Top 40 Video games Part 3: Gold Tier (24-17)

Welp, we've done the first 2/5th of the list....time for Part 3

24) Fallout 4 (2015) PS4

To be honest, I was very tempted to leave this off the list entirely because I'm not a fan of Bethesda's seeming business practice of releasing buggy and glitchy games intentionally and assuming fans will fix it for them with Mods later cause they make their code easily accessible. (so anyone want to guess what the chances are of seeing any of the Elder Scrolls games are?) And I'll go so far as to admit this is the reason i didnt buy Fallout 4 until I found it on sale one day for like $30 and figured "what the hell why not?"  Turns out when I started it up...it was actually pretty good. I liked the concept of being a survivor of the pre nuke era waking up in a post Apocalypse and I had a lot of fun running around the map....for a long while anyways. The biggest flaw in this game is there is actually too damn much of it....the first half dozen settlements or so I found and built look amazing....by the time I reached 12 or so, I was half assing it....by the time I got to 15 I didnt even care. By the same token I think I currently have nearly 20 sets of power armor, including 2 different sets of the most powerful armor in the game....and enough power cores I never need to take the damn thing off.  Luckily the settlements are optional as is using the power armor (though weight restrictions can make that a necessity) so these on their own arnt major issues.

Leveling has the same problem....while generally I'm a fan of uncapped leveling, the enemies dont really level up past a certain point, so now I can OHOK everything in vats...and I technically havnt finished the game. But again it took me almost 5 1/2 solid months of game play, in which I played almost nothing else to reach this point, and any game that can keep me entertained that long should make the list. But if they had the enemies continue to level up, just that alone would have kicked the game up a half dozen or so spots on the list.

On the positive side the humor of the premise appeals to me, and I give major major credit for how the morality of the 3 waring factions (BoS, Railroad and Institute) is laid out, at various points I found myself in agreement with the values of all 3, though I think at this point I'm railroad for life, the Far Harbor DLC converted me to the idea that Synths should be treated like humans. Also, while Nick Valentine seems to get most of the love (and is great), my favorite character has to be Deacon and his snarkyness. Piper Hancock and Strong get high marks too.

23) Ogre Battle 64 (1999) N64

Basically, Ogre battle is a less hardcore, more fantasy Fire Emblem. Unlike FE though, the main map moves at real time, but the Combat is still turn based. However unlike the modern FE games you'll be playing with each sides units (up to 5 per side) on a 3X3 grid during battle. Different units play better in different positions, some larger units (like dragons or golems) count for 2 units. Also like FE, Permadeath is kinda a thing.....units can be revived as long as the mission is going on, but a dead unit at the end of a mission is dead. Granted dead units can occasionally come back as undead units, so its not a total loss. It can however be annoying if one of your more powerful plot important characters dies and comes back as a much weaker zombie. Also you do have the occasional branching pathway in the game as well, which is kinda a nice addition for some replay value. As potentially both an up and down side, every character in the game is assigned 1 of 6 elements, fire, water, lightening, earth, bane and virtue (though the first 4 are significantly more common) and which element your part of affects how much damage you take from other elements or how powerful a given weapon is.

Basically if you want a simplified FE game, with a more diverse type of characters (zombies, hawkmen, fairies, dragons, golems, ect in addition to multiple human classes) but a slightly more complex combat system....this is the game for you.

22) Assassins Creed Unity (2014) PS4

AAAANNNNNNDDDD now for what will likely be my most controversial pick...Honestly I think it deserves this spot....in its present form anyways. Yes on launch this game was a horrid buggy broken mess that basically forced you to use some peripherals and multiplayer if you wanted to do everything. And it and Ubisoft completely deserve every single bit of criticism they got for it. But, that all got patched out. Now, honestly this game looks better and runs smoother than its successor. And the whole controversy about not being able to play as a female character? Yes Ubisoft gave the worst excuse in the history of excuses....and the complaint is perfectly valid in the world of multiplayer, which has no story. And more so because you can play as a woman in this games predecessor's (Black Flag) multiplayer. But from a single player point of view? its kinda a shit argument. Now you want to argue there should be more representation of women and minorities as the playable characters? I'm right there with you. But I cant "ding" this game for not letting me play as a woman any more than I can "ding" Mario, Uncharted or Halo for doing the same thing, or Metroid,  Tomb Raider Bayonetta, and Horizon Zero Dawn for not letting me play as a man. The gender of the character really should have no impact on how much you enjoy the game if the game is any good.

Now as to why this game made this list. 2 reasons. First, I actually like the premise, that the templar and the assassins made peace...but that forces within either forced an end. The desire for revenge Arno has over the murder of his adopted father is easy to understand...in fact in some respects his motivations for doing what he does makes more sense than either Kenway's, the Frye's, Altair's, or Shay's. Now yes the story isnt that original either, and Arno is a bit bland...but so are most open world game protagonists to be fair, he doesn't seem any worse than any of the other assassins (excpet possibly Evie) this respect. The second  reason this game made the list is simple: All open world games claim the open world feels alive.....but for me at least, this is the only game that actually does. Now ironically thats due to the massive crowds, and I think the graphical strain needed to do that in the first place is what caused alot of the bugs...but now that they got it fixed? Honestly it feels immersive just running around the streets of Paris. Not to mention its so packed with things to do and substantive side missions that something like 40+ hours in, when Im usually starting the "wrap up" portion and trying to collect everything I realized I still had a whole 1/3 of the districts I hadnt even set foot in yet...thats how deep and vibrant Paris really is.

Also, while this alone wouldnt have gotten the game on the list, the part where you accidentally get transported through time to Vichy France and have to dive off the eiffel tower may be my favorite memory sequence in any creed game so far just because of how damn unexpected it was.

21) Uncharted 2 (2015) PS4

Note the year on this one....2015. I played this as part of the Nathan Drake Collection remaster. I mention this just in case some of the changes made between this version and the original actually matter (I dont actually know if they changed anything). I also mention this to explain why I didnt just put the entire collection on this list...and well thats because I'm not really sure the entire collection deserves it. Dont get me wrong, the first Uncharted game was really good, and if I had expanded this list to 50, it would have made that bottom 10. But the 3rd game in my opinion sucks balls, and Im not a fan.  So since I didnt feel the other two games merited inclusion and since you can pretty much play the game cold, without needing to know that much about the other games in the series, I figured I could include this one on its own.

So when you think of an Uncharted game you think of huge movie like set pieces, good (by action game standards) gun play and fun puzzles. Check, check and check. Not only are the set pieces memorable, they actually fit the story (unlike the 3rd game). Gun play is massively improved from the first game....but the number of enemies hasnt reached the levels of ludicrousness of the 3rd. And the puzzles, I'll be honest, arnt that memorable, but I do remember having all kinds of fun solving them. Also this game has some decent character development and even a nice love triangle with Nate, Chole and Elane....though full disclosure if it was me I totally would have stayed with Chole. Hell this game does such a good job its got a sympathetic nazi in it (Karl Schafer). Also I really enjoyed having a single defined protagonist for basically the only time in the series (1 kept kinda flip flopping on who the real big bad was until the end, 3 was an old lady who died by accident in the end, and 4 had both Sam and Nadine as sorta bad guys at times who also upstaged the big bad). And hell its got the only thing close to a classic boss battle of the entire series, which is pretty cool. And it was nice to see them tell a tale that had nothing really to do with Francis Drake and his ring of Deus Ex Mcguffin.  

20) Super Smash Bro's Brawl (2008) Wii.

Nintendo has the most famous and well known video game mascots at this point...except Sonic, Snake and Pac Man. And 2 of those are in this game (and the sequel got the 3rd). So this is basically all the video game mascots you remember as a kid beating the crap out of each other. Its a fantastic concept and its tons of fun. Not to mention all the stages have gimmicks...admittedly some suck, but most are really really fun. Honestly anyone whos played any of these 4 games wont be surprised one of them made the list. The only real question would be....why this one?

Well the original one didnt have enough characters, it doesnt hold up. And Ive never played the 3ds or Wii U versions, so that left this and melee, and while I know Melee is mechanically the better game, the entire point of this series is seeing different characters fight, and you cant beat the roster of this game (compared to melee and the original anyways). Plus this is the only game in the series (that ive played anyways) with an actual single player campaign, in addition to the single player modes from the first two games, and as a single player gamer that puts it over the top for me.

19) Fire Red/Leaf Green (2004) Game Boy Advance

Now those of you who read my pokemon ratings might be a bit confused. After all in that ranking I ranked the Hoenn games and remakes between G/S and FR/LG. Yet despite G/S and now FR/LG making the list, the Hoenn games are no where to be seen. And theres a simple explanations for that: I forgot they existed when I was coming up with this list. Which means while they may actually be better games than G/S, they lacked something as far as being memorable, and being memorable is a requirement for this list...so they didnt make it.

Speaking of memorable, thats half the reason these games DID make this list. So weve all heard of nostalgia glasses before, but what we dont realize is, when it comes to Pokemon, weve got coke bottle lens. Honestly if youve ever gone back and tried to play red or blue its painful how bad mechanically and graphically speaking they really are. But that fond memory you have of them? it exists...in Fire Red and Leaf Green. These are the pokemon games we were all playing in our heads when he were forced to use our imaginations to get around the technical limitations of the original games.  And since these are Gen 3 games, and therefore pre physical special split, they even have the same feel to them unlike the Gen 2 remakes. The pokemon who sucked back in the day, still kinda suck here. The pokemon that dominated back in the day....still dominate. Though there are a couple of small balance changes due to the nerfing of the psychic type and the addition of abilities, but for the most part these are the games we think we remember from being kids.....even if they didnt come out until we were graduating high school or entering college.

18)  Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) PC

I'm sure based on my original description back in part 1, people were wondering when the first Bioware game would show up.....well keep wondering, cause despite many people thinking otherwise, this isnt a Bioware game, its actually Obsidian. Bioware's prequel to this game was shit (by bioware standards) and possibly the worst game theyve made (which still means its good, lets be honest). So the smartest thing this game did, was ignore that one.

Now this game is really good for a couple reasons....one its based on 3.5 D&D rules, which may be my favorite rule set. And because of that, like Icewind dale (also a 3.5 game) the customization options for your character are through the roof, with races, sub races, over a dozen base class choices, multiple unlockable prestige classes. Basically no two characters will ever play the same. And their are minor dialogue alterations depending on the race you pick....personally I think the ones for the Duergar are the best, given thats the race of the bad guys goons and so you have to go through a lot of "Oh my god is this because of what I am" dialogue that focuses on your race and peoples reactions to it. The story is pretty good....though somewhat standard fare for the fantasy genre, the combat is just like every other D&D game where they make turn based combat take place in real time. The companions are a ton of fun though....but being able to have more than 3 with you at a time would be appreciated. Some of them dont like each other....a couple might not like you, and depending on your decisions some of them might even leave you. In fact of all the games I've played this is probably my third favorite group of companions in terms of personality and complexity, with Sand, Shandra and Qara being favorites.  

17) Tomb Raider (2014) PS4

It doesnt take more than a couple of minutes playing Uncharted to realize its basically Male Tomb Raider. And given that, as a concept Uncharted basically ripped off the best parts of the Tomb Raider franchise and made them even better, it seems fair that Lara Croft turned around and did the same thing to Nathan Drake. Payback's a bitch.

So despite the fact I bought the remake of Uncharted, which came out after the remake of this game, I actually didnt buy this until later, so just I played it after all 3 Uncharted games, as I would have had I bought them at the times they launched. And what I was stuck by was how this game basically took everything Uncharted did well and did it better. The combat system here is better, the stealth system is much better (despite not being that good), major set pieces (the tower, the town, the temple ect) feel more natural and the relics in this game have fully voice acted narrations and journal entries for them....suck it Drake.

Also this game is pseudo-open world, in that there are side quests to do in every area, and you can (and will) need to backtrack to find everything....however not having obtained equipment or skills locks you out of some areas/parts of areas until the story progresses you there. This by the way is meant as a good thing, as I massively prefer this to true open worlds as it still allows for freedom for the player while allowing good complex and deep stories to play out, which you dont get in pure open world games.

All that said, I do have to admit, its possible this games spot on this list is endangered. I own, but havnt yet gotten around to playing, the games sequel...so if I come back and do this list again (I wont) this may well have gotten knocked down a space or so by that game.

And there we have it....24 down, 16 to go. We are getting into elite game territory after this. For those who want to review before we go forward. Part 1. Part 2