Top Ten Games - ALL time, ALL platforms

seraphimvc

lol this is the first time that i see someone relate EVA to ff7 appealing opinion there Retro!

EVA was the big hit back in 90s due to many reasons but i am pretty sure it is not because of it is first one that used alot of religion references - it has arguably the most compelling story in the history of ACG world but so does FF7, Chrono trigger etc (and many many others anime and manga). you see the trends of using different references in japanese games writer/maker are simply based on:
a.Western reference (mostly based on medieval time or bible, or some european history/mythology)
b.local culture (modern culture or bushido/shogun government)
c.chinese culture (Dynasty Warriors)
a/b/c is what interested japanese most lol so really i think games/anime/manga obviously influence each others but i really wouldnt say eva has huge influence to many jrpg at that time.

and i believe the 'godliness' of the FF series has 'officially' started since ff6 which is before EVA came out.

*ACG - (Anime, Comics, and Games - a widely used term in asia regarding this japanese subculture)

OT:
my top ten games(2010 version , how many times have we done this already lol)
there are too many games but i will say out the ones that are really really really unforgetable to me. in no particular Order either.
Zelda - Link's awakening(GB, my no.1 zelda game, hands down:D)
Rockman World 5(GB), RockmanX4(PS)
FF6/7 (i have squeezed all my beloved FF games into 2 here!)
Resident Evil 2(PC/PS, 1 was too 'horror', 2 is BIOHAZARD!)
SuperRobotWar (yes i love robots so much and i miss the countless hours that i spent on many SRW titles!)
MGS series (i maybe dislike mgs4, but i have to accept all mgs games since they are a whole story altogether)
Blizzard games(namely WC3/DotA and SC1/2, god i really spent countless hours on them:D)
Mario (i love all of them but the super mario world 3 on GB- warioland is the one i spent most time among all these mario games)
Secret of Mana (you were such an awesome company Squaresoft!!!)
Bayonetta (my No.1 3D action game, man it was such a long road from ninjagaiden, sega's Shinobi, chaos legion, DMC to find my true no.1!)

Retr0gamer

DaceX wrote: »

I bow to your superior knowledge of JRPGs! In any case I don't disagree with anything you've said.

Eh it's just my theories on it, feel free to dismiss them! I like a good discussion.

seraphimvc wrote: »

lol this is the first time that i see someone relate EVA to ff7 appealing opinion there Retro!

EVA was the big hit back in 90s due to many reasons but i am pretty sure it is not because of it is first one that used alot of religion references - it has arguably the most compelling story in the history of ACG world but so does FF7, Chrono trigger etc (and many many others anime and manga). you see the trends of using different references in japanese games writer/maker are simply based on:
a.Western reference (mostly based on medieval time or bible, or some european history/mythology)
b.local culture (modern culture or bushido/shogun government)
c.chinese culture (Dynasty Warriors)
a/b/c is what interested japanese most lol so really i think games/anime/manga obviously influence each others but i really wouldnt say eva has huge influence to many jrpg at that time.

and i believe the 'godliness' of the FF series has 'officially' started since ff6 which is before EVA came out.

Well the God killing storylines have been around well before FF7, sure FF6 had one and Shin Megami Tensei usually has some of this as well and they were well before Eva. However I feel the tone of these storylines turned very similar to Eva and there was a huge proliferation of them after Eva was released. It's kind of understandable since it had such huge cultural impact on japanese culture.

However while I think the handling of religious references in Eva was flawed, in games like FFVII it was just terrible.

Here's an example that should show the eva influence in FFVII. The Kaballah tree of life features heavily in Eva and is of huge significance to the story. The kaballah tree of life is known as Sephirot.

Now take FFVII. The main bad guy is called sephiroth. Wow that's deep! Well actually it isn't, it's just the name of the character, one that has nothing to do with the kaballah tree of life. It's just thrown in there to make it seem mysterious.

ebbsy

Impossible Mission ( C64 )

Pastfinder ( C64 )

F1 Playstation ( first edition )

Donkey Kong Country ( Snes )

johnny_ultimate

An interesting conversation on the religious iconography of Evangelion, the series' grounding in Japanese culture and the subsequent impact on the Japanese role playing genre in high-profile examples such as Final Fantasy 7?

Good grief, I could have sworn I wandered into the wrong games forum :P

But you have to remember that Evangelion is about more than merely saving the world. It tackles big issues such as human evolution and the workings of the human brain (albeit in a fairly convoluted manner towards the end). It was designed to be the last word on 'giant robots', and unfortunately without the big ideas of Eva alot of the crap that followed just came across as generic tosh, whereas Eva was generic by design, and purposefully twisted and subverted those ideas. So many JRPGs - and plenty of WRPGs, Oblivion for example doesn't deserve to be uttered in the same breath as Eva narratively speaking - are simply the same, with no more intriguing or intelligent reason to be driving the plot forward.

It's why only a handful of RPGs manage to surpass the generic rubbish that often comes to define these games. The Persona series is one of the few that manages to have memorable imagery (the infamous 'suicide' Persona summoning technique, for example) and take the time to define the characters with subtlety and frequent character-based, slow-burning subplots. In fairness to FFVII, it also takes the time to define the characters, which is why the ending of disc one comes as such a shock. But it still isn't as psychologically complex as the best material out there, and it's a damn shame only the rare likes of Eternal Sonata, Persona 3/4, Evangelion etc... take the time to take a different slant on the old 'saving the world' plot. It obviously doesn't help that the vast majority of them are badly written and delivered too *coughfinalfantasy13cough*

Er, so yeah, EVA rocks, and it's a shame that its confident storytelling and memorable imagery (and whatever you may say, the images of an exploded Angel's cross or a feral EVA unit attacking an enemy, are extremely vivid) aren't carried over into more games.

seraphimvc

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well the God killing storylines have been around well before FF7, sure FF6 had one and Shin Megami Tensei usually has some of this as well and they were well before Eva. However I feel the tone of these storylines turned very similar to Eva and there was a huge proliferation of them after Eva was released. It's kind of understandable since it had such huge cultural impact on japanese culture.

However while I think the handling of religious references in Eva was flawed, in games like FFVII it was just terrible.

Here's an example that should show the eva influence in FFVII. The Kaballah tree of life features heavily in Eva and is of huge significance to the story. The kaballah tree of life is known as Sephirot.

Now take FFVII. The main bad guy is called sephiroth. Wow that's deep! Well actually it isn't, it's just the name of the character, one that has nothing to do with the kaballah tree of life. It's just thrown in there to make it seem mysterious.

hehe ye,altho the tree thingy didnt appear in ff7, but i was abit shocked too when i found sephiroth is from there lol but i think they only take the name reference, something like they take Shiva from hindu religion. i still wouldnt directly link ff7 to eva :P eva is like a 'bohemian rhapsody' version of the bible while ff7 is a straight forward classic rpg story with an over-complicated way of story telling. well ye you may probably say these rpgs 'learnt' the over-complicated way of story telling from EVA lol

retro by chance you know an anime called Rahxephon? that one is certainly directly influenced by eva no doubt, but it actually has its own core story which is very different to eva.a good watch if you like those god/goddess references

Shin Megami Tensei is defo the one with tonnes of religious god/goddess names, i only played 1 game when i was young and i was wondering what the heck are these names lol (back when the days before 56k moden exists so i couldnt check what are these names).

Raze_them_all

seraphimvc wrote: »

hehe ye,altho the tree thingy didnt appear in ff7, but i was abit shocked too when i found sephiroth is from there lol but i think they only take the name reference, something like they take Shiva from hindu religion. i still wouldnt directly link ff7 to eva :P eva is like a 'bohemian rhapsody' version of the bible while ff7 is a straight forward classic rpg story with an over-complicated way of story telling. well ye you may probably say these rpgs 'learnt' the over-complicated way of story telling from EVA lol

retro by chance you know an anime called Rahxephon? that one is certainly directly influenced by eva no doubt, but it actually has its own core story which is very different to eva.a good watch if you like those god/goddess references

Shin Megami Tensei is defo the one with tonnes of religious god/goddess names, i only played 1 game when i was young and i was wondering what the heck are these names lol (back when the days before 56k moden exists so i couldnt check what are these names).

FF just take names, oidin is norse, shiva is hindu, ragnorak is norse, there has been celtic myth in it.

Hell most of the lead male characters are somewhat weather related...Cloud, squall, Tidus.

Retr0gamer

Yep FF just takes the names and that's about as clever as it gets. Something like Shin Megami Tensei takes the names but has it's own twisted art style and take on these mythical and religious creatures and does them far better than any other game. Also some of the stuff that happens in the main series games is very well researched and it all comes together nicely in the end, unlike Eva :P

Well there's still a lot of Eva in FFVII, Sephiroth being the most obvious and also stupidest reference. The Weapons are obviously trying to rip on the Angel/Eva battles of Evangelion, there's the japanese version of cloud who is very close to Shinji's character, the whole exploring Clouds subconcious in the lifestreamwas very similar to the episode were shinji is absorbedby unit 1 and a whole heap of small references.

FFVII does do character building well I have to say but after disc 1 the story really fell apart and was obviously rushed (hey, just like Eva!). I'd go so far as to say it was falling apart before the end of disc 1.

seraphimvc

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well there's still a lot of Eva in FFVII, Sephiroth being the most obvious and also stupidest reference. The Weapons are obviously trying to rip on the Angel/Eva battles of Evangelion, there's the japanese version of cloud who is very close to Shinji's character, the whole exploring Clouds subconcious in the lifestreamwas very similar to the episode were shinji is absorbedby unit 1 and a whole heap of small references.

FFVII does do character building well I have to say but after disc 1 the story really fell apart and was obviously rushed (hey, just like Eva!). I'd go so far as to say it was falling apart before the end of disc 1.

lol now think of what you said, ff7 suddenly is indeed influenced big time by eva. retro you should go write some eva-ff7 article and post it to some big site, figure 3.0 and 4.0 is still on their way now, your interesting theory may make you a new internet king lol

quarryman

RopeDrink wrote: »

Warhammer: Dark Omen (1998, PSX & PC)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ3iF_SW-1c#t=1m12s

Man when I first got this game it gripped me like no other - The acting was alright, the story was decent/somewhat typical fare but there was nothing more satisfying than starting a campaign and growing your army up and taking it to the Undead with extreme prejudice.

The game is still heavily cherished and played today (Regular Tournaments / Multiplayer) and a hefty chunk of people (Including myself) making Mods for it.

Some would say Command & Conquer, others say Starcraft... I say WH: DO! Check it out if you can.

Resident Evil 1,2,3,4
Oh sure the movies are a dire abomination but Capcom generally ensure a cheesy but engaging experience with Resident Evil. I've not played 5 but I get the feeling it doesn't live up to 4 (which some would say doesn't live up to 3,2,1 etc). I have so many fond memories of Resident Evil 1 it's not funny, the game isn't tarnished at all by the fact it has some of the most corny & hammiest lines ever acted out in a video game.

Max Payne 1 & 2
Talk about playing a Film Noir experience - Short but sweet games that I couldn't put down despite limited replay value - Classics.

Silent Hill 1 & 2 & 3
As a Resident Evil fan it was natural of me to hit the Silent Hill franchise as the Survival Horror genre started growing... Oh god, Silent Hill (1) gave me so many scares it's not funny... The others are critically acclaimed as well. I have Silent Hill 4 with me and quite liked it but it's not held in as high regard... Still, it's a worthwhile series of games to explore.

Gothic I & II
Apart from text adventures and classic oldies, this was probably my first real experience with RPG's on the PC after leaving the PSX era... Buggy and Glitchy but a really charming experience at the time.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Need I say anything about this classic?

Baldurs Gate // Icewind Dale // Planescape Torment
Another fantastic gathering of RPG goodness that shouldn't be missed.

Alone In The Dark 1 & 2
Pretty much the first foray into the Survival Horror Genre before all the glitzy Resident Evils and Silent Hills of yesteryear... Heck I'm still shocked that AITDark 1 was originally a DOS game. I remember spending countless hours with AITD 2 and the 4th one isn't too bad.

Final Fantasy VII
Oh I'm sure many will roll their eyes at that name but you can't deny that countless millions more would praise it. Fond memories of this game.

Vampire: Bloodlines - The Masquerade
Heavily underappreciated game.

Above list is in no particular order (With exception to WH: DO, that game is my all-time No1 favourite game and I still play it to this day, quite regularly).

Ah, I see what you did there.

Instead of naming 10 games you just named 20.

Placebo

Super Mario World
Street Fighter 2:Turbo
Pokemon Yellow
Zelda : Ocarina Of Time
Street Fighter 3: ThirdStrike
Counter Strike
Grand Theft Auto [GTA]
Mortal Kombat 3
Metal Slug
Burnout 2





in order
honorable mentions
Max Payne
SSF4
Diablo
Need for speed [first one where u cud pimp cars]

Cionád

In order of preference...

1. Super Mario World (SNES)
2. Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
3. Goldeneye (N64)
4. Civilization II (PC)
5. Final Fantasy VIII (PS)
6. Super Mario Kart (SNES)
7. Final Fantasy VII (PS)
8. Streets of Rage 2 (MegaD)
9. Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
10.GTA (PS)

Dave_The_Sheep

As you may guess from the list, I've not played console games, but rather I was a PC kid. Still am I guess, less of the kid these days though. In no order:

• Civilisation 2. The whole series, but I must have sunk a few thousand hours into this bad boy.
• Doom 2. Still scares the **** out of me when I play it today.
• Total War Series, Medieval TW being the most heavily played.
• Half-Life. Totally changed the level of the bar for the FPS genre. Also, Deathmatch was awesome.
• Diablo II. Simple, addictive multi-and-single player fun.
• GTA - Vice City. 4 just doesn't have the same fun factor.
• Deus Ex. No explanation required.
• Pro Evo 6. I just don't rate the later versions.
• X3 - Terran Conflict. The pinnacle of an awesome series.
• Total Annihilation - Best RTS I've played, despite a total lack of storyline. Supcom just didn't have as much personality.

Retr0gamer

seraphimvc wrote: »

lol now think of what you said, ff7 suddenly is indeed influenced big time by eva. retro you should go write some eva-ff7 article and post it to some big site, figure 3.0 and 4.0 is still on their way now, your interesting theory may make you a new internet king lol

I'm not the only one that says it. Sure plenty of other big games journalists have said the same thing and pointed it out.

longhalloween

RopeDrink wrote: »

Warhammer: Dark Omen (1998, PSX & PC)

Man when I first got this game it gripped me like no other - The acting was alright, the story was decent/somewhat typical fare but there was nothing more satisfying than starting a campaign and growing your army up and taking it to the Undead with extreme prejudice.

Ahhh i remember that game. I had Shadow of the Horned Rat too. Nothing like the pain the Grudgebringer cavalry brought to the field.

sensibleken

c64 -
Midnight resistance
Barbarian - choping off my mates head with one move, street fighter was just a blatant rip off!
The last ninja - I remember being blown away by the graphics

PS
Tenchu 2 - lovely feature where you could build your own enviroments
Resident Evil 4 - the awesomness
Metal gear solid
Ghost Recon - Not for everyone but i loved creeping around taking those damn commies out with one headshot

Penn

Forgot all about Tenchu 2. Loved that game. Played the demo so much that when I got to that level in the game I flew through it

eioneill

Probably wont make many people's top ten but are quite memorable games for me.

Golden Axe (Arcade, Megadrive)

Altered Beast (Arcade, Megadrive)

Pro evo 6 the patched version (Ps2) called reloaded or something.

Destruction Derby (Ps1)

Uncharted 2

Red Dead Redemption

Star Wars Battlefront 2

Fallout 3

Star Wars the Force unleashed

God of War trilogy

Retr0gamer

eioneill wrote: »

Altered Beast (Arcade, Megadrive)

You should try play this one again, it's one of the worst games ever made. For it's time though those graphics were mind blowing.

'Wise fwom ur gwave!'

CDH

1.Okami

2.Chrono Trigger

3.Super Mario Galaxy

4.The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past

5.Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4

6.Half Life 2

7.Mega Man 2

8.Pokemon Gold/Silver

9.Dragon Quest VIII

10.Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Retr0gamer

CDH wrote: »

1.Okami

2.Chrono Trigger

3.Super Mario Galaxy

4.The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past

5.Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4

6.Half Life 2

7.Mega Man 2

8.Pokemon Gold/Silver

9.Dragon Quest VIII

10.Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Now there's a list I've no problems with!

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Now there's a list I've no problems with!

Pokéfreak

Half Life 2 better than Half Life? Nevoooor!!!

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Pokéfreak

Half Life 2 better than Half Life? Nevoooor!!!

Hey Pokemon is awesome! It's notjust for kids and has one of the deepest combat systems ever.

Half-Life 1 and 2 are kind of comparable. It's personal preference which is better.

eioneill

Retr0gamer wrote: »

You should try play this one again, it's one of the worst games ever made. For it's time though those graphics were mind blowing.

'Wise fwom ur gwave!'

Haha I can remember that voice now. Ah its one of those nostaligic games. I could well imagine how rubbish it is now.

Chaotic_Forces

In no order and yes I am cheating technically but I don't care. :P

Streets of Rage 2
Nothing quite like a good old fashioned beat 'em up.
There's a remake (homebrew) called "Streets of Rage Remake".

Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Sonic 3 attached to Sonic and Knuckles)
Greatest game for platforming ever

Deus Ex
So I have a gun and a stun prod, first guy there *shoots gun and misses*... *an hour later learns how to play and has fun*.
Plus the little things of choices: you go in and kill all the terrorists on the first mission and you get yelled at, you don't and you get called a coward.

Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind GOTY (Game of the Year) edition
With mods = the greatest RPG I have ever played. The part of so much reading is so much fun that you actually want to learn more about the Mages Guild or why that nice man has 300 gold on him and a tax list.

FFIX
First RPG I have ever given my all too: was so much damn fun. And Quina, you have to love her.

GTA: Vice City
First "proper" 3d action/adventure game: nothing like getting a car chase with V-Rock blasting out your speakers.

Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
First RPG and first one that made me think "WTF HOW DID I GET TO THE FU*KING BOSS?!" After wandering around for a while you'll figure it out.

Way of the Samurai (all 3, each one was kind of the same but a slightly edited system)
A highly underrated series. The 3rd is the best and is on the PS3 and Xbox 360 for about 20-30 euro (new).
Basically: make a guy (just appearance, no skill editing or anything). Get given a normal sword and make your own way. It is the same thing over and over though: fight, beat story (anywhere from... 3 minutes to a few hours, I am actually serious, you can go straight to the exit point from the town and the game will end). But it is a very fun game.
The 3rd one is the best by far: it has no time limits on the storylines.

Warlords BattleCry 3
Ah this... the voices; so beautiful. The sound track is so good. The races are a total of... Knights, The Empire, Barbians (all three races are fully human), High Elf, Wood Elf, Dark Elf, Fey (like faeries), Orcs, Minotaurs, Daemons, Dwarves, Dark Dwarves, Undead, Plaugelords (think posion and warped type of creatures), The Swarm (desert like insect creatures), Ssrathi (snakemen). All are "perfectly" balanced. Obviously some have more advantages like the Daemons being far stronger than most races but take a lot more resources.
The RPG aspect is your hero; you build him/her up and after each battle or sometimes during the battle he/she will get stronger.
Oh and one more thing... the voices are so damn awesome; nothing like ordering a lich to move into an area to kill a hero and hearing "lock up your children"

Warcraft 3 TFT/Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Gold/Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 with Yuri's Revenge*

Each of them have their own little quirks: Warcraft has the amazingly deep Editor plus 4 pretty balanced races plus a load of freakin' extra maps/mods.
HOMM3 Gold has good/evil/neutral races and they are pretty unique.
RA2 with YR = techincally I could have picked just YR but come on RA2 gave us Crazy Ivan, Yuri and dropping a sh*t load of tanks and paratroppers onto the Pentagon in the first mission for the Reds... YES PLEASE MORE!

Oh and the 11th since I just have to: Dungeon Keeper 2 = Casino plus winning = MONSTERS DANCING TO DISCO INFERNO.

I'm done now.

F1ngers

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time playing all these games over the years.

Pong - Probably the first game I played.
Space Invaders - Atari 2600?
Tetris - Just. One. More. Go.
Final Fantasy - First game I played after a long gap in my gaming history.
Beyond Good and Evil - Pure class.
Doom - My first FPS.
Metal Gear Solid - My favourite gaming series.
Super Mario Galaxy - Pure fun.
Vagrant Story - Another class game.
Ico - Again, pure class.

Jazzy

started FFVII there yesterday in the hopes of reviewing it as soon as im finished.
decided to name the characters after crap celebs and geordie footballers so Cloud is now Gazza, Barret is Beardsley (as in peter), Tifa is Cilla (after Cilla Black ofc) and Aeris is Davina (she of McCall). it really does add an extra giggle when you go into those premonition type scenes and the voice is going "Gazza! Gazza!". it also allows me to legitimatly write this sentence - atm Gazza, Beardsley and Cilla are about to infiltrate the Shinra tower to rescue Davina

Wertz

DaceX wrote: »

Its like the game Wipeout, some games have aged horribly! GoldenEye was one too.

Wipeout has aged badly??? Maybe the first one...2097 and 3 are still unmatched by anything other than their next gen sequels (and even those don't have the same control responses) and still get play from me in preference to HD racers.

cherryghost

It's been weeks since I said that I'd post my top 10.... and I still can't. :rolleyes:

Greyfox

Here's mine:

1. Resident Evil 1,2 &4
2. Final Fantasy 7
3. Metal Gear Solid
4. Zelda a link to the past
5. Resident Evil 3
6. Tombraider
7. Super mario all-stars
8. Zelda Oo time
9. R Evil: Code Veronica
10. Pro evolution series (playstation 1&2, back befor the PS3 when this series was addictive)

P.S theirs been loads of great games that came out in the last few years and some of them did come close to my all time top 10

Altheus

1. Civ (PC)
2. Sensible World of Soccer (Amiga)
3. Day of the Tentacle (PC)
4. Zelda (NES)
5. Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)
6. Fifa 11 (Xbox360)
7. Sonic 2 (Megadrive)
8. F1GP (PC)
9. Half-Life (PC)
10. GTA 3