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[Andrew J.]

TheBigG753

If I am not a mistaken,in 2013 GOTY thread The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was your first spot,now not even a honorable mention,did the honeymoon phase end?

Wrong gen.

 

[Morfeo]

A great generation with one of the best and most underrated consoles ever in the Wii.

1. Super Mario Galaxy ; This was the game that got me back into gaming, and a true classic in every sense of the word. .
2. Demon's Souls ; Forced me to buy a PS3, and with its modern graphics and an awesome desolated world, the retro-sensibilities of the game made it a true return to form for AAA-gaming after years of "press A for Awesomness".
3. Dark Souls ; Very similar to Demons Souls, i love the intereconnectedness of the world, but think the level design in Demon's is slightly better.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ; This game might have the best dungeons in any game ever, and the awesome motion control gameplay made it such a breath of fresh air in 2006.
5. Mega Man 9 ; Like Demon's Souls, this game went back to the past to go forward, to a genre and a style long forgotten - and it popularized the later indie revolution.
6. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ; Technically a GBA-game, we got it on the DS, and what makes the game so good is that it actually manages to combine a visual novel-like game with actual puzzles that are challenging, and feel amazing to solve.
7. VVVVVV ; One of the best plattformers ever, awesome style, level design and the simple yet so elegant gravity switching mechanic works so well.
8. New Super Mario Bros Wii ; Very underrated game thanks to its bland visual style in a gaming world obsessed with presentation, but in 2009 this game finally gave console players a new set of levels to defeat for Mario after 19 years of waiting. And those levels were great. Even innovated a really cool 4 player mode.
9. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ; Fantastic puzzles, and with its motion+-based gameplay, it is a game that probably will never replicated.
10. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia ; The best handheld Castlevania was the only one who dared to challenge the player. Felt a bit like Simons Quest in how the player was able to roam the transylvanian countryside before finding the castle, with great level design and an interesting and innovative sub-weapon system.

x. 3D Dot Game Heroes ; The best Zelda on a non-Nintendo system
x. Braid ; Maybe the best puzzler ever.
x. Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles ; Two of the best games ever with a remake of one of them.
x. Dark Souls 2 ; More Dark Souls is always good.
x. Donkey Kong Country Returns ; Retros first masterpiece is almost as good as the original trilogy.
x. Europa Universalis III ; Would have been near the top of the list proper - had it not been completely surpassed by its successor in every way.
x. Ghost Trick ; Another really great game that actually cares to challenge the player with innovative puzzles.
x. The Last Story ; The first true Final Fantasy in a decade made its brilliant return to their true home on the Nintendo-plattforms they were born.
x. Mark of the Ninja ; Very innovative stealth-game with really well-thought out levels and abilities.
x. Mario Kart Wii ; Might be my favorite Mario Kart ever, and the motion-control even made significant others join in on the fun.
x. Metroid Prime Trilogy ; Three First Person Adventures in one impeccable package.
x. Mirrors Edge ; Plattforming in first person for the first time since Jumping Flash.
x. Okami Wii ; The best version of this Zelda-clone was unfortunately still a bit too slow for its own good, but a great game regardless.
x. Portal ; Felt so fresh when it came out, and even had a decent story to go with the puzzles.
x. Professor Layton & The Curious Village , The first Layton is still my favorite of them all.
x. Resident Evil 4 Wii ; Another fantastic version of a game from gen 6 made better from the Wiis amazing motion controls.
x. Shadow Complex ; The level design was not that great, but i still just had a blast with this when it first released in an age slightly before the indies stepped up their game on metrodivanias.
x. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; I thought this was overall slightly weaker than the first Galaxy, but still a fantastic game and one of the best ever.
x. Wii Sports ; A true Revolution
x. Wii Sports Resort ; The Revolution - advanced.
x. Super Smash Bros Brawl ; The perfect celebration of gaming, and now with Sonic and Solid Snake.

 

[Barry Burton]

TheBigG753

If I am not a mistaken,in 2013 GOTY thread The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds was your first spot,now not even a honorable mention,did the honeymoon phase end?

Wrong gen.

Yeah, what Andrew said!

I don't know what the current gen is or what it will become with the Switch and all that, but yeah, ALBW is still up there very high in my book. Incredible game!

 

[iconoclast]

I really wanted to limit my list to 30 games, but I had to go with 40. I felt like too many great games were being left behind. There's still a bunch of stuff that didn't make it, but I'm happy enough with this. All ordered:

1. NINJA GAIDEN II ; Patiently waiting for somebody to make a better game.
2. Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label Extra
3. Mushihimesama Futari ; God Mode is perfect, and 1.5 Maniac isn't far behind. The rest of the modes are good too.
4. Akai Katana Shin
5. Dodonpachi Saidaioujou
6. Ultra Street Fighter IV
7. Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2
8. Bayonetta
9. Dark Souls
10. Earth Defense Force 2025

x. Espgaluda II
x. Deathsmiles
x. Hard Corps: Uprising ; Best game in the Contra series. Sayuri makes this better than Strider & Cannon Dancer, too.
x. Vanquish
x. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge ; Even a sloppy Ninja Gaiden is better than most games.
x. Deathsmiles II
x. Lumines
x. Dead Rising
x. Shadowrun
x. Devil May Cry 4 ; Better than 3.

x. Demon's Souls ; I think most, if not all of the followups are better games, but Demon's left a stronger impression since it was the first in the series.
x. NieR ; Best story, and one of the best soundtracks in gaming.
x. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
x. Halo 3 ; Great campaign and great multiplayer. Neither are the series' best, but they make a nice package when put together.
x. Child of Eden
x. Yakuza 4 ; I really need to play Kenzan.
x. Valkyria Chronicles
x. Strania -The Stella Machina-
x. Tales of Vesperia
x. Dark Souls II ; When this came out, I did nothing but play it and watch streams for about a month. I haven't touched it since, but it was fun for 250-300 hours.

x. Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown
x. Mamorukun Curse!
x. Mega Man 9 ; Best in the series.
x. The Last Remnant ; The best Square game I've played.
x. Muchi Muchi Pork!
x. Metal Gear Rising
x. Lost Planet
x. WipEout HD
x. Catherine
x. Pokemon Platinum

 

[JDHarbs]

1. BioShock ; It is the greatest example of games as art, and it only could have been possible in the form of a game. It set the tone for storytelling to become the defining trait of games from this gen.

"It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else."

2. Halo 3 ; It was a gaming event unlike anything ever seen. It became the bar for all multiplayer suites that most still haven't caught up to yet, and was the home to the best memories I have of last gen. Sleep well, Chief. Let's just pretend that you went out with a bang.

"I am a timeless chorus. Join your voice with mine, and sing victory everlasting."

3. Journey ; If beauty took the form of a video game, it would call itself Journey.

4. The Last of Us ; I wouldn't call it the Citizen Kane of games, but it's still the greatest story ever told in a game. It just didn't need to be a game to tell it, and the surprisingly great multiplayer tack-on was a pleasant surprise.

"It doesn't matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery."

5. Red Dead Redemption ; Take the open world formula that worked so well for GTA, add in the greatest story from Rockstar yet, and set it in the wild west. It was simply a dream game.

"Our time has passed, John..."

6. Portal ; It was genius. It was unique. It had style. It was exactly as long as it needed to be, and above all it proved that games could be funny in the era of gritty storytelling.

"As part of a previously mentioned required test protocol, we can no longer lie to you. When the testing is over, you will be missed."

7. Dead Space ; A masterclass in atmospheric game design from the haunting audio to the minimalist HUD, and the most rock-solid core gameplay loop in years. It's the best horror game of the gen and it's not even close.

"Then the traveler in the dark, thanks you for your little spark."

8. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons ; Forget Braid and Super Meat Boy. Brothers was the greatest indie game. It used it's control scheme to enhance it's storytelling themes, and deliver a harder emotional gut punch than anything else this gen.

9. Batman: Arkham Asylum ; Finally we got a AAA quality superhero game and it delivered by flipping the stealth genre. Now the enemies were the ones afraid of us, and along with it's genius combat system, we all got to feel like powerful superheroes.

"Welcome to the madhouse, Batman!"

10. Spec Ops: The Line ; The hidden gem of the gen. It uses it's generic shooter appearance to throw you off guard as you're sent into hell and question how you look at the genre forever.

"Do you feel like a hero yet?"

Honorable Mentions:
x. Alan Wake
x. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
x. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
x. FTL: Faster Than Light
x. Gears of War
x. Ghostbusters: The Video Game
x. God of War 3
x. Hotline Miami
x. Left 4 Dead 2
x. Limbo
x. Mirror's Edge
x. One Finger Death Punch
x. Telltale’s The Walking Dead
x. Thomas Was Alone
x. To The Moon
x. Trials: Evolution
x. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
x. Vanquish

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

1. Call of Duty 4 ; Both the pinnacle and scourge of modern shooters.

2. Skyrim ; One of the most influential RPGs of our time.

3. Halo 3 ; Bungie's last hurrah in the Master Chief trilogy is also the best iteration.

4. Super Street Fighter IV ; The ultimate form of a beat fighter in a generation.

5. Rhythm Heaven ; Simple, bizarre, genius, RH is a remarkable rhythm game.

6. Uncharted 2 ; The reinvention of the 3rd person action game.

7. The Last of Us ; One of the finest narratives in the entire history of gaming.

8. X-Com: Enemy Unknown ; A strategy games made brilliant by its reciprocal game systems.

9. Gears of War 2 ; A multiplayer staple lasting a generation

10. Metal Gear Rising ; A Brilliant, bonkers maverick character action game that exemplifies Platinum's stellar design.

 

[NathanDiego]

Yeah, what Andrew said!

I don't know what the current gen is or what it will become with the Switch and all that, but yeah, ALBW is still up there very high in my book. Incredible game!

XD yeah my mistake

 

[LiquidSolid]

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of gen 7. So many great studios shut down, so many great franchises killed or streamlined and I generally just associate it with clunkiness because of the start of the transition from physical to digital. But having said that, there are still a lot of great games that came out during it.

1. The Last of Us ; An incredible game from every angle, especially on harder difficulties where the survival horror side of the game really shines and every bullet matters.

2. Portal ; A really creative, charming and fun little game. Preferred to the sequel because I feel it's a tighter experience and story.

3. Demon's Souls ; Came out at the perfect time, when major publishers were pushing for the easiest and simplest games they could. I gave up on it at first, even though I really enjoyed it, but eventually came back and it clicked with me. Love it.

4. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ; Fleshed out the characters from the original, while adding some great new ones, and then combined those with amazing settings, insane set pieces and an incredibly fun story.

5. Mirror's Edge ; A short game and the story wasn't much but holy crap, the platforming and level design were incredible. Sadly, the sequel lacked the level design of the original and we'll probably never get a true successor to it.

6. Journey ; The minimalistic story and gameplay worked perfectly, especially alongside one of the coolest co-op implementations I've seen in a game.

7. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors ; The best written and designed adventure game of this type I've played. The multiple playthroughs that then play into each other was a really brilliant piece of game design.

8. Nier ; I laughed and mocked Nier and Square Enix when it was announced, ignored it when it came out but after hearing some positive noise around it, gave it a shot and loved it. Yes, its gameplay wasn't the best and it had "PS2 graphics" but the world, story and soundtrack were incredible.

9. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker ; The most under-rated game in the Metal Gear series. It takes a little to get used to but once you do, the huge variety of missions, crazy weapons and levelling up your Mother Base is a hell of a lot of fun. It's a real pity MGSV didn't manage to translate all of this over properly into a big budget open world game like the initial pitch seemed to promise.

10. Valkyria Chronicles ; The voice performances really brought the story down but what an insanely fun take on the SRPG genre. Beautiful art style too.

x. Burnout Paradise ; The GOAT open world racer. None I've played since, including NFS Most Wanted, came close to capturing the fantastic design of Paradise City and insanely fun gameplay. Its post-release support was also brilliant, especially the Bikes patch and Big Surf Island DLC.
x. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ; I'm not a big FPS fan but Spec Ops mode was a brilliant idea, one that's sadly lacking from current shooters.
x. Fallout New Vegas ; A complete buggy mess but a complete buggy mess with really great design and writing. A vastly superior game to Fallout 3 and Skyrim.
x. God of War 3 ; SSM took God of War, cut out all the fat and created a game that's jaw dropping scene after jaw dropping scene. It's an insane game to play through.
x. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 2 ; One of my favourite JRPGs in a long time. Everything that was built up in the first game paid off and it made for a fantastic experience.
x. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance ; A blast of a game from start to finish. Its story probably would've annoyed me back when I really cared about Metal Gear's story but it was a lot of fun.
x. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots ; The game that made me stop caring about Metal Gear's story. The first two chapters are amazing, forcing you to use stealth in the middle of warzones and providing some really cool systems within them to really mix things up. But chapters 3 through 5 are very different and fail to live up to the potential shown at the start of the game. A great game, even if it is disappointing.
x. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time ; By far and away the best R&C. The worlds and weapons were as creative as ever, the addition of the hover boots made traversing levels a blast and for the first time, the Clank sections were really fun. Even the planet selection screen was a big improvement over the typical planet list.
x. Red Dead Redemption ; By far and away my favourite Rockstar game. If the Mexico section hadn't been such a let down, it would've been in my top ten.
x. Yakuza 5 ; The best game in the series since Yakuza 2. The way everything comes together at the end is amazing and I enjoyed the non-Kiryu characters even more than I did in Yakuza 4.

 

[KiNolin]

1. Nier ; From gameplay, to writing, presentation and the way its narrative was built, there's so many unique things about this game. Ever since it came out, this game keeps coming back into my mind.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ;

3. Mark of the Ninja ;

4. Super Mario Galaxy ;

5. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 ;

6. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow ;

7. Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season 1 ;

8. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 ;

9. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption ;

10. Vanquish ;

 

[Effigenius]

Games of gen 7

1) Portal ; This game is close to perfect. So cleverly written, the sense of adventure and exploration is phenomenal. A game where you don't kill a single enemy, it completely turns the concept of what a video game is on its head. This game is about deciding what you need to do and then figuring out how to do it. And on top of that, it features probably my favorite boss battle in gaming and the best song. What a ride!

2) Batman: Arkham Asylum ; I had no expectations for this game when I first heard about it. Another licensed game. Yawn. Hell, another Batman game. Those always suck. Even the ones we tell ourselves are good (NES Batman, really weren't) And yet somehow Rock Steady did it. They made playing as Batman incredibly compelling. Swooping from the shadows to take out enemies, or suspending them from mid air. And these were just the no-name grunts. You also got to battle some of the famous Bat villains in this game like Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Bane and Killer Croc. And those wonderful toys! The bat-arsenal was well represented and fun as hell to use.

3) Alan Wake ; Along with everyone else, I completely ignored this game when it came out on March 14, 2010. I had been hotly anticipating Red Dead Redemption for over a year, and that's the game I bought that day. And I liked it. But a few months later I got around to trying Alan Wake, and that's the game that wound up making this list.

4) Bio shock Infinite ; I bought the first two Bioshock games at release and enjoyed them, but They were fun because of the mood they created. Infinite is fun because of the gameplay. Flying around on sky hooks, exploring the fantastical flying city, uncovering the depraved secrets. What a game.

5) Far Cry 3 ; 2012 is remembered as a weak year for gaming, the year that Journey and Walking dead dunked it out for game of the year. And then you had Far Cry 3 slip in near the end of the year. Had it arrived earlier, this might have been the game to win the lion's share of goty awards. While the Ubisoft formula is often derided here, it's hard to argue with how compelling it can be, and a lot of it got its start right here.

6) Tomb Raider 2013 ; this spot was either going to TR or Uncharted 2. I wasn't putting them both on here. After a lot of thought, I decided that U2 is the most fun to watch. It's the more cinematic experience, plays the most like a theme park ride with its scripted set pieces, whereas Tomb Raider is more fun to actually play. So I went with that.

7) Infamous 2 ; I feel like this game doesn't get enough credit. It built really well on the first game and had so much depth to it and so many options. It was really possible to build a unique power set the way you wanted to. Second Son felt so shallow by comparison.

8) Super Mario Galaxy ; Pure fun and beautiful to look at. A masterpiece

9) The Last of Us ; The RE4 of gen 7. Great atmosphere, great storytelling, characters, combat, everything was just superb.

10) Ni No Kuni ; Beautiful to look at, and a really engaging rpg.














And my honorable mentions

X.Grand Theft Auto 4

X. castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

X. Uncharted 2

X. Meteos

X. Call of Duty: MW2

X. Gears of War 2

X. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

X. Dragon Quest 5

X. Red Dead Redemption

X. Mass Effect 2

X. Borderlands

X. Uncharted

 

[AniHawk]

just a reminder - there is less than 48 hours to vote!

 

[Grexeno]

just a reminder - there is less than 24 hours to vote!

I thought the deadline was 11:59 PM PST on June 17? That's very early Sunday night in the Eastern Time Zone.

 

[AniHawk]

I thought the deadline was 11:59 PM PST on June 17? That's very early Sunday night in the Eastern Time Zone.

oops you're right!

 

[John Caboose]

There are so many amazing games. I don't think I can do the generation justice with any set of top 10 picks.

 

[Incendiary]

Been putting off doing this, but okay...here we go.

Top 10

1. Bioshock Infinite ; I know a lot of people don't consider this to be as good at its predecessors, but it was by far my favorite game of the last generation. I enjoyed all the vigors, the gameplay was tight and fun, the story was engaging, and I loved the world that was built with Columbia. It's one of the few games I've collected actual physical merchandise for outside of the game because I engaged with it so much. Also one of the few games I've ever 100%ed in terms of achievements/trophies.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ; Naughty Dog set the bar for the cinematic action/adventure with this game and it's still fun to play through even after beating it. Perfect pacing and the story plays out wonderfully.

3. Super Meat Boy ; One of the tightest, fun platformers ever created. The quick respawn lets you attempt levels over and over without any of the frustration and on a technical level you feel a great sense of accomplishment once you start mastering the hardest levels. Plus the original music was an amazing soundtrack.

4. Dark Souls ; While I've cooled on the Souls series come 8th generation, I played the hell out of this game when it came out, making multiple characters and just having a blast with summoning and fighting the cool bosses over and over. Still the best game in the series.

5. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ; Basically a perfect tactical game. Sure it was difficult, but it was super fun and the strategy aspect never got old. Plus, I got super attached to all my soldiers after going through so many harrowing missions with them.

6. Alan Wake ; I bought a 360 just for this game, and it didn't disappoint. I loved the light-based action gameplay which allowed for a lot of unique weapons and enemies. Story was fun as well - really hope someday we get a continuation of Alan's story.

7. Fallout: New Vegas ; The highlight of the first-person RPG genre that exploded in this generation. Obsidian struck gold and this was the first game I happily bought all the DLC for just because I wanted to spend more time in the world.

8. Alpha Protocol ; Another Obsidian gem that was a diamond in the rough. Overlooked and underrated, it had some of the best "your conversations and decisions actually affect the world" gameplay of the generation.

9. Bulletstorm ; Because dick-tits.

10. Binary Domain ; Great, underrated third-person shooter title that was hella fun and had a pretty neat story.

Honorable Mentions:

x. 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
x. Portal 2
x. Donkey Kong Country Returns
x. Batman: Arkham City
x. Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction

EDIT: Actually swapped out Portal 2 for Binary Domain because I forgot about it and I love that game to death, and Portal 2 probably gets enough votes already.

 

[Kevin Shields]

Wish this was tagged so more people could know it was going on... My favorite generation for sure.

I think it's gonna be a battle between Last of Us and Super Mario Galaxy

 

[TheBryanJZX90]

1. Dragons Dogma: a great combination of open world RPG and medieval character action that puts most of its focus on the gameplay, which is important given the amount of time you're fighting things in most games of this type versus talking to people.

2. Shadows of the Damned: this is my favorite evolution of Resident Evil 4 gameplay with a really fun style and setting. Also the stomp is really fun.

3. Halo Reach: getting away from the player-insert blank slate of Master Chief allowed Bungie to stretch their storytelling skills much further than ever before. The best Halo game.

4.Demons Souls

5. Dark Souls

6. Journey

7. Portal 2

 

[Ridesh]

Wish this was tagged so more people could know it was going on... My favorite generation for sure.

I think it's gonna be a battle between Last of Us and Super Mario Galaxy

And Dark Souls, that's the top 3 for sure.

 

[RespectThySole]

Wish this was tagged so more people could know it was going on... My favorite generation for sure.

I think it's gonna be a battle between Last of Us and Super Mario Galaxy

I think Dark Souls will get #1

 

[Uno Venova]

1. The Last of Us ; There hasn't been a game that's left such a big impression on me in a long time. It’s a pillar of this generation like RE4 and MGS3 was to last gen. The story is great, with strong characters and entertaining writing. The fact that the story was tied together with extremely satisfying combat is why this game is so good. The meaty punch that every shot has coupled with the visual feedback you get from the AI, the way some shots by the enemy can knock Joel on his ass and have you scrambling to get your footing to get your next shot off, how one thing can go wrong while you are using stealth and the gameplay completely changes and turns from hunting into hunted gameplay. Everything about it was sublime.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves ;

3. Super Mario Galaxy ;

4. Red Dead Redemption ;

5. Mass Effect 2;

6. Bioshock;

7. Batman: Arkham Asylum ;

8. Infamous ;

9. Sleeping Dogs ;

10. Call of Duty 4 ;

 

[KalBalboa]

1. Max Payne 3
   
   

   

   
   The game that focused everything it had on making the act of shooting feel like a masterpiece in action. I've written countless times about my love of Max Payne 3: it's my number one for the gen.
   
   
2. Infamous 2
   
   

   

3. Driver: San Francisco
   
   

   

4. Warhawk
   
   

   

   
   An unsung, perfectly balanced, gem of a multiplayer game. Warhawk hit at the acme of multiplayer shooting in my life and allowed me and my three best friends to spend literally hundreds of hours on my couch playing CTF against the world. This game is basically what I always wanted out of an online shooter and it has yet to be topped in pure fun-factor for me.
   
   
5. Burnout Paradise
   
   

   

6. God of War 3
   
   

   

7. PixelJunk Monsters
   
   

   

8. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
   
9. Red Dead Redemption
   
10. Wipeout HD
    
11. You Don't Know Jack
    
12. Heavy Rain
    
13. Ghostbusters
    
14. Scott Pilgrim
    
15. Super Stardust HD

Honorable Mentions: Far Cry 3, The Last of Us, Uncharted 2, Uncharted 3, Starhawk, Twisted Metal 2012, Ratchet and Clank A Crack In Time, Wii Sports, Brothers, Journey, Spelunky

 

[AniHawk]

Wish this was tagged so more people could know it was going on... My favorite generation for sure.

I think it's gonna be a battle between Last of Us and Super Mario Galaxy

the top two are really close actually. more than i would have thought.

 

[theecakee]

1. Red Dead Redemption: It's a great game.
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. Mass Effect 2
4. Bioshock Infinite
5. Halo 3
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2
7. Antichamber
8. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
9. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

I really flopped back and forth on those last four and some in my honorable mentions. Bioshock, Uncharted 2, Portal 2, are probably on a lot of lists...but those last four I suppose were games not as universally loved by everyone that I wanted mentioned on GAFs list.



Honorable Mentions
Portal 2
Paper's Please
Bioshock
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The Orange Box
Dishonored
Starcraft II
Heavy Rain
Fallout 3
Borderlands 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Hotline Miami
Dark Souls
Super Meat Boy
Mario Kart Wii
Terraria

 

[Fat4all]

1. Demon's Souls ; Demon's Souls is a lot of things to a lot of people. To some it's a conceit of defeat, to others it's a proud threshold crossed, to the creators it's a style of game they cherish finally getting appreciated, and to me it was my eyes opening to a new way to think about how video games are designed. The mechanics at play in the game are nowhere near revolutionary, but they way those mechanics interact with each other and with the player make all the difference in the end. Learning the details of each of the kingdoms you visit through visuals and enemy placement bring a unique twist on storytelling that only the games director could of done, and has continued to do through the subsequent games. There are those who argue that Dark Souls is a better game for various reasons, and I don't dissuade their choice, I just truly feel that Demon's deserves a spot on top a bit more.

2. NieR ; Silimar in the case of my number one pick, NieR is a game that would hardly be the way it is if it wasn't for the director at the helm. Long frustrated with various popular tropes in the industry, they often sought to directly defy the traditions of the market and carve his own path. With NieR, we find a story dealing with many different factors; identity, individualism, free will, colonialism, and expansion. A story that delves into the moral grey area of one's own beliefs and directly challenges them in piercing, dangerous ways. Cause and effect, helping and harming, both actions have greater consequences then we can know, and they are often unavoidable, leaving scars in the world and in ourselves. A dark, often sad story, but one that makes you appreciate life in its many forms.

3. To the Moon ; The past can not be changed, and what it done is done. But, what if the past could be remembered in a different way? What if a device could alter your past in the world that is your mind? In To the Moon, such a machine exists and it's used on those with very little time left to live, giving them some solace in their lives and clearing up their regrets before they pass away. An odd couple paring of scientists visit a new client to do just this, but are given a task that they can hardly believe, and can't seems to solve. To the Moon is a hilarious and deeply moving story about life in all its stages, and the memories that harbor our deepest regrets. A beautiful game from beginning to end.

4. Bioshock ; While some consider Bioshock a step back in some ways to it's predecessor series, the world-building, atmosphere, level design and voice acting make it one of the best first-person shooters of the entire genre. When it comes to world design, what starts out as an odyssey of bright visuals and weighty concepts turns into a dark contrast of power and corruption built into a society that cares not for the plight of others, but thinks only of the self. Mixed into these themes are some amazingly solid levels built around the battles you build from the Big Daddies that wander the world of Rapture. While its a story that's a little blunt with it's concepts, its still the kind of game the video game industry needs more of, and luckily we are continuing to get.

5. Deadly Premonition ; There are so, so many things wrong with Deadly Premonition. The gameplay feels extremely archaic, the voice acting is laughable, the world design is ugly, the characters are bizarre, the day/night cycle makes missions a pain in the ass. What saves this game from being another sub-par piece of shovelware is in it's story and directing. Deadly Premonition is Swery65's love letter to Twin Peaks (whether he wants to admit it or not), and just like Twin Peaks what starts out as a confusing, garish story with a wacko group of characters slowly morphs into something greater than the sum of its own parts. Though you are given hints as to where the game is headed early on with the banter between the main character and his split personality, the narrative that springs forth is awe-full in its truest sense.

6. Rhythm Heaven Fever ; I have a deep love of rhythm games. From Parappa the Rapper, to Frequency, to Project Diva and onward. I wanted to force myself to only choose one of this generation, and it came down to quite a few choices, but had to go with the one that made me feel the happiest and most satisfied. While I love the up-beat, inspiring, and depressing moments of EBA, and the touch and hold mechanics of Rhythm Heaven DS, Rhythm Heaven Fever is everything I could ever want in a rhythm game. Simple controls (two buttons, no motion controls at all), simple design, and a hearty dose of imagination and love. You get all of this in RHF, and it is easily my favorite game of the entire Wii library.

7. Papo & Yo ; It's hard to tell a personal story to someone else. I've had to do it before and my entire body was shuddering, trying to stop me from continuing on. I can only imagine what it's like to tell a personal story to millions of people. Addiction can destroy even the strongest of bonds, and knowing when to let got of the ones you love is a journey you often have to take alone. The barriers you have to break down, the excuses you have to shake off, the pain you have to bring to light, all of this understanding can happen in a split second in your own head, but it feels like a task that lasts forever. But sometimes, it has to be done, no matter how much it hurts.

8. Spec Ops: The Line ; Spec Ops: The Line is not only a superb critique of its own genre, but also a look at ptsd in a way never before seen in gaming. It's very rare that a game has you directly questioning your own actions in such a way as SO:tL. You feel a massive disconnect between yourself, your avatar, and the rest of the games world on more than one occasion, but are drawn to try and find justifications in what you do, hoping for vindication, hoping that in the end you will be told that what you did was the right thing to do. This is a feeling unlike any other delivered to the player of a game, and something extremely impressive to see unfold.

9. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons ; The title of this game is blunt and sort of amazing in a way. It tells you so much about this game, but in a way you don't quite understand fully until the credits start to roll. It's a game that has everything to do with the connections of a family, and how every single member of a family influence each other. You control two brother who must journey across dangerous lands to find a substance that can cure their dying father. Each brother is controlled using the two analog stick on the controller, and so you must use your controller in a very unique way, finding a balance and rhythm in your actions to progress through the world. The interplay between the games wordless narrative and how the characters are controlled leads to some of the most interesting and creative storytelling directions I have every experienced.

10. Assassin's Creed 2 ; Assassin's Creed 2 brought together some of the best aspects of everything I loved about the first game, but in a setting of greater importance and the hope that it would lead to even better things. AC2's setting of fifteenth-century Italy allowed for some of the most interesting interconnections of art, history, people and places. Coupling this setting with an interesting and charismatic main character made for one of the most compelling games of the franchise. Along with it's fantastic side quests of The Truth, the ending of the game was a great play on the lack-luster ending of Assassin's Creed 1, while also giving us a narrative hook for future game that only made me more fascinated with the future of the series (though it has sense waned down completely). AC2 was fantastic in it's own right, while also building a base for what could of been a flawless franchise if done right.

 

[Alex Anderson]

1. Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds (PS3): Always enjoyed the series. Playing online and making friends had me playing nightly for 2+ years.

2. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney (DS): Way deeper than expected as far as sheer amount of text goes, intriguing, and really funny to boot.

3. Earth Defense Force 2017 (360): This game is a blast! Huge destructible maps and environments and just plugging the shit out of some giant space ants with a variety of weapons. Even more fun splitscreen.

4. Outrun Online Arcade (360 vers.): Beautiful Arcade Racer, fun to time trial.

5. MLB The Show '08 (PS3): Played the first 2 or 3 PS3 entries in this series quite a bit. Recall sitting like 2 feet away from my CRT HD set to maximize my hitting success lol.

6. Phantasy Star Zero (DS): Satisfying enough Phantasy Star Online-like for DS. Maxed out my char within 6 weeks or so and never touched it again

7. 1 vs. 100 (360). Live MMOGS (game show). I miss it.

8. Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow (DS). It's a Caatlevania Game.

9. NBA 2K7 (PS3 ver.): First PS3 game I had, Played it a ton. Didn't really care about current rosters and didn't buy future versions. Fun owning it with low level players like the inimitable Pavel Podkolzin.

10. Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 (PSP): Portable Hot Shots with online play. Woo hoo.


So yeah I didn't play all that many different games that gen. I did own a a Wii! Let Hot Shots eat up a huge chunk of the gen and then health gave me the ol' metaphorical Piston Honda hook to the gut I'm still trying to get up from. Haven't gamed in a while, doh.

 

[Nocturnowl]

My brain kinda drained this month but I've got something to show, at last.


1. Dark Souls ; The buyers remorse was heavy, for hours I'd been confused, killed, lost in a ghostly underground ruin, killed, battling skeletal terrors, killed, it was enough to turn a man hollow. Then I finally noticed the stairs leading to the Undead Burgh and the light of Lordran finally managed to sneak through the clouds, until an explosive smashed over my head, killed, well at least it was the right direction.

Dark Souls may not have been the first of From Software's soul based ascension through the generation but it was the one that broke the glass ceiling. The brooding atmosphere, sprawling world structure, tense combat, it gradually pulled together to create a truly engrossing experience that took the gaming world by storm. Honestly this here is the title is closest to recapturing the unique zeitgesit feeling I had with Ocarina of Time, it's impact was a more subtle one but its ripples are still felt.

2. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; A wise man once said

"There was a Super Mario Galaxy one
That was a whole lot of fun
But its sequel surpassed it
a ten outta ten hit
And it's more than just a rerun"

Wise words indeed, SMG2 tackles the tall order of creating a direct sequel to something already considered the peak of its genre, yet despite the familiar base the team at EAD Tokyo managed to create even more out of this world platforming scenarios. The sequel gets going from World 1, the original game is almost like the training wheels for this and the momentum carries through. The new powerups are more interesting in regards to gameplay, the platforming scenarios stronger and as far as I'm concerned this is still the 3D platformer to beat, it's peak Mario.

3. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ; The DS opened the door for all sorts of oddball titles, and one of the earliest standouts was the enhanced port of a once Japan exclusive GBA title. Looking at the evidence in the court record, the odds didn't look too good for such a niche concept overseas but much like Wright himself, the game overcame the odds and delivered a turnabout, becoming a recurring mainstay of the 3DS. Much kudos needs to be given to the localisation, to this day the first Ace Attorney has writing I find crackles and sparks with fun and intrigue, crime thrillers are a dime a dozen in this world but Ace Attorney's excellently executed blend of more unusual and sometimes silly concepts with the ever engaging draw of murder mystery has it fill a very enjoyable niche.
The DS specific additions may only have been for one last bonus case but what a case it was, Rise from the Ashes is still the GOAT Case.

4. Super Street Fighter 4 ; In the earlier days of its generation Street Fighter as an upcoming title stood out like a bright colourful light in a world of dreary browns and piss filters, though the art style is often debated there's no doubt in my mind that the vibrant and stylised visuals of Street Fighter 4 drew me towards it. But there was a problem, I didn't actually enjoy fighters much and SF2 Turbo was about as far as my SF experience went, quarter circle? dragon punch motion? might as well be speaking gibberish to me.
There was a painful learning process, building that muscle memory to get the motions down, figuring out the numerous character quirks and thinking Seth was the cheapest thing I'd ever faced. By the time the obligatory Super update was coming around I was a changed man, I'd seen the light and finally unlocked the door to an entire genre I'd never understood. I never really got good at SF4 but it didn't matter, a local multiplayer classic and even if I'm still not entirely sure just why the world hates Blanka with such fervour, it wont stop me from picking him!

5. Donkey Kong Country Returns ; After years of Nintendo having no idea how to handle the franchise after the loss of Rare, they handed DK to Retro Studios who worked their magic bringing back the franchise as something familiar yet distinctly their own. To go even further, in a generation where 2D platformers had a strong revival the team tackling the genre for the first time also reached the upper echleon of platforming titles. Level design that lives and breathes, far from static, a string of playable set pieces with no jarring interruptions to the flow. The true genius of its level design includes both aesthetic details and the small details in actual gameplay that has the design work on a explorative level and a faster paced time trial one. Plus my favourite franchise which is always nice, it'd be higher on this list if the sequel didn't manage to top it but that by no means indicates DKCR as being incapable of hitting the same highs, the factory world may still be the set of stages to beat.

6. Xenoblade Chronicles ; Let's take time to appreciate the Nintendo of Europe localisation here, Xenoblade was quite a refreshing experience for a number of reasons but one of the more surprising points would be it's oh so british voice acting, stepping away from the hit collection of anime/video game voice actors that had become a bit too familiar across the generation we got Reyn time, MONAHDO BOY and more, bloomin' brilliant!

Back to the refreshing aspects, Xenoblade encourages and rewards exploration heavily, the art direction overcomes the wii's visual shortcomings to deliver striking locations that pull you in and wont let you go for a good 80 hours. Another refresher? a new Nintendo IP! And here we are now awaiting its third game, without a start as strong as this we may not have gotten this far.

7. Valkyria Chronicles ; If you ever wondered what World War 2 would be like if it was anime as heck then boy do I have the game for you! Actually despite a busty lady being able to storm a battlefield with a magical laser lance under orders from a Prince who both looks and talks like he's from a few centuries earlier, Valkyria Chronicles is a game that tackles its war theme with the right amount of tact. It carefully balances a cast of enjoyable characters with their own stories amongst the warring backdrop and surprisngly doesn't fumble the execution.
The gameplay itself while suffering from a few issues when placed under the magnifiying glass offers a more active approach to turn based strategy mixing in real time dynamics that help lower the entry barrier. This all wrapped up in stellar presentation be it the menus, music and distinct watercolour stylings lead to a memeroble Sega outing. Alas the sequels trip to PSP land eventually led to Japan exclusitivity and an unknown future, which is a shame for as flawed as VC2 was it made a number of advancements in the mechanics department.

8. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia ; The last hurrah of the Igavania, one last run of asset reuse, one more gothic castle to conquer and yet at the time it was just the next in an increasingly familiar line of titles. Oh if only we knew the series current fate, this is the bitter aftertaste that follows an otherwise delicious mouthful of handheld Vania.
Fortunately with Ecclesia Iga's CV run went out swinging, challenge eclipses the exploration for the first time in a while offering an initially more segmented approach to its overworld before the eventual castle, the enemies pack more of a punch and require more thought to tackle. On top of this the already strong boss encounters reach greater heights even offering the player a novelty trinket if you best them unscathed. In general after the various restyled interiors of Dracula's Castle started feeling old hat it was nice to travel across stormy seas, up jagged cliffs, across bleak misty valleys and the like. Stellar art direction as well, dropping the anime aesthetics of previous DS titles was only a boon for such an atmosphere heavy series.

9. Elite Beat Agents ; EBA is so good at what it does that it can get away with having a rather small selection of mostly ho-hum tracks that are cover versions to boot, on paper there's something very wrong here but in reality the game is oh so right.
It's now practically impossible for me to listen to "Let's Dance" without hearing the specific line up of beat markers after the first exclamtion in the lyrics of said song title, that's the power EBA has to corrupt my mind. In general EBA has a wonderfully silly style to it, characters finding themselves in a variety of ridiculous predicaments that require a secret service of suited dancers to use the power of music to overcome the troubles. Yep, that makes sense, it can even ellicit emotions like sadness (that christmas stage man...) and hype (that endgame man...). As a side mention it's Japanese counterparts are just as strong, such was the quality of EBA I imported its basis Ouendan and its sequel.

10. Super Mario Galaxy ; I mean, yeah this ain't exciting to see when its sequel is already up there but....it's fucking Super Mario Galaxy.

X Mark of the Ninja
2D stealth sounds a tad clumsy or limiting yet Klei smashed it out of the park...or maybe stealthed it into the park? well I suppose that depends on if you play as a silent assassin or an aggresive force of terror.

X Super Smash Bros Brawl
Missteps all over the place but this game swallowed hours of my life and was a light in a dark period of my life, heck I even like the Subspace Emissary mode. Great newcomers in this entry as well, Ike, Dedede and Diddy hyped me up more than the entire set of Melee's new lot.

X Bayonetta
First time I played through the game I felt like I fluked my way through, second time I was a stylish badass and it was ten times more awesome. i'll always appreciate the variety in scenarios that were missing from the sequel.

X Spelunky
So good at what it does I now tend to view rougelike as a dirty descriptor because I can never find them to match how well Spelunky pulled it off without fudging level design. Also amazing multiplayer be it clumsy co-op or ridiculous vs mode.

X Mega Man 9
Bringing back that 8 bit feeling, right down to some intentionally bullshit level design moments, that takes balls to get away with but I can allow it when the whole package is so good, one of the only MM games where the entire weapon set he ends up with is actually great.

X Kirby's Adventure Wii
While not so novel now after a few safe sequels, Kirby going back to the basics with a ton of refinement, co-op and the extra challenge mode make a gold standard for the series, Simplistic fun done masterfully.

X Sonic Colours
The fact that colours would end up being the unexpected redeemer for the disappointment of Sonic 4 is something that sticks with me, it's a bit messy but it's the right kind of mess that finally felt like modern Sonic had got it right.

X Pokemon Black/White
The madmen finally did it, they dropped all the old mon and gave me a region of nothing but new, this is what I expected from Gold/Silver all those years ago. On top of all this was an incredibly refined generation that ran fast and made its previous DS outings feel ancient.

X Ghost Trick
WHEN I FIGURED OUT THE MYSTERY OF SISSEL, OOOOOOH SNAP!

I haven't even tackled the multiplayer classics like Mario Kart DS, Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Halo 3/Reach, this gen was loaded.

 

[AniHawk]

1. Red Dead Redemption
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. Mass Effect 2
4. Bioshock Infinite
5. Halo 3
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2
7. Antichamber
8. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
9. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

can you please leave a comment for at least one game for your vote to count? and for danganronpa are you referring to the psp release? vita is not included in this count.

 

[GamerJM]

1. Red Dead Redemption
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
3. Mass Effect 2
4. Bioshock Infinite
5. Halo 3
6. Super Mario Galaxy 2
7. Antichamber
8. Amnesia: The Dark Descent
9. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
10. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

I really flopped back and forth on those last four and some in my honorable mentions. Bioshock, Uncharted 2, Portal 2, are probably on a lot of lists...but those last four I suppose were games not as universally loved by everyone that I wanted mentioned on GAFs list.



Honorable Mentions
Portal 2
Paper's Please
Bioshock
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
The Orange Box
Dishonored
Starcraft II
Heavy Rain
Fallout 3
Borderlands 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Hotline Miami
Dark Souls
Super Meat Boy
Mario Kart Wii
Terraria

3DS/Vita doesn't count, only DS/PSP. So unless your vote for DanganRonpa is for the PSP version, change it to something else. Virtue's Last Reward doesn't count either.

 

[seady]

1. Red Dead Redemption - the best open world game I've ever played. I think it is because the theme and the world are so much more interesting and fresh to live in. The characters are also very well designed and make me care them so much.

2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Dead Rising
4. Mass Effect 2
5. Kirby Canvas Curse
6. Professor Layton
7. Persona 4
8. Wii Sports - not the best game, but definitely the most influential game of that generation.
9. Lumines
10. Halo Reach

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Oh yeah, I forgot. I was going to finish commenting on my choices. I'm feeling kind of lazy right now though, so I think I won't.

 

[JOKERACN7]

1. Mass Effect 2: Suicide Mission, 'nuff said
2. Batman Arkham City: I'm Batman!
3. Bayonetta: Hack & Slash at its peak
4. Hitman Blood Money: Stealth perfection
5. Assassin's Creed II: THAT setting
6. Bioshock Infinite: An unforgettable experience
7. Vanquish: Pinnacle of TPS
8. Battlefield 3: Multiplayer perfection
9. The Last of Us: THAT ending
10. Gears of War

Sry, no time for well thought out explanations

 

[GamerJM]

1. Mass Effect 2: Suicide Mission, 'nuff said
2. Batman Arkham City: I'm Batman!
3. Bayonetta: Hack & Slash at its peak
5. Hitman Blood Money: Stealth perfection
6. Assassin's Creed II: THAT setting
7. Bioshock Infinite: An unforgettable experience
8. Vanquish: Pinnacle of TPS
9. Battlefield 3: Multiplayer perfection
10. The Last of Us: THAT ending

Sry, no time for well thought out explanations

you skipped 4 lol

 

[tiebreaker]

you skipped 4 lol

4 means death in some parts of Asia.

 

[JOKERACN7]

you skipped 4 lol

Thanks

 

[JOKERACN7]

4 means death in some parts of Asia.

*chuckles*

 

[Chac]

1. Lost Odyssey; I cried 1000 tears. We need another mature JRPG like this.

2. Nier; Music is godly. Gameplay variations are pure brilliance.

3. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch; Epic Ghibli feels.

4. Deadly Premonition; The spirit of Shenmue is strong with this one.

5. Mass Effect; Space Awe-dyssey.

6. Dragon Age: Origins; Choice matters.

7. Xenoblade Chronicles; True adventure.

8. Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon; A very touching hidden gem.

9. Hotel Dusk: Room 215; Genius use of the DS.

10. Culdcept Saga; Hours and hours of fun with my wife.

 

[NipplesAndToes23]

Still a lot of games I wanted to play from this gen: Lost Odyssey being the biggest one. Xenoblade Chronicles, Super Mario Galaxy 2, No More Heroes, No More Heroes II, Dragon Age Origins, Persona 4 Arena, Red Dead Redemption, 3D Dot Game Heroes, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Paper Mario, Trauma Center, Vanquish and LittleBigPlanet 2.

Forgot about DS games, which leaves me with: The Ace Attorney series, The World Ends with You, Mario Kart DS (though I'm less interested now with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe), Mario and Luigi games, and for PSP: Jeanne Darc, Daxter, Secret Agent Clank, Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions

Just about to start Dead Space tonight.

 

[Enzo88]

1. Bioshock Infinite: Great narration, great setting, fun gameplay.
2. Metroid Prime 3: Another great metroid and best use of the wiimote to date.
3. Far Cry 3: best use of the "ubi formula", the island is amazing.
4. The last of us: great story, engaging gameplay, best naughty dog game to date
5. Red Dead Redemption: i have never been a fan of rockstar`s open world games due to gameplay reasons, but finally they nailed it with this one, on top of an amazing setting and engaging open-world structure
6.Xcom: my favorite strategic game ever, the sense of tension and satisfaction behind each move is unparalleled in the genre.
7. Vanquish: best tps of the gen, a bit short, but insanely fun gameplay that encourages mobility.
8. Lost Odyssey:best jrpg of the gen, might as well call it Final Fantasy.
9. Journey: best use of gameplay for narration purposes to date, i almost cried at the end.
10. Mario Galaxy 2: amazing game, as always for a 3d mario, but i do prefer the 64/sunshine formula, therefore i can`t put it higher.

 

[Accoun]

1. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow Of Chernobyl

It was a catastrophe. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (subtitled "Oblivion Lost" back then) was meant to be a competition to the likes of Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 - one of the first, if not first, truly next-gen FPS (although inspired more by Deus Ex and System Shock 2).
I remember reading previews in gaming mags, dreaming about it and wait ing for it to come out.

But it didn't happen.
The game was delayed. Months have gone by, even years. Both HL2 and Doom 3 came and went. So did expansions to them.

Then the news came. THQ was very dissatisfied with the development progress and decided to take over the production and force GSC Gameworld to finally deliver a shippable game. This meant cutting features - a lot of them.
Fans were mad. They were afraid they're gonna get a lesser product than what they waited for, but the alternative was to possibly not get it at all.

Then the game finally came out in 2007 and you could easily see how many cuts there were. It ran terribly. But what we got still was great and even in the earliest incarnation oozes atmosphere.

2. Wipeout HD

Wipeout Pure and Pulse were already great games. However, while I loved them on PSP, they suffered a bit from being on a portable platform - while they looked great, they were only 30 FPS. Wipeout HD not only remedied that - Studio Liverpool (RIP) went above and beyond the call of duty and delivered a title running at 60 FPS(!) in 1080p(!!) while being remade into a graphical showcase at the time and aging gracefully due to its slick artstyle (!!!).

Would dare to say: a perfect remake.

3. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade

The first Dawn Of War is my favorite RTS game. This one not only added some of my favorite factions (including my single favorites, Necrons), but also took some cues from Total War and ad based the campaign around a tactical map - with combat on more standard RTS levels.

4. Valkyria Chronicles
5. Rock Band 2
6. Metal Gear Solid 4
7. Resident Evil 5
8. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
9. Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

The original Steam success story for a Japanese developer wasn't Dark Souls, as big as it was. It was this charming doujin game. And for a reason.

10. Bioshock


x. DJMAX Portable 2
x. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
x. Crysis


Since WoW expansions are allowed, I assume the same for DoW? If not just skip it and add DJMAX as the last one.

Spoiler

Also, writing explanations is too much for me at almost 4AM.

 

[Andrew J.]

This is probably the earliest generation thread I'd feel comfortable voting in. The tail-end of Gen 7 is when I started to become financially independent and began buying non-Nintendo consoles. Because I came in late there's a lot I missed; Uncharted, Rockstar's oeuvre, and Souls are but the most glaring omissions.

Oh, and Ani?

you can always shove in dozens upon dozens of honorable mentions

Don't say you didn't ask for this.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ; Epic in scope and tone, with one of the best companion characters in the series. The motion controls were good too, dammit!
2. Super Mario Galaxy ; A creative explosion of finely tuned 3D platforming challenges, with a story surprising in 1) its mere existence, 2) its heartfelt poignancy, and 3) introducing a cosmic mother goddess to the series.
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; Even more refined gameplay and additional mechanics, the thin story brings it in just a notch below the original for me.
4. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ; As the kind of nerd who actually cares about Zelda lore, going back to the foundation of Hyrule and the creation of the Master Sword was amazing. The sky was disappointinly smaller than it seemed and the segregated overworld sections felt cramped, but the characters had tons of personality and I really liked the motion control combat.
5. Persona 3 Portable ; My first real experience with Persona, the top-tier soundtrack, one-more-day social life experience, and level-fuse-level gameplay loop combined for an engrossing experience.
6. Bayonetta ; Stylish, precise, flexible combat that makes you feel amazing when done right, combined with well-crafted challenges that make you exercise your abilities and provide satisfying spectacle. Insta-death QTEs are lame and the vehicle sections go on a bit too long, but it's all worth it to get to that amazing ending.
7. No More Heroes ; At turns both gritty and absurd, NMH has the most charismatic bosses around, amazing music, and plenty of plain Suda weirdness.
8. Mass Effect 2 ; Yes, the main story is stupid, and probably took the series so far off track from where the first left off that any chance of an ending that would satisfy most fans was doomed right here. But damn if the shooting didn't feel amazing, and the bulk of the game was spent with your squad's sidestories anyway. The finale was pretty cool so long as you don't think about it too hard.
9. Batman: Arkham Asylum ; The intimately cramped environment suited meticulous exploration and stealthy hunting better than the open worlds that followed. The combat wasn't quite up to par to City, but was still intensely engaging. With BTAS voice actors and gothic art deco visual design, you really do feel like you are Batman.
10. Super Smash Bros. Brawl ; Subspace Emissary was an amazing fanservice setup. Even I, a scrub, felt the slowdown from Melee, but it wasn't enough to keep me from gobbling the tons of things to do that Brawl offered.
x. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn ; The Radiant duology collectively provided the deepest, most satifying worldbuilding in the entire Fire Emblem franchise, and Dawn is where it all came to a climax. The huge scope and frequent viewpoint-changing meant some characters had crap availability, but none of that mattered at the climax, where a huge assembly of the world's finest warriors, take your pick of favorites to ascend a divine tower, resolve the hero's personal quest, fight an army of dragons, and defeat a god.
x. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption ; This game lost some of the series's trademark isolation, but traded it for a wide variety of locations and more intense boss battles.
x. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks ; Refined Phantom Hourglass's movement, combat mechanics, dungeon concepts, and "return repeatedly to a central dungeon" ideas, and added amazing traversal music and the most present and active Zelda the series has ever seen. For my money it's hands down the funniest entry in the series, too.
x. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey ; The fear and oppression of exploring an unknown area gives way to confidence and mastery as your recruit and fuse demons, only to start up all over again in the next zone. The idea of pagan gods being transformed into demons as a result of Christianity's influence has been present in SMT for a long time, but this game really brought it to the forefront.
x. Donkey Kong Country Returns ; A master class in antepiece level design, DKCR recaptured and then improved upon Rare's original entries.
x. Metal Gear Rising: Vengeance ; Both Kojima and Platinum have zany story sensibilities in certain respects, and they really meshed well here. The environment variety is pretty low compared to Bayo, but the sword-focused combat is just as tight and maybe even more satisfying. The vocal boss themes will go down as some of the greatest in history.
x. 999: Nine Persona, Nine Hours, Nine Doors ; The puzzles are fine, but what you're really here for is a mindbending story that takes you down multiple paths, each making you see what's in the others in a different light. It all climaxes with the most intense sudoku you will probably ever attempt.
x. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle ; There's a lot more filler than the original and the soundtrack is much less impactful with one very, very big exception, but the core of the game is still great, and the 8-bit minigames are welcome distractions.
x. Elite Beat Agents ; An all-time great rhythm game for sure, with lots of goofy style and a satisfying challenge curve.
x. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride ; A surprisingly touching story full of loss and suffering, but also hope, love, and charm, marred with DQ's usual game design and strangely hypnotic endgame boss battles.
x. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow ; A sprawling adventure with amazing music, addictive soul collection mechanics, and tight controls. The boss-battle seal drawing is an unfortunate side effect of early DS gimmickry, and it's a shame about the art style. (At least Soma's coat doesn't look two sizes too big anymore.)
x. Journey ; A short but effecting experience, full of wonder, fear, despair, and joy. Can be and should be completed in one sitting.
x. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass ; The overworld was somewhat lacking in personality,and the Temple of the Ocean King could have been better executed, but Linebeck was lots of fun and there were fun gimmicks here and there.
x. Ouendan ; Basically EBA except I understood the stories a little less.
x. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney ; Wacky courtroom antics start but eventually give rise to engrossing, dramatic stories.
x. Mass Effect 3 ; Essentially similar gameplay to 2, the oppressive "galaxy at war" feeling was an interesting change. If only you didn't fight Cerberus so much, or at all. I have to admit I thought the ending was fine although I did have the extended edition.
x. New Super Mario Bros. Wii ; Pure 2D platforming goodness.
x. Ghost Trick ; Interesting puzzle mechanics, endearing characters, and a story that hinges on a few really huge twists that amazingly lead into a satisfying conclusion.
x. Pokemon Black/White ; It was a bold move to have entirely new Pokemon throughout the main campaign, but it really did give the game a different feel. With revamped XP calculation and faster battles it really did feel like a big change. I appreciate the attempt at more story focus even if it didn't pan out super well.
x. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor ; The SMT formula was rejiggered just right to fit into small strategic battles. The Crack system encouraged you to take certain risks with your teams, and there's just something satisfying about tackling a mission on a practice run, configuring your loadout of skills and demons, and then completing it just as you envisioned.
x. Mega Man 9 ; A faithful and skillfully built homage to the NES classics.
x. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky ; Not having any real party member characters makes the adventure a bit lonesome, but there's tons to do, especially in the postgame.
x. Batman: Arkham Origins ; Glitches aside, Origins has a surprisingly robust story and a more manageable method of tracking down Riddler stuff. I know they're overpowered but I love the shock gloves anyway.
x. Madworld ; The brawling was kinda basic, but the commentators' lines are amazing comedy.
x. Catherine ; Part romantic drama, part block puzzlers. Catherine is definitely strange, but it's pretty short.
x. Professor Layton and the Curious Village ; Charmingly unique art, interesting characters, and challenging puzzles.
x. Hotline Miami ; An adrenaline rush of violence seizes you as you plan and execute your assault, a sinister electronic soundtrack goading you on to kill ruthlessly and quickly, knowing that one misstep will put you back to the beginning of the floor. Then you kill the last guy, the music cuts, and you have to walk back in silence, through the carnage you have wrought, wondering to yourself why it is that you enjoy hurting other people.
x. Kirby's Epic Yarn ; A cute and fluffy platforming adventure. Difficulty is low, but sussing out all the secrets takes a while and some of them require tricky platforming.
x. Batman: Arkham City ; The story doesn't make an ounce of sense, there are too many Riddler trophies, and the open world hurts the flow of the game. But the combat was truly perfected here, and there are cool new wrinkles thrown in the predator sections too.
x. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons ; A single-player two-player game, you control two characters with different abilities, one on each control stick. The brothers' adventure reveals tantalizing details about a magical world and ends in an emotional climax.
x. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin ; Asset recycling aside, the character-swapping adds depth to this adventure.
x. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen ; An interesting game where you take turns playing each of the side characters, then take over as the hero and gather them all up. The bonus chapter where you get to save the final boss from going down his dark path and recruit him into the party is very cool. Torneko's chapter may have invented the shopkeeper RPG subgenre, but I wish it had been a little more involved on that front.
x. NieR ; Just put the difficulty on easy and mash your way through the fights; it's not great, but not what it's really about either. There are still very few games that seriously make you grapple with the consequences of all the violence you usually commit, and this one does it very well.
x. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum ; It felt slow even then, and going back now is almost unbearable. But it added online connectivity to the series for the first time, the weird religiosity of Sinnoh is unique, and Cynthia provides one of the best Champion battles of all time.
x. Mass Effect ; Clunky combat, obtuse menus, and awful Mako controls? Sure, but this established the foundations of a beloved sci-fi universe and had tons of interesting thoughtful choices.
x. New Super Mario Bros. ; Is merely "very good" and therefore ranks near the bottom of Nintendo's platformers, but I still credit it for launching the modern 2D renaissance.
x. Tomb Raider ; It's laughable attempts to justify Lara's instant transformation from lonely, helpless girl to a ruthless murderbot aside, TR still has satisfying, well-executed third-person gunplay and aggressive stealth. It's fun no matter how much it ripped off Resident Evil 4 and/or Uncharted.
x. Assassin's Creed ; Combat mechanics are pretty stiff and there are occasional hiccups in the traversal mechanics, but even here you can see the foundations for a successful series. I really appreciate that one of the top AAA franchises in modern games is a historical fiction series that can shine some light in some lesser-explored eras.
x. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light ; A neat little puzzle shooter.

 

[AniHawk]

well you showed me...

 

[Fat4all]

im not a fan of honorable mentions, usually

it seems like it makes the top ten list easier, but for me it just makes me reconsider spots too much

then i have to spend an hour rewriting new stuff for the games ive moved to the top ten

 

[Aters]

I have several games on my backlog that I must finish before I can make a list like this.

 

[Storm Brewer]

First off thanks so much Anihawk for making this thread! It's always a delight to see everyone's answers and to both hear why people loved these games, and to get ideas for other games I may have missed that I want to play in the future.

This gen was probably the gen where I played the most games, largely because it was that sweet spot in my life between having disposable income and free time to really delve deep into a bunch of games.

I debated back and forth between listing what were my favorite games of the gen and trying to do some sort of best made games or games I'd recommend to others. In the end I picked the 10 games I had the most fun with, so you'll have to excuse my multiple entries from the same series haha. (Also apologies in advance Ani for the crazy honorable mentions list too, this gen was just too good!)

1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; Hands down my favourite platformer of all time, Super Mario Galaxy 2 fulfilled the impossible and was actually as wonderful and awe-inspiring as the first entry. This game pulled no punches, and managed to strike a great balance between challenging levels, creative new ideas all while being a joy to play rather than frustrating. The reward for collection 120 stars was absolutely incredible and might be my favorite post-game content of all time. All in all a magnificent game that I think may be rivaled, but never topped by other platformers.

2. Dark Souls ; So I went into this game knowing almost nothing at all, besides the fact that a bunch of people had talked about Demon's Souls as one of the great games of the gen, and I happened to stumble upon something that sounded similar and was on Xbox 360! Little did I know that what would await me was the most satisfying action adventure, which would single handedly make me go get a PS3 so I could play the prequel. The level of wonder as I slowly found how the world of Dark Souls was all interconnected, as well as my first experience in taking down the crazy bosses in the Souls series makes this one of my favorite experiences of the 7th generation.

3. Demon's Souls ; If I had played Demon's Souls first, there's a very good chance it would be at the top of this list. While Demon's Souls may feel a little unrefined after playing the other games in the series, I'd argue it's still the most consistent in quality all throughout the game, with my favorite boss battle in the series with False King Allant. The NPCs also managed to feel even more distinct and intriguing than in Dark Souls, with the Maiden in Black being my favorite character from the series. I unfortunately was late enough to the party that I never really got to try out the online side of things (except for fighting a PC controlled Old Monk who was really terrible haha), and I think even with the shenanigans that world tendency involved, finding the Dragon Bone Crusher out of the blue is one of my favorite moments in gaming.

4. Portal ; Probably the most perfect game to come out of Gen 7. Portal was excellently paced, had incredible humor, a bunch of crazy ways to break the game and solve puzzles in inventive ways, and a bunch of trials that let you really push the limits to get the gold. Probably my favorite puzzle game thanks to the depth in its simplicity.

5. Super Mario Galaxy ; Every bit as creative and wonderful as its sequel, the only thing keeping SMG from the top of this list is that the game takes too long to get challenging. Thankfully, this is offset by the sheer fun it is to mess around with the gravity system, and taking advantage of that with the surprise you get for collecting 120 stars. Overall a fantastic platformer.

6. The World Ends With You ; Style - the game. TWEWY is probably the most creative RPG to be released in modern times, and that goes for everything from the art design to the battle system. The story also had a pretty cool Battle Royale twist to it, before it that became the flavour of the month, and the post-game content is incredible between the hilarious Tin Pin Slammer Championship, and the backstory the secret reports add.

7. Rock Band 2 ; While the original Rock Band was more ground-breaking, and the third had the greatest quality of life features, Rock Band 2 had my favorite set list of the series. My friends and I spent countless hours trying to get through some of the more challenging songs like Panic Attack and Prequel to the Sequel, and just attempting the endless setlist 2 was a blast. Makes me wish the genre hadn't burnt itself out so quickly.

8. Uncharted 2 ; So this was the second game I played on a PS3 after Demon's Souls, and I started it on a whim with my brother over the Holiday break. Fast forward 12 hours later, its 6AM and we both agreed it was one of the coolest games we'd ever played. Altogether Uncharted 2 is a perfectly paced masterpiece with great characters, great set pieces and great run & gun combat. No other game since has made me feel as much like Indiana Jones, and had me completely unable to put it down since.

9. Bayonetta ; The first character action game I actually got somewhat good at, and by far the one that feels the best for me to play. The dodge offset mechanic was pure genius, and the constantly escalating encounters kept blowing my mind just when I thought they had reached their peak. Basically you can sum the awesome, crazy shit in this game up by saying you end it all by punching god into the sun. Completely epic, in the true sense of the word.

10. Halo 3 ; Alongside Left 4 Dead 2, this game was my friends and I's LAN game of choice for this generation. When we weren't messing around with custom game modes like our own rendition of zombies, slo-mo snipefests or other equally dumb stuff, the 6v6 battles we'd have over 3 xboxes were the stuff of legends (especially important was the one TV with players from both sides shouting intel to the other guys haha). If that weren't enough, the presence of the first 4 player campaign was awesome, and I swear I completed the game no fewer than 4 times with a different set of friends each time. It may not be the best in the series, but Halo 3 is definitely the Halo I had the most fun with.

Honorable Mentions:

x. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption ; While it may be the worst in my favorite series of all time, this game was still something else when it came out. It just missed my top 10 mainly since it's been nearly 10 years since I last played it (time really flies!) but my re-play of the trilogy this year might end up changing its position, time will tell. All I remember is that skytown was an absolute delight.

x. The Witcher 2 ; Another game that just barely missed the list, the role-playing in this game was so damn good, I went through the game 3 times to see all the content I could. I also am a crazy person who enjoyed the combat, so it was altogether a really complete package for me.

x. Super Meat Boy ; My third and last game that I had a really hard time cutting from the top 10. Thanks to the brutally hard difficulty and the instant respawns, this game is like platformer crack. Nevertheless Super Meat Boy still manages to balance difficulty with progression, and aside from the atrocious boss levels is a 2D platformer to rival the all-time greats.

x. VVVVVV ; Did I mention I like platformers? This game just oozed charm and managed to walk the tight line of throwing new ideas at you, and then wrapping it all up before the gravity mechanic got tiresome. I haven't replayed it with the new achievements, but I suspect now that I have it on my Vita I might replay this game to see all the new content!

x. Persona 3 Portable ; The second game I played in the Persona series, Persona 3 Portable was downright awesome coming straight out of Persona 4 Golden, as the female protagonist was a breath of fresh air after the harem nonsense in the latter game. Tartarus is complete junk, which keeps this game out of the top 10, but the atmosphere, music and female social links were just exceptional. At some point I should go back and play the male side of things, but I almost feel it will retroactively ruin the game since the female side felt soooo damn good.

x. Left 4 Dead 2 ; Another multiplayer classic with me and my friends, rescuing that goddamn gnome will never not haunt me in my dreams. The true shine to the game came from the versus mode however, and the number of ridiculous wins and losses we had make for some fantastic memories.

x. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess ; The Zelda with probably my favorite dungeons, its a shame so many write this off as an Ocarina clone. Highlight of the game was the back to back ice temple and sky temple.

x. The Last of Us ; Another Naughty Dog classic, this is a game I appreciate as being extremely well made, rather than enjoying it so much. I really liked the characters, writing and combat, but the plot left a little to be desired and the forced action sequences that would break stealth annoyed me a lot more than they should have. Definitely planning to replay this one on PS4 on grounded to see if I can't enjoy it more a second time around. Still, the feels you get from that ending...

x. Spelunky ; My favourite rogue-like not named FTL, Spelunky is one of those games you at the same time love and hate, thanks to the way RNG can totally bless or dick you over. Nonetheless, with enough experience and skill almost every game is winnable, and between the tight platforming and careful consideration that each run entails, Spelunky is a master-class in game design.

x. Mega Man 9 ; I'm ashamed to admit it, but this is the first Mega Man I ever beat. Having gone back to play some of the other games in the series (NES and X series), I can now say confidently that it stands amongst the best of them and was a goddamn heroic return of the series. It's a shame Capcom has sinced abandoned the blue bomber, cause hot damn was this an awesome game.

x. Street Fighter IV ; Capcom strikes again! This game was another first, as it was the first time I played a non-Super Smash fighter for any length of time. I blame that mostly on the fairly robust online community, as well as the general fighter resurgence of the time that made getting into the game a lot easier than it might have otherwise been. I still hate Sagat players, but this game was a ton of fun and a great intro into the fighting game genre.

x. Sonic Generations ; I have a really big soft spot for sonic games, since my first console and game was a Genesis with Sonic 2, and this game delivers the fan-service on so many levels. On top of that it's a genuinely enjoyable game, and the sheer depth of the soundtrack makes me want to replay it all the time.

x. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword ; For whatever reason I seemed to enjoy this game a helluva lot more than everyone else around here. The motion controls malfunctioned twice over my entire run for me, and I actually found the dungeons and exploring pretty awesome. The only real downside to the game for me was that the pacing was goddamned awful, but man is the pirate ship in the sand a cool dungeon. And that final boss fight, whew.

x. Batman Arkham Asylum ; A Batman Metroidvania that exceeded all of my expectations in all the best ways. While my intro to the series was Arkham City, Asylum managed to be a much tighter and engaging experience thanks to its more limited nature. Quite possibly the greatest licensed game of all time.

x. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception ; Another game that I feel gets unnecessary hate, I played through all of Uncharted 3 with my brother in two sittings. While we both agreed the plot seemed a lot more all over the place than 2, the set pieces felt even more incredible, and Jason Statham, I mean Charlie Cutter, was an excellent addition to the cast.

x. XCOM: Enemy Unknown ; Never before has losing player-made teammates in a game been so heart wrenching. This game had me swearing like a sailor at the completely bullshit missed 99% shots, but at the end of the day saving the world from aliens has never felt so good.

x. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow ; My favorite Castlevania after Symphony of the Night, collecting souls and traversing the castle were a ton of fun.

x. Advance Wars: Dual Strike ; A game that might be way higher on my list, if I hadn't lost the game cartridge 5-6 years ago and forgotten a lot of the game. All I remember is that I loved the hell out of this game even though it was completely busted from a balance perspective.

x. The Witcher ; Possibly an even better story than the second game, the Witcher 1 took me three tries to get through that damned swamp, but once I did it was a roller coaster of a ride from there.

x. Catherine ; I actually played this one only just this year, and I have to say that oddly enough I really preferred the puzzles compared to the story. The story was still a ton of fun with a great mix between horror, mystery and comedy, but the puzzles are the true stand out, especially that devious Rapunzel game. One of the few games I started playing in my sleep since I enjoyed it so much, hopefully I don't grow any horns though...

x. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts ; As a gigantic fan of both Banjo Kazooie and platformers, this game annoyed the hell out of me at first. Once I came to accept it as more of a spin-off, this game was actually surprisingly deep and a ton of fun. Coming up with solutions to the puzzles with friends through some completely crappy designs was a ball, and if the wheels and general physics had controlled just a bit better I think this would be one of my all time favorites.

x. 999: Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors ; The game that introduced me to visual novels, and holy shit what a ride it was. The sequels never quite managed to have the cohesiveness that 999 had, but I can't wait to replay this game with the quality of life changes made to the re-release with my friends.

x. Elite Beat Agents ; One of those weird games that sounds absolutely ridiculous in concept, but is a complete delight to play. I'll admit the Chicago song with the kid's father totally choked me up too.

x. Nier ; Another one I only played this year, this game has hands down the greatest soundtrack of all time alongside Chrono Cross. Like Chrono Cross, the complaints about the gameplay are also overblown. That said the gameplay is simply satisfactory compared to the setting, story and soundtrack. I can't wait to play Automata now that I'm done this one.

x. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ; Although I don't play many FPS any more, CoD 4 and its direct sequel had me completely hooked when they came out. Although I can't say I care for how it affected game development, I really enjoyed playing this game with my buddies.

x. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ; Same thing as above, although RIP akimbo 1887s tearing everything apart.

x. South Park: The Stick of Truth ; A game so funny it made me watch the show, when I rarely watch TV. South Park managed to feel like an inappropriate adult version of Paper Mario in so many ways, from the combat to the charm to the moments of outright hilarity. Overall while there are so many incredible moments in this game, as a Canadian I completely adored the Canada level haha.

x. Mario Kart Wii ; While a far step below Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart Wii managed to be the most inviting and newcomer friendly entry in the series, and for that I am extremely grateful. A blast to play with friends of family, even when you get screwed over by a blue shell into lightning into bullet bill for the third race in a row.

x. Journey ; I don't know if this should be here, since I played the game first on PS Now a couple years back (so technically the PS3 version), but Journey was something I enjoyed way more than I expected to. Despite being very simplistic in nature, the sheer joy in running around, meeting new travelers, and accompanying them on their journey had a sweetness to it that I haven't found in any other game.

x. Fez ; Another one that I feel unsure about being on this list, I first played Fez with a friend on their 360. We had fun with the platforming, but neither of us played it long enough to get into the deeper puzzles in the game. About a year later I read a piece on that crazy puzzle they brute-forced, and I bought the game on PC to see exactly what I had missed. A bunch of hours later spent scrawling furiously in a notebook, this game was a classic in my books, and I really wish I had gotten in on the zeitgeist back in the day when everyone was figuring everything out together.

x. New Super Mario Bros. Wii ; While the 2D platformer here is really solid and fun, the best part of NSMB Wii was the local multiplayer. Playing this with 3 friends and continually screwing each other over while trying to reach the end of the level first was a blast.

x. Castle Crashers ; Another game with some awesome co-op, Castle Crashers came out of nowhere for me and my friends, but once we started playing it we were hooked. I think this was actually the first indie game I played on 360, and since then I've been hooked.

Alright so I'm 100% sure there's other games I'm missing, but at this point I think I'm going to wrap it up cause that's a helluva lot of games already! Needless to say this was a fantastic gen despite a slow start, and I'm happy to say that thanks to the explosion of indies in PC gaming, the current gen is somehow even better.

Before I leave off, I just have to make a list of games I really want to play in the future, but as of now haven't had the chance. I was originally going to put comments for all of these too, but I'm pretty sure I'm close to the character limit so I'll hold off from doing so haha. If anyone else has any other recommendations let me know! That's exactly why I love these threads anyway!

Games to play:
Alpha Protocol
Bioshock
Dark Souls II - I know I know, two souls games in the top 3 and I haven't played DS2?? Well I'd like to think it helped me from burning out on the series, and as such I enjoyed Bloodbourne and DS3 more than I might have otherwise
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dead Space
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon's Dogma
Dragon Quest V - Just got this one today actually! Excited to play my first Dragon Quest
Fallout: New Vegas
Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions
Grand Theft Auto V
Metal Gear Rising
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Valkyria Chronicles
Vanquish

 

[Ventara]

Gahhh, I keep putting this off and now it's the last day! Was planning to do a good little write-up for each game, but I guess this will have to do.

1. Nier ; Wow, this game came out of nowhere for me. I read the bad reviews, but after watching videos, I decided the game looked fun and tried it out, and am I glad I did! What a memorable experience. I know some people complain about the gameplay and visuals, but this game was truly top tier in ALL aspects for me. The gameplay was fun and engaging, the world beautiful and interesting to explore, the characters endearing, the music captivating, and a story that will stay with me for quite some time. Everyone owes it to themselves to experience this masterpiece for themselves.

2. Xenoblade Chronicles ; It was a close fight for #1, but Nier eked out the win. But make no mistake, this game is a masterpiece of it's own. No other game from Gen 7 has given me the immense feeling of adventure and exploration like this game has. The vast beautiful landscapes in this, though perhaps held back by graphics, kept calling out to me. The diverse wildlife and music only added to this sense of exploration. This alone would have made this an amazing game, but add to this characters you care about in a captivating story with an interesting combat system, and you have yourself a GOTG contender. This is a classic that will be thought of fondly for many years to come.

3. Ys 7 ; What a ride this was! This was my first Ys game ever and I immediately fell in love with the series after playing it. The fast, smooth, action gameplay coupled with satisfying and intense boss fight in a world that was interesting to explore made this a pure joy to play, and the accompanying music was so amazing! Instilling a sense of adventure at times, or pumping you up during a hard boss fight, or a relaxing town melody, the music had it all and it was all top-tier music. And the game was great in it's other departments. Colourful and beautiful visuals that were pushing the PSP's limits, yet absolutely smooth gameplay with little to no load times, with characters and story that were good, this was my ultimate handheld experience and I cannot help but smile whenever I think of it.

4. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ; If I could somehow wipe my memories of this game and experience it anew, I would. This game perfectly captures that moment of revelation that makes you go "A-HA!" in a satisfying manner in a story that has you excited from start to finish. And it does it again and again and again. The characters are varied and interesting, and you just grow to love every one of them. Add to this amazing music that pairs perfectly with the story, creates stunning moments where you're under pressure to figure out a case and the revelations are coming one after another as you frantically try to buy yourself more time. This is one of those games I can see myself replaying in the years to come, just to relive those fantastic moments.

5. Super Mario Galaxy ; Coming off of SM64, the bar was set pretty high, but this game delivered. Beautiful worlds with great platforming joy. Slightly inferior to SMG2, but the story in this creates a more memorable experience.

6. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch ; In terms of graphics and visual, this is posibbly the most beautiful game for me from Gen 7. A very cute and charming story paired with an interesting and light-hearted gameplay made this a game that I just wanted to keep playing, wishing it would never end.

7. Rune Factory 3: A Fantasy Harvest Moon ; Combining the farming sim aspect from Harvest Moon with action-RPG gameplay perfectly, this was my favourite DS game, and one that looked wonderful from it's colourful environments to its character art.

8. Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective ; This game! It totally caught me off guard in how amazing it was! Simple, yet interesting gameplay coupled with a very interesting story and exciting music, in a package that was just oozing with style, this game put one of the biggest smiles on my face.

9. Terraria ; Mixing digging/mining gameplay that I love so much with the survival aspects of building a shelter and fending off monsters, this game sucked me in and would not let me go.

10. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII ; This was the first game that showed me the games can be more than just games. My first Gen 7 game that I completely fell in love with that told a story that I would be hard-pressed to ever forget.

Honorable Mentions

I cannot believe these games didn't make the top 10. Top 10 too strong.

x Super Mario Galaxy 2
x Red Dead Redemption
x God of War 3
x Ys: Oath in Felghana
x Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time
x Batman: Arkham Asylum
x Dragon Age: Origins
x Mana Khemia: Student Alliance
x Torchlight
x Darksiders
x Dead Space
x Braid
x Machinarium
x Assassin's Creed 2
x Prince of Persia (2008)
x Portal 2
x The Last of Us
x LA Noire
x Bioshock
x The Quest
x Mirror's Edge
x Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
x Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

 

[NinjaBoiX]

1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 ; fun and joy distilled

2. The Last of Us ; just an incredible story well told

3. Call of Duty 4 ; defined a genre, simple

4. Portal 2 ; incredibly inventive and amusing

5. Bad Company 2 ; rife with opportunities to improvise

6. Uncharted 2 ; the pinnacle of matinee blockbusters

7. Dead Space ; tight controls and solid gameplay

8. skate ; the most ingenious control scheme ever

9. Pure ; a masterful blend of trick and racing

10. Trials HD ; impeccable controls and difficulty curve

 

[zeexlash]

Probably my favourite time in gaming, if not second only to the Mega Drive and Super Nintendo years. Most of my top picks are from the first couple of years of the generation, so I've added honourable mentions from the latter part. I definitely don't think the quality dropped off after 2008..

1. Super Mario Galaxy ; a wonderful 3D platform game full of magic moments, sequel wasn't bad either.
2. Gears of War ; a 'killer app' for the Xbox 360.
3. Mass Effect ; delivered on that sense of a massive, galaxy-spanning adventure, also loved the classic sci-fi vibes, the characters, the 'biotic' abilities and conversation choices.
4. Child of Eden ; with Kinect.
5. Halo 3 ; mostly included for the campaign which I've come to appreciate more and more over the years.
6. New Super Mario Bros. ; brought back 2D Mario, though some of the sequels were better.
7. The Last of Us ; end-of-an-era epic, loved the DLC too.
8. Fallout 3 ; exploring the waste land listening to Galaxy News Radio...
9. Viva Pinata ; shockingly addictive zoo game.
10. Disaster: Day of Crisis ; loved this, over-the-top action with tons of variety.

x. Binary Domain
x. After Burner Climax
x. Donkey Kong Country Returns
x. GTA V
x. Patapon

 

[AniHawk]

okay less than 24 hours to go except for reals this time

 

[Majmun]

1. The Last of Us; Everything I want in a game. Good gameplay, engaging story, great music, beautiful graphics. TLOU has it all for me. One of my favorite games ever. Can't wait for Part II.
2. Demon's Soul's; Imported the JPN version after the great impressions. And I'm glad I did. This game had me for dinner multiple times. But I had to go back. The dark atmosphere, the punishing gameplay and intruiging lore captivated me and I can still feel its impact.
3. Super Mario Galaxy; Magical platformer. Wish there were more like it. SMG2 is better, but SMG was first and fresh. I had more fun with the original.

 

[Aureon]

Is A Realm Reborn \ Heavensward in? It came out on PS3.


1. League of Legends; In fairness and honesty, #1 cannot be anything else. DotA was genius, and it really opened up a whole new genre in a way nothing has done before or since. This is really DotA's award, since League is but a minor modification of it, but it's deserved nonetheless.
2. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade; Some of my dearest friends i've met there. It has been ten years, and yet i remember it piece by piece.
3. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King; Same applies. Any world that's *that* immersive needs recognition, even if riddled by mistakes.
4. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep; Some of us are still waiting for KH3. It's been there all along.
5. Civilization V; One More Turn. Addictive gameplay at it's highest point of the generation.
6. Monster Hunter Tri; Now surpassed, but only by it's successors.
7. XCOM; Enemy Unknown; Not as good as it's modded brethen, or it's sequel, but the great vengeance of true cover tactics.
8. Dark Souls; I was skeptical. I really was. I don't play action games, mostly. But Dark Souls was something special, and Undead Borough is the greatest sequence in the history of videogames.
9. The Last Of Us; Jak was my second-favourite series in the 6th gen. Uncharted the worst fall from glory a developer ever did. The Last of Us is not a return to form, but an evolution in something new. I didn't like the gameplay, but somehow that only added to the experience.
10. Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions; Somehow i hadn't played this already when it came out on PS1. A PSP fix later, a true masterpiece was revealed.


x. 999: Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors ; Whoah.
x. Final Fantasy XIII-2; Flawed, yet appreciable in the singular way only a final fantasy game is.
x. Dark Souls 2; Actually better than 1, but it came at a different place in time.
x. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade; RTS had something new to give! After Starcraft, who'd expect it.
x. Portal;
x. Portal 2; Lateral thinking gameplay and perfectly distilled story. I could be talking about Dark Souls here, and nobody would notice.
x. Mass Effect 2; That's how you do character sidestories.