TIME did a top 50 video games list and it's not half bad!

[Shawn]

So ya, TIME did a top 50 list and they did a better job than you might think.

 

http://time.com/4458554/best-video-games-all-time/

 

Enjoy!

[LordOfChaos43]

Are the games on that list in any specific order? If they are that would be my main complaint about the list.

[Newsdee]

Looking at top 10, sponsored by Blizzard and Nintendo?

[Professor Gull]

Hmm Sega titles? Am I missing something here?

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Aside from the omission of the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehog games and Resident Evil for PlayStation it seemed like a pretty solid Top 50 list to me, surprisingly so. Well done!

[MrMaddog]

Destructoid had an article that really trashed it. "Oh those old farts are always making fun of us Millennials in their stupid print media!"

 

They're just mad that Pokemon Go wasn't the number one game...

[high voltage]

Any list not mentioning the KILLER-APP Star Raiders for A8, big fail.

[Punisher5.0]

Not bad. I was wondering where Ocarina was going to be. I was surprised to see two N64 games in the top five.

[thadsilverfox]

I thought the did an excellent job. Two thumbs up

[Flojomojo]

Obvious list is obvious, but there's a lot less fat in that list than the recent PC Gamer Top 100.

 

I would pull Braid off that list and insert some Sega games (Virtua Fighter 2 please).

 

I'm surprised that League of Legends isn't in there.

[Professor Gull]

Obvious list is obvious, but there's a lot less fat in that list than the recent PC Gamer Top 100.

 

I would pull Braid off that list and insert some Sega games (Virtua Fighter 2 please).

 

I'm surprised that League of Legends isn't in there.

yeah it definately needed some Sega someplace. Even After Burner would have been a good addition.

 

I had never head of Braid till that list sadly. Then picking PC games why not Privateer or Mechwarrior?

 

I will accept the list as it is though since the majority does make sense.

[Blazing Lazers]

Oh wow, this really is a decent list. Good to see such quality from a mainstream publication, for once! Only two titles I'd change are GTA III to Vice City, and Smash Bros. to Melee. Only games I'd add would be a Sega classic such as Sonic 1 or 2, and either of the Star Wars Kotor games.

[Flojomojo]

I had never head of Braid till that list sadly. Then picking PC games why not Privateer or Mechwarrior?

Braid was the indie darling of 2008, it was the first of a long line of "arty" platformers at a time when huge studio costs were exploding. The developer Jonathan Blow enjoyed the press and it showed, he was interviewed all over the place and he liked to talk. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's there as a historical footnote like Pong and Myst. It will be forgotten in 10 years if it hasn't been forgotten already.

 

We could probably like a long thread about people who are better at giving interviews than making games, or who were once relevant but now just seem to talk. To kick it off,

Peter Molyneux

Derek Smart

Chris Roberts

Denis Dyack

Mike Kennedy

 

To be fair, we all get older and it's very difficult to recapture past successes, especially since the industry doesn't stand still. But when it's the same person, over and over, who just won't/can't shut up, it's hard to be respectful.

[+5-11under]

+1 for putting the whole list on one page, so you can easily scroll through the whole list.

[enoofu]

List is pretty timid and mainstream, I probably played over 80% of these games

 

List doesn't even have Planescape Torment, Baldur Gate II or Deux Ex for RPGs

No Battlefield 1942 , Return to Castle Wolfentain , or Enemy Territory for shooters which basically set the mainstream standard

Edited August 31, 2016 by enoofu

[thadsilverfox]

List is pretty timid and mainstream, I probably played over 80% of these games

 

List doesn't even have Planescape Torment, Baldur Gate II or Deux Ex for RPGs

No Battlefield 1942 , Return to Castle Wolfentain , or Enemy Territory for shooters which basically set the mainstream standard

Those probably ranked 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, and 56...

[godslabrat]

Emotionally, I want to include Sonic the Hedgehog. Rationally, I think it may be fair to exclude it. Almost every title here was the first in a long series of games which are still relevant today and still very playable to a modern gamer who had never touched them before. Sonic's "long series of games" ceased to be relevant before Clinton left office, and while I think the first Sonic would be playable to fresh eyes, I'm not really sure it would stand out or hold attention.

 

Now, if this were a Top 100 list, not having Sonic would be inexcusable.

[spacecadet]

Emotionally, I want to include Sonic the Hedgehog. Rationally, I think it may be fair to exclude it. Almost every title here was the first in a long series of games which are still relevant today

 

I don't know, I've personally never played Dota 2 and while I've heard of it, I couldn't even tell you what the gameplay's about. As for Guitar Hero, that series flamed out a lot quicker than Sonic did.

 

And that's just the first five games I've looked at; I could easily cut two in favor of Sonic.

 

I agree, I probably wouldn't put Sonic in the top 10 or anything, but it definitely should *at least* be in the 40's. I mean Christ, now I'm seeing NFL 2K5 at 41. Are you honestly going to tell me NFL 2K5 was more influential and remains more fun today than Sonic 1 or 2??

[keepdreamin]

Mortal Kombat over Street Fighter II? That's not even close in my opinion. I'd list plenty of SNK stuff before it as well, but I'm being realistic.

[+Cafeman]

I always enjoy a good top 50 list of games. I used to love Next Generation magazine's approach.

 

Concerning this list, I enjoyed reading it , certainly wasn't offended, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The problem is the same as always. There are too many games overall, *and* anyone's list is highly subjective to the reviewers' age and experience. I can't tell on what basis this list's authors picked the 50 games. It seems like 'influence' is the key factor over playability - hence Myst being on there at all (they even admit it is painful to play).

 

This list - are you telling me that Angry Birds is 'better' , and thus ranked higher, than any of the 4 Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog games? Or is the list implying it had more influence, due to the sprouting mobile games market in 2009, than Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog did in 1990-1992? Sonic, who beat out Mario and Mickey Mouse in popularity at that time?? See, Angry Birds is only more recent. (and I'm not knocking Angry Birds - I'm just confused no SEGA games like Sonic are included).

 

Of course, my top 50 wouldnt include Angry Birds even in the top 100, nor at least 20 of those picks. I'm subjective too.

[spacecadet]

Well we're all subjective; games are subjective. That's the fun of debating lists like these. We can all find things to pick apart about them. And that's why people make them; they get a lot of clicks from people talking about them.

 

I just re-read the introductory paragraphs. It says they went through a "multistage ranking process" with the "tech team". So it's more than a couple people, and they presumably voted somehow. I'm guessing they did the kind of thing I've done with lists like these and assigned a certain number of points to a game voted in a certain position. (So, a game voted 50th would get 1 point; a game voted #1 would get 50 points, and then you go through the whole team and add the points up.) I know that whenever you do that, you can get unpredictable, often surprising results.

 

The thing that makes me wonder is that it also says they had 150 "nominees". So the real question is who nominated these games and why, and what are the other 100 nominees? Was Sonic even one of them? Did somebody just forget to include it at all?

[VectorGamer]

+1 for putting the whole list on one page, so you can easily scroll through the whole list.

 

Meh...I was hoping for a slideshow where I had to click the entire way through

[Reaperman]

That is a pretty good job.

Whenever I see one of these lists, I always hunt for where they put Tetris. It's a good indicator for overall list quality. Tetris doesn't have to be #1, but if it's not in the top 5, the list isn't taking enough into consideration.

 

Also a big bravo for putting FF6 up where it needs to be,

but I find Gran Turismo 3 an odd choice over 2 or 4. Both of those have good reasons to claim 'best in series' status, but I tend to favor 4. If anything 3 was the weakest, IMO.

[spacecadet]

but I find Gran Turismo 3 an odd choice over 2 or 4. Both of those have good reasons to claim 'best in series' status, but I tend to favor 4. If anything 3 was the weakest, IMO.

 

I didn't even notice that through my fury at Sonic being left off the list, but I agree. Technically I'd say 4 was the best, although it really felt like kind of a rehash of 2 with better graphics. I played 2 to death, because it was just amazing seeing that many cars all realistically modeled (and I do seem to remember there being more "joke" and/or regular cars in 2 than 4, and I like those), whereas I didn't enjoy 4 quite that much because it just felt like the same thing. 2 also had a *lot* to do... 4 did also but I think most of the tracks and game modes were similar.

 

3, though, just felt like they were on a new system and they had to spend more time learning to program for it than they could on the actual cars themselves. So it was pretty barebones compared to 2 or 4.

[Theunknown]

Mortal Kombat over Street Fighter II? That's not even close in my opinion. I'd list plenty of SNK stuff before it as well, but I'm being realistic.

 

I'm really surprised no Street Fighter 2. Mortal Kombat did have so significant history in gaming but SF2 deserves to be on the list. Also, is it more or does it seem to be to many FPS on this list?