Your favourite game list after RPGCodex revealed theirs

[IndiraLightfoot]

RPGCodex has its top 50 list of RPGs up. Mainly interesting as it's the anti-IGN/ Gamespot list and because a lot of stats are provided, even if there are some oddities like having a JRPG at #1 and their 2009 RPG of the year being rated far lower than you'd expect.

 

 

Thanks for the list, Zoraptor!

 

I don't agree with the list in details, but in general, it sums up great games.

Would I have to rank them and sort among CRPGs, I'd still leave out games that I don't really qualify as RPGs full on. I love the MIght & Magic series, and Ultima Underworld, and Dungeon Master, ToEE and even the IWDs, but are they true CRPGs? Only in part, I reckon, but they are still darn good at times.

Here's my top 10-list, inspired by their top 71-list, and on the fly (I used the last list as their reference, under the spoiler tag - their place within brackets):

# Game

1 Planescape: Torment (1)

2 Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer (12)

3 Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn (4)

4 Baldur's Gate (17)

5 Ultima VII: The Black Gate (33)

6 Neverwinter Nights 2 (61)

7 System Shock 2 (22)

8 Fallout: New Vegas ( 8 )

9 Dark Sun: Shattered Lands (31)

10 Dragon Age: Origins (33)

 

 

 

My top 10 based on their list is:

1)Icewind Dale 2

2)Baldur's Gate 2

3)K.O.T.O.R. 2

4)K.O.T.O.R.

5)Dragon Age

6)Baldur's Gate

7)Mass Effect

8)Deus Ex: Human Revolution

9)Neverwinter Nights 2

10)Planscape: Torment

 

 

So we're doing this thing huh. I omit strict numbers because the order in itself is already pretty fluid, they're only vaguely ranked.

 

 

The Black Gate + Serpent Isle - I'm cheating to give myself more room in this list.

Fallout 2 - Controversy! But I played it first and regardless of story it just plays better,

The Sims 2 -  If JA2 belongs on a list of RPGs, so does this game.

Fallout New Vegas - Tolerated mechanically to get to the wonderful game beneath.

Fallout - With a caveat in that I've never finished it. Got probably 90%+ through but the end fights were too tough for my underlevelled character

Baldur's Gate 2 - A bit of an odd one, I enjoyed my time with it, but the mechanics are such that I'll probably never have the urge to replay it for the rest of my life. Which is something unique to this list.

The Witcher 2 - see Fallout New Vegas

VtM:Bloodlines - Docked two-thirds of its points because it's two thirds of a game. Would probably be top three otherwise.

Jagged Alliance 2 - Frankly I think it's less of an RPG than many other games omitted from the list, but let's roll with it. In terms of it as a game alone, yeah, I can go with it in this position.

 

 

The "what is this game doing in any best-of list?" special award:

Ultima 8 - Yep, I played this before U7. And as poorly received as it was, it has a special place in my gaming history. Ironically, being panned as a game with far too much focus on unwieldy combat and losing the charm of its predecessors, it's perhaps the game that showed me how much fun a game could be without those elements. I could spend hours just messing around in the game's only city, talking to people and messing with their stuff. Also Crusader would not have existed without this game.

 

 

I suppose it's sort of an RPG:

Sid Meier's Pirates! (I think the Gold remake was the one I mainly played)

 

 

Notable omissions:

Planescape: Torment - "What the hell?" some of you might ask me? I kind of screwed this game up for myself by playing a a third of it or so years and years ago, and struggle to come back because I really don't want to play that segment again.

Baldur's Gate - Another case of playing the sequel first, but this time it resulted in the first game experience being flat out terrible. Just could not even begin to get into it. At all.

Mask of the Betrayer - I tried to play as a rogue and got my face smashed in. If only it weren't a DnD game....

Darklands - Played long after its release after acquiring a near-new copy on eBay. 0/10 for combat, 10/10 otherwise, made for a game just tiresome to play.

KoTOR (either of them) - Competent games set in a setting I abhor.

 

 

Spoilered just to reduce clutter and for plausible deniability for taking the thread off-topic.

 

[HoonDing]

My favourite games are not arrpeegee.

[Tale]

I don't even know how to decide what qualifies as a "favorite" anymore. My tastes are always changing. I've got these 90s era Playstation RPGs that I absolutely loved to death in their day, that I would play over and over again, but I won't be able to go an hour playing it today. I've got a bunch of Nintendo DS games that focus more on story with some puzzles and end on such fantastic high emotional notes that they nearly ruin me for gaming for some days after. And then I've got games like Dark Souls or Team Fortress that I can just blow hours days or weeks with without batting an eye.

 

I have tens of games that I absolutely adore for such disparate reasons that I can't compare them to another in any context.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Yeah. My opinion of games have varied quite a bit, but for CRPGs (with deeper RPG elements in them), that list of mine above is pretty solid since a few years back now. I may change places of one or two, but it even when I revisit those games I see why I hold them in such high regard.

[Keyrock]

Strictly RPG:

 

1) Planescape: Torment

2) Baldur's Gate 2

3) The Witcher 2

4) Final Fantasy 6

5) Fallout: New Vegas

6) Chrono Trigger

7) Ultima VII (I'm lumping them together into one giant game, if I have to choose a favorite then it's The Serpent Isle)

8] TES3: Morrowind

9) Deus Ex

10) Fallout 2

Edited February 7, 2014 by Keyrock

[Nonek]

1) Ultima 7.

2) Planescape: Torment.

3) Betrayal at Krondor.

4) The Witcher.

5) Fallout.

6) Witcher 2.

7) Fallout: New Vegas.

8] Ultima 4, 5 & 6.

9) Baldur's Gate 2.

10) Alpha Protocol tied with NWN2 and expansions.

 

Edit: How I despise emoticons.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Nonek

[ShadySands]

1. BG2 + XPACs

1. NWN2 + XPACs

1. Fallout 2

1. Fallout 1

1. NWN + XPACs (really just HOTU)

1. KOTOR 2

1. KOTOR

1. DA:O

1. ME2

10. Alpha Protocol and Jade Empire

10.1 Puma. Bloodlines

[Gorth]

I guess there is no point in trying to first determine what is an RPG, then list 10 games and then argue why they should or should not be on a list of RPG's?

 

My list includes several "hybrids"

• Lords of Midnight (Best game ever, no contest.)
• Planescape; Torment (The whole is greater than the part sum, awful combat included)
• Jagged Alliance 2 (Best tactical squad based game out there, hilarious cast of party members and so much to do and live with the consequences of what you do)
• Temple of Apshai (Naive by any modern standards, including looking up text in manual because it was too large to fit in game)
• Fallout (or Fallout 2... loved both for different reasons)
• Baldurs Gate 2 (Somebody once said size is a quality of its own. Know what? He was right)
• Rogue (The grandfather of a large number of dungeon crawlers, including Nethack)
• Ultima IV (C64 version, bought the boxed set with cloth map and plastic map, still go to Youtube just to play the haunting music, so superior to the PC version)
• Alternate Reality (Amiga version, such a great idea, sadly died without the intended expansions that should have fleshed it out. DLC long before anyone coined the term)
• Deathknights of Krynn (Whole Krynn trilogy actually, I was really into the Dragonlance setting back then)

[Zoraptor]

"An RPG is a game in which the player plays the role(s) of a character avatar or multiple instances thereof, features development of the character's abilities and in which the gameplay skill of the player is subservient to the abilities developed by their avatar(s)." There you go, what is an RPG defined with absolutely no argumentation possible at all.

 

List?

Planescape Torment

Fallouts

System Shock 2

Gothic 2/ NdR

BG 2

MOTB

VtM: Bloodlines

Wizardry original (and

Icewind Dale

KOTOR 2

 

Order is fluid and subject to change, addition or deletion at no notice. No warranty given or implied. Realistically, everything below MOTB is about equal to stuff that is left out like TWitcher/2, Alpha Protocol and a couple of others so if it were a point system like the codex one some would be missing.

[Enoch]

I'll second most of what Tale said.  Favorites and rankings are pretty meaningless, particularly when limited to one (ill-defined) genre.  If I'm measuring the games I liked most at the time, it's going to be all late-80s through late-90s stuff, because that's when I was the right age to be fantastically dedicated to this kind of thing.  And if it's a retrospective measure of what I now think was truly good, a significant chunk of my gaming history drops out.  (Man, I spent sooo much time on old-school Might & Magic games... and they're kinda bad in rather a lot of ways.)  Still, the below is more of the latter, because adult me doesn't have a whole lot of respect for the gaming habits of 15-year-old me.  (Except that Railroad Tycoon remains awesome.) 

 

Anyhow, all this is still a fun reason to stroll down memory lane. 

 

The top tier:

 

Torment

Fallout

Fallout: New Vegas (with DLC)

Baldur's Gate 2 (with expansion)

Fallout 2

 

The "great at some things, kinda lousy at others" tier:

 

KotOR 2

KotOR

Baldur's Gate

The Witcher 2

 

Special sub-category for awesome strategy games that also serve as a vehicle for fantastically entertaining roleplaying:

 

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Crusader Kings 2

 

 

That probably has me over 10, so I'll stop.  The next tier would be rather large, including things like IWD, Skyrim, Alpha P, and ME2 that fail at least one of the things I really look for in an RPG, but are otherwise great fun. 

 

 

Special "how the hell does this end up on so many of these lists despite being a pretty terrible game overall?" Dishonorable Mention:

 

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Whateverthe****

Edited February 8, 2014 by Enoch

[Keyrock]

Interestingly, I'm the only one so far that has any jRPGs on their list.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Consider expansions included.

 

1. Neverwinter Nights 2

2. Planescape: Torment

3. Baldur's Gate

4. Baldur's Gate 2

5. Fire Emblem: Sealed Sword

6. Fallout New Vegas

7. Fallout 2

8. Morrowind

9. Final Fantasy V

10. KOTOR 2

 

Edit: How I despise emoticons.

I originally read this as "How I despise emotions", which I think is essential to being English.

 

Special "how the hell does this end up on so many of these lists despite being a pretty terrible game overall?" Dishonorable Mention:

 

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Whateverthe****

 

I've never understood that myself. Arcanum is a cluster**** of gamebreaking bugs and extreme unbalance, and is among the worst gaming expierences I've had.

 

Interestingly, I'm the only one so far that has any jRPGs on their list.

Not anymore.

[LadyCrimson]

Most of my fave games "evah" aren't RPG's.

[Leferd]

Fallout

BG2

PS:T

KotOR 2

KotOR

VtM:B

Fallout 2

BG

Alpha Protocol

Jade Empire

 

I really hope Eternity joins this list.

[Lorfean]

I tried ranking them but it didn't seem fair or realistic, so here is my Top 10 of what I consider role-playing games in alphabetical order:

• Baldur's Gate + expansion
• Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn + expansion
• Fallout
• Fallout 2
• Fallout: New Vegas + DLC
• Icewind Dale + expansions
• Mass Effect 2
• Neverwinter Nights 2 + expansions
• Planescape: Torment
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Honorable mentions:

• Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
• Icewind Dale II
• Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
• Mass Effect
• The Temple of Elemental Evil
• The Witcher

And lastly, some titles that have made an impression but were excluded because I have not played enough of them yet to form a solid opinion:

• Dark Souls
• Deus Ex
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• System Shock 2
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Edited February 9, 2014 by Lorfean

[Labadal]

There are so many cRPGs to choose from, but here's a top ten list of how I feel today:

 

Fallout: New Vegas

Star Wars: KOTOR II

Neverwinter Nights 2 + Expansions

Planescape: Torment

Vampire: The Masquerade - Nloodlines

Arcanum of Steamworks and Magicka Obscura

Baldur's Gate II + Expansion

Alpha Protocol

Dragon Age: Origins

TES III: Morrowind

[Noviere]

Ultima VII the Black Gate/Ultima VII Part 2 The Serpent Isle

 

Planescape Torment

Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines

Dragon Age: Origins

Mass Effect

Star Wars: Knights of Old Republic 1 & 2

Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

Fallout

Ultima VI

Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn

 

My list really isn't in any specific order... The exception being Ultima 7/7.5, which I consider to be the best CRPGs I've ever played. 

[Tel Aviv]

Alphabetised for your pleasure: 

 

Anachronox

Baldur's Gate

Deus Ex

Fallout

Fallout: New Vegas

Final Fantasy VII

Mass Effect 2

Planescape: Torment

Skies of Arcadia

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

[exodiark]

Oh I LOVE lists, here's mine:

1. Mask of the Betrayer
2. Fallout: New Vegas + Expansions (dem gold bars)
3. Alpha Protocol
4. Planescape Torment
5. KOTOR 2
6. Final Fantasy Tactics
7. Final Fantasy XII
8. Persona 4
9. Mass Effect 1
10. Dragon Age: Origins

[Katphood]

1. Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magic Obscura

2. Fallout 2

3. Fallout: New Vegas

4. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

5. Planescape: Torment

6. Fallout

7. Dragon's Dogma

8. Demon's Souls

9. The Witcher

10. Alpha Protocol

 

Honorable Mentions: none

Edited February 10, 2014 by Astiaks