1. No developer should ever play World of Warcraft or try to emulate it.
2. Where is Wizards of the Coast? D100 based games are really that taboo now? And I use this term loosely - Van Carngenham* games like Might and Magic are D100 based as well.
3. Where is Maelstrom/Star Roids on this list? Hmm?
4. Why is Fallout 3 even on this list? Was SimCity not important enough?
5. What about Star Craft?
6. Why is Outpost 2: Divided Destiny not present?
   

Zwilnik Wrote:Other than that, this list is more of a 50 games every fanboy must play rather than a critical list for developers.

• Metroid -- classic 2D platformer masterpiece with all the great elements: music, memorable bosses, weapons, excellent map, and the hero turns out to be a girl! It's amazing to me that such a great game can fit on such a small platform (the NES).
• The Legend of Zelda -- classic 2D RPG masterpiece representing all the basic great elements: great music, creative levels, memorable bosses, etc.
• Braid -- unique time-based puzzles
• Portal -- unique portal-based puzzles
• Metal Gear Solid -- plays like a movie!
• Marathon (series) & Doom -- they're fascinating to me in that they contain all the elements of great, modern first-person shooters, and yet they're not even fully 3D. I've played these again recently, and they feel just like any modern FPS.
• Gears of War -- included here only for the co-op play, which is masterfully designed
• Deus Ex -- choose your own adventure! The threaded storylines in this game, plus the excellent music are worth paying attention to.
• Spy vs. Spy for Xbox -- surprisingly well balanced and casual gameplay. This game generally has poor ratings but I think it is a really well designed game regardless.
• Prince of Persia -- not a very large game but has great gameplay, great levels, and a storyline to go with it.
• Age of Empires 2 -- incredibly well-balanced 2D real-time strategy game
• Chess -- so simple and yet so complex...
• Genghis Khan -- an old turn-based strategy game on the NES. Rather complex gameplay distilled down to basic elements.
• Downland -- this is an ancient CoCo game. I doubt anyone else would be interested in it, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't include it as a game I take inspiration from
  

• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time — The novel mechanic allowing the player to undo poor decisions, delightfully integrated into the "1001 Arabian Nights" feel of the thing "No, that's not what happened". The arrogant, petulant prince, the love interest who's more than a pair of breasts, the smooth platforming. Only the combat is a bit of a let-down, and even there, there are a few really sweet moves.
• Beyond Good and Evil — A fairly generic third-person action game, with an interesting mechanic in the form of taking photographs, but the reason this game is on my list is that it engendered about the strongest emotions I've ever felt for a non-player character.
• ICO — For the same reasons as Beyond Good and Evil, but doing it all without words. The hand-holding mechanic is really something.
• Braid — For being unafraid to give the player unlimited undo in an action game, and for building around that a set of puzzles which are all mind-bending until you understand them, then completely obvious and natural. There are no "cheap" puzzles here which rely on exponential complexity to be hard.
• The Fool's Errand — Well-paced puzzles, combining into higher-level puzzles, and an engaging fantasy story told out-of-order make this one of the best purely puzzle games ever.
• Plants vs. Zombies — A study in thoroughly modern casual game design. It's simple, addictive, and unlike many "casual" games, not bereft of strategy or challenge.
• I Wish I were the Moon — Is this a game? I don't know. But it's a bit like a game, and it's certainly interesting.
  

tcIgnatius Wrote:Hmm... that's a lot of games. I could go on. It's hard to narrow it down though.