Games Of The Decade

Bowing down before the defining titles of the 2010s

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One of the more awkward things about being the UK’s longest-running videogame magazine is that, try as you might to avoid it, you end up compiling an awful lot of lists. We are not complaining about our longevity – far from it. But it’s with some trepidation that we realise it’s time for us all to get in a meeting room, a Google doc or a Skype lobby, and have another one of our big arguments.

Happily, over the years we’ve also come to appreciate the role that a firm set of guidelines can have in ensuring participants don’t come to blows. Only one game per series was allowed, and only one per developer or publisher; these helped stave off the Dark Souls vs Bloodborne argument, and averted a battle for supremacy between Breath Of The Wild and Skyward Sword (cough).

The key is always the adjective: we decided that, rather than seek to name the best games of the 2010s – something every outlet under the sun will be doing over the next month or two – we would instead choose to celebrate the titles that defined the decade. The games that tell a story about the trajectory the medium we all love has taken over the past ten years. That’s a long old time in the fastest-moving form of entertainment on the planet, after all.

Many of the games featured in the following pages will not surprise you with their inclusion. But we hope a few of them will. Combined, we hope they help you put in context what we have come to think might have been gaming’s greatest decade to date.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Developer/publisher Frictional Games Format PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One Release 2010