You know when you go through an absolute gaming drought? So you pay one or two visits to your nearest game selling establishment throughout the week. Wondering if you'll find a hidden gem amongst the rubble of awfulness that gets produced today. When's that new innovative Call of Brilliance out anyway?
That's what happened when I found Dark Souls. At this point I had no idea of it's critical acclaim (I don't spend that much time on the internet for those reasons) and gave it a spin in my Xbox, continuing my quest of praying to the Aztec god Tlaloc for a glorious downpour that would quench that drought. I traded it in the next day....no sorry I sold it on Ebay. Have to be austere in this economic climate.
The thing was, I was too used to be a death-defying juggernaut in everything I play for this. Where was my initial feeling of 'I'm the underdog now, but I’ll work my way through this weary world and become ruler of the realms and all things, and when this happens all will bow, oh and peasant I enjoy plums... and truffles'. It plainly was not in plain sight, as much as anyone could question on what sort of game you start off already dead, You're in an asylum, with no memory of what vile crime you committed to be there after school closing hours on that fateful day (but that was just cause to you wasn't it?) there are also no truffles in sight.
My brother purchased this anomaly a few months later and persuasively told me to reconsider. I got my hands on a Prepare to Die Edition and gave it it's dues, one thing that instantly caught my attention was the music on the character selection/creation screen. It reminded me of old PC and 3DO (Those who can remember that) games I used to play like Escape from Monster Manor, because of it's old and haunting dark setting effect that falls upon one's ears.
Well, I say play these nostalgic personal treasures, I was very young and gleaming with innocence, sat on the sofa next to my brother who was venturing in this god forsaken 32-bit. Refusing to touch the control pad for fear of real death if that paper-ghost got closer to the screen. I received a similar notion from Dark Souls, watching my battered knight run as fast as he could in trifling armour from 12-foot bull men with mallets, military trained-skeletons and another player throwing electric decapitations at me.
For me Dark Souls touches on a more traditionalist way of RPG game design, you'll trawl through some hellish expanses, see some things that change who you are, and pick up some gruesomely awe-inspiring gear. You don't have to spend all your time comparing what is the best (Unless that's your sort of thing) and just subconsciously enjoy the violating waiting for you around every corner (Freud was right all along.) with a small cough massive serving of whiskey.
Bonfires are for fairies and treasonous usurpers of the throne.
TheGamer writes, "Some weapons resist the test of time."
The Nerd Stash: “Whether you’re here to gloat about your victories or to see what the fuss is about, we present to you the hardest bosses in the Souls series.”
I beat them all with my fists and no hits were taken. What do you mean you don't believe me? I used a guitar hero controller!!!
All the bosses are only from Dark Souls. No Bloodborne, Sekiro, Elden Ring, or Demon Souls
The well-known magazine EDGE just turned 30 years old, and to celebrate, this month’s issue contains a ranking of the top 100 greatest games released over the past 30 years.
How predicable
There are dozens of games on that list which are way better than BotW and sometimes I feel like these “Top X list” makers know that deep down.
I tend to agree I played through it for the first time about 6 months ago and I really liked it but I wouldn't say it's the best game in 30 years I felt it had a lot of flaws and moments where I was bored Top 100 sure but honestly not top 10
EDGE must've put its Top 100 together before the 6th September as Starfield is not on the list.
It's just opinions though Fox, whilst BotW didn't resonate with you (and many others), it did with millions of others.
Out of curiosity, do you have a personal top game? I really struggle with this question personally, I bounce between Last of Us, Bioshock and Bloodborne as my faves, but BotW is certainly up in my personal top 5.
This is fair. It's completely subjective and ultimately someone's opinion, maybe a consensus of opinion with their staff, but still opinion. I don't agree it's the greatest, but I would struggle to say what is. At the moment I am playing the Personas and I absolutely love them. Persona 4 especially...maybe if asked at this very moment I would say Persona 4. Lol. Another time, Suikoden. Another Street Fighter. Ugh. Too difficult to choose for me.
I'm pretty happy that Ocarina of Time and BoTW were somewhere on the list, and both were highly rated.
The issue is it’s more flawed then people will admit but other games will be nitpicked to death by journalists. We’ve all seen it, they will say one game has X, Y and Z issue but Zelda it’s like “ahhh it’s not that bad, long as it’s fun”. They didn’t even criticise the weapon breakage system until like a month or so later when articles started to come out over it. That right there is pretty suss, whatever you think of the game.
Personal favourite? Of all time? No. I just can’t
However. Zelda wise? What deserves to be above BotW. Easy.
A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, so on.
I think these lists are compiled by groups of people, so while a group of (for example) 10 folks might all, individually, have another game in the top spot on their personal list, so one will have Chrono Trigger as their no 1, someone else will have God of War, or whatever, but if BotW is in almost everyone’s top 5-10, then obviously it’s gonna add up and in the end, BotW is the overall winner …
I think many/most of us agree BotW is a great game, but I also think many of us will have a specific game or specific games that we personally just rate a little bit higher.
In the ends, lists like these are just celebrations of gaming’s high points, and of course a starting point for many discussions about which games deserve to be there, and which games should have been there in that list.
have you ever considered that a game like Zelda has way more mass appeal than a souls game for example? Before clicking on this article, I knew which game would most likely be nr1 and that so many people would complain about it. Because of that also way more non-gamers get to play the game, I'll use my uncle as an example. The man's almost 80, only owns nintendo consoles (even the old game and watch ones) and basically only plays Zelda. If I'd ask him to give botw a rating I'm pretty sure he would give it a 9.5 or 10/10. Is that review now less legit because he didn't play twisted metal, mgs, moh, ff 6-9? No it's not, reviews are an opinion piece anyway and it's all a matter of perspective. That's why no value at all should be held to a sum of review scores and why it's honestly pathetic that you and others cry over this.
Find a youtuber or reviewer that has the same taste as you and let them inform you if you are unsure if a game is for you. People are more attached to what number the media gives a game than getting enjoyment out of a game and it's just dumb.
@ -Foxtrot
Show us your top 100 so buddy, as that's obviously the only one that counts.
Tetris better than God of War.. hhhhh
I feel like they just put whatever to make it sound they know about all genres..
Shenmue 1, A Link to the Past, Gran Turismo 3, Jak and Daxter, GOW 2, WipEout 3, Code Veronica, Soulcalibur for me MUST be in there..
Tetris is - unironically - better than any God of War.
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It’s just their opinion, not an objective assessment of quality. You’re free to make your own top 100 list whenever.
botw is not even best zelda game on nintendo switch (and definitely not best zelda)
It is a solid list, many of them I agree with, but I'd very much replace something like Morrowind with Baldur's Gate 3, and put Divinity Original Sin II up there as well.
This is a personal opinion, but in my mind Grand Theft Auto III and V do not need to be there either, nor Outer Wilds, The Witness, Doom, Fortnite, Tomb Raider, The Sims, Fallout 3, Street Fighter IV or Minecraft.
I'd replace them and select the top games out of the likes of Xcom 2 (new), Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, The Secret of Monkey Island II, Myst, Nier Automata, Xenogears, Final Fantasy Tactics, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Suikoden I-III, Shadow Hearts I-III, Final Fantasy XII, Dragon Quest V, VIII and XI, and Mother 3.
From what I've heard...outer wilds likely needs to be on that list.
Not to be confused with outer worlds.
That's the beauty of these kinds of lists though, I find the Edge list interesting and your choices too. There are so many great games out there.
I would put lots of games in my list that many have probably never played, but I adored on my Amiga back in the 90s. A list without Cannon Fodder, Populous 2, Syndicate and especially Sensible World of Soccer seems sacrilegious to me 😄
Anyway dood, you have great taste in games, some great picks you suggested.
Love those games! Populous 2, Cannon Fodder, Syndicate and Sensible Soccer. Had some great time with those games in the 90s. Also loved games such as Pool of Radiance, Ultima IV and V, Death Knights of Krynn, Awesome and Paradroid etc. There were so many cool C64 classics such as Way of the Exploding Fist and Last Ninja II, and Dragon Skulle.
Well GTA III pioneered the entire modern open world genre and catapulted a multibillion dollar franchise that everyone knows. Street Fighter IV literally saved the fighting genre and was a huge game in an already established household name. Not having them in the top 100 ignores that and actually doesn't make sense. It seems like you just like a lot of RPGs and fantasy games.
I feel like this list was compiled by one person instead of multiple staff members at Edge Magazine, mainly for some of the more odd games that I would not expect to be common on most of these kinds of lists.
Not so much top 25 for me, but the spread of the top 100 has a few of those surprises.
"Redundant Unique Weaponry"
Say that to my face in Anor Londo and not in Undead Burg and see what happens.
Joking aside (not really), great review.
What does "redundant unique weaponry" refer to? I would say that the normal weapons have redundancies more than the unique weapons.
A 1.0 for fun? I take it that's a joke right? Or perhaps the type of fun is lost due to the crap that are called games of this gen?
0 for online? Really? It has the most unique online experience of the entire gen?
I mean, yeah it's your opinion and you clearly admitted that it wasn't really your kind of game the first time, which shows more honesty than all professional reviewers combined, but as you can plainly see I disagree with those 3 assessments. It's probably because I'm a huge fan and started with the much more difficult Demon's Souls on the PS3. Great review though. You should submit it to sites like IGN and show them how real reviews are done.
demons and dark souls are two of my top 10 games of all time!!!
if you can, grab the pc prepare to die edition, 8 new areas/bosses, WAY better graphics, no framerate problems, but still all of the great awesomeness of the original and tons of new content, amazon has it for $15 all the time if you watch for deals
Why is a swift ending bad? IT ALLOWS US TO DO IT ALL. OVER. AGAIN.