Community RPG Codex Top Non-RPG PC Games RESULTS!

[Trashos]

I kept postponing my vote, because I could not decide which Football Manager to vote for. In the end, I did not vote at all.

This list will be very useful to me at times such as this. Thanks felipepepe, thanks Lady Error!

 

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Any list that ranks Thief 1 above Thief 2 can't be all bad.

 

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Was the late 90s the best time for PC gamers [...] DISCUSS!

Yes, they were.

That was the time when video games were just breaking into the mainstream (so Mr Moneybags was willing to throw some serious funding their way) but not quite mainstream enough to have to be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. There was still a willingness to take risks and try new things.

 

[Carrion]

Certain games might've fared better if it wasn't for the sequels. Yearly franchises (probably deservedly) don't really stand a chance since the votes are going to get split between some many different entries. It can also be tough to choose between an original game and its sequel — the sequel might be bigger, tighter, more focused, more fleshed out or whatever, but does it really deserve a vote more than the original game that defined the entire series and probably had a bigger impact around the time of release? I wonder if the race between Civilization and Alpha Centari would've been tighter if Civ had ended after Civ II, for example.

A couple of cases in point below:

Vice City being higher than San Andreas is just silly, SA is the better game. Did people dunk more points into VC more because they felt San Andreas was overrated or something?

San Andreas might be the ultimate GTA as far as the content goes, but the setting tips the scales in favor of Vice City. Didn't vote for either, but VC definitely would've got my vote if I had to pick one of the two.

I'm so happy to see Academy > Outcast, it really is the superior game. Kyle is great, don't get me wrong.

Really? I've finished Outcast several times, but Academy barely held my interest through the demo.

At least Dark Forces II is at its rightful place.

Some of you seemed to have missed the memo, but Call of Pripyat > Shadow of Chernobyl. Unfortunately the list must be immediately invalidated by this fact alone.

I do think CoP is the best of the three and probably the game that got closest to their initial vision, but SoC had more of an impact on me when it came out, and it has the most memorable moments in the series.

Also, even though I've finished Max Payne a ridiculous number at times, I consider Max Payne 2 to be a much better game overall. It fixes all the shortcomings that MP1's gameplay had (e.g. bullet sponge enemies, nonexistent AI, anti-climactic death animations) and has a much better story on top of that. The only thing where it kind of loses out is level design, as MP1 had lots of memorable and atmospheric locations around the streets of New York despite having a dip in quality towards the end. The shooting is the most important thing, though, and MP2 makes the first game almost obsolete in that regard.

 

[catfood]

I mean nevermind HoMMo 3 being above MoM (Codex is for fags after all), but just look at HL2 over UT, Blood and Duke 3D. Had to check the link in the address bar to make sure I wasn't browsing PC Gamer.

 

[felipepepe]

San Andreas might be the ultimate GTA as far as the content goes, but the setting tips the scales in favor of Vice City.

The first 10 minutes of SA have more style and charm than all of Vice City. VC had a cool radio and it was cool to go full Al Capone in the end, but that's it.

 

[Alpan]

Thank you Felipe for your excellent work, as usual. And Lady Error too, for the help.

I salute all my Freespace 2 brothers in this thread. Because we know if more people played that game, they would join us.

I also salute those of fine taste who prefer Master of Orion 1 to its less inspired successor.

People should be frankly ashamed of the placement of The Longest Journey. That game is mediocre at best, and certainly not better than Sam & Max Hit the Road let alone the sixth greatest adventure game of all time. (Obviously, Primordia's placement is ridiculous, but I've long ago learned to love nepotism when it redounds to my benefit.)

This is not the first time I've heard you say something negative about a game, but certainly the first time I've seen you denigrate others' preferences. Impressive. But that's why The Longest Journey is a classic, though I did not vote for it.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Cool list.

The most eh thing about it is probably starcraft and half life in top 10, but it's not like they're bad games so whatever.

Seems to me that the generational switch on the codex is showing a bit less here than it did in latest top crpg list for whatever reason.

 

[jackofshadows]

How it was decided which games with 37 poitns to include to the top50 and two of them (Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne) to drop?

Lots of nostalgiafag games, games that people care to sing the praises of (for leet gamer cred on a forum or simply because of nostalgia) but don't care much to play. Feels like this list is too much of a popularity contest combined with what I mentioned previously. Knowing how little so many people here actually play games and tend to spend more of their time on only new releases or multiplayer crap instead of replays or old games also plays a part.

Speak for yourself. I'm replaying those old games quite often. Most of modern games which I've tried are just incapable to engage for any significant amount of time and it's fine, they're just were not made for my taste.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I noticed MoM just got an expansion. It wasn't all positive though. I thoroughly enjoyed Heroes III.

 

[hoothoot]

Conquerclub

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/codex-conquer-club.69761/page-7#post-6628828

Post in above to play. Need 2 more players and we got 6.

 

[Carrion]

The first 10 minutes of SA have more style and charm than all of Vice City. VC had a cool radio and it was cool to go full Al Capone in the end, but that's it.

Don't be silly. 80's Miami, Ray Liotta, neon lights, sleazy night clubs, heavy metal and dance music, outrageous clothing and Scarface-styled brutality, or some niggas riding shitty bikes in some shitty favela slum and crying about their dead mom — it's not even a contest.

 

[Arthandas]

Jesus Christ you old fucks...

 

[felipepepe]

How it was decided which games with 37 poitns to include to the top50 and two of them (Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne) to drop?

They are tied in the excel sheet, for the image collage I removed Max Payne 2 since Max Payne 1 was already there, and Dark Messiah since it's totally an RPG. I was gonna remove it from the list, but it's not in the Top 100 list, so people here really don't consider it an RPG... or have shitty taste.

 

[Hellwalker]

I see Thief 1,2. I'm Happy.

 

[felipepepe]

BTW, if you are looking for something NEW to play, there's the top games of the past 5 years:

 

[unfairlight]

I think the results are very representative of the Codex's taste

I think it's only really representative of what games people are most nostalgic about or what games people want to namedrop to look cool. How many of the people who voted for something like Quake have actually played it within 3, 5, 10 years?

and Dark Messiah since it's totally an RPG

How come System Shock is on the list, then? I haven't played it yet, but I can't imagine it's any more of a FPS and any less of a RPG than SS2 or DX.

Speak for yourself. I'm replaying those old games quite often. Most of modern games which I've tried are just incapable to engage for any significant amount of time and it's fine, they're just were not made for my taste.

If you're honest with that, you're the outlier. I'm willing to be a great number of the people who voted for a number of those games haven't played them in ages and are only looking at them through nostalgia goggles from ages past.

 

[felipepepe]

and Dark Messiah since it's totally an RPG

How come System Shock is on the list, then? I haven't played it yet, but I can't imagine it's any more of a FPS and any less of a RPG than SS2 or DX.

The first System Shock is a pure FPS, doesn't have classes, XP, skills, etc... you just shoot stuff. You should try the remake demo, it's cool, short, free and gives a perfect feel of the game.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

I think the results are very representative of the Codex's taste

I think it's only really representative of what games people are most nostalgic about or what games people want to namedrop to look cool. How many of the people who voted for something like Quake have actually played it within 3, 5, 10 years?

and Dark Messiah since it's totally an RPG

How come System Shock is on the list, then? I haven't played it yet, but I can't imagine it's any more of a FPS and any less of a RPG than SS2 or DX.

Speak for yourself. I'm replaying those old games quite often. Most of modern games which I've tried are just incapable to engage for any significant amount of time and it's fine, they're just were not made for my taste.

If you're honest with that, you're the outlier. I'm willing to be a great number of the people who voted for a number of those games haven't played them in ages and are only looking at them through nostalgia goggles from ages past.

On the scale of 1 to 10 I would give a rating of about 36 for how not surprised I am that you like chinese cartoons.

Also, it's not rocket science, you can take a look at threads like screenshots to see if people play old games or not. Not to mention it's like basic common knowledge that many of these games have very active communities.

Short summary: likes Chinese cartoons, is not intelligent, estonia. Where's that mongoloid gif from Postman.

 

[MrMarbles]

Was the late 90s the best time for PC gamers [...] DISCUSS!

Yes, they were.

That was the time when video games were just breaking into the mainstream (so Mr Moneybags was willing to throw some serious funding their way) but not quite mainstream enough to have to be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. There was still a willingness to take risks and try new things.

Further evidence: The games from the 1997-2001 cluster are STILL alive and kicking in E-sports, based on online play and on Steam statistics. To that the common response would be "yeah but all the people playing them are in their 30's". However, this response does not fit with how many people in their 20's are active on the pro scene for RTS titles, or with how many youngsters or old-timers you see on sites like Civfanatics and the like.

 

[unfairlight]

Also, it's not rocket science, you can take a look at threads like screenshots to see if people play old games or not

I never said no one played old games. I'm just saying that there's a lot of old farts here, and said old farts are often equipped with nostalgia goggles, never actually playing their so-called favourites. I'll put it to you this way: It's essentially the reverse of 7 playthroughs. How much can you claim to hate a game that you played 7 times? By the same token, how much can you claim to love a game you haven't played in 5 years? At a certain point it falls to dishonesty.

Not to mention it's like basic common knowledge that many of these games have very active communities.

Yes, that's why I didn't mention Thief but I did mention Quake. Thief has a very rabid following here. Not so much for Quake.

 

[Strange Fellow]

5 years is ridiculous. Do we have to constantly replay our favourite games long past the point of fatigue to get to call them our favourites? Cmon dude.

Besides, when I've replayed my favourites I've mostly found my memory of them to be accurate (I mean favourites, not "this game was fun when I was 12"). I'm not gonna force myself to run through the same thing over and over again because I don't trust my own time-tested judgement.

 

[jackofshadows]

If you're honest with that, you're the outlier. I'm willing to be a great number of the people who voted for a number of those games haven't played them in ages and are only looking at them through nostalgia goggles from ages past.

First of all, if these people haven't played their favorite old games they probably haven't played much at all except maybe some modern titles here and there which didn't impress them enough to replace the old ones. What's so unusual about that? And if "they" basically stop playing games in general then those old favorite games would be still their favorite by definition, simple as that and thus represent their taste perfectly. Also, some people just don't tend to replay any games so yeah, they're spending time playing recent titles but that again, just doesn't change their preference.

Second, correct me if I'm wrong but in your original post you were basically implying that some new titles simply better than similiar older ones. Like nuDoom vs original, nuXCOM vs original, RTS games etc. Well, that's open for debate but for me it's no question whatsoever. Modern mass appeal versions inferior by far, although often they're too different to directly compare them.

 

[Grauken]

unfairlight is just butthurt his modern crap didn't get in the list

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Good work on the list felipepepe, Lady Error.

BTW, if you are looking for something NEW to play, there's the top games of the past 5 years:

Life is Strange that high is absolutely disgusting.
Even putting aside the fact that it's a storyfag game, what really surprising is that it's not even a mediocre storyfag game but storyfags find it good none the less.
Serioulsy this forum needs a purge.

Life is Strange is on this list. Pretty far down, but it's on there and higher than Pathologic 2.

Still think storyfags aren't a problem?

in your original post you were basically implying that some new titles simply better than similiar older ones.

Well there's nothing wrong with that statement.
Specially if you consider that for most codexers everything past 2001 is a modern game.