Ask Lemmy

Tetris

Just about everyone has either played or heard of it. It is easy enough for young and old people alike to pick up. But it can get so challenging that even nowadays new records are broken regularly.

It's simple. It's fun. And will remain so for all eternity.

This is such an absurd question. I mean, it's weird in movies and books, weirder in music... but games?

I mean, Tetris. It's Tetris, isn't it?

But then you're out there going "so is Tetris better than Baldur's Gate III", which is a nonsensical sentence.

Portal

Well, I think there are multiple potential candidates depending on how you define greatness. I think these few are certainly the most influential:

• Super Mario Bros. Possibly the system it ran on was more important, but this game was a system seller for the system that single-handedly saved not only the entire video game industry, but probably the very concept of video games at a time when it was looking like it'd just be another fad that faded away right along with bellbottoms and pet rocks, with what was left of it remaining caged in Japan. Mario 1 was most people's first platformer, I also have to think that the first damn goomba in 1-1 probably holds the crown for the highest kill count of any entity in the universe.
• Tetris. Infinitely playable and probably infinitely played, and you can get it to run on damn near everything. Everyone knows Tetris, even people who haven't played it or any other video game.
• Doom. Just, Doom. Yes, Quake was more advanced. Yes, Quake was technically the actual technological forefather to the polygonal 3D games we play today, and many game engines still include tiny bits of Quake's original code. But there would be no Quake without Doom. It certainly wasn't the first FPS, but it's the game that cemented the FPS formula for good and firmly established the x86 PC as not only a viable gaming platform, but the king of gaming platforms from that moment until this very day. Ever since Doom, outside of specialized arcade hardware the PC has been the powerhouse platform for the biggest, most technologically demanding games. After Doom game out everyone wanted their own "Doom clone" on their platform just to show that they weren't just another me-too, also-ran.
• Street Fighter 2. The genre defining 1 on 1 fighting game template. Enough said.
• Chrono Trigger. This game showed everyone not what a console RPG was up until that point, but what a console RPG could be if you put actual effort and creativity into it and didn't just crank out another grindy and soulless, swords-and-sorcery-go-kill-the-dragon yawn fest just to keep your franchise going. Its contemporary Final Fantasy games almost got there (especially 6), but Chrono went the full mile. The feats Chrono Trigger pulled off on the humble SNES as well as many of the innovations it brought forward were far ahead of its time and it took literal decades for the genre to catch up to it -- including quite a few entries from its own studio.
• Final Fantasy 7. This game is objectively crap even compared to many of its peers. But there is no doubt that it was the next stepping stone from Chrono Trigger that finally firmly launched the console RPG into mainstream territory, made the genre as a whole truly successful, and was an awful lot of people's first RPG. It probably made a significant and permanent contribution to the formation of weaboo culture, as well.
• Half Life 2. No, not the first Half Life. Not Opposing Force and not Blue Shift, either. There was never before any hype and anticipation for a video game like there was for Half Life 2. In the months leading up to its launch it was all anyone talked about. Not Doom 3, not the new Warcraft. Half Life 2. And of course with Half Life 2 came Steam, and we all know how that turned out. Sure, Steam itself started life as a patch delivery and server browsing platform for Counterstrike, but up until Half Life 2 appeared in it, nobody cared. The impact Half Life 2 had on everything is absolutely undeniable, and that doesn't just include the horde of games that came after it attempting to imitate its unbroken linear first person narrative and setpiece based game design as a cash grab, not to mention that phase in first person shooters where seemingly everything suddenly had to have physics puzzles in it...

Outer Wilds. Any explanation that I give would be massive spoilers, but it captures a genre, aesthetic, and theme that, in my experience, has been virtually unused by any other game before and still remains extremely underutilized

It got to be Goat Simulator for sure:

• Top notch graphics.
• Full of features, even some not intended by the developers.
• You can hurt and get hurt, so it's BDSM-friendly.
• Open sandbox.
• It's more recognisable than Tetris. Tetris is easy to confuse with some Tetris knock-off, Goat Simulator is instantly "yup, this is Goat Simulator".
• It's deeper in lore and philosophy than Chrono Trigger.
• Zelda's worldbuilding pales in comparison with Goat Simulator's.
• Requires more strategy than Diablo and FFA combined.
• You play it as a goat dammit. Everything else is just fluff.

Grand Theft Auto 3.

You had to be there to see how absolutely groundbreaking that was at the time. Gaming had suddenly grown up.

It was like all the obvious limits in other games all just got pulled away at once. Explore a full city in 3D, drive around, shoot people, steal a tank.

And the sequel only improved on it, but I've honestly never been so awed by a game before or since. It's like they were the first dev to finally figure out what the PS2 hardware was for. Everything before just felt like a slightly nicer version of what had come before. This was new.

Goldeneye

Zelda, the entire series/franchise. The OG RPG. Many argue it isn't an RPG because the original you couldnt level up but when I think of RPG, I think you are a character and you go on an adventure. It also serves as a good gateway to fixed RPGs where everyone basically has the same story. And to strategy video game as a whole. Also, it was Nintendo's first RPG, when PlayStation and Xbox still did not exist. And the Best console is Nintendo since it lasted so long. Many of the other consoles feel like less of a game and more like your are in an interactive movie.

Mario bros 3 - it felt like a SNES game

Portal 2 is THE highest rated game on Steam.

Doom or Tetris were probably the most influential ones?

Other people have already said it, but it's Tetris.

Its the only game ever made that I would describe as "perfect".

It takes seconds to learn how to play, while the skill ceiling is in the stratosphere. It's endlessly replayable, the music is iconic, and it's available for basically any platform made in the last 40 years.

Doom (1993).

Why: I'm still playing it. Most people know it, and it's the grandfather of all FPS games.

Prior to August 8th, 2006: Chrono Trigger.

Post August 8th, 2006: Dwarf Fortress.

Dwarf Fortress is, mechanically, almost everything I think a game should be. And the only reason it's only almost is because it's not finished yet.

Doom.

It was the first 3(well, 2.5)D shooter. Plus, I can hear E1M1.

And using the shareware license for distribution widely helped it's popularity and it had multiplayer.

Honorary mention to Carrier Command ( the first one with like a 5 polygon island and a 40 polygon volcano).

Halflife 2 + Incl Episodes

Mount and Blade Warband.

So many games you start off or become something great. In Skyrim you're the dragonborn, you become great but you were always going to. The world is huge and immersive, but you're always going to be important in the world.

In warband, you're a nobody. You'll always be a nobody unless you do something. Trade, fight, quest or scheme. The world will continue with or without you. Your favourite faction might get wiped out and you can do something about it or not. There's no guarantee of victory, and what you decide as a win condition is up to you.

It is the ultimate sandbox, but the original is janky. The solution; mods. An incredibly dedicated modding community elevates this game into my most played game. The lord of the rings mod is both the best way to get into the game and in my opinion the best video game adaptation of a movie (just in front of kotor).

TL:DR: Warband makes it ok to suck and makes you earn your victory. You might not think that's fun, but trust me it can be.

I always answer with Super Mario World. It's the best game. I won't elaborate.

Final Fantasy Tactics. The original, not the kiddy Tactics Advance games.

Great tactical combat, great soundtrack, amazing story. Plus, abusing the job system to make broken character combos is absurdly fun.

Fallout New Vegas.

If we are just talking about replayability, I have never put as many hours into another game as that one.

That pinball game on windows xp

Probably Doom for being one of the first games with real mod support

It doesn't hold up but while it was happening I don't think there was a better gaming experience than Vanilla WoW. Obviously for some it wasn't the first MMO experience, but for many it was, and it was pure magic.

The random friends made, and mortal enemies you would drop everything you were doing to try and kill. Spending 6 hours clearing a dungeon(read wailing caverns) for the first time with random people you met in chat. Getting your first mount, walking into molten core with 39 other people and killing your first raid boss. Getting your first epic. The stupidity of barrens chat/whatever the equivalent the scumbag alliance had. The first time you had guild mates come to your rescue when some no-life higher level person was camping you and it devolving into an impromptu war between everyone in the zone and their friends. That time you pulled off an epic 1 v 2. Shit talking all the other classes in your guilds class chat during raids.

The drama ohh the drama, the e-gf/bf that became peoples husbands and wives, the guild leaders wife e-humping half the guild. Relationships destroyed because someone would rather spend their time in azeroth that just about anything else.

Drooling over the gear the best players on the server had. Battling on the front lines of alterac valley all night, going to bed and rejoining the same battle, sometimes to cheers from your fellow soldiers that you had rejoined the fight.

I don't think there will ever be anything like it again, we know too much, have access to to much info, but for that brief period in time wow was the greatest game ever.

Super metroid

cracks the downvote finger knuckles

The Witcher 3.

Abe's Oddesy

It has a fart button. Need I say more?

Half life. It revolutionized the genre and spawned a ton of games thanks to mods, ie counterstrike

Diablo

The first multi-player lobby over battlenet. Epic lore, great gameplay, created an entire genre.

Tetris.

I don't think "greatest game of all time" is really a thing.
As you mention pubg for example it was a simply copy as well.
Does it take originality to the The greatest? Does it take being popular?

What does it actually take to the greatest?

Minecraft

not only does it have crazy sales, the fact that I enjoyed it when I was 8 and continue to enjoy at 18 means something

Civilization series.