35 Notable Devs Share Their 5 Best Games Of The Generation

So tons of game developers shared their 5 best games of the last gen over at gameinformer. Lot of variety among the picks most AAA games of course but weird that Swery was the only one that chose the correct #1 answer. also Even Well's #1 pick what!!

and just for the heck of it, i'll throw in my top5 games

GameInformer

It's nice to see how some of them have (helped) created a game that someone else placed in their top 5 games of the past generation. All of them have good choices. I haven't fully figured out what mine would be, but off the top of my head, I think something like this:

1. XCOM: Enemy Within
2. Dark Souls II
3. Mass Effect 3
4. Mirror's Edge
5. Hearthstone

Grand Theft Auto 5 is the laziest choice imaginable.

This is pretty great.

Swery is kind of the best.

From my quick skim, I did not see Bayonetta... Every one of these lists should have Bayonetta

He definitely has one of the most unique lists among the crowd.

In no order:

Uncharted 2

Halo: Reach

Mass Effect 3

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Braid/Super Meat Boy (for indie influence!)

Is it weird that I've only heard of five of these people?

The only thing that surprise me in all those is how little mention there is of anything Mass Effect.

A lot of Uncharted 2 mentions I see! x) I think that and BioShock may be the most recurring games from a quick glance over; sure someone could do the math and serve up some hot, raw data to compile how often each game on there is mentioned.

I'm already set on my own top 5 anywhoo. I seem to recall a thread where we'd list our top ten, and while there's sure to be a cycle of odd change ups depending on the day for the upper half (and maybe the overall ordering), I feel confident that my top 5 at least are relatively consistent in their placements.

Beautiful Katamari... Swery has the best top 5 because it's the weirdest.

Edit this would probably be my top 5, maybe not in this order.

• Street Fighter IV
• Bayonetta
• Red Dead Redemption
• Ratchet & Clank A Crack in Time
• Gears of War 3

This is pretty cool. Can't believe only 1/35 devs put any sort of Mass Effect game in there. Good to see Wii Sports (+Resort) get some votes.

You know what is the only thing to do now is rank those into a comprehensive top ten.

Kiki Wolfkill is the greatest name of all time.

Just five, no order.

Burnout Paradise

Demon's Souls

Crackdown

Portal

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Mine is.

1. Mass Effect 2
2. Bastion
3. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
4. Dragon Age: Origins
5. Dead Space

I was too lazy to like games other than GTA!

Burnout Paradise

Arkham Asylum

Gears Of War 3

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare

The Last Of Us

Not enough Modern Warfare on those list.

Those are some good lists and it's always great to see what games people making games enjoy.

Not surprised that Ed McMillen loved Spelunky.

This is not an easy thing to do. I wonder how long the developers got to think about their choices?

In no order:

Mass Effect 2

Geometry Wars 2

Assassins Creed 2

Pac Man Championship Edition DX

Batman: Arkham Asylum

How so? Only two people mentioned it and were correct in saying it was the best. Frankly I was a little surprised to see so many GTA IV's considering it's been bested in a variety of areas by other games, not just GTA V. But I spose it's a little like the preference for Vice City over San Andreas.

Off the top of my head it's hard to remember exactly what I played over an entire generation, but it's probably something like:

1. Grand Theft Auto V

2. The Last of Us

3. NBA 2K11

4. Mass Effect 2

5. Red Dead Redemption

Swery likes Heavy Rain, awesome.

Really Greg? Valkyria Chronicles at number 2? I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.

Also Kiki Wolfkill is a great name.

Because it's designed by committee, focus tested to the point where there's barely any personality left, just a soulless husk of a game trying to be entertaining.

Oh, I thought that was Watch Dogs. GTA V was one of the most charming, exhilarating experiences I've ever had, and continue to have online. To each their own.

That's right, no Witcher 2 folks.

Hunh. I would not have associated Randy Pitchford with Ni no Kuni.

No Lang on this list = no fucks given

@bigjeffrey: It looks like Swery is the only one who even mentioned that game! It's kind of crazy! I wonder if these lists are meant to be subjective or objective. Either way it's kind of embarrassing.

@koolaid: People in the game industry generally don't care about Minecraft. It's just kind of a thing. Same with DayZ.

No Brad Muir? I guess maybe that's a Giant Bomb thing.

thats a pretty surprising amount of number 1s

big one for me was Tommy and MGS4, dude in the movie said he hated AAA games with a passion.

I'm a little confused. What exactly is the criteria for "best" ? Do they mean "best" by most influential? Or "best" as in, "these were my favorite games to play"

If it's the latter... yikes.

Isnt D4 just Heavy Rain on crack? ;p

I made a "Top Five" list awhile ago, i'm not sure i'd change anything. I'm surprised how recent most of these games are. I know nostalgia can sometimes destort a view of a game that might be somewhat shit by todays standards but I know a lot of genre defining games that still hold up that werent even mentioned. Not that it matters it's a personal list and that's the point, I just didnt expect it.

Greg Kasavin's list is probably the closest to mine. Swery and Randy Pitchford's lists are hella unique though.

A reminder that the Giant Bomb community's Game of the Generation was Mass Effect 2.

Spelunky being McMillen's number one isn't surprising.

Kind of a disappointing list really, a lot of repetition, and some pretty boring choices.

This exact sentence runs through my mind every time I've heard her name.

These lists seem all right, I guess. I'm surprised that games like Mass Effect and Dark Souls and Minecraft made so few of the lists. Long games don't seem to be prevalent at all in these lists.

Guess I'll post my own top 5, off the top of my head, without giving it tons of thought!

1) Skyrim

2) Mass Effect 2

3) Deus Ex Human Revolution

4) Just Cause 2

5) Halo 3

Entirely subject to change at my whim, of course. I doubt I'll change those first two, but the rest of them seem like things I could swap in and out.

For such a popular game, but because of the time investment, I’m not surprised Dota 2 is absent.

It would be nice if someone would combine these lists into one weighted list.

That could describe 50% of video games.

Bioshock

Red Dead Redemption

Street Fighter IV

Burnout Paradise

Dark Souls

Also, you would do well not to fuck with a chick named Kiki Wolfkill.

I guess I'll add my own list.

1. Dark Souls

2. Street Fighter IV

3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

4. Bayonetta

5. Journey

I wanna sit down with Swery and have an in-depth conversation with him about what he liked so much about From Dust. Not that I find it hard to imagine someone loving that game, I don't find it hard imagining people loving any game. But I'm super duper curious as to what he specifically saw in it. It's not even in the top 1000 games I would've expected him to choose.

Really love that Vince Zampella put his own game as his number 2. Not that I disagree with him or anything, and I might even be tempted to put CoD4 as my number 1, it just sort of stood out to me.

Ok, so what does this tell us? Why should I care?

Gears of War is second on Neil Druckmann's list -- that's weird, I guess? I'm a bit disappointed Dean Evans' list didn't solely consist of Papers, Please. This is great though.

Also no Gears which is interesting in and of itself.

Was not expecting Randy Pitchford to have Ni No Kuni on his list at all, nevermind at #2. In fact, that's probably the list I agree with the most, with Robin Hunicke being a close second. Also, Ed and Spelunky seem like the perfect match to me unsurprisingly enough, and I was really excited to see a list from Swery.

In no particular order, my list would probably consist of Rock Band (3), Ni No Kuni, Dragon's Dogma, PGR3, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Nice to see Valkyria Chronicles so high up on Greg's list. I think Super Giant can make a great tactical RPG on all fronts.