This thread has convinced me to play Outer Wilds.
My picks are:
- Game: Portal 2.
- Book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
- TV show: Bojack Horseman.
- Movie: The Shawshank Redemption.
Game, Outer Wilds
Movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once
Game:
GoldenEye 007, but I want it to be in 1997 playing on the 27" CRT TV in the basement with my brother. Technically, it was my N64, so I always got to use the gold controller that it came with. We sat on the carpet within feet of the giant wooden TV cabinet, because the cords weren’t very long. My dad was a carpenter and only recently refinished the basement with tongue and groove cedar. I still remember the smell of the wood and the sound of the furnace clicking on down there. He even cut a crescent moon into the bathroom door as if it were an outhouse.
We liked to play Golden Gun in the temple. We even made up our own games within the game, like hide and seek. Back then he was my best friend. He made some life choices that were different from mine. We were never as close as when we played that game. We’re not in a bad spot or anything, but those days now just memories.
If I were your brother I would love to read this comment
- Game: Return of the Obra Dinn
- Book: House of Leaves
- TV: Twin Peaks
- Movie: The Matrix
Oooo Obra Dinn is a good answer
Outer Wilds and Piranesi.
We got a winner here
Game: Super Mario Galaxy
Book: The Rama series, Arthur C Clarke
TV: The West Wing
Movie: The 5th ElementIt makes me happy to see Rama mentioned here! I read the first book in the series when I was 8 or 9, and it’s what really hooked me on science fiction. Like, I had to read it with a dictionary open because some of the language was way too technical for me, but I was absolutely enthralled.
Other people who’ve read it and who I’ve talked with seem to be split over whether the first book is better than the sequels, or the other way around. I prefer the sequels, my wife prefers the original. Do you have a preference?
As a child, I greatly preferred the original. A lot of the emotional subtext from the sequels went over my head (since I was raised in a very emotionally repressed environment), but I could totally grok the cold, somewhat impersonal nature of the first book. It was easier to imagine myself in this huge alien structure when I could understand the characters. Nowadays I think I’d probably prefer the sequels since I derive a lot of enjoyment from interpersonal drama and conflict. I’ll admit that it’s been ages since I’ve read them, so I can’t say for sure.
Oh wow, I actually haven’t read the Rama books (been meaning to!), but I vividly remember the flawed-but-wonderous PC adventure game. Have you played it by chance?
Haha, grokking abstract space-math associations maybe wasn’t my strength when I was like…7 or something (prolly still isn’t LOL). But I sure did enjoy crudely drawing the biots and aliens. :D
The soundtrack is still one of my favorites from any game, ever.
This humorous review is fun to watch, but there’s really good gameplay and stuff without commentary too. :)
I played the game back when it originally came out. Like any media based on a book, it was slightly frustrating for a while that the graphics didn’t match the visuals I had imagined whole reading the book. I still have the discs somewhere, might see if I can get it running somehow. I suspect I’ll find the game mechanics to be clunky but today’s standards.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been a movie made yet.
Does Sonic Adventure count? I literally started over on that game recently.
With you on this one! The Sonic Adventure games are what come to mind when I think of 3D Sonic. The gameplay of the boost games doesn’t appeal to me nearly as much as the physics based movement of the Adventure games!
Here are the baby Chaos that I’m raising in Station Square in Adventure mode.
Still can’t upload them to a VMU though.
Ahhh the Chao! I spent so many hours in the Chao gardens, so relaxing and fun! What types are you gonna make em?
I don’t really know.
Game: To the moon
Book: The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks
TV: Star Wars Rebels
Movie: Alien
Alien replays nicely if you haven’t seen it in awhile and really focus on the experience.
Yeah but the anticipation of “when is the alien going to pop out” is only there on the first watch. I’ve watched it a bunch so can never recover that one.
The culture novels, such a good pick!
Game: Life is strange Book: Hyperion TV Show: Stargate SG1 Movie:
All of them? … PrimerFinal Fantasy: The Spirits Within (if you know, you know)Primer gets better everytime though…
Metal Gear Solid 3.
I played it overnight, I was alone, and it thunderstormed that night around the time I reached The Sorrow. I couldnt stop. It was so good and I was into it. Nothing else has been more memorable.
- Star Trek
- Ultima Underworld
- Myst
- Fallout
- Jurassic Park (book)
Oh man, Ultima Underworld was mind-blowing in its time.
The sequel was pretty good too. They’re both on GOG, btw, And have aged pretty well. The graphics aren’t so good, but the story and gameplay are still pretty great. I still replay them (and the Myst games) from time to time.
Oh, I played them both. I didn’t really care for II’s splitting the game into 8 “worlds”, I preferred the original’s single huge dungeon, but I did enjoy it.
It did get annoying having to run back and forth through all of the worlds, but some were very cool, like the one with the fighting arenas. And the tomb with all the levels. And the story was awesome.
Game is such an unbelievable slam dunk for me. Outer Wilds.
But if I could forget two, it’d be Outer Wilds twice because it’s an incredible story
Game: Day of the Tentacle
Book: Cryptonomicon
TV: BoJack horseman
Movie: The Matrix or The PrestigeHonorable mention: Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
Game: Quest for Glory I: So you want to be a Hero
Book: Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett
TV Show: Babylon 5
Movie: SpaceballsAll fairly old, but still some of all time favorites.
Game: Baldur’s Gate
Book: Dune
TV: Fraggle Rock
Movie: Fight Club
Kinda experienced Portal 2 again for the first time when I played through it in VR. Such an amazing game!
Huh, wait. You can play it in VR? How?
(It was my wish 3 years ago)
There’s also a VR mod for HL2. Makes it a better VR game than Alyx IMO.
This sounds awesome. I wish I could understand what I was reading and put it on the VR my stepson gave me.
Well, depending on what VR setup you have I can either help you set it up or it might be impossible.
Portal 2 in VR runs on a PC (a pretty good gaming PC) connected to the headset either through a cable or wirelessly. If that’s the setup you’re using, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out.
If you have an Oculus/Meta Quest and only play standalone (that is, no PC is involved, everything runs on the headset), then I’m afraid that’s not good enough for Portal 2 or Half-Life 2, though there is a VR port of the original Half-Life. All you’d need for that is any PC (even potato quality) and a USB cable.
Ah, it is Meta Quest 3. I haven’t used it much. I got to play a couple levels of Portal 2 a very long time ago. It was one of the very few video games I actually enjoyed. I don’t know anything about Half-Life. I’ll ask him if he knows about it first.
Ah, ok. Playing the original Half-Life in VR is great for the nostalgia value, though probably not that great if you’re not familiar with the game itself. There’s a bunch of great VR ports of old games for the standalone Quest by developers calling themselves “Team Beef”. Doom 1, 2 and 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 1, 2, 3 AND 4, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy… the original Tomb Raider is coming soon too.
The real draw is to see those familiar game worlds from a new perspective.
