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250+ game developers, journalists, and media personalities make a list of the top 100 games of all time

LakeOf9

Member
GQ gathered 259 developers, journalists, and media personalities and aggregated their lists to come up with a top 100.

In their own words:

Each voter had one task: pick a personally ranked top ten list. A game in first receives 10 points. A game in 10th place receives 1 point. We invited 300 individuals to participate, and received 239 final lists with an incredible 652 games receiving one vote or more. Our winner not only received the most votes, but also placed in people’s Number 1 more than any other rival.

I've included top 20

  1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  2. The Last of Us
  3. Tetris
  4. Bloodborne
  5. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
  6. Mass Effect 2
  7. Metal Gear Solid
  8. Portal 2
  9. Dark Souls
  10. Half-Life 2
  11. Resident Evil 4
  12. Disco Elysium
  13. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
  14. Super Mario World
  15. Red Dead Redemption 2
  16. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim
  17. Final Fantasy 7
  18. Super Mario 64
  19. DOOM
  20. Elden Ring

source
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Saw this earlier. As boring of a list as you'd expect, not good, but not horrible enough to make it funny to read.
 
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SeraphJan

Member
This is why small pool sucks when it comes to subjective art criticism, group thinking is inevitable, this list consist of many things: Hype and Nostalgia being two of them

Let one million people vote you will see a drastic different result, video game are for everyone to enjoy, they should have the right to decide not just a handful of so called elitists

"But, these guys are experts!" There are experts in terms of writing, there are experts in terms of developing, There are no expert in terms of opinions. There could be no expert if there is no criteria to begin with.
 
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bender

What time is it?
The Last of Us
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Mass Effect 2
Half-Life 2
Disco Elysium
Red Dead Redemption 2
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim

giphy.gif
 

feynoob

Banned
The list sucks so bad.
Doesnt matter if they are expert or not, you cant dicatate best game using 100+ experts.
There are tons of genre games that are great and havent even featured this list.
 
Maybe I'm just a hater, but I really think The Last of Us being as highly regarded as it is is kind of devastating for gaming. Like I'd rather have Uncharted 2 in its place. The fact that not a single Halo or GTA game isn't in the top 20 is super lame and makes me question the credibility of the people who took this poll.

Also both Dark Souls AND Bloodborne are in the top 10? Wth... and how is World of Warcraft not on this list? What about COD4 Modern Warfare? Bioshock?
 
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Gaiff

Gold Member
Best of all time list always annoyed me. No one cares what your opinion is regarding what the best games of all time are.

And second, 4 of the top 5 games are all from the past decade? I don't think so. And seeing a mediocre game like TLOU make the top 5 is nothing short of laughable.
 

LakeOf9

Member
Best of all time list always annoyed me. No one cares what your opinion is regarding what the best games of all time are.

And second, 4 of the top 5 games are all from the past decade? I don't think so. And seeing a mediocre game like TLOU make the top 5 is nothing short of laughable.
what makes tlou mediocre over the other four?
 

Gaiff

Gold Member
what makes tlou mediocre over the other four?
Mediocre gameplay whereas the other 4 excel in that area. The sequel is a massive improvement but it's far too controversial.

Edit: The other 3 excel. Witcher 3 gameplay is also meh-tier.
 
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LakeOf9

Member
Mediocre gameplay whereas the other 4 excel in that area. The sequel is a massive improvement but it's far too controversial.
sequel is definitely a much better game, but the first one is really good too. in terms of gameplay it is far better than the Witcher 3 in fact. neither are innovative or revolutionary with their gameplay, in terms of design and mechanics both are pretty simple and straightforward, but very polished and well done, takes on their genres. they both also have amazing stories, probably among the best in games, so great gameplay plus masterpiece stories is more than enough reason for them to rank high
 

Gaiff

Gold Member
sequel is definitely a much better game, but the first one is really good too. in terms of gameplay it is far better than the Witcher 3 in fact. neither are innovative or revolutionary with their gameplay, in terms of design and mechanics both are pretty simple and straightforward, but very polished and well done, takes on their genres. they both also have amazing stories, probably among the best in games, so great gameplay plus masterpiece stories is more than enough reason for them to rank high
Lol, didn't notice The Witcher 3 there. Yeah, TLOU definitely has better gameplay than that. I thought it was BOTW, Tetris, Bloodborne, TLOU, not realizing this was 4 games, not 5.
 
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SeraphJan

Member
It seems almost everyone here is having issue with the list, I'm curious how will you guys rearrange the order?
 
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Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year
"We asked the world's greatest game developers, streamers, directors, writers and more to help us crown the best games of all time"

No buddy. Being willing to go along with your listicle doesn't make them the "greatest."

Not a single Japanese developer was included in the vote, and the author goes



Sure. if you ask Nintendo, Miyamoto won't vote for your listicle, but you went quite deep into the small/indie for the west. I can guarantee I could find 10 developers from Japan comparable to some of the names you included for the west willing to answer in a day. 🤔

One of the worst things to happen to gaming is when the mainstream press sniffed the money and decided to start writing trash about gaming.
 
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nush

Gold Member
that’s a horrible list. It’s a good list of games in the last 10 years but not all time.

Before even looking at the list I knew that Zelda would be on the top and that most games listed will be beyond the time where they are not included because they are "Too old" or in reality everybody asked is too young to have ever played them. These lists might as well be called "Top of your head, name the best selling games of all time" because "Best" means it sells the most. Right?

So for example that's why this list has Half-Life and Half-Life 2 that franchise doesn't need two slots taken up out of 100. Almost every mainline Mario game listed, ditto. Absolutely no 2D shumps, Radiant Silvergun deserves a slot, break down through the age cut off and you'd have to include Asteroids or R-Type.

This list just shows the reality that a lot of people working in it don't know about games and to be honest for some of their jobs they don't really need to.
 

Porcile

Member
Have people played Metal Gear Solid recently? Yes, it has a great story and creating voice acting but 90% of it can barely be considered a game. Just running from point to point to move the story with almost no challenge or interaction in-between.
 
My personal top 20 and the top 10 are interchangeable depending on the mood:

1. Halo 3
2. Mass Effect 2
3. Fallout 3
4. Red Dead Redemption 2
5. Bioshock
6. Grand Theft Auto 4
7. World of Warcraft
8. Uncharted 2
9. Half Life 2
10. Zelda Breath of the Wild
11. Final Fantasy X
12. Gears of War
13. Witcher 3
14. God of War 3
15. Pokemon Emerald/Sapphire/Ruby
16. Fire Emblem Awakening
17. New Super Mario Bros
18. Gran Turismo 7 (I needed a racing game in here and I consider this the best one)
19. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
20. Starcraft 2

Honestly was pretty hard making this list
 
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LakeOf9

Member
My personal top 20 and the top 10 are interchangeable depending on the mood:

1. Halo 3
2. Mass Effect 2
3. Fallout 3
4. Red Dead Redemption 2
5. Bioshock
6. Grand Theft Auto 4
7. World of Warcraft
8. Uncharted 2
9. Half Life 2
10. Zelda Breath of the Wild
11. Final Fantasy X
12. Gears of War
13. Witcher 3
14. God of War 3
15. Pokemon Emerald/Sapphire/Ruby
16. Fire Emblem Awakening
17. New Super Mario Bros
18. Gran Turismo 7 (I needed a racing game in here and I consider this the best one)
19. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
20. Starcraft 2

Honestly was pretty hard making this list
This is really good list :)
 

A.Romero

Member
It's amazing how a lot of people on GAF don't get how these lists works despite having one on the site every single year and being frustrated every single year.

It's always fun to see people having meltdowns
 

Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year
Incidentally, here's my personal top 10 (which is obviously the only one that counts).
  1. Muv-Luv Alternative
  2. Microsoft Flight Simulator
  3. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
  4. Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi
  5. Total War: Warhammer III
  6. Crusader Kings III
  7. Xenogears
  8. Cities: Skylines
  9. Sid Meier’s Civilization V
  10. X-COM: UFO Defense
 
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