[cyb.tachyon]

Certain members of the forum have noticed a deficiency in all of the commercially published lists of the BEST/MOST INFLUENTIAL/MUST PLAY Games of ALL TIME. So Kanye and I are working together to make the definitive LANKnights list.

Rules: Stay on topic, be constructive, debate honestly, and as a reward if we get to agree on at least 100 I'll sticky this list for all members to read FOREVER. You also might start seeing these more often at LAN Parties
No games released just this past year, but everything ON PC that you can play at a LAN counts. If you can easily get an emulator for it, that works too (otherwise how are we to play classic games?)

You must own the original game to legally download and play the .ROM files in an emulator. Any discussion about illegally obtaining game roms will be deleted.
Please PM me if you have a better emulator/rom link or you would like a link removed.


GAME NAME(Click to Download) - YEAR(Wikipedia Entry) - SCORE(Metacritic Page)


LAN/Multiplayer

• Team Fortress 2 - 2007 - 92
• Unreal Tournament 2004 - 2004 - 93
• StarCraft - 1998 - 88
• Counter-Strike - 2000 - 88
• Battlefield 1942 and BattleField 2 - 2002/2005 - 91
• Diablo I and Diablo II - 1996/2000 - 88
• Age of Empires 1 through 3 - 1997/1999/2005 - 83
• HALO - 2003 - 83
• GoldenEye 007 - 1997 -
• DOOM - 1993 -
• Civilization IV - 2005 - 94
• Call of Duty 1, 2, and CoD:4 - 2003/2005/2007/ - 94
• Company of Heroes - 2003 - 93
• Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War & Expansions - 2004 - 86
• Warcraft I thru WC III - 2002 - 92
• Rome: Total War - 2004 - 92
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - 2005 - 92
• Quake III: Arena - 1999 -
• Freelancer - 2003 - 85

Singleplayer

• Chrono Trigger - 1995 - 92
• Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - 1992 -
• Deus Ex - 2000 - 90
• System Shock 2 - 1999 - 92
• BioShock - 2007 - 96
• Final Fantasy VI - 1994 -
• Half Life 1, 2, and Episodes - 1998/2004/2006/2007 - 96
• Xenogears - 1998 - 84
• Pokemon Red and Blue - 1996 -
• Oblivion - 2006 -
• Dragon Age: Origins - 2009 - 91
• Super Metroid - 1994 -
• Resident Evil 4 - 2005 - 76
• Sonic 3 with Knuckles - 1994 -
• Mass Effect - 2008 - 89
• Portal - 2007 - 90
• Super Mario Bros. 3 - 1990 -
• Contra - 1987 -
• Street Fighter II - 1991 -
• The Secret of Monkey Island - 1990 -
• Grim Fandango - 1998 - 94
• Fallout 1, 2 and Fallout 3 - 1997/1999/2008 - 91
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and San Andreas - 2003/2005 - 94/93
• Knights of the Old Republic - 2003 - 93
• Assassin's Creed - 2008 - 79
• Duke Nukem 3D - 1996 - 89
• Max Payne 1 and 2 - 2001 - 89
• Psychonauts - 2005 - 87
• Star Wars: Dark Forces/Jedi Knight Series - 1995 -
• Thief 1 through Thief 3 - 1998 - 92
• Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 - 1998 - 91
• X-Com: UFO Defense - 1994 -
• The Oregon Trail - 1971 -
• Sim City 2000 / 4 - 1993 - 84
• Black and White - 2001 - 90
• realMyst - 1993 -
• Day of the Tentacle - 1993 - 93

This post has been edited by cyb.tachyon: 20 November 2011 - 11:59 PM

[cyb.tachyon]

I'll start by saying that Starcraft, at least one LoZ, AoE, Mario Bros, and DOOM need to be on the list.

[ninjafish]

I'll start off with some obvious to me...


TF2
Portal
Diablo II

[Zuccolo]

Here are my nominations. The first game I list should automatically be #1 on the list, and the rest are in no particular order:

Chrono Trigger
Mega Man 3
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Batman Arkham Asylum
BioShock
Battletoads
Final Fantasy VI
Xenogears
Suikoden II
Team Fortress II
Portal
StarCraft
Diablo
Super Mario Bros. 3
Contra
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Super Castlevania IV
Street Fighter II
Super Metroid
Resident Evil 4
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
GoldenEye 007
Sonic 3 with Knuckles
Pokemon Red and Blue
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Mega Man X
Mega Man X5
Metroid Zero Mission
Star Fox 64
Super Mario RPG

I'll add more in a separate post when I can think of them.

[Avalon]

Magic Carpet (DOS), Battlezone (WIN95), Leisure Suit Larry (original, DOS), Hardball (DOS), Red Baron (DOS), C&C (WIN95), Soul Reaver (WIN95), Diablo (WIN95), Kings Bounty (DOS), HoMM (WIN95), Lords of the Realm 2 (WIN95), Ace of Aces (DOS).

[Zuccolo]

Oh, shit! Don't forget The Incredible Machine!

Ah! I just remembered Word Munchers!

[MajorLag]

Avalon said:

Leisure Suit Larry (original, DOS)

I loled.
Also, if you want old school..how about Commander Keen. I dont know how many hours I wasted as a kid playing that game.
Add Unreal Tournament and Half Life 2 as well.

[Zenebatos]

Metroid Prime
Pikmin
Rise of Nations
The Legend of Dragoon
Secret of Evermore
Super Ghouls N' Ghosts
Paper Mario
Zelda: Majora's Mask
Age of Empires Gold

[Zuccolo]

Zenebatos said:

Secret of Evermore

Yes. I screamed when I saw Cecil Harvey in the game. It was awesome.

[Valis]

Oddworld: Abe's Oddyse
Aliens vs. Predator
Stubbs the Zombie
House of the Dead
Mortal Kombat
Sins of a Solar Empire

[Whiplash]

Theres so many good games out there its hard to decide what ones are the top. some games I noticed that isn't listed yet is OOT and Warcraft 1-3.

[Zuccolo]

Whiplash said:

Theres so many good games out there its hard to decide what ones are the top. some games I noticed that isn't listed yet is OOT and Warcraft 1-3.

This list isn't the best games. It's the "must-play" games. Games that people NEED to play because they're so awesome.

[BUDMAN]

Madden
Both Assassins creed
God of War series

[Destroyer1990]

Zuccolo said:

Here are my nominations. The first game I list should automatically be #1 on the list, and the rest are in no particular order:

Chrono Trigger
Mega Man 3
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Batman Arkham Asylum
BioShock
Battletoads
Final Fantasy VI
Xenogears
Suikoden II
Team Fortress II
Portal
StarCraft
Diablo
Super Mario Bros. 3
Contra
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Super Castlevania IV
Street Fighter II
Super Metroid
Resident Evil 4
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
GoldenEye 007
Sonic 3 with Knuckles
Pokemon Red and Blue
Star Wars Rogue Squadron
Mega Man X
Mega Man X5
Metroid Zero Mission
Star Fox 64
Super Mario RPG

I'll add more in a separate post when I can think of them.

This. All of it.

Also, Perfect Dark 64.
Galaga
Pacman
Mech Warrior series
Final Fantasy 6 and FFTactics

[Zuccolo]

Destroyer1990 said:

This. All of it.

Also, Perfect Dark 64.
Galaga
Pacman
Mech Warrior series
Final Fantasy 6 and FFTactics

FF6 was on my list.

[BIOS]

I just wanted to say that this list fails at life and it will always fail no matter what.

Age of Empires is the worst multiplayer game of all-time.

[Destroyer1990]

Zuccolo said:

FF6 was on my list.

I know. It just had to be stated again.

[sizors]

just to name a few, no order:
return to castle wolfenstein (sp?)
civilizations 3
day of defeat: source
pokemon - original
wii sports

[TerranUp16]

Wtf is Age of Empires doing anywhere on the MP list?

Deus Ex needs to be #1 for SP as it is an undisputed design masterpiece.

Assassin's Creed needs to gtfo.

Bioshock needs to drop some slots in favor of System Shock and etc gaining more spots.

Halo < Goldeneye.

COMPANY OF HEROES NAOW.

WarCraft 3 is also a given for MP- if only because of the insane custom community.

Also, Sonic 2 > Sonic 3, although despite my like of Sonic games I don't think I'd really put any of them particularly high on any best-of list...

Dawn of War 2 will be on the list in a year (if you don't like it, stfu, buy the game, and play the MP and Last Stand now- forget what you thought you knew during the beta, it's a completely different game now).

But, really, the intent of the list is fail. Best-ofs always have the issue of bias. In addition, the premise is far too broad. "Most influential/best/must-play"... all of those are significantly different criteria. If we are going to talk most-influential, then Dune 2 needs to be almost the top of this list but I wouldn't consider Dune 2 a "must-play" or a "best". Deus Ex is definitely a "best" and a "must-play", but it's not a very influential game judging by modern games.

[Gamma]

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
Freelancer
Halo 1
Road Rash
Commander Keen (practically anything Apogee made back then)

I'll think of more later