you must pick a single game as the winner - no ties.
up to 9 runner-ups, no more.
indicate platform if relevant.
the list should be entirely subjective - what you personally enjoyed the most over the decade, not the games that you think are objectively “most important/popular/influential”, etc.
Here are mine (all PC)
Runner-ups:
10. Portal
9. Company of Heroes
8. The Witcher
7. Half-life 2
6. Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
5. Combat Mission: Barbarosa to Berlin
4. Baldur’s Gate 2 - Shadows of Amn
3. Fallout 3
2. Gothic 2
I’ll have to think about my choices for a while. Until then, I had a couple of questions about your rules though. Does the game have to be released in 2000-2009? Or could it be released in 1999 or earlier as long as you played it in this decade? (I didn’t play MOO2 for the first time until 2001, for example, and that would be very high on my own personal top games of the decade, maybe even THE top game).
Of course, that’s also another way of asking: Is Planescape Torment eligible? :)
I haven’t made it through all the games of the decade yet, but these have a special place in my heart so far:
Combat Mission: Barbarosa to Berlin
GTR 2
Company of Heroes
STALKER
Company of Heroes provided me a lot of joy when I came back to videogames in 2007, but it can’t win because I’m completely burned out on it. I would add some others like the Bethesda games but not until I’ve played everything else.
Fallout 3 (still planning to finish, but love it already)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (finished 4 times on PC)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Shadow of Chernobyl (finished 3 times)
Mafia: City of Lost Heaven (finished 4 times)
Gothic 2: Night of the Raven (finished twice)
Hitman: Blood Money (finished 3 times on Pro)
The Witcher - Enhanced Edition (finished once, but planning to go for another playthrough before sequel comes out)
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (finished 3 times and planning another one as Malkavian, finally)
01. - Deus Ex
All for PC. Hopefully Deus Ex still qualifies.It is still the most expertly designed first person experience ever made, even 10 years later. I finished it 5 times and it just always gets me.
If I could reach 3 more years back, number one best game of all time would be Fallout 1 (Deus Ex would be second).It was my first RPG : ).
The list is heavily tilted towards games I played while in the military or in Iraq (Ouendan!), or games that I got with my first real console (xbox while in college + Splinter Cell and MGS2). Virtua Tennis was the house favorite in my shared rental in college, on the shitty 20 inch tv that was in the living room. Guitar Hero II took precedence over other, better music titles because of the time and place I played it in, after coming back from Iraq as sort of the thing people did with me when they came over to my barracks room to hang out before I got out. Plus we’d all caught the GH1 bug before deploying and spent a lot of idle time debating the merits of the new title before we got to come home and try it out. Godhand is the only one on the list that I never beat despite having replayed it many times on all of the difficulties. I keep my PS2 around just in case I develop the mental fortitude to try again. Persona 3 is the apex of traditional JRPGs, and an experience that I got to share with my wife as she got interested and decided to take it on for herself. Unfortunately, American rpgs were really more dominant for me in the 90’s and now qualify on a lower tier in terms of how much they impact me. I still love Fallout 3 and Mass Effects and all of that stuff, but none of them are desert island games for me.
The RE’s both made it on the list because the 4th was a solitary obsession of mine (purchased for two different platforms, even), and the second was a shared obsession with my newly gaming savvy wife and some good friends afterwards. But Demon’s Souls simply pushed a lot of other RPGs and action games and adventures off my ranking by making them obsolete, and I don’t think I’ve ever come back to a game I’ve thought I was done with as much as with this one (up to and including owning the import and subsequent US release). I’ve spent a lot of time reading, writing and thinking about the game, and as far as I’m concerned it’s all been well spent. I’ll still move on eventually, I’m sure, but the only gaming question I really want answered in the 2010’s is what’s behind the broken archway.
Rock Band 2. I want to say I love other games more, particularly Deus Ex. The truth is I’ve never been so obsessed with a game as I am with Rock Band 2.
It was an easy list to make since there’ve been only 10 games released since 2000 that received a personal score of 9/10 or more. I dropped The Witcher out, though, and put Titan Quest in even though The Witcher was a better game. TQ just had such massive replay value it needed to be on the list for me.
Sweet, another list thread where people just type out their personal favorites that nobody else is actually going to read. It’s like talking to yourself in a room full of drunk people that don’t really care what you have to say.
All my choices are for PC. Runners-up in subconcious order only:
World of Warcraft
The Operative: No One Lives Forever
Medieval: Total War
Tropico
Dragon Age: Origins
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Fallout 3
Civilization IV
And my Favorite, Personal Bestest Game of the Decade:
Deus Ex
I played it through 5 times and spent 2 years on Planet Deus Ex discussing every facet of it with that (at the time) uniquely friendly and good-natured community. It is one of the few games that gave more each time I played it.
10 Diablo 2 – Must get more loot!
9 Batman: Arkham Asylum – I am the Batman.
8 Civilization Revolution – I prefer this bite sized version of the Civ franchise.
7 Montjoie – Still the best turn-based strategy game.
6 Mass Effect – Alien space sex WOOT!
5 Bioshock – Hmm, maybe I should turn the lights back on.
4 Gears of War 2 – Hey these shotguns are kinda fun.
3 Dragon Age: Origins – How’d they make a game this cool?
2 Everquest 1 - EVERCRACK
1 World of Warcraft - I haven’t played this game in more than a year because of how time consuming it is, but when I did play it was a blast and it really surpassed any other gaming experience.
