At the end of last year, I made mention of how, in 2005, I stumbled across a list made by IGN of the 100 Greatest Games. And how a new, updated list has arisen since.
This in turn got me thinking: With ten years separating these lists, how do they compare? What does this say about the games listed that have particular staying power? Is this truly the definitive list as it's made out to be?
So what I'll do for this post is to compare the lists: The 2005 original, the 2007 update and the 2015 iteration. Lets see if there are some common threads between them...
Firstly, the games that made both the 2005 and 2007 lists:
Alone in the Dark
Archon
Bionic Commando
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Day of the Tentacle
Dragon Warrior
Dune 2: Building of a Dynasty
Fallout
Final Fantasy 4
God of War
Gran Turismo 3
Grand Theft Auto 3
Mafia
NHL '94
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Pokemon
Prince of Persia
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Quake 2
Rayman 2: the Great escape
Rome: Total War
Sam and Max Hit the Road
Secret of Mana
Shining Force 2
Sid Meier's Civilization 2
Sonic the Hedgehog
Star Wars Arcade
Super Mario Kart
Syndicate
Ultima 7
Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution
Wave Race 64
~*~
Next, the games that made both the 2007 and 2015 lists.
Final Fantasy Tactics
Mega Man 2
Shadow of the Colossus
Silent Hill 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness
World of Warcraft
~*~
And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for, the games that made all three lists:
Advance Wars
Baldur's Gate 2
Battlefield 1942
Burnout 3: Takedown
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Chrono Trigger
Contra
Deus Ex
Doom
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 7
Goldeneye 007
Grim Fandango
Half Life
Half Life 2
Halo
Ico
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat
Metal Gear Solid
Metroid Prime
Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!
Ms. Pacman
Resident Evil 4
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Sim City 2000
Star Wars: TIE Fighter
Starcraft
Street Fighter 2
Super Mario 64
Super Mario Bros 1
Super Mario Bros 3
Super Mario World
Super Mario World: Yoshi's Island
Super Metroid
System Shock 2
Tetris
Thief 2: The Metal Age
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
X-COM: UFO Defense
~*~
So there you go: Forty-one games, that provide a common link between the three lists.
So what does this mean? One can imagine that these forty-one games have been influential and have proven to have considerable saying power - even compared to the more recent games listed in the 2015 list.
That's saying a lot when one considers that these games represent a nineteen year time period, with the earliest, Super Mario Bros, hailing from 1985 and the latest, Rome Total War, coming from 2004. Indeed, one can only wonder what the more current games listed in the 2015 list will look like in 2025....
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
Days of the New Republic
Happy New Year everyone! And here we go again with another year of Game Tumour.
So what did I play over my Christmas/New Years break? None other than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic!
Okay so yes I did get sucked into the hype over the new movie and yes it is in anticipation for giving the oft-maligned KOTOR 2 a look (and with the Steam release promising restored content and achievements how could I refuse?) but I made it a point to revisit KOTOR 1 due to several points of interest.
Firstly, I last played this game in 2009 on the original Xbox. This time I played it on Steam and with a better idea of what I was doing. Seeing as it's been seven years between drinks, it is interesting to see the game from such a perspective. And I can safely say that KOTOR 1 still holds up well - it's still fun and engaging and I even encountered some content I missed the first time around. And even with the knowledge of the big plot twist, it still comes across as well-orchestrated that you never really see it coming.
Secondly, I am playing this game when the ownership of Star Wars has changed hands to Disney - and subsequently slit the throat of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. This move is something I have mixed feelings about: On one hand, the EU was nothing short of huge and could be intimidating to newcomers - so scrapping the EU and starting again does invite a tightly controlled, and more coherent, continuity. But on the other hand, the end of the EU does mean that some quality material will be left by the wayside - and KOTOR being one of them.
Which is indeed a shame as KOTOR is easily one of the strongest entrants in Star Wars and could certainly show anyone working on the new continuity how it's done. It manages to achieve that difficult balancing act of being new and familiar - something that eluded the grasp of the prequels.
Thirdly, it is interesting to see this game now that Force Awakens has descended down from Heavens in a golden chariot. Much has been made that how this Star Wars has gone out of this way to have plenty of diversity in it's cast (not least Finn and Rey) but somehow that attention may have been better directed at KOTOR who did it first. There's no shortage of diversity in your companions (Bastila, Mission, Juhani and Jolee) but there is a real freedom being offered in who the PC is and how the player creates them. In fact, I find it funny how people rave about Rey being the strong female character that the Star Wars franchise needed when my character, Nicst Elhob, did it first.
In addition, the new Star Wars films have the unenviable task of being new and familiar at the same time. Whilst I did find Force awakens to be both enjoyable and an apology letter for the prequels, it still seemed to be leaning on the A New Hope a lot - at the expense of having something of it's own to say (hopefully Episode VIII doesn't fall into the same trap and be a retread of Empire Strikes back)- unlike KOTOR who again, certainly had something to say and within the context of the Star Wars universe.
And finally, KOTOR still represents the prequels that should've been. It's been said that there was a germ of an idea in them that sadly got overlooked. But that wasn't a problem with KOTOR: So Anakin Skywalker was truly The Chosen One who was meant to bring balance to the Force? So what - Nicst Elhob did just that. Yep, within the field of a RPG, I had the freedom to be precisely the Jedi I wanted to be. I got to make decisions that swung in the directions both good and bad. An why wouldn't I? This is an RPG, where the players are free to mould their character in the way they seem fit. Furthermore, the lack of a Mass Effect conversation reel yields no indication of how certain conversation responses will go over - therefore it becomes impossible to do a 'pure' light side character and, to me, makes the game better for it.
Personally, if I was charged with making a new Star Wars movie, or even a reboot of the prequels, I would look to KOTOR - because it got so much right it wasn't funny.
So what did I play over my Christmas/New Years break? None other than Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic!
Okay so yes I did get sucked into the hype over the new movie and yes it is in anticipation for giving the oft-maligned KOTOR 2 a look (and with the Steam release promising restored content and achievements how could I refuse?) but I made it a point to revisit KOTOR 1 due to several points of interest.
Firstly, I last played this game in 2009 on the original Xbox. This time I played it on Steam and with a better idea of what I was doing. Seeing as it's been seven years between drinks, it is interesting to see the game from such a perspective. And I can safely say that KOTOR 1 still holds up well - it's still fun and engaging and I even encountered some content I missed the first time around. And even with the knowledge of the big plot twist, it still comes across as well-orchestrated that you never really see it coming.
Secondly, I am playing this game when the ownership of Star Wars has changed hands to Disney - and subsequently slit the throat of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. This move is something I have mixed feelings about: On one hand, the EU was nothing short of huge and could be intimidating to newcomers - so scrapping the EU and starting again does invite a tightly controlled, and more coherent, continuity. But on the other hand, the end of the EU does mean that some quality material will be left by the wayside - and KOTOR being one of them.
Which is indeed a shame as KOTOR is easily one of the strongest entrants in Star Wars and could certainly show anyone working on the new continuity how it's done. It manages to achieve that difficult balancing act of being new and familiar - something that eluded the grasp of the prequels.
Thirdly, it is interesting to see this game now that Force Awakens has descended down from Heavens in a golden chariot. Much has been made that how this Star Wars has gone out of this way to have plenty of diversity in it's cast (not least Finn and Rey) but somehow that attention may have been better directed at KOTOR who did it first. There's no shortage of diversity in your companions (Bastila, Mission, Juhani and Jolee) but there is a real freedom being offered in who the PC is and how the player creates them. In fact, I find it funny how people rave about Rey being the strong female character that the Star Wars franchise needed when my character, Nicst Elhob, did it first.
In addition, the new Star Wars films have the unenviable task of being new and familiar at the same time. Whilst I did find Force awakens to be both enjoyable and an apology letter for the prequels, it still seemed to be leaning on the A New Hope a lot - at the expense of having something of it's own to say (hopefully Episode VIII doesn't fall into the same trap and be a retread of Empire Strikes back)- unlike KOTOR who again, certainly had something to say and within the context of the Star Wars universe.
And finally, KOTOR still represents the prequels that should've been. It's been said that there was a germ of an idea in them that sadly got overlooked. But that wasn't a problem with KOTOR: So Anakin Skywalker was truly The Chosen One who was meant to bring balance to the Force? So what - Nicst Elhob did just that. Yep, within the field of a RPG, I had the freedom to be precisely the Jedi I wanted to be. I got to make decisions that swung in the directions both good and bad. An why wouldn't I? This is an RPG, where the players are free to mould their character in the way they seem fit. Furthermore, the lack of a Mass Effect conversation reel yields no indication of how certain conversation responses will go over - therefore it becomes impossible to do a 'pure' light side character and, to me, makes the game better for it.
Personally, if I was charged with making a new Star Wars movie, or even a reboot of the prequels, I would look to KOTOR - because it got so much right it wasn't funny.
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