The Ultimate Game.

Death Ray Machine

It's been over a quarter of a century already. Plenty of time for the ultimate game to have been made.

If so, what is it?

ihd

BattleTech pods?

darleysam

MR WIMBLEY, IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

didn't we do this just the other day, and conclude that it was Tie Fighter or Wing Commander?

honestly, i'm not sure how much of a genuine discussion about the 'ultimate game' this is going to get, since everyone has their own ideas on what is, or what could be, and mostly they're just "take my favourite game, and make it MMO". Me, for instance, would love a game like Elite in MMO-form (yes, i do play Eve), but with proper flight controls. That would be pretty-much my 'ultimate' game.

Dis_quiet

Didn't you see "The Game" with Michael Douglas? That was the ultimate game.

Rook

Is this a thinly veiled attempt to get us to talk about Derrick Smart?

-SPI-

Dis_quiet wrote:

Didn't you see "The Game" with Michael Douglas? That was the ultimate game.

That film was great.

Also, I just lost.

ihd

-SPI- wrote:

Dis_quiet wrote:

Didn't you see "The Game" with Michael Douglas? That was the ultimate game.

That film was great.

Also, I just lost.

corcorigan

TIE Fighter.

Star Wars. Tick.
TIE Fighter screeching. Tick.
Explosions. Tick.
Some sort of plot. Tick.

Not enough lightsabers. Maybe some sort of TIE Fighter/Jedi Knight hybrid would be best. Then you could leap out as you land and cut up people.

RidleySaria

For me, the closest I've ever gotten to "the ultimate game" was Metroid Prime. I've never had such an immersive experience.

jarbornza

I was just thinking about what the most absolutely immersive game possible would be, on today's hardware. I came up with basically Half-Life 2, except with a real-world plot and weaponry. So, absolutely no third-person experience, very very few menus, no HUD, just a gun and a fucking world, with physics, excellent facial mapping, complete voice acting, etc.

Basically just as much polish as is possible.

HadjiQuest

Yeah, I'd definately say Half Life 2 is the closest I've come to full immersion in a game.

LewieP

Derek Smart's - Universal Combat

solsovly

Dis_quiet wrote:

Didn't you see "The Game" with Michael Douglas? That was the ultimate game.

Real life controls suck. Also no savepoints, the texture work is repetitive and I think it's a little too expensive.

tony_important

FFVII...

***Dives to floor to dodge shoes.

Seriously though, Super Mario Brothers 3 was pretty awesome.

Brue

Fallout 2

There's really no other game where you can sell off your companions to slavers... goodbye sulik thanks for the caps.

darleysam

LewieP wrote:

Derek Smart's - Universal Combat

there's the joke about Desktop Commander crashing back to Windows when you try and run it, which actually led people to believe it wasn't a crash, just a clever trick and an ultra-realistic OS simulator.

edit: assuming Desktop Commander is an actual title, and i'm not making things up, since i'm at work and can't do some hasty research. I just remember the anecdote.

Sharp10r

It could have been Steel Battalion with the ultra-immersive controls. They just needed to do more with it (and make a multiplayer that WORKED!) Still, the best gaming experience I ever had was smoking a Vertical Tank in a dogfight because we both knew that I didn't just out-PLAY that guy, I out-PILOTED him.

Fireflash

There is no such thing as "the ultimate game"

Seta 3000

Shit, guys, I just lost the game

zero_bit

It is the battletech game that they had in the arcades, where you climbed into that pod and the wiggled and jarred you around and you engaged in a mech dogfight with your friends.

It had buttons everywhere.

Xagarath

Give Pathologic the combat of Deus Ex and the translation of, well, anything else.

SporkAndrew

darleysam wrote:

LewieP wrote:

Derek Smart's - Universal Combat

there's the joke about Desktop Commander crashing back to Windows when you try and run it, which actually led people to believe it wasn't a crash, just a clever trick and an ultra-realistic OS simulator.

edit: assuming Desktop Commander is an actual title, and i'm not making things up, since i'm at work and can't do some hasty research. I just remember the anecdote.

Derek Smart's Desktop Commander was the name of the Something Awful spoof of Universal Combat..

Antishow

Could there possibly be a more perfect video game than Tetris?

Instantly accessible, and yet infinitely replayable.
Anyone, from the very young to the very old, can learn everything there is to know about Tetris in less time than it takes the average person to find L3 on a PS2 controller. And after a good... what... 15 years now? I'm still playing that shit constantly. No other game has replay value like Tetris does.

There's no narrative or flash getting in the way of the game.
I'll concede that this is a matter of personal taste, but I assume we're talking about the best "Game" and not the best story.

Tetris is an experience that really can't be reproduced by anything but a video game.
It's hard to explain without using a word I'm going to make up right now: Tetrizen. You know what I'm talking about, when the speed gets up there, and you stop consciously thinking about what you're doing... typically you don't even notice it until you've "snapped out of it". Or is that just me?

PikaPuff

In regards to the article, the Ultimate Game became mechwarrior. The pods you could enter to play against other people.

You're looking at the picture and missing the paragraph that states you're in an enclosure with monitors set up to simulate each window.

Close seconds are the arcade cabinets for several sega games. they do 3 monitors, but since they design it so you can get in without help, it's not a full enclosure. And they're single player.

Fireflash

Antishow wrote:

Could there possibly be a more perfect video game than Tetris?

Instantly accessible, and yet infinitely replayable.
Anyone, from the very young to the very old, can learn everything there is to know about Tetris in less time than it takes the average person to find L3 on a PS2 controller. And after a good... what... 15 years now? I'm still playing that shit constantly. No other game has replay value like Tetris does.

There's no narrative or flash getting in the way of the game.
I'll concede that this is a matter of personal taste, but I assume we're talking about the best "Game" and not the best story.

Tetris is an experience that really can't be reproduced by anything but a video game.
It's hard to explain without using a word I'm going to make up right now: Tetrizen. You know what I'm talking about, when the speed gets up there, and you stop consciously thinking about what you're doing... typically you don't even notice it until you've "snapped out of it". Or is that just me?

I gotta admit the original Tetris is pretty much the best example of gaming perfection. Very simple yet it can always be a challenge. There's nothing to add or change to the game that could make it better. IMHO the ability to hold a block in reserve and the infinite block flipping made Tetris DS worst than the original.

darleysam

SporkAndrew wrote:

darleysam wrote:

LewieP wrote:

Derek Smart's - Universal Combat

there's the joke about Desktop Commander crashing back to Windows when you try and run it, which actually led people to believe it wasn't a crash, just a clever trick and an ultra-realistic OS simulator.

edit: assuming Desktop Commander is an actual title, and i'm not making things up, since i'm at work and can't do some hasty research. I just remember the anecdote.

Derek Smart's Desktop Commander was the name of the Something Awful spoof of Universal Combat..

bumcakes!
i knew i'd make a mistake like that. Well, either way, i wish i knew where i read that quip so i could get a proper context and reference

xzzy

Well, the original Forza supported periphrial views by system linking three xboxes, and according to the developers, Forza 2 will allow you to link as many 360's as you can get your hands on for a full 360 view, if you wanted.

Sounds good to me, time to start building my cockpit!

darleysam

xzzy wrote:

Well, the original Forza supported periphrial views by system linking three xboxes, and according to the developers, Forza 2 will allow you to link as many 360's as you can get your hands on for a full 360 view, if you wanted.

Sounds good to me, time to start building my cockpit!

i wasn't aware of that.. i suppose you'd need 3 copies of the game, but that is rather cool

xzzy

Yeah, it gets expensive fast, but it's still pretty awesome. forzamotorsport.net has a story about the feature up, and how they're doing it for Forza 2.

darleysam

xzzy wrote:

Yeah, it gets expensive fast, but it's still pretty awesome. forzamotorsport.net has a story about the feature up, and how they're doing it for Forza 2.

if more games accomodated the feature, i'd consider it. Xboxes are going cheap now (comparatively), and there's always shelves of pre-owned games. It'd need a couple of extra tvs, but for some decent space sims and stuff, i'd probably consider it.

SithDrummer

Max Payne 2 is the closest, for me. I was so immersed I'm pretty sure I screamed when Vlad [realspoiler:a4c3d1a66a]shot Mona. You bet your ass I'm going to give you all your bullets back, fucker.[/realspoiler:a4c3d1a66a]

Jesus McChrist

SithDrummer wrote:

Max Payne 2 is the closest, for me. I was so immersed I'm pretty sure I screamed when Vlad [realspoiler:d1dff10778]shot Mona. You bet your ass I'm going to give you all your bullets back, fucker.[/realspoiler:d1dff10778]

[realspoiler:d1dff10778]One at a goddamn time.[/realspoiler:d1dff10778]

LewieP

darleysam wrote:

xzzy wrote:

Yeah, it gets expensive fast, but it's still pretty awesome. forzamotorsport.net has a story about the feature up, and how they're doing it for Forza 2.

if more games accomodated the feature, i'd consider it. Xboxes are going cheap now (comparatively), and there's always shelves of pre-owned games. It'd need a couple of extra tvs, but for some decent space sims and stuff, i'd probably consider it.

If you can track down an argos with them in stock.
£50, including Forza, PGR2, Halo 2, and Fable.

If I had a games room with 4 TVs, I would have an Xbox lan running right now.

edit - link

darleysam

LewieP wrote:

darleysam wrote:

xzzy wrote:

Yeah, it gets expensive fast, but it's still pretty awesome. forzamotorsport.net has a story about the feature up, and how they're doing it for Forza 2.

if more games accomodated the feature, i'd consider it. Xboxes are going cheap now (comparatively), and there's always shelves of pre-owned games. It'd need a couple of extra tvs, but for some decent space sims and stuff, i'd probably consider it.

If you can track down an argos with them in stock.
£50, including Forza, PGR2, Halo 2, and Fable.

If I had a games room with 4 TVs, I would have an Xbox lan running right now.

edit - link

that's the thing, i'd need some other games to make it worthwhile. Flight sims or space combat stuff, a few titles like that and i'd be sold. Unfortunately, it seems like Forza's the only game, and that makes it more of a luxury than a necessity

JWFokker

darleysam wrote:

MR WIMBLEY, IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

didn't we do this just the other day, and conclude that it was Tie Fighter or Wing Commander?

I must have missed that conversation, but Tie Fighter is a good choice. No other game has come quite as close to perfection.

corcorigan wrote:

TIE Fighter.

Star Wars. Tick.
TIE Fighter screeching. Tick.
Explosions. Tick.
Some sort of plot. Tick.

Not enough lightsabers. Maybe some sort of TIE Fighter/Jedi Knight hybrid would be best. Then you could leap out as you land and cut up people.

Why would a TIE pilot have a lightsaber? I consider them unnecessary. But I would like to be an AT-AT commander or progress up the Imperial Navy ranks to Admiral and have my own Star Destroyer.

darleysam

JWFokker wrote:

darleysam wrote:

MR WIMBLEY, IT HAPPENED AGAIN!

didn't we do this just the other day, and conclude that it was Tie Fighter or Wing Commander?

I must have missed that conversation, but Tie Fighter is a good choice. No other game has come quite as close to perfection.

like, two days ago, we had a thread about predictions from the 70s/80s about modern gaming, which featured the picture of the 'ultimate game' in the OP.

Indie Winter

The Ultimate Game is going to be Spore. Come on, you know I'm right.

jothki

Brue wrote:

Fallout 2

There's really no other game where you can sell off your companions to slavers... goodbye sulik thanks for the caps.

You can in Planescape: Torment, as well.

Yar

Ever since I was a little kid, I dreamed of a full-color graphical game (3d or 3/4) in which I could create an RPG-style character who I could train and grow abilities, all the while playing in a creative fantasy setting along with tons of other people online.

Ultima Online, bitches.

CJTheran

Seta 3000 wrote:

Shit, guys, I just lost the game

cj iwakura

Rez is probably the most absorbing game I've ever played. It makes you feel the beat.