- Joined
- Dec 12, 2010
Now I imagine a few of you are stopping by to post "There is no objective measure of video game quality, only personal preference". I don't really believe that is true, and I'll explain why in the next paragraph, but even if you are not convinced please entertain the notion that it is true for the sake of participating in this discussion.
I have a simple example for you that is not from the world of video games. Let's take three popular fantasy series: Twilight, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. If you've never read Twilight there is a series of videos where someone reads them out on Youtube. It's a badly written book: the prose is clumsy, the characters are hollow and the plot weak. By contrast Harry Potter is well written. It's not a work of literary excellence on par with the classics but it's still great. And Lord of the Rings is a work of genius.
Now this has almost nothing to do with my personal feelings for the books. Personally I enjoy Harry Potter more than what I have read of the other two (which is about a chapter from Twilight and the first 100 pages of the Lord of the Rings), but in literary terms Lord of the Rings are the best books, no question.
To put it another way, just because you dislike a meal does not necessarily mean it is poorly cooked or the chef is incompetent. That might be the case, but some flavours just do not appeal to your taste buds. And in the opposite sense just because you love eating McDonalds does not make it a culinary masterpiece.
And on that note, here are my nominations for the the best games ever.
World of Warcraft is something I only played for a handful of hours, but just from reading about it and knowing people who do play it I strongly suspect it is the best MMO ever made, and among the best games ever made.
Ocarina of Time I reckon to be the best Zelda, and also the best Action/Adventure ever (despite what Axel says about bottles, it's not really an RPG. Yes it has aspects that most RPGs have, but in gaming the main hallmark of an RPG is stats building.) Of course it's pretty hard to pick one Zelda game and surely A Link to the Past has an equally good claim. I'll let you argue that one out.
Super Mario World for my money is the best 2D platformer of all time. It's more refined that Super Mario Bros 3 (which probably still deserves a nomination) and better than the Sonic series and Donkey Kong Country series, although those two are amazing and Sonic 2 certainly is one of the best games I've ever played.
3D Platformers are numerous. Super Mario 64 and Galaxy deserve nominations, but I think the others in that series don't quite stand up. For me that is the only series I play, but I've heard good things about Ratchet and Clank. And I should probably mention Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Kazooie (but not it's sequel).
Batman: Arkham Asylum is definitely the best comic book license ever, and probably the best license full stop, as well as being one of the best action games I've ever played.
As for FPS games the list is potentially huge.
Half Life 2 dystopic shooter that needs no introduction. Likewise Portal, Team Fortress 2 and even Counter-Strike Source could all be argued as among the best games ever. Outside of Valve you have Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Bioshock, Fallout 3 and the Call of Duty series (which I've always thought of as uninspired, but there you go).
I'm hoping this has kind of wetted your appetite and you'll have your own nominations, and a few arguments against some of mine.
I have a simple example for you that is not from the world of video games. Let's take three popular fantasy series: Twilight, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. If you've never read Twilight there is a series of videos where someone reads them out on Youtube. It's a badly written book: the prose is clumsy, the characters are hollow and the plot weak. By contrast Harry Potter is well written. It's not a work of literary excellence on par with the classics but it's still great. And Lord of the Rings is a work of genius.
Now this has almost nothing to do with my personal feelings for the books. Personally I enjoy Harry Potter more than what I have read of the other two (which is about a chapter from Twilight and the first 100 pages of the Lord of the Rings), but in literary terms Lord of the Rings are the best books, no question.
To put it another way, just because you dislike a meal does not necessarily mean it is poorly cooked or the chef is incompetent. That might be the case, but some flavours just do not appeal to your taste buds. And in the opposite sense just because you love eating McDonalds does not make it a culinary masterpiece.
And on that note, here are my nominations for the the best games ever.
World of Warcraft is something I only played for a handful of hours, but just from reading about it and knowing people who do play it I strongly suspect it is the best MMO ever made, and among the best games ever made.
Ocarina of Time I reckon to be the best Zelda, and also the best Action/Adventure ever (despite what Axel says about bottles, it's not really an RPG. Yes it has aspects that most RPGs have, but in gaming the main hallmark of an RPG is stats building.) Of course it's pretty hard to pick one Zelda game and surely A Link to the Past has an equally good claim. I'll let you argue that one out.
Super Mario World for my money is the best 2D platformer of all time. It's more refined that Super Mario Bros 3 (which probably still deserves a nomination) and better than the Sonic series and Donkey Kong Country series, although those two are amazing and Sonic 2 certainly is one of the best games I've ever played.
3D Platformers are numerous. Super Mario 64 and Galaxy deserve nominations, but I think the others in that series don't quite stand up. For me that is the only series I play, but I've heard good things about Ratchet and Clank. And I should probably mention Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Kazooie (but not it's sequel).
Batman: Arkham Asylum is definitely the best comic book license ever, and probably the best license full stop, as well as being one of the best action games I've ever played.
As for FPS games the list is potentially huge.
Half Life 2 dystopic shooter that needs no introduction. Likewise Portal, Team Fortress 2 and even Counter-Strike Source could all be argued as among the best games ever. Outside of Valve you have Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Bioshock, Fallout 3 and the Call of Duty series (which I've always thought of as uninspired, but there you go).
I'm hoping this has kind of wetted your appetite and you'll have your own nominations, and a few arguments against some of mine.