The Official UKFF Top 50 Games List

[Joe_the_Lion]

The only reason Half life 2 doesn't give you cutscenes is because it uses them all up in the hour-long ordeal you have at the start.

Unless you're being liberal with your use of the word "start," I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not far into the game (boating down the river) but the only thing I've encountered that I'd describe as a cutscene was no longer than a minute or two, tops.

 

He's referring to the whole getting off the train, walking through the station, meeting your contact, being chased bit. He's still wrong though as the start of Half-Life 2 is, at least the first time you play it, absolutely fucking awesome and sets the scene for the world in which the game takes place perfectly.

 

 

EDIT - Just read A&A response, just because you thought bits were dull doesn't change the validity of the original point that it is a game that tells it's story without making you sit and watch a bunch of non-interactive cut scenes.

Edited July 6, 2009 by Joe_the_Lion

[Onyx2]

Maybe i'm thinking of Half Life one, where you sit on a train for ages and talk to the wheelchair guy. Half life 2 is still full of boring long bits though, like in the lab, or when you have to train that dog robot, or the dull driving/boating bits.

 

The openeing sequence of Half Life was utterly mesmeric when it first appeared. A game had the audacity to show you its world from behind a curtain, and gently ease you into an ordinary guy doing his ordinary job on an ordinary day. It was an intake of breath before "the incident".

 

As intros go, I don't think it's been beaten.

[Devon Malcolm]

Okay, my top 15:-

 

15) Grand Theft Auto 3 (PS2)

14) Rainbow Islands (Arcade)

13) Rastan's Saga (Arcade)

12) Doom 64 (N64)

11) Flimbo's Quest (C64)

10) Championship Manager 97/98 (PC)

9) Smash TV (C64 / SNES / Arcade)

8) Super Mario World (SNES)

7) Tetris (Gameboy)

6) Prince Of Persia (Gameboy)

5) Goldeneye (N64)

4) Bubble Bobble (Arcade)

3) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)

2) Super Mario Brothers 3 (NES)

1) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2)

 

But because most of my favourite games are retro ones, I've probably forgotten loads. I'm already regretting leaving out Parodius (SNES), Creatures (C64), Park Patrol (C64), Robocop (C64), Revenge Of Shinobi (Megadrive) and practically hundreds of others.

[FLips]

The only reason Half life 2 doesn't give you cutscenes is because it uses them all up in the hour-long ordeal you have at the start.

Unless you're being liberal with your use of the word "start," I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not far into the game (boating down the river) but the only thing I've encountered that I'd describe as a cutscene was no longer than a minute or two, tops.

 

He's referring to the whole getting off the train, walking through the station, meeting your contact, being chased bit. He's still wrong though as the start of Half-Life 2 is, at least the first time you play it, absolutely fucking awesome and sets the scene for the world in which the game takes place perfectly.

 

 

EDIT - Just read A&A response, just because you thought bits were dull doesn't change the validity of the original point that it is a game that tells it's story without making you sit and watch a bunch of non-interactive cut scenes.

 

They are none interactive though, just because you can move around in them doesn't change the fact you have to just sit and listen to them. Take in the lab for example where you talk to that girl and guy for aaaages, then they let you fiddle about with a little teleporter thing for about a minute, then they make you listen to them again. For every peice of action Half Life 2 has, it's evened out by boating about empty rivers for ages, listening to someone talk or driving that crap buggy on the sand for a bit.

[Chest Rockwell]

Word.. I found that shit to be pretty tiresome too. You can look around and walk back and forward, but you're still trapped listening to that crap. In fact I'd prefer a cut scene because then, with any luck, it'd be skip-able.

Edited July 6, 2009 by Chest Rockwell

[Joe_the_Lion]

The only reason Half life 2 doesn't give you cutscenes is because it uses them all up in the hour-long ordeal you have at the start.

Unless you're being liberal with your use of the word "start," I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not far into the game (boating down the river) but the only thing I've encountered that I'd describe as a cutscene was no longer than a minute or two, tops.

 

He's referring to the whole getting off the train, walking through the station, meeting your contact, being chased bit. He's still wrong though as the start of Half-Life 2 is, at least the first time you play it, absolutely fucking awesome and sets the scene for the world in which the game takes place perfectly.

 

 

EDIT - Just read A&A response, just because you thought bits were dull doesn't change the validity of the original point that it is a game that tells it's story without making you sit and watch a bunch of non-interactive cut scenes.

 

They are none interactive though, just because you can move around in them doesn't change the fact you have to just sit and listen to them. Take in the lab for example where you talk to that girl and guy for aaaages, then they let you fiddle about with a little teleporter thing for about a minute, then they make you listen to them again. For every peice of action Half Life 2 has, it's evened out by boating about empty rivers for ages, listening to someone talk or driving that crap buggy on the sand for a bit.

 

Horses for courses I guess.

 

I found the whole of Half-Life 2 to be just one long amazing journey. No levels, no checkpoints, no achievements, just me getting Gordon Freeman from the beginning of the story to it's end while travelling through one of the most amazingly credible and immersive game worlds ever created. I can't actually think of anything in that game I'd remove because for me it doesn't have standalone parts, each section is like a single link in one great chain and each is needed to keep it whole.

 

The only thing this conversation is making me do is think that perhaps I ranked it too low...............

 

 

[Au]

My list is below but so Hage doesn't have to read it, I'm putting my comments above it. However, all the comments are going to relate to my list so ner

 

I'm a bit sad that my number one didn't even make the top 100 but I guess it's not that surprising. As much fun as I found the game to be, it probably didn't grab everyone else quite so much. I still love it though.

 

I'm hella surprised that Harvest Moon made the top 50 but Dynasty Warriors didn't. I've always found Harvest Moon to be quite a niche game and I'm the only person I know who actually played it - although I did convert a mate once I got him playing it on an emulator. Dynasty Warriors has great pick-up-and-play accessibility that Harvest Moon didn't. Although I suppose the latter is more rewarding over all.

 

Also quite surprised that a Tony Hawk game didn't make it into the top 50, with number languishing down in the bottom half. I've played prettty much every installment to death (except Project 8, which I quickly got bored of after finishing, and Proving Ground which I've only played for all of about 5 minutes) and whilst 2 is probably the most iconic of the lot, 3 was just superb. 4 and THUG1 were loads of fun but I guess the series really went off the rails with THUG2 and AW. The next-gen installments have taken it back to a more familiar environment but I think the over-the-top nature of the intervening games probably harmed the series more than they realised.

 

I'm not entirely convinced that two Pro Evo games deserved to make it into the list. Obviously with a series that's got so many installments that are pretty much identical it's unlikely that there will be an out and out favourite (although the comments for both games that made it into the list suggest otherwise).

 

Bit gutted that so many Mario games made it into the list above Galaxy as well. Probably to do with the fact that I was just plain terrible at the 2D Mario games, they never grabbed me in the slightest. The 3D Mario games have all been terrific but there's no way 64 is better than Galaxy. I do think Sunshine is underrated although I would never rank it as one of my favourite games.

 

I would agree with Black2 in that nostalgia clearly played a massive role in peoples choices, my own included. Goldeneye was a hugely predictable number one, though.

 

Anyway, here's my list, all comments included. Those in the top 50 are bolded, those in the bottom 50 are italicised.

 

1) Simpsons: Hit & Run (PS2)

Might seem like an odd choice for my number one pick but I have honestly never had so much fun playing a game. I absolutely loved it. The story was great, the voice acting fitted perfectly and all the in-jokes were awesome. It made me smile so much, remembering just how good the Simpsons used to be. Considering how god awful most Simpsons games were, this was a sublime treat. Yeah, so it's a kid friendly version of GTA with platforming elements. Who cares, it's just out and out fun with a surprising amount of attention to detail.

 

2) Streets of Rage 2 (MD) {3}

Like most kids, my Megadrive came with Megagames 3 and I had very little pocket money left over to buy anything else. Revenge of Shinobi was impossible, Golden Axe just never really sucked me in but Streets Of Rage was ace. It was kinda like a bad 80's movie about rengade cops but in video game form and managed to retain that feel perfectly. Then along came SOR2 which took all the good aspects of the first one and added a ton more. Plus it had a pro-wrestler as a playable character which for a wrestling fan was just awesome. So much replay value in this game, I couldn't tell you how many times I've completed it with different characters.

 

3) Toejam & Earl (MD) {62}

Still one of the most original games I've ever played. Such a great idea with so much going on, a lot of humour and some wicked 16-bit tunes.

 

4) Mario Galaxy (Wii) {53}

Having always been a Sega kid, I'd never really played much of the Mario games. I'd had a bash at mates houses and tried them on emulators but it just seemed I wasn't very good at them. Galaxy, along with the other 3D Mario games, is infinitely playable though. I had such a blast with this game, it's great. Sure there's the tricky bits which seem to take forever but when you get it right it's such a good feeling.

 

5) Harvest Moon (SNES) {45}

When I did eventually get a Nintendo console, it was towards the end of its life span and I only had a few games. This was one of them. Whilst not very original in gameplay, the concept has to be one of the most bizarre to ever make it into a videogame. I just started playing it to see what it was like and got instantly hooked. You play a boy who inherits a farm from his grandparents. You spend your maintaining the farm and your night trying to date the girls in the local town. There's quite a lot of story going on around this happening and it's oddly compelling, seeing which way you can sway it by doing certain things. Easily one of the most addictive games I've ever played.

 

6) Lemmings (MD) {41}

I was never very good at games when I was a kid and tended to go for button bashing beat 'em-ups. However, I had a great mind for puzzles and this was a great opportunity for me to put that to use. So much replay value and spending hours digging levels apart trying to find the home along with a kick-ass soundtrack. I'm sure it was much better on something with a mouse interface but there was a lot of charm and extra bits to the Megadrive version. Plus, I've never met someone I couldn't rape in two-player mode.

 

7) Home Alone (MD)

Another very original game. To quote what I wrote on the board the other day: "Conversely, Home Alone on the Megadrive/Game Gear was great. It was really original and was a very good representation of the film, I always thought. I've only ever met one person who agrees with me on this but that could be due to the fact that not many people have played it. Completing it on Expert for the first time is one of my favourite memories of being a kid."

 

8) Dynasty Warriors 4 (PS2) {92}

Although 4 is my favourite of the two and the one I spent the most time playing, I imagine 3 is more likely to get votes and I'd rather one of them make the list than none of them so attribute the points to whichever one's doing best, they're pretty similar. There's something hugely satisfying about wading through hundreds of enemy soldiers. I've always seen Dynasty Warriors as the spiritual evolution of the side-scrolling beat 'em-up. Having to complete scenarios in order to unlock certain items and really adds to the game. Once you've got a heavily levelled up character and all the best power-ups you just become unstoppable.

 

9) Conkers Bad Fur Day (N64)

Some of my happiest memories are attached to this and playing through it with one of my ex-girlfriends. There were times when it seemed the only thing that wouldn't start an argument was this game. Shitloads of humour and really good voice acting for a cart based game. Good level design, entertaining story. All round good fun.

 

10) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) {12}

Fuck the haters, I loved this game. Awesome story, great voice acting, superb characters that I actually connected with, brilliant time setting, sublime soundtrack and probably the best level map of any GTA game. I never understood why people hated the open areas, they were great. Mountains, deserts, farmland. I had loads of fun just driving around. Driving through the desert at sunset was great! Plus, this was the first GTA game I ever completed so I'll always love it just for that.

 

11) Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2/3 (PS1/PS2) {74}

As with Dynasty Warriors, I can see the earlier incarnation getting the most votes so again I'd rather see one of them as opposed to none. Sure, I loved THPS2, who didn't? You could spend hours trying to beat your mates highest score on the warehouse level. THPS3 brought so much more to it though. Better level design (imo) and more importantly reverts which just saw your highscores sky-rocket.

 

12) WWE Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain (PS2) {16}

Still the definitive Smackdown game and one they'll probably never beat. Biggest roster ever at the time with one of the better selections of wrestlers the game has seen. Most importantly, however, the season mode was actually good. Remember those days? Sure they gave (and then took away) GM mode but the on-the-fly booking that the season mode in earlier incarnations of the game allowed you to do was far better. You could mould your own feuds however you wanted them to go. Great times.

 

13) Populous (SMS mainly but it doesn't matter)

Due to coming from a single parent family, I stayed at my grandparents a lot. My main consoles would always stay at home but my Master System got relegated to my nans. I had a fairly good selection of games but I always ended up spending hours playing Populous. Much like Lemmings, it's one of the few games I was ever good at. Some levels I just took over, trying to keep the game going as long as possible so I could terraform the map into something that you could only make out on the zoomed out version in the corner. Like most things, I eventually came across two levels I could never beat and lost interest but it ate up a huge portion of my life prior to that.

 

14) Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (MD) {8}

Sure, I liked the first one enough but the second one was just so much better. Better music, levels that were more interesting and more fun to play (even if I did always get stuck on Chemical Zone act 2) and improved graphics. Exploring the levels and getting to places you shouldn't with the Sonic and Knuckles cart was immensely fun, too.

 

15) Resident Evil 2 (PS1) {40}

Man, I loved this game. I played through it so many times with both characters. I got it down so I knew which bits of the story I could miss out and got my time down to under an hour. But not only was that awesome, the extra bits where you could play as an Umbrella squaddie or a lump of tofu were such amusingly pointless additions that I just loved it.

 

Edit: Oh, and no Conkers? Fuck you all.

Edited July 6, 2009 by elegia

[Onyx2]

Chart representing the Top 10 formats:

 

[Astro Hollywood]

Surprised there's nothing from the Spectrum or C64. Could it be that I'm just fucking old?

[MRMIdAS]

1. Metal Gear Solid (PS1) - Awesome game, unfortunately gave every mediocre platform/action game after it an obligatory stealth section.

 

2. Knuckles The Echidna in Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive) - takes a great game and makes it better.

 

3. Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive/Arcade) - A worthy improvement of a damn fine game.

 

4. Golden Axe (Arcade/XBLA) - THE side scrolling hack-n-slash game, Mega drive port was inferior, but had more levels.

 

5. Mortal Kombat II (Arcade) - The Pinnacle of the series IMO, no Killer Instinct-esque "Dial-a-Kombo's", Fatalities JUST the right amount of "OTT".

 

6. Halo 3 (360) - purely for forge

 

7. E.Z.2.Dancer (Arcade) Probably the best dancing machine ever, unfortunately limited be being import only, and chock full of Korean songs with little of no appeal to your average arcade going audience

 

8. Saints Row 2 (360/PS3) - Took the original and improved it, if only they could get rid of the crashes.

 

9. Turrican 2 - The Final Fight (Amiga) - THE side scrolling shooter, big bucket of awesome

 

10. Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (Arcade) - Side scrolling beat-'em-up in the same style as Final Fight, with 4 playable characters, and Dinosaurs.

 

11. C&C Red Alert 2 (PC) - Awesome RTS game, very modable.

 

12. WWF Smackdown! 2 (PS1) - Best career mode in ANY Smackdown game.

 

13. WWF Wrestlefest (Arcade) - MAHOOSIVE ammounts of fun to play.

 

14. Wardner (Arcade) - Rock Hard platformer.

 

15. GTA Vice City (PS2/XBOX) - Best GTA Ever. A game that's half made by it's soundtrack, Classic.

[Chest Rockwell]

Bollocks to it! That was quite fun reading through elegia; I'm gonna post my list dammit.. Ones that made the final cut in bold.

 

 

1. Smackdown

[Devon Malcolm]

Surprised there's nothing from the Spectrum or C64. Could it be that I'm just fucking old?

 

Me too

 

Is there a retro game thread somewhere? We could go there and cry over our tapes of Monty On The Run and Buggy Boy.

[Astro Hollywood]

Here's mine, yo.

 

1 - World of Warcraft (PC)

 

By far, the biggest stealer of my personal man-hours. A game so epic, its enormity can only be understood by playing. It's got it's own economy, for fucks sake. The human factor produces so many amazing one-off moments that you'd never get in any other game, and 90% of my great moments as a gamer have come from stuff that's happened in WoW.

 

2 -The Warriors (PS2)

 

The best movie adaptation *ever* and probably the technical highpoint of the PS2. The level where you're swarmed by High Hats was Dead Rising crowd control before Dead Rising. The only movie adaptation where the "new scenes" aren't some horrible pus-leaking cock that wees all over the original material.

 

3 - SWOS (Amiga)

 

If not for this game, I'd probably be a doctor or a lawyer. My GCSE years were spent in career mode, or in leagues where I played with an edited team made up of Carry On actors with myself up front.

 

4 - Skool Daze (Spectrum)

 

Sandbox play with the sort of exciting Beano/Grange Hill big school antics you imagine in your future when you're 8 years old. Frogs, catapults and bullies, huzzah. Like most games of this era, tough as fuck.

 

5 - GTA:SA (PS2)

 

I do love all the post GTA3 games, but the setting takes it for me, seeing as I pretty much walk around pretending I'm Snoop Dogg or Omar Little or some other fabulous black man anyway.

 

6 - Guitar Hero III (360)

 

*makes devil horn sign, jams drumstick into jap's eye*

 

7 - Unreal Tournament (PC)

 

The best shooter series, bar none. Fuck-a-Halo. The first game I ever played online, against other people, and it had an incredible mod scene around 2001 that produced a bunch of games and modes that were themselves better than 95% of actual games.

 

8 - Lemmings (Amiga)

 

It's credit to how fun the game was that you spent more time trying to beat the levels than deliberately killing the little fuckers like a giant psychopath. Definite candidate for best music ever too.

 

9 - Team Fortress II (360)

 

WAVE GOODBYE TO YER HEAD, WANKA! This was my summer of 2008. Absolutely the most perfectly balanced class based game ever. Beautiful look too, unlike anything else. Hugely original.

 

10 - Chaos Engine (Amiga)

 

The steam punk asthetic is wildly underused in games, and this one is crying out for a next gen remake. Cracking music too.

 

11 - Dizzy, Prince of The Yolkfolk (spectrum)

 

It sucks that the Dizzy games are part of a genre that mostly died out altogether. Compared to the previous games, PoTYF was an epic. If you locked Dizzy, Sonic and Mario in a room, the other two would limp out with tear-stained cheeks, holding their torn anuses.

 

12 - The Secret of Monkey Island

 

Games aren't funny. This one is. Monkey Island basically created a multi-billion-dollar franchise when Hollywood pinched the whole tone and feel of it for the Pirates movies.

 

13 - GUN (PS2)

 

Sandbox Westerns~! GUN trumped Red Dead Revolver with its over the top, cartoonish setting, with evil firebreathing clowns from a creepy circus and cackling Mexicans. Lots o' fun.

 

14 - FFVII

 

There's nothing left to say about this, is there? I guess there is the question of why 7 seemed so sweeping, epic and memorable in a way the others, which never came close to connecting on the same level, didn't. Ten years ago this would have topped my list, but the stinking, wank-smelling Japanophiles that inhabit the internet, masturbating into Tonberry plushies and pretending they aren't pedos, may have put me off a little.

 

15 - Premier Manager (amiga)

 

Fast and fun in a way CM wasn't, not for me anyway. Thinking back, it must have been pretty easy, because first order of business was to ignore the stats altogether, rename them after Marvel comics characters and put Galactus in goal "cos he's the biggest."

[Onyx2]

Surprised there's nothing from the Spectrum or C64. Could it be that I'm just fucking old?

 

Only 25 votes were recorded for Spectrum, C64 or Amstrad.

 

That's part of the point I was making earlier; people voting on this list are in part voting for something that occupied their time in younger days.

 

Sickwoy, you and I are probably seven or eight years older than the average age on the forum - this will have something to do with it.

 

(someone should do a "how old are you" poll - we haven't had one for a few years)

[neil]

Skool Daze was one of the most annoying games I've ever played. It was as hard as HTBACB.

 

Bonus points if you know/remember HTBACB on the speccy.