Honey Bunny
Member
Metal Ge...
... fiddlespoons.
Needlessly detailed, mind bending storytelling that still echoes some of what we see today, best bromance in the business.
I'd say it's more relevant today than it was at release.
Metal Ge...
... fiddlespoons.
Needlessly detailed, mind bending storytelling that still echoes some of what we see today, best bromance in the business.
What did Black go on to become?
When I hear "ahead of its time" I like to think that it only qualifies titles that failed to be appreciated in their time because they contained groundbreaking features that were unfortunately limited in execution either thanks to its contemporary technical limitations, plain development hell holding back the polish needed, or a mixture of both.
I kind of like to think of Sim Copter as the first modern 3D open world sandbox game (that isn't an RPG). That game came out in 1996, before even the first top-down GTA was out, and it featured fully fleshed out cities populated with traffic and NPCs which you could explore and interact with, and you could exit your helicopter to traverse on foot. There had been other kinds of more primitive open 3D games before that may have featured a few stray buildings and enemy vehicles and the likes, but nothing that really delivered a "full package" like this.
Hell, it even featured selectable faux radio stations much like you'd expect from any GTA-style game. The game received a rather lukewarm reception on release, mainly due to its high jankiness from being rushed out by Maxis. But at the time, the sheer novelty of the game concept alone was enough for me and others to be really fascinated by it and just enjoy its freeform open ended gameplay. Had to wait for GTA3 in 2001 to experience something of the same type of scope again.
Baseball Stars
The world needs more Sports games with RPG elements.
I've been meaning to say this for a pretty long time now... I've always loved and treasured Star Fox Adventures dearly, it is equally loved with Star Fox 64 for me. Now the thing about Star Fox Adventures is that the elements in the game were always right to begin with. With the whole Krazoa Shrine concept. I mean, just look at Breath of the Wild having shrines too. People say that Star Fox Adventures is a "Zelda" clone, which to me isn't true at all... but what does that make Breath of the Wild? And while I'm saying this, don't get me wrong, I'm loving everything about Breath of the Wild, not trying to put it down or anything... just trying to draw a point here.
Shenmue
Kill Switch 2003 - first 3rd person shooter with a cover system.
I still play it from time to time and still amazed at what it did at the time it was out.
Zelda 64
Baseball Stars
Ico. Essentially created the arthouse game space.
You don't agree on Zelda64?I probably put hundreds of hours into it. It was one of my Top 3 NES games easily. My uncle and I used to play it and would make a team and rename all the players after Yankees players at the time and play through a season. It was a great game.
Bruh...
My #1 is James Bond: Everything or Nothing. This game came out in 2003 and is a magnificently underrated game.
This was before Resident Evil 4 renewed interest in third person shooters and the genre was considered untenable. At the time, James Bond games were very successful first person shooters. The last third person James Bond game was the terrible and unwieldy Tomorrow Never Dies on the PlayStation that tried to supplement its clumsy gameplay and level designs with FMV clips from the movie. At the time, returning to a highly cinematic third person game was extremely counter-pattern.
But before Resident Evil 4 and long before Uncharted, there was EoN.
The game also pushed the envelope of what we now know of as a cover shooter. This style of TPS didnt become common and popular until Gears of War, but that's exactly how EoN plays. You take your cover, you pick your targets, and you strategically eliminate your opponents.
The game features a lock-on mechanic that was extremely unique. While locked on, you could fine-tune your shot with the second stick to shoot the enemy exactly where you wanted. Want to get that headshot? Want to make them drop their gun? Just pinpoint your shot and hit them right where you want to.
But that's just the gunplay, which is complimented perfectly by an extremely innovative melee system. One button punches with Bond's left hand and one button punches with his right. Pressing them in sequences strings them into combos, and pressing them at the same time initiates a grab. These also work contextually, causing take downs and throws based on where Bond is standing.
At any time, you can also crouch to enter a stealth position. You can hide behind cover, you can sneak up to enemies, and you can silently take out enemies without others noticing.
This dynamic between lethal and stealth is now so common its normally expected. But being able to assess every encounter and situation in EoN and use the right tactics and have both systems be so well implemented was tremendous in 2003.
The game is full of major, Uncharted-like setpieces. But it also has really cool hidden opportunities called "Bond Moments." Levels are all open and sandboxy with numerous paths through the map. Shooting the right explosive barrel at the right time or driving off the right hidden jump will trigger a short and satisfying cinematic that makes you feel awesome.
The game also casts a lot of a actual Bond actors into their roles. They lend their likeness and voice work to great effect. John Cleese is Q, Pierce Brosnan is Bond, Judi Dench is M, Heidi Klum is a lead baddy, Willem Dafoe is the main villain, the game is uncharacteristically star studded for a video game of this era. As we are seeing more and more actors mocapped into their roles in video games and giving a unique performance, this kind of depiction was extremely ambitious for the time period.
There is also an entirely separate and standalone Coop campaign. There are also MGS style VR missions. There are also special challenges and awards in every level.
But there's so much other stuff I just can't believe. Something even fans of the game overlook is the level-streaming. One level features an extremely high-speed motorcycle chase on a highway. And, I mean, it's really fast. I've never felt such an adrenaline pumping sense of speed in a game, let alone for a game this old. The base speed of the motorcycle is pretty fast, but when you hold down the gas and don't fire any weapons for a few seconds, the speed increases even more.
Here's a video of the level, the second speed tier kicks in for the first time just after the minute mark: https://youtu.be/p8wOHUzHFbg
The player isn't great, but it's good enough. All the driving uses the engine for Need for Speed.
And all this time, the game never stutters or hiccups or needs to load. This was crazy for me as a teenager. You just ZOOM and don't stop.
I love this game, but it's very hard to find and play. Every now and then you see a thread where people bring up hidden gems and overlooked games that supposedly don't get the love and recognition they deserve. But EoN is my personal criminally underrated masterpiece. And in a thread full of games ahead of their time, the fact not one person has mentioned EoN demonstrates how forgotten this game is.
And that sucks. Because it's too good to get lost to time.
Midwinter (FPS RPG) 1989
Nearly every modern game since they all seem to need a "day 1 patch"
I don't get it.But this is a damn clever answer
I remember being floored by its technical prowess.
Little big adventure 2
That game was like nothing else before it.
The whole game was fully voiced (you could talk with anyone) And that game was huge.
For 1997 the graphics were amazing.(It came out a year and a half before Zelda OOT)
My nomination...
For its time, this game was a technological marvel. It was one of the original PlayStation's first fully 3D platform games where all of the levels were accessible from a main hub, akin to Super Mario 64. The thing is, the PSOne had half the power of the 64 (if you go by bits), and yet the technical wizards at Crystal Dynamics managed to squeeze out every last bit of power and produced one of the PSOne's most fun and spirited games. It gave way to a sequel, Deep Cover Gecko, but that was nowhere near as good IMHO.
The game struggled in so many ways. It had a lot of loading screens, the frame rate was all over the place in open areas or when there was a lot happening on-screen, and its visuals were very primitive by today's standards. And yet, it was fun. It was funny. And to this day, remains one of my favorite PSOne classics.
It's a shame we'll never see an HD remaster, because I would buy it in a heartbeat!
My #1 is James Bond: Everything or Nothing. This game came out in 2003 and is a magnificently underrated game.