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Eurogamer's Games of the Generation

Derrick01

Banned
While I agree with you that it shouldn't be about the "freshest" both Asylum and Portal 1 were by far the better games.

I won't argue about portal since I don't really care about them but there's no way that Asylum is better. City greatly expanded on all of the gameplay stuff while some of the non important stuff like pacing and story may have suffered a bit in places. It's the ultimate superhero game of the generation (provided Origins doesn't blow it away). Go back and play AA after playing AC, it's really tough to put up with all of the downgrades in combat, bosses and the riddler stuff.
 

eot

Banned
Garbage? :/

I don't think its campaign was very good no. They introduce mechanics then throw them away before they're done teaching you about them, too many poorly designed pixel hunt-esque areas, writing that tries way too hard to be funny and endless corridors / walkways you have to tread across just so they can play you some more dialogue. It's just trying to be Portal again, but it's soulless. Especially the puzzles, they feel like they've been tested until there's nothing left of them.
 

gokieks

Member
Can't argue with Portal. Regarding the Portal 1 vs 2 debate, I'd say that while 2 is, objectively, probably the better (or at least more polished) game, 1 was more innovative (obviously), better paced, and playing through it brought a sense of surprise and joy that 2 just couldn't match. So while Portal 2 is an excellent game, its' the original that I've called the most brilliant game of this generation since day one, and which statement I still firmly stand behind (though Journey, a game that I would describe in a manner very similar to Portal, comes close).

Yet with all that said, Portal actually isn't my definitive choice for game of the generation, because there really aren't enough words to describe just how much I adore Valkyria Chronicles.
 

mclem

Member
It's not a list right? No particular order it seems.

It *is* ordered, but the bottom five happen to all have had the same number of votes, so they're being presented in no particular order.

+ portals in Darksiders...
c'mon Eurogamer...

I wouldn't count Darksiders. While they're conceptually the same thing, the fact that use of them is heavily constrained to specific large structures. Does it even have "Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out" mechanics?

Portals in Portal felt like passages to elsewhere in the level. Portals in Darksiders felt like teleports you could switch on and off.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Redemption is a really great game. I think GTA5 is better, but RDR's ending alone outclasses every triple A game. So bold, so beautiful, so clever. Unfortunately, the game design just doesn't sustain the length of the game, and Marston just appears a vapid guy doing busy work for a significant period of the game.
 

Hypron

Member
Even if City is better (which is debatable), Asylum still wins for the same reason Portal 1 wins over Portal 2.

I found AC better in every way than AA, same thing about Portal 2 vs Portal 1, and I don't understand why the first game should still win just for the sake of having been released first.
 

Perkel

Banned
Portal was an experience. Playing that game when the Orange Box first came out was something truly special. GladOS, cake and "Still Alive" were not part of the gaming lexicon yet. It was just a cool tech demo where you puzzled your way through perfect little game rooms. Until it wasn't. That first peak behind the facade of Aperture Labs, with the rundown walls and ominous music, is definitely one of my top ten gaming moments from this gen.

Portal 2 was just a very good game.

Yep situation where you are doing those perfect looking rooms and then event where she wants to just kill you and you need suddenly think how to get out of that place.

This is my #1 gaming moment this gen. Game from that point releases itself. It felt like you were in a small box and suddenly you are free.

Portal 2 was good game but it didn't have those moments.
 

Hindle

Banned
The Co OP mode in Portal 2 was genius, it deserves a place in any top ten list just because of that mode. But, if only one Portal game can be there, then the first game did have the most impact.

I can't agree with Red Dead Redemption. The first hour was mind blowing, but by about hour 6 I was struggling to finish as the gameplay had become so repetitive and it was a chore getting to each mission. The Wild West as far as locations go doesn't lend well to an open world game IMO.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Portal 2?

Portal was just a demo, an appetizer, portal 2 really delivers.
I'm with you on Portal 2 being a better game but the impact the original Portal had was much stronger. It was really something truly unexpected at the time.
 

jordisok

Member
Lists like this can be kinda depressing, I don't really disagree with RDR being on the list, and yet I remember the writing (especially Marston) being consistently disappointing.Yet it's still one of the GOTG.
 

Hindle

Banned
I'm expecting Halo 3, Both SMG games, Zelda SS and GTA V to be there, and I'm hoping Fallout New Vegas makes an appearance personally.
 

kyubajin

Member
1. Demon's Souls/Dark Souls
2. The Last of Us
3. Mass Effect
4. Bioshock
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum
6. Portal 2
7. Bioshock
8. Red Dead Redemption
9. Minecraft
10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
 
If Super Mario Galaxy/Super Mario Galaxy 2 isnt in it, they can fack off with this list right now
And if its in this list it should be at the top (IMO)

And if Uncharted 2 is anywhere in sight lol

I'd agree on Mario Galaxy 1, but to say $50 expansion pack Mario Galaxy 2 deserves to be on this but Uncharted 2, widely hailed as one of the best third person action titles of the generation, doesn't? I don't see how you could seriously sugge...

Originally Posted by MYE

Never mind.
 

Eidan

Member
I'm expecting Halo 3, Both SMG games, Zelda SS and GTA V to be there, and I'm hoping Fallout New Vegas makes an appearance personally.

I don't see Super Mario Galaxy 2 making the list, and New Vegas isn't getting on the list over Fallout 3.
 

Nestunt

Member
Didnt notice how many they are going to do

but here are my 5 cents in no particular order

Red Dead Redemption
Bioshock
Mark of the Ninja
LIMBO
Mass Effect 2
 
I found AC better in every way than AA, same thing about Portal 2 vs Portal 1, and I don't understand why the first game should still win just for the sake of having been released first.

They are ranking games that defined the generation and are considering the game's impact and influence, of course the order of release matters.
 

Marc

Member
Cool, I would have Red Dead Redemption as the game of this gen... everything was amazing. Even the bugs were awesome. Will never forget the frozen cougar that teleported towards me bit by bit, couldn't land a shot and died instantly. One of my scariest moments in any game oddly enough.

My personal rough top ten 'so far'...


1. Red Dead Redemption


2. Orange Box (it counts!)
3. Dragons Dogma (yes!)
4. The Last of Us
5. Journey (played this with my daughter sitting next to me entranced)
6. Assassins Creed 1 (Altair 4 life!)
7. Mass Effect 1 (when it was an RPG)
8. Batman Arkham *insert favourite here*
9. Heavy Rain
10. God of War 3

Special mentions: Dead Space, FIFA 11, Alpha Protocol, Rain, Hotline Miami, Walking Dead, Skyrim, Prototype, MotoGP, Crackdown, GTAV (will regret this I think)... and probably others I am forgetting.
 
Updated the OP with:

Journey
Journey's a game defined as much by what it isn't as what it is. In an era where the appetites of hungry audiences are satiated by companies tossing out swill buckets overflowing with content, there's a certain defiant charm in the 90 minutes it takes to see Journey through to its end. At a time when so many players define themselves by their conquests and achievements, there's something too in its obstinate refusal to raise a challenge.

Written in that arc, and in that playful moment of escape from gravity, lies Journey's theme of transcendence. It's a literal touch rather than a literary one, as thatgamecompany's reliance on the framework of the hero's journey provides a fittingly slight narrative thread - but here it's told through little beyond mechanics and systems. Journey proves in its epic minimalism that a tale told through the struggles and reliefs of a player with a controller can be just as powerful as that relayed through the spoken or written word.
 

pinny

Banned
Portal 2's puzzles are not that much more complex than Portal's. If at all.

They are actually simpler.

The places where you can put portals on are much more limited in comparison to Portal 1. Often times the whole challenge of a puzzle consists in simply finding the place where you can put a portal. They also completely eliminated puzzles that require reflexes.
 

Andrew.

Banned
Redemption is a really great game. I think GTA5 is better, but RDR's ending alone outclasses every triple A game. So bold, so beautiful, so clever.

I know I'm the only one on this forum that was actually pretty disappointed with RDR's ending.

Good choice nonetheless however. Woody Jackson and Bill Elm's soundtrack is in a class by itself.
 
Updated the OP with:

Fallout 3
Fallout 3 was, in my exploding and increasingly dislocated eyes, a triumph. A perfect meld of the old and the new. The SPECIAL skills system was adopted and updated brilliantly, while the action points and live action freeze-frames of VATS gave a welcome taste of turn-based decision-making.

A constant theme of this generation has been old ideas and formats being recycled and repackaged. Every publisher has visited dusty back rooms to inspect what licenses had been accrued over the years - what brands they could reinvigorate, which older gamers to reel back in, how many HD remakes could be hastily chopped together and what consistency of freemium bullshit could be feasibly be forced down a single throat.

Fallout 3 however (alongside the likes of X-Com) came from the right place - a design team energised and invigorated by the approval of their teenage selves. It used the past as an intelligent stepping stone towards modern mass-appeal roleplay and, arguably, eased the passage of kickstarted re-apocalypses like Wasteland 2.
 
Fallout 3 was a real next gen experience for me - initially found it difficult to get into after Oblivion's levelling up system (or non levelling up!), but once I realised that you had to explore and build up XP to continue forward and almost make the game easier, it become a delight!

The atmosphere was stunning and I found the game better than New Vegas, largely due to it's freshness, however I never got too far into NV, so probably need to do that again one day. PS3 version was crap though, maybe a cheap 360 and some multiplatform games are a future purchase like GTA4 and RDR, which have much superior versions!

Alternatively a rather powerful PC would do! Stunning videogame!
 

MYE

Member
Two slots gone to waste with Journey and Fallout 3...

I'd agree on Mario Galaxy 1, but to say $50 expansion pack Mario Galaxy 2 deserves to be on this but Uncharted 2, widely hailed as one of the best third person action titles of the generation, doesn't? I don't see how you could seriously sugge...



Never mind.

Second or third time you do this. Wanna get something off your chest Prince Vultan?
 

MrGlass

Member
Red Dead Redemption is definitely my number 1. I hadn't kept up with any of the previews so i had no expectations. But as soon as i played it, i was totally immersed in the world. It's probably my favourite setting in a game and i would just wander around aimlessly just to explore it. And it's the only game i've wanted to complete 100%.

Gah, just thinking about it makes me want to play it again.
 

Hindle

Banned
Fallout 3 is inferior to NV in every single way, from a design perspective. It seems they're basing thier list around story and graphics rather then actual gameplay.
 

2+2=5

The Amiga Brotherhood
Happy for fallout 3 :) one of my games of the generation.

Fallout 3 is inferior to NV in every single way, from a design perspective. It seems they're basing thier list around story and graphics rather then actual gameplay.
I haven't played NV but even if all you say it's true NV is just a sort of big standalone expansion(in fact is not fallout 4), all the novelty and the work on graphics and gameplay were made on fallout 3.
 

pa22word

Member
Fallout 3 is inferior to NV in every single way, from a design perspective. It seems they're basing thier list around story and graphics rather then actual gameplay.

Is that honestly surprising? The press valuing presentation over everything else has been a sticking point this entire generation.
 
I haven't played NV but even if all you say it's true NV is just a sort of big standalone expansion(in fact is not fallout 4), all the novelty and the work on graphics and gameplay were made on fallout 3.

even though I agree about NV being way better, I support their stance. F3 was the one that broke that ground, and is potentially more important historically.
 

King_Moc

Banned
Fallout 3 is inferior to NV in every single way, from a design perspective. It seems they're basing thier list around story and graphics rather then actual gameplay.

Fallout 3 was first though. NV had far better characters and story, but i felt 3 had a better world. NV had a habit of creating linear pathways across the overworld, whereas 3 was mostly open. Was just more to my tastes. And I loved the subways, though I suspect I'm in an overwhelming minority there. NV was very buggy also, and those loading times (I played on 360) were shocking. 2 minutes to "fast" travel towards the end!
 

Hindle

Banned
I can see why they would pick 3 over New Vegas, though. Because it came first. Whether or not they stick to that in their other picks remains to be seen.

All that matters is what was the better game. New Vegas was more true to the original games in terms of gameplay and mission design. Fallout 3 was just Oblivion with guns.
 

AniHawk

Member
my own list of 50 games or so would probably have a lot more japanese games than the average person, and the western ones there would show a lot of similarities in their design. that said, all the games listed so far were part of my game of the year votes here in their respective years, so it's off to a good start.
 

AniHawk

Member
dont sweat it AniHawk, Sin and Punishment Star Successor is coming up real soon, I saw a leaked list

heh yeah, that one will get overlooked. xenoblade, bayonetta, and vanquish might all make it though. i get a feeling smg will be there instead of smg2, too.
 
heh yeah, that one will get overlooked. xenoblade, bayonetta, and vanquish might all make it though. i get a feeling smg will be there instead of smg2, too.

Well it would be consistent with Portal > Portal 2 and F3 >FNV.

And in terms of being generation defining I can't really knock them for that
 
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