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February 13th, 2008

What was the best (and worst) computer game?

Posted by: Peter Griffiths
Tags: UK News

mario-handout.jpg

From the first primitive bat and ball programs of the 1970s, to the latest 3-D epics, computer games have changed beyond all recognition.

Last year’s bestselling game was Halo 3, a galaxy-spanning shoot-em-up, according to a new book of gaming records. The top-selling game of all time is Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros.

Debate rages online about which console is best: Sony’s PlayStation3, Nintendo’s Wii or Microsoft’s Xbox.

A third of gamers prefer old consoles like the N64 with their simpler graphics and addictive games, according to a survey.

Space Invaders or Asteroids? Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog? Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda?

What do you think was the best game ever? And what was the worst?

66 comments so far

Castle of Evermore!

- Posted by Daniel

Civilization

- Posted by Stug

Elite

- Posted by Chris

The best game ever for me would be
Legend Of Zelda: Links Awakening it got me into adventure/rpg’s and I have probably finished it more times than any other game I have ever owned.

- Posted by ICHIkatakuri

Diablo II

- Posted by Karpov

Mario was the best game.

- Posted by Ajit

The Civilization and Gran Tourismo series

- Posted by Jon Foulkes

BLOOD (The Original)

Developer : Monolith Productions
Publisher : GT Interactive
Release Date : May 1, 1997

Best game ever made. Even thinking of it, I can hear the scary sound effects as if I am playing right now. Wow! I think you can still download it, actually for free. It’s MS DOS based, any computer should be able to run it easly like nothing.
Quoted:
“In it, you assume the role of Caleb, a gunslinger betrayed and murdered by a cabal of madmen and its sinister master, the Dark God Tchernobog. For reasons unknown, you rise from your grave with only vengeance driving your purpose. In Blood, you’ll pass through haunted mansions, eerie forests, abandoned carnivals, scorched city-scapes, ancient temples and more, as you seek to make your way back the Cabal’s base of operations and extract some answers long overdue. The price they’ll pay for betraying you will be measured in Blood.”

- Posted by Jeffie NY

Galaxian

- Posted by Hoover

Got to be Bomberman…..highly addictive, stupidly simple….

- Posted by Rooser

Mario 64

- Posted by David

asking what is The best game of all time is like asking what is The best food of all time. it depends on the genre and platform. not to mention the time period since every new generation out performs the previous.

might as well ask the world if fried chicken is better than beef stew.

brief list

strategy: civilization series
fps - single player: fear
fps - online multi player: battlefield 2
rts: command and conquer series
most influential/ground breaking: return to castle wolfenstein

- Posted by WeAllDie

I’m gonna buck the trend i’m seeing here. For the BEST game of all time i’m picking a fairly new one: Final Fantasy XII for the PS2. If you want specifically PC game rating, then I’d have to say Diablo II.
As for the WORST game eve. That’s a much tougher prospect. Entirely too many to choose from.Plus they’re forgettable. Can’t think of single one now!!

- Posted by Saba

The best game ever is UFO, Enemy unknown. The 2nd runner up is the very first Civilization and Half Life. The 3rd runner up is Doom.
I am convinced beyond shadow of a doubt that these games revolutionized the gaming industry and Chan alleged the standards.

On the individual in-game invention, I would argue that the Portal Device in Half-Life 2, Is the most innovative item.

- Posted by Nick

It has to be the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, it was the first game I ever played for a long period of time and it was full of little sub-missions that made it that bit more captivating. And did anyone else notice the mistake in the quiz? The question about the most popular game of 2007 was a trick question the answer was Call of Duty 4 which didn’t even make the list!

- Posted by Pablo

final fantasy vii. hands down. some games come close, like zelda, but i can’t imagine any game now surpassing the endless hours of play and terrific, engaging story line of this game. it is the definition of ‘epic’.

- Posted by mike pa

World of Warcraft

- Posted by Paul DeMartino

You have to go by generations with this…

old computer: Wolfenstein
new computer: world of warcraft
nes: mario or tetris
snes: super mario world
sega: sonic
playstation: medal of honor or tiny tank
playstation 2: metal gear or final fantasy or grand theft auto
dreamcast: crazy taxi
n64: goldeneye or zelda or mario cart64
xbox: halo or black
gamecube: splintercell or super smash bros.
wii: zelda and guitar hero 3
xbox 360: fear or bioshock or halo 3
ps3: m.o.h airbourne or resistance

- Posted by Leonard

AMERICA’S ARMY free @ americasarmy.com

- Posted by stan

PC: Baldur’s Gate Trilogy and Starcraft
Nintendo: Mario 3 and Dr. Mario
Super Nintendo: Chrono Trigger and Super Mario World
Genesis: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Shining Force 2
Nintendo 64: Goldeneye and Mario 64
Playstation: Final Fantasy VII and Suikoden 2
Gamecube: Mario Kart Doubledash
Playstation 2: Twisted Metal Black and FFX
Wii: Super Mario Galaxy

- Posted by Adam

COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE
wihtout a doubt one of the most addictive, and the best online PC game ever.

- Posted by Tim

Space Invaders on the Atari, because it was a milestone in home entertainment. But to add to Leonard’s list…

Very old computer: Moon Lander on the Commodore Pet
Very old mainframe: Star Trek on PDP11

- Posted by Richard Baum

I’m a huge fan of the Civilization series. Always been a Mario fan. I do certainly fit into the 1/3rd of the population that prefers the older systems, back when it wasn’t about the graphics, but the game play.

- Posted by Joshua

Descent 2 was the best game ever. Everquest a close second. The players made Everquest good. Descent was good in and of itself.

- Posted by Kurt Harland Larson

Final Fantasy VII is the greatest, most entertaining, revolutionary game ever, nothing is as
magical or as breathtaking as playing that game. The
scrip is as good as any fantasy story. Cloud ruled!

- Posted by Francis

Ooo! Ooo! I forgot about Nethack!

http://www.nethack.org/

- Posted by Paul DeMartino

Pole Position (The original and best auto race game)

- Posted by Bob

Worst ever : Dark and Light
Advertised as “The largest MMORPG you’ve ever seen”… and the most baren too. You can travel for hours and never see another player.It was published and sold incomplete, and is being sued for using someone else’s graphics engine without permission.
Funniest part, is it is still around: http://www.darkandlight.com

- Posted by Greg

Tourist Trophy
(TT)

- Posted by Anup

Super Mario Galaxy for Nintendo Wii
Best Next Gen console PS3
Best console overall Nintendo Wii

- Posted by Rafi

The top video game of all time is hands down Lemmings .

- Posted by DAN SMITH

Hands down the greatest video game of all time is X-Com UFO Defense. Even now I break that game out to play on my PC

- Posted by Matt Myers

Best 3:
1. Mario Bros III
2. Bioshock
3. Paperboy

Worst 3:
1. Any movie game except Golden Eye
2. Resistance (terrible game play with solid graphics)
3. Hour of Victory

- Posted by JK

PC: Half-life definitely set the tone for almost all first person shooters for computer and console.

- Posted by Dan

Tempest

- Posted by Steve

Pong.

- Posted by geoff

its to hard to name the best game ever so i will give a list of the games i like the best:

zelda (nes)
zelda 3 (nes)
mario world (snes)
mike tyson’s punch out! (nes)
super punch out! (nes)
Zelda: ocarina of time (N64)
Zelda for gamecube (can’t remember the name right now)
Baseball Stars (nes) greatest sports game ever!!!
Mario 64 (N64)
Excitebike (nes)
and many more. it is to hard to name them all. I think the older systems such as the NES, sega Master System, SNES, Genesis are much more fun than the systems of today.

- Posted by Mike Moretti

I forgot to mention Mario 2 and Mario 3 for the nes and also i can’t forget Mortal Kombat 1,2 &3, killer instinct 1&2 and Primal Rage all for the Arcade.

- Posted by Mike Moretti

In the category of Computer Games
Best: Star Control II - The Ur-Quan Masters

Now UQM is open source and available for free d/l
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sc2/

- Posted by Casey

I am going to have to agree with Final Fantasy VII as the hands down best video game ever. No other game, or game series, that I can think of has spawned such a set of sequels, movies, and fan bases. The game itself was simply a blast. There really isn’t any other way to put. Gameplay was fun, story line kept you interested, and there were pleanty of in’s and out’s you could lose yourself in for hours and hours.

- Posted by Dustin

wealldie is right. Asking what is the best computer game of all time is too general a question to ask. I suppose the blog contributor Peter Griffiths doesn’t play that many games.

But for the sake of answering, Leonard has a good format. here goes…

old computer: Koei’s Romance of the 3 Kingdoms
new computer: world of warcraft
nes: Super Contra
snes: super mario world + old Final Fantasy Games
sega: sonic the hedgehog + Super Volleyball
playstation: generally good games, nothing really caught my fancy.
playstation 2: Gran Turismo series of games, Final Fantasy series of games
dreamcast: crazy taxi
n64: didn’t own one
xbox: I refuse to buy microsoft consoles haha
gamecube: didn’t own one.
wii: Wii Sports
xbox 360: I refuse to buy a microsoft console haha
ps3: The eagerly awaited full version of Gran Turismo 5

- Posted by Five Times

oh, I forgot Atari’s pacman. that should be in the list above heh

- Posted by Five Times

Sensible Soccer, the geratest game ever, and for the discerning only to be played on the Amiga

- Posted by Paddy

1) Fallout 2

- Posted by Alaz Pete

from old games on pc it would have to be Doom2 ^^
from new ones on pc World of warcraft..
ps2: metal gear solid 1/2/3
ps3: long waited metal gear solid 4
nes: mario

- Posted by dipsy

Faxanadu.

Bet you don’t remember this NES game. By today’s standards, it was agonisingly slow and primitive, but visually I remember it having an extraordinaryly fascinating Gothic splendour to it. A deeply disturbing quest fantasy born out of a warped imagination, put on screen to suck you in even gainst your will.

- Posted by Philip

Sensible Soccer!! definitely the best footy game ever and now available to buy on Xbox live for the 360!!
Gauntlet was simply the greatest arcade game ever and the finally the modern classic of Mario Kart for pure fun value!!

- Posted by Chris

Elite or Elite 2

- Posted by McShabby

Call of duty is the best game ever! :)

- Posted by cod

Fallout!

- Posted by Jamez

Alex The Kid -Sega Master System.

- Posted by Cy Nical

Call Of Duty

- Posted by Leino

Diablo 2

- Posted by olavi

The best games on PC are Diablo and Half Life series.

- Posted by Ervin

Best5: 1) Resident Evil 2&4 (console games)
2) Metal Gear Solid 1,2,3 (console games)
3) Call Of Duty for PC 1,2&4
4) Half-Life 2
5) C&C series games

- Posted by Eduard

Best computer game, Half-Life 2.
Best video game, Super Mario Bros. on NES.

- Posted by Enrico Saar

The best and the most played computer game is :
Counter-Strike 1.6

- Posted by Janar

Games that have received the most of my play time:

Sonic 2
Doom 2
HL:CS

- Posted by Theo

Vic 20: “Metagalatic Llamas Battle at the Edge of Time”. The name alone makes it a winner.

- Posted by Chad

Dune 2

- Posted by simon

Best:

1) Heros of might and magic III
2) Beast and pumbkins
3) Hospital
4) Constructor

- Posted by Kai

The best was Super Mario 64. There are so many bad ones that it is difficult to tell the worse.

- Posted by Dario Cukier

In strategy was the best an old father DUNE 2
In 3D shooting: DOOM

Also a very good games was: Transport Tycoon

- Posted by Ico

C&C series are the best games!!

- Posted by Yummy

the colin mcrae series

- Posted by joel

Best ever: Manic Miner on the ZX Spectrum.

- Posted by David T

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