VGC | John – Page 33 – Video Game Canon

“The 200 Games You Must Play” Have Been Chosen By Australia’s Hyper Magazine

Hyper, Australia’s oldest gaming magazine, has always had a slightly skewed perspective on the industry. Earlier this year, they published their latest “Best Games” list, “The 200 Games You Must Play.”

Hyper, Australia’s oldest gaming magazine, has always had a slightly skewed perspective on the industry. Their previous stabs at “Best Games” lists in 1995 and 2013 often focused on titles that no one else was looking at. And the same is true for “The 200 Games You Must Play,” which was published earlier this year.

“The 200 Games You Must Play” is an unranked list, just like Hyper’s previous lists, so you won’t find a consensus pick for the “Best Game of All Time” from the magazine’s editors. Instead, the 203 games on the list (there were a few ties) cut across a huge spectrum of genres and decades, as well as the inclusion of almost three dozen titles that are brand new to the Video Game Canon.

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Listology 2.0: Exploring the Best Games From the 2010s

We’ve still got 18 months to go, but the 2010s have been a pretty great decade for games. To make sure they stand the test of time, all games released after January 1, 2014 are ineligible for Version 2.0 of the Video Game Canon, but you’ll find several very important games in the decade’s earlier years.

Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo extended the lifespans of the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii beyond the standard five years in 2010, and developers used this extra time to produce software that took full advantage of each platform’s quirks. That was especially true of the 2013 launch of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, which took the top spot on this list. But it was Rockstar Games that might have had the biggest impact on the decade so far. The publisher controlled the rest of the Top 3 thanks to strong showings from Grand Theft Auto V (#2) and Red Dead Redemption (#3).

And while 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still too new to qualify for the Video Game Canon, I have a feeling this category will get very interesting once its eligible.

Find out where all of your favorite games released between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2013 placed after the break.

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Game Informer Celebrated Their 300th Issue By Naming “The Top 300 Games of All Time”

The good folks at Game Informer published their 300th issue last month, and a big part of the celebration included the unveiling of a brand new “Best Games” list, “The Top 300 Games of All Time.”

The good folks at Game Informer published their 300th issue last month, and a big part of the celebration included the unveiling of a brand new Best Games list, “The Top 300 Games of All Time.”

The editors of Game Informer chose Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as the #1 game, writing this about Link’s third adventure: “Although many of the series’ conventions debuted on the NES in The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past defined the blueprint Nintendo has used for most sequels, and is still one of the most ambitious entries to date.”

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Welcome Class of 2018: Four New Games Inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

Yesterday, the Strong Museum and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games announced this year’s inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Yesterday, the Strong Museum and the International Center for the History of Electronic Games announced this year’s inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame. The Class of 2018 includes Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix’s beloved RPG; Tomb Raider, Eidos Interactive’s 1996 introduction to Lara Croft; John Madden Football, EA Sports’s first football simulation; and Spacewar!, an early game created by the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT in 1962.

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2017 GOTY Scoreboard: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, What Remains of Edith Finch, and More

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. What more needs to be said about 2017? Honestly, not much.

Not only did Nintendo rebuild one of their marquee franchises into something even bigger than before, but they also launched a brand new console/handheld hybrid, delivered the biggest Mario game in more than a decade, and updated Mario Kart 8 with an actual Battle Mode. Not a bad run for a company that struggled in recent years with the Wii U.

But it was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild that took home the most “Game of the Year” accolades in 2017, leaving the rest of the field fighting for scraps. Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey was a popular choice for publications that didn’t have Hyrule on their itinerary, as was Atlus’s Persona 5.

You can see more of last year’s “Game of the Year” contenders in the 2017 GOTY Scoreboard after the break.

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IGN Publishes New Edition of “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” for 2018

IGN recently published a new update to their “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” list. The selections from the list will be added to the Video Game Canon in a future update.

IGN recently published a new update to their “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” list.

This time around, Super Mario World landed at #1, climbing 13 spots since the last time IGN selected a Top 100 in 2015. Three years ago, Super Mario Bros. 3 claimed the top spot, but it fell to #6 in the most recent ranking.

The site also enshrined several 2017 releases in their latest Top 100, honoring The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at #26, Persona 5 at #81, and Super Mario Odyssey at #84.

IGN’s “Top 100 Video Games of All Time” will be added to the Video Game Canon in a future update.

Listology 2.0: Exploring the Best Games From the 2000s

You could probably say this about any ten-year period, but the 2000s (AKA “The Aughts”) were a strange decade for video games. The era was bookended on one side by the angular blockiness of the waning days of the PlayStation and on the other by the return of pixel-perfect platforming with Jonathan Blow’s Braid. In between Sony launched the PS2, Sega exited the consolemaker’s club, PC gaming died (only to be reborn), and gaming entered a new era of online connectivity and high definition graphics.

Whew.

But the one constant throughout the entire decade was Valve. Half-Life was originally released in 1998, but Valve pushed the story further with multiple expansion packs in the early 2000s, as well as a PS2 version of the game in 2001. It’s most popular mod, Counter-Strike, also originally launched during the previous decade, but Valve brought the multiplayer shooter in-house in 2000 and released the game’s definitive version (Counter-Strike 1.6) in 2003. From there, Valve stepped up their game considerably with the launch of Steam, and then a murderer’s row of unique offerings: 2004’s Half-Life 2 (#1), 2007’s Portal (#8), 2007’s Team Fortress 2 (#31), 2008’s Left 4 Dead (#42), and 2009’s Left 4 Dead 2 (#53).

But Valve wasn’t the only company to make their mark on the decade. Capcom brought back the Resident Evil franchise in a big way with Resident Evil 4 (#2), Irrational changed the way we look at a game’s story with BioShock (#3), Blizzard birthed the most popular MMORPG ever with World of Warcraft (#4), and Infinity Ward took the Call of Duty franchise to the next level with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (#5).

Going further down the list, you’ll find two from Team Ico (Shadow of the Colossus at #6 and Ico at #14), Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved (#7), Harmonix’s Rock Band (#10), and the mighty Minecraft (#13). And outside the Top 15, you’ll find Rockstar’s revolutionary Grand Theft Auto III (#16).

“The Aughts” were a great decade for games, and you can see where the rest of the decade’s best games landed on Version 2.0 of the Video Game Canon after the break.

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Listology 2.0: Exploring the Best Games From the 1990s

Video gaming went through some massive changes throughout the 1990s, greater than any ten-year period before or since.

The decade began with the familiar beeps and bloops of the NES, as Nintendo launched Super Mario Bros. 3 shortly after the New Year in 1990. The first shots of the “Console War” between the Genesis and the Super NES were be fired soon after, but the late night release of id Software’s Doom (and the rise of the PC as a gaming platform) in 1993 would change everything.

Doom didn’t just cement the First Person Shooter as gaming’s dominant genre, it blew open the door to more “mature” themes that Mortal Kombat hinted at a year earlier. Different philosophies on the public’s hunger for this type of content would lead Sega and Nintendo in opposing directions, and the market would be further splintered by the arrival of the Sony PlayStation. Emerging from the ashes of the planned “Nintendo PlayStation” add-on for the Super NES, Sony’s console introduced cinematic games like Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and Tomb Raider.

Nintendo would strike back with the Nintendo 64, and a decade that began with pixelated plumbers flinging fire at a giant turtle would end with GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and a vastly changed landscape for games.

That said, it was still Super Mario 64 on top. Find out where all 337 games released between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 1999 placed in Version 2.0 of the Video Game Canon after the break.

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What Remains of Edith Finch Wins “Best Game” at 2017-2018 BAFTA Games Awards

Giant Sparrow’s mystery adventure, What Remains of Edith Finch, won “Best Game” at the 2017-2018 BAFTA Games Awards… but Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice stole the show.

Ninja Theory’s action-adventure took home top honors in five categories during tonight’s ceremony, and their haul included awards for “Artistic Achievement,” “Audio Achievement,” “Best British Game,” “Game Beyond Entertainment,” and “Performer” (which was given to Melina Juergens for her vocal work as Senua).

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which swept its way to multiple victories at The Game Awards, the GDC Awards, the DICE Awards, and the SXSW Gaming Awards, was limited to a single victory at the BAFTAs for “Game Innovation.” However, Nintendo’s Super Mario Odyssey had a good night, winning for “Game Design” and “Family.”

The complete list of winners and nominees from the 2017-2018 BAFTA Games Awards can be found after the break.

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Listology 2.0: Exploring the Best Games From the 1980s and Earlier

Tetris currently sits at the top of the Video Game Canon’s most recent update (Version 2.0), so you shouldn’t be surprised to also see it atop a list of the best games released before 1990.

The addictive puzzle game first made its mark on the world stage in 1984 thanks to the inspired design work of Alexey Pajitnov (and a subsequent IBM-compatible version coded by Vadim Gerasimov and Dmitry Pavlovsky), but it was Nintendo’s beloved revision from 1989 (for the NES and Game Boy) that propelled it to unexpected heights. The consolemaker’s output in the 1980s was practically unmatched at the time, and it must have required some kind of magic to add Pajitnov’s inspired puzzler to the middle of their hot streak.

Besides Tetris, four other titles in the top seven were produced by Nintendo (Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!). Only Ms. Pac-Man (at #3) and SimCity (at #5) managed to break the consolemaker’s stranglehold on the decade.

1978’s Space Invaders, from Taito, was the top performer among the games released during the “Me Decade” (at #10). Though 1972’s Pong (at #13) and 1977’s Zork (at #14) weren’t far behind.

Even a pair of pre-commercial gaming pioneers managed to find a place on the Video Game Canon. 1962’s Spacewar!, which was designed by MIT’s Tech Model Railroad Club for the school’s then-new PDP-1 mainframe, came in at #57. Meanwhile, a similar academic curiosity led William Higinbotham to take time off from researching advanced scientific concepts during the Cold War to create Tennis For Two (which ranked #113) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1958.

Find out how your favorites games from when video games were expressed in eight bits or less ranked after the break.

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