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Top 25 PC games by IGN
- Thread starter Netrat33
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Rome: Total War, better than Half-Life 2...?
Rome: Total War, better than SimCity2000...?
Rome: Total War, better than Starcraft...?!
"When you say the three letters RTS, there are a few games that immediately pop to mind. For millions of gamers, it's StarCraft. It remains as one of the most popular real-time strategy games played on the Internet around the world."
Starcraft has been around for 10 years now, and people are still playing it - why? Deep strategic elements, excellent plot, great voice acting, superb race balancing, good character development; both multi and single player elements were well crafted, and are still supported today - Blizzard released patch 1.14 for Brood War in 2006. Put simply, Starcraft is a game for the ages.
Will anyone still be playing RTW (released in 2004) in 2014 like Starcraft is still played today, 10 years after its release? *shrugs* Maybe. But I've never heard of any PC gaming publication put RTW in their top 10, much less their top 5. I have nothing against the game, but this high up? A bit whimsical, IMHO.
Rome: Total War, better than SimCity2000...?
Rome: Total War, better than Starcraft...?!
"When you say the three letters RTS, there are a few games that immediately pop to mind. For millions of gamers, it's StarCraft. It remains as one of the most popular real-time strategy games played on the Internet around the world."
Starcraft has been around for 10 years now, and people are still playing it - why? Deep strategic elements, excellent plot, great voice acting, superb race balancing, good character development; both multi and single player elements were well crafted, and are still supported today - Blizzard released patch 1.14 for Brood War in 2006. Put simply, Starcraft is a game for the ages.
Will anyone still be playing RTW (released in 2004) in 2014 like Starcraft is still played today, 10 years after its release? *shrugs* Maybe. But I've never heard of any PC gaming publication put RTW in their top 10, much less their top 5. I have nothing against the game, but this high up? A bit whimsical, IMHO.
Rome: Total War, better than Half-Life 2...?
Rome: Total War, better than SimCity2000...?
Rome: Total War, better than Starcraft...?!
"When you say the three letters RTS, there are a few games that immediately pop to mind. For millions of gamers, it's StarCraft. It remains as one of the most popular real-time strategy games played on the Internet around the world."
Starcraft has been around for 10 years now, and people are still playing it - why? Deep strategic elements, excellent plot, great voice acting, superb race balancing, good character development; both multi and single player elements were well crafted, and are still supported today - Blizzard released patch 1.14 for Brood War in 2006. Put simply, Starcraft is a game for the ages.
Will anyone still be playing RTW (released in 2004) in 2014 like Starcraft is still played today, 10 years after its release? *shrugs* Maybe. But I've never heard of any PC gaming publication put RTW in their top 10, much less their top 5. I have nothing against the game, but this high up? A bit whimsical, IMHO.
couldnt have say it better myself..
Starcraft is just a superb game and to see what those morons at IGN place it at is just questionable as to if these people are gamers at all..
Rome: Total War, better than Half-Life 2...?
Rome: Total War, better than SimCity2000...?
Rome: Total War, better than Starcraft...?!
"When you say the three letters RTS, there are a few games that immediately pop to mind. For millions of gamers, it's StarCraft. It remains as one of the most popular real-time strategy games played on the Internet around the world."
Starcraft has been around for 10 years now, and people are still playing it - why? Deep strategic elements, excellent plot, great voice acting, superb race balancing, good character development; both multi and single player elements were well crafted, and are still supported today - Blizzard released patch 1.14 for Brood War in 2006. Put simply, Starcraft is a game for the ages.
Will anyone still be playing RTW (released in 2004) in 2014 like Starcraft is still played today, 10 years after its release? *shrugs* Maybe. But I've never heard of any PC gaming publication put RTW in their top 10, much less their top 5. I have nothing against the game, but this high up? A bit whimsical, IMHO.
QFT. RTW should not have been top 10.
QFT, Half-Life 1 was much more innovative.
No question... HL 1 was far superior to HL 2 in every way except the graphics.
that list was a joke. if gamers voted on a list the top 5 would look nothing like that and probably the rest of the list as well. i didn't read the article, but what did the ign writers base the rankings on? because it seems as popularity and longevity of the games were overlooked. and a game's respective innovation and contribution to the evolution of games were ignored as well when compiling this list.
PopeKevinI
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X-COM deserves a top spot. It preceded SC by four years, did not have multiplay, and still was a hugely popular game with devoted fans, two sequels, and a slew of GotY awards. Of course, most gamers today have never watched their best soldiers gun each other down under mind control while trying to capture that elusive Ethereal Commander, so they won't get it.
And comparing Fallout to SC is apples and oranges. But Fallout was a masterpiece of RPG, and the support for it in this thread should tell you just how much an impact it had on those who played it. But hey...when they make the list of best movies of all times, let's put the new Star Wars movies and Titanic right at the top...because they sold more tickets and had HUGE marketing campaigns.
I'm just in a "bash StarCraft" mood lately. Don't take too much offense...it's a good game. I've just never felt the love for it so many other people do. It failed to impress me the way it did them.
PopeKevinI
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Why should popularity and longevity make a game great? The two are pretty much the same: the more popular a game is, the longer it gets played. Mass appeal doesn't make a game great, any more than it does a movie or song. Just look at Achy Breaky Heart
Likewise, I'm not sure innovation makes a game great, either. Total Annihilation gave a lot to the RTS genre, but I don't see people clamoring to put it on the list (I would have, but it's one of my personal favorites). A lot of games showed technical achievements without themselves being great games.
In the end, this is a subjective list of favorite games. If you let gamers vote on it, you likely wouldn't have many games older than 1998...and those would be Half-Life and StarCraft. The old classics of 93 and 94 would be left out, swamped by a generation of gamers who were in grade school when those games were revolutionizing the industry. The same would happen to the high-caliber games out of the less popular genres. Fallout and Baldur's Gate would be shoved aside in favor of light RPGs. Counter-Strike would likely be a dominating name on the list, as well as every other popular game being played today. You might as well make that a "what are you playing now" poll.
No doubt. Half Life was a much better game than Half Life 2.
Agreed. Halflife2 may be better from a technical standpoint, but it didnt revolutionalize the genre the way half life 1 did.
krameriffic
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Rome:TW on the list at all is odd.
AdamNesvick
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Am I the only one here that thinks Starcraft is lame?
Its warcraft with a new skin kiddies. Not to mention being a HUGE ripoff of the Warhammer 40K universe. Space marines = Terrans (which have a unit called space marines), Tyranid = Zerg, and Eldar = Protross.
Come to think of it, everything blizzard has done was a ripoff and rename of a universe.
Warhammer: Dawn of War should be on that list, but I can deal with its successor being there (Company of Heroes), Starcraft and COH's places just need to be switched.
/Blizzard/Starcraft Rant
Its warcraft with a new skin kiddies. Not to mention being a HUGE ripoff of the Warhammer 40K universe. Space marines = Terrans (which have a unit called space marines
), Tyranid = Zerg, and Eldar = Protross.Come to think of it, everything blizzard has done was a ripoff and rename of a universe.
Warhammer: Dawn of War should be on that list, but I can deal with its successor being there (Company of Heroes), Starcraft and COH's places just need to be switched.
/Blizzard/Starcraft Rant
Oh dear, the list was going well until the top 10. X-Com as number 1, what a joke. Hated the game when it came out. Civ IV - tried it but dull. Tie Fighter was great fun but really the 3rd best PC game of all time? No, No, No. Great to see Fallout at 5, what a great game - magnificent post apocalyptic shenanigans. I guess these listings are subjective but it kind of sums up IGN, a load of old tripe.
aeonrevolution
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Wtf .... Rome Total War? Civ 4? XCom?
huh......?
What the hell there were like at least 5 other games that I thought should've made top 5 that weren't even on the list. I mean....friggin Diablo!
huh......?
What the hell there were like at least 5 other games that I thought should've made top 5 that weren't even on the list. I mean....friggin Diablo!
I thought part one was pretty boring compared to part two. Whatever. it's an Opinion
Just like this list folks. Wow. you know they picked 25 games from EVERY genre. And you guys take it so personally. LOL! Come on! That is a pretty respectible list. I can agree Xcom seems a bit of a let down for number 1 but at least it was a great game.
and to the person who said gamers should have voted, they've done that and it's always the worst list ever (Halo! or such)
brucedeluxe169
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no tribes games at all means IGN loses all credibility
really, it was revolutionary, and shitloads of fun.....
IGN sucks
really, it was revolutionary, and shitloads of fun.....
IGN sucks
Good point. No Doom in the top 25!
What about -
Thief 1 or 2
FarCry
GTA - San Andrea, Vice City or Liberty City
Half-Life
Max Payne 2
F.E.A.R
Sam and Max, DoTT
Dungeon Keeper
Privateer
To name just a few
Okay, I am not much of a gamer, or at least not anymore...
But, I'm half-asleep here, but it appears not a single Id game made this list?
From 1996-1999, I lost four yrs of my life to the start of the big birth of online FPS play. And not even _ONE_ of the games I played back then made this list! HUH?
Glad this thread is here though. I have never played almost all of the games on this list. Made me wonder if I had completely chosen the wrongs games to play all these years...
And I have played many flight sims... So what does #25 (IL-2) have over the dozen or more flight sims I have played? I've heard a lot of praise for Falcon, but I cannot say I've ever heard any word of mouth about IL-2...
Not to mention (AFAIK) that Doom started the whole mod craze... I remember by '99 there were so many mods/pwads that I could play something new every time I played, and I still probably only got to look at ~20% of what I downloaded from cdrom.com... How Doom got overlooked for this very reason alone amazes me...
But, I'm half-asleep here, but it appears not a single Id game made this list?
From 1996-1999, I lost four yrs of my life to the start of the big birth of online FPS play. And not even _ONE_ of the games I played back then made this list! HUH?
Glad this thread is here though. I have never played almost all of the games on this list. Made me wonder if I had completely chosen the wrongs games to play all these years...
And I have played many flight sims... So what does #25 (IL-2) have over the dozen or more flight sims I have played? I've heard a lot of praise for Falcon, but I cannot say I've ever heard any word of mouth about IL-2...
Not to mention (AFAIK) that Doom started the whole mod craze... I remember by '99 there were so many mods/pwads that I could play something new every time I played, and I still probably only got to look at ~20% of what I downloaded from cdrom.com... How Doom got overlooked for this very reason alone amazes me...
mwin
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IL2 really is an awesome flight sim. I'm not crazy into flight sims, but IL2 really did it for me. A few of my buddies and I run IL2 deathmatches on the LAN almost every weekend. WWII dogfighting is really where it's at.
I thought the list's top 3 were spot on. It's all opinion, though. Whenever you make a list like that, people who's personal favorites didn't make the list will be all upset about it. People who felt like it matched up with their personal favorites will praise it.
On a related not...since I saw people questioning Call of Duty making the list...Call of Duty: United Offensive is still my favorite online FPS, and I think it's great that CoD made the list. I was a huge Medal of Honor fan when the CoD demo hit. It was the most awesome thing I'd ever seen. I picked up CoD the day it hit stores. It then stole countless hours from myself and a pile of my buddies.
Silverghost
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Wooo! I loved TIE Fighter
I still get stack overflow nightmares though
I still get stack overflow nightmares though
TheCommander
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Where is Star Control 2?
What I don't get is why they put up Civ 2 or something, rather than the original, legendary, Vga-graphics Civilization. It still holds up extremely well against Civ4, even with the quirky save-game system (A: only!).
I can only guess that when they put in a sequel-game, they really intended people to consider it the series rather than the game in question.
I can only guess that when they put in a sequel-game, they really intended people to consider it the series rather than the game in question.
Am I the only one here that thinks Starcraft is lame?
Its warcraft with a new skin kiddies. Not to mention being a HUGE ripoff of the Warhammer 40K universe. Space marines = Terrans (which have a unit called space marines
Come to think of it, everything blizzard has done was a ripoff and rename of a universe.
Warhammer: Dawn of War should be on that list, but I can deal with its successor being there (Company of Heroes), Starcraft and COH's places just need to be switched.
/Blizzard/Starcraft Rant
you have got to be kidding me..
just think of what the heck are you talking about
Starcraft is older than those games you named
as a matter of fact.. Warhammer was a ripoff of starcraft
tickle_me_emo
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wikipedia FTW
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40K
space marines. orks, and Tyranid were created in 1993
in 1998 they added the aliens (protoss like creatures)
so yeah, the warhammer 40k universe came before starcraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40K
space marines. orks, and Tyranid were created in 1993
in 1998 they added the aliens (protoss like creatures)
so yeah, the warhammer 40k universe came before starcraft
PopeKevinI
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Okay, maybe we need to define what makes a game great before we talk about what games should be on this list.
IMO, a great game is one that remains fun years after its release. It's a game that is original and either a revolution or near-perfect evolution of a particular style of gameplay. You can sit down with it today, enjoy playing it, and see why so many other games used it as a model.
A lot of the games listed in this thread wouldn't fit my definition of great, simply because they wouldn't be nearly as fun to play today as they were when they were release. They may have had a huge impact on the industry and been amazing games in their day, but that alone doesn't make them great. If you can't pick them up today and thoroughly enjoy them the same way you do a modern game, perhaps they aren't quite so "great" after all.
Wolfenstein 3D is hampered by primitive controls, an utter dearth of AI, and very simplistic gameplay. Doom is a vast improvement, and even it leaves something to be desired by today's standards. I can't go back and play either of them after playing full-featured, modern FPSs.
Maybe we need to separate the "greatest" from the "most influential". There would certainly be some overlap, but it weeds out the "______ game should be on there because it was the first to _______."
My "ten most influential games of all times" list (in no particular order):
Wolfenstein 3D: It's the game that created the FPS genre. It gave rise to a host of clones, and through it successors revolutionized gaming, and arguably computing in general.
Doom: Wolf3D may have introduced PC gamers to FPS, but Doom introduced the world to the genre. Offices and universities found a whole new reason to upgrade their networks as people discovered the joy of fragging friends and strangers alike. Gaming was never the same after Doom gave the world
Dune 2: This game defined the RTS genre. Others came before it, But Dune 2 set the standard for the games that would popularize the genre in the following years.
StarCraft: While I personally don't think the game is worthy of many of the praises heaped upon it, it had more impact on the RTS genre than anything short of Dune 2, WarCraft 2, and Command & Conquer.
Diablo: It wasn't much on originality and as even action RPGs go it was light on plot, but the game was just fun. With its easy and accessible multiplay, it was the prelude to MMORPGs that began showing up a few short years later.
Myst: It was pretty, it was fun, and it was appealing to people who never considered themselves gamers. Myst was the first PC game to be a major draw for the general public, introducing them to adventure gaming and taking a huge leap toward making gaming a mainstream activity.
The Sims: It was oddly addicting even for many hardcore gamers, and like Myst before it brought untold thousands into the realm of computer gaming. The Sims is now one of the most recognized game franchises ever.
Civilization: It seems the "God Game" genre is barely holding on with just a handful of releases, but Civilization spawned it and the franchise has sustained it ever since. This game's influence on strategy titles can be felt throughout the industry.
World of WarCraft: Sure there were tons of MMORPGs prior to WoW and I have no doubt there are better games out there if you look (I haven't) but there's no denying the impact of WoW on gaming and pop culture. It has taken MMORPGs from being lumped with D&D as a geek's domain to being a mainstream cultural phenomenon.
...and for some reason I can't think of a number ten. It's not that I can't think of any more influential games, it's that I can't think of any one that stands out over the others. And I'm doing my best to filter out my personal preferences (I'd just love to stick TA or X-COM in here, but frankly they didn't impact the industry nearly as much as others).
IMO, a great game is one that remains fun years after its release. It's a game that is original and either a revolution or near-perfect evolution of a particular style of gameplay. You can sit down with it today, enjoy playing it, and see why so many other games used it as a model.
A lot of the games listed in this thread wouldn't fit my definition of great, simply because they wouldn't be nearly as fun to play today as they were when they were release. They may have had a huge impact on the industry and been amazing games in their day, but that alone doesn't make them great. If you can't pick them up today and thoroughly enjoy them the same way you do a modern game, perhaps they aren't quite so "great" after all.
Wolfenstein 3D is hampered by primitive controls, an utter dearth of AI, and very simplistic gameplay. Doom is a vast improvement, and even it leaves something to be desired by today's standards. I can't go back and play either of them after playing full-featured, modern FPSs.
Maybe we need to separate the "greatest" from the "most influential". There would certainly be some overlap, but it weeds out the "______ game should be on there because it was the first to _______."
My "ten most influential games of all times" list (in no particular order):
Wolfenstein 3D: It's the game that created the FPS genre. It gave rise to a host of clones, and through it successors revolutionized gaming, and arguably computing in general.
Doom: Wolf3D may have introduced PC gamers to FPS, but Doom introduced the world to the genre. Offices and universities found a whole new reason to upgrade their networks as people discovered the joy of fragging friends and strangers alike. Gaming was never the same after Doom gave the world
Dune 2: This game defined the RTS genre. Others came before it, But Dune 2 set the standard for the games that would popularize the genre in the following years.
StarCraft: While I personally don't think the game is worthy of many of the praises heaped upon it, it had more impact on the RTS genre than anything short of Dune 2, WarCraft 2, and Command & Conquer.
Diablo: It wasn't much on originality and as even action RPGs go it was light on plot, but the game was just fun. With its easy and accessible multiplay, it was the prelude to MMORPGs that began showing up a few short years later.
Myst: It was pretty, it was fun, and it was appealing to people who never considered themselves gamers. Myst was the first PC game to be a major draw for the general public, introducing them to adventure gaming and taking a huge leap toward making gaming a mainstream activity.
The Sims: It was oddly addicting even for many hardcore gamers, and like Myst before it brought untold thousands into the realm of computer gaming. The Sims is now one of the most recognized game franchises ever.
Civilization: It seems the "God Game" genre is barely holding on with just a handful of releases, but Civilization spawned it and the franchise has sustained it ever since. This game's influence on strategy titles can be felt throughout the industry.
World of WarCraft: Sure there were tons of MMORPGs prior to WoW and I have no doubt there are better games out there if you look (I haven't) but there's no denying the impact of WoW on gaming and pop culture. It has taken MMORPGs from being lumped with D&D as a geek's domain to being a mainstream cultural phenomenon.
...and for some reason I can't think of a number ten. It's not that I can't think of any more influential games, it's that I can't think of any one that stands out over the others. And I'm doing my best to filter out my personal preferences (I'd just love to stick TA or X-COM in here, but frankly they didn't impact the industry nearly as much as others).
PopeKevinI
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1983, according to Wikipedia. It's just a wee bit older.