Top 100
IGN has declared their Top 100 Games of All Time, and any who consider themselves a gamer would do to check it out. Sure, you'll disagree with a number of the rankings--I think Metal Gear Solid should be much farther down the list and Deus Ex was NOT better than Half-Life, among other re-orderings--but you can't contest that IGN has picked 100 VERY strong titles there. Nearly every game on that list either unleashed something totally new onto the gaming scene of its day, (Half-Life took immersion to a level previously unimagined) or refined existing game elements to perfection (Starcraft claims the RTS crown to this day). More than that, every one of them is engaging, fun, memorable and above all, GOOD. If you wanted to get someone to appreciate gaming, you would do far worse than to start them playing some of these games.

Unfortunately, I noticed one glaring omission. There's no Massive games! I realize that the MMOG genre isn't for everyone, but you just can't have a Top Games Ever list without at least one of them. Choose Ultima Online for kickstarting the thing to begin with (yes, I know MUDs and Meridian 59 came first, but honestly people, it was UO that got the ball rolling), Everquest for making it popular and hopelessly addicting many, or World of Warcraft for refining and polishing it into the pure gaming heroin millions enjoy today. But seriously, pick ONE of them.

There are also a number of titles that I think should be on the list, but aren't. Where's Space Invaders, a game so popular that arcade cabinets were jammed so full of quarters that they literally broke down? Where's Pong, the first video game ever? Tie Fighter and Wing Commander 2 are excellent representatives of the space-sim genre, but I think Freespace 2 encapsulated space combat just as well as both, but with an added superb sense of scale. Also in space, but not the same genre, what about Elite or Privateer, in which you were set loose upon the galaxy, free to earn your way as you saw fit? And I didn't see a single flight simulator on the list, even though for a number of years they represented one of the gaming styles that PCs did best.

Or take the issue of sequels. Do Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 3, Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island ALL need to be in the Top 100? Sure Mario was influential, but all of those are essentially the same game at various points in history. The basic mechanics of jumping on mushrooms and turtles hasn't really changed much in 20 years, folks. Or Final Fantasy 4, 6, 7 AND 10? While 4 might have implemented a number of the conventions still used today, and 6 may be a tight little package of gameplay and story, could we not just pick one? Are FF7 and 10 at all different from their predecessors aside from graphics? And while both titles are amazing, A Link To The Past and Ocarina Of Time are remarkably similar, both in style and game structure.

But I'm splitting hairs here. Of the 100 games chosen, a substantial portion of them have fallen into my life in some form or another. (I've played no less than 73 of the 100, and completed or nearly completed 25, not counting "never ending" games like Counter-Strike or Ms. Pac-Man.) Some of those entries recalled a lot of fond memories. There were the times I sat frozen to my chair playing System Shock 2 or X-Com. (Those games were FRIGHTENING!) I remember conquering the galaxy in Master Of Orion, wanting to smash my Game Gear to bits in frustration at Sonic the Hedgehog, painstaking maintaining my notebook of Bionic Commando passwords and laughing my guts out the first time I saw the Day of the Tentacle intro. There were many a weekend spent playing Goldeneye for hours and hours on end, and just as many playing Warcraft 2 over the modem. (Another game missing from the list, despite its clear superiority to the Command & Conquers, although the inclusion of Starcraft relieves this somewhat.)

In conclusion, games are awesome. IGN has picked some of the best.  ¶ 6:20 p.m.