Atilla

So what titles would you look to, if you wanted to know what I mean?

Test Drive III:

First car simulator that had this touch and maybe the last one I'v ever been interested in. Open environment, attention to detail, different "radio stations" in the cars and multiple levels to explore. Simply brilliant.

Dune2:

Simply a brilliant execution, based on a slightly psychotic world. A gradually progressing RTS, starting with simple units and buildings and evolving into a full-scale wars, time-resource bound levels and a built-in encyclopedia. Extremely engaging.

Lands of Lore:

The Throne of Chaos: Another gem of old that many might have never heard of. A great, great RPG, which is the first hame to have me seriously scared while playing. There's been only one more that really gave me the creeps at times. Very long, complex, having a lot of adventure, a lot of fights and supreme RPG elements.

Darklands:

THE most unique RPG of all times. This one sticks out of everything else I've ever seen. The story takes place in the medieval Holy Roman Empire on the teritories of what now would be Germany, Austria, Denmark and Poland. Open-ended, but with a main thread of events to keep you going, it features an unmatched until now character generation. Really, noone has beaten this one in complexity yet. The whole character development process is simply astonishing, with a number of skills and development methods that is really hard to keep track of.

Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis:

The supreme leader of proper Adventure games, this one is really hard to challenge. It has an awesome feel to it, very very nicely matching what Lucas Arts made with the Indiana Jones movies. It's one of the most deeply engaging games that I've ever encountered. It made me think a lot different on solving puzzles, it taught me english, it even thought me search-space reduction trough the use of heuristics. Seriously. There are even three different ways to progress through the game, which gives you the amazing opportunity to solve the game in three different ways, every time you play.

The Legend of Kyrandia and Gobliiins:

The most sick-minded adventure games I've ever played, they were extremely funny and especially in the case of Gobliiins - grotesquely brutal. The most impressive fact about those games is that I played them in Russian. Not a grand feat per se, but at the age of 10 I didn't know any Russian. Imagine if they were captivating enough in that case, since I've played through them all .

Monkey Island 2:

A long, humor-infested pirate adventure game? Enough said Best out of the whole series, money island has made me bang my head in the desk too many times. The realisation is supreme.

Sea Dogs:

Speaking of pirates - this genious game is probably on of the best sea combat games there is. Also known as "Корсары: проклятие дальних морей", it comes from Mother Russia. It's sequel got crippled in that awful abomination of a game - "Pirates of the Carribean", but I'll let it slide. Sea dogs lets you choose one of the three battling nations and fight on their side, become a pirate and plunder the Spanish gold armada. Or simply fulfill the quest to find out what happened to your father, a great pirate. Nothing can ever sink you in the carribean-set environment of pirates and sea battles like this game.

Baldur's Gate series:

Bioware's crown jewel - this astonishing serie of connected games is in third place in the kept-me-playing-the-longest list, side to side with the second. Immense environment, beautifully drawn, striking details, tons and tons of content, really - it's easier to say what the game doesn't feature. One should be very careful when getting into playing this one - once you start you might never stop. I've played this game for 18 (eighteen) hours straight some days. Don't even ask how I've managed to get that. I've played it from dawn till dusk, throughout the night, skipping meals, you name it. A summer went away to get through all I wanted to do in BG2. It's a really, really beautiful game. Simply superb.

Fallout series:

Interplay created the most cynical, gore-filled, post-apocalyptic RPG that has ever existed. I can't begin to explain how awsome this game is. The SPECIAL sytem, the perks, the crazy environment with ghouls, mutants and robots. I'll always remember the intro of Fallout 2 - a nuclear wasteland and Louis Armstrong - "A kiss to build a dream on". Genius. Bethesda - you better do a good job on number 3.

Morrowind:

This is a dangerous game. A good friend of mine once warned me, when I got this game as a birthday present - "Don't play this game. Just don't". I soon found out why. Once I installed it and managed to get trough the fisrt few hours and understand what the hell is going on - there was no coming back. This Cthulu-style environment just engulfs you and totally immerses your mind inside it. Bethesda created a game that is scary, emotional, detailed, immense, gargantuan! This game has literally scared the living world out of me. I've been shocked beyound human recognition once. Piece of advice - don't play this with headphones, in the middle of the night, in a house with people you don't expect to have woken up. It's a heart attack risk. Bethesda - that's a summer that me and some of my friends would have never gotten through, if it wasn't for your game. This is one of the very best things ever made, period. It is, along with Darklands, the most environmentally unique games. You can't match it, you can't compare it to anything else. Bethesda's supreme and number 2 in hours played.

Sanitarium:

An uterly psychotic game, an adventure trough the damaged mind of a medical reasearcher, to find the cure for a terrible disease, destroying the youth in the world and causing stunning grief to everyone. The game is very explicit, with a dark, maddening environment. I'm not sure everyone would manage to play through the entre thing, it can really drive you mad. If you play for too long, you don't want to experience the nightmares. The entire game is the mad fantasises and nightmares of a person with a broken mind, twisting reality and his memories in a horrible way, leading you through the history of the unnatural disease and the doctor that discovered the cure. I've seen nothing else like it.

Runaway Series:

Stumbled into Runaway by accident in the bargain bin of a Swedish game store. I got attracted by the idea to play a real adventure game - something I've not done for ages, simply because noone has made one in the past 5 years. Not that runaway is too new, but at least it comes on DVD. It's really amazing. It has a proper adventure game style, really detailed graphics, complicated storyline, with lots of cutscenes where you just sit back and realax and watch the show. Amazing sound, nothing is that impressive in any other adventure game. A Spanish creation that, despite some annoying little details brings the adventure genre back to life. Right now I'm playing the second one - good job there too Pedulo studios.

Blizzard entertainment - or this is how it's done:

I can't, I really don't know how to begin here. Blizzard entertainment have created 3 supreme series of games - Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft, that have etched the history of gaming for generations. Let's not forget the crazy and funny Lost Vikings here, from when they were "Silicon&Synapse". But when it comes to storylines, graphics, music, videos, realisation - Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft are forever unmatched. The Blizzard video team have created marvels in those games, memorable movies that stun and leave you breathless. You'd go through the single player campaign just to see those. They are, by far, unmatched. There's no limit to how engaged you can get in those virtual worlds and everyone knows - I've played a hell of a lot of all those games.

World Of Warcraft:

The massive endeavor from Blizzard, the most successful game ever created - this is a brilliant piece of work that will never let me go. Ever since the first trailer went out - I said - I'm playing this, I'm buying it, even if it's the last thing I do. I spent a stunning week in the open beta testing of the game. it had me there, it still has me now, after being a serious end-game raider and having spent an Obscene amount of hours in the game. I'm afraid to check my "played" time - it's not as impressive as the times of other people I know, but almost every single second of my time spent in this game has been a virtual experience I'll never forget. My guild - The Twilight Order, the time I've spent questing and going to dungeons, hanging out, exploring. My friends in real life that I got hooked up as well - the time spent playing horde side with real people that I know. My raiding communities - the Rising Star Alliance, Dark Star Alliance, Bane, XSA. The hours spent in challenging raids, The Molten Core - by far the most impressive and environmentally engaging dungeon in the game. I'll never forget that, I'll never forget what playing with you guys has gotten me through, some of my darkest hours, stuck alone against what I want in an alien place, friends far away, money not enough. Number 1 in hours spent - this game is unforgettable. I'm sure I'm coming back when the next expansion hits. I am trully happy to have played Zooknock - the crazyest Gnome (destruction) Warlock ever online. He's a little part of me - whatever's left from the kid that lives inside. My true digital avatar, my real manifestation in the World Of Warcraft.



Yes, I do realize it's a pretty big list for a "very few good games", but in reality, compared to the ammased volume of games produced, this is nothing special. There are other things that deserve being added here, perhaps the list will grow slightly with time. I hope you enjoyed reading through my longest post ever.

Perhaps it shows I'v spent too much time in the virtual, perhaps it hasn't *really* been that much and it just seems like it. The fact is - every mind needs an escape from reality just as much as it needs to sink deep in it. Sometimes it's the one, sometimes it's the other, but few people lead a sane life without fantasies. It's how I like to experience some of mine - what about you?