BoB's Top 100 Games

[Loony BoB]

48. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
PS2, 2004

I mean, I didn't even get to the other two cities. I just spent hours and hours doing the gang wars stuff, doing random quests and (more than anything) grabbing my dirtbike and making incredibly insane jumps around that south west region, I forget what it was called but I'm pretty sure it was a massive mining pit or something. This game was all kinds of fun and had no real start or end. I imagine that when I eventually get around to playing GTA V I'm going to seriously enjoy myself, big time.

A couple of criticisms about the game worth mentioning - well, one in particular. The two player sucked balls. I'm sure that whatever they have for GTA V is great, and I'm glad for that (assumptions are fun). The two player in GTA:SA, though, urgh. Horrible. We stopped very, very quickly.

Not much to say about this game overall though as it's been a long time since I played it and I never got anywhere close to finishing it or exploring the world. That's my second mild criticism - I don't like how it tried to get you to do everything at once. GTA IV was even worse for this (and before anyone asks, GTA IV is not on my top 100), but I probably would have done a lot more in SA if I didn't feel obligated to defend my territory all the time.

[Psychotic]

Yeah the two player was kind of gack, but at the time it was alright. And I mean alright. South West was Mount Chiliad my friend, which returns in GTA V.

Also I distinctly remember you having a huge moan about this game in my LiveJournal back in the day. In fact, just found the comment. " Sounds more like Tom Cruise than Al Pacino." Your cousin seemed to like it though!

[NeoCracker]

San Andreas? More like San An-BORE-us am I right?

...I'm just going to walk away now.

[Slothy]

San Andreas? More like San An-BORE-us am I right?

...I'm just going to walk away now.

I agree to an extent. The opening sections in Los Santos were quite good, and there were some good parts later on, but for the most part once you're run out of Los Santos things meander far too much and seem largely disconnected from the story the first part of the game sets up. And by the time it gets back on track it seems like more of an after thought. And this is to say nothing of their being almost nothing to do in the third city. You kind of show up, do a mission or two, then head back to Los Santos to wrap things up. For the amount of content it had they might as well have just removed it.

Vice City was a much better game in that sense. It didn't waste a bunch of time puttering about in the country side or with useless cities. It grabbed you by the balls and never let go.

[Quindiana Jones]

I liked the blind guy who repeatedly kicked your ass at computer games.

[Loony BoB]

47. Final Fantasy XIII
PS3, 2009

I don't care if it got a "terrible" score of 83 (critics) and 7.7 (users) on Metacritic, I really liked this game. The highlight for me would be how well we got to know the characters. Perhaps with the exception of Fang, I really feel like I got to know each of the main characters in this game to a notable degree. Not just a case of "this is my story" but also a case of their personality. This is probably a product of the improved voice acting (I know some people hated Vanille, but I didn't mind after I got over tennis grunts), the snippets of dialogue we get from them as they move around and, of course, the improved graphics which brought a lot more variation in the facial expressions of each characters, well beyond that of Final Frowntasy XII (seriously, I can't remember any of that Ivalice crew smiling, ever - I'm sure they did, but when I think of their faces... all pouty, all the time).

It's true that there wasn't much to do and that did annoy me just like it annoyed pretty much everyone else. I didn't like the fact that I couldn't return to the old areas... but at the same time it made sense for the story. You're refugees on the run, why would you go backwards? As for the story itself, I feel it had the potential to be so much more. I still kind of wish that we saw something majorly dramatic, like Hope actually succumbing to the stresses he was under and turning into a Cie'th and the other five having to kill him. I feel that would have been a very notable moment in FF history. I guess they just couldn't bring themselves to do that. Same with Sahz, although I would have been mortified if he actually went through with that. Still, with all said and done, I really did enjoy the game and I've had the urge to play it again sometimes, so I'm sure I eventually will.

I also really liked the music in this game, which is very underappreciated. I think this is because of the amount of voice acting in the game and the loud sound effects in various locations. Danielle and I use Snow's Theme as our go-to music for boss fights when playing FFXIV.

[Slothy]

I don't care if it got a "terrible" score of 83 (critics) and 7.7 (users) on Metacritic

Critics and users were being overly generous. It's a five out of ten at most for being a well polished turd.

[Loony BoB]

I don't care if it got a "terrible" score of 83 (critics) and 7.7 (users) on Metacritic

Critics and users were being overly generous. It's a five out of ten at most for being a well polished turd.

So's your face.

[Jessweeee♪]

The soundtrack is amazing. As much as I love Uematsu, I've always enjoyed Hamauzu's tracks more. FFXIII is definitely tied with FFX as my favorite soundtrack (and Hamauzu had a hand in that one as well). I love this game. Sometimes it's my favorite Final Fantasy. Sometimes it's FFX, FFXII, or FFVIII. Depends on what mood I'm in.

The only gripe I have is that it takes so long to unlock everything. It didn't bother me the first time through, but after that it's like "okay it's been two hours now can I do something besides 'Attack'" Which is something I don't say with other Final Fantasies because 'Attack' is all I do in most battles for the entire game. FFXIII made defensive/buffer roles more necessary, which is something I really liked.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

^That's something I actually really like about this game. Not only having attack available for so long, but with how useful the different classes became. The game made me have to think somewhat strategically about how I can utilize most all of the classes available to me. That being said, the strategy became almost exactly the same for every single enemy after a while, but it was at least nice using the different paradigms.

[Shauna]

Thinking about it, I believe that FFXIII was the first time I had ever felt I actually needed to use something other than the Attack (and maybe occasional Cure) command to get through the game. I suppose this is just coming off the back of playing FF7 where to get through the main story I mashed the Attack button and won the game.

But I also thoroughly enjoyed FF13. :3

[Bolivar]

I'm tempted to bring up all the titles on this list that are better and more important than FFXIII but really I just salute you, BoB, for giving a game its chance and liking it for what it is instead of taking to the cynical temptation to unfairly scrutinize it on a message board.

A big part of what I love about FFXIII is absolutely the cast. These were undoubtedly the most fully fleshed out characters in the series to date.

And the music... I think this was the first video game I played in digital surround sound. The detail, subtlety, and overall mastery of dts proved to me that regardless of their reputation, SE most certainly still has some of the most talented people in the business.

Anyway, sure, it was linear, but in the sensational way that a roller coaster is. With its fun combat and emotional story, XIII was a great ride, one I'll definitely be taking sometime again.

[Scotty_ffgamer]

Somewhat unrelated, but I'm really tempted to post the picture you have for XIII up on my Facebook on Saturday for my birthday just because I think it's funny. But none of my friends would have any idea what that game is and would probably think it was serious or something.

[Quindiana Jones]

Hey, my birthday is this Saturday too!

Anyway, the main reason I have never played FFXIII is because the only common statement in everybody's opinion of it is "It gets good after [x] hours". I just cannot be arsed to drag through something because it gets good near the end. I'll give it a go someday, though.

[Slothy]

instead of taking to the cynical temptation to unfairly scrutinize it on a message board.

There's no such thing as unfairly scrutinizing anything. I believe you mean criticize, and even then, none of the criticism FFXIII has ever had leveled against it is unfair. It is truly one of the worst games I've ever played, certainly of the modern era if not ever, and all because they forgot to put a real game in there somewhere. Unless your idea of a good game is removing player agency completely. If that's the case then it was wonderful. 10/10.

As for the characters and story, I can safely direct you to everything Wolf Kanno ever said about it. Most of the time the characters, their motivations, and the story itself have no real direction or goal and often make no sense. And let's not get started on the fact that you have go read the in game encyclopedia to get important, and very much necessary, background information on the world and the people in it. And even on the rare occasion the story isn't busy troutting itself, its still held back by the simple fact that none of the characters aside from Sarah are actually likeable. It's an awful game on every level that actually matters.