Your Game of the Generation

[casterofdreams]

7th Gen that is and it can be a series if you like. It can be on a hand held or console. PC as well from 2005-ish to now.

What game or series do you feel is the best for the generation and why? What made you choose that game?

I will go and say the Mass Effect series but specifically Mass Effect 2. The series as a whole feels like Star Wars. I love Star Wars and it's lore as it dropped you into conflict all around. Granted ME didn't feel as grand scale I still felt it. The codex is awesome as I remember reading all of it through the three games. I even have the ME 3 datapad app although they removed it from the app store. ME 2 refined the combat, corrected a lot of issues, and made the Commander into more of a bad ass if you so choose. Good DLC all around that added story and lore.

[fastbilly1]

I would have to say it is a toss up between three:
Zelda Skyward Sword - Wii
Borderlands - PC
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time - DS/Wii

Reasons being:
1. Skyward Sword is what I wanted Twilight Princess to be. Big beautiful Windwaker like world with an amazing soundtrack. It also has nods to Dinotopia, which is one of my favorite book series which ironically also got brought up here today.

2. Borderlands is everything I wanted Fallout 3 to be. It is a coop RPG FPS that happens to be loot heavy. I really enjoyed the story, and truth be told, I have beaten it atleast 30 times. One LAN party in 2010 a buddy of mine and I beat it in two sittings in one day. It just really clicked with me.

3. Isometric loot driven ARPG with crossplatform play between DS and Wii. Story is soso but the gameplay is nigh flawless. The only downside is that the internet based multiplayer is spotty. It is the pinnacle of the FFCC franchise. All of which are excellent games (even the Monster Hunter one).

[AppleQueso]

Man that's a really tall order. A ton of stuff has come out in the past 7 years...

[o.pwuaioc]

I've looked through all the games I owned this starting from 2006, and I really got to say Civilization V (+ all expansions, DLC, and mods) easily won it out for me. The one thing I wish it would do that Civ IV did is to increase borders via culture, including potentially having a city revolt and join your empire. I do miss that fondly. But otherwise, Civ V is a winner.

[Stark]

I've looked through all the games I owned this starting from 2006, and I really got to say Civilization V (+ all expansions, DLC, and mods) easily won it out for me. The one thing I wish it would do that Civ IV did is to increase borders via culture, including potentially having a city revolt and join your empire. I do miss that fondly. But otherwise, Civ V is a winner.

Doesn't Brave New World do some of that? I've not played it yet.

[o.pwuaioc]

I've looked through all the games I owned this starting from 2006, and I really got to say Civilization V (+ all expansions, DLC, and mods) easily won it out for me. The one thing I wish it would do that Civ IV did is to increase borders via culture, including potentially having a city revolt and join your empire. I do miss that fondly. But otherwise, Civ V is a winner.

Doesn't Brave New World do some of that? I've not played it yet.

Nyope. It does give a cultural victory option, and revamps it greatly, but once borders are established, you can't overtake them with culture (there are no percentages of culture from different empires like in Civ IV), nor will any city defect to your empire. I would gladly spend $$$ ASAP on the first Civ V expansion that added that awesome feature.

[Ack]

For me, the most interesting development of the last 7 years has been the evolution of the open-world.

As I recall, years ago John Carmack made a speech about Doom 4, in which he discussed that the next evolution of first person gameplay would be giving the world complete interactivity. So if you have a shelf to jump over, you could pick up a chair to stand on and jump through. Or, conversely, you could blow a hole through the wall and walk through. Now this has been achieved in limited amounts in the past, such as Red Faction's destructability or Half-Life 2's physics manipulation. But now we have games like Minecraft, where the player is only limited by what resources they can access and by bedrock and a skybox. Everything else is within the realm of possibility.

Now yes, Minecraft is not the first to generate this idea, nor is it the prettiest. But I think it's the most important because of its a)accessibility and popular appeal, and b)its wide level of interactivity. Now we are starting to see other genres use these types of ideas, such as MMOs with Everquest Next, FPS with Ace of Spades, and even sidescrolling platformers/RPGs like Starbound.

What I'm looking forward to is the day we get open world games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. set in this kind of interactive world. Where I am given a set of objectives to complete and have any means at my disposal to do so, in a massive world. I want a world without zoning, where I have true freedom but still have a storyline which I can complete in my own way. I want a FarCry 3 where I can destroy the world, a Deus Ex where I can walk from New York City to Chicago if I so desired, a Borderlands where I can freely wander the planet without a single load screen...and blast the crap out of it too. And I think Minecraft is a vital step in that direction.

[mas]

If I was to choose it might be... actually I really just started the 7th generation. I cant choose but I do want to try the mass effect series.

[casterofdreams]

If I was to choose it might be... actually I really just started the 7th generation. I cant choose but I do want to try the mass effect series.

Good time to pick it up. Mass Effect Trilogy is available for $40 or cheaper.

The evolution to concepts like open world has grown considerably as the two Fallout games and the two Elder Scrolls games are great examples.

[Gamerforlife]

Series?

Mass Effect, easily. Even with the craptastic ending.

Game?

I guess it would boil to one of the following: Journey, Viva Pinata, and Mass Effect 1

Viva Pinata is just the most charming, endearing and relaxing game I've played this past gen. It's hard to think of any game that could put a smile on my face the way that game did. It's really the first thing I played that felt "next gen" to me because it just felt so different, and if you didn't mind how cutesy it all was, the graphics were pretty phenomenal.

Journey is just a spiritual and emotional experience on a level I've not seen in any game before. The only thing that is comparable in my mind is Ico, a game that would be in my top 10 or top 5 of all time. So that's heavy praise

Mass Effect 1 is the best in the series. I don't know why people say the second one is. *Spoilers ahead*

ME 1 had the strongest villains. Saren was an actual character, not like the nameless, faceless, nobodies you fought in ME 2, or the cliche anime guy from ME 3, who seemed to get lost on his way to the nearest Final Fantasy game. And if Saren wasn't enough, you also had Matriarch Benezia and the intimidating sovereign. ME 1 told a complete story that could be enjoyed even if you didn't play Mass Effect 2 and 3. It's the only game in this series that has a story that can work as a stand alone tale with a satisfying ending. It had more rpg elements than its successors, particularly with the fun ammo upgrades and biotic abilities. The mako was awesome. I had a blast taking out bad guys and exploring planets with that thing. The first game didn't go overboard on romances too. You had two perfectly good choices. By the time ME 3 came around it felt like you had to choose between 50 different women. I like things simple.