Ken Levine Lists Six Favorite Games

Ken Levine comments on six of his personal favorite games during an interview with MSNBC.

An MSNBC interview with Bioshock creator Ken Levine asked the videogame visionary for his personal top six favorite games. Levine's interests landed mostly in the role-playing and turn-based strategy genres.

Here are his six favorites, in no particular order, with comments from the Levine himself on the merits of each:

• Civilization IV- "I love this game because it's entirely player driven and endlessly fascinating. Also the design simply refuses to get old, some fifteen years later."
• World of Warcraft- "I don't want to ever make the mistake of typing /played again. You know how in the movies when the father comes home, and he puts on his slippers and drinks a glass of scotch? Well, that's 'WoW' to me. I boot it up every day. Sometimes for a few minutes. Usually more. It's my always-reliable secret shame."
• Heroes of Might and Magic 2- "I went through a tough period a few years ago and the only thing that could take my mind off my trouble was 'Heroes.' The beautiful world, the endless variety, the direct but deep gameplay...I never thought I'd find a turn-based strategy (game) to approach 'Civ,' but Heroes was up to the challenge."
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past- "The realization of the original NES vision, I think this is the game that really fused Nintendo's arcade sensibilities with something deeper. Zelda set the paradigm for pretty much every action/adventure game ever made, and for some reason, it never gets old, and it's always relevant, no matter how many times they go back to the well or re-invent it."
• Beyond Good and Evil- "A masterpiece of place and character. Who wouldn't fall in love with Jade, the main character, the moment you walked into her mini-house/orphanage and saw how much that world needed her? Great characters, great gameplay and a setting that managed to combine whimsy and dystopia in one unforgettable package."

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Civilization IV, WoW, Heroes of Might (etc), Zelda, Good and Evil... where's number 6? Meh. Anyway, good choices (excluding WoW 'cause I just don't like it).

Starcraft-Best rts ever made
Fable-Really like what they tried to do, like 150 total hours playing that game
Super Smash Brother Melee-Quick first game i ever bought on console
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Halo 2
Soul Caliber 2
Age of Empires

That is an awesomely bad headshot.

"Peer into the future, Ken!"

Mstrswrd:
Civilization IV, WoW, Heroes of Might (etc), Zelda, Good and Evil... where's number 6? Meh.

The original article is his top 5 - not sure where the 6 headline came from.

xMacx:

Mstrswrd:
Civilization IV, WoW, Heroes of Might (etc), Zelda, Good and Evil... where's number 6? Meh.

The original article is his top 5 - not sure where the 6 headline came from.

Ah, okay. Thanks for clarifying. Anyway, My top 3, cause I can't think of any more because I'm tired, would be:
1) Zelda series (can't chose just one);
2) Devil May Cry series, for stylish combat;
3) Castlevania Series, because they're just plain fun.

Why do we not have Beyond Good and Evil 2 yet? That was a freaking amazing game. Lots of stealth, fun combat, a hovercraft, a decent plot, taking pictures of animals for some reason . . . it had everything.

Am I the only one who finds it funny that the creator of Bioshock, which is considered by quite a few people to be brilliant as far as plot and atmosphere go, enjoys WoW, a game almost everyone on this website hates because of what it did to the Warcraft storyline?

xMacx:
That is an awesomely bad headshot.

"Peer into the future, Ken!"

Evidently the future is slightly blurred, heh.

I agree with his list wholeheartedly, albeit the epitome of mainstream fandom.

thebobmaster:
Am I the only one who finds it funny that the creator of Bioshock, which is considered by quite a few people to be brilliant as far as plot and atmosphere go, enjoys WoW, a game almost everyone on this website hates because of what it did to the Warcraft storyline?

Ken "Make the Plot as Dumb As Possible" Levine has always been a man of contradictions. Every game he's written is about two warring factions while your protagonist gets stuck in the middle. I think he said once that he could relate to that kind of dichotomy. Existing between opposing ideas and setting up shop right in the middle.

Top Six?

1. Diablo II
2. KOTOR
3. Final Fantasy Tactics
4. God of War
5. Rock Band
6. Oblivion + Mods