Maybe.

In joint 13th place:

34 Hotline Miami



What you said:

AndCallMeCharlie: “For all it's wonderful packaging (the music, the art design, the lsd soaked story) it's the twitchy, tight gameplay which abides in the memory.  As deliciously ultraviolet as it is compulsive and exhilarating.”

regmcfly: “Do you get it? Kill, repeat! Hotline Miami is a neon bathed dreamscape, a melange of Miami Vice and Drive, and features likely the best soundtrack ever put to game. The 16-bit aesthetic belies the absolute gruesomeness of the actions you engage in, and the metaquest involving Russian conspiracy theories has you questioning what is real and what is not. Messy, glamourous, gutsy and precise. What a game.”

Moot_Geeza: “Ferocious top-down murder 'em up that strikes a masterful balance between power and vulnerability.  Formulate your own plan of action to clear each floor, always acutely aware that the tables might turn in a heartbeat, at which point the hunter becomes the prey.  Skin of the teeth gaming at its absolute best; the perpetual peril is astonishing and the stages are mostly designed in a way that allows player strategies to be adjusted as required.  It's a wonderfully satisfying experience with a mesmerising one-hit-kill foundation.  Having possibly the best soundtrack of the decade certainly doesn't hurt either.  [10]”

stormyskiesahead: “Y'all know.”

34 Slay the Spire



What you said:

AndCallMeCharlie: “Rogue-likes are one of the biggest developments in single gaming over the last 10 years and no game nails the genre better than Slay the spire.  While some games give an illusion of ‘every run being different’, the fun of Slay the Spire is not in the challenge altering but in the unique synergies you can concoct each and every time.”

Tempy: “Card games and Roguelikes are no stranger to each other, nor are they genres that would ever be called shallow. Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac, Magic the Gathering and Netrunner are all proof that there is endless depth in decks and item builds, so what better way to create a celebration of both than by fusing them together into a brilliant leviathan of inventivity.

After a year in early access Slay the Spire released with a surfeit of content (Three characters, daily climbs, 20 difficulty modes, unlockable cards and relics) and then they went and added a fourth character for free who changed everything again.

It would be easy for them to overegg such a delicious pudding, but Slay the Spire works effortlessly by keeping things concise and simple. Information is clear and readable, combinations always work as expected, and the difficulty comes from your ability to learn and adapt rather than twitch reflexes or arbitrary difficulty spikes. 

It’s rare that a roguelike or a card based game offers you such a complete toolkit for finishing it from the word go, and it’s even rarer that the challenge of these games is entirely based around learning and growth. I wrote about it with Jon for Kotaku, but I think most of the brilliance of the game can be summed up by the interview I did with a streamer who now plays Slay the Spire as a full time job. It’s an intricate jewel of a game, and every facet is intelligently polished to its limits.”

In 11th place:

38 The Last Guardian



What you said:

hylian_elf: “And even more feels. I’m one of the lucky ones who managed to download a digital copy that didn’t have any bugs or control issues. Trico is the greatest character created in any game. A friend, a companion, a saviour, so full of life. Going through the game with this creature, you build a bond and by the end, you’re emotionally attached and committed to it. One of the greatest achievements in games. Great world building as only Ueda and his team can do.”

monkey: “The gameplay isn't up to much but the story and the setting, the way it tells it's tale, the twists and turns. All wonderful. Even something as basic as pressing right to shuffle along a ledge is elevated to be a terrifying tightrope walk as baddies turn up right when you don't need them to, the game constantly flinging you into new situations, as you and catdogbird constantly save each other, all balanced on a precipice at the top of the world, scraping heaven. An incredible experience. Such economy on the story telling as well.”

I hope things improve. (The results, not JonB’s presentation of them, which is top notch.)

Nier Automata and Persona 4 Golden so low down the list, this forum is shit

In joint 8th place:

54 Hollow Knight



What you said:

hylian_elf: “Finally, Super Metroid has a challenger (but not quite there). It only took 25 years to so. Oodles of atmosphere, an intriguing set of weird and wonderful characters, plenty of dark lore. But it’s the sprawling map and how you slowly unravel the world with new abilities, the joy in wandering around, finding secrets, going back to previously inaccessible paths, the satisfying and precise controls and combat: a perfect mix, so polished, and all works so well together.”

monkey: “Better than I gave it credit for when I first played it. But I appreciate it more now, having digested it a bit. And I deal with a lot of cravings when I see it in my switch library, to go back in to that maze and find more stuff. I think I wanted to plough through a game that was more about careful and meticulous exploration. For my tastes, it's a bit too wedded to its environmental intricacy, narrow meandering channels, and meagre upgrade paths. But when it comes alive, there's little better.”

54 The Witcher 3



What you said:

AndCallMeCharlie: “The open world RPG for people who don't like open world RPGs.  Full of charterer and intrigue, it's a masterclass in providing lots of content without overwhelming the player.  Oh and it has the best quests ever as well.”

hunk: “Another fantastic example of world building, the level of immersion is truly breathtaking. The game takes in game storytelling to new heights. Don't stick to the main narrative, the side quests are equally as entertaining and help flesh the characters out. The DLC is ridiculously expansive. Highly recommended.”

Frosty: “Took me 114hrs over the course of about a year and a half to get through the Witcher 3 which is far too long. But it’s such an incredible game that it managed to be my game of the year two years running because of that. It managed to pack in so much content into this really beautiful and grubby world that was just fun to roam on your horse. A lot has been said about the Bloody Baron questline which is this rollercoaster of a quest that takes you through all sorts of shades of grey and twists your expectations about who the baron is. There’s not really been storytelling like that in games before and while it doesn’t hit those heights again the main game the DLC campaigns manage to hit it with their smaller scope and tell really incredible stories.”

Hotline Miami done the dirty

In joint 5th place (two games appropriately bonded in blood):

61 Bloodborne



What you said:

hylian_elf: “My favourite of the (recent) From games, due mainly to the faster and more polished battle mechanics and a dark non-fantasy setting, and fewer weapons and items and bloat than the Souls games. Some of the best bosses and fights around, and a real challenge, and that together with the lore and atmosphere makes this an utterly unforgettable game.”

Tempy: “As one of the many barricaded residents of Yharnam utter when you poke your nose into their window, “This town’s finished”. Which is to say, its current form - all steeples and spires grasping skyward - is done with, and you are experiencing an environment of the cusp of change gestating in blood and dreams. What horrors await you through the quickening of the night?

Bloodborne is FromSoft’s departure from the mournful gothic castles of Dark Souls and into the blood steeped horror of the Victorian era. Gone is the taciturn combat, and in comes trick weaponry, dodges, vicious gunplay, and relentless harrier. Shields engender passivity, but whips and saws eviscerate me. From added more gas to the tank for Sekiro, but the change from Souls left many wrongfooted, but when you get your head around it the demands of the rally system (regain a portion of lost health by hitting your foe) mean you need to succumb to the blood frenzy to stay alive.

Its story is the best of the bunch, steeped in both body horror and cosmic horror. Its endings are plural and ambiguous, but as with all of Miyazaki’s games you spend your time picking over items and tableaus meant to create the image of a world that is going through something. Unlike Souls, you are front and centre to a happening, one that you get to see occur over your time in there.

As you shift from dream to reality and back again, you’re never sure what your place is, but there’s rarely time to think whilst you’re in the thick of it - Bloodborne tells you to hunt, and hunt you must or else you’ll end up dead;at least for a while, as you’re cursed to come back and suffer it all again until you put an end to the mysteries of the Old Blood.”

61 The Last of Us



What you said:

trippy: I'm replaying The Last of Us at the moment and it is still brilliant. Many games claim to channel The Road, but this is the only one that comes close. There's so much light and beauty in the world and the soundtrack. And so much darkness, too.


The violence always shocks, though it also thrills. On harder difficulties it hangs together perfectly, battles are protracted and tense, different every time. But there's always space between for the characters and story to develop.

A lot is made of the writing, and for big budget games it's truly a high water mark. But it is the setting that makes it work, there's no dissonance here, it's a brutal world with some remnants of beauty. The sequel has a tough act to follow.

Diluted Dante: “A game long escort mission, you have to take a teenage girl across a post-apocalyptic wasteland, protecting her from other people and fungus monsters. The world is gorgeous, especially when outside of a city, and the music is brilliant. Just travelling through it was a joy. The voice acting for Joel and Ellie is top notch, making you really care about the characters. The moment of the game for me was the giraffes. It's basically like that bit in Jurassic Park, but with giraffes instead of a brachiosaurus. It wrapped up nicely, and I was unsure about a sequel, but the closer it gets, the more excited I am. Just getting to spend more time with these characters sounds like a wonderful idea.”

I guess everyone can guess what 4 games are left. But what's the order, eh?

Mass Effect 2 better be 1.
Also rock band 2
Also Burnout Paradise
And?

And now the big final 3...

In 3rd place:

86 Mass Effect 2



What I said:

"What could be a bog standard Star Trek rip-off is elevated by some accomplished squad based cover shooter mechanics and some interesting plot lines and choices that affect major events. But Mass Effect 2 is always the favourite in the series for one reason especially – one of the finest narrative structures an epic adventure game you could hope for. It’s so straightforward: gather together a bunch of highly skilled misfits, earn their respect, then take them on a suicide mission to save the galaxy. It leads to one of the great finales in all of gaming, simply because it gives itself plenty of time to develop these fascinating characters, then puts you in a situation where poor decision making can lead to any of their deaths, even if you emerge victorious. They put their trust in you, can you repay it? Genius."



What you said:

monkey: “The king of action RPGs. Better shooting than any of the other cover shooters around at the time. Plus a layer of amazingly fun powers to dismantle enemies with. Plus a load of different builds you can use. Plus you can order your squad about and use their powers and combine them with yours. Amazing dialogue system in a well-told story. Characters you care about. An imaginative and fully-fleshed out sci-fi universe. Events that you can influence that have reverberations throughout the rest of the game. And it's essentially the Star Trek premise, here's a ship, go explore the galaxy and be a hero. Excellent in all departments.”

stormyskiesahead: “An epic and wondrous creation. BioWare really were master storytellers. RIP.”

See if it's fucking dark souls

In a non-twist ending that will surprise no one who's been paying attention to best of lists in recent years:

In 2nd place:

105 Dark Souls



What you said:

Djornson: “Greeted by a mysterious, opaque and cruel world you muddle your way through wondering if its for you. Then you climb the Undead Burg and come out the other side and then you're part of the world, you embrace it's darkness, you find it's story through cryptic item descriptions, while naked you breeze through bosses that killed you 50 times in a row on your last playthrough. That moment you first see Anor London.”

hunk: “Praise the Sun! Miyazaki's second attempt at fleshing out a creation myth and it is epic.
Fantastic world- and lore building without shoving it overtly in the players face. The rpg battle mechanics are just as solid giving the game an unexpected and unprecedented depth. The online mp is the icing on the cake.”

acemuzzy: “Demon's Souls (released in 2009, as PS3 exclusive) was somewhat of a sleeper hit - a cult following, grown by word of mouth, that never totally mushroomed in success.  Its successor, Dark Souls (now multi-platform), took that starting point, and refined its ingredients into a genre-creating masterpiece that's impact has been felt far and wide.

'Souls-like', an adjective disliked by many, has its roots here of course - though games with that tag rarely achieve its coiner's lofty heights. Bonfires, reclaiming lost souls after death by returning to the place of your last breath, MP-light with invasions, subtle unspoken narrative, relentless skill and determination required to get through - there have been two direct sequels, two mutant offspring (Bloorborne and Sekiro), and many copies both 3D (Lords of the Fallen, Remnant, even Fallen Order, ...) and 2D (Salt & Sanctuary, Hollow Knight, ...) - some great in their own right, but all with thanks to pay.

And beyond that is the artistry of the game itself - inter-woven paths, total discretion of how to proceed through it; obscene difficulty to some yet hitless speedruns to others; music and vistas; NPCs that remain with you in the real world. It may not be perfect (Bed of Chaos, I hear you), but then what truly is, and this is surely as most as any can reasonably expect to get. Not for all, perhaps, but to those who ‘git gud’ and see it through, it’s oh the journey, and one that's likely then trodden more than once.”

Frosty: “I hated Dark Souls when I first started it. That slow run through the Undead Burg to the Taurus Demon was a nightmare that I had to repeat over and over, each time getting more frustrated at the same repeated trash fights that would kill me as soon as I tried to rush through them. It wasn’t the best start but once it clicked, once the world started to open up and show me it’s many shortcuts and secrets, and once I’d rewired my brain away from the expectations that 20 years of third person action games had taught me, started to love it. It was all I could think about for weeks and is something I still think about today. No game world has had such a presence or felt like a real lived place since.”

Facewon: “I realise we're into an era of post-meta analysis of the meta analysis of the analysis of souls games, and that even outside of the refinements From themselves have made to their shtick there's probably an anti-soulslike classic on the way or already here in response, but none of that preamble distracts (at least me) from the brilliance of Dark Souls and how it rejuvenated my enjoyment of gaming in general, but also specifically long form single player gaming.

We could quibble over missteps here and there with bonfire placement before bosses or other such issues that skewed the punishment for death, but the general balance and ethos was 100% sound. And the mechanics around fighting so generally fair and learnable - in combination with opening up paths metriod style, and/or learning to dodge roll through well worn sections - that the repetition wasn't a chore. Certainly, not on first, or even second playthrough.


Story and lore was opaque AF, which meant no need to skip cutscenes, minimal need to follow a convoluted plot, just get to a tower in the first instance. And take it from there.

Like halo, it's tropes had varying degrees of success transposed into other games, but there was a good 2 year span where that game was a near constant joy for me, and others here, both in co-op and in info sharing.”

Oh it's the game

The winner and Game of the Decade for the B&B (and everywhere else):

151 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild



What you said:

hylian_elf: “Whilst at first I was disappointed with the lack of traditional dungeons and what seemed like a samey environment, I soon leaned to love the world and just wandering around and exploring. Losing myself in the world and just living it, taking my time to take every corner of the map in and absorbing my surroundings. It didn’t take that long to become my greatest game and I forgive it’s shortcomings. I could wander around forever. Obviously the actual gameplay is great too. The dungeons are decent, there are some fantastic well-designed and ingenious shrines, plenty of collectibles and secrets and side quests, good combat, and so much scope for improvising and experimenting with the inventory and play mechanics. It helps that it’s also and absolutely beautiful game in both sound and visuals. All this makes the overall package the best game ever.”

XOMuggins: “Easily the best Zelda game I've played, and probably the best work that Nintendo have ever done. Like Red Dead II, the world rewards the player at every turn in their exploration. My only gripe would be that the story isn't up to the standards of Wind Waker/Link to the Past, but that hardly matters when the rest of the game is so incredibly good.”