Many allow you to shape your own story in game quiz a variety of different settings and scenarios in likes of fantasy landscapes, sci-fi worlds, and more. With some of the most iconic characters finding a home among this selection, you can also expect to become some of the best video game heroes of all-time and get to know some of the most lovable companions along the way. Minecraft (2011)Minecraft brought a new level of creativity and freedom to the gaming industry. With its simple yet versatile gameplay mechanics, players could build and explore infinite worlds, resulting in a massive global community of creators and adventurers.
#1: “Pokémon Red, Blue, & Yellow” (
In an age when online vitriol has become weaponised to the point where a developer can face credible and deadly threats, Hello Games not only survived, it improved. This emotional whiplash shouldn’t work, but somehow it does – so well, in fact, that it introduced an entirely new generation of players to the series and became the launchpad for a brand new audience to dive into their re-released lineup. I’ve never played a game quite like Yakuza 0, and I’m pretty certain I never will again. The Yakuza series has always been a chaotic mix of heart-wrenching emotional drama and wacky absurdist side content, but this installment refined their proprietary blend to perfection. The next, I was winning a chicken named Nugget in a bowling competition and employing him as an agent in my real estate business.
Comparisons with Minecraft have been inevitable, but as far as Minecraft clones go, Terraria is probably the finest you’re ever likely to come across, its outstanding critical reviews and quite astonishing sales record testifying to its quality. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (2022) – A standout JRPG with an emotionally gripping story and an expansive open world. Hitman 3 (2021) – The ultimate stealth sandbox, perfecting the trilogy’s formula of open-ended assassination missions. Here’s to another generation of gaming – and here’s hoping it can be as thrilling as the last.
#6: “Halo: Combat Evolved” (
Secondly, the worldbuilding is peerless, a gothic nightmare of sleek greys, burning reds and fiery oranges mixed with the occasional flash of neon or yellow as your shotgun ignites in the dark. Thirdly, DOOM sounds amazing thanks to its OTT metal soundtrack and amped-up effects. In paving the way for games to become more mature and satisfying, every gamer must check out the enormous debt of gratitude owed to one of the most accomplished immersive sims ever made, even still all these years later.
Perhaps most importantly, however, is the addicting gameplay with its non-stop, action-packed fun, and adrenaline-inducing set-pieces. The writing brings this series to a beautiful and moving conclusion, but I really hope there is more to come from Nathan Drake and this isn’t really a thief’s end. In the recent reimagining of God of War, we join an older Kratos who has learned other emotions beyond rage and anguish on his journey to become a better dad. Initially, like most people I was purely excited to see how Sony Santa Monica would bring Norse mythology alive on modern consoles.
The team behind the remake put extra effort into fleshing out the world and Isaac, so you’ll get more of a connection with him than you did before. So if you have never played the original, or haven’t played it in a while, get the remake. You’ll get to enjoy the adventures of Leon S. Kennedy once more and see it with visual and gameplay improvements.
Not only did the game tell one of the most emotional, grounded and believable narratives all set against the dying of the Wild West but managed to develop characters players cared about and became emotionally attached to them. Every detail is immaculately created from the period accurate guns and attire to the horse testicles. The entire open world feels like a real place where many players just live a second life, hunting, camping, fishing and either helping or robbing the many small towns and their residents.
Portal 2 takes the cake as the finer of the wonderful games, expanding on a straightforward concept with more innovative level design and a greater helping of characterisation and genuinely charming humor. There’s always room for indie-developed charmers like Slay the Spire in the crowded market, a sort of roguelike deck-builder developed by MegaCrit and released on the PC in 2017. Players take control of one of four avatars and try to get up the spire via multiple procedurally generated floor levels, acquiring new cards and building a stronger deck as they go.
“The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” (
The entire game is built around a series of skill checks, dice rolls and dialogue trees in which the player’s actions directly affect not only the narrative but how the many unique and just as insane townsfolk perceive you and respond to your antics. With a gorgeous painted art style, the interwoven open world is full of interesting characters and sets a new bar for how much freedom developers allow their players to have within their worlds. It’s not often we get to see our favorite video game protagonists get a proper send off, let alone the happy ending we always wanted for them. For Nathan Drake’s final outing as everyone’s favorite wisecracking “dude raider”, Naughty Dog gave us not only his most personal journey so far but also his most epic. Naughty Dog had already perfected the Uncharted formula so this time they instead focused on putting Nathan in some of the most technically impressive and death-defying moments of his career in some of the most visually spectacular locations in the entire series. The cinematic presentation added additional depth to the already beloved characters and the inclusion of new gameplay mechanics such as the grappling hook expanded not only Nathan’s exploration skills but also his combat options.
The studio’s loving recreation of its ’90s survival horror classic is the perfect example of how to modernize an old game while staying true to its roots. Psychonauts 2 is an unlikely sequel to a cult classic that was released in 2005, funded by fans in 2015, and published in 2021. To this end, Double Fine walked a winding path to get Psychonauts 2 into the world – something which is reflected in the consistency, quality, and unabashed weirdness of the overall experience. Not to be confused with Obsidian’s sci-fi RPG, The Outer Worlds (more on that later), Mobius Digital’s indie darling is also set in the far-flung reaches of space. Yet it offers an entirely different narrative experience to the game it shares two-thirds of a title with, and indeed any other title out there.
Put this all together and you have one of the best single-player PC games money can buy. RD2 evokes a melancholic feeling of decline and transition that gives it a weighty, sombre air, while the story’s maturity, coupled with a supreme attention to detail and some downright staggering ambition, make it practically unparalleled. Dutch and the gang may be ruthless killers, but it’s hard not to mourn the tragedy of their passing into legend. Its quest design is sometimes basic and the game is so unfathomably long that mountains will have crumbled into the sea by the time you’ve reached the epilogue, but the overall effect is utterly remarkable. It still doesn’t make sense why Titanfall 2 failed to become the classic AAA shooter of the modern era that many feel it deserved to become. EA’s glossy and technically flawless release should have been up there with the DOOM Eternals of the world, but it just hasn’t quite gained the respect and mainstream acclaim it deserves.
Zombie outbreaks have been a staple of gaming since the earliest days, but few if any had been crafted in the way The Last of Us was. Marking a stark departure for Naughty Dog from their colorful platforming days and lighter-hearted Uncharted series, The Last of Us focused on the brutality of the end of the world in a way few games had ever dared. The story of Joel and Ellie was expertly crafted to realistically build their relationship over the course of the game, narrowly surviving encounters with the infected, or worse, the apocalypse’s survivors. The Last of Us’ cinematic presentation and characters managed to be both uplifting and heartbreaking, interspersed by moments of extreme tragedy and loss while crafting a hopeful future for two people lost in a world that was slowly dying around them.