Oh shit.
Here we go. Top 10 time.
If you’re just finding the list, I suggest you start at the beginning and work your way along from there:
Top 10!
10 - Fire Emblem: Three Houses
The best game of 2019 is this tactical JRPG on the Switch. Fire Emblem: Three Houses takes the old-school grid battlefield turns-based combat and refines it. Just like it's origins, and those of Shining Force (we'll talk about that later) it takes its strengths from both characters and gameplay systems.
What Three Houses throws into the mix is the Academy. Think Hogwarts School of Magic, but in another world where nations and church alike are finely poised, ready to work together or go to war at the moment it makes sense for either. Fire Emblem's rich lore is centred on the controlling Church institution, how it binds the lands of men and seemingly keeps a balance across the lands. Your choices, especially that of which house you will teach and battle alongside, will dramatically alter the history of the world and your place in it.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses hits a bullseye multiple times throughout the game with emotional dilemmas and heartbreaks. Your power to make these decisions, or at times powerlessness to do anything about them, is what makes this 70+ hour campaign so riveting.
Along with the strong story, the gameplay is a strategist's dream. Your units, each of which you'll learn to understand as a personality as much as a tool for war, have their own skills and abilities. They also grow stronger as they learn to work with each other. This relationship system is key to getting the best out of your personell. As they work better together, by healing one another, defeating an enemy together, surviving together, they give one another a bonus in the field.
Fire Emblem TH doesn't reinvent the genre or perfect the turns-based tactical game. But what it is is the best JRPG for about 20 years. I've played through one of four story campaigns and loved every minute of it. Over the next few years, I'm sure I'll revisit it and get the other sides of the story.
9 - Resident Evil 4
This slot on the list is for the series, mainly, but Resident Evil 4 is undeniably the best one. Resident Evil 2, Code: Veronica and the remake of the original could all stake a claim here, but the sense of wonder and terror provided by RE4 when it landed on Gamecube was something special.
Resi has always been about Zombies, and the pseudo-zombie alternative present here makes the whole concept so much creepier. Zombies that cooperate, hunt Leon down in packs, climb ladders, use chainsaws, start fires… it was a game changer.
Resident Evil 4 leans on that aspect heavily, especially in its second half, where set piece level design moments grow more and more over-the-top and bizarre. Leon's quest to rescue the President's daughter always seemed like the unlikeliest of storylines, and nothing in the final acts of RE4 claw back a sense of reality. Every monster unleashed, every hooded zombie priest, and every appearance of the Merchant guy (What're ya buyin'!) reminds you with blunt trauma that this is unapologetically a video game. And it's fantastic.
RE4 invented the "shoulder cam" for the series and took the claustrophobic fixed camera away, meaning that it had fewer visual tricks available to hide the horrors at first, but as you progress, it uses that freedom you weren't used to in older games against you. Allowing you to edge the camera around a corner makes you more cautious, upping the tension, and when it was justified, scaring the shit out of you.
The hair-raising sounds of a Devastator breathing… The unforgettable first time that chainsaw revving reveals that it's someone coming for you… These moments are unlike anything else in games. The controls and pace of Resident Evil 4 feel a little dated now, but like older entries in the series, that actually feels like part of what makes it fun. The tank-turning Leon is a hero, but definitely not a superhero, and as an extension of yourself in this horror, is a clumsy joy to direct about. Resident Evil is a classic gaming series. By all means, insert your favourite one here. Mine is RE4.
8 - Halo 3
Likewise for Halo, the series as a whole can probably take this spot, at least through to Halo: Reach. Each one is a landmark Xbox title, bigger and brighter than the last. For me, Halo 3, the first one on X360 had the best of everything. The best controls, the best campaign, the best multiplayer. It was the game that sat inside my X360 drive uninterrupted for months and months on arrival. I remember buying Crackdown just to get the beta access and playing that Zanzibar online level non-stop for a week.
Halo gets so much right. Aesthetically, it's beautiful. The radiant hues and the bright sci-fi lights are mushed into nature in a way that shouldn't work, but does so well. The characters and story, though a little pretentious and pushing the limits of consumable hard-sci-fi are entertaining, if sometimes a little hard to digest. Vehicles. Halo absolutely nails vehicles, whether that's the three-person Warthog land rover, the crazy heavy Scorpion tank, the chaotic Ghost hover bike or the mighty flying Banshee, every one of them is a marvel to take control of.
Halo's gun catalog and enemy list are like a long-winded multi-faceted game of rock-paper-scissors, where there's always a right answer, but actually, if you really want to, you can find a way to make scissors beat rock after all.
Multiplayer is incredible, and the competitive 2v2 on smaller maps was my mode of choice. Bigger games on huge maps with higher player counts also work very well.
Halo is an FPS that seems to divide gamers. I never understood that. It always felt to me like a fun, extremely polished and marvelously designed game. The series has sorta declined since Bungie left, but the recent release of Halo: Master Chief Collection throws a spotlight on this great series. It's worth revisiting and when you do, go for Halo 3. That's the best one.
7 - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geralt of Rivia is searching for Yennefer of Vengerberg. He's on her trail, and he is dreaming of a terrifying frozen army of undead called The Wild Hunt. There you go, thrown into the deep end. Good luck.
The Witcher 3 is huge.
Really huge. So huge in fact that I had to abandon a playthrough because I just couldn't find enough time to play it properly. I recently picked it up on the Switch and have been playing it religiously every day, on the go, docked at home, sitting in bed. I can't stop playing it. I've been tracking down every ? on the map. I've been absorbed by Gwent, collecting every card. I've been to every town. I've been working through every quest. It still feels like I have dozens of hours to go and I've clocked nearly 100 by now.
Geralt is a bad ass. His skills feel like they matter. The signs and their effect on the world around you are fun. Mutagens, bombs, oils and alchemy all matter. Learning them and using them to their full effect is incredibly satisfying. Combat is slick and loose. Sometimes Geralt is tricky to turn or move in close quarters, but when it matters, at high speed or in a tough spot, you're never more than one dodge or parry away from finding your feet and gaining an advantage.
Let's be clear here, The Witcher 3 is a storytelling masterpiece. The narrative is the best in any game I've ever played. If I was finished this game (working on it!) it could probably even be higher than this already huge placing on this list. If you have 150 hours to spare, there's no better game to fill it.
6 - Portal 2
When you first shoot a portal and pass through it, it feels like you've just done something completely different in games. And that's just the start.
Portal and Portal 2 are the smartest games ever made. Physics, momentum, gravity and fluid dynamics all play starring rolls in Portal 2, which does what all great puzzle games do well: it makes you feel smart. Challenges are there and can be brain-melting at times, but the answers are usually staring you in the face. When playing the phenomenal cooperative two-player mode, they're also often mocking you with their veiled simplicity.
Portal 2's additions over the original are more than just cosmetic, too. The bouncing paint and the speed paint create a new dimension of possibilities on top of the already fascinating playthings you can mould with the Portal gun.
The first game's trademark humour is carried over pretty well in the sequel too, and my favourite moment involves a potato… You'll know what I mean if you've played it.
These games are a delight that don't overstay their welcome. I'm not sure if we'll ever get another sequel, but the two we have are timeless classics that I revisit every few years and hope you'll decide to try someday soon yourself.
Tomorrow. The top 5.
