(Help Me Decide) The Best Games Of The Past Decade

[FortNinety]

As some folks around here already knows, I write for Heavy. And, one of my current assignments has me trying to figure out the ten best games of the decade. And... I'm having a hard-times. So I hate to be that jerk-off writer that asks people on a message board to do his work for him, but since it's MY message board, I don't feel particularly that bad, plus it's always good to get other people's opinions. So, any suggestions?

[Chairman Meow]

Well if it were up to me half of the list would be Dreamcast games, but as far as real choices:

Rez, natch.
Ikaruga
Shadow of the Colossus
Half Life 2 + Episodes 1 & 2
Metal Gear Solid series
Halo CE
Outrun 2
Elite Beat Agents

Not necessarily the best, but some of the most important:

The original Guitar Hero, for setting off the whole music game craze.
GTA III: sandbox sandbox sandbox and all the jazz.

If anything this list is making me realize how much of my gaming purchases are decided by what's cheap, not what I actually want to play. 
Atlus games, in this economy?

[dhex]

deus ex
half life 2

[isfet]

i've actually been contemplating compiling a list like this for a while.  a LOT of stuff came out in the past 10 years.  it's kind of easy to forget things, ya know?

every game i think of is purely on a personal level, though.  i'm sure there are games that were "better" than Mother 3, but to me, that game really evolved JRPGs into an entirely new and interesting direction (that will be subsequently ignored by all other JRPGs released thereafter).  but i know that most people have either a) not played it or b) don't like that type of game.

Shadow of the Colossus is probably on there somewhere, though, for sure.

Godhand, for being the only game to ever get 3D brawling absolutely right.

Katamari Damacy

ummmm....

gonna have to look at my games when i get home.

[The Drunken Samurai]

RE 4 and Beyond Good & Evil and Cave Story come to mind. True Crime: Streets of LA is my guilty pleasure of the decade.

im also mentioning SOTC as well but i have a love/hate thing with that game.

[dmauro]

In no particular order:
Halo
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou
Pac-Man CE
Katamari Damacy
Left 4 Dead
Burnout 3: Takedown
Shadow of the Collossus
Grand Theft Auto III
World of Warcraft
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Call of Duty 4
Steel Battalion
Cave Story
Counter-Strike

These games are all somewhat influential, almost flawless, and interesting.

Games that didn't quite make my cut:
Ninja Gaiden (they got it right with the sequel, but that was a little too late)
Braid (really damn good, but that's about it, and the ending was weak)
Ico (I prefer it to SotC, but I only wanted to put one on and SotC is more interesting)
Portal (awesome game, but not quite awesome enough to put on here)
Half-Life 2 (definitely not flawless, combat and puzzles don't hold up, hinges on the ambiance)
Guitar Hero (spawned some really fun party games, but then maybe we should just credit Guitar Freaks?)
GodHand (not at all flawless)
Under Defeat (also definitely not at all flawless)
LoZ: Majora's Mask (not quite solid enough to be GotD material, one of my favs though)
Ikaruga (because it's obnoxious)
Gradius V (because it has unskippable cutscenes and Gradius syndrome)
Gears of War (if this game had some color, that would probably be enough to let it squeak by)
Resident Evil 4 (it's still a RE game)
Doom 3 (almost there, if the expansion were the original game it would probably make the cut)

If I think of anything else I'll edit it in.

[FortNinety]

Thanks for the suggestions thus far guys. And yeah Joe, a LOT has come out, hence why it's so tricky.

Though I find it funny thus far that every one of you guys have mentioned SoTC, except for Mike of course.

[isfet]

i dunno.  i guess, SotC is just one of those games that i really enjoyed in a lot of ways and it's one of the few interesting games that i feel like anyone who sees it could like.

[dhex]

i played about halfway through it. it wasn't bad, but i'm not a puzzle game person and it's basically a puzzle platformer. good music and art direction though.

oh to add to this decade's list, diablo 2, if only for being so influential.

[pilot]

Nintendogs: Dachshund & Friends (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXqzs-suETs)
Metroid Prime
We Love Katamari
Animal Crossing
Persona 4
Space Giraffe

[drozdal]

Most important games (for me) of the 2000's:
Steel Battalion
Shadow of the Colossus
Homeworld 2 - space RTS
Deus Ex
Beyond Good And Evil
We Love Katamari
Jet Set Radio
Cave Story
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Waiting Room:
Kohan 2 - virtually unknown, excellent fantasy RTS
Uplink - game about being a hacker
Ikaruga
Rez
Left 4 Dead
Dirt2
Arx Fatalis - First person RPG - spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld Series
Sin and Punishment 2
E4
Conker's Bad Fur Day - First /third person shooter/platformer on N64 - the amount of content and game modes Rare managed to squeeze into this cartridge is mind boggling. Multiplayer mode was way ahead of it's time.

[The Drunken Samurai]

oh, i just remembered that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 was released this decade as well.

[dhex]

stalker is a good choice, if only in atmosphere.

[drozdal]

I would like to mention that Introversion Software is my favorite (indie) game company of 2000's.

Uplink is not a perfect game by any means, but if you'll be able to get past initial weirdness it has a LOT of depth (for a game that's 10 years old) especially if you're into "hacking" to the computer systems around the world and stealing data for the highest bidder.

Same goes for Darwinia - it's more approachable, prettier and way more user friendly than Uplink. Art direction is solid (reminds me a bit of Tron), colors might look weird, but you get used to it with time. The mix or real time strategy with tactical and action gameplay is really refreshing.

Defcon - is a bit like Left for Dead of global nuclear conflict sims - you can play it perfectly fine with computer bots, but it really shines when you fight against human opponents. I love the premise - the game is not about the winning, but losing last (after all when nuclear conflict is over there is really not much more to go around).

I haven't got a chance to play Multiwinia yet (multiplayer version of Darwinia that features 6 different play modes) and will most likely wait for it's XBLA port (called Darwinia+).


The thing about first Stalker I liked the most was that whenever you tried to talk to NPC's with your gun out they would either scream at you or knock the gun out of your hand. I still can't believe that other game companies picked up on that neat little feature.

[dhex]

stalker did so many things right. and so many things wrong, but still. it's so absurdly atmospheric.

i still don't have the guts to try and slog through clear sky. i'm vaguely hopeful about call of priyapat.

to add more pc games to matt's list that won't make matt's list, i'll have to include mask of the betrayer.

lots of folk would include portal, i think, but as clever as it was i felt cheated at the end in some ways. too cute for it's own good.