It's been five years since the Definitive Best Game of All time Forum Megapoll. I know it was called definitive, but were gamers. We don't like for things to end, and we love nothing more than a sequel. This is the sequel to that famous megapoll from FIVE years ago where we voted on the best game of all time.
All of us are older, smarter, so I expect some better results than last time. Horizon Zero Dawn was last time's winner, but I expect things to be different this time.
So, like the original host of these polls @themcnoisy liked to say: EVERONE GET INVOLVED!
There will be multiple rounds over probably way too long of a timeline. I'm going to try and keep up here, so bear with me.
NOMINATIONS
- Pick your personal 6 favourite games of all time -
Rule: You can only pick a maximum of 2 games off any single gaming device. A multiplatform game counts as the PlayStation console it was released on.
Please include the system with the game when you are commenting. Example: Crash Bandicoot - PS1.
I love reading your memories or reasons for picking a game. But you don't have to of course.
Participating will make me add you to the @-list. So I can inform you on new rounds. You can always unsubscribe by telling me so.
The prolouge round will close on Tuesday May 23rd.
Have fun, stay civil and let's see how many votes we can get!
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (PS5) - Seems like a strange pick but it’s stuffed with content, revives a completely, stone cold dead series in the perfect way and has genuine love for the source material. Probably would be my desert island pick if I could choose one game.
Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - Obvious but it had to be there. Played it to death over the years and I know so much about the intricacies of the engine that it’s basically become a sandbox game for me. Especially when you put in randomisers.
Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch) - The original is one of the best games to ever release. The remaster takes it and makes it look like a new release. What’s not to love?
Disco Elysium: Final Cut (PC) - The writing is probably the best in show. There’s a ludicrous amount of content. Killer soundtrack. Actually funny. There are so, so many things going for it.
Yakuza 0 (PS4) - I’ve played a hell of a lot of Yakuza games by now but 0 excels in every conceivable way. To revitalise an entire series in the West is a testament to its cultural impact, ensuring that we get so much Yakuza goodness to this day.
Final Fantasy X (PS2) - I’ll fly the flag for this one. While VII is incredible as well as VI, I think X has the least that I’d change. The whole game flows at a great pace, with it properly feeling like a pilgrimage.
Special mention to Pokémon HeartGold, Kingdom Hearts 2 and then games that only I would vote for here like Europa Universalis IV and Planescape Torment.
You sure you want to do this @Kidfried good luck my friend! The last megapoll (the ps3 megapoll) was a lot of work. Pretty cool it all came together in the end but yeah pretty mental thinking it was pre pandemic and stuff.
Here are my choices, I will only choose post 16bit era (so from the PS1 / Saturn basically). The below list changes all the time so here goes;
PSVR - Astrobot rescue mission
Multiplat - Soul Calibur 2
Xbox 360 - Halo Reach
Multiplat - Mass Effect 2
PS4 - Dreams
Multi Plat - Rocket League
Honorable mentions, ffx, Detroit become human, persona 4, ff8, pro evo soccer 1-6, hzd, portal 2, inside, chained echoes, f-zero gx, the witness, unreal tournament and forza horizon 4. I could easily swap Halo Reach out for any of those.
PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7
@kyleforrester87 the first two temples are pretty easy. The last one though is really annoying, partly due to the graphics and not seeing where you are heading. It's a lot of guesswork and trial and error. Outside of that though, the game is great!
Great list though and glad you snagged fez. @nessisonett has snagged yakuza zero (wp bro) and @CthulhuFhtagn has picked captain tsuba 2 and I have no idea what it is rofl 🤣
Forum Best Game of All Time Awards
PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7
Cuphead (PS4) - Never actually played this on PS4, but per the rules, that's how it's listed. This is a perfect blend of run 'n gun stages with immensely creative boss fights. The animation work is still some of the most incredible I've ever seen, almost perfectly re-creating the look and feel of early 20th century animated shorts. Combine this with well-balanced but challenging gameplay, phenomenal music, a scoring system that incentivizes significant post-game engagement, and fun secrets, and you wind up with one of the most compulsively playable action-platformers ever made.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (NS) - An immensely innovative re-imagining of the classic series which showcased a style of open world game design that emphasized creative freedom, environmental immersion, and an interesting new approach to storytelling that rewarded players based on how thoroughly they explored Hyrule. Also the greatest launch title of all time and really showcased early on the potential of the then-new Nintendo Switch hardware.
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - A perfect blend of incredible orchestral music, tight mechanics, strong level design, surprisingly emotional narrative elements, and a lovely melancholic atmosphere. I replay this every few years, and it charms me every single time I do. This was also the game that re-invigorated my love of the medium after I almost fell out of the hobby during the seventh gen.
Toejam and Earl (MD) - A charming and classic rougelike about two aliens who crash land on Earth and have to travel across various levels to re-build their ship and escape. The game features a surprisingly funky soundtrack and a balanced random item system that is crucial to understand if you want to leave the planet. This was also my mother's favorite video game, and I played it with her probably thousands of times over the years. Very good memories, but also a superb game as well.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (NS) - This one surprised me, given my love–hate relationship with Nintendo subsidiary Monolith Soft's previous entries, but... gosh, XC3 just hit all the right notes for me. The cast is superbly well-developed, and one of my favorite in JRPG history; the music is chef's kiss; the story is deeply emotional and thematically dense in interesting and meaningful ways; the gameplay balances the simplicity of the original with the more complex mechanics of XC2 and XCX; the side content is some of the best I've seen in a JRPG to date; exploration is actually rewarding and consistently fun; and it's one of the most impressive titles on Nintendo Switch to date, with the developer demonstrating a high degree of technical wizardry in bringing this beautiful open world epic to Nintendo's aging hybrid console without any major technical issues or bugs. The peak of Monolith's career to date, and my favorite JRPG overall.
Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward (PSVita) - Again, never played this on the Playstation console it released on, but rules and all. For my money, the 3DS was the perfect hardware for this game, giving you a helpful second screen to scrawl out notes on as you worked through its numerous and clever puzzle rooms. The plot is a crazy, twisty mix of science-fiction and mystery elements that come together in amazing ways as the game goes on. It also takes advantage of the of the medium it's a part of in interesting ways, with an overall experience that could only ever have been fully realized in video game form.
@Ralizah hi Rali. I picked up xenoblade definitive edition a couple of weeks back. No idea why, but it has this weird pull which keeps me up until 3 in the morning. Maybe the million side quests mesh cohesively with my brain. The graphics are rough compared to big games on the PS5 and XSX, the story is okay I suppose. And the fighting isn't that engaging. But last night 3am I fell asleep on the couch. I don't get it.
Forum Best Game of All Time Awards
PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7
@themcnoisy Some games are like that. I could never get too invested in the original, but a lot of people love it. It actually doesn't looked half-bad on our 4K OLED TV, but yeah, I'm sure it's very simply looking compared to a big-budget PS5 game!
The improved side-quests are my favorite part of the third game. They're so far removed from the MMO-tier fetch quests in the original.
@Ralizah noted, I have added xb3 to my must buy list with the grandia collection and mario 3d collection!
Forum Best Game of All Time Awards
PS3 Megathread 2019: The Last of Us
Multiplat 2018: Horizon Zero Dawn
Nintendo 2017: Super Mario Bros 3
Playstation 2016: Uncharted 2
Multiplat 2015: Final Fantasy 7
@husker42c I replayed HL2 last month and was amazed at just how well it’s aged. Definitely an honourable mention for my list as well. Damn, so are the 2 Portal games now that I think about it!
Streets of Rage 2 - Sega Megadrive - I think I’ve mentioned it before but having a friend stay over on the eve 14th birthday and waiting up for 12am when I could crack the game open was about as much excitement as a young me could take. We stayed up co-oping as Max and Skate til the sun came up and it’ll will live with me always. One of my favourite gaming memories.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - Sony PlayStation 2 - I was working by this point and I remember popping out at lunch to buy it… and then continuously studying the artwork, screenshots and blurb on the case as a squirrel studies a nut… until I was able to finally log off that afternoon. The wait was worth it, an incredible game. Played through it 3 times and can’t wait to find the time to play through the PS5 version at some point in the future.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty - Sony PlayStation 2 - I hadn’t actually played this until 2021 and even though that was 20 years after it’s release, the game still seemed so fresh and prescient. Unbelievably good storytelling and it just oozes style. Not that he’s since fell off or anything… but I can’t help but feel Kojima was in his pomp when making this.
Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim - Sony PlayStation 3 - great game! Probably put in over 650 hours all told and just bought the Anniversary Edition on Saturday, so will in all probably add to that some time in the future.
Bloodborne - Sony PlayStation 4 - my favourite game of all time.
God of War: Ragnarok - Sony PlayStation 5 - I loved the 2018 reboot so much that I went back and played through the whole series prior to Ragnarok’s release… the night before I started the game I watched Raising Kratos for the first time and the anticipation was at 14 year old me - Streets of Rage 2 levels by this point! 😅 Then I did nothing but play the game for 6 days straight (I’d booked the week off from work). Maybe the best week of gaming I’ve had yet.
Pokemon Blue/Red (GB).
I could genuinely play that game blind. The first video game birthday gift I got- GameBoy included of course.
Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (GC).
Own about 5 copies of this game across multiple platforms, but still can’t play it on a modern console which is a travesty. Even signed up for PSNow once just so that I could.
Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2).
Another game I’ve beaten countless times at this point. A series that captures imagination like nothing else. Disney x Final Fantasy- what’s not to like?!
Also on critical it remains one of the most challenging yet satisfying experiences out there.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3).
Still remember the day that I got it. Skipped school early with some friends. On the way home stopped at our local CEX & picked it up for like £7 or something.
The game that turned me from a casual gamer to a hardcore one. For better or worse.
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice (PS3).
Not the best Disgaea but the game that turned me into an absolute ‘weeb’. Also love the story of how a Overlords son wants to attain the power of a hero to overthrow his own father…because he smashed his video game console.
Persona 5/Royal (PS4).
The best JRPG I’ve ever played. Still stick on the soundtrack when I’m having to do long drives.
Lives, Lived, Will Live.
Dies, Died, Will Die.
If we could perceive time for what it really was,
What reason would Grammar Professors have to get out of bed?- Robert & Rosalind Lutece
I have been thinking about this since this post popped up and reading others thoughts. Both about the thread itself and what games I'd even choose.
I think initially, it's hard to keep perspective of what games are the best in recent memory and what games are the best of all time.
I do wonder if putting multiplats on PS by default will do a disservice to either playstation or multiplat games by tying them together due to the 2 game per platform limit. I don't blame you for doing it this way though if it makes it easier to manage this momentous task.
I think I will impose some rules on myself as well, I might limit myself to one game per genre. Reason being that I hold a lot of these games in similar esteem but for different reasons and in my opinion, these are the best in their field.
I think and this is unfortunate but a necessity, that I'll personally have to leave out games that are part of the best series ever (MGS for me). I just don't think I could pick a single MGS game and it would probably be cheating to stick the whole series as one entry. I feel similarly about other my other favourite series like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk's.
So with that in mind...!
The Talos Principle (PS4) - I absolutely adored Portal when I got The Orange Box on PS3. I thought it was one of the best games ever. Almost a decade later, I played a game in the same genre (which I guess is called first-person puzzler?) which was The Talos Principle. It was like portal on cocaine. The puzzles were so much harder and ingenious and you certainly felt like a genius when you complete them.
Mix that in with a creepy and mysterious lore that you can choose to engage in and also a creepy and mysterious soundtrack that fills you with foreboding dread as if there was some danger as you solve these puzzles. (There is no physical danger but maybe the danger is more existential, something that could either damage or enlighten your soul.)
Along with the ability to and in some cases the encouragement to "break" the game and the puzzles. The need to think outside the (sand)box in order to solve some of the secret puzzles and to see all the Easter Eggs. I honestly think this is one of my favourite games ever.
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) - easily my favourite 2D platformer and my favourite game on the Wii. Everything felt so smooth and natural as you barreled your way through the levels on offer. The music was as amazing as the level design.
I've played brilliant 2D platformers before this game, Super Mario World and Sonic 3 & Knuckles included (even Crash Bandicoot which is so linear that I'd call it a 2D platformer anyway) and I've played brilliant 2D platformers since DKCR like Ori and the Blind Forest and VVVVVV but Donkey Kong Country Returns seems to serve as an anchor point. It was the best platformer ever when I played it and whenever I think of amazing platformers since, it's always "the best one since DKCR".
Forza Horizon 4 (Xbox One) - it's an open world racer but it was my first. It's also a racing game that made me realise I liked racing games as an adult (beyond kart racers like MK and CTR which I've always loved).
It's a tough one to put on here because it's "My First Forza" which seems to be a recurring theme when people name their favourite Forza Horizon. I've seen people love 3 but find 4 boring. But 4 was my first but I wasn't quite as blown away by 5 (but I do like 3 as well!)
Horizon 4 just blew me away when I first booted it up. It's adrenaline soaked opening race was a real showcase and was only followed up by a really fun driving game with tons of content to play through. It gets extra points for being set in the UK, making it both familiar and interesting to drive around.
Doom Eternal + The Ancient Gods DLC (PS4) - I legitimately think this is the best first person shooter ever. Doom 2016 had its fun and addictive gameplay formula down but Doom Eternal adds more lore from the entire series that completely fascinated me while creating a cohesive(ish) whole that incorporates elements from all of the disparate games.
Extra points are given for finally taking the fight from Hell all the way to "Heaven" which in game, is probably about as sanctimonious and corrupt of a place that you could expect it to be.
The DLC is just too good as well, fighting two Marauders that are buffed by a totem. I've never thought such a masochistic activity could be so fun!
SIM City 2000 (PC) - I think I have to throw this one in there. I very much enjoyed playing this one when I was growing up. I loved rinsing a civilization all the way from birth up to watching my arcologies shoot up into the sky!
I used to play this a lot as a kid!
Okay so that is 5, I will do also so 5 honourable mentions like others have done too but these won't count as my votes. These are also ones that I haven't shouted out in my descriptions of other games.
Mario Kart Wii/Crash Team Racing Nitro Fuelled - I can't decide which is my favourite kart racer out of these two but they are both two of my favourite games. Both have shedloads of content to unlock and it was all possible through gameplay. I think CTR is more fun and more rewarding once you get the knack for it but it loses points for the time limited seasons which had me playing until the early hours of Monday morning before work.
Other old PC games I played growing up - Stuff like Command and Conquer (and Red Alert), Duke Nukem 3D and Theme Hospital.
Mortal Kombat XL - I'm struggling to remember if this had MTX or whether that was just MK11. I think MKXL is more fun with more interesting characters (both old and new) and a more interesting and original story than both 9 and 11 which while good, rely too heavily on the plot from the original games. I think MK11 is a more "solid" fighter but it's MTX heavy nature makes me feel so icky.
Tales from the Borderlands - the funniest game I've ever played. Heartwarming and outrageous in equal measure with a pop soundtrack that completely fits the narrative.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - I can't say anything that hasn't been said a million times before but like Talos Principle, I loved that the game encourages you to "break" it. I think doing one of those maze puzzles, only to realise that if I flipped the controller, I'd just have a blank slate to roll the ball across made it click with me. (That break was totally intentional too as later puzzles had spikes adorn their lower sides)
And I know nobody asked and again these aren't votes but my favourite series are...
Metal Gear Solid
Guitar Hero
Tony Hawk's
The Walking Dead Telltale series - (haven't watched the show or read the books but these games had me hooked from beginning to end)
Uncharted
Splinter cell
Maybe Yakuza?
I'd note that if I can pick a "best game" from a series like I can with Mortal Kombat, Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, Doom, Mario etc then I wouldn't include it here.
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