Team Talk | What is your Game of the Decade?

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2020 is only a couple of weeks away and this decade will soon be behind us. We've already discussed our favourite games of 2019 but now we turn our attention to the greatest games of the last 10 years.

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by Chris Brand

@SuperCrisco

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by Team PTC

@pass_controller

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Chris | Red Dead Redemption 2

It was quite a struggle to nail down my Game of the Decade. In terms of hours played, Warframe is far and away the clear winner but, according to my stats, I've spent approximately half of that time (a considerable 900 hours, of 1900 in total) just sitting around chatting with my clan-mates. They're good people. It's also a game which has been evolving for almost 7 years, with frequent updates, new features and countless balance passes.

By contrast, Red Dead Redemption 2 (Sam's pick for Game of the Year 2018) has occupied very little of my time, yet each minute seems to be filled with 90 seconds of content. Secrets can be unearthed in every corner of the map, strangers will open up new avenues for making money and there's the ever-present threat of lawmen and bounty hunters whose relentless pursuit of Dutch and Co. forces you to stay on the move.

Knowing the eventual fate of the gang, thanks to the original Red Dead Redemption, does nothing to turn me off Dutch van der Linde. He's a beguiling mixture of outlaw rogue and charming gentleman; a man who commands respect and demands loyalty. It's easy to see how a young, impressionable John Marston could fall in with such a crew. Dutch romanticises the bandit lifestyle and inspires such confidence in his soldiers that even I - a real person far removed from the trials and tribulations of Arthur Morgan - am wholly invested in the lives of these folks.

One could almost regret killing Dutch, all those years ago in the future.

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Sam | SUPERHOT and SUPERHOT VR

I suggested this topic a few weeks ago and despite leaving ample time to mull it over, the magnitude of the task only just hit home. Choosing my 2019 Game of the Year was arduous enough, so to open consideration up to nine more years’ worth of games is more than a little bit daunting.

God of War (2018), Batman: Arkham City, Dark Souls, INSIDE… the possibilities are near endless, but only one title crops up on my shortlist twice. Faced with chronic indecision, that was the deciding factor.

SUPERHOT and SUPERHOT VR are basically the same game despite their obvious control and display differences; declaring them joint winners isn’t cheating, but similar to appointing the likes of Pokémon Sword and Shield. Both centre around the simple concept that time only moves when you do, allowing for some impossibly spectacular fight scenes to be choreographed.

Gameplay is both demanding and empowering, yet at the same time slow and considered in a puzzle-like fashion. Whether you’re playing with a conventional controller on a 2D screen or motion controllers in the 3D realm of VR, its beautifully streamlined mechanics translate oh-so fluently.

There’s definitely an engaging story in there, but the ingenious gameplay is really what does it for me. SUPERHOT and SUPERHOT VR are games I already own and have played countless times, yet willingly rebuy and revisit as and when they’re made available on new platforms.

There's a lot more to SUPERHOT than just shooting Red Dudes.

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Liam | Halo: Reach

Bungie’s swansong before moving onto Destiny, Halo: Reach felt like the end of an era, and though 343 Industries have since taken up the mantle of responsibility, the series has never quite hit the same heights as the 2010 masterpiece.

The campaign features a decent mix of large, sandbox style battlefields and claustrophobic close quarters action, and, even though its set before the original trilogy, manages to introduce some new weaponry to the already iconic roster, such as the needler rifle and DMR. It even revamps the look of Jackals and Grunts, and once again brings tough-as-nails Elites to the fore as your main adversary.

“New” abilities such as a limited sprint, something that had never been seen in a Halo game before, gave movement a much needed revamp without impacting on the series’ classic feel, and ditching the Master Chief in favour of a new recruit gave players a blank canvas with which they could make their own through armour customisation.

Add to that one of the best stories told in gaming (no spoilers here, just go and enjoy it if you haven’t yet!) and you’ve got not only the best game of the decade, but arguably one of the greatest games full stop.

The Master Chief Collection is finally complete.

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James | GTA Online

It's funny when a game you enjoy is only half of the whole product, but that's been my experience with Grand Theft Auto V. Despite buying it twice, on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One, I have still not played beyond the mandatory tutorial section of the main game, instead I've spent my time in the whacky online sandbox of GTA Online.

Despite a rocky start, and I mean very rocky – with constant connection and stability issues for the first few weeks, let alone days – the game paved the way for Fortnite and others after it in serving up a seemingly endless stream of free updates, as an incentive for players to fork out more real world cash.

Heists alone were an update which the community waited years for, but when it did it reinvigorated the game, giving players a more structured, high-stakes mission that hadn't been experienced before outside the campaign, demanding coordination and teamwork to get the biggest score, in the form of GTA fun bucks to spend on fast cars, planes or even tanks.

The world Rockstar managed to create is the real star, and the reason the game works at all. I still might not have the city map memorised, though plenty of more dedicated players do, but many of the locations are iconic in their own right – even beyond the real locations some of them ape.

It's a fantastically crafted world that no sane person would want to live in.

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Let us know your favourite game of the last 10 years.