TOP 5 most polished games?

[London Geezer]

Rabidrabbit gave me the idea for this.
For "polished" I mean those games with the least amount of "minor" flaws, be it features, feature-implementation (MGS2 implementation of DD was appalling for example, so that would ba an aspect), IQ, sound, controls response etc...

Anything goes. Please do not turn this into a flame-fest, and this is NOT, repeat, THIS IS NOT A TOP 5 BEST GAMES EVER. It's different.

Thank you...
Posts from the big guys (FAF, Archie etc...) would be greatly appreciated, it would be interesting to see what they consider "polished"...
(i'm still thinking about my top 5, will post it in a bit)

 

[Phil]

here's my take:

• Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
• Jak& Daxter
• Ratchet & Clank (given their similar technology, I may have to replace one or the other with Jak II)
• ZOE2
• Gran Turismo 3

I'll post it more indepth later on as to why these are my top 5...

 

[rabidrabbit]

Okay, here's my list as it was on the JakII thread.
I reserve the right to edit it, as I was a bit hastily thought.
This consists only PS2 games, because I don't (yet) have enough experience on other current gen consoles games.
I don't think there even is no reason why one could not put say Pac Man on the list, age is no hindrance to be on the list, right london-boy?

1. GT3
2. MGS2
3. R&C
4. J&D
5. Soul Calibur II (Edit: replaced JakII with SCII, Jak drops one place to no.6, but as this is top 5, I won't mention it)

 

[London Geezer]

I don't think there even is no reason why one could not put say Pac Man on the list, age is no hindrance to be on the list, right london-boy

yes, ANY game on ANY system EVER.
of course one could argue that newer games require a much more advanced level of "polish" because of the increase in resources available, therefore making current gen games more likely to be in the top 5. (basically, it would be easier to make a very polished NES game than a very polished PS2 game...)
although i must say, the "perfectness" of some 16-bit-generation games is something to behold...

 

[duc]

1. MGS2 (PS2) - All those little details and effects.
2. Chrono Cross (PS1) - Best looking PS1 game I have ever seen, and excellent soundtrack. Also has multiple endings and huge amount of characters.
3. Metroid Prime (Gamecube) - Looks great, and again, has all those nice little details.
4. Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2) - Very impressive graphically, too bad the game is too short.
5. Jak and Daxter. (PS2) - No loading times, good graphics.


Primal also has nice big world without loading times. I would put it above J&D, if it didn't have some framerate problems and control issues.

 

[PiNkY]

1) Diablo (PC) Introducing a new benchmark for polished games then
2) Starcraft (PC)
3) Zelda WW (GC) Thinking hard about something not polished in that game...
4) GT3 (PS2) See above, more variety in races is my complain though
5) Mario64 (N64)

 

[London Geezer]

thanks for the replies... no need to remind u people this is NOT a "top 5 best looking games"...
still thinking about my list, not sure whether controls should come first, then graphics polish then whatever else...
SSX tricky will be in the top 5 tho, surprised no one has mentioned it, together with THE game, PES...
and i don't think MGS2 is SOOO polished. many games are more polished than MGS2...

 

[Johnny Awesome]

5. Jet Set Radio Future
4. Splinter Cell (Xbox)
3. ICO
2. Panzer Dragoon Orta
1. Metroid Prime

 

[Nite_Hawk]

1. Wing Commander I & II (PC). At a time when soundblaster support was just beginning to show up in games and having 256color graphics was a luxury, these game not only utilized both, but did so extremely well. The introductory speech and bits of speech spread throughout WCII were a first. In addition, the story, and the artwork were done so especially well that the entire thing felt like a production anime or TV show, and a good one at that.

2. Final Fantasy 6 (SNES). This game was a masterpeice of artwork and music. While I actually enjoyed ChronoTrigger more, I have to say that this game had *polish*. The artwork, the music, and the story were quite well done. You could almost feel the drive behind the developers trying make this as close to their vision of perfection as possible.

3. Starcraft (PC). This game originally was going to be an expansion for Warcraft II, and after a mediocre response by their fans, Blizzard decided to completely rewrite it as it's own new game. Well, what a decision that turned out to be. While the game was late, the wait was worth it. While it doesn't have a lot of things that some other RTS's do, everything that was put into starcraft worked incredibly well. The balance was great, the characters were interesting, the choice of races to play exciting. The graphics additionally were beautiful, even in the face of the onslaught of 3D games coming out at the time. This game truely had polish.

4. Halo (xbox). This was a hard decision. On one hand, they lost some points in that a number of the weapons they were going to include never made it in, and the game was pretty short. Still, the way the game drew you into the world through the AI, the art direction, the effects, and the story all gave it a very polished feel. I would have liked to put halflife here, but I think in terms of *polish* halo might have halflife edged out.

5. I'm not sure what goes here yet. I've got a couple of ideas, but I'm having too hard of a time deciding, so I'm leaving it blank for now.

Nite_Hawk

 

[zurich]

PC games can be polished? Do you mean after the 6th patch comes out?

Hmm, well for my list (in no order) I'd say:

- MGS2 (PS2)
- VF4:Evo (PS2)
- ZoE2 (PS2)
- DoA3 (Xbox)
- Devil May Cry 1 (PS2)

 

[wazoo]

I would not put ZOE2 or any game with framerate problem in such a list. Fluctuating framerate problems are falling into lack of polish, especially this gen.

1 the Metroid series
2 the Zelda series
3 the MGS series
4 the GT series
5 the Mario series

the order could change depending of the hour of the day

 

[ChryZ]

Top5 Sony

- Gran Turismo Series (PS1/PS2) for it's polished presentation, gameplay and details (physics, car models, tracks, etc)

- ICO (PS2) for it's polished presentation, gameplay and atmosphere

- ZOE2 (PS2) for it's polished presentation and SFX, best sensory overload ever

- Jak&Daxter/Jak2 (PS2) for it's polished ultra smooth animation and well tuned seamless gameplay, not to forget the detail overkill, Rachet&Clank (PS2) for it's well tuned gameplay and gadget system

- Soul Reaver (PS1) for it's polished presentation, voice acting, stage morphing


Top5 Nintendo

- F-Zero GX (GC) for it's flawless and polished gameplay, 2400+km/h yet controllable

- Rouge Squadron Series (GC) for it's polished presentation and technical excellence

- Super Mario Series (mutli) for it's gameplay excellence

- Zelda Series (multi) for it's gameplay and story-telling excellence

- Axelay (SNES) for it's polished presentation and technical excellence


Top3 Oldies

- Zarch (Archimedes) for it's polished physics

- Paradroid (C64) for it's gameplay, brilliant mix of action and puzzle

- Elite (multi) for it's eight galaxies, many possible career paths, 3d space combat, trading sim ... everything with ~22K of memory


... there should be a lot more, but that's it for now

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Soul Calibur 1
Shenmue 1 & 2
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Panzer Dragoon Orta (looks just...plays just... feels just... )

That's my top 4

The Wind Waker isn't THAT polished -> they cut some dungeons & features...

 

[darkblu]

in somewhat chronological order

• GT3
• SoulCalibur 1 (2 doesn't even come near)
• starcraft (although it did undergo some unit balancing past the release date)
• diablo 1
• most id games prior to quake. from q1 on id started to produce mostly engine showcases, and devhouses like raven started to come up with id-eng-based titles way better than id's. [ed.] come to think of it, replace q1 with doom in the above.

 

[wazoo]

The Wind Waker isn't THAT polished -> they cut some dungeons & features...

polish has nothing to do with the length of the game, but with the quality and the execution of the overall package, including the interface up to the option screen (remember all these games, where you cried because they did not save your settings, that is a blatant lack of polish).

 

[ScOULaris]

My top 5 in no particular order:

1) Metal Gear Solid 2 - Sure, there were some Vsync and DD problems but other than that, virtually no glitches that I could find!

2) Jak and Daxter - When this game first came out I was simply amazed... seamless world with no loading and NO popup ever, and as I played all the way through the game collecting everything I never once encountered a noticeable glitch. Bravo Naughty Dog!

3) Ratchet and Clank - As with J&D, I never found any glitches that weren't caused by the player intentionally (like entering a race as the Robo disguise) and the worlds were huge with no popup or clipping!

4) Guilty Gear X2 - Now I am sure a lot of you will disagree with me on this, but I think anyone who is truly good at this game knows how incredibly balanced and deep this is for a 2D fighter. Not only that, but it runs at 60 fps (constant 30 fps on PS2) and is the prettiest 2D fighter ever made.

5) Gran Turismo 3 - Yes, I know it has its fair share of little glitches in terms of physics and collision, and it does have some noticeable aliasing... but for the size, scope, and complexity of this game along with setting the standard in realistic driving games still in place today GT3 was quite a polish piece of work.

Now, I am sure you all understand that if I really sat down and thought for a long time about ALL the games I have ever played for any system I would probably be able to replace some of these... but I don't have that kind of time, hehe. Also, notice how I put all PS2 games. This wasn't intentional, but that's just the way it turned out. For some reason, not many Xbox games including Halo have seemed to be more polished than the titles I listed and PC games are always released with glitches because patches are available. (And I didn't put ay GCN games because I really haven't played that many... but maybe Metroid Prime should have been on there.)

Well, I will stop rambling.

 

[GHost]

Please forgive me for putting more than 5 here... In no particular order:

- Star Control II, it had everything
- Descent 1, some people are still not _able_ to play this game. They're getting dizzy...
- Little Big Adventure
- Soul Calibur 1 - got me into console games, couldn't give back that Dreamcast... Still owning and playing it
- Metroid Prime
- Zelda (OoT and WW) - great work Nintendo

 

[Blade]

Well, I know my top two.. but after that it gets hazy.

There's an.. uh.. "shitload" of highly polished gaming experiences to pick from here..

These are my off-the-top-of-my-head picks.. interchangable:

1. Metroid Prime. It just seems so rounded, so balanced.. so.. complete. Everything works about this game. It defines polish in this generation, although there was that lock-up glitch that certain copies were gifted with.. The game itself is solid, though.

2. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Good God, it has its shortcomings (not many of them, mind you) but this is one game from generations past that I can never forget. Prolly my personal favorite game. Like Metroid Prime, just about everything clicks with this title; impeccable gameplay, control, audio/music, length, replay value, difficulty, concept, and the graphics weren't half-bad for 1992.

 

[vrecan]

1) Wing commander 1-3 pc: first two were nothing less then revelotionary, third one was one of the first games to actually incorporate actors and video and still to this day the only series to do it right! Thousands of choices 20+ ending all acted out with good acting:scary:!

2.) Half-life pc: When it was released I played it non stop forever, great story, gameplay/controls, and a beautiful game for its time. I cant recall them needing to patch anything except for multiplayer.

3.)Gothic 1/2 pc: Best RPG series in existance if you ask me, amazing character interaction and world, if you look closely everything moves tree sway in the wind etc.... Best combat system in any rpg takes time to get use to but gives you a real feel of accomplishment. The first game had the most vocals I have ever seeen in any game at the time and the 2nd one more then doubled it! Just love how what you do actually seems to matter in these games!

4.) Max Payne 2 pc: Great feel to this game everything feels almost pefect! runs amazing 1600x1200 never drops below 30 almost constantly over 100fps. Love the noir storyline and everything just reeks of polish.

5.) Silent Hill 3 ps2: Gorgeous game, I wish the controls were a little more responsive but love the story!

 

[a4164]

1. Metroid Prime
2. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
3. Panzer Dragoon Orta
4. ICO
5. VF4:Evo