Games, games, good for the heart

For the last few days, I've been digesting The Essential 50, a nearly year-long series of articles on the top fifty most important games ever made- in chronological order. This exhaustive list starts with Spacewar in 1962 and finishes up with Halo in 2001. I definitely had a trip down memory lane with this series. Each article touches on a single game and presents a brief history of the game and its developer. The article also touches on why the game merits inclusion- a good game alone doesn't cut it. Each of the games on this list represent some kind of revolutionary turning point or important step in the evolution, culture, and history of video games. I've played about thirty or forty of the games on the list, most when they came out. Not only did I have a wonderful stroll down memory lane, I also got to look at many of these games in context and through adult eyes. Fascinating.


The rest of me has been dealing with the latest chapter in the amazing Fallout series, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, a PS2 game. Sadly, this one does not live up the standards set in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, or even the design docs for Fallout 3. The original Fallout games had style in spades- those of you who have read the award-winning 1984 Prime can guess the influence it had on me. The first Fallout games rank among the best CRPG games I've ever played. I still have the original CDs and have bought Fallout 2 at least twice. F:BOS just isn't all that. It's basically a run 'n gun with Fallout window dressing.

Rumor Control says that Bethesda now has the license has Fallout 3 under active production. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm also going to check out some of the Fallout 2 mods on one of the fan sites.

For those of you just tuning in: This game I loved, they made a new one. It's exactly like vegan cheese. Sure, it looks like cheese, and maybe it even tastes a little like cheese, but all in all, it's a pale imitation that leaves you wanting a nice sharp cheddar at the very least. I might even say it's like water for chocolate.