[ALL] SethMode's Top 50 Favorite Games of All Time

[SethMode]

Some Random Fun Stuff for the Second 10

System Breakdown (Ranked Top 50)
PC – 4
PS2 – 2
NES – 1
SNES – 1
PS3 – 1
XBOX 360 – 1

System Breakdown (Unranked Bottom 50)
PC – 2
NES – 2
XBOX360 – 2
PSX – 1
PS3 – 1
Wii (Virtual Console) – 1
3DS – 1

The Overall Numbers So Far...

System Breakdown (Ranked top 50)
PC – 6
XBOX360 – 4
PS2 – 4
NES – 3
SNES – 1
PSX - 1
PS3 – 1

Overall System Breakdown (Unranked bottom 50)
PC – 6
NES – 3
SNES – 2
PSX – 2
PS2 – 2
XBOX360 – 2
PS3 – 1
Wii (Virtual Console) – 1
3DS – 1

My Favorite Music of the Past 10

My Favorite Completely Random Insane Quake III Arena Rocket Jumping Video

A Crazy, 35 minute Speed Run of The Legend of Zelda

The Best Lines of the One, the Only, HK-47

And finally...the Greatest Easter Egg Ever (Fans of Assassin's Creed, Please Watch)

 

[Buzzman]

I love that easter egg.

 

[SethMode]

#30

DuckTales​

A-woo-hoo (sorry, however lame, couldn't help myself)! To this day I can still remember having to talk my brother into renting this game. He is older than me, and at his age, DuckTales was “lame kid shit”. DuckTales at the time was right in my wheelhouse, so I persisted. Finally, he caved (I may or may not have bitched out and recruited my mother to aid in the decision). In the end, to this day, he would thank me for sticking to my guns. This game is fantastic. So much more than meets the eye, DuckTales takes place across multiple real life places, fictionalized for the game, not unlike the cartoon. Only, in the game, Scrooge McDuck is a pogo stick hopping and cane-as-a-golfclub swinging original G, killing everything from ghosts in Transylvania to gorillas in the Amazon, to fucking aliens on the goddamn Moon. Cartoon favorites appear in a variety of ways, from Launchpad being your level to level transport to your nephews Huey, Duey and Louie offering in-level support. The game wasn’t too challenging, in terms of NES platform standards, but came with three endings based on your performance, and was strange in the way that, the rarest ending was the worst (which was, make Uncle Scrooge bankrupt). The game is fondly remembered to this day (enough so that a remake is coming soon), with great music, tight gameplay, and extremely well designed levels. In other words, it’s classic NES Capcom. Today, it’s a game that could have all of its secrets found and its final boss beaten in no time, but in the early 90’s, it was well ahead of its time. And man, the Moon music…just 8-bit musical perfection.

Spoiler for Next Recap Cause This Shit is so Going to be on There

Fucking YES.

Just Missed the Cut:
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

 

[SethMode]

#29

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (or, as it is known as today: Punch-Out!!)​

I believe I have told the following anecdote here before. In the early 90’s, my brother and I were obsessed with Mike Tyson’s Punch Out! The game was this perfect blend of tight gameplay, unforgiving controls, colorful (if maybe slightly – okay, overtly – racist) characters, and insane difficulty spikes, it kept you coming back over and over and over again. Well, my brother had never beaten Mike Tyson. I know many people to this day have not beaten Mike Tyson. Well, fellow nerds, I have beaten Mike Tyson. That in and of itself is sweet enough, but the way it happened made it all the sweeter. Jeff (my brother) watched as I gave Tyson what was probably my 20th attempt. I knocked him down twice in the first round, and stayed relatively unharmed. I knocked him down twice in the second round, and got knocked down once myself (and took a fair amount of a beating afterward). The fucker WOULD NOT STAY DOWN. I knocked him down once in third and final round, and he returned the favor. I BARELY got up (thank you select button/Doc rapid pat between round health boost). The round ended. Jeff exclaimed, “Well, that’s over. We can’t beat Tyson by decision.”

To this day, I have never seen it happen again. But it happened. We had beaten Mike Tyson, by decision, in his own goddamn game. Jeff was, I think, a little bitter at the fact that I had done it, but in fairness, I had used a password to get to the fight (a password that we only had because he had gotten that far). Which is why I keep saying we; for as good as I was against Tyson (and I still am, I don’t know why, I just tend to get locked in on that fight), I am fucking ass terrible against Soda Popinkski, Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man. I have never beaten Super Macho Man, and I think I’ve only beaten Mr. Sandman twice. Jeff usually had to take care of them for me. So, yeah, WE beat Tyson, after numerous attempts, numerous swear words and numerous utterances of “I am never playing this fucking game again.”

We both still play that game from time to time. Not much else can be said.

Just Missed the Cut:
Metroid

 

[SethMode]

#28

Dragon Age: Origins
​

The spiritual successor to a series that may or may not be making an appearance higher on this list, Dragon Age: Origins was a modern RPG renaissance. In an era where many thought that true dice roll, Dungeons and Dragons style strategy roleplaying was dead, this game came out and showed everyone that not only was it here, it was here to stay (that’s how we felt at that time – Bioware kind of stuck it up our bums and snapped it off on that one – and I LIKED Dragon Age 2). The game is, for lack of any better term, AMAZING. Do you want to shape your hero, without feeling like you’re being measured for good or bad? Play it. Do you want to build a character from the ground up, determining who the character will like and dislike from your party, and experience positives and negatives because of that? Yep, that’s here too. Want to engage in NPC experiences that affect other NPCs? Sure, no problem. Do you want to have companions with deep back stories that are only accessible through your effort to cultivate a relationship? You can do that too. Oh, and on top of all of this, do you want challenging, strategic combat that will not hesitate to kick you in the dick, stab you in the neck, and then proceed to piss on the corpse of you and your party members without a moment’s notice? That’s Dragon Age: Origins. It is the ultimate modern, old-school RPG. When you couple that with interesting character origin stories (six of them, all interesting, some more so than others, all playing a role in the overarching narrative), fantastic dialogue and voice acting, and a story that while not necessarily unique, is still uniquely told? You have one of Bioware’s best games in a long time. Oh yeah, and serving as the proverbial sprinkles on this nerd sundae we have: a wisecracking, virgin knight, a bisexual bard that can eviscerate entire groups of enemies as an archer, a Claudia Black voiced badass woman of the forest who casts spells as well as derogatory comments (and the latter more often than the former), a giant that will in love with female characters but no act on it for fear of “breaking them” and, oh yeah, one of the best “gray area” villains in recent memories. A lot of people shy away from these older style RPGs because of their complexity. To that I say: my girlfriend has beaten 4 games since we’ve started dating (4 years ago). They are: Costume Quest, Fable 2, Fable 3, and Dragon Age: Origins. And Dragon Age was the first on that list. So if she can learn it, so can you.

Just Missed the Cut:
Tecmo Super Bowl

 

[SethMode]

#27

Portal​

Growing up, I had a Speak & Spell. To this day, I recall a nightmare I had as a youth, where my Speak & Spell seemingly took on a life of its own, saying horrible things to me in that already quasi-demonic voice it has. It is so flat, with off-putting random peaks and valleys in its inflection, alone it weirded me out, and in a nightmare threatening to murder me? Yeah, I was a little freaked. I like to imagine that the writers of Portal, Eric Wolpaw and Chet Faliszek drew from a similar experience when they created GLaDOS, your antagonist through the tech demo/student project fully realized. She’s one of the funniest, most menacing, most deliciously evil antagonists in the history of gaming, so she was a perfect reminder of my childhood toy. That wasn’t the only aspect of Portal that was memorable though. It was a fairly ingenious puzzle game, that reveled in simple yet devious mind benders, particularly later in the game. And for such a bare-bones narrative, it was paced brilliantly to its climax and beyond, and works wonderfully with the Valve design philosophy of minimal HUD handholding. It’s rare that a new IP gains as much popular momentum as Portal managed, to the point where phrases like “The Cake is a Lie” was popping up outside of just the video game world. Sure, it got a little played out, and sure, nothing can compare to that first playthrough, but damn if that first playthrough wasn’t everything that video games are supposed to be. Super creative, charming, intelligent, fun as shit, and genuinely funny and gripping at the same time. It was a breath of fresh air at the time, and still stands as a wonderful example that it’s good to take risks on new IP, because when they hit, they hit big. I’d recommend that people play it, but I honestly think everyone has played the game by now. The sequel doesn’t quite live up to the originality of the first, but it’s still a great game, and both serve as an interesting glimpse into another aspect of Valve’s Half-Life universe.

Just Missed the Cut:
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

 

[SethMode]

#26

Super Mario Bros.​

Ah nostalgia, thy bringst my least exciting write up. The first NES game I ever owned of course belongs on this list, but the years have dropped it lower and lower. While I can appreciate what it has done for modern video games and platformers in general, there are just too many games that do what it does, better. That being said, it was the original platformer and my first true taste of video games that I enjoyed (because I fucking hated Atari for the most part), so it holds a special place in my heart. The music is iconic, as our things like warp zones, fireflowers, secret vines, and oh yeah, those plumbers whose names are escaping me. Even if I don’t play much beyond the first world or a warp zone speed run (both of which are once in a blue moon), I can appreciate how well designed the game is and moreso, how balls to the wall difficult it can be. Some of the final castles were nearly childhood crushing, and at the time, nothing really was more dreaded than going up against some of the late game Bowsers as little plumber, knowing that one false move in the sea of hammers and fireballs, and it was back to the beginning. Look, it’s fucking Super Mario Bros. If you’re posting here you’ve played it, maybe beaten it, and definitely appreciate it. There’s really not much else to say.

Just Missed the Cut:
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

 

[SethMode]

#25

Final Fantasy IV (or II, as I played it on SNES)​

This has a special place in my heart as the first JRPG I ever played. This was another situation where I rented the game with literally no information other than what the box at the video store told me. Known as Final Fantasy II at the time, it hooked me pretty much instantly. The music is absolutely beautiful, and being that this was long before Square started going to the same well over and over again, the story featured some legitimately shocking moments pretty much right out of the gate. Here I was playing this game while in elementary school and I was participating in acts of genocide and betrayal, seeking redemption, and then witnessing surprising deaths of and sacrifices by characters that I had come to really love. I rented this sucker 8 times before I finished it (which was probably enough money to buy it at the time, but it was easier to get my parents to splurge on a few bucks every weekend than it was a large chunk up front), and it to this day ranks as the most difficult RPG I played. Today of course I realize that the game isn’t really all that challenging, but at the time, concepts like grinding were foreign to me, so I was often woefully underprepared for major battles. I specifically remember the Underworld being such a tremendous spike in difficulty for me that I almost gave up. Thankfully, the positives far outweighed the frustration. As an aside: one thing I really loved about this game that Square seemed to get away from as the series went on was that you had a set party that fit their narrative decisions. I felt that this told a more cohesive story in a lot of ways, because it allowed them to open the characters up and enrich them, rather than force them to paint more basic cypher’s due to having to adhere to player choice. I doubt my opinion on that is a popular one, but I liked the fact that characters died, left or plain just gave up the fight. From what I understand, the game has changed quite a bit in a remaking and a reimagining. While I’ve heard those are certainly worth checking out if you haven’t played the game, I personally would recommend the original, warts and all. At the very least, you’ll get to witness a character call someone a “Spoony Bard” in its true mistranslation, and not its significantly lamer fan service form.

Just Missed the Cut:
Final Fantasy Tactics

 

[SethMode]

#24

Mass Effect 2​

Well, here we are. List spoiler: we’ve reached my favorite game of this generation. Mass Effect 2 quite literally blew me away. A day 1 purchase for me after absolutely loving the original, I dove in the minute it arrived from Amazon. I had the week off of work, so the timing was perfect. Without going into too many gory details (showers, change clothes and meals happened, albeit by female force), if I remember correctly, I finished the game sometime around 6AM on the following Thursday. It sucked me in that much. Gone were the occasionally frustrating menus, repeated assets, lumbering Mako segments and suspect aiming mechanics. The few complaints I had about its predecessor, Mass Effect 2 fixed, and in many cases, improved (I’m in the camp that the RPG elements removed were for the good of the game, as many were elements that were only being carried over into RPGs out of this bizarrely strict adherence to what made an RPG and RPG). It’s my favorite story overall of the three, serving as that prototypical “dark middle chapter” (at least, depending on how you played), and it has by far my favorite characters and character interactions. And while the feature is a bit old hat at this point, now that the trilogy is complete, at the time it bordered on mind blowing witnessing your choices from Mass Effect play out with subtle differences in Mass Effect 2. Oh yeah, and EVERYONE CAN DIE. EVERYONE. Including Shepard himself. Again, a convention that now has had its guts torn out by the internet, at the time, was genuinely mind blowing. No single person I talked to had the same end game as me. Who did you send into the grates? Who did you send back with the science team? How soon after the Collector attack did you hit the Omega relay? How well was your ship upgraded? These are all things that could cause the death of one, more, or all of your squad. Over all of this, you string what is what of my personal favorite video game soundtracks of all time, and the overall package was one that was imply impossible for me to put down. The series may not be for everyone, but I firmly believe that Mass Effect 2 is one of the greatest games ever made, and certainly one of, if not the, greatest games of this generation.

Just Missed the Cut:
Grim Fandango

 

[SethMode]

#23

DOOM​

When I think of Doom, I think of one thing. I think of the fucking most awesome .midi guitar songs ever. Well, that and how obsessed I was with the game for an extended period of time. But mostly, the fucking .midi guitar.

This game comes with so many memories it’s hard at this point in my life to even parse them all out. It was one of the first PC games I ever played. It was the first PC game I ever played and used console cheat codes (the idea that you could drop this window down and type shit in that made you walk through walls blew young Seth’s mind). It was the PC game that taught me what Shareware was, and thus sent me down a PC gaming rabbit hole that I’m lucky I ever made it out of. It was the first video game that made my Mom say “Um…maybe you should go outside. That seems awfully violent.” It was the first video game that made me leap out of my seat in shock (multiple times – and still does). It was the first video game I ever played high (don’t get me wrong, I went back to it – I wasn’t getting stoned at 11 or 12). It was the first video game that inspired me to buy a goddamn novelization of it (which I still own, but have never read). This is, in my opinion, the greatest game that id has ever made, and equally my favorite pure, first person murder game of all time. Tightly designed with immaculate controls, speed that to this day is insane (and would become a trademark for id), graphics that blew your mind at the time, superb monster design, genuinely evil levels, just the right amount of white knuckle challenge and, oh yeah, some of this:

To put it simply, I love this game. Love it. It’s like a shot of adrenaline every time, even today, and it’s nostalgia inducing graphics and over-the-top “story” make it a game I still come back to from time to time. You can find it anywhere now, so if you’re one of those people that never saw what the big deal was? Well, you should give it a shot. Granted, the Doom zeitgeist has long since passed and first person shooters are a dime a dozen so it might not grab you like it did me, but anyone that appreciates great music and great gameplay, should be able to glean tons of enjoyment from it.

Just Missed the Cut:
Quake

 

[SethMode]

If someone could let me know if those youtube vids worked (as far as did they embed), it'd be great. I can't tell on this shitdick PC.

EDIT - Ah...they're mobile links, that's why. God I hate this PC. Well, you can click on the links, leads to the same place. I'll embed when I get home.

 

[wingsfan77]

I just wrapped up ME1 on Sunday and started ME2 a few hours later....that's a hell of an expectation for me going into it haha

 

[SethMode]

#22

Full Throttle​

By 1995, I was pretty well ensconced in the adventure game scene, particularly LucasArts. By this point, I knew who Tim Schaeffer was, and anxiously awaited Full Throttle as a game that he designed and wrote. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. Telling a story that is equal parts exciting, interesting, hilariously pulpy and over the top, yet also incorporates typical adventure game tropes like puzzle solving and tons of dialogue, can’t be easy to do, but Schaefer and crew pull it off with flying colors here. Without giving too much away, it’s a fully voiced cast (featuring Mark Hamill as the villain) in a story that has many twists and turns, murder, motorcycle gangs, a dystopian alternate universe and a general distaste for the impending rise of minivan hovercrafts. So yeah, it’s a Tim Schaefer game. The game isn’t as outwardly funny as a lot of LucasArts adventure games, but its subtlety and commitment to its pulp aspects really sell its charm and tongue-in-cheek writing. It features music that sounds just as over-the-top as a lot of the concepts featured in the game, most of it performed by a group with the ridiculous name of “The Gone Jackals”. It’s all heavy guitar and hard rock style, but it goes perfectly with a universe with gang names like the Polecats and the Vultures, character names like Adrian Ripburger, and ridiculous situations like using fertilizer to the eyes to unseat a rival biker so that you can steal his fucking chainsaw. Because you know, nothing says safe (or badass) like riding a motorcycle and using a chainsaw. The game is awesome, the music is awesome, the voice acting is sublime, the story is as well told as it is written, and again, it’s hard to find thanks to LucasArts sticking their collective thumbs up their asses for years. Here’s hoping someday this one makes it to Steam, because it’s adventure gaming at its finest.

Just Missed the Cut:
Blackthorne

 

[calgaryballer]

Looking forward to what else comes if ME2 is best of the generation. Have a feeling ill be sharing an awful lot of the PC specific games comic up as it seems we were fortunate enough to play a lot of the same classics.

Quake, Doom, Etc are we're my obsession with PC Gaming started.

I can't remember if you said KOTOR is the only Star Wars game on your list. If so, I am surprised by the lack of Jedi Knight or Tie Fighter love. JK2 remains one of my fave games ever

 

[SethMode]

Looking forward to what else comes if ME2 is best of the generation. Have a feeling ill be sharing an awful lot of the PC specific games comic up as it seems we were fortunate enough to play a lot of the same classics.

Quake, Doom, Etc are we're my obsession with PC Gaming started.

I can't remember if you said KOTOR is the only Star Wars game on your list. If so, I am surprised by the lack of Jedi Knight or Tie Fighter love. JK2 remains one of my fave games ever

I could never get into the flight sim games like Tie Fighter at the time...they were too much for me. I've wanted to go back, particularly after everything I've heard about Tie Fighter, just haven't found the time yet. Not that it's a related series, but the original XCom games are the same way. They broke my brain as a kid.

As far as Jedi Knight, I really liked it, and it's in my top 100, but it didn't crack the top 50.

A bunch of shit in my top 15 is going to make me look like a true super nerd.

 

[SethMode]

#21

Mega Man 2​

To this day, I remember the first time I played Mega Man 2. My brother had bought and brought it home, we popped it in, and proceeded to play for 5 straight hours until we were forcibly removed from the front of the TV by my father. That’s how good it was. How good it is. There’s a reason this game is considered one of the greatest ever made. Challenging, well designed mechanics, fucking phenomenal music, an improved weapon variety, some truly inspired enemies (loony and Japanese as shit, but that’s what I love about them), my personal favorite array of weapons from the series and one of the hardest fucking levels I played as a kid (Quick Man’s). Anyway, yes, this all holds up today (although I find Quick Man’s level to be a little easier now). This was the first and hardest game that featured a password option that I beat without a password. It was a proud moment particularly considering the amount of replaying and practice it took just to get there (Dr. Wily’s castle alone is no joke, then that final battle? Fucking hell). It’s considered by many to be the greatest action platformer of all time, and I have trouble coming up with a suitable argument when you toss the word “action” in there. I have this one multiple systems today, from my NES, to my Wii, to my 3DS…and I still never get sick of it. I don’t quite log the long hours on it that I used to, but it’s still wonderful in short bursts. If you haven’t played this game, either because you missed it when you were younger or because you grew up in the era when Capcom buttfucked the legacy of Mega Man to death, I urge you to pick it up. It’s so, so good, so challenging, everything that an old school NES game should be. And it has fucking Metal Man in it, and beating Metal Man gets you THE MOTHERFUCKING METAL BLADE, which is without a doubt, one of the best, most useful power ups in history.

Just Missed the Cut:
Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis

 

[killgod]

It creeps me out how similar we are. Our gaming tastes (save for sports) is too similar, even our retro titles are on point.

 

[SethMode]

It creeps me out how similar we are. Our gaming tastes (save for sports) is too similar, even our retro titles are on point.

I'm just glad there are people here that play the same shit as me. I felt like 1) the lack of a ton of stuff from this generation; and 2) the lack of a bumping some older games up for the sake of their history; and 3) a lot of older PC games; was going to have some people angry. So far I seem to have just enraged Senser.

 

[SethMode]

Some Random Fun Stuff for the Third 10

System Breakdown (Ranked Top 50)
NES - 4
PC - 3
XBOX360 - 2
SNES - 1

System Breakdown (Unranked Bottom 50)
PC - 4
NES - 2
SNES - 2
PSX - 1
PS2 - 1

The Overall Numbers So Far...

System Breakdown (Ranked top 50)
PC – 9
NES – 7
XBOX360 – 6
PS2 – 4
SNES – 2
PSX - 1
PS3 – 1

Overall System Breakdown (Unranked bottom 50)
PC – 10
NES – 5
SNES – 4
PSX – 3
PS2 – 3
XBOX360 – 2
PS3 – 1
Wii (Virtual Console) – 1
3DS – 1

My Favorite Music of the Past 10...Who the Fuck Am I Kidding? Let's Go Crazy Since It's All Great

First, The Amazingly Goofy/Brilliant

Now The Absolutely Mind-Blowing

And Finally Some Music That's Just Damn Awesome

The Fucking Awesome and Completely Ridiculous Intro to Full Throttle

...and What Better Way to End It but With Some GLaDOS?

 

[SethMode]

#20

StarCraft​

It was the winter of 2000. I had just overwhelmed my best friend’s Terran base with my legion of Zergs (Jesus Christ we’re off to a nerdy start here). Just as a contingent of Hydralisks were bearing down on his Command Center (not getting any better with the dorkiness), he raises his Command Center and flies it away. This is typically Steve behavior when he doesn’t want to admit defeat, nor disconnect. He trolls. For 10 minutes that felt like 10 years, I search and search, while I try to build up some new air units with the scattered, nearly exhausted map resources. The entire time this fucker is giggling away in the chat. Today, I remember the situation fondly. At the time, I could have killed him. Not one to be deterred, I called up his house and his younger sister, who had always had a crush on me, answered. Thinking on my feet, I asked her to whatever school dance was coming up. She accepted. Before we ended the call, I told her to make sure she let Steve know, just to make sure he was okay with it. Moments later, Steve calls me, losing his shit. “She’s just a freshman dude, don’t be an asshole. You know this isn’t cool.” I calmly explain to him that it’s her decision, not his. This makes him angrier. All the while, I know that he’s away from the computer. He’s in the living room by the phone. I’m in the family office. I’m hunting. As I find and destroy the last remnants of his army, I calmly remind him not to fuck with me. He calls me an asshole and hangs up. The moral of this anecdote is: StarCraft is not to be trifled with. In my mind, the greatest competitive multiplayer experience ever, the ingeniously simple yet complex gameplay, combined with amazing production values and a core concept of three brilliantly matched factions, made this game impossible to put down. My friends and I played it almost every moment we had enough time to get a match it. You combine this with the fact that Battle.net was the revolutionary, easy-to-use system that it was, and you had us finding plenty of time to get matches in. But wait! Don’t sell the singleplayer short. This game told an engaging, well delivered story in one of the most bizarre fashions: essentially, 2-5 dude’s heads would appear in your mission briefing screen, they’d move slightly, deliver well written, excellently voice acted lines, and you’d go off on your next endeavor. It was so simple, yet so compelling. The missions were revolutionary at the time for their variety, and the in-mission story telling was something that would only be made better by Blizzard themselves, through later games. It saw massive success, the release of an equally amazing expansion, and finds support across the globe to this day. Just don’t play anyone from Korea, or they will fuck your shit up. And don’t fucking be a bitch with your Terran Command Center, or your friend might deflower your little sister.*

Just Missed the Cut:
StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty

*It would make a better story if I had, but I didn’t even end up going to the dance with her, let alone snatching her virginity. Oh well.*