While I'd played games like Dig-Dug and Galaga before, the first really big game I got my hands on was Kingdom Hearts. My parents bought it for me for Christmas when I was around ten years old and boy did I have no idea what I was getting into. It was just a Disney game, right? It had goofy and Donald Duck on the cover, so there was no way I wasn't going to breeze through this.

But it kicked my ass.

Boy howdy did Kingdom Hearts kick my little ten year old ass.

I spent an awful amount of time just running around the starter island because I couldn't get a handle on the controls, and the game never exactly told me where to go and what to do; so I mostly just talked to the few NPC characters around and failed at jumping up to things. Combat was super tricky even on the easiest difficulty, and I ended up dying...a lot. I had to get my older sister to 'help' (read: do it for me) whenever I came across a moderately strong boss.

But man, no matter how bad at it I was, I loved it. I loved every grueling second of trying to beat that game. Little me thought it had the greatest story ever written since Peter Pan, and it's what really got me interested in fantasy stories. Not to mention the fact that it kickstarted the (other) hobby that's pretty well defined my life since I was a wee lad. I can't imagine having another game be my first.

My grandfather had it on his PC. I think the farthest I reached was somewhere among the Bart levels before I stopped playing it seriously (to beat the game, I mean). Too bad his computer crashed sometime later, so I have no idea if my save files are even there anymore.

I think we had it for the Gamecube, though everyone wanted to play Crazy Taxi instead. I heard there was a Simpsons clone of that too, but I don't think I've ever played it.

aw shit, i still remember playing crazy taxi at my local sally bash every wednesday. while everyone else was outside playing on whatever id just be in the console room.

I first played Baldur's Gate when I was nine. It wasn't until I was about fifteen that I actually saw the ending and was able to move on to Baldur's Gate 2. Now I'm twenty six and I still play the series religiously. I cannot pick a favourite out of the two because they're both so good. I consider 1, 2 and Throne of Bhaal to be one big, long saga...heck, even Siege of Dragonspear! It is impossible for me to play one without the others. No other game has had the same impact on me and no other RPG's have ever lived up to what Baldur's Gate provides. There's so much replayability and satisfaction to be found in these titles. No matter the fight, unless you truly are bad at the game, there is always a strategy to help you prevail. There are countless party combinations for you to try out and so many ways to get through the game.

Ocarina of Time is a game I also played when I was very young, and although it perplexed little me and I ended up playing through the Deku Tree on multiple different save files, it was one that stuck with me due to its colourful nature and wonderful soundtrack. The gameplay was engaging and the world was immersive. I did finally beat the game on the 3DS version and have since gone back to play it on the 64 (still have the same cartridge I first played!) and Gamecube and it does not get old to me. My first foray into The Legend of Zelda and still my favourite.

Half Life 2...hoo boy, this game blew my teenaged mind when it came out. Ragdoll physics! Realistic graphics! Satisfying, punchy gameplay! Atmosphere and immersion! It may look a little dated these days, but as far as I'm concerned, it holds up just damn fine. I still remember how creeped out I felt when I noticed G-Man following my progress. I had played it so many times before that and didn't notice him for ages. Then once I did, I couldn't stop seeing him!

Those are my big three anyway, the games that captured my attention and imagination as a wee lad and left the largest impression. I grew up largely on PC. We didn't get a console until early 2003 and it was a Nintendo 64 with only a limited range of games. My only other console experiences were playing Playstation and Xbox at friends houses and not being very good on a controller.

To pivot us to some major video game events, as most of you know an incident occurred today in Florida. I am absolutely disgusted and appalled. I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but it is relatively important we all take a moment to reflect on this.

That event honestly hit a little closer to home than some of the other ones considering I play a ton of Madden and this happened at a Madden tournament. I don't understand why someone would do something like this over anything, let alone a video game. So what if you lost? Suck it up and take the loss like a man instead of taking other people's lives just because you can't handle losing.

Cowards.

That event was shocking to me considering i played madden growing up but not so much as I have been playing different games and been focusing on Street Fighter V AE.
I heard it was over not only a loss but also $50 that the man lost too as well so i don't understand why someone would resort to such an unnecessary extreme. So what if you lost and the money too? You pay to get in and play anyway so suck it up and take the loss to learn from it instead of taking other people's lives because you can't handle losing and only care about winning.

Mentally unstable person goes on a rampage.

People die.

Thousands get angry at the wrong shit.

Rinse, repeat, and wonder why pointing fingers doesn't solve anybody's problem in a world quite literally flooded with chaos and hatred.

I hardly think the shooting is relevant to gaming, to be perfectly honest. The context of the tragedy does not take away from the fact that major deciding factors likely had nothing to do with video games, or losing. I chalk it up as one of the countless unavoidable tragedies that plague the world. It's like that Elliot Roger garbage, where everyone was too hung up on his twisted rationale to just admit to themselves that he was a fucking psychopath, as if his inability to get a girlfriend was more important than the fact that this asshole wrote about skinning people alive.

But hey, people like getting angry in unison at stuff. Gotta fit in or you're an unfeeling prick. Isn't it great?

I never feel anything when I hear about this nasty shit anymore aside from mild disappointment. It wouldn't change anything if I did anyways. It might sound heartless, but unless somebody I knew personally were to fall victim to something like this, I don't have the physical capacity to care.

Don't take anything away from this, other than the fact that people can be absolutely fucking monstrous under unfortunate circumstances. This has nothing to do with games, this has nothing to do with gaming culture, and this has nothing to do with competition. This was just one of many isolated incidents centered around the lack of mental wellness in an immature, and likely forsaken, human being. A human being that was not gifted with the psyche to cope with the disgusting nature of the world around them without going on a psychotic rampage.

What makes me angry, is when people use these tragedies to validate their arbitrary notions on society and culture.

We live in a society

---

I don't mean to start a ruckus, but there's little conversation to be had here that wouldn't drift entirely away from the thread's core topic.

That event was shocking to me considering i played madden growing up but not so much as I have been playing different games and been focusing on Street Fighter V AE.
I heard it was over not only a loss but also $50 that the man lost too as well so i don't understand why someone would resort to such an unnecessary extreme. So what if you lost and the money too? You pay to get in and play anyway so suck it up and take the loss to learn from it instead of taking other people's lives because you can't handle losing and only care about winning.

This still doesn't justify what the guy did, but the tournament actually had a grand prize about 5000 times that, as well as being a regional qualifier to a national Madden tournament.

Regardless, nobody should be fucking shooting up shit just because you've taken a loss.

To take the topic back to something even more gaming related, there was also a mention that there was little to no security there, which is not entirely uncommon when it comes to tournaments like this. I'm really saddened by the fact that it took a tragedy like this for bigger organizations like EVO and whatnot to pledge that they'll beef up security at their events even though they should already be doing so.

As sad as it is, it's a necessary precaution nowadays. Events like these are prime targets for tragedies like those.

Losing ain't worth that!

50 dollers. A loss. That ain't worth dieing over. Jeez.

Well no one would have expected to need such heavy security on a gaming event, because no one's ever done it before. So that's just gonna make things silly for everyone else as they have to think in thr worst case scenario now.

Sadly despite every protection or so, yiut not going to prevent every crazy.

<Snipped quote by rebornfan320>

This still doesn't justify what the guy did, but the tournament actually had a grand prize about 5000 times that, as well as being a regional qualifier to a national Madden tournament.

Regardless, nobody should be fucking shooting up shit just because you've taken a loss.

To take the topic back to something even more gaming related, there was also a mention that there was little to no security there, which is not entirely uncommon when it comes to tournaments like this. I'm really saddened by the fact that it took a tragedy like this for bigger organizations like EVO and whatnot to pledge that they'll beef up security at their events even though they should already be doing so.

As sad as it is, it's a necessary precaution nowadays. Events like these are prime targets for tragedies like those.

Well you're right on nobody should be shooting anything up because you've taken a loss and it shouldn't be justified in any way at all, one reason that I can think of there was little to no security there is because people go to these tournaments to have a escape and to have some fun with people while in a competitive setting. It's a shame a tragedy happened here yes and it's resulting in beefing up security and no event should be a target.

Are we really having a discussion based on why starting a mass shooting after losing a gaming tournament is bad? Is that something we really need to discuss? Like, is anyone going to honestly say it's okay to kill a few people if you lose at a tournament?

I know it's "olde hat," but what's everyone's thoughts on spending money on F2P games? Here's an article that was pretty hot a while back But it's actually sort of inaccurate when compared to more recent studies, which you can find here. Though it seems like what it takes to get called a whale nowadays has lowered drastically.

Putting my own opinion out there, I've found that very few mobile F2P games are more sophisticated than the average flash game you can play anywhere for free. Some of them just do a better job at being addicting, like having time sensitive events and what not.

I know it's "olde hat," but what's everyone's thoughts on spending money on F2P games?

A fool and their money are soon parted.

In other news, the best fucking franchise ever is getting a fourth entry this is A Good Day.

I've always been in favor of supporting games that don't intentionally try to siphon money from your bank account. Freemium producers deserve to rot in hell, but if a game is good and free to play, I'll throw a few bucks its way.

A narrative masterpiece that I don't think gets enough exposure is The Fall. A fairly complex point-and-click adventure that absolutely amazed me with how excellent it executes its narrative despite the lack-luster puzzles. Its sequel, the Fall 2, offers more interesting and engaging puzzles, but the real appeal is in the way it handles its themes and story, especially when it introduces other characters in the sequel.

I acquired slap city a while back. It's definitely in the vein of "smash brother's clone," but I've found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. If you're looking for a cheep party game, and don't mind the momentary lack of features, this might be up your ally.

@BrokenPromise

F2P I find almost worse. Least I know if I buy a game, I get the game.
Not a constant drip feed of extras.
Even expansions, or dlx. Fine. Just give me everything.

Plus late game is nigh impossible minus paying.

slap city

I enjoy charging a duck punch powerful enough to shatter the fabric of reality.

I'm gonna pose a question to the thread to foster conversation and the like.

What is a game you know is bad or is widely considered to be bad but you enjoy/love anyway?

For me, that game is Digimon World 2. Like I know as a dungeon crawler it is kind of lacking given how the environments are all basically the same and the grind is maddening, but that game got me through a lot of summers as a kid (even though I never actually finished it) and I have a large fondness for it. I was so glad when Digimon put out a good game finally with Cyber Sleuth but I'll always remember crawling around in my dumb tank with eyes getting 5 experience a pop.

I spent a LOT of time with the first two Digimon World games and they were really hard, lol.

In terms of your question, though? The first thing that comes to mind is Spider-Man: Web of Shadows. It's gameplay is clunky, the voice acting is uneven, and the writing is never as good as I remembered it to be upon replay. It's really a honest mess, but I love it and I love its ambitions.

Mass Effect Andromeda.

If you look past the rather overblown animation issues, it was definitely a very solid game. The gameplay was actually the best in the series in my opinion. The story was pretty okay, I guess, but I felt like there were a lot of holes that would have been closed if it wasn't for EA pulling the plug on it so soon.

I cannot for the life of me remember a 'bad' game that I enjoyed.

Maybe Dr. Muto on gamecube? That thing was a hilarious cluster fuck of a collectathon.