OliVDB5590

A wargame that shows war as you see it when you're a pre-teen, and that is both easy enough to be mastered by a pre-teen, and still give an interesting challenge to an adult player. The factions all get the same units, but the game features different playable generals that all grant their armies different perks - more lucky critical shots, stronger tanks but weaker artillery, more expensive but stronger units... and that's what makes the charm and replayability of Advance Wars 2.

94 _83%

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

Where it all began. A dark world, with much more lore than you'd expect, an autonomous life engine for NPCs and wildlife, lots of uncommon (for Western players) weapons, interesting game mechanics with radiation and artifacts... And all of that was back in 2007. The fact that the franchise still has LOTS of active modders and a dedicated fanbase is the tribute S.T.A.L.K.E.R. deserves.

91 _50%

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (2000) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

Probably the best Red Alert game; the first one was not that innovative, coming just after the very similar C&C, and the third one is fun but not for everyone; I love it, but many don't. You've got two asymetrical but balanced factions with their flavourful units that are all interesting to play, sub-factions with their special units (gotta love playing Libya or Iraq), the first appearance of meme-worthy units like the Kirov airship...

92 _63%

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (1991) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

Note: I played the GBA port, not the SNES version. It may well be one of my favourite entries of the Zelda franchise, with a very large world for the technological level of the consoles, lots of characters, enough side quests to be an entire good game by themselves... And the storyline is my favourite, although it's purely subjective.

94 _83%

Call of Duty 2 (2005) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

Probably the peak of the Call of Duty series. It introduced back in 2005 most of the features that made the series successful, and managed to have both a fun and competitive multiplayer mode AND a solo campaign that justifies the price of the game and explores fascinating historical events; especially these which aren't usually covered by WW2 games, like the North African theatre. A shame that the Soviet part of the campaign is scenaristically and visually weaker than the rest.

91 _50%

Call of Duty: World at War (2008) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

A dark and gritty game with a soundtrack that keeps you with your hairs standing at every moment! These were the good old days, when you could smash Nazis to pieces with an anti-tank gun, rip them apart with a machine gun or burn them alive without people saying that you're "politicizing a game" and "pushing a leftist agenda". And smashing Nazis to pieces is FUN.

87 _17%

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

The second to last good Call of Duty game. It took the successful features from CoD2, brought it to a modern world with cool high tech (for 2007) weapons and geopolitical intrigues, that was a fun experience for everyone. Especially when I had a buggy mouse that double-clicked super quickly every time I pressed the left button and slayed everyone with the G3 in multiplayer... no, seriously, it's a game that's still pleasant to play 12 years later. Both in solo and multi modes.

88 _29%

The Sims (2000) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

That one game we ALL played back in the days. Some created beautiful houses, some pulled their characters through the daily grind, some drowned their Sims in the pool or created lesbian mansions. To each their own, and we all found our own. Especially with the money cheat codes.

98 _96%

Age of Empires II (1999) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

Go ahead, find another game from the 90s that still has such a large following. I'm waiting. ...that's all you need to know.

93 _71%

Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) - Rated 27 Nov 2019

If you had a GameCube and a couple friends back in the day, you'd be quite the loser if you didn't have this. It's fun, balanced, features all of the cool characters every Nintendo-playing late millenial likes, and follows the golden rule of "easy to play, hard to master". But well, you can still win with the good ol' "button smashing" tactic. So, I liked it as even I could win sometimes.