Greatest games of all time

With my second wind in gaming coming in my mid-30's and continuing to this day, I have been blessed to have witnessed and partaken in a true classic generation of gaming. Over this time I have become a true acolyte of the From Software gaming catalogue. The Soulsbornekiro group of games are painfully difficult action RPG's that test your reactions, understanding and implementation of game mechanics, and to a lesser degree your intelligence in construction in terms of build throughout the game. Bloodborne (framerates aside) is the pinnacle of this style of game design, and for me, may well be my most beloved and respected game I have ever played to this day. I find myself drawn back to this dark Lovecraftian world time and time again to allow myself to be drenched in thick, beautifully crafted dark horror Victorian stylings that still look breath-taking nearly 6 years after its initial release in 2015. It's mechanics are paired down comparatively to some of its fantasy brethren, but the speed, precision, and surprising depth provided by its attack/dodge/gun parry stylings, along with the rally technique which encourages fast paced and aggressive gameplay make this relatively easy to learn, but truly challenging to master. It feels like gaming was leading to this pinnacle here for a long time, with a perfect combination of full emersion player focused gameplay, perfectly realised stylings and atmosphere, and surprisingly cinematic story telling through very abstract allusion. A variety of enemies test you throughout, and some epic bosses (some of the very best and hardest in gaming) provide a sense of satisfaction almost unparalleled upon completion, and encourage constant replays through its new game cycles or starting over to test and implement new builds and weapon choices. Its a perfect blend that is almost (framerates aside again) impossible to criticise, which has lead me to play this game through 9 different characters, multiple NG cycles on each! Just for sheer atmosphere, immersion and playability this may well have become my favourite game of all time.

When talking about Mass Effect 2, it is impossible to talk about it in isolation but where it belongs as the best part of a powerful and unforgettable trilogy of games that form a beautiful and cohesive whole. That being said, it is the best of the trilogy in terms of step forward in gameplay, reimagined roleplaying mechanics from the original, and self contained story culminating in a breath-taking suicide mission that is determined by your choices throughout the game. Bioware seemed highly aware of the criticisms levelled upon the first game and made improvements across the board so effective they exponentially improved the gameplay and experience from an already good game. Whilst 3 would further hone the mechanics more, it moved into more action and less RPG elements whereas this game strikes a perfect balance between the two. It does suffer from some forgettable side characters, but more than makes up for it with others. The stakes were alluded to in 1, and came to a denouement in 3, but it was this game that set the tone for the sheer scale of the threat Shephard and his/her crew faced. It's visceral, immersive, addicting and quite frankly the best game in the greatest gaming trilogy of all time bar none.

What can be said about this seminal JRPG that hasn't already been said. Until this point in time I had never been a major RPG fan in general, finding the variety of build mechanics, combinations, mass of gear and loot and often two dimensional soap opera characters a little too intrusive on immersion in the games. FFVII came out in a golden age of gaming on the PS1 in which developers had begin to truly explore the cinematic possibilities of AAA game making, and this game, along with MGS and SH were some of the pioneers of the time in terms of a new level of story immersion and dramatic license. This game was so iconic on so many levels that Square went so far as to create a fully reimagined update series with multiple 40 hour+ entries intended to bring that perfect story to modern gaming. True gamers will always know the name of Cloud Strife, and never forget one of the all-time great villains in Sephiroth. Who will ever forget the Hitchcockian double take as Aeris is abruptly extinguished never to return. I can still whistle and hum the tunes from a variety of moments in the game, in particular the musical vignettes that accompany the battles, or that ever repetitive refrain that loops throughout the Golden Saucer. The depth of side quests, extra loot, battles with epic enemies like Ruby or Emerald Weapon, optional but still essential all was so deep the game felt vast but never empty in a way never before achieved. For years this remained my all-time favourite game, although supplanted now, it still remains with me, with so many memories never dulled by time. Square have done great work since, FFIX, X, XII, and XV are all great games, but every one pales next to this for the simple fact that they are not FFVII. Everything they did is owed to this entry in the franchise despite the last fully 2D entry FFVI being fantastic too. This was a high water mark, and you know you have witnessed greatness when the game remains in the zeitgeist 23 years later! What an achievement...

It's hard to express the effect this game had on me, but the nearest to an explanation is that it really felt like both familiar and inspirational to my own imaginings on various levels both pre and post playing it. I love it for its ambition and its determination to be different. Some people would credit Resident Evil for bringing survival horror to the forefront of gaming, aficionados would more rightly credit the now long forgotten Alone in the Dark, but it was Silent Hill for me that really stood out and lead to a genre now considered defunct and done with bar the odd blip of success (Alien Isolation for instance). The real reason the genre is so out of favour is because so many of the games that were made were pale imitations of this masterpiece, never coming close to the beautifully horrific design, creepy fog ridden atmosphere (a mistake based on console limitations at the time that prove necessity really is the mother of invention), unbelievably perfect sound design and a multiple ending story that shocks, disgusts and captivates all who play it equally. The original admittedly has not aged well like many of the classics from the PS1 days, and some would say the second was the better game, introducing the likes of the iconic Pyramid Head to the canon, but in the end Silent Hill 2 was a retread, an update to match the new hardware the PS2 brought to the table, and owes so much to the original that like many sequels, it can't truly be considered seminal without the conception of the flawed older sibling. As a more direct sequel I do actually consider Silent Hill 3 the better game and is also on this list, but an entire genre owes so much to this one game it is impossible to place it anywhere but near the top of the pile of all-time greats! Still we lament for the promise of PT...

The pinnacle of the original 2D run of everyone's favourite agile Italian plumber, SMW was a revelation in 1990, taking everything from an already revered franchise and cranking it all the way up to 12! The level design and world building in this game are some of the best ever conceived, showcasing Nintendo's design acumen as the best and most imaginative in gaming. Mario had never controlled better than he did here, had never been able to do so much as he did in this game, had never been challenged by such a variety of obstacles and enemies as here and never had so far to travel to save the princess as he did this time. It was everything they had been building too for a decade made good in one near perfect game. You could argue for the original and its perfection with so many trying to copy it without ever managing to find that balance that SMB hit so perfectly. 2 is best ignored, and 3 pioneered so many of the elements that made SMW so good, but for me was just too clunky and 8-bit to match the platforming perfection that was SMW. I played this game to death as a 12 year old with my brand new and as it happens, 1st console which at the time made me firmly Nintendo over Sega and still places them square next to Sony such is my loyalty to the brand. The newer 2D entries still look to this game as their main inspiration, and such is the influence of SMW that even now new ROM hacks are being made that up the ante of the game to insidious levels and speed runners of the series are some of the best known and most wealthy in the community. When your game is still this playable 30 years after it's first release, with the innovation and development that has happened in that time, you know you must have made something truly special. There is one game in the franchise that matches this one for imagination, but none that match it for influence and longevity. SMW was a high water mark in gaming across any platform, and should stand as a benchmark for many years still to come.

I'm sure a theme can be seen in the type of games I tend to like, and this game is an example of said theme being taken to its near perfect pinnacle of execution. A cover shooter and mild puzzle solver, linear in progression but made great by cinematic elements, scripting and execution that basically make you feel like you are playing and immersed in Indiana Jones. Nathan Drake (being a mass murderer aside) is brilliantly realised, quippy, out of his depth hero driven to action by an unquenchable desire for exploration and adventure and ably supported by some equally compelling and entertaining side characters such as Sully, Chloe, and to a lesser extent Elena (his conscience). 1 was an experiment to see what they could do, but rather than carry on honing and taking their time to build the style of these games, they went and knocked it square out of the park on the second attempt. The set-pieces in this game are breath taking with the opening train crash, the tank battle through the village, and the sniper battle with the towers on your way to the finale. They tried to equal this with some success with the later sequels but never really captured the magic and consistency that 2 had from start to finish. Naughty Dog as a developer are now considered the pinnacle of this form of game making with LOU 1 and 2 and the later Uncharted games. For me this was the game where their brand of cinematic immersion reached it's point of perfection, with no dead weight to be seen. Many would laud them more for LOU, but the unrelenting bleakness of that game left me appreciating but not loving it, the bombast of this game left me exhilarated and hooked and for me is the company, and gaming, at it's theatrical best.

Another entry by From Software, and controversially here lies my top Souls game, at least until Demons Souls remastered on PS5 hits potentially anyway! I could be maligned for this placement but there are a few reasons that justify this as the best of a great gaming series. Dark Souls 1 did have the best level design yes, but only for half of the game, and the second half began to feel tacked on. This game oozes polish from start to finish. The slower more methodical combat has very pleasingly been replaced by a much faster and smoother style more in keeping with Bloodborne, and moving away a little from the turtling of DS1 helps this game no end. The levels are a little linear and there are too many bonfires to ease the challenge of the game, but the graphics, framerate, mechanics and enemies are all best in series, and the real trump card for this game, is it's bosses. DS3 has the best all-round roster of bosses of any of the From games, and maybe of any game, especially when the DLC's are factored in for the complete experience. Yes there is some fan service, but unlike some I feel it is used to enrich the story rather than pander, and the DLC's take the conclusion to a very different place than you might have imagined, even managing to allude to a possible Bloodborne connection which is fantastic. The PVP is frenetic, despite ganks, and ultimately a lot of fun, if not as deep mechanically as some would like. As a whole though the game is addictive and enjoyable from start to finish, but the boss fights just elevate the experience to a whole new level, in particular the boss fight at the end of the final DLC, the one you didn't know you wanted but blew the competition away. So very good, and yes, the purest and most outright enjoyable of the Souls games. The less said about 2 the better though...

I did um and ah about this one, as time may not have been the kindest to this game, but in retrospect it has to be placed this high for what it did, what it inspired, and how iconic it has since become. Despite 2 or 3 prequels on the NES that had garnered it a cult following, the series was not the most lauded in gaming, but come 1998 and Konami and Hideo Kojima teamed up to create a cinematic beast of a game, with a manlier than man protagonist in Solid Snake who may just have the most recognisable and iconic voice in gaming! David Hayter will forever be a legend for his performance in this role, along with a strong cast of other voice actors portraying the weird and the wonderful cast throughout. The linearity of the story and gameplay is actually played as a strength here, making the whole man on a mission element of the game work wonders in building its progression and pushing the narrative arc through encounter after encounter. There had been nothing like this before, and along with Silent Hill and FFVII, ushered in a new era of game making in the popular consciousness. With the series continuing for years afterwards, and people still clambering for a sequel, Kojimaless or not, its enduring popularity comes from the move Kojima made towards a complex narrative form of movie inspired writing and delivery that opened up how you could approach the thematic nature of a game. Yes the sequels are better mechanically, but this started the stealth genre and inspired everything that came after. MGS 3 is on this list and is a considerably better game, probably the peak of the complete experience in the series, but who can argue with the moments that define a generation? That's what MGS was.

Rounding out our top 10, putting this game here and separate from it's higher placed prequel could be considered an act of controversy and baiting. However, I have never quite been on board with the hatred the admittedly slightly underwhelming final choice garnered from people. The issue seemed to be with a choices meaning nothing, but most of the choices had been beautifully paid off throughout the game for all the characters you had met, so this has always felt quite disingenuous to me. Whilst choosing from 4 colours does feel a little arbitrary, there is no denying the sheer power of emotion behind the build up and final moments of the game, with character arcs being paid off, massive confrontations with unbeatable enemies, conclusions to devastating storylines that at least 2 of which lead to powerful deaths you will never forget. The combat is the best in trilogy, as are the graphics and cut scenes of the game. Its so much better than it is given credit for for the sake of what may well have been an impossible landing to stick for anyone. There's too much good in this game to ignore, and the trilogy is still the greatest in gaming thanks to the elements of this game Bioware did get right, so not only do I place this highly, but I also consider it one of the most underrated games of all time due to the unfair backlash it received about a small portion of an otherwise fantastic gaming experience. Time to give credit where its due. Never have I felt so drained and completely devastated by the end of a story like I was by the end of this game. For a short while I could not imagine playing anything else that could compete with the power of the emotions elicited by this final part of the trilogy, and no matter what people say, THAT, is great game making.