Best ever video games

[Brian Boru]

Saw this on Wiki—goes from 1971 to 2017:
"…games that multiple reputable video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from different publications…"

List of video games considered the best - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Are all your favs on there?

Couple of mine which aren't are two originals—the first Far Cry and the first Crysis.
Another is Command & Conquer Generals.

ETA related thread:

Best ever Steam games

In the Best ever video games thread, which summarizes game journalists' views: How about a list compiled by a broad range of actual gamers? I guess Steam comes closest to that, so here are a couple of analyses of their games: Steam250 looks like a nice resource. They're open source, explain...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't see Black & White, but I also understand the game was a disappointment for people who actually followed the development. And a large part of why I love it is just pure nostalgia.

 

[Colif]

I don't see Black & White, but I also understand the game was a disappointment for people who actually followed the development. And a large part of why I love it is just pure nostalgia.

God games like it and populous need a come back. Slightly better graphics these days.

1981 - Galaga - why did list go on? that is perfect right there, nothing better (remembers scoring 100060 on it one day)

no good games since 2017? well, I wasn't going to say anything but you know, its right there

 

[Pifanjr]

God games like it and populous need a come back. Slightly better graphics these days.

The only other God game I'm aware of is From Dust, which was fun, but nothing like Black & White. I really liked having semi-independent villagers, I always liked the idea of watching a little civilisation develop itself, with just a little help from outside.

I'm pretty sure Spore promised a feature like that, though it's possible my imagination hyped it up more than they intended.

 

[Colif]

No, EA hyped it up more than was physically possible with PC of the time. Would still be hard now. I found the instruction booklet for it a few weeks ago. I believed the hype too... that was a valuable lesson, they lie and games aren't always what they pretend they are. Wait and watch game play...

Spore isn't really a god game, its more a creation game I feel. Evolution of a species. I guess it depends on where you stand on that argument... but the other 2 games are less direct. Spore you actually make the shape of the creatures.

Most recent games that godlike in nature are more direct, make you set them tasks for the people rather than more subtle influences.

Dorf Romatik is a god game sort of, you create the world as you play but you don't have full control until they release free play mode. Always restricted by what cards you get. Maybe if gods have bosses too, then its realistic

 

[Pifanjr]

Spore isn't really a god game, its more a creation game I feel. Evolution of a species. I guess it depends on where you stand on that argument... but the other 2 games are less direct. Spore you actually make the shape of the creatures.

I remember promised features after reaching the space age to mess with less technologically advanced species in various ways.

 

[Brian Boru]

no good games since 2017?

My guess is there haven't been enough "best/greatest of all time" lists to fill in the most recent years.

 

[mainer]

Several of my favorite games aren't on that list, like the Gothic & Risen series, as well as Elex, all Piranha Bytes games, but given the context of that list, I wouldn't expect to see them listed as they're generally not highly rated by reviewers. But there were a few others that I thought might be included on that list but weren't:

1991
Ultima 7: The Black Gate
1992
Ultima 7 part 2: Serpent Isle
Ultima Underworld
1994
System Shock
1998
Baldur's Gate
2002
Dungeon Siege
2008
Sacred 2
2010
Fallout New Vegas
2016
Grim Dawn

My own "best video (pc) games ever" list is probably different than most, but it's sad that at least those games listed above didn't make it.

 

[ZedClampet]

My list of favorite games that aren't included in that would be almost encyclopedic, as I tend to have odd tastes in video games. I don't see the Roller Coaster Tycoon games in there, and feel like they were really special. Portal 2 is in the list, of course, but it's the only game I ever stood and applauded at the end (maybe a dumb thing to do, but it felt right).

But I like to complain. I'd have more fun removing games from that list than adding to it.

 

[Zloth]

MIAs just off the top of my head:

• Descent
• Sacrifice
• XCom 2
• BattleTech
• X4:Foundation
• Master of Orion 2: Battle At Antilies (MoO:BaA)
• Yakuza 0
• Saints Row: The Third
• The Last Remnant
• The Outer Wilds
• Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines (but only after modders restored it)
• No One Lives Forever
• Subnautica
• The Stanley Parable
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (which was better than the first, IMHO)
• Maybe Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children - need some time to judge it properly
• Divinity: Original Sin 2
• Sid Mier's Alpha Centauri

There's no 4X games at all that I can find, other than Civilization. Getting your favorite games left out is to be expected, but a whole genre?? (I think I might have said the same about the PC Gamer top 100 list.)

 

[rahmanrr_09]

My fav game is point blank if there's no cheaters there😭

 

[Pr0udCh0sen1]

Only a good list for AAA games, even then the list is missing a ton of worthy AAA games as well as dozens of games from smaller studios that are indie etc. It would take me hours just to list AAA games from each year the list doesn't mention

 

[MrShadow]

i was about to throw a paddy when i just noticed the wiki editor had indeed included panzer dragoon saga,its a timeless FMV rich classic,oh god the sounds the dragons make when they get hit is still as painful as it was back when it came out- i woud actualy be playing it today but my scallywag NTSC saturn needs its capacitors replacing.

if only who ever owns team andromeda now woud remaster it and rerelease it on steam as they did with panzer dragoon 1 ,im certain itd win back old timers who loved it and a new crowd of youngsters who never got to play the game the first time round (and at todays prices wont ever afford it if they do happen to purchase a second hand saturn).

i disagree with the original resident evil on the playstation 1 being on there though as it wasnt even close to perfection-it had incredibly clunky controls and camera angles that made some of it near unplayable.tomb raider on the ps1 was another one which was highly clunkified and the colour contrast was very poor which led to lots of confusion with the task of the moment-it was hard to discriminate between patterns and colours as these just werent designed to stand out enough-perhaps this is more of an issue when you have visual processing difficulties like myself or a full on visual impairment.

im wondering why canon fodder (amiga or SNES) was never put on-canon fodder to me was a fine example and pioneer of todays tactical shooters.

 

[Brian Boru]

Reads like a few of you think this is some editor's selection. It's not, it is:

"…games that multiple reputable video game journalists or magazines have considered to be among the best of all time. The games listed here are included on at least six separate "best/greatest of all time" lists from different publications…"

 

[Brian Boru]

VBA

I assume that's the VisualBoyAdvance emulator for Game Boy?

 

[Frag Maniac]

Maybe it's just me, but when I don't see games like Dead Space 2 and 3, Mass Effect 3, The Evil Within, Mad Max, Spec Ops The Line, Kane & Lynch 2, Ghost Recon Wildlands, etc, I get the feeling it's just a copy and pasted aggregate of the best selling games, which is not my idea of how to make a best games of all time list.

How about a list compiled by a broad range of actual gamers? I don't see journalists or magazine writers/editors as qualified judges on this matter. In fact quite often they play very little of a game, or don't even play it at all, when they critique them.

 

[Zloth]

We quite often play very little of a game before giving up on them, too, you know.

Honestly, the whole concept starts falling apart when you think about it. For instance, say that 90% of the people that played game A liked it. On the other hand, only 50% of the people that played game B liked it. So B is not as good as A? Nope - you can't say that, mostly because you're only asking the people that played the game. Maybe game B is really one of the greatest turn based games ever made, but the marketing for it was misleading and tricked people into believing it's really an action game so the score is actually just reflecting the percentage of action gamers that also like turn based games. Meanwhile, game A isn't sold on the open market but is only given to people who pass a battery of tests to establish their psychological profile.

If you don't limit to just people that want to play the game, though, niche games haven't got a chance. The whole point of a niche game is to appeal to uncommon tastes, so even a perfect one isn't going to be fun for most gamers.

P.S. You could get economic, though, and say the greatest games were the ones that made their owners the most money. I don't think I would like that list at all, but at least it's something measurable, given enough corporate espionage. (Now where did that PC Gamer Spy sneak off to? )

 

[Brian Boru]

the whole concept starts falling apart when you think about it

Oh sure, you're absolutely right. So… the trick is to not think about it
There are top-X lists for everything, either for fun or for marketing.

How about a list compiled by a broad range of actual gamers?

See if this is useful:

Best ever Steam games

In the Best ever video games thread, which summarizes game journalists' views: How about a list compiled by a broad range of actual gamers? I guess Steam comes closest to that, so here are a couple of analyses of their games: Steam250 looks like a nice resource. They're open source, explain...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Ryzengang]

We quite often play very little of a game before giving up on them, too, you know.

Honestly, the whole concept starts falling apart when you think about it. For instance, say that 90% of the people that played game A liked it. On the other hand, only 50% of the people that played game B liked it. So B is not as good as A? Nope - you can't say that, mostly because you're only asking the people that played the game. Maybe game B is really one of the greatest turn based games ever made, but the marketing for it was misleading and tricked people into believing it's really an action game so the score is actually just reflecting the percentage of action gamers that also like turn based games. Meanwhile, game A isn't sold on the open market but is only given to people who pass a battery of tests to establish their psychological profile.

If you don't limit to just people that want to play the game, though, niche games haven't got a chance. The whole point of a niche game is to appeal to uncommon tastes, so even a perfect one isn't going to be fun for most gamers.

P.S. You could get economic, though, and say the greatest games were the ones that made their owners the most money. I don't think I would like that list at all, but at least it's something measurable, given enough corporate espionage. (Now where did that PC Gamer Spy sneak off to? )

While no system is perfect, I think you touch on a important factor that I've considered important for a long time: rating within genre. A good analogue is music. I started rating music back in high school and I think the only way it makes any sense is to rate based on genre. Comparing The Beatles to a death metal artist seems rather silly, for example.

Of course, as I noted above no system is without flaws. Even rating within a genre brings up questions about what constitutes a given genre, and some games are difficult to neatly classify. Still, I think it is a better system that trying to broadly compared games from disparate genres. For example, I think asserting that Halo is one of the best FPS games ever is easier than asserting it is one of the best games ever. It just gets a lot messier when trying to factor in all games. Additionally, it helps with genres that are inherently niche (e.g., visual novels) to not compete against substantially more popular genres.

 

[Yggdrasill]

I'm surprised Fahrenheit is not on the list, I would think it was quite revolutionary for its time, but maybe I am wrong. It definitely had a huge impact on me and my gaming experience.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm surprised Fahrenheit is not on the list, I would think it was quite revolutionary for its time, but maybe I am wrong. It definitely had a huge impact on me and my gaming experience.

I don't think I've heard of Fahrenheit before. What was revolutionary about it?

 

[Yggdrasill]

I don't think I've heard of Fahrenheit before. What was revolutionary about it?

In NA it was called Indigo Prophecy. Released in 2005, it's from Quantic Dream(Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls, Detroit Become Human).

Police is suspecting you of murder and it is on you not to get caught. Will you let someone die to safe your own skin? At the same time you're playing the police officers who are looking for you. You have different endings depending on how you play the game. Thrilling to the end.

If you played/heard of the other games, you'll get the idea.


I am not entirely sure this concept in this graphic stlye was absolutely new at the time (in 2005), but to me it was. It totally blew me away. It really was a good game.

Fahrenheit (2005 video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org