My Top 10 Personal Favourite Games

I have played a lot of games, I couldn’t tell you how much but it is a lot. But of those numerous games, there are only a small number of them that truly resonated with me. Forming this list originally was actually quite difficult, I could think of a lot of games I really enjoyed but actually ranking them was really hard. Who’s to say that the ranking and games on the list won’t change anyhow. For this given moment, this is my list of my ten favourite video games.

Persona 5:

I’m just one of the many fans to recognise the brilliance of this game as a modern JRPG masterpiece. What’s even more impressive is that it is one of many games in the Persona series, all hailed as equally monumental as the last. With even more remasters and remakes on the horizon, drumming up hype for the inevitable Persona 6 and the subsequent other games, it’s the best time to be a Persona fan. Onto the actual game itself, what makes it so good? First and foremost, the style. Every single facet of this game is oozing with style. It’s hard to translate into the written word, but I’ll do my best. These stylish additions range from large ones, big ‘Showtime attacks’ with different members of your party stylishly slashing through enemies. Or just as simple as a menu screen, with your character dancing and springing across the screen as you skim through the options or browse the in game vendors. Simply put, they have poured effort into every corner of the game, especially the ones that other game developers wouldn’t give a second thought over. Secondly, we have the merging of the school life sim and the dungeon crawling. The turn based combat is some of the best I have ever seen. The diversity of the Persona’s you can both capture and create paired with the entirely new locales that are slowly introduced keeps the gameplay constantly fresh. On the opposite side, the student life sim and preparing for the dungeon crawling was equally invigorating. I enjoyed exploring all the side stories of the characters and felt a real impact in resolving them. Of the numerous side characters, Haru Okumaru was my personal favourite, and was the character I romanced (in the loosest of terms) on every playthrough. I can’t believe I’ve gone on this long without mentioning the music. Some of the best I have ever heard, with many of the songs I listen to regularly, reminding me of the emotional moments. Even now I feel like I’m selling the game short, with so much of what I experienced being required first hand. I would never stop advocating for this game, even to people that aren’t interested. It was honestly an experience like no other, and would give anything to do it over again like the first time. Even now after three 100 hour playthroughs, I’m considering jumping back in again for the updated PS5 version.

Marvel’s Spiderman:

Following closely behind, we have Insomniac’s rendition of Marvel’s Spiderman. Firstly outside of its exclusivity with Sony and its accolades alone, this is one the best Spiderman games to date. This game is quintessentially Spiderman, with arguably the best web swinging to date since Spiderman 2 on the PS2. A game that came out in 2004 almost 20 years ago! The gameplay is ultimately what sets it apart from the other spiderman games. Like most games post- Arkham asylum, it adopts the Arkham formula of punch, evade, counter mechanics. But this game actually intuitively expands on this with Spiderman’s unique acrobatic movement, emphasised by webbing objects in the environment, and web pulls, kicks and various gadgets. I will say I wasn’t a massive fan of the gadgets, and instead just opted to counter and beat foes with my spider fists. The story of this game is really brilliant as well, with many characters from Spiderman’s rogues gallery. Some of them are less well known, take Mr Negative and Tombstone for example, as well as some familiar favourites. The set pieces as well are some of the highlights of the game for me, especially the beginning sequence and taking down of Kingpin. I remember at university not long after the game had come out, I invited a lot of people who hadn’t played it (likely due to the Playstation exclusivity). I loved even watching the game be played, as I got to kind of experience it again through their eyes as they played it for the first time. The ending especially, without spoiling it, was gut wrenching and made me really amped for the final fight. All in all, this is a great game and everything I would have wished for out of a modern Spiderman. Apart from the remastering of Shattered Dimensions, but that’s a long shot! .

Yakuza 0

After finishing playing Yakuza 0 (for context this is the prequel for the entire series) I immediately jumped into the entire series, even opting to play the wacky spin offs too. I loved this game and was so happy that there were so many stellar games to jump into almost immediately. I can’t say there are no misses (looking at you Yakuza 3) but the quality of the game series as a whole is one of the best I’ve seen. One of the unique elements of this series is the perfect blend of its absurdity alongside the seriousness of the main story. These are compelling crime dramas with some of the most well thought out and interesting tales of death, betrayal and love. In these same stories however, you can have some of the wackiest, off the wall characters and events that sometimes make utterly no sense. This only works as the series vehemently avoids ludonarrative dissonance, as the protagonist and how you the player act in the world is dictated by his character. This is very welcoming as other comparative open worlds where your characters act one way in cutscenes, and totally another in gameplay. Speaking of gameplay, the brawling aspect of the game is enjoyable but not groundbreaking. Far more satisfying in the new dragon engine version, but nothing to write home about. My favourite aspect was the special moves, with so many to choose from as they are often decided by what household item you have in your hands. Some are funny, others are over the top, but they are all brutal. Let’s talk about the open world a little bit more, and how rich and condensed it is compared to others. It takes place in the fictional Japanese city of Kamarucho, where the entire game takes place. What I love about it, is how small and compact the world is, meaning you never have to travel far to where you want to reach, with plenty around any corner. Kiryu Kazuma and Majima are what makes this, and the subsequent others in the series are what elevates this game from good to great. Kiryu is a badass that is capable of almost anything (defeated an entire clan in Yakuza 5) and Majima is bat shit crazy and capable of any vindictive feat. I love these games and couldn’t be happier about their introduction to the west and even more games enhancing the series!

Borderlands 2:

Borderlands 2 is the perfect example of how to improve on every entire facet of the previous game in the series. Borderlands 1 was really good and I will always have respect for it for paving the way for everything else, but the story was simplistic and the final boss was a bit lacklustre. Borderlands 2 takes all of these elements of the looter shooter genre and improves exponentially on all of them. There is a larger and more interesting cast of characters, the story is far more interesting with one of the most famous villains berating you in all of gaming, and the final boss is epic alongside many others. I personally loved this game for its drop in and drop out co-op elements, one of my favourite ones to play with friends of mine. This is the ideal way to play these games, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with friends of mine as we filled all the criteria to earn the platinum trophy. From this big roster of playable characters (this isn’t including the three new ones in the DLC as well) I chose Zero to play with as I liked his character, and I like sniping from afar. I played a bit of Mechromancer as well and liked my Robot friend who could revive me and kill for me. This game at face value can seem quite repetitive, but the gameplay loop with new locations and a constantly changing inventory of new guns means it's unlikely you’ll ever be bored. I love this game and the entire series not only for these very involved elements, but also as it’s a great game to switch your brain off and just shoot and level up, as a lot of games that I play demand a lot of your attention. This game is also one of the silliest and funniest I’ve ever played, with many jokes and over the top action set pieces making me giggle at just how unseriously the game takes itself.

Oxenfree:

If you knew me, you’d probably be sick of me talking your ear off about Oxenfree by now, but you don’t so I’ll keep going! I didn’t know much about the game before jumping in originally, and so had middling expectations for this mystery narrative game. I enjoyed the way they handled the narrative choices of the game, displayed as thought bubbles above your protagonist, slowly fading away as the conversation moved on. You can play the entire game in numerous ways, being cruel, kind or completely mute, with this all affecting the dialogue and the end of the game. Unlike other games of this Ilk, I do feel as if my choices have fundamental consequences to both the characters and the stories at large. This resonates with me a lot as I enjoy these ‘choose your own adventure’ types of games, but often they fall short as it feels very scripted. To illustrate how the game frames these choices, you and your friends are stuck on an island till morning, and the protagonist investigates this sort of rift-like structure that contacts spirits and interferes with time. After the events of the game are finalised, you will have a final ending screen with the decisions you made and your consequences. I loved playing for the first time as I enjoyed unravelling the mystery and making sense of where I was. I’m about to talk about my second playthrough which does contain spoilers for a big twist of the game so readers be warned!

So this game does lend itself greatly to being replayed, almost immediately if you enjoyed it as much as I did. So, to contextualise this, at the end of the game, the protagonist is reflecting on the events of the night and taking stock of their emotions. During this monologue you hear the character slipping back into the dialogue you first heard at the start of the game, as if the events of the night had not happened at all. You then realise that this is actually a time loop, and your characters are trapped to relive the events of the night over and over. I cannot understate how shocked and overjoyed I was with this revelation, as the implications are so sinister. I wanted to jump back into the game (effectively the first initial playthrough over again) and so I did. To my surprise, different dialogue options kept cropping up, I may not even noticed if the protagonist themselves wasn’t calling it out. Flash forward to the near end of the game, the protagonist aware of the time loop they are trapped in, you can use a radio to contact yourself from the past. You hear yourself over the radio static warning yourself never to take the trip, and the game abruptly ends. My god this was chilling and so rewarding to explore the game again.

Dead by Daylight:

Funnily enough this is the only strictly multiplayer experience that has graced my top ten list. It’s not that I’m not partial to multiplayer games, but there are more single player experiences that I have loved. Multiplayer games are often very vapid and often without extended longevity. That being said, I have been fond of Dead By Daylight (DBD) since its conception back in 2016 and I still am now in 2023. Admittedly the game has changed a significant amount since then, mostly for the better with lots of new killers, survivors, maps, perks and so much more quality of life improvements. I think this drip feeding of new content every couple of months is why DBD has been able to hold my attention for as long as it has. Some of my favourite additions to the game have been the licensed killers, debuting some of horror's most illustrious names, like Michael Myers, Freddy Kruger, Nemesis and Wesker and the newly announced Alien which looks awesome. As a devout horror fan, this game allows me to play with and as some of the best horror icons, and is a real hub of horror as it continues to build and grow. This game has crossplay too, meaning that as a filthy console player I can finally play with some of my friends that I otherwise wouldn’t play with over PC. It’s annoying how good one of my friends is at the game, but I can live with that. As I may have mentioned previously I am a big trophy hunter and gaming completionist, with this game being one of the most time consuming and difficult games to earn all the trophies in. There are trophies for both the killer and survivor roles respectively, with over 500 sacrifices for the killer, and multiple escapes with different characters on different maps for the survivors. With the new content I mentioned before there are constantly new trophies being added in also, an added incentive to try out and fully explore the new content. All in all, I can see myself playing this game for a number of years forward, with the player counts still continuing to be strong.

Outlast:

Continuing with our horror theme, I would not only consider it my favourite single player horror experience, but the quintessential horror game of the last decade. It was a genuinely scary game, thanks to the location of the dilapidated asylum and the various almost supernatural mental patients that stalk and chase the player character. It harkens back to another exemplar in the horror gaming genre, Amnesia, in the sense you are a character who cannot defend themselves. Despite this, what I enjoy most is the fact that this game doesn't rely solely on cheap jump scares to scare the player, it more relies on the uncertainty of the dark and not quite being sure where your pursuer is. I don’t know how best to describe it, but this game has a brilliant twist, playing on what is immediately expected of the genre. This is most interesting to me, as I am a massive fan of the kind of horror that leaves you asking more, with only your mind to fill in the blanks. In a nutshell, this game is about a reporter (your character) investigating a whistle blower at a seemingly abandoned asylum. What you find is actually an asylum in ruin, with mental patients running free, and many psychopaths chasing after you in an attempt to experiment on you or kill you. In an attempt to escape you find yourself in the secret laboratory basement learning more about some brainwashing technique used to drive the patients mad. There is another final threat, known as ‘the Wallrider’ , a spectral form of a vegetable patient, whom you end up becoming in your final moments. Resident Evil is a masterclass of the final laboratory, but this twist in a mundane asylum has more of an impact and interesting conclusion. I’ll touch on the DLC briefly, which picks up briefly before the events of the main game, but tie in together by the end, and is largely just more of the same stellar cat and mouse gameplay we’re used to. The best addition is the new character ‘The Groom’ who is far more horrifying than anyone encountered before. It’s worth noting also that Outlast 2 is omitted from the list as I didn’t feel it was as strong an entry as the first one, the graphics are better but I feel the story falls more flat.

Pokemon Diamond:

Unlike the other games on this list, this game was an obsession of at least my childhood if not adulthood. We’re talking about a lot of late school school nights huddled under my covers hiding from my mum so she wouldn’t catch me. I could’ve chosen Platinum as that is arguably the better game with more content, but Diamond was where I got my start, and is the version of the remake I’m currently playing too. Not that there is ever much deliberation I’ve done for any of the Pokemon games on which edition to buy other than what Legendary Pokemon most appeals to me on the cover! It’s difficult to remember what my exact team was, but I’ll give it my best. I’m pretty sure my Elite 4 team consisted of my starter Pokemon Piplup, now a fully evolved Empoleon, a Staraptor, Luxury, Abombnasnow, Dialga and Bidoof as the HM slave. I remember this one so fondly as it was one of the first games I played as a kid, and had no knowledge of anything and was all new to me. I didn’t worry about having a type coverage, I just chose the Pokemon I best liked the look of, and I didn’t know exactly when my Pokemon would evolve (if at all). Ah my childhood innocence is not completely gone however, I still enjoy the games and actively choose not to shiny hunt or breed the perfect Pokemon with the best IV’s. I just enjoy the game for what it is, and jump back into the series with every new generation. I look forward to seeing the direction of the series, with new additions, Legends and Scarlet/Violet making considerable strides outside the formula the franchise is known for.

Bloodborne:

Not exactly a controversial choice, especially as a playstation player, but I love this game. Bloodborne was my first introduction to the 'souls-borne' sub genre of video games. I had dipped my toes in for Dark Souls 1 and 2, but hadn't seen beyond the first boss for either game. It was only when my university flatmate, who only had a PC, asked if we could play together, to which I begrudgingly agreed. At first, progress was slow and we were both struggling on the first real milestone boss of the game, Father Gascoigne. I felt I was at more of an advantage than my flatmate was in having more experience with the controller, and so was able to dispatch him after numerous attempts and levelling up. This was what I felt like the turning point, the idea that victory may actually be possible, and I soon got hooked on the game and didn’t want to stop playing. Whilst my flatmate was away, I tore through the game at what felt like great speed. With newfound confidence and admittedly a lot of levels I beat the final boss three times over, the chalice dungeons and earned the platinum trophy. I enjoyed this game for what most people would say they enjoyed it for, the Gothic setting and the feeling of accomplishment after persisting and persevering. Not to mention this game’s setting beautifully highlights what I’m told about the Soulsborne series at large, beautifully realised landscapes fallen into ruin. The bosses and their designs and place in the lore were very interesting too, but I must admit I was mostly in it for the game play above all else. Funnily enough I haven’t played any other souls games, but I do plan to brave Dark Souls 1 as my first outing into the main series, so wish me luck!

Until Dawn:

Until Dawn is exactly like playing your favourite slasher horror movie, with you in control of the characters so you can make the smart or dumb decisions for them. This is one of my favourite types of games, especially as your outcomes can have horrific consequences in terms of the deaths of your characters for missteps. I thoroughly enjoyed the other anthology shorter variants of this same type of story, but Until Dawn stands out as the original and the best. This game sticks in my mind for the way I played it, again at university with a close flatmate of mine. This was back when I had a lot more time to play games, especially to the extreme like this story. So we had both played the game before a number of years ago, so neither of us recalled the game in its entirety. We played the game back and forth, trading the controller between us every so often. We started late into the evening, and decided as neither of us wanted to stop, we decided to play through the night all the way…. Until Dawn! Very spooky, and an experience that bonded us as friends. It’s one of my favourite gaming memories purely for powering through until the early morning to finish in one sitting. The nuance of this game however comes down to the supernatural bait and switch, not too dissimilar to Outlast that I mentioned early. Again, spoilers incoming to anyone who has not played this game and would not like it spoiled. So, the beginning of the game sets the player characters against a psychopath in a remote mountain lodge as they try to outwit him against his traps. However, this is revealed to be the machinations of one of their less than mentally stable friends (blaming himself for the death of his sisters) as another supernatural threat looms on the mountainside that poses a fatal threat. I won’t reveal anymore, but it does take you by total surprise, and is a very interesting enemy in how they came to be. The biggest crime however is how under promoted this game was on launch, Sony barely pushed it as the horror masterpiece it truly was. I hope that many have had the opportunity to experience it now it is on PlayStation plus, as it is a must.