I hit a bad period in the early 2000's. Divorce, drug abuse relapse and losing my home. Went on for 8-10 years. When I finally pulled out of it had an accident at work that put me on my back for about 8 month's. Had no resources to draw upon and was going little bit crazy. Friend who I hadn't seen in a while tracked me down, looked at my situation and showed up two days later with a 360 console and a copy of ES4 Oblivion. For those 8 month's, till I could get up and around again that was all I had. Played Oblivion all day, every day and it saved my sanity. Now, about 12 years later, have my own home again, getting near retirement and have rediscovered my love of gaming in general (which makes retirement look better and better) and, silly as it sounds, all thanks to that copy of Oblivion. Good vid
I’m happy to hear you’re doing better and I have so much respect for you being able to comeback from all that advertisity, I’m not sure I would’ve made it in those circumstances so huge respect to you sir
@@Necreon021 I did and would again but he died the year after helping me. My tag (Big Ego) is a tribute to him. He was a hot air balloonist who named his balloon " the Inflated Ego ". I don't type well; hence Big Ego. Thnx for the thought though. Take care
I always think it's admirable that you were able to become the man you are despite the hardships you faced as a teenager. Thank you for not giving up and for becoming such an articulated man that helps us wander in wisdom through the gamedom.
Respect for how you openly talk about your struggles growing up and for where you have ended up. Just shows if you work hard and persevere, you can make it to where ever you want to go in life. I hope your channel keeps growing, you truly deserve it.
In 1973 (possibly early '74) I played Pong. D&D didn't exist yet. Personal computers were still nearly a decade away. Even Space Invaders was still a half-decade away. It's impossible to express how unique the experience was at the time. Another vaguely comparable experience that comes to mind was in 1993 (?), in the very nascent days if the Internet, and discovering the mayhem that was Doom Deathmatch. Finally, in 2004, I recall massively rearranging my gaming room, meticulously taking measurements, placing my desk in the middle of the room, and installing a projector, so I could play Half-Life 2 life-sized, projected on to a white wall without any visual distractions; the only thing between me and the wall being a mouse and keyboard. It's hard for me to believe this year will mark 50 years of video gaming...crazy.
Hahahaha - I remember playing gold box games and Microprose simulations on my C64 when I was in 4th-5th grade, while my friends were hooked on NES. I thought I was an elder statesman.
I owe so much to RPGs, they made a difference in my childhood, not to mention the fact that it was because of them that I learned English, because I needed to translate the story.
RimWorld changed how I play games forever. It made me approach games as building stories and accepting "mistakes" as natural parts of the story. Afterwards I went back and played Mass Effect and when people died I accepted that into my personal Shepherd's story and It felt so much richer.
man I'm jealous of your strength, It sounds like such a great way to play but I'd never forgive myself for losing a squadmate or a pawn, I just get too attached and savescum... guess I should play RimWolrd on commitment mode more often to remedy that.
@salamalejkum760 i recommend it,I notoriously savescum the hell out of rimworld, but after awhile I realized I don't really have any memorable moments until I actually played without savescumming.
@@Rob7274 yeah, I know what you mean. looking up the best outcome for a quest, or how to get the best ending... I can't help it, even if it ruins my experience somewhat. It's like I have a major fear of missing out.
Agreed. I find that I tend to 'save-scum' all my games previously to have the perfect run. But now that I am in my mid-30s and having 2 kids, I find myself just enjoying games more organically by using more health potions and not quickloading every 20 seconds. And in that process, I found myself referring to guides and wikis less, and just enjoying games in a more 'blind' manner.
It sounds like we had a somewhat similar childhood of challenges growing up as I was kicked out in my teens & homeless, also from a very poor family, although it wouldn't be until I was 25 before I could buy my first gaming system, the C-64 which was my wonderful plunge into gaming then.
For me, it was: Prince of Persia (1980s) which made my mind open to the possibilities of PC gaming ADOM (1990s) - ASCII Roguelike that made me appreciate level design, world building and storytelling Ragnarok Online (2003?) - Joys and pitfalls of online gaming Guild Wars (2006?)- Gaming community and social aspects Bloodborne (2016?)- What a perfect game can feel like. How I can still play 48 hours nonstop if the game appeals to me Notable mentions: Baldur's Gate (~2000) - The beauty of RPGs done right Mass Effect 2 - Perfect character building, storytelling.
Yeah, Oblivion... A wonderful game, but too many oblivion gates - thet's when I've got bored of it. Well, if I see a gate I must close it, extradimensional demons harassing people physically and by being condescending. But every time it's the same - you go around a bleak landsace, then enter a tower, fight a boss, and close yet another gate. And that was really, really boring after a time, so much I've stopped playing it. :)
@@normal6969 I know what you mean. For me, it was interesting the first time at Kvatch, but quickly lost its charm afterwards. Honestly, I learned to ignore them and only went into one when I needed a specific Sigil Stone, and even then I just rushed to the end. You'd be suprised how many obstacles you can skip by having high enough acrobatics!
Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 were pretty great for me. The amount of player made content was unreal for the time. It was rare for an RPG game at the time to be both online and have such good support for the moding community. It really led to some really memorable experiences for me.
Man I got SUPER into NWN1 content creation back in the day, I really wanted to create a set of custom adventures in my own homebrew world but I kept running into issues with the default resources so I wound up mostly just making custom tilesets with a friend of mine. It was the first and kind of the last game I got really deep into modding; it got me hardcore into 3D modeling for a while and I remember endlessly tinkering with the walkmeshes to make them juuust right.
So happy to see the oft overlooked-for-Skyrim-or-Morrowind; Oblivion, getting some love, as it is mine as well, having replayed it 10+ times with different builds and playstyles (100% constant invisibility + waterwalking-run being the most memorable)
It is hard for me to fully appreciate having a (relatively) stable childhood and household as a kid until I hear stories akin to yours and it becomes clear how fortunate I really was. Massive props to you for rebounding from challenging times and rounding into form via making such a great channel and really setting a high bar with great content so consistently. I would say the games that had the biggest impact on my childhood and were the foundation for how I think about games today would be: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Warcraft 3, Morrowind, KOTOR, and Halo: Combat Evolved. I probably sunk more hours into Oblivion when it came out than Morrowind, but Morrowind came out at a perfect time in life where I was young enough to truly let my imagination take over and "lose myself" in the game and the roleplay experience as I just...wandered about the world in a kind of trance. I have never experienced anything like it before or since. But you are right in the sense that the first Elder Scrolls game someone plays tends to be the one that sticks with them the most fondly, partially because they do have a "formula" to them despite the years between releases and partially because people tend to play one for the first time in either their pre-teen years or their early teens, which are formative and impactful times of life in general.
If you’re reading this - thanks for sharing some of your stories and hope your doing better! Love your channel and since discovering your channel, I’ve been watching your videos religiously
-The mass effect trilogy was the first (series of) game that I was slightly depressed after it ended, so engrossed I was in the universe of the game. Witcher 3 did it too. -The true ending of Nier automata made me tear up with an optimistic message on humanity, which is quite a feat for a misanthrope like me. -Xcom 1&2 are some of the only long game where I did several playthrough back-to-back for the gameplay alone, even with a mediocre narrative. -Starcraft, Heroes of might and magic 2, the command and conquer games and baldur's gate 2 are the reason I become a PC gamer as a young adult after I stopped playing video games completely during high school and college.
Sorry to hear that you had to go through some difficult times growing up. I think a lot of people can relate to having games as a means to escape from reality for some time when things are going rough. Games have helped me through some of the harder days in my life too. Thank you for sharing that.
For me the early 80s, it was coinop arcades playing Kung-Fu Master, Rygar, Altered Beast, and UFO Robo Dangar. Then in the mid 80s it was the Atari 2600 playing Space Invaders, Breakout, River Raid, Phoenix, Frogger, and Spider-Man. The my first PC in the late 80s, a 80286 IBM compatible playing Test Drive, Space Quest 2, King's Quest 3 and then Hero's quest and Ultima 6. The rest is history.
Your is a great channel. Thanks for always leading a clear thought. My brain is resting when i listen to you speaking and my heart smiles seeing you doing your thing on 100%.
Play Outer Wilds (not to be confused with Outer Worlds). Trust me, this game will change your perspective on not just games but on life itself. My favourite game of all time. When I am old and my hair has grown grey and my bones reduced to fragile mush, and when I lay on my death bed and draw my final breath, I will remember the good times, I will remember my childhood. I will remember Outer Wilds, and I will hear the travellers greet me into the abyss with their music, and I will smile
Always love hearing about how games impact people in different ways. For me, the first Mass Effect changed my entire outlook on video games and what they could accomplish as an art form. The Ashley/Kaiden choice, while not seen as a big deal today, actually haunted me as a middle school kid for like two days. 😂
Damn, man. I didn't know about your hardships as a teenager. Glad to see you've really gotten to a better place in life. Every time I come back, it seems you have more and more subscribers. Congrats, man.
I'm glad that you mentioned Oblivion. I recall getting the game as a consolation prize following a rather nasty car accident I got caught in back in '08. At that point, I had only played JRPGs like Steambot Chronicles and Persona 3, so I didn't know what to expect from Oblivion aside from the fact that it looked next-gen and featured an open world. Let's just say that like Mortym, Oblivion changed the way I viewed RPGs and games in general. To me, the title felt less like a playground to have fun in and more like a virtual realm where I could role play and have folks react to things that could only arise from the choices I made while shaping my character early on. Long story short, I became a fan of all things Bethesda and RPGs. :)
Most influential is sort of both ways for me. Dark souls and skyrim coming out so close together really set me on a path. Dark souls for everything I wanted from a game and skyrim for everything I didnt want. With xcom coming a year later it really cemented that anything I play needs to be punishing or else I get bored quickly. I know, so edgy, really I just like understanding mechanics and being forced to use them.
The games that impacted me the most are probably Detroit Become Human and Days Gone, since during 2018 and 2019 I was going through a lot just mentally and playing and watching others play these games helped me out a lot.
Since you actually mentioned the Gold Box series, Pools of Radiance (on the C64) was the first RPG I was truly immersed in, hand drawing the maps, reading up on rumors in the manual because the texts were to large for the floppy disk version, the funky code wheel for copy protection, good times. Its a lot easier these days if you play it with Gold Box companion, and the GOG Gold Box games all have the Clue Book along with the game. Would love if you can fit in in your schedule at one point in time. At least the Pools of Radiance, all 4 would probably be a bit much, and theres also the Savage Frontier and Krynn Gold Box games, loved them all as teen :)
It was Warcraft 2 for me, my roommate and I had a serial cable we'd connect our PCs together with and we would sit and play Garden of War (the hardest map in the game, an 8-way free for all) against 6 AI on the hardest difficulty just struggling to survive until we could build up an army and go comp-stomp. Good times. :) It got me into Age of Empires 2 which I played the absolute hell out of too.
Mine were Resident Evil 4, Demon's Souls, Final Fantasy X and the Trails series. Well RE in general was my fav series for the longest time since the PS1, until Demon's Souls completely changed my taste in games. I still love RE, but Souls were my fav genre... Until I tried FFX. That game got me into JRPGs (though curiously Lord of the Rings The Third Age was one of my fav childhood games and its literally FFX but in LOTR). And now, Trails is my fav series.
Shadow of the colossus, the ps2 one. It made me realise that games aren't just fun and games so to speak. It can be so much more, it can in fact be art.
I played four games that made gaming a hobby of mine, and to remain as a hobby: 1.) Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 2.) Final Fantasy X 3.) Pikmin 4.) Super Smash Bros.
Mass effect 2 was the first game I ever played where I was emotionally attached to the companions to the point I cried at the end when I made the wrong call and got some killed… had to save scum and try again and again because I couldn’t leave them :)
Loved the video 👍Most influential for me by far was Warcraft 3 (wow close second) the story was sick and then all the cool custom games you could play was insane.
When I think of the games that have had the most impact on me, I inevitably go back to my youth. I suspect that experiences from that time are generally more impactful than experiences from later in life. I play a lot of modern games, but my list of the most impactful games goes back to a different age, back when Atari was king, and a bit later on, when a PC running MS-DOS could finally run a decent game. Adventure: The player character is a large square pixel, the sword is a simple yellow arrow, and the dragons look like ducks, but the crude presentation and simple premise leave plenty of room for the imagination to run wild. Some of my earliest memories in gaming involve playing this game on the Atari 2600. It showed me that a video game could be more than an arcade shoot-em-up that takes place on a single static screen. Games could offer a world to explore - this is a theme that features heavily in many of my favorite games. I still play it to this day. Millipede: This is a typical early 1980s arcade game, and there are plenty of others that people remember better. I have poor coordination and reflexes, so I was never any good at this sort of game and ended up wasting a lot of quarters in the arcade beating my head against that wall. For some inexplicable reason, I managed to "git gud" at Millipede, but not at any other fast paced arcade game. Though I have never taken this as a sign that I should pursue this sort of game, it showed me that I can "git gud" at a fast action game if I have the desire to do so. To this day, sometimes I boot up my Atari 800 and play it. Also, if I encounter it in the original arcade machine, I'll pop in a quarter and give it a go. I'm a bit rusty, but I can still hold my own - the muscle memory persists. Infocom text adventures - specifically, the Zork and Enchanter series: These games have no graphics, rather concise text, and puzzles and mazes so maddeningly obtuse that they can frustrate even the most seasoned masochist. They also built a bizarre and humorous fantasy world that got only crazier with each subsequent entry in the series. These games demonstrate that a game does not require graphics in order to be good. These days, text adventurers are a hobbyist niche that is not commercially viable, and they have improved considerably, but it is fun to relive the glory days every now and then. Ultima III: This is the first open world CRPG that I ever played. By today's standards, it is primitive, and it is little more than a murderhobo simulator, as all CRPGs were at the time, but back then, it was amazing. Compared to Adventure on the Atari 2600, its world was absolutely massive and was full of hidden secrets waiting to be discovered. I spent plenty of time exploring the world, fighting monsters (and often getting killed - this game isn't easy), and attacking the town of Yew over and over again because it was populated only by squishy clerics and was great for grinding for loot and experience in the early game since the town would reset every time I exited and re-entered. I discovered Ultima I and II soon after and also spent plenty of time wandering through their worlds, mindlessly murdering nearly everything that moved. I thought it a bit odd that the player character, who was supposed to be a great hero, would behave in this way. This gets to the next entry in this list... Ultima IV: Up to this point, every CRPG had been a murderhobo simulator, so when I excitedly put the Ultima IV floppy in the disk drive, I was expecting more of the same. I did what any good Ultima player knew had to be done - kill everything that can be killed, which included attacking towns. Strangely, I wasn't getting anywhere, and the seer in Lord British's castle, who is behind an impassable barrier and therefore can't be attacked, told me that I was being a complete jerk, so I stepped back and decided to pay attention to what was going on. I talked to the NPCs rather than attack them, and I found that the game had a more detailed conversation system than I had ever seen before. It turns out that the game has a karma system involving eight virtues. There isn't even a big bad boss to defeat at the end. The goal of the game is to be good and to reach a level of enlightenment in all eight virtues. You can't even recruit your companions unless you are pursuing this path, as they will find you to be a scumbag if you play the game the way you might have played Ultima III. Further entries in the Ultima series continued with this idea, and in time, other RPGs started to have consequences for bad actions. This changed the way I played RPGs, and very much for the better - it turned them into a far more rewarding experience. These days, Ultima IV is very primitive compared to later entries in the series, and its combat is boring and tedious, so I don't often revisit it. Ultima VII works better in nearly all ways and is my all time favorite of the series, but without Ultima IV to pave the way, Ultima VII and many other great RPGs likely never would have come into existence. Now on to the MS-DOS era... SimCity: As a kid, I loved to play with Legos, so a game that involves building would naturally appeal to me. I hate to imagine how many hours I put into this game and its successors. Sadly, Electronic Arts ultimately destroyed this franchise, as this is what Electronic Arts does, but others have taken up the mantle, and numerous great city builders, colony builders, and factory simulators are now available, with more appearing all the time. These days, it is mostly games in this genre that I play, so it could be argued that SimCity is the most influential game of all for me. Daggerfall: This is the first fully 3-D game that captured my attention, and it was my first Elder Scrolls game; prior to this, I was firmly wedded to the top-down approach of games like Ultima VII. The combat is a bit of a pain in the early game, but there are exploits and bugs that can be used to make things easier. The starter dungeon is a beast, but I like how it teaches the player that sometimes it is wise to run from a fight. I love how massive the world is, even though almost all of it is procedurally generated. (I'm hoping that Starfield takes this to the next level.) It was a lot of fun exploring the complicated RPG systems and figuring out how to exploit them to my advantage. The system is overcomplicated, and I must admit that Skyrim's streamlined simplicity is appealing in some ways, but it is still fun digging into systems that are more complicated than they need to be. I would rate Morrowind as my favorite Elder Scrolls game since it seems more purposefully crafted and generally comes together better, but I'll always have a soft spot for Daggerfall despite its jankiness. I could probably come up with a few relatively recent games, but it is these earlier ones that got me into gaming and held my interest. This comment has become far too long anyway. If not for these games, I likely wouldn't be playing games now. People don't usually pick up gaming in their old age.
My personal top 5 games that changed how I looked at video games: #1. Super Mario 64. My very introduction to 3D gaming. After playing countless 2D titles, how could this not change my perspective drastically? Still in my top 3 favorite games of all time, along with Metroid: Prime & Ocarina of Time, probably because of the transition of my favorite games to 3D. #2. Resident Evil 4. Another transitional leap. Took the static camera, tank controls, item management & horror themes I loved about the first games, changed up the entire formula, & managed to make a game I loved even more. Probably my 4th favorite game of all time. Mercenaries was also excellent! #3. Outer Wilds. A game without any leveling system, no item acquisition, & no skills or abilities. Just a few crucial items, a fully moving world to explore in any order you want, & the only thing you need to beat it is the knowledge that you gather while playing. Best modern game I've ever played! #4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Hands down the best mission design in any game I've experienced. I could go on for ages with this one, but I'll trust people have heard it all already with this one, lol! Final Fantasy VII I credit as the RPG that got me playing RPG's regularly, & FF6 is still my personal favorite, but no RPG quite does what the Witcher did, IMO. #5. Subnautica. I really dislike crafting/survival type games. This game managed to suck me in regardless. Never been more scared playing any game, & took me nearly 100 hours to beat because for the longest time I would quit to menu (even if my last save was an hour ago!) if a reaper ever got too close, lol! The way the game delivered an epic sci-fi story that was so simple but excellent is something no other game has come close to replicating for me. Arguably my #1 GOAT if not factoring in childhood memories & nostalgia, and my favorite of all modern day titles. All games mentioned (not just numbered) are at the top of my "greatest ever" list, but a few other honorable mentions would be: Portal (1&2), Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, Okami & Alundra. I better quit here tho before I ramble on any longer, lol!
The discussion of Diablo 2 reminded me that if you’re ever going back and reviewing action RPGs like that, I’d highly recommend checking out Grim Dawn because it’s incredibly good and a lot of people hold it up as the true successor to Diablo 2’s legacy
You Diablo 2 story is very similar to my experience with Dragon Age: Origins. Playing THOUSANDS of hours, over and over again, in musky basement with no internet and an old HP Pavilion. Gosh. That game was an absolute gem, still is, and definitely got me through a bad time in my life. Then there was Dark Souls. Oh.. what a game. Nice summer day. Bored. Seen it at my friends house, he warned me, I booted up, seen the Character Creation... the rest is history. Never knew a game could teach me that difficult times can be overcome with commitment and vigor. I will always love Dark Souls.
Never played Divinity Original Sin II, but I have a deep love for the other 4 games. For me personally, I would add Deus Ex. It allowed you such a freedom of choice and I can remember countless times that I would think..."surely the game is not going to allow me to do this"....and then it did. It was wonderful! Thief: The Dark Project showed me that there was more than just shooters and point and click games GTA III just blew my mind
I just wanted to say as a fellow CRPG fanatic that your channel is amazing, thank you for the time you put into it, it's hard to find someone as articulate and thorough when it comes to game reviews.
I was born in the early 90s and we didn’t have a pc or the internet. But we had an Xbox so most of my formative games are from the mid 2000s on the Xbox. That means Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fable and Halo that originally shaped my taste in gaming as a teenager. Kotor 2 especially was the one that changed how I saw games, characters and story telling. Later on Dragon Age Origins/2, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect and The Witcher 2 on 360 and then finally Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 which lead me to here.
Honestly, your childhood sounds a lot like mine. Father was a killer. Mother cooked meth. Step father was on the run from the law most of my childhood. In and out of foster care. Homeless. Getting food from church food drives. I didn’t have internet till 2012 when I was grown. What I did have was an old game boy pocket I got from my aunt. Had Pokémon Blue without color obviously as the GB Pocket was black and white. My love for gaming got me through some tough times in my life as well. A lot of people think it’s silly when a 30+ year old talks about video games being an important part of their life. But for folks like us, they really were critical. Much love man. Keep up the wonderful content!
MediEvil because it was my first ever PlayStation game. I played that game to death, and because I didn't have a memory card yet I had to start the game over every time I died. Final Fantasy VII because it was the first RPG I ever played. And also Skyrim, even though Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game. I think I've put more hours into Skyrim than any other game, and with modding on PC it makes my obsession even worse.
Your story about D:OS2 is very relatable. I hadn't played a CRPG since high school (back when that was frankly all I played), due to becoming a console gamer. Divinity was just such an unbelievably good game that I legit questioned why I was playing JRPGs and all that when there were so many good WRPGs / CRPGs to get into. I still have a huge backlog but I remember why these were my favorite type of games in the past and I've been on a long journey to at least play all the best ones of the past decade or so.
Diablo 2 was my first ever online rpg as well. I was probably 10 years old. Dial up internet.. man what a time.. there was nothing like it. So it felt fresh. Pvp was crazy, even insided a guild when they were swapping loads of legendary gear to diff characters , sorry Brett from CCC if you're out there.... like tf how did I even just remember that. Ahh good times man.
The XCOM reboot single handedly got me back into gaming so I'd have to include that as my number one. I also grew up pretty damn poor ans had a pretty rough early childhood and used gaming as an escape, San Andreas comes to mind first and then the PS2 era Madden games and NFL 2K5. Something about the simulation aspect of Madden back then just totally sucked me in and was my equivalent of your Diablo 2. I'd have Franchise modes so far into the future that every single real NFL player had retired lol. I'd also enjoy picking the worst team at the time and trade for players and try to rebuild their franchise. I wouldn't even play the games half the time, I'd just simulate them and focus on the management/sim aspect. Funny thing is I don't really play sports games at all now lol.
Great content creator wish you all the best in life; Games that made impact on my life are : Elder scrolls Oblivion, Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Origin, Divinity Original Sin 2, The Witcher Trilogy, Silent Hill 2 and 4, hoping to see more good game that can leave a good memory to tell to others when trying to create a subject to talk about ..
Baldur's Gate for sure as it set me on the cRPG path. Mass Effect was the first one I got really hooked on lore and devoured not only the games, but all media - books, comics and the animated movie. (I kinda have reverse with Arcane and world of Runeterra currently) Anthem taught me for good (there were less extreme lessons earlier that didn't stick unfortunately) that pre-ordering is bad idea, even from your beloved studio. In case someone didn't notice or simply doesn't know, all three entries on this list are from Bioware. And no, I am not looking forward to next Mass Effect. If it comes, Mortym will judge it for me
Kingdom Hearts hit me at the right time. I was 14 or so and trying to be grown up and was like, "This kiddie stuff is going to be soooo dumb but there's nothing else to rent at the Blockbuster so whatever. Guess I'll get it." Absolutely loved that game and after that I've never been ashamed to admit to liking "cute" stuff. Dawn of War was the first game where I discovered modding which would become something I've held near and dear ever since. I remember early on the mod scene was pretty active and even simple basic design changes like tweaking unit armor values allowed for a different feel. I realized how awesome it was that the developers could never offer all this type of variety, but letting people do it and put their idea and vision allowed one game to split into so many. It really is diversity as it should be, smart people creating their own things, things I nor the devs could ever possibly consider and the unofficial nature allows so much more potential for iteration and ideas that would be too extreme for acceptable for default balance. Modding has become something I'll always go to the mats to advocate for. I'm not a huge fan of WoW anymore, but playing that really helped me learn how to type proficiently which is something I'll always be grateful for. Better learn to type fast when a naga sneaks up on you and is going to whoop you! No pausing allowed!
I can relate a lot to your upbringing. Poor, largely neglected, with a lot of time on my hands and a crappy computer. In my case, the game that changed my life got to be Warcraft 3 - and its modding scene. It was one of the only games I could play and one I enjoyed immensely, later seeking as much custom content and campaigns for it as possible. It got to the point of me translating custom mods for myself and the public, with basically a paper dictionary and Google Translate in hand, because there wasn't much quality campaigns in my native language. I got so carried away with this hobby that I actually taught myself fluent English over the years and was able to eventually enter a university, majoring in translation, and even win some linguistics olympiads, making my first decent money. So, gotta thank Warcraft 3 for this absurd and hefty journey.
Divinity Original Sin 2 was the game for me that helped get through and deal with a dark period in my life. Kind of an odd thought because it really wasn't too long ago. I worked in the florida department of corrections for a number of years and after my house was destroyed by hurricane Michael back in October of 2018, I had to move to a different location and as a consequence transfer to working in a different prison. Working inside of a prison is hard even under the best circumstances, but the new place I had to move to was just an absolute hell scape and I was not in a financial position to just be able to quit the job. It's prison so anyone reading this could probably just use their imagination, basically whatever you've imagined you can just multiply the suck factor by 10 and still probably not come close to what the reality was at the time. DoS2 was my mental escape during all of that and to this day I have played through it maybe a dozen times, purchased it for probably 8 or 9 of my friends so they would play it with me and of course they all fell in love with it too even if they were apprehensive at first. I remember finding your channel and your DoS2 videos were super entertaining and helped me immerse myself even more into the game.
I disagree with your first elderscrolls theory, my first was daggerfall, but oblivion is for sure the one I’ve spent the most time with. I think it hit the sweet spot between the complexity of morrowind and the simplicity of Skyrim.
Wow! You should be so proud of the person you are. People with all the opportunities available to them frequently never become the person you are. BTW your show is great!
BG 1 & 2 is the only game that i uniquely played for the past 20+ years..Recently the game that surprised me (like yours with Witcher 1) was Nevewinter Nights 2. I can't believe i still remember what to do 😄
The first RPG I can remember playing is Death Knights of Krynn, an old SSI game, in the early 90s. That lead me into a bunch of similar games, like Dark Sun and Dungeon Hack, Ravenloft, and Stronghold. I think I had all the gold box CDs eventually, probably still have them in a box somewhere. Have you ever taken a look at the old DOS rpgs?
Aw man I remember those old SSI games. I didn't play Death Knights of Krynn specifically, but I played the absolute hell out of Eye of the Beholder, Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc. In fact I played Curse late at night while on the phone with a friend and we were doing everything in sync like we were playing together, it was the best.
Great video! I'm very happy for you that you get to make a living doing something you enjoy. If I had to pick the games that have made the most impact on me I would have to go with (1) Ultima 3 on the Commodore 64 (my first CRPG), (2) Everquest (only MMO that I ever played seriously, was in a raiding guild, over a YEAR of played time on my main), (3) Baldur's Gate 1&2 (lumping them together, still to this day my favorite CRPGs (3) Combat Mission series (very realistic 3D WW2 combat simulator), (4) Battle Brothers (pretty much the only game I have played for the past year, 558 hours played so far).
The games that impacted me the most as a child were Zork I (heck, all of Infocom's games) and original The Bard's Tale. Finishing up the my Top Five as I grew to adulthood: Ultima V, Civilization II, and The Secret of Monkey Island.
Hey Mort, hearing about your rough childhood at the beginning of this video (and I remember you hinting about it here and there in other videos), I would honestly like to know more about it (both because I adore your work and because I respect people who have successfully overcome adversity in general). If you ever decide to make a more personal video about your 'origin story' (and perhaps elaborate on the role of gaming as a coping mechanism), I'd very much love to hear it! Keep up a good work, it's highly appreciated! 🤘
Thank you for sharing your story with us (in previous videos and here again). Huge respect to you. I always look forward to your videos as I am also a fan of crpgs, and currently am actually replaying DOS 2 in couch coop as well as POE2. Keep doing what you do, you awesome genuine person!
The Witcher has had an enormous impact on me. It was the first video game where I felt, my decision actually mattered and I could not just reload a save to try something different since you would lose so much progress. I have replayed the Witcher, religiously, almost every year since 2008 (got it in 2007 but my pc was just incapable of running it at anything other than slideshow settings). It is still the most atmospheric of all three games and will forever have a special place in my heart. Even now, I could guide you from memory where to go and do nearly everything in the game. I'm also greatly looking forward to the remake to see if they can capture the rather bleak atmosphere.
You are my favorite game reviewer and I greatly admire your work. Also, side note: I think sales (especially with commissions) is a great way out of poverty. It’s an underrated profession that can change a persons life. Curious to know if your experience in sales informed or influenced your rise to being a full time UA-camr.
It made the business backend very second nature. Most of the administrative aspects and communicating with various other companies are things I learned from my previous work experience.
nice video,it really felt like a loveletter to a past era and how games helped us to go through rough times,im glad you could overpass every burden you had and choose to have a youtube channel like this that is really interesting to listen
@randalthor6872 cheers mate. Maybe we are at the same age, or same generation of games in each country. Because I was always behind on these games in terms of release.
When I was a kid the games that got me through most of the hard moments at home were Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Maniac mansion and day of the tentacle. I did not have a computer of my own, so I played at a friends house. Home was not a safe place so I spent many hours playing this games and forgetting the issues at home. Awesome video, thank you so much. Hugs
Your videos have really become a nice part of my mornings. Any reason why you upload early in the day? I like listening to them at the start of my work day.
UA-cam will tell you, and it is my own experience, that the specific time doesnt really matter just that's its consistent. I do it in the morning so I can see how it does throughout the my own day is really the only reason
I love Oblivion. It really blew me away at the time and was my first elder scrolls. Of course it definitely hasn't aged well, but it still changed the way I look at games too.
Oblivion was so special for me. Was the first real open world I got massively in to. Me and a buddy who also loved it, would show up an hour early to school, just so we could talk about what we've done in the game. Then after school it was straight to skype and playing the game simultaneously. Good memories.
As an older gamer, I have my own list of memorable games. Ultima VII: The Black Gate was the first truly immersive CRPG, with graphics that actually looked like something better than pixel art and an engaging story. Fallout 2 was probably my first game with adult themes and circumstances, and then TES: Morrowind was an amazing open-world experience and my first Elder Scrolls game. The very first Civilization kindled a love of strategy games that has waned slightly in favor of CRPGs in the years since, but I still think fondly of it. Finally, the first X-COM: UFO Defense was one of my generation's "Dark Souls Hard" games, where you lost over and over again and got really frustrated, but kept going back to try again regardless. Baldur's Gate, which you have on your list, probably stands out as the first time I felt like I was really playing an actual game of D&D on a computer, which was cool as someone who had a copy of the '79 AD&D Players Handbook with the demon statue on the cover. I still think of the sound clip, "Heya, it's me...Imoen!" when I think of that game.
When I was young, I played the Diablo 2 on Computer Rental Shop.. I always annoyed because when I came back to play again my character always deleted by some other player, that's the time I learned about the floppy disk, after playing Diablo 2 I backup my save file to floppy disk..
Daggerfall: never seen anything like it before Baldurs Gate: First time I ever saw D&D done on a computer Kingdom Come Deliverance: Awesome story in a real world setting. So many enjoyable, non violent quest Red Baron 3D: Full WWI war flight sim. Great experience Rise of Flight: Bringing back the RB3D experience with up to date tech.
Ultima 7 sparked my love for CRPGs and I had to wait until Baldur's Gate to find a similar game. I didn't fully understand the games as a kid/teenager, but I still enjoyed them. And after that, I had to wait another long time until Pillars of Eternity. I'm glad we're seeing more crpgs since then, from Larian and Owlcat for example. My favorite genre.
I can sympathize with the place that Diablo II holds in your memory. The Japanese game series Super Robot Wars holds a similar place for me. I played those games through emulation and fan localization, in the late 2000's. Those were not a good time in my life. And I did not have the money to afford modern gaming hardware. So playing older SRW games on my potato PC, gave me some bright moments in a dark time.
There was a point in my life where all I ever played was Neverwinter Nights, TES Oblivion & Pokemon Emerald on cycle over & over & over again. I had other games, such as the older Pokemon titles & a few PS1 games like Spyro, Gex & Crash. But hose three where my life for years. & I'm sorry for what you've been through man. It says a lot that even with all that you came out as a good person as far as I can tell. Games have been my safe place as well due to anxiety & depression. Doing a lot better these days thankfully.
Divinity original sin 2 has to be my favorite game and I have yet to find a game like it. Of course crpgs like wotr are similar, but dos2 is just different. Numbers/statstics are important but tactics, preparation and usage of terrain are even more important. The game system was not adapted to a digital game but made for it and I think you can really feel that. Everything just feels so organic. I really hope Larian captures a similar spirit with BG3 and I started playing wotr a little while back (have to get back in), but until now the biggest flaw in the crpgs I played seemed to be the adaptation of a system made for a different medium. Lastly: I don't want to say the other games I've named are bad. They aren't and many probably have superior aspects. I just have not found a game I enjoy as much as dos2 yet.
I think the game that has impacted me the most is Xenogears. That game just hit me in a way I wasn't expecting, it moved me more than I can describe. A number of major revelations in my personal life also came about while playing Xenogears so I owe a lot of those things to it. The way the game explores deep philosophical and religious themes has made me very interested in learning about both of those things in a more academic way. I can't recommend Xenogears enough, that is if you like JRPGs as the game is kinda like Final Fantasy 7's older sibling.
Fallout 1, shoptgun wedding, and shotgun divorce. I play cautiously, trying to talk instead combat, and use stealth a lot. And that's a problem when your wife insists to be always with you, but her resolution to hande an enemy is to run in screaming attacking whatever is there. After a long time (at least for me) I've just went to the desert only with her and my shotgun, and told the party later that she had an accident. That was the first time I've played something with choices and consequences, instead a pre-set path to go thru a story. And that is why even as I'm curious about "The Path of The Righteous" you've mentioned several times, I never looked into it - because I would like to do with my character what he wants, and not being on the righteous path. :)
Also it should be mentioned Oblivion has one of the best expansions in gaming history with Shivering Isles. It rivals witcher 3 expansions which are obviously god tier. It's sad that companies stopped making true expansions and only release DLC.
I hit a bad period in the early 2000's. Divorce, drug abuse relapse and losing my home. Went on for 8-10 years. When I finally pulled out of it had an accident at work that put me on my back for about 8 month's. Had no resources to draw upon and was going little bit crazy. Friend who I hadn't seen in a while tracked me down, looked at my situation and showed up two days later with a 360 console and a copy of ES4 Oblivion. For those 8 month's, till I could get up and around again that was all I had. Played Oblivion all day, every day and it saved my sanity. Now, about 12 years later, have my own home again, getting near retirement and have rediscovered my love of gaming in general (which makes retirement look better and better) and, silly as it sounds, all thanks to that copy of Oblivion. Good vid
I’m happy to hear you’re doing better and I have so much respect for you being able to comeback from all that advertisity, I’m not sure I would’ve made it in those circumstances so huge respect to you sir
Wow, you get to retire? Must have grown up in a different America than I did.
Damn, I like this kind of stories as a gamedev
You better get your friend something nice!
@@Necreon021 I did and would again but he died the year after helping me. My tag (Big Ego) is a tribute to him. He was a hot air balloonist who named his balloon " the Inflated Ego ". I don't type well; hence Big Ego. Thnx for the thought though. Take care
I always think it's admirable that you were able to become the man you are despite the hardships you faced as a teenager. Thank you for not giving up and for becoming such an articulated man that helps us wander in wisdom through the gamedom.
Agree it is very impressive
Respect for how you openly talk about your struggles growing up and for where you have ended up. Just shows if you work hard and persevere, you can make it to where ever you want to go in life. I hope your channel keeps growing, you truly deserve it.
It also naturally serves to give perspective to his reviews when [viewer] knows something about Mort.
I'd love to hear more about your story. Telling it might help others overcome their own hardships.
yeah if he made this video I'd click it so fast my screen would fall off
In 1973 (possibly early '74) I played Pong. D&D didn't exist yet. Personal computers were still nearly a decade away. Even Space Invaders was still a half-decade away. It's impossible to express how unique the experience was at the time. Another vaguely comparable experience that comes to mind was in 1993 (?), in the very nascent days if the Internet, and discovering the mayhem that was Doom Deathmatch. Finally, in 2004, I recall massively rearranging my gaming room, meticulously taking measurements, placing my desk in the middle of the room, and installing a projector, so I could play Half-Life 2 life-sized, projected on to a white wall without any visual distractions; the only thing between me and the wall being a mouse and keyboard. It's hard for me to believe this year will mark 50 years of video gaming...crazy.
Hahahaha - I remember playing gold box games and Microprose simulations on my C64 when I was in 4th-5th grade, while my friends were hooked on NES. I thought I was an elder statesman.
I salute you, old-timer!
Salute Gaming Senior
I owe so much to RPGs, they made a difference in my childhood, not to mention the fact that it was because of them that I learned English, because I needed to translate the story.
I also learned a lot of English by playing video games (see, Dad, videogames were actually good for me!)
Brasil né pai 🇧🇷
RimWorld changed how I play games forever. It made me approach games as building stories and accepting "mistakes" as natural parts of the story.
Afterwards I went back and played Mass Effect and when people died I accepted that into my personal Shepherd's story and It felt so much richer.
man I'm jealous of your strength, It sounds like such a great way to play but I'd never forgive myself for losing a squadmate or a pawn, I just get too attached and savescum... guess I should play RimWolrd on commitment mode more often to remedy that.
@salamalejkum760 i recommend it,I notoriously savescum the hell out of rimworld, but after awhile I realized I don't really have any memorable moments until I actually played without savescumming.
@@salamalejkum760 you and me both. I’ve become too weak in this regard and have to have the perfect play through 1st time…which can ruin games
@@Rob7274 yeah, I know what you mean. looking up the best outcome for a quest, or how to get the best ending... I can't help it, even if it ruins my experience somewhat. It's like I have a major fear of missing out.
Agreed. I find that I tend to 'save-scum' all my games previously to have the perfect run. But now that I am in my mid-30s and having 2 kids, I find myself just enjoying games more organically by using more health potions and not quickloading every 20 seconds. And in that process, I found myself referring to guides and wikis less, and just enjoying games in a more 'blind' manner.
It sounds like we had a somewhat similar childhood of challenges growing up as I was kicked out in my teens & homeless, also from a very poor family, although it wouldn't be until I was 25 before I could buy my first gaming system, the C-64 which was my wonderful plunge into gaming then.
Fistbump fellow C-64 gamer. My first computer.
You are my fav gaming creator to follow. So chill, so informative, and so honest. Congrats on your hard work and success
For me, it was:
Prince of Persia (1980s) which made my mind open to the possibilities of PC gaming
ADOM (1990s) - ASCII Roguelike that made me appreciate level design, world building and storytelling
Ragnarok Online (2003?) - Joys and pitfalls of online gaming
Guild Wars (2006?)- Gaming community and social aspects
Bloodborne (2016?)- What a perfect game can feel like. How I can still play 48 hours nonstop if the game appeals to me
Notable mentions:
Baldur's Gate (~2000) - The beauty of RPGs done right
Mass Effect 2 - Perfect character building, storytelling.
Oh man, the way I was observed in Oblivion back in the day...and the Dark Brotherhood questline is still one of my favourites!
Mora Tong for me in Morrowind
Yeah, Oblivion...
A wonderful game, but too many oblivion gates - thet's when I've got bored of it.
Well, if I see a gate I must close it, extradimensional demons harassing people physically and by being condescending.
But every time it's the same - you go around a bleak landsace, then enter a tower, fight a boss, and close yet another gate.
And that was really, really boring after a time, so much I've stopped playing it. :)
@@normal6969 I know what you mean. For me, it was interesting the first time at Kvatch, but quickly lost its charm afterwards. Honestly, I learned to ignore them and only went into one when I needed a specific Sigil Stone, and even then I just rushed to the end. You'd be suprised how many obstacles you can skip by having high enough acrobatics!
@@salamalejkum760 indeed.
I have found myself on the tops of mountains. :D
I would ignored them too, but I was playing a good guy!
Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2 were pretty great for me. The amount of player made content was unreal for the time. It was rare for an RPG game at the time to be both online and have such good support for the moding community. It really led to some really memorable experiences for me.
Man I got SUPER into NWN1 content creation back in the day, I really wanted to create a set of custom adventures in my own homebrew world but I kept running into issues with the default resources so I wound up mostly just making custom tilesets with a friend of mine. It was the first and kind of the last game I got really deep into modding; it got me hardcore into 3D modeling for a while and I remember endlessly tinkering with the walkmeshes to make them juuust right.
So happy to see the oft overlooked-for-Skyrim-or-Morrowind; Oblivion, getting some love, as it is mine as well, having replayed it 10+ times with different builds and playstyles (100% constant invisibility + waterwalking-run being the most memorable)
The music in Shivering Isles
Poverty. The great motivator. Something I too knew and overcome. Keep up the good work Mort, I really enjoy these videos thank you
It is hard for me to fully appreciate having a (relatively) stable childhood and household as a kid until I hear stories akin to yours and it becomes clear how fortunate I really was. Massive props to you for rebounding from challenging times and rounding into form via making such a great channel and really setting a high bar with great content so consistently.
I would say the games that had the biggest impact on my childhood and were the foundation for how I think about games today would be: Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2, Warcraft 3, Morrowind, KOTOR, and Halo: Combat Evolved.
I probably sunk more hours into Oblivion when it came out than Morrowind, but Morrowind came out at a perfect time in life where I was young enough to truly let my imagination take over and "lose myself" in the game and the roleplay experience as I just...wandered about the world in a kind of trance. I have never experienced anything like it before or since. But you are right in the sense that the first Elder Scrolls game someone plays tends to be the one that sticks with them the most fondly, partially because they do have a "formula" to them despite the years between releases and partially because people tend to play one for the first time in either their pre-teen years or their early teens, which are formative and impactful times of life in general.
If you’re reading this - thanks for sharing some of your stories and hope your doing better!
Love your channel and since discovering your channel, I’ve been watching your videos religiously
-The mass effect trilogy was the first (series of) game that I was slightly depressed after it ended, so engrossed I was in the universe of the game. Witcher 3 did it too.
-The true ending of Nier automata made me tear up with an optimistic message on humanity, which is quite a feat for a misanthrope like me.
-Xcom 1&2 are some of the only long game where I did several playthrough back-to-back for the gameplay alone, even with a mediocre narrative.
-Starcraft, Heroes of might and magic 2, the command and conquer games and baldur's gate 2 are the reason I become a PC gamer as a young adult after I stopped playing video games completely during high school and college.
Oh god, that Nier Automata ending made me literally cry. I have a lot of respect for a game that manages to grip me emotionally like that.
Hope you’re doing better after all the rough times. Best of success in 2023
Sorry to hear that you had to go through some difficult times growing up.
I think a lot of people can relate to having games as a means to escape from reality for some time when things are going rough. Games have helped me through some of the harder days in my life too. Thank you for sharing that.
So much content! Great job! Enjoying all the stuff you’ve been putting out, must’ve had to do an insane amount of work
For me the early 80s, it was coinop arcades playing Kung-Fu Master, Rygar, Altered Beast, and UFO Robo Dangar. Then in the mid 80s it was the Atari 2600 playing Space Invaders, Breakout, River Raid, Phoenix, Frogger, and Spider-Man. The my first PC in the late 80s, a 80286 IBM compatible playing Test Drive, Space Quest 2, King's Quest 3 and then Hero's quest and Ultima 6. The rest is history.
Your is a great channel. Thanks for always leading a clear thought. My brain is resting when i listen to you speaking and my heart smiles seeing you doing your thing on 100%.
Diablo 2 and Gothic 1 and 2, still to this day I am replaying these games with the same excitment I had back in a day.
Play Outer Wilds (not to be confused with Outer Worlds). Trust me, this game will change your perspective on not just games but on life itself. My favourite game of all time. When I am old and my hair has grown grey and my bones reduced to fragile mush, and when I lay on my death bed and draw my final breath, I will remember the good times, I will remember my childhood. I will remember Outer Wilds, and I will hear the travellers greet me into the abyss with their music, and I will smile
Always love hearing about how games impact people in different ways. For me, the first Mass Effect changed my entire outlook on video games and what they could accomplish as an art form. The Ashley/Kaiden choice, while not seen as a big deal today, actually haunted me as a middle school kid for like two days. 😂
Damn, man. I didn't know about your hardships as a teenager. Glad to see you've really gotten to a better place in life. Every time I come back, it seems you have more and more subscribers. Congrats, man.
I'm glad that you mentioned Oblivion.
I recall getting the game as a consolation prize following a rather nasty car accident I got caught in back in '08. At that point, I had only played JRPGs like Steambot Chronicles and Persona 3, so I didn't know what to expect from Oblivion aside from the fact that it looked next-gen and featured an open world.
Let's just say that like Mortym, Oblivion changed the way I viewed RPGs and games in general.
To me, the title felt less like a playground to have fun in and more like a virtual realm where I could role play and have folks react to things that could only arise from the choices I made while shaping my character early on.
Long story short, I became a fan of all things Bethesda and RPGs. :)
It's definitely a great game, and thank you!
Most influential is sort of both ways for me. Dark souls and skyrim coming out so close together really set me on a path. Dark souls for everything I wanted from a game and skyrim for everything I didnt want. With xcom coming a year later it really cemented that anything I play needs to be punishing or else I get bored quickly. I know, so edgy, really I just like understanding mechanics and being forced to use them.
The games that impacted me the most are probably Detroit Become Human and Days Gone, since during 2018 and 2019 I was going through a lot just mentally and playing and watching others play these games helped me out a lot.
Since you actually mentioned the Gold Box series, Pools of Radiance (on the C64) was the first RPG I was truly immersed in, hand drawing the maps, reading up on rumors in the manual because the texts were to large for the floppy disk version, the funky code wheel for copy protection, good times. Its a lot easier these days if you play it with Gold Box companion, and the GOG Gold Box games all have the Clue Book along with the game. Would love if you can fit in in your schedule at one point in time. At least the Pools of Radiance, all 4 would probably be a bit much, and theres also the Savage Frontier and Krynn Gold Box games, loved them all as teen :)
Pools of Radiance! You beautiful, old-school bastard! I salute your glorious taste. (the C64 was an underrated gaming beast) #graphpaper
Suikoden1&2, FFT, Warcraft3 must be the ones from my childhood that made the biggest impact🙂 Good show sir!🥳
It was Warcraft 2 for me, my roommate and I had a serial cable we'd connect our PCs together with and we would sit and play Garden of War (the hardest map in the game, an 8-way free for all) against 6 AI on the hardest difficulty just struggling to survive until we could build up an army and go comp-stomp. Good times. :) It got me into Age of Empires 2 which I played the absolute hell out of too.
I hear you sir🙂 couldnt afford a computer in warcraft2 times so had to wait 🙂
Mine were Resident Evil 4, Demon's Souls, Final Fantasy X and the Trails series. Well RE in general was my fav series for the longest time since the PS1, until Demon's Souls completely changed my taste in games. I still love RE, but Souls were my fav genre... Until I tried FFX. That game got me into JRPGs (though curiously Lord of the Rings The Third Age was one of my fav childhood games and its literally FFX but in LOTR). And now, Trails is my fav series.
Shadow of the colossus, the ps2 one. It made me realise that games aren't just fun and games so to speak. It can be so much more, it can in fact be art.
Chaos (ZX Spectrum 1985), Double Dragon (Arcades 1987), Pirates (PC 1987), Champions of Krynn (PC 1990), Eye of the Beholder (PC 1991), X-COM (PC 1994)
Funny because Original Sins 2 also made me start playing other crpgs. I disliked that genre before DOS 2.
I played four games that made gaming a hobby of mine, and to remain as a hobby:
1.) Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time
2.) Final Fantasy X
3.) Pikmin
4.) Super Smash Bros.
Mass effect 2 was the first game I ever played where I was emotionally attached to the companions to the point I cried at the end when I made the wrong call and got some killed… had to save scum and try again and again because I couldn’t leave them :)
The twist in Baldur's Gate is one of the most finely-crafted stories in any video game.
Loved the video 👍Most influential for me by far was Warcraft 3 (wow close second) the story was sick and then all the cool custom games you could play was insane.
When I think of the games that have had the most impact on me, I inevitably go back to my youth. I suspect that experiences from that time are generally more impactful than experiences from later in life. I play a lot of modern games, but my list of the most impactful games goes back to a different age, back when Atari was king, and a bit later on, when a PC running MS-DOS could finally run a decent game.
Adventure: The player character is a large square pixel, the sword is a simple yellow arrow, and the dragons look like ducks, but the crude presentation and simple premise leave plenty of room for the imagination to run wild. Some of my earliest memories in gaming involve playing this game on the Atari 2600. It showed me that a video game could be more than an arcade shoot-em-up that takes place on a single static screen. Games could offer a world to explore - this is a theme that features heavily in many of my favorite games. I still play it to this day.
Millipede: This is a typical early 1980s arcade game, and there are plenty of others that people remember better. I have poor coordination and reflexes, so I was never any good at this sort of game and ended up wasting a lot of quarters in the arcade beating my head against that wall. For some inexplicable reason, I managed to "git gud" at Millipede, but not at any other fast paced arcade game. Though I have never taken this as a sign that I should pursue this sort of game, it showed me that I can "git gud" at a fast action game if I have the desire to do so. To this day, sometimes I boot up my Atari 800 and play it. Also, if I encounter it in the original arcade machine, I'll pop in a quarter and give it a go. I'm a bit rusty, but I can still hold my own - the muscle memory persists.
Infocom text adventures - specifically, the Zork and Enchanter series: These games have no graphics, rather concise text, and puzzles and mazes so maddeningly obtuse that they can frustrate even the most seasoned masochist. They also built a bizarre and humorous fantasy world that got only crazier with each subsequent entry in the series. These games demonstrate that a game does not require graphics in order to be good. These days, text adventurers are a hobbyist niche that is not commercially viable, and they have improved considerably, but it is fun to relive the glory days every now and then.
Ultima III: This is the first open world CRPG that I ever played. By today's standards, it is primitive, and it is little more than a murderhobo simulator, as all CRPGs were at the time, but back then, it was amazing. Compared to Adventure on the Atari 2600, its world was absolutely massive and was full of hidden secrets waiting to be discovered. I spent plenty of time exploring the world, fighting monsters (and often getting killed - this game isn't easy), and attacking the town of Yew over and over again because it was populated only by squishy clerics and was great for grinding for loot and experience in the early game since the town would reset every time I exited and re-entered. I discovered Ultima I and II soon after and also spent plenty of time wandering through their worlds, mindlessly murdering nearly everything that moved. I thought it a bit odd that the player character, who was supposed to be a great hero, would behave in this way. This gets to the next entry in this list...
Ultima IV: Up to this point, every CRPG had been a murderhobo simulator, so when I excitedly put the Ultima IV floppy in the disk drive, I was expecting more of the same. I did what any good Ultima player knew had to be done - kill everything that can be killed, which included attacking towns. Strangely, I wasn't getting anywhere, and the seer in Lord British's castle, who is behind an impassable barrier and therefore can't be attacked, told me that I was being a complete jerk, so I stepped back and decided to pay attention to what was going on. I talked to the NPCs rather than attack them, and I found that the game had a more detailed conversation system than I had ever seen before. It turns out that the game has a karma system involving eight virtues. There isn't even a big bad boss to defeat at the end. The goal of the game is to be good and to reach a level of enlightenment in all eight virtues. You can't even recruit your companions unless you are pursuing this path, as they will find you to be a scumbag if you play the game the way you might have played Ultima III. Further entries in the Ultima series continued with this idea, and in time, other RPGs started to have consequences for bad actions. This changed the way I played RPGs, and very much for the better - it turned them into a far more rewarding experience. These days, Ultima IV is very primitive compared to later entries in the series, and its combat is boring and tedious, so I don't often revisit it. Ultima VII works better in nearly all ways and is my all time favorite of the series, but without Ultima IV to pave the way, Ultima VII and many other great RPGs likely never would have come into existence.
Now on to the MS-DOS era...
SimCity: As a kid, I loved to play with Legos, so a game that involves building would naturally appeal to me. I hate to imagine how many hours I put into this game and its successors. Sadly, Electronic Arts ultimately destroyed this franchise, as this is what Electronic Arts does, but others have taken up the mantle, and numerous great city builders, colony builders, and factory simulators are now available, with more appearing all the time. These days, it is mostly games in this genre that I play, so it could be argued that SimCity is the most influential game of all for me.
Daggerfall: This is the first fully 3-D game that captured my attention, and it was my first Elder Scrolls game; prior to this, I was firmly wedded to the top-down approach of games like Ultima VII. The combat is a bit of a pain in the early game, but there are exploits and bugs that can be used to make things easier. The starter dungeon is a beast, but I like how it teaches the player that sometimes it is wise to run from a fight. I love how massive the world is, even though almost all of it is procedurally generated. (I'm hoping that Starfield takes this to the next level.) It was a lot of fun exploring the complicated RPG systems and figuring out how to exploit them to my advantage. The system is overcomplicated, and I must admit that Skyrim's streamlined simplicity is appealing in some ways, but it is still fun digging into systems that are more complicated than they need to be. I would rate Morrowind as my favorite Elder Scrolls game since it seems more purposefully crafted and generally comes together better, but I'll always have a soft spot for Daggerfall despite its jankiness.
I could probably come up with a few relatively recent games, but it is these earlier ones that got me into gaming and held my interest. This comment has become far too long anyway. If not for these games, I likely wouldn't be playing games now. People don't usually pick up gaming in their old age.
My personal top 5 games that changed how I looked at video games:
#1. Super Mario 64. My very introduction to 3D gaming. After playing countless 2D titles, how could this not change my perspective drastically? Still in my top 3 favorite games of all time, along with Metroid: Prime & Ocarina of Time, probably because of the transition of my favorite games to 3D.
#2. Resident Evil 4. Another transitional leap. Took the static camera, tank controls, item management & horror themes I loved about the first games, changed up the entire formula, & managed to make a game I loved even more. Probably my 4th favorite game of all time. Mercenaries was also excellent!
#3. Outer Wilds. A game without any leveling system, no item acquisition, & no skills or abilities. Just a few crucial items, a fully moving world to explore in any order you want, & the only thing you need to beat it is the knowledge that you gather while playing. Best modern game I've ever played!
#4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Hands down the best mission design in any game I've experienced. I could go on for ages with this one, but I'll trust people have heard it all already with this one, lol! Final Fantasy VII I credit as the RPG that got me playing RPG's regularly, & FF6 is still my personal favorite, but no RPG quite does what the Witcher did, IMO.
#5. Subnautica. I really dislike crafting/survival type games. This game managed to suck me in regardless. Never been more scared playing any game, & took me nearly 100 hours to beat because for the longest time I would quit to menu (even if my last save was an hour ago!) if a reaper ever got too close, lol! The way the game delivered an epic sci-fi story that was so simple but excellent is something no other game has come close to replicating for me. Arguably my #1 GOAT if not factoring in childhood memories & nostalgia, and my favorite of all modern day titles.
All games mentioned (not just numbered) are at the top of my "greatest ever" list, but a few other honorable mentions would be: Portal (1&2), Dark Souls, Hollow Knight, Okami & Alundra. I better quit here tho before I ramble on any longer, lol!
The discussion of Diablo 2 reminded me that if you’re ever going back and reviewing action RPGs like that, I’d highly recommend checking out Grim Dawn because it’s incredibly good and a lot of people hold it up as the true successor to Diablo 2’s legacy
Grim dawn was great aye
You Diablo 2 story is very similar to my experience with Dragon Age: Origins.
Playing THOUSANDS of hours, over and over again, in musky basement with no internet and an old HP Pavilion. Gosh. That game was an absolute gem, still is, and definitely got me through a bad time in my life.
Then there was Dark Souls. Oh.. what a game. Nice summer day. Bored. Seen it at my friends house, he warned me, I booted up, seen the Character Creation... the rest is history. Never knew a game could teach me that difficult times can be overcome with commitment and vigor. I will always love Dark Souls.
Never played Divinity Original Sin II, but I have a deep love for the other 4 games.
For me personally, I would add Deus Ex. It allowed you such a freedom of choice and I can remember countless times that I would think..."surely the game is not going to allow me to do this"....and then it did. It was wonderful!
Thief: The Dark Project showed me that there was more than just shooters and point and click games
GTA III just blew my mind
I just wanted to say as a fellow CRPG fanatic that your channel is amazing, thank you for the time you put into it, it's hard to find someone as articulate and thorough when it comes to game reviews.
I was born in the early 90s and we didn’t have a pc or the internet. But we had an Xbox so most of my formative games are from the mid 2000s on the Xbox. That means Knights of the Old Republic 2, Fable and Halo that originally shaped my taste in gaming as a teenager. Kotor 2 especially was the one that changed how I saw games, characters and story telling. Later on Dragon Age Origins/2, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect and The Witcher 2 on 360 and then finally Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2 which lead me to here.
Honestly, your childhood sounds a lot like mine. Father was a killer. Mother cooked meth. Step father was on the run from the law most of my childhood. In and out of foster care. Homeless. Getting food from church food drives. I didn’t have internet till 2012 when I was grown. What I did have was an old game boy pocket I got from my aunt. Had Pokémon Blue without color obviously as the GB Pocket was black and white. My love for gaming got me through some tough times in my life as well. A lot of people think it’s silly when a 30+ year old talks about video games being an important part of their life. But for folks like us, they really were critical. Much love man. Keep up the wonderful content!
MediEvil because it was my first ever PlayStation game. I played that game to death, and because I didn't have a memory card yet I had to start the game over every time I died. Final Fantasy VII because it was the first RPG I ever played. And also Skyrim, even though Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls game. I think I've put more hours into Skyrim than any other game, and with modding on PC it makes my obsession even worse.
Your story about D:OS2 is very relatable. I hadn't played a CRPG since high school (back when that was frankly all I played), due to becoming a console gamer. Divinity was just such an unbelievably good game that I legit questioned why I was playing JRPGs and all that when there were so many good WRPGs / CRPGs to get into. I still have a huge backlog but I remember why these were my favorite type of games in the past and I've been on a long journey to at least play all the best ones of the past decade or so.
I know you're not a big Jrpg fan but chained echoes has one of the best stories I've seen in a game and I think you'd enjoy it.
Diablo 2 was my first ever online rpg as well. I was probably 10 years old. Dial up internet.. man what a time.. there was nothing like it. So it felt fresh. Pvp was crazy, even insided a guild when they were swapping loads of legendary gear to diff characters , sorry Brett from CCC if you're out there.... like tf how did I even just remember that. Ahh good times man.
The XCOM reboot single handedly got me back into gaming so I'd have to include that as my number one.
I also grew up pretty damn poor ans had a pretty rough early childhood and used gaming as an escape, San Andreas comes to mind first and then the PS2 era Madden games and NFL 2K5.
Something about the simulation aspect of Madden back then just totally sucked me in and was my equivalent of your Diablo 2. I'd have Franchise modes so far into the future that every single real NFL player had retired lol.
I'd also enjoy picking the worst team at the time and trade for players and try to rebuild their franchise. I wouldn't even play the games half the time, I'd just simulate them and focus on the management/sim aspect.
Funny thing is I don't really play sports games at all now lol.
Great content creator wish you all the best in life; Games that made impact on my life are : Elder scrolls Oblivion, Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age Origin, Divinity Original Sin 2, The Witcher Trilogy, Silent Hill 2 and 4, hoping to see more good game that can leave a good memory to tell to others when trying to create a subject to talk about ..
Baldur's Gate for sure as it set me on the cRPG path.
Mass Effect was the first one I got really hooked on lore and devoured not only the games, but all media - books, comics and the animated movie. (I kinda have reverse with Arcane and world of Runeterra currently)
Anthem taught me for good (there were less extreme lessons earlier that didn't stick unfortunately) that pre-ordering is bad idea, even from your beloved studio. In case someone didn't notice or simply doesn't know, all three entries on this list are from Bioware. And no, I am not looking forward to next Mass Effect. If it comes, Mortym will judge it for me
Ever consider checking out the old Ultima games? Most of them have probably aged horribly, but I think 7 and 8 probably still hold up to some degree.
Kingdom Hearts hit me at the right time. I was 14 or so and trying to be grown up and was like, "This kiddie stuff is going to be soooo dumb but there's nothing else to rent at the Blockbuster so whatever. Guess I'll get it." Absolutely loved that game and after that I've never been ashamed to admit to liking "cute" stuff.
Dawn of War was the first game where I discovered modding which would become something I've held near and dear ever since. I remember early on the mod scene was pretty active and even simple basic design changes like tweaking unit armor values allowed for a different feel. I realized how awesome it was that the developers could never offer all this type of variety, but letting people do it and put their idea and vision allowed one game to split into so many. It really is diversity as it should be, smart people creating their own things, things I nor the devs could ever possibly consider and the unofficial nature allows so much more potential for iteration and ideas that would be too extreme for acceptable for default balance. Modding has become something I'll always go to the mats to advocate for.
I'm not a huge fan of WoW anymore, but playing that really helped me learn how to type proficiently which is something I'll always be grateful for. Better learn to type fast when a naga sneaks up on you and is going to whoop you! No pausing allowed!
I can relate a lot to your upbringing. Poor, largely neglected, with a lot of time on my hands and a crappy computer. In my case, the game that changed my life got to be Warcraft 3 - and its modding scene. It was one of the only games I could play and one I enjoyed immensely, later seeking as much custom content and campaigns for it as possible. It got to the point of me translating custom mods for myself and the public, with basically a paper dictionary and Google Translate in hand, because there wasn't much quality campaigns in my native language. I got so carried away with this hobby that I actually taught myself fluent English over the years and was able to eventually enter a university, majoring in translation, and even win some linguistics olympiads, making my first decent money. So, gotta thank Warcraft 3 for this absurd and hefty journey.
Divinity Original Sin 2 was the game for me that helped get through and deal with a dark period in my life. Kind of an odd thought because it really wasn't too long ago. I worked in the florida department of corrections for a number of years and after my house was destroyed by hurricane Michael back in October of 2018, I had to move to a different location and as a consequence transfer to working in a different prison. Working inside of a prison is hard even under the best circumstances, but the new place I had to move to was just an absolute hell scape and I was not in a financial position to just be able to quit the job. It's prison so anyone reading this could probably just use their imagination, basically whatever you've imagined you can just multiply the suck factor by 10 and still probably not come close to what the reality was at the time. DoS2 was my mental escape during all of that and to this day I have played through it maybe a dozen times, purchased it for probably 8 or 9 of my friends so they would play it with me and of course they all fell in love with it too even if they were apprehensive at first. I remember finding your channel and your DoS2 videos were super entertaining and helped me immerse myself even more into the game.
I disagree with your first elderscrolls theory, my first was daggerfall, but oblivion is for sure the one I’ve spent the most time with. I think it hit the sweet spot between the complexity of morrowind and the simplicity of Skyrim.
Wow! You should be so proud of the person you are. People with all the opportunities available to them frequently never become the person you are.
BTW your show is great!
BG 1 & 2 is the only game that i uniquely played for the past 20+ years..Recently the game that surprised me (like yours with Witcher 1) was Nevewinter Nights 2. I can't believe i still remember what to do 😄
Great video, dude. I got here searching for Divinity 2 tips, the first game i played after 3 years been without any other game.
I got back into gaming after almost 2 decades of NOT gaming by Divinity: Original Sin 2.
The first RPG I can remember playing is Death Knights of Krynn, an old SSI game, in the early 90s. That lead me into a bunch of similar games, like Dark Sun and Dungeon Hack, Ravenloft, and Stronghold. I think I had all the gold box CDs eventually, probably still have them in a box somewhere. Have you ever taken a look at the old DOS rpgs?
Aw man I remember those old SSI games. I didn't play Death Knights of Krynn specifically, but I played the absolute hell out of Eye of the Beholder, Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, etc. In fact I played Curse late at night while on the phone with a friend and we were doing everything in sync like we were playing together, it was the best.
GTA San Andreas definitely takes the top spot for most played game of my childhood lol I spent so much time throughout the years playing it
Right after high school, I bought a Playstation and Legacy of Kain. I was hooked.
Great video! I'm very happy for you that you get to make a living doing something you enjoy. If I had to pick the games that have made the most impact on me I would have to go with (1) Ultima 3 on the Commodore 64 (my first CRPG), (2) Everquest (only MMO that I ever played seriously, was in a raiding guild, over a YEAR of played time on my main), (3) Baldur's Gate 1&2 (lumping them together, still to this day my favorite CRPGs (3) Combat Mission series (very realistic 3D WW2 combat simulator), (4) Battle Brothers (pretty much the only game I have played for the past year, 558 hours played so far).
For ne it was Baldurs Gate 1 and 2 at release. Just got my own place and dial Up inet . The Forum was my place for a time.
The games that impacted me the most as a child were Zork I (heck, all of Infocom's games) and original The Bard's Tale. Finishing up the my Top Five as I grew to adulthood: Ultima V, Civilization II, and The Secret of Monkey Island.
Shout out to the old Infocom games. Planetfall was the first PC/DOS game I ever played and finished.
Hey Mort, hearing about your rough childhood at the beginning of this video (and I remember you hinting about it here and there in other videos), I would honestly like to know more about it (both because I adore your work and because I respect people who have successfully overcome adversity in general). If you ever decide to make a more personal video about your 'origin story' (and perhaps elaborate on the role of gaming as a coping mechanism), I'd very much love to hear it! Keep up a good work, it's highly appreciated! 🤘
for me it's the first fallout game. Never played a rpg before, I ended up messing completely and having to start from the start again. Great times!!!
DUDE Oblivion is my fav game of all time. I consider you a man of (nine) divine taste.
Thank you for sharing your story with us (in previous videos and here again). Huge respect to you. I always look forward to your videos as I am also a fan of crpgs, and currently am actually replaying DOS 2 in couch coop as well as POE2.
Keep doing what you do, you awesome genuine person!
Unfortunately world of Warcraft ate up so much of my adulthood that it tops my list of impactful games
Happy to hear you're in a better place now and doing what you love! Rooting for the channel to keep growing!
This is such a good idea for a video was awesome man, love the content as always
The Witcher has had an enormous impact on me. It was the first video game where I felt, my decision actually mattered and I could not just reload a save to try something different since you would lose so much progress. I have replayed the Witcher, religiously, almost every year since 2008 (got it in 2007 but my pc was just incapable of running it at anything other than slideshow settings). It is still the most atmospheric of all three games and will forever have a special place in my heart. Even now, I could guide you from memory where to go and do nearly everything in the game. I'm also greatly looking forward to the remake to see if they can capture the rather bleak atmosphere.
based. Man I love your content. You are doing good work. We appericate you.
Everyone: PC and console games
Me: Java games on dumb nokia phone
i came for the video, but stayed for your life story. respect to you my man! great vid keep it up!
You are my favorite game reviewer and I greatly admire your work. Also, side note: I think sales (especially with commissions) is a great way out of poverty. It’s an underrated profession that can change a persons life. Curious to know if your experience in sales informed or influenced your rise to being a full time UA-camr.
It made the business backend very second nature. Most of the administrative aspects and communicating with various other companies are things I learned from my previous work experience.
nice video,it really felt like a loveletter to a past era and how games helped us to go through rough times,im glad you could overpass every burden you had and choose to have a youtube channel like this that is really interesting to listen
That is a nice story. For me the path for escape, immersion, themes, statistics, and role-playing were Nox, Deus Ex, VTMB, DOS1 and 2, Torment series
@randalthor6872 cheers mate. Maybe we are at the same age, or same generation of games in each country. Because I was always behind on these games in terms of release.
Funny, I still prefer the first Witcher to it's sequels myself.
When I was a kid the games that got me through most of the hard moments at home were Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis, Maniac mansion and day of the tentacle. I did not have a computer of my own, so I played at a friends house. Home was not a safe place so I spent many hours playing this games and forgetting the issues at home. Awesome video, thank you so much. Hugs
Made me cry a little. 😊
Your videos have really become a nice part of my mornings. Any reason why you upload early in the day? I like listening to them at the start of my work day.
UA-cam will tell you, and it is my own experience, that the specific time doesnt really matter just that's its consistent. I do it in the morning so I can see how it does throughout the my own day is really the only reason
I love Oblivion. It really blew me away at the time and was my first elder scrolls. Of course it definitely hasn't aged well, but it still changed the way I look at games too.
Oblivion was so special for me. Was the first real open world I got massively in to. Me and a buddy who also loved it, would show up an hour early to school, just so we could talk about what we've done in the game. Then after school it was straight to skype and playing the game simultaneously. Good memories.
Neverwinter nights for me is a game that take me back in time
I don't really play any of the games you cover on the channel, but your videos help me get out of bed in the morning
As an older gamer, I have my own list of memorable games. Ultima VII: The Black Gate was the first truly immersive CRPG, with graphics that actually looked like something better than pixel art and an engaging story. Fallout 2 was probably my first game with adult themes and circumstances, and then TES: Morrowind was an amazing open-world experience and my first Elder Scrolls game. The very first Civilization kindled a love of strategy games that has waned slightly in favor of CRPGs in the years since, but I still think fondly of it. Finally, the first X-COM: UFO Defense was one of my generation's "Dark Souls Hard" games, where you lost over and over again and got really frustrated, but kept going back to try again regardless. Baldur's Gate, which you have on your list, probably stands out as the first time I felt like I was really playing an actual game of D&D on a computer, which was cool as someone who had a copy of the '79 AD&D Players Handbook with the demon statue on the cover. I still think of the sound clip, "Heya, it's me...Imoen!" when I think of that game.
When I was young, I played the Diablo 2 on Computer Rental Shop.. I always annoyed because when I came back to play again my character always deleted by some other player, that's the time I learned about the floppy disk, after playing Diablo 2 I backup my save file to floppy disk..
Daggerfall: never seen anything like it before
Baldurs Gate: First time I ever saw D&D done on a computer
Kingdom Come Deliverance: Awesome story in a real world setting. So many enjoyable, non violent quest
Red Baron 3D: Full WWI war flight sim. Great experience
Rise of Flight: Bringing back the RB3D experience with up to date tech.
Ultima 7 sparked my love for CRPGs and I had to wait until Baldur's Gate to find a similar game. I didn't fully understand the games as a kid/teenager, but I still enjoyed them. And after that, I had to wait another long time until Pillars of Eternity. I'm glad we're seeing more crpgs since then, from Larian and Owlcat for example. My favorite genre.
I can sympathize with the place that Diablo II holds in your memory. The Japanese game series Super Robot Wars holds a similar place for me. I played those games through emulation and fan localization, in the late 2000's. Those were not a good time in my life. And I did not have the money to afford modern gaming hardware. So playing older SRW games on my potato PC, gave me some bright moments in a dark time.
There was a point in my life where all I ever played was Neverwinter Nights, TES Oblivion & Pokemon Emerald on cycle over & over & over again.
I had other games, such as the older Pokemon titles & a few PS1 games like Spyro, Gex & Crash.
But hose three where my life for years.
& I'm sorry for what you've been through man. It says a lot that even with all that you came out as a good person as far as I can tell.
Games have been my safe place as well due to anxiety & depression. Doing a lot better these days thankfully.
Divinity original sin 2 has to be my favorite game and I have yet to find a game like it. Of course crpgs like wotr are similar, but dos2 is just different. Numbers/statstics are important but tactics, preparation and usage of terrain are even more important. The game system was not adapted to a digital game but made for it and I think you can really feel that. Everything just feels so organic.
I really hope Larian captures a similar spirit with BG3 and I started playing wotr a little while back (have to get back in), but until now the biggest flaw in the crpgs I played seemed to be the adaptation of a system made for a different medium.
Lastly: I don't want to say the other games I've named are bad. They aren't and many probably have superior aspects. I just have not found a game I enjoy as much as dos2 yet.
I think the game that has impacted me the most is Xenogears. That game just hit me in a way I wasn't expecting, it moved me more than I can describe. A number of major revelations in my personal life also came about while playing Xenogears so I owe a lot of those things to it. The way the game explores deep philosophical and religious themes has made me very interested in learning about both of those things in a more academic way. I can't recommend Xenogears enough, that is if you like JRPGs as the game is kinda like Final Fantasy 7's older sibling.
Fallout 1, shoptgun wedding, and shotgun divorce.
I play cautiously, trying to talk instead combat, and use stealth a lot.
And that's a problem when your wife insists to be always with you,
but her resolution to hande an enemy is to run in screaming attacking whatever is there.
After a long time (at least for me) I've just went to the desert only with her and my shotgun,
and told the party later that she had an accident.
That was the first time I've played something with choices and consequences, instead a pre-set path to go thru a story.
And that is why even as I'm curious about "The Path of The Righteous" you've mentioned several times, I never looked into it - because I would like to do with my character what he wants, and not being on the righteous path. :)
Also it should be mentioned Oblivion has one of the best expansions in gaming history with Shivering Isles. It rivals witcher 3 expansions which are obviously god tier. It's sad that companies stopped making true expansions and only release DLC.