I never considered myself much of a serious gamer, but that was mostly delusion. I've devoted at least several million hours of my life to video games all together, which I'm not often proud of. Sometimes I wish I had been enjoying more literature or learning to speak another language or play an intrament with all that time. There were some moments that were memorable, and in all the shit I've played there were some truly memorable games that I don't regret playing. As I watch today's gaming industry cave in to trends and easy profits, turn what was once an art form into a bland mechanism and become as corupt and ruined as the music industry, I think back on my fondest gaming memories. perhaps these are some of your favorites too.

Shenmue:

Here is an often overlooked and scorned game. I saw it high on a list of the miost expensive gaming blunders of all time. How anyone could feel this way is a mystery to me. This game has without a doubt the most amazing freedom I've ever experienced. There was nothing special about what you were suposed to be doing, as all you really did was walk around talking to people and getting into gang fights like a more complex rievr city ransom and ocasionally having to press some buttons really fast, but what you could do was simply amazing. You had the freedom to explore and interact with literally anything inside of a fully functional city where actual businesses operated, people went about thier days, holidays were celibrated when apropriate, actual weather effects occured, and you could do with your time whatever you chose. I was particularly fond of some of the arcade games and working the forklift job on the docks. Realistically, other games have had freedom, probably more then shenmue, but none have ever felt the same. All that freedom however is not even the most memorable thing about the game. The story, while very predicatble and cliche at times, was simply amazing. the characters were all very human, except for the progtagonist who could be downright robotic at times, in a way i have never seen game characters. they all made me feel for them, and the story made me feel like I was personally involved. the realistic facial expressions probably played a role here. the music always fit the mood, and to this day I get choked up by some of the scores from this game. There was nothing alltogether challanging about this game, and the combat system wasn't all that complex, though it felt moderately realistic to me. Shenmue 2 was amazing in all the same ways, but I didn't give it it's own section because it doesn't carry with it the same memories as this game. The sadest thing about this series is that it never ended. after two long games there is no conclusion. theoretically it was written, but never realeased in any form, and there is little hope for a sequal. still, shenmue will always hold a special place in my heart as the greatest game of all time, to me.

Legacy of Kain:

another underated entry. there was a whole series, but I will count it as one because there was only one memorable aspect of this series and that was the story. Legacy of kain featured without a doubt the most amazing unpreditable entertaining story a game has ever featured. grantedvery few times did it make me feel emotional like shenmue did, but it always made me feel excited. The gameplay was nothing special in any of them. They were all very puzzle intensive and took very little reflex or speed as most games do. This wasn't a bad feature especially, but it made the games drag on at times when I just felt like having a break to enjoy some mindless carnage. Granted the last game in the series had alittle more mindless hacking and slashing then the others.

Dynasty warriors (all of them, it's pretty much the same):

And speaking of mindless hacking and slashing, that brings me to dynasty warriors. This is one game I'm not proud of my love for, because it wasn't very amazing. the story was lifted from one of my favorite epics, then raped in wahtever way koei thought suited them, which didn't please me. but I could argue with how much fun it was to stand in a crown of mindless soilders and just hack away at them.

God of war 1 & 2:

And mention of hacking away at things brings me to the champion of mindless violence. both god of war games were simply astonishing. granted the story was stolen from a movie, and they took my beloved greek myths and warped them, still that didn't ruin it for me. the overiding apeal of this game was the sheer childish violence for the sake of violence. everything was brutal and gory in this game, and for no reason at all there were titties galore. everything had exposed breasts if the creators could posiby fit one in. I'm not roud of liking this, but it really spoke to the child in me.

Honorable mentions: here's everything I don't feel like ranting about, but that still left an impression on me.

Final fantasy X (good times, great story), final fantasy 6 (memorable characters, good story), suikoden 1, 2, 3, and 5 (all great stories), breath of fire 1, 2, 3, and 4 (all good stories), haunting ground (credit for being very unique and smutty)

That's it, and for anyone who wants to ask why I didn't include halo, gta, or edevil may cry I'll explain that before you ask me. I only played the first halo, with friends it was alot of fun. not very memorable, but fun. I like games I can enjoy alone. I was playing grand theft auto back when the first one was out, for the time it was great to play something that catered to my evil side so much. I played the second one, just terrible. 3 was good, vice city was great, san andread was good times. haven't played four, im too broke. There was nothing so memorable about any of the gta games that I felt like mentioning them for any reason. I played devil may cry one, I got mot of the way through it because everyone insisted it was good. it was certainly hard, but otherwise it wasn't very enjoyable. nothing even slightly memorable about it.

okay that's it until I think of something I forgot. credit to you if you just read all of that.