Every week the hosts of TalkRadar present and answer a new "Question of the Week" - a personal inquiry which unearths some of our deepest, and sometimes most sinister, gaming memories. Everyone is encouraged to answer each week's question, so go ahead, tell us your most glorious, nostalgic, or shameful story!
Interactive cutscenes? Day and night cycles? Collectibles? What tired, overused gameplay idea have you grown to hate over the years?
Below are a few of last week's answers that tickled our collective fancies, but since we can't feature them all here, check outlast week's articleandforum threadfor more...
G0523 wrote…
The games that I've geeked out on the most are the Sonic games...well the decent ones. If you ask anyone what's one thing that I love, it's Sonic. A few of my friends even got together and bought a giant Sonic plush doll almost as tall as me! I even showed off Sonic Unleashed to anyone who was within distance of me to show how fast the Sonic levels are. I have so many Sonic toys, comic books, dolls, and games that sometimes my friends and family worry about me.
Above: A fine group of games
Thephntm wrote…
SSBM. When I unlocked Mr. Game & Watch, I did this stupid dance around the house, yelling "Mr. Game & Watch" over and over again. Then I sat down and played as him and found out he SUCKED BALLS!
Above: Preparing to SUCK BALLS?
SandroTheMaster wrote…
Heroes of Might and Magic V... let's just say this much: I participated on the beta, I endured time and time again the terrible connection crashes just to keep playing that limited part of a game... aaaaaaaand, I made a 200+ page (in Microsoft Word, font 10) story based on the setting of the game in the official forums. It was called Heroes Fables. My enthusiasm even inspired Ubisoft to make a small promotion based on writing small 2 page tale that was called, guess what: Heroes Fables Competition. I participated, but ironically, my country wasn't eligible for the contest, but I participated knowingly of this fact. Then... the game was launched, everybody left the forums and I lost 90% of my readers. I wasn't exactly disappointed with the game, but, as some pointed out in those forums, they could have improved the campaign a lot by ripping off my story (and that's not a statement to my talent... just a statement to their lack, unfortunately).
Above: Sir Ivory Feathers has a compelling backstory. Maybe
BadgerWilson wrote…
Most definitely the Fallout games, specifically Fallout 3. I've played that game for around 250 hours since I got it a couple months ago, which is probably about 4 times as much as I've played any other game. I found a way to relate everything in a conversation to something in Fallout 3 to the degree that MY GIRLFRIEND OF 3 YEARS BROKE UP WITH ME. Example: we were in the theater watchin "Up" and, when they mentioned Paradise Falls I leaned over to her and said "That's the name of the slaver camp in Fallout 3!" She broke up with me when the movie was over, saying she'd finally had enough. I wish I was kidding, I wish that was an exaggeration, but it's not. So, yeah. Good times with that game. I still play it, by the way. Just started up a new game.
Above: Carol will never leave you, and neither will we
Revrock wrote…
Has to be Super Metroid... one of the rare cases of playing for so long that I fell asleep in the chair with controller in hand, only to wake up the next morning to go at it again. Other than that, we used to have some pretty massive Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter "tourney" after parties at my house. Each person with their own favorite character and moves etc. Other than that, I think the last true "geek out" was 9/9/99 with the Dreamcast launch. Never again will we see only us "geeks" lined up to pick up consoles on release day. Too many soccer moms and auction resellers have spoiled the bunch... ahh the 90's and gaming--- I am geeking out again.
Above: Who needs geeks when we have… whatever this is?
PatriotDye wrote…
Well, this is pretty weird but...I was in love with Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater in middle school and every time the game got rescheduled and pushed back i'd take it way too hard. As a big MGS fan i just wanted to play it now, and getting my hands on the demo drove me even more crazy over the game. Sadly enough, one night i had a twisted nightmare about getting it. I dreamed i was running to walmart to get the game. I could see it through the case and everything then Freddy Krueger(yes, the Nightmare on Elm Street guy) threw me out of the was and broke the key off in the key slot, making it locked forever...I told my friends about it, they all thought it was pretty sad that i'd have nightmares about not being able to play a "lame" videogame. But several months later i finally got it and the pain of waiting was totally worth it. ^_^
Above: In lieu of a photoshopped Freddy image, here’s a picture of Snake
Shadsy wrote…
There is a game called The Labyrinth of Time. I own two copies, have spoken to its entire development staff, have framed (and autographed) artwork by its art director, wrote the game's Wikipedia article, researched the stock music company its soundtrack came from and re-recorded it, arranged sheet music from those recordings, recreated areas from the game in Half-Life 2, own a T-shirt I won for winning the game's only ever art contest (possibly be being the sole entrant), and hold a seemingly-permanent $50 store credit with the company now that now holds its rights in the event that they ever make a sequel.
The Labyrinth of Time is a Myst knockoff that came out in 1993. I've wasted my life.
BeefSupreme wrote…
My best nerd moment happened while I was at work, which at the time was Z Gallerie, and I was the person in charge of the art portion of the store. One evening in January of 06' I'm cleaning up the gallery, when a customer asks if we have a certain print in stock. I tell him that we don't have it but I bring out the ordering book for him to take a look at for the print he's interested in. As I'm taking the book out I notice that his jacket have Valve embroidered on it in the specific font that Valve uses for it's company logo. At that moment I'm trying to figure out in a fit of excitement if he just bought the jacket or if he actually works at Valve. I'm a little timid to ask him outright as I don't want my manager, who I had a crush on, hear me nerd out in front of a customer. I ask him if the jacket is for Valve and he replies yes, then I ask is he works for Valve.
As soon as he says yes I descend into nerd town and it now goes from me helping a customer, into a Valve admiration summit. I completely disregard any other customer in the gallery and just talk about Half Life 2, which I finally got to play when the original Xbox port came out in fall of 05', and just gush like a schoolgirl meeting Zach Ephron for 10 minutes about how great the game is, and then for another 10 minutes I go on about the glitch the game had when you played it on the Xbox 360, and then he explains in great detail that the game wasn't ported with the intent to be played on the 360. I want to sit and talk more with him about awesome the game is, but his wife finishes up at the register and is now ready to leave the store. I am such a Valve fanboy, and to be able to talk at some length with a Valve employee who involved with probably my favorite game of all time was unreal.
As soon as he leaves, I stand and stare into space for a few minutes in a euphoric haze. I put away the art book, and go back to cleaning. Just as I turn away from where I was standing my manager is standing right in front of me and just looks at me like I'm the biggest nerd she has ever met. Didn't talk to her for the rest of evening.
To see the rest of the stories, check out our previousQOTW articles, and for more podcast related discussion, introduce yourself in theTalkRadar forums.
New episodes of TalkRadar post every Friday afternoon, and can be found on iTunes or as features here on GamesRadar. We archive every TalkRadar episode in theTalkRadar Compendinarium.
Jun 24, 2009
