My 200 Favorite Games: 200-150

Because the dumb shit I do on my breaks at work has to mean something

200) Fable II. Lionhead Studios, 2008.

An  incredibly disappointing and incredibly enriching action-RPG. Often at the same time.

199) Star Wars: Bounty Hunter. LucasArts, 2002.

One of the least terrible prequel tie ins fights through some wonky controls to provide a straightforwardly satisfying action title.

198) Mortal Kombat. NetherRealm Studios, 2011.

A rebirth of the classic fighting game is constantly at war with its own self-seriousness.

197) Tony Hawk's Underground. Neversoft, 2003.

A surprisingly captivating story mode helps stave off extreme sports game fatigue in the last good Tony Hawk game.

196) Sunset Overdrive. Insomniac Games, 2014.

Vibrant art design and the slickest movement this side of Jet Set Radio save a sometimes incredibly unfunny Xbox exclusive.

195) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. LucasArts, 2008.

The last LucasArts game of any quality to bear the Star Wars brand is a mirthless Stormtrooper killing simulator

194) DBZ: Budokai 2. Dimps, 2004

An incredibly slick fighting engine powers what was until recently the best Dragon Ball game of them all.

193) Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Sonic Team USA, 2001

MUST. RAISE. A. CHAO,  Also some Sonic stuff I guess.

192) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Infinity Ward, 2009.

Hey look, it's the exact moment Call of Duty became insufferable. Lance Henrikson is a cool villain, though.

191) Murdered Soul Suspect. Airtight Games, 2014.

One of the more unique games on this list has its own struggles to deal with, but is just charming enough to be worth recommending.

190) Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Ubisoft Montreal, 2010.

Probably the best single Assassin's Creed location, Rome, plays host to a varied, fun game that gets in just on the right side of the series' decline.

189) Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike. Factor5, 2003.

The last Rogue Squadron game suffers from some bloat and some wonky level design but still proves itself worth the effort.

188) Fable III. Lionhead Studios, 2010.

It was supposed to Peter Molyneux's magnum opus. It ended up being just pretty good.

187) X-Men Legends. Raven Software, 2004.

Who knew that a multiplayer dungeon crawler would be the best way to encapsulate the X-Men as a concept? Oh, everyone.

186) Advent Rising. GlyphX Games, 2005.

A charmingly original sci-fi IP that never picked up enough steam to get a continuation is still worth experiencing.

185) Resident Evil 5. Capcom, 2009.

The Resident Evil formula has yet to run thin in one of the more surprisingly fun cooperative games of last decade.

184) Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. EA Redwood Shores, 2004.

One of the last high profile classic turn based RPGs takes some questionable liberties with its source material but ends up being a worthwhile experience.

183) Castle Crashers. The Behemoth, 2008.

If there's a more straightforwardly enjoyable co-op side scroller, I've never played it.

182) Star Wars Republic Commando. LucasArts, 2005.

A harder-edged, grittier take on the prequels can't escape being a by the numbers shooter, but at least it's a good one.

181) Injustice: Gods Among Us. NetherRealm Studios, 2013.

NetherRealm's DC beat-em-up is more Mortal Kombat than Justice League Unlimited, but it has its moments.

180) Dead Space 3. Visceral Games, 2013.

When Dead Space 3 is good, it's the best of its kind I've ever played. When it's not, it's downright painful.

179) X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. Raven Software, 2005.

One of the better examples of a sequel outpacing its predecessor that I can recall, XML2 is bigger, badder and smoother. It's a shame these games didn't continue.

178) Guitar Hero II. Harmonix, 2006.

The grand daddy of all music games hasn't aged as well as you'd think.

177) Soul Calibur II. Project Soul, 2002.

Probably my favorite fighting game of all time, SCII hits all the right spots, and very few of the wrong ones.

176) Pikmin. Nintendo, 2001.

A wonderfully inventive game that never really gets going after its initial premise.

175) Evolve. Turtle Rock Studios, 2015.

The makers of the first Left 4 Dead take that game's boss fights and extend themselves out to full game length. The result is great fun that wears thin sooner than it should have.

174) Star Wars Episode I Racer. LucasArts, 1999.

Maybe the only worthwhile thing to come out of the entire Phantom Menace experience is a rock-solid racing game with a lot of customization.

173) Quake III: Arena. id Software, 1999.

One of the most important online shooters in PC history is also one of the poorest aged games of it's kind that I can think of.

172) Hyrule Warriors. Omega Force, 2014.

Zelda + Dynasty Warriors is just a bizarre enough fit to work, despite all evidence to the contrary.

171) Brutal Legend. Double Fine, 2009.

Double Fine is nothing if not charming, and Brutal Legend is no exception, especially if you have any affection for wonky strategy games and heavy metal.

170) Soul Calibur IV. Project Soul, 2008.

I said before that SCII was my favorite fighting game, and it is, but this is a bigger and better game. There's also one of the stranger crossovers in history as Darth Vader and Yoda both show up for some fun.

169) Destroy All Humans!. Pandemic Studios, 2005.

A charmingly retro game that is one part homage to 50s UFO culture, one part clever action platformer never quite made the mark it should have, despite a few sequels.

168) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Neversoft, 2007.

The zenith of the music game genre was a guitar duel against Tom Morello, because of course it was.

167) Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. PlatinumGames, 2013.

It's hardly the most intellectual continuation of the Metal Gear series, but damnit if slicing giant robots to death as a cyborg ninja doesn't just scratch a certain itch.

166) Eternal Darkness; Sanity's Requiem. Silicon Knights, 2002.

There hasn't been a game quite like this one before, and there probably never will be.

165) Star Wars Rogue Squadron. LucasArts, 1998.

The scope and smoothness of this game are remarkable now, and they were even moreso in 1998. A clean, straightforward, excellent game.

164) The Sims. Maxis, 2000.

The Sims is really weird, right? Just the strangest game. I don't have anything else to say.

163) Star Wars Battlefront. EA DICE, 2015.

Look at that screenshot. Look how cool it is. Unfortunately, that's about all this game is. It gets the basic concept of a Battlefront reboot right, but forgets to put an actual game around it.

162) Borderlands. Gearbox Software, 2009.

A fun, freeflowing game that feels more like a template for what came later in hindsight.

161) Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. Square Enix, 2008.

There's a very specific mood that this game captures that I hope the FFVII remake can figure out.

160) Sleeping Dogs. United Front Games, 2012.

There's a lot to like about this game, chief among them the detailed setting and the excellent, excellent fighting system.

159) Massive Chalice. Double Fine, 2015.

A very strange mismash of different game types sometimes finds real traction, as long as its difficulty curve stays out of the way.

158) Banjo-Kazooie. Rare, 1998.

I can't think of a platformer that used the Nintendo 64s limited tech as well as this one. A wonderful little gem from Rare, the masters of the N64.

157) Dragon Ball Xenoverse. Dimps, 2015.

It's a simpler fighting game than the Budokai series but ends being much better simply for trying to do something with the source material.

156) DOOM 3. id Software, 2004.

On one hand, it's an incredibly misguided attempt to turn DOOM into something it's not. On the other, it's a greatly evocative and important game from a design standpoint.

155) Halo Wars. Ensemble Studios, 2009.

A refreshingly simple strategy game enlivened by good use of a clean looking Halo tie in.

154) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Neversoft, 2001.

The best of all skating games, now and forever. Also the best soundtrack.

153) Hitman Blood Money. IO Interactive, 2006.

A shockingly inventive game considering both the general limitations of stealth in the mid-2000s and how early in the console generation it came.

152) Assassin's Creed II. Eidos Montreal, 2009.

The pinnacle of the Assassin's Creed series by a large amount. The most varied and interesting game to ever bear the name.

151) Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix, 2010.

I have some very conflicting thoughts. FFXIII is beautiful to look at, at sometimes beautiful to hear. The combat system is one of the few refreshing ideas the company has had lately. It's also agonizingly slow and some of the characters are miserable.

150) D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die. Access Games, 2014.

SWERY is a weird fucking guy. This is a weird fucking game. I liked it, though.

Second part here