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Incline RPG Codex's Top 50 cRPGs - Results and Reviews

felipepepe

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Ladies and gentleman, after much voting and drama, I present you the RPG Codex's Top 50 cRPGs!

EDIT by Crooked Bee: Final article with user reviews here: http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9453

This year, a record-breaking 234 bros & sis took part in the voting, where each would have 25 points to distribute among what they believed are the best cRPGs ever. Exactly 5,945 points where distribute between 223 computer RPGs (no console exclusives were allowed), ranging from Temple of Apshai - released in 1979 -, to Heroine's Quest - released in 2013. Overall, 34 years of glorious incline.

And without further ado, here are the Top 50 cRPGs:

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Planescape: Torment is the #1 cRPG ever. MCA's magnum opus not only the higher number of points, but also the most voters AND the highest average score of the Top 50. Fallout 1 came close, but the gap from #2 to #3 is gigantic, showing that PS:T and F1 are truly unrivaled.

Runner-Ups:

Since everyone's a winner, here are 22 more games that got at least 10 points:

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I would continue the list, but below that the games are almost all tied up until #114... it really is a mess.

And nothing against Heroine's Quest, but this shows how recently released games do tend to score higher on votings. That's why I wanted to do this before the massive wave of highly awaited releases this year, otherwise the list would be heavily biased.

Something for the Ages:

There's a lot of cry about how the older gems are overlook by the Codex. It's know that the average user here is in his 25-30's, so is understandable that games releases in the late 90's are part of their golden years. To help balance things out, here's a different version of the above list, now divided into Pre & Post-1995:

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Bayesian Average List:

Are you unsatisfied with the results? Butthurt about your favorite game being left out? Whine no more, the math experts at the Codex present you a alternative list, based on the Beyesian Average of every game with more than 10 votes! Just look at that name, it HAS to be more legit than the other one!

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Benefits include New Vegas out of the Top 10 and Icewind Dale II out of the Top 50! Wow!

Warning: Alpha Protocol.

Developers:

Since I had all this trouble, I decided to also compile a list of the top developers, according to the results above:

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So, the Codex loves Black Isle... shocking, I know.

Cool Graph of INCLINE:

Finally, here's a cool graph of all the 223 games voted, displaying the INCLINE throughout the years. Here you can see the number of games released, their total points and the average of points per year since 1979!

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I also ran a correlation of the votings, but there was no relevant result. Closest thing to a decent correlation was that people potato who vote for Witcher games usually vote for both of them, and that those who voted for ToEE also voted for KotC. No big surprise, really.

Also, also, finally.... this:

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And a text-only list:

# Game
1 Planescape: Torment
2 Fallout 1
3 Fallout 2
4 Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn
5 Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
6 Vampire: The Mascarade - Bloodlines
7 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
8 Fallout: New Vegas
9 Gothic 2
10 Wizardry 8
11 Deus Ex
12 Neverwinter Nights 2 - Mask of the Betrayer
13 Jagged Alliance 2
14 Dark Souls
15 Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant
16 Betrayal at Krondor
17 Baldur's Gate
18 Darklands
19 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords
20 Ultima Underworld I: The Stygian Abyss
21 The Temple of Elemental Evil
22 Icewind Dale
22 System Shock 2
24 The Witcher
25 Might and Magic VI: Mandate of Heaven
26 Gothic
27 Knights of the Chalice
28 Might and Magic: World of Xeen
29 Alpha Protocol
30 Realms of Arkania II: Star Trail
31 Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
32 Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
33 Dragon Age: Origins
33 Ultima VII: The Black Gate
35 The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
36 Pool of Radiance
37 Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor
37 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar
39 Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle
40 Icewind Dale II
40 The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
42 Wasteland
43 Quest For Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness
43 Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny
45 Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra
45 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
47 Anachronox
47 Arx Fatalis
47 Geneforge
47 Pools of Darkness
51 Albion
52 Drakensang: River of Time
52 Risen
54 King of Dragon Pass
54 Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds
56 Deus Ex: Human Revolution
56 Divine Divinity
56 Mount & Blade: Warband
59 Dungeon Master
59 Mass Effect
61 ADOM - Ancient Domains of Mystery
61 Neverwinter Nights 2
61 System Shock
64 Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
64 Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna
66 Champions of Krynn
66 Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
68 Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters
69 Dark Heart of Uukrul
69 Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok
71 Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga
71 Wizards & Warriors
 
Last edited by a moderator:

felipepepe

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Reviews:

Now that we have 72 great cRPGs ranked, I'd like to add short recommendations/reviews for each game (maybe screenshots as well later), so one can decide what to play next. I asked for this on the DISCUSS thread and got various good entries (as well as some poetry), and now that the full list is out, I think we can finish this.

Just write a short review/recommendation of any of the 72 games (50 Top + 22 runner ups) you like, that will help people understand why that game is great. It should be short, one paragraph long at most, and posted in spoiler tags.

Here's a good example:

Baldur's Gate
Generally considered inferior to its much-acclaimed sequel, Baldur's Gate will let you embark on a journey through the Forgotten Realms' Sword Coast to discover a plot that is both personal an world-changing. And by Sword Coast I mean through every square foot of it, because, while not truly open world, the game has a huge number of wilderness locations. For most people, the sheer vastness of the world and relatively low density of content are BG1's major flaw, but some, myself included, consider these traits to be an advantage over Baldur's Gate 2 rather artificial quest overload, as it makes the world feel more believable and alive. Granted, the dungeons in this game are much less interesting, the fights much less epic and the loot much more sparse (again, a good thing in my book), but the adventure is just as true, if not more.

So, if you wanna spread your amazingly good taste to others, this is it!
 
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Bubbles

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Glad to see Anachronox sneak in. Should have been top ten though.
 

Doctor Sbaitso

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Nice! Great job!


I have to say that it pains me to see some true genre defining classics overshadowed by newer, arguably derivative games.
 

tuluse

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Holy shit, amazing work felipepepe.

To everyone who said the new voting wouldn't make a difference, there is now a blobber in the top 10.
 

skacky

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Amazing work. There's only a few games I disagree with in that list, but most of the titles here are awesome. There's still several games I haven't played yet.
 
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Bubbles

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Hilarious that Heroine's Quest beat Divinity 2. All Larian games have pretty horrid average ratings too. Is Larian the dev we all pretend to like, but secretly feel "meh" about?
 

Broseph

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Now THAT is a damn good list. :incline: Interesting that the top 10 mostly stays the same no matter what voting method with go with.
 

throwaway

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Quite like the end result. Wonder what to make of Arcanum's dethroning.
 

sqeecoo

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Very good list.
I see Dark Souls is up there, and quite high too. Is that even an RPG? I though it was something more like Diablo (which would probably deserve to be on the list if it can be considered an RPG).

Regardless, I tried to play Dark Souls but the interface was shit, especially the mouse movement. Can you get it to feel more like a PC game with mods or what? For me it was pretty much unplayable, though it looked interesting.
 

Doctor Sbaitso

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New Vegas in the top ten. As. I. predicted.

Why that prediction? I wasn't following.
felipepepe honestly believed his ranking system would drive New Vegas down on account of it being "mediocre." I didn't think so, considering the things a lot of people here value (writing, C&C), New Vegas does quite well.

Proof that any combination of two from story, combat, setting can yield an amazing game.
 

felipepepe

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New Vegas was actually around #11-12 for most part of the voting, and Fallout 1 was #1 for a long time as well. And Alpha Protocol was ranking below Dragon Age. Must be all those alts Roguey made... :M
 
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Excidium

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New Vegas in the top ten. As. I. predicted.

Why that prediction? I wasn't following.
felipepepe honestly believed his ranking system would drive New Vegas down on account of it being "mediocre." I didn't think so, considering the things a lot of people here value (writing, C&C), New Vegas does quite well.

Proof that as a whole the codex has horrible tastes.
 

Shadowfang

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Good job. I wounder if you did this for all games, how much more points would the years 98/99 get.
Now we need a chart of the decline of the codex.
 

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