My top 15 games of the generation. (5-2)

Here are the games listed from past entries.
15. Tomb Raider
14. Xenoblade Chronicles
13. Dead Space 2
12. Batman: Arkham City
11. Final Fantasy XIII
10. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
9. Gears of War 3
8. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
7. The Last of Us
6. Red Dead Redemption
…and now for my top 5.
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5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.
*2006 Game of the Year*

Technically this game is indeed a 7th generation title even though it was originally developed for the gamecube. Due to a ridiculous amount of delays it was pushed back as a release title for the Wii, with the gamecube version following shortly after. Anyway, I absolutely loved the dark, (time for an overused word) gritty, realistic art design, and the serious tones of this Zelda. Transforming to a Wolf added some interesting gameplay elements that worked great, a solid amount of thought provoking puzzles, fun boss battles, a nice woven story, and followed by a great sidekick that isn’t annoying.
Twilight Princess stands right there alongside of Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past as one of the greatest Zelda games ever made.

Note: I have played Skyward Sword and I found it to be the worst game in the Series. Awful art direction made colors muddy, character design made Link look like the son of Michael Jackon, enemy design that made the game look childish, and a forgettable soundtrack. Unlike Midna, Fi was a nuisance and to epitome of the term “Captain Obvious”. Yes Fi, I know that the Forest is completely flooded...
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4. Mass Effect.
*2007 Game of the Year*

Although the game hasn't aged well when it comes to the technical side of things (glitches, late textures, and a buggy cover system) it’s still one of the best games I’ve played. It might not be as polished at the next 2 games but I find it to be the best in the series. The RPG elements were perfect giving you lots of freedom with the amount of customization that’s not found in the other games. The soundtrack was pure bliss, the story was by far above ME2 and 3, and a great deal of actual exploring (even if they used recycled parts), RIP Mako.

Note: Mass Effect 2 was pure trash. As mentioned above, EA destroyed this game by stripping out everything that made ME1 great. Dumbed down RPG elements made room for more action, and they took out planet exploration in favor for planet probing....great decisions. Mass Effect 3 was an improvement as I did enjoy it, but that ending! What a cluster you-know-what. Once EA got their grubby hands on the series it never felt the same…go figure.
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3. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

Jaw dropping visuals, challenging and fun gameplay, witty dialog worth a few chuckles, and just hectic set pieces really make Uncharted 2 stand out. There is a nice pace between killing things; platforming, exploring and puzzle solving that gave the game great balance making repetition non-existent. It’s a pure blast to play and has aged extremely well as it’s still one of the better looking games from this generation. The leap from Uncharted 1 to2 is astonishing. It nearly had the 2009 game of the year award but was stripped by this next game…

Note: Of course I have played Uncharted 3, but to me, it was a big step back. It started off well throwing in some puzzles and all the other things that made Uncharted special, but about midway through the game it seemed to abandon the treasure hunting theme/expedition and puzzle solving for more action. Also, there was a chapter dedicated to walking, and, the final “boss” can be beaten by standing still…what more can I say?
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2. Demon’s Souls.
*2009 Game of the Year*

One of the hardest games ever concocted in a generation known for coddling the player, Demon’s Souls was a breath of fresh air. It’s med-evil themed, RPG gameplay, with a brilliant multiplayer component makes DeS a truly unique experience. Blood stains on the floor breeding caution, messages left behind to warn you of a trap (or that “sticky white stuff” message hilariously put in front of a female NPC), the ability to invade someone else’s game, or team up with 2 other players and assist the host. It’s one of the few games that I actually WANTED to obtain all the trophies to because it was just that pleasing, and even after achieving that, I recently went back to experience it all again with a new crowd while it was free on PSN. The replay value is insanely high.

It might not be the prettiest game, it might not have a great story, it might have some problems with targeting, and the framerate drops can be annoying but it did little to affect the pure enjoyment I received. The gameplay and challenge is the driving force behind this work of art and trumps all of its imperfections.

Note: I really enjoyed Dark Souls as well, but there were some tweeks to the gameplay that I didn't care for, and the MP didn't feel as 'tight'. The open world was great but it might have affected the MP.
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There's one thing that separates my top 5 from the rest of the game I've played, and it's the fact that I've beaten these games more than once, twice, hell, even three or more times. They are still enjoyable after all these years and that makes them a step above the rest.

Next up is obviously the last game on the list, my favorite game from generation 7.

Thanks for reading.

[imtheman2013]

Nice blog!

Demon's Souls is such a great game. I remember renting it out of curiosity when it first released. I got to that first boss fight and died almost immediately... I wondered if I would ever be able to defeat him, then quickly realized that death was a core mechanic within the game. Demon's Souls really made me change my perspective on how I think about and play video games.

Since then, I play almost every video game on its' hardest difficulty. Because, after playing the Souls series, nothing really feels too tough. :)

[newflesh]

I agree about Mass Effect 2 being trash compared to the 1st. The original was a true rpg. About your first place I wonder what it'll be. For me the best game of last gen was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

[Number-Nine]

This is not the games fault but I could not play it for more than 10 minutes. The faulty hardware of the 360 back then made it impossible to progress because it froze every chance it got.

I was never able to get back into it.

[newflesh]

Yeah, that was one of the few multi-platform games that were better on PS3. But I thought it was still playable on Xbox

[Ilovetheps5]

Oh how much I disagree with you on Zelda. I'm a huge Zelda fan and found Skyward Sword to be fantastic. I thought that the graphics in TP looked awful. It just looked washed out to me. I thought the controls were horrible with the waggling of the wiimote. I didn't find the wolf to be fun and just thought it was one of the worst in the series.

Skyward Sword is my third favorite in the series. I thought that the art style was fantastic. I prefer games with a really nice art style and that game had a fantastic one. The controls were just tons of fun. You actually had to be precise. My main issue with the game is that you had to resync the controller rather frequently. But Twilight Princess just didn't do it for me even though I beat it three or four times.

[nategrigs]

The thing that amazes me most about this list is how few of the games I have played. I'm not much of an RPG guy, haven't yet played tomb raider, played the first two batmans but not origins....maybe I should think about adding a few games to my backlog.

I would have included portal 2, GTAV, mario galaxy/3d world, assassins creed 2, and bioshock in my top 15

[jb227]

same here, the rpg's are far too time consuming for me and I typically tend to lose interest after a couple hours of the same world w/o new mechanics and experiences to add variety...I like when games incorporate small aspects of the genre, but I can't get far into it in its more pure form. Sounds like you and I would have a pretty similar list...I'd also find a way to add Rayman to the ones you mentioned...also, Arkham Origins is well worth waiting for a goty edition, the amount of bugs at release coupled w/ the totally forgettable story and feel of the game (outside of really 1 or 2 short segments) made it by far the most lackluster of the series for me personally...can't wait to see what Rocksteady does next, hopefully they take the franchise back, but if their next entry is their last, WB Montreal could do a decent job at carrying the torch if they have proper time to dev & qa, and if they get Dini back! His importance to the series cannot be understated, and Origins was a good measure of how much his scripts add to the magic of the Arkham universe. Can't wait to see the inevitable leap in quality w/ the next generation, most of my favorite games and genres can only benefit from better processing and graphics coupled w/ the trend of proper mocap and involved and nuanced storytelling and world building.

[CrashJones]

As Dark Souls 2 is now my most anticipated title, having not played Tomb Raider on PS3... I think I will have to get it for PS4... it is the only title I will be getting(depending on where I'm at with the Soul series) before March 11th 2014...Dark Souls 2...oh yeah!!!

I laugh at myself(and feel free to laugh at me too if you wish), that after getting a PS4 & XONE, I found Dark Souls and now a PS3 title is my most anticipated... don;t get me wrong...there are a lot of titles coming in March and onward for the "next gen".

[CrashJones]

I picked up Demon's Souls last night after a week at Dark Souls. I will go back to Dark Souls, but I wanted to do them in order.

Dark Souls 2 is now my most anticipated title, on ANY system... and I have a PS4, XONE.

I have a lot of Souls to capture and spend before March 11th!!!

[nategrigs]

I hear a ton of great things about the souls games, but I played one(free on ps+) for an hour or two, and just couldn't get into it. Felt clunky and needlessly difficult. Maybe I'll give it another try at some point.

[newflesh]

It's definitely not for everyone. I too tried to play Demon's souls and found that it had super hardcore difficulty for me, I just couldn't enjoy it. But at the same time for others this is the "thing" about that game

[Imalwaysright]

If demons Souls is you number 2 I bet that Dark Souls is your number 1.

[Imalwaysright]

just read the rest of your blog so forget what i said.

[coolbeans]

A pretty good list that I don't have much to gripe over. Mass Effect is definitely my 2007 GOTY as well. The only thing that does annoy me is...

"Note: Mass Effect 2 was pure trash. As mentioned above, EA destroyed this game by stripping out everything that made ME1 great."

It's still amazing to see this kind of accusation leveled against a publisher (ie the people who didn't develop the game). And I respectfully disagree about ME2 being pure trash.

[Number-Nine]

How else can you explain the complete 180 to the series? Once EA came into the picture everything changed. I know they didn't develop ME2 but they had to have heavy influence on the development of it.

[coolbeans]

Well to consider the series changes to be a complete 180 sounds pretty drastic, but I get what you're asking. Looking at it in hindsight, ME was ambitious to fault in regards to what it was trying to accomplish so it doesn't reek of corporate control to see Bioware (on their own) look at every criticism stated about the first one and wanting to completely alter them if they didn't see fit to keep that extra baggage for their development window.

When looking at what's been discussed about its development since EA's purchase, Zeschuk (hopefully spelled right) came out about the subject after his games' retirement and gave the analogy "EA gives you enough rope to hang yourself." Explaining further by talking about how Bio (as a mostly-autonomous company) sort of had to now look at bottom-line stuff b/c of the plentiful resources EA gave to them. Edit: http://www.vg247.com/2013/0...

"I know they didn't develop ME2 but they had to have heavy influence on the development of it."

Time and time again, they've said that EA 'doesn't tell them what to do' (at least when Zuschek and Muyzka were there). Judging by what's been given to the general public, EA's relationship with them seems to be about the same as any other publisher:

-determine what resources to allocate to them for making the game and all the superfluous extras surrounding it (marketing and such)
-give the artists a deadline
-...and the most insidious aspect of it all: determining DLC <-which is the legitimate part people should be railing on about