Counter Strike- LH 2012

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A number of sources taken from across publications, from 1985 to the present, were used to compile the list. Games which consistently showed up in multiple lists are featured below. Some of the lists are outdated in that the same publication later published another best-of list. There were two notable exceptions to critic “best of” lists: games are credited for having GameRankings or Metacritic scores of 95 or greater (about 50 games as of 2013), and several large reader-submitted polls are used. In general, contemporary reviews do not necessarily reflect the long-term consensus, hence only a single source of credit for high GameRankings/Metacritic reviews; and open player-submitted polls, while obviously measuring an important facet of a game’s reputation, tend to be easy to rig or otherwise influence, hence the primary usage of critic lists.

Because most sources are from the English-language press, this list reflects the preferences of the English-speaking world, primarily North America, and to a lesser extent, Western Europe, and not those of other video-game-playing areas, such as Japan and South Korea. The only non-English sources used are Japanese reader polls from Famitsu and Dengeki, and a German reader poll from M! Games. Very recent games are not usually represented either. Another issue is “vote split;” many publications, either implicitly or explicitly, choose a single game from a set of closely related games as a “stand-in” for the whole group. Sometimes, this is easily combined, as with the various versions of Tetris or Street Fighter II. In other cases, this is impossible, resulting in a series that would have made the list had all versions been combined, but not separately. One example is the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series – of which the first, second and third games all received nods from a variety of critic best-of lists, yet no individual game achieved enough consensus to be listed here.

This list mostly includes games since the “third generation” of gaming onwards, along with some prior arcade games of the late 70s to early 80s.

The minimum criterion for inclusion is at least ten sources. For sources listing the top 200 games, only the top 100 are considered. For sources restricted to the “seventh generation” of gaming, only the top 25 games are considered.

Like its predecessor, Half-Life 2 is a single-player first-person shooter broken into several chapters, permanently casting the player as the protagonist Gordon Freeman. The sequel has nearly the same mechanics as Half-Life, including health-and-weapon systems and periodic physics puzzles, except with the newer Source Engine and improved graphics. The player also starts without items, slowly building up an arsenal over the course of the game. Despite the game’s mainly linear nature, much effort was put into making exploration rewarding and interesting; many optional areas can be missed or avoided.

A diverse set of enemies is present, which usually require being approached with different tactics: some coordinate in groups to out-maneuver or out-position the player; others, like the Manhack, fly directly at the player through small openings and tight corridors; still others use predictable but powerful attacks, while others hide before swiftly attacking the player. Gordon can kill most enemies with his weapons, or make use of indirect means, exploiting environmental hazards such as explosive pressurized canisters, gas fires or improvised traps. For some portions of the game, Gordon can be joined by up to four armed Resistance soldiers and medics, and can send his team further from him or call them back.

Many of the game’s new features utilize its detailed physics simulation. Two sections of the game involve driving vehicles. Instead of button-based puzzles from Half-Life, environmental puzzles are also introduced with makeshift mechanical systems, revolving around the player’s new ability to pick up, move, and place objects. Solutions involve objects’ physical properties, such as shape, weight, and buoyancy. For example, in Chapter 3, Route Kanal, the player is required to stack cinder blocks on a makeshift see-saw ramp to proceed over a wall. Alternatively, the player can use these to build a crude staircase, so sometimes, multiple approaches lead to the desired outcome.

Part-way through the game, Gordon acquires the Gravity Gun, which allows him to draw distant objects towards himself or forcefully push them away, as well as the ability to manipulate larger and heavier objects that he cannot manipulate without the weapon. These abilities are required to solve puzzles later in the game, and can also be used to great effect in combat, as any non-static object within proximity to the player has the potential to be used as a makeshift defense (e.g. a file cabinet) or a deadly projectile (e.g. a gasoline can or a buzzsaw blade).

The game never separates the player with pre-rendered cutscenes or events; the story proceeds via exposition from other characters and in-world events, and ensures that the player controls Gordon for the entirety of the game. Much of the backstory to the game is simply alluded to, or told through the environment.

Half-Life 2 presents a dystopian alternate history of Earth, where the resources of the planet, including the human race itself, are being harvested by an oppressive multidimensional empire, known as the Combine. The game is set around the fictitious City 17, roughly 20 years after the events of its predecessor Half-Life.

During Half-Life, the scientists, including Gordon Freeman, at the Black Mesa Research Facility, accidentally caused an inter-dimensional instability known as a resonance cascade and later as the “Black Mesa Incident”, when an experiment on an alien crystal sample went wrong.[1] Alien creatures, such as the Vortigaunts and headcrabs, from the borderworld of Xen, flooded into the facility. Gordon fought his way through them and the government cover-up response combat units, making it to the Facility’s Lambda Complex. There, the Lambda scientists helped Gordon teleport to Xen, where Gordon destroyed a large alien entity keeping the rift open. Gordon was then suddenly extracted by the mysterious G-Man, who had been watching Gordon over the course of the game. Impressed with his ability to survive against all odds, the G-Man offered him a job before placing him into stasis, which Gordon had no option but to accept.

Some time after the ending of Half-Life, the instability at Black Mesa had attracted the attention of the Combine empire, and they invaded Earth. Humanity surrendered at the conclusion of the resulting “Seven Hour War”. City 17 became the home of the gigantic Combine Citadel, and Dr. Wallace Breen, the Administrator of Black Mesa who had negotiated the surrender, was appointed representative and Administrator to supervise the survivors on behalf of the Combine.[2] Unable to breed due to a Combine suppression field, humanity matured. The Combine implemented a brutal police state of Civil Protection officers and Overwatch soldiers by recruiting and biologically assimilating humans and other species. Meanwhile, an underground “Lambda Resistance” of humans and Vortigaunts, now working together, was formed. This saw Freeman as a saviour who would lead them to freedom.

20 years after the Resonance Cascade, the Combine emerge from the portal with advanced technologies, enabling them to conquer the world in 7 hours. Gordon Freeman is brought out of stasis by the G-Man, who inserts him into a train arriving at City 17.[3] After arriving at the station and eluding Combine forces, Gordon joins Lambda resistance members including Barney Calhoun, a former Black Mesa security guard now working undercover as a Combine CP officer, and Alyx Vance, the daughter of one of Gordon’s former colleagues, Dr. Eli Vance. After a failed attempt to teleport to Eli’s resistance base known as Black Mesa East from Dr. Kleiner’s makeshift laboratory in City 17, Gordon, re-equipped with the HEV suit and a crowbar, is forced to progress on foot through the city’s old canal system. After obtaining an airboat, he battles his way to Black Mesa East, several miles from the city.[4][5]

Gordon is reintroduced to Eli and meets another resistance scientist, Dr. Judith Mossman.[6] Alyx introduces Gordon to her pet robot D0g and gives him a “gravity gun”, an instrument which allows Gordon to easily pick up and move large objects. Black Mesa East comes under Combine attack, and Eli and Mossman are taken to a Combine prison, Nova Prospekt. Separated from Alyx, Gordon takes a detour through the zombie-infested town of Ravenholm with help from its last survivor, Father Grigori. After making his way through the town and a mine, Gordon arrives at a Resistance outpost. He uses a customized dune buggy to travel across a crumbling coastal road to Nova Prospekt, encountering Combine patrols and assisting the Resistance in fending off raids.

Gordon lays siege to Nova Prospekt by using alien “pheropods” to command the hordes of antlions that infest the coast. He reunites with Alyx in the prison and they locate Eli, but discover that Mossman is a Combine informant. Before they can stop her, she teleports herself and Eli back to City 17’s Citadel. The Combine teleporter explodes as Gordon and Alyx use it to escape Nova Prospekt.

Reaching Kleiner’s lab, Gordon and Alyx learn that they were caught in a “slow teleport”, during which a week has passed. In their absence, the Resistance has mobilized against the Combine, turning City 17 into a battleground.[7] During the fighting, Alyx is captured by the Combine and taken to the Citadel, as Gordon fights through the city with the aid of D0g and Barney to reach it.[8] Inside the Citadel, he is caught in a Combine “confiscation chamber” that destroys all of his weapons except for the gravity gun, the energy enhancing its capabilities and turning it into a superior weapon.

Eventually, Gordon is captured riding in a Combine transport pod and is taken to Dr. Breen’s office, where he and Dr. Mossman are waiting with Eli and Alyx in captivity. Dr. Breen begins to explain his plans for further conquest of the humans by the Combine, contrary to what he had told Dr. Mossman.[9] Angered, Mossman frees Gordon, Alyx, and Eli before Breen can teleport them off-world. Dr. Breen tries to escape through a portal, but Gordon pursues him and destroys the portal reactor with the super-charged Gravity Gun. Breen appears to be annihilated in the resulting explosion. Just before Gordon and Alyx can meet a similar fate, time is frozen. The G-Man reappears, praising Gordon for his actions in City 17 and the Citadel. Making vague mention of “offers for [Gordon’s] services”, the G-Man places him back into stasis

Meanwhile, Rome was gaining power, following a rebellion against the Etruscans. During the three Punic Wars, the Romans defeated the neighboring power of Carthage. The First Punic War centered on naval warfare. The Second Punic War started with Hannibal’s invasion of Italy by crossing the Alps. He famously won the encirclement at the Battle of Cannae. However, after Scipio invaded Carthage, Hannibal was forced to follow and was defeated at the Battle of Zama, ending the role of Carthage as a power.

After defeating Carthage the Romans went on to become the Mediterranean’s dominant power, successfully campaigning in Greece, (Aemilius Paulus decisive victory over Macedonia at the Battle of Pydna), in the Middle East (Lucius Licinius Lucullus, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus), in Gaul (Gaius Julius Caesar) and defeating several Germanic tribes (Gaius Marius, Germanicus). While Roman armies suffered several major losses, their large population and ability (and will) to replace battlefield casualties, their training, organization, tactical and technical superiority enabled Rome to stay a predominant military force for several centuries, utilizing well trained and maneuverable armies to routinely overcome the much larger “tribal” armies of their foes (see Battles of Aquae Sextiae, Vercellae, Tigranocerta, Alesia).

In 54 BC the Roman triumvir Marcus Licinius Crassus took the offensive against the Parthian Empire in the east. In a decisive battle at Carrhae Romans were defeated and the golden Aquilae (legionary battle standards) were taken as trophies to Ctesiphon. The battle was one of the worst defeats suffered by the Roman Republic in its entire history.

While successfully dealing with foreign opponents, Rome experienced numerous civil wars, notably the power struggles of Roman generals such as Marius and Sulla during the end of the Republic. Caesar was also notable for his role in the civil war against the other member of the Triumvirate (Pompey) and against the Roman Senate.

The successors of Caesar – Octavian and Mark Anthony, also fought a civil war with Caesar’s assassins (Senators Brutus, Cassius, etc.). Octavian and Mark Anthony eventually fought another civil war between themselves to determine the sole ruler of Rome. Octavian emerged victorious and Rome was turned into an empire with a huge standing army of professional soldiers.

By the time of Marcus Aurelius, the Romans had expanded to the Atlantic Ocean in the west and to Mesopotamia in the east and controlled Northern Africa and Central Europe up to the Black Sea. However, Aurelius marked the end of the Five Good Emperors, and Rome quickly fell into decline.

The Huns, Goths, and other barbaric groups invaded Rome, which continued to suffer from inflation and other internal strifes. Despite the attempts of Diocletian, Constantine I, and Theodosius I, western Rome collapsed and was eventually conquered in 476. The Byzantine empire continued to prosper, however.
When stirrups came into use some time during the Dark Ages militaries were forever changed. This invention coupled with technological, cultural, and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery.

Similar patterns of warfare existed in other parts of the world. In China around the 5th century armies moved from massed infantry to cavalry based forces, copying the steppe nomads. The Middle East and North Africa used similar, if often more advanced, technologies than Europe.

In Japan the Medieval warfare period is considered by many to have stretched into the 19th century. In Africa along the Sahel and Sudan states like the Kingdom of Sennar and Fulani Empire employed Medieval tactics and weapons well after they had been supplanted in Europe.

In the Medieval period, feudalism was firmly implanted, and there existed many landlords in Europe. Landlords often owned castles to protect their territory.

The Islamic Arab Empire began rapidly expanding throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia, initially led by Rashidun Caliphate, and later under the Umayyads. While their attempts to invade Europe by way of the Balkans were defeated by Byzantium and Bulgaria,[46] the Arabs expanded to the Iberian Peninsula in the west and the Indus Valley in the east. The Abassids then took over the Arab Empire, though the Umayyads remained in control of Islamic Spain.

At the Battle of Tours, the Franks under Charles Martel stopped short a Muslim invasion. The Abassids defeated the Tang Chinese army at the Battle of Talas, but were later defeated by the Seljuk Turks and the Mongols centuries later, until the Arab Empire eventually came to an end after the Battle of Baghdad in 1258.

In China, the Sui Dynasty had risen and conquered the Chen Dynasty of the south. They invaded Vietnam (northern Vietnam had been in Chinese control since the Han Dynasty), fighting the troops of Champa, who had cavalry mounted on elephants. After decades of economic turmoil and a failed invasion of Korea, the Sui collapsed and was followed by the Tang Dynasty, who fought with various Turkic groups, the Tibetans of Lhasa, the Tanguts, the Khitans, and collapsed due to political fragmentation of powerful regional military governors (jiedushi). The innovative Song Dynasty followed next, inventing new weapons of war that employed the use of Greek Fire and gunpowder (see section below) against enemies such as the Jurchens.
The Mongols under Genghis Khan, Ögedei Khan, Möngke Khan, and Kublai Khan conquered most of Eurasia. They took over China, Persia, Turkestan, and Russia. After Kublai Khan took power and created the Yuan Dynasty, the divisions of the empire ceased to cooperate with each other, and the Mongol Empire was only nominally united.

In New Zealand, prior to European discovery, oral histories, legends and whakapapa include many stories of battles and wars. Māori warriors were held in high esteem. One group of Polynesians migrated to the Chatham Islands, where they developed the largely pacifist Moriori culture. Their pacifism left the Moriori unable to defend themselves when the islands were invaded by mainland Māori in the 1830s.

They proceeded to massacre the Moriori and enslave the survivors.[47][48] Warrior culture also developed in the isolated Hawaiian Islands. During the 1780s and 1790s the chiefs and alii were constantly fighting for power. After a series of battles the Hawaiian Islands were united for the first time under a single ruler who would become known as Kamehameha I