Your Best and Worst Games/Gaming Moments of the Last Decade (2010-2019)

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Well, we're finally at the end of a long decade of gaming, and arguably in some ways - one of the best decades ever, and maybe one of the worst, depending on who you ask. The 2010s provided a very diverse lineup of games, thanks to the shift from FPS over-saturation, indie devs really gaining easier access to more platforms, and gaining more support from publishers, first party publishers making some seriously great, and even artistic games for their consoles, and even all three of the big three companies (PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo) pulling a massive turnabout this decade.

We had PlayStation recovering from the utterly disastrous launch of the PS3, to basically ruling this generation through smart business tactics, and a very customer friendly launch with the PS4...

We had Nintendo recover from the Wii U's lack of support, misleading name, and confusing marketing, to Nintendo absolutely knocking it out of the park with the Switch - an incredible leap forward by allowing console games on the go...

...and we had Xbox destroying their goodwill from the 360 era with the Xbox One's original announcement, only to slowly build their way back up over time, even if they've got a lot of issues to iron out still.

This last decade has been one filled with a massive amount of highs, and a lot of lows. Even now, you can still debate how good the decade has been, because even with a lot of highs in terms of games, and business policies, it also gave rise to things like loot boxes, season passes, battle passes, and Triple-A games forcing awful grinding into their games to make services instead of games.

Regardless of all that, with 2019 nearing it's end, and us about to enter a brand new era, I don't think there's a better time for everyone to take a look back on the last decade of gaming, and note their own highs, and maybe some of the lows. Feel free to list your favourite games of the decade, as well as gaming moments, and reminisce about how the last decade of gaming has been for you

As for me, it's very difficult to pick a best game so to speak, there's been so many I loved this past decade, but in terms of what ones I can pin down, I'd say...

Grand Theft Auto V - 

I don't think it can be understated how much I really enjoy GTA V, and how much I have enjoyed it since it''s initial release since 2013. Not only did it just push the PS3/Xbox 360's power to the absolute brink back then, but it was packed to the brim with fun content. With a really interesting story mode, to it's massive open-world, that feels memorable every step of the way, the massive amount of missions present in the game, the fun side-missions that offer just as much quality content as the main game, interesting characters, brilliant heist missions, and of course - just having fun cruising through San Andreas, I think this is really the only GTA game I can say I would place in my favourite games of all time, even above San Andreas. There's a reason I make a point of trying to replay GTA V at least once every year. It's one of the few games I can play without getting majorly sick of.

Overwatch - 

Even with me slowly getting more and more sick of Overwatch due to a long release schedule for more content, controversial changes, and more, I still can't really find it in me to say this isn't one of my favourite games. Overwatch holds a special place in my heart because of what the game means to me. It came to me in an period of time where I was burnt out with multiplayer games, and couldn't stand them. Where I just wanted to stick solely to Single Player stuff, and nothing else. Overwatch came out with a fun, unique twist on things that rekindled a love for multiplayer games that I thought I'd long lost. With a very memorable cast of characters, team-based play, and an interesting story, along with tons of fun character interactions. I can't wait to see them expand on things with the sequel, especially with the confirmed co-op focus, and story mode. 

Gravity Rush/Gravity Rush 2 - 

One of my favourite exclusives to come out in the past decade, I fell in love with the world, the story, the characters, the comic book aesthetic, the unique gameplay. It was one of the few games that made the Vita worth getting, and I still really wish it could get more love. Gravity Rush 2 just expands on it even more story-wise, and while I'm not sure which I would say is better in terms of gameplay, I think the story expansion, and the arcs carrying over into 2 just make it all the more clearer how great the charm, world, and story of the series is. I'm only sad that Sony's probably left this to die in a ditch, given they shut down GR2's servers only a year after release.

Spider-Man PS4 - 

I'm a massive Spider-Man fan, as well as a fan of Ratchet & Clank. When I heard Insomniac were given the go-ahead to make a proper Spider-Man game after about four years of mediocre crap titles since Shattered Dimensions in 2010, I was on board fully. When they showed off the initial teaser trailer showing Spidey doing parkour through buildings, running on walls, and Arkham styled combat, I was even more on board. When the game released, I fell absolutely in love with it. It encapsulated everything about Spidey that makes me love him as a character. His quips, his playfulness, his sense of responsibility, his selflessness, the fact he'll stop to help anyone, talk to people on the streets, having to choose the greater good over what he wants, and suffering the consequences of that. Not to mention the varied combat, especially thanks to web gadgets, and fantastic web-slinging that just makes it a total joy just to swing around New York. 

There's probably a few more I could add, and I probably will if I think of them. But yeah, for now, feel free to share your own favourite/least favourite games and gaming moments from the last decade.

 

[Solister]

For me it's a bit hard to state something as this was my first decade in gaming (I'm 16) and though, I've just really merged into the videogames thing only after 2013. This to not mention the fact that I've never had a powerful machine enough to play new releases up until 2017 and the fact most my library and time play consisted on games from the 2000's, both for PC requirements as well I still think most of them were superior in diverse way. However, I would be telling a huge lie if I stated I didn't enjoyed any of the 2010's titles.

Sonic Mania & Sonic Generations

Starting up with our lovely blue hedgehog, nothing more honorable to put him on the top spot of the decade for me. With the two highlight games of the decade, they were in many ways consumer dreams for me, rather on the time I didn't had a good machine to play Sonic Generations, or the uncountable times I dreamed and wondered if we would ever see a Classic Sonic game again.

Tomb Raider (2013)

Taking the second place, other honorable position for the best series discover of mine in the decade. Back when I was distrustful that any modern game could make my taste, I had the curiosity and gave a chance for the Lara's series. I'm still regretless for that day and can't believe it's now my 2nd favorite videogame series just behind of Sonic, even if I never played its sequels (Rise and Shadow of Tomb Raider), the first one definitely became a classic from my life.

LEGO City Undercover

Like Sonic Generations, LEGO City Undercover is a game I dreamed on playing for a long time but for its release, having a Wii U was something from another world. Fortunately, when I've already lost my expectations, the game was rerelased as multi-platform in 2017 and I could give it a try. Though many argue from its bad performance on PCs, I still enjoy it a lot and realived my kid soul of playing LEGO games on the PS2, still a bit earlier this decade.

Cities Skylines

Lastly, it's a game which I had some time playing it. An update and still better follow up for the SImCity series. I can't really describe much more than this, as well it's certainly the least I've played on the list, though as good as any of the mentioned here.

Honorable Mentions:

Minecraft/Fortnite: Even many (And including me) hate these nowadays, I'm only one of the few people who can say played Fortnite before it became a fever as well I've spent many hours playing Minecraft in creative mode. Not that I really regret many of it, but it's not the kind of game anymore which I can say I've proud of playing like the mentioned above.

Need for Speed Most Wanted (2012): This game is a mixture of love and hate. Love because it in someway, changed my life for best than any of the games I've already mentioned, hate because it can be a frustrating game. The game by itself it's nothing more than what you would expect from a NFS game. The highlight I would say comes from it's soundtrack which is at one point terrible and on the another awesome, this mainly (Not for fault of the game), showed how shitty these new pop/edm musics are which killed some real good stuff from 2000's, on the other hand, some of cool musics still can be heard. The game by itself it's a bit frustrating for being too realistic (?) Idk, but this game definitely wasn't how I remember playing NFS.

 

Lastly, you said some of the "Best Moment Gaming Moments of the Decade", which as I said in the start of the reply, much of what I've played and still represent are from 90's and 00's, so I think I should, at least, mention them. First, it was on this decade I've started playing Sonic "for real", from the classics on an emulator on a Win98 laptop (2012-2013), to dreaming and playing SADX on the mid of the decade (2014), then getting engaged with the franchise (2014-2017) and then finally testing some of the most recent titles (2017-present). It also is an important decade because it was when I took my "Retro Gamer" identity, so when I took the decision do get deep in the classics like Doom, The Sims, many MS-DOS and Win9x games... heck, if I'm going to mention all the classic games of this decade I would spend a day.

In short, this decade defines as a decade I didn't appreciate that much and mainly could taste it after 2017. I don't got interested in many games as well the global trendings in general (Specially these past years), plus I feel way more comfortable with older things, people judging me or not, and tbh I really hope 2020's got way better.

[Wraith]

SSMB....have you ever fallen in love?

 

In the turn of the decade, the open world genre blew up and ground breaking game after ground breaking game prioritizing player agency and freedom turned up. This rennicance timed perfectly with a sort of decline in Zelda's mainstream appeal. Skyward Sword released in 2011 alongside the likes of Dark Souls and Skyrim. Last gen's Shadow of the Colossus and Okami had already put pressure on the series to evolve past it's own narrative constraints, and now the very idea of an adventure game being so linear and guided mechanically was starting to become laughable. Zelda was starting to feel less like the adventure game that stretched your imagination and more like a theme-park ride. A far cry from the original entry that put the name on the map.

And the series was still doing well enough to stay on it's course. "Controversial" by the standard of quality we're talking about here was still rave reviews and millions of copies sold. Nintendo as a company are notorious for playing it safe with their IP, especially in this past decade. Even with the abundant courage the series displayed in the past like retooling the entire art style for the fun of it or gearing the entire game around motion controls, there were still aesthetic, narrative, and mechanical rules you just didn't expect them to break.

But Aonuma and Fubayashi did something I never expected them to do. They decided that the safety of excellence wasn't enough. Zelda deserved the throne. 

So they gambled the series soul. Every single aspect of what we understood of it was pulled apart and retooled. Nintendo came to E3 reintroducing Zelda as a systemic open world game along the likes of your Skyrims and your Far Crys with Nintendo levels of polish. Choice and freedom invaded every aspect of it from the direction you choose to go to the start to what clothes Link could wear. 

And it slapped.

I mean, of course it slapped. It's a fucking Zelda game. But this shit slapped.

Go wherever you want. Do anything. Layers and layers of systemic mechanics garuntee that choice doesn't feel hollow. The world will respond to you. It'll push and pull against you depending on how you decide to approach certain challenges. The core gameplay triad of Puzzles, Exploration and Combat returns but it's now tied together with the game's overarching physics engine. Puzzles have multiple solutions depending on your knowledge of how to manipulate the gears, levers and mechanics. Enemies follow the same rules Link does when it comes to interacting with the world. Every bad thing that can happen to you can happen to them. The series's self desctructive focus on dueling was scaled back so that the focus could be on cleverly using whatever tools availible to swing the odds in your favor against mobs of foes.

As for exploration, uh...you can climb the fucking walls. All of them. All of it. All the buildings. All the ruins All the mountains. THe biggest game design no-no ever? It's a feature. The gameplay loop of flying and climbing makes skipping over large chunks of land not just possible, but easy. This game sheds the insecurity of previous installments and trusts that cour players will explore to find the content they've hidden, going with the correct assumption that it's far more rewarding to find some things for yourself instead of having it handed to you.

There's lots to discover. Lots of toys to play with. A lot of outcomes depending on what you as a player choose. None of the noise of the previous entries to get in your way. I frame it as a reinvention, but BOTW is very affectionate about past titles and is careful to embody their appeal. Dense puzzles and combat scenarios remain even though dungeons are gone. The soundtrack is still soulful and memorable even though the series usual bombast is dropped in favor of something more low-key and almost every iconic melody is absent in favor of new material. It's new in a way that feels familiar and the few flaws it has as an experience represent a room for growth that still leave me excited about the sequel.

I'm just...so so I got to see my favorite series shoot for the stars and for it to work out for the most part. I've played so many other all time favorites this decade that I'll get into later in this thread, but nothing beats just wandering through hyrule to the sounds of windswept grass and the rustling of my equipment wondering what's past that next mountain.

 

[Myst]

I'm older and not as much of a hardcore gamer as I was in my teen years. I don't own any current gen consoles, but I have played a few of the newer games this decade. My list is short, but here are some of my favorite games of the 2010's..

PS3 - Metal Gear Rising: Revengance

XB360 - Batman Arkham Asylum

XB360 - Batman Arkham City

PS3 - Uncharted 2

PS3 - Uncharted 3

PS3 - Sonic All Stars Racing Transformed

XB360 - Sonic Generations

3DS - Mario Kart 7

3DS - Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon

 

 

 

[Covskin]

I think my first 2010s game was Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is an incredible game. I probably have more memories of the first game, thanks to its presentation and the comet observatory, but SMG2 still has more than its fair share of fantastic levels and invention.

I rarely let myself get hyped for upcoming releases, in any media. Few things can live up to the fervour and unrealistic expectations we dream up in our mind. One of the last times I actually let myself get on the hype train was Sonic Generations. I got swept along in the 20^th anniversary fun, including Summer of Sonic that year. Luckily, I loved the game. I see its flaws, but overall I find it a fun product and I have fond memories of its release period.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead was a phenomenon. Up to that point, they’d been that point-and-click company reviving classic Lucasarts (but not as good) and I’d given up on them by this point. Yet, this story and choice driven approach got them actual mainstream appeal. They never managed to capture that magic again (The Wolf Among Us was closest with its final confrontation) but what a ride that first Season was. I did quit after Season 2, no interest in 3 or 4.

Keeping with that theme, The Last Of Us. I’ve picked up and enjoyed all of the Uncharted series, but never to the extent of their reputation. TLOU though, wow. It is the relationship of Joel and Ellie that really makes it special, it’s one of the very few games I immediately replayed after first finishing the story.

I bought a Wii U in Summer 2017 almost purely to play Breath of the Wild, and I do not regret that decision one iota. Sublime.

Finally, most recently, Sonic Mania really hit me in the nostalgia feels, but with a solid new entry that (cliché alert!) really felt like the natural progression of what we should have had in the mid 90s.

 

I can’t really name any worst games to be fair, with so many reviewers online now you almost have to go out of your way to buy a bad game or be a slave to a franchise and submit to them. No, the worst memories really are the dodgy gaming practices that we’re all aware of. For balance, this decade saw me get a new Monkey Island, an eventual release of The Last Guardian (that was partly why I got a PS3!) and confirmation Psychonauts 2 is coming. PS Plus and Now have both allowed me to expand my gaming experience more than I would have done otherwise. Let’s hope the good can continue to outweigh the bad moving forward.

[Polkadi~☆]

I have a few personal moments that I enjoyed. Ranging from screwing around in Halo: Reach Forge as my friends and I tried our hardest to co-operate to make a racing map (we never could), to lots of skilled play in CoD: Black Ops 2, I had so much fun.

I remember one moment in particular, my friends and I were playing Sven Co-Op, and we made it to the third chapter of the Half-Life campaign. My cousin and another friend had both been eliminated, and the rest of us needed to reach another checkpoint for them to respawn back into the game. Rushing ahead, I found a checkpoint and immediately marked it, bringing my cousin and my friend back into the game. My friend looked around to gather his bearings, and my cousin gunned straight for the path we had to take. The thing is, there was a tripmine bomb sitting right next to the checkpoint, and on the path we had to take. My cousin did not notice it, and unknowingly triggered it. He blew up, and blew up the friend nearby, and nearly blew me up but I survived because I stood far enough away.
It's such a funny memory, that after ages of begging for us to find a checkpoint so he could play again, he ran directly into a mine and got eliminated again, and took out almost 3/4 of our party. And there was much laughter to be had over our voice chat.

[BlueFlare]

My personal best moments were Sonic Generations & Mania, Pokemon HGSS (2010 in Eu), BW series & ORAS, Halo Reach Pc, Eldewrito Mod and Majora's Mask 3D. I didn't look forward to many games this decade, but so far the worst and most disappointing were Sonic Forces and Bloodstained: Rotn.

[TogeFizz]

Best:

Sonic Mania - An all-around solid game, filled with references and amazing gameplay. Probably one of the best video games of all time IMO.

Worst:

?

[Fire-N-Space]

 

Smash 4 and just how amazing Peach looked in it. 

 

 2. Splatoon 1& 2

3. Xenoblade 2 Kora was funny and adorable in every possible way.

4.  Mario Party 9 - 10

5. Mario Kart 8

6. Mario Ultra Smash! Giant Peach!