objective
MEDIA APPRECIATION DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY, GOOD NIGHT!
Portal 2.
Portal 1 was flawless. Portal 2 had a crucial flaw.
Specifically, it was not Portal 1. Everything else was perfect.
Are you saying that Portal 2 is not perfect due is a sequel?
Not a sequel. Just because it’s not Portal 1. The fact that it’s second is not the problem. The problem is that the first one was flawless.
So the gaming equivalent of ‘chasing the dragon’? That tracks!
chasing the dragon
Huh. I guess it might be.
Far from my first game, but my first perfect game. Yea, I guess that does track.
Too few promises of cake
In my opinion, Portal 2’s difficulty curve was off. It started in a good place and ended in a good place but was too easy for most of the game.
The two player section was fantastic though.
This was a triumph
I’m making a note here
“Huge success”
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction
We peaked in 2011.
Celeste. Emotional narrative that seamlessly blends with the gameplay, which implementa never before seen accessibility configuration, enhanced by one of the best soundtracks ever. All while being cheap, indie, and one of the best speedrun games ever made
Nobody can answer that question objectively.
- Portal 1/2 of course.
- Grim Fandango. (Flawed yes, but absolutely a masterpiece)
- Psychonauts.
- Fallout New Vegas.
- System Shock (the original).
- The Longest Journey.
- Mass Effect. Maybe.
Portal 1 & 2 were the first to my mind as well. I really like this list, actually.
Glad to hear it.
I’m tempted to add Red Dead Redemption 2 to the list, but it’s too new for me to decide yet.
I think it belongs. It was the greatest storytelling game I’ve played in a decade or more.
I’d say :
- The first Deus Ex and its first prequel Human Revolution
- Mafia I
- Max Payne 1 and 3
- Crash Bandicoot 1
- Age of Empires II
- GTA III
- Doom 1/2
- First Half-Life
- First Unreal
- Doom 3
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Morrowind
- Skyrim (modded and fixed, vanilla is pure garbage)
- Blood Omen 1
- Silent Hill 1 and 2
- Resident Evil 1 and 4 (and their remakes)
So I think it’s actually really important that the games that would be considered objective masterpieces would have to overcome any language barriers and be an experience approachable by anyone. You can learn the mechanics to enjoy the gameplay without words
So:- Portal
- Journey
- Binding of Isaac
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Metro 2033 (which I have sat on and I believe even if it was entirely in Russian you would still get it )
- DOOM (original you don’t need words you shoot)
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Katamari Damacy
Then there are dialogue option stories that are fantastic stories that I could consider greats but shareable masterpieces is hard to say as they rely on you speaking the language both literally and then gameplay wise:
- Stanley Parable
- Outer Wilds
- Tales From the Borderlands
- To the Moon
- Talos Principle
- Golf Club Wasteland
- Dead Space
Since I haven’t seen it on here: FTL.
RDR2. Witcher 3. Fallout New Vegas.
Fallout 2
Wasteland 3.
In this case, Jagged Alliance 2 (with 1.13 mod).
Just out of curiosity, listing the games mentioned here as of this writing by their date of release:
Release Date Game 1980 Pac-Man 1985 The Oregon Trail (assuming widely-played 1985 game) 1985 Tetris 1986 Kid Icarus 1988 Mega Man 2 1988 Super Mario Brothers 3 1988 The Guardian Legend 1989 Abadox: The Deadly Inner War 1989 Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II 1989 Monster Party 1989 Populous 1989 Sweet Home 1990 Dr. Mario 1990 Final Fantasy III 1991 Battletoads (assuming original game) 1991 The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past 1992 Ecco the Dolphin 1992 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 1992 Super Mario Kart 1993 Dinopark Tycoon 1993 Doom 1993 Gauntlet IV 1993 Lufia & the Fortress of Doom (assuming first game) 1993 Mega Man X 1994 Donkey Kong Country 1994 Earthworm Jim 1994 Sonic & Knuckles 1994 Sonic the Hedgehog 3 1994 Super Metroid 1994 The Lion King 1995 Chrono Trigger 1997 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 1997 Diablo 1997 Final Fantasy VII 1997 Mega Man X4 1997 Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee 1997 Snowboard Kids 1998 Banjo-Kazooie 1998 Metal Gear Solid 1998 Sonic Adventure 1998 South Park 1998 StarCraft: Brood War 1999 Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings 1999 Heroes of Might and Magic III 1999 Planescape: Torment 1999 Quake III Arena 1999 RollerCoaster Tycoon 1999 Silent Hill 1999 Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike 1999 Sven Co-op 1999 Unreal Tournament 1999 Worms Armageddon 2000 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 2000 Diablo II 2000 Resident Evil CODE: Veronica 2000 SimCity 3000 Unlimited 2000 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 2001 Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies 2001 Final Fantasy X 2001 Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 2001 Shenmue II 2002 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind 2003 Beyond Good & Evil 2003 Need for Speed: Underground 2003 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2004 Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War 2004 Champions of Norrath 2004 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2004 Gran Turismo 4 2004 Half Life 2 2004 Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 2004 The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap 2005 Champions: Return to Arms 2005 Psychonauts 2005 Shadow of the Colossus 2006 Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War 2006 Ōkami 2007 BioShock 2007 Dark Souls 2007 Mass Effect 2007 Portal 2008 Clonk Rage 2008 Left 4 Dead 2008 Mirror’s Edge 2008 Super Smash Bros. Brawl 2009 Dragon Age: Origins 2009 Forza Motorsport 3 2009 Killing Floor 2009 Left 4 Dead 2 2009 Plants vs. Zombies 2009 Steins;Gate 2010 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 2010 Limbo 2010 Nier 2010 Planet Minigolf 2011 Bastion 2011 Portal 2 2011 Terraria 2011 The Binding of Isaac 2012 Hotline Miami 2012 The House in Fata Morgana 2012 Tokyo Jungle 2014 Forza Horizon 2 2014 LISA: The Painful 2015 Bloodborne 2015 Ori and the Blind Forest 2015 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2015 Undertale 2016 Doom (2016) 2016 Kirby: Planet Robobot 2016 Stardew Valley 2016 The Witness 2016 Titanfall 2 2016 Tyranny 2017 Little Nightmares 2017 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (for Deluxe version) 2017 Nier: Automata 2017 Night in the Woods 2017 Super Mario Odyssey 2017 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2018 Celeste 2018 Donut County 2018 Return of the Obra Dinn 2018 Rimworld 2018 Subnautica 2019 A Short Hike 2019 Disco Elysium 2019 Outer Wilds 2019 Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 2019 Slay the Spire 2020 Cyberpunk 2077 2020 Factorio 2020 Hades 2021 Everhood: An Ineffable Tale of the Inexpressible Divine Moments of Truth 2021 Psychonauts 2 2022 Elden Ring 2022 Lil Gator Game 2023 Baldur’s Gate 3 2023 Dave the Diver 2024 Balatro 2025: Clair Obscur Expedition 33.
Even if the year is not finished, this game is such a perfect work of art on so many levels that it became the new favorite to me, and to plenty other players.
Going to have to disagree, especially when it comes to storytelling
I disagree with you. The story is amazingly written. Dialogue, character motivations, their fuck ups, everything is fantastic.
What about it ?
The writing, the characters, the dialogues, the story, everything is new and perfectly done. It is pure art and something like 98% of the 3+ millions players would disagree with you.
But you must be part of that 2%, meh to each their own 🤷🏻♂️
Has seriously no one mentioned The Last of Us? That’s crazy.
I think the second should be included.
As well as red dead redemption 2.
The storytelling is just top tier. Better than literally almost all media made today.
Rdr2 was the only game that I was actually emotionally tied to the characters. It was truly a masterpiece.
Last of Us 1 was really good. But the second one was so bad, it kind of ruined the first one for me as well. And I wouldn’t call it masterpiece. Because for me a masterpiece shines in gameplay, narrative and atmosphere. The Last of Us’ gameplay serves its purpose, but there’s really nothing special here compared to e.g. Elden Ring, were story, atmosphere and gameplay are all pretty much perfect.
How was the second one “so bad?” It had incredible narrative, more in depth gameplay, challenging and coherent themes, depth of storytelling, it took risks that a lot of people didn’t like, but you can’t say they were done poorly. They were just challenging for people. And that’s good. The same stories told with the same character arcs following the same hero’s journey is boring. TLOU2 challenged you with the characters making choices you wouldn’t, it challenged you with co placated character arcs that saw well-loved characters turn into the villains, while the villain of the story became the one to end the cycle of violence…it was incredible. That worldbuilding, the design, the voice acting, the mocap acting, the more varied fighting styles, the expansive world…I mean, shit, I really do want to know what you thought actually classified as “bad” about that game. It pissed people off. But that does not make it a bad game by any stretch of the imagination.
The only game I kinda like on this list is Okami.
1996: Duke Nukem 3D
Tokyo Jungle, YES!
A game so sadly lost to time. My partner’s PS3 still has it installed, but no idea if the hard drive is still functional…
Missing Half-life (the first one). That game was the first one to feature scripted scenes during player interaction and it was mind-blowing. Plus, it had the most sophisticated story ever seen in an FPS before.
The only game I’m missing here is master of magic. I was shocked noone else had mentioned sts and ff3(6).
There are a lot of answers, mine will be drowned but… there it is. In no particular order :
- Final Fantasy X
- Clair Obscur : Expedition 33
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 (but you had to be there when it came out)
- Metal Gear Solid 3
- Shadow Hearts : Covenant
- Kya : Dark Lineage (the bugs were a feature)
- Horizon : Zero Dawn
- Megaman (any megaman will do)
- Crash Bandicoot Trilogy
- Spyro Trilogy
- Pokemon Yellow/Crystal/Emerald
- Pokemon Jade (yes that bootleg version)
- The Last of Us (pt. I & II)
- Astroneer
- GTA : Vice City
- Unreal Tournament 2004
- CS 1.6 played in the most dirty lan at your disposal
- Control
- Tetris
- Neverwinter Nights 2
- Dragon Age : Origins
- Quake III
- Bomberman
Just started BG3. Fuckin mind-blowingly amazing.
If you really liked BG3 you might also like Neverwinter Nights 2 and DA:O. I heard there was a remaster of Neverwinter Nights 2 in the works, maybe give it a try when it comes out.
Spec Ops: The line
Basically the “committing war crimes isn’t funny after all” game
This is your fault, god-damnit 🫵
Okay, now do it all on a bell curve.
What’s the most absolute medium game, to which all other games are compared to, and if worse, fail, or are better and pass?
Oooooh I like that question. I feel like it would have to be some kind of Call of Duty, right? Some absolutely mediocre slop that still has enough mechanical satisfaction and mind-numbing explosion-and-cliché-filled story to keep you somewhat entertained, yet still remaining completely forgettable.
The McDonald’s of videogames.
Hell I’d make that a separate post!
Pong.
It’s that or tetris
What’s left of edith finch.
Such an amazing game. Absolute masterpiece.
This is the game I used to convince my film nerd friends that games can be art too. They really enjoyed playing through it!
Factorio.
