IGN's Top 100 Modern Games

[Rii]

I thought about appending this to my 'best years in gaming' thread for reasons that will soon become clear, but ultimately decided against it.

So IGN has put together a list of what it deems to be the Top 100 Modern Video Games. It's a fun read as such things always are, with opportunities for gamers of all stripes to cheer (save perhaps Wizardry) and roll their eyes. To save you the hassle, here's the Top 10:

10. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
9. Batman: Arkham Asylum
8. Assassin's Creed II
7. Uncharted II: Among Thieves
6. Fallout 3
5. Portal 2
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2
3. Red Dead Redemption
2. Bioshock
1. Mass Effect 2

Their (unstated) criteria for what qualifies as a modern game is kinda interesting. It includes DS/PSP/PC titles from 2005 and beyond, but not titles from the same period that debuted on PS2 or GCN such as Shadows of the Colossus, Resident Evil 4 and Okami.

Of course such lists are not to be taken too seriously in any case... and yet I did, collating data by platform and year hoping to discern some kind of pattern applicable to discussions in my aforementioned earlier thread concerning more recent years in gaming. Alas, that turned out to be a dead end, in part because a list of 100 games covering only 6 years is enough that second-rate titles are getting through and mushing the data. There's a general trend of more titles the closer one is to the present - a full quarter of the list comes from 2010 - but the utility of that is marginal as one of IGN's practices for the list is to include only a single title from any given franchise, which means sequels (which are of course more recent than the games they're derived from) often - but not always - have the edge.

So: Blech. But the platform side of things is marginally more interesting. In this age of multiplatform releases, it was surprising to find that fully half of the list was compromised of titles exclusive to various systems, and that's ignoring the fact that a number of titles I marked down as 'multiplatform' - such as Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker - only became so years after the initial release. In any case, here's the breakdown by platform: number of titles from the top 100 available to the system first, number and list of exclusives second.

XBOX 360 - 56
Exclusives - 8 (Halo Reach, Forza 3, Shadow Complex, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, Dead Rising, Alan Wake, Fable II, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, 'Splosion Man)

PS3 - 54
Exclusives - 9 (Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, LittleBigPlanet 2, Infamous 2, God of War 3, Flower, Killzone 2, Resistance 2, Demon's Souls)

PC - 46
Exclusives - 8 (Starcraft II, Civilization IV, World of Warcraft, Company of Heroes, Dawn of War II, Shogun 2, Crysis, League of Legends)

DS - 19
Exclusives - 12 (New Super Mario Bros., Mario Kart DS, Tetris DS, Professor Layton, Pokemon: Black & White, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, Picross DS, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, The World Ends with You, Brain Age, Elite Beat Agents, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow)

Wii - 17
Exclusives - 8 (Mario Galaxy 2, Smash Bros. Brawl, Metroid Prime 3, Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Wii Sports Resort, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby's Epic Yarn)

PSP - 9
Exclusives - 1 (Valkyria Chronicles II)

3DS - 2
Exclusives: None.

There were three titles on the list exclusive to other platforms (i.e. iOS, etc.): Cut the Rope, Tiny Wings, Superbrothers: Sword and Sorcery EP.

Make of all that what you will. There are various other points of interest and caveats I could raise at this juncture, but I think I've already spent far too much time on all this.

[ezekiel2517]

IGN is such a hit and miss site. I will say this one is a hit, considering no Halo is among the top.

[Rii]

IGN is such a hit and miss site. I will say this one is a hit, considering no Halo is among the top.

Yeah, I was surprised that they placed CoD, Halo and GTA all outside the ten.

I've been visiting IGN of late for Nintendo-related news. They're pretty good on that score whereas most sites aren't. But yeah, 'hit and miss' is right.

[Kablooie]

An ordered list like that is going to raise a lot of ire (especially leaving out CoD and Halo, whew). I'd rather someone came up with a list that just lumped together all the games into categories, like:

Must Buy
Good Purchase
Fun But Flawed
Garbage With a Few Gems In It
For Fanboi Only
Do Not Buy, Rent
Avoid It Like The Plague

[Gentleman Jim Stacey]

This only served to remind me how lame the top 100 PC gamer US list was that excluded The Witcher and World in Conflict, and put throwaway indie games above classics.

[Heliocentric]

Dual strike? where's the love for the days of ruin/other emo titles regionally.

Sure the campaign and roster was epic, but the games mechanics were so polluted and overwrought you were defeating overpowered with overpowered rending strategy a sum of milking powers like multiplying your money by 1.5 4 times, buying them at 55% of their price and them changing to the commander which gives them 150% firepower and toughness. or the laughably broken Sami Hawke tag teams where the player gets 3 turns in a row without the the enemy getting any actions and can instantly capture the enemy base in one turn on the third...

sorry, but advance wars is serious bussiness.

[8-bit]

so I risked clicking the link to IGN thinking a short visit wouldn't infect my brain with stupid and saw demons souls at no 100, never before has a list failed so quickly. I would roll out the "I respectfully disagree" line but again this is IGN so its perfectly acceptable to throw as much hate at the site as you can. these lists aren't there for promoting discussion anyway but more for page hits. it must be successful for them because they come out with a new best/worst list every other week, they probably only spend half an hour picking what goes in them.

Rii, if you want nintendo news I recommend nintendo life, they are horribly biased ninty fanboys but they get a lot of news that other sites don't bother with, and they cover all the wiiware/VC games each week.

[Wizardry]

That's a terrible lists that sums up the state of the games industry and gaming media. No turn-based CRPGs at all? Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, The Witcher 2, Fallout 3, Oblivion and Fable II on the list? Where's Knights of the Chalice? It's better than them all.

Absolutely worthless list. IGN are an embarrassment.

[8-bit]

I don't even know if you are being serious anymore or if wizardry isn't a person but just some kind of forum meme that I don't get. you should start a sort of love-in thread for crpgs, get it all out of your system, then post about something else.

[hamster]

Wizardry is like The Beast in Act 1 of the Witcher, except instead of being the essence of sin, he is constituted by err... the ire of dead turn-based CRPGs aficionados.

edit:
just took a gander @ knights of the chalice. What's with the graphics? This game better be free.

[squirrel]

STALKER: SOC is the greatest game I've even played. Based on the already very established FPS gameplay, it is the first serious attempt to merge RPG gameplay into a shooter game. There is even an implicit experience point system too. Come to think of it. You have access it more powerful weapons and armor as you progress. More you loot by killing more enemies and earn direct reward from missions, more cash (experience point) you can spend. It's also a good demo of what a sand-box shooter should be. It may be too buggy to begin with that it lost its status as a great game, but I believe most of the bugs should have been patched out. Anyway, it's multiplayer is such a shame.

I am also sad that Mirror's Edge is on that list. Dont get me wrong, Mirror's Edge is such a great action game. I believe that people can also "learn" from this game to add some new moves into FPS. The fact it has little chance to receive a sequel / prequel, however, saddens me. I am so convinced that the evil DRM destroyed the future of this game by scaring away many PC gamers.

BTW, Crysis may not be PC exclusive for long. Teamxbox.com reported speculation (http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/24218/...d-to-Xbox-360/) that it may come to Xbox. May not be on the hardware power hungry CryEngine 2 though.

[Gentleman Jim Stacey]

That's a terrible lists that sums up the state of the games industry and gaming media. No turn-based CRPGs at all? Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, The Witcher 2, Fallout 3, Oblivion and Fable II on the list? Where's Knights of the Chalice? It's better than them all.

Absolutely worthless list. IGN are an embarrassment.

What is this i dont even...

[Drake Sigar]

No Magicka? And that horror one? The one everyone’s too scared to play? I forget what it’s called. I’m actually surprised there were that many PC exclusives on their list. Of course that doesn’t stop me from pointing out how rubbish it is. Their top ten spots are almost as laughably predictable as the ones on the GameFAQs forum.

[Rii]

That's a terrible lists that sums up the state of the games industry and gaming media. No turn-based CRPGs at all? Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2, The Witcher 2, Fallout 3, Oblivion and Fable II on the list? Where's Knights of the Chalice? It's better than them all.

Absolutely worthless list. IGN are an embarrassment.

So far as I'm aware IGN is still the single largest organ in videogame journalism. And like populist heavyweights everywhere, it didn't get there by embracing the niche but rather the mainstream. Turn-based CRPGs aren't the only genre missing from the list, there's also a dearth of JRPGs (to the detriment of the PSP in particular) and the complete absence of simulations. Given their position, IGN is commendably attentive to the more niche products of the industry. Certainly they could do a whole lot worse than they do.

[pakoito]

League of Legends.

[Kadayi]

I don't even know if you are being serious anymore or if wizardry isn't a person but just some kind of forum meme that I don't get. you should start a sort of love-in thread for crpgs, get it all out of your system, then post about something else.

If only. I'm afraid you'll find the record is broken. I set phasers to ignore some time back, and I have to say it's a delight.

[vinraith]

That top 10 neatly summarizes why I don't generally bother with top [number] [type of something] lists anymore. I'm well aware of what's massively popular and critically acclaimed, I'm not sure why I need lists to tell me that. People's personal top [whatever] lists are invariably more interesting, because they're bound to include niche things I've never heard of and might wish to investigate.

[Basilicus]

I think the IGN list is as good a list of that sort as I've seen done. It's certainly better than most. I personally think Bioshock and Fallout 3 are ranked a bit high, and I wouldn't mind seeing a strategy game crack the top 10 (not that there've been many good ones lately), but overall - they've compiled a fairly thorough and reasonable list.

[cjlr]

Let's be fair to them: those are all good games. I doubt they'd be the tops for anyone here - knowingly more sophisticated crowd that we are, natch - but I went through every one without finding a stinker. It's like complaining about ANY pop ranking; why would you? We all know what's coming.

My tops would have Medieval 2, Men of War, Demon's Souls [#100 my ASS], and Guardian of Light featuring more prominently. But don't ask me to make a real list, 'cause I don't know if I could do it.

And I am of course always interested in what fellow RPS gaming dilettantes would shove to the top of such lists.

[8-bit]

they are good games sure, but most games are nowadays, and they would have to be because a lot of them are following the same sort of basic template for their gameplay just with different gimmicks. mass effect is gears of war with talking, infamous is GTA with superpowers etc. its just that given the money and man power behind these titles it would seem that developers would really have to make an effort to create a bad game.

dead space is the perfect example of what is wrong with this particular list. Its a good game and I played it more than once but it never achieves greatness, at the same time it never puts a step wrong, its good but not inspiring and its no. 20 on the list.