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Here in the red-pill real world, the scenery’s a bit hit and miss. For every beautiful beach resort, there are a hundred ho-hum forgettable towns. Multiplayer maps in blue-pill PC gaming land suffer from the same problem. It shouldn’t come as a surprise; with hundreds of games sporting thousands of maps, most of them are bound to be filler. A few diamonds manage to rise above the mountain of coal, however, and they offer an amazing experience that simply begs to be played over and over again, preferably while wearing bright blue megaarmor and wielding a rocket launcher.
Dreamers like Cliff Bleszinski, Richard “Levelord” Gray and Paul Jaquays create virtual worlds that are chock full of unforgettable landmarks and perfectly designed fragalicious goodness. Join us for a stroll down memory lane as we take a look at 15 of the most memorable video game maps of all time, and feel free to leave a comment to let us know which totally awesome levels we idiotically left out.
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FastFeet
September 29, 2011 at 8:07am
I would have picked the map CHECKMATE from the game Red Faction 1; as well as the OASIS and GOLDRUSH maps from the game RTCW: Enemy Territory.
clundwall
September 25, 2011 at 5:43am
There are definitely some maps missing from here. First off, The Edge in quake 2 may be the best FPS map ever.
second, the are no entries from MOHAA or COD, hugely popular games. From MOHAA I say Destroyed Village,
Sothern France or Stalingrad, and from the first COD Carentan or Dawnville. The other choices from the article I agree upon.
navalverde
September 23, 2011 at 4:19pm
I think I would have left out l4d here if you are going to include that sort of thing, then the Cow Level from Diablo 2 should have been included as well. I'm not so sure about COD4 here either. It's a shame that a map from the original COD didn't make it in here I agree with other people except Carentan & Brecourt are the real classics. Also while Xel Naga caverns is certainly an excellent map, its a shame something from BW isn't included such as Heartbreak Ridge, where all of the most legendary Koreans cut their teeth.
As for honorable mentions:
My favorite map from UT was Lava Giant. While not as iconic as facing worlds, using a combination of gravity boots and translocating, you could reach the top of the middle ridge and snipe noobs all day.
FrancesTheMute
September 23, 2011 at 9:06am
Should include the original Day of Defeat's Charlie map. A pretty faithful recreation of the D-day invasion of Normandy, the Allies start in the Landing Craft at the beach, the Axis have MG and Sniper spots in the bunkers.
Nyarlathotep
September 23, 2011 at 11:55am
I loved that map too. I remember always looking for servers running that map in the server browser and almost always finding them full. I guess we weren't the only ones.
steelcobra@hotm...
September 23, 2011 at 8:23am
While I was a huge Halo player back in the day, and Blood Gulch was pretty good, it is not symmetrical. In CTF games the Blue team is at a disadvantage because of the hill directly in front of the base blocking view of 2/3rds of the map that can be seen from red base, and the tunnel access giving almost free flank access from their teleport exit.
I miss the lost maps that didn't carry over to later sequels. Longest was destroyed in the "improvement" to enlongation, taking away the claustrophibic shotgun-friendly corridors for another wide-open space map. And prisoner had narrow, vertical gameplay perfected. Playing king of the hill, invisible, no shields, half health, only rockets (teams optional) there was basically the definition of fun.
Brad Chacos
September 23, 2011 at 8:26am
At LAN parties, we used to love to play sniper matches on Boarding Action in Halo 1.
steelcobra@hotm...
September 23, 2011 at 8:32am
Oh, yeah, that was fantastic. We actually had a place to go to friday nights for 16-player events.
Only now you go in there and all the regulars are playing MTG and staring at you because you're not one of them.
szore
September 23, 2011 at 6:33am
Wha tha fu...
No 'Bridge' from America's Army? Hospital? Weapons Cach SE?
tsch tsch tsch
and BTW what is up with these 'word verification'? Get a system like Discuss already, sheesh... this is the only site I know that punishes you for posting.
theaznguy808
September 22, 2011 at 10:33pm
I used to play a TON of Halo 1 (pc) a while ago, so I was expecting Blood Gulch :D
I was surprised when I saw xel naga caverns...D: my favorite map
Mighty BOB!
September 22, 2011 at 9:14pm
Whar's my Goldeneye?
Good maps in that list however even though I have spent a looot of time in 2fort, there are better intel maps than that.
joeking
September 22, 2011 at 8:56pm
Can't comment on any of the other maps, but as a 10-year on and off CS player, I can say definitively that de_dust is a poor choice. Anyone who's played CS for a while will agree. Dust2 is the superior map, that is why it's used in online competition play and LAN. Very little public servers put dust in their map rotation, if any.
There is no doubt that the original de_dust is a staple map for Counter-Strike. It's in every version of the game, including the upcoming CS:GO. But in my opinion, it is far from being a top 15 multiplayer map of all time. It's a relatively one-sided map, with excruciating choke points.
chronium
September 22, 2011 at 8:36pm
I'll throw an interesting one into the mix but Alterac Valley in WoW is still a hell of a lot of fun to play.
GreenTurtle
September 22, 2011 at 6:39pm
Was going to say Baldurs Gate but then saw the " Multi Player ". Now I just feel like a tool.
sinned.
September 22, 2011 at 4:53pm
I am going to have to say Meat Grinder from Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. I have played that map so many times and I never get tired of it. Infact I still fire up the over 8 year old game now and then to give it a run. I know BHD was a smaller game compared to most of these mentioned but how many will still be filling servers 8+ years later. (I know 1942 and CS are the exceptions). Just my 2 cents...
jagstangsrule
September 22, 2011 at 3:57pm
What about fighting video games? You forgot about Final Destination in Super Smash Bros. The map was basic as heck. But it was so good, it was in all 3 games and the only map used in tournament quarter finals, semi finals and finals. http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/16387/stages_final.jpg
X2brute
September 23, 2011 at 12:13pm
everyone i know says the biggest mistake ssb ever made is taking out the zelda level from the first one, awesome level
Brad Chacos
September 22, 2011 at 4:04pm
That's a great suggestion, but I was trying to keep it PC-focused. Otherwise, I would have included the Gears of War 2 map "River" for all of its "Hold down the house, they're coming over the bridge!" Horde mode goodness. Yes, you read it: River is better than Avalanche.
vanseters1991
September 22, 2011 at 3:14pm
AHHH the memories!!! Battlefield 1942's Wake Island easily the best on that list and possibly the greatest map ever! So glad it won the feature picture slot. It was also nicely redone for Battefield 1943.
I would also include several CoD1 and CoD2 maps in the mix like Toujane, Carentan, Brecourt, and El Alemein.
Going to dust off BF1942, install it and play it right now!
Brad Chacos
September 22, 2011 at 3:52pm
I loved Carentan too, but now I can only think of that scene in the Office when I hear it's name.From IMDB:
Josh Porter: This is not working, okay? We're getting slaughtered out there.
Andy: It's the new guy.
Jim Halpert: Um, sorry, I don't know what we're talking about.
Andy: See what I mean?
Josh Porter: We just need a strategy, okay? We're gonna set up a trap in the gun room. Alright, Jim, are you using the MP40 or 44?
Jim Halpert: Um... sniper rifle.
[Andy and Josh gets upset]
Josh Porter: [shouts] Sniper?
Andy: [shouts] What? Jim, are you playing for the other team?
Jim Halpert: [shouts] You don't snipe on Carentan, okay?
Andy: [shouts] Saboteur! Saboteur! I'm gonna kill you for real! This game... the game is over, I'm *really* going to shoot you.
RatPatrol
September 22, 2011 at 3:04pm
5D Space
http://marathongame.wikia.com/wiki/5-D_Space_%28Level%29
Mars Needs Women
http://marathongame.wikia.com/wiki/Mars_Needs_Women_%28Marathon_Level%29
TommM
September 22, 2011 at 3:00pm
Pretty broad topic (albeit a fun one). I think you could have listed 150 classic all-time great maps and would still have folks wanting to know why their favorite didn't make it.
I loved many of the UT3 maps. And some of the player made maps for that game were extroadinary. That was a game just built for map customization.
And just to show my age I'll toss out one more - the random map generator for "Populous." You never knew what you were going to get and it made you coming back for more and more.
kevjohn
September 22, 2011 at 2:12pm
This article brings back some memories!
Minor quibble: The images don't enlarge any when you click on the "enlarge image" button. What's the point of that?
Captain_Steve
September 22, 2011 at 2:04pm
So L4D2 makes it on here, but no L4D No Mercy? I think I've spent more hours playing No Mercy online than I have L4D2 altogether. Quite disappointed.
Nimrod
September 22, 2011 at 12:45pm
While i like the BF maps a few of the others in here do not belong. Namely the LFD and TF2 maps. In fact i dont think those games belong in this list at all.
"V2_Rocket Facility," "The Bridge" or even "LOL_V2" or any other map from MOH:AA would have been good.
Theres plenty of other classics out there as well that would have been a better fit than LFD and even TF. I just dont think that game has reached the level of Video Gaming Godlikeness that afew of these others have.
SoSaysCory
September 23, 2011 at 8:17am
I would argue that L4D and TF2 are both hugely popular in the gaming world, and just as godlike as many of the older games on this list. In 10 years, TF2, DotA, L4D, and BF2 are going to be the games that we look back on and feel nostalgic about. MOH was a huge game, but if you look at the playerbase of TF2 still, after so many years, it's such a huge staple in gaming that there is no WAY it wouldn't make this list.
Personally, I would have chosen a different map, because 2fort is so notorious for being poorly designed. I probably would have used CP_Badlands or maybe one of the PL_Goldrush, simply for their enjoyment factor, and the fact that Badlands is basically THE competitive map, and Goldrush is a huge pub game map.
