IGN top 100 games of all time

[Harrison]

Here is something interesting that I'm sure everyone here will have something to say about. IGN released a TOP 100 games of ALL time feature towards the end of 2007.

Have a look at it http://uk.top100.ign.com/2007/index.html

IGN always has a lot of great content, but as most of you probably know IGN is a very US orientated gaming site. And this is badly displayed in this supposed top 100 of all time. They kick things off by stating that this list has been created by more than 30 editors from all over the world, which got me very hopeful that this could be a very good mix of games from all of the world, but after looking through the 100 games included I have to question if this actually meant any editors outside of the US!

It begins well with Archon at 100, even listing the C64 as one of the platforms. So a promising start. But it then falls flat on it's face. Looking through the rest of the games you quickly see a very Nintendo and PC orientated line-up.

I do agree with the best of the PC and Nintendo games they have included, but definitely not with a lot of them.

They included Silent Hill 2 instead of the original. The sequel didn't really introduce any innovation we hadn't already seen in the genre evolving original. Therefore the original should have been included, not the sequel. Same with Baldur's Gate II being included instead of the first. At least the great RPG titles such as Planescane Torment and Chrono Trigger did make the mix.

But it gets worst. Have a look at entry 82, Syndicate. They correctly state it was developed by the UK developer Bullfrog but then don't even list the Amiga among the Platform releases. The platform it was developed on! Instead they include all the crap console ports and the PC and Mac. The CD32 gets a passing mention in the Fun Facts box, but that is all!

And I saw no mention of the European 8-bit systems. So the original BBC version of Elite isn't there for example. Or the Amiga sequel Frontier.

What are your thoughts about this top 100?

[Tiago]

i can see the list here in work, my server dont allow me to.

but Syndicate in only 82 (i thing it should be top 30 at least...even more), and not having elite or elite II Frontier in the list .... i conclude that it was not well done. People that did the list, dont know for sure the meaning of Elite in game industry. Everyone in game industry knows that syndicate was a great inovation in that year...

[Buleste]

The fact that Elite isn't there tells you a lot about this. Without Elite most of the space combat games would be a lot poorer and smaller. Frontier whilst a good follow up for Elite is not quite as addictive and not as important as Elite. Syndicate whilst a good game shouldn't be any higher than it is. It looks like all mention of the Amiga has been forgotten as it's not even listed under Sim City 2000 or X-com:UFO Defense (UFO for us). Where's Goldeneye or civilization? I've looked through the top 30 and they're not there. Experts getting it wrong again.

[Harrison]

Experts getting it wrong again.

You mean USA "experts". And I use the word experts very lightly.

The fact they have Halo very high up compared to the games that actually kicked the whole FPS genre off speaks volumes too.

[Buleste]

Should be USA ex-spurts. Halo only expanded on what Quake and Goldeneye had already done. Good thing about the charts was that it recognised how Nintendo have altered the world of gaming. You don't have to be gory to be great. Was there any Utimate Play the Game games in there like Knightlore?

[Harrison]

I don't remember seeing Knightlore in there. I will have to have another look. It is annoying that they didn't present the overall top 100 in an easy to read list, instead of having to navigate game by game through pages.

[Buleste]

If the what i can remember as the first time based 3d isometric game is not in the Top100 then it's far from complete. God i can think of tonnes of games that should be in there. Impossible Mission, Uridium, Jet Set Willy, 1942 all from the good old 8bit days.

[Harrison]

Maybe we should try and create a top 100 games of all time chart ourselves? Or if that is too ambitious maybe just a top 100 Amiga games of all time chart. It would definitely take a lot of time, but i think it would be worth it. With everyone nominating their favourite games and then we could hold public polls for each genre on the main site, and finally get everyone to vote on the final 100 games in a big poll to determine their order. We could leave the final poll as the top 100 so the game positions change order every time someone votes.

[Buleste]

If we did a top100 Amiga games then Elite would end up lower than it should as the Amiga version was poor as it was too easy. As for Top 100 of all systems i would be at a loss as i've never owned any Sony or M$ consoles and very few PC games so i couldn't vote for them. C64, MSX, Amiga, Gameboy (All flavours), Sega Saturn, N64 and GameCube are games i could comment on.


OOOOH. Just thought is Project: Stealth Fighter for the C64 in the Top 100? In my opinion it was the first serious flight sim. Yes there was Chuck Yeager but P:SF was the first with everything in. Even the simulated Gforces that you did when you were turning and banking (leaning to the sides or back and forward when monoevering. I know it's not a real feature of the game but everyone did it. I even know a few people who got injured falling off chairs by doing this and we only had one real button on our joysticks back then. (Drifts off into a haze of reminisence)).

[Tiago]

Maybe we should try and create a top 100 games of all time chart ourselves? Or if that is too ambitious maybe just a top 100 Amiga games of all time chart. It would definitely take a lot of time, but i think it would be worth it. With everyone nominating their favourite games and then we could hold public polls for each genre on the main site, and finally get everyone to vote on the final 100 games in a big poll to determine their order. We could leave the final poll as the top 100 so the game positions change order every time someone votes.

That would be great!

but why not a
- Amiga 100 game top list
and also a
- All-machines 100 game top list.

But how would we do it? voting? everyone of us vote in how many games?