What's you're favorite genre of video games?

What genre of video games do you like playing?

Me I like 3D platformers (Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, etc.) but since the genre has been dead for the past few years I started getting into 3rd person shooters (Uncharted and Tomb Raider) but with Ratchet and Clank last year and Yooka-Laylee, Skylar and Plux, and Crash Bandicoot Trilogy coming out this year it looks like 3D platformers are making a comeback

My first love is point & click (or parser) adventure games, like those put out by Sierra and Lucasarts back in the day. These went out of fashion in the late 90s and I didn't really play video games for many years. These games are now making a resurgence, which is nice.

I also love the Civilisation series. I haven't played enough turn-based strategies to know if this extends to the entire genre. What I love about Civilisation is it isn't just a combat game. There is combat in it, but there's so much more. You can try to conquer the world, or you can try to win by creating the most cultured civilisation in the world, or by being voted world ruler by the united nations, or develop scientifically and be the first to colonise space.

Since getting the PS3 I have gained an appreciation for what I call 'action/adventure' games, like the Uncharted series. I'm not great at the action part, which usually comprises most of these games, but being immersed in the story, feeling like I'm part of a Hollywood blockbuster, that's fun. So I push myself through on easy, and have managed to finish the first three games.

Then lastly, there's Minecraft which I think probably qualifies as a genre to itself. I like the immersiveness (I tend to forget the graphics are so blocky. It just becomes my world), and the combination of survival and endless creativity.

Oh, and Rick, I've been playing Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, which has been fun. Once again, it's all about the story for me. The gameplay is just the way to engage with it.

Genre? I don't know.
I do know there is one mechanic that I really glom onto, and that is building.
Not Minecraft style building, I can play that for about 3 hours then I lose all interest for years.
To me, "building" is more in the sense of advancing along lines I earn and chose. So conquering the world in an 80's-90's Koei game started it all off for me, and I still think those are about the pinacle of the gaming experience, but one of my favorite games of all time was Gran Turismo 3. You got to "build" a car, and a garage/stable of cars, and tweak them, and so forth. -but I hate racing games. Except that one.
Everybody (except me) loves the Dark Souls games, but before they did those, FromSoftware did the Armored Core series, which I absolutely got absorbed into. -again because you built your own mecha/core and outfitted it how you like.
That game series reminds me of Naval Ops:Warship Gunner 2, which takes that construction model to an extreme. It was a lot of fun, but very, very short.

AdamCollings wrote: I'm not great at the action part, which usually comprises most of these games, but being immersed in the story, feeling like I'm part of a Hollywood blockbuster, that's fun. So I push myself through on easy,

Quit publishing lines from my diary! ;-)

I'm totally in the same boat. I once would have said (and still almost did just now) that RPGs are my favorite, but that's only because they have been mostly likely to allow me to have a power or story fantasy that I can see through from start to finish. They also feature skill/capability advancement (loot/experience grinding, etc) which I enjoy, and often lots of exploration, which I also love. But now many "action" games feature those same elements(Bioshock, Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, etc).

As long as the requirements for reflex skills and quick decision making/reaction are not too high for me on easy mode I love almost any game with that combo of elements!

What genre is Starfox Assault, the one for GameCube? I like it because you fly the fighter jet in some levels, but in other levels, you have to run around on foot to get things done, occasionally hopping into a jet or a tank to help your friends in the sky. That's probably my favorite video game, or at least it's tied with WWF No Mercy. No Mercy is a wrestling game, of course, but what is Starfox?

Reed Benson wrote:What genre is Starfox Assault, the one for GameCube? I like it because you fly the fighter jet in some levels, but in other levels, you have to run around on foot to get things done, occasionally hopping into a jet or a tank to help your friends in the sky. That's probably my favorite video game, or at least it's tied with WWF No Mercy. No Mercy is a wrestling game, of course, but what is Starfox?

I'm thinking it's found on lists for "3rd person action" based on your description.

Game genre names are becoming rapidly more useless to me. What some people call an RPG I call an action game with some RPG mechanics. But for me, an RPG is about emphasizing the character controlled by the player and the fantasy of what THEY choose to do and are capable of, where an action game is more about what the player is physically capable of as they control a digital puppet on screen. In the former, I can "play the role" regardless of my personal skill, but in the latter the gameplay is about me and my skill.

Likewise, Castlevania Symphony Of The Night and it's handheld sequels are like metroid games with an action rpg leveling/loot system. And yet media types all over describe games as "Metroidvania" when they actually have no leveling system. So why not "Metroid-like" or "Symphony-Like" or SOMETHING that will better help me find the games I really want?

Same with RPGs. Dark Souls and Bloodborne might qualify as Action RPGs for some, and maybe that description is fine. But those games are HUGELY more action oriented than Diablo and its clones, which are also called "Action RPGs", which in turn are radically different from Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, which are ALSO called "Action RPGs".

Okay, I'm just ranting now. Lost most of my voice to a cold this week so I think I've been lacking an expressive outlet!