Comments on: PC Gamer Top 100 – They Care What You Think

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:52:38 +0000

You expect me to take this seriouslyy when Solitaire ranks higher than COD4 – come on get a grip!

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:21:22 +0000

Just in case anyone is curious what the final results were (taken from #194 (December 2008) edition):

100 Dwarf Fortress
99 FIFA (series)
98 Quake
97 Race Driver: Grid
96 Final Fantasy VIII
95 Homeworld
94 Command & Conquer
93 Tie-Fighter
92 Civilization
91 The Sims 2
90 Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War Dark Crusade
89 Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
88 City of Heroes
87 KOTOR 2
86 Guild Wars Nightfall
85 UT2004
84 Star Wars: Galaxies
83 Doom II
82 Everquest II
81 FEAR
80 WORMS
79 C&C: Red Alert
78 Thief II
77 Battlefield 1942
76 Civilization II
75 Psychonauts
74 Beyond Good & Evil
73 Red Orchestra
72 Cal of Duty
71 Dark Age of Camelot
70 Duke Nukem 3D
69 Fable
68 Battlefield 2
67 Age of Conan
66 Halo
65 Everquest
64 Total Annihilation
63 Far Cry
62 Diablo
61 The Secret of Monkey Island
60 Football Manager (series)
59 The Witcher
58 Quake III: Arena
57 Hitman: Blood Money
56 Unreal Tournament
55 Neverwinter Nights
54 Call of Duty 2
53 Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War
52 Doom
51 Hereos of Might & Magic III
50 C&C: Red Alert 2
49 Grim Fandango
48 Supreme Commander
47 Ultima Online
46 Rome: Total War
45 UFO: Enemy Unknown
44 Half-Life 2: Episode One
43 GTA 3
42 Max Payne 2
41 Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings
40 Company of Heroes
39 Baldur’s Gate
38 Gears of War
37 System Shock 2
36 STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl
35 Mafia
34 Guild Wars
33 Medieval II: Total War
32 Max Payne
31 GTA: Vice City
30 Mass Effect
29 Planescape: Torment
28 Crysis
27 Fallout
26 Battlefield 2
25 Final Fantasy VII
24 Warcraft III
23 Counter-Strike 1.6
22 Garry’s Mod
21 Morrowind
20 Counter-Strike: Source
19 GTA: San Andreas
18 KOTOR
17 Civilization IV
16 Fallout 2
15 Half-Life 2: Episode Two
14 Baldur’s Gate 2
13 Bioshock
12 Oblivion
11 Diablo 2
10 Deus Ex
9 Half-Life
8 Starcraft
7 Portal
6 TF2
5 Call of Duty 4
4 World of Warcraft
3 Lord of the Rings Online
2 Eve Online
1 Half-Life 2

(nb Battlefield 2 appears twice for some reason: my guess is that one of the entries was meant to be Battlefield 2142. MMO games did especially well – the voting link appeared on various MMO community forums)

By: meh

meh — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:29:49 +0000

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

By: Ditto

Ditto — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:54:08 +0000

I pretty much just play FPS, so this may seem pretty limited…

Top 10

Half Life Series (including, I’m sure, HL2 Episode 3)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Chernobyl
No One Lives Forever 2
Max Payne: The Fall of Max Payne (the movie will probably butcher it)
Portal
Prey
Far Cry
GTA III: San Andreas (technically not an FPS…but a great game)
Bio Shock
ZORK trilogy (again, not an FPS, but the passage of time didn’t mean anything as I was playing it, which is a good measure of a great game)

By: Jonas

Jonas — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:03:57 +0000

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

“My vision is augmented.” 8)

By: Diogo Ribeiro

Diogo Ribeiro — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:42:09 +0000

I still fire it up ocasionally as well, even if it’s just to hear Anna Navarre and Gunther mocking poor old J.C. about his baggy overcoat that makes him look bigger than what he really is :)

By: Jonas

Jonas — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:35:03 +0000

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*.
>_>
<_<

By: Diogo Ribeiro

Diogo Ribeiro — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:25:17 +0000

@Jonas:

Well said, and I’d surely argue that the developers did the best they could at the time, particularly in conveying level structures that steered away from the more traditional corridors of other similar games. I feel level design is one of the more fearsome beasts of videogame development, and it’s not always easy to handle. In the case of Deus Ex, I think these choices could have benefited from being less obvious in order to evoke a greater sense of danger and of using spatial awareness. For instance, I still recall large corridors and other choke points with cul de sacs or clearly outlined options for advancement, and it was disapointing that it wasn’t a bit more organic. But when it was, it worked rather well: the larger, sprawling levels – even if some seemed labyrinthine for their own sake – felt like huge improvements, which made the confined and blunt levels pale in comparison.

As Kieron put it once, we never saw anything like it – but on the other hand, we had seen it too much.

I must reiterate that, in spite all of this, it’s still one of my favourite games of all time, as it really is more than the sum of its parts, although I certainly look to the System Shock series – and Bioshock, as you’ve mentioned – with slightly more fondness on some aspects.

By: Jonas

Jonas — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:57:14 +0000

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.

By: Diogo Ribeiro

Diogo Ribeiro — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:54:59 +0000

Deus Ex takes first place because (…) it has really great level design.

Much as I enjoy Deus Ex, I really have to wonder why so much praise in face of its less stellar moments. Great level design? The idea of multiple paths across a level was (is) great, but most levels were terribly obvious and broken down by black and white choices. You could either choose between obviously trapped corridors (go there for LAMs, go here for NSF trooper), or the ill conceived and exhaustive vent crawling.

Also, any list that mentions the likes of Bloodrayne and Just Cause doesn’t really deserve much attention, in spite of the good will that may have gone behind the editors.

By: Shadrach

Shadrach — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:35:03 +0000

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

By: Tim Edwards

Tim Edwards — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 10:31:01 +0000

Hey guys,

We’ve added 64 games based on the feedback in this thread, and email. The games are:
Alone In The Dark 3
Alone In The Dark: New Nightmare
Anarchy Online
Another World
Bloodrayne
Bloodrayne 2
Bubble Bobble
Call of Cthulhu – Dark Corners Of The Earth
Call of Juarez
Carmageddon
Chaser
Clive Barker’s ‘Undying’
Command & Conquer – Renegade
Command and Conquer
Crusader: No Remorse
Dark Forces
Democracy 2
Digger
Dwarf Fortress
Faces Of War
Gods
Gothic
Gothic II
Gothic III
It Came from the Desert
Jade Empire
Jagged Alliance 2
James Pond (Series)
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Knights of The Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords
Last Ninja
Lemmings (series)
Maniac Mansion
Mech Commander Gold
Mechwarrior 4
Mega-lo-mania
Mr Robot
Prince of Persia
Project IGI
Project X
Quake
Rainbow 6 (Series)
Rainbow 6: Vegas (series)
Red Orchestra
Requiem: Avenging Angel
Sid Meier’s Pirates!
SimCity
Soldat
Starscape
Stunts – Ever 4D Sports Driving
Superfrog
System Shock
The Curse Of Monkey Island
The Witcher
Tomb Raider: Legend
Turrican (series)
UFO: Afterlight
UFO: Aftermath
UFO: Aftershock
Ultima Underworld
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Warcraft: Orcs and Humans

The code to change your voting should be in by the end of play tomorrow. So, woo!