I wasn’t gonna get into the whole top x of x thing, particularly as it seems all industry commentators are throwing out features effectively identical, no matter how erroneous their processes may be.
But then I really got thinking about this whole end of the decade thing that just happened (well 2 weeks ago, but excuse me if I wanted some time away), and well yeah ok I wanted to put something down on paper just to get it off my mind.
So here’s a pretty quick list I threw together of my personal top 20 games of the previous decade.
I think it’s important to put some context to the list, that is to say how I came to conclude my list. Firstly, my unashamid resource was Wikipedia.org through the powers of it’s ‘20xx in video games’ pages, thanks going out to which ever bored souls had the time to put those together. Secondly, I tried to put together a list of games I spent the most time with; the premise being if I spent alot of time with the game then it must be good right? And finally, most importantly, that personal touch for recognising the genres and games that have most conquered my affections for this entertainment medium.
So without further delay (and screenshots, sorry lazy tonight), I present my ‘because everybody else is doing it’ top 20 of the first decade of the 2000’s (in reverse order for dramatic effect):-
20. Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (PC)
19. Virtua Fighter 5 (X360)
18. Advance Wars (GBA)
17. Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
16. Neverwinter Nights (PC)
15. Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
14. Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)
13. Left 4 Dead (PC)
12. TimeSplitters 2 (PS2)
11. Halo 3 (X360)
10. Fire Emblem (GBA)
9. Soul Calibur II (GC)
8. Battlefield 1942 (PC)
7. Mass Effect (X360)
6. Company of Heroes (PC)
5. Quake 3 Arena (PC)
4. Rome: Total War (PC)
3. Rock Band 2 (PS3)
2. Counter-Strike Source (PC)
1.Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne (PC)
Number 5 I have an issue with. Q3A was released in December 1999, thus putting it in the previous decade to the naughties. If you do want to count exceptions to that then you better replace Ut2k4 with Ut99, as it’s a similar case again, and the original was always better than 2k4 :p
Well lst just call it ‘Quake 3 Arena Gold’ the compilation of which I was referringl obviously having been released much later than the original. I spent my time with the game between 2001-2004 so its firmly in my decade picks.
Otherwise, I’d have grievences with anyone suggesting Unreal Tournament Classic was/is the best of the franchise… not by a long shot my friend.
Warcraft 3? Really!?
The Trailer on the Warcraft 2 disc was way cooler then that game ever ended up being
You need to consider all aspects of the game
obviously that means including its mod/map tools… which in turn means including ‘fun’ maps. Tower Defence, Dota, Maul, Hero Seige etc etc etc. How many games do you know have spawned so many interesting sub-genres? Thats why it wins.
The only downfall to the title was Blizzard so quickly moving on to dump all development time into WoW. I was hoping for at least 1 more WC3 expansion.