You rank Dark Souls 2 higher than Dark Souls huh? I did not know that from our extensive conversations in the two respective threads. You keep that one pretty close to your chest, unlike Spect and others who feel the same way.
It came up in a thread somewhere recently.
Please pay closer attention to my posts!!!
I find fascinating how those seemlingly pointless and simple lists can reveal a lot about individuals. Trying to write my own, a couple weeks ago, it is also very funny to catch your own oversights, by checking others’ work. It reveals to yourself more about who you want to be than who you are, maybe? To great relief, nobody else but you can be aware of those oversights!
I kind of forgot I did this, and after what @Left_Empty said, I also realize over half my list is MP… not just available as MP but played extensively or in some cases exclusively as MP.
Same. I consider myself a single player gamer. But so many fond memories are tied up in split screen gaming. Embarrassingly, I’m more social than I thought, I guess.
In person, of course. Not online with randos, that’d be weird.
I thought I’d picked primarily single player games. But there are quite a few multiplayer experiences on my list.
That’s over 40 games on the list that I either enjoyed playing with someone same screen or by passing the controller around, taking turns.
First game on PC I remember playing side by side with my sister… Serf City, aka The Settlers… it allowed the second player to use a Joystick!
This is for you @divedivedive
- Assassin’s Creed II
1.5) The Legend of Zelda - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Mass Effect 3 (yeah you heard me)
- The Witcher 3
- Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Star Wars Galaxies
- Company of Heroes
- Civilization V
- Portal 2
- Hearts of Iron IV
- Dragon Age: Origins
- Mass Effect
- Red Dead Redemption
- Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate
- World of Warcraft
- Final Fantasy VII
- Plants vs. Zombies
- Saints Row IV
- Mass Effect: Andromeda
- Star Trek Online
- Black Desert Online
- Command and Conquer III
- Atlantic Fleet
- Euro Truck Simulator 2
- Mass Effect 2
- The Sims 3
- Saints Row 3
- Tomb Raider
- Final Fantasy
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- New Super Mario Bros. 2
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Final Fantasy X
- Command and Conquer II
- Portal
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
- Uncharted 3
- Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
- Life is Strange
- Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
- Fallout 2
- Batman: The Telltale Series
- Kerbal Space Program
- Batman: Arkham Knight
- World of Warships
- Grand Theft Auto IV
- Tomb Raider: Underworld
- Cities: Skylines
- Final Fantasy VIII
- MLB: The Show '17
- Company of Heroes 2
- Ni no Kuni: The Wrath of the White Witch
- Mafia II
- Assassin’s Creed IV
- Age of Wonders III
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Rune Factory 4
- Fallout
- Darkest Dungeon
- SimCity 4
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Assassin’s Creed III
- Stardew Valley
- Final Fantasy VI
- Champions Online
- Empire: Total War
- Tomb Raider: Legend
- Star Wars: The Old Republic
- Age of Wonders II
- Super Mario Bros.
- Uncharted 2
- World of Tanks
- Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
- Command and Conquer
- Metroid
- Prison Architect
- Football Manager 2017
- FTL
- Planetbase
- Half-Life 2
- Stellaris
- Dragon Age: Inquisition
- Civilization VI
- Farming Simulator 2013
- Car Mechanic Simulator 2015
- The Sims 4
- Elite Dangerous
- Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition
- Assassin’s Creed
- Space Engineers
- Fallout 3
- Lego Harry Potter I-IV
- Lego Harry Potter V-VII
- Pathfinder Adventures
- The Sims 2
- Worms Reloaded
- Dragon Age II
- Farming Simulator 17
It’s too bad there isn’t a script that can scrape the data from this thread and tell each person who their gaming soulmate is.
Awesome, I love to see people post their list in this thread, it’s great to see the games that folks feel passionately about. At a glance it’s got big chunks that align with my choices but I notice that you’re more comfortable with what I would think of as redundancy, for example multiple entries in the Assassins Creed series. That’s not a criticism, we just have different methodologies - I tend to think of multiple entries as taking a valuable slot from another game I may feel strongly about.
That can bite me in the ass though. I can’t imagine not having Portal 2 on my list, but the first game is such a tight bundle of awesome in a little package. No right answer there I guess.
Anyway I do think I need to give my list a new pass, I’m sure it could be improved. I’ll leave the original above and put a new one in soon.
Edit: meant to ask, two different Farming Simulator entries? Are they that good?
I think so, yeah. 2013 is by far the best they’ve done. 2015 was awful, and 2017 is pretty good.
And yes, I am an unashamed Assassin’s Creed fan. As well as Bioware, well, mostly.
OK new list. One funny thing I never noticed, I had a typo in the original list! I put in Red Dead Revolver instead of Red Dead Redemption. Can’t believe nobody called me on that! Fixed this time around.
Also, going back through the list, it feels very arbitrary to me. I was basically throwing in my top games without a lot of thought as to whether a game in the 20 spot was that much better than a game in the 30 spot, but I probably just got bored and eventually just said to hell with it. So, with a few changes and a little rejiggering of positions, here we go:
1 Starflight
2 Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
3 Planetfall
4 Super Metroid
5 X-Wing
6 Mass Effect
7 Psychonauts
8 Bulletstorm
9 Red Dead Redemption
10 Magic Candle
11 Plants vs Zombies
12 Gradius V
13 Grand Theft Auto 3
14 The Witcher 2
15 Adventure (Atari)
16 Day of the Tentacle
17 Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction
18 M.U.L.E.
19 Galaga
20 Dragon Quest VIII
21 Gabriel Knight Sins of the Fathers
22 Mario Golf Advance Tour
23 A Mind Forever Voyaging
24 Skies of Arcadia
25 Starcraft
26 Choplifter
27 Doom (2016)
28 Portal 2
29 Fallout New Vegas
30 Defender
31 Brutal Legend
32 Planescape: Torment
33 Forza Horizon
34 Hardball
35 Picross 3D
36 Interstate 76
37 Tomb Raider (2013)
38 Shadow Complex
39 Crimson Skies
40 The Mark of Kri
41 Diablo 3
42 Silent Hill 2
43 The Longest Journey
44 Crackdown
45 Civilization 2
46 Einhander
47 Ultima V
48 Loderunner
49 Rez
50 Okami
51 Bully
52 Advance Wars
53 Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
54 Katamari Damacy
55 Deus Ex: Human Revolution
56 Rock Band
57 Street Fighter 2
58 Wasteland
59 Mirror’s Edge
60 VVVVVV
61 In the Hunt
62 Sam and Max Hit the Road
63 Castlevania Symphony of the Night
64 Dead Space
65 Ghostbusters (2009)
66 Halo Reach
67 Final Fantasy III
68 System Shock 2
69 Pitfall 2
70 Donkey Kong (Game Boy)
71 Crusader: No Remorse
72 Autoduel
73 Star Control 2
74 Zuma’s Revenge
75 Blue Max
76 Defender
77 Fallen London
78 Prof Layton and the Unwound Future
79 Timesplitters Future Perfect
80 Dishonored
81 Knights of the Old Republic 2
82 Ancient Domains of Mystery
83 Mark of the Ninja
84 Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando
85 Battlezone
86 Batman Arkham Knight
87 Raid on Bungeling Bay
88 Space Pirates and Zombies
89 Bard’s Tale (not that one)
90 R-Type Final
91 Voodoo Vince
92 Fez
93 Burnout Paradise
94 Super Mario World
95 SSX Tricky
96 Panzer General
97 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
98 Driver: San Francisco
99 Parappa the Rapper
100 Star Trek Online
So I did a few flips; I swapped out Psychonauts, originally at 10, and Magic Candle, originally at 7. I still love Magic Candle, but I feel like I need to respect that as an older game, I probably wouldn’t really play it for very long these days.
Also made a small, but fairly significant, swap out - I put in last year’s Doom revival for the original at 27. Blasphemy! but as much as I did enjoy the original Doom, I’d much rather play the newer game. It’s such a blast. Maybe it’s too recent to really earn that spot, but I’m going with my gut on this one. Also clarified that Tomb Raider at the 37 spot was the 2013 version, I really liked that. Already played it twice.
Took out Moon Patrol from the 62 spot. I love the game, but top 100 material? Not when there’s Sam and Max Hit the Road, a game I totally forgot the first time around. Shame on me.
Dropped out Tecmo Bowl at the 65 spot, that was basically nostalgia for late night dorm room tournaments in college. Fun, but I don’t know if it gets a spot, especially when there’s a game like Ghostbusters! Which I’ll admit is not a great game, necessarily, but a wonderful IP that got all the players back together (before Ramis died) and something I really enjoy.
Also dropped Carmageddon from the list, I enjoyed it but I’ve got better car games on the list already, and I think the Arkham games need some recognition. I really enjoyedthe latest game, Arkham Knight, so that’s the one I went with. I like them all though.
I had a Ancient Art of War at 96, but while that was probably my first strategy game I think there is a better choice to represent on the list and that’s Panzer General. I played the hell out of that game back when it was released.
So I think that will be my update for now. I’m still not convinced the actual ranking is meaningful, but I could change that daily to keep up with my flights of fancy. I got the proper games on the list, or at least I’m narrowing down to perfection. In the neighborhood now, at least. For now.
Ah hell I forgot all about my Nintendo consoles.
Edit: I’ll rejigger my list sometime before the weekend.
I’ve been working on this list for a few months now since it was bumped back in March. I have limited this to the top 100 games I have actually played. (There are a lot of good games that do not make my list either because I have never played them [like Bayonetta which I would love to play one day] or I have not played them enough [like Full Throttle that I played the demo but not the full game]).
I tried to exclude double-ups from the same series, but had to let some in because they were really just too good to leave out.
- Europa Universalis IV.
- Minecraft.
- Total War: Warhammer.
- RimWorld.
- Diablo III.
- Pride of Nations.
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
- Victoria II.
- Civilization IV.
- Medieval: Total War.
- Gothic II: Night of the Raven.
- Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
- Diablo II.
- Caesar III.
- The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt.
- Half Life 2.
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
- Crusader Kings II.
- Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge.
- Distant Worlds: Universe.
- Company of Heroes.
- Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy.
- Starcraft
- Super Mario 64.
- Day of the Tentacle.
- Freespace 2.
- Sim City 2000.
- Mario Kart 64.
- Hearts of Iron II: Darkest Hour.
- Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
- Horizon: Zero Dawn.
- Civilization III.
- Sid Meier’s Railway Tycoon.
- TIE Fighter.
- Mass Effect 2.
- Cities: Skylines.
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
- Doom II: Hell on Earth.
- Portal.
- Portal 2.
- Perfect Dark.
- Atom Zombie Smasher.
- Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.
- Warlords 2.
- Hegemony: Philip of Macedon.
- Fallout 4.
- Banjo Kazooie.
- Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.
- Dark Forces
- Giants: Citizen Kabuto.
- Star Wars: Pod Racer.
- Gary Grigsby’s War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition.
- Demon’s Souls.
- Tetris.
- Halo: Combat Evolved.
- One Must Fall: 2097.
- Dawn of Discovery.
- Grand Theft Auto IV.
- Tomb Raider (2013).
- AI War: Fleet Command.
- Warlords: Battlecry 2.
- Battle of the Bulge.
- Armageddon Empires.
- Heroes of Might and Magic III.
- Order of Battle: World War II.
- Unity of Command.
- Just Cause 2.
- Age of Mythology.
- Far Cry.
- Pool of Radiance.
- Borderlands.
- System Shock 2.
- Warcraft 3.
- Medal of Honour: Allied Assault.
- Sid Meier’s Pirates!
- Limbo.
- Gary Grigsby’s War in the East.
- Hearts of Iron IV.
- Banished
- Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness.
- Rise of Nations
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert.
- Elite: Dangerous.
- Painkiller.
- Silent Hunter IV: Wolves of the Pacific.
- Sleeping Dogs.
- State of Decay.
- Wargame: Red Dragon.
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
- Caves of Qud.
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI.
- Tales of the Unknown Volume I: The Bard’s Tale.
- Ratchet & Clank 3.
- Unreal.
- Persona 4.
- Myth.
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
- Chip’s Challenge.
- Plants v Zombies.
How can you like a game if you don’t play it?
Wow, I was thinking about making such a list when that thread was bumped a while back, but never, ever considered ranking them with any sense! This would be beyond what I can do, considering I’d probably miss a bunch of games I loooved but didn’t leave a big imprint in my brains (just skimming through yours and SamS’ list, Plants Vs Zombies is one such game).
What was the Mark of Kri (I don’t dare to ask about Voodoo Vince)?
Yeah, I only ranked them in very broad strokes, as in “these should be near the top, while these should be somewhere in the middle”, and then whatever is not near the top or middle ends up near the bottom by default after you try to reorder it. But it’s still not easy. It’s really hard to compare. Why is Warlords Battlecry 2 above Witcher 3 on my list? I have no idea. The two are nothing like each other so it seems really silly that they are on the same list, honestly.
Nevertheless, the actual process of making the list did make me realize that there were a lot more “top games” in my mind than I had thought about previously.
Thanks! It would be weird if you included games that you only heard were great from other people. It would be like me including Starflight or Civilization IV or Gothic 2. I’m sure they are great, but since I haven’t played them, …
Just from my own point of view, I don’t really sweat the rankings all that much. I basically tried to take the top 10 placement pretty seriously but the rest are basically just games that I think belong in my top 100. That’s pretty much it. I couldn’t say why the 73 spot is there, and not 72 or 74, and I really don’t care to. Therese are games that mean a lot to me, for whatever reason, and 100 seems like a big enough grab bag to catch a decent spread of games I wanted to call out.
So something like Plants vs Zombies, yeah that’s a totally lightweight game for a top 100 list. But, I own and have played on like half a dozen different platforms and, no lie, I pretty much play every day. I just love that game.
I agree with @Rock8man that I wouldn’t want folks to put games they haven’t played on their list. I don’t think these lists are meant to be a 100 greatest, and those kinds of lists don’t mean much anyway. I think of mine as 100 games that I love, that have meaning to me, and I like sharing that and seeing other people share that. Like with @Knightsaber’s list, I have never given the Farming Simulator games a moment’s thought, but he liked them enough to put two entries on his top 100. Now I’m thinking whoa, what’s up with that? Maybe I’m missing out, I need to take a closer look.
As for Mark of Kri, that’s a PS2 game that was kind of a stealthy/brawly kind of game. You playrdnthis massive kind of Pacific Islander looking dude who is trying to keep a group of people safe. That’s not much to go on, but man did I love that game. Haven’t played in a long time, but it looms large in my memory.
Edit: keep me of want to put ME: Andromeda in there, but I don’t know what I’d bump. Maybe next revision in a couple years I’ll have a better perspective.
It brings me back to your number 1: Starflight. Honestly, what type of games are still attempting that sense of exploration? I don’t know about Starflight specifically, so let’s talk about my number 1: Star Control 2 instead, which I have played through many times. Just that feeling when you’re playing it for the first time, and you’re exploring from Earth and finding other star systems, and realizing just how big a sector of the galaxy you have access to. Who is trying to recreate that these days? How did primarily two people make a game of that scope back then?
The two games that tried to do that recently were No Man’s Sky and ME: Andromeda. No Man’s Sky took the procedurally generated approach, and ME:A mostly took a more hand-made approach with a little bit of procedural generation. I actually enjoyed both approaches. The last year was a good one for me, for returning to that sense of awe of exploration. Ultimately I stopped playing No Man’s Sky because their combat system sucks. I mean, I love Star Control 2, but there’s no way I would have played it to completion even once if I didn’t love their combat system and flight model. ME:A, on the other hand, has a great combat system that I really enjoyed. I just wish they had some empty worlds to explore and more content.
I hope we’re seeing a trend though. The return of the galaxy exploration game. Hopefully with some enjoyable core gameplay loop too, though.
Man, I hope that Andromeda’s and No Man’s Sky’s failures in the marketplace don’t kill enthusiasm for what they were trying to do. I don’t know who would take up the flag for the kind of huge, galaxy-spanning rpg that Bioware was attempting - CDPrrojekt could probably do it, but they’re tied up with Cyberpunk. I don’t think this is really in Bethesda’s wheelhouse, though there were rumors they were working on something like this back before E3.
Andromeda could have been saved, had there been the will to do so. I think about the awesome story-focused DLC for GTA4, that also added features and activities to the base game. But I guess it’s on life support, so we will have to pray to the gods of space exploration games to forgive us our trespasses, maybe grace us with something cool in a few years. In the meantime, there’s always indies.
Anyway, you mentioned rating Star Control 2 higher because you played it first and that’s basically the story with me and Starflight. Could’ve maybe gone the other way, but I had Starflight on my C64 back in high school, and I don’t think I had a system that could play Star Control until much later. Just couldn’t get its hooks in me the same way by that point. Still a great game though, made it onto my list.