I’m going to split this in to two categories: 1) games that were the best for their time, but perhaps don’t hold up nowadays. 2) Games that are the best today.

1. GoldenEye. This game was just so good both single and multiplayer. It was revolutionary, amazingly close to the film and a real challenge to complete. It was a huge game changer and entered in the modern era for such games.

2. I just really like Just Cause 3. It’s such fun, great visual, even better game mechanics, cool soundtrack, a true open world and massive destruction, endless ways to approach every situation.

From my experience this kind of thing was a solved problem over a decade ago - it was at least good enough by far.

I’ve started it but only got a couple of hours on before being distracted by other time sinks. I mist have gone through the HL1 starting train ride more times than I’ve had hot dinners.

Completed it last week for the first time and it really does look good. There is so much that’s right in the game. There’s a reason people still cry out for another HL game and raytracing isn’t it.

I understand why some might feel it looks good, but it actually really ruins the feel of the game. Darkness and contrast is a good thing.

Of course it’s fun. But is more realistic destruction more fun?

My favourite game is Just Cause 3 and it’s the same. But would it be better if it was more realistic destruction? No.

Can I ask who cares about this kind of thing? Why don’t they have more jobs for “making the games fun”? There seems to me to be a point where added realism is detrimental to fun, especially when resources are directed away from the fun.

Man suggests the next 25 years may have some surprises - world goes nuts.

I picked that up too and the first 5 minutes I was not prepared for.

They keep getting removed from the kernel.

I seem to get stuck on them occasionally. Like I’m at the top or bottom but can’t just walk off.

FYI, that’s roughly 50x the normal average over the past 3 months. And also the highest ever concurrent users was 4 hours ago. Not bad.

Just started playing it. So far I can’t remember it at all. I played HL1 so much and have recently started with Black Mesa. I remember a lot of EP1, also. Managed to clock 3 hrs on HL2 today and there’s only one bit I remember, I think. Good fun game. Only annoyance are the ladders and getting on / off them well.

I bought Trepang 2 the other day too and that has a similar era vibe, but with a modern take.

Q

Quake Quake II

But maybe U

Unreal Tournament 2004

Hidden and Dangerous

Only H&D2 is on steam

The original was fantastic and v2 built on that. Fantastic 3rd person WW2 tactical shooter. Haven’t seen anything like it in over 20 years since.

Doom

I’d be killed by a monster straight from Hell in under 10 seconds unless I start moving and never stop. Never stop moving. Hopefully I can find a weapon and some body armour!

It used to make sense when games were on physical media as that can run out of stock on release. If you’re downloading it then there’s no point - unless you get a discount for a pre-order.

Back in the day Hidden & Dangerous was a fantastic game. Spent many hours crawling on my stomach sniping. And the multiplayer LAN parties were epic for the sheer fun and hilariousness of the bugs we found. Only my friends at the time have ever heard of it though.