IGN Best Videogame of All Time Bracket

BrawlMan

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@Hawki @McElroy
Dead Space was inspired by Half-Life 2. Fairly minor, but it is there. There might be other inspirations too, but unconfirmed afaik.
Dead Space's major influences are System Shock 2, RE4, Run Like Hell, and dark Sector (when it was originally going to be a horror themed sci-fi shooter in space).
 

Chimpzy

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Dead Space's major influences are System Shock 2, RE4, Run Like Hell, and dark Sector (when it was originally going to be a horror themed sci-fi shooter in space).
Yeh, I know. I meant to say other HL2 inspirations, the kinesis module a likely candidate.
 

BrawlMan

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Yeh, I know. I meant to say other HL2 inspirations, the kinesis module a likely candidate.
Oh yeah. I'm surprised some people on this forum are forgetting that so many AAA games did the whole gravity puzzle or manipulation thing after Half-Life 2. That went on for a good while.
 

Hawki

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This is where the disagreement stems from. To me these are similarities. The gravity gun and kinesis module are literally the same thing with different animations to me while you consider them "pretty different". Both games have silent science-guys in power armor using improvised weaponry to kill body horror aliens. There are differences in flavor, because these pieces must look apart and stand on their own, but there are similarities in general ideas.

All in all it's a very "Hawkish" way of looking at media as I see you do time and time again. Like, I don't get anything from that when talking about X having an influence on Y. You could make a list of differences between Free Guy and The Truman Show and come to the conclusion the latter didn't influence the former.
The flipside of the last statement is true though as well. I can make a list of similarities between two pieces of media as well and present it as one influencing the other, despite it being to the contrary. Off the top of my head, there's a plenthora of similarities between the First Formic War Trilogy and the early Expanse books, but it's very unlikely that one influenced the other IMO.

Anyway, as for Dead Space and HL2, well, Chimpzy's provided evidence that Isaac was inspired by Gordon, so that's indisputable at this point, and I can see what you're getting at. But for me, the differences are so vast that they're...well, looking at this through the lens of the Five Elements of Story, the only real points of convergence I can name are in storytelling and to an extent, character. The other three elements (plot, worldbuilding, and theme) are completely divergent IMO.

Oh, and minor point, Isaac's suit isn't power armour, and I don't think the HEV suit is either, but hey, semantics.
 

Baffle

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I don't think I could possibly say that any of the games currently left in the running would qualify as the best of all time, but I also don't know what I would choose. Out of all of the games listed, the one I've had most fun playing is probably Tony Hawk's, though I think that's probably because of my age, friends, lifestyle, and generally lack of being an adult at the time it came out.

Fuck it, let's just say Tony Hawk's should've won.
 

BrawlMan

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Oh, and minor point, Isaac's suit isn't power armour, and I don't think the HEV suit is either, but hey, semantics.
You are correct, but you can make his suit look like power armor by end game. Heck, some of his alternative space suits are glorified power armor.
 

Hawki

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Gamers don't care about any of those.
To pivot to another sci-fi setting, remember the Internet meltdown over the original ME3 ending? A meltdown that came solely from its story choices? We're not all John Carmack.

No doubt some gamers don't care about story, but clearly a lot do. There's entire genres based almost solely on story, and neither Dead Space or Half-Life are exactly lacking in story.

(Well, I'd argue Half-Life is, but I'm probably in the minority there.)
 

McElroy

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To pivot to another sci-fi setting, remember the Internet meltdown over the original ME3 ending? A meltdown that came solely from its story choices?
I thought it was more of a marketing fumble.

Anyway, I was joking. Gamers don't care about storytelling either. Character matters very much. Like, it's exclusive the other way around: you aren't a gamer if you care about those things. We are a misunderstood and often oppressed demografic, us gamers.
 
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Bob_McMillan

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The part of me that is studying statistics is dying inside, but I get why people enjoy this kinda thing.

My initial thought was "who even picked these games", and I winced when I read that it was decided by the IGN staff. Games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Borderlands 2 are bizzare inclusions in my opinion. And of course, Fortnite is in there... I'm pretty sure they snuck that in there hoping it would add some virality to the whole thing but I guess most younger gamers don't even bother with IGN anymore.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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What the f....

Doom 93...ya know, an insanely influential game that was so relevant and played that it was getting banned in offices, elevated the careers of everyone involved with it for better or worse, and changed EVERYTHING on the scene, and it's getting beat by the fucking Witcher?!

Modern gamers, you can eat shit! Your moms are women of no virtue and your father's genetic origins are of serious question!
That’s the problem is these are nothing but popularity contests among an audience that mostly doesn’t know any better.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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So, sorry, but what exactly did Half-Life 2 influence?
Half-Life 2 pioneered the use of environmental physics in games and greatly expanded the use of physics in gameplay. That's literally what the gravity gun was all about, it was a tech demo for "OH SHIT IT USES PHYSICS" and it was basically mind-blowing at the time.

Also, since this bracket only includes 1 game per franchise Half-Life 2 being there represents all of the innovation that came from Half-Life 1, which completely redefined the way that story was told in FPS games as well as the use of NPCs, and in engine scripted story sequences occurring with the player having full character control rather than in cutscenes.
 

Baffle

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Surprised to see KSP isn't on the list to be honest, just because there's so few games like it.
 

Hawki

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Also, since this bracket only includes 1 game per franchise Half-Life 2 being there represents all of the innovation that came from Half-Life 1, which completely redefined the way that story was told in FPS games as well as the use of NPCs, and in engine scripted story sequences occurring with the player having full character control rather than in cutscenes.
Actually, what's weird, is that there's sometimes more than one game per IP. Titanfall has TF2 and Apex Legends, Legend of Zelda has Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild, and you could argue that Half-Life itself has two entries if you count Portal 2 (and the Portal franchise) as being part of the same IP.
 

hanselthecaretaker

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Round 3 is up.
At least Witcher 3 is ahead of Minecraft and Bloodborne is ahead of Titanfall (even though both those games have merit too).
 

Bob_McMillan

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Okay no WAY Rise of the Tomb Raider isn't the meme contender. I refuse to believe that when put up against Dark Souls, Tomb Raider can actually take 46% of the vote without people trying to game the system.