Cheers & Tears: PC Role-Playing Games and More

Remember when IGN published that “Cheers & Tears” feature that spotlighted the five best and five worst role-playing games on the Xbox 360? Well, now they’ve done the same for the PC, PS3, Wii, and DS.

Since we’re most interested in their PC picks, let’s see why Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich made it into their list of the top five CRPGs:

Though it’s probably the least remembered of the games on our Cheers list, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich is definitely worthy of inclusion for the wonderful way it brought the world of four-color comic books to life on our desktops. This sequel included all the requisite conventions of the setting, and used a great time-travel storyline to combine the hip world of 1960s comics with the Nazi-smashing Golden Age heroes. Throw in dinosaurs rampaging through city streets, Commie villains in Cuba and a much more accessible custom hero creator, and you’ve got a game that’s well worth your attention. It’s hard now to remember that there were no super hero RPGs five years ago. The original Freedom Force and this sequel changed all that.

And why Dungeon Lords was tossed into their trash pile:

Is it fun? No. Is it polished? No. Is it even finished? No. When the most fun you can have with a game is setting the box on fire and flinging it at your co-workers, you really know that you’ve wasted your money. There’s no drama, no charm, and not even any furniture inside the buildings. It’s almost like the developers left the game unlocked overnight and a bunch of thieves came in and stole all the art and physics. Combat is a joke with terrible animations and improbable creature spawns and there are even features listed in the game manual that are nowhere in the game itself. This one is a huge mess right from the beginning.

I don’t care what anyone says, I thorougly enjoyed Dungeon Lords. Playing it through in co-op with a friend had a lot of entertainment value, if only to laugh at each other’s woes when dealing with various bugs.

Keep in mind that this list only covers games released in the last five years… though that doesn’t explain why The Witcher is nowhere to be found.