PixlBit

Chrono Crossing 2007

Holy wow I can't believe I'm not picking Mass Effect (which is the best single player experience I've ever had in my life) or Halo 3 (the best co-op experience I've ever had), but I'm totally choosing the Orange Box, which is kind of a cheat answer. For the price of one game I was able to play Half Life 2 and all its expansion packs, plus Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Having all of these games on one disc for the price of one game was incredible. But not only was the Orange Box an amazing value but literally every game it contained ended up becoming some of my favorite games of all time.

My playstation 1 memories were dominated by all Tomb Raider all the time. I also have good memories of Gran Turismo, Die Hard Trilogy, and Siphon Filter, but in the end it was all about Tomb Raider.

I played the first four games made for PS1 up through Revelations. I was really young at the time and those games were really difficult to navigate visually and handle mechanically. Things were lit so dark, the geometry and textures were archaic, and there were so many nooks and crannies in the level design that it was very easy to get lost or not know where to go, but I always came home from school wanting to play more. I got burnt out on the series after Revelations and took a long hiatus away from it after that.

It's a funny story in hindsight, Crystal Dynamics got a hold of the series during my hiatus and came out with literally all the best games in the series lol, so I missed out on those when they were fresh. The 2013 reboot got me back into it and I since went back and played everything I missed

I sent you a request on Facebook so I could try and see Beau. Congrats on the adoption!

Okami HD looks pretty stunning. Playstation Now is coming to PC over in Europe soon and I'm waiting for it to eventually come here so I can get some of the PS2 and PS3 remasters they have available

I'm sorry to hear about Bandit, Tami, seeing pictures of him in your blogs and listening to anecdotes about him always made me smile.

I really enjoyed Stranger Things, I binged that over a weekend a little while back. What's Poltergeist: The Legacy about? Is that new?

I want to play Ori & the Blind Forest, that looks like my kind of platformer. I was hoping it would go on sale during the steam summer sale but no luck. One of these days I'll grab it

Stage Select (picking a company to run)

This will be a brief rabbit hole but please follow me down, because I found the perfect company for this episode's Stage Select.

If I could run any game company I would kill many birds with one stone and head-up Monolith Productions. First I would reboot F.E.A.R. and Condemned. FEAR 2 was fantastic but was followed up with an abysmal Call of Duty clone called FEAR 3, and Condemned 2 was amazing but never saw a conclusion to that story.

Most important at Monolith Productions I would revive the defunct Snowblind Studios whom were merged with Monolith in 2012. Snowblind is the company behind all the console action-RPGs that made me fall in love with the RPG genre in the first place, namely Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath, and Champions Return to Arms. The Dark Alliance and Champions games were all superb RPGs that were easily under 30 hours each unless you were a completionist. I think there's absolutely still a market of people like me who want digestible action-RPGs that aren't open world or endless, and take place in interesting universes like Forgotten Realms D&D and Everquest.

Chrono Crossing 2008

It's between Mirror's Edge and Fable 2. Mirror's Edge essentially created a new genre of first-person platforming that I never knew I wanted, and in my opinion is the game that's easiest to go back to. But I have to pick Fable 2 because I don't think I've ever been as satisfied with a sequel in my life. I hung on every word coming out of Lionhead Studios prior to release and I nerded out about Fable 2 the way superhero movie fans do in 2016 about every scrap of news they find. Even with that unfair amount of hype I still played the final game and was blown away. For two weeks Fable became my life. When I went to sleep I could still hear the amazing soundtrack and the dry comical banter of the NPCs in my dreams. Rest in peace Lionhead Studios and rest in peace Fable, it was all really unique, weird, and utterly fascinating while it lasted.

Stage Select

3. .510 Bolt Action Sniper in the original Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2003 - The game has big sandbox levels with varied elevation, bullet drop, and bullet cam. The power of the .510 allows me to shoot all the way across the map, and I can watch the bullet curve over hills and mountains and kill an animal several hundred meters away in one shot

2. Big Boss' hands in Metal Gear Solid 3 - All the different CQC mechanics are highly satisfying and useful when you're in a pinch and need to non-lethaly take down guys with guns. The CQC and jungle setting make me feel like Jason Statham in a Vietnam movie

1. Mario's Butt - to this day, vanquishing enemies in any game has never been as satisfying as bopping goombas on the head

Chrono Crossing 2009

Assassin's Creed 2 - Mechanically and storywise AC2 isn't the best game that came out in 2009 but it's by far the one game that dominates my memories of that year. I loved the Italy setting, the architecture, historical codex info, and the culture. I personally think AC2 is the closest that the series has ever come to realizing its potential as the time traveling historical simulator it could be.

Chrono Crossing 2010

It's between Fallout New Vegas and Red Dead Redemption. New Vegas is my favorite Fallout game by far. The story Obsidian created was way more flexible than any Bethesda game has been, and the combat was improved across-the-board in small ways, not to mention the game's difficulty and leveling were properly balanced compared to Fallout 3. Moment-to-moment, Red Dead is more frustrating than Fallout is. It's a pain to move John Marston around, especially indoors, and even worse to try and get him to climb up onto anything to get the high ground during a firefight. But the atmosphere of the game is unmatched, the story and voice acting are of the highest quality, and simply being in the game's novel setting with such superb production value is magical. It's a tough choice but I'll go with Read Dead Redemption based almost entirely on story and atmosphere.

Stage Select top 5 of all time

A lot of the games I've thought historically were the best are games I don't actually want to play anymore (Ocarina of Time, for example) so trying to go for pure nostalgia or historical importance didn't work for me. I had to do the premise of being forced to play only 5 games forever, and I picked the ones I'd love and be likely to play. I don't want to get stuck with five games I simply enjoy reminiscing about.

5. Spelunky

4. Metal Gear Solid V - The Phantom Pain

3. Halo 3

2. Skyrim (on PC with mods)

1. Mass Effect 1

2 is my favorite Bioshock to this day. I liked the story better than 1 or Infinite, and I thought the action built on the first game in the right ways to make it faster and more efficient because of the dual wielding, without being so over the top as Infinite. And the Minerva's Den dlc alone is just the cherry on top that probably has some of the best story telling that the series has seen yet.

Woohoo roadtrip, and good riddance to caterpillar hairs!