Top Ten Awesome Games

Yep, late as usual on getting a post out. By now I'm sure you already aren't following my suggestions as to when I'll have a new post out as I can never manage to get one up by then. Anyways, this time you can blame all the Grifball, Assassin's Creed...and maybe Need For Speed. Onto the point of this post though. Normally, you wouldn't mention what you are going to talk about in an English paper at the start of it...however, this isn't an English paper. By the time you have managed to read through this wall of text; I hope to have given you my top ten games/game series that I have played in my total of 7, almost 8, but still 7(!) years of gaming. Although, I'm pretty sure you already know what game will take number 1.

To kick things off at number 10: the Ghost Recon series. I may not have always been able to beat the single player side of it, but it was an awesome game to play nonetheless. It was really the first game that I played where you could use modern and even futuristic weapons. It was also always a blast to sit down with a friend and go through the hunt and kill levels(post for reference.) And no...I still cannot use an RPG in that game.

Number 9: Another series along the same line of Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six. More specifically, Rainbow Six: Vegas. For the exact same reasons as Ghost Recon. It's fun to play, especially with friends. Another series that you get to use modern weapons in. The Terrorist Hunt mode is really fun, it takes a good amount of teamwork and communication in order to get through each level. The first game I was ever able to use a P-90 and SCAR-H in also...

Number 8: The somewhat unheard game of the Xbox 360: Full Auto. Take your normal arcade style racing game with a handful of cars. Now, take those same cars and attach a various amount of firepower to them. Sure, it may not have been the best game out there; but it was still sweet drifting around a corner in a high performance exotic while filling the air(and fellow cars) with rounds from your two mounted .50Cals attached to the front of it. The amount of destruction you could omit to certain things in the game environment was pretty awesome as well. Oh snap! The guy in first is about to cross the finish line? No problem, just drop the nearest water tower on them. Hehe, that was always awesome to do...not that I ever did that to anyone...

Number 7(!): Just Cause 2. I've always been a fan of the Mercenaries series and JC2 takes the best of that series and expands on it. I always wanted to fly a jet in Mercenaries, but never could. With JC2, I can do that fairly easily. Although, it doesn't help that I still crash them into trees. I swear I didn't see them! My only regret, needs more tanks and the bullet absorbing enemies either.

Number 6: The Mercenaries series. This was really my first "open-world" game when I picked up the first game in it for the original Xbox. The amount of destruction you could do in the game world was really awesome. The second game I fell however, didn't live up the potential that it could of had. Sure, it was awesome and the potential destruction within the game world was ramped up from the first one, plus the game world was a little larger(for the record, JC2 has the biggest game world that I have played in.) It is easily one of those games that you go play if you want to mess around doing stupid stuff in.

These are the top five games that I have had the most enjoyment of. Some surprises in here if you don't cyber-stalk me and have no idea what games I play. On the other hand, if you do, you may already know where I am going with these.

Coming in at number 5: The Left 4 Dead series. You can never go wrong with some classic zombie killing fun. So, the doors are a little "difficult" to get through; but we can blame that on the Zombie Apocalypse instead. It's just an awesome series, I really don't know how to describe it. There's just something about blowing a zombie's head off with an auto shotgun that makes me love this game. The random banter that goes on between the characters is awesome as well. Some of it is rather funny.

Number 4: The Assassin's Creed series. I actually picked the first game up on sale while I was out of town for the day, brought it home and have enjoyed it since then. Well, actually only about mid-December did I actually complete the game for the first time. It's another one of those games that has a real deep storyline to it and you have to start at the first game in order to understand anything about it. I really like the timeline that they take part in as well, although it doesn't help that I enjoy history a lot either. There's also so much stuff do to once you have completed the game. From going back and collecting flags of the different Kings(the first game) to collecting eagle feathers strewn about the game world(second game).

Number 3: The places for spots 2 and 3 were rather difficult to decide. I truly enjoy both series, but the Mechassault series takes the third spot. 30+ feet tall robots that walk around blowing anything up that gets in their way. 'Nuff said. I got this game along with my original Xbox back in December of '03. The other game is soon to be mentioned. If you already played this game, you know exactly why it's in my list. The story is awesome, the way the other Mechs blowup when you destroy them is awesome and the weapons are awesome as well. All the different kinds of Mechs you have to choose from is awesome. I prefer the assault class mechs over any of the others; especially when you can manage to upgrade their weapons to level three. Overkill to the lower classed scouts? Oh yes, but who cares when you have four others of them shooting at you and more on the way?

Number 2: Another "if you've played this you know why" series. The complete F.E.A.R series. The only horror/shooter game I've played, the storyline is twisted with plenty more twists as the story progresses to keep you guessing. It also is home to the best shotgun in any game ever. Plus it gives you plenty to do if you are a completion-ist with looking for answering machines in the first few games; to looking around for data pads that uncover and add to parts of the story in the second one. The environment is really nice as well.



For the game series I have enjoyed the most since 2003...probably no surprise here: Halo. Surprised? No? Didn't think so. Anyways, I have always been a huge fan of the story side of the game. Nothing beats sitting down and playing through a level or two of the campaign in the original game. When Forge was introduced in Halo 3, I thought that was so cool. I'd finally be able to make maps for friends to play on(more like only one friend) without having to build one from the ground up(literally) like in Far Cry. Well, so I can make maps, but not real good ones...or finish them for that fact. Then ODST came along which introduced Firefight into the franchise. When I first saw the video and the first few details I fell in love with it. Like killing an endless amount of zombies can never get old, neither can killing an endless amount of Covenant. The fiction behind the story is truly amazing also, I don't get into it a whole lot, but I do enjoy reading about certain aspects in the backstory of the series.
With the release of Reach some of the settings for the game modes have been taken apart and reassembled to give you much more customization than in previous games. Especially with Firefight in Reach, you can decide which enemy you fight in exactly a specific wave in a game. Plus you can have custom skulls on which either give you, or the enemies(or both) an upper hand in the battle. I could have an entire post dedicated to nothing but Firefight material...I might have to do that at some point.
The multiplayer is great also; I'm not a huge fan of the multiplayer(online part mainly) portion of any game to begin with, but I find a lot of fun with it in this series. I remember so many awesome games of Oddball with a few friends back in the days of Halo 2. Then going back and playing the same thing and a few extra custom made gametypes in CE also. There was always the awesome games of Crazy King or Juggernaut.
In short, the two things that really make this game series enjoyable to me is the deep storyline and Firefight.


So there you have it, my ten games/game franchises that I have had the most enjoyment out of for the past 7(!), going on 8 years of me gaming. But wait, there's more! Yes, I said more. There are a few(read: a lot) of games that I have played that have had these really awesome moments that deserve to be listed as well.
I enjoyed Modern Warfare 2, however it just isn't a game I can play on a daily basis(even though I did for like a month after I got the game...); however, the co-op Spec-Ops mode was pretty awesome. One level in particular keeps coming to mind. The Spec-Ops level entitled "Overwatch" is the one I'm thinking of, but anyways; you and your buddy are split up basically. One of you is one the ground and have to fight towards an extraction point, meanwhile; your friend is up in the sky in an AC-130 gunship providing covering fire. I cannot count how many times I played that level with Storm when we first got the game, it's just pure awesomeness getting to help your teammate reach their destination with that amount of firepower at your control. I dare say it, but it is my favorite thing out of all the CoD game I've played.
Then there's the first Bioshock, where you're swimming to the lighthouse in the middle of the ocean/whatever it is and then taking the Bathosphere(I'm surprised I remembered that...) down to Rapture. Maybe not extremely awesome, but nonetheless it's still pretty epic.
Another one that comes to mind is from Half-Life 2: Episode 2. Getting the gnome that is shoved underneath a nearby table at the start of the game and keeping track of him throughout the entire game and locking him away on the rocket at the end of it. Most annoying 30 Gamerpoints towards my gamerscore ever. I'll admit though, it has to be my favorite achievement that I have earned.
Going back to my roots here, the first encounter with the Flood. I'll admit I was younger when I first started playing Halo so they did freak me out at first. The level, 343 Guilty Spark, is the perfect setting for what happens later on in the level; plus all the winding chambers and tunnels that you have run through in order to escape really adds to the atmosphere of possible impending doom. And, you can't forget the video of the previous squad of Marines that travel to where the Flood is being contained that you get a hold of to find out why everything is the way it is. However, right now that is one of my favorite levels of the entire Halo franchise.
Speaking of Halo, another immediate awesome moment comes to mind via Halo 2. The game was full of them, but the one I'm thinking of is at the end of the level High Charity(I think...) where you face off against Elites and their minions that are fighting Brutes and their minions as well in the mausoleum. If you have played this part of the level, you know exactly why I am listing it here. Personally, I think it has that classic "Halo battle" feel to it with having to fight both sides of the Covenant.

Okay, so now there you have it. My top ten games I have enjoyed plus the few epic moments I can remember right now. I might have to post some more epic moments from games when I remember any. Now, feel free to post any of your favorite moments if you want.