Greatest game of all time

[WASD]

Certainly it's my game, WASD 3D. 

[OskiLover]

I beta tested for the starwars old republic. It looked better then any MMO I have seen so far. But I don't like MMOs. The next Guild Wars looks better.

[Jim Brown]

PSX: Doom II

This was one hell of a game. The grand daddy of all 1st person shooters

I played this game so much that, when I closed my eyes to go sleep I could see the corridors and rooms moving around in my mind. In terms of level design and atmosphere, Doom had it nailed. Moving around in a relatively exposed area, surrounded by monsters and demons kept the adrenaline and tension on gas mark 4. In some ways I guess the game could have been influenced by the very early 3D Monster Maze

[Mezo]

#1. Lunar Lander

#2. Battlezone

#3. Space Invaders

#4. Defender

#5. Asteroids

#6. Missile Command

#7. Phoenix

#8 Tempest

#9. Galaxian

#10. Galaga

And you can guess my age form that list.

Mezo.

[Kokoro]

has anyone mentioned scortched earth yet?

[pythagoras]

Mezo said:


#1. Lunar Lander

#2. Battlezone

#3. Space Invaders

#4. Defender

#5. Asteroids

#6. Missile Command

#7. Phoenix

#8 Tempest

#9. Galaxian

#10. Galaga

And you can guess my age form that list.

Mezo.

You have battle zone and space invaders the wrong way round, however a very impressive list

regards

john

[Mezo]

I dunno, Battlezone on a "real" vector screen takes some beating.



Pause whilst little Johnnie asks Dad "Whats a vector screen Daddy?"

Mezo.

[guru]

The high points for me over the years, specific platform where appropriate:

Boulderdash, Wizball (C64), Ghostbusters, IK+, Bubble Bobble, Syndicate, Powermonger, Monkey Island, Another World, Lemmings, Tetris (Gameboy), Quake II/III, The Sims, Counterstrike, Animal Crossing, GTA, Vice City, Guitar Hero/Rock Band, World of Warcraft.

I swear I've forgotten more games than I remember.

[Arhenius]

SwampPuppet said:


GAME: Elite

WHY: Its called brown nosing. It just happened to be an awesome game as well.

EDIT: Ahhh, some cheeky brown noser beat me to it. lol.

Actually Elite was the best!, brown nosing aside.  Pity so far all the sequels have sucked (all had good ideas but never got there)

[crhylove]

1. Civilization 2.  Not the other versions, or Freeciv.  They all suck.

2. Mario Kart Wii, 64

3. Super Mario World, 3, 2, 1, New Super Mario Bros

4. Quake 2

5. Dr Mario

6. Bust a Move

7. GTA: San Andreas

8. Tetris

9. Monopoly on Android

10. Urban Terror

[Mezo]

roelfrenkema said:


Nothing will ever beat Manic Miner on the good 'ol Spectrum.


Not even "Jet Pac" bit like Defender.

[Arhenius]

For me Elite will always be my number one.  Its what got me into computers. First on the BBC, then on an acorn and spectrum. I still have a PC version that runs on Win7.

I can get to elite in one sitting, but it takes HOURS!

Myst was cool, but far too short, I finished in just over 6 hours and had friends that did it faster.

CIV was awesome

I got hooked on Age of Kings (AOE II) - multiplayer - we had our own rules, 2 castles max, no trebuchets ...

Command and Conquer - and all those build up games - i enjoyed Dune 2 (C&C generals was a disgrace)

Eve online and freelancer were to me like modern version of elite but never had the same sticking power.

Tetris - that was an addiction

Medal of Honor for its multiplayer game - but people bouncing around was just a bit silly.

Tie Fighter and Xwing game me hours of fun when I should have been studying

UFO was fun too.

[Des_Zac]

Game: Bust a Groove

Why: I grew up on that game, I can play it even now and have just as much fun as I did when I was younger, The company went under so in the U.S. only 1 and 2 were released, while in Japan the 3rd game came out.. a shame, I would have played every one to death.

[Luny]

Lets see;

Zok"s Kingdom, Vic-20
Arcadia, Vic-20
Jetpac, Vic-20 cos nobody ever wrote such a great game like it on the Vic.
Matrix, Vic-20 amazing stuff
Escape, ZX Spetrum, the first game I ever saw on the Speccy.
Jetset Willy, with the teleport cheat on, played this in Woolworths.
Scuba dive
Wanted! Mony Mole as it improved on Manic Miner, with bigger sprites.
Tir Na Nog, wow games can almost be movies.

Visually any modern game today. Amazing now they are movies. If only more studios knew what "game play" is.

[Burngate]

Adventure
Lemmings
Minesweeper
Sokoban
Freecell (spent ten years of night-shifts proving they're all do-able)
What this says about me I don't know.

[Prometheus]

Luny said:


If only more studios knew what "game play" is.


This brings me to what my greatest games of all time are. This video (Warning: For reasons unknown to me there"s an excessive amount of not-safe-for-work language in this video, so, you know, don"t watch it at work or around folks who"d find it offensive) sums up the whys and hows better than I can. I"d recommend it as mandatory viewing for anyone involved with creating video games – it"s just unfortunate that the language precludes it from being used as a teaching resource for young"uns.

Anyway, whilst I do think that there are particular defining games that can easily be pointed out, I don"t think that there can be one single catch-all "greatest" game, since it"s such a subjective thing.

With that in mind, my top game of all time is Rockman & Forte for the Super Famicom (1998), which was later released in English as Mega Man & Bass for the Game Boy Advance (2003). The video above explains why so many of the Mega Man games are so well-designed, and that also applies to this particular game as well. Doubly-so in some aspects, because the two protagonists have different abilities, yet play through the same levels, and the game subtly "teaches" you how to handle both in the very first level.

My other top titles – since I really can"t pick just one, either, like so many others here – also include, in no particular order;

Mega Man 7 (SNES, 1995)

Mega Man X (SNES, 1993)

Mega Man Zero 2 (Game Boy Advance, 2003)

Star Fox/Starwing (SNES, 1993)

Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo 3DS, 2011)

Lemmings (Too many to list, 1991 to 1994 – My favourite is the Master System version)

Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo DS, 2005)

Klonoa – Door To Phantomile (PSX, 1998)

Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (PSX, 1997)

Mappy (Arcade, 1983)

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy"s Kong Quest (SNES, 1995)

Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo (C64, 1991)

Pulseman (Mega Drive, 1994)

High Seas Havoc (Mega Drive, 1993)

Mega Man ZX Advent (Nintendo DS, 2007)

Ms. Pac-Man (Arcade, 1981)

As you can see, I"m a bit of platforming nut (with a definite taste for arcade-style things), and definitely a Mega Man nut. Funnily enough, almost all of the games in the list mostly adhere to the crafting that's covered in the video at the start of the post.

If only there was room to write in my top 100! (I did that as a writing exercise a while ago, and it was more challenging than you'd think.)

[roelfrenkema]

I just saw Elite passing by and remembered Freelancer Discovery still playing that keep a windhose box alive for that one.

[hippy]

Prometheus said:


Anyway, whilst I do think that there are particular defining games that can easily be pointed out, I don"t think that there can be one single catch-all "greatest" game, since it"s such a subjective thing.


True; while not all my favourites there were some real 'game changers' deserving accolades which set the path of the future -

Pong, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Battlezone, Defender / Missile Command, Donkey Kong, Gauntlet, Wolfstein, Elite, Monkey Island, Myst, Descent, Doom, Mario / Sonic …

[crundy]

Hmm, agree with ArgentsQuest about Flashback. Very cool game. Also Ys: Vanished Omens on the master system, Kung Fu Master on the arcade (way ahead of its time), 1943: Battle of Midway, and (I guess) an odd choice, Trapdoor on the speccy. The controls were a bit frustrating but it was well made and the puzzles were fun. I also used to play Resident Evil 2 constantly on the PS1, but had to stop when I started getting zombie panic attacks.

Lately, Portal, Machinarium, the first series of the latest Sam & Max games (for the humour mainly), and I do like L.A. Noire, even if it is a bit repetitive.

[hyuecn]

I think there are too many 'important' games to say the single best

My favourites would probably be :-

Super Mario Brothers 3 + Legend of Zelda - Had these on the NES and spent hours playing them. The amount of playing time was just incredible really, and they were perhaps more challenging than many modern games. I still find myself humming the music

FFVII + Metal Gear Solid + Gran Turismo - had these on the playstation 1. All of them were just incredible leaps forward in gaming. FFVII has got such a brilliant story, which is really added to by some of the follow-ups (Crisis Core in particular explains a lot of the mysteries in FFVII and has a brilliant ending). I'd never seen a racing game with the realism of GT, I couldn't believe the graphics when I saw them and at school everyone would discuss the cars they had purchased and upgraded. The same is true with MGS, it was a game that everyone seemed to play and was you had the sense that the people making it really cared about the finished game.

Civ (4) + Europa Universalis III + C&C: Red Alert - The civ series for sheer addictiveness have got to appear in any list, 4 is my favourite closely followedby 2. EUIII isn't as widely known as the others but for a history geek and strategy fan it is a must play, it's a bit like chess crossed with civ 4 and very much a one-more-turn-then-bed sort of thing, very hard to play well (I play it very badly). C&C: Red Alert, I dread to think how many hours of my life have been spent playing skirmish mode.

Other games could easily appear in this list too, the Football Manager series is utterly engrossing (I like FM2007 as it is less-in-depth than more recent versions and takes less time to make your mark), the Elder Scrolls IV and V are both just epic in scale and game time, without wishing to get into a fanboy argument the FIFA series has been a pretty much constant in my games collection since 1996 and I've loved every one of them, Battlefield 2 was the first time I'd ever played a game where the focus is online and the ability to play people around the world instantly seems amazing to me especially when I look back to co-op games like Gauntlet II on the NES.

Ask again in a few years and hopefully I'll have more to consider

[sparkyar]

Metal Gear Solid (1998)

[Luny]

Feed the Tree on the Archimedes.

[liz]

Dragon Age Origins *actually made me cry*. It's the only game whose story and characterisation have been good enough to do that. (And it set me up for a mighty disappointment in DA2, where fully half the characters appeared to have been teleported in from a JRPG and the gameplay made me want to find the devs and hurt them. By spawning behind them.)

I am aware that a game's ability to make you cry might be a particularly female way to judge things.

[Gert van Loo]

I still play Age of Empires I. But Doom got me into games followed by Civilization.

[pvgb]

Another vote for Colossal Caves ( I learnt so much about programming when I was porting this ... Especially how to use comments to inform )

Other personal choices:

Atic Atac

Starship Titanic

Half Life

Neverwinter Nights

Mass Effect Series ( Currently waiting for 3 to come out - Trying to work out if I will have time to sleep if I get a RPi and ME3 at about the same time ! )

Oh, and don't forget Unix ( or  perhaps I should call it *nix ) I once heard it called "The biggest video game in the world" - I have always thought of it as such ever since.