Greatest 100 Video Games of All Time

This is seriously probably the only "top X video game" list that I've ever seen that didn't contain Zelda : OoT.
 
arentol said:
Not a bad list. Plenty of great games on there.

However, a lot of those games were popular more so than great. For instance Bard's Tale was better than half the games on that list from the 80's... As was Wasteland. Other games that were popular more so than great... Halo, Gears of War, World of Warcraft, Myst, Angry Birds, etc.

And some games were trumped in their Genre in the same decade (or even same year) by superior games. For instance, Madden 95 was fine, but Front Page Sports Football Pro 95 was a way better game. Grim Fandango was good, but Maniac Mansion II: Day of The Tentacle was better. Wing Commander was good, but X-wing, Tie Fighter, and X-wing vs Tie Fighter were all better.

But I do understand why some people consider the above games great in spite of all this, so I have no real complaint about the list, I would just make some slight changes to it if it were up to me.
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Myst is one of the main reasons people switched to Cd-roms. It was also the highest selling pc game until the Sims. It was both innovative and drove technology forward, Not many games can claim those and that's part of the reason it is (and should be) on the list.
 
EODetroit said:
Biggest omissions:

X-Wing
Tie Fighter
X-Com
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I´m with you on those. Tie Fighter in multi player (LAN), groundbreaking.

Fairly good list, but so many crucial omissions. Quite a few face palms on that list as well.

80s list omissions:
Ultima series games V-VII were great games, better than IV.
A Bards Tale (Skara Brae.. now you remember it :)
Warlords


90s list has serious problems:

Descent
Unreal + Unreal Tournament
Half Life
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Total Annihilation
War Craft III
Farcry
Alien vs. Predator

2000s:
Independence War II: Edge of Chaos
Age of Empires 2
Borderlands
Mass Effect
Crysis


2010s:
Borderlands 2
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
 
As good as Wing Commander was ... WC III and IV was better. I almost punched my monitor when Hobbs turned on you (WC3) and when you found out that Admiral Tolwyn was behind everything (WC4).
 
Seventyfive said:
It's missing Red Dead Redemption. I don't know anyone who didn't like that game.
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Except for the fact it had no AA so if an object was more than 30 feet away you couldn't tell if it was a person or a house. If it wasn't for that it would have been great.

all in all it was a good list (compared to most). but where the hell is half life?
 
IMHO this list is missing:

1970s: Star Trek/Trek ( that text only game - man, I am really old :p )
1990s: Half Life (the first one)

Otherwise, a pretty fair list actually.
 
bufodr_T said:
What!! Far cry on pc isn't on that list?
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Yep, I'd put Far Cry PC on there simply for the fact that it broke graphical boundaries for an open game world at the time and really spurred on GPU development.

As for ME3 being on the list, I have a feeling the compiler/writer felt they had to fit an ME game on there somewhere, and choose to fit it in the 2010s. But agreed: ME1 was definitely the superior game.

Might put Outcast and Ultima Underworld on there. Maybe Out of this World.
 
Considering the fact that if you put 128 gamers in a room you will get 128 different best of lists it isn't too bad, especially considering that Time is a very commercial magazine ;) ... short of going to binary heaven and listing the best 1024 of all time or something (for maximum Geekage :D ) you will never be able to please everybody and always bring down a fair amount of Nerd Angst/Rage :p ... especially since a true best of list needs to encompass ALL of the gaming venues (consoles, PCs, mobile/portable, mainframes, and online) and short of your best 1024 or something you could never comprehend every game changing innovation :)
 
kbrickley said:
Considering the fact that if you put 128 gamers in a room you will get 128 different best of lists it isn't too bad,
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Probably, but just by looking at what people are posting here, you should be able to assert that everyone agree on a number of games that should be in this list. So, even in this situation, it ould not be very difficult to create a list that has fewer compromises than the list presented on this article.

Btw, there are some very interesting games in SEGA's portfolio that could have made this list, like Nights and Panzeer Dragoon. Also, omissions like Tie Fighter/X-Wing, X-Com and Bioware and Interplay RPGs from the 90's, just diminishes the value of this list.

It's like this 100 Best Guitar Players of all time list: http://www.spin.com/articles/spins-100-greatest-guitarists-all-time?page=10

No Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen. (I was flabbergasted to see that #1 Guitar Player was Sonic Youth guitar player and none of the above was in the list whatsoever)
 
Umm Hello? Battlefield 1942? Seriously not there?

and UTXXXX

Although Grim Fandango made it so props for that
 
DeathPrincess said:
Several of those aren't video games...:p
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frag.machine said:
IMHO this list is missing:

1970s: Star Trek/Trek ( that text only game - man, I am really old :p )
1990s: Half Life (the first one)

Otherwise, a pretty fair list actually.
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It embarrasses me to no end, but hunt the wumpus shouldn't be there, space war should. Space war was actually a video game (easily the first on a computer) and dominated its era. Trek was pretty good, but see Atari's Star Raiders for the 400/800 (and later) for the best example (and it should have made the list).

Leaving out any mention of Baldur's Gate (2) or Torment was a huge mistake.

For us old farts, the biggest news is that Time got the list maybe 90% right (even the back catalog, probably made by an old timer). When was the last time Time got anything right, much less geek life? I've gotten a bit used to how mainstream video games are, but Ico , M.U.L.E. were never mainstream (as mentioned, neither was wumpus, but they were clearly wrong here). I suspect that there was a bunch of raiding geek sites for "research" but it is still impressive.
 
Maybe I'm just jaded, but I'm suspicious that EA gave them a bunch of money to create that list just so they could put ME3 on it.
 
PunditGuy said:
Not a terrible list, but Elite is noticeably absent. And ME3 definitely doesn't belong there -- it's not even the best in the series, so it's definitely not an example of a "greatest" video game.
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Indeed. As is "Rogue" itself. A game so seminal that games are still being made 20 years later that are described as "Rogue-like", including one on the top 100 list, but not the game for which the entire genre, if you will, is named.

That seems obvious to me. The one game in there that is a "Rogue-like" game is even described in such terms. How did the authors write that in the description of one game and then NOT think "Gosh, how is Rogue itself not on the list?"
 
I can't believe that none of you guys have mentioned the two most egregious exclusions of all.

Wolfenstein 3D! The daddy of ALL FPS games. Instead, they just mentioned it in the description of a side scroller?

No mention of MINESWEEPER?

Without those two it's not a valid list.
 
YEAH!@ they included Zork.

when i was a kid I got Zork The Grand Inquisitor. Which was a puzzle / myst like game. amazing.
 
RAF_OldBuzzard said:
I can't believe that none of you guys have mentioned the two most egregious exclusions of all.

Wolfenstein 3D! The daddy of ALL FPS games. Instead, they just mentioned it in the description of a side scroller?

No mention of MINESWEEPER?

Without those two it's not a valid list.
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Throw Return to Castle Wolfenstein in there,too. One of the few sequels that truly did justice to a classic franchise.
 
The exclusion of A Link to the Past kind of invalidates the entire list, doesn't it?
 
Well, they included Wing Commander which is great. However, I think they also should have included Star Control.
 
Stiler said:
Myst is one of the main reasons people switched to Cd-roms. It was also the highest selling pc game until the Sims. It was both innovative and drove technology forward, Not many games can claim those and that's part of the reason it is (and should be) on the list.
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No, the Star Wars games were not better than Wing Commander, not by a long shot. (Just my opinion though, I know.)
 
Wish it had populus, syndicate, Wiz and some other 80s games that defined its genre.

Also, one of the black isle's games should've been up there (baldure, neverwinter night, torment)
 
infojunkie said:
Wish it had populus, syndicate, Wiz and some other 80s games that defined its genre.

Also, one of the black isle's games should've been up there (baldure, neverwinter night, torment)
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Wizardry is on there. Though most voters are trying to remove it... Makes no sense since Wizardry practically invented cRPG's.
 
sviola said:
It's like this 100 Best Guitar Players of all time list: http://www.spin.com/articles/spins-100-greatest-guitarists-all-time?page=10

No Jimi Hendrix, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen. (I was flabbergasted to see that #1 Guitar Player was Sonic Youth guitar player and none of the above was in the list whatsoever)
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holy crap that 100 best guitarist list is horrible. # 4 was Curt Corbin. I think it was intentionally bad to get more hits.

No Jimmy Page, bucket head, Jeck Beck, Nuno bettencourt, Eric Clapton, Paul Gilbert, Slash, HIZAKi , syu, Eric Johnson....and an endless amount more.

This top 100 games list is significantly better than Spin's top 100 guitarist....This list just pisses me off. Which had to be their point.
 
infojunkie said:
Wish it had populus, syndicate, Wiz and some other 80s games that defined its genre.

Also, one of the black isle's games should've been up there (baldure, neverwinter night, torment)
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Populus... you just blew my mind. Completely forgot about that. Return to Castle Woflenstein was better than the original, how ever more important it was.
 
They left out Quake 2 and Quake 3...the list sucks, IMO.
 
thanks now i'm have to clean my room in weekend to find SUPER CONTRA so i can play it.
 
harmattan said:
As for ME3 being on the list, I have a feeling the compiler/writer felt they had to fit an ME game on there somewhere, and choose to fit it in the 2010s. But agreed: ME1 was definitely the superior game.
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That's the equivalent of picking Duke Nukem 3D (never played it before btw) as one of the all-time great games, but due to space limitations in the 90s section, deciding to include Duke Nukem Forever on the 2010s list.
 
Duke Nukem 3D
Mail Order Monsters
Karateka
Impossible Mission
X-Wing
Tie Fighter

...I could go on and on.
 
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