Here we go again. The list is nearly done.
If you’re just finding the list, I suggest you start at the beginning and work your way along from there:
Top 20 time...
20 - Forza Motorsport 7
We’re getting into a lot of best-in-genre games now, and without question, Forza Motorsport is the best racing series of all time. It’s the epitome of racing simulation greatness and a must play game for anyone interested in cars or motor racing. I chose Forza 7 here because it’s basically a content upgrade over the other recent games in the series. The Forza that I have poured the most time into though, and by a long margin, is Forza Motorsport 3. I must have left 1000 hours behind the wheel of that game. The series has taken small evolutionary jumps along the way and F7 has reached a point where they pretty much can’t do anything to improve it.
Forza’s car handling is based on a physics engine that takes into account actual tire wear (which is probably the largest differentiator in racing) and other key aspects like brake temperature and long/short gear ratios. It does so in a way that feels more natural than other big racing game series. At its heart, Forza should be played as a massively long career mode, where you need to grind your way through the ranks, starting with a hatchback and work your way to Prototype racing or single-seaters. If you don’t have the patience for that, or don’t need another lifestyle game to lose your free time into, there’s plenty of alternative in the Forza 7 package. Online racing is a big part of Forza’s jump-in-and-play best. If you’re willing to pay huge penalties for small mistakes, it’s a riveting gaming experience. If you think Dark Souls is razor thin on margins of success or failure, you’re in for a shock if you ever take to competitive Forza Motorsport.
It’d be crazy not to mention ForzaHorizon as well. This series really hit its stride with Forza Horizon 4, which comes with a far easier barrier for entry, with more arcade-y controls. It is also open-world, go at your own pace, and all about mixing things up, as opposed to Forza Motorsport’s edging lap times by a thousandth of a second style perfectionism. If you’re the kind of person who’d rather drive over a ramp at maximum speed, Horizon is the Forza for you. For me, they’re both excellent, but the racing purist in me adores what Turn 10 have been able to achieve with FM7.
19 - Shadow of the Colossus
Team Ico’s masterpiece, Shadow of the Colossus, is essentially a bunch of boss fights spread out over an adventure. You’re a hero named Wander who is trying to save the life of Mono, a young lady who has had her life force drained from her body. Wander’s quest is to topple sixteen magnificent Colossi that roam the surrounding plains. Each one will restore power to the temple and hopefully bring Mono back to him.
SotC has probably got the best art direction and world building I’ve ever seen in a game. The world itself is beautiful, but also filled with ancient mystery. The most intricate details are left lying about in hidden nooks and crannies of the world that you may never even find, and that sense of exploration is totally optional in this game, but you will likely find yourself clambering for more. The most beautiful and mesmerising things of all in this game though, are of course the mighty Colossi.
Your first encounter with a Colossus is with a giant who wields a huge club. Its body is covered with hair and stone, which you quickly realise is your target destination. In order to topple this guy, you’re going to need to distract it, climb on top of its head, and jam your sword through a weakpoint in its skull. This is massively daunting at first, and when you start to climb, every moment feels like the most dangerous thing you’ve ever done.
By the time you’ve found your way through the adventure, you’ll have taken down a Colossus that can fly (which is my favourite one by far!) and used all kinds of environment manipulating tricks to topple and defeat others. One Colossus that stands out in my memory is another giant, this time wielding an enormous (like apartment building sized) sword, which you need to intimidate into trying to hit you with it, so you can climb onto the weapon and use it as a ramp to the creature’s weakpoints.
The bosses are the levels here, and each one is fantastic. Some are much more obvious to decipher and defeat than others, but even the ones that are easy in theory can be very complex to actually execute. Some require your horse, Agro, who is both essential and a total pain in the arse, to trick. Others are all about speed and timing. The variety on offer here is incredible.
Shadow of the Colossus was remade for PS4 a couple of years ago. That’s the version to go for.
18 - Titanfall 2
I never expected that when I spent €6 on Titanfall 2 in the January sale last year that I would get all the way through it. I had an impression of what I thought it was (a big, noisy, stupid shooting game about giant robots) and felt it was something I needed to see first hand to figure out what all the fuss was about… And then I played the whole game through to the end in two sittings, breathlessly delighted with every amazing new trick it used, both narratively and with gameplay twists. To say that it blew my expectations out of the water is the biggest understatement there can be. Titanfall 2 was suddenly one of my favourite games.
I find the Titan combat in this game to actually be the weakest part of it. The mechs themselves are fantastic. The way they move, the HUD you have when piloting one, the movement, the tangible sense of heavyweight control you have when inside one… It’s all pretty satisfying. But for me, Titanfall 2 is all about being the pilot, outside the mech, wall-running, jumping and twisting, sniping, taking cover, sliding… the list goes on. The sense of freedom you have at the feet of the pilot is unmatched in video games. I’ve never controlled a character in a game and felt like I could do exactly what I wanted to do like I do when playing Titanfall 2. It often feels like the game is telepathically linked to my mind and my fingers on the controller are just there for show.
Titanfall 2 has a multiplayer mode that I haven’t really played. I have other games for that. This is all about the campaign for me. If you’ve played this game before, you probably know off the bat the three levels that I’m thinking of when I blurt out: Easily the best levels in any game ever. This is not hyperbole. I refuse to spoil this game with too many details. For fans, Effect and Cause is one of them, of course, and The Ark is one of the most nerve-wracking levels I’ve ever played, but my favourite is actually The Beacon. If you know it, you know it. If you don’t - what the hell are you waiting for? Play Titanfall 2.
17 - Overwatch
My favourite Blizzard game is probably the outlier in their catalogue. Overwatch is a competitive multiplayer squad-based FPS. You choose a hero and squad up with 5 other players, either trying to deliver or defend against a payload, or in other variations on the deathmatch or capture the flag style mode. What is it that makes it better than other games of this type? Simple. The heroes.
I love playing this game as Lucio. Providing a speed boost or a heal power to the people around me depending on the situation is one thing, but blasting opponents away and then loading on them with his standard rapid fire attack… it’s so much fun. Working as a team is crucial to Overwatch success. Each team usually needs at least one support character like Lucio, a bunch of heavy damage dealers, and some kind of defensive unit, like a tank character to take the brunt of the enemy assault. With those basics covered, it then becomes an act of coordination and skill to get the win.
Overwatch is a bloody nightmare to play in Competitive mode. The community is toxic, very hostile towards new players and without any tolerance for variety in tactics or creative play. Avoid it like the plague. What you want is the fun version, where people are not so uptight and there for a good time. Quick Play. It’s the only way to play. Overwatch is one of my favourite FPS games, and certainly the one I go to for multiplayer fun. If you ever want a game, let me know!
16 - Civilization VI
What can I say about Civilization that hasn’t been gushed from the words of countless nerds over the last few decades already? It’s the ultimate video game of a board game. Grow a nation from its stone age bare essentials right up through the ages and into the future, conquering the world, or achieving one of the other methods of victory, before the others.
Civilization games usually take a dozen or more hours each, which means that it’s a pretty big ask to arrange one with friends. They usually require multiple sessions or long gaps in between games, but even then, it’s a load of fun. I spend most of my Civ 6 game time in single-player, happily taking a new faction through the eras of time, crushing enemies or seducing them with my valuable commodities or flat out lies.
Civilization is addictive. It’s also not for everyone. Despite having a solid tutorial, there is a lot to take in and learn. It goes layers deep. There are certainly much more complex alternatives out there (No thanks, I’m grand! Crusader Kings, Stellaris etc., you’re all going too far!)
Civ 6 was one of the first games I thought of when it came to making this list, and it’s one I’m sure I’ll keep playing for many years to come.
15 - Panzer Dragoon Saga
Panzer Dragoon Saga is very possibly the best game nobody played. It’s one of the most beautiful game designs I’ve ever experienced. It also managed to achieve everything it did on the Sega Saturn in 1998. To think that Team Andromeda, who developed this title, never made a game together again fills my soul will sadness. This game deserves to be unearthed from the shadows of time. It’s too good to go on forgotten.
In PD Saga, you play as Edge, a wrong-place wrong-time mining contractor who ends up falling into a chasm, where he finds the impossible, a real-life dragon. As it turns out, his employer, Craymen, wasn’t interested in mining for resources at all, and was actually searching for the buried tomb of the mysterious Azel, a girl of unknown origin. Azel was foretold to be the key to discovering the last dragon, and as it turns out, the Empire got their prophecy wrong. There are actually two dragons. One is piloted by Azel, under the influence of Craymen. The other is you.
As the Empire come to conquer Edge’s homeland, he decides to use the dragon to defend it, and in turn chase down Craymen and get his revenge. All the while, Azel, atop her gargantuan dragon Atolm (which makes your dragon look like a hatchling by comparison) it hunting you down.
Gameplay in PD Saga is split between three phases. You have the usual RPG thing of wandering around on foot talking to NPCs, getting quests, buying resources and getting deeper into the story. You also have exploring atop your dragon in freeform open world style exploration, with certain areas locked off based on what your dragon can and cannot do. Then third is combat. This is where Panzer Dragoon Saga shines. Whenever a battle occurs in PD Saga, the first thing you will notice is a radar on the bottom of the screen. This is not to show you which enemies are approaching. It’s to gauge your relative position to the target you’re fighting. Key to your success in this turn-based battle is your position. Some enemies are stronger from the front, the back or the side, and all have a weakpoint, or some combination of attacks you use in certain ways that weaken them. Learning how to exploit the relative positioning is what makes PD Saga so engaging.
Edge and the dragon work magnificently well together in the narrative and in the gameplay. For its time, Panzer Saga had beautiful animations, such as when Edge fired his handgun from atop the dragon in mid-flight. The lore of this game is also stacked with detail leaning back to the two prequels, which are very, very different games (on-rails shooting games.) The story takes its twists and turns towards the end and the ultimate showdown with Azel and Atolm bring with it a surprising outcome that was unlike anything I’d seen in game narrative before. The game’s epilogue and conclusion are genuinely heartbreaking.
I know you, reading this, are unlikely to ever track down a Sega Saturn and a copy of this (which itself goes for $500+ online) - but if you are creative with emulators and want to see a game that was way ahead of its time, this gaming relic is a true masterpiece and something that has gone criminally under-played. I went back to play it a few years ago and it was still astoundingly good.
14 - Minecraft
No game this decade has had the cultural impact of Minecraft. Kids love it. YouTube is filled to the brim with people streaming it, constantly. It’s a phenomenon. It’s also one of the most fun video games I’ve ever played. I constantly refer to it as “Lego for video gamers” and I think that’s about as good a description you can get for it.
Minecraft is a survival game, where you must learn how to craft items from the things you find lying about (or that you’ve punched/chopped/broken from blocks) and eventually either pursue the mysterious endgame scenarios, or if you’re like me, build pretty towers, glass domes and gigantic bridges with no objective other than doing something cool. Again, Lego for video games. I’ve actually never finished the campaign of Minecraft, mainly because I don’t want it to ever end. For me, it’s like a toy box filled with infinite pieces, limited only by my imagination.
If you've never heard of Minecraft, embrace that ignorance and go play it blind. I wish I could do that again. It’s such a fun game to land into without knowing too much about.
I adore this game, alone or as part of a server with friends, and I always drift back to it every few months to pick up where I left off. It’s original and genius.
13 - Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Ubisoft’s best-known franchise has had its ups and downs. I bounced heavily off the first game in this series and reluctantly picked up Ass Creed 2, only to find it absolutely fantastic. Ezio is one of the most charismatic characters in recent gaming. The direct follow-up, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, was my favourite for quite a while. Then along came Black Flag. Nothing has come close since. (I have not played Assassin’s Creed Odyssey yet, which has the potential to change that!)
Black Flag is very much an extension of what made Ass Creed 2 so good. It has the assassination kills, the parkour, the improved progression system, the cool lead character, and my beloved icon-hunting map. I would scour the land and seas searching for every single chest, shanty and item there was. I collected every single thing in this game, I enjoyed that so much. Of course, what Black Flag added, and took things to another level of fun, was the pirate ships and naval combat. I never knew how much fun it could be leading a band of pirates to pillage another ship, or storm a castle, or just cause mischief around the various islands of the vast ocean.
By Black Flag, the modern-day Abstergo story line had taken a bit of a back seat, and I have to say, the sci-fi elements of the game, which were originally the main appeal for me, had become so unnecessary to my enjoyment of this series that all they were doing now was interrupting my fun.
The chances are that if you’re reading this far into my list, you know what Assassin’s Creed is. It seems to be pretty popular across the board. There are so many of them now, that you can probably play the series non-stop for a year and not finish it. For me, I don’t need every one of them. I’ve had mixed feelings about plenty of them, but some are among the best games I’ve ever played, and chief among them is Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
12 - Half-Life 2
Oh, boy. Half-Life 2. It’s actually shocking to me that this game couldn’t find a place in the Top 10. That’s just how it goes, I guess.
Half-Life was a masterpiece on the PC. It felt like a video game could compete with smart science fiction TV and movies. It was designed and written as a narrative experience. It also had some of the best FPS gameplay ever. Then the sequel arrived and smashed it. Half-Life 2 is one of those generational games that comes along and completely rewrites the rules of what a game can be. The first thing that you notice in Half-Life 2 is the physics engine. Havok’s work with Valve to bring this game engine to life cannot be underestimated. Little things like picking up objects to move them about seemed like a little piece of polish on top when you’re first striding through the checkpoint in City 17. When you realise how important this feature will be later, it kinda blows your mind.
Then of course, there’s the Gravity Gun. This is my favourite weapon in any game ever. The power to grab (almost) anything to you and then hurtle it at speed in any direction… It unlocked a plethora of possibilities and emergent opportunities within the game space. It also provided the designers at Valve with a type of level design tool that had never previously been possible.
True to its origins, Half-Life 2 had a brilliant story, bringing back the mute Gordon Freeman as the protagonist. You team up with others along the way, most notably Alyx, a survivor of the Combine’s occupation, who is with you on your mission to take them down.
My absolute favourite moment in Half-Life 2 is when you find yourself in Ravenholm, a town district that has been turned upside down by the rampaging hordes of monsters that have been dragged through to our world from another dimension. Ravenholm is the land of sharp edges. Circular saw blades, arm-mounted swing-blades and other implements of decapitation are littered about the area, giving you all manner of ideas of how to use your Gravity Gun.
Half-Life 2 is a must play game for just about anyone interested in games. The follow-up episodic chapters are also great, but the main game itself is where the best stuff happens. The possibility of a Half-Life 3 has been an internet meme for years, and the recently announced Alyx VR game seems like some kind of step towards it. I’m happy to dive into HL2 every few years regardless and remember that experience for the special thing it is each time.
11 - Grand Theft Auto V
GTA is basically a psychopath simulator.
You’re the worst kind of human being who has been given all manner of vehicles and weapons to elevate what the potential of that title could ever be by a magnitude of impossible proportions. Essentially, go out there and cause absolute fucking mayhem. You can ignore the rules, the story and the missions as much as you like in GTA, and that’s fun. However, if you want the best this game series has to offer, get Grand Theft Auto V and play it like a campaign. It’s on another level.
GTAV steps up the quality from the previous entries another level that is tangible with the controller even more so that it does with the visuals. The introduction of Heist missions is the most exciting thing they’ve done in this one. There aren’t too many of them, but they’re a total highlight. Planning your approach is fun and interesting and executing the plan (flawlessly, or with even more fun: disastrously) always throws something new into the mix.
GTAV’s narrative is unapologetically obscene, once again portraying the game’s protagonists as the scum of the Earth, and justifiably so. Trevor, as a character, is a complete lunatic. There are some scenes in this game where I think they went too far with him, and the line on the edge of dark humour started getting crossed. That’s fine if you sign up for it, and with GTAV you know the stakes when you boot up the game. You’re agreeing to suspend your disbelief and do things no human being would ever do in the real world. That’s most of the fun of the game, at the end of the day. I think most players have saved their progress at one point, just to go off the rails and push their wanted level to extremes, causing murder and mayhem at every corner to taunt the police into asking the FBI for help, then the army… then everything at once to take you down.
Grand Theft Auto, as a series, has been a critical and commercial blockbuster. It’s easy to see why. The freedom to act as you please is alluring, and the toy box filled with helicopters, airplanes, rocket launchers, tanks and all other kinds of boundary expanding vehicles gives you the opportunity to “do some mad shit” whenever you want. I love it as a cohesive campaign with optional rounds of madness. It seems that 110 million+ others feel the same way...
Next time: The best of the best of the best.
