necessarily bad. The battles are definitely more strategy heavy and they’ve taken out the in-battle prerendered attacks (or at least made them less useful). My personal favorite annoyance, though, is that now, instead of a 45 minute cutscene, you get 9 5-minute cutscenes with 30 seconds of walking in between. I suppose it might be classified as an improvement, since you’re no longer going for an hour without a save point, but it’s still a bit irritating.
More recently, the Yakuza series has always been one that’s always piqued my interest. I’m thinking about picking 1 and 2 up on Amazon at some point just so I have them before they get outrageously expensive.
Also, Zelda. I’ve only played Wind Waker.
2010.02.12 at 02:00
I *hated* Earthbound. It was stupid. End of story.
I also have never played Pokemon, nor do I plan to. I find the whole concept a bit absurd. Monsters that live in balls?
Nor have I played any of the Xeno games. You see, I was quite the gamer in the 16-bit era, but when 64-bit systems emerged, I got out of it because my parents thought the Sony Playstation was a fad and the N64 would be the bee’s knees. Yeah… we eventually got a PS2 about midway through its life, but by that time, I was in high school and my little brothers monopolized it with every iteration of sports game imaginable, but by this time, I was a dedicated PC gamer.
Quake, Unreal, Mechwarrior, Civilization, the Elder Scrolls, Icewind Dale, Baldur’s Gate… these became my playthings. Then, I’d say around 8th or 9th grade, some friends I started trying out this “online gaming” stuff with “The Realm” from my old pals at Sierra. After my third ban for coming up with an exploit (roll warrior, sell your mana crystals for lots of gold!), another friend talked me into playing Everquest. I had no idea how to play, and grinded my way to level 20 or so before figuring out that I could go on quests for equipment. I played off-and-on until I graduated and moved to college, when I got an Xbox. Then, I was back to consoles, but never played much because of school until I was about halfway through law school, when I got a 360, PS3 and WoW.
Now I’m back to being a gamer, and I love it.
Anyway, I missed a whole bunch of these during those years when I didn’t play often. I *could* go back and replay them, but then again, I have limited playtime and prefer to focus on new games. I’ve got Mass Effect 2 still in the shrinkwrap, and I’m salivating over the Dragon Age DLC expansion coming up.
2010.02.12 at 13:35
never played earthbound, chrono trigger, or xenogears. I’m not ashamed of it either. I’ve had an opportunity to play all three and turned down all offers.
since I only got to the part where sabin, locke, and terra split up FFVI would technically fall under this category too. it only took that long to realize that I was playing a 2d FFVII so I stopped.
2010.02.13 at 19:04
@Ginia’s list:
1) I’ve got Dragon Age and it laughs at my PC (Athlon XP ; ;), so I can’t play it. Well, I could, but at single digit frame rates.. Being unemployed makes keeping current hardware rather impossible.
2) I liked StarCraft but never got crazy into it like a lot of people I know. I found WarCraft 3’s multiplayer more fun, personally. (And lots prettier.)
3) I liked Xenogears a lot (finished it in three days, I think), but Xenosaga kind of blew. I didn’t play the second or third games. I’d recommend just watching the cutscenes on Youtube or that RPG cutscene website.
4) To each his/her own. They’re fun games though, you’re missing out. I mean how can killing Nazis with fire not be awesome?
5) I played about five minutes of one of the Gameboy (Color?) versions of the Red/Blue Pokemon and decided it was an ugly 8bit collectathon RPG and didn’t really interest me. Then I went on to buy and play nearly all the PS2 Shin Megami Tensei games where you collectathon up buttloads of demons. I’m nothing if not consistent. :P
As for my own terrible, dark secrets…
I’ve only played a few minutes of the SNES Earthbound. The bizarre packaging and stuff (and probably high price) kept me from getting it on the SNES back in the day. But sacrafices had to be made to be able to play FF4, FF6, Secret of Mana, etc. I’m sure Lusipurr would understand.
I don’t think I’ve ever finished a Tri-Ace game. I’ve played to the last bosses in Star Ocean 2. I’ve played halfway through Star Ocean 1. I played about an hour into the PS2 Star Ocean, which while pretty looking and running in 480p, had the most annoyingly terrible voice acting in any game ever. It ended up freezing due to a disc read error (my PS2 is like 11 years old) before I could figure out how to save my game.
I’m sad to say I never got into any of the PC games Lane mentioned. I’ve heard great things about from others as well. No Bioware for me besides the first KOTOR pretty much.