MY FAVORITE VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME

You heard it right. It's the list you ALL've been waiting for!

The final, ultimate, balls-to-the-wall, down-to-business, no-bullcrap-about it. I'm a gamer since 4 yrs old, and therefore during the last 21 years I've played a TON of games. Some good, some bad, but these... these are the cream of the butter. Legends. Epic Wins, if you will.

Best Videogames I Have Ever Played.

Instead of doing a simple Top N and/or splitting them between genres, I've decided to be original and split them between themes. And then, I've sorted the themes in a descending order. Also, there are some duplicates among the lists, but that's understandable since many of them encompass more than one stylistic genre. Also, I haven't included casual games, but I'd like to honor them beforehand - Tetris, Kyodai Mahjong and Minesweeper are my favorite timekillers for as long as I know myself.

As for the rest...



Science Fiction: Marathon 2: Durandal
Unsorted runners-up: Marathon, Marathon Infinity, Cyber Org, DOOM, Turrican 3, Einhander, Star Control 1-2, Phantasy Star Universe series, Dune 1-2, X-COM 1-3, Elite 1-2, Quake 2, Quazatron, Academy, Unreal, Flashback: Quest For Identity




Cyberpunk: Deus Ex
Unsorted runners-up: Crusader: No Remorse, Marathon, Metal Gear Solid, Cyberlords: Arcology, Contra: Hard Corps




Sci-Fi Action: Gunstar Heroes
Unsorted runners-up: Contra, Gunstar Super Heroes, GunForce 2, Commander Keen 6, Tyrian, Oni, Soldier Blade, Exolon, Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper, Rogue Trooper (1986), Disruptor




Post-Apocalypse: Fallout 2
Unsorted runners-up: Fallout, Necrodome, Quarantine




'Die Hard On An X': Half-Life
Unsorted runners-up: System Shock 2, Metal Gear Solid, Saboteur 2, The Great Escape (1986)




Dystopia: Crusader: No Remorse
Unsorted runners-up: Deus Ex, Freedom Fighters, Unreal Tournament




War: Call Of Duty
Unsorted runners-up: Gears Of War 2, Operation Flashpoint, Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, Command & Conquer: Generals, Harrier Attack, Shock Troopers




Political Thriller: Metal Gear Solid
Unsorted runners-up: Crusader: No Remorse




Comedy: Duke Nukem 3D
Unsorted runners-up: MDK 1-2, Earthworm Jim 1-2, Battletoads, Battletoads And Double Dragon, Scorched Earth, Commander Keen 6, Kyatto Ninden Teyandee, Metal Slug 3, Off-World Interceptor Extreme




Body Horror: System Shock 2
Unsorted runners-up: Dead Space, Super C, Parasite Eve, Resident Evil 4, Venom




Zombie Horror: Resident Evil 2
Unsorted runners-up: Resident Evil 1/3/5, Left 4 Dead, System Shock 2, Half-Life




Supernatural Horror: DOOM
Unsorted runners-up: Silent Hill, Maken Shao: Demon Sword




Vampire Horror: Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
Unsorted runners-up: Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood, Castlevania Bloodlines, BloodRayne




Romance: Ys I&II Chronicles
Unsorted runners-up: Metal Gear Solid 3




Police Action: Pursuit Force
Unsorted runners-up: True Crime: Streets Of L.A., Max Payne, Turbo Esprit




Crime: Max Payne
Unsorted runners-up: GTA, GTA 3, Streets Of Rage 2




Martial Arts: Mortal Kombat 3
Unsorted runners-up: Ninja Gaiden 1-3, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Double Dragon 2, Street Fighter 2, Saboteur 2




Fantasy: Hexen 2
Unsorted runners-up: Hexen, Ys I&II Chronicles, The Dark Heart Of Uukrul, Quake, The Legend Of Kyrandia 1-2, Super Mario Bros., Fairlight, Rapscallion, Savage (1988)




Pseudo-Historical Fantasy/Peplum: God Of War
Unsorted runners-up: Praetorians, Knights Of The Cross




Mecha: Zone Of The Enders: The 2nd Runner
Unsorted runners-up: Metal Warriors




‘Girls With Guns’: Super Metroid
Unsorted runners-up: Metroid: Zero Mission, Metroid Fusion, Parasite Eve, BloodRayne, Oni




Religious: Requiem: Avenging Angel
Unsorted runners-up: Apocalypse




Driving: Carmageddon 2
Unsorted runners-up: Carmageddon, Twisted Metal 2, Off-World Interceptor Extreme, Quarantine




Adventure: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream
Unsorted runners-up: ZZT, The Legend Of Kyrandia 1-2, Flashback: Quest For Identity, Another World




Adult: Cobra Mission
Unsorted runners-up: Amy's Fantasies, Wet: The Sexy Empire, True Love


* * *


BY PLATFORM:


PC/DOS: Duke Nukem 3D



PC/Windows: Unreal Tournament



PC/Linux: DOOM 3



MacOS: Marathon 2: Durandal




ZX Spectrum: Saboteur 2




Commodore 64: Enforcer




MSX: Metal Gear




Atari 2600: River Raid




NES: Kyatto Ninden Teyandee




Game Boy/Color: Operation C




PC Engine: Soldier Blade




Sega Mega Drive: Contra: Hard Corps




Sega Game Gear: GG Aleste




SNES: Super Metroid




Neo Geo: Metal Slug 3




3DO: Crime Patrol




PlayStation: Metal Gear Solid




Neo Geo Pocket Color: SNK Gals Fighters
(blow me)



Nintendo 64: DOOM 64




Game Boy Advance: Metroid: Zero Mission




Dreamcast: Resident Evil: Code Veronica X




PlayStation 2: Metal Gear Solid 3




PSP: Pursuit Force




Xbox 360: Gears Of War 2




PlayStation 3: Dead Space




Android: Cyberlords: Arcology

Top 10 Movies With Water-Based Settings

I've promised to myself I'm gonna do this list right after I watch Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot, which I have recently done! So, here's the list (hopefully) everyone was waiting for, including myself. Time to get down to OCEANic business and count down the top 10 movies based over or under the water. There's more, but these 10 are best of the best in my humble opinion.

10. Daylight
Kick-ass action/disaster flick starring Sylvester Stallone, from the director of XXX and The Fast And The Furious. It may be extremely inaccurate in realism, but by God, did it keep me on the edge of my seat... quite literally.
I've also reviewed it here.

9. Jaws
The legendary horror classic from Steven Spielberg. If you haven't seen this masterpiece yet, you're gonna need a bigger education in cinema! The panic and outrage this killer shark story (based on a crappy Peter Benchley novel, which was based on actual events) caused to the tourism in USA was hilariously ridiculous. All-around a masterpiece of intensity.

8. Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Very underrated Disney movie, which I had the pleasure to see in theater. It's not flawless, but I totally appreciate the attempt of the studio to switch to full-blown action/adventure, Indiana Jones style almost, even if essentially it was a remake of Stargate. But still, I loved the animation style and designs, the steampunk'ish machinery and near-seamless blend of 2D and CG techniques. Get it on DVD/BluRay and watch it on the biggest screen available - you will be blown away.

7. K-19
Another underrated movie I've watched in theater, a mix of war drama and disaster movie starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. It's based on actual events of a secret Soviet submarine nearly causing the escalation of Cold War to WWIII, and the sub's crew heroically preventing the catastrophe. It's universally hated for historical inaccuracy, but other than that, a very solid picture.

6. Crimson Tide
(copied from my blog) Very interesting psychological (sort of) techno-thriller from Tony Scott. Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington are great here, and the whole moral dilemma the plot's built around results in the consistent feeling of suspense that makes you sit on the edge. Superb study on the risks and ideology of management as a profession. I had it on DVD for a few years but never watched... and hey, then it finally happened!

5. Hunt For The Red October
Adapted from a Tom Clancy novel, this intense action-packed political thriller is constantly mentioned in all sorts of 'Best action movies ever' lists, and for a good reason. When a Soviet submarine, let alone a super secret prototype one, is suddenly reported to be heading towards the US shores, it's up to the CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) to use the remaining mere hours and decide whether the Red October's captain (Sean Connery) is planning an attack, or his plan is not that straightforward?

4. Leviathan
Yeah yeah, I know it's a ripoff of Alien and The Thing, but hey, if you do that, at least rip off something good, and do it well! And this horror cult classic sure does - aside from the interesting monster and impressive visual designs, it also has the balls to feature a fantastic cast that includes RoboCop, Colonel Trautman, Winston Zeddemore, Marvin from Home Alone, Hera from Xena: Warrior Princess and Hector F%ckin' Elizondo among others! I was so impressed by this flick that I've pretty much borrowed the characters of Natasha and Svetlana from here. Sue me, but first, make sure to watch Leviathan - probably it'll convince you I did a good thing by paying tribute to it such way!

3. Below
Very obscure and underrated horror flick, directed by David Twohy and written by Darren Aronofsky. Oh, and it's also a variation of Event Horizon on a sub. I can't imagine why such a kick-ass combo wasn't at least a cult hit!..

2. Das Boot
Ja ja, now that I've finally seen it, I can't put this classic any lower. It's the first big movie by one of my favorite directors (Wolfgang Petersen), and what a magnificent debut this is! Starring Jurgen Prochnow, this 3,5 hrs long epic (I watched the Director's Cut) begins like a plotless, almost meditative and gritty war drama, but by the midpoint it suddenly switches genres and becomes an extremely tense disaster movie. WatchMojo.com called this the definitive, best submarine movie of all time, and I cannot disagree. Fear, paranoia, filth, panic - everything is captured perfectly onscreen, making it feel like a found footage movie at times. Thank God it was and still remains very popular and respected movie, because it totally deserves that.

1. The Abyss
Well, but of course - how cannot this be number one?! Words cannot describe how beautiful this movie is, as well as whether James Cameron had sold his soul to Cthulhu/Kraken/Leviathan in order to create what I consider a perfect underwater film, the Streets Of Fire of undersea adventures, a masterpiece of true art that simply has everything, and everything right. Action fans, melodrama admirers, sci-fi nerds - everybody would find something interesting for themselves here. Oh, and by 'beautiful' I don't even mean purely the effects and production value, which are perfect; it also has beautiful characters with beautiful motivations, beautiful love story that unfolds amidst all the high-pressure action going on, it even gives Michael Biehn a ridiculous mustache that somehow actually makes him look like a badass motherf%cker. I have the feeling that if I'll rewatch it once again (and I will), it might move Blade Runner from the #1 spot of my all-time favorite movies list. And that... hopefully says something.

Runners-up:

* Titanic
* Deep Rising
* Waterworld
* 007: The Spy Who Loved Me

Random FPS Trivia

This is the first of my posts I'm going to 'port' from my DeviantArt account. Hopefully, nobody minds ;3

• Warren Spector said that he gave Deus Ex its title just to have people mispronounce it as 'Do Sex';
• The name of BFG from DOOM means 'Big Fucking Gun';
• The name of ASMD from Unreal means 'And Suck My Dick';
• The first game to invent akimbo guns wielding, health recharge wall panels, mouselook and the 'Domination' multiplayer type was Marathon;
• One of the developers behind DOOM'95 (the official port developed by Microsoft in order to promote Windows 95 as a game platform) was Gabe Newell;
• Speaking of Newell, Half-Life originally started as two separate projects; one was a horror FPS Quiver based on Stephen King's 'The Mist'; other was an FPS about Ivan the Space Biker;
• The first game to invent alternate fire was System Shock;
• Although Quake did boast fully 3D graphics, it didn't really utilize the mapmaking capabilities of 3D (ex. moving in all directions as opposed to walking through levels that could be recreated in Doom with minimal losses) - while Descent did;
• The first game to invent zonal damage was SiN;
• Nowadays, everybody knows whose head is hiding behind the Icon Of Sin in DOOM II, and that the Icon's welcome message, while played in reverse, means 'To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero'; it all started when Adrian Carmack and Kevin Cloud (id Software artists) decided to troll Romero and placed the sprite of his severed head on a stake behind the bossbrain. He managed to learn this the same night (before they told him), and as a comeback, he asked Bobby Prince (DOOM composer) to record the backwards message and insert it - so basically, it was him who trolled the artists, and the whole shift the next day was almost ruined;
• Wolfenstein 3D is a semi-sequel to Apple][ 2D stealth action games, Castle Wolfenstein and Beyond Castle Wolfenstein - both are mainly considered the first stealth games in history, along with Metal Gear. id Software were even able to realize all the original games' features in 3D (changing the uniform, dragging the corpses, etc.), but those were dropped in favor of more fun and fast-paced gameplay;
• DOOM started as a licensed Aliens game, before Tom Hall has written a design document called The Doom Bible; it had elaborate story, realistic feel and 5 playable characters. John Carmack famously replied that a story in an FPS is like a story in a porn movie, cut 80% of everything down, and later Hall left the company due to creative differences;
• It's also hilarious that Carmack was sometimes so deep into the code that he barely played the end product; when they were playtesting the Jaguar port of Wolfenstein 3D, he said that the game was pretty fun to play, to which Romero replied: 'You know, it was fun on the PC, too';
• Resident Evil was initially planned as an FPS;
• The first game to utilize 'hub' levels (as opposed to level-after-level progression) was Hexen: Beyond Heretic;
• The title songs to Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity were done by the band Psykosonik (credited as 'Power Of Seven');
• DOOM 64 is not a port of any of the classic DOOM games, but a sequel with new levels and story, redrawn graphics and new score;
• Zero Tolerance was originally supposed to have multiplayer capabilities (although, it needed 2 consoles and 2 TV sets). The official Technopop site even has the schema of an officially unreleased link cable;
• Recent re-releases of DOOM I & II (most notably, X360 versions and DOOM BFG Edition) have 'censored' medkit sprites, since effective recently, Red Cross is against their logo being displayed in videogames;
• One of the textures in DOOM is a manipulated image of a wound on Kevin Cloud's knee;
• Resident Evil: (Gun) Survivor didn't have lightgun support in its US release... oops;
• Wolfenstein 3D was not the first FPS created by id Software; it was Hovertank 3D;
• Witchaven and TekWar were actually the first games that utilized the Build Engine; they were released 1 year before Duke Nukem 3D;
• In Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza, John McClane is holding the weapons as a left-hand like in the movies, since Bruce Willis is left-handed himself;
• Early versions of Unreal had a tribal-looking girl in a thong as a playable character;
• The first ever FPS for Mac? Pathways Into Darkness by Bungie;
• Cult classic shooters Chasm: The Rift, Venom: Codename Outbreak and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games were developed in Ukraine (the latter two - by the same company, GSC Game World);
• (reminded by Snowy-Aegis) The Marathon series is actually a sequel to Pathways Into Darkness - Bungie have confirmed that these games take place in the same universe and even share some characters (most notably, W'rkncacnter and the fact that Marathon Security Officer is a reincarnation of PiD's protagonist). Some fans also speculated that Halo might take place in the same setting as well, but despite multiple cross-references, Bungie have denied that;
• Before (and somewhat during) becoming famous for The Elder Scrolls games, Bethesda Softworks have created several meh-to-mediocre FPS's based on the Terminator license: Terminator 2029, Terminator Rampage and (actually pretty solid) Terminator: Future Shock;
• Contrary to popular opinion, Raven Software didn't always license the id Tech engines in their early days - such games as CyClones, Necrodome, Take No Prisoners and Mageslayer were built upon original engines (the latter three utilized the same one, Vampire Engine) - although only CyClones and Necrodome are FPS's;
• Hexen II: Portals Of Praevus and Heretic II are not included in the Heretic+Hexen Collection on Steam because unlike the other games in the series, those two are owned by Activision (which is ridiculous, since Portals Of Praevus is a darn add-on);
• Everybody knows that Quarantine was released on PC and 3DO; however, there was also a Japanese port for the PlayStation, renamed 'Hard Rock Cab';
• John Romero wasn't the one who came up with the legendary '...make you his bitch' poster for Daikatana; it was created by the ION Storm marketing department and meant to be a parody of John's speech patterns during the deathmatch sessions. He just blindly approved this poster, but audiences didn't get the joke;
• It is believed that the first ever FPS to utilize tracker music was Unreal; but actually, it was 1995's In Pursuit Of Greed - scored by none other than Andrew 'Necros' Sega (who later became an overnight sensation after Crusader: No Remorse, and who belonged to Straylight Productions - the same demo group as Alex 'Siren' Brandon);
• Microsoft Hellbender is a sequel to Fury3, which is a spiritual sequel to Terminal Velocity - how's that for a confusing sequel numbering pattern?
• Final DOOM: TNT Evilution began as just another another fan-made mission pack, but hours before release the Team TNT were contacted by John Romero, who offered them a retail publishing deal. Their agreement ignited a huge controversy and flamewar among the DOOM community back in the day;
• Project Snowblind's working title was Deus Ex 2;
• EVE, the ship's computer from Microsoft Hellbender, is voiced by Gillian Anderson!
• The first videogame that utilized Monolith's infamous LithTech Engine was Shogo: Mobile Armor Division;
• Halo: Combat Evolved started its development as a real-time strategy for Windows and MacOS, and later shifted to a third-person shooter - its first ever public presentation was hosted by none other than Steve Jobs himself;
• The intro song to Shogo: Mobile Armor Division is 'Negai' ('Wish') by Nemoto Miho. It was written and recorded specifically for the game;
• Nine Inch Nails are responsible for the ambient soundtrack for the first Quake; as a returning gesture, their logo is featured on the Nailgun ammo packs;
• Speaking of Quake, it started its development as a 2D RPG (!), where Quake was the protagonist's name (!); you can read the brief overview in 'Read This!' for Commander Keen 1.
• List of the working titles for Wolfenstein 3D: Castle Ochtenstein, Luger’s Run, The Fourth Reich, Adolph’s Bane, Hard Cell, Luger Me Now, Tank You Very Much, Castle Hasselhoff, How Do You Duseldorf?, Castle Verlassen, Sturmwind, Hollehammer, Schattensendener, Geruchschlect, Dolchteufel, Grabgrabbener, Eisenschwert and Dammerung;
• The first FPS to utilize voxel graphics was Delta Force;
• (suggested by Snowy-Aegis) The Half-Life and Portal franchises take place in the same universe, and plot-wise their events occur during the same time period;
• The idea of Left 4 Dead came along when Valve employees decided to test out the AI in Counter-Strike Source by starting a game session with 4 players opposing a large crowd of bots armed with knives;
• The idea of Portal came from an indie game called Narbacular Drop, the developers of which (DigiPen Institute Of Technology) were later hired by Valve;

NOTE: Might obviously add more later.

OCEAN - Updated FAQ

Q: What is Sergei Savenko’s Ocean?
A: It’s an indie first person shooter for Windows, MacOS X and Linux, developed by Sergei ‘EinhanderZwei’ Savenko.

Q: Which engine does it run on?
A: GZDoom, a heavily modified version of id Tech 1 engine (also known as 'DOOM Engine').

Q: What are the system requirements?
A: They are extremely low by modern standards - please see the system requirements for GZDoom on the official site above.

Q: Are you the single developer?
A: Yes and no. All the design (gameplay and visual), scripting, mapping, graphics are handled by me. The soundtrack is taken from the collections of Andrew ‘Necros’ Sega, with all credits provided. Several Wikimedia Commons images are also utilized; primarily the ecology-themed stock photos. For the full list of credits, please see this following document.

Q: Any other movie influences?
A: Of course!

• Das Boot,
• The Abyss,
• Leviathan,
• Event Horizon,
• Aliens,
• Day Of The Dead,
• Outbreak,
• Daylight,
• Resident Evil,
• Virus,
• The Thing,
• Jurassic Park,
• Gravity,
• ...and plenty of other underwater / survival horror / alien / zombie movies.

Q: How about game influences?
A:

• DOOM series,
• Marathon Trilogy,
• System Shock,
• BioShock,
• Alien-licensed games,
• Resident Evil series,
• Parasite Eve,
• Half-Life,
• Dead Space,
• Silent Hill series,
• Metal Gear Solid,
• Strife: Quest For The Sigil.

Q: What is Ocean essentially about?
A: You play as Sean Crichton, a badass Soldier Boy (modeled after Cillian Murphy), who one day receives an order from his Badass Mentor, Col. Nigel Bruckheimer (modeled after Jurgen Prochnow), to investigate an experimental underwater research lab, the Oberon-1 Station. He is also supervised by Svetlana Tikhovliz (modeled after Margot Kidder), the female Corporate Authority and the facility designer and formal person in charge. Once he arrives there, he sees that the place is full of zombies; later on his adventure, he somehow finds two survivors: his sister Natasha (modeled after Amanda Pays), who was a scientist before the zombie outbreak, and a mysterious cyborg mermaid girl Marina (modeled after Sandra Bullock), who is also referred to as 'Specimen 23'.

Q: Good choice for the characters' appearances influence, but Cillian Murphy as a badass action hero?
A: Yes. The main character’s visual design is traced over Cillian Murphy. The reason is thematic and visual similarity between Ocean’s plot and two movies he starred in:

• Sunshine,
• 28 Days Later.

Q: Who are those ladies constantly present on the concept arts?
A: Marina – a cyborg mermaid-like girl, Natasha – a short-haired ‘regular’ girl in a scientist coat, Svetlana – a girl in the business suit. Please see above for the brief summary of their roles.

Q: Yes, we don't want spoilers! However, are there any interesting plot twists up your writer’s sleeve?
A: Plenty of them! I guarantee I will deliver on that aspect. ^_^

Q: What is the current development status?
A: I have compiled the very rough pre-alpha tech demo; you can view the gameplay here. Also, I have started a development V-Log. Finally, you can always monitor the progress via this document.

Q: When would we expect the release to happen?
A: I can release the pre-alpha anytime now, but doubtfully anyone would find it interesting; there's a demo planned for early Summer of 2014 (June, 8, to be exact - to coincide with the World Ocean Day!), and the full version is planned for Fall 2014.

OCEAN Hub

This post will be dedicated to the development process of Sergei Savenko's OCEAN. All the links and stuff will be chronicled here, as well as the dynamic updates (YouTube playlist, etc.)

Also, I will create a TinyURL version of this page so you won't lose it, and the URL will be waaay easier to remember!

OCEAN Demo 1.0 Download & Release Notes OCEAN RPG Demo Download & Release Notes OCEAN Demo 1.1 Download & Release Notes OCEAN Demo 1.0 Mini-FAQ OCEAN Demo Linux Installation Instructions OCEAN F.A.Q. 3.0 The Credits Sheet The Progress Sheet DeviantArt Group TinyURL page (you're here) OCEAN-related posts on this blog Facebook page VK group ModDB page IndieDB page DoomWorld Thread ZDOOM Forum Thread YouTube Playlist

Buttons!

MOAR SCREENSHOTS FOR THE GAMEDEV GOD!!!


Shameless Product Placement by EinhanderZwei on deviantART


Screenshot Doom 20140307 052925 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART


OCEAN in 320x200!!! xD by EinhanderZwei on deviantART


Screenshot Doom 20140307 052846 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART


Screenshot Doom 20140307 054834 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART


Screenshot Doom 20140307 091048 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART

Welcome To The Ocean

Hold your breath.


Do You Want to Build a Snowman by EinhanderZwei on deviantART

Realistic Marina and Natasha by EinhanderZwei on deviantART

OCEAN TITLEPIC by EinhanderZwei on deviantART

Getting Back Into Doom Builder 8 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART

Getting Back Into Doom Builder 7 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART

Getting Back Into Doom Builder 5 by EinhanderZwei on deviantART