TNL's Gaming Recommendations

[Thief Silver]

Rules are Simple: Choose one game out of the vast collections you guys have played and recommend it. It's tough, take some time and think about it, and if you really want to change it let me know and I'll alter it. It doesn't have to be your favorite game or anything, though I'd imagine that's the criteria a lot of people would use.

When recommending a game, I'd like people to try to stray away from Mainstream games that have a lot of discussion going on already (Like Halo 3, CoD etc) but I'm not going to discriminate against that, I just think it'd take away from the purpose of the thread. Other than that any system, any time frame, any genre, no real rules. What I'd like for the turn about from this thread to be is that people try these games, emulation or if you can actually manage to find and buy it great.

If a game is already recommended, you can go ahead and second or third etc etc the recommendation, I'll post up the users who agree with a recommendation after the game title so like this:

Original Poster: Game Title (Other Referals)

This gives people an idea of which posters like a game, and those you find yourself more in sync with when it comes to game discussion may hold greater persuasion over you. I will keep the list updated as often as possible (Which honestly for me, that should be pretty often so I hope to keep this alive for a good while.) If you try out someone's recommendation and you like it, refer it as well.

If anyone has any comments or questions about how I'm doing this let me know, I'd like this to be useful in helping some TNLers like me expand the libary of games they've enjoyed. If you make a referal and decide you want to change it, let me know and within reason (Like one or two changes) I'll update it, but obviously there is little point if people change their recommendation every other day. For now I'm going with the first one that comes to mind that I think is underplayed.

Edit: Also If you want to post impressions or why you recommend a certain game, I think I could manage to link each game to the respective post (Or posts if the other users add comments about the game) or some way to add more to the list, or do you think that'd make it too complicated? Also if this takes off like I hope it will think we could maybe get a sticky?

TNL Recommendation List

Andy: (PC) Grim Fandango (Tain)
Animegirl: (Nintendo Gamecube) Cubivore
Arjue: (Xbox, PS2) Psi-Ops
AstroBlue: (GBA) Meteos
A Robot Bit Me: (GBA) Drill Dozer (kingoffighters, Dipstick, Compass)
Bacon McShig: (Arc, DC) Power Stone (Tain)
Bailey: (Genesis) Steel Empire (PaCrappa)
bbobb: (Playstation) Rising Zan (Grave)
BioMechanic: (Playstation, PC) Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (Animegirl, Compass)
Bishamon: (NES) Recca
Brand X: (Any System, apparently) Metal Arms: Glitch in the System
buttcheeks: (Playstation) Ghost in the Shell (PaCrappa)
bVork: (Amiga/PC/ST) Extase (Tain)
Changeling: (PC) Battlefield 2142
cigsthecat: (Arcade) Armed Police Batrider (PaCrappa)
Compass: (PC) Thief Gold
Cortana: (Playstation)Suzuki Bakuhatsu (Tain)
Cowutopia: (PC) X-COM (Most of TNL that's played it)
Dakidiski: (PSX) MediEval
Destin: (N64) Snowboard Kids (MagnifieldPlaid)
Destro777: (SNES) Sunset Riders (Yellerdog, ThiefSilver)
Dipstick: (PC) Shoot the Bullet (Touhou Bunkachou)
Dyne: (SNES) Demon's Crest
Frogacuda: (PC) Relentless: Twinsen's Adventure (aka Little Big Adventure)
frostwolf ex: (NES) magic of scherezade
FuryFox: (Xbox 360) Dead or Alive 4 (Rumpy)
g0zen: (Xbox, PS2, PC) The Suffering
Gooch: (GBA) Hajime no Ippo
Granderoho: (Which system?) Puzzle Planet League
Grave: (PS2) Way of the Samurai
James: (PS2)Earth Defense Force 2017
Josh: (PS2) Ring of Red
Kidnemo: (Playstation, PSP) Madden 98' (... ...)
kingoffighters: (Xbox 360) NHL '08
kuro: (Playstation) Parasite Eve (Thief Silver, BioMechanic, Razor Ramon, Mr_B)
magnifieldplaid: (Dreamcast) Mars Matrix (Mr_B, PaCrappa)
mannerbot: (PC) Planescape: Torment. (Dipstick, Compass)
MarkRyan: (PS2) Shadow of the Colossus (Animegirl)
MarsKitten: (PS2) Skygunner
Mykozo: (PS2) Grant Turismo 3
Nash: (SNES) Skyblazer
neoalphazero: (PC Engine) Gomola Speed (*-neo)
NeoZeedeater: (PC) System Shock (bVork)
Nomi: (Genesis) The Lion King
Opaque: (Playstation) Brave Fencer Musashi
PaCrappa: Mr. Driller
Razor Ramon: (Xbox 360) Gears of War (Bacon McShig)
Rhydant: PC Homeworld
Salsashark: (GBA) Rhythm Tengoku (PaCrappa, A Robot Bit Me)
Schelp: (PC) Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Scourge: (PS2)Dark Cloud 2
Some Stupid Japanese Name: (Playstation 2) Culdcept
Spike (Game Boy Color) Toki Tori (Frogucada)
Tain: (Playstation 2) Shinobido: Way of the Ninja
Thief Silver: (Playstation) Kartia: The World of Fate (Josh)
Tsubaki: (PS2, TLDR WARNING) Breath of Fire V Dragon Quarter
Vasteel: (PC) Galactic Civilizations II
w33man: (Xbox 360) All Pro Football 2K8
YellerDog: (Dreamcast) Toy Commander
Yoshi: (Neo Geo MVS, AES, CD) Pulstar (kingoffighters)

[Razor Ramon]

This is easy.

Gears of War (Xbox 360)

People still play this game a year after its release because it's fucking awesome. Others have said COD4's multiplayer is just as fun but I haven't tried the game yet besides the single-player campaign.

In short: Buy Gears of War.

[NeoZeedeater]

I don't feel like agonizing all day on what game I should choose so I'll pick the first classic that came to mind.

System Shock (PC)

The more popular sequel is awesome but I really hate seeing the ahead-of-its-time original ignored. Once you get past the Doom era 3d graphics and the unconventional (by modern standards) controls, it's a brilliant mix of first-person action, exploration, and story elements. Bioshock owes itself to this game so if you enjoyed it, I recommend playing this, too.

I agree Gears of War is must play although I think 90% of TNL has played it already. I have played Kartia but not enough to rate it.

[Nash]

Skyblazer (SNES)

There's really not much I can say about this game other than that it's my favorite 16-bit action-platformer of all time. It wasn't all that popular but it plays wonderfully. Although it's different from Strider, I usually hear people lump the two together. I prefer it over Strider, and I like Strider a lot.

[kingoffighters]

Project Gotham Racing 4, no one seems to play this, it is a great arcadey racing game. If you like to drive fast, this is one of the best one this year.

NHL 08, it might be a blashempy to recommend a sports title on TNL, but fuck it, this one is almost as fun as NHL 94. Once you get used to the right analog stick for control, you can never go back. You can play 3 on 3 too so if 5 more people on TNL get this, we can get a game going.

EDIT: I know I broke the rules recommending 2, too bad.

[BioMechanic]

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PS1, PC)

Fantastic, intelligent 2D puzzle/platformer, with a unique, darkly comic mood. No HUD at all, either, which is quite an accomplishment given how complex the gameplay can be. It's aged very well despite being an early Playstation title.

I've not played System Shock (makes me motion sick, unfortunately) or Kartia. Gears is great, but imo the 360 has better shooters.

[animegirl]

I will try this out:

Cubivore (Nintendo Gamecube)

This game can be picked up rather cheaply. It reminds me a bit of Evo: The Quest for Eden on Super NES. You eat shit and after a while you can add new body parts to your cube animal. Then when he gets pimped out enough he can mate with numerous females at one time. You then play as the offspring. I thought it was pretty cute and the graphics have a blocky charm to them.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PS1, PC)

Fantastic, intelligent 2D puzzle/platformer, with a unique, darkly comic mood. No HUD at all, either, which is quite an accomplishment given how complex the gameplay can be. It's aged very well despite being an early Playstation title.

I played the hell out of this game. It's pretty funny and one of the only PS1 games that doesn't look like horrible ass now.

[Thief Silver]

As for Kartia, it's a Strategy RPG with perhaps my favorite at least one of my favorite casts of characters, the game is based on Kartia which is basically cards corresponding to certain elements that are used to pretty much create everything. Mid battle you can create weapons with certain effects and stat bonuses by combining certain Kartia, as well as summon creatures and enhance their stats and even vary what type of creature they are by combining different types of Kartia. Two different intertwining main character stories for If I recall about 30 hours or more of gameplay depending on what you do, destructible environments to yield more Kartia, and I was always very fond of the art style. Definitely one of my favorite games of the Playstation era. It holds bit of a Rock Paper Sissors combat system, at least with the Phantoms (creatures you summon) I think it goes Doll -> Shadow -> Common -> Doll as well.

I agree about Gears of War as it kinda went in line with what I didn't want, but I also get what Razor is pointing at, he's hoping this will get people to remember the good times and to rejoin him in the field of battle.

I have actually not played the original System Shock, it's on my list of games I certainly intend to play at some point, but haven't taken the time to do so.

[kingoffighters]

Vandal Hearts is a must if you are going to play a PS1 SRPG.

[Thief Silver]

I'm only going with your NHL recommendation Kingoffighters, because honestly I think that's the game that will be overlooked more. Whine about it if you want, but I'm sticking to one per customer. At least for now, I'll see how things go but to try and manage a list with 2 or 3 games per person would be kind of painful. Unless someone has any other suggestion as to how to go about this.