The Qt3 Top 10 Games of the Decade Voting Thread

Games
41
  • Overwatch
  • Hearthsone
  • Dark Souls
  • Ascension
  • Slay the Spire
  • Injustice
  • Super Meat Boy
  • Portal 2
  • Super Mario Odyssey
  • Heroes of the Storm

I may need to think about this some more. The golden age of indie games should probably have a little more representation on that front.

42
  1. Mass Effect 3 - Not even joking. I’ve explained it on Qt3 before, not going to again.
  2. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - 2011, but I’ve been playing it this week. It speaks to me.
  3. Red Dead Redemption 2 - So nice I played it twice (in a row).
  4. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate - The AC series died to me after this. The twins were so much fun.
  5. Hearts of Iron IV - Remember when Communist America conquered the world? I do!
  6. Civilization V
  7. Star Trek Online
  8. Journey
  9. Euro Truck Simulator 2
  10. Star Wars: The Old Republic

Honorable Mentions: Grand Theft Auto V, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Tomb Raider (2013), Saints Row 3, Cities: Skylines, The Witcher 3, World of Warships, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Crew, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, XCOM 2, Stardew Valley, Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I mixed hours played, times replayed for heavy story games (I can’t count how many times I’ve played ME3 anymore), and if it was awesome or not. Pretty good criteria, right? I think so.

If The Witcher 3 hadn’t corrupted my save 35 hours into it, it would probably be in there somewhere. Someday I’ll try again.

43

44

Could you break those up into two separate entries, giving one a higher rank than the other would be optional. You only liked 2 games in the last decade?

45
  1. Bloodborne
  2. Dark Souls
  3. Horizon Zero Dawn
  4. Divinity: Original Sin
  5. Astro Bot Rescue Mission
  6. XCOM: Enemy Unknown
  7. Mark of the Ninja
  8. The Last of Us
  9. Rocket League
  10. Salt and Sanctuary

Bottom five not really sorted.

46

Could also just bullet point them and give them equal points.

Maybe next time we can add a vote for best genres of the decade

47
  1. Dark Souls
    Not only the best game of the decade, it’s my favorite game period. I love everything about it. The rest of the games are fantastic as well, but this one still tops them all in my book.
  2. Yakuza 0
    This one really blew me away. I had dabbled with the series a few years ago with Yakuza 3 on the PS3, but it never really took hold. This one definitely did. Incredibly silly (in a good way) side missions combined with a really entertaining and dramatic main story and tons of additional content.
  3. Rocket League
    I’ve never spent more time with any multiplayer game. I’ve logged over 1,000(!) hours in the game since it was released and I’m still not particularly good given how much I’ve played it. Few other games can make time fly by like this one.
  4. What Remains of Edith Finch
    Easily my favorite “walking simulator”. Fantastic storytelling that made me laugh and cry and I loved every minute of it.
  5. The Witcher 3
    Amazing RPG. I really enjoyed the previous two Witcher games but this one topped both of them in almost every respect.
  6. XCOM 2
    In my opinion, XCOM 2 (with the War of the Chosen expansion) is the first game in the franchise to surpass the original XCOM. That’s saying something since the original is easily one of my favorite all-time games.
  7. Stardew Valley
    As someone who has always enjoyed the Harvest Moon games to some degree, this game easily trounced all of them. Incredible job by the developer and an obvious labor of love.
  8. Gone Home
    This would be my favorite walking simulator if it wasn’t for Edith Finch. Great, great stuff.
  9. Red Dead Redemption 2
    I liked the first Red Dead but this one was so much better. Incredible writing, acting and well… incredible just about everything.
  10. Minecraft
    I haven’t played this at all for several years now but I certainly did the first few years of the decade. An amazing game that became huge for a very good reason.
48

For my own amusement I’m kinda quietly tracking results and the current race at the top is surprisingly exciting!

49
  1. Dark Souls – I don’t really have anything to add to what everyone has said about this series, but they’ve been the best gaming experiences of the decade for me.
  2. Into the Breach – Perfectly tuned to create a never-ending sequence of intriguing and novel tactical situations.
  3. NieR: Automata – Story, music, and combat all working together perfectly.
  4. Nioh – An incredibly satisfying combat system that continually showed new wrinkles and kept me engrossed through each of its successive difficulty levels.
  5. Monster Hunter World – Torn between Generations Ultimate and this, but they’re both really satisfying learning experiences getting to grips with each weapon and monster.
  6. DmC: Devil May Cry – The game that opened my eyes to what has become one of my favorite genres. I don’t know how it would hold up if I went back now, but it
  7. Dark Souls 3 – Everything great about the series distilled and refined. The original gets the nod for blazing the trail, but this is the one I’m more likely to return to.
  8. Might & Magic X: Legacy – A perfectly-executed throwback to a classic era of RPGs.
  9. Age of Wonders III – A sandbox of toys to throw into engrossing tactical combat.
  10. Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove – A bit of a cheat, as it’s grown to include multiple games, but whatever. They’re basically our idealized memories of 8-bit platformers brought to life with the benefit of hindsight.

Honorable mentions: Dark Souls 2, Bloodborne, Renowned Explorers, Cryptark, Galak-Z, Dead Cells, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer, Summoner Wars, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Wonderful 101, Mario + Rabbids

50

I’m putting the over/ under of any of my selections being in the final top 10 at 2.

But I will be pleasantly surprised if both KSP and EU IV make it.

51

Hey now, that’s my drug you’re taking there. Watching the graph move and numbers fly around is awesome.

52

Quick formatting question for @arrendek: Should I only bold the games listed in the top-ten? I am planning on having some runners up and alternative selections, so I’m wondering if bolding those non-tope-ten titles messes up your program. I am assuming from what I’ve read above that the answer is “do not bold anything else.”

53

My bias coming through is that I’m surprised at how few EU4 entries there are.

54

Somebody summon @KevinC

Wait, I just did ;)

It may not get a ton of entries, but those who did include it have it high (first for you and I)

55

Definitely - but seeing the list is really interesting because you can see the genre’s that people prefer as well, with the top games from that genre peppering someones list, and then being completely absent from someone else. This is of course all expected, but it is even more exciting to see which games are genre preference busting.

56
  1. Tribes: Ascend - PC
  2. Hearthstone - Mobile & PC
  3. Diablo 3 - PC & Xbox One
  4. DOOM - 2016 - Xbox One
  5. Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii
  6. Age of Wonders III - Steam
  7. Planetside 2 - PC
  8. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Xbox One
  9. Monster Hunter: World - Xbox One X
  10. Just Cause 2 - Xbox 360

Honorable mention: Dark Souls - Xbox 360 & Steam. Only knocked out of top ten because of a combination of some useless stats, Ornstein and Smaug, and a late addition to the list.

Notable mentions: My entire Wii U catalog.

57

The smart way to do this is to look back on the whole decade and select games that define it. That’s too hard. Instead I’ve listed 8 games that I rated as personal all-time favorites immediately after playing them. This has more to do with the game’s impact on me at the time than its impact on the decade. In addition to being a simple approach, it also lets me call out some unusual games from earlier in the decade.

  • Batman: Arkham City
  • Battlefield 3
  • Dark Souls 2
  • Devil May Cry 5
  • Skyrim
  • Torchlight 2
  • The Witcher 2
  • The Witcher 3

That leaves 2 spots. For me, this decade was defined by a slowly building passion for third person beat 'em ups. It culminated with Devil May Cry 5, a modern character action game, and Nioh, which has more stylish action for my tastes compared to the Soulsborne games. But then I said screw it because I love STALKER.

The decade was also defined by a discovery of wargames and iOS boardgaming. I only have one spot left, so I picked my favorite.

  • S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat
  • Unity of Command
58

It’ll only count the first ten things, so go crazy after that.

59

Wow, this is a lot harder than I was expecting. I’ll continue to fiddle with this list. This is my first pass after pushing games constantly above and below the line today.

  1. Dark Souls
  2. The Last of Us
  3. Batman: Arkham City
  4. Mass Effect 3
  5. Rayman Origins
  6. Grim Dawn
  7. DiRT Rally 2.0
  8. Saints Row 4
  9. Just Cause 2
  10. Bioshock 2

Honorable Mentions. Man, it hurts to push games below this arbitrary line, but there’s no room above it.

Portal 2
The Walking Dead - Season 1
Ori and the Blind Forest
Doom
The Witcher 3
Skyrim
Red Dead Redemption
Destiny
Grand Theft Auto V
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Elite Dangerous
Resident Evil 2
Papers, Please
Grow Home
Diablo 3
Forza Horizon Series
Dark Souls 3
Subnautica
Might & Magic X: Legacy
Dead Cells
Limbo
Fallout 4
Don’t Starve
The Swapper
Spec Ops: The Line
What remains of Edith Finch
No Man’s Sky
Overcooked
Firewatch
Jedi Fallen Order
Forza 5
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Gosh, this is going to be hard to nail down.
Edit: Gah, I keep adding to the list instead of reducing it.

60

You are officially OK in my book.