Halfway through a decade, what was the best games so far

I do love that the second coming The Last of Us only one of see it as a game of the decade, well into Andy put his up.

To be fair it's only a top 5 list for the last 5 years(there are easily at least 5 contenders from almost every year) in a thread where only about 2 or 3 folks who have posted so far even could've put it in their lists...

Interesting to see New Vegas in your list gjones. I love it myself but people seem to put it below 3 for some reason.

So this has taken a while; apologies. Some of my choices will be... Unpopular.

5) The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword

*breathes out carefully* The motion controls and stamina gauge revolutionise Zelda at a time where it was needed. Yes, the game narrowly funnels you from place to place and there's no huge, open world to explore. I'm a Zelda fan for the dungeons (nearly typed 'fungeons' - same thing! ) and they amaze, surprise and remind of past games, all at the same time. Plus, it looks mightyfine. And then there's Fi, and Groose, and it having a real story...

4) Kid Icarus: Uprising

*breathes out carefully* The controls do get in the way of KI:U being truly stellar but there is so much to this you could play it until the Space Ark takes off over your melted, oddly pooling corpse (if it can still be called that) and still not have seen exactly everything it has to offer. Plus the #bantz! Pit and Palutena are the finest double act in gaming since Phoenix and Maya.

3) Rayman Legends

Its predecessor was a brilliant game; Legends tops it in almost every way. It's faster, and yet more considered. It's tighter, and yet there are more secrets buried inside it than [ran out of metaphors]. The only complaint you could have is that it ends too quickly. If Ubisoft get around to giving us Rayman Fantasies (best guess?) and it tops Legends, you'll never need to play anything again.

2) Batman: Arkham City

There are literally tens of superheroes out there, and developers who end up with the licences must crap themselves. "How can we accurately portray being Superperson X?", they ponder. Arkham City answers that question for Batman. [I suspect Arkham Asylum was the same but I've not played it] The options for thug-offing that the game presents are so numerous that a rich banquet of orchestral violence ensues at every turn. The cinematic nature of the thing does go a slice over the top but that niggle is microscopic. It's great.

1) Super Mario Galaxy 2

Wrote about this a bit ago. SMG2 goes around wearing earplugs in case a tiny piece of delight and brilliance splashes out and stains the carpet (it's late at this stage). A treat.

Good shout on KIU! It wouldn't have made mine, but I've always felt that it was underrated. It's more than just some dubious ground controls, people!

I don't think a 2D platformer could ever make my top n, though, unless it did something really special. As for SS, I actually agree with you on the motion controls and the stamina meter... but I don't have any time for Skyloft and the featureless void around it. And Fi is a positive?

RL wins out for me because I never stopped enjoying it to the same high level throughout.

Skyward Sword, eh? Going around Skyloft time after time made it dull, for sure, but the first time Fi did her dance ranks as one of my favourite Wii moments. And her banging on about probabilities reminded me of both maths and Quantum Leap, two of my favourite things.

The moment I realised that Fi didn't work for me, at all, was

Spoiler:

We've discussed this before, Balls Man, you're an emotionless robot.

There is a 95% probability that... s**t, you're right.

Balladeer wrote:

The moment I realised that Fi didn't work for me, at all, was

Spoiler:

AGREED. SENTENCE ENDS.

(But I got very emotional at Ghost Trick - so I'd like to hope that it's due to the quality of the character and writing that fights off cynicism)

I could this two places but I think it's better of here

I've started Xenoblade Chronicles on New 3DS where I've just passed 3hrs and on the way to Colony 6.

Passing where I got on the Wii original at launch which I gave up on after seeing Shulk eat a sandwich which stayed as a whole sandwich, which took me out of the game back in 2011 where I would of been very much deep into PS360 and there HD cinematic games that going back to a SD game with things like that just put me off.

So it went back on my shelve where has remained for 4 years untouched, but I've always heard good things about the game like some of you here putting it as one of the Top 5 games of the decade so far and likes of Drunka bringing up in the podcast that XC is the only JRPG he's finished which isn't Pokemon.

Now that it's on New 3DS, I thought I'd pick it up as there's got be something there which makes it so good.

Well at the moment I'm not seeing what the fuss is about, I know I'm only 3hrs in which is nothing for a same this size but so far it's just good nothing more the story seems like it's going to be generic, the combat system is strange as well, the only things that have standout so far is the music and the scope of the game that I can walk for ages with no loads times etc which is impressive for a handheld and what would of been a Wii game.

I know I'm not the only one that doesn't get it, I know my mate 2become who's a big JRPG fan. One of his favourite games of all time is xenogears and he bought a Wii U in anticipation of XCX, so I asked him about XC which he gave up on it after 12hrs and doesn't get the hype.

He's playing it on Wii and only this year he tried it for the first time.

So what makes Xenoblade, so good.

I will be continuing on with my play on N3DS as something might change but as I've got MM3DS, MH4U, RF4, SMTIV, Theatrhytham:CC on my 3DS I could be playing any of those instead.

Or is this case like SM64 & Shenmue II which me & balla have talked about that I'm to late to the party to get what the fuss is.

I can't speak from a great deal of experience of Xenoblade, but there's always a danger when you* play a game that the majority of people love: you go in with sky high, impossible-to-fulfil expectations, and when those aren't met immediately it's hard to get what the fuss is all about.

*The generic 'you', not the specific 'you, mas'.

Maybe Zero

Combat system, scale, music, variety of environments, characters (especially with Japanese voices), amount of stuff to do including a plethora of side-quests and optional bosses, no random battles, enemy design, having what seems like an entire ecosystem browsing the plains happily until you come along, the teleport system, getting EXP for discovering new places, the way you're almost always at full health and don't have to faff about with Potions or Pokémon Centres...

I'm not sure whether the scale works as well on a handheld, as I've said before. Stick it out until Gaur Plains - if you're not into it by that point, there's no saving you, and what Zero's said may apply.

I don't think you can really have a fully-formed opinion of Xenoblade at this stage Mas, considering 3 hours isn't even 10% of the story length. Give it more time.

I will stick it out to Gaur Plains (how far is that in), like I said I will continue playing as I did say I'm not far in hence why I brought up 2become who has given it a fare shake and loves Xenogears along with saga etc but doesn't like blade.

From what I have played I preferred so far on New 3DS then Wii as I can't play a game that looks like this on a TV.

mas wrote:

Passing where I got on the Wii original at launch which I gave up on after seeing Shulk eat a sandwich which stayed as a whole sandwich

I'm sorry but that's hilarious.

Anyhow balla seems to covered a wide range of reason why folk do enjoy it and the tops ones for me were the combat system and the sheer scale of the world which can give you great moments where you reach a high spot and can look back down on where you came from.

The sci-fi setting helps massively for me as well.

I find the combat system so far to be awful.

I'm saying it took me out of the experience the whole sandwich thing.

Agree on the scale especially as I'm playing on a handheld but on console we had things like Oblivion years before.

But Oblivions world is kind of empty and feels like it has just been randomly generated, or half the places are just reskins of others, rather than a beautifully hand-crafted paradise. Xenoblades world is an absolute masterpiece.

I'm afraid I had a chuckle at the sandwich too.  Sorry Mas, but for that to have caused you to give up a game...

andyman949 wrote:

But Oblivions world is kind of empty and feels like it has just been randomly generated, or half the places are just reskins of others, rather than a beautifully hand-crafted paradise. Xenoblades world is an absolute masterpiece.

Yep, agreed. Whilst it doesn't knock the game's quality really, all I really remember from the hours I put into Oblivion were sweeping pastoral landscapes - which all blended into one another - and the very red Oblivion areas. I didn't even play Xenoblade, yet from the playthrough I watched I still have vivid memories of Gaur Plains, Valak Mountain, Satorl Marsh, Eryth Sea... so many beautiful environments. Imagine how much stronger those memories would be for someone who actually played the game!

JayMoyles wrote:

I didn't even play Xenoblade...

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?

Maybe but we had Oblivion back in 2006 a whole 5 years before Xenoblade was even out.

And the same year as Xenoblade we had Mass Effect 2, but like I said the scale is impressive for a handheld and the Wii but I think we have had better worlds from what I have seen so far.

@Balla Yeah as in 2011, I wasn't a game to be like that also had problem with Half Life 2 when I went back to play that as when you drive something you don't see your hands on steering wheel. Yet your driving and you see the wheel move, things like that take me out of the game.

If I had played Half Life 2 when it came out then I might not of had a problem as other games would of been like that as well like with halo going up a ladder but due to having been used to more polished games then yes I found it a issue.

masofdas wrote:

Maybe but we had Oblivion back in 2006 a whole 5 years before Xenoblade was even out.

And the same year as Xenoblade we had Mass Effect 2, but like I said the scale is impressive for a handheld and the Wii but I think we have had better worlds from what I have seen so far.

Uninspired art design is uninspired art design, regardless of when a game released. I think you're looking at Xenoblade in terms of raw graphical fidelity and not aesthetics - yes, the texture quality blows in Xenoblade, but it's the imagination and vividness of the environments that are its strength.

I don't think you should be dismissing Xenoblade when you aren't even 10% of the way through the game. That'd be like me finishing Eden Prime in Mass Effect and writing it off there and then. Give it time.

See I'm all for aesthetics, you just have to look at two of the games I picked in my Top 5 games of last year Child of Light & Transistor and why I'm looking forward to this.

At the moment it feels so generic with a bad combat system, I want to know why I should continue and all I'm reading is because of the scale & vivid environments which is all well and good if the gameplay isn't up to much or the story.

I can't vouch for the gameplay (although it did seem to be pretty tactical, what with the positioning of your controlled character having a huge factor in how much damage a move does etc.) but the story was pretty good. I wouldn't have watched a full playthrough if it wasn't up to scratch.