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I jumped on City of Heroes right before WoW launched and never really got that into the latter. I played through to the Burning Crusade post Cataclysm and while I found the content well done and fun in its own way, I'm just not a loot grinder so I never got into it like most people.

Game of the Decade is hard simply because the industry has changed so much over the last 10 years. The PS3/Xbox360 era closed with a good deal of strong titles in the first quarter, and the new generation has largely about taking all that good will and making dull, grindy slogs to get people to pay more to stay competitive. As I've said, I'm not a loot grinder (FFX burned it out of me) so a lot of the latter half of the decade passed me by.

That said, there's some absolute diamonds that have cracked through my jaded facade. Mostly though, its the indie space that's reigned for me the last 5-6 years or so. Shovel Knight, Celeste, The Messanger, Katana Zero, Iconoclast and others have gotten more time than everything on the PS4/XboxOne combined. That and the Switch with things like Zelda, Odyssey, Smash Bros and the like have defined more of the decade than its stellar opening years would suggest.

Game of the Decade is either Minecraft or Skyrim.

Both games were released in 2011 and both games are still widely played today. While there are plenty of games that one could describe as better, none of them have the longevity of those two.

Skyrim - A game I've bought several times and sunk a couple of hundred hours into.
Yakuza 0 - For me, the pinnacle of the incredible Yakuza series.
The Division - While it's not technically the best game by a long shot, I've never put more hours into a game than this. I played most of those hours with friends, and we had some great times.

I'm surprised so few people mentioned Minecraft. It revolutionized gaming and procedural generation.

 Melissia wrote:
I'm surprised so few people mentioned Minecraft. It revolutionized gaming and procedural generation.

Most of the forum tend to skew older. Minecraft was not on my radar at all and I've never played it myself, but the fact that an Indie game got that big before getting bought out) and is still played today in large numbers is not something one can ignore. If i'm trying to find out which game has had the most impact over the last decade it would be foolish to dismiss it because it's not my wheelhouse.

Seriously, There are plenty of games I personally would prefer, Mass Effect 2 comes to mind, but Skyrim and Minecraft are still going strong both in players and game culture (like seriously, Skyrims memes are still absolute fire 10 years out from the release.

Probably because a decade is a long period of time, esp in computer games. Notice how there's a distinct bias toward favouring games released in the latter part of the decade, which are "more" likely to be games people are playing right now or very recently.

Meanwhile games that we might have played like crazy in the early part, which then went on to influence the market for the latter part; are games that many of us have moved on from. So they "appear" less important. Even though yes Minecraft very much should be in the list - a new type of game that sparked a huge revolution. In addition didn't it sell for something like 2 Billion Dollars - that's a phenomenal sum of money for what was basically a hobby-level game at its creation.

It was also a game that breached into a lot of other cultural groups outside of pure gamers. Education make a fair bit of use of it that I recall.

Easily Skyrim.

I really, really, really enjoy W40K: Armageddon, too.

 Overread wrote:
It was also a game that breached into a lot of other cultural groups outside of pure gamers. Education make a fair bit of use of it that I recall.

I'd say it's more accurate to say that Minecraft created or initiated a new generation of gamers in to gaming.

I mean, I'm not really mentioning minecraft because I mostly play it around 2009, so it doesn't really count...

The initial indie game was in 2009. The actual game itself, after if was bought out, came out in 2011. That was the official release.

So I am technically correct....the best kind of correct.

My personal favorites were probably Skyrim, Witcher 3, Fallout 4.

I think Fortnite deserves an honorable mention even though I don't play it much. Just because my totally non gamer fiance plays that as her one and only game that exists in the world. The first hit is free, they say.

I'll just go with my own personal favorites among games I have played. While I can certainly acknowledge the influence that other games have had due to their own success/quality, if I haven't played them, they wouldn't be my Games of the Decade. So, in mostly alphabetical order as I just work my way through my Steam and GOG libraries:

1. Cities: Skylines. Shows just what you can do when you make a city sim and you actually care to make it good (glares at the last SimCity). Pity they've monetized it up the wazoo with piles of DLC, but even the base game is still full of awesome.
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Not much to say, really. It's Skyrim. But, to be fair, I have to give a lot of the credit to the modders who have kept the game interesting.
3. Fallout 4. I did really enjoy FO4, more than I enjoyed FO3. But, like Skyrim, lots of credit to the modders.
4. Fallout: New Vegas. Even better than FO4, better than Skyrim, and much of my enjoyment came even before I started using mods.
5. Mount & Blade: Warband. Yep, just squeeked it's way in with a March, 2010, release date. 768 hours so far, and will be adding a couple more tonight. Quite a lot of those hours were in the Prophecy of Pendor mod.
6. Stardew Valley. 402 hours, 'nuff said.
7. Subnautica. One of the few scary games (to me) that was good enough to keep playing.
8. This War of Mine. Amazingly good game. Haven't had a chance to play any of the DLC, yet. Bought the board game, but haven't played it yet.
9. Both of the XCom games.
10. The new Tomb Raider trilogy, collectively.

And last, but this one would definitely be my number one pick, no question: The Witcher 3.

Edit: forgot to add Minecraft. Yep, also a top game of the decade.

On the subject of Cities - which is great fun if a LOT more casual than many earlier city builders (it makes up for it with far more complex traffic management, though there's a couple of mods that really make traffic management far more fun such as being able to define which lane goes to where).
I would say that whilst the game has a lot of DLC now, its mostly adding good quality and quantity of content. Whilst you can argue that some of it might have been "core game content" the core game never felt missing. I've loved things like the Industries addon which not only added a lot of new and big buildings, but also production chains and gave a bit more life to the whole industry side beyond just zoning for it. Though I'd have liked if they could have made the production chains work a bit better - half the time you produce a product and your system sells it whilst other structures that actually wanted that product to develop into something more, are busy importing it.



Honestly whilst they get some flack for it and there are some lemons, I'd say that Paradox has a healthy attitude toward DLC. Yes they make a lot, but typically only for games that are really popular and the DLC they make is generally good quality and adds things people feel like buying. The only time it really feels bad is when you're buying into the game for the first time and yet many of hteir games have gone on sales and Humble Bundle for very small amounts and fairly regularly too.

Ohh boy that's a toughie..

I have slowed down on the games front in recent years but in no particular order these are the games which I think deserve a top 10 based on hours I played them:

1. Battlefield 4

2. Toral War - Shogun 2

3. Total war - Rome 2

4. Total War - Warhammer 2

5. Doom

6. Dark Souls 3

7. Humans fall flat

8. Fallout New vegas

9. Shadow of the colossus re-mastered

10. Final Fantasy 15

Compared to the rest of my life, I really haven't done that much gaming this decade. Especially in the last 5 years. Taking up Warhammer 40k as a hobby has gotten me doing things that don't involve staring at a screen for hours at a time. That said, I've played some pretty cool games over the last 10 years. Here are some of my faves (in no particular order):
-Warframe. IMO it's pretty underrated. I mean, it's Space Ninjas, what's not to like? People complain that it's too grindy and repetitive, but honestly that repetition is what makes you get good at the game, so I see it as a chance to improve.
-SMITE. Probably the only MOBA game I can stand at all. I love the whole thing with different gods from various ancient pantheons battling it out, and the gameplay manages to combine good 3rd person battling with classic MOBA concepts.
-StarCraft 2. I loved the original Starcraft, and I loved the new one. I need to get back and play it some more, as I never did finish all the campaign missions before I moved on to other stuff.
-Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. The only AC game I've spent much time playing, I just love the whole look and feel of this one. Plus, the sea shanties are awesome!
-Stardew Valley. A great little time-waster with a surprisingly deep story and characters. I just need to actually get through more of the game without starting over because I forgot what I was doing in the previous playthrough!
-Battlefield 4. Probably the best Battlefield game of all time. This is the one that made me say "Call of Duty can suck it!" as before this came out I was more of a Call of Duty fan.
-Civilization 5. I mention this because I haven't played 6 yet. I've loved Civ for a while, and while I've also played Civ: Beyond Earth, it's not as good as Civ 5.

Oddly I've never played a lot of the games that many praise so highly (such as Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption), but that's because I just haven't been gaming as much as I used to.

 ZergSmasher wrote:

-Battlefield 4. Probably the best Battlefield game of all time. This is the one that made me say "Call of Duty can suck it!" as before this came out I was more of a Call of Duty fan.

I know man! I was such a COD fanboy I used to get petty with some of my mates all the time .. Until I tried BF and my world changed forever LOL.
Still play it even now when I want to chill for an hour and just wreck some things. Jump in a tank and go hunt some fools or jumping out of a chopper to clear objectives

Skyrim, Bloodborne, and Doom 2016 come to mind. I also think the cod modern warfare (the newer one) is the best cod of the past 10 years despite a couple niggling issues. In terms of the amount of hours poured in i've played a tremendous amount of Blood Bowl 2 though.

 ZergSmasher wrote:

-Warframe. IMO it's pretty underrated. I mean, it's Space Ninjas, what's not to like? People complain that it's too grindy and repetitive, but honestly that repetition is what makes you get good at the game, so I see it as a chance to improve.

Warframe had a really rocky launch its never been totally able to shake the stigma from.

Hard to peg down an exact order, so in no particular order...

-Civ V and Civ VI: Civ V was amazing, and only got better with several big mods that the awesome community made for it. Hundreds of hours spent in that game. In normal Civ fashion, 6 came out and was initially worse than its predecessor, but after two expansions, it is distinctly better, and again, improved on by many awesome modders.

-Just about everything from Paradox Studios: Stellaris, EUIV, and HOI4 have collectively eaten up 1500hrs of my time, with likely hundreds not accounted for from being offline while playing. Stellaris is the most fun I've had in a space strategy game maybe ever, EUIV is just wonderful for a historic grand strategy game, and HOI4 I mostly play for a select few mods which are amazing. The base game is good, but the mods are like free expansions, and in some respects, improve on the base game significantly.

-Borderlands 2: I'm not much of a shooter guy, but something about the Borderlands franchise just clicks for me. I've spent many a night gaming with friends going through the game over and over again and its just as enjoyable on the 13th time through as it was on the 1st. Its almost genre defining in its execution. Waiting to play 3 when it releases on Steam.

-Forza 7 and Horizon 4: Forza MS7 is not the best in its lineup, but it is the first full Forza MS game on PC I could enjoy since Forza 3 when I last had a console. Struck a good balance between hardcore simulation and arcade that made it accessible and easy to hop on, drive for a few laps, and hop off. Horizon is just the arcade version and scores a lot of points for an excellent map and one good expansion.

Definitely God of War 2018. Excellent gameplay and story, and as a father it got me right in the feels.

Yo! So, I spent most of this decade poor and stuff, and honestly probably got more mileage out of my rinky-dink PS2 than anything else, so most of these "current" games are ones I played once I upgraded my laptop, about halfway into the decade.

Here goes!

Honorable Mention: Despite its (let's be real, well-earned) reputation as a kiddie game, Minecraft, particularly early Minecraft, was great fun. I was pretty new to computer gaming when it first started to gain traction, and it was truly mind-bending, with all it's odd secrets and quirks, how it seemed to seemlessly merge first person combat with building and exploring, and ultimately, in places, was genuinely quite punishing.

Next up, in no particular order:

Darkest Dungeon - Played this on and off in Korea, when I was bored and my internet kept going out. Brilliant aesthetic, very warhammer and grimdark, maddeningly punishing, and yet all of the characters have their own, unique, procedurally-generated charms. Many a game can make a man rage quit. Few can make him go "Ah, well, just one more" and boot the thing back up again immediately afterwards. Makes me spit with rage 8.5/10 gud game.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Nothing SUPER amazing here, but a fun, RPG-esque story-driven single-player shooter. Gratifying, challenging and pretty. 7.5/10

Metal Gear: Rising Revengance - Not the best Metal Gear. Probably not even the best Metal Gear of this decade. But god DAMN. This is a fantastically fun game. Kojima silliness turned up to 11, there's heavy metal, the president of the united states in a mech (Kojima actually predicted a real presidential slogan wtf), legions of soulless robots (who turn out to be innocent children!) Katanas out the wazoo and everyone is a cyborg. Think I got carpal tunnel playing this on a trackpad and I do NOT REGRET ANYTHING. Out goes the stealth of the pedigree of Metal Gear, in with a joyful expression of some of the more flamboyant stylings of the Kojima universe and it's a real treat. If I had a chance to play any other Metal Gear titles out this decade, I would 100% have taken them, but for now, this 2011 gem is my favorite, and well worth your time. 9/10 RULES OF NATUREEEEEEEEE

Metro 2033 - Another great singleplayer shooter. This game is scratches so many itches for me, and I loved every second of it (until the end battle of Last Light, where the game just crashed a lot because my Laptop's not that good). In most stealth games, I'm a blundering idiot. Rather than strategically sneaking about, concealing bodies and operating with silent patience and impeccable timing, I'm more of a Will Ferrell's Elf-style operator, with guns going off everywhere, and sometimes leaving my silencer back at my apartment this morning, sorry guys.
But Metro? Metro is terrifying, bleak, and unforgiving. Metro takes a player, looking for a shooter, and instead forces them to sneak around in rubble and filth hoping desperately to find just one more bullet. It brutalizes them with waves of thrashing mutants, skulking fascists, and bizarre mental terrors in toxic enviroments, asphyxiating in your gasmask as you flee through enemy gunfire in panicked searches for air filters. Metro is really gritty, and makes you choose between the confidence of being able to put more bullets into your foes, or being able to buy resources and filters at the next settlement you encounter. A truly enthralling setting, and a white-knuckles ride of a thriller-horror-shooter. 9/10

Rimworld - Top-down colony strategy survival. I've clocked up nearly 200 hours on this game, and I've only been able to get the colonists offworld once. All the others were eaten alive, burned to a cinder, shot to bits by bandits, annihilated by ancient space monsters, starved to death, poisoned by fallout, consumed by various diseases, driven insane, or else massacred by their insane comrades, exhiled, or abandoned on the side of a road and left for dead, sold to slavers, or else kidnapped in the night. Another tricky one, and great fun, especially for lovers of cast-away and sci-fi narratives. A game that rather than hold you hand, gives you very little, and then kills everyone in your colony with manhunting yorkshire terriers. Fantastic game. 10/10

Total War Warhammer - my computer can't really handle this game, but I love to make it try, anyway. Bursting with character, bristling with detail, and the charm of the old world. Made me wish I hadn't gotten on the bandwagon at the middle of the End Times. 9/10

The Witcher 2 - This is a wonderful story-driven RPG. I've seen a lot of people go for the 3rd installment, which I haven't played, but for what it's worth, 2 is also, a fantastic, fantastic game. Marvelously pretty, brimming with intrigue and with huge replayability, the Witcher 2 was a delight from start to finish, with stellar characters and design, landing very satisfyingly between historical realism and fantasy wonder, it always felt a little bewildering for me - which is actually something I love in a game, especially when your decisions always feel like they carry so much weight, and your preparations for battle seem so essential. Glad it's getting some well-deserved mainstream recognition. 9/10

Dark Souls - Now, I've only played the first Dark Souls. And boy. OH BOY. I hate this game. And I also love it. Punishing beyond belief, Souls makes you pay dearly for every mistake, which often feels savage when the AI is often so janky, when you're so outnumbered, so desperately unprepared and just trying to grind a few more souls. But for all it's brutality, the elation of finally beating that boss, or going back and curb-stomping some goon who ruined you back when you were a scrub, getting something shiny in a rare drop, or putting together a really solid loadout of your own? Wowaweewa. So rewarding.

Also it looks like Berserk, and that's great. 9/10 the stress of playing this game has taken years off my life.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate - it's smash, baby, what's not to love? 10/10 best game ever made. The video game that made me fall in love with video games when I was a little kid.

Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild - Nintendo have had a rocky decade. Their dogged pursuit of esoteric, kid-friendly gaming has lead them to make some cruddy choices here and there, and there were times when their future looked almost bleak. When I picked up the switch, I had already heard good things about the BOTW port, and, as a kid who grew up only ever playing other people's nintendos, I was keen.
HOLY MOLY
Remember when you were a dumb little kid, and didn't know how games worked, and thought "ah, man, maybe I can climb up here?" or, "This character looks cool, maybe if I talk to him like 8 times in a row he'll tell me a secret"
Zelda does it.
Open world games have dominated this decade, between skyrim, minecraft, gta and more. But BOTW really nails it. Like, REALLY. Every inch of the map is packed with tempting little secrets, every nook, every cranny, every NPC. The weapons damage mechanic keeps you endlessly on your toes, as even the hardest of blades will eventually break. The mobs are always getting tougher, and Gannon at the end is really unflinchingly tricky to beat. Despite all that, there is endless charm, as you ride, glide, climb and chatter your way through a vast world of ice, sand, snow and fire, all beautifully animated and designed. I've 100% completed this game, and still go back now and again, because it's just that good. Game of the decade for me for sure. 10/10

Darkest Dungeon - Played this on and off in Korea, when I was bored and my internet kept going out. Brilliant aesthetic, very warhammer and grimdark, maddeningly punishing, and yet all of the characters have their own, unique, procedurally-generated charms. Many a game can make a man rage quit. Few can make him go "Ah, well, just one more" and boot the thing back up again immediately afterwards. Makes me spit with rage 8.5/10 gud game.

REELING, TEETERING ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE.

Can verify. Especially since i recently restarted it.

Also rip all my occultists, they all die
Probably the job on my hero team that allways dies.

Not Online!!! wrote:


REELING, TEETERING ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE.

Hahaha, not gonna lie, the vocal delivery in that game, along with the soundtrack are delightfully atmospheric!
I've never NOT had one of the plague doctors not go mad and start hurting everyone, nor any of the barbarian ladies (I forget the class) not just start verbally abusing my whole party. Both before dying pitifully and dragging most of my party down with them. My Crusaders all seem to valiantly carry everyone, though...

...which makes it even more punishing when I get wiped by a boss, and lose them because the rest of the team folded.

I'm not sure it's possible to even be good at darkest dungeon, just masochistic enough to not quit after having your hindquarters handed to you endlessly.

 posermcbogus wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:


REELING, TEETERING ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE.

Hahaha, not gonna lie, the vocal delivery in that game, along with the soundtrack are delightfully atmospheric!
I've never had one of the plague doctors not go mad and start hurting everyone, not any of the barbarian ladies (I forget the class) not just start verbally abusing my whole party.

I'm not sure it's possible to even be good at darkest dungeon, just masochistic enough to not quit after having your hindquarters handed to you endlessly.

oh there are people that are good at it, but those people are on a whole other level of game knowledge and specifically know how to reduce or manipulate RNG.

Also, my musketeers always crit on the 3rd shot for whatever reason

Witcher 3, mass effect 2, Batman Arkham City, Spider-Man (PS4), Skyrim.

Good call on Deus Ex. Mankind divided was very darn good now that I look back on it.

Witcher 3!!! - arguably best RPG/game of all time

Skyrim- who doesnt want to kill dragons, Elder Scrolls RPG also have a lot of variablity and replayabilty.

Stellaris - best 4x hands down

Crusader King 2 - when you want to get your Game of Thrones on.

Uncharted 4 - Epic story, amazing ending to a fantastic series, unlike the below series that screwed the pooch.

Mass Effect 2 - best of series and epic story.

Overwatch - balance and blizzard aside, this game has helped skyrocket eSports into "main stream".

Battlefield 1 - First Video game to actually delve into the WW1 era. Made even better since it was on 100 anniversary of the war.

Going by games I have actually played since I can't include games I desperately wanted to play but couldn't push on my dinosaur comp, my list is brief.

Batman: Arkham City and Arkham Origins. These both are tied in my mind as the shortcomings of Origins are counterbalanced with one phrase: fast travel. NOTHING was more infuriating in Arkham City than having to go around damn near the entire map to get someplace. I don't have that kind of time, I have too many kids.

Skyrim. I never in a million years thought I'd use a phrase like "life changing" to describe a video game, but I think it comes dangerously close to being appropriate here. The only negative I can give is that it's obvious whoever wrote that game absolutely HATES High Elves. Just ONE positive reference there would have been nifty.

Transformers: Devastation. C'mon. You're literally playing the 80's cartoon. The only gripes I have are how OP Blitzwing is and that maybe 5 more playable Autobots would have been nifty. Bonus points if the skins would have added different voices.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. I literally have only one gripe about this game, and that's that I don't like being in a TF game tied to 1 character on each level. WFC gave me 3 to choose from, and THAT felt restrictive.



Now, I understand I'm about to catch epic levels of Hell for this next one, so I'll try to mitigate it by stating it's my "guilty pleasure" pick of the decade...


Star Trek. Yep, that one that's from the J. J. Abrams verse with the actors returning to voice their characters. While it's no more or less glitchy than even Skyrim, what Trek does that makes it totally admirable in my eyes is twofold: it gives a separate story from either movie that landed around it, actually LINKING the two movies with certain parts of the game, and it is just pure Trek fun that involves more than just torpedoing ships. I have Star Trek: Legacy for that, and Star Trek: Encounters if I want to dig out my PS2.

Here be my top games. Not ranked by hours spent with them thou : D

1. Fallout New Vegas

2. Mass Effect 2

3. Master of Orion

4. They Are Billions

5. Path of Exile

6. Master of Orion 2

Of the decade? Well then... Here's some that I've put the most time in I think. Top 10!

1. Civilization 5? Not sure which civ game I've spent the most time with, it's 4 or 5. But man have I sunk hours into this franchize. Didn't really like civ 6 though. It took what didn't work well with civ 5 and made the whole game about it.

2. Starcraft 2. I'm a fan of RTS and I've spent alot of time watching the SC2 esport scene. Totalbiscuit (rest in peace) got me into that with his Shoutcraft kings series. Also spent alot of time with custom games.
Edit: I first put leauge in number 2 but starcraft takes it instead. Leauge came out in 2009 October
2. Leauge of legends. I had a phase and I sunk so much time into this game. I'm not sure how good it really is but given how much fun I had with it then it must be doing something right.

3. Dark souls... 1 I think. It's dark souls, what more needs to be said really.

4. Undertale. Though I havn't really touched it for some time I'd never leave it out of a game of the decade thing.

5. Banner saga 1. A game I played through... like 5 times I think? Absolutely loved it.

6. Frostpunk. I was blown away by this game and still fire it up from time to time.

7. Sunless sea. Feel like it was made specifically for me to play it. Such amazing atmosphere.

8. Shadowrun Dragonfall. A huge fan of the Shadowrun rewamp, Liked dragonfall the most but all where good.

9. Stellaris. Because spaaaaaace.

10. Total war warhammer. For obvious reasons.