The best Video Game ever??

[Henke]

What is the best video, or computer game ever created? A simple question, yet so complex and difficult to answer. I haven't hung out at the pub for a long time, and I miss it. Here's the best topic ever. I can't make a poll, but I would have if I could have included 4068 options, you just have to write here and explain what the best video game of all times is and why you think so. I almost forgot to mention: it includes every console and format: PC, PS2, Wii, Sega Megadrive, Nintendo 8 bits, you name it. The best game of all times, in all categories!

Here's my vote: The best video game ever created is:

Suikoden II (for PSX)
if you ask for a motivation, you haven't played it...

[pipersgrip]

You should make a poll about it. My favorite has to be PSX or PS2. SNES brings back a lot of memories.

[Henke]

You should make a poll about it. My favorite has to be PSX or PS2. SNES brings back a lot of memories.

not console! Game.. That's why I can't make a poll.

[Thomaston]

I know there are superior games out there, but for my money there's not much more addictive than Halo.

[Steamwalker]

I can't comment on the best game ever since I haven't played nearly enough but the best game I have played would likely be Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64). From what I have read, that game has been surpassed by later Zeldas, including Twilight Princess. Honorable mentions go to Goldeneye, Tecmo Super Bowl, Everquest, Super Mario 3, Dragon Warrior and others that I can't think of at the moment.

With that said, I haven't been a gamer in probably 5 years or so.

[chas]

IMO things have not improved since Galaxian and Asteroids. If asked abut a computer-only game, I'd have to say Crystal Quest.

[WyoBadger]

Sid Meier's Pirates. Hands down.

For arcade games, I always favored Joust.

[Jayhawk]

Dang it WyoBadger...you stole the wind from me sails...Sid Mieier's Pirates be the best game ever made.

Now, I'm off to look for the treasure ship sailing from...if I told you I'd have to make you walk the plank.

Captain Eric

[pipersgrip]

You should make a poll about it. My favorite has to be PSX or PS2. SNES brings back a lot of memories.

not console! Game.. That's why I can't make a poll.

Ooops. Ok then, the best games would have to be the Final Fantasy games, or the Dynasty Warriors. Call of Duty 4 online can get pretty addicting.

[Congratulations]

Oh God. I can't answer that.

[chrisoff]

Sensible World Of Soccer on the Amiga.

NOT any of the variations of Sensi on the consoles. Only SWOS on the Commodore Amiga. The true pinnacle of gaming.

Sure Fifa 09 might be more realistic, but it's not the same amount of fun that SWOS was. We spent years playing that game and it was directly responsible for keeping the whole clicky joystick industry in employment.

[mutepointe]

1. MSN Gaming Zone Spades.
2. Wii Tennis

I played racquetball a lot. I even moved 200 miles when my former racquetball partner called me with a job opportunity. After busting my knee for the second time, I gave the game up, completely. Anytime, I was in a YMCA or Rec-Center and heard that "thwamp" of a racquetball, I stopped what I was doing to watch a game. Wii Tennis is as close to a game of racquetball as I'm ever going to get ever again.

[peeplj]

Hard to narrow this down to just one game.

In the early days, there was an intensely addictive space combat and trading game called "Elite." I burned a lot of hours on this one. One of the things that made it so cool was it was extremely open-ended: be an honest trader, be a pirate, be a bounty hunter, take on secret missions...how you played it was entirely up to you. I played it on the old Commodore 128, but there are still PC versions available for download today. Also the modern game Vegastrike is based in large part on Elite.

On the PC, no game has been more influential than "Doom." A fun game in its own right, it bred a whole new industry. People bought new computers just to be able to play this one game. Doom is still around; Doom 3 was a good horror-survival game, and a new Doom 4 is currently being developed.

One of Doom's descendants, Quake II, was the first major game to use hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics. I remember seeing this game run for the first time on a 3DFX Voodoo II card: it was absolutely jaw-dropping. Everything was smooth, no pixelation anywhere, and the motion of the characters on screen was fluid and smooth like a cartoon. This game more than any other created the billion-dollar accelerated graphics card industry, and though 3DFX is long gone, nVidia and ATI are still duking it out for top player, producing graphics processors which, in many cases, have more raw computing power than the CPU of the system that they are installed in. Modern games like Quake 4 and Crysis are the descendants of Quake II.

--James

[BillChin]

I vote for something like Donkey Kong or Wii Sports. Each was a single game strong enough to launch and support a franchise big enough to support an entire gaming platform.

On computers and such Doom or Castle Wolfenstein have to be up there. They were flawed as games, but launched a thousand others that were basically the same game with better quests, different graphics. Similarly something like Civ, or Flight Simulator, were games that sold computers.

Most of the titles mentioned may be fine games for those that play them, but many are derivative in their concepts and player interaction and of limited appeal.

[brewerpaul]

Katamari Damacy and it's sequel have held my attention the longest. They're quirky, sort of surrealistic and very re-playable. Great soundtrack too.
I first played it on the PS2, but recently got an iPod Touch version which is excellent.