Pick 5: Games That You Haven't Played, But You Should

2. Burnout (PS2, Xbox) I dabbled a little with Legends on the PSP, but I've never played one of the console versions of this Racer for the Rest of Us. It ought to be right up my alley, too, since I really don't care for "hardcore" racing games. I even picked up Burnout 3 as part of the PS2 greatest-hits line for like $15 last December, and I haven't touched it yet. I think it's still in shrink-wrap.

3. Beyond Good & Evil (Xbox) Another critical darling that I bought when it was on sale and have never even put in my Xbox. Are you noticing a theme here? The worst part is, I hear it's like eight hours long. I could beat it in a weekend! What's wrong with me?!

4. Psychonauts (Xbox) At least I don't actually own this one. I was kinda waiting for the price to drop. Sorry Double Fine! Just kidding. The enthusiasm around here for this thing was so intense that I basically fed on that and didn't actually play the game for myself, until finally other games came out and grabbed my attention. I feel like someday (maybe this year) I'll relent, buy a copy, and find it as endearing as everyone else seems to. Maybe if they'd ever put it on the 360 backward-compatibility list.

5. Diablo One or two, take your pick. I love Starcraft and all things Warcraft with an abiding passion--it's not a leap to say I just love Blizzard in general--so why didn't I ever get into this? I even had friends playing the first one in high school and I just didn't bother to go out and get it myself, despite its early and intriguing foray into the wilds of cooperative Internet play.

4. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (Xbox) I loved Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but Warrior Within put me off. I know The Two Thrones is better, but I never gathered up the wherewithal to give it a shot (and having played through the mobile phone version doesn't count). I still want to see how the Prince's story ends.

3. Metal Gear Acid 2 (PSP) I like Metal Gear and I've played every other game with Metal Gear in the title. And I like strategy games. Unforgivable.

2. Dragon Force (SAT) I've played maybe an hour of Panzer Dragoon Saga for the Saturn, which disqualifies it from this list. One day, I'll go back and play all the way through it (I'll have to find a copy first), and then I'll sit down and play all the way through Dragon Force. It's one of those games that everybody who's played it loves it, and I'm someone who's a big fan of strategy RPGs like this anyway.

1. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) I've played just about every single other Castlevania game, with the exception of the Nintendo 64 games, which I avoided out of principle. So how come I haven't played what's arguably the best mere shadow of Symphony of the Night yet? I'm growing more and more comfortable with the idea that the series will never surpass 1997's Symphony of the Night, at least not until the Great 2D Renaissance of '09. But I still love the Castlevania formula, so I need to score me a copy of Dawn of Sorrow and stab me some axe armors.

2. Soul Calibur GameSpot has only given out four perfect scores in 10 years of reviewing games. You might think that it would be a requirement for GameSpot editors to have extensive experience with those four specific games...but it isn't. Sure, I've played through The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time a few times, and spent countless hours doing kick-flips and ollies in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. I even played Chrono Cross, although unfortunately, not to completion. That leaves one perfect 10 game that I have never played: Soul Calibur for the Sega Dreamcast. It's not that I don't like fighting games. I'm still playing Dead or Alive 4, and before that I played everything from Tekken to Tao Feng to Virtua Fighter. I enjoy fighting games quite a bit actually, but somehow I have managed to miss what is often regarded as one of the best 3D fighting games ever made. Not owning a Dreamcast is no excuse either, because I still managed to play quite a few other Dreamcast games even though I never actually owned the system. Someday I'll play this game, though...someday.

3. Starcraft "What?!? You've never played Starcraft!?" That's usually the response I get whenever Blizzard's quintessential sci-fi RTS comes up in conversation and I shamefully admit that I've never played it. It's true, though--somehow I managed to avoid playing Starcraft despite having several friends who played it religiously. In fact, I never even played a Warcraft game until I finally tried out Warcraft III a couple of years ago. I wasn't actively resisting the charms of the Zerg, Protoss, and Terrans; I was just busy playing other games…for eight years. I like real-time strategy games, and I spent hours playing the Myth and Dune games, but by the time I reached a point where I was ready to play Starcraft, the game had become too legendary, too insular, and too intimidating for me to approach. I've officially missed the party on this game. But, hey, no worries, I'll just wait for the sequel.

Don't look at me like that. I'm only one of about 6,500,000,000 people on this planet who haven't played this game.

4. Psychonauts I don't know why I haven't played Psychonauts. I've heard nothing but rave reviews about it, and it looks and sounds like a game I would really enjoy. But for some reason, I completely missed out on this game. I think it was because at the time I was still busy playing Resident Evil 4 and God of War. Whatever it was, every time I read a story about the poor sales of Psychonauts I can't help but feel a little guilty. Sorry, Tim.

5. Metal Gear Solid I get mixed reactions when I tell people that I never played Metal Gear Solid on the PlayStation. Some people tell me that I'm better off, and others tell me that I'm missing out on one of the best stories ever told in the history of video games. Feeling inadequate as a fan of video games, I ran out and purchased Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, hoping that I could pick up the series from that point. I failed to catch on, and quit playing that game after only an hour or two. A few years later I made another attempt at playing a Metal Gear game. I actually purchased Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for the GameCube, hoping to finally gain an understanding of the origins of the Kojima fanaticism. It didn't work, though, and I quit playing the game after about five minutes. All that I have learned from my experiences with the Metal Gear Solid games is that I missed something big, and there's no going back. It seems to be one of those cases where you just had to be there, and I wasn't. I really should go back and play the original, but in all honesty, I'd rather play Metal Gear Acid 2 instead.

2. vib-ribbon (PS) Those of you living in North America have a great excuse for never having played Nana-On Sha's Vib-Ribbon, because it was never released outside of Japan and Europe. The game's unusual title comes from the fact that your only goal in the game is to guide a rabbit named Vibri along a ribbon that's littered with obstacles generated by the music that you're listening to. There's not a whole lot to the gameplay, then, but that's not to say that the game isn't challenging--it really just depends on which music CD from your collection you choose to play along to. Sony was kind enough to send me a copy of the game back in 1999, and although I rarely purchase music on CD nowadays, I still dig the game out occasionally to see what kind of levels it comes up with when confronted by my current favorite tunes. Vibri's upcoming challenges include tracks from The Streets, Gnarls Barkley, Arctic Monkeys, and Muse.

3. Front Mission 3 (PS) This turn-based strategy RPG from Square is one of my all-time-favorite PlayStation games and can be credited as the game that really turned me onto the idea that turn-based gameplay can be fun. I don't consider myself a fan of mechs, mobile suits, or giant robots, but I got sucked into Front Mission 3's world the moment I saw my Wanzer taking out an enemy in the game's first battle sequence. The strategy portion of the game isn't particularly taxing, but I don't remember it being a cakewalk either. What I do remember is that I used to spend hours customizing my Wanzers to make sure that they were as prepared for the upcoming mission as they possibly could be, and that I played through the game twice in order to check out both of its storylines. I've recommended Front Mission 3 to several friends over the years, and every one of them has enjoyed it. You could be next--provided you can find a copy for sale somewhere.

SEUCK wasn't the kind of game that you bought on the strength of its box art.

4. Shoot-Em-Up Contruction Kit (C64) Affectionately known as SEUCK, Sensible Software's easy-to-use construction kit is one of the two Commodore 64 titles (the other being the Boulder Dash Construction Kit) that is responsible for me becoming interested in how games are made. I still get a kick out of designing maps and levels for any games that afford me the uncomplicated tools to do so, but it was SEUCK that did it first. The title came with a handful of decent games that were created using the construction kit, and after playing them, I spent more hours than I care to remember attempting to make something even better. I never did. I maintain to this day that the sprites and backgrounds I created were better than those in any of the bundled games, but getting the enemies to behave in a way conducive to good gameplay was a process that I didn't enjoy nearly as much as just making stuff that looked good. I guess the best game that I ever "constructed" could be considered the Rise of the Robots of its day.

5. Starsky & Hutch (PS2) My love for this 2003 action game from Empire Interactive is well known in the GameSpot office, where it's even been brought up in meetings by colleagues looking to humorously discredit my opinions. I'll be the first to admit that Starsky & Hutch isn't a great single-player game, but when played cooperatively with a friend, it really comes into its own. One of you gets to play Chase HQ at the wheel of the TV show's trademark 1974 Ford Torino, while the other rides shotgun and plays something resembling Virtua Cop. The game's viewer-ratings mechanic encourages you to drive like a stuntman, and the unlockables and bonus content that are up for grabs in every mission add to the replay value considerably. Much of the time I spent playing Starsky & Hutch when it was first released in Europe was in the company of a friend who refused to play any other game that wasn't Animal Crossing. But I was way into this game (I recall mentioning it during our E3 2003 meeting for Game of Show) long before it became responsible for those fond gaming memories.