Background
When I was younger (Universtity days and a bit before) I got pretty
hooked on video games. Back then they were still fairly basic (PacMan,
Galaga and Defender were pretty much the state of the art). I also
remember playing a lot of Space Invaders on my local school's Commodore
Pet computer. During my university days I had a BBC Microcomputer at
home which had a pretty good selection of games given the constraints
of the machine by today's standards and I spent a lot of time playing
games on that. As I started work and found myself with a lot less time
on my hands I managed to kick the habbit without even trying!
Looking back that was actually a pretty good thing as I was spending
way too much time playing games most likely. During the mid to late
nineties I bought a new home PC and played games from time to time on
the PC (mostly Real Time Strategy games like Command and Conquer and
Star Craft) but I was still only playing periodically. Recently, as my
kids have got a bit older, and have discovered video games, I too have
found myself sucked back in to my former habbit! For a while, all my
kids had to play on was an old Sega Genesis unit that my wife had from
before we were even married and a cheap PC that we put in the playroom
which could only play older games. For quite a while this kept the kids
happy. We managed to find a lot of cheap games for the old Sega machine
on eBay and we had a few games for the PC (initially mostly learning
games). However, and I am not exactly sure how this happened, over the
Christmas 2005 period the number of video game devices in our house
mushroomed beyond belief and has continued to grow. As well as the PC
which we still play some games on, we now have an XBOX 360 (my 2005
birthday present), a Nintendo Wii (my Wife's 2007 Valentine's Day
present to herself!), a GameCube, four
Nintendo DS systems and a PSP
that I
bought myself to take with me when I travel several years ago (pre iPhone and iPad era) . Over the last few years we have
accumulated quite a library of games (see below).
I have slowly increaesed my XBOX 360 game library ,
primarily as the average new game price in the USA of $59.99 a game
seems a bit steep to me. I tend to buy games when they are reduced
(often when the
next version of the game has just come out) and I also buy a lot of
used games. I have been really
impressed with the
Game Cube and more recently the Wii and DS. Primarily for two reasons. Firstly the large selection of
age appropriate
games for my kids and secondly because the majority of the games seem
reasonably
priced.
I am very impressed with the Wii. Not just for its unique motion sensing controllers but
also because it seems to play every single GameCube game flawlessly
which is not a claim my XBOX 360 can make in terms of playing older
XBOX games nor my PS3 in terms of PS2 games.
Given that the price had dropped and also because we finally bought
ourselves a new TV (we got the previous one in 1993) and wanted to add
a BluRay player, for Christmas 2009 we added a Sony Playstation 3 to
our collection as well! Yes we are game geeks, it's true!!
Sidenote, I guess I need to add categories for iPhone and iPad games
soon as they seem to have become very popular with all of us lately!
Games we are currently playing the most
Here is a list of
the games currently being played the most in our family. The kids tend
to chop and change more quickly than my wife and I do. We tend to get
locked into a game whereas the kids like to hop back and forth. However
even they have a few they seem to keep coming back to.
Game
|
Platform
|
Glee Karaokee
|
Wii
|
Legend of Zelda
|
Wii
|
Gears of War (2 and 3)
|
360
|
Halo Reach
|
360
|
| Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 |
360
|
Assassin's Creed II
|
PS3
|
Angry Birds
|
PSP
|
Pokémon Diamond
|
DS
|
Lego Indiana Jones
|
DS
|
Age of Empires - Mythologies
|
DS
|
| Command and Conquer Generals |
PC
|
Wizard 101
|
PC
|
World of Warcraft
|
Mac
|
Current Game Library (older games not listed)
We have gradually
collected a fairly diverse game library for our various gaming devices.
The lists below summarise the games that we currently have. I have not
listed many of the older games we have (such as those that worked on
older 486 based PCs and the SEGA Genesis games).
Not surprisingly we seem to have acquired the most titles for the Game
Cube and the Nintendo DS's as that is where the kids play the most!
At present, these lists are simply sorted in alphabetical order and
the numbers do not imply any sort of preference or order of priority. I
may add a ranking scheme similar to the one I use on the Books and Magazines page at some point in the
future.
NOTE: Games whose names are struck out are either
ones that we traded in for other games or in some cases we lost when
my son left his case full of games somewhere and we have never seen it
since!
XBOX 360
- Battlestations Midway
- BioShock
- BioShock 2
- Blazing Angels
- Call of Duty 2
- Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2
- Cars
- Command & Conquer - Tiberium Wars
- Dance Central (Kinect)
- Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2
- Dragon Ball Ultimate Tenkaichi
- Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
- Gears of War
- Gears of War 2
- Gears of War 3
- Halo 3
- Halo 3 - ODST
- Halo Anniversary
- Halo Reach
- Halo Wars
- Kameo
- Kinectimals
- Kinect Adventures
- Kinect Joy Ride
- Lord of the Rings - Battle For Middle Earth II
- Madden NFL Football 2006
- Madden NFL Football 2007
- Major League Baseball 2K6
- Mass Effect
- NBA Live '06
- NHL 2K6
- Over G Fighters
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Portal 2
- Project Gotham Racing (PGR) 3
- Project Gotham Racing (PGR) 4
- Ridge Racer 6
- Rockstar Table Tennis
- Sonic the hedgehog
- Star Trek Legacy
- The Outfit
- Top Spin 2
- Tomb Raider Anniversary
- Tomb Raider - Legend
- Viva Piňata.
- Viva Piňata Party Animals
- Viva Piňata - Trouble in Paradise
- XBOX 360 Arcade
Playstation 3
- 007 - Quantum of Solace
- Angry Birds
- Assassin's Creed
- Assassin's Creed II
- Assassin's Creed - Brotherhood
- Dante's Inferno
- Fallout 3
- Infamous
- Lego Batman
- Lego Harry Potter
- Little Big Planet
- Metal Gear Solid 4 - Guns of the Patriots
- Monster Madness: Grave Danger
- Mushroom Wars
- Need For Speed - Shift
- The Saboteur
- Wipeout (Bundle)
Nintendo Wii
- Animal Crossing - City Folk
- Ben 10: Protector of Earth
- Carnival Games
- Disney Sing It
- Epic Micki
- Glee Karaokee Revolution
- Guitar Hero III - Legends of Rock
- Jillian Michaels - Fitness Ultimatum 2009
- Just Dance 3
- Kirby's Reurn to Dream Land
- Mario Kart Wii
- My Sims
- Lego Indiana Jones
- Lego Rock Band
- New Super Mario Brothers Wii
- Project Runway
- Puppy Luv
- Rayman Raving Rabbids
- Sim Animals
- Sonic and the Black Knight
- Sonic and the Secret Rings
- Sonic Generations
- Sonic Riders - Zero Gravity
- Sonic Unleashed
- Speed Racer
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
- Super Smash Brothers Brawl
- The Garfield Show - Threat of the Space Lasagna
- The Legend of Zelda - Skyward Sword
- The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
- Wario Ware - Smooth Moves
- Wii Fit
- Wii Play
- Wii Ski
- Wii Sports
- Wii Sports Resort
- Zack & Wiki - Search for Barbaro's Treasure
Sony Play Station Portable (PSP)
- Angry Birds
- Ape Escape
- Field Commander
- Blokus
- Chessmaster - The Art of Learning
- Frantix
- Go! Sudoku
- Grand Theft Auto - Liberty city stories
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Hot Shots Golf - Open Tee
- Hot Shots Golf - Open Tee 2
- KAO Challengers
- Little Big Planet
- Syphon Filter - Logan's Shadow
- Major League Baseball 2K6
- Mercury Meltdown 2
- Metal Gear Solid - Portable Ops
- Mod Nation Racers
- Pinball Hall of Fame
- Platypus
- Ridge Racer
- SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals - Fireteam Bravo
- Star Wars Battlefront II
- Wipeout Pure
- World Championship Poker - All In
Nintendo Game Cube
- 007 Night Fire
- Animal Crossing
- Bomberman
- Crash Nitro Kart
- Chibi-Robo Plug into adventure
- Chicken Little
- Dora the Explorer - Journey to the Purple Planet
- Finding Nemo
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Ice Age 2 - The Meltdown
- Kirby Air Ride
- Lego Star Wars
- Lego Star Wars II
- Luigi's Mansion
- Madagascar
- Mario Kart - Double Dash
- Mario Party 7
- Monsters, INC.
- Muppets Party Cruise
- Paper Mario - The 30 Year Door
- Piglet's Big Game
- Shrek 2
- Sims 2 : Pets
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- Sonic Adventure DX - Director's cut
- Sonic Heroes
- Sonic Gems Collection
- Sonic Adventure Battle 2
- Sonic Riders
- SpongeBob Squarepants - Revenge of the Flying Dutchman
- Spyro - Enter the Dragonfly
- Super Mario Strikers
- Super Mario Sunshine
- Super Monkey Ball
- Super Smash Brothers Melee
- Tak - The Great Juju Challenge
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron - attack of the Twonkies
- The Hobbit
- The Incredibles
- The Polar Express
- Wario World
- Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure
Nintendo DS (DS, DSi, 3DS)
- 101 in 1 - Explosive Megamix
- Age of Empires - Mythology
- Animal Crossing (3 copies)
- Animal Planet - Emergency Vets
- Aquarium
- Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
- Assassin's Creed - Altair's Chronicles
- Ben 10 - Alien Force
- Big Brain Academy
- Brain Age
- Brain Busters
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare - Mobilized
- Cars
- Club Penguin - Elite Penguin Force
- Cooking Mama - Shop & Chop
- Cradle of Rome
- Deal or no deal
- Digout - Digging Strike
- Dragon Ball Origins 2
- Eco Creatures - save the forest
- Fish Tycoon
- Ford Racing 3
- Frogger
- Godzilla Unleashed - Double Smash
- Golden Nugget Casino
- Hannah Montana - Music Jam
- Ice Age 2
- JoJo's Fashion Show
- King Kong
- Kirby - Mass Attack
- Kirby - Super Star (Ultra)
- Kirby - Squeak Squad
- Lego Batman
- Lego Indiana Jones - The Original Adventure
- Lego Star Wars II - The
Original Trilogy
- Lego Star Wars II - The Original Trilogy
- Littlest Petshop - Jungle
- Luxor
- Madagascar
- Magician's Quest - Mysterious Times
- March of the Penguins
- Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
- Mario Kart DS (2 copies)
- Mario vs Donkey Kong (Gameboy)
- Mario vs Donkey Kong
2: March of the Minis
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem
- Mario & Luigi - Bowser's Inside Story (2 copies)
- Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games
- Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games
- Mario Party DS
- M & M's Break'Em
- Mr Driller - Drill Spirits
- My baby girl
- My Sims
- My Sims - Kingdom
- Namco Museum DS (2 copies)
- Narnia
- New Super Mario Bros.
- Nintendogs
- Petz - Catz
- Petz - Dogz
- Petz Dogz Fashion
- Petz - Bunnyz
- Petz - Monkeyz House
- Polarium
- Pokémon - Diamond (2 copies)
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Blue - Rescue Team
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Sky
- Pokémon - Platinum (2 copies)
- Pokémon - Ranger
- Pokémon Ranger: Guardian Signs
- Pokémon - Soul Silver
- Pokémon - White
- Professor Layton and the Curious Village
- Professor Layton and the Mysterious Box
- Robots
- Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution
- Snood 2
- Sonic Colors
- Sudokuro
- Platinum Sudoku
- Polarium
- Sim City DS
- Sonic Advanced 3 (Gameboy)
- Sonic Chronicles - The Dark Brotherhood
- Sonic Colors
- Space Invaders Revolution
- Spyro Superpack (Gameboy)
- Star Fox Command
- Sudoku Ball Detective
- Super Mario 64 DS
- Super Mario Brothers (3DS)
- Super Monkey Ball - Touch and Roll
- Super Princess Peach DS
- Tetris: Axis (3DS)
- Tetris DS
- The Bible (Gameboy)
- The Legendary Starfy
- The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time (3DS)
- The Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass
- The Legend of Zelda - Spirit Tracks
- The Sims 2
- Tony Hawk's American Skate Land
- Tony Hawk - Proving Ground
- Sonic Rush
- Trauma Center - Under The Knife
- Viva Piňata - Pocket Paradise
- Whac-A-Mole
- World Championship Poker
- Yoshi's Island DS (2 copies)
- Yoshi - Touch and Go
- Zoey 101 (Gameboy)
- Zoo Tycoon
- Zoo Tycoon 2 (2 copies)
PC
- Command & Conquer - Generals
- Empire Earth
- Harry Potter - Prisoner of Azkaban
- Jet Fighter (IV and V)
- Lego Star Wars
- Lord of the Rings - Battle for Middle Earth
- Roblox
- Star Craft
- The Incredibles
- The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
- The Sims 2 Deluxe
- The Sims 2: Freetime
- The Sims 2: Pets
- The Sims 3
- The Sims 3: Ambitions
- The Sims 3: Generations
- The Sims 3: Pets
- The Sims 3: Late Night Expansion Pack
- Wizard 101
Mac
- Angry Birds
- Chuzzle
- Dream Chronicles - Book of Air
- Plants vs. Zombies
- Starcraft
- World of Warcraft