In this thread I'd like people to explain some of their favourite gaming masterpiece moments and explain why.

I have just come off the Xbox forums where I have been told that the 1000 Years of Dreams sections in Lost Odyssye were a waste of time. Shock horror I hear you cry!
For anyone who hasn't played it I'd like to explain why it helps make LO one of the best if not the best JRPG on our current generation of consoles.

You play an immortal character who has had his memory wipe for some parts in LO, and with certain actions in the game you unlock forgotton memories. Instead of flassy cutscenes or boring sections with a ton of dialouge boxes you are asked to read anywhere between fifteen to fifty pages of superbly written text, matching that of some great books I have read. Behind that is simple backdrops, sometimes not even a picture, just brilliant artisty. This coupled with class music is why LO is a true modern masterpiece.

I reccommend this to anybody who loves JRPG's or for people who want to try something different.

i played that game last year and really enjoyed it, was the first decent JRPG i'd played since Final Fantasy 12 (which was an utter pile).

i thought the story of the main game and the music used throughout were both top drawer. the gameplay was spot on as well - sticking to the tried and tested turn-based battle system with a couple of tweaks, much better than some of the other overly complicated battle systems in some games today.

the dream sections do set it apart from other games of the genre - thought it was a good way to add depth to the main character (kaim) but i can see why some people might not appreciate them. they dont really add anything to the main story and you can play thru the whole game without reading them and not be any worse off. however, if ur the type of person who likes to explore the past of the characters ur playing the dreams are a good way of doing it.

i think they were written as a side project to tie in with the game, the developers got a proper writer in to come up with a load of short stories about kaim's many experiences he'd had in his 1000 year life and incorporated them into the game as memories to be triggered when he sees something familiar when roaming around the game. you can actually get the book with all the stories in i think.

i personally thought it was a good feature but some of the stories were too long and some i just didnt enjoy. the good thing about them is that you can skip them if you want and read them from the menu screen whenever's more convenient to you, cos sometimes i just wanted to get to the next section of the game instead of reading stories for 5-10mins.

all in all though i'd recommend it - should keep people busy til FF13 comes out, which i pray is better than FF12

Each to his own I guess! I loved FF12 which production values and dynamism of the whole adventure were second to none.

Lost Odyssey was good but having to hit the ring during every attack was terribly repetitive and boring. Because of this I decided to stop playing very quickly. The story did seem OK though and the characters had some good lines written for them making them appear like grown ups, which doesn't happen very often in JRPGs.

Last utterly immersive game was original Fallout 3. This game had proven to me that there are still some games out there which can hook me until the early Sunday morning hours.

i would have to say fallout 3 also because i as a gamer feel i can shape the story line rather than with most games where you just have a set story line to follow and the freedom and the environments give you a feeling of being in the game.

i'm just playing Far Cry 2 at the moment. yes, old news i know! i bought it at release a year ago but only had time for a quick look then.

it's set in an African state under civil war with a large free-roam map (19 square miles) and varied terrain with grassland, jungle, desert and shanty-towns; it all looks gorgeous too, especially the foliage effects. for the extreme gardeners out there you can even prune a bush with bursts of automatic fire!

it's made more immersive by the first-person perspective and a lot of information is presented to you within the game world - your character holds the map in his hand and the menu for buying weapons/equipment is on a computer screen. also your health and ammo are only displayed when they change - most of the time there's no data on the screen - and conversations occur within the game instead of cut-scenes.

the driving elements are well done, which is just as well as you spend a lot of time driving about. belting downhill on an off-road shortcut to avoid a guarded checkpoint with the map in your lap and swerving to avoid boulders and trees is good fun (as is having a jeep with a mounted MG on the back).

dialogue from NPC's is good, both in firefights and in general, and their AI is convincing - they'll try to outflank you or get in a vehicle to chase you. there's also wildlife with a variety of species so you can enjoy driving over gazelle or throwing Molotovs at zebra. :) (would you believe i'm vegetarian?)

speaking of Molotovs, the (ahem) "fire engine" is really nicely coded so the flamethrower can make short work of dry grass and the fire spreads very realistically. it really is a pyromaniac's delight. :D

i'm getting some good mileage out of the single-player mode as you can pick up missions from a number of different sources. you also have a free rein in how you complete them - you can choose the time of day and direction of approach and whether you use a sniper rifle, silenced pistol, assault rifle, etc, with tactics to suit.

you can pick it up for a tenner now so excellent value for money if you missed it first time around. i'm still enjoying it and haven't even touched the online mode or the comprehensive map editor - or the entire second half of the game world for that matter!

It was actually for all four of the Immortals, and they explained why they have those traits and how they got to where they are now.


I concur with you on FFXII and Fallout, both fantastic games. To my suprise I played over 100 hours on XII trying to find the Legendery Monsters and summons.

Maybe you should try and play LO again, it may be annoying but it is satisfying if you get accurate.

So is FarCry a good game on a whole, Bart? I may pick it up if I see it real cheap next time I am out.

with all the slanting when it came i decided to steer clear from it but might pick it up now since it's so cheap. And yes, I clocked nearly 100hrs on FF12 too. Fantastic game. Can't wait for FF13.

Playing Resident Evil 5 now. Very immersive too and I can see myself replaying it once I finish it and going for all the guns and upgrade achievements.

Lost Odyssey was great! I proper enjoyed the short stories peicing back the immortals memories. Added more depth to the characters. Gutted i got rid of that and never completed it :-(

FC2 is fantastically presented - the graphics are superb and the world is very realistic, you often need to bandage yourself up after being in a fire fight and can see your character digging bullets from his leg with his knife etc - the gameplay itself wasnt so convincing imo though, it got very repetitive and very boring very quickly. I also found the driving aspect of the game pretty boring and unfortunately the map is huge and driving is a major part of the game.

it's only 10 squid on Play. definitely worth a punt at that price.

(it's got a reasonable 85% on metacritic.com)


Dave and JohnB weren't keen. you may recall Dave tried to sell Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3 the month after release for 29.99 each ...or 59.99 for both. :)

i have to mention GTA IV for immersion too - love that big detailed city. just needs more fun things to do (a la Saints Row 2).

this talk of JRPG's reminds me that i still have Persona 4 sitting unplayed on the shelf too... will need to set aside a good few weeks in my diary for that bad boy though.

It's good but for me it couldn't get more than one playthrough, it's a tad boring.

all but 2 of the dreams were about kaim, the other 2 were for seth although you did find out about the other 2 thru cutscenes.


i dunno what it was about ff12 - i really enjoyed the start of it but after a while it started getting a bit boring and i just lost interst in it about mid way (on the way to Arcadia - apparently where it gets better again). i thought it took a lot longer to level ur guys up than normal too, and i didnt like the battle system.

i've just been hammering thru gta4 recently and i think its a great game, will be sad to finish it but i've got Fallout g.o.t.y. edition to look forward to (i'm a bit behind on some games lol). no doubt there'll be hundreds of hours spent on that lol

I started playing fallout as my housemate bought it, he pretty much isolated himself away with it and I havent had a chance since. He loves it though.

Probably the most immersive game ive played through is Assassins Creed which I loved but got well repetitive. Sequel out soon though.

GTA IV is always worth a mention but I dont think you can beat whichever one it was that was set in the 80's. Soundtrack, setting were all awesome.

Also long time ago I played Knights of the old republic 1 & 2 and I think theres a newer version coming out called rise of the Sith or something.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Oblivion yet.

vice city - was a good one that like. KOTOR was also pretty good too although i thought the story in the 2nd one was a bit naff lol

haha, i should of, i've spend hundreds of hours on that thing - used to spend days at a time just wondering around the place exploring and fightting stuff. quality game

Yeah me too. Matter of fact i started playing it again the other day on a old save file. Still loads of things to do!

am done with it - i was on and off it for over a year. got a couple of sidequests left but i'll leave them. got all the achievements on it anyway. i imagine i'll still be playing fallout next year too lol

I also just completed Mass effect. Found it lurking at the back of my games and blew the dust off. Dont know why im mentioning it, it was interesting but in comparison to all others mentioned....................guff.

A cheap version of KOTOR 1