With this current generation of consoles winding down, I thought now might be a good time to make this thread.
Just go ahead and list what you think are the best games of this generation. I know there's still a few games coming out over the next year that may crack some top 10 lists, but most of what's going to be done this generation has already happened. So, list away. List your top 5, top 10, 20, whatever. Thought it would be interested to see people's opinions on this.
Here's mine.
10. Braid:
A fun platformer with the workings of true art. Thoughtful, elegant, clever and moving.
9. Portal:
The best bonus to every come with a game. Few people knew what this would be when The Orange Box came out. Even fewer knew how it would completely change the gaming landscape, spawning one of the most memorable and quotable lines in gaming history. That one about the cake. Brilliant levels and greatly benefiting from its short length, leaving you wanting much more by the time it's done. One of the best puzzle games of all time.
8. The Walking Dead - The Game
I remember several years ago there was a lot of discussion among developers in the industry if there'd ever be a game truly capable of making mass gamers cry. It was a topic discussed in any number of gaming publications, on forums, in magazines. Years later we have that game.
One of the most profoundly powerful stories ever told in the medium, with one of the most memorable characters I've encountered - the little girl Clemintine. The desire to protect her is absurdly powerful, and the connection you feel towards her - remarkable. Also has perhaps the most potent sense of dread I've played in a game. Relentlessly dark. But capable of gripping even the coldest human heart.
7. Mass Effect:
The start of something great. Taking the idea of meaningful choice and making it feel truly important. Mass Effect captured imaginations in a way I've never seen before by creating the potential for player choice to play a huge role in the story on a scale that we've never seen before. Introduces us to many great characters that blossum as the series progresses.
6. Arkham City:
The ultimate batman simulator. A great combination of story, fullfilling gameplay and a wonderfully developed world that is great fun to explore. Part GTA, part Zelda, part beat em up and part puzzle game, Arkham City succeeds by offering an almost dizzying amount of unique content, each individual portion better than that of most games that concentrate solely on that style of gameplay.
5. Bioshock:
Would you kindly...need I say more? Rapture is one of the most well realized game worlds ever created. While the story falters and slips into cliches, the world is something both horrifying and beautiful. A world you can lose yourself in. A place worth exploring.
4. Bioshock Infinite
Takes the quality world building of the first game and improves on the gameplay and the story. While many may prefer Rapture to Columbia, the story here is leagues better than the first. Extremely heady and borderline pretentious, but thought provoking and artful. If every there was a game to convince someone that games can be art, this is it.
3. Mass Effect 3
Controversial, but only because of how invested so many were in this series. It may have its flaws in regards to the overal plotline, but it's the quiet, moving and funny character moments on the Normandy that will in time define this game. By the time it all ends, you will be deeply invested.
2. Skyrim
The best world ever created. Begging to be explored in an almost obnoxious way. This is less a game than it is a playset. It gives you all the tools to have a great experience and lets you go find them yourself. Respects the player. Respects their desire to be let free and do what they wish. The sense of wonder that I felt when I first set foot out into the world after the short introduction is something I'll never forget. A whole world fully alive and realized. Living and breathing just for me.
1. Mass Effect 2
By the end of Mass Effect 2 I knew I was playing something special. I felt so heavily invested into the plight of Shepard and his crew that I was unsure I wanted it to end. I loved the characters, and the world. From the fiery walls of Omega to the sprawling landscape of Illium - it all felt so rich and pulsing with life.
I've always said that Mass Effect 1 sets up the characters and the events of the trilogy, and Mass Effect 3 puts the universe you now care deeply for in legitimate and unimaginable danger, but Mass Effect 2 makes you care about the universe and the characters. That is its purpose. And it excels. It also has probably the best cliffhanger ending I've seen. Sets up the third game beautifully. I'll never forget roaming the Normandy, talking to the characters who by the end of the game felt not like characters but true friends and allies. I felt like I knew them. And it made me care almost beyond bearing about what happened to them.
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Last edited by BackFire on Jun 21st, 2013 at 09:39 PM
It is impossible for me to rank anything, however I'd like to add (and subtract) some of the games from your list.
Subtracting: Skyrim, Walking Dead and the Bioshocks.
The latter of these, Bioshock, might earn its way back in if I get around to continue playing it (I started recently, and was kinda halted after 20 minutes into the game). I have not played Infinite so I cannot put it on the list, yet.
Skyrim is a solid game... but nothing more, I enjoyed Fallout 3 and New Vegas a lot more.
Walking Dead was a disappointment, I have not yet finished the second episode simply due to me getting annoyed at all the Player input - character action inconsistencies (much more noticeable in TWD then in, say, Mass Effect).
Additions:
Heavy Rain - stellar game, some of the most intense gaming moments in my life were in this game.
Uncharted 2 - Wow, what a fantastic adventure.
Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood: These are one of my most favourite games, combining exciting plot, history and great action, just lovely
Read Dead Redemption - Hands down, best Western AND best Open-World game I have ever played.
Burnout Paradise - The only car game I have ever spent 50+ hours in, that says a lot. Plus, amazing open World mechanics.
Metroid Prime 3 - This game, is a Metroid Prime game, end of story!
Super Mario Galaxy - Fan-****ing-tastic Mario platformer. Sequel gets an honorable mentions as well.
Fallout 3 - Immensely fun, post-apocalyptic (isn't that a contradiction?) RPG.
Hmm... the reason I find a 'best' games list hard to do, rather as with 'best' books, is that I think different game types often have very little in common with each other other for such a ranking. To pick three games I really like of late, I couldn't possibly see Braid, Victoria 2 and Guild Wars 2 on the same list as the things I like about them are so distinct from each other that it would feel weird to suggest they are in the same category. And it gets very difficult when I consider games that I don't actually think are that good but have brilliant ideas within them that deserve attention.
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Last edited by Ushgarak on May 3rd, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Well just do as I do and the problem is solved, list the games you liked this generations but don't rank them. Only common factor is that they are video games.
I don't play enough games to come up with a top ten list, and I hate ranking things...but of the stuff I've played over the past few years:
Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood: Best games in a great series by a longshot; AC2 makes you actually care about the character you're playing as, Brotherhood expands upon that even further and brings other background characters to the front (Claudia <3), and also had the only online multiplayer in a game I've ever liked. Hands down my favorite console games.
Guild Wars 2. Do I really even need to say anything here? I've followed it since before it was officially revealed, I write about it, I lead a guild of nearly 200 members, I've gotten to do interviews with devs, I've met devs, and there is an NPC in the game named after me. I've also met some truly amazing friends through my involvement in the game's community (at PAX East a bunch of my guild all met up and not going to lie when I say that was one of the best weekends of my life). It's silly but that game has had a huge impact on me, and actually playing the game itself is only a small part of it.
Scribblenauts. It's a silly cute little puzzle game that can be absolutely hilarious. I could spend hours just playing around on the title screen seeing what I could make there.
Little Big Planet. Cute platformer that's silly as hell and allows tons of customization. It was the first game I bought when I got my PSP, first game I bought when I got my Vita, and first game I bought when I got my PS3.
I guess that's technically five? Nothing else I've played in the past few years really stands out to me as much as those ones did.
BTW, people who liked Braid - check out Snapshot. It's a similar concept and is really fun. I tried it out at PAX (on the recommendation of GW2's lead designer...hah), enjoyed it a lot, and bought it on Steam the other day.
Backfire's initial list is good. I haven't played all of them, but tend to lean toward games that introduced something new or raised the bar in ways that others will be emulating for years. Portal meets this criteria. As does the Mass Effect series with their storytelling.
Some of the others are just refinements on earlier success...for example, Skyrim, for all its awesomeness, is just a refinement of the earlier Elder Scrolls games. New map, better graphics, more polished...but essentially nothing I wasn't doing in Daggerfall more than a decade ago. It belongs on a "best" list, but doesn't quite hold the same place in my mind as the truly innovative games.
This is awesome. A good friend of mine who runs the WoW website I write for occasionally has met devs and has an in-game item named after him. It's been a cool nod to his contributions. I'm much more on the edges of that sort of involvement, but as a result of the community surrounding the site, we've been able to orchestrate events of hundreds of people that accomplish things smaller groups could never do, and I've had in-game opportunities and accomplishments that wouldn't have been even remotely possible with a traditional guild and raid structure.
That's the only reason I still play (but a great reason), since the gameplay itself is admittedly so-so.
I'd rank Braid as not only the best game of this generation but the best game of all time and I think it's going to be a really long time until we see it matched by anything else. There are some games I'd count among the best this generation for telling a thought-provoking storyline (Zero Escape), for providing fun, challenging, and innovative gameplay (Portal), for being visually and aurally beautiful (Flower), and for communicating a message via the gameplay in interesting ways (The Unfinished Swan) but Braid is the only one that stands out in every single category, and it arguably excels over every other game in each category as well. By far the greatest piece of videogame art ever made and I think anybody who's played it would find it hard to disagree with that notion.
The rest in no particular order, though I'm sure I may have missed a couple:
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last reward
Portal
Portal 2
Flower
Journey
Limbo
Chaos;Head
The Unfinished Swan
Metal Gear Solid 4
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Catherine
Super Mario Galaxy 1
Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Metroid Prime 3
Xenoblade Chronicles
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Last edited by Ben "cA" Risa on May 3rd, 2013 at 05:01 PM
I'm not inclined to do a list because most of my rankings are defined by nostalgia, rather than by the actual quality of the game. I definitely agree with Mass Effect 2, though. In my opinion, that game was basically "perfection". Not just one of my favorite games of this generation, but of all time.
I love ME2 so much that I still haven't played ME3, because I'm scared it's going to disappoint me. lol
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I would've added Metal Gear Solid 4 and Red Dead Redemption in Backfire's list along with taking out "The Walking Dead". Though I doubt I could make a top 10 list myself so here's my attempt in no particular order:
1. Skyrim
2. Arkham City
3. Mass Effect 2
4. uncharted 2
5. Assasin's Creed 2/Brotherhood
6. Metal Gear Solid 4
Gender: Male Location: 1/9.7'rd Horseman of the Apocalypse
In no particular order:
Skyward Sword
Fallout New Vegas/Fallout 3
Arkham City
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Metroid Other M, solid enough gameplay for me to ignore the lamer points.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
NSMB, all of them are awesome.
Arkham Asylum
Portal 2
Assassin's Creed, Revelations.
May add more, later.
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But you wouldn't know as you rest your head.
Heavy Rain: One of the most breathtaking and mesmerizing games I have ever played. This is a very good reason to own a PS3.
Infamous: A fantastically fun sandbox adventure game that lets you choose your fate.
Batman: Arkham City: No explanation needed.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii): This game is, far and away, leagues better than Skyward Sword in both game controls and graphics. It felt just right on the Wii remote and nunchuck.
Bioshock: One of the very best, and original stories I have ever experienced.
Mass Effect 2: The best of the trilogy.
Portal 2: Portal 1 was amazing, but I love 2 better because of extended play time and MP. And Wheatley, too. Gotta love that traitorous personality core!
Super Mario Galaxy: A very charming and even more fun game.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: A timeless shooter that reinvented the genre. Perfect in every way. MW 2 and 3 will never be on this level.
God of War III: The pinnacle of graphical perfection and action.
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Last edited by Impediment on May 3rd, 2013 at 11:30 PM
I'm not going to lie, I love it. It's funny because I'd never really been a very social community person before I started writing, but now I find myself involved in pretty much everything ever. Last year when the game was in beta I was given a ton of keys to give away, got a Christmas card, was sent two signed CEs earlier this year (one to give away on my site, one to keep)...and then of course the fact that I spent two hours one day at PAX having lunch and hanging out with the devs that were there.
My alias I use is Verene (I write under that name and it's part of my twitter handle), and there is an NPC named Verene. She amuses all of my friends and guildies because she's insane and runs in circles a lot trying to get people's attention. The place she's at is also the only place in the game you can get max level aquabreathers for underwater, so it's become tradition in my guild to keep the starter one until level 80 and then "Let's go visit V!"
1. Gta V
2. Mass Effect 2
3. Batman Arkham City
4. Crysis
5. Xcom Enemy Unknown
6. Assassin's Creed
7. Tekken 6
8.Call of Duty Black Ops I Nazi Zombies
9. God of War 3
10. SimCity 2013
__________________ "The darkside, Sidious, is an illness no true Sith wishes to be cured of, my young apprentice .."
Yeah, it's basically one of the best games that has ever been created, and Bioware's Magnum Opus. It managed to break the mold of "Good writing and characters and shit, crappy to meh gameplay" that Bioware is known for.
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May 3rd, 2013 09:56 AM
