Well, lists like these seem to be in vogue right now, and since I’m essentially waiting for the functional part of today I thought I might as well get in on the act. As far as technicalities go, to be eligible games must have been released in the UK during this decade for the platform they’re being nominated on (especially important with earlier games where they would often be released on PC/console first and then ported to the other one a year or so later)
EDIT: This has actually become a Top 9 – I haven’t yet decided which game should get the final slot. Musing between Assassin’s Creed 2, Call of Duty 4, or some game from earlier in the decade that I’ve forgotten about.
10. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
People who started gaming in the current generation may laugh at this, but the Tony Hawk series wasn’t always locked in a battle with EA’s Skate to come up with the most game-destroying gimmick control system. THPS3 was the first game of PS2 era and is still the best. There was no C-movie quality storyline, no contrived RPG elements, just “complete this high score challenge to unlock the next level” or “do this trick to unlock a new stat point”. And fantastic gameplay.
9. Diablo II
Introduced most of us to the action RPG. No turns, no random encounters, and levels no more restrictive than the simple premise that the boss had to be fought at some point. There was so much to do that I have to confess I never finished it, but for many Diablo II remains the very definition of this genre.
8. Company of Heroes
For this to be released at a time when World War II was as cliched a setting for games as high rises are for films, and still win multiple game of the year awards, should give you some idea of just how good it is. The basic game-changing concept was introduced by Dawn of War: instead of having a huge ore/oil/tiberium field conveniently located next to your starting position, acquiring resources depended on gaining control of various strategic locations across the map. Of course Dawn of War being a synthetic setting, these strategic points essentially amounted to a choice between Crater A and Crater B with the controlling forces consisting of tin cans and midget men. DoW was a good game, but it just lacked something to make it great. Turn those strategic points into village crossroads, train stations, and the forces into Panzers and paratroops and you have the best strategy game of the decade.
7. Portal
“Just keep on trying ’till you run out of cake”. Who would have thought that what is essentially a puzzle game would have become arguably gaming’s greatest piece of geek culture? Portal’s gameplay is fluid and oddly addictive, but the originality and dark humour sealed the deal. Essentially if you haven’t played Portal then you don’t have much of an excuse: it is available for PC, PS3 (via The Orange Box), and Xbox 360 (via The Orange Box and the standalone XBLA release ‘Still Alive’).
6. Battlefield 1942
In modern times having on-foot combat and driveable vehicles was a very unusual concept indeed. Battlefield 1942 came out of nowhere and launched an entire new genre by itself. Of all the games on this list it has probably aged least well, but both it and its Desert Combat modification established teamplay as the dominant form of online shooter.
5. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
The Star Wars game for people who don’t like Star Wars games. The game itself is simple enough for young kids yet still able to hold the attention of the rest of us.
4. Pokemon Crystal
Irritating hidden stat-influences aside, Pokemon is still arguably among the best RPGs ever to have been produced. Crystal of the best of them – the largest map, the best post-storyline sequence in any RPG, the best post-post-storyline ’superboss’, and also had a decent amount of e-critters before Nintendo started ramping them up towards 500.
3. Guild Wars
An online RPG where the price you pay for the game is judged adequate for you to be granted the ability to play it? “Impossible, won’t catch on and will go out of business” was the cry from the vested interests of cash-cow subscription games. Three sequel-addons later, with a full sequel game world in the works, those naysayers have been proved wrong in spectacular style. Best thought of as Diablo II, with some MMOness added, in 3D.
2. Assassin’s Creed II
A game which only came out in November getting onto Games of the Decade? Yep, and most definitely deserved. Assassin’s Creed was the first game to do swordfighting really well, to turn medieval times from the ‘when do I get Infantry’ phase of Civilization to a fantastic action game setting in their own right. The problem was that – perhaps due to low initial expectations and a correspondingly low budget – there were some rough edges. The pre-assassination “investigation” missions consisted of ‘free run over these flags’, ‘kill these guards without being spotted’ and ‘beat up this informant’. End of list. The actual violence also lacked imagination and variety. Assassin’s Creed II takes that brilliant concept and adds a layer of polish – the plot is tied together much better (the names on your list are there for a reason, not ‘just because’), movement is more free-flowing, combat is more exciting with the addition of different guard types (spearmen etc.), and the whole thing is a sublime gaming experience. If you haven’t bought this already then do so – it really is one of the great gaming experiences of the current console generation.
1. Final Fantasy IX
The last of the traditional Final Fantasy games – no voice acting, just little grey boxes with text in them. It was like a novel in Playstation form – allowing you to project your own imagination onto the characters, their voices and emotions. It also had an extensive but straightforward stats system (rather than its predecessor’s marmite ‘Junctioning’ system – FFVIII being months before the 00s saved me from making a difficult decision), an ability-learning structure that lent real depth to the question of which item to equip, and characters which the player really grew to care about. A one-word description would be ‘magical’.
Well, time for the traditional (in the sense that I have done it once before, two years ago 
) Christmas Eve quotation. This time it’s Adeste Fideles, the original (Latin) text of what we know better as O Come All Ye Faithful.
Adeste fideles laeti, triumphantes;
Venite, venite in Bethlehem:
Natum videte Regem Angelorum:Venite, adorate
Venite, adorate
Venite, adorate Dominum.
You might have noticed (or, if you have better things to do, you might not!) that I haven’t posted much recently. To be honest the whole regular-blogging thing doesn’t interest me to the extent that it used to. Not to worry, however: I’m planning a revamp of some kind over the Christmas vacation. Still not sure what it’ll be, or even whether it will still be Wordpress-based, but expect a lot more of things that might actually be interesting (photos, game guides, etc.) rather than pure opinion-rant
Are antivirus companies about to get Netscaped? Microsoft’s new, free antivirus program (known as ‘Microsoft Security Essentials’) is now available to download having successfully completed a three-month beta test. As a minor aside, it should embarass Google that a relative dinosaur like Microsoft knows the correct meaning of the term and they [Google] don’t. OK, Google perma-beta griping over, back to the AV. According to most of the mini-reviews MSSE is very light on system resources and has a pleasing UI:
It should be noted that MSE is very small; the installer sizes range from just over 4MB to under 9MB. The installation is also very quick and the program’s folder takes up only about 13MB. MSE sports a single tray icon (hidden by default in Windows 7) that indicates it is running. The software doesn’t add any browser toolbars, desktop gadgets, or additional bloatware during installation. (Emil Protalinski, ArsTechnica)
Of course, using few resources and looking nice aren’t the only basis on which to evaluate an antivirus suite: after all, not having any antivirus at all would use even fewer system resources and would look nicer through not putting another icon in the system tray! What will really decide if MSSE is a good option or not is its actual performance in detecting viruses – something its predecessor (Windows Live OneCare) didn’t do terribly well. I’m afraid I’ll be waiting a few weeks for the technical reports before I swap out my current AV – especially given the initial reports of false positives.
It’s been announced (although it was known on the site for months) that enWikipedia will start using the ‘flagged revisions’ system on biographies of living people. The usual old media suspects have come out of the woodwork to assert that this is the end of the encyclopedia’s open culture epitomised in its strapline “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit”. Even the normally passable New York Times takes this ‘necessary evil’ line:
Now, as the English-language version of Wikipedia has just surpassed three million articles, that freewheeling ethos is about to be curbed. (Noam Cohen, NY Times 2009-08-24)
In fact, in the specific area to which it is being applied (biographies of living people), Flagged Revisions will actually result in increased openness. The reality is that any edits by unregistered users are already scrutinised by what are known as ‘recent change patrollers‘, and reverted if there is even the slightest doubt as to their accuracy – particularly in biographies which are covered by a ’shoot first, ask questions never‘ policy imposed on the community by the Wikimedia Foundation. This institutional paranoia means that many biographies are ’semi-protected’ (only editable by registered users with existing accounts) or ‘protected’ (not editable by anyone, except the Foundation’s approved inquisitors) for the sole reason that some idiot might insert an inaccurate statement. ‘Flagged revisions’ will mean that this elitism can no longer be justified: the tool enables anyone to edit articles without a risk of vandalism being visible.
Wikipedia has many flaws – the use of popularity contests to replace its core principles for example, or the Foundation’s special people abusing privacy-violating tools to stop disliked candidates winning community elections – but Flagged Revisions is actually one of the better ideas to be piloted by the Foundation in recent years.