Early 2018 and according to Aussie gaming magazine Hyper, there are apparently 200 games I must play. No exceptions. I mean that's what the front cover screamed at me when I walked past the stand in the library earlier today.
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| It doesn't look like it's giving me much of a choice here. |
But as much as I enjoy the occasional game of Super Monaco GP and Commander Keen, I have a sneaky suspicion that at best that without reading the full list, I've probably played a quarter. Possibly less - undoubtedly the list of games I have played will be far shorter than the have not.
But there's only one way to find out..
HYPER'S 200 GAMES YOU MUST PLAY LIST (and whether or not I have actually given them a crack.)
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| In 2021 I feel we have far bigger problems than that conflict.. |
Games I have played are in green.
Games I haven't played are in red.
Games I'm not really sure I've played or not are in yellow.
Right then, let's delve into the first fifty. In no particular order they go:
1. THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM - Yes we're off to a cracking start with one of the greatest games ever made right here which I had on my Xbox 360. I missed the early adventures of The Elder Scrolls series, kicking things off in Oblivion which was highly enjoyable (from memory it came in one of those '2 games 1 case' deals along with Bioshock) but then Skyrim romped around and blew everything out of the water. Missions? Yeah I'll get to them. But let me roam the lands like I thoroughly enjoy doing in the Fallout games to see what I can find, snipe at, loot and discover. I got a kick out of hunting dragons down and absorbing their power, I found it utterly hilarious you could learn about ingredients by popping them in your mouth (giant toe anyone?) and loved to craft my next arsenal once locating some choice metals. The scenery was just superb - Skyrim is truly a gorgeous game.
In fact when I finally upgraded my PC's graphics card to something that could handle much harder work than my GTX 650 ever could (the affordable RX570) I was seriously considering buying Skyrim for the PC because I remembered how scenically beautiful it truly was. After a week of deliberation I settled on the Witcher 3, a choice I do not regret for a second, but the next time Skyrim goes on special it's going on my PC. Seriously, it's that great and definitely deserves a spot on this list. (1/200)
Also at the time of writing I found Oblivion Game of the Year edition on sale for $8.99 through GOG and it certainly looks prettier on my PC than it did on my Xbox. I'd forgotten a lot about it until now but I'm enjoying the memories flooding back. If you've got any must have mods for this, let me know!
2. SPELUNKY - Isn't that the sport where you throw yourself off great heights or something equally as stupid? No? No wait, it's some kind of mining game like Dig Dug? Yeah definitely don't remember this one.
3. FEZ - Hey that sounds like the hat, which I would also not wear. Pass.
4. YAKUZA 5 - Closest I've ever got to all five of this series was Sleeping Dogs for the 360 which is still around the house somewhere (is it Xbox one compatible yet? It should be!) But to answer the question, no I haven't played any of the Yakuza games. Am I missing out here? Let me know!
5. RAYMAN ORIGINS - Heard of it, never played it. One look has confirmed it's not something that would interest me too much.
6. FREESPACE 2 - Apparently the best space combat game ever invented (thanks Steam reviews.) Not really my genre but just on that genre, how good is the soundtrack to space game Rebel Galaxy? Now there is a rocking album.
7. MANHUNT - I was confusing this with Condemned: Criminal Origins on 360 for a few minutes (of which many copies were easily found in bargain bins around the land). Turns out I have not played this one.
8. BATTLEFIELD 1942 - I remember getting a few review copies of games from a mate at one of my previous radio stations and there is the possibility this was one of them. But until confirmed, it stays on the maybe list. I'll admit I'm not big on world war games unless they're post apocalyptic..
9. ULTIMA UNDERWORLD: THE STYGIAN ABYSS - Funnily enough I own this game as of just last week thanks to the freebies of Gog.com. However it's highly doubtful I'll ever get around to installing it and the second one given the abundance of other games on my Steam, Epic Games and Gog players. So technically no, still haven't played it.
10. DAY OF THE TENTACLE - Like movies I haven't seen or books I haven't read, I am well aware of Day of the Tentacle (which I spelt incorrectly originally and auto correct suggested the word I was looking for was 'testicle.') I recall some cartoony scenes from it but that's about it.
11. BLADE RUNNER - It pains me to admit this, but I still haven't seen the original film to this video game, in full. Some media studies classes studied the masterpiece but mine was not one of them, apparently we were far too busy getting into Alfred Hitchcock and various portrayals of family life across television eras. If it does count, I have managed to see Blade Runner 2049 which was very good and Batista played a decent replica. On the gaming side though, I don't know anything of it. It does look like something I should have played back in the day though.
12. JAGGED ALLIANCE 2 - I have played this but wasn't very good at it. Most of my mercenaries were left worse for wear after each mission, money was tight and the substitutes I hired on the cheap to guard my stuff were next to useless and died quick smart. So it turned out I wasn't cut out to run a pack of pretty awful mercenaries.
Funnily enough my rag tag group of survivors did okay in the similar Fallout: Tactics so go figure. Maybe in the future I learnt how to control a team better? (2/200)
13. TEAM FORTRESS 2 - Heard plenty of it, never got around to trying it out myself. Somewhere a gaming nerd froths at this information. Oh well.
14. TOMB RAIDER ANNIVERSARY - The original in it's blocky PlayStation Lara Craft goodness yes, this updated version? Nay.
15. SPEEDBALL 2 - One of the best games ever on the humble Sega Master System 2 and my brother and I in our teens would be howling in laughter as we bashed each other up across the field of this futuristic football game and irritated the other using bounce domes endlessly. I remember trying this later on another console (PlayStation maybe?) and remembering it being awful which is a damn shame. (3/200)
16. WIPEOUT 2097 - Didn't this come with the first PlayStation if you bought it new? Mine was second hand but while I didn't have it on hand, everybody else did so I got to play it a few times. Fun from what I remember but is it a must play? Not sure. (4/200)
17. COLOSSAL CAVE ADVENTURE - Turns out this is a text adventure out of the late 70s and is historic for being the very first one too. Born on the dawn of the 80s, the closest I'd come to anything of the like would be...er...Troll Quest? Was that what it was called? That was on an Apple IIe and came with pictures. Later on I tried a couple of text adventures but struggle to remember which. Oh and Psychotic which was utterly bizarre..
18. ETRIAN ODYSSEY V - Entrigan? That Demon DC Hero? No wait, Etrian. That's a no then, never heard it.
19. ROME: TOTAL WAR - At first I thought I hadn't but a quick hunt through Steam tells me not only do I have it in there, but the last time I played it was back in 2016! So while it's been quite a few years between plays, and not that I remember but I have at least given it a go! (5/200)
(Also in my Total War collection I forgot I had - probably through bundles - Total War: Troy, Rome: Total War Alexander, Medieval 2 and Shogun 2. The things you find when you go looking for them)
20. GRAN TURISMO 2 - While I don't remember the exact price I paid a girl at work for her boyfriends disused PSX (It was a bargain though) I do remember the two games it came with - Space Hulk and GT2.
I played Space Hulk twice I think?
But once I got stuck into this bad boy, a switch was flicked. Mother of god did this beauty open the flood gates to driving games from here on in. So many cars (so many I knew), so many modifications to make, so many tracks and things to enjoy. I learnt about the Pikes Peak Escudo, Nobuhiro Monster Tajima, Mines tuning house, Mitsubishi Cyborgs and how appealing Nissan Skylines really were. It was a game but also an education that paved my interest in all things automotive. I put turbos on things that never came with them and tried to turn corners in a drag car. I would play this until the wee hours of the morning, lost in unlocking the next prize, the next license, the next everything. And don't get me started on how pretty number three was..
Space what?
More than worthy to be on this list. (6/200)
21. THE SIMS - Turns out I am not good at managing people in their own home. They seemed to burn things down a lot and not go well in life, who knew? (7/200)
22. PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 5 - I'm fuzzy on most sports games outside of wrestling and since this came out in 2005 on the PS2, I'm fairly certain it's one that hasn't landed a spot on my play list.
23. LOST ODYSSEY -Abe's Odyssey yes, Lost Odyssey no.
24. THE ANCIENT ART OF WAR - Look I haven't even read Sun Tzu's book on this...
25. PRINCE OF PERSIA - Yes! I still remember the trip plates, banging on my head on the ceiling and the skeleton with the sword. I was still rubbish at it though. (8/200)
26. GHOULS N GHOSTS - Hell yes. I played this at the arcade, I played this on the Sega. I didn't do well on either. I also recall the version (possible on Megadrive) where if you got to the end, you'd have to do it all over again to find the correct armor to win the game. I would have definitely given up before that happened. (9/200)
27. DEFENDER - Possibly in a very old and out of date arcade when I was a very small kid? Asteroids is a definite, not sure on this one though.
28. BLOODBORNE - A PS4 title explains why I haven't had a crack at this one, having stopped at the PS2 before I got into the Xbox side of things. Having to install things on the Xbox One and its slow downloads are still a little irksome though. (I wonder if the Hyper team realised how difficult it would be to achieve a play of everything on this list when you have the occasional title like this one that only came out on a single console?)
29. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1: THE SHADOW OF NEW DESPAIR - Great name, good looking game from what I Googled, came out for PS4 and that pretty much explains why I haven't given it a spin yet.
30. FREQUENCY - A rave music game for the PS2. After watching a quick run through on Youtube, I can only guess it's here on this list of YOU MUST PLAY THIS because of the controls and style, it certainly isn't because of the music..
31. VALKYRIA CHRONICLES - Urgh, I'm doing it again. I'm looking at a game name and thinking 'Oh yeah, I know that one - that's the game with the spirits fighting to get into Valhalla that my housemate gave me years ago for my original Playstation...' But it's not, that's Valkyrie Profile. This one is an RPG but for the Playstation 3. It's doubtful I'll be the last guy to confuse the two either.
32. HEAD OVER HEELS - Oh a Tears For Fears song got turned into a game? No, no it did not.
33. PHANTASY STAR 4 - I did try the Phantasy Star Online 2 freebie that popped up through Epic Games earlier this year and thought it was confusing rubbish. Which means I would have given this a wide berth in my time too.
34. SYSTEM SHOCK 2 - I briefly recall playing the first one for all of five minutes on one of those demonstrator PC's set up at Myers back in the 90s. Given this came out in 1999 I reckon there was a fair chance I didn't get to try it due to Tafe, Uni and trying to land a career back then (ergo much less time spent in Myer than usual.)
35. DUNGEON MASTER - Another of those games that I thought I had played and even owned at one stage only to quickly google and discover that it wasn't the case. Turns out I had something made well after Dungeon Master but in a similar style (with an above ground part to it). The point remains though, it's one I haven't played.
36. QUAKE 3 ARENA - Had a copy thanks to a friend called Mike (thanks Mike!) and remember the nail gun quite well. Couldn't tell you the last time I gave it a spin though. (10/200)
37. DIVINITY: ORIGINAL SIN 2 - Sadly I haven't but being a big RPG fan, this and the first one are definitely on the want list.
38. CRUSADER KINGS 2 - I bought this a couple of years back as part of a bundle, tried it and got mightily confused pretty quickly. Apparently it's awesome if you know what you're doing so I may have to read up on proper play and try it again soon. But for the sake of this list, it's a played one. (11/200)
39. STAR CONTROL 2 - I was 12 when this hit the scene and still using dad's apple mac so missed a lot of the Dos era of pc gaming like this one.
40. STARCRAFT - Oh god yes. Taking me back to the glory days of the Command and Conquer series and KKND era. If a mate had a pc either this or the second one would usually be found on it, if not you could always check into the nearest gaming Cafe and load it up there. Good times! (12/100)
41. BIOSHOCK 2 - Played the first (came as a bundle deal with Oblivion for the Xbox 360) and loved the creepy steampunk vibe to it and played Bioshock Infinite but missed this one. Strange, I don't know why this one didn't get a spin.
42. ICEY - Icey a bad moon rising? Er no. Terrible pun aside, this is a 2d side scrolling action game currently available on Steam with a Narrator telling me what to do. Look I ignore most instruction from people telling me what to do, this probably won't help..
43. PARADROID - Not another album by Radiohead at first thought and you know you're in trouble when even the mighty Google struggles to work out what you're talking about. So flicking back to the mag and game in question, it turns out Paradroid hails way way back to the mid 80s and the Commodore 64 era of gaming.
Which means short of some kind of emulation software, exactly how am I supposed to play this to cross it off my must list Hyper??
44. VIB RIBBON - This sounds like a part of an old Spectrum or Amstrad computer that took 20 minutes to load and changing games involved switching actual tapes over. Instead it's a Japanese rhythm game for the first PlayStation. Well okay then.
45. MASHED - A micro machine styled racer from the mid 2000s with roughly 8 tracks to whiz around on and I must play this? Really?
46. LEAGUE OF LEGENDS - I've played this haven't I? No wait, I'm confusing it with DOTA, the first defence of the Ancients through Warcraft 3. I've played Dota then, not this. Okay let's move on then.
47. THE SENTINEL - Sadly not that awesome song from The Hilltop Hoods, this one's the 86-87 puzzle PC game that went on to win a tonne of awards and cement itself into many best of lists. Sadly it's not one that cemented its name into this list of games I've actually played, sorry Hyper.
48. EXILE - No. Sadly this isn't Blades of Exile, one of those ripper RPGs from the Exile series courtesy of Spiderweb Software. Here Hyper is referring to the 1988 game of physics and gravity. Completely missed that one.
49. SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION V - Played it and still have a copy somewhere (lost a couple of moves ago) but here's the thing, 5 didn't strike me as one of the more enjoyable ones from what I remember.
Civ 2 got me hooked on the franchise way back when (I had a turn limited demo for the Macintosh in Dad's office).
I played Civ 3 quite a bit. Quite a bit. It's dated now when I look back on Steam but it's still a classic.
Then Civ IV came along and wowee, did that change things. Not only that but it got even better as the community came along and changed complete worlds with full conversion mod packs, putting out incredible stuff such as the Fall From Heaven series and even a reboot of the awesome Alpha Centauri.
Civ 5 was still good but...
...now that I have Civ VI, I'm really enjoying that too. So until I find my copy of V again and see what I've been missing again, both 4 and 6 will be my standouts.
Still that's a tick in the play column for this one! (13/100)
50. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST - My knowledge and experience of Zelda games is pretty lacking. I had the Legend of Zelda on the original monochrome Gameboy and I may have played a couple of minutes of Ocarina of Time at a demo station once. This rings no bells, Google explains it's from the Super Nintendo.
As much as I don't know about it, I know I haven't played it.
Okay so that's the first quarter of Hyper's big list looked at and my paltry score of games played on it amounts to a lowly 13. Can things be redeemed in the next 50?
Coming up in part 2: A truly awful game of dog turd proportions that I can't believe made this list, a challenge involving string and a hit that came out in the mid 90's with some of the most memorable sound effects of all time. It's ready to go now, how many have you played?
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