LoC #81 - Top 50 Video Games of the Oughts

[Pak-Man]

Here's mine, BTW:
1. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
2. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
3. Civilization IV
4. Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
5. Mother 3
6. Samba De Amigo
7. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
8. Mass Effect
9. Sam & Max: Beyond Time & Space
10. Tales of Monkey Island
11. Portal
12. Shenmue
13. Jet Set Radio Future
14. Super Mario Sunshine
15. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
16. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
17. Spore
18. Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
19. Katamari Damacy
20. Super Mario Galaxy
21. The Sims 3
22. Crazy Taxi
23. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
24. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
25. Conker's Bad Fur Day

[lassieface]

1. Portal
2. Bioshock
3. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
4. Uncharted 2
5. Shadow of the Colossus
6. Half-Life 2
7. Civilization IV
8. Mass Effect
9. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
10. Super Mario Sunshine
11. Metal Gear Acid
12. Fallout 3
13. Knights of the Old Republic
14. Uncharted
15. Torchlight
16. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
17. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
18. Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life
19. Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
20. Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
21. Super Smash Bros. Melee
22. James Bond 007: Nightfire
23. Kingdom Hearts
24. World of Goo
25. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga

[Sugar Ray Dodge]

#34–Final Fantasy IX

(25 Points) 1 of 11 Lists - Highest Ranking - #1 –Sugar Ray Dodge

Yeah...I promised Garnet I'd kidnap her. 

Release Date:  July 7, 2000

Considering who all participated in this and what else ended up on the list, I gotta say I'm surprised that I'm the only one who voted for this.

[PsychoGoatee]

I was the only vote for Dragon Quest VIII, there's another long running Square-Enix saga for ya. I'm more of an FF7 guy but I do love a good black mage, especially that awesome band The Black Mages. 

[lassieface]

That was fun. Thank you Pak-Man

[Relaxing Dragon]

Little late, but finally in to comment. Great to see GTA: SA so high. That one gets my vote for best of the series, since it was just the right blend of story/character and wacky world/play mechanics (jetpacks in gang turf wars! It's so simple!). Then there's Silent Hill 2, which is about as close to a playable nightmare as I've ever seen.

As for Bioshock, well, that game was pretty flawless for me, and also (almost coincidentally) marked something of the point of decline in my general gaming lifestyle. Not in the sense of any fault of the game, just that this was also a point in my life where my general priorities started to shift, and this was the last game that I was well and truly obsessed with to the degree that I was. And still am a little bit, though (I was much kinder to Bioshock 2 than most, if only because it was another trip down to Rapture).

Anywho, time for my list:

1. Bioshock
2. Manhunt
3. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
4. Psychonauts
5. Silent Hill 2
6. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
7. Rise of Nations
8. Advance Wars: Dual Strike
9. Timesplitters: Future Perfect
10. RollerCoaster Tycoon 2
11. Halo 2
12. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
13. Mass Effect
14. F.E.A.R.
15. Dead Rising
16. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
17. SSX 3
18. Jet Set Radio Future
19. Burnout 3: Takedown
20. Resident Evil 4
21. Hitman: Blood Money
22. Pikmin 2
23. Luigi’s Mansion
24. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
25. Dead Space

Looking over it, while there are a few that I could easily have omitted for the ones I forgot (KOTOR! Shadow of the Colossus! Freaking Paper Mario!), there are still a couple that I'm surprised never made the list. JSRF came with every new Xbox for a while, which was good, since it gave everyone a chance to experience that awesomely enjoyable game for themselves. And no Psychonauts? That's easily one of the finest platformers ever made, one who's goofy humor, art design, and general playstyle still strikes a chord as incredibly original. For those who haven't yet played it, please do give it a go, you won't be disappointed.

Still a great list overall, of course (thank you Pak for running it!). The way I look at it, there were simply too many amazing games in that decade, so even with so many of my personal favorites not included, it still ended up being a fantastic collection here. Good stuff.

[CJones]

Here's mine. I totally spaced on Bioshock. That definitely should have been on my list.

1 The Ur-Quan Masters. (Hands down the best video game I've ever played. Like I said, it's kinda cheating, but I had to get this on there somehow) 
2 Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song (This was the last RPG I ever finished. And I did so twice.)
3 Shadow of the Colossus. (I had this on the 90's list due to some brain fart, but now it's actually eligible.)
4 Final Fnatasy Tactics: War of the Lions
5 Half-Life 2
6 Dwarf Fortress
7 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. (The XBox 360 version. This is where Bioshock would have been if I hadn't forgotten about it)
8 Vagrant Story
9 Deus Ex
10 La-Mulana (The original one from 2007 that was fan hacked into English. Sadly it won't work on modern computers. There is a remake though.)
11 Final Fantasy 12
12 Dragon Age: Origins
13 I Wanna Be the Guy.
14 Galactic Civilizations II (I'm actually surprised this didn't make it)
15 Civilization 4
16 Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
17 Guilty Gear XX / X2 (or any of it's later incarnations)
18 Disgaea
19 Portal
20 Cave Story
21 SoulCalibur 2
22 Final Fantasy 10
23 Sakura Taisen 2
24 A Boy and His Blob (The Wii remake)
25 King of Fighters 2001

I wish I had put more thought into this list.

Seriously though, do play The Ur-Quan Masters. I'm not kidding when I say it's the best game I've ever played.

[ColeStratton]

Guess I am too old for this list having mostly quit gaming in the 90s. Also, my number #1 is nowhere to be found, which doesn't make sense as there are entries that received 23 points, so everyone's top 3 should have made it. RIP Guitar Hero. My list:

1.   Guitar Hero
2.   Rock Band
3.   The Simpsons: Hit and Run
4.   Just Dance
5.   DJ Hero
6.   Mario Kart Wii
7.   LittleBigPlanet
8.   Super Mario Bros Wii
9.   NHL10
10.   Madden08
11.   Angry Birds
12.   Wii Fit
13.   Wii Sports
14.   Wii Sports Resort
15.   Mario Super Sluggers
16.   Kingdom Hearts
17.   The Simpsons Game
18.   The Beatles: Rock Band
19.   BioShock
20.   Coraline
21.   The Sims
22.   Bejeweled
23.   Guitar Hero II
24.   Rock Band II
25.   Guitar Hero World Tour

[Compound]

Finally getting around to commenting. Every list, I forget something. And this time I forgot the best game to be released on the Gamecube, and arguably one of the best horror games of all time.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

ED spanned 2000 years of time and spanned the globe from the Middle East to Thailand to New England to the unspeakable vastness between the worlds. It had a fluidity of controls that Resident Evil still has problems with 3 games later in their series. And it had one of the more unique ways of showing your character go insane. And I regret not putting it on the list. Oh well.

[Compound]

And my list:

1   Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (2003)
2   Civilization IV (2005)
3   World of Warcraft (2004)
4   City of Heroes (2004)
5   Rock Band (2007)
6   Persona 4
7   Saint's Row 2
8   SSX 3
9   Burnout Paradise
10   Valkyria Chronicles
11   Diablo II
12   Dead Rising
13   Batman Arkham Asylum
14   Freedom Force
15   Persona 3
16   Marvel Ultimate Alliance
17   Borderlands
18   The Sims 3
19   Crackdown
20   Amplitude
21   Mass Effect
22   Lego Star Wars
23   Rise of Nations
24   Beyond Good & Evil
25   Portal

[Compound]

Also, my number #1 is nowhere to be found, which doesn't make sense as there are entries that received 23 points, so everyone's top 3 should have made it. RIP Guitar Hero. My list:

I think SSX 3 also made the list with 27 points. (18 from me, 9 from CJones.) I accuse your parents for any math problems. (Party at Jack Taylor's!)

[Relaxing Dragon]

Also, my number #1 is nowhere to be found, which doesn't make sense as there are entries that received 23 points, so everyone's top 3 should have made it. RIP Guitar Hero. My list:

I think SSX 3 also made the list with 27 points. (18 from me, 9 from CJones.) I accuse your parents for any math problems. (Party at Jack Taylor's!)

Don't forget the 9 points SSX 3 got from me as well!

[Pak-Man]

Ack! One moment while I check some things... Bonus entries numbered stuff like 25.5 may be in order...

[Pak-Man]

OK. So when I was scoring Guitar Hero, I gave it one point instead of 25. That fixes that. Cjones didn't have any vote for SSX, but Relaxing Dragon and Compound did, which would have given it 27 points. For some reason I have 21. Nothing systemically wrong, at least. Just faulty maths.

Guitar Hero should be between 34 and 35 and SSX should be between 28 and 29. This would have been a Top 53 list if it had been done right, so there's very little impact. I'll immortalize the two games with proper entries as soon as I get a chance. Probably later tonight.

[Pak-Man]

#34.5–Guitar Hero

(25 Points) 1 of 11 Lists - Highest Ranking - #1 –ColeStratton

It’s time to leave. It’s time to get ready to rock!

Release Date:  November 8, 2005
Just the facts/Stuff I wiki'd:
Guitar Hero is a music rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in Australia. The game's development was a result of collaboration between RedOctane and Harmonix to bring a Guitar Freaks-like game to America.
 
The game features a guitar-shaped controller (resembling a miniature Gibson SG) that the player uses to simulate playing rock music. The gameplay is similar to GuitarFreaks, in that the player presses buttons on the guitar controller in time with musical notes that scroll on the game screen. The game features covers of 30 popular rock songs spanning five decades of rock, from the 1960s up through 2005, in addition to bonus tracks. Guitar Hero became a surprise hit, earning critical acclaim and winning many awards from major video game publications, and was considered one of the most influential games of the first decade of the 21st century. The game's success launched the Guitar Hero franchise, which has earned more than $2 billion in sales, spawning several sequels, expansions, and other game-related products.

The gameplay is similar to other music and rhythm video games, in that the player must press buttons on a game controller in time with scrolling notes on the game screen to complete a song. The basic mechanics are based on Konami's Guitar Freaks. In the case of Guitar Hero, the player may use either the guitar peripheral (a 3/4-scale reproduction of the Gibson SG guitar as bundled with the game, or a third-party version) or a standard controller to play the scrolling notes. The guitar peripheral has five different-colored fret buttons near the nut of the guitar neck, and a strum bar and a whammy bar on the body of the guitar. The peripheral also has other buttons in order to navigate the game's menus. Music is displayed on screen through a series of notes, matching in color and position to the fret buttons, that scroll down the screen on a fret board. To hit or play a note, the player must hold down the fret button corresponding to the note shown and toggle the strum bar at the same time as that note passes a marked area on the screen. Faster series of notes may be played on the guitar controller using hammer-on and pull-off techniques where the player does not need to strum each note. The game supports toggling the handedness of the guitar, allowing both left-handed and right-handed players to utilize the guitar controller. A player using the standard controller simply presses the buttons that correspond with the displayed notes as outlined in the game's manual.

Pak's Thoughts – I’ve only played Guitar Hero once, in an arcade a long time ago. I wasn’t that good at it, but thanks to years of Dance Dance Revolution  I know the joys of getting really good at a rhythm game. This game also shone a little spotlight on one of my favorite indie-pop bands, Freezepop, and they’ve enjoyed a pretty decent measure of respect since then, so I’m grateful for that too.