Wolfenstein 2

The first RPG computer game I ever played, circa 1981, was called Castle Wolfenstein for the Applie ][. It was technically advanced for its day, incorporating the first spoken dialog in a computer game, an impressive feat considering the computer's only audio capability was an addressable speaker that you toggled off and on by addressing C000.
 
Some years later, Wolfenstein 3D came along and put Id Software on the map and made John Romero a folk hero among programmers. I'm embarrassed to admit how many hours I wasted - at the office, no less - playing that game. 
 
On October 27th, we'll be getting Wolfenstein 2. It looks friggin' awesome, if you like immersive open-world FPS games. Here's one of the cut scenes. Favorite line: "It goes without saying, it's not space aliens. All I'm saying is - It's F*cking Space Aliens!"
 

So now Dave will be spending even less time in The CH.

I also started out playing Wofenstein 3d, Duke Nukem, and Shadow Warrior (very funny dialogue). I did play a lot of Crysis 3 (great game), but only have about played half way through it. Steam is a great platform to get the best of these games (GOTY editions) and you can get them for pretty cheap when they have their big sales (summer, Christmas, and I think one other time of the year). I've collected about 50 "best of" games, but don't have the time to play 90% of them. 
Interestingly, I really like playing Team Fortress 2 (free) and have spent the most time on.
 
I tend to buy these games when the "hype" has died down and the prices become much more reasonable. Wolfenstein 2 looks like a really good one and has come a looooong way.          

Now more than ever, it's still fun to kill Nazis.

Duke Nukem was a better game, and a shame the sequel never happened. That's an interesting story, too - Wired did a great writeup on it, which would be worth a read if you can find it online. Shadow Warrior was another favorite, as it also featured Duke Nukem-like humor. My all-time favorite is still the original Far Cry, with all the game play variations that were possible.
 
But Wolfenstein was my gateway drug, so I'll always have affection for it.
 
That, and DOOM, which came out shortly afterward. (BTW, the movie adaptation with Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson - that nobody saw - is pretty good, too.) I was the office champ in deathmatch, so good at it that they'd restrict me  to the chainsaw to make it a competition. I thought I was unbeatable until I got together with a bunch of Microsoft guys, who spend an hour customizing their keyboards and then danced around me with impunity. I figured they must have been on the Windows ME team, which would explain a lot.

I could never get into the fantasy type games as a rule, but I did play Ultima quite a bit with a friend when I was a kid. I actually met the guy who wrote it a few years ago when I had him as a client - he told me he wrote the whole series in BASIC. Richest guy I have ever met too - he made an absolute fortune out of that game. He even financed his own trip into space a few years ago.

Wolfenstien  3D I first was introduced to in 1994 when I moved to Germany and worked for a civilian contractors ATT shop. All the guys there were playing it, imagine it on a pc of that time period.
 
BUT TWO WORDS:    GOD MODE...

I'd love to relive the joy these games used to give me, but the newer ones just don't do it. I recently bought a highly-regarded game called Witcher 3. It was beautifully cinematic and technologically advanced, but they seemed to have forgotten that at its core it's supposed to be a game. There's no strategy anymore.
 
Or maybe I've just gotten older.

I kind of lost interest in video games when the cinematic element took over as well. I'm also not much of a fan of these modern console games with 20 zillion buttons and button combos to remember. For me the most playable controls are up/down/left/right on the keyboard, with my right hand controlling head movements with the mouse and one or two other keys to do things like change weapons or reload. 
 
I always tended to shy away from games that were set in dank, underground caverns or dark forests or industrial buildings with catwalks and pipes with steam coming out of them. Give me a nice outdoor environment. About the only game of the last 20 years I've really enjoyed was Battlefield 1942, which I played around 2002 or so. One of the best multiplayer games ever. It was so enjoyable to, say, be engaged in a dogfight in a plane, parachute out, land on a tank, go on a tank rampage, jump out of the tank and transfer to a jeep, drive like a maniac to some airstrip and take pot shots at all the chumps on the other team getting into their planes.  And not a magic spell to be seen anywhere. 

Obduction looks pretty good! Myst was what I'd always introduce people to who "don't like video games". Shame it died with the advent of Windows 7.
 

 

For those really old geeks (you know who you are!), there was the ORIGINAL adventure game called: ADVENT.  I helped port it from B off a Unix box to the HP-2000 back in the 70's...
 
Throw ax at dwarf
 
YOU MISSED
YOU ARE IN A MAZE OF TWISTY PASSAGES ALL ALIKE
 
Plugh
 
A HOLLOW VOICE SAYS "PLUGH!"