Spend five minutes with anyone who's been playing CRPGs for at least ten years, and they'll almost inevitably start gushing about Planescape: Torment. And not without cause, either: perhaps the pinnacle of videogame storytelling, Torment manages to take every last cliche and convention of the genre and turn them upside-down and inside-out. The premise is simple enough at the beginning: you wake up in a morgue with no idea how you got there or even who you are, save for the realization that you are incapable of staying dead. The search for your past will send you through lands that defy description, reveal the true power of belief, and force you to stand against an evil more intricately linked to your own identity than you could ever imagine. And yet, this isn't your typical 'save the world' plot by any means. Your objective isn't to prevent death, but to cause it: specifically, your own. Your immortality, it seems, has come at a great cost, and if you cannot find a way to die while you still can, you may well lose yourself forever. The actual gameplay is largely the same as the other Infinity Engine titles (specifically, the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale titles), so veterans of those games will find little new in the underlying mechanics. What makes Planescape: Torment shine in this area, though, is how it intregates the unfolding story with the gameplay mechanics. Sufficently high attribute scores might allow you to more easily recall past lives or talk your way out of a bad situation, and your ability to choose whether to play as a fighter, mage, or thief is based around you remembering having taken on such a role in your previous life. If anything bad can be said about Planescape: Torment, it would be that that the extremely dialogue-heavy nature of the game could turn off some of the more impatient players -- at times, it can feel more like a novel than a game. If that doesn't scare you off, though, you'll find plenty to enjoy in the game. I cannot recommend a purchase strongly enough -- there is nothing that fits the description "Good Old Game" more perfectly than Planescape: Torment.
Your planet is under attack by an alien armada. The government may be collaborating with the invaders. Can you expose the truth? Michel Ansel, the French creator of the Rayman series, takes this concept and runs with it to produce a truly stunning and sadly overlooked game. Cinematic from the very beginning, Beyond Good and Evil fuses the stealth action of Metal Gear Solid with the adventurous feel of The Legend of Zelda to produce a game that manages to make you laugh, cry, and cheer. The worst that can be said about the game is that it ends too soon, and leaves you on a cliffhanger that begs a sequel. Though since there is one in development, you really have no good reason not to buy this game. I can make no stronger purchase recommendation than I do here. Buy this game. You won't regret it.
