Games of the Decade

photo credit: Fallout 3

2nd Dec 2009

It’s the end of the year, and I don’t want this to be the only blog in the world without some form of Top 10 List, so here’s my top 10 Games OF THE DECADE. There’s a huge amount of titles to fit into a very long time, so you’re not going to agree with this, but feel free to add your own ideas at the bottom. In no particular order:

Fallout 3

From the moment I witnessed my characters birth firsthand I knew this was going to be an incredible piece of work, and it didn’t let me down. With over 200 different possible endings, the game is an epic milestone of what can be achieved.

Championship Manager

Anyone who’s lied to their partners about being busy, so they can stay in all night and play CM will understand why this is in the list. The game never stopped, I’d go to bed acting out press conferences in my head, and watch actual football while taking notes on prospects. A truly immersive experience.

Grand Theft Auto (Series)

GTA is a huge guilty pleasure, but, eventually when you tire of running over pedestrians and machine gunning tramps down there’s always been a story underneath the violence and controversy. Each game in the series stitches together an identifiable patchwork of cultural pastiches from Spike Lee to Scorese, making this series one of the most important releases of all time.

Half Life (Orange Box)

Half-Life changed everything for game narrative, it put storytelling at the heart of a game for the first time, and Half-Life II has one of the greatest opening sequences of all time. The Orange Box also contained Portal which is regularly cited as the smartest puzzle game ever devised. “The cake is a lie”.

Elite

The oldest game in the list is one of the most important. The seminal space trading game Elite is recognised as the first game to disband the linear storyline traditionally associated with games and open up a sandbox for players to explore and create their own narrative. With an unforgiving difficulty curve it was a teenage lifetime of work to reach ‘Elite’ status.

Left For Dead

With everyone pushing boundaries hard on graphics and story Valve blew all our heads off with an massive innovation in A.I. Every game of L4D is overseen by the A.I. Director who directs the game depending on how players are reacting. This creates nail-biting suspense levels and an immersive, movie-like experience that when played with three other people online is unforgettable.

Uncharted 2

Finally, it’s happened. A game with a blockbuster story line to match up to it’s visuals, a game that’s as well acted as it is paced. For heart-stopping set-pieces alone Uncharted 2 will keep you interested, it never runs out of ideas and you’ll want to ride it out to the final credits.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (series)

COD is a phenomenon, there’s not much I can say about this, you’ve either played it online for 1000 hours, or you haven’t. It’s the pinnacle of online FPS shooters.

FIFA 10

FIFA 10 is a result of a team of people being out together at EA that are all the very best in their field. Although it took a few versions to fully hone the experience, the final product is a game made by people that understand football, for people that love football. Everything anyone ever wanted from a football game is right here.

Mass Effect

A huge step forward in video games that bought with it a new-age of interactive storytelling and was the first game to tastefully tackle the idea of sex in games, (but it was still hilarious to actually, you know, do it.) The controversy this game bought with it left some people with egg of their faces as the intellectual involvement of the game hugely overshadowed its less savoury moments.

There’s some honourable mentions of games that didn’t quite make the list: Super Mario (Series), Bioshock, Kick Off, Final Fantasy (Series), Battlefield (Series), Sensible Soccer, Syndicate. Rock Band, Metal Gear (Series) and Zelda. I’m sure you’ve got your own ideas, bring them on…

Published by
Ben Brown, Creative Director
ben@creationagency.com, 07764 898010
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Comments

I'm not a massive gamer but I've got to admit since playing the original COD Modern Warfare I've bought every COD since and they're literally the ONLY discs you'll ever find in my XBox I'm also really surprised to see Wii Sports not on the list...

By Elliott Cole on 02/12/2009
Benjamin Brown. You have leapt from a BBC Micro to Consoles in one big jump. What about the long list of great PC classic's, like Doom, Unreal, Sim City, Diablo, Populus, Starcraft and the all time classic Pirates? I agree that Elite should be there, as a few on your list, but will we really look back on Left for Dead as a ground breaking all-time classic. What about Horrace goes skiing?

By Jason Burrows on 02/12/2009