Game of the decade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decade

[…] Any period of ten years is a "decade", and there is no "official" legal nor administrative start or end point […]
[…] There are two main methods of counting decades in recognition. The first method, counting ordinally, counts decades starting with the first year 1 CE (For example, the years 1981–1990 is referred to as the 199th decade or the 9th decade of the 20th century), while the other, counting cardinally, groups years based on having the same digits (For example, the years 1980–1989 is referred to as the 1980s, or commonly known as the eighties). […]

Click to expand...

Both are "correct". For whatever that's worth.

I wonder if you would evaporate into nothingness if streams were terminated.

ChienAboyeur said:

Odd maybe but less odd than relying on watching billions of streams to get the complete experience.

Simple minded people would not rely on streams, they would rely on video makers to get the full experience. Watching videos is the way to get the full experience. Certainly not playing TW3.

TW3 is impersonal, necessary as the group prevails in the american system. There is no outcome in TW3 than another person can not bring. A person is not needed behind the desk as another person can bring any situation the former person would bring.

TW3 provides nothing to set one player apart from another.
Want to know what happens when this or that, a vid maker has already done the job, putting out a video milking views.

Watching vids is the most pratical path to get the full experience.

And of course, TW3 is number one. Could not be other.

Click to expand...

you said:

There is nothing to say neither i nor you are correct

Click to expand...

Coming from you, you, that's really confusing!

I Don’t know if they're the best games but they're the ones I enjoyed most.

Dark Souls — Amazing atmosphere, combat, character progression and mechanics. Weapon move sets make the game feel very different depending on which weapons your using. Secrets like the parasite egg, hidden areas, treasure and bosses made exploration fun and rewarding. Definitely one of my favorite gaming experiences.

Skyrim— This is a tough one because while it’s one of my favorite games, I never played vanilla and most play throughs were with well over 100 mods. More quest, monsters, weapons , armor, totally change the combat or totally change the entire game. I have 600 hours in and I’m itching for another modded play through as every time feels fresh. So for the modding abilities alone Skyrim get #2 on my list.

Dragon age Origins— DAO had its blemishes like too few races and classes, the middle has a little too much filler and definitely the fade but the good greatly outweighed the bad imo. I thought the origin stories were a nice touch, even if I wished they’d have made them matter more. The beginning through the wilds and from the landsmeet to the ending was some of the most enjoyable gaming I’ve experienced and even though I said the middle had too much filler its was still a good time. I really enjoyed the NPC’s and shale is one of my favorites from any game and the grey wardens story is one of the few video game stories that really grabbed me. I cared about the stories and was invested in the NPC’s which is rare for me. That’s part of the reason DA2 was such a kick in the nuts when it was released. I really wanted to continue the warden story. Maybe find a cure for the taint. Anyway don’t want to get too long. It was a great game that I finished 3 times and guarantee another play through will be in my future.

Origins sure was a great game. It was far more streamlined (simplified) than most cRPG's that preceded it but it wasn't streamlined to the lowest common denominator - it still required the player to build a balanced party, choose the right skills and equipment and to use some basic tactics in combat. It appealed to both the experienced cRPG player (like me) but also to non-cRPG players as well. It did very well in terms of sales and people (publishers) took notice.

Unfortunately the publishers and some designers then thought they could continue to simplify the mechanics and it would make the games even better. We can get rid of stats! We can get rid of skills! We can get rid of die rolls completely! That clearly hasn't been the case most of the time. The watered down mechanics and systems pretty much only appeal to non-cRPG players.

Thankfully a whole chunk of games have come out in the last 5 years to somewhat reverse the trend i.e. Pathfinder, Original Sin, Wasteland 2, PoE etc.

you said:

I wonder if you would evaporate into nothingness if streams were terminated.

Click to expand...

A recital.

Now the art of speculating against things unlikely to happen. More comfortable than speculating against things likely to happen.

The streaming scene is here to endure. It is rock solid, streamers make a professional living off streaming, the audience is large. It would be enough to secure it as a lasting market. But the streaming scene is strengthened by a bigger market, the market of players who buy made for streaming vid products without either streaming them or watching them streamed.

For streams to be terminated, it would take that this market is ended. Evaporated in nothingness. Conditional trigger.

Likely and unlikely are relative; you seem awful brave to know the future before it crosses our path.... Perhaps you are the superior mind to know what will be even as some of us struggle with what is....

ChienAboyeur said:

A recital.

Now the art of speculating against things unlikely to happen. More comfortable than speculating against things likely to happen.

T.

Click to expand...

The recital keeps going on. Now that is the whole stuff it is all relative etc

Nothing brave in speculating against things likely to happen.

TW3: best vid product in the decade. 2020 wont change it.

you said:

Ok what I didn't like about them:
xumila - starts fantastic - first 10 hours are absolutely fab but after that it began to drag and become repetitive. Also while the game is 'open' it isn't; in order to maintain balance they force you down a near linear path which i found a bit of a drag. Instead of having fences; they have big jump in difficulty but none the less the design intends that you take a linear path. Personally the game could have been a bit shorter and have more moments like those in the first 10 hours and it would have been fantastic - focus on quality instead of quantity - that's not to say the last 40 hours were bad they just didn't seem to add much - but felt more like filler to make a long long long game.

Click to expand...

'Moments' in the first 10 hours? I have no idea what you mean. The game has plenty of 'moments' throughout, most of which are different from each other. As for repetitive, hello, welcome to videogames? And repetitive in what regard? Different areas have different environments and different things to do in different ways within that difference.

And yet, preferring Dragon Age2? Where not even the environments change as you do exactly the same thing all game, not even varying in monster type, literally the whole game is just dialogue cut-scene then combat then dialogue cut-scene then combat then dialogue cut-scene then combat. And Dragon Age 2 is also not open world.

Methinks you have improperly communicated your concern, lest the horn of hypocrisy would not sound so loudly. And I say poorly communicated because I feel sure you are not being intentionally hypercritical and are completely unaware of your verbal misstep here.

you said:

blackguard - I could list a numerous dislikes but just read a few reviews (user or professional). I didn't find it as bad as most people but it was hardly what i would consider 'great'.

Click to expand...

What glorious specificity. Hmm, which reviews shall I read? Those that give it 10/10 with the entire review being "great" or those that give it 1/10 with the solitary sentence accompanying it being "Shit"? Which professional review? The one that gives it 6/10 because it's not made by EA or Ubisoft? Or the one that gives it 9/10 because… whatever reason?

Have you read the reviews for Dragon Age 2?

you said:

river of time: the story didn't grab me as well as the layout - it was ok - i played the full thing and it was a long time ago so the details of what i dislike are vague but i found it more of a time killer than an engaging game - vaguely also it felt incomplete but as i said it was a long time ago.

Click to expand...

Engaging? You mean that whole nonsense about building a character, performing quests, levelling up, looting, all within the trappings of an interesting and engaging storyline? You mean just the storyline wasn't engaging enough for you? Just.. the… storyline…?

you said:

Dragon age 2 - it just have some really interesting moments (story wise) in the game that made up for the lack of this and that.

Click to expand...

Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. It would appear that everything else that a cRPG should be is described by you as "this and that" while the concept of 'occasional really interesting story moments' amounts to 'a more enjoyable experience' than literally every other aspect of an RPG. You are aware that story-based games are not exclusive to the RPG genre, yes?

Further, the 'story' of Dragon Age 2 is complete gibberish anyway. But then you didn't say just story, you said story-moments. So are we assuming you preferred it because you could fuck a companion? Or because you just enjoy watching a series historical favourite character get completely thematically butchered for no logical reason… but you thought it was cool watching the explosion cut-scene (which was also a deeply unpleasant false-game-choice to-boot)? Is that what you mean by moments?

you said:

Anyway time for the gym - i don't think you will find many who would select your three as top of the decade - though many here at rpgwatch did like xum….

Click to expand...

Ah yes, indeed. No, I couldn't imagine the wider world ever voting for LoX. It's what you might call a 'very niche game' designed to appeal to a… niche. You know, like those people who frequent sites like… I dunno… RPGWatch, for example. You know, people who are more prone to see through the cut-scenes and take interest in gameplay than the average Wallmart game-buyer. You know, those people who might say "oh wow, man, that explosion cut-scene!" and be happy enough…

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Witcher 3, D:OS1.

Skyrim?!? Can't believe the praise I'm seeing for it. One of the most shallow, mundane, cookie-cutter pieces of popamole trash ever. Witcher 3 isn't far off too.

Both to me are games with an absolute ton of nothing & busywork. Woeful experiences which embody gaming decline.

Mass Effect 2 is similar. It's not a bad game, but it waters down the first entry way too much, and is essentially a shooter with cut scenes.

But each to their own I guess.

Anyway, my picks would be:

1. The Witcher 2
2. X-com Enemy Within
3. Saints Row 4

Best RPGs of the decade

1. The Witcher 2
2. Shadowrun: Dragonfall
3. Risen 2

I don't class Dark Souls games as RPGs btw, or else number 2 would be in with a shout. To me they're action games with a few RPG elements.

I can see that there's reasons to rate Witcher 2 > Witcher 3, even if I'd disagree with it.

But Risen 2? It's fun and all, but the characters, consistency of the setting, story, dialogues, the combat, quest design … the only thing it has on Witcher 3 is exploration. And in that, I'd rate Elex much higher.

2 over 3 I say depends on taste, both are good and there is nothing wrong with lovine one more than another. I mean, not everyone drools over hairworks like me…

But a phonegame being #2 rpg of decade?!
Not sure by what criteria is that possible. Even if I picked Chaos Rings 2 because of it's braveness with the story that plays with your feelings turning you from hero into a villain (in other words from jedi to sith), it's still outdated everything phone tech.

@joxer;, do you mean 2 over 3 for the Witcher games or Risen?

I never even finished Witcher 2. They had some good quests in there but they also had crazy difficulty spikes. Witcher 1 had some, too (that ghost dog thing early in the game, for instance) but in 2 I kept having to mess around with the difficulty settings just to get by.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall is definitely a good one. Unique setting, good combat, fine writing... but Skyrim is epic and you can mod the game into whatever you want. I just checked the Steam stats and Witcher 3 is the most played single player RPG today, followed by Path of Exile, followed by Skyrim. For the game to be on the list at all 8 years after release is pretty amazing.

(And for Bethesda not to be working hard on another Elder Scrolls game this long after release is also stunning.)

Cacheperl said:

I can see that there's reasons to rate Witcher 2 > Witcher 3, even if I'd disagree with it.

But Risen 2? It's fun and all, but the characters, consistency of the setting, story, dialogues, the combat, quest design … the only thing it has on Witcher 3 is exploration. And in that, I'd rate Elex much higher.

Click to expand...

Yeah, fair play mate.

Risen 2 just had me in stitches. I value humour as a big part of enjoying RPG's, and the humour in Risen 2 is some of the best which I've experienced in any game ever. I much preferred all of the things you list in Risen 2 too. Just preference I guess.

It's only weak point for me was the combat, which I enjoyed anyway once I'd got the gun.

Zloth said:

@joxer;, do you mean 2 over 3 for the Witcher games or Risen?

I never even finished Witcher 2. They had some good quests in there but they also had crazy difficulty spikes. Witcher 1 had some, too (that ghost dog thing early in the game, for instance) but in 2 I kept having to mess around with the difficulty settings just to get by.

Shadowrun: Dragonfall is definitely a good one. Unique setting, good combat, fine writing… but Skyrim is epic and you can mod the game into whatever you want. I just checked the Steam stats and Witcher 3 is the most played single player RPG today, followed by Path of Exile, followed by Skyrim. For the game to be on the list at all 8 years after release is pretty amazing.

(And for Bethesda not to be working hard on another Elder Scrolls game this long after release is also stunning.)

Click to expand...

Dude, Witcher 2 needs about 3-4 playthroughs before you've even seen the story from all angles, you've barely scratched the surface.

IMHO it's a MILLION times better than TW3. What bits of difficulty were you struggling with? It's definitely worth replaying mate.

Glad you're a Dragonfall fan too Love the game. Real classic CRPG meets modern day tech.

Thanks to DArt for starting this thread. I had a bunch of boring chores I needed to do today, but instead I spent all morning reminiscing about my favorite games of the decade - a much better way to spend my time! Hopefully someone will find this soliloquy interesting.

Below are my top 3 (RPGs…because this is RPG Watch…and that’s pretty much all I play), along with my honorable mentions. I didn’t include Dragon Age: Origins given the ’09 release date. That is one of my all-time favorites. Bioware was absolutely on fire around 2010. Excluding it made this exercise more fun for me, as it forced me to think a little bit harder.

So here we go. My top 3 games of the decade…

Mass Effect 2 – Despite a rough ending to the series, Mass Effect was in my opinion an unquestionably iconic and fun-to-play RPG franchise. I loved playing Mass Effect, and Bioware knocked it out of the park with the sequel, which I think was the apex of the series. The space opera environment was gorgeous, the gameplay was greatly improved, and the stories surrounding Commander Shepard’s companions were as good as it gets.

Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings – Similar to Mass Effect, the Witcher Series for me is another iconic RPG franchises. Thinking back on Witcher 2, I realized it is the only game I’ve purchased that forced me to upgrade my PC to play. This is the game put CD Projekt Red firmly on the map, and they are now enjoying their place as one of the premier companies. I remember my friend giving me the original Witcher game. I had no idea what to expect, but it was a surprisingly fun game with a cool original setting and some interesting characters. Witcher 2 turned things up to 11 – so much so that the two games are barely comparable. Obviously CD Projekt Red owes a lot to the Andrzej Sapkowski source material – as evidenced by the Netflix series running right now. But you have to give them immense credit for the way they brought Geralt’s world to life in this game. This was also one of my favorite replays, as the branching story in the middle essentially packed 2 games into one. And of course this game set the stage for…

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Yes. I am putting both Witcher games in my top 3. I’ve been trying all morning to decide between 2 and 3, hoping to find a way to rationalize one over the other, so I can give well deserved kudos to another great non-Witcher game. But then I realized: the reason this is so hard is they both deserve to be here. To me Witcher 2 is a brilliant gem, whereas Witcher 3 is a massive blockbuster. The first two thirds of Wither 3 ranks towards the top of my all-time favorite PC gaming experiences. I got a little worn out at the end given the massive size and insanely good DLCs, but this shiny epic smash hit game is definitely one of the all-time greats. Can’t wait to see Cyberpunk 2077. I think they are going to deliver.

So with my top 3 identified, here are some of the honorable mentions I found hard to leave off my list…

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – It was super hard to keep Skyrim out of my top 3. If I would have picked just one of either Witcher games, Skyrim would probably have slipped in there. But at the end of the day, I just enjoyed playing both Witcher games more. Also Skyrim needs to contend with the history of The Elder Scrolls franchise, and the parallel Bathesda gaming world of Fallout. Morrowind was an iconic game set in this franchise, and I thought Oblivion was amazing in terms of the unique open-world gameplay and the stunning graphics that made these games legendary. While Skyrim improved on many aspects, and the modding universe surrounding Skyrim is arguably the best in all of PC gaming, when I was playing Skyrim, I couldn’t shake a feeling in the back of my mind that the Bathesda formula was getting a little bit stale. Maybe this left the door open for other studies who were bringing more innovation to the table post 2010. No doubt a legendary title. No doubt I played a billion hours. But at the end of the day, just not one of my top 3 due to Bathesda open-world gaming overload around that time (including New Vegas, which wasn’t Bathesda, but was based on same engine).

Dark Souls: Prepare to Die – Another great game that was hard to leave out of my top 3. This game for me the was the opposite of Skyrim: clever, original, ground-breaking. But not without some peculiarities. Like an amazing work of modern art, when you first see it in the gallery you are thinking “that is some crazy shit that I don’t understand at all”. But then some art expert explains the work to you, and you see the genius, and you are struck with newfound appreciation. When I first played this game, I struggled to make it out of the first few areas and found myself incredibly annoyed and wondering why anyone liked this game at all. Only after going online and cheating (some video showing me how to death run into a high level area to get some good gear and XP) did the game open up, and I could actually play. But then I embarked on one of my most memorable gaming journeys ever. There are dozens of details in this game that struck me as artistic genius. This game for me is the closest thing on this list to true gaming artwork, and I’m certain it deserves a spot in the all-decade list somewhere.

Pillars of Eternity: Deadfire – I remember waiting almost 2 full years for Obsidian to release Pillars of Eternity. Billed as the spiritual successor to my beloved Baldur’s Gate series, I don’t think I have ever been as fired up about a pending game release. Unfortunately, despite being a great game, the expectations were way too daunting, and I was bitterly disappointed. I thought the gameplay and art were fantastic, but I didn’t love the story, the characters, or the world and lore they invented. I just wanted a modern Baldur’s Gate. A glorious D&D PC-based RPG experience. Fast forward a few years and Deadfire comes along. By then my grumpiness had worn away and my expectation were much more reasonable. When I started playing Deadfire, I felt more comfortable and familiar with the PoE world and character classes. I thought the pirate / maritime setting was fresh and original, and they improved on many aspects of the game that bothered me in the first installment. I’m hopeful that future games based on this content will continue to improve, and I’ve learned my lesson about games recapturing vibes from 20 years ago! That’s why I’ve convinced myself that Larian’s Baldur’s Gate reboot attempt is going to be a horrible piece of crap that I won’t even bother to look at, read about, or think about for even one second!!!!!!!!! Speaking of Larian…

Divinity: Original Sin – If PoE was a tale of ridiculously unrealistic expectations, then DoS is a story of low expectations that resulted in one of the most unexpected gaming surprises for me in the last decade. I had never played any of the Divinity games, and I had never heard of Larian when this game came along. But after a few hours of gameplay, I was hooked, and this became one of my absolute favorites. Something about the goofy and whimsical setting and dialog for me was really original and charming. And I loved the strategic nature of the combat. This game was also super important as it put Larian on the map big time, setting the stage for DoS 2 (which I didn’t like personally), and other big time pending projects which I refuse to talk about, or think about for even one second!!!!!!
Pathfinder: Kingmaker – This was my favorite classic style, party-based, isometric game of the decade, beating out other good ones like PoE, DoS, Wasteland, Shadowrun, and Drakensang: The River of Time. My hunch is I just love the original rulesets and content from D&D and Pathfinder. So kudus to Owlcat for doing justice to the Pathfinder universe. I really loved this game, spending hours on character builds and restarting a zillion times to play with new classes and multi-class combos. I agonized over the various magic items and how I should allocate to my favorite party members. All marks of classic RPG goodness. I loved some aspects of the story, others not so much. And I’m really excited about Owlcat’s next installment, Wrath of the Righteous, as I think they can invest more in the story and characters given so much of the core game is already built. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Darkest Dungeon – This game was another little work of gaming art. Doesn’t stack up to the others given the side scrolling gameplay and the sometimes annoying grindy nature of the core game mechanic. But this game has many fun little elements that I loved. I still go around quoting sayings from the game, and then laugh to myself, while no one has any idea what I’m talking about. “Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer”. The narrator – Wayne June – deserves a gaming Oscar for his work. I played for countless hours on my iPad while traveling away from my PC. Great, unique, and artistic game that deserves recognition.

Final thoughts:

2010 – 2019 was damn good decade for RPGs in my view. Was very fun looking back. I’m surprised my top 3 didn’t include any isometric, party based RPG, as I’m pretty sure that genre is my favorite. My 3 top games of all time would probably be that style. But it seems the the action-oriented, main-character-driven story games were my favorites this past decade.

So long Geralt of Rivia and Commander Shepard…I will miss you! And happy New Year to the RPG Watch Community

Falksi said:

Dude, Witcher 2 needs about 3-4 playthroughs before you've even seen the story from all angles, you've barely scratched the surface.

Click to expand...

The first battle against the big tentacle thing was rough but I got through it. The battle against the king slayer guy stopped me, though - so I lowered the difficulty. That let me get through it TOO well - I could have slept walked through it. So I pushed the difficulty back up. Then there was some thing where you flashbacked to the past. The I finally got to the last city and got stopped again. That was the last straw for me.

What I desperately needed was a difficulty level between easy and medium. Without it, I was building up to the big battles then, when it came time for the show down to prove my game prowess, I suddenly (to steal a bowling term) had to put bumpers in the gutters to get through it.

I get what you say about the story, though. When the Big Decision point came, I saved my game and made a copy. Then I played both branches in parallel for quite a while before deciding to join the rebels.

Zloth said:

The first battle against the big tentacle thing was rough but I got through it. The battle against the king slayer guy stopped me, though - so I lowered the difficulty. That let me get through it TOO well - I could have slept walked through it. So I pushed the difficulty back up. Then there was some thing where you flashbacked to the past. The I finally got to the last city and got stopped again. That was the last straw for me.

What I desperately needed was a difficulty level between easy and medium. Without it, I was building up to the big battles then, when it came time for the show down to prove my game prowess, I suddenly (to steal a bowling term) had to put bumpers in the gutters to get through it.

I get what you say about the story, though. When the Big Decision point came, I saved my game and made a copy. Then I played both branches in parallel for quite a while before deciding to join the rebels.

Click to expand...

The guy you battled is the hardest fight in the game. The only other real challenge after that is if your a "spellcaster" build on Dark Mode, and the battlefield can be a toughie.

But consider giving it another go with your knew found knowledge of battles & enemies on medium mate. Once you've sussed the character builds, potions & suchlike you shouldn't have any probs with it.

Falksi said:

Skyrim?!? Can't believe the praise I'm seeing for it. One of the most shallow, mundane, cookie-cutter pieces of popamole trash ever. Witcher 3 isn't far off too.

Both to me are games with an absolute ton of nothing & busywork. Woeful experiences which embody gaming decline.

Mass Effect 2 is similar. It's not a bad game, but it waters down the first entry way too much, and is essentially a shooter with cut scenes.

But each to their own I guess.

Click to expand...

I'll respond since Witcher 3 was on my list… It's great because of the story and characters and so forth. The gameplay is certainly nothing special, mediocre at best. Also, I feel it's pretty much the same situation for ME2, although I'm sure some will argue it there (more than would argue it for the Witcher games…) Gameplay-wise, they're both heavy decline, no doubt about that. But the rest of those games is great enough to overcome it.

Sadly, there's no answers I can give you regarding Skyrim, that one is just all-around awful :lol: