10. Diablo 2 (2000)
-developer: Blizzard Entertainment
on the surface its a shallow hack and slash RPG with no story, no direction, no script for anything. Yet 10 years later Diablo 2 remains one of the most popular online RPG ever. With lack of story, in depth RPG element and characters Blizzard has made it up with incredible amount of attention to detail, customization and mind blowing complexity and variety when it comes to items in the game. The game play is simple yet hard to master and most important it set an addicting style that is to become the Blizzard trademark for years to come. The amount of content in the game and the addicting game play far surpasses 90% of all modern games.
9. X-COM: UFO Defense (1994)
-developer: Mythos Games
This is probably the father of all modern RTS games. Compare to today the game play is a bit simple but the execution was exceptional for a game that was build in 1994 with limited tech. Subsequently it became widely popular among strategy and wargame fan for reasons such as the excellent squad-based tactical interface, the combination of tactical and strategic elements and the ability to use and create new types of weapon and equipment as the game progress. In another word the game was pretty much way ahead of its time.
8. Fallout 2 (1998)
-developer: Black Isle Studios
One word: atmosphere. The Fallout series' desperate, dusty, washed-out world owes as much to classic Western films as nuclear holocaust science. Broken, wasted towns filled with broken, wasted people litter the radioactive landscape. You wield rusting rifles and meat-cleavers rather than shiny high-tech stuff. Bottle-caps are the currency. With a solid RPG system on top, Fallout 2's legendary status is secure.
It also secured Black Isle Studio somewhat short lived best RPG makers of all time status.
7. Planescape: Torment (1999)
-developer: Black Isle Studios/Bioware
As games get harder and harder to make, we're losing something: wealth of ideas. Since Planescape only used graphics to set the scene, and conveyed most of what went on through text, it had a richness that can't be matched when everything has to be represented graphically. A staggering 800,000-word script wove the epic story of your undying protagonist, his many misdeeds, and a past that will haunt you forever.
The game is not without faults however as the gameplay is not nearly as epic as the story, but that is the trait usually associated with games that has Bioware involved. But it did set many bars for modern RPGs and story driven games in general.
6. Warcraft 3 (2002)
-developer: Blizzard Entertainment
It goes without saying that a Blizzard game will be perfectly balanced, and give you elegantly crafted units that each serve a single tactical purpose. Where Warcraft 3 surprised was the excellent narrative - every mission was there to draw you through an intricate story, and the key characters joined in with the battles. At the middle of it all was Prince Arthas and his massacre of an infected village and subsequent exile. Strategy has rarely been so perfectly produced. And since it a Blizzard game you know its addictive, and Warcraft 3 is no different. It is still one of more played RTS online today with many different user created mods. In fact one of the most popular DOTA game is created from Warcraft 3.
5. Team Fortress 2 (2007)
-developer: Valve
Lets see Counter Strike was one of the most success mod turn into a stand alone game from Half Life, so what can Valve possibly do to top that? Incoming Team Fortress 2 and sequel to another mod and now its a stand alone game. It’s remarkable enough that TF2 can have nine classes and still make them all so different to play. That they all tessellate so satisfyingly, that their tools are expanding over time, and that each new map gives them all a new part to play, is a genuinely incredible accomplishment.
4. Baldur's Gate 2 (2000)
-developer: Bioware
Hundreds and hundreds hours into the game, and a decade later people are still discovering new things in Baldur's Gate 2 that they have never seen before. That is the amount of jaw dropping content Bioware decided to put into this RPG where its called the game of all games. It has the most complex game play and RPG element of all Bioware games and it has a world and a story that put all other Bioware games to shame, in fact it probably puts all other single player games out there to shame. Talking about getting your moneys worth you could easily get 10 times as much back from this game. It marked the high point for developer Bioware and RPG genre in general and since that day no one can duplicate the magic that is Baldur's Gate 2 not even Bioware themselves, it was truly a one of its own kind.
3. Half Life 2 (2004)
-developer: Valve
Valve’s masterful sequel was a turning point for the linear first-person shooter. It was the game that did everything so right that it diminished the accomplishments of every other contribution to the genre, and it seems to challenge anything that followed to do things differently or perish. Character, setting, physics, combat, puzzles: it’s nothing less than an object lesson in great design. And like the predecessor Half Life 2 has sprouted many popular mods, its like if you make a mod from Half Life 2 the sheer association alone would propel your game into one of the best PC game ever made, talk about the unique power Valve holds over PC gaming.
2. Starcraft (1998)
-developer: Blizzard Entertainment
When you think of a country's national sport what pops into your head? Football or even Baseball for us Americans, Table tennis for China, European Football for...Europeans, and hockey for Canadians. Well you get the idea but would you believe me if I said this sport in South Korea is in fact a 13 year old game made by Blizzard Entertainment? Pro sport style teams, pro sport style media coverage, pro style style tournament, and pro sport style stadium filled by hundreds and thousands fans watching. And yes that game is the internationally famous real time strategy game Starcraft. You don't even need to know that if the game is good or not, those alone make Starcraft worthy as the number 2 on this list. 13 years in the making Starcraft 2 is also the most anticipated sequel we have seen in recent times, and not just by South Koreans too.
1. Mine Sweeper (???)
-developer: ???
Oh you know you are the guilty one, playing mine sweeper at work when no one is watching. The truth is if you know how to turn on a computer then you have probably played mine sweeper before. Its not much of a modern game and an amateur game programmer can probably make it work but the number of people in the world that have played this game on their pc one time or another have made this game the number one game on this list.
Well all jokes aside the real number one on the list is:
1. World of Warcraft (2004)
-developer: Blizzard Entertainment
It consumes 12 million souls a year, it makes Blizzard the richest video game developer without making a new game for 6 years, it has been said(and tested) to be more addictive than crack, and it has caused plenty of media drama in regards to health related issues. Whether you like the game or not, have played it or have enough restrain to stay away from it you can not deny the effect that World of Warcraft has on the modern pop culture. No game besides WoW has caused such a big stir in the media with reasons other than violence in video games, no game has had so many media platform wanting to talk about it, the news, talk shows and even south park. All the bullshit aside WoW is an incredibly remarkable game on the technical level. No game has ever had such a large world for you to play in, no game has ever has such large and detailed lore behind the game that actually makes it believable, no game has ever had so many details to the smallest degree that its almost like a real...world. WoW is an unique experience like no other and I am not just talking about the addicting part, it is truly a master piece, a world so well crafted, an online community so large that you really feel like you are a small piece struggling in this enormous realistic fantasy world.
Re: Wow "It consumes 12 million souls a year"
ReplyDeleteLove that quote. I haven't played a lot of the games in the 10 ten, sadly. Although as for HL2 I didn't find that I liked the game itself at all but its engine/platform for other mods have been amazing.