Cole's Top Ten Pick of Incredible Games:
1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: Third person adventure game. Go on an epic quest to defeat the evil Ganondorf and save the land of Hyrule.
2. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Adventure on a massive quest in this single player role playing game to close shut the Oblivion gates that have plagued the world of Cyrodil. Countless side quests and endless possibilities help put this game in the top three.
3. Grand Theft Auto V: Rockstars recently released smash hit lets the player take control of three different protagonists, allowing the player to take part in a plethora of activities that have kept me busy for hours on end.
4. Red Dead Redemption: Another 3rd person game from Rockstar North, RDR takes place in the old west where the player can engage in various activities such as poker, stagecoach robbery, and all other sorts out western outlaw tasks to save your family.
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Set in the northern province of Skyrim, this 3rd person RPG pits the player against the newly re-born Dragons that have returned to the land. Just like Oblivion, the massive amount of side quests and exploring puts this game in my top 10/
6. Fallout 3: In this post apocalyptic role playing adventure, the player must fight through the ruins of DC to find your father and discover the source of renewable fresh water. In the same style as the other two Bethesda titles on the list, the unbelievable amount of exploring allowed puts Fallout 3 at the number 6 spot.
7. Grand Theft Auto IV: This 3rd person action shooter from Rockstar North was an instant hit after the successful San Andreas game. Set in Liberty City, a Manhattan clone, the player must enter the criminal underworld and make a name for themselves while trying to capture the american dream.
8. Half-Life 2: An instant classic from Valve, Half-Life 2 is a first person shooter where the player must defeat the combine and free the enslaved citizens of City 17. This game really engaged me and had me involved in the story from the moment I picked it up.
9. ArmA 2: DayZ Mod: Although it is technically not a stand-alone game, the DayZ mod for ArmaA 2 definitely revolutionized what a zombie shooting game can be. Incorporating perma-death and the idea of players either helping or hurting each others progress, this game was an instant favourite of mine and I can't wait for the standalone title.
10. Star Wars Battlefront Series: I had to put series here as I ran out of available spots and both Battlefront 1 and 2 are favourites of mine. As a 3rd person capture the bases game, Battelfront stole my love because of the chaos that can ensue when dozens of soldiers storm the battlegrounds set all across the Star Wars universe.
After examining my list of favourite games, there was one element present in the majority of the games that kept popping up. I really enjoy open world concept games. I have always felt this way because I love the idea of getting to take a character in a whole other world and shape them the way I see fit. With no real world repercussions, I really get to see what type of person I would like to play when I have the world at my finger tips. I also really enjoy exploring in these games. The open world element really makes me as a player feel like I am not only having my character shaped by my actions, but also by the world I am inhabiting. A classic example of this was in Fallout 3. After meeting a specific group of characters in the game and learning their back story, I would no longer shoot these individuals on site and would sneak around them if possible. Through simple dialogue, I had a whole new outlook on what type of play style my character would use and even my sense of in game morals changed as well.
Another element included in the Bethesda titles listed (Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3) above is the stealth ability. Whenever I player any type of role-playing game, I tend to have my character work mainly on their sneak and marksman abilities. This is because I find games much more satisfying when they can be played as an assassin/rogue type character. Even in the DayZ Mod, I would still have my character take a stealth approach to combat, instead of the guns blazing Rambo style. The Rockstar titles listed above however, tend to have me play them in a completely different way. These games always had me feeling invincible, running into hopelessly unbalanced scenarios with a grin on my face and many bullets at the ready. They promoted chaos and I loved to be right in the center of it.
The two games on my list that do not fit into the open world category happen to be Star Wars Battlefront Series and the Half-Life 2 game. Although story is not always the most important element for me to enjoy a game, Half-Life 2 however was one game that won me over purely through its storytelling. The gameplay is that of a basic FPS, but the story of the plight of the citizens of City 17 is so enticing and it always made me feel as though I had to liberate these people, by whatever means necessary. The Battelfront games are quite the opposite, as they won me over purely through their combat mechanics. Allowing the player to fight in large battles on land, air and space, really caught my attention and brought me hours of fun with friends.
Although most of these games on my top 10 list seem to be played in varied ways, at heart they all still give off the same open world feel. Even a game like Half-Life 2 can make me feel as though I am part of a large expansive open world, even though the story-line is as linear as they come. I love to have the feeling of being a tiny character in such a massive world and all of these games definitely embody that feeling. Even after multiple play-through's of each, I still go back to each game in hopes of finding something new and exciting that I missed before.
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