I think I played oot more than majoras mask but I played the hell out of both on 64.

With McGlaven's 3rd Round pick, #26 overall, pinch-hitter dlk9s selects:


Minecraft

Spoiler:

I'm in my 40's. I have played Minecraft a total of maybe 10 minutes in my life. But my kids play the **** out of it and it is clearly one of the most popular and influential games of all time.

At first glance, it looks weird. Minecraft's graphics are a combination of the 8-bit 1980's and LEGO, but that unique look both adds to the appeal and makes it fun to use that style to create objects that look like their real-world counterparts.


Beyond the graphics, though, Minecraft revolutionized open world, open gameplay adventure. Lots of video games throughout history have billed themselves as "educational" or "encouraging creativity," but Minecraft is one of the few that actually delivers and then some. My kids have spent weekends building towns, amusement parks, and more, for no other reason except for the pure fun, creativity, and satisfaction of it. They aren't trying to rank up or win competitive awards.

My 11-year old has gotten so involved that she has learned some coding and scripting skills.

Plus, there's the whole survival adventure and crafting aspect of the game. I can't begin to count how many hours my kids have explained different crafting recipes to me.

And how many games let people in the game control someone's Christmas lights in real life?


Or how about make a video call to a real-life person?


Minecraft is the #2 selling video game of all-time with 144 million units sold. It is one of just two games (Tetris) to surpass 100 million.

Odyssey and Majora's Mask both excellent picks that were high on our BPA list. The movement in Odyssey is utter perfection, and I think it's really interesting how they took an entirely different design philosophy from the other 3D Marios/platformers in general and almost made it more of an adventure game.

Majora's Mask is unquestionably the better N64 Zelda imo. Such an ambitious game in terms of mechanics and storytelling. The side quests flesh out the world sooo much and I think it communicates a consistent tone better than any other game in the series not names Breath of the Wild.

If the shmup you’re thinking of is a “treasure”, it’s good but not as good as the press make it out to be.

Minecraft.

Great value given where oot was picked and the fact majoras mask is the better game

Majora's Mask most definitely not the better game, tho it is excellent.

Gun to my head right now I'd say OOT was superior but I've replayed it way more than MM. In fact I think start to finish MM I only beat once. Really should get the N64 classic whenever it hits.

MM was a pretty solid play through (I didn't actually get round to playing either that or OOT until I got the collector's disc for the GC) but obv I think OOT was better. That said I don't think OOT is even my favourite Zelda game

we've got another McGlaven pick coming up after me (writing up now) if anyone wants to claim it/start thinking about your pick

This was my suggestion for McGlaven’s next pick, all people who had expressed interest or talked about a game they were surprised hadn’t been picked yet.

My next pick is



Wow!
OMG!
What A Game!

I couldn't let this fall any further, as I've been banging the drum for gameplay/mechanics above all else, and on those terms Rocket League is probably the best game I've ever played. Like Tetris, I feel pretty comfortable claiming this game is perfect. I've been playing it for around two and a half years now and not only am I not bored of it yet, I often have to actively force myself not to play it. It's the only competitive online game I've ever played seriously, and certainly the only one I've ever been good at (in the top 1.2% of doubles players apparently ).

The reason Rocket League rules so hard, and playing it is so addictive, is the amount of control the game gives you over your car, and the unbelievable range of possibilities a skilled player has to play the ball once you know to how jump, boost, dodge, air roll, dribble etc. When you start as a noob you'll charge along the ground towards the ball and it will fly around and bounce in more or less by mistake. After a while you'll learn to hang back and wait for loose balls to break, slowly figuring out how to strike the ball so that it goes roughly in the direction you want. Then come aerials, completely changing the game as it now exists in three dimensions. Time goes on, and tactics come into play – boost management, defensive rotations, goalkeeping, covering the line between ball and goal, learning how and when to challenge in midfield, the notion that passing to a teammate might actually be a worthwhile option. Judging the bounce of a rebound before the ball hits the wall so you can fly to just the right spot to get that immediate deflection in. Faking a challenge to force your opponent to commit before stealing the ball and countering. Learning to tilt your car just so while you're doing an aerial so you make contact with only one wheel, hopefully sending the ball down at the perfect angle into the goal, and making you feel like a god.

Basically it boils down to: Game that is fun to play at any skill level + Game with insanely high skill ceiling = best game ever, complete obsession, thousands of hours invested.



Anyway, here's a highlights video from this years world championship. Watch it all, but if you can't be bothered, skip to 3:48 and watch the #1. Spine-tingling. God tier video game. THIS IS ROCKET LEAGUE.

Video in the Rocket League post is the first one I snap-clicked because I just had to watch it. Psyonix basically created a high-level, competitive sport with Rocket League, something that could easily stand up to a professional sports league, a massive achievement in gaming. It may be the most purely dopamine-inducing game I've ever played. Wouldn't have batted an eye if someone took it #1.

My only complaint would be I'm not sure it's for everyone the way Fortnite is. Casual mode quickly got tiresome for me (too many bots and people leaving), but after at least 100 hours, I was still terrible at competitive to the point that I quit playing because I was tired of dragging my teams down. I think it misses a sweet spot for people who are mildly competitive but don't feel like practicing to get better.

So what are we doing with Mcglaven's picks, is he just auto skipped and anyone can jump in whenever?

I can do another if nobody else wants to.

Question, though:

Am I blocked or something? I keep suggesting people and ideas for those fill in picks. Just quoted it like 5 posts up. We can auto-skip that slot though and just have fill-ins when they come along. I’ll PM g-Bebe and see if he wants to pick.

I'll make a pick for him.

I suggest that the next person up who is actively participating be allowed to pick now instead of waiting for someone to sub for McGlavin and whoever does pick for McGlaven can just make their pick whenever. That way the people who are actively participating aren't held up any longer than necessary.

Speaking of actively participating, I'm sorry my write up for BoI has taken so long, but I had this great write up in mind with GIFS of OP builds but haven't been able to find ones that I like. Will post one today though even if it's not the masterpiece I had envisioned.

I'll do a write-up later today or tomorrow, but with McGlaven's 4th round selection, pick #41 overall, I will select:

as I think shows in the RLCS videos, it works as a spectator sport in a way that I don't think any other game does. I missed the RLCS in London a couple of months ago, but if they do it again I will probably go.

that's funny because I was going to compare it favourably to Fortnite in the write up as a game that is fun at all experience levels. I can't get into Fortnite because I join a game, run around for ages without seeing anyone, then get killed and the game is over :/

I do get the thing of not having a mid point between casual and competitive though. They really just need to sort the casual matchmaking out so that you don't constantly join games where your team is 5-0 down.

Also I've heard from friends IRL that they've been turned off by people flaming in the chat, but after playing poker for years that stuff has never really bothered me.

sixfour is on the clock

I suggested this too but yes, just skip that spot and we can work to find possible substitutes. Chalk BOI up to another game I didn't get at all; there's an undrafted game which probably won't get picked that's similar and waaaay more my style that I think is a ton better than BOI.

Quick nitpick - this is pick 48; El Kabong subbed in for pick 41. That said awesome pick and another game I have never played (along with Minecraft) but glad someone took it and will write about it.

I generally don't care what people say in chat, other than reporting people for racism, but I do feel bad when my teammates are like "just stay out of the way." I do feel like giving RL another go though, it's just so much fun and so rewarding to play.

Damn reinstalled RL but can’t get it to detect my controller after about an hour trying various solutions. Rip

The #33 pick in the draft is:



If I had to, I could sum up what makes The Binding of Isaac one of the greatest games in exactly one word,


Look mom No hands!


What does this button do?



The one TRUE Boss.

In addition to the great base game, Isaac has an active modding community that has come up with some incredible mods, including 1 called anti-birth that is almost a complete overhaul of the base game that makes it even more challenging.

Isaac and Spelunky's influence can be seen by the seemingly endless amount of rogue-lite games that stream insists on littering my front page of their store with because of the hours I've put into those 2 games.

My favorite console game of all time is still out there also. Not sure if it’s getting drafted by this crowd although it would make me surprised if it fell the whole way through