It does have a couple sore points. The whole aimbots running rampant was awful. And it was one of the first major games to introduce and popularize micro transactions.
Both true points, however Its still my favorite game of all time. To be fair I am a fanboy, my steam year in review last year was 99% TF2. I don’t really play any other games besides tf2 still.
I remember trying the demo to Homeworld when I was a kid, it came with one of those old school PC GAMER demo CDs. I think I was too young to understand how to play it effectively, but still loved it because I found the ambience of the experience so memorizing while hyper-cozy. Would you say it she’s well as something worth going back and playing now, and what of the sequel(s)?
Curious to hear what the criteria for “masterpiece” is, otherwise I think it is just peoples’ subjective opinion of what makes a great game that they also think others might agree about being a great game. Genuinely curious, interested in discussion, not saying this to shut down any of the answers here.
Historically a masterpiece has been a (or the) work that demonstrates an artist is capable of utilizing their medium to its fullest extent, i.e. it has been mastered. Per ye olde Wiki:
Historically, a “masterpiece” was a work of a very high standard produced by an apprentice to obtain full membership, as a “master”, of a guild or academy in various areas of the visual arts and crafts.
In that light, I’d say the best qualified would be games that completely utilized the capabilities of the platform they were designed for or, perhaps of interest to more people, expanded what everyone thought could be done with those systems. Games which were furthermore well polished and complete, and did not have much room for improvement taking into account the constraints they had to work with at the time. (For instance: No duh we could make Mario 64 run at a higher framerate and have better textures to look nicer on hardware now. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t arguably a masterpiece of its time, on the system it was on.) This doesn’t just have to be technical stuff – It could be the way the game used storytelling, its gameplay mechanics, or anything else.
Then Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom belong to that category - run smoothly as fuck on one of the lamest consoles there is, and are beautiful and complex.
Spyro and Crash trilogies on the PSX, as well as the Quake 2 port, would definitely merit being called technical masterpieces
On the original Xbox, Phantom Dust would fit that bill, despite being a commercial failure at the time. The tldr is that you create a collection of spells (attacks, traps, dodges, curses, buffs) and try to grab them and the “mana” during the real time duels, in order to beat your opponents. Terrain is semi destructible and you have to take into consideration the trajectory of your spells - https://www.xbox.com/games/store/phantom-dust/9PCDNBHR11MR
I tried playing it, but the combat… the combat, man, I can play many games, finished Elden Ring, played ton of CS1.6, Dota 2, Terraria Infernum… but Sekiro I could not finish.
I’ve heard it’s a rhytmic game, but I suck at those, too.
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Metal Gear Solid 1-4. Ecco the dolphin? 😂 Good one!
Nethack
Indeed!
check out Caves of Qud if you’re into NetHack
Nobody can answer that question objectively.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Disco Elysium
Alpha Centauri
Super Marios Bros 3
Bloodborne
Ori 1 & 2
Fallout 1 & 2
Planescape: Torment
The Outer Wilds
Atari: Frogger NES: RBI Baseball / Tecmo Bowl.
Genesis: Phantasy Star IV
N64: Ocarina. PSX: FF IX.
PSP: Lumines
Saturn: Panzer Dragoon Dreamcast: Rez and Skies of Arcadia
PS2 Vice City
XBOX: PD Orta 360: Child of Eden / Shadow Complex
PC agree with all yours. Would add Syndicate, Witcher 3, & red alert DS: Dawn of Sorrow Neo Geo: Last Blade 2
I’d say :
Well, none because favorites are super subjective, but I’ll shout out my favorites because no one else did:
Catherine deserves to be on someone’s list so glad you have it and Gravity rush is a good choice cause it was a fun use of mechanics.
I’d say games that have set the standard for their genre, and have not been surpassed, would be the only ones that count.
Team Fortress 2
The best teamshooter game to date, endless copy cats that suck ass.
It does have a couple sore points. The whole aimbots running rampant was awful. And it was one of the first major games to introduce and popularize micro transactions.
Both true points, however Its still my favorite game of all time. To be fair I am a fanboy, my steam year in review last year was 99% TF2. I don’t really play any other games besides tf2 still.
And the character trailers are hilarious.
“That thing … It scares me,” Pyro shooting bubbles and lollypops in his mind actually causing pure death and destruction
My Picks…
Deus Ex (So many games try to be this and fail)
Cyberpunk (This one eventually measured up)
Alpha Centauri (Innovation mixed with familiarity and setting)
Fallout 2 (they’re all good. Fallout 2 is special)
Kotor (Star Wars story telling in a beautiful way)
Baldur’s Gate 2 and 3 (I’m stunned that 3 was a worthy successor)
Homeworld (One of the World’s truly beautiful games)
Phantom Liberty is where Cyberpunk becomes a masterpiece.
I remember trying the demo to Homeworld when I was a kid, it came with one of those old school PC GAMER demo CDs. I think I was too young to understand how to play it effectively, but still loved it because I found the ambience of the experience so memorizing while hyper-cozy. Would you say it she’s well as something worth going back and playing now, and what of the sequel(s)?
I still repplay now and then, there’s no game like it.
Sadly the sequals failed to capture the grace of the original, though I’ve not tried 3 yet.
Braid Cave story
• Sonic the Hedgehog ( Genesis/Mega Drive )
• Chuzzle Deluxe
• Borderlands
• Baba Is You
Those would be some picks I would say are objective masterpieces, but that’s subjective, I guess.
Curious to hear what the criteria for “masterpiece” is, otherwise I think it is just peoples’ subjective opinion of what makes a great game that they also think others might agree about being a great game. Genuinely curious, interested in discussion, not saying this to shut down any of the answers here.
In my mind a masterpiece video game can’t be copied. Or at least if someone tried it would just be called a cheap clone of the original.
Then again everything can be copied but the more difficult it is to copy the closer it is to a masterpiece IMO.
Historically a masterpiece has been a (or the) work that demonstrates an artist is capable of utilizing their medium to its fullest extent, i.e. it has been mastered. Per ye olde Wiki:
In that light, I’d say the best qualified would be games that completely utilized the capabilities of the platform they were designed for or, perhaps of interest to more people, expanded what everyone thought could be done with those systems. Games which were furthermore well polished and complete, and did not have much room for improvement taking into account the constraints they had to work with at the time. (For instance: No duh we could make Mario 64 run at a higher framerate and have better textures to look nicer on hardware now. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t arguably a masterpiece of its time, on the system it was on.) This doesn’t just have to be technical stuff – It could be the way the game used storytelling, its gameplay mechanics, or anything else.
Then Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom belong to that category - run smoothly as fuck on one of the lamest consoles there is, and are beautiful and complex.
…Just don’t look at it too hard when you go to the Great Deku Tree in BotW.
Spyro and Crash trilogies on the PSX, as well as the Quake 2 port, would definitely merit being called technical masterpieces
On the original Xbox, Phantom Dust would fit that bill, despite being a commercial failure at the time. The tldr is that you create a collection of spells (attacks, traps, dodges, curses, buffs) and try to grab them and the “mana” during the real time duels, in order to beat your opponents. Terrain is semi destructible and you have to take into consideration the trajectory of your spells - https://www.xbox.com/games/store/phantom-dust/9PCDNBHR11MR
Albion by BlueByte
“Abzû”. That’s a hill I’m willing to die on. Got to me even more than Journey or Jusant.
Also, thought very differently, “Senua Hellblade” because it perfectly displayed a condition that I could never fit into words.
Sekiro
Few games have such tight game design, story, lore, and characters blended so well into a single experience.
I don’t think I even want or need a sequel.
I tried playing it, but the combat… the combat, man, I can play many games, finished Elden Ring, played ton of CS1.6, Dota 2, Terraria Infernum… but Sekiro I could not finish.
I’ve heard it’s a rhytmic game, but I suck at those, too.