I've been playing video games for as long as I can remember, having started with the PlayStation 1 over twenty years ago. It was originally my sister's, but I was the one who became really enamoured with the console, as well as the small number of random assorted games and demos we owned for it. In the time since, I've only grown more attached to the platforms I play on and their respective games. I think every big video game enthusiast tries to list their top ten favourite games of all time at one point or another, as borderline impossible a task as that can seem. It's surprisingly hard to rank the best games you've ever played, especially when there have been so many great ones over the years. I think I've finally nailed it down, though. At least for the time being.
Honourable Mention-The Simpsons Hit And Run
I first started putting this list together in the middle of 2022, and at that time The Simpsons Hit And Run sat firmly at number ten. As it happens, it has since been dethroned and replaced, but I thought it deserved an honourable mention nonetheless. Essentially a satirrical, comedic clone of the Grand Theft Auto games, Hit And Run was a surprisingly enjoyable game with its own twist on the open world crime formula. With several different maps full of their own minigames, multiple playable characters from The Simpsons cartoon, and an obscene amount of different unique vehicles to use, this game was better than anyone expected it to be, and it remains one of my favourite games that I've ever played.
10/10-Cyberpunk 2077
In July/August of last year, I found myself curious about Cyberpunk 2077 and I had an urge to play it, but was prevented from doing so due to a lack of money and reservations about the game's condition lingering from its disastrous launch in 2020. After discussing it with a friend of mine, he maintained it was an incredible game after having played it himself earlier last year, and he bought it for me. It's safe to say I was pleasantly surprised by how great of a game it was. Is it still mired in issues? It sure is. But the writing and the story are top notch, putting droves of other modern triple-A games these days to shame. There's such a unique narrative following the protagonist, V, and the rocker boy freedom fighter known as Johnny Silverhand, whose consciousness is stuck inside V's head. Every side quest, too, is its own fully fleshed out storyline. None of them feel half-baked or forced, which is unbelievably refreshing when many other games pump themselves full of fetch quests and rehashes of previous missions. To top it off, I've always been a huge fan of science fiction, and the world of Cyberpunk is absolutely dripping with the kind of atmosphere reminiscent of Blade Runner and Star Wars. I had a wonderful time with Cyberpunk 2077, and I look forward to the DLC later this year.
9/10-Elden Ring
FromSoftware make some really brilliant games, many of which I hold in quite high regard. Bloodborne is the big one for me, and had been my favourite of their games up until February of last year. Everything changed when Elden Ring released. A collaboration between Hidetaka Miyazaki(the game director for most of FromSoftware's previous titles) and George R. R. Martin(author of the A Song Of Ice And Fire series of books), Elden Ring combines the formula and style of Dark Souls and Bloodborne with an open world environment and a rich, deep lore crafted by Martin. It's a true wonder of a game, the baby and magnum opus of two of the world's finest creative minds, and it left such an impression on me that it shot up into my top ten list almost immediately. The world, the story, the characters, I love them all. If I ever create something even a fifteenth as interesting as Elden Ring, I'll consider myself a success.
8/10-Medievil
Orginally a game for the PlayStation 1, Medievil was lucky enough to receive a full remake in the last few years that brought it in all its glory to modern systems. The nostalgia alone was enough to have me excited. That original game has always been a favourite of mine, with its own unique spin on gothic fantasy and a comedic yet creepy story about the ressurrected knight Daniel Fortesque chasing down his old nemesis, the wicked sorcerer Zarok. It might be a bit simplistic these days, but it was fantastic back in the day, and the gameplay and plethora of inventive weapons the player can use elevate it even further. I have Medievil to thank for essentially getting me into games properly, and it's always going to be near and dear to me.
7/10-Red Dead Redemption 2
The long-rumoured sequel to the hit western Red Dead Redemption finally graced the industry with its presence in 2018, with graphics and a massive open world that pushed the limits of the platforms it was on. It looked and played like a next generation title in almost every way, and it still holds up to this day. I love Red Dead Redemption 2. It was such a special experience, a game that I loved for all the obvious reasons while also being content to play for hours on end just doing nothing. Often, I would play it and just ride around the world on my horse taking in the scenery, or exploring the wondrous corners of the map. It's a game that suits all moods, with a story-rich world full of violence or tragedy, and a serene and peaceful land that begs you to explore it. There's so much to it, and not just in its main plot. I could talk for hours about how incredible it is, how its characters and how they are written are unrivalled, but I think that much is probably obvious already. If you haven't played it yet, I highly recommend it. It's not just one of the best video games ever made, it is without a doubt one of the finest pieces of media ever created. I'll stand by that statement until the day I die.
6/10-Doki Doki Literature Club!
I still remember the moment I realised Doki Doki Literature Club! was much more than a simple dating simulator, full of a hidden string of horrible moments and terrifying jumpscares. A true psychological horror, DDLC! follows the main character as they join their school's literature club, with the opening few hours playing out fairly normally and uneventfully save for the surprisingly poignant moment when his best friend, Sayori, opens up about her depression. The real surprise comes later, when the club's president, Monika, reveals that she has become self-aware and knows she exists within a video game, completely demolishing the fourth wall. She is in love with you, the player, and has been manipulating the events of the game up to this point in order to get closer to you and keep you from bonding with the other girls. It's a genuinely scary game with some great horror elements reminiscent of games like Pony Island and even Undertale, but there are some really lovely touching moments throughout, as well. These characters all have their own insecurities and personal issues that they deal with every day, and it is up to the player to take an interest in them. I've written before about how DDLC! means a lot to me, and I greatly appreciate it for both its unique style of horror and its emotional depiction of mental health. It was a one-of-a-kind experience.
5/10-The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
My first foray into The Elder Scrolls was with Oblivion all the way back in the late 2000s, and it was a defining moment in my relationship with video games. Oblivion wasn't just my first Elder Scrolls game, but it was one of the first open world RPGs I had ever played. As you can imagine, my mind was blown as I took in the entirety of what games could really be. I was fascinated by the idea that I could go anywhere I wanted right from the beginning, with a huge emphasis on exploration and discovery. It was an adventure and a half to set out into the wilds of Cyrodiil for parts unknown, to crawl through dungeons and caves, and visit the various cities dotted around the map. Oblivion shaped a lot of what I like in games these days, and I have it to thank for stoking my passion for high fantasy settings. The entire Elder Scrolls series is marvellous and full of a staggering amount of in-depth lore to pore over, but it is Oblivion that introduced me to that world and I firmly believe it perfected depicting a wondrous, fantastical land filled with magic and frightening creatures more than most other games.
4/10-Dragon Age: Origins
Along with Oblivion, Dragon Age: Origins was the second game that really defined my tastes in video games. Where The Elder Scrolls were unmatched in their ability to provide a wide open world to explore and a more in-depth character creation than had really been seen before, Dragon Age was the other side of the coin completely. The characters were all incredibly complex and developed, with an emphasis on the protagonist's relationship with their travelling companions and an approval system for each of them based on how much they agree or disagree with the player's choices and chosen dialogue options. The world might not have been completely open, but it could still be freely explored to an extent, allowing an element of player freedom that would take off in the years to follow. BioWare have always been immensely skilled when it comes to writing great characters and even greater stories, with the Mass Effect series encapsulating this the best. Dragon Age: Origins, however, was the first BioWare game I ever played, and it still stands tall today as one of the best games ever made.
3/10-The Walking Dead: Season One
Telltale Games really made a name for themselves in the 2010s with a huge roster of different point and click games, but it is the first season of The Walking Dead that I remember most fondly. Set in the same universe as the comic series by Robert Kirkman, the episodic game follows Lee Everett after he is caught in a car crash while on the way to prison. He winds up meeting a young girl by the name of Clementine, whose parents have likely been killed while away from home, and Lee decides to take care of her for the duration of the game. Each episode brings with it new hardships and new opportunities to either develop or worsen Lee's relationships with other survivors he is travelling with. The story culminates in a heartbreaking, tragic final episode, where Lee has been bitten by a zombie and is succumbing to the effects of the virus. He will die, it is just a matter of how it happens. At the very end, Clementine and Lee are locked inside while hordes of zombies try to make their way in from the streets. It is up to the player whether they ask Clementine to shoot Lee or not to prevent him from becoming a zombie himself, but the result on the player is the same either way; soul-crushing sadness. Lee comes to see Clementine like a daughter, and yet he knows he will soon die and leave her alone again. Clementine, in turn, sees something of a father figure in Lee and she cares immensely for him, making the finale even more tragic. It's a story that none of the following seasons have been able to live up to since, and it breaks me every time I replay it.
2/10-Fallout: New Vegas
People who know me would be very surprised to learn that Fallout: New Vegas isn't number one on this list, considering how much I talk about it. It was a very close one, in the end. New Vegas is probably the game I have played the most in my life. I frequently return to it to replay it from start to finish, and I've probably sunk well over a thousand hours into it since first experiencing it all those years ago. There are so many reasons why New Vegas is one of my favourite games of all time, too many to even narrow it down, but one of the main reasons would be Obsidian's writing and how they make games. They have a very unique sense of humour that really flourishes in the setting of a Fallout game, and they also excel at presenting moral grey areas to players. The Outer Worlds does this very well, too. I think Fallout is where Obsidian's true calling lies. They clearly care a lot about this universe, and they're damn good at telling stories within it. Where Bethesda set their Fallout games on the east coast of the United States, Obsidian are more interested in exploring the west and how various civilisations and tribes have developed around Arizona, Nevada, and California. I find the west coast much more interesting to explore, and the characters and organisations in New Vegas are second to none. I pray for the day when Obsidian gets to make another Fallout game, because they really knocked it out of the park with New Vegas. If you want to hear me really get into the nitty gritty details of Fallout: New Vegas and why I love it so much, click here.
1/10-Mass Effect 2
For years, the decision around which game would take the number one spot on my top ten list of favourite games ever made was an impossible one, and only recently did I commit to Mass Effect 2. The second of a trilogy of epic space operas, Mass Effect 2 is an untraditional sequel in almost every way and it does a lot of things differently than one might expect, which would usually be cause for scrutiny or criticism. Astonishingly, however, it manages to pull off these changes effortlessly, and Mass Effect 2 is frequently hailed as being the best of the three main games, an opinion that I agree with(you can read my full thoughts on that here). The first game is incredible, and it introduces the world of Mass Effect and a large chunk of its characters with style and intrigue. I also personally believe it has the best, most well-rounded and interesting story of all three games, with a compelling cosmic mystery to unwravel and a charismatic and enthralling villain that has never been topped in the subsequent games. But Mass Effect 2 gave us something really special by opening up the universe to us and showing us a side to the Milky Way that we had never seen before. Its cast of colourful companions, too, are all wildly different from one another, possessing their own intricate backstories and reasons for joining Shepard on their quest to take down the terrible Collectors that have been abducting humans across the galaxy. A large chunk of the game involves either recruiting companions for the inevitable suicide mission at the game's conclusion or carrying out "loyalty missions" for them in order to gain their trust and ensure higher chances of survival during the finale, an unorthodox approach to a game's structure but one that really pays off and allows players to get to know all of these characters more intimately.
I mentioned earlier that I've always been a big science fiction fan, and Mass Effect 2 left a lasting impression on me during my early teens by handing me an entire galaxy full of alien races and diverse civlisations to explore at my volition. I also mentioned that I've always loved BioWare games, and that they offer a unique emphasis on the NPCs of a video game world and fleshing them out so that they feel like real characters with their own personalities. Mass Effect is my comfort series of games. I play them when I'm sick, when I feel down, when I just miss the world and characters. No video game series in history has had such a deep, lasting impression on me. And I would count myself incredibly lucky if one ever did again. With a new Mass Effect game on the horizon, I look forward to seeing where BioWare take us next, but I'm just happy I had the chance to play the original trilogy's remaster in 2021(and replay it several times since then), and I highly doubt any game will ever dethrone Mass Effect 2 as my favourite of all time. It really is very special to me, as are all of the entries on this list. I've had one hell of a time playing games throughout my life, and I can only hope I have half as much fun in the future. Let's see what the next few years hold for us.
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