9 Video Games We Love The Best
Our picks for the best video games in every major genre. Check out the list (as well as some honorable mentions), then take to the comments section below, where you can hurl insults at us and nominate your favorite games in the genre.
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All through the month of February leading up to Valentine's Day, InformationWeek is making lists of things we love, from our favorite mobile devices to our favorite Android apps. Today, we're talking about our all-time favorite video games. Yes, here's our (no doubt controversial) list of the top video games ever.
To whittle down the thousands of brilliant games that have come out of the world’s best gaming studios, we broke the list down into major genres:
First Person Shooter: Combat games from the point of view of the shooter. Classic examples (but not winners) include Doom or Call of Duty.
Real-Time Strategy: Fast-moving combat games, usually from a top-down perspective with large numbers of units. Classic examples include Starcraft and Warcraft.
Turn-Based Strategy: These games most resemble board games. XCom and Heroes of Might and Magic are good examples.
Management: Games where the player is asked to run a business or other institution. Often called "tycoon" games because some of the classic examples of the genre include Zoo Tycoon and Roller Coaster Tycoon.
City Builder: Specifically games designed around becoming mayor or leader of a city or country. Classic examples include Pharaoh and Sim City.
Racing Games: Self-explanatory, I hope. Games that includes cars or other vehicles regardless of point of view. Classic examples include Need for Speed or Pole Position.
Role-Playing Games: Often thought of as merely Dungeons and Dragons, RPGs actually can take on many time periods, including sci-fi space stories and traditional contemporary settings. The thing that holds them together is usually a character on a quest of some sort. Examples include Bard's Tale and Mass Effect.
Simulation: One of the hardest genres to define. Often simulations take on aspects of RPGs, city builders, management games, and other genres. At the heart of the game, however, is an attempt to mimic some sort of real-life thing as closely as possible. Examples might include Euro Truck Simulator and Surgeon Simulator.
Obviously, there are some genres missing. You could easily break down the shooter category in a bunch of ways. There's no "platformer" or "side-scroller" game here. No "button masher" or "melee" game. I didn't include a puzzle or party game category either. Mostly, I did this because I was trying to keep the list manageable. I also didn’t want to start getting into too many discussions over cross-genre games and what constitutes a "platformer" versus a "side-scroller" or a "puzzle game" from an "RPG."
I did the best I could at picking the biggest categories in gaming, and if something doesn’t fit easily, I'll shove it in where I can.
Check out the list (as well as some honorable mentions), then take to the comments section below, where you can hurl insults at me and nominate your favorite games in the genre. There can only be one.
This has to be the most hotly contested genre in the current state of gaming. There are dozens of blockbuster franchises, including Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield. There are tons of great classics like Doom and Quake. And there are even new entries into the genre like Destiny which is a truly great game. But Gears of War takes the cake for its unique cover-and-run system that I think is the most realistic fight available. It puts the emphasis on tactics, rather than brute force.
(Image source: Microsoft Studios.)
The first really great example of the RTS is Total Annihilation, which featured some good unit rush action that was also a part of the Starcraft and Warcraft series. But it didn't take long for the unit rush to get a bit old. We needed a slightly more tactical RTS. Enter Stronghold. The classic castle siege game had all of the resource gathering and unit building of the first-gen RTS, but attacking a castle took a bit more finesse. The first two in the series were great. Admittedly, it got a little worse after that.
(Image Source: Firefly Studios.)
The best version by far in the Civilization series is number IV. Not Civ V, which I don't like to admit exists, and not Civ 2, which is widely considered the classic of the series. Frankly, we don't need honorable mentions in this category. As much as I love XCom and some other turn-based games, Civilization is the epitome of the "just one more turn" phenomenon that made designer Sid Meier a legend. Many gamers have found themselves saying they'll stop playing Civ at 11 p.m., only to realize it was 3 a.m. and they were still awake trying to build the Statue of Liberty. Plus, there's nothing funnier than reading, "Gandhi has nuclear weapons!" in a game.
(Image source: 2K Games.)
The Management genre is full of lots of fun games. It's is my favorite genre. I'd play any management game. If they made a janitorial supply management game, I'd play it. So this was the hardest choice for me. Personally, I think the most fun game to play in this genre was the classic Theme Hospital, which involved curing fictional diseases like bloaty head. Another great one was Sid Meier's Sim Golf. But the best game, as in the one that was most absorbing and interesting, is Traffic Giant, a little-known game you probably missed. It was pleasantly satisfying to take over a city's bus and tram lines and watch the traffic problems slowly disappear. If you never met this classic, give it a try. It may look primitive, but it has very addicting game play.
(Image source: Skier Dude via Wikipedia.)
You'd think the hands-down winner of this genre would be SimCity. Frankly, I've always found it fun but simplistic. SimCity gave way to more complicated builder games, like Caesar and Pharaoh. The true winner in this genre, however, is Tropico (Tropico 4 is the best, but 3 and 5 are both good). Tropico allows you to take over a Caribbean island as a dictator. Eliminate your enemies, silence your foes, and make your citizens happy while building your economy, or suffer a rebellion. I think this is the third time I've mentioned Tropico on this site. It is that good.
(Image source: Haemimont Games and Kalypso Media via Wikipedia.)
There are obviously more complicated and realistic racing games like Need for Speed and the Forza series. But nothing, I mean nothing, beats the sheer joy of playing Mario Kart with friends. Anyone can pick up this game and be instantly competitive. The low-key cartoon violence adds to the enjoyment of the game, and the classic characters bring joy to the heart of any long-term gamer. No one ever said, "Mario Kart is boring."
(Image source: Nintendo.)
Given the fact that the Madden football series and the FIFA soccer series constantly vie for slots on the annual lists of top-selling sports video games, it seems insane to pick another game. But Madden has always been forced to simulate a game that is honestly less fun than its college counterpart, NCAA Football, which plays faster and with more variety. The most recent version of the now-dead series still plays better than its Madden next-gen counterpart. FIFA suffers from the problem that even the worst player in the game can dribble around the field like they're Lionel Messi before scoring every time. If you're a sports fan, buy a used copy of this game and enjoy a very good first person sports experience.
(Image source: EA Sports via Youtube.)
The Sims is probably the biggest slam dunk on this list. It is one of the top-selling video game series of all-time, even though most simulator games aren't actually designed to be fun as much as they are to be real. The Sims, which is essentially a life simulator, is like playing with a doll house on a magical level. To be honest, I am not a huge fan, because of its lack of end-goals. But if you like open-ended gaming, there is no game that is more flexible or capable of satisfying. That said, I have to give some props to the guys who invented Goat Simulator for making the most audacious simulator game of all time.
(Image source: Holek via Wikimedia Commons.)
If you are a gamer, I've no doubt made you angry. I probably missed an obscure favorite of yours, or failed to give enough credit to next-gen masterpieces. I probably showed my age by selecting games made during a certain period of time. What did I get wrong? Feel free to hurl your insults at me now in the comments section below.
(Image source: Robert Couse-Baker via Flickr.)
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