Requiem for a Generation: the Greatest Games of the Last Console Generation

With the emergence of the PS4 and Xbox One last year the games of yesterday are now the games of yester-year.  Last week, we gave props to the greatest game series of the last console generation: Batman: Arkham Etc.  Today we tip our caps to the greatest individual games of the PS3/Xbox generation, the five greatest to be exact.

5. Call of Duty: Black Ops - Treyarch/Activision

This would not be much of a list if the FPS (first person shooter) to end all FPS's was not acknowledged in some way.  The Call of Duty series is arguably the most recognizable game series of the last 10 years, right up there with Halo and Madden.  The trouble is singling one out from the crowd.  The games make their money on a formula and they are so faithful to it things all start to look the same.  In the end it came down to which game in the series offered the most "perfected" incarnation of this formula.  That game is Black Ops.

The campaign is among the best in the series - being the first game in the series to utilize quick time events - and it boasts an impressive cast of voice actors including Gary Oldman, Sam Worthington, and Ed Harris.  The highly popular "Nazi Zombies" games from World at War are back (although with diminishing returns).  It's all pretty fun, but that's not why anyone plays CoD.

Every new game in the CoD series features a slightly different multiplayer experience.  Players never seem to struggle to find things to complain about with each new version.  None are perfect, but the Black Ops multiplayer is the closest the series gets.  The game is slowed down compared to other versions letting players move away from a strictly "reactionary" style of play in favor of a more strategic one, in which map lay-outs, coordinated attacks, and vantage points all hold double the importance of any other game.  Sadly, as with all formulaic game series, Black Ops has been history for a few years already having been set aside for sharper, faster, sleeker games.  The new versions may be fun, but everything after Black Ops is just an imitation.

4. Dark Souls  - From Software/Bandai

"Prepare to Die".  That is the tagline for the #4 game on the list, Dark Souls, and believe me when I say it tells no lies.  The game that takes fan favorite Skyrim to the mat, Dark Souls is an open world, role playing, dungeon crawler that fans love for its replayability, highly original multiplay dynamics, and incredible difficulty.  

A game with a rich mythology that you have to search to discover, Dark Souls goes far out of its way to reward players willing to put the time in to, not only win, but explore.  The lore of this game is so rich that you can log 100 hours and not even home close to unearthing it all (trust me, I speak from experience).  The difficulty of the game will have you turning off your system a few times in blind rage, but give it an hour, and you'll come back for more.  You will curse, you will groan, you will say "C'mon!", you will die, and you will have fun.

3. Portal 2 - Valve

Sorry, Tetris, but Portal 2 is the greatest puzzle game of all time.  Innovative, beautifully designed and challenging, Portal 2 would be a great game if it was just room after room of puzzles.  But it is so much more.

You'd never expect it when you first start to play it's seemingly innocuous predecessor, Portal: Still Alive, but the Portal universe is one of the most fascinating and lush of any game series.  That is what makes this game so great.  It isn't just the story, but the way it is revealed to the player.  Everything builds from darkness to enlightenment, like a light bulb slowly turning on to reveal the wold around you (which, in the case of Portal, is quite a terrifying place).

Portal 2 plays out like a black comedy noir.  Fantastic voice acting turns by Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons bring the perfect balance of terror (what they say) and hilarity (how they say it) to the game.  The ambient/electronic soundtrack along with the haunting imagery of the game gives everything a properly eerie feel.  Then, of course, there is GlaDOS.

GlaDOS, the passive-aggressive and darkly sinister super-computer that is a lot like HAL9000, if HAL9000 had the personality of a psychotic girlfriend that decided she was going to methodically ruin your life because you forgot to take out the trash one too many times.  Chosen by IGN and GameInformer as the greatest video game villain OF ALL TIME, GlaDOS returns from the dead in Portal 2 to take vengeance and dole out some serious psychological warfare (in the form of scathing sarcasm) on her nemesis Chell, the heroine of the series.

Portal 2 challenges you, not just to solve puzzles, but to solve a mystery.  The results are a hell of a good time.

The Last of Us - Naughty Dog/Sony

I already went deeply in depth into what makes this game so fantastic during last year's Year In Review series when I rated in the Game of The Year, but it was so good it deems repeating.  Gorgeously rendered, expertly told, and a joy to play, The Last of Us was a single console release (PS3) and the last great game its generation.

The game mechanics and style of play are fantastic, allowing for players to have a varied number of game play experiences.  Want to play a stealth/hunter game?  You can.  Want to just run around unloading a shotgun on bad guys? you can do that too.

The game play is enough to make it memorable, but the story of The Last of Us is what makes it special (notice a theme?).  In any serious game with voice actors there comes a moment of groan inducing hoaky-ness that gives birth to the phrase "Great story, for a video game".  Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Assassins Creed they all have their moments of weakness (Final Fantasy is full of them).  The Last of Us is one of those truly few games that has the story and script that will draw you in as effectively as any movie or television show.  It is simply excellent story telling.

1. Bioshock - Irrational Games/2K

Dark, exciting, nerve wracking, beautiful, I could go on for days with adjectives that make Bioshock the greatest game of the last console generation.  Also mentioned in last year's Year in Review, this is a game that I will never tire of playing.

A fast paced FPS, Bioshock, takes familiar game mechanics gives them a tweak here and there and throws it into a wholly original world and lets you have at it.

Inspired by the musings of novelist, champion of objectivism, and tea party patron saint, Ayn Rand, Bioshock takes Rand's paradise city of Galt's Gulch from Atlas Shrugged and dives deep to see what life may have been like in such a paradise had it existed.

Man alone is responsible for the world of Rapture, and Man alone suffers in it.

Of course, by the time the events of the game transpire, the underwater city of Rapture is no paradise.  It is a bombed out hellscape where drug addicts fight viciously under the banner of warring megalomaniacs, Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine.  The Orwellian world that Bioshock brings the player to is rich with fascinating characters and dark history, all in front of a majestically designed 1940s style art deco backdrop in a city under the sea.

Sander Cohen, Rapture's Phantom of the Opera.

When it isn't turning your knuckles white, this game is delighting you some fantastically original characters and sending shivers down your spine with disturbing imagery.  GlaDOS might be the biggest and baddest, but Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine (also known as Atlas) are two of the most complex villains ever to be pixelated.  Part noir, part science fiction, Bioshock is a gripping game experience that not only makes you think but might even get you to read something.

Requiem for a Generation: The Greatest Games of the Last Console Generation

Greatest Series:  Batman, The Arkham Series.

Christopher Nolan wishes.  He may have fooled the popcorn stuffing masses, but he couldn’t fool me, and he couldn’t fool himself.  He lies in bed at night crying, just praying he’ll dream of a world in which his movies were as good as the Arkham series.

At least that’s what I like to think.

My first experience with the Arkham Series (Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, and Batman: Arkham Origins) occurred one day when I came home from some place and my brother had gotten a new Batman game I hadn’t heard of called Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I remember being very impressed by the graphics and game mechanics watching him play it.  When I played through the game myself, I was sucked in by the open world aspect and fun story.

The game play was varied and fresh.  You don’t simply grind through a dungeon – fight a boss – repeat.  You explore, fight some bad guys, complete tasks, explore, fight, and when you do face a boss the format of the showdown is different depending on the enemy.

Arkham Asylum was an imagining of the Batman universe that felt authentic while also happening to be a really fun game with oodles of replay value.  The game makers took the time to create an interesting and deep world of characters and it shows.  By itself it was one of the best games of the last console generation.  Looking at is as part of a series and it is just the beginning.

The Arkham series not only gives fans the Batman they deserve but the villains to go with him.  The Joker of course, but the villain that shines especially bright in the series is Bane.  No longer is he some stocky Englishman with a mask and a speech impediment.  He is reborn in the Arkham series as the hulking, Mexican, criminal genius leading a group of fanatical mercenaries on quest to destroy Bruce Wayne.  He also has a totally badass soundtrack.

Where the games distinguish themselves as a series is there ability to keep the characters and open world spirit of the game intact while introducing enough knew aspects to keep it from feeling too familiar or growing tiresome.  Each game has a distinct storyline but is also able to keep an overarching plot and conflict (Batman and the Joker) to keep things relevant.

(This scene is awesome)

In every game, the mechanics improve, the world expands, and the story supplies plenty of new thrills and twists.  Arkham Origins wasn’t just one of the best looking games of the last generation, it was also one of the best sounding.

The best game in the series is probably the second installation, Arkham City.  A flood of new characters are introduced in front of the backdrop of a world that is easily three times the size of Asylum’s.  The leap forward is just astounding.

These games are really, really good looking.

Arkham City also gives fans another thrill by having a multi-story campaign in which the player splits time between Batman and Catwoman (who never looked as good as she does in this game, eat it, Anne Hathaway).  It effectively turns the game into two for one.

Where other series fall victim to redundancy (Call of Duty), or are unable to hold the story together (Mass Effect), or both (Bioshock), Arkham remains strong throughout.

The Arkham series hits everywhere you want it to and leaves you excited to see where it is going to go next.  Christopher Nolan should be so lucky.

Is Online Gaming Fun?

More and more big money in gaming seems to revolve around the online experience.  From Madden to Call of Duty to Injustice to Minecraft, game developers have committed more and more time to online aspects of games, often at the cost of the single player experience.

The most anticipated game of the new console generation, Killer Instinct, was released with no single player campaign at all (The game was rushed to coincide with the release of Xbox One and campaign modes will be available to the public in March).

While gamers are being herded in the profitable direction of online play by Sony and Microsoft there is one question no one has seemed to ask yet:  Is online gaming actually enjoyable?

Certain games are designed entirely around online play.  Games such as Skyrim, Minecraft, going all the way back to World of Warcraft are entirely built on playing in a communal world with other players.  These Massive Multiplayer Online role players (MMORPG) thrive on online play.  Players work together to accomplish goals and the highly customizable environments make it easier for gamers to police themselves.

In these cooperative style online games, players can literally create a whole world for themselves and, whether or not they’re your cup of tea, they are undeniably fun for those willing to invest the time.

It is in more mainstream games that things get a little more… tense.

Anyone who has ever spent an hour playing Call of Duty can tell you about the abundance, of cheap tactics, profane language, and obnoxious users that run rampant throughout the online community.  Now, the occaisonal troll can be pretty amusing if they're clever, but most of the time they just make everyone they run into miserable.

The offending parties seem to always have a few things in common:  They constantly accuse they’re opponents of using cheap tactics while they use cheap tactics themselves.  They very rarely are top tier players.  If they have a mic, they sound like they’re ten years old.  They are incredibly homophobic, sexist, and racist.

It is in this match based, competitive style of online gaming that people really see the worst of the gaming world.

It isn’t so unlike any sort of interactive community online that offers its users anonymity.  The only difference is that on message boards, other readers can typically remove offensive comments and moderators can ban any abusive members.  Xbox and PS3 do both allow users to mute other mic’d players and you can send in reports of abusive players, but aside from a temporary communications ban for players that receive several complaints there isn’t much done about it.

The game that suffers the most from this are fighters like Injustice: Gods Among Us.  The story mode is fairly repetitive and loses its appeal pretty quickly for most moderately skilled players.  The online format of the game is really where gamers are encouraged to log most of their time.

An environment where players are pitted against each other in an open, anything goes fight in which speed and simplicity are rewarded over grace and complexity?  What could possibly go wrong? 

The result is a game community that is so petty and combative that even the best players in the world get booed for “cheap tactics”.

Interestingly one of the greatest online match based game experiences comes from a game in which the multiplayer mode was originally just a tack on.  Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated games of the last ten years.  Upon its release, fans had no difficulty picking it apart, but the multiplayer mode was left out of their criticisms.

Mass Effect 3 allows for a multiplayer match based experience that is both cooperative and varied, but also has the players working towards a final goal (unlike CoD’s similar Zombie games). 

When it comes down to it, online gaming only truly has staying power when you enjoy the people you’re playing with.  On games like Injustice and Call of Duty this typically means playing with friends.  In cooperative games, players are much more apt to want to get along.  Either way, playing with ten year olds is generally a bad idea.