For years, the highlight of my week has been when I would download the Game Informer podcast along with the EZA podcast on the same day and listen to them over the weekend. I hope those staff members have felt their work was fulfilling and highly valued.

So many imbalanced Doom 2 megawads that would fit this thread perfectly... but here are 3 other games that I could come up with instead:

Volgarr The Viking - I really enjoy the game, but I fell off when I got to one of the early bosses (the water level, 2nd boss I think). I could tell it would take a bunch of attempts of rebeating the level to discern his pattern of moving around the room, and he was just killing me too quickly each time.

DustForce DX - another game I really enjoy but fell off. Even after playing so many levels I still had control issues/movement techniques that don't feel second nature.

La-Mulana is a recent one for me. And it may have defeated me through sheer obscurity rather than challenge... I still have to give my save file a 2nd attempt, but I expect to require looking up a hint or two on what to do in the area I'm stuck at.

Not necessarily proper answers I admit because part of me wants to push through once I'm interested enough. A 'throw in the towel' moment suggests there is a point where you are stuck for a while and realize the game has passed the limit of how much effort you are willing to give to any game. I feel that's pretty rare... I'm much more likely to lose interest before losing determination.

This is a much easier thread for me, since I won't have to combine my separate personal rankings list into a unified list.

FPS / Shooters in general

1. Perfect Dark
2. Resident Evil 4
3. Mirror's Edge

[If I'm just ranking pure FPSes, then Turok 2: Seeds of Evil + Dark Forces would 2 & 3.]

RPGs (regular)

1. Final Fantasy 6
2. Etrian Odyssey 2
3. Legend of Grimrock

Action RPGs

1. Soul Blazer
2. Dark Souls
3. Final Fantasy Adventure

Shmups

1. Imperishable Night
2. Emodiment of Scarlet Devil
3. Perfect Cherry Blossom

2D Sidescrollers (classic/stage based)

1. Ninja Five-O
2. Actraiser
3. Super Castlevania IV

2D Sidescrollers (metroidvania/continuous)

1. Super Metroid
2. Metroid: Zero Mission
3. AM2R

Strategy

1. Shining Force
2. Gemfire
3. Warcraft III

Puzzle & Point and Click Adventure

1. Shadowgate (2014)
2. Adventures of Lolo (Lolo 3 if I had to pick one entry)
3. The Witness

Some other categories smooshed together

1. F-Zero GX
2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

A thread for examining the new games of August! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list (or a swanky desire index) of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's one text list. Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

A thread for examining the new games of July! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list (or a swanky desire index) of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's one text list. Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

Ghost in the Shell all the way. I think the magna and anime(s) already have a well understood reputations, but the GITS games on the PS1 & PS2 deserve more nods as fun little gems. Great time to be had for the superfan who wants to experience everything, even if the anime franchise is clearly the apex.

My non-answers that don't qualify because I like 2-out-of-3 and haven't experienced the 3rd: Star Wars & James Bond 007 are both good film+game franchises in my book, haven't read any of their printed works. Lord of the Rings has great books and films, but I haven't played any of the games.

After that, I basically got nothing. Castlevania needs a comic book -- maybe it already has one? Turok needs a movie. Doom has all 3, but the comic and movie are cheesy-fun at best so it's not going to be anyone's "Triple Threat". It is interesting though how Doom has garnered a distinct cultural relevancy/cultural memory in those two mediums despite that.

A thread for examining the new games of June! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list (or a swanky desire index) of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's one text list. Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

I've gotten into making let's plays myself! I wish it was easier to say simply "hey, I make let's plays" (i.e., in the present tense), but it's the type of hobby that is easy to get sidetracked from when you don't want to finish all the editing. Here's my stuff:

1. Let's Play Legend of the Mystical Ninja. I'm generally more proud of this one (o^-’)b
   Youtube Video

2. A playlist for "Let's Play Actraiser: Japanese and European versions." (low audio quality, one long video for each)

3. I also made a short, combat-focused Mirror's Edge video with no commentary. It was created because at the time I was having lots of fun just replaying levels over and over to free style them. It's obviously not something I would expect many to be into though *shrug*

A thread for examining the new games of May! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list (or a swanky desire index) of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's one text list. Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

A thread for examining the new games of April! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list (or a swanky desire index) of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's one text list. Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.