IGN's Top 100 Modern Video Games

[Spark Of Spirit]

What's really unforgivable is Fable 2 above The Witcher 2. Generic over-hyped Molyneux shitfest "RPG" over the best WRPG in the past 5+ years? Get that crap outta' here.

I was about to say, actually.

The Fable games (my friends have played them all) are probably the most overhyped and generic RPG games there are.

[Foggle]

What's really unforgivable is Fable 2 above The Witcher 2. Generic over-hyped Molyneux shitfest "RPG" over the best WRPG in the past 5+ years? Get that crap outta' here.

Perhaps IGN is biased against PC exclusive RPGs....

I'd have been inclined to agree had Fable 2 not also placed ahead of both Demon's Souls and Dragon Age: Origins. How can they even justify this?

[Avaitor]

I dunno, I dug the first Fable. The Lost Chapters at least, which I think fixed a few of the problems of it, but I'll be the first to admit that no matter what, it's still a broken-ass game.

Haven't played the sequels, so I can't speak on their behalf.

[Spark Of Spirit]

A wild Molyneux appeared!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Part 3 of the list is now up:

60. Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
59. Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
58. Wii Sports Resort
57. Mirror's Edge
56. Dead Rising
55. DJ Hero
54. Pokemon Black & White
53. Professor Layton & the Unwound Future
52. Shatter
51. Company of Heroes
50. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
49. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
48. Castle Crashers
47. Super Street Fighter IV
46. God of War 3
45. Super Paper Mario
44. Braid
43. Tetris DS
42. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
41. Sid Meier's Civilization IV

I suspect Desensitized might at least be a little bit happy about the inclusion of Mirror's Edge and Castle Crashers. As for me, when I saw God of War 3 come at this point on the list, I could automatically tell that neither Ninja Gaiden II nor Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword or even the 1st Sigma would have a chance of ranking on this list. With NG2 its understandable since despite it being one of the best games by FAR this generation in my eyes, its still a rushed product that's hard for most gamers to truly appreciate, but I feel that Dragon Sword is way underrated. To be honest, though, I do feel that NG2 is more fun than almost any other game ranked on this list so far, but that's just me and my weird tastes. I'll at least give IGN some credit for not ranking God of War 3 in the top 25, though. That came as a bit of a surprise. However, if Bayonetta does not rank anywhere on this list, I will consider it a sin (and if it does, I'll give IGN another surprise point for actually making a higher ranking that makes sense).

Overall, though, the list is still really boring for me as I haven't played most of these games. I'll probably only be interested in seeing what the top 20 look like.

[Foggle]

LOL WII SPORTS
LOL DJ HERO
LOL WORLD OF WARCRAFT

All will be forgiven if Bayonetta or Ninja Gaiden 2 ends up somewhere in the top 40, though.

Seriously, how can you even justify saying that fucking DJ Hero or Wii Sports Resort is better than The Witcher 2 or Alan Wake? Disgraceful.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The sad thing is that Ninja Gaiden II is impossible now that God of War 3 has been listed. I know how much IGN would such that series's dick, so there's no way that NG2 has a chance to make it above it, and even Bayonetta feels like it almost has a very slim chance of making it on the list at this point, but then again its one of the few times that IGN gave a great game a great score that it deserved, so maybe they have some sense and like it better.

What's also sad is that NG2 being listed would actually be a cause for many people who hate IGN's list to complain even more. Unfortunately, IGN is actually one of the sites that was much more lenient with this game in their review of it (hey, they didn't bitch about it being cheap and instead praised it for its old-school design and level of challenge, add that as another thing to their list of surprisingly showing competency from time to time). However, most gamers even aside from reviewers really like to bitch about this game more than they should. Its certainly a flawed game which I can admit, and there are some cheap aspects of the game (though those mostly only come in on Master Ninja mode, and the fact that people complain about the default difficulty setting is pretty sad when most of the cheap aspects of this game are cut down to a minimal level on those modes), but overall the way some people bash the game is way too overblown. Is its camera pretty faulty, yes it is, but its rarely as horrendously bad as people make it out to be. The thing is, a lot of gamers take any chance they can to blame the game for their own faults, rather than realizing that there are actually effective strategies to tackle many situations in which they would otherwise deem cheap.

Also, rocket launcher ninjas are almost a joke if you actually bother to use 1 simple skill to avoid their rockets (hint: its a little something called "dodging" rather than running to them in a straight line like a retarded monkey).

[Foggle]

As someone who's not very good at video games, I can't really see where many of the complaints about Ninja Gaiden come from. It's definitely hard, but (for the most part) it's also completely fair. Honestly, God of War is far cheaper than NG when it overloads you with instant death QTEs and because the dodge mechanic and fixed camera suck balls (not to mention the jumping ability that is all but worthless in combat).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, Shinobier (he's one of the best players for Ninja Gaiden Black in terms of Kamra scoring system rankings for that game on the old leaderboards) did handicap run throughs of all 3 God of War games on their hardest difficulties and without upgrading any of his weapons, and I believe it was also a no damage run for each game (with the exception of some moments in which I believe you end up taking unavoidable damage, but I'm not sure, though), so its technically a fair game if you're good enough at it, but the fact that he could handicap it without even upgrading the weapons shows that its not really all that hard of a task compared to his other handicap run, which BTW happens to be a no damage run of Ninja Gaiden Black on Master Ninja mode. So, for what its worth, its also proof that the first NG is not a cheap game in the least, though people mainly complain about the sequel, anyways. That game is frustrating and cheap....on Master Ninja mode (and even on that mode it can still be dealt with skillfully as long as you wisely use ALL of the healing items that are given to you). However, any difficulty up to Mentor mode plays beautifully, for the most part, and any notions of the game being overly-cheap are highly exaggerated. Any veteran player who has played both NG games and even those who prefer NGB (such as myself) will admit that NG2 is still primarily a game based on skill. Sure, you can't do no damage runs anymore and the game has its flaws and cheap moments and the camera can be a bitch (at times; but not always), but the game gives you partially regenerating health, save statues that heal and can be used for saving multiple times, and plenty of healing items which (with the exception of Master Ninja mode) you don't even have to use ANY healing items at all if you don't want to. For the record, I can get through Warrior mode without ever upgrading my health and without ever having to use a healing item, and I can do it without dying a single time. If that isn't indication that this game is skill-based at least on its normal difficulty settings (which is all that most gamers were even able to play, anyways) then I don't know the definition of skill, period.

[Spark Of Spirit]

God Of War 3.. Sigh. I'll never understand that series' appeal to people. It's utterly charmless in every sense.

I'm happy for Mirror's Edge as it is a flawed gem, and I love it a lot, but I could never objectively rate it higher than they have here. Castle Crashers is nice, too.

Braid over Mega Man 9 proves that people don't get platformers anymore, however. No replay value whatsoever (I can tell you stories about how Dax and I went back and forth to 200/200 MM9 and it was a blast), a boring story with eyerolling "depth" (contrast to Mega Man 9's "Save the world, shithead!"), amateurish feeling controls (this is debatable, but Braid feels chintzy to me), and is overpriced as fuck. It's an average game that gaming hipsters jerk off to in order to make themselves feel like gaming is a "true" art form or some shit.

On top of it, as a puzzle platformer it's been outdone countless times this gen alone.

Will never understand the praise of that game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

God Of War 3.. Sigh. I'll never understand that series' appeal to people. It's utterly charmless in every sense.

It has really good graphics....that's literally all I can find to praise it for. Other than that, I have to be honest, I think its a pretty average hack n' slash game. Not bad, mind you. I'm not so biased that I'm going to say it sucks just because its themes don't appeal to me, but really its combat isn't anything special compared to DMC3 and 4, Bayonetta, and the Ninja Gaiden games, and its story is massively overrated. Kratos is one of the least likable protagonists that I have ever played as in a video game, and while I would be willing to forgive that in an action game since I don't care about story that much in these types of games, anyways, its hard to do so when the game doesn't offer me much else on its other fronts. Honestly, I can see if some people find its appeal as a good game to be purely in its presentation level. In that regard, its basically a movie-game with a good number of varying combos, but its still a heavily scripted experience with little to no call for any sort of real skill or strategy, nonetheless. Its far better than the below par hack n' slash games out there, but its hardly above average either, in my book. I'd take DMC, Bayonetta, and NG over it any day, no matter how good they make its graphics look (as graphics don't really matter to me much at all).

[gunswordfist]

I want to get God Of War 3 and the first two. It's not like I can be picky with my favorite genre. The shit almost has no good games

[Foggle]

The appeal is the story, from what I can tell. Which makes no sense since you can't relate to the protagonist because Kratos is a fucking asshole.

I want to get God Of War 3 and the first two. It's not like I can be picky with my favorite genre. The shit almost has no good games

They aren't bad games. They're just really underwhelming if you've played DMC, NG, or Bayonetta.

[gunswordfist]

Ugh, I know that's what I should expect. I hate the gap in between hack n slashes quality. I know it's not the easiest genre in the world but no one is really trying

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Part 4 is up:

40. Infamous 2
39. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
38. Lumines
37. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
36. Shadow Complex
35. Borderlands
34. LittleBigPlanet 2
33. NBA 2K11
32. World of Goo
31. FIFA 11
30. Peggle
29. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
28. Forza Motorsport 3
27. Team Fortress 2
26. Limbo
25. Mario Kart DS
24. Rock Band 2
23. Plants vs. Zombies
22. Gears of War
21. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

I'm glad to see that Shadow Complex made it as high as it did, and I'm sure that Borderlands is well deserving of its spot, as well.

Now for my main criticism, while I can't talk about the games that I haven't played enough of, as someone who actually likes the Gears of War games for what they are (they are fun shooters with even more fun co-op modes), its just way too high on this list, period. I could justify it making it somewhere lower on the list but to me its not really a top 50 game, as at its core its really just another movie shooter (in fact you could probably blame it for spawning the movie shooter genre, though to its credit its generally more fun that most other games in this vein, IMO). I think this is a clear giveaway that Uncharted is going to rank extremely high on the list.

Its official that NG2 will not make this list (not being ranked in the top 100 feels sort of disgraceful, especially when I can be certain that its simply a more fun game than at least half of the titles listed on this list so far), but since its a flawed game I'll let it go since I can't defend it too much if it rubs other people the wrong way (which is understandable).

However, if Bayonetta doesn't make it into the top 20 (thus meaning that it didn't even make the top 100), IGN will lost any ounce of credibility that they have left, in my eyes. If it does rank in the top 20 like it should, though, I'll give IGN another surprising point for actually making sense once more.