Manhunt

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Manhunt. The game that made Grand Theft Auto look like a cartoon. A grungy, gritty game of brutal realism presented as a survival-horror snuff film. There just isn't anything like it, certainly not in late 2003.

To say it was controversial is an understatement. Those who had an agenda against video games now had the most obvious target under the sun. Those of us who actually played video games just had another third-person game where you take out faceless goons for good. It was turning the violence up to 11, yes, but it was nothing too new, was it?

Well, despite there being two games, both of which appeared on the PlayStation 2, I have never played them. I know of them (who doesn't?), but never really needed to play them. To see them some more, yes, definitely. I want to know what all the fuss is about. But playing them wasn't urgent or essential back then, and it hasn't been ever since.

Until now, when the 1001 list strongly suggests we must play Manhunt.

Tales of Symphonia

"I don't quite get it, but I got it."

Source // Moby Games

What was the last JRPG we saw on this 1001 list? The last that comes to mind is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and to say it wasn't my cup of tea would be accurate, but still somehow misleading.

Let's hope a more traditional approach from Tales of Symphonia lands where Crystal Chronicles didn't. The lands of Sylvarant are losing mana, and it's up to the Chosen One to restore order once more. Who is the Chosen One? What challenges will they face? How many clichés will we manage to cross off the bingo card before the dust settles?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Only two thousand there are. No more, no less.

At the time of writing, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order has hit the shelves, and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker is a smidge over a month away. I'm in a bit of a Star Wars mood, despite not really going mad for either the Dark Souls-esque action game or the attempts to make Episode VIII mean something.

But I like Star Wars, on the whole, and am looking forward to playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Xbox RPG that I know next to nothing about, save for it being really rather well received.

I didn't have an Xbox and wasn't a PC gamer until this 1001 blog started, so I have missed out on the action for 16 years now. Who are the characters? What's the plot? Why is it so good? I've absolutely no idea, and we're going to change that right now.

Sim City 4

Busy Wiping Out City

City building returns to the 1001 list with the series that started it all, Sim City 4. Where previous games would have you fill up a small plot of land (well, a large plot, but still only one plot), this sequel has you build city after city in giant, connected, neighbouring regions. It allows you to create a monstrously big city spanning a scale you've not seen in this genre before.

I hope you're not daunted by blank canvases...

Samorost

Oh gnome!

This is the screenshot that accompanies the 1001 writeup for Samorost, a point and click game that follows a little space gnome on a mission to avert disaster for his home.

But you wouldn't know that from that screenshot. Your first reaction to it is probably similar to my own: what the heck am I looking at here?

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

High Speed Robot Action

As a fan of Metal Gear and most things Mech, you'd have thought that I would be on board with Zone of the Enders, a space epic featuring orbital frames capable of destroying whatever stands in their way.

Its main selling point (arguably) was that it came with the playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, but I was quite happy to wait for a demo from elsewhere. I didn't need to buy a whole other game just to get my hands on it, and in truth, I probably wasn't as big a mech nut back then as I am now.

Z.O.E. wasn't met with massive acclaim but was rewarded with a sequel that did exactly what needed to be done in the form of Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner... and I've still not played that either. And yes, I own multiple copies of the series...

Let's see if we can change that.

Rise of Nations

Whoa, slow down, I'm still hurling spears...

Civilization can seem rather daunting. The entirety of human history (ish) played out turn by turn on large, multicultural maps with different paths to victory. From small beginnings, you explore and expand and flourish on the world stage, before Gandhi goes thermonuclear on you.

Age of Empires, similarly, allows you to grow into the powerhouse you want to be, but in a real-time strategy game that requires you to stay alert and manage all aspects of your empire, or at least the large army you're raising to crush the opposition.

I like the idea of both these games and can see good reasons to play various iterations of each, and others from the genre. But I never quite feel at home in any of them. The learning curves aren't steep, per se, but the time investment in understanding how to do well could be quite a bit.

If I could just find a game that offers both, like Rise of Nations...

Railroad Tycoon 3

Toot toot.

There's something magical about trains. Kids enjoy train sets, even though they limit where the carriages can go across the living room carpet. Lots of folks admire the craft of model railways, from the simple setup to the elaborate museum piece, even though they're just going around in circles.

As a board game player, I can tell you for a fact that the hobby is full of train games. Games where you lay track, games where you buy stocks, games that newcomers can jump into, and games for the devoted enthusiast.

Video games too are no stranger to train games, and Railroad Tycoon 3 may just be the most prominent stop on the line. From laying track to buying trains and keeping your stocks in check, it offers a wealth of steam-powered, land-based, transportation management gameplay.

But is the service any good?

PlanetSide

Your computer has stopped receiving packets from the server.

Source // Moby Games

Massively Multiplayer Online titles asked players for a monthly subscription to keep logging into vast worlds where all sorts of action and interaction can take place. Usually, it was the RPG genre that provided the foundations for the game, and that generally went hand in hand with a fantasy setting of Elves, Dwarves and demonic hordes.

What if you could get rid of all that and have an MMOFPS, where sci-fi military factions vie for control of the land in all-out war, with players specialising in various roles, be they on foot, in vehicles or flying through the skies?

That was what PlanetSide asked, and that's what it provided for 13 years.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

No, that's not how it happened, either...

Apart from the original, much earlier in this 1001 list, I don't think I've played a single other Prince of Persia title, and that includes its dramatic jump into the third dimension (at the second attempt) in the form of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Serving as a reboot, The Sands of Time takes us on a tale of undoing the mistakes of the past, through puzzle-platforming and action-adventuring. It successfully spawned several sequels, but none of them seems to hold up to this one. They're not on the 1001 list, certainly, and that's quite an indicator...

How often will we need to rely on the magic sands to make it through our story? Let's listen to the Prince tell us himself.

Ninja Five-O

Stop, or I'll shuriken!

What is it with ninja's and sidescrolling? They can't get enough of it. And they all seem to be good ninja's, too. This time around, you're a ninja cop, which probably raises quite a few questions regarding police brutality, come to think of it...

Anyway, Ninja Five-O sees Joe Osugi putting the smackdown on whatever criminals cross his path, in an actioner platform for everybody's favourite handheld console, the Game Boy Advance. Why does there need to be another ninja-centric action platformer on the 1001 list?

Kill Switch

Take cover. Take aim. Take over.

Famous firsts usually aren't. They're often just more competent seconds, the design that had the publicity, the much-needed tweak to make something really work... Pong probably wasn't the first tennis game, but it's the first one you'll recall.

Gears of War wasn't the first cover-shooter, but (spoilers) it does the new genre better than Kill Switch does, which probably also wasn't the first cover-shooter, but it really is all this game has going for it (damn, more spoilers).

You are the all-American, one-man killing machine Nick Bishop, the video game action hero who finally learned how to hug walls and chest-high cover such that he doesn't get shot in the face. It is a monumental leap in military tactics, but what's actually going on here?

NBA Street Vol. 2

Shootin' some B-Ball outside of the school.

I like basketball, but when I stand 5' 11" on a good day, with my *cough* athletic youth long behind me, physical games just aren't an option. Video games, though... they're always an option, and basketball has provided a great many titles that show off the sport.

Or rather, they show off an elaborately exaggerated version. An arcadey, rule-bendy spin on the sport. A take that attracts a larger audience than a straight-up basketball simulation does, with NBA Street Vol. 2 setting up the alley-oop this time out.

Three on three, first to 21, bonus points for styling and showing off... I'm looking forward to having a kickabout with this one. Well, a bounce about, I suppose...