Gosh, is it time for another angry gamer rant already?! Well, you asked, and so it hath been delivered: a thoroughly bitter look at the top 5 games that have ruined gaming for the truly hardcore or, more accurately, for those who were into gaming before gaming became the hideous beast of mass popularity that it is today.

Every so often, a game comes around that takes advantage of a unique concept, defines a genre, and pushes the medium of video games forward. Unfortunately, those kinds of games are almost always disregarded by gamers in favor of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Crisis 4-B and Metal Gear Solid: Snake is really old.

Those games aren't always bad in themselves; the problem is in the gamers that flock to such games. Likewise, the games on this list are not bad games; their existence merely ushered in several groups of people who poisoned the gaming community. I'm talking to you. Yes, you, the one who invaded my beautifully uncool, geeky hobby and started giving orders with the smug disposition that you have been here the whole time and have been ignored. I was having a perfectly wonderful time living my sheltered, sun-free life full of unique and challenging video games on multiple consoles and computers until you came along and said, "This RPG isn't FFVII enough; this FPS isn't Halo 2 enough; make the 'super expert' difficulty easier for me to beat; gaming is a business, and I'm the consumer, blah, blah, blah, blah." You are, to use an encapsulating term, the casual audience, and these are my top five picks for games that ushered in this flood of mediocrity when you opened the door without even bothering to knock.

vaga_koleso via gamelemon.com »