Slashdot Mirror
GameSpy's 25 Most Underrated Games
Decaffeinated Jedi writes "GameSpy.com just posted the final installment of its 25 Most Underrated Games of All Time feature. What under-appreciated classics made the list? Well, titles like Zork Zero, Ico, and Sly Cooper all make the cut. This most recent countdown is a follow-up to GameSpy's 25 Most Overrated Games of All Time piece from a couple of weeks ago." Although the 'X Most X' series sometimes draws howls of derision, it does still pinpoint some interesting choices.
Jumping Flash I & II...nothing else on my TV screen has ever induced vertigo quite like those games. I'd kill for an even-more-spiffy-lookin' version...
Ceci n'est pas un post.
Funny, the 2 games on the list I played where Grim Fandango and Blood. Both dark humor about death. Grim Fandango had some nice artwork and south american theme going with it. Very entertaining game, didnt realize it was underrated. The jokes and puns alone made it worth the money. Some parts in it where long, (The ghost car in the garage) but overall was a couple good weekends laughing my ass off.
On the other hand, Blood was released late, and only supported IPX, and Duke Nukem/Quake took the large multiplaying games. Fun game, also dark humor, but everyone moved to Quake lan parties, and duke nukem was on the way out. I think Rise of the Triad should of been on the list, underrated, but also out late.
Thou, my favorite, lan party game, that was the most under-rated was SkyNet. The terminator game, with some good weapons. Nice soundtrack, and sound of terminators chasing you, and some nice weapons made it a very fun game. Too bad an updated version on a newer engine never came out. The closet thing today, would be BF1942, as you can go into buildings, lots of weapons, and vehicals.
Might as throw an RPG game in, Wasteland. The C64 version had to be, one of the most solid GURPS style playing games.
I guess i've always liked Mecha vs Magica type games. RPG/FPS. Thou, mecha vs GOD/Satan has always been a good combo. Man vs Myth, Battle Royal. Something about pulling a trigger and taking out a demon, makes you feel so good.
Grim Fandango is my favorite game of all time.
It's sorta bittersweet to see it make the list.
One major oversight on this list was Sanitarium for PC.
Overall though, I have enjoyed playing at least 15 of these games, and I'll be sure to check the others if I ever see them in stores.
Downmix - The Artscene News Source!
At the rate they've been cranking out these Top 25 lists, we're gonna need a 25 games which have most often appeared on Top 25 lists.
Top 25 games featuring Rod Stewart and stomach pumps or insert your favorite urban myth here.
I haven't heard of or played most of those games, but the ones I did play were really good. Unfortunately in today's game market, there is too much competition for some games to get popular. When so many FPS and RTS games come out each month, often times a good one is overshadowed by a better known game solely due to that games hype. Some of these games do eventually rise from near ashes by word of mouth, but that is rare. There are also a few other reasons that some good games never make it big. One major reason is the lack of quality graphics or multiplayer support. While multiplayer is not required to make a game popular(Ex:Max Payne), it is a big turnoff to buying a game. Also, much of the focus for newer games go into graphics and textures, rather than the actual gameplay itself. Back before graphics mattered, games just had to be fun to become popular. Now without professional artists and designers, it is almost impossible for a game to even make it to the shelf. I remember back when games were made by one or two guys in their basement and were just made to maximize fun. Back then the only concern for graphics was that the player could see and understand what was going on. Even now with all our hot new games, many of those old classics are still fun to go back and play.
UmJammerLammy, which is everything the Gamespy reviewers say it is and more. (It's also mega hard, but you can handle that, right?)
Wizardry 8, which should be near the top of the list.
Herzog Zwei, one of the best games for the Genesis, and more playable, I'd say, that Warcraft, though harder to learn.
Rocket: Robot on Wheels, simply amazing.
Ico, cool, though I'm not sure deserving of #1. There are dozens of games that should be on the list but aren't. Gaming is filled of games that could have changed the direction of the world, except.
Thumbs down concerning:
Super Mario Sunshine, not on the list, derided by almost everyone for being too similar to Mario 64. That's still better than 95% of the rest.
Few or no old-school games. M.U.L.E. is one of the best designed games of all time according to me, Chris Crawford and a lot of other people. These GameSpy guys are clued-in enough to know about Zork, but ignore almost all of computer gaming's too-brief past.
Extra-lame superimposed-directly-over-article-text ads once ina while. Seeing even one of those on a site makes it worthy of hatred in my book. For that, Gamespy can go directly to hell, do not pass 'Go.'
Now can we PLEASE stop with all the XX Blankest lists?! Or at least have more that aren't GameSpy?
JFG on the N64 was superb, but hardly sold at all.
Whilst the control system was tricky at first, once you got used to it the game was superb. Some of the big battles that you got into predate Halo in a sense - sometimes it really felt like you were in a war.
The game had an excellent atmosphere, and even the cutscenes were very well done. It even some had some funky mini-games with that little flying robot.
I put my books on Amazon, Smashwords, Demonoid, ISOHunt and Pirate Bay. Search for 'Michael Cargill'
Ironic that they listed Ico as the most underrated game of all time: I personally think it's one of the most overrated! The game's visuals and atmosphere are really great, but the game is utterly boring! This game epitomizes style over substance.
Learn to Play Go
I see they mentioned the "No One Lives Forever " I bought this game and was never able to get it working on any computer, it was buggy as hell, somtimes you'd gett he game started but textures would be all over, its not suprising nobody bought this game, if people had heard it was buggy, the same reason many did not buy the new lara croft game.
but a couple of the games were great, especially for their day.
The EA "Shockwave" series, an almost-free-flight shooter, was well done and had considerable replay value. And "PO'ed" was kind-of-twisted FPS with interesting level design, interesting weapons, a personal jetpack, and the first missile-cam I ever saw. EA also did a great rendition of "Road Rash" that was the most instantly-playable game I've ever seen.
Wait a minute. Didn't I say that on the other side of the record? I'd better check
They seem to think that Impression's Citybuilder series ended with Zeus/Poseidon, when, in fact, Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom has been out for almost a year. Also marks the first Citybuilder game with network multiplayer.
Fallout: Tactics was NOT a good game. Any game where your crack commandos are thwarted by a waist-high pile of sandbags, because the maps aren't maps, they're hardcoded paths, is a bad game. ESPECIALLY when the brand prides itself on nonlinearity and multiple puzzle solutions.
Terra Nova was, in fact, godlike. If only the promised multiplayer patch had appeared...if there's a game screaming for a modern version, it's TN.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Reading Gamespy just reminds me that I hate the color green. It's almost as bad as the colors for the logo for the Slashdot games section.
It reminds me of all of the themes for various things that look like this.
I've never understood why they chose such a garish color scheme for the X-Box either.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Shut up, bitch.
I believe it will one day be thought of as the precursor what future FPS's will be like (AI team-mates that you can issue complex commands to, placeable terrain features (e.g. turrets, mines), multiple pilotable vehichles whose weapons could be customized, etc.). Truly underrated, truly an excellent game.
(There was a sequel, Battlezone 2, that mostly kept the same mechanics yet somehow managed not to be particularly fun.)
My vote goes to Rez. I gave the game a chance, but it sure didn't do anything for me. Maybe if I self-medicated, that would help me *get* it.
It made the Reader Top 10
I can't believe they didn't mention any of the Thief.. series of games. It's one of the few FP games that makes you think, teaches you patience, and proves that you don't need lasers, billion-combo-moves, ninja-kungfu-fighting, mass destruction, aliens or that cartooney anime junk to make an excellent game.
I rather liked Eternal Darkness for the GCN, which unfortunately got pushed aside because there simply aren't enough people in the installed userbase interested in such a game. It was quite innovative (the Magyk system - composing spells out of runes - worked very well) and had an extremely interesting story based around the stories of those such as Lovecraft and Poe (indeed, the game *begins* with a quote from Poe). It's also very interesting from an artistic perspective - the walls are covered in highly detailed murals, stained glass windows, etc. that you might almost expect to find in an art museum. Still, it's been demoted to the bargin-bin games... perhaps Silicon Knight's next game will be a bigger success, as it has an already established franchise (Metal Gear) behind it.
--- Bwah?
Thief did pretty well, that's probably why it's not on the list.
top 25 top 25 lists?
I thought I recalled Thief not selling as many units as expected, contributing to the demise of Looking Glass.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
you can take a look at what Penny-Arcade thinks of GameSpy and their last top 25 list.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
I played and loved this game when it first came out, a few months later i played it again. Then i got rid of it, and like the article says it's near impossible to play it again, the only place i found it was on Direct Connect and our uni network limits DC access
I'd add MOO3 to the list. I for one was eagerly awaiting my new antaran overlords... but in the end the game didn't quite meet my expectations (and not just mine, I figured reading the postings in various discussion groups).
Another addition would be Outpost from Sierra. Boy, that one sucked. Didn't even contain the elements mentioned on the box. No decent manual. But hyped beyond belief for the fancy graphics and AI... I only once bought a game without consulting a game magazine review first after that experience. And that was, you probably guessed it, MOO3.
My cats ate my karma. They also wrote this comment.
There are some really excellant games there. I'm kinda wondering what system shock is doing on there, sure it might not have had record breaking sales, but underrated? That thing was practically the holy grail of gaming.. for a while at least.
Of course the list is far from complete. The Underdogs have actually made a pretty good list of underrated games.
Alot of old games would completely own new releases if the graphics engines and sound could be updated. Imagine Magic Carpet running off the HL2 engine (shit, that doesn't sound so far fetched anymore.) Ok I'm ranting. But, is it just me or does it seem that the older and more underated a game is the more it fucking rocks?
The persona games are certainly under rated, Persona 2 has got to be one of the most interesting RPGs out there, having an incredible amount of gameplay and an unpredictable plot. It's one of the ultimate hardcore RPGs.
It's sad the rest of the Shin Megami Tensei series has been ignored except the terrible generic devil children games.
If they ever compile a list of the best computer and video game names of all time, "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord" is right up there.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
How could they leave off Grand Prix Legends? Not only is it to this day one of the top two or three race simulators on the market (only outdone by Papy's NASCAR offering, which although good are far less entertaining race sims due to the track offering)--how many five year old games still have as active of a community as GPL?
im wondering if MOO3 would have been more succeful if they hadn't marketed it as such, and thus not piss of all the MOO fanboys. i think the game does have its strongpoints (or would, if it hadn't been released seemingly unfinished), but its just a different game than the earlier MOO games were
The impressions games should have definately been higher up on that list. My fiancee` has gotten atleast 20 people addicted to those games since I got her Pharoah for christmas one year. That game has probably occupied atleast 500 hours of game play for her, and that's saying something as usually she'll try a game, and then move on to something else within a week. Those games are highly underrated, and overall, I think the review was good.
No, Looking Glass died because its parent company Eidos sunk a mint into Ion Storm and lost it all when Daikatana died like the dog it was. Eidos was then forced to dissolve Looking Glass for lack of capital to keep it going. Eidos, in what's left of Ion Storm (now under former Looking Glass head Warren Spector) is now working on Thief III. Failed games don't get Gold Editions and two sequels.
Chris Mattern
Most of their choices are good, but I can't say I think much of the journalism. For example, the claim that there are no more
Or the claim that the voice acting in Valkyrie Profile was "excellent" (this for the one game that actually had me longing for the days of plain text!).
Oh, and the frequent comments that such-and-such a game was very popular in Europe and/or Japan. Um, doesn't that kind of disqualify it from being considered one of the most underrated games of all time?
Because 1) nobody ever links to a PA strip that hasn't already been linked to ten trillion times and 2) Penny Arcade is terrible (take the comic you linked, is there an actual joke in there somewhere? GAMESPY SUCKS ROFL OMG MY SIDES!!!!!!!!).
Eidos was never Looking Glass' parent company. They published and partially bankrolled the Thief games but they never owned Looking Glass and they certainly didn't have the power to "dissolve" the company. The two weren't even partners (System Shock 2 was distributed by EA, for example). That said, Eidos' money woes did indeed contribute to the death of Looking Glass (in fact, the main reason Looking Glass folded is because Eidos' planned purchase of the company didn't go through), but those woes had less to do with Ion Storm and more to do with their $55 million investment in an Internet startup (Maximum Holdings) that tanked bigtime.
Given:
- at least one of a game's protagonists is an anthropomorphic animal,
- the game contains an evolving storyline, and
- the game is marketed to American consumers,
then:- the game will be hyped, everyone will buy it, but the gameplay will suck;
- most will think the game will suck, and it will not sell; or
- the game will actually be good; but since everyone will expect the game will suck, no one will buy it.
Cases in point:- The first two Sonic games sold very well, since they were pure gameplay. When, however, Sega began to flesh Sonic out as a "full" character, American gamers rejected him (e.g., the Sonic Adventure series).
- Starfox was a great game for the NES. As Nintendo added more storyline, fewer people bought the game, which was not too bad as far as gameplay. Then look at the Dinosaur Planet/Starfox Adventures fiasco: Nintendo forces one of its franchises upon Rare's newest game. This game, once moved to the Gamecube, was looking wonderful. By the time it's done, however, it's more of an "interactive movie"; it's downright beautiful, it has a rich storyline (if a little hokey at times), but it's not deep in the gameplay area. People bought the game but were disappointed.
- For the last condition, look at Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonius: good storyline, great gameplay, perhaps too toony look for most. Underrated and underbought, because of Sly and his world. I guarantee, you make the characters human, change a few names, and call it Thief, it sells.
Anybody have additional examples/counter-examples?For the Sega Master System, "Zillion" beats them all! This was my first RPG and I was hooked in 1987!
WOW! It's been that long ago?
I'd much rather see Bust A Groove or Bust A Groove 2 on there.
BaG sucks.
Will I retire or break 10K?
how many five year old games still have as active of a community as GPL?
How about the GNOME Games, which are published under GNU General Public License?
Would it even be economically feasible to sell a commercial PC game based on a copylefted engine but with a typical EULA on the assets?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Zak Mckracken has to be my number one underrated game. I spent months playing this game on my old Amiga 500 (with the .5MB to 1MB expansion card).
Quirky, Funny, Challenging, Great storyline. The game makers of today tend to go for hard and fast action, at the expense of the story. Ask any one who played Zak, even over 10 years ago, and they will recall fondly things like exploding an egg in the aeroplane microwave, or the aliens, or the monorail on mars.
The only game ever to come close to captivating my attention for this long is GTA:VC, but it still falls short.
Remember, it takes 42 muscles to frown and only 4 to pull the trigger of a sniper rifle.
* The first two Sonic games sold very well, since they were pure gameplay. When, however, Sega began to flesh Sonic out as a "full" character, American gamers rejected him (e.g., the Sonic Adventure series).
Unless you consider that the interlude portions of Sonic Adventure just drag the game down. Sure, there are a handful of side quests you can perform and whatever, but overall it detracts from what made Sonic, well, Sonic. The Sonic games were about platform gaming at a fast pace, and the Sonic Adventure series is anything but fast-paced (that being said, the actual platform portions are pretty good).
* Starfox was a great game for the NES. As Nintendo added more storyline, fewer people bought the game, which was not too bad as far as gameplay. Then look at the Dinosaur Planet/Starfox Adventures fiasco: Nintendo forces one of its franchises upon Rare's newest game. This game, once moved to the Gamecube, was looking wonderful. By the time it's done, however, it's more of an "interactive movie"; it's downright beautiful, it has a rich storyline (if a little hokey at times), but it's not deep in the gameplay area. People bought the game but were disappointed.
I really can't comment, since I have never owned a StarFox game. IIRC, the series started on the SNES, which I never owned, and by the time I bought a GameCube, it was fairly common knowledge that StarFox Adventures wasn't a very good game.
* For the last condition, look at Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonius: good storyline, great gameplay, perhaps too toony look for most. Underrated and underbought, because of Sly and his world. I guarantee, you make the characters human, change a few names, and call it Thief, it sells.
I never would've bought Sly Cooper if it weren't for a demo that my roommate brought home one day. I hadn't been sold on the idea that platformers could work in 3D until I played the demo. I agree, though, that with a more 'realistic' look, the game probably would have sold better, though I don't think it would've been as good of a game (because the look really sets it apart).
-PainKilleR-[CE]
Return Fire, Tail of the Sun. Two of my favourite games, and they came out with barely a whisper. Return Fire was a first-gen psx game and game in one of those funky cardboard boxes. Tail of the Sun I recently picked up on amazon after a fleeting moment of nostalgia. Put it in the ps2 and crossed my fingers. It worked. The next thing I noticed, 6 hours had gone by, I'd killed 30 some monkeys, 5 deer, 3 hippos, uncounted birds, a smilodon and a couple boars. Love that game.
I thought Theif as a whole has been rated highly (though never lived up to the rating in sales). As such it does not live up to the "underrated" category. This is not a story about "good" games, it's about good games that weren't rated and not treated as highly in sales as they should have gotten.
For those who have played blood, one of the most amusing points was the "deathmatch voice" - which announced various game happenings, coupled with the standard death announcements.
For example, plugging somebody from behind with your double-barrelled shotgun would as some times pop up the phrase "Player gave player2 anal vengeance" (or something to that effect, I can't look up the exact phrase as it would look odd here at work).
That in itself (coupled with the player names we used) would have been amusing enough: as seeing "Master Bates boned yer momma" inevitably lead to giggles of geekish delight, but throw in the voice yelling out "reamed," or the aforementioned "anal vengeance," and you had a recipe for hilarity. I really wish there were comparable games today, but current FPS either aim at being overtly realistic, or just a gib-fest, and totally miss the humour that Blood (and, though good, to a less extend Duke3d) portrayed.
PS2:
Frequency / Amplitude
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
No Panzer Dragoon Saga? Boooooo.
It was one of the most original and engrossing RPGs ever and almost no one got to play it because it came out at the end of the Saturn lifecycle and only a handful of them were pressed.
I can't believe this got left off the list. There were some weird choices on there too. Rez and Ico are both great games but they all got pretty good reviews. Maybe they just mean underrated by the public?
This game is a huge favorite of mine. I played the demo for months before the full game came out. The realism and HUGE play area just blew me away. I actually ordered the full game from the UK so I could get it before it hit the US stores.
I think what held Operation Flashpoint back was:
1. Difficulty. People *say* they want realism, but the casual gamer probably doesn't want to die in 1 or 2 shots.
2. System requirements. Try to crank up the resolution or eye candy and it is very taxing on your system. I don't even know if the fastest CPU with the fastest video card now could run it at full detail! A lot of people don't seem to like the graphics but I think they're great except for lack of grass.
3. Multiplayer. This is the BIGGEST thing. This game screams for multiplayer with it's great mission designer, huge play area, and air, land, and sea vehicles. But joining a game is a PAIN IN THE ASS, there is no joining a game in progress. You have to join a game that's about to start, and sit around waiting for the admin to start the game when however many players he wants finally join. This might be 30 seconds, or it might be 10 minutes. If OFP2 doesn't let you join a game in progress it's going to be a real shame.
I've had some great times the few times I've played OFP online. But instead of playing OFP online I usually fire up Day of Defeat. In 2 minutes tops including refreshing the server list and joining the server, and I'm playing.
My mistake. Guess I'm going to hell.
1) Blade of Darkness - Incredible game! An unmatched melee combat system with combos & (shield) blocking. Amazing graphics for the time of its release. Real-time shadows 2-3 years before Doom3.
2) SiN - Released around the same time as Half-Life, so it was pretty much overshadowed by that. Still, it was a fun game that included some great multi-player with cool weapons & awesome maps.
3) Tribes 2 - Maybe not as underrated as I think, but I don't believe it ever received the recognition it deserved. A huge improvement over the original Tribes game, actually making it a team game. A variety of weapons, armor classes, jetpacks, vehicles, & all this implemented with perfect balance. And let's forget about the actual 3rd dimension of combat. =) Best. Game. Ever.
Is if they had links to locations where these games can be purchased. "Blood" is showing low on ebay's radar, and the link from the official "lith" site is expired...
Games that are let out into the pasture should become available for free, or at least retain some form of ordering availability