I had PDS beating Tetris in the final. Heh heh.
solowing on GameFAQs, by the way.
…why did you people put PDS winning? o.O
Because I had no interest in actually attempting to win the contest.
same here, in the UK you can’t win anything from gamefaqs. I just did it so i could see how my game choices would turn out 
Remember that “number sold” is not an exact estimation of how many people played it. You have to take into account the people that pirated it, the people that loaned it to friends, the huge number of people who played it and then sold it to somebody else on Ebay (who may in turn sell it on Ebay as well to recoup their losses, I’ve heard of a lot of people buying it to play through it and then sell it back so they don’t lose any money). It IS a very sought-after game, so the number of people that played it is probably much higher than the total sales.
Hell, I think in one poll at one site about what was the “best multi-player PS1” game, in the end a game called Thrill Kill won, even though it was never released! The only way to play it was to download the (99% complete beta copy) game and load it on a modded PS1. Now THAT’S what I call a dedicated fan-base!
Solis’ got a point there.I lent this game to my cousin who finished it and liked it very much (altho he found it short just like I did).
Urgh. So disappointing. I miss all this, but I wouldn’t have been able to save them anyway. I think I know the reasons behind their failures. Mario 64 was a huge immersive experience and featured an icon more people know than they know Santa Claus. It had you jumping into world upon world upon world to uncover numerous stars for seemingly no reason or purpose other than to move on in the game. It was the first true 3D Mario game but it still tried to replicate the level designs of the old games. Plus the thought of making Mario fly was too good to pass up. Nights on the other hand featured an icon not too many people have heard about or cared about. It was 2D for the most part. It was a simple platformer. But in my opinion Nights’ freedom of flight far surpasses Mario’s, its music was exceedingly superior(I can’t recall one tune from Mario 64), and not only was Nights the greatest platformer ever made simply for the fact that it had no platforms, but it gave you the sense of actually being in the dream world, complete with its own artificial life. Its no-holds-barred rollicking sense of fun, imagery, speed, and childhood joys was pure magic, and its knowledge of children’s dreams, hopes, and fears was touching enough to be more than just amusing. Nights was a game of inspiration.
Goldeneye, too, was not just a simple FPS. It was the Halo of its time. It was fast, loud, and explosive, but it was also the most immersive Bond experience ever. Even now when I look at the other Bond shooters that came out later, I compare them to Goldeneye. Panzer Dragoon Saga, like you said, wasn’t played by enough people. Hardly anybody knows what its like, and not enough people care about the whole Panzer Dragoon franchise anyway. PDS was just an RPG. RPGs weren’t mainstream and probably weren’t even cool. RPGs aren’t fast and action packed. They’re slow and methodical. And for gamers who want to rely more on their twitch skills than their brains or any sense of storytelling, that’s bad news. In fact I think Goldeneye came out before Final Fantasy 7 did, so the last known good RPGs were from the days of the Super Nintendo. However, if Game Faqs pit Final Fantasy 7 against Goldeneye I think I have a clear indication of which might win. 
Even though Panzer Dragoon Saga is a far superior game to both of them.
Actually I’d always thought that it did the exact opposite. The previous games were more or less straightforward beginning-to-end platform romps (sprinkled liberally with secrets for good measure of course), while SM64 took the series in a much more exploration-based action-adventure direction. But I’m probably being pedantic…
And yes, I agree that Panzer Dragoon Saga and GoldenEye (and Nights and SM64) are all excellent games, and I agree that they’re all excellent games for their own reasons and on their own merits. I also agree that pitting any of them against each other in a competition like this is pretty pointless for exactly this reason; but then any result of a “best game ever” competition is bound to be pretty meaningless, as it’s all down to opinion and personal taste.