The readers of Edge magazine, as well as computer game industry experts, have stated that "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" is the greatest video game of all time. Created a decade ago, the Nintendo 64 game is a pioneer of 3D gaming.
The Edge magazine poll listed the best 100 games, and half the top ten was made up of Nintendo games. Edge editor Tony Mott said: "Ocarina of Time is nearly 10 years old, but its position at the top slot... shows that great game design does not age."
Apart from Zelda, the top five was made up of Resident Evil 4, Super Mario 64, Half Life 2 and Super Mario World in the second, third, fourth and fifth spots respectively.
add to the fact that PC games are almost uniformly ignored (except PC game ports), and you have a very ultra-biased list with about the quality and believably of asking some random person on the street. And..
.. FF12? What the heck? That game will NEVER, EVER, EVER reach the popular FF7 has. FF7 was more popular and well regarded than FF12 even on the day FF12 came out.
And I don't even -like- FF7 all that much, I'm simply making a clear and obvious observation.
This was obviously some kind of attempt to push those games. All of which happen to still be in production. (Zelda OOT is available via virtual console, Mario 64 is available on DS & Virtual Console).
I may like some of those games, but I feel that none of them are the greatest of all time. Its so disgusting anyone could even consider them the greatest games ever.
Chrono Trigger usually beats all polls for greatest game ever. Its been constantly doing it since its release. Its the only game that has consistantly been in the top 10 since its release and maintained that place. In almost all gaming circles.
Starcraft also puts every one of those titles to shame. This was obviously a fanboi editorial choice. Not a realisitic judging of games.
Unreal Tournament III (formerly named Unreal Tournament 2007) is due this fall and will blow away every other game. Their Unreal Engine 3 is perhaps the most anticipated and technologically sophisticated graphics engine ever created. See the trailer and screenshots here...
It's a damn good game, but calling it the best game ever is a bit of a stretch. It hasn't really added anything new to the genre after all. Unlike Quake 1, which was the first FPS to have rendered 3D graphics.
Hopefully my computer will be able to run the next incarnation of UT, otherwise I'm looking forward to it for nothing lol.
i've played ocarina from start to finish several times over the years, and it still maintains the same charm as the first time i played it. truly a fantastic game. it's also good to see that HL2 and SMW made the list.
I can see Tetris on the list as it is the number 1 puzzle game among most folks. It is the most recognized, visible and played.
Zelda was a great game for super nintendo.
Punch Out!
Super Mario Brothers. Mario is the biggest game character ever made aside from Pac Man! I'm talking general populace for those who are not gamers nor play games Mario and Pac Man are the most recognizable.
Contra was the bomb!
Final Fantasy VII was a leap forward for RPG games.
The Resident Evils were pretty good.
Halo was the first time player point of view was fun!
Don't forget Mortal Combat bringing in a new era of fighting games.
And who can forget the mother of all fighting games.....Street Fighter 2!
Let's not forget Pac Man and Galaga!
Ooooh and let's not forget Double Dragon and Ninja Gaiden (arcade version)
If you like starlancer, I seriously recommend freelancer (the sequel) and a visit to The Lancers Reactor, which has mods and discussions on both starlancer and freelancer.
Duke Nukem 3D (1996) Deus Ex 1 and 2 (2000, 2003) System Shock 2 (1999) Half Life 1 and 2 (1998, 2004) Morrowind (2002) Oblivion (2006) GTA San Andreas (2004)
Some of the best games ever made IMO. Never got into console games personally. I do remember when Centapede on my Commadore Vic-20 was the chit though. Oh and I had Pong on Intellevision. Sweeet. I'm 32 BTW not 102 you bastards.
1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Not bad at all. It had a great mood to it.
2. Resident Evil 4 Only played botched PC version for a while. Will try GC or Wii version...
3. Super Mario 64 Didn't find it as fun as SMW II but it was a great deal of fun anyhow
4. Half Life 2
Meh, poor AI, too linear, no EAX as the first one had, too arcadey
5. Super Mario World Preferred number two. Fun to hear echo in caves for the first time
6. Zelda: A Link to the Past An absolute blast.
7. Halo: Combat Evolved Rubbish, uninspired copy and paste level design and super poor performance despite that I had a powerful PC.
8. Final Fantasy XII
Never played, combat through menus is too dull.
9. Tetris
Great idea and great music. Loved it on the original gameboy.
10. Super Metroid
Never really bothered with it.
Some of the games that I've truly enjoyed: 1. The Thief series 2. Deus Ex 3. System Shock 2
C64: Wizball, Mission: Impossible NES: Mario 3, Megaman 1, 2 and 3. Castlevania 1 and 2... Atari: International Karate SNES: Super Mario Kart (the original and the best), Star Wing (love the music), Secret of Mana... N64: Goldeneye (tons better than HL1 IMO), Turok 1 and 2 (today rather rubbish, but I certainly enjoyd then)...
I'll stop there, so I won't shed any tears for so many fantastic memories :)
1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina It was alright, Have the rom but never played on N64 so I probably shouldn't say much.
2. Resident Evil 4 Oh good god. This game was fantastic. The best story-shooter ever in my opinion. It was so much fun and still a challenge, the gameplay never got boring. I played on the PS2, it's coming out for the Wii which is going to be insane.
3. Super Mario 64 For it's time, very very good. Now it's OK. Gets a bit repetitive for me.
4. Half Life 2 Haven't played.
5. Super Mario World Loved it. Can't say much more than that.
6. Zelda: A Link to the Past Decent. Never been a big Zelda fan.
7. Halo: Combat Evolved Sure.
8. Final Fantasy XII I actually haven't played this. I've played every other game though. I don't think it's out for the 360.
Battlefield 2. Because it is current events in the war against al quaida. Believe me this game is absoluttly fantastic because it is so realistic. I think this game is future proof because you can get dozens of add on levels to expand the game.
The truly greatest video games have been *emulated*
My stars look like the jumping people in Tetris because I could play the game until my eyes bled.
After experiencing a lot of what was available for colecovision, intellivision, atari 400, 800, 2600, 5200, 7800, atari SE, C64, VIC-20, TI99-4A, etc., Zelda on NES seemed rather innovative despite being able to complete both quests in one sitting.
Super Metroid was one of the first SNES games to use as much space as it did on a SNES cartridge.
Final Fantasy VII should have been in the list, not XII. VII was the first 3D Final Fantasy game, and also made the switch from the Nintendo console to the Sony console. I might be wrong but I think FFVII was the first Playstation game to be on more than one CD, actually four. You could never come close to wasting this amount of time on an N64 4MB cartridge game like OOC.
Super Mario World was one of the first SNES games and came with the console, no wonder it is so memorable. Super Mario 64 was the first N64 game despite the fact that Killer Instinct was the first Ultra64 game two years prior. I was so disappointed Nintendo went with their cheaper plan, the N64.
Have you played GL Quake on a PC recently? It's pretty neat running at a few thousand frames per second even if you can only see a couple hundred at most. I was played Quake for days at a time before 3D games were cool on consoles. N64 overused 3D when 2D games were still cool, just look at Super Metroid and Megaman X.
@ Valk... Lol. Yep, those 3 1/2" Floppies are not to be trusted; that's how the government gets you. I'm not sure quite how it works - hidden partitions, microchip transmitter under the write protect tab links up with CIA satellites or something. Scary stuff. I always remove the 3 1/2 floppy drive from any machine I build just to be sure. I think I still have a machine stored away at my parents house which has a 5 1/4 drive in it. If you want I could RAR up a copy of Oblivion onto a million or so 5 1/4 floppies for you. Of course you'll have to buy a copy from WalMart though to obtain a legal license. Heh heh.
To expand on my previous comments (as if anyone cares) these are the things I appreciate in games and why I listed the ones I did now that I've got a bit more time to write.
Some publishers are content to make a game that the target audience finds fun to play. Fun, entertaining - the marketability to sell enough product to make profit. Some few publishers have had a philosophy from the start that they wanted to truly turn the industry upside down and do things that are truly groundbreaking. We're talking the difference between art and pop here.
Some of the elements which I enjoy in a game are things like choices, freedom to explore, interactivity of many various (sometimes unexpected)objects with the player, different paths to meeting the same objective, non-linearity of "level" design, open-endedness, the players decisions having a true impact on the game, multiple possible endings, a plot which makes you think(not just puzzle solving, but ethical/moral issues or just a yearning to understand the situation you're trying to resolve). These types of games draw you in and create an alternate reality, rather than just a scripted "blast everything that moves" thoughtless romp through a cardboard cutout of a level design, with hordes of identical enemies perpetually spawning out of nowhere. That's why even at the height of the original Doom/Quake games I got quickly bored with them.
Here's some of what I like about the games I mentioned...
Duke Nukem 3D: What a classic. Extremely interactive (light switches, security cameras, arcade games, toilets, and of course strippers to name a few). So much better a game than any of the Doom/Quake games including the new ones. Instead of dark identical corridors one boring level after another DN3D led you on an enormous trek in huge often outdoor environments. There were different paths to get to the same place at times, providing you with a choice of flanking the enemy rather than going head on. Man, how many game-play elements did they invent? The shrink ray, trip-mines and remote bombs, jet pack. If they weren't invented in DN3d the were perfected there. The game was hilarious, stylish, adult, and way ahead of its time. In 1997 it was announced that DN3D's sequel DN Forever would be made. This has become an industry wide joke. After changing game engines 2 or 3 times, and totally re-designing the entire game it is supposedly still in production as of 2007 with 3 or 4 thumbnail sized screenshots recently surfacing. This link shows us just all the things that have happened in the world while Duke Nukem Forever has been in production... http://duke.a-13.net/ Deus Ex: Man what a great game. Incorporating elements of RPG into a FPS this game gave us so much freedom. It's the only FPS (maybe the only game period) that I can think of where you can play all the way through as a pacifist, killing only one person (by speaking a phrase). Or you could blow the hell out of just about every one. The game had several possible endings based on the decisions you make. Certain characters would align themselves according to you interaction with them. There were many different ways to accomplish the same goal. Covert. run and gun, security expert/hacking. The game molded itself around the way you played it. This was one of the most intelligent games ever made, and if you're a conspiracy nut (I'm not really) this is a must play. Terrorists, plagues brought about by the same company that manufactures the cure, Illuminatii, you name it. Ethical questions abound. There's even a part of the game where if you do as instructed, your character's brother dies - but if you don't you can potentially cause him to survive and make a re-appearance later in the game. Deus Ex 2 was pretty good and incorporated much of the same philosophy, but had its drawbacks. Unpatched the game was slow and glitchy, the maps were way too small for the environment they for trying to portray, the hud system took a little bit to get used to. Over all still way better than most FPS. I just read that it was announced in 2007 that a Deus Ex 3 is in production. Woo frickin hoo. Project Snowblind was originally to be a Deus Ex 3 but then they decided otherwise. I don't recommend that game unless you're very, very hard up for a Deus Ex type fix, but even then it won't deliver.
System Shock 2: was great for most of the same reasons as Deus Ex. Incredible game. I never played the first System Shock. Due to copywrite ownership issues the original makers of the game are unable to use the name "System Shock" but will never the less be releasing "BioShock" soon, very soon.
Half-Life: Too much is know and has been said elsewhere about these games for me to say much, but I had to include the original at least. Plot/story was original and engrossing as well as the style of atmospherics employed throughout. And of course the game intro tram-ride into Black Mesa is one of the most classic moments in game history IMO. HL2 was a bit of a let down but still very enjoyable. Of course the graphics were a nice upgrade, the physics were incredible, but the whole thing was a bit too linear and scripted.
Morrowind/Oblivion: Just incredible IMO. Despite their bugs, etc, I don't know if any other games have "taken me there" like these two. You don't have to be a D&D nut or RPG expert to play these as they incorporated a vast system of RPG into the game while maintaining a very easy, user/novice friendly menu. Morrowind starts of a bit gay and you find yourself wondering "Why am I moving so slowly, even when I run? Why can I not hit anything with a bow and arrow? This game sucks." Then by the end you're running around like lightning, jumping off of small building, with expert marksman ship - and you really feel like you've earned something. If you want to be good at anything, running/swimming, fighting, magic/alchemy you have to practice. Makes sense to me. Game gave you a sense of identity by letting you constantly change armor/clothing as you see fit. Buy/steal some fancy duds, mix and match your wardrobe. Lol. The way you dress affects the way others treat you. I had stashed some good stolen armor once, and was returning after incarceration to pick them up wearing not but a loin cloth. I passed a snooty rich lady and she stopped, looked at me and said "Clearly you are an idiot." I then later passed an Argonian(I think - the lizard race) and he said "Where are its clothes?". That's just rich. Anyway, huge open-ended environments, complete and total freedom, follow the main plot or not at any pace, do a bazillion sub-plot missions or not, wander around making up your own game and just exploring all the ruins, geography, caves, temples, dungeons, oceans, etc. The different regions were truly imaginative, the day/night and weather effects. Morrowind and Oblivion are simply huge in everything - size, imagination, vision, true masterpieces. Oblivion was a bit of a trade off for me. Of course the graphics were spectacular in Oblivion in no way compare to the very dated but decent for its time graphics of Morrowind. The combat system was very much improved in Oblivion. Most things were improved with Oblivion over Morrowind, yet Morrowind seemed to be a bit more imaginative than Oblivion in many ways, and I simply hated the look/feel of the realm of Oblivion in that game. It looked so cheesy like some sort of Quake/Doom sort of motif. It really didn't seem appropriate, more like and afterthought. But that aside Oblivion had so many redeeming qualities. I love the fact that NPCs act like ordinary people. They get up in the morning, they may go to work or to church, or to the tavern. Come home at night and go to bed. Once in Oblivion I was playing a character who had become a vampire and I was waiting for a homeless guy who was camped out on a riverbank to go to bed so that I could feed. The guy must've stayed up past 4 in the morning drinking wine before I could catch him passed out. And once I fed on a sleeping farmer in front of a girl I had with me as a helper when she said "Whoah, I hope you know what you're doing". Lol. No two plays through this game will be the same, except for the unfolding of major plot points.
GTA San Andreas: I can't help it I loved this game. I played GTA 3 and Vice city and while I had some fun they weren't revolutionary IMO and pretty boring in some places. I actually like San Andreas for many of the same reasons as Morrowind/Oblivion. Huge open-ended environment. Total Freedom of gamplay. The ability to customize your character and and inventory. The realistic ideas such that if you don't eat you become skinny and loose muscle mass, eat too much and you become fat and slow. Want to be strong so that you can run faster/jump higher/scale that wall? You'd better work out. Want to become more proficient with your driving skills or firearm accuracy? You'd better practice. The game is huge, yet still incorporates a staggering level of inter-activity. See that basketball court? Pick up a ball and shoot some hoops. See that bar? Go in and play some pool or an arcade game. See that strip club? Go get a lap dance. Gambling, racing, you name it. These don't have anything to do with the plot of the game, they're just there. Yes, this game has gotten a bad rap and it is definitely not a kids game. There are references to practically every drug known to man, and lots of sexual content with or without the famous patch. It's the only game I've ever played where a huge purple double-dong ended up in my inventory. That says something.
Oh and recently I played STALKER which was pretty good for many of the reasons listed in other games above.
Sorry for the huge rant - I drank too much coffee today and had some time to kill. Anyone know some obvious classics along these lines, that I might want to check out?
The original System Shock was awesome, unfortunately it was way ahead of it's time so never got the recognition it deserved. System Shock 2 is awesome as well, but suffers once you get about 75% of the way through, when the publisher got impatient and told the developers to rush through the last bits.
