Deciding what criteria to use when selecting the best games of the 2010s is often just as difficult as picking the games themselves. So far this Fall, many outlets have focused on the ways gaming changed and grew during the decade when making their lists, and Eurogamer appears to be no exception.
The long-running site (they celebrated their 20th anniversary this year), specifically sought out games that highlight the “extraordinary diversification” of the industry when filling out their “Games of the Decade” list.
At moments like this it’s customary to look back on the last 10 years and what they brought us. We’ll be doing just that all this week with a look at Eurogamer’s games of the decade. This time, we’ve taken a slightly different approach. We haven’t attempted to rank the best games of the last 10 years. We haven’t even put them together in a single list. What you will find, across the next six days, is a series of individual articles on 30 games that really stood out for us – games that have defined the current era of gaming and the last 10 years of our lives.
In drawing up the list of 30 games, we weren’t trying to be definitive, so apologies if your favourite isn’t there. Some of our own favourite and most-played games didn’t make the cut. It also wasn’t purely about quality – there are dozens of brilliant games released over the last 10 years which, it can be argued, are better than some of those we did pick.
This varied approach to the best games from the last decade yielded some interesting selections.
Eurogamer – Games of the Decade
- Bastion
- Clash Royale
- Dark Souls
- Destiny
- Dishonored
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Fez
- Fortnite
- Forza Horizon
- Forza Horizon 2
- Forza Horizon 3
- Forza Horizon 4
- FTL: Faster Than Light
- Grand Theft Auto V / Grand Theft Auto Online
- Grow Home
- Hotline Miami
- Last of Us, The
- League of Legends
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- Mass Effect 2
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
- Minecraft
- Outer Wilds
- Overwatch
- Papers Please
- Pokemon Go
- Spelunky
- Splatoon
- Stardew Valley
- Tetris Effect
- What Remains of Edith Finch
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The reactions from Eurogamer’s staff were equally as interesting.
Wesley Yin-Poole penned an ode to the calming zen of Tetris Effect (“Tetris Effect is now my video game pick-me-up, a kind of virtual hug on demand”).
Martin Robinson made the bold claim that Nintendo used the colorful ink from Splatoon to paint their masterpiece (“Splatoon helped make Nintendo cool again”).
Emma Kent praised the wide-open world and bevy of choices available in Fallout: New Vegas (“This is what Obsidian got so right about Fallout: New Vegas. Somehow, the game’s able to anticipate exactly the sort of decisions a player wants to make, often before they even know it themselves.”).
Malindy Hetfeld voiced her opinion on the eager spirit and care that went into the excellent storytelling of Bastion (“Initially I was confused and slightly annoyed by what I now feel is [Bastion]’s biggest asset – the narration.”).
Tom Phillips reminisced about the community that sprang up, and still exists, around Pokemon Go (“Remember the summer everyone played Pokemon Go? The world seemed a nicer place, for a while.”).
And that’s just the start. You can find deeply personal pieces about all 30 games, along with a few bonus articles, within Eurogamer’s “Games of the Decade Archive.”