Heavy Rain

Jason.

Source // MobyGames

As technology progressed, video games started to look more and more like movies, not just in the graphics department, but in the storytelling, too. They're both visual mediums, and the language of film and television can easily be brought over and used in cutscenes. But what happens with the gameplay? Can gameplay be cinematic, or is it jarring to watch a scripted scene and then be dumped back into a first-person shooter, for example?

Again, technological progress can allow your gameplay to look identical to your cutscenes to help blend the two together, but can we do better than that? Can we create the ultimate interactive movie and truly blur the lines between cinema and gaming?

Well, David Cage has already tried it with Fahrenheit, and the next attempt is with Heavy Rain, which follows the case of the Origami Killer. Will he be caught before he kills again? Who is he anyway? What other horrors must our heroes face? Popcorn optional.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Toot-toooooot.

Few people seem to like the best incarnation of Link that The Legend of Zelda series has ever seen, but I'm one of them. Wind Waker still looks fantastic to this day, and its Phantom Hourglass sequel on the Nintendo DS brings us more of his adventures on the go.

But what if you get seasick, or simply don't like boats? The best Link has you covered in The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, swapping the waves for the rails as you get behind a steam engine and criss-cross the land instead of the sea - and who doesn't like trains? Trains are great.

I'm looking forward to this one. Put your mask on and climb aboard.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

"Yeah, good luck, Pal. That's almost impossible to- Oh, you did it."

Source // PlayStation

Two things are true with regards to this post: you really should have played Uncharted 2: Among Thieves by now, and no, I couldn't tell you which spectacular set pieces are in this one rather than in the other games of the series.

Yes, my memories of Uncharted are a little hazy, but I blame that on the fact that all of them are worthy of your time, taking you on adventures across the world, through myth, and mystery, and the exciting life in general of modern-day explorer/treasure hunter/thief Nathan Drake.

Pistols at the ready, wise-cracks and wit sharpened to a point... we've got some adventuring to do.

[PROTOTYPE]

"My name was Alex Mercer, and my work is almost done."

Source // Steam

It's easy to compare games to each other, especially when they share the same kind of DNA. Open-world American city besieged by viruses and plagues and a huge military presence, watched over by a single white man with no memory of how he got all these powers or why he was chosen to have them in the first place - because surely they are behind this, right? Whoever they are...

Are we talking about inFAMOUS or are we talking about [PROTOTYPE], another comic-book-like story of a guy with a lot of questions capable of causing an insane amount of damage to everything that stands in his way of the answers?

The two games were compared to each other a decade ago and it's easy to see why. While it took me a couple of years to get around to playing inFAMOUS, it has taken me more than a decade to get around to [PROTOTYPE] - should I have tried to save Manhattan sooner? Or are we just in this to save ourselves?

inFAMOUS

"Yes, I'd like to schedule a package for delivery. Would it be possible to request a specific courier?"

Source // PlayStation

Comic book heroes come in many shapes and sizes, and they don't all have to be part of the Marvel or DC universes, as third-person zap 'em up inFAMOUS can demonstrate.

Courier Cole MacGrath awakens at the epicentre of an explosion that sees the city turned into a containment zone along the lines of something like Escape from New York, and the innocent civilians that are now stuck here fight amongst themselves for what resources remain.

You can help them out, or you can show them who's in charge. They do blame you for their problems. After all, you were the only survivor from the blast, and now you've got superpowers...

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

"The city is out there for the taking, just waiting for an enterprising man like myself, and you're making penile jokes."

We're not finished with Grand Theft Auto just yet, but we are taking a bit of an unexpected departure to the handhelds of the day, with a callback to the top-down GTA's of yesteryear, in a story set very much in the thick of the GTA IV present that we've seen so much of.

When I said Liberty City is full of stories, I meant it, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars follows the criminal (obviously) life of Triad member Huang Lee, returning to the city to avenge his father's murder, and whatever other shenanigans he'll inevitably become embroiled in for various criminal enterprises.

It might look like a step down from Episodes of Liberty City, but this little package can still pack a punch.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

"I should be sent to prison, shouldn't I?"

As I'm sure you know, you can't have a game called Episodes from Liberty City without a second episode, and The Ballad of Gay Tony has, according to some, gone down as one of the greatest GTA games of all time. For a shorter, more episodic experience, what does that say about just how well crafted a piece of entertainment this is?

Club owner "Gay" Tony Prince is borrowing money from the wrong people, and his business partner and bodyguard Luis Fernando Lopez is the man to solve all his problems, of which there are many, and they are bonkers. The kind of bonkers that only a GTA game can offer.

Let's hit the streets of Liberty City one more time to see them under the glitz and glamour of the neon lights of the night.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

"Just say the word, sugar, and we'll ride off into the sunset."

You must be doing something right if episodic downloadable content for a game that was already certain to be included on a must-play games list is, itself, a must-play game. That's exactly what Rockstar did, not once, but twice with Episodes from Liberty City, two new stories for Grand Theft Auto IV, the first of which is The Lost and Damned.

Johnny Klebitz leads the Lost MC in the absence of its president Billy Grey, and the two are not quite seeing eye-to-eye on how it ought to be run, and when a game is set in Liberty City, you just know that means something violent and illegal is about to occur.

Saddle up and get ready to experience an even grungier side of an already pretty miserable city.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

"Oh, boo! You win again, Bats. Well, savour it. I'll get your next time."

When I was in my graphic novel phase, you could largely group what appeared on my shelves into three categories: indy's, Marvel, and Batman, who clearly stands head and shoulders above most comic book characters for all kinds of reasons.

The number of colourfully exaggerated characters he fights across Gotham City is enough to satisfy any reader, and the fact that Batman doesn't kill any of them means they can all escape the confines of their jail cells and wreak havoc again and again.

But these villains often have more than a few screws loose, so prison isn't always the right place for them. The correctional facility on nearby Arkham island, the Arkham Asylum, is more suited for the terrors that make a home on Batman's turf, and in Batman: Arkham Asylum, we get to see how even that can go all wrong.

Buckle up your Bat-belts, put on a gruff voice if you want to, and let's glide kick our way into this one.

Assassin's Creed II

"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."

Source // PlayStation

Remember when Assassin's Creed games were good? No, that's not fair, let me rephrase it. Remember when Assassin's Creed meant something? When the overarching, convoluted conspiracies of the Templars and the Assassin's was a strange alternate history tale that was silly, but fun. Engaging.

In its heyday, I, like many other players, dove into the series head first and consumed it all. Brotherhood, if I recall correctly, was played so much that it gave my PlayStation 3 a yellow light of death, forcing me to purchase a new console (which I still have today for all of these missed games). I even read the books to see some of the stories from another perspective, and actually bothered to try and understand what was going on under the surface.

I couldn't explain it to you now, partly because it was ten years ago, but mostly because as the series grew, it lost focus, and now nothing makes any sense. It makes so little sense, even, that in the more recent games of the series, I don't even care about the modern-day story, instead thoroughly going through the alternate ancient histories so well presented for hours and hours and hours on end.

Oh... You didn't know there was a modern story? Let's get you up to speed for Assassin's Creed II then.

Tomb Raider: Underworld

"I need Thor's belt to get his hammer, and I need the hammer to kill a God."

Source // MobyGames

After the reborn Legend, there was the remade Anniversary, celebrating the original Tomb Raider by polishing it up and showing it off in a modern action-adventure engine. To complete the trilogy, we would need Tomb Raider: Underworld, a grubby tale of extreme archaeology, with Lara just looking for her mum.

It's a sequel to Legend, first and foremost, so the sandwiching of Anniversary in the middle may be a little weird, but you'll manage. I know I did, nearly 10 years ago now. I was late to the party even then, grabbing The Tomb Raider Trilogy for the PlayStation 3, but made it through the story.

What is that story? Definitely going to need to jog my memory.

Saints Row 2

"Have you changed your hair?"

Grand Theft Auto started out as a criminal playground where you got up to mischief first and missions second, before it morphed into the heavily story-driven critiques of modern America we've seen since GTA III. Sure, you could go on a rampage for the fun of it, but it was always a side event, something you did when the story was done, or the story wasn't interesting to you.

What if there was a game about running a criminal empire that put the fun back into being the absolute worst person in the city? Where missions weren't separated from silly shenanigans, but made of them? Where you could be the kind of badly dressed asshole you always wanted to be and still not look out of place in a cutscene?

Cue Saints Row 2.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

"This is good... isn't it?"

Source // Konami

Not too long ago, I said when looking back to the Grand Theft Auto series, I'd want to go back and play GTA IV before any of the others. It's not that it is the 'best', but it is the title that called to me the most.

There's another long-running series with games that ought to be returned to more than once, and another game with a '4' stuck on the end, but this one, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has a lot more going on.

If GTA IV is something I want to go back to and relive, MGS4 is something I'm not sure I do want to go back to - not sure to the point of having spent the last few days watching some 7 hours of YouTube video essays on the game instead of actually putting it into my PS3 for the first time in years.

Metal Gear Solid has been my top-rated game on this 1001 list since its appearance and is unlikely to be moved. MGS2 and MGS3 are up there too, the latter still sitting in the top ten. MGS4... well, MGS4 has a lot to unbox and I'm not sure where to begin.

Ninja Gaiden II

Slow down there, Ryu. You'll cut someone's arm off.

Source // Moby Games

When I said that Ninja Gaiden Black killed ninja games for me (what a bastard), I didn't think it would literally kill ninja games for me, but it did. Sat next to it in the DVD case was Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360, the new and improved (again?) sequel to Ninja Gaiden. Not a v1.5, but a v2.0.

With poor Internet, playing games offline has been basically all I can do, so it's a good job I've got hundreds ready to go, physically, digitally, even those made of cardboard. I am all set for having no Internet and playing Ninja Gaiden II.

But it has been killed before it even left that DVD case...

Grand Theft Auto IV

Wanna go bowling?

What can be said about Grand Theft Auto IV that hasn't already been said about Grand Theft Auto IV? It was the next big GTA title, the first for four years, here to show off the next generation of consoles. Everyone wanted to see what it was capable of. Could the leap from San Andreas to IV be as big as the leap from GTA2 to GTA III? Would it live up to the hype? Was the push for realism going to make or break it?

When we look back on the GTA series, it often feels like GTA IV is a bit of a forgotten child. It's grey and miserable, the streets of Liberty City grubby and soulless. Wouldn't you rather be on the sun-soaked sandy beaches of Vice City? Wouldn't the countryside of San Andreas provide a better time? Well, yes, I think I would rather spend my time in any of those settings, but if you asked me what actual GTA game I wanted to play the most, I might be tempted to say GTA IV and mean it.

I've played through the PlayStation 3 version a couple of times, but at some point in 2017, I decided that it was time to play the PC version. I grabbed some screenshots that I guess made much more sense in the moment than they do now...

Let's see what I can remember first, and then we'll have another crack at it.

God of War: Chains of Olympus

"We will meet again, Spartan. The Fates have deemed it. One day, you will regret what you have done here."

Source // PlayStation

This 1001 list has been rather eye-opening, as you would hope. I haven't made a count of how many titles have come out of nowhere to impress me, but there are some series that I hadn't touched at all back in the day, for whatever reason, that I now can't get enough of.

Two notable examples of this happening are the Yakuza series, where I'm finally getting around to Yakuza 2 after going through Yakuza 0 and Yakuza (and can't wait to continue playing 3, 4, and 5 when they get a PC port at the end of the month - by God I hope this PC can run it), and - if it wasn't obvious by now - God of War.

The other thing I've been caught out by is just how good portable consoles were, even back to the Game Boy Advance. Naturally, being firmly found in camp Sony, I had a PlayStation Portable and then PlayStation Vita. I used them. I enjoyed them. But if God of War: Chains of Olympus is anything to go by, I've clearly not used them as intended.

Kratos is back, furious as ever. What's pissed him off this time?

Devil May Cry 4

"Listen to my voice"

Source // MobyGames

It's not the devil that may cry when playing these games, but me. As time goes on and I notice more and more of my skills drip away from wherever I store them, playing a game like Devil May Cry generally results in sadness and disappointment.

Devil May Cry was new and different, and button-mashing wouldn't be anywhere near enough to see me through it. Devil May Cry 3 cranked up the style, and with it the difficulty, but it was technical problems that finally put an end to my (pathetic) run through its early missions. Once more, my skills just weren't up to scratch to make progress, let alone make progress in style.

Now it's time for Devil May Cry 4, a new entry for a new generation of consoles, and I'm playing it with a hand in need of rest for some mysterious (and maybe even wholly psychological) reason. My hand feels... off. A little weaker and a little slower than I know it to be, but it does work. Enough to grasp a PS3 controller and carve up some demons? Let's find out.

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

SAVING CONTENT. PLEASE DON'T TURN OFF YOUR CONSOLE.

Source // MobyGames

I played Banjo-Kazooie and liked it more than Super Mario 64. I played Banjo-Tooie and was bored out of my mind, almost angry that it was something I had to play. After a long, long wait, fans of the series would finally see a third entry, on the Xbox 360 of all things.

But Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts isn't just an HD version of a Banjo title. It isn't just a third-person hunt for collectables. It's something much, much different.

I've left the series alone, content with having nothing to do with it. I'm certainly in no rush to return to the Nintendo 64 anytime soon, but I did make a note of the Rare Replay ports being a possibility, and now there's this modern Banjo-Kazooie to show me what I've missed out on. Is Nuts & Bolts going to be the Banjo-Kazooie game to finally get me on board with the series?

Buckle up and we'll find out.

SAVING CONTENT. PLEASE DON'T TURN OFF YOUR CONSOLE.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

"You act as if you've never seen a German U-boat in the middle of the jungle before."

Source // Naughty Dog

One of the first video games I got was Tomb Raider on the PlayStation. I wasn't terribly good at it, but the mix of action and adventure, of shootouts with dangerous wildlife and clambering up ruins, was a key part of the fun. On top of that, of course, you had in Lara Croft a main character that was more than likeable and impressively capable for the many challenges she would face.

She was originally going to be male in a game that would very much be Indiana Jones-like because the idea of a treasure hunting smart-ass is an appealing one. It's just that we didn't quite get a treasure hunting smart-ass until Lara had retreated to the shadows and the PlayStation 3 loomed on the horizon.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune follows the story of Nathan Drake as he attempts to hunt down El Dorado, the lost city of gold. He's not alone, though, and the competition isn't the type to want to put lost artefacts on display in a museum.

Limber up, because treasure hunting isn't quite what it used to be.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

The best version of Link is back.

Did someone ask for a direct sequel to The Wind Waker on the Nintendo DS? Because that's we've got in the form of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, an action-adventure that will take you back to the seas and have you swiping and slashing and 'hiyah!'-ing your way around the world you wish Nintendo used more often.

I don't quite know where my love of The Wind Waker comes from - I still haven't made any progress out of that prison, but sure intend to. Now I learn (yeah, I'm not on top of the Zelda series, who knew?) of a sequel that I can hopefully enjoy just as much? Where do I sign up? Get me a ship!