Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Video Games

AngelHedgie

So, Time has decided to compile a list of what they consider the top 100 video games of all time. To be fair, it's better than I expected - there are some genuine surprises among the list. Still, there are some clear gaps - Slate points out a rather large one.

So, what do you think they got right? And what do you think they got wrong?

mrt144

No Fallout...
No TF2...

Yeah, this is a terrible list.

Casually Hardcore

There's Cave Story on that list, so it isn't complete rubbish.

AngelHedgie

Casually Hardcore wrote: »

There's Cave Story on that list, so it isn't complete rubbish.

Yeah, there actually is some good thought in the list, but there's a few questionable choices as well.

spacekungfuman

No Planescape Torment, no FO1/2, no baldur's gate, no betrayal at krondor, no darklands. Just disgraceful.

Fallout2man

mrt144 wrote: »

No Fallout...
No TF2...

Yeah, this is a terrible list.

;_;

spacekungfuman wrote: »

No Planescape Torment, no FO1/2, no baldur's gate, no betrayal at krondor, no darklands. Just disgraceful.

Wait...so there are NO Isometric RPGS at all? Okay, now I just know the list has to be bad. Obsidian just got $4 mil in crowdfunding to build a new Isometric RPG. No way you can miss out on many of those older Obsidian/Black Isle/Bioware titles; they largely defined the genre of PC RPG in comparison to the largely action-adventure oriented J-RPGs on consoles.

spacekungfuman

Also, they included Oblivion, which automatically invalidates the whole thing.

enlightenedbum

The best game of all-time (X-COM) is missing, so that's a problem. Mega Man should be Mega Man 2. I'm sure there's some other obvious stuff, but I'm headed out the door. I'll check more closely later.

DoctorArch

Minecraft omission is terrible.

But are we talking about "greatest" in the "these games are the greatest bro!" sense or in the "these games have the greatest influence upon video games" sense? The large amount of classic games makes me think it's more the latter.

If that's the case, here's what I think:

I would exchange Mass Effect 3 for Mass Effect 2, because 3 was an extension of 2, and 2 took all the rough parts of 1, combined it with a really fun action component, streamlined the RPG parts, and still managed to be one hell of a fun rollercoaster experience.

Oblivion should be Morrowind. I liked Oblivion, but Morrowind was the first time Bethesda managed to reach what they were trying to achieve with Daggerfall and Arena.

The exclusion of Fallout 1 and Baldur's Gate are terrible.

MrMister

I appreciated Myth: the Fallen Lords, cause I was into that back in the day (apparently, the ratio is 1:6 against me here).

My summary view of the situation: "best N of X" lists are always vaguely silly and an occasion for endless nerd rage.

MrMister

Also, that being said, the people voting in that poll are philistines for overwhelmingly saying that Hunt the Wumpus doesn't belong. Hunt the Wumpus was a formative moment for gaming! No sense of history tsk tsk.

Casual

Pac-Man? Really? I can't help but feel that list is a result of the sites demographic having not played a video game since 1982.

mrt144

No Xcom was a terrible omission.

Taramoor

The list:

Pac-Man
Super Mario Bros.
Pong
Space Invaders
The Oregon Trail
Tetris
Donkey Kong
The Legend of Zelda
Asteroids
Breakout
Mortal Kombat
Doom
Frogger
Street Fighter II
Sonic the Hedgehog
Mass Effect 3
Goldeneye 007
Grand Theft Auto III
Contra
Galaga
Punch-Out!!
StarCraft
Super Mario 64
SimCity 2000
Final Fantasy VII
Metal Gear Solid
World of Warcraft
Halo: Combat Evolved
Civilization
Centipede
Portal
Pitfall!
Metroid
Paperboy
Mega Man
Solitaire
Defender
Diablo II
Castlevania
Resident Evil
Half-Life 2
Battlezone
BioShock
Quake
The Sims
Counter-Strike
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Tomb Raider
Guitar Hero
Myst
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Angry Birds
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Tecmo Bowl
NBA Jam
Prince of Persia
OutRun
Chrono Trigger
King’s Quest
Gears of War
Wii Sports
Joust
Castle Wolfenstein
Wing Commander
Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards
Deus Ex
Splinter Cell
Zork
Madden NFL 95
Silent Hill
Shadow of the Colossus
Batman: Arkham City
EverQuest
Demon’s Souls
Adventure
Lode Runner
Metroid Prime
Rock Band
Ōkami
Tempest
Ultima Online
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty
Ico
Final Fantasy Tactics
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
Grim Fandango
Thief: The Dark Project
Katamari Damacy
Braid
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Animal Crossing
Marathon
Flower
M.U.L.E.
Desktop Tower Defense
Cave Story
NetHack
Hunt the Wumpus
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Rez

Glaring omissions (in my opinion):
-Minecraft
-Planescape: Torment
-Dragon's Lair
-Mario Paint
-Nintendogs
-X-COM
-Ms. Pac-Man
-Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines

ObiFett

Is there no Pokemon on that list or am I missing it?

edit: nope, no Pokemon. hm.

dlinfiniti

doesn't include daikatana
fail

Cantido

I came here expecting a Time Magazine cover with something like "Gaming Culture Destroying Civilization."

I really wouldn't put it past them.

_J_

Was that list compiled via 'man on the street' interviews in a nursing home?

Nought

Cantido wrote: »

I came here expecting a Time Magazine cover with something like "Gaming Culture Destroying Civilization."

I really wouldn't put it past them.

That's nest weeks headline.

The week after that, "How Computer Gaming Saves Lives."

zagdrob

Amy gaming list missing x-com isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Feral

Well, these lists are always intended to drive discussion and comments, and there's always going to be something missing or misplaced.

And this one is a poll, it's not even curated, with no explanation or discussion. There isn't even a note over whether these are the best or the most influential.

It's an interesting list, though. Braid, Cave Story, MULE, Marathon, and Rez are unusual additions but I don't disagree with any of them. Between those inclusions and stuff like NetHack and Hunt the Wumpus, it's clear they polled some people who really do know what they're talking about.

I'm happy to see Solitaire and Angry Birds on there - most of these lists, because they're compiled by gamers, don't adequately take casual gaming into account. I'd argue that any list of the top 100 greatest (read: most influential) games of all time should at least feature a few of Solitaire, Minesweeper, Bejeweled, Farmville, Angry Birds, and/or Words With Friends.

Honestly, it's probably a better list overall than the stuff IGN likes to crank out every so often when they need to troll geekdom for page views.

Feral

Fallout2man wrote: »

mrt144 wrote: »

No Fallout...
No TF2...

Yeah, this is a terrible list.

;_;

spacekungfuman wrote: »

No Planescape Torment, no FO1/2, no baldur's gate, no betrayal at krondor, no darklands. Just disgraceful.

Wait...so there are NO Isometric RPGS at all? Okay, now I just know the list has to be bad. Obsidian just got $4 mil in crowdfunding to build a new Isometric RPG. No way you can miss out on many of those older Obsidian/Black Isle/Bioware titles; they largely defined the genre of PC RPG in comparison to the largely action-adventure oriented J-RPGs on consoles.

You know, I think it would be interesting to publish a feature on the greatest games of all time - not a list, but a series of "family trees" with discussion.

For example, one article could talk about Wizardry, and how that influenced Bard's Tale and Might and Magic, which leads into the next article on...

...the D&D Gold Box series, like Pools of Radiance, which would branch into two articles, the first on...

AOL Neverwinter Nights, which would also shout-out to DikuMUD and talk about Everquest and World of Warcraft...

And the second on early isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate and how they led to the Elder Scrolls series and 3D single-player open-world RPGs...

There could be similar family trees for shooters (Maze War -> Faceball -> Wolfenstein 3D -> Marathon & Doom -> Quake & System Shock -> Half Life and Halo -> Battlefield 1942, etc.)

Hmm...

Anybody have a video game site they want content for?

Doodmann

mrt144 wrote: »

No Fallout...
No TF2...

Yeah, this is a terrible list.

The creation of a multi-million dollar hat based economy should not go unnoticed.

Jibba

Madden 95 doesn't make much sense. If you want to do a quintessential football game (besides TECMO), I think it has to be NFL 2k. The 2k franchise changed everything about football/basketball games.

I'm glad Rez got some attention but I don't know if it's that great. Someone could definitely make a new version and make it that great though.

It's hard to complain about a lot of these though. You really just can't fit all 100 in and basically all of these are important. Fallout seems like the biggest omission, but for importance I wouldn't even put BG.

I think this is still better than Spike's VGA lists.

mrt144

Fallout introduced Perks, something that RPGs really didnt have, AMIRITE?

Sweeney Tom

Grand Theft Auto 3 wasn't the best of the series, list automatically flawed.

Synthesis

The greatest 4X game of all time, Alpha Centauri (and its expansion) are missing, so yeah, no good.

spacekungfuman

Feral wrote: »

Fallout2man wrote: »

mrt144 wrote: »

No Fallout...
No TF2...

Yeah, this is a terrible list.

;_;

spacekungfuman wrote: »

No Planescape Torment, no FO1/2, no baldur's gate, no betrayal at krondor, no darklands. Just disgraceful.

Wait...so there are NO Isometric RPGS at all? Okay, now I just know the list has to be bad. Obsidian just got $4 mil in crowdfunding to build a new Isometric RPG. No way you can miss out on many of those older Obsidian/Black Isle/Bioware titles; they largely defined the genre of PC RPG in comparison to the largely action-adventure oriented J-RPGs on consoles.

You know, I think it would be interesting to publish a feature on the greatest games of all time - not a list, but a series of "family trees" with discussion.

For example, one article could talk about Wizardry, and how that influenced Bard's Tale and Might and Magic, which leads into the next article on...

...the D&D Gold Box series, like Pools of Radiance, which would branch into two articles, the first on...

AOL Neverwinter Nights, which would also shout-out to DikuMUD and talk about Everquest and World of Warcraft...

And the second on early isometric RPGs like Baldur's Gate and how they led to the Elder Scrolls series and 3D single-player open-world RPGs...

There could be similar family trees for shooters (Maze War -> Faceball -> Wolfenstein 3D -> Marathon & Doom -> Quake & System Shock -> Half Life and Halo -> Battlefield 1942, etc.)

Hmm...

Anybody have a video game site they want content for?

You had me until the golden age RPGs somehow evolved into TES. What the fuck, man?

enlightenedbum

Synthesis wrote: »

The greatest 4X game of all time, Alpha Centauri (and its expansion) are missing, so yeah, no good.

To be fair, it's technically influential, so you'd go with Civ there.

Kasyn

Sorry, Pokemon is handily a greater omission than Minecraft. Or anything else. That's a fucking shame. Pretty sure we could do without Leisure Suit Larry and slot in a game series that has been massively successful like a decade and a half now, and pretty much stands as the touchstone game for the childhood of an entire generation.

Yeah I feel fairly strongly about that one.

Feral

spacekungfuman wrote: »

You had me until the golden age RPGs somehow evolved into TES. What the fuck, man?

Yeah, that was a brainfart. What happened was I was editing that in notepad and switched around a bunch of stuff and didn't proofread when I was done.

Durkhanus

Ultima IV, but not Ultima VII Part One or Two? Missing Neverwinter Nights?

Lack of Master of Magic? No Age of Wonders?

Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?

Eupfhoria

MrMister wrote: »

I appreciated Myth: the Fallen Lords, cause I was into that back in the day (apparently, the ratio is 1:6 against me here).

:^:

to be completely fair though , if the criteria is about how much influence the games had, I can accept the Myth games not being on the list since as far as I know there hasn't been much (anything?) quite like them since

shryke

I loved the story-telling style and content of the first two Myth games. So well done and so ... just fantastical.

Henroid

I'm not too concerned about a publication that in no way specialized in something put out a list about that something.

enlightenedbum

Another oversight: no game that used the SCUMM engine, particularly either Maniac Mansion itself or Secret of Monkey Island. To the best of my knowledge, those were the two games that proved games could be funny. Especially Monkey Island.

Wearingglasses

Considering there are plenty of other games that you guys feel should've made it to their list (agreed on Minecraft and Pokemon, at least... haven't played the others), what do you guys think they could have taken out?

The list looks like a mish-mash of stuff that's halfway between "these are the best games" and "these are the most influential games", and they kind of forget which criteria to stick to.

PantsB

Wing Commander but no Wing Commander III. No TIE Fighter or XWing. No Warcraft, no Starcraft, no C&C....

Mill

Haven't played minecraft but I understand it well enough to agree it should be on the list along with Pokemon. I'm a bit surprised they don't have a Command & Conquer or a Heroes of Might and Magic on there.

I do like how they're shooting for influential since that's a bit easier to quantify over what people consider the best games.

Jacobkosh

Changed the thread title to something less teeth-grindingly hyperbolic.

jothki

And the new title isn't?