Top Ten Games of the Quarter Century

Holy shit, Outer Wilds at #3? Holy shit. Unfathomably based list

Game 49 is better than any of the games in the top 10 I played. Some of the top 10 is good, but the winner is awful

I mean you can just apply your own franchise limitation rules by removing the lower ranked games. Though each FromSoft game is from different franchises so I see no reason to apply that to them.

colliding posted...

also clair obscur at #17 is so cringe

seems like a reasonable position for 2025's GotY

mgs2 is way better than 3

someone needs to explain to me how botw/totk are so beloved

i still don't get it even after all these years

Aecioo posted...

someone needs to explain to me how botw/totk are so beloved

i still don't get it even after all these years

They're fun

Aecioo posted...

someone needs to explain to me how botw/totk are so beloved

i still don't get it even after all these years

A lot of people like them. I didnt like BotW so I dont intend to ever touch TotK, but BotW was a huge thing for a lot of people so thats basically why. Mario Odyssey a far better Nintendo game tho imo

Caves of Qud tied for 302nd, we gotta pump those numbers up

The love for BOTW is pretty easy to explain.

For many people, one of the promises of the video game medium, (a "holy grail" i might even say), is the dream of exploring and going on little self-directed adventures, without the game explicitly telling you what to do, or where to go.

YOU look around, YOU see something interesting, YOU "adventure your way to it", YOU solve it, YOU get the rewards. In a single word, the entire game loop is "discovery".

Previous Zelda games (and many adventure / open world games) were sold this promise, but never actually delivered it! They were always filled with tutorials, and NPCs telling you where to go, and NPCs spoiling puzzles for you, etc...

...and worst of all, various types of invisible walls, telling you "hey you came here too early, wait for an NPC to tell you to." Which basically kills all player interest in exploration and discovery.

For many people, their favorite thing in video games is finding secrets. (Why do people love Mario World? The secrets, dummy!! Switch palaces! Secret exits! Star road!) Well, what is a secret, but something the game didn't tell you? And in BOTW, the game doesn't really tell you much at all...therefore almost everything is, arguably, a secret!

Yes, the game has many MANY flaws. However, for many people, by decently delivering this ONE holy grail of the promise of video games, all those flaws are easily forgiven.

Also it's Zelda.

MGS3 typically beats 2 but I'm surprised and happy it was so close. I prefer 2, but both are unreal.

The real shocker is Outer Wilds taking 3rd place. It had fewer votes than almost anything in the Top 10, but that means that the people who like Outer Wilds REALLY LIKE Outer Wilds and put at the top of their list.

This is so devastatingly accurate

List is about what I expected apart from the pleasant surprise of Outer Wilds being so high.

MGS3's votes were split between regular and subsistence sadly. (MGS3: Subsistence reached 66th place still!! Lol) So if you put those together, presumably it would have come out better than MGS2 (although I prefer MGS2 personally, as well).

The excel sheet of all the raw data is enjoyable to review as well! Some interesting observations I noticed:

• Hardly anyone voted for Metal Gear Solid 1. (oh DUH, cuz its not 2000+)
• 2 people voted for Pocket Card Jockey! Weird pick but cool!
• 1 vote for Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, very cool.
• 1 vote for Golf Story, also cool, love that game.
• 3 people voted for original Final Fantasy Tactics, which is amusing because it is definitely not from 2000+.
• 3 people voted for Crisis Core, what's wrong with you?
• 2 votes for Wii Music (????)
• 2 votes for the Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog