No lies detected, I think that most of the games in that list could be considered 'the best.' Generally, I think that this is a really good list. I feel like you could go year by year and play these games and get a real strong essence of the best games from those particular years, with a lot of fresh entries that have stood up to scrutiny. For instance, I love that the list has Dance Dance Revolution in 1998, a game that I don't even like and it's not for me, but it's such an iconic game from 1998 that most people will forget about because it's such a different game from what most people would normally put on their "BEst games of 1998" list.
I also like that the list doesn't have as many games for recent years. It's best to let the dust settle IMO and then come back several years from now to update it with what has stood the test of time.
Personally, I love that Dishonored shows up for 2012, because it's a game that is so easily forgotten about but goddam it's so good.
*edit*
I've found a flaw. The list has a big blindspot to sports games and racing games, which isn't surprising because generally, 'greatest of' lists often pass over sports and racing and just have a blindness to them. For the "Sports" genre it has NBA Jam, Tony Hawk 2, Pong, and Wii Sports, but ... it's kinda arguably whether three of those are properly considered "sports" games, or at least, they're definitely not sports sims. I think all of those games deserve to be on, but I don't think they're a good representation of the sports genre. Even if you hate modern sports games today, there are some sports sim games that have a general consensus that they're great... Madden 94, Madden 2005 or NFL 2K5, NBA 2K11, Gran Turismo (or one of the Forzas, I don't care either way, but I'd just pick Gran Turismo 1 or 2 if I had to pick one racing sim, even if Forza 4 is "better" or something). At least, missing a Madden, Fifa, or Gran Turismo on this list is a big blindness. From the point of view that these games will generally capture a great cross-section of games, and if someone who knows nothing about gaming could play through this catalogue and generally get a strong sense of videogames through the decades, I think a racing and/or sports sim should be on the list.
Games that aren't on the list that I might nominate. I don't think I'd put
all of them on, but maybe 2 of them, because if you went through the list otherwise you'd get the impression that sports or racing sims don't exist, but they're one of the most enduring, popular genres with some legitimately great, influential games through the decades:
- Gran Turismo 1 or 2. I think one of those should be on there, and I'd probably go with GT2 if I had to choose. Sure, a game like Forza 4 (or w/e) might be better, or maybe Project Cars or something is your favorite racer, but I just think some sim racer should be on there, and GT1 or 2 is my choice.
- Madden NFL 94 or 2005. I think 2005 might be 'the best' Madden (well TBH NCAA '13 is really *the best madden*), but '94 is probably more important to the genre. Madden '94 popularized the sports sim and it was an introduction to sports sims for so many people who would go onto make Madden one of the biggest selling franchises of all time. Or perhaps NFL 2K5 deserves to be "the football sports sim," but while I think NFL 2K5 is a great game I think it's stood the test of time because it's the last NFL 2K game. If NFL 2K continued to be made then I think it'd have the same reputation as every sports sim does today, which is a pretty shitty reputation.
- NBA 2K11, I think this was the NBA 2K game that really broke through to the mainstream, it prominently focused the greatest American athlete of all time, and it made the NBA 2K series a household name. Sure, people knew about 2K for about a decade prior to this, but having followed the series since the original game, this is when NBA 2K jumped from the "sports sim players' basketball game" to a mainstream, hugely popular genre. It also happened to be a great game and, IMO, the last great NBA 2K game.
- A Fifa might deserve to be there, but I'd never played any since 16-bit era and I don't know enough, but the popularity of the franchise seems to merit some nomination somewhere.
- Games I wouldn't add but I think deserve some attention: A pro-wrestling game, like maybe WWF No Mercy or one of the early Smackdowns for PSX/PS2, or one of the best FirePro's. I'd probably lean WWF NoMercy because if you had an N64 and you were ages 12-18 in the USA, you almost definitely played a shit load of WWF No Mercy (it's also widely praised as the best wrestling game ever, and the genre has arguably never approached it since). Perhaps MVP Baseball 2005, which is, IMO, the best baseball game ever, but it's just not mainstream enough or highly praised enough.
What hurts sports/racing sims from being mentioned is their iterative nature. There's just too many of them that you end up blurring them all into this sort of mediocre soup of games. Like, today, you think "Well, Madden kinda sucks, NBA 2K kinda sucks, MLB The Show kinda sucks, Gran Turismo isn't much to write home about anymore..." and they've slowly become more and more niche. But, if you could take a flag and stick it into the earth for one of those games, from one year, I think at least one or two deserve to be on a 'greatest games' list.