Most Impactful Video Games - Part 4 - Gaming Thoughts

It's difficult to think about something in absolutes. 'The most'. 'The best'. 'My favorite'. So we tried to create a list that gave each member of our team to put together a list of video games that had some sort of meaningful impact on us in some way. Some of us probably could have put together lists 10, 20, 50 titles long, but we wanted to challenge ourselves and focus in on the elements that mattered most. 

Having said that, here's entry four in our Gaming Thoughts series of personally most impactful video games...

Mike

Fatal Frame - PlayStation (2001 by Koei Tecmo)

As stated earlier, my little sister was not all that great at games growing up. Though she enjoyed them a great amount, she would often times request  me to step in and give her a bit of help finishing a boss or a level. When my father presented us a new title for the PlayStation I was hesitant as the idea of not having some kind of weapon in a game, instead taking pictures of things, seemed like it was going to be a boring one-off title for the collection of already completed discs. I had enjoyed my share of campfire stories and watched enough horror in my young age to not be phased by many of what one would deem “terrifying” or “traumatic” to the regular teenager. My mother would often times complain about my surrealism art and dark, dread filled sketches of imaginary monsters I would scribble down for fun. Playing through Fatal Frame was nearly anxiety inducing as the unseen enemies and terror around every corner kept me awake some nights. The atmosphere of the world setting, and the character in the game being only equipped with the Camera Obscura to defend themselves, made every creak and groan of a hallway walk at night dance with paranormal paranoia. The game stood out to me as the first title that I simply could not beat on my own, as my little sister watched on and encouraged me though the last 40% of the game on the couch along side me. Until that title, I had not encountered a game that ever landed in the terminology of “Scary”.

Pierre-Yves

StarCraft and StarCraft Brood War

There are a few GOATs in the RTS genre, but for me? StarCraft and its expansion Brood War are probably the most impactful for me.

Having gotten my hands on this in high school, this took me on a sci-fi adventure that I have never forgotten. Resource gathering, small and large scale skirmishes, all in real time, I got hooked on the genre. More than that though, with the dawn of getting DSL to play online with friends, there was many a late night playing multiplayer games long past when we should have gone to bed!

Richard

The Mega Man Battle Network series

Always liked Mega Man games, never liked deckbuilders. Absolutely loved the Battle Network games. I feel like the MMBN series helped redefine the genre in a brilliant way, both as a Mega Man game and as a card battler/deck builder. The music also slapped something fierce.

Robert

Warcraft II (PC)

Harkening back to the 90s, the Warcraft franchise means the world to me and while it started as a relatively benign and fairly simplistic real-time strategy game, when Command & Conquer hit the market and made waves, Blizzard responded by revamping the systems from the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and we were presented with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Balanced, beautiful, and full of adventure, betrayal, and tragedy, Warcraft II proved that you could have a rich world, deep (for the time and genre) story, and a powerful map editor. My brother and I would spend countless hours playing early Battle.net games of maps that we would create; one particular favored and impactful memory was when he recreated a map / scene / battle from the monolithic book series, The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (specifically a scene from book 4, The Shadows Rising). From that point forward I was hooked and my weird obsession with cartography was borne.

Nick

World of Warcraft

Released in 2004 for PC, this title was an incredible hit for the MMORPG genre. There had been other games prior to the release of WoW, but they lacked the approachability and longevity of Blizzard’s most popular release. I enjoyed online games – if MUDs were ‘video games’ and not text-based ones, I’d probably have one listed in this set of articles because that was where I first cut my online multiplayer RPG teeth (and led me to creating my own with my wife nearly 25 years ago). World of Warcraft earned nicknames like “Warcrack” for a reason. It mixed colorful visuals, exploration, socialization and competitive options into a massive fantasy world that always felt like it had more to be discovered and enjoyed. I have played World of Warcraft on and off for twenty years now. Like how Madden allowed some of our friend group to stay connected, World of Warcraft did the same for a different (at least one person in said) group of my friends over the years. As we moved away from one another, World of Warcraft in many ways became our stand-in for the old boardgames and tabletop Dungeons & Dragons sessions that we had bonded over during high school and college. By far, I have sunk more hours of my life into World of Warcraft than any other game.

Susan

Stunts (PC)

My love of racing games didn't begin with Gran Turismo, which may be a surprise to some of you. There was a game before Gran Turismo that set me on a racing game journey. Enter Stunts!, a game that many people would balk at the sight of. Stunts! is a 3D racing game that was published by Broderbund Software (another notable name in gaming history for me). Not only was this game fun to play because we could race computer players, but it featured a track editor that my brother and I spent months creating the hardest tracks possible. We learned that if you put a jump into the track, you could have a double jump by placing a landing block before the actual landing block to trick the game. You see, you couldn't have a double jump normally... Anyways, Stunts! came out in 1990 and it contained cars like the Jaguar XJR9, Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari GTO, Lancia Delta HF, Porsche Carrera 4, and more! Honestly, this game was likely what put me onto the idea of having a Jaguar in the first place, though Gran Turismo solidified that even more. Weirdly enough, no racing game captured the same magic that Stunts! did because no racing game today has a track editor, which is a crime (in my humble opinion). If we could update this game and bring it back, I would be over the moon. Seriously. 

Hamza

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

Back in 2003, when I was in 4th grade in Oman, my friends and I used this game for a school fundraiser to help hurricane victims in Sri Lanka. We set up my PlayStation, charged a small fee per game, and managed to raise 15 riyals (about $40). When the fundraiser wrapped up, we stayed late and played Clash of Super Heroes ourselves, taking turns where the winner stayed on. The shouting, teasing, and “use the combo!” reminders made it loud, chaotic, and unforgettable. Even now, this memory of doing good while having the time of our lives sticks with me, a perfect snapshot of simpler, carefree days.  

Valerie

Betrayal at Krondor (PC)

I am a bookworm. When I found out that this game was based on the Riftwar novels written by Raymond E. Feist? Man did I jump on it! I loved that book series and having the story unfold in a video game that played out in chapters like reading the book had me hooked. There were puzzles to solve, combat that was in third person view, a map to follow, and an open world to explore even though the parts that were chapter related played out only in a couple of regions. I loved going after treasure because you had to unlock the chests from a riddle. You had everything on your screen and with a simple right-click more information about stuff was revealed. Skill improvement was implemented by simply using them and none of that leveling up through a skill tree. Ah Midkemia, it's time to visit you again!

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