17. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, also on PS3 & 360)

 

As a fan of Call of Duty from the very beginning, this game was the pinnacle of the series for me and showed off everything the franchise can be. Moving the time period from the over-done world war II setting to the modern day (meaning some very cool weaponry and varied gameplay) yet still retaining everything that made Call of Duty 1 & 2 great; a glorious single player campaign combined with a superb multiplayer.  

The single-player campaign, whilst relatively short, is perhaps one of the most memorable and shocking. A solid narrative pushed you along, but added some truly shocking moments not seen in video games that made full use of the first-person perspective (nuke anyone?). The multiplaer in Call of Duty has always been good, and CoD4 was no different. New weaponry and a levelling system added to solid CoD gameplay. In many ways, this was the last (and arguably only) Call of Duty game to truly innovate. 

16. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, PC, also on X-box)

 

The only GTA game on my list as it's quite simply brilliant. For me, the content in this game alone was enough to push this game up to 16th. All the aspects that made GTAIII and Vice City great were thrown into this game and then the content was doubled to create a gloriously fun package. Great missions, lots of cars, diverse environments (3 different cities, countryside, dessert) and flying jets! I preffered the mafia story of Vice City, but the sheer volume of the game world and the variety of things to do make this game the best GTA game ever created!

 

15. Half-Life + HL: Source (PC also on PS2)

 

I think this game really needs to be put into perspective to truly appreciate the revolution it brough to the FPS genre and general single-player storytelling in video games. It came out in a time where FPS' were all arcade shooters like Quake, Doom or Unreal, had little to no narrative, poor AI, unrealistic damage models (didn't matter where you hit someone, the damage was the same) and where everyone was a beefed up generic soldier (actually, not much has changed in that respect). Half-Life broke the mold. You played a geeky scientist, headshots would actually kill, the AI actually flanked you and flushed you out with grenades rather than running into walls and the narrative was excellent and told throughout the game world. 

Quite simply, it was the first game to truly combine all these aspects into one revolutionary package. The narrative especially; for the first level you didn't even get a gun as it just built-up tension and set the scene for the rest of the game. The lack of cut-scenes and the fact that everything was seen in first-person also meant that a greater level of immersion could be maintained making you actually feel like you were Gordon Freeman. It also balanced the action with superb level design and puzzle elements requiring you to actually use a modicum of thought as opposed to the pure gibb-fest of previous FPS titles.

It's also worth remembering that the mods that sprung from this game (namely Counterstrike, but others like Day of Defeat as well) have gone on to become some of the greatest and most popular multiplayer FPS' in the world, many still being played today. Basically, nearly every FPS on the market today has been influenced in one way or another by Half-Life.

spurgeonryan said: Scoobes said: 16. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, PC, also on X-box)   The only GTA game on my list as it's quite simply brilliant. For me, the content in this game alone was enough to push this game up to 16th. All the aspects that made GTAIII and Vice City great were thrown into this game and then the content was doubled to create a gloriously fun package. Great missions, lots of cars, diverse environments (3 different cities, countryside, dessert) and flying jets! I preffered the mafia story of Vice City, but the sheer volume of the game world and the variety of things to do make this game the best GTA game ever created!   Nooooo! You took my spot of glory.   Funny is this was my fvorite GTA game! The one that I spent the most amount of time in.

Lol, sorry. This is also my fave GTA game and I can't count the number of hours I whittled on this game just messing around. I ended up playing it on both PS2 & PC after I knackered my PS2 disc due to overuse!

Weird. I've just compared my list to the one from last year and whilst most of the games have stayed the same, the order of the games (11-50 at least) has completely altered. Wonder what that say about my last year...

12: Final Fantasy X-2 PS2

"Give a Y"
"Give a R"
"Give a break!"

This game, without doubt boasts the best battle system of ANY final fantasy game ever made. The Dresssphere system was pretty nifty to boot.

SvennoJ said: #13 Populous, the beginning played on PC, released 1998 A great blend of RTS and god-style gameplay. It was great fun to build up your tribe, then tapping into powerful magic to lay waste to your opponents. Hanging out in a hot air balloon surveying the battlefield  while sending tornados to tear up their buildings, or even cause a vulcanic eruption in the middle of their village. I loved that every map was it's own planet. No borders to run in to, or hide next to. That made attacking from all sides all the more easy. The artstyle is great as well. I had hoped From dust would have been more like this. It seems a perfect fit. This, Warcraft and Age of empires all defined a great era of RTS games for me. List

This sounds really cool. I wish I had a windows PC (Linux cause I fried my mother board and bios don't load windows). This really looks like my type of RTS game.

Mr Khan said: Despite all the perfectly viable arguments made against it in this thread, Mario Kart 64 is my number 13. I mean, MK64 is one of the two games (along with Mario 64) that got me into gaming in the first place. I owe a lot to that horribly unbalanced game

Damn straight! Same here, except those two were two if the first games I ever owned (I think MK64 was the first new video game I ever bought with my own cash). Donkey Kong Country got me into gaming, these two got me hooked.

I'm late.

20 - Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (PS2, Xbox)

Where Grand Theft Auto: Vice City may have had the best character and setting of all the GTA games, San Andreas had by far the best gameplay and value. Three cities, each almost as big as Vice City, connected by open country roads, highways, and even a full mountain to dive off. Three different types of collectibles, RPG stat building, and territory minigames that actually didn't suck, and you have here the best the series has to offer. Too bad GTA IV basically threw everything that made Vice City and San Andreeas great out the window.

19 - Assassin's Creed II (PS3, 360)

While the first game was pretty and the story sucked me right in, the gameplay was messed up and uneven (seriously, guards attacking you just for being there? Forget that.) Luckily, Ubisoft took the time to refine everything about the first game into a game that was actually fun to play! They elaborated on the already fantastic story, they added more stuff to do, more collectables to collect, and better characters to interact with. The perfect sequel, though it still had a few gameplay related refinements to work on.

18 - Super MarioWorld (SNES, GBA)

Oh man, what a fantastically nostalgic experience that just doesn't stop being awesome. Dozens upon dozens of levels, an intricate world that has many, MANY secrets to explore, and some of the best level design to ever grace a platformer. In my opinion the apex of the Mario series. While others have beat it in individual categories, no game in the series ever brought all those elements together in such a way. Hell, any game that can be beaten in less than half an hour through exploiting secrets is awesome. I've been playing this game for two decades now and I STILL haven't found everything. That's replay value. (for the record there's only one room I can't get into, I have in fact gotten the coveted 96* score)

17 - Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)

This is where the series really skyrocketed into the stratosphere for me. While the first two had flimsy plots and frankly lame character development, Up your Arsenal introduced us to what would become Ratchet's main nemesis: dr Nefarious. In turn the story actually mattered, Quark was less of a douche, and the sheer variety of gameplay in this is outstanding. Flying, shooting, platforming, puzzling, RPG elements, even a little RTS if you know where to look. They even added a multiplayer that didn't suck. Wasn't great, but it certainly didn't suck! When I'm arguing in favor of unified genre theory, this is one of the games I use as an example.

16 - Rock Band 3 (PS3, 360, Wii)

While I admit this game's release really pissed me off (No PS3 keyboards in Canada, no bundles, STILL no Pro guitars), and I ended up loathing most of the setlist on-disc (seriously, I'm a guitarist who hates chordfests), this really expanded what a Rythm game could be. Almost doubling the potential players from 4 to 7, adding a keyboard, and incorporating better RBN support made this a real winner in my eyes. Plus, the continued DLC has proven to be a steady source of entertainment. While I feel the game itself was a touch lackluster compared to the pristine Rock Band 2, it has since fixed itself and proven to be the de-facto Rock Band experience. Oh, and since Rock Band 3's release, we've been treated to some of the best DLC ever, most notably Meat Loaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Dream Theater's On the backs of Angels, both perfect full-band experiences. There's also been 4 rush songs and 12 songs by The Doors. Shit, I best stop, because this game is awesome.

15 - Red Dead Redemption (PS3, 360)

After the debacle that was Grand Theft Auto IV, I was incredibly hesitant to buy into the hype of another Rockstar game. Well, I ended up waiting a while and getting this for cheap ('cheap' being 40 bucks) thanks to getting a gift card. Well, I was blown away. I didn't really know Rockstar for their storytelling ability, but Red Dead Redemption's story was amazingly well-told from beginning to end, revolving around likeable and believable characters in a gloriously realized world. Hell, if you just did the story it'd last you 20+ hours, that's not including the many, MANY things to do on the side as you explore around Texas and Mexico. Red Dead Redemption showed what a sandbox game could be, and in my opinion is what a sandbox game should be.

14 - Final Fantasy IX (PS1)

I have a confession to make: I don't remember most of this game. It keeps getting overshadowed by FF games I liked better (VI, VII, X, XII) and often gets left out when compared to the more controversial FFVIII, so I haven't played it as much as some of the others in the series. All I know is that what I did play of it I absolutely adored. I loved the characters, the plot, the fact that GASP terrible things happened a LOT! Not to mention I was fond of the battle system and the world they lived in. It was precicely what Amano wanted: a 3D version of a classic Final Fantasy. Now if only they'd return to their roots and quit with the stupid FFXIII sequels, we could get more great games!

13 - Final Fantasy VIII (PS1)

This one had it's fair share of controversy, from the Emo-poster boy Squall to the complicated but easy to abuse junction/draw system, this game reeks of weird decisions...and yet it worked. Squall may have been emo, but it made for one of the best-developed character arches in videogame history when he manned up and fell for Rinoa. The junction system may have been cumbersome, but once you learned it, it was remarkably deep and fun to use. Drawing still sucks, but if you know how to refine things then it becomes less necessary. Oh, and it has arguably the best minigame to ever grace Final Fantasy: Triple Triad. It had its faults, but I think it's strengths greatly outweigh them.