Games of the Decade

General Discussions
#1

Seen so many “X of the decade” lists lately, was thinking about how I’d rank the games of the decade.

My personal top 4:

  1. [b]MINECRAFT /b

Outside the fact that this game is absurdly fun, the legacy of this game is astounding. There aren’t many examples of games that have fundamentally changed the industry as much as Minecraft.

  1. [b]DOOM /b

One of the most tightly crafted games I’ve come across. This game is built around making slaughtering demons as fun as possible and cuts out all the other bullshit. Every level, gun, monster is built around the a core gameplay loop of constantly pushing the player forward, making them feel like a badass.

  1. PORTAL 2 (2011)

Valve don’t make bad single player games.

  1. BREATH OF THE WILD (2017)

Really great example of having a large number of basic systems that interact with each other in predictable but complex ways to create interesting and unique experiences. The raw amount of content in this game is not particularly large, it’s certainly not Skyrim or GTA, yet still provides 100s of hours of content for players.

Some other notable games I feel defined this decade for me, in no particular order:

PAPERS PLEASE (2013)

Never seen a game like this before or since. Manages to tell interesting stories with real world weight without taking the player out of the game.

PATH OF EXILE (2013)

Put a lot of time into this one, kept making more content to pull me back in.

[b]DEVIL DAGGERS /b

Love 90s retro FPS aesthetic, and this one was the first I came across that evoked that for me.

[b]BASTION /b

Great soundtrack, made me feel things.

ROCKET LEAGUE (2015)

Most competitive games are strangely derivative of one another, great example of simple mechanics with a lot of depth.

[b]OVERWATCH /b

It’s just fun.

What did you guys enjoy this decade?

#2

My personal top 1 of the previous decade, which I played the most by far:

  1. [b]BEAT SABER /b (on Oculus Rift)
#3

Oh hell, a decade is a very long time!
Almost impossible to make an exhaustive list of the best.

Strategy:
Crusader Kings 2

RPG:
Witcher 3

Rogue lite:
FTL

Puzzler:
Antichamber / The Witness / The Talos Principle; hard to pick between them, as they’re as different as they are similar.

Exploration/Mystery:
Outer Wilds

ARPG:
PoE

Honourable mentions:
Fez
Magicka
Doom (2016)
Human Resource Machine

Highly rated games of the decade that I really should’ve found the time to play:

Grand Theft Auto V
The Last Of Us
Hearts of Iron IV

Closing thought:
The entire Battle Royale sub-genre is a product of this decade!

#4

Ever since I discovered TF2 about 5 years ago, I find any non-multiplayer game pretty boring and predictable. I sometimes wonder if it’s a symptom of being a games developer, that you know what goes on behind the scenes.

I think Overwatch is the only game I’ve played for more than 15 minutes in the last 5 years, excepting some Switch party games and the odd couch-coop.

#5

I was positively surprised with Metro Exodus. It’s graphics and mechanics are very detailed and it still barely runs on my now 12yo Core 2 Quad CPU, didn’t even crash or bug out once throughout the entire campaign.

Most other games i really enjoyed were pre-2010 Releases: Half-Life 2 and all its mods, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., C&C Generals, Portal, Left 4 Dead 2…