1) Deus Ex
Ohhh, Warren Spector. What hast happened to thou ever since this peak of your career?
Isn't player agency great? To essentially let the player choose to tackle a mission their way rather than prodding them with this long stick to prompt them the one or maybe two "proper" ways of doing it? Deus Ex knows. One of the most exquisite bits of game design I've seen.
2) Red Dead Redemption
This is an open-world game done right, set in a surprisingly underused and excellently-realised western setting approaching its eve brimming with the details and a genuine atmosphere. Its inhabitants feel like people and virtually every mission or random encounter has been worth playing, unlike something like I dunno, Assassin's Creed 3 which despite having a bukkake load of content, are mostly banal and uninteresting.
3) The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
This one might be largely down to the nostalgia factor given the fact that it's one of the first videogames I have ever touched, and thus something that commands considerable eminence in my heart. And for good reason as well. My mind was blown when I realised that with the Light and Dark world system, the game overworld had virtually doubled in size. LBW, Ocarina, Majora and Wind Waker have all been great, but LTTP continues to be my favourite Zelda.
4) Shadow of the Colossus
I'm never going to forget this game. My other 10/10 choices are excellent games, but this one will be the game I will forget last. If I'm looking for absolute perfection in a game, this is as close as I will probably get to it. The frenetic puzzle fights against the Colossi themselves, the hauntingly bleak yet beautiful landscape, the perfect atmosphere and the surprisingly distressing story all done with virtually no dialogue script at all.
SOME excellent 9/10 shoutouts:
- Morrowind - would be a 10, but I've never been too entranced by that Elder Scrolls combat.
- Skyrim - see above. I just wish I was able to play this on PC, but alas...
- Final Fantasy VI - It's been demoted to a 9 because given my gradual drifting away from turn-based combat, I'm not quite itching to replay this one as some others.
- TimeSplitters 2 - The few difficulty spikes irked me a bit at the time, but still my favourite FPS game ever.
- Xenoblade Chronicles - A couple of bosses cheat and sidequests mundane, but perhaps as close to JRPG perfection as it can get for me in recent memory.
- Batman Arkham City - Story isn't as strong as in Asylum, but this time round boss fights are considerably more satisfying as they should be.
- Zelda: Majora's Mask - Hello, says Majora's Mask, I'm the second best Zelda game and I deserve a 3DS updated port! Yes, I say. Yes you are and yes you do.
- The Last Of Us - It's been a hell of a stressful game to play, I have to say, especially when cauliflower-faces decide to start munching me to death with one hit.
- GTA V - The way Online has turned out is the big mark against it, but the game has made a fan out of someone who used to be rather apathetic towards the franchise.
- Metal Gear Solid 3 - I'm still having an internal debate here. Do I upgrade this one to a 10/10?
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