2. Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)

The Batman game of your dreams has arrived. Endless replayability (more so than Arkham City, IMO).

4. Call Of Duty 2 (2005)

The best single-player FPS of the decade? It's entirely possible. Despite it's dated graphics & cartoon-ish characters, the gameplay is remarkably dynamic, visceral, & intense.

5. Halo (2001)

The godfather. Launched the xbox, one of the best FPS ever, plus its descendants have spawned the best multiplayer experiences ever

6. Silent Hill 2 (2001)

What this dude said. Supposedly, Amnesia on the PC is a solid contender for the title, but I've yet to meet a game that gets as deep under the skin, as morally and literally down and dirty as this. It is THE interactive horror experience of our time, and the HD collection is doing a grand job of reminding me of how good time has been to it.

#7 Angry Birds (2010)

Has to be done.  This is a huge, huge thing.  And for a reason; it's addictive, it's playable and it's quick.  It reminds me of some of the golden stuff from the 80s, the handheld Nintendo like Donkey Kong.  You can pick it up and play it for hours, or just while on the khazi.  My daughter loves it.  My Dad loves it.  I'm pretty sure my Nan would get it.

I read somewhere that some Finnish minister said that this was a more important export than Nokia.

Unlike the wretched social gaming that has infested Facebook this, I think, will be remembered as a classic.  And the thing with this is, not just among game heads.  Everyone knows Angry Birds.  

8. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)

The Splinter Cell games are one a kind. Meticulous & suspenseful, this stealth series is an engrossing, novel-like experience that requires constant invention of strategy by it's player. Out of the run, Chaos Theory gets the nod for the near perfection of the series' concept.

9. Portal 2007

Brought puzzle gaming back to the FPS-drenched market with a great deal of atmosphere and humour.

11. Team Fortress 2 (2007), PC

I know, there's Valve properties probably thought of much higher than this.  They'll make the list too.  This game was essentially a throw-in with The Orange Box and since then has gone 100% Free To Play.  These are the kinds of things that are done with bad games, giving them away in sets and setting them up as Free To Play.  The thing is, this isn't bad.  It's great.  Fast paced multiplayer FPS that you can sit down and play for 20 minutes or for 2 hours and enjoy yourself thoroughly.

While every other FPS on the market seemed to get bogged down in how important gritty realism was, TF2 decided that exceptional gameplay and a unique art style would be enough.  It's a simple game to pick up, but for people who take the time it's exceptionally rewarding and much more layered than it appears on the surface.

I've probably put more hours into this than any PC game in the last decade.  I haven't played it for months but I know without question that I'll be playing it again in the near future because it's fun and doesn't need a gigantic time commitment to actually get that fun out of it.  The console version got the short end of the stick because of update issues with Microsoft apparently, but the PC version still updates consistently.

12. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010)

13th century Renaissance Rome as ultra-violent sandbox game. Impeccable graphics & addictively dynamic gameplay give way to a bloodily engrossing gaming experience. 

13. Bioshock.

At first, I struggled to justify whether it was groundbreaking or just a "best of".  I am a gamer, but not as intense as some.  I have played a fair share of classics and almost nothing in the 2000's has come close to jacking me in to a game as much as this.  This game scared the shit out of me, made me sweat, cry and gasp.  It created such a lush and deep world - the lesser sequel works better than it should in spite of its weaknesses simply because of how well realized Rapture is. And ultimately, I will never forget the beginning of this game. 

After swimming to a staircase after an airplane crash, I walk in and take an elevator down.  As it settles, a witch creature bounces around and fucks up someone's shit.  She then bounds off into a dark room and the elevator doors open.  I now have to go into this room.  Unarmed.  Unfamiliar with the controls and the environment.  And when that bits ends, I make it into another elevator and go up to a level where a woman is singing to a gun in a baby carriage.  This is within ten minutes of the game starting.  I knew I was going to love the game and boy was I right.

It kills me not to list at least 5 more games by the way.  I think it could be argued that the 2000's created more or just as many fantastic games as the 90's did as technology caught up to design.  But I won't step on toes and assume others will address those games going forward.

14. Planetside (2003), PC

MMOFPS.  You read that right.  MMOFPS.  Planetside had SO MUCH going against it.  First, technology was not ready for what this game was created to do.  High speed internet connections were rarer.  The PC requirements were fairly brutal.  It was an FPS with a monthly fee (this was a barrier that can't be overlooked, as nobody was/is charging a monthly fee for an FPS and no F2P game models had been proven to work at this time).

Now forget all of the hurdles that meant this shouldn't work.  Those of us who played it at release and soon after experienced a revolution that no other game has touched.  Multiple planets, all of which were larger than entire GTA games.  Three separate but fairly balanced factions (not that you'll ever get anybody to admit that).  And then the hook...hundreds (and I mean HUNDREDS) of players battling each other in the same place at the same time.  Vehicles, MAX suits, weapons and suits that defined your role on the battlefield in battles that no other game has been able to duplicate in scope.  This was a singular game experience that nothing has matched since (and I hope against hope that Planetside 2 recaptures it).

#15 Resident Evil 4 (a Gamecube EXCLUSIVE! Also on PS2, PC, Wii, and Xbox 360. 2005)

Capcom removed the zombies from their zombie game and got rid of the fixed camera angles in their fixed camera angle game, and they struck GOLD. The controls are largely the same, but just by placing the camera behind your character it fixed most of the control problems. You still moved like a tank, but now you were a tank with a clear line of sight. Now you were facing humans "infected" with something else. They could talk, use weapons, and work together. The game lost a lot of the series' trademark jumpscares, but made up for it with insanely tense situations(Chainsaw guy? The fucking Regenerators!). Puzzles were still there, but more of an afterthought. The added Mercenaries mode is also a blast.

My second favorite game of the decade, I've played through it 6 or 7 times now, and STILL forget about certain parts only to be pleasantly surprised when I get to them. The Wii version controls really well if you've never tried it, and has the extras from the PS2 version.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

10.  Red Dead Redemption

Dang good pick!  Loved this game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

10.  Red Dead Redemption

 

The Sandbox Game perfected.   All the GTA and Bully games have led to this masterpiece.   So many superlatives I can throw at this.   I will only say that it has one of my favorite video game experiences EVER.   You know the one....

 

this.  Sadly this made GTA unplayable for me.  After spending so much time on this game, and loving every damned aspect of it, Liberty City was just flat, repetetive and boring.  I have nothing but love for this game.

#16 Dead Space (2008)

Scared the ever living shit out of me.  OK I was massively wasted at the time, and playing it on headphones, but I can remember pausing it, taking my headphones off and turning to the wife and saying "I don't think I can play this, it's too intense and too stressful".

Combines Resi style gameplay in a space setting, with Thing like abominations bursting from everywhere.  Also head shot is not the one true stopper.  And the joy of running out of ammo and using your remote thing to fling their own arms at them unhtil you can run out and get some ammo.  I have DS2 lined up but just no time to play it.

Oh EXCEPT for the fucking shooting asteroids levels.  FUCK THAT

#17 Half-Life 2 (PC, Xbox, and Xbox 360 2004)



So many great moments. Your own personal game of Tremors. The Gravity Gun. Storming the beach while commanding a squad of insects. Ravenholm(scarier than most horror games BY ITSELF). The Tripods. Getting vertigo while crossing under a bridge. Dog. That first moment you walk out in City 17 and see the Citadel towering into the clouds. Zombies. Virtually becoming an unstoppable juggernaut at the end. Such great storytelling without a single cutscene. Amazing voicework and a great score. Much like Resident Evil 4, any time you were JUST starting to get sick of something, they'd switch it up. A remarkable accomplishment and still my favorite game of the decade, only now starting to show the chinks in it's armor.

Part of the reason Valve is my second favorite developer after Nintendo is this game by itself. It doesn't hurt that everything else they make is gold. Now where's that Episode 3?!

18. Uncharted 2 (2009)

One of the few games I've played that truly feels like playing an action/adventure movie.  I don't think anything about it is all that revolutionary, but nearly everything about it is executed so damned well and so fun to play.  Gorgeous visuals.  Enveloping sound design.  A score that sounds more satisfying than most movies scores these days.  Fun characters.  It's just a CHARMER.  There is absolutely no point in turning this series into a 'faithful' movie.  Seriously, why?

The two big Ninja action franchises still had it going on even during the aughts.

19. Ninja Gaiden Black (Xbox, 2005)

This particular console gen (PS2/Xbox/Gamecube) was on the overall whole a dark, bleak time to be a gamer of a certain persuasion for my money (I personally consider it to be the worst, most lacking console gen we've seen yet for anyone who puts challenging, skill-based gameplay at the top of their priority list), but leave it to Ninja Gaiden to still remain as unrepentantly difficult as it is beautifully precise and engrossing to play, remaining the dividing line that separates the real, dyed in the wool, hardened arcade-style gamers from the new age, art, narrative, and immersion over substantial gameplay crowd, even during a time of ever increasing challenge pussification for the sake of courting non-gamers.

And on a similar note:

20. Shinobi (PS2, 2002)

Leave it to Sega's still-reigning awesome ninja franchise to do likewise. Never for one instant sacrificing its mega fast, tight as a drum arcade style gameplay in subservience to its newer, fancier tech but rather having it the other way around and having the tech serve and supplement the gameplay (the way it should be), this is for me the gold standard blueprint for how 3D, third person action titles SHOULD have continued evolving over the course of the last two console gens.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexus-7 

#17 Half-Life 2 (PC, Xbox, and Xbox 360 2004)



So many great moments. Your own personal game of Tremors. The Gravity Gun. Storming the beach while commanding a squad of insects. Ravenholm(scarier than most horror games BY ITSELF). The Tripods. Getting vertigo while crossing under a bridge. Dog. That first moment you walk out in City 17 and see the Citadel towering into the clouds. Zombies. Virtually becoming an unstoppable juggernaut at the end. Such great storytelling without a single cutscene. Amazing voicework and a great score. Much like Resident Evil 4, any time you were JUST starting to get sick of something, they'd switch it up. A remarkable accomplishment and still my favorite game of the decade, only now starting to show the chinks in it's armor.

 

Part of the reason Valve is my second favorite developer after Nintendo is this game by itself. It doesn't hurt that everything else they make is gold. Now where's that Episode 3?!

The Tripods got me.  Beautiful game.

21. God Of War (2005)

Epic in every way.

23. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)

If GTA: III were Star Wars, this sprawling, Russian novel length masterpiece would be The Empire Strikes Back.

#24

No One Lives Forever

(Monolith, PC, 2001)

Remember when each new FPS promised bigger levels, more adventure, more character, more involved narratives, loads of weird weapons?

Barely, right?

Here's many kinds of nostalgia rolled into one.  This is actually the finest 60s Spy pastiche there is.  All despite landing in the midst of a soulless revival that pissed all over the genre. NOLF actually captures the strange mixture of serious violence with surreal scenarios, zany villains and general silliness that you won't find much outside episodes of The Avengers and The Man from UNCLE. Awesome 60s futurist decor and a groovy exotica soundtrack too.  This is while also being one of the finest FPSs of that sub-sub group outside the Half-Lives themselves.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wd40 

13. Bioshock.

 

 

  But I won't step on toes and assume others will address those games going forward.

amazing game.  And yeah, I'm going to try and be a bit less gung-ho in this thread, always nicer to read someone else's opinion of something than read my own babble anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

   He's a family man who has to do some stuff he doesn't want to so playing him as a white hat feels natural.   I think he might be one of my favorite characters in video games.

Yup - like the very best of Westerns he was nicely ambiguous, but leaning more towards the good.  The weird thing with this game was I could go hunting for hours, just ride off into the bush and collect shit.  I never felt the desire to do that in GTA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

23. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004)

 

 

If GTA: III were Star Wars, this sprawling, Russian novel length masterpiece would be The Empire Strikes Back.

This is my favourite of the PS2 GTA games.  I think they got the balance right with this one in terms of character building, stat building (bmx ability springs to mind) and even just  the fact you could have him eat healthily and go to the gym, or just be a fat fuck and I loved howt this affected how you could run around.  Also what other game requires you to turn up at a birds house in a gimp suit, brandishing a massive dildo, to finish a girlfriend "mission"?

Turns out 2D gaming (2D arcade gaming no less) wasn't QUITE dead just yet in the early most years of the 2000's.

28. Metal Slug 3 (Arcade/Neo-Geo, 2000)

The best game in one of SNK's greatest franchises for their timelessly awesome Neo-Geo hardware. This shouldn't really even need much of a description or any justification for being on any greatest games list. If you don't know what the Metal Slug franchise is or have never played it, you are frankly one poor deprived soul, as they rank among the all time best and most breathlessly demented and fun side scrolling shooters ever made. But fret not, as the games have been re-released numerous times on countless modern platforms and in generally perfect translations no less, so they're all still readily available and easily obtained. So assuming you're a virgin to these games, go forth and get on fixing that. Immediately.

Oh and by the way, what's the status with hand helds? Those are applicable here aren't they? Cause this is definitely the decade I believe where hand held platforms really came into their own finally.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaquio 

 

Turns out 2D gaming (2D arcade gaming no less) wasn't QUITE dead just yet in the early most years of the 2000's.

 

28. Metal Slug 3 (Arcade/Neo-Geo, 2000)

 

 

 

The best game in one of SNK's greatest franchises for their timelessly awesome Neo-Geo hardware. This shouldn't really even need much of a description or any justification for being on any greatest games list. If you don't know what the Metal Slug franchise is or have never played it, you are frankly one poor deprived soul, as they rank among the all time best and most breathlessly demented and fun side scrolling shooters ever made. But fret not, as the games have been re-released numerous times on countless modern platforms and in generally perfect translations no less, so they're all still readily available and easily obtained. So assuming you're a virgin to these games, go forth and get on fixing that. Immediately.

 

Oh and by the way, what's the status with hand helds? Those are applicable here aren't they? Cause this is definitely the decade I believe where hand held platforms really came into their own finally.

I would still play any 2D shooter if it was of a high caliber.  I didn't know you could still get these.  Google hit coming up.

I think so re: Handhelds.  Hell, I chucked ANgry Birds on and that's primarily a phone game.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

I would still play any 2D shooter if it was of a high caliber.

Take my word on this: they really, really, really, really, really, REALLY, really, really don't come in a much higher caliber than the Metal Slug franchise. These games are at the pinnacle of the whole damned genre, and this is scientific fact.

29. Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (Arcade, 2000)

This game shouldn't have worked. In a move uncharacteristic of Capcom fighting games (that are typically tweaked and balanced and tightened to Aspergian, obsessive compulsive degrees), this one was a sort of slapdash affair where, almost as if Capcom knew that time was running short on their ownership of the Marvel license, they decided to make one final game with it that functioned mostly as an excuse to throw together each and every piece of sprite work they've ever used in their myriad of 90's Marvel-based fighting games (not a single one of which made it into the 90's thread: for shame yet AGAIN chewers) all into one megamix of a 2D fighter. And fuck it, why not make it 3 on 3 instead of the usual 2 on 2 tag team fighting found in their famed and celebrated "Vs" series? And hell, why not hinge the very FABRIC of the fighting engine itself on super combos? Fuck it, lets throw all pretence at game and character balance to the wind and just make the most palpably unhinged, coke-fueled fever dream of a mashup game that anyone's ever attempted. This game should've honestly been a disaster. An entertaining as ALL hell disaster don't get me wrong, but a clusterfuck of epic proportions all the same.

And yet... and yet...

Somehow or other, that isn't QUITE what came of things. Even though that's what by all rights ought to have. No, somehow, be it through a voodoo ritual, more hidden depths of design genius within Capcom's offices than anyone ever thought possible, or (most likely of all) just plain old fashioned dumbass, clueless fucking luck... somehow by hook or by crook this game DOESN'T fall apart under the crushing weight of its own titanic bloat. Somehow this game, almost in direct violation of the laws of nature, has JUST enough checks and balances in its fighting engine and game balance (and I mean just. BARELY. enough: Street Fighter III this most certainly ain't) to hang the entire psychotic, batshit, bugfuck insane fanboy pleasing affair together to create what is without a doubt one of the single most overplayed, wildly beloved classics in Capcom's entire damned legendary stable of fighters.

Among the very last major 2D fighting games to make a wide arcade release (both Capcom and SNK would still have a few more classic 2D arcade fighters to come still, but by that point the arcade industry, in Western territories at least, would be well and truly dead and outside of major cities like California and New York they would largely only be played via their console ports), this was the game to launch a billion raging fanboy hard-ons.

Truly the swan song of the original arcade fighting game scene at the absolute twilight of the Western arcade industry, this couldn't have made for a cooler, more infectiously fun sendoff for one of my all time favorite niches in the whole history of gaming. Still widely played and widely regarded as the unhinged piece of pure, concentrated fun that it is.

Yo Nick & Renn - Hire this man already & give him a corner office.

Art Art Art... you picked the wrong Call of Duty game... not once, but twice! (I still think CoD4 is the pinnacle, with Black Ops trailing closely. But hey WoW added Nazi Zombies and dogs at least. I just thought MW2 was an unbalanced slog, even though it may be my favorite in terms of single player that no one buys the games for.)
Your other picks are spot-on though, even though I was one of the few to not be able to get into Arkham Asylum for whatever reason.

Loving your write-ups, Jaquio. Keep 'em coming!

Mcnooj, that first screenshot makes me with I had a PS3! Beautiful.
 

30) Clive Barker's Undying (2001, PC)

Without a doubt, one of the greatest horror games ever made; top notch story and mechanics, including the essential ability to use a spell to see beyond reality to find secrets and hidden paths, but most o f the time it was used to scare the shit out of you with surprise changes to the scenery; every weapon and spell in your arsenal had its uses and moments to shine, and the creatures and bosses were downright messed up; hell, I can pretty much say that no FPS has managed to equal this in atmosphere and sheer pants soiling terror.

Moment to savor:  Encountering Lizbeth, the youngest member of the cursed family for the first time; easily one of the most fucked up vampire designs in history.

31. Battlefield 3 (2011)

This probably deserves to be higher, the stunner that it is.

32) Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra (2006, PS2)

After an inspired but tepid debut, and a rather misguided sequel, the spiritual prequel series to the masterful "Xenogears" found itself in dire times, with the proposed saga being cut down to half, making the third game the last one; Thankfully this enabled Monolith Soft to go out with a bang and go ahead and resolve its epic mystic/religious space opera in the spawn of one game, making a HUGE quest that somehow not only managed to resolve most plots and questions for fans and give every character a chance to shine, but they al battso managed to cap things off with one of the best RPG's in the system; fantastic score by the talented Yuki Kajiura, engrossing cutscenes and a solid battle system managed to make this last entry the exact opossite of  the latter half of "Xenogears"; a grandiose anime spectacle that simply delivered on all fronts.

Moments to savor: Three come to mind: The conclusion of the Blue Testament storyline, Kos-Mos awakening and the final stand of Allen;  each of these scenes managed to display the emotional and epic anime space opera spirit that made Xenosaga unique, and remain some of the best cinematic moments on the PS2; then again, Yuki Kajiura's score pretty much elevates the game on every level.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Yo Nick & Renn - Hire this man already & give him a corner office.

Ha!  Seriously.

33. Spiderman 2 (2004)

An open platform sandbox game, NYC is your playground. Few things are better than spending a couple hours swinging around the city, crawling up walls, jumping off of buildings, & beating up the occasional mugger.

If this thing is full of Modern Warfare and CoD games, I'm going to freaking lose it. Ditto for Gears of War (I do not understand the appeal of cover-based combat games at all, they're such a slog to me). [/soapbox]

Also, as far as I'm concerned, Portal is #1 with a bullet if we were ranking this list. It's just a perfect gaming experience.

34. Knights of the Old Republic (2003)

It's a Star Wars RPG. Let me repeat that, it's a Star Wars RPG. For nerdy folks like us, this was everything you could possibly ask for. You got to customize your own lightsaber, for goodness sake! And not only did it combine those two most geeky things, but it was GOOD. A rich storyline, a moral choice system (before it became a requirement for every RPG to have), and excellent gameplay made it a fantastic experience that lived up to impossibly high expectations. You know you loved it, you meatbags.

35. Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition

 

The greatest of all 2D fighting games, online.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dynamotv 

10.  Red Dead Redemption

 

The Sandbox Game perfected.   All the GTA and Bully games have led to this masterpiece.   So many superlatives I can throw at this.   I will only say that it has one of my favorite video game experiences EVER.   You know the one....

 

Hell to the fuck yeah, I've all but come to the conclusion that this is my favourite game of the current gen, and one of the most enjoyably immersive, gripping, thrilling and downright moving game experiences I've ever had. This may be in my top two or three of all time.

Rockstar let me live out almost every cowboy fantasy I've had since I was a small boy playing with his plastic cowboys and indians. They let me become the star of my own western epic, that somehow managed to not just be a game, but the greatest love letter to a cinematic genre yet seen. I'll be forever greatful to them for it.

Oh and did the moment you mentioned dynamo, involve this little ditty?

Maybe I'm the only person who thinks FemShep is overdramatic and sounds silly.

Anyway, I sometimes like to take pictures of Red Dead Redemption when the skyscape gets really awesome. If there is a great clamoring for this innovative fotographic method, I have other such pieces in the archives.