30YOGamer Top 5: Favorite Video Games

We really truly are in the middle of the dog days of summer. There really is nothing to talk about in the video game world except rumors and opinions on video games that aren't going to be released for months. And since I don't really feel like doing that at all, I think I'll start a new type of entry into the 30 Year Old Gamer blog called "The 30YOGamer Top 5". It's exactly what you think it is. Every so often, I'll just give you my opinion of a top 5 list of something. This week, why not start out with the biggest list of them all. The 30 Year Old Gamer's Top 5 Favorite Video Games.

Now I've played a lot of video games in my life. My video game life started before the original Nintendo was released. The first system I ever owned was a Commodore Vic 20. I wanted the Commodore 64, but my parents wanted me to learn, so they got me a keyboard the size of a Buick that could play Frogger and it was called the Commodore Vic 20. So, I've played a lot of games and I think that these 5 games have probably had the biggest impacts on my video game life, and thus make the Top 5.

#5: Outrun (Arcade)This was the first land mark, mind blowing game I've ever played. I was probably 8 years old and my parents would take me to this restaurant in a neighboring town where they could kick back a few bottles of wine. (yes, you read that right.."a few") So, while they were "relaxing", they would give me $10 in quarters and I would go over to the Outrun video game and waste the night away.

This game was revolutionary at the time. It was a stand-up machine with a steering wheel where you drove a convertible cherry red Ferrari Testarosa (still one of my dream cars to this day) and with a blond riding shotgun, you raced through 6 very hard timed levels and tried to go from one side of the coast to the next. There were two cool twists. The first was that if you drove off of the road, the steering wheel shook violently. Now I know every game does that now, but back in 1986, this was the coolest thing I had ever seen. And the other very cool thing was that at the end of each stage there was a fork in the road where you could go left or right and depending on which road you took, the next stage was either harder or easier.

It was on this game that I fell in love with video games and when my parents asked me a year or so later if I wanted a Nintendo Entertainment System or a Sega Master System, I chose Sega because they had Outrun and I played it for years, and that's why this game is easily a Top 5.

#4: John Madden Football (any system, any year)Its about 4 years later and I've now graduated from a Sega Master System (8 bit) to Sega Genesis (16 bit) and I feel like the coolest kid in the school. It was around this time that a small company (at the time) called Electronic Arts made the best sports game of all time, John Madden Football. Before this game, the benchmark in football games was Tecmo Bowl. That game used real players names and real teams, but it was nothing like this. Instead of moving side to side on the screen you went from the bottom to the top of the screen allowing yourself to see up field and pass to open receivers. The game had a full roster of players on and off the field. It was the most realistic sports game I had ever seen.

After the success of Madden, Electronic Arts quickly went into every other sport creating the very awesome NHL Hockey, PGA Golf, and Celtics vs Lakers Basketball. They went through probably the best marketing campaign I've ever seen. They would show you clips from various sports. They would show the football hitting an upright of a goal post, or a hockey puck hitting the post. They would show a three pointer and a dunk. And then they would show you everything again, but this time in their various video games. They would end the commercial by simply saying "EA Sports. If it's in the game, it's in the game."

I bought every single one of them.

Since then I've played probably 10 seasons of Madden, two seasons of baseball, three full hockey seasons, and one entire PGA season. I've probably owned 5 versions of Madden between then and now and it looks like I'm about to own another one in a couple weeks. Any game that's so good that you have to buy over and over again year in and year out has to make my Top 5.

#3: Metal Gear Solid (Playstation)

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, this game was just revolutionary when I first played it. I'm in college and when I'm not drinking at the bar, I'm studying or playing cards. My game playing time was limited to only the best video games. So when I tell you that this game was so good that I played it all the way through three times, it's saying something.

I won't go into the details about this game here, as I already did in an earlier blog. But let me just say this. I went to my local GameStop a couple weeks ago and asked them if they had a copy of this game in a used bin somewhere. I figured I could pick up a cheap copy and play it on my PS2. The guy looked at me with a very strange look, like I just asked him where his Commodore Vic 20 games are. He basically said that I should look on Ebay for that game. The next day I did just that and the only copy of the original game I saw had a current bid of $18. Here's a game that over 10 years old and I've played and beaten it three times being sold for about $20, and I seriously considered placing a bid. Yeah it's that good and a definite Top 5.

#2: Goldeneye 007 (Nintendo 64)Oh my God what a great game! I know what you are thinking. "Didn't you just tell us that all video games based on movies suck?" Yes I did. However, this is the one huge glaring exception. This game is considered the father of first person shooters on a console system. Up until Goldeneye a first person shooter was only on a computer. You would use your mouse to aim your weapon. However the Nintendo 64 was unique in that it had the first analog joystick for a console. This made the whole experience much better.

Now the single player game was identical to the movie. Scene for scene you basically ran through the movie. Normally, since you've seen the movie this would suck. But since this is a James Bond movie the whole experience was pretty cool. It was very cinematic and just a joy to play through. But where this game really shined was in multiplayer.

Multiplayer games weren't really all that popular around this time. The only competitive multiplayer experience was really if you were playing a game like Madden. However, this game allowed 4 people to run around an environment and shoot the crap out of each other for like 5 minutes or 25 kills, which ever came first. In college, this game was like crack. People would line up around someone's room and wait for their turn to play. We had entire nights revolved around Goldeneye tournaments. The top two players could stay on the game and the bottom two would have to give up their controllers. Whoever could play the game the longest would win. It was fantastic. We would break the controllers long before we ever got tired of this game.

It would easily be my favorite video game of all time except for...

#1: Halo 2 (Xbox)

This is a true story. About three years ago I visited a friends house to play some poker. Before we started to play, my friend decided to show off his Xbox and this game called Halo 2. I had only heard of the game and I heard some good things. We played the game for a couple hours and I immediately fell in love with it. That weekend I went straight to my local GameStop and bought a refurbished Xbox and Halo 2 with the Halo 2 strategy guide. Over $250 invested for one video game. Looking back....still an excellent decision.

This game is that good. You've probably heard a lot about Halo and the Halo franchise. For gamers, this game represented everything that was great about games. You could play the game yourself, or you could play the game cooperatively with a buddy. Myself and the 30YORoomie beat the game in a weekend. When we finished, we just started right over again. And then there's the online multiplayer. We called up my buddy who first showed me the game, and started playing him online. His time with the game and experience showed from the very beginning as he would run around and hunt me and my roomie. It was ugly how bad he would beat us, and it didn't matter. That's the true sign of an excellent video game. It's kicking your ass and you are having so much fun you don't care.

When Halo 3 was released last year, I was one of the first in line with my preorder. Just ask the 30YOGF. I don't think she's ever seen me as happy as I was skipping out of my local Best Buy with my game in hand. I know that both Halo 2 and 3 were very hyped, but I don't care. I love them both and am happy to call Halo 2 my favorite game of all time.

Until next time,

- The 30 Year Old Gamer