P&B Ranks: The Top 42 Video Games of All-Time

[Stellaboz]

Pity, I have a passion for bacon.

[Miguel Sanchez]

4 hours ago, Mark Connolly said:

Polls have been closed for a while...

I don't know why I said Saturday I was never going to post anything until today

2 hours ago, Stellaboz said:

What's the deadline for this? I totally missed this thread.

You're not going to get your games counted unless you actually send something m9

[Stellaboz]

Done in a rush and probably forgot a whole bunch of classics. I wrote down Broken Sword 2 before a flood of others came to mind.

[Miguel Sanchez]

Alright, how do you all want to do this?

196 games total, the top 42 all having multiple votes. Should I dump the bottom 154 games all at once, or drip feed them out over the coming days so you can all commiserate at the single vote efforts we have?

Edited March 7, 2021 by Miguel Sanchez

[Mark Connolly]

5 or so of the shitters named in a holding post between each proper entry?

[djchapsticks]

22 hours ago, BFTD said:

Jim Sterling guest-hosting Soccer Saturday would be riveting. Not least because they know f**k all about football.

...and would therefore fit right in, hohoho.

Jim Sterling has this amazing ability to wind everyone within the games industry up for telling some proper uncomfortable truths about the industry.

They called how Cyberpunk would play out long before it was released as well. Call it to a T in fact,from the toxic defenders of CDPR slaughtering anyone who dared criticise them for crunching developers then swiftly turning on CDPR themselves, to the game actually being decent but forced out in such a rush due to pressure from said rabid fans that it would be essentially unplayable.

[NotThePars]

The Souls games have a reputation for being hard but it's definitely overstated. They're games which can be pretty easily cheesed and it's about learning the environment and how each enemy fights rather than just relying on pure skill.

Bloodborne's aesthetics are also cool as hell. Gimme that Lovecraftian Victorian grimdark vibes. The whole thing looks like a Saturday night in Middlesborough.

[accies1874]

Yeah I've always wanted to play Bloodborne because I love what I've seen of its world, but also... f**k that. I had a tricky enough time with Jedi Fallen Order.

[Homer Thompson]

Alright, how do you all want to do this?
197 games total, the top 43 all having multiple votes. Should I dump the bottom 154 games all at once, or drip feed them out over the coming days so you can all commiserate at the single vote efforts we have?

I'd like to see the one voters. Maybe just dump them over a few days. Or if its not too much extra work list them alongside other similar games that got multiple votes?

[NotThePars]

5 minutes ago, accies1874 said:

Yeah I've always wanted to play Bloodborne because I love what I've seen of its world, but also... f**k that. I had a tricky enough time with Jedi Fallen Order.

The problem with games like Fallen Order and Assassin's Creed Valhalla which I'm convinced was Ubi's attempt to do Souls-like combat is it's far less precise and as such feels much more unfair when you die, imo.

1 minute ago, Mr X said:

1 hour ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

Alright, how do you all want to do this?
197 games total, the top 43 all having multiple votes. Should I dump the bottom 154 games all at once, or drip feed them out over the coming days so you can all commiserate at the single vote efforts we have?

Or if its not too much extra work list them alongside other similar games that got multiple votes?

This is a good call.

[accies1874]

This is a good call.

I definitely thought it was unfair but just assumed I had to get good.

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

Jim Sterling has this amazing ability to wind everyone within the games industry up for telling some proper uncomfortable truths about the industry.

They called how Cyberpunk would play out long before it was released as well. Call it to a T in fact,from the toxic defenders of CDPR slaughtering anyone who dared criticise them for crunching developers then swiftly turning on CDPR themselves, to the game actually being decent but forced out in such a rush due to pressure from said rabid fans that it would be essentially unplayable.

Yeah, I watched that thing play out on their channel. They've had that playbook mapped out for years, and it really did pan out as rote. Unsurprisingly, there's been glacial progress on fixing bugs and nothing added to the game that was missing on launch.

The whole depressing Anthem saga was interesting to watch on their channel too, like a horror film where the protagonist insists on slowly walking into every dark room in turn, no matter how hard the audience screams that it's going to end badly. 

[19QOS19]

I have at least one that will be a single voter. My No. 10 I picked as I was struggling and really don't have a particular top 10.

[NotThePars]

2 minutes ago, BFTD said:

The whole depressing Anthem saga was interesting to watch on their channel too, like a horror film where the protagonist insists on slowly walking into every dark room in turn, no matter how hard the audience screams that it's going to end badly. 

Gutting that Anthem's been taken out the back and shot because the flying in that game was really good. Shame about, uh, literally everything else.

[Lofarl]

Yeah let’s see the one voters first.  Be a good few arguments about them not getting any more votes.

[BFTD]

7 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

Gutting that Anthem's been taken out the back and shot because the flying in that game was really good. Shame about, uh, literally everything else.

Apparently EA were going to stop development on the game unless BioWare could come up with something more interesting, as the game was obviously shite. They mocked up an overhaul with a load of new features, which EA weren't interested in, until they got to the flying and that was all that was required to sell it to them  

IIRC, the first reveal footage of the gameplay consisted of nothing but brief snippets of the flying on a loop. Absolute guarantee that the new Mass Effect game is going to be all about the flying.

[Stellaboz]

I forgot about Mass Effect! Stop the count! Stop the count!

[BFTD]

2 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

I forgot about Mass Effect! Stop the count! Stop the count!

You're now on a couple of lists for liking Mass Effect, and on my list for forgetting about Mass Effect. Impressive work.

[NotThePars]

39 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Apparently EA were going to stop development on the game unless BioWare could come up with something more interesting, as the game was obviously shite. They mocked up an overhaul with a load of new features, which EA weren't interested in, until they got to the flying and that was all that was required to sell it to them  

IIRC, the first reveal footage of the gameplay consisted of nothing but brief snippets of the flying on a loop. Absolute guarantee that the new Mass Effect game is going to be all about the flying.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was the Schreier piece as he always does the best dissection of these disasters. I'm sure I read as well that the flying was a very late addition that ended up being by far the best part of the game. Suppose it was the same with Cyberpunk adding in Keanu Reeves relatively late in the development.

Andromeda's gameplay was terrific as well so I'm confident the next Mass Effect will be a class game to play.

[BFTD]

3 minutes ago, NotThePars said:

It wouldn't surprise me if it was the Schreier piece as he always does the best dissection of these disasters. I'm sure I read as well that the flying was a very late addition that ended up being by far the best part of the game. Suppose it was the same with Cyberpunk adding in Keanu Reeves relatively late in the development.

Andromeda's gameplay was terrific as well so I'm confident the next Mass Effect will be a class game to play.

I must be a bit mad in that I liked Cyberpunk and Andromeda. There's a lot missing from Cyberpunk, and it's very disappointing, but the core game is still a lot of fun. Looking forward to playing it again next Christmas, if I can somehow put together enough money for one of those nice raytracing cards by then.

Andromeda had obviously suffered from being severely scaled back - you didn't need the post-release reveals to see that they'd scrapped a load of planets and content, as it felt like it. But, as you say, the gameplay was enjoyable, and I had a good time with it. It just appears that, until people stop buying things in advance*, companies like EA are always going to overpromise and cut back when the money's been spent.

Spoiler

*except for Bloodlines 2, which is going to be fucking amazing.