My Favourites of the Passing Decade

These games of the year and decade lists started coming out quite early, and it really stressed me out! THERE WERE STILL MORE GAMES TO RELEASE! And alright, alright — as it turned out, probably not any of them were really anything to write home about. I had some hopes for MechWarrior 5. But those have been dashed upon the rocks. It’s awful.

Still. Making a list of the best games. For a whole decade? That’s like… Quite a commitment, you know? I was thinking I might give it a pass for this decade given I don’t really have much of a written history to draw from. Come back to it in 2029, see how it feels then.

But what the hell? Let’s give it a shot. A version of it at least. I don’t think I could come up with a Top 10 if I tried at this point. Top 5 might be achievable, but I think it’d be heavily weighted toward recent memory. So instead, I’m just going to go year by year and see if I can’t pick out some that really resonated with me. If, after doing so, I can see some top picks in there… Well, maybe I’ll give that a note. ;)

Memorable Games of the Past Decade

The following list will be going by release year and all titles (unless otherwise noted) are for PC, and will address their PC release date.

This is not even attempting to be a list of the games I played this decade. That would be… Nigh impossible. Instead I’m only going to list games that I highly regarded. I won’t be aiming for any particular number. No doubt I’ll end up missing some and later facepalming, but I’m using the video game history pages of Wikipedia as a reminder after I set down my initial thoughts. :)

A bolded title indicates a favourite of favourites. For those, the answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ when I ask myself ‘Would I consider this in the creation of the list of Top 10 games for the decade?’

• 2010
  • Mass Effect 2, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Assassin’s Creed 2, Just Cause 2, Fallout: New Vegas
• 2011
  • Magicka, Rift, Frozen Synapse, Bastion, Tropico 4, Terraria, Skyrim, To the Moon
• 2012
  • Crusader Kings 2, Mass Effect 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Diablo 3, Darksiders II, Borderlands 2, Dishonored, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Guild Wars 2.
• 2013
  • BioShock Infinite, The Stanley Parable, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, The Wolf Among Us, Path of Exile, Warframe
• 2014
  • Dark Souls II, Age of Wonders III, The Elder Scrolls Online, Daylight, Watch Dogs, The Last of Us Remastered (PS4), Destiny (PS4), Wasteland 2, Elite: Dangerous
• 2015
  • Grand Theft Auto V, Divinity: Original Sin, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Fallout 4, Ori and the Blind Forest, Pillars of Eternity,
• 2016
  • Dark Souls III, Overwatch, Stardew Valley, Stellaris, Doom, Dishonored 2, XCOM 2
• 2017
  • Nioh, Divinity: Original Sin II, Neir: Automata, Prey, Shadow Warrior 2, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Destiny 2, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Finding Paradise
• 2018
  • RimWorld, God of War (PS4), Hollow Knight (Switch), BattleTech, Dark Souls Remastered, Detroit: Become Human (PS4), Dead Cells, CrossCode
• 2019
  • Devil May Cry 5, Anno 1800, Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch), Remnant: From the Ashes, Borderlands 3

Listing by release date has some interesting affects on this list though. I played many of these titles quite a fair way past their release date. Some I wouldn’t have considered anywhere near a favourite when they came out — but have come an incredibly long way since.

I’ve also ended up with more than 10 ‘Favourite of Favourites’ here… But… I think I can do this.

Nait’s Top 10 Games — 2010-2019

1. Dark Souls III (2016)
2. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015)
3. RimWorld (2018)
4. XCOM 2 (2016)
5. Dark Souls II (2014)
6. Fallout: New Vegas (2010)
7. Remnant: From the Ashes
8. Warframe
9. Stellaris
10. Path of Exile

The Honourable Mentions that I indicated above, but were missed from this list:

• Skyrim
• Crusader Kings II
• Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain
• Nier: Automata

Missing each of those off is painful. I feel like they all deserve to be there. But I think I’ve settled on the list now, there doesn’t feel like there is anything I would rather push off the list for any of these.

So while I love them to bits. There they will stay.

Phewph!