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Gaming journalism's humor died when Jeff Green stopped being funny.
I saw that list and laughed because it is a complete joke. Witcher missing from that list is completely inexcusable. Fable??? Come on now... The game hardly qualifies an an RPG.
Post edited August 30, 2009 by Whiteblade999
Thanks for the laugh...
IGN had credibility?? When??
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stonebro: Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect are all in the 5 cheers. None of those are even remotely worth cheering for.

I disagree. Completely.
Mass Effect has an awesome story, it has choices which actually matters (it's superior to, for instance, The Witcher, which is sometimes hailed as the second coming of RPG-Christ). It's one of the most involving RPGs I've played in my 20 years as a fan of the genre, and IMO it's the best game Bioware has ever created.
Oblivion is lovely too. It's an open world RPG, it doesn't pretend to be anything else. And as an open world RPG it's superior to most other games of its kind, except probably Morrowind. It's cool to hate, but a very solid game which offer tons of content and freedom.
Fallout 3 is not as good, but that's because it's post-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic is pretty much the most boring setting ever (perhaps apart from standard D&D). The only game that has done post-apocalyptic right in recent years is Stalker.
(and NWN 2... bah, I tell you, bah. it couldn't be more generic and dull if it tried)
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Zeewolf: (and NWN 2... bah, I tell you, bah. it couldn't be more generic and dull if it tried)

I don't care for the OC myself, but MoTB was hardly generic - it probably had the most innovative gameplay element seen in recent year RPGs.
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lackoo1111: i don't like Gamespot's critics

I don't like the new staff, either. It's why I switched over to Giant Bomb once the Jeff hit the fan.
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Zeewolf: *snip*

I agree, completely (except for the NWN 2 part, I haven't played it yet). Oblivion and Mass Effect were very engaging games (Fallout 3 wasn't nearly as compelling). Mass Effect is one of the rare games where I have been so inclined to play it that I didn't do anything else but play it all the way through (sans sleep, food, and minor social interactions). The first KotOR was another of those. I found myself playing Oblivion long into the night, wanting to beat the next quest. Was it as good as Morrowind? No, I didn't think so. But it was still pretty damn good.
Those five probably aren't the five I'd pick for the five best RPGs of the last 5 years. But can I see the reason for picking them? Yes. They're all good games.
Post edited August 30, 2009 by PoSSeSSeDCoW
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Zeewolf: *snip*
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PoSSeSSeDCoW: I agree, completely (except for the NWN 2 part, I haven't played it yet). Oblivion and Mass Effect were very engaging games (Fallout 3 wasn't nearly as compelling. Mass Effect is one of the rare games where I have been so inclined to play it that I didn't do anything else but play it all the way through (sans sleep, food, and minor social interactions). The first KotOR was another of those. I found myself playing Oblivion long into the night, wanting to beat the first quest. Was it as good as Morrowind? No, I didn't think so. But it was still pretty damn good.
Those five probably aren't the five I'd pick for the five best RPGs of the last 5 years. But can I see the reason for picking them? Yes. They're all good games.

Agree completely.
Also, incidentally NWN2 is really, really good but I can see why it's not going to make too many lists. If you have a decent PC capable of playing it, you should buy it. Reminiscent of the infinity engine games more than the first one. Very beardy. Good dialogue too.
On the negative side, the game is poorly optimized, the camera sucks (it's really very wonky) and the toolset is horrible compared to the first one. A lot of fans of NWN1 were very disappointed with it. I'm not one of them (at least not now that I have a PC that can run it), but it was literally sitting on my shelf for years before I had a PC capable of playing it. NWN2 would have fallen firmly into VtM:Bloodlines territory except it was lucky enough to have a huge amount of support from Bioware, Atari, and the NWN community. incidentally, the souleating mechanic in MotB is also annoying.
I haven't played SoZ yet, but I've heard it's fantastic.
I don't really disagree with the list because of the games on it... they are all good games, some of my favorites, even if most of them are more action than RPG in a lot of ways.
The reason the list is stupid is because every game on it is from the last few years, barring one. It's like the 360 crew just ported their choices over, much like games are ported over these days.
The fact they couldn't go back further and look at games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape or Fallout is ridiculous... oh, and Gothic 2... I mean come on.
IGN has lost much of its credibility with the consistently poor work produced and posted on the IGN site over many years.
IRONY: PhoenixWright just lost credibility.
Post edited August 30, 2009 by PhoenixWright
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cioran: On the negative side, the game is poorly optimized, the camera sucks (it's really very wonky) and the toolset is horrible compared to the first one.

Wha? The toolset for 2 is vastly superior to the toolset for 1, you can actually MAKE things with 2's as opposed to just place and rotate tiles in 90 degree increments. I've made towns tucked into tiny gaps in mountains, towns that run alongside whitewater waterfalls, a house perched at the tip of a spire of rock that could never realistically support it
In 2, if I wanted a teleport portal in a forest grove I make a small flat of land, surround it with trees and drop in the portal item. In 1 you'd hunt for half an hour for the one tile that looked kind of like a portal, make a new area for it to go in since it's an interior piece and then try to disguise the fact it's interior with a few bits of moss and a choice of 2 free standing trees...
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cioran: On the negative side, the game is poorly optimized, the camera sucks (it's really very wonky) and the toolset is horrible compared to the first one.

Have to agree with Aliasalpha on this one. The toolset is much more powerful than the NWN1 toolset. It's got a steep learning curve, but it's a very good tool.
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cioran: ...except it was lucky enough to have a huge amount of support from Bioware, Atari, and the NWN community. incidentally, the souleating mechanic in MotB is also annoying.

Just a small correction: it had a lot of support from Obsidian, not BioWare.
Getting on the topic re the original post: I don't much care about top/worst lists. I like what I like and don't like what I don't like. I don't really give a crap what some journalist puts on his list.
Post edited August 30, 2009 by Coelocanth
I don't see how this damages IGN's credibility at all. It just doesn't please the small minority who like complaining about bethesda for some reason. (and now even bioware??? wtf.. they used to be the darlings of the hardcore rpg crowd).
Look back at the last 5 years best rated RPG games. Take out MMOs. What are you left with?
Fallout3, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fable. Those are clearly head and shoulders above the others in terms of reviews AND sales.
The only other games even close in terms of ratings are Persona, Shim Megami Tensei, The World Ends with You, Jade Empire and Freedom Force. And they picked one of those.
I guess they could have gone with some niche hardcore games in an attempt to garner "credibility" from a small number of niche hardcore RPG fans... but the rest of the world would have laughed at them. They'd have lost a lot more credibility that way.
(plus i love the fact that so far this thread has only come up with 2 possible alternatives, and one is an expansion pack for a buggy game).
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soulgrindr: I don't see how this damages IGN's credibility at all. It just doesn't please the small minority who like complaining about bethesda for some reason. (and now even bioware??? wtf.. they used to be the darlings of the hardcore rpg crowd).
Look back at the last 5 years best rated RPG games. Take out MMOs. What are you left with?
Fallout3, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Fable. Those are clearly head and shoulders above the others in terms of reviews AND sales.
The only other games even close in terms of ratings are Persona, Shim Megami Tensei, The World Ends with You, Jade Empire and Freedom Force. And they picked one of those.
I guess they could have gone with some niche hardcore games in an attempt to garner "credibility" from a small number of niche hardcore RPG fans... but the rest of the world would have laughed at them. They'd have lost a lot more credibility that way.
(plus i love the fact that so far this thread has only come up with 2 possible alternatives, and one is an expansion pack for a buggy game).

Even if you follow the 5 year thing, which I still think is silly, there was The Witcher and Neverwinter Nights 2, both of which are much more classic CRPG than any of the titles IGN listed.
I think the issue for most people here is they chose action games with RPG elements instead of real RPGs.