Rock, Paper, Shotgun

NuZZ says:

S t a r c r a f t

rob says:

1. Oblivion
2. Bioshock
3. Pirated Crysis

Colthor says:

More people should vote for Frontier: Elite II. You’re making Commander Jameson cry.

You, an Eagle Long Range Fighter, 100 credits, and an entire galaxy to explore. Riches to reap, moons to mine, pirates to kill, stars to skim. Solar systems hundreds of AUs across, with planets you can land on and read the time from the church clock. All on a single floppy disk.

It’s 15 years old and it hasn’t been beaten at its own game yet; impostors like Freelancer and X just aren’t trying with their faux-”space”. Only its own sequel (same game, better graphics, more space-ships, more bugs) holds a candle to it.

That’s why Frontier got my number 2 spot, anyway. It was close between that and PS:T for number one.

AbyssUK says:

@Colthor I agree completely I still play Elite every so often. 15 years old already… damn am old… but seriously X-Com must win this…

Voidman says:

Forgotten bout this one. Throw into the main list as number 11 :D

(How very liberating!)

Voidman says:

Alas, all this excitement and I forgotten to add the originally forgotten title!

It is of course Arcanum!

To compensate for this act of negligence I shall add a few explicit honorable mentions: Syndicate, Eye of the Beholder series, Aliens vs Predator, Jedi Knight, Grim Fandango, Heroes of Might and Magic… I’d better stop now…

windlab says:

UI seems somewhat screwed in FX 3.0.1 and in IE 6, unable to login in IE and unable to make selections in FX.

Amir says:

Starcraft
Warcraft 3
Warcraft 2
Diablo 2
Diablo
Warcraft

The Hammer says:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Rome Total War
3. Half Life 2
4. GTA: Vice City
5. Call of Duty
6. Psychonauts
7. Monkey Island
8. Rise of Nations
9. The Movies
10. Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2

WoW – No other game has engrossed me for so many hours or given me so many laughs, smiles, jaw-drops, frustrated bouts of profanity, and glowy pointy weapons. Whether I’m bombing birdman infested regions of Draenor, taking part in raids with 24 other people, kicking back in the Blue Recluse and roleplaying, or making irrelevant jokes about High Overlord Saurfang on OOC channels, I’m somehow almost always enjoying myself. Stuff the stats like damage mitigation, parry chance and drop-rate of epics. I just want to play. And I do. Through a polished interface, a well refined family of classes, and, these days, one of the most mature and well-presented worlds a game could hope for.

2. Rome: Total War – Whilst I didn’t at first fall in love with Rome as many as I did with Medieval 1, the game’s charm and setting eventually lulled me in. My greatest achievement on the game was sneakily taking the titular city underneath everyone else’s nose. The Roman empire was still as strong as ever, but spying that their city was ripe for the taking, I dove in, and took it. Yes, I then had to face the brute force of the empire, but my Greek Phalanxes put up a good fight. I was always amazed at the strategy to battle map transition, and to top it all off… Lord of the Rings Total War, the mod. Yum yum yum. Oh, and the battles are the closest we’ve got to Hollywood, too. They’re huge, they’re dynamic, and to mouse over the entire battlefield and see all the different scrums is lovely.

Half Life 2 – Simply the best, most accessible, polished, and iconic FPS ever made. So much variety in the levels, and characters, and fire fights. It’s hard to pick my favourite scene from the game. The last battle in the city, maybe? Or driving along the coast and discovering so many stories within the tattered remains of houses. Or maybe any time the G-Man speaks to you? (Time, Mister Freeman? Is it really that… time again?) Not as ground-breaking as original, not as satisfying with the combat, and not as impressive with the AI, in other aspects, such as the presentation, the art, and the plausibility of the city itself, with rubbish strewn around realistically, it excels.

4. GTA; Vice City – This game served as an epiphany for me. It meant so many different things in so many situations. It ignited my love for several bands, and of 80s culture in general. Cruising down the beach front listening to “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” may be used as a common example of what nade this game great, but it’s true. And the radio stations… so much love and thought went into them I just had to buy the individual soundtracks. And the moment you gain the mansion, and by dent of that, the helicopter… and soon after that, the ability to drive around in an ice-cream van selling questionable packages to anyone who wants them. So many things to do, so much going on… it may pale in comparison to the interactivity and coherence that GTA 4 offers, but GTA 4 offers things I’m not wholly interested in. I was in love with Vice City.

Call of Duty – I was lucky enough for this to be my first PC game. Waking up on Christmas morning, seeing my new PC, and installing this wonderful, brilliant game… and then being amazed by so many of the things that console gaming simply didn’t offer. Aiming down the sight, shell shock, crouching and going prone… and then, for the first time, playing through Burnville and Dawnville. They’re the levels I return to whenever I boot up Call of Duty again, and they’re still impressive now. It was so intense, so claustophobic when you were hid behind a dead cow, with nowhere to turn… and with three armies to play as, instead of just one, so huge scale, too.

Pscyhonauts – The evolution of the adventure genre, and I don’t mind one bit. It took all the good stuff about the LucasArts classics – the stunning humour, great mix of characters, logical and challenging puzzles, and at times irreverant settings – and plonked you into a competent platformer. Alright, it, when surrounded by its genre, isn’t the best in its league, but the sheer variety of stages, and how little the game relied on it being a platformer, made up for that. The one where you were turned into a giant, and those hilarious soundclips about heading for the orphanage, or the war stage, where you were shrunk to the size of a small game piece… it was a game of such creativity and imagination, and very rarely felt like it was tedious or boring to make. Brutal Legend better come to the PC.

Monkey Island – The most famous adventure game series of all time, and it’s very, very hard to pick a favourite of the list (discarding the god-awful 4th edition, of course). The original, perhaps, with its beautiful opening, the excellent insult sword-fighting, and the wonderful cast of characters? Or how about the second, with the more refined puzzles, the greater variety in locations, and the weirdo ending? Or the third, with its improved, lovely graphics, the mind-boggingly brilliant Murray the talking skull, and whole section dedicated to insult sword fighting? It’s futile to try and pick one. The series has been with me since early childhood, and its opening tune still sends shivers down my spine. Iconic, for me. Not even the tiresome obsession with pirates today that people seem to have can dull that.

Rise of Nations – hey, an RTS I was actually alright at! Brilliant game, this. Although the actual campaign mode was a disappointment, the skirmishes, or mini-campaigns, as they should have probably been called, were the real feast for me. The sense of progression, of history changing in front of your eyes, and the beautiful art that characterised the different nations, be it the units or the massive, lovingly lit buildings themselves were complemented by the gorgeous music. When everything was working, and your empire was massive, you could just scroll around the map and watch it all happen. And the wonderful world would be shattered with one of the most powerfully moving portrayals of a nuclear weapon in a game. The screen went monochrome, and the screams of victims could be heard. Nothing less than chilling. The accessibility and rarity of needing the manual made this experience all the more sweeter, and when I tried the demo of the much-anticipated Rise of Legends, and found it wanting, I was very, very bitter.

The Movies – Heh. Hours spent making completely irrelevant and probably offensive movies with friends on this great, original game, and eventually making my AS Media Studies coursework trailer using it, guarantees its spot in my heart. It’s a good game. The tycoon part of it is very good, but I bet loads of people avoided it like the plague, in favour of just making their own movies. And that’s fine, if a little saddening. Making movies themselves sometimes felt like a chore, or a challenge, as the scenes to choose from, though extensive, were not exhaustive. I’m sure the expansions cleared this up somewhat, but it’d be an impossible task to please everyone, but these are slights on what was a superbly ambitious game from Lionhead. It nailed the Hollywood feeling so perfectly, so accurately, and for someone who had just recently read Moving Picture beforehand, it couldn’t help but make me giggle. Getting your pictures reviewed, whilst a small and not completely dynamic feature, was still nice, and whilst they were many design decisions I’d have done differently, the game got the mechanics spot on most of the time.

Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2 – This is a guilty pleasure game for me. I -know- it isn’t great. I know that it’s an uninspired RTS with woeful design decisions like letting you shoot down a tower by filling it with enough hours. And I know the battles don’t come even anywhere close to the ones shown in the films. I know this. But hells, it’s Lord of the Rings! Hells, you can summon a Balrog and have it do battle with any number of opposing foes! The powers system, wherein you gain both experience for your units through battle, and points to use for general, godly powers, which sometimes results in that epic summoning of the Balrog, really makes the game for me. If it didn’t have that, I simply wouldn’t bother with the game. But the constantly drip-feed of new abilities, until you’re practically a War God, is brilliant. It’s pretty easy, too. It doesn’t wipe your forces off the map like Warcraft 3 does on any difficulty setting if you’re not too good at it. It’s forgiving. It’s there for you to reign. And the custom hero thing might be small and lack much cosmetic customisation, but…er… well, at least it’s there.

edit: …christ. I got carried away a bit.

Chris Keegan says:

Speedball and F111 Stealth fighter bomber and Simcity were games that made a big impact on me.

Eschatos says:

What? They put Just Cause on the list? I’m sorry, but Just Cause was shit. It had potential to be a good GTA clone but it failed the basics. The driving was just wrong and the combat was mediocre. If you got in a helicopter you could survive forever unless you did something really stupid. Airplanes were completely useless due to the idiotic control scheme. The storyline was as generic as it’s possible to get. The game was decent fun for a few hours but there is no way it belongs on any top 100 list.

kadayi says:

No Witcher, no VTM:B…..WTF….

*sends email

Awaits eventual addition to RPG listing…

Harlequin says:

1. X-Com: UFO Defense (Turn-based tactical perfection)
2. Half-Life (The benchmark for the modern shooter)
3. Starcraft (The benchmark for the modern RTS)
4. Warcraft 2 (Addictive gameplay, if lacking other things that were found on Starcraft)
5. Star Wars Galaxies (My favorite MMORPG, despite its many flaws)
6. Wing Commander (Epic storyline and fun gameplay. Needs a modern remake, in my opinion)
7. Duke Nukem 3D (Got me into online play, both co-op and deathmatch)
8. Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Incredible multi-player component, if somewhat lacking in the campaign)
9. Command and Conquer (Too many fond memories to ignore, even if it’s lost its shine)
10.Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (The pinnacle of the series, in my eyes)

Gorgeras says:

Interesting observation about the glorifed chat room that is World of Warcraft; the best thing about it is the other people and the worst thing about it is also the other people. Depending on them, your experience can vary so greatly.

Can WoW take credit for either? How many calls to nerf Rogues are based not on any assessment of the class but the behaviour of Rogue players who so tend to deliberately exploit their abilities to the extent that they will take no risks and only fight you when they have little chance of losing? Does this bare any relation to the cries of Mages and Shaman players to be buffed, because they are by far the easiest targets of those Rogue players?

Likewise, gaining gear in a large raid could be more rewarding not because of the supposed ‘hardness’ of achieving it when compared with ‘free epics’ from PvP or Badges(in truth, after being told for years that raiding is hard, I eventually try it and find it’s a rote-learning process an octopus could be trained to do). I think this has more to do with you being in a group at the precise moment of the award being given and you are heartily congratulated for winning either a dice roll or having more imaginary ‘dragon kill’ points because you’re the leader’s best friend in real-life.

I believe criticism and praise of WoW should focus more on how it encourages most of it’s players to behave.

Ginger Yellow says:

Don’t read anything into the order. There’s so little to choose between games at the very top.

1. Civ IV
2. Rome: Total War
3. Grim Fandango
4. Half Life 2
5. Portal
6. GTA San Andreas
7. Total Annihilation
8. Alpha Centauri
9.Company of Heroes
10. Team Fortress 2

DSX says:

It’s difficult to pick a top 10.. sort of like films, depends on mood sometimes. Many expected, and much deserved titles on our lists..

However, more love needed for Homeworld 1 & 2 (first game I ever downloaded a soundtrack to) Lineage 1 & 2 (spent many years on) and Sam and Max Hit the Road. (=

Butler` says:

I’m guessing LBA1/2 didn’t make the list? Wouldn’t surprise me if none if the PCG lot have played it tbh :p

Shadrach says:

Thanks Tim, so we will be able to vote again then? Anyway, Red Orchestra is not by “Steam” its by Tripwire Interactive :D

Jonas says:

Diogo: You do have a point about the options in DX often being pretty obvious, but I’m not sure that’s a weakness. If you can quickly get an overview of your options for approaching a particular objective, you can quickly make an informed decision about how to handle the mission. Similarly, it becomes easier to decide what sort of skills and augmentations to choose if you know roughly what sort of problems you’ll be facing.

It’s true there was too much vent crawling, it’s hard to argue with that. I could put the argument forth that I suspect you can complete the entire game without ever entering a vent, but if you want to be stealthy, vents are often (though far from always) your only option, and that’s a shame.

There are other things that make me single out the level design in Deus Ex, however. First and foremost how well its fiction has been assimilated into the levels – I know DX simply builds on the Origin/Looking Glass school of design in this regard, but it’s a really great early example of levels that just make sense on every… well, level. You can tell the designers had the fiction in mind when making the levels, and that’s an approach to level design that I really appreciate and which most recently spawned Bioshock.

Jonas says:

Level design is very difficult. You have to keep the gameplay in mind when you construct the layout, you have to make it aesthetically pleasing, you have to make it reflect the fiction of the game, you usually have to make it plausible and believable and conceal its boundaries, and you always have to keep the technological limitations in mind as well, so you don’t break the engine. That said, it is also one of the most immediately rewarding jobs in game development.

I wouldn’t presume to say Deus Ex is the most well constructed game in history in every regard – DX has flaws just like every other game. But it has enough brilliance that I can still forgive its flaws and the gameplay holds up so well I still play it 9 years after its graphics went out of date (the perceptive reader will note that DX is 8 years old ;) ).

Also, ehm… *cough*.
>_>
<_<

Jonas says:

“Don’t tell me you’re going to wear those sunglasses during a night operation.”

“My vision is augmented.” 8)

meh says:

But the one game your all forgeting is Age of empires 2 possibly the greatest game ever made