Top 25 PC games the last decade according to IGN

http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/07/the-top-25-modern-pc-games-2

thoughts

What?

sorry, the damn forums are glitched and i keep getting my topics created on the wrong boards

Bad list and IGN proves why noone takes them serious.

A list filled with clones, bad games and only a few that are deservedly on the list.

There's not one bad game on that list.

IGN rarely has a list that makes any plausible sense

Did you actually read it?

I agree with some things and disagree with others. I have no idea what people expect, they're never going to see a list that exactly mirrors their own.

Surprised to see Homeworld 2 at no.15, fantastic game. Team Fortress 2 is way too low on no.12. Awesome pick for Faster Than Light at no.9, it's an absolutely brilliant game and one of my all-time favorites. Civilization IV was fantastic, but Civilization V definitely surpassed it in my book. Company of Heroes and Skyrim are way too high.

Half-Life 2 at no.1, well can't go wrong with that one. A classic that has barely aged and feels more modern than 99% of first-person shooters that came out after it.

*vomits at BioShock at no.2*

So in the last 10years you can't think of one title that is better than FTL?

I know FTL struck a cord with a lot of gamers but on a more serious note, it does not deserve to be on that list.

And there is a lot of that on the list.

And why exactly is that?

Faster Than Light is an extraordinary game with absolutely impeccable design.

lol how dare i

FTL is a good indie game but its still a small indie game and in all seriousness it does not belong on a top 10/25 list of a decades best games.

But actually that is not the worst part, we could take that Portal 2 is on there and not Portal, or WoW Pandas not forgetting LOL and DOTA.

Its a very strange list and half the games are niche games that hits a very select group.

Crysis is on the list without a nod of any kind to its predecessor, Far Cry. :/

Decent list I guess.

Well..... at least it had Homeworld 2 on it, right?

I strongly agree with this guy, which doesn't happen often. FTL may be fun and nice for an iOS indie game but it's quite simple. Like most successful indie games the dev got lucky with word of mouth and hype. The game does nothing new at all. It's isn't top 10 on a list of indie games let all every PC game.

On the whole, any list where LoL is ahead of Dota 2 is invalid. I have a problem with TF2 and Minecraft even being on the list but that's personal opinion. Hard to argue with the top 5, except for Skyrim. I guess it's there cause of the mods.

i think it was alright

LoL & Dota 2 way underrated. IDK if Dragon Age was worthy. What about LoTR BFME II or Tribes? Morrowind? DayZ?

People downplaying FTL for being "simple" don't understand gaming. I haven't played it yet (I know, I should), but would you complain if Pac-Man or Tetris made a "top whatever" list, because they're "simple"? Is Checkers a bad board game because it's "simple"?

The list sucks, but then again all lists suck. I give it a thumbs up for putting Homeworld 2 and XCOM on there, and many many thumbs down for naming 15+ RPG while disregarding Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. And what's the deal with all these RPG and variants anyway?

The lack of STALKER also makes me sad. And the last good multiplayer FPS, Unreal Tournament 2004, is nowhere to be seen either. And seriously, there are way too many RPG on that list. How about naming at least one racer? And at least one adventure game? Syberia 2 came out in 2004 and nobody would disagree with that choice, if you're scared to go with something more obscure.

And the thing is, they're talking out of their asses because Faster Than Light is anything but simple. It's a classic example of easy to learn, but difficult to master. You have so many tactical options at your disposal, so many different strategies to use. Every single time you lose, you lose because you did something wrong. I haven't played a game in which you really have to think about so many things at the same time for years. It is just an amazing achievement in game design balanced to perfection.

I agree with S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

are you sure about this list? I think Crysis should not be in the position 22..

Well, for the sake of my gaming confidence, I'd have to say that sometimes, because of the randomised encounters, I was a bit unlucky. ;-)

And another yay for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Am I the only one tired of seeing Half-Life 2 grab the Nr.1 spot on every single "Best PC Games" list like this one? I never understood the hype around this game and the praise it still gets. I could never ever finish it because I just couldn't force myself to play it anymore. I mean, it's a great game and a groundbreaking one, especially for 2004, but best modern PC game? I'd argue with that. It would be okay for me if it was the first game instead since it left a considerably bigger mark on me.

Yep, putting Half-Life 2 at the top of every "best PC games" list is silly, and downright annoying. One of the main reason why mainstream sites suck at making lists is that you always see the same goddamn games at the top of them. It's like mainstream gaming sites have some sort of hive mind. Best game ever list? Alright, Zelda: OOT is #1, done deal. Best PC game? Half-Life 2 #1, easy game!

I'd like to see a mainstream site have the balls to put Half-Life 2 at #23. Because honestly, if I really had to make a list today, I'd put HL2 in the honorable mentions, and not even on the main list.

I'd also like to see more editor-specific lists. That would bring a lot of flexibility and possibly make more people happy. Same thing goes for reviews and game of the year awards.

A decade is waaay too long for only a 25 game list. I agree with some, disagree with others. I don't mind these kinds of lists as long they have valid points behind them. Not just, " I like this more than the other.Period." And also I think you have to be gaming for over 20 years to be qualified to make these sort of lists. Because if you were not around to see the evolution of games and just how important some of these games were at the time, well then, it kind of defeats the purpose.

Why? Just because you don't like it? There is a reason those games are always at number 1,because they deserve to be there. HL2 really is the most important shooter because it changed the gaming landscape. Almost every shooter since then has borrowed from it, and they still fail at getting it right. Can you name a game that changed the industry as much as HL2 did? And in a positive way? The same with Ocarina of Time? Whether they are great or not by today's standards doesn't matter, they were amazing at the time and did things that were never seen before in any game. Which games would you rank above HL2 and ZOoT? I'm really curious.

Are you really trying to say that it's unarguablethat HL2 and OOT are better choices than everything else? Really?

I could name games, and then we'd get into a 3-page debate, but my point isn't specifically that STALKER is a much better game than HL2 (even though it is!), it's that it's ridiculous to consider one game as the indisputable #1, which these sites do by always ranking it so high.

And come on, there is no "HL2 formula" like you're referring to. The first Half-Life was influential and groundbreaking, yes. But I can't think of a single thing that Far Cry 3 "borrows" from HL2 specifically. It follows the HL1 formula.

"Top 25 games of the last decade according to a PC elitist" sounds more accurate :P

DotA? Are you freaking kidding me?

Actually, I've never seen so many multiplats on a PC list. And no "PC elitist" would ever name Bioshock at #2.

Not sure if he edited the thread title or I misread. I was sure the thread was "Top 25 games of the last decade"

I still have problems with the list. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. should be in there and so should Dremfall, their absence is inexcusable.

Although I don't necessarily blame them because gamer rage is fierce and unforgiving. If they put anything else at the top, half the comments would be about how they were paid off. I'm not sure which is worse, but I hate the simple, single minded nature in that kind of thing. It's slowly killing my love of gaming culture.

Put KotOR in the top spot and remove Half Life 2 from the list completely and then I can take this seriously.

Ah, list articles. Guaranteed to create pages upon pages of internet slap-fighting over someone else's opinion, and plenty of ad revenue.

...Wow, that was really cynical for me.

I'm so sorry, but besides HL2 being at #1, what kind of a list is that? I'm sure there were way better games out there during that time period!!

Spot on Dvader when HL2 came out the only thing out there in FPS games was pretty much HL1, and HL2 improved tons on that, also it was a foundation for pretty much all modern FPS games, it gave birth to CS, Portal, Dear Esther and so many other mods and games.

So if anything truly deserves a spot on top 10 of the decades best games its HL2.

There's your answer @ReddestSkies

Your just not going to find many people that agree with you. And obviously it's arguable, you can argue any opinion. Do I really have to tell you that? Which is why I asked you to name what you would place over those games. And I never stated there was a " HL2 formula". you pulled that out of thin air. I said many games borrow from it, because it introduced a lot of new features, which have now become normal. HL2 basically gave life to the scripted-story-telling action FPS games we have today. Even a lot of 3rd person shooter are inspired by HL2.You can make an argument that HL1 started it(even though its missing a lot), it wasn't fully realized until HL2.

STALKER is a different beast in itself. One of my fav games ever made, however I cannot play it vanilla. It had to be modded for me to enjoy it. Minor mods, but big gameplay changes, namely the abysmal gun accuracy had to go, amongst other small details. Aside from that I enjoyed the hell out it, I somehow managed to get the same "greed" ending all of my 3 playthroughs. Anyways as good as it is, it didn't raise the bar of the entire genre. Many gamers don't even know STALKER exists, sadly.

I havent beaten FC3, but from what I played, I can tell you that its storytelling cutscenes follows what HL2 started, full 1st person scenes without any breaks, even down to following a character while they explain things to you and show some sort of emotion through facial animation and dialogue.Before HL2 it was just AI standing there, going from A to B, a 3rd person cutscene, or text based dialogue. In HL2, they could easily skip ahead but they don't, they let you play these out in 1st person to immerse yourself in the world. FC3 does the same, nobody did that until HL2. Physics based vehicles in an FPS, again HL2 did it first. This is what I mean, these things are normal now, so its easy to overlook who introduced them. I know some games would have eventually introduced these features as well as others,but the fact is that HL2 is the one that did it and it was done so well that it still receives much praise to this day.

No one would say that HL2 wasn't an important or foundational game. Just because something did it first doesn't mean the ones that copied them didn't do it better. The title of the list is ambiguous to drive this kind of traffic, but I think most people would think they meant "best" games not "most important" games.

Agreed, but in this case, nobody did it better to this day.

The first person storytelling cutscenes you're describing in your third paragraph can be seen in HL1... Also, HL2 is neither the first to introduce vehicles in a FPS, nor the first game to have physics. To give it credit for "physics-based vehicles in a FPS" is very farfetched. HL2 deserves praise for its physics puzzles, not for its ragdoll or the fact that you can bump boxes around, and definitely not for its "physics-based vehicles". Actually, Far Cry 1 came out before HL2 and had those "physics-based vehicles"...

I liked the gun accuracy in STALKER =P. Whether or not it was influential doesn't really matter though: it raised the bar for the genre by being the best there is. New FPS are to be compared to STALKER, not to HL2, especially when it comes to AI and other technicalities. And you're right, it's a shame that a lot of people don't even know about it.

An opinion being that of a majority has no incidence on it being right or well informed. The majority is very often wrong, especially when it comes to lists. Hard or complex games are most of the time completely disregarded because of their inaccessibility, for example. Entire genres are forgotten. If you ask "the majority", the adventure genre stopped existing 10 years ago, there are no PC racers, shoot 'em ups stopped being made 20 years ago, etc. Informed opinions will often be minority opinions. I'm in the minority when I say that Ketsui is a top-notch game. Why? Because the vast majority of gamers have never heard about it.

Well, I can't say I agree with IGN on that list. I guess most of them contributed in some fashion, but not necessarily by being among the best. Crysis as an example is not one of the best games in my opinion, however the cryENGINE has been a good contribution technology-wise.

Of course it doesn't mean that games that came after wasn´t an improvement over HL2, it would be kinda sad if it wasn´t.

So does it mean HL2 suddenly is a worse game of course not, before HL2 no one did what HL2 did , and therefore you need to judge HL2 as a game on what was before not what came after.

Its like criticizing Wright or Ford for not being a 747 or a Audi A8.

Comparing HL2 to Wright and Ford is exactly the kind of exaggeration that I'm talking about. It's a ridiculous and just plain wrong comparison that adds nothing to the discussion.

So you will argue that HL1 and 2 didn´t (re)invent the FPS genre and made it into what we see today, that it didn't grow and expanded gaming? because without HL its a good guess that we wouldn't have seen CS, Portal, Stanley and a ton of other games that came from mods for HL.

HL1 did a lot for the genre. HL2 did not.

But besides that, the Wright brothers built the first functional airplane. HL2 is the 5104th first-person shooting game. Let's refrain from comparing the two.

I think we will just have to agree to disagree here.

HL1 was a modded Quake engine while HL2 was on their source engine and the source engine is still being used today.

Also no HL2 was the 2nd FPS-game in that style, HL being the first.

Bascially 90% of fps games you see today is a expansion on hl2

No it's not, that's rediculous. It's more like saying a Audi A8 is a better car than a Model T, which it absolutely without question is.

Now you are just talking nonsense. It doesnt make any sense to compare HL1/2 to any new game that has come out a decade after.

In fact even tho its true that lets say Bioshock is a better game, its just idiotic to mention it if your talking about HL1-2 , you can compare it to games that game out at the same time or shortly after since the tech and advance would still be pretty much the same.