Of Favorite Games and Booty Calls

What does your favorite game say about you? Not much, really. Your booty call game, on the other hand, provides much insight into the true you.

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I presume this is going to be one of those "list your guilty pleasure games" threads, not that there's anything wrong with that...

I thought this was going to be a thread about games we tell girls are upstairs and that we'll play while she's having a coffee. Y'know, our ultimate pick-up line game.

*edit*

You know what, scratch that.

Startopia for me. I can waste a couple of hours just watching a space station function.

hmmm... id have to say my 'booty call' game would have to be
Star Wars: Battlefront 2. every once in awhile i will pick up that game and start playing, and its fun every time. i guess sometimes im just in the mood to shoot ppl >:)

For me, it would have to be Kessen. It was one of the launch games for PS2. It really is not all that good: fair graphics at best, some atrocious voice over. Various gameplay aspects are inflexible or even superflous. Nevertheless, I always come back to it, starting new campaigns to carry Tokugawa Ieyasu through history. I remember the first time I played that game I couldn't tear myself away, my jaw would hit the floor whenever I would order a rifle barrage or a cannonade. It still feels sweet to pull off a special manuever expertly, to have hundreds of thousands of samuari at my command, to see the great daimyo plot and fight right before my eyes. The game really got me into Japanese history, so in a sense it changed my life. It'll always be a fave.

Seriously a game I find I keep coming back to is 1943 and all its iterations. I don't know why but I have it readily available and it looks great on my lCD tv and it is just fun to zone out and blast little tiny planes and big ass bosses over and over again.

Man I wish their were more Shmups made.

Now that you mention it, one's favorite game really doesn't say that much about you. Well, maybe if you chose something somewhat flawed already. But to say your favorite game is one that got 10/10 everywhere only proves that you supposedly have good taste. Either that, or your opinions on games are heavily influenced by online reviews and peer pressure.

Mine is probably the original Shining Force for Sega Genesis, by the way. The game is so flawed and wonky, but it has an odd simple elegance to it.

Tribes Vengeance - the single player.

I hate what it did to the tribes series; T:V and VUG's crimes are universally blamed for the downfall of the greatest online capture the flag FPS ever made, but I just love the single player. I enjoy it's multiplayer, which despite not being tribes, was bearable if not a good game (once you installed about a gig of community made content...)

The SP for T:V is my guilty pleasure, its my 'booty call.' Its something I hate to admit that I enjoyed, especially to other tribers, even many those who play its MP in its community supported state dislike the single player, many have not even touched it.

After careful thought and deliberation I realized that my booty call game is actually a pretty decent game in gaming history - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

I can pick up and play that game at any time, at any point in the game, and not only enjoy myself, but I'll also know where and what I'm supposed to do next. There really aren't to many games that give me the feeling of classic, enriching gameplay like that game does.

I've found that the appreciation for LttP is somewhat fading, which kinda hurts. I love the 3D Zeldas (Ocarina and on) but I still am too connected to the classic top down view to call any of those better.

I liked this article and thread a great deal and look forward to reading other responses.

rougeknife:
Tribes Vengeance - the single player.

You're not alone. I loved Tribes Vengeance's SP campaign.

For me it's probably the Max Payne series. I don't know how many times I've reinstalled/replayed/uninstalled those games, but between Max Payne and its sequel its well into the double digits.

Like Amateria, my "booty call" games aren't actually bad. Well, one is debatable, but for all intents and purposes "not amazing" doesn't make "bad game".

I can pick up and play through Mega Man X on the SNES in a single sitting, and it is always a fun way to kill an afternoon. Over a decade I've been playing it and for some reason it refuses to get old.

The other is the Halo series. I've played through the first one especially way too many times, but if I load up "Silent Cartographer" on Legendary, well, I can play the beginning of the level itself over and over again, let alone the whole level. Don't have to play the whole thing, just that part.

Ice Hockey for the NES/Virtual Console as well. If I'm bored, I can easily load that up and enjoy using the Wiimote sideways for a while.

Though I suppose Godzilla: Monster of Monsters would be a "not that good" game, if I had a working NES or it was on Virtual Console.

Mike Tyson's Punch Out for me amazingly enough. So happy it's on the Wii now. Also FF1 and Dragon Warrior

I'm too indecisive to pick a favorite game, but for a booty call I'd have to go with the original Halo. I must have played the campaign at least 20-30 times, and that's not counting the times I've sat down and played an hour of Silent Cartographer/Assault on the Control Room. In contrast I've only completed the Halo 3 campaign twice in it's entirety, and probably won't do so again.

ccesarano:
Like Amateria, my "booty call" games aren't actually bad. Well, one is debatable, but for all intents and purposes "not amazing" doesn't make "bad game".

I can pick up and play through Mega Man X on the SNES in a single sitting, and it is always a fun way to kill an afternoon. Over a decade I've been playing it and for some reason it refuses to get old.

The other is the Halo series. I've played through the first one especially way too many times, but if I load up "Silent Cartographer" on Legendary, well, I can play the beginning of the level itself over and over again, let alone the whole level. Don't have to play the whole thing, just that part.

Yeah! Rock out, man. I forgot how much I enjoyed X. After reading your comment I went and played it again... good stuff. I gotta echo the Halo:CE campaign. I don't think I could count how often me and a buddy would play through Assault on the Control Room on Legendary.

Good stuff.

I've always maintained that 007: Nightfire is the best rubbish game of all time.

Many hours of my life have been wasted on Star Wars Battlefront 2, but that is a genuinelly good game and therefore discounted from the contest.

Does Minesweeper count? Pointless, repetitive, not even fun really, but I've probably spent more time on that game than any other in my life. What a waste...

rougeknife:
Tribes Vengeance - the single player.

I think Tribes: Vengeance is my guilty pleasure (still play it). Simply because most Tribes players hate it >.>

But the one I thought of first was Psi-ops. It was a really bad game. At least in the story/voice over/design department. But the interaction of your mental powers and the physics, and the world around you made for some very interesting and creative gameplay.

DW: Gundam...So ashamed, so very ashamed

Ecronyte:

rougeknife:
Tribes Vengeance - the single player.

I think Tribes: Vengeance is my guilty pleasure (still play it). Simply because most Tribes players hate it >.>

Its the basted child of the family.

I learned to love T:V's MP, at least the very fast paced flag focused game we played on Australian servers. AU mod really helped with that.

Hmmmm mine has to be Dungeon Keeper.

Now THAT is a classic, can just sit there for hours just on one level. Theres something rewarding about building a dungeon and attracting mistresses and dragons then training them up to level 10 and having an uber powerful army under your control,k even when you have beaten the enemy.

Damn i have wasted years on that game, still so addictive ^_^

And i say its my booty call because EVERY SINGLE person i know hates the game so much, and although it can seem a bit crap at times, i just love it.

Mr Jims:
You my friend are awesome! There's nothing wrong with Shining Force though, its a superbly enjoyable game. The ultimate simplification of the strategic rpg. Those battle animations have stuck with me through all these years. These days I too often just get lost in millions of stats and special abilities, prompting me to run through some SF3 battles again (probably the only game you'd get a sega cd for, especially if you can lay your hands on the J episodes).

hiPeanut:
I know some DK lovers, don't worry, they're out there.

As for myself:
Blood, I love that game to death and beyond, WARM BRAAAAINS! Used to spend weeks building maps for it to face my friends in. I even joined that weird club of people that got it running on Windows XP. I even enjoyed Blood2, forgave it for all its flaws just to feel the spirit of the original which is still in there a little bit.

The original Carmageddon. I found that game to be terribly underrated.

Sabbad:
I've always maintained that 007: Nightfire is the best rubbish game of all time.

I'd go further than that - 007: Agent Under Fire! Truly an atrociously bad game, with one big, big saving grace in multiplayer - the Grapple Watch.

You can fire it at any time, any where. It moves fast and has a long range. It sticks to anything. You can still fire guns while using it. You can fly through the air, detach the grapple, and while you're still in the air attach it to something else - or even hide in a dark corner of a ceiling somewhere.

In short, Agent Under Fire became Spider-Man Deathmatch! It was INCREDIBLE. I will never forgive EA for removing it in Nightfire.

I'd say Dungeon Keeper, but I don't feel guilty about that pleasure at all. It is an awesome game.

Harvest moon. In all of its incarnations except the Gamecube atrocity. It is not fun. It is soul consuming. I even liked the buggy DS version. I've haven't reached the "end game" since the SNES days, these days that requires as much devotion as hitting level 100 in Warcraft.

Don't correct me on that, it was intentional.

I can't believe other people in this world still play PSO... that, good sir, is amazing. I could never get in to Phantasy Star Universe... it didn't have the same feel.

Mega Man 2 is another one of my booty call games... I can usually blast through it in half-an-hour and always feel better afterwards.

WoW is my booty call, lost 2 years to it, haven't played it in months but still keep my subscription up to date in case i give in to that urge, I really do feel guilty playing it these days, like a relapsed junkie.

I quite enjoy booting up a Megadrive emulator and playing Streets of Rage 2 sometimes...

Love that game.

Sabbad:
I'd go further than that - 007: Agent Under Fire! Truly an atrociously bad game, with one big, big saving grace in multiplayer - the Grapple Watch.

You can fire it at any time, any where. It moves fast and has a long range. It sticks to anything. You can still fire guns while using it. You can fly through the air, detach the grapple, and while you're still in the air attach it to something else - or even hide in a dark corner of a ceiling somewhere.

In short, Agent Under Fire became Spider-Man Deathmatch! It was INCREDIBLE. I will never forgive EA for removing it in Nightfire.

AWESOME!!! Someone else who has experienced the fun of Peter Parker: Secret Agent. My friends and I spent countless hours zipping back and forth through the air obliterating each other with machine guns in this game. Some of the most fun I've had in any Bond game.

Mine is Oblivion. I often find myself getting it out again to scowler another dungeon.

Tomb Raider

The second one, I just utterly loved it, and Croft Mannor was AMAZING, I just, Loved that game, and I still play it on my PS2 <3

Okay, I don't feel so old, now that FFI, Gundam AND Diablo have all been brought up by other people! LOL!

Booty call games? Hmm...that would have to indicate the capacity for feeling guilty about my game habits...

Gears of War
I constantly find myself playing it's multiplayer even though the multplayer population is rapidly decreasing.

Mine used to be Elder scrolls:IV Oblivion, but the amount of hours I put into the game just for it to freeze up and delete all my saves.
It was a betrayal I took to heart.
Now I'd probably say Pokemon: Leaf Green, can't beat a classic.

So what do you think it says about you?

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. It's fun and intiutive, and definitely challenging. It's easy to slide into or out of at any time.