Defining Game Of The Decade

[Captain Eo]

During this decade the video gaming culture has evolved from a basement dwelling cliche to a mainstream phenomenon with games generating just as much revenue as some summer blockbusters. This decade also saw video game technology advance leaps and bounds.

We've gone through the N64, Playstation I, Playstation II, Sega Dreamcast, Gamecube, Gameboy Advance, Xbox, Playstation 3, Xbox 260, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, and the N-Gage!

With all the innovations in technology developers were able to do so much more creatively than in the past generations.

For me the defining game of the decade is a tie between Half Life 2 and The GTA Series. Half Life 2's environments, character models and voice acting are all prime examples of the advances made these past 10 years. Things that would have never been possible just 5 years prior on the PS1 were now possible and made for one of the finest games ever created.

While Half Life's designs are the pinnacle of technology at it's finest the Grand Theft Auto series is the showcase and pioneer of creative freedom that simply wasn't present prior to their release. While GTA 3 wasn't the first game to have an open world, it was the one that had most of us hooked playing hours on end trying to fly that damn Dodo. It also set forth a series of GTA clones.

Discuss!

[TKz]

I think I'd go with Metal Gear Solid 2. I don't play a vast variety of games (or, I didn't until recently) so my games pre-PS3 are pretty much all the same, but Metal Gear Solid 2 was really one of the first big examples of graphics being put on as much a pedestal as gameplay. It's also one of the finest examples of a game from the PSX era gaining a sequel on a next gen console.

Again, I didn't really play enough games until 2008 to really make that much of a comprehensive decision, but I'd say this stands up pretty well as an example.

[Guest Mr. Grinch]

JFK Reloaded.

[Nimrodic]

Hands down is a tie between the Guitar Hero series and Rock Band 2. Before the Guitar Series the music genre was, well it was limited to vocals ala Karaoke Revolution. But, when Guitar Hero launched it was like lightning had struck the music genre that in a way that I don't think will ever be repeated in any genre again. As for Rock Band 2, well Rock Band 1 was good. But, Rock Band 2 improved so much on what was a fan-dabi-dozi formula and was a much better party game then say Mario Party.

Honorable Mention(s): Call of Duty series, Medal of Honor series, Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, and Final Fantasy 10

[Captain Eo]

I never even thought about those series, but the party game genre probably did a lot in paving the way for the Wii.

[Slogger]

San Andreas put gaming into the spotlight...For all the wrong reasons, But it was still one of the defining games of this decade.

[Cactus Drags]

I think Halo has to get at least a mention here. Really helped popularise multiplayer and FPS gaming on consoles, and was essentially the Xbox's killer app. Hard to imagine there'd be quite as much focus on the genre, or every other game having at least a tacked-on multiplayer mode without its success.

[EddieRuckus]

Lotta different games for different genres, but I have to echo Dragsy's about Halo. Before that I was a very casual gamer who played N64 every once in a while, and after I got an Xbox/Halo I was more open to gaming and such. Rock Band/Guitar Hero for many obvious reasons, as it was good for the hardcore gamers who like rhythm games and was instrumental in getting non-gamers to give it a shot and play, as did Wii Sports. San Andreas for media coverage and what you could do in a big open sandbox game.

[hackerjack]

Kind of an odd thing to be honest, so many of the best games of this decade were born out of the 1990's.

GTA is a big shout as to be honest GTA III was the real start of the series as we currently know it back in 2001 even though it came from the earlier games. It took free-choice style games to a whole new level.

First person shooters, stealthers and war gaming went to a massively higher level in terms of physics, graphics and options, there are easily half a dozen contenders here but the fact that they are more a staple of sequels than anything else puts me off a little in something like this.

The Wii in general (I think it's fair to lump all the sports variations in as one game) revolutionalised gaming in the eyes of the non-gaming world, bringing it to the masses who did not want complex game play in a way not done since the early 1980's. The whole control method was also a massive thing obviously, creating a workable system that was more than just a gimmick like the eye toy. It was brave and possibly reckless to put so much faith on a controller taking off but I guess by then Nintendo didn't have much to lose in the console market.

Guitar Hero followed on from the Wii's example in some sense by making a game that could be as much a spectator experience as a player one as well as mixing in everyone’s secret desire to be a rock star.

The explosion of broadband brought online gaming into the world in a big way for the first time and a serious shout has to go out to Everquest for blazing that train in the early part of the decade. It was in the end eclipsed by the massively successful World of Warcraft which would also have a good case. Eventually both games would cause as much controversy as GTA and Half Life via the seemingly addictive behaviour of it's players and the online industry that built up around it, buying and selling of weapons, potions and gold for real life cash, meaning that it qualifies for the increasing list of games that changed the world outside of gaming.

Back with Nintendo (at least in some sense) we had the start of yet another something new with Brain Training. Piggy-backing on the new customer base that the Wii brought was a generation of games aimed at teenaged girls, stay at home mums and retirees that brought the world of puzzle books, times crosswords and board games to the DS. This trend has been given even more relevance with the growth in similar online gaming over the past few years.

In the end though I'll go right back to February 2000 for my game of the decade. It was one of the first games that introduced a new concept of what gaming could be about, it introduced massive freedom of game play that allowed it's players to create their own stories and experiences, each one of them unique, it spawned a massive online industry of player-created add-ons, some of them becoming quite sizeable commercial enterprises in their own right and it also had a mass appeal to those outside of the core Male 12-35 gamer demographic. In that sense it had elements of most of the most successful traits of the games mentioned previously years before them and has almost 10 years later also spawned a catalogue of budget (free mostly) multiplayer variations on facebook. I am of course talking about The Sims. If Will Wright's mould-breaker had been a commercial flop then I doubt you would have seen half the innovations that we have done in the past 10 years, it was literally the massively successful title that was needed to prove to the industry that you could think creatively, do things differently and aim at different markets to make sales instead of simply continuing with the complexity and graphical arms race that was taking shape with sequel after sequel coming out with better graphics and more action but so few new ideas. While it has been eclipsed by better, more interesting, graphically superior and even better playing games over the years since and it’s legacy has been tarnished somewhat by EA’s constant whoring of the franchise over recent years with add-ons for everything from university life to walking a dog, it remains the biggest risk taken by a games studio of the past 10 years and was an unqualified success in every way.

[RPS]

Hackerjack beat me too it.

The Sim's is the defining game of the decade. My guess is the franchise is probably the biggest selling of the decade, with it's 3 game's and all of their expansion packs. Not to say that sales should dictate this, but it should play a role. As well, the Sims just embodied all of the new changes to the gaming world - complexities, open concepts, pushing graphics further and further, giving the gamer far more control over the gaming experience. The game took something so simplistic and ridiculous - living one's life - and turned it into a gaming revolution. I know people who would never pick up a video game who were or still are addicted to the Sims.

The only two things I could see coming close are GTA and/or the Wii Sports/Play/Whatever franchises. If we were talking from a pure "what was the best game?" or something else the answer would be completely different, but these are the games that defined this decade.

[Herr Matzat]

With my flat and frinds i´ed have to go with Rock Band (playing it alone is not half as much fun) even if i am still surprised at how much i like that game... i guss that the drums are quit real helped me a lot to finaly get into it.

When it comes to Amazing Single Player games Team Ico did a lot... Ico and Shadow of the Colosus are such amazing games how could they not be at the very top.

Fun and wacky singleplayer stuff would be Katamari Damanci and the GTA Games.

I bet i am missing a ton of stuff, but thats just of the top of my head.

Once i get my DSlite with M3 Real and GBA Addone i will defenetly check out Mother 3 (= Earthbount 2, GBA)

Destructoid did a nice Top 50 list.

http://www.destructoid.com/the-top-50-videogames-of-the-decade-10-1--155591.phtml

[Sousa]

I love Shadow of the Colossus and Katamari, but if you think they're the games that will define this decade then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Ultimately, it comes down to three games: Grand Theft Auto III for practically inventing the open-world genre in this generation, The Sims for taking interactivity and player input to a new level as well as starting the move toward gaming as a popular hobby rather than a niche one, and World of Warcraft for cementing the place of online gaming and making a jillion dollars in the process. Better games have come around (Portal, the original Mario & Luigi, Okami, either Kingdom Hearts game), but these are the three that defined this decade better than anything else.

[Herr Matzat]

Oh sorry, i was just thinking best... not defnining.

[RPS]

I totally forgot about Guitar Hero and World Of Warcraft. Two big games that have also penetrated mainstream markets while also appeasing hardcore gamers alike. The only reason I might write off Guitar Hero is because it only came around in 2005, while the Sims & GTA have been around the entire decade, with the Sims kinda losing a bit of it's luster with it's sequel, while GTA continued to cement it's importance with a huge sequel in GTAIV. Guitar Hero has defined this half of the decade for gaming, but I think it's lack of presence in the first half makes it a tough sell for the entire decade. While WoW also suffers from similar problems, I think it more so has to do with the fact that WoW still has that nerd-stigma attached to it. The Sims, GTA and Guitar Hero are all very much mainstream games - WoW has certain connotations behind it that I think damper it's ability to be the defining game of the decade.

[Captain Eo]

Checking the 6th and 7th generation Wiki pages really makes me feel old. I remember seeing Perfect Dark's graphics with the expansion back and going batshit.

[DMN in the House]

GTA III, Guitar Hero, Halo, and World of Warcraft are all in the running. I'd also give a nod to the first 'next gen' Madden, but that's merely because I believe Madden is, yearly, the best selling series.

GTA III and Halo really are the defining moments for 'hardcore' gamers, and, even though I haven't liked a FPS since Doom, and have never played Halo, I have to give it credit. Guitar Hero really launched the 'casual' gamer genre, more than anything before it, and brought it to the forefront. World of Warcraft showed exactly what a MMORPG could be, and, again, though I'm not a fan of those style of games, I have to give it it's credit.

I'd throw a bone at Final Fantasy X, as well. Really the first 'big' game, that I remember, that had all the cinematic stuff that it did.

[apsham]

I have two choices; one that could have been done before this decade and pretty much was.. and one that was only possible during this one.

Mother 3

Is a flat out masterpiece. It goes without saying for me that this is one of, if not my favorite games of all time. For years before it's release, I played Earthbound as many times as I possibly could without it getting to be too much for me... and that was hard to do. It was especially awarding waiting a year or so before playing it again and finding those little bits that you forget about each time through. Everything was there to make Earthbound an amazing experience.. and not even a traditional one. What I personally enjoy is the plot and the plays on standard video game conventions... instead of healing with potions, you get to heal with hamburgers. No more mana potions when you have a perfectly fine soda pop. The enemies were funny at times, and made sense in their respective areas.. if you were too highly leveled, forget about a useless battle and just enjoy the few experience points you got from the fight. I could go on, finding little things for ages but to the point on Mother 3..

Take everything that I loved about Earthbound and push that up to an insanely awesome degree.. congrats, because you have Mother 3. When I heard about it coming out.. I was gutted to find out that there were no plans to bring it stateside. Hell, I was still gutted after hearing that Earthbound 64 wasn't going to happen, but I digress. I hoped that if sales were good in Japan then it would carry overseas just based on those merits.. even that didn't happen. It was a few years back that I heard about the translation project.. and that's another thing that makes Mother 3 so amazing to me. It took a while, but the fans of the Mother series were the ones who made it playable to me. Painstaking translation created one amazing game... with none of the language issues that plague other RPGs even to this day.

Finally able to play the sequel to my favorite game ever, I was lost in the Mother 3 world for the week and change that it took me to beat it.. I had to do everything, talk to everyone, experiment with everything. It was all so interesting and continues to feel like that to me even though I'm not playing it anymore. An entirely retro looking game, played and made during this generation that held up against anything that I have played before and since. The story was excellent and played out in an absolutely amazing way, jumping from character to character in ways that didn't seem to make sense.. at first, before coming together. I didn't know what was going to happen next.. this is a GOOD thing when it comes to video games. The battle system remained the same and the enemies didn't dissapoint (who can forget the Parental Kangashark?), and don't even get started on the musical score.

These days I enjoy many games, but nothing has ever pulled me in like Mother 3. You could throw a rock and hit a game with better graphics or more fancy bobs hanging off it, but you'll never be able to find anything that gives you a feeling like Mother 3 does... unless I'm in the mood for..

Psychonauts

I don't know where people stated that a video game has to be super serious.. killing and then moving on, painful plot twist after painful plot twist. The epitomy of a video game that broke all previous conventions and made something of it's own.. would have to be Psychonauts. And indeed, this could only have been done this generation.

Generally platformers are all kind of samey and it's hard to blame the people who make the games sometimes.. but Pyschonauts said fuck all of that and created something that you could immerse yourself in. Not only was the game detailed (by god, it was detailed) it's something that you actually want to explore. You want to go find every single fellow camper between missions.. because hell, they'll be somewhere else.. with a different problem, saying something different and thinking something different. You'll want to go back through the hilarious levels and find all the secrets even if there's no real reason to. Hell, you could spend all your play session laughing through dialouge trees if you wanted to, I certainly don't have a problem with it.

And it has a fine polish on it as well. You could take everything that I just stated and make that a game that I would be happy with.. but Psychonauts seems to take pride in what it does, even the menus fit in perfect. It's really something that you need to experience.

[adamg]

I would have to say GTA 3. How many games came out after this using the open world sandbox type gameplay? Alot.

[Herr Matzat]

Mother 3

Is a flat out masterpiece. It goes without saying for me that this is one of, if not my favorite games of all time. For years before it's release, I played Earthbound as many times as I possibly could without it getting to be too much for me... and that was hard to do. It was especially awarding waiting a year or so before playing it again and finding those little bits that you forget about each time through. Everything was there to make Earthbound an amazing experience.. and not even a traditional one. What I personally enjoy is the plot and the plays on standard video game conventions... instead of healing with potions, you get to heal with hamburgers. No more mana potions when you have a perfectly fine soda pop. The enemies were funny at times, and made sense in their respective areas.. if you were too highly leveled, forget about a useless battle and just enjoy the few experience points you got from the fight. I could go on, finding little things for ages but to the point on Mother 3..

Take everything that I loved about Earthbound and push that up to an insanely awesome degree.. congrats, because you have Mother 3. When I heard about it coming out.. I was gutted to find out that there were no plans to bring it stateside. Hell, I was still gutted after hearing that Earthbound 64 wasn't going to happen, but I digress. I hoped that if sales were good in Japan then it would carry overseas just based on those merits.. even that didn't happen. It was a few years back that I heard about the translation project.. and that's another thing that makes Mother 3 so amazing to me. It took a while, but the fans of the Mother series were the ones who made it playable to me. Painstaking translation created one amazing game... with none of the language issues that plague other RPGs even to this day.

Finally able to play the sequel to my favorite game ever, I was lost in the Mother 3 world for the week and change that it took me to beat it.. I had to do everything, talk to everyone, experiment with everything. It was all so interesting and continues to feel like that to me even though I'm not playing it anymore. An entirely retro looking game, played and made during this generation that held up against anything that I have played before and since. The story was excellent and played out in an absolutely amazing way, jumping from character to character in ways that didn't seem to make sense.. at first, before coming together. I didn't know what was going to happen next.. this is a GOOD thing when it comes to video games. The battle system remained the same and the enemies didn't dissapoint (who can forget the Parental Kangashark?), and don't even get started on the musical score.

These days I enjoy many games, but nothing has ever pulled me in like Mother 3. You could throw a rock and hit a game with better graphics or more fancy bobs hanging off it, but you'll never be able to find anything that gives you a feeling like Mother 3 does... unless I'm in the mood for..

Now imagin all that praise and next imagin you have not played it yet and the first sentence of the German wikipedia spoils the ending "and in the end they find out..." ....fuckers. I hope what they gave away will not ruin the experience. I will play this game as soon as i get my DS Lite.

[apsham]

You'd have to get one of those special cartridges that you can put translated ROMs on or just play it from your computer, because as of right now that's the only way to get or play it not in Japanese, sadly. And yeah, the ending isn't really the big part of the game.. story and gameplay along the way are fantastic.