"Must haves" threads - do we need a sticky?

[Nakano]

I went along to GameOn a few years back and headed for the N64 pods. They had GoldenEye running.

I couldn't quite beleive what I was playing, it was amazing. Amazing that people actually played this trash and to this day harp back to the good old days.

It may be a good game underneath but running it on hardware that wasn't capable of allowing that to be expressed is unforgivable.

I know, some people (Me included) remembers the good old days, but probably haven't played the games recently to realise that some of the games hasn't aged well at all. But there are a lot of games that have aged well, for me mainly shooters (R-type, Parodius etc), fighters (SF2 turbo, KOF etc) and Platforms (Castlevania SOTN, Sonic, Super ghouls & ghosts etc).

The reason I think games like Goldeneye don't age well is because of the reason you've outlined, the hardware was just not powerful enough for what they wanted to do. There are many games that have since surpassed them (imo mainly 3d stuff). But for the above the 2d stuff, I don't think there have been many new games that have surpassed those.

[Dazzyman]

Wouldnt you need to do it for genres though? Saturn stuff for example Im nuts on vertical shumps so Radient Silvergun/ Battle Garregga/ Don Pachi etc.. top games for me but someone not into that genre wont mention em.

[Swallow]

Lists are phail tbh, it would just cause tears and drama.

[drmick]

Yeah, no point.

I learned a long time ago that I will never lke RPGs, sports games and Vs Beat-em ups, and yet I can imagine Zelda, FF, Pro Evo and Virtua Fighter going on a lot of people's lists.

Puzzle games are never worth their cost unless they're really, really cheap. Likewise for shmups (gasp!).

And for health reasons I'm not allowed near RTS's (things like water and sleep taking a back seat while I play those games).

So that leaves FPS, 3rdPS, platform, Retro, 3rdP action and.... ummm......

I never like about 50% of "best of" lists, although this doesn't mean I'm not in agreement, they're just not for me.

[Light]

As someone mentioned earlier - these would work best if tailored to user's preferences. For example, categorising the games according to their respective genres with some clear explanations as to what each game is about. I doubt lists with nothing but countless game titles really turns anyone on.

The other good point was to allow a certain period of time to pass before new games are allowed entry to the "must-haves" list. With so much hype being generated for certain titles, a lot of them are made out to be the next best thing since lucky charms, and when the hype dies away, only then do we really objectively see some of them for what they really are.

Polling would be a fantastic feature as you would be able to tell just how much support a game has been given in its "must-have" status - this will really determine the cream from the crop.

Looking at all of these ideas, including a few others which could be implemented, I have to say that I don't think making an "end-all" thread would be the best solution for this. It seems that Concrete Donkey's suggestion to turn this into an all-new main feature for the website would be of great practical use, not least because it would be so much easier to have so many things in one place. And like, make it all colourful with nice looking screenshots of games and stuff.

[EldoradoExplorer]

Lists are phail tbh, it would just cause tears and drama.

[rossman]

It would be nice to have a kind of tag cloud, so you could click on games that you knew you liked and then be shown games that were recommended for people who also liked that game. That way, recommendations can be a bit more relevant and personal. Last.fm et al style

[egparadigm]

Just because we have a top ten or top twenty, doesn't mean we couldn't also leave the thread open for requests.

I do like the idea of a "tag cloud."

[Commander Marklar]

If anything, this thread has highlighted how great a console the PSP is XD