PlayStation 3

Kentaro21 posted...

For me, it would be Psychonauts. The voice acting was great, the gameplay was unique, the humor always made me laugh a little, and the story was a lot more deep than you'd think. Though, in recent years, I've seen it pick up steam.

This, this, this so very much. Everything about Psychonauts is just so perfect. It can be a collectathon if you want it to be, but most of it is optional. Meanwhile you do some awesome platforming and puzzle solving across such diverse level themes. And the humor, need I say more than the Milk Man?! Those very few lines he utters are the best lines in the entire game.

gamemaster712 posted...

Deadly premonition
God hand

I agree with those, but I think God Hand has been making a comeback, increbily*. And Deadly Premonition is actually pretty scary from what I've seen, and has such great dialogue like Psychonauts. The game is pretty nice, and I don't have to think twice, so says Mr. Stewart.

* - The misspelling of "incredibly" in IGN's Godhand review, which has still not been fixed to this day.

Okami

Whoa, really? Okami was underrated? I played through and beat that not to long ago, and found it to be a pretty amazing game. It has its problems (which are pretty glaring, but still passable), but it is one hell of a game.
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You know that game I never played? That one?
10/10, GoTY and Best (insert genre here).

river city ransom for the NES

Great Greed, for the original Game Boy. It's one of those things that, if you look at any individual aspect of the game, it ought to suck - but somehow, it totally works. It just has this *charm* about it that makes you happy to be playing it.

If I can say more than one, I'd also mention Alpha Protocol and Final Fantasy 13. I completely understand why Final Fantasy 13 gets all the hate that it does, but for me, it pushed all the right buttons. Keeping the game tightly linear let the designers avoid a pitfall that many games allow themselves to fall into: poor pacing. Many games will let you spend ages doing sidequests that don't include any kind of story content whatsoever, killing any dramatic tension that's been building. This is not *necessarily* a bad thing - too much tension can be as bad as too little - but many games do this at what amounts to precisely the wrong time, or just never let the tension build in the first place. (Final Fantasy 12, I'm looking at you!) Final Fantasy 13 avoids these problems.
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- Doug
Embarrassed Minion of Bak'laag. http://backloggery.com/cronodas

El Shaddai.

Yes, the gameplay was a bit repetitive, and the story was bizarre, but the artistic direction was SOOOO GOOD. I was constantly blown away by the amazing visuals and awesome soundtrack.

And to a lesser extent, Lumines. No puzzle game is better.
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Wa.

Monster Hunter (PS2)
OgreBattle (SNES/PSX)
Jade Empire (XBOX)
Everquest Online Adventures (PS2)
Kagero: Deception (PS2)
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You might call us yanks, but just remember, if it wasnt for us, you might be living in Germany right now...or not living at all.