1. The Witcher 3 - Setting the absolute golden standard for not only what an RPG should be in terms of character development, voice acting, writing, and plot; it also raised the bar for what open world games should be with meaningful quest design and a beautiful world that actually invited you to explore and wasn't just big for the sake of being big. It had a few shortcomings; The combat is ok at best, horse back controls, and some all around jank. However, the few areas it does falter, it more than makes up for.
2. Gravity Rush 2 - Sharing a lot of the reasons I have listed the Witcher 3. No other game in recent memory has had its entire cast of characters and its world enrapture me like that of Kat & Friends. On top of the gravity shifting mechanic just being pure elation to experience, it has an extremely beautiful and well designed world
. I know there were complaints about the forced stealth missions (which are fair) but I didn't find them exhausting. The side missions were a wonderful change of pace that slowed down the events of the game for great slice of life moments that often had you revisit previous characters and gave insight as to how their lives were going, making the world all the more believable. P.S., Kat is just the best. P.P.S., Holy shit the soundtrack.
3. Titanfall 2 - Not since Half-Life 2 have I been as blown away by a shooter campaign as I have with Titanfall 2. It even surpasses the previous work of CoD4 in having an action packed, exhilarating campaign that not only packs a punch, but has substance. Respawn were able to take what was once a MP only game and build an interesting universe around it. You genuinely bond with BT and the end of the game was not only an insane series of set pieces, but tugged on my heartstrings a bit. There's also some mind melting sections of the game. Couple this with a great multiplayer component.
4. Uncharted IV: A Thief's End - Naughty Dog's opus. A lot of my praises of Titanfall 2 echo here. The set pieces are some of the best of the series and FINALLY the combat in Uncharted doesn't suck. The stealth/combat options in a lot of segments are very satisfying. The game is absolutely gorgeous, probably the most gorgeous game I've ever played and every moment of the game leading up to the very end is pure eye candy. The characters we all know and love are still well executed and the game does a wonderful job of wrapping up the series while leaving just enough open for a sequel. Holy shit the end section sucks tho. And there is some pacing issues, especially with the walking segments.
5. Dark Souls III - The return of Miyazaki was well warranted and paid off. Dark Souls 3 serves as a "greatest hits" of sorts for the series. While not doing anything that hasn't already been done within Soulsborne, it does almost everything up to this point better in a lot of ways. After II, we come back to these incredible and terrifying bosses. Soul of Cinder, Nameless King, Abyss Watchers, Pontiff, Dancer, Twin Princes, the list goes on. The combat is the best of the series and until the DLCs came out, it was sent off with a bang (seriously, why did the DLCs have to suck so much?)
6. Overwatch - Overwatch is hands down the best MP shooter this gen. The characters are more well designed and endearing than most single player games. While the modes are a but lacking, the complexity and variance within these few modes offers more replayablity than most other shooters. Sure, I can sit here and bitch about the lootboxes, the extremely fragile meta, Blizzard's inability to properly balance some issues with the game, but at the end of the day, it's just a joy to sit down and play with a well organized group for a few hours and few games offer the level of satisfaction that a well strategized push on an objective. P.S. I fucking love Ana.
7. Bloodborne - Hey, guys. Drillary here. B. ack again with another Soulsborne game. This time with more tentacles than any rule 34 image of Futaba from Persona 5. It's Dark Souls, but not really, but it kinda is. Except it's a lot fucking scarier. It's passe at this point to praise the Lovecraftian influence, but it's so well executed in this game I'm gonna still do it. The changes to combat and gameplay were enough to give the game its own identity, with how it rewards more aggressive and faster paced play. Sure, it doesn't offer as much variety as Souls. But It does what it seeks to do so well that it doesn't matter. It also has some incredible (and horse shit) bosses like Logarius, Blood Starved Beast, and Gehrman. I don't think a game has ever made my blood curdle the way this game did when I heard the Cleric Beast scream for the first time. Hopefully in the sequel, the multiplayer components won't suck.
8. Metal Gear Solid V - Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can all sit and bitch about how terribly the story falls of in the last segment of the game. But everything leading to that fall of point was really intriguing. But let's not talk about that. I wanna talk about how this game is stealth gaming nirvana. The decision to use a series of open worlds was a great design choice. Giving you a literal playground to attack objectives however you see fit? The game even goes as deep as having the AI adapt to your tactics. Attack too often at night time? Ok, bet, we're gonna use night vision goggles. Headshotting too much? Bet, we got helmets now fam. Wanna distract that guard? Set up a box with a naked anime girl on it. Need that VIP to get out of that car? Have your horse take a literal shit on the ground and watch as that Jeep flips over with your target already unconscious. Fuck, I enjoyed every second of actually playing this game. A damn shame the story fell off harder than Rich Homie Quan.
9. Final Fantasy XIV - I thought hard about adding this since it's in a weird spot release wise (the original came out in 2010). But ARR technically came out this gen. Between the two big MMOs (WoW), this game is the better of the two. An actual REALLY GOOD story, amazingly varied classes, wonderful combat system (I actually like how it's slower than other games), excellent characters, great quest design, this game has so much that makes it stand out from the competition. SE does a great job of supporting the game with the big updates every 3 or so months that add staggering amounts of content. Some of the most epic raids I've had the pleasure of being involved in. High end raiding is so frustrating but the payoff is so worth it. I won't even talk about how great the FF fan service is in this game.
10. Hyper Light Drifter - This game is such a little gem. The combat is twitchy and enjoyable. The boss fights are challenging and all unique. The world is gorgeous and a joy to explore. The music is beautiful and rivaled only by Fez in it's 8bit glory. It's a near immaculate mash-up of Zelda and Souls. Seriously, if you're itching for an old-school Zelda game, check this one out. The story is very obtuse and I didn't ever really understand what was going on, but somehow it was rather touching. I can't really explain it, but just brushing against the themes it presents pulled on a few strings.
Honorable Mentions - The Last Guardian, DOOM, Superhot, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Dishonored 2
Games that could make this list when I finish them - Persona 5 and Zelda: BOTW