4. Your Guilty Pleasure Game - China Warrior on the TurboGrafx 16. It's a TERRIBLE game, but for some reason I continue playing it even if it's basically unplayable. The controls barely work, there's only 2 songs in the game, the bosses are cheap assholes...and I still play it.
5. Game Character You Feel Most Like - Gonna have to go with Tex Murphy on this one. He's serious when he wants to be, but is a total goofball on most other occasions. Keen eye for clues and evidence, but can't resist making jokes about them. Bit of a bumbling fool at times, has a tendency of walking into traps, but overall the kind of person you'd want on your side. https://computerfairi.es/media/uDLvVJkndar2qw2H5-g
6. Most Annoying Character - Hokutomaru from Garou: Mark of the Wolves. Actually, he's tied with Bao from KoF 2000 and Akari from Last Blade. In fact, if your fighting game has a token 13-year-old trickster, I probably hate them.
7. Favorite Game Couple - I feel like Fire Emblem Awakening is the game that turned me into a ridiculous shipper - that said, the "best" couple, I'd argue, is M!Robin and Tiki.
8. Best Soundtrack - My answer to this very much changes by the day, but if I had to pick just one, I don't think I'd ever get tired of Uplink's selection of demoscene music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUn9SYdPF4A
9. Saddest Scene - Chapters 10 and 11 of FE:Awakening. It's so sad that the battle music even gets overwritten for an entire chapter. Pair this with a decision that genuinely feels like there's too much at stake...
10. Best Gameplay - There is something so beautiful about the way Doom handles, that many of its contemporaries - even the ones that try to emulate what Doom did - get so wrong. Weaving in and out of projectile clusters, zooming through hallways, that satisfying moment when you find a hidden doorway leading to that weapon that's been taunting you from behind a window for the whole level.
11. Gaming System of Choice - If I ignore my desktop gaming rig (that seems almost unfair, really), I feel like I get a lot of mileage out of the Playstation 2. There is just so much variety in shit you can do on that console. I don't think we've seen a library as diverse as the PS2's in a long time.
12. Everybody go play Doom. Seriously. I'll be here when you're done.
13. A game you've played more than 5 times - I could cop out and answer Doom again but I'm ACTUALLY going to answer Earthbound. Yup, played and beaten this game more than 5 times, and never once legitimately earned the Sword of Kings.
14. Current video game wallpaper: I took a map of Symphony of the Night and did things to it. Great for 1080p panels. https://computerfairi.es/media/8g6l_wD0gF6NrJAE82w
15. Post A Screenshot From The Game You're Playing Right Now: "Hi, I'm GLOOey McGLOOface!" (Prey 2017) https://computerfairi.es/media/TKsiDDTN69bgQ1xso1s
16. Game with the best cutscenes - This is a damn close match, but I'm honestly torn between Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VIII. Both of these are games that went above and beyond in the cutscene department.
18. Favorite Protagonist - To avoid stealing the answer from question 2, here's a ridiculous cop-out of an answer: "Robin" in FE:Awakening. I have a thing for customizable heroes. My Robin might have said and done the same things that everybody else's Robin did, but THIS one had squinty eyes and a crew cut. https://computerfairi.es/media/Y9aoEzdQRVswBRm3e9s
19. A game setting I wish I lived in: This is a tough question to answer because so many game settings are objectively beautiful but full of bad things that need fighting. I kinda don't want to do so much of the fighting, and so many neat-looking worlds are total crapsacks under the surface. But I dunno...maybe I want to go live on Myst Island. Assuming I can write in an internet connection.
20. Favorite Genre: I'm a nut for first-person games in general. Shooters, walkers, simulations, adventure games, open world stuff. I enjoy seeing things from a character's point of view, especially if it's well handled.
21. Best Story - While not a perfect story (nothing is!), nothing enthralled me quite like Ace Attorney 3: Trials and Tribulations. With only one case that was ultimately not relevant to the overarching plot, and probably the closest thing the series ever had to a "final boss", it was definitely the note on which I wouldn't have minded the series going out on.
22. A sequel that disappointed you - While I acknowledge the things it did right, I regretfully state, Descent 3. The tech was in the right place, the level design made some degree of sense...but it just felt nothing like the Descent games I'd played before, and I couldn't really get into it. Overload, meanwhile, is the game I always wished Descent 3 was. So there's hope there.
23. Best Art Style - Either the textureless gradient look of Killer7, or the clay animation seen in The Neverhood. In fact, I think I just really like the clay look. Aren't we at a point where real-time graphics can reasonably simulate clay, by now? I want to see more games like that.
24. Favorite "Classic" Title - If I take "classic" to mean "prior to 1985"...that still leaves me waffling between a few choices. So I'll just list them all. Qix, Pressure Cooker, Xevious, Choplifter, Sword of Fargoal.
25. A Game on Your List To Play - Maybe, eventually, I'll get around to playing Undertale. Maybe. Eventually.
26. Best Voice Acting - Gonna give that one to the original Metal Gear Solid. Solid work all around. I mean, it's the reason I even know Cam Clarke's name.
27. Most Epic Scene - The opening reel of Final Fantasy VIII. Sure, it sounds like a lot of cliches now, but you've got relentless angel symbolism, a sword duel, and ominous Latin music. Still runs shivers down my spine when I watch it.
28. Favorite Game Developer - The one that has always resonated with me would be the Apogee Software of the early 90s. While their output was, admittedly, all over the place (Dark Ages being a massive far cry away from Duke Nukem), it was their shareware business model that inspired me to realize that ANYBODY could make a game and find an audience with it. They were probably the most important name in what we'd call "indie" games now.
29. A Game You Were Surprised You Liked - You'd hardly believe it by how I feel about it now, but the Yakuza series. I'd owned the first game not long after release, but couldn't really cope with the load times and the general awkwardness of its translation. I randomly found Yakuza 2 on sale at a Hollywood Video that was closing down, and decided I'd give the series a second try. Somehow, it wound up being the best PS2 game I'd ever played. So, I give it "Most Improved." https://computerfairi.es/media/_P5WGLxQe56_spMwUGI
17. Favorite Antagonist - The Boss in MGS3. She's going against you for the entire game - and when you learn why, you start questioning whether you were doing the right thing yourself.