PC and Video Games that Changed My Life

We all have different ideas about what makes a game truly great. Here's my list of qualities most great games have in common:

A story: A good plot or storyline helps me really get into the game. Give me a rich, detailed story I can wallow in. Or at least a fun, somewhat plausible story that hooks my interest.

Good characters: I like games where I can talk to people. However, the game's inhabitants need to be unique and interesting. It helps if the character I'm playing has a personality of his own, too. I honestly don't care if my character is male or female. If he's interesting and appealing, that's good enough for me. The Monkey Island games win here: Guybrush Threepwood is one of the most memorable and endearing game characters.

Great dialog: If all the characters in the game have their own unique voices, that's perfect. Bonus points for witty and otherwise amusing comments. Star Control II wins for having the best game dialog.

A detailed world: I love it when the game lets me interact with the world in ways that don't necessarily get me closer to the goal. Ultima VII rules here, because you can do almost anything in this game: You can turn on lights, play with musical instruments, make bread, change diapers, move furniture around, etc. To be honest, I don't think I ever finished Ultima VII... I was way too fascinated with all the other things I could do.

Star Control II is a futuristic roleplaying game where you talk to aliens, blow up space ships, and scrounge for resources so that you can upgrade your ship.

The music was ahead of its time, and the aliens were wonderfully done. In fact, the aliens were the biggest reason I played this game over and over again. Each alien race had its own distinct personality, and the dialog was both colorful and witty. I couldn't get enough of the cowardly mollusk-like Spathis or the weird, New Age alien birds who called themselves the Pkunk.

I wish more games were like Star Control II. I would love to play another game that has such diversity and dialog.

If you're curious and want to experience this game for yourself, there's good news: The makers of the game released the source code to the public. The current development team worked to make it compatible with as many platforms as possible, and you can download it for free.

You can get Ur-Quan Masters at sc2.sourceforge.net.

You know, I'm pretty sure I never won Ultima VII. The thing is, it didn't matter to me. I was so absorbed in the world itself, with all the different characters you could talk to and the things you could do.

I loved how each character had his or her own portrait. Everyone was unique. And I loved how there were side quests scattered all over the place. You could bake bread, collect eggs, gather treasure, audition for a play, make or break romances, and more.

Almost everything in the world was manipulatable. You could pick up anything that wasn't too heavy or nailed down.

You could play a male or a female character. I liked that! Unfortunately, there weren't any portraits to choose from like there were in Ultima VI.

And yes, I do recall that the main story was intriguing too! I'm pretty sure you had to unravel some sinister plot behind a creepy new religion in Britannia called "the Fellowship."

In short, it was a wonderful open-ended game. My idea of the perfect game is probably a cross between Ultima VII and Star Control 2.

The guy you play in Monkey Island series is basically a dork whose one ambition in life is to be a mighty pirate. He even has a dorky name: Guybrush Threepwood. He gets to learn insult sword fighting ("You fight like a cow!"), hunt for buried treasure, and face the evil ghost pirate LeChuck.

The Monkey Island games were inspired by Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Like the Curse of the Black Pearl Pirates movie, these games put a lighthearted twist on pirates and swashbuckling. The humor is more than half the point of playing these games.

I highly recommend the first three Monkey Island games. They're all great. You're not missing a whole lot if you skip the fourth game, though.

This game is set in the desert city of Shapeir, which is about to be destroyed by four elemental creatures of terrifying power--unless of course the prophesied Hero can defeat them. That's you, by the way.

You can name your hero-guy whatever you want, and you can choose whether he'll be a fighter, a thief, or a magic user. Your character will have different strengths and abilities depending on what you choose for him. There are different side quests he can pursue. For example, if he's a magic user, he can try to earn the title of Wizard by passing a series of magical tests.

Although you can direct your hero-guy with a mouse cursor, you have to type in commands to get him to do things like "buy waterskins" or "pick lock." (Try "pick nose" for a funny message.)

This is another game where the world feels real and vibrant, despite the simple graphics. The game itself is challenging, yet immersive. This is another game I've played many times over.

Currently, a game development team called AGD Interactive is working on a remake of Trial by Fire. Their remake of King's Quest II was fantastic, so I'm definitely going to download this when it's ready.

Learn more by visiting AGD Interactive.

Considering how obsessed I was with Sonic the Hedgehog when I was a kid, the Sonic games should probably be first on this list. Sonic was the reason I owned a Sega Genesis. I played the heck out of Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, and Knuckles Chaotix.

Oddly enough, the Sonic games don't have many of the superior game qualities I've listed. They're just fun, colorful arcade scrolling games. I guess there's just something appealing about a super fast blue hedgehog with an attitude. His little two-tailed fox sidekick was cute, too. Not only did I play the games, I watched both Sonic TV shows (SatAM was better) and collected the comic books for a few years. Heck, my first embarrassing excuse for a website was dedicated to Sonic. I still own Sonic and Tails plushies.

The games themselves were fun. They were colorful and challenging, but not so challenging that they frustrated me. I also liked how Sonic and Tails would get bored and start tapping their feet or yawning if you idled for a few minutes.

In my opinion, the latest Sonic games are terrible. I've played a few of them, and I just hate them. I don't think what made the first games so great was translated well in the new games.

These are games that I really enjoyed, though they didn't grab me the way other games did. They were simply fun and memorable in their own way.

• Commander Keen: The eight-year-old genius who dons his brother's football helmet, flies around in a space ship made from old soup cans, and rescues the galaxy from evil aliens!


• Jill of the Jungle: Amazon warrior woman named Jill with blonde hair and a skimpy outfit, who goes around killing monsters with her weird boomerang knife thingy. I was very disappointed when she ended up marrying the wimpy prince she rescued. Jill should've ended up with a guy like Tarzan.


• Sim Ant: Basically a god-game where you help ant colonies flourish, though you do it by controlling just one ant. The goal is to take over the entire yard (and house), and not let those stupid fire ants kill your queens. I discovered you could create impassable barriers with small rocks, so I spent a lot of time imprisoning pill bugs and other ants this way. Sometimes I forgot to feed them. Yes, I could be a sadistic child.