Top 10 Favorite Video Games of all time!

[Eldan]

Man, I would love to play that Skyrim. To be fair, there are parts of the actual Skyrim that indicate at least a part of their writing staff is still on board with taking the dive into imagination land. But, yeah, Morrowind was weird and personal in a way that just isn't going to happen at today's Bethesda.

I can see how it would go.

Blades: the Emperor is the shield of the people. Save and protect, then rule. By now, they may be just a bit too sneaky and paranoid...

Priests: might makes Right, might forges Empire. Devour Alduin and crush that pretender on your throne to be a true heir of Talos. If you dont, the Expansion has a replacement for you ready.


Beards: Tamriel needs the Dragonborn to prevent the End of Days and another Oblivion, but not to rule. Step up, then stand down.

[Morbis Meh]

Let us see....

Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Suikoden II, The Witcher 3, Suikoden V, Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Xenoblade, Persona 4, Tales of the Abyss in no particular order

[Erloas]

I think you have to look at personal favorite video games with nostalgia in mind.

It wouldn't be possible to judge any game with multiplayer without that. I loved DAOC (Midgard myself) but it would hardly be fair to judge it today since part of what made it amazing was the people I was playing with and judging an MMO without other players is not possible. Of course "having good friends to play with makes every game better" is true, but so many of those are people you meet playing the game and the way the game fosters and builds the community. Part of what made the game great was that we were an underdog faction on our server but we had great leaders. If I tried to play the game again all of that would be gone, but that doesn't stop the fact that it was that game, with those people, that made it a favorite for me.

The other part of it is simply what is important to us changes over time. I loved SimCity and put a huge number of hours into it. Now being required to put that much time into a game basically makes it something I won't even try any more because no game is worth giving up all my time with my family. But just because I don't have 30hrs a week to put into a game now doesn't mean those weren't great games when I did have the time for it.

As for clunky interfaces and graphics, I think it also has to be looked at relative to the time. If they did a fantastic job with the resources (and tastes) of the time then that is what matters, it doesn't matter that tastes have changed now, or that graphics can be done so much better. HMI theory has came a long ways in every aspect of life, not just gaming, and you can't expect someone writing a game 15 years ago to know everything we've figured out in those last 15 years.

[danzibr]

On the topic of nostalgia, FFVII has been top 3 for me for almost 20 years. Looking at it objectively... it's really not that great. I've played games which are far prettier, mechanically better (at least in my opinion), and which have better plot (again, imo). But FFVII itself, like the whole package, I just have a huge soft spot for.

[Zigwat]

So let's talk FPS. Wolfenstein 3D was the very first one, and to its merit, it was an amazing game for its time. It was a very broad game, while using almost no storage space on your computer, even for way back in the early 90's. It was violent, and it was satisfying as hell to kill so many Nazis with nothing but one man and a wide barrage of 3 guns (Pistol, MP40, and Minigun). For real, it was a testament to the idea that graphics are not everything. For its time, the graphics were amazing. Even now, while the graphics are dated, they still work for what they're there for.

Then there came the second game ID made in the ways of FPS, the one that actually defined the genre. Doom was released, and at one point it was on more computers than Windows 95. Microsoft even tried to buy the rights to Doom to kickstart their own Gaming Wing (which means we could have gotten Xbox even earlier). Doom was several times gorier than Wolfenstein, and it was atmospheric, and simplistic enough to gain our love as a whole.

These two games defined First Person Shooters as a genre, and set the bar for games of today.

So yes, I know there's also Halo, Call of Duty, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem, Bioshock, Unreal, Quake, and so many more FPSes to discuss. I figure it was a good idea to get the ball rolling on it.

[Knaight]

These two games defined First Person Shooters as a genre, and set the bar for games of today.

They set the bar initially, but it's been repeatedly jumped way over, and then subsequently raised. Half Life, Halo, Far Cry, there's so many games so far over that bar that the bar had to move, and now sits somewhere else entirely. Escaping the shadow of Doom is just not an issue these days. It's not like the RTS genre, where the shadow of Starcraft still looms large.

[Zigwat]

Duuuuuude Half-life! YES! I love Half-Life. I still think the first Half Life was far better than Half-Life 2, and quite honestly, I'm not that in the hurry to see Half-life 3 come out. There has been next to nothing about it coming out, and I really cannot trust that it will. Still, it's a LONG game, and it is satisfying as hell to beat because some parts of it get really, really hard.

As for RTS games, I still hold strong that Warcraft 2 stands tall as the best in that genre.

[The_Jackal]

I don't know if I can rank among the top 10, but these are my tops:

World of Warcraft:
Certainly my most played game. Yes, it's current groaning under the combined weight of a decade of scaling problems, feature creep and indulging player mediocrity, but it's still the definitive Massive RPG, and from Vanilla to Wrath, it was probably the best game ever made.

Modern Warfare 2:
Plagued with hackers on PC, but still the single most gripping and fun multiplayer FPS I've ever played (though Overwatch may take that title soon).

Skyrim:
Everyone's got their favorite Elder Scrolls game, but I'm an art snob, so I couldn't deal with Morrowind's eye-stabbingly bad graphics, and for some reason, Oblivion just didn't resonate with me at all. Skyrim got me, hook, line and sinker. Great art, solid gameplay, great music, epic storyline.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri:
The definitive 4X game, IMO. The AI is garbage, and the balance could have been better, but great fun core gamplay, simple but deep strategic choices, and map altering planetbusters make SMAC a game that I'm still playing over 15 years later. Graphics have held up pretty well too, for the game pieces. The videos look awful now, tho.

Starcraft:
THE RTS game. There's Starcraft, then there's everything else. Brood War was what really pushed it over the top, but the core game was great. SCII didn't quite plant it, unfortunately. Their unit design just doesn't feel as tight, counters aren't as strong, and micro-management is virtually impossible. The game just feels a lot more like 'box up your units and attack' alot of the time.

No One Lives Forever 2:
This obscure little game gets a nod because it had the unique combination of having a fun single player story, with crisp FPS gameplay, stealth elements, and funny writing. The graphics also showed off the full potential of the then maligned Lithtech 2.0 engine. Load-times were heinous tho.

Left 4 Dead 2:
The perfect Co-Op shooter. If I could find a fantasy-themed coop game that had the great gameplay, polish and just pure FUN of L4D2, I could stop buying games now. Heck, I could stop leaving the house.

Tekken 3:
I played this one on the PS2 and the arcade, and loved both. IMO, this was the title that perfected the fighting game. Everything from here out has been reskins. Heihachi Mishima, Jin Kazama, and Bryan Fury were my favorite characters. Eddy Gordo can die in a fire, though.

NBA Jam:
I think if you were to analyze all the money I've spent on Video games, this one would rank surprisingly high, certainly if you divided the money spent per hour played. This 2 on 2 arcade basketball game was really revolutionary when it came out, and LOTS of fun. At $0.25 per 2 minute quarter, it ate your money fast, though.

Rune:
This is my Dark Horse pick for most maligned/underrated game. The graphics weren't very good for the time, and the story was approaching professional-wrestling levels of dumb, but the gameplay was seminal, presaging titles that would shake up the action game world: God of War being the most obvious. It was pretty simple in its premise. You were Ragnar, Viking Warrior, and you carved your way into the Underworld to face down the forces of Loki and Hel, with axe, mace and sword. Just when you got bored with one, they'd give you a bigger axe, mace or sword. Oh, and it had one gameplay innovation I've not seen before or since: It remains the only game I've ever played where you could cut your enemy's arm off, pick it up, and then beat them to death with it.

[KillingAScarab]

Left 4 Dead 2:
The perfect Co-Op shooter. If I could find a fantasy-themed coop game that had the great gameplay, polish and just pure FUN of L4D2, I could stop buying games now. Heck, I could stop leaving the house.

I Hate Mountains. What a great community effort that is.

[Cespenar]

I'd debate that. Morrowind lived by an interesting world, a portrait of unique cultures and an ancient conflict between religious sects and political parties. Oblivion and Skyrim traded that for far more generic fantasy cultures and world destruction plots. If Skyrim was like Morrowind, it would have been about the prophecy of the new Dragonborn forging a fourth Empire, and the conflict between the Blades', Greybeards' and Dragon Priests' interpretation of ancient texts and the dragons would mainly have existed to validate your claim on Divine Power.

Eh, I was being facetious on purpose. Sure they didn't reach Morrowind's complexity of lore or consistency of its main quest in the later games, but still, Oblivion and Skyrim offered enough similarities for even many Morrowind fans to rarely return to it again.

But, as a comparison, something like Pillars of Eternity doesn't actually prevent you from going back and booting BG2 up.

Maybe it's predominantly an "them old 3D graphics, man" issue, but I don't know.

[KillingAScarab]

Maybe it's predominantly an "them old 3D graphics, man" issue, but I don't know.

There are projects to recreate Morrowind, at least one each within Oblivion and Skyrim. However, the one I find most promising is to create a new engine for Morrowind you can drop in the existing art assets, but also supports improvements.

[factotum]

One of these days I must re-buy Morrowind (had it on disc, lost ages ago) and replay it. As far as the graphics are concerned, if I can tolerate the graphics in Thief 2 and System Shock 2 I'm pretty sure I can handle Morrowind, which looked rather better than either.

[Cespenar]

There are projects to recreate Morrowind, at least one each within Oblivion and Skyrim. However, the one I find most promising is to create a new engine for Morrowind you can drop in the existing art assets, but also supports improvements.

I'm aware of them, but they almost never finish those before the next title in the series pops up and cuts down the appeal of the previous.

One of these days I must re-buy Morrowind (had it on disc, lost ages ago) and replay it. As far as the graphics are concerned, if I can tolerate the graphics in Thief 2 and System Shock 2 I'm pretty sure I can handle Morrowind, which looked rather better than either.

By all means go ahead. If I had forgotten enough of Morrowind I'd reinstall and play it readily again.

It's not just the graphics, of course, and even in the graphics issue there are several sub-issues that can be argued about. But as a general rule, at least in my opinion, old 3D graphics age a lot worse than old 2D graphics. You can even replay Daggerfall if you so care, but it's much easier on the eyes to replay something like Heroes 3 or BG2 rather than Morrowind, even if they roughly belong to the same time period (with Morrowind being even newer).

Another personal example, this time with both titles being 3D: Recently tried to replay Vampire: Bloodlines, found that the graphics have aged rather badly. The original Hitman: Codename 47, however, I found to have aged much better for some reason.

[Aran Thule]

I think you have to look at personal favorite video games with nostalgia in mind.
It wouldn't be possible to judge any game with multiplayer without that. I loved DAOC (Midgard myself) but it would hardly be fair to judge it today since part of what made it amazing was the people I was playing with and judging an MMO without other players is not possible. Of course "having good friends to play with makes every game better" is true, but so many of those are people you meet playing the game and the way the game fosters and builds the community. Part of what made the game great was that we were an underdog faction on our server but we had great leaders. If I tried to play the game again all of that would be gone, but that doesn't stop the fact that it was that game, with those people, that made it a favorite for me.

This!!! Written with much more grace then i could put it.
Its the memories that make it, friends made, battles won and stories written together.
They are making a new version called Camelot Unchained, but times have changed and i don't have the time to commit to a MMORPG any more as much as i might want to.

[Wraith]

Left 4 Dead 2:
The perfect Co-Op shooter. If I could find a fantasy-themed coop game that had the great gameplay, polish and just pure FUN of L4D2, I could stop buying games now. Heck, I could stop leaving the house.

Have you considered Warhammer: Vermintide? I haven't played it much since it went alpha and it's definitely got a Darker & Grittier feel to it than L4D2, but the rest of your requirements it has in spades.

[Eldan]

If the graphics bother people that much, google the Morrowind fan graphics . They go by Morrowind Overhaul or Morrowind [Year]. No need to install a ton of mods, they come in packages now, with installers.

I mean, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kkurXgkkfg that's Morrowind 2012. I'm sure it got better since then.

[Erloas]

[Wolfenstein 3D and Doom] defined First Person Shooters as a genre, and set the bar for games of today.

So yes, I know there's also Halo, Call of Duty, Rise of the Triad, Duke Nukem, Bioshock, Unreal, Quake, and so many more FPSes to discuss. I figure it was a good idea to get the ball rolling on it.

But that doesn't really answer the question of what your favorite games are. Most influential, most genre defining, most revolutionary, best balanced, are their own things but they don't make something a favorite.

I know many people consider StarCraft the best RTS ever, but it is far from my favorite RTS, I probably wouldn't even put it in my top 5. It might be the best game ever for "competitive gaming" but that means nothing at all to me. I found the factions to be derivative, the gameplay never felt epic to me, and I don't like the heavy micro-management that the game calls for. To me the game never hit "fun," there was no room for fun because it was so fine tuned for balance and relentless play.


WoW redefined how people measure success in an MMO, but that was about it. It was the right game at the right time with a good starting point and good name recognition. There really wasn't anything new at all in the game, there were things that were put together for the first time, and it got itself in front of a lot of people that had never tried the genre before but it didn't really do anything new. I had been playing forms of MMOs for at least 6-7 years before WoW came out and I was entirely unimpressed with it. It did suck me in for a little bit but the engagement with the world was short lived, and that seemed to be the case with everyone I know that tried WoW having came from other MMOs. Of course I understand completely that it might be one of many people's Favorite games.

[Zigwat]

You are not wrong! The fact of the matter is that I didn't have an FPS game on my Top 10 list. This is due in part to the fact that it's really hard to choose between the really good ones. I've been playing DOOM 2 as of late, but I do love Bio Shock Infinite, Bio Shock, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament, Team Fortress Classic, Wolfenstein 3D, Counter Strike, and Golden Eye...

But when I really think about it, I would have to give the purest love to Quake 3 Arena. This is DEFINITELY from nostalgia goggles, as it was my game of choice during Highschool in LAN Parties and internet gaming. So I guess the nostalgia factor stated earlier is valid in several ways.

[Avilan the Grey]

Indeed. And the further back you go, the fonder the memories and the less demands you put on the game.
I almost put Moon Lander on the list, a game that well... Google it.
Asteroids, too.

Both were played extensively on my friend's Commodore VIC-20 because quite frankly they were the ONLY games he had for quite a while. And on top of that being age 7 or 8 and them being the first game, period, you see outside an arcade...!

Of course then he got Pac-Man, which made my list...

[Balmas]

Ooooh, that's a tough one. Let's just set this out in no particular order:

• Fallout 3 / New Vegas: I'm putting these two in one game, as they're the same engine, nearly the same. I'll note that New Vegas is a better game, for many reasons.
• Borderlands 2: Even after long periods away from it, it's a fun game that I love to come back to.
• Team Fortress 2: I'm noticing that I love games that don't take themselves too seriously. This matches that to a T.
• Undertale: It seems like the fandom surrounding this has gotten so much bigger than the game itself.
• Bioshock: The big granddaddy of environmental story-telling done right.
• Super Meat Boy: Because I need to have something to feed my inner masochist.
• Payday 2: This one is more about the PVE enjoyment of managing to get something done despite being screwed over by wave after wave of cloakers.
• Minecraft: There is a certain zen about going out, punching trees, and deciding what to do with your world.

[Zigwat]

Ah yes, honorable mentions.

10. Doom II
9. Saints Row II
8. Super Mario Bros. 3
7. Super Mario RPG
6. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
5. Bioshock Infinite
4. Team Fortress Classics
3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II
2. Half-life
1. Unreal Tournament


You can pretty much put those in any order you want, but that's about how it goes in my head right this moment. There's always gems like Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter II Turbo, Mortal Kombat, Batman Arkham City, Lord of the Rings Shadow of Mordor, Sonic CD, House of the Dead 2, Left 4 Dead, Master of Magic, Grand Theft Auto 3, Modern Warfare 3, Nights, Mike Tyson's Punchout, Max Payne, Final Fantasy III (VI), Power Stone 2, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, GoldenEye, Warcraft 3, Pokémon Red, Pokémon Y, Starfox 64, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, StarCraft, Diablo 2, and Virtual On...

But my thread only called for 10... So yeah.

[Avilan the Grey]

A few honorable mentions (no specific order) that ALMOST made the list:

Fallout 1, 2, 3, 4, NV.
Planescape Torment.
Baldur's Gate.
Eye Of The Beholder 1, 2.
Dungeon Keeper 1, 2.
Tetris.
Yi Ar Kung Fu.
International Karate.
Sim City 2000.
XCOM Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within.
Shadowrun: Dragonfall.
Warcraft 1, 2.
Diablo 1, 2.
Choplifter.
Saxxon.
Sims 2, 3.
Barbarian*.

And many more.

*This one:

Spoiler

Show

Not this one:

Spoiler

Show

[Dotafanatic]

If anybody in here puts "Silver" or Little Big Adventure" in their top 10, let me hear a "Hallah".
These two games made my boyhood the better!

[Avilan the Grey]

If anybody in here puts "Silver" or Little Big Adventure" in their top 10, let me hear a "Hallah".
These two games made my boyhood the better!

Silver... I had completely forgot about that one. Bought it, played about a quarter of it but could never get into the story nor, more importantly, the mechanics and gameplay. So I never finished it.
Little Big Adventure... Never played it at all. Can't remember why, actually. Probably because of a limited budget

[Cespenar]

Ah, I remember Silver. It was quite good for its day, actually.

[Gandariel]

In the order of "what pops into my mind first", and considering I haven't played many games:

Diablo 2 : Hearing "Not even death can save you from me!" still gives me a chill. And the music of the start of act 1. Damn that was a great game.

Starcraft (1 and 2) : beautiful RTS, played all races in 1 and mostly Protoss in 2.
Also enjoyable to watch tournaments.

SC2: Heart of the Swarm is definitely the best game trailer ever.
Legacy of the Void and Wings of Liberty are also both amazing, but can't beat that viking-landing-in-front-of-the-ultralisk moment

Hearthstone (currently playing -ish)
Fun "casual" game with plenty of complexity and stuff to do. Love freeze mage, oil rogue, zoo lock.

Heroes of the storm (currently playing)
...uh, yeah, I kinda like Blizzard games :P
But they're so good!
Never really played MOBAs, got into this one because games are short and there's not much to learn to be decent. Really enjoyable, still playing it. Favorite heroes are Diablo, Li Ming, KT, Anub'arak.


Black and White : still remember teaching my monkey to throw his poop, helping those singing sailors, throwing rocks at people I didn't like...
Super funny and great.

Heroes of Might and Magic III : well, obviously.

Europa Universalis 2: fond memories of controlling ALL the markets as Britain, and continuously suppressing rebellions as Russia

Dungeons and dragons: Shadow over Mystara: funny arcade-like game, find an emulator and give it a try!

Metal Slug 2 : another Arcade favorite that I've replayed a LOT of times on emulators. Still remember all the secrets.

Pokemon. Fond memories of games, TV, movies, still play on Showdown! every once in a while.
COME ON, RAICHU! GIVE IT A DUNDABOAT! (Google this one if you don't get it)

[Misereor]

#10: Warhammer, Dark Omen
"Oh look, my crossbowmen made it to max experience level on this playthrough again."

#9: Master of Orion 2
"Ok, I think I'll go with the beam heavy planetoids. Again."

#8: Knight of the Old Republic 2, The Sith Lords
Star Wars with D&D 3.0 rules. What's not to like.

#7: Master of Magic
"To destroy the world with volcanoes to fuel my magic power, or not to destroy the world with volcanoes to fuel my magic power. Choices, choices..."

#6: Panzer General 2
Even better than the first one.

#5: UFO, Enemy Unknown
"Now, I wonder what this heavy plasma gun does?"

#4: Warhammer 40K, Chaos Gate
Like UFO, but with space marines, terminator armors, lascannons, Daemons, and psycher powers.

#3: Medieval: Total War (1)
Huge upgrade from Shogun, and better combat system than all the sequels.

#2: AD&D, Pools of Darkness
Biggest D&D crpg ever. Must have played through it 20 times.

#1: Combat Mission 2, Barbarossa to Berlin.
Best WEGO game of all time. Best tactical World War 2 game of all time. Best PVP game of all time.


And as an honorable mention, the Archon series (for the Commodore 64).

[Zigwat]

#7: Master of Magic
"To destroy the world with volcanoes to fuel my magic power, or not to destroy the world with volcanoes to fuel my magic power. Choices, choices..."

YES! I am so glad that this game is coming up on this thread, I love Master of Magic. I always played as Rjaak. There's just something about the Death Spells that intrigues me. I love that game, and still play it! All you need is DOS BOX.

[factotum]

#8: Knight of the Old Republic 2, The Sith Lords
Star Wars with D&D 3.0 rules. What's not to like.

What's not to like is the fact they never properly finished the game--there's so much cut content in KotOR 2 that it isn't funny. (Oh, and it doesn't use the "D&D rules", it uses a Star Wars adaptation of the d20 system, which is not quite the same thing).

[Number Seven]

Let's see here. I'm going to cheat and lump some franchises together because I do what I want.

10: Warframe. It's free, fast and fun. Sometimes you just want a shooter, and it does its job well.
9: The Grand Theft Auto series. GTA V would make it on its own if I could fix those .zlib issues.
8: Assassin's Creed. Haven't played anything since Black Flag, but the combat is fun, ships are awesome and the story is neat.
7: Minecraft. For when I have a good four hours in need of killing. Just kidding, it's more like eight.
6: Skyrim. Mod it 'til it breaks. Zipping around on my airship is pretty fun, I'm not going to lie.
5: Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. I need to play the rest of the series. Oh god, the story, the gameplay, the dialogue, the voice acting. Top notch.
4: Civilization: Each have their own charms. I started playing back in Civ II. It's a toss-up between IV and V for me, leaning towards the latter due to hex maps.
3: The Witcher 3. I haven't played Withcher 1-2, but 3 was so good that I want to go back to correct this oversight.
2: Morrowind. I have so many fond memories of this game. The setting, the story, the atmosphere. Perfect.
1: Castlevania, Symphony of the Night. Hands down my favorite game of all time.