Time's Top 100 Games

[kandrathe]

OBJECTION!

Well, and noticeably absent is Skyrim, which is a better game than Oblivion was in its time. Bethsoft, among others, get short shrift in this list -- I spent oodles of time with Morrowind, and player supplied mods to extend, and improve it.

As noted; Gran Turismo should be on the list, Wii Play, Call of Duty: Black Ops are also very popular. With games like Final Fantasy, it's hard to choose which should be on the list, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 12 were very good. They have Half-Life II, which is good, but the original Half-Life was better and ground breaking for AI at the time (and spun off Team Fortress, Blue Shift, Counter-Strike, etc).

I guess it's too subjective, because I look for some distinct elements in games and tend to follow the developers (e.g. Rob Pardo, Damian Isla, Hideo Kojima, and Jeff Orkin) more than franchise. Beyond the expected quality graphics and interface, the top 3 things I look for in a game are repeatability, mutability, and immersive goals. There are many design factors that promote them, including data structures, AI, depth of plots, and subplots, the number of characters, etc.