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GameSpy's 25 favorite PC games of the 90's

GuybrushWilcoGuybrushWilco
edited October 2009 in General Chat
GameSpy has been running a feature where they list their favorite games of the 1990's, and LucasArts is well represented :). http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/103/1030011p1.html.

The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango all make the list. What do you all think of the list? It's too bad Sierra doesn't get any recognition.

Comments

  • corruptbigginscorruptbiggins
    edited October 2009
    Sierra's best games were in the 80s. In my opinion, the only really good ones they did in the 90s were the Gabriel Knight series (the 1st one being the best) - even then I still wouldn't put any of them in my top 25 of the 90s.
  • serweetserweet
    edited October 2009
    Surprised Monkey Island 2 didn't make it, as it is, in my opinion, the best Monkey Island.
    Other than that there are some mighty fine games in that there list.
  • patterspatters
    edited October 2009
    No civ? There are some bizarre oversights in this, but lists like this will never please everyone.
  • ShaggEShaggE
    edited October 2009
    No Rise of the Triad? I must go post obscene and poorly spelled hate messages on their site. :p
  • Ray-The-SunRay-The-Sun
    edited October 2009
    Good to see Half-Life, Counter Strike and Starcraft made the list. Those are some top-notch games.
  • WoodsyblueWoodsyblue
    edited October 2009
    Oh the '90s, how I miss thee... or at least that period in gaming.
  • FrogacudaFrogacuda
    edited October 2009
    Non-LucasArts get shafted so bad on these lists. It's a shame. I love DoTT and Sam and Max as much as the next guy, but there's so much more that gets overlooked.
  • KaldireKaldire
    edited October 2009
    doom should never be on any list, period

    the game is horrid and the devs even hated it while making it. I know tom so... yeaaa
    anyway not agreeing with this list.. so horrid..
    some are perfect some way off..


    also sierra had a few gREEEAT games in the video era... shivers and gabriel as well as phantasmagoria .. course, these are now the harder games to emulate without win 98 se installed

    lol
  • BaggeBagge
    edited October 2009
    Ray-The-Sun wrote: »
    Good to see Half-Life, Counter Strike and Starcraft made the list. Those are some top-notch games.

    It's not like those games lack recognition, though. Are there any best-game lists these games aren't on?
  • FrogacudaFrogacuda
    edited October 2009
    Kaldire wrote: »
    doom should never be on any list, period

    the game is horrid and the devs even hated it while making it. I know tom so... yeaaa
    The same Tom that wasn't credited in the game and didn't work on it past the prototype phase because he was pushed out of the company since no one wanted to make the game an RPG except him? Yeah, there's an unbiased source...

    Doom was a great game, tremendously playable, and it dominated its moment for a reason. I'm not sure both 1 and 2 needed to be on that list (just pick one) but Doom was an excellent game, and Tom Hall validated everything they did with it when he made his fairly pathetic rip off Rise of the Triad not long after.

    Not that Tom hasn't done great things in his career before and since, but he was wrong about Doom and spent many years chasing id's shadow.
  • Secret FawfulSecret Fawful
    edited October 2009
    Telltale's Sam and Max series gets subtley run over the coals in the Sam and Max Hit the Road section, but Telltale gets called the modern LucasArts in the DOTT section. Not sure what to make of that.

    The lack of Monkey Island 2 is disappointing, but honestly why complain. They bothered to list adventure games at all.
  • JedExodusJedExodus
    edited October 2009
    Wut, no Battletoads? Expect a letter from my solicitor GameSpy
  • ShaggEShaggE
    edited October 2009
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    fairly pathetic rip off Rise of the Triad

    Sir? Mr. Frogacuda? Them's fightin' words, you know. :p

    But seriously, ROTT can't really be called a Doom ripoff. It was a sequel to Wolfenstein 3D before it became it's own thing, and the gameplay, setting, and tone are vastly different from Doom.
  • FrogacudaFrogacuda
    edited October 2009
    It was definitely an attempt to cash in on id's success, though, either way. It was trying to be over-the-top violent and cruel, and really juvenile too (shrooms mode, the main character "I. P. Freely" etc) and it didn't even do that in a way that was as effective or genuinely funny as, say, Duke Nukem.

    Was it a perfectly playable game? Sure, I guess. But here's the upshot: Tom Hall cried that Doom was too violent, he cried that it was too shallow and lacked RPG elements. Then he resigns from the company and makes an even dumber, louder, more violent game and sells out everything he was protesting to begin with, and he did it recycling obsolete Wolf3D tech to boot.

    Yes, he made up for it years later with Anachronox, but I still don't see ROTT as a proud moment given its due context.
  • Toothless GibbonToothless Gibbon
    edited October 2009
    Secret Fawful wrote: »
    Telltale's Sam and Max series gets subtley run over the coals in the Sam and Max Hit the Road section, but Telltale gets called the modern LucasArts in the DOTT section. Not sure what to make of that.


    Run over the coals? Aren't they just saying the new ones are easier? Not sure many could argue with that.
  • ShaggEShaggE
    edited October 2009
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    It was definitely an attempt to cash in on id's success, though, either way. It was trying to be over-the-top violent and cruel, and really juvenile too (shrooms mode, the main character "I. P. Freely" etc) and it didn't even do that in a way that was as effective or genuinely funny as, say, Duke Nukem.

    Was it a perfectly playable game? Sure, I guess. But here's the upshot: Tom Hall cried that Doom was too violent, he cried that it was too shallow and lacked RPG elements. Then he resigns from the company and makes an even dumber, louder, more violent game and sells out everything he was protesting to begin with, and he did it recycling obsolete Wolf3D tech to boot.

    Yes, he made up for it years later with Anachronox, but I still don't see ROTT as a proud moment given its due context.

    Somehow I managed to lose my entire response to your post, so I'm going to Cliff's Notes it. :p

    - Agreed that it was hypocritical
    - Rebutted with examples of it being revolutionary for FPS titles (looking up and down, "jumping", bullet holes, randomization of enemies, etc.)
    - Joked that Lee Jackson's amazing soundtrack makes up for any of ROTT's downsides
  • FrogacudaFrogacuda
    edited October 2009
    ShaggE wrote: »
    - Rebutted with examples of it being revolutionary for FPS titles (looking up and down, "jumping", bullet holes, randomization of enemies, etc.)
    It faked looking up and down somewhat badly just as Heretic and a lot of other games did, and the jumping elements were kind of goofy Sonic the Hedgehog springboard stuff, not free jumping like other games that did it around that time. The way it did it with sprites to fake paths was pretty cheesy, too.

    Then look at Terminator Future Shock, which came out later that same year. It had fully polygonal texture mapped evironments, free mouselook, true rooms over rooms, vehicles, polygonal enemies... Now THAT was a watershed moment for FPSs. ROTT was a cash in with some good ideas and some bad ideas.
  • ShaggEShaggE
    edited October 2009
    Frogacuda wrote: »
    It faked looking up and down somewhat badly just as Heretic and a lot of other games did, and the jumping elements were kind of goofy Sonic the Hedgehog springboard stuff, not free jumping like other games that did it around that time. The way it did it with sprites to fake paths was pretty cheesy, too.

    Considering they pulled it off with what was basically the Wolf3D engine, it was pretty impressive.

    But I'm a die-hard ROTTie, so I'm viewing it in the most optimistic light imaginable. :p
  • FrogacudaFrogacuda
    edited October 2009
    If you like the game, that's fine. I get nostalgic too. I'm just saying Tom's probably not the right guy to listen to about whether or not Doom sucked.
  • ShaggEShaggE
    edited October 2009
    Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not being a defensive fanboy or anything. Quite the opposite, honestly. It's refreshing to see a PC gamer who doesn't worship 90's era Tom Hall.

    Although I will claw the proverbial throat of an anti-Joe Siegler gamer. (Kidding.)
  • MurrayMurray
    edited October 2009
    Gabriel Knight 2, Full Throttle and Toonstruck Would have been near the top if it was my list.
  • City Of DelusionCity Of Delusion
    edited October 2009
    Frankly, the fact that Doom maps being released today says that the game wasn't universally proclaimed crap.
  • GuybrushWilcoGuybrushWilco
    edited October 2009
    I like Doom :)
  • BeeKay84BeeKay84
    edited October 2009
    GuybrushWilco wrote: »
    GameSpy has been running a feature where they list their favorite games of the 1990's, and LucasArts is well represented :). http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/103/1030011p1.html.

    The Secret of Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max Hit the Road, The Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango all make the list. What do you all think of the list? It's too bad Sierra doesn't get any recognition.
    I dig it! :) My choice of 25 favorite games of the 1990's would look a bit different (and would have even more LucasArts in it ;)), but one fifth of the presented games would be in mine, too. Namely both Monkey Island games, Sam & Max, Day of the Tentacle (though I'm not entirely sure I liked it that much) and Lemmings.
  • weblegendweblegend
    edited October 2009
    Quake, oh yes, i favor FPS game :D
  • GuybrushWilcoGuybrushWilco
    edited October 2009
    Personaly I would have added Planescape: Torment to the list :).
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