The official Piss All Over Everyone's Top 20 Thread

[Margalis]

Golgo 13 was one fucked up game.

Your woman dies and all you care about is your custom gun that you can't even use in the game. It was cold man - cold!

[Strazos]

I tried to list games that I thought were either spectacular (even now), or shaped me as a gamer. If multiple games in a series qualified, I simply picked the best (as in the case of my NHL 08 pick).

Moreover, my list seems to be decidely mid-90s/early 21st century games. Sure, I may have gotten my NES back in '87 or so, and I may have played some of those games a lot, but...

A lot of them just were not that memorable. Also, the 1-of-a-series rule will skew a lot of lists a bit, I am sure.

[Hoax]

My list is basically 2 lists, my 5 favorite SNES games (1990-1995) release, two of which I never even owned for SNES I just rented them about a total of 75 times combined from Blockbuster -I could never find a copy of Ogre Battle nor Megaman Soccer.  Those were the highlights of my gaming childhood, sure there were the earlier Mario's and the gold Zelda but the SNES versions were better in my mind.  The rest of my list except 2 arcade games, NHL2002 which my social group plays to this day because its 100% awesome arcade hockey action & Powerstone, which was god w/ 3 friends and a  Dreamcast is all PC titles.  Because unlike everyone here what I get out of gaming is going up against other players and enjoying that type of competition.  Portal was the first time I enjoyed a story-game on PC enough to put it on the list.  Yes I played Fallout, but honestly I was never that caught up in it.  Not that way I've been in every multiplayer game on my list, matching wits against another human.  Portal though, is special, because honestly the silly dialogue and the memes with the whole cake thing and the great song at the end put such a big smile on my face.  Which was pretty damn cool.  I remember sitting in the game pre-match during my competition days in Tribes1 and having my hand shaking so hard from adrenaline overload that I had to take my hand off the mouse and try to regulate my breathing so I could actually play.  Almost every PC title on my list conjures up that kind of memory, except Quake2 which was just the best damn DM experience ever and I love me some deathmatch.

[cmlancas]

There isn't enough Tetris, Arkanoid, or Galaga.

[schild]

Putting Arkanoid and Galaga is a waste when there are a billion better shooters.

[Margalis]

Some of the Galaga's are quite awesome, and graphically some of the nicest looking games for their time.

Megaman Soccer lol. That was actually a pretty fun game, too bad it slowed down whenever more than 3 guys were onscreen.

[lamaros]

Nearly everything on my list is a strategy game in some way. Thief can be played slow and strategic. CS is not a FFA but team play FPS, etc.. plus all the RTS games and turn based stuff.

I just love strategy games.. and hate platform games.

It was interesting to see what some of the other people here tended to go for. Some action junkies.. not many sports fans though.

[stray]

I'm a sports fan, but the, uh, "annual" nature of those games kind of makes it hard for me to pinpoint specifics... I liked the entire 2K NFL series for instance. If I were just to go on nostalgia, it'd be Tecmo Bowl and Double Dribble. Which is pretty silly for a top 20, when I think about it.

[cmlancas]

What about NBA Jam? That game was awesome, even if it didn't have Michael Jordan :D

[Yegolev]

Why are most people choosing Fallout over Fallout 2? It's like choosing Starcraft instead of Broodwar - the original game is genius but the expansion/sequel built on that and made it so much better...

Disagree.  Dogmeat.

Replaced Forza 2 with Uncharted.

[IainC]

It's like choosing Starcraft instead of Broodwar - the original game is genius but the expansion/sequel built on that and made it so much better...

Broodwar wasn't a game. It even said so in big letters on the back of the box - 'Not a standalone game'. You have to assume that game = game + expansion otherwise the lists make even less sense than they currently do.

[Yegolev]

I agree with that most of the time but I still consider Diablo II: Lord of Destruction to be the version I put on the list, not the release version since it made me angry.  Brood War was a typical expansion, in my opinion, and StarCraft was a classic at retail.

[MrHat]

Am I the only one who picked Counter-Strike?

Does Counter-Strike even count?

[bhodi]

Am I the only one who picked Counter-Strike?

Does Counter-Strike even count?

It didn't make the cut. Neither did natural selection or threewave ctf. :(

[MrHat]

The cut? Did these already get parsed/collated?

Or you mean your own cut?

Bah, does that mean my standards are low?  Everyone can now see I'm a poser.

[Signe]

Don't put yourself down.  You da Hat! 

[bhodi]

My own cut. I was frustrated since I named all the games that had an influence on my gaming, I spent an inordinate amount of time playing, or that I had a 'wow' feeling after I finished.

That list was just over 50 games. More than half of them had to go.

[Samwise]

Am I the only one who picked Counter-Strike?

Does Counter-Strike even count?

I picked Counter-Strike!  Also Natural Selection.

And Millipede, which remains my favorite arcade shooter.  Asteroids being a close second that didn't quite make the top 20 cut.

[Sky]

It was way too hard to cut stuff for that list. The C64 stuff isn't nostalgia, those were incredible games I sunk a ton of time into. Who cares if they don't hold up today? For their time, they ruled my gaming world. I come at it from the other direction, how can you separate teh shiney from a classic? I'd say the Witcher is probably a classic, but the shiney is still fresh, and the load times keep me from playing it.

I cut a bunch of arcade stuff, too. I spent way too many hours playing Track and Field and Double Dragon. Shit, Double Dragon should be on my list, but I'm not going back to edit in things.

[Sauced]

So, are the people putting Ico and SotC on their lists ignoring the rules or ... ?  That was one of the harder decisions for me.

[WayAbvPar]

Couple that just missed the cut for me-

The Bard's Tale series (probably 3 as my choice)- I hand-mapped most of the levels. I am still in awe of that.

One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird- played the HELL out of this (was one of my first C64 games).

Rock Band- Right now it is totally pissing me off, but the gameplay WHEN IT FUCKING WORKS is a hell of of a lot of fun

Any number of sports games. I can hardly keep the straight anymore, although Earl Weaver Baseball was fantastic, and NHL ~94 was a blast.

Punch-Out- Probably would have made the top 20 if Tyson didn't eat my lunch every damned time.

Galactic Adventures- the combat was a lot like X-COM, but 10 years earlier. Good game, but buggy as hell.

I saw someone listed Alternate Reality: The Dungeon. I had a pirated copy of Alternate Reality: The City. No documentation, and permadeath. It was still just an amazing game. If I would have had the chance to play it more it would have made my list for sure.

[Sky]

I cut some that ended up on other's lists, stuff like Dungeon Keeper. Another tough one was Oni, that is a game like Sacrifice in my book, one that all developers should play. 4-way combat, you could grab an opponent and use his gun on another bad guy...while he was still holding it. Some really visceral stuff that unfortunately nobody ever used again. I've already mentioned Sacrifice's amazing high level spells. Give me a game with melee like Oni and spells like Sacrifice!

I also left off Quake 2 which was great when loaded up with mods, and X-Com which was also an amazing game. KotOR, because as good as it was, it wasn't as good as BG2.

Leaving off Freedom Force hurt.

[Miasma]

Most of my games were also either 'wow' type moments or just games I liked so much that I put a lot of time into, the top games did both.

My main difficulty was deciding wether or not Portal and HL2 could get on.  While portal is a fantastic game it just didn't deliver the same amount of fun as the others due to its length.  HL2 is very good, it has a great engine, a good storyline and some nice levels but when it comes right down to it the biggest thing I remember is a constant feeling of "annoyed" playing it, I can't pin down why.  So neither of them made the list.  I had it all sorted out by using the "Orange Box" cop out but then re-read the thread and noticed it wasn't allowed .

Also upsetting is that I'm absolutely certain I entirely forgot about many important games because I have a shitty memory.  I only remembered to put Grim Fandango on the list after seeing it on others...

[HaemishM]

I had some tough choices to make. I could have put both Freedom Force and any of the Total War series of games and felt good about it. Earl Weaver Baseball only won out because it was first, but really Tony Larussa or High Heat Baseball could have won been in there instead. I'm surprised there wasn't more 2600 love, especially for Star Raiders, one of the first games I can remember that came with its own special controller and could be played sort of co-op. 

[DraconianOne]

Worse thing I found is looking at other people's lists and seeing all the games that I never actually got around to playing - Grim Fandango and Fallout 2 being the noticeable ones.  I own a copy of Baldur's Gate 2 but it never ever ran without crashing so I've never played it.  I've also never owned a console until recently when I got a PS2.  I use that for watching DVDs more than playing games - I'm just not a console gamer.

[Velorath]

So, are the people putting Ico and SotC on their lists ignoring the rules or ... ?  That was one of the harder decisions for me.

There's no reason you couldn't put both.

[Sauced]

1. One entry from each series. (Example: Mega Man 2 OR 3. Not both)

Just because they didn't call it Ico 2 doesn't change that it's a prequel.

[Sky]

I'm surprised there wasn't more 2600 love

I was debating Adventure, I played that for far more hours than the game ever deserved. Secret chamber ftw. I could also get random stuff by jiggling the power switch. Mostly it's what I played when I couldn't be playing ADVENT on the mainframe or TRS-80 stuff at school. I always thought pitfall was too annoying. My uncle had a shitload of 2600 games, but none really stand out in my memory. Once I got the C64, I never played console games until Goldeneye on the N64 at the eqholic's pad.

[stray]

1. One entry from each series. (Example: Mega Man 2 OR 3. Not both)

Just because they didn't call it Ico 2 doesn't change that it's a prequel.

Yeah, but almost no relation, gameplay-wise. Unlike Mario or Mega Man, where the basic idea is the same throughout.

[Sauced]

They're both in my top 10, so I'm okay with that.

[lamaros]

What about NBA Jam? That game was awesome, even if it didn't have Michael Jordan :D

I was going to put that on there. But I didn't, don't really know why.

Am I the only one who picked Counter-Strike?

Does Counter-Strike even count?

If you read the lists... or even just this thread.. you'd know that a few others put CS on there. Some put CS: Source though. Not I! I enjoyed it most around Beta5-6.

[MrHat]

You caught me.  I didn't read the lists.

Holy shit, I totally forgot about NBA Jam.  I played that game so much.


Edit: The power of CTRL-F pwns me.  I am not a unique and beautiful snowflake.

[Signe]

You are too a flake!

[Strazos]

I totally spaced on SotC.

I'm not sure where to put it in my list, if at all. As much as I loved the game, I never finished it.

[schild]

I don't even want to know how you can't finish a 5 hour game.