Must-have-tried games

[LimpingFish]

It's hard to judge exactly what titles qualify as known or unknown (one man's underdog is another man's classic), but I offer the following:

Pathologic (PC) must be tried. Nine out of ten cats won't get it, but those that do will recognize it as something special.

Breakdown (Xbox) is seriously flawed, but at times almost manages greatness.

Haunting Ground (PS2) is the natural successor to the Clock Tower series, and works pretty well as a whole.

Hagane (SNES) is hard as nails, but weirdly addictive.

The Firemen (SNES)  is one of my favourite SNES titles of all time.

Cybernator (SNES) is my favourite SNES title of all time.

SOS The Final Escape (PS2) may be technically shonky, but you won't play a better earthquake simulator.

I could go on, but those will do for now.

[Jared]

Hmm, my one contribution would be either (or both of) Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive or Robin the Hood: The Legend of Sherwood for being dismissed as 'Commandos clones' that, for my money, are much better than the game they're supposedly ripping off.

Desperados has a very manageable learning curve, plenty of action, an interesting narrative and very memorable characters. (Anyone who has played this game will enthuse about Sanchez) It's nice and lengthy, too and has buckets of atmosphere.

Robin Hood is very similar in a lot of ways, but has different levels of difficulty and some extra challenges to the player (strategic planning of a civil war, for one!) to give it a fair bit of replay value, as well as boss characters, training for your men, recruitment, etc. One of the few games out there where the player is actively encouraged to avoid killing, as well.

Neither are perfect, but even though I like the original Commands series, I think those two games by Spellbound are a LOT more fun. Damn shame they never made any editors, though...

[hedgefield]

I totally agree, Desperados was fantastic. Part II even moreso, when you could seamlessly switch to a 3rd-person view. And yes, Sanchez was awesome.

Obscure titles, hmm....

If you're into the latest Resident Evil's, Cold Fear is a really good RE4 clone. It takes place on a oil tanker caught in a storm, overrun by zombies. Thumbs up.

Lingering in the horror genre for a sec, if you haven't checked out Penumbra, go do so. Real nice indie horror games that put a lot of focus on the atmosphere, and they have a really interesting interaction system.

And Infernal surprised me with how much fun it was for a cheesy B-game. You play as a fallen angel fighting against the legions of Heaven. Except you're some badass dude with a goatee and guns that shoot flaming bullets, and the devil is a black man in a suit with cornrows.

[InCreator]

Penumbra rocked. I want to play it again... but there were spiders.
Why o why did they have to put spiders in there? Wasn't game scary enough? I completed both games once, though.

(I'm not really afraid of spiders - in run-away! sense, but whenever I see evil tiny-eyed, hairy bugs, I go into berserk-insane-panicked-killing spree, even in games)

Desperados would be great challenge to Commandos if it wasn't so unfairly difficult and had so hard controls.
I personally loved Commandos II and no similar game has surpassed it yet. Both in experience and possibilities to actually win a damn level. There's a line between challenge and masochism.

[Wesray]

I have to second Thief 1 (Dark Project). One of my favorite games ever, incredibly atmospheric.

As for obscure adventure games, "Riddle of Master Lu" is a real gem from the late DOS days. But it is very hard to find and even harder to run flawlessly nowadays. Thank god for DOS Box.

[ShiverMeSideways]

Hmmm... A few of my personal favourites:

Chart Wars 3 - a free text-sim which puts you in charge of a record label. I instantly fell in love with this game, 'cos you can book really detailed tours and work closely with your bands. However, the only (and also the major) flaw with it is that it is incredibly buggy.

Imperialism 1 & 2 - two incredible gems of the TBS genre. The first one puts you in the shoes of the ruler of an industrial power (19th-20th) century and in the second you become the ruler of a country scouring discovering the New World. Both are very detailed and, in my opinion, a bit on the hard side, but I guess I'm not very good .

Iji - a modern side-scroller with RPG elements, a good story, but it still has that "classic" feel to it. The final bossfight is one of the most epic I've ever seen! Also free!

Transport Tycoon (now OpenTTD) - man, this sim kept me many hours/days/weeks occupied when I was younger. Definetly a game of my childhood and one of the best strategy games ever in my opinion! Now, the Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe project offers all the things that made the original so good, but many new things like mods for new vehicles/industries! Aye, it be free.

Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory - Dunno if this counts, but I enjoy playing this FPS online a lot. I'm especially present nowadays on the SexMad servers . There are different classes, (medic, engineer, etc.) objectives, AND it's set in WWII, what more can you want?! It's also more streamlined than the first Battlefield ever was, in my opinion. Also free.

[SSH]

Call me old fashioned but I love micro-management simulation games, like Civilisation 2 and Championship Manager 00/01

[FruitTree]

RISTAR FOR THE SEGA MEGADRIVE!!!!
seriously one of the best platformers ever!

and damn you limpingfish! I was gonna say breakdown! wich I consider the best fps I've ever played!
I can see it's flaws sure but I don't care, it rocked!

also I really enjoyed advent rising for the original xbox! also very flawed sucky framerate and what not but amazing pace and cool gameplay atmoshpere one of my favs!

lost odyssey is a final fantasy like game for the xbox 360 it's pretty famous though kind of under appreciated!

[Calin Leafshade]

I second lost odyssey. The memories make me want to cry.

[ThreeOhFour]

also I really enjoyed advent rising for the original xbox! also very flawed sucky framerate and what not but amazing pace and cool gameplay atmoshpere one of my favs!

I have this for PC! And yeah, terrible frame rates and crap, but I really, really enjoyed playing through it! A lot of it is overblown bullet time and special effects, but it all feels really cool when you're playing!

I've tried playing through it again twice since finishing it, and both times have lost interest, but that first time was absolutely magical!

[Jim Reed]

Gunstar heroes - Sega genesis: Super arcade action!

Front Mission - Snes: Old school tactical rpg.

Jagged Alliance v1.13 - Win: No comment. No competitors.

Football Manager 07/08 (the new one sucks) - Win: the notorious time hugger.

And a special two dungeon crawlers:
IVAN and DoomRL.
IVAN for the complete unfairness of the difficulty level and DoomRL for the atmosphere.

[Mouth for war]

I have to say Shadow complex for the xbox360. Awesome 2d platform action with really beautiful 3d graphics. Like a mix of castlevania - symphony of the night, metroid and metal gear solid. I really loved that game. Bully is also a game I think deserves more credit. IMO I think rockstar should give up that crappy GTA series and focus on bully instead GTA feels sooo repetitive for me after a little while. Bully never does. Castlevania - symphony of the night is also a very good game by the way.

[Madraccoon]

I think that some more epic games must be mentioned...

-Master of Magic
-Master of Orion
-System Shock

...and those old adventure games (fate of atlantis )

How many of you have played the  original Master of Magic, and how many had problems with dos and "insufficient memory" 

[kconan]

I'll go 3 per decade in various genres...

In the 80s...
Mail Order Monsters
The Eternal Dagger
Racing Destruction Set


In the 90s...
Civilization
Sam and Max Hit the Road
X-Com: UFO Defense


Newer
Psychonauts
Half Life 2 (and expansions)
Mount and Blade (impressive for a small studio)


"Planescape: Torment", "Kingpin", and "Fallout 2" get honorable mentions.

[Jared]

Just remembered another great, yet fairly obscure game I loved - Iron Storm. I can see why it didn't take off, because aside from the parallel universe angle the game was sold on a gimmick of "Hey, this game is INSANELY HARD!" but to me that adds to the appeal. Nothing was more rewarding in my gaming life than gruelling my way through this game.

Basically, anyone can shoot you once and kill you instantly if they're a good shot. Hence, it's realistic. But you're given a list of objectives to rival most Medal of Honour games. Oh, and you can only carry three guns. With pretty limited ammo. It's kind of like a war-hero sim.

Hmmm, maybe I'm a complete masochist gamer...

[Ponch]

Blood This is an old shooter from Monolith games that puts you in the shoes of a soulless evil cowboy out to destroy Cthulu (or whatever they called him in the game). One of the best old school shooters I ever played.

Jagged Alliance Best tactical game ever.

Rocket Ranger Rocket ships, Nazi dominatrixes, jet packs, ray guns, blimps, fisticuffs, Aztec temples, Bettie Page. This game had everything.

Starflight So many wasted hours of my life. First game I ever played where I was absolutely blown away at the size of the game's world.

System Shock Those are still the most well done ghosts in any game ever, as far as I'm concerned.

Elvis In Space I can't even imagine how many hours I wasted at work playing this game back in the day. So strangely addictive.

Alone in the Dark Who knew crude polygons could be so effective? This was Resident Evil before there was Resident Evil. Too bad the series went off the rails after that first game. Undead gangsters? Undead cowboys? Sheesh, did those later games suck. But that first one is still effective.

Defender Yeah, I'm really dating myself with this one, but as a little kid in the early 80s, this was my drug of choice.

And that's my list. And now I feel very old.

[Madraccoon]

Damn... i almost forgot that we (me and my better half) have had all versions of nintendo consoles, from Famicom/Nes to wii and new DS... So i have to vote

MARIO

[Abisso]

Moonstone: A Hard Days' Knight Strategic-fighting-rpg for PC from the early nineties, if I'm not mistaken. Amazingly funny, gory and (sadly) damn short.

System Shock 2: incomparably better than the first one, and the "sequel" (Bioshock). Similar but much better than Deus Ex, and it was older.

[qptain Nemo]

Anachronox, the rpg by Ion Storm. Because it's not good, it's just godlike. Wonderful design, hilarious ironical humour spilled everywhere, and awesome sci-fi-ish atmosphere with some realy cool dramatic plot put in seamlessly and harmonically with all the funny stuff. This game overcame just any of my expectations with how brilliant everything there is from cutscenes to remarks of every npc you meet, the characters and all the story twists can't be praised enough.
I don't know how rpg junkies will judge roleplaying part of the game which seemed quite nice to me, but I expect every adventure gamer to fall love with it instantly as I did because of the story, characters and the whole feel of the game.

Well, why don't I also mention AquaNox 1 and 2. If you happen to like all the following things - cool cyberpunk/dark sci-fi atmosphere, underwater sceneries, wild shooting in all directions, lots of dialogues with unusual characters - then you're going to enjoy this game a lot.

[Bulbapuck]

Allow me to add 4 of my favorite games of all time:

The best music game ever made (and I do mean the best. I've lost count of how many I've played ):Gitaroo man for PS2 (also on PSP)

Domino mentioned ICO, which is awesome, but curiously not Shadow of the colossus also for PS2. which I personally think is far superiour to ICO.

Lumines for PSP. A game that was hyped on its release but seems to only live as a crappy cellphone-game now. It was, and still is, the best puzzle game (tetris-clone) there is!

I know Okami for PS2 and Wii is well known, but I still include it because it's the best game ever ! For those who don't know about Okami: it's like zelda, only much better and more appeiling, and you play as a god (sungod, a wolf). Played through it like 4 times (and it's a pretty long game).

If you were to pick up any of these titles, I swear, you won't be disappointed.