You have 10 choices. Put whatever you damn well please in em.

1) NiGHTS into Dreams (Saturn)

2-10)

Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive)
Gunstar Heroes
Dragon's Fury
Super Tennis (SNES)
Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn)
L4D (360)
Ocarina of Time (N64)
Sonic Jam (Saturn - ahem)
Samba de Amiga (Dreamcast)

Also, mentions for
Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Soul Calibur, PES (PS1), MSR, Batonetta, Ico, Mario Kart (SNES), Mario Galaxy, Rez, Super Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis...

I'm disagreeing with my list already

Nil point

I'm going to choose Flashback and Toejam and Earl when I get in from graft and try to pick my ten.

Thumbs up for Snake Rattle and Roll, ace in co-op.

optimark_prime wrote:

Dragon's Fury

That was the pinball game wasn't it? I had the Jap version, called Devil Crash.

It was indeed brilliant - probably played it more than any other MD game for the highscores. I think I only once managed all the bonus stages in one game and got a huge score for it.

LazyGunn wrote:

most of these lists are depressing,i dont even know how it can be done, and to try it without some serious caveat strikes me as confounding

Of course it's not really possible - you just put down whatever 10 seems most appropriate at the moment. I'm sure I could replace most of mine with something equally good.

I'm more interested in seeing what games people really rate, whether there are certain games that a lot of people hold in the highest of esteem, and whether there's stuff I've missed that I should probably give a go.

@cuckoo Yeah, why isn't MGS3 or Mario64 or some shit in my list? Becuase I enjoyed AoE2 far more than either of them and to me it'd be more criminal missing of AoE2 than it would be the other two. Seriously, AoE2. What a game.

Alternate list:

1. Link to the Past
2. Mario Galaxy 2
3. Super Metroid
4. Journey
5. ICO
6. Terranigma
7. Secret of Mana
8. Halo 3
9. Half Life 2
10. MGS3

Honourable mentions:
Symphony of the Night, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI & VII & XII, Bayonetta, Halo CE & Reach & ODST, Shadow of the Colossus

Shit forgot Rayman Origins in my list.

Choke wrote:

9. Killer7

Good choice.

Also forgot to mention original Tomb Raider.

JonB wrote:

Then maybe at the end of the week or something we'll see - using the power of maths - which ones are most popular.

I still intend on collating top 100 lists from different publications and do some stats. One day.

Half Life

Still the best FPS i've played in terms of atmosphere. My 13-14 year old self really did think he was stuck in an underground top secret scientific research facility fighting xenians. And my now 24 year old self has come close a few times. The first game I played where the government arn't actually the good guys or coming to rescue you but send a large force of marines to exterminate everyone who works there. I think HL was the first game to include enemies having conversations with eachtoher when you're sneaking up on them. Loved that. The marine AI is also still fantastic to this day.

Team Fortress 2 When it first came out TF 2 wasen't just a breath of fresh air it was like someone threw open the conservatory doors during a tropical hurricane. The art style and aesthetic was absolutley mad supported by a very simple class system that made it easy to compliment your team mates without even having team play at the forefront of your mind. I started playing TF 2 in the beta way before Steam started to record time spent in games, so i've probably got at least 2000 hours pumped into the beast.

Baldur's Gate 2

The finest RPG i've ever played. Despite the clunkety clunk combat that leaves plenty to the imagination in terms of animation and a few other niggles mainly fown to its age, I can't remember another RPG that had me as enthralled in the world or characters you meet. Everyone feels genuine like they could actually exist in some other place in the same fashion which goes double for the places you visit which are beautifully hand drawn pixel arts and always have very well done ambience of talking crowds and random shouts from window tops to make you think the cities and woods are much more populated than the character models suggest. Magic and even the most rudimentary spellcaster are an immensely deadly force that will chew up and spit out whole parties of characters no matter the quality of your end-game armour or your thunderous two hander.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

My favourite MGS game for how much slicker Snake's sneaking feels in the jungles of southern Russia. It has the best boss fights, the best easter eggs, filler radio calls to your support team and the camouflage system being a bit far fetched is satisfying to put to use. The whole game also has an old-school James Bond feel to it from the cold war setting and outlandish villains of the Cobra Team. Which actually lends itself better to the barmy nature of Kojima's writing.

Dark Souls

I'm sure no one really needs to know why Dark Souls would be on someone's list.



I can only manage five right now as my brain hurts from saying "no, not really" to plenty of games I thought were fantastic but don't quite cut the list.

I am also an hour late for the gym.

Tempy wrote:

Edit: I realise this is lavish and pointless as everyone will just ignore it and continue to post a list of 10 games but FUCK THE NOISE, I had a wee little nostalgia trip whilst writing it.

I think you put your finger on it quite nicely; it's easy to piss and moan about such exercises being pointless and feeling like I'm letting the side down if I go too boring, not varied enough, or fail to add in a bunch of caveats. But even though my list is vanilla as fuck, I smiled a lot while remembering these games, and that's enough for me. Thanks for the effort you put into your post, 'twas a lovely read.

Mine:
1. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (PS2)
I haven't really played all that many games over the last five years, at least compared to the fifteen years before that,
so this is going to be skewed heavily toward the older games. Hard to avoid the nostalgia factor then, but not impossible.
Later refinements in the genre might have dated SoT somewhat, but at the time it seemed like the perfect video game for me. I've never been one for learning combos, so the simplistic and repetitive combat didn't bother me at all.

2. Secret of Mana (SNES)
Two distinct experiences with this, equally precious. Once coop with a mate, translating the text to him as we went along (overbearing as fuck, I probably was). And once alone, grinding and getting every secret, still overpowered by the story and beauty.

3. Yoshi's Island (SNES)
Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3 might be better games, but YI builds on those brilliant mechanics with an art direction and general presentation that makes it my favourite 2D Mario. Like someone said in another thread on here, the "video" part of "video games" is important too.

4. F-Zero (SNES)
One of the most pure nostalgia picks on this list, my dad and I put hours into the time trial mode of this in 1993. Our times were good too, on the level of the top efforts posted in the mags back then. Thinking about my dad as "world class F-Zero player" never fails to bring a smile to my face.

5. Link to the Past (SNES)

6. Metroid Prime (GC)
My first Metroid. An FPS perfectly suited to my super-cautious, non-hardcore (ie "timid and crap") playing style.

7. Resident Evil 4 (PS2)

8. Wind Waker (GC)

9. Wipeout (PS)

10. Final Fantasy VIII (PS)

Honourable Mentions: Flashback, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, The Lost Vikings.