My top 15 favorite video games of all time. Part 2: 5-1

I apologize for this post being posted later than usual, but circumstances beyond my control conspired against me in the past few days that prevented me from posting it on time.

Last week, I wrote the first part of a list of my top 15 favorite video games of all time. This week, we finish that list, as I unveil the top 5. As I mentioned already, WoW is within this part of the list, but it is not number 1.

5. Rock Band
Guitar Hero II was a game I really enjoyed, so when I found out they were making a full band version, I got excited, to say the least. This was the game that cemented my Harmonix-fanboyism in the Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero debate. It's difficult to verbalize what I like about this game so much, for it's not like any other game on this list, so suffice it to say that it took everything I loved about the original Guitar Hero games (being able to experience the music in such a direct way, having a more physical way of playing the game than controller-based games, featuring rock music) and made it full band. It was also a drastic improvement over the gameplay interface of the original Guitar Hero games, and one I liked more than the latter Guitar Hero games' interface.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Rock Band 2 almost as much as Rock Band 1, and I think it improved upon its predecessor in several ways. Rock Band 1 was pretty easy on guitar and bass guitar, and extremely easy on vocals, while being very challenging on drums, and Rock Band 2 corrected all of these balance issues. It also made the general gameplay interface easier on the eyes, added hyperspeed for those of us who need it, and had a better menu for selecting songs. So why does Rock Band 1 get higher billing on this list? For one, Rock Band 2 wasn't all that different from it's predecessor; it was more of Rock Band 1.5 than anything, so it doesn't stand on its own in my memory as much. I also think that, as small as it may have been compared to recent games, Rock Band 1 had the best song selection out of any rhythm game I ever owned, a category which includes quite a few volumes, including Guitar Hero and Rock Band games. Yes, it was heavy on the soft rock and light on other genres, but so much care went into choosing each song that it ended up being an amazing setlist. Rock Band 2's setlist has much more variety, but that combined with its size means some of that polish in the selection is lost. Truth be told, before I bought Rock Band 3, I played my Rock Band 1 exported songs just as often as the on-disk songs on Rock Band 2

4. Dance Dance Revolution (any of the PS2 iterations)
Ah, Dance Dance Revolution, or DDR, as well call it in certain circles. This was my first rhythm game, my first game that involved an unconventional controller (the dance pad), and my first game that required something other than typical button pushing to play. I really enjoyed this game, to the point where I played long enough to become good enough to beat some of the hardest songs on the highest difficulty. I'd say I played this series regularly for about five years before losing interest, and I had some very good time with it. Though I have good memories of all of the games, Extreme 2 and SuperNOVA were my favorites based on setlist alone. Though I don't play frequently anymore, when I go to an arcade, I'll often play and find that I haven't lost much of my skill, for I can still play on Heavy, the game's highest regular difficulty.

3. World of Warcraft
You knew it was coming, but WoW is without a doubt one of my favorite games; if it weren't, why would I write this blog? As it stands, I have been playing WoW for more than five years, making it one of my longest-running video games, soon to be the longest, for it is only behind DDR by a few months. I probably don't need to tell you all of the reasons why WoW is a great game, but one of the reasons I like it so much is that it is constant changing, evolving, improving, to meet the desires of the playerbase. Many mandatory addons have been integrated with the game's default interface in simpler versions, like Omen and QuestHelper. Each round of content (solo content, at least) has improved as Blizzard has gotten better at designing engaging and enjoyable quests, and the changes to Azeroth coming in Cataclysm show that they aren't afraid to admit that something they've already done needs to be changed. I also enjoy just how many things there are to do in game, and even if I get tired of them all, I can roll another class and do them again in a different way. Suffice it to say WoW has provided me with a lot of hours of entertainment, and I'm sure it will continue to do so. In fact, I once did the math and found that for every dollar I have spent on WoW, I have gotten about three hours of play time. No other game I have played comes even remotely close to a ratio like that (though Minecraft looks like it might... but that's a story for another time).

2. Guitar Hero II
This game will always hold a special place in my heart. In addition to being the game that got me into instrument-based rhythm games, this was also the game that got me into rock and roll for good. I listed to rap mostly before playing this game (it's not something I'm proud of), but Guitar Hero II opened up a whole new genre of music to me in a way that was very much suited to my tastes: video gaming. Rock and its sub-genres have taken the primary spot in my musical tastes, and that might not have happened without Guitar Hero II.

Of course, while my personal reasons for liking this game put it high on this list, it wouldn't be this high if it weren't a great game, as well. The soundtrack, though comprised mostly of covers, was excellent (besides, at that time, we were alright with covers), but the gameplay itself was what really drew me into the game. The simulated guitar playing really was a revolution in music gaming that allowed us to experience the music more directly while still playing something that was very much a video game, and a fun game to boot. I also progressed from easy to medium to hard to expert in my time while playing this game, so many of my most satisfying memories of beating challenging songs come from this game. I have often heard people say that this game is the best game ever released in the instrument-based rhythm game genre, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

1. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Resident Evil 4 was, in my mind, a perfect game. I couldn't tell you a single flaw that game had, because I didn't think it had one. The action was tense, the game was quite challenging (even on normal difficulty), and the way the combat system was set up left the game open for many different ways of going through an encounter, whether you wanted to run in with guns blazing or wait on top of a ladder and pick the enemies off one by one. I also liked the fact that the game rewarded ammo conservation and resourceful playing--which is something that comes natural to me--much more so than the "more dakka" method of play, which would drain your ammo quickly. The game also rewarded exploration, something else that comes naturally to me, in that careful examination of your environment would often reveal treasures that could be sold to the merchant in the game for money to upgrade your weapons. Add to that the imposing bosses, the tense atmosphere, and the fact that the game was just plain fun, and you have one of the best games to ever come out on the GameCube.

Now, I've been talking about Resident Evil 4 all this time, so you might be wondering why I put the Wii-remake on the list instead of the original game. I put it here simply because it is better than the original in every way. The control scheme, which uses the wii-remote to aim your gun, is much more fluid than the control scheme in its GameCube counterpart, and the lack of the inherent shakiness of your gun (present in the GameCube version) meant aiming was much more about how steadily you could hold your own hand, meaning shots were often easier to make. The Wii-make also added all of the extra features that had been added in the Playstation 2 remake, like the new costumes, weapon, and extra mode. The Wii Edition of Resident Evil 4 took everything I loved about one of my favorite games of all time and added things to improve it even more. Even considering how many times I played through the original Resident Evil 4, I still enjoy playing through the Wii-make, and its incredibly rare that an updated re-release can hold my attention anywhere close to as long as the original held it. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition did just that.

So there you are, my top five favorite games of all time. I don't have a satisfactory way to conclude this list, so let me just say that if you have been curious about any of the games on this list but never tried them, do give them a shot. They're all excellent in their own way.