Games Of The Decade

Bowing down before the defining titles of the 2010s

New genres, new business models, new classics; all hail the defining games of the 2010s

One of the more awkward things about being the UK’s longestrunning 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.