As we inch closer to leaving the pilot phase, I'm looking for what games to offer up as bounties in 2016! So far we've mainly stuck with (shorter) digital PC games since a lot of people already have them or they're readily available (at a low price). At some point, I'd like to expand things a bit and get into some longer and / or console games. However, part of the bounty system is to encourage interaction, so I want to make sure I'm picking games that people are interested in playing. Especially if they're long :P

So I came up with a quick list of potential games and wanted to see if any of these interest anyone. By all means, if you have any suggestions, post 'em here!

Ogre Battle 64 - This game seems so cool and I've never played an Ogre Battle game before. It's available on the Wii Virtual Console (or it was at one point).
Pokemon X - I've actually never played a Pokemon game and as a soon to be 34 year old dude, I'm not sure I can get into one at this point. But eh, it's worth a shot, I suppose?
Donkey Kong 64 - I loved the Banjo games and Super Mario 64, but this one never made it into my N64 as a kid. I've tried a couple of times to get into it and it's a nice game, but hasn't clicked yet.
Donkey Kong Country Returns - Umm...this game is really tough.
Armored Core - I have a few of these and I've never really played them. I should change that.
Shadowrun (Genesis) - I haven't played any Shadowrun games, so I'd be interested in any of them, really.
Shaq-Fu - I've avoided this game long enough hehe.
Ecco the Dolphin - It's like Dark Souls with dolphins.
Sly Cooper series - I recently re-played the first one and thought it was great (again). I need to play the other three!
Jak and Daxter series - Much like Sly, I recently re-played the first one. I need to play the others (at least 2 and 3)!
Resistance: Fall of Man - I'm a big fan of the Ratchet and Clank series, so I feel like I could get into this other series by Insomniac Games.
Prince of Persia Trilogy - I finished The Sands of Time shortly after it was released and really enjoyed it. I've never touched the other two, but I have the HD trilogy on PS3.
Culdcept Saga - This is such a cool game / concept, but man, the CPU cheats soooo muuuuch! I thought with a bounty and some motivation, I could learn to deal with that :P
Halo Wars - Okay, so it's an RTS on a console. But it's obvious we're never getting a PC port. I think Aliens vs. Predator: Extinction would be another nice option here. It's another console-only RTS that's never getting ported (and looks neat).
The X-Files - I thought this could be fun to coincide with the new series. Unfortunately, it's not readily available.
Various PS1 JRPGs - I have a plethora of these time vacuums and need to play some! I played through Suikoden earlier this year and loved it. Some candidates include Breath of Fire III, Xenogears, Legend of Legaia, Valkyrie Profile, Beyond the Beyond, Front Mission 3, etc.
Shenmue - I played this a bunch when it came out, but never finished it. With all of the hype around the third one (even though it's years away), I thought this could be fun.
Superman 64 - And you thought Shaq-Fu was bad! This would most definitely earn the "Iron Stomach" bonus hehe.
The 7th Saga - I first saw this game in Nintendo Power, but I didn't have a SNES. Now I have the game and need to play it! But it's supposedly a brutal grindfest...
Natural Doctrine - This is an interesting one since it didn't review very well, but looks kinda neat and is supposed to be punishingly difficult. I'm always up for a tactical RPG challenge.
Chrono Trigger - I have never finished this game, 'nuff said.
Final Fantasy VI - I have never finished this game, 'nuff said.
Super Metroid - I have never finished this game, 'nuff said.
The Legend of Zelda - I have never finished this game, 'nuff said.

Your status on those last 4 games moho_00... you should uh... you should probably remedy that. Also, Xenogears is god tier if you are into RPGs.

If I'm feeling up to it tomorrow (still battling flu or possibly repeat food poisoning) I'll see about going through my repertoire and adding a few suggestions to the list. Maybe get some obscure goodies but oldies!

Alien Shooter series
Alien Breed series
Dead Nation
Devil May Cry series
God of War series
Final Fantasy X or X/2

@dhobo - Hope you start feeling better! I definitely enjoy obscure goodies :D

I forgot to include these since they weren't in the stack on my shelf :P (Most of these are digital PC releases)

• Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor - Always down for a nice dungeon crawler. I really liked Might and Magic VI (even though I never finished that last dungeon...), but I've not tried this one yet.
• Bravely Default - This game received a lot of praise when it came out and seems like a nice modern JRPG.
• Divinity : Developer's Cut - I played this for a few hours and was enjoying it. It can be a little rough around the edges at times, but overall seemed nice.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - Another huge JRPG. Yay.
• Resident Evil HD Remaster - I thought this would be nice to coincide with Resident Evil Zero HD looming.
• Siralim - I picked this one up recently and haven't played it yet, but it looks like a fun grindy monster collection game.
• Tex Murphy series - I haven't played any of these games, but it seems like Under a Killing Moon is the recommended starting point, despite not being the first game in the series.

Thanks, things seem under control today so far, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Alright, my contributions. Many of these are ps1/ps2 era games (best eras, some might argue!) with some of them seeing re-releases/remasters these days on steam or other digital services. Some are in my collection, though most aren't and are just games I remembered playing back in the day (and keep an eye out for a good deal on!)

• Siren / Siren 2 (Forbidden Siren series, I believe in the EU) - Never really took off much in NA, but for survival horror, it's easily one of the more unique mechanics I've seen in a game. Tune into the patrolling enemies sight so you can see what they see and help avoid them.
• The Thing - It's like playing a Half-Life mod based on the movie "The Thing." Sadly, the infection mechanic was half-baked, but the game is still pretty decent!
• Deadly Premonition - Not obscure at this point, and goes on sale for dirt cheap frequently, but one I've been meaning to get into.
• Summoner - Very underrated RPG from the ps2 era. Also, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_lzgo7pmzk
• Steambot Chronicles - Didn't play a ton of this one, but it had a very Dark Cloud 2 feel to it, but more sandboxy. Seem to recall it was pretty huge.
• Chulip - Definition of "weird" right here. Do favours for, stalk, and converse with various townspeople, both human and non-human to accomplish your ultimate goal. To make out with everyone. No, really.
• Myst series - They are dry. Very dry. You play them for the puzzles and to discover fantastic worlds and try to unravel the mystery of what happened to those who came before. Also, some kind of more immediate plot, but no one cares.
• Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain - Before the Soul Reaver series became a thing, this was what started it all. Top-down-ish action-adventure with some of the most erratic voice acting quality I can remember.
• Star Ocean Series - Some are great, some are awful. I loved Second Story a ton. Also requires multiple playthroughs if you want to see all the different character stuff, since having some party members locks out getting others.
• Parasite Eve 1&2 - Another one of my favourite rpgs from this timeframe. RPG with horror elements. My experience is mostly based on the first though, not on the second, which I think is a bit different gameplay-wise.

I suspected Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain would show up as a suggestion/actual bounty at some point. I've always gotten very far in the game but never finished it.

Oh my, sooo many good recommendations here! But only so much time available for gaming :P

Now @jwcooley, I know you've beaten most of the ones on your list, are you saying you would re-play these or just making general recommendations? A few of them are on my "need to play list", specifically Dead Nation, God of War III: Remastered, and Final Fantasy X. I picked up the Devil May Cry HD Collection a while back thinking I would give those a whirl again. I tried playing the first one a few years ago and wow...I was reaaaaally bad. What's funny is I beat that game when it came out, with very little difficulty. I didn't even realize it was supposed to be super hard. I worked at EB Games at the time and we got an early copy of it, so I only had a couple of nights to play it and I managed to play through it all. I did the same thing with the first Onimusha :D Ah, the good 'ol days hehe.

And @dhobo, your list is very similar in that some of my "need to play" games are on it. I've been trying to track down a copy of The Thing for a while. I know we discussed the movie in another thread, but that's really the only reason I want it. I'm glad to hear there's a good game in there too! Deadly Premonition looks really cool and I actually picked it up on Xbox 360 super cheap a long time ago. Then it was ported to PC, of course. I ended up getting it in a bundle at some point, so I'll probably play it on Steam. I've heard it's very Twin Peaks-esque, which is A-OK in my book.

Summoner is a neat game and one of the many RPGs I play for a while and then abandon for no real reason. I did the exact same thing with the one they released for the GameCube, which was also quite good. I would definitely like to give those another shot.

I REALLY want to find a (reasonably priced) copy of Steambot Chronicles! That game looks really fun and definitely has the Dark Cloud 2 vibe going for it. Speaking of which, Dark Cloud 2 is a game I need to go back and finish...ugh. But yeah, Steambot Chronicles was developed by the mighty Irem! Speaking of Irem, I need to play Metal Storm on the NES sometime, but man...those prices...

I can't believe someone has actually heard of Chulip! I have that game and it looks really wacky.

@jwcooley - I think Blood Omen is a really good candidate. How long have you and I talked about beating that stupid game? I know I've had it since the late '90s. I made it really far the first time I played it, but all other attempts have been futile.

And lastly, Parasite Eve II is on my "NO REALLY PLAY THIS" list. I tried it out a few months ago and it's a little different, as you mentioned, but still seems like it'll be good. It seemed even more Resident Evil-esque than before.

Now for something sort of related. I have some time this week to play some games and I want to get into an RPG. I thought I would play Skies of Arcadia: Legends, but now I'm having second thoughts. It's a fun game, but I look at my shelf and I see so many other great games, some of which I mentioned in my first post. So now I'm down to these (I think...):

• Baroque (assuming I can handle the ridiculous difficulty level)
• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy Tactics
• Might and Magic VII
• Ogre Battle 64
• Persona 4 Golden
• Sigma Star Saga
• Skies of Arcadia: Legends
• Time Stalkers

Any help would be appreciated :) Or better yet, saddle up and tackle one yourself!

I've never heard of Baroque or Sigma Star Saga, so my "vote" would be for one of those, haha :)

Mine were a combination of recommendations and stuff I need to beat.

Speaking of which, how do you handle bounties on games we've already managed to finish?

If you've already completed a game that gets a bounty, you will not get the bonus points. I ran into that scenario with They Breathe since I had previously logged a completion. You still get the points that come with entering a completion though (just no additional points for the bounty).

And I thought of another game I'd like to get into again: Okami. I played it right around this time last year and got maybe 10 hours in and thought it was pretty good. I'd have to start over at this point since I don't even remember how to play, but it was a cool game. I'll have to keep an eye on the HD version to see if it goes on sale.

I would like to see Her Story get a bounty. Been curious to see what the fuss is all about. In general, I'm also looking for briefer games (to combat some of the super long RPGs that are being proposed). There should definitely be a mix of short, long, and medium games ... and of course a huge variety of genres but it seems there's no problem on that end, haha.

Her Story was... brief, but interesting. Having just played through that not long ago and just recently completing Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, I'm finding I enjoy the whole disjointed storytelling mechanic found in both. Need to find more games that do that sort of thing well!

After some quick looking at what I have in my list, here is some other suggestions:

Amnesia Games (I think these bounties should be in October)
Bad Rats - It's in my list, no idea where/when I got it, but it seems like a goofy game
Beyond Good & Evil
Dark Souls
Deadly Premonition
Deponia
Quake Mission Pack 2
Killer is Dead

Her Story sounds like a good candidate. I definitely want a nice mix of short, medium, and long games. I have not played Zero Escape, but I would like to and I generally enjoy those types of games as well :)

Bad Rats is definitely on my list! It's infamous for being awful and a "joke" game. Beyond Good & Evil is a personal favorite of mine.

I bought Bad Rats for a buddy of mine. When valve added the option of permanently deleting games from your library, he got rid of it. So naturally, I bought him another copy. :P

@dhobo - Haha that's awesome!!

@jwcooley - I think I may have gifted you a copy of that game at some point :P I've definitely given it to a few different people, but amazingly, I didn't own it myself. Now I do.

My friend just got back at me today and bought me shower with your dad simulator :P

@Dhobo: I have not played Her Story just yet, but I have a feeling it is like Missing: Since January and Evidence: The Last Ritual. Those are two PC games to maybe seek out if you're looking for more FMV mystery/searching games. Unfortunately they're not on Steam or GOG.

Cool, thanks! I'll look into those

This post isn't specifically about potential bounty games (haven't thought of ones to suggest just yet) but it is a possible idea to consider... My friend is a staff member of game collection site Grouvee and they recently started a "Backlog Attack" initiative, much like the bounties here. http://discuss.grouvee.com/t/the-backlog-attack-info-faq/712

The big differences are that there is no time frame on when they can be turned in and that you receive a custom-designed badge for your profile upon completing one. I think it could be very fun to have a 'badge' for our special completions too. With that said, there is already an achievement system and I don't personally think bounty stuff should clutter it up. Also, I could see this being a lot of work considering Grouvee only will allow new backlog attack games at a specific time rather than constantly rolling in new ones like on here. Also, they already have an artist on board to do the artwork.

Still, as a fan of achievement-style systems I find it a cool idea to possibly consider down the line. The implementation may not be best as badges, but just some way of recalling the bounties you've finished over time (beyond accruing points).

@dhobo - I finally picked up Steambot Chronicles :) I've been watching some videos and it looks so fun! Now I just have to find time to play it...

Nice! Let me know what you think of it when you get around to it. I haven't played it in so long I'm sure I've forgotten most of my experience, haha.

I thought of something that might help in selecting bounty games (since I just kinda randomly pick them now). If you want to set up a list in your collection that has games you'd be interested in playing as a bounty (i.e. games you'd like to play at anytime). I can then look at the lists for everyone who does this and try to find the common denominators (if there are any). If you're interested, just post the name of the list you're using. If nobody is interested, then I'll just keep randomly picking games :P

Good idea - I added a Bounty Wishlist and added some games to it. They're probably ones most everyone else has beaten, but I'm slow.

Really cool idea. Now the hard part is trying to come up with a wishlist of what I want to play, haha.