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I think a big mistake people make when collecting anything video game related is they seem to be going for sheer quantity over quality. And you know what, if you're really rich and that's really the end approach you're going for, that's fair, but let's be honest with each other here. You're not going to take out and play almost ANY of those physical releases you collect. They are going to sit on a shelf looking fancy and collecting dust. But I still do definitely empathize with the collectors out there regardless in that I think it's just really cool and neat to have a physical ideal representation of something you love and cherish, and also simply to just have some swag to decorate your living space with to show off how pimp you are at the same time. I guess where I differ from most collector's is since I don't have infinite money, I like to focus on a select few titles that mean the most to me by far. The rest of the physical games out there would just be nice to own, but nothing I'm particularly attached to.
I'll specifically be prioritizing any edition that has a "making of" documentary/book included with it of some kind. Art book is a nice bonus as well. If neither of those exist for some reason though, then I'll just look for what was the best physical release of the game at the time. Games are ranked in order of want from least to greatest.
I wasn't considering this game or even the series at all at first, but once I thought about it... You know, I idly play SOME version of Smash Bros. an AWFUL lot, usually when watching YouTube videos in the background. Whether it's 64, or Remix, or Melee, or Project Plus/M. They're all awesome to me for their own reasons and styles, but the constant here is that I always get an itch to play one of these four games sooner or later.
Beyond my personal habits though, Smash Bros. is probably one of, if not the best fighting game series ever made. Simple to learn. INCREDIBLY hard to completely and utterly master. Four-player multiplayer. And so many ways to play it. It's damn near the perfect fighting game AND the perfect local couch party game all in one.
Neverwinter Nights is not the most influential RPG on this list at all, but if I had to point to "Best RPG Overall" which includes all the factors such as gameplay, music, UI, expandability, story, multiplayer, and etc., Neverwinter Nights is almost impossible to beat. It doesn't do any one thing EXTREMELY well (except maybe its multiplayer components), but it does everything at least moderately well to really good regardless. The Elder Scrolls Morrowind and Skyrim come close in the gameplay and expandability department, but they still get shot down in the end as NWN also came with amazing multiplayer functionality and tools. And the Elder Scrolls games (not counting the MMO) have... No multiplayer. And finally, NWN is one of the only top-down RPGs I love due to how it gets party management right. Mostly... There are still a few separate issues there though at least in the original edition of NWN. So yeah. NWN is the winner here.
For the game itself, in case you've been living under a rock, Halo 3 is a first-person shooter that rightly sold Xbox 360 consoles like hotcakes, and Halo as a series in general utterly embarrassed both Nintendo and Sony, making them look stupid. Multiple times. Sony tried to have their own answer to Halo with Killzone and maybe Resistance, but they just could not compete. Halo was just too fucking juiced and old-school Bungie was unstoppable, tearing their way through other competing first-person shooter game studios like the absolute mad lads they were. Until after Reach released anyway... Then it was all downhill from there. But in old-school Bungie's wake, we were still left with some of the finest console first-person shooters ever made. Games that STILL set the bar, even to this day. A bar which modern """AAA""" game publishers utterly refuse to meet.
I thought of putting the original Guild Wars here, but as great as it was, I quickly realized that Guild Wars 2 still has more of an impact on me in the end. It's a game I still happily play off and on, and a game I still point to when it comes to doing MMOs and "live service" games right. But hey, don't believe me? Just look at the graveyard of former MMO contenders World of Warcraft has utterly destroyed over the years. Despite all that though, both Guild Wars 1 and 2 stood firm against WoW's onslaught and are flourishing even to this very day. That's not an accident. That is the result of genius work done by a large group of incredibly talented developers over at ArenaNet. I'm very surprised though that NCSoft of all companies are their publishers and have been since the beginning as they mostly specialize in Asian style grindfests.
Although Guild Wars 1 and 2 certainly aren't perfect, the real reason that Guild Wars still succeeds despite it all is that it has the western MMO market by the fucking balls. They are... The ONLY ones who offer what they offer. There isn't even any private servers available (much to my chagrin). You wanna play an MMO that respects your time, is incredibly imaginative, is very fairly monetized, has great combat, still innovates, and is easy to get into? You play Guild Wars (1 or 2) and you play it on ANet's servers. You either do that or you take a hike because there is no other valid competitor for them out there in the MMO space. Nothing.
Putting that aside, I've made many fond memories playing this game, I've made so many incredible characters on my account (long live Fashion Wars), and I have met so many interesting people in this game. As you will in any MMO, to be fair. But still, Guild Wars 2 is definitely my favorite MMO overall, and I really wish that it got more love and recognition. Everyone's just sucking Final Fantasy XIV off nowadays it seems.
There were many N64 games that engaged me back in the day, emotions and imagination wise. Banjo-Kazooie. Perfect Dark. Super Mario 64. Those are all incredible games. But if I HAD to choose which one hit me the most in this regard, it would definitely be Ocarina of Time. To this day, it's still something I can point to when it comes to incredible action RPG design, and if all that wasn't enough, it just so happens too that this game is eerily the best game to randomize in my opinion.
Sure, when Ocarina of Time came out, it hit me hardest as a kid in terms of its story and characters. But then, as I became an adult and then grew older, I began to accumulate more cares in this world. More pain. More stress... Horrible things I didn't want to see but were, in the end, necessary. What we all go through as we progress deeper into our adult years. And as that happened, my world view began to slowly shift to something much less carefree and much more realistic. The first time I played KOTOR 2, I thought it was pretty damn interesting, but I didn't pay it too much thought until things began to stew in my mind. As I grew older, the words and viewpoints of Kreia began to make more and more sense to me. Self-determination. Resourcefulness. Free will. Wisdom. Things not being as they appear or how you think they should be... These are just the bare surface elements of what she had to say, but I'm not going to get into all of that now. (See this thread for that, specifically entry #3)
The point is... Of all the many characters in all the games I've played, the one that still keeps with me to this day is Kreia. And that is why I have to put KOTOR 2 in second place.
Wanna talk about guns? Unreal Tournament invented alternate fires. And tertiary fires. Wanna talk about music? The OST is something I and a ton of people still sometimes listen to. Wanna talk about level design? Deck 16 is, overall, the best first-person shooter map ever fucking made. Wanna talk about the core graphics engine? Unreal Tournament showed off the full power of its Unreal Engine that first debuted in Unreal and was perfected in Unreal Tournament. It gave the idTech 3 (Quake 3) engine a serious run for its money and got Epic's foot in the door of the commercial game engine department. Wanna talk about mods? Unreal Tournament is so freaking modular and expandable that the UT community were writing effective anti-cheat software for it and loading them up as mutators.
Did you know that Unreal Tournament invented Theater mode before Halo 3? Did you know that it had portal technology (called WarpZones) in the engine before Portal was even a glimmer in those developer's eyes? And no, I'm not talking about mere teleporters. Unreal Tournament did it all. It sliced. It diced. It did your homework and gave you a blowjob at the same time. (That might be a lie.) The user interface (UWindow) was a gift given to us from the gods (and then the entire gaming industry promptly threw it in the trash). The bots were and still are to this day incredibly fun to fight against and were ALSO COMPLETELY MODIFIABLE. I mean, holy shit people. It just doesn't stop. I can go on and on and ON.
But yes... Unreal Tournament gets the top spot.
I'll specifically be prioritizing any edition that has a "making of" documentary/book included with it of some kind. Art book is a nice bonus as well. If neither of those exist for some reason though, then I'll just look for what was the best physical release of the game at the time. Games are ranked in order of want from least to greatest.
7. Super Smash Bros. 64 (Original NA Release)
I wasn't considering this game or even the series at all at first, but once I thought about it... You know, I idly play SOME version of Smash Bros. an AWFUL lot, usually when watching YouTube videos in the background. Whether it's 64, or Remix, or Melee, or Project Plus/M. They're all awesome to me for their own reasons and styles, but the constant here is that I always get an itch to play one of these four games sooner or later.
Beyond my personal habits though, Smash Bros. is probably one of, if not the best fighting game series ever made. Simple to learn. INCREDIBLY hard to completely and utterly master. Four-player multiplayer. And so many ways to play it. It's damn near the perfect fighting game AND the perfect local couch party game all in one.
6. Neverwinter Nights Collector's Edition
Neverwinter Nights is not the most influential RPG on this list at all, but if I had to point to "Best RPG Overall" which includes all the factors such as gameplay, music, UI, expandability, story, multiplayer, and etc., Neverwinter Nights is almost impossible to beat. It doesn't do any one thing EXTREMELY well (except maybe its multiplayer components), but it does everything at least moderately well to really good regardless. The Elder Scrolls Morrowind and Skyrim come close in the gameplay and expandability department, but they still get shot down in the end as NWN also came with amazing multiplayer functionality and tools. And the Elder Scrolls games (not counting the MMO) have... No multiplayer. And finally, NWN is one of the only top-down RPGs I love due to how it gets party management right. Mostly... There are still a few separate issues there though at least in the original edition of NWN. So yeah. NWN is the winner here.
5. Halo 3 Legendary Edition
As any old-school Sanctuary dweller knows, I do love me some old-school Bungie Halo, and I will go to bat for it any chance I get. I was torn between picking Halo: CE, Halo 3, and Halo: Reach, but since CE never got a collector's edition and Halo Reach has its own issues in the sandbox department (and was more boring-looking too), and since many of my nostalgic treasured memories of Halo have something to do with Halo 3, and finally, since Halo 3 is nicely right in the middle of the two other games, it seems the most fitting to pick Halo 3 for sure.
For the game itself, in case you've been living under a rock, Halo 3 is a first-person shooter that rightly sold Xbox 360 consoles like hotcakes, and Halo as a series in general utterly embarrassed both Nintendo and Sony, making them look stupid. Multiple times. Sony tried to have their own answer to Halo with Killzone and maybe Resistance, but they just could not compete. Halo was just too fucking juiced and old-school Bungie was unstoppable, tearing their way through other competing first-person shooter game studios like the absolute mad lads they were. Until after Reach released anyway... Then it was all downhill from there. But in old-school Bungie's wake, we were still left with some of the finest console first-person shooters ever made. Games that STILL set the bar, even to this day. A bar which modern """AAA""" game publishers utterly refuse to meet.
4. Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition
I thought of putting the original Guild Wars here, but as great as it was, I quickly realized that Guild Wars 2 still has more of an impact on me in the end. It's a game I still happily play off and on, and a game I still point to when it comes to doing MMOs and "live service" games right. But hey, don't believe me? Just look at the graveyard of former MMO contenders World of Warcraft has utterly destroyed over the years. Despite all that though, both Guild Wars 1 and 2 stood firm against WoW's onslaught and are flourishing even to this very day. That's not an accident. That is the result of genius work done by a large group of incredibly talented developers over at ArenaNet. I'm very surprised though that NCSoft of all companies are their publishers and have been since the beginning as they mostly specialize in Asian style grindfests.
Although Guild Wars 1 and 2 certainly aren't perfect, the real reason that Guild Wars still succeeds despite it all is that it has the western MMO market by the fucking balls. They are... The ONLY ones who offer what they offer. There isn't even any private servers available (much to my chagrin). You wanna play an MMO that respects your time, is incredibly imaginative, is very fairly monetized, has great combat, still innovates, and is easy to get into? You play Guild Wars (1 or 2) and you play it on ANet's servers. You either do that or you take a hike because there is no other valid competitor for them out there in the MMO space. Nothing.
Putting that aside, I've made many fond memories playing this game, I've made so many incredible characters on my account (long live Fashion Wars), and I have met so many interesting people in this game. As you will in any MMO, to be fair. But still, Guild Wars 2 is definitely my favorite MMO overall, and I really wish that it got more love and recognition. Everyone's just sucking Final Fantasy XIV off nowadays it seems.
3. The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Collector's Edition (v1.0)
This game sat in development for four years. And when it came out, it wasn't just, "Oh kewl, another RPG," or even, "Oh kewl, another Zelda game!" This was THE game to have. THE RPG. If you had this game, you were the shit. The game innovated in massive ways, and like Quake, its effects can still be seen rippling across the industry. The only major factor this game doesn't have compared to other console games of its time is multiplayer. It had everything else. And I still to this day really love the clean fantasy artstyle of this game as well. Sure, when comparing the core 3D graphics, they are... Alright. But hey, compare this to something like Final Fantasy VII, and suddenly, the graphics in this game look like Crysis. And the gameplay just felt right. STILL feels right. It feels perfect. No grind. Almost every item has a use.
There were many N64 games that engaged me back in the day, emotions and imagination wise. Banjo-Kazooie. Perfect Dark. Super Mario 64. Those are all incredible games. But if I HAD to choose which one hit me the most in this regard, it would definitely be Ocarina of Time. To this day, it's still something I can point to when it comes to incredible action RPG design, and if all that wasn't enough, it just so happens too that this game is eerily the best game to randomize in my opinion.
2. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 The Sith Lords (Original Xbox NA Release)
Now we're getting to the real damn titans here. "So what game did you pick for 2, Arnox," you might ask. Did I go with Perfect Dark? Timesplitters 3? Forza Motorsport 4? Leisure Suit Larry? No. It's KOTOR2. Ha. Bet you didn't expect that, did you, random person. For the second entry on the list, I wanted to focus on story and characters. Specifically, which game's story and characters had the most impact on me. And thinking about it, it just has to be this game. Or more specifically, Kreia.
Sure, when Ocarina of Time came out, it hit me hardest as a kid in terms of its story and characters. But then, as I became an adult and then grew older, I began to accumulate more cares in this world. More pain. More stress... Horrible things I didn't want to see but were, in the end, necessary. What we all go through as we progress deeper into our adult years. And as that happened, my world view began to slowly shift to something much less carefree and much more realistic. The first time I played KOTOR 2, I thought it was pretty damn interesting, but I didn't pay it too much thought until things began to stew in my mind. As I grew older, the words and viewpoints of Kreia began to make more and more sense to me. Self-determination. Resourcefulness. Free will. Wisdom. Things not being as they appear or how you think they should be... These are just the bare surface elements of what she had to say, but I'm not going to get into all of that now. (See this thread for that, specifically entry #3)
The point is... Of all the many characters in all the games I've played, the one that still keeps with me to this day is Kreia. And that is why I have to put KOTOR 2 in second place.
1. Unreal Tournament (Original NA PC Big Box Release)
Alright, time to lighten up here. So, let's just toss out story and characters entirely as a consideration here. And let's say you asked me I had to pick Game of the Century. What's it gonna be? Well, it's gonna be the PC version of Unreal Tournament, motherfucka. Not even a contest. This is not just a legendary first-person shooter, nor is it even just a legendary multiplayer shooter. This game... This damn game... There's so much, I just can't. I CAN'T! You just name one factor besides story/characters and I'll tell you how Unreal Tournament just absolutely nailed it.
Wanna talk about guns? Unreal Tournament invented alternate fires. And tertiary fires. Wanna talk about music? The OST is something I and a ton of people still sometimes listen to. Wanna talk about level design? Deck 16 is, overall, the best first-person shooter map ever fucking made. Wanna talk about the core graphics engine? Unreal Tournament showed off the full power of its Unreal Engine that first debuted in Unreal and was perfected in Unreal Tournament. It gave the idTech 3 (Quake 3) engine a serious run for its money and got Epic's foot in the door of the commercial game engine department. Wanna talk about mods? Unreal Tournament is so freaking modular and expandable that the UT community were writing effective anti-cheat software for it and loading them up as mutators.
Did you know that Unreal Tournament invented Theater mode before Halo 3? Did you know that it had portal technology (called WarpZones) in the engine before Portal was even a glimmer in those developer's eyes? And no, I'm not talking about mere teleporters. Unreal Tournament did it all. It sliced. It diced. It did your homework and gave you a blowjob at the same time. (That might be a lie.) The user interface (UWindow) was a gift given to us from the gods (and then the entire gaming industry promptly threw it in the trash). The bots were and still are to this day incredibly fun to fight against and were ALSO COMPLETELY MODIFIABLE. I mean, holy shit people. It just doesn't stop. I can go on and on and ON.
But yes... Unreal Tournament gets the top spot.
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