IGN Best Video Game of All Time Tournament

World of Warcraft gets kicked out by Call of Duty. No Ultima Online or Everquest or DAOC. Dark Souls didn't even make the cut because Demon Souls is better.
 
This list is laughable. They should have called it best games of the 21st century. How can you not have the pioneering games that was part of the birth of video games. How can games like Pacman and Tetris not be anywhere to be seen on this so called "All time" list.
 
celwin said:
This list is laughable. They should have called it best games of the 21st century. How can you not have the pioneering games that was part of the birth of video games. How can games like Pacman and Tetris not be anywhere to be seen on this so called "All time" list.
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Imagine the average 13 year old console gamer. That's the majority of people voting on this.
Now imagine the average 20 year old console gamer. That's the person running the tournament.
 
I'm happy that Street Fighter 2 made the list (at least they didn't forget it), but I don't know if anyone under 30 realizes how big of an impact that game made. Prior to SF2 multiplayer games were almost entirely cooperative. Outside of racing and sports titles, people were either working together or waiting their turn to play.
 
Domingo said:
I'm happy that Street Fighter 2 made the list (at least they didn't forget it), but I don't know if anyone under 30 realizes how big of an impact that game made. Prior to SF2 multiplayer games were almost entirely cooperative. Outside of racing and sports titles, people were either working together or waiting their turn to play.
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IKR? I remember going to a billiard hall as a teen (which turned out to be vietnamese mafia hangout) to play SF2. We'd go in.. whip ass and talk mad ish. Turns out the kids we were whipping were kids of viet mafia. They were all really cool though.. even taught us billiards. lol We'd drive all over town and look for standups that didn't have f'ed up buttons or sticks at all times of the night hoping to find someone playing. I had a guy pull the guile glitch on me in a match at Supertrack in Houston. I had never seen it before and it was before youtubes. Became friends with him and his twin after finding out they lived in my neighborhood. Turned out they were sons of Cesar Cedeno the retired Astro's player. I can't imagine how much money I've dumped into that game. For it to not make it out of the 1st round is a travesty.
 
magnetik said:
IKR? I remember going to a billiard hall as a teen (which turned out to be vietnamese mafia hangout) to play SF2. We'd go in.. whip ass and talk mad ish. Turns out the kids we were whipping were kids of viet mafia. They were all really cool though.. even taught us billiards. lol We'd drive all over town and look for standups that didn't have f'ed up buttons or sticks at all times of the night hoping to find someone playing. I had a guy pull the guile glitch on me in a match at Supertrack in Houston. I had never seen it before and it was before youtubes. Became friends with him and his twin after finding out they lived in my neighborhood. Turned out they were sons of Cesar Cedeno the retired Astro's player. I can't imagine how much money I've dumped into that game. For it to not make it out of the 1st round is a travesty.
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Yeah, the arcade fighting game era was something special. I used to hunt for arcades whenever I was traveling and it was actually very interesting to see totally different styles in different places. That and what kind of "house rules" people played by. Throws were always a controversial thing and the quickest way to get attacked in some places. In LA the players were typically super aggressive and constantly pressing forward. In NYC it was all about a very defensive and zoning-based game. Chicago and Minneapolis were famously YOLO and known for developing weird tech. I lived in a town with multiple military bases, so it was also interesting to see players (who had relocated) playing differently and stealing things from one another. There was no YouTube, but there were huge Street Fighter communities on AOL, Prodigy, and even alt.games.sf2 newsgroup.
 
Domingo said:
In NYC it was all about a very defensive and zoning-based game.
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You nailed it. I recalled as a kid, being at our local arcade that had SF2. In retrospect, it was a seedy bar; How the owner got away with letting kids in escapes me. But man they had the best machines in town. One day this new kid walked in and his play style was 100% attack. We all played a defensive type style. We thought this kid was some maniac not taking defense into consideration. Turned out he was from LA visiting family for the summer. Up until that point, I thought the only way to win at SF2 was that defense and zone type style you soo accurately describe. It's how we all played it in NJ/NY
 
celwin said:
You nailed it. I recalled as a kid, being at our local arcade that had SF2. In retrospect, it was a seedy bar; How the owner got away with letting kids in escapes me. But man they had the best machines in town. One day this new kid walked in and his play style was 100% attack. We all played a defensive type style. We thought this kid was some maniac not taking defense into consideration. Turned out he was from LA visiting family for the summer. Up until that point, I thought the only way to win at SF2 was that defense and zone type style you soo accurately describe. It's how we all played it in NJ/NY
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It's actually somewhat still true even today. "Cali Rushdown" vs. "New York Lame" is still a thing in recent fighting games. "Lame" doesn't necessarily have a totally negative connotation in the fighting game community, oddly. It just means playing safe and defensive. NY (at least formerly) players like Justin Wong and Chris G proudly use the term, although I dunno who coined it. Arcades are basically dead these days, but if you go to an in-person tournament in LA vs. on in NY, it's night and day different style-wise. There are exceptions, obviously, but players tend to adopt a style that suits what their peers are doing.
 
Krenum said:
Interesting, I did not know that.
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literally nobody knows that, even after seeing the evidence, even after being told by thousands of youtube videos and forum posts like this year after year. it's all an illusion to distract you from the truth, a feeble attempt to hypnotize you enough to forget what was just said. it's all.... *stares blankly at waterfall* oh wait, huh, what was I saying?
 
Jeez, talk about recency bias. I'm not one of those people that claims that old games are better (quite the opposite), but c'mon. They're fine games, but both are also likely to lose their luster as soon as they get sequels. People were throwing 10/10's at San Andreas, GTA4, and the old GOW games. Now they get eye rolls as much as they get praise.
 
celwin said:
This list is laughable. They should have called it best games of the 21st century. How can you not have the pioneering games that was part of the birth of video games. How can games like Pacman and Tetris not be anywhere to be seen on this so called "All time" list.
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Tetris was there, it got booted off by Bloodborne. :rolleyes:
 
In order to get an at least somewhat objective result all the voters need to know the history and significance of every game they're voting on. The majority of the IGN audience owns a console or two and has only played a handful of recent games.
 
sharknice said:
In order to get an at least somewhat objective result all the voters need to know the history and significance of every game they're voting on. The majority of the IGN audience owns a console or two and has only played a handful of recent games.
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History and significance do not necessary make a great game, not even good. Back in the day I bought a megadrive in oder to be able to play Dune 2 and I played it a lot and back then it would have been my favorite game of all time, but now? not even close.

That's not to say that I agree with their list, but the subject is too subjective to get a result that even a fraction of people can agrree with.
 
Denpepe said:
History and significance do not necessary make a great game, not even good. Back in the day I bought a megadrive in oder to be able to play Dune 2 and I played it a lot and back then it would have been my favorite game of all time, but now? not even close.

That's not to say that I agree with their list, but the subject is too subjective to get a result that even a fraction of people can agrree with.
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Yeah its like Simon Cowell in charge of American Idol.
 
Denpepe said:
History and significance do not necessary make a great game, not even good. Back in the day I bought a megadrive in oder to be able to play Dune 2 and I played it a lot and back then it would have been my favorite game of all time, but now? not even close.

That's not to say that I agree with their list, but the subject is too subjective to get a result that even a fraction of people can agrree with.
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Well by this logic, nothing older than 6-7 years can really compete. Because a game from 2010, even a good looking one from that era, can't be a great game due to bad graphics. And what would've been truly great in 2005 from a map design, NPC interaction, sound design and more perspective would be average at best in 2021. Likewise, a middle of the road game now would typically be a great game in 2005.
 
Flogger23m said:
Well by this logic, nothing older than 6-7 years can really compete. Because a game from 2010, even a good looking one from that era, can't be a great game due to bad graphics. And what would've been truly great in 2005 from a map design, NPC interaction, sound design and more perspective would be average at best in 2021. Likewise, a middle of the road game now would typically be a great game in 2005.
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That's not what I said, but a lot of the good old games have been improved upon. As my example, Dune 2 was great for it's time but starcraft I & 2 and Age of empire series or Rise of nations are better games in the same genre that came after that.

Doing something first does not make you the best, that does not mean the game has no significance.
 
Denpepe said:
History and significance do not necessary make a great game, not even good. Back in the day I bought a megadrive in oder to be able to play Dune 2 and I played it a lot and back then it would have been my favorite game of all time, but now? not even close.

That's not to say that I agree with their list, but the subject is too subjective to get a result that even a fraction of people can agrree with.
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I'm referring more to the fact that games like StarCraft still have tons of active and new players, professional players, and tournaments going on despite being over 20 years old.
If you played it for the first time without knowing anything about it you would probably play through the single player campaign and think, meh, what's so great about this, it has dated graphics, bad pathing, etc.
But if you knew about the professional tournaments going on on you would try out some competitive multiplayer. If you're into competitive gaming you may like it, if you're more into single player and non-competitive games you may not. But your opinion at least has some objective backing to it based on your personal preferences.


Yet most of people voting haven't played StarCraft, or seen it played before, or even heard of it before. They probably think it's a Minecraft knockoff based on the name.
The nature of this type of thing is subjective because it's based on personal tastes, but when they haven't even played the game it's a worthless opinion.
 
Denpepe said:
History and significance do not necessary make a great game, not even good.
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But if you are going to create a "best game of all time" list, you have to take history into account, otherwise what's the point? In 5 years this list will be garbage because the games that won today won't be "new" enough then? I mean, the list is garbage, but not for that reason.

Good, classic games last forever. People still play Doom and Quake.
 
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Funny how some of you complain Tetris should be on the list or Super Mario.. good breaktrhough games for their time.. but come on. Do you all have Tetris installed and spin it every few years for weeks on end like some might with Skyrim or Fallout or GTA or a Souls game for a challenge, etc?

Compare Tetris to any modern (even crap) game and I'll take a crap game.

May as well call Pong the best game of all time and sign off for the day if you think a SNES Super Mario deserves it more than a modern legendary.

There is a lot more game and fun and things to experience in a modern game vs snes super mario. Can't even tell if some of you are trolling or not. How can you compare something as basic as tetris to GTA 5??
But I draw the line at Minecraft.
 
I don't think you can really make a Best Game of All Time list in 2021 because a lot the best games came out 15+ years ago...so the list would be filled with Half Life, Deus Ex etc...so IGN and other sites need to make their lists relevant today which means adding modern titles...I think IGN did a fairly decent job under the circumstances adding older titles like Burnout 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Goldeneye, Doom, Tetris etc
 
MavericK said:
But if you are going to create a "best game of all time" list, you have to take history into account, otherwise what's the point? In 5 years this list will be garbage because the games that won today won't be "new" enough then? I mean, the list is garbage, but not for that reason.

Good, classic games last forever. People still play Doom and Quake. gar
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I do not disagree with you and I never said old games are bad, I said there are modern games that do what made some of those old games good better. I played trough Q2 not that long ago and it has it's merits and is still a good game but to me it would be better suited for a most influential of all time list then best of all time.

But like I already said, it's personal opinion/taste and as such you can't realy make a list that people will agree with, and also these lists are somewhat based on what people grew up with
 
polonyc2 said:
I don't think you can really make a Best Game of All Time list in 2021 because a lot the best games came out 15+ years ago...so the list would be filled with Half Life, Deus Ex etc...so IGN and other sites need to make their lists relevant today which means adding modern titles...I think IGN did a fairly decent job under the circumstances adding older titles like Burnout 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Goldeneye, Doom, Tetris etc
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Yeah, the problem is they also included a lot of popular modern games, and most of the kids these days don't know what any of the games you listed are.
 
MavericK said:
Yeah, the problem is they also included a lot of popular modern games, and most of the kids these days don't know what any of the games you listed are.
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Yeah and they decided cod was better than 007... Relatively to the dates the games launched, not a bloody chance.
 
At least it was a tournament of the best and not greatest game of all time.
 
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travm said:
Yeah and they decided cod was better than 007... Relatively to the dates the games launched, not a bloody chance.
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Can you share your thoughts on what makes 007 on N64 superior to a modern day COD? Is it the graphics? Story? Controls/movement feel? Gunplay? Sounds? Modes? Weapon selections?

I have a lot of memories playing split screen 007 with my friends back in the day, but to say it's better than a COD game confuses me. Curious for your point of view
 
Furious Nerd said:
Can you share your thoughts on what makes 007 on N64 superior to a modern day COD? Is it the graphics? Story? Controls/movement feel? Gunplay? Sounds? Modes? Weapon selections?
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Cultural influence. Same reason why Minecraft absolutely must rank highly.
 
Krenum said:
Because you were 007.
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We're talking about a 50-year legacy that tied into a video game that also revitalized the film franchise in a way that was never and has never been achieved.

Call of Duty is the noob tube death of attempts to try again. It's got nothing and won't affect anyone.

I've never even played Minecraft but I can see how much influence it's achieved. That's not speaking of popularity or success; I think Pokemon is bigger in that limited regard. When we're talking about GOAT games, we need to focus on games that changed people, not games that were prettier or smoother.

By all standards, Grand Theft Auto 3 was the game that connected gamers to games in a modern sense, but can that really compete with Myst? The game that everyone's parents at least tried to play, and not just play, but understand? Seriously, Pong and Pac-Man don't even have that reach.

I will accept that my comparisons aren't the greetest. But my point remains.

Tetris, Mario, WarCraft, those were good. But it takes special games to affect the non-gaming world, and those should make up the ranks.
 
Axman said:
. When we're talking about GOAT games, we need to focus on games that changed people, not games that were prettier or smoother.
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Yes GOAT would have to include influence, popularity and a long list of criteria and would be a much easier way than best of all time because it would exclude any game that was not popular. But the best game of all time is maybe a game no one never played outside of the person that made it for themselve.
 
LukeTbk said:
the best game of all time is maybe a game no one never played outside of the person that made it for themselve.
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Then who did that game influence, and why don't we know about it?
 
Axman said:
Then who did that game influence, and why don't we know about it?
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We do not know and it influenced no one, it has zero argument for being the greatest game of all time, but can have one to be the best of all time, there is a nuance between the 2, greatness involve accomplishment, impact, legacy, best is more open to what people mean, someone for example could call the game they most preferred to play has the best game, which would not be that relevant when you think about the greatest.
 
LukeTbk said:
it has zero argument for being the greatest game of all time, but can have one to be the best of all time,
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I do understand what you're saying, but in this context, best = greatest. There can be no game better than greatest.

And I wholeheartedly agree with your position, the very core of this debate is more than a little nonsensical. The best game may or may not exist. But the greatest one does, and that's what people are trying to figure out.

But they started with brackets, which is fundamentally wrong.

I'm pretty sure the answer, at least to-date, is Myst. And I've had strangers lean out of their cars, on two occasions, holler, "Gordon Freeman, is that you?"
 
Axman said:
but in this context, best = greatest.
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Maybe, but the web site did call it the best game of all time (despite the fact that GOAT is such a well known expression and discourse, making that choice maybe on purpose) and a lot of people seem to have been answered with that in mind (at least if we are generous)
 
Influencial and well known doesn't dictate "best", though. See: modern rap and pop music. Catchy beats and themes that appeal to many young people to the point they try to imitate by doing TikToks of themselves twerking. Changed a lot of people's lives (for good.. or bad...). But just because it's influencial does it mean it beats a Mozart piece or Hotel California? Okay awful example, but I don't know if influence is what defies greatness 😁 🤷‍♂️
 
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Furious Nerd said:
if influence is what defies greatness
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It is not, it is over multiple axis (something really great can have little direct obvious influence outside inspirational because of how hard it is to pull off and repeat, to use something like your example above Titanic is one of the greatest movie ever but arguably had a small amount of people trying to repeat the magic to a very mixed result because of how costly and hard to do it is, while The Raid 1-2 seem to have had an obvious giant direct one). Influence-popularity does not define greatness, but is almost an minority requirement for it.

Infuencial and well known has nothing to do with good or best (at least not directly) for sure, but they are important aspect of being great, a boxer better at boxing that Mohammed Ali but that never went professional, did not face the other best, was not during a popular era, was not close to being one of the most well known figure on the globe and a giant influencer of the sport is a better boxer, but is not a greater one.
 
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