So, I oft hear and see peoples opinions on "What your favourite game is" or something similar. I however, don't want to know what your all-time favourite game is. As a matter of fact, I don't care. I want to know the following [which relates to games, of course].

Game that contains your favourite story AND why

What game has your favourite game mechanics AND why

What game has your favourite character(s) AND why

What game has your favourite combat system AND why

I always refuse to accept peoples arguments as 'THE STORY IS SO GOOD, OMG AND THE GUY WHO WANTS TO END ALL LIFE, LIKE WTF?! AWESOME RIGHT?!!?' being valid. I want to see peoples opinions backed up by WHY they think it's so good, and legit reasons [obviously, these reasons are entirely based on opinion. But hell. Back your opinions up.]

I will post my own.

Story:
My favourite story is always hard to pick. For me it is because it incorporates so much more than just the story itself. However, basing this purely on the story, I would have to say one of favourites would have to be something old school, like Legend of Dragoon or Final Fantasy XI. For me, both of these games were at a time when I truly started to understand story in a videogame. I had played the previous ones without really putting much thought into 'Ha. My guys sword is so huge!'. For me, these games had a story that I truly felt revolved more around your group as a whole, rather than a single person. For Final Fantasy XI, everyone in your group wasn't their for Zidane, they had their own reasons. In Legend of Dragoon, it was more or less about finding out the truth.


Favourite Game Mechanic(s):
This one is REALLY difficult for me. I have a hard time remembering small details about games from along time ago, and todays games all have the same general game mechanics mixed in. So for this I am going to go with Alchemy that is in The Witcher. For any game, I have always hated having to gather 'specific' ingredients. I would ALWAYS be missing a single ingredient, or wouldn't know where to find it. But the Witcher made it alot simpler, where each herb, plant or alchemy ingredient consisted of one or more sub ingredients which were used to make potions and the like. This REALLY made me enjoy the game alot more, because I didn't have to go on mundane tasks to find a simple ingredient. I could go collecting for a few minutes, and i'd eventually find something that had what I needed.

Favourite Character(s):
By far, Merrill from Dragon Age 2 is one of my favourite game characters of all time. I had a hard time deciding between picking a new school, or old school character as my favourite, and in hindsight, I never really liked 'alot' of the old school characters to the point of calling them my favourite. Characters like Link, Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Solid Snake, Mario, etc were always mainstream and I never really thought of them outside their game. They were awesome in their ways, but I never thought of them as 'the best'. Until I played Dragon Age 2, I never would if picked a real 'favourite' character. But for me, Merrill is probably one of the most interesting. She in no means is a super unique, never before done character, but her role in the game itself adds such a light heartedness, fun personality to the game. Her little comments while walking around always made me laugh because it was always something so absurdly stupid or random.

Second for sure, is Luigi. Don't ask why. I don't really know myself, but ever since Super Mario Kart for the SNES, I have ALWAYS chosen Luigi as my guy. He is always back seat to Mario, and never gets a real spotlight for himself. Plus, he's awesome.

Favourite Combat System:
As much as I feel kind of cheap for this one. I have to go with Final Fantasy 7 having one of my favourite combat systems of all time. Granted, the idea of magically fusing materia into your body to use magical abilities is [censored] INSANE of an idea, but it worked. Coupled with how well and often Limit Breaks could be used, decreasing in frequency at higher limit levels, and it made for a pretty nicely done system. A few additions asides the -% and +% to health with materia would of helped, but other than that. Turned out pretty awesome.

So let's hear what everyone elses are, shall we?

Story:
Homeworld. You build an ark, Imperials bombard your home, you destroy their empire and go home. A simple revenge/road-trip tale on a galactic scale.


Favourite Game Mechanic(s):
Combat in Sid Meier's Pirates! Whether it be land combat, dueling, dancing or ship to ship engagements, its always fun and always challenging.

Favourite Character(s):
Vamp tramp Jeanette in the dance club in Vampire Masquerade - Bloodlines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNlJ-K4d-0

Favourite Combat System:
Mount and Blade: Warband. Its an elegant solution to melee combat in a multiplayer environment.

Story
Final Fantasy 7, i was young, and it was the first game thats story that really had me on the edge of my seat, also all that reding made my gramar gooder.

Mechanics
probably MGS3, i just thought the whole game played well.

Character
John Marston, i grew to love that bad ass cowboy.

Favorite Combat
i dont know

Favorite Story:
I'd definitely have to give this to Morrowind, hands down. The storyline and immersion in that game are absolutely phenomenal. I truly feel like I am a foreigner lost in an alien world, and the quest to become Nerevarine is really good to me.

Favorite Game Mechanics:
Gonna give this one to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time/ Majora's Mask/Wind Waker. No matter how old these games get it's still fun to play for one reason: the gameplay/mechanics are top notch. Simple yet enjoyable, the menu system plus the items you use are just fun. I also love the targeting system in those games.

Favorite Characters:
Final Fantasy IX hands down. You learn to (or at least I did) truly care about the characters in FFIX. When one went through hardship, or died, you felt concerned. Truly a great game.

Favorite Combat System:
I'd say Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. The grid RTS style was great. It was really fun leading your party in that way to defeat foes in a turn based system. Great game.

Story
Red Dead Redemption, I love westerns very much and this was no exception.

Mechanics
I love Pikmin's camera, boss battles, and gameplay. Pretty much Pikmin 1 or 2.

Characters
I pretty much love all of HL2's characters, especially Alyx, because they all felt real and alive to me. I sometimes talk to Alyx. Me: "Alyx, watch out! Grenade!" Five seconds later, Alyx: "Gordon, watch out! Zombine!" Me: "I just said that!" I love how VALVe designed the characters in the HL2 Saga, but Red Dead Redemption comes at a close second.

Favorite Combat
Jeez, I've played too many fighting/shooting games... Oh well, I guess I'll say Fallout 3.

Game that contains your favourite story:
Witcher 2, a phenomenal story by a real pro group of writers that know how to nail down human characters. I can empathize with the characters because I know I might do some of this stuff in real life if given sufficient reason. Just scared people trying to stay alive. The morality it also good, showcasing that no matter what you decide to do it can always bite you in the ass. It's story has real meaning as it unfolds, and you really do regret/love every action you can take. It paces conflict, and it also adds in scenes where it isn't about combat or the over arching plot, but learning about your loved one or friends by sitting and just talking with them. Overall a stunning and exemplary story for the video game world for probably quite some time. I think they finally surpassed Valve in the characterization of a video game character.

What game has your favourite game mechanic:
Monster Hunter. Amazingly complicated and it keeps a lot of people from getting into the game and series, good we don't want you. Go back to happy sunshine land where all you had to do to kill a dragon is use a quick time sequence. Not here, unless your pro you need traps, bombs, and any other advantage against them. Team up with your friends and fight ludicrous monsters, upgrade and repeat the process over. It's also skill based, as you slowly advance you need less and less stuff to kill dragons until you can do it with the beginners sword, or the sword which is the minimum to kill said dragon. Hell some people can solo the biggest and meanest dragons in their undies and come out without a scratch. Complicated and in depth crafting system and pretty much everything, but almost entirely skill based. Also teaming up with friends to kill stuff is fun.

What game has your favourite character:
Witcher 2 (but that's a given really), but since I mentioned that then Half Life series.

What game has your favourite combat system:
Monster Hunter, I've sunk a lot of time into all of the various games. Though your above average gamer is probably not meant to play this series, really stay away unless you like rage. Okay I mentioned this too, fine the best traditional implementation of combat ever goes to Batman Arkham Asylum for remaining true to Batman and for being damn responsive. That [censored] works, and you have almost nothing to blame but yourself for losing.

Assassin's Creed for all

Story:
Policenauts. Considering the game is pretty much all story with very little gameplay, that's not too surprising.

Favourite Game Mechanic(s):
Fishing mini-games in RPGs. It's a nice chance to relax and take a break from the story/battles.

Favourite Character(s):
http://i.imgur.com/UwC34.jpg... Nah, I'll say Max from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_%26_Max_Hit_the_Road. Love that little guy.

Favourite Combat System:
Phantasy Star IV. It was very complex for its time, and still holds up well to this day.

Story:
Oh this is a tough one. It would have to be a tie between Bioshock and Alan Wake. Though I'm leaning towards Alan Wake right now.

Favorite Game Mechanics:
Huh. I really don't pay attention to controls and all that unless the mechanics are terrible, which they rarely are. So I don't know what to give this to. But recently my friend lent me his account on Minecaft and I've been playing it for a while now. All the controls are responsive, no faults.

Favorite Characters:
Alan Wake, again. It has some of gaming's most humorous, badass characters in the history of gaming. Just to list some right now, there's Barry, Alan's agent and best friend. He is seriously hilarious, and he's the kind of guy who would weep if they saw a ghost or something. Somewhere close to my personality. It's really surprising how he manages to survive the game (okay, well we don't know exactly what happens). Nightgale, a Bright Falls police officer who thinks Alan is insane and needs to be put down. But later, she becomes Alan's assistant through the dangerous and winding journey across the dark woods to the chaotic streets of Bright Falls. She's bad ass, she even tries to kill another officer for trying to shoot Alan. Now that, is serious supreme awesomeness.

Favorite Combat System:
Batman: Arkham Asylum. You can dodge attacks, choke enemies with your feet, and hit people with poles. You can use a batclaw to push your enemy towards you to hit them and throw them across a courtyard. And plus, you're Batman.

Of all the stories I've experienced in a video game, the one told in Planescape: Torment is peerless.



The Persona series nails this one easily with me. I love games with plenty of character interaction, as well as games with deep and rewarding gameplay, so why not have a game that contains both and executes them perfectly? In these games, I feel like I belong in the group, the world feels so real, and the conversations I take part in are so well voice acted and full of believable dialogue (usually). Whenever I'm not enjoying that aspect of the games, I'm enjoying an incredibly complex Persona Fusion system, as well as highly challenging and rewarding combat. Truly, I believe Persona is one of the greatest RPG series ever made.



Aigis from Persona 3, quite easily.



The Devil May Cry series, without a single doubt in my mind. Those games have, IMHO, the most versatile and flexible combat system ever created, being both infinitely complex while being incredibly approachable by newbies to the series. There are no overly complicated button combinations for the moves, none of the fights are unfair, and most of all, it lets the players create their own attack chains. The only "bread and butter" combos for these games are the ones you're supposed to create your own combination attacks with. They're like lego blocks, and it's your job to create, create, and create, slowly becoming your own unique action game badass.

I enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins' story because I could change it. Also I have no taste.

Mount & Blade was awesome. It was the game I'd always wanted: large scale battles, RPG system ( skills, armor, etc. ), open world, castles, etc. Albeit a lack of polish, it is one of my favorite games ever.

I'll refrain from using a game where you create/mold your characters personality ( i.e Oblivion for the former, Mass Effect for the latter ) and go ahead and say Half Life 2 ( plus the episodes ). All the characters seemed pretty grounded. To be honest, I don't focus on characters in games. Pretty much pulled this answer out of my ass...Which is apparently my Steam games list.

This one goes to Mount & Blade ( Warband ) because of the epic battles mixed with swordplay, archery, etc. that feels like I'm actually barbarically murdering scores of soldiers in a battlefield.

Story
The SMT series.... Involves summoning demons, choices between lawful, neutral, chaos....Story usually goes around someone/thing trying to create a new world by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ETxWmgjaE&feature=relatedthe current one and in some cases after the world has been destroyed... Others have you play as a Demon Summoner acting as a detective to defend Tokyo

Characters
Final Fantasy Tactics ending made me wonder wtf happened at some point around the ending. Possibly Chrono Trigger just because I remember it more...Doing right what once went wrong and hoping each leap would be end of lavos while helping your friends.


Game Mechanic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0Cm3N_n6k's Build and Research or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biKhBlCBrXY Research and Develop.

Combat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QsWJkl12GMfor team turn based fighting which also leads to early death many times but atleast it has a good death screen and possibly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYM5r2Mwf4Q for active battle until I forgot how to be good at it 5 years later

to be edited later,...asdasd

No way I could narrow it down to one game each..

Story
-Final Fantasy IX - The series' return to its roots, packed to the brim with memorable characters and locations. War profiteering, friendship, love, self discovery, a man in a purple thong -- Final Fantasy IX had it all. I was one of the most finely crafted stories I've ever seen in a game.

-Kingdom Hearts (series) - It isn't the most well-written, cohesive work of fiction, and I'm fairly certain that the story and characters are juvenile. Even so, the events that take place and how they affect the characters is top notch in my opinion. It's not often that I give a damn about video game characters.

Mechanics
-Time Travel - Chrono Trigger, Radiant Historia

Character(s)
-Jonathan Ingram and Ed Brown - Policenauts. Hideo Kojima's Riggs and Murtough. I'm a svcker for buddy cop movies, and that's essentially what Policenauts is. In space. Ingram takes it easy, but he's serious when the situation calls for it. He's also a pervert, depending on the player.

-Squall Leonhart - Final Fantasy VIII. Not much to say here, just liked the guy.

Combat
-Final Fantasy X Just some good turn-based combat. I liked how the characters were balanced, difficulty wasn't bad, swapping party members during combat was neat.

-Radiant Historia - More turn-based, but with a strategic twist thanks to the 3x3 grid enemies were on. Turn swapping and creating large chains was also cool.

Favourite story: Morrowind certainly has an excellent story with political intrigue and religious persecution. I think it was executed perfectly.

Favourite game mechanic: Hard to say. I really loved the dungeon building in Dungeon Keeper - and the construction and customization of RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Favourite characters: HK-47 for general hilarity. Darth Sion for awesomeness and originality. Ridley for always being badass and a worthy threat, despite having the lamest name in existence.

Favourite combat: I liked the fluid lightsaber mechanics of the Jedi Knight series.

Earthbound for all of them.

Morrowind. The political intrigue along with supporting in game literature made this the most memorable game to me. It was more of an interactive novel to play.



Arx Fatalis. The potion making, spell casting system, puzzles, cooking, key ring, backpacks, traps, and creature AI.



Tough one. Overall it would have to be Gothic I & II. Xardas, Diego, Cord, Lee, Gorn, Milton, Onar ([censored]!), etc. They were all memorable and reminded me of real people.



Never really thought much about this. Probably FO3. As long as the system fits the overall game design, then I'm usually satisfied.

I was going to try and just mention one game for each section but that was unfortunately neigh impossible.

Favorite story

This one goes to Persona 3, the way the events of the game unravel and the character relations throughout the game make up for the most touching story I have ever seen in a game. Just listening to the song "Kimi no Kioku" could give me shivers a few weeks after playing the game.

I tried to think of a game that rivaled the story of this one but I could not.

Favorite game mechanic

Persona 3 again, it is simply brilliant how they handle time and the events within your given time limit, how you can make many different choices with no one being the only right one, how character relations work and how you get to organize and personalize your combat strategy before returning to the field of combat. Not to mention all the other trivial daily life things you can do. And the school system is purely brilliant.

In this column however I′d also like to mention Spider-man 2 (in the movie games series) on the PS2. It has the most fluid and interactive system for swinging around, running and jumping as Spider-man and after I finished the game I even kept returning to it every once in a while just to enjoy the feeling of freedom you get when you move around in this game.

Another mention goes to ōkami?, the celestial brush mechanic is brilliant and unique as far as I know. One of the more fun mechanics of a game I′ve seen in a long time.

Heroes of might and magic III and IV get mentions for a brilliant use of a game map and character development in strength, especially heroes IV in that respect. Also the resources system is quite well done and how spread they can be makes you have to stay on edge to defend yourself as you device your own attacks against your enemies. How a game is going can take a 180° turn depending on a single wrong move at critical moments, or a single right move. I consider heroes of might and magic III and IV to be the top of the strategy game genre even today. (Note, pure strategy is NOT the same as RTS, real time strategy works quite different and can in no way be compared)

Favorite Characters

Deep stories breed deep characters, Persona 3 is the winner here, I can′t choose any one person in the main cast, they all make up for great characters who only enhance the other characters throughout the game through character relations. Even Igor and Elizabeth make up for interesting characters in their own way.

I also quite like the characters of ōkami, the general lightheartedness mixed with the other emotions they display create characters who are hard to forget.

Deekin in NWN, Sheogorath in Oblivion, Moira Brown in Fallout 3 and Jack of Blades in Fable 1 all get mentions for their general personalities, Deekin for his optimism and wackiness, Sheogorath for his nuttiness, Moria Brown for the same reasons as Deekin, and Jack of Blades for how sinister, suggestive and even just for how bad he can generally be. He actually makes it look convincing how much he enjoys being a *beep*.

Favorite Combat

Tekken Tag, it may come off as strange to some that I would choose this game here but the diversity of characters mixed with the ability to pick more than one and swap them out as needed, and the level of balance within the game and how down to earth the combat can be, is simply brilliant. Tekken Tag is truly a game where the skill of a player can shine through and not be thought of as luck, there are some one trick ponies in the game but a skilled player will be able to counter those, and a master of the game can get through a round VS the computer without losing a single bit of health. All at the same time a new player can be smashed by the computer but even a bad player still has some chance against the computer, especially since a lot of the tricks in the game are easy, but then the best ones are hard to do and mixing them up correctly can take a lot of mastering.

I also want to mention God of War here, it′s one of the more fun games to play when you feel like playing a bit of slash′n′hack, it offers you a good diversity of weapons and skills, and in the end you can spend hours smashing through the game without getting bored, a big part of the reason being that some fights are actually challenging.

Blood will tell also gets a mention, the tactics for fighting certain bosses can be quite fun to figure out and the game offers you a very wide range of enemies giving a sense of diversity and uniqueness to many of the fights. The skills you get are rather basic but that just makes it all the more fun, using the same set of skills to take on different challenges.
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I′d like to note that Blood will tell and D&D based games and other games worthy of mention get no chance at the favorite story and characters columns because they have basis outside of games that give them an unfair advantage, for example Blood will tell is based on the manga Dororo to Hyakkimaru, and of course there are tons of D&D books who would warrant me to give games such as Demon Stone credits for characters, simply because of main characters from books who only get like one or two scenes in game but have captured my interest within the books more than most game characters ever would.

Story:
This is damn hard to answer, there are so many good game stories. Day of the Tentacle, Gabriel Knight, Grim Fandango, FF6, Chrono Trigger, Suikoden, Suikoden II, Suikoden V, Planescape: Torment and more.

Favourite Game Mechanic(s):
Sneaking, I love sneaking around in the first two Thief games. It's a thrill to just walk around on the levels, not hurting anyone and yet none of them are aware of me being there. It has to be well done though, there are plenty of examples about poor sneaking mechanics, like the submarine level in XIII just to mention something. I'm really pleased that Oblivion made sneaking fun in TES, and I'm looking forward to sneak around in Skyrim! ^_^

Like wingus I'm also fond of time travels, and I've bought several games because of their time travel premise alone. There has to be a good relationship between the game timelines though, too many games are simplified in that aspect. I mean, having 3 vikings sent to the future isn't particulary interesting, they are just trying to get back home nor does anything they do really change anything in their original timeline. While changing the American flag to a tentacle or letting Robo work on restoring a forest for 400 years are rather epic.

Favourite Character(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHODAN. She made a huge impression on me back when I played System Shock for the first time. Before that the game antagonists were pretty much just the evil last boss. But SHODAN felt more human than anyone else (which is kinda ironic), and was someone who kept talking to you thru the whole game and showed her emotions when you crashed her plans over and over..

Then there are Garret, Guybrush, Annah, Fall-From-Grace and numerous other characters from various JRPGs (especially the Suikoden series).

Favourite Combat System:
Like g-ranger2100, I think the Jedi Knight combat takes the crown. With guns, force powers and a lightsaber, it's a joy to just go on a carnage. I don't know how many times I've replayed the various levels just to kill some more It's also an excellent past time if you only have 10-15 minutes to spare ^_^

Talking about JRPG combat systems, I think I prefer the one in Star Ocean 2. When it comes to beat'em ups I prefer the older games like Super Street Fighter II and even the original Streets of Rage. And for pure FPSes, FEAR takes the cake!

Game that contains your favourite story AND why
- I guess that'd be one of the old Point 'n Click classics like Monkey Island or Grim Fandango, but it'll probably be Planescape: Torment. It's huge, it's complex, but most of all, it's just about one guy trying to find himself.

What game has your favourite game mechanics AND why
- Alpha Centauri had me hooked for a long time with its gameplay. It's fun, every faction has a different way to play. Also, Shogun: Total War was a gem in its time. Huge armies fighting in real-time with you as commander? Oh yeah!

What game has your favourite character(s) AND why
- Guybrush Threepwood! Doesn't need an explanation.

What game has your favourite combat system AND why
- I really enjoyed Ninja Gaiden because of its combat system.

Story: BioShock. It's just flawless.

Game Mechanics: Batman Arkham Asylum. The stealth sections where you pick off Joker's thugs one by one are infinitely entertaining.

Character: Difficult. Probably John Marston or Niko Bellic.

Combat: Again, difficult. I liked the Force Unleashed's really fluid lightsaber battles and force powers, but Assassin's Creed has had some really fun swordfighting.

Story
http://www.unikgamer.com/users/turin-1338.html#story

Mechanics
Possibly Thief: The Dark Project. The way stealth was implemented was so awesome at the time.

Character
Sheogorath. Shouldn't need to explain why. He's awesome.

Favorite Combat
Mount and Blade: Warband without a doubt. The combat in that game is incredible.

Game that contains your favourite story:
Silent Hill 2 and Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (Nocturne). Why? These games treats you as an advlt.

What game has your favourite game mechanics:
Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Why? If you fail, it's your own fault.

What game has your favourite character:
Dante: DMC 1. Why? He's the definition of self confidence.

What game has your favourite combat system:
Real time: Any good FPS. Why? I'm in control.
Turn based: Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (Nocturne). Why? Do yourself a favor and play the world's best game.
Semi real/turn based: Grandia series. Why? Keeps me on my toes.

I'm actually really surprised at alot of these answers. Some of these never even crossed my mind



Zelda never even crossed my mind for this, but it probably should of. It definitely had one of the nicest, smoothest and simplest controls ever. Everything flowed really well didn't it?

And Final Fantasy IX. I definitely loved the character design. The only unfortunate part for me, was the two main characters [Zidane and Garnet] were both... a bit whiny to me. For good reason, obviously. But it took until much later in the game for them to grow on me [especially after Garnet gets her voice back and cuts her hair]

Even taking into account Zidane's actual age (16), he was a very immature character. Constantly ducking responsibility and taking nothing seriously until pretty late in the game. I liked how he was with Vivi from the start though, that sort of big brother role that he'd fill when consoling Vivi about his past.

I thought Garnet was handled the best out of everyone though. A lot of RPGs play the "fish out of water" card with princesses, but none transitioned quite as well Garnet in my humble opinion. From changing her name to the way she talked, I can't think of another game that made it so believable. Her naivety and self-deprecation were tough pills to swallow on occasion though.

Favourite Story:

Easily Planescape: Torment. It drew me in so deeply that I was an emotional wreck by the time I finished it. It made me laugh, cry, curse, afraid, jubilant, intrigued... Were it a book, it would be my favourite. And it turned every single RPG cliche on its head, inside out and dumped them firmly in the North Sea. Genius

Favourite Characters:

Tough one. Planescape Torment was such a great story because of the great characters. Morte, Igneus, Dyaneirra... all so intriguing and well thought out.

The weird misfits that populated Day of the Tentacle are all really memorable, but then SHODAN is the only video game character ever to give me nightmares. And of course Morrowind, if only for the fruitiest of sweetcakes, Crassius Curio. When I played it the first time I couldn't believe he wanted a cold, grumpy Argonian criminal to kiss him. Takes all sorts...

Favourite mechanics:

Two contenders. Lemmings, because it was so brilliantly simple, but so tense. It taunted you to beat it, just through its construction and mechanics.

And Half-Life 2. Gravity gun. 'nuff said

Favourite combat:

Oblivion, with Deadly Reflex installed. I never, ever get bored of making headshots with a bow. Or freezing bandits and kicking them to bits. Or executing the Super-Ninja-Flying-Kung-fu-Matrix-Surprise-Decapitation move on unsuspecting Dremora drones..