arn't "best of" lists supposed to be done after the time frame ends specifically so you don't have to do things like "we are not including December"
I'm a little shocked. I feel this list is rather slanted. I mean, none of the grand theft autos are on there. And while I'm not one to suggest they are particularly fantastic games, they have dramatically influenced the action game genre and both grand theft auto 3 and 4 are above 95% according to the metacritic. (so is Tony Hawk's pro skater for some reason... ) While I don't think the Metacritic score is by any means a real deciding factor, it does support that a lot of people think its something worth having. And when all grand theft auto games after GTA 3 are in the top 90%, and are constantly used as the 'base comparison' when reviewing sandbox games, its a little daunting to not see any of them on the above list.
And how did Red Faction get on that list over some of the more mass-fanboy FPS games like "Halo" and "Gears of War" or even "Unreal Tournament 3" which I am now nominating for its very complete and easy to use map editor that is included with the game. (I am not nominating Halo or Gears of war, simply commenting that they are over-hyped for a reason, and as much as I dislike them should likely be included in the nominations on popularity if nothing else. I am nominating unreal tournament 3)
And I felt MGS 3 was a more complete (and therefor "better" game) than MGS 4, yet rollercoaster 2 and 3 both get to exist? (I must be in a list bashing mood. I appoligize)
No one lives forever? thats an interesting choice.
no, Baldur's gate 2 (2006)? Dragon Age exists entirely to try to meet the greatness of Baldur's gate.
No, The Longest Journey (2000)? I can't think of a better 'serious' adventure game this decade. With sierra and lucas arts adventure games disappearing into the back-ends of time and space this decade, I almost feel that Longest Journey should be listed as a tribute to our almost lost game genre. (its making a comeback recently, but very slowly)
And I'm not even getting into titles I am specifically a fanboy like "Black and White" (2001) which introduced an amazing AI (though perhaps very poor by today's standards), and "startopia" (2001) which I feel is a great game even though you can't play it on any modern systems, and could barely play it when it was released due to issues with the developers.
And of course I want to nominate "Puyo Puyo: 15th anniversary edition" as the best mother F***ING PUZZLE GAME OF THIS DECADE! (I love this game. Its so awesome, its got me dates with attractive people simply by introducing them to it. Like, introduce "Puyo Puyo: 15th anniversary edition" to an attractive person who has never heard of it before, and they will be all over you.) but it wouldn't win because its release was limited to only 1 country in the whole freaking world, and its initial release had a serious game breaking bug in it (the game stopped saving after 255 saves, and it saved automatically every few minutes when you finished a game). As a result, I'd wager nobody even knows what this game is so it would lose.
I realize we haven't even specified what makes a game "good" for the purposes of this discussion? are we talking about "good" as in "made the most influence on the gaming culture" or 'good' as in "consistant quality and to-this-day is an up to standards game that is fun to play"? In the later's case, its really unfair just because as "up-to-standards" suggests, games are constantly improving. Without "grand theft auto 3" today's sandbox games would very likely not exist. And even though that game suffers from a mountain of flaws in designs, graphics, controls, and you name it. It revolutionized the way we play sandbox action games. I feel "Halo" is overhyped, but it similarly I have to give it credit for changing the way first person shooters are handled across the board as well. I suspect the AI spawning system in Left4Dead is going to become the new standard for games going forward to generate new experiences for users with every playthrough based on how the players are doing.
But, now that I think about it. How much research and analysis actually goes into most top-whatever lists. Especially ones that have public voting. I don't even know why I'm chatting here (I'm waiting for some files to copy so I can reinstall windows, thats right)
(I'ma totally gonna vote for Advance wars for best multiplayer* turn-based strategy game of this decade, and shadow of the colossi for best boss fights of this decade.)
