Game Informer's Top 200 Games of All Time

[Alexia_Ashford]

To anyone who says RE4 is a "piece of shit"... bleh. You're obviously not a well seasoned gamer, or just an incredibly biased one. I love the RE series and I play the originals regularly, and although RE4 was very different in a lot of ways, it's an extremely good game, was very well-recieved, great gameplay innovations and was just a damn good game and it certainly deserves its place. It's reverred by gamers worldwide. Take of the rosy RE glasses and see the game for what it actually is.

RE4 wasn't scary (other than the Regenerators, I still get scared of those now), it was just damn fun.

[Carnivol]

When the demo for Resident Evil 4 came out, I guess I wouldn't say "scary" was the word to pick to describe it, but like Disaster Report/SOS - The Final Escape it didn't let you get very comfortable. You could do stuff to block the enemy (w00t!), but they'd always find a way (scheisse!). They'd attack in larger crowds than the zombies had before them, and you really had no way of telling whether or not you should be conserving ammo or could go full out during the initial run (chances were you'd blow the load and then the first chainsaw guy would come, making you go all D: as you ran for your life.)

It played more on panic than spooks, I suppose.

[Becky's Butt]

I dunno what people are complaining about. I think Final Fantasy IX was the best game in the FF series... It's a lot better than 7 or 10 and it's galaxies better than 8.

Yet it's still, among general gamers, almost completely forgotten. Though I'm pleased in recent years the FF fanbase has generally embraced it as one of the best.

But my point is I accept IX isn't on the list because this list is going on general importance to gaming and gamers. In that regard RE4 very much deserves its place.

Me complaining IX on the list be like someone complaining Code Veronica isn't on the list...I bet someone did that somewhere.

I'm also pleasantly surprised they put GTA3 so high. So many elitist gamers nowadays don't recognize what a revolutionary piece of art that game is.

[Vector]

I dunno what people are complaining about. I think Final Fantasy IX was the best game in the FF series... It's a lot better than 7 or 10 and it's galaxies better than 8.=

That's your opinion. Other people have them as well. I don't understand why you're confused.

[Becky's Butt]

Because I'm not bitching about my favorite game not being on the list. others are. That's the confusing part.

People just need to accept their favorites aren't everyone's favorites .

[Alexia_Ashford]

Who's bitching about their favourite game not being on the list? *Re-checks topic* There are only mere comments from some folk saying they think something should be on there. The main source of bitching is about RE4 being so high up.

[Grem]

RE4 lacked fear as a rule

Most of the time, I read that RE4 is not scary, but in fact it's very inaccurate.
There are as much elements of fear in RE4 as in any other RE games. If the game was released in place of RE1 in 1996, anyone would have been as scared as with the original RE.

The problem is that a lot of people's judgement is blinded by the action aspect of the title as well as the fact that they have been desensitized after playing a lot of survival horror games.

It's really difficult for me now to be scared by any games or movies after all the shit I've been through via RE games, you know? But people aren't aware of that, because there is so much nostalgia of the good old days, when they were scared by a dog jumping through a window.

I really think RE4 deserves its "best RE game ever" title. That game clearly isn't my favourite RE (it's up to personal tastes, eventually), but it was one hell of a game and I've never seen people having so much fun with an RE game than with this one.

[Darkmoon]

Well, it's my personal opinion that the game isn't scary. I simply don't find large mobs of people attacking me scary, especially when I never feel especially overwhelmed by them. Sure there are lots of them. But that's why I have a pistol. And grenades. And a shotgun. And a bigger shotgun. And a magnum. And a machine gun.

I'd also disagree that I don't find it scary simply because I've played a lot of horror games. Dead Space scares me. Fatal Frame scares me. Siren scares me. I won't play certain parts of the first Siren game in the dark. The Silent Hill games scare me even to this day. It was simply that the game failed to be scary, for me as a whole, and that was because I never felt the situation was especially out of control. Part of that was Leon and his complete lack of worry when fighting things he really should have been scared by. The other part was the big shift to action meant I was armed to the teeth.

Added to that the rather poor plot, the stripping out of the exploration elements and the reduction of the difficulty of the puzzles and I don't really feel it can be called the best RE game. It didn't really have any of the elements of a RE game in it, bar that you shoot monters with a gun.

[Grem]

Yeah, but you were not scared by RE4, because it had a fear that you already knew in past RE games.

You know, I felt more scared in RE4 than in RECV or REzero.
RECV, even though, it is my favourite RE game, didn't scare me, because it relied more on creepy atmosphere with all these nazi stuff and Ashford dementia and the only thing that scared me was the first time you notice nosferatu : his scream and the image was disturbing, but that was it.

However, in RE4, I remember of several parts where the game frightened me on my first playthrough. Especially, when the first colmillo jumped to my throat near the church. It was so dark that I didn't see that coming and I was like "Wooow! what the hell is that?!" Traditionnal RE scares.
Then you have the first novistador, you are aware that this thing is going to show up when you hear its steps and all, so you walk and then that fucking thing appears right in front of you, you try to kill it and it disappears, you're like "Shit! where it go?!" and you start to panic a bit.
I should also mention that spider like parasite, it was so disgusting that I couldn't approach it by any means and the same goes with Saddler the first time. Perhaps it's because I'm afraid of spiders, but that really freaked me out.
Needless to mention the ovenman and the regenerador aswell.

What I mean, is perhaps other games were more successful to convey new forms of fears, and that's probably why RE fear factor became less efficient. But RE4 still has a fear factor, but somehow, Re fans weren't scared of these things, probably because people got used to it and experienced other things in other games.
Take Darkside Chronicles for exemple : I didn't notice anyone being happy with it in terms of scariness. But the game was filled with traditionnal scares. I was really surprised by how Capcom made DSC like an old RE on that matter, but It's also surprising to see that noone really was impressed by it.

For me it pretty much means that no RE fans are going to be scared by a RE anymore, no matter how hard Capcom tries. If you want to feel fear like with first RE game you played, the only way for you, is to experience a real life resident evil situation, but it's unlikely to happen and you're probably not willing for that to happen.

I have an interesting quote from Mikami when he was talking about fear at the time of RE2 :

You don't think you'll make Resident Evil 3?
M: I don't know. If I do, I will make the series finish on Resident Evil 3, if I made Resident Evil 2, I think I would have made it finished. The fear is a stimulation, when people get use to it, it is not scary anymore. A horror movie is the same way, first, people scared of everything but after that, everybody got use to orthodox horror and comedy horror started, finally horror movie went to "Brain dead" kind of brutal movie. I thought it is the end of horror movie history.
-- I know, that was not horror anymore
M: Yes, people get use to the fears.

You see what Mikami thought of RE ten years ago? It's really not suprising that RE4 was considered 'not scary' by a lot of fans, you know.
I completely agree with Mikami. Fear is limited in time : The more you face it, the less you succomb to it.

[GEORGE TREVOR]

Fear is limited in time : The more you face it, the less you succomb to it.

This is true, but a challenge that can be overcome by only the very best developers of our time ~ Dead Space proved that even the most gore-immune generation can be spooked, and RE4 proved that to a certain extent Biohazard still has it; although Capcom went backwards with RE5.
Zelda should never be No1 (maybe No10) BUT Ocarina of Time is scandalously overlooked at 20, and should have been in the Top 3 (No 1 in my humble&biased opinion) RE2 seems harshly placed. Apologies if I am being dumb, but where is Remake? If it qualifies for this list I would put it at number 5!

[Vector]

I found RE4 to be pretty damn creepy the first time I played it. The awkward, rural setting filled with crazy-eyed, Spanish-speaking mindless servants throwing scythes at me...it made me uncomfortable. It wasn't scary, though. I jumped once when playing RE4, and that was thanks to Oven Man.

All this in mind...RE4 was still a great game, and it revolutionized the third-person shooter genre. As a Resident Evil game, it failed in many ways...but as a standalone title, it really was great -- ehh...storyline aside, it was great.

[Beanovsky Durst]

I found RE4 to be pretty damn creepy the first time I played it. The awkward, rural setting filled with crazy-eyed, Spanish-speaking mindless servants throwing scythes at me...it made me uncomfortable. It wasn't scary, though. I jumped once when playing RE4, and that was thanks to Oven Man.

All this in mind...RE4 was still a great game, and it revolutionized the third-person shooter genre. As a Resident Evil game, it failed in many ways...but as a standalone title, it really was great -- ehh...storyline aside, it was great.

Same here. The Oven Man was the only thing that made me jump while playing the whole game. But I think it really deserves it's place on any top games list...

[IllGiveYouStars]

I'm surprised that the original Legend of Zelda is number 1, if it was Ocarina or Link to the Past it wouldn't surprise me. I'm a Zelda fan but I didn't like the original at all. I love old games but it was just a chore to get through.

You could argue that it would be different if I played it at the time and not a few years ago, but I still feel that Ocarina or Link to the Past are more revolutionary. My personal favourite is Wind Waker

[Det. Beauregard]

I'm only upset that Super Mario RPG was at 148.

I agree, I also loved that game. They really took a different approach to the Mario game and I loved its amount of detail.

[Wanderer]

Wow, really do not like that list whatsoever, Ocarina of time is pretty far down for being one of the unanimous best game ever picks. Honestly, although i will always argue it should be number one lol, in no way should it be out of the top five range.

Funny, Edge's top 100 games to play today i thought was terrific, spot on if you ask me.