2d4chan - User contributions [en]

The Legend of Zelda

2018-12-25T04:55:38Z

2601:205:8301:7952:4C23:A6A0:571:AC62:

{{/vg/}}

The Legend of Zelda is a series of adventure games for the Nintendo system. One of the oldest franchises, alongside Super Mario, at least one game has graced every console Nintendo has put out. With its epic landscapes, focus on puzzles, and wide array of [[monster]]s and races, the Zelda series is a goldmine for an enterprising [[Dungeons & Dragons]] [[DM]] to draw from for inspiration.

==The Story==
You play as one of the many incarnations of Link, a green-clad Hylian(The setting's main race, known to have elf-like features such as long pointy ears) youth somewhere in between 9 to 18 years of age who sets out to fight evil to accomplish some heroic goal, often related to rescuing someone. And often this is Princess Zelda, whom the series is named after. In pursuit of this goal he often clashes with the evil Ganon (or Ganondorf), who wants to rule the world, or some other menace ranging from a jerk wizard who kidnaps girls to a fucking scary mask trying to destroy everything.

Central to the series is the Triforce, an artifact of immense power that taps into a user's power, wisdom and courage to use. It has near reality-warping powers in its full form, which is why Ganondorf seeks to obtain it. Link often has to find bits of the shattered Triforce in his quests, or people capable of sealing Ganondorf away. At some point the pieces of the Triforce became sealed within the three main characters, with Ganondorf getting the Triforce of Power, Zelda getting the Triforce of Wisdom, and Link getting (or sometimes having to find) the Triforce of Courage. The Triforce is of such immense value that at one point there was a civil war over who could control it, leading to, in several games, 1) Link's parents being killed and forcing him to live in hiding, 2) a tribe of wizards getting banished into a parallel realm, eagerly waiting for a chance at vengeance, 3) causing the entire Sacred Realm to become a cursed dimension after Ganon succeeds in grabbing it, etc.

Note that it is not always the same Link who appears in the series: while some of them appear in several games as the protagonist (One appears in four games, and three others in two games each) there is often a new Link in every game. And while they look alike, they are not related to one another - except from one case where it is strongly hinted at that they are family (namely the one from Ocarina of Time and the one from Twilight Princess). This is because the games are constantly soft-rebooting (really it's that it takes place over a VERY long stretch of time and each Link is a new reincarnation). Hyrule itself will change too every so often; sometimes it will feature the same familiar geography of Hyrule castle, Death Mountain, Zora Village, etc. And other times it will feature very dramatic changes, such as all of Hyrule being flooded.

The Zeldas on the other hand are related to one another: the first one was the reincarnation of the goddess Hylia and all Zeldas are her descendants, making them the Blood of the Goddess. And while the various Links might not be related they inherit something as well; the Spirit of the Hero which gives them the drive to stand up to evil and use the various tools they find despite them never having used or even seen them before.

The villainous Ganon is the same one over and over again though, being the reincarnation of the [[daemon|demon]] Demise. Occasionally, it's stated he can't die; he only ever suffers temporary defeat. Even while he gets killed at the end of some of the games, his followers try to resurrect him (and sometimes even succeed), making him the same guy again and again. Even so, he takes many different forms; early on he's a piggish brute (literally), though later he adopts a more human form (In this form he's always called Ganondorf) when he uses subversion as his main strategy, typically as one of the rare Gerudo males, though he can still be capable of some horrifying shit if he's in possession of the Triforce of Power. Eventually however, he gets sick of this shit and drops all subtlety, turning into an eldritch abomination called "Calamity Ganon" that curses the land of Hyrule itself, resurrecting fallen monsters and seizing control of the kingdom's automaton army. In every single case, his weakness remains the same: only the awakened Master Sword can seal him away.

The fact that the timeline also branches off into multiple paths simply makes it more confusing to keep track of. Fortunately, Nintendo not only printed a game-by-game explanation of the timeline, they also gave a definitive starting-off point in Skyward Sword, taking place just prior to the founding of Hyrule and the establishment of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf as perpetually reincarnating characters.

==Tabletop Games==
Officially, there are no Zelda tabletop games (no, the Zelda version of Monopoly doesn't count). Unofficially, homebrewers have tried their hand at making some. A Legend of Zelda [[D20]] system has been floating around the net for years, and [[/tg/]] has been busily working on a [[Legend of Zelda RPG]]. There's also [[Megaton]], which is a wargame set in the Zelda setting.

==Vidya Games==

There's been A TON of them, but the one that gives most nostalgia is the first one, which you can see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrn8RBxM4W0

All of the games share the same basic gameplay: Link needs to stop Ganon/Ganondorf by visiting various locations in Hyrule, collecting various artifacts or rescuing people before finally confronting the main boss. Each location has a dungeon that is heavily puzzle-oriented; Link will need to fight his way to a mini-boss, which will drop a new gadget that he'll use to complete the dungeon and fight the final boss. Each game will usually also feature an additional gameplay feature unique to the game, whether it's commanding your own ship, turning into a wolf, or hopping between the real world and a mirror world.

The two most famous (and have originated the most [[skub]]) are Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for the N64.
Ocarina of time was a massive adventure, featuring a whooping 9 mandatory (there were several optional dungeons, such as the Gerudo fortress' labyrinth) dungeons. The sixth dungeon, the water temple, became a meme due to its frustrating difficulty (The DS version tried fixing this by color-coding different sections of the temple, reducing your chances of getting lost). Ganondorf (not ganon) makes his first proper appearance here, showing us as an ambiguously dark-skinned ginger/red-headed arab/tall C.S. Goto rather than a pigman (proving us again how prejudiced the japs are). The game is famous for codifying the gameplay of all future Zelda games, as it was the transition point from 2D to 3D, thereby introducing the new swordplay mechanics among other features. It's also been considered a highly influential game to the Action/Adventure Third-Person style of video games, as many of the genres' cornerstone mechanics (like enemy camera lock-on for combat) either originated in or were popularized by Ocarina of Time.

The Majora's Mask game had a smaller questline (4 to 6 (depending on how you view the pirate fortress and Ikana's palace) dungeons plus the final boss) but featured an obscene amount of side quests (like 30-40 of them!). It's also the most mysterious, since as it takes place outside of Hyrule, we know very little about the lore of the setting. This has lead some fans to concoct [http://zeldauniverse.net/2006/11/03/the-stone-tower-why-termina-was-doomed/ crazy theories] about Majora's nature and reason for destroying Termina. Of course, many have debated whether the longer questline or larger variety of side quests is better, or whether Ganondorf's pimpery can surpass the Mask's eldritch-grade awesomeness. They are good games, all the while, overshadowing the preceeding titles.

Another great game of the saga is the Wind Waker, which traded Hyrule for a pirate-esque adventure, where you sailed across the seas in search for booty and your sister, kidnapped by a now jaded ganondorf (many say this ganondorf is the best, as we see him here as a dude who's totally tired of this shit and is shown in a kinda sympathetic light). It's noteworthy that the Link of this continuity managed to appear in two games and that he may or may not have sired one of the parents of the 'Spirit Tracks' Link.

Of the 2D games, A Link to the Past is generally the most liked. It basically takes everything that's good about the original Zelda game and refines it to an engaging experience, combined with dimension-hopping puzzles, giving you two worlds to explore instead of just one.

Breath of the Wild takes a radical departure by combining the massive world of the old 2D games with an emphasis on survival and strategy. Rupees are no longer easy to find and hearts are nonexistent; you gotta prepare your own food and potions ahead of time and collect weapons to replace the ones you break. There's also a whopping '''120''' mini-dungeons full of puzzles scattered throughout the land, not including various hidden treasures and side quests, or the various mini-bosses/guardians roaming the wild that will fuck your shit up if you're not careful.

[[Category: Video Games]]

Video games

2018-12-25T02:28:18Z

2601:205:8301:7952:4C23:A6A0:571:AC62:

Video games are games played with an electronic device, instead of paper, pens, dice, boards, anything traditional, and most of the time omitting your imagination too. It is also true that they do contain amusing game mechanics, can be easily played alone, provide visual and auditory representation, and don't [[Games Workshop|cost hundreds of dollars for a few miniature visual representations]]; however, this does come at the cost of freedom, physical being, social skills, and imagination.

Many traditional or tabletop games (like WH40K and D&D) can now be played as using electronic devices to substitute for their tactile components like maps or minis, proving once again that technology continues to screw up [[Old School Roleplaying|everything that we all wished had remained as it was.]] A [[VASSAL Game Engine|virtual tabletop simulator]] has been released so you may play a tabletop game with friends out of town.

Electronic games played by strange, [[what|electronic fa/tg/uys]] have been accepted by /tg/, so that any game can be traditional, and this media fits right in with the old [[Board Game|board games]] and Tabletop [[Wargame]]s we all know and love. Some video games are accepted and enjoyed by /tg/. Many, however, are not. Generally, video game threads, especially games with no corresponding /tg/ version/interest, belong on /v/ instead.

You'll find quite a few /v/ related articles on 1d4chan because some video games have at least some relation to /tg/ and because 1d4chan tends to draw in people who are fans of WH40K universe primarily through [[Dawn of War]], even if these people don't actually play the tabletop game. And lets be honest here, 1d4chan is as much a page for WH40K fans as it is for fa/tg/uys so these people are certainly welcome here.

==Strategy Game ==
[[Image:Keen.gif|right|300px]]
* Simulation/Sandbox
** '''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'''
** '''Aurora 4X, a.k.a Dwarf Fortress in space with MUCH more complicated details'''
** '''From The Depths'''
** '''Kerbal Space Program'''
** '''Medieval Engineers'''
*** '''Space Engineers'''
** '''[[Minecraft]]''', for some odd reason.
** '''[[Terraria]]''', for the same odd reason.
** '''Mount and Blade''', it's expandalone Warband, and the new Bannerlord 2. A sandbox medieval setting, you go around either being a bandit or uniting the scattered kingdoms into a grand empire or whatever. Enormous modding community means finding something thematically different if you want, including Warhammer and historical mods.
** '''Rimworld''', Dwarf Fortress ''IN SPEHSS'' except dumbed down for the casuals, which may or may not be a good thing.
** '''[[Space Station 13]]:''' Dwarf Fortress except you play as the dwarves. Has been completely fucking ruined by goons leaking into every other version of the game.
** '''[[Tabletop Simulator]]''', a virtual tabletop for playing Card Games, Board Games, RPGs, etc. online with friends. The game has multiple built-in tools for creating custom games, and the Steam Workshop has thousands of add-ons; a popular choice for playing WH40K online thanks to ripped assets from Dawn of War.
** '''[[VASSAL Game Engine|VASSAL Engine]]'''

* 4X/Grand Strategy
** '''Age of Wonders'''
** '''Civilization I-IV''' - Civilization actually was based on a board game and in a case of coming full circle, ended up creating it's own board game.
*** (Note: Civs V and VI have design issues that make them impossible to recommend in this list, and are thus explicitly not included.)
** '''[[Disciples]]''' (series) - Heroes of Might and Magic made [[Grimdark]].
** '''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]''' - Turn based strategy of over six main games and expansions where you control a fantasy hero and their legion of men/elves/dwarves/creatures/etc. Special mention goes to second and especially third installments.
**'''Master of Magic''': Only the oldest of neckbeards will remember this one. Take Sid Meier's Civilization. Add fantasy races with their own units, magic in the form of spells and summons, heroes and a very basic isometric battlefield when armies clash, and give hundreds of abilities to units according to their species, situation and metal they are armed with (Yes, the metal used can be mithril or adamantite if the building city has any). That's Master of Magic. Still great for when you need to scratch that 'wizard with no sense of right or wrong bent on conquering the world' itch.
** '''Masters of Orion'''
** '''[[Alpha Centauri|Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'''
** '''Sengoku Rance''': [[Weeaboo|Hentai game spinoff]] that parodies the long-running ''Nobunaga's Ambition'' series. You play as Rance, [[Slaanesh]]'s very own [[Kharn|fun guy to be around,]] as he unifies Warring States-era Japan under his mighty [[Anal circumference|"hyperweapon."]] Despite the utterly ludicrous premise it's a solid grand strategy game, to the point that the porn is more of a reward for playing well than an end in itself. Comparing this game to Total War was a common troll on /gsg/ when Shogun II was released.
** '''Endless Space'''
** '''[[Endless Legend]]'''
** '''Distant Worlds'''
** Paradox series: '''[[Crusader Kings]]''', '''[[Europa Universalis]]''', '''[[Victoria]]''', or '''Hearts of Iron'''
*** [http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=406933979 Warhammer: Geheimnisnacht], a Warhammer Fantasy conversion for Crusader Kings II. Setting predates Winds of Chaos & End Times.
** '''Stellaris''' (Paradox's attempt to fill the gap in the market between their Grand Strategy games and traditional 4x)
*** Excellent 40k mod for Stellaris: https://stellaris.paradoxwikis.com/WarhammerTotalConversion
*** And yes, there's Star Trek and Star Wars mods.
** '''[[Total War]]''' series: '''Rome Total War''', '''Medieval Total War''', '''Empire Total War''', '''Shogun Total War'''
*** Rome 1 mods: '''Call to Arms: Warhammer''' and '''Fourth Age Total War''' and Medieval 2 mods: '''[[Call of Warhammer]]''', '''Third Age Total War'''

* Real-time Strategy
** '''Age of Empires''' series
** '''Battlezone''', the strategy game not the arcade game. Mixture of real time strategy and hover tank combat while fighting commies on the moon. Clunky, and as balanced as a one legged hippo, but it's uniqueness, concept and immersion make it a classic. Got a second game that was tighter and better balanced but weaker plot and setting. Both got pretty decent HD remasters.
** '''[[Command and Conquer]]''', a franchise with more then four different series running at the time where you control varied forces trying to beat the crap out of each other.
** '''Company of Heroes''' and '''Men of War''' series
** '''Cossacks''' series, which covers 17th and 18th century, being the closest to /tg/'s desire to have "pike and shot setting". Most notable for ability to field absolutely gigantic armies of thousands upon thousands of soldiers.
*** '''American Conquest''' is an off-shot mini-series, expanding game mechanics from Cossacks and covering the period between Cortes conquest of Aztec Empire till American Revolutionary War. An expansion is dedicated to American Civil War.
** '''Cultures''' series, but most importantly first two games. A Viking village sim
** '''[[Dominions]]'''
** '''Dungeon Keeper''', where you play as an evil overlord defending against pesky adventurers and goodie-two-shoes trying to conquer your dungeon, and play it like Sims on crack.
** '''Homeworld''' series
** '''Original War''', most notable for its unique mix of RPG and RTS elements, with each unit representing an individual character with own backstory, personality and set of skills.
** '''Patrician 3: Rise of the Hansa''' is pretty standard (and good) economic-transport sim, but it makes up with being related with the titular Hansa and the Baltic region during Late Medieval, which rarely show up as a setting despite being what is represented as '''the''' ISO Standard Medieval setting.
** '''Railroad Tycoon 2''' comes with absolutely amazing series of scenarios and an unique, fleshed out post-apo setting. No, not kidding. There are also dozens of fan-made maps further expanding on said setting.
** '''Rise of Nations''' and especially '''Rise of Legends'''
** '''The Settlers''' series
** '''[[Starcraft]]''' and '''[[Warcraft]]''': [[Skub|40K and Fantasy rip-offs respectively]]
** '''Supreme Commander'''
** '''Theocracy''', in which you control one of Mesoamerican tribes with a goal of unifying the region.
** '''Total Annihilation'''

* Turn-based Strategy
** '''[[Advance Wars|Advance Wars]]''' - It's like Panzer General but [[Anime]]. Except for '''Days of Ruin'''; that game is [[Grimdark]] and thus [[Fist of the North Star|manly]].
** '''Fire Emblem''' - Advance Wars' twin brother who likes swords and magic rather than guns and tanks. Fire Emblem has heavy RPG elements, tasking you with managing a stable of characters with limited EXP to go around and the specter of permadeath hanging overhead. ''Awakening'' and later installments are not approved for being [[Weeaboo|waifu delivery systems cleverly disguised as strategy games.]]
** '''Jagged Alliance I''' & '''II''', A PMC is you!
** '''[[King of Dragon Pass]]'''
** '''Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale''' a Japanese game about running a shop, which sells and buys items used by dungeon-crawling adventurers. Much more engaging than it sounds and full of cutting humour. Capitalism, ho!
** '''Valkyria Chronicles''' series - JRPG fantasy world version of World War II. Quite a bit of depth and supporting cast of characters.
** The original '''[[X-Com|X-COM: UFO Defense]]'''
** The new '''[[X-Com|XCOM: Enemy Unknown]]''' and its sequel, '''XCOM 2'''.
*** XCOM and XCOM 2 mods: '''The Long War'''. Both versions add dramatically to their respective games, transforming them from comparatively quick, light experiences to fatigue-worn wars. Buckle up.

==Role-Playing Games==
*[[cRPG]]s
** '''Albion'''
** '''[[Arcanum]]: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura'''
** '''[[Baldur's Gate]] I''' & '''II'''
** '''Battle for Wesnoth'''
** '''Betrayal at Krondor'''
** '''Darklands'''
** '''Deus Ex''' series
** '''[[The Elder Scrolls]]''' Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind only
** '''[[Fallout]]''' series
** '''[[Icewind Dale]]'''
** '''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'''
** '''Might and Magic from 1 to 8, then X. [[Squats|Might and Magic 9 does not exist.]]
** '''[[Planescape: Torment]]'''
** '''System Shock''' series
** '''The Temple of Elemental Evil'''
** '''Ultima''' series
** '''[[Vampire: The Masquerade]] - ''Bloodlines/Redemption'''''
** '''Wasteland''' series
** '''[[Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord]]'''

*Modern RPGs
** '''The Banner Saga'''
** '''Dark Souls''', due to its moody [[Berserk]]-inspired atmosphere, emphasis on exploration, and [[Dwarf Fortress|merciless learning curve]]. Compelling story and characters are a major plus, also contains large amounts of death and [[RAGE]]. The tagline isn't 'Prepare to Die' for no reason.
*** To a lesser extent, the other "Souls" games ('''Demon's Souls''', '''Dark Souls 2''', '''Dark Souls 3''', and '''Bloodborne''').
** '''Deus Ex: Human Revolution'''
** '''Dragon Age: Origins''', much better than later games.
** '''Expeditions: Conquistador''' and '''Viking'''
** '''Fallout: New Vegas'''
** '''Legend of Grimrock'''
** '''Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor'''
** '''Pillars of Eternity'''
** '''Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic''', both games are very good.
** '''The Witcher''' series

==Adventure Games==
* '''Beneath a Steel Sky''': Great cyberpunk themes and rich imagery. Released as freeware by the original developers.
* '''Blade Runner''': It's a Blade Runner game and it's one of the best things that ever happend in the genre, no need for more recommendations.
* '''Broken Sword''' series: Templars, ancient conspiracies, interesting characters and well-written plot that is mineable even for tabletop games
* '''The DIG''': A bunch of astronauts stop an asteroid from hitting earth, only to find out it's really an alien starship that whisks them to a desolate planet on the other side of the galaxy whose inhabitants - who have a huge fetish for the platonic solids - are nowhere to be found. Features a lot of really complex hard-science plot points, difficult-as-fuck puzzles, and Steve Blum as an arrogant German scientist.
* '''King's Quest: Heir Today Gone Tomorrow''': Just read the title and ask yourself what the game can be about.
* '''Monkey Island''' series: One of the most definitive things to ever happen to the genre, plus it's a great pirate-themed series that both spoofs and reaffirms a lot of cliches related with own content.
* '''Policenauts''': Early Hideo Kojima makes Lethal Weapon meets cyberpunk!
* '''The Prince and the Coward''': A Polish game that can be best summed up as "ISO Standard Medieval Fantasy gets the ''Monkey Island'' treatment". An excellent fan-translation exists that manages to keep the original tone.
* '''Pathologic''' (also known as '''Pestilence''' or '''Мор. Утопия'''): a truly bizzare and unique Russian game, combining adventure, survival, role-playing and lots of nightmarish vibes. Boasts a head-ache inducting lore and a persistent world, so things roll regardless if player interfeers or not. Got a HD re-release recently with proper translation, thus non-Slavs can finally enjoy the game properly too - previous English translation was a nightmare by itself.
* '''Professor Layton''' series: A refined gentleman investigates mysteries by solving lateral-thinking puzzles. Beautiful watercolor art and solid writing, though the puzzle setups become increasingly absurd as the series goes on. A great series to mine for dungeon puzzles. Any games after the first six are not approved, due to the writing devolving into cliche anime bullshit and a distinct drop in puzzle quality after the death of designer Akira Tago.
* '''[[Star Control]]''' series: A mess of alien races in the grand tradition of Niven et al. kill the shit out of each other. First game is turn-based strategy, second game is somewhere between an RPG and an adventure game; both have a surprisingly deep arcade combat system. The second game was released as open-source software by the developers.

==Warhammer Games==
*Strategy
** The old and glorious '''[[Warhammer Epic 40,000: Final Liberation]]''', [[Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat| '''Shadow of the Horned Rat''', and '''Dark Omen''']]
** [[Warhammer: Mark of Chaos|'''Mark of Chaos''']]
** '''[[Dawn of War|WH40K Dawn of War]]''' and its [[Dawn of War II|sequel]]. As well as the [[Dawn of War III|sequel sequel]]
*** The "True-to-Tabletop" [[Dawn_of_War_Mods|mods]] for DoW that sprung up, such as '''Firestorm over ''Kronus/Kaurava''''', the '''Closer to Codex''' mod. As well as the '''Ultimate Apocalypse''' and '''Armageddon Steel Legion''' mod which are MANLY.
** '''[[Chapter Master (game)]]'''
** '''[[Mordheim: City Of The Damned]]'''
** '''[[Battlefleet Gothic: Armada]]'''
** '''[[Total War: WARHAMMER]]''' and its [[Total War: Warhammer II|sequel]]
** '''[[Man o' War: Corsair]]'''
** '''[[Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach]]''' - A turn base strategy game where you playing as everybody's favourite [[Space Wolves|space wolf viking]] fighting against the Orks in Sanctus Reach. Later DLC allowed you playing as the Ork led by Da Big Red and everybody's favorite [[Imperial Guard|wall of guns]]. Also Imperial Knights, fuck yeah!

*Other
** '''[[Blood Bowl]] and its sequel'''
** <s>'''[[Warhammer Online|Warhammer Age of Reckoning]]'''</s> Shut downed thanks to EA. Go play the private server version!
** '''[[Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine]]'''
** '''[[Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade]]'''
** '''[[The End Times:Vermintide]]'''
** '''Warhammer 40,000: Freeblade'''
** '''[[Space Hulk: Deathwing]]'''

==Miscellaneous==
* [[Roguelike|Roguelikes]]
** '''Curious Expedition''' which pokes fun at the pulp adventure genre; think Hollow Earth as a black comedy
** '''[[Darkest Dungeon]]''' the newest [[H.P. Lovecraft|love-craftian]] dungeon crawler with grimdark setting and overall edginess.
** '''Don't Starve''' a pretty-looking survival and exploration game that's fun with friends, and does horror like ''The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy''.
** '''[[Dungeon Crawl]] Stone Soup'''
** '''TEARDOWN''', a Space-Hulk roguelike
** '''Nethack'''
** '''WarpRogue''', a 40K-inspired roguelike
** '''Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead''' a post-apocalyptic top-down survival game that looks like Dwarf Fortress with a texture pack and lets you drive cars into zombies.
** '''Pixel Dungeon and it's forks''' coffee break roguelike optimized for phones. FOSS so there's tons of forks. Shattered Pixel Dungeon is a very good version and is on Android Play Store and F-Droid

*Good FPP games
** '''Borderlands 2''', a memetic lolsrandom dumb game, but special mention goes to '''Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep''' DLC, as it is a role-playing session involving main characters, with all the crazy hijinks of Borderlands involved.
** '''[[Doom|DOOM]]''', '''Hexen''', and '''Heretic''': With a vibrant community because the games are easy to mod and has produced no shortage of mods (or WADs as they're called in the community (officially, the file extension 'WAD' means 'Where's All the Data?').) Interestingly, Doom was inspired by a D&D game run with Carmack as the DM. Romero's character recklessly gave a dark tome to a demon in exchange for the magic Daikatana which caused demons to overrun the material plane and the world to end. Visually, parts of the games (Hexen and Heretic especially) are reminiscent of a gothic dungeon.
** '''Crysis''', Three games provide a very moddable engine with a very versatile set of physics combined with a pretty absurdly large modding community that has among other things, created a perfectly workable Mech Warrior game out of Crysis Warhead. Even if you don't care for nanosuit action, the mods alone are worth checking out.
** '''Escape From Butcher Bay''' a Riddick-licensed game that combines great stealth elements with even better combat sequences and a slight horror vibe, all in the sauce made off used future aesthetics.
** '''[[EYE: Divine Cybermancy]]''': A really weird FPS/RPG due to its cyberpunk fantasy aesthetics, almost an RPG. Extremely buggy due to being a Source Engine game that wasn't made by Valve. The developers absolutely love Warhammer 40,000, made the setting for EYE a lawyer-friendly clone of 40k, and were eventually hired by GW to [[Space Hulk: Deathwing|make the 40k game they wanted to make in the first place.]]
** '''Far Cry''' series, which has completely different tone depending on installment and is just one huge mine of ideas for extremely pulpy scenarios. Special mention goes to Far Cry 3, which pretty much reinvented the franchise, and its standalone expansion Blood Dragon, which is [[Old School Roleplaying|a hilarious parody of the 80s neon aesthetic.]] ''Primal'' and later installments are not approved for being either heavily rehashed or just completely unnecessary.
** '''Guns of Icarus''', a steampunk flying team deathmatch with set roles.
** '''Iron Storm''' - it's 1964 and the World War I is still going on, with complete stalemate perpetuated by industrialists on both sides. Your mission is to infiltrate and destroy nuclear program of the "bad" side. W40k games ''wish'' they were this good in presenting endless, sensless war.
** '''Kingdom Come: Deliverance''', a truly generic story of "from zero to hero", involving blacksmith's son climbing the social ladder of medieval society until knighthood. But what makes the game unique is the fact it's a historical RPG, set in specific area of Bohemia during specific period with autistic research behind it, providing more data about own setting than typical edutainment game.
** '''Penumbra series''': The easiest way to describe it is to call it modern take on At the Mountains of Madness, only set in Greenland and with massive conspiracy looming over the story. Warning, '''very''' tense horror games (while avoiding jump scares) with unique control and physics system, so it might not be your cup of tea.
** '''Quake''': At least the early games, for similar reasons for DOOM (they were both made by the same company). Quake 1 is a good and challenging FPS that takes cues from Lovecraft in terms of environments and monster designs. Quake 2 is somewhat easier, but is deliciously grimdark sci-fi; it's about fighting cyborg aliens that make more of themselves by capturing conquered races and fitting them with cybernetics/forcing them into a hivemind against their will.
** '''Team Fortress 2''', a game descended from a Quake mod now over 10 years old and still going strong, is a multiplayer FPS with a 1960s theme where players pick a team, one of 9 different classes, and battle to the death. Also, hats. Two hats in this game are 40k references, allowing you to dress your Heavy up as an Ork.
** '''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.''' series: Roadside Picnic: The Video Game. A nice combination of free roaming, excellent gunplay, tense atmosphere and really freaky lore.
** '''Thief 1 & 2''', the grand daddy of stealth games, with one of the most original settings ever created for games (a combination of industrial - but not steampunk - medieval and paganic elements). Strong story, good characters and makes you feel like a master thief indeed. Reboot from 2014 is unapproved and shunned.
** '''Wolfenstein''' series: Combines sci-fi, fantasy and World War II elements amidst the Nazi-killing.

*Good TPP games
** '''Max Payne 1 & 2''' Finest product of the neo-noir genre, especially the second game. Amazingly strong story in both games, with a lot of Norse references in the first one. Also, the game that introduced bullet time as game mechanics. 3rd game is unapproved for being just a bland, boring and utterly pointless sequel.
** '''Prince of Persia''' trilogy. Accept no substitute for Arabian Nights game.
** '''Tomb Raider series''' Preferably games created by original studio, Core Design, but anything up to Underworld goes. A swift balance between serious and pulp tone, providing simple plots and a more and more complex locations. Also, good source of creative traps. Reboot from 2013 and what follows are disapproved and shunned, being just generic cover shooter.

* [[Mechwarrior]], because /tg/ loves [[Battletech]].
** '''MechWarrior I''' is lauded as a classic, and thus the best
** '''MechWarrior II''' is lauded as the best
** '''MechWarrior III''' is lauded as the most engrossing storywise, and thus the best
** '''MechWarrior IV''' is lauded as the latest and greatest, and thus the best
** '''MechCommander II''' is lauded as most like the tabletop, and thus the best
** '''MechWarrior: Living Legend''' is lauded as best for multiplayer, and thus the best
** '''MechWarrior Online''' is the worst.
* Classic console games
** '''Jet Set/Grind Radio''' seems to have enthused one orky [[drawfag]] to the highest of possible levels, make of that what you will.
** '''Conker's Bad Fur Day'''
** '''[[Metal Gear]]'''
** '''[[Samus|Metroid]]''', '''[[The Legend of Zelda]]''', '''Kid Icarus''', and '''[[Castlevania]]''' (the four games series share so much in common they deserve to be discussed together). Why? The exploration-heavy nature of the games, the feeling of growing more powerful as you collect enough gear and relics to make an adventuring party jealous, the incredibly memorable boss battles, interesting backstories (Metroid immerses you in backstory at your pace, via scans and lore pickups, leaving much up to your imagination), and providing many ideas for scifi or fantasy RPG session.

==Games that can be used to troll /tg/==
* Most other MMORPGs. [[World of Warcraft]], as the most successful to date, is especially effective. Special points to [[Star Wars: The Old Republic]] for being a massive disappointment for a popular franchise.
* JRPGs, for often recycling the same plots over and over and having identical structure. Along with of course cringingly bad character designs in some cases.
* Any of the modern Final Fantasy games, [[Games Workshop|which somehow keep getting sequels despite being financial failures]]. [[This Guy|Some fa/tg/uys]] have a fondness for the early ones, mostly because [[Troll|the first one rips off D&D pretty squarely]].
* [[Evony]]
* Skyrim, although it is good as a pregenerated fantasy world simulator you can dive into, it isn't an RPG. Reasons include having no choice to complete quests how you want, horrible dialogue, and uninspired combat and enemies and being rereleased so often that it became a meme that lasted for years.
* As a note to the above, you can say the same for Oblivion. Heavily uninspired landscapes, dungeons, and monsters, along with wonky gameplay and terrible dialogue. That's not to mention drastically changing the setting from jungle to generic Europe to be more appealing to the mainstream.
* Some have thrown this accusation at [[Fallout|Fallout 4]], although many anons will defend it due to not being as bad as the above. They are wrong.
* <s>Mentioning the attention Warhammer 40k games have gotten compared to Warhammer Fantasy is a sore spot for Fantasy fans.</s> With the failure that is [[Dawn of War III]] and recent success of [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] and [[Vermintide]], you could say the tables have turned. Actually DoW3 by itself is enough for trolling anyway.
* Reminding Shadowrun fans of the terrible Shadowrun FPS is not going to earn you any goodwill.
* Sonic The Hedgehog. The fans are everywhere, and the butthurt is unfathomable.
* Nintendo games have ultra-dedicated fanbases, and also hardcore haters, except for series like Metroid, Zelda, Mother, or Kid Icarus which are generally respected. Mentioning Pokemon in a positive light or stating the controller of "the best" console they released is a sex toy may cause an internet fight.
* Games with bad random number generators. Even highly approved of games like Mordheim: City Of The Damned will cause a shitstorm when someone is reminded that a supposed 95% chance to hit can result in four consecutive misses.
* No Man's Sky - such a huge waste of potential. Bringing this game up is a good troll move on /v/ as well, but everything's a good troll move on /v/.
* [[Blizzard]]. JUST. [[Blizzard]].

==The Game List That People Copypasta==
Every so often, someone posts on /tg/: "Wow, you guys are so smart and cool; can you recommend some [[video games]] to play for those hours when I'm not playing tabletop?". It happens so often that people have made [[copypasta]] for the occasion, even image copypasta.

You will find a lot of those games on [http://www.gog.com/ Good Old Games], DRM free, for 6 or 9 bucks. Or [[Freebooterz|for free if you pirate]], which can often be justified by the original creators leaving the development company so all the [[Profit]] goes to people who don't deserve it. Your choice.

For any video game that someone felt was good enough for a full page on this wiki, see [[:Category:Video_Games|Video Games]]

<center>[[Image:TG_recommended_games1.jpg]]</center>

<center>[[Image:Recommended_vg_2.jpg|900px]]</center>

[[Category:Video Games]]
[[Category:Software]]
[[Category:Approved Media]]