Best games of all time (in my opinion)

[Sporenut]

With the rapid increase of games and consoles, I believe it is time someone said what they believe to be the top games of all time. So here we go! Starting with

Sandbox: Infamous was a strong competitor for this, as well as some of the GTA games (not GTA 4, GOD NO!). But when it comes right down to it, Saints Row 2 won this.
The combination of unparalleled character customization, the gang customization and the house customization, it makes the world your own little playground. The only problem I found with this game was that to do missions, you had to do the mini games, some of which were fun (such as Mayhem, where you're given a rocket launcher, a section of town and no motive) and some... not so much... (Insurance Fraud, jump out in front of cars).

RTS: I love RTS, it's my favorite genre of gaming. I'm going back years into this. Some of the more recent RTS have been terrible (Age of Empires 3, Red Alert 3), but if we go further back, we find some godlike RTS. Some of the competitors for this were Rise of Nations, Command and Conquer 3, and of course, Age of Empires 2. But the one that reins over all the rest is Rome: Total War. You play as a famous house of Rome, destroying the enemies of Rome in a fury of... average graphics (great for its time) and difficult tactics. Diplomacy, spies, assasins, city seige, this game has it all. Then you betray Rome... what a wonderful game...

FPS: I was talking about this to my friends, reviewers from this site and others, and the instant I said the words "First Person Shooter", they all started shouting for Fallout 3, but I told them they could shove their precious Fallout 3 up their ass and decided that good old Call of Duty 4 wins. I enjoyed the online play, as well as the single player campaign, most games (Take Left 4 Dead for example) have a single player mode that sucks, and a multiplayer mode that rules. But CoD4 has it all.

Misc: Games that I really couldn't fit into a category, but still deserve a mention, like Mount&Blade, a medieval squad based combat RPG, or Sid Meiers Pirates, which... I really don't know how to describe it. But this was won easily by Sid Meiers Pirates. Sail the seas, kill famous pirates, sail more seas, kill more pirates, make it with the governors daughter, this game has it all!

MMORPG: There really aren't that many to choose from. Theres World of Warcraft, Runescape and Godswar are the only good ones that I know of.
World of Warcraft won this because Runescape is terrible, and Godswar is more intended for kids. World of Warcraft offers PvP, which is something Runescape had a great system for, but has been screwed up in the past year. It has a wide variety of classes, which Godswar sort of has, theres a healer, a DPS, a mage, and a tank, thats it, no hybrid classes (For example, Druids, they can do everything, just not very well).

And finally, the greatest game of all time:
I have to choose one of these ones don't I?
Well I have, but I want to give an honorable mention to Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. I just love tactics games, Fire Emblem has been improving until finally it hit Radiant Dawn, easily the best one.
Best game of all time is........ (Insert drumroll here please)
CALL OF DUTY 4! CONGRATULATIONS! YOU WIN NOTHING!
I just loved playing it, the customizable weaponry, each game, I new group of people, a new set of tactics, it truly is a masterpiece of gaming.

Thanks for reading!

 

[NBSRDan]

I was with you until I read "Call of Duty 4". It can't be the best game if there are thousands of games that are better than it. Like Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3, and Call of Duty: World at War.

 

[Christemo]

your choices are pretty thick, if i may. COD4 best game ever? its awesome, but it would only run home with the 11th place to me.

terrible RTS´s nowadays? Dawn of War: Dark Crusade sat a standard so high that Dawn of War 2 stumbled headfirst into it, then forgot what it was supposed to be.

also you forgot following categories: RPG, Turn-based Strategy, 3rdPS and Horror.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

your choices are pretty thick, if i may. COD4 best game ever? its awesome, but it would only run home with the 11th place to me.

terrible RTS´s nowadays? Dawn of War: Dark Crusade sat a standard so high that Dawn of War 2 stumbled headfirst into it, then forgot what it was supposed to be.

also you forgot following categories: RPG, Turn-based Strategy, 3rdPS and Horror.

I thought DoW 2 really brought it back to what it should be: Strategy.
you have a limited number of soldiers and need to complete your mission with them.
although I prefer Dark Crusade.
on average per mission, I lose less Imperial Guard on DoW DC than I do Space Marines in DoW 2.
so I do prefer the old DoW games...

 

[Christemo]

your choices are pretty thick, if i may. COD4 best game ever? its awesome, but it would only run home with the 11th place to me.

terrible RTS´s nowadays? Dawn of War: Dark Crusade sat a standard so high that Dawn of War 2 stumbled headfirst into it, then forgot what it was supposed to be.

also you forgot following categories: RPG, Turn-based Strategy, 3rdPS and Horror.

I thought DoW 2 really brought it back to what it should be: Strategy.
you have a limited number of soldiers and need to complete your mission with them.
although I prefer Dark Crusade.
on average per mission, I lose less Imperial Guard on DoW DC than I do Space Marines in DoW 2.
so I do prefer the old DoW games...

there was no strategy in Dawn of War 2, its an RPG, not an RTS. its just about ganging all your squads up in the face of everyone that doesnt look the slightest bit inhuman.

 

[Daruth_Winterwood]

Lets see well I will list my favorite games of all time and perhaps some coherent reasons. Although this is entirely subjective and lies solely on a persons personal taste.

So..

Sandbox. It's hard to say, this genre seems a fairly recent phenomenon in the game world, although it may also depend on what one considers sandbox. I'd have to say Saints Row 2 for lack of a better answer. It's fun and doesn't try to take itself too seriously and that is crucial in a sandbox.

RTS. I'm not a big RTS player but if I have to say a title it'd definitely be Starcraft. It's three races are as unique as they are perfectly balanced and it maintains an interesting storyline that is both humorous and serious at the same time. I don't go out of my way to play it, but that's mainly because I'm not that great at it.

TBS. For turn based strategies I'm torn between Civilization and Alpha Centauri. While Civ is more original AC is more unique. I'd probably go with AC for its compelling story and excellent quotage and the philosophical provocations that it leaves in its wake. For a more alternative TBS, Age of Wonders, it seemed to take elements that games like Warlords or Heroes of Might and Magic did and simply made them more accessible, interesting and on the whole better then its predecessors.

Adventure games. This is a tough one, there's so many to choose from and a lot of them are above par in excellence. Grim Fandango. It has no sequels and stands on its own. The dialogue and characters are brilliant the puzzles for the most part remain logical and challenging and it remains memorable from start to finish.

Sport games. Ugh, well Mutant League Football. I suppose, Sixty Weiners hur hur hur.

Western Computer RPG's. Arcanum:Of Steamworks and Magical Obscura. I love this game. It contains, in my opinion the absolute minimum that all RPGs should have. A vast open ended world, a fully customizable character system including backgrounds, races, stats and all choices playable, including a brain damaged character that allow to create a flawed individual being that stands unique from his fellow companions as well as any future creations. Multiple ways of approaching almost any situation, from fighting, sneaking, applying gadgets or sorcery or simply talking circles around people or getting others to do your dirty work. Many, many endings and so much more I can't contain it all in an already large paragraph. It had its problems sure but Arcanum is the best RPG to date for these reasons and more.

Western Console RPG's. Shadowrun on SEGA. You do infinite amount of odd jobs get the cash to pay for upgrades for your class to do harder odd jobs to get more money to pay for larger upgrades. You can hack the matrix and it is awesome. You can get cybernetic implants and heavy weapons and it is awesome. You can get spells and it is awesome. Though the game may take a little while to grow on you it is definitely awesome.

FPSRPG. Vampire the Masquerade:Bloodlines. Brilliant story, brilliant voice acting. Multiple ways of approaching a situation, multiple endings, great atmospherics, unique clan choices, dark and unique setting, marvelous atmospherics and some really scary scenes too. It's got bugs but there are patches to make that all better. This game shits on any other FPSRPG to date, although Deus Ex certainly comes close while it does so. It must be played it simply must!

JRPG. Well seeing as they're all basically the bloody same I'm going to choose Phantasy star 4 for several reasons. It's the first JRPG I played. It was the most satisfying to beat for me. The things you do and places you go are just gorgeous and if you've played the other Phantasy Stars you know why the series ended with a helluva bang. I'm also tempted to replace this title with either LiveaLive or ChronoTrigger. They are also good in there own respects.

MMORPG. Kingdom of Loathing. WoW? Scoff I say! Scoff! Why the hell aren't you playing KoL right now?! It's not only free to play it's fucking hilarious!!! Here's a link, play it and see firsthand why I tell you to play it! www.kingdomofloathing.com

Survival Horror. I'm torn between Silent Hill and Yahtzee's John Defoe quadrilogy. So I'll just go with The Legacy:Realms of Terror because that game used ta scare the bejeezus outta me when I was like 8. God it's so sad to replay that game now.

2d Platformer. Ecco the Dolphin. The music. The music! It was verry hard and verry pretty and remains a permanent fixture of my psyche. I think its an oldie but a goodie. Also Oddworld, Abes Oddysee. It's funny its hard and it improved upon older classics like Flashback and Anotherworld and made it largely unique.

3d Platformer. Psychonauts. It's funny, it's unique, it's well written. It has conspiracies involving milkmen.

Puzzle game. Blue Ice. Think Myst meets Salvador Dali meets LSD. Very odd. Very very odd.

Freelance trade Sim. Battlecruiser 3000AD. It's got more controls and buttons than a jumbo jet and its the game is freaking enormous. Lots of things to do and you'll probably never experience the whole game ever.

Flight Sim. FA18Hornet. You can make things go boom and its fun to crash it real good. I don't play these sorts of games much but FA18 always stood out amongst the few I did.

FPS. Probably Half-Life 2. Valve have taken FPS games to new and exciting level and their professionalism in regards to almost all design elements shows very brightly. They certainly aren't stagnating a tiresome genre like Id software did.

2.5d FPS. Well I'd probably say Doom. Then I'd stop myself and say Blood. It's oh so violent and darkly humerous and stands on top of doom in terms of skill and replayablity. Still gotta love dooms awesome midi metal beats!

So. Many more I could probably choose from but I can't be bothered thinking up categories. I'll simply post my other choices as reviews and such.

 

[Jakemizer]

My Favorite is Oblivion. But, it can't win because it's only the best when you have it for pc and can mod it...

 

[phoenix_tetsu]

Games I have most enjoyed (so they are the best for me... in no particular order...)

Zelda: A Link to the Past
Final Fantasy VI
Vagrant Story
Snatcher
Metal Gear Solid
Silent Hill 2 (yeah, I know is a cliche at this point...)
Flower, Sun and Rain
Rock Band

 

[Chaosut]

I've got some constructive critisism to make. Firstly, if you were intending to make a defeinitive/unbiased best games of all time, this list is extremely limited (more on that later). Secondly, you left out a lot of genres, how about; adventure games, indie games, RPG's, Platformers etc. Thirdly, many people have made favourite/greatest games ever lists. Fourthly, i found your style of writing to be not particularly objective. This particular part sticks in my mind;

I was talking about this to my friends, reviewers from this site and others, and the instant I said the words "First Person Shooter", they all started shouting for Fallout 3, but I told them they could shove their precious Fallout 3 up their ass and decided that good old Call of Duty 4 wins. I enjoyed the online play, as well as the single player campaign, most games (Take Left 4 Dead for example) have a single player mode that sucks, and a multiplayer mode that rules. But CoD4 has it all.

So anyway, getting onto the games you actually listed. As i said earlier, i found it very limited. COD 4 is a decent FPS, but certainly not the greatest game of all time nor a masterpiece. It's a game that's in many ways is very unremarkable, and if i were to make critisisms of it then some of them would be; a short singleplayer, painfully linear and scripted, mediocre AI, repetitive gameplay etc. I can't help but feel this whole thread was just used as an excuse to express your liking of COD 4. Also, Fallout 3 isn't really an FPS, it's more of an Action-RPG, so it shouldn't really be in that category. I could drone on and mention all the games you've missed and ignored, but i won't. For example, i could say that you just took a modern mainstream FPS as the best one and ignored truly innovative ones such as; Deus Ex, Half-life 1, NOLF 2, Doom, Timesplitters, Unreal Tournament, System Shock 2, Godleneye 007, But anyway, hopefully you can see i'm saying this in constructive terms, not as an attack.

 

[domble]

COD 4 online is digital smack, this is true, and kudos to them for taking a break from flooding us with WWII games. The nazis were evil, I get it, honestly. Thing is the amount of grenade spammers and campers that lurk online like termites really only serve to heighten blood pressure and give your controller warranty a good work out.

My favourite game is still Final Fantasy VIII (always comes up as a toss up between that and VII, I always find, but VIII was the first I really got into) for sheer depth, scope and character development. I'm really hoping a remake isn't in the works.

Plus RTS's aren't my particular brand of vodka, so I can't really say much on that I'm afraid, but I really loved the earlier C&C games. Especially the spies with the Sean Connery accent.

I think the trick here is not to succumb to nostalgia, which seems to give many games a free ride, with the forgetfulness of old age pasting over some of the cracks. Having said that though, how do you feel about retro games?

 

[SonicKoala]

My favourite games in no particular order and the reasons why:

Grand Theft Auto 3 - My first game on the ps2, and although the other games added additional gameplay elements, I never really had as much fun with the others as I did 3. That's a game that practically defined the whole sandbox genre, and although the missions are repetitive, the sheer joy of just going on a crazy destructive rampage with a tank has never lost its charm. I also had a huge amount of fun exploiting the glitches in the game, and I always found GTA 3 to have one of the best designs out of the other games.

Metal Gear Solid 2 - I know that a lot of people have a huge hate for this game, particularly because of Raiden, but this was my first MGS title, and so I didn't have as huge a connection to Snake as fans of the first one might of. The extended cutscenes and codec conversations never bothered me, and I found the story to be so compelling and so well-written that I found myself completely immersed in this game the entire time I played it. Sure, the end was a little over-written, but it was within reason. (unlike MGS 4, which just went insane with its story). I enjoyed Metal Gear Solid almost as much, but this is one of those games that has really stuck with me.

Silent Hill 2 - Surprisingly, I was a huge fan of this game before I discovered Zero Punctuation. This was my first Silent Hill game (i've never played the 1st one, actually), and it remains today one of the scariest games i've ever played (Silent Hill 3 had slightly scarier moments, but was an inferior game overall). What I loved about this game is how intense and immersive the game is from beginning to end. Even the very beginning where you jog for almost 15 minutes without encountering a single enemy is like an extended, high-tension crescendo, setting you up for the terror your about to experience. Another thing I like about this game is how well the story is written, and how I as a gamer actually felt an emotional attachment to the game's protagonist. That, and the labyrinth stage remains the single scariest stage I've ever encountered in a video game.

I could name a bunch of other games that i've really enjoyed (Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Counterstrike, Fallout 1, 2 AND 3, Bioshock, Guitar Hero 2, Rock Band), but those 3 are the ones that have made the largest impressions on me, and I have yet to play a game that I enjoy as much or more than those 3. Hooray for an extended 1st post.

 

[domble]

My favourite games in no particular order and the reasons why:

Grand Theft Auto 3 - My first game on the ps2, and although the other games added additional gameplay elements, I never really had as much fun with the others as I did 3. That's a game that practically defined the whole sandbox genre, and although the missions are repetitive, the sheer joy of just going on a crazy destructive rampage with a tank has never lost its charm.

It is true that this opened the sandbox floodgates and was an awesome game, but lest we forget that it was Driver 2 that did it first on the PS1.

Wow, that really takes me back...

 

[SonicKoala]

That is true that driver 2 did it first, and I enjoyed that game, but nowhere near as much as I enjoyed GTA 3. Driver 2 may of started it, but I think it's fair to say that GTA 3 more or less perfected it.

 

[domble]

Yeah I do think of Driver 2 as the prototype. I'm certainly not saying it was a great game, hell no, but it got to the punch first.

 

[danosaurus]

I'm glad you said 'in my opinion', because COD4 as greatest game of all time is the most ridiculous statement I've heard all year.

 

[Shapsters]

This is very far from a review, and list threads are not welcomed here on the Escapist. On top of all that this list is terrible! It's really not good at all, you chose only games from the past 4 years, you give no reasoning for your choices and you just choose the most obvious choices for the current generation of games.

 

[danosaurus]

This is very far from a review, and list threads are not welcomed here on the Escapist. On top of all that this list is terrible! It's really not good at all, you chose only games from the past 4 years, you give no reasoning for your choices and you just choose the most obvious choices for the current generation of games.

/thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ

 

[Psychopomp]

A Link to the Past wins for me