Valentine's Day (My Top Ten Favorite Games)

Obviously, from the date on the post, it's Valentine's day. What will I be doing special? Not that much, really. No flowers, no chocolate... Not that that's unusual. I've never actually had a "Valentine" (as in "be my Valentine") before. (Technically, though, I have - a year ago. Unfortunately, she didn't really care to do anything special with me - she went and got flowers for her perfectly happy and healthy mom instead.) Unfortunately, Valentine's Day is generally a day of depression for the hopeless romantic without a girl who loves (or at least likes) him, and I kind of wanted to change that.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how.

So, instead of messing with all of that, I've decided to do something that makes a bit more sense than tearing my heart out. I'm going to list my top ten favorite games of all time, and why I like them.

1. Crysis
• I've always loved the superhero theme. I've always loved sandbox gameplay. I've always loved first-person shooters, and I've always loved working with AI and designing maps. When a game can excel at combining these into a single experience, make it exciting, and have it look gorgeous at the same time, it gets my vote.
2. Dwarf Fortress
• It might not be much to look at, and may have a steep learning curve, but Dwarf Fortress is nothing to sneeze at. It's original, it has high-quality gameplay, and it can really be a struggle to survive. With practically no "rules", worlds that are hundreds of miles across, and a staggering level of complexity, it takes sandbox gameplay to the maximum.
3. Age of Empires II
• The campaigns are incredible, and the gameplay is awesome. I've also always been a fan of the medieval period. But the part I like best about AoE II is the AI and random maps. I created a program to generate randomly-generated map types, and I spent hours and hours perfecting multiple AIs. This is a special treat for a programmer.
4. Skyrim
• It's fun. What can I say? It looks good and plays well, and with an incredible amount of content in a single game, it's hard to find anywhere to stop. As I've always liked "sandbox style" gameplay and exploration, RPGs tend to do a good job of that. Plus, I'm a bit attached to my character, Vanya (VON-yuh), I'll admit.
5. Ragnarok
• A very old game, made in 1994. It's heavily based on other games, namely NetHack and others like it - it's a dungeon crawler with a Norse theme. You can turn into any creature you want with the right tools, change gender, change even the number of fingers and eyes you have ingame, and eventually work your way up to being a god yourself. It's unfortunately almost unheard off.
6. The Sims II
• I honestly think I enjoyed designing houses and landscapes a bit more than playing around with people's emotions. After all, once you know how everything works, it's possible to have two people get married in a single day. The game is filled with bugs (many of them exploitable), but it's a good concept and fun to play, nevertheless.
7. American McGee's Alice
• This is a good game. It wasn't quite your generic first-person shooter, but you couldn't really call it anything else. The game design was amazing - it turned the world of Alice in Wonderland into something dark and creepy without any trouble at all. It's well-worth a look, if you're a fan of Alice to any extent. It was also kind of fun to play.
8. Minecraft
• I wouldn't call it "original" (technically, nothing Notch (the creator of Minecraft) makes is completely original), but it's definitely fun. Again, the sandbox style gameplay takes the spotlight. With an incredibly large world to explore, caves to mine and structures to build, Minecraft is fun. Though I wouldn't call it "exciting".
9. Half Life
• Half Life revolutionized the video game industry by implementing a lot of "duh" concepts (things that should've been obvious to do, but nobody had done yet). Things like no real loading times, no briefing/debriefings, health and weapons that made sense where you found them instead of floating before you like a gift from the heavens. It's also pretty fun.
10. Diablo II
• Diablo II was a huge game - very expansive. It may not have been quite sandbox-style, but I tend to like RPGs, and as this particular RPG did a great job of including a large amount of action, I had a fun time playing it. The story wasn't that bad either, though a lot of things in the game didn't quite make sense.

I think that's about as far from the Valentine's Day theme as it could get. While I'd still like to have a Valentine today, even if she was just honorary, I'll just be thankful I'm not having my heart broken this year. It could always be worse, right? Happy Valentine's Day, everybody.