Top Ten Tuesday 24
Our Top Ten Games We Play Together
Disclaimer: There are many top ten lists, but this one is ours. If you think a game is missing here, we either didn't play it, didn't have any interest in it, or we just hate you.
Pre-List Notes
June 26, 2013 marks our third year anniversary, so what better time to whip out a Top Ten list based on the games we've enjoyed playing together. My wife is not the avid gamer that I am, but we've always enjoyed playing games together. Although she's highly competitive we prefer to play cooperative games, but occasionally the right team based PVP game will really hold our interest. I've consulted with her and created a top ten list of our favorite games, hence the slight title naming change that I totally stole from Scrubs. Enjoy our His and Her takes!
Our Top Ten Games
10) Titan Quest (PC)
His take: Titan Quest was the best Action-RPG since Diablo 2 at the time and I played the ever loving crap out of it. TQ was basically the test game I used to see how the wife would fare with the genre - turns out she loved stabbing things and grabbing loot as much as I did! We've played lots of ARPGs since then but TQ was the first and we made it through the base game and the Immortal Throne expansion with her thunder warrior and my druid.
Her take: Titan Quest or TQ as the husband calls it wasn't a bad game. The computer I played it on was not the best option for the game and I had quite a few issues of running into what I thought was an empty room then suddenly being dead cause the room was full of super strong bad guys. Like he said my favorite part was the whole melee option where I could just run up and kill someone/thing. It was pretty much my first foray into this kind of game (I am a huge Mario fan) and I liked it.
9) Darkspore (PC)
His take: Maybe I'm in the minority but I still love Spore damnit. Despite What Could Have Been I found the end result insanely addictive. Darkspore was the odd follow-up that utilized the awesome creature editor with an Action-RPG. Uniquely you selected three customized creatures to take with you and could swap them out on the fly and mix and match abilities. The game was set up primarily for cooperative multiplayer and after we enjoyed both TQ and Spore, Darkspore ended up being a winner for us. Very underrated and surprisingly fun game.
Her take: I remember playing Darkspore and everything was limited by the bits and pieces that you found throughout each level that you played. I actually thought that the game was really super easy but it didn't really hold my attention to it all that well. I did enjoy getting to play with the hubs though. Let him run up and kill everyone then I would take all the good loot while he was killing everyone else.
8) L.A. Noire (Xbox 360)
His take: Alright so it's not a multiplayer game at all, but the wife was just as excited about this period detective game as I was. The open world and GTA style combat and driving was by far the worst aspect and least realized portion of the gameplay, but the investigations, facial technology, and adventure gameplay was a real treat. Playing it and watching it played, with the player choosing different results and ultimately having a different experience made it an incredibly cool shared experience.
Her take: Ok I liked this game for totally non-gamer related reasons. I have two degrees in Criminology/Criminal Justice (Bachelors and Masters) and I work in Investigations. I mainly wanted to put my people reading skills to the test. I have done some training on Wicklander/Zulawski and wanted to see if I could really tell if someone was lying. I must say that my percentage score of knowing when someone was lying was much higher than the hubs.
7) Plants Vs. Zombies (PC, XBLA)
His take: I'm not sure anyone could resist the charms of those adorable plants and cartoony zombies. I've touched upon my love of PvZ before in my Top Ten Addicting games list, and my wife took to it instantly. We both enjoyed watching each other play on PC, but when it came to Xbox Live Arcade we instantly bought it when we learned of a multiplayer cooperative mode!
Her take: The final credit song is the greatest thing ever. I'm humming it as I write this. "There's a zombie on our lawn..." Truthfully don't think I could have played this game by myself due to the sheer number of guys that the game throws at you each level. Thankfully he was willing to play with me and help me along to get some of the achievements that went with the game.
6) Sid Meier's Civilization V (PC)
His take: I
was honestly surprised when I found my wife watching me playing and asking all
sorts of questions about Civ V. This epic but slow burn turn based strategy
game didn't like her type at all after we've been enjoying First Person
Shooters and Action Role Playing Games. After a Steam Sale I got her a copy and
we ended up having a blast playing cooperatively as a team over several days
worth of game time. Great game to just pick up and play every once in awhile, although it is super addicting.
Her take: From what he tells me there are a number of ways to play this game. Apparently there is something called Diplomacy and some kind of Science doodad way to win. Pssh, screw that pure army all the way. I will conquer them all. They will all bow down to Mother Russia (my favorite ruler to play).
5) Battlefield 2 (PC)
His take: BF2 was already pretty old when we saw it at Best Buy for $10. We grabbed two copies, loaded it up and had a great time in those crazy big maps. We even loaded up a mod that added a lot of content to the game, as well as bot support for 64 players, so we could enjoy a full game at any time.
Her take: OK I really sucked at this game. I mean I made it 5 feet out of a spawn point and I was already dead. Mostly my strategy was to try to find somewhere to hide and hope that I could snipe someone from way far away.
4) Lego Harry Potter (Xbox 360)
His take: We've always been a fan of the Lego games, and I expounded on their simple joys in my Top Ten Cooperative list. When the wife heard of a Harry Potter Lego game it was a done deal. I should say games as they released them in two parts - Years 1-4 and 5-7. We've never quite had the patience to actually unlock the crazy amount of content in those games, but we have a great time going through and completing the story.
Her take: First let's get a few things straight. Getting him to play this game with me at times was like pulling teeth. I am a Harry Potter nerd and I am proud to admit it. The game itself was a pretty accurate representation of the movies only in Lego form. When I could finally wrangle him into playing this game with me we were pretty good. I was all about getting the little coiny things so we can buy more unlockable stuff. This is the first game I actually wanted to get that 100% achievement on and I am still waiting for him to play with me again to help me get it.*
*Full Disclosure - I may have traded these games in at some point. Hey I asked her first!
3) Left 4 Dead series (PC)
His take: When the first game was released I was very anti-horror gaming. I technically still am but have completely turned around when it comes to zombies and zombie games. The Left 4 Dead games are a big reason for that, and their cooperative experience is some of the best. It definitely has the capacity for causing a lot of hurt feelings and blame when *** hits the fan, but overall they were a great experience for us.
Her take: This game was so freaking stressful. You never knew when the freaking Zombies were going to appear and then oh by the way here are five super tough we are totally gonna screw you over zombies just to make things a bit more challenging. So I have a feeling this game was made more for the likes of him and his friends in mind than the crappy gamer that I am but still. Really you had to throw in a freaking Tank Zombie REALLY!!!!
2) Team Fortress 2 (PC)
His take: TF2 is the granddaddy of our multiplayer gaming experience of the last five years. In the years after college I started up a social gaming group to help keep my friends and I in touch and playing games, and TF2 was our main squeeze for over a year. Of course once we got my wife her own PC I had to get her into the experience, and she loved it. Some of my best gaming memories are playing TF2 late into the evening with her and my friends.
Her take: Ok this game I actually kicked a little ass on (pardon my language). I was a sniper at all times. I tried being a Pyro and sucked and every other character was just pathetic. Sniper all the way. When you find that really awesome sniper perch you are almost freaking invincible. I wish we still played more of this game.
1) Borderlands series (PC, Xbox 360)
His take: I was unsure what to make of the original Borderlands until I played it, and was blown away by the combination of FPS and ARPG. Hey....those are two of my wife's favorite genres, maybe she'd like to play this with me? And how! Not only did I eventually finish the first game with my wife on PC (I had started playing with friends but ended up playing much more with her) but we later bought the game on console so we could play together on the couch via splitscreen. We enjoyed that shared experience so much more that when the sequel came out we bought it for Xbox and has by far been the best game we've ever played together. I've personally played over 150hrs according to Raptr and most of those are with my lady love. My charging Gunzerker and her sniper Assassin are a force to be reckoned with!
Her take: See I think I found my niche when it comes to games. Be a sniper they are badass. I have to agree with the husband, this is definitely one of my favorite games. When he told me about this list my first choice was Borderlands (I combine both games into one word, much easier that way). The game is just progressively hard enough to keep me super entertained and not make me get pissed off because I constantly die. I liked this game better than all the others because it seemed fair. There wasn't one super hard, totally gonna screw you over element that made the game impossible. It was really balanced and completely random in the loot that it dropped. He was always the gentleman and let me have a good portion of the better stuff but I still found good stuff on my own. Now if I could just find a 50K Damage shock automatic sniper rifle I will be set.
Wrap Up
At her
suggestion I combined the Left 4 Dead games and Borderlands games into one
entry to help diversify the list. Although we love playing Action-RPGs together there hasn't been a whole lot of options in the last few years until last year when Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3 were released. I played D3 with friends as we weren't ready to pony up another $60 for a second copy, and we're still waiting for the price to drop. Torchlight 2 runs decently well on the laptop so we can get away with some co-op PC gaming, but not quite ideal until I can build a new PC.
The fact that most of these awesome
multiplayer experiences were on His and Her PCs makes me super bummed that
I've been without a PC for the last year (and have been using hers). Thankfully Borderlands 2 on the
console has pretty much filled all our spousal gaming needs so far (4th DLC releases today, and looks awesome), and I only
hope more developers include splitscreen options. Pretty much any game I see on
sale that has local co-op instantly gets a second glance from me as I'm always
on the lookout for game time with the wife. The couple who games together stays
together - Happy Anniversary Player Two!