Breaking down the 100 best games: What do our choices say about us?

I liked the Vanquish campaign more than the GOW2 one as well, and whether or not Vanquish had multiplayer or not should factor into a review (which i don't think happened on GR). Still, one of the most fun things about Gears 2 was the Horde mode, something that gives it an edge over Vanquish. Whether you agree with it or not, there's a reason it's copied frequently. This doesn't make Vanquish any less of a great game, and i'm not saying it should have had MP, but Gears of War had something that Vanquish didn't. And you say they contradict themselves frequently, but believe it or not, more than one person contributed to the list. Of course there might be a couple of statements that went against each other. Wazzle pretty much summed up several of the comments

Derp a Derp Derp I'm gunna leave this site because I don't agree with your choices and opinions as journalists WAAAAHHHH!! For real, while I don't agree with Portal's PLACEMENT above Tetris, which I felt would be a better number one pick, I do respect these mo-fos for their opinions and YEA WTF! METROID PRIME WAS AWESOME!!

portal sucks.

Portal is by far the most OVERRATED game in the history of gaming..no debate about that..I'm more upset that Xenogears was left off the list...easily the best story of any RPG to date.

ZigzMagoo, Not always but in Bioshock case I think dumbing it down didn't benefit it much. Also for a truly great review of Bioshock, check out Antisocialfatman's review of it on you tube. Gears of War 2 doesn't have a great story by any stretch of the imagination either, it was just a slight improvement on the first one's.

There are a lot of things that are popular but are not popular for valid reasons and Halo is one such series. The only reason why the original Halo was so popular was because on consoles the game had pretty much no competition for it's time. So most console kiddies just lapped it up because they didn't know any better, not realising that there were a shitload of much better FPS''s on the pc. That is someway understandable though but what isn't is the fact that it's sequels went on to reach equal acclaim and recognition when the were just carbon copies of the original. The multiplayer maybe fun but it isn't really the best in the genre and something that pisses me off most about the Halo fanboys is the fact that they cite the story as being brilliant and among the best in gaming when it really isn't anything special at all. It's no better than 90% of other FPS stories. It goes without saying that the gameplay is mediocre and a lot of intelligent people can attest to that. Bioshock is a good game but I don't think it's a genre defining masterpiece that the industry believes. The artstyle was unique and memorable and there was reasonably good atmosphere but nowhere near as much as SS 2 which was proper horror. About the story, well here's the thing, it's a carbon copy of SS 2's story. It's 95% similar, it just has a different setting and different characters. It is still a magnificant story though, but just recycling the exact same story from their earlier game doesn't really cut it for me. The shooting is shit in Bioshock as well. It can take 4 point blank shotgun blasts to kill some of the splicers which is pure fucking bullshit. The RPG elements are poorly implemented and nowhere near as good as SS 2's. I strongly recommend you play System SHock 2 to know what I am talking about and while you're at that give Deus Ex and both Half Life games a try. They are among the best games ever made.

Bioshock was a great game, as was Gears of War. And Gears of War 2 actually had a great story that was interesting. Dumbng down something doesn't mean its terrible.

Lots of you guys forget that the list was the list of the BEST games, not necessarily greatest or most influential or important. And a good chunk of that judgement of how good a game is was... is it still fun to play? Or would a person even consider playing it today? Lots of games on the list are in fact influential and important, but sometimes you have to look at an important game and see that you really wouldn't play it over something that's more current. I agree with Gamesradar wholeheartedly on most of their choices, including Portal as the numero uno. It is perfect. First-person gaming (and gaming in general) doesn't have to cater to quintessentially masculine fantasies of dominance over another entity through brute force and aggression. Portal is a profound example of this, served on an equally mind-blowing platform of gameplay purity and simplistic beauty in execution. And this is only one part of what it does that deserves praise. In a word: awesome. Also... NINE DAYS UNTIL ITS SEQUEL! YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH

Really cool follow-up to an awesome article. I was kind of surprised that Sly Cooper didn't take a spot in the 100, but I can see why it didn't. And yeah, Portal totally deserves it's title.

Xbox got Trashed as favorite console! xD Win!

Well, if you don't give at least some credit to a game that managed to appeal a lot of people, then I'm not sure what basis you could really use to say a game is good aside from your own opinion. And for those games... I'm in a tricky position here, because I haven't played any of the Deus Ex Games nor System Shock 2. (I'm not a PC gamer at all, if you've noticed.) But I DID play Bioshock and I fucking love it. I mean, regardless of whether System Shock 2 is better or not, (It might be, but i can't really agree or disagree.) Bioshock itself is a beautiful game. The art direction and atmosphere is fantastic, the story is easily the best I've experience in an FPS. (again, in my opinion.) And the gameplay, while not the best kind of shooter out there, has it's own set of charms that set it apart from others. So, regardless of SystemShock 2, i can tell you that Bioshock IS a great game on it's own.

Just played Space Invaders as a flash game on browser, I hereby claim it to be the best game ever. Seriously, play it, it's still fantastic. Even against MGS4, which I love, and was playing at the same time (I'm quite good at playing 2 games simultaneously; it's twice the fun, and loading times don't bore you!

Didnt notice Cooper's absence until this article

BladedFalcon, just because a game is popular and influenced other games does not make it a masterpiece though. The fact that a lot of other developers feel the need to ape Gears only shows their lack of creativity and confidence in their own ability. It's seems to be a trend these days that if something is poular, it's right. That's just bullshit. I also think Bioshock is fairly mediocre. It's a dumbed down version of System Shock 2 and nothing more. It's funny how Deus Ex:Invisible War got bashed by the most people for being dumbed down yet none seems to care that Bioshock is a dumbed down version of SS 2. If DX:Invisible War didn't bear the name Deus Ex, nobody would have cared. Stuff like that just shows how mindless a lot of people are

@gilgamesh310 Well, whether you consider it a step forwards or backwards it's mostly a question of personal preference. You might have not liked the gameplay there, but the fact is that the first gears of War DID define the third person shooter genre with it's cover based system. And the proof of this is the number of games that have come after that have clearly based their cover system from GoW's, Including Vanquish. And GoW 2 kept the formula just as faithful and functional, and added a multiplayer mode that has also been copied by plenty other games. So whether you consider them actual masterpieces or not it's entirely subjective. But I do believe that both have undeniably set important trends int he landscape, and thus, they HAVE been influential. Even if you don't necessarily like the way they have affected the industry.

Ah, Portal. I don't agree, but I also don't like puzzle games. They make you think, man. Tetris is fine, but I don't think it's actually a puzzle game. You're not trying to solve anything or progress toward a goal.

@ Gilgamesh, I own both as well, and I don't have any of those problems with my 360...

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guys influential doesn't mean best, just because games like gta3 influenced the gaming industry immensely doesn't make it the best

BladedFalcon, about Gears of War, you called Vanquish an evolved form of it and it's true but I actually think that the first Gears of War was a devolution in gameplay mechanics. The fact that our freedom is entirely limited to moving from about 3 different locations in each section comes across as a step back. At least in CoD I still have more freedom to choose how I tackle situations, despite it's linearity. I still enjoed Gears of War but neither of them are the genre defining masterpieces the industry makes out.