The 25 best games of the decade

M76

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So it is my turn to do a clickbait list.

The list only reflects my opinion and is based on the single player games that I played.
If I didn't* play a game it can't be on the list obviously.


*before anyone asks: I did play the Witcher 3, just didn't like it very much.
 
Nice work. Some of those are in my backlog.

I played Portal II this year. I didn't get why people consider better than portal I. It seemed to out stay its welcome with me. I only played single player though.

The Last Of Us was really good. Sadly the trailer for TLOU2 Didn't seem appealing. Hope the game is good though.


Thinking about standouts of this decade would be:
Batman Arkham Asylum and City GOTY, Origins
Enslaved: Odyssey to the west
Hotline Miami
Broforce
The Messenger
Saints Row 3
The Last of Us
Forza Horizon 3 with Hot wheels DLC.
Forza Motorsport 4
Just Cause 2 (JC3 was not good, did not play JC4)


More so the last year or so for me has just been a great time of Mods for Quake and Doom1/2
 
interesting list, there are 9 on there that would not make my list since I have not played them, from those that I did play I would need to scrap some (GTA V, Rottr, DA II, Deus Ex MD, COD; IW) which makes your list actually still better then most others I read so far.

On my list I would add
Borderlands 2
Diablo 3
Witcher 3
Titanfall 2
Rage
Crysis 2 and 3
DA: Origins
Factorio
DOOM
Wolfenstein the new order
God of war
Uncharted 4
Spiderman (PS4)
State of decay 2

the ones I agree with more or less are ME:A, ME:3, ME:2, portal 2, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Tlou, F:NV, H:ZD
I reserve my judgement on outer worlds still as I'm not far in yet, but the fact that I die every 5 min is not working in it's favour.
 
Obviously it is all opinion based but I couldn't get behind that list. GTAV having good shooting mechanics? They were ripped straight out of the year 2000, along with the garbage weapon wheel. Utterly terrible, as was the combat. And after taking nearly two years to port it to PC and make a big deal about about a first person mode they were too lazy to finish the weapon animations. For what was the biggest entertainment product in history, that is pathetic. What saved that game was the occasional funny moments which I suppose is what the series is known for. Okay game, but very much been there and done that. Everything was mediocre except the satire.

Splinter Cell Blacklist? Meh. Not as good as Chaos Theory, maps were linear and had sub portions rather than a single map which you moved around. No proper extractions or anything. The first mission, or one of them, ends with you running from a drone strike as it blows aside a whole mountain. Exactly the opposite of what made Splinter Cell games fun.

Beyond Two Souls? Meh. Okay to sit through but gameplay sucked, characters were entirely unrealistic (the protagonist joins the CIA but has the temper and understanding of a 13 year old) and very awkward story choice options.

Wildlands? Such contradictory gameplay designs thrown together in a lame GTA style knockoff plus bugs = crapshoot. Probably the worst game of the decade for me. I put it up there with Just Cause 4. Maybe a notch above, because JC4 was simply an alpha build when I bought it. But both games suffered from entirely contradictory game design though in Wildland's credit I could finish it...

Some good ones in there for sure though. I'd personally put ME1 above ME2 due to the story. ME2 is very shallow story wise in comparison but they did make the gameplay and cinematics so much better. Wish they could re-master ME1.
 
Obviously it is all opinion based but I couldn't get behind that list. GTAV having good shooting mechanics? They were ripped straight out of the year 2000, along with the garbage weapon wheel. Utterly terrible, as was the combat. And after taking nearly two years to port it to PC and make a big deal about about a first person mode they were too lazy to finish the weapon animations. For what was the biggest entertainment product in history, that is pathetic. What saved that game was the occasional funny moments which I suppose is what the series is known for. Okay game, but very much been there and done that. Everything was mediocre except the satire.
I found nothing out of the ordinary in the shooting mechanics of the game, it is what I expect from a 3rd person shooter. Of course if you played it as an FPS I understand that it sucked, but I played it as a TPS.
Splinter Cell Blacklist? Meh. Not as good as Chaos Theory, maps were linear and had sub portions rather than a single map which you moved around. No proper extractions or anything. The first mission, or one of them, ends with you running from a drone strike as it blows aside a whole mountain. Exactly the opposite of what made Splinter Cell games fun.
I agree that Chaos Theory is the best Splinter cell, but it was released before 2010, long before in fact. My favorite part of Blacklist were actually the optional infiltration missions. Those were through and through what made Splinter Cell great.

Beyond Two Souls? Meh. Okay to sit through but gameplay sucked, characters were entirely unrealistic (the protagonist joins the CIA but has the temper and understanding of a 13 year old) and very awkward story choice options.
Why do I get the feeling that you didn't even read the reasoning why I put the game on the list? You want to argue fine, but at least have the decency of reading my argument first.
Wildlands? Such contradictory gameplay designs thrown together in a lame GTA style knockoff plus bugs = crapshoot. Probably the worst game of the decade for me. I put it up there with Just Cause 4. Maybe a notch above, because JC4 was simply an alpha build when I bought it. But both games suffered from entirely contradictory game design though in Wildland's credit I could finish it...
I heard the game was buggy at release, but I first played it about 6 months later, and it was fine by then. I might had one occasion where I fell trough the ground in a hundred hours of playtime.
I don't know what do you mean by contradictory game design. If you said that about Breakpoint you'd have a point, but Wildlands had nothing that would prevent me from enjoying it.
I've heard the argument that grind for weapons and upgrades made the game bad, but I find that argument invalid, because the game is absolutely fantastic even with basic equipment and weapons.
I just played the game and enjoyed it and whatever weapons got unlocked was just a gift in the process, but if no weapons were ever unlocked I'd still have loved the game.
Some good ones in there for sure though. I'd personally put ME1 above ME2 due to the story. ME2 is very shallow story wise in comparison but they did make the gameplay and cinematics so much better. Wish they could re-master ME1.
Again, ME1 wasn't released in the same decade, so it doesn't count. But the story of ME1 is so cliched I don't know why would you cite it as a positive. Big hero saves the world from evil alien, and nobody believes him. It doesn't get more cookie cutter than that.
The only thing that saved ME1 from the gutter for me was the freedom it gives after leaving the Citadel, but I had to start it twice under no small peer pressure before I managed to get there.
 
Nice work. Some of those are in my backlog.
Thanks.
I played Portal II this year. I didn't get why people consider better than portal I. It seemed to out stay its welcome with me. I only played single player though.
Heh, I never actually played Portal, so I can't help you there. Portal II was made great by Stephen Merchant imo.

The Last Of Us was really good. Sadly the trailer for TLOU2 Didn't seem appealing. Hope the game is good though.
I didn't see anything obviously wrong with the trailer, the gameplay seemed a bit generic, but it wasn't the selling point of the first one either.


Thinking about standouts of this decade would be:
Batman Arkham Asylum and City GOTY, Origins
Enslaved: Odyssey to the west
Hotline Miami
Broforce
The Messenger
Saints Row 3
The Last of Us
Forza Horizon 3 with Hot wheels DLC.
Forza Motorsport 4
Just Cause 2 (JC3 was not good, did not play JC4)
The only games I played from these are Saints Row 3 and TLOU.
 
interesting list, there are 9 on there that would not make my list since I have not played them, from those that I did play I would need to scrap some (GTA V, Rottr, DA II, Deus Ex MD, COD; IW) which makes your list actually still better then most others I read so far.

On my list I would add
Borderlands 2
Diablo 3
Witcher 3
Titanfall 2
Rage
Crysis 2 and 3
DA: Origins
Factorio
DOOM
Wolfenstein the new order
God of war
Uncharted 4
Spiderman (PS4)
State of decay 2
I have a natural aversion to all things Borderlands I absolutely hate everything about it, not just dislike, active hate.

Never played any Diablo games, but I'm usually not a fan of Blizzard, so far all of their games were a bit meh that I tried. (Warcraft 3, WOW, Starcraft 2, even at the time of the first Warcraft and Starcraft in middle school I was always on the side of C&C in arguments)

I've played all three Witcher games, they were all the same as far as I disliked one thing in all of them: Geralt, and he made even Witcher 2 unfinishable to me that I otherwise would've probably managed to beat. Witcher1/3 I didn't like on a gameplay level either.

Titanfall 2 is on my bucket list.

With Rage I had the same problem as with the new Doom, I found it empty and lacking of meaning, just didn't immerse me at all.

I think Crysis 2 and 3 were mediocre games, when it comes to that series I prefer FarCry 1 and Crysis+Warhead.

DA origins released before 2010. But even if it was in 2010 or later it would not have made my list. I found the game utterly dependent on luck and that made it frustrating to play. You could get decimated or ace the same encounter using the exact same strategy. And I much preferred the story of Dragon Age 2.

Factorio - Never even heard about it.

Doom - see at rage

New Order - The least bad of the wolfeinsten games put out by machinegames, and that's the best I can say of it. You can find my review on it here on the forum or on my site where I dissect these games.

I didn't play the rest of the games, oh wait I did play sate of decay, with the free games pass thingy, and didn't like it at all.

I reserve my judgement on outer worlds still as I'm not far in yet, but the fact that I die every 5 min is not working in it's favour.
That is strange cause most people find the game easy. Even I did, and I'm not a fan of extreme difficulty in games.
 
That is strange cause most people find the game easy. Even I did, and I'm not a fan of extreme difficulty in games.

If you take a wrong turn in the first part of the game you run in to some OP enemies and die, once you are a bit more carefull the 1st planet is doable even though I had a run in with some robots outside a factory that caused me a few untimely deaths. Then I went to the 2nd planet and got decimated a number of times, some googeling made it clear to me that I should head to the space station first and gain like 8 orso lvls b4 going to planet 2.

Went to the space station, went down to get the parts for the quest for the airco, got annihilated there too, at this point I'm not even sure I want to continue the game. For a game a lot of people consider too easy I'm getting my ass handed to me a lot. I'm probably missing something somewhere but I'm not enjoying it much so far.
 
Factorio - Never even heard about it.

It's a cool little building game with some decent depth to it, what I like most of it is that unlike a lot of those type of games, you don't need money to build stuff, just resources, if I play something like sim city or zoo tycoon I run out of money a couple minutes or hours into the game, here you can just keep going at your own pace. The "goal" of the game is to build a rocket and launch it, but you can continue after you reach that.

By default, there are enemies present that will attack you from time to time, the more you pollute the more frequent they attack you just build some defenses to kill them off, I tend to play without them but now that I got the hang of the game some more I might try with them on once more.

It's a nice game to pass some time with every now and then not sure if it is already officialy released or still early access but it runs just fine, so far I have around 190 hours into it.
 
I agree that Chaos Theory is the best Splinter cell, but it was released before 2010, long before in fact. My favorite part of Blacklist were actually the optional infiltration missions. Those were through and through what made Splinter Cell great.

Again, ME1 wasn't released in the same decade, so it doesn't count.

I bring those up because they were better than the games that followed, even if in a different decade. It is hard to say the more underwhelming follow ups are superb.

For Blacklist, I'll never forget how idiotic it was to have one button do multiple functions. You could be in cover against a wall, have a bad guy walk through the door way and press E (or whatever the key was) to stab them. Except the problem is your character would close the door, because manipulating doors was the same button. And the function prompt wouldn't update properly to show you what function you were about to do. I remember seeing the stab/pull around corner prompt, pressing the button only for Fisher to calmly get up and close the door and get shot to death in the process. Don't think I played much of the Infiltration missions because the campaign and idiotic controls made the game a nightmare to play. IMO.


Why do I get the feeling that you didn't even read the reasoning why I put the game on the list? You want to argue fine, but at least have the decency of reading my argument first.

I did. You said you either love or hate them. Put me in the hate category then. The story was fairly terrible. The sheer stupidity of the protagonist, character actions and their justifications and some of the ending choices were just awful. It wasn't a horrible game but for something that is essentially all story based with shallow gameplay I'd expect better than a campy straight to TV movie plot that caters to teenage girls. Perhaps I am just not the target demographic.


But the story of ME1 is so cliched I don't know why would you cite it as a positive. Big hero saves the world from evil alien, and nobody believes him. It doesn't get more cookie cutter than that.
The only thing that saved ME1 from the gutter for me was the freedom it gives after leaving the Citadel, but I had to start it twice under no small peer pressure before I managed to get there.

If you get down to it, there are only 7-10 types of stories with variances between them. What made ME1 special is the presentation, how it unfolds, how it shows a bigger picture and you're merely a small part of a much larger conflict, and the increasing scope and severity of the issue at hand. Right off the bat we know who one of the antagonists are but their motives are murky. This eventually is revealed to be something much larger than a rogue agent with an axe to grind. The ending is epic and you're only a small part of a much larger force. Hundreds of ships partake in the battle at the end, you play an integral but not absolute part of the mission. The game also had a great sci-fi plot and feel to it.

ME2 can be summarized as working with a shady guy who you know will backstab you, you're a hero that everyone knows, and you single handily run around doing mundane tasks for others to save the galaxy all by yourself. Oh, and the actual story is around 25% of the time spent in game. The problem is the story got severely dumbed down to appeal to a broader audience. The setting got "darker" and tried to pull in younger audiences. This is even apparent in the main menu artwork and menu sound affects. The sci fi feel of the first game was largely pushed to the side for nitty-gritty drug and gang references to help appeal to a younger audience. There was a lot more "tough guy" talk, Hollywood-esque lines like "put a bullet through your head" by NPCs which contributed to making the game more juvenile. Compare the non-stop references of Red Sand this, gang this and that and grade school tough guy talk to the various science organizations you work with/against in the first game.

And in ME2 you don't feel as if you are apart of anything big. Your character is now a celebrity apparently and is being counted on to single handily save the galaxy. Literally. With all the money and time spend bringing back one human, the Illusive Man could've put together a much more capable army. It just doesn't seem sensible which is never a good sign in a science fiction setting. You then spend far too much time recruiting a completely random band of misfits with entirely worthless skills to help you take down this threat to the galaxy. The game never quite explains how a thief or assassin would benefit the mission and half the people have mental issues that cause numerous issues and waste numerous resources. And the ending is utterly lame, you go in all alone (with your band of weirdos who are useless) and save the galaxy from a terrible boss fight. Throughout the whole game we're constantly being reminded how everything else is entirely worthless and how Shepard is the only one who can do anything. Huge contrast from the first game.

Not sure who this, but their summary on the general story of ME2 is fairly spot on:
https://thenocturnalrambler.blogspot.com/2017/08/mass-effect-2-sucks.html

I do disagree with most of their other complaints. I still think the game is very good because even if it took a big step back from the first it is still more engaging and emotional than the majority of games. And I found the gameplay to be fine with some nitpicks. But it absolutely isn't the best in the series. IMO:

Story wise, from best to worst: ME1, ME3, ME2
Gameplay wise from best to worst: ME3, ME2, ME1
 
...
Forza Horizon 3 with Hot wheels DLC.
Forza Motorsport 4
...

Forza Motorsports 4 is still my favorite installment of the franchise so far. Many of my favorite cars in that version that have been removed from newer versions.

Never played the Hot Wheels DLC for Horizon 3, currently grinding through Horizon 4. Always thought that the Hot Wheels and Lego expansions seems kinda gimmicky.
 
Forza Motorsports 4 is still my favorite installment of the franchise so far. Many of my favorite cars in that version that have been removed from newer versions.

Never played the Hot Wheels DLC for Horizon 3, currently grinding through Horizon 4. Always thought that the Hot Wheels and Lego expansions seems kinda gimmicky.
Same. Horizon 2 is still my favorite Horizon, though. I think they compressed the maps in 3 & 4 too much, so the landscape feels unnatural with how quickly it changes. I hope that with the new console generation that we'll see real regional maps of 100 mi² or more with content to fill it.
 
Same. Horizon 2 is still my favorite Horizon, though. I think they compressed the maps in 3 & 4 too much, so the landscape feels unnatural with how quickly it changes. I hope that with the new console generation that we'll see real regional maps of 100 mi² or more with content to fill it.

I would love to see a Forza game with the scale of Test Drive Unlimited.
 
I would love to see a Forza game with the scale of Test Drive Unlimited.
Oahu was the whole island to scale in TDU games, which is about 600 mi². I loved TDU2 that started you off on the 220 mi² Ibiza and opened up the whole of Oahu afterward. It also had the content to go with it. Both are at the top of my favorite open world racing games.
 
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I'm not sure I'm really in the headspace to name 25 games right now, but God of War for the PS4 is by far "the best game I have ever played" in my mind; it easily trumps the hundreds of games I've played in the last 10 years, by far, and The Last of Us and Witcher 3 are right up there as well. GoW just had a fantastic story that really made you care, captivating atmosphere, and gameplay blend that is unlike anything I've experienced. The list was pretty solid. I do agree that Horizon Zero Dawn deserves to be very far up the list, close to #1.
 
Oahu was the whole island to scale in TDU games, which is about 600 mi². I loved TDU2 that started you off on the 220 mi² Ibiza and opened up the whole of Oahu afterward. It also had the content to go with it. Both are at the top of my favorite open world racing games.
I don't think there will ever be a game like TDU again. Either you get NFS or Forza Horizon which has abysmal arcade pysics but are street racers, or you get games like Project cars or gran turismo that have good physics but only closed circuit racing.
I loved every minute of TDU because it wasn't just a racing game, it nailed the lifestyle and atmosphere as well. Little things like the ability to buy houses, the hitchhikers and avatar customization made all the difference. It was as much a role playing game as a racing game, if not more. I could spend hours imagining that I was tom selleck driving the ferrari 308 on the streets of oahu. I drove out to the airport or up the mountains for fun.There were so many good driving roads in that game. And all the cars had unique characters, I enjoyed the Maserati 2000GT as much as the fastest hypercars in the game. I don't think any other game ever had a better selection of vehicles.

I love driving sims, and the fact that I had only one driving game on my list is telling, and that isn't even a real driving game either.
 
I don't think there will ever be a game like TDU again. Either you get NFS or Forza Horizon which has abysmal arcade pysics but are street racers, or you get games like Project cars or gran turismo that have good physics but only closed circuit racing.
I loved every minute of TDU because it wasn't just a racing game, it nailed the lifestyle and atmosphere as well. Little things like the ability to buy houses, the hitchhikers and avatar customization made all the difference. It was as much a role playing game as a racing game, if not more. I could spend hours imagining that I was tom selleck driving the ferrari 308 on the streets of oahu. I drove out to the airport or up the mountains for fun.There were so many good driving roads in that game. And all the cars had unique characters, I enjoyed the Maserati 2000GT as much as the fastest hypercars in the game. I don't think any other game ever had a better selection of vehicles.

I love driving sims, and the fact that I had only one driving game on my list is telling, and that isn't even a real driving game either.
Good point about the lifestyle elements. A lot of developers try to implement things like that and fail. It was perfectly integrated into TDU by not either being an afterthought or an "in your face" focus. The guys who made those games really understood car culture, and it's something that is lacking in modern racing games.

I never used fast travel. I drove every single one of my cars casually from event to event in both games and it was a wonderful experience.
 
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Good point about the lifestyle elements. A lot of developers try to implement things like that and fail. It was perfectly integrated into TDU by not either being an afterthought or an "in your face" focus. The guys who made those games really understood car culture, and it's something that is lacking in modern racing games.

I never used fast travel. I drove every single one of my cars casually from event to event in both games and it was a wonderful experience.
I actually got the the achievement for driving every inch of road in TDU. I didn't use fast travel either for the most part, except at the end when there were only a few feet of road needed to be explored scattered around the map.
 
avast didn't like that URL.

First time it's straight up blocked a connection for me in years.

I assume it's just the hosting service it doesn't like but I'm not going to whitelist for an admitted clickbait list, no offense to M76.
 
First time it's straight up blocked a connection for me in years.

I assume it's just the hosting service it doesn't like but I'm not going to whitelist for an admitted clickbait list, no offense to M76.
It was a joke, that it is my turn to make clickbait. Actually the site is mine, hosted by me, and the article is written by me. And there is absolutely nothing harmful on it.

Proof that it is not infected is that if I visit the same site from an alternative address AVAST doesn't mind it at all. So it is definitely the address that was reported by someone. By one of my detractors probably. I already filed a counter notice to them, but they didn't reply.
 
I bring those up because they were better than the games that followed, even if in a different decade. It is hard to say the more underwhelming follow ups are superb.
Like it or not they are the best this decade had to offer.
For Blacklist, I'll never forget how idiotic it was to have one button do multiple functions. You could be in cover against a wall, have a bad guy walk through the door way and press E (or whatever the key was) to stab them. Except the problem is your character would close the door, because manipulating doors was the same button. And the function prompt wouldn't update properly to show you what function you were about to do. I remember seeing the stab/pull around corner prompt, pressing the button only for Fisher to calmly get up and close the door and get shot to death in the process. Don't think I played much of the Infiltration missions because the campaign and idiotic controls made the game a nightmare to play. IMO.
That was pandora tomorrow, that first had that problem just saying. Blacklist also had similiar issues but did that make the entire game bad? If you didn't even experience an aspect of the game, how can I take your opinion seriously on it?

I did. You said you either love or hate them. Put me in the hate category then. The story was fairly terrible. The sheer stupidity of the protagonist, character actions and their justifications and some of the ending choices were just awful. It wasn't a horrible game but for something that is essentially all story based with shallow gameplay I'd expect better than a campy straight to TV movie plot that caters to teenage girls. Perhaps I am just not the target demographic.
I mentioned it is more an interactive movie with QTEs than a game, and your first argument was that the gameplay sucked. So it very much seemed like you didn't read my reasoning, otherwise why would you argue something to me, that I already mentioned?


If you get down to it, there are only 7-10 types of stories with variances between them. What made ME1 special is the presentation, how it unfolds, how it shows a bigger picture and you're merely a small part of a much larger conflict, and the increasing scope and severity of the issue at hand. Right off the bat we know who one of the antagonists are but their motives are murky. This eventually is revealed to be something much larger than a rogue agent with an axe to grind. The ending is epic and you're only a small part of a much larger force. Hundreds of ships partake in the battle at the end, you play an integral but not absolute part of the mission. The game also had a great sci-fi plot and feel to it.
I never said the presentation of ME1 was bad, you said story, not presentation. So which will it be? If you say the story is great we disagree, if you say the presentation is great we are in agreement.

ME2 can be summarized as working with a shady guy who you know will backstab you, .
A shady guy who you conveniently forget saved your life at no small expense on his part. I'd say working for him is warranted at that point. Plus you need his resources. It's not a love relationship. It's one of mutual necessity. The only way you don't see that is if you don't want to see it.
you're a hero that everyone knows,
And thinks long dead, and won't trust. If you reveal yourself to the alliance you'd be just put in jail until they figure out you are not a clone made by cerberus to infiltrate the council/alliance.

and you single handily run around doing mundane tasks for others to save the galaxy all by yourself. Oh, and the actual story is around 25% of the time spent in game
That's what makes ME2 great, that not everything revolves around this big convenient plot where everything fits together like a glove. You need to investigate, you need to win people's trust, and you need to convince the people that the galaxy is actually in danger. You must know that at this point nobody was taking the threat seriously except for cerberus, so who else is there to work with if you want to save the galaxy?

It's one thing to not like ME2, but it's entirely another to see plotholes where none exist.

The problem is the story got severely dumbed down to appeal to a broader audience.
Which is an empty statement.

The setting got "darker" and tried to pull in younger audiences. This is even apparent in the main menu artwork and menu sound affects.
Excuse me, but I didn't get the memo when "darker" became synonymous with dumb and appealing to young people.

The sci fi feel of the first game was largely pushed to the side for nitty-gritty drug and gang references to help appeal to a younger audience.
I don't know what do you mean. How is ME2 not scifi enough for you? And again with young audience, whatever did young people do to you? When ME2 came out I still considered myself young, so then your problem is with me, not the game.

There was a lot more "tough guy" talk, Hollywood-esque lines like "put a bullet through your head" by NPCs which contributed to making the game more juvenile. Compare the non-stop references of Red Sand this, gang this and that and grade school tough guy talk to the various science organizations you work with/against in the first game.
That is how you feel about the game. Whatever can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. I'll not start counting how many "tough guy" lines are in each game. Or how many references to red sand. The only references I remember about red sand are from the novels.
And I don't think drug use is appealing to young audiences anyway.

And in ME2 you don't feel as if you are apart of anything big.
Which is exactly why the game is so great. It is down to earth and not larger than life.
Your character is now a celebrity apparently and is being counted on to single handily save the galaxy.
You are being counted on to find traces of the reapers and to find evidence that the collectors work for the reapers.
Literally. With all the money and time spend bringing back one human, the Illusive Man could've put together a much more capable army.
The mistake you make is that he already has an army. More army won't accomplish any of the above goals.

It just doesn't seem sensible which is never a good sign in a science fiction setting.
You couldn't make or didn't want to make sense of it apparently.
You then spend far too much time recruiting a completely random band of misfits with entirely worthless skills to help you take down this threat to the galaxy.
The recruits have overlapping skills so you can complete the mission without winning the loyalty of all of them. And again you're not fighting the threat to the galaxy you're investigating the collectors and then attack their main base.

The game never quite explains how a thief or assassin would benefit the mission and half the people have mental issues that cause numerous issues and waste numerous resources. And the ending is utterly lame, you go in all alone (with your band of weirdos who are useless) and save the galaxy from a terrible boss fight. Throughout the whole game we're constantly being reminded how everything else is entirely worthless and how Shepard is the only one who can do anything. Huge contrast from the first game.
You demonstrate clearly that you take issue with the characters. Too bad, I like the characters and the story exactly because it is not "saving the galaxy" but doing more mundane jobs.
Not sure who this, but their summary on the general story of ME2 is fairly spot on:
https://thenocturnalrambler.blogspot.com/2017/08/mass-effect-2-sucks.html
I have not read it, but I'm sure you can find issue with any story even ME1 if your goal is to find issues with it.

Story wise, from best to worst: ME1, ME3, ME2
Gameplay wise from best to worst: ME3, ME2, ME1
I never even tried to grade the games story wise as to me it is all one story.
Gameplay wise: ME2, ME3, ME1.
 
I agree with about a third of the list. Strongly disagree with some of the picks (like Andromeda). But this is an opinion article so obviously it’s entirely subjective and I’m also not sure if you played all the games I’d put on my list.
 
It was a joke, that it is my turn to make clickbait. Actually the site is mine, hosted by me, and the article is written by me. And there is absolutely nothing harmful on it.

Proof that it is not infected is that if I visit the same site from an alternative address AVAST doesn't mind it at all. So it is definitely the address that was reported by someone. By one of my detractors probably. I already filed a counter notice to them, but they didn't reply.

I was halfway joking as well, especially the clickbait part. I did find it interesting that avast objected so strongly to the url though.
 
That was pandora tomorrow, that first had that problem just saying. Blacklist also had similiar issues but did that make the entire game bad? If you didn't even experience an aspect of the game, how can I take your opinion seriously on it?

Never played that game, but it doesn't excuse it from Blacklist. It was a game breaking bug and was the result of around 70% of all my in game deaths. And you couldn't get around it because that is how the game was designed sadly. If I recall they may have patched it and changed how it worked after I played it. As for the side content, the main game and bulk of the content was in the campaign. You can say one's opinion is worthless if they didn't play the entirety of the extra modes in every game but then would you hold yourself to the same standards? Is one's opinion of the Call of Duty campaigns worthless if they don't play the multiplayer? What about your Ace Combat 7 review? It had some issues, but does it make the entire game bad? If I recall you gave it a 0 because you couldn't figure out how to use a controller.

I mentioned it is more an interactive movie with QTEs than a game, and your first argument was that the gameplay sucked. So it very much seemed like you didn't read my reasoning, otherwise why would you argue something to me, that I already mentioned?

The irony here is strong. Just read what you quoted, I specifically mentioned the story aspects. Wrongly accusing someone of not reading something and then doing exactly that is awkward in the least. Obviously this is an opinion based list but if you didn't want to have a discussion you shouldn't have posted it on a forum. IMO a game with terrible gameplay but a good story can certainly be nice but would be hard pressed to put it up there in a top game of the decade list. Especially when the story is filled with entirely unreasonable, unrealistic character reactions and story writing. Far from the worst game I've ever played, but it lacked a good story and had many irrational characters including the protagonist.

I never said the presentation of ME1 was bad, you said story, not presentation. So which will it be? If you say the story is great we disagree, if you say the presentation is great we are in agreement.

I think the story and presentation is excellent.

A shady guy who you conveniently forget saved your life at no small expense on his part. I'd say working for him is warranted at that point. Plus you need his resources. It's not a love relationship. It's one of mutual necessity. The only way you don't see that is if you don't want to see it.

Doesn't change the fact that we know what will happen within the first hour of gameplay. It was too predictable and while there was some mystery to this character, it wasn't on par with what we discover over the course of the first game. In ME1 we know a Spectre goes rogue and we learn of an ancient civilization within the first hour. The plot then evolves into an elaborate scheme of an advanced race that none of the advanced civilizations know about who have run a successful cycle to wipe out the galaxy continuously. You eventually play a notable, but not complete part, in helping save the citadel.

Compare that to ME2. We knew from the beginning that the Illusive Man was going to end up being an antagonist and you single handily defeat the Collectors. I know which seems more simple and straightforward. It isn't a coincidence that ME2 plot wise is largely irrelevant to the events of the 3rd game.

And thinks long dead, and won't trust. If you reveal yourself to the alliance you'd be just put in jail until they figure out you are not a clone made by cerberus to infiltrate the council/alliance.

Not really relevant, but that is not what I remember. People practically throw themselves at Shepard's feet and become fiercely loyal for tiny favors.

That's what makes ME2 great, that not everything revolves around this big convenient plot where everything fits together like a glove. You need to investigate, you need to win people's trust, and you need to convince the people that the galaxy is actually in danger. You must know that at this point nobody was taking the threat seriously except for cerberus, so who else is there to work with if you want to save the galaxy?

I prefer larger, more persistent and involving plots. I do think they are vastly superior to games that have dozens of largely disjointed mini-stories loosely strung together that are just glorified checklists to mark off. ME2 is still better than most games in this regard, but it is closer to something like the recent Assassin's Creed games. Lots of dialogue, but many forgettable tasks and characters that don't amount to anything useful. The main difference is the presentation of ME2 is absolutely top notch.

As for the part in bold, that essentially describes the entire premise for the first game. No one believed Shepard that there was something much bigger brewing than a simple rogue Spectre operative. Especially because Shepard was a human and the council viewed humans as being too pushy for being new comers. This also makes the plot of ME2 even less relevant and more awkward. You'd think after the absolutely massive battle at the end of the first game that claimed thousands of lives, the various people would be taking possible galaxy wide threats more seriously.

It's one thing to not like ME2, but it's entirely another to see plotholes where none exist.

I don't recall claiming there were plot holes. Simply, the story doesn't make much sense and Shepard's presence wouldn't have made much of a difference. This is especially true for the random characters you pick up along the way. I still can't figure out how Thane's skills as an assassin will help track down the Collectors. It is simply never revealed. The Witcher 3's DLC Hearts of Stone did this much better, where people you recruit actually use their skills in the mission. And the consequences of their ability or inability actually matter with realistic affects rather than the not having the right "character class".

Which is an empty statement.

Well they did dumb it down to broaden the audience, and it did work.

Excuse me, but I didn't get the memo when "darker" became synonymous with dumb and appealing to young people.

When it adds nothing useful to the story, setting or theme.

I don't know what do you mean. How is ME2 not scifi enough for you?

ME2's is set in the future, but the core story doesn't have as strong elements of science fiction in it. Likewise the missions you partake in detach themselves from science fiction type of themes at a higher rate than the first game. For example, many missions deal with more personal issues such as father and son relationships (Thane). Actually "daddy issues" can cover a large junk of gameplay and story time in ME2 (Jacob, Miranda, Tali, Thane's son and Jack). You can easily pull most of these missions and subplots out from ME1 and drop them in a fantasy or modern day setting without loosing much; which inherently makes them not sci-fi.

ME1's missions had a stronger focus on things such as various organizations research operations. That isn't to say ME2 was entirely devoid of them, but there absolutely was a change in focus and emphasis on where time was spent.

And again with young audience, whatever did young people do to you? When ME2 came out I still considered myself young, so then your problem is with me, not the game.

I don't know what you mean by that.

That is how you feel about the game. Whatever can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. I'll not start counting how many "tough guy" lines are in each game. Or how many references to red sand. The only references I remember about red sand are from the novels.
And I don't think drug use is appealing to young audiences anyway.

Essentially what you're saying is because you didn't notice it, it doesn't exist.

"Tough guy talk" occurs more in the 2nd game. Whether that is good or bad is up to the player. For me, I file that under the "lame" category.

Which is exactly why the game is so great. It is down to earth and not larger than life.

It was the opposite for me. The Shepard worship almost turned the character into something along the lines of a super hero. Dealing with some irrelevant side stories didn't make the game more down to Earth, it just made me question the whole premise of the game. The most efficient way to find the Collectors is to resurrect one human, then hire entirely random, unruly off the wall co-partners some of which have zero relevant skills. And then fly around the galaxy dealing with their petty personal issues. While fun and well done, this is the overall thoughts that cloud your mind during many of the loyalty missions.


You are being counted on to find traces of the reapers and to find evidence that the collectors work for the reapers.

The mistake you make is that he already has an army. More army won't accomplish any of the above goals.

And again, the game never explains why this is an ideal solution. Or why a thief, assassin or mentally unstable people will be of use.

You couldn't make or didn't want to make sense of it apparently.

You can't make much sense of it because it was weak writing. It could be worse but it wasn't ideal.

The recruits have overlapping skills so you can complete the mission without winning the loyalty of all of them. And again you're not fighting the threat to the galaxy you're investigating the collectors and then attack their main base.

Part in bold isn't very relevant to what you quoted. Again, how is being an assassin or a thief helpful for tracking and taking down the Collectors?

You demonstrate clearly that you take issue with the characters. Too bad, I like the characters and the story exactly because it is not "saving the galaxy" but doing more mundane jobs.

Absolutely, some of the characters are very unfitting. Some are excellent. All have excellent presentation but not all are worthwhile additions to the game. The issue with ME2 is they cut down so much of the main story length and replaced it with irrelevant tasks.

As for mundane, random tasks. There is a place for those in games, but a game is always better if everything has a purpose and irrelevant content is kept to a minimum. I hate the trend of MMO style side quest and grinding design in SP games for this exact reason. ME2 doesn't come close to more recent games, but the sub stories do jut out into irrelevance.

I have not read it, but I'm sure you can find issue with any story even ME1 if your goal is to find issues with it.

No game is perfect, but these two paragraphs summarize a lot of the shortcomings of ME2:

In most cases, I had no idea why they were opening up to me, or why they even agreed to join me on a suicide mission in the first place. A character like Samara, for instance, who's a thousand years old and has sired three children, tells me, after knowing me for what feels like a few days, that she's never felt a connection with anyone like the one she feels with me. This, after she swears an oath of allegiance to me which apparently supersedes the Justicar oath which has been guiding her life and all of her actions for the past few hundred years. Romance options, in that vein, are equally cheesy and unrealistic, as it only takes a few occasional conversations and being generally nice to someone before they start talking about wanting to have sex with you. By the end of the game I had two different romantic prospects who were both telling me to pick one of them, even though I wasn't actually trying to romance either one of them.

The loyalty missions often feel like they come out of nowhere, for no reason. I pretty much hate the fact that most of them follow a simple pattern of "I'm sorry to bother you Shepard, but something just came up with my father / brother / nephew / cousin / former roommate, which had been completely dormant in my life until just now, and I'd like to take care of it but I know we have to focus on dying horribly in a suicide mission, but if you can find the time to swing by this star system I'd greatly appreciate it, even though I don't want to distract from our important mission." In each case, the mission is a completely unrelated stand-alone scenario that contributes nothing to the overarching plot of stopping the Collectors, and I found it hard to care about helping some of them whom I felt like I barely knew. Some of their stories are alright and can actually be quite touching, but others were completely forgettable and felt almost pointless.

I never even tried to grade the games story wise as to me it is all one story.
Gameplay wise: ME2, ME3, ME1.

Obviously they are of the same overall story, but I think every sequel/prequel/continuation can have the story assessed separately regardless of the medium.

I put ME3 over ME2 gameplay wise mainly because of the weapon and inventory. ME1 combat was underwhelming, the inventory a mess, most of the weapons felt the same and upgrading was typical lazy RPG. BIGGUN 1, 2, 3 4, ect.

ME2 added heavy weapons but otherwise deleted the whole weapon management. This made the gameplay feel sterile. ME3 added a sensible weapon inventory and numerous weapons that felt and acted differently. A sensible modification system was also nice. Disadvantages gameplay wise to ME3 was the "tactical roll" which I felt was pointless and cumbersome.

Great game still. Better than most when it comes to the story, fun gameplay and a mixture of lore/dialogue and actual gameplay. It was just a bit disappointing to me in that every step forward was another step backwards.
 
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For me I would vouch for all FAR CRY series, CS 1.6 (good old game...), CS:GO, Minecraft Servers and could even vouch for Witcher 3. That's my list.
 
For me, the list would entail most of the id Software and Arkane games released in 201x, and several of my favorite indie games. (Dead Cells, Axiom Verge, Sundered, and others.)

There are a lot of other games that I really enjoyed during this time, but not to the same degree. If we branch out from the PC I'd have to include a lot of Nintendo first party games.
 
I have to add Elon Musk's favorite game, Kerbal Space Program. Not extremely popular, but it probably helped to kick-start a few careers in Physics.

My most played games on Steam, however, are the Transport Fever series games (Train Fever, Transport Fever 1&2). Train Fever was the first real 3D successor to Transport Tycoon with decent graphics.

Cities: Skylines was also significant as the first real 3D successor to SimCity 4.

For base building games, Oxygen Not Included also deserves a mention, as there is nothing quite like it out there.
 
I have to add Elon Musk's favorite game, Kerbal Space Program. Not extremely popular, but it probably helped to kick-start a few careers in Physics.

My most played games on Steam, however, are the Transport Fever series games (Train Fever, Transport Fever 1&2). Train Fever was the first real 3D successor to Transport Tycoon with decent graphics.

Cities: Skylines was also significant as the first real 3D successor to SimCity 4.

For base building games, Oxygen Not Included also deserves a mention, as there is nothing quite like it out there.

This is unrelated to the thread, but did you ever play Startopia? I'm generally not into most really simulation type building games (more into things like Terraria) but Startopia was pretty amazing. I want to say it came out in 98 or 99 or something. You basically had to build out space stations. Based on your list, it seems like you'd like it. I remember it didn't like running outside of Win9x back then, but maybe GOG has it or something (or you could run it in a VM maybe).

Edit:

It is on GOG. $5.99.

https://www.gog.com/game/startopia
 
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My list:
  1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (PC, 2015/05/19)
  2. Dark Souls (Xbox 360, 2011/10/04)
  3. Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360, 2010/01/26)
  4. Forza Motorsport 4 (Xbox 360, 2011/10/11)
  5. Dying Light (PC, 2015/01/27)
  6. Rock Band 3 (Xbox 360, 2010/10/26)
  7. Doom (PC, 2016/05/13)
  8. Dead Space 2 (PC, 2011/01/25)
  9. Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC, 2010/09/08)
  10. Horizon: Zero Dawn (PS4, 2017/02/28)
  11. Dark Souls III (PC, 2016/04/12)
  12. Resident Evil 2 (PC, 2019/01/25)
  13. Test Drive Unlimited 2 (PC, 2011/02/08)
  14. Transformers: War for Cybertron (Xbox 360, 2010/06/22)
  15. Batman: Arkham City (Xbox 360, 2011/10/18)
  16. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (PC, 2017/08/08)
  17. Forza Horizon 2 (Xbox 360, 2014/09/30)
  18. Titanfall (PC, 2014/03/11)
  19. Rise of the Tomb Raider (Xbox 360, 2015/11/10)
  20. Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS, 2017/09/15)
  21. Mad Max (Xbox One, 2015/09/01)
  22. Battlefield 4 (PS4, 2013/10/29)
  23. Gran Turismo 5 (PS3, 2010/11/24)
  24. Path of Exile (PC, 2013/10/23)
  25. Assassin's Creed II (Xbox 360, 2010/03/09)
Platform is the one I played it on alongside its original release date. A lot of games from 2010. I was listing out all the games I played and completed over the decade and noticed the list got progressively shorter as the years went on. There was only one game there from 2018, and it was one that just missed my top 25 (F1 2018). Breaks down as so:

2010: 6
2011: 5
2012: 0
2013: 2
2014: 2
2015: 4
2016: 2
2017: 3
2018: 0
2019: 1

Platform breakdown. My PC was woefully outdated until 2013, so I played a lot on Xbox 360 until that time.

PC: 11
Xbox 360: 9
PS4: 2
3DS: 1
Xbox One: 1
PS3: 1
 
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