Boxes and Cubes for Playing and Dreaming - Console Poll, vol. 4 - 6th Generation RESULTS

(mario voice) Here we go! It's the 4(ish) day rollout of (a small segment of) ILX's favourite games of the 6th generation! PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, GBA and Dreamcast all got represented here. Sorry to fans of the Nuon, Panasonic M2, XaviX, V.Smile, Bandai WonderSwan, Nokia N-Gage, Sega VMU, Pokemon Mini, GP32, Leapster, and Tapwave Zodiac, you were shut out this time around.

I plan on doing 20 or so a day, ending Thursday. But I'm also going to a wedding on Tuesday so I reserve the right to skip Wednesday and finish Friday.

A reminder when complaining: "TOO LOW" means the community has underrated it, "TOO HIGH" means they have overrated it.

I welcome your guesses for the top as we get near the end, because some of the snubs will make it very difficult to predict!

Happy hallowe'en season, here's something creepy for you to remember:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJNxcmp5nHg

Will get started in a few mins, just gonna boost this thread in all the other relevant threads

sweet! time to start arguing

77 - Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader - 70 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/mNVANA5.png

yes i may have found the jankiest way possible to hide the variable qualities of the screenshots i found. it used to be easier to find screenshots! the internet is truly getting worse!

77 - Suikoden V - 70 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/vsX0QyQ.png

Never played that but I bet I would have loved it, since I was really into Wing Commander I/II and banged my head against Colony Wars for awhile. Also remember an old SW flying game on PC where the tutorial level, flying an A-wing through a canyon without crashing, felt nearly impossible.

xp

I was playing this again last week, it’s honestly still one of the 2 or 3 best Star Wars games ever, HOW did nobody else vote for it??

(I’d argue for Dark Forces and KOTOR being in that top 3 too but neither of those hold up as well today as Rogue Leader).

i only had a PS2 from this era, plus sort of a dreamcast (borrowed one for like 6 months with a bunch of games once upon a time). never got to play much GC aside from the party games at other people's houses. i was kind of shocked by the number of well-received star wars games on there while doing this poll! i was only vaguely aware of a couple of them? lego and ep 1 racer i guess? really didn't even know this entire trilogy of space shooters!

77 - Tony Hawk’s Underground - 70 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/Rws4DSc.png

(Meanwhile there are other titles much lower than RS2RL on my ballot which I’m amazed anyone else voted for!)

Underground was the Tony Hawk game which stopped me playing Tony Hawk games.

Also remember an old SW flying game on PC where the tutorial level, flying an A-wing through a canyon without crashing, felt nearly impossible.

That sounds like Star Wars Rebel Asaault and yep, it pretty much was impossible. Though if you ever did get past the first stage the game just got worse anyway.

(Meanwhile there are other titles much lower than RS2RL on my ballot which I’m amazed anyone else voted for!)

there were about 40-50 games to receive votes that will not appear in this rollout, just a warning! (haven't compared to your ballot or anything, just saying some of em might get shut out)

76 - The Sims 2 - 70 points / 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/GKjnYV1.png

i can't barely remember now, because we were kind of grinding out dozens of games at the time, but some variation of sims 2 on either ps2 or psp was among the first games i ever worked on as a game tester in 2006! a lifetime ago

loving the crt tv screenshots

75 - SoulCalibur - 72 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/K9yoDu6.png

loving the crt tv screenshots

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Monday, October 30, 2023 1:23 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

hah i am glad you like. i apologize in advance for also doing it for the gba games. i also apologize for playing fast and loose with the crops. pretend this crt has real bad overscan!

as a kid soulcaliber was one of those games i never had access to but loved when i had a chance to play

74 - Illbleed - 74 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/q3LYiYn.png

73 - Global Defence Force - 76 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/Of6BJFg.png

last two i know very little about! played an EDF on 360 a bit but never this ps2 one. hadn't even heard of illbleed until this.

Same, that Illbleed screenshot is VERY 6th gen though.

And oh look, Westminster Bridge. I’ve stood there.

lol yeah there weren't a lot of hq screens for illbleed. that one included tbh. the shitty crt filter doing a lot of work to hide some truly heinous image-scaling there

def would've voted for rogue leader one if i had time to vote

many xps

love this upcoming screenshot tho

72 - The Typing of the Dead - 76 points / 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/E8g5c5s.png

Now we're talkin

or typing, rather

Was Underground the first "career mode"?

I think the first career mode was probably a pro sports game... maybe madden

underground was definitely the first one where you made your own sk8er boi and he had a storyline with a bunch of well-known skating people

i apologized in advance (no pun intended) for the gba images, here ya go. imagine you're playing it on that gamecube gba player thing, except it doesn't work right

71 - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 77 points / 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/lNHOfCg.png

Typing of the Dead is the first one I've played, total classic obv. Bring back typing games (would be hilarious on mobile).

Someone must have made the "A keyboard is a 101-button controller" claim ala "the piano is a 88-string guitar"!

68 - Bangai-O - 78 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/oMq0ANV.png

68 - Mario Superstar Baseball - 78 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/Q0SDqeG.png

68 - WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! - 78 points / 1 Vote
https://i.imgur.com/OEcIzI1.png

Can’t believe how many points I gave to underground lol. I did spend an ungodly amount of time with that game as a kid when it came out and loved it to bits so it’s probably fair.

Playing Mario Superstar Baseball with a mate is some of the most fun couch co-op I’ve ever had.

Bangai-O/Illbleed = never heard of! Going to check them out.

Thanks for this Will!

66 - Sly 2: Band of Thieves - 81 points / 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/rwfmJTk.png

The Sims 2 split screen on console was great fun too

WarioWare was my jam, incredible game(s), would love to play it again. Seems like it would be ideally suited for the TikTok generation.

“Couch Co-op”? I shouldn’t post after just waking up

couch co-op is totally a phrase!

I think Rogue Leader is the only one so far that I have in the house. And I don't even have a GameCube any more - I got rid of it after a fire 5 years ago, and put a lot of photos up on FaceBook of what I'd be saying goodbye to, and a friend asked for it - but I've not seen him since.

I definitely had, and played a lot of, SoulKaliberCalibur - it's blatantly "Tekken with pointy sticks" but Tekken is the best fighting game, and it certainly didn't tone down the bizarre mythos element.

xp - and Sly, which is the first of my votes to come up - stylish and silly - if George Clooney ever voiced a video game it should, but would not, be this one.

I think there was a new WarioWare game this year, which didn't really set the world alight (in fairness, the world is already alight)

Yeah, but not for Mario Supserstar Baseball! There was a negative amount of cooperations going between my friend and I

oh right that makes sense haha

66 - Super Mario Sunshine - 81 points / 2 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/JyUYGzc.png

never actually played this one, somehow

3 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - 510 points / 8 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/MlqOYbK.png

third place with no first places! in fact it didn't even place third on a single ballot. but it was on 8/14 ballots and pretty high on a majority of them

This is dangerous because I definitely do have the means to play this, and never need to much of a push - what a great great game (though remembering that there's a section before you get the quick sails is holding me back a little)

(this is fantastic stuff by the way, we all know what one of the last two is but I have no idea about the other!)

i... coveted that wind, i suppose

will post the final two back to back in a few mins -- there will be no fakeout because i forgot lol

Tempted to hook up the GameCube and try to finally beat RE4. I think I got stuck on a boss and abandoned it.

RE4 is another one i have only played on wii but this time obv the whiff of house of the dead suits it beautifully

i have heard that the move, if you're planning to play RE4, is to do the HD texture pack on a PC

2 - Katamari Damacy - 514 points / 1 First-place vote / 9 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/SpzeeY9.png

1 - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (incl. Substance) - 534 points / 2 First-place votes / 8 Votes
https://i.imgur.com/E5PXwT7.png

HOORAY WE DID IT

final list to be posted soon with some FUN ADDITIONAL STATISTICS. but i'll let the top 2 breathe for a bit, including my #1, which is the consensus #1 so i feel very cool and popular wow

mgs2 the funniest game ever

reposting an ancient post of mine from the mgs2 thread cuz i still think about this all the time:

i like all the parts where he brings up the supposed ransom of "30 billion dollars in cash" (could've sworn it was 40 the first time it was mentioned) and the other person says WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

thanks will beautiful job!!

I replayed Katamari Damacy a few weeks ago, with the PC remaster. It holds up!

i'm the first-place voter for VC, i didn't vote for any other GTA. as a high schooler stuck in a backwoods FL swamp, vice city was a portal to my silly, half-heartedly-but-secretly-full-heartedly imagined adulthood. it didn't have anything to do with the storyline or the missions, all i wanted really was that uncanny parallax view of past and future layered on top of each other, the melancholic desire of new wave over a paper thin city of decadence that never existed and would never exist for me, but that promised real feelings i would (and do) have while driving through a city with the perfect song playing. my current gf also played it as a kid and she never even did the missions, she just picked the sexiest car and drove by the apartment she wished was hers, made up stories about the characters and their interpersonal drama, planned her escape to an adulthood where she could be in control and her surroundings could reflect her taste.

it helped that the only good station in my town irl was the 80's station, so i listened to new wave whenever i could get a ride to school instead of enduring the hour long bus ride. i was already primed to associate bittersweet synthetic optimism with the bittersweetness of growing out of your high school years. new wave still represents freedom and longing to me. i listened to beats in space throughout my entire 20s, fell in love with dozens of tracks introduced to me by tim sweeney, and heard him DJ in miami before i learned he used to curate music for the GTA games, not sure if he did wave 103

i know VC is not the best GTA, it's a janky, frustrating game, but it got into the crux of my psyche in a way no other game could have

thanks for the poll will!

that is one of the best posts on this thread and of all the VC voters/SA non-voters, you (and only you) are absolved of any guilt. so says the pollmaster

dlh's VC post was v good too so your poll crime is downgraded from 5 police stars to 2 police stars

FINAL RECAP

STONE-COLD CLASSIC TIER
1 - Metal Gear Solid 2 - 534 points / 2 First-place votes / 8 Votes
2 - Katamari Damacy - 514 points / 1 First-place vote / 9 Votes
3 - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - 510 points / 8 Votes
4 - Resident Evil 4 - 504 points / 1 First-place vote / 7 Votes
5 - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - 496 points / 1 First-place vote / 9 Votes

BELOVED TIER
6 - Half-Life 2 - 418 points / 6 Votes
7 - Shadow of the Colossus - 390 points / 7 Votes
8 - Burnout 3: Takedown - 378 points / 6 Votes
9 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 362 points / 6 Votes
9 - Rez - 362 points / 6 Votes
11 - Ico - 353 points / 2 First-place votes / 6 Votes
12 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - 338 points / 5 Votes
13 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 328 points / 6 Votes
14 - Metroid Prime - 284 points / 2 First-place votes / 4 Votes
15 - The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 276 points / 5 Votes
16 - We ♥ Katamari - 276 points / 4 Votes
17 - Jet Set Radio - 256 points / 4 Votes
18 - Bully - 254 points / 5 Votes
19 - Prince of Persia - 252 points / 1 First-place vote / 6 Votes
20 - Psychonauts - 241 points / 4 Votes
21 - Persona 4 - 240 points / 4 Votes
22 - Metal Gear Solid 3 - 238 points / 4 Votes
23 - Super Smash Bros. Melee - 234 points / 4 Votes
24 - Okami - 223 points / 5 Votes
25 - Metroid: Zero Mission - 212 points / 1 First-place vote / 3 Votes
26 - Grand Theft Auto 3 - 208 points / 3 Votes
27 - Final Fantasy XII - 205 points / 4 Votes
28 - Silent Hill 2 - 204 points / 3 Votes
29 - Final Fantasy X - 195 points / 4 Votes

SOLID TIER
30 - Yakuza - 182 points / 3 Votes
31 - Crazy Taxi - 180 points / 3 Votes
32 - Skies of Arcadia - 176 points / 3 Votes
33 - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 - 161 points / 3 Votes
34 - Persona 3 FES - 156 points / 1 First-place vote / 2 Votes
35 - Singstar series - 154 points / 1 First-place vote / 2 Votes
36 - Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door - 153 points / 3 Votes
37 - Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution - 152 points / 1 First-place vote / 2 Votes
38 - OutRun 2 / SP / 2006 C2C - 150 points / 2 Votes
39 - Halo: Combat Evolved - 146 points / 3 Votes
40 - Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - 144 points / 3 Votes
41 - F-Zero GX - 143 points / 3 Votes
42 - Beyond Good and Evil - 141 points / 3 Votes
43 - Spider-Man 2 - 136 points / 3 Votes
44 - Tekken Tag Tournament - 135 points / 3 Votes
45 - TimeSplitters 2 - 130 points / 2 Votes
46 - God Hand - 128 points / 2 Votes
46 - Metropolis Street Racer - 128 points / 2 Votes
48 - Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald - 124 points / 3 Votes
49 - Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance - 123 points / 3 Votes
50 - Mother 3 - 121 points / 2 Votes
51 - Luigi's Mansion - 112 points / 3 Votes
52 - Metroid Fusion - 108 points / 2 Votes
53 - Def Jam Fight For NY - 106 points / 2 Votes
54 - Steambot Chronicles - 104 points / 2 Votes
55 - Animal Crossing - 103 points / 2 Votes
56 - Jak and Daxter - 102 points / 3 Votes
57 - Chu Chu Rocket - 101 points / 2 Votes

FOND MEMORIES TIER
58 - EyeToy: Play - 99 points / 2 Votes
59 - Metroid Prime 2 - 95 points / 2 Votes
60 - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - 89 points / 2 Votes
60 - Resident Evil - 89 points / 2 Votes
62 - Dragon Quest VIII - 87 points / 2 Votes
63 - Pikmin - 85 points / 2 Votes
64 - Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - 83 points / 2 Votes
65 - Dodonpachi Daioujou - 82 points / 2 Votes
66 - Sly 2: Band of Thieves - 81 points / 2 Votes
66 - Super Mario Sunshine - 81 points / 2 Votes
68 - Bangai-O - 78 points / 1 Vote
68 - Mario Superstar Baseball - 78 points / 1 Vote
68 - WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames! - 78 points / 1 Vote
71 - Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 77 points / 2 Votes
72 - The Typing of the Dead - 76 points / 2 Votes
73 - Global Defence Force (EDF2) - 76 points / 1 Vote
74 - Illbleed - 74 points / 1 Vote
75 - SoulCalibur - 72 points / 1 Vote
76 - The Sims 2 - 70 points / 2 Votes
77 - Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader - 70 points / 1 Vote
77 - Suikoden V - 70 points / 1 Vote
77 - Tony Hawk’s Underground - 70 points / 1 Vote
80 - FIFA - 68 points / 1 Vote

ALSO REMEMBERED TIER
81 - Viewtiful Joe - 66 points / 2 Votes
82 - Deus Ex: The Conspiracy - 66 points / 1 Vote
83 - Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow - 64 points / 1 Vote
83 - Gigantic Drive (R.A.D.) - 64 points / 1 Vote
83 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 64 points / 1 Vote
86 - Devil May Cry - 62 points / 2 Votes
87 - Marvel vs Capcom 2 - 62 points / 1 Vote
87 - Shenmue - 62 points / 1 Vote
89 - Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix - 60 points / 1 Vote
89 - Red Dead Revolver - 60 points / 1 Vote
89 - SSX - 60 points / 1 Vote
92 - Advance Wars - 59 points / 2 Votes
92 - Suikoden III - 59 points / 2 Votes
94 - Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil - 58 points / 1 Vote
94 - MDK2 - 58 points / 1 Vote
96 - Destroy all Humans - 57 points / 1 Vote
96 - Disaster Report - 57 points / 1 Vote
98 - Drakengard (Drag-on Dragoon) - 56 points / 1 Vote
98 - Gran Turismo 4 - 56 points / 1 Vote
98 - The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - 56 points / 1 Vote
101 - Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction - 54 points / 1 Vote
101 - SGGG/SeGaGaGa - 54 points / 1 Vote
101 - Virtua Tennis - 54 points / 1 Vote
104 - Super Monkey Ball - 52 points / 2 Votes
105 - Metal Wolf Chaos - 52 points / 1 Vote
105 - Space Channel 5 - 52 points / 1 Vote
107 - Kingdom Hearts - 51 points / 2 Votes
108 - Raw Danger - 50 points / 1 Vote
108 - Tactics Ogre - 50 points / 1 Vote
110 - Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike - 48 points / 2 Votes
111 - Digital Devil Saga - 48 points / 1 Vote
112 - Killer7 - 47 points / 2 Votes
113 - Silent Scope - 46 points / 1 Vote
114 - Guitar Hero 3 - 45 points / 1 Vote
114 - Wave Race: Blue Storm - 45 points / 1 Vote
116 - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - 44 points / 1 Vote
117 - Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade - 42 points / 1 Vote
118 - God of War II - 38 points / 1 Vote
118 - Golden Sun - 38 points / 1 Vote
120 - Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc - 36 points / 1 Vote
121 - Astro Boy: Omega Factor - 34 points / 1 Vote
122 - Mario Tennis: Power Tour - 32 points / 1 Vote
123 - Baten Kaitos Origins - 31 points / 1 Vote
123 - Ratchet & Clank 3 - 31 points / 1 Vote
123 - Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - 31 points / 1 Vote
123 - Scooby-Doo: Night of 100 Frights - 31 points / 1 Vote
123 - SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - 31 points / 1 Vote
123 - Wario Land 4 - 31 points / 1 Vote
129 - Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo - 30 points / 1 Vote
130 - Typing of the Dead - 26 points / 1 Vote
131 - Blue Stinger - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Border Down - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Bujingai - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Castle Shikigami 2 - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - D2 - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Dynamite Deka 2 (Dynamite Cop) - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - ESPN NFL 2K5 - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Gunbird 2 - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - GunValkyrie - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Outtrigger - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - P.N.03 - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Rent-a-Hero - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Shinobi - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Super Dimension Fortress Macross - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Tetsujin 28-gou - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Twinkle Star Sprites: La Petite Princesse - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram - 24 points / 1 Vote
131 - Zombie Revenge - 24 points / 1 Vote
150 - Dark Chronicle / Dark Cloud 2 - 23 points / 1 Vote
150 - Fatal Frame / Project Zero - 23 points / 1 Vote
150 - Lego Star Wars: The Video Game - 23 points / 1 Vote
150 - Onimusha 3 - 23 points / 1 Vote
150 - Rachet & Clank - 23 points / 1 Vote
150 - Shadow of Memories / Shadows of Destiny - 23 points / 1 Vote
150 - Soul Reaver 2 - 23 points / 1 Vote
157 - Gradius V - 22 points / 1 Vote
157 - The Adventures of Cookie & Cream - 22 points / 1 Vote
159 - War of the Monsters - 20 points / 1 Vote
160 - Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 - 18 points / 1 Vote
161 - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - 16 points / 1 Vote
162 - Ikaruga - 14 points / 1 Vote
162 - Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland - 14 points / 1 Vote
164 - Power Stone 2 - 12 points / 1 Vote
165 - Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy - 6 points / 1 Vote
166 - Pen Pen TriIcelon - 4 points / 1 Vote

yah lovely post karl, it's the peculiar hangout vibe for me too in VC but i've less of a handle on why

FUN STATS POST

We did do a PS2-only poll about 11 years ago, thought it'd be fun to see how they compare. Of course lots of things make these largely pointless to compare (different voters; different voting process; wildly small sample size this time around), but just because it's pointless doesn't mean i'm not gonna do it!

Notable fallers since the PS2 poll:
God of War (from 13 to zero votes!) (this is the one i was referring to when i said there was a notably absent game in the top, considering it was like a top-10 seller in the ps2's lifetime? has nu-God made old-God obsolete?)
Gradius V (from 28 to 157)
God of War II (from 25 to 118)
Guitar Hero games* (from 24 to 114)
Dragon Quest VIII (from 15 to 62)
Suikoden V (from 39 to 77)
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (from 33 to 64)
God Hand (from 20 to 46)
Psychonauts (from 7 to 20)
The Warriors (from 26 to... not even nominated this time? oops! bet it woulda got votes if we had remembered! or maybe we did and it was my fuckup!)
Shadow of the Colossus (from 1!!! to 7)

*Guitar Hero 2 was the consensus last time, GH3 this time, so I counted them as the same game to include it here

Notable risers since the PS2 poll:
Tekken Tag Tournament (from 100 to 44)
Sly 2: Band Of Thieves (from 116 to 66)
Spider-Man 2 (from 85 to 43)
Jak and Daxter (from 86 to 56)
Rez (from 23 to 9)
Burnout 3: Takedown (from 22 to 8)
Metal Gear Solid 2 & Substance (from 12 to 1!)

Other fun notes:
- Katamari Damacy finished second to Shadow of the Colossus last time, and finished second to MGS2 this time. Always the prince, never the king...
- Last time San Andreas was 3rd, Vice City was 4th. VC stayed 4th among PS2 games and landed 5th overall, but SA fell.
- The Personas were 9 and 16, now 21 and 34, same order though. probably not even that notable when you account for the non-ps2 games.
- I said in 2012: "Better (to play those old PS2 games) now than ten years from now when we all have 48fps REAL-D MEGA TVS that are inexplicably not compatible with PS2s anymore :/". 48fps lol i was so naive. tvs were probably already doing 60 or 120 by then!
- bully was 18th both times lol

If this were an ILX Poll Classico, it'd look something like

2 Ico
2 Metal Gear Solid 2
2 Metroid Prime
1 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
1 Katamari Damacy
1 Metroid: Zero Mission
1 Persona 3 FES
1 Prince of Persia - Sands of Time
1 Resident Evil 4
1 Singstar series
1 Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution
0 Everyone else lol

i'll post my ballot in a bit, and if anyone wants to post their ballot go for it (or if you can't find it, ask me and i'll post it for you)

(not that waking up in the morning in SA, going to the gym, getting some pizza, taking a drive, watching the sun set, dying in a snowballing series of wrecks wasn't impeccable hangout vibes itself xp)

I think 2012 being the year before Gamergate might've made some difference to God of War - some of the first few Anita Sarkeesian videos did really go in on it for sexism.

violent sexism at that

(meant to say for Halo) The thing is, I really really hated the Xbox at this point. I probably said last time, but the PlayStation was my first console, and I got it at a time when it was inarguably The Future - every month or so something pointing the way in a new direction would come out - Final Fantasys! Crash Bandicoots! Tomb Raiders! Wipeouts! Tekkens! Gran Turismos! Metal Gear Solid! Resident Evils! Oddworlds! Er, Fear Effect!

And the PlayStation2 came out, with more cool stuff, and all was well. And then the news came that Microsoft was going to get into the console wars, and they did it largely by buying up other studios and ruining them - Rare's Xbox games for this era was Grabbed by the Ghoulies and Conker! And I has been experimenting with a Mac as a gaming machine, and one of the bright spots there was Bungie, whose Marathon games were amazing, great to play, a great and shifting storyline, and their next game was going to be Halo, and everyone said it looked amazing and I couldn't wait to play it - and then Microsoft bought them to make Halo a flagship title for the Xbox, the dicks.

(lol I also see that they did release it for the Mac in 2003, way to hold a decades-long grudge for nothing, Andrew you dick)

But when Halo placed I had a look at the Xbox exclusives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Xbox-only_games) and thought "None of the rest of these are going to place", and I was right and I'm brave enough to say it.

I wanted to play Blinx because I am a big fan of the "animals platforming" genre, but the reviews for it weren't great (I think it was a crossbreed with Prince of Persia-style time mechanics) - I would genuinely love to play Jet Set Radio Future, but again that's more of "This was good so we bought it". Everything else there though - I mean, starting with America's Army is bot auspicious but it is a prophecy, very little of this is weird in any way.

(Looking back at it now I realise how much of my this-vs-PS2 feeling I've laid along sex/gender lines - this is just such a blokey lineup! Also, I was reading a lot of Grant Morrison at the time)

And at the same time Xbox won the future wars - it went in a lot harder on broadband connectivity and the Xbox Live than the PS2 ever managed (also maybe the PS3? I never had one) - I feel we can all agree this eventually turned out to be a terrible mistake.

Also thank you Will, this was great!

72 - The Typing of the Dead - 76 points / 2 Votes
130 - Typing of the Dead - 26 points / 1 Vote

the ballot counting machines are at it again!

for real though, thanks again for running this, always fun!

But when Halo placed I had a look at the Xbox exclusives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Xbox-only_games) and thought "None of the rest of these are going to place", and I was right and I'm brave enough to say it.

if we're talking from a purely-this-era-of-consoles perspective, half-life 2 was "an xbox exclusive," lol

...also looking at that list and remembering that xbox got an exclusive shin megami tensei game, that they never even tried to remaster anywhere else, nor has it ever even gotten a fan translation. of the 60+ megaten games, only a handful have no way to play in english! and that's one of them!

also it was called Shin Megami Tensei: NINE despite coming out before SMT 3. (i guess it's named for its 9 alignments, but like... cmon man)

xp OH NO I FUCKED IT. sorry about that!

would've bumped it to 56, tied with jak and daxter.

anyone remember bungie's oni for ps2? that was one weird bad-good game

lol yes i sorta loved oni (on pc).

lol, oni. i remember watching someone play it one of the first times i ever sm0k3d w33d and it blew my mind

it was eerily empty

vast crates in vaster hangars

Haha yeah I remember being extremely hyped about it, and then wow really is this it

my ballot, all ranked no hybrid (bold: didn't make the 77):

Metal Gear Solid 2
OutRun 2 / SP / 2006 C2C
Persona 3 FES
Skies of Arcadia
Persona 4
Suikoden V
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Def Jam Fight For NY
Mother 3
Jet Set Radio

Final Fantasy XII
Metal Gear Solid 3
Chu Chu Rocket
Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald
Burnout 3: Takedown
Tactics Ogre
Digital Devil Saga
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Final Fantasy X
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade

Metroid Fusion
Golden Sun
Suikoden III
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne
Rez
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Advance Wars
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Dodonpachi Daioujou
Gradius V

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike
Katamari Damacy
Ico
Ikaruga
Power Stone 2
Okami
Super Monkey Ball
Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy
Pen Pen TriIcelon
Bully

i know that david cage games are the dog worst and i only rank it because i think it's my second-favourite angelo badalamenti soundtrack of all time (!)

also i may have said this before but in 2023, most of these consoles are trivially easy to play anything on any time:
- ps2 has a memory card hack, and preloaded mem cards are out there on the online marketplaces. all you need is that + an old hard drive + there's also a hard drive adapter floating around on online marketplaces.
- dreamcast has had swap discs since forever. there's also an entire laser-for-hard drive swap you can do but it involves opening up the machine, so i don't count that as "easy," but it's probably the best way to do it
- gamecube i think is more invasive, but wii isn't (i think it's just an sd card and a few minutes?), and wii is just two gamecubes glued together, so it plays gamecube natively!
- xbox... i feel like it's rarer to see an og xbox that ISN'T hacked than one that is! no idea how it's done but it MUST be easy!
- gba is just a flash cart, or i think you can just dump gba games on a 3ds and for that you don't even need new hardware, just a micro sd iirc?

also saying again that when this poll began, there was no such thing as "english boku no natsuyasumi 2" on the internet, and by the time this poll ended, there was in fact an english boku no natsuyasumi 2 on the internet. when we poll consoles good things happen

this was fun Will cheers

I'm a bit drunk so I can't moan about Morrowind being robbed yet

Ok I can a bit

Oh yeah and Vice City over San Andreas is just nonsense

I was the first-place voter for Katamari Damacy. It's the best!

i started playing reroll this week and so far it lives up to expectations. shocker i know. i wanted it at #1 but mgs2 is fine as well

i've only played the first Katamari thru Reroll so i voted for We <3

still a landmark in gaming tho, both of them

Mgs2 was my number one and if I HAD to pick one videogame as the best of all time (which is a silly exercise but whatever), it would be mgs2. This ain’t even nostalgia, I played the remaster in 2013. Lord knows what would have happened to my 6yo brain if I played it on release.

Thanks for the poll Will, this was great!

i don't remember if i voted for wind waker but it's certainly too high there. it isn't bad but it was definitely a step down from the n64 zeldas, not really an all-time classic or anything

mgs2 is a worthy number 1, it's the best metal gear even if 3 and 5 advanced the gameplay further. metroid prime was my #1 though

busy week but thanks for the poll, will! are we posting ballots here?

Go for it, I did!

this seems like a good thread to drop this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4osHamxFkQ4