They have been ranked from Last at the top to First at the bottom, so as you go down the list, the more the game is valued in my particular estimates. There are a couple of sentences about what I think of each game, just to try and explain my position of said things within the list. You have here a little cross-section of gaming history, there for everyone to enjoy.
100
|
Resident
Evil 6 (2013)
|
Capcom/
Capcom
|
Just to be clear, the higher in the list a game gets,
the worse I think of it. I just can’t persuade myself to care about this one.
It’s an incoherent mess in the guise of a survival horror. When one of the
characters turned into a T-Rex, that was all I needed to know that the
series, and perhaps modern video games in general, weren’t worth salvaging.
|
99.
|
Jurassic
Park: Trespasser (1998)
|
Dreamworks
Interactive/ Electronic Arts
|
I wanted to like this game. I wanted to like being
trapped on a dinosaur-infested island, and I wanted to like the immersion of
having to direct your virtual arms to reach out to actually pick things up,
instead of just walking over ammo and health like before. Instead it was dull
and clunky, and is ultimately a bad memory.
|
98.
|
Duke
Nukem Forever (2011)
|
Gearbox
Software/ 2k Games
|
DNF I dislike simply because it’s just a first-person
shooter which has taken over half my life to be launched. I
gave it a cursory viewing, just to see what it was like, but got bored after
about an hour. A game that bores you after fifteen years of failing to be
developed just isn’t worth the time. To be fair, it’s not actually the same
game they started making back in the ‘90s, and they would have been better
off simply giving it a different name, casually brushing the stupid
development history under the carpet. But no, they proudly called it DNF,
practically revelling in a decade and a half of failure.
|
97.
|
Titanic:
Adventure Out of Time (1996)
|
Cyberflix/
Europress
|
So, you get to have a virtual tour of the Titanic. A
little point-and-click exploration game, and if you were interested in the
Titanic, then it might be worth playing. I was never interested in the
Titanic, sadly.
|
96.
|
Super
Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
|
Various
/ Nintendo
|
I’m not a
Nintendo fan boy, sadly. Maybe it’s because I’ve only ever played this game alongside people who are greatly more experienced at it than I, which severely
hampers the novice’s enjoyment of what should be a simple bit of fun, but I could never really get the hang of it.
|
95.
|
Borderlands
(2009)
|
Gearbox
Software/ 2k Games
|
A bad game. Just shoot your way through every
psychopath you come across, with no sense of achievement. Each one seems to
have much more health than you (or else your gun is just so much worse than
theirs). The least satisfying of all shooters.
|
94.
|
Borderlands
2 (2012)
|
Gearbox
Software/ 2k Games
|
Exactly the same as the first one, but I’ve stuck
with this one slightly longer somehow. It still bores me half to death, and
it still the most unsatisfying of all shooters, actively slowing you down and making you wander around in order to pad out its play-time. Believe me, I love RPGs, but is not a good example; this is not how you're supposed to make one.
|
93.
|
Action
Man: Raid on Island X (1999)
|
Intelligent
Games/ Hasbro Interactive
|
This being a game designed for retarded children, it
was impossible to fail it. Believe me; I tried many times. Aside from being
completely non-challenging, it came with an awful narrator, who in all
seriousness would tell you about the ‘bomb-proof indestructible doors’ on Dr
X’s base, and would literally give you three cheers when you completed the
game. No video game has ever been more patronising.
|
92.
|
Pilgrim:
Faith as a Weapon (1997)
|
Arxel
Tribe / Wanadoo / Infrogames Entertainment
|
An adventure game set in medieval France.
It’s based on a Paulo Coelho novel, or something, and despite having primitive
character animations and poor voice-acting, the game was strangely
compelling. However, since completing it many years ago I have never been
tempted to replay.
|
91.
|
Any
car racing game ever...
|
[Various]
|
My brother is a big fan of these, but I could never
share in his enthusiasm. All these racing games are basically the same, and I
would know considering I’ve sampled more than my fair share over the years.
Gran Turismo 2, 3, 4, and 5, Forza Motorsport 1, 2, and 3, Need for Speed 2
and 3, Project Gotham Racing 4, Toca Race Driver 3, and probably a few others
that have slipped my mind at the moment. Sure, they have different cars and
tracks, varying levels of realism in handling, some have damage, some have
weather, some you can customise your vehicles, etc. etc. They all involve driving around a circuit
much too fast, and I was never that good at it, and have since lost interest in any
of them.
|
90.
|
Far
Cry 2 (2008)
|
Ubisoft
Montreal/ Ubisoft
|
At first it looks like it could be interesting, but
very quickly gets boring and starts repeating itself.
|
89.
|
Operation
Flashpoint/ ARMA (2001)
|
Bohemia
Interactive Studio/ Codemasters
|
The most effective war simulation I’ve ever played;
being shot once will cause death, just like it does in real-life, and you can
never work out who shot you. The vehicles were good, if a bit crappy to
drive, and I only ever feel safe in this game when driving a Cold-War era
tank. The history of the subsequent series of these games is about as easy to
understand as feudal-dynastic politics in medieval Germany. In conclusion,
nobody wants a realistic war simulator, because real war is awful.
|
88.
|
Paperboy
(1984), and 2 (1991)
|
Atari
Games and Tengen/ Mindscape
|
Definitely the oldest game on the list, Paperboy was
just a fun little diversion. I say fun; what I mean is terrifying and
impossible. The sequel wasn’t that much better.
|
87.
|
Resistance:
Fall of Man (2006)
|
Insomniac
Games/ Sony Computer Entertainment
|
This is what finally showed me how boring FPS games
actually were. Yet another alien/mutant/demon race is out conquering Earth,
and it’s your job to shoot your way through them. They tried to cram a story and a couple
of characters into it, but aside from taking place in the picturesque towns of Grimsby and Manchester,
there’s absolutely nothing of worthy note.
|
86.
|
Micro
Machines V3 (1997)
|
Codemasters/
Midway
|
This was weird. Top-down view racing game, where you
have to drive miniature vehicles around household tables and school desks.
Mostly I remember the menu, in which each option involved driving down a
different road. And there was Cherry’s driving school, where a patronising
English driving instructor would set you ridiculously hard tests to complete.
|
85.
|
Dynasty
Warriors 4 (2003)
|
Omega
Force/ Koei
|
I didn’t particularly enjoy this. It made the
battlefield slaughter of hundreds of people quite tedious and dull, and it
replayed the same stupid cinematic every time you defeated an enemy hero –
which was often enough that the makers should have considered not having that
in the game.
|
84.
|
Star
Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008)
|
LucasArts/
LucasArts
|
The Jedi Knight series did it better. This was just a
quick-time-event heavy rehash, with a worse story that aimed to further tie
the original Star Wars trilogy to the Godforsaken prequels. It ends with a fight against
both Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine. How silly.
|
83.
|
Wii
Fit (2008)
|
Nintendo
EAD Group No. 5/ Nintendo
|
Apparently some people use these things for exercise.
We all know what the real use for this device is: to cause humiliation.
Seriously, try some of these balancing games with a couple of friends whilst
drunk. That’s all it’s good for, and it’s actually quite fun sometimes.
|
82.
|
Wolfenstein
3D (1992)
|
ID
Software/ Apogee Software
|
One of the very first 3D FPS games, it was adequate
entertainment for my impressionable young brain, and having Adolf Hitler as
the final boss was an almost worthwhile finish.
|
81.
|
Golden
Axe (1989), 2 (1991) and 3 (1993)
|
Sega/
Sega
|
Generic fantasy side-scrolling sword-and-sorcery
hack-and-slash and a million other descriptions couldn’t really justify just
how bloody hard it was to complete these things. Oh well, just have to keep
jumping and swinging at enemies, and mug those imps whenever you see them.
|
80.
|
Duke
Nukem: Manhattan Project (2002)
|
Sunstorm
Interactive/ Ubisoft
|
Duke Nukem first started off in side-scrawling
run-and-jump; did you know that? He only got famous after pioneering with one
of the first 3D FPS games. Well, whilst unemployed for the next fifteen years,
he decided to whore himself out to a couple vaguely interesting summer jobs,
including this attempt to get back to his side-scrawling roots. It was all
right.
|
79.
|
Guitar
Hero III: Legends of Rock (2007)
|
Neversoft/
Activision
|
It’s depressing how simple this game is – just hit
the right buttons on a crummy plastic guitar-shaped controller in the right
order in accompaniment to some well-known rock song. Simple, but not easy. It
really punishes you for getting it wrong, for a missed button spoils bits of
the music. Thus you have to get it right. It’s one of those things that you
need alcohol in order to properly enjoy.
|
78.
|
TOCA
Race Driver 2 (2004)
|
Codemasters/
Codemasters
|
This is just another racing game, one that has damage
and stuff. But this one is better than any of the others because it has
something that all others lack; a plot! Inter-race cut-scenes that contain
some of the most interesting and engaging characters that I have ever seen
in a game (particularly Rick, your Scottish team captain, who is insanely
likable). Honestly, this is worth playing for the cut-scenes alone, making it
my choice racing game.
|
77.
|
The
Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (1996)
|
Bethesda
Softworks
|
I decided to play this game because I had become
almost romantically attached to its sequels, Morrowind and Oblivion. Alas for
me, just about everything I loved about the later games was absent in this
predecessor – it was clunky, repetitive, lacking any real help or direction
to the player. Perhaps if I had played it back in the ‘90s, and had been
mature enough to appreciate it back then, I might have been more
favourable to it. As such I’m prepared to let this one rest in peace.
|
76.
|
Unreal
Tournament (1999)
|
Epic
Games and Digital Extremes/ GT Interactive
|
Deathmatch FPS. That’s literally all it is. Good
though, and the low gravity in some of the maps adds an almost interesting
angle to the whole thing.
|
75.
|
Star
Trek: Armada II (2001)
|
Mad
Doc Software/ Activision
|
A real-time strategy where you command fleets of
ships from the good era of the Star Trek series (namely, from Next Gen to
Nemesis). Unfortunately it’s all so much of a faff to control your fleets
that it ends up being a right mess of a game. Beautiful, but deeply flawed
and not especially worth pursuing.
|
74.
|
Grand
Theft Auto (1997), and GTA 2 (1999)
|
DMA
Design/ Rockstar Games
|
Officially all-right. I liked stealing cars off the
street and running down pedestrians, then running off during the inevitable
police chase and then being killed, then resurrected to start the whole caper
all over again. I never saw the point in doing anything else in these first
two games. There was a plot, was there? News to me. And GTA London was always a laugh.
|
73.
|
Worms
(1995)
|
Team
17/ Ocean Software
|
This was a born classic – a turn-based 2D game of
cartoon worms inflicting cartoon violence on one another. It’s simple, and
never stops being fun. Best enjoyed with other human players.
|
72.
|
Halo:
Combat Evolved (2001)
|
Bungie/
Microsoft Game Studios
|
As far as first-person shooters go, Halo dominates
the notion of ‘exceptionally average’. They just involve walking along and
shooting anything that moves, like every other game of its ilk; and I’ve
never seen the reason why so many die-hard fans are prone to orgasm whenever
they see that trademarked helmet. The game is all right, and rather
forgettable when all is said and done.
|
71.
|
Halo
2 (2004)
|
Bungie/
Microsoft Game Studios
|
Much of the same as the first one, though they were
still trying to add a story to it. Was there a sub-plot involving one of the aliens?
|
70.
|
Halo
3 (2007)
|
Bungie/
Microsoft Game Studios
|
I remember the first Halo was only half a game, and that
you had to play through it twice; about half-way through, you end up fighting
your way through the same levels in reverse. This one I can’t remember any
more clearly, but I vaguely remember this one being less tedious than the
previous two.
|
69.
|
Star
Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003)
|
Raven
Software/ LucasArts and Activision
|
The follow up to Jedi Knight II, in the series whose
naming sequence is, at best, a little random. This should have been as good as its predecessor, if not better, but it just fell into the realms of
silly, cheesy sequels. Still, the game-play’s much the same.
|
68.
|
Gears
of War (2006), 2 (2008), and 3 (2011)
|
Epic
Games/ Microsoft Studios
|
It came out of the bottle just begging to become a
franchise, and sadly it did. All this game consists of is ducking behind cover,
shooting anything that moves and enacting extreme violence. Nevertheless, for
some reason I like it better than its older brother Halo. There is literally
no difference between the three games of the series.
|
67.
|
Ace
Combat 2 (1997)
|
Namco/
Namco
|
This is a jet-fighter flying game, and mostly
involved zooming round and shooting huge quantities of missiles at things on
the ground. What really stands out about this game is the variety of
missions, and the brilliant music.
|
66.
|
Vigilante
8 (1998)
|
Luxoflux/
Activision
|
There are few things cooler than attaching weapons to
your car. This was car combat at its best, and it was insane.
|
65.
|
Theme
Hospital (1997)
|
Bullfrog
Productions/ Electronic Arts
|
Yes, it’s quite good.
|
64.
|
Star
Wars X-Wing Alliance (1999)
|
Totally
Games/ LucasArts
|
This was one of the better Star Wars dogfight games.
It had a vaguely interesting story, where being one of the unimportant X-Wing
pilots on the front line actually felt like it meant a damn. And there’s not
a Jedi in sight.
|
63.
|
Tekken:
[Any Tekken game ranging from 1 to 6, because they’re essentially the same
game] (1994-2009)
|
Namco/
Namco
|
Decide on your favourite fighting game like you
decide on your favourite lager: pick a brand at random and then stick to it
till the day you die, because they’re all basically the same boring, fizzy onion water. Tekken is just
that; a game where you control one of two strangely dressed individuals as
they kick each-other in the head. I’ve stuck with this series simply because
it was the first one I was exposed to.
|
62.
|
Resident
Evil 5 (2009)
|
Capcom/
Capcom
|
Oh dear. Oh well, despite it being a sad drop for the
RE series, I nevertheless found this one oddly enjoyable, if a little cringe-worthy
in places. It's still a fairly decent, co-op shooting game, filled with cartoon villains and atrotcious dialogue.
|
61.
|
Grand
Theft Auto 3 (2001)
|
Rockstar
North/ Rockstar Games
|
This was good at first. A truly immersive city-based
car-stealing game with an obvious Godfather knock off storyline and the same
sort of ridiculous police chases as in the original GTA. The missions got
tedious after a while, so I never completed it.
|
60.
|
Mount
& Blade (2008), and all its various expansions
|
TaleWorlds
Entertainment/ Paradox Interactive
|
An interesting game that tries to simulate medieval
combat. There seem to be several different expansions to play which make it
incrementally less boring or tedious, but my main criticism of this
game is that there’s literally no indication of what you’re meant to do. It’s
just an open world to do with as you will, and I’m just not sure what to do
with it.
|
59.
|
Alone
in the Dark (1992)
|
Infogrames
and Krisalis/ Infrogames
|
This is how survival horror games should be! Just an
ordinary person trapped in a Lovecraftian nightmare, with nothing but caution
and wit to keep you out of trouble. The controls are incredibly clunky, and the 3D graphics are prehistoric, but
to have an entire mansion to explore at your own risk is a unique and
wonderful experience.
|
58.
|
Star
Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (1997)
|
LucasArts/
LucasArts
|
Now this was an excellent game for its day. The
ability to march around and hack StormtroopersTM to death with
your LightsaberTM, and one of the original moral-choice
alternate-ending shenanigans, back when it was still interesting and well-executed.
The thing is though, the Dark-Jedi powers were always more useful in a combat
game, and me ending up as Emperor of the Galaxy happened just by pure chance.
It doesn’t make me a bad person, does it?
|
57.
|
Warhammer
40,000: Dawn of War (2004)
|
Relic
Entertainment/ THQ
|
Now you too can enter the horrible world of Warhammer
40K without the need for overly complicated rules, bank-breaking
expense and the artistic skill and patience necessary to play the classic
table-top war game. As far as strategy goes, this doesn’t really exercise
that; just how many tanks you can produce in order to roll over the enemy
base, and remember to keep replacing tanks as you lose them.
|
56.
|
The
Movies (2005)
|
Lionhead
Studios/ Activision
|
A game in which you manage a movie studio lot. I
never liked the actual game very much, preferring instead the movie-making
tools that came as a side thought. It was relatively restrictive as to what
you could do, but I managed to make a couple of strange and interesting short
films while I was there.
|
55.
|
Sonic
3D: Flickies’ Island (1996)
|
Sonic
Team and Traveller’s Tales/ Sega and Xplosiv
|
I can appreciate why they made this. The Third
Dimension was looming on the horizon, and they needed to know if Sonic could
survive in the brave new world. This game proved it couldn’t be done, not
without Sonic losing his soul, but nevertheless it still resulted in an
interesting game, and one that I learned to enjoy.
|
54.
|
Crash
Bandicoot (1996)
|
Naughty
Dog/ Sony
|
The forgotten Mario/Sonic of the first Playstation. This game was quite fun, had a sense of quirkiness, and was actually
designed for the new 3D plane unlike Sonic. Nevertheless, for some reason I
was never endeared enough to the series to want to play any of the
successors.
|
53.
|
Star
Wars: Battlefront (2004)
|
Pandemic
Studios/ LucasArts
|
It was all-right. Largely disposable, though. And
rather unengaging, as shooting games go. Here’s a big pile of stupid enemies
– wade through them, it seems to say.
|
52.
|
Star
Wars: Battlefront 2 (2005)
|
Pandemic
Studios/ LucasArts
|
The sequel could have been better than the first. It
kept everything that was in the first, added a few extra things like space
dogfights and the ability to summon heroes, but it was all still a little
messy. The space dogfights were not as good as in X-Wing Alliance, and this makes me sad.
|
51.
|
Primal
(2003)
|
SCE
Studio Cambridge/ Sony
|
An interesting little fantasy-adventure game, with
compelling level and game-play designs. With voice-overs by Callisto from
Xena, and G’Kar from Babylon 5, the characters and story were unexpectedly
good for a video game.
|
50.
|
Grand
Theft Auto: Vice City (2002)
|
Rockstar
North/ Rockstar Games
|
This was what GTA 3 needed; an injection of humour,
actual characters and the ability to buy up your own mob empire in the city.
It was a definite improvement on the previous one, but for some reason I
never came back for San Andreas or GTA 4. Strange that.
|
49.
|
Fallout
Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001)
|
Micro
Forté/ 14 Degrees East
|
A side-game in the Fallout post-nuclear apocalypse
RPG series. While there were some things I liked about this game, namely the
brutal real-time combat that you can direct your squad through, and the
attempt to make a RTS-RPG hybrid, ultimately it proved to be the weak attempt
to expand the series.
|
48.
|
Warhammer
40,000: Fire Warrior (2003)
|
Kuju
Entertainment/ THQ
|
An all-right FPS set in the nihilistic Warhammer 40K
universe, this game was greatly enhanced by voice-overs from
Tom Baker, Brian Blessed, Sean Pertwee, Peter Serafinowicz, and Burt Kwouk. I
still consider this the best voice cast of any video game - it's just a shame that it couldn't have been a better game.
|
47.
|
Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (2008)
|
Ubisoft
Montreal/ Ubisoft
|
I don’t know why Tom Clancy’s name should be so
important in games marketing, but sadly it is. This is a pretty good modern
shooter, except for the occasional times that they try to inject a story into
the thing. The rest of the time you're just running around, gunning down
terrorists like a good little democracy-lover.
|
46.
|
Dino
Crisis 2 (2000)
|
Capcom/
Capcom
|
This was quite good. Guns and dinosaurs! Shoot the
dinosaurs, or get eaten. The locations were good – an abandoned city and
research facility left overrun by dinosaurs for a few years.
|
45.
|
Age
of Empires (1997)
|
Ensemble
Studios/ Microsoft Games
|
The first instalment of the questionably historical
RTS series, I found the imprecision with which you could direct your troops
to be a hindrance to enjoyment even before I got used to the new improved
interface in its highly-acclaimed sequel.
|
44.
|
Stronghold:
Crusader (2002)
|
Firefly
Studios/ Take 2 Interactive
|
The castle-building game. This was a follow-up to the
much more enjoyable original Stronghold game, dumping you into the Crusades.
While there were many things I liked about this game, the stupidly difficult
pitting of your flawed human intelligence against the cold, perfect and
ruthless AI who could build castles faster than you made this game ultimately
not worth my time.
|
43.
|
RollerCoaster
Tycoon 3 (2004)
|
Frontier
Developments/ Atari, Inc.
|
I like any capitalism game with a sandbox mode, and
this suited me down to the ground. I once built a roller-coaster inside a
massive gothic castle, and it was glorious. I have to say, I believe it is
the greatest achievement of my life, and for that I am proud to make this
game number 43 on my list.
|
42.
|
Stronghold
Legends (2006)
|
Firefly
Studios/ 2k Games
|
The follow up to Stronghold 2, this supplements you
with things they couldn’t include in its immediate predecessor, like dragons, giants and
werewolves. Besides some extremely difficult moments in the single-player
campaign I quite enjoyed this one, though the main series is still a better
castle-building game overall.
|
41.
|
Left
4 Dead 2 (2009)
|
Valve/
Valve Corporation
|
Zombies. In the scarily high numbers they’re meant to
come in. While I enjoy being able to hack and shoot my way through the zombie
apocalypse, and to do it with some human helpers to boot, the novelty has
long since worn off, and this is still one of the only games that has ever made me feel genuinely nauseous.
|
40.
|
Sonic
the Hedgehog (1991)
|
Sonic
Team/ Sega
|
In his heyday Sonic was good, the music good, the
levels good, the fights with Dr Robotnik, they too were good. Sonic games
after the Mega Drive? Not so good. We have better things now, and if we need
Sonic again, he’ll be where he’s meant to be; on the console he was created
for. The only parts I didn’t like were the underwater sections. Those scared
the shit out of me. Oh yes, and the Special Stages. Luckily those weren’t
obligatory to complete the game.
|
39.
|
Sonic
2 (1992)
|
Sonic
Team/ Sega
|
Minor improvements on the previous Sonic, whist
keeping everything that made it fun. Anyone with a soul must love Tails the
two-tailed fox. Sadly the Special Stages were even nastier than before, but
with fewer underwater bits I can’t be too cross.
|
38.
|
Resident
Evil 4 (2005)
|
Capcom/
Capcom
|
This was a good ‘un. They completely rebuilt the
game-play of the RE series, but it actually succeeded! And it still tried to
be a horror game, unlike its offspring. Unfortunately it was also one of the
first games to make use of quick-time events, and they were horrible;
HORRIBLE! Forever more I will think back on that knife-fight with Krauser
with a sense of hatred.
|
37.
|
Fallout
(1997)
|
Black
Isle Studios/ Interplay Entertainment
|
I first played Fallout 3, and it was so good I went
and bought the two previous instalments. While Fallout 3 is a first-person
affair, I was surprised to see the earlier games in a ‘look-down’ view affair
more often seen in strategy games. It was all right though; the post-nuclear
war setting was as engaging as ever, and I was kept entertained to the end.
|
36.
|
Fallout
2 (1998)
|
Black
Isle Studios/ Interplay Entertainment
|
Much the same as the previous Fallout, but slightly
better because there’s no time-limit like the first one. As ever, the setting
was brilliant, and by this point I was used to the turn-based combat
routines. A similar experience in both of them, they’re worth playing
together, if at all.
|
35.
|
Streets
of Rage 2 (1993)
|
Sega,
and Ancient, et al. / Sega
|
The nice 2D Mega Drive
‘punch-your-way-through-a-wall-of-vicious-thugs’ game. I liked this one;
better than the first, and it didn’t make too hard an attempt at a story like
SoR 3.
|
34.
|
Sonic
3 and Sonic & Knuckles (1994)
|
Sonic
Team/ Sega
|
This was undoubtedly the best of the Sonic games. An
epic storyline (yes, a real story!) that sprawled across two complete games,
the music was the finest ever heard in the medium, and even the Special Stages
were better. There was also a Save feature, which changes it from being
merely a good game, to a great one. Oh yes, and there’s nothing cooler than
game cartridges in which one slots on top of another.
|
33.
|
Imperial
Glory (2005)
|
Pyro
Studios/ Eidos Interactive
|
Best three quid I ever spent. Possibly a knock-off of
the Total War series, but a fun game which lets you conquer huge chunks of
Europe in whatever shape you see fit. I have re-enacted the Unification of
Italy more times than I want to admit.
|
32.
|
Resident
Evil 2 (1998)
|
Capcom/
Capcom
|
We just can’t get away from zombies nowadays. Back in
the day, this was a good attempt to put you in the midst of the full B-movie
zombie apocalypse experience. I liked it; interesting environments to
explore, puzzles to solve, and a tactical emphasis on ammo preservation and
avoiding combat.
|
31.
|
Half-Life
(1998)
|
Valve/
Sierra Entertainment
|
In 1998, the ability to crowbar your way through
crates and furniture was a great selling-point for a game. Despite being the
longest game I’ve ever played, I still enjoyed it for the most part. And of
course, the Black Mesa underground laboratory setting was a classic even back
in the day.
|
30.
|
Duke
Nukem 3D (1996)
|
3D
Realms/ GT Interactive
|
Being one of the first real games about walking
around and shooting things. The levels were fun, and the expansion packs they
continued to release for years afterwards always gives this game a golden
glow in my memory – notably the Caribbean expansion, which replaced all the
weapons with water-squirters, and Caribbean-resorts to shoot your way through.
|
29.
|
Lego
Rock Raiders (1999)
|
Data
Design Interactive/ Lego Media
|
A shameless marketing gimmick, one that happens to be
a really good and original game. Mining has never been as fun as it was here.
Sadly, the whole thing is definitely hampered by the terrible AI of your
workers, and half the battle is in making sure your men aren’t slacking off
or doing something incredibly stupid, like standing by dynamite that they’ve
just planted whilst it goes off, or off eating lunch when you’ve got two minutes
left to finish drilling for those all-important resources.
|
28.
|
Portal
2 (2011)
|
Valve/
Valve Corporation
|
Portal was quite good. This was also quite good. I
liked being followed around by Stephen Merchant, and I liked a few of the new
approaches to puzzle-solving. I liked it. I didn’t love it though. I merely
liked it.
|
27.
|
Return
to Castle Wolfenstein (2001)
|
Gray
Matter Interactive and id Software/ Activision
|
Unambiguous WW2 FPS. You are a square-jawed American
hero, thrown in amongst a crowd of Nazis like a cat amongst the pigeons. Very
good, I liked this game and I even liked the cheesy story that went with it.
|
26.
|
The
Lego film rip-off games (2005-2012)
|
Traveller’s
Tales/ LucasArts, Warner Bros. Interactive, et al
|
These are fun. I’ve played Lego Indiana Jones, Lego
Lord of the Rings, Lego Star Wars, and Lego Batman. They come in that precise
order of brilliance. Seeing Lego figures beating each other up is the best
reason for playing these, but they’re oddly fun for other reasons as well. It’s
basically just mindless destruction and collecting treasures that are useless
but nevertheless cool.
|
25.
|
Age
of Empires III (2005)
|
Ensemble
Studios/ Microsoft Games
|
Although not the game that should have followed up to
Age of Empires II, the soft third instalment to the series did hold its
charms for me – namely, in the bangs of muskets and cannons as you smash down
the enemy settlements. It just never gets old. However, introducing RPG
elements to an RTS, namely by having a custom city that levels up as you
play, is a feature that should not be in AoE.
|
24.
|
Assassin’s
Creed: Revelations (2011)
|
Ubisoft
Montreal/ Ubisoft
|
This is the only one of the Assassin’s Creed games
I’ve played, and I very much enjoyed it. Running over the rooftops of 16th
century Constantinople was a good way to see the city, but the controls did
tend to make my fingers hurt. It wasn't really designed for the PC player in mind. The story and characters were a little
incomprehensible to someone who’s only arrived at the series four games in,
but I can see that they’ve made an effort, and I appreciate it. But I have no reason to play any of the sequels.
|
23.
|
Mario
Kart Wii (2008)
|
Nintendo
EAD Group No. 1/ Nintendo
|
No game I have ever played has made me swear quite as
much as this one. Seriously, the air itself turns blue. It’s the most
violent, treacherous, unforgiving game around, and it matters not that it contains cute little
animals and cartoon characters.
|
22.
|
Silent
Hill (1999)
|
Konami/
Konami
|
Of all games purporting to be ‘horrors’, this is one
of the few that actually holds up. The atmosphere is genuinely disturbing,
and for that it warrants sincere and nervous applause.
|
21.
|
Star
Trek: Voyager – Elite Force (2000)
|
Raven
Software/ Activision
|
Back in the day I was a fan of Star Trek: Voyager,
and this game was amazing. A pretty decent FPS, but with large parts of
Voyager faithfully recreated, and damn-near the entire cast doing their own
voice-overs for the dialogue. Amazing. Also it was a really good game.
|
20.
|
Age
of Mythology (2002)
|
Ensemble
Studios/ Microsoft Games
|
A weird side-diversion for the Age of Empires series,
this puts the would-be commander in charge of minotaurs and cyclopses while
also giving them very limited godly powers. I found this fascinating,
especially the overtly contrived single-player campaign, which led from the
walls of Troy, to the rebuilding of the Egytian god Osiris, into the snowy
lands of the Vikings, and ending with the destruction of Atlantis.
|
19.
|
Half-Life
2 (2004)
|
Valve/
Valve Corporation
|
You’ve still got your crowbar, but this time you have
to batter your way through an Orwellian future. What’s not to love about
this? Except for the fact that they refused to finish the story, that’s what!
Damn you Valve!
|
18.
|
Saints
Row: the Third (2011)
|
Volition/
THQ
|
A clone of Grand Theft Auto, but instead they tried
to see just how weird they make it by simply ignoring reality. Hover-bikes?
Sure. A silver-skinned, green-haired freak of a player character? Go right
ahead. City-destroying airship? Why not? I found this more refreshing than
I’ve ever found GTA.
|
17.
|
Saints
Row 2 (2008)
|
Volition/
THQ
|
After trying Saints Row the Third I was directed to
its predecessor, and found something more in line with GTA but much better
than either that or SR the Third. The setting was somehow more interesting,
the radio music better, and the story and characters are more engaging than
anything I’ve seen in a video game.
|
16.
|
Transport
Tycoon Deluxe (1995)
|
Chris
Sawyer/ MicroProse
|
The most unashamed Capitalism simulator ever devised,
this puts you in charge of a transport company vying for dominance of the
market. It is a slow game in which you merely have to survive longer than
your competitors in order to win, but it is rewarding if you have the time.
Plus, the online community have been expanding and improving the game for
donkeys years, making it one of the most versatile games ever released.
|
15.
|
Stronghold
2 (2005)
|
Firefly
Studios/ 2K Games
|
The castle-building game, but with 3D this time! It’s
nice to manage your own little settlement, and to fortify it however you
please. Defending your castle is always fun, in a nerve-wracking kind of way,
but the real challenge is in assaulting enemy castles – strategy, but taken
to an extreme that makes it more like a puzzle than anything offered in other
RTS’.
|
14.
|
Portal
(2007)
|
Valve/
Valve Corporation
|
A short, sweet little game involving puzzles. The
added story and characters were entirely superfluous, but they only ever
enhanced an already good game. It’s just fun, is what it is. Fun.
|
13.
|
Age
of Empires II: The Age of Kings (1999)
|
Ensemble
Studios/ Microsoft Games
|
If you want an RTS, then there is no finer example. I
think of this as the Cream of Cornish vanilla ice cream of the RTS, a flavour
that one never expects to be exciting, but when done right it’s the very best
of its kind.
|
12.
|
Stronghold
(2001)
|
Firefly
Studios/ Take 2 Interactive
|
The first of these great castle-building games. I
especially like the music, but the real high-point is the single-player
campaign – just you, trying to put the country together one castle at a time.
Opposing you are four stock villains, whose conversations provide a basic but
nonetheless compelling personality to the game, and gradually taking their
territories from them is its own reward.
|
11.
|
3D
Movie Maker (1995)
|
Microsoft
Kids/ Microsoft
|
Not really a game as such, more a tool that enables
you to make crude animated short movies. Limited to about forty distinct
characters, a handful of sets and a few oddly specific props (a parachute, a
treasure chest, a flying saucer... that sort of thing), the only real
limitation I found in it was my imagination (how clichéd). It provided me
many years of entertainment long after it had been forgotten by everyone
else, and today I am just a relic left to attest that it once existed, and
that it was a good thing.
|
10.
|
Star
Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002)
|
Raven
Software/ LucasArts, Activision et al
|
The best Star Wars game I’ve played, with excellent
game-play and a well-integrated story. You build up your abilities over the
ForceTM gradually, until you’re jumping higher than anyone else
and tossing your LightSaberTM at every StormtrooperTM with
gusto.
|
9.
|
The
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)
|
Bethesda
Game Studios/ Bethesda Softworks and 2K Games
|
Oblivion proved to be largely a disappointment for
me. Notable flaws are the voice-overs, the badly implemented levelling
system, and the notable lack of content when compared to its predecessor. As
such, it has been left to age without the substance of Morrowind to keep it
afloat. I even struggle for a reason to have it so high in my list, other
than that it had a couple of revolutionary features that have since been
perfected, and it sold extremely well, all of which enabled more ambitious
future Bethesda projects to succeed. And for 2006, it really looked gorgeous.
Seriously, to gaze down into the valley with the Imperial City far in the
distance is a delicious treat.
|
8.
|
Thief
II: The Metal Age (2000)
|
Looking
Glass Studios/ Eidos Interactive
|
The Thief games are great. I regularly reshuffle them
into order of preference, but this is how it currently lines up. The second
instalment had all the good things about the original, but some of the levels
were frustratingly difficult to find my way around.
|
7.
|
Thief:
Deadly Shadows (2004)
|
Ion
Storm, Inc./ Eidos Interactive
|
The third and final instalment of the series, at
least until they reboot and ruin the good name, this one was mostly an effort
to tie up the loose plot threads left over from the first two. I liked the
way you could freely explore the city between levels (even if it happened to
be a bit on the small side), and at one stage you have to break into an
abandoned orphanage, which is one of the creepiest places I’ve seen in a
video game.
|
6.
|
Thief:
The Dark Project (1998)
|
Looking
Glass Studios/ Eidos Interactive
|
The Thief games are brilliant. There’s just something
lovely about wandering through a fantasy-steampunk city and then breaking
into the guarded mansions of the arsehole gentry. As no one knows where you
are, you can go anywhere you please, take anything you desire. There’s
something voyeuristic about it, and you never need feel guilty.
|
5.
|
Fallout
3 (2008)
|
Bethesda
Game Studios/ Bethesda Softworks
|
Bethesda fully redeemed themselves with this, an RPG
set in Washington DC a couple of centuries after a nuclear war. Creeping your
way through a ruined city, with nothing but a gun and a few grenades to keep
the mutants at bay, is a nihilistic yet enjoyable experience.
|
4.
|
Fallout:
New Vegas (2010)
|
Obsidian
Entertainment/ Bethesda Softworks
|
This is the other side of the Fallout series, less
nihilistic about the whole nuclear war thing and bigger on the player being
able to make a difference to the world. There’s less emphasis on the sheer
survival, and more emphasis on the rebuilding of civilisation. This is how
RPGs ought to be, a role-playing game in which you actually play a role.
|
3.
|
Hidden
& Dangerous 2 (2003)
|
Illusion
Softworks/ Gathering and Take 2 Interactive
|
This is by far the best Second World War game I’ve
ever played. You control a squad of SAS commandos sent on missions behind
enemy lines all over the world. Maybe it’s just the proudly understated
British slant to everything that I like, but the game is actually really
good, where stealth and tactics are necessary to survive, rather than the
gung-ho ‘shoot everything in sight’ ethos of Halo et al.
|
2.
|
The
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
|
Bethesda
Game Studios/ Bethesda Softworks
|
This is the game I had been waiting for since
Morrowind, and it was better than I had dared hope for. Everything is
perfect, and I almost weep with joy at how well it turned out. Dragons
soaring in the distance, combat that never gets old, plots that are actually
interesting, any amount of junk to collect, and space for you to put it as
well. Bethesda thought to themselves, ‘what made Morrowind good, and what
made Oblivion not so good?’ They answered it with Skyrim. The only reason it
does not appear as number 1 on this list is that Skyrim, no matter how truly
brilliant it is, cannot overcome the raw and all-consuming power of
nostalgia. If it had to lose, it could only lose to its glorious ancestor.
|
1.
|
The
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002)
|
Bethesda
Game Studios/ Bethesda Softworks
|
A computer based role-playing game set in an original
fantasy landscape, with a world so detailed that I continue to play it to
this very day. I have wondered for many years why I like it so much, despite
the nostalgia, and my main reckonings are that it is basically an interactive
encyclopaedia on another world, where you can see the places and the people
referred to by the countless lines of text you have to read your way through
during the course of the game. The main story consists mostly of learning about the circumstances
of the land and how it came to be that way, and the game-play is almost a
diversion from this, yet one that still somehow manages to be fun. Then
there’s the collecting aspect to the game: there’re so many unique items,
books and artefacts in the game-world that I genuinely can’t resist
collecting them, and in many of my Morrowind games I unintentionally end up
creating massive piles of junk that just clutter up whichever building I
happen to be using as a storehouse at that time. And there’s also the
user-created content as well; The Elder Scrolls Construction Set allows
anyone to modify any aspect of the game they so choose, which has yielded
masses of amateur ‘plug-ins’ that are still being made as I write this, a
great deal of which is as good as the Bethesda original game [and some of
which manages to be even better]. This way, the game can be expanded on in any
way conceivable, with freely obtainable content that, even in 2013, continue
to make a decade-old game fresh and interesting.
|
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