We are all familiar with games like Halo, Call of Duty, Forza Motorsport, Uncharted and such. These are the big massive games that the console developers want everyone to know about, and play. Last year was a huge year for games, and inevitably, a lot of people seem to forget about games whose gameplay still stand up there with the most played and mentioned big hitters. These are the games you still find time to play on every day while something like Halo quietly gathers dust. Everyone has one or two examples of this. Mine would be:
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
A few regulars here will probably remember a thread I made a few months ago asking what the best console Street Fighter was. A lot of people pointed me towards this, and it's one of the best gaming purchases I've invested in a while. I pretty much play this everyday - there's something addictive about doing combos with Akuma and mastering the variable -ism ability. I can almost get all perfects on the hardest difficulty mode on Alpha 3, that's how much I've been playing it! Better fighter than Tekken: Dark Resurrection if you're looking for pure gameplay. It has no online play though. (The Xbox one does, but I don't think it's on the BC list unfortunately)
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
A few people will probably dispute that it's not a 'big' name per se, as it was one of the most anticipated PC games in years, with a Duke Nukem Forever-like development schedule. It eventually came out, generated a few hundred-page threads then suddenly died off as the flood of both PC and console shooters appeared on the scene. For all the Halos, Call of Duties, Cryses and Half Lives, I still go back to this one. It's the most open-ended FPS with the most options and self-management. Its atmosphere can't be matched anywhere else, and I still get the shivers everytime I go into the underground, or the Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself. Has a few flaws, such as needing a beefy computer to get dynamic lighting running smoothly - without this you lose 90% of the atmosphere, which is a great shame.
Warhawk
It is a common train of thought that Warhawk is the first great PS3 to come out. I remember playing the Halo 3 beta and hearing a lot that Warhawk beta testers found their equivelant a hell of a lot more fun. I dismissed such claims as preposterous and outlandish. I couldn't be more wrong if I tried - I must've played about 10-15 matches of Halo 3 online overall yet Warhawk stretches its wings every day. Not bad for an online-only game. I sometimes still struggle comprehending the jaggy-free graphics with absolutely no hitch in performance whatsoever. The Battlefield of consoles, and I hope it will remain popular for a long time to come - and I'm sure it will be, if the response to the recent expansion is anything to go by. There's still a lot of PS3 owners who haven't even considered buying Warhawk, and they're insane in my book.
Street Fighter Alpha Anthology
A few regulars here will probably remember a thread I made a few months ago asking what the best console Street Fighter was. A lot of people pointed me towards this, and it's one of the best gaming purchases I've invested in a while. I pretty much play this everyday - there's something addictive about doing combos with Akuma and mastering the variable -ism ability. I can almost get all perfects on the hardest difficulty mode on Alpha 3, that's how much I've been playing it! Better fighter than Tekken: Dark Resurrection if you're looking for pure gameplay. It has no online play though. (The Xbox one does, but I don't think it's on the BC list unfortunately)
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl
A few people will probably dispute that it's not a 'big' name per se, as it was one of the most anticipated PC games in years, with a Duke Nukem Forever-like development schedule. It eventually came out, generated a few hundred-page threads then suddenly died off as the flood of both PC and console shooters appeared on the scene. For all the Halos, Call of Duties, Cryses and Half Lives, I still go back to this one. It's the most open-ended FPS with the most options and self-management. Its atmosphere can't be matched anywhere else, and I still get the shivers everytime I go into the underground, or the Chernobyl nuclear power plant itself. Has a few flaws, such as needing a beefy computer to get dynamic lighting running smoothly - without this you lose 90% of the atmosphere, which is a great shame.
Warhawk
It is a common train of thought that Warhawk is the first great PS3 to come out. I remember playing the Halo 3 beta and hearing a lot that Warhawk beta testers found their equivelant a hell of a lot more fun. I dismissed such claims as preposterous and outlandish. I couldn't be more wrong if I tried - I must've played about 10-15 matches of Halo 3 online overall yet Warhawk stretches its wings every day. Not bad for an online-only game. I sometimes still struggle comprehending the jaggy-free graphics with absolutely no hitch in performance whatsoever. The Battlefield of consoles, and I hope it will remain popular for a long time to come - and I'm sure it will be, if the response to the recent expansion is anything to go by. There's still a lot of PS3 owners who haven't even considered buying Warhawk, and they're insane in my book.
I just have too many games to play at the moment, more than I can ever remember.