Apparently there aren't that many Zelda Fans on this forum.(I'm a Zelda Fan) I'm curious to play Parasite Eve 1 and 2 though. Never had those when i was younger.
Big n64 game fan here as well, especially zelda. Strangely my favorite zelda game though is probably Minish Cap on the GBA, then OoT.
I find the N64 games pretty amazing - but I think there's fundamental limitations on a lot of console games - my top 5-10 games are either decidedly worse on console, or nonexistent on console.
No Zelda fans?!?! Show me the door. I am leaving. (I think there are far more than you think.) I never owned, played, nor even saw a N64 though. The Zelda games from yesteryear were good enough. They lost me when they went 3d. That and despite all the old Zelda fans growing up, the games grew younger with time. (Meaning they were so idiotic and obviously built for children as opposed to adults that they were a pain to play.)
I never had a Nintendo 64. I had the original NES but only after the Super NES had been out for a little while. I eventually got a Super NES but it was years after they came out with the next system.
Ah, the Original Nintendo. That was a nice system. It brought us the Dragon Warrior series. It brought us the Zelda series. Metroid and Contra and a hundred other gems. The SNES was an improvement. The N64 not so much.
Oh man I just remembered a game that I shamefully forgot to mention - Xenoblade Chronicles I would consider it the best JRPG of all time personally. Incredibly unique world, interesting storyline, good gameplay with lots of exploration... and all the annoyances of traditional JRPGs done with (such as grinding, clichés, long travel times etc).
Water. F**king. Temple. I also think Paper Mario didn't get much of a chance in the EU - or at least I never remember seeing it. I'd say Starfox is one of the "best games of all time". Oh, Starwing to you forrin types. You know, the SNES game.
I think Super Mario RPG is worth a mention. I usually hate platforming elements but they managed to make it really fun and rewarding somehow. Great story, great music, and battles that always felt pretty tight and well balanced. Bomberman 64, for having a really clever (although frustrating) platforming system by jumping onto your bombs and bouncing off of them. Getting all the secrets in that game was this huge meta game in itself. Also, I love the boss battles (especially the first and second one) and having to mash A to get giant bombs.
Myth I and II I still haven't seen any game with battles as good as in these games. I played both games through several times, including on the hardest difficulty. UFO - Enemy Unknown (X-COM) The atmosphere, the battles, the whole research system - well, nearly everything was great. One Must Fall 2097 I'm not usually into these type of games but this was one of the very few shareware games I ever bought the full version of. And played the hell out of it. Final Fantasy VII Even with its quirks it was just so ... captivating. I first tried a pirated version somewhere and got so hooked that I immediately bought the game. Master of Magic I usually played it on easy and just had so much fun. Alpha Centauri It was simply better than the Civilization series. Diablo 2 The first and only online multiplayer game I've cared to play more than a moment. Jagged Alliance 2 I've never finished the game but I've played it about 90% through many times. Total Annihilation Simply the best RTS. And probably others I can't recall right now.
Neverwinter Nights is my favorite game of all time and even not having played it in five or six years I probably have more hours sunk into it than any other game. I wouldn't get overly excited about Neverwinter though. It's being developed by Cryptic Studios, not Bioware, and has pretty much nothing in common with NWN. NWN2 is pretty much the closest thing we'll ever see to a successor - and I've gotten the impression that not many share this opinion but I *HATED* NWN2 from a content creator's standpoint. It's by no means a bad game but it is absolutely a pile of crap compared to its' predecessor. - Myst and Riven would probably be tied for my second place spot, followed by Uru. Past that I can't really say, there are plenty of other games I loved but none that really stuck with me years after as much as those. It sounds stupid to say this but Myst kind of defined my childhood and I still play MO:ULa from time to time just for the sake of nostalgia. Hell, I even went back and replayed Riven not too long ago. Absolutely beautiful game, and unlike a lot of (read: all) point n' click adventure games it actually aged pretty damn well.
I too loved NWN1 and hated NWN2. The first was immersive and well balanced. It could be modded past insane and still be enjoyed. The second was plainly awful. And modding it did not ever fix it in any way I could find. I may have given up too soon, but I really tried to find a modset that made it playable. And this was a year or two after it was released. Also NWN1 was playable from the beginning. (I.E Vanilla without patches or mods.) NWN2 was not.
I was going to edit this onto the previous post, but I decided it deserves it's own post due to length. Caves of Qud is what I am playing daily now. It is amazing. Check it out if you like. It is a Roguelike without tiles, so be warned and check other games that are more user friendly in the genre first if you are not familiar. Falcon's Eye is a Nethack variant that is almost exactly vanilla except it is graphical. (Meaning it has tiles.) Give it a try before Caves of Qud. About Nethack, I have probably spent more time in this game than in school. (In my lifetime.) It is just that damned good. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is another awesome Roguelike. The Crawl Wiki will be your constant reading material throughout your first year or ten in the game... And the game just released version 11 this month. Read the Changelog if you want, but nothing amazing is there this time. *Edit* Except with 11 concurrent God Wrath will not dilute one another. This makes a tried and previously true tactic of switching Gods late game for specific benefits much more dangerous. No more Pandemonium God switching for me I guess.
In my current saved game, I'm playing it on hard but I know what you mean -- on hard or impossible, the game can start to drag late in the game. It's actually worthwhile to 'quit' and declare yourself the winner, at the point when you are simply playing clean-up (or just resign when things start to seriously go wrong, with global spells, not your own, start wreaking terrible havok across both planes. I kind of have a go-to build in MoM that I have so much fun with -- Warlord/Myrran with the rest in Life magic, and Halflings (occasionally, I'll change that up with High Men or Dark Elves). Crusade+Warlord+Slingers with Adamantium-enchanted weapons... are just so much fun in most situations. Mostly you have to watch out for Wizards with the Guardian Wind spell, and the mana to use it willy nilly. But other than that, they are really awesome. And Heroism and/or Holy Armor can get you through a whole lot very early in the game. Most games, it seems like going for the damage spells is the winning formula. But life magic has only one or two direct damage spells to speak of (and they only harm undead or chaos critters), and it's still awesome. It fits my preferred play style to have my thoroughly buffed-up armies roaming the map, and me primarily saving mana for heals and mass heals. As far as AC is concerned, I've mentioned several times before my love for that game. I mostly play Gaia, though Peace Keepers, and the tech guy/faction are a reasonable second choice (or Morgan, the industrialists can be fun, though weirdly challenging). The one faction that I refuse to play ever are the religious fanatics (again I can't recall the name). I think it's because she's the leader that I tend to conquer first whenever I play normally (she gets on my nerves).
Tales of Maj'Eyal uber alles. I'm working my way through the infinite dungeon now using a new mod that balances play enough for players to get down into the depths without getting instagibbed through no fault of theirs over 500 levels.
I loved ToME 2.35 and hated when they made it a new game. I may have to give it a try again though. *Edit* Here is the site so you need not search. http://te4.org/ *Edit* I see that it has been way too long since I played this. This page did not exist when last I did. http://te4.org/tome/addons 'Nuff said. I am playing soon. (Once I sort and add a billion mods.)
