Game Informer currently has a great little feature on their site, inviting 35 game developers to share their top 5 games of the generation just past. It is super interesting: both in terms of how varied it is, and in terms of the names that seem to pop up frequently.
Evan Well, Naughty Dog Co-President
1. Wii Sports Resort
2. Joe Danger
3. Limbo
4. Portal 2
5. Batman: Arkham Asylum
Ted Price, Insomniac Games President
1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
2. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception
3. Journey
4. LittleBigPlanet
5. Limbo
Vince Zampella, Respawn CEO
1. Assassin’s Creed II
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
4. Trials Evolution
5. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Randy Pitchford, Gearbox President
1. Super Mario Galaxy (Series)
2. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
3. Rock Band (series)
4. Viva Pinata
5. LittleBigPlanet (series)
I’ve posted a few of them above, but I genuinely recommend clicking through to check them all out. It’s fascinating to see who chose what. I was surprised by how many chose Limbo — a game that I loved, but I’m not sure it’s anywhere close to my top 5. I was also surprised by how few people chose Dark Souls — a game that I assumed would be popular among developers.
Personally, it was really cool to see Vince Zampella chose Trials Evolution. It’s a weird game to have in your top 5, but it would most definitely make mine. Also Tommy Refenes from Team Meat made Metal Gear Solid 4 his number one. That’s a brave choice, but it would also make my personal top 5.
35 Developers Share Their Picks For Best Games Of The Generation [Game Informer]
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32 responses to “Developers Share Their Top 5 Games Of A Generation”
Makes me want to go back and play Arkham Asylum. It really was amazing and I didn’t give it the time it deserved. Can’t wait to get the new Batman game after skipping Origins.
You shouldn’t have skipped Origins, it was actually pretty great. Maybe not the 10/10 that AA and AC were, but a solid 8 in my opinion. I think Kotaku did an article on it the other day actually, and you can probably pick it up pretty cheap these days!
I know, I know. I didn’t purposely mean to skip it tbh. I just never got around to purchasing it and then my 360 crapped out with the arrival of my Xbone. So never got around to it.
Rumours of a HDer version have been making the rounds of the internet.
Asylum is more focused than City but both are absolutely fantastic games and up there with the best of the gen. Origins was really just more of the same as City except lacking maybe some of the intensity of some of City’s villains. Still worth playing though. I did like how they focused a bit more on being a detective as well rather than just beating thugs up, even though the detective mode still isn’t great (too many prompts giving you the answer without too much work on your behalf)
AC lost me with the 12 buzillion Riddler tasks everywhere…. Subtlety please.
Still haven’t finished AC.
I loved the Riddler things. Fun puzzler element to the game. Plus, I think it was on Penny Arcade, there was an article about the Riddler stuff that made sense to me.
You sound like me friend – my OCD has me collect everything in game, and the amount of Riddler tasks became overwhelming – I think I was actually close to finishing the game, and I REALLY want to go back and finish it, so I can move on to Origins.
It’s a hard road, but I’m really starting to try and not gather/do everything in these open world games – one step at a time 😛
Thats pretty much it… Same with Assassins Creed… Stupid mini quests attached to mains…. Kills the flow of the game because its like they are saying…. Yeah close enough…. Kills my sense of achievement.
Ni No Kuni: definitely in my top five. Amazing game and is available on PSN, well worth getting.
Agreed, it’s definitely the game that makes me proud to own a PS3. I got my little brother-in-law hooked on it by telling him it was a cross between Pokemon and Final Fantasy
35’s unsolicited contribution to this article :
1 – Mass Effect (series)
2 – Dragon Age
3 – Skyrim
4 – Red Dead Redemption
5 – Bastion
Edit : changed some stuff. also, top 5 isn’t enough. wanted to include Ni No Kuni, Mario Galaxy, Borderlands 2, Lost Odyssey, Journey & a whole bunch of others.
You don’t happen to like RPGs do you?
😛 Pretty close to my top 5 list too.
just a lil bit :p
it’s more that I appreciate a well written story & characters in a game. & that just happens to be a bit more common in RPGs than other genres.
Edit: also, you have good taste in games then.
WAAAHEY! Enslaved made someones list!
Champion
I just installed it on my PC yesterday! I had it (and LOVED IT) for the 360. Replaying it again, and I still can’t get over how unique the game looks and feels. The story is a cut above pretty much everything out there, and the music by Nitin Sawney (especially the holy trinity of tracks No Death In Love/Redemption/Pyramid) is brilliant. The combat is fun, and the platforming great. The ending made me think too, which is rare for a game of this flavour. How did it not launch a franchise? Not enough guns and bewbs I think…
SUCH A GOOD FRIGGIN GAME. Picked it up on Steam for cheap last year.
Well I’ll be sure to pick it up at some point, you guys have convinced me.
Joe Danger?!
Not saying it’s a bad game, but in the top 5 for an entire generation? What are you smoking?
Yeah, that was out of the blue.
Thepal’s also unsolicited contribution to this article:
1 – Mass Effect (series)
2 – Heavy Rain
3 – Assassin’s Creed II
4 – Uncharted (series)
5 – Red Dead Redemption
I think Skyrim misses out… It was good, but it was still missing something.
Can we please have less photos of Randy Pitchford?
Since Colonial Marines I can’t even look at the guy without getting pissed off.
Probably the most hate-able guy in the games industry since Bobby Kotick.
Though while Kotick is just utter businessman slime, Pitchford has that gross “hey I’m cool I’m hip” thing he does as he lies through the teeth about the awful games he’s pushing.
Someone put their own game on the list.
why not? i’ve recorded a couple of albums that live in my top ten of all time. i don’t think it’s arrogant, i can listen to and enjoy them as a listener in the same way i think a dev can enjoy their own game as a gamer.
Nice to see Prince of Persia (2008) making the list as well! So underrated.
Now I wanna play viva pinata.
Why would you assume that game devs like Dark Souls?
I know that Ds is very popular amongst gamers but most developers are busy making games that they don’t always have time to invest in really hard games like DS. That’s why you see you many party or “easier” games listed.
That’s a real toughie… My own, I guess:
1. Battlefield: Bad Comapany 2
2. Uncharted 2/The Last of Us
3. BIT.TRIP (series)
4. WipEout HD
5. Hotline Miami
Now let me just justify in particular my no. 1 choice; I think it’s far from the best game, but the sheer amount of combined hours and fun I’ve experienced with my friends, as well as being my first step into the FPS genre, with BC2 is unprecedented for me. I still play it today, did so for a couple of hours with my mate last night, and had a blast. Still easily the best in the Battlefield franchise for me, and not even being a traditional Battlefield game at that.
Listing five is too hard, but here goes:
1. Bioshock
2. Red Dead Redemption
3. Fallout 3 + New Vegas
4. Mass Effect (series)
5. The Witcher 2 or The Last of Us
There’s a lot of games that probably just missed out, and probably some I can’t even think of at this time in the morning 😛
@greenius Someone put Xenoblade as number 1!!!!!
I dunno who that Corey person is, but they’re the best now! 😀