RPG Codex - Top 101 PC RPGs

I think it is mainly the sequel, Wake of the Ravager that is buggy. I don't recall any major issues in Shattered Lands, which is easily one of my all time favorite CRPGs. I started playing it recently and found it still holds up pretty well.

My only real complaint with Shattered Lands is the D&D edition it's based (2nd?) doesn't make for as many interesting choices when you build / level up your characters as later editions with feats, skills, domain powers, etc. But still I'd say it's probably my favorite D&D game even though I enjoy the combat & character building in ToEE a lot more.

I have both of them on GOG. I might give Shattered Lands another try soon.

Bugs aside, is Wake of the Ravager worth playing? Do you know if the GOG version had any additional bug fixes?
 
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The rest of the top 10 is then filled out by three other classics of the turn of the millenium, the time when their site was created. The top 10 is essentially a time capsule of 1997 to 2004 with an addition of a later Fallout nostalgia sequel.

Well, 1997-2004 was the best time for CRPGs ever. Only our post-2013 era comes close (maybe it is even better but I haven't played enough indies to be sure of that).

I was quite surprised to see Pillars of Eternity doing so well, though. It seemed as if the Codex hated the game.

EDIT: I'm fairly younger than most people around here and in the Codex and I played those 97-2004 AFTER I played many late BioWare games, The Witcher, etc. No nostalgia here, they are that good.
 
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Lol, no-one's denying they're good, it just speaks of bias when someone's like of one thing makes someone so completely blind to everything else. Troika games in particular required nearly a decade 'in the oven' before they were 'good', they would make modern game patching conventions look like speedy gonzales. I've no doubt many games would be 'ok' if an entire forum dedicated itself ro improving and promoting them over decades. There's not a huge amount of difference between any Troika game and all the people that just play mods of any other game.

Each Troika game was good at one thing primarily and fairly dire in most other regards, which, again, can be said of most games. I'm sure if that site had dedicated itself to loving Lionheart then we'd all be praising that today…
 
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I'm struggling to see any Banner Saga placed, and yet that game has quality combat, quality story and no end the thing the codex likes so much, that of branching story described as narrtive choice and consequence. What a shame it was just quality made by the wrong people. Harrumph harrumpf harrumpf.

Im yet to play this series, but I recall reading that c&c and branching is artificial and has no real impact on story development. Maybe Im wrong, as I said, Im yet to play it myself...
 
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Im yet to play this series, but I recall reading that c&c and branching is artificial and has no real impact on story development. Maybe Im wrong, as I said, Im yet to play it myself…

No moreso than most games that claim such branching and less so than many.
 
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Yes, there are impacts, beware of trolls with unreasonable biases.
 
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EDIT: I'm fairly younger than most people around here and in the Codex and I played those 97-2004 AFTER I played many late BioWare games, The Witcher, etc. No nostalgia here, they are that good.

It's also important to note those games, especially Infinity Engine ones, basically became blueprints for RPGs as we know them and that's why they're held in such high regard. They're notable and all, but you don't see your average RPG fan today praise or even remember SSI titles, for example.
 
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I for one finished Grimoire, shortly after it was released. I had a blast with the game, and I've been meaning to replay it and just haven't gotten around to doing it as of yet. Honestly, if you enjoy that style of game, you really cannot go wrong with it, there are certainly enough reviews out there for anyone to check out.
 
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It's also important to note those games, especially Infinity Engine ones, basically became blueprints for RPGs as we know them and that's why they're held in such high regard. They're notable and all, but you don't see your average RPG fan today praise or even remember SSI titles, for example.

I remember SSI games fondly. They were among the first to try to do more than the trap/fight/treasure cycle prevalent in early Wizardy and Bard's Tale games. I finished a few, but sadly never finished Pool of Radiance, cause one of the later disks was corrupt and wouldn't load (which you only found out when you got that far into the game)
 
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I'm struggling to see any Banner Saga placed, and yet that game has quality combat, quality story and no end the thing the codex likes so much, that of branching story described as narrtive choice and consequence. What a shame it was just quality made by the wrong people. Harrumph harrumpf harrumpf.
I think you are full of shit. You are dismissing a list based on imagined biases because it does not agree with your own likings. Well it does not agree with mine as well. My 101 would be much different, it is not a reason to go full sperg here about imagined biases and stuff.

As for Banner Saga, I didn't like it either. Not many people talk about it on 'Dex. Those that do, shit on its combat system.
I guess not many felt strongly about it to give it any points.
To understand the list you have to understand how people voted. You got 25 points, you could put 1 to 5 points into one game. I think my list had 10 games in total and I struggled to give even 1 point into games I enjoyed a lot.
Giving 1 point into something like Banner Saga that was at best OK? Not gonna happen.
 
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I think you are full of shit. You are dismissing a list based on imagined biases because it does not agree with your own likings. Well it does not agree with mine as well. My 101 would be much different, it is not a reason to go full sperg here about imagined biases and stuff.

As for Banner Saga, I didn't like it either. Not many people talk about it on 'Dex. Those that do, shit on its combat system.
I guess not many felt strongly about it to give it any points.
To understand the list you have to understand how people voted. You got 25 points, you could put 1 to 5 points into one game. I think my list had 10 games in total and I struggled to give even 1 point into games I enjoyed a lot.
Giving 1 point into something like Banner Saga that was at best OK? Not gonna happen.

And there you have it. "they didn't like the combat". LMAO.

Because Planescape Torment is so renown for it's combat...

Because Arcanum is so renown for it's combat...

Because Fallout is so renown for it's combat...

Because Dues Ex is so renown for it's combat...

Because Morrowind is so renown for it's combat...

I think you get the picture. And, no, I don't disrespect the list "only" because it excludes games I like, that is hilariously absurd. Someone asked me for specific examples of things that have been made that get a massive blind eye over on the dex and I gave a few examples... after proving the general bias. You're reply here is the one that contains the delusional gibberish. "imagined biases"? LMAO, oh boy, you're really gonna die on the hill of claiming the codex isn't exactly what it is? Oh wow. I'm guess it must really tear you up not being able to jut scream "butthurt" and ignore the actual points of discussion...
 
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There is no point of discussion. You claimed something ridiculous and never backed it up with any facts or real data.
Maybe those games are there because they are good. Maybe God chose them and we think we got free will. Maybe it is aliens. Who knows. You don't because you didn't offer any reason to believe you.
So only thing left is your unreasonable bias.

And saying 'Dex loves games just because Avellone worked on it (but was really just a tiny part of making it) is ridiculous. About as ridiculous as people that see government conspiracies everywhere.
 
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Erm… except I did prove it, with stats.

Further, Banner Saga does not have poor combat, it's combat is significantly better than a huge number of games that perform well on the RPGcodex list.

Further, the codex does not even rate combat, combat games never perform well there, games perform well there because they are made by the 'right' people ;)

I have already proven this, you know, with stats and discussion, you are just saying "no you're wrong" without supplying any facts, stats or discussion.

Maybe you can provide a list of all the games in the top 25 that are renown for having good combat as you're rebuttal?

You know, then we can see the extent to which "some people didn't like the combat" is actually a relevant point to the tastes of the codex.
 
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It's kinda nuts to think that there's some grand conspiracy at the Codex to vote games up just because they were made by Black Isle, Troika, or had Avellone involvement. The reasonable and obvious conclusion would be that people there just happen to like those games, so I think the onus falls on you to fill us in on why it's instead actually some big conspiracy to push the games of a couple long-dead companies. You haven't proven anything - these stats only prove what people are voting for, not the motivation behind their vote.

As far as games in the top 25 that are considered to have "good combat", that depends on your definition of good combat. But I see approx 8-9 games in the top 25 that I'd say are generally considered to have "good combat" at the Codex. If you are a person who's willing to say that RTwP is "good combat", then the number is even higher. And it's worth mentioning that #14 (JA2) is considered by many to have the best combat of all time, and it still managed #14 while almost certainly suffering from many people refusing to vote for it because they don't consider it an RPG.
 
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Would it kill you to list those 8 or 9 games? You know, so your opinion can be actually conversed with...

Also, I have never once used the word conspiracy. If the Bioware forums did a poll of the best RPGs of all time and the top 1-7 places were all bioware games then you'd be calling that bias, not conspiracy... right...
 
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Ok, the list is influenced by "social demography" of the group that created it. Americas were discovered. We may move on now ... sheesh ...
 
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I think any site voting for any list is going to have a bias. I've seen it on many web sites, and I'm not sure the codex is more or less influenced than anyone else. Most forums have a few very vocal posters who do their best for push their opinion on everyone else. For example, I listen to AC/DC and over on the AC/DC boards there was one guy pushing the idea that 5 albums formed a classic period of music and these were objectively the best(which I find an absurd idea with music, since personal taste plays an even bigger role than something like a game). He even came up with a fancy name of it. The funny thing is how he managed to generate a little cult of followers who began to follow this mantra. Even here at RPGWatch we have certain posters who go out of their way to consistantly praise or trash certain games (and I am certainly not free from guilt in this regard) and these ideas can influence others and create a general tone for the website in general.
 
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True, but I think the Codex is rather more whipped to follow the party line.
 
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