the top game all times part 2
(6-15)
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6) Starcraft
Developer: Blizzard
Publisher: Blizzard
Year Released: 1998
Synopsis: When you say the three letters RTS, there are a few games that immediately pop to mind. For millions of gamers, it's Starcraft. It remains as one of the most popular real-time strategy games played on the Internet around the world. For those of us that only revisit on occasion, there's still an immense amount to love.
StarCraft managed to create three wildly different factions in nearly all forms. Motivation, technology, and biology provided an amazing platform for a brilliant story and universe. Even more amazing was the ability to create checks and balances when none of the races shared units or even particular functions. Even the builder units acted much differently to fit the background of each race. The superb balance translated into enticing and addictive gameplay.
The galactic war between the Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg proved to be one of the most entertaining pieces of software ever created and the unannounced sequel (we have hope) is still one of the most asked about games of the future.
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7) Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Interplay/Black Isle Studios
Year Released: 2000
Synopsis: Plenty of Dungeons and Dragons based PC RPGs have come out over the years, but Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn had the biggest impact. Riding the surge of praise after the release of Baldur's Gate in 1998, the sequel delivered an even more fully featured pseudo-turn-based combat system, expansive environments, a seemingly endless number of side quests, and a compelling narrative.
If there's a single element that makes BGII stand out, it's character. The game had a truly sinister, multi-faceted villain, as well as some hilarious NPC companions. Take Minsc, for example, a brash fighter who frequently consulted with Boo, his trusty hamster companion. If you never bothered with this when it first came out in 2000, you should pick up a copy this instant. It may not look so good anymore, but it's still one of the best RPGs ever made.
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8) Simcity 2000
Developer:
Publisher:
Year Released: 1993
Synopsis: Fitter, happier, more productive. The citizens of your city are free to live long and happy lives presuming you have any clue what goes into city planning. If not, Simcity 2000 will give you a crash course to help create your own utopia and then allow you to smash it with an alien or monster attack when your citizens have grown too fat and lazy (they don't, but imagination opens up all kinds of possibility).
SimCity gave players an open sandbox in which to create their own perfect (or disastrous) city using a clever paint tool style interface. The more services a city had, the more attractive it would become to people hoping to move there. In addition to being sickeningly addictive, the title helped provide a base for players to educate themselves on the workings of a city and the dangers of crime and pollution.. SimCity 2000 is a sleeker model of the original and still one of the most ingenious and creative titles ever shipped for the PC.
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9) Half-Life 2
Developer: ValveSoftware
Publisher: Vivendi Games
Year Released: 2004
Synopsis: For many, the fist-person shooter genre really bloomed with the original Half-Life. While the game introduced grand new storytelling techniques and used atmosphere and tension to draw gameplay along, we decided for today's purposes that Half-Life 2 is simply the better game. Amazingly enough, the sequel did manage to best the original through the wide variety of gameplay provided. Whether it was straight up run and gun, vehicle combat, or physics based puzzles, there were no dull moments to be found in Gordon Freeman's assault on City 17.
The same story-telling techniques that made Half-Life so popular were back and improved thanks to character models with emotion (in voice and animation) and the brilliant dystopian City-17 of the future. The game immediately managed to draw us in and create the best single-player first-person shooter entertainment experience ever made on the PC. That long six year wait ended heroically.
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10) Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings
Developer: Ensemble Studios
Publisher: Microsoft
Year Released: 1999\
Synopsis: When it comes to old-school RTS games, no one did it bigger or better than Ensemble's Age of Kings. Though it lacked the sophisticated tactical action of Starcraft, Age of Kings' rock-paper-scissors combat model and its subtle balancing of a wide range of civilizations makes it one of the most enjoyable RTS games ever.
Sure, the historical setting required a bit of similarity among the unit types but the advantages and disadvantages of each civilization were so intriguing that no one side played like any other. Possessing one of the most engaging resource models in any RTS before or since, Age of Kings was just as much about your infrastructure as it was about your armies. The RTS has definitely evolved a lot over the last eight years but Age of Kings still represents the peak of what historical RTS games used to be.
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11) Sid Meier's Pirates!
Developer: Microprose
Publisher: Microprose
Year Released: 1987
Synopsis: It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since we first played through Sid Meier's Pirates!. Standing as one of the singularly most innovative and all-encompassing game experiences, the original Pirates! maintained it's position as one of the most beloved games of all time. Fortunately, an exciting remake a few years ago introduced a whole new generation to the joys of virtual swashbuckling.
Players choose whether to serve a European nation or whether to engage in a life of piracy and have to build their fortunes amid the turbulent waters of the Caribbean during the 17th and 18th centuries. Engaging in ship-to-ship combat and boarding actions, dueling with a whole cast of villains, trading goods and recruiting sailors at exotic ports, seeking out lost treasures and rescuing your kidnapped family members, romancing governors' daughters, this game really has it all.
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12) Battlefield 1942
Developer: Digital Illusions CE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Year Released: 2002
Synopsis: If true addiction has ever had a name in the offices of IGN, it's name was Battlefield 1942. No other game has inspired so many editors to give up their Friday nights in search of the perfect match in Stalingrad, Wake Island, or at the Battle of the Bulge. When you leave the office on Saturday morning and the sun is starting to come up, you know you have a good game on your hands. BF 1942 was that game.
It was the perfect blend of action and strategy across large maps filled to the brim with different types of vehicles and weapons. There's huge amounts of fun to be had whether you're playing a serious match or just screwing around having jeep races between capture points. No, the game was not perfect, but it ushered in a new era of large team-based first-person shooters and showed how much fun the chaoticly comic nature of a video game battlefield could be.
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13) System Shock 2
Developer: Looking Glass/Irrational Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Year Released: 1999
Synopsis: Looking Glass and Irrational Game's System Shock 2 excelled in many ways, but perhaps the strongest was the genuinely frightening atmosphere and that pervaded throughout every polygon. Pitted against a seemingly ubiquitous Artificial Intelligence with a singularly haunting speaking voice, your character had to escape the clutches of monstrosities and altered crewmates aboard the space vessels Rickenbacker and Von Braun. The game, like many others on our list, emphasized player choice over strict, predetermined progress.
A widely varied and upgradeable skill set, as well as a large range of weapons and tools were at the players' disposal. It was a game that demanded precision as well, where player decisions had noticeable and lasting repercussions, since items degraded quickly with use, ammunition was difficult to come across, and there were multiple ways of tackling nearly every obstacle. System Shock 2 wove together compelling storytelling, oppressive atmosphere, a wide range of abilities, and addictive first-person RPG gameplay to create an experience impossible to forget, and still remains one of the most cohesive, affective games out there.
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14) Company of Heroes
Developer: Relic Studios
Publisher: THQ
Year Released: 2006
Synopsis: If there's a modern game that shows the potential for tactic heavy strategy titles, Relic's Company of Heroes is it. This is about as complete an RTS game as we've seen in history and will probably be the benchmark to which other new RTS titles are compared. There's very little wrong with the game at all. It provided a stunningly exciting and interesting campaign nearly the entire way through, offered a wealth of skirmish and multiplayer fun, and did so with two very unique sides where none of the units ever become obsolete on the battlefield. Add masterful production values, sound composition, and brilliant visual effects and you've got one hell of an entertainment piece. While a lot of the ideas in Company of Heroes have been taken from other games, they've all been polished so bright and shiny that most strategy gamers will keep wanting more.
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14) Company of Heroes
Developer: Relic Studios
Publisher: THQ
Year Released: 2006
Synopsis: If there's a modern game that shows the potential for tactic heavy strategy titles, Relic's Company of Heroes is it. This is about as complete an RTS game as we've seen in history and will probably be the benchmark to which other new RTS titles are compared. There's very little wrong with the game at all.
It provided a stunningly exciting and interesting campaign nearly the entire way through, offered a wealth of skirmish and multiplayer fun, and did so with two very unique sides where none of the units ever become obsolete on the battlefield. Add masterful production values, sound composition, and brilliant visual effects and you've got one hell of an entertainment piece. While a lot of the ideas in Company of Heroes have been taken from other games, they've all been polished so bright and shiny that most strategy gamers will keep wanting more.
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15) Grim Fandango
Developer: LucasArts
Publisher: LucasArts
Year Released: 1998
Synopsis: It may be hard for the younger crowd to believe but there was a time when LucasArts was known as the industry's best adventure game developer. With a roster of superlative titles, the company had already cemented it's reputation in the annals of gaming. Then they went one step further with a game that many consider the greatest adventure game of all time. Grim Fandago succeeds on a number of levels.
On the surface, there's a tremendous concept for the world that involves a Dia de los Muertos aesthetic and a bureaucratic take on the afterlife. These are merely backdrops however for a compelling story full of memorable characters and a series of challenging puzzles that are so well integrated into the plot that you almost forget that you're playing a game. Great music and genuinely funny humor round out the package nicely. Even if you don't normally like adventure games, you'll love this one.
wiil be continued
p.s: if you miss the part 1, go here
