Category 7: Video Games (Modern)

Eric	Richard	Khurram	Derrick
Colony Wars	Metal Gear Solid	GTA 4	Final Fantasy 7
Starcraft	Red Alert	Mortal Kombat Trilogy	Tomb Raider Legend
Red Alert 2	Shadow of the Colossus	Civilization 3	Ninja Gaiden Sigma

Round 1: Eric starts us off with Colony Wars which in my opinion was a wasted pick, as no one would’ve taken Colony Wars in this draft besides him. My choices came down to Metal Gear Solid of Final Fantasy 7 because both games introduced me to the Playstation. Solid Snake has become an icon in the video game world and MGS was the first game that I know of to feature a cinematic story along with classic game play. Khurram made an excellent choice with GTA 4 as the game is extremely popular and must be so for a reason. I’m not exactly a big fan of the GTA games, but I do understand their appeal. Derrick closed the first round out with Final Fantasy 7. It is a first round quality game for sure and I would’ve drafted it on the way back if given a chance. Looking at it objectively, I might have to give the edge to Khurram based on a pure popularity stand point, but I’d prefer to either play MGS or Final Fantasy 7 over any of the GTA’s. Bottom line, 3 of the first 4 games chosen were first round quality and a case could be made for any of them.

Round 2: Derrick kicks off round 2 with Tomb Raider Legend. I knocked Eric for taking Colony Wars in the first round, so one might think I would do the same with Derrick as it is highly unlikely that anyone would’ve taken Tomb Raider Legend before his next pick. However, the game is quality (not to say that Colony Wars is not) so Derrick’s excellent first round pick makes up for this one. Khurram went with Mortal Kombat Trilogy. I can think of a few better fighters out there, but the Mortal Kombat series has always offered its unique style to gamers and for some that outweighs any possible lack of depth. That being said, the game was still solid, and much like my reasoning with Derrick’s pick this round, I cannot knock this pick. I went with Red Alert, my favorite RTS of all time in terms of pure game play. For the RTS savants out there, I know there are better games, but RTS was the gold standard of its time for quite a while and that combined with its awesome soundtrack, cheesy storyline and Tanya, make this another solid pick. Eric closed out the round with by far the best pick. Though I never got into Starcraft, its appeal is inarguable. This is a game that caused deaths in Korea because people played it too much. An outstanding pick for Eric to make up for his reach in the first round.

Round 3: Eric goes back to back RTS games which would be okay in some circumstances but in doing so made a grave error in leaving out what I thought was one of his favorite games of all time: Shadow of the Collosus. Of course, I took this game as soon as he let it fall by the wayside. In terms of originality, creativity and ambience there is without question no other game like it. In my opinion it was the best pick of the round. I have never played Civilization 3 so I cannot comment in depth about it, except to say that I have heard good things and Round 3 is usually about personal preferences more than anything else anyways. Though I do kind of wonder where Prince of Persia is on Khurram’s list. Derrick closed the category out with Ninja Gaiden Sigma, a beautifully designed game featuring a ninja who is cold-blooded killing machine. Good times!

Overall Impressions: I refuse to declare a winner this round. I obviously like my picks more than anyone else’s, but no one made an egregious error in my opinion. Though I heavily questioned the Colony Wars pick by Eric it ultimately did not come back to hurt him as he got a first round caliber game in the second round. Eric missed out on Shadow, and I may have preferred Final Fantasy 7 or MGS4 now that I have almost finished the game, but games are based so much on personal preferences (consider: people’s preferences of one genre over another, or story vs. gameplay vs. graphics, length of time involved in the game, multiplayer capabilities…who am I to say one is absolutely better than another…I acknowledge that I am an arrogant bastard, but not enough to do that) that I really can’t fault any one set of picks.