10 Best Video Games for All Time

Top 10 Best Video Games for All Time

When it comes to music or movies or television, there is a tendency to lionize the good old days. The classics. To remember older works of art with a preference for or even pink glasses.

Video gaming, as an art form that is closely linked to the latest technology, is something else. We often forget the games that preceded it or replace them with something shiny and new.

Nevertheless, you would be crazy to say that the last decade - 2010 to 2019 - is not one of the best in the field of high-quality video games. The 2010s have made some of the best video games ever. Try to imagine the game landscape without a few games on this list. It is almost impossible.

10. Fortnite (2017)

Love it or hate it, you can't deny the impact of Fortnite on popular culture.

Fortnite has become a little more than a video game. It is a talking point on the playground, a place for teenagers to hang out after school. A place for old people to remind themselves of the hard test of time.

9. The Witcher 3 (2015)

The Witcher 3 remains one of the best worlds ever devoted to the video game medium and, unlike most open-world RPGs, it is definitely devoted to the meaningful side quest. Nothing in this game feels strange, but it is also incredibly huge in size. You want to make your time favourite with this.

8. Mass Effect 2 (2010)

Undoubtedly the best Mass Effect game, partly because it tells the most compelling, self-contained story in the series. They are essentially the Dirty Boxes in space. A collection of ragtag aliens on a suicide mission to save the universe. Mass Effect 2 is full of interesting characters and great dialogue, and that is all made possible by a brilliant global construction.

7. Bloodborne (2015)

Bloodborne was the game that proved that Dark Souls was not a fluke. The game where it appeared that developer From Software could do the same magic trick twice.

Able to create worlds that are as dense as those in Dark Souls, with battles that felt otherwise just as rewarding. Able to create a different kind of weirdness, a different kind of atmosphere that was just as compelling as the one in Dark Souls.

Many have argued that Bloodborne is better than Dark Souls. I am perfectly prepared to hear that argument. It is near. It is very close.

6. Skyrim (2011)

Can you believe that in 2011 Skyrim and Dark Souls were released within two months of each other? Insane.

Dark Souls was narrower in design but deep as an ocean. Skyrim perhaps lacked the complicated battle of Dark Souls, and the tradition ingrained in every stone, but it made up for it with enormous scale. It is perhaps Bethesda's greatest achievement ever, and that says something.

Dragons too. And mods. And Macho Man Dragons because of mods.

5. Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Rockstar has never created a world like this before or since. A world that you want to explore and in which you want to live. A legitimate masterpiece. Red Dead Redemption is a game that excels at quiet moments. A game that somehow made foraging for herbs a fun, meaningful experience.

It succeeds because of its attention to detail. More than any other game in this list, Red Dead Redemption created a universe that felt like a real place.

4. Portal 2 (2011)

One of those truly perfect video games in every facet of its existence, Portal 2 is a puzzle game, and also a genius. It is a story and a story that is well told with great dialogue - incredibly rare in video game land.

It is also a game that is never welcome. A game that is worth repeating. A game that you tell your friends about. An accessible game that anyone can play, but somehow never patronizes the most experienced players. Pure magic.

3. Minecraft (2011)

Minecraft is Lego for a whole new generation of children. Its cultural impact is so great; so important. Lego has brought up a generation of makers and engineers; what will Minecraft help to influence?

The impact that Minecraft will have on the millions of children, teenagers and adults who are still playing is almost impossible to measure.

And Minecraft will continue to exist. Believe that. I have a 6-year-old who has just started playing. All his friends play too.

The earth changes into dust, humanity ceases to exist. But the cockroaches that survive the apocalypse play Minecraft on all gaming devices that still work.

2. Dark Souls (2011)

For years we have talked about Dark Souls about the difficulty level, the way players are (reasonably) punished for their mistakes.

Only the marketing material, with the slogan 'prepare to die', appeals to the game as a 'challenge'.

But that is not what makes Dark Souls special.

What makes Dark Souls special is everything. The world itself, dripping with knowledge and atmosphere.

A spinning, interconnected mess of weird history that is unaware of the player's existence.

The fight, which feels heavy and intentional, forcing you to make strategic decisions in real-time.

Forcing you to learn from your mistakes. In Dark Souls you always learn, and every death is a lesson.

Most games exist to serve the player, Dark Souls exists to teach you how to live in his twisted world. Spending time can be frustrating, but it never feels like wasted time.

1. Breath of the Wild (2017)

The open-world game is a bit of a bloated mess as a genre.

They have been building on each other for decades, borrowing each other's ideas and contributing to those ideas.

Remove some ideas and place them in different places. Just like a frightening game with high stakes or Jenga, they openly wonder if it all collapses underweight.

Endless quest lists vast worlds for the sake, levelling, crafting. In some ways, the open-world genre is a homogeneous mess that sucks up the joy of adventure.

We have become used to how these games should play, how they should feel. The end result: gaming feels like a big job that you have become all too familiar with.

The magic of Breath of the Wild is that it doesn't play by those rules.

Breath of the Wild feels like an open-world game from a parallel universe. It is isolated from that waving Jenga tower of old ideas. Instead, it is withdrawn. A game that wonders: "What evokes a sense of adventure?" And strives for that at all costs.

In some ways, Breath of the Wild is thin, but it is all the better. The internal rules are logical. It is an open world in the purest sense of the word. It rewards exploration and experimentation. It rewards esoteric problem-solving. It makes other games uninspired.

Breath of the Wild is a place where you want to visit, discover and live. A game that seems separate and different from the games you have played in the last 20 years. It is the best game of the decade.

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