Welcome to the new and improved chain of thoughts put into words on the screen for all to observe. This is the relaunch of Septicor.com. I’d put fireworks right here, but I don’t have the budget, so just ooh and ahh right here.
As you can see, I’ve prettied up the place a little bit, nothing too big, just a fresh coat of paint, a cleaning of dust, new flooring, and removal of the rat infestation. Oh, and a complete overhaul of the content management system into WordPress. Not a shot on Drupal or anything, I still like their content management system, but it was more than I needed for my simple blog.
For those not in the know, I’ve been relatively quiet over twitter and my blog is been mostly silent. I’d rather not go into too much detail of what has been transpiring over the last two years or so, but to paraphrase a famous wrestling line, I pretty much lost my smile. To make a long story short, life took precedent over movies, music, and video games. It happens to all of us at one point in our lives. But you can’t just quit doing the things you love. So I’m back and ready to have fun again. Now my writing might be a bit rusty so bear with me. This’ll be like learning how to swim again after being trapped on an alien spacecraft for decades; clumsy at first, but back in full form in no time flat.
As of right now, I am working hard to get an upgrade in my living conditions. Within the next month or so, I’ll have a basement apartment all to myself, where I can set up a new bedroom/office/studio to work on new material for this blog, an updated computer for all new gaming and work related tasks, and a comfortable new gaming area to enjoy. Right now, most of my games and consoles are in boxes, just waiting to come out and celebrate good times. Maybe down the road, I’ll set up for Twitch streaming, or maybe even YouTube videos. My motivations and aspirations are higher than any other time in my life. I love having goals, and wanting to be the best at anything I do.
The one major thing I want to accomplish in my writings is to tackle a lot of the video games I haven’t, and I quote, “had the time to play or complete”. I look at my game collections, I’ve come to a realization that a lot of other gamers my age are experiencing, as they continue further away from their childhood and teenage years. There are a crap tonne of games I have never beaten, like Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Marble Madness, Metroid Prime and Red Dead Redemption. There are also a lot of games I never beaten without some cheat code or stage skip, like Contra, Adventures of Lolo, Bubsy or Little Nemo: The Dream Master. There are a lot of games I haven’t even played yet. And I’m pretty sure my list of games I haven’t played yet is bigger than your list of games you haven’t played yet.
And I want to start reviewing those games that I haven’t played and come highly recommended. So bring out your suggestions and don’t be shy. I’m curious as to the games you suggest. Send a message on the contact section of this site, comment this article, or email me. Among the systems I need to work on is the Sega Genesis, Turbografx 16, X-Box, and Game Boy.
Until I get that well needed and welcome feedback, I’ve done my research, and created my current list of the top ten games I haven’t played, but I have heard is the “Best Game Ever”.
Now to qualify for this list, I must have never played the game ever, or only played a demo or a couple of minutes of it but never got past the first part. And I must have found this game on someone else’s top games of all time lists, top 10, 25 or 100, or I know someone in person or online that has mentioned that it’s among their favourites or within their top ten games.
So let’s not waste any more time, this is the Top 10 ‘best games ever’ I’ve never played.
10. Banjo Kazooie
And an honourable mention to this entry is pretty much any almost all games off of the Nintendo 64. Yeah, I kinda forgot to mention this console in the above list.
I didn’t own a Nintendo 64 until the end of its life cycle. I was a Playstation 1 owner. And even then I only owned 3 N64 games. Super Mario 64, and both Zelda games, Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. And Majora’s Mask was the first game I completed 100% followed by the other two games. I love those games, but by the time I needed to check out other N64 games, that are about the time I got my Playstation 2 and my Gamecube and played the hell out of those systems.
So when it comes to the most popular games on the Nintendo 64, I never owned them, and I didn’t play most of them. And it was only recently picked up Star Fox 64 for the first time, so watch out for that review. Other than that, I have no idea which games are worth checking out.
But yes, games like Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Super Smash Brothers, Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing, I have never owned, and never played. But the title that seems to be the most popular among best of lists that I didn’t play that I really should was Banjo Kazooie.
From what I’ve seen from game play online, it looks like a collect-a-thon platformer game that’s similar to Super Mario 64. And it looks like it has bright graphics, great sound, and fun atmosphere. Sounds like my type of game. I need to find a copy of the game at a reasonable price. Then I need to find out if the sequel is worth it.
9. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The reason I never touched this action RPG role playing juggernaut of a game, that has taken the hearts and minds of many gamers in recent memory, is fairly simple. It’s called pattern recognition. I hated Elder Scrolls – Oblivion. I hated Morrowind. I didn’t mind Daggerfall, but got bored really fast. And I wasn’t a big fan of Fallout 3, or Fallout New Vegas. I’m more of a fan of science fiction than fantasy, and I thought of all the games Bethesda has made, I’d like the desolate post-apocalyptic world of Fallout.
I know Skyrim is pretty much regarded as Bethesda’s magnum opus, and has taken the gaming world by storm. But I’m just not a fan of Bethesda‘s open-world games. I respect the game and the art and the effort put into such a beautiful game. But even games like Grand Theft Auto can only grab my interest for so long before I get bored and want to play something else. It’s just not the game for me.
8. Secret of Mana
This is one of the biggest regrets I have in video gaming. And I need to rectify this very soon.
I love my Super Nintendo. I consider the Super Nintendo my favourite console of all time. I also love the role playing games on the Super Nintendo, like Final Fantasy 2 and 3, and Chrono Trigger.
So if all of that is true, how the hell did I miss this game? Simple; I never owned it, it was always rented out in the video stores, and none of my friends never lent me their copy. And today I discovered that it’s a 2 player game, so i could have played with them, and they didn’t want to. Friends can be jerks sometimes.
The game is usually labelled one of the best RPG games the Super Nintendo had to offer, at least from what I’ve read about it. It apparently has a tremendous story to it, bright colours, wonderful controls, and a fun combat system. And I did my research, and found that the music is absolutely gorgeous. And that’s one of the key reasons I regret never playing it.
I did play Secret of Evermore though. Does that count?
7. Bioshock
No joke, this is a true story. I bought Bioshock for my X-Box 360 when it was on sale for $10. I heard many people rave about how the atmosphere, story and weapons are absolutely fantastic for this first person shooter. I placed it in the system and let whatever needed to be installed. I saw the opening cut scene and was curious; I got out of the crash site, and was actually excited to see what was beyond the elevator. Then my buddy called me up to remind me that I made plans with him to see a movie.
So being the idiot that I was, I shut off the game and went out to see this movie. I can’t remember which one it was, but I remembered it was a movie that sucked.
Flash forward some time within the next few days when I forgot all about the game and went on to other tasks. Two weeks later, my X-box 360 red ringed on me. Yup, Bioshock killed my X-Box 360.
I do have a newer X-Box 360, but I don’t really play it. And now that I am assembling this list, I realized I never really played Bioshock. Not technically at least. I never even saw combat. So I made the executive decision of including this game on this list.
Now, keep in mind, first person shooter games are not exactly a genre that I enjoy. The few exceptions include Half Life 2, Doom 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Portal and Portal 2. War games like Call of Duty and Tom Clancy games and Counterstrike bore me, so it really needs to be an amazing game for me to play.
Funny enough, when I mentioned I never played this 1940’s steampunk game that’s reminiscent of System Shock 2, I expect people screaming at me for not playing a game, seeing how so many people rave over how incredible it is. Instead they ask me kindly to try it out. I mean when you ask me nicely to do a task, with the prefix “Would you kindly”, how can I say no to such politeness and sincerity?
6. Super Mario Sunshine
I’ve heard so many mixed emotions about this game when it came out. Some people I was in college with thought it was okay, and some people I worked with thought it flat out sucked. No one I knew ever gave it a raving review, so I decided to put it in my rear view mirror until later.
Now this Mario classic platformer, which became the precursor of newer Galaxy-based Mario games, is raved over by the general masses. I’ve even heard many people call it their favourite Mario game. With such an accolade, I don’t think I can ignore it further. This game needs to be played and soon. It’s pretty much the only revered Mario game I haven’t played, ever.
The biggest complaint I remember people talking about was the water gun weapon being really stupid in a Mario game. And at the time, it did feel silly that Mario had a gun weapon. It’s sounded more gimicky than anything. Other complaints involve the story, the camera, and the fact that there’s dialog in a Mario game. Silly things, I understand. But I knew people growing up that had such vitriol towards this game. Now I know that hearsay is not a good enough reason not to try something, but during that time of college and work, I had to pick and choose my games carefully.
Maybe, when my bedroom is fully constructed and Twitch ready, maybe I should play it for the first time with everyone. Of course it might be boring for some, as it looks like one of the more popular games to stream online. Plans are being made and ideas are being formed, so don’t go too far.
5. Shenmue
Here’s a game that has so much cult following, and heavily regarded as an underrated gem, and has as much demand for a third installment as the Half Life series. Or at least, that’s what I see consistently on Twitter.
The game is an open world adventure game that pretty much popularized the Quick Time Events, and apparently has an amazing story. Now, keep in mind, that the story is incomplete, mainly from the fact that the first two games were so expensive, that Sega had no chance in hell of recouping their costs, thus abandoning the project.
I do have a Dreamcast. I don’t get much gameplay out of it, but it’s there, ready to go. I just never bothered to look for the game, but it would definitely be interesting to find out why this game has so many fans demanding more.
Now as I mentioned before, open world games don’t always grab my attention for too long, and quick time events are something I find frustrating and annoying. But I did like Heavy Rain, so there’s always a chance I’ll like it.
Now I don’t know if I can complete a game this massive, and apparently the sequel is pretty much the same game just with second part of the story. But I should at least give the game a try; see if I would enjoy it.
4. Grim Fandango
I love point and click adventure games. When I was younger, I obsessed over games like the King’s Quest series, Leisure Suit Larry, the Kyrandia series, and so on. More recently, I finally played and beat Monkey Island when it released the HD remake. Point and click adventure games are simple, relaxing, and tells a fun and interesting story. And honestly, I still wonder how in the heck I never knew about Grim Fandango for so long.
Honestly, I don’t know. It’s viewed today as a massively underrated game, and has a huge cult following. And a dark comedy noir story made my LucasArts, the same people that made Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle, I should have been all over it.
But I can’t be too much at fault for this one. The game is considered a commercial flop back in the late 90’s. So much so, that this game didn’t get any attention from not only the stores, but my friends as well. And by the time I heard the game exists, my computers were too powerful to run any older games. And with LucasArts now sold to Disney, and it not being available on Steam or GOG, it looked grim that I would ever find a copy or try the game.
But wait, they are re-releasing the game very soon, so now I can get my chance for redemption. Joy!
3. Mass Effect 2
I tried. Oh how I tried to like the first Mass Effect. I really wanted to. It looked like fun, and so many people love the Mass Effect series and worship the trilogy as a wonderful RPG.
But I hated the first game. I hated the overworld. I hated the elevators, I hated the characters, and I wasn’t a particular fan of the combat. Even the guy character I created and played wasn’t someone I was particularly getting invested into, which is weird because you get to choose the look and dialog choices he can have.
Plus I was in a situation where the stage I was on was unbeatable. I remember being in a bar, and an ambush, or something. And I constantly got shot and killed, and never found a way to escape or beat the bad guys. I got so pissed, that I turned off the game and never looked back.
But so many people love the series, particularly the second game, and it seems to be the crux of the entire series. And I’ve been told so many times to just suck it up and power through the first one to play the second game.
And of course, with the controversy of the ending of the third one, I am not really in a rush to play and beat this 80,000 hour epic or however long the game is.
Maybe I should come back to it with a clearer head. Maybe I should make a female Sheppard instead. Maybe I should try the rebellious path. Wait, or was it the good guy path I didn’t try. Oh who knows, I can’t remember.
2. Pokemon Red and Blue
Or for that matter, anything with a Pokemon name slapped on it.
This is mostly a case of a bad prediction. See, this game came out when I was just entering College. During that time, I had to deal with Tamagotchi toys, and Hypercolour T-shirts, and Pogs, and all sorts of idiotic fad toys and gimmicks. And by that time, I assumed that the most popular items of the time were going to be faded away soon, and we as consumers were left in the dust and these toys were gone faster than you can say Pet Rock.
And I thought Pokemon was going to be a fad that would only last a couple of years at most.
As you can tell, I was wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong.
And it didn’t help that every time I saw Pikachu, I wanted to punt him like a football with steel toed boots. With spikes on the boots.
Now that it’s on its bagilionth incarnation on the 3DS, even if I knew where to start, I have no idea how the game works, how the breeding works, what element works with what, or what creatures are best to capture. Meanwhile so many people out there can beat the game blindfolded, and even start a mass Twitch channel for everyone to beat the game together by typing in the input as a group.
So maybe someday I’ll break my ignorance and try them, if I even knew where to start. Maybe it would be hilarious if I tried this Nuzlocke challenge as my first attempt at playing the game. I wonder if that’s been done already. Would that be entertaining?
1. Metal Gear Solid
Okay, here’s the deal. When I got my Playstation 1, it came with a demo disk of all sorts of games. But the big one on there was a snow level in Metal Gear Solid. So I tried it. And I sucked at it.
I’m not kidding. No matter where I moved, I got killed. No matter how many times I got caught, I got killed. No matter how many times I hid, I got killed.
It got so annoying and frustrating, that I took out the demo disk and placed it in such a grand hidden place, that to this day, I have no freaking clue where the hell it is. Maybe it’s with the rest of my Playstation games that got stolen from my house years ago. I’m still bitter over that. I had a black label Final Fantasy 7 for crying out loud.
I should point out that I flat out suck at stealth games, like this and Thief. So these type of games don’t necessarily appeal to me, with the exceptions of Batman: Arkham City and Assassin’s Creed series.
Now I see that this is a game is kneeled before more than the pope and Zod put together and creator Hideo Kojima is the most popular human deity outside of Justin Beiber and Joss Whedon. And from what I hear, it’s mainly the story that gives the Metal Gear Solid series its high praise.
I don’t know. Maybe I’ll try again. I heard there are HD remakes. I also heard there the original is better. I’m not sure. A friend of mine sold me his copy of Metal Gear Solid 4, and all I can recall is a boring story with random elements of gameplay. So it’s not on my mandatory list. We’ll see.
So, what are the games you never played that everyone says you should? Go on, admit them. This is not a place of judgment. It’s a place to repentance. Confess your sins here.
Now if I had end credits here, I’d take that One Direction song, “Best song ever” and replace the lyrics to “Best game ever”. Then do something silly with the do-dee-do-do part, like humming the theme to Super Mario Brothers or something. So just use your imagination for this part.
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