Top 5s Created 9 years ago2014-06-16 08:23:18 UTC by Archie

Wow, I didn't even know hammer had nudge, or maybe I just forgot, but I can't stand vm messing up and deselecting all but one vertex.

I think your three tier design strategy is great but I want to add something to it. When I follow this method solely I get stumped. So, when I get stumped I start detailing an area before everything is fleshed out. This detailed area becomes a hub of inspiration for the rest. Hope this helps.

Yeah nudge is clutch! It's disabled by default however.
I usually use up all my creativity in one area if i focus on it too soon.
This method works for me so it's really all based on opinion.

I'll script the main set pieces and events from beginning to end with basic architecture. Then I'll look at each area and think what I want it to be. Then start detailing.

Then sometimes I map area by area if i still don't exactly know what I want to do. (Which is mostly the case) But at the same time, I still do basic scripts of what I want to happen, then go back and re-detail and tweak.

The Hunter: I'm definitely going to make a 'TWHL OST favourites' playlist on Youtube with everyone's suggestions.

Finished yet?

Urbanebula: I don't know about five but I can certainly give up my all time top three.

You only gave two, you lying cow!

You only gave two, you lying cow!

So I did... what a cunt I am.

laughs softly.

How 'bout prehaps, to switch it up a bit, Bottom 5 Games?
The games that for whatever reason you really hate! Prehaps you were blatantly misinformed about its content by friends or publicity, or maybe you've seen a terrible community trashing what could have been good! Or maybe it's just plain shite! What puts a game at the bottom is really up to you. I think it should be limited to games you've actually played though, for fairness's sake.

That's a hard list to make with the bottom 5. There's things I hate ABOUT games but meh, here goes.

5: Kingdom Hearts 2
4: Kingdom Hearts 3
3: Final Fantasy X
2: Final Fantasy X2
1: Kingdom Hearts

Those are games, for me, where it is shorter to list some things I like about them than to list the things I hate.

Both FFX and KH had a few good game mechanics, but the story and gameplay overall were just grating on my nerves. Especially KH where the whole game made me feel like I was too old to play it, which is an awful feeling because I actually enjoy some stupid-assed games. FFX was just mind numbingly bad with its voice acting and the FFX felt pushy. I actually felt perturbed when a cutscene of story came in because all I wanted to do was everything else. X2 was... I don't even.

That's a hard one. I'd say that number 1 is definitely Perfect Dark: Zero. It's the only game I've ever played that I didn't finish simply because it was bad.

Number 2 Is TES II: Daggerfall. Arena, while it was very difficult to get into, was actually quite enjoyable once I did. I didn't however find any enjoyment from playing Daggerfall. It was just too buggy, an-HALT! HALT! HALT!

Number 3 Would be Driv3r. The only redeeming features of the game are the car destruction and the video editing modes. I spent many minutes going on rampages, blowing up cars with the grenade launcher and making films of the chaos before going and doing something else because there was nothing else of interest in the game.

Number 4 would be Duke Nukem Forever. If it weren't for the fact that it ran very poorly on my computer, and it was a huge disappointment. In its defence though, I wasn't expecting anything more.

Number 5 Would probably be Call of Duty: Black Ops. Modern Warfare was where I first got into the series (although I have since played the earlier ones), and that was really good. Initially I wasn't fond of World at War, but after a while I began to like it. The multiplayer wasn't great, but I had a few good memories of playing it at friends' houses. The campaign of MW2 was kind of crap, but the multiplayer made up for it. Black Ops was where I began to feel that there wasn't really anything left of worth in the series. It had an interesting concept, but it didn't make good use of it. MW3 and BO2 also left me unimpressed. I haven't even played Ghosts.

WARNING: LONG POST INCOMING
Well my participation for the rest of the thread has been lax, so I'll put some other lists here:
Top 5 Expansion Packs:
This is difficult, as I haven't actually played that many, but I would say
1: Op4
2: The Shivering Isles
3: Fallout 3 (I can't remember which one I liked the most, as it was a long time ago. I'll just list them all here)

Web Series:
1:Vsauce. A YouTube channel where interesting questions are asked, and very interesting answers are given.
2:Sims 3 - Redneck Brothers by Robbaz. A Let's Play series of the Sims 3 by a madman.
3:Periodic Videos. A YouTube channel by the chemistry department of the University of Nottingham. Each video typically talks about a particular chemical or element, and maybe shows an interesting experiment related to said chemical.
4:Inside Adam's Cave by Tested on YouTube. Each video has Adam Savage of Mythbusters doing something in his workshop. Showing a prop or costume off, making something, or just giving a tour.
5:Grand Illusions.
A nice old man showing examples of his massive toy collection. Each video is generally quite short and easy to watch, and as a result it's quite easy to spend an hour or so watching them.
Honourable Mentions:
Scott Manley's KSP Let's Play series, Interstellar Quest.
CHOW, a YouTube channel about cooking tips, that sadly seems to be inactive. Entertaining mostly because they quite often had really stupid tips, and the comments could be funny.

Top 5 Games:
This is a difficult one.
1: Kerbal Space Program. A not too serious space program simulator that still utilises real physics (to an extent - it uses a patched conics system rather than n-body physics, for the sake of simplicity). Contains a solar system of planets that are roughly 1/10th the size that a real life counterpart would be, which is still pretty huge. The game has a Jupiter analogue, Jool, which is roughly the size of the real Earth. You design and build your ships, and pilot them to wherever you want to go. It really has potential as an educational game. It doesn't actually teach you that much by itself, but it's really effective at making you want to learn more to make your space program better.
2:L.A. Noire. An open world sandbox game set in Los Angeles in 1947, where you play as LAPD detective Cole Phelps. Quite slow paced, and with a very long campaign, it's more of a game that you play for the story than the gameplay, although the gameplay isn't bad. There is combat, but the main focus of the game is examining crime scenes for clues and interviewing suspects, and trying to piece together what happened at each. The story is immersive and the setting of postwar L.A. is lovingly crafted, and it is a game that I would recommend.
3:Hitman. I would list the whole series here (apart from Absolution, which I have not played yet). A very slow paced game series (generally) that can nevertheless be played like a standard shooter if you really want to. Doing so, however completely misses the point of the game, as it is primarily about stealth. Sneak in, assassinate the target, sneak out. Nobody should know you were ever there. The series came into it's own on the second game. If you want to play them I would recommend playing Codename 47 first. People who have played the others first generally can't stand the first, which is a shame because it contains my favourite mission of the whole series. They're difficult games, and preplanning and studying the map before the mission can be crucial to getting the best rating.
Note: Hitman: Contracts isn't included in the Steam collection due to licensing issues with a song in the soundtrack. However it can be found relatively inexpensively on eBay.
4:Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I probably spent hundreds of hours playing this on the PS2 when I was younger. It doesn't have the depth or the serious tone of IV, but its a hell of a lot of fun.
5:Bioshock: Infinite. Yet another game where the story and setting are the main reasons for me liking it. The gameplay was lacking, but that's not why I was interested in it. It was really tough deciding between this and Bioshock 1. Both had amazing settings and stories. Bioshock's in-game storytelling was superior. You were presented with a mysterious, ruined city, and only found out about it through listening to audio diaries. Similar to Infinite, but better. Infinite differed in setting in that it showed the city before and during the collapse, rather than just post-collapse. Rather than the player progressively finding out what happened, in this case you find out why it happened. Infinite won out with the main story though. You could learn more about the setting just like in the first game, but it was better at really making you care about the characters, and who actually would win the conflict.
Honourable Mentions:
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. A richly detailed open world fantasy game, Where you could flat out ignore the main story and just play the side quests and still spend a hundred or so hours being engrossed and entertained by the world.
Fallout 3. A richly detailed open world post-apocalyptic sci-fi game, Where you could flat out ignore the main story and just play the side quests and still spend a hundred or so hours being engrossed and entertained by the world.
Thief: The Dark Project/Gold. Another very slow paced, stealth game. One of the best such games that I have ever played. I just need to finish it one of these days.
Half-Life. If I need to explain this, you're on the wrong website.
Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy. One of the most underrated games I've ever played. It would be a fairly generic shooter if it weren't for the psychic powers aspect of the game. Being able to pick up enemies and fling them into a reactor, or sneak up behind them and drain their life energy until their heads explode made this a very entertaining game. It's apparently available for free as an ad-supported game on PC.

Top 5 OSTs (in no particular order):
Black. This game was porn. You came for the action, and the developers knew it. The story was a complete afterthought.
TES IV: Oblivion. As good as it is, I'm sure most of the reason why I like this soundtrack so much is because of the nostalgia.
Hotline: Miami. A synth heavy 1980's inspired soundtrack for a violent, but extremely fun game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Even though the soundtrack is supposedly by Hans Zimmer, most of it, including my favourite track, was actually composed by Lorne Balfe.
Metroid Prime. A great soundtrack for a great game.
Honourable Mention:
Halo.

Top 5 Mapping Techniques:
1: Alt+Right Click texture application. When I found this out, I was shocked that I hadn't seen such a useful technique mentioned before. So I'm mentioning it here (even though it's already been mentioned in this thread). It's just so damn useful.
2: Face splitting in VM. If you have two edges on the same face selected, and you press Ctrl+F, a new edge will be created connecting the two. Very useful for increasing the complexity of shapes, especially combined with the ability to merge vertices.
3: The 'stencils method'. Probably the same thing as Zeeba-G's Templates method. If you want to make a complex shape, and you can in some manner figure out where the vertices are supposed to be to make the correct shape, then making a stencil or template marking out where these vertices are supposed to go makes it much easier to create the shape with VM. Example: sphere.
4: For really advanced geometry, sometimes it might be necessary to figure it out in another program. For this geodesic sphere, I first created the shape in Google SketchUp. I then measured the xyz coords of each point and made a tetrahedron based shape with vertices at these points in Hammer. It took a long time though.
5: Maths. Some people prefer trial and error, but I tend to find this way is quicker and more effective. Basically, if there is something I need to figure out, I calculate it. If you have a barrel rolling across the ground, using the diameter and the speed it is moving you can calculate what it's angular speed should be. If it has a diamater of X, it has a circumference of pi*X. If it's moving at Y units per second, then it will revolve Y/(pi*X) times per second. So the angular speed will be (360*Y)/(pi*X) degrees per second.*
If you have a texture that is 128 units wide, and you have a cylinder that you want to wrap it around seamlessly, then you work out the circumference of the cylinder (150.7964 units for a 48 unit wide cylinder), then divide that by the width of the texture (1.1781) to get the texture scale you will use. In this case it will be 1.18, due to Hammer's 2 decimal place precision.
Since the cylinder is made up of flat faces however, it might be more accurate to use Pythagoras' theorem to calculate the actual circumference from the size of each face. A 12 sided 48x48 cylinder will have an actual circumference of 149.866 units, so the actual texture scale will be 1.1708. The more faces there are on the cylinder, the more accurate the approximation will become. (If the cylinder were 6 sided, the correct texture scale would be 1.1308. For a 24 sided cylinder, it would be 1.1757. Compare with the approximated 1.1781)

*Note, I am extremely tired at the time of writing this. These calculations may be wrong. Usually it's a viable method though.

Bottom five games, eh? I'm not sure I have room for everything here...

5. Alien Rage Unlimited

A clunky, slow, badly-designed, breathtakingly tedious modern shooter that - thanks to forced head-bob and hideously overblown visuals - is genuinely nauseating to play. It's like if a clueless big-budget studio tried to remake Quake 2 in 2013, and somehow made it MORE generic.

4. Rust

I'm not sure what the setting for Rust is supposed to be. I think it's supposed to be some kind of post-nuclear-apocalyptic landscape, which makes sense, because if I was a world leader presiding over this game's player-base then I would have already nuked the lot of them. A dull survival sandbox livened up only by its creative range of ways in which another person can completely fucking ruin your day.

3. Guncraft

"Hey, let's make a ton of money," says one cynical coked-up game developer to the other.
"How do we do that?"
"I dunno. What are the kids into nowadays? Call of Duty? Minecraft?"
"Screw it, let's mash them together and call it Guncraft."

And then they did.

2. Dark

You know how whenever B-grade action games have stealth sections they're always really awful? You know, instant detection from the other side of the room, awkward controls, uninspired linear level design? Well, take all that, make a full-length game out of it, infuse it with the sparkly tween vampire fandom, then hit it over the head with a welding mallet a few times. That's Dark.

1. Day One: Garry's Incident.

You might have heard about this game when the developers attempted to quash criticism of it by issuing a false copyright takedown request against TotalBiscuit's video on it. Astoundingly, that transgression pales in comparison to the sin of actually making the game in the first place. Appalling in every aspect of its construction and buggy beyond belief.

Edit: Fuck it, I gave up on this, can't delete it.. :I

Redneck Brothers is absolutely phenomenal, TJB. Robbaz has been a favourite of mine for a long time now!

Bottom five, eh?

Games:

1. Kingpin: Life of Crime - absolutely awful. Voice acting sucks, gameplay sucks, and even the soundtrack isn't that good (even though I like Cypress Hill.) The only redeeming thing about this game is that the maps look absolutely incredible for a game of this age.

2. Rise of the Triad (2012 Reboot) - extremely underwhelming and boring compared to the original game which is surprising, considering that these guys made another game that I liked.

3. Deus Ex: Invisible War - self explanatory, really.

4. System Shock 2 - I tried really hard to like this game, but I can't stand it. It's clunkier than the first Deus Ex, and Deus Ex was pretty clunky in how it played. The atmosphere wasn't really all that great especially with the loud rave music ruining it from being scary or creepy in any way, shape, or form. The first game is much better in my opinion, but only the CD version that comes with the creepy SHODAN voice that still brings chills down my spine as well as narration from other characters.

5. I really can't think of any other bad game that I've played off the top of my head, so I'll just put Daikatana here for no reason at all.

Top 5 worst games is tough.
If I come across a bad game, I usually put it down and forget about it.
However, there are a few that I remember not liking.

1) C&C Generals - To me, this took such a bad turn off the regular C&C gameplay. The last C&C game I played before I got Generals was Tiberum Sun, which was awesome. It may have been the stark difference between the games - me missing out on some in-between evolutions, or just the fact that I was playing Starcraft and AOEII in-between, but I must have made it through MAYBE 2 missions before I decided the game wasn't for me. It was a good thing I got it for free (won it in a raffle)

2) Every third-party game from the 80 Game Sega Genesis (Except Cannon - which is so bad it's good. But still really bad. But still a lot of fun)

3) Some Chariot racing game for the X-Box that I disliked with a passion

4) Conduit For the Wii. I only played it so much because I payed $40 dollars for it, and it was hyped to be one of the best wii shooters ever. While it was entertaining, and the shooting mechanics were decent, There were a lot of major downfalls. a) You needed a gun attachment for the wiimote for it to be truly comfortable to play (which i didn't have, and didn't want to buy). b) If you pointed the cursor off the screen you just stopped. In order to turn, you had to point the cursor to the edge of the screen. This is fine except if you point too far, you stop turning when the cursor dissappears. Many deaths have I endured while trying to turn too fast and just stopping. You CAN turn with the nunchuck, but you can only do a 180 quick turn with the z button which is truly useless.. which brings me to my next point. c) stupidly linear - the game takes place in the white house, of all places, and you'd think that there would be more exploring in a mansion house with hundreds of rooms. Nope. It's corridor to corridor to large hall to corridor to small arena with 4 doors, 3 of which are locked. Lamesauce. d) there are 'secrets' but if you even get close to them, the walls glow and scream HEY LOOK OVER HERE! Seriously, if you even take your eyes off an enemy for a split second, you'll find one. And most of the secrets are... corridors with a 'top secret' weapon mounted on a pedestal - a weapon you have already picked up from a fallen comrade.
Sigh.
Yeah that game was a great disappointment

I can only really remember games that I have a fondness for.

Bottom Five Games

5. Project IGI
I bought this because PCWorld had a reward points system and when I bought the original Black and White on PC and a new mouse I could also get this for free. It boasted on the map about having the "largest levels ever!" I can't remember the exact measurements but it was pretty huge back in the day. Nothing compared to modern open world games. The downside? The levels were HUGE and... basically empty. Objectives would be confined to a warehouse or factory in the center of a huge featureless desert.

4. Red Alert 3
Some things just aren't meant to be 3D. On top of that they certainly shouldn't totally bollocks up the control system. C&C:Generals killed the franchise for me, RA3 put the nails in the coffin.

3. Jurassic Park: Trespasser
I loved Jurassic Park as a kid. Fuck it, I love Jurassic Park to this day. Even The Lost World rated highly in my books when I was younger (slightly less so these days) but Trespasser was the first time I remember being let down. Looking back on it now, I can tell it was WAY too ambitious for its time. Open world(ish) and a full physics system as well? Fairly standard today, but not back then. Shame it wasn't released at a later date because it could have been incredible.

2. Final Fantasy XIII
Starting: Man, I loved FF7, BUT THIS? THIS IS PS3! This is going to be AMAZING!
One hour in: Uhm... Hello? Can I actually play something here?
Two hours in: Is that a no?
Three hours in: Playing FF7

1. Duke Nukem Forever
Fuck you Gearbox. Fuck you 3D Realms.

Don't know if i can make 5 but here goes

5. Amnesia: A machine for Pigs
Not even remotely scary.

4. Left 4 Dead 2
Not that i hate it, i actually liked to play it, but i don't think there was a need for the same game a year later, an update could have done it.

3. Red Alert 3
I don't agree with urby that it had to be 2D or voxels or whatever they used in ra2. I love RA2 i just hate the horrible lag you get when there are a lot of things on the map What i really wanted was a RA2 3D remake, something like StartCraft to StarCraft2.

2. C&C (The last Tiberium edition)
There are 2 types of strategy games in my mind, the ones that use the StarCraft interface (controls on the bottom) and the C&C interface (controls on the right) should have stuck with it.

1. League of Legends
Don't think that im biased here since i play Dota2, but i believe LoL is a cheap ripoff of dota. I understand what they are aiming for, but the game just feels wrong, some effects look like even i could make with my limited skills. They are improving in the art department, but the game still feels cheap.

Was really hard to think up of this since i really don't play much. Usually i just watch people play SP games on YouTube for the story if i feel that i don't want to play it. Really anything that can be played with a console is usually not worth the time for me.

And to all of you that hate DNF, you really expected too much. Honestly i enjoyed it, yeah its horrible for what the original was, but slapping the triple boob was fun nevertheless

I don't think I expected to much of DNF. I just figured they might retain some of the FUN stuff they showed in the 1998 and 2001 trailers. Sadly, they stripped most of the fun out in favour of modern shooter bullshit.

Seriously... THIS looked sooo awesome. in 2001

Speaking of which, Urby, did you hear that they were going to get Yahtzee to write for the game?

I wonder how they imagined that going...

Games that looked so unappealing that I didn't play them at all (therefore making them the worst games ever, which may be a bit of a harsh title, considering im judging them without ever playing them).

WORST GAMES EVER (in no order, bro).

• Any COD game after COD2. How many times do I get to be an American soldier and kill people? TRICK QUESTION, the answer is: America saves the world!

• Far Cry 3 "hahahah awww yeahh! effn pilots license! I haven't had Sambuca since I was 20 years old!" Suddenly my care factor for the character went to -1000 and I did not want to be them in the game and I never played it due to that obscene opening remark. I came to play Far Cry not Jersey Shore Simulator.

• Colin McRae Rally 1. This game NEVER worked on my Windows 95; I spent my saved up pocket money on that and it NEVER worked despite having a good Voodoo card and making sure the system specs on the base of the cardboard box the game came in matched my system.

• Quantum Redshift. Now actually I did play that game but each level was just double plus unfun. First line in the manual: "You don't go this fast". yeah man.

• GTA 5. If I have to see someone upload another Lets Play GTA 5 on youtube im going to flip my cookies.

• Robocop. Words are meaningless.

it should be limited to games you've actually played though, for fairness's sake.

Somewhat missing the point, dude. Also, seriously missing out on some great games. CoD 4 is fantastic, Far Cry 3 is loads of fun and making the protagonist and his friends total idiots actually pays off really well with the ending. It doesn't impact the gameplay at all, either, and it's a solidly made game.
I never played Colin Mcrae Rally 1, but 2 was one of my absolute favourite games as a kid. Calling it one of the 5 worst games ever because you couldn't run it is dumb.
And GTA 5 is pretty damn good as well.

Yours is the least informed list so far in this thread

How about Top 5 Maps (For hl/hl mod, source/ source mod). Continue with worst games if you like, I just couldn't think of any. Solitaire?...

Excluding your own, I really like somewhere in time, de_dust_thunder, flow_control and myles_room and some of which I've never submitted, just architectural...

I'm a goldsource fan so my opinion is biased.

1. Endless rain (Scientist hunt) By: Hondo
If you haven't played this map by now, you probably should. That is if you can find it.

2. Carbaseus (Half life 1 Dm) By: K7
Form meets, the entire hammer void.

3. Blahhh (Counterstrike 1.6) By: Nipper "Nathaniel Miller"
Drugs? Who needs them? Just play one of Nipper's abstract maps, especially blahhh.

4. Poison Garden (Half life 1 Dm) By: Rimrook
This map could probably go higher on my list. Texture use combined with concept, besides originally having too much poison otherwise flawless!

5. surf_icebob2 (Counterstrike CZ with proper scripts) By: Bob Fincheimer
this map wasn't necessarily pretty, but man was it fun!

(Ah, ninja'd me, I posted my top 5 least fave games.)

V. Final Fantasy 8 - The most boring game in the series, which "sets up" all of these unreliable plot lines with no payoff or solid explanation. And the GF system is the most unexciting and time-wastey systems ever.

IV. Day of Defeat: Source - May have been good back in the day, but now their servers are only populated by those willing to spend the time to learn to play it. The recoil is ridiculous, and I know that's the point, but the one-hit-one-kill rifle that everyone always uses doesn't lead to anything fun.

III. Dino D-Day: - It's like Day of Defeat: Source, but with broken, buggy dinosaurs.

II. Call of Duty: Black Ops II - So I was like, "hey, people like CoD. I wonder why." and I booted up Black Ops II, the latest one at the time. I tried out the singleplayer, and it was the most dull, uninspired trash I've ever had the misfortune to play. Never was there an FPS that I only needed the W key and mouse to play.

I. Deus Ex: The Fall - They said they cared about me. They lied.

I never played it due to that obscene opening remark.

Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever read. FC3 was one of my favourite games of whatever year it came out. Yes, the main character is a douchbag and has a bunch of douchebag friends, but that makes it all the more satisfying when they get caught up in the whirlwind of pirates, kidnapping, drugs, anal rape and countless murders.

You should have at least stuck around for the antagonist. He was a much better character, one you couldn't help but take notice of.

Quite possibly the dumbest thing I have ever read.

Yours is the least informed list so far in this thread

I was hoping you would pick up on satire!

Yes, the main character is a douchbag and has a bunch of douchebag friends... You should have at least stuck around for the antagonis.

Well when I played Far Cry 2, that not only had a cool unique setting but also I got to pick my character and the characters came from all over the world. And yes I saw my friend play the start of the game and I saw the antagonis who quoted Forrest Gump and errything!

Calling it one of the 5 worst games ever because you couldn't run it is dumb.

I know. And it probably is very good! But hey, I spent good money on that game, I need to vent my bitterness somehow!

I was hoping you would pick up on satire!

Nevar!