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THE past ten years have seen some astonishing advances in gaming, we have seen the first truly 3D releases and consoles, the introduction cloud gaming, and experienced a huge rise in casual gamers thanks to tablets and mobile phones.
You can play virtual reality games in your living room, and powerful next generation consoles mean that graphically, the games we play are becoming increasingly more realistic.
As we enter the 2020s, it feels like the right time to look back over the last 10 years, at just a few of the games which have defined the last decade – in no particular order.
PAC-MAN CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION DX
Released:
TECHNICALLY a 2007 release, it got a thoroughly addictive new version in 2010 to mark Pac-Man’s 30th birthday. DX builds on the original’s six courses, giving the player greater control over the difficulty, look, sound and feel of the mazes.
Unlike the original, in DX, Pac-Man can fight back. You can even slow the action if things feel like they’re running away with you.
It’s addictive, and competitive gamers –ME – struggled to switch off until their gamertag hit the top 100.
MINECRAFT
and gun action, with gameplay focused mainly on boss battles, the porcelain platformer is pitted against rough and ready bad guys.
There’s a trio of vicious vegetables which spit dirt balls, rain onion tears and launch heat-seeking carrots.
Each level offers unique ways to die, but the sense of achievement when you finally take down an enemy is immense.
GRAND THEFT AUTO V
BAYONETTA 2 is one of the most stylish action games ever released. A sequel to 2009’s Bayonetta, the gun-wielding witch has become a cult classic.
The most wonderful thing about this game is the over-the-top combat, with some of the most outlandish finishing moves you’ve ever seen.
From fighting on top of a jet as it soars through a downtown city, to duking it out against a giant angel, who bears a whip for an arm, on top of a speeding train, it’s an awesome assault on the senses that chews you up and spits you right back out.
It’s short, being able to play through in about 10 hours, but the replayability is endless.
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2
AT ITS most basic, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a cowboy simulator which allows you to live out your wild west fantasies – but it’s so much more besides.
BEGINNING in the frozen wilds, Arthur Morgan, and a rag-tag gang of outlaws are hunkered down in an abandoned mining town, barely alive and out of food.
It’s a slow, but calculated start to an ambitious campaign, teaching you the skills you’re going to need to survive the next 60 or so hours.
The RDR2 world is glorious – bustling towns, breathtaking vistas, lush forests, fast flowing rivers, and windswept plains.
The characters are beyond lifelike, stunning attention to detail making it easy to relate the those you encounter on the streets, and giving you real pangs of guilt when you accidentally kill someone instead of saying hello.
Your horse requires upkeep. Food, water, shoeing – even Arthur needs baths, haircuts and shaves.
The result is almost complete immersion, the feeling of a shared existence with Arthur as he does his best, living a hostile and unforgiving way of life, on the brink of extinction in turn-of-the-century America.